FUSION - Silver Stars

I had such fun with this fortnights FUSION inspiration! Re-discovered these gorgeous mini bells from the $2 shop in my stash, and threaded them onto some silver cord, knotting the little bells in place at random intervals. Die-cut the circle window opening and adhered the silver cord and bells in a "wreath" around the edge of the circle. In the meantime stamped and silver embossed these gorgeous Avery Elle Look Up freehand stars, perfect non-Christmas stamps for a Christmas card! Fussy cut the stars and adhered at random intervals around my silver "wreath". Die cut Avery Elle Seasons Greetings from a reinforced (added cardstock backing) sheet of American Crafts Silver Glitter paper, and adhered across the circle window opening. Lined the inside of the card with red Making Memories patterned paper.

The Design Team have some FABULOUS creations to inspire you!

Amy Tsura - Betty J - Deepti 

Jeanne Jachna - Julia Aston - Katie Brooks

Kelly Griglione - Kimberly Wiener - Lynn Mangan

Michelle Folland - Michelle Lupton - Stephanie Severin

Please check the linky for the days left to play with us.

Hope to see you playing along, can't wait to see what you create!

Remember you can play along by being inspired by the photo, the sketch or BOTH (like me!)

So happy to be playing along as Catered Crop Anything Goes Guest Designer this fortnight too - please join in the last ever Catered Crop to celebrate Linda's fabulous challenge!

Reminder Mixed Media Card Challenge Christmas (Bells Optional).

 

Inkspirational Shine, Avery Elle Holiday, Merry Monday Christmas Bells, 52{Christmas} Card Throwdown Christmas Window, Craft Stamper Take It Make It Challenge Christmas card from non-Christmas stamps
Time Out Embossing (sparkle optional) - Thanks Sandie!!

Winnie & Walter Winner...

Have you had a chance to check out the amazingly fabulous Winnie and Walter new release - count them 10 new stamp sets, and they have released some super cool stencils and gorgeous dies too!!!

I am drawing the lucky winner of the $30 Winnie and Walter gift certificate (from comments left on my Leading Lady posts in September) just in time to hop over to shop for the fabulous new release. Without further ado, Mr Random (aka my son) chose comment #64 out of the 172 comments recieved, so the lucky winner is...

 Berina RGA said...

beautiful projects... love the paper piecing..
-Berina
Moxie Craftie

Sunday, 14 September, 2014

 

Inspired by a number of gorgeous Autumn challenges, this Heartfelt Thanks card was created using Lawn Fawn Autumn Leaves die cut from watercolour paper with Twinkling H2O (Egyptian Gold, Autumn Butternut, Poppy) and LuminArte (Sunflower, Yellow Rose, Orange Peel, Persimmon). Winnie and Walter The Big, The Bold and You and The Big, The Bold and Blessings sentiment and WPlus9 Pretty Patches Pumpkin die cut stamped in Momento Luxe Toffee Crunch then sprinkled with Zing Copper embossing powder.

Cure for the Monday Blues Feasts of Fall

Card Concept Thank Fall (clean and layered), 
The Cutting Edge Challenge #13,
Dies R Us Thankful, Catered Crop Gratitude Attitude, 
and Simon Says Stamp Anything Goes.

A KIS Goodbye...

Sadly it has come time for the Keep It Simple Challenge blog to close. I had a ball on the Design Team, but with a couple of teamies choosing to step down, Anni made the difficult decision to close. I may have considered taking up the reins, but my one year of high school German is not up to the task of a bi-lingual challenge!

Here is a card I had prepared in advance, which fits nicely into the Festive Friday Challenge, with its gorgeous red and white photo inspiration, as well as Catered Crop Seeing Red, and Virginia's View Clean and Simple Challenge.

I love this Santa and sentiment by Darkroom Door, which Cecilia brought to our weekend retreat, stamped and embossed in red tinsel.

Mixed Media Card Challenge - Vintage (Key)

I do hope you get to play along with this months Mixed Media Card Challenge, Theme: Vintage, Optional Element: Key. 

Whenever I think of vintage cards I think of Distress Inks and layering, and the first thing I thought of for the "optional element: key", was this fabulous sentiment by Dyan Reaveley The Right Words.

The cream patterned hearts paper by Pink Paislee, was over-stamped with Darkroom Door Sheet Music in Vintage Photo Distress Ink, Dyan Reaveley The Right Words sentiment was stamped in black, fussy cut and distressed with Vintage Photo Distress Ink. The heart template (a free outline downloaded from the internet) was hand cut from Sandylion patterned paper and pop-dotted over the lace ribbon from my stash. I added the Teresa Collins key and a huge dose of Vintage Photo Distress Ink, so much so I looked like I had developed a 20 pack a day habit!

Mixed Media Card Challenge, Theme: Vintage, Optional Element: Key

Hop on by the Design Team blogs for some more super inspiration!

Julia Aston, Shirley Bampton, Charlene Cundy

Maria Fischer, Jan Jenitis, Kripa Koushik

Maria Levine, Sanna Lippert, Deepti Malik

Jenny Martin, Shery Russ, Elina Stromberg, Loll Thompson

HOW TO PLAY

1. Create a mixed media CARD based on the theme, with or without the optional element.

2. Display the challenge graphic on your blog post and link back to the Mixed Media Card Challenge post.

3. You may enter as many times as you want, as long as each entry is different.

4. You may combine a maximum of 7 challenges (6 other challenges plus ours).

5. Submit your projects by October 25, 11:55 p.m. PDT (GMT -700).

6. We’ll announce the winner and favorites on the Mixed Media Card Challenge on October 31.

Joining in the fun at Catered Crop Seeing Red,
The Pink Elephant Anything Goes Challenge, and
Mixed Media Monthly Ribbon, Twine & Fibre Challenge.

Coffee Lovers Bloghop!

Joining in the fun with Chaitali and Amy for the Coffee Lovers' Bloghop!

I saw this very appropriate saying when I was searching for inspiration for my Coffee Lovers card in Pinterest, so I thought I'd create a version using alpha from Mama Elephant, stamped in Momento Luxe Rich Cocoa, together with American Crafts patterned paper. My first attempt was created using a cup stamp from Paper Smooches, but it seemed too clean (maybe decaf LOL!), so boosted the caffine and did another with a coffee ring stamp from Bo Bunny. 

Now grab a cuppa and get hopping!

For an extra dash of caffine, I thought I'd 

link up a few of my earlier coffee cards here too 
(click on the images to get to the original posts)...

 

  

Card #2 playing along with Catered Crop Seeing Red,

Less Is More Mostly Words and

Inkspirational Beverages/Drinks too!

CAS(E) this Study...

Playing along with CAS(E) this Sketch, and another fabulous inspiration card from Debby Hughes at CASE Study, together with Catered Crop Good Medicine Recipe Swap.

Created with a kraft base, two super cute die cut feathers from when we went away with Joy (sorry, I can't remember who makes them!), Lil Inkers Stitched Polaroid, Clearly Besotted Fancy Feathers sentiment embossed in Zing White, and Studio Calico Woodgrain Enamel Dots.

 

P.S. Keep It Simple with No Stamps...

Keeping it Simple No Stamps, just die cuts! What will you use? Die cuts, stickers, paints, paste, stencils, mixed media? 

Created using patterned paper scraps from my stash and Paper Smooches Flowers and Get Well sentiment die cuts. 

You can catch some more FABULOUS DT No Stamps inspiration over at 

Keep It Simple.

Anni

 

Carolin

Tanja

Tenia

I can't wait to see what you create!

Playing along with Paper Smooches Sparks Picture Perfect, 
Clean and Simple Sketch, Catered Crop Good Medicine Challenge, 
Color Throwdown and Curtain Call Wishing Well (emphasis on well!)

  

Never too old to get distressed & dirty...

 

Had the most fun getting distressed and dirty at a Surreal Creations weekend scrap retreat with Ruey, Michelle and Jorja!  

Playing along with One Little Word - Will, with this piece. At the moment I am at a cross-roads, and I need to take a deep breath and summon the will to set a new goal and dream a new dream, and with it find the courage to turn that dream into reality.

Learnt an important lesson creating this mixed media piece - always dry your layers first!  I had forgotten to let the first coat of gel medium dry over my die cuts when I started adding my first layer of colour, and everything kept reacting from there, but in the end it was worth it! This was created using layers of heavy watercolour paper die cuts, colour sprays, gelatos, Twinkling H2O watercolour paints, a chipboard butterfly covered in Metallic Melts embossing powder, Darkroom Door script stamped on the poppies and base layer, Heartfelt Creations dimensional die cut flowers also covered in Metallic Melts embossing powder with gold highlights and this gorgeous Verve sentiment stamped on white tissue paper and adhered with gel medium to make it disappear into the background layer.  

If you're feeling daunted about mixed media, don't be - it's all about experimenting and letting yourself get distressed and dirty LOL!

Playing along with Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge The Artsy Stamp,

 Catered Crop Garden Party Recipe Swap,
Love to Scrap Anything Goes, and

 All Crafts Challenge Anything but a Card too!

Going Green...

Catered Crop Think Green is celebrating the forthcoming Earth Day on April 22 (and USA National Arbor Day on April 25), a perfect time to Think Green. Just make a project that includes the color green and come join the party, and, of course, be sure to recycle your scraps!

I created my mixed media piece completely from scraps or recycled materials. I started by recycling a page from an old book, covering with Gesso, then applying Gelatos in blues and grey, blended together with a baby wipe. I used the Crafter's Workshop Mini Clouds stencil and using a baby wipe, removed the Gelatos from within the clouds, then filled three of the clouds with texture paste for some added dimension.

Using the Lil Inkers Leaves background die, I cut a few of my green scrap papers into leaf shapes, and layered these around the edges to create a frame, these were adhered using mixed-media paste. The Memory Box Woodland Branch, Poppystamps Serene Bird and Lawn Fawn letters were also cut from scrap papers. The Verve Words of Wisdom sentiment was stamped - and I discovered that the Momento Tuxedo Black doesn't dry as fast when stamped over Gesso! But hey, like it says:

"Life doesn't have to be perfect to be wonderful"

Playing along with Virginia's View Stencilled Challenge too!

E.T.A. Linking up to the new Mixed Media Card DT Challenge!
My Mixed Media projects can be seen here :)