Turnabouts Times Two

Hello … bonjour!  Calling in today with a couple of cards made with different Concord & 9th Turnabouts … they’re going to be joining in at some of the fun challenges going on across blogland at the moment.   One’s masculine, one’s feminine … and then there are two extra ones at the end.  Here’s the first …

A one layer graphic card … simply stamped with Concord & 9th‘s Semicircle Turnabout … with a platinum heat embossed sentiment from Winnie & Walter (sadly NLIB).  One semicircle on each line had Glossy Accents layered over the top to add shine and dimension … tricky to photograph though you can probably make out those on the first two rows.  Cool and masculine I think!

This is heading to …

MFT Birthday Project – Circles

MFT Color – White, Sno Cone, Blue Raspberry, Orange Zest (my closest colours)

NBUS – Anything Goes (as long as it’s NBUS) … Missed Darnell‘s return last month so am happy to join in now with this Semicircle Turnabout (first use, though it’s been living here for a while!).

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday – Anything Goes

The Male Room – Sentiment in Focus

 

         

The next card is softer and feminine … maybe it’s the colours …

Here I used Concord & 9th‘s Bitty Burst … and added a stacked, shimmered, Glossy Accented, die cut sentiment from Simon … with a white heat embossed supplementary label popped up underneath the ‘smile’.  The panel was trimmed and adhered to a 10.5cm (roughly 4.25 inches) square card … which, most unusually for me isn’t white … I’m expanding my horizons!!

This little pretty is playing along at …

Krafty Chicks – Anything Goes

MFT Birthday Project – Circles

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday – Anything Goes

The Paper Players – Make You Smile

     

    

The change in colour palette and sentiment style gives this Bitty Burst Turnabout a different look.  Here are those extra cards I mentioned earlier … a variation on a theme, though just as much fun with that all that scattered confetti … and deliciously easy to make for quick hello’s.

    

I hope and pray that you are continuing to stay safe and well out there … and that you’re finding fun, happy, joyful things to do to occupy those hands, hearts and minds.  Keep smiling!  Thanks so much for coming by, your visits and comments are always a joy!  Anita 🙂

Time Out Challenge #157 – A Reminder!

Hello … bonjour!  I’m popping in to remind you that we’re still celebrating our 6th birthday at Time Out … and to let you know there’s still almost a week to join us in our latest challenge.  Our theme this fortnight is (unsurprisingly!) Birthday … and there’s an optional twist of die cutting or fussy cutting.  I chose not to twist …

     

The floral bouquet is from WPlus9, stamped in Versafine Onyx Black onto a panel of mixed media card.  I coloured it with Zigs and a water brush, doodled some highlights on flower centres and tiny buds with a white gel pen … and added a sentiment from Simon.  The finished panel was edged top and bottom with slender strips of black … and was popped up on craft foam onto a matching base card.

        

How about making a birthday card and celebrating with us?  If you use our optional twist of die cutting or fussy cutting, you’ll be in with a random chance of winning a US$40 GC prize from our fabulous sponsor, STAMPlorations (thanks, Shery!).  Our overall winner will be chosen by the DT … and will be invited to guest design with us in a future challenge.  All the details are over at Time Out … along with heaps of delicious inspiration from our wonderful DT … and from our talented Guest Designer, Christine at Experiments In Craft.  Do go over for a visit with Christine … you won’t want to miss a gentle meander through her inspiring blog!

I’m playing along with …

AAA Birthday – Flowers

Happy Little Stampers Watercolour – Anything Goes … with the Flower option

The Flower Challenge – Anything Goes

The Paper Players – Clean And Simple Spring Flowers

I do hope you’re all staying safe and well out there.  Thanks so much for coming by, your visits and comments are always a joy!  Anita 🙂

       

      

Twofer Card Challenge #23 – Hearts

Hello … bonjour!  If this is your first visit here for 2020 … Bonne Année/Happy New Year … may it be blessed with good health, joy and creativity for us all!  Talking of creativity, our first Twofer challenge of the year has just started and this month it’s a particularly special one.  It’s our 2nd Blogaversary … and we’re celebrating with some amazing prizes!  Do go over to Twofer for all the details … you really don’t want to miss out on what Darnell has in store for our winners!  So what are we inviting you to showcase this time around?  Take a look at our prompt badge …

My common element is Poppy Stamps‘ Heart Screen (now retired) … with the inside hearts used unconventionally for my Christmas card … and the outline screen used conventionally for my Anniversary card.  Here’s a closer look at each one …

Three lots of hearts were cut from a piece of cardstock I’d smooched and splattered some time ago.  I arranged them into a Christmas tree shape right down the centre of the card and popped them up on different depths of foam dots onto a white panel cut with a die from The Greetery.  I stamped the stand (Papertrey) and popped up the gold foil star (Concord & 9th) … decorated the tree with red gem ornaments … and added shimmer spritz (after masking all but the tree).  The panel was matted onto some co-ordinating DP, which was then adhered to the card base.  A sentiment didn’t fit anywhere very well, so I’ll add a Christmas greeting inside when the time comes.  How about a closer look at all the shooshy colour, dimension and shimmer/shine …

In contrast, my conventional card is subtle and understated …

Here I used a fog grey panel for my ‘thirds’ design.  I white heat embossed the soft, splattery background (Concord & 9th) vertically onto the lower right two thirds of the card and the primary sentiment (Simon) horizontally along the top left two thirds.  The heart screen was cut once in gold foil and twice in white … they were stacked together and adhered over the white background.  The tiny supplementary sentiment (also Simon) was white heat embossed onto a sliver of gold foil card and popped up on foam tape … and I added a scattering of gold hearts (from the inside of the screen).  The panel was trimmed to size and adhered to the card base.

How would you like to join us with your two distinctly different takes on hearts … we’d love to see what you create in our gallery!  All the details about how to play along, including rules and FAQs (and don’t forget those prizes!) are at the Twofer blog … together with heaps of brilliant ideas from the DT to inspire you.  We’re delighted to have two Guest Designers joining us this month, both talented winners of our October challenge …. welcome to Jane from Onions and Paper and to Jacquie from What Did I Do Today?.  If you haven’t met Jane and Jacquie yet, do go over and enjoy a wander through their blogs … you’ll have a splendid time!  Even if you are familiar with their work, why not pop along anyway … you can always say hello while you’re there!

My Christmas tree is heading to …

Happy Little Stampers Christmas – Anything Goes (With Option Trim The Tree)

Poppy Stamps – From The Heart

Simon Says Stamp Monday – Something New (Greetery Frame Die)

The Paper Players – Something New (Greetery Frame Die)

… and my Anniversary card is joining in at …

Happy Little Stampers Dies – Anything Goes

Poppy Stamps – From The Heart

The Card Concept – Time To Celebrate Inspiration (my eye was taken with the cluster of golden ornaments and the waxy white candles – Clean and Classy – CAS/Classy & Elegant Style)

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

             

         

A New Challenge At Time Out – #147 – Inspired By Words

Hello … bonjour … long time no see!  This year has been a busy one outside of blogland and as a result I’ve not been here a great deal, though I have (mostly) stayed in touch with what you’ve all been creating while I haven’t been!  This last couple of weeks, however, have been especially full … and that’s meant there’s been almost no opportunity to visit everyone, outside of my DT commitments.  So, to those of you who haven’t seen or heard from me recently … thank you for your patience and understanding … normal service will be resumed shortly!

I’m here today because our new challenge at Time Out has just started … and this fortnight, we’re Inspired By Words … Dream Big, Be Grateful, Give Love, Laugh Lots.   Here’s where I went with those words …

On a white pierced, scalloped card panel cut with a Winnie & Walter die, I stamped these lovely words and delicate single floral stem from Uniko’s You Are, Yes You stamp set.  The stem was curved to create the sense of a smile … and the flower head balances the offset ‘loved’ in the sentiment.  I coloured the bloom with Zigs, covered it with lots of shimmer and added some sparkling gems to finish off.  The scalloped panel was added to a matching mat and then popped up onto the card base on craft foam.  You can see more of the shimmer here (even though it’s a little out of focus!) …

        

Where will our words take your creativity?  You can use any or all of them to inspire your card … we’d love it if you played along with us.  We’re sponsored this time around by Uniko (thanks, Bev!) who are offering our winner, as voted for by the DT, an in-stock stamp set of their choice.  As usual, our winner will also be invited to be our Guest Designer for a future challenge.  The details are over at Time Out, along with heaps of lovely inspiration from our fabulous DT, which I know you won’t want to miss!

My card will be going into the gallery at …

CAS on Friday – Big Sentiment or Word

Happy Little Stampers Watercolour – Anything Goes Optional Botanical

The Flower Challenge – Clean and Simple

The Paper Players – Clean and Simple – Say It Loud

Thanks so much for coming by (especially when I haven’t been doing), your visits and comments are always a joy!  Anita 🙂

       

       

A New Challenge At Time Out – #136 – Home Sweet Home

Hello … bonjour!  Thanks so much for all your lovely comments following my last post … reading them all was like having a great big group hug … and they gave me a smile to wear all over my face and heart!  It’s been a delight to be back in blogland this last few days and to be be inspired by all you’ve been creating … what talent there is to enjoy in this wonderful community of ours!  I’m popping in today to tell you about our new challenge that’s just gone live at Time Out … for the next two weeks, we have a Home Sweet Home photograph to inspire you (it’s a little further down) … here’s my take on it …

… and here’s the bold, floral inspiration …

Guess you can see what I was drawn to!  Isn’t my poppy die gorgeous?  It’s from Penny Black and was a gift from the lovely Loll (thanks so much, my friend!) … and it’s making it’s debut.  It’s cut from mixed media card and coloured with Zigs … with some Distress Ink sponging on the edges of the flowers.  The base card background was masked and sponged with Distress Ink … and then stencilled over using the same colour ink to give it a tone on tone look.  I wanted the blooms to be dimensional but curling the petals up meant that the background could be seen beneath them when they were adhered in place.  See through flowers … hmmm!  I took care of that by cutting duplicates of each flower head, colouring them, trimming off the edges so they’d fit inside the originals and slotting them into place inside each poppy.  The sentiment is from Simply Graphic and I finished with a scattering of sequins.  Here’s a closer look at the dimension of those now non-see-through flowers …

        

What grabs your imagination in our photo?  There are so many ways you could be inspired … and we’d be delighted to see what you make in our gallery!  This time around, we’re sponsored by STAMPlorations, who are offering a $25 GC to our winner (thanks, Shery!).  All the details are over at the Time Out blog, where there’s a whole heap of ideas to spark your creativity … from our fabulous DT and from our super talented Guest Designer, Greta from GG Creations.  Do go and have a visit with Greta … there are so many gorgeous ideas to meander through and enjoy … you won’t want to miss it!

I’m playing along at …

CAS Stencil – Stencilling Over A Coloured Background

Simon Says Stamp Monday – Use Stencils

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday – Bright Colours Inspiration Board (Below … Top Right Picture)

The Paper Players – Clean And Simple Plants

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

                   

       

Twofer Card Challenge #16 – Things With Wheels

Hello … bonjour!  We’re rolling out our May challenge at Twofer today … with a prompt that should get those imaginative cogs turning!  This month we’re playing with …

… here’s the spin my imagination took …

A missing you card for a sweet friend and a colourful happy birthday card, both featuring an image from The Cat’s Pajamas.  Here’s a closer look at each one …

A simple, one layer card with Long Eared Bunny driving away into the distance, having been visiting with a friend.  The road is from Essentials By Ellen, and LEB and his well loaded car are coloured with alcohol markers.  I doodled some puffs of exhaust smoke and added the Simon sentiment … and couldn’t leave him without a little shimmer (Spectrum Noir) on the chrome and shine (Glossy Accents) on those new tyres.  If you look closely, you’ll see a little moistness in his eyes … after all, he’s missing his far away friend already!

My twofer makes unconventional use of this image … I turned the wheels into an abstract, vibrant pattern …

It took rather a while to come up with this design and by the time I had, time was of the essence in getting it finished (deadline looming!).  So I threw caution to the wind, called on my creative guardian angel, pulled out my Memento Dew Drop ink pads and an acrylic block … and started inking and stamping onto a white card panel.  The points on the pads meant I could ink up just the wheel and wing part of the image precisely, doing away with the need to do any masking.  After a quick practice on some copy paper, I just eyeballed it … ink, stamp once, ink, invert the image, match up the wheel, stamp again … repeat in the next colour.  The little blocks created where the wings overlapped one another were filled in with the matching ink.  Isn’t it wonderful when winging it actually works first time … phew!  The main hugs sentiment (Papertrey) was cut into the wheel pattern and into black craft foam, I popped the panel up on craft foam on the card base, glued the two hugs together and added them back into their space.  The additional sentiment is from Simon, white heat embossed on black, trimmed to a strip and popped up on foam tape.  I finished off with a scattering of silver stars and irridescent sequins to add a little birthday magic.

How about rolling along with us with some wheels of your own … we’d love to see your cards in our gallery!  You can find out everything you need to know in the rules and FAQs over at the Twofer blog.  There’s a whole heap of wonderful inspiration to enjoy there too … from our talented Guest Designers, Hilary from Fiddling About and Cornelia from Stempel Spass … and from our fabulous DT.  Do go over for a visit with both Hilary and Cornelia … as well as their Twofer cards, you’ll find a whole load of fabulous cards and inspiration … you won’t want to miss it!

Long Eared Bunny is going to be stopping off at …

Inkspirational – Adventure

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday – For A Special Lady

The Paper Players – Life Is Better With Friends

… and hugs are going over to …

AAA Birthday – Anything Goes

Seize The Birthday – No Toppings

Simon Says Stamp Monday – Add Something Metallic (the stars)

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday – For A Special Lady

Watercooler Wednesday – All About Occasions

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

        

       

 

 

 

Time Out DT #66 Mid Challenge Reminder, Happy Little Stampers CAS – September, SSS Work It Wednesday – August, The Paper Players #313, Uniko #36

Hello … bonjour!  We’re about half way through our delicious Home Sweet Home challenge at Time Out, where we have the most amazing photo to inspire you (below) … here’s my second take on it …

and here’s that cool photo …

I masked off the lower part of a panel of watercolour card stock, and repeatedly inked up, spritzed and randomly stamped a leaf from the new Trendy Leaves 2 set (from STAMPlorations (courtesy of teamie and generous owner of STAMPlorations, Shery … thanks so much, Shery!).  This was a new to me technique and immediately after spritzing and stamping, all I saw was a sorry mess!  However, I was really surprised at how clear the detail on the leaves became as the water moved the colour around and the ink dried … so I adhered the panel to a card base that had had the edges sponged black, ruled in a line to define the stamped/unstamped area, and added a STAMPlorations sentiment (that had gone through surgery) .   Voila!

Where does your imagination take you when looking at our photo?  There are so many different elements to use!  However you’re inspired, why not make a card and link it up to our gallery … we’d love to see you there!  We’re sponsored this time round by STAMPlorations … the winner (as chosen by the DT) will receive a $10 GC, plus there will be two random draws … one for the Holiday Expressions: Thankful stamp set and one for the Trendy Leaves 2 set.  All the details are over at the Time Out blog … along with heaps of inspiration from our amazing DT and from our delightful and super talented returning Guest Designer, Claire from Life On The Scrapheap (who you really need to visit if you haven’t already … so much loveliness!).

I’m playing along with …

Happy Little Stampers CAS – Watercolour Spritz

SSS Work it Wednesday – Use Stamps

The Paper Players – CAS Taste of Fall

Uniko – Autumn (Optional Twist of Thanks)

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

         

        

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Time Out DT #66 … Some Autumn Leaves

Hello … bonjour!  We have a lovely new challenge starting today at Time Out … based around an autumnal Home Sweet Home inspiration photo (it’s a little further down) … here’s my CAS take on it …

… and here’s the amazing inspiration …

A one layer QACAS (quick and clean and simple in Darnellese) card … using one of the leaf images from STAMPlorations’ new Trendy Leaves 2 set (courtesy of team mate and owner of STAMPlorations, Shery … thanks so much, Shery!).   I wanted to create a sense of depth on the leaves, so did some colour layering (yay MISTI!).  Each leaf was stamped three times and on each pass, I dabbed off ink from the centre of the image before stamping, so that the outer edges turned out more strongly coloured.  My photo doesn’t pick it up as well as it looks IRL … the effect appears more obvious above on the final leaf, although looking at it in front of me, all the leaf edges are bold!   I did a little surgery on the sentiment (also STAMPlorations) so that it was in one straight line, which allowed me ‘ground’ the leaves.

What does your creative eye see in our picture … neutral stonework, glowing autumn colours, trees, grass, leaves, the arched window … or something else?  Whatever it is, why not let your fingers get to work and play along with us … we’d love to see you in the gallery!  We’re sponsored this time round by STAMPlorations … the winner (chosen by the DT) will receive a $10 GC, plus there will be two random draws … one for the Holiday Expressions: Thankful stamp set and one for the Trendy Leaves 2 set.  All the details are over at the Time Out blog … along with a ton of inspiration from our wonderful DT and from our lovely and super talented returning Guest Designer, Claire from Life On The Scrapheap (you really need to visit … there’s so much deliciousness to meander through!).

I’m playing along with …

SSS Monday – At The Movies … Autumn Leaves (an oldie from 1956 with Joan Crawford)

SSS Wednesday – Clean and Simple

STAMPlorations – Anything CAS Goes … without the optional pink

The Paper Players – Cajun Craze, Crushed Curry, Pear Pizazz … my closest colours

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

         

         

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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Time Out DT #59 – Mid Challenge Reminder, Addicted to Stamps & More #199, MFT Sketch #286, SSS Wednesday – 22 June, The Paper Players #300

Hello … bonjour!  I’m popping in with another card for our current challenge at Time Out … our theme is Masculine … with an optional technique twist of using mixed media.  Our definition of mixed media is an easy one … use stamps and ink plus two other elements that add texture and/or dimension.  The twist is optional, so you can go without if you prefer … I did (again!) …

I used STAMPlorations images to stamp out a pattern across my one layer card, having drawn a couple of pencil lines as a guide for fitting all the retro shapes into the space.  The colours came from an interiors image found on Pinterest when I searched for retro colour palettes (not my fave combo but it goes with the stamps!) … and the font of the Papertrey sentiment seemed to fit pretty well with the retro style.  I Wink of Stella’d and Glossy Accented the squares in the open shapes to add some dimension, shimmer and shine.  The ‘Birthday’ was also Wink of Stella’d … but try as I might I couldn’t capture it on camera.  Here’s what I did manage to get …

Have you played along with us yet?  We’d love it if you did!  We’re sponsored by STAMPlorations this fortnight … the winner (as voted for by the DT) will receive a US$10 gift voucher … and there’ll be an ARTplorations stencil for a randomly drawn participant who uses the Mixed Media twist!  All the details are over at the Time Out blog, along with plenty of delicious inspiration from our fabulous DT and from our wonderfully talented Guest Designer, Patti at Stationery Styles (who you really need to visit if you haven’t already … so much loveliness to enjoy!)

I’m playing along with these four challenges …

Addicted to Stamps & More – CAS

MFT Sketch – See Below … inspired by the DT, I stretched it a little and used the large ‘Birthday’ for my circular element

SSS Wednesday – Add Some Shimmer … sentiment and inner WoS’d/GA’d squares

The Paper Players #300 – A CAS Celebration … a birthday’s a celebration!

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

         

         

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