Something pink and sparkly

Hello, crafting friends!

 

Isn't it lovely to have new crafting goodies?! I recently took advantage of a flash sale at Uniko to stock up on some stencils I've had my eye on, and a new sentiment set. Today's card is the result of my first play with a couple of the items.

 

I was thinking pink in quite a big way!!  The Gerbera stencil was positioned over a card panel and I sponged three shades of pink ink into it; the stencil was then moved a tiny bit and I used a sponger dauber to add a touch of yellow in the centre. Once the stencil was removed, I added lots of detail with some coloured pencils to get a bit of depth to the image. When I was happy, I trimmed the panel with one of the Crimped frame dies from the Greetery.

The sentiment is from the Birthday Sentiments set - I just love the fonts in this set! I carried on with the pink theme using a light and a dark pink ink to stamp the different words. I wanted to add a bit of sparkle, so I attached a few pink sequins...

... and used a Wink of Stella pen to give the flower petals a lovely shimmer.

CHALLENGES

I'm joining in with the Sisterhood of Crafters where Sistah Diane's theme is Pink; I'm also linking up with Allsorts where Pauline's challenge is to Add Some Sparkle; the May challenge at Four Seasons is Anything Spring Goes, so I'm also entering there too; and last but not least, this is the first outing for the Gerbera stencil and the sentiment stamp set, so I'm sharing this card at Darnell's NBUS challenge where we show off our Never Before Used Schtuff.

 

AND IN OTHER NEWS

A friend of mine has recently welcomed a deerhound puppy into her home and asked me to bring Eva round to set a good example. My eyes did widen a little when my friend praised Eva as 'such a good girl' but I went along with it. We set out on a short walk and I'm afraid the first thing Eva did was dive off into a hedge where she had unerringly guessed there would be a ditch filled with muddy water... The pup didn't join in but she did watch with great interest as Eva emerged from the hedge looking like The Creature from the Black Lagoon!

Sending hugs,

Hope you feel brighter

Hello, crafting friends!

 

Are you looking for some Saturday inspiration? Well look no further! It's time for the latest Addicted to CAS challenge and come and see the word Sue has 'picked':

(See what I did there?!) I can't wait to see the gallery of gorgeousness as you link up your cards! Here's my take on it:

I used lovely bright colours to stamp one of the flowers from The Greetery's Oopsie Daisyy onto a card panel. My favourite get well sentiment, from Get Well by The Colorado Co, was stamped over the top in crisp black ink.

 

The panel was trimmed to size with a stitched rectangle die from Heffy Doodle and mounted onto a card base. I finished the card with an enamel heart and a tiny yellow enamel dot.

 

Okay, so now it's your turn! Do hop over to the Addicted to CAS website and admire my talented team mates' beautiful cards. You'll find the Linky Tool at the bottom of the post and can use it to share your own creation with us. Don't forget to keep your card nice and clean and simple with plenty of clear space and have loads of fun!

CHALLENGES

I'm linking this card up with the current Any Occasion challenge at Addicted to Stamps and More; and am sharing at Darnell's NBUS challenge where we show off our Never Before Used Schtuff (and while we're there, come away with a whole new list of things we 'need'!!)

AND IN OTHER NEWS

We have been busy here as Eva has had her adorable pal Murphy to stay. When we first got to know him, he was only four months old and Eva treated him as if he were her very own pup. Now he's a suave and sophisticated grown-up gentleman, although he does sometimes (often!) forget this...

but then again, so does Eva...!

Sending hugs,

Happy news

Hello, crafting friends!

 

Happy Thursday and a very warm welcome to the latest Tic Tac Toe challenge! This week, I've come up with a board that I hope will inspire you to join in with us.

Lots of different ways to use this board! Here's what I came up with using the bottom row Die Cut/Leaves/Pearls:

To make this card I first masked off the edges of a thick card base with low tack tape and sponged blue ink into the remaining space. The leaves were added using green ink and Uniko's Nature's Treasure stencil.

The sweet sentiment is from WPlus9's Strictly Sentiments 2 and was stamped in black ink. To finish the card, I added die cut flowers from Stampin' Up's Wrapped Flowers dies and decorated the centres with pearls.

So now it's your turn! Which row or column will you choose? Or perhaps you've been inspired by one of the diagonal lines on the tic tac toe board? Do hop over to the Tic Tac Toe Challenge blog and check out the gorgeous samples from my talented team mates. You'll find the Linky Tool at the bottom of the post and can use it to share your own creation with us. Have fun!

CHALLENGES

AND IN OTHER NEWS

This card was rustled up because we have been blessed with more good news... there is to be a new addition to the family! My eldest nephew and his wife are expecting their first baby later this year and I am absolutely thrilled to bits for them.

Sending hugs,

Anemones for a friend

Hello, crafting friends!

 

I laughed like a plastic bag in the wind when I wrote the title of this blog post! Yes I know, it's the little things in life... let's move on!  Come and see a floral card I made for a lovely friend:

This card was inspired by some planters I spotted in my home town, filled with spring flowers including some gorgeous purple anemones. I have WPlus9's Modern Anemones stamp set and couldn't wait to get home and recreate those purple beauties. I used black ink to stamp the flowers and a green ink for the leaves which are separate in the set - very versatile! I watercoloured the blooms with my new Stampin' Up Fresh Freesia ink (that colour feels so fresh!) and a green ink for the leaves.

Once everything had dried, I got out my beloved coloured pencils and layered on more colour and more detail. The distinctive black flower centres were added with a fineliner pen. The panel was trimmed to size with a stitched rectangle die from Heffy Doodle. My card base was slightly taller than the panel so I used a waterbased black marker to add decorative stripes at the top and the bottom.

The sentiment was made with a combination of The Greetery's PreText Sentiments and Avery Elle's Big Birthday and I added some iridescent sequins from an SU card kit.

CHALLENGES

I'm linking up with  Addicted to Stamps and More where there's a Birthday theme; Stamping Sensations where the theme this month is Anything Goes with optional Floral and Fauna; We Love Stamping where the team is looking for creations suitable For a Lady or a Girl; and Happy Little Stampers Watercolour challenge.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

I'm not the only one enjoying the spring. We often walk by the river but at this time of the year I take different routes so that the ducks can raise their little families undisturbed by The Beige Beast!

Instead of walking by the river, I take a path up a little hill where the water is screened off by apple and plum trees, all blossoming now.  Eva wanders dreamily along here through the long grass and Queen Anne's Lace without a thought for the river life!

Sending hugs,

Flying in late

Hello, crafting friends!

 

I found out that I'd missed a friend's birthday recently and hurried to set things straight. Thank goodness for card challenges to kickstart the creativity!

I liked the idea of this pair of birds from Clearly Besotted's Love Birds being pals, and can you see that the top one is flying in late for the birthday party?! I stamped the birds first and masked them off so that I could sponge in a pink inky background. After that, I positioned Funky Fossil's Brick Wall stencil over it, sponged more of the pink ink, and turned the background into a garden wall.

While I still had the bird masks in place I stamped the branch from Concord & 9th's Beautiful Branches and added some blossom using a tiny flower from Inky Doodles' Some Bunny to Love. The masks were removed and I coloured everything with pink, orange and yellow coloured pencils. 

The card was finished with a sentiment from Funky Fossil's Snail Mail and a few black details with a fineliner pen.

CHALLENGES

The inspiration came from Less is More where the theme is One Layer and Off Centre; The Paper Players where Jaydee has chosen Birds and/or Bees as her theme for the week; Allsorts where Lynn's choice of theme is Anything Goes with the option to Create a Scene; my zingy colour palette came from Color My Heart Color Dare 493 which I just couldn't resist!   

 

AND IN OTHER NEWS

As I was walking Eva down the hill into town the other day, I spotted a lady coming towards us beaming from ear to ear. "Hello!" she called enthusiastically as she came closer to us. I  didn't recognise her but I'm a friendly soul and called hello back - and just as I did, I heard another voice behind me calling hello too. Yes, they were greeting each other and Eva and I just happened to be in the way!

Sending hugs,

Friendly Anemone

Hello, crafting friends!

 

Happy Saturday and welcome to a brand new challenge at Addicted to CAS! We have the talented Ceal at the helm for the next couple of weeks and I love the word she has chosen to inspire you with:

One of my favourite cards to make is a friendship card because who doesn't love happy mail from a crafting pal?! I've gone super CAS for this card using my new favourite colour and a current favourite stamp set.

Using a stamping platform and a good thick card base, I stamped one of the flowers from WPlus9's Modern Anemones in Stampin' Up's Fresh Freesia ink. I used a black water-based marker to ink up just the centre of the flower and stamped again. The sentiment was stamped over the top, slightly overlapping the outline image. To complete the card, I cut a coordinating piece of card stock and glued it to the bottom of the card front, scored a line above it and added some pretty, iridescent sequins.

Okay, so now it's your turn to celebrate friendship! Do hop over to the Addicted to CAS blog to check out all the spectacular samples the design team has made to inspire you. 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 to keep your card nice and clean and simple with lots of clear space, and have fun!

CHALLENGES

I'm linking this card up at the Retro Rubber Challenge where I've gone for the middle row on the tic tac toe board Flowers/Dry embossing/Bling, and the stamp set I used was released in 2017.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Eva has many human and canine friends but she also has little friends she likes to carry about.

Lion Friend is one of the more recent. She often chooses to bring him along when someone comes through the front door and she hurries to greet them.

Sending hugs,

A trio of poinsettias

Hello, crafting friends!

 

Look! I've crawled back out of the woodwork just in time to play making Christmas cards on the 25th of the month! And no, you haven't got your dates wrong, I'm posting this the day after I made it :)

This card was totally inspired by my brilliant Tic Tac Toe challenge team mate Joanne James. She is SO good at coming up with sketches - she rustled this one up for her Paper Players design team and I was hooked at once! The idea is to create three overlapping shapes and add a vertical sentiment (see the sketch below, under the 'challenges' heading.) I recently acquired the Season's Blessings stamp set in the recent Stampin' Up sale and thought the gorgeous stylised poinsettias would work well with this sketch.

 

I stamped two onto a card panel and the third on a scrap of card stock, which I fussy cut. Gold embossed centres were added to the poinsettias. After putting together a sentiment with black ink and more gold embossing, I trimmed the panel to size with a stitched rectangle die by Heffy Doodle. To assemble the card, I matted the panel onto a slightly larger red panel. The fussy cut poinsettia was popped up on dimensional pads and I added a sprinkling of green sequins to make the red sing.

CHALLENGES

I am playing along at The Paper Players as I mentioned before; I'm also linking up with Happy Little Stampers Christmas where the theme is Anything Goes with Optional Glitter; and last but not least, I'm joining in at the Rudolph Day challenge where the idea is to make a card on the 25th of each month (you have until the end of the month to link up.)

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Eva and her chums are loving this warm weather and being able to lounge about outside. 

It's a shame this little jutting out flower bed has become a short cut for everyone but it has lots of tough little plants in it and should recover by the summer! I would put a 'do not walk on the flower bed' sign up but some bright spark would only cock his leg against it!

Sending hugs,

Stencils and sequins

Hello, crafting friends!

 

Happy Thursday to you! Are you ready for a little Tic Tac Toe fun? Then Felicita's board is just the thing to kickstart your creativity!

I've chosen the right hand column Ink Blend/Embellishments/Stencil for a birthday card.

It was SO much fun making this card! I started with a white card panel, positioning Uniko's Pure Florals Rose stencil over it and sponging pale and dark purple inks into it. I clapped wet hands over it before removing the stencil, although you can hardly see that in the photo. When it was dry, I added a little detail with a purple coloured pencil.

I stenciled the rose again onto a scrap of paper and cut it out so that I could use it as a mask. Once it was in place, I blended green and blue inks over the background and trimmed the panel to size with a crimped rectangle die from The Greetery. These dies are designed for US A2 sized cards but I just used a trimmer to cut my card base to fit the panel.

 

The sentiment was stamped with the two purple inks I'd used to ink up the rose. I attached the panel to the card base and added some purple sequins for a touch of sparkle.

Okay, so now it's your turn! Do hop over to the Tic Tac Toe blog to admire the team's fabulous samples. You will find the Linky Tool at the bottom of the post and you can use it to link up your own creation when you're ready. Have fun!

CHALLENGES

I'm linking this card up at Happy Little Stampers Stencil challenge where Anything Goes; I used the colours from the right hand column at Color My Heart Color Dare 492 Mulberry/Mint/Avocado so I'm joining in there too; and I'm playing along at Make The Cards Challenge where we need to Create an Ink Blended Background.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

I have had so little time for crafting just lately that I'm getting withdrawal symptoms! But what with wedding-planning and Easter celebrations with the family and Eva's wild young puppy pal to supervise, there really hasn't been a moment to get inky. Thank you so much for sticking with me and hopefully I'll be able to spend a little bit more time here in May :)

Sending hugs,

The one layer birthday

Hello, crafting friends!

 

Welcome to another fun challenge at Addicted to CAS where Barb is your hostess with the mostest for the next couple of weeks! As you know, we love clean and simple cards at this challenge but Barb is adding an extra twist:

 

Yes, your cards need to have only one layer this time - so the challenge is to refrain from adding die cuts and embellishments! Can you do it?!

 

I make quite a lot of one layer cards and my favourite techniques to add depth and dimension are masking and ink blending.

For this card I started by masking off the left and the bottom of a nice thick card base with low-tack tape. Next, I stamped the basket from Stampin' Up's Season's Blessings stamp set and covered it with a mask made with a sticky note. Then I blended a little soft blue ink outwards and upwards, adding a little pale brown ink at the bottom. The leaves were stamped next so that when the tape and basket mask were peeled away, the plant appeared to be growing in the basket and there were nice crisp edges.

 

There are flowers in the stamp set I was using but even the smallest were bigger than I wanted, so I found some smaller ones in another set. I stamped them in a coral colour and doodled flower centres and extra stems with a green marker. The card was finished with a sentiment from Floral Vines by Uniko.

So now it's your turn! Do hop over to the Addicted to CAS blog to check out the fantastic samples the team has made to inspire you. You'll find the Linky Tool at the bottom of the post and you can use it to share your own creation with us. Remember to keep your card nice and clean and simple, with plenty of white space, not forgetting the one layer element! Have fun!

CHALLENGES

I’m linking this card up at Seize the Birthday where Lindsey has chosen the theme of Signs of Spring. It's wonderful watching the garden burst into life at this time of year but I love it when potted plants in the home start to flower too - it always seems such a miracle to me :)

 

AND IN OTHER NEWS

We are Celebrating Easter in the most beautiful spring sunshine! My daughter and eldest son are with us and Eva has a young pal to stay.

They’ll be having a treasure hunt where they'll be looking for carrot sticks together!

Sending hugs,

Ready for a special occasion

Hello, crafting friends!

 

It's Thursday and we all know that's a Tic Tac Toe day! It's LeAnne's turn to host and she has brought together some great elements to create a board that is sure to inspire you!

 

I couldn't resist using the top row, White/Pearls/Ribbon, to create a card that would work for an engagement, a wedding or a ruby wedding anniversary. And the beauty of this card is that it was made using left-overs!

 

I started by attaching some left-over leafy vellum from a card kit to a bit of white card using spray glue. This was trimmed into a decorative shape using a label die from The Works. To top my label shape, I stamped a leaf and a rose from WPlus9's Modern Roses on more snippets, coloured them with alcohol markers and fussy cut them. A scrap of tulle and satin ribbon was wrapped around the label shape and I tucked the botanics behind it.

 

 

You can see the vellum better in this photo - I was really pleased with the look. To finish the card, I die cut a Gemini congratulations sentiment from yet another snippet of white card, arranged it on top of the ribbon and sprinkled a few pearls around the group.

Okay, so now it's your turn! My team mates have come up with some beauties to inspire you, so do hop over to the Tic Tac Toe blog to check them out. You'll find the Linky Tool at the bottom of the post so you can link up your own creation when you're ready. Have fun!

CHALLENGES

I'm linking up with Addicted to Stamps and More where there's a Make Your Mark challenge and hopefully my rose group will qualify; I'm also taking this card along to The Snippets Playground where Sarn is at the helm and I'm having to wear sunglasses because her Prefects Badge has been polished to such a fine shine!

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Showing a celebration card today seems appropriate because I have had some wonderful news: My daughter and her long-term sweetheart are getting married next year! Needless to say, I have gone straight to Mumland and am wandering about there in the sunshine humming happy tunes! I think we're going to be running out of champagne after all this good news!!

Sending hugs,