Friday 30 August 2013

FFC16 - Peace


It's time for a new Festive Friday Challenge!


Peace

I decided to go minimal and use a lot of white space to convey the feeling of peace. I embossed the mod tree from Holiday Happiness (Stampin' Up) in silver, then added a little Peace symbol (Deadbeat Designs) as an ornament and "Peace" from Technique Tuesday (also embossed in silver).

I used turquoise and green for the peace symbol, to represent the earth and layered the front panel on turquoise and green mats only slightly bigger than the panel.

And now it's your turn! I'm certainly looking forward to the relative 'peace' I'll have in the house next week when the kids go back to school - maybe you are too? ;-)

Don't forget to link up before the deadline on Wednesday, September 11.


Thursday 29 August 2013

Happy Birthday, Hannelie!


Sorry I've been MIA for a few days - my kids have been home this week and we've spent lots of time squeezing in some last-minute fun and also preparing to get back to the books on Tuesday.

This morning, a little birdie (named Bev) reminded me that Friday is our friend Hannelie's birthday. I'm posting now because Abu Dhabi is 8 hours ahead of Toronto, so it's already her birthday where she is!

This is also my card for this week's Muse challenge, where we have a Guest Muse this week, Lori Tecler:


And also for this week's One Layer Wednesday Challenge, hosted by Karen. This week's challenge is to use a silhouette.

Happy Birthday, Hannelie! I wish you a fun day and a wonderful year ahead!



Tuesday 27 August 2013

CASology 59 - Book


This week's CASology Cue Card is Book!



Rather than use a book on my card, I used a quote from a book. A pretty famous one, actually! I'm still in church Christmas card mode and it seemed an appropriate way to accomplish the goal of catching up (at least partially) on that year-long project.


Friday 23 August 2013

FFC15 - Santa Claus is Coming to Town


Here's a quick and simple card for the current Festive Friday challenge:




This is not an original idea - there are lots of cards out there that looks like Santa's coat. I've probably done one myself! But doesn't that red look just like velvet? That's because it is! I found a scrap of red velvet paper that I've had for years and thought that Santa's suit would be the perfect way to use it. No black leather or brass for the belt, though! lol!

Don't forget that the deadline for this challenge is coming up on Wednesday. Hope to see you there!


Wednesday 21 August 2013

OLW 154 - One-One-One


Heather is hosting this week's One Layer Wednesday challenge and it's FUN! Use one image, one sentiment and one colour. This is an object lesson in how playing along with a challenge can land you with a card that you love, that you wouldn't have otherwise made. Let me tell you my thought process.

I'm falling behind on my church Christmas cards (only about 150 done, should be up to about 200 by now!) so I wanted to make this card suitable for that project.

I love this little Market Street Stamps Baby Jesus and at first, I didn't even want to add a sentiment. But since I had to have one to qualify, I wanted one that was small, simple, funky but still recognizable and meaningful. In the end I chopped up a Verve "Joy to the world, the Lord is come" so that it fit right under the manger.

And I have to say that this simple card just takes my breath away (and I'm not one known for breathlessness!). But that's the truth about Christmas, isn't it - the simplest message is the most amazing message of all.

Tuesday 20 August 2013

CASology 58 - Paper


This week's CASology Cue Card is Paper!



Can you even see this design?! Tone on tone (white embossing on Soft Stone (PTI) cardstock) looks very clean, calm and soothing, but the photography of this card was anything but that (tips appreciated, if you have them)!

I used CTMH 'JetSet' for the plane and trail, and Simon Says Stamp 'Be' for the sentiment. It's a cute little set that comes with a few different 'be's and a bunch of other words for you to be. I loved the idea of lining up 3 adjectives along the fingers of the E. And I think that they match the airy, soaring feel of the paper airplane.

Everyone's back in my house, all having had a wonderful time away (Cadet camp for Struan, and Crieff Hyrdo in Scotland for Kate and Michael). Here are some photos of Kate's holiday:

amongst the heather (and wild blueberries!)  on a hill nearby

riding Opal


on the 'hamster wheel' with her cousin


My 'staycation' was wonderful - I wasn't quite ready for it to be over, if you know what I mean, but I am definitely happy to have all my chickies back in the nest!

And now it's your turn to play - create a card inspired by the cue card Paper. Don't forget to check out what the rest of the DT came up with:


Saturday 17 August 2013

A Blog Named Hero: Shades of Grey

Today is my solo post at A Blog Named Hero. I tried a technique I've seen from time to time - shading in grey.  Of course I couldn't resist adding some pops of colour and shine! Pop over to ABNH for more details and a chance to win a $25 gift voucher to Simon Says Stamp!







Friday 16 August 2013

Muse #30


For this week's Muse, inspired by Therese's beautifully blended card here:




I decided not to blend, but keep the colours cleanly separated by black strips.

I'm just about  (like NOW) to head out to pick up Struan after 3 weeks at Air Cadet Camp. My week alone is over! And I'm both sad and happy about that, as you can imagine! ;-)

FFC15 - For the Children!


Time for a new Festive Friday Challenge!

Kid Theme



Christmas started with one Child and is still all about children. There's nothing quite like the wonder in your kids' eyes when they wake up on Christmas morning!

I used Christmas icons from Stampin' Up's Jolly Bingo Bits. I started with Santa, then went down the row with things he brings. I'm actually quite liking this simple layout and seeing that variations could be made just by using different stamps or different colours.

Now it's your turn - I hope you'll play along!

Thursday 15 August 2013

A Wonderful Day


Guess what I did on Thursday? I met up with Tracey (we're old friends since we had lunch together last week) and then we drove to Virginia's house for lunch! Despite the 3 hour trip (should have been about an hour, but there was a terrible accident on the highway), we had a lovely time. Virginia and Dr John were the perfect hosts! Virginia cooked us a scrumptious homemade lunch, including her famous springrolls, pasta and home made peach pie while Dr John kept our drinks filled up and the camera going! We even got to meet their son, who came home from work just before we left.

We had a quick peek into the room where the magic happens (Virginia's craft room, of course - what did you think I was going to say!) and then we rushed off to the Farmers' Market to buy some peaches to make our own pies when we got home! (I'm eating one as I type - it's PERFECT!). Then we drove into a little town where I ran into an old friend from high school and had fun catching up for a few minutes while Tracey and Virginia had a quick shop in a local scrapbooking store! And the weather was absolutely perfect. It was so much fun and we agreed that we'll have to get together again very soon! (PS - do you love this photo - it's not very often that I'm the tall one! lol!)


Wednesday 14 August 2013

OLW153 - Lunatic Fringe



I'm hosting One Layer Wednesday this week and it's a Pinterest-inspired challenge. This bedding is from Anthropologie - and it's so clean and fresh and yet colourful and fun at the same time. Lots of inspiration for one layer cards, I think!

Love fringe.  Simple & pretty Lindi Fringe Duvet - Anthropologie.com #anthrofave #juvenilehalldesign


OLW153 Rules

1. A one-layer card is defined as a single layer of card stock folded in half. No other layers allowed! Please keep embellishments to a minimum.


2. Make a card inspired by the photo above. 

3. Upload your card on the internet and link to it using the OLW153 InLinkz button on the sidebar of this blog. If you're linking to a blog post, please link to the specific post...not to the blog's main page.

4. The most important rule of all: HAVE FUN!!!!

Tuesday 13 August 2013

CASology 57 - Picnic


This week's CASology Cue Card is Picnic!



When I think of picnic, I think of a red gingham tablecloth and ants and lemonade and watermelon. Once I chose watermelon, I thought about how to portray that word in the simplest way I could. Blocks of colour often evoke images - in some ways, this card is similar to my candy cane card from last week. With iconic images such as watermelon and candy cane, it's easy to use colour to get your message across.

I stamped "sweet" using Avery Elle's Fun with Letters set. I spread out the letters and embossed them so that they would look like the seeds in the watermelon (are there seeds in any watermelons anymore? If not, how do we grow new ones? But I digress.....)

Now it's your turn - show us what picnic means to you before the deadline next Sunday at 4:00 pm CST.

Before you go, don't forget to see what the other members of the DT have made for your inspiration!


I am planning on taking a few days off. Struan's away at camp, and Michael and Kate have gone to Scotland for a vacation with Michael's family (I HAD to stay home because Struan needs to be picked up before the others are coming home). Long way of saying I have the house to myself for a few days and really want to make the most of my vacation (oh, yes, it's a vacation, probably one of the best EVER!), so if you don't see me (except for my Festive Friday and CASology posts, of course), don't worry! I'll be back after next weekend.

Monday 12 August 2013

Birthday CASE


Last week, when we were sneak-peeking the Uniko Studios products for August, I absolutely fell in love with this beautiful card by Aimes:

graphic flower die

The perfect frame (how did she DO that?!), the pretty colours and the gorgeous centre of the flower all just made me smile!

And it was time (past time, actually) for me to make my sister's birthday card, so I decided to case Amy's card. My sister is more of a pink girl, so I went tone-on-tone for my flower and added a PTI sentiment.

My 'attendance' over the next few days may be a little spotty. Struan's away at camp, and Michael and Kate have gone to Scotland for a vacation with Michael's family. Long way of saying I have the house to myself for a few days and really want to make the most of my vacation (oh, yes, it's a vacation, probably one of the best EVER!), so if you don't see me every day, don't worry! We'll be back to regular programming after next weekend.

Sunday 11 August 2013

Uniko Studios August Release Day!

These are the final three cards I've made with the stamps and dies for Uniko Studio's August Release. All of these products are available for purchase starting today! Even better, there's a chance for you to win the entire release! Simply comment on every blog in the blog hop to win the ENTIRE release plus the Time clear stamp set. (If you win and have already purchased the release, a full refund will be given. If you already own the Time set, a gift certificate for the same price will be given.) You have until Wednesday, August 14 to comment. The winner will be announced on the Uniko blog and Facebook page. 


This first card came about when I was reminiscing yesterday about making a poinsettia out of the graphic flower stamp from the Time set, last December. I thought I would see how it would look made out of dies rather than stamps. I cut the solid shape in white and green, offset them and glued them together, before adding a full red outline and a trimmed red outline, to try and achieve the layered look of the petals. Some gold seedbeads for the centre finished this off nicely. I love the dramatic feel of the black and how well the flower pops off it!


This is one that I made the other day with the little stamp that has 3 hearts in a row from the Flower Power #3 set. It's so easy to stack them up perfectly and make a column of hearts like this.


Finally, I noticed that the single solid heart stamp fits perfectly into the outline heart stamp. The heart of the heart, so to say!

I hope that you've been inspired by all the cards that the DT and I have made this week! If you haven't seen them all yet, here are the links to the blogs of the DT members - pop by and have a look.





Saturday 10 August 2013

Introducing Graphic Flowers Dies (Uniko Studio August Release)

Today we're introducing dies that coordinate with the graphic flowers from the Time set. I LOVE these graphic flowers and have made much use of them, especially the biggest one - the perfect size for a focal image. I even made it into a poinsettia once!

To have dies that coordinate with these flowers is fantastic (or should I say "Fabulous")! It opens up a whole new range of possibilities for this set.



For the first card, I used the solid die and stamped the flower on my cardbase, coloured it with copics. It's bold and graphic and I love it!


Next, I went white on white, and cut numerous flowers with the outline die. They make such pretty texture on this engagement card!


Finally, I cut two flowers and trimmed one by hand. I offset them and popped them up to create a pretty, graphic flower.

If you didn't come here via the blog hop, don't forget that the whole DT has more inspiration for you:

and  August Guest Designer: Ardyth (that's me)!

Tomorrow's the day that all of the products for August will be available for purchase at Uniko Studio. We will have one more day of samples for you and then it will finally be your turn! I hope you've been inspired by all the cards that we've made for you this week!

Friday 9 August 2013

Introducing: Flower Power #3 (Uniko Studios August Release)

Hope you've got lots of time today - I made 4 cards for the introduction of the new Uniko Studio Flower Power #3 set!




The first card uses the solid image of the flower (and solid leaves from Flower Power #1 - isn't it great how all these sets work so well together?!). I stamped everything in bright summery colours and then went back in with Copics to create highlights and shading for more depth.


This second card is a CASE of a card by fellow Muse DT memberMarion Vagg. I love how the copic shading on the coloured cardstock really makes the image pop!



Next up, a simple sort-of-pattern using the little 3 heart stamp and one of the sentiments. I was inspired by this week's Dynamic Duos colours - Strawberry Slush and Daffodil Delight (I used Marigold Morning). I'm too late to link up, but I still love how they look together!




Finally, one for the boys. I love to look at the stamps themselves and turn them around to see what else we can make with them. When I flipped these flowers over, I saw 'Raggedy Ann' hair. I stamped it and created a face by tracing an oval nestability with a Copic Multiliner, added ears, eyes and a mouth (courtesy of The Stamps of Life). I love how he turned out!

If you didn't come here via the blog hop, don't forget that the whole DT has more inspiration for you:

and  August Guest Designer: Ardyth (that's me)!

Tomorrow we're introducing dies that coordinate with Uniko's very first stamp set!

Thursday 8 August 2013

Introducing: All Occasion Sentiments #3 (Uniko Studio's August Release)

It's Day 2 of the Introducing posts for this month's Uniko Studio release of new stamps and dies. Today we're introducing All Occasion Sentiments #3.

As in the previous All Occasion Sentiments sets, these are big sentiments that work well on their own, or can be combined with other words from this set or the others.

My first card is very simple (and oops! has a sneak peek from tomorrow's set!). This classic-feeling font will work for any occasion!



My next two cards us the big 'fabulous' sentiment. I love the font  - it reminds me that the word fabulous is probably related to the word fable (it looks like fairy tale font to me!)

I made it magical by using a Kaleidecolor pad and repeating it:


and then went graphic with some brightly coloured stripes:



Don't forget that if you didn't come here via the blog hop,  the whole DT has more inspiration for you:

and  August Guest Designer: Ardyth (that's me)!

I'll be back tomorrow with cards made with another new set for this month's release!

Wednesday 7 August 2013

Meeting Blog Friends


The best part of blogging is all the wonderful new friends we meet, wouldn't you agree? Today, I got to meet one of my blog friends in real life! Tracey McNeely and I had lunch together in Toronto to celebrate our impromptu collaboration at CASology last week, when Melissa had to hand the controls over to us while she went a little earlier than expected to give birth to lovely baby Bryna!

Tracey and I had a wonderful lunch and were chatting away like old friends the whole time. Which, of course, we are - we've 'known' each other since Melissa brought us together as members of the CASology DT last summer.

For dessert, we indulged and had these little warm Italian donuts, served on a bed of lemon curd and cream, and the waitress insisted she bring us a little caramel sauce on the side. YUM!

And speaking of dessert, don't forget to play along with this week's CASology Cue Card. The deadline is Sunday at 4:00 pm CST.







Introducing: Background Builders: Flower Power (Uniko Studio's August Release)

Today's the day!  You get to see the first set of the August release for Uniko Studios - Background Builders: Flower Power!

I am so honoured that Beverly contacted me and asked me to be the Guest Designer for this month's release. And I've been having so much fun playing with these new stamp sets and dies - I can't wait for you to see them all! They'll be available for purchase on August 11 and a there's a chance for you to win the entire release!

This flowery background set comes with 5 different flowered backgrounds. I completely fell in love with two of the solid flower background stamps - the posy (my name, not an official one) and the daisy, which I've featured today.


I was intrigued with the way that each stamp is two rows of flowers, offset, so that the ends are angled rather than straight. For the first card, I took advantage of that feature to enable me to make the chevrons out of the posy background. (and oops, you're getting an ahead-of-time sneak peek at another new set there!)



For my second card, I used the posies, a rainbow of colours and a sentiment from the previously released Time set.



Finally, I used the daisy background stamp to create this field by embossing in clear, sponging green over the top and then colouring each centre with a yellow Copic marker. I used another Time sentiment to finish.

There's lots more to see - the whole DT has been working hard to provide you with inspiration of how to use this stamp set for today's blog hop - if you followed the hop, MASKerade is the last stop, but if you haven't been on the hop here are the links:

and  August Guest Designer: Ardyth (that's me)!

I'll be back tomorrow with cards made with another new set for this month's release!