Thursday, November 27, 2014

Have A Sweet Christmas..CAS(E) this Sketch #101, CASology #123~Eat, TPE #278~Anything Goes

HAPPY THANKSGIVING to all my wonderful friends in the US!

Each and every one of you - through encouraging, warm comments you leave on my blog, or personal notes that bring me immense joy -  has enriched my life.  I am abundantly blessed and immensely grateful to be part of such a welcoming community.

I wish you a day filled in the companionship of family and friends, sharing a wonderful meal and rejoicing in this day of giving thanks to all those who touch your lives.

Because you have plenty to do today (turkey dinner...I'm just a wee bit envious! Oh, who am I kidding: I'm totally envious!), I'll skedaddle out of the road, and send you off for a quick flip through my cards.   My theme this time: treats!  Yayyy for gingerbread houses and candy canes!

My set of cards is heading off to CAS(E) this Sketch #101






Little gingerbread scenes (Clearly Besotted), tucked into circular windows; two with sponged skies, two left white...





Once again: Happy Thanksgiving!  Hugs to all!!

Thank you so much for dropping by; your visit and comments add sparkle to my day!





Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Sweet Tweetings...ATSM #123~Holiday, Lawnscaping Challenge #94~Count Me In

Hello...
Time's a flying and I'm here, along with Team B of ATSM, with some inspiration cards for this week's Addicted to Stamps and More #123~Holiday.

My cards mark the debut of my Lawn Fawn Winter Sparrow's and Season's Tweetings combination. Although my colouring needs working (Prismacolour pencils and gamsol...), these little birdies are totally adorable.  I paired them with some Bazzill Basics Christmas paper for background and ta dahhhh...three cards in fairly short order (if you don't count the extraordinarily long time it took to figure out this simple layout!  Yeesh!).  These will be part of the stash I'm making for my mom to sell at the Christmas Bazaar at the seniors' residence where she volunteers.




This one is heading off to Lawnscaping Challenge #94~Count Me In. If you look closely (but not too closely, as my colouring needs work), my background paper is sprinkled with numbers.


With Christmas only a month away (oh my...), I know you're caught up in the busy-ness of the season, which I'm sure includes making holiday-themed cards.  Why not share a few in the gallery? We'd love to be inspired by what you create, too!  

The winner will receive 3 digis from

Check out the other DT cards; I know you'll be dazzled, as I am, with what they've created! 

Thanks so much for dropping by; your visit and comments add sparkle to my day!


Friday, November 21, 2014

Christmas with a Twist...Inkspirational Challenge #70~Designer's Choice, Stempelküche-Challenge #7: Strukturpaste, TIME OUT Challenge #19, Uniko Studio Challenge #16, CAS(E) this Sketch #101

Hello!  Weekend! Yayyy!!!

We have a lovely surprise for you today with Inkspirational Challenge #70! Our challenge was chosen by our DT member Kim  and she, and our DT member Sandie  have put up a prize for the randomly drawn entry that has used the optional twist, which is: Christmas card/project/tag with no red or green.


Today, we're joined by the fabulously talented Janet, who has designed an incredibly stunning Christmas card featuring the optional twist.  The DT also has a set of cards to spark your inspiration:


I got a wee bit carried away (as always) with the optional twist and with dabbling with some very new to me techniques.

My first card is totally inspired by Jennifer McGuire. Recipe:  texture paste, distress inks (only three..*whew*), perfect pearls for shimmer, embossed sentiment.  Seriously, if I can do this, so can YOU! Get this stencil and emboss/ink away. The ones I 'practiced' with in traditional colours...oh my!  I'll share those soon.



I also appear to have a 'circle' thing going on...here's two.  Recipe: embossed stars, sponged background (more blue in real life..), a sweet image, simple sentiment, a snowflake cut from glitter paper and no red or green. Sweet!



Now for the important info: Prize details:...



£10 Gift Card Uniko Studios
Bo Bunny die cuts
Bo Bunny rub-ons
Bo Bunny dimensional stickers

A TCW(The Crafters Workshop) stencil

3 different ribbons

The winner will be randomly drawn from all entries that make a Christmas card with the twist of no red or green. We will be choosing  a top pick/s from this challenge and inviting one entrant to join us as a Guest Designer.  See you in the gallery with your Christmas themed cards, with the optional twist of no red or green! 

I'm sharing my Holly card over at:




My penguin and snowman are off to:



Thanks so much for dropping by; your visit and comments add sparkle to my day!





Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Christmas Wreath...Festive Friday #44, TIME OUT Challenge #18

Good Morning...

I'm  up early  and good thing, too, since once again, doors to a couple of challenges are near closing. I missed Merry Monday earlier in the week (despite having the post ready...yeesh!), so I don't want to miss out on three I have my eye on.

Today, two cards to share over at TIME OUT Challenge #18, where we're invited to translate elements/details from this cozy, warm photo into our cards (I'm loving that room....)


as well as Festive Friday #44, with these lovely images sparking ideas.



My two cards are yes, simple, but I'm smitten with them. Gotta love it when awesome products (Clearly Besotted and Simon Says) do all the work! I just 'cut, stamp, assemble' and presto.... something pretty emerges! 



(Apologies for the extra-wonky photos.  Because daylight is at a premium - the sun falls  below the horizon by the time I'm home from work at 4:00pm - I took these to work with me and did my best to get photos from the window ledge in my colleague's office. I 'thought' they were straighter...oh well!)

You'll be seeing more of this stamp/die image 'hanging around' my blog...so pretty!

Thanks so much for dropping by; your visit and comments add sparkle to my day!



Sunday, November 16, 2014

Festive Trees...MUSE Challenge #93, CASology #121~Festive, Moxie Fab World~Tree-mendous Tree Challenge in the Moxie Fab World

....Yes, I'm back.  I promise to be quick *grin*

Some new Lil' Inkers dies 'happened' to land in my mailbox.  With a tree; specifically a baubled tree.  An incredibly cute baubled tree. Four more cards for my mom's Christmas Bazaar.

Simple and easy; nothing fancy pants whasoever.  Two are paired with an embossed background and Simon Says Christmas die, cut from glitter paper; two are paired with patterned tree background paper, and the Christmas die, cut from my amazing foil paper. Tiny silver gems are added as 'ornaments'.

My cards are heading off to MUSE Challenge #93, where we're inspired by Therese's oh-so-unique Christmas tree seen below:


Therese, you will be missed over at MUSE...immensely!

I'm also sharing them at CASology #12~Festive


and the Tree-mendous Tree Challenge in the Moxie Fab World 



Thanks so much for dropping by; your visit and comments add sparkle to my day.






Silver and Blue Ornaments...Merry Monday #134~Ornaments in Silver/grey and Blue; The Pink Elephant #276~CAS, My Perfect Life~Festive 48, Week 45

Hi again...I'm back with my cards for the now closed (gahh...I had this in draft form for three days and still didn't make it in time!  Disorganization intervention required!)   Merry Monday #134~Ornaments, in Silver/grey and Blue.  That's okay: three more cards heading to the stash for my mom...


I'm also sprinting these over to The Pink Elephant #276~CAS


,Marina's My Perfect Life~Festive 48, Week 45 (she's nearly at her target: Awesome!), and cards 1 and 3 to Virginia's View Challenge #9~All Things Metallic



Card 1:

Card 2:

and this one, inspired by Merry Monday guest designer Laurie:


Thanks so much for dropping by; your visit and comments add sparkle to my day!



Mixed Media Medley of Tags...Loll's 12 Tags of Christmas~Mixed Media Tag Event, STAMPlorations November Challenge~Stamps & Layers

Happy Sunday...and oh, what a crafting weekend it's been! My husband is out of town, so I had the run of the kitchen (aka: my crafting zone), and I took full advantage. No cleaning up...until tomorrow *grin*

Over the past few days, I'm sure many of you have stopped by Loll's blog,  Stamping with Loll~12 Tags of Christmas Mixed Media Tag Event,



to see what she, and her incredibly talented friends, have shared by way of mixed media Christmas tags. Nothing short of stunning creativity to be found.  I've been tempted often to dabble with mixed media - even invested in a couple of products I have no clue about using (gesso, for example) - but it wasn't until Loll's series began unfolding that incentive to get 'inky' was fully sparked.  Saturday was my 'mixed media' tags only day', (the Christmas cards had a day off...), and although I didn't make as many tags as I'd hoped (being a mixed media novice, and all), I think I'm verging on becoming addicted. Just a little bit. There's so much to learn, but...I've made a first step.

Now, before I share my 'attempts,' a few things to be clarified:

  • All my tags are exponential cases of others' work, as you'll see and as I've 'cited', which means
  • that my sharing today is simply 'because'.  Loll, no need for you or Judge Jeremy to count me as a contender for your challenge.  I'm here because YOU and your guest designers inspired me to do something totally beyond my comfort zone (not to mention my ability zone!), and I enjoyed every second of creating my tags....even when I was filling up Mr. Recycle Bin's tummy. All the learning will, I hope, translate into cards/tags that are more original down the road. For now, I only want to prove that: I did it!! Yayyyy....(I do, however, have two tags I'm sending off to a challenge 'for reals', because those two were 'kinda sorta' more of  'my' figurin' and thinkin' *grin*

With that said...here's my journey. A while back, I spotted and consequently fell in love with Jill Foster's tag here.  I ordered the dies through my 'local' distributor in Edmonton, and proceeded to wait...and wait....and wait for them to arrive. Nearly two months later (something went awry with my request, but all is resolved), I picked up my goodies, along with some gesso (and other things...she twisted my rubber arm. Again.) on our most recent trip. I fully expected 'not' to tackle the tag until my mom's cards were done, meaning December.

Enter Loll's inspiration.

So, I created my tag yesterday, following along with Jill's video. Here it is:


Of course, I missed a few things along the way (let's not talk about my wonky gesso zig zags and drab "Joy" ticket...), but still...it turned  out okay-ish.  In fact, okay-ish enough that I forged ahead and 'practiced' by creating three more.  Boring ticket switched for word dies, and my snowflakes are cut from some new glitter paper (local distributor enabling...again).  I wish I could show you the twinkle...


I was 'feeling the muse', and carried on, creating five more (one of which I can't get to photograph properly. It's blue and rather pretty, but I lost the daylight before I could get it on camera. I'll try again tomorrow and add it at some point down the road...).

This tag: sponged with two shares of red, zig-zag stenciled, stamped with a 'Fa la la' stamp (hard to see here), spritzed with pearlized water (another new to me), and then decorated with a triple cut, inked, pearlized and red-stickles berries Holly and Berries die cut (Penny Black, as is the poinsetta - Joyful - above).

 Next up: more red ink sponging, over an embossed word stamp, paired with a duo of glitter paper cut trees, stickle decorated and an embossed, sponged sentiment. In real life, this one is rather cute.


My last two tags are heading off to STAMPlorations November Challenge~Stamps & Layers



Again, sponged with two red inks, stamped the Vignette: Christmas block stamp with a third red ink, and added my die cuts. The poinsettia petals are glitter paper with some stickles; the leaves are sponged with Delicata gold, the sentiment embossed, then sponged. The second tag - same background - with the holly and berries, again, triple cut for dimension, red stickle berries and pearlized water spritzed.


Whew....enough from me! Thank you, Loll and guests for this opportunity to try something new! I'm going to pass these along to my mom, to attach to some of the chiffon cakes (she is the QUEEN of chiffon cakes!) she'll be baking for the Christmas Bazaar. I think cakes and tags will go quite well together!

Thank so much for dropping by; your visit and comments add sparkle to my day!