Reminder: TIME OUT Challenge #125

Hi there everyone!! I really hope you all had an incredible Christmas Day and are still celebrating (and eating) with all your family and friends. We had terrible weather, it poured with rain all day which didn't work well for putting up Max's new trampoline but we still all had fun, eating, eating and more eating..... And now that Christmas Day has come and gone, I can relax and enjoy my two week holiday which will mean I will have plenty of time to finally make some cards!!

Our current TIME OUT challenge theme is 'Celebrate Friends, Family and Life'. And what a perfect time of year to be doing that!! You can make whatever project you like too, especially good for anyone wanting to show off Christmas photos!!

Our Sponsor for this challenge is Stamplorations who have sponsored and supported our challenge for so many years. Shery (the owner) is so generous to us on the Design Team and she is giving a $15 gift voucher to the winner of this challenge. AND we will be doing a random draw for someone to receive a goody bag from their store too!!

I've wanted these Dogwood stamps for so long, especially since I have Dogwood trees in my garden which are gorgeous in Spring time. Was so nice to colour them in after not doing any colouring for weeks:

 
Wish I could make my flowers as beautiful as the ones in my garden, just need to practice, practice, practice!!!

I started off by stamping the flowers on the card front using Gina K Amalgam black ink, that way I could colour them using my Altenew Artist Markers. I wanted to keep it CAS but decided it needed some sort of dimension, so die-cut around it with a Studio Katia 'Stitched Oval' die. I added a panel of white CS behind the hole, die-cut some white foam and glued the flowers on top with some Gina K Connect Glue.

The Just Because Phrase Die was die-cut from black CS and glued into place with the same Gina K glue, as well as some peach and gold sequins from Neat and Tangled.

I'm going to link this to the Simon Says Stamp - Wednesday Challenge where their theme is 'Anything Goes'.

You have until Wednesday 2nd January 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 have created for you. Look forward to seeing you in the Gallery!!

Take care
Shona
 

Simon Says Stamp - Wednesday Challenge #2

Just home from Saturday morning tennis with Max and ready to go to Nelson for the day. Unfortunately Dave and Phoebe had fallen back asleep so I'm ready to go and no-one else is, so what a better time to show you more of my Christmas cards!!

The theme for this weeks Simon Says Stamp - Wednesday Challenge is Christmas and boy oh boy are there a lot of incredible cards linked up!!

My cards came about from a prize I won a few months ago from Kathy Racoosin when I came third in the Colour Challenge (Beginners category). She sent me a goody bag full of all sorts of products and this die was one of them:
 

Aren't these just the cutest!!!!! There are so many things you can do with these dies, not just Santa. I got the idea for these from the inspiration photos with the dies on the Paper Smooches Website. by Alice Wertz. I made a big batch of these all at once and was so much fun to not do any stamping!!

I started off by die-cutting the beard from the bottoms of the white card bases. I then die-cut the hat from red CS and the moustache, eyes, eyebrows, hat band and pom-pom from white CS. I managed to find some pinky/skin-colour CS that has a shimmer to it for the nose and cheeks. And for some I did the eyes from black CS as I couldn't decide which I liked more.

After gluing them all on I added Wink of Stella to the pom-pom and the cheeks. And on the inside of the card (which I forgot to take a photo of....) I stamped 'Get your Santa on' from MFT Stamps 'Christmas Cuteness'. I can't wait to play around with these dies some more to see what other characters I can come up with!!

I'm also going to link these to The Cats Pajamas Tuesday Challenge #352 where their theme is 'Winter Holidays'.

And will also join the SSS Monday Challenge where their theme is 'Warm Winter Wishes'.

Sounds like we are ready to hit the road. Luckily the weather is warm but cloudy so it won't be a hot drive. Looking forward to hitting the shops (Nelson is a city compared to our little town) and will also be going to the trampoline park to burn off some energy (and calories). Should be a fabulous day!!

Take care
Shona


 

Simon Says Stamp - Wednesday Challenge

Its been raining yet again here, so have just whipped up another 160 Christmas Cowpat Cookies and thought I would share with you some more of the Christmas cards I created over the last few weeks.

The theme for this weeks Simon Says Stamp - Wednesday Challenge is 'Christmas', so its a perfect time to show off the cards we've all made to post out this year!!

These cards were made using one of my favourite new sets this year, which is probably glad that I've finished using it at this stage so it can have a rest...:
 

These took a bit of time to stamp and die-cut but found using the same colours in different combinations made for a quicker card creation!!

I started off by grabbing my MISTI and the SSS Stamptember set with Gina K Designs 'Joy of the Season'. Using dye inks from Hero Arts and Waffle Flower I stamped the images (2x each for good coverage) on white CS, making sure I had different colours for each image. I then used the matching dies to cut them all out.

I wanted to give the images a good backing but not too much white, so I cut strips of grey CS and popped them up on strips of white foam. The snowflakes were glued on top using Gina K Connect Glue and the reindeer put on foam tape. I then finished them off by gluing on some sequins from Neat and Tangled and covering the small snowflakes in Wink of Stella.  Here are some photos of each card:

I'm also going to link these cards to the SSS Flickr Challenge #112 where the theme is 'Diecutting'.

And will also link to The Cats Pajamas Tuesday Challenge #352 where their theme is 'Winter Holidays'.

All of my Christmas cards were posted two weeks ago so hopefully they will make it in time for Christmas around the world but if not, they will be a nice surprise for the New Year. I'm hoping that I can fit in a 2hr gardening job this afternoon because if not, I will have to do it on Sunday morning as I have no spare time next week. Please cross your fingers and toes for a respite from the rain very soon!!

Take care
Shona
 

Reminder: TIME OUT Challenge #124

Hi everybody!! Sorry its been so quiet on my blog, I've had hardly any time to make cards and when I do I'm so exhausted from work I tend to go to sleep instead. Once Christmas has arrived and I have a two week break I'll be back in the 'card making' business!!

Our challenge theme at TIME OUT is 'Joyful'. Christmas immediately comes to mind for me but there are many different reasons to be joyful, so use whatever one you like to create your project!!

We are very lucky to have Uniko as the Sponsor for this challenge and they are giving the winner a stamp set of their choice!!

As I'm still up to the eyeballs with Christmas cards, presents etc I definitely felt I needed to make a Christmas card for this one. I wanted clean, bright and graphic, so this is what I came up with:

This didn't take too long to put together and I even used some stamps that have never been 'inked up' before, so it was a win-win!

First of all I had to get the 'candy-cane like' stamp from Winnie and Walter 'Holiday Trimmings' straight on my MISTI. Thank goodness it has grid lines on the lid to help with that. I then stamped it on the card front using Altenew 'Crimson' ink and just moving the card up each time.

I then die-cut the Altenew 'Caps Bold Alphabet dies' from a red paint chip and twice more from white CS and glued them all together. Once I worked out where they would sit on the card I then stamped the rest of the sentiments from Winnie and Walter 'In Bloom: Frenchy's Festive Florals with Angelica Suarez' in between the red strips. All I had to do then was glue on the die-cuts and sequins from Pretty Pink Posh.

I'm going to link this to the Simon Says Stamp - Wednesday Challenge where their theme is 'Christmas'.

 

You have until Wednesday 19th December to link your projects to the TIME OUT

challenge and if your needing any help with ideas, pop over to the blog to see what the rest of the Design Team and our amazing Guest Designer Chrissie of Simply One of a Kind have created to inspire you. Looking forward to seeing you in the Gallery!!

Take care

Shona

 

 

The Cats Pajama's Tuesday Challenge #352

Yippee, its finally Friday!! Max arrived home from camp this afternoon after being away the past four days. He had a fantastic time but I had to wash ALL of the clothes he took with him (whether he wore them or not) as they were all soaking wet and smelled like shoes!! I also have no gardening to do this weekend (apart from my own....) and have just posted the last of my Christmas cards, so things are looking good!!

The theme for the current TCP Tuesday Challenge is 'Winter Holiday'. I recently made 100 cards to give to Sending Love NZ who distribute cards to rest homes for people who have no family etc. I made three different types. These ones that took the longest but I loved making them with all the vibrant colour:

The die is from The Cats Pajama's 'Round Tree Die' and I had to have it for my Christmas cards as soon as it was released a few months ago. It was fantastic for Halloween and even better for these colourful creations.

I started off by die-cutting 50 of the round circle die (it comes with the tree die) from white CS. I then die-cut the tree part from 25 of them, so I had 25 left over to make the backgrounds.

Using Distress Inks, I grouped them in similar colours and blended the darker colour on the outside of the background circle die-cut and blended with the lighter shade in the middle. As you can imagine my fingers were covered in ink but they looked so amazing, I couldn't stop blending!!

Once I was happy with them I flicked them all with water and dabbed gently with a tissue. Once they were dry I used Gina K Connect Glue to adhere the tree die-cuts over top. These were then adhered to the card fronts with glue tape.

I don't have any TCP Christmas stamps unfortunately, so I used this pretty one from the Simon Says Stamp 'Stamptember' set with Gina K Designs 'Joy of the Season'. I tried to match up the ink colours with the darkest Distress Ink and stamped them on each card. I didn't add any sequins as I didn't want elderly people having the sequins fall off and become annoying, so left them nice and clean.

I also stamped inside the cards with this sentiment stamp from Ellen Hutson 'Mistletoe and July'. I've used this one a lot, its great to use when people may not be celebrating Christmas itself.

I finished off writing in all 100 cards this week. I've set up a box at our local library so hopefully other people will drop in some cards too!

Bella has been hanging around me for ages to go for a walk, so I better do that before I lose the energy. I also need to hang out all the washing I just did, hopefully it doesn't pour with rain like it has a few times this week out of the blue. Our weather is so bizarre at the moment but this weekend is supposed to be super hot, so hopefully we can go for our first swim of the season. Better get out my clippers to 'tidy up my hedge' if you get my drift.......lol...

Take care
Shona

The Flower Challenge # 27

Hello there!! December has rolled round in a flash and we are starting our final challenge for 2018 at The Flower Challenge!!

This month we are wanting you to create a project using an 'Older stamp or die'. So its time to dust off your 'collectible' craft products and take them out for a spin!!

I had so much fun with this one. It was great going thru all my stamps and since I can remember where every single one came from and when, it was amazing how old some of them were. I managed to find this background stamp that I purchased years ago second-hand and have never used:

Why have I never used this stamp before?????

As you can see its from Hero Arts/Basic Grey and called 'Tiny Flower Background'. The date on the back of the packet is 2012 so I'm thinking its not available anymore. Its so pretty and stamps really well, so I might just have to give it a bit more love!!

To create this card I started off by cutting a panel of teal blue CS slightly smaller than the card front. Using my MISTI I stamped it twice using Versamark ink and heat embossed with Hero Arts 'White Satin Pearl' embossing powder. The sheen is incredible and I wish I had been using this powder more often!

  

Using a big piece of white foam I popped the embossed panel on the card front to give it some dimension.

For the sentiment I die-cut the Simon Says Stamp 'Love' die shadow part from white CS and the word itself 3x from the same teal blue CS. I glued them all together and then to the card front. The rest of the sentiment (from SSS 'Love' stamp set) was heat embossed with WOW! Embossing Powder 'Pastel Glacier Mint' on a strip of white CS. This was glued in place along with some sequins from Neat and Tangled.

I'm going to link this to the Simon Says Stamp - Wednesday Challenge where their theme is 'Anything Goes'.

 

You have until Tuesday 25th December (Christmas Day!) to link your projects to The Flower Challenge and if your needing any help with inspiration, pop over to the blog to see what the rest of the Design Team have created for you. I'll be back on the 15th with a 'reminder' card and this time I think I'll try to find my oldest floral die!!

Take care

Shona

 

 

 

CAS-ual Fridays Stamps - Girl Friday post #1 for December

Well, December is here and I am so not ready for Christmas!!!!! I've done no shopping, still haven't got all my cards out, I'm behind in gardening as its been raining so much and haven't even started by Christmas baking.....so you could say I'm a tiny bit stressed but I do love Christmas, so I know it will all be good in the end!!

We are half-way thru the 2018 Fall/Winter Coffee Lovers Blog Hop and with CAS-ual Fridays Stamps being considered a 'Super Sponsor', I thought it would be a great idea to include some coffee in my Christmas!!

I had a great time putting these together and thought they would be perfect attached to a gorgeous coffee cup filled with goodies for a coffee-loving friend!!

I started off by die-cutting the 'Coffee Cup Fri-dies' and 'To-Go Cup Fri-dies' from white CS. I also cut the top for the 'To Go' cup from black CS.

For the coffee-cup I stamped it with snowflakes and tiny shapes from the 'Snowy Sayings' stamp set using Hero Arts 'Bubblegum' Shadow Ink. I then stamped the sentiment from 'Mistletoe and Holly' but I masked out the 'kiss' and replaced with 'coffee' from the 'Peace Love and Coffee' stamp set on some white CS. I fussy cut it out and glued on the cup. I then glued on some pink sequins from Neat and Tangled and tied on some silver twine.

For the blue cup I stamped it using a strip of snowflakes from the 'Snowy Sayings' set with help from my MISTI, and using 'Daydreaming' Waffle Flower Ink. I did some masking again to stamp the sentiment from 'Mistletoe and Holly' and once again using the 'coffee' from 'Peace Love and Coffee'. I glued this to the cup, along with some sequins from Neat and Tangled and also the black top. I used a hole-punch to cut a hole and attach some silver thread.

I hope this has given you a different way to make some tags for your presents this Christmas and if your thinking of purchasing any of these products, don't forget to use my special code to save yourself 15%!!

I also wanted to let you know that there are a lot of sets that are in the Retired Section and they are now all 50% off!!! And if you use my special code that will save you a further 15% so that's 65% off!! Quick, run!

Thanks so much for stopping by. I hope your having more luck this month getting ready for Christmas and I'll be back here soon to share some of the millions of cards I've made.

Take care
Shona