CAS Mix Up is back!!!

Happy Friday .........

It's the weekend again.  

I mentioned a couple of days ago that something was happening in July.  Guess what, in case you haven't already heard .......... CAS Mix Up Challenge is back ..... yeah!!!

Can you believe it's been nearly 4 years since the last challenge, and I'm so happy that its back.  I do love a good Blog Challenge.  

I'm just a little bit excited too as Loll has asked me to be part of the DT again.  Thank you so much Loll, its a pleasure to be part of such a fabulous team.

Things are pretty much the same as they were with the challenge.

Each month will be a CAS Challenge, with a repeating three types of cardmaking ......

Mixed Media

Stenciling

Watercolouring

The challenge goes live on the 3rd of each month and runs until the end of the month, so plenty of time to play along and get your entries in.

There's a simple set of guidelines ......

and a monthly prompt to follow.

Loll is getting things started with a Mixed Media Challenge.

and the prompt is ........ ECLIPSE

I love this technique, and there's a few different ways to achive this look. 

For my first DT inspiration card I've used die cuts letters to 'eclipse' part of the sentiment.  I've cut the letters directly from my stamped image, once it had been coloured, and also cut them twice from plain white cardstock.  

I then inlayed one of the white die cuts back into my stamped image, remembering to use the bits from the coloured layer to inlay into the letters B, D and A to keep the bottom layer of the image complete.  I followed with another white layer on top, and then finished off with the coloured ones so that everything blends back in with the original image ...... I hope that all makes sense!

 

I love the dimension that this technique gives.

Some simple stamping completes the sentiment ......

and a little bit of gold splatter adds the finishing touch.

Here's another idea using the Eclipse technique .......  

This one is very CAS, and I've used my sentiment as the 'Eclipse' again.

I stamped and heat embossed the smiley face.  Coloured it using brush markers, and then die cut the word smile from the stamped image and twice again from white cardstock.

I inlaid one of the white die cuts into the smiley face, layered on the second one, and finished with the coloured one.

I stamped the sentiment underneath, and added a few gold splatters.  

Is it just me or, does it look like the face has ears, and a little tuft of hair on the top of his head .......... it made me smile anyway.

If you need more ideas, inspiration, or if this technique is new to you, then check out the 

CAS Mix Up Blog. 

 

There you'll find more inspiration from the Design Team, and our Guest Designer this month Michele (I Card Everyone).  You'll also find some useful links to videos showcasing the Eclipse technique, with lots of great tips on creating this look.

The challenge is open until the end of the month, so there's lots of time to play along.

I look forward to seeing you in the gallery.

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

Cheerio until next time .......

Card 1
Stamps ........ Floral Garden (Simon Says Stamp), Happy Happy Happy (Lawn Fawn)

Inks ......... Versafine Clair -Nocturne (my go to black ink)
Dies ........  Tall Alpha Die (Altenew)

Other ....... ZIG Watercolour Brush Pens, Winsor & Newton Drawing Ink - Gold

Card 2

Stamps ........ Keep Smiling -Visible Image, sentiment from an old Penny Black clear stamp set

Inks ......... Versafine Clair -Nocturne
Dies ........  Smile die 

Other ....... WOW Clear Embossing Powder, ZIG Watercolour Brush Pens, Winsor & Newton Drawing Ink - Gold

Happy Little Stampers ATC Challenge .......

Happy Sunday evening .......

Phew!  What a busy week it's been.  Time to chill out a little now as we start the countdown to our little family break in the Cotswolds at the end of this week ...... only 5 sleeps to go! Now that's something to smile about ..... which brings me nicely in to this month's Happy Little Stampers ATC Challenge .......

As you can see, our theme for June is ........ SMILE!  Go on ..... you can do it!
Maybe these will help .......

A fun set of ATC's simply covered in smiles.

I added colour to a piece of white cardstock by splattering different Distress Oxide inks using a paint brush ........ smoosh the ink onto a craft sheet, spritz with water, and then pick up the ink with a paintbrush and simply splatter it randomly over the card ..... easy.  Leave to dry for a few seconds in between colours so that the inks don't run into each other, and go all muddy.

I then cut three pieces to form the base of my ATCs.
The first one was simply a smiley face, stamped and heat embossed onto a piece of yellow card (coloured using Squeezed Lemonade DOX) and cut it out using a circle die

and a single word (from the HLS stamp set Smile) stamped underneath was all it needed.

Using the same stamp set I took one of the large words and heat embossed it in gold across the centre of my ATC

A few smileys stamped in Distress Oxide (Squeezed Lemonade again) and the rest of the sentiment stamped in black and that's another one done.
I did use the MISTI to stamp the smiley faces making sure I got good coverage, but I only needed to repeat each one a couple of times ....... the Distress Oxides  are great for stamping with.

For the last one I decided to add in a bit more colour ......

I stamped the little face using all the colours of Distress Oxides that I'd used for the background before adding the words over the top.

As with all the HLS challenges, there's a $20 Gift Certificate for the winner, which will be DOUBLED to $40 if they've used HLS stamps on their ATC's

Go on ..... give us a SMILE!

Happy stamping!

This is actually my last DT post for the Happy Little Stampers ATC challenge ...... I'm standing down from the Design Team (sigh!) 
I seem to have been saying that a lot this month don't I! ...... but I feel it's time for a change.  Time to re-charge the old mojo!  I will still be part of the HLS family though ..... you can still catch me every month on the CAS Challenge.  You don't get rid of me that easily.

Thanks for popping by .... enjoy the rest of your day, and have a great week.  Mine's going to be a busy one.

The Isle of Man 2018 TT is over and our little island will slowly get back to normal over the next few days.  Only 348 days until we do it all again though!

It's been an fabulous two weeks.  The weather has been perfect, blue skies everyday.  We had a royal visitor too ..... Prince William came over

Gary Barlow was also here at the beginning of the fortnight ..... enough said about that!
The Red Arrows flew in and gave a stunning display over Douglas Bay

The TT legend that is John McGuinness was here, still not fit to race but he did open up one of the beer pumps at the brand new Trackside, and pulled his first pint ..... cheers John!

I'm more of a gin girl as you all know, so lots of these have been consumed this last two weeks ......

And then there was the racing.  That has just been a-maz-ing!!!!  The riders have been reaching breathtaking speeds, and more lap records have been broken.  We only managed to watch the Senior race this year but what a race it was!
In the end Hickman won by 1.9 seconds in what was the fastest Isle of Man TT race with the first ever 135 mph lap ...... WOW!!!

And of course, our thoughts and prayers go out to all the family and friends of the two brave riders that sadly lost their lives this year.

The next thing on the calendar for us is the annual family trip ..... we're going back to Bourton this year and there's more of us this time, so a bigger cottage.  We leave on the Friday morning ferry so fingers crossed this weather holds.

Cheerio until next time ......

Follow your heart .......

Happy Sunday ......

I know ..... late again! Sorry ....... this moving house lark is playing with my blogging clock!
Normal service will resume shortly ..... I'm going to make a start on my craft room today!!

It's time for this month's Happy Little Stampers ATC Challenge and the theme for February is .....

Hearts

I've got some actual Artist Trading Cards for you today ..... not the wooden block kind like in my last two posts ......

ATC's .... in case you're not familiar with them, are little pieces of artwork, size 2.5 inches by 3.5 inches .... and they are so much fun to make.

This little set started out from a piece of previously coloured cardstock from my stash, coloured with Distress Inks and the smooshing technique ..... I think!
And I've used stamps, and die cuts along with a little heat embossing to decorate the ATC's 

This heart is from Visible Image ...... stamped directly on the ATC in black and heat embossed with clear powder.  I then stamped the heart  again onto white cardstock using a red ink and fussy cut away all the splatters around the edge.
The sentiment was then stamped and heat embossed on the top before layering the heart onto the ATC.

For this one I used a simple die cut heart balloon ..... and coloured it with red ink.  A few splatters of white ink add a bit more interest to the background.

Last but not least ..... a simple red heart stamped in the centre of the ATC (I did use the MISTI to get a nice deep coverage)  I doodled around the edge with a white gel pen and then heat embossed that fab sentiment from STAMPlorations over the top.
To finish off I doodled faux stitching around the ATCs and layered them all onto black cardstock.

As with all the Happy Little Stampers challenges there's a $20 Gift Certificate for the winner, which will be doubled if the winning ATC has been created using HLS stamps.

Happy stamping!

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

Cheerio until next time .....

Happy Birthday Lauren .........

Happy Wednesday to you ......

It's a special day today ...... it's Lauren's birthday! Is it really 26 years ...... how time flies.

Luckily I managed to find time to make her a birthday card ...... using a stamp I bought especially for the occasion!

The pretty lady is from Penny Black, and she's simply been stamped in black Versafine ink and then watercoloured using Distress Inks .......

I then stamped the daughter definition from Visible Image, across the bottom.  I used Gold Shimmer Delicata ink to stamp with and then added gold embossing powder just over the word daughter to make it stand out a little (not sure this really comes across well in the photo)

A few gold and silver ink splatters onto the background ......

Some sparkly sequins and a sentiment .......

And of course a little something on the inside ......

Same image, second generation stamping and of course those gold and silver splatters .....

Happy Birthday sweetheart ...... I think she'll be more interested with what's inside the card to be honest ..... a little bit of cash to spend on herself!

As this month's CAS Watercolour challenge has a Birthday theme, I thought I'd play along

Loll and the team have some gorgeous inspiration pieces on there and the gallery looks amazing .... why not join in the fun.

Thanks for popping by ..... enjoy the rest of your day.
As it's Lauren's birthday we're off out for a nice family lunch ......

We're off to Enzo's ..... Lauren hasn't been before so she's in for a treat.
It's a lovely little Italian restaurant, only 5 minutes walk from where we live.  The food is amazing, and I'm afraid Dry January has been put on hold for 24 hours ...... sigh! (and it was going so well) 

I was planning on having just one glass of wine at lunch time today (well it is Lauren's birthday) but ........ I actually gave in to temptation last night!!  Hubby opened a rather nice bottle of  Chianti and after the busy day I'd had, I couldn't resist.  I only had one glass though, plus a small top up.  It's not a completely dry January now ........ more like a bit damp!

Cheerio until next time ......

It's that Friday feeling again .......

Happy end of the week ......

Phew!! And what a fun, busy week it's been.

Let's get the weekend started though shall we.  It's the first Friday of the month and you know what that means .......  it's the Craft Stamper Challenge!

As always the theme is Anything Goes ....... so it's entirely up to you what you create.  Just make sure to include some rubber stamping on your project somewhere.

I've gone with the Christmas/Winter theme ..... surprise! surprise!  It's been quite the festive week here on the blog. 
I've used one of the brand new stamps from Visible Image ....... Snow is Falling  I love this large snowflake .........

The background is Distress Ink (Stormy Sky) smooshed over a piece of white cardstock.  I applied dots of masking fluid onto the card before doing the smooshing, and once the ink was dry I rubbed the masking fluid away to reveal dots of white .... the start of my snowy sky

I then used the smaller stamps from the set, with various colours of Distress Oxide inks, along with first and second generation stamping, to build up more layers and detail around the edges .......

Then came the heat embossing ....... some around the edges with the smaller snowflake and a sparkly white embossing powder, and the large snowflake in the centre to create my focal point

For this I used plain old white embossing powder and then added the sparkle over the top with some crystal glitter

To finish off, I stamped the words (which also come in the set ..... great value) onto a strip of vellum and heat embossed with Ranger's Liquid Platinum EP

Stamped and embossed one of the small snowflakes for a little more detail and added a touch more sparkle to the edges of the vellum using a quickie glue pen and crystal glitter.

I can't wait to see your projects in the gallery.

As always we have a challenge sponsor, and this month it's the fabulous rubber stamp company........ IndigoBlu

The prize for the challenge winner is an amazing THREE stamp sets ..... so get those crafty hats on!

There'll also be a Design Winner ..... chosen by the DT.  You .... could have your winning project published in the Craft Stamper magazine.

Speaking of the magazine the latest issue hits the shelves today or, if you're a subscriber then you've probably already received your copy

It's full of amazing projects this month ..... there's cards, mixed media, home decor and even a little something from Me!

Thanks for popping by ..... enjoy the rest of your day and have a lovely weekend.
I'm in the old craft room again today .... playing with ooops! I mean working with stencils and texture pastes and glitters and lots of fun stuff.
I'll be back later too ..... this month's blog challenges are still getting started.

Cheerio until next time ....