My mojo is back......kind of...and I have Jennifer McGuire to thank for it!! I've been finding it hard to sleep since Oscar died, so have been watching lots of card making videos on You Tube. I've been watching a lot by Jennifer, even much older ones and learning all sorts of things.
On one video (unfortunately I can't remember which one....) she talked about putting die-cuts back to back to create a fantastic pattern. I thought this was a brilliant idea, so my fourth entry to the The Gossip Column with Taheerah Atchia #5 was born!
I only own one background die (by Winnie and Walter), would love more but they are so expensive. But as this is a Winnie and Walter challenge, it couldn't be more perfect:
I wish I could capture for you the shimmer on this die-cut background, its just incredible!!
So, I've become rather addicted to my Nuvo Mousse (so much so that I've just ordered a few more pots....) and thought it would be fantastic to have it on the die-cut itself.
I started off by painting the mousse (mixed with a tiny bit of water) straight on some white CS, in two shapes big enough to fit the faceted die. It dries really quickly, so I was able to do three coats in a very short period of time. Once it had dried I put the shapes thru with the die and it worked perfectly!! I used some liquid glue to dot the back of one die, glued it straight to the card front, turned the other one upside down and glued it right on top.
To create more of a focal point, I cut a piece of vellum the same size as the card front and die-cut a large circle (from Couture Creations) from it. I used teeny tiny pieces of double-sided tape to adhere over the die-cuts. The 'happy' die (from W&W) was die-cut twice from white CS, glued together and popped up on foam tape. I then stamped and heat embossed the rest of the sentiment (from W&W 'The Big, the Bold and the Happy') in gold and put on foam tape too!
This was so fun to do and hopefully it means that my lack of mojo will finally change and gradually come back. Maybe I'll go into overdrive and make 100 Christmas cards!!
Its another long weekend for us this weekend, although I do have to squeeze in a 2hr gardening job on Monday. Max spent last night at a friends house and Ella is coming over tonight to stay with Phoebe. They are going trick or treating tomorrow night with friends (and their Mum's) which should be interesting. Halloween is not a very popular holiday in New Zealand but hopefully they will at least come back with one or two pieces of candy to make them happy. Will make sure I have a stash here just incase but will be hard not to eat it all first.......
Happy Friday everyone! One more sleep till the weekend and we are very lucky in New Zealand to be having a long weekend as Monday is a public holiday. We aren't going anywhere but just nice to have an extra day to spend with the kids!
We have a very stylish photo to inspire you for the Just Add Ink challenge this week:
There are so many different things on that table, lots of inspiration so I can't wait to see what catches your eye!!
My eye immediately went to the teal blue and white block in the front of the photo with Ugmonk? on it. That, the wood underneath and the red banner turned into this on my card:
To replicate that blue/white block, I stamped the 'happy' and heat embossed in white on white CS. I then used my mini-blending tool and Mama Elephant 'Ocean' pigment ink to colour around it. I die-cut it out using a rectangle die and then cut a red paint chip so it would show a tiny red edge when underneath. I popped the blue rectangle on top of the red with some foam tape.
For the rest of the sentiment I stamped the 'birthday' in red ink twice and then fussy cut around it and put it on foam tape. I used a larger rectangle die to cut out some patterned paper (yes, I know, I haven't used any paper for months!!!), adhered it to the card front and then glued on the rectangle pieces.
It seemed a bit bare so I stamped out three balloons in the same red ink twice and then again with Versamark Ink so I could heat emboss them all with clear powder. This gave the balloons some shine. I fussy cut them out and put two of them on foam tape. A few teal blue and clear sequins finished it off nicely!!
The stamps are all from Whimsy Stamps 'Happy Everything'. The paper is from Rosies Studio 'In Style' and the sequins from Pretty Pink Posh.
You have until next Wednesday October 26th to link your projects to the Just Add Ink challenge and for any ideas, pop over to the blog to see what the rest of the Design Team came up with. Look forward to seeing your projects in the Gallery!!
Hi there, I'm popping in with a reminder about our current TIME OUT challenge. We have a card for you to CASE by the amazing Ardyth of Maskerade:
I love the colours she used, they have an Autumnal feel about them and the hint of gold along the bottom is gorgeous!! You can be inspired however you like by Ardyth's card. You could use the design, the colours or the flowers...its totally up to you!
Our Guest Designer for this challenge is Marina of My Perfect Life and I'm sure she will have another stunning card for you as a reminder.
For my card I was inspired by the flowers, the colours and the design of the card itself. I love how the flowers are flowing up the panel, so this is what I came up with:
I cut a panel of white CS slightly shorter than my card front and went to town stamping the flowers and leaves across the card. Once I was happy with the design, I stamped the sentiment in black and put lots of foam tape on the back. For the gold glitter strips I put a strip of double-sided tape along the top and bottom edge of the card front, tipped on gold glitter and rubbed it in with my fingers. The panel was then put on top. Nice and simple!!
The leaves and small rounded flower are from Altenew 'Vintage Flowers' and the other flowers and sentiment are from Simon Says Stamp 'Thinking of You'.
You have until Wednesday October 26th to link your project to the TIME OUT challenge and if your struggling with ideas, pop over to the blog to see what the rest of the Design Team and our Guest Designer Marina have created for you. Looking forward to seeing your designs in the Gallery!!
This set has the most beautiful brush-stroke font and the bigger words are large enough to be a focal point on a card themselves. For my card I wanted to make the words the star of the card design:
I chose to use the word 'Miracle' and as miracles are such amazing, happy things I wanted to convey this with some bright and happy colours!
I cut a panel of water colour CS the same size as my card front and heat embossed 'miracles' in gold. I then decided to do some 'smooshing' with my clear stamp block. I used my Zig Clean Color Brush Markers for this. Each pen was brushed on the block and I added a little water with a brush, mixing and moving it around to a 'roundish' shape.
Next came the fun part. I simply pushed the block on to the panel, held it there for a few seconds and then removed. I used my brush to move around any puddles and fill in any areas that were missed. I did this with each colour, not worrying about whether they would mix or not. Once I had dried the panel with my heat gun, I stamped the rest of the sentiment in black. It was then adhered to the card front and some gold sequins added from Pretty Pink Posh.
If you would like to purchase this stamp set or any others from CAS-ual Fridays Stamps please don't hesitate to use my special 'Girl Friday Code' to save yourself 15% on your purchase. Every dollar counts these days, especially with Christmas on the way!!
Thanks so much for stopping by and looking at the new release products. If you've missed the previous two days, pop over to the CAS-ual Fridays Stamps blog to see what the other new stamp sets are like.
Hi there everyone and welcome to a new challenge week at Addicted to Stamps and More. Its time for everyone's favourite theme:
This means you can use whatever products you like, whatever colours you like and even whatever card theme idea you like.....its all totally up to you!!
Our Sponsor for this challenge is Happy Little Stampers and they are giving a $15 gift certificate to the winner. So very lucky!!!
For my card this week I wanted to finally use a piece of painted and embossed card stock that had been staring at me for weeks. An idea suddenly formed:
I've been trying to catch up on some video's while lying in bed late at night. Some of them were by Jennifer McGuire and there was one where she masked off the middle part of a card and blended etc (so frustrated as I can't work out which one I watched). Anyway, it gave me an idea on how to use my Nuvo Mousse.
I masked off a rectangle area on the card front and painted with the gold Nuvo Mousse, using a tiny bit of water to thin it out. I applied two coats to make sure it wasn't see-thru. Once it had dried (which doesn't take long) I used my WRMK Faceted embossing folder. I thought it would fit thru my Cuttlebug with the same plates as my other folders but no, it was way too thick. I had to improvise and get cereal boxes out of the recycling, cut them to plate size and keep adding a layer till I got the right thickness. What a palaver but it was so worth it!!
I decided I didn't want the whole card front embossed, so I cut out the gold section and adhered to a new card front. I thought it would make a great modern Xmas card. I die-cut a red paint chip with a star die and glued to the panel. For a 'Xmas' feel I stamped the deer in black ink and then again in Versamark ink so I could heat emboss with clear powder to give it shine. I fussy cut it out and popped it up on foam tape. The sentiment was put on foam tape as well and I glued on a few gold sequins for good measure!
The deer and sentiment stamps are from Winnie and Walter 'Comfort and Joy'. The star die is from CAS-ual Fridays Stamps 'Stars Fri-Dies' and the sequins from Pretty Pink Posh.
You have until next Wednesday Oct 26th to link your projects to the Addicted to Stamps and More challenge. The rest of the Design Team have some fantastic projects on the blog if your struggling for ideas. Look forward to seeing your creations in the Gallery!!
The font is so beautiful and I love the butterfly images. I especially love the sentiment 'Be Badass every single day', I need that on a t-shirt!!
For my card I wanted the images to really pop so used lots of pink with black ink:
I started by cutting a panel of water colour CS the same size as my card front. I then used my mini-blending tool and Distress Ink 'Picked Raspberry and 'Worn Lipstick' to create an ombre effect. To give it more interest I sprinkled it with water, left it for a few seconds and then pressed with a tissue.
The butterflies were stamped twice with black ink to make sure they really stood out. I die-cut a piece of water colour CS using the smaller tag from the 'Scallop Tags Fri-Dies' set and blended the same inks over it. I was then able to stamp the sentiment in black as well. The tag was popped up on foam tape, a few gold sequins (from Pretty Pink Posh) were glued on and I added Wink of Stella to the butterflies.
This new stamp set has been released today and is available for purchase now. If you are wanting to buy this or any other CAS-ual Fridays Stamps products, don't forget to use my special 'Girl Friday' code to save yourself some money.
Join us again tomorrow on the CAS-ual Fridays Stamps blog as we have one more new release product to show you.
Today's blog hop is even more special because we have a new release for the Calling All Sistahs Collection. Here is the new 'Word Ribbon' stamp set:
As you can see this stamp set has a ribbon image filled with supportive words and other sentiments to give your friends and family encouragement. This set is released today so is available to be purchased.
October is 'Breast Cancer Awareness Month' so its even more important this month to remind everyone to do those breast checks, as early detection can make such a huge difference. I like to give you a link each month to a video I found on YouTube showing how to do a breast check. Its something I never did until I was part of this blog hop. And I've had a few comments on the last blog hop from women telling me that their breast check saved their life, so I'm very honoured to be part of this and spreading the message.
As this is a blog hop, you should have arrived here from the blog of the fabulous Sandi Pressley. If you didn't and would like to start at the beginning, pop over to the CAS-ual Fridays Stamps blog for the complete hop list.
For my card I wanted to smother it with encouragement so what better way to do that, than to create my own background:
To create the pattern and put a small circle of masking paper in the middle of my card and started stamping around from there. I then removed the mask and coloured the ribbons in using two different types of pink pencil. I didn't want to cover up all those ribbons, so I die-cut a piece of vellum (using the smaller circle from the 'Ornaments Fri-Dies' set), and heat embossed the sentiment from the new stamp set in gold. To adhere it I put tiny pieces of double-sided tape behind the words and then glued on some gold sequins from Pretty Pink Posh.
I hope you put some time aside today to do your breast check or maybe you could touch base with someone you know who may be going through treatment at the moment. If your wanting to purchase this new stamp set or anything else from CAS-ual Fridays Stamps please use my special code to save yourself some money.
Next stop on the blog hop is the amazing Sue Nagata where I'm sure she will amaze you with her project. And please pop back to the CAS-ual Fridays Stamps blog tomorrow for another new release product!!!
I know, I know, your thinking 'entry no. 3??', what other scary things could possibly be in my mind????
I saw a comment on my 2nd entry to the CASology Challenge from Joyce, who said 'she would love to crawl in my head and examine my brain'. I warn you Joyce, after years and years of horror movies and scary books I've read, my mind is rather warped when it comes to scary ideas! I actually wrote some short stories a few years ago but I had to stop because I used to scare myself too much lol!! So it turns out that Halloween card designs might just be perfect for me!
I don't know where the idea came from for this one. I can think of a few movies where I've seen monsters with this many teeth but I certainly haven't seen it on a card:
I would hate to see this monsters dentist bill!!!! So many layers, I wish I knew someone who studied sharks that I could send this too them. If anyone knows of someone, please let me know!!
As you can imagine, this was a fiddly one to do but I love how CAS it is even though it took a long time to put together. I started off by cutting a panel of black CS the same size as my card front and using the largest circle die (from Couture Creations) to cut the hole. From there I made three more panels, lined them up and die-cut each smaller hole. Finally a complete black panel was adhered over the card front.
I flipped each die-cut panel over and added double-sided tape around the edges, top and bottom. To make the teeth I happened to have a few strips of white CS hanging around and so I just cut out lots of triangles of different widths. I then just removed the backing tape and pressed the teeth on, flipping it back over every now and then to see how the teeth looked. This was done on all four panels.
I glued the small circle panel straight on to the card front and then each bigger circle panel from there but popped the very top panel up on foam tape. The sentiment (from Altenew) was just stamped in black on a snippet of white CS and put on foam tape. I then added some blood here and there with a red marker and then some Glossy Accents over top. Spooky!!
I have four other challenges I would like to enter:
I have one more idea for a spooky card which I might try to figure out tonight. Although, on Friday night I watched the second Presidential Debate in bed on my laptop. I have never had any interest in politics but have seen so many funny things about the debates, I thought I would give it a look. I was absolutely hooked and didn't want it to end!! So now I'm tempted to tuck myself into bed tonight and watch the first one, just to see how Donald made an idiot of himself then too.
Maybe I could make a CAS card with Donald Trump's photo on it as 'president'. Now that would be 'spooky'!!!!!
Hi everybody, I'm very happy this month as I get to have two blog posts as a CAS-ual Fridays Stamps 'Girl Friday'.
As you may have heard, October is 'Breast Cancer Awareness Month' and in honour of that the blog has been turned pink! The 'Girl Friday' team have also been designing their cards with a touch of pink as well.
I realised the other day that I haven't made a shaker card for quite a while and have a great stash of pink seed beads itching to be used. So this was the perfect time to get die-cutting and using loads of foam tape:
To create the shaker I started off with a panel of white CS the same size as my card front. I used the larger circle die from the 'Ornament Tag Fri-Die' set to cut the bigger circle. I then used the smaller circle die to cut the larger circle piece and then the smaller flower from the 'Mon Ami Fleur Fri-Dies' to cut the flower from it.
A piece of acetate was adhered behind the panel and large circle, and the smaller circle piece was glued on top in the middle. I flipped the panel over and used foam tape to create the holding area around the big circle and the flower, so I could then pour in two different colours of seed beads. I removed all the foam tape backing strips and pressed the card front down on top of it to seal the shaker.
To finish off I heat embossed the sentiment from the 'Mon Ami' stamp set in gold on a strip of white CS, popped it up on foam tape and added some sequins from Pretty Pink Posh.
If your thinking you might like to buy the sets I used today (the 'Ornament Tags' and 'Mon Ami' stamp set are on sale) or any other CAS-ual Fridays Stamps products, your more than welcome to use my special 'Girl Friday Code' to save yourself 15% on your purchase.
Thanks so much for stopping by and I really encourage you to pop over to the CAS-ual Fridays Stamps blog over the next few days as there may be some new products coming your way.....
Hi everybody! I'm popping in with a quick reminder about The Flower Challenge where our theme is 'Anything Goes'.
Firstly I want to thank you all so much for all your amazing entries, shout-outs and support for this brand new challenge. We knew having something dedicated to everything 'floral' would be a hit but we didn't realise it would be this popular, so we definitely appreciate all the love!!! I decided that since I used Altenew stamps for my challenge card, I would use them again for the reminder design. Will try to do this each month with whatever brand I use to make the most of the stamps I have. I've been doing a lot more water colouring lately and decided to do one of my favourite colour combos:
I love pink and grey, especially with a bit of gold, so managed to sneak some into the background!
I stamped the flower twice on water colour CS and heat embossed with white powder. I then used a grey Ziggie and a pink from my Gansai Tambi water colour set to gently colour them in. I fussy cut them out and then worked out where they would sit on the card front. This way I could stamp out the leaves and heat emboss in gold. The grey flower was adhered straight to the card front, the pink flower popped up on foam tape and the sentiment stamped in black with some gold sequins to finish it off. Nice and simple!!
The sentiment and leaf stamp are from Altenew 'Beautiful Day' and the flower stamp from Altenew 'Peony Bouquet'. The sequins are from Pretty Pink Posh.
I'm going to link this card to two other challenges:
You have until Oct 25th to link your projects to The Flower Challenge and can enter more than once. Pop over to the blog to see more reminder projects from the rest of the Design Team and check out the entries. There is so much inspiration there!! Looking forward to seeing you in the Gallery!
Hi everyone! I'm feeling a bit more rested as Max slept thru the night last night without any croup coughing, so all is good. He is home again today of course and chilling watching Adventure Time with a bacon sandwich.
You didn't think I could let the CASology Challenge 'Spooky' pass me by without another entry did you??? Everyone seems to love my 'Exorcist' card thank goodness. Its a fine line when making Halloween cards I find, would really hate to offend anyone, so hopefully everyone see's my cards as a bit of a laugh. I came up with this idea on Thursday morning around 2am while cleaning up Max's vomit. I have no idea why this design would pop into my mind then, must have been the lack of sleep but I had to make sure I made it:
I was making this card yesterday and laughing to myself, as I hadn't sleep the night before and thought if I looked in the mirror right then, my eyes would look as googly as these!!
So simple to make, although I'm not 100% happy with the heart shape but it looks really good with the black background. The sentiment is from Simon Says Stamp 'Only Have Eyes for You' and the eyes from a local $1 store. Simple and spooky!!!
Its been raining on and off here today, so another good day to tackle my cards. I really wish I had a craft room but its so handy having my craft area tucked in the back of the lounge room as I can be with Max at the same time. Even though he's ignoring me while on his IPod, he still likes that I'm right there with him. Will see what other 'spooky' card ideas I can come up with.....
Hi everybody!! Its been a very long day today. Max had a sore throat yesterday and after school he went downhill fast. Croup came on quickly at 10.30pm and he was having problems breathing. So Max and I sat up all night in the lounge room watching Cartoon Network. Unfortunately it was so bad that he started vomiting as well. That finally finished at lunchtime today.
He looks a little better and had a couple of crackers that haven't 'returned' but its cold tonight so I have a horrible feeling his croup will return with a vengence. I'm off to bed shortly to get some sleep just incase we start this all over again.
So, with vomit everywhere it and no energy to do much else, it got me thinking about this weeks CASology Challenge:
As you know I love a good horror movie. One that has plagued me since I was very little is The Exorcist and you may have heard my story of sitting up at A&E recently and having to sit thru it on the waiting room tv. Since then I have seen pictures of Linda Blair in full 'possessed' mode all over the place. With it being Halloween month and having been surrounded by vomit over night, I wondered if I could possibly make a card dedicated to the scariest movie of all time:
OMG I'm sure your thinking but turns out I don't have many 'people' stamps to choose from, so Neat and Tangled was targeted again!!
If you haven't seen The Exorcist, its about a young girl who gets possesed by a demon. Two of the main things people remember about the movie is her spewing 'pea green soup' stuff and her head spinning around. Did I capture it?? This card makes me laugh so much, I can't wait to hear what you think!!
I started off by stamping the donut image on white CS, colouring with pencils, fussy cutting and then using a small die-cut to cut out the girls face thats already part of that stamp. I then stamped this girl image on white CS and then had to do some mirror stamping for the first time (using the back of the donut stamp). I coloured her with pencils, made her eyes more evil, gave her a bigger mouth and fussy cut.
To get her head to spin I glued the heads together with a piece of white cotton going thru the middle. I die-cut the same size hole from the front of the card, adhered the donut image over top and then held the cotton in place with washi tape. All I had to do then was draw her puddle of vomit on the ground, stamp the sentiment and use lots of glossy accents on the donut icing and the vomit on the floor and her face. Here's a closer look:
The donut and girl images are from Neat and Tangled 'Say Yes to Donuts'. The sentiment is from WPlus9 'Get Well Gang'.
I'm also going to link this to two other challenges:
Hopefully you've all had a bit of a laugh at my card and your not going to have nightmares!! I'm off now to have a shower and jump in bed before any coughing starts. Fingers crossed we both make it thru the night!!!!
For this card I was inspired by the Rainbow Colour with Gayatri challenge. Her card was absolutely gorgeous and I was tempted to do some water colouring but seem to be in a blending mood at the moment, so went with that instead:
I wanted to keep the design very simple, so the rainbow colours would be the star!! I stamped and heat embossed the heart with Copper powder and fussy cut it out. After working out where the heart would sit on the card front, I used washi tape to mark off areas and blend Distress Inks into them. Once I was happy with it I put the heart on some foam tape, stamped the sentiment in black and glued on some sequins for a bit more shine.
The stamps are from Winnie and Walter 'My Precious' and the sequins from Pretty Pink Posh.
I'm also going to link this to the AAA Card Challenge # 75 which has a photo for inspiration.
All done, yay!! Its a gorgeous day today so I'm off outside now to trim my balls. Sounds lovely doesn't it?? I have 24 lonicera ball shapes going along our front fence and with all the Spring weather they have gone nuts and don't look like round balls any longer. The only problem is I have to do them by hand with a pair of sharp scissors. It gives me the best result but takes FOREVER. I have no idea who's idea it was to plant them all and shape them like that....can't have been mine could it?????
