IBS New Release - Tropical Paradise

Hi! Welcome back. Today I have a card for you that is using the Day 4 New Release stamps from Inspired by Stamping. 

This set is called Tropical Paradise.

Here is the brand new set that I used

The background was created using Distress Inks and then stamping in black ink. I used a square die to create my aperture and then popped the background up with foam squares to give it more dimension.

I've been making a lot of sunset/tropical scenes lately as cards to give to the ladies that will be joining me on my birthday cruise. 

I would like to enter my card into the following challenges

613 Avenue Create - Anything Goes w/out the optional twist

Thanks so much for looking xx

Quick Birthday Card

Hi everyone, a very quick post from me today.

I was making a card for my niece as it is her birthday soon. I am in the middle of making her a shaker card (which I will post a little later) and my dad asked me to make one from him. This is what I came up with and dad loves it.

I die cut this Birthday Background with a Memory Box die using PTI paper. Then glued it straight on top of my card. So simple and quick but really effective.

I would like to enter my card into the following challenges -

Stamping Sensations - Dies and Punches

Thanks so much for looking xx

New Release at Inspired by Stamping!

Exciting news for you IBS fans. The new release starts today and I am kicking things off by showing you the first set of the release

Flower of the Month: Pansy

Here is my card -

I love pansy's and always have them in my garden. 

I usually like to emboss when using flower stamps. I like the effect it gives and gives you a bit more control when colouring. 

This time I have embossed in white powder onto vellum. Once the embossing is dry, I flip the vellum over and colour in everything with my Spectrum Noir markers. 

I also embossed the sentiment with white powder. The white and the softness of the vellum is so pretty.

Once I finished my vellum panel, I was horrified that I hadn't thought this through... I wasn't sure how to attach my vellum onto my card without glue showing through. Glossy accents and some pearls to the rescue!!

I hope you are inspired by the team at Inspired by Stamping using the

Thanks so much for looking xx

Welcome Little Angel

Happy Sunday!

I had some wonderful news on Wednesday morning that a very good friend of mine had given birth to her healthy baby boy. Needing an appropriate card, I had to reach for my Inspired by Stamping: Big Notes III set which has the appropriate sentiment - Welcome Little Angel.

Here is my card 

I kept the colours nice and soft and kept the sentiment as the focal point. The banner was created using the Whimsical Banner set.

Here are the sets that I used

I would like to enter my card into the following challenges

Southern Girls - New Beginnings

Creative Moments - Anything Goes/New Beginnings

The Male Room - New Beginnings

Thanks so much for looking xx

We are back at ATCAS!

Hooray!! ATCAS is back for 2015! We have a wonderful code word for you this challenge which was chosen for you by the super talented Jaydee.

You can use the code word and interpret it to your liking just remember to keep your project Clean and Simple!

Here is my card -

This is a one layer and super CAS card. I have simply stamped the words from my Lil' Inker Snarky Sentiments set. The little pair of scissors are from a SU set called Tote-ally Tess.

I made a second card playing on the code word a little. I used an Inspired by Stamping sentiment from their Everyday Greetings set. Stars and friends are part of my world :)

The stars are Stitched dies from Lil' Inker as is the rectangle die.

I would like to enter this card into the challenge at 

Less Is More - Friends

I am so excited to announce that our sponsor for this challenge is Create A Smile (CAS!!!!!) which is owned by our ex-teamie Christine. I am so happy to have Christine on board at ATCAS. Welcome!

Christine is offering our winner one stamp set of their choice!!

A big welcome to our Guest Designer for January - Julia from Create with Me!

We also have some new faces at ATCAS. Don't forget to pop on over to the challenge blog and see the amazing creations by all of the Design Team!

Today is also a very special day for me - my son, Aidan, turned 20. We have been out at lunch overlooking the water with friends and family. Happy Birthday, son!!! xx (sobbing quietly because I no longer have a teenager...)

Thanks so much for looking xx

ATSM is back!

Woo hoo! ATSM is back for 2015 and we are kicking it off with a 

MAKE YOUR MARK

challenge. Get out your markers, pencils, paints, sponges or anything that will make a mark on your project!

Here is my DT card -

Using Lawn Fawns 'Life is Good', I have used a watercolour piece of card stock for my base. I used a paint brush to add my colours. I then popped on a previously coloured lighthouse on top.

I'm not really sure that combining the watercolouring and marker colouring actually works for me but it will have to do :)


If you are interested in how I coloured my lighthouse, you can see my video tutorial below



We have a fabulous new sponsor for ATSM!



The prize up for grabs is a $20 gift certificate to their store. Thanks girls!!

Off you go to the challenge blog and have a look at the amazing inspiration by the DT. I am really excited for the new girls who have just started :)



Thanks so much for looking xx

Swinging in the Snow

Welcome back. I hope everyone is well.

This morning I woke up very early (sparrows fart) to pelting down rain. I did a couple of household bits and pieces and jumped straight into my craft room.

I was inspired by the challenge over at Merry Monday. I haven't had a chance to play there for so long and having my new Lawn Fawn goodies to play with, I had the perfect recipe. 

Here is my card -

I had seen a couple of cards using a swing while on Pinterest so I decided to create my own little fun scene. 

The owl is from the Winter Owl set and the log and sentiment is from Joy to the Woods - both Lawn Fawn. 

The log was a little too short for my owl to sit on properly so I masked off one edge before stamping and then masked off the other edge and stamped it again to create a longer image.

Everything was coloured in with my Spectrum Noir markers.

My Swiss Dots embossing folder creating the snow background and I used a die from the Stitched Hillside Border Die set (Lawn Fawn) for my snow bank. 

Here is the inside of my card -

The challenges I am entering into are -

Thank you so much for looking xx

Embossing and Inspired by Stamping

Happy Monday everyone!

Over at Inspired by Stamping we are focusing on Embossing. 

Heat Embossing is actually one of my favourite techniques even though we have a love hate relationship. I don't like that the powder tends to go everywhere (user issue lol) but the end results are so fun.

I love this sentiment (from the Everyday Greetings set) - it always needs to be the focus when on a card in my opinion. 

I've embossed the sentiment with black powder.

The little stars are from the Teeny Tiny Greetings set.

Love this sentiment - did I say that already? Actually the Everyday Greetings is a really great set. It should be on your wish list! SHOP HERE for all your stamping needs!

Thanks so much for looking today xx

Sprinkled Happiness

Hello! How are you? Nice to see you back :)

I'm getting a little excited because there are only 3 more sleeps until ATSM goes live for the first time in 2015. I'm also excited about the Design Team - new gals and the old gals. I can't wait for it all to start up again.

In the meantime, I have used a rainy Sunday afternoon to create a card. 

I have used the colours from the current challenge at ShowCASe your Style. I really loved the DT examples but I feel I didn't capture these colours very well at all. 

I die cut the Sprinkled word twice - once in black and a second in lime and popped up the lime layer. The bottom of my PTI paper was die cut with my new Stitched Hillside Border dies from Lawn Fawn. The stamp set used is PTI Shakers and Sprinkles.

Here is the inside of my card - very basic with a simple Happy Birthday from the same PTI set.

Here are the challenges I am entering -

Ruby's Rainbow #95 - What did Santa Bring (my Lawn Fawn Dies)

Fantasy Stampers #27 - Happy Birthday

Thanks so much for looking 

Inspired by Stamping Designer Feature

Hi everyone, I hope you are well.

It is my turn this week to be the Featured Designer for Inspired by Stamping. We try and focus on techniques or styles that you would like see and inspire you to give them a go.

Today I have a card and with it, a video tutorial on how I made the card. Let me show you a picture first -

Ingredients: IBS Stamps, Distress Inks, Paint Swatch and....... True Snow!

I've created a sunset card like this before but wanted to revisit this set and also show you how it was made. When I was creating the card, I had no idea what I was going to do really. I knew I was going to create my sunset but as for the rest - I winged it like the best of them.

As I was creating my 'Circle of Summer', I thought that I may be able to use True Snow for the breaking waves on the sand. HOW True Snow and Summer came to be used on the one card is a mystery to me but it just sort of popped into my head.

When thinking about what I could do as a background for my card, I really sat there and scratched my head for a while (no, I don't have nits...). 

I spotted my box that contains a ball of jute string. Hmmmmm. I wondered if I could wrap it around a piece of cardstock to create a Balinese style sort of grass mat. Did that actually work for my finished product? Check out my video tutorial to see how it all came together :)

I was really very happy with how it all worked out. It did take me quite some time to create my island mat but it was worth it in the end!

Now all we need is a cocktail!

Here is the set that I used for this card - Summer Fun

I would like to enter my card into the following challenges -

Alphabet Challenge - X is for X-periment (my twine background)

613 Avenue Create #105 - Anything Goes w/out the optional twist

Sister Act #88 - Anything Goes

my 'New' thing was creating my island mat and using True Snow for water :)

Thanks so much for looking xx

New Goodies!!

Hello!

I hope you are all well. 

I was very excited to open up a parcel yesterday that contained my new goodies from Lawn Fawn. Stitched Hillside Border dies, Joy to the Woods stamps and coordinating dies.

As soon as I received my package, I wanted to create something for Darnell's new NBUS challenge and then used the mood board over at Lawnscaping to give me inspiration.

Here is my card -

Side Note: You are probably wondering why an Aussie girl would like to make snow scenes using birch trees, foxes and cardinals? Well, for me it's nice to dream of cooler weather at Christmas time and I have fun using these little images even though they aren't related to an Australian Christmas. PLUS! I have friends overseas who will get cards like this and quite relative to their own climate.

I've used vellum before when making a shaker card and I have seen vellum used a LOT when checking out Lawn Fawn cards. It makes sense to - by using vellum in the forest scene, you can create a nice subtle background with a bit of field of depth. 

I've coloured my images in with my Spectrum Noir markers. My green ornaments have been covered with an obscene amount of glossy accents!

I also have a new resolution for 2015 being to decorate the inside of my cards. I'm soooo lazy when it comes to doing that. It's a shame because I go to so much trouble for the front of the card so why not got that little bit extra and make the inside a little prettier?

I had a lot of fun making this. It was quite fiddly and had stacks of die cuts to use but I really did enjoy it.

TIP : While placing my birch tree dies in and behind my vellum and snow drifts, I took a photo with my phone when I was happy with the placement. Then I could refer back to the photo when it came time to glue everything down and especially if I had inadvertently moved something.

Here are the challenges that I would like to enter my card into -

Dies R Us - Anything Goes with a twist - Use something new

Thanks so much for looking xx

HLS CAS Challenge - Watercolour

Hi everyone and thanks for stopping by!

Over at Happy Little Stampers, we have a brand new monthly challenge. As well our our Sketch Challenge, we now have a Clean and Simple Challenge which is being run by my good friend, Loll Thompson. Thanks so much for your efforts, Loll. You know I love you :)

On the 3rd of each month, we will have a brand new CAS challenge for you. Each one will have a different theme. Here is this month's theme -

Easy! Create a clean and simple card/project and use watercolouring.

Here is my card -

For instructions on how I made this card, please watch my tutorial below :)

I really hope to see you join in with this challenge. 

If you enter our challenges, don't forget to upload your projects over at the Forum as well as the Blog. If you do, all entries into our monthly challenges will go into a random draw to receive a prize!

Thanks for looking xx

New Sketch at Happy Little Stampers

Happy New Year everyone! Welcome to 2015. We are in for a big year over at Happy Little Stampers and we have a new sketch for you to kick things off.

Check it out!

Here is my card -

Check out that stamp! Can you guess who may have sent this to me?

If you guessed Sandie from London Days, you would be correct! This was part of a Christmas present that was sent to me and I was so excited when I opened it. I absolutely loved London when I was there last year. I can't believe how much time has passed already. The perfect Christmas present from my London bestie. Also in my parcel was a fridge magnet that says

This was from Callum, lol lol. Yes, I am naughty and I smoke. Callum 'indulged' a few times over a few cocktails each night. 

I couldn't wait to ink up my stamp. I have made a card here but I have decided that I am going to frame this. I bet I could make a number of these in different colours and frame them up. It will look cool. 

I masked off the words so I could ink up the stamp in different colours. 

I hope you will play along in our Sketch Challenge this month. We also have a new CAS Challenge starting on the 3rd of January so pop on over to the blog so you don't miss it. 

If you link up at the blog AND the forum, you will go into the random draw for a mystery prize at the end of each month! Don't miss out!

Thanks so much for looking xx