Bee Happy!

Our garden is currently abuzz with bees, so it feels appropriate to be posting this card. It's a response to Less Is More's challenge #412: Tiny and Few. Because of the nature of the challenge, I've kept things super simple. I was in two minds about buying the Honey Bee bundle from Stampin' Up!, but now it's here, I love it!
The card:

The ingredients: 

Stampin' Up card: Thick Whisper White, gold foil, Whisper White.

Also:

Pink bubble celebration

I absolutely loved the colour combo from CAS Colours and Sketches #341: Smoky Slate, Rococo Rose and Mint Macaron, but it took me a while to work out what to do with them. Thanks, CAS(E) this Sketch #342, for providing a great sketch as a starting point: when I saw that pair of vertical blocks, I immediately thought of champagne glasses!

Here's the card. I like the earthiness of Rococo Rose here - saves the card from being too sweet. 

Ingredients: 

Stampin' Up! card (Very Vanilla, Smoky Slate, Mint Macaron), ink, (Smoky Slate, Rococo Rose), Sip Sip Hooray stamps, Itty Bitty Greetings stamps, Sip & Celebrate dies, Layering Ovals dies, In Colour 2019-2020 DSP, Mint Macaron ribbon

Other: francheville pearls

Cheers!

I saw the latest CASOLOGY challenge - Week 326 - as I was languishing inside to escape the heat of a Hawke's Bay (New Zealand) summer - so the challenge word 'Frozen' had one and only response - ice - as in ice cubes!  I hope this antipodean response is okay!
It's a pretty CAS card - but I did get to use my new Stitched Rectangles, which was fun.

Ingredients:
Stampin' Up! card (Whisper White, Thick Whisper White) ink, (Grapefruit Grove, Tangerine Tango, Crushed Curry, Melon Mambo), stamps (Mixed Drinks), dies (Stitched Rectangles).

Celebrating with Retro Rubber!

Congratulations, Retro Rubber, on reaching your 100th challenge! And what a great idea, to make a blog-hop challenge. 

In the middle of the excitement of new stuff, it's so nice to be reminded of older stamps and dies. For this card, I returned to the 'Shake and Celebrate' stamps and accompanying dies from the 2016 Holiday Catalogue, which I under-utilised when I got them. I think I limited my thinking to just shaker cards, so for this I thought about using them as 'normal' stamps and dies. I also used Affectionately Yours DSP from the 2016 - 2017 Annual Catalogue.

So, Retro Rubber, here's a celebratory cake, with the added elements (from the bottom of your grid) of heat embossing (the sentiment and heart - they were hard to catch in a photo) and glitter paper. 

Ingredients:

Stampin' Up! card: (Whisper White, Night of Navy), glitter paper (copper), iDSP( Affectionately yours), ink (Cucumber Crush, Watermelon Wonder, Basic Black) stamps (Shake and Celebrate) and dies (Shaker Shapes)

Cloud celebration

A CAS card for two CAS challenges today: CASOLOGY's #308 'Cloud'  and CAS(E) this Sketch's #281. 
I imagine I'll use this as a baby card, but I kept the sentiment a little more generic to broaden the card's potential.
There's something so calming, for me, about sponging clouds onto paper. I should do it more often!

Ingredients:
Stampin' Up ink (Soft Sky, Watermelon Wonder, Basic Black, Smoky Slate), card (Shimmery White, Soft Sky), stamps (Balloon Celebration, Thoughtful Banners (sentiment)), thinlits (Up and Away to make a mask to sponge).
Other products: American Craft twine, Rosies stamp - 'spread your beautiful wings'.

Celebrate

This card is just in time to celebrate with the Paper Players - congratulations to the team on their 400th challenge! I used a sketch from Freshly Made Sketches as a starting point. I had my first go with Stampin' Ups Make a Difference stamps. It may be my last - talk about fiddly! (Patience is not my strong point.) Still, I did manage to spell one pretty simple word! I love the smudgy dots in the Share What You Love DSP and the little row of candles from Birthday Backgrounds is awesome - that backgrounds set is one of those ones you wonder about buying but turns out to be extremely versatile - I'm glad I got it.

Ingredients
Stampin' Up card (Grapefruit Grove, Rich Razzleberry), Share What You Love DSP, ink (basic black), Stampsets (Make a Difference, Birthday Backgrounds)

Sale-a-Bration Card

This card is a response to two challenges: Freshly Made Sketch's challenge #327 and CAS Colours and Sketches' Challenge #262 - asking for the use of Crushed Curry, Fresh Fig and Lemon Lime Twist. I gave myself the further challenge of using only stamps and dies from the current Stampin' Up Sale-A-Bration catalogue, since I'd acquired a few and not really explored some of them.
The card:

Made Using:

Krafty!

I was immediately drawn to the colour combination in the latest Colour Throwdown Challenge (#476; Kraft, Light Blue and White) and used those colours in Freshly Made Sketch's Challenge #320.  For the koru (swirl) shapes inside the frame, I sponged an embossing folder with blue ink and then embossed the card. I backed the sentiment with Kraft paper to give it a bit more oomph.

Made using:

Stampin' Up: paper (Whisper White, Marina Mist, Kraft) ink (Marina Mist) Quilt Builder and Celebrate You thinlits Glitter Enamel dot.

Other: Craft Creations koru embossing folder and a random bit of blue paper left over from my daughter. 

Hearts & Flowers

I love both the symbolism and the shape of hearts, and am enjoying my recent purchases of Stampin' Up's Sweet and Sassy Framelits and Heart Happiness stamps. Hand Stamped Sentiment's Challenge #281 and Stamp, Ink, Paper's SIP#133 allowed me to use both:

I stamped and then hand-coloured the big heart, and used a little device which both stamps and embosses hearts for the white hearts. 

Made using:

Stampin' Up:Paper (Tempting Turquoise, Whisper White), Sweet and Sassy Framelits, Heart Happiness stamp set, Shake and Celebrate stamp (sentiment) Fashionable Hearts Embosslits, Basic Black ink.

Copic Markers: V122, V04, B02, B05, RV21, G99, YG03, Y21, Y17

Framed Flowers

I thought the latest colour challenge from The Paper Players (#376) was great: Dapper Denim, Lemon Lime Twist and Tranquil Tide. I especially liked how we could choose one other colour to use. I sponged quite an intense background with Dapper Denim and Lemon Lime Twist and framed it with the Tranquil Tide, so chose Pink Pirouette to lightly sponge flowers and for the top layer of the sentiment - just to lighten things up.
The card:

Made using:

Stampin' Up: paper (Whisper White, Basic Black, Shimmering White, Pink Pirouette, Dapper Denim, Tranquil Tide, Lemon Lime Twist); ink (Whisper White, Dapper Denim, Lemon Lime Twist, Pink Pirouette), Celebrate you thinlits (sentiment)

Craft Creations Mega Nesting Rectangle Dies

Sizzix Jim Holtz Small Tattered Florals Thinlits

francheville rhinestones

Bring on the beach

I should probably give this card to myself, to celebrate our upcoming holiday in Samoa. I hope Pacific Point really is the colour of the sky!
The card combines challenges from Paper Players - PP354 - and Hand Stamped Sentiments - #299. I'm loving Stampin' Up's shimmery white paper - a dream to sponge colour onto, and the slight shimmer survives the sponging (although not being photographed!). For the beach/shells, I turned to my trusty New Zealand koru embossing folder, lightly sponging it first with Sahara Sand and Blushing Bride inks so it looked a bit sandy and shelly.
Here's the result:

Made using:
Stampin' Up:
Inks: Pacific Point, Bermuda Bay, Blushing Bride, Sahara Sand, Watermelon Wonder, Real Red.
Paper: Whisper White, Shimmery White
Up and Away Thinlit dies (clouds) and Day at the Beach stamp set (starfish)
Other products: Sizzix Celebrate drop-in sentiments, francheville 'rope', craft creations koru embossing folder

White (and silver!) Wedding

As I potter around on Pinterest, I occasionally see cards made of only one colour. I'm especially impressed by the all-white ones, and what the craftspeople do to give the cards impact and flair, using the white to full advantage. I'm a bit of a fan of colour, but I thought I'd see if I could accomplish what these wonderful people are doing, using As You See It's Challenge 'Love and Marriage' and The Paper Players' PP346 sketch challenge to spur me on. 

Well, to cut a long story short, I COULDN'T! I just had to add silver (Is silver a colour? It is, isn't it...). So it doesn't really count as an all-white card, but I like it anyway. (Although it was extremely hard to do it justice when I was taking the photos.) Now I just have to wait for someone I know to get married!

Made Using: Stampin' Up Whisper White card, Bloomin' Love and Thoughtful Banners stamp set, Bloomin' Hearts thinlits, Squares Collection framelits and silver embossing powder.

Ohter products: ek 1" corner punch, American Craft Pow! silver glitter paper, Francheville pearls and design objectives cut and emboss folder - floral pattern.

Birthday Bouquet

Goodness - it feels like a long time since I've posted here, but it's only been a couple of weeks. Funny how, when you go away for a holiday, it seems to make your 'normal' life seem so distant. Anyway, when I came back and saw the colours at CAS Colours and Sketches this week, I knew I had to enter - I just loved them:

Added impetus was provided by Less is More's invitation to use a frame. I'd been wanting to try something a friend and I had discussed - using a square framelit to make a rectangular frame.
This is the card I ended up with:

Made using:

Paper: Stampin' Up's Pacific Point, Rich Razzleberry, Old Olive, Whisper White, Basic Black

Ink: Stampin' Up's Pacific Point, Rich Razzleberry, Old Olive

Stamp: My Favourite Things' Kitschy Kitchen

Dies: Stampin' Up's Stitched Shapes, My Favourite Things' Kitschy Kitchen and I'm not sure which bit of the last one is the name - so - Sizzix/Drop-ins/Stephanie Barnard's Celebrate Sentiments.

CASology Week 215: Bark

Bark! Which way to go? Well, I've been looking for a way to use the cute little dog in the Stampin' Up 'Beautiful Ride' stamp set for ages, so figured this was my chance. He strikes me as a happy little guy, so I decided to make him bark at a party - and every party needs balloons!

Made using:

Card: Stampin' Up Whisper White, Pacific Point, Basic Black

Ink: Memento Black; other colours Faber Castell Watercolour Pencils

Stamp: Stampin' Up Beautiful Ride

Other: Stampin' Up Dimensionals