CFC#69 Embossing

Good Morning,

It's time again for a new challenge at CASual Fridays and this week is a Guest designer search too :0)

Embossing is this weeks theme and it can be heat, dry or both if you fancy!!!.... so dig out those heatguns, light boxes or folders and get embossing for a chance to win a gift card for our regular sponsor,  Simon Says Stamp.

I used this challenge as a chance to rummage through my under-used brass embossing stencils and found this cute design from Lasting Impressions....

Their stencils are great for embossing, fussy cutting and layering up using a variety of materials... I used Whitewash Co-ordinations for the bath and vellum for the bubbles alongside regular card..... the alphabet is a Sizzix decorative strip called 'Easy Peasey'.

This week we have Nerina guest designing with us so please go check out her card along with the rest of the Girl Fridays before you start creating :0)

Thanks for looking :0)
Jenny x

Christmas Vine

Yep, I know I said the posts would be thin on the ground but my words usually come back to bite me on the bum !!

I started this card for Less is More and then decided it would be more suited to Karen's brilliant sketch at CASual Fridays.... it's a fab sketch with lovely clean lines, so typical of her own unique style ......

The green card is from the Tim Holtz Distress Kraft Co-ordinations pad and it's been embossed with a Craft Concepts embossing folder then sanded to reveal the rustic core. The pearls are placed over the embossed berries, shiny gems just didn't look right which is why it didn't make it to the 'Bling' challenge at LIM!! A papertrey sentiment and some zigzag stitches on the red card and another Christmas card done :)

Having a blog this year means that I'm collecting a few different designs together but still nowhere near enough yet!!! How are your Christmas cards coming along??

Whilst you're here I thought I'd show you the two cards I made for Lynn and Anne, my fellow DT members at St Luke's, they were both birthday girls this last weekend :)

I used Lawn fawn stamps for Lynn's card, I was so happy to make one of the 

banner pennants into a flower pot :)

For Anne's card I used some patterned paper from a pad called Reminiscence 

by Lasting Impressions

This leads me nicely on to remind you that you have one day left to enter the current challenge at St Luke's  for a chance to win the Lili of the Valley stamps, because it's all change tomorrow night when we move into December with a new theme and prize, so I'll be back at midnight with an inspiration card for you :)

So until then I'll say goodbye and thanks for all your good luck messages for Hannah, I've been passing them on :)
Jenny x

ColourQ#105

I couldn't resist the gorgeous colour combo at ColourQ this week and whilst looking through my brass stencils recently I found the perfect image to use with the colours...

It's another Lasting Impressions stencil which I've embossed in various colours/cardstock and cut out after sanding , I used a length of wire and two brads for the strap on the lilac bag and I used two circle punches to make a wood effect handle for the smaller bag.
The sentiment was free in a stamp set on a craft magazine and I'm pleased it stamped so well ... love the jumbled font size :)

Those shopping bags would be filled with crafting stash for that sentiment to ring true for me :)

Quick post today as James is pestering me to put a wash load on!!!

Thanks for looking and hope you have a great weekend X

A favourite technique

First of all I'd like to thank you for the lovely comments on my last post, it has made me feel a lot better about the card, I simply cannot ignore the opinions of such a wide variety of talented crafters :) ......it's true we are our own worst critics!!

Today's card I'm much more excited about as it's been made using my favourite technique for the Wee Memories challenge this week in honour of World Cardmaking Day at the weekend....yep, dry embossing :)

I especially love being able to cut out the embossed pieces and mounting them on different coloured card stock as I've done here with this Lasting Impressions stencil which I've had in my stash for ages and with a family wedding coming up I knew I wanted to use it!
By using Black co-ordinations card I could sand the grooms shoe to show the design and then added a lace and a flower to the brides shoe for a bit of dimension. Photographing embossing is not easy so I hope you can make out the 'Perfect Pair' sentiment, lightening the photo too much blows out the detail!

If you remember my old embossing light box gave up on me a few weeks back and a detective process lead me to bulb failure which meant a new one as it's a sealed unit, so good old eBay came up with the goods :)  It's such a great tool to have and I love the ability to create my own embossed backgrounds with brass stencils..... never had a lot of success running brass stencils through the big shot!!

Thanks for your visit today as always, I have time for a bit of blog hopping now once I've grabbed a coffee :)

Edit to add : Please pop over to my daughters blog to see a fab pair of earrings she made for her friend, I love how realistic they look :) Thanks.

Jenny X

A Clean and Simple Christmas card

Well this is the second card I managed to make yesterday between household jobs and trips to the computer shop! I wanted to play along with Clean & Simple stamping this week because they are joining up with Jingle Belles, a "new to me" challenge blog to get you making a Christmas card every week of the year to avoid mayhem come Christmas time ....sounds a top idea to me :)

I spied this MME Christmas paper in my off cuts box and it pretty much lead the way on my card from the colour combination to the wreath design that I cut on my Cricut machine

I tried to incorporate some smaller elements as per the sketch but felt they didn't look right so I've just left it as the wreath. The vellum wrap came about when I realised I wasn't going to be able to stamp on embossed card stock!!

I'm also entering this card into Jules Crafty Snippets Challenge as I managed to not use any new pieces of cardstock for this creation, apart from the card base of course :)

I'm looking forward to getting cracking on my Christmas stamps this year, since starting my blog and discovering my love of CAS cards I feel they will all have a new lease of life :)
I keep them in seperate boxes from the rest so it'll be like opening an early present to play with ... probably wont stop me from buying more tho!!! Lol :)

I'm hoping to make my Less is More card today ... still haven't got round to playing this week!  I'll hopefully post it tomorrow ..... Sooo many cards so little time and a busy weekend ahead again!

Thanks for your time again today, I really appreciate your comments when you visit X

Edited to add : Oh poop! I've done it again ..... I missed the Jingle Belles deadline (sigh)

CAS-ual embossing

Oh my ..... what a day , it seems it's our turn to have computer problems and our laptop has gone to laptop hospital! We have a home computer too but the monitor has a slight colour cast because it's second hand so I hope the photos look okay , I've had to rely on the bells and whistles in Photoshop instead of my eye :)

This card is for CAS-ual fridays this week and which closes in a few hours time! I'm not usually this late but I got there in the end.
This week we are to use embossing on a card .... dry or heat, so I've used both :)

 I'm enjoying that white space again and have to say quite like the heat embossing for a pop of colour too :)
The stamps are from an Inkadinkado set and the embossed strip is a cuttlebug folder. The sentiment is one of my favourites from Penny Black because it has a lovely 'hand-written' look to it.

We were quite panicked this morning when the laptop problem became apparent as we had not backed up a lot of the photos on it but luckily the guy in the tech shop was able to retrieve them .... phew what a relief :)
Just a word of warning though to make sure you back everything up on these machines, it's easy to think they are so reliable and "I'll do that another day!!!" Sermon over . LoL

Thanks for calling by, I have another card to share with you tomorrow X

Stocking up for Christmas!

Okay, it's a punny title I know but I quite like it! come and see why....

This card is for this weeks 'Simon Says Stamp' challenge which is ALL WHITE with the exception of a coloured image .... (ooops I used a red ribbon too, hope that's ok??)
The stocking is heat embossed with red powder and the top to the stocking is flocked after using stamp n bond embossing powder.
I embossed the raised panel myself using a brass stencil and a light box because I didn't have a suitable EF to use and I quite like designing my own too :)
The pine branches are from a pack I ordered pre-punched from a lady on eBay two years ago! .... there are loads in there and they'll last ages, I used a lot on last years Christmas cards!

I wanted to use my new PTI stocking stamps as they are a gift from one of my blog buddies Jen W at JENerally Speaking, we did a stash trade recently because we had some doubled up items in our craft space and in my package I also had this gorgeous CAS card from Jen ..... I just love those cherries on the Kraft cardstock :)

so funny to think it started it's journey in hot, sunny Bermuda and ended up in cloudy, no sunny ....  no wet .... no windy  Britain!  Arrr the Great British summer, changeable is always guaranteed !

Thanks so much again Jen :)

Well we got Rolo back from the vets yesterday and luckily he has no fractures but a very nasty infection in his toe! They managed to clip his feet all up whilst he was under and we can now see how red and thickened his skin is so I think the next step is allergy testing as this has to be the underlying cause to his on going troubles ..... good job he's insured! He's a little monster for looking at his feet, he just won't let you touch them! He's not impressed now though because they have been shaved and he looks rather silly :)

Hannah comes home today and from the sounds of yesterdays text message she's looking forward to getting back :)

Thanks for calling by and have a great day X

Buttons and Ribbons @ Less Is More

Morning Everyone ,

Things are back to normal now which means I could get into my craft room yesterday evening and make this weeks entry for Less is More which is a recipe this week and we have to use

BUTTON OR RIBBON

(or plurals thereof)

I went straight to my 'Everyday Button Bits' set from PTI and chose the topiary tree ...

I've used two colours of chalk ink on the pot to give a more 3D effect and found three different sized buttons for the topiary, which wasn't easy even though I have lots of buttons !!

The embossed panel on the base card is a PTI 'text' Impression plate which I've edged with narrow red ribbon and raised up on foam tape , because I didn't have enough ribbon to make a small bow I used three black pearls to embellish instead and compliment the black sentiment :)

I was also busy last night making my last Paper Smooches card for Wednesdays GD post and I think it has to be my favourite of the lot and I will  be announcing the winners for the three giveaway stamp sets on Wednesday too :)

My Sister in Law loved the jute bag filled with goodies yesterday and the weather was kind to us for the family BBQ party. Hannah made a gorgeous Birthday cake for her too and I'm sure she will put more pictures on her blog today but here is a peek at the decoration on top....

...... so sweet

Thanks for stopping by today .... back soon X





Less is More gets sketchy

Hello again ,

I know it's a bit of a post overload at the moment but I'll be absent at the other end of the week so I'm making up for that fact :)

This card is for 'Less is More' this week , Chrissie and Mandi have given us a sketch to work from , after last weeks Monogram challenge I think we are more comfortable with this judging by number of entries so far

I remembered this lasting impressions stencil I have and I've used my lovely but depleting stash of LI card stock , oh I wish they still made it and sold it over here .

My new sewing machine has been in use again, a wonderful birthday pressie ... thanks Mum and Dad .

As you can see the lines are a little straighter this time compared to my previous card .... please note I will try not to sew everything within an inch of it's life from now on, but it's a technique I luuurve  so be warned :)

I hope this is ok as an interpretation of the sketch Mandi and Chrissie ??

 

Well we didn't get the promised thunder storm last night but it's certainly arrived today and bought fresher temperatures with it which is a welcome relief ..... sorry to be a party poop'er but I can't function in extreme heat :)

I'm off now to visit other Limettes and see what they've created , I hope to get round as many as possible before we are away uni visiting again :)

Thanks for your time today X



CASual Tic Tac Toe

Hello peeps ,

I'm back again to share with you a card I made for my brother and sister-in-laws Wedding Anniversary today using the Tic Tac Toe challenge at CASual Fridays .

I chose the Buttons , Dies or punch , Emboss row and also took my inspiration from the tic tac toe game board . I've used the PTI 'Book Print' IP on the background and embossed the grid lines for the gameboard (not easy to see ) .

The picture quality isn't very good on my blog , but if you click on the card you can see the emboss detail a bit better . What size does everyone else re size there photos too before uploading to blogger as I'm not happy with my picture quality recently , they seem a bit fuzzy ? ... I know red isn't the easiest colour to photograph either .

This type of challenge is new to me and I loved the idea of picking your own mix of embellishments , why not hop over to the blog here and see the details for yourself and take in all the inspirational cards from the design team along with Guest designer Tami Mayberry this week .

Edit to add : I'm also entering this into Gallery Idol after a couple of suggestions from my fabby followers ( thanks for pointing me in the right direction Lynne and JenW ) , details can be found here if you want to join in too .... nothing ventured nothing gained and it looks like fun too :)

On a different note .... it's wet and windy here today , very chilly too but the garden is enjoying it . Despite the distinct lack of rain and the threat of a hosepipe ban this summer , the allotment is doing well .

This is the first proper year of having an allotment in the garden , meaning we can have veg from garden to plate in a matter of minutes in some cases . James loves helping too especially finding the new potatoes when we dig the roots for dinner and he's patiently waiting for the strawberry plants to start producing fruit and waiting patiently isn't an easy thing to do when you're Autistic :)

Thanks for calling in today I really appreciate your comments , they make my day X

Clean and simple summer card

Morning everyone . I hope everyone enjoyed the lovely weather at the weekend although it could have been warmer . We were out in the garden planting seed potatoes, onion sets and various other seeds in the allotment . James was helping which was a major advance for him as his concentration levels are minimal and he doesn't do dirt easily . I did take some photos which I hope to scrap soon :)

This morning I have a summery card for the Clean and Simple challenge .

This bikini die hasn't seen much use so I thought it would make a different element to use on the sketch .
I've hand stitched round the edge of the background paper and the wavy border across the card which is actually a border punch . Here is the sketch

I have also been playing around with the CAS style of card and re-discovering stash that hasn't been used for a while . I found my cuttlebug embossing border dies and decided to try them again and made this Mothers Day card .

I have read that you're best to emboss lines either side of the embossed section to cover up the lines the edge of the folder makes ....I think it works quite well . The stamp is Penny Black and I've coloured the image with distress inks and a watercolour brush and added a touch of fine glitter to lift the image , although it doesn't show on the photo well .

Hope you like them and thanks for looking and leaving comments , I really appreciate it and enjoy visiting your blogs to see what you've been up to too X

Less is More #3

Well its week three over at the Less is More challenge blog and its a theme of Spring this week whilst keeping to the 'simple clean lines' rules.
I'm absolutely loving this type of challenge as it is really making me think about the composition. I love the less is more style and use of white space but when making cards to sell I'm aware that not everyone gets or likes this style so I'm enjoying creating them.
This week I decided to use my light box and do some dry embossing which I haven't done for a while.

Spring made me think of birds and nesting so I found this stencil and embossed onto lasting impressions card so I could sand the images and then cut them out. The birdies are embossed on white vellum and I'm so pleased with the positioning of the bird flying in.

Hope you like it and thanks for looking :)