Timeless Elegance

Hello friends,

A new challenge starts today at Double D Challenges. Team Diane is hosting this challenge with the lovely theme of “Lavender and Lace”. The theme of beautiful lavender  colors and romantic lace speaks of timeless elegance for me. The team have created beautiful cards to inspire you – a visit to the Double D Challenge blog will be worthwhile. The prize to win for this challenge is a “Precious Marieke Flower Border die”  and absolutely gorgeous!

I was inspired by the colors and beautiful lace in the photo. I use a Tattered Lace die “Counting the moments” as focal point on my card. I  layered several papers and fancy lace to create a shabby background for the clock. The fun part for me is always to arrange the flowers and bows and I really like the outcome on this card. I finished off with a sentiment die cut from Impression Obsession, a little bit of glitter and sparkling sequins.

Challenges I entered:

• Artistic Inspirations Challenge #171 (ends 02/06) – Anything Goes
• As You Like It Challenge (ends 01/09) – Your Favourite Flower (AND WHY!) I love roses because they are always associated with romance and love and they refreshes my mind with their lovely fragrances.
• Scrapy Land Challenges #59 (ends 01/15) – Anything Goes using any brand of low profile or steel ruled die Scrapy Land sells. (I used  Tattered Lace die “Counting the Moments” (0272) — Impression Obsession sentiment die “For You” (DIE383-C) — Spellbinders Nestabilities “Romantic Rose” (S5-230) for inside)
• Shopping Our Stash Challenge SOS#288 (ends 01/06) – Day of Yore: cards or projects with a vintage/shabby chic/distressed look to it!
• Inspiration Destination Challenges #121 (ends 01/08) – Anything Goes
• A Bit More Time To Craft Challenge #37 (ends 01/15) – Anything Goes

A close-up of the clock

The flowers and bow

The sentiment

A peep at the inside

Project details

White and lilac card-stock —  FabScraps designer paper — Tattered Lace die “Counting the Moments” (0272) — Impression Obsession sentiment die “For You” (DIE383-C) — Spellbinders Nestabilities “Romantic Rose” (S5-230) for inside — Paper flowers in shades of purple — Wax cord — Hug Snug seam binding “Lilac” — Lace — Sequins — Stickles glitter “Lavender” — Tim Holtz distress ink “Milled Lavender” 

That’s it from me today! I hope you like my card. If you do, please leave a comment – I love reading them. Have a great day and happy crafting.

Regards,

Amelia

Something Blue and Coral …

Hello friends,

A card to share for the new challenge at Double D Challenges. The theme for our two weekly challenge this time is “June Wedding” with a color combo of blue and coral/peach. It does not have to be a wedding card…just use the colors! For more information about the challenge and the prize up for grabs visit the Double D Challenge blog and start creating – we would love to see your card this fortnight.

I always love to make cards in the shabby style and the inspiration tile just fits this style perfectly. I used several layers of distressed paper for the base of the card. As background for the flower bouquet I used an Impression Obsession stamp “Wooden plank”. For a bit of extra shabbiness I add a  Marianne Design  Creatables die cut doily and vintage lace. To finish off I added pretty flowers in different shades of blue and coral, white sprigs, a flower border, gemstone hearts and a bow. The sentiment is a Penny Black creative die ” For you”.

I entered my card in the following challenges:

• 613 Avenue Create Challenge #178 (ends 06/05) – Anything Goes
• Crafty Friends Challenge #32 (ends 06/04) – Summertime
• A Beautiful Mess Challenge #3 (ends 06/30) – Anything Goes
• Fussy and Fancy Friday Challenge #164 (ends 06/02) – Dies and/or Punches
• Aud Sentiments Challenge #156 (ends 06/09) – Anything Goes + A Sentiment
• Die Cuttin Divas Challenge #268 (ends 06/07) – Anything Goes with Die-Cuts (I used Marianne Design Creatables die “Doily” (LR0269) ; Penny Black Creative die “For You” (51-105) ; Tattered Lace die “Starlight Oval” for twigs (D610))
• ScrapyLand Challenge #43 (ends 06/12) – Anything Goes using any brand of die that Scrapy Land sells (Dies used: Penny Black Creative die “For You” (51-105) ; Tattered Lace die “Starlight Oval” for twigs (D610))

The flowers

The sentiment

A peep at the inside

Project details:

• White and blue card-stock
• Impression Obsession Cover-a-Card stamp”Wooden plank” (CC177)
• Marianne Design Creatables die “Doily” (LR0269)
• Penny Black Creative die “For You” (51-105)
• Tattered Lace die “Starlight Oval” for twigs (D610)
• Lace
• Gemstone hearts
• Paper flowers
• Hug Snug seam binding “Flower Blue”
• Tim Holtz distress ink “Vintage photo”

There is more inspiration over at Double D Challenge blog! I hope you like today’s creation.  Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Regards,

Amelia

Count The Sunny Hours

Hello everyone,

We had lots of rain in our country the past two weeks with very little sunshine. To see everything turn into all shades of green is such a blessing in our part of the world. However my card today is about Spring, sunshine and flowers. I have the privilege to be guest designer for My Sheri  Crafts new challenge “Celebrate Spring”.  I am sure most of us love springtime and the lovely flowers typical of this season, so come and join the challenge at My Sheri Crafts. You may use any supplies as long as it fits the theme.

I created a garden scene with some Graphic45 designer papers and a garden bench die cut from Marianne Design Creatables. The paper daisies are a new addition to my already huge collection of flowers. The lace stamp is from Stampendous and a favorite to add a vintage touch to my cards. Hope you like my take on the challenge. A big thank you to Sheri for the invitation to join the talented My Sheri Crafts design team as guest designer.

Challenges:

• Alphabet Challenge (ends 03/28) – C for Country Flowers
• Really Reasonable Ribbon’s Rambelings Challenge #91 (ends 03/28) – Welcome Spring and Ribbon theme
• Sister Act Card Challenges #48 (ends 03/21) – Anything Goes
• Allsorts Challenge Week 250 (ends 03/21) – Pretty in Pink
• Love to Create Challenge #106 (ends 03/17) – Anything Goes
• Make My Monday Challenge (ends 03/17) – Spring
• Fan-Tastic Tuesday Challenge #26 (ends 03/18) – Anything Goes
• Papertake Weekly Challenge  (ends 03/18) – Bingo (Die cuts, Free, Glitter)
• Crafting For All Seasons Challenge #72 (ends 03/19) – Spring Into Spring!

The garden bench cut from Tim Holtz distress paper and distressed with sanding paper.

A close-up of the chipboard sentiment and daisy.

The vintage scrap, pearls, daisies and rose buds.

The inside embellished with a leafy flourish.

Project details:

• White and brown cardstock
• Graphic45 designer paper “Secret Garden Collection April Showers” (#4500659)
• Graphic45 image from “Secret Garden Collection Springtime” (#4500650)
• Graphis45 sentiment “Secret Garden Collection Chipboard 2”
• Marianne Design Creatables dies “Garden bench”(LR0258) and “Leafy Flourishes” (LR0271)
• Stampendous clear stamp “Elegant borders” (SSC1122)
• Pearls
• Hug snug seam binding “Iced lime”
• Brown wax cord
• Paper daisies and rose buds
• Tim Holtz distress ink “Tea Dye” and “Peeled Paint”
• Skwiglues “Crystal”

Thank you for taking the time to visit and looking at my card. I really enjoy reading your comments and appreciate each one so much. Have a wonderful day and happy crafting

Regards,

Amelia

You’re “Sew” Special

Hello blog friends,

The 1st of March is the first day of autumn for us in South Africa and I can surely feel the change in weather since Wednesday. I just love the cool early mornings and evenings of this season. Today is also the start of a new challenge at Sugar Creek Hollow. The challenge is to create a vintage or shabby style project that depicts sewing and/or fashion. You have two weeks for this challenge and the design team would love to see your creations. Zoe Sanderson is our guest designer for this challenge and you can see more of her lovely creations here

Vintage fashion is so beautiful and I enjoyed working through my images to select one for this card. My choice was an image of two lovely ladies from Janet K. Design – isn’t their hats just beautiful? I must admit  I am glad I don’t have to wear them! I stamped a mannequin image, cut it out and dressed it up with pearls, ribbon, a charm and vintage lace. I added the little cherub because he looks so pleased with the ladies admiring the mannequin’s  outfit. The sentiment is from a free stamp set I received with a magazine and the pretty roses are from Prima. Machine stitching and some glitter completed the card. Hope you like my take on the challenge.

Challenges:

• Crafting With Dragonflies Challenge #20 (ends 03/05) – Card: Use a Freebie and provide the Link (Janet K Design vintage scrap)
• It’s All About the Vintage and Beauty Challenge #63 (ends 03/13) – Use Lace
• Card Makin Mamas Challenge CMM#81 (ends 03/07) – Stack It Up! (3 layers or more)
• Everybody-Art-Challenge #267 (ends 03/04) – Ribbon or Lace
• A Creative Romance Challenge (ends 03/14) – Bingo (Pearls, Glitter, Bow or Ribbon, Charm, Bow)
• Fan-tastic Tuesday Challenge #25 (ends 03/04) – Anything Goes (as long as your project remains square)
• ABC Challenges (ends 03/15) – G is for Girls
• Crafts Galore Encore Challenge #3 (ends 03/31) – Using a stamp or digi stamp anywhere on your project
• Card Mania Challenge #CMC41 (ends 03/ 10) – Use A Sentiment

Vintage image from Janet K. Design

The close-up of the cherub

The mannequin dressed up in vintage lace and pearls

The sentiment and roses

A peep at the inside decorated with cotton cards to match the sewing theme

Project details:

• White and green cardstock
• Prima designer paper “Divine”
• Vintage image from Janet K. Design
• Chriswick clear stamp “A La Mode”
• Sentiment stamp from Sew Pretty (Gift from Cardmaking and Papercraft magazine)
• Spellbinders Nestabilities Majestic Elements “Radiant Rectangles”
• Pearls
• Lace
• Brass scissors charm
• Hug Snug seam binding “Cameo Beige”
• Cherub embellishment
• Prima Cottage Blossoms “Pink Quartz”
• Tim Holtz distress ink “Antique Linen”
• Skwiglues “Crystal”

Have a wonderful day and thanks for visiting. I appreciate it so much and love to read your comments.

Regards from South Africa,

Amelia

White Baubles and Bling

Hello everyone,

My project today is a guest designer card for Crafting by Designs challenge blog. It is such a privilege to create a card for one of my favourite challenge blogs. The theme for this challenge is “White on White”, not so easy for me and definitely a challenge. If you want to join in Rene asked to create a white-on-white project and it can be any theme! White must be the main (or only) colour. The main image can be coloured (if you have an image).

For my white creation I decided on lots of texture, layering, embossing, embellishments and also a distressing.  I used a Sizzix die for the Christmas ornaments and a Spellbinders Shapeabilities die for the leaves. It took a little bit of time to do all the layering on the baubles but I really love the outcome. And with all my Christmas cards I added a lot of glitter to make it sparkle!

Challenges:

• Cuttlebug Mania Challenge (ends 12/16) – Anything Goes Christmas (Cuttlebug embossing folder, Sizzix dies and Spellbinders Shapeabilities die)
• Loves Rubberstamps Challenge #82 (ends 12/17) – Anything Goes Christmas
• Parade Your Crafts Challenge #10 (ends 12/23) – Christmas Projects
• Joanna Sheen Challenge (ends 12/31) – Make It Sparkle! Christmas Challenge
• Crafty Boots Challenge (ends 12/23) – Christmas
• Songbird Challenge #30 (ends 12/07) – Merry Christmas Everyone
• Paper Pretties Wednesday Challenge PWC288 (ends 12/18) – White On White
• Scribble and Scrap Challenge #7 (ends 12/22) – Anything Goes

The sentiment stamp is from Kaisercraft. I used a Tim Holtz Alterations embossing diffuser to create an oval for the sentiment.

A close-up of one of the Christmas baubles

A peep at the inside embellished with an embossed strip and a leaf

Project details:

• White cardstock
• Cuttlebug embossing folder “Wicker Weave”
• Spellbinders Shapeabilities “Foliage”
• Sizzix Sizzlits die “Ornament with Flowers” 657226
• Tim Holtz Alterations embossing diffuser Set #1
• Kaisercraft clear stamp set “Tis  The Season Collection”
• Tim Holtz distress ink “Old Paper”
• Pearls
• Lace
• Hug Snug seam binding “Winter White”
• Skwiglues glitter “Crystal”

Thanks for visiting my blog today, I appreciate it so much. To see more inspiring “White on White” projects a visit to Crafting by Designs is worthwhile. Enjoy a wonderful day and happy crafting.

Regards from South Africa,

Amelia

Christmas Joy

Hello blog friends,

It’s time for another vintage/shabby chic challenge over at Sugar Creek Hollow.  For this challenge we are looking for your beautiful tags and/or boxes (could be for Christmas) in the vintage or shabby style. Bonnie Garby is our guest designer this time and you can see her lovely work on her blog Make Time 2 Craft

With the festive season around the corner I took the opportunity to make a Christmas tag for this new challenge. For the tag I choose a stamp from Clearly Impressed which I bought from a local scrapbook company Scrapbook-Direct. I love to use gold on my Christmas creations, so I embossed the deer in gold  as well as the flourish on the back of the tag. To give dimension to the image I stamp a second deer, cut it out and pop it up with mirror tape. The tag shape was cut with a Spellbinders Nestablities Majestic Elements die “Radiant Rectangles”. The flowers are from the Petaloo Canterbury collection “Magnolia blossoms”. The sentiment letters on the small label are peel off stickers.Tim Holtz distress ink “Vintage photo” around the edges and on the seam binding help to achieve a vintage look.

Challenges:

• Crafty Girls Challenge #6 (ends 11/28) – Anything Goes
• Vintage Stamping Challenge #14 (ends 12/01) – Traditional Christmas Time
• Card and Scrap Utfordring #65 (ends 11/28) – Juletags/pakkelapper
• Penny Black and More November Challenge (ends 11/27) – Anything Goes (Stamp from Clearly Impressed)
• Crafts-Too Challenge #5 Week 3 (ends 12/05) – A Vintage Christmas Week 3 Twist Polychromatic (I used the colors Cream, Red, Gold, Vintage Photo distress ink and a hint of Green)
• Fab ‘n’ Funky Challenges #193 (ends 11/19) – Anything Goes
• Crafty Ribbons Challenge #70 (ends 11/20) – Anything Goes  with Ribbon
• Crafting by Designs (ends 11/19) – Anything Goes with a Twist of Christmas
• The Sisterhood of Crafters Challenge (11/24) – Embossing (Wet embossing for deer and flourish)
• Ribbon Carousel Challenge RCC#87 (ends 11/30) – Holidays and Celebrations (Spooled items: ribbon and gold thread)
• Artistic Inspirations Challenge #67 (ends 11/18) – Use A Sentiment / Anything Goes
• Sparkle N Sprinkle Challenge SNSSC25 (ends 11/30) – Anything Goes with Glitter, Embossing powder and/or Flocking (I used glitter and gold embossing powder)
• Scribble and Scrap Challenge #5 (ends 11/24) – Always Anything Goes
• Crafty Calender November Challenge (ends 12/06) – All Things Christmas
• Sparkles Monthly Challenge CH#50 (ends 12/14) – Animals
• A Little Bit Crafty November Challenge (ends 11/28) – Sparkle and Shine!

The flowers, bow, pearls and bells

The Clearly Impressed image “Xmas Deer” embossed with gold embossing powder

The tag with the sentiment

The back of the tag

Project details:

• Cream and red cardstock
• Clearly Impressed clear stamp sets “Xmas Deer” ( CI-2054) and “Vintage” (CI-2045)
• Spellbinders Nestabilities Majestic Elements “Radiant Rectangles”
• Crafter’s Companion Die’sire die “Scalloped tags”
• Gold detail embossing powder
• Petaloo Cabterbury collection “Magnolia blossoms” (Burgundy)
• Lace
• Pearls
• Hug Snug seam binding “Lipstick red”
• Gold thread
• Tim Holtz distress ink “Vintage photo”
• Peel Off stickers for sentiment.
• Stickles “Gold”

Thanks for stopping by today, I appreciate your visits and comments so much. I hope you’ll visit Sugar Creek Hollow and play along with our Tags and/or Boxes challenge this fortnight.  The Design Team made beautiful creations to give you inspiration. Have a wonderful day and happy crafting.

Regards from South Africa,

Amelia