The CAS Mix Up challenge ..........

Happy Monday! .........

Welcome to a new week .... and a busy one at that!

Time for a quick reminder about this months CAS Mix Up Challenge.

It's a Mixed Media challenge this month which means you need to include some stamping on your card,  you must follow the challenge theme which for August is ........ Emboss Resist, and you must also include one other Mixed Media element ......... you can find a list of ideas for that on the CAS Mix Up Blog

 

The theme this month was chosen by our host Nancy, and is a really fun technique to try.

If you're not familiar with it and haven't tried this before, then check out the links on the CAS mix Up Blog post ..... there's a few different ways you can do this.

For this card I started by masking off the bottom section of my card front.  I then stamped the pretty floral design across the top using Versafine ink.  I then sprinkled on some white embossing powder and heat set. 

With the bottom part of my card still covered,  I blended Uncharted Mariner Distress Ink over the top of the heat embossing ....... I think this is my new favourite shade of blue!

Once I was happy with the colour, I gently buffed over the top of the embossing with a paper towel to remove any excess the ink from the design.  The embossing powder had resisted the Distress ink so the white  came through nice and bright again.

For a little bit of added interest I splattered the card with a little bit of clean water.  I let it sit for a few seconds to react with the Distress Ink then I mopped up the excess with a paper towel, leaving this pretty speckled look ...... I never get tired of doing this.  It's such a simple technique that works so well, every time.

I added part of my sentiment stamped and die cut on the top, finishing it off with some stamping underneath and a few little gemstones for a touch of added sparkle!

Here's another one I did using the same Emboss Resist technique, only this time I used watercolour paints over the top 

I heat embossed the flower first, then blended the watercolour paints over the top

The embossing did take on a little bit of the colour from the paints so it's not quite as white as I would have liked but, it still looks pretty

To keep it CAS I added a sentiment strip over the bottom edge and a few pretty gemstones

I do hope you give this technique a go. 

Happy stamping! 

Well the weather forecast here for yesterday was spot on ........ the heatwave definitely broke last night!  

At around 4am we had the most spectacular thunderstorm that lasted for the best part of an hour ..... and Lauren slept through it all!  Alex on the other hand ended up in our room!  

The lightening woke me up first before the huge crash of thunder, right over the top of us ..... boy was it loud, and scary!!  

And the rain ........ the gutters on the house just couldn't handle the amount of water coming down and there was literally a waterfall coming off the roof!  

We did get up to check around the house ..... and the van!  Thankfully no damage was done, apart from a couple of mains switches had tripped off, which meant some of the house was in darkness but, other than that everything was OK ..... thank goodness.  And things are a little cooler today which is great, I've still lots to do before we go away.

  

We're off in the van again on Wednesday, for our longest trip so far.  We're away for 17 nights this time,  starting with a music festival ...... should be fun!   

It's not just a pleasure trip though, it's business too.  Turns out that hubby needs to work for some of the time, including a day, or possibly more, in London.  Fingers crossed it stays nice and cool for that!

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

Cheerio until next time .........   

Supplies

Card 1

Stamps: Vines & Roses (Tim Holtz - CMS298); Opposites Attract (The Greetery) for the sentiment

Inks: Versamark ink; Distress Ink - Uncharted Mariner; Versafine Clair - Nocturne

Other: White Embossing Powder (WOW!); Oppostie Attracts Die (The Greetery); Self- adhesvie gemstones

Card 2

Stamps: Be Happy stamp set (Julie Hickey Designs)

Inks: Versamark ink; Versafine Clair - Nocturne

Other: White Embossing Powder (WOW!); Altenew Watercolour Paints; Self-adhesive gemstones

Welcome to July! ........

Happy Friday ......

I hope you've had a lovely week.  We're sadly coming to the end of our Scottish motorhome adventure.  Just one more night, then it's time to catch the ferry back to the Isle of Man, and start planning for the next trip ...... six and a bit weeks and counting!

Can you believe we're in July already ........ half way through 2022!!!!  My goodness ...... it'll be Christmas before we know it ....... just saying!

A new month means a new CAS Mix Up Challenge.  

I'm hosting this month, and it's the turn of the Watercolour Challenge, with an added little twist ......

 I would like you to use 'Things with Wings' on your cards, as well as using the watercolour element of the challenge 

Things with Wings could be anything from birds, butterflies, bees, to fairies or even aeroplanes. As long as it's got wings you'll be fine.  Keep your cards CAS (Clean and Simple) and remember to use watercolouring on there too.

Here's a couple of ideas for you, both using very easy watercolouring techniques .......

Choose your image and stamp using a water reactive coloured ink.  Distress Oxides for example, are perfect for this, they stamp beautifully and react so well with water.  

Use a wet paintbrush to gently pull some of the colour out from the outline, trying to keeping as much of the stamped detail as possible.

I used Distess Oxides for my card, stamped onto watercolour card ........ Scattered Straw, Picked Raspberry and Dried Marigold  

I then used a wet paintbrush to gently move the ink ...... I found the more water on your brush the more the colour seemed to move, so don't have the brush too wet.

  

If you would rather add more colour over the top of your stamped image instead of taking colour from the outline, let your stamping dry,  smoosh the inkpad onto a craft mat, spritz with water and then use a paintbrush to watercolour your stamped image ..... hope that makes sense!

Some of the original stamped detail will disappear a little, but this gives more of a watercoloured effect I think

I stamped a sentiment underneath my butterflies, and finished off with a few ink splatters from the same colours of Oxides, over the butterflies

This next technique is really quick and easy to do .......

I stamped the butterflies all over a piece of white watercolour cardstock using Versamark Ink, and then sprinkled them with white embossing powder and heat set.

Once the embossing powder had cooled I then spritzed the cardstock with water and used Altenew Watercolour Paints to add the colour.

I spritzed the paints with water before I started, to get them into a liquid, and then used a paintbrush to pick up the colour and drop it onto the wet watercolour cardstock.  The water on the card helps to move the colour around but I did sprtiz again to make sure the colours blended together nicely

Repeat the process until you're happy with the depth of colour.   Use a paper towel to mop up any excess ink and water, this will also clean off your heat embossing, letting your stamped images show through.  

I prefer to leave this to air dry but you could use a heat tool, just be careful not to over heat the embossing.

The sentiment was added in two parts ...... one stamped and die cut (I do love the font on this stamp set from The Greetery!) and the second part simply stamped on a snippet of card and attached underneath

Check out the CAS Mix Up Blog for more inspiration for this months challenge from the rest of the Design Team.  There's also links to some videos using watercolour techniques.

Happy stamping!

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

We've started our journey back to the Isle of Man today .... sigh!  

We had three lovely nights on Bunree Campsite. although the weather wasn't great.  I will share some pictures with you later.  

We really liked the site though, in fact we've already booked for next April.  I'm always ready for a trip to Scotland!

Tonight we're on a campsite called King Robert the Bruce's Cave Campsite in Kirkpatrick Flemming, not far from Lockerbie. Just the one night, then tomorrow we finish our drive to Heysham to catch the afternoon ferry back to the island.  Time to go home!

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

Card 1

Supplies

Stamps: Watercolor stamp set CMS 217 (Tim Holtz); Tiny Words (Simon Says Stamps) for the sentiment 

Inks: Distress Oxides -  Scattered Straw, Picked Raspberry, Dried Marigold; Versafine Clair - Nocturne (for the sentiment)

Other: Watercolour cardstock

Card 2

Supplies

Stamps: Antique Engravings (Hero Arts): Opposites Attract Sentiments (The Greetery)

Inks/Paints: Versamark ink; Versafine Clair - Nocturne for the sentiment

Other: White Embossing Powder (WOW!); Opposites Atttract Matching Sentiment Dies (The Greetery)

CAS Christmas Challenge ........

Good morning ....... Happy Friday!

How have you all been?  

We're settling into the new place nicely.  there's still a few jobs that need doing ...... hot tub needs connecting and we're STILL waiting for the internet!!!    I mean, how difficult can this be!!! I'm not really sure what the problem is.  Apparently, there's internet already at the property, we've had the necessary tech equipment delivered, all they need to do is flip a switch at their end, which I'm told could take 7 to 10 days, or longer!!!!  It's driving me crazy ........ you don't realise how much you use the internet these days.

Anyway, enough of all that.  We're out in the van for a couple of nights, having a change of scenery ....

We're down in Port Erin again, and guess what ...... the internet here is great so I thought I'd make the most of it!

I wanted to play along with this month's CAS Christmas Challenge ...... yes, the craft room is almost sorted and I managed to spend a little bit of time in there this week.

The theme is Decorations ...... and you all know how I love my Christmas baubles, so I had to play along.

I used the Baubles stamp set from Pink Ink Designs, and simply stamped the images onto my card using a black ink.

I then used a mix of watercolour paints and metallic ink to add just a touch of colour to the baubles

A few gold ink splatters and some dots of glitter here and there give a nice festive sparkle

I added a sentiment ......

And finished with a gel pen to 'hang' the baubles

I think I read somewhere that it's only 19 weeks until Christmas ..... eeek! how did that happen!?

I need to start thinking about where the tree will go in the new house!

No more festive thoughts today though ....... it's a lovely here, and the locals are not too bad

We're off for a stroll in the sunshine now, and an early lunch I think.

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

Cheerio until next time .......

 

Products used:

Stamps:  Baubles (Christmas Series) - Pink Ink Designs; Sentiment from my stash

Inks: Versafine Clair - Nocturne; Delicata - Golden Glitz

Others: Watercolour paints (Altenew); Quickie Glue Pen; Fine crystal glitter; Clear Stardust Gel Pen

The Happy Little Stampers CAS Challenge .......

Happy weekend ......

I hope you're having a good one. 
It's time to get this month's Happy Little Stampers CAS Challenge underway.

The theme for March is ..... Special Day.  
Now that could be anything I suppose ...... a birthday, an anniversary, a wedding day.  A new arrival maybe.  Hmmm ...... what would your special day be?

My inspiration piece is very feminine, and I think it could be used for most of the occasions I've mentioned above, depending on the greeting you put inside.  This has ended up as a birthday card, I need a few of those this month!

I simply stamped the pretty floral spray, which is from Simon Says Stamp, and heat embossed it in gold .....

I then used watercolour paints to add the colour.

A pretty Penny Black sentiment on the front, and a few tiny dots of glitter glue for extra sparkle.

And I continued the design on the inside too .....

Now it's over to you. 
Here's a little reminder of what we (Happy Little Stampers) class as Clean and Simple

Happy Stamping! See you in the gallery perhaps.

Thanks for popping by ..... enjoy the rest of the weekend.
We've had a lovely day today.  Started off with a spot of food shopping in one of my favourite little places down in Castletown .... the Italian Kitchen
I needed to restock my Italian coffee, and the best pasta, and parmesan cheese ever!!! Plus there's delicious gelato too, some of which has found it's way into our freezer, funny that! 
And there's no need to bother with a birthday cake on Tuesday now,  because I have these .......

Real Italian pastries ....... yummee! 
The little man has already made a start on these ..... the chocolate cannolis are his favourite.
I also got treated to lunch out at a lovely new tea room/cafe that opened this week ..... let the birthday celebrations begin!

Cheerio until next time .....

Happy Little Stampers CAS challenge ......

Happy Saturday evening ......

I hope you're enjoying your weekend.

It's time to get February's Happy Little Stampers CAS Challenge underway.
We've got a great theme for you this month .... Friends

We were out with a bunch of friends last night ...... great food, nice wine, good times.  The perfect way to start the weekend.
I think my card says it all ........

I've used the new Squishy Cats stamp from Stamping Bella, coloured with ZIG markers and a waterbrush

The sentiment is from Polar Bear Pals by My Favourite Things stamped in a gold metallic ink

And I added a few dots of Liquid Pearls to finish off ...... very CAS!

Happy stamping!

Thanks for popping by ...... enjoy the rest of your day.
We're having a cosy night in tonight.  A delicious steak dinner, followed by an evening curled up in front of the TV I think ...... there's been too many late nights recently!

Cheerio until next time ......