Thursday 27 February 2014

Paint Me Happy

Hey there!
Well, the girls over at CASology are really keeping me on my toes.
This week the cue word is PAINT.
Great, I thought, as I rummaged around for an old tray of watercolours. But, after 2 hours in my craft room, all I emerged with was a bin full of soggy paper. I guess that's why the watercolours were put away last time!
This morning I went for a different approach and used colour swatches from a paint brochure.



I cut out each colour swatch and added them to a strip of card with foam tape. I didn't even have to think of how to arrange the colours - they were already in that order in the brochure. Easy peasy.
I managed to remember to stamp 'birthday' before I added the colour strip with more foam tape - then I just stuck on the 'happy' and a few scattered gems.

 No guesses for what I will be grabbing, next time I am at the DIY store!

CASology - Paint
Pixie's Crafty Workshop - Snippets


Monday 24 February 2014

You had me at cupcakes!


Hey there,
today I am sharing a 'modern retro' card with you.



The 'modern' bit, is the card layout -I  keep seeing variations of this on my blog travels - and it's a really versatile style.
Then, the 'retro' bit is the cupcake.
Can you remember a few years ago, when cupcakes were EVERYWHERE?
Don't tell me you don't have at least one cupcake stamp lurking at the bottom of your stash.
Dig it out, and give it a modern twist.

I stuck with bold colours and no shading to continue my 'retro' theme,
but I couldn't help adding some sparkle  :-)


Challenges.
Retro Sketches - # 103
Make It Monday - Anything Goes
Penny Black & More - Make It Sparkle

Supplies.
Cupcake Satmp from Simon Says, Savor Sweet Cupcakes, coloured with a Copic and
sprinkled with Diamong Dust.
Sentiment - Pink Petticoat.
Sizzix Tags #2 Die     Button/Gem/Sequins/Twine

Saturday 22 February 2014

Annie & Mimi



Hey there, no card from me today, just a little shameless plugging!!
My daughter, Annabel, has started her online empire with a scarf collection.
She has called it Annie & Mimi.
Annie, after herself and Mimi, after her sister, Maria
When she was little Annabel couldn't pronounce Maria, she would say 'Mimi', and the nickname stuck.

So - head on over, check out the site and let us know what you think.




Thursday 20 February 2014

Bring me flowers

Hey there,
I had some unexpected time in my craft room today and here is the result.
A card made, using the sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches.


I used my Hero Arts set, stamping the flowers in different colours. Then, I die cut the flower and used this as a mask, before stamping the swirly leaves (these are green irl, but they look a bit grey on the photo).
The strip down the side had me stumped for ages. I tried all sorts of ribbon and twine, but nothing looked right.
In the end, I opted for a plain old strip of card, popped up on foam pads.

Challenges.
Freshly Made Sketches- #124 Sketch
Simon Says - Wedding/Anniversary
Crafty Creations -  Keep It Simple

Supplies.
HeroArts/Sizzix stamp and die set, Floral.
Memento Dew Drop Ink, New Sprout, Rose Bud, Dandelion, Bahama Blue
Sentiment - Pink Petticoat.   Crystla Gems.

Wednesday 19 February 2014

Not now Cato !

JUMP - has been going round in my head all day.
It's the cue word for this week's CASology challenge.
For my card I used a jumping ninja !


This type of card layout keeps popping up on my blog travels, so I thought I would try it out and
I can tell already, that it's going to be one of my 'go to' designs. It's so quick and easy to do.

It's hard to see from my pics, but the white card, ninja and part of the sentiment are all popped up on foam pads. I go through such a ridiculous amount of this foam - I need to bulk buy it!



Now, I need to go and find out just exactly HOW you party like a ninja !!!

Challenges.
CASology - Jump
Cardz for Guyz - Clean and Simple (they also have a DT call)

Supplies.
Digi Stamp - Bugaboo Ninja, coloured with Copics.
Digi DP - Pink Petticoat, Woodgrain
Party Stamp - Magazine Freebie, and the rest of the sentiment was made up on my comp.
Black and Crystal Gems

Monday 17 February 2014

Put the flags out!

Hey there...
I splashed out last week and bought a craft magazine - Papercraft Inspirations. I admit, I was lured in by the free stamp set that came with it. It includes a little alphabet, which will be really useful, along with various banners and birds. I used one of the larger banners on this card.


I made some flags with snippets of paper and toothpicks. The flags are popped up with foam tape and I used small glue dots on the toothpicks, where they overlapped. You might just be able to make out that I snipped the end off one toothpick, so that it would be a similar length to the others.
The banner itself was popped up on double height foam tape.
 

Challenges.
Pixie's Snippets Playground - Week #112
CAS(E) this Sketch - #64
Less Is More -Masculine
CAS on Sunday - Masculine

Supplies.
Toothpicks.   Snippets of dp.    Twine.      Banner Stamp, Mag. Freebie
Sentiment Stamp - Personal Impressions, Mixed Sentiments

Saturday 15 February 2014

Martinis are always a good idea.

This morning I came across a few House Mouse stamps.
They have been rather neglected of late, but I wanted to see if I could use them and still create a CAS card.
What do you think?
I played along at the House Mouse & Friends challenge, which is Amethyst, White + 1 other colour.


I stamped straight onto my card base, coloured the image with Copics,
and sprinkled Diamond Dust on the glass.
A couple of snippets of dp were used to add some colour, then a Pink Petticoat sentiment
and scattered bling finished everything off nicely.
 

Challenges.
House Mouse & Friends - Colour Challenge -  Amethyst, White + 1 Other Colour
Addicted to Stamps - Make Your Mark

Supplies.
Stamp - House Mouse, Olive a Party           Copics.  Glamour Dust.
DP -  Kaiser Craft, La Di Da         Star Punch
Sequins, Gem.

Tuesday 11 February 2014

Home is where the {heart} is

Hey everyone...
joining in with the Snippets Playground last week, has made me take another look at my stash.
I am determined to try and use up some of my neglected supplies.


I have a stack of petal border card blanks (149mm x 149mm),  that have been sitting on my shelf  for ages.
They don't really work with a CAS design, but I need to use them up.
Here, I cut the card down to 110 x 149,  and placed the petal design at the back.
Then, in good snippet style, I used the cut off pieces for my house, tree, and banner and
followed the sketch over at retro sketches.


Challenges:
Retro Sketches -  #101 Sketch
Pixie's Snippets Playground - Week 111

Supplies
Digi DP - Pink Petticoat, Waterfall Hearts
Tree and House Stamps and Dies - Clearly Besotted Home Swet Home
Memento Dew Drops Ink - New Sprout and Summer Sky
Pearls, Sequins, Gems.

Friday 7 February 2014

Little Foxes

Hey everyone...
just a quick post from me today.
My girls' and their b/f's ( and pets!) are descending on us for the weekend
and I am baking.
The floor, the worktop, me and the dog, are all covered in a fine layer of icing sugar :-)

Here's a birthday card for my pile.


If you're looking for some pretty, new goodies, but don't want to spend a fortune, head on over to Pink Petticoat. Everything in the boutique is £1 (not sure how long the offer will last, so be quick!).  I got my hands on these lovely, heart papers and the little sentiments - what a bargain!
I searched through my stamps for something cute, and came across these little foxes. They are in with a Gorjuss girl stamp of the same name, and I'd never even thought to use them on their own before.
You can see below that I've added some dimension to my card by popping up some of the elements.
   
 Have a lovely weekend everyone.   xxx

Challenges.
Simon Says -  Have A Heart
Addicted to Stamps - Anything Goes
Totally Papercrafts - Het Cutie!

Stamps - Gorjuss Little Foxes - coloured with Copics
DP - Pink Petticoat, Chevrons (the clouds) and Waterfall Hearts
Memory Box Cloud Die.  Sizzix Heart Die
Sentiment -  Pink Petticoat, Sentiment Ribbons
Green Heart Gem, Adhesive earls, Silver Sequin
 
 

Sunday 2 February 2014

Hot in the city

Hi there.
I'm not going to lie... I'm a little disappointed with this card.
It looked better in my head!!


It was also a little fiddly to put together.
I die cut the cityscape in white card, putting the main piece aside
and instead using  the top part (the piece that usually goes in the bin!).
This piece was then stuck to white card, that acted as a base layer.
Then, I cut the houses out in separate rainbow colours, fitted them into the white piece,
and glued them to the base.
 I'm sure I'm making it sound much more complicated than  it is.
It's very simple really !!

Challenges:
Less Is More - Rainbow. 
Can you believe Less Is More is 3 years old ? Wow - doesn't time fly? 
Congrats ladies - your challenge is always an inspiration to me.
Really lovely to see how well Mandi is doing too.   xxx

Totally Papercrafts -  Clean & Simple
Totally Gorjuss - Sunny Colours
Pixie's Snippets Playground -  Make something with 'snippets'