Daisy days

Hello, crafting friends!

 

One of the things I love about summer is lounging about in the sun on grass dotted with daisies - especially if there's a picnic going! I love daisies and was delighted when a few weeks ago, I was lucky enough to win a beautiful stamp set full of daisies at Allsorts (Flower Patch Set 4 from Highlight Crafts) and today I thought it was time to crack open the packet and have a play!

 

Using green ink, I stamped two of the daisies onto a green panel. The plan was to colour the petals with my Posca white acrylic pen and to stipple the centres with distress oxides. I liked how the petals turned out but the flower centres were too muted, so I used an alcohol marker to intensify the colour, wiping the nib quickly afterwards.

 

I used Funky Fossil's Brick Wall stencil to sponge in a background with white ink and stamped a 'thanks' from The Greetery's Scripted Sentiments. To finish, I stamped a little butterfly using distress ink, trimmed the panel with a Hemstitch die by Spellbinders, and attached it to a card front.

CHALLENGES

I used Jen's sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches to create this card so I'm linking up there; also Allsorts where this week's optional theme is Blooms Bees and Butterflies - thank you for my lovely prize! And I'm also hopping over to Darnell's NBUS Challenge as the daisies are fresh out of the packet!

AND IN OTHER NEWS

The European Cup continues and watching England play proves to be the usual nail-biting experience. Lulu is not impressed.

 

She knows she can run faster than any of them and that no-one could get the ball off her - unless they used the 'Give' command that is!!

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,

Stripes and flowers

Hello, crafting friends!

 

Having been hither and thither over the past couple of weeks I think Mr Mojo came with me and slipped off when I wasn't looking. Although there has been time to craft this week, I've been reduced to sorting out my designer paper drawer! Until today when some ideas in the back of my head combined with some lovely challenges and sent me scuttling off to rummage through my stamps and dies :)

 

I had seen a tall layered cake decorated with flowers on my travels and there is a hint of that in this design. I used Stampin' Up's gorgeous Boho Blue ink to stamp Uniko's Horizontal Stripes background image in the corner of a thick card base. 

 

After cutting some flowers from The Greetery's Wildflower Mix and Sissix's Geo Floral Frame die sets, I sponged them with inks and added detail with coloured pencils plus enamel dot centres on the big blooms. These were all arranged in a swoosh over the top of the background image, with a couple of the large flowers popped up on dimensional pads.

 

The sentiment from The Greetery's Scripted Sentiments has become a firm favourite. To finish, I curved the top right corner with my corner rounder.

CHALLENGES

I was instantly inspired by Inspired By's gorgeous jug of flowers image and am linking up there; At Allsorts, Lorraine has chosen the them of Spots and/or Stripes so I'm joining in there too. 

 

As a side note, you might want to join in with the 15th birthday celebrations at Allsorts next week! The celebrations begin this Saturday, 18th May, and there will be amazing prizes from a popular stamp company for some lucky winners! Save the date!

 

AND IN OTHER NEWS

The golden girls and I are enjoying our walks so much more now that the weather is warm and dry. Here's Eva among the cow parsley looking as if she's having a chuckle at something.

 

No doubt she's planning the next items of underwear to retrieve from the laundry basket and parade through the house when I have guests...!

Sending hugs,

Stenciled love

Hello, crafting friends!

 

Happy days are here at last as not only is it a warm and sunny spring day here in the heart of England but we also have a brand new challenge at The Flower Challenge for May!  

 

 

This month we'd like to see you add colour to your blooms - and I have a feeling this might be a popular one! Regular readers of my blog will know that I have become addicted to my Arteza watercolour brush pens and although they were jumping up and down shouting 'pick me, pick me!' I turned my head away and opted to give my alcohol markers an airing!

 

I used Uniko's Pure Florals Rose stencil, using a light coloured marker to outline part of it, then masking it off and flipping the stencil over to get a different shaped rose behind the first. I used Stampin Up Blends in peaches and pale corals to colour my roses, building up the intensity gradually. It was a lot of fun but I confess, I'd forgotten how long it takes compared to watercolour markers!

 

I added some leaves using another Uniko stencil called Natures Treasure, then added a birthday sentiment from the Greetery's Scripted Sentiments and a couple of green enamel dots. Before attaching my panel to the card base, I swiped coral ink over the edges of the card front. I often do this as it reduces layers and means I can easily get the colour I want.

Right, so now it's your turn! Do hop over to the Flower Challenge blog and check out the amazing cards the rest of the design team have made to inspire you - there is some incredible talent on this team I can tell you! When you're ready to share your own creation, you'll find the Linky Tool at the bottom of the post. We can't wait to see what you make!

CHALLENGES

I stenciled my roses Off the Edge of the panel and am joining in at Seize the Birthday where that's Shirley's theme; The team at As You See It want to see our least used colour in their Mission Impossible challenge! I have never, ever used peach in my crafting but having recently acquired SU's Pale Papaya (I know I'm a bit late to the party!) I'm giving it a whirl here :)

 

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Now that the sunshine is here, it is the perfect opportunity to search the garden for wildlife! Here in the undergrowth, for example, is a rarely seen Basking Land Shark...

 

 

... oops, my mistake! It's Eva!

 

 

Can't a girl have some privacy while she's sunbathing?!

Sending hugs,

Writing with love

Hello, crafting friends!

 

It's a Tic Tac Toe Challenge Thursday today and I can't wait to show you the board Betty has come up with to get your creative juices flowing! 

 

I was excited by the left hand column CAS/Foliage/Metallic which gave me the perfect opportunity to have a little play with some new goodies that arrived recently :)

 

My starting point was making the fountain pen using the Greetery's new Pen Pal die. I cut the barrel of the pen and the lid out of a glossy magazine cover (look at me recycling!) and the trims from gold mirror card. You can see how shiny the pen turned out in the photo below :) The designer paper, a snippet of an SU paper gifted to me by a lovely friend, coordinated beautifully with the pen. I glued it to a card base and trimmed the edges.

 

The 'with love' from the Greetery's Scripted Sentiments was stamped directly onto the paper and card base. The 'on your birthday' comes from the same set and was stamped and trimmed into a banner. The leaf is a favourite stencil from Uniko, Natures Treasures, and was inked with a couple of shades of green ink. After assembling the card, I added a couple of green enamel dots to pull everything together.

 

Right, so now it's your turn! Here's how to play: First, hop over to the Tic Tac Toe challenge blog and check out the amazing inspiration from my team mates; Second, choose a row, column or diagonal and create a card using the suggestions; Third, use the Linky Tool at the bottom of the challenge post to link your creation with us. We can't wait to see what you make!

CHALLENGES

The Pen Pal die and the Scripted Sentiments were new so I'm sharing this card at Darnell's NBUS Challenge where we show off our Never Before Used Schtuff; I used a stencil so will link up at the Stencil Fun Challenge; Simply Clean and Simple wants to see CAS cards and their optional theme is Pink so I'm joining in there; and AAA Cards are looking for CAS cards with an optional twist of Birthday so I'm joining in there too!

AND IN OTHER NEWS

I can reveal that I am officially fed up with winter now. No matter how many pink cards I make, life is just:

 

Please send sunshine and lollipops!

 

Sending hugs,

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,