A note about pansies

Hello, crafting friends!

 

I always feel so grateful to pansies as they carry us Brits through the dark, dismal winter months, providing much needed colour in window boxes, pots and garden borders. And then they carry on blooming among all the bulbs as they come out too. Today's card is a bit of a tribute to this humble flower!

My pansies come from an old favourite set, Pretty Pansies by Clearly Besotted. I wanted them to be a proper splashy pink so I stamped them on watercolour paper with Stazon ink and coloured them with my Arteza watercolour brush pens - which I'm just leaving out on my desk at this stage as I seem to use them every day! When the image was dry, I fussy cut it with some sharp paper snips.

 

As I wanted this to be a clean and simple card, I thought some subtle embossing on an angle would make a good background. I chose the stitched design of the two embossing folders in Stampin' Up's Little Details set and ran it through my Big Shot using a silicone mat to avoid harsh lines. The panel was trimmed to size with a stitched rectangle die from Heffy Doodle.

 

I spent a while looking for the right sentiment and finally landed on this gorgeous curvy one from Scripted Sentiments by The Greetery, finished with an enamel dot to create a 'group of three' of the bright pink. The panel was mounted on dimensional strips and attached to a card base.

CHALLENGES

I'm linking this card up with Colourful Options where Pink is the inspiration colour; also Simply Clean and Simple, where it's Anything Goes with an optional theme of Pink; and Allsorts, where Dena has chosen Shades of Pink as her theme this week; from the inspiration list at Festive Friday, I chose, Pink White, Embossing and Supportive sentiment; and Linda's sketch at Freshly Made Sketches was my starting point for this card. I've flipped the sketch but that was only because I kept debossing the background instead of embossing so in the end I gave up and just turned the panel over!!

 

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Remember that rhyme 

 

Rain, rain

Go away

Come again another day.

Well I'm past 'come again another day' I can tell you! It can go away and stay away as far as I'm concerned! On the plus side, I've still got some chocolate-dipped retrievers left from Valentines Day ;)

 

Yummy!

Sending hugs,

Fresh for you

Hello, crafting friends!

 

It's Thursday and time for another Tic Tac Toe challenge! Betty has come up with a fabulous board to get your creative juices flowing:

 

 

I was instantly inspired by the bottom row - Die Cut/Spring Colors/Floral as I am really enjoying watching the spring flowers come out everywhere.

My focal panel was created with two different sets. The flowers from Clearly Besotted's Pretty Pansies were stamped first onto a panel and then onto a sticky note. The sticky note image was fussy cut to create a mask which was placed over the image on the panel. I stamped the jar from The Greetery's Just Mason Around just over the mask so that when the mask was removed, the flowers appeared to be spilling over the rim of the jar.

 

I had a lovely time colouring the image with coloured pencils in pretty pastel hues. The flower mask came into play again while I sponged in a background and when it was removed, I added more detail with the pencils and a white Posca acryylic paint pen. When I was happy with the result, I trimmed the panel with a stitched rectangle die from Heffy Doodle, mounted it onto blue card a tiny bit larger than the panel and attached it to a card base.

 

 

The card was finished with a stamped bow from the Mason Around set and a sprinkling of pale pink sequins.

 

Right! It's your turn now! Do hop over to the Tic Tac Toe challenge blog to see all the fabulous samples the team have made to inspire you. You will find the Linky Tool at the bottom of the post so that you can link up your own creation with us. We can't wait to see what you make :)

CHALLENGES

I'm linking this card up with The Paper Players where Jaydee's theme this week is Spring is in the Air.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

We have had a flying visit from our your youngest son who celebrates his 21st birthday tomorrow. He is currently working towards his finals at university and has returned to the fray now but it was wonderful to crack open a bottle of fizz, feed him with his favourite foods, enjoy his company and send him on his way.

Sending hugs,

Shades of two colours

Hello, crafting friends!

 

What a lovely time I've had partying with the talented team at Seize The Birthday for the last two months. Today, I get to play with them one more time as their Surprise Party Guest and it's a really fun Topping this time:

And if you had to look at that word twice I want you to know you are not alone! To explain, Dichrome is a bit like Monochrome, ie shades of one colour, only it's shades of TWO colours. Here's what I came up with:

We're still stuck in the middle of a grey winter here in the heart of England so I delved into my floral stamps box to cheer myself up, and reached for some hot pinks and greens.

 

 

I stamped these pretty peonies from Clearly Besotted's On Your Day in a pale green ink and coloured them with alcohol markers. They were masked off while I sponged a paler green into Funky Fossil's Trellis stencil, offsetting it from the floral image to give a layered look.

The panel was trimmed to size with a stitched rectangle die from Heffy Doodle and mounted onto a card base. I lined the sentiment up in my stamping platform and stamped it repeatedly in a dark green ink, then finished up with  a few gems.

So now it's your turn! Do hop over to the Seize The Birthday challenge site and admire all the wonderful samples on display there. When you're ready to upload your own creation, you'll find the Linky Tool at the bottom of the post. Have fun won't you - and remember, if you don't fancy the Dichrome challenge, you can make a card for the Anything Birthday Goes option :)

CHALLENGES

I'm linking this birthday card up with The Flower Challenge where the theme this month is Occasions; Addicted to Stamps and More have a Birthdays challenge this time so I'm also playing along there; Ellie has chosen a theme of CAS with the option of Elegance at Allsorts and I'm hoping my card is both! And last but not least, it is with great sadness that I saw that the Watercooler Wednesday challenge is closing its doors so I'm heading over there to say goodbye.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

I had to make an emergency dash to the dentist yesterday and oh my goodness am I in agony today! Hopefully it will all settle down soon but in the meantime, I hope you'll excuse me - I have a sofa to arrange myself on with a golden retriever-shaped hot water bottle!

Sending hugs,

Playing with pansies

Hello, crafting friends!

Welcome to another fun challenge with CAS Colours and Sketches! It's a new month and it's Shannon's turn to take over hosting duties. What beautiful colours she's chosen this week!

I thought some pansies would look soft and feminine in these colours so I reached for Pretty Pansies by Clearly Besotted, stamped the separate clusters in opposite corners and coloured them with coloured pencils.

The card panel was trimmed to size with a stitched rectangle die from Heffy Doodle. I chose a sentiment from Clearly Besotted's Simply Said and stamped it in Memento black ink before mounting the panel onto a card base.

And now it's over to you! I hope you enjoy using these colours as much as I did! Do check out all the inspiration over at the CAS Colours and Sketches challenge blog won't you, including our special guest Deborah Wheeler, and please, don't forget to keep your card nice and clean and simple with plenty of lovely clear white space!

CHALLENGES

I'm linking this card up at Less is More where we are challenged to use our favourite technique - and at the moment mine is a very simple stamping and colouring with coloured pencils. I'm also playing along at Addicted to Stamps and More where it's a Make Your Mark challenge.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Summer has arrived just in time for some very happy birthday celebrations here. How wonderful to have the family together for feasting, walking and swimming in the case of my daughter and Eva the pup! Sadly I don't have photos but they are both water babies and it was a joy to watch them swim together!

Sending hugs,

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,

Sparkle and shine!

Hello crafting pals!

The cards I make are stored in a large drawer, divided into occasions. Some will be sent later in the year, some are 'just in case' cards, lots are note cards and thank you cards. They build up as you can imagine so, today, fired up with spring cleaning fervour, I went through them with my ruthless hat on and got rid of all the ones I didn't really like. I saved toppers, embellishments and bits of card bases and ended up with a huge pile of snippets. Can you guess what I did next?

Of course, I made a card! And for those of you struggling with mojo issues, I recommend it! This card was all made with tiny off cuts except the card base. The glittery bit was white originally, but I coloured it with an alcohol marker then mounted it on a snippet of black card stock trimmed to fit.

The flowers are from Clearly Besotted's Pretty Pansies, stamped on a small piece of white card stock, coloured with alcohol markers and fussy cut.

Gems taken off the discarded cards decorate the centre of the flowers. They had lost their stickiness but were easily attached with a glue pen. I added a sentiment from Uniko's Simply Said, again stamped on a tiny scrap of white card stock and snipped out.

Ta-da! I'm much happier with this card than any of those rubbish cards I chucked in the recycle bin!

EDITED TO ADD AN AWARD
I'm so happy that this card was a winner at CAS Colours and Sketches!

CHALLENGES
Of course I shall join everyone in The Snippet Playground with this card, but I shall also link up at The Paper Players, where Sparkle is the theme, and CAS Colours and Sketches where I was SO inspired by the fabulous colours this week!

AND IN OTHER NEWS
Eva is enjoying everyone being less busy. I have been playing games with her as we used to when she was younger and there weren't loads of dogs around. Her favourite games are scent games that involve food, so I've been hiding treats in cardboard boxes, or wrapped in several layers of newspaper, or deep in the middle of one of her dog towels etc. She LOVES this - I think it replicates the excitement of hunting in the wild!

Here she is having discovered something yummy in an egg box! It took her a while to get it open but it isn't easy if you don't have opposable thumbs!

Hope you're keeping safe and well :)

Hugs,

I choose to see flowers!

Hello crafting friends!

There are defiant vases of daffodils all over my house and I'm blocking out the storm by colouring flowers in the Craft Square Metre! Come and see:

I started this card by stamping a piece of white card stock with Hardwood by Stampin' Up, making a long thin aperture in it with one of the Christina Griffiths stitched rectangles, and cutting the whole thing out with a card-shaped stitched rectangle from Heffy Doodles.

I cut another of the Heffy Doodles rectangles and stamped some flowers from Clearly Besotted's Pretty Pansies on it, using a masking technique. These were coloured with Spectrum Noir alcohol markers. The wood stamped aperture panel was attached over the top and  I coloured some of the planks of wood with a pale grey watercolour pencil.

I thought a blocky sentiment would work well with this card and used the Thank You greeting from Uniko's Simply Said Blocks II. The card was finished with black Enamel Effects in the centres of the flowers.

CHALLENGES
The Colour Throwdown came up with some gorgeous colours this week and I couldn't resist joining in. I've used the sketch from Freshly Made Sketches and I'm also linking up with Inspire Create where the challenge is A Blank Slate.

AND IN OTHER NEWS
I've always loved that saying 'There are always flowers for those who want to see them' and I DO want to see them! And, the minute I typed that, the sun came out :)

Are you having a nice weekend? What are you up to?

Hugs,

Pansies on centre court

Hello crafting friends!

The trouble with autumn is that it's not long before it morphs into winter and when it does, we lose most of the flowers. What is a girl to do? Well, this girl nips over to Clearly Besotted to add to her collection of their beautiful flower stamps! Come and see:

This gorgeous image is from Pretty Pansies which I spotted in the Sale section (along with two other beautiful floral sets which may or may not have found their way into my basket!) I had great fun colouring the flowers and leaves with a mixture of Spectrum Noir and SU Blendability pens. The best thing is that winter flowering pansies come in all sorts of colours so the fun isn't going to stop here!

I fussy cut my pansies, decorated them with gold thread and mounted them on a trellis-style designer paper. Actually, when I say 'trellis' I realise it's more 'chain link fence'... but that's fine, they can be tennis court pansies! The card was finished with a sentiment from another Clearly Besotted set, Elegant Butterflies.

Jen Mitchell's sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches was calling me this week, so I shall link this card up there.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

A few other houses in our area revealed spooky and scary decorations this morning when I took the dogs out. Eva knew there was something not quite right about those cobwebby hedges and gave an 'aroooo' before we disappeared into the fields! 

Thanks for coming to visit me today. I shall be back soon :)

Hugs,