Love Peace Joy

A quick post from me showing another Christmas card, using lots of NBUS (never-before-used schtuff).

My inspiration came from this month's pin-sights challenge by Ellen Hudson.

I focussed on the black background with the bold white text and added the stars as a finishing touch.

The background was heat-embossed in white (SSS) onto Canson water colour card and coloured using water and black Brushos. I guess I overworked the Brushos too much, but I do like the slight variations in colour, especially when compared to the same background I heat-embossed onto black cardstock. I die cut the stag and stars from some old metal cardstock from my stash and adhered the stag die cut plus two thin strips to a piece of vellum (Bazzill) and adhered this to my panel, which is slightly larger than a standard A2 size, but I liked the layout and dimensions so much that I simply cut my base card to match. All stamps and dies are from the Essentials by Ellen collection (Ellen Hudson) and were designed by Julie Ebersole.

I'm also entering this card into the following challenges:

AAACards - 49 Word play

 Aud Sentiments - 141 Let's get started on Christmas projects
(I'm hoping my background qualifies as one big sentiment)

CCC - 43 Anything Christmas goes

Jingle Belles - Non-Christmas winter/holiday card

SSS Wednesday challenge - No designer paper

Another NBUS card

When I was paying a visit to my physiotherapist I was browsing one of the magazines and saw this cool pattern on a dress. I immediately had an idea to turn this into a background for a card, just perfect for the current Virginia's View Challenge.

Therefore my background came together very quickly but finishing it off was another story...

Anyway, I started by creating a stencil using a PTI die that has been waiting patiently to be used (NBUS 1). I applied distress inks (scattered straw and wild honey) and then traced the outlines loosely with a Micron pen to mimick the pattern from the magazine. To finish my card, I finally settled on a simple strip of black cardstock that I cut to match the curves of my pattern and heat embossed the Hello sentiment from Avery Elle's Brushed set (NBUS 2) in white (SSS). I placed a white thread nest behing my sentiment strip and added a few pale yellow sequins from Studio Callico (NBUS 3) for some added interest. My background panel was adhered to a black card using foam tape. 

Challenges:

NBUS #5 - Anything goes with never before used schtuff

AEIHeartU challenge - 28 Non-white card base

SSS Wednesday challenge - Die crazy (I used the die to create a stencil)

Virginia's View challenge - 8 Geometric patterns

Umbrella and NBUS

It's been a while since I last posted, but with all that's going on here, I barely find time to craft and I don't seem to have the energy to finish anything and post the results on my blog. My husband had a tumor removed from his colon back in June and is now on his second round of chemotherapy. So far, he is not suffering any serious side effects. That means he is worrying more about me than about himself, since I am still suffering from a frozen shoulder, which started as tendonitis back in March. It seems that this problem has to get worse before it gets any better, but it surely is wearing me out, so I'm grateful that the weather is starting to cool down a little so that I can bear to be in my craftroom again.

This week's prompt at the CASology blog is 'Umbrella'. Since summer isn't really over in my part of the world, I'm thinking sunshine rather than rain.This also gave me a perfect opportunity to use some of my NBUS (never-before-used-schtuff) in honour of Darnell's 5th NBUS challenge.

I adhered two pieces of washi tape (both NBUS) towards the bottom of my card panel and then stamped the sentiment (Hero Arts) and the umbrella image (from a set that came with a stamping magazine a long time ago and has never seen ink before). I then stamped the umbrella again on a piece of scrap cardstock, coloured it with Promarkers and popped it up using foam tape. I adhered the panel to a matching notecard and finished my card off with some clear Wink of Stella and a few sequins from my stash.

Challenges:

SSS Wednesday challenge - Use a stamp + blog hop

CASology - 164 Umbrella

NBUS Challenge #5 - Use your never before used schtuff (must be a follower)

ATSM - 162 Make your mark

SAF 2015 thread nest and a CASE

This card is a CASE of Kim Makortoff's card as seen in this post on the STAMPlorations blog.

I was inpired by the stamped panel and the soft colours. Because I wanted to also make this card work for the SAF 2015 challenge, I browsed my PTI stamps and found this cute Cat's meow stamp set and coordinating dies that I had never used until now, and I knew this was going to work just perfecly. Love it when that happens.

and here is Kim's card:

Before adhering my cat to the card using foam tape, I wrapped thin embroidery thread around my fingers and placed in where I wanted. Because the thread was wrapped around a card instead of a spool, my thread nest is not as tidy as Lauren Bassen's, but I think it fits in nicely with the cat theme lol.

Inks used: Soft granite & Charcoal by Hero Arts, Autumn rose by Papertrey Ink

Challenges:

PTI SAF 2015 Threads challenge - Thread nest

Addicted to Stamps - 159 Clean and simple

STAMPlorations - CASE any card from the Inspiration Project posts
Sweet Stamps - Anything goes
Cards in Envy - Cute and cuddly
SSS Wednesday challenge - Anything goes
Seize the Birhday - Anything goes (no topping for me)

SAF 2015, WOW wedding card

Last weekend, I managed to find a little crafting time and let myself be inspired by this year's Stamp-a-Faire event by Papertrey Ink.

One of the challenge involved a white on white wedding card. I used one of the stamps from last year's SAF kit and heat embossed it twice onto vellum using white embossing powder (SSS), after heat embossing the Forever & Always sentiment from the same Lil' inker set that I used on my previous card. I cut 2 frames using 2 SSS stitched rectangle dies and adhered them to the front and the back of my vellum piece, so that the vellum would not be directly on the cardstock, and then adhered my panel to the card front. To finish things off, I added 2 Kaiserkraft rhinestones that were also included in last year's SAF kit.

Challenges:

PTI SAF 2015 Bridal challenge - White on white wedding card

AAA Cards - 47 Spectacular embossing

Addicted to Stamps - 159 Clean and simple
SSS Wednesday challenge - Anything goes