Love - Sweet Stampin'

 Morning all!

New challenge time over at Sweet Stampin', and it is once again time for your creations celebrating love!

A super simple card from me, using some funky paper, silver mirri card and a sentiment stamp. I tried this card several different ways, and when it works it's 100% down to the paper. Flimsy cheap papers make the card look equally flimsy and cheap. This paper is super thick with a linen texture and looks absolutely brilliant in person. So my tip: Treat yourself to some fancy papers. you know you want to ;)

Over to you guys now, please do come play with us!

Have a fantabulous weekend!

Sammy-x

Clean and Simple - Sweet Stampin'

Morning all,

Time for what is for me one of the harder themes of all over at Sweet Stampin' this week! We're looking for your clean and simple makes.

You know me, I'm more of a fuss and frills crafter usually, and I find CAS much more difficult. However, my buddy is rather fond of CAS designs, so as this year's Star Wars Day celebrations (the 4th of May) were hampered by lockdown, I decided to send him a card instead.

Luckily I had the perfect stamp set from The Ink Road, which I picked up at a craft fair last year. I have SO many cards planned with this set...

For this theme, I kept it very CAS indeed...

I know there's a joke there about face masks (which may or may not have been part of what I wrote inside said card, lol)...

Now then, over to you guys! Time to show us your CAS makes (if you're anything like me, you may need to sit on your hands to refrain from adding lots of layers and throwing embellishments at it by the handful, lol) .

Have an awesomesauce weekend!

Sammy-x

CAS - Sweet Stampin'

Hello all,

So sorry about the late post this week. no excuse, just a leaky brain! We started a new challenge for Sweet Stampin' on Saturday, and the theme this week is Clean and simple.

Now most of you will know this is not my favourite theme. In fact, it tends to rather terrify me if I think about it too much, so instead of thinking, I'll just go ahead and share my card!

Surprisingly, I am actually rather pleased with how it turned out! I would have preferred a larger, fancier sentiment, but I actually have remarkably few of those, and none of them worked. Still, I really love this Kenny K image, and the whole retro feel.

Anyways, enough babbling from me... It's over to you. Please do come play with us this week!

Have a fantabulous day!

Sammy-x

BINGO! - Sweet Stampin'

Good morning stampers!

New challenge time over at Sweet Stampin', and this week we have a super fun bingo board for you all to play with!

Oh I do love bingo boards!

So I was going to try and go for a full house, but then this happened, with a little help from my brand new Tim Holtz stamping platform I got (myself) for Christmas:

Distress - Sentiment - Stars

How cool is that! I'm gonna try some more with oxides instead of distress inks next. I will probably make something with that background for hubby's birthday too, him being a sci-fi nut and all.

I hope you'll find some time to come play with us!

Have a great weekend!

Sammy-x

Last minute Christmas/CAS Christmas - Sweet Stampin'

Good morning all?

Need some ideas for last-minute Christmas cards because you joined me in procrastinating all year and are now woefully behind?
Then this fortnight's challenge over at Sweet Stampin' is the one for you! we've all prepared you some Last minute Christmas card ideas, and gathered them up over at the sweet Stampin' blog.
Maybe you have some good last minute or CAS Christmas card ideas too? If so, come and share them with us!

I came up with two very different designs (and made many of each, because as I said - I left it all waaaaay too late!)

I'm loving the blackboard-style stamp from LOTV, and it goes so well with the lovely traditional papers.

I did some more heat embossing for my next card, but went in a whole different direction:

There's something about heat embossed gold that just screams "Christmas", I think...

Over to you! Please come and share your ideas over on the blog. we'll be running this challenge for two weeks while we all take a much needed break for Christmas. All will be back to our regular schedule in January.

Have a great weekend!

Sammy-x

It's our birthday!! - Sweet stampin'

Morning all,

It's not my week over at Sweet Stampin', but I just had to play along, seeing as how this is our eighth birthday! The theme - unsurprisingly - is birthdays, and we hope you'll come celebrate with us!

So here's my contribution... a birthday card I made for a very musical friend (who is a little older than 8, lol).

It's very CAS, but he likes that kind of thing, lol.

Now it's over to you, but don't forget to come and see what my fellow Sweeties have made for you this week!

Have a great weekend,

Sammy-x

Heat embossing - Sweet Stampin'

Good morning all,

It's Saturday, and you know what that means... Yep, new challenge time over at Sweet Stampin'! this week, our theme is heat embossing.


For my card I re-visited the industrial/chalkboard technique that I loved so much when Sir Tim used it in his 12 tags.
I found it translates pretty well to cards too. especially when said card is for hubby, who is an engineer (couldn't resist the fab embossing folder!) and loves his beer.

I heat embossed the stamp onto black card with white powder, and lightly went over parts of it with a piece of chalk to give it that dusty look that chalkboards often have.
A little bit of black twine finishes it off.

And there it is. Now it's your turn. I hope you'll come play with us this week!

Have an awesomesauce weekend!

Sammy-x

Doodling - Sweet Stampin'

Good morning stampers!

It's new challenge time at Sweet Stampin', and I have to admit... it's the one I dread! Yep, time for our Doodling challenge.

As you probably all know by now, I'm not a doodler. I really, really have no idea what to do, and never like how things come out. I even usually use stamps to do faux stitching on projects!

But luckily for me, my daughter is quite the opposite, and she came to the rescue by doing a zentangle heart for me to pop on a card.

Isn't she clever?

Now I know some of you are expert doodlers, so I hope you'll have a go and come play with us this week. you know you want to...

Have a great weekend!

Sammy-x

Something old - Sweet Stampin'

Morning all,

It's challenge time over at Sweet Stampin', and this week the theme is Use some very old stash.

So dig out your old, neglected stash, and play along with us!

I made a card using my second-oldest paper pad (Dovecraft Garden Party) and some punches I've had since Adam was a lad and I never use...

And the heart gems? Another very early buy (from the pound shop). The sentiment I think was a magazine freebie, and therefore also pretty old, as I unsubscribed from them all a couple of years ago!

Over to you!

Have a fantabulous weekend!

Sammy-x

humour - Sweet Stampin'

Morning all,

It's time for a new challenge at Sweet Stampin', and this week our theme is humour. we can all do with a laugh now and then, so I'm really looking forward to seeing the entries this week!

I decided to provide you with not one, but two smiles, so here is card one of two...

The sentiment certainly made me chuckle, and I thought the clothes peg was the perfect accompaniment. Of course, there's always the chance that people won't "get it", but I rather thought it was amusing, lol.

The chappy in this next card, a bugaboo digi, looks exactly like someone I work with, so this card will be reserved for his next birthday!

And that's it from me...

Hope you all have a fantabulous (bank holiday) weekend.

Sammy-x

Mother's day/Special lady - Sweet Stampin'

Hi all,

It's nearly mother's day here in the UK, and Sweet Stampin' has a theme this week to mark the occasion: Mother's day (or for a special lady).

My mother loves two things very much, Tigers and music. She plays several instruments, and I try to always incorporate a little something music themed into things I make for her.
This year I've gone for a super CAS black and white look...

I was so happy to find the Stamp N' Stor tiger stamp at Samuel Taylors, as I hadn't found a single tiger stamp until now. When I say my mum loves tigers, I mean she LOVES tigers. I'm not sure there's anywhere in her house you can look and not see them!

This was so very difficult for me to make, as I'm still not quite comfortable with CAS, and white space scares me! Still, I'm happy with the effect the washi tape gives - an extra little something, without taking too much attention away from the tiger.

Ok, your turn now! Come play with us at Sweet Stampin' this week, and don't forget to take a peek at what my fellow Sweeties have been up to.

Have a fantabulous weekend!

Sammy-x

Flowers - Sweet Stampin'

Morning all,

Another week, another challenge at Sweet Stampin' and this week we're looking for flowers (I'm expecting LOTS of entries for this one, lol).

I considered going the shabby route for this, but figured I'd do something completely different (for me) and made this instead:

I watercoloured a Stamp n' Stor vase stamp, die-cut a stem, and added a Prima flower. A simple sentiment and some Enamel Accents to finish it off...

I was going to use actual stitching on the border, but have misplaced my mini sewing machine! lol.

Over to you guys,

Have a fantabulous weekend!

Sammy-x

Outdoors - Sweet Stampin'

Good morning ladies and gents,

Another Saturday, another Sweet Stampin' challenge. This week the theme is Outdoors, and we're sponsored by the fab All Dressed up!

I got to play with the super fun image Summer Fayre, and as it is such a beautiful detailed image, I decided to leave it about as CAS as it comes!

The background paper is a LOTV, and I coloured the image to match with my Promarkers. There's some pretty sparkle on some of the bunting and cupcakes too, but you know how that goes with photographs!

I hope you'll go take a peek at what my fellow Sweeties have been up to, and then come and play along!

Have a fantastic weekend!

Sammy-x

Troublesome teens - Sweet Stampin'

Morning all,

I've come to tell you about the latest challenge at Sweet Stampin'. Yes, I know it's not my week, but it just so happened to be my son's best friend's birthday recently, and of course he needed a card. Which brings me to the theme...

Troublesome teens

Because let's face it... They really are! And if making a card for a 13 year old boy wasn't challenging enough, the teen in question also happens to be colour blind, so I wanted to make a card that he'd actually be able to see properly, so to speak.

For those who don't know how it works, and would maybe like some info for future crafting reference, read on. Otherwise, please scroll on for the card.

There are, to simplify rather a bit - forgive me, three main types of colour blindness. The full colour blindness, which means all colours are difficult, is thankfully very rare. If you're making a card for someone so afflicted, you're pretty much scuppered, lol.

The next one is blue/yellow colour blindness, which means people who suffer from it struggle with those colours. Reds and pinks are a good option for them. This is more common, but still relatively rare.

The most common type of colour blindness is red/green. These colours tend to look grey or brownish and will often get mixed up by someone with this type. Purples and oranges can also be tricky, so the best colours are blues and yellows.

There are other variations, and there's a LOT better info out there (including fancy Latin names and all that), but this will hopefully give you a rough idea. As an added bit of info: It's far more common in men than in women.

If you made it through all that, well done! On to the card. I hope that if you read the above, you'll be able to figure out what type of colour blindness the recipient has.

Forgiveness for the photo quality... we were having a particularly dreary few days around then!

I'm happy to report that the recipient loved his card, which sports a very useful Kenny K image I'll no doubt be using again

That's it from me today (it's enough, I'd say!). I hope you all have a most awesomesauce weekend!

Sammy-x

CAS birthday card

Hi all,

I made a card recently for a male friend who is fond of the minimalist look... I have to admit that although I've been making quite a few CAS cards recently, I still really struggle. It's so hard to resist the urge to throw embellishments at it! lol.

Anyways, this just uses some alphabet dies, a stamp, bakers' twine and a charm.

And that's about as CAS as I get! (let's face it, anything less and I'd be sending a blank piece of card in the post!)

Hope you're all having a lovely day!

Sammy-x

Boys and their toys - Sweet Stampin' DT

Good morning Bloggers!

Are you ready for a new challenge? How about a masculine one? (I can hear some of you groan from over here!) But if you're anything like me, the Boys and their Toys theme at Sweet Stampin' is a welcome one.
I love making cards for boys, but don't seem to do many of them these days!

The image I used on this card is of course LOTV, and the paper is from Docrafts from the Wellington bear pack from three years ago. Wellington was who got me crafting in the first place, so I very much enjoyed digging the papers out from the back of the box! :-)

I hope you'll all find the time to play along!

Have a fantabulous weekend!

Sammy-x

Around the world - The Crafting Cafe DT

Morning bloggers!

If all goes according to plan, I shall be soaking up the sun rain as you're reading this, as we'll be away on our hols. Weather forecast is miserable, so this could be fun, lol.

What is much more fun, is the current challenge at The Crafting Cafe, which this month has the theme of Around the World. As our holiday didn't involve leaving the country, I figured I'd use this fab image from our sponsor Bugaboo, and make a card for my brother.

The sentiment is in Doric, a dialect spoken in North-East Scotland, and means "How are you?" (which I added to the bottom of the card, as you can see.) It's a bit of an in-joke, as my brother is becoming more and more intelligible every time we see him. I'm sure he's making half of it up! ;-)

There's still a week to enter this month, so I hope you'll come and play along!

Have a great week!

Sammy-x

CAS - Sweet Stampin' DT

Morning all!

Well, there's a scary (for me anyway) theme this week at Sweet Stampin... We're looking for your CAS creations.

I took the opportunity to make a birthday card which had been requested, and used a fab Annabel image from LOTV, and very little else!

(apologies for the photo. My camera had a hissy fit and reset itself to its default settings and try as I might I can't seem to get it to behave. Hence the dark and slightly out-of-focus photo. The wonkiness however is all me!)

Now the sentiment happens to include two of my pet hates (2 and U instead of to and you), but it was requested as such, and it does go with the image.

I know for a fact there are many, many of you that are CAS experts, so I hope you'll come and play along with us this week

Have an awesomesauce weekend!

Sammy-x

Colour Palette - Buckwells Crafty Challenge DT

Good morning all, my first post today is for Buckwells Crafty challenge, where we have a gorgeous colour palette to play with in this month's challenge!

Isn't it pretty?

I decided to use all the colours on a fabulous image from Sponsor Lacy Sunshine and went with a super CAScard!

Apart from the pink mat, the only thing I did was heat emboss the sentiment. It's rather more CAS than my usual, but I do try to be brave and give it a whirl from time to time, lol.

I hope you'll all find the time to go take a peek at my fellow teamies' creations, and then why not come and have a go too?

I'll be back in an hour!

Sammy-x

Autumn - Sweet Stampin' DT

Good morning all,

It's Autumn over at Sweet Stampin' this week!

I'd finally managed to get my hands on a Prima doll recently, and was itching to use it. I also really wanted to use a lovely Paris background that I've had in my stash for ages. Now technically, neither of those really scream "autumn", but seeing as how the Paris stamp had trees, I had the idea of colouring them in autumn colours, and hey presto!

This was the result:

As the image itself is so busy, I decided the rest of the card should be quite CAS, so some simple matting and layering and a big silky red bow with only one DP.
The card looks a little brighter than it does in real life, and there seems to be almost no colour on the buildings! One of these days I'll find the perfect way to take these pictures, lol.

Now I'm sure you'll all want to visit the rest of the Sweeties, and then come join in yourselves, as there's a £10 Bunny Zoe voucher to be won!

Have a great weekend, and if you happen to be going to the Harrogate fair on Sunday, keep your eyes peeled for a pink and black plaid hat (my daughter!) and come say howdy!

In the meantime I think I shall play along at the Allsorts challenge blog, where they also have an autumn theme!

Sammy-x