Smile .......

Happy Thursday ....

And welcome to September!!!
Pinch and a punch for the first of the month and all that ..... I can't quite believe that we're two thirds of the way through the year already ...... only 16 weeks until Christmas ..... eeeek!!

Never mind all that though, it's time to kick off September's Blog Challenges.  First up this month is the STAMPlorations CAS card Challenge

As always the theme is Anything Goes ..... as long as it's CAS, with an optional colour twist ..... and for the month of September it's ........ PINK 

I must say I am a bit of a pink girl ...... whether it's delicate and feminine, or hot and sassy and everything in between!

I've gone for a hot pink today .... Picked Raspberry to be exact, teamed with a little Twisted Citron .... lovely combination I think

I've used the ARTplorations stencil .... Retro Circles for the background with the Twisted Citron ink .... easy

Then I die cut the word 'smile' three times from white card stock, using one of the brand new CUTplorations thin metal dies.  I coloured one of them with the Picked Raspberry ink direct from the ink pad, and then layered all three together to give a bit of dimension

The rest of the greeting comes from the Kathryn's Big Wishes stamp set from the Dee's Artsy Impressions range ...... a great birthday set of stamps but so useful for other occasions too.

I added a few pretty pink sequins here and there for a touch of sparkle ....

Applied Glossy Accents over the die cut word ...... I love how this brings the colour out even more

And then finished off with a little piece of the stencil design on the inside of my card

Check out the CAS Challenge blog for all this month's challenge details, information on the prizes up for grabs and lots more fabulous inspiration from the Design Team.

Don't forget about the Color Blooms Blog Hop/Linky party that's also going on on the STAMPlorations Blog.  Why not join in the fun there too.

Happy stamping!

I'm also joining in the fun and linking this up to the lovely Darnell's latest NBUS Challenge .....

Both the stencil and the die are from my Mt NBUS (never before used schtuff!) so it fits in quite nicely.

Today's post is actually my 800th little chat with you guys here on Life in the Craft Lane ....... WOW! that's a lot of blogging!  Thank you for reading my crafty ramblings ..... I know some of you out there have ready every post, and commented on them too ...... thank you so much, it's nice to have you all with me.  Now that's something to SMILE about!

Thank you for popping by .... enjoy the rest of your day.

Cheerio until next time