Hello Autumn

Hello, crafting friends!

 

There's nothing like a bit of glorious autumn sunshine, the leaves turning, and lots of my favourite challenges having autumn inspiration to galvanise me into some seasonal cardmaking! Here's a card that I can take very little credit for, but that I really enjoyed making:

 

Like many crafters, I get quite excited when my favourite stamp companies come out with new releases and show off their inspiration cards. I was delighted when I saw a gorgeous card at the Greetery using their new Elegant Entrance: Arches die and beautiful Wildwood stamps and knew that I could recreate the look using items I already have in my stash - a thrifted window die by Spellbinders and a floral from Mimosas by Avery Elle.

 

The first step was cutting the window from the front of my card base before cutting a honey coloured piece of card and glueing it to the inside of the card front. I stamped the floral, coloured it in gorgeous autumn colours with coloured pencils and cut it out with sharp paper snips. This was tucked into the window opening and glued in place, so that I could return the window die cut to the aperture.

 

I glued everything down securely then added an enamel dot to represent a window handle, and a beautiful flowing sentiment from The Greetery.

 

Here's the card I was CASEing today: 

 

You can find all the details HERE.

CHALLENGES

I'm entering this card at Stamping Sensations where the theme this month is Autumn Colours (or Anything Goes); I'm also playing along with Joanne's Signs of Autumn CAS challenge at the Paper Players;  It's Anything Goes at Retro Rubber - as long as you use stamps over a year old of course! Mimosas was released in 2017, the sentiment a year ago, and the die before the ark (possibly!); Beautiful Blossoms has a gorgeous mood board this month and I couldn't wait to join in there;

 

AND IN OTHER NEWS

It really does feel as if Lulu has always been with us. I was planning on a nice quiet few months so that she could adapt to her new life, but one of my clients' owner has contracted covid and so we've had Cody, a handsome fox red lab, to stay this week. Lulu has taken it all in her stride!

 

Lulu (left) Eva (centre) and Cody (right)

 

Of course she has a very helpful big sister to show her the way! I have been so proud of Eva for the way she has accepted Lulu into the family - she seems to know that she is different to the dogs that come walking with us or staying over on holidays.

Sending hugs,

Something to celebrate, using four masks!

Hello, crafting friends!

Does anyone else keep a couple of bottles of fizz in the back of the cupboard in the happyy belief that a celebration is sure to happen soon? Of course you do! My stashed bottles were the inspiration for today's one layer card.

These gorgeous champagne coupes are from Mimosas by Avery Elle and I have used them quite a lot! To make the card, I masked off  the edges of a good thick card base, stamped the glasses in versamark and heat embossed in silver. I made a mask for the glasses by stamping them again on a sticky note and cutting them out. That's two masks - the edges of the card and the glasses.

For my third mask, I used a piece of scrap paper, laying it over the top of the masked glasses and inking in a ground. For the fourth mask, I transferred the scrap paper to the ground, laid Funky Fossil's Folk Floral Wallpaper stencil across the top of the masked glasses and inked into it lightly with rust coloured ink. All the masks were then removed - and I never want to type the word mask again!

I finished the card by colouring the glasses with water-based markers and adding Wink of Stella shimmer. The sentiment was put together with words from the Mimosas set. 

EDITED TO ADD AN AWARD

So proud to be get Honours at Time Out with this card :)

CHALLENGES

Less is More has a one layer card challenge this fortnight with the theme of Cheers! I'm also joining in a Time Out where there's a fun word challenge: 'Move over Coffee. Today is a day for Champagne!' At Watercooler Wednesday, they're celebrating a five-Wednesday month with an Anything Goes challenge, so I shall link up there too.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

There's definitely no champagne on the cards here today. Storm Alex has come to batter us with winds and rain and has decided to stay for the weekend. I have spent my day changing in and out of an oilskin and wellies, rubbing Eva down with towels, and muttering "Go home Alex! No one likes you and who invited you anyway?!"

Sending hugs (and here's hoping for something to celebrate soon...!) 

Friendly sunshine yellow

Hello crafting friends!

What better to do on a rainy June afternoon than crack open the yellow inks and make your own sunshine! Come and see:

This card was made with the little cluster of flowers from Mimosas by Avery Elle. I made a mask by stamping it onto a sticky note and cutting it out, then stamped it several times along the edge of a side-opening card base. Once I had a border stamped, I trimmed the right-hand side of the card front away using sharp paper snips.

The flowers were coloured with Spectrum Noir alcohol markers and I stamped a sentiment from Clearly Besotted's Pretty Pansies over the top.

I knew these bright markers would bleed through the card front but I had a cunning plan! I cut a piece of yellow card stock to fit, stencilled it with Funky Fossil's Brick Wall using matching ink for a tone-on-tone look, then glued it inside the card front. Problem solved!

EDITED TO ADD AN AWARD
Lovely to be Honourably Mentioned at Just Add Ink for this card :)

CHALLENGES
I'm linking this card up with Allsorts where the challenge this week is to use Lots of Yellow; Less is More, where the theme is Borders; Just Add Ink, where we are asked to add something beginning with F and I've gone for Flowers and Friends; and last but not least, Addicted to Stamps and More, where it's a Make Your Mark week.

AND IN OTHER NEWS
Friends make life so much better don't they, and this little space in Blogland where I can connect with my crafting pals is very precious to me.

And talking of precious friendships, I'll leave you with a photo of my favourite pair of besties:

My youngest son and his floofy sister - he was taking photos of a flower and she felt she should help!

Hope you are having a peaceful weekend.

Hugs,

Pretend partial die cutting!

Hello crafting friends!

It's Tuesday, so that means there's a new challenge from CAS Colours and Sketches! I'm enjoying being the Guest Designer there this month and when I saw the sketch I was knocked out by it! Come and see:

Isn't it fabulous?! I especially loved it because it gave me the opportunity to do something that's been in my mind for a while.

The flowers are from Mimosas by Avery Elle and I've stamped them twice alongside each other, turning the stamp upside down for the second stamping, so they look different. I used Spectrum Noir alcohol markers to colour the flowers and then fussy cut around the top of the flowers so that the panel looks like a partial die cut - cunning huh?!!

The panel was cut with one of my Heffy Doodles stitched rectangle dies and I cut another, the same size, from green/blue card stock (SU Baja Breeze I think) to layer underneath, so that it appears above the flowers like a sky.

The sentiment is from Uniko's Simply Said Blocks II and I used my stamping platform to stamp it so that I could give it a couple of stamps for great coverage. For a bit of extra interest, I cut it out and trimmed the end into a flag.

I thought there was enough going on here so I used no embellishments - no, not even a wink! Sometimes I think less is more. What do you think? Are you itching to add a gem or three?!

I hope this sketch is just what you need to create something gorgeous to link up with CAS Colours and Sketches. See you in the gallery!

CHALLENGES
I'm also linking my card up with CAS on Friday, where the theme is Get Well; and Inspired By where the colours on the inspiration photo bowled me over!

AND IN OTHER NEWS
My new craft drawers have been looking at me reproachfully so I went off to Hobbycraft yesterday to get some Plaster of Paris which, I'm told, will transform any old paint into chalk paint. I'll let you know how I get on with that. It was fun being in an actual craft store, even if that craft store has very little in the way of papercrafting items. I did find a couple of embossing folders on offer - which means my craft stash now contains a grand total of TWO embossing folders! Emboldened by this success, I dropped in at The Range and bagged a couple of adorable mini dies! Who knew actual shopping could be so much fun?!

Have you found any crafty items in an actual shop lately? I'd love to hear about it!

Hugs,

To the new year!

Hello crafting friends!

I waved a fond farewell to my daughter this morning as she went off on a train to join her boyfriend and his family. The males of the family were milling about in the kitchen (pretty much starving, poor loves!) so I had a little rummage through my craft things. Time to turn my thoughts to the new year...

... and black and gold seem to be my go-to colours this year (here's another version). The wreath was stamped with the beautiful stylised leaf spray from Grateful by MFT. I used my Stampin' Up Twinkle punch to produce stars and dots from gold mirror card, attaching them to the wreath using a Stix2 glue pen. There's a thin frame of mirror card showing around the card panel too.

The centre of the wreath features the exciting-looking clinking glasses from Mimosas by Avery Elle. I heat-embossed them with gold embossing powder and coloured them with a Spectrum Noir alcohol marker, adding touches of extra gold with a gold Stampin' Dazzle pen. The sentiment is from Clearly Besotted's Cityscape, stamped onto a scrap of card stock and snipped into ribbon tails with sharp paper snips.

CHALLENGES
I'm delighted that there are still challenges to join in with at this time of the year! I was inspired by the gorgeous photo and 'Bring in the new year' challenge at Inspired By; I shall also link up with Inspire.Create. where there is a fabulous sketch this week, and Perfectly CAS, where the theme is Celebrate.

AND IN OTHER NEWS
I made this card for a friend of mine who has by-passed a traditional Christmas this year, opting instead to whisk her family off for a long adventure in exotic foreign lands. We often used to spend New Year with them when our children were younger. We would play board games throughout the evening and I remember the excitement of ringing in the new year with clinking glasses of champagne, followed by a rousing chorus or two of Auld Lang Syne. What lovely memories!

I hope you have all had (and in some cases are continuing to have!) a wonderful festive period. Are you back in the crafting saddle now? It's the best way to enjoy a little down time don't you agree?!

Sending hugs,

A therapeutic thanks

Hello crafting friends!

The run up to Christmas can be a bit stressful as we all rush about trying to fit shopping, wrapping, posting parcels, planning get-togethers and decorating our houses into our already busy lives. I've been having crafting withdrawal symptoms so it felt SO good to take a little time to make this card - even if I did have to do so in what felt like practically the middle of the night! Come and see:

I love the look of flowers split with a large sentiment, and the pretty spray in Avery Elle's Mimosas is ideal for creating the look. It features lovely berries which I think are the perfect nod to the winter season, perfect for thanking people for Christmas gifts and hospitality.

To make the card, I cut a card panel and masked off a strip for my sentiment. The flower spray was stamped above and below it and coloured with Stampin' Up Blendabilities. To emphasise the sentiment space, I drew lines top and bottom with a black fineliner and scored a line next them.

The bold 'thanks' from Hello and Thanks by WPlus9 fits the space perfectly. I stamped it in Stampin' Up Cherry Cobbler ink and fussy cut it before popping it up on dimensionals.


CHALLENGES
The Inspire. Create. challenge has a wonderful colour palette that I couldn't resist using, so I shall link up there. At CAS Colours and Sketches, the challenge is to take a previous challenge from the year and make it seasonal; I used the fabulous sketch 323 from the end of May (when it was light and sunshiny and... oh well, we won't go there!)

AND IN OTHER NEWS
Britain is being battered by Storm Atiyah at the moment, which means high winds and heavy rain - not good for those that have already been affected by flooding and my heart goes out to them. For me, it just means being a bit uncomfortable while walking the dogs, and putting up with low light conditions, so I'm lucky. To photograph today's card, I had to pull back the sofa and perch precariously on the window sill like a demented parrot.

Eva wanted to join in of course, but didn't feel she could squeeze through the gap between the sofas! What size dog does she think she is?!!! She is such a funny girl!

Thanks for popping in to visit me today. Try not to stress too much over the festive preparations and remember, it's more about the people than the things. And also, you'll blink and it'll be over!

Hugs,