Happy Anniversary

I'm over at A Sprinkle of Imagination today with this card - pop on over for the details.  There are plenty of heart/love-related challenges at the moment, so I'm entering it into the following:-

Inkspirational - Photo inspiration

Time Out - 'Love Is A Flower You've Got To Let Grow'

AAA Cards - Love Me Like You Do

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Have a Heart

ETA:  I'm also entering it into Pixie's Snippets Playground Week 215.  Having introduced ourselves over a couple of emails, I admitted to lurking outside the railings occasionally, so I thought it was high time I came into the playground and played along nicely. (I have played before, but a while back.)  Oh, my snippet is the heart, die-cut from a leftover piece of inked/dry embossed/heat embossed grungepaper.

Craft Stamper Take It Make It - Text Technique

Time for a new challenge at Craft Stamper Take It, Make It, and this month we have a cracker for you.  It's Take a Technique, and we want you to add text to your creation.  We're talking about text backgrounds - stamped, torn from old books/magazines, scrapbook/background papers, etc.  Whilst you can include sentiments, phrases or single word art, they won't qualify as the 'text' part.  Your background text doesn't have to be stamped, but you do need to include proper stamping somewhere in your creation.

Our sponsor this month is A Sprinkle of Imagination, who are offering a £25 voucher to one lucky random winner to spend in their online store.

But that's not all - A Sprinkle Of Imagination are offering an extra 10% off for blog readers! The code is CSBlog10% and will work from 5-25th of February, with a minimum £5 spend excluding P&P.

The winner chosen by the Design Team will have their entry published in Craft Stamper Magazine, a designer profile, and a guest design spot in a future challenge - yay!

Comic Strip Cards. Again.

I've got another comic strip card for you - my last for a while.  If you pop over to the STAMPlorations blog, you'll see a step-by-step on how I created this and my other recent comic strip cards.

I'm sharing this at Kathy's 30 Day Colouring Challenge.

STAMPlorations Inspiration #59 - Dream Big

I've got some STAMPlorations inspiration for you today with a smooshy, dreamy card.  I had a little smooshing session the other week, so it was time to start putting my smooshed panels to use.

I picked this bluey-greeny background, which reminded me of a skyscape, and looked for an area that would work with the image stamp from the Country Rustic set.  Having stamped the image, I extended the pole with a stamp from the Artsy Border Maker set, then stamped the sentiment.  The pole divided the sentiment a little too much, so I added a couple of rows of black stitching so that the eye would follow the sentiment.  A couple of Winged Things completed the panel, then I mounted it onto blue card.

Pop on over to the STAMPlorations blog for some more fabulous inspiration, and don't forget to leave a comment for a chance to win.

I'm entering my card into Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes

and Pinterest Inspired Challenge, with this gorgeous pin as inspiration:

source

Deepti's Popped!

We've got a very special blog post from the STAMPlorations team today, with the announcement of the arrival of Deepti's son, our latest STAMP baby!  I believe that mother and baby are doing fine, and father is recovering ;)

I used a Distress Ink embossing folder print, à la Tim Holtz, stamped three babygros from The Bee's Knees BabyBump, added a wash of blue Distress Inks, fussy cut them out then threaded them onto blue wire.  The sentiment is also from BabyBump.

Pop on over to the STAMPlorations blog to see loads of fabulous baby congratulations cards, and if you would like to join in with the celebrations, you can add your card to the linky which will be open for two weeks.

Congratulations, Deepti, Vikas and baby Siddharth!

The Mixed Media Card Challenge - Red

I've got two posts going out at the same time today.  Click here for my CASEplorations post, then come back in a few hours for a very special STAMPlorations post!

It's time for a new challenge at The Mixed Media Card Challenge, and seeing as it's February, we've got red with an option of hearts - what else? :)

For my background panel I've used clear embossing paste through a Tim Holtz stencil, then sponged Festive Berries Distress Paint over, sponging the edges with Vintage Photo Distress Ink.  Once the panel was dry, I flicked water over the sponging.

On another painted panel I sponged Picket Fence Distress Stain through a punchinella stencil and flicked some diluted white acrylic paint over, then once it was dry I cut it with a stitched rectangle die and stamped and heat-embossed the heart image.

For my sentiment panel I sanded a piece of Core'dinations cardstock, then wrote the sentiment with a white gel pen.

Added some fibres at the top of the panel, and it's done.

Pop on over to The Mixed Media Card Challenge to see some fabulous inspiration from the rest of the Design Team, then add your mixed media card to the gallery.

CASEplorations February

I've got two posts going out at the same time today.  Click here for The Mixed Media Card Challenge.  And come back in a few hours for a very special STAMPlorations post!

It's a new month and a new challenge at CASEplorations.  This month, for your delectation and delight, we have Anita in France!  Famed for her très chic CAS cards, Anita is also one of the sweetest of blog friends.

This is the card that we're CASEing.  You can find Anita's original post here.

So, what elements of the card could you CASE?  Die-cut negative space; ombré shading; linear grouping of images; mixed colours, fonts and sizes on the sentiment; and one of Anita's typical touches - the tiny little heart nestling under the swash (I had to look that up) of the 'love'.

I went with ombré, using the same range of colours as Anita.  I started by white-embossing the macarons from Sugar Rush, then added a Distress Ink wash over and around the macarons.  The sentiment is also from Sugar Rush.  And then I couldn't help myself - I added some splatter.

Pop on over to the CASEplorations post at STAMPlorations to see how the rest of the Design Team  and Anita have CASEd Anita's original card, then play along for a chance to win.

I'm adding my card to One Layer Simplicity Challenge where, in celebration of their new Facebook page, the theme is 'friends', so the actual word friend/s, friendship etc has to be included in the card.