AMUSEing Pattern Play...

Laurie's fabulous MUSE card

I just couldn't go past a MUSE card with a negative die cut, especially when it's as fabulous as this card by Laurie!  I LOVE the teal, green and brown colour combo of Laurie's card, the gorgeous polka dots and overall design.  After having learned a few tricks in the recent Pattern Play class, I thought I'd up the ante and try for 5 patterns instead of the usual 3, with this combination of American Craft, Bo Bunny, Crate Paper and My Mind's Eye papers, together with the positive die cut Paper Smooches sentiment left over from my last card.  I used a MFT label to create my negative die cut frame, paired with a Spellbinders butterfly, using twine to create the body and antennae.  Perhaps a little OTT with the patterned paper, but a girl's got to experiment every once in a while!

Playing along with Little Red Wagon Be a Negative Nellie,
The Pink Elephant Decorative Papers & Favourite Embellishment (die cuts) and

Catered Crop Twine Love Recipie Swap too.

Pinkspired...

This fortnights Pinspired Challenge is sponsored by the Sweet Stamp Shop, so I knew I had to join in the fun.  Inspired by the gorgeous dark timbers, flashes of green, large typeface, and Happy theme, I stumbled upon this paper from Simon Says Stamp which I thought would provide a perfect base for my card.  I added alpha stamps from Websters and a die cut rose from Spellbinders, with My Favorite Thing leaves and voila!

Thought the colours were perfect to join in this weeks City Crafter Shades of Pink Challenge, 

and Simon Says Stamps A Bit 'O Green Challenge too.  

City Crafter Challenge

Wishing you a HAPPY DAY too!

A Dashing CASual Catered Valentine...

OK I think I have enough Valentine's cards for to sink a ship - and only one Valentine, so I think my girlfriends won't have to buy cards this year!  But I couldn't help myself.  I fell in love with these gorgeous red heart paper clips from Kikki K - and they were half price!  And the CAS-ual Fridays Love Letters Challenge got me thinking, along with the fab Catered Crop Polka Dot Challenge (you know I can't resist a polka!), and the brand new challenge CAS on Sunday Be Mine Valentine.  So I got out my supplies and a timer, just to get in some practice for the next 10 Minute Craft Dash, and managed to create this in 7 minutes and 14 seconds - perfect timing for a Valentine's Card LOL!  Die cuts are from My Favourite Thing and Spellbinders, and the polka dot paper was a perfect size from my scrap pile :)

It's A Christmas Bling...

Inspired by Keep It Simple Washi Tape Challenge, Addicted to CAS Baubles Challenge and The Paper Players gorgeous colour combo I created these dangling washi Christmas baubles, using The Alley Way Stamps Fa-la-la and sentiment from Christmas Magic.  I stamped the front of the baubles in StazOn Dove Grey before fussy cutting them, stamped the image on the back of the baubles, and added some Kaisercrft bling, front and back.  I die cut a circle from the front of the card, and from a die cut scalloped circle.  Each bauble is hung using fine wire, sandwiched between the base cardstock and the red die cut layer, and secured with terrifically tacky tape.

Skipping Stones in Our Creative Corner...

Our Creative Corner Inspiration Photo

Skipping Stones Design Sketch

Inspired by this weeks Skipping Stones Design Sketch the blues and oranges of Our Creative Corner Inspiration Photo, and CAS-ual Fridays Punchy Challenge.  I love the simplicity, comfort and homeliness of this weeks inspiration photo, and to me nothing says simple, comfortable and home more than a pair of jeans!  I sewed denim paper to resemble a pair of almost impossible to button-up jeans, perfect to accompany these gorgeous coffee cup stain and sentiment stamps from Skipping Stones Design Funny Coffee Vol #1, and I couldn't resist adding buttons when taking my photos!

Papers are from My Minds Eye Bright Side One, scalloped circle punch from Spellbinders and stamped in Stampin' Up Chocolate Chip.

In case you can't read the sentiment it says:

"Some things are just better strong:

coffee, men and the button on my jeans!"

Hope your buttons are holding strong today!!!

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! 

Hoppy to Announce Paper Smooches Sparks Freshly Made...

I LOVE this inspiration photo from Paper Smooches Sparks and have used it as part of my entry for the Paper Smooches Sparks DT (a girl can dream!!!)  The circular elements and strong lines fitted perfectly with this weeks Freshly Made Sketches.  From the inspiration photo I have used the hot pink spots and green floral patterns, the cute frog, from Paper Smooches A Little Lovin', and the home theme with the sentiment, also from Paper Smooches A little Lovin' - "Hoppy to Announce", inside I stamped the sentiment "...we've hopped to a new pad." using Paper Smooches Alphadots. 

Papers are from Echo Parks Dots and Stripes, and Pink Paisley 365 Degrees, die-cut using a scalloped circle from Spellbinders, with hot pink twine from the Twinery, and Magenta Ink from Versa Colour.

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 :)

Colour Q Retro Sketch Handbag...

Wow two posts in one afternoon!

I knew as soon as I saw this weeks Retro Sketch Challenge that I wanted to rotate the sketch 90 degrees and make a handbag style card - then when I saw this weeks colours at Colour Q with the cute Easter Basket inspiration, I just had to combine the two!

I have used some of this gorgeous paper from My Little Shoebox which combines all the colours from the challenge!  The rosette was created from teal cardstock and SEI paper using a Spellbinders diecut and Fiskars circle punch, then pop-dotted to the card - with the added bonus of the top flap of the handbag being able to be tucked securely in place behind the rosette.  I love this sentiment from Skipping Stones Design.

I decided that the end of my pennant needed more definition and backed that section with the teal cardstock too (see the third photo) - works a treat!

Let me know if you would like more details about how I cut the shape - mine was just make it up as you go, but there are plenty of great patterns on the web and I think there may even be special die cuts available.

Hope you have a wonderful day!

The Things that Dreams are Made of, Rosettes, Cardabilities and Pink Elephants too!

  Butterflies Challenge

This card was inspired by this stunning Rosette Colour Trends Challenge at Embellish Magazine, and drawn from this gorgeous Cardabilities Sketch, first time I've played along at both these sites, and I couldn't resist joining in at The Pink Elephants Butterflies Challenge too!

I created these gorgeous roses using My Favourite Things Mini Rolled Roses Die Cuts in hot pink felt.  I discovered that you can create larger roses by die-cutting an extra rose (or more if you need to!), and continuing to wrap it around the outside of the rose to create exactally the sized rose you want - so I was able to use two die cuts to make three different sized roses - perfect!  I was inspired by all the circular elements in the Rosette Colour Trends Challenge - so all the papers (from SEI and Making Memories) are spotted, and I have repeated the circular elements in the scalloping and the Kaisercraft pearl bling too. I created a double frame around my card to reflect the frame from the photo too.  The gorgeous butterfly die cut is from Spellbinders.  This beautiful sentiment is from Verve Always on My Mind, stamped in Versa Colour Opera Pink and Orchid.

Hope your dreams come true today too!

Mojo Monday on a Saturday Afternoon...

Inspiration from this weeks Mojo Monday, tipped over!  Papers are a mix from My Mind's Eye On the Bright Side - Two, Authentique Gathering and Kaisercraft Devonshire Collection, the little pearls are from Kaisercraft too.  The nested frames are from Spellbinders Classic Scalloped Rectangles, and the scalloped edge from My Favourite Things.  I love this sentiment from Verve Stamps Blue Skies.  Even though my style leans more towards CAS, I do enjoy playing with pretty papers, layer upon layer upon layer - and it gives me a chance to practice my sewing too :)

Hope your dreams are safe today too!

PS.  Linky tool is not working on Mojo Monday site at present,

hoping to load this up when it gets fixed.

Have a Hoppy Day...

Realised in the nick of time that I had not yet done the February i{heart}2stamp {SFYTT} challenge.  I was inspired by this gorgeous colour combination from Color Throwdown, and another CAS-ual Fridays Jest for the Pun of it sentiment.

I stamped and paper pieced this cute rabbit from Stampendous - I love that it reminds me of when my kids were little and I'd always be buying them clothes that were too big so they could get lots of wear out of them :)  Papers are from Three Bugs in a Rug and MME - I have in mind a way to use the scraps from this card too.

I hope you are having the hoppiest of days!

There She Goes with Ribbons...

Whilst I'm waiting for my There She Goes stamps (even more tempting with their 15% off sale), I thought I'd join in this weeks Colour Challenge of Olive, Rose and Razzleberry with papers from MME Lost and Found Two in Blush.  I love this olive crushed velvet ribbon I've been saving for a rainy day - well a special occasion anyway.  I slightly adapted this weeks gorgeous Ribbon Carousel Sketch and added a button-centred flower.  I feel it could have benefitted from some stitching, to keep with the theme - but I just don't trust my machine - or perhaps my sewing ability!

I hope your day is a special occasion!

Wishing you the Sweetest Things...

Even though purple is definitely not up there with my favourite colours, when I saw this months inspiration photo from Scrapbook Boutique, I knew it was perfect for my MFT "Wishing you the Sweetest Things" sentiment.  I loved the lattice icing, repeated in the papers from Kaisercraft and Penny Black, and the cute icing roses replicated using Prima flowers.  Cardstock is textured cordinations, finished off with a cute butterfly hand cut from Kaisercraft papers.  Perfectly suited to this months gorgeous inspiration sketch from SFYTT at I (heart) to Stamp.

Many thanks for dropping by - and Happy Chinese New Year to you too!