Here is a card which I made for a friend of ours. We went to the same church, we sing in the same choir and in fact I taught his son, who is now a consultant anaesthetist, when he was 5 years old. So our friendship goes back quite a long time. Besides singing he also used to play the tuba, so I thought a musical reference would be fitting! I cut the numbers with my Silhouette portrait, and added some stamping from Artemio. The sentiment was computer generated!

I used an MFT faux stitched circle to mount the momentous number on!

Watercooler Wednesday - All things Masculine

This is the second in the series of Guest Designer spots that I am undertaking for the challenges at 

As this is a German site, I tried to find a German link and this stamp from Lawn Fawn just fit the bill.

The challenge this time is  Colour of Autumn

For this card I dropped splodges of alcohol ink onto photographic paper and when dry, die cut the foliage sprigs. I dry embossed a twiggy image for a base panel and added the simple sentiment.

Job Done!

It would be great if you could join in the fun. They'd love to see you there!

Addicted to CAS - Autumn

Here is a final contribution for the challenge at CAS Christmas.

 

I had got rid of most of the papers that I had accumulated over the years, as I was finding little use for them in my current style of card making, however I did keep back a few and this  is from a freebie book which came with a magazine. I used this sketch for a card a couple of days ago and really liked how it turned out and so used it again!

It's from Freshly Made Sketches and my card is practically identical to the first one is layout and lettering etc.

Just recently, I happened upon a challenge blog and a papercraft company, both with the same name,  which was new to me. It is Create a Smile.

It's a prerequisite of the challenge to use at least one of their images, however they do offer some digital freebies. I decided to order a few things, some stamps and dies which came like lightening from Germany! The site is really user friendly for English speakers and the products are terrific. These stamps arrived today and stamped absolutely perfectly straight away... none of the games you have to play to condition a new stamp. I was most impressed. Lots of their stamp sets are offered in either English or German which is really useful!

SO... this card is based on their sketch this time 

however it turned out very like the sketch I drew for Christmas Craft Creations

I added a little cloud from an MFT set.

I think I will be paying a few more visits to the Create a Smile online  Shop!

Having not made a skinny card for ages, I now find that I have made two in practically as many days, but both have been in response to challenges.

 

It's funny how a card develops... this started with a colour and a circle. The colour is Speckled Egg Distress Oxide ink, although it looks a tad dark in this picture. 

I stamped some splatters in Versamark and then heat embossed with clear EP. Then I dabbed on the ink, trying to get it as deep a colour as possible. I used the tree aperture die from Simon Says Stamp, together with a Presscut circular die which was just a tad bigger in order to make the frame. In fact I cut two and stacked them. I embossed just the lower section of the front panel with part of an embossing folder and  added a few stars which were the waste from a previous card and were still on my desk. The simple one word sentiment was stacked three times with the top layer in the blue, but it was overpowering and didn't go with the white frame of the image, so I cut another one in white and added it over the blue... you can just see some of the blue from some angles.

CASology - One word sentiment, one focal image!

I keep my dies on magnetic sheets in A4 sized plastic boxes and group them in themes. This little lot came from the Hearts/Stars/Baby box!  I looked through all the star dies and came up with this. I have several sets of nesting star dies and this pendant was made with a mixture of them. The border on the first one I tried was too skinny, so I chose a smaller heart for the centre cut. I added the eyelet with my Crop-a-dile and embossed the whole star at the back with a Swiss Dots embossing folder. The sentiment was computer generated. I think the star circle dies are by Alexandra Renke, although I can't find the packaging, which I store separately.

I just saw a sketch which really appealed to me at Colours and Sketches

There's still time to join in with the watercolour challenge at CAS Mix up!

Here I used matching stamps and dies from Clearly Besotted. I added lots of Distress Oxide colours one by one to the stamps, using my stamping platform and cleaning my stamps between each addition! When I had finished, there was still evidence of the lines which the edge of the stamp pad had left so I lightly spritzed the images with water to diffuse the colours. I used a base of dry embossing from a Cuttlebug folder and added a tiny sentiment from Personal Impressions. I don't know if the small leaf had a matching die or not, but I couldn't find one, so I just fussy cut that one.

I love these skeleton leaves from Sizzix. This time I backed them with some gold mirror card  onto which I had dropped various autumnal shades of alcohol ink! These literally were scraps of card.. not large enough to cover the three leaves altogether, but I looked for an interesting bit of colour which would just about cover each leaf individually!. I had just enough left for the sentiment.

Addicted to CAS - LEAF

I entered a challenge some time ago and was asked if I would like to do a Guest Designer Spot, so this it the first of those occasions at Stamps, Fun = Creativity!

This week it's 

ANYTHING GOES

This card came about because I was asked to make a card for someone who is always very particular about his appearance and is always smartly dressed even at breakfast. I have made a dinner suit card once before and it was tricky trying to remember what I did! Basically I cut a couple of black rectangles and scored and folded and trimmed until I had the lapels. I cut a strip of double stitched white card for the button placket and used a die to cut the bow tie. The waste (holes) from a border die gave me the buttons.

Here is a card made with scraps of offcuts. The stripy backdrop is from a die by Reverse Confetti,  the white hearts are the waste from a Memory Box heart circle die and the hearts on stems are from Impression Obsession. I made it with a couple of challenges in mind.

When I saw the challenge at Just Us Girls, I immediately thought of this fairly newly acquired little die from Creative-Depot. Being all white on white, it's a little tricky to see the half snowflake descending over the aperture. I dry embossed a snowy backdrop for the shaker part and filled it with creamy white sequins and little shiny things. The sentiment is stacked three times.

Extremely CAS, but I guess that's me!

Here is another card for the challenge at CAS Christmas, where the prerequisite this time is PLAID!

I found this scrap of digital paper in my scraps drawers and simply used some dies to make the focal point and the sentiment. One thing which surprised me somewhat was how 'off' the design looked when the dies were not placed appropriately on the paper. By that I mean that the smidge of pattern looked dreadful if it wasn't centralised and aligned in the two cuts. Maybe I have a touch of OCD! This was the third try with the word JOY, but I'm satisfied with this placement. Bothe the tree and the sentiment are popped into dimensional strips to add a little dimension.

Merry Little Christmas  - Anything goes

Guest Designer

I love making Christmas cards and for several months I was a designer at Christmas Craft Creations. During that period we were asked if any of us (designers) would like to design a sketch for a future challenge. From those submitted, this one, drawn by yours truly, was selected as the winner. Since then I have since stepped down from the team, but Charlotte (Lady Joyful) graciously asked if I would like to be the Guest designer for this particular challenge. Thank you so much Charlotte,  I am delighted to do so.

I have been wanting to use this Macra-Made for you die by The Greetery for some time. I cut everything from white card and coloured the pot with a little Distress Oxide ink at the sides and then spritzed with water to let the colour spread. The leaves, which were from some tiny dies whose origin I can't place, were also coloured with a couple of shades of DOI and again spritzed. To give the pot a 3D appearance, I put a dimensional pad behind the centre and stuck down the sides. The sentiment from Sugar Pea Designs, was heat embossed in silver EP.

Addicted to CAS - Nature

I found trying to get a decent picture of this stark white card really difficult. I tried different backdrops but just couldn't seem to get anything right. For now this will have to do!

I fancied making a white on white card and had a couple of challenges in mind.

Christmas 24  - Add some holly

I began with this sketch in mind, but deviated somewhat along the way|!|

The bauble was made with a freebie die plus a smaller circle die plus a Sizzix holly embossing folder. I began to emboss the horizontal element of the sketch but then got carried away and did the whole width of the front panel. I will quite understand if this is totally ineligible for the challenge!

I'm not sure where the holly die came from, that may well have been a freebie too!

The sentiment is from Simon Says Stamp.

It's time to begin preparing Sunday lunch if we want to eat any time soon!

I recently got a shipment from Creative-Depot in Germany, which included this thing which looks like a die but is in fact an embossing gizmo. It made the snowflake impressions for the backdrop to this card. The pass for the second impression flattened the first impression, so I ran the piece of card through the machine again without the 'die', to get both impressions looking similar!

I made this card for the challenge at CAS Christmas which this time is calling for plaid! 

This particular piece is from Pink Petticoat, called Little Check. I'm  not sure if they are still in business, but their printable papers suit me as they are monochromatic and snippets fit well into the CAS genre. I made a tag from a couple of star dies, adding an eyelet, something I haven't used for years and had to look up how to use my Crop O dile on the internet. I added a little gold twine and wasn't quite sure how to stop the ends of it from fraying, so I just dipped them in a little white school glue and let them dry. I guess time will tell whether or not that will work!

ABC Christmas T for Two (Snowflake impressions)

Merry Little Christmas - Anything Christmas Goes

Just Us Girls - 6 of Anything  (5 white stars + 1 plaid star.

Also 6 Pearls

It's time for another challenge at CAS Mix Up

We'd like to welcome  

Ros (Mikey's Mom) as Guest Designer.