WALKING IN A .....

Winter Wonderland. It's rare really in the UK that we get snow at Christmas time - Easter is sometimes when it usually comes but on the rare occasions it does it is magical.  We spent a Christmas in Houston when we lived there in 2004 - took the children to the cinema to see Polar Express in the usual Houston warmth of a Christmas Eve.  Can you imagine our delight and astonishment when we came out of the cinema and it was snowing!!!!  It was truly magical and one of our best Christmases ever.

My card today is a one layer card for Addicted to CAS challenge - I used sponging to create the snow effect and masked off the moon to give it a wintery glow.  I hope there is enough white space for the challenge!  The stamps I've used are from a set from Little Hero which is called Winter Scene.  There is a touch of glitter just to make it sparkle a little. 

I have a lot of Christmas cards to send out for my Joy of Sets members all over the world so one layer cards are just what I need to save a little on postage. This is going to be one of my favourites I think.


A big thank you to CAS Colours and Sketches who chose my little robin card this week as one of their winners.

 

BUBBLES

A great little challenge over at Addicted to CAS #134 this week - bubbles. Now I didn't think I had anything which would remotely fit this theme - it just goes to show what you can find when you rummage.  And this is what I managed to come up with:

The bubbles came courtesy of an old Cherry Pie stamp - I've used SU Bermuda Bay Ink and card stock, SU Tangerine Tango and SU Pear Pizzazz for the inks.  The fish and the grasses and the sentiment come from Jar of Love and one of the little fish has been cut out with its matching framelit and popped on a dimensional.  I've just added some ribbon to match and then left it alone to keep it as CAS as I could.  There is a bit of Wink of Stella on the bubbles to make them shine.  I also used a very old crafting tool I found in the cupboard to make the paper wavy as if it's under the sea.

ADDICTED TO CAS #112 - GRADUATION

A timely card theme over at Addicted to CAS this week with their theme of Graduation although for the UK this really comes more into effect in late summer but we can always be prepared.


 

 I have done a Graduation card previously which was for my son last year which made it more of a Cap style card.

but I wanted to try another style for the CAS challenge.  There is a tutorial in my tutorial page above for this style of card.


For the Challenge, I kept to a black and white scheme and used the Stitched Framelits for the Mortar Cap.  I used the Falling Petals Embossing Folder, sadly retiring, but I'm keeping hold of mine.  The wording actually comes from a retired Project Life set Remember This.  Another set I'm keeping hold of because the sentiments in it are wonderful, not just for scrapbooking. I added a touch of our White Organza ribbon - shh don't tell I cut the organza bits off (!) and added a Metal Rimmed Pearl for the middle.

 

 Thanks for stopping by and visiting my blog.  I love to hear from fellow crafters.

HAPPY CRAFTING

 

BEAUTIFUL YOU MEETS FOXY FRIENDS

I'm back in my office which is my craft room after nearly a week of being poorly with a bad cold.  Aren't they so stupid?  They knock you for six for something which seems so trivial but you feel so ill.  I couldn't face anything - shows how bad I was that Hubby cooked twice lol!

Anyway today I'm feeling a bit stronger and wanted to try and be creative.  To give me a bit of a mojo boost, I thought I'd have a go at the Addicted to CAS challenge which is pets.  I love my pets - I have two dogs and two cats and love them both for their own personalities but I think I will always have cats and not necessarily always have dogs as I get older.

My favourite cats are black or black and white - and its sad that they are so often overlooked as people are superstitious about them.  I always think of them as lucky black cats and my little cat Jet is a treasure!

Here he is looking guilty - he had been in the sink licking a Valarian tea bag I had just used.  Apparently Valarian is like catmint for them and he loves it!

Here's my card  for the Challenge.  I used the Beautiful You set - which is the lovely background stamps in the set.  Just goes to show you can use sets outside of the main images that are in them.

I didn't really have an animal stamp and suddenly remembered my Foxy Friends punch and set which I haven't used in a while.  I punched it out in black and embossed the face in white embossing powder.

The little Hello is from a Project Life set Date It - also often overlooked as stamp sets but this one has 82 stamps in it!!!!! 

The colours I used for the background were Watermelon Wonder, Tangerine Tango and Crushed Curry.
 

As usual all products can be purchased direct from my store and don't forget SALE-A-BRATION is still on and you can get FREE stamps if you qualify.

HAPPY CRAFTING


 

BEAUTIFUL YOU - CAS CHALLENGE

I wonder if the love affair with this stamp set will wane.  If its not the imagery its the wonderful sentiments that come with it.

The challenge over at Addicted to CAS challenge this week is the word WISH.

I hope my card is clean and simple enough - 

I've used Whisper White as the base and Soft Suede as the layer for this card.  The image is from the Serene Scenery DSP.

I stamped the girl dancing and cut her out.  Quite easy to cut out really.  I coloured her in with the Watercolour Pencils in Pumpkin Pie and used one of our DSP stack papers in Pumpkin Pie to punch out the butterfly which is just balancing on her foot.

The Sentiment was clear embossed in Early Espresso and I added a heart enamel dot.

I hope you like my card and go and join in with this great challenge.




 

LOVELY STITCHING

 
I'm taking a quick break from Christmas related products - it won't be for long though I promise, and joining in with Addicted to CAS this week with a set I've not used much yet.  At £15 for 16 Polymer Stamps its a real bargain and I bet it gets overlooked in the SU catalogue for its showier cousins.

It was perfect for the challenge this week which is Stitched and this set is called Lovely Stitching. Click on the logo below to be taken to the challenge.

 
 
 

 As this is a Clean and Simple challenge and they like a lot of white space and not many embellishments I hope this card isn't too busy.  The addition of the enamel dots proved a necessity to cover a blemish from the ink - don't you hate it when that happens!

 I've used Rich Razzleberry for the cardstock base and the darker ink, an old SU colour Regal Rose for the pink and Pear Pizzazz for the green.  I love the stitched sentiment especially.


Normal service will be resumed tomorrow with a Christmas example of an Origami box using 6x6 paper

HAPPY CRAFTING

 

SUMMER'S HERE

Yay - for the last two day's Summer has arrived in the UK and we are now sweltering under 30 degree heat.  The UK homes don't work well with this heat -we don't have air con and my house is definitely a winter house.  But hey - lovely to see the sun and I'm lucky enough to be able to take advantage of it.  So today I shall be crafting in the garden.

But before I go I have a few challenges to catch up with.  The first is Sam Hammond's Colour Challenge which this week was Melon Mambo, Watermelon Wonder, Cucumber Crush, and Crushed Curry.  You'll find her challenge HERE.  As its sunny outside and there are quite a few butterflies flying around my veggies I thought I would use the Papillon Potpourri set.  The beautiful rose from  Picture Perfect has also been used as the background stamp using Versamark.  

The sentiment is from the Shooting Star set.  I've popped one of the butterflies up on dimensionals after punching it out with the butterfly pun ch and added a few rhinestones for some sparkle.

I used Melon Mambo, Whisper White and Crushed Curry.

I've used the polymer stamps here and would love to know how to stop them staining when using the Melon Mambo or Watermelon Wonder.  I did try stamping with Versamark first and it helped a bit.  Any advice gratefully received.


I'm also putting this card in for the Less is More Challenge which is asking for repitition though I think I've put too much on the card and not enough "white" space.  Their Challenge is HERE

I had to have another play with the Repetition theme - I just love it.  Here I've used the Playful Backgrounds set and the Papillon Potpourri again punched out with the butterfly punch on Designer Series Paper Rich Razzleberry.  The stripes have been stamped in Rich Razzleberry Ombre Stamping Pad. The sentiment is from Shooting Star.

I'm also putting this one in for the Addicted to CAS challenge - their theme is Stripes.

 Thanks for stopping by and do leave a comment.

Happy Crafting