Christmas Bird

I decided to use a bird from one of my Stampin' Up sets to create a Christmas card with some pretty papers from My Mind's Eye, "12 Days of Christmas".

I just love those pretty papers!  The card is pretty straight forward.

I created the centre panel by first die cutting a scalloped circle from a Spellbinders die and stamping it with some snowflakes and then spritzing with Perfect Pearls Mist.  On top of that I popped up the birdie which was stamped and embossed on red cardstock.

I then layered an oval die cut frame on top of that with some dimensional quares.

Thank you for looking!

CAS Christmas

My available time to craft is diminishing, the pressure is on to still finish another 15 or so Christmas cards, so my posts are going to be rather short and to the point over the next two weeks, mostly because I won't be here and they will be pre-scheduled. I hope you don't mind.

A little CAS Christmas card using a stamp from Stampin' Up.

The sentiment is from a PTI set.  I love this dropped pearl image, not sure what else to call it really.

This card came about when I realised that I had a few Hero Arts Pool notecards waiting to be used and then I remembered a recent inspiration photo for a Tuesday Trigger over at Moxiefab World and I used the colours that I could recall.

It's a nice flat, no bulk card, coloured with Copics.

Thanks for looking and have a fabulous day!

Bling & Sparkle

I decided to try and make another card for the current Simon Says Stamp challenge to create something with sparkle and bling!  It's very CAS, using one of my current favourite colours from PTI called Autumn Rose.

Paper: cardstock (PTI)
Ink: Versafine Onyx Black
Stamps: Stampin' Up (My Friend)
Other: Ribbon (PTI); Gems (Hero Arts); Buckle gem (from South Africa); clear embossing powder

As you can see, a very simple card to reproduce.  The silhouette image is stmaped in black ink and heat embossed. After today I am going to move away from black for a while, I'm not sure why I am using it so much lately!  That gem buckle is so old, it's amazing what you can find when you dig around in your old stash!  Whoever lands up receiving this card I hope that they recycle the buckle, I am serious! (I still had the price tag on the packet, so please, please, recycle the buckle!!!).

At about this time I should be running my 14 miler training run with my buddie in downtown Austin!  I am sure that I am really enjoying it, no jokes, I have been looking forward to this run for some time now!

See you all tomorrow and thank you for stopping by!

CR84FN37

Have you seen the colours over at the CRFN blog for this week?  Wow, light blue, turquoise and a neutral!  I wanted to make a card for my Mom to tell her how much I miss her and I thought I would use these colours.

Paper: cardstock (PTI); patterned paper (My Mind's Eye - Hattie Papers 6 X 6 pad)
Ink: Memento; CTMH (Heavenly Blue)
Stamps: SU ( Elements of Style  ); PTI (Take Three Summer - sentiment)
Other: Wonky Rectangle Nestabilitie; Dimensional adhesive; Pearl Flourish (Prima); Seam Binding; Sewing

I thought it was going to be an easier process somehow and then I got stumped when I was trying to decide what colour my card base/notecard should be!  However, I settled for white and added a pretty turquoise paper from My Mind's Eye after stitching around it.  I stamped the flower stamp with a soft blue ink while the nestie was still in place and then inked the edges whilst I was at it.  That way I still get to keep a neat white border.

I actually made a bow!  (Rosemary, if you are looking, I hope you are proud of me!) It's nothing fancy, thank goodness for soft seam binding!  But it's a start!  And then I did something I never do, and I used some pearl flourishes (Rosemary, sorry, but I think you are the inspirational culprit here as well!!!).  I have to say, those pearls are really nice to use, this is my second card out of the one and only small pack I purchased, and I still have enough left to make another card.  And they really are easy to just cut up as you see fit.

I might have to play with those colours again and use a different neutral, something about the stark white against the turquoise just does not look completely right to me.  Maybe I will go for cream/ivory next time.

Thank you for coming to take a peek!  And thank you to all my new followers, wow, I am thrilled!  I hope I can keep you coming back!  Wishing you all an awesome start to a new week!

OWH Skip

Today Operation Write Home is having a SKIP!  A skip is a small bloghop of 10 people, and Barb from OWH kindly asked me if I would like to participate!  I was so honored to be considered, so saying yes was pretty much automatic!

The guideline was for a CAS (Clean and Simple) card, more and more I have found this to be my preferred style.

You should have arrived from Maureen's blog, if for some reason you have lost your way, then head on over to the Stars and Stamps blog which is the start of the hop.

I decided to use a few different stamps from Stampin' Up, I have to say that I am totally in love with how crisp these stamps actually stamp!  And I adore the little pieced bird that I am using today in my card.

Paper: Notecard (Hero Arts); Neenah
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black; Copic Markers
Stamps: Stampin' Up (My Friend; Language of Friendship; Three Little Words)
Other: Stampamajig; Dimensional Squares

I really enjoyed stamping those teardrop elements in the one corner, and piecing the bird together just really makes it come to life.  And when you have three little words like "I Love You" there is no need to add anything else!  I am sure that a soldier out there will welcome the opportunity to send a little I Love You note to someone in their lives!

Thank you so much for visiting.  Please continue on the hop and visit the fabulous Jan , a copic colorer deluxe, I wonder what she has in store for us today!

Three Little Words...

That's the name of a stamp by Stampin' Up and I love it!  I combined it with some beautiful patterned paper from Pink Paislee and another awesome bird stamp from Penny Black.

But I also have to admit that I CASED my card from Ashley Newell's blog. I couldn't help it, her card is just so beautiful!  Here is my interpretation.

See that sentiment, that's from Stampin' up, there are a few different "three word" sentiments in the set, pretty neat.

Paper: Notecard (PTI); patterned paper (Pink Paislee: Butterfly Garden)
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black; Tattered Rose & Tea Dye DI; Copic markers
Stamps: Penny Black (Nature's Day); Stampin' Up (Three Little Words)
Other: Sewing

I inked the bird with the distress inks and I coloured the branch with some copics, fussy cut it out and adhered it to the patterned paper.  Not sure if you can see, but I added two rows of zig-zag sewing to the card.

I guess one could say that this was my attempt at Shabby Chic, but that was definitely not my intention, I simply wanted to use this paper with these two stamps.  If this was in the hands of a true shabby chic person,  (like Ashley and many others I know), I could imagine some lace and rhinestone patterns, and although I can see it in my mind, that's just not me.  So, you got the plain version!

I also found a fabulous tip on Ashley's blog HERE about changing a setting on google reader where basically each day when you check your reader you simply press a NEXT button which you will add to your google bar and it takes you through each new post  one at a time, with the comments section in that post.  When you finish commenting you simply press next and it will go to the next post you have not read in your reader!  Love it!  So easy now!

Ok, off to check my google reader and comment up a storm!

August CCC

The August CCC sign up has begun!  Once again we were provided with a choice of a colour palette, a sketch or a theme, or all three!  I went, as usual, with all three!  You have until the 17th of August to sign up, it's fun, give it a try!

Paper: cardstock (PTI); Neenah; patterned paper (unknown)
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black; Copic Markers; CTMH (Tulip dye ink)
Stamps: Stampin' Up (Elements of Style; Language of Friendship)
Other: Oval Nestabilitie; Pearl (stash); Dimensional squares

Sketches are really helpful!  And I liked this colour combination too.  I had a great time playing with my new Stampin' Up stamps.  I hope the recipient (who has not yet been revealed), likes this card.

Thanks for popping in!  Have a wonderful day.

Play Date Cafe #93

I decided to play along with the current colours over at The Play Date Cafe, the colours are Watermelon, Sorbet and Lime!  It's a good stretch for me, and they are appealingly fresh at a time when our outside temperatures are soaring above 100F, even having reached 110F just before we left for our vacation!

Here is my very CAS card!

Paper: cardstock (PTI); patterned paper (DCWV)
Ink: Sorbet dye ink (CTMH); Versafine Onyx Black
Stamps: Elements of Style & Bitty Basics (Stampin' Up)
Other: corner chomper; PTI dies; Dimensional squares; ribbon (very old stash); Scalloped edge punch (Stampin' Up)

Short and sweet today!  Thank you for visiting!  Have a fabulous day!

CR84FN Color Challenge #34

I have been wanting to play with this color challenge since the first time it was posted at CR84FN, lucky for me it runs for 2 weeks at the moment.  Eventually, it dawned on me that I could possibly make something using a Penny Black stamp that I needed to ink up.  Once again, it's fairly CAS.

Paper: cardstock (PTI); Neenah; patterned paper (Recollections)
Ink: Copic Markers; Memento (Tuxedo Black & Lilac Posies); Antique Linen DI
Stamps: Penny Black (Garden Poems 3869K); SU (Bitty Basics)
Other: Dimensional squares

Forgive me but I had to make the leaves green, so I hope that in this context this qualifies as a neutral colour!

The image is stamped twice and coloured in with Copics.  I then fussy cut the three flowers and adhered them onto the main panel, but only glueing the centres so that the petals float free for dimension.  To help the petals along I curled up the edges a bit.  I inked the edges of the main panel with a bit of Anique Linen.

The little heart and sentiment is from a Stampin Up set that a lovely lady in my suburb gave me.  I stamped the heart on the same light pink cardstock and then stamped the sentiment with a matching dark pink ink and adhered it on top of the heart.  The heart is adhered with dimensionals.

That's it for now!  Thank you for popping by and leaving me your sweet comments!  I love checking my blog at the end of the day and first thing in the morning, and your comments really make it that much more of an enjoyable experience!