Hugs & Kisses

Hey!

Happy Friday-Eve! Ready to knuckle down to a new CASE Study? I sure hope so! :)

This week we're studying this fabulous card from our muse, Donna Mikasa.

Check out the original post of this card here.

Hello, gold! Hello, vellum! Two trends here that I just can't pass up on. I threw in a bit of pink into my design in the form of washi tape, but it doesn't really compare to the hot pink of Donna's die-cut! Oh, and I've rounded corners on this tag as a nod to the lower, right rounded corner of Donna's card.

Time is still against me right now, but I found just enough time to whip up a tag. I love how these tiny tag canvases can be a super sweet, speedy crafting project to give me a crafty fix. :)

• The super-sparkly, gold material is actually some Cricut Iron-On material. It die cuts very easily with my Clearly Besotted Dies in my Cuttlebug. :)
• You don't always need to thread a piece of ribbon through the top of a tag just because it has a hole in the top. I'm currently loving my mini pegs that I've had since I caught the crafting bug years and years ago. 
• Need a more masculine take of this design? Simply change the pink washi tape for some more masculine coloured tape or patterned paper.

Be sure to cast your studying eye on the rest of the CASE Study DT and please do join in the creative fun with us if you can. :)

This weekend marks the first weekend I have free so I'm really hoping to hit the ink and stamps hard. Winter has arrived so I can't find a more perfect excuse to stay indoors with a cuppa and some crafting *wink*.

As always, thank you soooooooooo much for your visits and sticking around.

Products Used

InLinkz.com

Time for a cuppa...

Hey!

Apologies for being MIA for the past week. It's been super-busy here and still is! I'm grateful to have found a spare moment to share a project with you that I should probably have shared with you a while back. Still, better late than never, right? *wink*

Think back to the holidays. Seems like a long way back now, but over the holidays I got a little bit busy with my Cricut Mini and some cool Cricut vinyl to whip up these mugs for my deer friends (Oh c'mon, humour me and embrace the pun!) as well as myself to inject a little bit of the crisp winter indoors whilst we sip on a hot beverage or store something inside of them. :)

This project is soooooo easy. I simply loaded up the shapes in the Cricut Craft Room software, made them the right size, loaded my Cricut Mini with some silver vinyl, clicked 'cut', and peeled cut the deer shapes and applied them to the mug. Easy peasy!

• These mugs require gentle cleaning by hand. No dishwashers!
• A mug is not just for drinking from. I like to use my deer mug to hold my pens and pencils in!
• When giving these away as a gift, you can fill the mug with a warming sachet of hot chocolate (complete with compulsory marshmallows of course!) *wink*

I couldn't pick just one digital deer image for my mugs though, so I opted for two from the Winter Woodland cartridge along with a lovely folk-style deer from the Folk Art Festival cartridge.

For a finishing touch, I used the positive hearts of the folk-art deer to decorate the mug handle:

I still use my deer mugs seeing as we're still in winter and, I fear, about to hit a bit of a cold snap. Although admittedly I have a thing for deer so I think we may be using these mugs all year-round. :)

That's all from me today. A cuppa is calling me...!

Products Used
FYI: The mugs were purchased from my local supermarket at a bargin 49p each! :)

InLinkz.com

HB2U

First up, apologies for the poor pics. Burning the candles at both ends right now and taking pictures whenever and wherever I can at the moment!

Hey!

Happy Friday-Eve! I'm sure you know the drill by now (if you don't, where have you been?!?!) that Friday-Eve means time to knuckle down to another CASE Study.

This week we're being inspired by this fab card by our muse for January, Donna Mikasa.

Check out the original post of this card here!

And this inspired my card today in a number of ways:

• The turquoise colour
• The layout
• The white text on a coloured background
• The use of sequins

It's all there, only I added a touch of geometric magic with some trendy triangles behind my sentiment. :)

 

I also added a touch more sparkle by covering the die-cut letters with my clear Wink of Stella pen. You may have to come really close to the screen and squint at my picture to see it in action though LOL!

• I was originally going to use Versamark ink for my subtle triangles behind the sentiment, but it proved a little to light to see (maybe I need a new pad). So I opted to use tone-on-tone ink and card and used a light blue Distress Ink instead.
• The sequins help form a visual triangle around the sentiment and I've balanced each side with additional tiny gems and stars (stars are from my make-up stash from a long, long time ago!). Don't be afraid to mix it up a little when it comes to embellishing!
• The easiest way to do glitter up the die-cut letters with a sparkly pen is to cover a small section of card with the pen and then die cut the letters from it.

Really gotta keep it short and sweet today so I'm now going to suggest that you not only check out the amazing CASE Study DT to see what beauties they've created, but you also join in the fun with us too! C'mon and be inspired by Donna's card and get those creative cogs turning! :)

I have to go pack. I'm off to Newcastle for the weekend to deliver the 90th birthday card I created for last week's CASE Study by hand so I think I'll have to triple check that I actually pack it LOL!

Whatever you're up to, I hope you all have a lovely weekend!

Products Used

InLinkz.com

Happy News x2

Hey!

I'm popping by today to give you a head's up on a couple of exciting things (well, exciting to me anyway!)

First up, I'm gatecrashing guest blogging over on Moxie Fab World today. I'm babbling about an inspiring and super-trendy post from Miss Moxie Fab herself, Cath Edvalson, and hopefully injecting some of it into a project!

Here's a sneak peek of my project:

Pop across to Moxie Fab World to check it out! :)

Next on the agenda I have some more happy news; I've been asked to join the Top Dog Dies Spring Design Team!  Check out the announcement here. I can't wait to get those dies cranking through my Cuttlebug. I've just got to be patient and wait for them to jump across pond *wink*!

That's all my happy news of the day. Thanks for letting me share my happy day of happy news with you!

I hope you have a terrific Tuesday! 

Winners!

Hey!

Happy Monday! It's certainly a happy Monday for two peeps as it's time to draw a couple of lucky winners from my Clearly Besotted Stamps giveaway!

So without further ado, the two winners of a Post It: Love stamp set with coordinating die are:

 Number 5 which is lucky for Gillian who said:

"I just LOVE you all at the CB Design Team. Keep up your good work in 2014 no matter how hectic life is. Your humour is fab."

And the next winner is...

 Number 30 which is lucky for Lesley who said:

"What an excellent giveaway that's a very kind thing to do. Lesley"

Congrats, ladies! Please email me your postal addys and I'll get that stamp set with the coordinating die out to you asap! (Check out the 'Contact Me' tab under my blog header for my email address).

Thank you to everyone who entered and for all of the lovely comments you left about gold. I'm glad that you're not tiring of it yet as I'm certainly not LOL!

Signed, Sealed, Delivered

Hey!

Hurrah for Friday! Oh how I love thee! :D

I'm feeling the love for Friday, the love for the weekend, and the love for a brand new Clearly Besotted Stamps challenge! 

This month's challenge has a love theme. If you managed to get your inky mitts on the new release, you've probably got some lovey-dovey stamps just waiting to be inked up for this. If you haven't, it's no biggie as you only need to use one CBS product to enter! :)

For this challenge I decided to have a little fun with the set Post It: Love. (Pssst comment on this post by 23.59pm GMT tonight for a chance to win this set with it's coordinating die!). When I designed this set, I had visions of trying to create my own seal for an envelope. It's taken this long to try, but I'm glad I did!

If you're interested, this is how I went about doing it:

1. Stamp the reverse side of the same stamp shape (see step 5 to see why!) in red ink on the closed envelope
2. Ink up the reverse side of the stamp again in clear ink and embossed with clear embossing powder.
3. Repeat step two 
4. Before repeating step two again (you're triple embossing btw!) - ink up the the correct side of the stamp you want to use with clear ink and have the Perfect Pearls on hand!
5. Repeat step two (see why you're using different stamp that's the same shape - you can't ink the reverse and front of a stamp at the same time!)
6. Immediately after the third layer of embossing, press the inked stamp into the melted powder and let it sit until cooled - a few seconds should do the trick.
7. Dust Perfect Pearls onto the design and it should highlight the stamped design. :)  

I wish I could show you this IRL. It was a pain to photograph and looks so much better here in my craft room!

• If you use ultra-thick embossing enamel (UTEE) instead of your regular embossing power then you may only need a couple of embossing layers, or even just one!
• It sounds obvious, but make sure you have your card inside your envie before you do this LOL! Oh, and make sure it's a card without too much dimension, i.e flat, so it's easier to stamp on the envie once it's tucked inside.  
• I used a mini envie for this project - it measures 6cm x 7cm. 

Be sure to check out Stephanie's blog for the full challenge deets and to take a peek at what the rest of the super duper talented CBS DT created - you're bound to love it! *wink*

Products Used

InLinkz.com