A FUSION Full of Hope..

I had so many fabulous ideas looking at this fortnight's FUSION inspiration photo and sketch, but in the end I decided to go CAS and focus on the colours, the textures, the stars, the swirls and the weathered wood of the inspiration photo. 

I die cut this gorgeous star from MFT using Kaisercraft paper, and placed it on my mini scoreboard, with the patterned side down, then scored from the point of each star tip to its diagonal opposite. Once I had done this, I folded along each scoreline, then inverted the folds in between the points of the star, to create this 3D star. The stamps are both from Autumn Leaves, a company sadly no longer with us. Both stamped in Versamark Watercolour then heat embossed in Zing White. To add some more definition to the letters, I created shadow lines with a fine dark brown pen. The star was secured using liquid adhesive, and running my nail around the outer edges of the star to secure it to the card front. Finally the front panel was added to a kraft cardstock base.

 

Will you be inspired by the gorgeous distressed wood patina, the door, the colours, the swirls, the stars, or the textures in this fabulous inspiration photo, or this super versatile sketch, or both!

How to join in the fun...

1. Play with just the sketch challenge.

2. Play with just the inspiration photo challenge.

3. Or you can create FUSION by combining BOTH challenges into one card.

4. Use the challenge graphic and link back to Fusion in your post.

5. Please read the other considerations on the Our Rules Page before playing along.

Can't wait to see how you will be inspired by this fortnight's FUSION!

The Design Team have some FABULOUS creations to inspire you!

Betty J - Dannielle Robeson - 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.

Also playing along with Addicted to CAS Geometric,

 Simon Says Stamp Anything Goes, and Clean & Simple.

CASE Study 4th Anniversary, Inspired by Clare...

Joining in the 4th Anniversary fun at CASE Study with a card inspired by this gorgeous creation by Clare Buswell, and looking at Clare's card I probably should have tried to photograph mine with a coloured background too LOL! The lace strip stamp is by Kaisercraft and the lace doily and sentiment by MME, all stamped in Momento Luxe Bridal White, heat embossed with American Crafts Zing White. The Simon Says Stamp leaves were die cut in vellum and burlap - and I discovered that burlap die cuts don't always stay in one piece! So I used the individual burlap leaves as shadow highlights instead, and added some Kaisercraft pearls to finish.

Playing along with Little Red Wagon Embossing Challenge,
and I had this Clean & Simple Sketch lurking in the back of my mind
(flipped the sentiment to the other side and the ribbon became my leaves!)

Happiness is... DeNami Blog Hop

So glad you can join us for the DeNami Fuzzy Friends Blog Hop! Don't forget to hop along, be inspired and comment to be in the running for your chance at one of TWO $20 DeNami Gift Certificates.

When: You have until March 10, 2014, 11:59 pm PST (March 11th, 6:59pm EST Australia), to leave comments on all the blogs to be eligible for a prize.

Why: To be inspired by fun DeNami Design creations and also the chance to win mini shopping sprees on the DeNami Design website!

Prizes: DeNami Design are giving away $20 gift certificates to TWO people who comment along the hop!

This card features the fabulous DeNami Design Hatching Chickie and Solid Rose Accents, against a watercolour background. Watercolour paper was first stamped with the DeNami Roses in Versamark ink and embossed in white before adding the watercolour stripes to the paper and matching stripes to the wooden sentiment. Hatching Chickie was stamped over a section of the yellow watercolur paper before being fussy cut and colouring her beak.

You should have arrived here from the fabulously talented Dana's blog, and next stop on the hop is the gorgeously creative Deb, so hop to it! If you get lost along the way, just stop by DeNami blog for a full list :)

This was my original card for this hop but somehow it didn't feel fuzzy enough LOL!

But I couldn't resist including it! Created with DeNami Design Rock Band Chickies, 

wooden sentiment covered in silver glitter and music washi tape stripes.

Card 1 playing along with Virginia's View Watercolour Challenge,
CAS(E) this Sketch and CAS on Sunday Colour Me Pretty.
Card 2 playing along with Keep It Simple Stripes (DT) and Clean and Simple sketches.

FUSION... The Perfect Blend

I don't know about you, but this fortnights FUSION graphic keeps giving me flashbacks to the 70s, when Mum & Dad used to have dinner parties created in our lime green kitchen and served coffee made in plungers or percolators, rather than deluxe cappuccino machines!  Will you be inspired by this fabulous sketch, or the fantastic elements in this cool graphic, or will you create a FUSION of both?

Taking the colours and theme from this fortnights funky graphic, I combined my FUSION inspiration graphic with a Clean & Simple Sketch to create this friendship card to play along with Use it Tuesday Friendship Challenge. Talking about flashbacks, the papers are a combination of Echo Park, Kaisercraft (from about 3 years ago) and Basic Grey (from about 7 years ago!), with the coffee girl and sentiment from My Favourite Things, and the coffee cup splatter from Bo Bunny stamped using Hero Arts Cup O' Joe (of course!!!)

Hope to see you at the FUSION Challenge Blog soon, in the meantime, here's some more FABULOUS inspiration from the Design Team...

Amy Tsuruta

Geri Freeman

Kelly Griglione

Lynn Mangan

Stacey Schafer

Clean & Simple Sketch

Playing along in the Basic Grey Anything Goes Challenge too!

You Can Always Count on Me...

9 minutes and 12 seconds later...

Following the theme of The Pink Elephants #215 Numbers Challenge, here's a post full of them!!!  

My card for today features... you guessed it - NUMBERS!  For the 10 Minute Craft Dash #25, this card was based on Clean & Simple Sketch #256, it took 9 minutes and 12 seconds to diecut six Dienamics numbers (this was my first attempt, I cut a second sheet as the one went a bit wobbly on this one, but then mucked up the stamping, so came back to this one LOL!), stamp two Hero Arts background numbers stamps in Stampin' Up Daffodil Delight (see previous explanation ;)) and one Simon Says Stamp "You can always count on me" sentiment in Hero Arts Cup 'O Joe, cut and adhere two pieces of Fancy Pants Child's Play patterned papers, with 4 strips of double-sided tape and 7 pieces of foam pop tape.  I realised after I had pop-dotted that in my rush I had forgotten to round the corners - I think it gives it a more polished finish, but cest la vie!  I LOVE this 10 Minute Craft Dash colour combo, so hope to revisit it later this week using Lawn Fawn stamps ;)

All this talk of numbers brings me to this FABULOUS Month in Numbers idea from Julie Kirk...

How did I get here?  Well may you ask!  And who am I not to answer?

Whilst skimming the internet for some inspiration for the first FUSION challenge for September, I discovered this fabulous blog post on Five Ideas for Scrapbooking with Pages from Old Books, which had in turn been sourced from Julie Kirk's blogspot Notesonpaper.

Intrigued with her Month in Numbers post, I thought wow, I've moved interstate since I started school - I wonder how many kilometres it is between where I first started school and where I am now.  And then it dawned on me, although I did most of my schooling in Australia, I actually first started school in Belmont Massachusetts (and yes I did have to look up to see how that was spelled correctly LOL!), we moved to the USA from Australia as my Dad was offered a position at M.I.T., and we stayed there for almost two years, til just before my baby brother was born. Co-incidentally I have lived in Belmont in Australia too (but that's a whole other story!)

So from Massachusetts to Melbourne is 17014.421 km and I'd have to say - you've come a long way baby!!!

 

 

For a beary special girl......

OK I'm the first to admit I have more than enough tape to washi all my cares away, but when it comes to putting tape to paper, I'm a little slow off the mark - which is probably why this card for the Little Tangles Washi It Up Challenge is rather last minute!  I had been eyeing off the gorgeous colours in this weeks Color Throwdown, when this fabulous Clean & Simple sketch, took away my last excuse not to washi this weeki!  Once I decided on using this fab clouds & hearts tape, I discovered these matching Amy Tangerine chipboard arrows in my stash, just right for playing along with this weeks CASual Friday's Hunger Games (Arrow) Challenge.

Now I just have to find somewhere to keep this for my beary special daughter til Valentines Day!

Clean & Simple Sketch

Playing along with Simon Says Stamp Anything Goes too!

Feather Weather Friends...

OK, so no prizes for guessing what my inspiration was for todays' card LOL!  As soon as I saw this fortnights Moxie Fab Tuesday Trigger Feather Weather, I remembered a very old piece of Jenni Bowlin paper in black and white with these four gorgeous birds sitting on the branch of a fruit tree.  I adhered the paper to a sheet of cardstock for added rigidity and fussy cut the birdies, then using a combination of Distress Inks in Squeezed Lemonade, Salty Ocean and Broken China, I colour washed the birds to match the inspiration photo colours.  I stamped this gorgeous Technique Tuesday Botanika cherry blossom branch three times to create a collage of blossoms in the background, and pop-dotted the birds over the top.  The Verve sentiment is stamped in Broken China before being mounted on cardstock and Fancy Pants paper.  Other than the sentiment, everything on this card is more than 5 years old, perfect for joining it at Use it Tuesday Anything Goes! The layout is loosely based on this weeks Clean & Simple Sketch, the colours of this weeks Inspired By and Catered Crops Mellow Yellow Challenge, and inked feathers from CASE Study.  Playing over at Simon Says Stamp Anything Goes too.

Tuesday Trigger - Feather Weather

Inspired By (Laurel)

Clean & Simple

World Card Making Week...

To celebrate World Card Making Day, Clean & Simple Stamping is having a special Sketch and/or Colour Challenge til October 19th, with prizes up for grabs too.  I created my card using Prima papers from Road Trip and So Cute Collections, with some added jute and three October Afternoon buttons - just enough to scrape into this weeks Little Red Wagon Buttons Bonanza Challenge.

A Moxie Fabulous Fall...

I fell in love with this amazing colour combo in this fortnights Tuesday Trigger Autumn Awaits, and created my Fabulous Fall card using the Clean and Simple Sketch combined with the Moxie Fab Repetition Challenge and the Moxie Fab Movement Challenge.  I altered the sketch to a square to reflect the shape of the headscarf, and framed the card in striking green to reflect the glasses frames.  Using watercolour paper I generously swiped with Distress Ink Spiced Marmalade and Squeezed Lemonade, then spritzed with Dylusions Squeezed Orange (anyone else feeling thirsty lol!!) and Perfect Pearl Mist Sunflower Sparkle to create a background over which I repeatedly stamped with the Tattered Angels leaf, then fussy cut and pop-dotted onto white cardstock.  The falling leaves are placed to lead your eyes in an anti-clockwise direction around the Fabulous Fall sentiment, from Autumn Leaves of course!

Why don't you give the Moxie Fab Challenges a go too!

Dynamic Duos CAS-ually CASS

Discovered a great new colour challenge site - makes me think of Batman & Robin every time I see it ;) Dynamic Duos is created by the lovely Lesley Crohgan, and this week is their first ever challenge.  This card is inspired by the gorgeous duo of Aqua and Lime Green, this versatile sketch from Clean & Simple Stamping, and Happy Birthday celebrations at CAS-ual Fridays.  I challenged myself to stamp a card without black ink, so keeping it simple, the frame and birthday sentiment from My Favourite Things are stamped in Turquoise Versa Colour then pop-dotted onto the Coture Creations Swiss Dots embossed white cardstock, the Spellbinders butterfly was die-cut from my scrap stash, and a body created using Kaisercraft pearls.

...like you, it's unforgettable! 

Precious Girl...

I can't believe that my first born will be a teenager soon!  I still remember when she was barely a few weeks old, and everyone was telling me "you soon forget how little they were", and I did not believe a word they said!  So I've created this flutterby birthday card for my precious girl. 

Inspired by this divine dress at Moxie Fab World Tuesday Trigger, this delicious colour palette at The Play Date Cafe - a perennial favourite as my girl was blessed with stunning red hair - and this gorgeous layout sketch from Clean&Simple, I dived in and had a play with my Glimmermists.  I created a negative die-cut template of butterflies using MFT die-cuts for the medium and smaller butterflies and a Spellbinders die-cut for the larger butterfly to mask the Black Cherry and Harvest Orange Glimmermist overspray.  I love how the Glimmermist seems to capture movement in the butterflies.  At the same time I placed a large die-cut butterfly in position on top of the template so it would match the spray pattern when placed back in position on the card.  The border cardstock was misted separately.  The sentiment on the front of the card with its gorgeous faux stitching is by Little Yellow Bicycle, and the stamped sentiment inside the card is one of my favourite, from My Favourite Things Clearly Sentimental about Emerson, with a small butterfly die-cut from the scraps. 

I hope you have a beautiful day too :)