Its been a crazy busy week and also freezing cold (many morning frosts) so I've been racing around rugged up with extra thick gardening gloves and thermals. I've loved seeing everyone's coffee/tea related cards this week and thought it was about time I jumped on the bandwagon!!
I was playing around with some new Ellen Hutson stamps that my wonderful friend Coni sent me and thought they would make fabulous 'coffee' cards:
I'm positive that Ellen Hutson has been following me around, as this 'Hot Mess Lady' is totally me (as well as the Gardening Lady). I wear my hair like this every day, so I'm very grateful to have my hands on this set!
I stamped her on some white CS and also stamped a flower from Neat and Tangled 'Bloom' to give her a more Summery look. I coloured her with my pencils and cut out with the matching die. I did the same with her coffee cup and glued to her hand.
I needed some sort of background and suddenly thought about spilling coffee. I put some Distress Ink 'Gathered Twigs' on an acrylic block, sprayed with water and smooshed it on the card front. I did it twice and ended up splattering it up towards the top of the card. So....I grabbed a tiny brush and splattered it all over the card to cover up that mistake. And I had brown splatters EVERYWHERE!!!
I tried something new with the sentiment. I do a lot of square/rectangle sentiment strips and had a circle die on my desk. So I die-cut some black CS, heat embossed the sentiment (from the same Ellen Hutson set) in white and adhered to the card front, cutting off the over-hang. I then put the Lady on some foam tape and glued on some Neat and Tangled sequins. I love it!!
I've got another coffee card to share with you all and another one half-way created, so hopefully I can finish it off tonight. Better check my electric blanket is on as its down to 0 degree's celcius tonight and another frost in the morning. Its so painful to garden in the frost but I'd still rather do my job than sit inside all day.
Hi there everybody and thanks for stopping by!! I've had a crazy week where not many things have gone right, so I hope your week has fared a lot better than mine so far!!
I'm popping in to remind you all about our current challenge at TIME OUT. We have this gorgeous photo to inspire you. There are so many things in this photo to give you ideas. You might use the colours, the shapes of the furniture or maybe florals from the wallpaper.....the possibilities really are endless!!
I love retro inspired furniture and immediately fell in love with the green drawers and chair. I decided to use both the colours and also the straight lines of the drawers and curvy lines of the chair to inspire my design:
Its not very often I make more than one card at a time but I decided that since I had so many pieces left over, I would make an extra card for my stash!!
Using some dark pink and green CS from Simon Says Stamp, I die-cut them both with the MFT 'Snow Drifts Cover-up' die. I added double-sided adhesive to the front of two card bases and put the die back together using opposite colours.
I also liked the black/white frame on the wall and of course with all that floral wallpaper I had to add a flower somewhere on my card. I die-cut the Altenew 'Fantasy Floral' die twice from black CS and stuck them together. I then decided to try something new that I'd seen Jennifer McGuire do a few times. I stamped the flowers with my Versamark Ink pad and heat embossed with clear powder. I ended up doing this twice for extra shine. It looks so amazing, will definitely do this again!! The flower was put on foam tape for a bit of dimension.
For the sentiments, I heat embossed them in silver as a nod to the silver frame you see under the chair. I put sentiments from Altenew 'Adore You' and MFT Stamps 'Bitty Bears' on strips of white CS and adhered them under the flowers. I then added some black half-circles beads for embellishment.
You have until Wednesday June 6th to link your projects to the TIME OUT Challenge. And if you need some more ideas, pop over to the blog to see what our fabulous Guest Designer Ksenija of Sweet Kobylkin and the rest of the Design Team have created for you. Look forward to seeing you in the Gallery!!
Hi there, thanks so much for stopping by! I hope your week is going well and everything is going to plan. Our weather has been all over the place and the Winter cold is beginning to arrive unfortunately...
I'm up on the CAS-ual Fridays Stamps Blog today with a different way of using some of the new release Fri-dies:
I don't know where I would be without my huge stock of paint chips. I could never afford to purchase CS in lots of different colours and since the paint chips are free from local hardware stores, I can replenish my stash whenever I need too!!
I was playing around the the new Hourglass Fri-dies and thought this is such a cool shape, surely I can do something else with it. Turns out I could!!
This was super simple to put together. I gathered lots of different pastel coloured paint chips and die-cut the hourglass from each one. After working out the colour combos, I adhered the bottom two to the card front and then popped the top two on foam tape. The sentiments (both from the Sands of Time 2 stamp set) were heat embossed in white on circles of black CS (I die-cut the circles using a die from Couture Creations). I then put the circles on some foam tape.
I've been trying to push myself to try new ideas and decided instead of sequins, I would use my Tonic Nuvo Crystal Drops to add some embellishment. I added larger dots on the outer corners and smaller ones along the edges. These are so much fun to use and I wish I had them in every colour!!
I hope this gives you some ideas on how to use your dies in a different way. And if your thinking about purchasing these products or any others from CAS-ual Fridays Stamps don't forget to use my special code to save yourself some money!!
Enjoy the rest of your week, the weekend isn't too far away now and fingers crossed we all get some crafting time!!
Its been a very productive day today!! It poured with rain from late yesterday afternoon till 4am this morning, so everything was way too soggy to garden. And poor Phoebe had an accident last night with a shelf and her mouth, so decided she could stay home today too. I cleaned, vacuumed, made this card and trimmed a hedge. I even managed to catch up on a few tv programmes during all this too, so it was a good day. And Phoebe is feeling much better, so I'm very happy indeed!!
I'm running in with a last minute card for the current challenge at Your Next Stamp. I thought this sketch was really cool and had loads of ideas before finally settling on this blended design:
I think these 'troll-like' images are simply adorable and I'm always looking for a reason to colour one to life!!
I started by stamping the girl image on some white CS. I then inked up the balloon itself 5x and stamped on white CS as well. I coloured these all with pencils and then fussy cut out.
Using Distress Oxide inks 'Worn Lipstick', 'Salty Ocean', 'Wilted Violet' and washi tape, I blended the card front. I then sprayed it liberally with Imagine Crafts 'Sheer Shimmer Sparkle Spritz' and blotted the large blobs with a tissue. I wish you could see the sparkle all over this card, its quite magical!!
I heat embossed the sentiment (from Your Next Stamp 'Insanely Happy, which is where the girl image is from too) in white on a rectangle piece of black CS. The balloons were adhered to the card front and I used a fine black pen to draw the string. I popped the sentiment and girl on some foam tape, and glued on some Neat and Tangled sequins for a bit more bling!!
I can hear my oven timer going, better not let dinner burn. Phoebe will be back to school tomorrow and hopefully everything will have dried out a bit so I can weed to my hearts content tomorrow. Its only supposed to be 2 degrees overnight so better get my thermals ready!!
This screams 'shaker cards' to me and what a beautiful way to show someone how much you love them!!
I couldn't resist, I just had to make a shaker card and had so much fun putting it all together!!
I started off by cutting a panel of white CS the same size as the card front. I then stamped the Heart to Heart Background Stamp using Waffle Flower 'Safe Choice' in the middle of it, to add a bit of interest. I then die-cut the hourglass and glued a piece of acetate behind it. I also die-cut the top and bottom details from a dark pink paint chip and glued on to the acetate.
After adding LOTS of foam tape around the edge of the hourglass (on the back of the die-cut panel) to hold the beads, I started putting in some beads from The Ton and some nail art beads too. Before they could escape I pressed the card front down on top of the panel to seal it all up. I stamped the sentiment on a strip of white CS, popped it on foam tape and glued on a few sequins from Neat and Tangled.
After spending so long putting the shaker card together, I decided to keep this card super simple and I really wanted to show off the detail of this particular stamp image. Its so perfectly done and has so many teeny-weeny hearts, I felt it needed to be the star of its own card. So I used my MISTI and three shades of pink ink (Hero Arts 'Bubblegum', Waffle Flower 'Safe Choice' and Altenew 'Blush') to create this ombre look. All I had to do then was stamp the sentiment in black and glue on some sequins from Neat and Tangled.
Well, that's it!! That's the end of our May New Release and I hope you love all the new products as much as I do. There are loads more projects on the CAS-ual Fridays Stamps Blog where the rest of the Girl Fridays has used the new products too.
As I've mentioned all the new products are available right now and your more than welcome to use my special code to save yourself some money!!
Thanks so much for joining me for this New Release and I'm sure I will see you back here again very soon.
Hello!! The sun has finally come out here after nearly three days of rain, so even though its still too soggy for me to garden yet, the feel of the sun on my skin is heavenly!!
I wanted to pop in and remind you about our current challenge at TIME OUT:
Its such a beautiful sentiment and being a gardener I'd like to think I make lots of people happy by keeping their gardens at their best!!
Our Sponsor for this challenge is Stamplorations and they are giving a $15 gift voucher to the winner.
I also knew that I had one of their stamp sets that had the perfect sentiment to go with this challenge theme:
This is one of my favourite Stamplorations stamp sets 'Blossoming'. The sentiment is gorgeous and I love how all the flowers are framed together in a square. This time I even managed to find a square die to fit around it too, which made me extremely happy!
I started by stamping the floral image on some Strathmore Bristol Smooth CS using Memento black ink. I then coloured this using my Altenew Artist Markers. And to add a bit of shimmer I put lots of Wink of Stella in the middle of each flower. I fussy cut the image out and popped to the side.
Funnily enough I had a piece of black CS sitting in my 'leftover box' that was the exact size I wanted. I used a square die from the Waffle Flower 'Doily Square Die set' in the middle of the strip and then popped it up on foam tape on the card front. I added double-sided tape to the back of the floral image and put it inside the square.
For the sentiment I stamped it with black ink on white CS, cut it out and then adhered to some black CS, cutting closely around the edge to create a frame. I added this with some foam tape and also some sequins from Neat and Tangled.
You have until Wednesday 23rd May to link your projects to the TIME OUT challenge. And if your looking for some inspiration, please visit the blog to see what the rest of the Design Team and our amazing Guest Designer Kristina of Kristina's Art Corner have created for you. Hope to see you in the Gallery!!
Welcome back to the CAS-ual Fridays Stamps May New Release and here we are on Day 3!! We have another stamp set and matching fri-dies to share with you today.
I love anything to do with florals so have fallen in love with these two sets. The possibilities are endless with what you can do with the stamps and dies!!
These flower dies are so fabulous, I wanted to use them straight away and came up with this 'ombre' look while searching through my paint chips for another card!
I started off by cutting a panel of white CS slightly smaller than the card front. I then grabbed my paint chips and chose five pink colours from dark to light. Then came the fun part of die-cutting the largest flower die 3x from each colour and gluing them to the panel. All I had to do then was put the panel of a piece of white foam and stamp the sentiment, which was put on foam as well. And I found some Neat and Tangled sequins that matched perfectly!!
I've had some Distress Oxide inks for a while now but only used them for creating backgrounds. I wanted to try a different coloured card base and thought it was about time I tried stamping with the inks!!
I cut a panel of kraft CS slightly smaller than the card front. Using Distress Oxide Inks 'Broken China', 'Worn Lipstick', 'Wilted Violet' and 'Cracked Pistachio' I stamped the images, making up the pattern as I went along. I love the coverage on the kraft and the colours are so vivid, definitely doing this again!!
To add the details to the larger flowers and some leaves, I used Hero Arts 'Bubblegum' Mid-tone Shadow Ink and Waffle Flower 'Chirp Chirp'. Both of these are dye inks and thought it would be better to do that than put a pigment ink on top.
To put it all together I decided to cut a strip out of the panel. Before I put the panel bits on foam pieces, I stamped the sentiment in black. And to finish I glued on some sequins from Neat and Tangled.
I hope you enjoyed seeing what you can do with these new sets. And to see some more incredible projects, pop over to the CAS-ual Fridays Stamps Blog to see what the other Girl Fridays have created for you.
And if your itching to buy the New Release, its all available right now in the CFS Shop and if you use my special code you can save yourself 15%!!
I'll see you back here tomorrow for Day 4 where we have one more stamp and die set to share with you.
Hi everyone!! Its pouring with rain here and is set to continue for another few days, so a perfect time to catch up on some card making....and housework I suppose....maybe....
I'm just popping in to remind you about our current challenge theme at The Flower Challenge. We are looking for floral projects with 'Acetate and/or Vellum'. There are already some amazing photos in the Gallery and I hope you get a chance to join in!!
For this card I decided to use acetate (since my last one had vellum). Acetate always means a 'shaker' card to me and this one took SO LONG to put together but I'm in love with the finished product:
Nothing like a pastel rainbow 'shaker' flower for your birthday!! I nearly gave up a few times with this but so glad I didn't!!
I started off by die-cutting 12 petals from white CS using the MFT Stamps 'Colour Drop' die. I then used the next size down petal die and die-cut the middle out of six of them. Using the larger petal die I also die-cut the acetate six times.
Right, now to put it all together!! I glued the acetate behind the petals with the holes in them. I don't own any thin width foam tape, so spent ages cutting small pieces to go around the edges of the solid petals. Using sequins from Neat and Tangled, I put them in the petal with the foam tape, removed the cover tape and then put the 'window' petal on top, trying very hard to make sure it met up perfectly around the edges. It sounds so easy typing this but believe me, all the cutting and sequins did drive me a little nuts....
To make this flower fit I cut a card base from white CS measuring 5 inches by 5 inches. I cut a panel of black CS the same size and adhered it to the front. I flipped each petal over, added double sided tape and then pressed them on the card front, trying to get them as close to each other as possible.
For the sentiment I die-cut some black CS with a small circle die from Couture Creations and heat embossed the 'happy birthday (from MFT stamps 'Bitty Bears') in white. I had to cut the sentiment stamp in half to get the words to fit. This was then put on foam tape in the middle of the flower. Ta-dah!!
You have until Friday 25th May to link your projects to The Flower Challenge and if you need any inspiration, don't forget to pop over to the blog to see what the rest of the Design Team have created just for you. Hope to see you in the Gallery!!
I love these so much, the size is perfect and the font so dreamy. These will be used ALOT!!
For me, nothing makes me happier than rainbow colours on a card, so I had to use them with this stamp!! I used the largest Bubble Box Fri-die on some Strathmore Bristol Smooth CS but to make it fit my card base I trimmed down the sides. To add some interest along the bottom I die-cut one of the Lovely Links Fri-dies.
I heat embossed the 'Best Day Ever' on the die-cut in white and then used a 'rainbow' of Distress Ink colours to watercolour the background. I also used the same colours to paint the die-cut along the bottom. I added a piece of grey CS to the card front, as I find dark grey makes bright colours pop even more. The panel plus the die-cut bottom link were then popped up on foam tape, along with some sequins from Neat and Tangled.
I created this card with my Mum in mind as I gave it to her for Mothers Day. And she loved it!!
I started by heat embossing flowers from the 'Best Day Ever' stamp set and the Pretty Posies stamp set in white on some Strathmore Bristol Smooth CS. I watercoloured them (once again with rainbows in mind....) using my Gansai Tambi watercolour paints. I used the matching dies for the 'Best Day Ever' flowers and the matching Posies Fri-dies for the rest.
Using a die from the Bubble Box Fri-dies on some black CS, I glued on the 'Best Day Ever' die-cut, which was put together with 2x die-cuts from white CS and the top one from gold CS. The black panel was put on foam tape. Then using double-tape behind the flowers, I put them into place under it. I then finished it off with some gold sequins from Neat and Tangled.
I hope you like how I used these new products and please pop over to the CAS-ual Fridays Stamps Blog to see how the other Girl Fridays used these new goodies too.
And the good news is that all of the products released this week are already available to purchase now. Don't forget to use my special code to save yourself 15% on your shopping!!
Thanks so much for stopping by and I'll see you back here tomorrow for more new goodness on Day 3!!
I love the font for the stamp set and the Jumping Jack fri-dies are so much fun to play around with. Here is what I came up with:
Using the smaller Bubble Box Fri-dies I cut three different colours of paint chips and then die-cut the largest Jumping Jack die from the middle. I then also die-cut it 3x from silver glitter CS. I popped the coloured die-cuts up on foam tape on the card front and then glued the glitter jacks on the inside. The sentiments were heat embossed in silver on black CS and put on foam tape, along with some co-ordinating sequins from Neat and Tangled.
For my second card I decided to go all 'fiddly' (as usual) and die-cut the three different sizes of jacks from the card front. I then adhered a panel of white CS behind the card front, putting on lots of double-sided tape, to give the inlaid pieces something to stick too. I die-cut the jacks from pastel coloured paint chips and the smallest one from gold CS, and inlaid them all in the card front. I cut a strip of clear vellum and heat embossed the 'celebrate' in gold and wrapped it around the card front, and added some gold sequins from Neat and Tangled.
We have so much more to show you this week. Don't forget to pop over to the CAS-ual Fridays Stamps Blog to see what the rest of the amazing 'Girl Fridays' have created with these new goodies. And if your tempted to go shopping already, don't forget to use my special code to save yourself 15%!!
Hope you have a fantastic day and I'll see you back here for Day 2 of the New Release. You won't be disappointed!!!!
Its a very cloudy Saturday morning here in New Zealand. I was just checking some emails and about to go do some chores but Minnie the not-so-little-kitten is sleeping on my lap, so I have to stay here now. Perfect time to share this card with you!!
I haven't had the chance to join in a CASology challenge for months. I saw the 'Marine' cue card the other day and was thinking about it while gardening. I suddenly had this idea and scribbled the design on my hand. I really must buy a little note book to take gardening with me as I get so many ideas while up to my elbows in mud.......:
I've been obsessed with Killer Whales since I was a little girl. I haven't had the experience of seeing one in real life but its the very top of my bucket list!! A group of Killer Whales in called a 'pod' and I thought it would be a great way to say to someone your part of my family!!
I started by stamping the Killer Whales (from Mama Elephant 'Whale Wishes') on white CS and fussy cutting them out. I then grabbed two blue paint chips (for the ocean) and used a Simon Says Stamp 'Border Waves' die on each one. I glued them together and then to the card front.
I had completely forgotten about my new MFT 'Little Lowercase' dies that arrived last month and used them on some black CS, die-cutting each letter twice and gluing together. I adhered them to the card along with this sentiment (from Neat and Tangled 'Beach Day') which worked perfectly. To finish off I glued on some half-circle black beads.
I'm also going to link this to the Simon Says Stamp - Wednesday Challenge where their theme is 'For the Boys'. I think this card could definitely work for a male friend or family member!!
Time to go and sort out some breakfast/brush for everyone. I've got a lot of cards to make this weekend, so thank goodness the weather isn't all that flash. Hopefully I will be allowed to craft all day tomorrow with it being Mother's Day but I'm sure laundry and picking up crap will creep into my day somewhere......lol!!
It has been the most magnificent day today!! I went off to work this morning in shorts and t-shirt, which is totally unheard of in May. I would usually be rugged up with thermals and gumboots by now. I even thought of breaking out the sunblock as it was so hot on my skin, talk about global warming!!!!!
My mojo and confidence is still absent at the moment, which is so frustrating. When this happens I try and do some colouring to boost my moral. I coloured some images a few nights ago and decided to make a last minute card for the Simon Says Stamp - Wednesday Challenge using an old sketch for inspiration:
I stamped the images from MFT Stamps 'New Best Friend' on white CS, coloured with pencils and then fussy cut out. Using my MISTI I stamped the paw prints (from the same stamp set) over the card front and then adhered the little girl and kitty.
For the sentiment (also from the same stamp set) I stamped it on white CS and adhered a piece of black CS behind it. I cut around the black CS until it framed the sentiment and popped it up on foam tape. I also added some sequins from Neat and Tangled.
This is the MFT Stamps Challenge Sketch I used to give my mojo a kick in the backside:
Time to start thinking about dinner. Its so strange to be feeling so hot when its dark so early. Its supposed to rain from Sunday onwards so must make the most of the next few days.....
