A superstar sentiment...

Hey!

Happy Friday Eve! It's a super-happy day as Clearly Besotted's May release is available to purchase from 10pm UK time tonight! :D

I'm back today with one final project to celebrate the release and I couldn't resist inking up this stylish sentiment from the 'To You With Love' stamp set. You'll see that I've already inked up the stunning flower from this set on this card, so now it's time to let the sentiment of the set steal the spotlight!

The font of this sentiment had me wanting to embrace the fun chalkboard technique that was extremely popular a while back. I remember the craze kicking off from Betsy Veldman and was instantly taken with it then as I am now. You could take this one step further and even add colour to it, but I decided that colour wasn't required for this sentiment to shine. :)

As this sentiment is the main focal point, I kept the rest of the design pretty simple (no surprises there!) and added some touches of gold in the form of gold glitter Washi tape, a mini peg covered with the same Washi tape and some gorgeous gold foiled paper from the My Mind's Eye On Trend 2 paper pad. Black and gold: a classic, sophisticated colour combo I don't' think I'll ever tire of!

If you're not already come across here from Stephanie's, then what are you waiting for? Stephanie has the full reveal of the release for you to admire as well as the final projects from the rest of the super-talented Design Team so be sure to check it out! :)

Thanks so much for joining me this week for the sneak peeks of the new release. If you're busy shopping at Clearly Besotted tonight, I hope you manage to tick everything off your list!

One card, three stamp sets...

Hey!

I'm back again with yet another sneak peek of the Clearly Besotted May release! If you missed yesterday's sneak peek, click here. Remember that all of the new goodies will be available to purchase from 5th May (tomorrow!) at 10pm UK time. :)

Today's card is my attempt to try and make up for the fact that I'm a day behind on my fellow teamies in sharing the new release by using not one, not two, but three new stamp sets on one card! Where are they, you ask? Well take a closer look at the focal point and you might just spot them all. :)

The sentiment is from the 'Mr & Mrs Hoot' stamp set and I've added detail to the die-cut heart by stamping the flowers from the 'To You With Love' stamp set (seriously, I can't get enough of that set!) and some hearts from the 'Just The Two Of Us' stamp set using a tone-on-tone ink. I then stamped those beautiful flowers onto a square of white cardstock and aligned the flowers on the heart with them to add a little more interest to the design.

This card is accompanying us our friend's wedding this Saturday where Mr Gray is the Best Man. The yellow twine bow has been added as yellow is one of the main colours of the big day. There's absolutely no reason for the gorgeous My Mind's Eye mint and gold polka dot foiled paper other than I'm absolutely smitten with it – a special paper for a special card! Well that and I've just realised that the dress I plan to wear is this shade of mint too so I must have been thinking about it at the time of creating this. Maybe I need to add some gold polka dots to it before Saturday? :D

Well that's enough pondering and babbling from me today. If you haven't already seen the plethora of sneak peeks Stephanie has in store for you today, then be sure to visit! As always, she's sharing links to the rest of the Design Team featuring even more sneak peeks.

I'll be back tomorrow to celebrate release day with one more card. I hope you can join me!

Clearly Besotted May sneak peeks...

Hey!

Happy Tuesday! It's back to work for me today after the extended bank holiday. It was a bit of soggy one here, but that gave me the perfect excuse create with Clearly Besotted's May release to give you some sneak peeks before the full release is available to purchase from 5th May at 10pm (UK time). :)

Today's card gives you a sneak peek of the beautiful, 'To You With Love' stamp set. I gravitated towards this set as soon as I laid my eyes up on it! I always say that Clearly Besotted do the most fabulous floral stamp sets and this is set is of no exception!

I'd normally go ahead and heat-emboss this image and colour it in, but I fancied doing something a little different so opted for the no-line colouring technique. I'm no artist (just check out Keren's or Debby's take on this flower to see how a real artist does this set justice) but I had fun stamping the image in Desert Sand Memento ink and colouring it with all of my three pink and three green Copics (I really want more!) I added a few highlights with a white gel pen and paired the image with some yummy papers from the My Mind's Eye On Trend 2 paper pad.

The heat-embossed sentiment comes with the stamp set too and I couldn't resist adding some of Lucy's pretty sequins and a BoBunny clip to the design. I'm going to admit that it pained me to affix the layers onto the card front at angles, but I'm hoping it adds a bit of fun to the finished design. :)

This month we have the fabulous Taheerah Atchia, Anita Bowden, Vanessa Amann and Yoonsun Hur joining us as guesties! I'm also absolutely thrilled that we have my talented friend, Keren Baker, joining our Design Team! Pop across to their blogs to get your mojo fix – and while you're at it, hop across to Stephanie's for more sneak peeks and links to the rest of the Design Team sharing more jaw-dropping creations!

Bicycle Love

Hey!

Although I've been playing catch up here on the blog, nothing has stopped for the Clearly Besotted Stamps sneaky peeks of the new March release (available for purchase Wednesday 5th March at 22:00 GMT).

I'm waaaaaaaay behind on getting projects whipped up for the sneak peeks. I'm so lucky that Stephanie is been so understanding and is letting me play catch up! Apologies for the poor pics - I'm desperately trying to shoot in daylight but time is always against me at the moment. Bring on those summer nights LOL!

So today's card gives you a sneaky peek at two new sets. I know it's pretty tough to pick a favourite, but I'm going to go ahead and declare that the set Good Times is simply awesome. I love that bicycle! The sentiment is from the set Take Flight. I just love the font of it and figured that it paired nicely with this fun CAS design. :)

• To line the bicycle up on the card-base and patterned paper, I stamped it first on the card base and then on a piece of patterend paper which I then die cut. Simply layer the patterend piece on top of the bicycle stamped on the card and line them up.
• I used a simple masking technique to control the amount of hearts coming from the front basket of the bicycle. The heart stamp is actually much bigger than this and contains lots of sweet hearts. For less hearts, and more direction simply attach a Post-It note to the top of the basket and stamp over it.
• The red hearts combined with the red strips give three pops of red and help balance the design.

Right, I'm off to stamp and play catch up with the amazing CBS DT and guesties! In the meantime, please do pop across to Stephanie's to check out some more tempting sneak peeks from this month's release including links to the rest of the DT sharing fabulous projects. You won't leave disappointed! :)

Shake it like a Polaroid picture!

Hey!

Happy Monday! It's my first day of the half-term and I've already made good use of it by whipping up a project using some Top Dog Dies goodies and a heck-of-a-lot of patterned paper. Yup, you heard right - patterned paper! What's happening to me? LOL!

 

It really was only a matter of die-cutting time until the TDD Photo Mats Die ended up being a shaker card. I've done this style of card before (see here), but I had to manually work out how to create the Polaroid-style frame using a combination of Nestability dies. Thanks to the Photo Mat Die I could be shakin' this card like a Polaroid picture in no time! :)

• To give the shaker element more depth to allow those stars to move around, I die cut the photo mat a few times from a foam sheet and layered them. No foam? No problemo! Simply layer thick card die cuts. You'll need a few more layers than foam, but will achieve the same result.
• I tried sprinkling fine glitter in my shaker card. Please learn from my mistake and don't try this! There's simply too much static going off in that frame for the glitter to not just stick to the acetate. Chunky glitter may work a treat though, I just didn't have any in my stash!
• Don't restrict yourself to stars for a shaker card. Sequins, beads, tiny die-cut shapes, anything is worth trying out! 

Edited to add: I'm also going to enter this card into my friend, Taheerah's challenge, Cure for the Monday Blues Challenge #5.  

Now I'm putting a disclaimer out now: I created this card this morning before I saw Taheerah's challenge, but she's being sweet and letting me link it up seeing as my frames and some of the colours tie in with the challenge. Thanks, T! :)

That's it from me today. And that's probably the most patterned paper you'll ever see me use on one card LOL!

Oh and in case you're wondering, today's post title comes courtesy of Outkast's amazingly catchy tune, Hey Ya! which is now stuck in my head for the rest of today. :)

As always, thank you so much for stopping by!












Products Used

InLinkz.com

A Bee-utiful Surprise....

Hey!

We're in full swing of the 1st birthday party over at The Craft's Meow on day 4!




Today we get to spill the beans on both a fabulous new stamp set by Nina. B Designs called 'Thanks Bee to Thee' along with some awesome news to customers of TCM (I'm being a meanie and revealing it towards the end of the post - hee!)

Ok, ok so firstly let's play along with our final party game - trust me, you *need* to play along with this challenge. Now this party is one super long celebration so we're using celebration as today's theme/challenge (play along for an AWESOME prize today - more deets at the end!)

My card celebrates a belated (or should that 'bee' 'bee-lated') birthday - hee!

The patterned paper is from My Mind's Eye and seems so fitting for this set with its hexagonal shapes. The sentiment and bee are actually two separate stamps, but they fit together perfectly for this CAS card :)

Ok so I've teased you long enough. Time to spill the beans on the fabby news for TCM customers:

This gorgeous set(Thanks Bee to Thee) will be a free gift to customers who spend $50 or more at the TCM Store from March 21st to March 31st!

Can you believe it? F.R.E.E! :)

Wanna know another way you could try and grab this gorgeous set for free? That's right, leave a comment on the TCM Blog by 9pm PDT tonight and one random commenter will win this set for their own inky mitts!

Now earlier I mentioned an awesome prize for partying with us today. Simply create a project with a celebratory theme that uses at least on TCM stamp or digi image (grab your free digi images on the TCM FB Page or if you're not on FB pop an email to thecraftsmeow@gmail.com) and one randomly selected player will win a Guest DT Position on The Craft's Meow! Yup - if you play along with us you could be guest designing with us in the future! You've got until March 31st to play along with this challenge and any other challenges for this party! Full deets on the TCM Blog.

Wanna check out a few more sneaky peeks of this bee-utiful set? Well see what the rest of the TCM DT inked up for ya! I have to confess that I am smitten with this set :)

Thanks for being a fabulous guest at a this party! We're ready to wrap this party up tomorrow with a fabulous blog hop and of course, the official release of all the sets we've been peeking at these last few days for you to purchase! Yay!

Catch ya later!

Card Deets
{Happy Bee-lated Birthday}
Stamps:Thanks to Bee Thee (The Craft's Meow)
Ink:Tuxedo Black (Memento)
Cardstock: Solar White (Neenah)
Patterned Paper: Fabulous from Fine and Dandy True Blue Collection (My Mind's Eye)
Accessories: Promarkers

DIY Kite...

Hey!

Happy Wednesday! Over half way to the sweet weekend :)

I'm flying a kite this week. Well sorta. I'm flying a kite card-making stylee:

We've got a brand spanking new challenge over on A Passion for Papertrey in which we want you to be inspired by a book during your inky adventures this next fortnight. My card is inspired by a brilliant book, The Kite Runner.

The kite was created from scraps of DP, ribbon and twine (I don't actually own a kite stamp!) and I used a negative die-cut cloud as a stencil to ink a soft, cloudy background as well as using my beloved linen impression plate (what else?!)

We'd love to see how a book inspires your own creation; simply ensure you use at least one PTI product on your project to enter and share the inspiration!

Thanks so much for stopping by! I'll be back in the early hours of tomorrow morning with a brand new CASE Study to share :D

Catch ya later!






Card Deets
{let your dreams take flight}
Stamps: Happy Trails (Papertrey Ink)
Ink: Rich Cocoa (Memento)/Fresh Snow (Papertrey Ink)
Cardstock: Spring Rain (Papertrey Ink)
Patterned Paper: Fine and Dandy True Blue Collection (My Mind's Eye)
Accessories: Twine, Ribbon Scraps, Clouds Die, Linen and Canvas Impression Plate (Papertrey Ink)/Cuttlebug

What a hoot!

Oh.

My.

Word.

I am seriously in shock over the news of making the Top 20 of Gallery Idol! Honestly - I'm totally speechless and gob-smacked! Thank you so, so, so much from the bottom of my heart for all the sweetest words of support - you've no idea how special those words are and how much I'm clinging on to them for the next round.

I wish I could share the card I've made for the next round with you but you're not allowed a peek until Monday - nope, not even one sneaky peek! So lemme share a card with you that I made for one of my sweetest Bloggin' Buddies ever, Emma:

Emma is a 'hoot' and her work is fabulous. I adore the 3D items she creates too - be sure to check 'em out! It was her birthday a while back but I'm playing catch-up here on the blog (even with Royal Mail delivering the card, she's definitely got this by now LOL!)

Right, seeing as I spent all of yesterday coming up with something for the next round of Gallery Idol - I've got a lot of things to catch up on today!

Be sure to check back on Monday for the next round of Gallery Idol and be sure to join in the fun and vote. Obviously I'm gonna be secretly hoping that someone, somewhere out there will vote for me but I won't be pestering you (too much *wink*) Needless to say, I still have the same attitude I entered with: I'll be happy riding the creative wave as long as it lasts, even if it's only for a week because honestly, the talent in that Top 20 is phenomenal!

Thanks so much for stopping by and for all the support - I appreciate it more than you could ever imagine! ♥

Catch ya later!






Card Deets
{Happy Birthday}
Stamps: Sentiment from Frame-It (Waltzingmouse Stamps)
Ink: Versamark
Cardstock: Stamper's Select White (Papertrey Ink)
Patterned Paper: Fine and Dandy - True Blue 6x6 Collection (My Mind's Eye)
Accessories: Lemon Tart Grosgrain Ribbon (Papertrey Ink)/White Detail Embossing Powder (Stampendous) Chompy! (Corner Chomper - We R Memory Keepers)