Hi there, so glad you stopped by and it gives me a chance to remind you about our current challenge theme at The Flower Challenge.
Its all about 'Clean and Simple' this month which is always my favourite type of card to make. There are lots of different ideas about what makes a project CAS. To me its about lots of space, one central image and not too many embellishments etc. There are already lots of entries with amazing CAS designs and if you haven't joined us yet, I hope you get the chance to do so!
For my reminder card I really wanted to use a new die-set I had purchased and to try a non-white card front for a change:
I've wanted this Altenew 'Fantasy Floral Die' for so long, so it was wonderful finally having a chance to play with it. I didn't want to have too much colour on my card and came up with the idea to use some heat embossing and vellum to add a hint of colour and texture.
I started by cutting a panel of black CS and adhering it to the white card base. The flower die comes in three parts, I die cut the top and bottom layer from white CS and the middle layer from plain vellum. I actually tried putting just the edges of the bottom flower layer into my Versamark ink pad and heat embossing around the edge in gold but it didn't look right. So I decided to press the whole piece into the Versamark ink and embossed the whole piece in gold.
The leaves were die-cut from white CS and adhered in place on the card front. I put the flower together with some glue and double-sided tape and put over the leaves on foam tape. The sentiment (from Altenew 'Build-a-flower: Anemone' was stamped and heat embossed in white on the card front and a few clear sequins glued on from Neat and Tangled.
You have until Saturday 25th November to link your projects to The Flower Challenge and if your struggling with the CAS idea, pop over to the blog to see what the rest of the Design Team have created to give you some inspiration. Can't wait to see what you come up with in the Gallery!!
Take care
Shona
Its been a busy day today in my gardening world. I spent 5 hours today trimming hedges and I'm sure they are sprouting back as I cut them!! It wasn't a warm day and tonight is so cold I've just put hot water bottles in the kids beds and put my electric blanket on. Spring is always a fickle time for weather!!
Over the weekend I managed to sneak in a bit of colouring and play-time with some new Neat and Tangled goodies:
When I received the N&T 'Falling Circles Cover Plate' I immediately had the idea to try die-cutting it twice, once from the top of a panel and then from the bottom. Some of the circles over-lap slightly but I absolutely love how it covers the whole piece!!
I started by stamping the llama and present from N&T 'Fa La Llama' on some white CS and colouring with my pencils. I fussy cut them out and added foam tape to the back of each.
After die-cutting the white CS panel with the circle cover-plate, I really wanted to have something glittery behind it. I found some iridescent mirror paper I had completely forgotten about and glued it behind the circles.
The circle panel was adhered to the card front and the llama and present popped in place. I kept the sentiment simple by stamping in black ink on strips of white CS and putting them on foam tape too. And for a bit more sparkle I added some N&T sequins. The cool part was when I went to photograph this card. It doesn't look this 'rainbowy' in person but the camera catches all the colour changes with the mirror paper. It looks more amazing than I thought it would!!
I'm linking this to the Simon Says Stamp - Wednesday Challenge where their theme is 'Snow White'.
I'm sneaking off to bed now (its 9pm) as my body is so sore and I have lots of magazines to catch up on. I actually had another card to pop on my blog tonight but when I looked at the photos I decided that something is missing, so will have to give it some 'bling' tomorrow some how. Wink of Stella to the rescue I feel!!
Take care
Shona
Hi there everyone! Hope you've finally made it to the weekend and have lots of relaxation and crafting time planned. Max is celebrating his birthday with two of his friends here for a sleepover and Phoebe has her friend Ella too. Its pretty noisy here but they are all such great kids, its fun to have them around.
I'm up on the CAS-ual Fridays Stamps Blog today with a Autumn-inspired card. Its actually Spring-time for us here in New Zealand so its hard to imagine all the Autumn colours but had lots of fun using a new to me stamp and matching die set:
I grabbed some of my warm-coloured Distress Inks first because I knew I wanted to create some blending for a warm background. I cut a panel of watercolour CS and used my mini-blending tool to blend 'Spiced Marmalade', 'Mustard Seed', 'Barn Door' and 'Gathered Twigs'. Once I was happy with the colours I sprayed it with Imagine Crafts Sheer Shimmer Sparkle Spritz, doing it close up so there were lots of blobs of liquid. I gently dabbed them with tissue to remove the colour and dried with my heat gun. This was then adhered to the card front.
I cut a panel of white CS the same size as my card front and die-cut the second-largest die from the Bubble Box Fri-Dies set. After adding lots of foam tape to the back of it I popped it over the blended panel to create a frame.
For the sentiment I cut a circle of white CS using a die from the Ornament Tag Fri-Dies set and heat embossed the sentiment in gold from Autumn Blessings. To add a bit of interest I die-cut some leaves using the Acorn Fri-Dies from different brown shades of paint chips. I adhered them to the back of the circle and then to the card front. And for a bit more bling I added some orange and gold sequins from Neat and Tangled.
I hope I've given you some inspiration for your Autumn cards and if your interested in purchasing these products from CAS-ual Fridays Stamps don't forget to use my Girl Friday code to save yourself 15%!!
Thanks so much for stopping by and hope you have lots of sunshine for the rest of your weekend!!
Take care
Shona
