A burst of stenciled leaves

Hello, crafting friends!

 

Welcome to another challenge from Tic Tac Toe, where inspiration comes 8 different ways! Elizabeth has come up with a great board today:

 

I couldn't wait to get going with the diagonal from top left: Stencil/Free/Foliage because I'd been thinking about combining a few of my stencils to see how it worked out. Well it came out like this:

 

I started off with the Flower Bouquet Builder stencil from MFT, selecting a few different flowers and berries and inking them in a random pattern. The leaves are from the Greetery's Berry Branch stencil. I positioned the larger leaf around the flowers and sponged colour into it. At this point I brought out my coloured pencils and added more intense colour and detail to the flowers and leaves. I wanted the illusion of lots of leaves in the bouquet so I picked some other leaves from the Berry Branch stencil and stenciled them in a paler green so they looked as if they were behind the first leaves and flowers.

 

For further depth, I used Funky Fossil's Fancy Trellis as a background, masking off the bottom of the card and sponging blue ink outwards and upwards to a fade. The sentiment is from Tagged Elegance by the Greetery. To finish,  I stenciled a single flower on a snippet of card and fussy cut it, popping it up on the card, and added some enamel dots.

Okay, so now it's your turn! Which row or column will you choose? Or are you going for one of the diagonals? Do hop over to the Tic Tac Toe blog to see the amazing samples the team has made to inspire you. You'll find the Linky Tool at the bottom of the post and can use it to share your own design with us. We can't wait to see what you make!

CHALLENGES

I'm linking this card up at the Stencil Fun Challenge where the optional theme is Fall, but Anything Stenciled Goes; I'm also joining in with Happy Little Stampers Stencil challenge where Anything Stenciled Goes; and also playing along with Addicted to Stamps and More where it's the turn of the Any Occasion challenge.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

If you are a regular reader of my blog, you will know that I walk and board a selection of gorgeous dogs. I'm not supposed to have favourites but if I did happen to melt at the sight of a certain little golden girl called Lulu, who could blame me?! 

A pair of Grubs! Lulu (left) and Eva (right)

Sadly, Lulu's family have had a crisis, are having to move away and are unable to take their girl with them. I didn't hesitate to offer her a home. I have adored her since the day we started walking together, and Eva and she have always got on well together - often behaving like naughty twins! Luckily OH (perhaps knowing that there would be no peace until he agreed!) gave the go ahead and she will be coming to live with us properly next month after an easing-in period of extra walks, sleepovers and vet visits. Hurrah!!

Sending hugs,

Autumnal mushrooms

Hello, crafting friends!

 

Are you ready to do some Saturday crafting? Well have a look at the new Code Word at Addicted to CAS, brought to you this time by Ceal:

 

I was thrilled to see this word because it gave me a chance to get my Greetery Mushroom dies out and have a play! I think mushrooms make a lovely autumnal focal point and they're great for male cards.

 

This one is for my eldest nephew whose birthday is in October, and who will be celebrating with a slap up meal at my house this year! It's very simple. I made a stencil out of the waste from die cutting an arch and sponged inks into it. The arch was extended with sticky notes to form the banner and I continued the ink blending with those in place.

 

The mushrooms were die cut from snippets of white card stock and sponged with ink, then I assembled them and glued them to my background. The card was finished with a pair of sentiments I'm enjoying combining lately - Happy Birthday from Uniko's Floral Vines and Have a Wonderful Day from Clearly Besotted's Fly With Me.

 

Okay, so now it's your turn! I know you have some mushrooms in your stash somewhere... why not get them out and make a clean and simple card to share with us! You'll find loads of inspiration at the Addicted to CAS challenge blog and will find the Linky Tool at the bottom of the post to link up your own creation. Have fun!

CHALLENGES

This is my homework for The Snippets Playground - I used snippets of white card to die cut my mushrooms and used die cutting waste to make a stencil; I'm also joining in with Four Seasons where Anything Goes with a Fall Theme; it's Anything Goes with a birthday theme at HLS Birthday so I'm linking up there; also Less Is More, which also has an Anything Goes challenge and the cards must be clean and simple of course; I'm also sharing at Darnell's NBUS Challenge where we showcase our Never Before Used Schtuff.

 

AND IN OTHER NEWS

The summer in the heart of England has been odd this year. It's tended to be warm but damp and the combination has brought the mushrooms out like a rash!  We've seen proper fairy rings appear in the fields behind our house, and who better to frolic about in them...

 

... than our very own fairy queen! She's obviously been trying to magic up some extra treats but it's just not working... we have to watch that waistline madam!

Sending hugs,

 

Little flowers

Hello, crafting friends!

 

What a glorious day it has been here! The blue skies and bright sunshine have inspired me to reach for the bright colours and join in with some fun challenges.

I recently acquired a pack of two odd-sized embossing folders by Stampin' Up called Little Details and I couldn't wait to experiment with them. The folder I used on this card creates a charming panel in the centre of a C6 card front which I bordered with a couple of scorelines. I coloured the raised details with water-based markers and stamped a colourful sentiment using two Uniko sets.

 

This video by Jennifer McGuire, inspired me to use a pretty little flower from a Sissix wreath die set in a repeat pattern for impact. I cut six of them, coloured them with water-based markers, positioned them on my background and finished them with enamel dot centres.

This card will go in my stash for a summer birthday next year :)

CHALLENGES

I'm linking this card up with Little Red Wagon, where the challenge is Small or Large; Can You Handle The Pressure, where we must Use an Embossing Folder with optional Poppies theme (I haven't used that); The Flower Challenge where the challenge is to Use a Die on our flower themed cards; and Happy Little Stampers Birthday challenge where Anything Goes as long as it's a birthday card.

 

AND IN OTHER NEWS

I felt so sorry for the children in our area, heading back to school in this gorgeous weather today. Hopefully, they weren't issued any homework on their first day back and were able to get out and enjoy the sunshine before tea!

 

We walked in the cool of the woods earlier today and Eva found a nice little house to shelter in :)

Sending hugs,

The colour of sunshine

Hello, crafting friends!

 

It's Thursday and time for another round of crafting Tic Tac Toe courtesy of the Tic Tac Toe Challenge! Joanne is on Board Duty today and what an inspirational board it is:

 

I've gone for the diagonal from the top left: Letters/Yellow/Sunshine and made a card to bring some sunshine into a friend's life :)

 

I started with a yellow card base, left over from an old card kit. The Sunny Day stencil from Clearly Besotted was positioned over it and yellow ink stenciled into it for a tone on tone look. I found some coordinating washi tape that needed using up and made a border with it, then stamped a favourite Reverse Confetti floral stamp at the bottom in black ink and coloured it with yellow alcohol markers.

 

The sentiment is my 'letters' part of the board. I was excited to put a current Uniko sentiment with an older Clearly Besotted one which is a lovely wavy shape. To add a bit more interest to my card, I trimmed one corner with a Corner Rounder, then stamped the flowers and leaves again on a scrap of white card, coloured them, fussy cut them and popped them up on dimensional pads. 

Okay, so now it's your turn! Which row or column has grabbed your attention this week? Or is it one of the diagonals? Do hop over to the Tic Tac Toe Challenge blog to check out the gorgeous samples the rest of the team have made to inspire you. You'll find the Linky Tool at the bottom of the post and can use it to link up your own creation with us. Have fun! We can't wait to see what you make!

CHALLENGES

In the Color Dare Challenge #562, you get to choose whether to use 1, 2 or 3 of the three colours shown. I opted to use the yellow and team it with black; I'm also joining in with the Stencil Fun Challenge - not going for the optional Butterflies theme; I'm not going for the optional Butterflies at Allsorts either but I will link my card up there; It's the first outing for this charming floral set so I am sharing at Darnell's NBUS Challenge too.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

I am such a fan of the colour yellow. It is the colour of sunshine, positivity, warmth and happiness. There is a good reason that there are so many famous yellow logos! I was given a bunch of beautiful, deep hearted yellow roses the other day, and they lift my spirits every time I look at them!

 

 

I hope they have the same effect on you today :)

Sending hugs,

Natural merriness

Hello, crafting friends!

 

In the first half of this year, I was so busy that I didn't have much time to craft. And even when I did find a minute, it was a stamp and go type of crafting. What I really love is starting a card, changing my mind, having a lightbulb moment, dragging half my stash out to find the right thing... only to have another idea and swerve off on another tack! Do you know what I mean? That's how this card was made!

 

I had a vague idea of making a Christmas card and I knew I wanted to use some left over botanical die cuts on it, perhaps as a wreath, but the card base started as white until I came over all rustic and brought out the brown card stock, which made me think I might stencil a brick wall using brown ink for a tone on tone look but then suddenly remembered white ink... well, you get the picture!

 

I liked the frosty look of the white ink on the brown card and added extra 'snow' with a white paint pen. Then, inspired by the natural vibe of the card, I rooted about in my DSP drawer for a precious snippet of wood effect paper to make a beam to hang my snippety wreath on with a twine bow. The wreath die from SU had been cut out of green card which I swiped with white ink, and the botanical die cuts from Mama Elephant were white so I coloured those with ink and a sponge dauber, and then glued everything together.

The sentiments are from The Greetery's Snowflake Soirée, the 'be merry' part stamped on the card base and the 'may all your days' part stamped on kraft card, snipped out and popped up on dimensional pads. 

CHALLENGES

I used lots of left over botanical die cuts on this card, a snippet of wood effect paper, an offcut of brown card for the card base and a white offcut to line it with, plus a tiny piece of kraft for the sentiment and some left over twine. All that is to say that I'm playing at the Snippets Playground with this card; I'm also joining in at Jingle Belles where Lauren and Stef want to see cards with a vintage vibe (and I'm hoping my card will pass the Vintage Test!); I'm joining in at Color My Heart Color Dare #563, choosing the left hand diagonal Candy Apple/Toffee/Green Apple; I'm also just in time to join in with Rudolph Days where we make a card to celebrate the 25th of each month, then share by the end of the month.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Autumn seems to be drawing in a bit early this year. It's still lovely and warm but not boiling hot, and it's quite unsettled. It's actually much nicer for the dogs...

 

... and they get to intersperse their swimming activities with rabbit hunting which is much too hot for Eva with her thick coat in the full sun!

 

PS I must once again state that no rabbit is ever in the smallest danger of being caught by either of these two goofballs!!

Sending hugs,

Love and Sunshine

Hello, crafting friends!

 

It's an Addicted to CAS Saturday today! Thank you to all of you who joined in with my Leaves challenge last time - it was so hard to choose a winner among such gorgeous entries! Today Helen has chosen a fab new Code Word:

 

You might be inspired by a summer holiday but remember that there are cards to make for Other Holidays later in the year that you may be wanting to crack on with...! Despite my stay by the sea back in June, I am still yearning for walks on the beach and the sound of gulls so I came up with this:

 

To create this card, I sponged in a simple background using handmade sticky note masks. The sentiment was stamped over the top and the scene cut out with a label die from The Works. The label was then attached to a card base.

There's a nice sized seagull in the set as well as some shells.

 

I stamped them all in pale blue ink and coloured them quickly with coloured pencils, cut them out and mounted them onto the card front. To finish, I added touches of white acrylic paint pen to the shoreline and a little Wink of Stella.

Okay, so now it's your turn! How does our Code Word inspire you? Do hop over to the Addicted to CAS blog to see all the amazing inspiration from my team mates. You'll find the Linky Tool at the bottom of the post and can use it to share your own creation with us. Don't forget to keep your card nice and Clean and Simple with plenty of clear space, but above all, have fun!

 

CHALLENGES

I'm linking this card up at As You See It where the theme is At The Beach; At Festive Friday they're celebrating National Beach Day, so I'm joining in there too with Sea, Sand and Shells from the list; I've finally managed to join in at Stamping Sensations too, where the mood board features a beach as well as a blue and yellow colour palette; And, as it's the first outing for this stamp set, I'm sharing at Darnell's NBUS challenge.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Eva is missing the beach too. She loves to run on the huge expanses of sand and is happy to paddle in the shallows - although if there are big waves she barks at them and warns us to get back!

 

Her favourite beach moment this year was finding a dead seal. I didn't realise what it was at first but soon became alerted by the fact that she was making a beeline for it in a very focused way. I legged it off in hot pursuit but naturally she got there first. She did hear my agitated shouts though and was thoughtful enough not to roll in the corpse, contenting herself with a quick wee on it instead. If you are thinking about getting a dog, here is my top tip: Do not get one unless you have a strong stomach!!

Sending hugs,

Just keep swimming

Hello, crafting friends!

 

After a long walk on Saturday morning with Eva and her spaniel pal, I thought the rest of the morning would be good for ignoring the chores and instead having a catch up with some challenges that have caught my eye this week! Please don't judge! 

 

So this card was started by cutting a panel and taping an arch die cut upside down onto it. I then positioned Uniko's Tiger Print stencil over the top of that and sponged blue ink into it. The stencil was taken away but before removing the arch mask, I sponged more blue ink over the top of the stenciling. I wanted it to look like swirling ocean waves.

 

In the upside down arch shape, I coloured a sky and sea with more sponged ink and some coloured pencils. I stamped a fish from Clearly Besotted's Under the Sea on a snippet of white paper, coloured it with coloured pencils and fussy cut it. The sentiment is from MFT's You're Fin-tastic, stamped in dark blue ink and heat embossed and the fish was popped up on a dimensional pad next to it. The panel was glued onto a yellow mat, attached to a card base and the card finished with some lovely shiny enamel dots for a bit of extra detail :)

CHALLENGES

Jen Mitchell's sketch at Freshly Made Sketches intrigued me and I had to join in there; The inspiration photo at Inspired By dictated the theme, along with Allsorts where Brenda's challenge is All (Real) Creatures Great and Small; I'm also playing along with Happy Little Stampers Stencil challenge where Anything Goes.

 

AND IN OTHER NEWS

When Eva found out the title of this post, she assured me that she has every intention of keeping on swimming!

 

I think she's enjoying her summer!

Sending hugs,

A young Man's 18th birthday

Hello, crafting friends!

 

Those special birthdays are coming thick and fast around here. Today's card is for a young man, a friend's son, who turned 18 AND got his exam results all on the same day! He did really well and is all prepared to zoom off to uni, but first, we got to crack open some fizz and toast him with a few bubbles!

 

To make the card, I masked off the edges of a card base, positioned Clearly Besotted's Sunny Day stencil (a big favourite!) over the top and sponged yellow ink into it. Taking the stencil away, I added a bit more sponging over the top part to balance out the sun at the bottom.

 

The sentiment was stamped in red ink with 'Wishing you a happy' from The Greetery's preText Sentiments, and 'birthday' from Uniko's Wild. The name and the number were made from some left-over letter and number stickers I bought many years ago to create a title on a photo album. I finished the design with some red and yellow enamel dots for a celebratary feel! This card was for his birthday but I was able to write a message inside congratulating him on his uni place too.

CHALLENGES

The Red and Yellow challenge at Color Hues inspired this card so I shall link up there; I'm also joining in at AAA Birthday and Happy Little Stampers Birthday challenges, where Anything Birthday Goes; also The Male Room is looking for masculine cards featuring spots and/or stripes, so my sunshine creates stripes and the enamel dots are good for spots!

 

AND IN OTHER NEWS

I told another friend about the young man's birthday and his success, and that we were invited round to help celebrate before he went off to celebrate further with his pals. "I'd better not tell him that this adulting malarkey isn't all it's cracked up to be," I said. "Oh no," she agreed. "Don't grow up! It's a trap!"

PS. If you subscribe to this blog and you received an email with no pictures this morning, I do apologise! We'll put it down to Human Error shall we and move on!!

Sending hugs,

Playing with plaid

Hello, crafting friends!

 

It's a Tic Tac Toe Challenge day today and Betty has come up with a great board:

 

 

What I love about these boards is that the ideas in each box can be adapted for almost any occasion. I chose the top row: Red/Patterned Paper/Die Cuts and, since I'm growing my Christmas card stash, used it to make a festive card.

 

While rooting about in my designer paper drawer earlier in the week, I came across a snippet from a gorgeous pad of plaid paper - a much appreciated gift from a lovely friend. I glued it to a card panel and then trimmed the panel down with a stitched rectangle die from Heffy Doodle. The 'to the world' part of the sentiment was stamped in red ink under the plaid panel and I made the 'joy' part from the Greetery's Slim Alphabet dies. Each letter was cut several times from offcuts of red card and stacked together for dimension.

 

Next I brought out lots of white offcuts and cut curvy brackets using The Greetery's Noted die set, and lots of pine branches and berries using the Holiday Foliage die set by Flora and Fauna. The brackets were positioned around the word joy and I coloured the foliage and berries with ink and sponge daubers adding snow with an acrylic paint pen. I made a swag out of these, curving it around the sentiment.

Right! It's your turn now! Which column or row will you choose this week - or will you opt for one of the diagonals? Do hop over to the Tic Tac Toe challenge blog and check out the gorgeous sample my team mates have made to inspire you. You'll find the Linky Tool at the bottom of the post and can use it to link up your own card. Have fun!

CHALLENGES

I'm linking this card up with Happy Little Stampers Die challenge where Anything Goes; I'm also nipping back to Jingle Belles with another entry for their Pine Trees or Branches challenge;

AND IN OTHER NEWS

We're having funny old weather at the moment! It's warm and sunny most of the time but it will often rain overnight, which makes it humid and plays havoc with my hair do! I am deeply envious of a certain natural blonde...

 

 

...who can get her hair wet, leave it to dry naturally and it always looks fantastic!!

Sending hugs,