CAS Bauble

Good Morning everyone.

Today I have 2 cards to show you. Both of them are CAS, one in blue & silver and the other one is all white.

Blue & Silver

This first card is being entered it into 2 challenges:

52 Christmas Card Throwdown  - (04-16) January Stash Challenge which this week is Foiling / gilding flakes

Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge - #266 Anything Goes as long as it's Christmas

Well, I thought I would get my Craft Dragon out to do a bit of foiling just to see if it made the journey to Portugal ok.

(OH, isn't it great news that the company that took on the Craft Dragon assets are going to start trading these items again soon?!)

Well, it does still work ..... but I obviously need a bit of practice on the foiling front. Just couldn't manage to get a complete image for some reason. Maybe I need to turn it up hotter - or examine the dies for any damage. Ah well!

So I used plain old silver gilding flakes, 2 stamps and a bit of fiddly cutting of some double sided tape to make the bow on this card

Must say that I'm really loving the simplicity of this card.

Items used:

Silver Gilding flakes

Flitter Glue

Double sided tape

IndigoBlu Baroque Bauble (luuuurrrvvvee this stamp!)

Sentiment - from Papermania Classic Christmas by Stephanie Dyment

White on White

Now for my second card for today... just about get this one in before the challenge closes.

Cards in Envy challenge - White on White and it must be 4.25 x 5.5" flat enough to put in an envelope and mail.

Freshly Made Sketches - #221 who have given us this sketch

White on white is one of my favourite things to do.

Items in this card
Embossing folder - Embossalicious Regency Swirls
Sizzix Bigz die - Tags #2
Sizzix Sizzlits die - Congrats

Thanks for stopping by. Enjoy the rest of your weekend and hope to see you again soon

Hugs,

Sharon xx

Hello

Hello! Thanks for popping by.

Today is a good day for this blog. I've received an 'Honorable Mention' for a card submitted to the 52 Christmas Card Throwdown January Colours Challenge.  

Thank you so much ladies!

Your badge will be displayed on this blog with pride.

Today's card has had the elements lying around on my desk for a few days. I just couldn't get the composition right until a challenge popped up this morning.

I'm entering my card into 2 challenges today:

CAS Colours and sketches challenge #158 ( a sketch challenge). When I saw this layout I knew it was perfect for the elements that I had put together for this card.

Also entered into The Card Concept challenge 47 - Floral Elegance.  I was inspired by the colours and the flowers (which I used subtly on my background)

I think the style is probably closest to Clean and Layered. Well it seems to fit some of the definition:

• Clean lines - check
• Lots of layers - check
• Designer papers/ embossing- embossing check
• Embellishments/accents - not really, unless the fancy bits of the spellbinders die can be classed as accents
• Clean and fresh looking - check
• Some coloured images at times - not really
• White Space - check

Items used in this card are:

Versamark watermark ink pad

Adirondack Brights - Hazelnut ink pad

Stampendous Clear embossing powder
Sizzix Radient Rectangles Die

VAP Scrap sentiment

Stamps by Chloe - Feb004 Flower Background

Thanks so much for looking. I hope you'll pop by again soon

Hugs,

Sharon

Candle of Hope

Hello to you

Well, I'm fresh back from the Bryan Adams concert and a couple of fabulous days in Lisbon. He was brilliant.  Had an absolutely fantastic time.  I'd forgotten what fun it is to attend a concert. 

Today's card reminds me of the 'good old days' at concerts where people used to dig around for their lighters when the big ballad came on. All those flickering flames in the audience were so pretty. Of course, everyone uses their camera phone nowadays which is much better for health and safety, eh? Still looks just as pretty though.

So, back to flickering flames, today's candle flame card is for:
52 Christmas Card Throwdown challenge 03-16 where the theme is Christmas Candles / Lanterns
and Addicted to Stamps and more challenge #178 where the theme is Holidays

Now, lanterns and candles are not images I would normally use....so I scoured my stamps and came up with the only candle image I could find and used on the cream card at the bottom. I wasn't really happy with that card so I was delighted when I remembered getting this wonderful, wiggly candle stamp as part of the clarity design club. 

Much better. I really like this card, especially the stained glass window effect created by sponging through a piece of die cut card.

Items used:

Distress Inks: Squeezed Lemonade, Mustard Seed, Fossilised Amber & Spiced Marmalade

Stampendous Detail Gold Embossing Powder

Signo uniball gold pen (coloured in the candlestick)

Sizzix Medallion 4 - used to make the stencil

Stamps - Claritystamp

This is the first card I made. Still not happy with it, but posting it on here anyway.

Stamp: Woodware Traditional Xmas

Distress Markers: Squeezed Lemonade, Mustard Seed, Abandoned Coral, Festive Berries, Lucky Clover, Pine Needles, Faded Jeans, Chipped Sapphire, Picket Fence

Stardust Stickles

Memento Onyx Black Inkpad

Well, I suppose I should make one more quick card and then crack on with my daughters wedding invitations.

Thanks so much for dropping by. Hope to see you again soon.
 

Hugs,

Sharon

A new day dawns

Good morning.

Today it is time to inject a little bit of colour into this blog.

Had fun creating this one the old fashioned way using a brayer. Even remembered to do those 'wheelies' to avoid harsh lines and used a white pencil to capture a few highlights in the grass.

This card is for:

Less is More week 260 challenge where the theme is silhouettes.

Creative Fingers #101 challenge which is always anything goes

Unico challenge which is Anything goes with an option of Love

I would always reach for those sunset colours when making cards like this in the past, so breaking with tradition, this one has more of a day is dawning feel.

Items used in this card

Ink pad: Big N Juicy Hydrangea (think these are discontinued now), Versafine Onyx black

Sentiment Stamp: Papermania Midnight Fairy Tale

Silhouette Stamp: Indigo Blu Poppy Meadow

Pencil: Faber Castell Polychromo White

Hope you like it.

Well, that's it for a couple of days as I am off to Lisbon to see a concert. My next post should be on Wednesday.

Thanks so much for stopping by; I really do appreciate it.

Hugs,

Sharon xx

Freshly Made Sketches #220

How are you all doing today?  Is the weather being kind to you or is it perfect crafting weather where you are?

 

I've been busy crafting today even though we have been blessed with a lovely day here. 

 

You see, my daughter has finally agreed the design of her wedding invitations, so it'll be all systems go here later this week. Hence I've managed to get ahead with a couple of creations to post on here during the week.

 

Today's card is for the Freshly Made Sketches #220. It's a sketch challenge today and I have used it to make a sympathy card. 

 

Here's my card

 

and here's the sketch

The flowers are stamped and fussy cut but they are a little on the large side, so only 3 fit on the card without overpowering it too much.

 

 The sentiment was a little tricky to line up because masked portions of an old wooden stamp that reads in a single line 'With Deepest Sympathy' was used.

 

The black card is actually pearlescent which was difficult to capture in a photo although a few of the pearly sparkles did show up in this one.

 

The items used in this card are:

Stampendous embossing powder in Detail White Opaque

WOW embossing powders: Metallic Copper Sparkle, Metallic Brass Sparkle, Metallic Gold Sparkle

Flower stamp: Stamps by Chloe, Fabulous Shoe Collection

Sentiment stamp: Hero Arts wooden stamp called Deepest Sympathy.

 

Okay, that's all for today.

 

Thank you so much for stopping by and for all your lovely comments.

 

Hugs,

Sharon xx

Say it with Flowers

I think this is the first time I have entered the Clarity Stamp challenge, despite having 5 A4 folders jam-packed with their stamps, as well as folders with their stencils, masks and Groovi plates. 

 

Well, I have been out of crafting action for a couple of years or so, but I did carry on purchasing 'for the future' in that time....like you do (wink, wink, nudge, nudge).

 

The theme for the January Clarity Stamp Blog challenge is 'Say it with Flowers'.

 

This time the 'virgin' item used is the poppy stamp.

It's been soooooo long since I did some proper colouring in. Still need a bit more practice, but not a bad attempt after so long.

 

Items used in this creation:

Clarity Stamps: Poppies and field mice set, Thank you line, vegetation in background using a tree from the Trees, Moon and Bird set.

Clarity Masks: Hills & Mountains, Clouds

Embossing Powder: Heat It Up, Crimson Red

Distress Inks: Iced Spruce, Bundled Sage, Tumbled Glass

Distress Markers, Worn Lipstick, Barn Door, Festive Berries, Scattered Straw, Iced Spruce, Bundled Sage

Other items: Memento Tuxedo Black Ink, VersaMark Watermark Ink, Stencil Brushes

 

 

Well, I do hope that I have done the challenge justice.  I thoroughly enjoyed creating this card.

 

Enjoy the rest of your week,

Hugs,

Sharon xx

Orange Madonna

Hello everyone,

 

It has been difficult to fit crafting time in this week as all spare time has been spent cataloguing my dies. Ha ha. That's a pretty fancy way of saying that I finally got around to labelling all my dies, huh? 

 

Well it was possible to grab 5 minutes or so to create this card.

 

In keeping with the theme on my blog of using up those crafty items that have never seen the light of day....some of those distress markers that have not been put to paper yet were used to colour this stamp.  I still get a secret little thrill when I 'huff' on a stamp just prior to stamping it. Must be a bit weird, huh?

Not really happy with the layout. Think it may have been better to put the image off to one side on a C5 card size rather than a DL.

This card actually uses a discontinued stamp from Chocolate Baroque called Madonna and trees. See....that's how long I have had this stamp!

Distress markers used:

Squeezed lemonade

scattered straw

Mustard Seed

Spiced Marmalade

Ripe Persimmon

Fossilized Amber

Wild Honey

Carved Pumpkin

The faces used Picked Raspberry

Also used: Stardust stickles
and a Clarity Stamps sentiment

I'm entering this card into:
 52 Christmas Card Throwdown where they have a colour theme of shades of orange.

Inkspirational challenge - Challenge #100 which is a blast from the past colour challenge. I'm using challenge #23 where the colours were orange, starfruit and melon.

Addicted to stamps and more Challenge #177 Make your mark



Thank you so much for visiting

Hugs,

Sharon xx

Less Is More week 259

Hello to you.  Are you all well?
 

I've been organising all my dies in my craft room so have been a bit busy over the weekend. It's amazing what you can find in your stash that you had long forgotten about.
 

Some things were still in the packet!
 

Imagine that...spending money because you 'needed' to have a die or a stamp or whatever and then not using it.  Shame on me.
 

So, I've decided that this blog will be dedicated to using all the things in the craft room that have been ignored so far.
 

What do you think? Good idea? 
 

Amongst all the tidying, I did manage to create a couple of cards.
 

For today's make I had to get really creative because the challenge over at
 Less is More 

(Week 259) is the Kissing technique and I could not find a single solid stamp!
 

Pesky things must have gone missing in our relocation from the UK. 

The background blocks were made using the back of a rectangular clear cling stamp.
 

Worked a treat!
 

 

 

This card uses

Adirondack Inks in Willow, Juniper, Lake Mist, Peach Bellini & Hazelnut

Back of a clear cling stamp to create the rectangles

Kissed with a Chocolate Baroque swirl from the curly birds set (never used before)

Sentiment die is a tattered lace one. The flowers were cut off it.

Well that's it for today. Hope you like it.
 

And please don't be shy to leave a comment,
 and if you like what you see please follow me
because it is pretty lonely when you start a new blog.

Hugs,

Sharon

Peace at Christmas

Day 2 on the blog ...


It looks like this blog is now off the starting blocks.

I will not promise to post a card every day, but hopefully I'll be able to manage 2 or 3 a week.  Honestly, I didn't realise just how much I missed crafting until I started making a couple of cards again. I had great fun heat embossing this acetate!

Today's card is for the 52 Christmas Card Throwdown (01-16)
This week the challenge is a sketch....

Yes, Christmas IS a long way off, but it is never too early to start getting those cards together.

I hope I've done the sketch justice.

I've used Clarity Stamps throughout the card, all heat embossed with Stampendous detail gold embossing powder. 

Ah! Except for the tiny stars on the nativity image which were hand drawn with a Signo gold gel pen.

This is an 8" x 8" card and the front has been split with a piece of heat embossed acetate.

I hope you like it.

Sharon xx

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Black and Gold flourish

To anyone that is kind enough to drop by here, I say a very warm and welcome

Hello

Sadly I have been absent from the crafting scene for a few years (it drove me bonkers not being able to craft!) but I now have the time and a space to be creative again. Hurrah! Rather than start my old blog up again, I've decided to start a new blog.

This is my first post on this blog, so here goes: 

Here is a card that I have created for the Less is More week 258 challenge, where the theme is a one layer card with a flourish. 

It is a really simple card, but I like the way it turned out.

  

For this card, I made a corner background by embossing the Stempleglede 'Grunge Scroll' flourish in Wow embossing powder (Metallic Brass Sparkle).
This was overcoloured with Black Soot Distress ink marker and I wiped away the excess on the embossing with a paper towel.

The Waltzing Mouse 'Big Day Additions'  sentiment stamp was inked with Versafine Onyx Black.

Thank you for looking and I hope you will pass by again.

Sharon xxx