Late daffodils

Hello, crafting friends!

 

It's time for another Tic Tac Toe challenge! There's loads of lovely inspiration on today's board so I do hope you'll want to come and join in with us :)

 

I've opted for the diagonal from top left - Flowers/Free/Die Cuts and made a belated birthday card for a pal whose birthday had disappeared under a load of random boxes in my chaotic little brain - aargh!

 

I started with Altenew's Daffodil Delight embossing folder, positioning my card panel in the folder at an angle and using my squidgy mat to avoid hard lines. I then decided to cut the panel into a tag with a nesting arch die from The Greetery which flattened my embossing a little but hey ho! Next time I will die cut first and THEN emboss!

I'd used watercolour paper as my panel so I could use my Arteza watercolour brush pens to colour the image - yes I managed to plan ahead for that bit! The watercolouring is what is called 'loose' when the professionals do it but that when I do it is probably more accurately described as 'messy'!

 

The little tag was stamped with a sentiment from Altenew's Birthday Greetings and cut out with a circle punch. I used a couple of small punches to make a hole and a hole strengthener, then threaded some yellow ribbon through it and secured with glue dots. Finally, the tags were attached to a card base.

Okay, so now it's your turn! Here's how to play: First, hop over to the Tic Tac Toe blog to check out the amazing inspiration from my team mates; Next make your own creation using the suggestions from a row, column or diagonal on the board; Finally, use the Linky Tool at the bottom of the challenge blog and share your creation with us - we can't wait to see what you make!

CHALLENGES

Jaydee's challenge at The Paper Players this week is Clean and Simple spring flowers, and I have used the fresh green, yellow and aqua colour palette at The Color Throwdown; I'm also visiting Can You Handle the Pressure as I used an embossing folder and am joining in with the All Occasions challenge at Krafty Chicks with my belated birthday card.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

After mentioning how fluffy Lulu is getting, I thought you'd like to see 'before and after' photos of her:

 

Here she is in November last year, looking very thin and short haired, and with no 'feathers' on her legs. 

 

 

And here she is yesterday, out on what I call 'a walk' but that the girls have decided is 'a rabbit hunt'!  Look at those floofy pantaloons and that luxuriant tail! What a beauty!

Sending hugs,

A side of daffodils

Hello, crafting friends!

 

The Addicted to CAS challenge is back - hooray! We have been waiting for our esteemed leader Kylie to return from her sabbatical and it's great to welcome her back :) Our first Code Word has been chosen by the lovely Jaydee: 

 

I'm loving all the spring colours at this time of year and I've used them with my new favourite embossing folder and an older classic sentiment stamp to create a CAS spring birthday card.

 

I positioned the embossing folder off the edge of the card base and then used coloured pencils to colour the flowers. Coloured pencils are probably not the best way to colour the raised flowers but it worked! The sentiment, from Uniko's Simply Said Blocks, was stamped in green, snipped out with the end cut into a flag and popped up on dimensional pads.

 

So, now it's over to you! Do hop over to the Addicted to CAS blog to check out all the wonderful inspiration from the Design Team. You'll find the Linky Tool at the bottom of the post and you can use it to share your own creation with us. Don't forget we are a Clean and Simple challenge, so remember to use minimal layers and leave plenty of clear space. We can't wait to see what you make!

CHALLENGES

Cardz 4 Galz has a Spring Flowers theme so I'm linking up there; I'm also joining in with Seize The Birthday where Nancy has chosen Things in a Garden as her topping.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

In the UK, spring comes with sunshine and often quite strong breezes - perfect for hanging the washing out to dry for that meadow fresh feel. Spring also comes with spring showers, so my personal fitness has improved no end with all the running in and out of the garden rescuing the nearly dry laundry from the line! I have a willing little helper of course...

 

... but oh my! Sorting out the laundry is tiring work!

Sending hugs,

Spring in the country

Hello, crafting friends!

 

I've been having such a lovely time playing with the 3D embossing folders I recently acquired! Today's card started life as an experiment and I kept adjusting it and adding to it until finally I think it works!

 

I started by embossing a card base with the Daffodil Delight embossing folder by Altenew, letting the image hang off the edge. I wondered if I could watercolour it and so I coloured the flowers with water and inks, adding a wash of colour on the background and finally some splatters of ink. I let this dry. Of course the main problem was that I had used a standard card base and the image warped badly so I left it under a pile of heavy books and forgot about it :)

 

When I eventually came back to it, I was surprised at how well it had flattened. It looked all wrong though; the top of the card was all empty and not in a good 'white space' kind of way! I came up with the notion of scoring a pair of lines to separate the coloured area with the top of the card but it wasn't a great solution. That's when I suddenly thought of raiding the snippets drawer!

 

I gave the card a country look with a snippet of fabulous gingham paper and added a strip of coral card. I found a sentiment which fit the space perfectly and coloured it with a marker. The final touch was a bow, die cut from another snippet of coral card with an MFT die.

 

Here are the snippets I used.

CHALLENGES

I am linking this card up with Four Seasons where March sees the shift to spring! Happy Little Stampers Birthday is back with an Anything Birthday-themed Goes challenge so I'm playing along there; and This card is also my homework for the Snippets Playground where I hope there's some hot chocolate left because my hands are freezing!

 

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Isn't springtime wonderful? The flowers, the sunshine, the animals becoming frolicsome...

 

Here is a frolicsome dog for example. She is dripping wet because she has just frolicked in the river and now she is about to frolick in the earth. That face is saying "Promise me extra meaty chunks for tea, or I roll!"

Sending hugs,

Delighting in daffodils

Hello, crafting friends!

 

Where oh where does the time go?! I skip about thinking I'm all ahead of the game when all of a sudden, the things I should have done jump out at me and I realise that I'm not only NOT ahead of the game, but am dismally far behind it. So today's card was made with my fingers in my ears, saying "La la la, I can't hear you" to the chores!!

 

I've been dying to have a play with these 3D embossing folders that lots of you have been showcasing so I spent some of my Christmas money on several, including this one: Daffodil Delight by Altenew. I wondered if it would work to emboss just parts of the pattern, snip it out and colour it, and it turns out it works very well!

 

 

I coloured my fussy cut daffodils with alcohol markers and I love the dimension the embossing gives them. To assemble the card, I trimmed a snippet of Craft Consortium designer paper to size with a stitched rectangle die, attached it to a card base and layered my daffodils over the top. To finish, I stamped a sentiment from Uniko's Simply Said Blocks, snipped it out and gave it a ribbon tail on one side before adding it to the card front.

 

 I used just two snippets to create this card and the card base.

CHALLENGES

I followed Linda's fabulous sketch at Freshly Made Sketches so I'll link up there; This is my homework for The Snippets Playground where the challenge is to make a card with snippets; Over at the As You See It challenge Deborah has come up with a fill-in-the-blank for us: My favourite thing about spring is... I love watching the spring flowers come to life so I'm entering this card there too.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

The daffodils are making a supreme effort to come out along the path before we get to the fields behind our house.

 

 

Eva is very interested in them and, while I would love to think she is planning horticultural extravagances, I suspect the vulgar truth is that one of her pals has had a wee over them!!!

Sending hugs,