Feel Better Flowers

Time for a lovely colour challenge at CAS Colours and Sketches and look what we've got for you to play with this week....

Calypso Coral is becoming a favourite for me and I really enjoyed creating my card with these three colours. Remember they don't have to be exact SU colours, just the nearest you have and one other neutral only (plus black for stamped image outlines if you like) I chose cream as my neutral card base made from Naturals Ivory card stock.

I used a stamp set called Stippled Blossoms.  I'm not always in my comfort zone with flowers, but this two-step stamp set makes it easy. I used some stamped off images too, to give shades of the Calypso Coral and Certain Celery and the sentiment is from Sassy Salutations. I have stamped some more green leaves inside the card too (honestly!).

Happy Birthday Mynnette

Today is the birthday of one lovely lady!  Now, I've never met her but she's a good friend to me and so many other bloggers around the world and we want to say Happy Birthday Mynnette!To celebrate at Technique Time Tuesday we are having a Birthday Blog Hop and to have a chance to win some BLOG CANDY, here is the blog list for you.

• Technique Time Tuesday 
• Ellen In a World of Craft
• Karen  Simply Frenzied
• Die amelie VonPappe II
• Louise Cats Cards and Cupcakes (you are here)
• Karen P stamping in pINK
• Rocky Rocky's Crafting Blog
• Hayley Hayley's Paper Garden
• Nancy The Trinket Collector
• Julz Ribbons & Julz
• Tracey Serene Stamper
• Katy I Like to Cut and Paste
• Adrienne Crist - www.paperdivascraps@gmail.com
• Oh yes a blog hop with birthday cards for Mynnette and, of course, BLOG CANDY for one lucky winner! 

In order to have a chance to win, you need to visit each blog and leave a comment on each one, including this one. You will have until 5:00 PM EST on Thursday May 16th to leave your comment. One of the sites will be randomly chosen and we will randomly choose a winner from the comments on that site, using Random.org.  The winner will be posted Friday May 17th! 
Now, don’t forget to WISH MYNNETTE A HAPPY BIRTHDAY over at Technique Time Tuesday and be sure to check back on Friday for the winner of the blog candy!
Winner will have one (1) week to get in touch  to claim your prize.

Here is my card for Mynnette

Now, I didn't read the rules properly for the DT ( no real surprise there then!) and I forgot to use a recent technique from the blog. I love this card so much that I really want to give it to Mynnette, so I hope she'll forgive me.  It is a technique which I think always gives fab results - triple time stamping. I borrowed this poppy stamp from another crafty friend - isn't it awesome! I was going to colour the image but liked the black and white against the mirri card red, The butterflies were punched out and I've added little black gems.

Red and White

Red and white is such a classic colour combination for Christmas, don't you think, just imagine candy canes, Santa's suit, Swedish style decorations.  This is what we are looking for this week at 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown with our colour challenge, set by the very talented Mynnette.  I went for Christmas Stockings!

I must say that I love red and white. For me, it is so versatile, it can be homely, contemporary, classic, it suits cas very well, and I think my card is a bit of a mixed bag! The stockings are stamped from the Open Sleigh set onto white cs and then I've sponged the edges in red.  I cut out white daises, and gave them each a red gem centre, before layering them behind the panel.  The paper is gorgeous, and the little bow matches so well. Finally I added another circle, this time with the sentiment- love this one!
Do have a go at the challenge, just remember ONLY red and white (you are allowed black for a sentiment stamp in the rules), looking forward to seeing all those cards!

A Sketch For Baby

My friend's daughter is expecting a baby very soon now.  Our two daughters went to school together, so this is making me feel a bit old, but I love having an excuse to make a baby card. I used this week's sketch from CAS Colours and Sketches challenge blog but flipped it around

and made this little card

I sponged the oval 'pond' and stamped the little duck from Easy Events onto white, orange and pink card and then paper pieced the little guy together.  The buttons are from my Sweet Buttons embosslits dies and I've threaded some paper twine through them. I stamped on the little sentiment from the same stamp and then added the oval, onto which I had popped up the duckling and the umbrella on dimensionals. lots of white space to keep it clean and simple. Here's a close up

I think this card will be perfect for the CAS challenge at Addicted To stamps too.  By the way, we do 'know' that it's going to be a little girl, so I should be OK with my colour choice, if not I will have to change the buttons to blue ones!

Dahlia Fold Christmas

It's the first Tuesday in May and that means that there is a brand new challenge over at Technique Time Tuesday.  I love being on the DT for this challenge blog because each month we get to try out a different technique and, being a fairly new crafter, most of them are new to me.  This month we are doing dahlia folding.  The blog has a brilliantly easy to follow video tutorial here and all you need are some circles punched or die cut from your favourite double sided DP. I decided to make a Christmas card, as if I don't already have enough of these....

I chose some beautiful paper from SU and carefully cut out my circles, ensuring that I folded them all in exactly the same place, but even so they are not as identical as I'd hoped - I guess this would be much easier if both sides of the paper had a small all-over pattern. You need 8 and then you put them together to form the large circular 'dahlia' shape. I layered mine onto a piece of the same paper, and added a red bow.  Here's a close up - not sure if it looks like a bauble, or Christmas napkins but I like it...

I used some special cs with a silver stamped holly pattern  as my card base and heat embossed the sentiment onto a small tag.  I fixed this to the card with two gem stone brads.  I think it's quite classy and it's definitely something different for me.
Do have a look at the other cards from the DT, there's a whole range of styles.

Deer in the Moonlight

We have a new set of challenges for the month of May over at 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown and as usual we start with a sketch challenge.  Here it is

Now I have to admit that I've taken some liberties with this one, but I think that you should be able to make any sketch your own, and you can see the basic elements.  First and foremost I've chosen a square card base.  Then I've changed the central panel to a rectangle, but apart from that....

Can you still see the sketch?  I hope so. I masked off the circle before inking up the background with Indigo Island.  I then stamped the deer image and the 'frames' top and bottom in the same ink, for a monochrome effect.  The snowflake borders are also in the same colour and 2 matching gems add the finishing touch.
The cards from the rest of the DT will also give you lots of inspiration, as if you need it! Week after week we see such fabulous cards on this challenge and I can't wait to visit your blog.

Butterfly Silhouettte

It's May! Summer will soon be here (I hope it's sunnier than last year!) and for the challenge at CAS Colours and Sketches we have a fabulous colour combo for you

So Saffron is an interesting colour, a creamy, peachy sort of yellow - I didn't have any until my crafty friend Jacqueline kindly gave me some cs to use on my card.  If you don't have the correct shades or a fab friend to 'borrow' some off as I did, then use the closest you have.

I had this idea that I wanted the silhouettes to be below the DP layer and to show through, rather than mounting die cuts on top - much easier said than done! They are from a new SU set I've acquired - Serene Silhouettes and I actually thought that this stamp would be the last one I would use from the set, not the first! Getting them in the correct position was a nightmare! 

I used two butterfly punches to make my little flutterbys and added a few gems to their wings.

I haven't put a sentiment on my card yet as I'm not sure what I will use it for, could be Birthday, Thank you, Get well Soon, all will be fine, so I'll wait until I use it.
I found a new challenge blog whilst cruisin' the 'net, and I liked the idea.  It's called Cards In Envy and any card made for the challenges must fit in an envelope to go through the mail, so no more than 1/4 inch thick. This time the challenge is things with wings, so I will pop this card into the challenge over there.

Do 'flutter' over to the challenge blog and see what the rest of the DT have done with these colours.  Can't wait to visit your blogs too and see all your amazing creations.  Happy Crafting!