Celebrate

I saw the sketch at CAS Colours and Sketches

the theme at CASology

and the Trend at Just Us Girls

...and came up with this card.

I didn't have a stamp with a a mask apart from a racoon who looks like he's wearing one, so I grabbed a couple of free clipart images and cut them with my Silhouette Portrait machine. I didn't have a sentiment of the right weight or size in my dies or stamps so wrote this one and also cut it with my Silhouette in Hello font.  This font flows beautifully when welded.

I did try cutting a few of the masks and stacking them, but preferred the look of the single cuts!

JOY

Here's a card for the challenge at CAS Christmas.

I've had this poinsettia die for a very long time and I don't actually remember the make. At some point there may have been some little dots for the centre of the flower, but I couldn't find the die, so I used the waste from a border die with holes in as the stamens etc. The flower is coloured with a couple of shades of red and a couple of shades of green alcohol pens. The die itself is a trio of petals/leaves in one piece so I cut three for the flower and two for the leaves.

The sentiment was not exactly a 'joy' to make as I got it into my head that I wanted a certain size and a certain type of font, which I didn't have in my die stash, so I did this with my Silhouette Portrait.  Cutting something this fiddly from 250gsm card is quite tricky. The bits are tiny and I stacked the letters three times ... it was a real tweezer job! I was however satisfied with the overall look at the end.

Addicted to CAS - Christmas

My Time to Craft Christmas - CAS

Merry Little Christmas - Anything Goes

Happy Little Stampers Christmas - Anything Goes

Be Merry

I have always enjoyed following a sketch, as long as it is not too cluttered... there are some challenges where more is decidedly more  and that's just not my style. Today I spotted this sketch from 

CAS Colours and Sketches

This one is definitely my style.

I used an svg file from Silhouette, to cut the little penguins, and popped them onto a snowy backdrop with a little Christmassy sentiment. I simply cut the base shapes in black and then the rest in white, colouring the beaks and feet with Copics. I love the embossing folder used for the snow, it's by Sheena Douglass but is sadly no longer available.

ABC Christmas K kids

Merry Little Christmas - Anything Goes
The Holly & the Ivy - Anything Goes

 

Gwen

A friend recently asked me to make a birthday card for a little girl called Gwen who is going to be three. The only information given me was that she liked animals. Should be easy you say, and so it should but when one starts to overthink things, that's when the trouble starts. I got an idea into my head which didn't actually work out, but I could seem to get away from the fact that I wanted to use my Silhouette Portrait machine to make it. I did all sorts of things wrong... I'm not the world's greatest tech brain sadly! Anyway after several incarnations I finally ended up with this card shaped as a three! I chose this particular font as I thought that the straight bottom of the number would be good to let it stand up  squarely when opened. I found this cute tiger image and decided to use that, then added the bunch of flying creatures. The tiger is raised onto dimensional pads, but when I went to stand the card up the weight of the tiger lifted the bottom left corner of the card from the surface of the shelf. So I added the little frog die-cut to keep it propped up! It looks like he wants to be friends with the tiger!

I am entering it into the challenge at AAA Birthday

 

Peace

Just recently I was lucky enough to have a card selected as the winning entry into a challenge at  

52 Christmas Card Throwdown

Their challenge this time  is this sketch.

I decided to use a square card base rather than a rectangle and kept fairly close to the original design. Hessian and gold card seem a little far removed from each other, but I think that they team up reasonably well here. I wanted to to add the sentiment 'peace' but the dies I have with this word on were all too large so I decided to make it using my Silhouette Portrait,  cutting the word several times and stacking them to give a little more dimension. Looking at my card I think that the stars may have worked a little better slightly closer together... maybe next time!

I love making Christmas cards and this one is a little unusual!

 

A card for Joel

A friend asked me to make a card for a little chap who will be celebrating his 5th Birthday and loves football (or soccer as our friends across the pond like to call it). I sat pondering for a while and then came up with the notion of making a spinner card. I've had this football die for ages and don't think that I have ever got round to using it before. I found that a Sizzix Framelit die was just the same size, so I cut one of those to use as a backing to stick all the fiddly bits onto. I cut one each in black and white and made 2 balls. I will use the other later sometime. The little footballer chappie is from a very old set of kid's stamps from Bang on the door. They are kind of foam backed, but work really well! By making the grass quite deep, it served to make a space big enough to accommodate the ball and by putting the cut out stamp to the back made it look like he was in the distance running up to the ball... that's what I think any way! I cut the name and the number with my Silhouette Portrait!

With the sphere of the ball and the hexagons on it , I thought it quite suitable for the challenge at Addicted to CAS.

Jingle all the way

Here's another card for the challenge at CAS Christmas

I think that  this is a terrific colour combo and so  thought that I would have another go! 

I used a cut file from Silhouette to create the little reindeer and stamped the backdrop of the card with a plank stamp using Versamark to give the impression of a wooden stable, with the reindeer peeping out of the peek a boo window.

I covered the face with Nuvo Crystal Glaze. The sentiment is from Cutplorations. 

Today it is Mothering Sunday in Britain, the day when many years ago, domestic servants were given the day off to go and visit their mothers, probably gathering a few wild flowers on the way, to take with them. I am informed that a surprise will be arriving for me today, it's just a shame that my kids can't give me an actual hug!

Tomorrow the actual installation of my new kitchen begins!

Will you be my Valentine?

Today us Valentine's Day!

I hope everyone has a lovely day!

A penguin may seem an unlikely character for a Valentine greeting, but there's a bit of a story to this one. I have a friend who asked me to make a Valentine card for his wife and he specifically requested a penguin.   It seems that last month, for her birthday, he bought a jolly looking card for her with penguins on, failing to notice that it was in fact a Christmas card!!! Needless to say his wife noticed it immediately and he was simply amused by his mistake. Now, wishing to keep the penguin theme going, he gave me this request! Funnily enough only yesterday, his wife put a memory on Facebook of seeing the penguins at Philip Island in Australia, so it was quite topical as far as that was concerned too.

This little chap is a cut file from Silhouette, with an added punched heart, and a computer generated sentiment in what I think is All Things Pink font.

I popped him onto dimensional pads for a little interest!

Addicted to CAS Hearts

Happy Little Stampers CAS Challenge 

Inkspirational  Hearts

I am SO disappointed by the result of the impeachment trial in the US... just how so many Republican senators could vote to acquit after such damning evidence is beyond my comprehension. Let's hope justice comes by some other method!

 

A balanced diet!

It almost seems impossible that it is 10 Years since Mandi and I got our heads together to come up with the idea of a Blog Challenge for Clean and Simple cards. 

The thing we came up with was "Less is More". 

At that time there were very few challenges for CAS cards and lots of people seemed to like the idea but didn't know how to go about keeping a design really simple. It was rather unexpected and at the same time, innovative, that we made suggestions to challengers on ideas for improving or simplifying their makes. The main thing is that we quickly amassed thousands (literally) of followers to our blog. We also encouraged contestants to comment on fellow entrants' cards. There were only two of us on the design team and even though we commented on each individual entry, that meant that there would only be two comments from the challenge. It was the beginning of a great community where lots of people got to know one another, via their comments, It was something that made us both proud.

I am so grateful that like minded crafters were willing to step up to help and when I finally decided to step back after about 6 years of running the challenge, the legacy has been allowed to continue.

Thanks go to everyone who has worked in whatever capacity to keep it going!

I am really touched that the girls at LIM have asked me to join them as a Guest Designer for this very special Milestone Challenge!

Now onto this card!

As with the very first challenge, it's a colour challenge and this time it's 

CHOCOLATE

I used an SVG file from Silhouette which I cut out with my Portrait and coloured the various layers with alcohol pens. When I had assembled the chocolates, I gave them a couple layers of clear embossing to add shine and make the edges look more realistic. I made the sentiment on the computer using the font Dohearts. I have my Word programme set to 105% which makes the actual size on my screen to exactly A4, so I can hold things up to my screen to see if I like the placement of the words. I use Text Boxes to add the words, so that I can move them wherever I want. Not very techy but it works for me!

I popped the chocs onto dimensional pads to add a little relief. 

I hope lots of people will join in on this very special occasion, and I hope to come and visit to see your makes!

Stay safe everyone!

 

Greater Joy

Here I used the same sentiment file as on my last card, which a made on my Silhouette. This time I made it much larger and in red glitter card. I cut a couple of layers in plain card which I stacked to add dimension. For a while I thought that the glitter card was too thick or tough or whatever to cut with my Portrait, but I discovered that the small component around the blade had become slightly unscrewed so that not enough of the blade was showing, despite it being on a high setting. Once I discovered and remedied  this situation it cut beautifully!

The background was cut with a Memory Box die gently twinkled with Glamour Dust and the backdrop embossed with Sheena Douglass Snow embossing folder.

CASology - Tall

CAS Christmas

Christmas Kickstart  RED

My knee seems to be progressing well, it is still sore but my walking is much better now!

Joy

Following my knee surgery on Friday last, I am hobbling around, but it's not too painful thankfully. I didn't enjoy changing the dressings however, as there was some sticky stuff rather close to the incision site and  my skin hurt more than the joint when I was removing it. Loads of surgical spirit was needed! Thanks to everyone for your good wishes.

This card is for the challenge at CAS Christmas

It's funny but if I get an idea into my head I really have to go for it and after wanting to do something like this, I realised that I didn't have a 'joy' die which was either the right style or dimensions for what I had in mind. So I made this on my Silhouette. I cut out two and stacked them before embossing with a layer of Gold Twinkle embossing powder then a layer of UTEE. It's mounted on dimensional pads.

The die cut wreath is a stack of three cuts twinkled with Glamour Dust. A simple de-bossed frame finished it off!

Joy to the World

Sometimes when I decide to colour die cuts, I begin by inking some card and then choosing the spot I would like to die cut. This time I began by cutting out the dies and then spritzing them with water before sprinkling with Brushos and then spritzing again. The smaller pieces I just dabbed into the residue of colour left on my craft mat. It's not any special card, just a bunch of off cuts. 

I knew that I wanted to have the word JOY in  the centre of the wreath, but didn't like any of the dies in my stash, because of size or style or whatever, so decided to make one with my Silhouette. I'm not exactly sure which Font I used but I chose one with a serif so that there would be areas which would make the welding of the letters together a little easier. I cut three and layered them before triple embossing in gold. You can see where the serif of the 'Y' joins to the 'O'. I like to weld the letters into a complete word as it's so much easier to deal with a whole word, rather than trying to stick down individual letters.

I didn't intend having the diagonal trail of tiny pearls, but a teeny smidgen of ink forced my hand!

I did just drag the leaves over a gold ink pad before attaching to the card.

The Holly and the Ivy Christmas Challenge  - Anything Goes

Christmas Kickstart -  Last minute Madness

ABC Christmas Challenge - Y Yuletide

MOD Squad - Christmas or Winter

Paper Funday - Christmas

CASology  - Branch

Just Add Ink  - Photo inspiration

Home sweet home

Having had a few problems with getting my head around the updated Silhouette software for my Portrait cutting machine, I thought I would try again. When I loaded up the program, I was aghast to see that another update was necessary! Fortunately I think it must have been just a tweak rather than a completely new set up, so I was able to go ahead and make this 'home' word  for this card. I cut it about 4 four times and stacked them to give some dimension then coloured with Copic pens. The dry embossing is from Cuttlebug and the house I think was a little cheapie die from Hobbycraft. I wrote the 'sweet home' using the computer with the same font as the cut word, in a size to fit under the 'm'.

Time out - Home Sweet Home

Here is another try at a Stencil Monoprint. I used a stencil from Tando Creative. I inked it with various shades of green Distress Ink and spritzed liberally with water before pressing onto some cardstock. I covered it with a piece of paper to press down all over the  stencil and in fact as the stencil was really wet, I got a good impression on the paper too. I'll use that for something else.

I die cut the W&W hello from the image and also three more times from white card which I added underneath in order to give the dimension necessary to be able to actually read the word! I mounted the palin card onto a base of textured card to give a little contrast. IRL the colour of the two types of cardstock is much closer in shade than it appears on the picture.

CAS Stencil - Stencil Monoprint

Bridge Card

The other day I watched a video of Jennifer McGuire making a card with this different fold, which she called a Bridge Card and I thought I would like to try it out. Being in the UK I had to work out sizes to match our card and envelopes, so after a little experiment with a bit of scrap paper, I managed to work it out.

Despite being 3 Dimensional, it still folds flat for mailing.

I am often asked for cards with specific references, by members of my choir, . This one was for an old Naval friend with whom the choir member had served in submarines many years ago. He was to be having his 68th birthday and he was a Scot. The tartan he wears for formal occasions is the Ancient Lamont. So here is a card with the Lamont tartan, a picture of a submarine, his age and his name. I hope it will do!

My friend sent me a picture of the tartan which I printed out to use as the background. I used a  clipart submarine ( I thought it better to have a cartoon type image rather than risk getting the wrong class of submarine).

I made the name element with my Silhouette, mounting it on an offset and covering with a layer of Glossy accents.

 Seize the birthday  - Topping - Cover the card

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge
Vacation - Travel

Baby

Today is my first day back in may craft room after a couple of weeks spent to-ing and fro-ing between here and Bath on granny duties. 

Later today we are going to meet some friends for lunch whom we met on a cruise some time ago (I don't remember exactly how long ago it was). I dressed in the clothes that I will be wearing when we go out and so I didn't want to attempt anything messy in my card making this morning. Hence die-cutting and dry embossing.

I wrote the word 'baby' on my Silhouette, welded the letters and offset them before cutting out in pink for the background and white for the word itself. The heart shaped balloon from Paper Smooches was added to the card on dimensional pads and the string was cut with a thread die from Memory Box.

I decided to add a little twinkle to the pink parts of the card with some Glamour Dust.

I am adding it to the challenges at Addicted to stamps and More - Clean and Simple

AAA Cards - Dry Embossing

Just Us Girls - Photo Inspiration

Dies R Us   Challenge # 118 -Anything Goes - (Paper Smooches & Memory Box Dies )

Clean and Simple on Friday - Baby

Each Thursday I look after my youngest grandchild Cleo and I have started taking her to Baby Ballet classes! She loves it! Here she is ready for her class, She doesn't have baggy Nora Batty tights on, they are leggings which she wore over her ballet socks to get to the class...  it was a little chilly that day! Does the expression 'Good toes, Naughty toes' bring back any memories for any of you?

Faux mother of pearl

It's time for Happy Little Stampers March CAS Challenge

When I looked at the tutorials for this technique, I realised that I didn't have any pearl acrylic paint so I tried using plain white acrylic paint with some Perfect Pearls added and it worked really well!

The paint was daubled with a scrunched up piece of cling film and when dry inked with Distress ink applied with a sponge dauber. The card was cut using a Wplus9 Quilt cut die and mounted into the frame cut from plain card using the same die.The sentiment is a combination of Tattered Lace and Memory Box! Butterfly from All Occasion dies.

This challenge is sponsored by

$15 Gift certificate

Another simple background with a silhouette cut with my Silhouette!

Sentiment Stamp from HLS
Tutorials:
Faux Mother of Pearl by Loll Thompson (6:10)
Faux Mother of Pearl using Liquid Pearls by Sue Ralph (4:54)
Mother of Pearl Technique by Dawn

Transport

I cut this tandem on my Silhouette Portrait. The flowers are made from punchies and the clouds from Dienamics dies. The sentiment was computer generated.

The theme this week at Addicted to CAS is transport, so that is for this.

Another couple of cards!

I saw this sketch at CAS(E) this sketch and loved it immediately. I love how the sentiment encroaches on the main focal image.

This is my version using Stampin' UP stamps.The background is Off the Grid, the butterflies are Papillon Potpourri and the sentiment is Curly Cute... all stamped with Pool Party ink. I stamped the butterflies and clear embossed them before masking them and then stamping the background.

The sentiment was cut using an SU Framelit die.

This one was made on a whim. I thought this little smiley face was so cute so I cut out the pieces on my Silhouette and coloured them in yellow and black with Copics before adding Anita's 3D Gloss.

The sentiment is from SU's Geometrical set on a little tag using eyelets and a length of ribbon which was cut from a sweater. I can't stand it when those darn things show, popping out of the neck of jumpers etc.

It's for a couple of challenges

  

                         CAS.ology BOLD          &      Dynamic Duos  Black and Yellow

This evening we are dining with friends and today hopefully we'll be able to meet up with our son and his wife in Worthing where they are once more house hunting. There have been complications with the house they had intended buying and he starts in his new practice in 2 weeks time... as yet they don't have a house to go to... I think his mother-in-law may well have some lodgers for a spell!