Tip it up and start again

Hello, crafting friends!

 

Like lots of crafters, I have a little box where I keep all the elements I die cut, colour, emboss or otherwise prepare and then decide aren't right for a project. You don't want to waste all that hard work! After a conversation with  a crafty friend the other day, I decided that tipping my box out and making something with some of the contents would be a fun thing to do -  and it WAS!!

When I tipped the box out, it looked like this:

Aaargh! Total chaos! But I rummaged about and found these items...

And put them together like this:

 

I glued the offcut of sponged scene to the bigger snippet of wood effect paper, then trimmed the top and bottom with a stitched rectangle die for a neat finish. The circle frame was cut using two circle punches once and I was able to tuck one of the little flower clumps behind it for a 3D look. The flowers are from Stampin' Up's Under My Umbrella and have been coloured and fussy cut, so I'm glad to have made use of them at last!

 

That lacy die cut is part of a Stampin' Up window die given to me by my friend Em - thanks lovely!! The butterfly is from Uniko's English Country Garden Butterflies and has been embossed in gold and coloured with markers.

 

 

A top tip for this kind of card is to choose items of similar shades or hues and then to introduce a 'disruptor colour'. My disruptor is the sentiment which, although it is stamped in brown which works well with the frame and background, has been sponged in yellow so it pops off the page. I glued my collage panel to a card base and added blue sequins to finish.

CHALLENGES

I made this card for The Snippets Playground which has got a wonderful new makeover for the new year. It remains a lovely friendly place to play and there are prizes to be won so do check it out! I'm also linking up with We Love Stamping where Anything Stamped Goes with the option of Wings.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Well, there IS no news apart that I'm a little fed up of the winter already! That's no attitude is it? Perhaps I should write a list of all the things that are wonderful about the winter. Can you help?

Sending hugs,

Mystic butterfly

Hello, crafting friends!

I can't tell you how thrilled I am to be guesting at The Color Throwdown this week! This is a challenge I loved before my four-year hiatus and have enthusiastically joined in with again after returning to crafting last July.

Here are this weeks amazing colours on the left - blue, green, peach and gold...

... and my interpretation of them on the right.

That beautiful photo inspired me to create an inky background. I chose semi-coated card stock, sponged water-based inks over it, then clapped wet hands over it to create splatters - very cosmic don't you think?! Once it was dry, I cut a panel out of it with a Heffy Doodles stitched rectangle die.

The large butterfly from Uniko's English Country Garden Butterflies was stamped onto the panel with versamark, heat embossed with gold embossing powder and coloured with SU water-based markers. I repeated the process on scrap card stock and fussy cut this one, popping it up over the one on the panel.

I mounted the panel onto a dark blue card base, cutting a frame for the front using the same stitched rectangle die as before so I was able to fit the inky panel into it. The card was finished with a Lawn Fawn sentiment die cut from gold card.

CHALLENGES
I'm linking up with Stamping Sensations where the theme is All Creatures Great and Small; also joining in at Allsorts, where they want to see Something Beginning with 'B'.

AND IN OTHER NEWS
I managed to collar my youngest son today. I'm taking him to the dentist on Tuesday, to have some essential work done before he heads back to his university house, and have been mentally going through all the paperwork that will need to be sent online. "Let's talk about Tuesday," I said to him. "Okay," replied my son cheerfully. "When's that?"

Hope you are all keeping safe and well.

Hugs,

The rainbow butterfly

Hello crafting friends!

I've had butterflies on my mind over the last week as well as rainbows. Of course there was only one thing for it - put them both together! Come and see:

You won't see one of these in your garden this weekend but I hope you think it's pretty! I started the process by sponging a rainbow of inks onto a card panel. The butterfly from Uniko's English Country Garden was stamped over the top with Memento black ink and I coloured it with alcohol markers.

While stamping the sentiment, from Simply Said by Clearly Besotted, I smudged some black ink on my card panel, so I cut my butterfly out with a stitched label die from The Works. I trimmed the more ornate part from the sides with a stitched rectangle die so that it would fit nicely onto my card front and attached it with dimensionals.

EDITED TO ADD AN AWARD
I was delighted that this card was chosen to be part of the Allsorts Challenge's top five!

CHALLENGES
I'm hoping I'm in time to join in with Allsorts Challenge where butterflies are the theme, and Use Your Stuff, where you can choose to use flowers or butterflies or a combination of both!

AND IN OTHER NEWS
Today, it's the 75th anniversary of VE Day, marking the end of the second world war in Europe. It's a day to reflect on the damage extremists and the power-hungry inflict on the world. In my neighbourhood, people have put flags and bunting up in their front gardens and I think we'll have socially distanced cups of tea and chat later on (hopefully before the storms that are forecast arrive!)

Stay well and keep your chin up!

Hugs,

Birthday Butterflies

Hello crafting friends!

It might be the middle of winter here in the heart of England, but nature is all confused about this mild weather and there are flowers out that shouldn't be, and the birds are trying to nest. I thought I might as well join in and get the butterflies out! Come and see:

These beautiful butterflies are NBUS (Never Before Used Stamps - thanks for the acronym Darnell!) from Uniko's English Country Garden Butterflies.

I stamped them onto snippets of card stock, coloured them with Spectrum Noir alcohol markers and fussy cut them.

To make the background, I raided the recycling cupboard for a discarded glossy magazine and wiped the edge with distress inks in Antique Linen and Victorian Velvet. A quick spritz with water sent the inks merging and I wiped the edge of a card panel along it to make an inky border. When it was dry, I inked up the branch from Concorde and 9th's Beautiful Branches with the Antique Linen ink and stamped it several times along the border.

The card was finished with a sentiment from Simply Said by Clearly Besotted - and I hope YOU have an absolutely fabulous day, whether it's your birthday or not!

CHALLENGES
The fascinating inspiration photo at Just Us Girls got me going with this card, and I'm also linking up with The Allsorts Challenge where the theme is Take Flight - projects featuring something that can fly.

AND IN OTHER NEWS
I've enjoyed using my NBUS stamps today. Do you have any stamps or other crafty stash that you bought last year (or any previous years!) and haven't touched yet? Do let me know - I'm always fascinated by other crafters' experiences!

Hugs,