With Sympathy

The theme for CAS-ual Fridays #86 this week is 'Long and Short' (Create a CAS card that has one long side and one short side. 3 x 6, 4 x 8, etc. No standard A2's for this week.)

This card base is 3.5x8. I embossed slightly more than half the card with my swiss dots folder, then masked it off and stamped in a variety of blues, with stamps from skipping stones designs. I tied some button twine around the middle and added the sentiment from stampin' up and a few gems.

I'm also submitting this to:
- Twisted Tuesday Challenges #41 - Tic, Tac, Toe, Twist: Use a crafty machine (Twine, Sympathy, Colour Blue + Used Cuttlebug to emboss)
- A Gem of A Challenge #63 - Emboss It

CAS-ual Fridays: CFC83

This week CAS-ual Fridays is teaming up with the 10 Minute Craft Dash for a holiday themed card made in just 10 minutes!

I was mildly alarmed when I saw this, only 10 minutes to make a card?! Erk! But it turned out to be both harder and easier than I thought. In the end, I managed to do it with only about 15 seconds to spare on my countdown *but* about 3 mins was just placing the gems (lost my regular tweezers had to use others *head desk*).

It was incredibly easy to make. I sponged in a circle of goldy-yellow, stamped the image from Hot of the Press and sentiment from papermania, finishing with gems. I rushed a bit on the sentiment so 'greetings' isn't perfectly placed, but otherwise, I rather like it. I might have tied a bit of twine around the top but I've used a lot lately so need to buy some more!

"Less is More" Week 98 - Anniversary

I was going to do the card for this weeks Less is More anniversary challenge, on a white card base, but I'd never tried inking directly onto kraft before so I thought, what the heck, lets give it a go and I'm reasonably pleased with how it turned out.

I used nesties to emboss the two squares and sponged in the middle one with blue and yellow inks, before stamping the sentiment (from stampin' up) and the image (freebie from some magazine or another) in brown ink and adding three small clear gems to finish. Very easy to do, took far more time thinking about than making! lol!

"Less is More" #89 - One Layer w/Wings

When I saw the "Less is More" challenge this week my first thought was 'dang, one layer' - I swear, I live in fear of the one layer challenges, lol! - but a quick glance through my stamps and I rediscovered this one, from a christmas stamp set I got last year, it was a magazine freebie and I can't remember exactly where it's from, but I thought it would do quite nicely!

I scored out a rectangle with my score bored, stamped the image inside and coloured with my promarkers: ruby, caramel and cocoa and a gold pen for the crowns. I swithered a while over adding anything else and in the end gave in and added some gems (I can't help myself, everything should have gems!)

Embossed Snowflakes

A very CAS card today, I used a snowflake embossing folder I got from simply cards and paper craft magazine, ran across the edges with my score board and stamped the sentiment from stampin' up, before adding some bling.

I'm submitting this to:
- CASology #11 - White
- Creative Inspirations #181 - Christmas in September
- PaperPlay Challenges '12/wk 38 - Choose a Holiday

CAS-ology #7

A while ago I made this card for a "Less is More" challenge - and I decided I liked it so much I'd do something similar for a new challenge I discovered CASology who's challenge this week is 'green'.

I used two shades of green papermania ink. Masked of a square in the middle of a 5x5 card and sponged it in green and then used a darker green to stamp the shamrock from Vap Scrap and the sentiment from stampin' up - adding a pearl to the center to finish. I'm not sure it works exactly a well with the shamrock as it did with the original flower image, but I don't hate it - and I do love the simplicity of the sponged backgrounds with a darker inked image stamped on top - I may make a whole set at some point *g*

May All Your Wishes Come True

A card for both "Less is More" #80 - One Layer Fur or Feathers and CAS-ual Fridays #65 'Square Cards' Challenge today

I used Colour Box Blue Iris to ink the masked of square and then stamped the birds from Skipping Stones Design's Dandelion Dreams set and embossed them with gold embossing powerder. Stamped and embossed the sentiment from the same set and added a few gems to finish.

I think this could be used for a few different occasions... birthdays is an obvious one, but the sentiment I think would work for something like a wedding/engagement card, or as a good luck to someone moving away, or starting a new venture :)

"Less is More" Week 79 - Blue & Green

This weeks "Less is More" challenge #79 is to use Blue&Green together on a card.

I used stamps from Hero Arts (the flower and sentiment) and the bird from Stepping Stones Designs with ink from papermania and finished it off with a blue gem.

Didn't take very long once I decided what I was doing, but that took a while, because I'm so out of practice after so long with very little crafting and I'm only about... 90% happy with it, but it's okay and shall be going as a thank you to a friend who lizard-sat while we were on holiday :)

Less is More - Week 76

This weeks "Less is More" challenge was for a one layer card featuring '3' this could be three colours, words, stamps, the number 3, etc...

I love one layer cards, looking at them that is! because I'm horrid at making them, lol! Nevertheless, after two weeks during which I only made one card, it was as good a place as any to start.

The slippers are teddy bo stamps and the sentiment is stampin' up - all stamped in brown papermania ink, I coloured the slippers with my promarkers, in three shades of green - forest, marsh green and pear green.

CAS-ual Fridays: CFC52

CAS-ual Fridays challenge #52 this week is to make a CAS card with a bird.

I went long for this card with a 3.5x8 inch base card. The stamp is an old one - that I think is from Laura Ashley! - and I stamped it with black papermania ink.

I wanted to keep the colours very soft, so I used pencils to colour, only colouring the peacock and the flowers, to keep it all very simple.

I added the sentiment from Stampin' up and three small blue gems at the top - I was going to have black gems, but I thought the blue gems would just draw it in with the colouring of the peacocks body.

Three Little Words...

When I saw this mornings "Less is More" challenge #67 I immediately knew what I wanted to do!

The challenge was to create a one layer card, using three different stamps.

I got a fabulous stampin' up set from a friend for my birthday and knew it would be just perfect - so I got them out and ink from papermania - taking my colour scheme from the Simply Stampin' Challenge that also went up today and finished it off with three little pearls.

I'm also submitting this for Creative Card Crew #10 - Sentiment as Focal Point.

"Less is More" Week 65: Sketch

A very simple card for "Less is More" this week, following their sketch (below) I masked my card and sponged the center panel in a medium blue ink. I then stamped my hero arts stamp off-center, using a darker blue ink. And then re-inked only the center of the stamp to give the slight effect that its fading from darker to lighter towards the edges... it didn't work *perfectly* but I was pretty pleased with it. I then stamped the stampin' up sentiment in the same dark blue ink and added a dark blue gem to the middle of the stamped flower.

This is the sketch I used.

Our Creative Corner: Butterflies

A very quick and simple (and last minute!) card today for Our Creative Corner's Butterflies Challenge - because I kept forgetting to do it earlier in the week and I really didn't want to miss this one. Butterflies are one of my favourite things - not necessarily on cards, but in life. One of my animal guides/spirits is a butterfly and so they are very special to me.

I used a stamp that a friend sent me at Christmas - I'm afraid I don't know where it is from - coloured in amber and rose pink promarkers. Added the sentiment from dovecraft and a few gems to finish.

And bonus, this shall prove incredibly easy to replicate again and again for my upcoming birthday :)

Sponge Layer Card

This weeks "Just Us Girls" Challenge #132 was a technique challenge, to create a card using a sponge layer.

It's the first time I've tried this technique, although I love seeing it on other peoples cards and I am not totally happy with it, but I don't think it's bad for a first attempt! I masked off the area I wanted to sponge and used yellow papermania pigment ink. I then stamped the flower stamp over it a few times (it was a freebie and I forget where from) and coloured the flowers with a china blue promarker... sadly my camera thought it was more green than blue, but it looks blue-er to the eye... I then stamped the sentiment (which I think might be papermania but I couldn't swear too it) in blue ink and finished with a few gems.

I'm also submitting this for the Colour Create Challenge #94 - Yellow, Blue and White.

"Less is More": Week 63

This weeks "Less is More" challenge is a one layer card, with doodling.

Alas, my doodling skills are seriously lacking, so I fell back on faux stitching, which as about as far as my doodling skills extend! I used turquoise papermania ink pads directly onto the card and the butterflies (can't recall where it's from) in black ink, added the sentiment (magazine freebie) in turquoise and drew in the faux stitching with a lestraset fine line drawing pen.

CAS-ual Fridays: CFC48

This weeks CAS-ual Fridays challenge #48 is: Opposites Attract.

CFC48: Opposites attract- choose 2 opposite colors from the color wheel to design your Clean And Simple creation. Opposite colors are determined by where the points meet. Examples: green and red, or orange and aqua, or purple and yellow, etc.

I wasn't sure at first what I was going to do, so just started looking through my stamps to see if inspiration struck and came across this Laura Ashley stamp. The moment I saw it I knew exactly what to do with - masking it off and using pink ink for the flowrs and green for the leaves - I used a sentiment from Daisy and Dandelion and finished with a few gems to give it a bit of sparkle :)

CAS-ual Fridays: CFC46

First time I've had chance to get crafty since I got home from Bristol on Monday (okay that's not strictly true, I had time yesterday, but I was busy being lazy and having a PJ day because it felt like I hadn't stopped since I got home! lol!)

Todays card is for this weeks CAS-ual Fridays challenge #46.

CFC46: Create a Clean And Simple project based on a song.
*Whether you take your inspiration from the song title or the lyrics, please share which song inspired you.*

I'm sure it's fairly obvious what song I picked - Girls Just Wanna Have Fun - and I used a stamp by born to shop, because lets face it, shopping is fun! :-D

I coloured the image and the words with promarkers - china blue, ruby, bright orange, buttercup, blush, rose pink, dusky rose, poppy, caramel, lime green and marine and added a gem on the 'i' in Girls for a little sparkle.

CAS-ual Fridays: CFC43

This weeks CAS-ual Fridays challenges #43 was to create a card with the sentiment as the focal point.

I almost immediately knew what I wanted to do - unfortunately the gap between 'what I wanted' and 'what came out' was a little wider than I would have liked, but it's close and not terrible for something I've never tried before.

I used a leaf stamp - I can't remember where it's from - masked of a square in the middle and used three different papermania inks, to stamp leaves around the square. I decided against masking the leaves each time as I really wanted the overlap effect of the inks... and finished with a large dovecraft sentiment stamp, inked over with both the green and brown I used with the leaves. It's hard to tell from the picture, but irl you can see the green showing through the brown, giving the text a slightly distressed and more interesting look.

"Less is More" Week 58 One Layer - Script

I almost wanted to run screaming from this weeks "Less is More" Challenge - one layer cards are by far the thing I'm least confident with. And when I saw the challenge was to use some sort of script - well I knew I didn't have any suitable stamps! (really must invest in more stamps of every sort under the sun!) But I missed last weeks challenge due to a combination of being busy and being unwell, so I wanted to get this weeks done, especially as I'll be away from the 14th for 10 days so will miss maybe another 2 weeks.

Although I had no suitable stamps, my cuttlebug came to the rescue with a script embossing folder! I used a freebie stamp from erm... well whichever magazine it was - inked in brown papermania ink and the sentiment from Stampin' Up, inked in the same.

Rainbow Birthday

Rainbow Lady's Challenge Blog #193 this week was to make a card including a dog or dogs.

I went very CAS with this... I've been meaning to try the repeat sentiment thing for a while - so I used papermania ink to stamp the sentiment (Daisy and Dandelion) in all the colours of the rainbow - and the little dog at the bottom was a freebie stamp I got in a magazine (I think it was Homemade...) stamped in red.