Bloomin' cards!

Hello crafting pals!

Do you remember this post when I tried out a new die that had slithered into my shopping basket when I was supposed to be buying sensible things like glue and white card stock? I wasn't happy with the outcome but I am not one to give up, and today that die had another, more successful outing :) Come and see:

The die is Country Garden by Gemini and I used it to make two cards that are very different from each other. It's a large ornate die that could cover a card front, but I chose to use just parts of it today.

CARD ONE

The first card uses a piece of the die cut with all the little bits and pieces taken out to give a pretty lacy look. I used a restrained colour palette of white on cream and covered the die cut with a wide bordered frame cut with two of my Heffy Doodles stitched rectangle dies.

The sentiment uses a gorgeous banner from Be Merry, a WPlus9 Christmas set that I HAD to have for this very reason :) I stamped the congratulations from Clearly Besotted's Simply Said, snipped it out with paper snips and added it to the banner.

CARD TWO

To make the second card, I created a background on a card panel by masking off the edges and sponging ink gently from the edges into the centre. When the masks were removed, there was a nice crisp semi-frame.

The die was passed through my Big Shot three times using pink, blue and green card and I cut various parts out and grouped them together onto the background. The card was finished with a block sentiment from Uniko's Simply Said.

CHALLENGES
Both these cards use the same die, on different designs and for different occasions, so I'm linking up with the Twofer Challenge; I'll also enter both into the Happy Little Stampers Die Challenge where Anything Goes.

With Card One, I'm also joining in with Less is More, where the colours required are White and Cream.

Card Two was made with the fabulous bright colours from this week's Paper Players challenge; I'm also joining in with AAA Cards CAS challenge, where we are to use up to one third of the card front with the optional twist of a repeating image; last, but not least, I'm playing along with Addicted to CAS, where the code word is Flower.

AND IN OTHER NEWS
The Lockdown measures have been lifted slightly in the UK in a rather vague and confusing way. For example you can sit two metres away from two people in a park but, oddly, not if you know them! I think we just have to use our common sense and carry on behaving as if we are carriers of the virus and not wanting to put others at risk. I shall be going up to my favourite bluebell woods, a 15 minute drive away, but staying away from anyone else. That seems pretty safe to me and oh my goodness, I'm a bit giddy about the prospect of a trip out!

How are things going in your area? Do you have any plans to go out?

Be safe won't you,