Birthdays Galore!

Hello!

I wanted to stop by today with a few birthday cards inspired by challenges that are currently open.  First up I have a card that I made with Create A Smile stamps and stencils - I am so delighted to be featured over at the Create A Smile blog today!  I love Christine's designs so this is a real honour :)

I stamped the cute penguin peeking out of the present from Penguin Party and masked him to sponge a background from the Lots of Stars stencil in Squeezed Lemonade distress ink.  I coloured the penguin with chameleon pens and added a bit of wink of stella.  So cute!

I will add this as my second entry for Create A Smile's call for a March Guest Designer. 

I will also link up at CASology's current challenge where the cue card is Birthday and at Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday Challenge which is Anything Goes.

I have also found time to play along with Taheerah's Cue for the Monday Blues Challenge.  I loved the bright colours against the black of her inspiration photo:

I used a big sentiment from Hero Arts white embossed on black cardstock and sprayed with white and gold sprays for a bit of shimmer.  I cut Papertrey Ink's scribble dies in bright colours and adhered to the black panel.  Very simple but I like the way the bright colours pop against the black :)

Finally, I have managed to squeeze in a card for Winnie & Walter's First Birthday Bash.  This design is for Kelly's In Rotation Technique:

I have rotated the stamp from It's a Wonderful Pennant in teal and green to create a star and combined with the sentiment from The Big, The Bold and the Happy.

I will also join up at Seize the Birthday's current Anything Goes challenge.

That's enough from me for one day....thanks for making it through to the end!

Sarah x

One Layer Cards

Hello!

A quick post from me with two one layer cards that I have made this week.  Firstly I have a card inspired by the sketch over at Less Is More:

 

I stamped the cool parachuting penguin from Create A Smile, coloured him with Chameleon Pens and masked him so that I could ink a panel with their swirly stencil.  I love the way he is swinging in on the breeze!

 

 

 

I don't normally follow sketches or make one layer cards so this is a double whammy! I also want to put this card in for Create A Smile's call for a March Guest Designer.  If you have stopped by here in the past you will know that I am a big fan of the quirky and fun stamps and stencils that Christine brings us.  You have until 13 February to join in.

 

Next up is a card that I have made for Winnie & Walter's First Birthday Bash.  This is for Shay's One Challenge:

 

I masked off the central panel and stamped stars from Big Bang Confetti in shades of blue and teal and combined it with a sentiment from The Big, The Bold and the Happy.

 

 

I will also link up at SSS Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes.

 

Thanks, as ever, for stopping by!

 

Sarah x

Time Out Challenge #23

Hello!

We have reached the halfway point of the current Time Out challenge: Valentines with the optional twist of hearts.

I went with the hearts theme again this week:

I die cut a heart out of some pale mint card and decided to make a shaker card.  I inked through a stencil from Clarity Stamp in pastel colours on the card base - this love heart sweet stencil is so fun! A pop of black from the Altenew Label Love sentiment finishes off my design.

There are prizes to be won from Stamplorations for this challenge so check them out along with the fabulous inspiration from the DT too!

I will also link this card up at CAS on Sunday where the current challenge is stencils and at Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday Challenge which is Anything Goes.

I hope you like my card - I have no idea who I am going to send all of these valentines cards to :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Sarah x

Butterfly Birthday

Hello!

A super quick post from me with a butterfly birthday card for this week's CASology challenge where the cue card is Birthday:

I simply inlaid butterflies cut with this lovely Memory Box die in pink and mint cardstock in to the card base.  The sentiment is from Altenew's Label Love. 

It is a really simple design but I like the clean look of the inlaid dies and butterflies make me happy :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Sarah x

The World Would Be Boring....

Hello!

I hope you have had a great weekend.  I am just stopping by with a quick post to share a card that I have made for Addicted to CAS current challenge where the cue word is World:

I love this sentiment from Penny Black and decided to combine it with this fabulous whimsical stamp from Clarity Stamps.  I created the background by sponging through a stencil with white acrylic paint and then blending gelatos over the top.  I wanted to create the impression of him flying through the sky.

I will also link up at The Mixed Media Card Challenge where the theme is 'new' as combining acrylics and gelatos is a new technique to me and the boy stamp is a new one too.

I hope you like it :)

Thanks for stopping by,

Sarah x

More Lattice Love

Hello!

I hope you are having a good weekend.  I haven't managed to get anything made yet this weekend which always makes me tetchy :)  However I made a few more cards with Uniko Studio's wonderful Lattice stamps when I was playing with them the other day.

 

I stamped and white embossed the lattice border in white on some hot pink cardstock and combined it with my ME hello die and a word from Winnie and Walter white embossed.  I will link it up as a second entry to Uniko's current Love and Friendship challenge.  I will also join CASology's challenge where the cue card is Friend.

Secondly I made a card which would be very easy to replicate using the individual element stamps:

I randomly stamped the elements and over stamped in ME inks.  I deliberately tried to offset them a little bit to give a looser look.  The sentiment is from Winnie and Walter.

These lattice stamps work with so many different looks :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Sarah x

Lattice Love

Hello!

I have been playing with the fabulous lattice stamps from Uniko Studio.

 

I inked up the lattice border in navy, teal and tide pool inks to create an ombre look and white embossed a sentiment from Technique Tuesday on to navy cardstock.  I will link up at Inkspirational's current challenge - ombre.  I will also link up at this week's Less Is More challenge - friend.

 

I wanted to try the lattice elements with watercolour and stamped them randomly on watercolour card.  I coloured them with inktense pencils and added water to blend.  I combined the background with a sentiment from Winnie and Walter which I cut out.

I will link this card up with the current Love and Friendship Challenge at Uniko Studio and at the watercolour challenge at Happy Little Stampers.  I will also make a final entry at Craft Stamper's Take It, Make It challenge which is to take a stamp.

I hope you like these cards - I love it when you stop by :)

Sarah x

Time Out Challenge #23

Hello!

Happy Thursday and welcome to our next challenge over at Time Out!  The theme is Valentine's Day with an optional twist of hearts. 

Here's what I came up with:

I stamped and white embossed the lovely Hero Arts constellation background and inked with a few shades of distress inks.  I popped up a panel with a die cut heart over the top and added the adorable Mama Elephant rabbits which I have coloured in with Spectrum Noir pencils.  The sentiment is from the same set and embossed on to vellum.

And if you needed any more incentive to play along, our Time Out Challenge is sponsored by the fabulous Stamplorations.  Here is how you can win:

1. Twist with us (use hearts) and we will do a random draw and the winner will get a $15 voucher for the sore
2. Comment on Shery's post at stamplorations for this challenge and we will do a random draw and the winner will get a stencil pack from stamplorations

I am delighted that we are joined by the talented Valentyna from Flourishtina as our GD this week.  Do check out her gorgeous CAS style - she is very talented!  Also I am sure you will want to see what the rest of the DT have come up with.  There is lots to inspire you :)

I really hope you take time out to play along with us!

PS I will also link up with Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday Challenge - Have a Heart.

See you again soon,

Sarah x

CAS Cards

Hello!

I'm back again with a few CAS cards that I squeezed in at the weekend.  First up is a very simple, one layer card that I made for the fabulous first birthday bash over at Winnie & Walter:

 

 

I went with Shay's One Challenge as this card is one layer and features a single work sentiment from The Big, The Bold and You combined with a scattering of gold embossed sequins from Big, Bold, Bling.  I added a few real pink sequins for a bit of texture.  This was very quick to make and I can imagine making a whole set of them with these gorgeous sentiment stamps.

 

Next up is my second card for the SSS Flickr Challenge #10 - Spots and Dots.

 

 

I inked up the dotty heart from a SSS set (which I can't find the name for) and combined it with a sentiment from SSS Greetings on Stripes stamped on a banner die from Mama Elephant.  I drew in the lines from the hearts so that they look like balloons.  A few colourful enamel dots finish the card.

 

Finally, I made a brightly coloured butterfly card:

 

 

The PTI butterfly is die cut from some gelli plate prints which I didn't like.  I inked through my Tim Holtz splatter stencil in Peacock Feathers and Picked Raspberry.  The sentiment is from WPlus9.

I will link it up at Happy Little Stampers January sketch challenge:

I hope you like these CAS cards....

See you again soon,

Sarah x

Just a bit of stamping

Hello!

I hope you have been enjoying your weekend.  It has been very cold and miserable here....perfect for lots of stamping time :)

I decided to play with my much neglected gelatos to make a boy card:

I blended a range of gelatos together in the background and inked through a dotty stencil in the corners in salty ocean, peeled paint and black soot distress inks.  I sprayed through my HA numbers stencil over that with Studio Calico opaque white mist.  Finally I stamped the headphones from Indigo Blu and the sentiment from Waltzingmouse Stamps.  This is more grungy than my usual style but I really like how it turned out.  I will play with gelatos more often :)

I will link up at Craft Stamper's Take It Make It Challenge

 

and at Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday Challenge - Its A Guy Thing. 

I also wanted to play along for the second consecutive week with Taheerah's Cure for the Monday Blues Challenge.  The black and gold combo is so lovely:

This was my first time inking up the gorgeous Painted Butterflies set from Altenew and I just used the very simplest outline on this design to keep it CAS.  I will link up for a second time at CASology's NBUS challenge.

That's another crafty weekend finished for me....

Thanks, as always, for stopping by!

Sarah x

A few challenges

Hello!

Its always good to get to the weekend and even better when I have a few cards to share :)

First up is a card I made with my new Stamplorations stamp set - Sugar Rush:

I stamped the 'mmmm' in versamark on kraft and brushed over with Perfect Pearls.  The donuts are watercoloured with inktense pencils and the icing is covered with glossy accents which aren't showing up in the photo.  The sentiment from Waltzingmouse Stamps is gold embossed. I do love the images on this fun stamp set!

I will link this up with Stamplorations January Challenge - Stamps and Ink.

Here's a card I posted at Make the Day Special yesterday using my new WPlus9 Sparkle and Shine stamps.  I watercoloured the gems and used a vellum die cut panel over the top with the sentiment silver embossed.

I will join this up at this week's joint CASology/NBUS challenge.  I always love being encouraged to use new supplies and this is my third entry at Darnell's fabulous challenge - there are over 370 entries!

I will also enter it in to Craft Stamper's January Challenge - Take A Stamp (which is pretty much anything goes as long as you use a stamp).  I haven't played along before but will definitely be back :)

Finally I will enter a further time at Virginia's View Challenge - clean slate as there is quite a lot of white space on my card.

I hope you like my cards and have the chance to get inky yourself this weekend....

Thanks for stopping by,

Sarah x

Time Out #22

Hello!

I can't believe that we are already halfway through the current Time Out Challenge which is a fun photo inspiration.  Here is my second take on the photo:

I really liked the funky floral cushion on the sofa and decided to focus on that with bright, bold colours and images.  Paper Smooches Bold Blooms set is perfect for this.  I randomly stamped the images and topped off with a stacked die cut in black card from Mama Elephant.  Both are available from Make the Day Special.

I hope you like my fun, happy card :)

Do check out what the fab DT have created to inspire you and also make sure that you join in to have a chance of winning one of the great prizes from our sponsor Uniko Studio!

Bye for now :)

Sarah x

A simple heart

Hello!

I hope your week has got off to a good start.  I wanted to pop by with a very simple card that I have made for a few challenges:

I die cut the heart and stamped the bold sentiment from Simon Says Stamps and popped up over some Lawn Fawn Let's Polka paper.  A little die cut banner finishes the design.  It is very simple but I like all of the white space and fresh aqua! 

The challenge over at Muse set by the fab Michele is to accentuate the negative.  Her card is fabulous and I was inspired by the die cut heart with the touch of colour.  As this card features SSS products I will also enter it in to the SSS Flickr Challenge #10 - spots and dots.  All of the white space also means that I will put a further entry in to Virginia's View Challenge - clean slate.

I hope you like my simple card - let me know what you think.

Thanks for stopping by!

Sarah x

Sunday Crafting

Hello!

I hope your weekend is going well.....we are all chillaxing here as the effort of a week at school and work has left us all exhausted!  I don't think the boys have got out of their pjs :)

That has left me a bit of time to get crafty so I can't complain.

In particular, I have wanted to play along with Taheerah's Cure for the Monday Blues for ages and have never made the deadline.  Finally....here is my card:

I loved the soft pastel colours and sprinkles from the inspiration photo and decided to play with my new WPlus9 sparkle and shine die.

I die cut two rectangles from Lawn Fawn in patterned paper and combined with a cute little envelope from Lil Inkers in to which I put some pastel sequins.  The sentiment is stacked up for dimension and I added WoS to give extra sparkle.  A few sequins are adhered outside the envelope on the card base to give the extra look of sprinkles.  I don't often work with a pastel colour palette but like how this turned out.

I also decided to play along with Fusion this week - which I think is another first.  It is their one year anniversary and I really loved the inspiration photo and all of the fab designs from the DT and their guests.  I loved the combination of the pink and gold with the chalkboard:

 

The chalkboard panel is from a 6x6 paper pad called The Story of Us by Simple Stories.  I cut that out and layered over some gold and pink patterned papers.  Very simple - but I don't think I would ever have thought to use that panel on a card until I saw the Fusion challenge.

 

Finally, here is a card that I made for CASology where the cue card is date.  I am terrible for forgetting dates, particularly birthdays and figured that this is a card I am likely to need to use this year:

 

 

I am using fab stamps and stencils from Create A Smile - who have another great release going live this weekend. Definitely worth checking out.  I love the star stencil and have lightly inked it to create a fade out background for my cute monster.  I am still practicing colouring with my Chameleon pens so don't look too closely :)

Not too bad for a weekend's work?!  I would love to hear what you think.

Thanks for stopping by,

Sarah x

 

Hennah Elements

Hello!

I am over at Make the Day Special today with my first solo post :)  I decided to play with the beautiful Hennah Elements set from Altenew.  I hope you pop over to see what I made.

While I had the set out I also made this card:

 

I absolutely love this stamp set and how good it can look just stamped in simple black and white (which is great when you are feeling too lazy to colour in!).  On this card I popped up a panel over a black border and simply stamped the Hennah images along the edge with some masking.  I topped off with a gold embossed sentiment from Altenew's Magnolias for Her set which is new to me.  A few pink gems add a pop of colour.

 

I thought this card would also work for a few of the fab challenges that are currently running:

 

AAA Cards - Use a Little Gold.  My card incorporates a gold sentiment.

 

Virginia's View Challenge - Clean Slate.  This design features lots of white space.

Less Is More - Black + Metallic + a colour.  My card features black, gold and a touch of pink.

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Something New.  This card includes new stash!

It is unusual for me to be able to enter so many challenges with one card - yay :)

Thanks for stopping by.  I hope you will check out my other card made using Hennah Elements over at Make The Day Special.

Sarah x

Time Out Challenge #22

Hello!

It is time for the first Time Out Challenge of the year and it is a fab photo inspiration:

How great is this?  I wish I had that wood panel in my house :)  There is a lot to inspire you here from the bold word and wood grain through to the patterned cushions.  I went with the bold and bright hello against the wood:

 

The woodgrain paper is from MME and is combined with the die cut hello (which I think is from Avery Elle).  I used some green cardstock and a green heart button to echo the green of one of the cushions.

 

This is a special challenge as it is sponsored by the brilliant Uniko Studio and the Uniko DT is playing along too - you can see what they have created here.

 

And that's not all!  We are joined by a fab GD this week - Chrissie Stokes from Simply One of A Kind and Less Is More.  I am a big fan of Chrissie's classy, CAS style :)  I hope you will check out all of the great cards that the DT have come up with and then take some time out to play along with us....

 

Thanks for stopping by!

 

Sarah x

Recycle It

Hello!

Well I guess that we are now well and truly back in to the routine after the Christmas hols - the boys are (reluctantly) back to school and I am back to de-icing the car and battling through the traffic to get to work.  But, on the bright side, I do have a card to share with you that I have made for the new challenge over at Make The Day Special :)

The challenge this month is to recycle - that can be to use items which you would otherwise throw away or to use a household item to stamp or create with.  Some of the DT have ideas for you over at Make The Day Special blog and there will be more to follow over the next few weeks.  The challenge is open until 10 pm on 26 Jan so you have plenty of time to go through your recycling bins!

Did I mention that our favourite entry gets a £15 voucher to the store?!

Here is what I came up with:

I used some old wrapping paper to die cut the Lawn Fawn stitched rectangle and the leaves from Reverse Confetti's Petals n Posies set.  It looks like real burlap, don't you think?  I also found some leftover felt from one of the boys Christmas school project so die cut two of the Petals n Posies flowers from that.  The Hello die is from Mama Elephant, stacked up several times for a bit of dimension and the 'friend' sentiment is from Winnie and Walter.  I inked around the inside of the rectangle with Antique Linen distress ink for a bit of definition and added a button and bit of twine to finish.  The wrapping paper does need to be adhered to cardstock to use for die cutting.

I hope you like my rustic design!  Head on over to the MTDS blog to see what Tara and Jenny have created - they are very clever.

I will also link up at SSS Wednesday Challenge which is still Anything Goes.

Thanks for stopping by - it brightens my day :)

Sarah x

Eye Test

Hello!

We are all back to the usual routine tomorrow so I couldn't resist the temptation of sneaking off to my craft room to have a bit of a play today!

I wanted to play along with the first Less Is More challenge of 2015 which is a colour challenge to use black + metallic + one other colour.  I wanted to use these fab stamps and dies from MFT which I have had for months and not yet used.

I always need thank you cards in January and thought this was a really fun sentiment :)  The glasses are die cut from silver mirri and the wood veneer heart is coloured red and covered with glossy accents.  I found the background paper in my rarely used collection of 6x6 pads by My Minds Eye.

As the sentiment and die are brand new I will join in again at Darnell's NBUS Challenge....I think that I will use up my 3 goes very quickly :)

I also wanted to take part in Virginia's View new challenge - clean slate.  Given one of my crafty new year resolutions is to try to make more one layer cards, this seemed like the perfect opportunity :)

I have used a lovely Memory Box butterfly die which I cut out of the card and reassembled to create a single layer inlaid effect.  It is very simple but quite a neat look.

I will also join in the fun over at the new (to me) ShowCASe Your Style challenge which I came across through my friend, Nonni's blog.  The current theme is to use at least one die cut

 

And finally I shall link up at SSS Wednesday's Anything Goes Challenge too!

 

Thanks for stopping by.  I hope you have had a great weekend. 

 

Sarah x