A special challenge for Kath

Hello, crafting friends!

If you were here yesterday, you'll have already read about a special challenge starting at Allsorts today. Many of us were deeply saddened recently to hear of the death of Kath, who designed on the Allsorts team. Today, her friends in the crafting community are paying tribute to her by making cards in a theme she chose: Favourite Stamps. Allsorts have added an extra option of Paper-Pieced Flowers as this was one of her favourite techniques.

It really was a favourite of hers. I remember reading one of her posts where she'd written that she actually hadn't paper-pieced the image that day: "I don't know why," she wrote with her deadpan humour. For my tribute, I've delved deep into my paper drawer to unearth some ancient Stampin' Up papers. I know she would have approved as she had papers from even longer ago!

I used Pure Poppies from Clearly Besotted - a favourite stamp of mine for sure, and I know Kath loved poppies too. I remember her ending a post in which she'd used a poppy by writing "Thanks for poppying by!" which made me laugh out loud! My flower heads were stamped on a dark pink printed paper and fussy cut. I cut a panel out of a paler pink patterned paper using a stitched rectangle die from Heffy Doodle, stamped the flower stems directly onto it with black ink and attached the flower heads with glue.

To finish the card I coloured the bottom of the panel with a dark grey alcohol marker, used the same marker to colour the centres of the flowers and added a sentiment from MFT, stamped in dark pink ink, fussy cut and popped up on dimensional pads.

Everyone is welcome at Kath's special challenge today and I hope you will pay tribute to her whether you knew her well or would simply like to honour a fellow crafter who had a passion for the creativity we all share.

EDITED TO ADD AN AWARD

So pleased to have been selected as a Rocker at Watercooler Wednesday with this card inspired by Kath's favourite technique.

CHALLENGES

I used Jen Brum's sketch from Freshly Made Sketches for this card (I flipped it) so I shall link up there; I'm also joining in with Kath Ricks' All About Occasions challenge at Watercooler Wednesday. And of course I'll be linking up at Allsorts with the Favourite Stamp plus the optional addition of Paper-Pieced Flower.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

It's a quiet (and crafty hopeully!) weekend here and after a hectic summer, that is lovely! I shall walk with my golden girl as always and perhaps settle down with a film. Any suggestions?

Sending hugs,

Playing with poppies

Hello, crafting friends!

Tuesday has cheekily popped up again and it's time for another fun CAS Colours and Sketches challenge! Here are the colours our host Bhavya has chosen this week:

I immediately thought of poppies! The poppies that grow wild in the fields here in middle England are an intense red, but I was also thinking of a pal who lives in California where you get lovely yyellow ones, so the challenge colours were perfect for a mix of both!

To provide a background for my poppies, I used the Pool Party ink and Clearly Besotted's Tear Awayy stencil to create a sort of misty background directly onto a card base.

The poppies are beauties from Clearly Besotted's Pure Poppies. I stamped the stems and leaves in a neutral grey and flower heads in the red and yellow of the challenge colour palette, filling in extra colour with coloured pencils. To keep my card nice and clean and simple, I kept the stamping to the bottom of the card front only, leaving plenty of nice clear space above it. 

The sentiment is from Hero Arts' Cheeky Birthday - very handy when you are ludicrously late for a birthday. I'm afraid I've brought it out several times already this year :/

Are you ready to get inky? You'll find lots of inspiration from my teamies over at the CAS Colours and Sketches site so do have a look! The Linky Tool is there too, at the bottom of the post, ready for you to link up your creation. Don't forget to keep your card clean and simple will you, with lots of lovely clear space!

CHALLENGES

I'm linking this card up with AAA Cards where they want you to use only two quarters of the card with the option of using our favourite colours; I'm also joining in at Happy Little Stampers Stencil challenge where Anything Goes.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

We have a lovely cockerpoo staying with us, a great friend of Eva's. Unfortunately, after a paw injury, he arrived with a bandaged leg and a soft cone to prevent him from worrying at it. It hasn't dampened his spirits at all and although Eva was initially a little worried about the cone, she soon found that it didn't stop her pal from playing with her. During their initial playtime, we discovered that the cone was pretty loose as it came off over the top of our visitor's head! The two dogs looked at each other for a moment and then this happened...

I swear Eva thought this was a new concept in coming to visit: bring a toy, but wear it!

Sending hugs,

poppies and puppies

Hello crafting friends!

While walking with Eva-pup the other day, we passed through some fields that have been left empty to regenerate this year. Nature had done her thing and the field was a sea of beautiful red poppies - it was stunning! When I got home I went hunting through my floral stamps and here is what I made:

The flowers are from Pure Poppies by Clearly Besotted. It's a layering set but I used the outline stamps and opted to colour them with alcohol markers rather than using the solid filler stamps. I fussy cut them, which was quite a process! When they were released in December 2017, there were dies to go with them I believe.

I made a background made by drawing lines with a pen and ruler, using grid paper for guidance, and then filling the strips in with a black alcohol marker. I added some stencilled grass above the stripes using the fabulous Scenic Borders stencil by Funky Fossil - I am using this SO much!

The panel was cut out with a stitched rectangle die by Heffy Doodles and I topped it with the poppies before attaching it to a card base. The card was finished with a sentiment from Uniko's Simply Said Blocks, which I thought went nicely with those blocky stripes :)

EDITED TO ADD AWARDS
Absolutely thrilled that this card was the winner at The Color Throwdown's 600th challenge!

So pleased to see it was also the winner at Tic Tac Toe! 

CHALLENGES
I used the gorgeous colours at The Color Throwdown for this card so I'll link up there; I'm also joining in with Retro Rubber, where it's Anything Goes with stamps at least a year old; Also Festive Friday, where I've chosen CAS design, Stitching and Floral Theme from the inspiration list; Also Tic Tic Toe Challenge, where I picked the Flowers, Stripes and Stencil row. I'm sharing yet again at the NBUS (Never Before Used Schtuff) Challenge too, as the poppies are a stamp I bought in the Clearly Besotted sale last winter and have been waiting until they're topical to use them!

AND IN OTHER NEWS
I wanted to show you a photo of the amazing poppy fields we walked through but none of them came out well. Never mind, instead of a photo of an amazing poppy I'll show you one of an amazing puppy!

I accidentally woke her up while taking this picture, and you can see she has that muzzy "Whaddaya want? Go 'way...!" sort of look that we'd all have if woken up by someone sticking a camera in our faces. Sorry Eva.

Hope you are all doing well. Thank you for popping in today. Your visits and comments are always very much appreciated :)

Hugs,