Caseing Virginia

Good afternoon.
This blog is going to be a little busy this aft as I have two posts due to go live at the same time because the new CASEplorations challenge and the new Sketch challenge from STAMPlorations, go live at the same time! This is coming up just before the new sketch challenge.

Here is my CASE of this weeks card.

Here is another view as the gold embossing didn't show up in the first!

This is the card we are showcasing for you to CASE by the wonderful Virginia Lu.





My CASE took various elements from this fab card.
Vellum overlay, gold embossed flowers, kraft greeting panel and grey card.
I didn't have any gold twine so I used a Tim Holtz scribble heart in gold mirror card instead.
The flowers are from STAMPlorations, Bloom Sketches, Blossom Overture and Eclectic Florals, masked to make a bouquet. They were coloured in Copics from the back as they melt the embossing!
The sequins cover up the dots to attach the vellum.

OK that's it, pop back to see the latest sketch at STAMPlorations in a tick.

Joining in at :-



I went diagonal, Die cut, Embossing, Sequins.

Thanks for stopping by. :)

Wings n Things

Good morning everyone. 

Today sees the start of the Spring Bank Holiday weekend and also a new challenge at Fantasy Stampers. This time we would like to see your projects on the theme of -

WINGS and THINGS

I received some new stencils in the post the other day and I've been having fun playing with them. This is my first card that I have posted using them.

The stencil is from ARTplorations and is called Flutterby. Now why am I posting a card made with a stencil when we are a stamping only blog challenge. Well I used stamps to create the pattern on the butterflies wings. 

To make this, I first cut a panel of white card then taped the stencil over it. Then I stamped over the spaces using STAMPlorations Trendy Butterflies and Eclectic Florals set with DIs.

Not wishing to waste the ink on the stencil I took a monoprint from it and will use it in another card.

I then washed the stencil and when dried I placed it back over the printed pattern. I then inked through the stencil with Versamark ink and then removed the stencil and used clear embossing powder to intensify the colours of the butterflies.

To complete I trimmed the panel down and wrapped some linen thread around adding a LOTV tag greeting and a fussy cut stamped butterfly, then mounted on pads onto a cerise base card.

Job done.

OK, now it's over to you.pop over to the main blog to check out the rest of the DT's inspiration then join in. 

I'm joining the fun over at -

                                                 Stencil it

     

                                         Pink, Blue and yellow

Thanks for popping by and leaving such supportive comments. :)

Sketch #34

Good afternoon and welcome.

Today sees the launch of a new sketch challenge over at STAMPlorations. 

I love a good sketch and I must admit that sometimes I'm a little too literal in my interpretation, so this time I've gone a little off piste with my DT card.

Looks all quite normal until you look at the sketch!

When I first saw this I thought of the obvious interpretation, but then the wavy lines on the edge reminded me of a set of card blanks I bought over 12 years ago that were quite expensive. As they were sort of special I kept them for special projects, and there were still a couple left in the stash as I had forgotten all about them and tastes move on.  If I was going to use them it meant mirroring the sketch and then I thought about using flowers instead of butterflies. I kept the same pattern, 1 large and 3 smaller flowers. In the end though I had to make a card base myself as the colours left weren't quite right, a bit too pale and pastely!

The large flower and sentiment are from the Bloom Sketches set and the small from the very useful Eclectic Florals. I stamped the flowers with DIs then washed in the petals with more DI and water, then fussy cut them and worked the petals with an embossing tool and mat to give them some depth. I added a few leaves from my leaf box( all my left over green gets used to punch leaves when I've a spare moment) to add even more depth.

As usual Shery is offering the following prizes:-

Winner (voted by the design team)

 2 stamp sets (3" by 5") if you use STAMPlorations stamps, 1 stamp set if you don't

+ guest designer spot in a future Sketch Challenge

Top picks 3 digi stamps 

+ the option to be a guest designer too in the next Sketch Challenge if you will use a STAMPlorations digi stamp (to be provided ) OR if you already have STAMPlorations clear stamps.

All winners and top picks will receive a personalized guest designer badge that they can display on their blogs, as well as a STAMPlorations guest designer watermark.

So no excuses not to have a go and join in.

Pop over to the DT's blogs for more inspiration and info on their designs and check out our fab GD.

Carol Mayne GD

Becca DT

Laura Jane DT
Nonni DT

Sari DT

Tenia DT

Wei Wei DT

I'm joining the fun over at-

CAS on Sunday - Cheer up Buttercup

Stamping Sensations - Flower Power

Thanks for stopping by, come back soon. :)

Happy Birthday

Good morning early risers.

This is a different sort of post today as we are celebrating the birthday of the lovely Sandie of London Days.
Kylie is hosting a suprise linky party on her blog with one or two friends helping out to spread the news. Sandie does a lot of work behind the scenes at ATSM and always leaves such supportive comments so how could I not join in. 

Here is my card for her and if the Royal Mail have done their job she should have received it by now!

Happy Birthday Sandie!!

Sandie loves CAS so I hope she likes this.

I used a couple of challenges for my inspiration as I had too many ideas floating around my head, again!

I've used this camouflage technique with letters and numbers before, here, here and here, but I went with a tag this time. I stamped the greeting (a freebie on a mag) in black then using the colours from CASual Friday I inked up my STAMPlorations Eclectic Florals and stamped around the greeting. The wispy bits are from the same free set, stems I think!. The tag is from Die'sire and has several layers of the same glued together. I'd no dark twine so I coloured some pale blue with a Copic to match.

OK, why not join in over at Kylie's blog and wish Sandie a very happy birthday.

I'd like to join in at -

                                

Thanks for popping by and special thanks to those of you who stop to spend time to leave such lovely comments. :)

Sketch #32

Good afternoon and welcome. 

It's time for a new sketch challenge at STAMPlorations. Here is my card -

and here is the sketch -

I had quite a few ideas for this challenge but eventually went for a card influenced by the challenge over at Fusion and a card made by my teamie from ATSM, Sarah. It was the colours in the photo that caught my eye with the cerise silvery mirror and blue. I must admit I added a few other colours for the flowers but the central panel and stenciled background are definitely cerise!

I started off by inking the Shutters stencil from ARTplorations with Picked Raspberry then I turned to the flower element. I used Eclectic florals to stamp using DIs and then softened the edges with a paintbrush and some water, dragging the colour into the petals. When dry I fussy cut them and shaped them using an embossing tool and some foam. I die cut the swirl of green using a Marianne die and stamped two butterflies in blue using the Trendy Butterflies set. The sunshine and warmer weather has brought out a whole range of butterflies around here so I had to include some!

For the central panel I used a polaroid frame like Sarah's card instead of a circular aperture I was going to use. I inked the central panel with the same Picked Raspberry then did some water stamping with some more of the butterfly set to give it some depth and embossed the greeting from the new Noteworthy set in silver.

I inked up the edges of a slightly larger panel in Picked Raspberry to mount the top panel on, it does help if you haven't got matching cardstock, then onto a white base card.

Don't forget you can use stamps by other companies in projects that you enter to our challenges but we ask that you please not use our challenges for the sole purpose of promoting another stamp company if you are a design team member of that company. If you have our stamps and/or stencils in your stash, we'd be tickled if you use them!

As usual Shery is offering the following prizes:-

Winner

(voted by the design team)

prize: 2 stamp sets (3" by 5") if you use STAMPlorations stamps, 1 stamp set if you don't

+ guest designer spot in a Sketch Challenge

Top picks

prize: 3 digi stamps 

+ the option to be a guest designer too in a Sketch Challenge if you will use  STAMPlorations digi stamp (to be provided )OR if you already have STAMPlorations clear stamps

All winners and top picks will receive a personalized guest designer badge that they can display on their blogs, as well as a STAMPlorations guest designer watermark.

Frequent Players Spotlight. Play in all 3 challenges for the month for entries to the random draw. Prize is always going to be a stamp and stencil pack valued at $10.

So no excuses to have a go and join us.

Pop over to the DT's blogs for more inspiration and info on their designs and check out our fab GDs.

Suchi GD

Robyn GD

 Coni  GD

Becca DT

Laura Jane DT

Sari DT

Shery DT

Tenia DT

Wei Wei DT

I would like to join in the fun at -

As you like it Challenge - Alcohol markers or Distress Inks

DIs are great if you want a softer effect for your image, I use them especially for flowers.

Thanks for calling around, see you back soon. :)

Mainly Black

Hi, and welcome to my late night post to show you my card for the latest challenge over at ATSM.

This week our theme is -

CAS

and here is my card

I made this with one or two challenges in mind as well as this week's sponsor which is -

Shery is offering a $10 gift certificate to the winner.

Over at Time Out they are Casing a card by Kim Makortoff and this is Kim's card.

I took out some black card and thought straight away of the challenge at Less is More, which is 'Predominately Black' so that was my starting point.

I stamped and then heat embossed in white on vellum some flowers from STAMPlorations Eclectic Florals set and from SU Stippled Blossoms. After cutting out, I shaped them with an embossing tool and foam and rearranged them on the black panel, not right so I took them all off!

Next I embossed some swirls in clear EP and then arranged the flowers on top. A little better but it still lacked something so I sprinkled some chunky white EP then added the flowers and a few sprigs of bright green punched leaves.

Job done!

The sentiment is from Clearly Besotted, stamped and embossed in detail white.

OK, that's about it, so why not check out the rest of the DT's inspiration and join us this week over at ATSM.

I would like to join in at -

Time Out - Case the Card

Predominately Black

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for your wonderful recent comments.

Sketch #31

Good afternoon crafty friends and welcome my post to announce a new sketch challenge over at STAMPlorations. I do like a sketch so I had real fun with this one. Here is my take on it.

This is the sketch that we are asking you to use.

I saw a post from Cornelia that referred me to a link to a video by Laura Basson at Make it Monday. It was all about double partial die cutting. I love finding new ways for combining dies and I loved this idea as well as the colours she used. I used an Avery Elle word die and a Spellbinders Label 25 die to make the die cuts. The first time I managed to cut the whole word out, so be careful with the cutting!  I used Bloom Sketches text for the embossed white sentiment and Vignette: Electic Florals to stamp the flowers and leaves before cutting them out. I used DI in matching colours so you have to look hard to see the stamping.

You can see the orange and green but not so well on the yellow. I added some punched circles to the centers of the flowers. I haven't coloured the panel under the hello as Laura did, as the word takes up quite a lot of space. I popped up the panel on pads onto a A6 white base to finish.

Don't forget you can use stamps by other companies in projects that you enter to our challenges but we ask that you please not use our challenges for the sole purpose of promoting another stamp company if you are a design team member of that company. If you have our stamps and/or stencils in your stash, we'd be tickled if you use them!

As usual Shery is offering the following prizes:-

Winner

(voted by the design team)

prize: 2 stamp sets (3" by 5") if you use STAMPlorations stamps, 1 stamp set if you don't

+ guest designer spot in a Sketch Challenge

Top picks

prize: 3 digi stamps 

+ the option to be a guest designer too in a Sketch Challenge if you will use  STAMPlorations digi stamp (to be provided )OR if you already have STAMPlorations clear stamps

All winners and top picks will receive a personalized guest designer badge that they can display on their blogs, as well as a STAMPlorations guest designer watermark.

Frequent Players Spotlight. Play in all 3 challenges for the month for entries to the random draw. Prize is always going to be a stamp and stencil pack valued at $10.

So no excuses to have a go and join us.

Pop over to the DT's blogs for more inspiration and info on their designs and check out our fab GDs.

Kim GD

Pooja GD

Becca DT

Laura Jane DT

Sari DT

Tenia DT

Wei Wei DT

I would like to join the fun over at -

Tag it @Cards und More

Good morning crafters and welcome to my latest post for the new challenge over at Cards und More.

This fortnight we would like to see your projects using a :-

TAG

For my card I took inspiration from the latest challenge at Tag it .. You're it!

I've used kraft for the tag die cut from a Marianne die and stamped and embossed in white a line of a music score, then stamped and embossed some flowers from STAMPlorations. The flowers were coloured using DI in a w/c effect then fussy cut and mounted on the tag, adding some Marianne swirls and a Spellbinders Happy Birthday die cut in white and silver. 

If you look closely at the inspiration card you will see chevrons in white over the base. I used some zigzags cut using a MFT die, a bit of ribbon and twine from the stash finished it off.

Pop over to the CuM site to check out some more inspiration from the rest of the team and join in.

I would also like to join in at -

Seize the Birthday - Anything Goes

2015 World Wide Open Dt Challenge 

Love at Fantasy Stampers

Good morning crafters.

I hope the weekend will give you a respite from the awful weather we are having here in GB and on the East coast of America.

As it's Saturday it means a new challenge over at Fantasy Stampers  (entries don't need to be of a fantasy nature just plain old stampin!). This week Jan has chosen the theme of-

PS I LOVE YOU

Make of that what you will! I went literal with my interpretation here.

I've wanted to try this camouflage die technique for awhile so with only a couple of large font dies this was really the first chance I've had.

The die is from Avery Elle and the stamps are from STAMPlorations, Vignette: Eclectic Florals and the 'you' is part of a phrase from their Bloom Sketches set.

The choice of colour is down to the challenge over at  Colour Q

These are SU colours, so not having any I used DI's in similar colours.

I stamped the flower panel then die cut the word LOVE across the middle. I cut four more 'LOVEs' in plain white and layered them up before gluing the panel onto an A6 white card.

OK, that's about it from me for the moment. Pop over to the main Fantasy Stampers site for more inspiration and have a go. 

PLEASE REMEMBER NO DIGIS

If you feel like joining our little band we are having a DT call see the details here.

If you don't fancy the full DT thing why not try a stint as a GD to try it out. All you have to do is add GDT after your entry or contact Jan as above.

I shall also enter at the following challenges:-

Creative Inspirations - Roses (I think the large red ones are )

Allsorts - Flower Power

TIME OUT - Valentine's Day with a twist of hearts (no twist this time)

STAMPlorations @ TIME OUT

Good morning all.

I'm posting this morning for the first time as an official  STAMPlorations challenge designer.

Shery is sponsoring the latest challenge over at TIME OUT where the theme is -

VALENTINE'S DAY with a twist of hearts

So some of us newbies are contributing to a post to advertise the fact. Here is my card -

I went with the twist of hearts.

I printed out the sentiment on the computer then stamped the jam jar from the eclectic florals set in Versafine then embossed in white. I inked a heart using Copics the added the back of the jar in embossed white using a Versamark pen, then added glossy accents over the red..

When the GA was dry I inked my panel with DI Salty Ocean to create an Ombre effect, then softened the effect by adding water with a paint brush and a few drops of water on the inked panel and some splashes of colour on the white. I added some linen thread to the neck of the jar to create some vertical interest. 

I shall also enter it over at -

Inkspirations - Ombre

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Have a Heart

Thanks for stopping by, come back soon.