Hello, crafting friends!
I have returned to the land of the vaguely up and running just in time to join in with Christmas in July!
At the beginning of the year, I won a bumper prize at one of my favourite challenges The Snippets Playground which included an un-named Crafters Companion stamp set with ringing bells on it. That caught my eye and I had a little play with it today.
The stamp was quite small but I stamped it twice at the top of a 4" square card so that it could be the main feature of a CAS one layer card. I used pale brown ink to stamp the image and then coloured the bells with oil-based coloured pencils, including a metallic set for a lovely shine. The fade-out background was added with a brush and pale blue-grey waterbased ink and a brush and I added a bit of more intense colour at the top with a sponge.
Using a white acrylic paint pen, details were added to the bells and 'snow' to the background. The card was finished with a curvy sentiment which I thought went well with the ringing bells.
CHALLENGES
I'm joining in with Stamping Sensations where stamping is required and the optional theme is Christmas in July; The Daring Cardmakers also have a Christmas in July challenge with the option to use Christmas supplies to make a non-festive card; Peace on Earth which has a lovely mood board from which I chose my colours; and last but not least, I'm linking up with Rudolph Days which has us making festive cards on the 25th of each month (link up runs until the end of the month.)
AND IN OTHER NEWS
Here in the UK, we've all been yearning for a bit of sunshine as we has have an appalling grey summer so far, after a miserable wet winter. And now a heatwave has descended upon us! Lulu has embraced the paddling pool but has no notion of lying peacefully in it to cool off! It's hunting practice for her - and she likes to chase balls in there and murder them.
Here she is, my little huntress, swaggering out of the pool, leaving a trail of ball corpses in her wake!
