Friday 31 October 2014

Joy (it's Friday!)

Joy
Hey!

Happy Friday! Happy Halloween! Here's a Christmas card LOL!

Yup, it might be Halloween, but here it's Operation Christmas Cards. I've got a ton of these to whip out in what's proving to be an extremely busy time of year. This is another simple design featuring a combination of two Simon Says Stamp stamp sets: the wreath and berries from Autumn Blessings (designed by Clearly Besotted Stamps for SSS) and the sentiment from the Ornaments stamp set from the Stamptember festivities. I love how an autumnal stamp set can pair up with and complement a festive one. :)

I think the card is pretty self explanatory with its simple design. I'm not sure I can tear myself away from this traditional colour combo with it though!

I'm sure you have many more spooktacular things on the agenda today, so let dash and take this chance to wish you a seriously spooky Halloween. For those of us not celebrating Halloween - happy Friday! Enjoy it and have a wonderful weekend!

Thank you so very, very much for visiting today. I'll be back tomorrow with some Clearly Besotted Stamps sneaky peeks - stay tuned! ;)

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Products used




Wednesday 15 October 2014

CASEing myself...

love peace joy
Hey!

I hope you're well on this fine Friday-Eve. Autumn is officially here (I love it!) and those dark nights are creeping in (I hate it!). Cue my major grumbles at trying to get a decent photo of my projects as I burn the candle at both ends. Roll on the weekend when I can find some daylight to shoot in...

As well as the dark nights, the festive season is approaching and I'm trying to get most of my Christmas crafting done earlier rather than later as we have the small matter of our wedding to plan! ;)

When it comes to being an efficient crafter, I find it easier to CASE a design using different colour combos. It's amazing how different a design can look and the feeling it evokes by simply changing the colours.

Do you recognise today's card? It's a total CASE of my previous card featuring some yummy Simon Says Stamp goodies (check the original, bright fun version of this card here). Same design, different colours - so easy! I love the peaceful tranquility working with neutrals and vellum creates. I'm getting more from my stamps with this design too as this festive flower was created by rotating a fairy light/bauble stamp from the Ornaments STAMPtember set.

Have you started your Christmas crafting yet? I think this must be a record for me! Two cards down, many more to go...!

Gotta keep it short and sweet today but thank you so very, very much for stopping by today. Your visits are always appreciated!

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Friday 10 October 2014

A festive challenge & a winner!

CBS challenge
FYI: This is what happens when you run out of daylight hours in the working week to photograph your projects. Apologies for the poor quality pic - I'll get myself organised over the weekend! 
Hey!

Happy Friday! The weekend starts here and we're kicking it off with a brand new Clearly Besotted Stamps challenge as well as announcing the winner from my 2nd anniversary blog hop post.

First up, the challenge. Having just celebrated one fabulous, festive release we want to see you prepare to celebrate the season with us and create a Christmas project. For my card I inked up the set, Ornamental Style. I'm usually a tradition gal when it comes to Christmas colour combinations but there's something so rich and elegant about purple, gold and cream. :)

tips and tricks

  • I created the top panel of the card by stamping various sized snowflakes in VersaMark ink and dusting them with gold Perfect Pearls.
  • To add more interest to the heat-embossed baubles, I cut out out the centres with a craft knife and backed the apertures with purple cardstock.
  • I adore the script style of the sentiment and the angle of the word 'Christmas' complements the shape of the top panel.
Now it's your turn! I hope you can ink along with us! Check out the full deets of the challenge at Clearly Besotted Stamps HQ (aka Stephanie's blogeroo!)

Before I scoot, it's time to draw a winner from the Clearly Besotted Stamps 2nd anniversary blog hop. So, the winner of a £20 e-giftcard to spend on Clearly Besotted goodies is...*drumroll please*

  • Mary who said... "Love the card! The clothespin embellishment is so cute. Thanks for a chance to win a gift card to this awesome company!"

Congrats, Mary! Please pop me an email and I'll set you up for a happy spending spree at Clearly Besotted Stamps. :)

That's all from me today, but thank you so very much for stopping by! Have a fabulous weekend!

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Sunday 5 October 2014

Happy Birthday, Clearly Besotted Stamps! :D

chalkboard christmas
Hey!

Hip, hip hooray! Clearly Besotted Stamps is 2 today! It's also release day too so we're celebrating in style with a good ol' blog hop full of inspiration and goodies for you to win!




You should have hopped across here from my teamie, Michellebut if you haven't then please start out at CBS HQ!

Today's card features my most favourite stamp ever from the new release. This trendy sentiment stamp from the set, Most Wonderful just called out to be used with the chalkboard technique that I first found here from the talented Betsy Veldman. I couldn't resist some candy-cane style stripes from the older, Diagonal Stripes set and a sprig of holly from the new set, Little Pudding to balance the design. :)

I'm gonna keep things short and sweet for this post as there's plenty of hopping to be done and prizes to be won! Every blog on the hop has a £20 e-giftcard up for grabs so leave a comment below by 7th October and I'll randomly pick a winner! In addition to this, one randomly-selected comment from all the blogs will win the grand prize of a £100 e-giftcard!

Right, it's time for you to get hopping to my most sweet and talented blogging friend - Laurie Willison! She's guaranteed to inspire you!

Thank you so much for stopping by today and for celebrating Clearly Besotted Stamps 2nd birthday in style! :D

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Saturday 4 October 2014

Three things I plan to do...


eat drink be merry
Hey!

*tap* *tap*....is this thing on? Testing 1, 2, 3... Hello! :D

Well, it turns out that wedding planning along with a not-so-new job takes up a lot of time. My creative time has been hard to find, and admittedly I've lacked the mojo to create once I've found a spare moment.

However, I booked Friday off work (there's a certain novelty in being able to do that when you've had your holidays picked for you for the past 10 years!) and sat down at my desk to get busy with the new Clearly Besotted Stamps release. The new goodies are available from Sunday 5th October. Although I felt a little rusty, I was having fun in no time - it helps when you're playing with such great products! ;)

So today's little card (measuring 3x3) gives you a sneak peek of sets, Joy to the World and Most Wonderful. This card also lists the three things I plan to do for the festive season and for this weekend too! I've travelled over to Caryn's and we're both helping Stephanie as Clearly Besotted Stamps attends the Happy Stampers Festival today!

We'll all be tired tomorrow, but nothing waits for a special occasion - stay tuned to find out more tomorrow...!

As always, please pop across to Stephanie's to check out even more sneaky peeks and links to the rest of the amazing CBS Design Team with fabulous creations including our guestie, Jen Nelson!

Thanks so much for stopping by here and apologies for the tumbleweed in between posts!

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Copyright/Disclosure

I am on various design teams and receive free product to use and promote. I geniunely love the products of the companies and all opinons are honest and my own.

I'm flattered if I've inspired you and you want to CASE anything of mine, but please don't enter it for commercial publications or competitions.
Thank You!
All designs, text, and photographs on Crafting Confessions are ©2009-2016 to Amy Gray unless stated otherwise.