Coming of age

Well what happened to those summer holidays?! As usual they were gone in a flash :( Loved spending time with my 2 kiddywinks, we had a few days out here & there & ended with a family holiday in Devon for a week. And yes, I think that was the wettest week of the school holidays, just our luck!
We did however have some very good news in August ... I'll share that with you next time ;)

Now, onto cards ... my friend's son turned 21 last week & inspired by the sketch challenge at Mojo Monday I made this:

I die cut the "21" from red card & stamped "21" lots of time on some white card stock.

Thanks for popping by & take care.

Tam x

Supplies:
Stampin' Up Baja Breeze, Night of Navy & Real Red cardstock & ink pads
Simple Stories 'Snap Color Vibe' paper
MFT Stitched squares die
Craftwork Cards Candi alphabet/number stamps

Inspiration:


Cute card Thursday challenge - NUMBERS

Berry precious sister

Hello, I hope you're enjoying the summer. Here in the UK it's the school holidays so I'm enjoying some quality time with my kiddywinks while I can .. they're at that age now where they'd either be with their friends or on games/tablets/phones! I dragged them out kicking & screaming today to a local farm shop where we had a saunter round the farm & lakes &  even did the Minions hunt. You're never too old for the Minions :) I think they secretly enjoyed it.

Anyway, onto crafting. It was my sister's birthday a couple of weeks ago & this is what I came up with:

My sister means to the world to me & I don't know what I'd do without her. So this card fits nicely into this week's challenge at CASology where the cue card is "Precious". My sister is certainly precious to me! The card also fits nicely into the Less is More colour challenge this week which is to use Berry Shades.

Thanks for popping by & take care. Enjoy your weekend.

Tam x

Supplies:

CBS Fabulous Fuschias stamps & die

Happy bday sentiment  - CBS Fabulous Fuschias stamp set

Sister sentiment – CBS  You & I

SU Edgelits-Adorning Accents die

Ink pads – SU garden green & real red & elegant eggplant

Cardstock – SU Elegant eggplant & real red & CC white

Challenges:


Less is More
So the start of a new month means it's Colour week
and we've chosen Berry Shades

You nerd!

Recently it was mine & my husband's wedding anniversary. I was inspired by the one layer card week at Less is More where the challenge was to make a masculine card. Unfortunately our anniversary was after the challenge deadline so I couldn't join in. I was also inspired by Addicted to CAS where the code word this week is 'Chevron'. My husband is a bit of a computer nerd so I thought this quite suited him ...

I'm also entering this card at CASology where the cue card this week is 'Line'.

I was quite excited to see that 2 of my recent cards have been challenge winners! :)
My 'Home is where the heart is card here  was a weekly winner at CAS colours & sketches.
And the cute hamster card, 'I wheelie like you' here was a challenge favourite at Tag You're it
It's great to know that people like my cards & once again, thank you for all your lovely comments.

Supplies:
Paper Smooched 'Incognito' stamp set - glasses, eyes, eyebrows; lips & 'you nerd' stamped in SU Real Red
Clearly Besotted 'Basic Chevrons' stamp set - chevron stamped 3 times in Stampin' Up Tempting Turquoise
Hot off the Press dotted line stamp
Sentiments: Happy Anniversary from CBS 'Framed Sentiments', Hubby from CBS 'Many Mini Messages'

Inspiration



Thanks for popping by & take care.

Tam x

You're spec-tacular

I had a bit of a craft buying splurge recently & one of my treats was the 'Incognito' stamp set by Paper Smooches. It has some great stamps of specs & moustaches with some cool sentiments. I made a simple card using this set together with a matching spectacles die:

The specs were die cut from black card & I used Stampin' Up Candy Dots for the eyes. A bit of colour from the red striped Simple Stories 'Snap Color Vibe' paper adds to the funkiness!

Life's been a bit hectic here recently; my daughter had her school prom & a week later, a 'graduation' ceremony to celebrate the end of her secondary school life.

Now I may be slightly biased but I think she looks stunning. Or dare I say, quite spec-tacular :)

Thank you for popping by & for all your lovely comments, I really appreciate them.

Tam x

Inspiration
Less is More Colour challenge - red, white & blue

I Wheelie like you!

When I saw the inspiration tag at Tag You're It this week, the play on words made me think straight away of a cute hamster stamp set I have with a similar play on words, Lawn Fawn's 'Wheelie like you'. I bought it a few months ago to make my daughter's birthday card as she just adores her pet hamster (I'll share her card with you another time). I like the teal/brown combination on the inspiration card & the splattered effect & these 2 elements inspired me to make this:

I sponged Tim Holtz Salty Ocean distress ink through part of an MFT Petal Circles stencil onto a tag cut from white card stock with an MFT 'Tag you're it' die. I then sprayed a mist of water over it to give that 'swooshed' look! Once it had dried, I lightly sponged over with Tumbled Glass distress ink. This ties in with the challenge at Less is More this week where the theme is to use stencilling. The hamster & wheel were die cut from the matching Lawn Fawn die, the hamster was water coloured with Stampin' Up Soft Suede ink.

I hope you wheelie like my card :) Thanks for popping by. Take care.

Tam x

Inspiration



Less is More: Theme Week  and we'd like to see some Stencilling on your project. 

Home is where the heart is

Popping back for a quick blog post, I know, twice in one day!
I wanted to enter the one layer card challenge at Less is More this week where the theme is 'Home'. Once again, I've combined it with another challenge which is a colour challenge at CAS Colours & Sketches, where the colours are yellow, green & grey.

Forgive the photo quality, as I said this is a quick post!

I used a Stampin' Up embossing folder to create a bit of texture & dimension with the oval frame. The house & sentiment are from Clearly Besotted 'Home Sweet Home' stamp set. The ink pads are Stampin' Up Basic Gray, Garden Green & More Mustard.

EDITED:
Tonilea, your comment below about the bent card stock & placement of the embossing folder; I too dented my cardsstock on the first attempt:

I put the embossing folder over the top of the front of my 10cm by 15cm card base & then secured it on the reverse with washi tape:

Normally to emboss a single sheet of cardstock with a Cuttlebug you  would use an 'A' plate & 2 'B' plates'.I sandwiched the card & embossing folder between an 'A' plate & 'C' plate & ran it through my Cuttlebug.  I found this out through trial & error using different plate combinations! It maybe that you have to try a few different combinations of plates & shims if you have another die cutting machine. I hope this helps. Good luck Tonilea, I'd love to know how you get on!

Thanks for popping by & take care!

Tam x

Challenges:

One Layer Card week

and the theme is 

Home

Father's Day

Good afternoon! Here in the UK it's Father's Day this Sunday. I saw the sketch at Mojo Monday card sketch challenge & thought it could easily be used for feminine or masculine cards. I combined it with Trend week at Just Us Girls where the challenge is to use stacked die cut sentiments.

I used my Spellbinders circle dies to die cut 3 circles from some old Craftwork Cards papers & matching ribbon I found, crumbs I must have had them for 5, maybe getting on for 10 years! Does anyone else hold on to the last scraps of papers 'just in case' or is it just me?!
I ran a strip of navy card stock through my Xyron Sticker Maker before die cutting the word 'dad' out of it 3 times with Clearly Besotted 'Dad' word die. Once the word has been die cut, it's quite small & fiddly to apply adhesive to so I found this method made it much easier! The 3 words were then stacked on top of each other & adhered to the smallest circle. To finish off the card I stamped the sentiment using Clearly Besotted 'All Occasion Sentiments'.

I hope you like it & would love to hear your comments. Finfgers crossed that my Dad likes it. And hope he doesn't look at my blog before Sunday!

Thank you for popping by, take care.

Tam x

Challenges:

Teacher tag

The current Tag You're It Challenge #23 is to create a tag inspired by this tag ...



Here's mine:

I like the vibrancy of the red apple in the inspiration, which made me think straight away of 'an apple for the teacher'. I used Clearly Besotted's stamp set 'Teacher's Pet' to stamp the apple, leaves & sentiment, die cutting the apple with the matching apple die. The inks are Stampin' Up Real Red & Wild Wasabi. I like the cute peg & managed to find just one red one in my stash! The tag was die cut from an MFT 'Tag You're It' die from Craftwork Cards white card stock. I echoed the fishtail shape of the bottom of the inspiration tag in my sentiment banner & also the chevron arrow stamp, which was free in a magazine.

I then made the tag into a card:

I hope you like my take on the inspiration tag. Thanks for popping by. Take care.

Tam x

Sunset

Hello again ... yes I'm back 2 days in a row!

I wanted to enter the challenge at Less is More this week which ends tonight! It's a colour challenge this week ''Sunset'', using colours that this word brings to mind.
I've combined it with the challenge at Addicted to CAS which uses the code word "Butterfly" & also the CAS(E) this Sketch challenge.

I used Tim Holtz distress inks in mustard seed, spiced marmalade & fired brick blended together on glossy white card to make the background which I then trimmed into 4 squares. The butterfly was stamped in Versafine onyx black ink & die cut using Clearly Besotted "Butterfly Wishes" stamps & dies.The sentiment is from the same stamp set.

Thanks for popping by & hope you have a lovely weekend.

Tam x

Challenges:

Less is More: For our Colour Challenge this week 

we have chosen

SUNSET

Summer!

Well today certainly felt like Summer, I even managed an hour or 2 in the garden reading a book!
The challenge at Just Us Girls this week is word week, with the word 'Summer'. This was perfect timing as at the start of this week I received one of this month's new releases at Clearly Besotted 'On the Beach'. As well as these fab flip flops the set also has a couple of sentiments, beach huts, ice lolly & a seagull. I combined 'Summer' with the sketch at Sketch Saturday & came up with this ...

The papers are Echo Park's 'Here & Now' & the inks are Stampin' Up. The sentiment is from Clearly Besotted, 'Fabulous Fuschias'. If you look closely, you might just be able to see I've used some liquid pearls to decorate the flip flops.

Thank you popping by to look at my blog & for the lovely comments, it's nice to know I'm not gibbering away to myself! I was chuffed to bits to see my umbrella one layer card was chosen as a Paper Artist Pick at Paper Pals Arts recently, so I must be doing something right!

Take care & hope we get more of this lovely sunshine.

Tam xxx

Challenges entered

And yet another entry!

I really liked the sketch challenge at CAS(E) this sketch this week. So much so that I made 2 cards using it! I've also combined it with the 'Birds' challenge at Addicted to CAS again ...

I saw on another blog how someone had cut out one of the peacock feathers on the Craftwork Cards tagpaper & snipped it lots of times to make it more dimensional. I've tried it here & think it gives a lovely effect. I've also used Wink of stella again to add a bit of sparkle to the feathers.

Challenges ...

Supplies
CB 'Tag along' stamps & dies
Craftwork Cards 'Vogue' papers
SU Early espresso ink pad
Wink of stella

Thank you for stopping by. Take care.

Tam x

A trio of challenges

Good evening! I've seen quite a few cards on blogs & Pinterest using embossing paste & decided I really needed to try this, a new technique for me. So I've managed to use this technique whilst combining 3 challenges!

 CAS(E) this sketch challenge ...

  Just us girls would like to see embossing ...

And Addicted to CAS are asking for creations using the code word 'Birds' ...

Here's the card I came up with ...

Supplies

CBS 'Tag along' stamps & dies

SU bird punch & 'Punch potpourri' stamp set

MFT 'Petal circles' stencil

White embossing paste

Versacolor 'Heliotrope' ink pad 

Dovecraft 'Back to basics IV' paper

Thank you for stopping by. Take care.

Tam x 

One layer challenge

Hello, I linked up my Good Luck card from last week to the Less is More challenge as it fitted with the opposite colour on the colour wheel theme. However it was probably a little busy to be classed as clean & simple. So I decided to rise to their challenge this week which is to only use one layer with the theme of water. I also used the colours in the Pals Paper Arts colour scheme this week. Here's what I came up with ...

You may not be able to see from the photo, but I used glossy accents on the raindrops & wink of Stella on the umbrella to give it a bit of sparkle. Unfortunately the wink of Stella came out a bit quick! Lesson learnt!

Supplies

Stamps - Clearly Besotted 'April Showers'
Inks - Stampin' Up: Daffodil delight, Crumb cake, Coastal cabana
Die - Lil Inker Designs 'Stitched Rectangles'
Other - Wink of Stella, Glossy accents

Thanks for stopping by. Take care.

Tam x

Exam time!

This week was the start of GCSE exams for year 11s here in the UK & that includes my daughter. She's been like a revision machine the past couple of months & I couldn't be more proud of her for the effort she's putting in. And yes of course, I had to make her a good luck card :)

The hand moves so once one exam is done, we can spin it round to the next subject ...

I hope this card isn't too 'busy' to class as clean & simple so I'm going to link it up to the Less is More challenge this week which is to use colours on the opposite side of the colour wheel.

Also, this week's challenge over at Cute card Thursday is to use a brad.

Supplies
Clearly Besotted stamps ... Many Messages (good luck sentiment), Basic Alphabet (A/B/C, I & X for maths symbols), Scientifically Speaking (atom structure), Bookworm (books heart), Text Me (music notes), Time to celebrate (clock hand)
Other stamps, unknown supplier ... globe, cake, sun
Stampin' Up ... Alphabet embossing folder
Brad - from stash

Thank you for popping by & also for your lovely comments.
Take care.

Tam x

Patter of tiny feet ...

Over at Less is More the challenge is to use a tag on your card. A very old friend of mine recently had her 6th baby - yes, you read that right, 6th!!! I personally think she deserves a medal! They haven't decided on a name yet so I haven't personalised their new baby card as I usually do. Here's the finished card ...

I also used the sketch at CAS(E) this Sketch which incorporates a tag ...

Supplies
MFT Die-namics 'Tag you're it' die
Clearly Besotted 'Tag along' stamps & dies
Clearly Besotted 'All occasion sentiments' stamps
Doodlebug 'Sugar & spice' paper pad
Divine twine
Stampin' Up pretty in pink ink & card
White card base made from Craftwork Cards white cardstock

Thank you very much for popping over to my blog, I hope you have a lovely weekend.

Tam x

It's a girl!

Good afternoon, hope you're having a lovely day & enjoying this gorgeous sunshine!
I saw this week's cue card on the CASology challenge is 'News'. Gillian, one of the design team gave birth to a son last week, so they'd like to see baby themed cards.
This is an ideal opportunity for me to share with you the new baby card I made for my cousin & her husband on the birth of their first child, a daughter in February.
I used Clearly Besotted's clock face stamp as the main element to mark the time of Isla's birth. I think this stamp set has now been discontinued unfortunately, but I hope the card still inspires you.

Now I'm rubbish at tying bows so I cheated a little on this card ;)
I took 2 lengths of ribbon & crossed them over each other, sticking them in the middle, like this ...

I then took a third & wrapped it round the crossed pair, sticking it down again ...

I then stuck my 'bow' to a straight piece of ribbon attached to the card. Voila! A cheat's bow!

Supplies
Stamps - Time to Celebrate; Sweet Little Sentiments: Clearly Besotted
Paper pad - Doodlebug's Sugar & Spice; Craft Mojo
Card stock, label punch & dotty ribbon - Stampin' Up
Spellbinders circle dies

Thank you for popping by, enjoy the lovely weather & take care.

Tam x