CAS pine card

 

It is ages since I took part in a card challenge but love making CAS cards so decided to try this CAS Christmas challenge. This was a very easy card to make so I might make some more.

Materials used:-

• Sheena Douglass Yuletide Greetings set for the pine branch; the pine cone came from a magazine
• sentiment stamp from Lou Collins Seasonal Sentiments
• Distress inks - Pine Needles and Gathered Twigs
• Versafine ink in black 

Thank you for visiting my blog - I appreciate any feedback on my card. Margaret

        

In a Row

The challenge on Less is More this week is 'In a Row'. I made this Christmas card for my great-niece who keeps free range hens, selling the eggs in the local shops.

I am sorry that I don't know where I got the stamp set from as I've had it in my stock for some time. 

Thank you for visiting my blog - now pop over to Less is More to see how the other participants interpreted this theme.

Peaceful

The current challenge on Time Out is Peaceful.

This theme immediately made me think of yoga so here is the card I made. I stamped the lotus flower and then clear embossed this before painting it with water colours. To make the card more interesting I die cut the panel which I then mounted onto linen card.

Materials used:-

Lotus flower stamp - Casual Fridays 'mon ami' set

Sentiment - Penny Black 'love and yoga' set

Watercolours - Gansai Tambi Pearl Pink

Die - stitched indented rectangles by Elizabeth Craft Designs

Thanks for visiting my blog - I really appreciate your comments. Margaret

Joy to the world

That's my first Christmas card made! I was delighted that the Less is More challenge for this week is to make a one layer card Christmas card as I like to start making my Christmas cards early. I am also going to enter this card into the CAS Christmas challenge where the theme is nativity.

I often use the masking technique to make one layer cards. For this design I made a circle mask from thin card and inked through the mask with distress inks to make the background. The stamps were inked and then clear embossed.

Materials used:-
Nativity stamp - Clarity stamps
Sentiment - Simply Cards and Papercraft Issue 142
Distress inks - Broken China and Shaded Lilac
Black ink - Versafine Onyx Black

Thanks for visiting my blog - I really appreciate your comments. Margaret

Sweet baby

The code word on the current challenge at Addicted to CAS is "baby" and we are being asked to make a clean and simple card.

Here is my very clean and simple baby card.  Unfortunately the background looks pink when in reality it is white - the light wasn't very good when I took the photo.  I stamped the image and coloured it in with distress inks before mounting it onto some pearl card to match the sentiment.

Materials used:-

Die cut sentiment - Tattered Lace

Stamp - from stash

Distress inks - tattered rose and picked raspberry

Card - Centura pear in pink

Thank you for visiting my blog - I really appreciate your comments.  Margaret

Birthday butterfly

This week's challenge on Less is More is to use an item from your "bits" box to make a card.  Like most crafters I  hate to throw anything away so I have plenty of scraps.  Luckily I had sorted these out last week so could quickly find what I thought would make a good card.  Here is my card - I added the sentiment and the pearls but everything else was from my "bits" box.  This must be one of the quickest cards I have ever made! 

The only difficulty is remembering what you used so here are the materials I think I used:-

Die - Sizzix butterflies framelits (unsure how this was coloured)
Sentiment - Stampin' Up "Sassy Salutations" embossed with pearl silver embossing powder
Background - yupo paper inked with distress inks but I can't remember what I used for the silver shimmer
Frame - Lawn Fawn Large Stitched Rectangles

The background was inspired by one of Loll Thomson's videos on how to create a faux mother of pearl effect.

Thank you for visiting my blog - I really appreciate your comments.  Now pop over to Less is More and see how the other participants changed their scraps into beautiful cards.

Christmas Visions 100

This is the 100th challenge on Muse Christmas Visions and there are lots of goodies to win!  Chriss is the Muse for this challenge and here is the card she has created.



This is my take on her card - I was inspired by the Christmas flowers and the gold embossing.  I did try one card with a wash but I decided I preferred the clean and simple look!  I embossed the flowers and then coloured them with watercolour paint.  I mounted the panel on foam to create some dimension.

Materials used:-

Poinsettia stamp from a magazine
Sentiment - Stamps Away
Watercolour paint - Gansai Tambai
Embossing powder - gold pearl from My Colour Studio
Sequins - muted metallic by Little Things

Well done to Ardyth and her team for setting up this challenge blog - it is a great challenge to take part in with the bonus of getting your Christmas cards done early!

Holly card

I was delighted to find a new Christmas card challenge blog as I like to make Christmas cards during the year so avoiding any last minute stress.  The added bonus of the CAS Christmas card challenge is that cards must be clean and simple - a favourite design of mine.  The current theme is holly.

 

I found a simple holly wreath stamp among my stash and decided to keep my card very simple, mounting the stamp on a couple of scalloped circles and adding some foam tape for dimension. 

 

 

 

Materials used:-

Stamps - Jolly Holly Days free set from Simply Homemade magazine issue 48

Inks - colorbox

Dies - 2 sizes

 

Thanks for visiting my blog - I really appreciate your comments.  Now pop over to the CAS Christmas Card blog and see what the other participants have created. Margaret



Dry embossing

The current challenge at Less is More is dry embossing.  I found this piece of white embossed card in my stash which gave me the inspiration for this very clean and simple card.

Materials used:-
Die - Penny Black "celebrations" set
Embossing folder - Spellbinders M-Bossabilities
Silver mirri card

Thanks for visiting my blog - now hop over to Less is More and see what the other participants have created.

Less is More - books

I haven't taken part in the Less is More challenges recently due to lack of time but I was keen to try this week's one as the theme is "books and literature".   I wanted to use the Graphic 45 stamp of a little girl reading as she looks so engrossed in her book. I have tried to keep the design clean and simple but still have a vintage feel.

Materials used:-
Stamps - Graphic 45 "Schooldays" set
Script stamp - Hero Arts "old letter writing"
Sentiment - Uniko Studio Fontiments Birthday
Inks - Archival Sepia and Versafine Onyx Black

Thanks for visiting my blog - now pop over to LIM to see what the other participants have created.

Sympathy card

This week's colour challenge on Less is More is to make a card with lots of

White space but not  WHITE 
 

I had difficulty coming up with an idea for this as I don't often use coloured backgrounds.  Having used this American Crafts card for another challenge I realised it would work well as a background - unfortunately the photo does not do justice to the colour which is more turquoise in real life.  I tried to keep the card CAS but added some interest by machine stitching around the panel.

Materials used:-
Die - Lifestyle crafts flowers
Background stamps - Clarity stamps aliums
Sentiment - Woodware
Inks - archival aquamarine and Colorbox celadon
American crafts coloured card

I am also entering this card into CAS on Sunday where challenge #80 is flowers.

Thanks for visiting my blog - I really appreciate your comments.  Margaret

Polka dots

The Less is More challenge this week is polka dots. As I've started making my Christmas cards I thought I would use this lovely stamp and punch set from Stampin Up. I embossed the dots in gold but kept the card clean and simple. 

I am also entering this card into challenge #311 on The Cat's Pajamas' blog where you have to use one or more dies.

Materials used:-
Stampin Up Festival of Trees stamps and punch
Sentiment - Scenic stamps from Papercraft Inspirations Magazine issue 143
Archival ink - Wendy Vecci fern green
Gold embossing powder
Lawn Fawn stitched hillside borders; large stitched rectangle stackables

Thanks for visiting my blog - now pop over to LIM to see what the other participants have created. Margaret

Congratulations!

This week's challenge on Less is More is to make a card with texture. I used one of Tim Holtz' embossing folders for this card, highlighting the words by brushing on some distress ink. I then embossed the sentiment on vellum - I like this effect. Finally I attached the panel to a linen card.

I am also entering this card into CASology challenge where the cue card is distress - I used distress ink to highlight the words.

Materials used:-
Sissix embossing folder - Tim Holtz alterations
DI - picked raspberry applied with an Inkylicious ink blending brush
Sentiment - Stampin Up "Sassy Salutations"
Pearl silver embossing powder
Linen card

Thanks for visiting my blog - I really appreciate your comments! Margaret

Friend

The One Layer Simplicity Challenge this month is to make a one layer card containing the word "friend".  I made this card for a good friend who loves butterflies and the colour purple!

Materials used:-

Butterfly stamps - Martha Stewart

Sentiment - Chocolate Baroque Mackintosh Sentiments

Distress inks - dusty concord and milled lavender applied with an Inklicious ink duster

Versacolor - grape

Thanks for visiting my blog!  I really appreciate your comments - Margaret

Muse feathers

When I saw Carol Mayne's lovely card on Muse this week I just had to take part! I liked the CAS look of her card and the different colours used for the feathers. I wanted to create an ombré effect on my card so used a Kaleidacolor set in blue breeze. I inked up the stamp, then spritzed it with water and stamped it 3 times without re-inking. I liked the effect this created on the watercolour card.

I am also going to enter this card into the current challenge at CASology which is "WRITE".

Materials used:-
Stamp - Hot of the Press Feathers
Sentiment - Dawn Bibby
Inks - Kaleidacolor blue breeze; Versafine Onyx black; DI broken china

Thanks for visiting - I really appreciate your comments. Margaret

LIM sketch

It's great to be back after my holiday when I wasn't able to do any crafting - I really missed it!

This week's challenge on Less is More is a sketch.  I don't usually like sketch challenges but this was a very easy sketch to follow and I was pleased with final result which was clean and simple.

 

I'm also going to enter this card in the August Uniko Studio challenge which is summer.

Materials used:-
DI - dried marigold and ripe persimmon
Versafine black onyx ink
Stamping Up flower stamp from Flower Shop set
Sentiment - Uniko studio Fontiments birthday


Thanks for visiting my blog!

Mackintosh flower

I was delighted that my card was selected as one of the top three in last week's Muse challenge - thanks to everyone who voted for it.

Now on to this week's Muse challenge - I loved the beautiful CAS card created by this week's Muse, Anita Bowden.  I was inspired by the colours,  the stylised flowers and the white space on Anita's card and tried to recreate these.  I love the work of the Scottish designer and architect, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, and felt this flower stamp was very similar to his designs. I embossed the flower design and then watercoloured it with distress inks.

I am also going to enter this card into Addicted to Stamps and More CAS challenge #154

Materials used:-
Stamps - Chocolate Baroque SKL Rose Stem and Mackintosh sentiments; Uniko Studio Lattice Background builders
Distress inks - evergreen bough, seedless preserves and shaded lilac
Black onyx versafine ink and archival ink (watering can)

Thanks for visiting - I really appreciate your comments. Margaret

Muse daisies

This week's Muse is Ardyth (MASKerade) who creates the most amazing CAS cards - do have a look at her blog. I was inspired by the clean design of Ardyth's card - I really liked how the white flowers popped against the blue/green background. I used Pebeo drawing gum to mask my flowers - this is amazing stuff as it washes out of the brush and rubs off the card so easily. I went over the centres of the flowers with clear Wink of Stella to provide some shine and added a few enamel accents to finish the card.

Materials used:-

Stamps - Stampendous DaisyThanks
Black onyx versafine ink - clear embossed
Distress inks - salty ocean, mermaid blue, mowed lawn, twisted citron, ripe persimmon and spiced marmalade
Wink of Stella clear
Ranger white enamel accents
Pebeo drawing gum

Thanks very much for visiting - now pop over and see how the other participants were inspired by the Muse card.

Vintage CAS

The cue word on CASology this week is VINTAGE - for me this means cream and sepia with some stitching so this is what I did for my card.  I embossed the feather and sentiment and distressed the edges of the panel before stitching around it.  Unfortunately the light was bad when I took the photo so the card looks white rather than cream.

Materials used:-
Feather stamp - Hot off the Press
Script - Hero Arts old letter writing
Sentiment - Dawn Bibby
Archival sepia ink
Cream card
Tim Holtz distressing tool

Thanks for visiting!

Nordic dove

There is a new Christmas challenge in blogland - Muse Christmas Visions.   I was inspired by Kimberly Wiener's beautiful card with its combination of gold embossing and dark blue and tried to replicate this in my card.  I love the simplicity of this Nordic dove stamp so kept my card very CAS!

I am also going to enter this card into Addicted to Stamps #143 where the theme is holiday - this card is my first Christmas card of 2015!

Materials used:-
Woodward Nordic dove stamp
Sizzix Tim Holtz holiday words script die
Blue card and gold mirri card
Gold embossing powder

Thanks for visiting my blog!