ATCAS #73

Hello!

Today we are back with the next challenge over at Addicted to CAS - our code word chosen by the super talented Ksenija - is Dream. 

I have tried to create a dreamy look by using pastel colours through a Clarity circles stencil combined with a Clarity stamp:

The pastel circles are intended to give a bokeh effect - do you think it works?

Head over to the ATCAS blog for lots more inspiration from the DT and our lovely GD - Dawn from Designs by Dragonfly.

 

I will also link up at CASology where the cue card is Circles and at Simon's Wednesday Challenge where we have to leave out the patterned paper!

I will also play along at Muse this week - thanks Ardyth and Susanne!  I love Anita's soft and pretty card :)

Thanks for stopping by :)

Sarah x

Autumn

Hello!

The weather has been really wet and miserable here so it feels like autumn has properly arrived.  I would prefer blue skies and crisp leaves though!  Here is a card I have made for the current challenge to use autumnal colours over at AAA Cards:

I will also link up at Simon's Wednesday Challenge as there is no stamping on this card - it is all die cutting.  The leaves are Lawn Fawn's small stitched leaves and the die cut sentiment is from Hero Arts.  I simply coloured some card stock with distress inks and cut the leaves out.  I have even gone with AAA's optional twist of fabric by cutting a square of hessian to add some texture to my autumnal card.

Thanks for stopping by!

Sarah x

Rainy Day

Hello!

I haven't made much this weekend but managed to squeeze in a quick card for this week's CASology challenge where the cue card is Umbrella.  I used Avery Elle's Weather It stamps:

 

 

I added a bit of pale blue watercolour to the card base and a few splatters to give the look of a rainy day.  The brolly is coloured with some Zig Clean Colour markers and added some Wink of Stella for a bitter of shimmer.

 

I will also link up at Simon's Wednesday Challenge where we are die crazy as my umbrella and square panel are die cut.

 

I hope you are enjoying sunshine rather than wet weather as we move in to autumn :)

 

Thanks for stopping by!

 

Sarah x

Uniko Release Day!

Hello!

Finally you can get your hands on the fab new stamp sets from Uniko and the DT are back with a final selection of samples to tempt and inspire you :)

Here are a few of the cards that I have made:

 

First up I have gone graphic with that fabulous Thanks sentiment from All Occasion #6 embossed in black and combined with a triangle border from the Triangulate set stamped in gold.  Very simple but I think that bold sentiment makes a real impact!

 

 

Next up I have combined another of the sentiments from All Occasion Sentiments #6 with the Beautiful Blooms II and the foliage from Natures Treasures II.  The foliage is green embossed on vellum to give a delicate look.

 

I have been really inspired by Bev's designs for this release and hopefully will have more designs to share with you over the next few weeks.  Here they are again in case you haven't seen the preview posts:

 

 

 

  

 

Head over to the Uniko blog where Bev is celebrating today's release along with fabulous cards from the rest of the DT!

 

Thanks for stopping by,

 

Sarah x

Uniko Introducing - Nature's Treasures II

Hello!

Today is the final introducing post before you can get your hands on the fabulous September release from Uniko!  We are featuring Nature's Treasures II - a set of leafy goodness which will work with so many of your other stamps. 

Friday is also the beginning of our September challenge at Uniko with the theme of Autumn/Fall with the optional twist of Thanks.  With that in mind I used lots of autumn colours on this first card using Nature's Treasures II:

 

I white embossed the leaves and inked over in a range of distress inks.  The sentiment is from All Occasion Sentiments #6 white embossed on dark brown card and I added a few lines of stitching to add to the rustic feel.

 

Next up I created a lighter card using clusters of the leaves stamped on a white card base in different greens and topped with a gold embossed sentiment from All Occasion Sentiments #6.

This set will be one that I get lots of use out of as the leaves provide a perfect accent to floral images and are big enough to be a focal point on their own too :)  Here is the full set:

The 3 stamp sets in Uniko's September release will be available for sale tomorrow and I hope you will pop by as the DT will be sharing more inspiration as part of a blog hop with prizes.  You can see more fabulous designs from the DT using Nature's Treasures II today over on the Uniko blog.

Thanks for stopping by,

Sarah x

Festive NBUS

Hello!

I really shouldn't have spent any time making a card today as I have both student and professional deadlines looming but playing with stamps and ink seemed a much better way to go!!

I wanted to play for a second time at lovely Darnell's NBUS Challenge before it finishes tomorrow and combined that with a second card for Merry Monday's challenge to make the sentiment the focal point.

The NBUS on this card is the fab new Fa La La Stamps and Ellements from Avery Elle which I combined with a wreath stamp from Hero Arts which I white embossed on the pale blue card.  The little red berry stamps are from the Avery Elle set too.  I thought the pale blue, red and white colour combo looked quite folky.

 

I will also link up at Simon's Wednesday Challenge where we are going die crazy!

Do stop by tomorrow for the next set of cards that I have made with Uniko's fab September release.

See you soon,

Sarah x

Uniko Introducing - Triangulate

Hello!

I am back again with some more Uniko fun in advance of Saturday's September release.  Today we are getting geometric with the Triangulate set....

I have two cards to share with you:

 

I always think that geometric designs work well for male cards and here I have stamped one of the triangle borders in blue ink twice on each side of the card and popped up a central panel.  The Awesome sentiment comes from All Occasion Sentiments #2 but is combined with yesterday's sentiment set. 

Black and gold is always a favourite colour combo for me and I have stamped another of the border stamps in black on the diagonal and combined with a sentiment from yesterday's set.

Here is the whole set for you to see....how many designs and combinations can you create from these?!  This set is geometric heaven :)

I hope you like these geometric designs!  I will link up at Virginia's View Challenge whilst there is still time as her theme this month is geometric :)

I will be back tomorrow with more cards from the final set in the release which will then go live on Saturday along with a DT blog hop and prizes to be won.  For more information on the release schedule and the fab designs from the rest of the DT check out the Uniko blog!

Thanks for stopping by,

Sarah x

Midweek Challenges

Hello!

I hope your week is going well....I am just stopping in for a very quick post with a few cards that I have made for favourite challenges.  First up is Less Is More where it is one layer week with a theme of Wish:

 

I masked this lovely fox from Avery Elle and inked a masked panel behind him.  The scattering of stars have a touch of glitter.  I will also link up at Happy Little Stampers September CAS Challenge to use colouring.  The fox is coloured using pencils (no special brand).

 

Next I have a festive card for Merry Mondays where the theme is to feature the sentiment.  This gorgeous sentiment from Waltzingmouse Stamps is perfect for that.  I embossed it for extra impact and backed it with stripy paper that I have foiled with my Minc.

 

I will also link up at Simon's Wednesday Challenge where the theme is die crazy.  It is rare that I don't use a die of some kind on my cards these days - this one obviously uses stitched square dies to create the panels.

 

I hope you have found time to get a bit creative this week!

 

Stop by tomorrow when I have some more makes with the new Uniko release :)

 

Sarah x

Uniko Introducing: All Occasion Sentiment #6

Hello!

Following the sneak peaks of the last few days I am excited to share Uniko's latest set of fabulous sentiments - All Occasion Sentiments #6.  I love this set so much and have used them on pretty much all of my samples for the whole release.  There is a great mix of fonts and sentiments.

First up I have used the gorgeous graphic thanks sentiment.  I will use this time and again as there is just so much you can do with it.  The outline letters will work for male and female style cards, colouring in etc. and is big enough to provide a great focal point.  Here I have stamped it in grey ink four times to create a frame and white embossed the friend stamp from a previous set (All Occasion Sentiments #3) and the lovely Uniko gerbera.  I have watercoloured the gerbera to make it pop against the pale grey.

On this card I have gold embossed the lovely sentiment - the font is perfect and combined it with a butterfly from Uniko's English Country Garden set and some sequins from A Gift For You.  As you can see, these sentiments really do work well with so may different stamps....

Here is the full set:

Release Schedule:

Introducing... 16th - 18th Sept. Here you'll get to see the soon to be released products in action. The design team will be joining in on the introductions and you won't want to miss a second!

Release Day! Saturday 19th Sept you will get to see all the products in their entirety and purchase them HERE on the website! As tradition holds there will be  a Design Team Blog Hop with a chance for a lucky person to win the ENTIRE release & a little extra! 

Now, you won't want to miss out on any of the fun from the 14th-19th September as Bev will be drawing totally random winners for mystery prizes. I'm not giving any hints as to the prizes or their value, you'll just have to join in on the fun!

Places to join in on the fun & possibly win a prize are by commenting along the way on the Uniko Blog, Design Team Blogs, liking the Uniko Facebook Page, following on Twitter and Pinterest!

Thanks for stopping by,

Sarah x

Uniko Release - Sneak Peak 2

Hello!

Back again with another teaser in advance of this week's Uniko release which goes live on Saturday!

This foliage stamp set works perfectly with lots of other Uniko stamps and is just beautiful :)

We will be sharing the full sets and some inspiration from the DT from Weds to Fri with the release going live on Saturday with the customary DT blog hop.  There are prizes along the way and lots more information over at the Uniko blog.

I hope you stop by tomorrow to see what I have made with these new stamps :)

Sarah x

Uniko Release - Sneak Peak 1

Hello!

I do love it when we are getting ready for a new Uniko release....and this one is no exception!  The stamps that Bev has bought us this month will work perfectly with your other Uniko sets and are so versatile in terms of working with lots of crafty products and styles :)

Great bold sentiments in different fonts on this set - so much you can do with them!

 

Geometric is very on trend and this set is great for all of those triangle lovers out there :)

We have sneak peaks for you today and tomorrow with introducing posts from Weds to Fri with inspiration from the DT.  The release goes live on Saturday, 19 Sept combined with a DT blog hop.  There are fun prizes along the way and lots more info on the Uniko site.

I hope you visit over the course of the week to see what is in store!

Sarah x

ATCAS #72

Hello!

Can you believe that it is the 72nd challenge at Addicted to CAS?!  This challenge is hosted by the lovely Doni and is perfect for the season with the code word - Leaves.  I decided to go for an autumnal look:

I stamped leaves in a combination of autumn oranges, reds and browns to create a border down the side of the card and a few fluttering along the front.  The die cut sentiment is from Clearly Besotted.

 

Check out the great inspiration from the DT and our wonderful GD, Dawn from Designs by Dragonfly. I hope you find time to play along with us at ATCAS :)

I will also link up at Simon's Wednesday Challenge to use a stamp.

 

Thanks for stopping by!

 

Sarah x

A bit of watercolouring

Hello!

I thought that I would pop in this Friday eve with a card that I shared on the Make the Day Special blog yesterday using Altenew's beautiful Freesia set.  I wanted to create something really fresh and light with this image and tried watercolouring with distress inks (which is not my forte!).

I think this got the look that I was going for.  The sentiment is from the same set and is white embossed on light blue card.

As this is my first time playing with these stamps I will link up at Darnell's fabulous NBUS Challenge - she has lots of incredible sponsors!

 

I will also link up at Simon's Wednesday Challenge to use a stamp and at Happy Little Stampers September CAS challenge - colouring as well as play along with my friends at Time Out where the theme is to Make Your Mark.

 

 

Thanks for stopping by :)

Sarah x

Triangles and Wreaths

Hello!

Well we are over half way through the week and we are hurtling towards the weekend....so I wanted to pop in with a few cards for some fab blogland challenges.

First up is a 2nd card for the green and gold colour combo challenge at Less Is More.  I still haven't got away from making christmas cards with this colour combo:

I used some PTI wreaths and sentiment for this design.

Secondly I have a card using the Socahota stamps from Altenew along with their invisible alpha to make a geometric design and play along with Virginia's View current challenge.

I will also link up at Simon's Wednesday Challenge to use stamping too.

I hope you like these two cards and are having a fab week!

Sarah x

Ta Tara!!

Hello!

Today I am hopping with my other teamies from Make The Day Special as a surprise thank you to our fab leader, Tara, who owns MTDS and brings all of the luscious American brands and crafting goodies to us in the UK and Europe!!  Tara works incredibly hard in running the store and delivers the best customer service that I have come across - she is also funny, creative and generous and I consider myself very lucky to have made such a great crafting friend :)

This hop was the lovely's Kate's idea as a way of the DT showing our appreciation for Tara and all things MTDS.  I am the last link on the hop so you should have arrived here via the super talented Keren Baker's blog but if not head over to the Make The Day Special blog where the hop begins.

My card is using the fun Reverse Confetti stamps and dies - Donut You Know....all, of course, available at MTDS!

I cut the donuts out of kraft card, blues and pinks and inked around the kraft base.  The 'icing' is glazed with glossy accents and I stuck on lots of sprinkles (which took a while!).  The punny sentiment is also from Reverse Confetti.

I hope that it puts a smile on Tara's face (hopefully it should have reached her in person by now).

It is nice to send a card 'just because' for a change....I must do it more often!

Thank you for stopping by and remember to call in at MTDS if you haven't visited before :)

Sarah x

CASology Guest Designer!

Hello!

Today I have the honour of being the GD over at CASology - one of my fave challenges!  The cue card this week is Moon and here is the CAS design that I came up with:

 

I used Hero Arts Shoot for the Moon stamp set and simply stamped and heat embossed the moon, stars and sentiment.  I was going to colour in the sky but decided against it as I liked the pared back look - I hope you do too!

 

 

Thanks for stopping by,

 

Sarah x

 

 

Baby Congrats!

Hello!

 

Today I am sharing a card to congratulate the wonderful Shery from Stamplorations on the recent arrival of her new baby girl, Catherine.  Her friends from Time Out wanted to send her our best wishes and you can head over there to see what everyone has made.

 

Shery was a fab team colleague at Time Out and is a mixed media and one layer genius.  She has been looking forward to meeting little baby Russ and the time is finally here :)

 

Here is my card:

 

I used one of the fab Artplorations stencils in the background inked with a light pink ink and cut a panel with a Memory Box cross stitch rectangle.  The Babygro from Uniko is white embossed and combined with a sentiment from Waltzingmouse.  A few enamel dots and kraft card mat to finish.

 

I hope that you like the card, Shery, and that you are enjoying these early days of being a Mum!

 

Thanks for stopping by,

 

Sarah x

CASology and LIM

Hello!

I hope you have had a good weekend....the boys are back at school next week so we finally started to get round to all of those chores that we have been putting off all summer :)  However, I still found time to make a few cards. 

First up is a green and gold creation using the colour combo from this week's Less is More Challenge.  I couldn't come up with anything other than a festive card with these colours:

 

I die cut a lovely Memory Box bauble out of the white card panel and popped it up over some gold glitter card.  The gold bow is snipped from another die cut and I combined it with a sentiment from Clearly Besotted.  The green elements come from the scattering of pearls and dark green under the white panel. 

Also I wanted to join in with CASology where the cue card is Write which put me in mind of SSS's happy mail stamps.  I masked and stamped the envelopes in pastel colours and the sentiment in dark grey over the top with a scattering of grey die cut hearts.

 

 

I think that the pale colours mean that the focal sentiment doesn't get overwhelmed and keeps the design still feeling CAS.

I hope you have had the chance to get crafting this weekend :)

Thanks for stopping by,

Sarah x

Sunflowers and Holly

Hello!

It has been so chilly and grey here that I have been more and more inclined to make Christmas cards....I am wishing the year away!  I should be enjoying the last days of summer with the boys as they don't go back to school until Tuesday. 

Anyway I was inspired by the challenge at Merry Mondays to feature holly and made two cards using beautiful stamps from Waltzingmouse Stamps:

 

I gold embossed the sentiment and gold embossed the leaves on to patterned paper before cutting them out.  The leaves are a good size so the variation of greens in the paper is a good alternative to colouring in! 

 

They are as simple as that but I love the trad festive colour combo of red, green and gold with lots of white space.

 

 

 

 

I will also link up to the spectacular embossing challenge at AAA Cards as the gold embossed sentiment and leaves give the cards a touch of luxury :)  Thank you LesLee - I will also link up at the Christmas Challenge over at Happy Little Stampers where the theme is holly too!

 

However, back to summer and here is a picture of my youngest with the sunflowers he has grown in our back garden...they have been blown down by storms twice but we have propped them back up.  They are a cheerful reminder that it is still (kind of) summer :)

 

  

 

Thanks as always for stopping by - I hope you are enjoying some blue skies and later summer sunshine!

 

Sarah x