The winter blues

Hello, crafting friends!

 

Having looked at the weather forecast for the next few days, and seeing the temperatures plummet, I wouldn't be at all surprised to see a bit of a snow flurry. And that thought leads to a selection of blue inks and today's card:

 

 

I wanted to give the impression of bitter winds and snow driftying, so I stenciled what I think is supposed to be ocean waves from Funky Fossil's Scenic Borders stencil. It does add quite a bit of movement to the card I think!  The snowflakes are from Endless Wishes, a long-ago retired Stampin' Up set. Sitting next to it on the shelf was another ancient Stampin' Up set called Holiday Home, and I used two tiny stamps from it to add to my pattern.

 

The sentiment is from the Endless Wishes set, stamped in a dark navy blue, and I added a couple of gems for added sparkle.

CHALLENGES

I was inspired by the challenge at Allsorts this week which is Anything Goes with optional Winter Blues; I'm also joining in with the Anything Christmas Goes theme at ABC Christmas; and Retro Rubber where the theme is Winter Scenes using stamps over a year old - the sets I used were released in 2013 and 2014.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

It's lovely walking in the sunny, frosty countryside with NO MUD - hurrah! It's a bit chilly but there's always plenty of playtime indoors as well :)

 

This young gentleman has settled in nicely. Dogs never expose their tummies unless they feel very safe and relaxed!

Sending hugs,

Nautical or nice?

Ahoy there, crafting friends!

 

Welcome to a great new challenge at Addicted to CAS! Toni is at the helm for the next couple of weeks with a code word that may leave you all at sea... (I know, I know, I'm really scraping the barrel for these puns!)

Yes, it's the nautical challenge and here's my take:

 

For the background of this masculine birthday card, I used part of a new diamond shaped stencil from Inkylicious, gifted me by a lovely friend. I sponged three different blue-green inks into the stencil for an ombré ocean look, then over-stamped it with some new Lavinia fish, which I was lucky enough to win at Allsorts :)

 

Above my sea, I added some clouds courtesy of Funky Fossil's Scenic Borders stencil. One of the sailboats from Waffleflower's Lighthouse stamp set was stamped on the ocean surface using black ink. I finished with a block sentiment from Uniko's Simply Said Blocks, a small yellow punched circle and a tiny red enamel dot.

 

Right me hearties, it's your turn to take the oars! Do sail over to the Addicted to CAS challenge blog to check out the team's inspiration and then use the Linky Tool at the bottom of the post to share your own creations with us. We can't wait to see what you come up with!

CHALLENGES

I'm linking up with Darnell's NBUS challenge; also Happy Little Stampers Stencil challenge; and also Allsorts where the theme is Summer.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Here's another pair having fun in the water:

As you can see, Eva's leg is absolutely fine now! Thank you so much for your well wishes - as you can imagine, we are all very relieved it wasn't anything serious. 

PS. Also, sorry about all the terrible nautical puns today :/

 

Sending hugs,

A truckful of birthday wishes

Hello, crafting friends!

 

It's Thursday today and time for another Tic Tac Toe challenge! LeAnne has devised a board that could could cover your masculine card requirements - or is versatile enough for other kinds of cards! 

My nephew's birthday is coming up and I've gone for the middle row to make a truck-themed card for him Car or Truck/Square/Blue.

I used a couple of off-cuts of white card to create a small square panel and a slightly larger square to layer it onto. I didn't have the right red card to coordinate with the red ink I was going to use for the present, so I swiped the edges of the larger square with the ink and left it to dry. On the smaller square, I masked off the sky and sponged grey ink over the rest for a road, then positioned Funky Fossil's Scenic Borders Stencil over the sky and sponged blue ink into the clouds.

 

 

The truck and present from Stampin' Up's Holiday Hayul were stamped onto another scrap of card and cut out with sharp paper snips. I used the same blue to stamp the sentiment from Uniko's Simply Said Blocks and then snipped that out too. To assemble the card, I layered the stenciled panel over the red inked panel then topped it with the sentiment and truck. That was then attached to the front of a squyare card base.

 

Okay, so now it's your turn! Do hop over to the Tic Tac Toe challenge site to see all  the beauties my team mates have made to inspire you. When you're ready, you can use the Linky Tool at the bottom of the post to   link up your own creation. We can't wait to see how the board inspires you this week!

CHALLENGES

I'm linking this card up with Claire's red, white and blue colour palette at The Paper Playyers; also CASology where the cue card is RIDE; Less is More's current theme is Masculine so I'm playing along there; Brenda has chosen the theme of Any Stamped Image for Allsorts  so I shall link up there too; and last but not least, I used up a satisfying little pile of white card snippets, so I'll be skipping off to The Snippets Playground to hand in this card as homework!

 

AND IN OTHER NEWS

We are having a heatwave in the heart of England and Eva is finding it tougher to cope with the heat as she gets older. During hot weather, her favourite place to sleep indoors is on the porcelain tiles in the kitchen and her walks take place by the river and are more swims than walks! The only problem with this is that she doesn't believe me when I explain that wet puppies are not allowed to say hello to passers by. Her wistful glances at everyone whilst trailing behind me on her lead result in more people stopping to pet her than would have if I'd let her off! She knows exactly how to get what she wants!!

Sending hugs,

Easter Bunny

Hello, crafting friends!

 

It's Saturday and time for another fun challenge at Addicted to CAS! I really enjoyed hosting our last challenge and seeing all your wonderful watery cards, but it's time to pass the baton into the capable hands of Helen who has come up with a word I think will be very popular:

Animals fit into all sorts of card types don't they, but I immediately decided on an Easter bunny!

I brought out one of the sweet rabbits from The Craft Consortium's English Garden, stamped her, coloured her with alcohol markers, fussy cut her, then set her aside while I made a background for her to frolic about in!

 

The frame was made by using Waffleflower double stitched circle die to emboss onto a card panel. I decided to cut it out with the larger die which creates lots of contrasting textuyre. I made a circle stencil with a punch and taped it over the circle frame, then added Funky Fossil's Scenic Borders stencil over the top, and sponged green ink into the grass area. I sponged blue ink over the sky area before removing the circle stencil and stamped an Easter sentiment from Lawn Fawn in green ink. To finish the card, I stamped the rabbit onto the background, then glued my fussy cut rabbit in place over the top, added some coloured enamel dots and attached the circle to a card base.

So, now it's your turn! Do hop over to the Addicted to CAS blog and enjoy the fabulous samples made by the rest of the team. You'll find the Linky Tool at the bottom of the post and you can use it to link up your own creation. Don't forget to  keep your card nice and clean and simple with lots of lovely white space, and have fun!

CHALLENGES

I'm joining in with Claire's fabulous  board at Tic Tac Toe this week (I am on the Team X design team and Claire is on Team O, so it's lovely to join in with her board!) I've chosen the middle row Pastel/Rabbit/Coloring. I'm also linking up with Addicted to Stamps and More where there's a Make Your Mark challenge, and having a second go at AAA Cards where the theme is Anything CAS with optional spring animal. Brenda's theme at Allsorts today is Any Real Animal, so I'm playing along there too.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

It's hard to believe it's April already! Did anyone get pranked on April 1st?

Sending hugs,

Joy to the world at Easter

Hello, crafting friends!

 

It's a Tic Tac Toe challenge kind of a day today and I hope you'll be inspired to come and join in with us! Joanne has gathered some versatile elements together on her board this week:

You could make any kind of card with these ideas! I've had Easter on my mind and thought the right hand column would be a good start. Here's what I came up with:

I started by making a stenciled background on a white card panel. I sponged yellow ink through Clearly Besotted's Sunny Day stencil, and added green ink to the bottom of the panel through the grass section of Funky Fossil's Scenic Borders stencil. The panel was cut out with one of The Greetery's Nordic Frame dies and I trimmed a vertical section out of it to make it fit my A6 card before glueing the two sections together onto a card base.

The join was covered with a cross which I put together with pieces cut out of a plank DSP by Stamping Up. The palm leaves and flowers are from Stampin' Up's Wrapped Flowers dies.

 

I have Easter sentiment stamps but I wanted something joyous to go with my cross image. In the end I pulled out The Greetery's Banner and Bough Christmas stamp and stencil set, stenciled a banner with blue ink and stamped the 'Joy to the world, the lord has come' sentiment leaving out the word 'come' and adding in the word 'risen' with a black fineliner. It's not exactly seamless but it works if you don't look TOO closely I think!

So now it's your turn to get creative! Which column or row will you choose? Or will you go for a diagonal? Do  hop over to the Tic Tac Toe Challenge blog and check out the amazing samples made by my teamies and, when you're ready, yyou'll find the Linky Tool at the bottom of the post so that you can share your card with us. Have fun!

CHALLENGES

I'm linking this card up with The Snippets Playground - the flowers, leaves, cross and banner are all snippets; I'm also joining in with Happy Little Stampers Stencil challenge where anything goes - there's LOADS of stenciling on this card; and also Happy Little Stampers Die challenge where anything goes - the frame and the flowers and leaves are die cut.

 

AND IN OTHER NEWS

It really IS true that British people talk about the weather all the time, but that is because the British weather is totally unpredictable and is always doing something crazy. At the moment for example, Spring has arrived ludicrously early when we were expecting winter to carry on for at least another month! Some people are wearing shorts and sleeveless tops (that's me - it's hot when you're walking dogs!!) and others are still bundled up in winter coats and boots! But almost everyone is smiling and ready to talk about the unusual weather and you've got to love something that brings people together like that :)

Sending hugs and wishing you sunshine,

Tulips in the grass

Hello, crafting friends!

 

It's a wonderful Thursdayy for crafting and I hope you'll come and join me because I'm hosting the inspiration board at the Tic Tac Toe Challenge today!

 

I've chosen spring-like elements to cheer us all up but as always, you can use them as starting points for your own ideas. My card is full-on spring as you can see:

 

 

I made a background on a card panel by sponging pale green ink into the grassy area of Funky Fossil's Scenic Borders. I also sponged a bit of pale blue at the top of the panel to give the impression of a nice warm spring day - I can't wait for one of those!

 

I used flowers from Spring Tulips from Clearly Besotted. They come in one clump on the stamp but I used a neutral waterbased marker to ink up the bits I wanted and stamped them in three groups, colouring them with coloured pencils and adding grass and leaves. The panel was trimmed to size but I accidentally made it wonky! To save it, I trimmed it down to correct it, mounted it onto a pink layer and attached it to a card front, adding a few gems for a bit of sparkle.

 

And now it's your turn! Which row or column on the tic tac toe board inspires you? Don't forget you can use the diagonals as well! My team mates have made some beautiful samples and you can see them here at the Tic Tac Toe challenge site. You'll find the Linky Tool at the bottom of the post and can use it to link your own creation up with us. Have fun!

CHALLENGES

I'm linking this card up at Allsorts where the challenge is to fill in the blank - I love... This cards uses Sponging, Masking, Stencilling, using only part of a stamp and colouring with coloured pencils, all  of which I love! I'm also joining in at Retro Rubber where there's a fun sketch. The Spring Tulips stamp set was released in March 2018. I'm playing along at Happy Little Stampers CAS challenge too, where the theme this month is Inky.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

There's been nothing spring-like about today - Eva and I have been hailed on twice! Roll on the spring!!

Sending hugs,

I'm always Blowing kisses

Hello, crafting friends!

Welcome to Saturday and another fun-filled challenge from Addicted to CAS! It's Jaydee's turn to host the challenge and let's see what code word she has chosen:

Hopefully you're in the mood for splashing about in the sea - I know I am! 

This little scene was created with the Scenic Borders stencil by Funky Fossil and the Under the Sea stamp set by Clearly Besotted. I sponged ink into the waves part of the stencil and added more ink to the edge of the card base once the stencil was removed. The scene was built up with sea plants which I coloured with coloured pencils.

I masked a bit of the seaweed off so one of the fish could appear to be behind it when I stamped it and coloured it. I stamped the fish again on scrap card, coloured it and fussy cut it. These fish are pretty symmetrical so I was able to position this one upside down so that she is facing the original fish. To finish, I stamped a sentiment from MFT and added bubbles with a Posca white acrylic paint pen.

So now it's over to you and I can't wait to see all your fabulous fishy creations! Do pop over to  the Addicted to CAS blog and see what my teamies have made to inspire you. The Linky Tool is at the bottom of the post and you can use it to share your creation. Have fun!

CHALLENGES

I'm linking up with Watercooler Wednesday where Marsha is hosting the All About Occasions challenge; I'm also joining in with The Male Room where they are celebrating their 8th Birthday - congratulations everyone!

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Making this scene reminded me of a trip to Mexico when I snorkelled with what I called 'happy fish' because I had never seen or imagined such brightly coloured creatures swimming about in the warm waters. It seems as if it happened in a completely different life, and to be fair it was actually half my lifetime ago!

Sending hugs,

Hot flowers

Hello, crafting friends!

I found time for a little stamping and colouring today - always very relaxing and therapeutic. It's a one layer card. I always love making these and seeing how much dimension I can get going with just colour and shading and, in the case of this card, a bit of stencilling too!

I started by sponging a little orange ink into the 'sea' section of Funky Fossil's Scenic Borders -  using it vertically makes it perfect for an abstract pattern rather than the waves it was intended to be. One of the flowers from Clearly Besotted's Fresh Flowers was stamped over the top using the same orange ink for the no line look.

My oil-based coloured pencils are one of my favourite ways to colour an image at the moment. I selected some reds and oranges and set to work blending. The sentiment is an ancient Stampin' Up one that I found the other day and fell in love with all over again! I underlined it with one of the pencils I'd used on the flower for a little extra interest.

CHALLENGES

I'm joining in at Color Hues, where the hues in question are Red and Orange, and Try It On Tuesday where the theme is Make It Feminine.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

It's been pouring with rain today here in the heart of England, and I've been drenched several times. Eva thought it was great larks of course! Perhaps that influenced my choice of colour - that flower looks as if it grows somewhere hot! Looking on the bright side, I managed to cut the grass and do a bit of planting yesterday, so all today's rain is going to be of great benefit in the garden!

Sending hugs,

Aim high little guy!

Hello, crafting friends!

Happy Saturday and welcome to another fun challenge at Addicted to CAS. Fran is our hostess for the next two weeks and she has chosen a fun code word:

She has also found the gap in my stash! I don't have any bug stamps unless bees count - do they? The loosest definition is 'an insect or creature that resembles an insect' so I guess bees DO count! But I went in a different direction.

To set the scene, I used two sticky notes to form blades of grass and sponged green ink into them. I added additional background grass by sponging the ink into the grass on Funky Fossil's Scenic Borders stencil. I know I do this a lot, but I make no apology for adding a burst of sunshine courtesy of Clearly Besotted's Sunny Day stencil - after all, we need as much sunshine as possible in our lives!

The ladybird was a punched circle of red card stock. I cut part of it away and added a black head and spots with a fineliner pen - simple! I had my bug trundling up the tallest blade of grass and added an ancient Stampin' Up sentiment which I thought was appropriate. I trimmed my panel out with my favourite Heffy Doodle stitched rectangle die before attaching it to a card base.

And now it's your turn! We would be so happy to see your clean and simple bug cards filling up our gallery! The team has produced its usual amazing inspiration, so hop over to the Addicted to CAS challenge blog to take a look and to link up your own CAS creation via the Linky Tool there.

CHALLENGES

Time Out's latest challenge is Move and although my little bug is not a very fast mover, you can see that he is trundling his way to the top! There's some sad news from Time Out: My lovely bloggy pal Sandie, who has run the challenge so brilliantly for 7 years, is having to step down for health reasons. You can read her farewell message on the blog and I'm sure she would appreciate you leaving a message of support. 

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Today's card reminds me of a time when I was a girl, helping my father bring sheep into the farmyard from the far fields. We were all assigned a place to stand along the way, so that we could head the sheep into the lane as they came past. M field was quite near the farm so I had quite a wait on my own. It was a lovely warm sunny day and I lay back in the grass. I have never forgotten that moment as I became super aware of everything going on: the sun on my skin, the buzzing of insects in the grass, the rustle of a breeze in the trees, a burst of bird song - the first time I had really understood what a miracle all of nature really is.

Do you remember having a moment like that?

Sending hugs,

Rabbits and tulips

Hello, crafting friends!

Watercolouring has become more and more appealing to me, especially now I've found that I can paint directly on the card bases I bought from Hobbycraft recently, without any bleed through! I had so much fun making this simple daffodil card a week or two ago I decided to CASE my own card and give it a different look.

I masked off the edges of the card base and stencilled in some grass from Funky Fossil's Scenic Border stencil as I had done before. Instead of the daffs, I chose another Clearly Besotted set, Spring Tulips, stamping them in the green ink. I quickly gave them a lick of watercolour and left the card to dry.

Meanwhile, I stamped two of the bunnies from The Craft Consortium's English Garden stamp set and watercoloured them. When they were dry, I added detail with a fineliner and painted fluffy white tails with some white acrylic paint (sorry the texture doesn't show in the photos but they do actually have the floof factor in real life!) To finish the card, I removed the masks from the now dry card base, stamped a sentiment on it and attached the bunnies.

CHALLENGES

I'm linking up with Happy Little Stampers Watercolour challenge where anything goes; also The Rainbow Challenge where the colour this month is Definitely Daffodil; The theme at The Sisterhood of Crafters is Easter/Spring and at Try it on Tuesday it's Hello Spring, so I'm playing along there too.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

I spent a few productive hours sorting out my airing cupboard last week. I store my bed linen there and there is quite a lot of it! While folding the sheets I remembered a time my youngest son made me laugh while helping me bring the laundry in from the line. He was supposed to be handing me the bed linen in size order. "That's a King," I pointed out when he was supposed to be passing me a Double. He reverently put the sheet down, bowed low and made a flourish with his hand. "My Liege," he said solemnly.

Wishing you a very happy weekend,