Crafty Catz Challenge Blogs - Anything Goes with the optional twist of CAS (Clean and Simple)

Hello My Crafty Blog Friends and Visitors

Can you believe it is Friday again. I hope you have something nice planned for the weekend. Today I will be helping at a Felting workshop. At the weekend we will be looking at cars again with us it is a very long slow process.

Being Friday the new challenge starts on the Crafty Catz Challenge blog the theme is Anything Goes with the optional twist of CAS (Clean and Simple). The sponsor this time is A Day for Daisies.

I used the outer dies from the Stitched Lattice die set from Creative Expressions to make the mats and layers. 

There are lots of gorgeous images in the store if you click on the logo you will be taken there. 

This image is called Little Striped Dress and it is available HERE.  I printed onto Neenah card and coloured with Promarkers. 

Before I printed the image out I added the sentiment with the computer. 

I would like to enter the following challenges:

Challenge 369 at the Less is More Challenge blog

The vibrant colours challenge at the Seize the Birthday Challenge blog

The April Challenge at the Always Happy Birthday Challenge blog

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

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Fantasy Stampers - CAS Christmas

Hi My Crafty Blog Friends,

Whoop it is Saturday. I am hoping to get lots of Christmas prep done. Our plans are finally coming together. I hope yours are too. We have started playing our Christmas CDs and that always gets me more in the mood for Christmas. You never know the tree might go up this weekend.

The last Fantasy Stampers challenge,  before the Christmas break, starts today. The theme is CAS (Clean and Simple)  Christmas.

I do like the CAS style. I don't always feel that I really do it justice. 

I used the same stamps as last month's card for Fantasy Stampers and that is the Christmas Rose Elements stamp set that was designed by John Lockwood for Creative Expressions. I stamped it with Perfect Medium and heat embossed it with a gold powder. The colour was added with Promarkers. The sentiment came from the same stamp set. 

Enjoy your weekend. 

I would like to enter challenge 392 at the Allsorts Challenge blog. 

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

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Perspective Dies by Sue Wilson

Hi  My Crafty Blog Friends

How has your week been? At the start of the week I had a migraine and then headaches. I also hurt my back. I am feeling a lot better now. I dind't get as much done this week as I was hoping to. That is just how it goes sometimes.

Some of you know that I am friends with John Lockwood. We had arranged to meet up after one of his local (to me) workshops but his plans changed (they often do). Anyway he is in the process of moving and he asked if I would make some samples with the Perspective dies by Sue Wilson for his show on Hochanda. I agreed,  though I did need to buy some. The shows showcasing these die start tonight and carry on tomorrow.

These are the samples that I sent to John. I did enjoy working with these die they were fun to use and I love how you can use the negative and the positive of the die. Sue Wilson has lots of tutorials using these dies. The dies I have are the ones I thought would be most useful. 

This is the first card I made it was going to be a shaker card but I didn't leave enough space, for the foam tape between the Happy and the Birthday. I do like the clean simple lines of this card. 

This is meant to be a shaker card. I did get the idea from watching one of Sue Wilson's videos. The trouble is I put too much confetti in the card so it doesn't shake but it does look rather pretty. I need to make a birthday card for our daughter's fiance and I had been struggling with an idea now I am going to make one of these cards for him. 

I did buy the stamp that matched the Happy and I used it to create the background. I used a sticky embossing powder and gilding flakes. It is a lot less messy using gilding flakes this way. Once I had done this I used Distress ink to colour the background. 

This card sees my first use of Pixie Powders. Now they are quite as bright as Brushos but they do sparkle. I love things that sparkle. So behind the Best Wishes background there is some water colour paper that I coloured with Pixie Powders. I cut the Best Wishes die three times. Then I cut the Happy Birthday Circle set several times in different colours and I played around until I was happy with a combination. 

I do like making boxes and I found the Circle Thank You die and the Circle Happy Birthday just right for the top of a box. 

I decided to make a card to match the box. 

Lastly this is the Circle Happy Birthday set used to decorate a box. 

I did enjoy using these dies and I have lots of ideas of how to use them in the future. I feel like I have made a good investment. 

I hope you get to watch some of John's show on Hochanda he is always full of good tips and ideas. I am hoping to watch the launch show at least. We are rather busy tomorrow. 

Have a great weekend. 

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

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Fantasy Stampers - Clean and Simple

Hi My Crafty Blog Friends

Welcome to the weekend. I hope you have something nice planned. This post will be scheduled as when is it published we will be on our way to Bristol to visit the Zoo (the venue for the wedding) with our daughter, her fiance and his parents. We are going to be shown round and we will be able to ask questions. I am hoping that we will be able to look at some hotels for accommodation for the wedding as well. It is going to be a long a busy day.

Today sees the start of a new challenge on the Fantasy Stampers Challenge blog. The theme is Clean and Simple.

. 

I do like these CAS style cards.

This butterfly is a Sheena Douglas stamp that came with one of the issues of the Inspiration Magazine by Crafter's Companion. The butterfly was stamped in black archival and coloured with Spectrum Noir Sparkle pens - I do love them. 

The sentiment is from Dreamees it was part of a members gift from Create and Craft.

I cut the border with a Crafter's Companion die set. 

I enjoyed making this card. I you check back on the Fantasy Stampers Challenge Blog tomorrow the winners of the last challenge will be announced. 

Happy Crafting.

Hugs Jackie

Unicorn Challenge Blog - Clean and Simple

Hi My Crafty Blog Friends

I hope you are having a good week. There is no way round this there will be two posts from me today. Two of the design teams I am on have challenges that both start today.

This is the first card I am sharing with you today. The new  challenge starts on the Unicorn Challenge Blog the theme is CAS/ Clean and Simple. We have a sponsor who has kindly given the Design Team wonderful images to use.

The theme of the challenge is Clean and Simple and this is what I tried to achieve with this design. I matched the mats to the colours I had used to colour the image. I always do the colouring first and match everything after. 

The images are from Morgan's Artworld if you click on the image above you will be taken to the website where you can buy the images. 

This is the "TED" printable stamp sheet. He was coloured with Promarkers. 

The sentiment was cut with one of Joanna Sheen's Signature dies.

He is a very cute bear. I will be back a little later today. 

Happy Crafting.

Hugs Jackie

Fantasy Stampers - CAS Christmas

Hi My Crafty Blog Friends

The weekend is here. There is so much to do and it is all so much harder with a poorly husband. I do hope you get done all the things that you need to do.

The time has come for the last Fantasy Stampers Challenge of the year and the theme is CAS (Clean and Simple) Christmas.

Here is my card I used the Holly Bells stamp from Clarity Stamps and the sentiment was from there as well. 

I stamped with Perfect Medium and heat embossed it with a sparkly black powder. Finally I coloured with my Promarkers. 

I hope you have a great weekend. The winners of the last challenge will be posted tomorrow. 

I would like to join in with challenge 340 on the Allsorts Challenge Blog. 

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

Fantasy Stampers - Traditional Christmas

Hi My Crafty Blog Friends

The weekend is here! Do you have plans? We were going to go to the Excel in London, to the craft show, but we have decided to go shopping locally instead. There are still a few presents we need to get. Anyone that knows me knows that I don't like to leave anything to the last minute.

Well today sees the start of a new challenge on the Fantasy Stampers Challenge Blog and the theme is Traditional Christmas. That is just the right type of challenge for this time of year.

This is quite a CAS card for me. I have been messing around with this style quite a bit this year. I used the large Nativity stamp and sentiment stamp both from Clarity stamps. I made my own mask to do the inking I like getting the inked border around the edge of the top layer. Both stamps were stamped with Perfect Medium and heat embossed with a black sparkly powder. I made the mats and layers in traditional colours. 

As I said I have been playing around with this design. Here are some of the other ones I made,  you could almost play spot the difference. 

They are lovely and flat for posting. 

I will leave you with the one I chose to use as the challenge inspiration. If you check back on the Fantasy Stampers Challenge Blog tomorrow the winners of the previous challenge Winter Wonderland will be posted. 

Having used exclusively Clarity stamps I am entering Challenge 33 on their challenge blog. 

Have a great weekend.

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

Where did the weekend go?

Hi My Crafty Blog Friends

I do hope you have had a great weekend. Mine seems to have gone by in a flash. I can't believe I am sitting here now writing a blog post that I should have written and posted this morning. On the plus side I have got four samples made for another Tattered Lace show at the end of the week. I am hoping to get them in the post on Tuesday there is one more thing that I want to make.

I made this card on Friday as I wanted to try some different with the stag from the Deer Family set of dies.

I wanted to try a more clean and simple style.  I made myself a mask and a moon out of a post-it note and I inked the top layer with two shades of blue Distress Ink. I used my brushes for inking they came from Clarity stamps I am seriously thinking of getting some more.  I drew a line around the inking with my Perfect Medium pen and I heat embossed it with a black sparkly powder. I stamped the Santa and sleigh with a black ink and heat embossed that with the same powder. 

I cut the stag out of some black card. Once it was cut and embossed I backed it with some silver card. The tree came from the Winter Trees set and was cut in green and embossed the baubles were made with CS glue in Berry Red and Olympic Gold. 

The sentiment came in the same set as the Santa and sleigh. 

I hope that you have a great week ahead. 

Happy Crafting.

Hugs Jackie

A quick Christmas Card

Hi My Crafty Blog Friends

How is your weekend going? My husband has been called into work today which means I am home alone with my crafty stash. Yesterday I received a parcel of stamps from Visible image so I have spent the morning playing.

I had this design in my mind but it did take me a while to get it to work the way I wanted it to.

I wanted to have a go at another CAS card I decided to use the White Christmas stamp set available from Visible Image. 

It did take me a while to get this design right but when I did it is a quick card to make. 

I made a mask for the top layer I cut it just a bit smaller so that there would be a border I also cut a square with a die. I used Distress ink and a brush to apply the ink to the mask.

Once this was done I used a clear ink pad to stamp the snowflake and the sentiment then they were heat embossed in silver. 

Finally I used a ruler and a Versa Mark pen to draw round the square of ink and this also was embossed in silver. 

These are the stamps that were in my happy post yesterday. 

Not quite a one layer card. I have some other ideas for these stamps they do stamp nicely. 

I hope that you enjoy the rest of today the sun is shining here. 

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

CAS Father's Day Card

Hi My Crafty Blog Friends

I hope you had a great weekend. We had a lovely family meal on Saturday and on Sunday I finished the day wedding invitations that I have been working on for a while. I couldn't make the evening invitations as I didn't have enough card. The card is on order now so I should be able to finish soon.

While I was making my husband's Father's Day card I thought it would be good to have a go at a simpler style for my dad. He doesn't really like fussy cards.

There is very little in the way of instructions, there doesn't really need to be. 

I stamped the Classic Car stamp from Visible Image at the bottom of a piece of white card with black ink and I heat embossed it with a clear powder. Then I coloured the image with my Promarkers. 

I added the sentiment cut with a Signature die from blue card that matched the mat.  There you have it, a quick Father's Day card. 

I spent most of Sunday turning this pile of bits  

Into these invitations. We are dropping them off next Sunday after we have been to the Portsmouth Craft show. I know it will be  Father's day but my husband doesn't  mind. We will go to the cinema afterwards, he will like that.

I hope my dad likes this card. He will be opening it next Sunday. 

I would like to enter challenge 17 at Get Creative Challenges.

Have a great week. 

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie 

CAS Wedding Invitation Design

Hi My Crafty Blog Friends

Bank Holiday is over and we are back to work. I didn't realise that people in Scotland don't get that bank holiday. That is a shame but I think they get other holidays.

I have been mentioning working on Wedding Invitations  ( I do have a lot to do). I don't think I have shared the sample I made for the second lot of invitations I am making. It is a lovely simple design and it does incorporate all the colours of the wedding.

It takes just one A5 double sided pearlised sheet with matting and layering. 

The thistle is a  tattered lace die. I snipped off the bottom of the design and paper pieced the top of the thistle. I made 35 of these at the weekend. 

Yesterday we went to Exbury Gardens in the New Forest in Hampshire. I am going to share just a few of my photos (I took loads).

The flowers were stunning and the colours were amazing. 

Everywhere you went there was something to see.

Some of the views were beautiful and so full of colour. We have been to this garden a few times but I don't think I have ever seen the colours like this. 

The bluebells were out too.

The carpets of bluebells were just so pretty. I can really recommend the garden as a day out if you are down this way especially at this time of year.

The couple I am making these invitations for are very pleased with the design. I am making the place setting cards as well. 

Enjoy the rest of the week.

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie