Glossy flowers...

Hey!

Happy Friday-Eve! Let's kick off the super-long Bank Holiday weekend and Diamond Jubilee celebrations early with a real gem of a CASE Study:

It's Aga's final week with us as our fabulous muse. I'm sure you all know that I've seriously loved having her on board with us! I hope you'll join us for her last week with this beauty:

Check out the original post of this card here!

I was totally inspired by that gorgeous turquoise flower, the amazing misting and Aga's use of my favourite papers from Basic Grey.

As a nod to Aga's fabulous style, I applied a coat of Glossy Accents over the flowers :)

Note to self: if I can't avoid the temptation of touching the Glossy Accents before it's dry, then next time simply stamp over the flowers again in clear ink and emboss with clear powder! 

I'm not sure if you can see my splatters but I cheated! I used the splatter-phobe stamp (Well that's what I call it anyways!) from Typically Teen (The Craft's Meow) and stamped once on scrap before stamping on the card for a more subtle effect.

We really hope you can join in the inky fun with us this week! Be sure to check out the beauties that the rest of the CASE Study DT inked up for ya:

Amy Wanford (You're here!)

Christina MacLaren
Clare Buswell
Debby Hughes  

Iwona Palamountain (Chupa)
Jean Martin 
Maureen Plut
Teneale Williams
Teresa Kline

Aga (May's muse)

Thanks so much for stopping by this little corner of Blogland today! I'll be back tomorrow to spill the beans of some super-exciting news that I've been bursting to tell you all for weeks - I'm surprised I've managed to keep it secret until now - hee! *grin*

Catch ya later!

Card Deets
{Hello Friend}
Stamps: Flower Garden, Typically Teen (The Craft's Meow)/Friendly Phrases (Verve Stamps)
Ink: London Fog, Tuxedo Black (Memento)/Hawaiian Shores (Papertrey Ink)
Cardstock: Soft Stone (Papertrey Ink)
Patterned Paper: Basic White 6x6 Collection (Basic Grey)
Accessories: Glossy Accents (Ranger)

Cute Critters and Furriness...

Hey!

Happy Tuesday! It's a 'sweet' Tuesday here on the ol' blogeroo as I'm totally honoured to be a Guest Designer for the Sweet Stamp Shop!

The Sweet Stamp Shop sent me some super-sweet stamps to ink up and I couldn't resist inking up these cute critters first:

Actually, there's only one cute critter stamp, but I used a simple masking technique to give him a friend and to match the 'sweet' sentiment.

The addition of this orange, stringy twine matches the sentiment too with it's own kinda furriness methinks! Oooh and it adds a good pop of colour too of course! 

Thanks so much to the Sweet Stamp Shop for having me on board today! I've got a couple more 'sweet' creations to share with you later on, but this is enough sweetness for one day - I'm getting toothache!

Thank you so much for stopping by today!

Catch ya later!

Card Deets

{Furry Friends Forever}

Stamps: Furry Friends Forever (Sweet Stamp Shop)

Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento)

Cardstock: Solar White (Neenah)/Smokey Shadow (Papertrey Ink)

Accessories: Promarkers/Random Orange Twine (Stash!)

Green + Grey = Gorgeous

Hey!

Happy Friday-Eve (if this scheduled post is published at the right time!)

Ready to knuckle down to a new CASE Study courtesy of our fabulous muse for May, Aga? I hope so!

Check out this beauty:

Check out the original post of this card here!

No surprises here, I was totally taken by Aga's use of green and her super CAS design:

What is there not to be inspired by here? The fabulous CAS design, the use of green and grey (gotta love me some grey *wink*) This week's CASE Study was easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy for me :)

Now be sure to check out what the rest of the CASE Study DT whipped up before you get inky and join us:

Amy Wanford (You're here!)

Christina MacLaren
Clare Buswell
Debby Hughes  

Iwona Palamountain (Chupa)
Jean Martin 
Maureen Plut
Teneale Williams
Teresa Kline

Aga (May's muse)

Before I dash, I just wanted to take the opportunity to thank you all for the comments and emails of sympathy with the news of my uncle's passing. I feel so blessed to be a part of such a community that is so caring - thank you!

Catch ya later!

Card Deets
{let's find a beautiful place and get lost}
Stamps: Hero Arts
Card: White (Papertrey Ink)
Ink: Fern (A*Muse)/London Fog (Memento)

For the grammar geeks and bookworms...

This is my second post for today! Please scroll down to check out my post featuring some new goodies from Uniko Studio :)

Hey!

Yay! It's release day over at The Craft's Meow! Time to feast your eyes on the full sets available from now!

We're celebrating with our traditional blog hop. You should have hippity hopped over here from my fabulous teamie, Amy T. If you haven't, then be sure to start from the TCM Blog :)

For today's project I wanted to play with a couple of sets and picked 'Retro Foundations' and 'For My Dad'.

This is no ordinary card. It contains a removable bookmark!

FYI: There's a good dollop of Glossy Accent goodness on those glasses - shame my pic doesn't pick that up! 

The bookmark was stamped by masking the glasses and top book to create a tall stack of books - perfect for any bookworm methinks!

I cut up some freebie magnets to create a magnetic 'clasp' so that bookmark will keep your place safe even if the book should fall open.

And here's what the bookmark looks like in action...

...yes, I'm a grammar geek! :)

That's it from me! I hope you enjoy the blog hop and enjoy the new release of goodies from TCM! Remember: if you spend over $50 at the TCM Store, then you'll receive the awesome stamp set, 'Typically Teen' absolutely free! Now that's a price you can't argue with! :)

Right then, it's time to hop along now. Next up is the fabulous Ivana Camdzic! 

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Catch ya later!

Card/Bookmark Deets
{Grandpa}
Stamps: For My Dad, Retro Foundations (The Craft's Meow)
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento)/Versamark
Cardstock: Scarlet Jewel, Vintage Cream (Papertrey Ink)
Accessories: Chompy! (Corner Chomper - We R Memory Keepers)/Glossy Accents (Ranger)/Magnetic Strip (Home Supply)/Promarkers

Uniko Studio Release

Hey

Roll on another working week....sorry I've been a little absent recently in Blogland - although my scheduled posts for The Craft's Meow release have posted here (Thank you, Blogger!), I've been MIA.

On Thursday, my dear uncle suddenly and unexpectedly passed away. To say I'm shocked and upset is an understatement. He was my last remaining uncle, he only lived around the corner from my family and was the only living relative of my dad's. It seems so cruel and unfair to take someone who was so lovely and never said a bad word about anyone :(

Although we're still grieving here, the show, as they say, must go on. I honestly think that's exactly what Uncle Ged would have wanted. Although I may be still absent in Blogland right now, I'm still being creative and letting that creativity take my mind away from things.

So let's start by introducing some new fabulous digital goodies from Uniko Studio! 

Three collections are to be released today. First up is 'Joyful Butterfly' which contains both images and coordinating papers. I decided to die-cut a mini enive from the papers:

Perfect for putting a little something in for a special someone :)

The images with this collection are fabulous too. I couldn't resist the butterfly and went down the 'fun' route by adding googly eyes:

That butterfly has so much more character with those eyes!

The next collection being released today is called, English Country Garden. If you like to colour - then the images in this set are for you! I whipped up a couple of cards with the images from this collection:

I printed the butterfly twice to add more dimension. There's also a fine layer of glitter on that butterfly's wings but my camera hasn't picked it up - sorry!

Next up is the beautiful rose and sentiment from the collection:

I added Glossy Accents to this rose to replicate dew-drops.

The final collection is called the 'Classics Collection' and don't tell the others - but I think it's my favourite! It's so cool with it's patterns and patriotic colour scheme - perfect for the approaching jubilee celebrations over here, Independence Day across the pond or for the guys in your life:

These thickers were originally peach but a few layers of a black Promarker soon changed that!

There's so much more to these collections - I was limited by time so I urge you to check these in more detail here!

Thank you so much for stopping by today. I'm so sorry I had to start my week with bad news, it does mean that I'll be staying with my folks' this week so I'll be MIA still until next weekend. Thanks for bearing with me during this difficult time.

I'll be back if Blogger decides to publish my scheduled posts later today and on Thursday!

Catch ya later!

Teenage Kicks...

Hey!

Welcome to Day 4 of the TCM May release countdown!

Today you're getting two for the price of one. We're giving you sneaky peeks of two stamp sets availble from May 21st and one of them is F.R.E.E!

Yup - the fabulous set, 'Typically Teen' designed by Karen Baker is the free gift available for May's release when you spend over $50 in the TCM Store. It features fantastic graphic images that I know I'll be using over and over again! Heck - it even contains a fabulous 'splatter' image which is brilliant for splatter-phobes like me! :)

The next set we're featuring today is 'Retro Foundations', also designed by the talented Karen Baker. It contains a variety of background builders that will easily cover a standard 4.25 x 5.5 cardbase as well as brilliant sentiments. I love it!

For my project today, I decided to combine the sets to show you how well they work together.

Now when I first get stamps I like to sit with scrap paper and literally ink and play. Whilst playing with Retro Foundations I made out what looked like a tyre pattern (well it looked like one to me!) With this in mind, I made a card to celebrate a teen passing their driving test. I simply stamped the pattern repeatedly then sponged grey ink over it using sticky notes to mask the sides.

Be sure to check out the rest of the TCM DT because you really need to get a good peek at the beauties they've designed with these sets! 

Fancy winning one of these sets yourself? Then be sure to leave a comment on the TCM Blog today and you may be the lucky winner of one!

I'll be back tomorrow with our fun Blog Hop to celebrate the official release of the sets! Can't wait!

Catch ya later!

Card Deets

{Congrats!}

Stamps: Retro Foundations, Typically Teen (The Craft's Meow)

Ink: London Fog, Tuxedo Black (Memento)

Cardstock: White (Papertrey Ink)

Accessories: Pure Poppy Button (Papertrey Ink)

Embracing peach and sewing...Aimes Styleee! :)

Hey!

Happy weekend! :)

Ready for Day 3 of the TCM May release countdown? I hope so!

Today we're featuring and giving you a sneaky peeky of a set by Nina.B called "Sew Happy". This set will be available from May 21st and the clue is in the name: the set features many fun sewing/dressmaking images and coordinating sentiments. I couldn't resist the punny sentiment in the set - no surprises there!

I love this dressmaker's mannequin image - I can see me having a lot of fun dressing it up in the future. For now though, I simply embellished it with a peachy flower (I know - I embraced peach! Shocking! Seems like it's on trend right now...) and sprinkled some peachy gems (originally clear but coloured with a peach marker) around my sentiment too.

Like this set? Well why not take the chance of winning it by leaving a comment today over at the TCM Blog?

For some more sneak peeks of this super set, be sure to check out what the rest of the TCM DT created today!

I'll be back tomorrow giving you a sneak peek of two more sets we have for release this month (what a busy and exciting release this is proving to be!)

Catch ya later!

Card Deets
{Sew Happy for You}
Stamps: Sew Happy (The Craft's Meow)
Ink: Versamark
Cardstock: White, True Black (Papertrey Ink)
Accessories: Detail White Embossing Powder (Stampendous)/Gems (Zva)/Peach Marker (Promarker)

For the dads...

Hey!

Yay for Friday! Yay for the weekend! Yay for Day 2 of the TCM May Release countdown!

Ready for a sneaky peek of yet another set? How about two new sets? Yup, today we're giving you a peek of two sets available from May 21st. Today's sets focus on the Dads and Grads - it's coming to that time of year to celebrate 'em!

'For my Dad' is a fabulous set designed by Michelle Bertuzzi and will cater for many of the guys in your family (and let's admit it, we've all struggled with a guy card, right?!) For my card I couldn't resist the image of the glasses resting on the books:

I masked a sentiment from the same set to give me the simple sentiment, 'DAD' meaning that this card could be for Father's Day or a birthday or even just a note card!

You can't see on my pic, but I added a nice dollop of Glossy Accents to the glasses - they look pretty cool but you'll have to take my word for it!

The next set we're featuring today is 'Grads and Dads' by Kaitlyn Ord and it has some fabulous graphic-style images. I immediately knew that I wanted to ink up the tie and play:

Pretty simple, but I wanted to keep the tie the main focal point. To add a little more interest, I created a collar around the tie with strips of paper.

So there you have it! A sneaky peek of two more fabulous sets to be released on May 21st. Be sure to check out the rest of the super duper TCM DT who will be giving you some more sneaky peeks of these sets today. Oh and if you fancy winning one of these sets yourself, be sure to pop across to the TCM Blog and leave a comment!

I'll be back tomorrow giving you another sneaky peek of another new TCM set up for release this month!

Thank you so much for stopping by today - I really appreicate your visits!

Catch ya later!

Card Deets
{DAD}
Stamps: For my Dad (The Craft's Meow)
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento)
Cardstock: White, Scarlet Jewel (Papertrey Ink)
Accessories: Promarkers/Glossy Accents (Ranger)/Canvas and Linen Impression Plate (Papertrey Ink)


{dad}
Stamps: Grads and Dads (The Craft's Meow)
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento)
Cardstock: White (Papertrey Ink)
Patterned Paper: Basic White 6x6 Collection (Basic Grey)

Flower + Stem = Eggs + Bacon

This is my second post of the day! Please scroll down to check out my CASE Study post - Thanks! :)

Hey!

My oh my! How quickly does a month go by? It seems like only yesterday I was having the pleasure of giving you sneak peeks of the April release from The Craft's Meow and here we are again with the May release!



You're in for a treat today as we get to give you a sneaky peeky of the gorgeous set, Flower Garden, designed by Nina.B. This set features beautiful block images of flowers giving you the flexibility to ink to perfection! However, when I was playing with this set, I had an idea and just had to roll with it:

Where are the flowers, you ask? Well I promise you that I was not under the influence of any intoxicating drugs whilst making this (apart from tea and chocolate) . I honestly saw eggs and bacon in Nina's designs!!! The flower makes for a fabulous friend egg when embossed and given a good dollop of glossy accents:

Couldn't you just poke that yolk?! :)

The stem is stamped in Terracotta Tile ink, then flipped and stamped again (without re-inking!) to create a rasher of bacon. I know, I know, I'm crazy - but luckily Nina.B finds this idea funny too - phew!

Now obviously this wasn't intended to be an eggs and bacon set, so be sure to check out what the rest of the TCM DT whipped up to get more sneaky peeks. Oh, and be sure to welcome our Guest Designers too - we're so happy to have Sharri Seffens and Annette Allen on board with us this month!

Fancy winning this set for yourself? Then be sure to pop across the the TCM Blog and leave a comment today!

Thanks so much for stopping by today, and for tolerating my kinda crazy approach to floral stamp set! I'll be back tomorrow with another sneaky peek - don't worry, not as crazy as this one!

Catch ya later!

Card Deets
{We Belong Together}
Stamps: Flower Garden (The Craft's Meow)
Ink: Versamark (Tsukineko)/Terracotta Tile (Papertrey Ink)
Cardstock: White (Papertrey Ink)
Patterned Paper: Basic White 6x6 Collection (Basic Grey)
Accessories: Detail White Embossing Powder (Stampendous)/Yellow Marker (Promarker)/Glossy Accents (Ranger)/Alphabet Stickers (My Little Shoebox)

Is it a tag? Is it a card? Nope, it's both!

Hey!

Hooray for Friday-Eve! It's been kinda weird this week, spending my nights with my folks (due to the lack of a car) it's almost like being a teenager again as I work at the very same school I attended as a student; I could get used to the home cookin' again, that's for sure!*wink*

But alas! That's not why you're visiting today. It's time to crack on with a fabulous new CASE Study.

Get ready to study this beautiful card by our awesomely talented muse, Aga!

Check out the original post of this card here.

OK so I know I've been very literal in my interpretation of CASE Study so far this month, and have used the past two weeks to pretty much copy Aga's beautiful creations down to the final finishing touch. So this week I really did try hard to take my eyes away from Aga's perfect creation, and walked away remembering the main elements (The butterflies, the use of a tag, the gorgeous green)

This is actually a tag-shaped card. Easy to create: I simply folded a piece of card in half and placed my tag die so the top of it sat above the card fold before running it through my Cuttlebug. Easy peasy and pretty sweet too!

We hope that you can study along with us this week! Be sure to check out the rest of the amazing CASE Study DT - you won't be disappointed! :)

Amy Wanford (You're here!)

Christina MacLaren
Clare Buswell
Debby Hughes  

Iwona Palamountain (Chupa)
Jean Martin 
Maureen Plut
Teneale Williams
Teresa Kline

Aga (May's muse)

Thanks so much for visiting today! I'll be back in a matter of hours to kick off the sneaky peeks of the TCM May Release....yay!

Catch ya later!

Card Deets
{Happy Birthday}
Stamps: Fontiments - Birthday (Uniko Studio)
Ink: Rich Cocoa (Memento)
Cardstock: Vintage Cream, Ripe Avocado (Papertrey Ink)
Accessories: Tag Sale Die #3, Dark Chocolate Button, Jute Button Twine (Papertrey Ink)/Butterfly Punch (Tonic)

Spirograph - stamping stylee

Hey!

Happy Wednesday! We're half-way through the working week :)

Just poppin' in today to show a stamping experiment that took me back to my Spirograph days.

Spirograph was one of my favourite toys and past-times - just sittin' and creating cool patterns over and over...*sigh* I like that as a bigger kid, I'm still doing the same thing - just with stamps :)

This pattern is created with one circular image from Daily Designs (Papertrey Ink) and rotating it through 360 degrees. For those of you who are visual learners, here's a little guide:

This card was also created for our new challenge on A Passion for Papertrey: Super Circles! I know the hexagon is so on trend right now, but it'd be nothing without the humble circle...after all, a hexagon is just a circle with straight edges and corners, right?! *wink*

Thanks so much for stopping by this li'l area of Blogland today! :)

Catch ya later!

Card Deets

{Hello}

Stamps: Daily Designs, Modern Basics (Papertrey Ink)

Ink: Raspberry Fizz (Papertrey Ink)/Tuxedo Black (Memento)

Cardstock: White, True Black (Papertrey Ink)

Accessories: Clear Gem (Zva)/Black Marker (Promarker)

Tulips for Mum (or Mom!)

Hey!

Well what a barmy week! Not only was it one working day shorter, it also ended up with me having my poorly car towed away :( (The result of a little accident. No-one hurt, but my car is. At least that's replaceable. The very apologetic young driver couldn't believe how nice and calm I was for saying he'd just driven into me LOL!)

Anyways long story short, I have no car. My guy is away on a stag weekend. What's a gal to do? The chores? Nah - they can wait: I have some serious inky business to attend to! :)

I've spent all this weekend so far covered in ink and ideas that I'm desperately trying to execute as my next week will be spent with my folks' (thanks to having no car to get to work!). I can't share what I've inked so far, but I can share some Mother's Day cards if you're looking for some last minute ideas:

Mother's Day/Mothering Sunday was a while back here in the UK (March 18th) but I think it's celebrated tomorrow in the USA. I whipped up a few cards on commission for Mother's Day on this side of the pond; the simple design made these a breeze to whip up, I could have gone on and on in different colours...!

I think the yellow one is my favourite, but my own mum would like this one the best:

So there you have it, easy peasy cards for Mother's Day. If you're celebrating it tomorrow, I hope you have a wonderful day!

Right I've gotta get back to sorting out my projects to share with you this coming week. As I'm not going to have access to a computer, I'm going to have to put all my faith into Blogger and it's ability to publish scheduled posts correctly - eek! Apologies in advance if Blogger is naughty....

Thank you so much for stopping by today!

Catch ya later!

Card Deets

{Happy Mother's Day}

Stamps: Flower Fusion #11, Daily Designs - Sentiments, Faux Ribbon (Papertrey Ink)
Ink: Fern, Bubblegum, Buttercup (a*muse)/Fresh Snow, Pure Poppy (Papertrey Ink)

Cardstock: White, Pure Poppy, Hibiscus Burst (Papertrey Ink) Yellow Polka Dot Card (a*muse)

Accessories: Canvas and Linen Impression Plate (Papertrey Ink)

CASE-ing Perfection...

Hey!

Woop woop for Friday-Eve! It's been a super short week with Bank Holiday Monday, but that doesn't mean I'm still not happy to see the end of the week :)

Ready to knuckle down to another fabulous CASE Study? I hope so!

As you know one of my stamping crushes is our muse this week in the form of Agnieszka Malyszek. Check out this beauty of Aga's up for studying this week:

Check the original post of this card here.

I'm not ashamed to say that I drool over everything Aga creates with her magical inky fingers. I'm also not ashamed to admit that I shamelessly CASEd this beauty down to a 'T'...after all, who am I to mess with perfection? *wink*

The flowers and leaves have been stamped using a simple masking technique. I did debate on using a different colour scheme (Aga has cleverly used the opposite colours of the colour wheel) but I just couldn't stamp those beautiful flowers from Beautiful Spring in any other colour, and that then dictated the bottom panel of the card to be green.

Now it's clear to see how I was inspired by Aga's card, but please check out what the rest of the super CASE Study DT inked up for your viewing pleasure:

Amy Wanford (You're here!)

Christina MacLaren
Clare Buswell
Debby Hughes  

Iwona Palamountain (Chupa)
Jean Martin 
Maureen Plut
Teneale Williams
Teresa Kline

Aga (May's muse)

I hope you can find time to ink along with us this week!

If I don't see you beforehand, have a fabulous weekend! Mine is going to be a very inky one: my guy is away on a stag do (I don't even want to know what they're going to get up to - so long as he makes it home in one piece!) so I've got lots of 'me' time to occupy :)

Catch ya later!

Card Deets
{I'm here for You}
Stamps: Beautiful Spring, Inspired by Audrey (The Craft's Meow)
Ink: Pure Poppy (Papertrey Ink)/Tuxedo Black (Memento)
Cardstock: White, Spring Moss (Papertrey Ink)
Accessories: Pearls (Hero Arts)/Linen and Canvas Impression Plate (Papertrey Ink)