Roses are red

Hello, crafting friends!

 

With Valentine's Day on the horizon I thought it was time to get into the spirit of romance, and what better way than a bouquet of red roses and a wedding or ruby wedding anniversary card!

 

I'm having a wonderful time using my new goodies in the Craft Square Metre! The background of this card was made with The Greetery's Ribbon Maker Large Scallop die. I had seen the DT use the die in this way and fell in love with the look! The card is a lovely suede look cream card that I've had for years (and sadly have very little left.) I cut the scalloped pieces and glued them onto copier paper before trimming to size.

The other new item I'm using is my new Arteza brush pens and oh! I have fallen head over heels with these too! I used them with a water brush to colour these roses from a favourite older set: Modern Roses from WPlus9. I've also found a proper white watercolour paper at Crafters Companion and it's superb.

 

While waiting for the roses and leaves to dry, I stamped a sentiment from Uniko's Simply Said Blocks, and snipped it out. Everything was then arranged on the background and glued in place, then the background was attached to a card base.

 

CHALLENGES

I'm linking this card up at We love Stamping where Hilary has chosen the optional theme of Romance; At the Alphabet Challenge, W is for Weddings so I'm joining in there too., as well as at Try it on Tuesday  where the theme is Hearts and/or Flowers. The background die and the watercolour brush pens are brand spanking new so I'm also off to Darnell's NBUS Challenge to play :)

 

AND IN OTHER NEWS

I'm afraid I can't stay to chat today as I have two chocolate labs to deal with. Someone seems to have swapped my golden girls for them... thank goodness for my kind neighbour giving me those extra dog towels!!

Sending hugs,

Rose Gold

Hello, crafting friends!

 

It's lovely to be back with the Tic Tac Toe Challenge today. Betty has come up with this fun board to spark your creativity:

 

 

I'm obviously missing the Christmas sparkle, so I chose the middle row, Floral/Free/Sparkle, to make a feminine birthday card full of shimmer and shine!

 

 

I started by stamping Uniko's Pin Stripe background directly onto a thick card base and heat embossing with gold embossing powder. I topped it with a piece of gold glimmer paper, trimmed to the same width but half the height, with the bottom corners curved with a corner rounder. The roses, from WPlus9's Modern Roses stamp set, were stamped, coloured with pink coloured pencils and fussy cut.

 

The card was put together collage-style, with a gold-embossed sentiment label from Uniko's Simply Said Blocks, and some pale pink sequins for even more sparkle!

So now it's over to you! What column or row grabs your attention this week? Or will you opt for one of the diagonals? Do hop over to the Tic Tac Toe challenge site and take a look at my team mates' wonderful samples. You'll find the Linky Tool at the bottom of the post and can use it to share your own creation with us. We can't wait to see what you make!

CHALLENGES

I was inspired by the colours at Color Hues so I'm linking up there; I'm also joining in at Stamping Sensations where the challenge is to Add Sparkle.

 

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Not only has the river burst its banks but it has continued to rain and today I couldn't get to our favourite spot by the river. I popped the dogs back in the Dogmobile and drove to a different access point further up river, but it was all flooded up there too. So I took the dogs on a walk across the higher fields that is usually quite boring; not today though!

 

 

The walk was transformed by streams and pools that had formed and Eva and Murph the spaniel ran and swam and chased each other and careered about like kids on a day out at Waterworld!! Can you see the joy on my water baby's face?!

Sending hugs,

A bit of Archery

Hello, crafting friends!

 

It's official - arches are my latest crush! Come and see what I've been up to:

 

Both sentiments are from The Greetery's new Arched Sentiments stamps and dies and were the starting point for this simple card. I stamped the arched bit directly onto a thick card base - how cute is this hug sentiment?!

 

The leafy frame is what brings the card to life. For a background, I sponged turquoise ink from the edges of the card base, fading out towards the arch. The rose leaf outlines from WPlus9's Modern Roses were then stamped in an overlapping pattern around the arch using yellow, green and brown inks. Finally I attached the stamped and die cut 'hello'.

CHALLENGES

I used Amy's inspiring colour palette from this week's The Color Throwdown for this card so I'm linking up there; Nancy has chosen a lovely autumnal inspiration photo at Just Us Girls this week, so I'm playing along there too; and I hope it's not too late to enter We Love Stamping's Anything Stamped Goes challenge for September.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Autumn has really arrived here in the heart of England now. The leaves are turning, and some of them have even dropped already in the brisk winds, but when the sun shines, it's still pretty warm. That can only mean one thing: We've entered 'What do I even wear?!' season where, try as you might, it's impossible to find something to wear that covers all the temperatures it might be that day and which will protect you if it rains but that won't make you boil... and where do I even go with whether it's going to rain or not?!

 

 

Eva cannot understand what my problem is. She just carries on wearing her fur coat. If it's hot she just goes for a dip; if it rains, so what? She's wet already!

Sending hugs,

Ready for a special occasion

Hello, crafting friends!

 

It's Thursday and we all know that's a Tic Tac Toe day! It's LeAnne's turn to host and she has brought together some great elements to create a board that is sure to inspire you!

 

I couldn't resist using the top row, White/Pearls/Ribbon, to create a card that would work for an engagement, a wedding or a ruby wedding anniversary. And the beauty of this card is that it was made using left-overs!

 

I started by attaching some left-over leafy vellum from a card kit to a bit of white card using spray glue. This was trimmed into a decorative shape using a label die from The Works. To top my label shape, I stamped a leaf and a rose from WPlus9's Modern Roses on more snippets, coloured them with alcohol markers and fussy cut them. A scrap of tulle and satin ribbon was wrapped around the label shape and I tucked the botanics behind it.

 

 

You can see the vellum better in this photo - I was really pleased with the look. To finish the card, I die cut a Gemini congratulations sentiment from yet another snippet of white card, arranged it on top of the ribbon and sprinkled a few pearls around the group.

Okay, so now it's your turn! My team mates have come up with some beauties to inspire you, so do hop over to the Tic Tac Toe blog to check them out. You'll find the Linky Tool at the bottom of the post so you can link up your own creation when you're ready. Have fun!

CHALLENGES

I'm linking up with Addicted to Stamps and More where there's a Make Your Mark challenge and hopefully my rose group will qualify; I'm also taking this card along to The Snippets Playground where Sarn is at the helm and I'm having to wear sunglasses because her Prefects Badge has been polished to such a fine shine!

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Showing a celebration card today seems appropriate because I have had some wonderful news: My daughter and her long-term sweetheart are getting married next year! Needless to say, I have gone straight to Mumland and am wandering about there in the sunshine humming happy tunes! I think we're going to be running out of champagne after all this good news!!

Sending hugs,

Out on the tiles

Hello, crafting friends!

No, the title of this post is not a reference to any wild evenings out! I've been thinking about tiles lately and remembered a stamp set I have that I thought would make interesting backgrounds for flowers. Have I created any cards like this? Er... no! Time to put that right!

The tiles are from a retired Stamping Up set called Today's Tiles. It's a layering set - you stamp one pattern and then line the stamps up in a stamping platform and add the detail stamp. I chose my palest yellow ink and a light orange, stamping them directly onto a card base. I topped them with a pretty rose from WPlus9's Modern Roses, which I stamped, coloured with coloured pencils and fussy cut.

But oh dear...! Even though I'd used pale inks for the tiles, they result was far too intense to show off the rose. After a little thought, I decided to mute the tiles with a panel of vellum. I cut this to size, stamped it with the sentiment using Stazon ink and glued it over the stamped tiles using spray glue. This worked well and the rose became the focus of the card I'd wanted it to be!

CHALLENGES

I'm linking this card up with Less Is More where we are CASEing Elaine's fabulous card in celebration of her birthday; also playing along with Time Out where there's a beautiful quote to inspire us; and Allsorts, where Anything Goes with an option to include roses; the challenge at Happy Little Stampers CAS is Off The Edge, so I'm joining in there too.

AND IN OTHER NEWS 

Did you know that the word 'tile' was slang for hat in 19th century Britain? I thought it might be Rhyming Slang but apparently it was coined because some wag made the analogy of the roof tiles on the top of a house and the hat on the top of a person! This has amused me no end and I shall be looking into more slang!

Sending hugs,

Autumn beauty

Hello, crafting friends!

One of the great pleasures of autumn is seeing the leaves turn into beautiful ambers, reds, golds, tans and every shade in between. You do get a lot of wind and rain but every now and then Mother Nature seems to take a breath, and the sun comes out, and you get to see the glowing colours of autumn against a pure blue sky. That's what inspired today's card:

I started by sponging some Tumbled Glass distress ink onto a card panel and stamping leaves from WPlus9's Modern Roses over it. The panel was trimmed to size with a stitched rectangle die from Heffy Doodle.

The leaves were stamped again on some offcuts of card stock, coloured with alcohol markers in shades of orange and each individual leaf cut out. The leaves were then glued over the stamped leaves on the card panel - this makes them really pop against the background. I added a bit of detail by clapping wet hands over the panel and, when it was dry, stamping a sentiment from Clearly Besotted and some blue sequins.

CHALLENGES

I'm linking this card up with Inkspirational, where I was inspired by the leaves against the sky in the inspiration photo; Color Hues, where the colour duo this fortnight is Orange and Blue; and Watercooler Wednesday where it's Karen's turn to host the Occasions challenge.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Thank you to everyone that has been lovely about Eva. She is definitely on the mend. The swelling on her ear flap is beginning to come down already and doesn't seem to bother her at all - she doesn't scratch or paw at it or shake her head. Her ear infection seems to have cleared nicely too although I will continue to monitor her ears.

Getting wet is not the best plan for Eva at the moment but the weather can be pretty unpredictable here. Here she is with her pal Jasper after an eventful walk in torrential rain with an added thunder storm! Those ears had to be extra well-dried today!

Sending hugs, 

A wander down Memory Lane

Hello crafting friends!

*Raises coffee cup* Happy New Year and I hope 2020 brings you happy times :)

I've been pottering about in the craft square metre today but the light levels are so low I couldn't photograph anything. I did notice that The Card Concept has a fun challenge going though: to show your favourite card of 2019 and/or your Christmas tree.

I had taken a four-year break from crafting before coming back to it in July of this year, and during that time I'd lost most of my stash. So it has been wonderful building my creative muscles back up as well as building a new stash!

I have two favourite cards this year and both were made using techniques that were new to me. Here's the first:

This background was an experiment that worked better than I had imagined! I topped it with (new) roses coloured with (new) alcohol markers - EVERYTHING was new and SO exciting and I think it's safe to say I fell in love with alcohol markers!
Details of this card are here.

My other favourite is this one:

I was having so much fun experimenting with alcohol markers and this was when I realised you could use them to create a background and combine them with water-based inks and sponging techniques... mind blown!
Details of this card are here.

Would you like to see our Christmas tree? Here it is:

I always put it in a large earthenware pot and add gravel which keeps it in place. It also makes it very stable for when we have dogs round to play with Eva - sometimes the young ones can be quite lively! It's decorated with yellow-based clear lights and red, white, silver and orange ornaments that I've been collecting over the years, and it's hung with lengths of sequins. When I was a Stampin' Up demonstrator, I had loads of rolls of this and this was the perfect way to use them!

CHALLENGES

Thanks for coming to visit me today. It's been lovely casting my mind back to July when I seriously wondered whether I could get back into crafting. Looking at my stash now, it's clear that my main problem is going to be storage... and I'm sure some of you can relate to that! I'd be very interested to hear your top storage tips for a tiny space - do share in the comments below.

I shall be back as soon as we get a bit of daylight!

Hugs,

Festive roses

Hello crafting friends!

I'm always attracted to the idea of dark red velvety roses, nestling in winter foliage at Christmas. Sadly my house in winter seems to have the kind of extremes of temperature that knocks roses out within a couple of days, so I stick to hardy greenery, tougher blooms like carnations, and faux berries. The display on today's card would work well in the freezing churches of Great Britain though! Come and see:

I started by masking off the bottom of a kraft card base and stamping the fir branch from Uniko's Winter Foliage directly onto it. You need a nice bright green ink to pop against the kraft - I've used Stampin' Up's Granny Apple Green. The striped strip is a sticky-backed piece left over from a craft kit.

Next came the flowers and rose leaves. They're from Modern Roses by Wplus9, and I've coloured them with Spectrum Noir markers. I stamped some holly leaves from Winter Foliage too and fussy cut everything. Once I'd assembled the roses and leaves on the card front (without sticking them down), I could see where I needed extra interest in the background. I stamped the berries, again from Winter Foliage, using Stampin' Up Poppy Parade ink which also pops well against kraft.

The greeting, from Uniko's Pure Florals Poinsettia, was stamped in Versamark ink, and I also added some speckles around the fir branches with a Versamark pen, before heat embossing it all with gold   embossing powder.

Finally I stuck my floral display down, popping up the large rose with dimensionals, and added the white insert.

CHALLENGES
I shall link this card up with The Flower Challenge where we are asked to add spots or stripes to our projects this month. I'm also playing at The Snippets Playground as I stamped all my flowers and leaves onto raggedy little off-cuts of white cardstock and used up a sticky strip from the 'long forgotten' pile!

AND IN OTHER NEWS
Today is the day for sending my little Dogmobile to the garage to have her MOT. The Dogmobile is an ancient Ford Fiesta that takes Eva and her pals into the countryside for the long rambles and romps they love so much, so we've got all fingers and paws crossed here for a clean bill of health.

Eva thinks sedate walks around the local park are for lame nerds (according to my youngest son!) and is concentrating hard on a happy outcome!

See you soon,

Rose leaves in disguise

Hello crafting friends!

Autumn is beautiful isn't it - even in the drizzle! But it doesn't last long, so I need to get going with some autumnal crafting before the bleak mid-winter sets in! I no longer have any leafy stamps sadly... but I DO have a cunning plan! Come and see:

I know - LEAVES!!! These ash leaves (admittedly an extremely obscure variety!) are actually leaves from my Wplus9 Modern Roses stamp set. They leapt out at me today and I suddenly decided to disguise them with autumn colour! They are stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black ink and coloured with a variety of Spectrum Noir and Stampin' Up Blendabilites alcohol markers. 

I added this stunning sentiment from Concorde and 9th's Beautiful Branches, and sprinkled the leaves with gems that I'd coloured with a green alcohol marker.

This card was inspired by the colours on this gorgeous inspiration photo at Paperbabe Stamps Challenge:

I shall also link up with Stamping Sensations where the challenge this month is Trees and/or Leaves and/or Autumn.

AND IN OTHER NEWS
My youngest son actually found some time (between parties!) to phone today. He is enjoying his course and working hard, has made lots of friends and is coping financially. "Are you eating properly?" I heard myself bleat anxiously. "Yes, I'm eating fruit," he replied. "Oh, and I can eat salads now because I've found they taste delicious with Pizza Express dressing!" I shall have to remember to tuck a few bottles in his Christmas stocking this year!

Thanks for dropping in today for a bit of autumn cheer. Are you an autumn person? Or does the first hint of chilliness make you feel like hibernating? Let me know in the comments below :)

Hugs,

Yellow roses for friendship

Hello crafting pals!

I've got my colouring hat on at the moment and my beautiful Wplus9 Modern Roses set is getting plenty of use! I've been experimenting with backgrounds too. Come and see:

I don't know anyone who doesn't adore red roses, like these ones I coloured a couple of days ago. But how about those gorgeous scented yellow roses, with deep amber centres, that turn paler as they open? That's what I was aiming for when I watercoloured this one.

They say yellow roses signify friendship too :) I used a fine paintbrush with Daffodil Yellow and Crushed Curry inks for the rose, and Old Olive for the leaves. The background is a vague attempt at a bokeh effect using sponge daubers!

One sponge dauber was used to stamp circles of diluted ink (So Saffron and Daffodil Delight) onto my panel and, once that had dried, circles of white craft ink stamped over the top using a clean dauber. I added some black and white striped washi for a bit of 'edge' and layered on my fussy cut roses and leaves. The card was finished with some gold sequins and a fabulous sentiment from Clearly Besotted's Blossoms in Bloom.

Oh yes, I may or may not have been shopping...! More about that tomorrow :)

I'm going to enter this card (which is as maximilist as I get!) into the Anything Goes challenge at Addicted to Stamps and More this week. (Also, SO good to see Kylie is launching an exciting new challenge called Perfectly CAS - why not pop over and take a look? This lady deserves a medal for services to CAS!)

AND IN OTHER NEWS
My son returned from Reading Festival with a bag of washing and a great tan. Once he'd transformed back into the version of my son that smells of soap and toothpaste, he enthused about the festival and impressed me by saying he'd earned enough money returning empty cups and bottles to cover the cost of eating for the whole weekend! I think he's going to do well budgeting at uni :)

So which is your favourite colour rose? Red, yellow, white, pink? Or how about those amazing delicately tinted lilac or peachy hued ones? Let me know in the comments below!

Hugs,