Hydrangea postage stamp collage

Hello, crafting friends!

 

It's time for more fun with flowers! At The Flower Challenge this month, we'd like to see your birthday cards featuring beautiful blooms!

 

 

Here's what I came up with:

 

When I first saw Waffleflower's Postage Stamp Collage die, I became very excited like many other crafters. It quickly found its way into my craft stash but it hasn't come out to play nearly enough yet. This is a fun way to use it - stamping an image onto the whole thing, colouring it, cutting the middle of each individual stamp out and glueing them all to another whole die cut.

 

I used the large hydrangea image from Colorado Craft Co's Big and Bold Get Well, stamping it in pale green on watercolour paper. It was lovely to spend some time watercolouring it with a mix of Stampin' Up inks and Arteza Brush Pens. I didn't want to cover the bloom up too much so I made a tag-style sentiment stamped with a small 'happy birthday' from Concord & 9th. This was tied to the panel with gold thread tied into a multi bow then the panel popped up on dimensional pads.

Okay, now it's over to you! Do hop over to The Flower Challenge blog and check out the amazing variety of floral cards our talented team have made to inspire you. When you're ready to share your own creation, you can use the blue Linky button at the end of the challenge post. You have until 5pm 25th July to join in - have fun!

CHALLENGES

I'm linking up with Allsorts where Gail's theme this week is Way to Grow.

 

AND IN OTHER NEWS

I have dashing about like a mad thing today because it's a birthday weekend and the family will be arriving :) The dogs know something is up of course - Eva is taking it all in her stride as always but Lulu is nervous and needs extra TLC. She removed all the stuffing from her plushy ball earlier on and distributed it around the living room and garden!

Sending hugs,

Truly tropical birthday

Hello, crafting friends!

 

The weather here has turned truly tropical and today's card reflects that! Come and see:

 

 

I started with some snippets of white card and a stamp set that's been loitering in my NBUS box for nearly two years - Tropical Bouquet by Avery Elle. I stamped the two hibiscus flowers in coral ink and a leaf in a dark teal and fussy cut them all. For my background, I cut a square of watercolour paper and painted in a sky and seascape using the same inks, plus a paler teal. When this was dry, I arranged the flowers and leaf in a cluster in one corner and stamped a boat and some birds in the opposite corner with images from Waffle Flower's Lighthouse stamp and stencil set.

 

To finish, the panel was glued to a slightly smaller square of teal card and then attached to a card base that I'd swiped with coral ink. The sentiment is a favourite from an ancient Clearly Besotted stamp set called Fly With Me, stamped and fussy cut.

CHALLENGES

There were lots of challenges helping me to celebrate the tropical weather! The colour palette is Jules' choice at Color Hues; Carol at Just Us Girls has come up with a gorgeous moodboard that features beaches and skies and boats; and at Seize The Birthday Vicki has chosen a beach theme as her Topping. I'm playing along with these challenges and sharing at Darnell's NBUS Challenge too as the Avery Elle stamp set is fresh out of the packet :)

 

AND IN OTHER NEWS

I have arranged my imaginary sunbed in the dappled shade of some palm trees just next to this hibiscus bush and am sipping a strawberry daiquiri while listening to the waves gently lapping at the shore. Anyone care to join me? In this daydream, the golden girls are frolicking about in the waves, but in reality it would be far too hot for them and they would far rather holiday in Alaska or somewhere!

Sending hugs,

Painting with purple

Hello, crafting friends!

 

We've reached the halfway mark in this month's Flower Challenge and would love for you to join in!

 

It's a really fun theme this month for those who love colouring, but sponging die cuts or stenciling are on the menu too for those who prefer to leave the markers to others!

 

These pretty flowers are an image from Altenew's Delicate Bouquet, which I stamped twice in green ink off the edge of a panel of watercolour paper. My Arteza watercolour brush pens were still jumping up and down shouting 'pick me, pick me!' and since I haven't used them for a few minutes, I gave them a go ;)

I don't often use purples and enjoyed the novelty of using them for the flowers today, teaming them with a dark green for the foliage. I also used a wet neutral to hint at a background and left the panel to dry. After stamping a sentiment from Reverse Confetti's Perfect Timing, I kept it simple and just attached the panel to a card base.

Okay, it's over to you! Do go over to The Flower Challenge's blog post and drool over the gorgeous samples my team mates have made! When you're ready, you can link up your own card using the Linky Tool at the bottom of the post. Enjoy!

CHALLENGES

I'm linking this card up with Triple B where there is the most beautiful mood board again! I'm also joining in at Word Art Wednesday where we have the option to use the digital verse or it's Anything Goes;  Both stamp sets on this card are getting their first outing, so I'm popping over to Darnell's NBUS Challenge. 

AND IN OTHER NEWS

I've been a bit of a busy bee this past week or so, spring cleaning, gardening and having visitors. It's been pretty hot here too so the golden girls have needed to go down to the river for their walks to keep cool. Yesterday though, I took advantage of cooler temperatures to take them for a romp over the fields where there are rabbits for the huntresses among us to run after. We haven't been there for a while and in our absence, cows have been brought into one of the side fields to graze. Eva is afraid of cows and stayed close to me, but Lulu went over to investigate and, the sweetest thing, spent a few moments nose to nose with some of the braver cows, her tail wagging and clearly making friends. She is full of surprises!

Sending hugs,

The accidental card

Hello, crafting friends!

 

We're halfway through our challenge at The Flower Challenge and we'd love to see your card in the gallery! Layers are the theme this month.

My card was a total accident! For another project, I'd cut a panel with a cover die called Country Garden by Gemini. It needs a shim but I'd forgotten about that, so had ended up with an uncut version. My Arteza watercolour brush pens were (as usual!) out on the table so I amused myself by using some pretty spring colours with a little water and a paint brush to colour the image. It was just ordinary card stock so I wasn't expecting it to work, but I quite liked the result and it was just right for layering.

 

I used a small flower die to cut daisies out of snippets of white card. These were layered over the largest flowers and I found enamel dots in different colours and sizes to decorate the other flowers. The panel was then attached to a card base.

My final layer is a frame from the UFO box which had been cut from white card with a double stitched rectangle die. I backed the frame with foam tape for a bit of extra dimension. The sentiment is from MFT's All Occasion Sentiments, stamped on a snippet of white card, cut out and popped up on dimensional pads.

 

Okay, so it's your turn! My talented team mates have made some gorgeous cards to inspire you and you'll find them over on The Flower Challenge blog post. You'll find the Linky Tool at the bottom of the post too and can use it to share your own layered floral creation with us. You have until April 25 and we can't wait to see what you make!

 

CHALLENGES

I'm off to The Snippets Playground with this card! Sorry I didn't take photos of my snippets because I didn't know it was going to be a snippets card but the floral panel was a rescued failed die cut, the frame was a left over, and all the other elements were snippets of white card.

AND IN OTHER NEWS 

Lulu is in the doghouse! We'd had a locksmith round and I asked him if he'd make a fuss of the dogs before I shut them in the kitchen while he got on with his work. Once Eva knows who is in the house she is fine, and Lulu took her lead from Eva so there was no barking at all. When the locksmith left, I released the dogs and praised them for their excellent behaviour. I then got on with cleaning the living room. I wanted to give it a good sweeping to get rid of any dog hair, so I popped the pups out in the garden so they wouldn't walk in the sweepings. But twice in a row proved to be a step too far for young Lulu...

 

... and she had started digging a hole before I noticed and was able to stop her! Very frustrating but totally my fault for pushing her further than she could cope with. She will now need to be supervised carefully in the garden so that behaviour is not repeated. Sigh!

Sending hugs,

It's a wonderful life

Hello, crafting friends!

 

Lorraine at Allsorts Challenge has chosen a theme very close to my heart this week: For the Love of Animals. "It would be great to see entries with the animals we have as pets," she says on the post. Say no more Lorraine, I need absolutely no encouragement!

 

As a golden retriever owner, you'd think my shelves would be groaning with retriever stamps, but no. Stamp manufacturers don't seem to understand that these are the best dogs in the world (this may actually be just my own biased opinion!) and golden retriever images are sadly few and far between. I do have a Penny Black set though, called Doggone Sweet, which does represent my pair of rascals pretty well! 

 

 

The dog nearest the hedge is Eva. At nearly ten years old she is the sensible one of the pair and occasionally demonstrates this. She has no toys near her - we, the humans, are her toys! She plays us for fools all day long, taking breaks for well-earned snoozles. If we aren't available, Eva does like to tear apart a toy sometimes, imagining herself to be a great huntress, and if we have guests she likes to rummage about in the laundry basket and parade through the room showing off our oldest underwear!

 

We adopted Lulu last year. She was four years old and will be five in June. She still behaves like a puppy despite my efforts to train her to be a Grown Up Lady Dog. She expends a lot of energy chasing things and trying to communicate her urgent desire for snacks, so she needs plenty of naps too. She loves a ball and her little plushie toys and uses them as a comfort blankie when she gets confused about life. Her sleep style is pretty much always on her back with her paws all over the place. Both dogs' hobbies include getting wet and muddy, snacking, rolling in nefarious stuff and pretending they have no idea what 'No' means.

The card is very simple: edges of card base masked off with low tack tape; dogs stamped and masked; sky and foreground sponged in; hedge and trees stamped with retired SU sets; masks removed and dogs coloured and detail added with ink and paintbrush. The sentiment, from an old Clearly Besotted set, was chosen with a chuckle - there aren't any days that aren't wonderful in these dogs lives. The worst that happens is that Mum goes out for an hour or two to replenish stores of Meaty Chunks and Fishy Treats!!

 

CHALLENGES

I'm linking this card up with Allsorts but also Stamping Sensations, where I've been inspired by the spring mood board, and We Love Stamping where the theme is also Spring. Double D's challenge this month is Cute Little Animals and although I explained to the golden girls that they are NOT little, they insisted that they are extremely cute and practically handbag dogs, so I'm joining in there too ;)

 

AND IN OTHER NEWS

I've been very light-hearted about the dogs but when Lulu came to us, she was very stressed, had lost a lot of weight and was really scared to be in new surroundings. She had begun to be reactive around other dogs and had to be toilet trained all over again. She didn't want to let me out of her sight and barked her head off if I left the house. She slept on the bed right from the beginning and would wake multiple times in the night whimpering. I would just cuddle her until she fell back to sleep. Eva is not a dog that likes to be in close contact with other dogs but gradually, she began to help to comfort Lulu. They bonded on our daily long walks which really helped Lulu to unwind and let go of her fears. This is a (very bad, sorry!) photo of her in the early weeks cuddling up at night with Eva and with a stuffed toy as her comfort blankie.

 

Today, she has put on weight and become beautifully fluffy! She knows our routine and is no longer stressed. We have just come back from a long walk and she has swum and fetched sticks from the river and frolicked about with Eva. We met several dogs and she greeted each of them calmly with a friendly wag and a sniff. On the way back I bumped into a lady I know with a lab and a wolfhound, and we all walked back together while the dogs sniffed and played. I am so proud of Lulu's progress and of Eva who has helped to rehabilitate her sister.

Thank you for reading my ramblings about my beloved dogs! Sending hugs,

An accident and a snippety save

Hello, crafting friends!

 

Things have gone quite quiet here after the Easter celebrations and more rain has driven me back indoors. But the great thing is that my NBUS box contains some pretty florals I have been saving for a rainy day! One of my favourite ways to relax at the moment is to sit and watercolour flowers, so I pulled out some inks and Poppy Hawthorn from Waffle Flower and settled in.

 

The flower cluster was stamped with Stampin' Up's Sea Foam ink and the leaves and flowers watercoloured with Garden Green and Flirty Flamingo. When it was dry I fussy cut it, intending to lay it across a card base. But then I thought it would be better on a classic stitched rectangle panel and decided it would be a nice touch to trim the side of the flower cluster with the stitched rectangle die so it would look as if was part of the panel. I had to use the partial die cutting technique for this and I'm not sure whether it was because I was doing it in the semi dark or whether I'm just a Fool of the West, but it all went horribly wrong and I cut all sorts of bits off the flower cluster that I hadn't intended to!!

After all that watercolouring, there was no way it was all going in the bin so I sat down and, after a bit of arranging, head-scratching and re-arranging, I ended up with this...

 

... which was much nicer than what I was intending to do!

 

The flowers are layered up in the corner of the panel with a few stray leaves snipped off and tucked in. I finished off with a pretty 'thank you' sentiment that is part of the set.

 

Thought you might like to see the snippets I ended up with after my booboo!

CHALLENGES

Thought Miss Di and Head Prefect Sarn at the The Snippets Playground would approve of my refusal to bin the bits, so I'm romping over there with this card (and to find any stray eggs!); The colour palette came from Rachel's beautiful choice at CAS Colours and Sketches; Ann has a fun Tic Tac Toe board at The Paper Players and I chose the bottom row Flowers/Thank You/Pastels; and of course I shall nip over to Darnell's where I've not only got some NBUS to link up but have also remembered to join in with her IDEAS challenge - an encouragement for those who want to pep up their crafting life! This week is ink/colour mediums.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

The chocolate eggs may have all been eaten but my eldest son, who is staying with us, is still very much in egg mode. He popped into the kitchen to make himself a sandwich for a snack to keep him going until lunch time and couldn't understand why I dissolved into giggles when I came in.

 

Here is his mega egg sandwich - and he was just frying up some bacon, mushrooms and tomatoes to garnish it with. He did full justice to lunch too! In his defence, he is very tall and slim and needs a lot of energy. And for those that are wondering what the golden girls made of it, they sat watching him the whole time. But he is wise to their 'starving orphan' act and ignored their wide eyes sending 'I've never been fed, not even EVER' messages!

Sending hugs,

Spring in the meadow

Hello, crafting friends!

 

Spring is really on its way now and I am so inspired by all the pretty colours in the garden. There are lots of card challenges celebrating flowers and spring too so I rolled up my sleeves and joined in.

 

This fabulous floral is from Waffleflower's Bouquet Builder 3 that I was lucky enough to find as a bargain recently. I stamped the large image off the edge of a panel of watercolour paper that I'd trimmed with a Hemstitch die from Spellbinders.

 

I used a lightish neutral coloured ink and then coloured the image with Arteza watercolour brush pens - yes, they were out on my table again!

 

The sentiment is such a pretty one from The Greetery's Pine Blossom - a set that just keeps on giving in my opinion!

CHALLENGES

I'm linking this card up at Addicted to CAS where Toni has chosen Bloom as her word prompt; also Little Red Wagon where Chrissy's theme is Florals; Sarah is hosting Allsorts for a two week challenge and has opted for an optional challenge of Keep it Simple; Cathy wants to see Feminine cards at We Love Stamping, and Spring is in the Air at Stamping Sensations, so I'm also joining in there too. Finally, as this floral stamp is Never Before Used Schtuff, I'm twirling over to Darnell's NBUS Challenge.

 

AND IN OTHER NEWS

I did ask the golden girls if they'd like to watch me do some more crafting this afternoon but they decided they'd rather go for a long muddy walk instead. I know who is in charge in this house so I doffed my cap and scurried off to fetch the leads!

 

Here they are, fresh out of the river! They don't look very cheerful do they, but the expressions on their faces represent pure concentration because they know that when I've stopped mucking about with cameras, I am going to be saying those beautiful words that every pup longs to hear:

"Are you hungry?"

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,

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,