Barely there stamping

Hello, crafting friends!

 

Things are quite peaceful around here so I am making the most of it and getting the stamps out! I had a vision in my head of a large gold embossed sentiment with a feminine barely-there image behind it. Here's how it worked out:

 

I started with a bold sentiment from an old Stampin' Up set called Letterpress Winter, heat embossing it straight onto a thick card base with gold embossing powder.  The card base warped a bit so I sandwiched it between a sheet of copier paper and ran it through my Big Shot to flatten it.

 

The flowers, from Clearly Besotted's Just For You,were inked up with neutral ink, stamped off once and then stamped again over the top of my sentiment, resulting in a very pale outline. I chose pale shades of peach, pink and green to colour the image and finished with some clear drops.

CHALLENGES

I was very excited by Joanne's sketch at CAS Colours and Sketches this week (waves to my ex-teamies there!) and couldn't wait to give it a try; I'm also joining in at Watercooler Wednesday where Tristan is hosting an All Things Feminine challenge.

 

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Playing with these pale shades today made me think wistfully about the summer when these are the kind of colours I like to wear. My daughter, who nick-named me Crafting Clare whenever I got my crafty stash out, likes to tell me I look like a sugared almond in the summer!

Sending hugs,

Get well soon!

Hello, crafting friends!

Welcome to another fun challenge at CAS Colours and Sketches! It's Holly's last time hosting this month and she's going out with a bang with this gorgeous sketch:

I love the stripe element and the 'any shape' part of the sketch seemed perfect for a pretty floral.

I stamped two of the stripes from Uniko's Background Builders Classics set in a pretty greenish aqua then trimmed the panel to size with a stitched rectangle die from Heffy Doodle.

The floral is from So Much, also by Uniko, which I stamped, coloured with alcohol markers and fussy cut. I stamped it again and coloured the large flowers so that I could trim them out and pop them up on dimensional pads. I finished with some gems and a sentiment from Clearly Besotted's Just For You. 

So now it's your turn and I can't wait to see what you come up with! Do check out the fabulous inspiration from the team, and from our special guest Michal, at the CAS Colours and Sketches challenge blog. You'll find the Linky Tool there too so that you can share your own creation. Have fun, but don't forget to keep your card clean and simple with lots of lovely clear space :)

CHALLENGES

I've used the gorgeous colour palette at Color Hues, Lime Green and Aqua, so I shall link up there; I'm joining in again at Uniko's July/August challenge where the theme is Flowers with optional slimline format; I'm also playing along with Allsorts and Stamping Sensations, both of which have a theme of Feminine/For a Lady; and Chocolate Baroque, where the theme is Beautiful Blooms/Flowers.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Today, I took this card and some flowers to a friend who had a nasty fall while out running and somehow managed to break her hip and her arm. She's having to be seriously patched up and I really feel for her because she is one of the most active people I know and I'm not sure how well she's going to take to rest and recuperation :/

Sending hugs,

Tequila Sunrise flowers

Hello, crafting friends!

It's that fabulous time of the week when inspiration comes at you courtesy of CAS Colours and Sketches! Shannon is hosting this month and she's come up with a beauty of a sketch for you this week:

We love the rule of three don't we! I chose a flower from Stampin' Up's Pretty Perennials for my three shapes, stamping them in a pale yellow and then building up glowing colour with orange and red coloured pencils. They were fussy cut and centred with bright red enamel dots, then set aside while I made a background to set them off.

I wasn't letting up on the tropical colours, choosing to stencil hot pink stripes across a card base. I used a large striped stencil from Funky Fossil for this, masking off the stripes I didn't need. The flowers were attached in a row and I stamped a sentiment from Just For You by Clearly Besotted, which fit nicely below one of the flowers in the bottom stripe.

So now it's over to you! What shapes will you choose? I'm looking forward to seeing :) Hop on over to the CAS Colours and Sketches challenge blog where you'll find lots of inspiration from the team, as well as this month's guest star, Deborah Wheeler. You'll also find the Linky Tool there so that you can upload your own creation. Remember to keep it clean and simple with lots of lovely clear space!

CHALLENGES

Oh those colours at Just Us Girls this week! I couldn't wait to get crafting with those; I'm also joining in at Stamplorations Stencil challenge where Anything Goes; and I'm linking up at The Flower Challenge where this month's theme is Clean and Simple Flowers.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

I'm afraid it's happened again... while I was making this card, all I could think about was a tequila sunrise cocktail! Anyone joining me? On second thoughts, it's probably best to wait until later as I believe it's frowned upon in some circles to be quaffing back the tequila sunrises at 10 o'clock in the morning lol!

Sending hugs,

Watercolour posy birthday

Hello, crafting friends!

I love that the CAS Colours and Sketches challenges alternate between colours and sketches each Tuesday.  But the biggest challenge comes when there's a fifth Tuesday in a month and then we give you a set of colours AND a sketch to follow! YoonYoung is hosting the double today:

I was just about to crack on with a card featuring fish in a bowl when I saw a sample of floral fabric online and become totally inspired by that instead!

I started by masking off a strip on my card base and blending the Marina Mist ink to a fade. The flowers are from Just For You by Clearly Besotted, heat embossed in gold, watercoloured, then fussy cut. I repeated this process and cut just one bloom out to pop up for a bit of dimension.

To finish, I added a gold embossed sentiment from Enjoy It All by Concord & 9th and splattered the background with turquoise and gold before attaching the flower spray to it. Can you see the shine a bit better in this last photo?

I do hope you can join us this week! There's some amazing inspiration from the team over at the CAS Colours and Sketches blog. Do check it out and you'll find the linky tool there too so that you can play along.

CHALLENGES

I'm linking this card up with Happy Little Stampers Watercolour challenge where anything goes and Watercooler Wednesday where Helen is hosting this fortnight's Occasions challenge.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

The electricity has gone off in our house today and we’re waiting for the electrician, so please forgive any mistakes in this post as I can’t use my computer. I’m quietly giving thanks that it is the hottest day of the year so far, so no chilly tootsies but I AM stressing about the freezer... please send good vibes!

Edited to add: We're back on! We spent hours this morning isolating everything that could have tripped the electricity circuit and then re-introducing everything to identify the faulty appliance. We came up with nothing. Four hours later, the electrician arrived and had no trouble at all flipping the switch back. He couldn't find any fault at all. Do we have ghosts?!!! Needless to  say, I was SO embarrassed but he was very nice about it.

Sending hugs,

Hearts and stripes

Hello, crafting friends!

Valentine's Day might be over but my heart dies have arrived and I'm not leaving until I've tried them out! But then it occurred to me that a heart motif would be perfect for a teen birthday so I set about making one for my niece.

The heart dies are an older XCut set - it's taken ages to find nesting dies with a heart shape I like! I cut four hearts out of black card stock and one out of white card stock stamped with one of the stamps from Uniko's Background Builders Classics. The hearts were all glued together to make one dimensional heart.

To decorate my heart, I stamped and heat embossed the styylised roses from Clearly Besotted's Just For You and watercoloured them. Once they were dry, I fussy cut the centres in three different sizes. The die cut leaves were found in my snippets box. I coloured them with a marker and glued them together with the roses on the heart.

The background is a pale pink card panel that has been stencilled with Funky Fossil's Simply Stripes, then trimmed with a stitched rectangle die from Heffy Doodle. The sentiment was made with a combination of stamps from my stash, stamped and heat embossed for extra shine.

EDITED TO ADD AN AWARD

So pleased that this card was a Fave at Festive Friday and was also the Diamond Winner at Color My Heart Color Dare!

CHALLENGES

I was inspired by Festive Friday, where I chose Hearts, Flowers and Watercolouring from the inspiration list. It was Time Out Challenges that influenced the style of hearts and flowers with its mouthwatering inspiration photo! I decided on the pink and green colour palette thanks to Color My Heart Color Dare #431, adding the black to give it some 'edge'.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

I've no idea what was going on today, but this morning I was able to go for a walk with Eva without a coat on! There was a warm breeze and lots of lovely sunshine! Spring in February? I mean, no-one is longing for spring as much as I am but that really is a bit early! A sharp wind has picked up since then though, which enabled me to get a bit of crafting done, pausing to have a nice cuppa and a slice of homemade coffee and walnut cake. Little pleasures...!

The mug was a lovely gift from my youngest son and I can only be thankful that he didn't use the personalisation service to put something rude on it! He probably ordered it first thing in the morning when his naughtiness levels were at their lowest!

Sending hugs,

Bricks, beams and autumn flowers

Hello, crafting friends!

I am so happy to have been invited to guest at The Color Throwdown again! I just love the colour palettes these ladies come up with each week, and their amazing creations. This week, the colours are just right for autumnal crafting:

VERY inspiring! Here's what I came up with:

I rarely use cream as a card base these days but thought it would be a good way to incorporate the cream of the swatch. For the rest of the colours I went with a floral cluster, stamping one of the bouquets from Clearly Besotted's Say It With Flowers, heat embossing it, colouring it with alcohol markers and fussy cutting just the flowers (not the stems or the ribbon.)

To ground my flowers, I blended some pale yellow ink onto a card panel through Funky Fossil's Brick Wall stencil, then added a strip of wood-look paper from Stampin' Up. The panel was trimmed to size with a Heffy Doodles stitched rectangle die. To finish the card, I stamped a sentiment from Clearly Besotted's Just For You, attached my floral cluster to the wooden strip, and added a sprinkling of coloured gems.

Now what about you? What have those colours sparked off in your mind? I can't wait to see what you make! Click here to head over to The Colour Throwdown to check out all the fabulous samples by the DT and to link up your creation.

CHALLENGES

I'm linking my autumnal bouquet up with The Sisterhood of Crafters where Autumn Inspiration is the theme; and also Festive Friday, where I've taken brown, gold, stitching and leaves from the inspiration list.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

The weather has become quite warm here and the leaves are only just beginning to turn, but Eva found this fallen branch which looks quite autumnal.

Once it had been minutely  examined and given a good sniff, it was abandoned. Eva looked at me and gave a wag as if to say "I think we both know that's not worth carrying home!"

Sending hugs,

Sending love

Hello, crafting friends!

I think it's safe to say that 2020 won't be topping anybody's list of favourite years anytime soon. But we are still human beings and so of course people are continuing to live and love, and celebrate weddings and anniversaries. Today, I'm spreading a message of love round the world!

This card started with a homemade heart stencil - I folded a piece of paper in half, drew half a heart, cut through both layers and then opened it out to reveal the heart-shaped hole. This was taped over an offcut of white card stock. 

Out came three red inks, Poppy Parade, Real Red and Cherry Cobbler, and a (retired) stamp set, Painted Petals, all from Stampin' Up. I sponged Poppy y Parade ink into the stencil and then, without removing the mask, I stamped some flowers and leaves using the darker two inks. Once the stencil was removed, I  cut the heart out and added detail with Spectrum Noir alcohol markers.

Next, I cut a card panel with a stitched rectangle die from Heffy Doodles. The heart was glued onto a circle punched out of vellum and the edge trimmed with the same rectangle die so I could line it up with stitching on the panel. The panel was then glued to a card base and the card finished with a sentiment from Clearly Besotted's Just For You and some coloured gems.

EDITED TO ADD AN AWARD

What a lovely surprise to find this card was one of Retro Rubber's Top Picks!

CHALLENGES

The Rainbow Card Challenge's theme this month is Radiantly Ruby and that's what set me going with this card; I'm using a retired SU stamp set, Painted Petals, released in 2015, so I'm also linking up with the Anything Goes challenge at Retro Rubber; the layout is from this week's gorgeous sketch at CAS(E) This Sketch.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

You know that feeling when you're just n the wrong side of the door...

Sending love from Eva and me,

Get well soon, Prickly Guy!

Hello, crafting friends!

When my daughter was staying a few weeks ago, we actually went shopping - can you imagine?!! We went in the evening and found there were very few people around so it was easy to socially distance. In some cases, we were the only people in a cavernous store and we became quite giddy with the novelty of it! We popped into Hobbycraft for a gift and, because my inner stamp radar is always on, I spotted a stamp set too!

It's Succulents by Woodware, and I'm loving using it, not only because it's bang on trend and great fun, but also because it is reminding me of my daughter and the fun we had that evening! I thought a cactus would make a great image for a male get well card - what do you think?

The background is a useful 'brushstroke' stamp from Stampin' Up's Waterfront and I topped it with my cactus, stamped, coloured with Spectrum Noir alcohol markers and fussy cut. It was embellished with a punched flower, coloured with markers and centred with a black enamel dot. It always seems like a miracle to me when a cactus blooms! The sentiment is from Just For You by Clearly Besotted.

EDITED TO ADD AN AWARD
How lovely to see this card was chosen as a Favorite at CAS(E This Sketch!

CHALLENGES
I flipped this week's wonderful sketch at CAS(E) This Sketch for this card so I shall link up there; I'm also joining in with AAA Cards where they want to see maximum white space and optional flowers; There's a Get Well theme at Cardz 4 Guyz this fortnight, so I'm playing along there too.

AND IN OTHER NEWS
I've just realised that this card would be the perfect get well card for my youngest son! Oh no - I hope I haven't jinxed him - I would really rather NOT be sending this to him!!

They say black cats are lucky though don't they?

I shall leave you with this elegant lady that I'm looking after at the moment. Isn't she gorgeous?!

Hope you are all safe and well.

Hugs,