CASE Challenge #18

I've missed a few challenges I normally do; it's been so hectic prepping for Christmas and trying to make all these handmade presents...nice idea but it's time-consuming. Fun, though.

CASE #18 is inspired by this card by Nina. The layout is simple and elegant and that flower is just gorgeous. I love the emboss-resist technique with stamped "circles" and script. These are the elements I chose to CASE.

Here's my challenge entry - French Love :-)

It features both dry-emboss and heat-embossed + emboss-resist technique (how many times can you use a word in a sentence?). The dry-embossed fleur-de-lis has metallic rub-ons on it (red and silver). The whole card has been sprayed with perfect pearls...as yet another layer....just for fun.

There are also multiple layers in terms of paper, ink and language (amour, love).

inks: Versamark, Tim Holtz distress inks - Fired Brick, Black soot
stamps: Stampin Up Artistic Etchings, Tim Holtz (LOVE)
others: Tim Holtz heart mask, Cuttlebug Cut & Emboss, SU ribbon

Thanks for stopping by and hopefully you've been inspired to do a bit of crafting. :-)

CASE Challenge #16

It's  Heather's  last week at CASE and this is the inspiration card for challenge #16. I really love Heather's style - so clean, simple, elegant.

My entry has been inspired by the following elements:
1. the neutral background
2. scallop circle which extends beyond the base
3. cut-outs (3D)
4. colouring
5. ribbon
6. simple sentiment

Yup, you can say I was inspired!

Here's the product:

 I used Stampin Up cardstock and inks (Crumb Cake, Very Vanilla, Baja Breeze) and DSP. I've been meaning to use this colour combo for a while so this was a good chance to do just that. Sadly I can't reference the stamp sets because I've lost that information. I think the dress is from an Inkadinkadoo set.

Anyway, the focus of the card is obviously the dress which I chose to be off-centre (not usually my style isn't that what challenges are for - i.e. do what you wouldn't normally do).  When you start pleating ribbon (another technique I tried on a CASE challenge), it's easy to extend to other materials, like bridal tulle! I even did 2 layers of it which hopefully you can make out on the this cropped photo of the dress. Also, I applied fine glitter on the dress itself, rather than the tulle.

This odd photo is to show that (1) I started on Whisper White which didn't match my DSP and (2) colouring in (aqua wash and ink) softened the lines for a better effect.

This was definitely a challenge and one I soooo enjoyed doing...and completing!

Thanks for stopping by and to quote the sentiment "May your day sparkle with happiness!"

  

Curtain Call Color Challenge - Act 57

Look at the colours of this challenge: basic grey, tempting turquoise, whisper white, cajun craze and chocolate chip!

I can honestly say that I've never used these colours together before. Not one to give up easily, I wondered how do I weave these colours together? Ha! There was my answer right there, weave, weave, weave.

Here's the result:

 I wove the last four colours together and framed with basic grey.

Ta da!


I don't think I've done paper weaving since I was a kid and that's a while back. So, this was certainly fun, fun, fun to do. The framed weaving has been mounted on cajun craze. The flower's in turquoise with choc chip and cajun craze details; bit of white left and glossy accent all over.

Stamps: SU Baroque Motifs set

Stylish Blogger Award

Thanks Miss Adri (Ma Cherie Creations) for this award.

I'm proud to accept it and will abide by the rules:

These are the rules for accepting the award...

So, when you accept the award, you must:

1. Thank and link back to the person who awarded you this

2. Share 8 things about yourself

3. Pay it forward to 8 bloggers that you have recently discovered

4. Contact those bloggers and tell them about their awards

8 bloggers I've discovered recently:

1. Chupa - http://ipalamountain.blogspot.com/
2. Sue Kohler - http://sue-myinnerreflection.blogspot.com/
3. Heather P - http://heatherpulvirenti.blogspot.com/
4. Andrea - http://www.ewenstyle.com/
5. Danielle Daws - http://danielledaws.blogspot.com/
6. Karen Thomas - http://luvtostamp.blogspot.com/
7. Stacey - http://www.stampinwithstacey.blogspot.com/
8. Linda Cain - http://cain81art.blogspot.com/

8 things about me:

1. My favourite colour is green
2. I love stamping
3. I love books by Kazuo Ishiguro, Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Anita Brookner + heaps more
4. I have two daughters whose first words strangely was 'bird'
5. My craft room is the place where I re-charge
6. I love to learn and my other blog is on teaching and learning - http://malyn.edublogs.org/
7. My husband is a better cook than me
8. I love lists - keeps me organised

More Christmas cards

This is my entry to challenges in Scrapbook Boutique and CASE study. I'm sticking to my black, white and red theme inspired by the Christmas theme at Scrapbook Boutique and the scallops and circles from CASE.

 I used a few stamp sets from Stampin Up: Sparkly and Bright, Sincere Salutations and A to Z.

There is nothing fancy about this card, I guess. It was fun to make, though, so I made two. I really love this deep red - Cherry Cobbler. I even coloured the rhinestone on Rudolph's nose...just for a touch of whimsy.

Scrapbook Boutique's adorable cupcake - in black, white and red!

Heather's beautiful card in CASE

Curtain Call Color Challenge - Act 56

When I first saw this challenge, I thought "no way" - I've never used those colours.Wrong, of course, because I had here and that was only a couple of weeks ago.  The paper used had the same colours as the challenge, fancy that.




Anyway, I decided to have a go and here's what I came up with - French frou frou. I love this Stampin Up set: Artistic Etchings. The details are incredible. I've never done layered scallops before and so I had fun assembling this - so much so that I decided to "curl" and apply white dots using a white pen....just for fun.

Can-can, can you do the can-can?

Christmas Challenge

It's so hot this weekend which is great ... sort of.

What's also hot are the challenges over at CASE Study Challenge (#14) and Just Add Ink (#43). Here's my entry to both.

 As mentioned in the previous post, I'm having a black, white and red Christmas theme this year. So, I used this again for this card. This was inspired by Heather's card in CASE; more polka dots and ribbons!

In my gate-fold card, I tried a couple of new techniques (new to me anyway): concertina-fold flower and scrunched up ribbon...just to add to the challenge fun!

card: whisper white, basic black
ink: basic black, cherry cobbler
SU stamps: Sparkly & Bright, polka dot background
ribbon: SU polka dot 

  Here's another photo which shows various textures better. It literally is a top-heavy card; what with all the layers and ribbon.

I really had fun making it and will be using those new techniques again soon.

JAI 42 - Christmas

I just found a new challenge blog - Just Add Ink and this one is challenge #42. It's probably too late to enter but I just love the sketch challenge for the week.

I immediately had the idea to make the following card - just knew all the bits that had to go in.  It's a bit rushed but I'm happy with the result. This is one of the quickest ones I've ever made, for sure.


So close to Christmas, this had to be a Christmas card and in my chosen theme for the year: black, white and red.

Paper: whisper white, black

Inks: cherry cobbler, craft whisper white, black

stamps: artistic etching, sweet sentiments, polka dot background

Others: 2-way glue and dazzling diamonds on the Eiffel Tower, of course, and the mistletoe ribbon

I inked around the card and distressed the white cardstock.

CSC #13 - Birds

I was really inspired by the current CASE study challenge #13 with a card made by Heather Pulvirenti! so I'm doing it again. In fact, I've got two entries in this blog post - I figure they are different enough to merit entering separately. I'm sure the lovely ladies at CASE will tell me gently if I've done the wrong thing. 


Here's one:


I haven't got one of those beautiful leaf stamps but got inspired to use my Cuttlebug folder and Stampin Up bird punch instead. Here's the result. I've got teh rounded corners, cut-out X3, a few blings, beautiful paper, simple sentiment and ribbon.

paper: SU Urban Garden, paper pizzazz

ink: paper pizzazz, baja breeze

punches: bird, modern label

others: paper pizzazz ribbon, pearls, cuttelbug bird folder

 I love these colours together, so much so that I even sponged them on to the pale bird - you can just make out the colours in the close-up photo. I inked the folder with baja breeze and so it's like a letter press when run through the Cuttlebug. Another technique I liked used here is using a fork to tie a ribbon - granted this ribbon is probably too thick for this technique but I thought it's quite cute.

Here's another one:

Having completed the above, I remembered my Tim Holtz birdcage die and the bird cage paper I've been reserving for 'who knows what'; it was almost a shame to cut it! I can't wait for my SU stamp called Aviary which will allow me to CASE the paper. Ha!

I've still got the rounded corners, beautiful paper, ribbon, simple sentiment, some cut-outs and bling.

 paper: SU whisper white and early espresso, daffodil patterned paper, American Crafts birdcage 

ink: paper pizzazz, early espresso

stamp: french filligree

punches: SU bird, Tim Holtz Caged bird

others: paper pizzazz ribbon, pearls, large flower brad

I may not have those lovely leaf stamps but I do have this beautiful flourish stamp. I just love it.


There you have it - two new entries.

CSC #13 - Christmas

New muse, Heather Pulvirenti, and new challenge (#13) at CASE study challenge blog. Here's my entry.

paper: whisper white, poppy parade
ink: poppy parade, craft white, black
stamps: Sparkly & Bright, Baroque motifs, Delightful Decorations, polka dot background
others: SU ribbon, spellbinders nestabilities - petite circles and scallop circles


It's pretty clear that I copied A LOT from the inspiration card (see below): layout, ribbon, 3 "flowers" and a bit of sparkle.

I really loved the polka dots but didn't have the right paper so I made mine using a polka dot background stamp, white craft ink and embossing powder.  Also, I thought it could do with a button which I custom-made using Delightful decorations: a couple of layers to make it thick enough. I punched out the holes using a piercing tool.

I really had fun making this and it certainly got me started with my 2010 Christmas card stash. Yay!

Inspired by:

Cherish - CSC 12

This is my entry to CSC 12 at Case Study.

Cardstock: Whisper White, Poppy Red

Inks: Versamark, Poppy Red

Stamps: SU Baroque Motifs

Others: sponge, white and red craft ribbons from stash and Kindy Glitz

The inspiration for this card is by Barbara. I copied the layout and the two-tone effect. Instead of dry-embossing, I actually heat-embossed the image and inked around it by sponging on Poppy Red diluted with water. This is the first time I've used this technique using SU inks and I'm very happy with the result.