Reminder: TIME OUT Challenge # 127

Hi everybody!! Its been go-go-go round here for me lately, so not much crafting time unfortunately but I've been thinking about card designs non-stop so when I have a spare five minutes, I've got a few ideas to work on. The weather has also been extremely hot and windy, so I'm exhausted by the time I get home and its way too hot in my little craft corner, so by the time its cooled down its midnight and too late for this girl....

We have this fabulous phrase to inspire you for the current TIME OUT Challenge. You could use one word, one part or maybe show us how the words make you feel or remind you of something....its totally up to you!!

And our fabulous Sponsor is CAS-ual Fridays Stamps and they are giving a $25 gift voucher to the winner of this challenge. So lucky!!!!

For my card I was so excited to use a new product that I'm probably the last person in the world to try out. In the last Coffee Lovers Blog Hop I was lucky enough to win a $10 voucher to Gina K Designs and I knew I had to get the Wreath Builder Templates. I used it straight away and I'm already addicted:

I wanted to use the 4inch template so I cut a 4inch square piece of white CS. I gathered up some Waffle Flower ink pads and lots of little CAS-ual Fridays Stamps images to create the wreath, starting off with the blue flower and spreading from there. The CFS stamp sets I used were:

Sassy Smiles

Peaceful Garden

Peace and Comfort

Best Day Ever

Once I was finished I adhered the piece to some black CS, cut around it to form a frame and then put on a 4.5inch card base with a piece of white foam.  For the sentiment I wanted to use something that referred to a strong friendship, as in the phrase.  I chose one from CAS-ual Fridays Stamps 'Supercalifragilistic', it was white heat embossed on a strip of black CS and popped up on foam tape. I then glued on some clear gem stones from Studio Katia to the blue flowers and hearts.

I'm going to link this to the Simon Says Stamp - Wednesday Challenge where their theme is 'Have a Heart'. My wreath contains hearts and is pretty heartfelt for a wonderful friend or maybe a loved one.

You have until Wednesday 30th January to link your projects to the TIME OUT Challenge and if your looking for any ideas or something to spark your imagination, pop over to the blog to see what our Design Team and our amazing Guest Designer Claire of String Bows have created for you. Look forward to seeing you and your creations in our Gallery!!

Take care

Shona

CAS-ual Fridays Stamps - Girl Friday post #2 for January

Hi there everybody!! Hope your all getting ready for an amazing weekend. Its supposed to be a very hot Saturday here for us in New Zealand so will probably head to the beach or to one of the many river swimming-holes we are lucky to have here. Will be way too hot to sit at home where we have no air-conditioning that's for sure....

Just wanted to let you all know that I'm up on the CAS-ual Fridays Stamps Blog 
today with a simple but sweet 'Love Ya' card:

Thought it would be nice to have a break from the usual 'pink/pink' colour combo of my lovey-dovey cards and I love this WOW! Embossing Powder so much. For all the details on how I put this together, pop over to the CFS Blog.

Thanks so much for stopping by, I'm off to get my togs on (that's what we call 'swimming costumes' in New Zealand) and jandals (what we call 'flip-flops' in New Zealand) and hit the water. So not only will you be seeing a new card from me today but you'll be learning a new language too!! LOL!!

Take care
Shona
 

Reminder: The Flower Challenge #28

Hi everyone!! After a quick long-weekend trip to Hanmer Springs with the family (which was so much fun), I'm back into my gardening work. With all the sunshine and odd patch of rain over the last few weeks, the weeds have gone ballistic and jobs that usually take 2hrs are taking 4-5hrs, so I'm a very tired woman..... The good thing is that I've received a lot of crafty 'Happy Mail' lately, so keep thinking about how to use my new stamps and dies to get me thru each day.

We have a colour theme for you this month at The Flower Challenge, its 'Pink and Grey'. Grey is one of my favourite colours and just today my Mum was telling me I'm 'grey obsessed' because were are getting the outside of our house painted grey/white, I'm repainting the hallway grey and I've chosen a grey pattern for the floor in our kitchen. Maybe I am a bit 'grey crazy' but its a wonderful colour to put with everything and looks so stylish. 

We've already got some stunning projects in our Gallery so far this month. I decided to use one of my brand new stamp sets and get my coloured pencils out for a change. I remember when I used to colour EVERYTHING with them but I haven't used them for months. Was wonderful to be blending them again....:

This stamp set is from Mama Elephant 'Heart in Bloom' and I thought it would be great for Valentine's cards and many others!! This was super simple to put together. I wanted to keep it clean so this stamp was the star of the card. 

Firstly I stamped the floral heart on white CS using Versafine black ink. I then used my Faber Castell pencils, going over everything at least 3x to try and get as much shading and dimension as I could. Once I had finished I fussy cut it out and then heat embossed the sentiment (from the same ME stamp set) in silver embossing powder.

I wanted a grey background, but having an 'all-grey' card front seemed a bit bland, so I die-cut some grey CS using the MFT Stamps 'Blueprints 27' rectangle die so it had some interest and it allowed the white card front to show thru. I adhered this to the card base and then popped the heart on some foam tape. And to finish off I glued on some Neat and Tangled sequins with Gina K Connect Glue.

You have until Friday 25th January to link your projects to The Flower Challenge. And if your struggling for design ideas, pop over to the blog to see what the rest of the Design Team have created to inspire you. Can't wait to see you all in the Gallery!!

Take care
Shona