CASE-ing Christmas #22: Mynn

I guess it's time to welcome you to another round of  CASE-ing Christmas - a weekly challenge devoted to creating  holiday cards all year long. Today we're starting Challenge #22.

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,  4th June 2015. 

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

For that extra special festive feel I decided to go with a red card base. All the stamps used are from Clearly Besotted's Naughty or Nice set. The strips of patterned paper is from BoBunny Mistletoe 6x6 pad. I added green trim on the sides which is cut with Clearly Besotted's Scallop Edges Dies  and popped entire design panel on to the card base with Scotch Foam Tape. And Christmas just wouldn't be complete without bling and shine. So out came the Doodlebug Jewels and Anita's Gems AND a delicious coat of Wink of Stella Clear Glitter on the trees.

I stamped the ginger-people with VersaMagic Gingerbread  and the trees in Memento Northern Pine inks! Talk about perfect match! For the sweets I used VersaFine Red Satin and VersaFine Crimson Red for the greeting.

Challenges:
Christmas Card Challenge #25: AG
Word Art Wednesday #185: AG Family Friendly
Wonderful Wednesday #27: AG
CHNC #230: Use Dies or Punches
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday: AG
Fab N Funky #261: Christmas
Crafting By Design: Get Ready For Christmas
Sweet Stampin' Christmas: Cute Christmas

Supplies:

Now it's your turn to make a Christmas card by CASE-ing Mynn's creation. And if you played along last week, the Winners of Challenge #21 will be announced on Wednesday, 3rd June 2015.

You'll find more ideas over at the DT's blogs.

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

Beijinhos!

Polka Doodles #22: Girly But No Pink

Good morning, friends! Time for a for a little inspiration for this fortnight's challenge: Girly But No Pink. Here's my offering - a country lady in tweed taking her dog for a walk.

I'm keeping this card simple so that the spotlight will be on the this lovely image from Polka Doodle's Work & Play 10 - Country Life. The patterned papers and greeting are from the collection. There are hardly any embellishments on this card, save for the few buttons.

Here's a closer look at the image which I coloured with Faber Castell Polychromos. I also added some grass to ground the image. I'd like to think that's me taking Rosie for a walk. Although... tweed jacket and a feather in a hat? I think not!

Challenges:
Chocolate Coffee Cards #92: Summer Fun (walking my dog)
Crafting For All Seasons #103: 1-2-3 (One Image, 2 papers, 3 buttons)
Crafty Creations #290: All Creatures Great And Small
Crafty Gals Corner #21: Critters
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday: AG

Supplies:

Now it's over to you, my friends. Create any project - card, tag, lay-out, box, bag, etc - as long as it's Girly But No Pink. You have until Noon (UK Time) on Friday, 5 June 2015, to link up your entries over at the Polka Doodles Challenge Blog. You don't have to use Polka Doodles products to enter, but if you have it, by all means, flaunt it! One randomly selected winner will receive a generous gift of £5 to spend in the Polka Doodles Store.

And before I sign off.... don't forget to check out this fabulous new release: Serenity Fairy - a magical collection of digis, papers and so much more. I think you'll be sorely tempted to get it.

That's all from me today. Thank you so much for stopping by and for your lovely comments.  See you in a bit - I have another post in a couple of hours. :) Have a fabulous Friday. It's going to be a scorcher for us - a searing 24ºC! Woohooo!

Beijinhos!

Tuesday Throwdown #246: Anything Goes

It's Tuesday again, friends! And that means another week of crafting fun with the Tuesday Throwdown gang. The theme of our challenge this week is "Anything Goes". Yep! It's a tough one. :)  Our sponsor is Craft Classes Online and you can use any stamps or products from your stash as long as you follow this week's difficult theme.

I made these thank you cards to give a couple who hosted a fabulous barbecue over at their home last week. We had a lovely day out - good food, great company and amazing weather! I'm using stamps by Clearly Besotted and the patterned papers are by First Edition Love Leters. The image panel is raised with a piece of fun foam. I'm persevering with CAS. It's still hit and miss.... more misses for now! :) With the aid of the fab MISTI, I made a few of these thank you cards. They are what I reach for the most.

 The vase is stamped with VersaFine Blue Lagoon, die cut and are inlaid. I added a little colour on it with a light blue Polychromo pencil. The flowers are stamped first with Memento Rose Bud and the solid stamp from Clearly Besotted's A Little Something set. And over that I stamped the dotty image with VersaFine Imperial Purple and adhered blue bling in the middle. For the stalks I used VersaFine Spanish Moss and VersaFine Imperial Purple for the bow. These are overlaid dies cuts. Inked the butterfly stamp with VersaMagic Sea Breeze in the middle and rolled the VersaMagic Perfect Plumeria around before stamping and cutting. Then I adhered it on the card with Scotch Foam Tape and finished it with a light blue bling in the middle. The sentiment is from Clearly Besotted's Time To Celebrate Additions, stamped with VersaFine Majestic Blue.

Challenges:
Happy Little Stampers May CAS: Die Cuts / Punches
Chocolate Coffee Cards #91: Thank You
Kitty Bee Designs #48: Sew Cute (Faux or Real)
Artistic Inspirations #132: AG with Die Cuts
Simon Says Stamp Monday: Thank You
Crafting From The Heart #61: AG
Crafting Your Passion #263: AG
CAS on Sunday #59: Tic Tac Toe (Butterfly - Male/Female - Sewing)

Supplies:

Now it's your turn to create a project based on this week's theme: "Anything Goes". 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,  1st June 2015. And the most important requirement: Have Fun!

Thank you for stopping by and have a fabulous day, friends!

Beijinhos!

Chocolate Baroque: Clean And Simple

Talk about being late! This post should have gone live yesterday ... ooops! We spent the entire day out. Not by design, but by accident. But it was lovely, though.  No regrets... except for my blog-absence. Without further delays, here's a card I made using Chocolate Baroque's haberdashery themed stamp sets: Floral Mannequins and Dressmaking Collage.

I started off with CAS in mind, that is until I decided to throw in all sorts of sewing related doo-dahs. If only my craft room looked this tidy!

I heat embossed the mannequin in black, dabbed on some colour with Distress Inks in Mowed Lawn and Picked Raspberries, fussy cut and adhered it to a piece of cream card. Next I stamped the various elements on bleed-proof card, coloured with alcohol markers, fussy cut and piled them on to the card. Finally, a greeting from the Birthday Words, stamped with VersaFine Crimson Red and it's done!

Challenges:
All Sorts #312: Happy Birthday
Suzy's Bloomin' Challenge #81: AG Girly
Seize The Birthday: AG Birthday
Wonderful Wednesday #20: AG
Creative Challenge: AG

Supplies:

Thanks for stopping by today. I have a gazillion chores to catch on today. But do I really want to spend the day going laundry and ironing? What do you think! Have a super fun day, friends!

Beijinhos!

Chocolate Baroque Colour Challenge #11

A new Chocolate Baroque Colour Challenge has started and we're kicking off this monthly meet-up with cool and vibrant colours. If you haven't played yet, now's the time to do so. These colours are 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.

I used these colours to make a card for an amazing young lady who lost her mother, my friend , to cancer a couple of months go. It was so sudden - from diagnosis to funeral in under 3 months. She was an outstanding Christian, loving wife, adoring mother of 6 and a caring friend to many. Not fair... not fair at all!

I've used Distress Inks to create a watercolour image. The background is mostly Faded Jeans with a little Seedless Preserves around the edges. It ended up darker than I intended but there is still that painterly effect I was after. The image is from Pretty Birdcage A5 sheet and the sentiment is from Pretty Poppies A5 sheet, both stamped with VersaFine Smokey Grey. To wrap up the project - 3 purple bling.

Here's a close-up. I masked and stamped the image several times to create a fuller image. For the open flowers I used Seedless Preserves, a touch of Picked Raspberry and Dusty Concord. The leaves and buds got a wash of Cracked Pistachio. For some texture, I applied a blob of Glossy Accents to the centre of each flower.

I've used this image before on a card.... a completely different look. Here's the LINK to that post.


Challenges:
Word Art Wednesday #184: AG Family Friendly
Fab & Funky #260: Flora & Fauna - just flora :)
Retarte #48: AG
Retro Rubber Challenge: May Flowers - both stamps are over a year old
Through The Craft Room Door: AG
Crafty Sentiments: AG

Supplies:

Challenge #11 will close at 12.00 p.m. (UK) on Tuesday 16th June 2015, and the winner will be announced on Wednesday 27th June 2015. I hope you'll play along and run the risk of winning £15 to spend on Chocolate Baroque stamps.

It's exactly 4 weeks today without Rosie. Not that fast when you're counting each day. Here's photo of Rosie and Peanut lost in sisterly slothfulness. Modesty is an alien concept for my girls... but for the joy they bring me I'll turn a blind eye. Thank you for stopping by and have a beautiful day!

Beijinhos!

Synchronised snoozing

Chocolate Baroque: Vintage Dressmaker

Hello again, friends. I'm back with 2 vintage inspired card projects featuring stamps from Chocolate Baroque's The Sewing Room, Floral Mannequins and Dressmaking Collage. The patterned papers used on both my cards are from an old magazine - a great way to recycle. Bear in mind, I haven't a clue what vintage or shabby chic truly mean. As long as it's old, wrinkly and distressed - that's good enough for me. We'll all end up like that... eventually! :)

My first card features a dress form from The Sewing Room sheet which I heat embossed in black with WOW Ebony EP and fussy cut. There's also some second generation stamping of safety pins at the bottom ... if you look hard! :) I used Memento Toffee Crunch. The sentiment is form the Birthday Words A5 sheet, stamped with Memento Rich Cocoa. I dabbed a little Old Paper Distress Ink all over the background paper for that aged look.

I coloured the dress form and the pin cushion from the Floral Mannequins sheet with Polychromos. To finish, I added Liquid Pearls in Rose Gold and White Opal to the printed roses on the left and stitched down cream cotton lace along the right edge of the card.

Challenges:
All Sorts #311: No Squares Allowed
Suzy Bee's Blooming Challenge: AG. Twist - Add Pink

************

I went on a manic distress-fest on my second card. First, I stamped the lace from The Sewing Room sheet along the top edge of a page from an old magazine with VersaFine Spanish Moss. Next,  for the background stamping I used the Dressmaking Collage clear sheet and Tea Dye Distress Ink. Finally, I distressed the edges... good and proper ... and inked with Vintage Photo Distress Ink. I stamped the greeting with VersaFine Vintage Sepia, did a little stitching and finished the project with a few buttons from my stash..

The dress form is from the Floral Mannequins sheet, heat embossed in black, fussy cut and adhered to the card. I dressed it with a piece of sheer green ribbon around the waist.

Challenges:
Hiding In My Craft Room #199: Button Up
Left Of Creative Centre #78: Distress It

Supplies:

Thanks for stopping by. I'm still catching up on visiting and commenting. Please bear with me while I make my way through the backlog. In the meantime, here's a photo of Peanut. Not sure what she's up to... potty training perchance, or is she trying to grow herself?!

Peanut gone potty!

Have a Blessed Sunday, friends!

Beijinhos

CASE-ing Christmas #20: Anita

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 #20.

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,  21st May 2015. 

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

Sometimes the original is so perfect and you don't want to mess with it. Sometimes, your mojo is a no-show and you feel the need to copy, Sometimes, you are inspired by the individual elements of a project, only to discover that, quite by accident, you've produced pretty much the same thing. I'll let you guess the route I took to get to this card! :)

The background paper is from an ancient A5 pack called Papermania Signature Linen Collection - A Christmas Carol. I think it's out of print now. The bauble is from Chocolate Baroque's Pears And Baubles A4 rubber stamp sheet. The greeting is from Clearly Besotted's Be Merry clear stamp sheet, stamped with VersaMark Crimson Red. I used WRMK Corner Chomper to create the label for it. The twine is from Doodlebug's Doodle Twine Christmas Assortment.

I heat embossed the bauble with WOW Gold Rich EP, fussy cut popped it up on foam tape. And Christmas just wouldn't be complete without some bling... red bling, to be precise!

Challenges:
CHNC Extra May: AG Christmas
CHNC #228: Vintage or Shabby
Word Art Wednesday #183: AG Family Friendly
Wonderful Wednesday: AG
Inspiration Destination #32: AG
Freshly Brewed May13-19: Ribbon / Twine

Supplies:

Now it's your turn to make a Christmas card by CASE-ing Anita's creation. And if you played along last week, the Winners of Challenge #19 will be announced on Wednesday, 20th May 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 Anita's card. Have a lovely Friday, friends.

Beijinhos!

Tuesday Throwdown #244: Add A Doodle

It's Tuesday again, friends! And that means another week of crafting fun with the Tuesday Throwdown gang. The theme of our challenge this week is "Add A Doodle". Our sponsor is Doodle Pantry but you can use any stamps from your stash as long as you follow the theme.

Here's my card. I made a get well card for a friend who has been and (still is) battling a bug for the past 2 weeks! I'm using the pre-coloured image and patterned paper from the Everyday Jargon set, making it so easy and fun to churn out these cards. There are several themes to choose from.

Here's a close up. I fussy cut the little bugs and stuck them around the jar. With a blue marker, I doodled their buzz-paths and added doodle dots around the die cut frame.

Challenges:
Cards In Envy: When Nature Calls
Crafting From The Heart #59: AG
Craft Your Passion #261: AG
Digi Sketch: Animals
Cutie Pie #87: Layer It Up
Dream Valley #106: Things With Wings
Love To Scrap #53: A Stitch In Time
Whoopsi Daisy: Things With Wings


Thank you for stopping by today. Now it's your turn to create a project based on this week's theme: "Add A Doodle". 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, 18th May 2015. And the most important requirement: Have Fun!

Beijinhos!