November STAMPlorations CAS Challenge - Anything Goes With Brown

Welcome to the November STAMPlorations CAS challenge. November? How can it be November already? Thank you for playing along with our October challenge, it was great to see so much amazing inspiration in the gallery. Make sure to check in over at the STAMPlorations blog in a few day's time to see the lucky winners. Hopefully, you'll be playing along with us again this month. Our optional colour twist this month is brown. 

What else could the colour brown mean than choooocolate! For my card I started by stamping the yummy cake and pie from Sweet Cravings, coloured with Copics and die cut with the matching dies. Then I stamped the Bold Sentiments: Sweet in an ombre pink pattern, attaching the cakes to the background. 

Card: Neenah Solar white card, 300 gsm white card

Stamps: STAMPlorations Sweet Cravings and matching Sweet Cravings Dies, Bold Sentiments: Sweet, Bold Sentiments: Hashtag Authentic

Ink and colouring: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Up Pink Pirouette, Blushing Bride, Regal Rose, Strawberry Slush, Melon Mambo, Copics

STAMPlorations discount code: If you want to save 20% when shopping at the STAMPlorations store you can use the code STAMPGIRLKAROLA at checkout. The discount applies to all normal priced and discounted stamps, stencils and dies. The code cannot be combined with other discount codes.

Two Ombre Feathers

How are you? Did you have a nice Christmas? What did Santa bring you? Tell me, tell me, I would love to hear! I have been in a weird mood for the last few days - we recently came home after a Christmas spent with family and friends back home. I feel like I'm in a bit lost in the haze that covers the days between Christmas and New Year (I'm lucky I'm able to take some annual leave and extend the holidays until after New Years). I feel like all I do is eat and sleep. I just put marshmallows in my coffee, that's how bad it is!! And the worst part is, I'm failing to enjoy the time off as I'm already stressing about having to go back to work on Tuesday. 

Luckily I got my new crafty stash from the amazing Shery over at STAMPlorations so today I feel a bit better after spending most of the day in the craft room. New stash always helps when the Mojo has gone AWOL. I even managed to start my new Journal for next year - I have been trialling what I like to think of as my own version of the Bullet Journal since September and as I feel like a analog journal seems to be working quite well for me I decided to continue in the new year, and even upgraded from a small A6 size notebook to an A5 to give me a bit more room for my weekly layouts. But I have struggled to get started with it - some sort of blank page paralysis I guess. Luckily the crafty stash got me super creative. I can't wait to share with you my first page, but I'll leave that until January 1st. I will also have a great surprise for you relating to STAMPlorations in that post, so please check back as I promise it will make you happy if you are planning to order any of Shery's amazing products.

But enough rambling - today's card is a quick and simple creation using the amazingly gorgeous Two Feathers mask which I have been craving ever since I first saw it in the STAMPlorations store. After Christmas there is a need for thank you cards - so I thought I would get cracking with them. This one goes to my wonderful godparents who hosted us for the last night of our trip back home. 

Sometimes these very intricate masks can be a bit fiddly to work with - there's no way of taping the mask down onto the cardstock. My top tip is to put a couple of tiny drops of Tombow multi-purpose glue (you know, the glue with the green caps) on the mask. After the glue dries, it becomes removable - it's sticky enough to keep the mask in place while inking (as long as you use the foam applicators gently) but it's possible to remove without leaving any marks. Just make sure to only use *tiny* drops of glue. After using Tim Holtz distress inks to create the ombre background I splattered water with a watercolour brush. Last, I die cut the sentiment from silver card using the Thanks word die. 

There aren't many challenges around this time of year, but I managed to find a few to link up with:
AAA Cards - Silver
Just Add Ink - Just Add N (for navy blue)
Daring Cardmakers - Thank You
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - ATG
CAS(E) This Sketch 

Card: 300 gsm Daler&Rowney watercolour paper
Ink: Tim Holtz Distress Inks Cracked Pistachio, Peacock Feathers, Mermaid Lagoon, Blueprint Sketch, Chipped Sapphire
Stencil: ARTplorations Two Feathers
Dies: CUTplorations Thanks word die

Deepti Popped - blog hop

Today we are having a special blog hop to welcome another STAMPbaby! Deepti has had a precious baby boy and we all want to send lots of love and congratulations to her and her family. You can join the hop on the here and link up your card if you want to join us in wishing Deepti all the best, or just to hop along to see what the talented STAMPlorations ladies have created.

For my card I started by watercolouring through the STAMPlorations Retro Circles stencil using Tim Holtz distress inks in Chipped Sapphire, Blueprint Sketch, Broken China and Tumbled Glass to create an ombre effect. Then I die cut the panel using a stitched rectangle die. I stamped the rose from the Blossom Overture set on Neenah Solar card, coloured using Copics and fussy cut it. Note to self, this is not the stamp you want to fussy cut as it's rather intricate, but I got there in the end. After attaching the rose I finished the card by stamping a sentiment from the same stamp set in Memento black ink and attached the panel onto white card.

I am linking up my card with the following challenges:
Just Add Ink - Just Add Nature
Sketchy Colours - Blue, Green, White
Just Us Girls - Tic Tac Toe (Flowers, Stamps, Die cuts)
Addicted to Stamps - Anything Goes
Craft Your Passion - Anything Goes

Card: 300 gsm textured card, 190 gsm watercolour card
Stamps: STAMPlorations Blossom Overture
Stencils: STAMPlorations Retro Circles
Ink: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Tim Holtz Distress Inks Blueprint Sketch, Broken China, Chipped Sapphire and Tumbled Glass. Colouring Copics YG11, YG13, YG17, B00, B04, B06, B29
Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle Dies



  

Ombre background poppies

This whole Christmas thing isn't exactly going to plan. By now I was supposed to be off on my long, and even if I say so myself, well-earned Christmas break. However, turns out I have to work both Monday and Wednesday. Sigh. So I have decided to boycott Christmas, and publish non-Christmas cards to make me feel less bad. A bit hard to not think of the C word though, as I have the constituent parts for four gingerbread houses right next to me, spreading a wonderful Christmas-y scent. Putting them together has to go on the to-do list for the weekend, along with scrubbing the house from top to bottom to make it presentable to the un-laws, preparing Christmas food, doing the big Christmas shopping, getting a few more presents, wrapping the current ones and best of all, finally picking up the snake baby!! That's a to-do list and a half. I cannot wait for those hazy lazy crafty days between Christmas and New Year when I can get back into creative mode again.

Anyhow, today's card is using a stamp that has somehow sneakily become my favourite in the STAMPlorations Bloom Sketches set. And of course watercolour, my most favouritest technique ever ever ever. Not to mention one of my favourite colour combos, turquoise and purple.

Quite a simple card, started by stamping the gorgeous poppies in Staz-on, masked them to create the ombre background using Tim Holtz Distress inks in Peacock Feathers, Cracked Pistachio and Bundled sage. I coloured the poppies in Mowed Lawn and Wilted Violet. Last, I stamped a few sentiments from the same stamp set and adhered the front panel onto linen textured card.

It's not easy to find a non-Christmas related challenge this time of year, but I would like to link up with the following challenges:
Crafting Musketeers Challenge Blog - Use a Sentiment
Inspiration Destination - Anything Goes 
2 Crafty Girls - Anything Goes
Simply Papercraft - Anything Goes
PDE Linky Party - Anything Goes
Brown Sugar Challenge Blog - Anything Goes

Card: 300 gsm linen textured card, 300 gsm watercolour paper
Stamps: STAMPlorations Bloom Sketches
Ink: Tsukineko Staz-On Jet Black, Tim Holtz distress inks Bundled Sage, Cracked Pistachio, Mowed Lawn, Peacock Feathers and Wilted Violet
Dies: Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle die

Ombre feathers and why I need a bigger desk

I'm baaack! Ok, so maybe you didn't even notice I haven't been around in ages. I have an excuse... First it was work, and this weekend was the Culinary Consultant's birthday, so we spent some quality time with our favourite peeps, not leaving any time for the craft room. Me, the Culinary Consultant, my Sis and his Sis spent Saturday in Thetford forest climbing up trees, doing a bit of tight-rope walking from tree to tree and riding zip lines. It was really scary as some of it was really high up, but we had a blast. I have to admit I chickened out from doing one of the really big Tarzan swings where you just jump off a platform high up a tree, and then swing at full speed into a net. The Culinary Consultant and his Sis took it all in a stride and did great! 

Today, after Sis drove off home (and our guest room is once again empty, sad face...) I spent some time in the craft room, creating a huge bunch of stuff that went straight into the bin. Apparently my crafting muscles have atrophied. I pretty much pulled out every stamp set and die I owned. They are all spread across my crafting desk, you can see what it looks like... Every single thing I made was horrible. So I took a break, read a few chapters, had some cake and ended up having a bit of a nap as well (our sofa is way too comfortable). 

After my nap I decided to try again. I pushed all the crap on my desk to the side to make a teeny tiny little space in the middle of the desk. Stuff started falling off the edge of the desk... Hence the need for a bigger desk. And I guess the earlier messing around counted as warm-up, and I was finally able to create a card that wasn't too horrible.

My card was inspired by the colour combo over at Colour Me...! and the sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches. I was also inspired by the ombre challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge. Not one, not two but three different ombre elements! The background, the feathers and the sentiment. I was also inspired by the tic-tac-toe board over at CAS-ual Fridays. My choice is diagonally Stitching, Spritzing and Embossing. Stitching is the faux stitching around the panel, there is some spritzing in the background I did by flicking a watercolour brush, and embossing is the white heat embossing on the feathers.  For the background, I was also inspired by The Friday Mashup, where one of the themes is to create a background filled with colour. 

Card: Daler&Rowney 300 gsm Aquafine watercolour paper, Stampin' Up Sahara Sand card
Inks: Stampin' Up Sahara Sand, Blushing Bride and Mint Macaron
Stamps: Stampin' Up Four Feathers
Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle Dies, Scripty Hugs die, Papermania Seafoam White embossing powder