Hi there everybody!! Its the last day of November (eeek, haven't even started my Xmas shopping yet....) and also time for a new challenge theme at Addicted to Stamps and More! This weeks theme used to be one of my least favourites but with a lot more practice, I now really look forward to it:
For this challenge we are looking for designs where you have done some colouring yourself. You could use pencils, water colours, Copics, pastels etc....whatever is your favourite to colour with!
Our Sponsor for this challenge is the fabulous Paper Smooches and they are giving a $25 gift voucher to the winner. How cool is that!!!!!
I've been playing around with some stamp images lately to see if I can give them a 'Xmas twist'. This is one of my favourites (and not only because it has a donut on it...but it does look delicious):
I love all that colour against the white background, really makes my little donut girl jump right off the page!! This card would be a perfect one for me to receive, I would love to get a donut for Xmas big enough to put my head thru, preferably from Dunkin Donuts....I would be in heaven........
This was super simple to put together. I stamped the donut girl image and the hat in black on some white CS, coloured with some pencils and then fussy cut. The hat was glued in place and then she was popped up on foam tape on the card front. I also added some Nuvo Drops in 'White' to her hat to give it more dimension (a bit hard to see in the photo).
To make more of a focal point, I die-cut the frame twice from white CS, glued together and then adhered to the card. And then I simply stamped the sentiment in black. Clean and simple to a 'T'!!
The donut-girl image is from Neat and Tangled 'Say Yes to Donuts', as well as the sentiment from 'Merry Little Christmas'. The frame die is from Pretty Pink Posh, as well as the hat image from 'Winter Friends'.
You have until Wednesday 7th December to link your projects to the Addicted to Stamps and More challenge. And if your struggling for ideas and inspiration, pop over to the blog to see what the rest of the Design Team have created for you. Can't wait to see you in the Gallery!!!
Hi everybody and welcome to another Friday and new challenge at Just Add Ink!! We have a very cool inspiration photo for you this week:
You could take inspiration from the colours, the brushes or go water colour crazy.....its totally up to you!!
These are colours I would never think to put together and I loved the idea of brushstrokes on my card, so this is what I came up with:
I've always love making Christmas cards in 'non-traditional' colours and I desperately need some more to send out, so thought this could make a pretty background.
I also finally tried out some new water colour paper from Rosies Studio. It comes in a big 12/12 pad with gold and clear embossed patterns already on it. Stars and Christmas always seem to go together so I simply brushed colours from my Gansai Tambi water colour set across the paper until I was happy with the blending.
After drying with my heat gun I cut it to size and adhered to my card front. To carry on the 'gold' theme I die-cut the 'holidays' (from Studio Calico) from gold CS and glued it in place. For the 'happy' I stamped and heat embossed a stamp from Simon Says Stamp 'Christmas' in gold, cut into shape and adhered to the card. And of course I had to add a few more gold sequins (from Pretty Pink Posh) as you can never have too much bling!!
You have until next Wednesday 30th November to add your projects to the Just Add Ink challenge. And if your stuck for ideas, pop over to the blog to see what the rest of the Design Team have created for you, you won't be disappointed!! Look forward to seeing you in the Gallery!
Hi everybody!! I wanted to pop in with a quick reminder about our current TIME OUT Challenge. Our theme for this challenge is:
HOME SWEET HOME
You can be inspired however you like by this photo. Maybe use the colour scheme, gold detail from the wings or shape of the furniture....the choice is yours!!
I'm very excited because our Guest Designer for this challenge is my spectacular friend Hazel of Hazel's Paper Designs. She is such a talented designer, especially with her CAS creations and has a wonderful imagination. She's a real sweetheart too, so she's the complete package!!
For my card design, my eyes kept being drawn to the curvy pink seat with the white cushions, so I incorporated this into my card:
I used this curvy background die to cut a piece of pale pink CS and also a piece of white CS. I adhered a panel of white CS behind the pink frame so I could inlay the white pieces. This was then glued to the card front.
I stamped the bunny and her bow in black, coloured lightly with a pink pencil and fussy cut them out. The pillow was stamped on white CS and heat embossed in white as well. I fussy cut it out and popped it up on foam tape over the card front. The bow was glued to the bunnies head and then the bunny to the pillow.
The sentiments were stamped and heat embossed in gold on white CS. I cut them into strips and then decided to curve the corners to go with the curves of the background die. The 'somebunny' was put on foam tape and the other sentiment adhered straight to the card. To finish off I added pale pink and gold sequins from Neat and Tangled.
The stamps and dies are all from My Favourite Things. The background die is 'Snow Drifts Cover-up'. The bunny and sentiments are from 'Somebunny' and the pillow image from 'Cool Cat'.
You have one more week to link your projects to the TIME OUT challenge and if you need any help with ideas, pop over to the blog to see what the rest of the Design Team and our Guest Designer Hazel has created for you. Can't wait to see your projects in the Gallery!!
How did November 17th come round so quickly???? It will be Christmas before we know it but in the meantime there is some breast checking you need to be doing!!
Yes its time for the monthly CAS-ual Fridays Stamps 'Calling All Sistah's' Blog Hop where we give you a reminder to take a few minutes and do a breast examination. Early detection can make such a difference, so its a good idea to do this each month. Here is a link to a YouTube tutorial that shows what to do if you have never done it before.
You should have arrived here from Sandi's blog where I'm sure she would have inspired you with her project. If you haven't been following the blog hop or would like the complete hop list, pop over to the CAS-ual Fridays Stamps blog. You can also find out about the prizes with his hop too!!
For my card this month I wanted to make it eye catching so if it was sent to a friend, wherever she put it, it would catch her eye and remind her to check her breasts:
Amazing I know but I actually used some patterned paper!! Its from 'Happy Place' by Dear Lizzy - American Crafts. I adhered it to the card front and cut off any overhanging pieces. I next cut a strip of white CS and stamped the sentiment from the 'Calling All Sistah's' stamp set in a pink similar to the stripes in that area. The strip was then popped up on foam tape. I stamped and heat embossed the flower (from 'Mon Ami') in white on some water colour CS. This was painted with my Gansai Tambi water colour paints and water brush. I die-cut it out using the 'Mon Ami Fleur Fri-dies' and put on foam tape as well. The sequins are from Neat and Tangled and I was able to use similar colours to the pink stripes in each area. And for some extra sparkle I brushed the flower with my Spectrum Noir Sparkle pen.
If you would like to purchase any of the CAS-ual Fridays Stamps products that I used today or any others, please don't forget to use my 'Girl Friday' special code to save yourself 15%!!!
Your now off to visit Sue at Foleys Friend and I just know she will have something gorgeous created for you. Thank you so much for stopping by and I hope you take the time today to check your breasts and maybe remind other women in your family or friends to do the same. It may save someone's life.
Shery, the owner of Stamplorations has organised this blog hop to not only showcase some amazing new products but also give thanks to people in our community, including lots of card challenges. Myself and my team mate Anita are lucky to be representing TIME OUT CHALLENGES in this blog hop!!
There are a lot of us involved in this blog hop and many amazing prizes to be won. You should have come here from Wei Wei's blog where I'm sure she dazzled you with her amazing project. If not, a complete list of all the participants and details on all the prizes etc can be found at the Stamplorations blog.
I was lucky enough to use the 'Oh So Grateful' bundle which consists of a stamp set, matching die, stencil and 'grateful' word die. Its a gorgeous set and this is what I created:
To create the background I adhered the stencil over-top of the card front and used my mini-blending tool and Waffle Flower 'Chirp Chirp' dye ink to blend the colour. I gently removed the stencil and dried it with my heat gun.
I stamped the pumpkin image in black ink on some water colour CS and then again with Versamark ink so I could heat emboss it with clear powder. I was then able to colour it using my Zig Real Color markers and a water brush. Once I had dried it with my heat gun, I used the matching die to cut it out. This was popped up on foam tape over the stencil pattern.
I die-cut the 'grateful' 3x from black CS, glued them all together and then to the card front. To give a bit of shine I then coloured it with my Spectrum Noir Sparkle pen. All I had to do then was stamp the rest of the sentiment and add some orange and green sequins from Neat and Tangled.
There is also a huge 'Thanksgiving' sale starting today at Stamplorations which will run until November 30th. You can save 35% on all stamps, stencils and dies. Plus all orders of at least $25 will ship for free worldwide! That's huge, so you definitely need to go and take a look!!!
Your now off to visit the fabulous Linda at Life in the Craft Lane where I'm sure she will inspire you with her project.
Thank you so much Shery for allowing me to be a part of this wonderful blog hop and I hope you all enjoy seeing all the different blogs and projects. And don't forget about the SALE!!!
Hi everyone and welcome to a new challenge week at Addicted to Stamps and More! We have a fantastic photo to inspire you this week and it will certainly help in adding to that Christmas card stash:
You can be inspired however you like by this photo. Maybe you will use the colours or go for a more 'vintage-feel' with your design. Its totally up to you!!
Our Sponsor for this challenge is Happy Little Stampers and they are giving a $15 gift certificate to the winner!!
For my card I decided to use the red, green and black colours but keep to a more modern 'Clean and Simple' card design:
I started off by cutting a panel of black CS and slightly smaller one of red CS. These were both adhered to the card. For the green strip I cut it from green CS and then die-cut the 'merry' (from WPlus9) from the middle. I also die-cut the 'merry' 3x from some of the same red CS and glued them all together. I added a strip of white CS behind the die-cut negative, this gave me somewhere to inlay the 'merry' stack.
I stamped the 'christmas' (also from WPlus9 'Hand Lettered Holiday') in black and then popped the green strip up on foam tape. And of course I had to add some sequins from Pretty Pink Posh, for some Christmas bling!!
You have one week to link your projects to the Addicted to Stamps and More challenge and if you need help with ideas, pop over to the blog to see what the rest of the Design Team have created to inspire you. Looking forward to seeing you in the Gallery!!
Hi everybody, sorry for this late post. Incase you hadn't heard we had a huge earthquake (in New Zealand) just after midnight Monday morning. Lots of things smashed but we and the house are fine. There have been hundreds of aftershocks which has kept us on alert. They are finally becoming less severe. Phoebe has gone back to school today but Max isn't quite ready yet. So many sleepless nights and constant fear. It will get better though!!
We are half-way through our challenge this month at The Flower Challenge where our theme is 'A Special Occasion'. It doesn't have to be a National or well-known occasion, maybe something that's special just to your family or yourself. Your project just needs to have a floral design. For my card I just had to use some new My Favourite Things goodies I received last week. I had been saving up for them for ages so was wonderful to have them in my hands:
This was very simple to make and I just love the detail of the background stamp in black and white.
I stamped the MFT 'Bundles of Blossoms' background stamp in black ink on a piece of white CS. I cut it down to size to fit across my card front and then die-cut the MFT 'hello' from the middle of it. I marked gently with a pencil where the panel would sit on the card and then used my mini-blending tool and Distress Ink 'Peacock Feathers' to blend the background. The panel was then popped up on foam tape.
The sentiment is from MFT 'Beary Special Birthday' and simply stamped in black on a strip of white CS. This was popped up on foam tape along with some aqua and clear sequins from Pretty Pink Posh.
You have until November 25th to link your projects to The Flower Challenge and if your struggling with finding ideas, pop over to the blog to see what the rest of the DT has created for you. Can't wait to see what you come up with in the Gallery!!
Hi everyone! I can't believe that two months has rolled around again and we are ready with another 'Honey I Shrunk the Kits' card post!!
Every two months myself, Sarah G, Sarah P, Hazel and Sandie take turns to send everyone an envelope full of the same craft goodies. It could be die-cuts, papers, sequins, stamped images etc. We then have to create some cards with these goodies and all post at the same time on our blogs, to see what we all came up with! Its so much fun and wonderful to do something with my friends.
This kit was prepared by our HISTK creator Hazel of Hazel's Paper Designs. She put together some gorgeous vintage-type pieces, here's a photo:
It includes:
Stampin' Up: Jars of Love stampset and corresponding Everyday Jars framelits Beau Chateau patterned paper Tea for Two patterned paper Paper Smooches: Free Spirits and corresponding Free Spirits Icons Clearly Besotted: Time for Tea; Feel Better Other: large gold rhinestones; cork label and gold doily - my stash Everything was so pretty and girly, and I loved the gold details so had lots of fun coming up with my cards:
For my first card I used a rectangle-stitched die from Pretty Pink Posh with the pretty blue/white floral paper and adhered to the card front. I popped the fussy cut jar on foam tape and glued the glow bugs in the jar. I coloured their bodies yellow and added some Glossy Accents. The sentiments were cut out and adhered in place, along with some blue and clear sequins from Pretty Pink Posh.
For my second card I used the die-cut cup and tea pot. To add some decoration I stamped them with flowers from Waffle Flower 'Willy and Friends' using a soft pink ink. I used a brown pencil to add some coffee to the cup and some Glossy Accents on top to make it look like liquid. They were both popped up on foam tape. For the sentiment I cut a strip of pink from the paper provided and cut out the sentiment. The strip was glued to the card front and sentiment put on foam tape. I then added the gold faceted dots.
For my third and final card, I adhered the gold doily to the card front. I glued a piece of acetate to the back of the jar and then strips of foam tape to create a shaker. I put a pile of sequins (from Pretty Pink Posh) on top of the doily and pushed the jar down over top. I glued on the jar lid and cut out the sentiment, sticking it over the jar.
I still have some bits left over that I will save for another day. Hazel did such an amazing job putting this one together!!
Well, what a week!! I'm still in shock about President Trump but hopefully he proves us all wrong and is good at his job. How this came to be I still can't work out but there is no going back now!!
On a good note, its time for a new challenge at Just Add Ink and we have a gorgeous colour combo for you:
I LOVE pink and mint with grey, and with the added detail of dark blue, you just know your design is going to look amazing. Can't wait to see what you all come up with!
I was feeling in a one-layer kind of mood and when I need to use these colours, I always go for the same stamp set:
This stamp set is by Winnie and Walter 'In Bloom: Lola's Bouquet with Joni Andaya'. It layers perfectly and I really love all the little detail stamps to add embellishment instead of sequins. This was very easy to stamp with my MISTI, it mean't I could arrange my stamps easily and stamp the solid ones twice to get good coverage. A simple and pretty card.
You have until next Wednesday November 16th to link your projects to the Just Add Ink challenge and if your pulling out your hair trying to think of ideas, pop over to the blog to see what the rest of the Design Team have created for you. Your bound to be filled with inspiration. Look forward to seeing you in the Gallery!
Hi everybody! Sorry its been a little quiet in my neck of the woods of late. Trying to get my mojo back has been harder than I thought and I've been working mega hours every day in some huge gardens, so I've been choosing to go to bed instead of make cards. Although I do tend to dream about cards and think about designs while I'm gardening, so hopefully I will catch up on some crafting soon!
On Saturday night Max had his friends sleepover for his 10th birthday. It was a full-on day with them all and I managed to escape to my bedroom for an hour to do some colouring. I was colouring some new stamp images by Altenew and when I put them down to find out what the boys were up too, I realised that one of the images looked like something else when it was upside down. So that was how this entry for the Little Tangles was born:
Please tell me these look like Xmas tree's and I'm not just going crazy???
These images are from Altenew 'Geometric Flowers' which I stamped in black ink (on water colour CS)and immediately stamped again with Versamark ink to heat emboss with clear embossing powder. I coloured them using three shades of green from my Gansai Tambi Watercolour paints. After they were dry I fussy cut them all out.
I cut a piece of white CS the same width as the card front and using a stitched-hill die (this is a second-hand die which I don't know the company name) and popped up on foam tape. I then added foam tape to the back of each tree and put them on the card, along with some sequins from Neat and Tangled. I also added some sparkle to the tree's using my new Spectrum Noir Clear Sparkle Pen and stamped one of my favourite Christmas sentiment stamps from Neat and Tangled 'Merry Little Christmas'.
It feels so good to have made a card but after working in the heat all day today, I'm off to bed to watch some craft videos and wonder about how Donald Trump has become President of the United States. Talk about shocked!!
I can't believe a whole month has gone by since we started this brand new floral challenge, and its now time for our second one. Where do all these days keep disappearing too????
And before I forget I must say a big THANK YOU to everyone that made the first challenge such a huge success. We were so overwhelmed with the amount of entries (which made picking a winner even harder!!) and it was wonderful to see everyone loves their floral stamps as much as we do!
For this months Flower Challenge theme, we would like you to create a floral project about 'A Special Occasion'. This doesn't have to be a public or national holiday, it could be an occasion that is special to yourself or maybe your family. It will be lovely to see the Gallery filled with projects dedicated to special moments in your lives!! I love Christmas! I've never been able to sleep on Christmas Eve, even when I reached my 'adult days' the excitement on that night is palpable. And now that its November and its only so many weeks till we put up our Christmas tree (I passed my 'Christmas love' on to my children), I have Christmas cards on the brain. I'm very worried that I won't have enough to send to everyone so will have to make a bit more of an effort and try a 'mass producing weekend'! One of the things I want to do with my cards for this particular challenge, is use stamp sets that either haven't been used before or haven't seen the light of day for some time. A friend gave me this stamp set so I thought of her as I water coloured away:
I've had an extremely busy week working full days and collapsing into bed after dinner, so this card was wonderful to relax with and paint. This was actually my Day 1 of the 30 Day Colouring Challenge but Day 2, 3 and 4 haven't quite happened yet.....
I cut a panel of water colour CS the same size as my card front, and then stamped and heat embossed the poinsettia in gold. I then used my Gansai Tambi water colour paints and coloured each flower, concentrating the darker red at the base of each petal. I also used yellow to colour the stamens.
So I didn't cover up the flowers too much, I cut a strip of vellum and heat embossed the sentiment in the same gold embossing powder. I wrapped it around the panel and adhered at the back. I was then able to adhere the entire panel on to the front of my card. And of course I had to add a bit more gold in the shape of some sequins to carry on the theme. Maybe this could be my mass produced card in different colours????
The stamp set is from Ellen Hutson by Julie Ebersole 'Mistletoe and Holly', and the sequins from Pretty Pink Posh.
You have until November 25th to link your projects to The Flower Challenge and the rest of the Design Team have some beautiful cards on the blog for you incase your needing some help with an idea or two. I can't wait to see your gorgeous flowers in the Gallery and I will be back on the 15th with a quick reminder just incase you've forgotten.....
Hi everybody and welcome to my CAS-ual Fridays Stamps 'Girl Friday' post for November.
I'm trying to get in the Christmas spirit and still need to build up my Christmas card stash, so thought I would use some products from our Christmas release a few months ago:
Lots and lots of heat embossing for this one but it creates such a fantastic effect, especially the background.
I started off by stamping and heat embossing snowflakes (from 'Bring on the Snowflakes') in white on the card front. On a piece of water colour CS I also stamped and heat embossed snowflakes (from ''Snowy Sayings') in white in a random pattern until I covered an area big enough for die-cutting. With my mini-blending tool I gently covered the snowflakes with Distress Ink 'Salty Ocean', trying not to make the blue colour too dark.
Now it was time to use the 'Sleigh Fri-Die' to cut out the blue sleigh with all the snowflake embellishment. I popped the sleigh on some foam tape over the card front. The sentiment (also from 'Snowy Sayings') was heat embossed in silver on a piece of white CS and put on foam tape as well. And a few clear sequins from Pretty Pink Posh gave the sleigh some sparkle.
If your interested in buying any of the CAS-ual Fridays Stamps products I used for this card or any others, don't forget to use my special 'Girl Friday' code to save yourself a few dollars. Every penny counts, especially at this time of year!!
Thanks so much for stopping by and I'll see you again on the CAS-ual Fridays Stamps blog. Take care Shona
Hi everyone!! This post is a quick reminder for our current TIME OUT challenge. Our theme for this one is a phrase:
'GIVE THANKS WITH A GRATEFUL HEART'
You can be inspired by the whole phrase, one word or the idea behind the words....its totally up to you!!
Our Guest Designer for this challenge is Karren J of Stamping Stuff. Karren lives in New Zealand like me, so its wonderful to have someone from our little country, (and with so much talent!) joining us for this challenge!!
For my card I decided to play around with water colours and a stamp set I haven't used enough of:
I grabbed my Gansai Tambi paints and a wide paintbrush and went to town colouring the background. I used a piece of water colour CS the same size as my card front and painted with three shades of blue. The panel was die-cut in the middle using a rectangle die and the left over frame was adhered to the card front.
The whale was stamped on some white CS and fussy cut. I die-cut another rectangle using white CS and stamped the wave using a Hero Arts 'Ombre' ink pad in Pool to Navy. The sentiment was stamped in black and I stamped the blue water splash for the whales blowhole. The rectangle was then popped up on foam tape on the card. The whale was put on foam tape as well for some dimension and I added some aqua and clear sequins for a bit of shine.
All of the stamps used are from Mama Elephant 'Whale Wishes'. The sequins and rectangle die are from Pretty Pink Posh.
You have one more week to link your projects 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 Karren J have created for you. Looking forward to seeing you in the Gallery!!
Hi everyone! We are half-way thru the week and ready for a new challenge theme at Addicted to Stamps and More! Our theme this week is:
You can create a project for any holiday, it might be Christmas, Halloween or an actual holiday on an island somewhere....its totally up to you!!
Our Sponsor for this challenge is Sami Stamps and they are giving a $12.00 gift certificate to the winner!!
I didn't get a chance to create as many Halloween cards as I wanted to this year with different things going on, so this was my chance to get all spooky:
I used my new stamp set from Create A Smile 'Creepy Cute' to stamp out five zombie pigs on some white CS. After colouring them with pencils I fussy cut them out and went round the edges with black marker pen. I wanted to try and create a background of a darkish sky and grass, so I used my mini-blending tool and many Distress Inks to get the colour I was after.
I adhered three of the pigs straight to the card front and popped the two in front up on foam tape. I also stamped a sentiment from the same stamp set in black and added some black dots. It still looked a little bare (I tried to draw some tombstones but they were a disaster!!) so I stamped a spiderweb in black from Hampton Arts. Creepy AND cute, gotta love it!
You have one week to link your projects to the Addicted to Stamps and More Challenge and if your struggling with an idea, pop over to the blog to see what the rest of the Design Team have created for you. Can't wait to see what you come up with in the Gallery!!
