Hi Everyone. Happy Sunday. It's the fabulous Laurie's turn to host our Paper Players challenge and it's color week: My problem with this color scheme was how to make a card using obviously Halloween colors - but not make a Halloween card :-) Mind you, one of my besties does celebrate her birthday on Halloween... so the colors and the birthday card are perfect for her :-) I started with a Vanilla base... I know... shock! Me using a non-white base! I began by stamping the flowers onto the base and then added the sentiment onto the focal layer. I... Continue reading

Hi Everyone. Happy Saturday. It's the fabulous Angie's turn to host our challenge at Addicted to CAS this week and here is her code word: I have to confess, I didn't have much in the way of plaid in my stash when I made this card, so I was a little limited by the colors in the only piece I had available :-) However, I needed a masculine thank you card, so thought the colors were fine for that purpose! I used an Altenew die to die-cut the leaves and mounted them onto a very vanilla layer and then onto... Continue reading

Hi Everyone. Happy Wednesday. I hope you are all enjoying this fabulous fall weather. It's been simply glorious here the last couple of days! I made a card for two challenges - the sketch across at Casethissketch and it worked very well with the theme across at Casology Whilst I was working out what to do with these challenges, I had a packet of Powder Pink card stock on my craft table... newly arrived from my Paper Players friend, LeAnne. For some reason, I completely missed this color whilst it was an In Color. Mind you, I generally avoid pinks... Continue reading

Hi Everyone. Happy Monday. I have a quick post for you today - getting another card for Lou - under the wire - at Freshly Made. I used my square stitched rectangle dies to cut out three spaces. I stamped the cat from the SU Nine Lives set 3 times and colored them to look like three of our kitties - Bailey - he's an orange and white tabby (but with MUCH more hair!); Charlie our black and white cat and Muffin, our grey and cream muted calico. Here's my card: Of course, as the only female in the house,... Continue reading

Hi Everyone. Happy Sunday. It's the fabulous Joanne's turn to host our Paper Players challenge today and it's theme week: I decided to keep this clean and simple and allow the Free As a Bird image to be the undisputed focal point of the card. Mind you, I couldn't help using my new dies as a frame :-) I colored the birds with my Caran D'Ache pencils and added the simple sentiment. Here's my card: As usual, the design team have some fabulous inspiration for you: Ann Claire Jaydee Joanne Laurie Anne Marie Su Wanda Windy On a personal note:... Continue reading

Hi Everyone. Happy World Card Making Day! I hope you got to spend some time crafting - I did... and I needed to as I had to make cards to celebrate our anniversary coming up on Wednesday. I used two CasualFridays sets for my card: Love Notes, Heart Bet and the and Big Treble die. I found some great inspiration across at Casual Fridays and Freshly Made: I had to manipulate the arrangement and sizes a little to get the three elements in. I started by inking up the notes stamp from Love Notes and I used a grey ink... Continue reading

HI Everyone. Greetings for a wet, drippy and cool Minnesota. I have a quick post for you today and it showcases one of my favorite stamp sets - Good Morning Magnolia. Case this sketch has this great sketch and I couldn't wait to play along: As the central element is so strong, I decided to use a dark patterned paper and keep the magnolia very clean and simple. I embossed it with gold embossing powder and added a little gold watercolor to the middle. I used some very old SU paper that I have had for.... I think 7 years!... Continue reading

Hi Everyone.ht Quick post for you. I have a card that I made using the sketch from FreshlyMadeSketches and the theme from CASOLOGY: I inked up an oldie, but goodie, stamp set from SU called Dragonfly Dreams. I stamped the base color and then added gold embossing powder for the body and wing filaments. I used a new background die to create the ovali-ish shape and blended some ink over the top of it so that it would co-ordinate with the dragonfly, and show the pattern from the background die. To finish off, I added some paint splatters with both... Continue reading

Hi everyone. Happy Sunday. It's my turn to host our Paper Players challenge this week - and it's Tic Tac Toe week! I worked really hard on the Tic Tac Toe to make it season appropriate and, looking out of my window I can see pumpkins, leaves, orange, fall and halloween. the only thing I can't see looking out of my window is patterened paper :-) For my card I chose to go straight down the middle with birthday, die-cut and cas. I wanted to showcase the fabulous textured background dies again and paired it with some of the wonderful... Continue reading

Hi Everyone. Happy Saturday. It's the fabulous Toni's turn to host our Addicted to CAS challenge this week and she has a code word that is completely and utterly up my alley:-) As usual, the design team have created some fabulous inspiration for you - including our guest designer the wonderful Vicky Hayes There were so many ways I could have gone with this challenge, but I decided to use my Stampin' Up! Christmas Toile set. In fact, this was the first time that I had colored this image and, for those of you who follow my blog, you will... Continue reading

Hi Everyone. Happy Tuesday. I have a quick post for you tonight feating the same set that I used for my Paper Players card this week - SugarPlums from Pink and Main. These images are so outside of my normal comfort zone, but when I saw the challenge across at Just Add Ink, I thought this image was perfect for a card to send of to SendASmile4Kids. Who could resist cupcakes and sugar plum fairies :-) I saw this great sketch across at casethissketch I stamped the Sugar Plum Fairy onto Neenah Solar White card stock and colored her with... Continue reading

Hi Everyone. Happy Sunday. It's the fabulous Claire's turn to host our Paper Players challenge this week and she has a great theme for us: I don't often make cards that aren't the usual A2, so it was fun finding elements to fit a taller and thinner card. I created my card using a stamp set that I had never inked up. In fact, I can't even remember where I got it, especially as it isn't my usual type of purchase :-) However, I am a sucker for nutcrackers! So I inked up the nutcracker and colored him - and... Continue reading

Hi Everyone. Happy Wednesday. I have a quick post for you today. When I was crafting this weekend, I went looking for some inspiration in the form of challenges and saw this great sketch across at Casethissketch: The shape reminded me of one of the new dies that I got recently from Stampin' Up! called Frosted Frames. So, that was the starting point for my card. It took me a little time to work out what I wanted to do, but was inspired by some of the DSP that I got in that same shipment. I realized that there was... Continue reading

Hi Everyone. Happy Monday. I'm playing along with two challenges this week - the colors from Just Add Ink and the floral theme from The Flower Challenge When I saw these colors, I decided I really wanted to try no-line coloring of the Stampin' Up! Good Morning Magnolia flower. Now, no-line scares the heck out of me as you have to add all of the shading and detail by hand and I generally rely on those being included when I stamp normally. However, since taking coloring classes earlier this year (prior to my little accident!), I decided it was time... Continue reading

Hi Everyone. So, I did go back into my craft room and create another card using this sketch! If you didn't catch my first attempt, you can find it here. I went a very different route with this card and when I had created it - decided it might need another sentiment.... but I can't make up my mind which I prefer. With or without the white sentiment strip? What do you think? This card is for a pair of our besties in the UK who love cafe culture and I thought this would be perfect to let them know... Continue reading

Hi Everyone. Happy Sunday. I saw this great sketch across at FreshlyMade.... way out of my comfort zone... but I was determined to see what I could do with it! When I saw the horizontal element, I immediately thought of one of the dies in my new SU Texture Backgrounds set. I hadn't used this die before and this seemed like the perfect time for it. So, I had the horizontal element... now what? I couldn't find a stamp that quite fit and then remembered I had some Altenew acetate butterflies and decided that would work perfectly. I paired that... Continue reading

HI Everyone. Happy Sunday. It's the fabulous Anne Marie's turn to host our Paper Players challenge this week and its CAS week: The minute I saw the challenge, I knew it was time to bring out some of that gorgeous double-sided Stampin' Up! DSP called "Feels Like Frost". This is the first card that you will see this week made from this DSP. I am absolutely IN LOVE with this paper! Sadly, the SU page does not do justice to how gorgeous this double-sided paper is! I paired it with a die-cut simple frame from the Frosted Frames set and... Continue reading

Hi Everyone. Happy Saturday. It's the fabulous Raga's turn to host our Addicted to CAS challenge and she has a great theme for us: I hope you will join us this week. As usual, the design team have some wonderful inspiration for you, including our guest designer Shawna. As a computer engineer, her sentiment really resonated with me:-) I hope you will check out her card! One of the sets that really screams "style" to me is a Stampin' Up! set called "Beautiful You". This is another one of those SU sets that will always be with me. In fact,... Continue reading

Hi Everyone. Happy Sunday. The team across at Freshly Made have another fabulous sketch for us all this week. I knew immediately what I wanted to do with this sketch and went rushing down to my craft room. 2 hours later I was still nowhere on creating the card. Why? I cannot find my stitched circle dies. A N Y W H E R E! Poof! They have just disappeared. I just don't know how I could lose an entire set of dies. I looked everywhere for them. Now, I'm a pretty tidy crafter and put everything away after I've... Continue reading

Hi Everyone. Happy Sunday. It's the fabulous Ann's turn to host our Paper Players challenge this week - and it's color week: I love the rich, regal color combo that Ann created. However, I wasn't quite sure how to use it! I had in mind to color the little bird from an An Open Heart. A really old SU stamp set. It really is one of those sets that will always be in my stash. However, the colors were a problem as I only own Cajun Craze :-) So, I had to try to match the Peacock and Merlot as... Continue reading

Hi Everyone. Happy Monday. I managed to get into my craft room to make a card yesterday and found this great sketch across at FreshlyMadeSketches. Congratulations to the team on their 400th challenge anniversary! I had this image in my head using the SU set called Butterfly Gala and wanted them to start bottom left and progress to top right. Instead of coloring the butterflies, I decided to heat emboss them in gold instead. Here's my card: For the frame, I used a new Spellbinders die. I hope you all enjoy this holiday and that those of you who are... Continue reading

Hi everyone. Happy Sunday. It's the fabulous LeAnne's turn to host our Paper Players challenge this week and it's theme week: A couple of weeks ago I made an impulsive purchase of a cute set from Stamping Bella called Bubble Chicks. I decided this would be a great challenge to bring out that set and ink it up :-) I started with my usual Neenah Solar White base and then stamped the images onto an 80# piece of card stock. I colored them with my pencils, stamped the sentiment, die-cut the panel and mounted it onto the card base with... Continue reading

Hi Everyone. Happy Saturday. It's the fabulous Susan's turn to host our Addicted to CAS Challenge this week and it's a color challenge: The design team have some fabulous inspiration for you, including our very talented guest designer for this challenge YoonYoung Kim For my card, I decided to stick very closely to my two least favorite colors .... pink .... and purple! I paired it with the neutrals of black, white and gray, so that the ahem, pink and purple, could take center stage. :-) I brought out my new favorite Stampin' Up! Free as a Bird set and... Continue reading

Hi everyone. Happy Sunday. It's the fabulous Laurie's turn to host our Paper Players challenge this week and she has a sketch for us: I thought this sketch called for the use of some of my new DSP - Bird Ballad. It's part of the Bird Ballad product suite. I love the paper - and I love the stamp set. I stamped the bird onto Neenah Solar White 80# and watercolored it with my zig real brush markers. I chose colors that would complement the colors in the DSP. Instead of a white base, I decided to go with an... Continue reading

Hi everyone. Happy Saturday. I have a quick card for you today made using the challenges from CAS on Fridays and The Male Room. CAS on Fridays is asking us to use stencils and the Male Room theme is: I was initially drawn to using a bird stamp, but decided to go a different route when I went through my stencil collection. Lou travels frequently, so we really enjoy our time together, especially on vacation. So I created a heartfelt sentiment that fit with the flight theme. In this case, time is flying. :-) Here's my card: I hope Lou... Continue reading