Emboss like a boss!

Hello all!
           the week has flown by and we're starting another challenge over at Time Out , the theme of which is "Embossing" with the optional twist of adding sparkle.  We are sponsored by Avocado Arts and our Guest Designer this time is Lesley so please take a minute to visit both these sites.

                For my card I used a rubber stamp from Stampendous, stamping the image with white embossing powder onto clear vellum, framing it with a cut frame done with my Silhouette Cameo and placing the whole thing on a pink polka dot backing paper, adding a trio of pink paper roses to finish it off.

Thanks for stopping by!

Back with blogging!

Hello all!
I hope there are still some of you out there after my short blogging break?  I'm starting off with the latest challenge from the team at Time Out and the theme this time around is 'Home sweet home' , where we ask you get inspired by a home decor picture.
 
                           Here's the picture -

 and here's my take on it - 

    I heat embossed the deer stamp using Tim Holtz Distress embossing powder, added a strip of burlap and simply mounted the image and backing paper with some gold card.  Three adhesive gems added a small touch of bling to a rustic style seasonal  card!

     Short and sweet for the first post in a while but I'm hoping to simplify my blog posts as much as possible so they don't become a burden.

Entering this into the challenges at City Crafter , Creative Card Crew , Through the Craft Room Door and Crafting by Designs.

      Thanks for stopping by!

Time for another challenge!

Hello all!
                                             Another fortnight has sped by and that means a new challenge over at Time Out .  This challenge is generously sponsored by Avocado Arts and the winner will receive a fabulous stamp set.  To be in the running for the prize, you must do the 'twist' with this challenge - our general theme is "Stamping" and the twist is apples.

                              Our Guest Designer for this challenge is the very creative Loll so please pay her blog a visit along with the rest of the Time Out DT.  I chose to stamp and paper piece for my card but I didn't use the twist as I didn't have one single apple stamp in my collection!

    I used a sweet little penguin stamp and stamped him onto 3 different designer papers, choosing non-traditional Christmas colours.  I also used the papers for some decorative strips and stamped a festive sentiment too, finishing off their hats with some stick on pearl gems.

       

         Thanks for stopping by today :)

Another Time Out challenge

Hello all!
We're having another challenge over at Time Out but before we get into the new theme, I should mention that we have some new DT members joining the Time Out team which means some more fabulous blogs for you to check out!  You can find links to all the DT members here so please do grab a cup of tea or coffee, put your feet up and spend some time browsing:)
      You should also check out the wonderful creativeness of our Guest designer this week - Christine.
                  So onto the challenge which is a photo inspiration this fortnight -

    I used my Silhouette Cameo for my card and cut out the white thin tags after printing the words and then designed the background by adding a sentiment to be cut out and 2 thin white lines for balance.  A digitally designed CAS card!

Entering this into the challenges at Cardz 4 Guyz, Through the Craftroom Door and Divas by Design.

Thanks for stopping by!

       

Inspired by Words challenge at Time Out

Hello all!
we're kicking off another challenge over at Time Out Challenges and we're asking you to get inspired by the following words- "If music be the food of love, play on".  You can take whatever creative direction you wish from that phrase and just run with it!
     Our guest designer for this challenge is Rosemary so please take a minute to check out her blog and say hello.
      I decided I wanted to use a bird on my card as that was saying 'music' to me for some reason. I started off by cutting part of a circle from a piece of white cardstock as I had seen this fabulous card

on the wonderfully creative blog Dee's Art Utopia (you really should go and spend some time browsing her gorgeous cards!) and I wanted to do something similar.  I stuck some patterned vellum behind the white card and then added a stamped and fussy cut bird on the edge of the circle, a stamped sentiment and a couple of scrap paper pennants, attached with a heart brad  - picking up on the 'love' from the inspiration phrase.

 

         Entering this into the challenges at Fantastic Tuesday, Through the Craft room door and Tuesday Throwdown.

       Thanks for popping in and please do come and join us in this fortnight's challenge :)

Time Out CASE challenge

Hello all!
I hope the summer's not whizzing by too quickly for you - it sure feels that way for me at the minute!  I can't believe it's time for another challenge over at Time Out and this one is a CASE challenge.
         Our inspiration card is this one - from Anita so please do go and pay her blog a visit :)

   Another blog to visit is that of a our fantastic guest designer this week - Shona who has come up with a wonderful card for the challenge as have the rest of the Time Out DT !

               As I was CASE-ing the inspiration card, it's no surprise that my card is very CAS.  I used a rubber stamp with 2 different colour chalk inks, a computer printed sentiment of one of my favourite quotes, a paper flower and a few gems.

    Entering this into the challenges at Crafty Sentiments Designs , Fan-tastic Tuesday and Through the Craft Room Door.

                          Thanks for stopping by to take a look :)

Celebrate with butterflies.

Hello all!
Time Out challenges has got another fabulous challenge up and running for you and this fortnight we're being sponsored by DT member Shery and the wonderful Stamplorations !

       Our theme for this challenge is "Celebrations" with the optional twist of adding butterflies and  the prizes on offer are  -  1 stamp set for the entry that has the twist (butterflies)

                    - 1 stamp set for the entry that has a STAMPlorations stamp (with or without the twist)

      What more do you need to get you to enter?  

    For my card I decided to create my own butterfly using a variety of heart stamps that I had in my stash.  When you put heart shapes on their side, they look like the wings of butterflies - well they do in my world anyway!  I had been crafting with my 2 nieces over the weekend and they were getting very messy with all my inks and were using more than 1 colour on a stamp.  When I saw how good it looked, I decided to try it out on this card so my inspiration came from a 6 year old and a 4 year old this week!

      I decided to fussy cut around the edge of the wings on one side just to make it stand out a bit more and simply added a stamped sentiment and some black gems for the body of the butterfly.

    Please excuse the poorly composed photos of recent posts but I have yet to make my lightbox and find a good window/light source to take my snaps.  My previous homemade lightbox didn't survive the shipping and I just haven't got around to making another one yet - I'll add it to the list of things to do!

        Entering this into the challenges at Through the Craftroom Door , Addicted to Stamps , Inky Impressions , Simon Says Stamp and Whimsy Stamps.

      Thanks for stopping by!

Midway reminder for Time Out challenges.

Hello all,
I missed the boat for the beginning of the current challenge at Time Out but I'm here with a reminder that you still have another week until the challenge ends.  We're asking you to take inspiration from a photo -

 

  it could be the colours that inspire you, the stripes, the bunting, anything you like :)  Add your creation and you could get picked for a guest DT spot!

      I'm on the CAS train with my card.  Partly because I still haven't unpacked all my crafty bits and partly because the crafting side of my brain seems to have gone on holiday somewhere!  Anyway I used a couple of freebie stamps (I think they were from Craft Stamper magazine) and some gelatos to make my card, finishing off with a Versamark stamped sentiment.  Very CAS!

      Entering this into the challenges at Fan-tastic Tuesday , Crafty Girls , The Crafter's Cafe , Inky Impressions and The Male Room.

A couple of cards.

Hello all!
This is a scheduled post, written before we took to the road so fingers crossed that it gets posted!

    I have 2 cards to share - the first one is for the challenge over at Time Out Challenges, where the theme is "Summer" with the optional twist of flowers.  I used a A Day for Daisies digi, coloured with Copics and put it on a splattered background, adding a stamped sentiment.

        The second card is for the Friday Alcohol Markers challenge over at The Outlawz where the theme is "Inspired by a book/movie/song".  We are being sponsored by Delicious Doodles for the month of June and I used one of the fab digis for my card.  I was inspired by the song "San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)" and used my Copics to colour the image, framing it with some colour-matching cardstock, adding a few punched out butterflies.

Thanks for stopping by and again, apologies for being so slack in blog visiting and commenting but we're on vacation and have very limited internet access for the next two weeks.   We're hoping to be fully connected again a few days after we move back to our Cambridge house at the end of June!

Latest Time Out challenge

Hello all
it's another challenge over at Time Out and this fortnight, we're giving you a photo inspiration to create from -

       We have a previous winner as a Guest designer - welcome to Christine :)  You get the chance to be a guest designer if you are picked as a challenge winner so why not give it a go?

                                 For my card I was heavily influenced by the fabulous CAS design skills of some of my DTeamies at Time Out and decided to use the main colours from the inspiration photo as a starting point.  I used some Martha Stewart clear floral stamps, which I heat embossed onto coloured cardstock and then fussy cut.  I then added some washi tape, a Cameo cut sentiment and 3 gems -  you'll have to go and check out my DTeamies blogs to see where I got the design inspiration from.  You can find their blogs on the Design Team page - just click on the tab at the top of the page.

                                    Entering this into the challenges at Addicted to Stamps, Hambo challenges, Paper Pretties, Paula Holifield crafts and Bearly Mine.

Thanks for stopping by!

"Time flies, love lasts"

Hello all,
my post today is for the latest challenge at Time Out and the theme for this one is inspiration from the phrase 'Time flies, love lasts'.  We have a previous challenge winner as our Guest designer - please take some time out to visit Karen's blog and say 'hello'.
       For my card I made a background using a Tim Holtz clock face stencil and spritzing the card stock with Dylusions ink and some Pearl Shimmer Mist.  The text is a large rubber stamp that I got because I loved the sentiment - I need to remind myself sometimes to enjoy the present moment more!  I finished the card by adding a Copics coloured digi from my box of coloured images that I am trying to use up and matting the whole thing on to some purple card before sticking it to the card base.

    Entering this into the challenges at 613 Avenue Create, Challenges 4 Everybody, Crafty Sentiments and Through the Craft Room Door.

Thanks for popping in!

Another challenge at Time Out

Hello all,
          It's time for another challenge at Time Out and this week we're asking you to CASE a card.  When you CASE a card, you Copy And Share Everything - that is, you copy another card design, using it as inspiration, making sure you give the original designer credit.

                          Here's a picture of the card to CASE - , from the designer, Virginia whose blog can be found here.

                                I used a stamp from Smeared Ink, coloured with Copics, fussy cut and placed on a background enhanced with some washi tape strips, a computer printed sentiment and a cardstock squiggle that I drew freehand and then cut using my Silhouette Cameo, finishing the card with some adhesive pearls.

      Entering this into the challenges at Addicted to Stamps and More, Through the Craftroom Door, Fan-tastic Tuesday and Crafting from the Heart.

Thanks for stopping by!

Don't lose your head....................

Hello all!
     there's another challenge at Time Out beginning today and this time our theme is Birthdays with an optional twist of making it masculine!!  As you can see from the DT samples, some of us chose to go with the twist and some didn't - the choice is yours.
                     
We have some fantastic prizes to entice you to join in with us -
Prize 1 will be for those doing the twist, it will be chosen randomly and will be a £15 gift voucher from Uniko Studio
Prize 2 will be the stamp set and dies seen below and this will be for our overall winner along with the GDT position.

Uniko Studio Sponsorship Prizes:

       So I went a bit off-piste with my card this week.  I was truly stuck in the land of no inspiration and so I decided to randomly pick a sketch challenge and just go with it!  Perhaps I should have rethought this strategy as the sketch challenge I chose was this one from Stamplorations - 

          Nothing wrong with the sketch but I had already decided on the image I was using and I'm trying my best not to spend hours agonising over my card designs.  The digi is from my own collection of digitally tidied images from a vintage Sears catalogue.  You can see some of them in my Etsy shop - just click on the link in the sidebar :)

                                          Anyway, you'll see what I mean about not thinking it through when I finally share a photo of the card.  I had to come up with an appropriate sentiment and I finished off the card design with a couple of strips of washi tape.  So without further ado, the card - 

         Well, that took forever to get through so well done if you stuck it out to here - what a very long trip!!  As you can see, he's not quite feeling 100%.............

Entering this into the challenges at Stamplorations , Craft Room Challenge, Fan-tastic Tuesday, Through the Craft Room Door and Simon Says Monday challenge.

Thanks for stopping in!

Home sweet home challenge at Time Out

Hello all!
Back with the second challenge over at Time Out and our theme this time is 'Home Sweet Home' and we're giving you a photo to get your inspiration from -

     I'd love for you to check out the fabulous cards from the rest of the DT here and then join us in this fun challenge.  For my card this time, I didn't use Copics (gasp!!)  - I know, unheard of!!  That's just one of the reasons that I'm happy to be part of this DT as it gives me the opportunity to try different things :)

      So, on to my card - I had a few pieces of a glossy white cardstock in my stash so after sprinkling some Distress Ink on to an acrylic stamp block and spritzing it with water, I smooshed the card around on top of the block.  After the ink had dried, I crinkled the card to add some creases and texture.  Using a butterfly stamp, I stamped the image first with black Memento ink and then again with white embossing powder and then painted the wings with Distress Inks.  Using some orange and white checked ribbon provided a nice colour contrast to the purple and blue.

Entering this into the challenges at - 

Craft your Passion

The Crafty Bloggers

Artistic Inspirations

Creative Moments

The House that Stamps built

(Repeat Impressions DCC326 ~ Things With Wings.)

Thanks for stopping by!

Count your rainbows........

Hello all!
Back with a reminder that the very first challenge over at Time Out still has another week for you to get those entries in!  The theme is your own inspiration from the phrase 'Dancing in the rain' and you could win a fab prize too so please do take some time out to join us :)
         I haven't played with an Octopode Factory image for a while so I decided to do something with one of the new releases from Lily - you can check out her shop here.
         I used my Copics to colour the image and then fussy cut her and stuck her onto a copy of an old postcard from Venice, adding a stamped sentiment and some flowers and gems to the brolly.   I need to keep reminding myself of this sentiment over the next few weeks - over the last 25 years, I've moved house 14 times!!  You'd think I'd have the whole thing fine tuned but nope, still finding it difficult to declutter and let go of things - must have a hoarding gene in my DNA, a craft hoarding gene!
                              Anyway, enough of the whining, I need to get on so I'll finish up here with the usual photo and enter this into the challenges at -

Crafting from the heart, 

Paper Makeup,

Fitztown

Fan-tastic Tuesday

Through the Craft room door

Sweet Stamps

         Thanks for stopping by today!

1st challenge at Time Out Challenges

Hello all!
I've been a bit thin on the ground lately when it comes to blog posting and commenting but I'm in the middle of a major de-clutter in preparation for our move back to England.  Plus we've had several surveys done to get quotations for the shipping costs - all very time-consuming!  Anyway I have had time to make my card for the very 1st challenge over at Time Out  (big trumpet fanfare!!) and I hope you'll join us there.

                          To celebrate our first ever challenge we have two sponsors: Make the Day Special and Avocado Arts.   The theme for this first challenge is to be inspired by the phrase "Dancing in the Rain" and I'd love for you to check out the fabulous creations from the very talented DT here.  

     For my first card as part of this great team, I decided to do some paper piecing with a Saturated Canary digi.  I printed the image onto several different sheets of patterned paper and onto the card base.  I coloured her hair and skin with my Copics and then stuck down the various cut-outs of paper.  I added a computer printed sentiment and matted the white card onto a coloured card base.

     I would like to enter this into the challenges at Through the Craftroom Door, Simon Says Stamp, Crafting for all Seasons,  Addicted to Stamps and More.  Created with Love and Love to Create.

Thanks for stopping by and please do come and join in the fun at Time Out.