Snippety pumpkins

Hello, crafting friends!

 

Today is an autumn day and I've enjoyed walking in the sunshine with my fluffy girl, admiring the scudding clouds and the gorgeous colours of the changing leaves. I cleared my desk a little today too and realised it is also a day for using up some snippets! 

 

In the course of playing with my new nesting arch dies I seem to have made quite a lot of arch-type snippets. Well, waste not, want not as they say! I sponged my snippets with inks and glued the green frame to the arched background.

 

The pumpkin garland is from Lanterns by Reverse Confetti. It was stamped on another offcut using pale yellow ink, and I had fun colouring it with coloured pencils and fussy cutting it. When it was finished, I glued it to the frame. The sentiment is from the Arched Sentiments set from the Greetery, cut out with the coordinating die.

 

Before attaching my topper to the card base, I did a little soft stenciling on the card front using the Brick Wall stencil from Funky Fossil. Here are the snippets I used, plus another white offcut for the sentiment which I forgot to include (ie didn't plan for lol!)

 

CHALLENGES

I'm joining in with The Snippet Playground where the requirement is to make a card with snippets and include a photo of the snippets or list them; I'm also linking up at Happy Little Stampers Die challenge and Happy Little Stampers Stencil challenge where Anything Goes; and Try it on Tuesday where the theme is Autumn. 

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Our pets are such good company aren't they. Every day, Eva and I spend our days together and I suppose it's only natural that I should talk to her. This week I found myself telling her what a lovely little sausage roll she is, "And I mean that in the nicest possible way," I said.

Sending hugs,

Lantern light

Hello, crafting friends!

Welcome to another Tuesday and another fun challenge at CAS Colours and Sketches brought toy you this month by the lovely Joanne! Look at the beautiful colour palette she has come up with this week:

I've been wanting to get my Reverse Confetti Lanterns out to make some pretty Christmas ornaments, and thought this was the perfect opportunity to do it!

I used a colour as close as I could find to the Polished Pink for my ink blended background, stamping the lantern over the top in grey ink and colouring it with a metallic silver pencil. The pine branches were stamped in the green ink at the base of the lantern. To hang my lantern ornaments, I used the chain on Funky Fossil's Ornamental stencil.

The card panel was mounted on a panel of green before attaching to the card base. To finish the card, I added tiny snowflakes and berries with a fine tipped Posca acrylic paint pen. The sentiment is from The Greetery's Boughs and Branches.

Okay, so now it's your turn! I hope you can find the time to hop over to the CAS Colours and Sketches challenge site to admire the gorgeous samples the design team has made to inspire you. You'll find the Linky Tool at the bottom of the post and can use it to link up your own creation :) Don't forget to keep your card nice and clean and simple but above all have fun!

CHALLENGES

I'm joining in with Happy Little Stampers Christmas Challenge where Anything Goes with optional Make A Scene; I'm also playing along at Jingle Belles, where I'm hoping these lanterns count as ornaments :) and Allsorts, where Wendy has chosen the theme of Christmas.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

I'm going to let you into a secret... I made this card in what felt like the middle of the night. Like lots of us, I can't see so well in artificial light and reached for the wrong ink. I only realised what I'd done next morning when I saw my orange background!

Honestly, it's only November and already I'm dreaming of spring with its longer, lighter days. On the plus side though, I have an extra Christmas card!

Sending hugs,

Christmas lanterns

Hello, crafting friends!

There's something so warming and welcoming about a lantern isn't there! I think it makes a great festive motif. Today's card came about because of a beautiful sunrise I saw recently that made me gasp as I opened the curtains (but also the Lanterns stamps were out on my desk lol!)

I started, as I often do, with a card panel cut out with a stitched rectangle die by Heffy Doodle. I blended pink ink and yellow inks over the top two thirds of the panel and stamped one of the lanterns and the smaller candle from Reverse Confetti's Lanterns stamp set on top. Holding Cleartly Besotted's Snowy Day stencil over the panel, I used a Posca white paint pen to add snow, taking care to avoid my stamping.

I stamped the Christmas bells and foliage from the stamp set on a scrap of white card stock and then coloured all the stamped images using alcohol markers, including the lantern and candle on the card panel. The bells and foliage swag were fussy cut and the bells given some shimmer with a Wink of Stella pen.

Next came a little die cutting: two fir branches from Flora and Fauna's Holiday Foliage die set and the Modern Merry Christmas by Tonic Studios. It was time to assemble the card! I attached the fir branches at the top of the panel, popped the swag up with dimensionals and glued the sentiment below the lantern before attaching the panel to the card front.

CHALLENGES

I'm joining in with Just Add Ink where the challenge is to Just Add S - I've gone for Snow; I'm also linking up with CAS on Friday where the theme is also Snow; and this is my entry for the last Rudolph Day Challenge of the year too - I don't know about anyone else but I'm having a lot of trouble finding daylight hours to take photos in, so I'm a little late this month!

AND IN OTHER NEWS

We have three ancient white lanterns from Ikea that we display on a window sill at Christmas. We put candles in them and I remember my youngest son decided that he would be in charge of lighting them in the evenings. I thought he'd get fed up with the job but it was obviously something that meant a lot to him and he lights them every year now. We all love our special rituals!

This is my gorgeous daughter checking her phone one year, with the lanterns in the background. Can't wait to see her for the festive season this year!

Sending hugs,

Truly grateful

Hello, crafting friends!

Although we don't really celebrate Thanksgiving here in the UK, I personally think that gratitude is a brilliant idea any day of the week or time of the year. But today's card was made for all my crafting pals in the US, many of whom will be having a scaled-back version of Thanksgiving this year. Thank you for always being there to make me gasp with your talent and smile with your fun :)

I started this card by cutting a card panel with a Heffy Doodle stitched rectangle die and stamping the bottom third with the Gingham stamp by Kaisercraft. The gingham was topped with a lantern from a new stamp set by Reverse Confetti called... yes, you've guessed it: Lanterns! 

I stamped one of the candles from the set inside the lantern, then made a mask to cover it up so that I could blend some ink into the background, using a circle stencil to create a glow from the flame. Once the mask was removed, I coloured the candle and lantern using alcohol markers.

The Lanterns set contains a Christmas and an autumn arrangement and I chose the autumnal one with its leaves and pumpkins. It was stamped, coloured and fussy cut and then I popped it up on dimensionals in front of the lantern. The finishing touches were the sentiment from Reverse Confetti's Fall Foliage, and the hearts, which came from Uniko's Simply Said Blocks.

EDITED TO ADD AN AWARD

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

CHALLENGES

I used the gorgeous autumn colour palette at Color My Heart Color Dare 421 where I chose all the colours except Desert Rose. I'm also linking up with Make My Monday where the challenge is Thankful and joining in with Heidi's Occasions challenge at Watercooler Wednesday. I shall also share at NBUS (Never Before Used Schtuff) with the lovely Lanterns stamp set.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

I started a gratitude journal about five years ago while recovering from illness and have been keeping one ever since. Before I settle down for the night, I go back over my day and write a list of all the things I'm grateful for, ignoring anything that hasn't been so great. I highly recommend this habit - especially during the uncertain times we are living in now - as it's a way of focusing on all that is good in our lives. A warning though, I started with a tiny notebook but now regularly run out of space in my  A5 page-a-day journal!

Thank you for visiting me today! Sending hugs,