Sending Love and Prayers

Hello, crafting friends!

 

Welcome to the Tic Tac Toe challenge where Betty is inspiring you today with a fabulously versatile board:

 

 

I went with the centre column, Die Cuts/Free/Any Sentiment, and made a card for a friend who is struggling with health issues.

 

Isn't it fun to bring out a stamp set you haven't used for a long time! Here, I used the retired Banners For You  by Stampin' Up. To begin, I masked off the edges on a thick card base with low tack tape, then used leaves and flowers and berries from the stamp set to create a background pattern. With the tape still in place, I gently sponged a blue-green ink from the edges inwards. After adding dots of white acrylic paint to the berries, and stalks with a fineliner pen, I removed the tape.

 

To create the label, I stamped a sentiment onto an offcut of white card, then trimmed it to size with a nesting label die making sure I kept the sentiment in the top half. I then stamped a leafy stem and flower using the same colours as the background and fussy cut it. The flower was popped up with small pieces of dimensional tape and the label attached to the card front.

 

Okay, now it's your turn! Head over to the Tic Tac Toe Challenge and check out all the amazing inspiration there; choose your row, column or diagonal from the board and make a card using the suggestions; share it with us using the blue Linky button at the bottom of the challenge post. We can't wait to see what you make!

CHALLENGES

I used the red and green colours from Color Hues for this card, so I'm linking up there. The all-over pattern at Beautiful Blossoms also inspired me so I'm joining in there too.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Life seems to have a bit of a cake theme at the moment! There are lots of events going on and I have been baking cakes for each of them; also a lovely friend, taking pity on my stressiness, whisked me out for an early coffee yesterday and made me* eat a scone with clotted cream and strawberry jam for breakfast! Verdict? Ten out of ten, would recommend as a top breakfast!

 

*I may not have put up much of a fight!

Sending hugs,

Nostalgic thoughts

Hello, crafting friends!

 

The golden girls and I went on a slightly earlier walk yesterday, mainly because I had one eye on the weather forecast... Sadly, we have had to say goodbye to The Tropics and embrace welly weather again. But that's okay! It gave me the perfect opportunity to abandon the allotment and have a little inky play.

 

With this card I have wandered quite some distance from Comfort Zone Central and ended up in Vintage Village, which is uncharted territory for me! But sometimes it's fun to challenge yourself isn't it :) I imagined overlapping letters, so I masked areas off on a panel and sponged pale brown ink over the edges before stamping them with script stamps from The Greetery's Pretty Postmarks. The panel was trimmed to size with a stitched rectangle die and, for a bit of detail, I cut the centre of the panel out with a label die before replacing it.

 

 

Once the background was glued to my card front, I created a little focal cluster on my letters using a stamp image and postage marks from the Pretty Postmarks set. I topped this with a gorgeous old-fashioned rose from Fleur Impressions, also from The Greetery, stamped and cut out. I added some tiny pearls too for extra prettiness!

 

The sentiment is from a Dovecraft set that I thought would be perfect for this vintage look! I stamped it in brown ink and coloured the little butterfly with a pale pink marker. When I glued it on the panel I left a little bit unglued and curled it up a little.

CHALLENGES

This card was inspired by We Love Stamping where Lynn's challenge for May is anything stamped goes with an optional twist of Vintage. I'm also whisking this card over to Allsorts where huge congratulations are in order as the challenge celebrates its 15th birthday this week! There are amazing prizes, so do come and join in :) 

And talking of 15th birthdays, next month will actually be We Love Stamping's 15th birthday too so save the date for a special celebration there too!

 

AND IN OTHER NEWS

The temperatures may have dropped but there's no need to worry about chilly toes in my house...

 

 

... as the built-in foot warmers are working perfectly! Thanks Eva!

Sending hugs,

Peace and Goodwill

Hello, crafting friends!

 

What a chilly old spring it's been this year! When you have to reach for a woolly throw most evenings and can't imagine what short-sleeved tops and flip flops are doing in your wardrobe, there really isn't any difficulty making festive cards! Here's one I rustled up earlier:

 

This has become a 'go to' recipe for a Christmas card for me - a sentiment label on a DSP background, embellished with foliage and berries. I trimmed a piece of Simple Stories designer paper with a stitched rectangle die from Heffy Doodle and glued it to a card front. The sentiment is from Stampin' Up's Hope and Peace and was stamped and heat embossed in red, then cut out with a label die from The Works. I popped this up on dimensional pads.

 

The foliage dies are from The Greetery and Flora and Fauna and I also used some unbranded holly dies. The die cuts were sponged with green inks except the berry branches which I left white. Everything was glued into place and I finished with some lovely shiny enamel dots.

CHALLENGES

Linda has an intriguing sketch at Freshly Made Sketches this week which I used for this card; I'm also linking up with Peace on Earth which inspired me with another of their gorgeous mood boards; also the Anything Christmas Goes challenge at Rudolph Days where you can link up until the end of the month.

 

AND IN OTHER NEWS

It's been good to have a bit of time to craft this weekend. The chilly weather has made me glad to get in from our walks and the golden girls are happy to settle down for a bit of serious napping while I create piles of papers, inks and dies all over the living room! 

 

Here's Eva being queen of the sofa! Of course it's important to keep one eye half open in case mum goes to the fridge for cheese!!

I hope you're enjoying your weekend :) Sending hugs,

Celebration in the playground!

Hello, crafting friends!

 

There's a new challenge starting in The Snippets Playground today - and it's a special one: Miss Di has been mistress of the playground for 12 jolly years! To celebrate her amazing milestone, Head Prefect Sarn would like to see us submit homework using snippets as usual but with an extra theme this time of Celebration.

 

Well that's easy - who better to celebrate than Miss Di herself and how better to celebrate than with a card made just with dies?! We all know that Miss loves the colour pink so I had a rummage through my pink snippets folder and brought out a new die, Woven Cane from The Greetery. I don't know what got into me getting this folder as I'm not blessed with a great deal of patience and of course it needed all the little bits poking out, not to mention trimming to size as it's designed for an American A2 card size - AND I couldn't find any double sided adhesive sheets so had to use glue!! I do love the look of it in pale pink layered over a darker pink though and am already thinking of other colour combinations :)

 

Then came more die cutting and a bit of punching! I'd saved a piece of gold foil gift wrap from Christmas which I glued to a snippet of white card. From this gold piece, I cut the letters to spell 'celebrate' using The Greetery's Slim Alphabet dies and some stars using a retired Stampin' Up punch. I punched more stars out of a dark pink snippet, as well as a die cut 'you', and finally cut a stitched label out of another white snippet. Once everything was cut, I arranged everything on the label and attached it to the background with dimensional pads.

 

I added one more touch: a jade green enamel heart, as a disruptor colour, but also as a nod to our lovely Jules who ran the playground before Di, and who always incorporates a heart in her designs!

 

Here are the snippets I used this time - gold foil gift wrap, a spoilt card base, pink snippets :)

CHALLENGES

I'm off to the Snippets Playground with some champagne and my homework; I'm also dropping in on Darnell at the NBUS Challange as my Greetery die is Never Before Used Schtuff.

 

AND IN OTHER NEWS

There are so many bugs going around at the moment and I'm sad to say my Dogmobile has succumbed! I tried to start it last week and there was a lot of coughing and spluttering but not a great deal of action, so it had to be sent off to the garage to be fitted with a new battery! But MUCH worse is this little poorly pudding:

 

Poor Lulu has cut one of her pads. She keeps telling me she's PERFECTLY okay and is there any chance of going out hunting rabbits? But I'm afraid she has to be rested and the paw bandaged for protection. She can go out for very short walks, but only on soft grass, and must be kept on lead so she doesn't rampage about. It's been a week so far and it's probably going to take at least another week to heal. She hates being left at home when I walk Eva but I am playing games and doing loads of training with her so she doesn't go completely crazy.

 

Hope your 2024 has kicked off better than ours!

 

Sending hugs,

Cast your cares on Him

Hello, crafting friends!

 

Fancy a game of crafty Tic Tac Toe? Well, it's a Tic Tac Toe Challenge Thursday today and it's my turn to come up with a board to inspire you 8 different ways:

 

 

I hope I've instantly got you rummaging through your craft stash with some of these ideas! For my card, I used the left hand column, Leaves/Autumn Colours/Twine, and a colour scheme inspired by a pair of shoes (see And in Other News below for more on this!)

 

I started by cutting a frame using a stitched rectangle and a label die. The sentiment from The Greetery's Comforting Commands was stamped directly onto a card base and the frame popped up on dimensional strips to create a shadow box effect. I was then ready to decorate this with leaves and berries from The Greetery's Berry Branch stencil.

I sponged warm brown and burgundy inks into the leaves, adding detail with markers, then stenciled the berries using just markers. Then came the tricky bit: fussy cutting everything! I must look and see if there is a coordinating die because it was quite fiddly, but I love the way the leaves and berries turned out. I arranged a few of the leaves above the sentiment and a larger cluster, tied up with twine, below it.

 

Okay, so now it's your turn to pick a line from the board! My team mates have pulled out all the stops to inspire you with their gorgeous makes, so do hop over to the Tic Tac Toe Challenge website to check them out. You'll find the Linky Tool at the bottom of the post and can use it to share your own creation with us. Have fun won't you - I can't wait to see what you make!

CHALLENGES

This card was based on Amy's fabulous sketch at Freshly Made Sketches so I'll link up there; I used stencils to create my berry and leaf clusters so will also enter this at the Stencil Fun Challenge and Happy Little Stampers where Anything Stenciled Goes; I'm also joining in at Make My Monday which has an Autumn Colours challenge going on. 

AND IN OTHER NEWS

My husband and I had a look in the Next sale for some bargains a couple of weekends ago. He didn't find anything but I found a sturdy pair of shoes which I thought would be useful for walking the dogs. I loved the colours on them! 

 

When my eldest son came in from work, he saw them and picked them up and examined them. "Whose are these?" he asked. I told him I had found them at Next and he raised his eyebrows and told me they looked just like Gucci shoes. I informed him roundly that no-one in their right mind would imagine they were Gucci shoes when paired with my old tracky bottoms and anorak and while walking the dogs in the wind and rain!

Sending hugs,

Love and Sunshine

Hello, crafting friends!

 

It's an Addicted to CAS Saturday today! Thank you to all of you who joined in with my Leaves challenge last time - it was so hard to choose a winner among such gorgeous entries! Today Helen has chosen a fab new Code Word:

 

You might be inspired by a summer holiday but remember that there are cards to make for Other Holidays later in the year that you may be wanting to crack on with...! Despite my stay by the sea back in June, I am still yearning for walks on the beach and the sound of gulls so I came up with this:

 

To create this card, I sponged in a simple background using handmade sticky note masks. The sentiment was stamped over the top and the scene cut out with a label die from The Works. The label was then attached to a card base.

There's a nice sized seagull in the set as well as some shells.

 

I stamped them all in pale blue ink and coloured them quickly with coloured pencils, cut them out and mounted them onto the card front. To finish, I added touches of white acrylic paint pen to the shoreline and a little Wink of Stella.

Okay, so now it's your turn! How does our Code Word inspire you? Do hop over to the Addicted to CAS blog to see all the amazing inspiration from my team mates. You'll find the Linky Tool at the bottom of the post and can use it to share your own creation with us. Don't forget to keep your card nice and Clean and Simple with plenty of clear space, but above all, have fun!

 

CHALLENGES

I'm linking this card up at As You See It where the theme is At The Beach; At Festive Friday they're celebrating National Beach Day, so I'm joining in there too with Sea, Sand and Shells from the list; I've finally managed to join in at Stamping Sensations too, where the mood board features a beach as well as a blue and yellow colour palette; And, as it's the first outing for this stamp set, I'm sharing at Darnell's NBUS challenge.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Eva is missing the beach too. She loves to run on the huge expanses of sand and is happy to paddle in the shallows - although if there are big waves she barks at them and warns us to get back!

 

Her favourite beach moment this year was finding a dead seal. I didn't realise what it was at first but soon became alerted by the fact that she was making a beeline for it in a very focused way. I legged it off in hot pursuit but naturally she got there first. She did hear my agitated shouts though and was thoughtful enough not to roll in the corpse, contenting herself with a quick wee on it instead. If you are thinking about getting a dog, here is my top tip: Do not get one unless you have a strong stomach!!

Sending hugs,

Sparkle berries

Hello, crafting friends!

 

Welcome to another Thursday of Tic Tac Toe fun! Elizabeth has come up with a wonderful board to inspire you this week:

 

Lots of options there - especially if, like me, you are frantically trying to get a whole stash of festive cards made! I've chosen the middle column Red/Sparkle/Hollyy to create this one.

 

I started by trimming a card panel so that it was slightly smaller than my card base, then cutting the centre out with a decorative stitched label die and replacing it to create a stitched frame. The pine branch from Uniko's Winter Foliage stamp set was stamped directly onto the panel and I added holly from the same set, stamped and cut out.

 

The sentiment is put together from different sets from The Greetery and from Stampin' Up and I stamped it in a dark red and a pink for an illusion of dimension. The berries were the final addition, cut out of lovely, sparkly, bright red paper using two sizes of circle punch.

So now it's your turn! Which column or row will you choose? Or will you opt for one of the diagonals? Do hop over to the Tic Tac Toe challenge site to check out the fab samples Team X has made to inspire you. You'll find the Linky Tool at the bottom of the post and you can use it to share your own creation with us. We can't wait to see what you make!

CHALLENGES

I thought I'd pop a second entry in at Allsorts where they team is celebrating the 700th challenge with the theme Let's Celebrate Any Special Occasion! I'm also linking up at Peace on Earth where they always have such inspiring mood boards; I'm also joining in with Merry Little Christmas and The Holly and the Ivy where Anything Christmas Goes.

 

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Well halloween is over thank goodness and hopefully all the horrible decorations will be cleared away soon! My fluffy girl had a bit of a scare on one of our river walks. Back in the summer, a group of lads were cooling of with a swim in the river and one of them left his t shirt behind. Someone hung it on the fence so that they'd see it if they returned and it's been there ever since. Every time we come near it, I notice Eva's body language stiffening and I'm sure she thinks it's a person...

 

 

only a weird person that isn't moving like a real person - aaaargh!  She always relaxes when we come closer and she realises it's just a shirt hanging on the fence!

Sending hugs,

Ready for a special occasion

Hello, crafting friends!

 

It's Thursday and we all know that's a Tic Tac Toe day! It's LeAnne's turn to host and she has brought together some great elements to create a board that is sure to inspire you!

 

I couldn't resist using the top row, White/Pearls/Ribbon, to create a card that would work for an engagement, a wedding or a ruby wedding anniversary. And the beauty of this card is that it was made using left-overs!

 

I started by attaching some left-over leafy vellum from a card kit to a bit of white card using spray glue. This was trimmed into a decorative shape using a label die from The Works. To top my label shape, I stamped a leaf and a rose from WPlus9's Modern Roses on more snippets, coloured them with alcohol markers and fussy cut them. A scrap of tulle and satin ribbon was wrapped around the label shape and I tucked the botanics behind it.

 

 

You can see the vellum better in this photo - I was really pleased with the look. To finish the card, I die cut a Gemini congratulations sentiment from yet another snippet of white card, arranged it on top of the ribbon and sprinkled a few pearls around the group.

Okay, so now it's your turn! My team mates have come up with some beauties to inspire you, so do hop over to the Tic Tac Toe blog to check them out. You'll find the Linky Tool at the bottom of the post so you can link up your own creation when you're ready. Have fun!

CHALLENGES

I'm linking up with Addicted to Stamps and More where there's a Make Your Mark challenge and hopefully my rose group will qualify; I'm also taking this card along to The Snippets Playground where Sarn is at the helm and I'm having to wear sunglasses because her Prefects Badge has been polished to such a fine shine!

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Showing a celebration card today seems appropriate because I have had some wonderful news: My daughter and her long-term sweetheart are getting married next year! Needless to say, I have gone straight to Mumland and am wandering about there in the sunshine humming happy tunes! I think we're going to be running out of champagne after all this good news!!

Sending hugs,

Precious Love

Hello, crafting friends!

 

Happy Saturday to you and welcome to a brand new challenge at Addicted to CAS! My talented teamie Raga has chosen the cue word for us this time and it's a timely one with Valentine's Day around the corner:

 

Of course you can use hearts on any kind of card, so the world is your oyster! I have gone for the kind of card you could give at any time of the year to show your love and appreciation.

 

I started this card with a beautiful sentiment from The Colorado Co's Big and Bold Get Well, stamping it in pink ink. I heat embossed it with clear embossing powder so that it became waterproof and then splodged a load of diluted blue ink over it and blotted with kitchen paper. When it was dry I cut a label shape out of it, using a die from The Works, and attached it to a card base.

Meanwhile, I cut some gold foil hearts using dies and punches and enjoyed decorating them. The largest one was run through an embossing folder I picked up in a Hobbycraft sale last weekend - 50p well spent I reckon! It was embellished with a clear gem. I punched a few pink hearts and stacked them up under the punched heart to add subtle detail. The tiny heart embosses as it cuts :)  Finally, all the hearts were glued in place around the sentiment.

So now it's your turn! Do hop over to the Addicted to CAS challenge site to check out the beautiful designs my talented teamies have made to inspire you. You'll find the Linky Tool at the bottom of the post so that you can share your own creation with us when you're ready. Have fun - but remember to keep your design nice and clean and simple!

CHALLENGES

I'm linking this card up at Happy Little Stampers Watercolour Challenge where Anything Goes; I'm  also joining in at CASology where the cue card is Affection.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

I'll leave you with a picture sent from my very own precious daughter* captioned "Me as a child when you used to tell me to tidy my room!"

*May not be an ACTUAL photo of my daughter!!

Sending hugs,