Very CAS

Hi everyone,

Now tell me something, why are the simplest cards the most difficult to do?  This week's challenge over at Less is More is to follow a very simple sketch ...

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I'm more of a straight line person than a curvy one so I went for the square option.  I tried various images and colours before settling on this inky scrap I found in one of my "can't waste this tiny scrap, might come in handy one day" boxes.

Image is PaperArtsy, butterfly punch is Martha Stewart, Sentiment is Papermania, various distress inks.

Thanks for visiting, hope you all have a great week.

Suze xx

Doesn't time fly ...

Hi everyone,

I'm a happy challenge bunny today - I was half way through making my entry for this week's Out of a Hat Creations Challenge when I logged on last night and saw that this week's Artful Times Challenge also fitted perfectly with my little creation ...

The Out of a Hat challenge is to use either their chosen picture (or any other picture) as inspiration for your piece.  Now I'm not very confident with colour but to me this hot orange has the wow factor so I thought I'd give it a go  ...

The Artful Times Challenge is "Time"

The only orange ink I have is Spiced Marmalade Distress Ink, so I brayered a piece of card with it then stamped the Hero Arts butterflies in Adirondack Watermelon (had it for months but was still in the wrapper!).


I've toned it down a bit with dark grey - using the Tim Holtz Clock and Bird dies.






Hope you're enjoying your weekend.  Thankfully it has been a dry and mostly sunny day here today - I spent the afternoon doing a car boot sale to raise some funds for my son who is going on an expedition to Madagascar next summer.  Honestly, kids these days don't know how lucky they are - we'd have been happy going to a caravan for a week!

Thanks for visiting.
TTFN

Suze xx

The Wee Church Mouse

Rain rain go away, come back another day.

Morning bloggers, isn't the weather a bit of a wash out at the moment - great for ducks, as they say!

The challenge this week over at Out of a Hat Creations is "Arches".

Initially I was stumped but when I came across my La Blanche mouse stamp, I thought I could make him into a church mouse ...

Church door is an image from The Graphics Fairy, which I've highlighted with gold embossing powder.  Background is Tim Holtz Brick Wall embossing folder and I've added some mica flakes which I thought looked liked autumn leaves.

Is anyone else having problems with the new blogger.  When I open up the dashboard it often doesn't show the list of blogs I'm following and I have to refresh it 3 or 4 times before they appear and I know for certain I'm not getting feeds from at least 2 blogs.

Anyway, moan over, hope the sun manages to peep through for you today.
Thanks for visiting

Suze xx

A Bird for Three Challenges

Well it's Monday again and I should be tidying up after the weekend but hey, ho, thought I'd sneak this one in before I got out the hoover!

There are so many great challenges out there, it's difficult to find the time to join in with all the ones I'd like to, so today I've killed three challenges with one bird ....

Artful Times Challenge #2 - A Sea of Greens
Fashionable Stamping Challenges #20 - Embossing
Pan Pastel Challenge 15 - Add a Flower

I made a background with various distress inks, spritzed with Fireworks! Bamboo Leaves then stamped with a Stampin Up flower.

The bird cage is cut from some serendipity card (see post here), words are Paper Artsy embossed in gold onto vellum which I'd coloured with a Promarker, flowers and birds are Stampin Up punches, bling is coloured with a Promarker.

Thanks for taking the time to visit.

Suze xx

Charmed I'm Sure!

Hi everyone,


Hope this Saturday finds you all well.


We're all having a bit of a lazy day here today so I thought I'd get in early with my Less is More card.  This week the challenge is "How Charming" - make and/or use a charm on your project.


Well I do have a small selection of charms (all of which are far too nice for me ever to think of using! Lol) and I also have a heap of jewellery, all bought with the intention of taking to bits and using in my crafting.


You wouldn't think it but I've been at this all afternoon - finally settled on using a flower charm which was part of a keyring from Primark ...

All supplies are Stampin Up, apart from the charm and the scalloped circle die. 


Well that's me for today, I'll pop round and see you tonight when I'm lazing in front of the telly eating some 'Saturday night munchies'.


(PS Hope this posts okay - the new edition of Blogger has installed itself!).


Bye for now


Suze xx

An Elephant

Hi All,


A bit of sewing for you today ... I go to a sewing group on a Wednesday morning - most of them are quilters (I'm not!) but they're all so nice, they don't mind me 'tagging along'.  


We've recently decided that we should try and do something 'as a group' so every second month we have to make a small journal quilt and we'll all follow the same 'theme'.  This month, it's a 10 inch circular piece, with the theme 'animal/s'.


After changing my mind several times, I decided to do an elephant ...

You can click on the pic for a closer view (I so wish you could customise the size of your photos in Blogger) but don't look too close cause my stitching is far from perfect!


My hubby was in India on business and brought me back a selection of fabrics, so I've used some of these, along with some sparkly braid I got at Hobbycraft.  The gems are from a pair of earrings.  I copied and enlarged the pattern of an elephant off of a napkin, then just appliqued it on with satin stitch.


Thanks for taking the time to visit.


Happy crafting


Suze xx

Sponging with the Unrulies

Hi everyone,


Sorry, second posting from me today and I have to warn you, there's probably going to be a third!


I've taken a break from tackling the mountain of ironing to make a card for the first Unruly Paperarts Challenge - Reader Art Quest 1 - Sponging Spectacular (which closes in a matter of hours).


Art Quest 2 also closes today, which is why I will probably be back!

I Stamped the Paper Artsy Flower Head and Stampin Up Sentiment in black archival.  Then sponged circles with Crushed Olive and Spiced Marmalade using a swirly template.


Thanks for taking a peek.


Suze xx

A Patchwork Card

Hi everyone,


Hope you're all having a nice weekend. We had a light falling of snow overnight (brrr!) but thankfully the sun has got his hat on and it's already melting away.


I like the challenge this week over at  Less is More  -  it's something different - "Doodling"


I've made a patchwork card ...

First I measured out and drew the boxes in pencil, then I went over them with a fine pen to create faux blanket stitch.  I then stamped the small patchwork style stamps using Stampin Up Calypso Coral and Lucky Limeade markers. (The stamps were given to me by a kind lady who was having a 'clear out' so I don't know the make of them).


Thanks for coming to visit and keep cozy!


Take Care
Suze xx

Money Wallets

Hi everyone,


Something a little different today - I've made some children's money wallets ...

* The first one I'm entering into The Play Date Cafe Challenge -

 Daffodil...Hydrangea...Kiwi...Cherry

* And they all also fit the Friday Mashup Challenge, which is

1. Make a project using "Your Favorite Muppet Color Combo".
2. Or Make a project " for kids".
3. Or "Mash it Up" and create a " Project for a Kid using your Favorite Muppet Colors"

Here are the wallets ...

All made with coloured cardstock and DP.  All sentiments, inks and punches are Stampin Up.

For the record, think my favourite muppet has to be Miss Piggy, although I also really liked the 'hurdy gurdy' chef and the two grumpy old men.

Thanks for visiting.

Suze xx

A Little Hanging Thingy

Hi everyone,

Hope you're all enjoying the long weekend - crafting and eating chocolate!

This week over at Out of a Hat Creations, the challenge is to "use up some of your stash".  Well, where to start! Lol!

I decided to do something with my craft foam (bought I think from the Poundshop, donkeys ago!).  I did a search on Youtube for inspiration and found this fab video ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7ycZLrOdHk&feature=channel

Basically, she heats the foam with a heat tool then embosses it by pressing a stamp into it and the other technique is just to heat emboss it.  I had a go at both ...

* The large heart is cut with a Sizzix die, heated then stamped into with a large Hero Arts lace stamp. I then inked lightly with Brilliance silver.
* The butterfly was cut with a Tim Holtz movers & shapers die (bought about a month ago, but never out of the packet!) and heat embossed with Cosmic Shimmer green EP (though it looks more gold).
* Also used is a TH mini rosette die, edged with Dusty Concord and a bit of ribbon from my stash.

Don't quite know what I'll do with it, it could either be a little door hanging or a box topper or something?!

Thanks for visiting.

Happy Crafting!
Suze xx

Shades of Green

Happy Easter Sunday everyone,

I wish I could take credit for this lovely wee cake but we bought it yesterday at a Craft Fair in St Andrews. It's carrot cake and very yummy indeed!



Onto this week's Less is More Challenge, which is ...  Three Shades of Green



Here's my take on it ...

A very simple card made with Sizzix star dies - one cut from green miri, one from green felt and the smallest one stamped with Brilliance Pearlescent Ivy, matted onto embossed and plain card.

Thanks for coming to visit, hope you all enjoy the rest of the holiday weekend.

Suze xx

A wee box

Hi everyone,

Hope you're all keeping nice and cozy today.  It's freezing outside and many parts of Scotland are covered in snow but thankfully it's missed us here in the city.

Another new challenge I'd like to support is Out of a Hat Creations - set up by some of the ladies who were regulars of the Just for Fun Challenge.

Their challenge this week is "Boxes". This is a box I made to put some nice choccies in as a thank you for someone ...

Made from two Stampin Up milk carton dies (you can find tutorials on YouTube), simply decorated with DP and ribbon.

Sorry ladies, it's not very inky or messy but I'm running out of time.  We're off to St Andrews and Edinburgh tomorrow for a few days - better pack my vest!

Thanks for visiting.

TTFN

Suze xx