FUSION - Penguin Love

So I have to admit, I have more Valentine's cards in my stash than fish in the sea - but hey, I only ever use one a year! Regardless, I could not resist making this little cutie for the FUSION challenge this fortnight. Inspired by the fabulous sketch and super cute inspiration photo, this was created using a selection of patterned papers from American Crafts Amy Tangerine Sketchbook and Yes, Please ranges, die cut using Verve Hearts and Stitched Pennants, together with the super gorgeous Mama Elephant Love Quotes and cute chicks I re-purposed as penguins.

Head on over to the FUSION blog for some more super inspiration from our fabulous Design Team...

Betty J. - Jeanne Jachna - Jen Mitchell

Karren Johnson - Linda Callahan - Michelle Leone

Michelle Lupton - Michelle Williams - Wanda Cullen

Hope you can join in the fun this fortnight @ FUSION.
Can't wait to see what you create!

Also playing along with Addicted to Stamps and More!

Stained Glass Hearts FUSION

Had super fun getting messy with Distress Inks for this fortnights FUSION! Love the stained glass look from the FUSION inspiration photo and tried to relicate this using the inks, then cut out my window of hearts using Verve diecut, and finished off with a cute Paper Smooches sentiment.

To play along you can take inspiration from either the FUSION sketch or inspiration photo - or combine the two as I have!

Hop on over to the FUSION blog for some more super sized inspiration from our fabulous Design Team...

Becca Cruger - Betty J. - Jeanne Jachna - Jen Mitchell - Karren Johnson

Linda Callahan - Michelle Leone - Michelle Lupton - Michelle Williams

Hope you can join in the fun this fortnight @ FUSION.

Can't wait to see what you create!

Got a chance to see the super amazing 'super blue blood moon' lunar eclipse too, on an almost perfectly clear night in my corner of the world, did you?

A Christmas FUSION...

Hope you get a chance to play along with FUSION this fortnight, in our last challenge for the year. So much fabulous inspiration from this gorgeous Christmas interior, and super versatile sketch!

I kept my card simple, taking inspiration from the white on white layering and Christmas candles. Layered this gorgeous Memory Box Christmas Candles diecut in white glitter paper, over a cardstock background, over vellum stamped in silver tinsel embossing powder using this gorgeous Verve sentiment.

Love to see how you are inspired by FUSION photo, sketch or both!

Hop on over to FUSION to see some more fabulously joyful inspiration from

 our amazing Design Team too:

Becca Cruger - Betty J. - Carol Mayne - Jeanne Jachna - Karren Johnson

Linda Callahan - Michelle Leone - Michelle Lupton - Michelle Williams

Also playing along with CASology Candle,

52 (Christmas) Card Throwdown Glitter and

CAS on Sunday Christmas

This made me smile!!!

Happy Mother's Day FUSION...

As we have Mother's Day coming up next weekend in our corner of the world, I thought I'd create a FUSION Mother's Day card this fortnight, inspired by the FUSION sketch and floral inspiration.

Patterned papers from Prima and American Crafts, super sentiment from Verve and stitched tag diecut is by Paper Smooches. I broke out my Tim Holtz Tiny Tattered Florals dies to create these gorgeous flowers. The set comes with its very own quilling tool - a fabulous little tool which proves invaluable in rolling these flowers after you have die cut them. These flowers were created using a sheet of stiffened fabric paper - which was all the rage about 10 years ago. If you don't have any handy, you can always use fabric stiffener/glue applied to any ribbon or fabric to create the same effect, or you could use cardstock or paper if you prefer!

This month at FUSION we are also lucky enough to be joined by special Guest Designer, Bonnie Sharp so make sure you stop by for some extra fabulous inspiration from Bonnie and the FUSION team!

Betty J - Deanne K - Jeanne Jachna - Julia Aston - Katie Brooks

Karren J - Kimberly Wiener - Lynn Mangan - Michelle Folland

Michelle Lupton - Sandie Munro - Shannon Jaramillo - Stephanie Severin

I would LOVE if you could join in the fun @ FUSION too!

Playing along with the Card Concept Spring Flowers - Clean and Layered 
and Simon Says Anything Goes too!

Mojo Monday & Mixed Media Card Challenge...

For all of you who may be interested (and who wouldn't be!!!) Julee is celebrating a fabulous 400 milestone with Mojo Monday, and as an extra special celebration, there are a couple of DT spots open as well!

I flipped the Mojo Monday sketch to create a collage card. The base layer is Tim Holtz tissue paper, painted with gesso front and back. When the gesso layer dries add some Gelatos and watercolour the moth. The good thing about using Gesso as the base is that you can use wet wipes to rub back the colours, and reduce or remove any creative misadventures! The word strips, corner and Flourish are from Kaisercraft, together with a doily from my stash, Heidi Swapp clear butterfly diecut, and Making Memories notepaper stamped with this gorgeous Verve "Go confidently in the direction of your dreams" sentiment.

  

Why don't you join in the Mojo Monday celebrations!

Also playing along with Mixed Media Monthly 

A Year of Choices (Photo Inspiration) and

Watercolour Bloghop with Pretty Pink Posh too!

Don't forget to join in the fun at the Mixed Media Card Challenge too, 

this month we are featuring Collage cards.

 

Life's Little Treasures... Coffee (& Friends)

I so wanted to play along with the Spring Coffee Lovers Bloghop and just squeaked in with this Spring coloured coffee lover's card, Life's little treasures... Coffee (and friends!). You should check out the AMAZING 468 coffee cards!

Papers and tags are Kaisercraft, wood veneer hearts and this fabulous Verve "Coffee Word" die cut, based on this weeks gorgeous Viva La Verve challenge layout (flipped), and over zealously inked with Distress Ink Vintage Photo, perfect for playing along with Addicted to CAS Distress Challenge.

We'd love to see you play along with the March 

Mixed Media Card Challenge Hints of Spring too!

These are a few of my faVERVErite things...

December Diva Dare at Verve stamps is to showcase a few of your faVERVErite things (it's actually your favorite VERVE projects for the year, but these are my faVERVErite!) 

This new card is totally inspired by Miriam's fabulous post here, 

Just had to get out a faVERVErite Verve Poppy Birthday and play along!

Stayed very close to the Mojo Monday sketch for this card, using a variety of patterned papers from MME and Kaisercraft, paired with this fabulous set of Verve Poppy Birthday flowers and sentiment. With distressed wood and distressed ink edges, playing along with Virginia's View All Things Distressed, and the birthday theme is perfect for Seize the Birthday! The colour palette was inspired by this weeks City Crafter - but unfortunately as it's not a Christmas card too, can't play along there!

I had 4 faVERVErites, but you can only enter a maximum of three previous 2014 cards, and as many new ones as you do posts for until December 21, so I thought I'd revisit my 4 faVERVEites here too...

Original post here 

Original post here

Original post here

Original post here

Coffee Lovers Holiday Blog Hop (Thanks a Latte)...

Just wanted to say...

for playing along with the fabulous Coffee Lovers Holiday Blog Hop.

As a special Coffee Lovers Holiday treat, I have included the recipe for a special coffee flavoured eggnog cocktail - as we celebrate Christmas in the midst of Summer here!

Mocha Nog Punch

10 parts Kahlúa Mocha

5 parts Absolut Vanilla

20 parts eggnog

Combine ingredients and serve in a punchbowl with a floating ice block.

Hint: Freeze ice with coffee beans for decoration.

Card created using Kaisercraft papers, and this gorgeous Verve sentiment stamped in Rich Cocoa (what else!) on a Mama Elephant cup diecut. Inked with Distress Ink Vintage Photo and layered on two MFT Dienamics heart diecuts. Verve are joining in the fun as one of the fabulous hop sponsors, check out the links below and on Amy's blog.

How YOU can play along...

• Everyone that links up with newly created holiday coffee/hot holiday drink project is eligible for one of the fabulous prizes from the sponsors below (No back linking). The Inlinkz will be available on Amy's blog until 11:55 pm Pacific Time on Friday, December 12th to link up.
• There are also random 5 prizes for people that comment on ALL of the linked blogs (see list on Amy's blog) before 11:55 pm Pacific Time on Sunday, December 14th.

EXTRA BONUS GIVEAWAY if you comment on this post, this post or this post (my Coffee Lovers Holiday Blog Hop posts), you will also be in the running to win a FABULOUS Winnie and Walter The Big, the Bold and the Merry stamp set.

A BIG THANK YOU to our fabulous sponsors:

17 Turtles, Add A Little Dazzle, a●muse studio/Chris Franco

Butterfly Reflections Ink, Color Cast Designs, Create a Smile

Hero Arts, Kraftin' Kimmie, Kreative Kymona

Latina Crafter, Neat and Tangled, Newton's Nook

Paper Smooches, Pickled Potpourri, Poppystamps

Reverse Confetti, Stamp Academy, Stampin' Up/Veronica Zalis 

STAMPlorations, SugarPea Designs, Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps 

The Alley Way Stamps, The Stamp Simply Ribbon Store, Two Paper Divas

Verve Stamps, Whole Wild World, Your Next Stamp

Also playing along with Mojo Monday, Color Throwdown and
Virginia's View All Things Distressed (I even distressed the edges!)
and Verve Favorite Things Dare.

 

Tag... You're Christmas!

Created an ormament shaker tag for the front of this card. Stamped the navy base layer of the Lawn Fawn tag with Verve Merry and Bright Snowflakes, in Superfine Silver embossing over white ink, then made a sandwich with a foam sheet Lawn Fawn tag (including the Clearly Besotted Signature Christmas ornament shape die cut out of it) added some holographic snowflakes and silver sequins, a clear acetate sheet, then the top layer of Lawn Fawn tag, also with the Clearly Besotted Signature Christmas ornament die cut out, stamped the Verve Merry and Bright sentiment in Superfine Silver embossing over white ink, added the Clearly Besotted Signature Christmas bow die cut in silver glitter paper, then added the whole tag to the navy card front.

Naturally Navy Verve Diva Inspiration

Merry Monday Silver and Blue Ornaments

Dies R Us Christmas

Virginia's View All Things Metallic

  

 

This made me smile...

Addicted to CAS and Geometric - August Guest Designer

So happy to be back Guest Designing with the fabulous 

Addicted to CAS team this fortnight!

With the Addicted to CAS code word Geometric, 
I had so many ideas I ended up making two cards today!


Winnie and Walter Pennant triangle stamps are FABULOUS for this challenge! 
The sun was created by stamping the pennant triangles in Dandelion and Morocco Momento Luxe inks, with a die cut circle as the centre, stamped with this very fitting Verve sentiment.

The second card uses this gorgeous geometric giraffe and crazy sentiment by Altenew, stamped in Versamark Watermark and heat embossed in Zing Pewter, and randomly filled with these three fabulous bright Color Throwdown colours. The triangle chunks were cut by snipping the card at a right-angles to the side, then cutting along the top half of the triangle, and flipping that cut piece over as a mirror reverse template, to make ensure the larger triangle ended up equilateral.

Remember to visit the Addicted to CAS Challenge blog for some more 

gorgeous Geometric inspiration from the team!


Card 2, playing along with Color Throwdown,
Virginia's View Shaped Cards,
Seize the Sketch and Less is More Animal too!

 

 

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!