Happy New Year

The New Year will be upon us before we know it so here is a little card in readiness. It's for the challenge at Happy Little Stamper's CAS section for December..

To make it I used dies from All Occasion Dies (The clock face) and (Happy) from Creative Dies from Craft Essentials, purchased from Craft Stash. The only bit of stamping is the New Year from Happy Little Stampers.

This is the first time I have used this die.. it's rather large and so in order to keep a reasonable amount of white space, I offset the dial and cut off the overhang!

Our winner for this challenge will receive a $20 coupon to spend at the shop! Check out all the details HERE.

Do join in the fun!

Happy Little Stampers Christmas

Another month and another card  for the Happy Little Stampers CAS  challenge!

This time, helpfully, the challenge is to make a Christmas Card.

For this card I used a sentiment die from Stamplorations, and jingle bells and thread from Memory Box. Actually the thread is part of a set which came with a needle (which I have never used, but the thread is really handy!)

The bells have been given a little dimension with a moulding tool thingy and popped onto dimensional pads.

Our winner for this challenge will receive a $20 coupon to spend at the shop! Check out all the details HERE.

Come and join us!

No Mojo!

This year we have been away many times and I seem to have lost the thread as far as my card making is concerned. Recently I have done a little knitting, something that I haven't done for quite a while...but I guess you don't forget how... a bit like riding a bike.

Anyway, enough... here is a little card inspired by the challenge at AAA Cards

...which is Inspired by a film.

I used a  stamp from Stamping Bella as my illustration for "You've got Mail"... one of my all time favourite films.

It's not quite the same kind of mail, but a communication nevertheless.

The image was coloured with Copic markers, cut out and given a little moulding with a ball-ey tool thingy and mounted with a dimensional pad. Simples.

I really should get my head into gear as Christmas is coming and those cards won't make themselves!

Just one layer

This card is a perfect design for mass production!

It's for the one layer CAS challenge at Happy Little Stampers  

Stamped using my MISTI so that any missed spots of ink could be over-stamped in exactly the same position... the sentiment is from Happy Little Stampers and the holly spray from Paper Smooches.

It was coloured with watercolour pencils, blended with a little water and  twinkled with Glamour dust.

We are just enjoying spending a week with my son and his family in Cornwall.

I am having problems trying to get my printer (which can or should be able to print card) to actually print anything!

Don't you just love technology!

I've tried both wirelessly and with a USB, but to no avail.
Hey HO!

Happy Anniversary

The challenge at CAS on Sunday is to use a die cut!

Using dies is one of my favourite techniques... but then so is heat embossing... so here is a card which combines both.

I looked online to discover that the 8th Anniversary can considered to be the Bronze anniversary, so I used a combination of metallic embossing powders for the heart stamp from Indigo Blu (I think)  and also to emboss the Memory Box die cut!

The sentiment was computer generated. 

This week we are spending in Cornwall with our son and his family. Let's hope the rain stays away!

Still busy

We seem to still be busy in the Stokes household at the moment and so here is a quick card for the challenge at CAS(E) this Sketch

I never seem to start early enough with Christmas cards and every year I think I will be more organised, but it hasn't quite happened yet!

I really don't remember the make of this conifer stamp, but it had a clear picture stuck to the back of the cling stamp, which I find very difficult to adhere to acrylic blocks, so I took it off and now I can't get rid of the sticky residue. I've tried a variety of solvents but it seems to want to stay!

I just repeat stamped the image in a couple of Distress Ink colours. I then added the layered sentiment die cuts from PTI., which I twinkled slightly with Glamour Dust.

At last!

It seems ages since I have managed to sit in my craft room and make a card. The summer has been spent with our own holidays plus several weeks of looking after grandchildren. We have also had a new staircase fitted, followed by new carpets...so the house has been in turmoil for quite a while.

This card is for a couple of challenges

Apples from Addicted to CAS

Using the sketch from 

Colours and Sketches

I found an old stamp from Unity, which I really love, but don't think have used previously, coloured with Copic Markers. The background de-bossing was done with a Sizzix die, but sadly I don't remember the make of the sentiment dies.. they were from a large number of useful words, I have a couple of sets, Crafter's Companion comes to mind but I couldn't verify this fact on the internet.

I'm struggling with a new pair of specs at the moment and my eyes are aching somewhat, but I have an appointment with the optician this afternoon so we'll have to see what he has to say!

Memory of Africa

We recently went on a cruise which ended in South Africa and we have lots of fabulous memories of our time spent in Africa.

This card for the challenge at Happy Little Stampers is a reminder of that fabulous vacation.

I made a circle aperture mask and brushed it with various shades of Distress Inks before stamping the Tim Holtz silhouette tree using black dye ink.The sentiment is from an old wooden stamp from Sir Stampalot. I distressed the edges of the sentiment card with scissors before mounting on foam pads. 

Our winner for this challenge will receive a $20 coupon to spend at the shop! Check out all the details HERE.

Our summer has been really busy looking after grandchildren, which was great fun but extremely tiring... maybe soon things will get back to normality!

Get Well

I seem to have been gadding all around the world this year.

 In January we went to Florida and the Caribbean, in March we cruised from Singapore to Cape Town followed by a few days in Victoria Falls.

In July we had a two week cruise in the Mediterranean which included a fabulous excursion to the opera in Verona. 

Here I am at the old city of Mdina in Malta

Having returned home for 4 days we went off again, this time to Bratislava with the Bath Choral Society. Soon we'll be off to Devon for the weekend and then to Spain in August. It's not surprising that I haven't had a lot of time for card making!

This card is for the CAS challenge at Happy Little Stampers, where the focus is flower!

PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU CREATE SOMETHING CLEAN AND SIMPLE FOR OUR FOLLOWERS

Our winner for this challenge will receive a $20 coupon to spend at the shop! Check out all the details HERE.

For my card I used a Memory Box corner die and a Sizzix flower die, cut from a piece of card coloured with the shaving foam technique.

You can see a demo here

The sentiment is from HLS Doodled Flowers.

All the colours of the rainbow

I've been lucky again! This time I was asked to do a Guest Designer spot for AAA Cards after winning the embossing challenge!

The theme for this challenge is 

Rainbow

For my card I decided to use Brushos once more. The colours are so vibrant!

I began by spraying a piece of card with starch and then tapping some of the powders onto it in a rainbow of colours. I then placed a scrunched up piece of cling film over the top and left it to dry for a while. It leaves a really pretty effect on the card. I learned this technique on the Happy Little Stampers' Retreat in Swindon last year.

Having got the piece of prettily coloured card, I had to decide what to do with it and I thought the colours looked great peeping through this Sizzix die-cut.

I added a couple of little butterflies from Penny Black, sprayed with iridescent twinkle (more rainbow colours) and a 'hugs' sentiment from Cutplorations, also sprayed and double layered.

I had fun making this one!

BBQ Man

This is the card I made for my husband's birthday as he really fancies himself as a bit of a BBQ expert!

We have several barbies in our garden, one which looks pretty much like this one, plus a smoker, a gas barbie and a chiminea. He began his association with them when we lived in the USA many years ago and his enthusiasm hasn't waned in the interim.

For this card I used a stamp from Hobbycraft, (I bought a whole set just for this stamp!) I coloured it with watercolour pencils and a water brush, but I wanted to get the sheen of the real barbie and wondered how to achieve it. What I came up with in the end was to put a little Versamark reinker onto a craft mat and used it to paint over the image using a fine brush, I simply sprinkled over some clear embossing powder and heated it. Bingo... a shiny BBQ!

The sentiment is from Happy Little Stampers!

The challenge  for the Happy Little Stampers CAS  this time is Birthday!

Our winner for this challenge will receive a $20 coupon to spend at the shop! Check out all the details HERE.

Patterned paper

When I saw that  the challenge at CASual Fridays was to use patterned paper, I was delighted to think that I could use some of the stacks of patterned paper which have been sitting in my drawers for years. 

When I first starting crafting, I tried everything... all styles, all genres... until I realised that my own particular style was clean and simple! By then I had accumulated heaps of stuff, now obsolete in my craft room.

 Here I used Sizzix butterflies and a Sizzix embossing folder with a sentiment which was a freebie from a magazine I believe. The bodies of the butterflies are from a Memory Box die.

It's still possible to keep things CAS even with patterned paper in the mix!

Having fun!

Since attending the Happy  Little Stamper's Craft retreat last year, I have really become a Brusho convert!

This card is a bit of an experiment and I had fun doing it.

I began by applying some White Pearlescent Embossing Paste through a stencil and then having removed the stencil, tapped some Brusho colours onto the wet paste. It began to react a little but I fancied a little more impact so I spritzed it with water and blotted it a little.

The pearlescence shows through the colours and I rather like the effect!

The sentiment is from Paper Smooches, stamped in SU Pacific Point ink.

I'm submitting this card to two challenges

CAS Mix Up  (my additional  choice is die-cutting) and Just us Girls

         

Here is another using a similar technique, although this time I cleaned the stencil and put it back over the embossed images before adding the Brusho pigments. The pearlescence didn't show as much so I brushed a little Perfect Pearls over the butterflies and then decided to do a little spritzing as well.

The dry embossing is from a Cuttlebug folder.

Do you have a preference?

Fabulous Friend

I was just browsing a few blogs when a card from my fabulous friend Anita, jumped out at me. It's her inspiration card for MUSE and what an inspiration it is, I think it's absolutely stunning.

So this is my attempt!

I used a Tim Holtz stencil and brushed some Candied Apple Distress ink through it. I simply added some Sizzix flower die-cuts and stamped a one word sentiment from Paper Smooches. The front panel, cut with a SSS stitched rectangle and elongated a tad to fit a British card size, was popped up on dimensional pads.

Simply smooshing!

The challenge at Happy Little Stampers CAS challenge this time is to use one of my all time favourite techniques... smooshing!

Once you have created your smooshed  card it can be used for a variety of purposes. Here I chose to die cut the card for both the focal point (the butterfly, a die from Simon Says Stamp) and the hellosentiment (from MFT).

Here is the smooshed card from which I cut the elements for this card.

I began by putting a small amount of Platinum Inka Gold paste  onto a craft mat and then added various shades of blue Aqua Tints, before spritzing with water to combine the colours. I then took several prints from this using fairly absorbent card. You can see that this particular piece has been used for more than one project.

Our winner for this challenge will receive a $20 coupon to spend at the shop! Check out all the details HERE.

A quick card!

Here's a quick card made today using a die I've had for some time, but I'm not sure that it's been used before.

I chose some colours suitable for a chap and used the theme of Repetition from CAS on Sunday. plus the Male Room's die cutting criterion.

Sadly I can't find the make of the Happy die at present, but the birthday diecut which I layered using the four colours used in this card, is from Papertrey Ink.

I did toy with the idea of adding a little die cut image somewhere, but as yet haven't found with the perfect die or the perfect place to put it..so for the moment I'm leaving it as is

Time to celebrate

I loved this simple sketch from CAS Colours and Sketches and I think it will be one that I call upon in future.

For this card I used a pocket watch die from All Occasion Dies, inlaying the gold with the white card. The sentiment is from Hero Arts, embossed in gold. The lower panel is a section of card embossed with a Darice embossing folder and mounted on a die cut, from an MFT pierced pennant die, cut from both ends to make it rectangular.

Here I combined it with the challenge at The Male Room which is to use die cuts.