A masculine 18th birthday

Hello, crafting friends!

 

The birthdays are coming up fast in our family, including those masculine ones that are a bit more challenging to create cards for. I am always very grateful for challenges that inspire me for those!

 

This card features a background made with an off-cut of green/blue card overstamped with Stampin' Up's retired Hardwood stamp using a darker green/blue ink. I trimmed it to size with a Heffy Doodle Stitched Rectangle die, then gave it a bit of interest by cutting it in three with Lawn Fawn's Stitched Hillside border dies and then glueing it all back together on a card front.

 

The popped-up focal tag was cut from a snippet of white card using a Heffy Doodle Stitched Rectangle die. I used some washi tape to mask off two horizontal lines and then sponged the rest with red ink. I loved the way it showed off the stitched framing. The number 18 was die cut from a tiny snippet of navy card, and I punched the star from it too. The Stampin' Up sentiment is a very handy one that is a gazillion years old (give or take a few years!)

CHALLENGES

All of this card was made with snippets except the card base, so I shall skip over to The Snippets Playground with my homework. No need for a brolly of course because the sun ALWAYS shines there!! The card was heavily inspired by the challenge Inspired By, where they always have the most amazing photos to get our creative juices flowing. I also took inspiration from Inkspirational where the word prompt is Frame - I have the stitched frame on the focal tag and the background acts as a frame too. I shall also link up with Ellie and Pauline's I Spy With My Little Eye challenge where the theme is Something for Boys or Men.

 

AND IN OTHER NEWS

My eldest son lives locally and often pops by to say hello. Today he came bearing a box of chocolate truffles he'd found at Marks & Spencer. "I've brought you some essentials," he said.

 

Then he added: "I don't know who this Marc fellah is but I hope they'll be nice!"

We opened them up to check and can reveal that they are very tasty indeed! 10 out of 10, would recommend!

Sending hugs,

Easter crocuses

Hello, crafting friends!

 

It's time to remind you that this month's challenge at The Flower Challenge is to create a square floral card. It's always fun to break out of the usual rectangular style so why not come and join in!

 

I've made an Easter card this time, using the Botanicuts Crocus die set from The Greetery. I cut the leaves and flowers out of vellum and used waterbased markers to colour them, then set them aside while I made a background.

 

The grassy foreground was sponged onto a panel using a mask cut with a Lawn Fawn Hillside Border die. I used Clearly Besotted's Sunny Day stencil to create a subtle sunburst (hard to see I know!) and added blue ink sponged round the edges of the panel. The flowers were added in one corner and I stamped a sentiment from Uniko's Everyday Spring Sentiments before attaching the panel to a square card base.

Okay, so now it's over to you! Do hop over to The Flower Challenge blog to check out all the amazing inspiration from the design team. Create a square card using florals, then when you're ready to link up your card, use the Linky Tool at the bottom of the post. You have until the 25th of the month to join in - have fun!

CHALLENGES

I'm linking this card up at Beautiful Blossoms where there's another gorgeous mood board involving purples and yellows! 

 

AND IN OTHER NEWS

The sun came out in time for our walk today - hooray! The golden girls took the opportunity to career about, have a good old roll, attempt to eat unspeakable things in the fields, chase unsuspecting squirrels and cause general chaos in the countryside! After that, there was just time for Eva to cool off in a handy pool which...

 

 

... wasn't really muddy enough for her as she could still see her reflection! No cup of tea in the world was strong enough to sustain me after this ordeal so I reached out an exhausted and feeble hand for some chocolate truffles instead. 10 out of 10, would recommend!

Sending hugs,

A happy Christmas ornament

Hello, crafting friends!

Welcome to another Thursday challenge from The Tic Tac Toe Challenge. This week it's my turn to come up with  a board to inspire you and here's what I've come up with:

I'm still happily making Christmas cards and have chosen the top row Plaid/Stencil/Tree to create this festive little number:

I started b creating an ornament, die cutting a circle from a scrap of textured blue card stock and stencilling an ornament top using Funky Fossil's Ornamental stencil. I cut another circle from an off-cut of plaid paper from Stampin' Up and then lopped off half with a curved border die to make an interesting (and unlikely!) snowy hillside.

There are lots of different techniques you can use with stencils; as well as inking directly onto your card base or panel, you can ink through bits of a stencil onto scraps of card and fussy cut - as I've done here using just one of the trees on Funky Fossil's Skinny Trees stencil. Once everything was assembled and glued together, I finished with a sentiment from The Greetery's  Snowflake Soirée and some orange enamel dots.

Okay, now it's your turn! You can choose any row or column or either of the diagonals but first, do hop over to the Tic Tac Toe Challenge site and admire the beautiful samples from my clever teamies! You'll find the Linky Tool there as always and will be able to link up your own creation. Have fun!

CHALLENGES

I'm linking this card up at Happy Little Stampers Stencil Challenge where Anything Goes; I'm also joining in at The Snippets Playground as all items used on this card were snippets - AND The Christmas Kickstart Challenge where Di has put her Elf hat on and is helping Jo celebrate Christmas snippets; I'm also sharing this card at Darnell's NBUS Challenge as the schtencil is Never Before Used Schtuff!

AND IN OTHER NEWS

I'm looking forward to meeting my daughter tomorrow afternoon. We're going for a walk in the grounds of a local manor house and visiting an outdoor Christmas fair - and if that doesn't get me in the mood for preparing for Christmas, nothing will!!

Sending hugs,

Bottled Up for Christmas

Hello, crafting friends!

It's Tuesday and time for a new month of fun challenges at CAS Colours and Sketches! M friend Joanne is stepping up to host throughout November and boy has she got some great colours and sketches to inspire you with! Here's the colour palette she's starting with:

If you're up to your ears in Christmas card designs, you may find it very helpful - I certainly have!

I started by masking off the bottom of a card panel and sponging a neutral ink above it to ground my focal images. The darker green ink was used to stamp the two layers of a holly spray from Budding Beauties Winter by the Greetery, and I added the berries in red.  The bottle is from Bottled Up also by the Greetery. It has three layers and I used the lighter green to stamp all three which gives a very subtle texture. 

Once my bottle of holly was stamped I used one of Lawn Fawn's Stitched Hillside Border dies to cut a curve from the side of the card panel. I mounted this onto a card base and finished the card with a die cut sentiment and some highlights to my foliage with a Posca white acrylic paint pen.

And now it's over to you! Check out the fabulous inspiration from the rest of the team at the CAS Colours and Sketches challenge site, and you can share your own creation there too via the Linky Tool at the bottom of the post. Have fun - and don't forget to keep your card nice and clean and simple with lots of nice clear space!

CHALLENGES

I'm linking this card up with Addicted to Stamps and More where there's a Christmas challenge; also Just Us Girls where Bobby has chosen Leaves as her wild card theme - and I'm hoping my holly leaves won't disrupt the autumnal gallery too much! I'm also playing along at Allsorts where Lorraine's challenge is to Add a Sentiment.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Just as the clocks went back in the UK this weekend, the wind picked up and the temperatures dropped and next morning we found lots of broken branches, leaves everywhere and sadly a few trees down too. Never mind 'sweater weather', it's coat weather and I would recommend hard hats too!

Sending hugs,

Disappearing into the paper drawer

Hello, crafting friends!

Boy am I glad to see you! I went and had a rummage in my designer paper drawer a good while ago and have only just found my way out!! It all started when I was looking in my snippets box and found a flower I'd cut out of some paper but never used, and then wondered if I could find any snippets of paper that might look good with it, and one thing led to another...

While I was making this card, I was thinking about lovely Kath, who many of you will know as one of the talented design team members at the Allsorts challenge, and who very sadly passed away recently. She loved her papers and often wowed her fans with beautiful paper-pieced creations. Allsorts is going to be hosting a special challenge in Kath's memory tomorrow and everyone is welcome to join in to pay tribute to her. Hope to see you there!

My card is much simpler than Kath's paper-pieced beauties. I simply chose some snippets which I thought would look good with the flower, die cut them with one of Lawn Fawn's stitched Hillside border dies and Heffy Doodles stitched rectangle dies and glued them to a card base. I used a little off cut of the blue paper and cut tiny circles out of it with a punch and used those to decorate the centre of the flower.

All the papers are from Stampin' Up. I've been hoarding waiting for the right moment to use the cloudy paper for many years, and the 'grass' is from the same pack as the snipped-out flower, a freebie in the spring sale-a-bration sale. The stamped sentiment label was found at the bottom of the snippet box.

CHALLENGES

I'm linking up at Allsorts where I've gone for the Anything Goes option; I'm also joining in at Addicted to Stamps and More where the theme is Birthdays;  I'm also hopping over to the Snippets Playground where there's a Ruby's Memory challenge and Miss Di wants to see our cards made with off-cuts and left overs!

AND IN OTHER NEWS

I enjoyed a lovely day out with my youngest son yesterdayy. He had found a botanical gardens to take me to and even pretended to take an interest as I exclaimed at all the beautiful planting ;)

I absolutely adored this shapely sculpture called The Meteor made by sculptor Jon Roberts. It rests on a wooden plinth in the centre of a area enclosed by clipped hedges and planted with ethereal grasses and a variety of white flowers.

Later we had an ice cream in a beautiful woodland area overlooking a lake filled with swans and ducks and geese. "Eva would love it here!" I said foolishly. My son and I looked at each other, and then at the wild fowl splashing about in the water, and laughed and laughed!

Sending hugs,

A pretty celebration

Hello, crafting friends!

I was delighted to be invited to be Guest Star Stamper at The Color Throwdown this week - and when I saw the colours I was double delighted!

Aren't they dreamy? Even without the photo, these are definitely wedding colours to me. 

I started the card by cutting down a card panel with one of Lawn Fawn's Stitched Hillside Border dies. Holding the Trellis Background stencil by Funky Fossil over one half, I inked into it with versamark ink and heat embossed with gold. The two pieces of the panel were then put back together and trimmed to size with a Stitched Rectangle die by Heffy Doodle.

To decorate the background, I stamped some pretty flowers from Clearly Besotted's On Your Day, coloured them with alcohol markers and fussy cut them. They were arranged with some die cut leaves from Mama Elephant's Botanic Envelope die set. I added a tiny glimpse of sparkly gold under my flowers and glued everything in place.

The finishing touch was a never-before-uysed sentiment die that I picked up for pennies in a sale at The Range.

What do you think of the colours? Do they excite you as much as they did me? The samples from The Color Throwdown team have me drooling every week! Check out their inspiration at the challenge blog and you can link up your card there too.

CHALLENGES

I'm linking this card up at CAS Mix Up Challenge where Nancy's theme is Stencil Heat Embossing; I'm also sharing it at the NBUS (Never Before Used Schtuff) Challenge too, where I'm showcasing that Congratulations die.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

When I married (all those years ago!) I wore off-white velvet, trimmed with gold braiding, and carried a bouquet of yellow roses and autumnal foliage. I tended to wear autumnal colours in those days - golds, browns, oranges, and olive greens. 

Then, autumnal colours - Now, sugared almond colours

Interestingly, almost 30 years later, I tend to wear a very different palette of colours. My daughter has told me I dress like a sugared almond - but in a good way, she added hastily!

How about you? Have your colours changed?

Sending hugs,

A hill of hearts

Hello, crafting friends!

Are you ready for a fun new challenge from CAS Colours and Sketches? Jeanne is our hostess this month and she has come up with a great sketch featuring a lovely curve.

Valentine's Day is coming up and while I wouldn't normally send out loads of valentines I am determined this year that every single small event in the calendar will be celebrated big time! All my family will be getting a card (and probably a load of heart-shaped confectionary too!) so I went with a heart motif. 

My curve was made with one of the Lawn Fawn Stitched Hillside Border dies. I scribbled pink swatches onto a scrap bit of card stock with alcohol markers and cut hearts out with a small heart punch, then arranged them in ombré fashion along the edge of the curve. Once the hearts were glued down, I trimmed the curve to card width using a stitched rectangle die by Heffy Doodle.

To finish the card, I used grey ink to stamp a sentiment from Blossoms in Bloom by Clearly Besotted and attached the curved heart panel to a card base using dimensional pads.

Now it's over to you - but don't forget this is a CAS card challenge, so do remember to leave plenty of white space when designing your card! Check out all the inspiration HERE, from this week's special guest designer, and from my talented teamies :)

EDITED TO ADD AN AWARD

So happy that this card was showcased at Less is More!

CHALLENGES

Less is More has an All In A Row theme this fortnight, so I shall link this card up there.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Our snow is on its way out now but when it first settled the fields at the back of my house were full of snowmen by late afternoon. There was non-one about so I let Eva romp off to career about, roll in the snow and dig for invisible mice. Two minutes later she came bouncing back with a carrot in her mouth. It was a snowman's nose which she had stolen and I'm sorry to say it was demolished it before I could return it :/

Sending hugs,