It's a 'FIRST'

Welcome to the 'Very First' Season's Greetings

Anything Goes Christmas Challenge.

 

This is a 'LONG POST'

 

I got caught out badly last year with my Christmas card making

so decided to 'try' and remedy that by starting them earlier.

Well it so happens that there was a 'Design Team Call'

for a new Christmas Challenge and I thought

what a great opportunity it would be to apply.

I was fortunate in being chosen as one of the 'Designers'

There are 2 Teams named  in true Aussie Style

as it is based in my home state of Queensland Australia

Team Kangaroo - I am on this one

and

Team Koala joining in Challenge #2 in two weeks time.

So here goes -

Check it all out HERE

 

Here is the card I made for your Inspiration

 

I started off with my base of kraft card stock
and then went on to add some layers.
The white background has been cut with a
stitched die and as I didn't have a big
'LOVE' stamp with Christmas on it
I made a computer generated one.
Added some scoring and a few pearls.
For my focal image I got out my
 Spellbinders Poinsettia die cutting several
with white card stock. While they were still in the die
I inked them with Clear Wink of Stella.
 I then made my backing with white and gold paper.
Added some Christmas Ribbons from my stash
and leaves from Tim Holtz Mini Holiday Greens.
Finished with another pearl on my flower.

You can see the shimmer from the wos
 ***
Hope you will pop over to our Blog 

 and check out what my Team Mates (Aussie Saying)
have made. Love to see you join in and kick start
those Christmas cards early.
 

Thanks for popping in today.

 

 



Celebrating at CAS on Sunday

 

The girls at Clean and Simple on Sunday are going blue!

Is it because of the cold weather? No it is their Colour Challenge.

Details are Here

Aren't they divine?

 

I don't think I have ever seen a blue poppy but

I love this Rubbernecker watercolour poppy stamp.

It is a 2 step stamp so I inked up the outline

on water colour paper with Memento Teal Zeal

then for the second part with SU Baja Breeze slightly to the side.

I then touched it up with some metallic paints.

The centre of the flowers were dotted with a white uniball pen.

My Celebrate is from the CUTplorations die

first in navy peaking out the back and then blue.

Added a bit of spritzing and finishing with matting

to match the above colours.

Thanks for popping in to see what I have ben up to.

Love to read your comments.

PS This card was so hard to photograph trying

to show all the colours required.

***

I'll be back early tomorrow with a brand new

card for a brand new Blog I am designing for.

See you then.

 

 

 

 

 



All you need is a 'CUPCAKE'

STAMPlorations  are sponsoring
Cupcake Inspirations Challenge #394
and I have made this card as part of the
 STAMPlorations Guest Designers
You can find all the details from the Link above.

 

 

 

 

I started off with the basic card stock of red & white.

The cupcake image/sentiment are digi images

 from our very own Shery Russ. Thanks Shery.

My cupcakes were inked up with a

black and red sparkley gelly roll pens.

This was then matted with red card stock and

attached to my background which was cut from

a Spellbinder Scalloped Die. I then got out my

ARTplorations Dots all Over stencil

and inked with red distress ink but was too plain

so  used texture paste in white - then it looked

lost so that is when I inked it with TH Festive Berries

straight from the ink pad and got this great mottled effect.

This was popped and attached to a piece of cs.

I then embossed with some really old

cuttlebug embossing (remember those little strips?)

It needed something to break the white.

I finished with the sentiment, some cotton and a tiny heart.

 

This shows a better view of the shine from the pens.

It does look pink but I think that is because of the

shimmer from the pens.

Thanks so much for dropping in. There are so many more

Guests participating this week so pop over and see

what they have created

with the Talented Designers from

Cupcake Inspirations.

 

 



Love is in the Air

February is the 'Love' Month and with that in mind

Vicki has chosen 'Hearts' for our Trend Week Challenge

at Just Us Girls

 

 

Once again I got out a favourite stamp set

from SU - Timeless Textures for my background.

I also just received a cheapie heart stamp set

with various heart shapes adding a few of them here

with a few red and gold splatters.

This was cut with a stitched die
and attached to red card stock.

My heart is an old sizzix die - double hearts

which was cut from gold paper.

Inks were VersaColor Gold

Memento Angel Pink & Tim Holtz Festive Berries

Added a row of cotton and finished with

my sentiment from GKD

 

I'd like to welcome our February Guest Designer
Michele Greenwood. Pop over to Our Blog
to see what she has created with us
and come join in this weeks challenge.
I am sure Vicki will be busy choosing a winner
with such a popular 'Trend'

See you there and
 Thanks for dropping by



It's a LOVE TAGplorations Blog Hop

The LOVE TAGplorations blog hop is in full swing

and I hope you have had time to pop over to see what

the Talents of the Team at STAMPlorations 

have made for your inspiration.

This is only Day 3 so there is still plenty more to come. 

 

 

Here are a few tags I made for this Hop. 

 

 

Now where do I start?
1 Simply Forever - Items used are
Sizzix Tag die
Kraft card stock
Cuttlebug Swiss Dots
Red/pink/white card stock
Stencil -  ARTplorations Rows of Hearts
Gold Acrylic paint, Mulberry Paper
Small heart Punch, MFT Stitched Die
Tim Holtz Festive Berries
Sentiment - STAMPlorations floral Bliss
Own Ribbon

2 You're So Very Special -  

Manilla Tag

Spellbinders Labels 8/18

Stamps - STAMPlorations Scribbly Splattery Grunge

STAMPlorations Fond Expressions 2

Stencil - ARTplorations Rows of Hearts

Spellbinders Hearts Circles Die

Small punched heart

Tim Holtz Festive Berries/Black Soot

Memento Angel Pink

Own Ribbon

3 Forever Romantic -

Sizziz  Tag die

Stamps - STAMPlorations Floral Bliss

STAMPlorations Groovy Shoes

STAMPlorations Scribbly Splattery Grunge

Stencil - ARTplorations Rows of Hearts

Tim Holtz Distress Inks

White Embossing Powder

Clear Wink of Stella

Small Heart Punch

Own Ribbon

***

These are the sets I used from STAMPlorations 

 

And there are Prizes:

 (3) randomly drawn winners from all comments left on the STAMP blog and participating designers blog will each receive a $10 gift certificate to the store

(1) randomly drawn participant in the Love TAGplorations linky party will receive her choice of stamp set (Pocket Blooms, A Full Heart, or Two of Us)

 (1) randomly drawn participant in the Love TAGplorations linky party will receive her choice of any 2 of the new love-themed dies (Love, Always, XOXO, Forever, You & Me, Clustered Hearts)

(1) randomly drawn participant in the Love TAGplorations linky party will receive her choice of tag set: Luggage Tags or ATC/Tag Builder

*Winners announced on March 10 in the February Challenges & Hops winners post.

 

Hope to see you there.

 

 

 

 

 



My first posting as Guest Designer at Shopping our Stash

I was so excited and thrilled to be invited to be

Guest Designer for February over at  Shopping our Stash

Their challenge this week is Winter Blues BUT

don't make a Winter card. Pop over to the SOS link above
to get all the details.

This wasn't too hard for me as I am

sweltering through a heat waive

and anything cooling is fine by me.

 

 

I went with a clean and simple style getting out my

neglected gelatos in navy and swiping across watercolour paper

then adding layers of white acrylic paint.

I attached 2 cut out bull rushes from Craft Emotions

  framed and popped it.

The sentiment is from STAMPlorations Noteworthy.

Isn't is a great sentiment and one we should live by?

To finish it off I added more splats of white acrylic paint.

If you haven't been over to The SOS Blog be sure to head that way

and see what the Design Team have created for you.

Such a fun challenge. Hope to see you there.

 

Thanks for coming by today.

 

 



Going to the 'Dogs'

 We are going to the 'dogs' for our Word Week with
 Lisa  as Hostess at Just Us Girls 
 

 

This is a new month and we have our February Guest

Michele Greenwood with us. Welcome!

***

I thought my Scottie Dog from Marianne Designs

was a good choice - a chance to make a male card again.

Of course I had to match it up with Tartan DP

(which by the way came all the way from Scotland)

This was a really easy cas card.

Starting with basic card colours

I added my tartan dp cut with a stitched die

cutting my dog out of black card stock

and mounted him on Spellbinder circle dies.

 Sentiment is SU cut from a JustRite die.

That's it!

 

Hope you will pop over and check out what our
February Guest Michele Greenwood
and my Talented Team Mates created.
Hope you find time to play this week and
look forward to seeing over at Just Us Girls

# Update - Going to pop this over to
Addicted to CAS for their Pets Challenge


Thanks for dropping in. Love reading your comments.

It's a Vintage/Shabby Chic/Distress with Hearts & Flowers kinda card

Hello to my Blogger Friends. I have a nice surprise for you today.

How long has it been since you saw a vintage card from me?

You can't remember can you - neither can I.

There are 2 challenges I am sending my card to  this week -

Shopping our Stash for their Day of Yore which means

Vintage/Shabby Chic/Distress. Another favourite of mine -

just don't do them often enough
and The Mod Squad for their Hearts & Flowers

(I do have a Heart here)

Here are the products I used -
Kraft cs
Collage Sheet - Pink Paislee
Scrap DP inked and distressed
 CB Heart inked
Sentiment cut from MFT stitched die
and from Inspired by Stamping
Tim Holtz Holiday Greens
(be careful not to lose them as the
ones I used are so small)
Flowers Pearls Lace and Ribbon from my stash
Tim Holtz Distress Inks
Distressing around edges.

Thanks so much for popping in today.
Love reading your comments.

 

 

 

 

 

 



It's a 'Groovy Birthday Wish'

When I saw the  CAS Card Challenge
for February over at STAMPlorations
 I knew what stamp set  I just  'had to have'

It's STAMPlorations Groovy Shoes and perfect for our
Colour Twist which is 'HOT PINK'

 

This is my second month as Guest Designer and I am having
so much fun playing with all their fabulous products.

These are the products I used

I could have done sooooooo much more with this stamp set
but since it is a CAS Challenge I had to hold back this time.
***
I have been sweating on the mail man dropping my goodies
from STAMPlorations into my box
and he finally delivered and I couldn't wait to play.
I chose a super bright pink card base
then went on to colour those groovy shoes with
Tom Bow markers in different shades of pink.
I chose to back them with the stencil -
ARTplorations Broken Glass
inked up with Memento Angel Pink.
This was cut with a stitched die.
 

I added Glossy Accents to the brighter pink on the shoes
then Pink Kindy Glitz on the bottom, also spraying
a little pink randomly to block out a bit of white.
This was cut with a Spellbinder die so too for the pink frame.
The sentiment is also from the Groovy Shoes stamp set
inked with SU Melon Mambo.
Added a bit more bling with some pink gemstones.

***

Did you know
  There are even more reasons to play -

You can link up to 3 CAS cards.

 Can enter a CAS card with or without the optional color twist.

Non-STAMPlorations products are OK

 And one winner (voted by the design team)

will receive a $10 gift certificate to the store,

while the two top picks will each receive a $5 gift certificate.

If there are at least 50 entries, we'll also draw a random winner

and she gets to choose her prize -- a 3x5 stamp set

OR 2 standard size stencils

OR 1 CUTplorations word/phrase die. 

and don't forget the 20% discount code on the side bar.

What a great way to start or build up your

STAMPloration collection.

***

If you haven't already popped over to

Our CAS Challenge head over there now and

check out all the HOT PINK CREATIONS made by the 'Team'.

 I am sure you will want to play and

with Valentine's Day this month there's no stopping you!

See you there.

 

Thanks for dropping in. I really appreciate

you taking the time to check me out.

 

 

There's a 'NEW BLOG' in Town

The heading says it all! Yes there is a new blog in town

and it is all about Christmas!

 

 

The Design Team have been chosen and I am excited

to announce that I was chosen as one of them.

Congratulations to all my New Team Mates.

***

There are 2 Teams and I am on

 

so you will see me again when our

Blog Goes Live on Tuesday February 14th.

 

To see who else will be joining me in this

New Journey pop over Here

 

Don't you just love our little Kangaroo?

and in saying that

I will hop out of here and see you soon.

 



Time to dig out an 'Old Die'

How often does an old die get put away and forgotten about

especially when there were so many more

 new ones 'you had to have'

It was timely that I got out that very old much loved

'Tattered Florals' die from the man himself - Tim Holtz.

I bet it sold zillions!

It was for the latest challenge over at Just Us Girls

that called for that very die.

 

 

Yes it's our Photo Inspiration and I am guessing that

our Hostess Nancy is wishing for 'Summer'

with this beautiful photo.

I started with the basic white card stock and
added 2 dark green strips either side of
the spotted dp. I would love to have added a little
Lady Beetle but the only one I had was too big.
I cut out the background flourish
with a Spellbinder die then added my daisy
which I cut out several times and shaped it.
Again I got out some forgotten about craft essentials
which sadly you don't see much any more -
yellow flower soft - a perfect centre!
This was popped. Added a few dew drops
and inked my sentiment which is from
49andMarket. Super font.
That's it!
Hope you get a chance to pop over to Our Blog
to check out more great inspiration.
Join in and you could be our 'Chic of the Week'
and in the running for Guest Designer in March.

Thanks for stopping by and Thanks You for
your Kind Comments.

 



Going for 'GOLD'

It's Challenge Time again over at Shopping Our Stash

 and they are going for 'GOLD' this week.

 You can find all the details Here.

How fabulous is that!

Here is the card I will enter for this challenge.

 

As you can see I went with lots of gold.

I love using my SU Four Feathers Stamp/Die Set

and this is what I used here.

I heat embossed 2 of the feathers with

Stamp It gold embossing powder

and the third I embossed with clear embossing powder

on bright blue paper for contrast.

I used the same paper for my card base.

I added a strip of gold with a stencil from

ARTplorations called Plaid Maker 

 I like the effect I got from not making 3 solid lines.

This was inked up with ColorBlast Paste.

I also added a bit more to the back of the feathers with

STAMPlorations Scribbly Splattery Grunge

and stamped it quickly cleaning it before it dried and

a few dollops of blue ColorBlast Paste

 Spritzed a little with Tim Holtz Peacock Feathers.

My sentiment is the CUTplorations Hello Word die

cut 3 times and the top one heat embossed

the same as the feather.

Finished off with a little blue bow.

I am also adding this to the 

Here
and their CUTplorations Challenge Here
 

Hope you like what you see and leave a comment.

Thanks for dropping in today. Till next time

Cherrio from

 

 

 

 



A Forever Friend

Over at Time Out the current challenge is their

Case with your own Twist and this is the card we are CASEing

from the fabulously talented Ksenija

 

 

As you can see it is so clean and simple

so I followed in those lines choosing to

copy most of the layout.
I changed the stamp sentiment and the green strip.

 

 

I started by inking up SU Creative Elements in black

then coloured it with SU Gumball Green &

Tim Holtz Festive Berries adding glossy accents

to the red.

My sentiment is from STAMPlorations

called Fond Expressions 2.

Card base is white to which I lightly inked up

a background from SU Sweet Summer

with Memento New Sprout

(if you look closely enough you can see it)

I attached my image with dimensional squares

after cutting it out with a stitched die.

To finish and to copy Ksenija's strip down the side

I inked mine with green Wink of Stella.

 

That's it for me today.

Thanks for dropping in