Out on the tiles

Hello, crafting friends!

No, the title of this post is not a reference to any wild evenings out! I've been thinking about tiles lately and remembered a stamp set I have that I thought would make interesting backgrounds for flowers. Have I created any cards like this? Er... no! Time to put that right!

The tiles are from a retired Stamping Up set called Today's Tiles. It's a layering set - you stamp one pattern and then line the stamps up in a stamping platform and add the detail stamp. I chose my palest yellow ink and a light orange, stamping them directly onto a card base. I topped them with a pretty rose from WPlus9's Modern Roses, which I stamped, coloured with coloured pencils and fussy cut.

But oh dear...! Even though I'd used pale inks for the tiles, they result was far too intense to show off the rose. After a little thought, I decided to mute the tiles with a panel of vellum. I cut this to size, stamped it with the sentiment using Stazon ink and glued it over the stamped tiles using spray glue. This worked well and the rose became the focus of the card I'd wanted it to be!

CHALLENGES

I'm linking this card up with Less Is More where we are CASEing Elaine's fabulous card in celebration of her birthday; also playing along with Time Out where there's a beautiful quote to inspire us; and Allsorts, where Anything Goes with an option to include roses; the challenge at Happy Little Stampers CAS is Off The Edge, so I'm joining in there too.

AND IN OTHER NEWS 

Did you know that the word 'tile' was slang for hat in 19th century Britain? I thought it might be Rhyming Slang but apparently it was coined because some wag made the analogy of the roof tiles on the top of a house and the hat on the top of a person! This has amused me no end and I shall be looking into more slang!

Sending hugs,

Thank you for being there

Hello, crafting friends!

After a busy week, I've just enjoyed a calming session with stamps, stencils and inks. What on earth do non-crafters do to relax?!

I fancied making a scene with Waffleflower's wonderful Stencil 'n' Stamp Lighthouse set and decided on a watercolour background. I used temporary glue to position the lighthouse mask on a watercolour paper card panel, then washed in a sky with pale blue ink. I used the stencil to create rocks/sea with a darker blue ink and water. Once the mask and stencil were removed, and the panel dried,  I was able to stamp the lighthouse over the white masked area using a dark red ink. I was amazed at the crisp result!

The panel was trimmed to size using my favourite stitched rectangle die from Heffy Doodle and then it was time to add details. I stamped some birds in grey ink, adding white highlights with a white Posca acrylic paint pen...

... then tapped the pen against a ruler to add some white 'sea spray'. The sentiment is from Stampin' Up's Today's Tiles, stamped in navy ink and carefully fussy cut before attaching to the scene. The panel was attached to a card base to finish.

CHALLENGES

I'm entering this card in the Any Occasion challenge at Addicted to Stamps and More; at Color Hues, Carol has chosen a Blue and Red colour duo for us to play with, so I'm playing along there too; I'm also joining in with the Allsorts challenge where Lolo has come up with a Masculine theme.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

We've had family visiting through the week so forgive me for not being around much. The house always seems so quiet when they leave but the good news is that I've learned some new vocabulary from my youngest son! When I visit your blog,  don't be surprised if instead of saying that yI like your card, I tell you that it's 'bopping'!!

Sending hugs,

Love from the kitty cats

Hello, crafting friends!

When is a Christmas card NOT a Christmas card? When it's a Hello card of course!

For this card I used a Christmas stamp set called Sing It's Christmas by Clearly Besotted. These adorable little puss cats normally wear santa hats and hold hymn books but, using a stamp platform and carefully inking up selected parts of the stamp with a marker, I was able to dispense with those! I doodled in hearts where those hymn books had been and carefully joined up the lines where the missing hats had left gaps.

The kitties were given little pink ears and noses and I added some black and white stripes. The hearts were coloured with bright pops of colour. I added a sentiment and trimmed the panel with one of my favourite stitched rectangle dies from Heffy Doodle before attaching it to a card base with dimensional pads. I stamped one of the kits again, fussy cut him and popped him up in front for extra interest.

CHALLENGES

The starting point for this card was the inspiration pic at Inspired By so I'm linking up there; Just Us Girls' theme this week is Animals so I'm joining in there too; As You Like It wants us to show our favourite card to send and why. Mine, at the moment at least, are hello or missing you cards as they really help to connect us all, and lots of people have told me how special it feels to get an actual card through the post.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Eva has been sitting on the sofa beside me as I type this post and I've turned the screen away so that she can't see how I'm celebrating felines in this treacherous way! Won't be long before they're carting me off to the funny farm I'm sure!

Sending hugs,

A comforting card

Hello, crafting friends!

Like many of you, I've been struggling with a lack of mojo recently but at 9.30 last night a card idea struck me and I spent a little while trying to bring it to life. When I looked at it again in daylight this morning, it didn't seem too bad, so here it is!

One of my favourite ways to start a card is to stencil a background, and that's what I've done here, sponging pink ink gently through Funky Fossil's Knitted stencil and fading it out at the edges. I wanted it to feel as comforting as a soft knitted throw.

Over the top, I stamped some foliage and berries from WPlus9's Silver Bells and tied them together with one of the bows from the set, stamped in pink and fussy cut. What a brilliant stamp set this is! It's one of those rare Christmas sets that you can leave out on your desk and use every day, all the year round! After adding a bit of detail with markers, I finished the card with a sentiment from Stampin' Up's Today's Tiles and some sparkling green sequins.

EDITED TO ADD AN AWARD

This card was showcased at The Color Throwdown and goyt Honours at Time Out too :)

CHALLENGES

This week's beautiful colours at The Color Throwdown inspired this card, as well as the theme at Time Out Challenges where they are raising breast cancer awareness with cards of encouragement featuring optional pink - my pink bow is a nod to the iconic pink ribbon.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

In the absence of a crafting mojo, I've been escaping into books more. I've re-read Lord of the Rings, that epic tale of good versus evil, and now it seems appropriate to be reading novels set in wartime as that is the last time people's lives changed so dramatically. The Cazalet Chronicles by Elizabeth Jane Howard, a family saga covering the period before, during and after WWII, and told mainly from the home front perspective; and The Camomile Lawn by Mary Wesley, a similar perspective but quite different in tone. Does anyyone who has read these have any recommendations for me?

Sending hugs,

Experimenting with trees

Hello, crafting friends!

Well, I have had fun in The Craft Square Metre today! I took a small tree from a Christmas stamp set and had a good old play with it in a couple of non-festive ways! 

The set I found the tree in was Stampin' Up's From Our House To Yours. In the first card I stamped it on a smooshed background and in the second card I used it as part of a stamped autumnal border. 

CARD ONE

Here's the first.

I dripped inks in various purples onto some cling wrap, spritzed it with water and placed a card panel into the result. Once the panel was dry, I masked off a horizontal line and watercoloured in a ground. Once THAT was dry, I masked off the ground and repeat-stamped the tree in dark purple, varying the heights. A matching purple marker was used to fill in any gaps.

The most interesting part of the panel was trimmed using a tall, thin stitched rectangle die by Christina Griffiths. To represent the moon, I punched a small hole in the sky and filled it with the same-sized circle punched out of shiny card stock, taped at the back to secure. I added stars with a white gel pen and stamped the sentiment (from Stampin'Up's Today's Tiles) in dark purple ink. The panel was attached to a card base with dimensionals.

CARD TWO

For the second card, I tried using the tree as twiggy branches in a leafy border. I think it works!

The foliage and berries mostly come from WPlus9's Silver Bells but I also used a leaf that was out on my desk from Reverse Confetti's Fall Foliage. I tried the stamping out on scrap paper first and then copied the design carefully onto a card panel. 

For the sentiment, I cut a strip of card stock and trimmed it top and bottom with a stitched rectangle die. The bold sentiment is from WPlus9's Hello and Thanks, stamped in dark brown ink. I thought I had stamped my borders so carefully but when I put the card together, I noticed a red blob on my pristine white card... that's why there are lots of gems on this card!!!

EDITED TO ADD AN AWARD

So happy that the twiggy autumnal card was chosen as a Weekly Winner at CAS Colours and Sketches!

And that both cards were Honourably Mentioned at The Twofer Challenge!

CHALLENGES

I'm linking both cards up with The Twofer Challenge where the theme this month is Trees, and we are asked to use the same stamp/die/stencil, on two different designs, for two different occasions.

I'm also entering Card One into this month Stamping Sensations challenge where the theme is Great Outdoors; and also joining in at Less is More's Shades of Purple colour challenge.

Card Two was made with those amazing colours at CAS Colours and Sketches (my second entry!) and I'm also linking it up at Just Add Ink where the challenge is to Just Add 'A'. My 'A' is autumn of course!

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Forgive the rubbish photo but it really does sum up our weekend...

Yep! This weekend we have mostly been cavorting about the countryside in the sunshine :) How about you?

Hugs,

Winter Wear for summer - part 2

Hello, crafting friends!

Remember when I made this summery little card using Winter Wear by Concorde & 9th? Well it was so much fun that I set myself the challenge of doing the same with the other girl in the set! Come and see:

The girls are designed to peek over something - scarves, coffee, signs etc - so they only have the upper parts of their faces, but I figured that a little bit of doodling would result in a more versatile girl! The first one was easier because I only had to fill in the bottom of the face and neck; this one needed the top of her hair filling in too because she would normally wear a woolly hat.

But it was surprisingly easy as the style she was designed in is quite loose. She's a little bit wonkyy but hey, aren't we all! I did the doodling with a waterbased marker and coloured her with alcohol markers, giving her a pretty floral frock to wear stamped with the chubby little flowers from Stampin' Up's Under My Umbrella.

She looked a bit pensive so I set her against a cloudy background and stamped it with a reassuring  sentiment from Stampin' Up's Today's Tiles. The background was made with textured blue card stock, cut with a stitched rectangle die from Heffy Doodles, and the clouds were cut with one of the Puffy Cloud Borders dies from Lawn Fawn. 

Here are the girls together with the stamp set:

CHALLENGES

It was Inkspirational that set me going with this card with the word prompt Face. Thank you lovely ladies for all the fun!

AND IN OTHER NEWS

I can't tell you how much fun it was making these cards - I just want to make a whole classroom of girls now, like the paper dolls I used to make for my daughter when she was small! Once I made her the twelve dancing princesses out of the fairy tale. They were dressed in Tudor style and my daughter loved them. She had her favourites and one in particular was played with so regularly that her head came off. Rather appropriately I thought!

Sending hugs,

A night on the tiles

Hello, crafting friends!

I don't want you to read the title of this post and think I've had enough and gone out to drown my sorrows! The pubs may have re-opened here but I'm not ready for a night out there! No, the tiles I'm referring to are a stamp set that came in my last Stampin' Up order and I've only just had a play with them. Come and see:

It's called Today's Tiles and is a two step set. I stamped the solid background section of the tiles in So Saffron ink and I don't mind telling you that when I added the detail stamp over the top using Smoky Slate ink I got VERY excited at the effect!

This is such a simple card  - I just added a Smoky Slate cardstock strip with a shiny blue, heat embossed sentiment over the top and a single enamel dot to finish. I've already got heaps more ideas for this set though - watch this space!

CHALLENGES
I used LeAnne's beautiful colour palette at The Paper Players for this card so I shall link up there; I think these Moroccan style tiles work for a man too, so I'm also joining in with Cardz 4 Guyz where the theme is No Patterned Paper. The stamp set is NBUS (Never Before Used Schtuff) so I'll share over there too.

AND IN OTHER NEWS
Before the virus messed everyone's life up, I used to take people's dogs for walks and provide a home from home for them while their families were awayy. Of course no-one IS going away now and my furry clients have their own people at home to walk them. The worst thing would have been missing them but Eva and I often go walking with them and their owners so that isn't a problem.

Here is Eva with her friend The Baroness, who is 14 and sadly beginning to have seizures. We are treasuring every walk with her. Forgive the quality of the photos but it warms my heart to see them together.

Thank you for dropping by today.

Hugs,