The Gardening square metre

Hello, crafting friends!

Since the weather isn't enabling me to get out into the garden, I've decided to do some gardening in the Craft Square Metre instead! 

It's a bit early for an apple crop as we're still at blossom stage, but I wanted to give some love to this apple branch from Apples and Pears by Clearly Besotted. I stamped it in green ink, watercoloured it, left it to dry  and then fussy cut it. The background was made in the same green with a mix of stamping (from Stampin' Up's Waterfront), ink blending and watercolouring. 

When it was dry, I added a gingham border with Kaisercraft's Gingham. Under that, I glued a piece of red card stock and embellished it with a strip of patterned green washi tape. The panel was cut out with a stitched rectangle die from Heffy Doodle and the apple tree glued over the top. In all the excitement, the top left hand corner got damaged so I added a photo corner style trim with the washi tape and I think I got away with it! 

The sentiment is the Thank You Border die from Lawn Fawn, which I trimmed down for a different look. To finish the card, I knotted some twine round the card and made a little tasseled end, and added a tiny die-cut heart to the gingham.

CHALLENGES

Festive Friday are celebrating National Gardening Week and I have chosen plants, green and twine from their inspiration list; I was also inspired by the mood board at Create A Smile so I'm linking up there too.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

This card feels as if it was made by someone else! I normally make quite CAS cards but this one seems to have a lot going on. Do  you ever find that you've made something completely out of your normal style?

Sending hugs,

Foraging for food

Hello crafting friends

In recent visits to my favourite blogs, I've noticed crafters enjoying 'shopping their stash' and sometimes taking time to try a technique that they wouldn't have had time for before being forced to stay in. I've found a stamp set I haven't used before too! Come and see:

A while ago, I fell in love with English Garden, a stamp set designed by Katy Hackney for the Craft Consortium. They feature some very cute rabbits, so I bought them thinking they'd be perfect for Easter, but today I used an adorable little mouse from the set. He has found some juicy pears while out hunting for his tea!

I stamped the image in the corner of a panel, using Stazon black ink. I'm no watercolourer but I do love having a go, so I got out my inks, an egg cup of water and a small paintbrush and just had some fun.

Once the panel was dry, I added the punning sentiment which I made out of words from another set featuring pears - Apples and Pears by Clearly Besotted. The panel was trimmed and matted onto green card stock before being attached to the cardbase. I'm planning to send this to my daughter and her partner who are stuck in their flat in London. I thought it might make them laugh :)

EDITED TO ADD AN AWARD
Delighted to be a Weekly Winner at CAS Colours and Sketches with this little card :)

CHALLENGES
I'm linking this card up with Happy Little Stampers Watercolour Challenge, where Anything Goes with an optional twist of Flowers (my pears have come with blossom attached!); I used the sketch from CAS Colours and Sketches (always fab sketches here!) flipped to the other side; and I'm also linking up with Allsorts, where this week's fun challenge is Anything in the Animal Kingdom.

AND IN OTHER NEWS
I seem to have lost my dog - has anyone seen her?!

She's so funny! She really thinks we can't see her!

Take care everyone. Stay safe.

Hugs,

Picking apples

Hello crafting pals!

I've been mulling over the Twofer Challenge for *checks calendar* a whole month now and nothing appeared in my mind, so the conscious side of my brain will just have to take over! Come and see what I've been up to:

CARD ONE

I've used a set by Clearly Besotted called Apples and Pears which feature... yes, you've guessed it, the eponymous fruit! I chose the apples for this teacher celebration card, stamping it directly onto a snippet of lined designer paper (from a favourite retired Stampin' Up pack called Storytime, which I'm using very, very slowly!)

I blended a little Tumbled Glass distress ink onto the paper to suggest a sky and coloured the apples with alcohol markers.

The apples piece was mounted at an angle onto another offcut of the Storytime papers, trimmed to size, and I tucked a tiny striped snippet under one side.

The teacher-praising sentiment is from Simply Said by Clearly Besotted and I used my stamping platform to stamp it several times to get a really strong black. Before attaching everything to the card base, I added a couple of staples as an embellishment.

CARD TWO
The second card is quite different!

I decided to make a toffee apple by stamping the apples and trimming out just one, colouring it and adding a card stock 'stick'. I was going to add glossy accents to give it the proper toffee-ish shine but my heart wasn't really in it. Earlier, I had opened some new stamps and the thin plastic wrapper was still on the table and suddenly an idea happened!

I wrapped the apple in the plastic film, securing it at the back with sticky dots and then, with breath held in case it all fell apart, tied a piece of twine tightly around it to create a WRAPPED toffee apple!! Cunning huh?

I cut a couple of panels with my stitched rectangle dies from Heffy Doodles and used my stamping platform to stamp this sentiment from the Apples and Pears set on the smaller one. The panels were layered together on a card base and the toffee apple attached with glue dots.

Here are my cards hanging out together:

CHALLENGES
I'm linking both cards up with the Twofer Challenge where the theme is Fruit and the requirement is two cards of DIFFERENT designs, for DIFFERENT occasions, using the SAME stamp, stencil or die; Card one was made with lots of snippets of designer paper (the card base is the only thing that isn't a snippet) so I'll enter it into the Snippet Playground :)

AND IN OTHER NEWS
Technology is an extraordinary thing isn't it, and enables us to do all sorts of things we wouldn't normally be able to do. I appreciate it most though for making me laugh. Autocorrect has me laughing on numerous occasions - for example, the time I was texting my impatiently waiting daughter that I was just popping into one more shop and then I'd be with her. 'I'll just be a mo,' I texted, and then spent the next five minutes doubled up in hysterics as autocorrect decided I meant 'I'll just be a month'! What has made me laugh today was my own typing error. I started this post with what I assumed was 'Hello crafting pals!' but which, when I read it back, turned out to be 'Hello rafting pals!' I'm currently imagining you all coping amazingly with the white water rapids!

Do you have any Autocorrect or typo stories? Do share!

Hugs,

A sweet valentine - but not too sweet

Hello crafting friends!

I've come up with another valentine that won't revolt my family too much! Come and see:

This was the best fun to make! The sweets are from You're So Sweet by Hunkydory and I just placed them all together on my stamping platform, inked them up and stamped them with Memento black ink. They were then coloured with Spectrum Noir alcohol markers and fussy cut. It did take a little time but I'm the kind of weirdo that likes fussy cutting!

The sentiment has been put together from a couple of Clearly Besotted sets - 'you're the sweetest' from Sweet Berries and 'Sweet' from Apples and Pears. I used my Stamping platform to position it onto a card panel. It makes a cute little greeting but I'm sure I can get away with it if I pretend it's a joke!

Once I'd got my sentiment positioned where I wanted it, I cut it out with a long stitched rectangle by Christina Griffiths and then replaced it into the negative space to give it a nice embossed frame sort of look. And with everything ready, I positioned the sweets around the sentiment and glued them in place.


CHALLENGES
This card leapt into my head when I saw Joanne's fabulous sketch at The Paper Players this week, so I shall link up there. I'm also linking up with Just Add Ink, where there's a lovely bright colour palette to inspire us; I chose Lovely Lipstick, Blueberry Bushel and Daffodil Delight to colour my sweets.

AND IN OTHER NEWS
My daughter used to play with all sorts of odd toys when she was a little girl - buttons, scarves and, memorably, saucepans because she had an audio story about kitchen implements coming to life. The pans were ordinary stainless steel from my cupboard but she called them Bubble and Squeak and loved them so much that she once persuaded me to take her to the shop to buy cakes and treats as it was 'Bubble's birthday'! Hence a conversation between OH and I yesterday.
OH: I'm just nipping down to the shop to get a packet of biscuits.
Me: Why? Is it the saucepan's birthday?!

Have you, or someone you know, ever had a non-conventional toy? I'd love to hear about it!

Hugs,