WIN a Birthday KIS...

One of my favourite Challenge Blogs, Keep It Simple is turning one today!!!  So when Christine invited me to play along as a guest, of course I said YES!  To mark the occasion this special celebration is being sponsored by the fabulous The Alley Ways Stamps, so now you have NO excuses not to come along and join the party!!!  All you have to do is create a CAS card inspired by this fabulous graphic.  I was so inspired I created two cards (and there may even be a third before the challenge is over!)

KIS Inspiration Photo

My first card (above) is inspired by the colours and the graphic lines of the inspiration photo, together with the birthday theme. It's a bit difficult to see in my photo, but I have added embossing lines above and below the sentiment. The sentiment is created from The Alley Ways Stamps Chatterbox and Jibber Jabber, with these gorgeous Castaways jelly fish. The background panel was created using Distressed Ink Peacock Feathers, stamped and then embossed, with and the jelly fish being a combination of Distressed Ink Picked Raspberry and Dusty Concord.

As much as I love my first card, I thought it may have been stretching the Keep It Simple philosophy, so I created a second, more CAS card, using The Alley Way Stamps Tag Alongs heart house and arrows. To create the house shaped card I stamped the heart house onto a scrap of paper and photocopied the image at 500% enlargement, cut a cardstock template using the photocopy image as the outline, then cut the card to size. The fabric letters are American Crafts Patchwork Aqua.  Inspired by Virginia, I had originally planned on stamping on coloured paint chips (samples from the hardware store) to create the house and arrows but unfortunately my Stazon ink has dried up, and other inks just tended to smudge on the paint chips, so I just used my inks and markers to colour the house and arrows, and the heart stamped on a piece of the leftover colour panel created for my first card.

You have until Wednesday 27th November to link you cards up here.

First card is playing along with Seize the Birthday Texture Challenge, and 
Simon Says Stamp Got Ink? Challenge too!

Love and Happiness...

ETA Joining in the fun with Moxie Fab World 

Handmade Cards Week - General Craft Supplies Challenge

When I looked at the list of supplies for Therese's fabulous MUSE card this week, I discovered I could 99% copy this amazing creation, all I was missing was the brown sugar embossing powder!  As tempting as that was, I thought I'd twist it up a little by incorporating Lawn Fawn Home Sweet Home negative die cut houses, filled with burlap (or hessian as seems to be more common here) and Simon Says Stamp Mini Hearts die cut red felt hearts, together with this sentiment from There She Goes Day or Night, stamped in Cup O' Joe, and pop dotted on a Kraft card base.

Joining in the fun at Lisa's Wanna Sketch,  

CAS on Sunday New Home Challenge and
CASology Silhouette Challenge too.

Therese's gorgeous MUSE card

 

This made me smile...

A Welcome FUSION...

So many GORGEOUS creations in the FUSION gallery again this week - THANK YOU so much for playing along :)  Are you ready for some more FUSION inspiration???

So much inspiration to choose from this week - will you be inspired by Jackie's fabulous sketch?  Or Lesley's gorgeous photo, with its wooden elements, natural textures, colours, themes of beach, home or stars?  Or like me a FUSION of both???

I was initially going to use this sketch to do a row of three beach huts by the sea, but I couldn't find any stamps or shapes in my stash that were the right size - they were either way too big or way too small - and not a Goldilocks in sight!  So I changed tack and drew my inspiration from the weathered wooden house, and rummaged through my scrap drawer to find the perfect papers (Simple Stories and some almost antique Sassafras Lass) to piece together this gorgeous Simon Says Stamp house and street. I love that the house is in three layers, reflecting the three shapes in the sketch, and I love that blue rows of stitches look like a little road leading past the front door!  The simple Paper Smooches Welcome sentiment means the card can be used for a Welcome to the Neighbourhood, Welcome Home or You're Welcome Anytime card.

I can't wait to see what you create over in the FUSION gallery this week, and don't forget YOU get to vote for your favourite creations each week too!

Why don't you stop by the FUSION Design Teams blogs for even more inspiration!

Allyson  Anderson  / Amy Tsuruta / Deanna Jean / Kelly Griglione / Stacey Schafer

Playing along with Craft-Room Challenges Use Your Scraps and

Let's Get Trendy Now! 3 Stitching Challenge too!

A Home-grown CASE of Inspiration

Gorgeous CASE card from Laura Bassen

Love the stunning simplicity and colours of this weeks CASE Study card by Laura Bassen.  Inspired me to create my own home card using My Favourite Things die-cut negative alphabet, and the sentiment is stamped using Paper Smooches Alphadots and A Little Lovin, with a little Doodlebug twine.

This in turn inspired me to create a second home card, this time a Welcome home card - which could easily be added to to create a Welcome to your new home card.  Created using the same My Favourite Things die-cut negative alphabet, and the sentiment is stamped using Paper Smooches A Little Lovin too. The key is a very old one from my stash, I think from memory it was Karen Foster Design, but then again.

Thought I'd add these to my collection for Paper Smooches April Guest Designer Challenge too!

Many thanks for stopping by, much appreciated!