Mid month reminder for the CAS Mix Up challenge .......

Happy Sunday evening ........

I hope you're enjoying your weekend.

Can you believe it's the middle of November already ...... only five more weekends to go before Christmas!!!  I've still got all my Christmas cards to make ..... guess what I'll be doing next week!

As we're mid way through the month it's time to remind you about November's CAS Mix Up Challenge ...... it's the last one of the year!

It's a Watercolour challenge, that means watercolouring must be the main element on your design. 

Bonnie is our host and the theme she's chosen is ...... Off the Edge, one of my favourite looks.

This is a great technique for using larger stamps on smaller cards.

This is one festive design that I'll be making more of, I love how this has turned out. 

I used the gorgeous wreath from the Memory Box stamp set ..... Tidings Wreath.  It's quite a large stamp but I think it fits beautifully, just off the edge of a 7x5 inch card, and there's still room to get a sentiment on there too.

I stamped the wreath in Versamark ink and then heat embossed in gold.  

I know I say this every time but, heat embossing really does make it easier when watercoloring stamped images, especially when using metallic or pearlescent paints like I've done here.  

The raised edges from the heat embossing help to stop the colour from bleeding outside the lines, and it acts as a resist to the paint so that you still get those nice crisp lines and keep the detail of your stamped image.

I used LuminArte's Twinkling H2O's to colour the wreath.  Remember those beauties ....... little pots of  solid, high pigment paints, with added mica, and when you spritz with water and mix they become these gorgeous, rich in colour and very sparkly watercolour paints, and they work so well on black cardstock!

I added a simple heat embossed greeting on the bottom and the card was done.

As I said, I'll be making more of these!

The challenge is open until the 24th of November so there's still time to play along ...... it's your last chance for this year! 

It's been great seeing all your CAS Mix Up designs during 2020 and I look forward to seeing you all again in 2021!

Happy stamping! 

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

It's been all go here this weekend, getting Lauren and the little man settled in.  We're getting there .....  slowly!  

To make room for everything I've had to empty a few wardrobes and cupboards and oh dear, guess what's had to come out .... the Christmas decorations!

I'm afraid this happened over the weekend ....... oooops!  Our festive season has started a little early ...... Ho! Ho! Ho! (we haven't even had the lights switch on in town yet!)

Well, I didn't see any point in putting all the boxes away again.  To be honest, I haven't figured out where they're all going to go, so .......... this is as far as I've got, the conservatory tree is up, the lights are on and I have a hot date with Mr Buble and the baubles to look forward to next week ....... as well as making Christmas cards!!  

We're off out for a well deserved dinner this evening, and it's Chris's girlfriends birthday too so another reason to celebrate.

Cheerio until next time .......

Products used:

Stamps: Tidings Wreath (Memory Box); Mixed Christmas Sentiments (retired set from Happy Little Stampers) 

Inks & Paints: Versamark ink; LuminArte Twinkling H2Os - Mallard Green, Douglas Fir; Cosmic Shimmer  Iridescent Watercolour Paint - Red

Others: Gold Detail Embossing Powder (WOW!)