Party time - CASE Study stylee!

Hey!

Well I hope you're ready for a party. What for you ask? Well, true, it's Friday-Eve and that's always a reason to celebrate but it's also the challenge blog, CASE Study's 4th anniversary! I'm so honoured to have been there from the start of CASE Study all those years ago. It only seems like yesterday that Iwona (Chupa) sent me an email explaining her concept and me accepting her invitation without hesitation. :)

I'm so happy to be able to join in the festivities as we have a corker of a blog hop chock-full of inspiration. Be sure to hop along and comment along the way to win some awesome prizes from our sponsors:

Clearly Besotted Stamps

Verve
Ellen Hutson
Waltzingmouse Stamps

You should have hippety hopped across here from Julie Smith. If you haven't or you're lost, here's the order you should be following. :)

Anja Curvers
Eva Dobilas
Danielle Flanders
Jill Foster
Silke Ledlow
Agnieszka Małyszek
Iwona Palamountain  
Torico
Julie Smith
Amy Wanford
Michelle Williams
Teneale Williams
Dawn Woleslagle

Now as you may know, my recent career change has meant I'd recently taken a little break from CASE Study. However, from today I am b.a.c.k.! Yup, I might be crazy but I'm jumping back on board and will hopefully (fingers crossed!) be back to my regular Friday-Eve CASE Study blog posts.

So, onto today's card. This card is a CASE of sorts from my recent trip to IKEA. No, I didn't purchase a raskog - I simply don't have room! However I do often find myself spending a large amount of time in the art section. Two art pieces caught my eye:

These birds have a map detail on them. I love that idea!

I'm a sucker for a typewriter and so is my guy. This actually jumped into our trolley. :)

And from that moment, I had the idea to combine the two and create my own bird embellishment with a typewriter font.

It was so easy to create with the help of Olive (our beloved typewriter). I simply typed some words on my typewriter, die-cut the bird from the typed paper, covered it in Distress Ink and then smothered it in Glossy Accents.

• I addd texture to my background by splattering it with Distress Ink mixed with water and  stencilling parts of a distressed-style stencil with embossing paste. 
• This concept works for so many occasions. Simply type any adjectives relating to the occasion. No typewriter? No problemo! Simply use a typewriter-style font on your computer. 
• The acetate helps to ground the bird whilst the positioning of the stars helps the eyes to frame the bird. 

Well that's all from me today. But there's plenty more hopping to be done as your next stop is Michelle Williams. Thanks for stopping by today!

Products used

FYI: The heart acetate is an ancient Hambly Screen Print purchased years ago. Using up the stash - woo hoo! :) 

*Neenah Classic Crest **110 LB** SMOOTH SOLAR WHITE Paper Pack 25 Sheets	Clearly Besotted Stamps - Going Places	*Tsukineko MEMENTO Full Size Ink Pad TUXEDO BLACK	*Tim Holtz DISTRESS INK PAD PEACOCK FEATHERS Ranger SPRING
*Tim Holtz DISTRESS INK PAD BROKEN CHINA Blue Ranger	Cuttlebug Die Cutting Machine	*Memory Box MEADOW BIRD Craft DIE 98339	The Crafters' Workshop - Tile Texture Stencil
*Wendy Vecchi WHITE EMBOSSING PASTE Studio 490	American Crafts - Hemp Twine	*Darice TINY STAR SILVER Sequins 10038-19	*Ranger Inkssentials MINI GLOSSY ACCENTS Glue Dimensional Adhesive .5oz

InLinkz.com

A papercrafting catch-up...

Hey!

Happy bank holiday weekend! :D

I'm sorry that there's not been much but tumbleweed over the last few weeks. I'm still settling into the new job (and loving it!) but I'm starting to find time to create again and boy, does it feel good! I've had few people saying that they've missed my creations - you're too sweet. I hope this post shows that I'm certainly still crafting. :)

So here's a little catch-up of what I've been up to:

1. Firstly, I was interviewed by the lovely Tam of CardMaking Artists. She was far too kind and sweet about me! I'm honestly just a simple gal that likes making cards (and cups of tea!) but if you want to check it out, or check out the great site in general, then you can do so here.

2. Hmmmm what else have I been up to? Well the amazingly talented Els Brige invited me to be a Weekend Guest on her blogeroo last weekend. Daunted? Slightly. I mean,  have you seen Els work? Or seen her previous guests? So. Talented. August is proving to be the month I have to create a ton of masculine cards so pop across if you want to see one of them. Here's a sneak peek:

3. It's more work-related than my personal papercrafting adventure but you might be interested. I had the total honour and pleasure of interviewing BoBunny. To do this as my job is a serious dream come true and I still can't believe it. BoBunny is certainly company that looks so fun to work for! The full interview and a free BoBunny Christmas stamp set and paper pad can be found in Simply Cards & Papercraft 127. :)

4. Finally, although you may not believe it from judging the blogeroo, I have honestly been a busy papercrafting bee. I've been working behind the scenes on a fabulous new bookazine called Die-cutting Essentials. My job was to play with the amazing free gift that comes with the issue: a set of 5 star-shaped nesting dies. Is that really work? It certainly didn't feel like it!

I had a blast playing with these dies to cater for many different occasions. The total icing on the cake was seeing the finished publication arrive at our offices and seeing my projects on the cover. :)

I'm not gonna be a sales-gal, but I think it's a great bookazine with an awesome free gift. Grab your copy here if you're interested.

Well. I think that's about it. I'm just about to sign off here, go and tidy up the total disaster zone that is my desk and hopefully find more time to create over the bank holiday weekend. Yay!

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend whether you've got that sweet, extra day off on Monday or not. :)