Inspired by poinsettias...

Hey!

Oh hooray for Friday! It is Friday, isn't it? Please say it is!

Things are still amazingly busy here but I'm popping in to say that a while ago (when times were a little less busy!) I was invited by Paper Crafter's Library to be there featured artist again. I'm totally honoured to be asked on board again (I was featured earlier on in the year here if you're interested). 

On my featured artist post I'm sharing how poinsettias have inspired some of my Christmas cards this year. I'm hoping not to be stamping on Christmas Eve this year. You may laugh, but I've been known to be making Christmas cards right up Midnight Mass - seriously! Procrastinating crafter right here!

Anyways, if you want to take a peek then please do. This card is just one of three that I have featured over there. I wanted to show how being inspired by a poinsettia, doesn't mean you have to have poinsettia themed supplies. Some die cut flowers from red card and added bling make a great substitute don't you think?

The busy times aren't slowing down here. Tomorrow I have the pleasure/fun of joining Clearly Besotted Stamps at the Happy Stamper Northwest Festival at Hulme Hall. If you're coming along then please come and find us! We'll have make and takes, prizes, and of course, stamps! :D

 


  

Dotty for neon...!

Hey!

So it's Friday-Eve, right? Please tell me that, or even better: it's Friday! Ha! I'm having the busiest week ever, and without my phone (still!) I'm starting to crack...!

Well whether I'm cracking up or not, let's get down to some studying. CASE Study stylee of course. :)

Feast your studying eyes upon this card from our wonderful muse, Kathy Racoosin:

Check out the original post of this card here.

I was really taken by Kathy's stamped background so tried my hand at designing my own. The difference being that I used my beloved neons for a real pop of colour and used the pattern I stamped as the focal point of my card rather than the background.

• When working with neon inks, make sure you thoroughly clean the ink off before inking up with another neon colour. I'm sure you can see already, but the lower pink dot has some yellow residue ink on it changing the shade slightly. It helps to stamp on scrap paper first to check for any residue ink (man, I wish I'd done that first!)
• The big dot is actually a sun from the Paperbabe Stamps set, High in the Sky. I love to think of different uses for my stamps and a solid circle is just about as versatile as they come! :)
• I used a Post-It note either side of the polka dots to mask the sentiment strips. This keeps the design within the area of the polka dots. I also made sure that the whole sentiment was centralised so you can read it with ease. :)

Be sure to check out what the rest of the CASE Study DT created for you, and remember, it's Kathy's final week with us as our muse so make it a good one and join in the fun! :)

Right I must dash. Phone broken. Emails to catch up on. OFSTED visited work. Inspection to prepare for next week. Busy times! Eeek! 

Products Used

   

More Christmas, more poinsettias...

Hey!

Hip, hip, hooray for Friday Eve! Hip, hip, hooray for a new CASE Study!

C'mon peeps, you know the drill by now. We have the queen of markers, Kathy Racoosin, on board as our CASE Study muse and we get to be inspired by her wonderful card:

Check out the original post of this card here!

I was really inspired by Kathy's card. A lot. Here are the things from Kathy's card that I incorporated into mine:

• Flowers
• Dry Embossing
• Stamp Embossing
• Layout
• Colouring with Markers

Kathy has certainly inspired me to play with my markers more. It was so theraputic to just sit at my desk and colour. Admitedly I had one-hundred-and-one other things that I should have been doing at the time, but time-out to colour won over. *wink*

• I use a fine nib adapter on my Promarkers to enable me to colour right up to the embossed lines of the poinsettia. 
• If you do end up colouring on to an embossed line, you can always use a colourless blender pen to take the ink off. It's a little fiddly so it's best not to get ink on the line in the first place!
• Colouring directly on to kraft cardstock mutes colours down so have fun experimenting! My super bright, bold Poppy Red marker turned into a rich red; perfect for a poinsettia. :)

So how does Kathy's card inspire you? Take a peek at what the rest of the CASE Study DT created for the ultimate mojo boost and play along with us! :)

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! (Friday counts as the first day of the weekend in my book!)

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Craft Dashing - Take 2!

This is my second post of the day. Please scroll down or click here to check out my work with washi tape for a new Uniko Studio challenge - thanks! :)

Hey!

Blog posts here on the blogeroo are much like buses: you wait a while for one, then three (or in this case, two) come at once! Ha!

Well I'm back with a card that took much less time to create than usual. It's also a card I created in the most fabulous creating company. It's also captured on film too! Eek!

That's right, it's time for another episode of Caryn, Debby, Stephanie and Aimes Craft Dash like crazy. Especially myself who was compelled to run back and forth in a bid to stamp straight and smudge-free!

This is not a colour combo I'd normally work with and I was totally stumped. Even after a night's sleep on it, I woke up with no idea still. So I flicked through some CBS sets and Autumn Leaves caught my eye (and my heart!) so I then jumped on the red in the colour combo to embrace autumn. :)

I did create my card in under 10 mins - I wasn't timing myself so I need to watch the video (cringe!) to work out my official time. Edited to add: OK. I watched. It wasn't too painful, and I clocked myself at 8 minutes 51 seconds. :)

Right, must dash, I've got to get my gear on for football/soccer training. I'm hoping to catch up with everyone and everything soon, but I have to be on a home computer to do so: my phone has been out of action this past week. I didn't realise how much I use it for social networking/blogging! On the plus side though, I've been extremely work productive! Ha! 

Products Used

   

Working with washi...

Hey!

It might only be September, but the weather has turned here and I'm thinking Christmas! No, no presents purchased yet, but it's looking good on the card front. :)

Today sees a brand new Uniko Studio challenge and we wanna see you get busy with washi for it. Be it using washi tape, (c'mon, 'fess up - it's not just me who purchases roll after roll of washi tape in every design/colour possible then hardly uses it, right?!) making your own washi tape, or inking up a Uniko Studio Wonderful Washi stamp set.

For me, I got busy with a couple of my washi tapes. Felt good to actually use them on a project!

I'm not a pink lovin' gal, especially when it comes to Christmas. I'm a sucker for the traditional red and green. Heck, I don't even know if you can get pink poinsettias, but my pink stripy washi tape dictated the colour here. *wink* 

I'm also going to link this card up to the Moxie Fab World: Handmade Cards Week: Stickers & Tape Challenge. :)

• The poinsettia is created by cutting two graphic flowers (using my favourite die), snipping each one to create pointed petals, and layering them.
• The jewelled brad used to secure the flower was originally clear so I coloured it with a yellow alcohol marker to make it gold and coordinate with my project.
• I love my measuring tape washi. If I were to make this card again, I'd trim the tape to feature the number 25 for Christmas. Hindsight, eh. It's a wonderful thing! Ha!

We'd love to see you work your washi magic for the challenge too. I'm always on the lookout for how to use my hoarded supplies. Check out the full challenge deets (including prizes!) on the Uniko Studio blog.

Right, I'm dashing off again but I'll be back in a few hours with a card which was whipped up in a matter of minutes. Literally!

Thank you so much for stopping by today!

Products Used
N.B The jewelled brad used is discontinued. For those interested it was by American Crafts and came as part of the Margarita collection.

   

SHINE

Hey!

Happy, happy Friday! Not just any old Friday, but Friday the 13th – eek! I’m celebrating it here on the blogeroo with a blog hop. In fact it’s a spooky blog hop with Papebabe Stamps with Stampy Friends to celebrate the September release. I’m so happy that Kim Costello (owner of Papebabe Stamps) has asked me to join in with the fun!

You should have hippety hopped over here from Chris Dark, so if you haven’t be sure to start from the owner of Paperbabe Stamps herself, Kim Costello.

For the hop, I focused on the set, “High in the Sky” . It was begging to be inked up straight away, and I created something a little bit different from what the set suggests. The set is so sweet with a sun, sun-rays, birds, clouds, rain (even the drop of rain hitting the ground – adorable!) However the sun-ray stamp got me thinking about pattern building so that’s exactly what I did!

I embossed the rays in gold to emphasise the sentiment. Lots of shine going of here – shame my camera doesn’t pick it up too well! And seeing as I've indulged in the trendy colour of the moment, I'm going to enter this card into Moxie Fab World's All That Glitters is Gold Challenge. :)

Here’s a bit of info about the September release:

“Just to recap the September release, "Cumulus Background", "High in the Sky" clear stamps and "MayLeeDee Witchily", "Dillon Batwings" and "Dillon Magic" are available as digital download for INSTANT gratification! And there's svg files to help cut some of those images out. They are NOW in the Shop!”

Well I won’t keep you any longer as you’re probably already sick of me this week with so many posts! Well that and there’s hopping to be done of course! Be sure to leave comments as you hop to win some Paperbabe goodies (Winners will be announced on the Papebabe Stamps blog on the 20th).

Sick of me yet? I bet you are! The weekend holds no scheduled or planned posts so I think you’ll escape me for a couple of days at least! *wink*

Wishing you all a fabulous, bad-luck-free Friday the 13th! Have a great weekend too! :)

I miss you (daylight hours!)

Hey!

Eeeeek! I'm burning the candle at both ends right now so before I say anything else, apologies in advance for the poor picture quality of my card. The only time I've had to create is in the evenings and those dark nights are creeping in. That's a part of autumn I'm not so keen on - especially when it comes to photographing my projects!

But alas, it's Friday-Eve and I dunno about you but I'm sooooooo ready for the weekend (if only to get some daylight to take a decent pic of this card!). I'm also ready for a fabulous new CASE Study from our marvellous muse, Kathy Racoosin. I hope that you are too!

Feast your eyes on this and prepare to study:

 Check out the original post of this card here.

I was taken with the stripes. What can I say? I'm a sucker for them! I just went with a more autumnal feel with my colours. I even think this may, *may* pass as a masculine card. What do you think?

I was also taken by Kathy's use of vellum and although my pic doesn't show it too well, there's a piece of vellum behind the leaf aperture. :)

Now I'm pretty sure that the rest of the CASE Study DT didn't do a last minute job like myself on their wonderful creations, or had to stand on a chair over a desk to try and get a half decent shot of their projects! Go check 'em out for some amazing inspiration!

• To keep the strips of cardstock flush, I adhered the strips to a panel of white card that I covered with my glue gun. This helped to keep the strips straight too!
• The leaf aperture actually has a piece of vellum adhered behind it. My pic doesn't show it too well, but the ghostly leaf shape helps to emphasise the feeling of loss in the sentiment.
• When I die cut the leaf from the striped panel of cardstock, I kept the stripy leaf I was left with for a future project!

And you know the drill by now. We want to see you play along with us! Be inspired by Kathy's card, get creative, and share the final results with us!

Right, I've gotta scoot! It's been an amazingly busy week at work and on the blogeroo! Believe it or not, I'll be back tomorrow with yet another post. I think you guys may be sick of me by the end of this week! Ha!

As always, thank you so very, very much for stopping by here today. Your visits are always appreciated!

Products Used
(To be added ASAP - I promise! In the meantime, if you have any questions about supplies then please ask away and I'll try my best to answer them!)

Easy Peasy Christmas Card #1

Hey!

So it was golf yesterday, and today it's Christmas. You'd better get used to seeing Christmas here on the blogeroo: I'm trying really hard to have many of my holiday cards created before December 20th! I have a long way to go. Ha!

Today's card is not only the start of my holiday card mission, it's also to hop along with my Uniko Studio DT buddies for a good ol' blog hop! That's right, there's no release this month so instead we're featuring an older set. You should have hippety hopped over here from the Uniko Studio blog so be sure to start out there if you haven't come from there already! :)

This month we're looking at the Flower Power sets. I love these sets - great value for money too! I got my dates mixed up so whipped up an extremely quick card (apologies for the poor quality pic - the nights are drawing in now and I'm having to rely on artificial light already!) I love how simple and easy this design is, and it also has the added bonus of being flat. Good for posting!

I inked up the original Flower Power #1 set - I'm a sucker for that graphic-style flower and repeatedly stamped it in red to re-create that cosy-kind-of-Nordic style pattern or a graphic poinsettia depending on how you look at it! This pattern has me thinking of warm woolly jumpers/sweaters. :)

Now take a peeky at what the rest of some of the Uniko Studio DT created with the different Flower Power sets. If you comment as you hop, there's the chance to win the featured sets or a set to the same value if you already own them! You have until Midnight 14th September to comment and the winner will be announced on the Uniko Studio blog on 15th September.

Next on your stop is Amber! Happy hopping!

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FORE! SIXTY!

Hey!

Happy Tuesday. *Brrrrrr!* it's certainly feeling like autumn around here. The boots have been on this week for work and I don't see them coming off any time soon. School/autumn term is officially in session!

One place my boots wouldn't be welcome is on a golf course; I know 2 things about that sport:

1. You have to wear special shoes. Ones that aren't nearly as lovely and flattering as my boots.
2. A golf ball can kinda take the form of a zero. Perfect for a milestone birthday card for a golf fan. :)

The golf ball (from the Cricut cartridge Everyday Paper Dolls), number six (from the Cricut cartridge Cricut Font and Basic Shapes), and the grass (from the Cricut cartridge Close to my Heart - Artiste), have been cut using my Cricut Mini.

This card ties in perfectly with the new monthly challenge over on the Clearly Besotted Stamps blog which is to create your own background. Look closely at this card and you'll see that I simply tessellated the diamond pattern square stamp from Clearly Besotted Stamps' Building Blocks. 

Fancy making your own background? Clear stamps make this easy peasy! Check out the full deets on the CBS blog, and join us for the chance to win some fabulous CBS goodies! :D

• This design will work for any number that ends with a zero and can accomodate balls from different sports. Perfect for any sportsfan hitting a milestone birthday!
• The diamond patterned background help to keep within the theme of golf. Although it's not quite argyle, it's still got a golfy feel! :)
• A little bit of stamp surgery took place to turn a 'Let's Celebrate' stamp into two separate stamps. It's much easier to ink up the word 'Celebrate' rather than having to mask a stamp whilst inking it up. Don't worry - the stamps fit perfectly back together again if I need them to!

Well, I reckon that's about as close as I get to golf. Unless of course you're talking about crazy golf of course: that's a whole different story! Ha!

Thanks so much for putting in the time to check out this post! (poor pun - sorry!)

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Halloween = a ghost die, vellum, & googly eyes...

Hey!

Hooray for the weekend! It might have only been a two-day working week for my first week back at work/school but boy am I psyched about waking up early and bring able to curl up in bed for some extra Zzzzs. It's the small things that make this gal happy, peeps. The small things. :)

And speaking of small things, check out this little bag I whipped up - perfect for containing a treat (or a trick depending on how mischievous I'm feeling... Mwahaha!) 

In a bid to use up some 'vintage' patterned paper, I couldn't resist having a go at creating a little bag. And by vintage patterned paper, I'm talking about patterned paper that has been hiding in my drawer for years! This bag is made from a single 8x8 sheet.

The bag features a ghost die from Clearly Besotted Stamps newly released Fright Night die collection. Ghost die? Vellum? Googly eyes? Well it just makes sense, right?! :)

The sentiment is stamped from the newly released CBS stamp set, Boo to You. I stamped it on a die cut speech bubble from the You Said It! die collection. 

• Dies are so versatile. Even if they're designed to coordinate with a stamp set, you can often use just the die shape and not the coordinating stamp.
• Mix and match dies with different stamp sets. The You Said It! dies will accommodate sentiment stamps from just about any set.
• It's much easier to punch holes and set eyelets for the bag handles before it's assembled. The same goes for die cutting that cutie-pie ghost too. I'm talking from experience here...*wink*

One Halloween project created, many more to go; as as aunty to seven, I have a feeling I'll be using even more patterned paper up - yay!

I hope you have a great weekend! Thanks so much for stopping by today!

Flowers are not only for Christmas a coordinating basket...

Hey!

Well it's the first day back at school for me (fingers crossed I start as I mean to go on with an organised bag and an alarm set to make me roll up early!), and it's the first CASE Study of the month so you know what that means: A fabulous new muse to adore and learn from!

This month see's Kathy Racoosin as our muse so it's time to whip out those markers and get busy!

So get ready. Get set. Study!

I was inspired by Kathy's awesome Copic skill, the colours, the flowers and the twine. It's been an age since I cranked a label-shaped Nestability through my Cuttlebug so here was the perfect prompt to do it!

The flowers on my card are from the newly released Clearly Besotted Stamps set, A Basket Full. (Be sure to take a peek over at CBS as the September release is available for purchase now! from midnight tonight!). I wanted to show how versatile those flowers are in the set; they're not only for placing in a stamped basket! I simply created a mask of these pretty lilies and stamped them 4 times in the top corner of my focal point.

• I used lighter shades of pink, green and blue for my card to fit in with the sentiment. Calming, soothing shades of colour always work well for a get well soon card. 
• To keep with the softer shades of colour, I stamped my flowers in grey ink. Black ink would have overpowered the pretty nature of those lilies. 
• I outlined the coloured lilies with a light blue marker to make them 'pop' a little more. The blue outline also coordinates nicely with the blue polka dot paper. (I know, get me, using patterned paper! Quick! Someone take my temperature! LOL!)

Now won't you join me in taking a peek at what the rest of the CASE Study DT created? It's a guaranteed mojo boost y'know! :)

And as always - please do join in the fun with us. It doesn't matter what part of Kathy's card inspires you, or your crafting level. Just have fun, go with the flow and share what you create with us!

Right, must dash: the school bell rings and it's calling me to work. Where did my summer go?! LOL!

Products Used
(An updated product list will be available later today as I link up the new CBS goodies. Stay tuned!)

Fabulous company, frenzied crafting...

Hey!

Well it's my final day of the summer holidays and I can't believe that Sneaky September has crept up on me so quickly. I've seen lots of back-to-school pictures...that will be me tomorrow! Ha!

The final weekend of my holidays was a fabulous one thanks to being in the awesome company of Stephanie, Caryn, and Debby (Pics are here thanks to Caryn). What an amazing group of creative talent! Crafting with these ladies was F.U.N! I returned home feeling so blessed to call these ladies my friends and I couldn't think of a more fun place to spend a weekend than at Clearly Besotted Stamps HQ. Giggles, crafting, and a guided tour of CBS. I saw the magic, peeps. CBS is run like clockwork! :)

We managed to squeeze in some crafting in between talking for 48 hours straight; we were bullied persuaded by Craft Dash DT member, Caryn to have a go at a couple of the challenges. She recorded our antics too - not sure I want to see it! LOL!

So today's card was whipped up in less than 10mins. I can't remember the exact time because I was so overwhelmed with relief that I'd done it, and then I was a cheerleader for the rest of the gals. However, upon viewing the video (cringe!) I've got myself clocked at 7 mins 5 secs. I had a clear plan in my mind of what I was going to do, then stupidly die cut my main panel of cardstock in the first few seconds. Fail! Cue a mad re-think and this is the result. Check out Caryn, Debby, and Stephanie's results too. I'm in awe at what they managed to whip up in under 10 mins!

• Due to the nature of dashing, I didn't have time to stamp the tag outline on the die (I didn't trust myself to line it up properly!) but these dies work lovely without the tag frames.
• I stamped my lines a little too high, leaving a white space at the bottom but it was easy to stamp another yellow line at the bottom. This bottom line grounds the lines and prevents them from looking like they're floating. It's always effective to stamp a pattern off the edge of cardstock.
• Dashing? Rushing? Size matters. Well to me anyways! The smaller the card, the easier I find the challenge. This one is 4x4. Is it cheating? I hope not! :)

Today's card also features some new CBS goodies, available from September 5th. I used the new set Tag Along with the coordinating dies. I have a feeling that tags are going to be featuring a lot on my projects - I love the set and dies! :)

Well that's all from me today. I've got a school bag to pack!

As always, thank you so much for popping by here today. Your visits are always appreciated!

Products Used
(Tag Along with coordinating dies from CBS will be added once available for purchase!)