Twofer Card Challenge #35 – Balloons

Hello … bonjour … and welcome back! Thanks so much for all your lovely comments and notes following my last post (eek … a month ago!), especially as I’ve hardly been around in blogland to make visits or leave comments as I usually would. I appreciate each of you … and am looking forward to being about a little more often from now on. Today, I’m here to tell you about our new challenge at Twofer … it’s such a happy one as our prompt is …

It always puts me in mind of a quote from Winnie The Pooh (well, A A Milne) … nobody can be uncheered with a balloon … how true … just try it!

I chose to make one conventional (birthday) card and one unconventional (Christmas) card this month … using a balloon stamp from Simon Says Stamp’s Big Birthday Wishes set. Here’s a closer look at them individually …

The balloons here are being held onto by a cool penguin from Ellen Hutson … and he’s balancing precariously on the birthday sentiment, which is made up of two different SSS sets. The penguin was lightly coloured with pencils … though his bright balloons, all shined up with glossy accents, are the star of this show. I added an embossed frame with a die from The Greetery … and kept it all deliciously CAS.

The balloons were turned upside down for my unconventional design …

… and became baubles hanging from a star strewn pine garland. The pine sprig is from Stampendous and was stamped multiple times in three different greens to give depth to the garland. The balloon baubles were stamped in red, I added the lettering using a Lawn Fawn alphabet set and topped it all off with a good dose of Glossy Accents to add shine. The supplementary sentiment is from WPlus9. I finished off with a scattering of gold stars … funny how they landed in just the right places to adorn the hanging strings isn’t it?

How about joining us with some stamped, die cut or stencilled balloons of your own … we’d love to see you (and them) in our gallery!  All the details about how to play along, including rules and FAQs are over at the Twofer blog … together with plenty of fabulous inspiration from the DT.  We’re delighted to have Greta from GG Creations sharing her talents with us as our Guest Designer this month … welcome, Greta! Do go and enjoy an inspiring wander around Greta’s blog … there’s so much loveliness on display … and you can always say hello while you’re there.

My balloon toting penguin is heading to …

Addicted To Stamps And More – Birthdays

Krafty Chicks – Stamp Act

Papercraft Challenges – Heat or Dry Embossing

Seize The Birthday – Anything Goes … No Hearts Option

… and my balloon baubles are joining in at …

Happy Little Stampers Christmas – Anything Goes … No Berries Option

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

Twofer Card Challenge #34 – Flowers

Hello … bonjour … and Happy New Year … Bonne Année! May this year be blessed with good health, joy, hope and creativity for us all.  Welcome back, too, after my six week blogland break … it’s great to be here again! Over at Twofer ,we’re leaping into our fourth year of challenges … with plenty of delicious prompts to inspire you … and some changes to the Design Team. We’re saying a very fond farewell to the lovely and super talented Kara and Cat … and saying a warm and happy hello to our new team members, Sonja and Bonnie … welcome, ladies! If you’ve played along at Twofer before, you’ll know how much fun it is to create two distinctly different designs for two different occasions using the same stamps, dies or stencils … and if you haven’t yet joined us … why not give it a go? This month we have one of my favourite card making themes to tempt you … and I’m pretty sure you’ll be itching to dig out your supplies when you see the prompt. It’s …

I created a bold, dramatic ‘just because’ card … and a bright, spring-like ‘beautiful day’ card … using this gorgeous Summer Sketches bloom from The Greetery. Here’s a closer look at each one …

This is one of my go-to clean and simple designs … the image is centred on the card and the sentiment (from Catherine Pooler) is stamped just below it. I added subtle detail by embossing a frame with a die from Spellbinders and doing a little splattering. There’s also a touch of shimmer and shine on the flowers and stamens, which you can see better here …

I stayed with the conventional use of the flower for my second card …

This is another CAS design … albeit a little fuller than the first. Here, the outline flowers were gold embossed in diagonally opposite corners of the card to form a frame around the WPlus9 sentiment (also gold embossed), before being over stamped with the solid images. I added some Nuvo drops to match and added interest by double scoring the two empty corners.

How about joining us with some flowers of your own … we’d love to see you (and them) in our gallery!  All the details about how to play along, including rules and FAQs are over at the Twofer blog … together with heaps of splendid inspiration from the DT.  We’re delighted to have two fabulous Guest Designers joining us this month … Viv from Viv’s Visuals … and Brenda from Inkspired To Stamp … welcome ladies!  If you haven’t met these talented artists yet, do go and enjoy a wander through their blogs … you’ll find inspiration galore!  Even if you are familiar with their work, why not pop along anyway … you can always say hello while you’re there!

My single floral sprig is heading to …

CAS Mix Up – Splatters (plus dry embossing and stamping)

Color Hues – Red and Grey (happy to be playing along at last!)

Watercooler Wednesday – Anything Goes with a Feminine Twist

… and my spring florals are joining in at …

Addicted to CAS – Emboss

Krafty Chicks – Stamp Act

The Flower Challenge – Heat/Dry Embossing

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

Twofer Challenge #28 – Circles/Bubbles

Hello … bonjour!  It’s the 10th of the month … and that means it’s time for a brand new challenge at Twofer … this time around, we’re inviting you to play with …

My common images here are a couple of circle stamps from Simon Says Stamp‘s Lots of Dots set.  On my hello card, they were joined by a whole load of other sized circles from the same set … stamped randomly to create a lower third border that’s kind of bubbly.  The second card (heureux anniversaire … happy birthday in French) features the circles stamped in a geometric pattern on a central panel.  How about a closer look at each one …

I drew faint pencil lines to act as a general guide for my individually stamped overlapping line art circles … and erased them once the stamping was done.  The secondary sentiment (WPlus9) was white heat embossed onto a slender strip of black card that was adhered flat over the bubbly background.  I cut the hello (SSS) from a left over piece of watercolour paper that had been rainbow coloured for a different project, stacked it up on another four die cuts and adhered it over the black strip.  Crisp and CAS with a pop of colour!

My second card features just two of the circles …

… stamped one inside the other to create a cool pattern.  They were watercoloured with CP inks using a subtle, masculine colour palette.  I added a couple of twine tied Simply Graphic leafy sprigs (adhered just where they intersected to allow them to drift free), stamped the sentiment which translates as Happy Birthday (also Simply Graphic) and popped the panel up onto an Oyster Grey card base.

How about joining us with your two distinctly different takes on circles/bubbles … we’d love to see what you create in our gallery!  Details of how to play along, including rules and FAQs are over at the Twofer blog … along with plenty of delicious inspiration from the DT and from our fabulous Guest Designers, Jenny from My Paper Epiphany and Linda from Lin’s Craft Corner.  Do go and check out Jenny’s and Linda’s twofers … they’re brilliant!   You can enjoy a wander around their blogs while you’re there … and maybe say hello too … they’ll be delighted to hear from you!

My first card is saying hello at …

Day Of The Month Club – Repeat Day

Happy Little Stampers Dies – Anything Goes

Krafty Chicks – Stamp Act

… the second is heading to …

Seize The Birthday – Anything Goes (no Summer topping)

Simon Says Stamp Monday – It’s A Man Thing

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday – Masculine

… and my twofer is also joining in at …

Vesela Hiška (Happy House) – Dvojni Izziv (A Double Challenge) … a fun idea adopting the same principles as Twofer (two different designs, two different occasions, using the same stamp, die or stencil) … thank you ladies!

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 🙂

       

      

Snowflake Joy

Hello … bonjour … and bon dimanche!  Today I’m sharing a trio of clean and simple Christmas cards … and I’m happy to say one this first one will be joining in at a few challenges that I don’t get to play along with often … or at all.

The snowflake is from Simon (Eliza Snowflake) … it was partly adhered to the card base … and had the tiny positive diamonds coloured red, popped back into place and topped with Glossy Accents.  The sentiment is also from Simon (Stained Glass Greetings) … gold embossed, die cut, coloured in red and popped up on die cut craft foam, over the snowflake.

This is a great design for multiples … in different colours and/or using a different background snowflake.  For example, here’s one in blue with silver embossing … and a third in silver with multi blue hues, a supplementary sentiment from WPlus9 and a dry embossed snowflake (it might be Memory Box, possibly retired now).

      

The red and gold version is heading over to the galleries at …

CAS Christmas – Joy

Christmas Kickstart – Red

Happy Little Stampers Christmas – Anything Goes (no wings option)

Happy Little Stampers Dies – Anything Goes

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday – Add A Statement

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

      

             

A New Challenge At Time Out – #153 – A Wardrobe Item!

Hello … bonjour!  Our new challenge has just started at Time Out … and this fortnight we have a really fun theme for you to play with.  We’d like you to draw inspiration from an item in your wardrobe, past or present … with optional twist of adding embossing (heat or dry) or texture.  I chose to twist … here’s what happened …

        

The main sentiment is from Poppy Stamps … stacked three times and ombré sponged to mimic the fading out stencilled stripes (MFT).  The supplementary sentiment from WPlus9 was white heat embossed onto a strip that had been sponged to match the stripes.  The florals and leaves are from the same WP9 set … double stamped in various shades of yellows and greens to give them some depth … and adhered onto the card using different heights of foam tape.  I finished off by scattering on some blue pearls and adding Glossy Accents to the flower centres.  A sleeveless summer dress from when I was very young provided the inspiration … it had a white bodice strewn with yellow flowers and a navy and white striped skirt … joined with a navy band at the waist … so pretty.  No actual dress any more … nor a photograph to show you … though I’m sure you get the picture!

        

How will you interpret our theme … can you find or remember something in your wardrobe to inspire you … and will you use our optional embossing/texture twist?  We’d love to see what you create in our gallery.  This time around, we’re sponsored by Poppy Stamps who are offering a US$20 GC to a randomly drawn player who uses the optional twist.  As usual, our overall winner will be chosen by the DT … and will be invited to guest design with us in a future challenge.  Details are over at Time Out … along with inspiration galore from our brilliant DT … and from our talented Guest Designer, Lise at Lise Mariann.  Why not pop over for a visit with Lise … you can enjoy a wander through all the loveliness on offer at her blog … and say hello while you’re there!

I’m playing along with …

Happy Little Stampers Dies – Anything Goes

Just Us Girls – Create Dimension

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday – Use A Stencil

The Cat’s Pyjamas – Spring Forward

Watercooler Wednesday – All About Occasions

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

           

     

Some Summer Flowers!

Hello … bonjour … and bon dimanche!  It’s not often that I get to be here with something other than DT cards … but as today happens to be one of those days, I’m sharing a duo of summery, floral cards .  Here’s the first …

An almost one layer card … this bouquet of stylised blooms was made using separate stem and flower centre images from Concord & 9th‘s Wildflower set.  The main sentiment is also from C9 (Sophisticated Script) … and the secondary one is from Simon.  I edged the top and bottom of the card with some striped washi … and added a black dot to each of the flower heads.  I was going for a mimosa kind of look (in an abstract sort of a way) … how did I do?

My second card is a bright and sunny one … you may need sunglasses …

This is an image I stamped at the Lake House … think it’s Bev‘s and it might be Studio Calico (though I’m not certain) … isn’t it just charming?  It’s stamped onto an MFT wonky stitched panel, was coloured with alcohol markers, had black pearls added to the flower centres … and was joined by a WPlus9 sentiment surrounded by a few miniscule black pearls.  The finished panel was mounted flat onto a card base that had been edged with Distress Ink.

** My ‘mimosa’ are going to be blooming at …

MFT Birthday Project – Birthday Bouquet

Simon Says Stamp Monday – Bright And Cheerful

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday – Anything Goes

Uniko – Flowers … without the die cut option

Watercooler Wednesday – Anything Goes

** … and my bright, sunny flowers are headed to …

Addicted To Stamps And More – Make Your Mark

Simon Says Stamp Monday – Bright And Cheerful

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday – Anything Goes

Uniko – Flowers … without the die cut option

Watercooler Wednesday – Anything Goes

**  All the badges are below **

Do hope your weekend is going along wonderfully!  Thanks so much for coming by, your visits and comments are always a joy!  Anita 🙂

       

             

Twofer Card Challenge #17 – Bees

Hello … bonjour!  We’ve arrived at the 10th of the month … which means there’s a fabulous new challenge just started at Twofer!  This time we’re asking you to get busy with …

… here’s where I buzzed off to …

… a sweet anniversary card and a lush birthday card … with the common image on both from a retired WPlus9 set called Birds and Bees.  Here’s a closer look at each one …

Clean and simple … the bees, their heart shaped flight trail and the sentiment (Simon and Papertrey) were stamped and clear heat embossed.  The bees were coloured with alcohol markers, I added Spectrum Noir shimmer to the wings and the heart … and topped the heart with a layer of Glossy Accents.  The frame was cut using an irregular rectangle die from Simply Graphic and was popped up on craft foam.

My twofer is another conventional use of those cute bees …

         

… buzzing about in a verdant Pinkfresh Studio garden.  I stamped and watercoloured the two sets of Lush Greenery images … one direct onto the card base, the other on a separate piece of card.  The latter piece and some craft foam were cut with the matching die (thanks, Darnell!), I stacked the two together and adhered them to the base.  The bees flew in from their hive in the meadow at the end of the garden and are checking out the best places to find a tasty morsel … there must be lots to sample … just look at all that pollen floating through the air!  The main sentiment is from Pinkfresh Studio (Bird With Flowers) … can’t find it on the website so p’raps it’s retired … a similar one is here.   The supplementary sentiment (Simon) was heat embossed in white on a strip of black card and popped up on foam tape.

How about joining us with some bees of your own … we’d love to see you in our gallery!    All the details about how to play along are over at the Twofer blog … together with heaps of splendid inspiration from the DT.  We’re delighted to have the super talented Coni from Witch Craft? as our Guest Designer this month … welcome Coni!  If you haven’t met Coni yet, do go over and have a gentle meander through her blog … there’s so much to see and enjoy … and be inspired by!  Even if you are familiar with her work, why not pop along anyway … you can always say hello while you’re there!

My love struck bees are buzzing off to …

Addicted To Stamps And More – Clean and Simple

Simon Says Stamp Monday – Wedding/Anniversary

… and those busy bees are calling in at …

AAA Birthday – Use Watercolours

Happy Little Stampers Watercolour – Anything Goes (no love option)

Pinkfresh Studio – Mix and Match (Lush Greenery and Bird With Flowers)

Watercooler Wednesday – Feminine Anything Goes

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

          

          

 

A New Challenge At Time Out – #132 – Home Sweet Home Inspiration

Hello … bonjour!  We have a Home Sweet Home photo to inspire you at our new challenge starting right now at Time Out … it’s a little further down.  Here’s my take on it …

… and here’s the stylish interior to get your creative imagination going …

At first, my eye went straight to those amazing butterfly pictures on the wall … but then I spotted the tiny vase of pink blooms sitting on the stack of white books on the table … perfect CAS elements!  My blooms are from WPlus9‘s Watercoloured Anemones … stamp-layered onto a crisp white linen base card … with the centres highlighted with black Stickles.  The sentiment is from Pretty Pink Posh.  The colour IRL is closer to the flowers in the photo … rather more pink than coral … though that’s my photography for you!

        

What draws your attention 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!  We’re sponsored by Altenew this time round with a $20 GC offered to our winner.  All the details are over at the Time Out blog, where you’ll find plenty of ideas to spark your creativity … from our fabulous DT and from our super talented Guest Designer, the lovely Bobby from Bits and Pieces.  Do go for a visit with Bobby … you’ll love every meandering moment!

Finally today, you may have seen a blog post by our beloved leader, Sandie, on Tuesday (Purple Day), aimed at raising awareness of epilepsy.  In it, Sandie shares details of the Purple Day Blog Hop (with prizes), along with her own story of living with this often misunderstood disease.  She also has a giveaway over on her Instagram account.  If you haven’t already seen the post and followed along the hop, please do check it out … and if you can, contribute to raising awareness and understanding by spreading the word.  Thank you!

I’m playing along at …

Addicted to Stamps And More – Clean And Simple

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday – Anything Goes

Simon Says Stamp Work It Wednesday – Spring Flowers

Uniko – Spring (No Easter Option)

Watercooler Wednesday – All About Occasions

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 🙂