Time Out #46 - Reminder

There is still time for our current Time Out Challenge - the last one of the year. Here is the wonderful inspiration photo:

Our guest designer this week is the wonderful Sonja - make sure you check out her designs at The Art of Stamping. 

For my first card, I went glitter crazy - and I glittered the die cut and embossed Tim Holtz wreath in red and green. I just love this die and embossing folder set - it does all the work :) I added the die cuts to a white textured card front and added a few gold stars for decorations. The greeting was created using my laser printer and Minc machine. One of the main reasons that I invested in the machine was so I could create greetings for our friends and family around the world - this card is for some good friends in Austria.

My second card was made from "leftovers". The foil circle wreathes were from the cards I shared last week and the layered "joy" was made from the leftover positive die cuts that I had from another holiday card (you can't see it in the photo but they are layered four high!). I layered these leftovers onto a textured card front to which I added some Stardust glitter to a stripe of adhesive tape. 

I will link up to a couple of places:

• Virginia's View Challenge - all about glitter
• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - focusing on Die-cember

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Jill

Time Out #46 - Home Sweet Home

It's time for another Time Out Challenge - and it is my favourite type of challenge - a Home Sweet Home photo inspiration challenge. Here is the photo:

Isn't it fabulous?!! Sandie choses the inspiration photos for Time Out and she just has an amazing eye for great designs. 

Our guest designer this week is the wonderful Sonja - make sure you check out her designs at The Art of Stamping. 

I was very inspired by the wreath made of baubles and immediately thought of my new SSS Ring Wreath die. I was also inspired to try my hand at foiling with my new Minc machine. I die cut the wreath four times from toner paper and then foiled the balls in four different colours of foil - so I made a few cards - here are two of them: 

So take some Time Out and join us in this challenge.

Thanks for stopping by!

Jill

Joy

A very quick post for a couple of cards that I made earlier today. First step was to die cut the Walter and Winnie Joy from a card panel. I then stamped the little Clearly Besotted robins and coloured with Copics (the little hat on the top robin is from Lawn Fawn). Using some Be Creative adhesive sheets, I filled in the die cut negative with glitter. To finish the card, I added a strip of glitter down the side of the card base and a strip of grey DP before popping the card front on top with some fun foam.

As you can see, the second card started in the same way as the first but instead of glitter, I adhered some antique silver Martha Stewart micro beads. I picked these up one day on an impulse and this was the first time I used them - I absolutely love the texture they give! I used a SSS Fog card base and sponged some SSS Fog ink through a MFT  stencil to give a little bit of pattern. I then adhered the panel directly to the card base (to make a mail-friendly card!).

I will link these cards up to a few places:

• Merry Monday where the challenge is birds
• ATCAS where the challenge is Joy
• Virginia's View where the challenge is glitter

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Jill

AAA Cards - Silent Night, Holy Night

It's time for our last challenge of the year at AAA Cards and it is a holiday theme: Silent Night, Holy Night:

Here is what I came up with:

I used the Winter Wishes stamp set from Neat and Tangled. I started out by sponging a panel on the base card using: Seedless Preserves, Blueprint Sketch, and Chipped Sapphire. Once the panel was dry (I learned this after the first one!) - I stamped the winter scene in Perfect Medium and brushed on some Perfect Pearls. I then partially die cut the circle front the card panel, stamped the greeting, and mounted it with foam tape onto the card base. This is one of those cards that really does look better IRL - the shimmer of the scene really doesn't show up on camera. 

So now it's your turn to join in the fun at AAA Cards!
Thanks for stopping by!
Jill

TIME OUT #45 Reminder

Have you played along with our Inspired By Words challenge at Time Out yet? Well there's still time - we are looking for cards inspired by this fabulous quote:
 

Snowflakes are Winter's Butterflies

In addition to the fabulous Design Team cards, we are also joined by the super-creative Ashwini - her blog Experiments With Card Making Etc  so be sure to stop by and see her beautiful designs.

Here is how I was inspired by the words:

For my card(s) today, I dug deep into the back of my craft closet and dusted off my Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist. I was so happy when I found that they still sprayed since it has been years (yes - years) since I last used them.

I started the card by stamping the MFT snowflakes in Versamark and heat embossing them in detail silver powder. I then used the matching dies to cut some masks from Post It tape that I placed over the snowflakes. I also added some very skinny pieces of Post-It tape to mask the strings. Once masked, I used the Glimmer Mist to add some colour to the top of the card front - I tried to focus on the upper left corner but I wasn't always successful. I removed the mask, waited for it to dry and then die cut the panel with a MFT stitched rectangle die, and added the machine stitching in silver thread. The greeting is from Hero Arts - white heat embossed on a strip of vellum and mounted on a strip of glitter cardstock.

Because I had mounted the stamps on my MISTI, I decided to make a whole set of these cards using different colours of mist:

And the envelopes...

As long as I have been making cards, I haven't worried about the envelopes but on Black Friday, I decided to buy the WeRMemoryKeepers envelope punch board and I am now a convert! I'm pretty sure that I spent more time making envelopes than cards this weekend - I have finally found a use for all that 12x12 DP from my scrapbooking days! Among my envelope creations wereenvelopes for each of the snowflake cards - each featuring a matching misted liner.

I will link up to a few challenges:

• Addicted to Stamps and More - holiday cards
• Christmas Card Challenges - Anything Goes
• The Paper Players - Tic-Tac-Toe (I'm going with Blue-Shine-Embossing)
• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Let It Snow

Thanks so much for stopping and be sure to take some Time Out to be inspired by words!
Jill 

Time Out #45 - Inspired by words

It's time for a new challenge at Time Out - and this week, we are looking for cards inspired by these wonderful words:

Snowflakes are Winter's Butterflies

In addition to the fabulous Design Team cards, we are also joined by the super-creative Ashwini - her blog Experiments With Card Making Etc is a source of constant inspiration for me so I am delighted that she has joined us for this challenge.

Here is how I was inspired by the words:

I was definitely inspired by the snowflakes in the quote - we had a few around our place on the weekend but today was 13 degrees so they are all gone - I have to admit that I am happily anticipating the arrival of Winter.

For my card, I started out by sponging some Faded Jeans and some Tumbled Glass onto the card base. I die cut the Memory Box Frostyville corner from some Be Creative tape adhered to typing paper. I then removed the release paper and applied some diamond glitter, and adhered to the card base. Finishing touches are the silver embossed greeting, some clear droplets, and some teeny tiny clear sequins.

I will link up to a few challenges:

• Merry Monday where the challenge is Blue, White, and texture (my texture is glitter)
• Memory Box Challenge #6 - Glitter
• Simon Says Stamp Work It Wednesday - holiday cards
• Christmas Card Challenges - Anything Goes
• Fusion Card Challenge:
• 

Thanks so much for stopping and be sure to take some Time Out to be inspired by words!
Jill 

AAA Cards - Anything Goes

It's time for another AAA Challenge, and this week - Anything Goes!

Since we had the choice of any type of card, I decided to go with a Christmas card - mostly because I just realized how incredibly far behind I am on them!

I recently picked up this Santa's Elves set from MFT and decided to ink it up. I started out by  masking an offset rectangle on the card base with typing paper. I then used a brick stencil and some texture paste to create the pattern. Before it was dry, I added lots of Distress glitter (Rock Candy) to make it sparkle - hard to see in the picture but I love the effect. The images were stamped, Copic coloured, fussy cut and mounted on the card base with foam squares. Finishing touches were the silver embossed greeting on a vellum strip and a piece of Lawn Fawn twine to suspend the stockings.


I will ink up to:

• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge where it is Christmas
• MFT Sketch Challenge

• Addicted to Stamps and More where Anything Goes
• CAS on Sunday where the theme is Christmas

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Jill

Time Out #44 - Sending Paris Love

This is the second week of our wonderful CASE Challenge at Time Out challenge.  The fabulous card that we are CASE-ing is from Karen Dunbrook of  Snippets:

When I went to CASE this card on the weekend, I have to admit that I was very distracted by the terrible events in Paris, and as a result, the card that I made was a reflection of my feelings.   

I sponged the rectangle panel with Hickory Smoke and then stamped over it with a Tim Holtz stamp in the same ink. I added the fleur-de-lis and the Eiffel Tower from a Hero Arts stamp set as well - also in Hickory smoke. The greeting is from Clearly Besotted - I would have like to have used a French greeting but I didn't have one that worked well. The little die cut hearts were cut from some red card stock using a Walter and Winnie die set. The red-white-blue colour scheme was intentional...

So now it's your turn - take some Time Out to be inspired by the wonderful CASE card.

Thanks for stopping by!

Jill

Time Out #44 - CASE

I can't believe how quickly time is flying by - it's already time for another Time Out challenge, and this week, we are CASE-ing a fabulous card by Karen Dunbrook of  Snippets:

Isn't it gorgeous - so many great elements to CASE...

We also have another wonderful guest designer this week - the incredible Jen Mitchell from I Create. Her work is always so inspiring, it is an honour to have her join us this week!

So here is my take on the inspiration card:

I really liked the simple stenciled background and the pretty quote so those are the elements that I used in my card. The stencil is my favourite - MB Wave - and sponged with Picked Raspberry, Spiced Marmalade, and Mustard Seed. The quote is from Hero Arts. 

So now it's your turn - take some Time Out to create and have fun!

Thanks for stopping by!

Jill

Happy Sunday Crafting

I set aside a few hours for crafting today and managed to get some mojo back and create a couple of cards. 

First card was inspired by this fabulous card from Ardyth at Muse:

I loved the little pandas - and the way that they are dancing reminded me of my new Mama Elephant Reindeer Games stamp set. I inked them up and coloured them with Zig Clean Colour pens. I did some ink blending with Chipped Sapphire, added an MFT greeting, and some snow created with Versamark and glitter embossing powder. I finished off with a gem on Rudolph's nose.

My second card uses the MFT soda pop stamps and dies - I had to have these as soon as I saw them since I work for Pepsi and they are so perfect for making cards for my coworkers - this is my first one:

I created the background using Twisted Citron, Squeezed Lemonade, and Ripe Persimmon, and then stamped the greeting on an angle using Versafine Onyx. I coated the die cut in Brushed Pewter Distress Stain, and added a few drops of Glossy Accents to the background before mounting it on a SSS Fog cardstock card base.

I will link this card up to:

• Inkspirational where anything goes with silver
• MFT Sketch Challenge

Thanks for stopping by!
Jill

AAA Card - Thanks

I can't believe that it is already time for a new challenge at AAA Cards - the time is just flying by! For this challenge we are looking for thanks or thanksgiving cards.

Here's my card:

Our Thanksgiving was a few weeks ago so I decided to make a thank you card - you can never have too many of those on hand right?! I kept it very simple by stamping the medallion from the Penny Black Dazzlers set. I have wanted this set since it came out but I only recently managed to get my paws on it so I was pretty happy to ink it up! I did some colouring with Copics - keeping with Autumn hues - and stamped the Altenew greeting in Onyx Versafine. The panel was mounted on a black card base, and some parts of the medallion were coated with clear Wink of Stella.

I will link this up to the following challenges:

• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge where the theme is Thanks
• Less Is More where the colour challenge this week is fire colours

Join in the fun with us at AAA Cards - and before you do, make sure you check out the rest of the design team's creations!

Thanks so much for stopping by :)

Jill

TIME OUT #43 - Reminder

Have you palyed along with our Christmas challenge this week at Time Out ? Our sponsor for this challenge is Uniko Studios and they have generously agreed to give a prize to a random entry that uses pink and/or purple in their Christmas card. Their design team has also inspired us by sharing some of their cards on our blog so make sure you check them out!

Our guest designer this week is Suchi and she has a wonderful blog called Suchi's Cardstock - she has wonderful creativity so please check out her work.

Because I think that flamingos are the the perfect pink Christmas birds, I did another card with the Newton's Nook stamp set - this time adding in some letters to spell Joy (from Simon Says) and colouring with Copics. I sponged a little bit of colour on the background to emphasize the snow on the ground (it doesn't show up well in the picture) and added the falling snow with texture paste and a Simon Says stencil. I mounted the panel on a card base to which I had added some teal glitter.

Thanks so much for stopping by and make sure you join in at Time Out!
Jill

Time Out #43 - Christmas

It's time for another challenge at Time Out - and this week we are getting into the holiday spirit with a Christmas theme. Our sponsor this week is Uniko Studios and they have generously agreed to give a prize to a random entry that uses pink and/or purple in their Christmas card. Their design team has also inspired us by sharing some of their cards on our blog so make sure you check them out!

Our guest designer this week is Suchi and she has a wonderful blog called Suchi's Cardstock - she has wonderful creativity so please check out her work.

For my card this week, I decided to fully the pink theme and what better way to do that than pink flamingos! I picked up this wonderful stamp set from Newton's Nook on the weekend at the Create event and decided to ink it up for this challenge. Please forgive the lighting - the days are getting shorter which makes daylight photography almost impossible for me during the week:

Lots of Distress Inks were used for the background and the watercolouring - Tumbled Glass, Spun Sugar, and Evergreen Bough primarily - with a touch of Mustard Seed for the beaks. In my world, it wouldn't be a Christmas card without a little shimmer or glitter so I did both - Wink of Stella on the birds and silver glitter on the frame and sentiment strip. I usually like the velvety Glitter Ritz but I didn't have any silver so I went with the much more sparkly Martha Stewart glitter - it was fun but it my be a little bit too OTT (even for me!).

I will link up to a couple of places:

• Newton's Nook colour challenge: 
• Sweet Sunday Sketch: 
• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge where Anything Goes

Thanks so much for visiting and make sure you take the Time Out to play along with us and get a head start on your holiday cards!

Jill

AAA Cards - Halloween For Everyone!!

It's time for another challenge at AAA Cards - and we're still in the Halloween spirit so this week we're asking everyone to join in the fun and opening up our challenge to all card styles: It is Halloween For Everyone!

My card this week is by far my favourite Halloween card that I did this year - I just love those crazy birds! 

I started off by adding some texture paste through the Tim Holtz Halloween layering stencil to create the tone-on-tone background. I then coloured my Crazy Bird (I stamped him twice to give me the layers) and a few Halloween-themed Crazy Things with Copics. I cut the bird out a couple of times with the matching dies - they give such a great close cut - any I fussy cut the accessories (I didn't get the dies for those!). I pieced everything together with some foam tape  - I love the added dimension on the eyes, wings and beak - onto the card front. 

I will link this card up at a couple of places:

• Inkspirational where they are looking for "cute" Halloween cards - he is definitely more cute than scary!
• Fusion Card Challenge where the sketch is "trick or treat"-y

So join the fun - create a spooktacular card and link up at AAA Cards!

Thanks so much for visiting me!

Jill

TIME OUT #42 - Reminder

Have you had time to play along with our current challenge at Time Out? You still have time to create something inspired by this very cool picture:

This week, we also a new card by our wonderful guest designer, TaeEun is super creative and her blog Rainbow in November is full of inspirational creations - be sure to check it out!

Here is my card inspired by the photo:

I went a little bit more traditional this week with my colour choice...

I started out by die cutting the pumpkin (Lil Inkers) and I then embossed the tree background using a Lifestyle Crafts embossing folder. I coloured the embossed trees with a black Wink of Stella pen - in real life they glitter! I made the shaker with some fun foam - backing it with some graphic orange patterned paper - and using some orange sequins for a sparkly touch. The greeting was white heat embossed on a strip of black cardstock that was wrapped around the whole card front. 

So now it's your turn to take some Time Out and make a card inspired by this fabulous photo!

Thanks so much for stopping by!
Jill

TIME OUT #42

It's time for another fun challenge at Time Out - and this week, it's one of my favourites- A Home Sweet Home Photo Inspiration Challenge. This week's photo is awesome and really gets into the spirit of the season:

This week, we also have a fabulous guest designer too: TaeEun is super creative and her blog Rainbow in November is full of gorgeous cards - be sure to check it out!

Here is my card:

I started out by partially stamping the Hero Arts background stamp in Versamark  in the centre of the card and heat embossing with clear powder. I then smooshed my three favourite Halloween colours into the heat embossed area - Twisted Citron, Dusty Concord, and Chipped Sapphire. The panel was die cut using an MFT die and mounted on a card base with a layer of black and white graphic patterned paper. I added a Lil Inker pumpkin die cut from metallic  paper, some black thread, clear sequins and a Clearly Besotted greeting to complete the card.

So now it's your turn to take some Time Out and make a card inspired by this fabulous photo!

Thanks so much for stopping by!
Jill

AAA Cards - CAS Halloween

It's time for another AAA Cards challenge and this time we're looking for CAS Halloween cards.

I have to confess that I have never made Halloween cards in the past - I love the holiday but have never integrated it into cards

Here is what I came up with:

The letters are from Simon Says and were stamped on watercolour paper. I used Distress markers to colour the letters (Twisted Citron) and the background (Blueprint Sketch, Chipped Sapphire, Seedless Preserves). I added a few more stamps - the cat is from Clearly Besotted, the spider is from Fiskars and the greeting and faces are from Lil Inkers.

To pumpkin or not to pumpkin?
I was quite happy with my first ever Halloween card but my husband really insisted that it needed a pumpkin so I added one - here is the updated version:

 What do you think - pumpkin or not?

So now it's your turn to create a CAS Hallowwen card - that could incorporate a pumpkin (or not!) but before you do, please check out the amazing work of the Design Team.

Thanks for stopping by!
Jill

TIME OUT #41 - Reminder

I can't believe that the week has already flown by - have you had chance to play along with our current Time Out challenge yet? You still have lots of time (well a week!) to create a card inspired by quote:

Autumn...the year's last, loveliest smile' (William Cullum Bryant)

Make sure to check the amazing work of our Guest Designer this week. Glenda at  My Paper Cat has such an amazing technique that incorporates lots of intricate thread designs - amazing cards!

So here's my take on the quote:

Two different cards featuring the Stampendous Pen Pattern Leaves stamps

So head over to Time Out and play along with us - and make sure to check the wonderful inspiration from the rest of the Design Team!

Thanks so much for stopping by!
Jill

TIME OUT #41

It's time for another challenge at Time Out and this time we are asking you to be inspired by words:

Autumn...the year's last, loveliest smile' (William Cullum Bryant)

We are only just starting to see a few patches of orange and red in the trees now - the news reported that we are two weeks behind on the colours this year. I can't wait though - Autumn is definitely my favourite season.

So now onto the challenge - you have to check the amazing work of our Guest Designer this week. Glenda at  My Paper Cat has such an amazing technique that incorporates lots of intricate thread designs - amazing cards!

So here's my take on the quote:

I used some My Little Shoebox stamps to stamp the trees which I coloured with Copics. I added the Simon Says smile die cut (I wanted to cover both Autumn and smile from the quote!) covered in glitter and a piece of  Be Creative tape also covered in glitter.

So head over to Time Out and play along with us - and make sure to check the wonderful inspiration from the rest of the Design Team!

Thanks so much for stopping by!
Jill

A Beary Special Day!

A very quick share today of a Birthday card that I made for my nephew - guess how old??

I used the MFT Birthday Bears stamp set to create the scene that I coloured with Copics. I added the 2s to the banners using an old 7 Gypsies stamp set. Some ink sponging to create the background and some twine to add some fun to the banner. 

I will link up to a couple of places:

• MFT Sketch Challenge
• The Card Concept is featuring Woodland Animals
• Simon Says Stamp Work It Wednesday where we are celebrating Stamptember with stamps
• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge where we need to avoid patterned paper

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Jill

AAA Cards - Word Play

It's time for another fun challenge at AAA Cards and this week, we are playing with words!

I don't know about you but I often focus on the "image" on a card and the sentiment is almost an afterthought. This is the challenge to reverse that thinking and make the sentiment the star of the show. Here is what I came up with:

My card uses a Memory Box die and foil. I bought the big variety pack of foil a while back but haven't really used it as much as I though I would - that being said, I really love the "rainbow" foil that came in  the pack and I thought that it would be really fun to use with the die to create this card. It took me a while to figure it all out - and it took a lot longer to do the card but I think that it was worth it - I love the look of the finished card. I used a piece of BeCreative double sided adhesive sheet and added the foil directly to one side. I then die cut the "adhesive foil" and carefully left everything in the die so I could remove the backing from each letter (this was the time consuming part!). I then laid the cardstock against the die so the letters stuck to the cardstock. I think that if I were to try this technique again, I would use a less intricate die!

So now it's your turn to play with words and have some fun with us at AAA Cards! For inspiration, make sure you check out the rest of the DT cards - there are some very fun and clever ideas!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Jill