simply Sketched Sympathy

I have a really clean and simple Sympathy card to share with you and CAS Colours &Sketches. Once I'd found the stamp which felt right with the sketch it was a simple matter of stamping and colouring, I've even kept it one layer, how's that for simplicity?

The two important elements here are the diagonal and the reducing size. I've used Simply Sketched and Perfectly Preserved to create my card, I hope you can see the sketch

I used Promarkers to colour the image and my Stamp-A-Ma-Jig to get the positioning just right.

I'm not in need of a sympathy card, luckily, but I like to have a couple ready. I like this design very much, funny how sometimes it all just clicks so quickly into place. Usually I'm still working on my cards hours after I start!

Snowdrops in a jar

It's sketch week at CAS Colours and Sketches and our hostess this month, Patricia, has designed this awesome sketch - love that any non-rectangular shape -gives loads of possibilities



I must explain that I have moved the shape-hope that's OK. My shape has moved into the triangular bit, oh, and I've moved that around too, by switching the sides. Better just shut up and show you!

I was going to put the jar of snowdrops in the centre, but after playing with the design felt it looked better this way.  I do hope Patricia can still see the sketch well enough. Do you see the sparkle on the flowers?  It's my newest stash addition-Dazzling Details.  The snowdrop is a magazine freebie and I'm just so sick of all the bad weather I wanted to make a card inspired by Spring, so it was a perfect choice. The polka dot ribbon is olive green and matches much better in RL. The jar is stamped on acetate.

UPDATE- after looking at my fellow DT cards I had a brain wave and tweaked my card, what do you think? The colours are truer on this pic too, don't know why I didn't think of adding the sentiment before, it's from Happiest Birthday Wishes, in case you were wondering.

Harvest Corn

I saw a couple of challenges and thought I could well put them together using a stamp which I haven't inked before - always fun! So, using the fantastic colours from ColourQ

and the word cue from CASology

There is also a fabulous harvest photo inspiration challenge at Addicted To Stamps and More which I would like to enter this card in too.

The corn image and sentiment are of course from the set, Perfectly Preserved, and I just got hold of the matching dies, so cutting the cob out was a doddle! I've used paper from Stampin'Up too.  I rounded the corners of my tent fold card, cut out the banner and oval frames from Real Red cardstock and popped it all together. I am so pleased with how this turned out. I would have loved to have made a chicken card with these colours and inspiration from the photo, but, not having a chicken stamp, the corn is my next best offer.

Starfruit and Swallowtail

Chocolate Chip, Summer Starfruit and Crumb cake - they all sound good enough to eat, and together they make up this week's colour challenge at CAS-Colours and Sketches. I hope you like it!

If you don't have Stampin' Up colours just use the closest shades you have, dark brown, kraft and mustard yellow, I guess.

I am making Thank You cards for my colleagues at work.  We finish tomorrow, so just squeezed this one in in time. The stamp is the amazing Swallowtail, I love stamping this one over the edge (to be honest it's difficult not to!)and the punched shapes and mat are from Summer Starfruit cs. The sentiment comes from the set Perfectly Preserved.

Just for Robbie!

Oops! I was a little bit late posting this one - it's my DT card for the challenge at CAS Colours and Sketches, this week it's back to a colour challenge and we have these three lovelies for you....

Don't worry if you don't have the exact Stampin' Up shades, use your closest. Here's my card

I used my aqua painter to dilute the Primrose Petals into a beautiful pink sky.  When it was dry I stamped this image from a new set called Best Of Flowers, using the Gumball Green. I have been trying for a long time now to buy the original (retired) stamp of this image, called Upsy Daisy. I believe that it was only released in the USA and I love it so much, so when I saw this new mini version I just had to get it, and I'm glad I did!

I layered the image onto Cajun Craze card, then more Primrose petals.  Finally, I added cajun gems so that I could enter my card in the challenge at The Paper Players - for CAS with bling -just my thing!. The sentiment, from Perfectly Preserved, is bent to give more dimension and I've tied cajun raffia onto the two ends. You can see it all a bit better here

Must just tell you why I'm so late with this post.  My daughter and I went to see Robbie Williams last night in Manchester, about 3 hours from where we live - we got home very late (3am!) and so it was never going to happen this morning! The concert was AMAZING! We had so much fun, singing, dancing and he played all the best tracks from the past...brilliant. 

Rose, Turquoise and Sand

Hello! I have two cards for you today and that's because they were both inspired by the colour challenge at Addicted To Stamps and More

combined with the CAS one layer challenge at Make My Monday. Why two? Well, I made the first one and added a small piece of turquoise twine , then I actually read the post at MMM and found that they want not only no layers but no embellishments either! I tried remaking the first card without the twine but then another quite different card popped out!
Here they are

I really like this colour combo.  For the first card I used Perfectly Preserved stamp set and for the second a set called Charming, both from Stampin' Up. The sentiment on the second card is from Friendly Phrases, a really useful sentiment set, the sentiments being just a little bit different.

Candy Jars

Yay! I made it! I have been trying and trying to make a card for the Addicted To CAS challenge since it started and today, thanks to the half term holiday, I've done it. The cue word was CANDY, and I have a very sweet tooth so I love all kinds of sweets (except green ones - I make it a point never to eat green sweets!) .  I am really a chocoholic but this challenge didn't say chocolate it said candy so here goes....

I stamped the jar from Perfectly Preserved onto white card and covered it in double sided tape.  Then I sprinkled on the 'card candy' circles. Then I stamped another jar, this time in white onto acetate and cut it out.  I stamped the lid from the jar in violet and attached it to the acetate. I originally had one jar but felt it needed the second one too. I then stuck the candy jars onto a white card blank. The whole thing is very 3D!
The sentiment is from the Sweet Cake set and I think it's perfect for the project, I just added one each of the 'sweeties'. I am so pleased with the way this turned out.

Fruity Thank You

A Happy New Year!
I am thinking that this will be one of my first posts in 2013, as we have been running challenges over the festive period at CAS Colours and Sketches and this one is going live on 3rd January. Of course, in order to have a well earned break with my family and friends, including much eating, drinking,films, quizzes, family games and a Murder Mystery to solve, I have been posting in advance and this one is no exception.

It is a colour week again and the colours chosen include two of the new SU In-Colours for this year - Gumball Green and Summer Starfruit, along with Crumb Cake. Don't worry if you don't have these exact colours, anything close will do.

I have made another Thank you card as I think I will be needing a few of these and have used one of my favourite CAS layouts- the 9 squares, stamping the apple and pear images from Perfectly Preserved and the little sentiment from the same set.  I have matted them onto Crumb Cake CS and I used Naturals White for the card base and stamping. Just a couple of gems in each apple, like the pips!

Perfectly Preserved Thank You

Now that Christmas has been and gone it's time to send those thank you cards for all those lovely presents you have received.  My inspiration for my cards this year is the sketch over at CAS Colours and Sketches this week.  Here it is

For my card I have rotated the central shape as I wanted to use the jar and alium images from the Perfectly Preserved set. I stamped and cut out the Thank You sentiment and popped it up on dimensionals.

I used some more DSP from the Festival of Prints set - I love these papers, the only problem is deciding which side to use! Here I chose a paper which I thought complimented the stamped image best. I sponged the edges lightly with wisteria wonder
I am, of course, writing this post before Christmas as I won't have time to create any cards with all the excitement of the whole family at home. I hope that you have had a wonderful time and that Santa brought you some fab (crafting) gifts.

Vellum Vase

What to do with vellum!  It's so luxurious, especially with gold, and yet I find it difficult to find the correct adhesive to use with it. Well, using vellum in an autumn themed card is the challenge at Make My Monday this week.

I have used the vellum to make a vase for my lovely autumn chrysanthemums.  I cut it out using one of the dies from the Ornament Keepsakes set, trimming off the bottom. I stamped the stems using the Perfectly Preserved stamp set and the flowers are two step stamps from a stamp set called Reason To Smile. I quite like the rough over-stamping effect but I suspect you could get a sharper image using a Stamp-a-majig. I've used burgundy ink, overstamped in red onto Naturals White cardstock and matted the image onto burgundy card and then onto another sheet of gold vellum. The little sentiment is from a Kanban set, I forget the name. It's another clean and simple project, but there are lots of other ideas on the blog - go and have a look!

Perfectly Preserved Kraft

I am having a lot of fun with my new Perfectly Preserved stamp set and the challenge at cas-ual Fridays this week has given me another excuse to get it out again. This week the DT is challenging us to use Kraft card in our CAS designs.  I have used some Twitterpated DSP from SU too and the colours are also from Stamping up; Indigo Island, Lucky Limeade and Calypso Coral with a little crumb cake.

I made a sentiment banner, using a stamp from the Sweet Cake set and some kraft and lucky limeade cardstock, adding a couple of gorgeous brads as a finishing touch.  I'm making as many cards as I can as for Christmas I like to give the other ladies in the family a pack of hand-crafted cards for them to send to friends and family through the coming year.  As my daughter left home this year there is one more pack to make!

Life's a jar of Cherries

It was my birthday yesterday and I found a little time to craft so I made this card, especially for the simply Stamping sketch challenge.

 I really wish that I had a large oval die or punch as I think it would have been better, but sometimes you have to just make do and this was one of those times. I used my new stamp set again, this time stamping the jar in white onto acetate, I cut out two and stamped a spare on to act as a mask. Choosing the DSP was easy, all from SU's range Festival of Prints and I used some organza ribbon to add some detail. I stamped the cherries stamp through the mask to get the shape of the jar and then stuck the acetate over the top, then the bow and then a second layer of acetate adds dimension

The greeting is held on with two little brads and everything is layered onto a card made from Naturals White CS.
I didn't have time to post it yesterday as we all went out for lunch at a local pub and then had birthday cake and family movies for the rest of the day.  With one or two presents and cards thrown in it was a lovely day! Oh and even better, I'm having a crafting party on Thursday evening. The week just gets better!

Perfectly Preserved

We all love to get new stuff, don't we, and I'm no exception.  This week I got hold of a new set of stamps from Stampin' Up called Perfectly Preserved.  I have to admit that when I first saw these I was not particularly taken but I have seen so many lovely cards made using them I have changed my mind completely.  I have made a couple of cards as you can see.  The first one is called a Double Dutch fold, don't know why.

We made these cards at my Monthly craft group, run by my local Stampin' Up demonstrator and so the stamp set was straight out of the bag and inked up! The DSP is also from SU and I've added more inside along with a stamped sentiment.
My second card featuring this set is just a simple take on a jar of wild flowers

The card stock is Naturals White, which has a tiny fleck in it and the stamp set and paper are as before.  I added a piece of bakers twine around the neck of the jar before matting the card down.  Again,the sentiment is stamped inside. I have used the colour palette from Mynnette's DT challenge again, you can find the details here.