21 December 2013

Week 151 Merry Christmas Everyone!

Christmas is almost upon us and we would like to wish everyone a 
Happy Christmas 
and a 
Peaceful New Year.

Our challenge this time will last for two weeks and for it you may choose any of our previous challenges as your theme, but please tell us which one you are basing your work on. We're sure you must have a  favourite.
There is a list of our previous challenges on the page at the top of the blog.

Jen
 

My first card takes us right back to challenge number 1 with the colour theme black, white and pink.
I have used a fabulous stencil from Simon Says Stamp and opalescent embossing paste on the black card.  It's simply finished off with a Waltzing Mouse sentiment.


My second card uses the sketch from week 139 and again more embossing paste and another simon says stamp stencil.  The sentiment is cut from some embossed card and is also from Simon Says Stamp.



My first card is from Week 140, a White on White Christmas card.
Here I have simply used a Penny Black holly die teamed with a Stampin' Up sentiment from the Petite Pairs set.


This card takes its theme from Week 147. The wreath is die-cut from Memory Box dies. The sentiment is from Penny Black and the cardinal was made using the Stampin' Up bird punch, using a second 'wing' to create his crest. He was coloured using Distress inks and markers.
Week 107 here... Up in the air!
A seagull cut using my Silhouette teamed with a Paper Smooches sentiment.
Simples!

Feel free to enter as many times as you wish, but please let us know which challenge you are repeating!
We would like to thank everyone who has entered any or all of our challenges and wish you all a fabulous Christmas.
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20 December 2013

ShowCASe Week 149

Metallic + One Colour ShowCASe
We had some wonderful colour combos for our colour challenge!.
As ever choosing is always difficult, but here they are!

Vicky



Fabulous Colour Combo!

Debby



Striking

Karen



fabulous collage style


Aren't they all superb!
showCASed
Please take the Badge to display on your blogs and many thanks to everyone!
Join us tomorrow for a new challenge!

14 December 2013

Week 150 One Layer Card


How quickly the One Layer Card challenge 
seems to come around!
This time the subject we have chosen is

The 12 days of Christmas
Feel free to interpret this how you wish... but we would like to see some connection!

Tomorrow is my 40th Wedding Anniversary. How quickly that time has gone too!
Maybe that will give you the clue as to the inspiration for my first card this week!
Here we have Two Turtle Doves!
The images are from InkyDoodles Warm Winter Wishes set and I love the quirky look of them!
The sentiment is from Penny Black.

I had the same idea as Jen for my second card with the wonderful Penny Black set. Tonight I will be singing all about the Geese a-laying and the Lords a-leaping and the rest of them in my choir's annual Christmas Concert. That should be fun!




This week I decided to take the theme literally and use the fabulous Penny Black 12 Days of Christmas set.  Here are 3 of the cards of a set of 12 to show you.
I heat embossed the images in black onto crumbcake card stock and then coloured them with prisma pencils.  I finished the edges with either a corner chomper or a little bit of piercing.

We hope that you are enjoying your preparations for Christmas, but still find time to play along with us this week.
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13 December 2013

Sparkle Showcase!

Sparkle ShowCASe
We had some wonderful sparkling submissions for our Lucky Dip challenge and once more we would like to thank Gillian for being our Guest Designer for this special week.
As ever choosing is always difficult, but here they are!

What great colours and super CAS design!

Terrific use of embossing paste!

Gorgeous White on White with added sparkle!

Aren't they all superb!
showCASed
Please take the Badge to display on your blogs and many thanks to everyone!
Join us tomorrow for a new One Layer Challenge!

07 December 2013

Week 149 Colour

For our colour challenge this month we would like to see some 
Metallic Element plus One Other Colour 
of your choice.

We are delighted to have the Ribbon Girl
as our sponsor once more this month! DO check out the wonderful range of products available!

There are so many ways to add the metallic touch...embossing powder, charms, mirri card, embellishments of all sorts...the list is endless!
Here are our versions!

Jen

I took the challenge literally and went for metallic and a colour... you know I love my coloured card blanks!


For the first card I have used the new heart from Stampin UP and embossed in Ranger Distressed Gold embossing powder.  The banner die is from Simon Says Stamp and the sentiment Clearly Besotted.  
I love how with polymer stamps you can mould the stamp into shape to give a slight curved effect to mimic the shape of the die!


I've used embossing powder again for my second card but this time it's pewter from Stampin Up.  The butterfly is from best of butterflies and the sentiment from one of this years sale-a-bration sets.
It's finished off with a gunmetal coloured gem.


My first card has heat embossed Gold Lettering from a stamp set I bought at the NEC for £1. It has several Christmas sentiments, including that on my following card.
The dies are from Memory Box and the scrap of kraft card  (off cuts from my advent boxes) has been embossed with a Stampin' Up EF.


Simplicity itself, but something which I find pleasing!
Die cuts by Memory Box, popped on dimensionals with a simple sentiment embossed in gold.
I extended the length of the die cut to accommodate the whole of the sentiment, by cutting part-way through from one end, moving the die along a little and then turning it around and completing the cut from the opposite end. It's quite a useful trick!

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06 December 2013

ShowCASe Week 147


Showcase Week 147 - Christmas Card With A Bird
This week you made it so difficult to choose from the amazing entries.  Here is our showcase!

Aileen



Love the bold simplicity

Viv



fabulous colours!

Debby



These robins are just so cute

Margaret



Fabulous use of a punch!

 Thanks to everyone who submitted cards this week! You are all awesome!

showCASed

Please take the Showcase badge to pop on your blogs!
See you tomorrow for our new challenge!

30 November 2013

Week 148 Lucky Dip

This year November is another of those months which contain five Saturdays. To mark this we have another Lucky Dip Challenge and a special 
Guest Designer
This time it's 
Gillian
Gillian is a long-time, faithful contributor to our challenges and produces the most inspiring work!
In honour of her blog name, the theme we have chosen for our challenge this time is



This one uses two of my favourite things...squished flowers and Glamour Dust!
The butterfly is from Memory Box (I think) and the flowers are from a little punch! I find that a Zig pen is excellent for adding Glamour Dust, but I believe that here I used some double sided adhesive sheet on the front of the butterfly, adhered the filigree part and then glittered the spaces in between!

This was inspired by Jan (LTC) who used this free cut file from Bird last week. The little birds are from a Memory Box die and the sentiment from Stampin' Up.
Jen

I've used the same stamp set for both of my cards today... Stunning Snowflakes from Uniko Studio. Here are the cards...


My first card uses one of the 3 styles of snowflake and I used flitter glue and some distress glitter in rock candy (although you cannot really tell from the photo) for each snowflake.  The sentiment is from the same set and heat embossed in smoky slate embossing powder from Stampin Up.  It's simply finished off with some pearls.


For my second card I decided to use white embossing powder onto pool party card stock.  The sentiment is also from the same set and I was so surprised at the detail the small text picked up it was a delight... I hate it when the embossing is not crisp. I used another one of the snowflake designs and then finished it off with smooth gems from hero arts.
Christmas is coming... get out all that twinkle...we'd love to see you SPARKLE!
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29 November 2013

Showcase Week 146

Showcase Week 146 - Use Designer paper
We had a wonderfully varied selection of cards to choose from fir this week.
Here are our choices, we're sure there's something to inspire everyone.

What an innovative idea!

Great mix of papers from our sponsor this month!

We would like to have chosen Sarah (http://www.flickr.com/photos/sarahgray71/10984663123/)
but sadly we couldn't copy her picture here!
At least you know that we loved your card Sarah!

There's such a warm feel to this beautiful card!

Just fabulous!
If you haven't already visited these awesome blogs, do pay a visit, you won't be disappointed!
We had so many amazing entries, so that choosing a showcase was an almost impossible task as we could have chosen SO many. Thanks to everyone who submitted cards this week! You are all awesome!
showCASed
Please take the Showcase badge to pop on your blogs!
See you tomorrow for our new challenge!


25 November 2013

October Winner

If you are looking for this weeks challenge you can find it HERE!

October Winner Sponsored By 


You always make the decision so difficult but we hope you will agree that this LIMette is a worthy winner . So without further ado the winner is....

Sarah


Sarah has been blogging about 6 months and takes part with fabulous creations week on week and we hope you give her a huge congratulations.
If you email us with your choice of stamp and your address we will get your prize posted out to you!

Huge congratulations from us all!
Don't forget to pop the Winner's badge on your blog too!
Winner....

23 November 2013

Week 147

Today we have another chance for you to catch up on those 
Christmas Cards
but this time with the added proviso to
 Use a Bird!
What fun!
Don't forget to keep it CAS and it would be great if you could visit a few fellow participants to our challenge to leave a friendly word.

Jen

Before I go onto my cards I just want to thank you all for your patience whilst I've been off as I've not been able to visit many of you in the last few weeks due to various things.  You are all fabulous and life is finally back to normality ... at least until Christmas :-)

For my cards today I have used the many of the same ingredients to make both cards. The images are the fabulous Bobby Along images from this months sponsor Pink Petticoat!



For the first card I cute out the aperture using rounded rectangle spell binders and the placed this over the image I have coloured in with promarkers and copics. It's finished off with a little glitter and some lucky limeade twine from Stampin Up.


As I have turned into a frugal crafter, I decided to use the negative from the aperture from my first card for the second.  The image is also coloured in with markers and then simply mounted onto the off cut. A little bit of liquid pearls finishes off the berries.

Chrissie


For this card I used a scrap of designer paper, I'm not sure of the origin as it's been sculling around in the drawer for quite some time, but I think it may be Pink Petticoat, I'm sure someone will put me right. The little bird stamp is from Hero Arts, coloured with Copics. The tiny holly die cut is from an Impression Obsession, wreath set. I failed to scrawl the make of the sentiment on the carrier sheet of the clear set from which this comes, but if I find out I'll add details of it.
The stitching is merely faux stitching using a paper piercing tool and a Clear Star Gelly Roll pen.


The other day a friend came round to make her husband a 50th birthday card using my bits and pieces. I cut out this Memory Box tree to show her what die cuts were and how they were cut. She decided on a different design so I thought I would use this one for a Christmas card. The little bird is cut from a Martha Stewart border punch. The sentiment is from the same set as the previous card.
Lots of birds seem to creep into Christmas, there are a few more cards on my personal blog, and we can't wait to see what birds take flight from your blogs!
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22 November 2013

Showcase Week 145

As ever we were thrilled with the wonderful submissions for our One Layer Challenge
Here they are
Enjoy!

Such a wonderful inking effect!


What a wonderful bold design


Such a delicate feather!
Thank you ladies!
If you haven't visited already, do please visit these blogs and feast your eyes!
showCASed

Do please take the ShowCASe badge for your blogs !
See you tomorrow for another fun challenge!

16 November 2013

Week 146 Theme


Use Designer Paper in a CAS Way
There's a tendency to forget about Designer Paper when creating Clean and Simple cards, but there is a variety of ways in which it can be used... without covering large areas of the card base.
Let's see what you can come up with!
Here I simply chose to stamp onto some DP for both the image itself and the leaves, both stamps are by Jo Firth-Young.
The baubles or berries have been glazed but I'm afraid it's not apparent from this picture. IRL they are lovely and shiny!
The sentiment was cut on my Silhouette using CBGB Font.

This one incorporates DP for paper piecing, as a background mat and also for the sentiment...again cut with my Silhouette using the font CK_Alis_Hand_Official. There's another example card on my blog. I'm delighted when you come to visit me there too, thank you everyone, especially those who kindly leave a comment!

I'm in sunny Egypt this week so just one card to share with you... and it's using a fabulous Sneak Peek from a regular sponsor, Lili Of The Valley. These cute baby images are out later this month.


I've simply coloured the little one in with stampin write markers and cut him out.  A strip of designer paper from Stampin Up has been stitched and lay over a whisper white background.  The sentiment is also from LOTV.
I'll be back in the UK later in the week so cannot wait to see how you interpret this challenge.

We hope you'll have lots of fun with this one!
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