Check Out This FUSION Baby...

LOVED seeing everyone's FUSION creations this week - especially the sea-themed ones - I do love to be beside the seaside!!  Time for some more FAB inspiration this week.  Will you choose just the sketch - with these four panels open to WIDE interpretation, or this gorgeous collection of ties - just in time for Father's Day for some of you - or a FUSION of both.

Jackie's gorgeous sketch reminded me of this gorgeous die-cut window, and I honed in on the pink and yellow checks of the third tie from the right for my colour and pattern inspiration.  I repeated the window dressing checks with papers from Authentique on the Mama Elephant teddy's tummy to tie the design together.  I love the way the stitched teddy ties in with the stitched rectangle from Lil' Inkers.  I thought black ink would be too stark for a baby card, so I stamped the Mama Elephant sentiment using Hero Arts Cuppa Joe.

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 Team blogs for even more inspiration!

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

Playing along with Southern Girls Diecut Challenge too.

A CASE of Little Tangles...

I LOVE the combination of colour in this weeks CASE Study, and am playing along with Little Tangles Just Say Hello Challenge too.  I know, you're wondering where the gorgeous Neat & Tangled stamps are hiding - I tucked them inside the card for safe-keeping!

Die cut hellos from My Favorite Things, with a mix of patterned papers from my scrap box including Echo Park, Basic Grey and Authentique, with stitched square from Lil Inkers.  Neat & Tangled Just Saying Hello is the sentiment inside...

Inspired by Lisa Spangler's gorgeous CASE Study card

Hey!... You're Cute as a Bug

 

First up toady is a card combining this rather literal interpretation of this cool CAS(E) this Sketch with the gorgeous colours in this weeks Color Q (some of my favourites!)  I had started off using a peacock feather, but I just couldn't get it to work, so I broke out my feather dies from My Favorite Things, combined these with a range of chevron papers from Echo Park and My Minds Eye and this cute wooden speech bubble from Basic Grey, together with this fab stitched rectangle mat from Lil Inkers.

 

Next up I dug deep into my stash of chipboard to find inspiration from this tag, flourish and three leaves to play along with this weeks Use What You Have over at the Sweet Stamp Shop (photo of my stash below).  I glued the chipboard pieces together before covering them all with Gesso.  Once the Gesso had dried, I oversprayed with Dylusions Vibrant Turquoise and Fresh Lime.  I stamped the Sweet Stamp Shops You're Cute as a Bug! then decided it needed some extra shimmer so I oversprayed with Heuys Calico Shine.  (Note to self - stamp last as the added liquid tends to make the sentiment run LOL).  I went a bit overboard with the Calico Shine, so once it had dried off I grabbed my Distressed Ink Mowed Grass, and highlighted my flourish branch and leaves, before adding extra shine with Dimensional Magic.  The cute as a bug Sweet Stamp Shops ladybird was stamped in black over red cardstock before adding Dimensional Magic to its wings.  I attached my tag to some black cardstock to make the colours pop - and to play along with this weeks Keep It Simple Black Background Challenge, and Shopping Our Stash No Patterned Paper too!

Chipboard Stash

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!

You're Never Too Old to Craft Dash...

9 minutes and 16 seconds later...

This weeks 10 Minute Craft Dash colours with its red, butter yellow and pale blue, reminded me of a day by the seaside, so what was more perfect for a day by the sea than this gorgeous boat!

This week I die cut my Paper Smooches flag from some Crate Paper cardstock, then stamped it with this gorgeous Verve sailboat and sentiment.  Next up I stamped the same images directly onto the card base, then stamped just the boat and waves onto red stripped and yellow polka dotted Echo Park papers. I fussy cut the waves, the boat and the sails before using a glue pen to adhere the boat and sails to my card base.  I positioned a strip of double-sided tape on my card base across the "you are" on my sentiment, and used this to secure the twine wrapped twice around the card, before adding pop-dot tape to the back of the sentiment flag, making sure they were positioned above and below the level of the twine (rather than at the same level as the twine), and adhering the sentiment flag. The two bottom corners of the card were rounded using a corner punch (yes, I forgot to do this before I stuck down my sentiment flag, so I had to lift it out of the way before rounding the corner, then stick it back down again LOL).

10 Minute Tip

• Plan to do all your die cutting at once, all your stamping at once, all your fussy cutting at once and then assemble and adhere everything as the last step - not swapping back and forth from one to another saves TIME :)

There's 10 days to enter, and in case you need any more motivation, there's a gorgeous prize up for grabs from Timeless Twine too!

Playing along with the Paper Players Summer Holiday Challenge,

Cupcake Inspirations At the Beach Challenge,
CAS on Sunday Make it Masculine Challenge.
Simon Says Stamp Masculine / Father's Day Challenge
and Paper Crafts July Nautical Card Challenge 

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

FUSION in Red, White & Blue...

Wow, some truly gorgeous creations in the FUSION Gallery last week!  Can't wait to see what surprises you have in store this week - will you choose to make the most of this fabulous sketch by Jackie???  Or will you be inspired by the colours, the theme, the elements from this gorgeous photo from Lesley???  Or will you choose to create a FUSION of both???

As a FUSION scientist I chose my favourite elements from both Jackie's sketch and Lesley's photo, and combined for my creation.  I loved the white text on blue background from Lesley's Challenge this week, and achieved this by stamping my Mama Elephant little boy and Verve sentiment in Versamark Watermark and heat embossing with Zing White. My clouds were created by die cutting Lil Inkers clouds from some clear plastic sheet and using the negative sheet as a mask, inked inside with Tsukineko Brilliance Platinum Planet, then heat set, as these inks tend to take a LONG time to dry.  To keep with the rainy day theme, I repeated the umbrella element in place of the flags from Jackie's Challenge.  The three Kaisercraft wood veneer umbrellas were inked in Distress Ink Festive Berries then overcoated with Dimensional Magic, to mimic wet umbrellas!

Head on over to the FUSION blog for some more FABULOUS inspiration from the Design Team!

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

Playing along with CASual Fridays Red, White & Blue Challenge,
Cupcake Inspiration Challenge, with its gorgeous red, white & blue pinwheels,
and Simon Says Stamp Anything Goes too!