CAS Photo Inspiration

It's the CAS team's day to interpret our 5th week photo over at House of Cards Challenge for you today - and for a CAS card maker and first glance it may seem like a busy photo to interpret but that's the joy of challenges they make you look at things differently.  I chose to use the colour and pattern of the wallpaper and the lovely black oval chairs and this is what I turned the photo into:

I used a strip of patterned paper that had a similar feel to the wallpaper and edged it with black across the middle of a 4x4 card.  I die cut a white oval to stamp my cupcake and stand from my new
Wplus9 Sweet Treats and matching fillers sets from Make the Day Special in the UK.  The stand is actually gold IRL but it doesn't show up on the photo - that was my nod to the gold leaves on the wall paper.  I opted to keep to just 3 colours (plus the white base) so stamped my cupcake and flower in orange to match the background.  A thin black mat to echo the chair shape was all that was needed to finish off the design when paired with a simple black greeting beneath (Wplus9 Strictly Sentiments 1)

So come on folks - get stretching those CAS design muscles and let's see what you make of it.

Anniversary Dachshunds

I LOVE paperpiecing - it's one of my favourite techniques and I love TSG stamps so this week's challenge at their blog was a no-brainer for me!  http://tsgclearstamps.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/tsg218-paper-piecing.html

I used the "new to me" Doxie with Moxie set which I just adore as if I could have a dog it would be a cute little Dachshund!  I stamped the city scape in the background with wet cement ink and added a washi tape road to stand my doggies on.  I stamped them onto copic colouring card and coloured with my copics.  I did the same for their outfits and then pieced them on top.  The heart got the same treatment plus glossy accents.  The sentiment is from PTI (just cos it fit the gap best!) and the clouds are from Clearly Besotted - the hearts added to the romantic feel.  I finished with liquid pearls for the girl dogs necklace and deliberately placed them so their little wagging tails overhung the edge of the card.

Waltzingmouse Inaugural PJ Party!

Are you in your PJ's and ready to party?  I'm not a PJ girl but I do like a Pajama party - especially if we get ice-cream for a midnight feast ;-)  http://waltzingmouse.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/wms-pajama-party.html

I played with a couple of the "get ahead" challenges last week - Firstly "Tickle Me Silly" - to make a card with one of the new feather sets.  I went with Fine Feathers and tried a layered vellum technique I learnt in the online card class I just took.  I stamped two large feathers in wet cement shadow ink onto white cardstock and then added a layer of vellum.  I stamped the smaller feathers from the set but the inks I chose were too pale so I embossed them - one with "cricket" and one with teal opaque and teal glitter powders.  I added a matching sentiment with pewter powder and hid the glue line where I attached the vellum with some strands of Waltzingmouse twine.

I hadn't had enough of feathers though, so decided to use Funky Feathers to enter the "In the Background" challenge.  I stamped two rows of the solid feather using the new pistachio ink from SU to create a chevron pattern.  I stamped over the bottom row with the matching open feather stamp with versafine deep lagoon and repeated it on top row with versafine olive.  I stamped a couple of elements from Country Labels 14 onto a corresponding green scrap and die cut before adding a deep teal border.

Right the party must have started now - time to see who's in their PJs!

Bootiful!

I haven't had much time to play in my craft room this weekend as I spent the day yesterday in Bakewell learning the basics of breadmaking.  If you know me, then you know that cooking is as big a passion as crafting (hence my blogging name - combining crafty and delicious) but no matter how hard I've tried, I've never been able to make a loaf anyone would want to eat!  Some very close friends bought me this wonderful gift experience for my 40th last year and I finally managed to get on the over subscribed course this weekend.  As you can see below - it was a huge success - and I finally know where I've been going wrong so hope to put my new found skills into practice with decent additive free bread from now on.  I'll be doing a post about it in more detail on my foodie blog in due course if you're a foodie too and want more info http://craftilicious-thecraftycook.blogspot.co.uk/

I have managed to make a quick little card for this week's Less is More challenge though - a photo inspiration based on a pair of killer black heels from Pinterest.  http://simplylessismoore.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/week-130-pinterest-picture-inspiration.html

I went not with shoes but with boots as I love this image and haven't used it yet.  I stamped it in black twice and embossed with clear powder to get the patent look like the shoes from the inspiration picture.  After fussy cutting both, I glued one flat onto a 3x3 card, and then popped the second up a little using pinflair gel.  I stamped a sentiment from the same set - Bootiful Occassions by Stampin Up below and then hand drew a border with a fine liner.

Gold Camp

So yes, I am Summer Card Camp 2 participant, and this card is inspired by Jennifer Rzasa's die cutting technique, and yes, that was back in week one and yes, it's now week 3 and the class is almost over - did I mention I'd been busy this month?!?!?   I've been watching the videos each evening whilst taking a bath to cool down in the heat (with my laptop perched on the toilet lol!) but I've not had time to try any of the cool stuff I'd learnt - until now - so I'm playing catch up this weekend hopefully!

This is also my entry for this week's CASology challenge where the cue word is gold - I thought making a golden wedding card would be the perfect opportunity to play with the double-die-cutting on my letters.  The dies are memory box are were a half price bargain at Summer Crafting at Doncaster the other weekend - cut from gold card stock, and then I cut a bit out of each letter with the next letter in the word at different heights to add interest.  I gold embossed the word wedding (PTI quilled elegance) and the edge of the kraft panel before mounting to a kraft base card. 

PTI Fruits of Summer Blog Hop

Today is the PTI Blog Hop with a theme based on the colours of summer fruits - I selected the citrus based shades above and created a summery Hello card:

I used the Funky Florals set and did some simple stamping and masking using butterbar and orange soda inks with SU's Pistachio and Gumball Green on the centres and sentiment which is from Trendy Trees.  Very simple, very quick but also very effective ;-)

Happy Hopping!

Happy Birthday Hubby!

It's my husband's birthday today so naturally I have a card to share ;-)   I made it using one of my new Lili of the Valley stamps as my hubby is a bit of a petrol-head (despite only learning to drive some 10 years ago) - quite often I come in to find the TV on "Dave" with a Top Gear re-run so I thought this card would suit him!

I stamped the image and coloured with copics before cutting with oval nesties and mounting onto green to bring out the British Racing Green of the car.  The DP is from a 12 x 12 pad and I thought the vintage motors added nicely to the theme.  I selectively stamped the word "wonderful" from a Hero Arts stamp and "Husband" from Waltzingmouse onto the DP and then embossed them in green.  Finished with a simple happy birthday (Hero Arts) embossed in white on a black flag banner.

I am going to enter this into this week's Here Come The Boys Challenge http://herecometheboysblogchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/challenge-56-anything-goes-for-menboys.html

Clearly Dotty!

It's been one of those months this month so my card making and blogging has been decided below par!  I promise to try and get back on track asap.   I have realised that I nearly missed the second challenge for Clearly Besotted and that just won't do so here is "something" that fits the challenge - not my most creative design but it does show off the lovely new sofa stamp I got recently.  http://stampingsharing.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/clearly-besotted-challenge-2-seeing.html

I very simply stamped the dotty sofa from "Time to Relax" onto a white scrap with bright blue ink and die cut it with the matching die.  Onto my base card I stamped the lamp and dotty shade from "Shine Bright" and added a sentiment to match.  The die cut was placed on top, a little corner rounding and some old dotty DP with more corner rounding and you have a card - not the most original, but hey, it's too hot for originality!

You've still got a few hours to join in I believe......

Handmade Flowers

That's the theme at Less is More today and it just so happens that I had a card ready to go to meet the theme - a recent unblogged failed submission to Paper Crafts magazine so I thought I'd share it here as despite the failure I was pretty pleased with it!

The flower is cut on my cameo - the cut file gives you several layers which I just curled with my fingers and layered up.  The centre normally is a quilled piece but my centre is actually loose leaf tea!  The challenge for the submission was to use household items on your card.  I mounted the flower onto a double banner and stamped a PTI greeting on top and tucked a couple of die cut leaves (spellbinders) behind.

Right time to link it up - even with a ready made card I bet I still don't beat Lizzy ;-)

Oh, and in case you missed my news yesterday - do check out my guest blog post over at Waltzingmouse Stamps as I was honoured to be their Featured Friend this month  http://waltzingmouse.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/july-friendly-featuretara-caldwell.html

Waltzingmouse Friendly Feature Guest Spot

I'm SUPER excited today as I have the honour of guest blogging over at my favourite stamp company as I'm this month's Waltzingmouse Friendly Feature :-D

This is just a little sneaky peak at one of my projects - if you want to see the whole 9 yards then you need to hop-skippity-jump right on over to the Waltzingmouse Blog - can't wait to see what you think!

Punning in Neon

I'm combining a couple of challenges this morning in a bid to quick start my mojo which has disappeared at a most inappropriate time as I have a lot of cards to make for upcoming events this week and a little something I can't tell you about just yet....

So, I decided to combine this week's Less is More shaped card challenge with CASology's cue word of neon and that resulted in a punny take on a get well card:

EDITED - Whoops - I'm blaming the heat for totally missing that LIM is one layer this week as well as shaped - sorry - will try and do an entry that meets the rules later....

I used my new Castaways set from The Alley Way Stamps - I've been after this set for ages but didn't want to pay the dreaded US import duty and couldn't find a UK supplier.  What I did find however is the very lovely Carolin from Mia's Stempelkuche over in Germany who sells the whole range of TAWS stamps (plus a whole lot of other great stuff!)  I ordered from her last week and received my stuff within 3 days from Germany which is great and the postage is very reasonable and best of all cos she's in the EU - NOT DUTY TO PAY - hurrah!   The site is in German but it's pretty easy to navigate and Carolin speaks perfect English and is happy to help via email if you get stuck.  Well worth a look I'd venture.

Anyhow, back to the card - I rubbed my HA neon green inkpad onto white scrap card and then stamped the anglerfish in black on top and fussy cut it out.  Adding paper pieced teeth and eyes on top.  I embossed the sentiment in fluorescent tickled pink ep from WOW and the embossed the light in yellow before sticking the fish on top.

I cut the whole thing out with my largest nestie to give a cute little round card.

Right - time to be creative whether my mojo is ready or not.

Catch you later

More Feathers

I'm so glad that feathers are still a big trend at the minute as I really love them, especially in stamped form, which is why I just bought another two sets of feathery stamps from Waltzingmouse.  I haven't had much time to play with them yet so remedied that last night with this week's sketch from http://casethissketch.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/case-this-sketch-35.html

I kept it quite simple and made a one layer get well card using the largest feather from the Fine Feathers set along with one of the matching sentiments in what I think is my favourite font ever!  I simply inked it up in pale blue and then feathered in some teal ink using the momento brush pen.   I used the fine nib to then colour the centre of the stamped image.  I stamped the greeting over the top in smokey grey and then carefully added some drops of blue and green from my spray inks (I find dropping safer than spritzing!)

Cherry Feathers!

So today is my first ever DT post for the Clean and Simple Team over at the new challenge site House of Cards.   What's that you say - what is this great challenge of which you speak?  Well my friend, where have you been these past months?   The House of Cards is a genius little idea of a challenge where each month we set a theme, for example this month it's a colour theme based on the delicious bowl of cherries above, but rather than a month long challenge, we change teams each week and ask you to make a card in a different style but still based on the ongoing theme - geddit?   Cool huh!

I am on the CAS team and we're up this week with a whole goggle of gorgeousness to inspire you so do make sure you check out the inspiration from my teamies http://houseofcardschallenge.blogspot.co.uk/

Despite the colour palette featuring 3 of my favourite shades of teals and aquas I decided I really wanted to stretch myself so I chose to use not just 3 of the colours (as per the challenge) but to add the delicious cherry reds too.  After an awful lot of failed attempts with stamps and inks, I finally settled on paper and buttons and here's my cherry-feather card:

I cut the 3 feathers on silhouette cameo from 3 different shades of blue card.   I stamped the sentiment using stamps from Clearly Besotted's Fancy Feathers set and mounted the white strip onto bright cherry red.  I mounted the whole white panel onto some dark burgundy cardstock and finished with 3 cherry red buttons.

I hope that I've inspired you to play along in our first CAS challenge at House of Cards and can't wait to see what clean and simple designs you can come up with based on our cherry colour scheme so hop on over and play along - you've got all week  http://houseofcardschallenge.blogspot.co.uk/

50 Shades of Grey

I had to laugh when I saw this week's challenge at Less is More this week - 50 Shades of Grey - both from the cheeky book angle and also from the thought of having to use 50 shades of any colour on a card!  http://simplylessismoore.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/shades-of-grey-week-127.html  As it turns out though, we only need use 2 shades, phew!

I decided to go with both the colour and book from which it came as my theme with this somewhat cheeky little number "greytie" from Saturated Canary Digi stamps:

I used a dark grey base card and cut some thin strips of medium and light grey card stock and stuck them at the bottom to add a little striped interest.  I coloured the image with copics and fussy cut her out (drawing in some details to the base card when I snipped them off!) and stuck her over the stripes.  I finished with a sentiment from Mama Elephant stamped in versafine smokey grey to up my grey-count to 8 including the copics on the tie.  The sentiment reminded me of the wonderbra adverts from the 90s - you know - the "Hello Boys" ones that stopped the traffic.  

Right, I think that's enough titillation for a Sunday evening - back to the White Queen.....

Anniversary Mojo

This week is Mojo Monday's 300th sketch anniversary and as it's my 7th wedding anniversary today, I decided to use their sketch to create my husbands anniversary card. http://mojomonday.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/mojo-monday-300-celebration.html

I started with a page from an old novel and added a little distress ink to even out the brown edges.  The tiny heart DP is from the kneehighs pad from Basic Grey.  For the circle element I die cut one of my favourite shapes from memory box (sorry the actual name of the die escapes me) from black to try and tone down the girlie a little (epic fail but thankfully my hubby is understanding enough to like the card anyway!)  Both the sentiments are from Papertrey Ink's Sending My Love (I adore this set)  For the focal image I selectively inked using the tip of dew drop pads and stamped onto a die cut round cornered square (actually the inside of a polaroid frame I kept from ages ago)  The additional sentiment I embossed in red onto vellum (it says I always knew it was YOU)  The red heart is cloud clay pushed into a heart mold and then embossed (2 layers) when dry.

All the bits from this card came out of my scraps box (well except for the base and the book page) so I'll be making a rare second appearance in the snippets playground this week - hope everyone's got their sunscreen on as it's going to be warm on those swings ;-)  http://pixiescraftyworkshop.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/pixies-crafty-snippets-playground-week_30.html

My hubby and I are off to the cinema tonight (it was our first date so it's a traditional anniversary activity) and then as he has a VERY rare Saturday off work, we intend to take advantage of the equally rare appearance of  "summer" tomorrow and take ourselves to the coast for the day.   Hope you all have a lovely weekend too.

Happy 4th July

I thought the cue word at CASology of "fireworks" was the perfect reason to make a card to honour all my stateside friends who are celebrating Independence Day today - Happy 4th July folks - hope you're rocking the celebrations.  http://casology.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/week-51-fireworks.html

I used the recent release from Waltzingmouse - USA 1776 and stamped lady liberty onto some blue card with versafine black ink.  I then used two of the different firework stamps and stamped the over a mask of liberty to put them in the background using red, white and blue glitter embossing powders to stick to a traditionally patriotic theme.  I finished with a simple sentiment from the same set in red ink popped up on dimensional foam.

TSG Case a Trendsetter

This week's challenge at There She Goes Stamps is a cool one - they want us to case a trendsetter, but more specifically to case one of the cards they made for last weeks' release  http://tsgclearstamps.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/tsg214-case-trendsetter.html

I chose the really super cute card Wendy P made with the new Pandamonium set as I really loved the colours and the watermark stamped background.   I decided to do a pretty close case of it, just switching up the stamp set for one of theirs I already own.

I used Scentsational with one the uber-cute skunks as my focal image and the scent bottle became my water marked background card.  I added a matching sentiment from the same set which is so full of great puns I found it hard to pick one!

Wedding Muse

I really loved the card Anita made for this weeks' MUSE challenge and new immediately I wanted to make a wedding card based on it http://musecardclub.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/muse-challenge-23.html but I had such a busy week last week that I only got time to muse it on today so again I'm playing last minute Mable on linking it up!

I changed the black lines for score lines then cut a variety of different sized hearts using my stampin up punch and simon says die from silver glitter paper, teal card, eau-de-nile dp and a page from an old Catherine Cookson novel!   I finished with some silver and teal gems and a sentiment from Waltzingmouse's Big Day Additions set stamped in tide pool ink.

All the paper was out of my snippets box so I'll link it up as my entry into Di's snippet challenge - not that I made much of a dint on my stash!  http://pixiescraftyworkshop.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/pixies-crafty-snippets-playground-week_30.html