CFC67 - Flags, banners and more besides

It's been a long time in-between crafting, for sure, so it was so good to get back to it! I've been playing with the new Stampin Up In-colours and the best way to get inspired, imho, is to join challenges.  CAS-ual Fridays did not disappoint and here I am with my entry to challenge  #67 - Flags & Banners.

All products are from Stampin Up

cardstock: Silver Glimmer (vase), Primrose Petals, Summer Starfruit, Midnight Muse, Gumball Green

stamps: En Francais background, Fabulous Phrases

punches: small heart, Ornament

I love using the Ornament punch and turning it into a vase; the Glimmer paper sets it off, methinks.

This is very much inspired by Lorena's work...so cute and clever, I thought.

Here are the other cards I made, while inspired. 

 Welcome back me! :-)

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LIM_053 - Birthday Card

It's been a while since I last joined a Simply Less is More Challenge.  Since I had to make a birthday card for my hubby, I thought I'd scour the net for inspiration.  LIM Challenge 53 is perfect - aqua is one of my favourite colours and would pass for a masculine card.

As an aside, Happy Birthday to LIM, too. woohoo.

Here's the card:

Stampin up products used.

Cardstock: Tempting Turquoise
Ink: Tempting Turquoise, Real Red
Stamps: A to Z, Teeny Tiny Sentiments
Punch: Full Heart
Embossing folder: Square Lattice
Others: Cherry Cobbler Baker's twine

This sketch is practically the same as LIM Challenge 52 which I almost did but ran out of time (haha).  The strip of aqua card was embossed and then more aqua ink was sponged on to highlight the texture (I love aqua).   I stamped AtoZ on white card, punched and sponged the edges as well.  This was stuck on with dimensionals for extra height.  The Happy birthday was stamped on white card as well.

I think the twine picks up the red to highlight the teeny sentiment without looking too girly.  I'm really quite happy with how this turned out.

CFC #5 and PDCC 84 - a fun card

I'm combining challenges again this week just for fun - something on the lighter side as my previous PDCC card was an emotional ride (a very good one I must add).

This card is for the following challenges:

CAS-ual Fridays #5 - sketch challenge (layout inspiration)

the Playdate Cafe Challenge #84 - colours: lavender, green, pinkish/red (colour and theme inspiration)

And look what I came up with (so fun):

Doesn't it just look like such a happy window? I was going to have a semi-circular window with a birdcage showing.  But the PDCC photo tipped me over to having a vase on the windowsill and stuck to the rectangular shape. 

The vase is obviously the focus and it has been stamped, sponged and punched - you wouldn't think it started out as a bit of scrap white card!   I just love this technique of using the Stampin Up ornament punch to make a vase (read more about this technique here).  Actually, I also "glazed" it with shimmer paint, fighting the temptation to put glossy accents on it which would have been too in-your-face here (IMHO anyway).

The curtain works! It's made from white tissue stamped with lavender flowers.  I put eyelets on the top so you can move it along a piece of string.  WHY? Because it's fun and I can be a little crazy sometimes.   The scallops which were part of the sketch made for a lovely pelmet to hide all the curtain fittings. :-)

all Stampin Up stamps: 

Pocket Silhouette, Bliss (vase), Apple Blossoms (sentiment), So Happy For You (flowers)

I don't talk much about adhesives but it might interest you that I used 5 different types here: foam mounts, glue dots, glue (pen) for some of the tiny leaves, tape and sticky strip (I don't want this window to fall). That's a record for me I think.  

I think having a lot of white keeps it in the CAS side of things. 

This was fun. 

Thanks to all the lovely comments everyone - I really do appreciate the time and effort you put in doing so.  

May your day be bright and may the outlook through your window fill you with happiness.

PDCC 80 & Mojo Monday

TWhoopee, the Blogger problem is fixed and I'm back to the new editor again.  It's a little thing but isn't that what life's really all about, i.e. the little things?

I haven't played at Play Date Cafe for a while and a visit from the lovely Julie Ranae  was enough prompt to participate in the PDCC #80 challenge. It was a good opportunity to visit Mojo Monday as well just for a little boost to the mojo.

And here's my "inspired" work. :-)

The deets....

stamps: Stampin Up Punch Bunch (SAB set), French Filligree, Short & Sweet (heart)
inks: SU Poppy Parade, Peach Parfait, Real Red, Versamark
Stampin Write Markers: PParade, PParfait, Pear Pizzazz, Cherry Cobbler, Pumpkin Pie
others: Dazzling Diamonds, Shimmer Paint - Platinum, Blender pen
Punch: SU Scallop Trim Corner and Border, Ornament punch

The choice of stamps is almost a no-brainer with a picture like that from PDCC.  I used Stampin Write markers to colour the flowers in and it's amazing how different it looks from this card just by using a different set of colours. I needed a third flower so stamped that separately, applied glossy accents (not the middle), cut and mounted on. Its stem was hand-drawn.

The vase was made using the ornament punch (visit my ideas page for more info) and made dazzling using DD just like I did for the bodice of this dress; it makes white on white really pop.


I don't have the matching Designer Series Papers so I made my own. I stamped French Filligree using Poppy Parade then sponged on PParade and PParfait. The whole thing was sprayed with a home-made glimmer mist: Shimmer Paint in Isopropyl Alcohol mixture in a mini-mister. Unfortunately, shimmer is very hard to photograph (tips welcome) so you'll just have to take my word for it.

The best part of this card for me? I managed to use the corner and border punches. I'm seriously challenged by these!

Cheers all. I hope you got something out of this post.

OLW 51 - 3 of a kind

Jennifer is hosting this week's OLW with a really fun 3-of-a-kind challenge. Ideas have been floating in my head for a few days now and with one last dose of inspiration (will tell you in a minute), finally got everything down on paper...3x!

et voila

yes, deserves a close-up and here's one

The deets (all Stampin Up again - wow, 3rd all-SU for challenges in a row)

stamp: Pocket Silhouette

ink: Regal Rose, Peach Parfait, Tempting Turquoise

Stampin write markers: Certainly Celery, Regal Rose, Cherry Cobbler (for the glorious aqua-red combo and because I don't actually have a TTurquoise marker)

punch: Ornament XL punch

More deets...

A fellow LIMette, Vicky (aka Crafting Clare), inspired me 2x yesterday. (1) to finally create a blog page to collate great ideas which will grow over time and (2) use the ornament punch as a vase. Because this entry is for an OLC challenge, I had to innovate via masking and sponging (see my post-it masks photo below). Nevertheless, the original idea is most definitely Clare's. As an aside and in case you've missed the hint - the inspiration is from a fellow LIMette, i.e. a member of the wonderful Simply Less is More challenge community.

All up, it took less than half an hour to make all 3 cards. I chose not to put any sentiment at all; maybe I'll  change my mind later but for now, I really wanted to just see the flowers and the vase.

So happy.