Time Out DT #19 (Embossing), Less Is More #198 (More Than One Tree), Uniko Studio #16 (Christmas Anything Goes), Moxie Fab World – November (Tree-mendous Trees)

There’s another fabulous challenge starting today at Time Out and this fortnight, our theme is … embossing with an optional twist of sparkle!  Here’s my embossed, sparkly card …

I stamped a green ombré background onto some spare card (as demonstrated here by Laura Bassen), adhered the Memory Box tree outlines onto it (cut whilst at the Lake House … thanks, Ardyth!) and then did some easy trimming out.  The trees were treated to a coat of Wink of Stella, topped with Glossy Accents, and were set aside to dry.  I die cut a window into a white card panel, stamped the Uniko Studio sentiment, embossed the panel using a swiss dots EF, and added a fine strip of glitter paper to each side.  On the card base, I adhered some glitter paper where the window was to go and popped the embossed panel up on foam dots (thanks, Geri!) over the top.  The trees were popped up on foam dots in the aperture and adhered flat where they touched the embossed panel.  I finished by adding a minute star sequin (thanks, Darnell!) to each tree and to the J in the sentiment.

So, where will your creative imagination take you this time around … dry embossing … heat embossing … embossing paste … and will you add the optional sparkle twist or go without?  As usual, our overall winner will be invited to be a Guest Designer for a future challenge and in addition, if you use the twist, you’ll be in with a random chance of winning a stamp set from our sponsor, Avocado Arts!  I do hope you’ll be able to find time to have some fun and play along … all the details, together with a ton of inspiration from our awesome Guest Designer Lesley and the Design Team, are over at Time Out.  See you in the gallery!

I’m also linking up with …

Less Is More – More Than One Tree

Uniko Studio – Anything Goes (You’ll want to check this out … there’s a new DT member (Time Out‘s lovely Sandie!) … and there are prizes … even if you don’t use Uniko products!)

Moxie Fab World – Treemendous Trees

Thanks so much for coming by, your visits and comments are always a joy!  Anita 🙂

          

Time Out #18 Reminder (Home Sweet Home), AEI♥U #18 (Holiday), Virginia’s View #9 (All Things Metallic), Make The Day Special – November (Colour Inspiration), Moxie Fab World – November (Tree-mendous Trees), Loll’s Twelve Tags of Christmas

I’m popping in with a quick reminder … there’s still a week to go in the latest Time Out challenge!  We (the Design Team) have plenty of mid challenge inspiration for you over at the Time Out blog, so why not have a meander over there and see how the Home Sweet Home photograph sparks your creativity?  Here’s the wonderful inspiration photo …

and here’s my latest take on it …

This is a little different from the norm for me … it’s either a very slim card or a very long tag (it’s the latter … there’s twine on it)!   I saw the planted pine cones and the tall, slender candle sticks in the picture … and thought graphic Christmas trees!  A snow bank was sponged at the bottom of the kraft scrapling, it was embossed in white and was dabbed over with Espresso ink to emphasise the texture.  I used an SSS stencil for the snow, again white embossed.  A tall triangle (from Avery Elle‘s Bright Days) was stamped three times onto spare card and double embossed, two in silver (Hero Arts) and one in platinum (Ranger).  They were trimmed out, covered with Versamark, embossed again and popped up onto the snow bank with foam dots.  I finished with a Papertrey sentiment, a red gem atop each of the trees and a little twine.

I’m joining in with …

AEI♥U – Holidays

Virginia’s View – All Things Metallic

Make The Day Special – Colour Inspiration (Option 3) – Avery Elle from the store!

Moxie Fab World – Treemendous Trees

ETA:  Loll’s Twelve Tags of Christmas – Thanks, Loll, for the prompt … wasn’t sure it was mixed media enough!

Thanks so much for coming by, your visits and comments are always a joy!  Anita 🙂

                       

         

One Layer Simplicity #9 (Hip To Be Square), NBUS #2, Moxie Fab World Fabulous Friday 12/9 (Getting Fancy), Winnie & Walter Join In To Win – September, SSS Monday 22/9 (Stencils/Stamps)

My card tonight is one I made a little while ago … I took photo’s of a whole load of cards I made and sent out to sweet friends, some of which have already been shared here … others, I thought, I’d show later.  Well, later’s arrived!  My crafting-in-marginal-moments phase is still going on at the moment, so whilst there’s a scheduled Time Out DT post due, the only other card in (very slow!) progress isn’t finished yet.  Here’s today’s little checkered number (which one of you will recognise!) …

The background was built up using a TAWS stamp … it has with two rows of five small squares, so I inked it up in sets of colours and stamped it repeatedly across the card to create a rainbow/ombré checkerboard.  The Winnie & Walter sentiment was stamped and heat embossed, and I added a little subtle bling.  Voila!

Popping along to  …

One Layer Simplicity (Hip to Be Square) – the fabulous Ardyth is the host this month … love the theme and planned out quite a few ideas in my head … unfortunately, that’s where they stayed!  Squeezing in here during the closing moments!

Darnell’s NBUS Challenge – you all know about this already!  The checkerboard stamp is my NBUS and this is my third and final entry … which is p’raps as well seeing as Mr Linky will be on door duty tomorrow!

Moxie Fab World Fabulous Friday (Getting Fancy) – have a look at the amazing inspiration photo below … I thought all my colours and the shiny black sentiment were a pretty good match to all those cool bottles of nail polish!

Winnie & Walter Join In To Win – love using these W&W big sentiments!

SSS Monday (Stencils and/or Stamps) – I went with stamps … after all it is Stamptember!

I have a couple of hello’s to say to two new followers tonight … non-blogging card maker Karen … and Rachel, who has just posted her first lovely card over at inkyfingersareme … and is in the process of setting up a craft room.  You can check out the ‘before’ photo’s on Rachels blog … and then pop back for the ‘afters’ when it’s done … I know she’ll appreciate the visit!  You’re both very welcome, ladies … and thank you 🙂

Back tomorrow with the new Time Out Challenge … and hope to get my on-the-way card done before the weekend … see you then!  Thanks so much for coming by, your visits and comments are always a joy!  Anita 🙂

                   

                   

 

Addicted to CAS #45 (Geometric), Moxie Fab World Fabulous Friday 15/8 (Trendy Triangles), SSS Work It Wednesday #7 (Blue), SSS Monday 18/8 (Anything Goes)

Life’s been a bit full on recently, so there hasn’t been a great deal of opportunity to get near my craft table.  However, a ‘little-by-little-as-I’m-flying-by’ approach of using (literally!) a few minutes a day has resulted in this card … started on Sunday and finished tonight!

It really did lend itself to being done a bit at a time … these were my few-minutes-at-a-time flying visit steps …

• I die cut two HA triangle backgrounds, allowed the triangles to tumble out of the first and kept the other one intact.
• Did some colouring with Promarkers … the open die cut with cool grey, the full die cut with duck egg blue (the easiest way to get all those triangles coloured quickly), and some tumbled out triangles with four other colours (taken from MFW inspiration picture).
• Trimmed the open die cut to size, adhered it to the card base and popped in all the coloured triangles … the random pattern evolved!
• Added a darker grey strip to the top of the die cut, stamped the Avery Elle sentiment and added a touch of colour to the inverted v pointing to the ‘really’.

It’s quite masculine looking at the moment … it can be made more feminine with a flying visit touch of Wink of Stella, some Glossy Accents and sequins/bling, depending on who’s going to get it.  Voila … a marginal time card!

I’m playing along at …

Addicted to CAS – Geometric

Moxie Fab World Fabulous Friday – Trendy Triangles

SSS Work It Wednesday – Blue

SSS Monday – Anything Goes

This post is similar to my card … done in chunks … looking forward to a meandering-through- blogland chunk soon!  Thanks so much for coming by, your visits and comments are always a joy!  Anita 🙂

                   

AEI♥U #11 (One Word), Moxie Fab World 3/7 (Wonderful Words), SSS Wednesday 16/7 (Spots and Dots), SSS Work It Wednesday #6 (Anything Goes), Inkspirational #61 (Splash)

It’s been so much fun having some dedicated time to play this afternoon … I only made three cards, but had a blast just creating with paper and ink!  Here’s the last of my cards for the weekend …

A little while ago, I was doing some watercolouring with Distress Inks and had some ink left on my mat afterwards … so inspired by Shirley (be proud, my friend!) I found some watercolour card, smooched it into the splodginess and set it aside to dry.  This is a piece of it.  I die cut two Avery Elle hello’s … one out of the panel and one in navy card.  I fixed the cut panel to the base card, fitted the navy hello into it and adhered the watercolour one over the top, slightly offset.  Two strips of navy were added top and bottom of the panel, Wink of Stella was applied to them and to the hello’s, and I scattered a little bling about.  Voila!

I’m playing along here …

AEI♥U – One Word (the die is Avery Elle)

Moxie Fab World – Wonderful Words Challenge (word dies)

SSS Wednesday – Spots and Dots (rather unruly, but spots and dots nevertheless!)

SSS Work It Wednesday – Anything Goes (first entry)

ETA:  Inkspirational – Splash (thanks to Sandie and Carol for pointing me in the right direction … my first time playing here!)

Would love to have some more time available to experiment create this coming week, but I’m pretty certain that’s not going to happen … there’s another busy one ahead.  However, I will be pottering around blogland when I can, so I’ll look forward to seeing you there … and being inspired!  Thanks so much for coming by, your visits and comments are always a joy!  Anita 🙂

                   

CASology #101 (Wood), Less Is More #178 (Recycled Item), Simply Create Too #64 (Sentiment As Highlight), SSS Monday 23/6 (Use This More), SSS Wednesday 25/6 (Anything Goes), Moxie Fab World 3/7 (Wonderful Words)

This is my first card of the weekend …

This and the next card took me a long time to make … Friday night I rather recklessly tried taking a hot tray out of the oven with an ungloved hand … silly really as the other hand was gloved.  Anyhow, because skin and hot metal don’t play well together, there was a bit of an ouch or two as the thankfully short battle raged.  Fortunately, hours of iced water helped a lot and the impact is less serious than it seemed it was going to be … but I am a bit one handed at the moment … hence two days to make two cards!

The panel on this one started life as a mushroom basket (well, it’s original start was as a tree, but that was before I knew it) … it’s a little thicker than chipboard and the grain is really nice, so I saved it, just in case (we all do that, don’t we?).  I tried die cutting the Mama Elephant Hello, but the wood was just too thick, although it embossed it beautifully.  The embossing was coloured with Promarkers and ‘varnished’ with Glossy Accents … I wanted to create a kind of marquetry feel.  The panel was mounted on the card base over some Promarker coloured plasterboard tape and I added a scattering of Neat & Tangled sequins.

Playing along with these challenges …

CASology – Wood

Less Is More – Use A Recycled Item (the mushroom basket!)

Simply Create Too – Your Sentiment Is The Highlight (my first time joining in)

SSS Monday – I Ought To Use This More (this fabulous wood … it was a big basket!)

SSS Wednesday – Anything Goes

ETA:  Moxie Fab World – Wonderful Words Challenge (word dies)

I’ll be back in a little while with my second card … it takes a long time to type one handed … well without too many mistakes that is!  Thanks so much for coming by, your visits and comments are always a joy!  Anita 🙂

                   

         

Make The Day Special #3 (Sketch), Catered Crop 8/6 (Manly Men), SSS Monday 9/6 (Paint), Moxie Fab World 3/7 (Wonderful Words)

When I made my first panel-on-an-angle card last week,  with all the embossed lines and watercolouring, there was a piece of the panel left over, that I carefully cocooned so I could use it in future!  Well, the future arrived a bit quicker than I expected … here …

Those who saw the earlier card will know that the stripes are an Annabelle Stamps border, stamped a few times, heat embossed in white and watercoloured.  I adhered black strips to the angled part and mounted the panel on the card base.  The hello is from Avery Elle, cut four times in white and once in black, stacked and clear embossed.  What look like trendy enamel dots are brads with their legs cut off!  This is not a colour combo I’m that comfortable with … and card puts me in mind of mens’ striped shirts … but it’s a Good Thing every so often to get a bit uncomfortable … you never know where it will lead!

I’m playing along with …

Make The Day Special – Sketch (I flipped it)

Catered Crop – Manly Man (for the first time)

Simon Says Stamp Monday – Paint (watercoloured stripes)

ETA:  Moxie Fab World – Wonderful Words Challenge (word dies)

I was also planning on joining in with The Card Concept (colours) … oops, got the timing on that one soooo wrong!

Thanks so much to everyone who took the trouble to tell me about using Versamark ink (for embossing) with dye ink, after my last post.  Being able to double ink instead of having to double stamp with a stampamajig is going to be so much easier!

As some of you will know, Feedly is offline at the moment due to a Denial Of Service Attack … I have all my follows and updates delivered by Feedly so I’m a bit lost this evening without you all.  I’m guessing some of you won’t be reading this because of it!  I’ll be round to visit as soon as I can (roughly translated as when Feedly is back up again) … in the meantime, I’ll just do some wandering … and may see you there!  Thanks so much for coming by, your visits and comments are always a joy!  Anita 🙂

                    

Less is More #170 (Three Colours/Shades), A Blog Named Hero #43 (Inspired By A Hero Artist), Keep It Simple #39 (Watercolour), Moxie Fab World (Hip on Handwriting)

After my last sunshiny card, I’m sticking with shades of yellow …

I’m playing at Less is More where we have a colour challenge … use three colours or use three shades of one colour … I went with the latter.  At A Blog Named Hero, we’re being Inspired By A Hero Artist … I chose the awesome Jennifer McGuire and did a simplified version of these cards done with the HA Tiny Flags background stamp.   As I used water colouring, I’m joining in at Keep It Simple and because there’s a scripty part to the sentiment, I’m linking up again at Moxie Fab World’s Hip on Handwriting challenge.

I stamped and clear embossed the background onto a water colour card panel, squished some HA Butter Bar, Memento Dandelion and Squeezed Lemonade DI onto my craft mat, and did a colour wash over the flags, merging the shades from dark to light.  Whilst the panel was drying, the Papertrey sentiment was stamped (in two steps), overstamped in Versamark and clear embossed on the base card.  I split the water colour panel, popped it up on foam dots on the base above and below the sentiment, and added a scattering of sequins.

It’s about time to get dinner sorted … back later for an inspiring wander through all the galleries for these challenges!  Thanks so much for coming by, your visits and comments are always a joy!  Anita 🙂

           

Muse #65 (Gillian Ross), Moxie Fab World (Hip On Handwriting), SSS Monday 28/4 (Not So Mellow Yellow), SSS Wednesday 30/4 (Anything Goes)

Yellow and white are so splendid together … fresh, sunny, happy-inducing colours …

My inspiration here came first from the super talented Gillian who is the GD at Muse this week … her deliciously CAS card is below.  I haven’t played along with Muse in a while and when I saw Gillian’s card, it called to me, temptingly, so here I am … with the same layout and a handwritten word taking centre stage.  This ‘lovely hello’ also gives me a chance to play along for the second time with Moxie Fab World’s Hip On Handwriting challenge and as my colour palette came from Simon Says Stamp Monday‘s Not So Mellow Yellow theme this week, I’m joining in there too.  My last link will be at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday, where there’s an Anything Goes week.

I coloured a white card panel with different shades of Promarker yellows, cut the Mama Elephant hello from another panel, adhered the two together and trimmed them so that the word would go off the edge at each side.  The ‘lovely’ was stamped in Memento Espresso Truffle, I dry embossed a border and popped the panel up on the card base on foam dots.  Blooms and leaves from WPlus9’s Fresh Cut Florals (yay, I finally got them!) were cut, stamped and arranged in the corner of the panel using foam dots of different heights to adhere them.  I added a smidge of Wink of Stella and a touch of Glossy Accents to the flower centres, and a cluster of bling finished it off.

Hope your weekend’s got off to a sunshiny start!  Thanks so much for coming by, your visits and comments are always a joy!  Anita 🙂

         

         

Fusion #8 (Colourful Chevrons), Moxie Fab World (Hip On Handwriting), A Blog Named Hero #42 (Layer Cake), Keep It Simple #38 (Bright Spark), SSS Monday 21/4 (Big Stamp)

I’ve had a bit of a card making fest today, so I apologise in advance … there’ll be a few posts appearing this afternoon and evening.  I’ll keep it all as CAS as possible (!) … here’s the first …

I was inspired here by the photo at Fusion … coloured, chevron patterned paper straws (see below).  As I used a big Hero Arts stamp for the background, I’m also playing along with A Blog Named Hero’s Layer Cake (second time) and Simon Says Stamp Monday‘s Big Stamp week.  The shimmery die cut hello fits nicely into Moxie Fab World’s Hip on Handwriting challenge and lastly, I’m joining in with Keep It Simple‘s Bright Spark theme.

I stamped the HA background in Versamark on a white card panel and clear embossed it.   Actually, I stamped it twice because the first time I didn’t press down hard enough to transfer the ink … and when I did it a second time, the pattern wasn’t quite matched up (ever tried to do that with a big solid background stamp?  Yikes!).  When it was embossed, though, I quite liked the pattern, so I used it!  The rainbow of inks were sponged over the chevrons and the panel was trimmed to size.  I die cut the ‘hello’ four times in black, adhered them all together, clear embossed them and added a liberal coat of Wink of Stella.  I cut the same hello out of the card panel, adhered the panel to the card base and slotted the dimensional word into place.  Strips of black card top and bottom were the finishing touches … and I still have a multicoloured hello to use somewhere else!

I’m off to link up … and I’ll be back!  Thanks so much for coming by, your visits and comments are always a joy!  Anita 🙂