CAS(E) This Sketch 82

Hello!

Well, hasn't this week just whizzed by? Here we are again with a new sketch at CAS(E) This Sketch! This week the sketch has a cute little monster in the corner. Not having a monster to work with, I chose the next cutest thing in my stamp collection... you guessed it... a PANDA! A dancing panda in a flurry of flowers at that!

I used Mama Elephant Pandamonium and Papertrey Ink Sweet Speech stamps. Inks are Memento Luxe and Mama Elephant.

This week is Jen's last week with us on the CTS design team. I'm going to miss her on the team, we all will.

I am away from home for work again this week. I can't wait to get home to my girls and my hubby. I miss them when I'm away.

Thank-you for visiting me. I hope to find some time this week-end to come visiting some of you, too!

Michelle
xxx

Case Study 197

Hello!

Do you sometimes start making a card with one idea in your head and then end up in a completely different place? This is what happened with my card for this week's Case Study Challenge. The inspiration provided by Pamela Ho's awesome card definitely spoke of circles and vellum to me, but I picked up rectangles and kept going with that theme. :-) I did keep with the colour scheme. ;-)

This is my card.

I used Altenew Label Love stamps. Inks are Memento Luxe in Tuxedo Black and Morocco.

My kids have started school holidays. They are enjoying vacation care this week. Their smiles make me feel better about the fact that I can't take holidays with them. :-)

Thank-you for visiting!

Michelle
xxx

Muse 72 and CASology 100

Hello!

One of my favourite, and very neglected, challenges is Muse Card Club. I really wanted to play along last week, but I didn't make it in time. This week, I'm squeezing in at the last minute, but at least I've made it in time!

Another favourite, and neglected, challenge is CASology. Casology is celebrating their 100th challenge with the cue word, CELEBRATE! Congratulations CASology team on reaching this fabulous milestone!

For this card I took Marion's beautiful layout, changed the colours, and voila! A bright pink celebration!

I used Altenew stamps - Hennah Elements and Label Love.

Thank-you for coming by to visit!

See you again soon!

Michelle
xxx

Curtain Call - Sweet Peas

Hello!

I've found a little time to join in at Curtain Call Challenge: Sweet Pea. I love sweet peas, they are so pretty and they smell so sweet! Today I tried my hand at drawing and watercolouring them.

I hand drew the flowers in the vase and used Cotman water colours. The sentiment is wPlus9 Fresh Cut Florals.

Now to race and get my little girl to her ballet class!

Thanks for visiting!

Michelle

xxx

CAS(E) This Sketch AND Fusion - it's a combined challenge!

Hello!

This week we have an exciting collaboration of CAS(E) This Sketch and Fusion challenges, and I am lucky enough to be on both design teams! The sketch and the inspiration photo both had me running for my craft corner. I saw gold and butterflies, and the sketch is awesome, so a Fusion of both was inevitable.

I used a plethora of product on this card. Hero Arts, Stampin' Up!, Altenew stamps. Lots of gold - ink and smooch spritz. And that fabulous textured patterned paper, Save The Date by Teresa Collins.

For those of you who regularly play with Fusion, we are only running the challenge for one week this week. It will close next Wednesday, 25th June, and then we will take a little one week  holiday before our next challenge. So this week-end will be your only week-end opportunity to join in the fun. I would hate you to miss out!

I can't wait to see how everyone interprets this inspiration! I hope to visit you all soon. :-)

Michelle
xxx

Case Study 196

Hello!

I'm back from a work trip to Sydney! The days were long, and I didn't get to go very far other than the distance I flew: I went from home - airport - train - central station - work - hotel - work - central station - train - airport - home. Flying into Sydney I am reminded anew each time just how beautiful the city is. The walk from work to my hotel wasn't so pretty, it was the backstreets of the city, but it was interesting. In my old job (10 years ago) my Sydney office (and my regular hotel) overlooked the harbour. The view was spectacular. It made it difficult to concentrate on work, lol! It was lucky I was usually in Brisbane, otherwise I would have daydreamed all day of sailing on that beautiful blue harbour.

Anyway... what a long introduction to what is my contribution to the CASE Study Challenge this week. This month's muse is the wonderful Pamelo Ho. This week's inspiration card is super cute and super fun! It made me wish I had some sort of cityscape stamp or die. I was able to find inspiration in the dog and the balloons, and followed this inspiration to my balloon dogs. :-)

I used Avery Elle Party Animal and Mama Elephant Party Kit stamps. Colours are SU! Night of Navy, Old Olive, Barely Banana, and PTI Fine Linen.

I hope you are inspired to join in the fun! Thanks for visiting me!

Michelle
xxx

CAS(E) This Sketch 80

Hello!

Okay, so I may be the very last stamper on the Fresh Cut Florals bandwagon, but it isn't my fault! Really! Every time I went to order this set, it was sold out! This is another case of patience being rewarded. These stamps arrived this week, yippee!! So when I was pondering this week's sketch for CAS(E) This Sketch, it was to these new stamps that I LEAPT. ;-)

The spiral notebook die is brand new, too. Another item that has sat on my wishlist for a LONG time prior to purchase, lol!

Thank-you for visiting! I hope you can join us at CAS(E) this Sketch this week.

Michelle

xxx

Case Study 195

Hello!

I'm just in the honeymoon phase of my love affair with Altenew Hennah Elements. This means that you get to see lots and lots of these stamps in action! This card I made for Case Study Challenge, CASEing the marvellous Pamela Ho.

I first made this card on Smokey Slate cardstock, but the silver was almost invisible, despite the card being stunning (if you looked hard enough). So I changed to PTI Soft Stone with silver embossing. Oh, I love this card! I made it for a friend who is getting married this coming week-end. Don't worry, she doesn't follow my blog. She's one of those people who throws cards away (Gives me shivers just thinking of it!). I keep giving her beautiful cards, working to tempt her to keep one. I live in hope. ;-)

My design was directly inspired by Pamela's gorgeous card.

For those of you following my chicken stories... Penny laid an egg! In fact, she has laid one egg a day since Saturday! Here are the first couple of eggs (with a store-bought egg to the right for comparison). The first one was tiny, like a bantam egg, lol!

Thank-you for visiting! I hope you join us at Case Study this week!

Michelle
xxx

A case of delayed gratification

Hello!

I have always heard that good things come to those who wait.

I am very good at creating my wishlist and slowly and carefully choosing what I pick off the list each time.

BUT.
THIS TIME.
I DIDN'T WANT TO BE GOOD.
I DIDN'T WANT TO WAIT.

But I had to, because the stamps I wanted sold out overnight when they were released (overnight for me, in a few hours during the day in the USA). I'm talking about the "new" Altenew stamps. They aren't quite as new now. But they are brand new for me, because the very first day they were restocked, I jumped online and ordered... and today is the day that they arrived in my mailbox... right in time for the long week-end! Yippee!!!

In an even bigger case of delayed gratification, I only bought two sets. I wanted them all. My budget wouldn't allow me to buy them all at once. You should have seen me agonising over which sets would make the cut, lol!

The cards I'm bringing you now are made using Hennah Elements. Oh my goodness. I don't know that I have been so excited about a stamp set for quite a while. This is superb! The first two cards I made, which I'm bringing you now, I decided to go with the henna tattoo theme. My cards are skin-coloured (PTI Fine Linen) with black patterns.

Hennah Elements is such a versatile set. I think the patterns you can create must be limitless.

Edit to add: I just noticed that my bloggy friend Darnell has reached 500 followers (she has lots of friends besides me!) and is celebrating with a NBUS challenge. Well my brand new stamps mean I qualify for this challenge, so I'm joining in. I'm joining in mostly because Darnell is one of the sweetest and funniest ladies out there in blogland. I have been blessed to get to know her and to receive some of her cards in the mail... which reminds me, I should send her a card to let her know I have not forgotten her. ;-) Congratulations, Darnell!

Thank you for visiting, and putting up with my gushing!

Michelle
xxx

CAS(E) This Sketch 79

If you are here for my Fusion card, scroll down below, or click HERE.

If you are here for my CASE Study card, scroll down a little further, or click HERE.

Hello!

Yes, it's another busy Thursday/Friday on my blog! I'm here with my contribution for CAS(E) This Sketch. :-) I made two cards this week. I could have made more. It's a great sketch!

First up is a card made using PTI Building Blocks dies and stamps. Clean. Simple. And I love all those blues!

For both my cards, I sort of forgot there was a bit of a gap on top of that pile of chevron rectangles... oops!

This second card makes use of my huge supply of black and white washi. I picked them up for my daughter at last year's craft show. That little "HI" sentiment is from Mama Elephant Filigree.

When my hubby looked at this card, he thought I'd made it for my daughter - the moustaches (which she loves), the bird cages, the music, the cameras (for Instagram). I might have to keep it to give to her one day. :-)

I hope you can find some time to join in the fun this week. I'll be looking for you in the gallery!

Michelle

xxx

Fusion 12 - hello blossom!

If you are here to see my Case Study card, scroll on down or click HERE.

Hello!

This week's Fusion Card Challenge has the loveliest inspiration in the world. I didn't yet get to using the sketch, because I fell in love with the photo inspiration immediately and couldn't move past it! :-)

I originally wanted to use tissue paper, but the lack of tissue paper in my house meant I used patterned paper instead.

There is no stamping here, just dies. I used PTI Bloom Builder #3 dies and Wonderful Words: Hello.

Now that sketch is awesome. I really must go back and make a card using it. I have so many ideas for it! Tonight is not the night, though. This week, like the past few weeks, has been exhausting. I have too much happening at work and with the kids and with everything else that my time to myself is extremely limited. I think I could really do with a holiday. Twelve weeks, or perhaps a little more, in the Italian countryside would probably do it. Or even a week at Noosa. I'm not fussy when it comes to holidays right now. ;-)

The rest of the team have made some super cards. I'd love it if you could pop over and visit them too. And then rush right to your crafty space and whip up a card to join in the fun!

Betty JCathy Weber Dannielle RobesonDeepti  Jeanne JachnaJulia AstonKatie BrooksKelly GriglioneKimberly Wiener Lyndal HigginsLynn Mangan Michelle LuptonSindhuStephanie Severin

Thank you for dropping in!

Michelle

xxx

P.S. My chickens are over 21 weeks old and no eggs yet. I'm about to give them a stern talking to about paying for their keep...

Case Study 194

Hello!

It's the start of a brand new month and that means we have a brand new muse at Case Study! June's muse is the super-amazing Pamela Ho! I have been a fan of Pamela's for a long time, probably from when she first started up her blog. This first card is one of my all-time favourite Pamela cards. I pinned it when she first made it and I've wanted to CASE it forever. To be honest, I've just wanted to straight out copy it, it's so awesome!!

This is my card. Nowhere near as creative as Pamela's but I'm pretty sure you can see the inspiration. ;-)

Thank-you for coming by. I hope you can join in with us at Case Study this week.

Michelle
xxx

A bunch of pandas

Hello!

I Googled to find out what a bunch of pandas is called... and I found about four or five answers. It turns out that pandas are solitary, which means they don't usually hang around in groups. The names I found were - embarrassment, cupboard, or sleuth/sloth. Have you ever heard any of these terms describing a bunch of pandas? I certainly haven't, lol!

Anyway, I have made a bunch of pandas into a set of cards. I didn't get a photo of them all together, but here they all are one at a time.

I used Mama Elephant Pandamonium, Party Kit, and So Breezy stamps to create these cards.

Do you have a favourite? I think I may be leaning towards that last little panda holding his bright yellow star balloon. I decided to not add a sentiment to that one because I think he could send a few different messages. :-)

Thanks for visiting! See you again soon!

Michelle

xxx