Clean & Textured … And … Clean & Vibrant

Hello … bonjour!  I have a couple of cards to share today, both of which are pretty clean … though they are rather different from one another.  First up, a texture-y, soft, natural-looking little number …

          

A Lawn Fawn embossed edge panel, stencilled with Tumbled Glass DI and heat embossed in clear, with a couple of Concord & 9th‘s Layering Leaves arranged over the top … and anchored in place with a wooden dot.  The SSS hello was adhered flat alongside … and the panel was popped up on craft foam onto the base.  Here’s a close up of all that texture …

I’m playing along at …

Seven Hills Crafts – Sketch (see below … I changed orientation of my card, hope that’s ok!)

Where Creativity Meets C9 – Embossing (badge shows in draft, but not in post … sorry!)

Less Is More – Anything But Stamps

Happy Little Stampers Mixed Media – Texture

          

          

 

My second card has more colour and is more graphic …

Crisp and QACAS (quick and clean and simple in Darnell-ese) … a strip of rainbow washi tape along the edge of the card … and a stack of SSS die cuts (and secondary stamped sentiment), also in rainbow colours, taking centre stage.  Here’s the side view so you can see (at least a little better!) all seven of those layered colours …

This bright delight is heading to …

AAA Cards – Rainbow

Addicted to Stamps & More – Anything Goes

Happy Little Stampers CAS – Birthday

Seize The Birthday – No Toppings

        

        

That’s it from me for the weekend … hope yours has been a good one!  Thanks so much for coming by, your visits and comments are always a joy!  Anita 🙂

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AAA Cards #91, Muse #218, Seven Hills Crafts – June, SSS Wednesday – 31 May, SSS Work it Wednesday – May

Hello … bonjour!  I’m popping in with a card inspired by a few different challenges … one is ending very soon, so I’m getting a wriggle on … and two celebrate special occasions.  The first is at Muse where there are the CASE festivities for Ardyth‘s 50th birthday (who I’ve been fortunate to meet IRL twice!) … congratulations again, my friend!  The second is the Big Birthday Bash at AAA Cards … felicitations on three fabulous years, ladies … here’s to many, many more!  The other challenges I’m joining in with are detailed towards the bottom of my post (with links) … for now, here’s my card …

          

I CASEd a card made by Ardyth way back in August 2014 … and chose this particular one because it was a CASE of one of my cards … I thought it’d be fun to CASE a CASE!   Here are the two side by side …

         

The things I retained from Ardyth’s card were the shimmery sentiment, a blend of Distress Inks, the popped up panel and all that glorious white space.  I changed the shape of my card, the style and colour of the blended inked strip and the treatment of the die cut greeting (mine is partially inset) … and I added lots of shimmer spray to the inking (‘course, you can’t see it!).

My base card was sponged with Distress Inks and shimmer sprayed, I die cut a card panel with a WPlus9 Happy, created a swoosh by cutting a curve twice with a die from SSS (having taken out the happy to keep it intact), and stamped the secondary sentiment (also WPlus9) in a soft light grey.  The die cut word was covered with lots of Spectrum Noir sparkle, inset into the swoosh panel and I popped the whole thing up on craft foam onto the base card.  It’s deliberately embellishment free, like Ardyth’s!

I’m playing along at …

AAA Cards – Birthday

Muse – CASE Ardyth

Seven Hills Crafts – Die Cut a Die Cut (I used WPlus9 Happy Wishes)

SSS Wednesday – Anything Goes

SSS Work It Wednesday – Sunshine (literal or the colour)

Dashing off to link … the doors at Ardyth’s party will be closing very soon!  Thanks so much for coming by, your visits and comments are always a joy!  Anita 🙂

                  

     

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Time Out DT #71, Where Creativity Meets C9 #3, Seven Hills Crafts – November, SSS Wednesday 23 November, Uniko – November

Hello … bonjour … and to my friends in the US … Happy Thanksgiving!  I wish you a day blessed with joy and filled with the love and laughter of family and friends!  Today marks the start of a lovely new challenge at Time Out … this time our theme is ‘Christmas’ … with an optional twist of using glitter or shimmer.  Here’s where I went with it …

I sponged the card base with three Distress Inks, blending them around where the die cut figure would be, then spritzed and splattered the finished background with Shimmer Spray.  The Concord & 9th star and Madonna with the Infant Jesus was cut out of the same card as the base, I stamped the sentiment in navy, and adhered the die cuts flat to the base.  This is one of the designs I worked on at the Lake House … there’s a lot more shimmer on it IRL than appears here … a closer look gives you a better idea but it’s even more shimmery than this shows …

How about playing along with us … we’d love it if you did!  For those who twist and use glitter or shimmer, there’ll be a random draw for a £15 evoucher from our sponsor this fortnight, the lovely Bev at Uniko … and as usual, the winner, as voted for by the DT, will be invited to guest design with us for a future challenge!  There’s lots of inspiration over at the Time Out blog, from our fabulous Design Team and from our talented Guest Designer, Valentyna from Flourishtina (who you need to visit if you haven’t … so many gorgeous cards and creativity to inspire you!).  Hope to see you in the gallery!

I’m playing along at …

Where Creativity Meets C9 – Sparkle and Shine

Seven Hills Crafts – Inspired by a Favourite Christmas Carol, Song or Film … mine’s Silent Night

SSS Wednesday – A Christmas to Die For

Uniko – Christmas

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

         

         

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A Lake House Adventure … A Card … And A Bag!

Hello … bonjour!  Hope you’ve had a good week … with at least a little time to be crafty!  I’ve not had chance to get creative with paper over recent days … though I did have plenty of time the week before.  Last Sunday, I was on my way home after a wonderful card making week away at the Lake House … yep, as you may have read on Darnell‘s blog, the BABES got together again for lots of crafting, loads of laughing and heaps of fun!  Since then, it’s taken me a while … for my body to get over the loooong journey .. for my internal clock to adjust to the seven hour time difference … for me to get back into the swing of normal life … and it was all so worth it to spend time with these wonderful, fun and amazingly talented friends!  This is a long and photo heavy post, so if you’re just interested in a card, please do scroll down, there’s one waiting for you towards the bottom!  Otherwise, let me share a picture or two of our trip (courtesy of Darnell … thanks, mon amie!) … and if you’d like any more background, you can always go here for the original story two years ago.

Starting on the left and going round the table … Geri (Manitoba Stamper), Me, Ardyth (Maskerade), Bev (Happy Dance), Kim (Cupcakes, Cards and Kim), Darnell (dJkardkreations) … just as we sat down for a late lunch/early dinner once everyone had arrived.

          

We were blessed with beautiful autumn days almost all week … which brought these little albino squirrels out to play (we were sure this was Snowflake and her family … check out our last visit for more details about Snowflake!) … and ended with the loveliest sunsets, seen from our crafting table.

We had heaps of messy fun when Darnell shared with us her tips and tricks on using Brusho’s to create delicious backgrounds … and Ardyth showed us how she uses Magenta Colour Bursts for lovely loose watercolouring.  Both products are similar and create the most amazing effects.  Here are Geri and Bev playing (note the gloved hands and covered kitchen island … I did say it was messy!) … you can just see my gloved hands bottom left, about to start work on a card I’ll share in another post soon.

Oh … and we did lots and lots of card making … there were so many finished cards between us at the end of the week … and a whole heap of others part way through.  I got my Christmas card designs done … and did lots of the prep for getting them completed and ready to send out in plenty of time this year!  We shared ideas and techniques with one another and had chance to use one another’s goodies as well as our own, as we created our way through the whole seven days!  It was another memorable and to-be-long-treasured time … thank you so much, ladies, from my heart!

So, how about a Lake House card …

These gorgeous blooms are from Concord & 9th … stamped and white heat embossed direct onto a card base.  I sponged over a layer of Distress Ink to start and then went to work adding water and dropping more ink in and around the flowers and leaves, till I was happy with the soft watercolour look.  I cut a card panel and a piece of craft foam with a stitched circle die from MFT, and stacked them over the inked flowers.  The sentiment is from Papertrey, cut three times in card to match the inks … stacked and topped with white, and adhered across the card front.  Voilà!

My card is heading over to (badges below) …

Where Creativity Meets C9 – Watercolour

Seven Hills Crafts – Colour Palette (below) … I used the three lightest peacock colours

Addicted to Stamps and More – Anything Goes

Happy Little Stampers Dies – Anything Goes

There’s also a little gift bag to share with you …

This was made with a Lawnfawn die … and decorated with some newly acquired snowflake dies from SSS to go with the patterned paper (thanks for taking delivery, Bev!).  The bigger one was cut in glitter card, the smaller one was cut twice in vellum.  I adhered them all together at the centre, added a white bling to cover the join, popped them on the bag and topped the vellum with some Spectrum Noir clear sparkle.  When the sparkle dried, the vellum snowflakes had curled up to make themselves all dimensional … what a happy surprise!

I’m sending this over to (badge below) …

SSS Monday – Treat Bag/Box

If you’re still here … thanks so much for making it through such a long post … as you know by now, your visits and comments are always a joy!  Anita 🙂

               

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Time Out DT #61 … Times Two!

Hello … bonjour … hope you’ve had a fabulous week so far!  Our wonderful new challenge starts today over at Time Out and this fortnight, we’re Inspired By Words … ‘Wherever you go, no matter the weather, always bring your own sunshine’.   Isn’t that a delicious quote … we probably all know someone (or lots of someones) who do just that … especially in our corner of blogland … and they’re a joy to be around!  Here’s where I went with it …

I die cut a MFT circle into a white card panel and embossed the two sides with a stitched border from Lawn Fawn.  The Avery Elle sunburst was stamped in yellow into the negative space, I added the Papertrey sentiment, and topped that with a double stamped SSS yellow heart in the centre.  The panel was mounted on fun foam onto the base and I adhered some tiny die cut hearts (Winnie & Walter), coloured with Promarkers.  The heart in the sunburst and the tiny ones were covered with lots of Wink of Stella and a layer of Glossy Accents.  Here’s a closer look at the shimmer and shine …

I was struck by another idea with this fabulous sentiment, so went ahead and tried it out … like to see the result?

A hand drawn Zig marker striped background in grey, the Papertrey sentiment stamped onto a MFT pierced rectangle (masked so I could make the ‘shine’ yellow), a yellow Papertrey sun burst top and bottom and a SSS heart stamped in canteloup over the word heart.  The ‘shine’ word, sunbursts and heart were Wink of Stella’d, the word was clear embossed (yay for MISTI) and I popped the panel up on craft foam over the stripes.  You can see the detail a little better here …

How will our ‘Wherever you go, no matter the weather, always bring your own sunshine’ phrase inspire you?  You can use any or all of the words to get your creative imagination going … and then just play along!  All the details are over at the Time Out blog, along with creative cards galore from our fabulous DT and our super talented Guest Designer, Sue from Foleys Friend … hope to see you in the gallery!

The first card is heading to …

Addicted to Stamps and More – Anything Goes

CAS Mix Up – Stamping & Markers … plus die cutting, dry embossing, Glossy Accents

CAS on Sunday – Black, White & One Colour … I chose yellow

SSS Wednesday – Mood Board (below) … top right ‘sunshine through the clouds’ picture

SSS Work It Wednesday – Dies or Stencils … negative circle and heart dies

… and the second is off to …

Addicted to Stamps and More – Anything Goes

CAS Mix Up – Stamping & Markers … plus die cutting and heat embossing

Seven Hills Crafts – Colour Palette (below) … I chose the three middle colours … my item from the store was the MFT Pierced Rectangle Stax.

SSS Wednesday – Mood Board (below) … top right ‘sunshine through the clouds’ picture

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

          

                  

         

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Time Out DT #54, A Blog Named Hero – April, CASology #192, One Layer Simplicity #26, Seven Hills Crafts – April, Uniko #30

Hello … bonjour!  We have a Home Sweet Home inspiration photo for you at today’s new Time Out challenge … it’s an amazing vibrantly coloured armoir (below) … I went less vibrant and rather more CAS …

I picked out the floral images and the predominant turquoise and yellow colours as the focus for my one layer card.  The base was masked round the edges and in the middle and I stamped the Hero Arts Spring Hello by Lia blooms/leaves randomly around the space, using generational stamping to achieve the different aqua hues.  The masks were removed, I scored a frame on the inside and outside edges of the stamping (to add definition), added a sentiment from Papertrey and coloured in the loops of the letters.  Not sure if it would’ve been better if the loops were in aqua … or without the colouring at all … but by the time I realised, it was done!  The flowers were coated with Wink of Stella … the larger ones were adorned with bling centres and the tiny yellow ones with Glossy Accents.  There’s lots of shimmer and prettiness IRL … some of that’s visible here …

How will this armoire inspire you?  Why not let your creative imagination run wild and see what it comes up with … we’d love to see your card in the gallery!   We’re sponsored this time round by Happy Little Stampers … so not only will the winner have a chance to join us as a Guest Designer for a future challenge, they’ll also receive a $15 GC from HLS!  All the details are over at the Time Out blog, along with heaps of ideas from our wonderful DT and from our super talented Guest Designers, Kylie, dynamic owner of Happy Little Stampers and Elisabeth from Aufspapiergebracht (a blog you really, really want to visit … take supplies, you’ll be there a while!).

I’m playing along at …

A Blog Named Hero – Clean & Simple

CASology – Sprout

One Layer Simplicity – As You Wish

Seven Hills Crafts – Colour Palette … the middle one, see below

Uniko – Spring/Easter

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

         

        

 

Time Out DT #52 Mid Challenge Reminder, Seven Hills Crafts – March, The Paper Players #287

Hello … bonjour!  Have you played along with our latest challenge at Time Out yet?  We have a ‘Designer to CASE’ theme this time round … our designer is the talented Marjan Kuppers from M@rjan’s Blog … and her gorgeous card is a little further down.  Here’s where I went with it this week …

and here’s Marjan‘s lovely card …

My card features the same fabulous colours and floral theme as Marjan‘s … with added dimension from the die cuts and a touch of whimsical style.  I stamped and die cut some blooms and leaves from WPlus9‘s Doodle Buds, coloured them with Promarkers and added some white gel pen accents.  The stems and middle leaves were stamped direct to the card base and were coloured with Zigs.  The scalloped frame started out as a full panel (Winnie & Walter) … I just used a craft knife and ruler to cut out the middle to create the frame.  I popped up the frame, flowers and single leaves on foam tape over the stamping, white heat embossed the sentiment (from the same WPlus9 set) onto a black snippet of card and adhered it to the edge of the frame.

If you haven’t played along with us yet, how about giving it a go … or if you already have, how about second helpings?  You can use any or all of the elements in Marjan‘s card to inspire you … and we’d love to see what you create!  All the details are over at the Time Out blog, along with loads of fabulous ideas from our wonderful DT.  Hope to see you in the gallery!

My card was also inpired by …

Seven Hills Crafts – Sketch … it’s below

The Paper Players – Clean and Simple: Celebrate Spring

I’m still not getting as much time as I’d like in blogland, so continue to be way behind on my visits and commenting.  I’m making progress (only a week behind now!) … and will get there … thanks for your patience as I do!   Thanks so much also for coming by, your visits and comments are always a joy!  Anita 🙂