Let the bells ring out!

Hello, crafting friends!

 

I have returned to the land of the vaguely up and running just in time to join in with Christmas in July!

 

At the beginning of the year, I won a bumper prize at one of my favourite challenges The Snippets Playground which included an un-named Crafters Companion stamp set with ringing bells on it. That caught my eye and I had a little play with it today.

 

The stamp was quite small but I stamped it twice at the top of a 4" square card so that it could be the main feature of a CAS one layer card. I used pale brown ink to stamp the image and then coloured the bells with oil-based coloured pencils, including a metallic set for a lovely shine. The fade-out background was added with a brush and pale blue-grey waterbased ink and a brush and I added a bit of more intense colour at the top with a sponge.

 

Using a white acrylic paint pen, details were added to the bells and 'snow' to the background. The card was finished with a curvy sentiment which I thought went well with the ringing bells.

 

CHALLENGES

I'm joining in with Stamping Sensations where stamping is required and the optional theme is Christmas in July; The Daring Cardmakers also have a Christmas in July challenge with the option to use Christmas supplies to make a non-festive card; Peace on Earth which has a lovely mood board from which I chose my colours; and last but not least, I'm linking up with Rudolph Days which has us making festive cards on the 25th of each month (link up runs until the end of the month.)

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Here in the UK, we've all been yearning for a bit of sunshine as we has have an appalling grey summer so far, after a miserable wet winter. And now a heatwave has descended upon us! Lulu has embraced the paddling pool but has no notion of lying peacefully in it to cool off! It's hunting practice for her - and she likes to chase balls in there and murder them.

 

 

Here she is, my little huntress, swaggering out of the pool, leaving a trail of ball corpses in her wake!

Sending hugs,

One layer lupins

Hello, crafting friends!

 

Don't you just love a layering stencil set? Me too! I was given a Sissix set for my birthday called Wildflower Border and I adore it! Here's one of my first efforts:

 

It's a simple one layer card using a C6 card base. The stencils are 6" square but I love that you can use just parts of the stencils to create something unique on different sized cards.

 

I used Distress Oxide inks for this card, adding details with coloured pencils.  Once everything had dried, I added the sentiment - a pretty one from The Greetery's Scripted Sentiments.

CHALLENGES

I used Shannon's beautiful colour palette at CAS Colours and Sketches for this card so I shall link up there; Pamela's theme at Make My Monday is B is for... (our own choice!) and I've chosen Blooms; I'm also popping over to Darnell's NBUS challenge as the stencils are brand spanking new!

 

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Sad Girl Hours have come to our house I'm afraid. It's Eva's turn to have a Poor Paw. After a rather traumatic time at the vet having the swollen toe shaved and examined, we were told that she had an infection in the nail bed. Happily, after the examination, Eva discovered that the vet had treats and was willing to share them. She immediately forgave him for manhandling her toe and, I'm sorry to say, behaved like a complete trollop!

Here she is back at home, recuperating like a princess, having reluctantly left the vet behind.

Sending hugs,

One layer of thistles

Hello crafting friends!

 

I'm fascinated by thistles, which always seem like some kind of prehistoric throwback plant to me. I love the architectural shape of their heads and their bright flare of petals. But they're perhaps not the plant to be skipping through with bare feet, which leads me on to today's card!

 

It's a quick and simple one layer card made with Funky Fossil's Thistle stencil which I haven't used for a while. Taping the stencil off the edge of a thick card base, I sponged Stampin' Up's Mint Macaroon and Fresh Freesia inks into the image and then added more thistle heads to build up the design.

 

Sometimes, when life gets tough, it can feel a bit like walking through a garden of thistles barefoot, so I thought this would be a comforting sentiment to go with the image. I finished with some clear enamel dots to make it look as if it had been raining too. Probably should have added some mud... lol!

 

CHALLENGES

I've seen some amazing cards around Blogland using a mint and lilac colour combination courtesy of Color Hues, so I shall link this card up there; at Make My Monday the theme is Love and, as Valentine's Day is past now, I hope my 'Love and Prayers' card fits the bill! I'm also joining in at the Stencil Fun Challenge where Anything Goes with an optional theme of Love/Hearts.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

I'm always amazed at the way dogs just gallop through fields of thistles - and nettles for that matter! I understand that their feet pads are like leather so it's as if they are wearing shoes, but pushing their way through nettles and brambles must hurt their little noses surely! Apparently not! My OH comes from the northeast of England where the folk are well known for their tolerance of inclement weather conditions and if you ask tenderly about his well-being, he replies "Felt nowt!"

 

Sending hugs,

One layer sprigs and splatters

Hello, crafting friends!

 

When I get Christmas or birthday money, I immediately run my inner eye over all the craft items I could treat myself to! How about you? This year, after Christmas, I splurged on a some of my favourite stamps and dies from The Greetery (Seven Hills Crafts is the exclusive Greetery retailer in the UK. You're welcome!) Fleur Impressions was one of the stamp sets:

The set contains beautifully drawn roses and other flowers which feel beautifully romantic when used in clusters together. But when I was having a play the other day, I came up with a design using just one of the flower sprigs. I stamped the design from the bottom, filling in either side, and leaving a space for a birthday sentiment.

 

To make the flower sprig you stamp the stalk and leaf image, then you stamp the flowers, then finish with a detail stamp  - and everything is really easy to line up.

 

The sentiment is a favourite from Clearly Besotted which fit perfectly in the space. I used a waterbased marker to add yellow centres to the flowers and splattered some matching ink for some extra movement.

CHALLENGES

Beautiful Blossoms has a lovely blue floral mood board and I'm linking up there, and also at their birthday celebration post - congratulations on your first birthday ladies! Glenda's Topping at Seize the Birthday this month is Splatters so lots of fun to be had there too! The stamp set I used is Never Before Used Schtuff so I'm joining in at Darnells NBUS challenge. I'm also playing along with the Anything Goes option at Allsorts this week.

 

AND IN OTHER NEWS

My neighbour has been having a clear out and hesitantly asked me if I needed any dog towels. I think she was a little taken aback by the enthusiasm of my reply! But it has rained for the last day and a half and that's all it took for the countryside to flood again. One day I'll come in and try to take my wellies off, only to find that they are welded onto my legs!! The girls are not complaining of course...

 

... the fun Water World play park is back - YAY!!

Sending hugs,

One Layer Snow Day

Hello, crafting friends!

 

At the moment, there are loads of challenges encouraging us to get our stashes started for the festive season at the end of 2024. I'm in!

 

When I bought the beautiful Stencilscapes Winter layering stencil set from The Greetery in 2022, it was to make multiples - and I did. But it was always in the back of my mind that it would be fun to use just part of the stencil to create unique scenes. For this card, I wanted to include the children and the houses.

 

 

To start, I created a stencil using a large circle punch, and positioned it over a thick card base, securing it with sticky notes. The notes created a handy place for me to make a mark with a pen to align all six Winterscape stencils in the position I wanted. I used finger daubers to sponge ink through the stencils, finishing with inking round the edge of the circle punch stencil to draw the eye into the scene.

 

I finished with some details using coloured pencils and a white acrylic paint pen, and a lovely curvy sentiment from The Greetery's Catching Snowflakes which I thought was a great fit for the image.

CHALLENGES

Claire has a CAS Winter Fun theme at The Paper Players so I'm linking up there. I loved the cosy farmhouse on the Peace on Earth mood board so I'm joining in there too; Inkspirational wants to see us use more than one stencil on a project; this is also my entry at Rudolph Days where we make a Christmas card on the 25th of each month throughout the year.

 

AND IN OTHER NEWS

After a giddy moment with frost and bright sunshine, the weather has returned to what appears to be the default for the last few months:

 

I'm seriously thinking of taking the blonde bombshells to a canine beauty parlour and bringing them home as brunettes!

Sending hugs,

The Masked Poinsettia

Hello, crafting friends!

 

It's an Addicted to CAS kind of Saturday today and I invite you to come and contemplate the new Code Word at the challenge, dreamed up this time by Sue:

 

One of my favourite techniques is masking so I didn't hesitate! I brought out a Christmas set by Reverse Confetti* which has yet to come out of its packaging :)

 

I started by stamping the poinsettia from the set onto a nice thick card base using dark red ink. To make a mask, I stamped it again onto a sticky note, fussy cut it and stuck it over the original. Next, I stamped the leaves and berries in green ink and removed the mask. I loved the graphic look of the uncoloured leaves and the poinsettia, so I just coloured the berries using a light red water-based marker to avoid any bleed through the card front, and the centre of the poinsettia with a yellow marker.

 

The sentiment was a mix of 'with love at' from The Greetery's PreText Sentiments and 'Christmas' from Endless Wishes, an old Stampin' Up set. The card was finished with some 'shine' on the berries using a white acrylic paint pen.

Okay, now it's your turn to interpret the Code Word! Do hop over to the Addicted to CAS challenge site to check out the inspiring cards my team mates have made. You'll find the Linky Tool at the bottom of the post and you can use it to link your own creation up with us. Have fun!

CHALLENGES

I'm linking this card up at Little Red Wagon where the challenge is No Snow Christmas; also Addicted to Stamps and More where the Any Occasion challenge has come round again; I'm also playing at Darnell's NBUS Challenge where we share our Never Before Used Schtuff. 

 

*Attention all you UK bargain hunters: You can find Reverse Confetti stamp sets and dies at Seven Hills Crafts at half price, and there's an amazing Sale section and Bargain Basement there too! You're welcome!

AND IN OTHER NEWS

The title of this post made me giggle as I thought of a mysterious poinsettia tiptoeing about in the dark! And that reminded me of a night long, long ago when I lived in London and shared a house with my sister. We were both woken in the small hours by a loud crash. There was a long pause and then my sister and I converged on the landing, white-faced in our dressing gowns. We tiptoed silently down the stairs clutching each other. Nothing. We made our way towards the glass door leading into the kitchen - and that's when we saw a movement inside the room! We both screamed loudly, wrenched the front door open, and were halfway up the street when it dawned on us that the movement we'd seen was our own reflexion in the glass door. On returning to the kitchen, it turned out that we had hung a heavy pan up on a hook that was loose, and it had given way, falling onto the tiles below. We had to have a soothing cup of milky hot chocolate before going back to bed I can tell you!

Sending hugs,

Make Shapes

Hello, crafting friends!

 

Welcome to some crafty Saturday fun courtesy of Addicted to CAS! Jaydee has chosen the code word for the next fortnight:

 

How fun is this?! It could mean a shaped card or a card using shapes as part of its design or a card that uses shapes as part of its decoration... it's up to you! I was inspired to make a masculine card using a bold striped background stamp from Uniko to create skinny rectangles.

 

 

I used waterbased markers on the stripes and then added coloured pencil over the top to increase colour intensity and this created an interesting texture. Isn't the sentiment fun?!  It's from All Year Long by Concord & 9th - a set I have finally hunted down after a long, long search! I didn't want my card to be too symmetrical so I offset the 'happy birthday' part of the sentiment and added some coordinating enamel dots and star.

 

 

I was sending a gift with this card and, after making the card, decided to make a pouch to put it in. A quick look in the designer paper drawer brought this fabulous paper to light - a pretty good match wouldn't you say! Love when that happens :)

Okay, so now it's your turn to interpret the word Shapes - I can't wait to see what you come up with :) Do hop over to the Addicted to CAS challenge blog to check out all the great samples the design team have made to inspire you. You'll find the Linky Tool at the bottom of the post and you can use it to share your creation with us when you're ready. Do remember that we are a clean and simple challenge and make sure there's plenty of nice clear space on your card and minimal layers. Have fun!

CHALLENGES

I'm linking this card up at Seize the Birthday where Glenda's optional Topping is book-related themes or you can go for an Anything Birthday Goes. My mind jumped to a fable called How the Zebra got his Stripes but my more colourful stripes fit in better with Anything Goes! I'm also joining in at Little Red Wagon where Doni has chosen the theme of Boys Will Be Boys or in other words masculine cards!

AND IN OTHER NEWS

The story of the Zebra really sent me down memory lane. If you have small children or grandchildren and are looking for a great story with a good message, look no further than this one - How the Zebra Got His Stripes!

 

 

The story is about a greedy baboon who decides that the watering hole that all the animals need to survive is his property and he isn't going to share. The zebra, who had a plain white coat in those days, tells the baboon that his behaviour is unjust and that he will fight him for the right for the animals to use the pool. The baboon lights a fire next to the pool to ward the animals off but the brave zebra goes to fight him. Zebra defeats the baboon by kicking the baboon away from the pool but gets too close to the fire as he does so. Some of the sticks burn into his coat. I love the message that some things are worth fighting for and that we bear those scars with honour. Zebra's sacrifice bought back the life-giving pool for the other animals.

Sending hugs,

Adding dimension to one layer

Hello, crafting friends!

 

It's a brand new shiny Saturday and time for a brand new shiny challenge at Addicted to CAS! Here's the code word Sue has come up with to inspire you:

 

Most of my cards start off as one layer cards and then tend to morph into other types of cards! This one remained one layer though!! It was made to pop into the favour bags I made for my daughter's recent hen party (more about that in the Other News section at the bottom of this post.)

 

It's the simplest kind of one layer card that uses just stamping. On a 4" square card base, I stamped the bunch of flowers from The Greetery's Springtime stamp set. The flowers come separately so that you can make them nice and colourful! The sentiment is a favourite from Pinkfresh Studios' Perfect Sentiments set, stamped in crisp black. Note that sentiment overlaps the flowers to give the illusion of dimension - a neat trick for one layer cards.

It was easy to make multiples of this design using a stamping platform :)

Okay, it's over to you! How are you going to put together your own one layer creation? Do hop over to the Addicted to CAS blog to check out the wonderful samples made by the team. When you're ready to link up your own creation, you'll find the Linky Tool at the bottom of the post. Don't forget to keep your card nice and clean and simple with lots of clear space. We can't wait to see what you make!

CHALLENGES

I'm linking this card up at Less Is More where the theme is CAS One Layer Floral; and a new-to-me challenge Fab 'n' Funky where the theme is CAS One Layer.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

If you are a regular here, you'll know that my daughter is getting married this month. The wedding isn't going to be here but the hen party, which I was asked to host, has just taken place. It was lovely! My daughter and her friends helped decorate the house with crepe paper streamers.

 

 

We added loads of flowers, some hen banners I'd found on sale after Easter and some ceramic hens I'd collected from thrift shops. 

 

 

There was fizz and fruit juice to welcome weary travellers.

 

Everyone tucked into a cold buffet with different salads, patés, dips and quiches, a pavlova from our local farm shop and some gorgeous cup cakes made by a talented friend from church.

 

I made little favour bags to say thank you to our guests which I'll show you tomorrow :)

Sending hugs,

A snowy stenciled scene

Hello, crafting friends!

 

It's Thursday and that means there's a whole lot of new inspiration at the Tic Tac Toe Challenge! I came up with this week's board and I hope you'll love using the ideas. 

 

I chose the top row Snow/Stencil/Tree, and made a simple, one-layer Christmas card using The Greetery's Stencilscapes Winter set of layering stencils.

 

I adore the dynamic scene you can build up using these six stencils and it was surprisingly quick and easy too! Once the stencil layers were completed, I added a few details with markers and a sentiment from a Uniko set.

Okay, so now it's your turn! Which row or column has caught your eye this week? Or perhaps you are going for one of the diagonals? Do hop over to the Tic Tac Toe challenge blog and admire the samples Design Team X has made to inspire you. You'll find the Linky Tool at the bottom of the post and you can use it to share your own creation with us. Have fun!

CHALLENGES

I'm linking this card up at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown where the challenge is to use a stencil.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

I have been AWOL for a week or two after a series of unfortunate events! It started slowly with me snapping a cutting pad by using the wrong sandwich in my Big Shot; then got a bit more serious when the car needed its clutch replacing and then they discovered a whole host of other things wrong as well; and culminated in a tidy group of three with me developing a nasty flu bug and taking to my bed! Dear Eva has been a charming nursemaid though this and is positively worn out with lying on the end of my bed keeping me company!!

Sending hugs,