On the third day

Hello, crafting friends!

 

I am here to wish you a very happy Easter Sunday, the happiest day of the year for Christians all over the world!

 

I made a few of these one-layer, masked, inked and stamped design this year - come and see:

The most difficult thing about this card was working out which order to do everything! This is the way:

1. Stamp the lilies from Clearly Besotted's Perfect Lilies on a sticky note and cut it out to create a mask.

2. Stamp the lilies off the edge of a thick card base using pale blue ink. 

3. Cover the lilies on the card base with the mask and add low tack tape around the edges of the card front.

4. Sponge pale blue ink over the card front.

5. Stamp the main sentiment from The Greetery's Amen & Alleluia in black ink.

6. Remove the tape and mask and colour the lilies.

7. Add the 'He is Risen' part of the sentiment.

 

Here's a close up of the lilies, coloured with Arteza watercolour brush pens, an SU marker, coloured pencils and a white acrylic paint pen. Get me, going all multimedia!

CHALLENGES

I'm linking this card up with Allsorts where Sarah's optional theme is Keep it Simple; also Word Art Wednesday where Anything Goes;  Triple B Challenge wants to see Birds, Blooms and Butterflies and I'm joining in with my bloom; Beautiful Blossoms Challenge also wants to see flowers as the focal point of our cards.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

I know the question burning on your lips: Did the golden girls get any eggs today? Well no, but they DID get the next best thing - some cheese hidden in egg boxes! They have to get them open to access their treats and they have very different ways of doing this.

 

Eva's way is slowly and methodically getting the lid open - she knows the cheese is going nowhere and likes the anticipation.

 

Lulu is more of a 'rip the box to shreds' kind of girl. She wants the cheese and she wants it NOW! But then it's all over so quickly, she can't quite remember it... is there any more?!

 

And now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to sample some posh little eggs that my OH bought from a high class chocolaterie on his travels. He knows the way to my heart!

Sending hugs,

Easter crocuses

Hello, crafting friends!

 

It's time to remind you that this month's challenge at The Flower Challenge is to create a square floral card. It's always fun to break out of the usual rectangular style so why not come and join in!

 

I've made an Easter card this time, using the Botanicuts Crocus die set from The Greetery. I cut the leaves and flowers out of vellum and used waterbased markers to colour them, then set them aside while I made a background.

 

The grassy foreground was sponged onto a panel using a mask cut with a Lawn Fawn Hillside Border die. I used Clearly Besotted's Sunny Day stencil to create a subtle sunburst (hard to see I know!) and added blue ink sponged round the edges of the panel. The flowers were added in one corner and I stamped a sentiment from Uniko's Everyday Spring Sentiments before attaching the panel to a square card base.

Okay, so now it's over to you! Do hop over to The Flower Challenge blog to check out all the amazing inspiration from the design team. Create a square card using florals, then when you're ready to link up your card, use the Linky Tool at the bottom of the post. You have until the 25th of the month to join in - have fun!

CHALLENGES

I'm linking this card up at Beautiful Blossoms where there's another gorgeous mood board involving purples and yellows! 

 

AND IN OTHER NEWS

The sun came out in time for our walk today - hooray! The golden girls took the opportunity to career about, have a good old roll, attempt to eat unspeakable things in the fields, chase unsuspecting squirrels and cause general chaos in the countryside! After that, there was just time for Eva to cool off in a handy pool which...

 

 

... wasn't really muddy enough for her as she could still see her reflection! No cup of tea in the world was strong enough to sustain me after this ordeal so I reached out an exhausted and feeble hand for some chocolate truffles instead. 10 out of 10, would recommend!

Sending hugs,

New beginnings

Hello, crafting friends!

 

Can you believe another Thursday has whizzed around with another great Tic Tac Toe Challenge board to inspire you?! Here's this week's beauty devised by Betty:

 

An exciting little package landed on my doormat the other morning and inside was a stamp set that I couldn't wait to try! (I'm sure you have no idea what I could possibly mean... lol!) So I chose the middle row: Floral/Foliage/Free/Pastel Colors to create an Easter card.

 

 

I adore crocuses and so I really couldn't resist this one - Spring Botanicals Crocus. Here, I used the power of masks to stamp a pair of them with an array of leaves, making sure I stamped everything at different angles for a touch of realism.

 

I coloured the flowers and leaves with coloured pencils in yellow, green and mauve, leaving plenty of white in the flower petals to give them the delicate look characteristic of crocuses. The sentiment is from The Greetery's Amen & Alleluia and I stamped the 'He is risen' part on a scrap of card, snipped it out and popped it up on a dimensional strip.

 

Okay, so now it's your turn! Do hop over to the Tic Tac Toe Challenge blog to check out the gorgeous inspiration the team has made for you. Choose a row, coloumn or diagonal and use the prompts to create a card; at the bottom of the challenge blog post you'll find the Linky Tool and can use that to upload your creation. We can't wait to see what you make!

CHALLENGES

Double D Challenges is celebrating Easter so I'm joining in there.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

My youngest son was born at home and I had pots of crocuses all over the house at the time, so they really remind me of him. Isn't it ridiculous to remember your tiny newborn and then realise that little dot has turned into a man! It truly is a miracle isn't it!

Sending hugs,

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,

Hopping into easter

Hello, crafting friends!

 

Spring colours are really inspiring me right now even though the weather has Taken A Turn! In response, I put on a large pink jumper and carried on making Easter cards ;)

 

I broke open a new Easter die from The Greetery and fell in love with it! I had stamped, coloured and fussy cut a little rabbit from English Garden by The Craft Consortium and realised that the E of Easter could curl around his little body!

I started by stamping the grass image from Enjoy Life by Stampin' Up (retired) directly onto a card base. There's a little clump of flowers in the set which I inked up with SU water-based markers and added to the grass. Under the grass, I stamped the word Happy , then beneath that, I added a strip of yellow zig zag washi tape. Finally, I carefully glued the word Easter and the bunny in the space left.

 

EDITED TO ADD AN AWARD

This little rabbit was a top 3 pick at Perfectly CAS!

 

CHALLENGES

I'm linking this card up with AAA Cards where Tristan's challenge is Anything CAS with the option to use spring animals; I'm also joining in at Perfectly CAS where we are asked to use up to a third of a card front and the theme this time is Die Cuts; at The Alphabet Challenge Caz has come up with the theme for Z and it's zig zags, so I'm playing along there too; I'm hoping to enable some other crafters with my new Easter die so I'm off to Darnell's NBUS challenge where we share our Never Before Used Schtuff!

 

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Eva and I were snowed on today on our morning walk. I had given Eva her lead to carryy and she got her head down and made for home like a sensible girl, turning every now and again to check that I wasn't slacking. She has become my Personal Trainer! I'm sure I must have worked off all that chocolate by now. Might have to get some more to keep my strength up...

Sending hugs,

Joy to the world at Easter

Hello, crafting friends!

 

It's a Tic Tac Toe challenge kind of a day today and I hope you'll be inspired to come and join in with us! Joanne has gathered some versatile elements together on her board this week:

You could make any kind of card with these ideas! I've had Easter on my mind and thought the right hand column would be a good start. Here's what I came up with:

I started by making a stenciled background on a white card panel. I sponged yellow ink through Clearly Besotted's Sunny Day stencil, and added green ink to the bottom of the panel through the grass section of Funky Fossil's Scenic Borders stencil. The panel was cut out with one of The Greetery's Nordic Frame dies and I trimmed a vertical section out of it to make it fit my A6 card before glueing the two sections together onto a card base.

The join was covered with a cross which I put together with pieces cut out of a plank DSP by Stamping Up. The palm leaves and flowers are from Stampin' Up's Wrapped Flowers dies.

 

I have Easter sentiment stamps but I wanted something joyous to go with my cross image. In the end I pulled out The Greetery's Banner and Bough Christmas stamp and stencil set, stenciled a banner with blue ink and stamped the 'Joy to the world, the lord has come' sentiment leaving out the word 'come' and adding in the word 'risen' with a black fineliner. It's not exactly seamless but it works if you don't look TOO closely I think!

So now it's your turn to get creative! Which column or row will you choose? Or will you go for a diagonal? Do  hop over to the Tic Tac Toe Challenge blog and check out the amazing samples made by my teamies and, when you're ready, yyou'll find the Linky Tool at the bottom of the post so that you can share your card with us. Have fun!

CHALLENGES

I'm linking this card up with The Snippets Playground - the flowers, leaves, cross and banner are all snippets; I'm also joining in with Happy Little Stampers Stencil challenge where anything goes - there's LOADS of stenciling on this card; and also Happy Little Stampers Die challenge where anything goes - the frame and the flowers and leaves are die cut.

 

AND IN OTHER NEWS

It really IS true that British people talk about the weather all the time, but that is because the British weather is totally unpredictable and is always doing something crazy. At the moment for example, Spring has arrived ludicrously early when we were expecting winter to carry on for at least another month! Some people are wearing shorts and sleeveless tops (that's me - it's hot when you're walking dogs!!) and others are still bundled up in winter coats and boots! But almost everyone is smiling and ready to talk about the unusual weather and you've got to love something that brings people together like that :)

Sending hugs and wishing you sunshine,

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,

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,

Dressing up for Easter

Hello crafting friends!

With Easter coming up, I've made an effort to get spring going in the house. The Easter tree is up and the floral cushion covers are out, along with the rabbits and birds I like to have around at this time of year. As always, I've had great fun making Easter cards! Come and see:

When I saw this little stamp set, Easter Party by Lawn Fawn, I had to have it as it reminded me of my friend and her children, who always used to have the best dressing up costumes growing up.

The little bunny, the daffodil girl and the basket were stamped, coloured with alcohol markers and fussy cut. I laid them aside while I made a background for them.

The background is a card panel trimmed at the top with a Lawn Fawn Puffy Cloud Border die. I sponged blue ink over the cloud edge and added the sentiment, using a stamping platform for position.

I sponged green ink for grass at the bottom of the panel and stamped some flowers and coloured them. The figures were added to the scene, with Daffodil Girl popped up on dimensionals. The panel was matted onto some ancient dotty Stampin' Up paper before it was attached to the card base.

The card is winging its way to my daughter and her partner - who happens to be one of the now grown up children of my friend I mentioned earlier!

CHALLENGES
Use Your Stuff has an Easter challenge going on, so I shall link this card up there. The Allsorts challenge intrigued me this week too: the theme is Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue - but it isn't a wedding card challenge, we were asked to choose one or more of the above! My designer paper is not only blue but also so old as to be positively antique!

AND IN OTHER NEWS
I thought you might like to see our Easter tree. The jug is an old enamel one that I got many centuries ago ;) I bring it out every Easter as the colour fits in with all the fresh spring colours and I fill it with twigs snipped from the hedge of the field at the back of our house. We decorate the twigs with decorations we've collected over the years and then the magic begins... The twigs are always bare when they come in, but a day or two in a warm house is enough to encourage the leaves unfurl - it's like watching spring happen right in front of  your eyes!

Hope you are all keeping safe and well.

Hugs (from a safe distance)

Easter tulips

Hello crafting friends!

Aren't spring and Easter cards fun to make with all those gorgeous colours and spring images! We were planning a lovely family get-together this year but sadly that's not going to be possible, so I shall be spreading some love by post instead.

This card was mostly made from bits and pieces from the snippets box. The tulips (Spring Tulips by Clearly Besotted) were a practice piece, using watercolour crayons and a bit of water; I just had to add a sponged sky and die cut it with a stitched label die from The Works.

The label turned into a tag with the addition of hole reinforcer made with a couple of circle punches. I tied it up with some 'ribbon' which was die cut from a snippet of designer paper using a die from MFT's Birthday Cocktail.

The tulip tag was mounted onto a pink panel, also from the snippets box, that had been cut with a Heffy Doodles stitched rectangle die. Before attaching it to the card base, I added a greeting from Lawn Fawn's Easter Party and a sprinkling of gems.

EDITED TO ADD AN AWARD
So pleased this card got a special mention at Inspire Create!

CHALLENGES
I shall be linking this card up with The Paper Players, where Joanne has come up with a Tic Tac Toe challenge this week - I've chosen the Pink, Spring, Patterned Paper line; I'm also playing along at As You See It, where there's a fun card recipe and you have to add all the elements to your creation; Easter is the theme at Inspire Create and I'm joining in there too.

AND IN OTHER NEWS
One of the things I love about my little dog Eva is how she joins in with the family. When we stood on the doorstep to applaud the heroes of our NHS last night, she came out too and bunny hopped as we clapped. She potters about with me in the house, fetching the mail, proudly handing me socks and smalls as I load the washing machine, and 'helping' in the garden. She has also learned that the sigh I make when I sit on the sofa with a cup of tea means contentment and she makes the same noise back at me. She is truly my golden treasure.

I'm trying to post more pictures of Eva while we're living with this horrible virus because they say looking at photos helps people deal with stress and anxiety. You're welcome!

Hugs,