Winter Blues!

Came back from a short break staying with some friends at their wonderful place in Italy - from lovely warm weather to frost and cold! Skies here though are as blue today as they were when we were in the warm sunshine so we are off out for a wander round a local Artisan Market.

My share for today is not Christmas or Autumn themed either but a card made for a friend who is not into frilly or fancy.

I used basic white linen card for my base and stamped the Altenew Rose direct onto the card then silver embossed.

Brush inked the bottom with some Tumbled Glass DI.
I stamped/embossed the Altenew Rose again onto an off cut of the linen card and fussy cut the leaves and the flower head, then added some glamour dust.

Popped them all up on foam pads for extra dimension.
Rather pleased with how it turned out as it really is sparkly in real life without being too over the top!

Embossed the sentiment and added a few little sparklies.
Job Done!

I am sharing over at
Pixies Snippets Playground
Daring Cardmakers - Glitter
LIM - Dimension
Allsorts - Pearls/Gems
Creative Knockouts - Embossing

Thanks for looking - shall be round to visit you all later today. Hope all is well in your part of blogland. x
 

Mid Month reminder!

It's mid month time and here's a little reminder from me of our challenge of 'AUTUMN COLOURS' at Stamping Sensations.

We have the wonderful STAMP ADDICTS as our sponsor this month - we are very lucky to have such great sponsors of all our challenges and if you want to be in with a chance of winning then please follow our rules which are shown on the blog.
We are a stamping challenge and stamping HAS to be the focal point of your entry.

I needed a Thank you card in a hurry so this is what I came up with.

Really quick with a masked off inky background and some copper embossed leaves.

Matted onto dark brown before popping onto the base card.

Was a little unhappy that the sentiment stamp was not as crisp as I would have liked but couldn't fiddle about doing another sentiment to put on top - the card was in the envelope before the ink was dry I think!!😉

If you've not yet joined this months challenge, there's still time!

Pink

Another Christmas/Winter themed card to share today.

I am trying very hard to use up my coloured cardstock - in reality I am never going to even make a dent in it, but like to kid myself that I am being very good 😇and I am making inroads into the paper mountain.
I have rather a lot of pearlised card in pastel shades.   Hardly Used.    Ever.
Took a pink piece out and was going to make a baby card.    Ended up with this.

No excuses except
1. The stamp was out on the desk as I had used it for something else
and
2. I was inspired by a card seen some years ago on the talented Birgit's blog

This has to go down as one of the quickest cards I have made.
Stamped then embossed the trees in Silver EP onto watercolour card. The stamp is actually quite a big one so I cut off a bit from the top.
I used Victorian Velvet DI as it was the nearest pink shade to the base card and whilst waiting for it to dry I stamped the sentiment (From SU) and silver embossed.
When my watercolour panel was dry, I dotted some sparkly stuff all over it then attached it to the base card. Finished!
I've left the stamp out on the desk. I've left the pearlised card out on the desk too. Might as well batch make a load for Christmas in different shades - I can carry on believeing in that one day I will get to the bottom of the paper pile😏😉!
Linking up to
Allsorts - Christmas
CASual Fridays - Pink and Grey (second entry)
52CCT - Silver (hoping there is enough silver on this card!)
Mono Magic - Pink
Creations in Pink - A/Goes
MLCC- A/Christmas
Jingle Belles - Deck the Halls in Pink

We are off to warmer climes tomorrow😎😎 for a short break to stay with some friends. Have a great week and will catch up with you all when I come back! x

Winter

After a glorious sunny day on Wednesday where I was able to walk out in a T shirt, I have been out today in boots and a heavy coat (with a hood!) What a change in the weather! The strong winds turned over all the patio pots and the lashing rain hasn't ceased since last night, so it seems that the 'Indian Summer' may well be gone and Winter is on it's way.

I have leaned towards CAS cards for a long time now - there's something about creating something with minimum embellishments that I like!

Inspired by Pinterest, I inked a background using Tumbled Glass, Spun Sugar and Hickory Smoke.

I don't have many branch stamps - something I intend to rectify as soon as I can! 😉😉 So I used an Inkylicious branches stamp and did some primary and secondary stamping in Black and Smokey Grey.
Then stamped again and heat embossed in white.

I thought the bottom of the card looked a little bare so took the edge of a crackle stamp, inked it with smokey grey and secondary stamped.
The sentiment is from another Inkylicious set.

This didn't take me long so will likely make a few more as no doubt I will be panicking near Christmas and needing some quick cards!

I am about to travel down one of my "favorite" 😟😟 motorways as I have 2 Presentations to attend over this weekend. Keeping fingers crossed that the strength of this wind drops a little and I have an untroubled journey.

Thanks for looking.
Hope you all are safe and sound wherever you are. x 

Sharing over at
CASual Fridays - Pinks and Greys
AULI - CAS
CRAFT - Christmas
Xmas at Sweet Stampin - Anything Christmas
Holly and Ivy - Anything Christmas

CAS x 2

A card for 2 challenges -
CAS Watercolour  is 2 years old! Hard to believe it's been that long since the challenge started but Happy Birthday! Their challenge this month is a colour one chosen by Bonnie - Orange/Green and Brown

and the lovely Mac is hosting the CAS Mix Up challenge - and the elements for that are Metal/Stamping/Your Own Choice. (So mine was Embossing!)  This card was never intended to fit the 2 challenges but I think it contains all the elements!

The leaves were cut using blue metal dies so maybe Marianne Dies? Anyway, I cut them out using some leftover watercolour card then coloured them with water soluble wax pastels, using the 3 colours that Bonnie stipulated in varying degrees of depth.

Another leftover piece used for the wood embossed background which I attached to the base card.
I used Brushed Corduroy Distress Ink for the sentiment which is from SU and cut out with a stitched die.
So CAS Watercolour sorted!   When I'd finished though I felt the card was lacking something but didn't know what.

Then I remembered some gold wire which I had - after spending 20 minutes on my hands and knees under the desk I emerged clutching the wire - which I remember saving and thinking it would come in useful.... have no idea where it came from.
I just added it around the sentiment and curled it round the top leaf  - am hoping that wire counts as metal but if it doesn't am sure someone will tell me!

Daisy Chain - Autumn/Fall
House of Cards - Autumn Colours
Use Your Stuff - Autumn
Crazy for Cas - Fall (in Love)

We've had some lovely weather today and same is forecast for tomorrow so we may get a day out and about to enjoy the sunshine! Hope the sun is shining where you are too. x

Stamping Sensations October Challenge

This month our challenge is 'AUTUMN COLOURS' at Stamping Sensations.
I love Autumn - love sunshine and warm summer days too - but the colours of Autumn are often spectacular and I love to drive along looking at the changing colours of the trees.

So it will come as no surprise that I chose to use a tree stamp!
It is from Stampendous and is another of my rarely used ones.
I stamped it onto watercolour card using Coffee Ranger Archival Ink.
Out with the Distress Inks - Fired Brick, Spiced Marmalade, Fossilized Amber, Peeled Paint.

The stamp is a large one and I thought about a sentiment on the front but decided against it - I remembered that I had these leaf buttons from years ago - took me longer to find them than it did to make the darn card! Found eventually and attached with a little bit of string.

We have the wonderful STAMP ADDICTS as our sponsor this month - we are very lucky to have such great sponsors of all our challenges and if you want to be in with a chance of winning then please follow our rules which are shown on the blog.
We are a stamping challenge and stamping HAS to be the focal point of your entry.

Hope you can find the time to join us - and please take a look at some of the DT's creations - they love visitors!


I am linking up at -
PB&M - Autumn Splendour
Allsorts - Trees/Leaves
Crafty Calendar - Autumn
Alphabet - N for Nature
Daring Cardmakers - October Elemental Inspiration Pic

Holly and Ivy

I took a pic of this card that i finished yesterday and intended to save it for a later post but onto my reading list has just popped up the brand new challenge over at CAS Christmas which has the theme of Birds!
Now I know Halloween is approaching but to have a challenge theme for a card I literally just finished is - well - a little bit spooky!!

This card was just made to go into my stash for me to send at Christmas and has used up a few odd bits of watercolour card.

Simple brick embossed background, a couple of dies and a stamp! Oh and a leftover piece of vellum too!

The stamp was a freebie which has never been used, coloured with watercolours and fussy cut.
Both ivy and holly dies also watercoloured and I added a bit  of Red Nuvo drops to the holly (not sure they look  like berries but you get the idea!) and a little bit of white embossing powder to the ivy leaves.

The sentiment stamp is an old wood backed one, part of a set of  Papermania Christmas sentiment stamps I bought when I embarked on my card making a long time ago. I used Olympia Green Versafine ink then clear embossed.

Didn't take too long to make and is reasonably flat so will be OK to post too!
Popping over to
Pixies Playground
HLS CAS Christmas - Vellum
ABC Christmas - U for Upon and V for Very Quick
THAIC - A/Goes
Addicted to Stamps - Christmas comes early

Back to the inky mess on the craft desk - think I need to clear up a bit! Thanks for calling in. x