Hey There Girlfriend

 Hi there- Here's my last card for this month's challenge at Die Cut Divas                                    

                                                 

Prize: $20 gift code

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This is a Tic Tac Toe challenge month using the grid below.

Please tell us which row you picked on your entry.

 

For today's card, I've gone for a diagonal line on our tic tac toe - Uneven edge, Friendship and Flowers.

I used a Spellbinders die to cut my uneven edge out of some lacy looking patterned paper.  My CAS-ual Friday's stamp set is unfortuneatly now retired.  It's called "Girlfriend" and I used it to add the sentiment and to stamp the flowers.  I used some ink blending on them and then fussy cut.  Added lots of bling to the centre of the flowers and some leaves from my "scrap" pile. 

I've scheduled this post so as you read it, I'll be enjoying a full house..... my daughter, son in law and Grandson -Archie will be here and also my Dad and his partner.  It's going to be one really busy week.  Thursday is the Wedding!!!!  My son and his groom's party ( Best Man and Groom's Maid - yes his best friend, Brooke is part of his wedding party) are also coming here on Thursday to get dressed.  So very full house on the day.  Showering will need to be rostered!  

Thanks for stopping by.  

Let the Shenanigans begin.

Hi there.... Time for my card for the Die Cut Divas May challenge.  

 

Prize: $20 gift code

• Facebook: https://business.facebook.com/CASualFridaysStamps/
• Blog: http://cas-ualfridaysstamps.blogspot.com/
• Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/casfridays/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/casfridays/

This is a Tic Tac Toe challenge month using the grid below.

Please tell us which row you picked on your entry.

 

My card today uses the middle row down - emboss it, friendship and blue...  It's a birthday card for a dear friend.  And there is a bit of blue in there....

My embossing is subtle.  I used a dotty stencil and some pink, blue and green inks from Altenew.  I then used the two dies by Gina K from Master Layouts 1 - the smaller one for the stencilled panel and the larger one for the layer in a nice bright blue.  I then put the stencil back over the ink blending and ran it through my Cuttlebug with an embossing pad and got a subtle embossing.  I made the mistake of stamping my CAS-ual Friday sentiment after doing the embossing so you can see some of the levels showing through.  The stamp set I used is called "Shenanigans"   I white embossed the subsentiment onto some black card.  To finish I used some Rose Gold sequins that arrived today from my friend Betty. 

Do come and join us at Die Cut Divas for our May challenge.  Just remeber - used your machine to cut and/or emboss on your card and tell us how you used our Tic Toc Toe board. 

Inspired by Gina K....

 I have been watching Gina K's lives on Facebook for a while now.  She is very inspiring.  I don't own many Gina K stamps but do have her Master Layouts 1, 2 and 3 - with #4 on it's way.   On Friday (NZ time) her live was a technique using rubber bands on a block to make plaid.  I loved the idea so used my own supplies to CASE her cards. 

For my first card I did a diagonal plaid using Altenew Ocean Waves and Lime inks and three rubberbands of different widths.  I used Altenew's Beautiful Day set to stamp my rose and leaves.  I attempted to colour with Prismacolor pencils and Mineral spirits - but it wasn't too successful - so added a few strokes of the pencils for dimension.  The oval's were cut from Cottage Cutz stitched ovals and the sentiment is from Altenew's Sweetest Peas set.  The panels were cut with Gina's Master Layouts 2.  I finished card with some holographic gems.

Card two - I made a plaid but the messed up the stripes so cut the panel down with the Master Layout 2 dies.  I found some pretty Patterned paper that went well with the plaid and the kraft card I used for the base.  This time I used the larger circle dies from Master Layouts 3.  The sentiment is from a Catherine Pooler set called Bloomin' Bouquet.  

I have a third card that I made after being inspired by a live from last week.  It's a sort of resist card,  

I am still waiting for the stamp set that Gina used, so again improvised.   I used a Hero Arts background stamp Flourish Background and white embossed it. I then cut it down to size with the Master Layouts.  I then used Altenew Sapphire ink to stamp the Altenew A Study in Watercolour stamp.  I white embossed a scrap and added the Sapphire ink directly to it before trimming to size .  I die cut the circles and added the sentiment from CAS-ual Fridays set Casual Elegance.  

Thanks for persevering through this long post.  I had fun trying out these different techniques.   

Coffee with Love

It's the last day of the month at Die Cut Divas.  Our theme for the month was ""Make it a Beverage".

Prize: $20 gift code

It's also been the Coffee Lovers Spring/Summer blog hop - I managed to sneak my card in a bit earlier than this post to get it included! 

My team mate Arlene sent me some of these coffee cups and Coffee sentiment die from CAS-ual Fridays. I finished off my coffee sentiment with a very old Hero Arts sentiment from one of the 2x3" sets. My background was a digital image I found on Pinterest. 

I also made another card for the Blog hop...

I recently saw the technique of using a used teabag to stamp on, over at Splitcoaststampers.  I drink Peppermint tea and the teabags I use have cute sayings on the tag.   So I dried the teabag, removed the tea leaves and then stamped on the bag.  I used Catherine Pooler Designs stamp set called Tilly's Garden.  I used CP inks in Grass Green and Royal Treatment and Versafine Onyx Black to stamp the design.  I added some red Nuvo Drops for the flower centres and berries.    To add some texture to my design I used an embossing folder strip.  I did a little stamp surgery to make part of the sentiment.  It was a longer sentiment from an Altenew set. 

It's Queens Birthday weekend here in New Zealand this weekend - Monday is a public holiday.  I decided to take today off as well.  We had an appointment with one of our kitchen designers at lunch time so it made sense to take the whole day off and go look at the design and price up the appliances.  We had seen one design earlier in the week which I liked most parts of and today - liked some parts and definitely didn't like other parts.  So still lots of decisions to be made like bench top colours, what sort of splashback and what sort of pantry we want.

Thanks for stopping by.  

Peace love and Serendipi-tea

It's my day for sharing at Die Cut Divas today.... Our Sponsor is Cas-ual Fridays Stamps and our theme is "Make A Beverage"

Prize: $20 gift code

Also during May is the Coffee Lovers Blog Hop for spring/summer so check out when you can can enter your coffee & hot chocolate projects into the Coffee Lovers Blog Hop too.  - Mine is there!

I am using some images from Cas-ual Fridays that my teamie, Cindy, had stamped and die cut for me. They are this set 

  

Cindy had stamped them on some sweet patterned paper.  I added Copic markers to the hearts,  I die cut a doily from Catherine Pooler Designs, to sit the teapot and cups on.  I used some fabulous grey and white coloured patterned paper which I used a Lil'Inker  die to cut out.  I took the stamped image and trimmed it with a fish tail banner, and layered onto some black card .  

Do come and join us with your Beverage project. 

WWC235 Marsha's Masculine "Anything Goes" challenge

Hello there, it’s time for another Watercooler Wednesday Challenge.  Marsha is our hostess this week with a Masculine "Anything Goes"  challenge.

A simple and fun card.  My background is one I made a few weeks back as part of my Altenew Academy class - Monoprinting Made Easy.  I inked up my Gelli plate with some Parrot and Olive Altenew inks, and then using the base layer of the leaf from the Beautiful Day set I pulled off some of the ink and stamped it onto some white card.  I added some extra leaves by using the Olive ink, stamping off twice before adding it onto panel.  It gives a great subtle colour.  To keep the card masculine I didn't add anything more than the sentiment.  It's from CAS-ual Fridays - Whole Shebang set.   Perfect for those guy cards.

Come join in the fun.  Check out the projects that the artists at Watercooler Wednesday Challenges have created then take the challenge and link your creation to the challenge post. We’d love to have you join us.  You have until Mondays at 5 p.m. Mountain Standard Time (Tuesdays at 11.00am NZ time) to link up your project

 Thanks for stopping by today.  

Thanks to CAS-ual Fridays...

Over at Die Cut Divas this month, CAS-ual Fridays has been our sponsor.  Our theme is "Anything Goes" with an

I have a few CAS-ual Friday's stamps and dies. Here is my card for the final day of the month.

I used a piece of card stock I had previously embossed with an Altenew Stencil.  I love the subtle texture this technique gives. I used the stamps from CAS-ual Fridays' Pretty Posies set.  I white embossed them and then used Altenew Watercolour Paints - Coral Berry and Purple Wine.  My leaves were die cut with Casual Vine die (no longer available) from some of the Gelli plate inked backgrounds I made in the last weekend.  A few Nuvo drops and the white embossed sentiment finished my card.

Thanks CAS-ual Fridays for sponsoring our challenge. 

Anything Goes at Die Cut Divas

Hi there.  It's my turn to share a card at Die Cut Divas.

This month's challenge theme is "Anything Goes with an Optional Twist of Patriotic".
 and our sponsor is Cas-ual Fridays Stamps

I have used CAS-ual Friday stamps and die to make my card.

I started by die cutting some watercolour paper with a Lil'Inkers die.  I then stamped and white embossed the music from CAS-ual Fridays set- Love Notes.  Next was to add some water colour 

paint.  I then added the  CAS-ual Friday Treble Clef die cut (thanks Arlene for sending me some of these) and added the little sentiment from the stamp set. 

Do come and join us at Die Cut Divas.

CAS-ual Fridays at Die Cut Divas

It's a new month so a new challenge at Die Cut Divas..

 

Our theme is "Anything Goes" with an optional twist of Patriotic

My card today is a CAS floral (my favourite genre at the moment)

 

I used Pretty Posies from CAS-ual Fridays.  I coloured the flower and leaves with Prismacolor Pencils and fussy cut them out.  I used an embossing folder from Couture Creations called Diagonal Stripes.  I stamped the sentiment from the set and die cut with a My Favorite Things Die-namics sentiment stripe die.   

Do come and join us. 

 

Sketch challenge at StampNation.

Another challenge at StampNation.  And this week,  the lovely Michelle from CAS-ual Fridays has a $50 voucher for one lovely participant. 

Here's a sneak peek of my card. 

Do hop over to StampNation and see my card and those of my teamies.

Off The Edge.... CAS-ual Fridays challenge

CAS-ual Fridays is having a Design Team Call and part of it is to ensure you enter a card into the latest challenge... Off the Edge.

I don't have a lot of CAS-ual Friday stamps and dies... but luckily you can use whatever you have in your stash.   My card uses an Altenew flower and Spellbinders Nestibility die and a sentiment from a CAS-ual Fridays set I do have!

My card is a mixture of CAS and layers.... I used some PP from Craftworks, sponged with some Delicata Golden Glitz ink for my background panel.  I stamped the flower from Altenew's Botanical Garden set and then used a Spellbinders Nestibilities die, did some partial die cutting.   I coloured the flower with some Zig Markers and a Wink of Stella clear marker.    The sentiment is from Casual Elegance.

Also entered into the Anything Goes at The Flower Challenge.  

So off  to choose some more cards  to showcase my style -

Thanks for stopping by... hope your weekend is going to be crafty... I'm going to try an fit in some card making.

Text background

Last night I was commenting on the fabulous creations on the Hero Arts Flickr scramble and saw this card from Lin

 

Isn't it gorgeous.  I loved how she double stamped the floral stamp.   I decided that I was going to CASE this card.  

I used Catherine Pooler inks - Aquatini and Something Borrowed to make my panel. I used two layers of fun foam to layer it for dimension,  I stamped the Text stamp in the Something Borrowed.  My die cut is from CAS-ual Fridays and I covered it with glossy accents.    I didn't get it photographed in time for the scramble.  Thanks Lin for the inspiration

playing with smooching...

I was playing around with some distress inks and my acrylic block the other day and made a couple of backgounds.  - one in blues and one in oranges.  And here's how they ended up

First up the blues with a bit of inspiration from Pinterest

 This is a slightly smaller card - 4' x 4 1/2"  Cut with some leather texture card.  I made a frame with Spellbinders square dies.  The black leaves are a CAS-ual Friday die and the the butterfly is an EK Success punch.  Added some gems and the sentiment from the matching CAS-ual Friday's stamp set.

and the orange one

This one used a black die cut I got from one of the ladies in my stamping group.  Not sure if it was a die or cut with an electronic cutter, but it was perfect as the focus against the orange background.  Once again I used a sentiment from the CAS-ual Friday stamp set with the same textured card stock.  

Not much crafting in the last couple of days... went to the Zoo yesterday and today did some shopping for paintbrushes for the upcoming Online Card Class - watercoloring intermediate techniques.  I found my tubes of paints so hope these will work.  Can't wait to start the classes.  

Got a wedding come up in the weekend.  My hubby's niece is getting married on Saturday in Hamilton.  Look out for the card I made for them... it's coming up soon.

Take care

Dawn

September CCC card for Lizzy

I really love taking part in Deborah's CCC monthly challenges.   You get to send a card to someone and someone sends you one.   This month, I got to send a card to Lizzy in Australia.

Each month Deborah gives options for the card... a colour combo, a sketch or a theme.  For September I chose the colours - Ivory, Olive and Cobalt Blue

My card base is Ivory and my olive is Distress ink sponged through a Tim Holtz stencil.  My butterfly is a Memory Box die and the friend die is from the SOA from StampNation and is by CAS-ual Friday. The rest of the sentiment is from Winnie & Walter and is stamped with a Memento ink.  Finished with some blue enamel dots for the butterflies body.  Lizzy has now let me know it has arrived.

I'm entering this into the Die Crazy challenge at Simon Says Stamp. 

StampNation Stamp of Approval - Friendship box

I recently decided that I needed wanted Catherine Pooler's Stamp of Approval kit - aptly named "Friendship"   It was a VERY EXPENSIVE box of goodies for me as the NZ-US exchange rate has plummeted of recent times and postage rates have risen in the US,  But I am so happy that I did get it!

As you can see it was chocker full of lovely stamps, dies and a stencil.   So here goes with what I've done so far!

This first one was CASE'd from one Isha did for the accompanying PDF.

Next up used the flower dies, and the stamped sentiments.

this one used the stencil for the background using two different colours of distress ink.  The Friend die came in the set and I paired it with a Winnie and Walter sentiment stamp

For this card I only used the Tag dies,  The background is distress ink over a The Crafter's Workshop snowflake mask/stencil.  Again used Winnie & Walter sentiments.

and finally

A Bokeh card with Teal and white inks on a sprayed background.  Sentiment and flowers from the SOA kit, leaves from Provocraft (very old Cuttlebug dies)

Thanks for bearing with me for this long post.  I've had fun with this kit and there are lots more ideas floating about in my mind.  Haven't even used a couple of the stamps and dies yet!

take care

Nothing beats creating with friends.

That's for sure.   Our group has had a very busy winter and a number of us have been way, and simply been busy so today's gathering was the first for some time.  5 of us joined Lei at her house and spend a full day creating.  I got there at 10.00am and left at nearly 5.00pm.  Managed to get 6 cards done. as well as sharing an awesome lunch and lots of fabulous conversation. 

I have had lots of new stuff arrived this week... an order from Simon Says Stamp that included some Altenew stamps, some SSS dies and a stencil or two plus my StampNation Stamp of Approval set arrived.  It is totally full of goodness

Even with all this goodness, my brain was not working so I did some blog visiting and You Tube watching to get some ideas.  So today's cards are all CASE'd or inspired by others.

First up are two cards that are CASE'd from cards by Sandy Allnock.  She did an awesome video on using the Layering Christmas Trees from Hero Arts.  just click on her name to link through to see it. 

I used the same Hero Arts Layering Trees and the same Couture Creations Sentiment die on both cards. The tree was stamped with 4 shades of green distress ink and blended with water and a paint brush.  Lots of Liquid Pearls around the oval one as well as on the trees with red and gold stickles.

My next card was inspired by Catherine Pooler.

I did an twisted inlay die cut using Simon Says Stamp stitched dies, The sentiment die and word are from Winnie & Walter as are the sequin stamps.  The birthday is embossed on some adhesive backed vellum.

I had an awesome day and did get a couple more cards done.  Two are for design work so can't share yet.  And one is for a birthday on 9th September. 

Hope you have a great weekend and get some time to create like me. 

Stenciled ~ Day 1 Inking and Masking

I'm taking the online class ~ Stenciled ~and today's class had a number of different techniques using stencils.  I had ordered some stencils and they had arrived on Thursday, just in time.  I did some inking today with cards inspired by Jennifer's videos on inking, layering and masking.  

My first card involves sponging ink through the stencil and spritzing it with Shimmer Spritz before removing the stencil.  

I used a Dreamweaver stencil and sponged on some distress inks with mini daubers.  I used Shabby Shutters and Peeled Paint for the greens and Dried Marigold and Ripe Persimmon for the oranges.   I trimmed the panel and matted with some orange card and used some of it to make the banner (Simon Says Stamp Tilted banner die) with a sentiment from the matching stamp set.  

My second card is also inspired by Jennifer's use of the MFT Petal Circles stencil.  

This one involved layering and masking.  My first layer of the stencil was done in Shabby Shutters and then the stencil is moved over a little and the second layer was in Peeled Paint.  I then found a teeny tiny flower stamp on an older Hero Arts sentiment set and used some Seedless Preserves to add to the centre of darker circles.  I am really pleased with the colour combo.   The sentiment is from a CAS-ual Fridays.  I used dimensional tape to add the panel to the cardbase, 

I'm hoping to get some more time tomorrow and Monday (a public holiday here in Auckland for Auckland Anniversary Day) to try out some of the other ideas in the class.  

Today is the 3rd anniversary of the passing of one of my Hubby's sister's, Helen.  And at lunch today, we had a visit from a very dear friend of hers from England.  Lucy and her husband, Jules, have been here in NZ for a week's holiday and have been visiting with our family.  They were on their way to the airport for their trip home.  Lovely to reminisce about Helen and her life in London.  

Thanks for stopping by today.   Have an awesome weekend and if you are from the other side of the world,.... keep warm!

A CAS card

Yesterday over at Die Cut Divas blog I shared a CAS birthday card.   And I'm sharing it here today

I wanted something very clean and graphic for a family member who is having a birthday soon.   I took some dark wine and green card and the Simon Says Fresh Daisies die and cut out two of the flowers.  I just trimmed the flowers off the wine one and added to the green one.  Added to a white card, matted with the wine card and then added to the white base.   The sentiment is from Hero Arts.  Finished with some gems.  Just love how this turned out.  I've entered it into the challenge over at CAS-ual Fridays

Thanks for stopping by....I truly appreciate all your comments

Inspired by Hero Art's Artists.....

Over at A Blog named Hero the challenge is

Inspired by Hero Arts Artists!

 

I've been very inspired by a number of the Hero Arts Artist's during the Stretch Your stamps on-line class and not more so that Shari Carroll ~especially her beautiful card on Day 11

Here's my take on her card.

I used a page from an old book about Roses, so old it's very yellowy.  I used Hero Arts Wet Cement ink and Flower Bird Garden stamp.  I added some white seam binding and a button and mounted onto white and pink and then onto a black card base.   

So am entering this into 

A Blog named Hero

as well as CAS-ual Fridays ~ Back in Black.

I'm heading to bed super early tonight as I have to be up at 4.15am to get to work by 5.00am to meet up with some colleagues to head out to the airport to fly to Wellington ( an hour's flight) to go to a workshop.  I am a Workplace Assessor ~ assess assignments that some of our staff are doing towards a qualification.  The WPA's are getting together tomorrow from all round the country.  But oh such an early start!   Plus won't get home till after 9.00pm ~ so forgive me if I don't get to comment over the next few days... think I will be a bit tired for a few days>

Take care

Dawn 

 

Spots and Dots

 

This weeks challenge at CAS-ual Fridays is all about using polka dots.  As CAS cards are my forte, I though I'd combine this challenge with Hero Arts sketch challenge.   I used the third sketch,  I used some of my dotty and spotty washi tape to make my card

I stuck the tape onto some white card stock to give it weight. I then trimmed and cut the banner shape with a square punch.  I layered them as per the sketch.  I stamped the sentiment from a Hero Arts/Basic Grey set and added the dotty flower.  A very CAS card. 

I hope you all got to visit Moxie Fab World today and saw who the Moxie Fabber of the Week is.... none other than the amazing Virginia Lu.  Isn't she just the best!  A big Congratulations Virginia. 

Have a great week...  I will as it's my birthday week.... Thursday is the day!  

Dawn