CAS Mix Up October reminder .......

Happy weekend .......

I hope you've had a lovely week.  

What's the weather like where you are?  We've definitely seen a change whilst we've been on our travels.  The temepratures have dropped and we've actually had some rain!

Autumn has arrived, which to be honest, I don't mind at all. 

 

We're currently back in the beautiful Lake District, for the last leg of our trip ...... only 2 more days left.

We're in Bowness on Windermere, and it's been lovely.  

a pretty October sunset

We've had a good wander around the town, been up to Windermere too, and had a couple of days catching up with family and friends which is always nice.  Too much good food and wine probably, but hey! ...... we are on holiday!!!  

Anyway, enough of what we've been up to.  The reason for the post is, a quick reminder of this month's CAS Mix Up Challenge ...... have you entered yet?

It's a Mixed Media Challenge using the Blackout Embossing technique ....... if you haven't tried this you need to give it a go.  It's super easy, and so much fun.  It's a different way of using your embossing folders too, which is always good.

I've gone a little festive for this card, well it is only about 70 days before the big day (I'm sure that's what is said on the blackboard in the Christmas Shop earlier! ........ yes, I have been in a few Christmas shops on our recent travels.  I can't resist looking for new baubles!)

For this card I used the Simon Says Stamp Embossing Folder ...... Holiday Greenery, which is a lovely all over winter foliage design.

On the debossed side of the cardstock,  I used blending brushes and various shades of green and red Distress Oxide inks to colour the design.  Remember, you don't have to get this perfect as you'll be covering over any colour on the top part with your black (or any other dark colour) ink

I then applied Black Soot Distress Oxide, direct from the ink pad, over the top.

I love the mat finish to the DOX inks, and the Black Soot gave great coverage.

I added a few dots of Glitter Glue to some of the berries, and finished off with white paint splatters

I cut the embossed piece down using a fancy stitched edge die, cut a piece of red cardstock using the same die, and then layered them together leaving a festive red border.

I then attached this to a white cardbase and stamped my sentinment underneath.

Another idea for using your Blackout Embossed panels, is to turn them into tags, either to use as they are or, add them to the front of a card.

This pretty embossed design is another Simon Says Stamp folder called Darcy Bouquet.

I used it on a previously coloured piece of card, which I found in my stash, and I think it was done with Distress Oxide inks,  swiped directly from the ink pad across a piece of white card .... so easy to do.

I cut the panel into a tag shape and added a knot of white ribbon to the top.  I then attached a die cut sentiment onto the actual tag, and finished with a few white paint splatters here and there .......

Luckily, I remembered that you must include some stamping for the CAS Mix Up Challenge, so I added that underneath (phew!).

I do think that maybe this card is pushing the CAS rules just a little bit but, I didn't want to loose any of the pretty embossed design so I didn't cut it down any.  Maybe next time.

The challenge is open until the 31st October so there's still plenty of time to join in.  

Go on ..... give Blackout Embossing a try!  

By the way, you don't have to use black ink to do this technique.  Check out the cards from the rest of the DT, some of them have used different colours to do the 'Blackout' part, and they look fab!!

Thanks for popping by ......... enjoy your weekend.

We start our journey home tomorrow, so we're having a nice lazy day today.  

We're on the Sunday afternoon boat so we should be back on the island early evening ...... I'm ready for getting home now!

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

Products used:

Card 1

Embossing Folder ........  Holiday Greenery - Simon Says Stamp

Inks .......  Distress Oxide Inks - Rustic Wilderness, Mowed Lawn, Peeled Paint, Festive Berries,

Black Soot:  Versafine Claire - Nocturne (to stamp the sentiment)

Other ...... Crystal Stickles Glitter Glue; Fresco Finish Chalk Paint - Snowflake (PaperArtsy)

Card 2

Embossing Folder .......  Darcy Bouquet - Simon Says Stamp

Inks ...... I think they were Distress Oxides in various shades of purple and blue; Versafine Claire - Nocture for the stamped sentiment.

Stamps ....... Julie Hickey Designs - Sweet Daisy

Other ....... Be Bold Alphabet Dies Upper & Lower Case - Spellbinders; Sentiment Starter dies - The Greetery;  Silver Chrome Pen;  Fresco Finish Chalk Paint - Snowflake (PaperArtsy); White ribbon

More Stenciling for CAS Mix Up ........

Happy Monday ........

I hope you had a lovely weekend.  We had family and friends round for a BBQ which was nice, and hubby did all the cooking, well most of it, which was even better!

I've got a little reminder for this month's CAS Mix Up Challenge for you today.  There's still 2 weeks left to get your entries in if you want to play along.

It's a Stencil challenge this month, and the added prompt is ........ Stenciling over Patterned Paper 

Patterned paper is not something that I use a lot of really, but this challenge has been fun.

I've rummaged through my bits boxes and found a few paper pieces and here are the results.

First up ...... a touch of pink

The paper is from the Mixed Media Compendium Paper Pad from Funky Fossil.  I love all the different shades of pink, and the grungy look with the little touches of blue on there.

I've used an old Sweet Poppy stencil over the top. I think it was called Cornflowers, but I couldn't find it on the website so I assume its been retired ..... sorry!

I used black Versafine Clair ink and applied it through the stencil using a sponge, building up the depth of colour gradually.

I added my sentiment using a die cut, coloured blue to bring out the blue already in the paper, and then heat embossed the word friend underneath.

To finish off the card I added a doodled frame around the edge using a black fine liner pen.

Next up, another piece of patterend paper from the same paper pad, just a different colour.  This has more of an Autumnal feel I think

Another Sweet Poppy Stencil used over the top (one of my all time favourites this one) ..... Wildflowers

(this must be retired too as it's not on the website)

I used Distress Oxide Inks this time, a mix of Unchartered Mariner and Villianous Potion.  I used a sponge to apply the inks again, and built up the depth of colour gradually.  

Applying the ink gradually means that you get a cleaner image, not as much risk of the ink bleeding under the stencil.  Takes a bit more time but, I think its worth it.

The sentiment was simply stamped in black and then die cut.

One type of paper I do like to use is book pages, I love text.  And, it makes a great background for stenciling over.

If you do use book pages, just be careful.  Give it a quick glance over first, to make sure there's nothing 'naughty' on there!

In fact, JOFY gave a great tip during one of her recent workshops ........ she likes to use foreign language books, they're not as easy to read, which I thought was a great idea.  Guess what I'm looking for next!!

Not sure where this page came from, but I think it's ok .......

This is a real CAS card.  A circle cut from an old book page, pretty flowers stenciled over the top, then I attached it onto a larger die cut circle (black card), and added a white die cut frame over the top.

A simple sentiment stamped underneath to finish it off.  I used my MISTI for the sentiment and shaped it to follow the edge of the circle.

If you are playing along with this months challenge, please remember to follow the simple guidelines, and keep your cards CAS (Clean and Simple).

Thanks for popping by, enjoy the rest of your week.

It's going to be a quiet one here, well as quiet as it can be.  The Manx Grand Prix started yesterday so it's motorbikes again.  The weather's not playing nice though.  We had rain yesterday (Sunday), so the racing had to be called off ....... not good!

Cheerio until next time .......

Products used

Card 1

Inks ...... Versafine Clair - Nocturne; Versamark Embossing ink, Tumbled Glass DOX (for the die cut)

Stencils ....... Cornflowers - Sweet Poppy (retired I think)

Others ...... Patterned paper; WOW Gold Superfine Embossing Powder, Small 'hello' cutting die, Black Fine Liner pen

Card 2

Inks ...... DOX Unchartered Mariner; Villianous Potion, Versafine Clair - Nocturne

Stencils ....... Sweet Poppy - Wildflowers

Stamps ....... Opposites Attract stamps and matching dies;

Others ...... Patterned paper; 

Card 3

Inks ....... DOX  - Picked Raspberry, Spiced Marmalade, Rustic Wilderness; Versafine Clair - Nocturne

Stencil .......  Imagination Crafts - Butterflyy & Daisy

Other ..... Old Book page; Circle Dies; Stitched Circle Frame Die; Sentiment from my stash

Pastel colours for Christmas .......

Happy Sunday .........

How is everyone?  I hope you're all enjoying your weekend.  The weather here is not very nice at all today but, it is November so I suppose its to be expected.

Speaking of November, I can't believe that we're heading for the middle of the month already ........ how did that happen!!!?  Christmas is only six weeks away (eeek!!) and all I've done so far is order the turkey, the wine.  I do have lots of lists though, and we are off to the Christmas markets soon so I'm sure that we'll be full of the festive spirit by then. 

I've also made a start on my Christmas cards ..... finally!  Last weekend was one of our crafty get togethers so it was the perfect opportunity.  More about those later.

Today, I'm playing along with the Color Hues Challenge

As you can see, the colours for this challenge are Light Blue & Purple ..... such a pretty combo.  And as I'm now in Christmas card mode then it had to be festive

I blended the blue and purple inks around the edges of my card ....... Tumbled Glass and Villainous Potion Distress Oxides, then splattered water over the top and let it sit for a few seconds, before mopping up the excess with a paper towel.

An old and simple technique that I never get tired of using!

I then stamped and heat embossed my sentiment across the centre of the card ...... Merry embossed in WOW's Gold Sparkle Embossing Powder

and then the extra words simply stamped using Versafine Clair Monarch (purple) ink

I stamped a few tiny accents around the sentiment using the Blue Oxide Ink, and finished off with dots of fine crystal glitter here and there for a little added sparkle.

I love large word stamps and this set was from Simon Says Stamp, last year I think.  It's called Holiday Sparkle Greetings ...... 4 large words (perfect for DL cards), along with lots of cute little accent stamps to create backgrounds and add sparkle. I believe there's also a matching set of dies which I don't have, maybe I'll have to  change that at some point!

As it's the first time this stamp set has been used (shame on me!), I'm also linking up to the NBUS Challenge

Thanks for popping by, enjoy the rest of your weekend.

I'm off now to decorate a Christmas tree ........ too early??   

We're away in a little over a weeks time, and we don't get home until December 5th, so I don't really want to leave them until then.

So, everywhere's been cleaned, furniture moved, and then last night all the decorations came out (the house looks like the day we moved in, there's boxes everywhere!) 

The first tree is up, the lights are on, and the angel is on the top.  Time to get those baubles out!

'Alexa, get the Christmas music on'

Cheerio until next time,