Feel better with forget me nots

Hello, crafting friends!

 

The other day,  I was looking up forget me nots to see whether they had 4 petals or 5. It turns out they usually have 5 but can have 6 but never mind that, while looking I started to wonder whether I could put a leaf stamp and a little flower stamp together and make forget me nots... And so this card happened:

 

The leaves are from a flower in a long-ago retired Stampin' Up set called Butterfly Basics and the tiny flower is from a freebie SU set from a few years ago called Thoughtful Blooms. I inked up the stems and leaves from the first flower with a green water-based marker and stamped it along the bottom of a card base, varying the height and angle. I was then able to add the tiny flower to these images, stamping repeatedly in pale blue ink.

 

For a bit of depth, I used coloured pencils to add yellow flower centres, to vary the intensity of the blue petals and to shade in the leaves and stems with green. 

To finish the card, I stamped a favourite sentiment in blue ink and tied some yellow bakers twine to the edge, finishing with a neat bow.

CHALLENGES

I used the colour palette from Sunday Stamps to create this card so I'm linking up there; I'm also linking up at Stamping Sensations where the theme is Summer Flowers and We Love Stamping where the theme is Fabulous Florals.

 

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Earlier on in the year, when my daughter found her wedding dress, we had conversations about the little rhyme for a bride:

 

Something old

Something new

Something borrowed 

Something blue

For 'old' and 'borrowed' I lent her these little vintage pearl earrings, very simple and just what she wanted.

 

 

'New' was easy as her dress and shoes were new. But we were stumped on the 'blue' for a while. In the end, I asked her if she would trust me to embroider something on the inside of the dress where no-one would see it and she agreed (clearly not knowing that embroidery is not my forté!)

 

And so I had a go at embroidering a tiny forget me not on the inside of one of the seams. It's not expertly done but she seemed to like it and it was a personal touch.

 

Speedwell with their 4 petal heads

It turns out it isn't a forget me not (which, as I now know, has more than 4 petals) but is more like a speedwell!

Sending hugs,

When life gives you eucalyptus leaves...

Hello, crafting friends!

I had a moment of inspiration today and made a quick card while the going was good! It's still pretty gloomy around here but I'm hanging on to my mediterranean dream with these oranges and lemons, tumbling past a sun-warmed terracotta wall...

... But wait, I don't have any oranges or lemon stamps in my stash! These citrus fruits are in fact eucalyptus leaves from Concord & 9th's Beautiful Branches. Honestly, this has to be one of the most versatile stamp sets I own - the eucalyptus leaves have also been lanterns (here) and sunflowers (here) and the rest of the set has worked very hard indeed too (here, and keep scrolling down for more.)

To make this card, I stamped two different shapes of the leaves onto a card panel and coloured them with coloured pencils. The stamps are textured which really helps give the effect of dimpled citrus skin. I added leaves from one of last year's Stampin' Up Sale-a-bration sets, and doodled stems in with a fineliner pen.

To finish, I scribbled in a loose watercolour background with a paintbrush and diluted ink. When it was dry, I added one of the sentiments from Beautiful Branches and a sprinkling of clear gems before attaching it to a card base with dimensional pads.

CHALLENGES

Inspired By has inspired me again with both the inspiration photo and the sketch! I'm also joining in with Happy Little Stampers' watercolour challenge.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

While our children were growing up, it was a family tradition to go out to a restaurant on birthdays - and the birthday boy or girl got to choose where. We have a wonderful Indian restaurant near to us which was a popular choice even when they were small, and they took to spicy dishes from a young age too! My youngest son used to love the lemon and orange sorbet there, served in the fruit itself and decorated with other fruits and cocktail umbrellas! He alternated them and could always remember which flavour he'd had the last time he was there!

Happy Friday, enjoy your weekend!

Patchwork wild flowers

Hello, crafting friends!

Ok, so Eva and I haven't melted but it was touch and go there for a minute. Luckily a massive thunderstorm cleared the air yesterday evening and, as we no longer felt as if we were being boiled in oil, we were able to go off on a refreshing walkies! While we were out in the countryside, I admired all the wild flowers which seem to survive in the most inhospitable of conditions. When we returned I made this card: 

Look! I'm using the Spellbinders Optical Illusion dies I won at The Snippets Playground again! I can see that this set of dies is going to be out on my desk permanently! 

I started the card by cutting a hexagonal window in a card panel. I wanted a design to show in my hexagonal window, so I masked off the top and right hand side of a card base, sponged the area inside with SU Pool Party ink and stamped over it in navy with a leaf stamp from Funky Fossil's In The Meadow stamp set. When I attached the card panel over the top with dimensionals, it gave a shadow box effect.

The solid hexagon from the aperture wasn't wasted! I sponged it with SU Melon Mambo ink and stamped it with a sentiment from Thoughtful Blooms, a free stamp set from Stampin' Up during this year's Sale-a-bration. I also cut a hexagon out of a snippet of yellow designer paper. These hexagons were glued to the card panel alongside the aperture, patchwork styyle. 

Finally, I stamped wild flowers from the Funky Fossil set, using markers to ink them up. These were fussy cut, tied together with a piece of bakers twine and used to embellish the card along with an enamel dot.

EDITED TO ADD AN AWARD

This card was show-cased at Less is More!

CHALLENGES

I'm linking up again with CAS on Friday's Nature themed challenge and Just Us Girls' Die-cut A Window challenge. The sketch is a beauty from CAS Colours and Sketches and those fab colours were dreamed up by Joanne at The Paper Players. Less is More have a Summer Flowers theme, so I'll play along there and since everything on this card used left-overs except the card panel, I shall pop over to The Snippets Playground too.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

The temperatures have dropped considerably after the thunderstorms. We woke up this morning to overcast skies and drizzle - perfect weather for a golden retriever (they were originally bred in the highlands of Scotland.)

We had a long walk this morning and when we got back, Eva still had the energy to raid the laundry basket, play 'Toss Mummy's Wet Shoe About' and drag the towel I'd used to dry her off the radiator. She spent a pleasurable ten minutes burrowing about in it while making fierce noises, presumably pretending it was a rabbit hole. After that she was pretty well exhausted!

Sending hugs, 

Birthday at Club Tropicana

Hello crafting friends!

It's hard not to get a bit down sometimes at the moment isn't it? I've even been finding it hard to be inspired in the Craft Square Metre this week. But colour has an amazing way of affecting our moods and reaching for the brights has got me going again. Come and see:

Yes, it's time to pop the grass skirt on and hula on over to the birthday party! This card started with the Tropical Frame embossing folder I bought from Hobbycraft last year (gracious, remember going into an actual shop?!!) I picked out the palm leaves with some bright alcohol markers.

I felt some bright flowers would up the tropical ante. I painted a pink wash on some watercolour paper and, once it had completely dried, die cut some flowers with the Sissix Geo Frame die set. The centres of the flowers were stamped with a tiny stamp from Stampin' Up's Thoughtful Blooms.

To bring the elements together, I cut a frame using my Heffy Doodles stitched rectangle dies and added a block sentiment from Uniko's Simply Said Blocks.

CHALLENGES
I used the colours from this fortnight's As You See It challenge, the layout from Freshly Made Sketches and the theme from Seize The Birthday where they've gone Totally Tropical!

AND IN OTHER NEWS
While I was having a think about this challenge, my charming assistant searched for something tropical to inspire me with. She trotted off busily upstairs and, having rootled around in the laundry basket, reappeared with a tropical print dress of mine in her mouth.

Thank you Eva. Very helpful I'm sure!

Hope you're keeping safe and well, enjoying your weekend and perhaps getting a little inky!

Hugs,

Here for you

Hello crafting friends!

You know, sometimes a very simple card is just exactly what is needed. Come and see:

This card started with that comforting sentiment, which is from MFT's From Me To You. I used my stamping platform to align it on a good thick card base, inking twice to make it nice and black.

The flower and leaves are from Stampin' Up's Hopeful Thoughts. I used Calypso Coral ink for the flower, stamping off on a piece of scrap paper once before stamping it onto the card base above the sentiment. The leaves were added using Mango Melody ink.

I was aiming for a fragile look for my flower.  I chose a flower centre to stamp into the centre using Poppy Parade ink to emphasise the pale petals then added a touch of Calypso Coral ink to the edges of the petals with a blender pen. A tiny pearl finishes the flower.

ACHIEVEMENTS

So pleased this card was chosen in the top 4 at AAA Cards :)

CHALLENGES
I loved the photo inspiration and colour palette at As You See It this week and thought it would work well for a card like this one. I didn't have Grapefruit Grove but went for the closest I could find - Calypso Coral, which I stamped off to make it paler. I'm also linking up with AAA Cards where they want to see Maxi White Space this fortnight, with an optional metallic twist (I may have to create another card for that twist!)

AND IN OTHER NEWS
I don't know what has got into my little golden retriever! She has been making 'aroo' noises across the street when she sees people. Her tail is wagging like mad, and I know she is just saying hello, but if you didn't know dogs you might think she was being wolfish, so I'd really rather she didn't!

What would you think if a golden retriever aroo-ed at you from across the street?

Hugs,

A Thoughtful Blooms birthday

Hello crafting friends!

Happy Valentines Day! I've already revealed all my valentines creations so I'm showing you a birthday card today - but it IS made in shades of hot pink and you could always pretend the sentiment says something romantical if you like! Come and see:

To make the background of this card, I diluted some bright pink ink and smooshed it quickly, to and fro, across a card panel. Once the panel was dry, I stamped it with some of the leaves and flowers from Stampin' Up's Thoughtful Blooms, using undiluted ink this time.  The panel was trimmed with a stitched rectangle die from Heffy Doodles.

The sentiment, from Altenew's Birthday Greetings, was stamped in Momento black ink and the 'happy' coloured with a Spectrum Noir alcohol marker. I used the same marker to add shading to the larger flowers and added a good sprinkling of hot pink gems.

CHALLENGES
This is my second entry at The Rainbow Card Challenge, where Fierce Fuchsia is the theme this month; I'm also linking up with Happy Little Stampers Watercolour Challenge, where Anything Goes with optional Bling and The Flower Challenge which is asking us to Add Leaves to our floral projects.

AND IN OTHER NEWS
I have fallen in love! No, it's okay, George Clooney can rest easy - today, Eva and I went for a walk with the most adorable 9 month old golden retriever! She made Eva look positively calm and matronly (and that takes some doing!) but when they were playing Eva was like a puppy again and my heart melted. There is only one thing sweeter than a golden retriever and that's more than one golden retriever!

I would love to hear your falling-in-love stories! Please share!

Hugs,

A wreath for spring

Hello crafting friends!

It's one of those bright days when you really can imagine spring being round the corner so when I sat down to play with a new stamp set, a spring wreath happened! Come and see how it turned out:

I've used Thoughtful Blooms, a Stampin' Up set I got free when I placed an order recently. It's a stylised floral with some nice delicate flowers and some useful leaves. There's a large clump of leaves which I separated with sharp scissors as I felt they'd be more useful apart. The largest forms a scalloped circle which formed the basis of my wreath.

I stamped two of the flowers in gorgeous spring colours, using a black fineliner to add centres to the little yellow ones and Enamel Effects to the large orange ones for shine and dimension. The card panel was matted onto orange card stock before attaching to the card base.

I chose a simple sentiment from Altenew's Birthday Greetings, positioning it with my stamping platform. The card was finished with a rustic twine bow.

Am I giving you spring vibes?!

CHALLENGES
I was delighted with the new-to-me Tic,Tac Toe Challenge where I've chosen the Flower, Spring, Twine line. The gorgeous colours come from bottom line of the Colour Dare's tic tac toe chart.

AND IN OTHER NEWS
We had an impromptu puppy party on the fields this morning - seven dogs, all playing happily together! After and hour and a half of careering about like loons, this was the scene in my house:

Eva is out for the count but Murph, being a cocker spaniel and quite a bit younger, has half an eye open just in case I should take it into my head to head off for another walk!

Hope you're having a lovely weekend. What have you been up to?