Hen Party Favour bags

Hello, crafting friends!

 

If you popped by yesterday you'll have seen the cards I made for my daughters hen party. They were slipped into little favour bags which I'm showing you today:

 

The bags themselves are little 'mini lunch sacks' left over from my Stampin' Up demo days all those years ago - knew they'd come in handy one day! I decorated them with Funky Fossil's In The Meadow stamp set, stamped in black and doodled in gaps and in areas where they didn't stamp well.

 

The tags were made entirely with snippets and left overs! The biggest snippets were offcuts of a dark kraft card which I cut with a small arch nesting die. I decorated these with flowers and leaves cut from green, yellow and coral snippets. I stamped hens on white snippets with a hand-carved stamp that my daughter bought in Paris years ago when she was studying there and gave to me as a gift. They needed to be fussy cut - a labour of love! I cut small black circles from black offcuts and glued them to the tags, made a hole in them using my cropadile and threaded them with some coordinating twine from my stash. I attached the tags to the bags with little coloured library clips that I've had in my stash for years.

 

They were an easy design for multiples (although I ran out of time - I had meant to use green washi tape to ground my hen and finish the flowers with a black marker. Aaaargh!)

 

CHALLENGES

I'm linking my tag up with the Cut It Up Challenge where the theme is Tag You're It - Make A Tag; I'm also galloping off to the Snippets Playground to share this project as it was made entirely with left overs and snippets! I feel like a proper womble!! Since this is the first time I've used the hen stamp, I am linking up with Darnell's NBUS challenge where we are inspired to use our Never Before Used Schtuff!

 

AND IN OTHER NEWS

As one of the activities at the party, the Head Bridesmaid showed us how to make perfume. It was such fun! We all selected our preferred mix of essential oils and mixed them in a spray bottle with gycerine, alcohol and water. By the end of the party, they had blended and there were some gorgeous signature perfumes! Each guest had their perfume added to their bag, along with the thank you card, a packet of little speckled candy covered chocolate eggs, and...

 

 

... an adorable little ceramic hen to remind the guests of when they were hens! They came in different colours and were made by a local potter. I wrapped them in coral coloured tissue, secured with yellow washi tape.

It was such a lovely party. We had lunch, played games, did plenty of Golden Retriever cuddling, and had a lot of fun laughing and chatting together. And then, right at the end, amid much laughter, the Head Bridesmaid produced a bag and from it dressed my daughter up in a 'Bride to Be' sash, a mini veil and some kind of crazy tiara!  I sent them off in a taxi bus, giddy with giggling, to go off to the evening party.

 

This was the photo that overset me. My daughter left home to go to university ten years ago and has been an independent young lady living in a flat of her own ever since, but there was something so touching about this picture that I had to reach for the tissues!

Sending hugs,

Celebrate in nature

Hello, crafting friends!

Happy Saturday and welcome to another fun challenge at Addicted to CAS! Toni is our host for the next two weeks and I love the code word she has chosen - and I think you will too :)

Yes, it's another excuse to get our nature themed stamps and dies out, as if we need any encouragement!

I masked the bottom and edges of a nice thick card base and stamped a gorgeous Queen Anne's Lace image from Funky Fossil off the bottom edge. I added some watercolour detail for the background and allowed it to dry.

When it was completely dry, I removed the masks, stamped a birthday sentiment from Pinkfresh Studios and added flowers to the plants with a Posca white acrylic paint pen. I finished the card with three blue butterflies from Butterfly Kisses by Mama Elephant and added a little shading with coloured pencils.

Right, now it's your turn! There's heaps of inspiration from my team mates on the Addicted to CAS blog and you'll find the Linky Tool there too so that you can link up your own creation. Remember that we are a clean and simple challenge won't you, so don't forget to leave that all-important clear space.

CHALLENGES

I’m linking this card up at Just Add Ink where the theme is 'Just Add N' and my N is for Nature; also Happy Little Stampers Watercolour challenge where Anything Goes using watercolouring techniques.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

I love Queen Anne’s lace, although you never know what you might find lurking in there...

Aargh! It’s the Beige Beast!!!

Sending hugs,

Sunset with sympathy

Hello, crafting friends!

Are you looking to be challenged today? Well, there's a fabulous new challenge at Addicted to CAS today - and I should know because I chose it ;) Yes, I'm the host for the next two weeks and here is the codeword:

So many options for this! You could choose a sunny sky, a cloudy sky, a stormy sky, a sky full of rainbows, birds, unicorns,  pigs... well you get the idea! I've gone for an evening sky, glowing with colour from the setting sun.

It was very easy to make. I painted a piece of watercolour paper with clear water, added lines of purple, orange and red inks with a paint brush and watched them blend and blur into each other. When the paper was dry, I stamped plant silhouettes along the bottom using Uniko's Just Because and Funky Fossil's In the Meadow stamp sets.

I used a stitched label die from The Works to cut my scene out and attached it to a card base. The sentiment from Uniko's Simply Said Blocks, was stamped, heat embossed with clear embossing powder and snipped out. I cut one side with the label die so that it would have the same stitching detail as the frame. The card was finished with a few clear dots.

Okay, so now it's your turn! My team mates have some wonderful inspiration over at the Addicted to CAS blog and we are lucky enough to have the talented Ma Mi guesting with us too. Do go and have a look there and you'll also find the Linky Tool where you can link up your own card. I can't wait to see the gallery filling up with beautiful skies for the next two weeks, but don't forget to keep your creations nice and clean and simple!

EDITED TO ADD AN AWARD

This card was chosen as the Rock Star at Watercooler Wednesday!

CHALLENGES

I'm linking this card up at Dawn's All About Occasions challenge at Watercooler Wednesday. I'm also playing along at Happy Little Stampers Watercolour challenge where Anything Goes.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

We've been enjoying sunshine and blue skies this last week and have returned to our favourite river walks. All the mud from that horrible wet winter has dried up but of course Eva has an inbuilt radar and will find mud even when there doesn't appear to be any!

In this photo I'm encouraging her to go swimming in order to get the worst of it off! She would normally be in that water like a shot but is toying with me on this occasion: "I'm not certain I'm in the mood for a dip today..." You'll be glad to know that we got there in the end - and I didn't even have to resort to giving her a push!!

Sending hugs,

Flowers on a black background

Hello, crafting friends!

Welcome back to CAS Colours & Sketches where Julie has come up with another great sketch for us!

Those triangles can be any shape so I chose some long-stemmed flowers for my card. You may have noticed that I've swerved away from my beloved white space too but there's lots of black space instead. 'White' space can be any colour and you can see that there's plenty of clean space on this design.

I stamped two of the flowers from In The Meadow by Funky Fossil in white craft ink on a black card panel. Once the ink was dry, I used coloured pencils to bring the flowers to life. When I was happy with the result, I added a sentiment from Uniko's Hello Lovely. It was stamped with versamark ink and heat embossed in white which really stands out against the black card stock.

To finish, the card panel was trimmed down with my favourite stitched rectangle die from Heffy Doodle and attached to a black card base with dimensional pads.

Fancy some more inspiration? Hop over to the CAS Colours and Sketches blog where my team mates, and this month's guest Valérie, have some gorgeous sample to show you. When you're ready to show us your card, you can link up there too. Don't forget to keep your creation nice and CAS with plenty of clean space!

CHALLENGES

I'm linking up with We Love Chocolate Baroque where the theme is Flowers/Butterflies/Birds; I'm also joining in with As You Like It where the question is Which Stamps Do You Prefer? (Digi, Rubber or Clear.) I've show-cased my favourite stamps, which are clear. I like them because they don't take up much space and I like seeing where yI'm stamping! Rubber stamps are great for really detailed images though. I don't currently have a printer (!) so digis are off the menu, but they aren't so good for a lot of the techniques I like - spritzing, embossing, partial stamping etc.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

There are a pair of busy little blackbirds in my garden, building a nest and I'm enjoying watching them. I have tried photographing them but they're too fast for me. Eva is a little indignant about them - she feels it's HER garden! I've saved some of the fur that ends up in the brush when I groom her and have put some out for them. Last year, at the end of the season, I found lots of nests in the hedges with bits of blonde fur in them!

Sending hugs,

Hooray for good news!

Hello, crafting friends!

When my daughter phoned to tell me she'd been promoted at work, I fell on that good news like a thirsty traveller in a desert who finds a watering hole! Champagne corks popped! Dances were jigged around the kitchen! Hats were flung in the air (ok, not the hats!) And of course the craft stash came out :)

My dayughter enjoys trendy cute cards but I felt a promotion merited something a little more grown up. I got out my In The Meadow stamp set from Funky Fossil and used my stamping platform and some Stampin' Up water-based markers to ink up the individual parts of the flowers.

The panel was trimmed and attached to a card base and I added two sentiments: the 'congratulations' is from Uniko's Simply Said Blocks; and the 'so very proud of you' is from Clearly Besotted's Simply Said.

EDITED TO ADD AN AWARD

Delighted that this card was the Diamond Winner at Color My Heart Color Dare!

CHALLENGES

Once again, I was knocked out by the inspiration photo at Inspired By and couldn't wait to join in! The Color My Heart Color Dare Challenge did the same to me with the colours on challenge 426 - I picked Lagoon, Avocado and Lemonade. I'm also joining in with Watercooler Wednesday where Kath is hosting the Occasions challenge.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

For those that enjoyed the other day's family words that had been misheard by my youngest son, here's a story about my eldest. I had gone to collect him from school and his teacher asked if she could see me for a moment. My heart sank, imagining some problem, but she wanted to show me some work that he had done for her and that she had enjoyed. The children had been asked to write about something they'd done in the holidays and my son had opted to describe a picnic we'd had. He was pretty young, so there were the usual references to 'sossige roles' and 'yogert' but the teacher wanted to point out a food that had mystified her at first: 'canon bear'. She had soon realised that he was referring to Camembert cheese and couldn't resist sharing it with me.

It was also my eldest son who, as a very tiny and upset boy asked me if I could please 'wipe away his ears'! Love him!

Sending hugs,

One layer of leaves

Hello, crafting friends!

While I was in the middle of making yesterday's card, Eva wandered by with her enthusiastic tail and sent a stamp set flying onto the floor. As I bent to pick it up, I thought the colours I was using would be perfect for one of the images in the set... Thank you my floofy assistant!

The stamp set turned out to be one of my favourites - In the Meadow by Funky Fossil, but I'd not thought to use any of the images in an autumnal way! I used my stamping platform to stamp the leaf image in three Stampin' Up inks: Cajun Craze, Crushed Curry and Mossy Meadow, tucking a sentiment from WPlus9's Strictly Sentiments 2 between two of them.

It really is the simplest card - one layer and just stamps and inks - no fancy techniques - but I think it's quite effective. I added a sprinkling of gems, which I coloured cinnamon with an alcohol marker, and called it a day :)

CHALLENGES

The Paper Players and Sunday Stamps have very similar autumnal colour swatches this week, so I'm linking up with both challenges.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

In return for giving me stamping ideas, I found Eva a clean field with softy grass so that she could do this:

Full of joie de vivre and living for the moment - what a lot dogs can teach us!

Sending hugs,

When I'm feeling blue

Hello, crafting friends!

Sometimes it's hard not to feel a little down at the moment, which is when you go into your craft space and just look at things and move things about on your desk and can't quite manage to get anything done. So I feel quite proud to have finished this card which has been hanging about on my desk for about a week now!

I used a home-made stencil that I made previously for this card. After positioning it on a card panel, and masking off each area as required, I sponged turquoise inks into the aperture to create a sea and a sky. Once the masks were removed, but before removing the stencil, I stamped a couple of wild flower silhouettes from Funky Fossil's In The Meadow stamp set in navy ink.

I wasn't sure how to finish the card, but decided that such a peaceful scene would be perfect for a sympathy card. The sentiment is from Uniko's Simply Said Blocks, stamped and snipped out, and the card was finished with some clear gems and a simple navy mat.

EDITED TO ADD AN AWARD

Delighted that this card was a Rocker at Watercooler Wednesdayy!

CHALLENGES

I'm linking this card up at Color Hues, where the colours this time are Navy and Turquoise; and also at Watercooler Wednesday, where Michelle's challenge is all about Occasions.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

I'm sometimes reminded of the lyrics from Phil Collins' song, A Groovy Kind of Love:

When I'm feeling blue

All I have to do

Is take a look at you

Then I'm not so blue...

It did cheer me up! She had arranged herself among the flowers so prettily - what a beauty she is :)

Sending hugs, especially if you're feeling a bit blue too.

Patchwork wild flowers

Hello, crafting friends!

Ok, so Eva and I haven't melted but it was touch and go there for a minute. Luckily a massive thunderstorm cleared the air yesterday evening and, as we no longer felt as if we were being boiled in oil, we were able to go off on a refreshing walkies! While we were out in the countryside, I admired all the wild flowers which seem to survive in the most inhospitable of conditions. When we returned I made this card: 

Look! I'm using the Spellbinders Optical Illusion dies I won at The Snippets Playground again! I can see that this set of dies is going to be out on my desk permanently! 

I started the card by cutting a hexagonal window in a card panel. I wanted a design to show in my hexagonal window, so I masked off the top and right hand side of a card base, sponged the area inside with SU Pool Party ink and stamped over it in navy with a leaf stamp from Funky Fossil's In The Meadow stamp set. When I attached the card panel over the top with dimensionals, it gave a shadow box effect.

The solid hexagon from the aperture wasn't wasted! I sponged it with SU Melon Mambo ink and stamped it with a sentiment from Thoughtful Blooms, a free stamp set from Stampin' Up during this year's Sale-a-bration. I also cut a hexagon out of a snippet of yellow designer paper. These hexagons were glued to the card panel alongside the aperture, patchwork styyle. 

Finally, I stamped wild flowers from the Funky Fossil set, using markers to ink them up. These were fussy cut, tied together with a piece of bakers twine and used to embellish the card along with an enamel dot.

EDITED TO ADD AN AWARD

This card was show-cased at Less is More!

CHALLENGES

I'm linking up again with CAS on Friday's Nature themed challenge and Just Us Girls' Die-cut A Window challenge. The sketch is a beauty from CAS Colours and Sketches and those fab colours were dreamed up by Joanne at The Paper Players. Less is More have a Summer Flowers theme, so I'll play along there and since everything on this card used left-overs except the card panel, I shall pop over to The Snippets Playground too.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

The temperatures have dropped considerably after the thunderstorms. We woke up this morning to overcast skies and drizzle - perfect weather for a golden retriever (they were originally bred in the highlands of Scotland.)

We had a long walk this morning and when we got back, Eva still had the energy to raid the laundry basket, play 'Toss Mummy's Wet Shoe About' and drag the towel I'd used to dry her off the radiator. She spent a pleasurable ten minutes burrowing about in it while making fierce noises, presumably pretending it was a rabbit hole. After that she was pretty well exhausted!

Sending hugs,