Merry Monday Ornaments

Evening folks.

I'm having a stay at home Wednesday. Normally I meet up with a friend and after a meal we go to a craft class but as she had a funeral to go to early this afternoon and we are on standby for looking after our Grandson, our daughter is almost 40 weeks pregnant, I have been crafting at home.

I noticed that the current Merry Monday challenge is Ornaments and as I was sorting through my un posted cards I saw this and thought I would enter it.

This OLC was made by masking off the baubles with die cuts from Post its and a little extra for the hanger, then stamping a pine branch stamp with Pine Needles, Chipped Sapphire DI and good old fashioned water to give the soft effect of a Christmas tree bough. Once the ornaments were painted with more DI and well dry, they were masked with the leftover outers of the post its and embossed with various stamps and gold EP. I added a few more branches to go over the coloured baubles. Sentiment from STAMPlorations was embossed with gold EP.

Joining in over at:-

   

AG Christmas

      

Happy Holidays

Afternoon folks, hope you had a great weekend.

The weather was fab but I was feeling a little under the weather with a bit of a cold so didn't really make the most of it. 

Anyway I'm here to remind you that there is still time to enter this month's CUTplorations challenge. Here is my inspiration project.

In my previous CUTplorations post I was inspired by the words of this pic.

This time it was the words made up of small fruit and veg in a range of colours, especially the happy, that influenced my card. 

Instead of making my letters from images, I decided to stamp lots of small flowers and leaves from the Frames and Flowers set in autumnal colours, then cut out a happy using the CUTplorations die. I then cut another in black card and one in white, placing the black one in the space I made in the panel with the happy die, carefully replacing the really tiny bits in the middle of the Ps. The white HAPPY was placed over the top of the black but slightly to one side to create a shadow. The end result reminded me of Thanks giving so added a simple holidays stamped sentiment to complete.

Please check out the rest of the DT and why not join in.

If you feel you would like to purchase any of our stamps then check out the shop here where you can also get 20% off by using this code.

Joining in over at -

       

Fall/ Halloween                                  Autumn/ Fall

A Twofer!

Morning all and welcome to a brand new challenge from Cardz4Galz.

This time we would like to see your cards etc on the theme of 

MONOCHROME

For my cards I decided to use the colours from LIM's latest challenge. The spice element reminded me of Liam's raised pie on Great British Bake Off which was flavoured with the spice Turmeric and turned the pastry yellow. Here's the result.

As I said in the title of this post, I ended up with two cards for the price of one.

I started by stamping my Uniko Pure Florals Gerbera in shades of yellow on a panel of white card. I decided to stamp my sentiment on a piece of plain card, so instead of placing it over the stamped panel, I cut a rectangle out from the stamped panel, giving me the idea of making another card.

The sentiment panel on this card is embossed in gold EP and inlaid in the stamped panel after it was attached to my base card. 

This card is much more CAS and the sentiment (SU) was stamped in brown then embossed with clear semi matt EP. The panel was then popped up on fun foam over a warm yellow base card.

For more monochromatic inspiration check out the rest of the team and then why not join in.

Joining in over at-

    

Autumn Glory

Little Skier

Hi and welcome to a post to announce the start of the new ATSM challenge.

This week our theme is

HOLIDAY

Here is my 'holiday' card

The FB challenge over at LOTV asks to use one of the first of the stamps you bought so I used an early LOTV image but instead of the regular layout, I gave it a little twist.

The central circular panel is suspended in an aperture with invisible thread so that it appears to float. It was rather difficult to see in the first photo so here is another view.

I started by attaching some DP then a panel of embossed white card to a 5 1/2 inch square card.

Using a circle die I cut through all the layers to leave my aperture. The circle I cut was reused for the mount for the image but cut down using the next sized die. My image was stamped and coloured with Copics before cutting it out with another circle die and mounted onto the blue DP circle. I stamped the greeting from Woodware across the bottom. To make the image appear to float, I cut another circle from white card and sandwiched 2 lengths of transparent thread between it and the image, leaving enough to attach it to the card. Laying the image face down I placed the open base card over and using some double sided tape, attached it to my base on the inside. I covered the back with a paper panel to cover up the strings and added a panel of snowflake DP to the other inside so that you could see it peeking through.

So for more HOLIDAY inspiration check out the rest of the DT here.

I'm joining in over at -

Just the one little pooch on my card!

U for Unlimited Christmas

   

Edited 18/10/17 I forgot! 

White Pumpkins?

Good morning all.

I had a fab weekend, meeting up with friends at the stamp fair at Port Sunlight.

We don't have any decent craft shops near us so it's great to be able to peruse the stands and get those choice items plus a few bargains. There was an added bonus in that I got to chat and catch up with a couple of blog friends. 

Anyway back to business with a brand new challenge over at Cardz4Guyz. This time our theme is -

AUTUMN THANKS or BOO! (Halloween)

I went with the first as I have no one to give Halloween cards to. This is my card for your inspiration.

I used the photo over at Card Concept and the layout at CAS(E) this Sketch. CAS on Friday also have the Fall/Halloween theme.

Picking up on the rustic neutrals, I cut a few ovals and made a pumpkin, edging the panels with Weathered Wood DI as I went. The stalk was cut from a scrap of brown card and the leaves from a scrap of green. The completed pumpkin was set on a die cut circle of shimmery charcoal card, an echo of the clock in the photo and element on the sketch. On a panel of linen textured card, I placed a panel of kraft card shaded with a white pencil crayon then embossed with a brickwork Sizzix EF. Above this I wrapped some jute string and slipped a thank you tag embossed in silver pearl EP under the circle before securing it on the panel. I think the neutral tones of the finished card work well as a masculine card.

So for more inspiration, check out the rest of the team and then why not join in.

   

Clean and Layered?                                                      

Fall/Halloween

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month

It's the 8th of the month so it's time for another Anything Goes with Dies challenge over at HLS.

As many of you may know, October is Breast Cancer Awareness month. This is a cause very close to my heart, having been first diagnosed with it over 20 years ago, followed by a recurrence 10 years later. So it was a no brainer when I saw that Time Out had the theme for their latest challenge, I had to take part. So here is what I came up with using a very, very old Cuttlebug die that my friends and I used to label cards we made to raise funds for Breast Cancer Care, just after my last brush with BC.

I cut lots of the ribbons from white card and laid them out in a grid on a die cut panel of the same card, gluing them down to give a faux embossed effect. One of the ribbons I coloured with Copics and a touch of a Wink of Stella. The panel was then cut and trimmed to reveal the pink base and the STAMPlorations sentiment in white EP. I popped both pieces up on some funky foam scraps and added the pink ribbon die cut.

Quite a simple design but effective I think.

Unfortunately BC can strike anyone, I was under 40, active, not over weight and breast fed both of my children, so when I arrived at the breast clinic after finding a suspect lump,the registrar was not too worried and was going to say that it was nothing to worry about but deep down I knew something was wrong and I was forceful and he eventually did a needle biopsy but as I left he assured me there was nothing to worry about. How wrong he was, after a lumpectomy and taking Tamoxifen ( then as part of the initial trials, no radiotherapy) I survived and carried on playing tennis and badminton thanks to a great surgeon and a stubborn streak. 10 years later I went for a check up mammogram, where the radiographer spotted a shadow, a core biopsy followed. I eventually had to have a full mastectomy as the cancer had returned. Radiotherapy, Tamoxifen and more bloody mindedness carried me through;

So please, please listen to your body and check monthly this link may help. 

As one lady on the ward all those years ago said, PMA, positive, mental attitude to all those currently undergoing treatment.

I'm joining in over at-

   

#93 Breast Cancer Awareness and/or Friendship

Home is where the happy is

Afternoon peeps. Hope you had a fab weekend. We had a visit from our daughter and Grandson, as SiL was at the footy followed by a night out with college friends. She is heavily preggers with her second and feeling the strain so we amused our Grandson to give her a more relaxing time. He wanted to play Monopoly, he's 7 and an absolute whizz at it. Playing the full blown game, he calmly and steadily wiped his Grandad out, closely followed by me! Nothing fancy, no large purchases, a bit of devious bargaining and a maths lesson to boot!

Anyway the theme of houses and home is the focus for my first card on the STAMPlorations CUTplorations team. 

The inspiration for this card was this image.

image source: marmaladebleue

I was pretty literal with the card, making a new home card but you can interpret it how ever you want.

I started by generating the sentiment on the computer, then cut away the top of the printed panel with my brand new (NEBUS) Stitched Spring Landscape die. On a separate panel of white card, I inked through a homemade sunray stencil with Mustard Seed DI, then removed it and inked over the whole panel with Squeezed Lemonade DI.
Trimming the inked panel to smaller than my card base, I glued it flat onto it, then trimmed the die cut panel to match. The top panel was then popped up on pads over the stencilled panel. I cut a small red heart using the Clustered Hearts die and positioned it above the chimney of the house to complete.

So please check out the rest of the team here , where you'll also find all the Ts and Cs and why not join in.

I'm joining in over at:-

Life's Events (New Home)