Honey, honey

Hello, crafting friends!

It's my favourite kind of Saturday today - the kind where there's a new challenge at Addicted to CAS! This fortnight's host Vicki has chosen a great code word:

It was the perfect excuse to pull out my Funky Fossil Honeycomb stencil and coordinating Bee Geometric stamp set and embrace the hexagon!

I started by sponging pale yellow ink through the stencil over the top of a card base, then stamped the hexagon design from the stamp set over it in a warm brown. Some of the hexagons were coloured a lovely honey colour using a coloured pencil (reminding me of how much I love honey!)

The 'Just a note' from Pinkfresh Studio's Perfect Sentiments fit nicely into the gap in the hexagons. I stamped and heat embossed it.

The little bee is from the Bee Geometric set and features a beautiful art deco diamond design. I stamped, coloured and fussy cut it and added a touch of sparkle to its wings using a Wink of Stella pen before popping it up on a dimensional pad.

Okay, so now it's your turn! There's always so much wonderful inspiration from the rest of the team at the Addicted to CAS website so do hop over and check it out. When you're ready to share your creation with us, you'll find the Linky Tool there too. Have fun won't you but remember we are a clean and simple challenge, so make sure there are minimal layers and lots of lovely clear space on your card!

CHALLENGES

I'm linking this card up at Happy Little Stampers Stencil challenge; I'm also playing along with Watercooler Wednesday where Dawn is hosting the Occasions challenge; Make My Monday have an Airborne theme and I'm joining in with my little bee.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

In the summer months, I love throwing the French doors open and letting all the fresh air and the scents from the garden flood into my living room. The problem is that we appear to be on a bee flight path here! They fly in and head straight for the light of the window adjacent to the French doors. This window opens at the top by a pivot mechanism and the bees are unable to navigate through it for some reason, so I am forever mounting rescue operations! This involves luring the bees onto orange card stock and using it as an elevator service to the open window at the top. I talk to them reassuringly as I'm doing this and Eva always looks at me in a very confused way!

Sending hugs,

The buzzing of the bees

Hello, crafting friends!

It's been beautiful weather here in the heart of England and I've been trimming hedges and tidying the flower beds. As well as Eva, lying in the shade panting gently, I've been kept company by lots of butterflies and bees who love my cottage garden flowers. When I went inside for a glass of water, I got a bit distracted in the Craft Square Metre and this happened:

I started by masking off the sides of a card panel, leaving a vertical strip on the left. I held the Honeycomb stencil by Funky Fossil over it and sponged SU inks into it, blending from So Saffron to Petal Pink.

Recently, I won a fabulous set of dies at The Snippets Playground: Optical Illusion by Spellbinders. I used the separate hexagon die from the set to make some windows in my panel to go with the bee theme. I wanted something interesting to show through the apertures, so I masked off the corresponding area on a card base and sponged it with So Saffron ink. I stamped over it in brown ink with an image from Funky Fossil's Bee Geometric before attaching the stencilled and die cut panel over the top with foam strips.

The card was finished with a bee from the same stamp set, stamped, coloured with alcohol markers and fussy cut. I added a sentiment from Uniko's Simply Said Blocks, stamped in Petal Pink ink and trimmed with sharp paper snips.

EDITED TO ADD AN AWARD

I was delighted that this card was a Top 3 Pick at CAS on Friday!

CHALLENGES

I'm playing along with Freshly Made Sketches where I found the sketch and Just Us Girls, here they want us to Diecut a Window. The theme at CAS on Friday this week is Nature so I shall link up there too as well as sharing the fabulous new die at the NBUS Challenge which likes to see our Never Before Used Schtuff!

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Me: Eva, can you pass me the yellow ink please.

Me: Eva?

Eva: Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

She doesn't even have the energy to steal garments from the laundry today!

Thank you so much for your feedback on yesterday's post. It's much appreciated :)

Sending hugs,

The Queen Bee of possibility

Hello crafting pals!

Well, the heatwave here has broken and Eva and I got drenched this morning. It was lovely to see her romping about in the rain, after the last few days of lying on the tiles panting. The soaking obviously did me a lot of good too as I did more crafting and less dithering about in the Craft Square Metre today!

Here's what I made - a one layer card, prompted by a few of my favourite challenges and a NBUS stamp set from Funky Fossil called Bee Geometric.

I masked off the bottom and left-hand side of a good thick card base and taped the Honeycomb stencil, also from Funky Fossil, over it. I sponged distress ink into it, blending it out to a fade. The hexagon line image was stamped over the top with SU So Saffron ink, and then the bee and sentiment layered over that with Momentum black.

I love this bee! I spent ages looking for a bee set and this is a lovely one that contains two sizes of bee and nods to the current deco trend. I coloured my bee with water-based markers, so no colour would bleed through to the inside of the card, and gave her wings a lovely sparkle with a Wink of Stella pen.

EDITED TO ADD AN AWARD:

So pleased that this card was a Top 3 pick at Addicted to CAS.

CHALLENGES
I'm joining in with Less is More, where the recipe is Solid and Outline; Addicted to CAS, where it's a one layer challenge; AAA Cards, where the brief is to use just one corner and I've also gone for the optional masking challenge. I'm also linking up with the NBUS (Never Before Used Schtuff) Challenge with my fun new stamp set :)

AND IN OTHER NEWS
Eva has been back to her lively self today. This is a picture of her having a rest after spending an enjoyable half hour rummaging about in the laundry basket.

After an exhaustive search, she found a blouse of mine which she brought downstairs. She showed it off to me cheekily and then pranced outside with it, tail wagging proudly. She deposited it on the wet grass (see the photo above) and settled down for a nap. Later, I asked her to bring it in, which she did, accepting her bribe reward of a tiny piece of cheese and feeling that training me was coming on nicely.

How is your weekend going?

Hugs,