Floral mail

Hello, crafting friends!

 

Welcome to another fun challenge at The Flower Challenge! This month it's hip to be square as our theme is to make a square card featuring those gorgeous florals.

 

It's hard to believe it's March already and that here in the UK, we'll be celebrating Mothers Day on the 10th of this month. How fun to open an envelope and find a card inside featuring another envelope bursting with pretty flowers!

 

I stamped and fussy cut the flowers from The Greetery's Pine Blossom - which is a Christmas set but when has that ever stopped me?! Next, I cut the envelope from Mama Elephant's Botanic Envelope die set, as well as the Inside and Out leaves dies from The Greetery, which I sponged with green inks. I arranged the flowers and leaves inside the envelope and stamped it with a Mothers Day sentiment from Uniko. 

 

For the background, I stenciled a panel using blue ink and Funky Fossil's Fancy Trellis stencil, then layered a piece of thin mustard envelope paper over it. To finish, I positioned the flower filled envelope in the centre.

Right - now it's over to you! Do hop over to The Flower Challenge blog to see all the wonderful samples made by the talented design team, then come up with a creation of your own feasturing flowers on a square design.  When you're ready to share your card, you can use the Linky Tool which you'll find at the bottom of the post. You have until the 25th to join in - enjoy the challenge!

CHALLENGES

I'm joining in again at Allsorts with this envelope of spring flowers as Lorraine's theme is Spring; Spring has also sprung over at the Four Seasons Challenge so I'm linking up there too; I'm also linking up at Inspired by where I was inspired by the inspiration photo with its gorgeous envelope of blooms; and Color Dare #590 where the trio of colours are Lagoon, Clover and Honey Butter.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

We've been spoilt with some moments of sunshine in the last few days, but cloud is building up again as I type and I'd better get those golden girls out before it rains! They have caught on to the fact that I always seem to be looking for water at the end of a walk and have enthusiastically joined in with the task of finding it:

 

Not sure if they read the memo all the way through though...!

Sending hugs,

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,

Circle of thanks

Hello, crafting friends!

 

It's Thursday and that means being inspired eight different ways by a new board at the Tic Tac Toe Challenge! Let's have a look at the ideas Betty has put on the new board:

 

 

What a lot of fabulous ideas! I settled on the right hand column Yellow/Diecuts/Floral.

 

 

I had a lot of fun coming up with this layout! I started with two die cut stems and flower heads from The Greetery's Wildflower Mix die set which I coloured with sponge daubers and ink. While playing around with them I saw that the stems formed a circular shape so decided to create a medallion-style sentiment. Using a circle punch, I cut three yellow circles and and stacked them on top of each other (the photo hasn't picked up the yellow sadly), finishing with a white circle stamped with a sentiment from an old Stampin' Up set. The flowers and medallion together made quite a long shape so I created a sponged and stenciled background for them down the centre of a card base, scoring lines either side for a neat finish.

 

 

Okay, so now it's your turn! Which column or row is speaking to you this week? Or maybe you're attracted to one of the diagonals? Do hop over to the Tic Tac Toe Challenge site to check out the beautiful inspiration from the design team. When you're ready to link up your own creation, youi'll find the Linky Tool at the bottom of the post. We can't wait to see what you make!

 

CHALLENGES

I've just seen that our favourite craft challenge duo, Darlene and Diane, have come up with another great challenge: The Triple B Challenge! Get your Birds, Butterflies and Blooms ready for this one and there's an optional inspiration board. I'm entering with my blooms this time; I'm also joining in at Allsorts where Anything Goes with the option to Use Your Dies.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

This is Cody, one of Eva's pals.

 

He is rather concerned.

 

I asked if anyone fancied a Walk and he said Yes with his tail, but now I have disappeared into the kitchen to answer the ringing thing that humans call Telephone and Cody is a bit worried that I have forgotten the Walk. 

I hadn't forgotten though and it was an extra special Walk with Swimming! Cody was relieved - he knew he hadn't been mistaken in me :)

Sending hugs,

Woofers and twofers

Hello, crafting friends!

I am so delighted to  be guest designing along with Donna at The Twofer challenge this month, but it's a bittersweet kind of delighted because this will be the final one. Darnell has made the difficult decision to close the challenge. You can read her message about it on the challenge website and I know you will want to leave her some love.

So, here is the final Twofer challenge: Make two different designs of card, for two different occasions, and use the same stamp, stencil or die on each featuring a cat or dog.

I decided to bring out my favourite Holiday Huskies stamp set by Clearly Besotted, choosing as my stamp the little dog that was doing a nice Sit. I love this set because all the dogs remind me of Eva, my adorable Golden girl!

CARD ONE

I made a clean and simple Christmas card for my first card.

The edges of the card base were masked off with sticky notes and I positioned Funky Fossil's Fancy Trellis stencil over the centre and brushed blue ink through it. After removing the sticky notes, the dog was stamped, coloured and fussy cut, then glued to the stencilled area.

To finish, I stamped one of the sentiments from Holiday Huskies in festive red and added a Santa hat from Mama Elephant's Gingerbread Cookies, which fit my little pup perfectly!

CARD TWO

For this friendship card, I allowed my little pup to have a play date with a pal and they bounced off into the countryside for a lovely romp! 

I used Clearly Besotted's Tear Away stencil for the cloudy sky and am really pleased with the result. The trees were fun to make too. I used the leafless, wintery trees from Stampin' Up's White Christmas, stamped them in light brown ink then scribbled tree shapes over them with alcohol markers. These were cut out and glued to my scene and I added some die cut grass using Lawn Fawn's Grassy Border die.

Here's the pup - looking exactly like Eva does! People are always stopping me in the street and asking "Is your dog SMILING?!"

Here's her pal - looking like Eva does when she's just smelt a exciting smell and needs to investigate! Both dogs were stamped, coloured and fussy cut and popped up on dimensional pads. I thought this sentiment from Stampin' Up's Water Front was perfect for this card :)

BOTH CARDS TOGETHER

So now it's your turn! I know all the talented Twofer Team designers will be pulling out all the stops to inspire you as always, so do pop over to the Twofer Challenge website to check out their samples. You will find the Linky Tool there too so that you can join in the fun with your own creation.

CHALLENGES

CARD ONE - I'm entering this card at Stamping Sensations where the challenge is to Celebrate Any Occasion; also Happy Little Stampers Stencil challenge where Anything Goes; and CAS on Sunday where the theme is Favourite Stamps.

CARD TWO - I'm linking up with Chocolate Baroque where the challenge is to use our Favourite Stamps; also As You See It where LeAnne's challenge is to complete the phrase My Favourite Animal Is... and I think you can see that mine is Dog!!

AND IN OTHER NEWS

I thought you'd like to see a photo of my own little doggy pal, Eva, the Golden Retriever...

Oops! She's an upside down pudding! This is a favourite position of hers and I definitely think that Clearly Besotted missed a trick when they forgot to include an upside down pup in the Holiday Huskies set. Perhaps there could be a new set called This Is How I Roll!

Sending hugs,

A layering of stencils

Hello, crafting friends!

Welcome to another fabulous challenge at  CAS Colours and Sketches! Samantha, our lovely hostess, has chosen a gorgeous colour combination for us to try.

I have a lovely thistle stencil from Funky Fossil which I thought would suit these colours. 

I started by masking off the edges of a card base and blending pink ink out to a fade from the bottom left hand corner. The same ink was used through Funky Fossil's Fancy Trellis stencil over the top and then I placed the thistle over the top of that and inked the green and purple through it. 

The green and purple look much darker than in the colour palette doesn't it, but I did actually use Sea Foam and Highland Heather, so it must just have been intensity of the sponging. Finally, I stamped a bold sentiment from a retired Stampin' Up set and added some clear gems.

So now it's your turn! Do check out the inspiration from the team at the CAS Colours and Sketches challenge blog! You can link up your creation there too - but don't forget we are a clean and simple challenge and we like to see plenty of white space and the minimum of layers :) Have fun!

CHALLENGES

I'm joining in at the Die Cuts and/or Stencils challenge at Addicted to Stamps and More; I'm also linking up with the Anything Goes themes at Happy Little Stampers Stencil challenge and Stamplorations Stencil Challenge.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

The thistle gets a pretty bad rap but I think they are beautiful plants. According to Symbol Sage, the thistle symbolises resilience and, in Celtic regions, represents 'devotion, bravery, determination and strength.' Sounds pretty positive to me! The blog has all sorts of interesting things to learn about the thistle including some brilliant myths and stories, so do check it out :)

Sending hugs,

It's a spring thing

Hello, crafting friends!

This week it's been wonderful to be able to cheer myself up with some fabulous new crafting goodies from Uniko. I had been hoarding a voucher that I won last year and it seemed just the right time to use it. Everything arrived super fast and I couldn't resist diving straight in and having a play.

Number one on my list was the newly-released Floral Vines (and it seems it was number one on a lot of people's list as it sold out almost at once! If you feel the same way about it, you'll be glad to know it's back in stock now.) I stamped it in neutral ink on the top and bottom of a card base and coloured the flowers in pretty spring colours with coloured pencils.

When the flowers were coloured, I masked off the edges of my card base and sponged a little pale yellow ink towards the middle. To add a little texture, I held Funky Fossils Fancy Trellis stencil over it and sponged a little more of the ink into that. The birthday sentiment is from Floral Vines too - I stamped it in black ink using a stamping platform for placement.

Finally, I used a blender pen to finish off my flowers. 

CHALLENGES

I fell in love with Hand Stamped Sentiments' fresh springlike colour palette as soon as I saw it, so I'm linking up there; I'm also playing along with the new-to-me Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge where I followed the sketch, and Allsorts where the theme this week is spring flowers. I'm sharing my new Floral Vines stamp set at the NBUS (Never Before Used Schtuff) challenge.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

You know that song that goes 'The rain will bring the violets of May'?  Well, what about the violets of March?!

I spotted these on a walk along a disused railway looking quite sure it was spring. I tried to get Eva to pose with them but she held her paw out and said 'No photographs please'!

Sending hugs,

Warm woolly hugs

Hello, crafting friends!

It's been a day of crafting between wrapping up warm for walks today - and that may have influenced my card a little! Come and see:

This lovely lady from Winter Wear by Concord & 9th is all bundled up in her winter woollies, but I think you can tell she's a bit of a fashion icon because of those snazzy lenses in her specs! All the elements in Winter Wear come separately, which I love because it means you can get creative. I stamped her hair, the glasses and the scarf and from there it was easy to fill in the lower part of her face and a jumper.

Everything was coloured with Spectrum Noir alcohol markers. To give the card a bit of depth, I used two stencils from Funky Fossil: Knitted, which I stencilled over the top of my jumper, and Fancy Trellis, for a hint of background. The sentiment is from my well-used Simply Said Blocks set from Uniko.

CHALLENGES

I was inspired by some of my favourite challenges: Less Is More, where the theme is Fashion and/or Accessories; Just Us Girls, where the challenge is to Just Use Stencils; Happy Little Stampers Stencil challenge where anything using stencils goes; and Allsorts, where they want us to use our favourite colour (mine are greens, yellows, oranges, but I've gone for mainly green here.)

AND IN OTHER NEWS

One of my favourite gifts I received at Christmas was a set of Spectrum Noir alcohol markers. My family tend to steer away from giving me craft items because they know that I am quite specific about the things I buy.  But this year, my son had casually admired my display of markers, triggering a conversation about how much I loved using them and how I was building up my collection. He had snuck back to the display afterwards and made a note of all the pens I already had (quite a task!) and ordered a pack that had no duplicates in it. Cunning huh?! But also SO thoughtful!

Sending hugs,