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,

A basket of flowers

Hello crafting friends!

Checking the card-making challenges is the perfect way to take my mind off all the things buzzing around it! Planning a card just seems to block everything else. Come and see what I've been up to:

This basket is from a set called Hen Pecked by Artistry Inc, which sadly closed its doors shortly after I bought it. It is usually a basket of eggs but I have enjoyed filling it with apples (here) and kittens (here). Today, I decided to fill it with flowers :)

I stamped the basket directly onto the card panel, and then again on an off cut of white card stock. Then, using alcohol markers, I coloured the handle on the card panel and the basket and cloth on the off cut. The off cut basket was fussy cut and laid aside while I stamped the flowers (from Hello and Thanks by WPlus9.) These were coloured and fussy cut in the same way.

Time to assemble the card! I glued two strips of striped designer paper to the bottom of the card panel, added the fussy cut basket on top, then arranged the flowers, popping one cluster up on dimensionals. The sentiment from Uniko's Simply Said Blocks was attached and the whole panel cut out with a stitched rectangle die by Heffy Doodles.

CHALLENGES
Hopefully, I'm just about in time to link up with Inspired By, where the inspiration is this beautiful image: (Edited to add: I DID manage to make the card in time AND post it... but forgot to link it lol)

AND IN OTHER NEWS
There are definitely fewer people around now when I take Eva out for her long walk, so she has been able to scamper about off lead. I've noticed that she sometimes gets the zoomies when we're out, which she hasn't really done since she was a puppy. Covid 19 has stopped her from playing with her doggy pals and I'm pretty sure she misses crazy canine play. I've tried introducing more games of tug and fetch and hide and seek, but I get the impression that I'm not a very exciting playmate!

Of course, I don't think she's THAT unhappy, do you?!!

How is the virus affecting your life?

Hugs,

Here for you Hen

Hello crafting pals!

I was just making a little Easter card today when another stamp jumped out at me and I got a bit distracted - I know that you will be surprised to hear that this is possible ;) Come and see:

The stamp I'm using is from Hen Pecked by Artistry Inc who sadly stopped trading almost before they got going. It's a massive A4 set full of hens. chicks and other useful bits and pieces and I love it and would have bought everything else they came up with. *sighs*

I stamped the two hens image onto an off cut of white card stock, coloured it with alcohol markers, cut it out with a large circle punch and added a quick sponging of blue distress ink. This was placed onto a white card panel and cut out with a Heffy Doodles stitched rectangle die - can you see how the edge of the circle has been cut off and now it looks as if the circle has been stitched onto the panel.

Before attaching the panel to the card base, I stamped this supportive sentiment from the same stamp set in a bright positive red.

CHALLENGES
Both Just Us Girls and Happy Little Stampers CAS Challenge have chosen Feathers as their theme for this week, so I'm linking this card up there. I don't have any actual feather images but am looking for a good stamp set featuring them, so this will be a great challenge to keep my eye on!

AND IN OTHER NEWS
While I'm busy in the house, Eva will usually come and lie down wherever I am. She likes to know where I am just in case I suddenly make a dash for it and go for a walk without her! Sometimes though, she'll wander off, tail gently waving, and go foraging upstairs. Today, she appeared from one of her adventures with a sock in her mouth, and trotted busily outside with it.

Me: What have you got there Eva?
Eva: It's a sock and it's mine!

Me: Have you got a sock Eva?
Eva: It's mine! You're not having it!

Me, mock sternly: Eva...!
Eva: WOT!!!

Hope you are staying safe and well.

Hugs,

A little Kitty in a basket

Hello crafting friends!

I am such a proud crafting lady today as I'm guesting at Addicted to CAS, shoulder to shoulder with the talented design team there :) Come and see what I've made:

Yep! It's a kitty. In a basket. (And I think we know a song about that don't we?!) But that's beside the point!

The code word for this clean and simple challenge is 'Creature' - SO much scope there! I bet your brain is already running through your stamps and coming up with all sorts of ideas!

My card started off with a wash of diluted So Saffron ink over a damp watercolour panel. When it was dry, I added a touch of crumb cake ink along a straight line mask to create a surface to stand my basket on.

The basket was inked up with a marker so I could leave out the eggs it normally contains, but I stuck to a pale neutral so it would be easy to colour over with Spectrum Noir markers. It was stamped twice: first on the watercoloured panel, where I coloured in just the handle; and then again on scrap card stock where I coloured the body of the basket and cut it out.

The little cat is from Clearly Besotted's Fluffy Furball and he's probably the cutest little puss I've ever seen! He's coloured with Spectrum Noirs too and cut out. I tucked him tenderly into the basket so that he was able to peek out, and I added a blue twine bow to the handle to match those baby blues!

The sentiment was put together from two retired sets. I love doing this and you do get a unique result!

It's been brilliant to be a guest at the wonderful Addicted to CAS which has provided me with so much inspiration in the past. Thanks for having me!

I can't wait to see what you're going to make of this code word! My personal hope is that someone will replicate The Creature From The Black Lagoon...!

AND IN OTHER NEWS
Here's a picture of our very own local Creature From The Black Lagoon:

Of course not! It's just my little Eva, admittedly as a young girl, showing off to her rather intrigued friend! She is a proper water baby, and if it's muddy water, so much the better! If it's inky black, stinky mud, then that's better still!

Thanks for visiting me here today. I'm really looking forward to seeing your Creatures and if you have a mucky pup story, do let me know in the comments below!

Hugs,

Apples and using up the left overs

Hello crafting pals!

One of the things that I love about living in small-town England at this time of year is that you often come across a box of apples outside someone's front gate with a note on it reading: Help Yourself! People have apple trees and plum trees and they can't keep up with jam-making/freezing or whatever, so they share. I thought a thank you card would be nice! Come and see:

This is a proper snippets card! The background was intended for this Christmas card but I messed up was a bit too creative with the sentiment, so I cut it off to make it a square. To reflect the apple-ish nature of the card,  I added some leaves to the background using a long-ago retired Stampin' Up set called Touch of Nature.

The basket from my Hen Pecked stamp set was stamped twice: First, directly onto the background where I coloured the handle with Spectrum Noir markers (I knew it would be too skinny to cut out successfully); then again, on separate card stock, where I coloured the lower part of the image before cutting it out. The basket of apples started life as a basket of eggs but with a dash of colour and a few stalks, you'd never know!

The sentiment (from Clearly Besotted's Blossoms in Bloom) was stamped on a tiny snippet of white card stock - I'm always delighted when I can use those up! I stapled it to the edge of my basket panel and glued it to a square card base.

I am entering this card into Pixie's Snippets Playground Challenge where using up your snippets is the order of the day! I understand Miss has been celebrating a birthday so I will be bringing along a box of birthday cupcakes to share - they're only very slightly shaken up (oh crumbs!)

AND IN OTHER NEWS
I've got one week with my youngest son before he goes off to uni. Today he appeared in the kitchen musing about what he fancied to eat (he makes himself lunch these days and is a very good cook.) "There's some chilli on the stove from last night," I told him. "You could make loaded nachos with it." He stared at me as if I were a goddess. "Yes," he said in awed tones. "That is the exact thing I want!" Oh my goodness, I will miss him!

Thanks for reading my nonsense! I'll be back soon,

Three French hens for Christmas!

Hello crafting friends!

Do you remember when I made this card and said:

I'd really like to have put 3 French Hens or 7 Swans a-Swimming inside the wreath but will have to get myself hen and swan stamps first!

Well, I don't say these things lightly and, although I'm still hunting for a good swan set, Hen Pecked from Artistry Inc Ltd was definitely the hen set I was looking for! Come and meet the girls:

Aren't they gorgeous?! (I do love a hen!) The pair of hens at the back are one stamp and the sitting hen at the front another. I coloured them with a mixture of Spectrum Noir markers and Stampin' Up Blendabilities before cutting them out with sharp paper snips.

The background panel was sponged with Balmy Blue and Crumb Cake inks and the ground stamped with the useful speckled texture stamp provided in the stamp set. I added more speckles with a gold Stampin' Dazzle pen and a white gel pen. Time to assemble the card! I glued the hens onto the background in a group and trimmed the panel where they overlapped the edge. The panel was then matted onto Cherry Cobbler card stock and attached to a Crumb Cake card base.

The sentiment is from Stampin' Up's Merry Christmas to All. I stamped the 'Merry' at an angle in Cherry Cobbler ink and then tucked a black 'Christmas' into the shape it made.

This card was made for the Jingles Belles challenge where Stephanie and Lauren were asking for Christmas cards featuring numbers (such as 25!) or things relating to the 12 days of Christmas? This is my second entry as I was dying to join in with the 12 days of Christmas!

AND IN OTHER NEWS
I suppose I should have had a Joyeux Noel sentiment on the card to indicate that the hens are French but I didn't have one. I toyed with the idea of doodling 'Cot cot codet' by the hens (that's what hens say in French!) but it would've ruined the layout. I'll just have to send the card to someone who will wonder what on earth the hens are doing on a Christmas card but who will enjoy the moment the penny drops! If it's you, consider it a compliment!

Thanks for popping in today. I'll see you soon,

King of the autumn leaf pile

Hello crafting pals!

Autumn has not so much snuck up on us as barged through the door without so much as a 'by your leave'! Ok then Mr Pushy Autumn, you have inspired me! Come and see what I've made:

Just look at that bold cockerel! I begin to understand where the term 'cock-a-hoop' comes from now - he is definitely pleased with himself at being king of the leaf pile! He's from Hen Pecked, a set bursting with hens, chicks and other useful images, and is made by Artistry Inc Ltd, a small company based in Leeds.

I stamped him on thick cardstock and coloured him in with Spectrum Noir markers. To make the leaf pile, I drew a sloping line under his feet with a fine liner and sponged autumnal colours under it. The leaf pile and the cockerel were cut out together and I then stamped leaves over the sponged area. Those leaves are among my most used stamps I think! They're from a retired Clearly Besotted set, Flower Arrangement, but there are lots of sets around that include small leaves like this.

The sky was sponged into a masked off area on the card base before adding the most 'cock-a-doodle-doo' sounding sentiment I could find! Finally, the cockerel and his leaf pile were attached using dimensionals so that he could stand even prouder!

It wasn't just Mr Autumn that inspired me today. I'd been having a stroll round the internet and had wanted to join in with LeAnne's 'Down on the Farm' challenge at the Paper Players. While I was visiting her blog, I spotted a new (to me) challenge, Inspired By, with the most gorgeous inspiration photo. I had also noted that The Male Room was looking for autumnal cards so I shall enter this card there too. 

AND IN OTHER NEWS

My oldest son has come to visit - yay! He did tell me he was coming but, in the time-honoured way of young men, was unable to tell me exactly when! He strolled in yesterday evening, surprising Eva and me. Eva wove around his legs trying not to jump up, making ecstatic hen noises as she does when her special people come home. I was rather more restrained, settling for a big hug and a kiss on the cheek - but I was just as delighted!

Thanks for visiting me today :) I think the summer is over in the UK. I'm off to see if I can remember where I put my woollies! See you tomorrow,