Boy oh boy these Fridays are rolling round quickly! The weeks are disappearing as quickly as the amount of clothes I can fit into with my 'its too cold to exercise so will eat more chocolate' idea. However, it does mean that its time for a new challenge at Just Add Ink.
This week our theme is one that I know will be very popular:
JUST ADD BUTTERFLIES
Butterflies seem to be all the rage nowdays and so many companies have brought out some gorgeous stamps, dies and papers with them in mind. So I know there will be some amazing entries this week.
I recently purchased a new butterfly stamp/die set myself and even though I've already used it this week, I couldn't help getting it out again:
I cut a panel of white CS the same size as my card front. I then used a technique called 'partial die-cutting' that I've done a few times before but used word dies. It was something I saw Laura Bassen do a few months ago. I wanted to try it using the butterfly die and it worked a treat!
I stamped the matching butterfly stamp and sentiment in black and coloured it in using a watercolour pencil. I worked out where the panel would sit over the card front and used Distress Ink 'Peacock Feathers' to create a blue background. Lots of foam tape was applied to the panel and it was popped on to the card. And of course I had to throw on some pretty sequins.
The circle die is from Couture Creations. The butterfly stamp/die set is from Hero Arts 'Stamp and Cut - Butterfly', the sentiment is from this set too. The sequins are from Avery Elle.
Will also link this to the Little Tangles Challenge # 58 where their theme is:
You have until next Wednesday 29th July to enter the Just Add Ink challenge and if you need any help with ideas, the rest of the Design Team have some beautiful projects on the blog. Hope to see you in the Gallery!!
Take care
Shona
Its time for a new challenge theme at TIME OUT. For this challenge we have a fantastic card for you to CASE:
This card is by the incredible Alice of Alice's (Little) Wonderland. I have been following her blog for a while now and I'm totally in awe of her colouring skills. I really encourage you to have a look around her blog, her cards are something spectacular!!
We are asking you to take a look at this card and be inspired for your own creation. CASE means to 'Copy and share everyone'. You may like to copy the layout or use similar colours. Maybe you even have the same stamps?? Its totally up to you.
And of course we have a Guest Designer for this challenge, its Rema from RT Impressions. Her cards are so fresh, crisp and modern and she loves lots of white space. Please stop by her blog and take a look around, you won't be disappointed!
When I came to make my card I realised that I had no kraft CS at all. So went with my classic white card base, and was inspired by the green colours and layout:
I was extremely lucky a few weeks ago to win a voucher from the Hero Arts blog. Which meant I could FINALLY purchase the gorgeous butterfly (with matching die) set that I had been admiring for months. I can't stop using it so you may see it a lot over the next few weeks....
I started by stamping a banner stamp in three shades of green on the card front. I then stamped the butterfly on white CS and used my watercolour pencils to colour it in. After die-cutting I popped it up on some foam tape, stamped the sentiment from the set and added some enamel dots. Loving all that fresh green!
The banner stamp is from Waffle Flower 'Congrats'. The butterfly and die, and sentiment stamp are from Hero Arts 'Stamp and Cut - Butterfly' set. The enamel dots are from Papervine.
I'm going to enter this into the Uniko Challenge # 23 where their theme is 'Black and white with optional twist of a splash of colour'. I hope my green shades will be okay.
You have two weeks to link your projects to the TIME OUT challenge. And if you need any help in the inspiration department, the rest of the Design Team have created some gorgeous cards on the blog. I really hope you have time to join and can't wait to see you in the Gallery!!
Take care
Shona
Its Wednesday morning so that means its time for a new challenge at Addicted to Stamps. The theme for this weeks challenge is:
CLEAN AND SIMPLE
This means lots of lovely white space or one-layer designs etc. Its my favourite way to make cards, so I can't wait to see what you all come up with!
We have two sponsors for this weeks challenge. The first is Deedee's Digi's and the second is Rosey-Hearts. Prize details are on the blog.
I knew straight away what I wanted to do for this challenge. I was lucky enough to win a stamp set from Waffle Flower and chose a set from their latest release. It was posted on a Friday from the U.S. and arrived in Blenheim (New Zealand) sometime on the Monday because it was on my doorstep at 7.30am Tuesday morning. Isn't that amazing???!! Would probably take me longer to fly to the U.S. to pick it up myself!
I went a bit 'pencil' crazy this week, trying to practice my colouring technique. I stamped this flower from Waffle Flower 'Lotus' on to white CS and spent ages colouring with one pink pencil. I was quite amazed as to how different I could make the colour just with a softer or harder touch. Its not perfect but so much better than when I first started using pencils (that was so embarassing......).
After fussy cutting the flower, I used my Mini Blending tool to add a soft hint of Distress Ink 'Peacock Feathers' to the card (as if it was water) and popped the lotus up on foam tape. The sentiment is from the same stamp set. I can see myself using this set ALOT!
I'm going to link this to the Happy Little Stampers - July CAS Challenge where their theme is:
And will also link to the Seize the Birthday Challenge where their theme is:
You have one week to enter your cards to the Addicted to Stamps challenge. The rest of the Design Team have created some beautiful cards on the blog if you need any inspiration. Can't wait to see your projects in the Gallery!!
Take care
Shona
Its so quiet. Its 11.17am Monday morning and its only me in the house. The kids went back to school this morning and it was a bit of a rush after sleeping in for the past two weeks (we have all gotten out of practice...) but we just made it in time. Didn't help that we had a -3 degree frost....brrrrr. So it means that not only is my housework done (well, some of it..) but I can sit down and blog during the day instead of 4am. Yippee!
I'm getting a bit ahead of myself here as this challenge doesn't finish till the end of the month (and you know how I'm a 'last minute' crafter) but was looking at the cards to CASE for this challenge and fell in love with this one from Heather Pulverenti:
I love the colours so much and all those ruffles are gorgeous. I was going to try and re-create them with some scissors but decided to use something else instead:
I can't wait for Summer to come back so I can get some more light into my photos!!
I started by die-cutting a rectangle from some pink CS and then cut a smaller one from white CS using my paper trimmer. A bit of time was then spent die-cutting the strips of white, pink and blue CS and then adhering them all together in layers. These were stuck to the white CS panel. I stamped the 'happy' in pink and then heat embossed the rest of the sentiment in silver on a strip of white CS before popping up on foam tape. The pink panel was adhered straight to the card front and the white one put on foam tape. And of course I added a few clear rhinestones for some shine.
The stitched-scallop edge die is from Pretty Pink Posh. The 'happy' stamp is from Winnie and Walter 'The Big, the Bold and Happy' and the 'you are my' stamps are also W&W 'My Precious'. The rhinestones are from Kaisercraft.
Will also squeeze this into the Simon Says Stamp - Monday Challenge where their theme is 'Anything Goes'.
I'm off to vacuum now and then will try and do some gardening without getting frostbite. This winter we have had our lowest rainfall ever and our most amount of frosts. They make for a beautiful morning but boy do they make it hard to get out of bed!! And some areas of the garden remain covered in frost all day, so for a gardener its a little tricky. I even saw someone mowing their frosted lawn this morning......????!!
Take care
Shona
Its my last day today on the CAS-ual Fridays Stamps blog and I've loved every minute of it. Hope you've enjoyed my cards too!!
For these cards, I used the Sassy Smiles stamp set. Absolutely love the big 'Smile' stamp and the phrases that come with it are brilliant!!
For my first card I die-cut some hearts using the 'Heart Board' Fri Dies Set and adhered the largest and smaller heart to the card front. After cutting a strip of vellum, I stamped and heat embossed the 'Smile' in gold and wrapped around the card front, gluing at the back. I also added some mint coloured enamel dots (from Papervine) to go with my mint hearts.
For this card I wanted to let the stamps shine, so cut a panel of grey CS smaller than the card front and then a panel of white CS slightly smaller. Onto this I stamped the 'Smile' in mint green and stamped and heat embossed the sentiment in gold. This panel was adhered to the grey CS and then popped up on foam tape on the card front. I also added some gold sequins (from Neat and Tangled) for a bit of shine.
For my final card I couldn't stop myself from using the flowers from the 'Mon Ami' stamp set again. I stamped and heat embossed the flowers in white on some water colour paper. I used Distress Ink 'Peacock Feathers' with some water to add some colour and then used the matching 'Mon Ami Fleur' Fri Dies Set to cut them out. After stamping the 'Smile' and heat embossing in silver on the card front, I adhered one flower and the other one on some foam tape. I also added some silver sequins.
I've had the most wonderful weeks getting prepared for these three days and using these gorgeous stamps and dies. Thank you so much for joining me and a big thanks to Michele for giving me this chance!!
I hope you will also join me at the CAS-ual Fridays 'The Clean and Simple Challenge' where our theme is 'Embossing'. Would love to see you all in the Gallery!!
Take care
Shona
Welcome back everyone to Day 2 of my Guest Designer post at CAS-ual Fridays Stamps. Its so fantastic to be here!!!
For today's post, I created cards using the 'Loving Thoughts' stamps set and matching 'Loving Blooms' Fri Dies.
For my first card I cut a panel of white CS and die-cut the largest flower die from it. I placed it on the card front and stamped the large flower image thru the die-cut. After stamping and heat embossing the sentiment in silver, I popped it up over the card front with lots of foam tape. A few pink and clear sequins (from Pretty Pink Posh) finished it off with a little bling.
I love the colour blue/turquoise, so decided to create a card with those tones. I stamped the large flower on some white CS, die-cut and added to the card front with foam tape. I stamped three smaller flowers with different blue/turquoise shades and then the sentiment in navy. Clean and simple.
For my last card I wanted to create a one-layer design. I die-cut the largest flower die from the card front and from pink CS. I then kept die-cutting a smaller flower from the next largest to graduate the sizes to fit together. After adhering a piece of white CS to the back of the card, I inlaid the flower pieces. I then stamped and heat embossed the sentiment in gold and added peach and gold sequins from Neat and Tangled.
I hope you like these cards as much as I enjoyed creating them. And that they have given you some more ideas on how to use these sets. Tomorrow is my last day and I hope you will visit to see my designs with another stamp set.
Take care
Shona
I'm popping in quickly to post this card before running off to bed to watch a movie. Its pouring with rain and it makes me so sleepy hearing the rain on the roof. I was up till 3am this morning working on cards, so finding it hard to keep my eyes open (its nearly 8.30pm Thursday night). And the kids and I were running around all day doing all sorts of jobs and walking the dog etc. I imagine they will sneak into bed beside me like they did the other night, so better not watch a horror movie.....
So the cue word at CASology this week is 'Cupcake'. Yum!!! I do have a Paper Smooches Cupcake die that would be perfect to use but as usual I wanted to do something a bit different....
This is my 'cup' with a 'cake' in it!!! Do you think this will pass??
I started by inking half the candle stamp (as it was a bit long) and stamping in yellow. After stamping the flame in orange, I very carefully stamped the cup and then saucer. I'm so bad at lining things up and I'm so amazed I didn't leave any gaps! I then used two different stamp sets to create the sentiment and added a couple of sequins for bling. One-layer wonder!
The cup and saucer stamps are from Paper Smooches 'Cyber Cafe'. The candle and flame stamps are from Whimsy Stamps 'Happy Everything'. The first part of the sentiment is from 'The Afternoon Tea Set' but I don't know who made them. The 'love' is also Whimsy Stamps 'Thanks a million'. And the sequins are from Pretty Pink Posh.
I'm going to also link this to the Happy Little Stampers July CAS Challenge where their theme is:
EDIT Saturday 18th July: My friend Kimberly told me this would be perfect for another challenge Stampin' Celebration # 108 where they have this gorgeous inspiration photo. Might have to start following this one, always great to hear about new challenges to enter, thanks Kimberly!!
Right, thats it for me, my bed is calling!!! Hope you've all had a good week. The kids are back to school on Monday, I'm sure some part of them will be glad to go back (even though they tell me they want to stay home with me forever). I must be making homelife way to fun, might have to start being a bit more boring......don't think I can pull that off though......
Take care
Shona
A quick post today to remind you about our current TIME OUT challenge. Our theme is:
Nature: with the optional twist of Animals
(including bugs/butterflies)
There have already been some incredible entries and its going to be ever so hard to choose a winner for this one!!
I decided to use my water colour pencils again but this time actually use them with water. I've tried it before ages ago but didn't like the effect but experimented a bit more this time and I really like how it turned out:
I stamped all the flowers and butterflies on water colour paper with Versafine black ink. I then coloured with the pencils along the outer edges and used the water on a fine brush to bring the colour into the centre. It worked a lot better than colouring the whole flower and then moving the colour about (as I had done previously). I saw a video by Kristina Werner recently where she used this technique, so once again she has helped me ALOT!!
After drying everything with my heat gun, I fussy cut them all out and arranged on the card front. Everything was adhered to the card with double-sided tape except the large flower, which was popped up on foam tape. I also curled back the butterfly wings slightly so they were more three-dimensional (and added some Wink of Stella). The sentiment was stamped in black and I didn't think any sequins were needed. Love this card so much!
The sentiment stamp is from Altenew 'Sohcahtoa' and all the other stamps are from Close to my Heart 'Card Word Puzzle - Occasions'.
You have one more week to link your entries to TIME OUT and the rest of the DT and our Guest Designer Barb have some more gorgeous projects on the blog to inspire you. Hope I see you in the Gallery!!
Take care
Shona
Hi everybody, this is one very exciting day for me. I'm the Guest Designer for CAS-ual Fridays Stamps for the next three days. Such a fabulous opportunity and a chance to show off some of their amazing stamps and dies. Thank you so much Michele for the invitation!!
For my first day I concentrated on the stamp set 'Mon Ami' and the matching 'Mon Ami Fleur Fri Dies'. This is such a beautiful set I'm afraid I got rather carried away with all my ideas and designs, and have four cards to show you today, so please bear with me!
I stamped and heat embossed the flower in gold and then heat embossed the sentiment on a vellum banner in white. I adhered this across the flowers hiding the tiny strips of double-sided tape behind the writing. Love this flower so much!!
This time I created a one-layer card by stamping the two different flowers with two of the sentiment stems and also adding one leaf. I added enamel dots with slightly darker pink on the bigger flower. Simple and pretty.
Y
ou know I had to fit in a shaker card somewhere!! I cut a panel of white CS to fit the card front and die cut the larger flower from it. I adhered a piece of acetate behind it. And then the fun part of putting pieces of foam tape on the back to create a frame around the shape to hold the sequins. I then added foam to the rest of the panel to hold it up.
With it laying face down I added sequins (from Pretty Pink Posh) over the acetate, and then pushed the card front down on to it. The sentiment was stamped onto a white CS banner and also popped up on foam tape, along with some peach and gold sequins from Neat and Tangled. This die is a brilliant shape for shakers!
Lastly I got all monochromatic with grey, silver and white. I stamped the smaller flower in pairs across the card in grey and added small rhinestones for bling (from Kaisercraft). I stamped and heat embossed the sentiment in silver and fussy cut before popping up on foam tape. Love how this turned out!
I'm going to enter my fourth card to the Virginia's View Challenge # 16 where their theme is '100% Stamped'
I really hope you enjoyed my cards and that you'll join me again tomorrow, where I will be looking at another stamp set and dies.
Take care
Shona
I'm super excited and have been waiting for this day to come for weeks. Its my first challenge as part of the CAS-ual Fridays 'The Clean and Simple' Challenge team!! And to top it all off, the first challenge is one of my favourite techniques:
Thats right, embossing!! Dry, heat, paste....whatever type of embossing you love, we would love to see your CAS designs.
The challenge runs from Friday July 10th to Friday July 31st, so hopefully plenty of time for you to create some amazing projects and join the challenge. You don't have to use CAS-ual Fridays stamps and dies to enter but if you do have them, we would love to see what you do with them. And you can enter as many times as you like!!!
Luckily I knew instantly what my design would be for my card and I couldn't wait to play with my new stamps and dies:
I started by die-cutting the squares from white CS and heat embossing both stamps in gold. I then used Distress Ink 'Picked Raspberry' and a mini blending tool to add some colour. After stamping and heat embossing the sentiment in gold on the card front, I popped both of the squares up on foam tape for some dimension. A few co-ordinating sequins and my first challenge card was finished!
The sentiment and pattern stamps are from CAS-ual Fridays 'Bold Wish' stamp set. The square die is also from CAS-ual Fridays 'Funky Square Tag' Fri Die. The pink sequins are from Pretty Pink Posh and the gold from Neat and Tangled.
We now have two challenges running side-by-side to give all crafters a choice. If you prefer a more 'clean and simple' approach, you can join me here at the CAS-ual Fridays 'The Clean and Simple' Challenge.
But if you prefer lots of layers and embellishments, you can join the CAS-ual Chic 'The Utterly Adorable Layers' Challenge. Both run for the same amount of time with the same theme. So there is something for everyone!!
I have a few other challenges I would like to enter:
Seize the Birthday Challenge (No Topping)
CASology Challenge # 154
As I mentioned, you have until Friday 31st July to link your entries to the CAS-ual Fridays 'The Clean and Simple' Challenge, so plenty of time to get creating. And if you need any help with inspiration, the rest of the Design Team have some gorgeous projects on the blog.
Hope I see you in the Gallery!!
Take care
Shona
This is my second entry for the CASology challenge and with such a brilliant 'cue word', I can imagine it will be very popular indeed!
A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to win a voucher for Whimsy Stamps and my goodies arrived yesterday. I tried the stamp set out straight away and immediately had an idea for my card:
I used a technique that I saw Kristina Werner use quite a while ago and decided to try it out again. I chose all my 'colour pairs' from my pigment inks. I ink one side of the balloon and then the other side and keep tapping on each ink pad until they are blended in the middle. Its a lot of fun to do and the different coloured ink you get on the pads just wipes off.
I then stamped the bows, strings and sentiment in black, with a couple of sequins for sparkle.
The balloon, string and bow stamps are from Whimsy Stamps 'Happy Everything'. The sentiment is from Lil' Inkers 'Rainbows and Clouds Sentiment'. The purple sequin in from Neat and Tangled and the pink from Pretty Pink Posh.
I'm going to link this to the Seize the Birthday Challenge where there was 'No Topping' for me this week:
Will also enter the Curtain Call Challenge where they are celebrating their 3rd anniversary all month long:
And will also link to the Happy Little Stampers - CAS Challenge where their theme is:
Going to be another cold night and morning. Snow has been turning up in strange places around the country. It hasn't snowed here for years. Someone told me it gets too cold to snow and someone else said its to do with us being too close to sea level. Who knows but would be nice for the kids. They might just have to make do with the frost in the morning. And we froze some containers with water a few days ago, so they can do some ice sculptures tomorrow. Should have frozen one for myself!!!
Take care
Shona
I've had this card sitting on my desk since Saturday, debating whether I should post it for the world to see or not. I quite often find myself in this position and it usually takes me a few days to sort my....'stuff'...out and realise this is supposed to be fun and I really enjoyed making it. So here goes.....
I'm really enjoying entering the Paper Smooches Sparks challenge every week and I'm hopefully going to be able to buy some of the new release Paper Smooches stamps and dies this week. It will give me more ideas to play around with!!
I wanted to try out some more pencil colouring and thought I would aim for a one-layer card this week. I just love house stamps and especially love this set from Paper Smooches:
My colouring is ever so slowly getting better. I don't have expensive pencils (I use Faber Castell 'Watercolour') but these are a good set for me to start with. I try to spend time working on shading but I'm not always sure where it would be darker. Definitely a work in progress but compared to someone like the fabulous Therese of Lost In Paper (who I admire greatly), it looks like a 7yr old did it! Oh well, you've got to laugh about these things. If you can't laugh at yourself, life must be over!
All of the stamps come from the Paper Smooches set 'Bitty Bungalows'.
I'm going to also link this to the Virginia's View Challenge # 16 where their theme is:
And will also enter the Happy Little Stampers Challenge where their theme is:
I have one more card to post tonight and will then start making some more. Might even get my pencils or water colour brush out as the more practice I get, the less embarassing my cards will be....hopefully.....
Take care
Shona
How quickly the weeks are flying by, which is kind of great because it means that Summer is getting closer. Winter is lovely but after so many days of not being able to venture outside because its freezing, you kind of dream about warmer weather....
Its time for yet another new challenge at TIME OUT. We have a theme for this challenge of:
NATURE
with the optional twist of animals (including butterflies/insects)
I can't wait to see all the cute little critters that will turn up for this one, as well as all the beautiful flowers.
Our sponsor for this challenge is CAS-ual Fridays Stamps and they are giving a $25 voucher to the winner. Talk about lucky, this is a brilliant prize!
And we also have a Guest Designer for this challenge, Barb from Barb's Studio Creations. Barb is not only a talented designer but a wonderful person who leave's such sweet comments. I'm sure you will have seen her cards around blogland as she belongs to a few challenge teams and is quite often in the 'Winners Seat' of many challenges. If you haven't already, I encourage you to have a look around her blog, its sensational!!
I seem to be pushing myself more and more out of my comfort-zone of late and this card was no exception. I received some stamps in the mail recently that I won with the AAA Cards Challenge birthday celebrations. They are both from Lawn Fawn and I just had to use one of them:
My colouring skills are totally lacking, so please don't look too closely. I just love hedgehogs so had to use them straight away.
I stamped the hedgehogs on to white CS, coloured with pencils and fussy cut. I used a stitched-curved die to cut a piece of green CS for grass and then laid it across some white CS so it could be die-cut with the circle. I used some Distress Ink to create a faint sky on the circle and then adhered the grass and the hedgehogs. I also stamped a small heart, covered it in Wink of Stella and Glossy Accents. The circle was glued to the card front. I stamped the sentiment in black on a white CS banner and adhered over the grass. A few sequins for shine and voila!
The hedgehogs, small heart and sentiment stamps are all from Lawn Fawn 'Hedgehugs'. The green CS is from DCWV 'Brights and Pastels'. The stitched-curved die and sequins are from Pretty Pink Posh. The circle die is from Couture Creations.
Will also link this to the Simon Says Stamp - Wednesday Challenge where their theme is 'Furry Friends'.
And will link to the Happy Little Stampers - CAS Challenge
where their theme is:
And lastly will link to the CASology Challenge Week # 154 where their theme is 'Repeat', hopefully my two little critters will suffice.
You have two weeks to enter your projects to the TIME OUT CHALLENGE, so I hope you have time to join in. Please visit the blog to see all the gorgeous cards by the rest of the Design Team to help inspire you. Hope to see you in the Gallery!!
Take care
Shona
