merry Christmas

 hello lovely stampers!

Today I started on Christmas cards which is certainly not something I usually do ahead of time, but I'm trying to be a bit organised this year! I'm playing along with the card concept who have an inspiration pic that certainly doesn't say Christmas at first glance, but I've always liked the pairing of a Christmas theme with non traditional colours.

 For my cas card, I was inspired by the colours. I began by stamping and clear heat embossing the sentiment. Using hero arts infinity squares, I die cut 3 squares. 1 was stamped with red dots, one was die cut to make a frame and the last was embossed using the Filigree texture plate. The trees were die cut using Sizzix Arctic Bear then ink blended using distress oxide inks.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

thank you

 hello lovely stampers!

I have been trying out a new to me technique I learnt from Chris Stokes on my cards lately and thought I'd change it up a little for this card made for the card concept challenge #175. The talented team chose such a gorgeous pic for inspiration!

The inspiration pic reminded me of some scraps of glossy paper I had left from a previous project. Aren't the soft and romantic colours just to die for? I was inspired by the colours, the rose, the circle shapes and the twine to make my cas card.

I die cut a circle from the paper using Hero Arts Infinity Circles, and then fussy cut a couple of the central rose. The circle was adhered to the card base so that the main rose was in the exact centre of the card panel, then I adhered one of the roses to the circle so it peeked out the side. The final rose was adhered to scrap card and I die cut the leaf sprays using MFT In Focus Florals die set.  The die cuts were adhered (perfectly) in place over the rose. The sentiment was stamped using SU Loyal Leaves with 2 colours of distress oxide ink. To finish, some linen twine and a few dew drops were added.

Thanks so much for spending some time with me today!

hugs

 hello lovely stampers!

The talented team at the card concept have a new inspiration pic to use for their latest challenge and I couldn't resist joining in.

I wanted to do a cas card for this one - life is a little busy atm and all those glorious flowers in the pic, while stunning, kept sending me off on tangents with a million ideas! So I went with a very simple layout. I was inspired by the window, the soft blue and bright green colours, and the beautiful fluffy Queen Anne's Lace flowers.

I began by white heat embossing the flowers using SU Queen Anne's Lace stamp set. Then the window was stencilled with distress oxide using Scrapmatts windows stencil. The stems of the flowers were then stamped. I decided the flowers needed more oomph so I white heat embossed them again, slightly offset to make them look bigger. 

The sentiment from Paper Rose Hugs Fine Script die set was die cut 3 times, once from ink blended card, stacked then adhered to the card.

Thanks so much for stopping by today!

especially for you

 hello lovely stampers!

I stumbled upon a new challenge for me and thought I'd give it a go! The card concept challenge gives an inspiration pic and 7 different styles of design to make a card of your own. Fantastic information on the different styles as I've never seen them laid out so well before. I never really know which style I prefer as it does change from time to time, but I think this one I made is clean and layered? 😀

I was inspired by the flowers, the colours and the black and white details. The weave is a nod to the fabric on the cushion!

I began by using Altenew Beautiful Day stamp to stamp the flowers with distress oxide for the first layer, and distress oxide heat embossed for the detail layer, for some lovely shine and to bring out the gorgeous red colour. The leaves from the same set were also layer stamped. The coordinating dies were used to cut them all out. I stamped Darkroom Door Flourish texture stamp with memento tuxedo black on 2 separate card panels, cut them into 1/4" strips and weaved them with a basket weave, adhering it to a black card square. The sentiment is from Penny Black Grown with Love stamp set.

Thanks so much for stopping by today!

Thank you to the team at the card concept for the Honorable Mention - I'm thrilled!