CASE-ing Christmas #24: Rocky

Welcome  to another lap of CASE-ing Christmas - a weekly challenge devoted to the holiday season all year 'round. Today we're starting Challenge #24.

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,  18th June 2015. 

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

For my card, I was inspired by the snowman, the soft blue hues and the snowy background. The bg paper is from very first Christmas paper pad that I purchased in 2010 called Festive Frolic by Papermania. The silver flourish edge stickers, also by Papermania, adds to the festive sparkle.

The snowman is from Chocolate Baroque's Snowy Penguins clear stamp set, stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black, coloured with Graph'It alcohol markers, fussy cut and mounted on some foam tape. For his eyes and buttons: blobs of Onyx Liquid Pearls. And lashings of Startdust Stickles! Don't judge - it's Christmas!

Challenges:
The Glory of Christmas #60: Snowman / woman
Addicted To Stamps & More #148: Holiday
C.R.A.F.T. Challenge #315: Christmas
ABC Christmas Challenge: L for Lyrics (Frosty the Snowman)
Christmas Card Challenges #27: Colour / AG Christmas

Supplies:

Now it's your turn to make a Christmas card by CASE-ing Rocky's creation. And if you played along last week, the Winners of Challenge #23 will be announced on Wednesday, 17th June 2015.

That's all from me today. Thank you for stopping by and have a fabulous Friday!

Beijinhos!

Chocolate Baroque: A Little Summer Rain

Good morning, crafty cohorts. We're well into summer and so far the weather has been just fine. For a couple of weeks now the weather man has been threatening buckets of rain but as always, he's consistently (and persistently) wrong. Still, a little summer rain may not be such a bad idea!

Here's a card inspired by my meteorological musings and a couple of stamps from the Seasonal Fragments A4 sheet by Chocolate Baroque.

I started by heat embossing the water droplets with WOW Bright White EP, followed by blending Tim Holtz Distress Inks to create the background. For the sky: Chipped Sapphire, Salty Ocean and Tumbled Glass. For the ground: Bundled Sage, Crushed Olive and Scattered Straw. Next came the sentiment from Loving Sentiments A5 sheet, stamped with VersaFine Deep Lagoon. I added blobs of Ranger Glossy Accents on the rain drops for some dimension.

To fill the bottom half of the card, I stamped the little flowers from  Seasonal Fragments with VersaFine Crimson Red and coloured it with Faber-Castell Polychromos. I added the flower to hide a smudge. (Not ink but half eaten Kit-Kat. Urgh! Hate it when that happens! Such a waste of good chocolate!)  Final touch: a few tiny pink bling on the flowers.

Challenges:
Wonderful Wednesday #10: AG
Word Art Wednesday #187: AG Family Friendly
Crafty Creations #291: Embossing
FanTastic Tuesday June10: AG & Twist - Let's See Bling
Through The Craft Room Door: AG
Addicted To Stamps #106: Summer Colours

Supplies:

Thanks for stopping by today, friends. Have a beautiful day and I'll see y'all tomorrow!

Beijinhos

Tuesday Throwdown #248: Frame It

Good morning, friends! Welcome to another Tuesday Throwdown Challenge. Our theme this week is "Frame It" and we sponsored by A Day For Daisies. That means we get to play with their gorgeous digis. If you don't have anything by A Day For Daisies, you can still play along, as long as you follow our challenge theme.

For my card, I'm using this adorable image called Strawberry Cake Birthday Fairy. I made a little window and framed it to show just a little bit of the image inside. It's a simple card, with pale pink polka dot paper, strips of washi tape and a few bling. The greeting is by Clearly Besotted - Happy Birthday stamped with VersaFine Crimson. Can you guess what the little fairy is doing?

Here she is - lighting a ginormous birthday cake! I coloured this adorable A Day For Daisy image with Graph'It Alcohol Markers. And more framing with the same pink gingham washi tape.

Challenges:
Crafting From The Heart #63: AG
Craft Your Passion #265: AG
Crafty Cardmakers #140: Stitching
Path Of Positivity #27: Happiness is a Huge cake from a little fairy! :)
In The Pink #70: Things With Wings ... in PINK!
Moving Along With The Times: Happy Birthday

Supplies:

Now it's your turn to create a project based on this week's theme: "Frame It". 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, June 15th.  And the most important requirement: Have Fun!

Beijinhos!

CASE-ing Christmas #23: Judy

Welcome to CASE-ing Christmas! This is a NEW weekly challenge devoted to the holiday season all year 'round and today we're starting Challenge #23.

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 (CST) on Thursday, 11 June 2015. 

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

I picked the following elements from Judy's card: white space, silver, poinsettia, purple and sparkle to make my version of her lovely card.  The greeting is from Clearly Besotted's Hanging Around set, heat embossed in with WOW Silver EP.

To make the  poinsettia I used Spellbinder Layered Poinsettia dies and sparkly fun foam from my local craft shop. And as if the card isn't sparkly enough, I added purple holographic sequins. Too much? It's Christmas and you cannot have enough sparkle and shine!

Challenges:
Winter Wonderland: A Touch Of Gold / Silver
52 Christmas Card Throwdown May Colour: Pick A Previous (Jan 2013: Purple, Silver, White)
Christmas Card Challenge #26: AG
CHNC June Extra: AG Christmas
Wonderful Wednesday: AG
Aud Sentiments #133: Bingo (Diecut - Embossing - 3D item)

Supplies:

Now it's your turn to make a Christmas card by CASE-ing Judy's creation. Winners of Challenge #22 will be announced on, Wednesday 10 June 2015.

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

Happy crafting and have a wonderful weekend, everyone!

Beijinhos!

Polka Doodles #23: Father's Day / Anything Masculine

Brace yourself for another fortnight of challenges, friends! A new theme starts today: Father's Day / Anything Masculine. Here in Portugal we celebrate Father's Day on March 19th - the feast of St Joseph but who's to say we can't have another day to honour our fathers, husbands, brothers and all good men.

I made my manly card with digi images, patterned papers and ticket tags from the Work and Play 10 Country Life collection. The Gamekeeper is also available as a digi download. I did all my colouring with Faber Castell Polychromos.

Here's  closer look at the Gamekeeper. I'm still experimenting with my Polychromos. There are so many different ways to use these coloured pencils and so much to learn. I think I'm getting the hang of it ... sort of.

The three doggies turned out better than I expected. They look just like ours. Not sure what I did, but I love the scruffy little guy in the foreground. That's our Peanut, alright! LOL. And the sentiment on that ticket tag is just PERFECT!

Challenges:
Word Art Wednesday #186: AG Family Friendly
Brown Sugar #149: AG
Crafting With Attitude #4: AG
ABC Challenge: K is for Kritters
CHN Patterned Paper June: AG with Patterned Paper
CCC Digi Creations #26: Layer It Up
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday: Make It Masculine

Supplies:

Now it's over to you, my friends. Create any project - card, tag, lay-out, box, bag, etc. You have until Noon (UK Time) on Friday, 19 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 £10 Gift Voucher to spend in the Polka Doodles Online Store. 

What better excuse to head straight to your craft room for something manly! Thanks for stopping by and I can't wait to see your projects. Have a warm and sunny crafty weekend, friends.

Beijinhos!

May Card Chain Challenge

Hello there, crafty cohorts! It's time for another show and tell - my third is as many days! I sometimes amaze myself. LOL. Today's post is about the May Card Chain Challenge. 37 girls made and exchanged cards across the globe! You can see the full reveal here: May 2015 Card Chain Challenge Reveal.  I got a gorgeous card from Dee in Kenya.

If you're new to the Card Chain Challenge gig, check out the CCC FAQs over at Debi's Society of Stampaholics. Basically we send out card a card a month and receive one in return from anywhere in the world. It's fun getting something other than bills in the mail. You should try it!

For the May challenge, we were given a choice of Colour or Sketch or Theme (Flags / Food / Friendship) or Products (Coloured Pencils). I picked Friendship and Coloured Pencils and made a card Becca Cruger in North Dakota.

I've used this stunning poppy by Chocolate Baroque. It's from the Pretty Poppies A5 sheet, stamped with VersaFine Smokey Grey on to Canson Aquarelle cold-press paper. I coloured the image with Caran d'Ache Suprasoft Watercolour Pencils.   Instead of going with the usual poppy-red, I opted for deep reds, pinks and purple for a regal look. And the rebel in me pushed for CAS. I'm actually quite pleased with how this card turned out!

I was going to water colour this piece, which is why I used watercolour paper and pencils. But I liked the look and decided to keep it dry. What do you think?

Challenges:
Retarte #50: AG
Word Art Wednesday #186: AG Family Friendly
Crafting By Design: AG June
Addicted To Stamps & More #147: Make Your Mark - watercolour pencils
The Shabby Tea Room #253: In My Garden (+ photo inspiration)
Simon Says Stamp Monday: Royal - regal colours

Supplies:

Thank you for stopping by, chums. Have a lovely Wednesday and enjoy the sun! It's almost summer.

Beijinhos!

Chocolate Baroque: A Little Sunshine

Good morning, friends. Just a quick post to show you something I made using Chocolate Baroque's brand new stamps for June - the fabulous Seasonal Fragments A4 sheet. There are twelve designs on this sheet, giving you 3 little fragments for each the season of the year. As the name suggests, the entire sheet is made up of little fragments but there's so much you can do with them. Over the next few weeks I'll be showing you some of ways I've used these cute little stamps.

My first project using these new stamp sheet is my wish for the month of June - bright, sunny and lush. We'll see how that pans out! LOL.

I'm featuring one of the two leafy fragments from the sheet and aired it with a bold sunflower from the Sunny Sunflowers A4 sheet together with a sentiment from the Loving Sentiments A5 sheet. First I blended a couple of green Distress Inks - Mowed Lawn and Shabby Shutters - on a piece of white CS. Then I stamped the leaves with Memento Tuxedo Black and coloured them with Faber Castell Polychromos. Finally I stamped the sentiment with VersaFine Vintage Sepia.

The sunflower is from the Sunny Sunflowers A4 sheet, stamped with Memento Rich Cocoa and coloured with Faber Castel Polychromos. Then I fussy cut it and adhered to the card with some foam tape. Finally, for some texture, I added little dots of Chestnut Liquid Pearls in the middle of the sunflower.

Challenges:
Loves Rubber Stamp #154: AG
Papertake Weekly: AG
Through The Craft Room Door: AG
Crafty Cardmakers #140: Stitching (Real / Faux)
Craftin' Desert Diva #31: Summer

Supplies:

Thank you so much for stopping by. I appreciate and read all your lovely comments and although I take awhile to respond (hang head in shame), I will return the visit... before Christmas the summer hols. Have a sunshiny day, friends!

Beijinhos,

Eclectic Ellapu June: Anything Goes

Friends, say hello to  June!  We are starting the month with a brand new month-long challenge over at  Eclectic Ellapu.  Thank you so much for playing along with us last month. So many gorgeous entries! I hope you'll join us again this month.

As always the 2 teams - Pinks and Purples - are playing together, but they have own themes. The Pinkies are taking it easy with "Anything Goes" and the Purplies are chugging along with "Steampunk".

Me? I'm playing predominantly pink with this simple creation made with Clearly Besotted Forever Friends stamps. The patterned paper is from First Edition Love Letters 8x8 paper pad. The image panel is sitting on a generous layer of foam tape. The greeting is stamped with Memento Rhubarb Stalk and Memento Rose Bud.

I stamped the image with Memento London Fog and coloured it with Faber Castell Polychromos.

Challenge:
Avenue 613 #126: AG
Amusing Challenge #19: AG
Lacy Sunshine Colour Your World: AG
Dragonfly Dreams: How Does Your Garden Grow
One Stitch At A Time #238: AG + Flowers
Pile It On #71: Focus on Colouring

Supplies:

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 "Steampunk" 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 on 30th June 2015.

Thank you for stopping by today. Here's to a fabulous month of June!