A side of daffodils

Hello, crafting friends!

 

The Addicted to CAS challenge is back - hooray! We have been waiting for our esteemed leader Kylie to return from her sabbatical and it's great to welcome her back :) Our first Code Word has been chosen by the lovely Jaydee: 

 

I'm loving all the spring colours at this time of year and I've used them with my new favourite embossing folder and an older classic sentiment stamp to create a CAS spring birthday card.

 

I positioned the embossing folder off the edge of the card base and then used coloured pencils to colour the flowers. Coloured pencils are probably not the best way to colour the raised flowers but it worked! The sentiment, from Uniko's Simply Said Blocks, was stamped in green, snipped out with the end cut into a flag and popped up on dimensional pads.

 

So, now it's over to you! Do hop over to the Addicted to CAS blog to check out all the wonderful inspiration from the Design Team. You'll find the Linky Tool at the bottom of the post and you can use it to share your own creation with us. Don't forget we are a Clean and Simple challenge, so remember to use minimal layers and leave plenty of clear space. We can't wait to see what you make!

CHALLENGES

Cardz 4 Galz has a Spring Flowers theme so I'm linking up there; I'm also joining in with Seize The Birthday where Nancy has chosen Things in a Garden as her topping.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

In the UK, spring comes with sunshine and often quite strong breezes - perfect for hanging the washing out to dry for that meadow fresh feel. Spring also comes with spring showers, so my personal fitness has improved no end with all the running in and out of the garden rescuing the nearly dry laundry from the line! I have a willing little helper of course...

 

... but oh my! Sorting out the laundry is tiring work!

Sending hugs,

Spring flowers for Mothers Day

Hello, crafting friends!

 

Welcome back to the Tic Tac Toe Challenge! Today, it's my turn for the privilege of coming up with a board to inspire you 8 different ways :)

 

There's a real spring vibe about the board because I'm so excited about everything coming up in the garden! I went for the diagonal from bottom left: Use a Stencil/Flowers/Sentiment to create a card for Mothers Day which is coming up in the UK on 19th March.

 

I got out some favourite spring flower stamps from Clearly Besotted and used masking techniques to create the flower grouping. I watercoloured the flowers, adding detail with coloured pencils when the image was completely dry.

 

To finish, I positioned an arch stencil from The Greetery over the group and sponged blue ink through it. Once the stencil was removed I stamped the greeting in soft grey ink and added clear dots for that 'fresh as the morning' feel!

 

Okay, so now it's your turn! Which row or column will you choose? Or are one of the diagonals calling to you? Do hop over to the Tic Tac Toe Challenge blog to check out the amazing inspiration from the design team. You'll find the Linky Tool at the bottom of the post and you can use it to share your own creation with us. I'm looking forward to seeing how you use my board!

CHALLENGES

I'm linking up at We Love Stamping which has a Spring is in the Air theme this month; also Hand stamped Sentiments where I used the pretty sketch; I'm also joining in at Retro Rubber where Anything Goes using stamps older than a year (the tulips and daffs were released in 2018 and the blossoms in 2019.) And I'm going for the Anything Goes option at Allsorts this week.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Sorry I've been a bit AWOL recently. What with regular visits to the dentist with my youngest son, wedding planning and sorting out Eva and her pals' social lives, I've been the busiest of bees. My allotment is calling for attention, the garden needs a good tidy up and as for the house - well, shall we say that a spring clean is definitely on the cards!! And talking of cards... I have a few made that need blogging and am trying to come to terms with some new technology. Help! Whelm is happening!

 

Perhaps I should take a leaf out of Eva's book and have a relaxing spa day...?!

Sending hugs,

Spring in the country

Hello, crafting friends!

 

I've been having such a lovely time playing with the 3D embossing folders I recently acquired! Today's card started life as an experiment and I kept adjusting it and adding to it until finally I think it works!

 

I started by embossing a card base with the Daffodil Delight embossing folder by Altenew, letting the image hang off the edge. I wondered if I could watercolour it and so I coloured the flowers with water and inks, adding a wash of colour on the background and finally some splatters of ink. I let this dry. Of course the main problem was that I had used a standard card base and the image warped badly so I left it under a pile of heavy books and forgot about it :)

 

When I eventually came back to it, I was surprised at how well it had flattened. It looked all wrong though; the top of the card was all empty and not in a good 'white space' kind of way! I came up with the notion of scoring a pair of lines to separate the coloured area with the top of the card but it wasn't a great solution. That's when I suddenly thought of raiding the snippets drawer!

 

I gave the card a country look with a snippet of fabulous gingham paper and added a strip of coral card. I found a sentiment which fit the space perfectly and coloured it with a marker. The final touch was a bow, die cut from another snippet of coral card with an MFT die.

 

Here are the snippets I used.

CHALLENGES

I am linking this card up with Four Seasons where March sees the shift to spring! Happy Little Stampers Birthday is back with an Anything Birthday-themed Goes challenge so I'm playing along there; and This card is also my homework for the Snippets Playground where I hope there's some hot chocolate left because my hands are freezing!

 

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Isn't springtime wonderful? The flowers, the sunshine, the animals becoming frolicsome...

 

Here is a frolicsome dog for example. She is dripping wet because she has just frolicked in the river and now she is about to frolick in the earth. That face is saying "Promise me extra meaty chunks for tea, or I roll!"

Sending hugs,

Bobbin' Robin!

Hello, crafting friends!

 

We're heading towards the end of the month and there were a couple of challenges I've been wanting to join in with. This card covers both bases|!

I started by cutting a card panel with a stitched rectangle die from Heffy Doodle and sponging lots of blue ink onto it. Funky Fossil's Snow Flurry stencil was positioned over the top and I sponged the same colour blue into it for a soft tone on tone look. I stamped the pine branch from The Greetery's Budding Beauties Winter at the bottom of the panel, adding extra pine needles and doodling in extra branches with a marker.

 

The adorable robins are from an old set from Clearly Besotted. I coloured two of them with coloured pencils, layering up the colours and blending them. I perched one robin on the branch and the other in the air as if he was dive bombing his friend! 

 

 

The sentiment was put together using two sentiments from WPlus9's Silver Bells. Once I'd stamped everything, I mounted the panel onto a slightly bigger green panel and attached it to a card front. I'm excited to see my Christmas card stash growing!

CHALLENGES

I'm linking this card up at  We Love Stamping where the challenge is Anything Goes with optional Add a Stencil; and Rudolph Days for the monthly Christmas card challenge.

 

AND IN OTHER NEWS

I realised the other day that although I think of this house as 'the new house', we have lived in it for over twenty years! I had a sudden memory of the boys playing together. The two of them were inseparable when they were little and played all sorts of extraordinarily detailed imaginative games. If they wanted their characters to have something, they drew it on a piece of paper and cut it out with scissors. They didn't bother to colour it in or anything, their imaginations did everything! In case you're feeling sorry for them, they did also have plenty of toys!

Sending hugs,

Rustic Garden

Hello, crafting friends!

The delicate little flowers on today's card are made with my favourite crafty item at the moment - the Botanicuts Wildflower Mix dies from The Greetery. They are quite fiddly but absolutely addictive!

 

 

I coloured my flowers with sponge daubers before glueing them together.

 

To showcase my flowers, I used a kraft card base and cut a matching panel using one of the Nordic Frame dies, also from The Greetery. I made a background by scribbling on the panel with a white watercolour crayon then glued the flowers on it in a curve. 

 

Finally, I stamped a sentiment from an old Stampin' Up set and popped up another sentiment from Uniko's Floral Vines over the top of it.

CHALLENGES

I've been wanting to join in with The Flower Challenge's Use Your Latest Stamps/Dies theme all month and think I will just get this card in before the deadline!

AND IN OTHER NEWS

I have become very, very fond of this little cutie!

 

He's quite a dignified chap who turns into a little babe when he falls asleep!

Sending hugs,

Pastel recovery

Hello, crafting friends!

 

Welcome to another Thursday full of Tic Tac Toe Challenge fun! I fell head over heels with the board Felicita created this week:

 

 

Spring - yay! I couldn't wait to crack open those pastel inks so I opted for the middle column Bold Sentiment/Free/Pastel Colours and made a get well card.

 

I used a Uniko stamp set called Just Because which features a fabulous silhouette plant. Using a stamping platform to get good ink coverage of the solid image, I stamped the image all over a card base. I used pastel inks and varied the position and angle and colour each time I stamped.

 

Over the top of the card base I created a dimensional sentiment layer using stitched circle and stitched rectangle dies. I stamped the top layer with Uniko's Pinstripe background stamp and added a bold sentiment from The Colorado Company. I finished with different sizes of lovely shiny enamel dots - my favourite embellishments!

 

Okay, so now it's your turn! Which colomn or row will you choose from the board? Or will you opt for one of the diagonals? Do hop over to the Tic Tac Toe challenge blog and check out the inspiration from the design team. You'll find the Linky Tool at the bottom of the post and can use it to share your own creation with us. We can't wait to see how you were inspired!

CHALLENGES

I'm linking this card up at Allsorts where I've taken the Anything Goes option; also Little Red Wagon where Chrissy wants to see us use our die cuts - my sentiment uses a rectangle and a circle die.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

It was so much fun to use spring colours on today's project and I'm enjoying seeing the bulbs coming into flower in the garden. It's still pretty chilly though and while I tend to tuck a throw over my knees if I'm sitting for a while, the pups have a much better way to stay warm!

 

Nothing like a rousing game of tug for raising the temperatures! Poor old Lion Friend has seen better days but they seem to prefer the old toys for tug (thank goodness!)

Sending hugs,

Delighting in daffodils

Hello, crafting friends!

 

Where oh where does the time go?! I skip about thinking I'm all ahead of the game when all of a sudden, the things I should have done jump out at me and I realise that I'm not only NOT ahead of the game, but am dismally far behind it. So today's card was made with my fingers in my ears, saying "La la la, I can't hear you" to the chores!!

 

I've been dying to have a play with these 3D embossing folders that lots of you have been showcasing so I spent some of my Christmas money on several, including this one: Daffodil Delight by Altenew. I wondered if it would work to emboss just parts of the pattern, snip it out and colour it, and it turns out it works very well!

 

 

I coloured my fussy cut daffodils with alcohol markers and I love the dimension the embossing gives them. To assemble the card, I trimmed a snippet of Craft Consortium designer paper to size with a stitched rectangle die, attached it to a card base and layered my daffodils over the top. To finish, I stamped a sentiment from Uniko's Simply Said Blocks, snipped it out and gave it a ribbon tail on one side before adding it to the card front.

 

 I used just two snippets to create this card and the card base.

CHALLENGES

I followed Linda's fabulous sketch at Freshly Made Sketches so I'll link up there; This is my homework for The Snippets Playground where the challenge is to make a card with snippets; Over at the As You See It challenge Deborah has come up with a fill-in-the-blank for us: My favourite thing about spring is... I love watching the spring flowers come to life so I'm entering this card there too.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

The daffodils are making a supreme effort to come out along the path before we get to the fields behind our house.

 

 

Eva is very interested in them and, while I would love to think she is planning horticultural extravagances, I suspect the vulgar truth is that one of her pals has had a wee over them!!!

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,