London Days: April 2014

Wednesday, 30 April 2014

Addicted to Stamps and More #93

Time for our 'Holiday' challenge at Addicted to Stamps and More and time for me to make another Christmas card! You can choose any hols you want to or even something that just reminds you of a holiday.

I have loved for a long time the snowflake stamps and dies from Uniko Studios so was very excited to use these for this challenge. And here is my card:

I had previously made another card for this challenge but changed my mind when I saw this photo at Festive Friday Challenge

The wood grain and red star inspired me immediately. I love the look of white card stock embossed with wood grain and that big red star inspired me to die cut my large snowflake die with glitter red card. I added the simple small sentiment not to distract from the snowflake and also as I thought this would be great for the 'Bright Sparks' challenge at Keep it Simple.

This week our DT have got some fab projects to inspire you and we are sponsored by A Random Fan-you could win 3 of their very cool digis!

I will also enter this into the 'glitter stash' challenge at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown and the 'Sparkle and Shimmer' challenge at CAS on Sunday

Marina my DT teamie at Inkspirational has challenges herself to make one Christmas card per week and asks us to join in and link up and I finally have a card to add to her fun!

Now it is your time to play along and have some fun x

Saturday, 26 April 2014

Happy Birthday Cornelia!

We are having a little belated Birthday celebration for our teamie Cornelia at STAMPloarions. It was Cornelia's Birthday on the 19th April but she is away until the 26th and we thought we would surprise her with a homecoming celebration! So a very Happy Belated Birthday Cornelia.

And her is my card for you:

I have used the new to be released stamps from STAMPlorations...check out our sneak peek here. Keep you eyes open for our blog hop coming very soon!

This card was inspired by 2 photo inspiration challenges.

The black and red colours in the photo at Cure For the Monday Blues had been playing on my mind all week but it wasn't until I saw the photo at Fusion this week that I had the idea of using these grunge stamps in place of the chevrons, that my card came together! I have actually used all the colours in the Fusion photo but based the card on red with the big black sentiment as a nod to Curing the Monday Blues!

I sure hope you like your card Cornelia and Happy Birthday again xx

Inkspirational and Addicted to CAS

Good Morning crafting friends,

Today I have combined 2 of my DT challenges and made one card.

At Inkspitational it is our colour challenge. Pink and Green are our colours for this challenge-you can use any shade and combine these with black, white and cream plus realistic colours for skin and hair.

At Addicted to CAS the lovely Kylie is our hostess and she has chosen this code word:

As many of you know I do love grunge but this week I challenged myself to make a grunge card using Inkspirational colours. I wanted to make a girly grunge card to show that grunge doesn't always have to for guys!

I used a mix of stamps from PTI and STAMPlorations. I really like the girly grunge look and think I will be doing this again!

At Inkspirational we have the fabulous Guest Designer Alycia, check out her card and the DT's creations here.

And at Addicted to CAS our Guest Designer is my very talented blogging friend Anita. You will see her CAS delight by visiting our blog here. Plus our DT have gone grunge crazy so don't forget to check out their cards! Bugaboo Stamps are sponsoring us at Addicted to CAS-you know how fab their store is!

I will enter this into the 'Birthday' challenge at Seize the Birthday

Have fun x

Thursday, 24 April 2014

TIME OUT #4

Happy Friday Eve to all!

We had a record number of entries for our Theme challenge at TIME OUT challenges. I had so much fun visiting your blogs and struggled to choose my top picks. Thank you so much for supporting our new challenge and I hope you continue to enjoy our challenges.

It is now time for our next challenge and this week it is our CASE challenge. We are very excited that today we have the super talented and a very big star in our crafting world, joining us....Virginia. I asked Virginia to join us when we were planning TIME OUT a while ago and was over the moon when she agreed. Virginia created a card especially for TIME OUT and today we are asking you to CASE this wonderful creation:

All you need to do is look at Virginia's card and see what inspires you about it and create a papercrafting project from this. It might be the lay out, the colour, the flower, the sentiment-there is so much here to be inspired by!

I loved this card and have followed Virginia's layout. I loved that panel of flowers and the funky looking thread. I tried to re-create this with some simple stamping and then added some embossing. I tried so hard to make my thread look just thrown together to create Virginia's look but I still haven't mastered this! Here is my CASE of Virginia's card:

Our DT have all CASEd this card and what a wonderful selection of cards we have to inspire you. Check then out here.

And don't forget if you win this challenge you will be joining us as our Guest Designer for our next challenge.

As my stamps are all from Paper Smooches I will enter this into their Anything Goes challenge at Paper Smooches Sparks

Time to take some TIME OUT and craft!

Wednesday, 23 April 2014

Who doesn't love Snail Mail!!

Happy Wednesday my crafting friends,

I have been having a fun time over Easter as the lovely Kylie has been staying with me. Kylie runs the challenge blogs Addicted to Stamps and Addicted to CAS and this is how we met. We became friends very quickly and then we had the fab opportunity to meet IRL. She came all the way from Australia to London to visit and we had a fab time. We also got to meet more blogging friends on Monday. Kylie's blog here has a few photos of our time together...a very special time and one I will cherish forever. And Australia beware I will be there soon!!

Back to my card for today:

I couldn't resist making this card when I saw this very old snail stamp. I have no idea where it came from but I was looking for something else and saw this and had the idea for this card. It just made me giggle thinking about it and so I had to do a little stamp surgery to come up with this CAS card.

I thought it was so fun for the 'garden' challenge at CASology and I am so pleased as I didn't have any ideas except flowers until I saw my baby snail.

And also I thought as it is still making me smile, it would be good for the challenge at Less Is More-makes me smile.

And finally the one layer CAS challenge at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge

Tomorrow is our new challenge at TIME OUT Challenges so pop back and check what we have in store for you!!

And a picture of Kylie and me crafting in my dining room on Easter Sunday...yes I am messy!!

Monday, 21 April 2014

STAMPlorations Sketch #10

Its time for our bi-weekly sketch challenge at STAMPloratrions. And here is our sketch:

I found this a real tough one and played around for ages and to be honest I am not that happy with the finished result but here is what I came up with:

I have used the 'Holiday Artsy' stamp set from STAMPlorations and added some sparkle for a real celebration!

For this challenge our Guest Designer is the very talented Carol. I have been following her blog for a while now and do love her creativity. If you don't know her then I urge you to visit her blog here and be inspired!

PRIZE
The sketch challenges are sponsored by our sister shop, All About Scrapping. The winner gets to pick 3 DIGITAL products from the shop — any combination of printable sheets, Photoshop templates, and digital paper packs. The winner will also be invited to be a Guest Designer in next month's sketch challenge.

And if you enter all 3 of our challenges this month we have a very special prize up for grabs-details on our blog here and while you are there check out what the design team have created to inspire you x

Thursday, 17 April 2014

TIME OUT Winners and Challenge Reminder!

Today we are announcing our winners over at TIME OUT, so pop over and find out if you are one!

There is still time to join in our current challenge:

Happy Birthday with the optional twist if a Masculine Birthday

We have some fab prizes this week from our super sponsor Uniko Studios, check out the details here.

My card today is made to hopefully give you a little inspiration. This week I decided not to add the twist and make a girly card.

I have used the Uniko Studio stamps A Gift For You (love those faux sequins!)and Background Builder: Round in Circles and combined these with the sentiment from the 'Time to Celebrate' stamp set from Clearly Besotted Stamps which performed surgery on then gold heat embossed!

Why not take some time out and join in our Happy Birthday challenge at TIME OUT Challenges

Wednesday, 16 April 2014

Addicted to Stamps and More #91

Its time for our Anything Goes Challenge at Addicted to Stamps and More. That means you can let your creativity go wild! This week I didn't go really wild but I did make quite a fun card that was inspired by this week's sketch at CAS(E) this Sketch. This is what I came up with:

My mojo has been a little sleepy recently and when I saw this sketch I didn't have any ideas and then suddenly Sunday afternoon an idea just popped into my head. I have no idea where it came from but it came! I got out my 'tech talk' CAS-ual Fridays stamp set and orange embossing powder! 20 mins later I was happy with my card. Not sure when I will use this but perhaps it would make a fun get well card for someone who has been in hospital for a bit of a do over!

This week at Addicted to Stamps and More we are sponsored by A Random Fan and you should check out their store as they have some fab goodies!

And before you leave don't forget to visit our blog and see what our DT have made to inspire you.

I am also going to enter this into the 'Note' challenge at CASology-my card is a techy note!

Here is the sketch from CAS(E) this Sketch

Monday, 14 April 2014

Curing the Monday Blues!

Today I have been curing the Monday Blues with a spot of water colouring. Last week I saw the photo for the latest Fusion Challenge and loved the string of roses. I immediately thought of having another go at painting water colour roses...no stamps just 'real' painting! The challenge this week at Just Us Girls is water colouring, so this fitted in with my thinking. However thinking was as far as I got with this until I saw the photo at the Curing the Monday Blues Challenge-another vase of roses! All these little nudges made my mind up to act and think no more!!

I have made a couple of cards using this technique before but to be honest had forgotten how to do it! So I watched this fabulous video tutorial by Shery and then decided to give it another go. And this is my finished card:

I followed Shery's video except that I used a water colour pencil to add a little more definition to my roses. I fussy cut one out and popped it up on a foam pad for dimension.Naturally I managed to get in some enamel dots! I am quite happy with my card and enjoyed making it. There are no longer Monday Blues!!

I will enter this into:
Fusion-the photo was my inspiration this week
Just Us Girls-water colour technique
Cure the Monday Blues-photo-the roses and colours inspired me

Saturday, 12 April 2014

Addicted to CAS #36

Second post for today and this time it is for the new challenge at Addicted to CAS. Our host this week is the very talented Michelle who has chosen the following code words for us:

There are so many ways to go with this and our DT have some great examples, you can check them out here. This is what I went with:

The sky is far away, right?? I made this ultra CAS card for a very, very dear blogging friend who just got promoted. I wanted her to remember that she is super talented and really deserved this promotion.

This week we are very lucky to have Anita joining us as our Guest Designer. I have for a long time now been a fan of Anita. I am very luck to have a card she sent me sitting on my mantle piece-a gorgeous CAS card in purple (yes, Anita, I noted you used my fav colour!!)

And for this challenge Stamp Art Design are sponsoring us. Check out their fab store!

Now it id time for you to get inky and join in the fun with us!

Have a great day x

Inkspirational #54

Good Morning All!

The weekend is here and that means it is time for a new challenge at Inkspirational. This week we have the 'Designer's Chioce' and this week the super talented Shauna has chosen the following sketch for us:

This sketch certainly did challenge me and I have used a CAS version of the sketch but I have to say that the centre shape pattern did keep reminding me of a clock. This led me to create this card using Clearly Besotted Stamps

My little alarm clock die is on foam pads for dimension and I couldn't resist adding in a little enamel dot both for fun and I felt I needed one more colour. I do love this and it is so easy to re-create using different colours depending on who it is for.

At Inkspirational this week our Guest Designer is Elaine and she has made a collection of cards to inspire you. They are fabulous-check them out here where you will see all the cards our DT have made this week.

When looking through Clearly Besotted Pinterest board for some ideas of using my 'Time to Celebrate' card I saw this card by Stephanie and realised my card today is very similar. I am not sure if I saw Stephanie's card before but may well have and it sneaked out when making this but I felt she deserved some credit here as my card really does look very similar-so thank you Stephanie x

And don't forget our DT call is still running!!

Thursday, 10 April 2014

TIME OUT #3

It is time for our 3rd challenge at TIME OUT. We had so many wonderful entries for our 'Home Sweet Home' challenge last week that it is going to be hard to choose the winners. But if you check back next Thursday we will announce them!

Now we move onto our Theme with an Optional twist Challenge and this week we have this for you:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

with the optional twist of a Masculine Birthday.

That means you can make any kind of Birthday card you want or you can twist along with us and make a Masculine card. If you do twist then you will be in for the chance of winning a £15 gift voucher from Uniko Studios. This winner will be randomly selected.We have more prizes from Uniko Studios-check the stamp set and dies at the end of my post!

I decided to go with the twist and make this card for my husband's Birthday next week.

I have used the 'explosion' stamp set from Uniko Studio who we are very lucky to have sponsoring us this week. I made the background by repeatedly stamping the explosion stamp and then heat embossing it with clear powder.

This week we are very happy that Beverley is joining us as our Guest Designer. Beverley won our very first challenge and she has made a fabulous card for us. Check it out here where you will also see all the cards from our wonderful Design Team.

And back to the prizes!!

If you are the overall winner you will have the chance to join us as Guest Designer for our next challenge and you will also win these from Uniko Studios

Tempted??? You have until Wed 23rd 5pm GMT to take TIME OUT and join in the inky fun!

Wednesday, 9 April 2014

Addicted to Stamps and More #90

Its time for our photo challenge at Addicted to Stamps and More. And we have this very seasonal photo for you:

I decided not to go down the Easter card route but to focus on these bright colours and patterns. CAS(E) this Sketch provided the inspiration for my lay out. I really wanted to use my 'explosion' stamp from Uniko Studios for this sketch but it took me ages to hunt through my stamps to find other stamps that I thought would compliment it. The ones I have used are actually from vintage Christmas Ornament stamps!

I heat embossed the sentiment from CAS-ual Fridays Stamps. I think this makes for a fun card that would be good for a geeky friend or, come to think of it....my geeky husband!

This week we are lucky to have the very talented Bonnie joining us as our Guest Designer and A Random Fan as our sponsor-check out their fab store here.

Our DT have some super inspiration for you and you can find this on our blog here. Take a look, be inspired and then get stamping!

Here is the sketch that inspired this challenge that I am entering my card into:

Monday, 7 April 2014

STAMPlorations Sketch #9

Happy Monday to all,

It is time for our new sketch at STAMPlorations. Here is our sketch this week

I have gone for Spring colours here and a combo of white on a cream base card. I love this combo but haven't used it for ages. I started with the idea of making a shaker card but it turned into being a window card with no shaking going on! But I liked the crisp look of it and the touch of twine was used to pick up the colour of the enamel dot. The stamp set I used is Patchwork Frenzy-graphic squares

This week we have Kathy joining us our Guest Designer and her card is amazing. Check it out here where you will see all the cards our DT have made to inspire you.

PRIZE

The sketch challenges are sponsored by our sister shop, All About Scrapping. The winner gets to pick 3 DIGITAL products from the shop -- any combination of printable sheets, Photoshop templates, and digital paper packs. The winner will also be invited as a Guest Designer in next month's sketch challenge.

*****

I hope you have a fun day and get inky and join us!

Friday, 4 April 2014

STAMPlorations April Challenge

It is time for our monthly challenge at STAMPlorations and this month we want to see you use stamps and a technique:

There are lots of cool techniques out there that you could choose. I thought of a few when preparing for this challenge. However when I think of what makes me really happy when making cards, it has to be good old plain stamping. Give me some good stamps and some ink and I am happy! I was inspired by the photo challenge at Fusion-the brickwork, text collage stamping on the dress stand and the pop of colour the scarf brings to the photo,(see fusion photo below) inspired this:

I have used the mini mixed media STAMPloration stamp set to create my background and just popped some bright coloured enamel dots for contrast-just like the scarf in the fusion photo but perhaps my dots are more of a contrast, but I actually love this colour against the grungy background.

The winner of our STAMPlorations challenge can choose 2 clear stamp sets from the Vignette, Patchwork Frenzy and Subway Art sets-visit the shop here to have a browse. Plus if you enter all three challenges this month there is an extra special prize that you could win-visit our main challenge blog here for details and to see all fab inspiration from our teams. We are joined by the very creative Sian this month as our GDT.

Have fun choosing a technique this month and I am looking forward to visiting your blogs.

I will also enter this into the Birthday Challenges at Seize the Birthday and Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge

Here is the inspiration for my card from Fusion

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