A CASE of Happy Bird-day...

I couldn't resist playing along this week with CASE Study, with this gorgeous graphic for inspiration. Created using Poppy Stamps Serene Bird negative die cut, Martha Stewart border lace punch, a combination of Memory Box and Bo Bunny papers and American Crafts sentiment.

Joining in the fun at Seize the Birthday Anything Goes, ColourQ,
and The Pink Elephant Anything Goes Challenge too.

 

Hope you are enjoying a relaxing Christmas Eve.

Advent Calendar...

Today's card is part of the fabulous Advent Calendar over on the lovely and hugely talented Christine's blog Das Kartenchaos, with 24 fabulous videos to watch, her Advent Calendar series is jam-packed full of Christmas inspiration!!!

Inspired by the card below, created earlier this year, with its bold colors, clean lines, different layers, and washi tape. The section inside the Lil Inkers Stitched Polaroid frame was filled with strips of Christmas washi tape, before the WPlus9 "Joy" sentiment was cut and pop-dotted, and the little wooden heart added.  My favourite Paper Smooches Freezy Fellas snowman has been paper pieced in MME papers.  Playing along with Paper Smooches Sparks Anything Goes Challenge, and CASology Knit Cue Card.

  

 

A-very Canoe Card...

Had such fun paper piecing these gorgeous Avery Elle Happy Camper stamps, with papers from MME Collectable 'Notable' and Lil Inkers Stitched Circle die-cut card for Avery Elle AEI{heart}U Challenge, and Seize the Sketch.  

  

This made me smile

A Retro Monday Mood...

Post 3 for today...
Playing along with this fab Retro Sketches and WPlus9 Monday Mood Board. Ombre papers from Echo Park and WPlus 9 stamps and die cut.

 

Addicted to aMus(e)ing Lawnscapes...

Loved Laurie's gorgeous Muse Challenge card this week, and it created the perfect opportunity to play along with Lawnscaping Sentiment Challenge and Addicted to CAS Anniversary Challenge too.

Alpha die-cuts are Lawn Fawn Quin's ABCs, together with an ampersand from my stash, pop dotted against MME The Sweetest Things papers (appropriate I thought!) This card would be perfect for a wedding, or in my case a Happy Anniversary card. The most fiddly part was adhering the lacy paper strip to the bottom of the card and hand cutting it, but I think the effect was worth it!

Addicted to CAS have their one year anniversary celebrations at the moment - 

so why don't you come & join the party!!!

  

This made me smile...    

 

and this too!!!!! 

Neat & Tangled Birthday Bash...

After the Little Tangles Birthday Bash suggestion to use the Neat & Tangled Just Thinking of You cloud as a muffin top - how could I refuse?!?  Playing along with Little Tangles Let's Eat Cake! and Seize the Birthday Anything Goes Challenges, and Little Tangles Birthday Bash C.A.S.E. Challenge inspired by Tenia's card here too.  Using Mirror Gold embossing powder, I stamped the Just Thinking of You cloud as the muffin top, On the Strip diagonal strip as the candle and Fresh Blooms large leaf as the candle flame, with the sentiment also from Fresh Blooms.  The bottom of the muffin was created using an Avery Elle cupcake die, then placing a real life silver muffin patty paper under the negative die cut.  The candle and wick are pop dotted, and the muffin top filled with Dimensional Magic before filling with Neat & Tangled Crystal Clear sequins.

Playing along with Simon Says Stamp Anything Goes too!

This made me smile...

P.S. August GD - With Gratitude, Thank You!

I can't believe this is my last week as Paper Smooches Guest Designer  - hope you have enjoyed seeing my Paper Smooches creations as much as I enjoyed bringing them to you!!!

The first card today features Paper Smooches Artisan Blocks to create the patterned flag, stamped in Tide Pool and sentiment from Many Thanks, stamped in Versamark Watermark and heat embossed in White. This gorgeous background was created using a stencil and texture paste, to add texture without colour. The best thing I discovered is that you can use any of your Paper Smooches die-cuts to create textured shapes to add to your cards, just cut them out of chipboard and fill the space left with texture paste, using a pallet knife to create a smooth finish. This cards layout is based of this fortnights versatile Seize the Sketch and colours on this fortnights CASual Friday Aqua, Green & Blue.

The second card today features three sets from the August Paper Smooches release, Borderlicious used to create the vertical panel and border, Artisan Blocks stamped on the vellum butterfly and Many Thanks sentiment (the August Thanks A Million set FREE with orders over $60). The die cuts are Paper Smooches Duo Die 2 in Echo Parks Cool Summer paper and and Butterflies 3 in coloured vellum. The vertical panel is stamped in Tide Pool, Green Hills, Butter Bar, Orange Soda and Bubble Gum, the scalloped edge and butterfly stamped in Soft Pool and the sentiment stamped in Orange Soda. This cards layout is based on this weeks fabulous Retro Sketch, and colours influenced by this weeks CASE Study.

  

Playing along with Simon Says Stamp Anything Goes too!

This made me smile...

A Little Jar of FUSION...

As soon as I saw this weeks FUSION Challenge, I knew I wanted to break out my Paper Smooches Crystal Clear die-cut jar, and create a sequin shaker with this gorgeous watermelon pink vellum.  How about you, will you be inspired by this photo of summertime iced watermelon juice jars, by this fabulous sketch, or by both?

My vellum shaker jar is filled with sequins and topped with Paper Smooches Crystal Clear flower and stem stamps in Blushin Bride and Whisper Green inks, tied with The Twinery Strawberry twine, atop two strips of coloured vellum and a strip of washi tape.

Here's how you can play along...
PROCEDURES:
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 Experiment Page before playing along.

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


Playing along with Little Red Wagon Layers Challenge,
CAS on Sunday Floral Fantasy, and
City Crafters 1,2,3 Challenge too
1 stamp set, 2 coloured vellum papers, 
3 embellishments - washi, sequins and twine

This made me smile...

Lil Inker's Birthday Craft Dash...

9 minutes 42 seconds later...

Today's card brings together two fabulous birthdays!!!  10 Minutes Craft Dash First Birthday Bash, and Lil Inkers 3rd Birthday Celebrations.  Check them out, there are some FABULOUS prizes & discounts available!!!

Basing my card on inspiration from Lil Inkers Third Birthday Challenge graphic, I love the sky and the pops of colour from the balloons floating in it.  I thought it would be cute to have the balloons getting carried away LOL! Started my card by doing all my die-cutting first, with the outline rectangle stitched mat, negative balloon circle and "hap_y" all die cut in the first run, then back through for a second pass with the "p" moved across to complete the "happy", then cut the Echo Park papers to create the orange stitched circle balloon and teal Lil Inker balloon strings in the next pass, and finally the red stitched circle balloon.  Next up I used a Martha's Craft glue pen to secure the balloon strings and balloons to the front panel, before positioning the panel over the Maggie Holmes Crate Paper sky and cutting to size. Inked up the Heidi Swapp birthday sentiment and lined up to stamp the base layer first, then reinked and lined up to stamp the top layer. Adhered the cloud paper to the white cardstock card base, then pop dotted and aligned the top layer - this was the trickiest part for me and the clock was ticking down big time!!!

10 Minute Tip

• Using a metal shim as a layer in your die cutting sandwich when using intricate dies - or any dies for that matter, means you can die cut in one pass with confidence - knowing that your die cuts will cut perfectly every time is a super time saver!

Hope you get a chance to join in the celebrations at the 

10 Minutes Craft Dash First Birthday Bash, and

Lil Inkers 3rd Birthday Celebrations too!!
Playing along with Seize the Birthday Anything Goes too!

This made me smile

and this too

Happy B'Day Neat & Tangled...

Neat & Tangled are having a massive Birthday Bash to celebrate turning one - so I thought I'd join in the party!!!

Danielle challenged us to create a Neat & Tangled birthday card with non-birthday sets, which I have already attempted here and here using the Little Bear set, but I thought I'd give it another whirl, this time combining the Little Tangles and Fresh Blooms sets.  As the only sentiment in these sets close to Happy Birthday was "Happy Day", I added the little "Bee" to create a "Happy B'Day" sentiment.  The Little Tangles chevrons were stamped in Butter Bar (yellow), Orange Soda, Bubble Gum (pink) and Wet Cement (grey), and the Fresh Blooms flowers and bee were stamped over spritzed Dylusions backgrounds with white embossing powder.  The frame was created using Lil Inkers Dies, pop dotted for added texture, and finished with clear Neat & Tangled sequins.

Playing along with Little Tangles Let's Celebrate, 

Neat & Tangled Un-birthday Birthday Challenge

Moxie Fab Birthday Creations Week Birthday Card Challenge,

Unscripted Sketches Flashback Summer Sketch #92, and

Keep It Simple Chevron Challenge too.