Home Sweet Home

Hello!

We are having a miserable, wet weekend here so I have treated myself to a few hours in my craft room which is just what I need to recharge the batteries after a busy week :) 

I have made a big decision to leave my job at the end of the summer and return to being a full time student in the autumn.....it has taken a lot of time to reach that decision and I am so relieved now that I have finally made up my mind!  The prospect of spending a year focusing on the boys and my own development is really exciting although it means that we will have to make lots of changes as a family with one less income coming in.  It will definitely mean that I can spend less money on craft supplies but I have so much already it will just encourage me to be more creative with what I have :)  I am very lucky to have such a supportive family to enable me to take this time out....

Anyway, all of this soul searching has been very much about family and home so I had to play along with this week's one layer challenge at Less Is More where the theme is Home.  Here is what I came up with:

 

I used my new Reverse Confetti stamps - The Buzz to stamp this sweet beehive and coloured in with Spectrum Noir pencils.  The sentiment is from Avery Elle.  I like how this simple scene turned out :)

I also made two cards for the latest Muse Christmas Visions.  I used a similar layout as the fab design from Chris Blagrave but went with kraft and white for my design:

 

I really liked the offset wreath and the bold sentiment so that is what I focused on.  I coloured the wreaths in with white pencil and the white sentiment is die cut from glitter card although that doesn't show up well here.

Here is the original card from Chriss which is so crisp and fresh - I hope you can see how I was inspired!

I will also link up at the Holiday theme at Addicted to Stamps.

Thanks for stopping by - sorry it is such a long post!

Sarah x

Uniko Revisited

Hello!

I am back again with a revisit of a fab Uniko stamp set which I know has been really popular - Pure Florals: Gerbera.  It is an absolutely gorgeous set and the DT have all created cards using these stamps to inspire you! 

Talking of DT members it is fantastic to have our newest DT member - Jane from PurpleJetLovesCrafts hopping along for the first time.  Many of you will know her work already from other DTs and her blog and it is great to have her inspiring us at Uniko too :)

Anyway - here is what I made:

I stamped the gerbera in yellow and cut it out with a couple of stitched square dies which I then matted on black and layered back up.  Really simple but creates a focal point of that lovely flower image.  The sentiment is from the set too.

I nearly forgot to mention but if you comment along the hop you will be entered into a random draw to win this set or a gift voucher of an equivalent value.  You have a week to leave a comment.

I hope you like my revisit of the gerbera set and enjoy the other designs from the DT :)

Thanks, as always for stopping by,

Sarah x

Time Out #33

Hello!

We are back with our next fab challenge over at Time Out....are you ready to be inspired by words?  Here is our inspiration phrase:

Happy is the bride that the sun shines on

As we are heading in to the warmer summer months (apparently) it is time to look forward to wedding season and balmy sunny days.  You can use all of the phrase or any part of it to inspire your design.  For my card I focused on the sunshine rather than the bride :)

I used a stencil from Clarity and inked through with Squeezed Lemonade, Mustard Seed, Worn Lipstick and Spiced Marmalade distress inks.  The sentiment is a combination of a Mama Elephant die and Papertrey Ink.

Head on over to the Time Out blog to see what the talented DT have come up with.  We are joined this week by the lovely Sue from Sue's Card Craft as our GD for this challenge.  There is a lot of great inspiration over at Sue's blog - it is well worth a visit :) 

I look forward to seeing how you are inspired by the phrase!

I will also link up at Less is More where we are using sunset colours.  I hope my oranges and yellows have enough sunset in them :)

Thanks as always for stopping by,

Sarah x

GD at CASology

Hello!

I hope you are having a great day...today I am very excited to be the GD over at CASology.  I love this challenge and play along as often as I can to exercise my CAS muscles :)  Here is the cue card for this week:

 

 

I was a bit stumped at first as I haven't needed to make graduation cards (yet) and my supply of specifically graduation themed stamps is non existent.  Then I thought about blowing the dust off my Brother Scan n Cut machine to find a graduation themed cut file.....this is what I came up with:

 

 

 

I found a free mortar board cut file and sized it for my card front before popping it up over some black glitter card.  The sentiment is from Waltzingmouse Stamps.  It really is as simple as that!  I think the black glitter card adds a bit of visual interest and I like the clean lines of the icon. 

One of the boys asked if I would give it to them for their graduation but given that is about 10 years away I might make something else before then!

I hope you like my attempt at a graduation card and play along at CASology this week.  The DT always have lots of amazing inspiration to get you started :)

Thanks for stopping by,

 

Sarah x

 

Ombre Butterflies

Hello!

Things have been a bit hectic over the last few weeks and it has definitely taken its toll on my mojo :(  However there are a few challenges currently going on in blogland which gave me just the nudge I needed to venture in to the disaster zone known as my craft room. 

In particular I wanted to play along with Virginia's View - ombre challenge and over at Addicted to CAS where the code word is butterfly.  I decided to play with a fabulous butterfly heart die from Memory Box and this is what I came up with:

I created a cheat's ombre by die cutting the butterflies from some ombre paper that I had in my stash and then cutting them out and sticking them to the white base.  It took a little while but I love the effect with a few of the wings slightly lifted.  The sentiment is from Avery Elle.

I also wanted to play along at the new tic tac toe challenge over at Hero Arts and at Simon Wednesday's Challenge where we are making masculine cards.

This is what I came up with:

 

I used the fabulous tiny flags background stamp white embossed and watercoloured it in using some of my favourite greens and blues,  The sentiment is also from Hero Arts.  A bit of black and kraft card give the central panel some definition.  I went for the middle row - background stamp, birthday theme and die cutting but it would also work with a few of the other lines as well!

Thank you for stopping by - I really appreciate your visits and comments!

Sarah x

Time Out #32 Reminder

Hello!

Back again with a reminder that there is still time to play along with our current challenge at Time Out.  We are asking you to CASE with your own twist this gorgeous card by Deepti from Dee's Art Utopia:

 

This time I wanted to focus on the black base and patterned paper:

 

 

I die cut a flower out of patterned paper which I felt echoed the check that Deepti had used and popped that up over a black base.  The sentiment and die cut banner are from Papertrey.  It is a really simple design but one that I wouldn't have come up with out the inspiration card to get me started :)

 

I love seeing how many different card designs can come from the same starting point and hope you will share your twist with us over at Time Out.  There is more inspiration from the DT over at the blog and from our fabulous GD, Maura.

 

Thanks for stopping by :)

 

Sarah x

 

 

Honey, I Shrunk the Kit!

Hello!

I have a fun blog post to share with you today :)  The lovely Hazel from Hazel's Paper Designs came up with a great idea to post a little kit of C6 sized goodies to a few blog buddies and see what we all came up with. 

Hazel sent this little bundle of joy to me and our good friend, Shona from Twine Around:

It was like receiving an envelope full on sunshine :)  The kit included cute stamped images, some cheerful patterned paper, kraft card and twine.  I have made two cards to share with you:

 

 

First up I die cut the patterned paper and kraft to create the layered border and cut the sweet birds with a heart.  I coloured them in with Spectrum Noir pencils and popped the heart up.  A bit of the twine at the top of the card with an enamel dot completed the card.

 

 

 

 

For my second card I watercoloured the girl with Inktense pencils and cut her out with a stitched square.  I inked the CASual Friday's bubble label die cut that was in the kit in yellow ink to match the card and popped it behind the image.  This was layered up on some kraft card.  It looked a bit lost on my card base so I decided to doodle another frame around the edge to go with the girl's striped socks.  It adds a quirky touch to the design but I definitely need to practice my doodling :)

 

I can't wait to see what Haze and Sho came up with - they are both such creative, CAS cardmakers!  Check out what they made on their blogs.  I have just sent out my kit to them so stay tuned for our next Honey, I Shrunk the Kit creations :) 

 

I will also link up at Less Is More where this week's challenge is 2 or 4 legs and at Simon's Wednesday Challenge which is Anything Goes.

 

Thanks so much for stopping by,

 

Sarah x