Author: tinstar05

Well hello there – I’m back from my cruising holiday. I had a fabulous time with my hubby, daughter and mum and am starting to plan the next cruise. If you haven’t been on a cruise before I highly recommend them – I have been on many holidays and must say that a cruising holiday is the most relaxing holiday ever!

Now I’m back I’m raring to go with some crafty challenges and first cab off the rank is the current challenge over at CAS-ual Fridays Stamps which is all about using a musical theme on your card.

The Design Team have shared some fabulous cards with lots of inspiration. I was inspired by Lisa’s card with the alcohol ink panel. I created my own alcohol ink panel and cut a large postage stamp panel for my focal point and added the sentiment from the CAS-ual Fridays set ‘Love Notes’  and a Heart Note Fri-Die in silver glitter paper to finish it off.

Thanks for looking and have a great weekend.

I have finally found myself an hour to be able to craft. These past 2 weeks have been go go go for me with Miss K’s birthday, school activities, sport and plenty of my paying work to be done prior to us going on our cruise tomorrow!

Yep, we’re heading off on a cruise to the islands of Noumea, we’re taking my mum along who needs to make some very happy memories before she undertakes her third lot of chemo treatment. She got some results that were not what we were hoping for; but it is what it is and we will continue to be strong and provide the support that she needs.

So, on to more happy things – the bookmark. I used the current month digital image from Gerda Steiner Designs which is an adorable cat sleeping on a bookshelf. I thought to make a bookmark as I’m planning on catching up on my reading on the cruise.

I coloured this little cutie in with my Prisma Pencils, added it to a tag and tried a bit of mixed media for the finishing effect. I can see him getting a good workout over the next 2 weeks.

Thanks for looking and I’ll see you in 2 weeks time 🙂

Those who know me won’t be surprised by this next statement –  I love green. So when I saw that there were some  challenges that I could play with my favourite colour I quickly got myself inky!

I made 1 card that I think fit the bill for 4 different challenges:

• Watercooler Wednesday Challenges #WWC161 (a birthday’s an occassion right?)
• CAS(e) this sketch #263 (I flipped the sketch)
• CAS-ual Fridays – #CFC196 (I used 3 greens)
• Time Out Challenges #105 (I used the word birthday)

I used a stamp set by Altenew called Peony Bouquet with a sentiment from their Birthday Greetings set – thanks to my MISTI for making this multi-layer stamping super easy. The inks are from Catherine Pooler Designs in Melon Ice, Garden Party and Lime Rickey. The black stripe DSP is from a MFT 6×6 paper pad. I added some sequins for a little bit of extra bling and I was done.

The background behind my card is my new Tim Holtz glass media mat which I love; cleaning up has never been easier!

Thanks for looking and have a great day.

My friend Michelle from Seashell Creations came over for a visit and some crafty time today and she brought with her a new Panda die from Neat & Tangled that I knew I just had to play with and I had the perfect 3 challenges to enter my card into too.

• Less is More – #366 Monochrome
• Seize the Birthday – Anything Goes
• Die Cut Divas – Monochrome

I die cut the panda from Stampin Up Whisper white cardstock and used dimensionals to pop the front up so you could see the image. The sentiment is from a MFT set called ‘All about you’ and I think the ribbon bow just added the final touch to this cute panda girl.

Can’t get more monochrome and CAS than this! Adorable don’t you think?

Thanks for looking and have a great day.

Yup you read correctly – I love green – especially vibrant lime green; so when I saw the recent batch of challenges that I get via email, I knew I had to play with 5 of them and I have 1 card that I think suits all 5.

• The Sisterhood of Crafters – Clean and Simple
• Fusion  – St Paddy’s Day
• Shopping Our Stash #344 – National Dress Day
• AAA Cards CAS Game #110 – Ombre
• The Card Concept #88 – Monochromatic Green

I used a stamp set from Fun Stampers Journey called ‘Dance life’ and she was perfect for an ink smooshed background that I think looks slightly ombre, is certainly monochrome, clearly green, clean & simple and uses a stamp set I’d forgotten about and is a dress – there all challenge criteria met!

I used Stampin Up card stock in Lucky Limeade, Garden Green and some water-colour paper. I smooshed Tim Holtz’s Twisted Citron ink onto my mat, spritzed it with water and then put my card piece into the wet ink, careful to only get the ink around the stamped image.

I think she’s truly beautiful.

Thanks for looking and have a great day.

I got my craft on today – woot woot!

Everything just seemed to be aligned – time, inspiration and weather. Weather you say? Well it’s finally a bit cooler here which means being indoors is so much more pleasant without the heat and humidity we’ve been having lately.

So I went through my list of challenges to see what caught my eye and found lots of inspiration:

• CASology #289 Fit 
• WWC159 – Marsha’s “All About Christmas” Challenge
• CAS-ual Friday CFC194 Beautiful Rainbows
• Just Us Girls #430 Balloons 

First up is my CASology card – I played with the theme in a bit of tongue in cheek way using a cat from the Katzelkraft “Les Chats’ stamp set coloured with my prisma pencils and I created the sentiment on my computer. This is my type of exercise!

Up next is my card for the Watercooler Wednesday challenge. This card is going to be one of a set of cards for a new work colleague who is an apiarist wanting me to make ‘bee’ themed Christmas cards for her. I used the Stampin Up hexagon die plate to simulate the hive, the sentiment I created on my computer and the bee is a digital image from Freepik with an added Santa hat. I’m pretty happy with how this turned out and I’m hoping she’ll love it too.

Third card for the day is for the CAS-ual Fridays challenge. I used another Katzelkraft stamp set “Les Jungles” with the sentiment created on my computer again. I coloured him with my prisma pencils.

Lastly my card for the JUGS #430 challenge . This card is for Miss K who is turning 11 later this month. I’m glad I’m  making it now as time will certainly get away from me with all the things I have to remember doing between now and then 🙂 I die cut my balloons using Avery Elle balloon dies and stamped the sentiments on the balloons from a Winnie & Walter set called ‘ring in the celebration’.

Well that’s it for today, thanks for looking and have a great day.

Ok, so anyone who has read my previous post would have seen that I was abstaining from coffee for a month as part of a detox and to help me reduce my sugar intake. Well it almost killed me but I’m glad to say that I stayed the course and lasted the month BUT as soon as the 30 days were done the first thing I had the very next morning was a cup of coffee!

It was delicious.

So when I saw the stamp set from CAS-ual Fridays called “Coffee Talk ” I knew which sentiment I was going to use on my next card for the Card Concept challenge as it perfectly summed up my 30 days sans coffee experience.

I used the flat elephant from a Katzelkraft set called ‘Les Jungles” and he matches so well with the sentiment. I kept is CAS so that he was the centre of attention (as he deserves).

Thanks for looking and have a great day.

Now here’s a technique that I’ve neglected in recent times. I’ve been too busy with OLC cards that I’d forgotten how great a dry embossed background can complement a focal image.

The current challenges at Less is More and Try Stampin’ – or not – on Tuesday are all about dry embossing.

Now I got a little bit carried away and created 3 cards, all just that little bit different from each other.

This first one is for my mother who is being an absolute superstar while undergoing cancer treatment for a second time. I used a digital image from Some Odd Girl and the sentiment is from the Sweet Stamp Shop ‘super mom’ set. I coloured her with my alcohol markers and then added her to a dry embossed base using an embossing folder form Stampin Up.

This next card will go into my birthday card stash and I really like the effect I achieved with the embossed background that I lightly sponged over to give it that worn look. The embossing folder is from Spellbinders #E3D-004 basket weave and I die cut the butterfly from some scrap DSP. The sentiment is from an old Stampin Up set.

The last card will go into my masculine card stash and combines dry embossing with some scrap DSP banners and a couple of coloured dots for the finishing effect. The embossing folder is from Cuttlebug and the sentiment is an old Stampin Up one.

Not sure why this image is so small but I’m sure you get the idea.

Thanks for looking and have a great day.

I have been enjoying watching the winter olympics – there have been some amazing performances from some outstanding athletes.  I think some of the feats and tricks we have been seeing have been simply unbelievable – those snowboarders who’ve been doing the 1060 turns – wow!

So when I saw the current The Male Room challenge #79 – Sports/Winter Olympics I just knew I wanted to play along and the card I wanted to make.

I created my background using smooshed peacock feathers distress oxide ink with a bit of white puffy paint to simulate snow and added the digital extreme snowboarder from Stampin Up. The sentiment is from the Hero Arts ‘Awesome’ set.

Another great masculine card for my stash – done!

Thanks for looking and have a great day.

Today my card is adding to my masculine birthday card stash and I was inspired by the current CAS-ual Friday Stamps challenge. I love their sketches as they make you think more creatively.

I used a CAS-ual Fridays stamp set called ‘Shenanigans” for my main focus sentiment, stamped using Catherine Pooler Design inks in It’s a boy, Fiesta blue and Something borrowed with some Momento tuxedo black. I used Stampin Up Whisper white and Not quite navy card stock. Some blue and white twine from the Twinery finishes it off.

Thanks for looking and have a great day.