Less is More - White on White

Well here we are at the end of the week already.  I've just been outside picking my crab apples to make some jelly with but this year is a bumper crop and I have got a huge amount - far too many for me, so will be looking for someone who wants some!!!

I was just sorting out my Christmas dies and embossing folders and came across one folder and had a light bulb moment.............this week the Less is More challenge is:
 

White Christmas

For our challenge this week, we have chosen to add another parameter to our colour challenge and that is that the submissions must be Christmas related cards.

The colour is 

WHITE on WHITE

We would like to remind everyone that submissions must adhere to the Guidelines set out above and be evidently Clean and Simple!

It's also a new month which means a new sponsor and this month we are excited that Stephanie from Clearly Besotted is our sponsor.  Clearly Besotted are Celebrating their first birthday this month too!

 

So here's what happened when I put my light bulb moment into practice:

I put a piece of Anna-Marie's pearl card through my Ebosser using a Crafts Too Poinsettia Frame and popped it up on an A6 tent fold card base.  I die cut a tag from my Spellbinders Fancy Tags 2 set and two lots of the Poppystamps Small Blooming Poinsettia (this is a really handy die especially if you use it with their Blooming Poinsettia set).  The sentiment, also cut from the pearl card, is from a Tattered Lace Christmas sentiments die set.  To finish off I've added some Liquid Pearls et voila!!!  lol

Thanks for visiting, I love reading all your comments.  Don't forget to visit tomorrow when we will be unveiling the new challenge at Addicted to CAS.

ADDICTED TO CAS - FIRST EVER CHALLENGE!!!

Hi Folks - we're all so excited today as it's the very first challenge over at our new blog Addicted to CAS.  And what is our first challenge????????  Here we go:

 

Please remember that this challenge is CLEAN AND SIMPLE. We all know the rules? Minimal embellishments, clean lines and lots of white space.  With the codes words, they are really open to interpretation. You need to decide what that code word means to you personally.   To some it will definitely mean Christmas. To others it may mean a trip to the snow fields (like in Australia), snow fights, snowman or snowflakes. Could it inspire you to think of snow cones (ice drinks) which we have here right now because it's hot? What about Snow White? What about skiing? The possibilities are endless, let your imagination go WILD!!!!!

We are delighted that Joanna Munster from Inspired by Stamping is sponsoring this first challenge and has offered a $20 voucher to her store.  Please hop over to her blog at http://www.inspiredbystampin.com/inspired-by-stampin/ and start dreaming what goodies you can buy!!!  lol 

My card is very simple.  At the moment I just love white on white and for this card I have embossed a piece of white card with my Crafts Too "Dotty Frame", I've then die cut another piece of card using my Poppy Stamps Pine Tree Border, popped it up on d/s foam across the centre of the embossed frame.  The sentiment is from a new Anna-Marie Designs stamp set "Reindeer".  The only other addition has been four pearls.

We're really looking forward to seeing all your fantastic cards.  Please pop on over to the A2CAS blog and have a look at the amazing DT cards.

DYSU Challenge - Thank You

The challenge over at DYSU is Thank You  and as I had to make a thank you card for some friends who hosted a party on Saturday.  I started off embossing a piece of white linen card using a Crafts Too butterfly folder.  I then cut this out around the image, inked it with Distress Inks and then sprayed with iridescent Crafters Companion spray.  I tied some purple ribbon around a 6x6" card blank and then stuck the embossed panel on the left hand side.  I die cut some butterflies out of pearlescent and mirri card using my Stampin Up Beautiful Butterflies embosslit and added them to the card.  The final touch was the sentiment (again SU) which I cut out using a Stampin Up scalloped square punch and added some gems.

Thanks for stopping by.

Embossing

This week's challenge over at Bah! Humbug! is embossing.

For this card I decided to do the double embossing method.  First of all I decided what die to use and I've chosen a Nellie Snellen set.  I then took two pieces of card (same size as the embossing folder that I am going to use) and place the largest die on top and cut out the centre.  I repeated this with the other piece of card and made sure I had placed the die in the exact position by putting the first piece of card over the top and pencilling in the aperture.  When you have both pieces of card cut use some temporary glue to position them together.  These two pieces then get taped on top of the embossing folder (on the outside).  Cut a piece of card to fit the embossing folder - in this case I've chosen a universal e/f - and run through your die cutting machine.  You will see that the whole card apart from the central area where your die had been cut out have been embossed.  Then separate the pieces of card and taking one piece position your die back over the aperture and put this directly over your embossed card making sure everything lines up.  Again run through your die cutting machine  so the outside of the die is actually embossed on your embossed card leaving the central piece untouched.  You may have to have a play to get the correct recipe of plates etc as you don't want the original embossing to be flattened out.  I then took the same die set and made a frame to enhance the unembossed piece, stamped my sentiment (Stampin Up) and embossed in red glitter e/p.  I then placed the frame on top using silicone gel to raise it up, put an embossed line around the edge of the card using red liner tape and then matted and layered as normal.  The only addition it needed was a ribbon and some gems.

Thanks for looking.

Anniversary Card

Just a quick post today as my craft room looks like a bomb's hit it!!!  Nothing unusual there............. but we have just recently taken a sofabed and double wardrobe out of the room and my super OH is installing units and worktops for me.  Trouble is you know the phrase "it gets worse before it gets better"?????  It's definitely true!  I can't move for tripping over things so am dying to get it finished so I can start putting everything away.  I'm even going to have room to put up my sewing machine and embellisher - they are going to have their own separate section - I won't know myself.

It's our wedding anniversary tomorrow so had to make a special effort as Tony is doing all this work - plus we've been married for 20 years........ unbelievable!  I had the smaller front piece of the card hanging around in one of my boxes for ages - it was done at a Stampin Up evening - but wasn't really "me" - so though I would alter it a bit.  I cut the front part of the card off first and then matted it onto an A5 red base card which had been covered with some pearlescent paper, which had been printed out with hearts and the word love, and some silver mirri which I'd put through my Big Shot in a Crafts Too embossing folder.  I added some matching ribbon across the centre and punched out a border from red cardstock using my Martha Stewart heart border punch and added some ribbon across.  The sentiment is computer generated.  Lastly I added some red roses and a red & pearl pin from my stash and punched out some fern leaves.  Hope he likes it!

Thanks for stopping by.

Bah Humbug Through the Window Challenge

The challenge this week over at Bah Humbug is "Through the Window".  Ahha I thought, now where are those die cut window sheets I bought ages ago............... hmmmmm can't find them at the moment so will have to improvise.

I have used the large stamp from the Creative Expressions Create-a-scene village set and stamped and clear embossed using black ink on white card.  I then cut this down into four equal pieces and mounted it onto black card leaving a gap inbetween each piece and so creating a "faux" window scene.  I have then mounted this onto a piece of white card which has gone through my Big Shot in a Crafts Too embossing folder to which I added a piece of ribbon.  This was mounted onto a piece of silver holographic card leaving a narrow margin and then onto a black A5 card blank.  I added some Stickles glitter glue to create a snowy scene.  The sentiment is from a Stampin Up set and was punched out using a SU square scalloped punch.

Thanks for looking.

Thank you for a wonderful weekend

At the weekend we went up to Bromsgrove in Worcestershire to celebrate the 100th birthday of Tony's aunt.  We had an absolutely wonderful time and it was great catching up with relatives old and new.

Although a lot of the family had a hand in it the main organiser was Terry, Gladys' eldest son, who did an fantastic job making sure everyone had a memorable time.

I have just made this thank you card to send to Terry and his wife Janet.  I have used Stampin Up stamps for the main image and sentiment.  The cream mat was put through my Big Shot with the Crafts Too Swiss Dots 5"x5" embossing folder and I used a Martha Stewart deep edge punch on the lilac mat.  A ribbon and some pearls finished off the card.

All the ladies were presented with a wonderful lilac and cream flower arrangement plus there was a lovely box of Thorntons chocolates in every room.

Here is a picture of Gladys cutting her cake.  I think she looks nearer to 80 than 100 years old.  She's fantastic!


Thanks for looking.

Suspended Flower card and Shaker card

We had our monthly club meeting this week and so Anne, Jan and I have been busy making samples to show the girls.  We did two projects; the first one was a shaker card and the second a suspended flower card.

For the shaker card I cut out a frame using my nesties scalloped circles.  I covered a square card with some floral paper from my stash and then added the base of my shaker.  The waste from cutting the frame I used as the backing and then stamped the ballerina image from Debbi Moore's Funky Divas stamp set and coloured using ProMarkers.  I attached this to the backing and added some seed beads for the "shaker" element.  Acetate was added to the back of the frame and attached using shaker tape.  The sentiment is from a Stampin Up set stamped onto a punched oval and scalloped oval using SU punches.  I then added a ribbon and some stickles around the frame.

The second card is a suspended flower card.  I started off with a square white card and I cut a section out of the front of the card.  This was replaced with acetate.  I put the card and acetate through my Big Shot using the Crafts Too daisy embossing folder.  I then placed the flowers (Little Claire) over the edge of the card and acetate which has the effect that the flowers are floating.  A ribbon and sentiment finished the card off.

Thanks for looking.

Funky Divas

I recently bought this set of Kerry Jo Funky Divas from Debbi Moore Crafts.  I had seen some stamps from the set ages ago but it had been out of stock for a few months until I managed to get my hands on it.

For this card I used an A6 green pearlescent cardstock which I ran through my Big Shot in a Crafts Too Swiss Dots 5x5" embossing folder.  I stamped the image onto watercolour paper using black StazOn and coloured using watercolour pencils and a water brush.  The umbrella was covered using Stickles as were the raindrops.  The puddles had Diamond Glaze added to give the effect of water.  There is a central border that was punched using a Martha Stewart border punch and covered with gold organza ribbon with a bow at the top.  The main image was cut out and matted using my Nesties labels dies and a paper flower was added to the top.  The sentiment is computer generated and matted and layered using the SU oval and scalloped oval punches.

Thanks for looking.

Labels card

I've been neglecting my crafting over the past few days as I'm trying to get my husband's Open University assignment typed and ready to go tomorrow - unfortunately it's got lots of statistics, regression analysis (don't ask) and figures.................. I'll definitely be glad when he's finished the course!!!

I bought this lovely stamp last week from one of the girls in our craft club. It's by Impression Obsession and called Large Gift Tag Trio.

I stamped the image three times; once on the background card, another where I cut out the tags completely and the third where I cut out elements from the tag to decoupage. It was coloured using my ProMarkers and matted onto purple mirri cut out using Nesties Labels 8 dies. The plain backing on the main card was put through my Big Shot in a Crafts Too embossing folder (daisies), and the bottom card is from Elusive Images. I added some purple ribbon; the sentiment is from Stampin Up, cut out and matted using SU punches. The flower was made by punching 5 layers of matching card using SU scalloped round punch; these layers were spritzed with water, crumpled and then fixed together with a matching brad. I then teased the petals into the shape I wanted and left to dry. The decoupaged elements were finished off with some Diamond Glaze.

Thanks for looking.

And another..........

This is a very quick and easy Easter card. My friend Dee gave me some sheets of watercoloured flowers on vellum and I liked the cheery colour of these primula (I think.........). So I used some more of the yellow gingham on a square card blank, cut the image using my nesties labels and mounted it on another label the same size cut out of white card - this made it look much crisper as vellum can look a bit "dingy" if you're not careful. Then I cut out a larger nestie label in yellow SU cardstock which I put through my Big Shot in a Crafts Too embossing folder (daisies). The greeting is a peel off and matted onto white and yellow ovals cut out with my SU punches. A yellow ribbon and some gems finished the card off.

Thanks for looking.

Easter card

Just finished this Easter card using a Sarah Kay free digistamp, coloured in using Promarkers. Matted and layered onto SU card using Labels 8 nesties with a nesties heart border and ribbon. The gingham paper is from my stash and the SU yellow card has been embossed using a Crafts Too embossing folder. The corner swirls are also part of a nesties borderabilities. The flowers are held together with a brad and fern leaves are from my L-Em rock fern punch. The sentiment was computer generated and matted using my SU oval and scalloped oval punches. Final touches are some gems and Diamond Glaze on chicks and hat.

Crafts Too embossing folder

I've just recently bought a new embossing folder by Crafts Too. It's brilliant in the fact that you can emboss the front of an A6 card without getting any borders that happens all too frequently with the Cuttlebug folders.

I've just made a quick card using the Crafts Too embossing folder which I highlighted with a cat's eye chalk inkpad. Then I stamped and decoupaged a flower from my SU Touch of Nature set. The sentiment is a Hero Arts stamp.

As I said, a very quick and easy card but I wanted to show you the effects you can get. I bought my folder ( and much, much more........) from Liz who I can highly recommend - please see the link on the sidebar of my blog for details.

Thanks for looking.