Quick splash of colour

  Really quick post as I'm off to bed but wanted to get this blogged. I only had time for a quick play at the craft desk this weekend and so stuck with CAS cards.

This one is based on the Colour Splash challenge over at The Play Date Cafe. I just adore this Hot pink combined with Black and so had to give it a go.

The border is stamped and embossed in Black (have lost the packaging so can't remember the stamp brand), then I die cut a Marianne creatables butterfly added some ric-rak and stickles and there you have it.  The pink looks a bit coral coloured on here but it was really more like the hot pink of the colour splash photo.

I'm also sharing this at

Less is More - Punches/die cuts

Moving along with the Times - get well soon

CAS cards

Been a while since I made any cards just because I wanted to so after browsing some challenge sites yesterday, I decided to spend some time at my desk creating a CAS card. This first is inspired by the 'On the Red Carpet' theme over at CASual-Fridays. The movie I chose is 'The red Shoes'. I've coveted this ballerina stamp from Happy Daze for ages and finally treated myself this week so just had to use it.

I stamped in white, embossed in pearl and then painted her shoes on with red liquid pearls. The swirl stamp is from Artistic Stamper and the sentiment a rub on from my stash. I’m also sharing this at Just Add Ink where the theme is ‘red and white’ (hope the black card stock is allowed) and Gingersnaps Chestnut Challenge – ‘Words of Wisdom’.

The second card is one I made a few weeks ago for Stamp Addicts and haven't blogged yet. I'm sharing it in the anniversary Challenge over at Less is More which is a colour challenge - Aqua. Sorry about the awful photo, it's really blurry for some reason and I can't retake it as I don't have the card anymore! I masked a square and used distress inks to create a graduated panel which I stamped over in Stone Grey Stazon. Also added a touch of ink around the edges.

Hope you’ve enjoyed the weekend – not looking forward to braving the snow in the morning ! Esther xx

CAS trio

It's time for the first Craft-Room Challenge of the New Year,  You could win £10 to spend at the  Craft-Room  shop - but don't forget to display the shop logo linked to the website in order to be eligible. There's a sale on over at the shop til Jan 13th too so it's a good time to pop over and grab some bargains.  It was my turn to choose the theme this time and I went with CAS - I love this style and it seems to have just exploded on the creative scene since I started my blogging life !

This card is made using Milled Lavender Distress stain as a first layer, some brush strokes of Inktense block, and Dusty Concord sponged through a harlequin stencil. The spiral stamps are Hero Arts - a little set of four I've had for ever! Had to add a bit of bling too didn't I ! I'm sharing this at

 Less is More - Predominantly Purple 

Gingernsaps Creations Chestnut theme - Use a set of stamps 

Sir Stampalot - monochromatic

I was then on a bit of a roll so went on to make this one too - similar technique just a change of colour and occasion. Same spiral stamps and the freebie from this months Craft Stamper magazine.

I'm sharing this one at

My Time to Craft  - hugs and kisses

Papertake Weekly  -  Anything Goes

 Penny Black and more at Allsorts - Love and Hearts

I didn't want to stop at two cards so I looked for inspiration for a third colour scheme - and decided upon the Play Date Cafe Challenge. Aren't these beautiful colours - Mint, Juniper and Vanilla. I used my chalk inks for this one - love the soft finish they give and added a chipboard Butterfly.

As well as the PDC I'm sharing this one at -

CASual Friday - Use Chipboard

The Friday Mash Up - Birthday and Chalk

I had great fun making these cards and they were so quick to come together once I had the initial design idea - come and join in at the Craft Room, looking forward to seeing your CAS creations....Esther xx

Let it Snow...

.....well no not really - I know it's pretty but i'm in no hurry to have to battle the snow to get to work. But I have enjoyed being a bit creative with a snowy theme today. It's been ages since I've had time to browse through blogland but I did a bit of hopping this morning and found inspiration to try something a bit different. Brenda at Floral fantasies has a tutorial for these ornaments. Brenda uses DP, but I got out my inks and stamps and did what I do best - make an inky mess. I clear embossed Crafty Individuals snowflakes on half the pieces and coloured with Faded Jeans Distress inks. The other pieces I coloured with Tumbled Glass DI and stamped with Faded Jeans.

For the Centre piece I stamped a PSX snowman (The first Christmas stamp I ever bought and I still love it) onto a scalloped circle coloured with DI , added some colour with Promarkers and triple clear embossed over the lot.  On the final layer I sprinkled a little white embossing powder and love how it turned out - I think it looks a bit like floating snow. All I have to do now is decide where to hang it.

I'm sharing this here -

The Stamp Man - Create an Ornament

The Artistic Stamper - Christmas

Craft Your days Away - Snowmen

Moving Along with The Times - Last minute Christmas

Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes

Winter Wonderland - Let it Snow

My second make today was a simple card - having to do quick cards now as rapidly running out of time. Inspired by CAS-ual Fridays I made some snowflake masks, sprayed with Perfect pearls mist, then layered a sheet of acetate over the top stamped with white snowflakes , kept in place with brads.  

Hope you've all enjoyed the weekend  - Thanks for stopping by...Esther xx

You Rock

Time for another Craft-Room challenge and this week Mervi wanted us to remember the men in our lives - my card was made with my other half in mind even though it's not his birthday til March, he's a big rock fan and I've used a fab set of stamps from inkadinkadoo.

I've used the sketch from CAS-ual fridays for inspiration and over at Less is More this week the theme is stars and I have some of those on my card too. Moving Along with the Times is also hosting a Male themed challenge so I'm entering this there too.

I know we all struggle with male cards so I hope you find some inspiration from our Design Team samples and join us with your creations over at Craft-Room. I look forward as always to visiting and seeing what you create...... Esther xx

Quick LIM Christmas

Hi - quick dash on here inbetween report writing. I'm working from home today and needed a break from the tediousness of trying to catch up with the paperwork that seems to be never ending. So I've hopped on to share my card for this weeks Less is More challenge. The lovely ladies' theme this week is a one layer card with

I made my card  when my mum popped over for a crafty session a few days ago. She had some tapestry snowflake stamps but didn't know what to do with them so we had a play and my card was created. While browsing the entries before writing my post I noticed I haven't been the only one with the idea of stamping through a heart template - including Mandi, but hopefully mine is different enough. I've used my new Martha Stewart Punch (courtesy of my Simon Says prize) down the edge, added a sentiment and a few touches of stickles !

Not a great photo sorry - it's so dark here today! Also sharing at Creative Inspirations where the theme is one layer cards.

Well better get back to it..at least we're nearly at the weekend !!

Esther xx

More Christmas….

I never thought it would happen…but..I’ve been making more Christmas Cards in July!! The cause of this unheard of event was the arrival of more Design Team stamps. Thankfully they were a joy to work with and inspiration kept flowing all weekend…here’s just a couple of samples -
I’m sharing this at Less Is More where the theme this week is ‘Feeling Fruity’ – I’d never really done CAS cards before coming across this challenge site when it started six months ago and am so glad I gave it a go because I’ve loved creating them – so thank you ladies - long may it continue!!

This wintery one uses the same tree as the first but with such a different look, I’ve used monochromatic colours and am entering this at The Secret Crafter as this is their theme.  I’m also entering it at Allsorts who have a final Free and Easy week.

Thanks for visiting, Esther xx

The stamps used are all from Stamp Addicts and will be on Create and Craft, 9th August @1.00pm.

Quick splash of colour

Hello – hope you’re enjoying the weekend - we had a lovely time with friends for a BBQ yesterday so was out most of the day but just found time to make a quick card for some challenges this afternoon. Looking at this photo I think it looks a bit wonky – but IRL it looks straight, maybe it’s the camera angle?!  

Over at The Play Date Cafe it’s colour splash week and this time we get to choose the colour so of course it had to be purple! I’ve used a Penny Black stamp and my Nesties and am also sharing this here -
Less Is More – Button or Ribbon
Penny Black at Allsorts – Flower Power
Inspire Me Fridays

Sketchy colour ways

I had some craft time today just for me…my DT stuff is up to date and so I made just what I fancied! I used several challenges for inspiration – which lead me to my first card – very unusual for me to make a patriotic card, mainly because I’m really not keen on the colours, but when I saw the sketch at Less is More and the 3D challenge at Just Us Girls the idea came to me straight away so I went with it…

I’m not sure if the Rosettes are a bit big for it to be CAS – never really sure of the boundaries so I’m relying on the LIM girls to tell me! I’ve embossed a white panel with Swiss Dots and edged with a hint of silver which doesn’t really show up here. I’m going to add this to challenges at Moving Along with the Times – CAS, Stamp Something – Red, White and Blue and Secret Crafter – Embossing.

My next card is completely different but also inspired by  sketch and colour themed challenges – namely Lili of the Valley’s sketch and The Ribbon Girl’s colour theme (Pink and Cream) I do like a bit of girly pink sometimes! The ribbon looks peachy on here but it is more Dk cream in RL

I’ve coloured the LOV image with Pro-markers and used Paper Pizazz DP to layer with my plain CS. Other challenges for this card are -

I love Pro-markers – Anything Goes

Passion for Pro-markers – Park Life

Totally Papercraft – Spots and Stripes

Well that’s me for today – thanks for stopping by, Esther xx

Busy, Busy…

Happy Bank Holiday Weekend for those of you who have one (like me…yipee!!)..I’ve had a busy day doing stuff that I can’t share at the moment, but I did manage one card for some challenges, so here it is…

It’s an A5 card and I’ve used Tim Holtz September 2008 technique as instructed by the lovely Linda over at Studio L3 for this weeks Grungy Monday.  This is one of my favourate techniques actually, I love the watercolour effect you can get with it using bold stamps and think this Penny Black stamp ( think it’s called Lofty) works just perfectly. So as you may have guessed I’m also entering this into the Penny Black Saturday challenge - ‘One for the Girlies’.

  The design of the card was inspired by this weeks Less is More challenge which asks us to ‘Pick a square’  - well, mine’s a rectangle but those in charge at LIM said that was allowed! After using Tim's watercolour technique I painted some more watercolour paper with the same inks to make a perfectly co-coordinating mat and simply layered them up and added the little gold butterfly, which was once a button. As well as those already mentioned I’m also entering this into the following challenges -

• Secret Crafter Saturday  - Clean and Simple
• Papertake Weekly – pale, pretty pastels
• Stamp Something – Sentiment 

Hope you enjoy the rest of the weekend.....Esther xx

WOYWW (a little early)

Goodness it's that time to join in the desk hopping with Julia again (well nearly if you're seeing this on Tuesday night!), where has the week gone ? Hop on over the The Stamping Ground to see what I'm on about!  It's been a busy one for me what with my friends wedding but I've still managed to find some time to craft   - but not to tidy up and my desk is proof of that! I'm currently cutting some Nestie labels to go with the other crafty stuff I've bought my mum for her birthday. She doesn't have a die cutting machine so every now and again and I do her a supply and these are new dies I recently purchased. You can see my wallet of scrap paper there - trying to be good and use it up! Peeking out from behind that is the latest version of Craft Stamper magazine in which I found inspiration for this card -

I've made it to enter into at The Play Date Cafe (which is why this post is out early to meet their deadline!) and it's based on the colours from this beautiful photo. I made a wrinkle free distress ink background, stamped and embossed in white and added a stamped border and beautiful Nestie shape with a greeting.

I also managed to finish an entry for the Less is More 'White on White' challenge. Really enjoyed doing this but the girls are right it was very tricky to photograph! I stamped with an Elusive Images stamp (still out from my previous Poppy card!), embossed in pearl, used an embossing folder on the back panel and added the flowers, ribbon and flower gems. 

 Happy WOYWW everyone, thanks for your visit, Esther xx