Paper piecing for CAS Mix Up .......

Happy Thursday ........

We've reached the middle of April already ....... time to give you a little reminder about this month's CAS Mix Up Challenge.

I'm hosting this month, and the theme I've chosen is ..... Paper Piecing 

We've had some fabulous entries into the gallery already but there's still plenty of time left if you'd like to play along.

Paper Piecing is a really fun way of adding colour to your stamped images.  Quick to do, and it's a great way of using up all those off cuts of patterned papers that we all have in our stash.

I've been playing with some JOFY stamps recently ...... nice large images, perfect for paper piecing.

I love this pretty floral design, I think there's so many ways you could use this stamp.

Using a black ink, I stamped the image first onto my card blank, again onto a scrap of patterned paper, and also onto an old book page.

I then chose parts of the image to paper piece ........ the large flower from the patterned paper

I used the book page pieces to add some extra detail here and there, and then coloured in the rest of the image using coloured pencils 

Flowers will always work well with the paper piecing technique but, you can paper piece any stamped image.  How cute does this look ......

This set is from the JOFY new release ....... I love her!!

I stamped the background, watercoloured with ZIG markers and then added a few pink and gold splatters.

I stamped the little geisha girl onto a separate piece of white card and fussy cut around her.  

I coloured her hair and face using pencils and paper pieced her little kimono, adding in some detail with coloured gel pens

I even paper pieced her little top knot to match

She was attached with foam pads for dimension, and I finished with one of the sentiments from the stamp set

Just think, this little one could have a whole wardrobe of pretty kimonos ....... it's like playing with paper dolls all over again!

Don't forget to check out the CAS Mix Up Blog for more inspiration ideas from the Design Team, they've all been having fun with this challenge.

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

Cheerio until next time ........

Products used:

Card 1

Stamps: JOFY 96

Inks: Versafine Clair - Nocturne; Distress Oxide Ink - Seedless preserve (for the sentiment)

Other: Faber Castel Polychromos Pencils; Patterned paper and book pages from my stash; Gem stones

Card 2

Stamps: JOFY 100

Inks: Versafine Clair - Nocturne; Delicata - Golden Glitz(for the splatter)

Other: Patterned paper from my stash; Faber Castel Polychromos Pencils; IG Clean Color Brush Markers, Coloured Gel Pens

Perfectly CAS Challenge #14 .......

Happy Wednesday ........

I hope you're enjoying your week.  It's been lovely here so far, Spring has finally arrived.  

The BBQ is back in action, the hot tub is up and running .... and the grass is growing!  Guess what I'll be doing later in the week!

It's time now though to get the next Perfectly CAS challenge underway.  It's challenge #14 and the theme this time is ...... WINGS

Before I share some inspiration, a quick reminder about the rules for this challenge.  We've noticed a few entries recently that don't quite fit the bill.  The main requirement for Perfectly CAS is ........ that you only use one third of your card space, or less. 

 

So, what is Clean and Simple (CAS)?   For me it's .........

• one main focal point
• Lots of white space
• minimal layers
• minimal embellishments

Of course one persons idea of CAS can be completely different to the next but, if you stick to using just one third of your card space you can't really go wrong.  Your cards will always be Perfectly CAS.

Check out the grid below ......

Divide your card space into thirds, use just one row/column and leave the other two blank ....... easy!   

Using my MISTI, I stamped the bee not quite in the centre of my card.  

With the card still in my MISTI ....... and I didn't remove the stamp ...... I added a touch of colour to the bee using Prismacolour pencils.  Because I hadn't removed the stamp, or my card, it was easy to re-stamped the image over the top of the pencil crayon, to put all the detail back in again

A tiny sentiment underneath and the card is done!

When using the one third rule, you don't have spend time measuring and getting everything exact ....... if you go over just a little bit that's fine.  

If you see below, my ink splatters have gone outside of my chosen third, but the overall design is still very CAS.  Splattering ink is not always easy to control!  I suppose I could have covered it up but, I didn't ...... oh well! 

You don't always have to use small stamps to create CAS cards ....... my favourite butterfly was a little too big to use in full so, I just stamped it off the edge

Smooshed some Distress Inks over the top and added in the splatters ......

I added a bit more colour with some coloured pencils, and a few gold highlights here and there, before finishing off with my sentiment.

Happy stamping!

Thanks for popping by .... enjoy the rest of your day.

Our little island is preparing to get back to some sort of normality.

Fingers crossed, we're hoping that from next Monday most, if not all of our current restrictions can be lifted ...... except for the borders I think.  We'll know more tomorrow but,  the kids will all be back at school on Monday ..... thank goodness.  Non-essential shops can open up again ........ yeah! and I believe that the hospitality trade will be back ..... whoo hoo!!   We've already booked a table at our favourite restaurant for Wednesday, so we're hoping for good news!  I'll keep you posted.

Cheerio until next time ......

Products used:

Card 1

Stamps: Queen Bee Mini (IndigoBlu); Warrior (Tracey Hey) for the sentiment

Inks: Versafine Clair - Nocturne

Other: Prismacolor pencils 

Card 2

Stamps: Perspective (Tim Holtz); Tiny Words (SSS)

Inks: Versafine Clair - Nocturne; Distress Ink - Kitsch Flamingo, Cracked Pistachio

Other: Prismacolor pencils;  Gold gel pen

I do love a rainbow .......

Happy weekend .......

I couldn't resist playing along with this months CAS Christmas Challenge, they have such a fun theme going on for April ........

I do love a rainbow but, I must confess I've never thought about using all those colours on a Christmas card .......... but hey! don't they look fab.

This is definitely Merry & Bright!  And it was so easy to do.

I cut myself a simple mask from a piece of copy paper to cover the bottom half of my card.  With this in place I then used various colours of Distress Ink, and the tall triangle aperture stencil from Sweet Poppy, to create the line of rainbow trees.

The stencil is quite a large aperture as a whole, I only used the top part and varied the height slightly as I went along the card ......

I stamped my sentiment underneath in a gold ink .......

and added some sparkle with a touch of fine crystal glitter along the tree line.  

A tiny star on top of one of the trees finishes off the card ......

What a fun theme .... I love it!

I've also got a little more inspiration for April's CAS Mix Up challenge.  I'm hosting this month, and the theme I've chosen is ........  Paper Piecing

This is such a fun technique, especially if you're not a fan of colouring in.  

OK a bit of fussy cutting is required, and I know that's not everyone's favourite thing to do but, if you keep your images simple then cutting them out isn't going to take that long.  And just think of all those bits of patterned papers you can use up!

I like to use old book pages to paper piece, I think the text gives a little more interest to your designs.

I brushed some colour onto my background using Distress Ink ..... I smooshed the colour onto a craft mat first, spritzed with water and then used a paint brush.

To give a bit more interest I added another layer of ink, this time using a piece of acetate to pick up droplets of ink from my craft sheet and then smooshed them onto my card.

I then stamped the single poppy onto the inked background, coloured the stem with a ZIG Marker and paper pieced the head of the flower .....

I used two sentiment stamps to complete the card .... one heat embossed in gold,the other simply stamped in black

Both challenges are open until the 24th of the month so if you fancy playing along with either, or both, of them there's still lots of time.

Thanks for popping by ...... enjoy the rest of your day and have a lovely weekend.

Remember the yacht I told you about sitting in Douglas Bay well, it's still there.  Lauren and I were out and about yesterday ...... we had a little trip to the garden centre now that they're open again, so we decided to drive along the prom and take a look at this boat.

OMG!  it's BIG!!!!

We managed to park somewhere quiet and take a few photos .......

It's really hard to appreciate the size of it as there's nothing else in the bay to compare it to, but trust me, it's huge!  I bet when those sails are up it looks amazing.

It did look nice in the sunshine though .......

It's the Grand National at Aintree this weekend.  I'm not normally a horse racing person but, there's something about the National.   

One of the runners is owned by a guy on the island so it would be rude not to have a flutter now wouldn't it. Trouble is, I can't win an argument never mind a bet on a horse race ..... wish me luck!

Cheerio until next time ......... 

Products used:

CAS Christmas

Stamps: sentiment was from Uniko but I think its now retired 

Inks: Distress Inks - Festive Berries, Spiced Marmalade, Mustard Seed, Mowed Lawn, Tumbled Glass, Picked Raspberry, Wilted Violet, Broken China, Cracked Pistachio, Kitsch Flamingo; Delicata - Golden Glitz

Other: Tall Aperture Stencil (Sweet Poppy); Fine Crystal Glitter; Quickie Glue Pen

CAS Mix Up

Stamps: Happy Watercolor (Stampin Up!) for the flower; Sentiment Collection, Heartfelt (Penny Black)

Inks: Distress Ink - Festive Berries; Versafine Clair - Nocturne; Versamark

Other: ZIG Clean Color Brush Marker (for the stem); Gold embossing Powder (WOW!)

Did somebody say cake? ........

Happy Wednesday ......

I hope you had a lovely Easter weekend ....... for once I didn't eat my body weight in chocolate eggs!! Too busy in the craft room trying to find my mojo instead.

I'm playing along with the AAA Cards Clean and Simple Challenge again.  It's game #187 and the challenge is ........ to use Two Quarters of your card. 

I hope this fits the bill .......

I've used the top two quarters and stamped the cute little monster in each one ....... don't think it quite meets with the optional twist though

I've stamped them both off the edge, one each side keeping plenty of white space in the middle, and I used Distress Inks and ZIG markers to add the colour

I added a strip of washi tape across the bottom, and a touch of shading with Distress ink to sort of ground the little guys,  and finished off my card with a fun sentiment.

We've had snow here on the island the last couple of days.  In fact, over the Easter weekend we've had weather for all four season's of the year!!  The Isle of Man weather is changeable if nothing else! 

The end of last week we thought Spring had definitely arrived.  The sun was here, and it was warming up nicely.  We took full advantage and mowed the lawns, pressure washed the patio and got the garden furniture out. We cleaned the barbeque, and even filled the hot tub! 

Saturday/Sunday we thought summer had arrived.  Glorious sunshine and it was warm.   We had a lovely, socially distanced of course, get together with the rest of the family, now that we're allowed gatherings of up to 10 people outside, and we enjoyed our first barbeque of the year.

Glad we made the most of it when we did ..... what a difference on Monday.  It was sooo cold, it felt like winter again.  The wind was howling, and the snow came on Tuesday.  Thankfully it didn't stick around.  We had some today but again it disappeared as fast as it came.  We just need the temperature to go back up now.  Don't think we'll be using the hot tub again just yet ....... brrrrrrr!!

Another bit of excitement over the weekend was ....... the world's largest sailing yacht has been sat in Douglas Bay ........

                                       (photo taken from Facebook ....... Isle of Man by Drone)

Apparently it's owned by a Russian billionaire, cost an absolute fortune, and it is HUGE!!!  I think it's been sheltering from the weather but, who knows!  The can't come onto the island as our borders are still closed!

                                       (photo taken from Facebook ....... Isle of Man by Drone)

                                        (photo take from Facebook ....... Isle of Man by Drone)

Just to get a sense of scale of the yacht ...... look at the guy checking the mast!!!!!  This thing is huge!!!

Thanks to Isle of Man by Drone for the photos ...... hope they don't mind me taking them from Facebook!

Thanks for popping by ..... enjoy the rest of your day.

Cheerio until next time ......

Products used:

Stamps: Monster Love (Concord & 9th); Birthday Messages (Mama Elephant)

Inks: Versafine /Clair - Nocturne; Distress Inks - Salty Ocean, Spiced Marmalade, Mustard Seed

Other: ZIG clean Color Brush Markers; Washi tape from my stash