A New Challenge At Time Out – #140 – Home Sweet Home Inspiration

Hello … bonjour!  Welcome to our new challenge at Time Out … this fortnight, we have a delicious, beach house style image to inspire you (a little further down).  Here’s my take on it …

… and here’s the cool inspiration picture …

My focus was on the neutral colours, the framed photograph and flowers on the console table and the wavy edge along the bottom edge of the table.  The intricate rose image is from Craft Emotions via Topflight Stamps (Botanical Rose Garden 1 – retired I think), and was stamped onto a Winnie & Walter scalloped, pierced, die cut panel in CP Twilight ink.  I added the sentiment (from Simply Graphic – it translates as Happy Birthday) in the same ink and scored a double frame round the stamping to mimic the photo frame.  The finished panel was popped up on craft foam onto an oyster grey card base.

          

What draws your eye in our Home Sweet Home photo … the colours, shapes, beach house feel … or something else?  Wherever your creative imagination takes you, we’d love to see your card in our gallery!  This fortnight, we’re sponsored by Topflight Stamps … our winner, as chosen by the Design Team, will receive a $25 GC to the store, as well as being invited to guest design with us in a future challenge.  All the details are over at the Time Out blog, along with plenty of ideas from the DT to inspire you … it’s so worth a visit!

I’m playing along at …

AAA Cards – Maxi White Space … No Optional Twist of Christmas In July

AAA Birthday – For The Girls

Happy Little Stampers Dies – Anything Goes

Less is More – Celebrations

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

        

         

Twofer Card Challenge #18 – Garden

Hello … bonjour!   We’ve just planted our new challenge over at Twofer this morning … this month we’re inviting you to join us in the …

… here’s what grew in mine …

… a sweep of garden flowers to celebrate a birthday … and a bed full of blooms to say hello, both featuring a large image from Pinkfresh Studio’s Fleur 1 (now retired, though a similar style set is here).  Here’s a closer look at each one …

… first, a one layer card with the large image stamped slightly off the card in the bottom left corner.  I added some additional individual flowers and leaves (also Pinkfresh Studio) … and some doodling … to fill in gaps and create the sweep of garden plants down the folded edge and across the bottom of the card.  It was all loosely watercoloured with Zigs and a water brush.  The sentiment, from Winnie & Walter and Clearly Besotted, runs along the imaginary line at the top one third of the card and was stamped in Delicata Silver (to match the garden stamping).

My twofer is another conventional use of the image …

… this time stamped in Versafine black into the middle of a die cut, scalloped, pierced panel (from Winnie & Walter) … and grounded in the earth along the bottom on a simple, scripty sentiment from Technique Tuesday.  I coloured the image with Catherine Pooler and Distress Inks, added some little black gems to the larger flower centres and popped the panel up on craft foam onto the card base.

Voilà … my two distinctly different designs … for two distinctly different occasions … using the same stamp!

How might you interpret our ‘Garden’ prompt?  We’d love to see you in our gallery with your two distinctly different takes on it!  All the details you need, including rules and FAQs, are over at the Twofer blog … along with heaps of gorgeous ideas from the DT to help spark your imagination.  This month, we also have bitter-sweet news of some changes in the Team … as we bid a fond farewell to the inspirational Loll, who is stepping down as a Designer (though, we’re pleased to say, is staying on as Administrator) … and a happy hello and warm welcome to the very talented Cat from Cat Luvs Paper, who has joined us.  Our Guest Designers are our winners from May’s challenge … Kathy from My Asperations and Robyn from Waterlily Cards by Robyn … welcome ladies!  Do go and enjoy a visit with Kathy and Robyn … you’ll find lots of loveliness to explore … and you can always say hello while you’re there!

My sweep of garden flowers is heading to …

AAA Birthday – For The Girls

Happy Little Stampers Watercolour – Anything Goes, No Wings Option

Less Is More – Celebrations

Seize The Birthday – Anything Goes, No Sunshine Topping

The Flower Challenge – Pretty Pastels

… and my blooming flower bed is joining in at …

Happy Little Stampers Watercolour – Anything Goes, No Wings Option

Happy Little Stampers Dies – Anything Goes

The Flower Challenge – Pretty Pastels

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

                 

               

A New Challenge At Time Out – #138 – We Challenge You To Be … Funny!

Hello … bonjour!   Out new challenge has just started at Time Out and it’s an especially fun one … this fortnight We Challenge You To Be … Funny!  Here’s my cute take …

This sweet little chap is from CAS-ual Friday’s Somebunny … and he’s drifting off … going up, up and away on his plump, shimmery, shiny balloon.  He’s coloured with Copics … and his balloon is covered with Spectrum Noir Sparkle and a layer of Glossy Accents.  The fun, punny sentiment is from the same set … and the pierced, scalloped panel was cut with a Winnie & Walter die before being adhered flat to the card base.  Here’s a closer look at that ‘beautiful balloon’ …

How will you interpret ‘funny’?  We’d love to see what you create in our gallery!  This time round, we’re sponsored by Cas-ual Fridays (thanks, Michele!) … our winner, as voted for by the DT, will receive a $25 GC to the store … and will be invited to guest design with us in a future challenge.  All the details are over at the Time Out blog … where you’ll find heaps of inspiring ideas from our fabulous DT … and from our talented Guest Designer, Milla from Mustesormi.  Why not pop over for a visit with Milla … you’ll find such loveliness over there, just waiting to be explored and enjoyed!

I’m playing along at …

Addicted To Stamps And More – Anything Goes

Happy Little Stampers CAS – Funny

Happy Little Stampers Dies – Anything Goes

Simon Says Stamp Monday – Transport It

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday – Vacation/Travel

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

            

        

A New Challenge At Time Out – #134 – We Challenge You To Be … Playful!

Hello … bonjour!  Welcome to another fun, happy challenge at Time Out, where this fortnight … We Challenge You To Be … Playful!  Here’s my vibrant take on it …

… with a whole heap of playful, cavorting confetti to help celebrate a birthday!  I white heat embossed Mini Scenery: Spotty (Winnie & Walter) onto a panel of Bristol card stock, sponged Distress Ink over it in Scattered Straw, Worn Lipstick, Candied Apple (my take on a Kristina Werner Dox combo) and sprinkled on some water droplets to add more texture.  The panel was adhered to the card base and outlined in black fineliner pen.  The sentiment is also from Winnie & Walter … In A Word: Happy Coordinating Cutaways provided the white on black die cut and shadow … Wishing You With Evelyn T provided the supplementary strip, white heat embossed on black and popped up on foam tape.  I finished off with a scattering of sequins.

         

How will you interpret ‘playful’ … we’d love to see what you create in our gallery!  This time round, we’re sponsored by Winnie & Walter (thanks, Shay!) … our winner, as voted for by the DT, will receive a $25 GC … and will be invited to guest design with us in a future challenge.  All the details are over at the Time Out blog … where you’ll also find loads of inspiring ideas from our brilliant DT … and from our talented Guest Designer, Nancy from Nananas Cardmaking.  Why not pop over and check out Nancy’s blog … you’ll find so many fresh, fun and fabulous cards over there, just waiting to be explored and enjoyed!

I’m playing along at …

Happy Little Stampers Dies – Anything Goes

Simon Says Stamp Monday – Going Round in Circles … my spotty confetti!

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday – Anything Goes

Watercooler Wednesday – All About Occasions

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

        

      

Twofer Card Challenge #15 – Zoo Animals

Hello … bonjour!  Our fun April challenge has just launched at Twofer … this month we’re inviting Zoo Animals to play with us …

… and I thought bears would be a good choice (nothing to do with what is … or isn’t … living in my stash!) …

A cosy warm birthday card … and a couple of chums saying hello … with that big waving bear from MFT as my common image (stamped and sent for me to play with a while ago by the lovely Cat … thanks my friend!).  Here’s a closer look at each one …

Here, I did a little doodling on Monsieur Bear and turned his scarf into a roll neck sweater … then coloured him with alcohol markers and trimmed him out, cutting off the scarf tails at the same time.  He chose the rainbow cuffs, collar and welt himself … without any cable knit, he felt the creamy Aran colour needed a little extra pizazz … very stylish!  I softly sponged the centre of an MFT wonky stitched panel (Lake House stash) with Tumbled Glass Distress Ink … cut a white embossed MFT sentiment (also from Cat) into a banner … and adhered the banner to the panel with foam tape.  Monsieur Bear was also popped up … his left arm has a double layer of tape under it to add some waving action dimension!  I attached the finished panel to a base card that had been sponged round the edges with Distress Ink.

My twofer is another conventional presentation …

Here, bear appears in his original polar, scarfed guise, accompanied by a little friend … both watercoloured with Zigs and trimmed out.  Their snowy background is a piece of patterned paper from my stash (yep, really, I used PP!), the stacked up die cut is from Winnie & Walter and the supplementary sentiments are from MFT (via Cat).  Little bear is popped up on some very slender foam dots while big bear is on chunkier ones to emphasise the sense of depth and distance between them.

How would you like to join us in the gallery at Twofer this month … we’d love to see which zoo animal(s) you choose as your common image.  You can find out everything you need to know in the rules and FAQs over at the Twofer blog.  It’s worth the trip … there are plenty of wonderfully inspiring ideas from our brilliant DT … and from our talented Guest Designer, Susan from Card Maker’s Garret.  Do go and have a visit with Susan … you’ll find so much deliciousness to enjoy!

My birthday bear is wandering over to …

Inkspirational – Pop It Up

MFT The Birthday Project – ROYBGIV

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday – Animal Antics

… and my polar bears are waving over at …

Inkspirational – Pop It Up

MFT Colour Challenge – Razzle Berry, Cotton Candy, Lemon Chiffon, Limelight (my closest)

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday – Animal Antics

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

               

Twofer Card Challenge #14 – Balloons

Hello … bonjour!  We’ve rattled round so quickly into March … and today we have another Twofer challenge for you … this month we’re playing with …

… and here’s how my imagination floated off …

A happy hello card and a happy birthday card, both featuring a richly plump, round balloon image from Winnie & Walter … let’s take a closer look at each one …

I rock and roll stamped/masked the Winnie & Walter balloons and bows onto an A2 card panel, added the fun sentiment (from Essentials by Ellen) and drew in the drifting-in-the-breeze strings.  The balloons were layered with Spectrum Noir Clear Sparkle and I added some colour and shimmer to the three o’s in the sentiment with a tiny dot from Simon Says Stamp.  The liquid sparkle took out some of the shaded dimensional effect of the rock and roll stamping … though it’s there if you look closely … and those balloons are deliciously shimmery!   The lovely (and uber talented) Therese at Lost In Paper made a set of splendid ‘over the top‘ designs recently where an element of each card stood out above it’s top fold … and it struck me that my balloon bouquet was made for such a technique (thanks for the inspiration, Therese!).  So … I trimmed out the finished balloon panel and adhered it to a base card cut especially to size … and the card still fits into a standard size envelope … perfect!

My twofer design is rather more unconventional …

… I turned my balloon image into pistacchio ice cream!  The sugar cone was created on an MFT Wonky Stitched panel (from my Lake House stash), using masking and a single line stamp from Winnie & Walter … and it was Copic coloured and shaded (thanks, Kara!).  After masking the top edge of the cone, I scooped the balloon into it and added some alcohol marker shading around the ice cream edges to give it a little dimension.  The image was overstamped with a sentiment from MFT … and real sprinkles (a freebie from our local supermarket in just the perfect colours!) finished it off … yum!  I sponged the edges of a base card to match the ice cream and popped the stitched panel up onto it on craft foam.

How about playing along with some of your own balloon images … 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 scrumptious inspiration to enjoy while you’re there too … from our talented Guest Designers, Julie from Handcrafted By Jules and Lucy from Little Scraps Of Lucy …….  and from our brilliant DT.  BTW, do go over for a visit with both Julie and Lucy … you won’t want to miss all the loveliness they have on offer!

My balloon bouquet is drifting off to …

CAS(E) This Sketch – See Below … turned upside down!

Day Of The Month Card Club – I Want You To Be Happy Day … a new, fresh and fun blog on the block from Cornelia, Gundi and Rosi … what a brilliant idea for a challenge!  Do check it out if you haven’t already!  As Winnie The Pooh said ‘ no-one can be uncheered with a balloon’!

Happy Little Stampers CAS – Special Day … any day with joy in it is special!

Papercraft Challenges – Clean And Simple

Simon Says Stamp Monday – Whatever The Weather … my balloons are floating off on a breeze!

Watercooler Wednesday – Feminine Anything Goes … to me, those soft colours and shimmer make this a feminine card … and it is a bouquet of balloons!

… and there’ll be a tasting of my ice cream at …

AAA Cards – One Plus Three (no optional friends twist) … one sentiment plus stamped scoop of ‘pistacchio ice cream’, Copic coloured cone, matted stitched panel.

Addicted to Stamps and More – Anything Goes

Day Of The Month Card Club – I Want You To Be Happy Day … ice cream and sprinkles … who wouldn’t be happy!

Winnie & Walter’s Leading Lady Challenge #4 – Altering Stamped Images With Masking

You may know we’ve had internet/phone issues for a while … heaps upon heaps of intermittent outages culminating in almost a week with no access at all … it’s been just a smidge wearing!   Orange (our service providers) lent us an Airbox on Thursday afternoon to get us online again till it’s all fixed … and I’ve been having fun and being inspired since, catching up with everyone.  So for now,  I’m around and about … if it goes quiet again, you’ll know there’s a technician up a telephone pole somewhere in rural France!  As ever, thanks so much for coming by, your visits and comments are always a joy!  Anita 🙂

            

                 

               

Twofer Card Challenge #13 – Stars

Hello … bonjour!  Our new challenge at Twofer has just started … this time around our theme is positively heavenly … it’s …

… here are my celestial designs …

One of the things I discovered when coming up with ideas for my cards was that there are very, very few starry stamps in my stash … what a serious omission!  What I was delighted to come across was a stencil from Winnie and Walter (my common image) … double delight actually … not only the stars … but a chance to play with stencilling too, something I’ve rarely done.  Here’s a closer look at my first design …

… a star covered birthday gift. Here I stencilled the stars in three Distress Ink colours onto a mixed media panel, moving the stencil’s orientation with each change of ink so that there was no overlapping.  The panel was trimmed to size, I sponged the edges to add definition, did some gentle silver splattering over it and silver heat embossed the Papertrey strings.  The WPlus9 tiny tag was die cut and sponged round the edges … and silver heat embossed with a smidge of the tied string (where it’s threaded through the hole) and with the Uniko birthday sentiment.  The miniscule stars around the sentiment are from Winnie and Walter.  The tag was popped up on foam tape on the package … and the package was popped up on the card base.

My twofer stars …

… a starry Christmas card.  Here, I used the stencil just the once, sponging over gold Delicata ink, stamped tiny silver dots (Winnie and Walter) between the stars and edged the panel with gold washi tape.   The sentiment is from Papertrey, stamped in gold and mounted over silver washi.  This isn’t how this design started out … it was originally one layer … the stars and dots weren’t coralled by the washi but were spilling out across the middle of the card in a playful, unstructured sort of a way.  However … when washi tape that was destined for the bottom edge of the card stuck where it shouldn’t have been and I pulled it off too quickly, my finished OLC was left with an ugly torn surface.  Oh dear (bet you can just hear me saying that!) … what to do … start from scratch or do a rescue job?  I rescued … by trimming out the unstructured spilling out stars and dots and edging them with the washi.  The first version was fun … this one is clean and crisp … and in the end I’d have been happy with either (which is p’raps as well really!).

What comes into your creative mind when you think of stars?  We’d love to see!  All the details about how to play along are over at the Twofer blog … together with with heaps of splendid starry inspiration from the DT.  We’re delighted to have two Guest Designers with us this month … Barb from Barb’s Studio Creations and Cat from Cat Luvs Paper … welcome ladies!  If you’re not familiar with Barb’s and Cat’s fabulous work, you’ll really want to go and have a visit with them both … there’s so much delicious inspiration to enjoy and absorb!  Even if you are familiar, pop along anyway … you can always say hello while you’re there!

My birthday gift is heading to …

Happy Little Stampers Dies – Anything Goes

Seize The Birthday – Anything Goes … without the black and white topping

Uniko – 7th Birthday Party … many congratulations, Bev and all the team past and present!

Watercooler Wednesday – Feminine Anything Goes

… and my celestial sky is joining in at …

CAS Christmas – Peace

Happy Little Stampers Christmas – With Star Option

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