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 🙂

                   

                   

Twofer Card Challenge #11 – Wreath

Hello … bonjour!  Welcome to our November Twofer Card Challenge!  If you look closely at our challenge badge above, you’ll notice there’s a change … yep, from now on, we will be accepting the use of stencils for the prompt element on your cards.  Yay for all you stencil aficionado’s out there!  Our prompt this month lends itself to lots of year round designs … though as Christmas is galloping up on us at a pace, it may just have you thinking of something festive for one of your cards … it’s …

My creative mind certainly took me to Christmas for one of mine …

My common stamp here is the Wreath Turnabout from Concord & 9th … let’s take a closer look at each design.

Isn’t that such a delicious colour palette for this autumn wreath one layer card … I was inspired to use it by the lovely Bev (thanks, sweet friend!), who gathered together inks of similar colours for a play session we had at the Lake House.   After turnabout-ing, I added the sentiment to the centre (from the same C9 set), covered it with Spectrum Noir Clear Sparkle … and stamped the side borders (Essentials By Ellen Winterscapes).  They were all done in espresso ink (to tie in with the autumn feel), though it does look decidedly black in the photo.  I finished off with lots of tiny copper Nuvo Drop berries … holding my breath as I went!  Here’s a closer look at them … and the shimmer …

My Twofer …

For my Christmas card, the vellum panel was offset on my turnabout ‘turntable’ so that the wreath could be stamped off the edge.  I heat embossed each of the four turns in different metallic embossing powders, plus white … and then added in some extra elements on the inner part of the wreath, using smaller stamps from the same C9 set, along with one from Pink Fresh Studio‘s Bird With Flowers.  The WPlus9 sentiment was heat embossed under the wreath, I added a Lawn Fawn stitched border and adhered the panel to a dark grey base.  A scattering of stars was added around the sentiment and wreath … and I topped each star with a dot of white Enamel Accents to make it shine.

Where will our ‘Wreath’ prompt take you this month?  We’d love to see what you make in our gallery!  All the details are over at the Twofer blog … along with lots of lovely inspiration from our fabulous DT … it’s just a click away!  Our talented Guest Designers this time round are Carol from Our Little Inspirations and Sybrina from Chapter Three. Do go and have a visit with them both … you’ll find their terrific Twofer cards, plus plenty of other delicious projects to enjoy and be inspired by!

My autumn wreath is joining in at  …

CAS On Friday – Brighten Someone’s Day

CASology – Compliment

Watercooler Wednesday – Feminine Anything Goes

… and my Christmas card is heading to …

Happy Little Stampers Christmas – Anything Goes (No CAS Option)

The Cat’s Pajamas – Winter Holiday

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

                         

A New Challenge At Time Out – #116 – We Challenge You To Be … Bright!

Hello … bonjour!  Our wonderful new challenge starts this morning at Time Out … this fortnight … We Challenge You To Be … Bright!   Here’s where I went with the theme …My ‘Bright‘ is in the form of Concord & 9th‘s Dahlia Turnabout, lent to me by a non blogging (though Instagram-ing), UK based, card making friend, after we had a playdate during her holiday in France (thanks so much, Judith!).  The yellow/grey/kraft colour palette was taken from a previous Color Throwdown challenge which I didn’t get to play along with at the time.  It was, though, one I’d never have thought of and really liked, so I saved it for a future play … as in now!  There were just three colours in the palette, so I did two of the turns in yellow … then overstamped one of them with Versamark and heat embossed it in shimmery EP.  The ‘Happy’ is from Simon and the supplementary sentiment is from WPlus9.   The finished panel was popped up on craft foam onto the card base and I added a gem to the centre of the bloom.  How about a look at a little more of that bright sparkle …

Where will our challenge take your creative imagination … to bright shades, as mine did … to a bright image … to a glowing scene … or somewhere else?  Wherever it takes you, we’d love to see what you create!  This time round, we’re sponsored by Happy Little Stampers  (thanks, Kylie!) … our  winner, as voted for by the DT will receive a $20 GC from the store … and as usual, will be invited to guest design with us in a future challenge.  All the details are over at Time Out, along with plenty of fabulous inspiration from our wonderful DT … and from our talented Guest Designer,  Anila from Novel Ideas.  You’ll find heaps of delicious clean, crisp cards over at Anila’s blog … why not pop over … enjoy … and say hello while you’re there!

I’m playing along at …

Where Creativity Meets C9 – Anything Goes

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

Twofer Card Challenge #8 – Geometric

Hello … bonjour!  Welcome to our latest Twofer Card Challenge!  This month, we have a cool, stylish and fun prompt … it’s …

Here’s where I went with it …

My common stamp here is the small triangle from Papertrey‘s Sketched Shapes … I love the interest that the scribbly pattern adds … and triangles are so versatile!  How about a closer look at each card?

         

Here I created a random pattern of overlapping triangles on my one layer card, using four different blue hues, pointing down and up towards the oversized Simon Says Stamp greeting, which was nestled into them.  The birthday sentiment and the random dots on the triangles (Simon Says Stamp Lots of Dots) were silver heat embossed … adds a bit of shine without being too much for a masculine card.

My Twofer …

Doesn’t that single triangle stamp make a cute cluster of Christmas trees?  The bottom layer on each tree is the same triangle as on my first card.  Thanks to a negative mask that I hand cut in the shape of the tree, I could stamp the layers (which diminish in size as the trees get taller) and the trunks … with the same triangle stamp.  I used the positive part of the mask to protect the two front trees while the background one was stamped through the mask.  The sentiment is from WPlus9, heat embossed in gold and the trees are dressed in gold foil stars and Santa red bling. There’s a smidge of shading under the trees, though it’s hard to see here.  The finished panel was adhered to a card base that had been trimmed top and bottom with gold washi tape.

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

How will your imagination use our ‘Geometric’ prompt this month?  Will you go conventional or unconventional … or both, as I did?  We’d love to see what you create in our gallery.   All the details you need to play along are over at the Twofer blog … along with plenty of delicious ideas from the DT to get those artistic juices flowing.   We’re delighted to have two Guest Designers with us this time round … welcome to Cheryl from Paper Panacea and Brenda from Inkspired to Stamp, who also have some wonderful inspiration for you.  Do pop over and see both Cheryl and Brenda … there’s so much to see and enjoy over on their blogs … and they’ll be delighted you called!

My graphic masculine card is heading to …

Addicted to CAS – Masculine

Addicted to Stamps & More – Clean And Simple

CAS-ual Fridays – Stamp A Pattern

Seize The Birthday – No Water Option

Watercoolor Wednesday – All About Occasions

… and my Christmas tree cluster is cavorting over with …

CAS Christmas – Tree

Happy Little Stampers Christmas – No Sequins Option

SSS Monday – Add Some Tape

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

               

            

          

A Few Florals!

Hello … bonjour!  Hope you’re having a good summer or winter, depending where you are … and a happy weekend.  I have three cards to share today … and I’m delighted to be blogging them before the deadlines pass on challenges I’d like to link up with!  First into the spotlight,  a fresh card that turned out to be especially QACAS (quick and clean and simple in Darnellese) …

I won a GC from Altenew recently via Therese at Lost in Paper (thanks, Therese!) … and this one layer card was made with one of the sets I got with it.   I used the rock and roll technique to stamp the flower heads in two blues … it added a little dimension and some extra definition to the edges.  The flower centres were done in the darker of the two blues and I added the grey leaves … before finishing with the shiny heat embossed sentiment and a touch of stickles in the middle of each bloom. Forget me nots?  They look a bit like that to my eyes!

I’m playing along with (badges are at the bottom of the post) …

Altenew – Inspiration/Colours (below)

Inkspirational – An Under 10 Minute Card … it was close, 9’51 as I added the last Stickles!

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday – Anything Goes

Next up, some rainbow-y goodness …

A watercoloured rainbow panel with a Poppy Stamps bloom die cut from it and inset into it, adhered flat to a white mat with a WPlus9 sentiment stamped along the bottom edge.  I scored lines onto the card base before mounting the finished panel onto it on craft foam and adding a couple of tiny black pearls to the flower centres.

I’m joining in at (badges are at the bottom of the post) …

AAA Cards – Somewhere Over The Rainbow

Happy Little Stampers Dies – Anything Goes

Poppy Stamps – Birthday Party

Seize The Birthday – Stripes … the scored ones

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday – Anything Goes

Finally, a bright, summery, colourful little number …

Another one layer card, this time stamp layered with the second set I got with my Altenew GC.  The sentiment is from Winnie and Walter and the supplementary greeting is from Simon Says Stamp.  I added some black gel pen dots to the flower centres and a fine black line along the crease edge to tie them in to the black greeting.

These florals are going to be blooming at (badges are at the bottom of the post) …

Fusion – Inspiration (below) … all those lovely colours at that summer picnic

Seize The Birthday – No Option … unless a line counts as a stripe!

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday – Anything Goes

That’s it for me … I’ll be back on Thursday with a little something for the new challenge starting then at Time Out.  In the meantime, thanks so much for coming by, your visits and comments are always a joy!  Anita 🙂

 

                  

                   

                   

A Trio Of Cards!

Hello … bonjour!  Surprise … a non DT post … my first since January!  Each week I believe there’ll be a little spare time to just play with paper, ink and challenges … then it gets to Sunday night and there’s not.  Pretty much where we’ve all been at one time or another, I guess!  Today, though, at last, I have a trio of cards to share, inspired by a plenty of different challenges.  Here’s the first …

         

My primary inspiration here came from my lovely friend Chriss‘s card for Muse Christmas Visions, 100th challenge party (many congratulations, ladies!) …I picked up on the colours, the gold and the layout … and stamped my festive spray using images from Concord & 9th‘s Flourish.  This isn’t an outline stamp, so I did some of the layering in gold, to mimic Chriss’s embossing.  For the main flower, I also used a water brush to blend the gold and white to create cream … and added some white gel pen highlights to the berries.  The sentiment is from WPlus9 (inspired by SSS Monday).

I’m playing along at (badges at the bottom) …

Muse Christmas Visions – As above

Addicted to Stamps and More – Holiday

SSS Monday – Inspired by a Song … Joy To The World

SSS Wednesday – Use More Than One Stamp … Two sets, lots of stamps

Watercooler Wednesday – All About Christmas

The next card is a bright, sunny little number …

This lovely MFT sunflower was gifted to me by my sweet friend Bev (thanks, Bev!) … it puts me in mind of the  fields of them that will be in bloom around us by the summer.  I did some ink layering (with MISTI) to get the graduated colour on the petals and leaves, die cut everything and adhered the flower and leaves onto my linen card base.  The Papertrey sentiment (thanks, Judith!) was stacked three times and adhered over the sunflower … and I scattered some Lucy’s Little Gems around it.

This bright bloom is heading to (badges below)…

Just Us Girls – Inspiration Picture (below)

Happy Little Stampers Dies – Anything Goes

SSS Monday – Inspired by a Song … Sunflower by Glen Campbell

SSS Work it Wednesday – Sunshine and Summer Time

The Cat’s Pajama’s – Die Cutting

This last card may just have a familiar feel about it …

Yep, the same main image as the first card … though doesn’t it look different here in these summery shades (or at least it does to my eyes!).   My colour palette came from a home decor piece I saw on Pinterest … I wanted something rather bold … and a bit different from my usual choices.  The Concord & 9th Flourish images are simply stamp layered direct onto the card base … and I added a sentiment from Beautiful Branches, also from Concord & 9th.  Voilà … it didn’t seem to need anything else!

I’m joining in with (badges below) …

Where Creativity Meets C9 – Floral

Less Is More – One Layer Card – Thinking of You

SSS Monday – Inspired by a Song … Wildflowers by Tom Petty

SSS Wednesday – Use More Than One Stamp … Two sets here

Hope your weekend has been a wonderful one … have a happy week!  Thanks so much for coming by, your visits and comments are always a joy!  Anita:)