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CAS Safari

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Bonjour from Quebec City everyone. (That’s about the limit of my French, so don’t worry that I’m going to try more!)

I have been raiding my sister’s crafting stash again, for an idea to enter the CASology challenge for this week. The cue card is above. I see there are already lots of great cards on the challenge site, and wondered what to do. Then my sister showed me her Heroarts monthly stamp set. Have you seen this set? Absolutely amazing. So many images – animals, trees, grass, birds, hillocks – you name it, this stamp set has it.

As soon as I saw this cute little giraffe I was hooked. And then I saw there was a grass stamp…….sorted. Well, so I thought. Talk about trying to position a straight stamp along the bottom of a piece of card. That took me a little while, then placing the little giraffe ‘just so’…….huh. Definitely not the ‘simple’ of clean and simple, let me tell you.

The colours are basic – green for the grass, (Stampin Up), and black for the giraffe (Versafine Black Onyx) and sentiment, so I added the piece of white card directly onto a black base card.

Tomorrow’s posting will be the colour challenge from CAS Colours and Sketches, my third post as guest designer this month. I hope the colours chosen inspire you to create a card to join in the challenge.

 

 

 

 

 

Travelling and challenge entry

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Hello everyone. Have you noticed I have been a little quiet this week? Well – I am currently in Quebec City visiting my sister! I know, trans-atlantic travelling. I love this city, and have been here several times before.

I arrived from London on Friday evening – after 2 hour delay from Heathrow – flew into Montreal, then flew up to Quebec. Not so bad, actually, as Air Canada transfers all your luggage for internal flights anyway.

Yesterday was spent doing a little food shopping, a little craft shopping – I know, first day! – and chilling. Then – raided her craft stash.

We both make cards, our styles are quite different, but she has LOADS of stuff I can play with.

This card is using the Altenew ‘Doodle Blooms’ stamp set, then colouring in Cracked Pistachio Distress oxide, then die cut with matching dies.

The embossing folder is from Spellbinders ‘Garden Delight`M-Bossability, and I used the curved die from Simon Says Stamp `Stitched Slopes and Hills’. The sentiment from a Stampin Up set ‘Les deux font la paire’ – thought I`d stay with the French language seeing as how I am in Quebec.

I shall be entering this card into the following challenges:

Fusion Challenge – sketch

Crafting with Dragonflies – embossing wet or dry

 

 

Guest Designer sketch

Hello again everyone. This card is based on the sketch for the second challenge I am guest designer for as CAS Colours and Sketches. For some reason my mind turned to Christmas. I have no idea why, but that’s the way I went.

I wanted a shape hanging over the edge of the card, as per the sketch, and looked at my dies for snowflakes and baubles. I went with snowflakes from Stampin Up ‘Starlight Thinlits’, and cut the shape out of glimmer card, also from Stampin Up.

I used a dark blue card from Creative expressions as a base card, and a second layer which I embossed with my Sue Wilson ‘Twinkle Twinkle’ embossing folder. I did toy with the idea of insetting the snowflake, but decided to stick it on top, so I then had to cut another one out with some double sided sticky tape on the back as I didn’t want glue everywhere.

Once attached, I looked at what dies I had for a Christmas sentiment, and again used a Stampin Up set ‘Christmas Stocking’ thinlits, the same glimmer card, and cutting down the original die cut to leave just the word.

I tried to photograph the background of the stars, which I think came out well, but I just couldn’t get the picture right for the glimmer card. This really is a twinkly card, and the photograph just doesn’t do it justice.

I hope you can play along, and I look forward to seeing what you create with this wonderfully simple sketch. :)

I shall also be entering this card into the Crafty Friends Challenge – Christmas in July.

 

Juicy

Hi everyone. It’s been a couple of days since I posted – I actually had some social events over the weekend. I had a great night out at hubby’s golf club last night – nice meal, great company, some Prosecco was drunk – and some dancing. 50’s music – even though I wasn’t born until the 60’s……great music from the 50’s. Isn’t it surprising how many songs we know from that time?

I made this card to be part of CASology this week. The cue card was:

I have said in the past that I struggle with clean and simple, I struggle with open space, but I do keep trying. This is my take for the challenge. I had to do some lateral thinking, as I don’t have any stamps of fruits. I did think about some juicy and luscious lips, but didn’t have anything which would work.

I had a search through my stash, and found the above circle and lines in  a Stampin Up set – ‘Balloon Celebration’. I decided it looks like a section of fruit, even though it isn’t symmetrical.

I then looked for some stamps which could be seen as drops or rain, anything which could be seen as dropping from the fake fruit, and came across a stamp set from Craftwork Cards – ‘Celebrations’ – which was again about balloons, but these little circles seemed to work well when I tried them out on a scrap piece of paper. I did have some rain drops from another stamp set, but they seemed a little too big.

Once stamped in Versafine black onyx, I coloured with Catherine Pooler ‘Tutti Frutti’ ink. A luscious, gorgeous bright orange – don’t you think? I then waited for that to dry and added some glossy accents for a more shiny look. Even though the ink is gorgeous, I thought adding the glossy accents would make it shine even better.

I struggled a little with the photo to try and show this, but I hope you can see what I did.

On Tuesday I shall be posting my second card of the month as guest designer for CAS Colors and Sketches – I hope you can play along…… :)

 

 

Wild Flowers

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Hi everyone. I wanted to post a quick card this evening, so I attacked my Catherine Pooler stamps, inks, and matching dies. I wanted to use the colours from the Color Throwdown challenge, and as the challenge was to use green, Kraft, and white, I wanted the green to be a bright and vivid green against the other two colours.

‘Grass Skirt’ from Catherine Pooler fits the bill nicely, showing against the Kraft really well, and I am pleased how this turned out.

I stamped the ‘Wild Flower’  stamps in the green, die cut them, and added them to a Kraft piece of card cut with my wonky rectangles. This particular Kraft card is a little textured, certainly not smooth. So this added a very muted feature and detail to the base of the card.

I added that to a white base card, and stopped there. I didn’t add a sentiment, and I am quite liking cards with no sentiments at the moment. They can either be added later, or these cards would be ideal to write a little note inside for any reason at all…….

I shall be entering this card into the following challenges:

Color Throwdown – Green, Kraft, White

Aud Sentiments challenge – no sentiment on front

Craftaholics R Us – die cuts

House Of Cards challenge – floral images and/or colours (floral)

 

 

Guest Designer – three colours

Hi everyone. I have been invited to guest design for CAS Colours and Sketches for four challenges during August, and here is the first card I have made for the first colour challenge. The challenge was to create a card using the Stampin Up colours Blushing Bride, Cajun Craze, and Tempting Turquoise. My first thought ran to a flower card, but wondered which flowers I could use artistic license on for the three colours mentioned above.

I looked through me collection of stamps, and came across the set from Altenew ‘Under the Cherry Blossom Tree’. I couldn’t find any images of blue cherry blossoms – so did it anyway! I think I am getting more like that when I craft. It doesn’t matter if it imitates nature or not, if it looks good – do it anyway!

I didn’t have the ink pads for the three colours, but I did have my markers. This made stamping a little more challenging, as I had to cover the stamp carefully using the marker at an angle to ensure it was covered, but as the stamps are quite small anyway, it came together nicely.

I stamped the outline of the branch and flowers twice using Cajun Craze, then used Tempting Turquoise for the flowers. One stamped directly onto the layer added to the card base, and one I die-cut using the matching dies. This one I stuck down hanging off the top of the card, and cut down.

The first bird layer was stamped using Blushing Bird, and the second layer with Cajun Craze. When I stamped him, I set him too high, so had to go in and add a branch for him to sit on with my marker….

The sentiment is from the same set stamped in Cajun Craze, with another smaller detail stamped randomly around with Blushing Bride. So I then thought – why are the petals around the sentiment a different colour to the petals on the branches? Well – because they are! Maybe another tree is alongside this one with Blushing Bride petals………..

I hope you play along with us using these colours, and I am looking forward to seeing what everyone creates. :)

06/08/17 – Here is a close-up of the little birdie as requested by a lady who commented:

close up

Congrats

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Hi everyone. Quite a colourful card for today. I am working with someone this afternoon who will be expecting a new addition to their family in the New Year. I don’t make baby cards, and I have absolutely nothing in my stash which is specifically for this type of occasion, so I went with the flow and created this.

I took inspiration from several challenges regarding colour and theme. The first thing I did was to stamp my Concord and 9th ‘Stripe Builder’ stamp set. I used my Tim Holtz stamping platform, as this is one huge stamp, and used Catherine Pooler ‘Lime Rickey’ and Stampin Up ‘Tempting Turquoise’.

Now I tried stamping this several times, and it just wouldn’t cover all of the card. I re-stamped, stamped again, then decided to leave it as it was, as the photo inspiration from Inkspirational has greeny slats, and also one white slat, which all look quite weathered. So – the distressed stamping look it was. I quite like this effect. What do they say about mistakes – there aren’t any, just happy accidents? Well, there we are.

I then took my Sue Wilson ‘Noble Pierced Squares’ and cut a piece to cover the background, then die cut my Tim Holtz ‘Mixed Media’ in two corners, so the colours would show through.

After sticking these down, I die cut the ‘Congrats’ from Stampin Up ‘Sunshine Wishes’ in white card with double sided sticky sheet on the back, and cut that four times stacking them up, then die cut one from another piece I had stamped originally and didn’t like the look of. (Happy accident again)

I really like the colours on this card, and it goes with either boy or girl, I think…..do you agree?

I shall be entering this card into the following challenges:

Inkspirational – photo inspiration

City Crafter Challenge – something beginning with ‘S’ – (Sunshine Wishes dies)

House Of Cards challenge – stripes

Less is More – piercing (Sue Wilson pierced squares)

 

 

 

 

Red flowers

Happy Sunday everyone. Craft day again – well, hubby is golfing, so I am playing too.

This card was composed from the background called ‘Squared Off Cover Panel’ from Reverse Confetti. This is a new buy from Seven Hills Crafts – ordered one day, and delivered the next. Always fabulous service.

Anyway, I knew I wanted to use this cover panel, and cut it twice – once in white, and once in a browny/goldy card from Creative Expressions. I then placed a piece of double sided sticky sheet on the back of the white panel, and placed the browny squares back into the white die cut. I stuck this down onto a plain white card base.

Now to the flowers – back to my old favourite from Altenew, the ‘Adore You’ stamp and die set. Love ’em, love ’em! I took some Crafters Companion satin red and satin green card, stamped using my Ranger Perfect Medium, and embossed with detail bright gold embossing powder. Now, you have to be quick with this embossing, as I have found the coating on this particular card isn’t exactly heat proof! (Trust me, I found out the hard way) So, I heat embossed from the back of the card……wish I’d thought of that first!

Anyhoo, I then cut out the flowers and leaves, and arranged them around the cover plate, took a photo so I could place them back again, and glued down with Pinflair glue gel. This gel gives some time to move things around a little, and you can then even stick the leaves underneath.

The sentiment is from that same stamp set.

I shall be entering this into the following challenges:

Altenew July 2017 inspiration – photo inspiration (colours and flowers)

Time Out Challenges – Inspirational words

Just Us Girls – something old +/- something new

Allsorts Challenge – photo inspiration (colours and flowers)

 

No stamping

Hi everyone. I hope you are all well, and enjoying some crafting time. I’ve been putting together this card. It may look simple, but let me tell you it has taken me a few hours to get it right.

I am following the challenge theme for Simply Less is More – CAS no stamping, and Cards In Envy – baby blue or pretty pink. I had an idea of creating a coloured card and die cutting a flower or something from it, and even did that, but I just didn’t like how it turned out.

I then decided to use my Gansai Tambi ‘Pearl Colours’ to create a flat background, but shimmery. I covered a piece of white card with the Pearl Pink,  and let one layer dry before adding another layer. I did three layers in total as I wanted quite a solid colour. I managed to get a photo with the shimmer showing. I let this dry completely before using Lawn Fawn ‘Stitched Windy Backdrop’ for added interest to the shimmer.

I then moved onto the sentiment. This is from Neat and Tangled, called ‘Big Hugs ‘ – can’t think why!? I die cut this in black card many times – I think 6 in total, and layered them on top of each other for a slight bit of dimension.

I was going to glitter it, and decided not to as I think the bold and black letters really stand out from the pink shimmery background. I added the whole pink layer to a plain white card base.

So, even though it looks simple, it took me a while to put together – drying time, die cutting, and sticking time – but I think it’s quite effective.

I will also be entering this card into the Mix It Up challenge – anything goes, and Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge – anything goes.

I have some very exciting news – I have been asked to be guest designer for the month of August, weekly cards, for CAS Colours and Sketches!!!! Two colour challenges, and two sketch challenges. How about that? Sooooo excited to be doing that. The first challenge goes ‘live’ on Tuesday – I hope you can join us. :)

 

Magnolia Colours

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Hello everyone. I hope you are all well. It looks like a late evening posting for me today. I have been playing with colours and different stamps in my craft room, and forgot what time it was. Time flying and having fun comes to mind…..

This card is inspired by the colours from Color Throwdown – raspberry pink, yellow, and green. I wanted to use the Magnolia stamp set from Altenew, but didn’t know if magnolia’s come in these colours…..I did an internet search, and they do come in yellow, but I couldn’t find any with a raspberry heart or dark shading. So – I did it anyway! You know me, throwing away the rules…..

I stamped the flower in Versafine black onyx – as always – then stamped the base main magnolia layer in ‘Tiara’ from Catherine Pooler, adding some raspberry colour to the base, and slightly drawing it out with my watercolour brush. The green is ‘Grass Skirt’ from Catherine Pooler, drawing out the base green for a lighter touch, then adding directly to the image for the darker shading.

The branch is coloured with an Inktense brown pencil – one of the ‘allowed’ neutral colours – then used the matching dies to cut the image out.

I then stamped a third generation of the raspberry colour using the Altenew Hexagon stamp for a very, very light background, (I promise it is there and the raspberry colour)stuck my flower to it, then used my wonky rectangles from MFT.

The sentiment stamped in the same green, as opposed to my usual black, for a more muted look, so that it didn’t take away from the main image too much.

I shall be entering this card into the following challenges:

Color Throwdown – raspberry pink, yellow, green

Crafty Sentiments Designs – anything goes

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge – anything goes