Easter Bunny

Hello, crafting friends!

 

It's Saturday and time for another fun challenge at Addicted to CAS! I really enjoyed hosting our last challenge and seeing all your wonderful watery cards, but it's time to pass the baton into the capable hands of Helen who has come up with a word I think will be very popular:

Animals fit into all sorts of card types don't they, but I immediately decided on an Easter bunny!

I brought out one of the sweet rabbits from The Craft Consortium's English Garden, stamped her, coloured her with alcohol markers, fussy cut her, then set her aside while I made a background for her to frolic about in!

 

The frame was made by using Waffleflower double stitched circle die to emboss onto a card panel. I decided to cut it out with the larger die which creates lots of contrasting textuyre. I made a circle stencil with a punch and taped it over the circle frame, then added Funky Fossil's Scenic Borders stencil over the top, and sponged green ink into the grass area. I sponged blue ink over the sky area before removing the circle stencil and stamped an Easter sentiment from Lawn Fawn in green ink. To finish the card, I stamped the rabbit onto the background, then glued my fussy cut rabbit in place over the top, added some coloured enamel dots and attached the circle to a card base.

So, now it's your turn! Do hop over to the Addicted to CAS blog and enjoy the fabulous samples made by the rest of the team. You'll find the Linky Tool at the bottom of the post and you can use it to link up your own creation. Don't forget to  keep your card nice and clean and simple with lots of lovely white space, and have fun!

CHALLENGES

I'm joining in with Claire's fabulous  board at Tic Tac Toe this week (I am on the Team X design team and Claire is on Team O, so it's lovely to join in with her board!) I've chosen the middle row Pastel/Rabbit/Coloring. I'm also linking up with Addicted to Stamps and More where there's a Make Your Mark challenge, and having a second go at AAA Cards where the theme is Anything CAS with optional spring animal. Brenda's theme at Allsorts today is Any Real Animal, so I'm playing along there too.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

It's hard to believe it's April already! Did anyone get pranked on April 1st?

Sending hugs,

Rhapsody in blue... and grey

Hello, crafting friends!

 

I am delighted to have been invited to join in the fun at Seize the Birthday as Guest Designer for the months of January and February! We're kicking off with a fabulous colour duo:

I was instantly inspired by these wintery colours and a gorgeous new-to-me stamp set, Big and Bold Get Well by Colorado Craft Co.

 

 

The set features a massive hydrangea head which I stamped off the top and bottom of a thick card base using Stampin' Up's Smoky Slate ink. The flowers were coloured using the loose watercolour technique which is basically splashing a load of diluted ink around in an arty way! It's worth mentioning that I find the Smoky Slate ink incredibly stable when I'm watercolouring; I don't use a huge amount of water but there's no blurring.

When the card was dry I left it under a pile of heavy books to flatten. When I retrieved it, I added centres to the flowers with a dark grey pencil and made a light and dark grey sentiment by mixing and matching a couple of sets.

And now it's over to you! Do hop over to the Seize The Birthday blog to check out all the amazing samples the talented team has made to inspire you. You'll find the Linky Tool there too so that you can upload your own creation. Have fun!

CHALLENGES

I was really inspired by the first CAS Mix Up challenge of the year, chosen by Jenny who invites us to use loose watercolouring on our cards; I'm also playing along at Happy Little Stampers Watercolour challenge where Anything Watercolour Goes; I'm sharing at Darnell's NBUS challenge, the place to show off your Never Before Used Schtuff, and joining in at Time Out Challenges where the theme is New - I've enjoyed using my new stamp set.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Eva is missing her family so I'm spending more time with her training. One new thing I'm doing is giving her a lead to carry when she's out on a walk - in a safe place obviously. She is rather inclined to greet 'her public' and most people pet her when she does this as she radiates friendliness. 

 

When she has her lead in her mouth though, she seems to believe she's on duty and walks past people - still wagging, but with the air of being far too busy to stop and say hello! When we come to the end of the safe area, I ask her to sit and she gives me the lead back. She loves this new game!

Sending hugs,

Floral circles

Hello, crafting friends!

What a lot of fun I had making today's card! It was one of those days when I had a vague idea that I wasn't particularly excited by, but then got carried away and ended up having loads of creative fun!

The idea was to sponge some circles onto a card base and decorate each with flowers and leaves. I opened a new stamp set, Pretty Perennials by Stampin' Up, which I'd been looking forward to using. But when I'd done the stamping, it all looked a bit flat. So then I got my coloured pencils out and started adding a bit of shading to some of my stamped images and suddenly things started looking a bit livelier! 

I spent quite a bit of time looking for the right sentiment and came up with a custom one, made by mixing 'wishing you a very happy' from Lawn Fawn's Easter Party and 'Birthday' from Winnie & Walter's Sugar Rush. I spotted the hearts in the Sugar Rush set too and added those to bring all the images together. The panel was trimmed, mounted onto coordinating pink card stock and attached to a card base.

CHALLENGES

I'm playing at Color Hues, where the colour duo is Pink and Green; Just Add Ink is asking us to pick two out of Feathers, Leaves and Petals - I've gone for Leaves and Petals; Inspired By has inspired me again, this time with a photo featuring beautifully decorated cupcakes; I'm also going to share this card at the NBUS challenge, the place to show off our Never Before Used Schtuff!

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Eva and I met up for a walk with some friends of ours the other day. One of the friends is two-legged and fun for me to chat with, and the other friend is a black lab called Otis who has a zest for life to match Eva's. They enjoy many of the same interests - finding sticks, swimming, cocking an ear at the sound of a pheasant and giving chase to pheasants, rabbits and deer (who are always MUCH faster than they are!)

Here they are in a pond that they discovered in a handy gap in the hedge. They explored it thoroughly and I get the impression that they rated it 'Ten out of ten, would visit again'!

Sending hugs,

Rabbits and tulips

Hello, crafting friends!

Watercolouring has become more and more appealing to me, especially now I've found that I can paint directly on the card bases I bought from Hobbycraft recently, without any bleed through! I had so much fun making this simple daffodil card a week or two ago I decided to CASE my own card and give it a different look.

I masked off the edges of the card base and stencilled in some grass from Funky Fossil's Scenic Border stencil as I had done before. Instead of the daffs, I chose another Clearly Besotted set, Spring Tulips, stamping them in the green ink. I quickly gave them a lick of watercolour and left the card to dry.

Meanwhile, I stamped two of the bunnies from The Craft Consortium's English Garden stamp set and watercoloured them. When they were dry, I added detail with a fineliner and painted fluffy white tails with some white acrylic paint (sorry the texture doesn't show in the photos but they do actually have the floof factor in real life!) To finish the card, I removed the masks from the now dry card base, stamped a sentiment on it and attached the bunnies.

CHALLENGES

I'm linking up with Happy Little Stampers Watercolour challenge where anything goes; also The Rainbow Challenge where the colour this month is Definitely Daffodil; The theme at The Sisterhood of Crafters is Easter/Spring and at Try it on Tuesday it's Hello Spring, so I'm playing along there too.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

I spent a few productive hours sorting out my airing cupboard last week. I store my bed linen there and there is quite a lot of it! While folding the sheets I remembered a time my youngest son made me laugh while helping me bring the laundry in from the line. He was supposed to be handing me the bed linen in size order. "That's a King," I pointed out when he was supposed to be passing me a Double. He reverently put the sheet down, bowed low and made a flourish with his hand. "My Liege," he said solemnly.

Wishing you a very happy weekend,

Easter chicks

Hello, crafting friends!

Easter cards are on my mind this week and the sketch YoonYoung has prepared for today's new challenge at CAS Colours and Sketches is perfect for one. Here's the sketch:

And here's what I came up with:

First I cut an oval out of a card panel with a die from a nesting ovals set. I planned to decorate the oval and I wanted all the focus on that, so I kept those verticals from the sketch simple by scoring lines on the back of the card panel with my score board before attaching it to a card base.

To decorate the oval, I sponged in a blue ink sky, then used the Sunny Day stencil from Clearly Besotted to add texture to it. The daisy-strewn grass was die cut from a snippet of designer paper. I thought it would be the perfect scene for some chicks to play in, so I stamped, watercoloured and fussy cut some and let them loose! The oval was inset into the oval space left in the card panel and I added a banner-style sentiment popped up with dimensional pads. 

Are you ready to join in? As always, my team mates have some great ideas to inspire you with, as well as PJ, this month's special guest designer. You can see their samples here at the challenge site and you can link up your card there too. 

CHALLENGES

I'm linking this card up with Happy Little Stampers CAS challenge where the theme is Three Of A Kind; also  Inkspirational where Pia has chosen Fur or Feathers as the theme - my little chicks will feel quite furry but their feathers will come in soon! I chose my colour scheme from Color My Heart Color Dare's Tic Tac Toe challenge 436, going for the right hand column, Mint, Sundance and Fern. I'm also playing along at a new-to-me challenge: Creative Crafting Uncles where the theme is Easter.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Eva and I have been gardening. In reality, I have been gardening and Eva has been carrying the offcuts about and depositing them in places I don't want them to go!

I have cut the grass and done my best to get rid of all the weeds and now we're indoors the birds are having a proper old knees up out there! Cutting back some of the more vigorous plants has revealed areas of nice damp soil that is presumably teaming with grubs for them to eat :)

Sending hugs,

Watercolour daffodils for Easter

Hello, crafting friends!

Welcome to another fabulous colour challenge at CAS Colours and Sketches! YoonYoung is our host this month and she has chosen a colour combination that is a favourite of mine :)

Where I live in the heart of England the spring bulbs are blooming, so I was inspired to get out the Spring Daffodils stamp set by Clearly Besotted.

I've been practising watercolouring lately and one thing I've found is that you don't actually have to use the finest (and most expensive!) watercolour paper as long as you're quick and don't use a lot of water! I've made a one layer card out of 300gsm thick card stock and I didn't get any pilling at all and there's no bleed through either.

I stamped the image in Stampin' Up So Saffron ink, masked off the flower heads and the border, and sponged in a ground using grass from Funky Fossil's Scenic Borders stencil. Once the mask was removed, I coloured the flowers and a bit of background before adding the sentiment from Lawn Fawn's Easter Party.

So how about you? What do these colours bring to your mind? As always, the team is here to inspire you - just pop over to the CAS Colours and Sketches site to see their fabulous creations as well as a beauty from this month's special guest PJ :)

CHALLENGES

I'm linking this card up at Allsorts where Helene wants to see a stamped image on our cards; I'm also joining in at Inspire Create where Anything Goes and Happy Little Stampers Watercolour challenge where Anything Goes; and last, but not least, I'm playing along with We Love Chocolate Baroque where the theme is I Love... I love this colour combination, spring flowers and one layer cards!

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Have you ever wondered why flowers never seem to last long when they're in a vase with daffodils? Well take a look at this graphic by Andy Brunning at Compound Interest:

And there we are - everything becomes clear! I will never put a murderous daffodil in a vase with another flower again - except possibly an iris!

Sending hugs,

Birthday Bear at the Beach

Hello crafting friends!

After spending a day dodging showers today, I thought it would be fun to warm myself up with a sizzling hot beach scene! Come and see:

I started this card by sponging the centre of a card panel with distress inks to create a sky, sea and sand. The bear is from MFT's Safari Party and he normally holds balloons. I gave him a delicious strawberry ice cream instead, using the sun ray from Paper Smooches' Sunny Side Up for the cone, and doodling in the ice cream with a fine liner pen. I doodled him a nice stripy pair of swimming trunks too :)

Who doesn't enjoy a nice sunny day on their birthday? The sun from Sunny Side up cuts out nicely with a 1" circle punch I discovered and, in case my little bear got a little too hot, I provided him with a beach umbrella courtesy of Under My Umbrella by Stampin' Up. I coloured all my elements with Spectrum Noir alcohol markers and finished the card with a sentiment made from a combination of sets.

EDITED TO ADD AN AWARD
... Well, not an award as such, but this card was mentioned honourably at As You See It!

CHALLENGES
I'm linking my beach card up with Just Us Girls, where the word this week is Sunshine; Festive Friday, where I chose Sun, Bright Colours and Vacation Theme from the inspiration list (as well as Patterns and Ice cream!); Seize The Birthday, where it's All About Summer; and As You See It, where we're asked to choose one of our favourite movies. Although my card doesn't represent anything about it apart from the beach, I've chosen Beaches - a film about the friendship between two women that is perfect if you feel like a good cry!

AND IN OTHER NEWS

I've been making ice cream using just fruit - have you heard of this? When bananas get over-ripe, I cut them into inch pieces and freeze them. To make 'ice cream', I just take out a few of the pieces, allow them to defrost very slightly and whizz them up in the food processor. You can make different flavours by adding other frozen fruits - strawberries or raspberries are delicious! - or you can add vanilla extract to the basic banana and chopped chocolate say, or chopped nuts. For extra decadence I add a little cream - still healthier than the sugar and sweetener loaded commercial stuff. It takes just minutes too!

Let me know if you try this won't you!

Hugs,

Introducing... the umbrella frock!

Hello crafting friends!

This is a looooong, picture-heavy post! Do you fancy a cup of something while you're here? Might as well get comfy!

After a long walk this morning with my floofy pal, and a bite of lunch, I settled down in The Craft Square Metre and had a lot of fun making two cards featuring an umbrella. Come and see:

I've kindly paper pieced the umbrella in the same designer paper, so that you can see more clearly what's been going on! The stamp set I used is Under My Umbrella by Stampin' Up and you can see that one of the umbrellas in the set can double up nicely as a frock!

CARD ONE
This is the conventional way of using the stamp set.

I stamped the wellies and the umbrella onto a card panel and coloured the wellies and the ground with alcohol markers. The umbrella was stamped again onto designer paper and cut out with the coordinating punch. The punch also has a handle, so I used it to make the hand grip in the same paper.

I stamped some flowers from the set onto off cuts of card stock, coloured them and fussy cut them. These were used to embellish my arrangement along with a die cut bow from MFT's Birthday Cocktail and a pink enamel dot.

The card panel was cut out with one of my Heffy Doodles Stitched Rectangle dies, and then a smaller one to cut the stamped image out. I replaced the smaller panel inside the larger one and attached them to a card front. A thin black strip of card stock was glued across the front and a block sentiment by Uniko was added to it.


CARD TWO
This is where, by the magic of stamping, the brolly turns into a frock! But first I masked and sponged a background, added flowers from Lawn Fawn's Easter party, and cut a panel out with a Stitched Rectangle die.

For my young lady, I started by masking off the pointy bit of the brolly and stamping it once on designer paper and then again on white card stock. The girl from Clearly Besotted's Fly With Me was stamped above these and I joined the two with a fineliner.

There were fiddly bits to deal with: she's usually a one-armed girl so I had to stamp her again so that I could give her a second arm, which I cut out and glued to her body. Also she didn't have legs so I doodled those in. After I'd reconstructed her (like the bionic woman!) I coloured her with alcohol markers, then cut out the designer paper dress and glued it over the top. She looks quite pleased with it doesn't she?!!

The sentiment is made from Easter Party (wishing you a very happy) and MFT's From Me To You (Birthday) and it was positioned using a stamping platform. The final details were the balloons, cut out of vellum with a balloon punch, coloured on the back with markers and given strings with my trusty fineliner.

EDITED TO ADD AN AWARD
So delighted to be Honourably Mentioned at Freshly Made Sketches for my brolly and wellies card :)

CHALLENGES
It was the Rain/Umbrella theme at the Twofer Challenge that got me going on this so I'm linking both cards there.

Card One:
I used the sketch at Freshly Made Sketches as the starting point to this card; I'm also playing along at Allsorts, where the theme is Flowers and Showers and at Double D where Showers and Flowers are the theme and my card made full use of the gorgeous pink wellies and yellow polka dot bow on the mood board.

Card Two:
I'm joining in with Festive Friday where I chose red, blue, green, hearts and balloons from the inspiration list; I'm also linking up with Handstamped Sentiments where I was inspired by the balloons and birthdays featured on the mood board.

AND IN OTHER NEWS
Today I went on a visit! I was returning a DVD box set that had been lent me by a lovely friend. Now before you send me hate mail and tell me I'm putting everyone in danger, I promise I thought very carefully about what I was doing. I went across my small town by car, stopped outside my friend's house, placed the DVDs in a carrier bag on the doorstep, rang the bell and then scuttled down to the bottom of her path. We then shared a short conversation from afar and then I got in my car and went home. I felt like a proper gad-about!

Have you had a good weekend?

Hugs,