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Saturday 16 March 2024

Cheers me dears!

Hello, crafting friends!
 
We had fun celebrating my youngest son's birthday earlier this week and I thought I'd show you the card I made for him. It was designed to make him smile and I hope it might give you a chuckle too!
 

The sentiment is supposed to be read in a cockney accent. When I used to live in London, I might hear someone say: "Who's that geezer with the dodgy tache?" meaning: " Who is that gentleman with the inappropriate moustache?" Anyway, enough of that...!
 
The drinks are from an older Clearly Besotted set called Raise a Glass. I stamped them on off-cuts of watercolour paper, coloured them with my Arteza Watercolour Brush Pens and fussy cut them. In case you were wondering why the boozy card, my son is not a dipsomaniac but IS a master cocktail maker!
 

The sentiment was made using The Greetery's Slim Alphabet dies which I cut from the matte black packaging my Arteza Brush Pens came in! Waste not want not! I arranged everything on a thick card base, making the letters dance about as if someone had (ahem) imbibed rather too many of the cocktails! I tried to make the cocktails realistic - see if you can spot a Martini, a Margarita, an Old Fashioned (he told me off because it's the wrong glass!), a Singapore Sling, a Cosmopolitan and a Bellini! 


I forgot to take a photo of the snippets before I cut them out but here's a photo of the cuttings!!
 
CHALLENGES
I am of course romping off to the Snippets Playground with my cocktail shaker in my satchel - will tell Miss we're doing scientific experiments! The Male Room's theme is Food & Drink so I'm joining in there too.


AND IN OTHER NEWS
My son kindly brought his cocktail shaker up at Christmas and had great fun devising cocktails for our enjoyment. I took a photo of some of them:

 
... unbelieveably delicious! I would share the recipes but naturally they remain a secret known only to the genius behind their conception ;) The decoration in the second photo was supposed to be frosted cranberries but I hadn't been able to find any so my poor son had to make do with a frozen cherry. Other great artists don't have this kind of nonsense to contend with do they?!!

Sending hugs,

Friday 15 March 2024

Easter crocuses

Hello, crafting friends!
 
It's time to remind you that this month's challenge at The Flower Challenge is to create a square floral card. It's always fun to break out of the usual rectangular style so why not come and join in!
 

I've made an Easter card this time, using the Botanicuts Crocus die set from The Greetery. I cut the leaves and flowers out of vellum and used waterbased markers to colour them, then set them aside while I made a background.
 

The grassy foreground was sponged onto a panel using a mask cut with a Lawn Fawn Hillside Border die. I used Clearly Besotted's Sunny Day stencil to create a subtle sunburst (hard to see I know!) and added blue ink sponged round the edges of the panel. The flowers were added in one corner and I stamped a sentiment from Uniko's Everyday Spring Sentiments before attaching the panel to a square card base.

Okay, so now it's over to you! Do hop over to The Flower Challenge blog to check out all the amazing inspiration from the design team. Create a square card using florals, then when you're ready to link up your card, use the Linky Tool at the bottom of the post. You have until the 25th of the month to join in - have fun!

CHALLENGES
I'm linking this card up at Beautiful Blossoms where there's another gorgeous mood board involving purples and yellows! 
 
AND IN OTHER NEWS
The sun came out in time for our walk today - hooray! The golden girls took the opportunity to career about, have a good old roll, attempt to eat unspeakable things in the fields, chase unsuspecting squirrels and cause general chaos in the countryside! After that, there was just time for Eva to cool off in a handy pool which...
 
 
... wasn't really muddy enough for her as she could still see her reflection! No cup of tea in the world was strong enough to sustain me after this ordeal so I reached out an exhausted and feeble hand for some chocolate truffles instead. 10 out of 10, would recommend!

Sending hugs,

Thursday 14 March 2024

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,

Monday 4 March 2024

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,

Sunday 3 March 2024

Reddy for spring!

Hello, crafting friends!
 
I am currently filling the house with bright spring flowers in an effort to pretend winter is over. It helps! Potted hyacinths and daffodils are filling the rooms with their fresh scent and I have vases of tulips too. Which brings me to today's card:
 

How amazing are these tulip dies from the Greetery?!
 

I cut them from watercolour paper and coloured them with my Arteza watercolour brush pens. 
 

To display my tulips, I stamped a red gingham panel using a Kaisercraft stamp, drew some stems using one of the Arteza pens and positioned the flowers and leaves. Once I was happy with the arrangement, I glued everything in place and finished with a pretty birthday greeting from the Greetery's Arched Sentiments, stamped and die cut.

CHALLENGES
I used Jen B's fabulous sketch at Freshly Made Sketches to create this card. I flipped the sketch - I hope you can see how I used it! I'm also joining in with Seize the Birthday where JoAnn's Topping is Use Red as the Main Color; Lorraine has chose Spring as her optional theme at Allsorts and I'm sending my tulips along there; I've not used my Tulips die before so will take it for an airing at Darnell's NBUS Challenge where it's all about Never Before Used Schtuff!
 
 
AND IN OTHER NEWS
I am more than ready for spring I can tell you! Here's a rare sighting of the Blonde Bombshells in all their pristine fluffiness:
 

Needless to say, this photo was taken at the beginning of our walk. See all that mud behind them? A few frolics later and that mud will transfer itself to my girls and they will turn into a pair of Grubs! Luckily there is a clean stream at the end of this walk so we will swap muddiness for sogginess!

Sending hugs,

Thursday 29 February 2024

Writing with love

Hello, crafting friends!
 
It's a Tic Tac Toe Challenge Thursday today and I can't wait to show you the board Betty has come up with to get your creative juices flowing! 
 

I was excited by the left hand column CAS/Foliage/Metallic which gave me the perfect opportunity to have a little play with some new goodies that arrived recently :)
 

My starting point was making the fountain pen using the Greetery's new Pen Pal die. I cut the barrel of the pen and the lid out of a glossy magazine cover (look at me recycling!) and the trims from gold mirror card. You can see how shiny the pen turned out in the photo below :) The designer paper, a snippet of an SU paper gifted to me by a lovely friend, coordinated beautifully with the pen. I glued it to a card base and trimmed the edges.
 

The 'with love' from the Greetery's Scripted Sentiments was stamped directly onto the paper and card base. The 'on your birthday' comes from the same set and was stamped and trimmed into a banner. The leaf is a favourite stencil from Uniko, Natures Treasures, and was inked with a couple of shades of green ink. After assembling the card, I added a couple of green enamel dots to pull everything together.
 
Right, so now it's your turn! Here's how to play: First, hop over to the Tic Tac Toe challenge blog and check out the amazing inspiration from my team mates; Second, choose a row, column or diagonal and create a card using the suggestions; Third, use the Linky Tool at the bottom of the challenge post to link your creation with us. We can't wait to see what you make!

CHALLENGES
The Pen Pal die and the Scripted Sentiments were new so I'm sharing this card at Darnell's NBUS Challenge where we show off our Never Before Used Schtuff; I used a stencil so will link up at the Stencil Fun Challenge; Simply Clean and Simple wants to see CAS cards and their optional theme is Pink so I'm joining in there; and AAA Cards are looking for CAS cards with an optional twist of Birthday so I'm joining in there too!


AND IN OTHER NEWS
I can reveal that I am officially fed up with winter now. No matter how many pink cards I make, life is just:
 

Please send sunshine and lollipops!
 
Sending hugs,

Tuesday 27 February 2024

Good news and One for the stash!

Hello, crafting friends!
 
As the 25th of the month approached, I thought of how I used to always make a Christmas card thanks to the encouragement of the Rudolph Days challenge. We all thought it would have to close as Maureen, who ran it brilliantly for years, was unable to continue, but today I discovered that the amazing Helen has taken over the reins of the sleigh. Hurrah! Do spread the word won't you, follow the Rudolph Days blog and share the challenge badge. And come and join in - you have until the last day of the month to link up and it's Anything Christmas Goes!
 

I was a bit short on time but I found a little topper I made last year with Altenew's Clasic Pine Cones embossing folder, coloured with inks and daubers and trimmed with a Crimped Frame die from the Greetery. I had added lots of 'snow' with my trusty Posca white acrylic paint pen. To show it off, I made a Faux Book Binding card using three washi tapes that coordinated with my topper.
 
 
To finish, I added a banner-style sentiment from Uniko's Simply Said Blocks Christmas using a couple of tiny staples, and added two enamel dots for berries.
 
And there we go - back on track with my festive stash for the end of the year! Thanks Helen!

CHALLENGES
I'm linking this card up at Rudolph Days but have also been inspired by these challenges: Christmas Craft Creations where the challenge is to use Stencils or Embossing Folders; Christmas Kickstart where the theme is Out on a Limb (things you might find on a Christmas tree!); and Addicted to Stamps and More where the theme this time is Christmas.


AND IN OTHER NEWS
I found a new walk yesterday. Normally there's livestock in these fields, so I've avoided them, but there hasn't been anything for ages and the grass is not under water and is clean and dry... my heart sang I can tell you! However, it is with deep regret that I must tell you that golden retrievers are equipped with a special inner mud divining device and, as we frolicked along, both of the Beige Beasts discovered exciting ditches and puddles and turned into Mud Monsters. They did redeem themselves though... there was a cattle trough in the last field as we returned and the pups discovered that it was full to the brim with water from all the recent rain. Lulu mistook it for a spa bath to rinse off her mud masque and jumped in for a full immersion; I was quite firm in encouraging Eva to follow suit!!

Sending hugs,

Monday 26 February 2024

Swimming in winter

Hello, crafting friends!
 
First of all, here's a message for the lovely lady who asked me what I meant when I used the abbreviation OH. I do hope you see this!
 
When I arrived in Blogland, I too saw people using OH and DD and wondered what they meant. By context I began to understood that DD was Darling Daughter. From there it was clear that DH was Dear Husband. But OH? I could only suppose it meant Old Husband which seemed a bit irreverent but then a friend told me it was Other Half and all became clear. I use OH now because it makes me giggle (but don't tell DH!!)

Okay, let's move onto a little light crafting! There are a couple of challenges in Blogland calling for things with wings, which encouraged me to pull out a favourite stamp set by Craft Consortium called Riverbank featuring a beautiful swan.


My Arteza watercolour brush pens were on my desk jumping up and down shouting 'pick me'!! So I went and got my jam jar of water and my brushes, and used them to create a simple background for the swan. First I stamped the swan on watercolour paper, then I dampened the paper around the swan with water. It is so easy from there to add strokes of colour with the pens and move it around on the paper to give the illusion of cloudy skies or water. I added some simple green shapes for the river banks too and left it to dry.
 

The swan was easy to colour with the same blue grey. I left that to dry while I stamped foliage and twigs and trees over my bank shapes to add detail. After all that, I went in and added darker details and finished off the swan with an orange beak and black accents. The sentiment is a favourite from Uniko's Floral Vines. I trimmed my panel and mounted it on brown card before attaching to my card front.

CHALLENGES
Stamping Sensations' February challenge is all about Animals, Birds and Creatures so I'm linking up there; Liz has chosen the theme of Things That Fly for Allsorts this week and although Mr Swan is currently swimming, I am sure he could put on an impressive display of flying if he chose!


 
AND IN OTHER NEWS

The swan stamp I used today came into my mind when I took the golden girls to walk by the river. I deeply regretted this because although the flood water has receded, the banks are knee deep in mud. That's fine when you have canine claws but not so much when you are wearing old wellies!! We had the place to ourselves (as everyone else had the sense to walk somewhere else!) and half way up the river, we came across a pair of beautiful swans gliding up the river. Eva learned a long time ago that swans are not to be messed with, but I'm afraid having a naughty little sister emboldens her to imagine she is a fearless huntress! I had to be quite stern but we walked past the swans with the dogs on lead and me explaining how we just have to be Grown Up Lady Dogs sometimes and behave with Dignity and Decorum. Needless to say, when we had safely passed the swans and I let them off lead again, dignity and decorum were the last things on their minds! Sigh.

Sending hugs,

Friday 23 February 2024

Left overs and hugs

Hello, crafting friends!
 
I can't even begin to explain how much fun I had today! Some Blogland challenges had inspired me to take a look in my patterned paper drawer and the first thing I saw was the Simple Stories Christmas pad I'd bought to make some last-minute 'patterned background and bold die cut sentiment' cards last year. There were some whole sheets left in the pad but there were also some off cuts and some little journaling cards which I thought I might use to create some non-festive cards. Come and see:
 
CARD NUMBER ONE

 
I started trimming some coordinating strips which I put together in an L shape on a card panel. The large heart, which I found on one of the journal cards, was fussy cut, stiffened by stacking it up with snippets of white card, and popped up on the panel. I added another heart, die cut from a mustard snippet and an enamel heart.
 

The 'hugs' sentiment was cut using the Greetery's Slim Alphabet dies. I thought it would go nicely with the heart theme :)
 
 
CARD NUMBER TWO


Instead of going for the blue and red with mustard accents, this time I focused on the warm mustard with red and blue accents. I LOVE the patterns and muted colours in this pad!
 
 
The mug of flowers was fussy cut from a journal card and I added layered die cut hearts and a sentiment banner fussy cut from another journal card. 



Here are some of the snippets I used (I added more as I went along plus white snippets). Sadly I ran out of time as I would definitely have enjoyed making more of these!

CHALLENGES
I fell in love with Kim's gorgeous sketch at Freshly Made Sketches, and used it for both my cards; I used Patterned Paper on both, so will enter these at Double D where that is the theme; X is for Xtra Hearts at The Alphabet Challenge so I'm linking up Card One there; I'm taking my mug of flowers to The Snippets Playground - I shall give the flowers to Miss Di to cheer her up and then nip up to the treehouse and fill it up with hot chocolate! Liz said something about Baileys... I don't know what that is but it sounds delicious!!

AND IN OTHER NEWS
I tend to walk the golden girls in the park at the moment because it is mostly flooded. They are thrilled with this and I can let them off to zoom around in the water because there are very few people around, and those there are tend to have dogs who are also careering about! We saw a man looking thoughtfully at the football pitch, which is completely submerged. "Looks more like a water polo pitch doesn't it!" he said to me. And then went off into peals of laughter at his own wit!

Sending hugs,