CASology Featured Designer : Week 1

CASology is one of my favourite Challenge Blogs as Melissa and the design team continue to inspire me with their top notch CAS cards. So I was more than delighted when Melissa invited me to the Featured Designer for October.

I'm sharing a little of my story ...

I’m a Zimbabwean Born, South African raised, Mauritian settled, enthusiast of all things paper, ink, stamps etc. 

5 fun facts about Mauritius for those who don’t know much about it :

• The island is only 42 miles long by 29 miles wide;
• It is called the rainbow nation because there are so many different ethnic groups; 80 different religious denominations and more than 20 languages spoken
• One of the first countries in the world to produce postage stamps & the Blue Penny stamp is one of the rarest in the world.
• One of the few places in the world that have Seven Coloured Earths - and what is more fascinating is the fact that if you mix the colored earth together, they'll eventually settle into separate layers.
• It was home to the Dodo bird

Can you spot Mauritius on the map?  

And some of the beauty of Mauritius ... clockwise from top left ... The sugar cane fields where I walk my dogs, the Coloured Earths, the incredible aerial shot of Le Morne where it looks like there is an underwater waterfall and a rainbow in Black River.

Back to crafty things ...

I started stamping 22 years ago and added scrapping in 2001, but I also enjoy crochet, decoupage, sewing, baking, reading, Bible & bullet journaling, handwriting and watercoloring.  I love creating and want to do it all but there are just not enough hours in the day! Playing in card challenges, and following the many talented craft bloggers out there has helped me discover and develop my place & style. I love using colour when I create -  especially blues, greens and rainbows.  I find that I am gravitating towards CAS more and more but I as I can’t resist playing with techniques it can be a challenge.

As there weren’t any stamping or scrapbooking shops in Mauritius back in the day, I started bringing back supplies each time I went to South Africa. My hobby grew in fits and starts from my dining room table, to having too many boxes of supplies, to carving out my own craft space and now I have a tiny shop and small studio at home. I give a stamping class every Thursday and do scrapping classes and projects as the mojo flows.

This card fits in with this week’s CASology Challenge : SUPPORT, and October’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month.  I especially dedicate it to my friends who have faced breast cancer and fought the good fight (Fi, Christine & Margaret).

I used Distress Ink Picked Raspberry to colour the flower. The sentiment is from Club Scrap.

I will also enter this to the Time Out Challenge : Breast Cancer Awareness.

A couple of things I've been making this past week : First, the Irresistible Tote Bag (when I saw this one on Pinterest, I just HAD to make one). I used Echo Park papers and the MFT Blueprint tags 4. This size is a perfect fit for standard size cards.

Secondly, these tags were too sweet not to CASe - thank you Donna for an absolute delight. I used the bird from the Jolly Friends set as I don't have Winter Wonderland set. So far I think it's my favourite Christmas card of this year. The last time I used this bird, I made this card. The red "string" from May Arts is marvellous as it has wire inside which makes it easy to control the shape.