Impressionist flowers

Hello, crafting friends!

 

And hello June - yikes, isn't that half of the year already gone?!! At the Flower Challenge, we have a brand new theme for you:

 

This month we're challenging you with a sketch:

 

 and, as usual, we want to see flowers headlining in your creation! Here's what I came up with:

 

I was really intrigued by that central panel and chose to interpret it with two embossed lines on my card front inset with a piece of a favourite designer paper trimmed to fit. Before attaching the paper, I sponged it lightly with a blue-green ink, fading out towards the top.

 

The flowers and foliage are from The Greetery's Fleur Impressions. I stamped the pretty blooms in pinks and yellows and fussy cut them, positioning them over the panel and popping the largest up on dimensional pads. The sentiment was placed in my stamp positioner and inked up with blue and grey markers for an ombré effect. It was cut into a flag and tucked under the large flower. I emphasised the dreamy look with some delicate sequins from my stash.

Okay, so now it's your turn! Do hop over to the Flower Challenge blog and check out all the wonderful cards my team mates have made to inspire you. When you've made your own, you can share it with us by using the Linky Tool at the bottom of the challenge post. Have fun - we can't wait to see what you make!

CHALLENGES

I'm joining in at We Love Stamping, where the optional theme is Fabulous Florals and where the team are celebrating 15 fabulous years! What an amazing milestone! I'm also playing along at Allsorts where Anything Goes or there's an optional Many Layers challenge.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Forgive my absence over the past week; I have been celebrating my birthday and have had lots of visitors and treats and days out! The giddy social whirl has now calmed down much to my golden girls' relief. There have been some 'You're not going out and leaving us AGAIN are you?' looks on their little faces. They are happy to have me back doing my chores around the house and garden - although they prefer to have me sat down crafting, where they can keep their eyes on me and remind of their great need for sustenance or exercise, depending on the time of day!

Sending hugs,

Nostalgic thoughts

Hello, crafting friends!

 

The golden girls and I went on a slightly earlier walk yesterday, mainly because I had one eye on the weather forecast... Sadly, we have had to say goodbye to The Tropics and embrace welly weather again. But that's okay! It gave me the perfect opportunity to abandon the allotment and have a little inky play.

 

With this card I have wandered quite some distance from Comfort Zone Central and ended up in Vintage Village, which is uncharted territory for me! But sometimes it's fun to challenge yourself isn't it :) I imagined overlapping letters, so I masked areas off on a panel and sponged pale brown ink over the edges before stamping them with script stamps from The Greetery's Pretty Postmarks. The panel was trimmed to size with a stitched rectangle die and, for a bit of detail, I cut the centre of the panel out with a label die before replacing it.

 

 

Once the background was glued to my card front, I created a little focal cluster on my letters using a stamp image and postage marks from the Pretty Postmarks set. I topped this with a gorgeous old-fashioned rose from Fleur Impressions, also from The Greetery, stamped and cut out. I added some tiny pearls too for extra prettiness!

 

The sentiment is from a Dovecraft set that I thought would be perfect for this vintage look! I stamped it in brown ink and coloured the little butterfly with a pale pink marker. When I glued it on the panel I left a little bit unglued and curled it up a little.

CHALLENGES

This card was inspired by We Love Stamping where Lynn's challenge for May is anything stamped goes with an optional twist of Vintage. I'm also whisking this card over to Allsorts where huge congratulations are in order as the challenge celebrates its 15th birthday this week! There are amazing prizes, so do come and join in :) 

And talking of 15th birthdays, next month will actually be We Love Stamping's 15th birthday too so save the date for a special celebration there too!

 

AND IN OTHER NEWS

The temperatures may have dropped but there's no need to worry about chilly toes in my house...

 

 

... as the built-in foot warmers are working perfectly! Thanks Eva!

Sending hugs,

Birds of a feather

Hello, crafting friends!

 

Where has the week flown off to? Very little crafting has taken place and my fingers have been feeling quite naked without their usual coating of ink! That was remedied today as I scrolled through Challenges for Days and was instantly inspired.

 

To start this card, I watercoloured a pale green square directly onto a thick cardbase (I've found that as long as I don't use too much water the card doesn't buckle.) I topped this with a circle of vellum, diecut with a Waffleflower nesting die, then added some stamped and fussy cut flowers from The Greetery's Fleur Expressions. The birds are from Robin and Wren, also from The Greetery, and also stamped and fussy cut. 

 

I had fussy cut the birds without a white outline but decided they needed one so, instead of starting again, I glue-dotted the birds to a snippet of white card and fussy cut around them. I quite like the dimensional look it gives them. I positioned them so they look as if they're having a nice chat so decided a Hello sentiment from an Altenew set would be appropriate :)

CHALLENGES

Narelle's beautiful sketch at Freshly Made Sketches was my starting point for this card, along with The Card Concept's gorgeous inspiration photo and colour palette - I have made a Clean and Layered card. I'm also playing along at Allsorts where the optional theme this week is Fur or Feathers, as well as The Snippets Playground where Miss requires us to make a project using snippets. I forgot to take a photo of my snippets but the vellum was a small offcut and I stamped and fussy cut the birds and flowers from white snippets as well as the sentiment.

 

AND IN OTHER NEWS

I love watching the busy little garden birds, fluttering about gathering nesting materials and preparing for their families but, meanwhile, the pigeons are like drunken nightclubbers behaving disgracefully and disturbing the peace!

 

Here's a portly chap cooing sweet nothings into the ear of a flighty miss. Hmmm! Be off with you or I'll release the Beige Beasts!

Sending hugs,

One layer sprigs and splatters

Hello, crafting friends!

 

When I get Christmas or birthday money, I immediately run my inner eye over all the craft items I could treat myself to! How about you? This year, after Christmas, I splurged on a some of my favourite stamps and dies from The Greetery (Seven Hills Crafts is the exclusive Greetery retailer in the UK. You're welcome!) Fleur Impressions was one of the stamp sets:

The set contains beautifully drawn roses and other flowers which feel beautifully romantic when used in clusters together. But when I was having a play the other day, I came up with a design using just one of the flower sprigs. I stamped the design from the bottom, filling in either side, and leaving a space for a birthday sentiment.

 

To make the flower sprig you stamp the stalk and leaf image, then you stamp the flowers, then finish with a detail stamp  - and everything is really easy to line up.

 

The sentiment is a favourite from Clearly Besotted which fit perfectly in the space. I used a waterbased marker to add yellow centres to the flowers and splattered some matching ink for some extra movement.

CHALLENGES

Beautiful Blossoms has a lovely blue floral mood board and I'm linking up there, and also at their birthday celebration post - congratulations on your first birthday ladies! Glenda's Topping at Seize the Birthday this month is Splatters so lots of fun to be had there too! The stamp set I used is Never Before Used Schtuff so I'm joining in at Darnells NBUS challenge. I'm also playing along with the Anything Goes option at Allsorts this week.

 

AND IN OTHER NEWS

My neighbour has been having a clear out and hesitantly asked me if I needed any dog towels. I think she was a little taken aback by the enthusiasm of my reply! But it has rained for the last day and a half and that's all it took for the countryside to flood again. One day I'll come in and try to take my wellies off, only to find that they are welded onto my legs!! The girls are not complaining of course...

 

... the fun Water World play park is back - YAY!!

Sending hugs,