Autumn Flowers

Hello, crafting friends!

 

It's mid-way through September and time for a reminder to join in with The Flower Challenge's 'Stamp a Flower' challenge! 

I am still in Sunflower Mode and have chosen Reverse Confetti's Fall Flowers this time.

 

I stamped the half wreath image at the top and bottom of a card panel and coloured these with Arteza Watercolour Brush pens. In the space between them, I added a sentiment from The Greetery's Arched Sentiments, stamped in brown ink.

 

The panel was trimmed a tiny bit smaller than the card front and the card front swiped with green ink to show a very thin frame when the panel was attached. To finish, I added some Wink of Stella to the sunflower centres and touches of gold paint to the leaves for a touch of sparkle.

 

Right, it's over to you! Do check out the wonderful inspiration from the rest of the design team at The Flower Challenge blog. Make a card featuring stamped flowers as your focal point and share it with us using the blue Linky Tool button at the bottom of the challenge blog post. Have fun!

CHALLENGES

I'm linking up with Beautiful Blossoms where I was inspired by the colours on the mood board; I also enjoyed colouring my stamped images with my Arteza watercolour brush pens, so I'm joining in with Inkspirational's Make Your Mark challenge.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

I like to make cards with two images repeated.

 

But where do I get my inspiration from...?!

Sending hugs,

A curve of tulips

Hello, crafting friends!

 

I'm popping in today to remind you about our Birthday challenge at The Flower Challenge :)

 

 

Just make a birthday card with flowers as the main focus and you're good to go! Here's what I came up with:

 

I've gone die-tastic this time! I found an off cut of green card and used a die from Stampin' Up's retired Swirly Scribbles die set to cut a curvy panel with a stem-like design. The background rectangle was completed with a bit of masking and sponging with blue ink.

 

The tulips are from The Greetery's Botanicuts Tulips die set, cut from lots of white card offcuts and sponged with distress oxides. After assembling the flowers, I arranged them in a curve around a birthday greeting from Arched Sentiments, also from The Greetery. A few cream coloured enamel dots finished off the card.

 

Do hop over to The Flower Challenge blog to see the wonderful cards 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 floral birthday card. You have until 25th July 5pm to join in and we can't wait to see what you make!

CHALLENGES

I was intrigued by Marlena's challenge at Inkspirational to Use Products from 2 or More Stamp Companies. I do tend to mix and match anyway but I've limited myself to two companies here -
SU and The Greetery. I used a snippet of green card and lots of white off-cuts so will be taking this card over to the Snippets Playground. It's the first time I've used the Swirly Scribbles die so I'll also paying a visit to Darnell's NBUS Challenge.

 

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Time has been running away with me lately so I haven't been around Blogland as much as I'd have liked. The weather is usually more predictable in the UK in the summer, so that's when everyone plans their events, and we've had birthdays, a church weekend and family visits to plan and attend, as well as Wimbledon tennis (my OH loves this!) and the Euros football tournament to support. Yesterday evening, our neighbourhood celebrated England being in the final of the Euros by setting up a large screen on the green to watch the match after a barbecue before kick-off. Sadly, the team lost to a Spanish team who scored the winning goal four minutes from full time, but we have thoroughly enjoyed this tournament.

I think Eva has had enough of people unexpectedly leaping to their feet cheering wildly and has retired to her favourite sunny spot in the garden to have an uninterrupted snoozle!

Sending hugs,

Birthday blossom

Hello, crafting friends!

 

Today I'm enjoying being the Surprise Party Guest at Seize the Birthday where Jules has chosen a fabulous new challenge and loads of inspiration from their talented design team! So what's the Topping?

 

It's a fun one - to make a coordinating tag and card set! There's a spring birthday coming up in my family so I couldn't wait to get started. Being a lazy crafter, I decided to stamp and colour one image and then divide it into two pieces with dies - cunning huh?!

 

Using Nesting Arch dies from The Greetery, I was able to created an inset panel on a card and a double layer tag for my gift. Here's a closer look at the card:

 

Isn't that blossom image beautiful?! The cherry blossom isn't out here yet so it gave me a lift to see it on a card!

 

The stamp is from Blossoms in Bloom by Clearly Besotted, stamped on watercolour paper, coloured and splattered with my Arteza watercolour brush pens, and left to dry before cutting the arch. To complete the card I cut the same size arch in a card panel and used it to position the blossom arch before popping it up on dimensional tape.

 

The sentiment is a favourite from The Greetery's Arched Sentiments set, positioned to overlap the 'frame'. The card was finished with a few clear gems.

Here's a close up of the tag:

 

There's a little bud sprig at the end of the blossom image which I thought made the perfect image for the coordinating tag - not the same but clearly a part of it. I added a sentiment and a gem and tied the tag with a larger arch onto the gift with coordinating ribbon from my stash.

I had so much fun making this card and tag set! I do hope you'll join in and enjoy yourself too :) Don't forget to go to the Seize the Birthday blog and check out all the samples the amazing design team have made to inspire you. You can use the Linky Tool at the bottom of the post to share your own creation. 

CHALLENGES

I'm linking up with Double D where the theme is First Signs of Spring - and I've gone for blossom!Make My Monday and Try it on Tuesday both also have a Spring theme so I'm joining in there; and Retro Rubber want to see a card featuring favourite spring flowers using stamps older than a year (Blossoms in Bloom was a 2019 release.)

 

AND IN OTHER NEWS

With Mothers Day taking place last Sunday and coinciding with a family birthday on the Monday, we've unexpectedly had everyone come to visit. What a joy it was to feast and laugh and chat and catch up! Going out to a restaurant to eat always triggers memories of our family holidays when our offspring were children and it always amazes me that what everyone remembers is different. One thing we all remembered from a holiday in Kent was when we came across a signpost giving directions to Ham on one arm and to Sandwich on another. This tickled us so greatly we must have laughed for about half an hour! What a blessing family is!

 

Sending hugs,

Reddy for spring!

Hello, crafting friends!

 

I am currently filling the house with bright spring flowers in an effort to pretend winter is over. It helps! Potted hyacinths and daffodils are filling the rooms with their fresh scent and I have vases of tulips too. Which brings me to today's card:

 

How amazing are these tulip dies from the Greetery?!

 

I cut them from watercolour paper and coloured them with my Arteza watercolour brush pens. 

 

To display my tulips, I stamped a red gingham panel using a Kaisercraft stamp, drew some stems using one of the Arteza pens and positioned the flowers and leaves. Once I was happy with the arrangement, I glued everything in place and finished with a pretty birthday greeting from the Greetery's Arched Sentiments, stamped and die cut.

CHALLENGES

I used Jen B's fabulous sketch at Freshly Made Sketches to create this card. I flipped the sketch - I hope you can see how I used it! I'm also joining in with Seize the Birthday where JoAnn's Topping is Use Red as the Main Color; Lorraine has chose Spring as her optional theme at Allsorts and I'm sending my tulips along there; I've not used my Tulips die before so will take it for an airing at Darnell's NBUS Challenge where it's all about Never Before Used Schtuff!

 

 

AND IN OTHER NEWS

I am more than ready for spring I can tell you! Here's a rare sighting of the Blonde Bombshells in all their pristine fluffiness:

 

Needless to say, this photo was taken at the beginning of our walk. See all that mud behind them? A few frolics later and that mud will transfer itself to my girls and they will turn into a pair of Grubs! Luckily there is a clean stream at the end of this walk so we will swap muddiness for sogginess!

Sending hugs,

Hello Autumn

Hello, crafting friends!

 

There's nothing like a bit of glorious autumn sunshine, the leaves turning, and lots of my favourite challenges having autumn inspiration to galvanise me into some seasonal cardmaking! Here's a card that I can take very little credit for, but that I really enjoyed making:

 

Like many crafters, I get quite excited when my favourite stamp companies come out with new releases and show off their inspiration cards. I was delighted when I saw a gorgeous card at the Greetery using their new Elegant Entrance: Arches die and beautiful Wildwood stamps and knew that I could recreate the look using items I already have in my stash - a thrifted window die by Spellbinders and a floral from Mimosas by Avery Elle.

 

The first step was cutting the window from the front of my card base before cutting a honey coloured piece of card and glueing it to the inside of the card front. I stamped the floral, coloured it in gorgeous autumn colours with coloured pencils and cut it out with sharp paper snips. This was tucked into the window opening and glued in place, so that I could return the window die cut to the aperture.

 

I glued everything down securely then added an enamel dot to represent a window handle, and a beautiful flowing sentiment from The Greetery.

 

Here's the card I was CASEing today: 

 

You can find all the details HERE.

CHALLENGES

I'm entering this card at Stamping Sensations where the theme this month is Autumn Colours (or Anything Goes); I'm also playing along with Joanne's Signs of Autumn CAS challenge at the Paper Players;  It's Anything Goes at Retro Rubber - as long as you use stamps over a year old of course! Mimosas was released in 2017, the sentiment a year ago, and the die before the ark (possibly!); Beautiful Blossoms has a gorgeous mood board this month and I couldn't wait to join in there;

 

AND IN OTHER NEWS

It really does feel as if Lulu has always been with us. I was planning on a nice quiet few months so that she could adapt to her new life, but one of my clients' owner has contracted covid and so we've had Cody, a handsome fox red lab, to stay this week. Lulu has taken it all in her stride!

 

Lulu (left) Eva (centre) and Cody (right)

 

Of course she has a very helpful big sister to show her the way! I have been so proud of Eva for the way she has accepted Lulu into the family - she seems to know that she is different to the dogs that come walking with us or staying over on holidays.

Sending hugs,

Stenciling a garden

Hello, crafting friends!

 

I love stencils!

 

This card was made with the Flower Bouquet Builder stencil by MFT. I love how versatile this stencil is (look at THIS very different card made with it!)

 

 

This time, I sponged blue ink the bottom of a panel, fading upwards. Over the top I stenciled a leafy sprig several times, varying the position and height. These were topped with pretty flower tops in three sizes.

 

The panel was cut using a large arch die from The Greetery and topped with an ornate birthday sentiment from the Arched Sentiments stamp set and matching die. The arch was attached to a card front using dimensional pads.

CHALLENGES

I'm linking this card up with the Stencil Fun Challenge where Anything Stenciled Goes with Optional Hearts; also AAA Birthday where the team want to see birthday cards made using stencils; I was inspired by Joanne's colour challenge at CAS Colours & Sketches too.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

We've been having some wonderful walks lately. The weather has been dry and warmish and the dogs have wasted no time in taking the opportunity to have a swim!

 

There are no changing rooms or towels to hand but an enthusistic game of chase soon dries a pup off!!

Sending hugs,

The Wedding arch

Hello, crafting friends!

 

I am continuing to be besotted with my Mistletoe Arches layered stencil set from The Greetery and after making a birthday card, a Christmas card and a sympathy card with them, have turned my attention to weddings! We went to a wedding this weekend, and the invitation we received for it used these gorgeous colours!

 

I started by stenciling the leaves onto a panel and trimming it to size. Then, after positioning the arch mask in the middle with temporary glue, I sponged the dark purple ink very lightly in from the edges. I replaced the arch mask with the arch stencil and sponged a light purple ink into it. When the stencil was removed, I was left with a paler purple arch with a thin white line around it, which really adds to the impression of dimension but without any bulk.

 

I stamped one of the sentiments from The Greetery's Arched Sentiments set inside the arch and added a stamped, gold-embossed and die cut sentiment from the same set. Finally I added the berries using the stencil and a gold pencil, then shaded with a gold marker and added white dots for extra detail.

CHALLENGES

I'm joining in with the 700th challenge at Allsorts Huge congratulations to Brenda and the team there. Such an impressive milestone! The theme is Let's Celebrate - Any Special Occasion, and there are prizes so do join in!

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Everyone seems to be gearing up for halloween in my neighbourhood. I do not enjoy this 'celebration' in the slightest but I did see some things in a shop window that gave me a good chuckle:

 

Click on the pic to get the details! I hope they give you a laugh too!

Sending hugs,

Snippety pumpkins

Hello, crafting friends!

 

Today is an autumn day and I've enjoyed walking in the sunshine with my fluffy girl, admiring the scudding clouds and the gorgeous colours of the changing leaves. I cleared my desk a little today too and realised it is also a day for using up some snippets! 

 

In the course of playing with my new nesting arch dies I seem to have made quite a lot of arch-type snippets. Well, waste not, want not as they say! I sponged my snippets with inks and glued the green frame to the arched background.

 

The pumpkin garland is from Lanterns by Reverse Confetti. It was stamped on another offcut using pale yellow ink, and I had fun colouring it with coloured pencils and fussy cutting it. When it was finished, I glued it to the frame. The sentiment is from the Arched Sentiments set from the Greetery, cut out with the coordinating die.

 

Before attaching my topper to the card base, I did a little soft stenciling on the card front using the Brick Wall stencil from Funky Fossil. Here are the snippets I used, plus another white offcut for the sentiment which I forgot to include (ie didn't plan for lol!)

 

CHALLENGES

I'm joining in with The Snippet Playground where the requirement is to make a card with snippets and include a photo of the snippets or list them; I'm also linking up at Happy Little Stampers Die challenge and Happy Little Stampers Stencil challenge where Anything Goes; and Try it on Tuesday where the theme is Autumn. 

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Our pets are such good company aren't they. Every day, Eva and I spend our days together and I suppose it's only natural that I should talk to her. This week I found myself telling her what a lovely little sausage roll she is, "And I mean that in the nicest possible way," I said.

Sending hugs,