Eclectic Ellapu November: Favourite Colour Combo

Oh my word! Can you believe today is the first day of November?! The days are just zoooooming by ... I am not ready for 2015. Are you? Luckily, over at Eclectic Ellapu we have a month long distraction from the impending panic and mayhem of Christmas.

The theme for the Pink Team is "Favourite Colour Combo" and the Purple Team's brief is "Leaves & Foliage". You can choose to play with either team or both. There are no limits to the number of entries and you can make anything - cards, home deco, altered art, scrapbook LO etc.

Here's my offering for the Pink Team. I'm fickle about my fave colour. It's a seasonal thing and lately I've been drawn to the rich colours of Autumn.

Lots of TH Distress Ink action here. I blended the following inks:

Background: Aged Mahogany, Spice Marmalade, Ripe Persimmon, Wild Honey, Mustard Seed

Moon: Squeezed Lemonade, Vintage Photo

Hills: Walnut Stain

The fairy is from Chocolate Baroque's August Fairy DL stamp sheet and the falling vines are from the June Fairy DL sheet. I stamped these with Versafine Black Onyx. In keeping with my current fave colours, I used an orange card base.

Here's a close-up of the card. I added some Gold Liquid Pearls around the vines. For sparkle I applied Diamond Stickles around the sun and Stardust Stickles on the fairy's wings. The sentiment is from an old favourite of mine: a discontinued DL sheet by Chocolate Baroque called Oriental Florals A Thing Of Beauty.

On the inside I stamped the vines with TH Wild Honey and a sentiment from the CB's Birthday Words A5 stamp sheet.

A few challenges for this card:

A Creative Need October: Yellow and Orange
Brown Sugar #118: AG
Seize The Birthday: Washi Tape / AG Birthday
CCEE #1444: Let's Make A Scene
C.R.A.F.T. Challenge: Fantasy
The Crafter's Café #88: Things With Wings - fairy
Sisterhood of Crafters: Fall Colours

Now it's your turn to create and link up your labour of love over at the Eclectic Ellapu Challenge Blog. Remember, we have 2 concurrent challenges: "Favourite Colour Combo" for the Pink Team and "Leaves & Foliage" for the Purple Team. You can enter one or both challenges as many times as you wish, but make sure you link up your projects by 11:59pm GMT on 30 November 2014.

It's All Saints' Day today - a holiday in Portugal. Pity it's a Saturday today... no extra day off work! Thank you so much for dropping in. The days are getting shorter and colder.... what better excuse to stay in and craft, eh? I'll be back tomorrow with something frosty... wink wink.

Beijinhos!

Tuesday Throwdown #219: Dress Up

So here we are, friends! It's the last Tuesday this month and we have a fun little challenge for you. With Halloween just days away let's play "Dress Up"! Our sponsor this week is Chi Chi Memories and I am using a cute little image of Candace in a ladybug costume.

You don't have to make a Halloween card - I didn't. As long as your focal image is dressed up in costume, you're in. So feel free to create any card: birthday, wedding, Christmas - anything you fancy.

Here's a birthday card I made for my neighbour's little girl who's 12 going on 35:

The bg paper is from Basic Grey. I made a banner for the greeting and added a few
buttons for embellishment. I used SB Circle die to cut out the window and a square
punch to make the banners.

I coloured little Candace with Graph'It markers, fussy cut and adhered her
directly to the base card... with her antennae rising above the window.  

Added a few more banners on the inside of the card. 

A few challenges for this card:

Artistic Inspirations #115: Anything Goes #115 / Spooky - AG
Card Mania #58: Buttons
Sieze The Birthday #10: Birthday + Opt Topping Washi Tape
Love To Scrap #40: Seeing Dots

Now it's your turn to create a project based on this week's theme: "Dress Up". For ideas and inspiration, take a peek at what the rest of the DT members have made. Remember to link up your project at the Tuesday Throwdown Challenge Blog by 3pm Pacific / 11pm UK by Monday, November 3rd. And the most important requirement: Have Fun!

Thanks for stopping by today. I'm sorry I haven't been around much. Been nursing a problem wisdom tooth. Every 5 years or so it decides to inch forward and sends me to hell and back. It's not easy being so wise! Hahaha ... if only!

Beijinhos! 

Express Puddings

This must be the quickest post ever!

A fortnight ago I read about Vera Yates and Jennifer McGuire's Caring Hearts Card Drive and was determined to chip in. A dozen Christmas cards for the elderly in nursing homes - what a beautiful way to spread some festive cheer.

Alas, in true Asha fashion,  "this" and "that" happened and all my good intentions leapt out the window and disappeared into the wilderness ... until I saw Stephanie's post. Must be the Universe giving me a kick in the posterior to get a move on those cards I so eagerly wanted to make.

Terrible photo. Will try & get
a better shot tmrw in daylight.

As promised, a dozen of my cards will make their way across the pond by 28 November. These will be quick to make and light to post. No bulky embellies nor over the top designs. Here's my first batch of cards for the Caring Hearts Card Drive.

I made 3 cards using stamps from the Little Pudding set by Clearly Besotted, the co-ordinating dies to cut out the bits and some Christmas twine by Doodlebug. And then I got bored. Single design mass production really isn't my thing. So watch out for more quick makes ... in batches of three!


Late edit: 
Here are, hopefully, better photos of the same card.

I ran a snowflake folder on one side to add texture on the plain cream CS.
For mailing purposes, the card is flat except for the Dooblebug twine.
The greeting was stamped with Versafine Satin Red.

 A closer look at the puddings. For the larger pud I used VersaMagic Gingerbread
and the smaller one was stamped with VersaMagic Jumbo Java. For the leaves I uses
Brilliance Pearlescent Ivy and TH Festive Berries for the berries. And some
Stardust Stickles for that festive sparkle.

A simple message on the inside.

These puds are sitting pretty over at these challenges:

Clearly Besotted #14: Christmas (snuck in with seconds to spare!)

Christmas Stampin' All Year Long #34: AG Photo Inspiration

Completely Christmas #35: AG Christmas

Crimbo Crackers #68: Round

Crafting By Designs: Get Ready For Christmas

CHNC Extra October: AG Christmas

That's all from me. Thank you so much for stopping by. I'm off to bed now.... oh what a week it has been. So glad it's over and the weekend is finally here. 

Beijinhos!

Trick or Treat!

Yo, friends! (I've always wanted to say that ... lol). Halloween is just a week away and what better time to share with you a spooky card featuring stamps from Chocolate Baroque's new Things That Go Bump A5 sheet. It's a quick and easy project with heat embossing and Distress Inks.

First, I heat embossed the spooky tree from Things That Go Bump with Stampendous Detail Black EP. Next I worked on the background by blending a few Tim Holtz Distress Inks. 

Sky: Dusty Concord, Seedless Preserves, Milled Lavender

Moon: Squeezed Lemonade

Ground: Walnut Stain, Vintage Photo, Antique Linen

Next I stamped a greeting from the Spookylicious A5 sheet in Versafine Smokey Grey and added a few purple rhinestones. The mushrooms in the foreground are also from Things That Go Bump, stamped with TH Walnut Stain.  To finish, I added a little colour (Caran d'Ache Suprasoft 075) to the caps to make them pop. 

Here's a closer look at the spooky tree. I layered the image on some black CS and gave it a little scrub around the edges.

On the inside, I stamped a greeting from the Chocolate Baroque's Witching Time and a spider from Things That Go Bump.

Let's take this card to a few challenges:

Aud Sentiments #118: 2 or 3 Word Sentiment - 3 words

Addicted To Stamps #118: Holidays - Halloween

Cute Card Thursday #344: Trick Or Treat

Paper Shelter #179: Halloween

Milk Coffee: Halloween

That's all from me today. Thank you so much for stopping by. I'll be back tomorrow to show you another easy Halloween card. Must dash now.... it's lunch time! :)

Beijinhos

Christmas Card Club #22: Christmas Reindeer

Gosh! Has it been 2 weeks since our last CCC meet-up? The days are zooming by at such breakneck speed I fear Christmas might pass me by. Last year I told myself I'd get all my cards in the mail by the third week of November... and then I go and promise a (dear) friend a dozen festive cards as a gift. I think she's expecting them sometime before Christmas too. Have I lost my mind?!

The theme this fortnight is Christmas Reindeer - chosen by our very own Miss Rita. I whipped up this card in no time at all - and in my world that means in under 2 hours. This is not a 10 minute dash, nor 20 nor 40. The stopwatch read 1 hour 52mins and 47 seconds as I placed my final Liquid Pearl. Most of that time was spent mulling, worrying, panicking and looking for stuff (found my new Versafine Satin Red pad MIA since February ... woohoo!) Time to clean the "studio". (I'm hoping the pretentious name with motivate me to pick up the broom ... if I can find the darn thing!)

And one more thing - not even one stitch on this card. There simply wasn't enough time. I'm still not over the anguish and trauma. This will take a while to heal.
 

No patterned paper. I stamped the fireworks burst in Versacolor Silver and added
Liquid Pearls for stars ... and in my haste a couple of them turned out to be meteors!
To finish, some silver thread.

I die cut the snow globe and placed it over with foam tape. Santa and his reindeers
are stamped with Versafine Black Onyx, the city scape with Versafine Majestic Blue, the
moon with Memento Cantaloupe, the snowflakes with Versacolor Silver and for the
sentiment I used Versafine Satin Red.

More fireworks on the inside.

Clearly Besotted products used above:

Set the Scene and coordinating snow globe die
Signature Christmas: "Peace Love Joy" and "&Happy New Year"
Christmas Cheer: "From Our Home To Yours"

A few challenges? Well why not?

Christmas Stampin' All Year Long #33: AG - Use Your Imagination
Sister Act Cards #79: AG Cards Only
Christmas Card Challenges #47: Inspiration Photo
CHNC #199: Something Forgotten or Never Used - my VersaFine Satin Red stamp pad purchased in February, never opened, went missing and was found yesterday! What luck! LOL
Clearly Besotted #14: Christmas

Here's a list of the rest of the Christmas Card Club girls. These ladies are organised, very talented and unlike me, they know what they're doing. I highly recommend you pop by for a dose of inspiration.

Karen P ... Maureen ... Margaret ... Carol ... Lizzie ... Hazel ... Karen B ... Sue P ... Sylvie ...
Sue J ... Zoë ... Christine ... Mary ... Lorraine ... Rita ... Rachel ... Valery ... GranMargaret ... Kate

Thank you for stopping by and enjoy the rest of your weekend! I'm off to look for a broom... perhaps, buy one :)

Beijinhos

Polkadoodles #42: Christmas Fun

Hello friends! Happy Friday ... and why not? The weekend begins in a few hours. What a week it has been. Let's celebrate with a new challenge begins over at Polka Doodles and it's called "Christmas Fun" ... what better excuse to make another festive card.

Here's my card. I'm using a dolly from the Dolly Daydream Girl Talk Bonus CD. She's a glamorous gal, all dressed up like a Christmas tree! You can also get her as a single digi -  Dolly Daydream Glitz Digi. She's a joy to colour, I tell ya

The bg papers for my card are from the Angelberry Christmas Mini Collection CD. I decided to go for on non- trad colours of pink and blue because Dolly here insisted on wearing her sexy red dress with green trim. She's a right attention seeker, that one! To finish, I tied a turquoise bow over the greeting ... to match the bg papers. I made sure I had the final word ... hah!

Here is a close-up of the young lady. I coloured her with Graph'It markers and fussy cut her and she took her place centre stage.  I threw in  a few bling to help her sparkle.

The sentiment inside is also from the Angelberry CD. It's full of fabulous stuff for Christmas.

A few challenges... because Dolly is such a show-off:

Sister Act Cards #79: AG Cards Only
Creative Moments #53: AG
Scrapping4Fun #28: AG
ABC Challenge: V is for Vibrant
Addicted To Stamps #117: Make Your Mark - Graph'It Markers
Crafty Girl #29: AG (final challenge... please play along and show support)

Now it's over to you, my friends. Create a Christmas project and link it up over at Polka Doodles Challenge blog by Noon (UK Time) October 31st. The winner will receive the fabulous Winston CD from the Polkadoodles store. The identity of the lucky randomly chosen winner will be announced on Friday, November 7th, along with the DT's Top 3 entries.

Thank you for stopping by today. I hope you'll have fun with this challenge .... I sure did! Have an awesome Friday, friends!

Beijinhos

Chocolate Baroque Colour Challenge #4

Ooooh! I'm bad!

Completely forgot to publish this scheduled post.... it should have gone out yesterday. Maybe it's this awful weather we're having ... or maybe I'm consumed by guilt for having polished the last slice of cheese cake and for shamelessly licking the plate. Whatever the reason, I plain forgot to get this card out and to entice you into playing along with Chocolate Baroque's brand new Colour Challenge #4.

I hope it's not too late! The colours are gorgeous and the DT makes nothing short of spectacular! Here's my humble offering:

For the background I stamped the floral stamp form the Texture Fragments A4 sheet with TH Black Soot and heat set it with Stampendous Clear EP. Then I inked the background with TH Ripe Persimmon, Wild Honey and Aged Mahogany. On the 4 corners I attached 4 pink brads. To finish, a sheer bow in dark red. (Can't go wrong with a big fat bow!)   

The focal image is from the Butterfly Dreams A4 sheet, stamped with Versafine Black Onyx onto watercolour paper. I coloured the image with TH Ripe Persimmon and Wild Honey using a Sakura Koi WaterBrush #2. With a white gel pen I went over the stalks for an added pop of white.

On the inside, I stamped a stalk from from the Wild Meadow A4 sheet with TH Wild Honey and Bundled Sage.

A few challenges for this card:

Crafty Girls Challenge #29: Anything Goes
Addicted To Stamps #117: Make Your Mark - water colouring with distress inks
Word Art Wednesday #154: Anything Goes Inspirational
Inspiration Destination #3: Anything Goes
Frilly and Funkie: Autumn Colours
Stamplorations October: Stamps & Embossing


The challenge will close at 12.00 p.m. (UK) on Tuesday 18th November 2014, and the winner will be announced on Wednesday 26th November 2014. I hope you'll play along and run the risk of winning £15 to spend on Chocolate Baroque stamps. Are you game?

Thank you so much for stopping buy. I'll try an get myself more organised but with just one more day left in the week, I had better get my skates on! See ya in blogland, friends!

Beijinhos!

Tuesday Throwdown #217: Awareness

Hello, friends! Are you ready for another Tuesday Throwdown? Let's get straight to it!

This week it's all about "Awareness". It can be about anything: from Breast Cancer to Autism. Our sponsor this week is Bugaboo and I'm using their Breast Cancer image called: Pink Ribbon Gals - Vivian.

The patterned papers is from a very old MME pack... Quite
Contrary, I think.

Meet Vivian. She's a strong gal. I coloured her with
Graph'It and Promarkers

A little good luck wish on the inside.

How about we spread the word by entering these challenges:

Crafting From The Heart #40: AG
Pinky Dolls #4: AG or Fall Colours
Sweet Stampin': For A Friend
The Crafting Café October: Think Pink
Sisterhood of Crafters: Think Pink Breast Cancer Awareness

Now it's your turn to create a project based on this week's theme: "Awareness". For ideas and inspiration, take a peek at what the rest of the DT members have made. Remember to link up your project at the Tuesday Throwdown Challenge Blog by 3pm Pacific / 11pm UK by Monday, October 20th. And the most important requirement: Have Fun!

Thanks for stopping by today and I wish y'all a beautiful Tuesday.

Beijinhos!