Woofers and twofers

Hello, crafting friends!

I am so delighted to  be guest designing along with Donna at The Twofer challenge this month, but it's a bittersweet kind of delighted because this will be the final one. Darnell has made the difficult decision to close the challenge. You can read her message about it on the challenge website and I know you will want to leave her some love.

So, here is the final Twofer challenge: Make two different designs of card, for two different occasions, and use the same stamp, stencil or die on each featuring a cat or dog.

I decided to bring out my favourite Holiday Huskies stamp set by Clearly Besotted, choosing as my stamp the little dog that was doing a nice Sit. I love this set because all the dogs remind me of Eva, my adorable Golden girl!

CARD ONE

I made a clean and simple Christmas card for my first card.

The edges of the card base were masked off with sticky notes and I positioned Funky Fossil's Fancy Trellis stencil over the centre and brushed blue ink through it. After removing the sticky notes, the dog was stamped, coloured and fussy cut, then glued to the stencilled area.

To finish, I stamped one of the sentiments from Holiday Huskies in festive red and added a Santa hat from Mama Elephant's Gingerbread Cookies, which fit my little pup perfectly!

CARD TWO

For this friendship card, I allowed my little pup to have a play date with a pal and they bounced off into the countryside for a lovely romp! 

I used Clearly Besotted's Tear Away stencil for the cloudy sky and am really pleased with the result. The trees were fun to make too. I used the leafless, wintery trees from Stampin' Up's White Christmas, stamped them in light brown ink then scribbled tree shapes over them with alcohol markers. These were cut out and glued to my scene and I added some die cut grass using Lawn Fawn's Grassy Border die.

Here's the pup - looking exactly like Eva does! People are always stopping me in the street and asking "Is your dog SMILING?!"

Here's her pal - looking like Eva does when she's just smelt a exciting smell and needs to investigate! Both dogs were stamped, coloured and fussy cut and popped up on dimensional pads. I thought this sentiment from Stampin' Up's Water Front was perfect for this card :)

BOTH CARDS TOGETHER

So now it's your turn! I know all the talented Twofer Team designers will be pulling out all the stops to inspire you as always, so do pop over to the Twofer Challenge website to check out their samples. You will find the Linky Tool there too so that you can join in the fun with your own creation.

CHALLENGES

CARD ONE - I'm entering this card at Stamping Sensations where the challenge is to Celebrate Any Occasion; also Happy Little Stampers Stencil challenge where Anything Goes; and CAS on Sunday where the theme is Favourite Stamps.

CARD TWO - I'm linking up with Chocolate Baroque where the challenge is to use our Favourite Stamps; also As You See It where LeAnne's challenge is to complete the phrase My Favourite Animal Is... and I think you can see that mine is Dog!!

AND IN OTHER NEWS

I thought you'd like to see a photo of my own little doggy pal, Eva, the Golden Retriever...

Oops! She's an upside down pudding! This is a favourite position of hers and I definitely think that Clearly Besotted missed a trick when they forgot to include an upside down pup in the Holiday Huskies set. Perhaps there could be a new set called This Is How I Roll!

Sending hugs,

Inspired by kindness and cushions

Hello, crafting friends!

I am one of those people that likes my house to reflect the season. My living room is pretty neutral, with cream walls, sofas and curtains and a wooden floor with jute rugs. I change the pictures, cushions and throws according to the season and add little vases and ornaments as and when I'm inspired. In the spring and summer, I have the most gorgeous watercolour effect cushion covers and they have inspired my card today.

This happy little number was made with a floral stencil from Funky Fossil that I was given by my kind and generous friend Sandie. I wondered whether I could use watercolours with it and had SO much fun trying! It's not perfect but that's more my inexperience than anything else, and I'll definitely try this technique again.

I used bright, happy colours and added a sentiment from Stampin' Up's Waterfront and a little heart embellishment.

Would you like to see the cushions that inspired this card?

Aren't they pretty?! 

CHALLENGES

The Allsorts challenge is celebrating its 12th birthday with prizes this week and wants to see bright, happy colours; I think this card fits the bill! I'm also linking up with the Time Out Challenge where the inspiration must be something in your house (I haven't gone for the optional twist of embossing for this one.) Addicted to Stamps and More has a Make Your Mark challenge so I'm joining in there too.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Summer has arrived in the heart of England and everyone is giddy with the pleasure of wandering about outside with half their usual amount of garments on!! I am typing this in the evening and the smell of barbecue is wafting through the open French doors :)

Sending hugs,

The Gardening square metre

Hello, crafting friends!

Since the weather isn't enabling me to get out into the garden, I've decided to do some gardening in the Craft Square Metre instead! 

It's a bit early for an apple crop as we're still at blossom stage, but I wanted to give some love to this apple branch from Apples and Pears by Clearly Besotted. I stamped it in green ink, watercoloured it, left it to dry  and then fussy cut it. The background was made in the same green with a mix of stamping (from Stampin' Up's Waterfront), ink blending and watercolouring. 

When it was dry, I added a gingham border with Kaisercraft's Gingham. Under that, I glued a piece of red card stock and embellished it with a strip of patterned green washi tape. The panel was cut out with a stitched rectangle die from Heffy Doodle and the apple tree glued over the top. In all the excitement, the top left hand corner got damaged so I added a photo corner style trim with the washi tape and I think I got away with it! 

The sentiment is the Thank You Border die from Lawn Fawn, which I trimmed down for a different look. To finish the card, I knotted some twine round the card and made a little tasseled end, and added a tiny die-cut heart to the gingham.

CHALLENGES

Festive Friday are celebrating National Gardening Week and I have chosen plants, green and twine from their inspiration list; I was also inspired by the mood board at Create A Smile so I'm linking up there too.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

This card feels as if it was made by someone else! I normally make quite CAS cards but this one seems to have a lot going on. Do  you ever find that you've made something completely out of your normal style?

Sending hugs,

When Christmas is a challenge

Hello, crafting friends!

I have two more cards to share with you before I sink into holiday relaxation mode!

CHRISTMAS ON THE MOVE

A friend of mine moved house this month. Can you even begin to imagine how stressful that must have been at this time?! After many ups and downs, she is finally going to be spending Christmas in her new home and I felt her Christmas card should reflect the move. This is what I came up with:

I adore stamp sets that feature houses, furniture or room sets, and New Home by WPlus9 ticked some of those boxes for me! I used the plank stamp to create a clapperboard background panel which I coloured with alcohol markers. The door was stamped, 'painted' blue, fussy cut and attached to the panel.

Then came the fun bit, adding the little details. There's a wreath for the door, and some pretty topiary which I planted in these nice modern pots. The sentiment is from Uniko's Background Builders Christmas and is so useful when you need something to stretch across a landscape card!

GRIEVING AT CHRISTMAS

I had news the other day that reminded me that not everyone is looking forward to a jolly Christmas and that bright glittery cards are not always appropriate. It prompted me to make this card.

I started by masking off the edges of a thick card base, then masking off the bottom with a torn piece of scrap paper. The area that was left was sponged with grey and pink inks to create a cloudy sky, then stamped with fir trees from Stampin' Up's Waterfront and Inkylicious' Spruce Trees. The torn paper was removed and I sponged in a bit of shading to the 'snow' in the foreground.

This sentiment is from a long ago retired Stampin' Up set called White Christmas which I felt expressed what I wanted to say. I doodled in a few birds to add some movement to the card and used my Posca white paint pen to add some subtle snow over the trees.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Thank you for all your company this year. I have been so grateful for my crafting hobby and for the friendship of my fellow crafters :) Eva and I wish you a very happy Christmas and hope for a brighter new year.

Sending warm Christmas wishes,

Huskies, dashing through the snow

Hello, crafting friends!

What could be cuter than a husky? The answer is obviously five huskies! These particular huskies are from Clearly Besotted's Holiday Huskies, a set that made me realise just why this company is called Clearly Besotted! I am utterly besotted with these adorable pups romping about in the snow! 

I'm not really a fan of the slimline card (I know I'm a stick-in-the-mud!) but in this case I thought it would work well for my happy pack of huskies :) The background is really quick and simple: I masked off the bottom of a slimline card panel, sponged in a sky and added some fir trees from Stampin' Up's Waterfront.

The sentiment is one of several fun punning ones from Holiday Huskies. I stamped it in a bright red and added falling snow with Clearly Besotted's Snowy Day stencil and a white Posca paint pen. This is how happy Eva looks when it snows!

The huskies were stamped in grey ink, coloured with alcohol markers, fussy cut and arranged on the snow along the length of the card. I have melted with the cuteness of them!!!

CHALLENGES

I thought the huskies dashing through the snow would be perfect for Time Out's Quick challenge; I've used Blue, Snowflakes and Trees from the inspiration list at Festive Friday; and I also used the header at Jingle Belles for inspiration: the snowy sky, the fir trees, the red sentiment... but the bells have been replaced by cute puppers - sorry not sorry!!!

AND IN OTHER NEWS

The husky on the left of today's card reminds me of Eva when she went to Agility classes. We were given a block of six classes as a thank you gift and when I took Eva along, she picked everything up very quickly. The only thing was, all the other dogs raced around the course in a competitive way; Eva ambled about, wagging cheerfully, hopping over jumps and having a good sniff in the tunnel, coming to me for treats but not having any sense of urgency whatsoever! There was a general atmosphere of disapproval but bless her, I was secretly rather proud of her independent thinking!

Sending hugs,

Leaping out of a bauble

Hello, crafting friends!

We had the most beautiful sunshine here yesterda and Eva and I made the most of it out in the countryside. When we got home, I made a quick, one layer card in the small window of light opportunity that is the British winter!

Masking, sponging, stencilling, stamping... all my favourite techniques have been used on this card! The first step was to make a mask for the small stag on Funky Fossil's Leaping Stags stencil with a sticky note. (There's one provided for the large stag but not the small one for some reason.) I stencilled the stag directly onto a thick card base and then covered it with the mask. I positioned a circle stencil over the top and a piece of torn paper over the top of that, so that I could sponge blue ink over it for the sky. I added trees from Stampin' Up's Waterfront stamp set then repositioned the torn paper and sponged more blue ink gently to create shadows on the snowy ground. 

Time to remove all the masks to reveal my stag leaping out of a winter wonderland! Then I had the idea of making the circular scene into a hanging Christmas ornament. I brought out Ornamental, another Funky Fossil stencil, and added a topper and chain to my scene with a silver marker. To finish the card I added detail, highlighting and shading with a Posca white paint marker and a fineliner pen, and stamped a Uniko sentiment in bright red ink.

CHALLENGES

I'm linking this card up with 52 {Christmas Card Throwdown, where the lovely Gill is hosting *waves hello* and the theme is Winter Wonderland; also Less is More for their One Layer Festive challenge, where it's lovely to see Chrissie returning as a guest to the challenge she founded with her friend; Last but not least, I'm linking up with Uniko's 'Tis The Season challenge with optional sparkle! There are fabulous prizes on offer so do pop across and join in!

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Deer are not uncommon in the countryside here and you can even see muntjacs in the green spaces of the town in the early morning or at dusk. I wasn't prepared for the rare creatures I spotted in the trees in the park the other day though...

... the Lesser Spotted Tree Surgeon!

Sending hugs,

Happy (summer) holidays!

Hello, crafting friends!

I'm thrilled to bits to have been invited to join the talented ladies at AAA Cards as their guest designer this fortnight!

AAA Cards is a clean and simple challenge (my fave!) and the optional twist this month is Beach - which has just been another excuse for me to go to Fantasy Holiday Land!

Okay, let me see those shoulders relax down! Take a deeeeeep breath in... oops, just about to drift off there! This island is totally deserted but behind those palm trees there's a little cabin fully stocked with the novels you've been dying to read and all the crafting goodies that have ever been on your wish list! There's a fridge run on solar power and a speed boat drops fabulous prepared meals off at regular intervals (this IS Fantasy Holiday Land after all!)

I used stamps from Waterfront by Stampin' Up to create this scene, choosing the brushstroke stamps that suggest sand and sea, and palm trees to give that tropical vibe.

The sentiment is from Silver Bells by WPlus9 and, depending on where you are in the world, you may think using it suggests I have a touch of sun stroke! Here in the UK though, a holiday is what other nations describe as a vacation so no need to panic ;)

Hope you'll check out all the a-maz-ing inspiration by the AAA Cards design team and join in with the fun and link up here!

CHALLENGES
I shall link this card up with The Sisterhood of Crafters where they're looking for Ocean/Beachy themed cards; also Double D Challenges, with their Let's Go To The Beach challenge; and last but not least, the new-to-me Arty Divas, where this challenge Anything Goes!

AND IN OTHER NEWS
For anyone that thinks England is rainy and grey all the time. No. It isn't.

Today it's scorchio again!! Off to get some ice for Eva and me!

Hugs,

Get well soon, Prickly Guy!

Hello, crafting friends!

When my daughter was staying a few weeks ago, we actually went shopping - can you imagine?!! We went in the evening and found there were very few people around so it was easy to socially distance. In some cases, we were the only people in a cavernous store and we became quite giddy with the novelty of it! We popped into Hobbycraft for a gift and, because my inner stamp radar is always on, I spotted a stamp set too!

It's Succulents by Woodware, and I'm loving using it, not only because it's bang on trend and great fun, but also because it is reminding me of my daughter and the fun we had that evening! I thought a cactus would make a great image for a male get well card - what do you think?

The background is a useful 'brushstroke' stamp from Stampin' Up's Waterfront and I topped it with my cactus, stamped, coloured with Spectrum Noir alcohol markers and fussy cut. It was embellished with a punched flower, coloured with markers and centred with a black enamel dot. It always seems like a miracle to me when a cactus blooms! The sentiment is from Just For You by Clearly Besotted.

EDITED TO ADD AN AWARD
How lovely to see this card was chosen as a Favorite at CAS(E This Sketch!

CHALLENGES
I flipped this week's wonderful sketch at CAS(E) This Sketch for this card so I shall link up there; I'm also joining in with AAA Cards where they want to see maximum white space and optional flowers; There's a Get Well theme at Cardz 4 Guyz this fortnight, so I'm playing along there too.

AND IN OTHER NEWS
I've just realised that this card would be the perfect get well card for my youngest son! Oh no - I hope I haven't jinxed him - I would really rather NOT be sending this to him!!

They say black cats are lucky though don't they?

I shall leave you with this elegant lady that I'm looking after at the moment. Isn't she gorgeous?!

Hope you are all safe and well.

Hugs,