A Shower of laburnum

Hello, crafting friends!

 

Every year I notice that one or other plant is doing particularly well and this year it's the turn of Laburnum. I've seen lots of fine displays in gardens and there's a tree at the entrance to one of the fields at the back of our house which is looking magnifcent at the moment. They've reminded me of a stamp I've had for a long time so I had a little rummage...

 

... and here's what I made! The stamp is from a retired Stampin' Up hostess set called Soft Spring. I stamped it repeatedly across the top of a thick card base and coloured it with Stampin' Up water-based markers. I sponged a little blue ink at the top of the card to suggest a glorious spring day :)

The sentiment is from Simply Said by Clearly Besotted, stamped on a snippet of white card and trimmed to size with a stitched rectangle die. Le voila! A very quick make :)

CHALLENGES

Retro Rubber require the use of stamps over a year old and this set was released in 2019. The current challenge is Anything Goes so I'm linking up there; I'm also joining in with Try Stampin' on Tuesday 607 where there's a word prompt of Flower Power and the option to use the sketch; Double D have a Flowers theme this fortnight so I'm playing along there too; Last but not least, the latest challenge at Try it on Tuesday is Keep It Simple and this is my entry there.

 

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Eva suggested that I took a photo of the laburnum. She said it would show off her fur nicely!

 

Look at her smiling for the camera! She never complains but I think she would secretly like to be an Instagram Pup or have her very own Canine Twitter account ;)

Sending hugs,

Flowers in the snow

Hello, crafting friends!

 

It's Thursday and time for another fun board to inspire you at the Tic Tac Toe Challenge! Joanne is in charge of the board this time and we are certainly spoilt for choice!

 

I chose the diagonal from bottom left Pattern Paper/Flowers/Ribbon or Bow to make a winter birthday card.

 

I started with a snippet of 'plaster texture' paper from a favourite Stampin' Up pack. This was trimmed to size with a Crimped Frame die from the Greetery and stamped with a leaf spray (from a long-ago retired SU set) and a birthday sentiment from Pinkfresh Studio.

 

I topped the stamped leaf spray with my latest favourite thing: some die-cut wildflowers from a new-to-me Greetery die set. I cut these from white paper and coloured them with sponge daubers and then attached the flower heads to the stems and I can't tell you how much fun that was!! Finally, I added a bow from an MFT die set and attached everything to the card front.

CHALLENGES

I'm linking this card up at Little Red Wagon where the theme is Happy Happy Birthday; and also TGIF where there's a birthday challenge too.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

In early January we had a lot of rain and the river burst its banks as it often does in the winter. When the temperatures dropped below freezing, the floodwater completely iced over, creating a natural ice rink! It's wasn't deep so wasn't dangerous at all, so I took a couple of lads from church to play there. They had a wonderful time skating (with non-grip shoes) and playing 'ice hockey' with a pebble and two sturdy sticks. Eva tried to join in and made us all laugh by doing Bambi impressions!

 

We went back there today and it has pretty much all melted. Eva was able to walk on the ice that was left without her legs splaying about!

Sending hugs,

Lavender notes

Hello crafting friends!

The sun is back out and I've been back out in the garden, surrounded by flowers, so naturally it's a floral card kind of a day today! Come and see:

The lavender certainly isn't out yet in my garden but I was feeling a bit of purple so I went with these flowers from Stampin' Up's Soft Spring, which I turned into lavender sprigs by leaving out the leaves. (I don't know what flowers they're supposed to be but those leaves are definitely not lavender!)

It's a layering stamp set, so I inked up the flower part of the outline stamp with a purple marker and stamped it, adding the infill stamp over the top using a stamping platform. I drew the stems with a green marker and then cut the sprigs out.

For the background I went for a bit of grey weathered wood, using Stampin' Up's Hardwood, stamped off the edge of a card panel. Above that, I attached a snippet of card stock stamped with Kaisercraft's Gingham in purple ink. The lavender was arranged in a little bunch and I added a die cut bow from MFT's Birthday Cocktail set. The sentiment is from Simply Said by Clearly Besotted and I added three tiny little white hearts underneath.

EDITED TO ADD AN AWARD
So pleased this card was a Top 3 Pick at Double D!

CHALLENGES
I was totally inspired by Double D's wonderful mood board and the theme of Lavenders, Lilac, Purple. I'm also linking up with Stamping Sensations, where the theme this month is Say It With Flowers.

AND IN OTHER NEWS
My youngest son is staying with us during lockdown but spends most of his time working on his university work and his portfolio. He does his exercising in the afternoon, taking Eva with him for extra walkies :) On his return today, he had a look at today's card. "You probably won't like that one," I said. "It's not really your thing!" But he is always encouraging. "I love the purple!" he said. "And I like the picnic cloth pattern!" It took me a moment but, bless him, that's his way of saying gingham!

I hope you are keeping safe and well.

Hugs,

Sparkling wisteria

Hello crafting friends!

In an effort to get my youngest son off his electronics and into the fresh air, I've enlisted his help in the garden. I've cunningly given him all the creative jobs to do while I stick to the dull weeding and clipping - but every chore is made more fun when you can chat about Star Wars, am I right?! Anyway, the gardening has eaten into crafting time so this is a very quick and simple card:

I started off with a card panel cut out of watercolour paper. I wet it down and stamped the wisteria outline from Stampin' Up's Soft Spring a couple of times. It immediately spread and blurred and looked a mess, just as I'd hoped it would! I added touches of wet purple ink and then left it to dry while my son and I coaxed the garden to be neat and tidy.

When he'd finished discussing the finer points of The Mandalorian with me, he disappeared to plug himself into something and I went back to my card panel. Now it was dry, I could stamp the wisteria again, using a darker green ink. I filled in the flowers with purple ink and a paintbrush and added detail with a darker purple marker.

The panel was attached to a card base I added a block sentiment by Uniko, which was popped up on dimensionals. I dug out my Wink of Stella pen to give the flowers a lovely sparkle but sadly you can hardly see it in the photos.

EDITED TO ADD AN AWARD
So proud this card was showcased at Less is More!

CHALLENGES
I made this card for the current Less is More Out of Focus challenge.

AND IN OTHER NEWS
An unfortunate thing happened when I was walking Eva today. I had crossed the stream on my way back into the fields at the back of our house and passed (at a safe distance) a couple who were also doing their exercise for the day. "Good morning!" I called cheerily - after all, a bit of friendliness costs nothing :) As my mouth opened, I must have breathed in a bit of pollen or dust or something because I was taken with a fit of dry coughing which made the couple move rather faster than they had been previously! It's not funny of course but I had to laugh.

How's your week going?

Hugs,

Hello from Nellie!

Hello crafting pals!

I don't know what happened today but I made a card so unlike my usual style that I'm wondering if someone came into the Crafting Square Metre, clocked me over the head with my Big Shot and had a crafting session while I was out for the count! Come and see:

See what I mean?! Little Nellie is a bit of a sweetheart isn't she? MFT's Safari Party was out on my desk so I understand how she appeared. She has been stamped, coloured with alcohol markers and fussy cut...

And she's wandering about on a cardbase that has been divided by a black line, masked off and sponged with distress ink before over-stamping with a leaf image from Stampin' Up's Soft Spring (also out on my desk!)

There's a panel on top made from a cloud patterned designer paper, cut out with a Heffy Doodles stitched rectangle die. It has been topped with a piece of white card stock, cut with the same die and trimmed at the top with one of the Puffy Cloud Border dies from Lawn Fawn. This has been divided with a black line, like the card base, masked and sponged, but left unstamped.

The card has been finished with an long ago retired Stampin' Up sentiment, a little bow to decorate Nellie's tail and a tiny heart stamped above her trunk :)

EDITED TO ADD SOME AWARDS
I was so thrilled that this card won Designers Choice at Tic Tac Toe!

And that it was a winner at CAS Colours and Sketches! Woohoo!

CHALLENGES
I'm linking this card up at The Paper Players where it's a Soft Sky, So Saffron and grey colour challenge. (I actually bought the stamp set to play along with LeAnne's zoo party challenge last week but it didn't arrive in time!) I'm also joining in with the sketch at this week's CAS Colours and Sketches challenge. And last, but not least, I'm playing along with the Tic Tac Toe Challenge, where I chose the Tilted, Stitched and Blue line of the tic tac toe board.

AND IN OTHER NEWS
Let me show you some real cuteness:

I took this photo yesterday when my youngest son came in from walking Eva. When she comes back from a walk she nudges our lead-holding hands as if to say "I can take that if you like!" When we give it to her, she is as proud as anything to be doing this job and trots along beside us with it in her mouth. She doesn't let go until we get inside and produce a treat for her!

Thanks for visiting me today.

Be safe,

Wisteria wall

Hello crafting friends!

I'm popping in to show you a card I made for a couple of challenges that are about to close their linkies. Come and see:

Wisteria isn't out yet in the UK but it won't be long now especially as we've been having a heat wave over the last few days. The wisteria I'm using is from Stampin' Up's Soft Spring. I stamped the outline image, coloured it with markers and fussy cut it.

For the background, I used a diamond-shaped stencil, with the Brick Wall stencil by Funky Fossil over the top. I sponged Petal Pink ink into it, darkening it towards the bottom of the diamond.

I arranged my wisteria over the brickwork, added a blocky sentiment by Uniko and cut the panel out with a stitched rectangle die by Heffy Doodles. A sprinkling of gems was added before attaching it to a card base.

In case anyone is interested, the diamond-shaped stencil was homemade. I had seen the shape on this week's Freshly Made Sketches sketch and sighed for a Greetery die that I've seen and can't have and would've been the wrong size for my card base anyway...

... and then rolled my sleeves up, got out a pencil and ruler and measured and cut the shape myself. It's not the Greetery die but it's a compromise!

EDITED TO ADD AN AWARD
I was so happy to be a 'Perfect Princess' at Freshly Made Sketches with this card!

CHALLENGES
I'm linking this card up with Freshly Made Sketches, which inspired me with that diamond shape; CAS Colours and  Sketches, where it's a colour week with a gorgeous combination of Petal Pink, Mint Macaron and Highland Heather. I'm also joining in with the Spring Fling challenge at Seize The Birthday.

AND IN OTHER NEWS
How are you spending your Easter weekend? I kicked the festivities off by doing my best to cut my fingers off on a broken glass hidden in a washing up bowl but, once that was bathed and bandaged up, I was able to think of other things to do. I've walked my floofy pal Eva and gardened in the sunshine, talked to friends on the phone and online, played virtual board games online with the family using my youngest son's techie know-how, cooked delicious meals for the members of the family who are here and side-eyed the chocolate eggs on the sideboard. Of course there's been a bit of crafting too!

How about you?

I'll leave you with Eva who has been given a carrot for Easter!

Normally when I give her a carrot, she takes it (very gently, because she is the Goodest Girl!)  and then runs off to demolish it in the garden. Today I asked her to stay because I wanted to take a photo which is why she's giving me a reproachful look!

Hugs,

The colours of spring

Hello crafting friends!

It's my third week Guest Designing with the talented ladies at Just Us Girls and it is such a pleasure! I was bowled over by all the fabulous techniques you used for last week's Black Background challenge and really enjoyed popping over to visit you all. This week, there's a fabulous colour challenge:

You can use any shade of yellow, blue and green! What do these colours say to you? They yelled SPRING at me, so out came the spring flowers:

I chose tulips and daffodils from Spring Tulips and Spring Daffodils by Clearly Besotted and used the flowers from Stampin' Up's Soft Spring to make Muscari. Parts of the stamps were inked up with a green marker and stamped along the bottom of a card panel, finishing by turning the stamp upside down and using the stems as 'grass'.

A little Shabby Shutters distress ink was sponged over the stems and then the flowers were coloured with alcohol markers.

I searched high and low for a happy mother's day greeting - I swear I had one! - before giving up and making my own from other sets, using a stamping platform and some sticky notes to mask parts of the stamps off. To finish, I sponged in a 'sky' with Tumbled Glass distress ink then used a Heffy Doodles stitched rectangle die to cut out the centre of the card before replacing it.

Now it's over to you! What will you create using these colours? The regular team at Just Us Girls have got loads of wonderful ideas to inspire you - pop over to have a look and you can link up there too :)

EDITED TO ADD AN AWARD
What a lovely surprise to find that this card won an Honourable Addict award at Addicted to Stamps and More!

CHALLENGES
I'm also linking my card up with The Flower Challenge where it's Anything Goes this month; with Stamping Sensations where the theme is Spring Flowers; and with Addicted to Stamps and More, where I'm playing along with this month's Anything Goes challenge.

AND IN OTHER NEWS
For those of you that think I'm getting a bit ahead of myself with this card, Mother's Day is on March 22nd in the UK this year. It is always celebrated three weeks before Easter Sunday and is linked to the Christian festival. It was called Mothering Sunday and was all about returning to the 'mother church' (the one you were baptised in or your local parish church) before it became associated with the idea of honouring mothers. Read more about it here including why it was also named Pudding Pie Sunday in some areas, or Sunday of the Five Loaves - and possibly still would be in this house if we could actually buy any food from our local supermarket!

Stay safe and well, and I'll see you soon,