September sunflowers

Hello, crafting friends!

 

September has arrived in a blaze of sunshine and there's a fab new Flower Challenge for the month!

 

We are going back to basics with stamping this month and I couldn't be happier: stamps and ink are my happy place :) Here's what I made:

 

The sunflower stamp is from Clearly Besotted's Sending Sunshine. I stamped it in pale yellow ink and covered it with a mask made from a sticky note. The jar came next. It's from The Greetery's Just Mason Around and is a 3 step layering stamp which produces a lovely glass effect. I made another mask with a sticky note and covered the jar. Leaving both of the masks in place, I set to work on a background. The ground was stamped with Stampin' Up's Hardwood background stamp and I covered that up to stencil above it with Funky Fossil's Brick Wall stencil. The stencil was removed and the brickwork sponged with brown ink for a more subtle look.

 

All the masks were removed at this stage and I coloured the sunflower bouquet using alcohol markers and coloured pencils. The acid yellow daisies are to be seen everywhere in the countryside at the moment so I teamed the darker sunflowers with these. To finish, I stamped a couple more of the daisies, fussy cut them, coloured them and glued them to the ground for balance before attaching the panel to a card base.

 

Okay, it's your turn! Here's how to play: first, hop over to The Flower Challenge blog to check out the beautiful inspiration from my team mates; second, make a card featuring one or more stamped flowers as the focal image; third, share with us using the blue Linky button at the bottom of the post. We can't wait to see what you come up with!

CHALLENGES

I'm joining in with the Sunflower theme at Double D and at Triple B with my yellow blooms; I'm also playing at We Love Stamping where Lorraine's challenge is to include a Handcoloured Image.

 

AND IN OTHER NEWS

What lovely sunshiney flowers sunflowers are!

 

Great for hiding behind too. By the way, has anyone seen Lulu?!

Sending hugs,

A belated birthday from the pack

Hello, crafting friends!

 

How quickly the months are flying past! At The Flower Challenge, we are welcoming August with a fabulous colour challenge!

And here is the gorgeous colour palette:

What do you think? I adore this combination of colours and couldn't wait to get started!

 

I pulled out alcohol markers in all the colours except the pale blue, and a beautiful stamp set by Sugarpea Designs called Meadow Motifs. Using a neutral ink and a stamp positioner, I stamped the largest flower cluster at the bottom of a card panel, then flipped the panel and stamped it again. The markers were used to colour the clusters and I added a little bit of extra detail with coloured pencils.

 

The panel was trimmed to size with a stitched rectangle die and sponged round the edges with pale blue ink. I stamped a belated birthday sentiment from Lil Inkers and finished with a few coordinating sequins.

Okay, it's over to you! Do hop over to the Flower Challenge blog to check out the amazing cards my team mates have made to inspire you. When you're ready to share your own creation you can link up with the blue Linky button at the bottom of the challenge post. I'm looking forward to seeing what you make with this great colour palette!

CHALLENGES

I'm linking up with Allsorts where Ellie's theme is Season's Delights - she wants to see what we love about summer. The abundance of flowers at this time of year makes me really happy (but I may be back with an ice cream card!!) I'm off to visit Darnell's NBUS Challenge as well because Meadow Motifs is new to me and having its first outing

AND IN OTHER NEWS

My youngest son was with me when I was making this card. He picked it up and examined it. "I like it," he said. "It reminds me of a playing card!" It took me a moment to understand what he meant but it's true - it does have the symmetry of a playing card!

Sending hugs,

Let the bells ring out!

Hello, crafting friends!

 

I have returned to the land of the vaguely up and running just in time to join in with Christmas in July!

 

At the beginning of the year, I won a bumper prize at one of my favourite challenges The Snippets Playground which included an un-named Crafters Companion stamp set with ringing bells on it. That caught my eye and I had a little play with it today.

 

The stamp was quite small but I stamped it twice at the top of a 4" square card so that it could be the main feature of a CAS one layer card. I used pale brown ink to stamp the image and then coloured the bells with oil-based coloured pencils, including a metallic set for a lovely shine. The fade-out background was added with a brush and pale blue-grey waterbased ink and a brush and I added a bit of more intense colour at the top with a sponge.

 

Using a white acrylic paint pen, details were added to the bells and 'snow' to the background. The card was finished with a curvy sentiment which I thought went well with the ringing bells.

 

CHALLENGES

I'm joining in with Stamping Sensations where stamping is required and the optional theme is Christmas in July; The Daring Cardmakers also have a Christmas in July challenge with the option to use Christmas supplies to make a non-festive card; Peace on Earth which has a lovely mood board from which I chose my colours; and last but not least, I'm linking up with Rudolph Days which has us making festive cards on the 25th of each month (link up runs until the end of the month.)

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Here in the UK, we've all been yearning for a bit of sunshine as we has have an appalling grey summer so far, after a miserable wet winter. And now a heatwave has descended upon us! Lulu has embraced the paddling pool but has no notion of lying peacefully in it to cool off! It's hunting practice for her - and she likes to chase balls in there and murder them.

 

 

Here she is, my little huntress, swaggering out of the pool, leaving a trail of ball corpses in her wake!

Sending hugs,

On the third day

Hello, crafting friends!

 

I am here to wish you a very happy Easter Sunday, the happiest day of the year for Christians all over the world!

 

I made a few of these one-layer, masked, inked and stamped design this year - come and see:

The most difficult thing about this card was working out which order to do everything! This is the way:

1. Stamp the lilies from Clearly Besotted's Perfect Lilies on a sticky note and cut it out to create a mask.

2. Stamp the lilies off the edge of a thick card base using pale blue ink. 

3. Cover the lilies on the card base with the mask and add low tack tape around the edges of the card front.

4. Sponge pale blue ink over the card front.

5. Stamp the main sentiment from The Greetery's Amen & Alleluia in black ink.

6. Remove the tape and mask and colour the lilies.

7. Add the 'He is Risen' part of the sentiment.

 

Here's a close up of the lilies, coloured with Arteza watercolour brush pens, an SU marker, coloured pencils and a white acrylic paint pen. Get me, going all multimedia!

CHALLENGES

I'm linking this card up with Allsorts where Sarah's optional theme is Keep it Simple; also Word Art Wednesday where Anything Goes;  Triple B Challenge wants to see Birds, Blooms and Butterflies and I'm joining in with my bloom; Beautiful Blossoms Challenge also wants to see flowers as the focal point of our cards.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

I know the question burning on your lips: Did the golden girls get any eggs today? Well no, but they DID get the next best thing - some cheese hidden in egg boxes! They have to get them open to access their treats and they have very different ways of doing this.

 

Eva's way is slowly and methodically getting the lid open - she knows the cheese is going nowhere and likes the anticipation.

 

Lulu is more of a 'rip the box to shreds' kind of girl. She wants the cheese and she wants it NOW! But then it's all over so quickly, she can't quite remember it... is there any more?!

 

And now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to sample some posh little eggs that my OH bought from a high class chocolaterie on his travels. He knows the way to my heart!

Sending hugs,

Berry Christmas

Hello, crafting friends!

 

It was Rudolph Day yesterday (the 25th of the month) and I made a Christmas card... but didn't get it photographed before I lost the light.  Oh the trials of a crafter and blogger! Anyway, it's here today instead:

 

It's a really simple card - a white card panel embossed with Altenew's Berried Cotoneaster embossing folder, coloured with coloured pencils and inked around the edges with pale blue ink. I added a sentiment from a Uniko set and mounted the panel onto some muted red card before attaching to a card base.

 

Coloured pencils are maybe not the ideal medium for colouring embossed panels but it does work. I liked the soft colours here which I thought gave a kind of frosty look.

 

CHALLENGES

I'm linking up with Rudolph Days of course; also ABC Christmas where E is for Embossing, and Can You Handle the Pressure where Anything using Embossing Folders Goes, with an optional theme of Birds. The EF was having its first airing so I'm taking it over to Darnell's NBUS Challenge.

 

AND IN OTHER NEWS

I went shopping at my local pet food shop yesterday. While I was in the middle of loading bags of frozen meaty chunks and sprats into the boot of my car, a diminutive lady came round the corner with a large chocolate lab. The lab took one look at me and voted me Shopper of the Year. He made a beeline for me, bringing the tiny lady with him - perhaps rather quicker than she would have liked! She and I had a nice chat and the lab allowed me to make a fuss of him, but alas, there were no treats forthcoming and he walked away dejectedly, wondering how he could have been so deceived in a person!

Sending hugs,

A Spray of Carnations

Hello, crafting friends!

 

Today's card has been lying about on my desk all month! In early January, I had enthusiastically stamped some carnations on some snippets of white card and fussy cut them, but then came up blank on what to do with them. From time to time I'd pick them up and arrange them on a card base and then rearrange them, and then sigh and put them to one side. Can anyone relate?!

 

It's now nearly the end of January but here's the card in a state of completion! The carnations are from a retired Stampin' Up set (rather confusingly called Inspiring Iris.) To showcase them, I finally decided to stamp a Uniko background called Wonky Stripes onto a card base and colour the stripes with a variety of pink coloured pencils. On this background, the carnations were assembled into a curved spray and glued into place.

 

The card was finished with a favourite sentiment from another ancient SU set, stamped first with versamark and then dark red ink and heat embossed for a lovely shiny look. I also added a pink bow, cut out of a snippet of pink card with a die from MFT's Birthday Cocktail die set.

 

CHALLENGES

I'm linking up with Stamping Sensations, the challenge that had got me stamping carnations in the first place! There's a mood board featuring them and I took my pink and red colour palette from the board too. I'm also skipping over to play at The Snippets Playground as plenty of white and pink card off cuts were used in this creation.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

One of the joys of having two dogs is that it changes the dynamic with the other dogs you meet. Eva loves other dogs but is not very confident around bold dogs, especially now she's an older girl. Lulu on the other hand IS a bold dog!! On our walks we sometimes meet a lady with a large boxer called Boris. He is playful but rather pushy around Eva who stays close to me when he's around. He was out on the fields this morning and Lulu, noting his behaviour, told him off for leering at Eva and then proceeded to flirt outrageously with him herself! I love her boldness: when other dogs try to establish their superiority over her, she just frolicks around them, dancing just out of reach; when she's got their interest she gallops off, luring them to chase her, and she is SO fast they can never catch her. When they return, they are always her slaves for ever and she has protected Eva from their unwanted attentions! Darling Lulu :)

 

Sending hugs,

A candlelit Christmas

Hello, crafting friends!

 

It's Thursday and there's a new board at Tic Tac Toe Challenge! Joanne is in charge this week and what fab inspiration she's provided:

 

 

I'm deep in Christmas card mode now so I chose the diagonal from top left - Sequins/Holly/Navy - to make a festive card using jewel tones.

 

This card started with a card base, masked at top, left and right, and on the diagonal two thirds of the way down. Inside the masked area, I sponged navy ink, then clapped wet hands over it for a starry/snowy look. While it was drying, I reached for a white snippet of card and stamped a candle from a new set a lovely friend gave me in the summer: Christmas Candle by That's Crafty. I coloured it with alcohol markers and coloured pencils and fussy cut it.

 

Before attaching the candle to my background, I stamped a few pine branches for a bit of depth. To cover the bottom of the candle, I die cut some holly leaves from a snippet of glossy card which I sponged with green ink. The glossy card gives a lovely texture! To finish the card, I added sequins to represent berries and stamped the sentiment from the candle set in navy.

 

Okay, it's time for you to play! Choose a row, column or diagonal from the board and make a card using the ideas in each square. Do hop over to the Tic Tac Toe Challenge site and check out the fab samples made by 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 with us. We can't wait to see what you make!

 

CHALLENGES

I'm playing at Make My Monday where Dawn's theme is Lighting The Way; also Stamping Sensations where the theme is Get Ready For Christmas; I used this stamp set for the first time so I'm sharing at Darnell's NBUS Challenge; and I'm romping up just in time to hand in my homework at The Snippets Playground - I used white snippets for the candle and the holly.

 

AND IN OTHER NEWS

When I was a little girl, we had some ancient Christmas decorations to put on the tree. We would never have thought to have a decorated tree before Christmas Eve so, on that day, my father would go out into the woods cut down a fir tree, embed it in a piece of wood and bring it home. My brother and sister and I would wait in a fever of excitement while he checked the tree lights for blown bulbs, then, when all was fixed, the lights were arranged on the tree. Only then would we be allowed to help decorate it. There were fragile glass ornaments, strings of glass beads and, incredibly, some little tin candle holders with tiny wax candles in them. I looked online to see if I could find any like them and look:

 

German shop Blumchen.com has some very similar! A health and safety nightmare (although we were NEVER allowed to light our candles!) Happy memories :)

Sending hugs,

Autumn Mums

Hello, crafting friends!

 

Fancy a little Thursday crafting inspiration? How about 8 crafting suggestions? That's what you get at the Tic Tac Toe Challenge! Here's the fab new board dreamed up by Felicita this week:

 

 

 Some of you will dive straight in to the Halloween suggestions, but I thought I'd go for something a little less spooky!

 

 

I thought of a new way to use my SU Little Detail embossing folder! I embossed a panel with the folder, then cut a large label shape in the centre. The result is a little textured border at the top and bottom of the label with a space in the centre for a focal point...

 

... - in this case a Clearly Besotted crysanthemum coloured with alcohol markers and coloured pencils then fussy cut. I added an offset sentiment from Uniko's Simply Said Blocks, stamped in dark brown ink, snipped out and popped up on dimensional pads. Finally, the card was finished with a few coordinating gems.

Right, now it's your turn! First, hop over to the Tic Tac Toe Challenge blog to check out the samples the rest of the team have made to inspire you; Second, choose a row, column or diagonal from the board; Third, create something gorgeous using the board ideas and share it with us using the Linky Tool at the bottom of the challenge post. We can't wait to see what you make!

CHALLENGES

I'm linking this card up at Can You Handle The Pressure where we must use embossing folders with an optional theme of Bees; The challenge at Little Red Wagon is to use at least three Layers - a massive challenge for me but as well as the card base I managed the die cut label, the fussy cut flower AND the sentiment! Try Stampin' On Tuesday #625 is challenging us to use old stamps and the crysanthemum stamp I used is so old I can find no trace of it online!

AND IN OTHER NEWS

I am looking forward to becoming an Autumn Mum :) Last weekend I horrified my neighbours by announcing that I was having a baby and had to hastily explain that the baby in question was of the canine variety! I'm sure she's going to be a wonderful influence on Eva...

 

... or perhaps not!!

Sending hugs,

Saving poinsettias

Hello, crafting friends!

 

While making THIS Christmas card the other day, there was an unfortunate smearage incident (!) and I had to discard the first attempt. With 'waste not, want not' in mind, I saved the poinsettia by fussy cutting it, then stamped another on a non-inky part of the card and fussy cut the centre out of it. I coloured these with red coloured pencils.

 

Taking a deep breath, I stamped another poinsettia off the edge of a new card base (successfully, hurrah!) and coloured that in the same way. I arranged the cut-out blooms overlapping the stamped one, popping up the top one on dimensional pads. 

 

The centres were coloured with a gold metallic paint pen and I added a sentiment made with two retired stamp sets from Stampin' Up. And there we go - simple!

CHALLENGES

This is my homework for the Snippets Playground (anyone for a game of Jacks in the treehouse?); I'm also linking up at Inkspirational where the challenge is Clean and Simple with an optional twist of Inspired by a Movie and I'm going for a slushy little Christmas film called Poinsettias for Christmas; I'm joining in with Jingle Belles' Christmas Story challenge too - remember the folk tale about the little girl who couldn't afford a gift for the baby Jesus so she picked a handful of weeds which turned into beautiful red blooms because she gave them from the heart. I used to read it to my children and we all loved it! I'm also playing at ABC Christmas where T is for Three of a Kind,  and entering at Rudolph Days where we make a Christmas card on the 25th of each month.

 

AND IN OTHER NEWS

We have had such a bumper crop of raspberries this autumn. Every other day, I trot off to the allotment with Madame La Floof in tow and collect up a couple of punnets of the sweetest most delicious raspberries, which we guzzle with cream before I can even think about what else to do with them!

 

Eva is a fan of raspberries too. She sits nicely by the canes and watches me picking the fruit. There is an air of expectancy about her too because she knows than whenever I come across an over-ripe raspberry, I'll throw it to her. She must have missed one the other day because when we were walking home I noticed she had a little pink streak on her bottom where she'd sat on one!

Sending hugs,