What happened to this week?

So the weekend almost upon us and I have no idea where this week went. Am away from Sunday next week but hope I will be able to access the internet at some point.

Have done a few CASE'd cards this week as Mr Mojo steadfastly refuses to show his face so to all you lovely talented bloggers out there I thank you for the inspiration as without you I would have had a week of just sitting looking at the craft mat vacantly.

 The spotty background papers I have never used - bought  on a trip to a craft show several years ago. Now that they are on the desk I may well start to use them up.

The grey base card is from SU.
I used up some leftover Christmas red card for the flower heads. They are not from the same die set.The larger one may be Marianne?

 The leaves are a Memory Box die, and again just an odd bit of pale green card lying about found it's way into the machine!
The sentiment was stamped onto a left over piece of vellum and heat embossed with WOW Fine White.
Added a few blingy gems and another card which won't need a mortage to purchase a stamp to post I think.

Nipping quickly into the Playground  - no swings or hooch today tho - PJ's and sofa for me for the rest of the day I think - had a bit of a bug the last few days which I am hoping will subside before the 6 hour car journey on Sunday.
Challenges -
Crafting By Designs - Add a Flower
Crafty Gals Corner - A/Goes
Crafty Girls Creations - A/Goes
Incy Wincy - Rhinestone/Red/Flower

I hope the latest storm we are having is giving you all a perfect excuse to venture no further than the Craft Room Door! Have a great weekend. x

One month on.......

and 11 more to go!! Of course it's Christmas I'm talking about! Have decided to try and do as many cards as possible during the year (well - that means before May cos once May arrives I only just have time to BREATHE never mind anything else....).

And I really did feel bad about not supporting Mo last year and her 'Rudolph Day' challenges so over the next couple of months am going to try my best!

Did a couple similar last year so as Mr Mojo has gone AWOL this morning, the only thing I could come up with was the same kind of design.

There is also a sketch here at Sunday Stamps so this is my interpretation and a similar one here at Sketch Saturday which I tuned upside down!

This was quick and easy and now I've said that it doesn't give me an excuse not to make more Christmas ones during the year does it?

A die, some spotty cardstock, a sentiment stamp and some glamour dust - what could be easier???

Other Challenges -
AAA - Winter Wonderland
Eceltic Ellapu - Use a die
CCC - Anything Christmas

Have a great day and thanks for looking! x

Keep trying!

After a dry start today it is now absolutely throwing it down! It's also ridiculously warm - can't believe it can you - beginning of the week we had 2 inches of snow!
Have done several CAS cards this week (most are inspired by others) and I have been trying to go back to techniques that I am not very good at!

 So here's the offering for today and as they say Practice Makes Perfect!

I mixed some Stormy Sky and Weathered Wood Distress inks onto the mat and sprayed with a little water.

Normally I use too much water - I don't think I used enough here!

Pressed the card down onto it, then repeated with Crushed Olive and Peeled Paint for the ground.
The stamp is from a clear set and have no idea which make they are!
Simply used Versafine Black for the big tree and Smokey Gray for the smaller ones.
I then dipped and dragged a wet paintbrush at the base of each tree trunk with some of the DI left on the mat.
Layered onto white linen card and my all time fave sentiment stamp - done!

I am reasonably happy with this - and at least I am trying to become better at stuff that previously I have struggled with!

Challenges -
Less Is More - Silhouettes
Craft Rocket - CAS
Addicted to Stamps - Make Your Mark
Seize the Birthday - CAS

Thanks for looking and thanks for any comments you leave - I love to hear from you.x

Vintage

Am feeling quite pleased as I have managed a few CAS cards the last few days - but needed a fix of frilly and also needed to do some DT ones for forthcoming challenges!
So here's a frilly one using up some of the leftovers from one of the DT makes -

Cream base card and Sweet Paris papers. Distressed and stitched all the layers and added a pale green doily.
The pink and green braid is from my stash.

The wooden frame was embossed with Weathered White embossing powder as was the sentiment which was stamped on another scrap which fortunately for me fitted inside the frame!

I stamped a couple of odd bits with a postcard and script stamp and tucked them behind the frame at the top adding a couple of pearly pins.
 Flowers and dyed seam binding and an Eiffel Tower charm to finish with the papers used on the inside too.
This is a rather fussy make and in stark contrast to what I've been doing just lately - change is as good as a rest!!!
Off to the Playground with all my odd bits to see if there's anyone about.

Challenges -
Fantastic Tuesday - A/Goes with a girly twist
SOS - 3, 2 1 (3 flowers/pins, 2 braids/trims, 1 Frame)
Paper Shelter - Rough It Up
Fab n Funky - Buttons or Bows
CFAS - Ribbon and Pearls

Thanks for looking in today - off for a trawl round blogland and Pinterest as I need some more CAS inspiration I think! Have a great day whatever you're doing. x 

Blues

Everywhere here stark white this morning! Quite a lot of snow last night and it's still here!
A 'Man' card to share today as the 'man' stash is really low so made a couple of train/boat/plane themed ones this week for the card box.

A blue colour scheme for this one as the ship's wheel background paper I have had for a long time and never used.
The other paper was just an odd leftover bit but was big enough to use to cut a circle and a couple of banners.

The stamp was inked with Versafine Majestic Blue and I lightly sponged round the edge of the white card before distressing and layering onto the blue base.   

The charm secured with some blue/white twine and the sentiment stamp just tucked behind.

Challenges -
Fantasy Stampers - All About the Boys
Just Us Girls - Light/Dark Blue and White
Sparkles Monthly - January Blues (Monochromatic)
Glitter n Sparkle - Mono
Craft for the Craic - January Blues

Used up a few bits too so over to the Playground with my woolly hat and furry boots to make a snowman!
Have a great day whatever you're doing. x

Sparkly Blue

The title of the post is the colour that the sky was today! Thank goodness for some bright blue instead of the drab greyness - it was a typical PROPER winter's day - crisp, bright, cold and clear.
I made this a couple of days ago - it is simply eons before I have joined in at Less Is More but am continuing in what limited free time I have to doing quick plain cards to swell out the stash a bit - so here's another.

It's one layer week which I dread but tried to get stuck in!  

This card looks so much better in real life. (sighs). 

I took the pic on one of the aforesaid grey days and was intending to re-take today - but by the time I remembered it was dark!
The theme is flourish and I was tempted to re-create the vellum effort below onto a one layer card but decided instead to use this stamp.

Simple plain black card and white embossing powder. A few sparkly blue gems and an embossed sentiment - job done!

This may end up being chopped and layered onto a pale blue and black background yet.. still worrying about things being TOO CAS!! Or maybe a white border done in white gel pen? Or both???!!

Other Challenges -
Addicted to Stamps - Anything Goes
Stampin' Royalty - One Layer
Cards and More - One Layer
Muse Challenge #148 - Inspired by the flourish and flowers on Neet's gorgeous card HERE

I hope the sun has shone for you today wherever you are and thank you for taking the time to pay me a visit. x 

Tuesday!

Today I realised it is almost a week since I posted - and I have no idea why as I don't seem to have done anything since last Wednesday that prevented me from adding to my blog!

I made this in a hurry for someone to give to a young couple who have set up their first home together.
The Mo Manning birdies I think are really cute and the couple in question are described as a couple of 'love birds' so a quite fitting image!

I coloured it with Distress Inks and used basic bright white card.
The sentiment was PC generated and I just added a small silver key charm.
I was a bit bothered when I'd done as I thought perhaps it was a little too CAS... if there is such a thing (???) - but the sender liked it and the 'love birds' adored it I'm told so everyone's happy!


A super quick card and a super quick post  - I want to have a few hours in the craft room today! Thanks for looking - and I hope you all have a lovely day whatever you're doing. xx

Challenges -
Cute Card Thursday - New,
Crafting When We Can - New,
Crafting from the heart - A/Goes,
Craft your passion - A/Goes 

Sparkle

Been for a little walk this morning and enjoyed seeing some blue sky for a change - it's not going to last but nice to see all the same!
Have a share for today which started off as an idea after seeing something similar done for Christmas Cards - so out with the embossing powders and some vellum and am happy to see it turned out OK and just like I imagined it would in my head.

I used gold and silver embossing powders.
The flourish stamp was a freebie and it stamps beautifully.

The dandelion head stamp I have had for a long time and I love it.
I embossed first in gold, adding a few lines with an embossing pen along the stem.
The dotted the embossing pen over the seed heads and embossed again in silver.

It's really effective in real life and I am chuffed that I finally managed to create something that was how I imagined!

A few sparkly gems and one of my all time fave sentiments to finish it all off.
3 stamps and some embossing powder - simple!
I don't use vellum very much mainly because I always have trouble fixing it to base card - all glues seem to show through so with this one I just dabbed a little Collal glue behind some parts of the embossed bits (like where the stem joined the flower head) and thankfully it worked!

Challenges -
Stamplorations - CAS/Silver
House of Cards - Emboss
CASology - Simple
Crafty Sentiments - Anything Goes
Fantastic Tuesday - Anything Goes
Crafty Addicts - Anything Goes
Creative Inspirations - Florals
Crafting By Designs - Anything Goes
Craft Stamper - January Challenge

Hope you too have blue skies - enjoy the rest of your day!x

Golden

Here is our first Stamping Sensations challenge of 2016 and it's 'Stamps and Dies' and our sponsors are Tonic who have offered a fab prize of their new colours of Nuvo Crystal Drops and matching glitters!

 

AREN'T THESE FAB?!!  

This was a commissioned card and thankfully the recipients celebration was before this challenge was due to go live so they will have seen it in real life.
In the last couple of months of 2015 I struggled really to come up with anything what I considered to be inspiring. I think having the busy summer left it's toll a little bit - someone said 'only another 3 years to go'... am hoping though that now I know what to expect having almost completed my first year I will be able to relax a bit more when I am not travelling away.
Anyway back to the card -
As we are a stamping challenge there HAS to be stamping as the focal point. My focal point is of course the huge vase holding the flowers! Trust me this IS a big stamp - and years old so have no idea where or when I bought it! I stamped then gold embossed with Tinsel Gold EP which really sparkles (!) before cutting it out.

Before putting the EP away I ran an embossing pen round the edge of the layered card and gold embossed.

The flowers are cut from gold matt card and gold mirri card. I don't really like mirri card very much - I think it is really east to overdo its use but think it looks OK  used sparingly, so just one flower stem whereas two stems from the matt card.

The metal heart is another old buy found in my stash and just used some thin gold wire to pop it into the vase.
The butterfly is a one of a set of 3 dies and I stuck some gold and pearl tiny beads onto the body.
Sentiment was computer generated.
I made a box with a gold lid out of a sheet of mirri card - got to use it up somehow!! Used up quite a few odd bits on the main card too so am away to get my hat and coat on and wellies and splash about in the Playground!
 

Other Challenges -   

Sweet Stampin- New Occasion/Event,  

 Glitter n Sparkle - A/Goes,   

AAA - CAS/Glitter,  

Simon Says Stamp - Party,  

Cupcake Inspirations - Chall 341 where they have this pic for inspiration!

2016!

Happy New Year to everyone!
Here's my first post of 2016 - thank you to everyone who followed me in 2015 and I hope you will come visit me often in 2016!
I have had a very quiet Christmas and New Year - and I managed to make a few cards. Most have been CAS and some have been inspired by blogging friends and of course Pinterest! But as it's the first day of a new year instead of CAS I have chosen this to share -

Once I'd finished I thought  maybe it was a bit sad considering this is the start of a new year! There he is standing in the rain gazing longingly at an image of the woman he loves - this movie star beauty who he captured on his camera before she became famous and then when she was lured to the silver screen she upped and left him  -- Or maybe that's just my over active imagination......... LOL!

So back to the card -
Basic cream card. Background paper is a piece I found in a drawer and used it because it was the right colour!
I printed the Photographic Studio image onto cream card then stamped the 'Movie Star' words on the top, added a metal diamond shaped brad in the centre and rubbed some Walnut Stain DI onto a clock hand (which was something else I found in a drawer!) and secured it with another brad.

I know Umbrella Man has been about for a long time but it was one that I  didn't own so was pleased to unwrap it at Christmas! The film strip die cut and Umbrella Man were cut from textured black card. Quite pleased with it close up as it has a nice subtle sheen to it.

I stamped the 'Movie Star' Image onto cream card  (I have had this rubber backed stamp for a long time and have no idea now which company it was from),  then positioned the die cut film strip over it so that only her face showed. Coloured her lips red! (Kiss Kiss!!!!)
The tickets are of course from Graphic 45 and to finish it off I punched out some sparkly silver stars and added some black blingy gems to the middles.


Challenges - Crafters Cafe (Square Cards),  Paper Creators Crafts (Anything Goes), ABC Challenge (Y for Your Choice), WWODTC (Anything Goes),  Crafts Galore Encore (Anything Goes), Dies R Us (Something New ).

The sparkly stars and black card were left over bits so am popping across to the Playground to see if there's anyone still asleep after last nights very very late party!
Thanks for sharing a little of the first day of 2016 with me. Have a great day whatever you're doing! x