Less Is More #300, Virginia’s View #25, Tic-Tac-Toe #21, SSS Work It Wednesday – October … and a Lovely Visit!

Hello … bonjour … hope your week has been going along wonderfully!  Before I get to the news of a lovely visit I received recently, I have a CAS card to share for a quartet of challenges that just seem to fit together beautifully.  Want to see …

This sweet bloom is from a WPlus9 flower builder set … there are lots of other images as well …  I just wanted to let this one take centre stage!  It’s stamped just off the edge of a white card panel and has the flower head coated copiously with Spectrum Noir Clear Sparkle … it’s just about visible on the top two petals if you peer in a bit.  I added a sentiment from SSS and some crystal bling before popping the panel up on craft foam onto a card base that had been trimmed along the bottom with washi tape.

I’m joining in with these playing-nicely-together challenges (badges below) …

Less Is More – Celebrations/Festivals … it’s the 300th … congratulations, Chrissie and the team … what a fantastic milestone!  I have a soft spot for LIM as it was the first challenge I played along with, way back when we were all still young … and when we were still in double digits!

Virginia’s View – Stripes/Plaids

Tic-Tac-Toe – CAS, Builder Stamps, Pearls/Gemstones

SSS Work It Wednesday – Use a Simon Brand Product

Now, that wonderful visit.  I was thrilled a few months ago to get a note from my lovely friend Barb at Love2Colour that she and DH Cal were going to be making the trip from California to France for an amazing tour … and that they would be within a couple of hours of us during one of their overnight stops!  The timing was perfect (just a few days before I headed to the Lake House) … and on a sunny Sunday afternoon at the beginning of October, we met Barb and Cal at their hotel in Bordeaux.

What a fun and delightful afternoon and evening we had together … and what a delicious dinner we enjoyed at a great restaurant recommended by the hotel concierge.  Barb and Cal … thank you … it was truly a joy to meet you … and to spend time together IRL.  One day, we may even get to do the same thing in reverse … what an adventure that would be!

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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More MFT Summer Camp … and Other Fun Stuff

Hello … bonjour!  I’m back with the remaining two cards I made over the weekend … still keeping it short and sweet.  First up, a gentle breath of nature …

A masked and splattered-with-three-greens panel, divided with slender strips of black, topped with a watercoloured palm leaf from MFT and an embossed sentiment from SSS.  Some black enamel dots finished it off.

In contrast, here’s my fun and bright second offering …

         

A pair of tropical love birds (MFT), coloured with Promarkers and Wink of Stella’d, their eyes meeting as they walk toward one another along the ‘pebble’ scattered rainbow shaker beach (it’s the tropics, there’s bound to be a rainbow beach!).  You can see how taken they are with each other from the Wink of Stella’d and Glossy Accented hearts floating up between them.   Madame Love Bird certainly seems to be giving Monsieur Love Bird the eye!  It doesn’t stop there … I caught them leaning forward to steal a kiss …

Ahhh … true love … yep, birds of a feather (MFT).  They do seem to be a little reserved as they’re looking down rather than gazing into one another’s eyes.  Could be it’s because they’re in public (would you smooch in front of all these people?) … or maybe they’re just watching where they put their feet with all those pebbles around … they don’t want to twist a claw!

My leafy green number is destined for …

MFT Summer Camp – Wonderful Watercolour … Day 3 of 5 … my third badge

MFT Sketch #285 – See Below

TE Share Joy #40 – Keep It Clean and Simple

         

         

Monsieur & Madame Love Bird are canoodling over to …

MFT Summer Camp – Sensational Sliders & Spectacular Shakers … Day 2 and Day 5 of 5 … my fourth and fifth badges … I made it through my first summer camp … ever!

AAA Cards #67 – Googly Eyes … she even has eyelashes … hope CAS can also include interactive!

Happy Little Stampers Dies – June – Anything Goes

SSS Wednesday – 15 June – Animal Magic

Virginia’s View – #22 – All About Colours … the lovely Virginia’s back for the summer!

                   

               

I’ll be back Thursday with another card for our current Time Out challenge (masculine).  Till then, thanks so much for coming by, your visits and comments are always a joy!  Anita 🙂

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Time Out DT #55 Mid Challenge Reminder, MFT Sketch #278, Little Tangles #67, SSS Wednesday – 27 April, Virginia’s View – Link Up Party

Hello … bonjour … hope you’ve been enjoying your week!  I’m popping in with another card for our latest challenge at Time Out, which still has almost a week to run … so there’s plenty of time to play along if you haven’t already!  Even if you have, we’d be happy to see you coming back with more!  Our theme is Celebrations …with the Optional Technique Twist of Die Cutting /Fussy Cutting … here’s my second take on it …

Nothing like celebrating a friendship … in full colour!  These rainbow strips evolved … I heat embossed the ‘fabulous amazing terrific awesome fantastic’ from CAS-ual Fridays‘ Truth Is set repeatedly down a piece of watercolour card stock … brushed a thin stroke of Zig marker through the middle of each one … and ran a wet brush over them, line by line, allowing the colour to merge and flow.  After some discussion with myself about how to use the piece, I trimmed it into strips, popped three up on foam tape on the card base … and adhered a Studio Calico die cut over the top … covered liberally with Wink of Stella, of course.  Want to see?

So … will you play along?  You can celebrate anything you wish on your card … and we’d love it if you joined us in the gallery! This fortnight we’re sponsored by CAS-ual Fridays Stamps … not only did owner Michele provide the DT with yummy goodies to play with (thanks so much, Michele!) … she’s also giving away a US$25 gift voucher to a randomly drawn participant who uses the Die Cutting/Fussy Cutting twist!  All the details are over at the Time Out blog, along with plenty of delicious inspiration from our amazing DT and from our wonderfully talented Guest Designer, Elizabeth Stewart from Paper Sweetness.   Hope to see you there!

My card will be celebrating over at …

MFT Sketch – see below … with a small gap or two!

Little Tangles – Die Cutting … sorry,  I have no N&T die cuts … yet!

SSS Wednesday – Anything Goes

Virginia’s View – Surprise Link Up Party … lovely to see your challenge back for a visit, Virginia!

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

         

         

Joyeux Noël! Virginia’s View #21, Happy Little Stampers CAS – December, Freshly Made Sketches #217, SSS Wednesday 23/12

Hello … bonjour!  Are you all ready for the festivities … relaxed, chilled and maybe even already enjoying the company of loved ones … hope so!  I managed to get everything finished with minutes to spare (!) and we just got home after taking part in our candlelit, carolling Procession of the Nativity through town, which finished with the first mass of Christmas at church.  Lovely!   I’m popping in now to wish you and those you love the Happiest Christmas … may the joy of Our Lord’s birth light your day tomorrow and always …

This gorgeous die cut is from Taylored Expressions … I adhered it flat over a sponged-with-three-distress-inks background (Tumbled Glass, Salty Ocean, Chipped Sapphire) … and intentionally created the halo effect around the white .  The sentiment is from Inkadinkado … sliced off one of only nine wood block stamps I possess!  There’s heaps of sparkle from a good spritz or three of Shimmer Spray … and from the Stickles on the star … you can see a hint of it here … although IRL but it’s much, much more shimmery …

I’m playing along at …

Virginia’s View – All About Glitter … my second entry, just squeezing in before Mr Linky closes his doors for the final (for now, I hope!) time!

Happy Little Stampers CAS – Favourite Technique … love sponged backgrounds!

Freshly Made Sketches – See Below

SSS Wednesday – Make It Sparkle … it really does!

Christmas Blessings to you … thanks so much for coming by during this wonderful season, your visits and comments are always a joy!  Anita 🙂

         

         

Time Out DT #46, My Favorite Things Sketch #258, SSS Monday 7/12, SSS Work It Wednesday – November, Virginia’s View #21

Hello … bonjour … hope your week is turning out to be wonderful!  We start a fabulous new challenge at Time Out today … this fortnight, we have a deliciously festive Home Sweet Home inspiration photo to tempt you (it’s a little further down) … here’s how I interpreted it …

… and here’s the yummy inspiration …

I drew some pencil lines around a couple of MFT Circle Stax to act as a guide for my wreath, which was randomly stamped with dots from SSS Lots of Dots in red, two greens and the shimmery platinum.  The pencil lines were erased when it was complete, each dot was coated generously with Wink of Stella (of course!) and topped with a layer of Glossy Accents.  I cut the ‘sending’ from foil paper, adhered it, looping the ‘s’ round one of the ornaments … and nestled the Waltzingmouse Stamps sentiment underneath it … that’s stamped in Delicata Gold and clear embossed.  If I were to do it again, I’d match the die cut to the stamped sentiment rather than using foil … think it’d  look more co-ordinated that way.  Oh well, hindsight’s a wonderful thing!   How about a little detail …

Will our inspiration photo tempt you to play along?  We’d love it if it did!  There are lots of gorgeous ideas over at the Time Out blog … from our super talented Guest Designer, Sonja K from The Art of Stamping, and from our own wonderful Design Team … so why not pop over and be inspired?  Do hope you’ll have chance to make it to the gallery!

I’m playing along at …

My Favorite Things Sketch – see below

SSS Monday – Holly Jolly Stamping (a Christmas themed project)

SSS Work It Wednesday – Holiday Card

Virginia’s View – Glitter … Virginia’s last challenge for now (she may be back!) … just had to play along!  Hope the WoS counts, Virginia, if not, please feel free to delete!

Hope I’m not the only one a loooong way behind on my visits … so looking forward to doing lots of catching up over the next few days!  In the meantime, thanks so much for coming by, your visits and comments are always a joy!  Anita 🙂

 

                   

Seize The Birthday 5/11- Surprise Party Guest, Virginia’s View #20, Winnie & Walter JITW, SSS Monday 2/11

If you’re looking for my Time Out DT post from earlier today, it’s here … otherwise, stay tuned!  I was honoured and excited to be the inaugural Surprise Party Guest at Seize the Birthday during October … and I’m equally thrilled to have been asked by the lovely Nancy to stay on for the November party too … way to celebrate!  This fortnight we have no toppings at all … in other words,  you can play along with any birthday card you create … I went for typical party decorations on mine … shiny balloons and shimmery confetti …

An almost one layer card, stamped with a sentiment from SSS and balloons from Winnie & Walter.  The balloons were masked and each triple/partially stamped with various shades of the same colour to give them a sense of dimension … and of course they were treated to lashings of Wink of Stella and a generous helping of Glossy Accents, as befits a birthday party!  This was one of those moments where a MISTI would’ve been handy … without one, though, I went all old fashioned and eyeballed it … it seems to have worked out ok!  The strings and little bow were hand drawn, I added the strip of DP down the side and scattered some confetti stars around the sentiment.

We’d be delighted to have you playing along with us at Seize the Birthday … there’s a heap of inspiration from the DT over at the blog … and for those of you in the throes of Christmas card making, just think what a lovely change it would be do make something completely different!  Hope to see you in the gallery!

My celebratory card is heading off to …

Virginia’s View – All About Texture … mine is subtle … the linen effect card base, the stars and the shiny and dimensional Glossy Accents

Winnie & Walter – Join In To Win … my balloons are from W&W

SSS Monday – So Glossy

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

        

              

Time Out DT #42, Virginia’s View #19, SSS Monday 12/10, SSS Wednesday 14/10

Hello!  Today sees the start of another fabulous challenge at Time Out … this fortnight our theme is Home Sweet Home … with a wonderful inspiration photo (see a little further down) … here’s my take …

… and here’s the cool, spooky and halloweeny inspiration …

I went with the colours, patterns and shapes of these amazing decorated pumpkins, using SSS One With Nature trees, stamped in black Versafine, watercoloured with Distress Inks and gently spritzed with water to give the effect of texture.  The stamped panel was trimmed down, I added a slender strip of DP top and bottom and popped the whole thing up on foam tape onto the base.  The sentiment (from the same set) finished it off.  No shine, no bling … just QACAS!

Where does your imagination take you when you look at this picture … there’s so much to see … shapes, patterns, colours, shine, pumpkins, bird … just let your mind wander!  We’d love it if you played along with us … there’s plenty of inspiration over at the Time Out blog, from our talented Guest Designer TaeEun (Rainbow In November) and from our wonderful DT.  Hope to see you in the gallery!

I’m joining in the fun at …

Virginia’s View – All Things Coloured … second entry

SSS Monday – Wonderful Watercolour … the trees

SSS Wednesday – Inspiration Board (below) … the photo of that amazing tree lined road

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

         

         

Seize The Birthday 8/10 – Surprise Party Guest, Virginia’s View #19, SSS – WCMD, SSS Work It Wednesday – September

Hello again … if you’re looking for my Time Out DT post, it’s here …. otherwise, I’m back with the secret I mentioned earlier … today I get to be the inaugural Surprise Party Guest over at Seize The Birthday!  Thanks so much, Nancy, for the invitation and for your wonderful welcome … I’m thrilled and delighted to be joining you and the DT during October!  The theme for my first party challenge is ‘Splatter’ … those of you who have visited before will know there’s rarely even a smidge of splatter on my cards … but I threw caution (and Distress Ink) to the wind (in a rather delicate manner) and came up with this …

I stamped Neat and Tangled‘s Scandinavian Flowers randomly across a white card panel, wiping ink off some before stamping them, to make the tiny flower heads and single sprigs.  The flower heads were masked off and I gently splattered the panel with Mustard Seed and Spiced Marmalade Distress Inks.  The flowers were coloured with Promarkers, had lots of Wink of Stella added and were treated to a couple of coats of Glossy Accents.  The ‘smile’ die cut is from SSS (with the surrounding circle trimmed off) … and the supplementary birthday greeting (also SSS) is nestled in just underneath it.  I added slender strips of black to the top and bottom of my base card and popped the panel up over them on foam tape.  Seems those flowers are happy dancing with such enthusiasm, they’re sending their pollen flying everywhere!  How about a close up of all that shimmer and shine …

If you’ve played along at Seize The Birthday before, you’ll know that the theme … or ‘Toppings’ … are optional.  So for this challenge, you don’t have to ‘Splatter’ … you can make any birthday card and join in with us … hope you will!  Looking forward to finding out where your creativity takes you … see you in the gallery!

My happy flowers are also dancing over to …

Virginia’s View – All Things Coloured

SSS – WCMD

SSS Work It Wednesday – Use A Stamp

Once again, thanks so much, Nancy, for inviting me to your party … and thanks so much to you too for coming by, your visits and comments are always a joy!  Anita 🙂

         

         

Time Out DT #39 Mid Challenge Reminder, Make The Day Special – September, Virginia’s View #18, SSS Wednesday 9/9, Word Art Wednesday #200

Our ‘Make Your Mark’ challenge over at Time Out is just about half way through … and I’m popping in with a card as a gentle reminder that you still have almost a week to play along with us … if you haven’t already (or even if you have … you can come back for more!).  This graphic little number is what I came up with …

I repeatedly stamped an image from Avery Elle‘s Modern Leaves onto a white card panel, trimmed it to size and coloured the leaves with Promarkers.  A black panel was white heat embossed with the Avery Elle Brushed sentiment, trimmed to match the white, and attached to the leaf panel.  I covered the join with a slender strip of grey and popped the whole thing up onto fun foam on the card base.  I tried valiantly to add bling … but there wasn’t a sequin, gem, pearl or dot that felt needed by the cool graphic style … so I just let them be!

How about showing us where your creativity takes you with this theme … you can use any type of marker or crayon … and there’s an optional monochrome colour palette twist.  Colouring can be as intricate or as simple as you want to make it … as you can see from my card, I went very simple!  We’re sponsored this fortnight by Uniko … our overall winner (as chosen by the DT) will win a £15 evoucher … that’s in addition to being invited to be a Guest Designer for a future challenge!  All the details are over on the Time Out blog, along with heaps of inspiration from our talented Guest Designer, Marika from Me and Minime Crafting, from some of the Design Team at Uniko, and from our own amazing DT.  Look forward to seeing you in the gallery!

My card comes to you courtesy of …

Make The Day Special – Colour Palette … see options below

Virginia’s View – Geometric Patterns … my second entry

SSS Wednesday – Use a Stamp … leaf and sentiment

ETA – Thanks to Karen who is on the DT (thanks for the invitation, Karen!), I’m also playing along at Word Art Wednesday, where there’s a celebration going on for the 200th challenge … congratulations!   The team are hoping for 200+ entries this time, so if you have chance to link up a card to help achieve this aim, that would be wonderful!  Oh, and there are prizes to be won too, if you need any more incentive to get creative!  (Karen, I’ve tried to leave a comment on the blog, but it keeps being rejected for some reason!)

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