Flowers in uplifting colours

Hello, crafting friends!

 

It's been bright and sunny here in the heart of England and I'm seeing the leaves of bulbs pushing up out of the earth everywhere. It's hard not to feel optimistic for the spring even though it's still only January! All this inspired me to get some floral stamps out and play with some of my favourite colours :)

I bought a stamp set called So Much from Uniko last yyear and I'm so glad I did as it's a really hard worker. I love the stylised flowers which can be used in all sorts of ways and the set includes some useful sentiments too. For this simple one layer card I used a neutral ink to stamp the large floral, masking off bits with a sticky note and stamping again to make the spray larger as well as using the single flower in the set.

The final image was coloured with shades of orange and green coloured pencils, and I added detail with a Posca white acrylic paint pen.

 

To finish the card, I stamped the Happy Birthday sentiment from Uniko's Simply Said Blocks onto a scrap of card, snipped it out and trimmed one end into a flag before attaching to the card front.

CHALLENGES

I'm linking this card up at AAA Birthday where the challenge is to make a birthday card using our favourite colours - mine are orange and green. I'm also joining in at Perfectly CAS where the theme is Flowers using up to 1/3rd of the card front.

 

AND IN OTHER NEWS

So it's Friday and I'm planning a wild and crazy weekend walking in the countryside with Eva, followed by some extreme crafting and a possible movie night on Saturday evening! I know, I know - I really should stop living this dangerously!! Anyone have any movie recommendations? We're not so keen on thrillers or scary films but anything else considered :)

Sending hugs,

From the snippets box with love

Hello, crafting friends!

 

Happy Thursday and welcome to a shiny new challenge at the Tic Tac Toe Challenge! My friend LeAnne is in charge of the board this week and she has got all your valentine bases covered as well as plenty of options for any other kind of card you choose to make!

I've gone for the left hand column, Pink/Valentine or Heart/White, and have added in a few of the other ideas too! 

This card was made entirely of snippets except for the card base. I cut a heart out of a scrap of pretty pale pink striped paper and stamped up the side of it with a floral stamp from So Much by Uniko, adding colour with coloured pencils. 

The 'love' sentiment comes from the same stamp set. I stamped it in red on a tiny scrap of thick white card, heat embossed it with clear embossing powder, snipped it out and decorated it with a tiny die cut heart. I arranged some gold thread on my decorated heart before adding the sentiment label.

 

For a bit of extra dimension, I die cut a few more hearts out of off-cyuts of red card and glued them in a stack, finishing with the DSP one I'd decorated. I found a gold die cut 'you' in the snippets box, which I'd trimmed off a Lawn Fawn birthday sentiment in the dim and distant past, and added it to my sentiment label. To finish, I added gold dots around the flowers with a gold Uni Paint marker.

So now it's your turn! Do hop over to the Tic Tac Toe Challenge blog and drool over the amazing inspiration from my team mates. You'll find the Linky Tool at the bottom of the post and you can use it to link up your own creation when you're ready. Have fun!

CHALLENGES

I'm linking this card up with the penultimate Ruby's Memory challenge at The Snippets Playground; and at Happy Little Stampers CAS challenge where Anything Goes this month.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Eva has a new friend! When we walk in the fields behind our house, we sometimes meet a lady who brings her granddaughter to play there. The two year old is not remotely nervous of Eva - her grandmother tells me she's used to dogs - but Eva has been cautious around the little girl knowing that toddlers can be unpredictable. But after meeting them in the fields a good few times now, Eva and the little girl have struck up a friendship. It is so sweet! Eva lays down beside the little girl to make herself smaller and the little girl strokes her and makes kissy noises. Sometimes she naughtily takes off her hat and gives it to Eva who runs off with it! The grandmother shrugs and tells me that's what washing machines are for!

Sending Hugs,

Warm autumn thanks

Hello, crafting friends!

Welcome to another fabulous Thursday challenge at Tic Tac Toe, the challenge that inspires you eight different ways!!

I suddenly realised that if I carry on making Christmas cards, autumn will disappear and I won't have had any of the fun of those gorgeous warm colours of the season, so I chose the middle column: Foliage/Thanks/Sequins/or Gems.

I used a large background stamp from Uniko called Tropical Paradise and turned it into autumnal heaven instead! It was stamped directly onto a card base in brown ink and then I masked the edges and used sponge daubers to apply different colours roughly all over the image. I'm sure you can imagine that it looked like a mess at this stage!!

The idea though was to use coloured pencils over the top of the ink to add detail to the leaves and to create a warm background and I hope you'll agree that it worked quite well! To finish the card, I attached a stitched rectangle stamped with a bold 'thank' and a die cut 'you" embellished with coloured gems.

So now it's over to you! Which of the rows or columns will catch your eye this week? Do hop over to the Tic Tac Toe challenge site to see the great inspiration from my teamies - you'll find the Linky Tool at the bottom of the post where you can share your own creation. I can't wait to see what you make!

CHALLENGES

I'm linking up with the Uniko challenge where Anything Goes with an optional twist of Autumn Colours; and, for the second time with Color My Heart Color Dare 463 as I was blown away by the fabulous inspiration photo!

AND IN OTHER NEWS

I have scheduled this post because I will be winging my way back from a break on the North Norfolk coast - although hopefully not literally winging my way as I will be travelling by car!

Sending hugs,

How to do clean and simple and grungy

Hello, crafting friends!

It's a new month and we're welcoming Bhavya as our host for August at CAS Colours and Sketches :) She's got some great challenges coming up for you, starting with a fabulous colour palette:

This brought to my mind one of those moody, grungy, mixed media style panels - NOT very clean and simple... 

... unless you keep it small and surround it with heaps of lovely white space! To make the panel, I trimmed some card stock with a stitched rectangle die from Heffy Doodle. The background is made by sponging grey ink into Funky Fossil's Folk Floral Wallpaper stencil. I faded the ink towards the bottom right hand corner where I wanted the sentiment to be and when the stencil was removed, sponged ink on the top and left edges of the card stock.

The flowers and leaves are from Sugar Pea's Beautiful Books and were simply stamped over the top of the stencilling, with a little detail added with coloured pencils.

The sentiment is made with the lovely chunky 'thank' from Uniko's So Much and a die cut 'you' cut out of Rich Razzleberry card stock. The panel was mounted on a grey card stock mat before attaching to the card front. 

And now it's over to you! You'll find loads more inspiration from my teamies over at the CAS Colours and Sketches blog and you'll also find the Linky Tool there so that  you can link up your own creation. Have fun, but please remember we are a clean and simple challenge, so do include lots of lovely clear space :)

CHALLENGES

I'm linking this card up with Happy Little Stampers Stencil challenge where Anything Goes.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

I'm feeling a little down today as I've just finished a book. It was one of those hostage books (what was I even thinking?!) written by a well-respected author whose books I really enjoy. In this novel, she brings the characters wonderfully to life and describes the trust gained between hostages and captors, enchanting me with an unlikely love story... and then kills some of them off. I'm devastated!

Sending hugs,

Get well soon!

Hello, crafting friends!

Welcome to another fun challenge at CAS Colours and Sketches! It's Holly's last time hosting this month and she's going out with a bang with this gorgeous sketch:

I love the stripe element and the 'any shape' part of the sketch seemed perfect for a pretty floral.

I stamped two of the stripes from Uniko's Background Builders Classics set in a pretty greenish aqua then trimmed the panel to size with a stitched rectangle die from Heffy Doodle.

The floral is from So Much, also by Uniko, which I stamped, coloured with alcohol markers and fussy cut. I stamped it again and coloured the large flowers so that I could trim them out and pop them up on dimensional pads. I finished with some gems and a sentiment from Clearly Besotted's Just For You. 

So now it's your turn and I can't wait to see what you come up with! Do check out the fabulous inspiration from the team, and from our special guest Michal, at the CAS Colours and Sketches challenge blog. You'll find the Linky Tool there too so that you can share your own creation. Have fun, but don't forget to keep your card clean and simple with lots of lovely clear space :)

CHALLENGES

I've used the gorgeous colour palette at Color Hues, Lime Green and Aqua, so I shall link up there; I'm joining in again at Uniko's July/August challenge where the theme is Flowers with optional slimline format; I'm also playing along with Allsorts and Stamping Sensations, both of which have a theme of Feminine/For a Lady; and Chocolate Baroque, where the theme is Beautiful Blooms/Flowers.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Today, I took this card and some flowers to a friend who had a nasty fall while out running and somehow managed to break her hip and her arm. She's having to be seriously patched up and I really feel for her because she is one of the most active people I know and I'm not sure how well she's going to take to rest and recuperation :/

Sending hugs,

Let's bee friends

Hello, crafting friends!

If anyone is feeling a little blue today, I have a card that is sure to cheer you up!

I found this gorgeous yellow textured card stock at the bottom of a drawer the other day and decided it would be perfect to bring a little sunshine into someone's life! I topped it with a piece of white card that I'd added a strip of striped washi tape to and scalloped the edges with a nesting die.

I used a floral stamp from So Much by Uniko, stamped, coloured with coloured pencils, fussy cut and popped up with dimensional pads. The card was finished with the sweet sentiment from Sugar Pea Designs' Beautiful Books and I added two friendly little bees from Missing You by Inkydoodles.

CHALLENGES

I am linking this card up with The Flower Challenge where the theme is stripes and/or dots; also The Paper Players where LeAnne is hosting a CAS challenge which must feature a bee; I'm joining in at the Uniko challenge where the theme is Flowers with optional twist of Slimline; and Allsorts, where the theme is Feminine/For A Lady.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

My little Eva has not been very well for the last couple of days. At first I thought it was the heat but then she had an upset tummy, waking me up at 5am in distress because she needed to go out. She didn't want her breakfast and then she threw up spectacularly later on. The following day she was a bit better but still not very energetic and still off her food. Today, you'll be glad to know, she has thrown off whatever it was and demanded her breakfast with the face of a golden retriever who promises to be the goodest girl if only her owners will give her a few meaty chunks!

Sending hugs,