Essentials by Ellen Pin-Sights – October, CAS on Sunday #95, Seize The Birthday 20 October, SSS Wednesday 26 October

Hello … bonjour … and Happy All Saints Day!  I’m rushing in with a  ‘partly done at the Lake House’ card to share with you today …

The part I did at the Lake House was the stamping of the Essentials by Ellen Mondo Peony (thanks, Ardyth!) onto watercolour paper (thanks, Bev!).  Here at home, I used my Zigs and water to add colour and shading to the bloom and some leaves, trimmed them out and mounted them on foam tape into the corner of a stitched rectangle card panel (courtesy of my sweet friend, Claire in Australia).  The sentiment is made up of two different ones from WPlus9‘s Happy Wishes, I scattered a few sequins around it, layered Spectrum Noir glitter pen onto the flower centre, and added some dark grey splatters, before adhering the panel to a card base.

I’m playing along with four challenges, two of which are closing their doors shortly (hence the rush!) …

Essentials by Ellen Pin-Sights – Inspiration Board (below) … those lovely flowers in the middle

CAS on Sunday – Flowers

Seize The Birthday – Anything Goes (No Topping)

SSS Wednesday – Anything Goes

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

         

                   

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Time Out DT #62, Addicted to CAS #92, Less is More #285, Seize the Birthday – 14 July, SSS Work it Wednesday – June, Virginia’s View #22

Hello … bonjour!  There’s another fabulous challenge starting at Time Out this morning … this fortnight, we have a delicious Home Sweet Home inspiration picture for you to get your creative teeth into … here’s my take on it …

and here’s the photo inspiration …

Bet you can’t guess what took my eye … yep, those glorious drippy rainbow colours!  Papertrey splashy stripes, stamped across the top of my card base … a slender black strip with a SSS white embossed sentiment … and a SSS die cut inlaid into the black.  Rather serendipitously, the loop of the ‘y’ fitted just nicely onto the longest stripe … I’d love to say it was all part of a well planned design, but that would be a big fib, so I won’t!

What takes your eye in this photo … the cool frames, the highlighted alphabet, the hanging cluster of lampshades, all the glorious white space … or something else?  Whatever it is, we’d love you to be inspired enough to make a card and link it up to our gallery.  All the details are over at Time Out, along with heaps of ideas from our fabulous DT and our lovely Guest Designer, Stephanie from My Ink Well (you need to go visit if you don’t know Stephanie … you’ll have a fabulous time browsing round her delicious blog!).  Hope to see you there!

I’m playing along with five delightful challenges …

Addicted to CAS – Stripes

Less is More – Repetition

Seize the Birthday – Bold and Bright

SSS Work it Wednesday – Dies or Stencils

Virginia’s View – All About Colours

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

                  

         

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Happy Birthday, Darnell! Addicted to Stamps & More #200, CAS(E) this Sketch #179, Seize the Birthday – 30 June, SSS Wednesday – 29 June

Hello … bonjour … and Happy Birthday, Darnell!  We all know her (and if you don’t you really should!), we all love her … she’s a truly wonderful soul!  In blogland, she’s sweet, thoughtful, funny, delightful, generous, caring, clever, charming, creative … and if ever you have the good fortune to meet her, you’ll find she’s exactly the same in real life … only better because she’s there with you!  Oh, and she’s kind to furry animals too … especially hamsters!  Wishing you the Happiest Birthday, ma chère amie … may you be blessed with love, joy, fun and laughter today and always!  Your card is on it’s way … might even be with you by now … but just in case it hasn’t arrived yet, I thought you might like to see it on your big day …

The bright sunny ‘happy’ represents Darnell in her amazing Playhouse … she’s surrounded by all the lovely flora and foliage of her gorgeous garden … and if you look really closely, you might see Hammy peeking out from behind the lower cluster of flowers.  Or is he … ???  In homage to Darnell‘s campaign to reduce the size of Mount NBUS worldwide (Never Before Used Schtuff), I’ve been saving these Papertrey images until now … this is their first public inking (there’s been lots of private practice, but you really don’t want to see any of that).  I couldn’t capture the Wink of Stella that makes the sentiment and tiny blooms shimmer, but it’s there … as are the miniscule pearls!   If you haven’t already, do hop over to the Playhouse and leave the Birthday Girl some birthday love … and if you haven’t had the joy of meeting Darnell before, then delay no longer … go … your day and life will be better as a result!  Looks as though Hammy’s ready to party … very handsome … just get there before he starts on the cake … oops, too late …

         

As well as heading to the Playhouse, Darnell‘s card is also joining in at …

Addicted to Stamps & More – Happy Birthday … congratulations due here too, to Kylie and the DT … 4th anniversay and 200 challenges … here’s to many, many more!

CAS(E) this Sketch – See Below … orientation is changed, but the wreath-iness around the sentiment is there … hope that’s ok!

Seize the Birthday – No Toppings

SSS Wednesday – Anything Goes

Life has been a smidge busy here so I’m still playing catch up …. and am getting there … if you haven’t seen me recently, you will over the weekend!  Thanks so much for coming by, your visits and comments are always a joy!  Anita 🙂

         

         

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Uniko #33 – Guest Designer – Mid Challenge Reminder, Addicted to Stamps & More #199, Seize the Birthday – 16 June, SSS Wednesday – 22 June, The Paper Players #300

Hello … bonjour!   Lots of activity on the old blog this week … what fun!  We’re half way through the delicious June challenge over at Uniko, where I’m delighted to be Guest Designing with Bev and the DT … thanks so much for the invitation and warm welcome, ladies!  Did you see the inspiration photo last week?  It’s a colourful, whimsical one with so many possibilities (it’s just below my card) … here’s my second take on it …

and here’s that fabulous photo …

See what I mean about the possibilities?  This time round, I went a little more doodlie!  The top of the card was masked and I stamped a random pattern of leaves and dots (Uniko Nature’s Treasures 1, Background Builders – Vines) using similar colours to those in the inspiration.  Once it was all dry, my white gel pen came out to play … and wandered about doodling highlights over all the leaf sprigs!  I stamped the Uniko ‘smile’ into the now unmasked space, white heat embossed a supplementary sentiment from SSS onto a slender strip of grey and attached the strip over the ‘join’.  I added a healthy coating of Wink of Stella to the sentiment and some sugary glitter to the tiny dots (although the WoS still isn’t playing nicely with the camera) … would you like a closer look …

Have you joined us already?  Would you like to?  There’s so much to play with in this picture … style, doodles, colours, shapes, flowers, lines … let your imagination roam … let your fingers create … and link up to the gallery, we’d love to see you there!  All the details are over at the Uniko blog, together with all kinds of fabulous inspiration from the amazingly talented Design Team … do go and meander … and enjoy!

My doodlie leaves are off to a quartet of challenges …

Addicted to Stamps & More – CAS

Seize the Birthday – Anything Goes

SSS Wednesday – Add Some Shimmer

The Paper Players – Celebration

A big thank you, once again, to Bev and the DT at Uniko … it’s been so much fun playing cards with you this month!  Thanks so much to you too for coming by, your visits and comments are always a joy!  Anita 🙂

         

         

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Uniko #33 – Guest Designer, AAA Cards #66, CAS on Sunday #85, Seize the Birthday – 16 June, SSS Wednesday – 15 June

Hello … bonjour!  It’s not often I post on consecutive days … but I am today as I’m delighted to be Guest Designing with the DT over at Uniko for this month’s delicious challenge … how exciting … thanks so much, Bev, for the invitation!  We have a fabulous photo to inspire you this time round … it’s a little further down … here’s where I went with it …

and here’s the creative muse … delectable isn’t it?

I picked out the scrumptious colour palette and the white detailing for my card … and started by heat embossing the Uniko butterfly off the edge of a panel of Ranger watercolour card.  The butterfly was coloured with Zigs … I added the colour just to the inside edges of the embossing and used a waterbrush to pull it out and blend it across the wings.  There’s a soft blue halo of watercolour wash around the butterfly … and some delicate splatters because the butterfly is  disturbing the air as it flutters!  The Uniko ‘celebrate’ was stamped in grey (to maintain the soft look), the supplementary sentiment is from Winnie & Walter and I added some Ranger Enamel Accents to finish off.

How would you like to play along with us?  There’s so much to see in this photo … colours, white accenting, circles, florals, hearts, doodling … I even spotted a snowflake!  Why not let your imagination roam and see what it comes up with … we’d love to see you in the gallery!  All the details are over at the Uniko blog, together with all kinds of delicious inspiration from the wonderfully talented Design Team … do go and take a look … and enjoy!

My butterfly is also fluttering off to …

AAA Cards – Watercolouring

CAS on Sunday – Butterfly … my first time playing along!

Seize the Birthday – Anything Goes

SSS Wednesday – Animal Magic (it does say butterflies to buffalos!)

Thanks once again to Bev and the DT for having me … and thanks to you too for coming by, your visits and comments are always a joy!  Anita 🙂

         

         

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Happy Birthday, Ardyth! Seize The Birthday – 19 May, SSS Monday – 23 May, SSS Wednesday – 25 May

Hello … bonjour … and bon dimanche!  Hope your (long if you’re having one) weekend is going splendidly!  Today is a special day for a fun and lovely friend (I know as we spent a fabulous week together IRL, along with the other BABES, at the Lake House) … she’s an uber talented, wonderfully creative and delightful CAS designer … Happy, Happy Birthday, Ardyth!  May your day be blessed with love, fun and laughter (and cake!) … and may the coming year be your best one yet!  I made you this card … it might already be with you … if it isn’t, it’s not far away!

I used SSS Lots of Dots to stamp all these different sized rainbow bubbles … they’re done in two or three layers of Distress Ink each (yay for MISTI!) … with some ink wiped off on the second and third passes to create a sense of dimension.  The colour on each bubble was blended with Wink of Stella and I heat embossed the Papertrey sentiment.  The panel was adhered flat to the card base with Ardyth-esque black strips top and bottom.  I remembered to snap a detail photo before popping the card in the mail … but didn’t remember to check the focus!  It’s not exactly clear … but you can at least see all the shimmery colour …

If you’re one of those rare people who’ve never visited Ardyth (what??) … do go over and enjoy oodles of awesome inspiration … and while you’re there you could leave some Happy Birthday wishes too!  BTW … take a picnic (you won’t want to leave) … and be prepared to be wowed!  There might even be a piece of bubbly birthday cake to be had …  Ardyth‘s card is heading to …

Seize the Birthday – No Toppings

SSS Monday – Make A Wish … Birthday Wishes, of course … each of those bubbles has one in it!

SSS Wednesday – Anything Goes

I’ll be setting out on my journey of discovery around blogland shortly, to see what everyone’s been up to … look forward to seeing you there!  Thanks so much for coming by, your visits and comments are always a joy!  Anita 🙂

                   

Time Out DT #57 Mid Challenge Reminder, AAA Cards #65, Happy Little Stampers Dies – May, Seize The Birthday – 19 May, SSS Monday – 23 May, SSS Wednesday 25 May

Hello … bonjour!  We’ve arrived at another Thursday so I’m popping in with a reminder about the latest challenge at Time Out, where we’re half way through our ‘Inspired By Words’ theme … ‘may all your weeds by wildflowers’.  Lots and lots more white space for my second take on this delightful quote …

My aqua and lilac bouquet is from SSS (Lovely Spring) … the leaves and those tiny little buds at the end of some of them were stamped directly on the card base … and the die cut blooms were mounted onto different levels of foam dots over them.  I cut a Papertrey Happy and adhered it flat to the base, stamped a complementary sentiment from SSS and scattered a few SSS sequins around.  Voilà!

Have you been inspired by this lovely phrase yet?  You can use any or all of the words as a jumping off point for your creativity … and we’d love to see you in the gallery!  There’s a prize this time round as we’re sponsored by Clearly Besotted Stamps … the overall winner, as voted for by the DT will win a £15 gift card!  All the details are over at the Time Out blog, along with plenty of fabulous ideas from our wonderful DT and our super talented Guest Designer, Julia from der kleine klecks … hope to see you there!

Our special birthday challenge for the lovely Sandie (CAS with the option of purple) is also still running (until Monday) … why not come along and join in … the party’s here … still in full swing!

I’m playing along at …

AAA Cards – The 2nd Big Birthday Bash!  Congratulations on two splendid years … what a party!

Happy Little Stampers Dies – Anything Goes

Seize The Birthday – Dimension (my sweet blooms!)

SSS Monday – Make a Wish (wishing a special someone Happy Birthday)

SSS Wednesday – Anything Goes

That’s it from me for now … hoping to be back over the weekend with a little something … Time Eating Monster permitting that is!  Thanks so much for coming by, your visits and comments are always a joy!  Anita 🙂