Double flowers

Hello, crafting friends!

I've got two cards for you today. I made them yesterday but it got dark and so I was unable to photograph and post them. Roll on those lighter, later days!

CARD ONE

The first card is a cheerful note card that could double up as a valentine. It uses two new items as well as an old favourite.

I've been waiting for the right moment to bring out Mama Elephant's Botanic Envelope Die and having used it once, I love it to bits! The die comes with leaves to arrange in your envelope but I opted to fill it with it with flowers from Clearly Besotted's Blossoms in Bloom stamp set. These were stamped, coloured with alcohol markers in lovely bright colours and fussy cut. The die set includes a trim for the envelope which I cut out of white card. I wanted it to be a bright blue but didn't have a card in that colour, so I coloured it with an alcohol marker, making sure to run round the edges too.

I created a background for my envelope by sponging blue ink directly onto a card base around one of the masks from Funky Fossil's Postage Frame stencil. I added the postmark from the stencil too, using a neutral ink, and stamped over it with a sentiment from the Blossoms in Bloom set.

CARD TWO

I needed a get well card so used the same stamp from the Blossoms in Bloom set. I was aiming for a very soft look for this card because we don't want our poorly puddings getting over-stimulated do we?!

I stamped the floral spray onto a card panel using a pale green ink, masked it with a mask made with a sticky note, and stamped it again to make a larger grouping. The flowers were coloured with alcohol markers in pale colours and I masked them off again to sponge around them with pale blue ink.

The sentiment is from Uniko's Simply Said Blocks, which I stamped, heaty embossed twice with clear embossing powder and snipped out with paper snips. I thought the high gloss sentiment would make a nice contrast with the soft flowers.

And here are both cards together!

UPDATED TO ADD AN AWARD

I was delighted the envelope card got a mention at The Color Throwdown!

CHALLENGES

I'm linking up both cards with The Twofer Card Challenge where we are asked to make two different designs for different occasions, using the same stamp or die. The theme this month is Flowers; I'm also joining in with Inkspirational where the word prompt is Mask - both cards use this technique.

With card one I'm also joining in with The Color Throwdown where there's a lovely bright colour palette from new team member Susie; also The Uniko Challenge where Anything Goes and the optional twist is to Use a Stencil; and also the NBUS challenge where I'm sharing my Never Before Used Schtencil and Die.

With card two, I'm playing along with Inspire Create where there's a beautifully versatile sketch; and also CAS on Friday, where the theme is Feel Better.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

I live in a small market town in the middle of England and a few local friends and I are operating a book share. We email or phone each other about the things we've been reading and recommend books to like-minded readers. There's no pressure to take or read the books but it's a way of keeping in touch and we veracious readers are so grateful for the (so far!) unending supply of entertainment. We drop the books outside each others houses as we walk past, and those that are shielding leave books outside to be collected. It works well! Books I've read this year include Where The Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens and Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman - both excellent!

Sending hugs,