Paper Hugs

What a fun challenge over at Less is More today - 'what is outside your window?'  I have been unable to play along with my favourite challenge for some weeks due to being in temporary accommodation, and having much of my craft supplies in storage.  Well, I'm still in the same circumstance, but when I saw this week's challenge, I just had to try to join in!   I have included a photo of exactly what is outside my window at present - a Feijoa fruit tree, and a bird feeder.  It is a delightful outlook, shielding this little cottage from the road nearby, and providing lots of interest.  At night of course, possums visit to eat or play in the trees!  They are louder than you'd think! So here is my CAS interpretation of this view. Stamps:  WPlus9 - Folk Art Florals Die:  Mama Elephant 'Thanks' script cut from dark green card from my stash Ink:  Hero Arts Shadow inks - Green Hills, Field Greens, Passion Flower Stencil:  MFT Cloud...

I have been a fan of WPlus9 for some time, and today I noticed that they have a current challenge called Throwback Thursday.  It just happens that I made a card for a friend who wasn't feeling well enough to make the more than 100 cards she sends out each Christmas so together with our mutual friend, I made some pretty quick cards to help her along the way.  This is one of those cards, using the quilt die featured on their blog Stamp Away with me .  As you can see, I used traditional Christmas colours, and some fancy frames to create my card.  This is the first time I used the quilt die for a holiday card, having bought it because it reminded me of my old love - sewing! Paper:  Stampin' Up!paper pad Trim the Tree Dies:  WPlus9 Quilt Cuts 2, Cheery Lyn - sentiment, Spellbinders, Fleur de Lis, and scalloped square

The recipe for week 234 at Less is More is to use 'snippets'.  What a fab idea this is, because we crafters always have little bits and pieces on our desk because we 'may' find a use for them one day!  This prompted me to look in my special tea cup bought for me by my eldest grand-daughter, and which holds my latest snippets - there I found various left-over die cut shapes from a quilt die I used some time ago. Of course I would have loved to have been able to make some clever graphic design with these snippets, but that is not my forte, so I had to be content with a basic pattern below the lovely scripty hello by Wplus9.  At least there are a few less snippets to find a use for now!

This week, the Less is More challenge is a one-layer card with Splatters!  What fun! So here is my card - A very CAS one for me, but I just love the difference the large script Hello has made to it.  Inks and splats are by Stampin' Up! and the butterflies are from SU Butterfly Basics.  That special hello is by WPlus9 stamped in Versafine Black Ink.  I feel I'll add a small 3D butterfly before I'm finished with this card, but for the LIM challenge, I'm doing my best to keep it CAS lol!

I had a little time today to look around other blogs, and found this challenge at Addicted to CAS , where the theme word is Geometric. This is a card I made a little while ago, following a tutorial I saw on WPlus9.  It uses nail polish for the marbling effect, and is cut out using their Quilt cut die.  I immediately had to purchase that die, and love the effect, but I had not posted it till now.

Another delicious photo inspiration for this month's challenge over at Scrapbook Boutique . The delicate colours matched with the darker stripes of the cupcake wrappers were the inspiration for my project.  I used the little birdhouse image and sentiment from a newly-acquired stamp set by WPlus9, called Folk Art Florals, and added the branch die and birds, both by Memory Box.  Onto a Kraft card base I adhered the stamped Hardwood background by Stampin' Up!, and added a flower bloom image from the WPlus9 stamp set and a hand made rose.   I'm not sure you can see this in the photo, but after stamping the caramel coloured house, I clear embossed it, as a nod to the glistening topping on the cupcake.