Autumn Flowers

Hello, crafting friends!

 

It's mid-way through September and time for a reminder to join in with The Flower Challenge's 'Stamp a Flower' challenge! 

I am still in Sunflower Mode and have chosen Reverse Confetti's Fall Flowers this time.

 

I stamped the half wreath image at the top and bottom of a card panel and coloured these with Arteza Watercolour Brush pens. In the space between them, I added a sentiment from The Greetery's Arched Sentiments, stamped in brown ink.

 

The panel was trimmed a tiny bit smaller than the card front and the card front swiped with green ink to show a very thin frame when the panel was attached. To finish, I added some Wink of Stella to the sunflower centres and touches of gold paint to the leaves for a touch of sparkle.

 

Right, it's over to you! Do check out the wonderful inspiration from the rest of the design team at The Flower Challenge blog. Make a card featuring stamped flowers as your focal point and share it with us using the blue Linky Tool button at the bottom of the challenge blog post. Have fun!

CHALLENGES

I'm linking up with Beautiful Blossoms where I was inspired by the colours on the mood board; I also enjoyed colouring my stamped images with my Arteza watercolour brush pens, so I'm joining in with Inkspirational's Make Your Mark challenge.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

I like to make cards with two images repeated.

 

But where do I get my inspiration from...?!

Sending hugs,

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,

How lovely are your branches

Hello, crafting friends!

 

Yet again the end of the month has hurtled towards me without a single Christmas card being made for my stash! Out came the inks and stamps and sponges as I made a valiant effort to address the situation (although it is very difficult making a card while two pairs of anxious brown eyes are just mentioning that it's really time for a walk and you must have forgotten and we don't want to push ourselves forward but we know you wouldn't want to abandon your proper duties...!)

 

I came up with this vintage-style card by stamping a card panel with one of the fir tree from an older set, Spruce Trees by Inkylicious. I used a greyish brown ink, stamped off, then sponged over the trees with more of the same ink plus some pale blue ink for a misty feel. To create 'snow', I wet my hands with water and clapped over the panel, blotted it with a paper towel and left it to dry. To complete the background, I added script using a stamp from The Greetery's Pretty Postmarks and sponged dark green ink at the bottom of my panel to ground the trees.

 

The next stage was to stamp a different spruce for the focal tree. I stamped it in dark green ink then cleaned the stamp, moved the panel very slightly in my stamp positioner, and stamped it again using white craft ink. I added a little brown marker to the trunk of the tree and used a white acrylic marker to add more snow. The sentiment from Uniko's Rustic Wreath was stamped in red and I mounted the panel on matching card. Finally, I decorated the tree with glitter glue lights and and a tiny glittery star.

CHALLENGES

I was inspired by the misty tree from the mood board at Peace on Earth as well as the Vintage theme at Jingle Belles; I'm also joining in with Rudolph Days where Anything Christmas goes. I noticed that Retro Rubber has a Great Outdoors theme and since my Spruce Trees set is from 2015, I'm playing along there too :)

AND IN OTHER NEWS

When my children were little and things were getting a bit hectic, I would find myself speaking in what we called my 'Mary Poppins voice'. I was thinking about that this morning as I was flying about trying to shorten my To Do list and wishing that I could snap my fingers as she did in the (original) film to get things tidied away!

 

 Sending hugs,

Sunshine celebrations

Hello, crafting friends!

 

It's time for another Tic Tac Toe challenge, and this time, the board has been devised by Linda! She's opted for some lovely seasonal ideas.

 

I went for the diagonal from top left: Sunshine/Free/Blue to make a masculine birthday card.

 

The background was made by masking off a rectangle on an offcut of white card and stenciling a sunburst using yellow inks through Clearly Besotted's Sunny Day stencil. I trimmed this out with a stitched rectangle die and mounted it on another offcut of white card, trimmed to be ever so slightly larger than the sunshine one and swiped with blue ink. I sponged a card base with paler blue ink and attached the sunny panel to the card front.

 

The banner is from Concord and 9th's Hello Sunshine stamp set. I stamped it with blue ink twice on more offcuts of white card and stamped and heat embossed one of them in red with a sentiment from Uniko's Floral Vines. I sponged both with pale blue ink and snipped them out with paper snips, cutting just the central bit of the sentiment version to pop up over the whole banner. A few colourful enamel stars finished the card.

Okay, now it's your turn! Do hop over to the Tic Tac Toe Challenge blog to check out all the beautiful cards the rest of the design team has made to inspire you. Choose a row, column or diagonal from the board and create a card, then link it up with us using the blue Linky button at the bottom of the challenge blog post. We are looking forward to seeing what you make!

 

CHALLENGES

I'm off to the Snippets Playground with this card as I used lots of offcuts of white card to make it;  I'm also linking up with The Male Room, which is challenging us to make Mixed Media masculine cards; and Allsorts, where Sarah's optional theme is Summer Days.

 

AND IN OTHER NEWS

While I was getting this post ready, the golden girls were romping about playing with each other. They play pretty boisterous games, taking it in turns to be hunter and prey. I am always impressed with the way they look so fierce with all their jaws exposed but never hurt a hair of each others heads (or bodies come to that!) Lulu is younger and more agile but she never takes advantage, always deferring to her big sister.

 

I stopped typing for a minute to see if I could get a photo of them playing but they immediately stopped...

 

 

... and Eva made this "WHAT?!!" face at me! Lulu looks very submissive in this photo but do not be deceived! She will be up and fighting as soon as I have stopped interfering with my silly photos!

 

Sending hugs,

Colour notes

Hello, crafting friends!

 

Have you joined in with the colour challenge at The Flower Challenge this month?  Why not give it a go? 

 

All you need to do is create a floral card using these colours. I love this palette and couldn't wait to make another card using it.

 

Believe it or not, my clean and simple note card was made with a balloon stencil and a Christmas stamp set as well as my favourite leafy stencil! Love stretching my craft supplies!

 

I took a thick card base and started by sponging pale blue ink into the circular balloon from Uniko's Balloon Bash stencil, masking off the balloon tie bit with a sticky note.  The sentiment, from The Greetery's Pine Blossom, was stamped in the centre. There are two sizes of leaf on Uniko's Nature's Treasure stencil and I used them both, positioning them above and below my sentiment circle and sponging with green ink.

 

I used water-based markers in pinks and peaches to ink up some of the pretty flowers from the Pine Blossom set. Once they were stamped, I blended the colours with a colourless blender pen, adding detail with a green coloured pencil and a white paint pen. Finally, the flowers were fussy cut and attached to the leaf stems.

Okay, now it's over to you! Do hop over to the Flower Challenge challenge blog and check out the amazing samples the design team has made to inspire you. When you're ready to share your own floral creation, use the blue Linky button at the bottom of the challenge post. We can't wait to see what you make!

CHALLENGES

I'm linking up with the latest Beautiful Blossoms challenge with this card.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Thank you for bearing with me during this busy time when I'm still not finding much time for crafting. Eva's paw is taking its time healing so I am still walking the pups separately, as well as looking after this beautiful lady:

 

But I do have another post going live later on today as it's my turn to be on the Tic Tac Toe Challenge team. It's like waiting for ages for a bus and then a load of them turn up all at once!!

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,

More love and prayers

Hello, crafting friends!

 

Today I found that clearing away my crafty things can be a very inspiring thing to do! Lying around on my table were SU's Banners For You stamp set and the lovely Studio Light sentiment I used to make THIS card, and there were plenty of scraps of white card stock too. The housework needed doing but I asked the Golden Girls and they agreed that hoovering is over-rated, so I made this card instead:

 

I've been moving away from clean and simple cards over the last year or so but I loved making this simple note card. The card base was cut down to a square from a ruined standard A6 base and I stamped the sentiment in the centre.

 

The two different flowers from the set were stamped on scraps of card and fussy cut, then I added a bit of shading with a coloured pencil at the base of the petals. I wanted the flowers to be dimensional so the trickiest thing about this card was adding teensy bits of dimensional tape to the backs of the flowers! I finished off with some enamel dots in navy - although my screen has decided they're black :|

CHALLENGES

I'm off to The Snippets Playground with this card. I have put my armbands on because I bet the paddling pool is out and we can do splashy canonballs from the treehouse while Miss isn't looking! At ATCAS Helen's code word is Nature, so I'm joining in there too.

 

AND IN OTHER NEWS

My little Eva has a poorly paw again. I am so frustrated! Her nailbed infection cleared up beautifully and we went back to romping about in the countryside, but because the toe had been shaved, it left her vulnerable to grass seeds getting stuck between those toes. I'm frustrated because I am hyper aware of the potential for this to happen and have been checking both dogs' paws after walks. How did I miss it?

 

Eva is perfectly cheerful and can be seen here chopping up some sticks before distributing them around the garden, but she's back on lead-only walks so I'm walking the dogs separately again. They enjoy the one-to-one attention but I am struggling for time at the moment and crafting has become a very special treat these days!

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,

Sending Love and Prayers

Hello, crafting friends!

 

Welcome to the Tic Tac Toe challenge where Betty is inspiring you today with a fabulously versatile board:

 

 

I went with the centre column, Die Cuts/Free/Any Sentiment, and made a card for a friend who is struggling with health issues.

 

Isn't it fun to bring out a stamp set you haven't used for a long time! Here, I used the retired Banners For You  by Stampin' Up. To begin, I masked off the edges on a thick card base with low tack tape, then used leaves and flowers and berries from the stamp set to create a background pattern. With the tape still in place, I gently sponged a blue-green ink from the edges inwards. After adding dots of white acrylic paint to the berries, and stalks with a fineliner pen, I removed the tape.

 

To create the label, I stamped a sentiment onto an offcut of white card, then trimmed it to size with a nesting label die making sure I kept the sentiment in the top half. I then stamped a leafy stem and flower using the same colours as the background and fussy cut it. The flower was popped up with small pieces of dimensional tape and the label attached to the card front.

 

Okay, now it's your turn! Head over to the Tic Tac Toe Challenge and check out all the amazing inspiration there; choose your row, column or diagonal from the board and make a card using the suggestions; share it with us using the blue Linky button at the bottom of the challenge post. We can't wait to see what you make!

CHALLENGES

I used the red and green colours from Color Hues for this card, so I'm linking up there. The all-over pattern at Beautiful Blossoms also inspired me so I'm joining in there too.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Life seems to have a bit of a cake theme at the moment! There are lots of events going on and I have been baking cakes for each of them; also a lovely friend, taking pity on my stressiness, whisked me out for an early coffee yesterday and made me* eat a scone with clotted cream and strawberry jam for breakfast! Verdict? Ten out of ten, would recommend as a top breakfast!

 

*I may not have put up much of a fight!

Sending hugs,