Tuesday Throwdown #234: Circles

Good morning, friends! Welcome to another Tuesday Throwdown Challenge. And we are kicking off the month of March with an easy theme "Circles". Our sponsors this week is Robyn's Fetish - purveyor of adorable digis and stamps.

Today I want to show you this square card, with no shortage of circles, featuring an apple with a cute little wriggly smart worm. You can get this little guy here. If you look close, you can see that I stitched a few circles on the patterned paper ... yep, I am certifiably looney!

Here's a close-up of the little guy. Isn't he adorable?! I've used Graph'It markers to colour and applied lots of Wink of Stella Clear glitter on him.... he's a glow-worm now!

Challenges:
Crafting From The Heart #49: AG
Craft Your Passion #251: AG
Mema's Crafts March Challenge: AG
Scrapbook Stamp Society #61: AG + Stitching
Alphabet Challenge: A for Apples

Products used in this project:

Now it's your turn to create a project based on this week's theme: "Circles". 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 Monday, March 9th.  And the most important requirement: Have Fun!

Beijinhos!

Stamplorations Guest Designer

To say I'm chuffed would be an understatement. Here I am Guest-ing for Stamplorations' first fortnightly sketch challenge in March. I have to say it's weird to see my little card nestled in a blogpost of amazing work. Giddy? Heck, yes!


As always, we have a lovely sketch that allows for plenty of artistic licence. Personally, I sometimes find sketches too restrictive and that usually squashes my creativity... it doesn't take much for me to throw in the towel!

I turned the sketch around 180º. My card features a digi flower (a prize from Stamplorations), which I printed in the background.  Instead of the circles, I'm using butterflies hovering around the flower. The sentiment is from Stamplorations' versatile It's All About You set - it's the only set I own... for now! :) Here's my card:

I coloured the flower with Graph'It markers and added a few flicks of Wink of Stella Gold. A few purple bling on the butterflies complete the look.

The design isn't properly centred.... looks like the whole thing is about to fly off the top of the card. Oh well.... I did say I was (still am) giddy!

Challenges:
Dream Valley Challenge #101: Mother's Day
Craft Your Passion #251: AG
Jelly Park Friends (Last Challenge): One For The Mums
Sentimental Sundays #248: AG + Sentiment
That Craft Place: Mother's Day / AG
Country View Challenges: AG

Products used in this project:

That's all from me today. Thank you so much for stopping by. If you want to play along, Sketch Challenge #29 is on for 2 weeks, starting today. Have a fab week and I'll see ya tomorrow with something wriggly!

Beijinhos!

Eclectic Ellapu March: Anything Goes

Hello, friends! We have a brand new year of challenges starting over at  Eclectic Ellapu. As you know, we now have a big DT family and that means MORE crafty inspiration for you.

As always the 2 teams - Pinks and Purples - are playing together, but they have own themes. The Pinkies have everybody's favourite theme of "Anything Goes" and the Purplies want you to "Go Green".

As a Pinkie, I made a cupcake box 3-1/2" to fit a standard sized cupcake or muffin... with topping. This is a birthday gift for a friend's daughter whose fave colours are green and pink - a real girly girl. The patterned paper is an old out of print Doodlebug paper from my stash. I have no idea what it's called.

I made a matching tag and secured the box with soft green satin ribbon.

The box opens like a pizza box and to facilitate removing the cupcake, the sides are flaps that open out. The cupcake itself will sit snuggly in the base - no moving about, no mess.

In the front is a window for a peek at the sweet delight inside inside. To soften the look of this cube, I rounded  the corners with the 1/2" Corner Chomper.

Challenges:

Crafty Cat #268: Use Your Dies / Punches

Jo's Scrap Shack #77: AG

As You Like It: Anything But A Card

Hanna and Friends #216: Little Gifts

Southern Girls: Girly

Products used in this project:

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: "Anything Goes" for the Pink Team and "Go Green" 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 UK time on 31 March 2015.

Thank you for stopping by today. The weather man says that it will be cloudy, windy day today.  March winds bang on schedule and that must mean Spring is almost here. Woohoo! Have a beautiful Sunday, friends!

Beijinhos!

Easter Bunny

Hello Friday! I have been waiting for you all week long and you're finally here! To celebrate, I made a card featuring a sketch and colour combo from 2 challenges I used to enter frequently, a year ago - Tuesday Morning Sketches and Colour Throwdown in a perfect Reunion.

I'm using some ancient stuff from my stash, like those card candis. No idea when (or why!) I got them. The patterned paper is from First Edition's Isabelle pad ... another oldie from way back when. The bunny and eggs are from Clearly Besotted's Hoppy Easter clear stamp set, sadly now discontinued. The good news is the greeting is is still available. :)

Little Bunny is hopping off to play at these challenges:

Tuesday Morning Sketches #289

Colour Throwdown  #331

Addicted To Stamps #133: Holiday

Brown Sugar Challenge #135: AG

Sister Act #95: AG

Products used in this project:

That's all from me today. Thank you so much for stopping by and have a wonderful weekend, friends. (Can you believe that tomorrow is the last day of February? Eeeek!)

Beijinhos!

Chocolate Baroque Colour Challenge #8: Arabian Nights

A new Chocolate Baroque Colour Challenge has started and we're kicking off this monthly meet-up with warm rich tones... perfect for this time of the year.  If you haven't played yet, now's the time to do so. The colours are super gorgeous and will work for any occasion. You can use any medium to create your projects: paints, inks, pencils, pens, stains, etc., as long as you keep to the colours from the colour swatch.

You don't have to use Chocolate Baroque stamps to play along but if you do you will be entered into a random draw to win £15 to spend on Chocolate Baroque stamps. All participants will have a chance to be on the Design Team's Top Three list and proudly display winner's badge on their blog.

Sometimes I look at certain colours and an image pops into my head that I just cannot shake. These colours took me deep into the realm of 1001 Arabian Nights. So, I grabbed my Indian Textiles A5 rubber stamps, Distress Inks, black embossing powder and created this:

The Taj Mahal is heat embossed in black. I also did some stamping with a border stamp from the same set. The moon got a dousing of Glossy Accents and the stars are little dots with a Silver Sharpie. Here's a close-up.

I got a little over zealous with the Chipped Sapphire and lost some (if not all!) of the Shaded Lilac while blending the inks. Where the blue meets yellow, I ended up green. But that's art for you... not all errors are bad. So, if you don't have the exact colours in the swatch, don't let it stop you from entering our challenge. As long as you have most of the colours, you're good to go.

Challenge #8 will close at 12.00 p.m. (UK) on Tuesday 17th March 2015, and the winner will be announced on Wednesday 25th March 2015. I hope you'll play along and run the risk of winning £15 to spend on Chocolate Baroque stamps.

I'm taking my card to these challenges:

Wonderful Wednesday #25: AG
Word Art Wednesday #172: AG Inspirational
Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge: AG / No Rules
Through The Purple Haze #79: AG
Get Creative #9: Emboss
Craft Your Passion #250: AG
Crafting From The Heart #48: AG

Products used in this project:

Thank you so much for stopping by. Looking forward to seeing your projects over at the challenge blog. Have a wonderful Wednesday, chums!

Beijinhos!

Chocolate Baroque: Dramatic Doodles

Good morning, friends. It's about time I had another go at taming the beast called CAS. Inspired by the Oscars (tonight's the night!!!) I decided to do it in bold and dramatic style. And that led me to the opulence of gold and the simple yet timeless elegance of black. These things sound great in my head ... and then reality sets in! LOL.

My first sample is all about textures. I ran the card front through the X-Cut Foliage embossing folder. Next I heat embossed the flowers and leafy element from the Sketchy Doodle Flowers A4 sheet with WOW Rich Gold EP on black card and coloured them in with my Caran d'Ache Suprasoft water colour pencils. Next I fussy cut and adhered the leaves down to the card front and popped up the flowers with some foam tape. The sentiment is from the Loving Sentiments A5 sheet, also heat embossed in gold.

Here's a close-up... you can just about see all the embossing.

For my second card, I decided to make a One Layer Card. Now that was a challenge for me! I started by heat embossing directly on to the card base and colouring in with pencils. I also heat embossed the greeting from the Birthday Words A5 set and it would have been a One Layer Card ... had I stopped there. At the last minute I added a fussy-cut gold-embossed leafy sprig to balance the sun burst. (What?!) I rounded the corners and called it a day.

In the close-up you can see the leaf barely hanging off the card. I also added some Glossy Accents to the centre of the sunburst and the leaves.

Challenges:
Happy Little Stamper February CAS: Embossing
Sweet Stampin': Spring Flowers
Seize The Birthday: AG Birthday
Scrapbooker PhD: CAS (Use Stamp)
Scrap & Craft Inspiration #3: Birthday
Addicted To Stamps #132: Make Your Mark - water colour pencils

Products used in this project:

Thanks for stopping by today. If you're watching the Oscars - enjoy. We usually give it a miss because the live telecast here in Portugal is way past our normal bedtime. At our age, beauty sleep is mandatory! :) No doubt we'll be reading all about the Oscars for the next week(s) or so!

Have a grand Sunday, friends.

Beijinhos! 

CASE-ing Christmas #8: Cohenna

Tell me it isn't true! Is it Friday already?! I guess it's time to welcome you to another lap of  CASE-ing Christmas - a weekly challenge devoted to the holiday season all year 'round. Today we're starting Challenge #8.

Here's how you play along. Each week you'll be given you a card to CASE and ... you CASE it! It's as easy as that. If you've never CASEd a card before, here's how you do it:

• Look at the photo of the card to CASE; 
• Be inspired by some elements of the card - the colours, layout, image, embellishments, etc 
• Make a card based on that inspiration and link it up at CASE-ing Christmas Challenge Blog by Noon (Central) / 6pm (UK) on Thursday,  26th February 2015. 

And that's all there is to it. Our CASE card this week is this gorgeous creation by Cohenna. Lots of ideas here and I can't wait to see how this project inspires you.

When I first saw Cohenna's card, I just couldn't shake that stocking out of my head. I really did not want to copy... but that is exactly what I did. The only touch of originality is that my stocking is facing the other way! I'm not entirely happy with my card. CAS still eludes me...

I used a die from Spellbinders Shapeabilities Holiday Cheer set (S4-225) and some bits of felt from way back when to cut the stocking, XCut embossing folder for the background, a scrap piece of paper I fished out from under my craft table and some ribbon I ripped off Richard Parker (much to his dismay!) The greeting is by Clearly Besotted, heat embossed in white.

Here's a close-up. As it's a Christmas project, a little sparkle is mandatory! The felt stocking is popped up on some foam tape. I added a little Tim Holtz Bundled Sage to the embossed background to show the design.

Challenges:
Sister Act Challenge #94: AG
ABC Christmas: D Is For Die-Cuts
Christmas Card Challenge #11: Inspiration Photo / AG Christmas
CHNC #216: Love / Hearts / Red - just red :)
Word Art Wednesday #171: AG Uplifting 
C.R.A.F.T. #299: CAS
CHNC Extra February: AG Christmas
Crafting For All Seasons #96: Dies / Punches

Products used to create this card:

Now it's your turn to make a Christmas card by CASE-ing Ellen's creation. And if you played along last week, the Winners of Challenge #7 will be announced on Wednesday, 25th February 2015.

You'll find more ideas over at the DT's blogs: Mynn ... Donna ... Ellen ... Pat ... Steph.

Thanks for dropping by and Happy CASE-ing. I'm looking forward to seeing your take on Cohenna's card. Have a lovely day, friends.

Beijinhos!

Tuesday Throwdown #232: Use Metal

Happy Tuesday, friends! Hope you are ready for another week of crafting fun with the Tuesday Throwdown gang. Our challenge theme this week is Use Metal. All you have to do is incorporate some metal on your project - such as metal embellishments, charms or ink.  Our sponsor is Sassy Studio Designs but you can use any stamps from your stash as long as you follow the theme.

I made a masculine birthday card with this image of Handy Sassy, so generously provided by our sponsor. This is a simple card, with the sexy lady taking centre stage. The Woodware square metal brads echo the embossed checkered background. The dark blue and grey are strong and masculine colours. I heat embossed the greeting in silver - more metal.

I coloured Handy Sassy with Graph'It Markers and gave her outfit and hardhat a little sparkle with the Wink of Stella Clear pen.

Challenges:
Crafting From The Heart #47: AG
Craft Your Passion #249: AG
Love To Scrap #48: AG
Craft Creations 16/2: AG
Happy Little Stampers Feb CAS: Embossing

Products used to make this card:

Now it's your turn to create a project based on this week's theme: "Use Metal". 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 on Monday,  23rd February 2015. And the most important requirement: Have Fun!

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

Beijinhos!