Wedding doves and flowers

Hello, crafting friends!

 

Why should doves only come out at Christmas? I thought one day while rifling through my stamp sets. These doves are from Uniko's Peace on Earth set but I imagined a pair of them would look just right cooing at one another on an autumn wedding card!

 

 

I decided to stencil one end of a slimline card base with The Greetery's Always in Bloom layering stencil set, and then mirror the stenciling on the other end. This worked well and left me with a space in the middle for a focal point.

 

I did a bit more stenciling using isolated parts of the stencil to bring the two halves together, then blended some pale yellow ink into a circle stencil before stamping a sentiment from a long-ago retired Stampin' Up set. Finally, I added the doves, stamped in pale blue, shaded with an alcohol marker and fussy cut.

 

CHALLENGES

I'm linking this card up at the Stencil Fun Challenge where the Orange is the optional twist this month; I'm also joining in with Lynn's Autumn Colours theme at Allsorts

 

AND IN OTHER NEWS

We are having a beautiful autumn here. The hedges are full of berries and the leaves are taking their time to turn completely. The mornings are damp and misty but by lunchtime, the skies are glorious blue and the sun is warm enough for shirt sleeves - no jumper or jacket required! The golden girls and I are taking full advantage!

Sending hugs,

The Wedding arch

Hello, crafting friends!

 

I am continuing to be besotted with my Mistletoe Arches layered stencil set from The Greetery and after making a birthday card, a Christmas card and a sympathy card with them, have turned my attention to weddings! We went to a wedding this weekend, and the invitation we received for it used these gorgeous colours!

 

I started by stenciling the leaves onto a panel and trimming it to size. Then, after positioning the arch mask in the middle with temporary glue, I sponged the dark purple ink very lightly in from the edges. I replaced the arch mask with the arch stencil and sponged a light purple ink into it. When the stencil was removed, I was left with a paler purple arch with a thin white line around it, which really adds to the impression of dimension but without any bulk.

 

I stamped one of the sentiments from The Greetery's Arched Sentiments set inside the arch and added a stamped, gold-embossed and die cut sentiment from the same set. Finally I added the berries using the stencil and a gold pencil, then shaded with a gold marker and added white dots for extra detail.

CHALLENGES

I'm joining in with the 700th challenge at Allsorts Huge congratulations to Brenda and the team there. Such an impressive milestone! The theme is Let's Celebrate - Any Special Occasion, and there are prizes so do join in!

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Everyone seems to be gearing up for halloween in my neighbourhood. I do not enjoy this 'celebration' in the slightest but I did see some things in a shop window that gave me a good chuckle:

 

Click on the pic to get the details! I hope they give you a laugh too!

Sending hugs,

Ready for a special occasion

Hello, crafting friends!

 

It's Thursday and we all know that's a Tic Tac Toe day! It's LeAnne's turn to host and she has brought together some great elements to create a board that is sure to inspire you!

 

I couldn't resist using the top row, White/Pearls/Ribbon, to create a card that would work for an engagement, a wedding or a ruby wedding anniversary. And the beauty of this card is that it was made using left-overs!

 

I started by attaching some left-over leafy vellum from a card kit to a bit of white card using spray glue. This was trimmed into a decorative shape using a label die from The Works. To top my label shape, I stamped a leaf and a rose from WPlus9's Modern Roses on more snippets, coloured them with alcohol markers and fussy cut them. A scrap of tulle and satin ribbon was wrapped around the label shape and I tucked the botanics behind it.

 

 

You can see the vellum better in this photo - I was really pleased with the look. To finish the card, I die cut a Gemini congratulations sentiment from yet another snippet of white card, arranged it on top of the ribbon and sprinkled a few pearls around the group.

Okay, so now it's your turn! My team mates have come up with some beauties to inspire you, so do hop over to the Tic Tac Toe blog to check them out. You'll find the Linky Tool at the bottom of the post so you can link up your own creation when you're ready. Have fun!

CHALLENGES

I'm linking up with Addicted to Stamps and More where there's a Make Your Mark challenge and hopefully my rose group will qualify; I'm also taking this card along to The Snippets Playground where Sarn is at the helm and I'm having to wear sunglasses because her Prefects Badge has been polished to such a fine shine!

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Showing a celebration card today seems appropriate because I have had some wonderful news: My daughter and her long-term sweetheart are getting married next year! Needless to say, I have gone straight to Mumland and am wandering about there in the sunshine humming happy tunes! I think we're going to be running out of champagne after all this good news!!

Sending hugs,

Sending love

Hello, crafting friends!

I think it's safe to say that 2020 won't be topping anybody's list of favourite years anytime soon. But we are still human beings and so of course people are continuing to live and love, and celebrate weddings and anniversaries. Today, I'm spreading a message of love round the world!

This card started with a homemade heart stencil - I folded a piece of paper in half, drew half a heart, cut through both layers and then opened it out to reveal the heart-shaped hole. This was taped over an offcut of white card stock. 

Out came three red inks, Poppy Parade, Real Red and Cherry Cobbler, and a (retired) stamp set, Painted Petals, all from Stampin' Up. I sponged Poppy y Parade ink into the stencil and then, without removing the mask, I stamped some flowers and leaves using the darker two inks. Once the stencil was removed, I  cut the heart out and added detail with Spectrum Noir alcohol markers.

Next, I cut a card panel with a stitched rectangle die from Heffy Doodles. The heart was glued onto a circle punched out of vellum and the edge trimmed with the same rectangle die so I could line it up with stitching on the panel. The panel was then glued to a card base and the card finished with a sentiment from Clearly Besotted's Just For You and some coloured gems.

EDITED TO ADD AN AWARD

What a lovely surprise to find this card was one of Retro Rubber's Top Picks!

CHALLENGES

The Rainbow Card Challenge's theme this month is Radiantly Ruby and that's what set me going with this card; I'm using a retired SU stamp set, Painted Petals, released in 2015, so I'm also linking up with the Anything Goes challenge at Retro Rubber; the layout is from this week's gorgeous sketch at CAS(E) This Sketch.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

You know that feeling when you're just n the wrong side of the door...

Sending love from Eva and me,

An ombré wedding card

Hello, crafting friends!

Let's spread a little love around today shall we? I do feel sad for all the couples that have had to cancel their wedding plans this year because of what my youngest son is now sarcastically calling The Lady RoRo. They will get there eventually but, meanwhile, we crafters can be busy making extra special cards for them!

For this card, I took a large A6 die from Gemini called Country Garden and used it to cut a floral lacy pattern in a card front. The front was backed with pale pink card stock that I had sponged with pink inks, working from dark to light to create an ombré effect.

The sentiment is a beautiful one from Clearly Besotted's Simply Said. I embossed it in lovely shiny gold on a left-over strip of the pink card stock, popping it up on dimensionals. I felt there was enough going on with this card already, so I embellished very simply with two gold hearts stacked on top of each other.

EDITED TO ADD AN AWARD

Really pleased this card was mentioned as a cut above at The Paper Players!

CHALLENGES

The Paper Players set me off with this card as they have a wedding/anniversaryy theme this week. I'm also linking up with Time Out where there's a beautiful quote to inspire us; I've gone less for the dancing and more for the love side of things!

AND IN OTHER NEWS

I'm not thinking of getting married again (!) but if I were, I would definitely invite my daughters to be my bridesmaids. My gorgeous redheaded smooth daughter would look as gorgeous as always, and my floofy daughter would look something like this:

Source: Pinterest

She would quietly shred her bouquet during the service and would do meet and greetys at the reception with great enthusiasm!

Sending hugs to you,  especially if your wedding plans or those of a family member have been disrupted by The Lady RoRo :/

Bloomin' cards!

Hello crafting pals!

Do you remember this post when I tried out a new die that had slithered into my shopping basket when I was supposed to be buying sensible things like glue and white card stock? I wasn't happy with the outcome but I am not one to give up, and today that die had another, more successful outing :) Come and see:

The die is Country Garden by Gemini and I used it to make two cards that are very different from each other. It's a large ornate die that could cover a card front, but I chose to use just parts of it today.

CARD ONE

The first card uses a piece of the die cut with all the little bits and pieces taken out to give a pretty lacy look. I used a restrained colour palette of white on cream and covered the die cut with a wide bordered frame cut with two of my Heffy Doodles stitched rectangle dies.

The sentiment uses a gorgeous banner from Be Merry, a WPlus9 Christmas set that I HAD to have for this very reason :) I stamped the congratulations from Clearly Besotted's Simply Said, snipped it out with paper snips and added it to the banner.

CARD TWO

To make the second card, I created a background on a card panel by masking off the edges and sponging ink gently from the edges into the centre. When the masks were removed, there was a nice crisp semi-frame.

The die was passed through my Big Shot three times using pink, blue and green card and I cut various parts out and grouped them together onto the background. The card was finished with a block sentiment from Uniko's Simply Said.

CHALLENGES
Both these cards use the same die, on different designs and for different occasions, so I'm linking up with the Twofer Challenge; I'll also enter both into the Happy Little Stampers Die Challenge where Anything Goes.

With Card One, I'm also joining in with Less is More, where the colours required are White and Cream.

Card Two was made with the fabulous bright colours from this week's Paper Players challenge; I'm also joining in with AAA Cards CAS challenge, where we are to use up to one third of the card front with the optional twist of a repeating image; last, but not least, I'm playing along with Addicted to CAS, where the code word is Flower.

AND IN OTHER NEWS
The Lockdown measures have been lifted slightly in the UK in a rather vague and confusing way. For example you can sit two metres away from two people in a park but, oddly, not if you know them! I think we just have to use our common sense and carry on behaving as if we are carriers of the virus and not wanting to put others at risk. I shall be going up to my favourite bluebell woods, a 15 minute drive away, but staying away from anyone else. That seems pretty safe to me and oh my goodness, I'm a bit giddy about the prospect of a trip out!

How are things going in your area? Do you have any plans to go out?

Be safe won't you,

The new Mr and Mrs

Hello crafting friends!

Hark! Can you hear the sound of wedding bells? Yes, me too! Come and see what I've made:

Isn't it lovely to make a wedding card? This one is made using Stampin' Up's retired Your Perfect Day. I heat embossed the cake and the Congrats sentiment in gold on off cuts of white card stock before fussy cutting them and watercolouring parts of them.

While those were drying, I cut a stitched rectangle from my new Christina Griffiths A5 set and used my stamp positioner to stamp the sentiment. It usually says 'Cheers to the new Mr and Mrs' with the 'cheers to' on the top line; I wanted it to go with the 'congrats' so I had to exclude the 'cheers' and move the 'to' down a line. I don't know if that made any sense but what I'm trying to say is that this is where the stamp positioner makes life SO easy!

To assemble the card, I glued the Congrats and the cake in position on the stitched rectangle, then attached it to a card base with dimensionals. I finished the cake with little leaves, stamped and fussy cut, and with pearl embellishments.

CHALLENGES
I was inspired to make this card by this week's Something New challenge at the Paper Players - hope I have time to get this card in as the challenge ends today! The colours I've used come from The Colour Throwdown where I'm delighted to see the lovely Darnell guesting. *waves cheerily*

AND IN OTHER NEWS
I am having a craft reorganisation! Most of my stash fits on shelves in the living room cunningly disguised put away neatly in boxes but, as more things turn up, I'm going to have to be more organised. I recently got rid of an extra chair in the room and that's left a space that could be filled by a handy cabinet. I have visions of finding a beautifully shaped old one and painting it.

Do you have any space-saving storage tips? I'd love to hear your ideas in the comments below.

Hugs,

Guy Greetings for an engagement - Stampin' Up Artisan blog hop

It's Thursday and that means another round of fabulous inspiration courtesy of Stampin' Up's global Artisan design team! I love working with these talented ladies and am constantly amazed by the projects everyone comes up with each week. I know you will be too so grab a cup of something delicious, settle back and enjoy :)

A BIT OF VINTAGE ARTINESS
Spring has got to me this week I think! I spotted the Guy Greetings stamp set in our box of goodies and it occurred to me to put that gorgeous vintage car into a romantic arty setting. Come and see:

Wouldn't this make a charming engagement card?! In my head, the car has been parked in a quiet spot and a happy couple have unpacked their picnic in the spring sunshine with blossom floating down from the trees like confetti. Perhaps you can hear the pop of a champagne cork - she has said YES!

I love the nostalgic feel of the car. It was stamped with Basic Black ink, heat embossed with clear embossing powder and coloured with Garden Green ink and a blender pen to turn it British Racing Green! But what about the background?

It's all been done with the blossom stamp from Sheltering Tree to give a pointillism effect! Isn't it fun?! (And if you're wondering what on earth pointillism is, find out all about it here.) This is much simpler than real pointillism - you just ink up (and stamp off if necessary), then stamp repeatedly where you want the colour. TIPS: You can always add colour but you can't take it away so start pale! Sponging ink round the edges of the panel draws the eye in to the scene.

I hope you've enjoyed my romantic moment! Now it's time to hop off and see the rest of the team's work - just click the button below to whizz over to Allison Okamitsu!

BUY THE SUPPLIES TO MAKE THIS CARD NOW!
Click on any item to be transported to my online shop!

Guy Greetings Photopolymer Stamp Set £23.95	Sheltering Tree Photopolymer Stamp Set £22.95	Soft Sky Classic Stampin' Pad £4.95	Smoky Slate Classic Stampin' Pad £4.95	Strawberry Slush Classic Stampin' Pad £4.95
Garden Green Classic Stampin' Pad £4.95	Blender Pens £8.95	Basic Black Classic Stampin' Pad £4.95	Clear Stampin' Emboss Powder £3.95	Stamping Sponges £3.25

My shop is open 24/7 so you can buy Stampin' Up products from me any time, day or night.

If you have any queries, or prefer to speak to me, I'm happy to help.

You can contact me by email or phone on 01280 820593.

Thanks for joining me today. I'll be back tomorrow with a look at some of the amazing Weekly Deals. See you then!