You Are In My Heart and Thoughts

Well here we are - 5pm on Hallowe'en ... the clocks went back last night here in the UK and it is already pitch dark, very rainy and miserable ... autumn is definitely here!

I would like to share today a card I have made inspired by this week's Simon Says (Monday) Challenge - "Thinking of You", though I would like to enter it into some other challenges as well. I decided to make a floral card using shades of purple, but I didn't make it completely purple and decided to use the sentiment "You are in my heart and thoughts" as I tend to use the sentiment "Thinking of You" for sympathy cards ... so hopefully this one might have a bit wider potential audience of recipients.

I used my current favourite floral stamp set by Woodware, which I stamped and coloured with my Promarkers. I then masked my flowers so that I could create a background with Distress Oxide inks which I then stencilled with more Distress Oxide, and shadow stamped with my text stamp. Finally I added a sentiment, matted onto purple pearlescent cardstock cut to shape with my deckle cutting blade on my paper trimmer, and added a few co-ordinating gems to finish.

Stamps: Flowers: Woodware "Bold Blooms - Erica"; background text - Penny Black "Letter Background" (1999L); sentiment - Penny Black "Hugs";

Media: Flowers - Promarkers; background - Tim Holtz Distress Oxide inks;

Tools: stencil - Crafter's Companion "Make A Wish";

Gems from my stash.

Challenges I would like to enter:

Colour Crazy #43 - Anything Goes with colouring

Creative Knockouts #425 - Anything Goes (2nd entry)

Creative Moments #225 - Anything Goes (3rd entry)

I ♥ Promarkers #446 - Anything Goes (2nd entry)

Pammie's Inky Pinkies #2143 - Anything Goes (3rd entry)

Passion For Markers #615 - Flower Power - TOP 5

Shopping Our Stash #457 - You Don't Bring Me Flowers

Simon Says (Monday) - Thinking of You

Simon Says (Wednesday) - Anything Goes (3rd entry)

That's all for today .. time to get some dinner and then snuggle in front of the fire to watch the Strictly results show.

Stay safe and dry, and thanks for visiting.

Hugs,

Allsorts Challenge #648

Hi everyone,

It's Saturday so it's time for another weekly Allsorts Challenge. This week Lorraine has chosen the theme and it is

Add A Sentiment

So this gives you a lovely wide scope to play with. 

This week we are offering two gorgeous prizes:

Tattered Lace “Pretty as a Princess” die

and

Tonic Studios “Season’s Greetings” die

Here's my card.

I decided to go with making my sentiment quite prominent, which gave me opportunity to use the fab Uniko sentiment set I won recently.  In fact this card is something of a showcase for my recent winnings, as the image is a brilliant Polkadoodles digi that I also won in the past couple of weeks.  

I printed my image and coloured with my Promarkers and Flexmarkers, inked and embossed my sentiment, then added “bubbles” using a stencil and Versamark, embossed with “enchanted gold” embossing powder. I matted the panel onto matching pink card and added a scattering of gems, and I was done.  I don't often make CAS cards but am really pleased with how this turned out.

The stencilled "bubbles" are actually very sparkly but that isn't easy to see in the main pic ... here is a photo at a different angle to try to capture the sparkle!

Stamps: Polkadoodles “Cherry Cocktails” (digi); Uniko “Birthday Sentiments”;

Media: Promarkers and Flexnarkers, Heat It Up “Enchanted Gold”/embossing powder;

Tools: Stencil - Craft Sensations at The Range.

Challenges I would like to enter:

Creations in Pink #38 - Anything Goes with mainly pink

Creative Moments #225 - Anything Goes (2nd entry)

Dragonfly Dreams (October) - In The Pink

I ♥ Promarkers #446 - Anything Goes

NBUS #31 - Use Never Before Used Schtuff

Pammie’s Inky Pinkies #2143 - Anything Goes (2nd entry)

(I used a new digi image and new stencil)

Simon Says (Wednesday) - Anything Goes (2nd entry)

Hope you can join us this week. Don't forget to visit the challenge blog to see more inspiration from the rest of the team. Have a great weekend, and thanks for visiting.

Hugs,

Autumn postcard

Hi everyone,

The vintage style stamp I found in my stash for last Saturday’s card was actually one of a pair in an old LotV set - neither of which had seen ink before - so I decided to ink the second one up as well.

This stamp is much more definitely a silhouette stamp than the previous one, so I thought I would try making a background for it  in autumnal colours with my Perfect Pearls, as I'm trying to make use of some of my old stash in new ways. I stamped and embossed the image, then covered the stamped piece in Versamark before brushing on three autumnal colours of Perfect Pearls mica powder - copper, bronze and red - which I then set with a fine mist of water. I also created a stencilled panel of what I would describe as broadly leaf shapes with red Perfect Pearls, then matted everything using black and rose gold cardstock, added a simple sentiment and co-ordinating gems. 

The Perfect Pearls have actually got a massive amount of sparkle which is virtually impossible to capture on these dull autumn days ... so unusually I have taken a photo at an unusual angle to try to show it.

The whole process with the Perfect Pearls was pretty messy and time consuming as it had to be done carefully in stages to avoid mixing the powders; and although a light spritz of water is supposed to be enough to set PP I found it needed a bit more... I don't currently have fixing spray but may look into that. Not really a fan of this technique, but it was something I had been wanting to try out.

Stamps: LotV Set 53 "Vintage Backgrounds"; sentiment - Penny Black “Salutations”;

Media: Perfect Pearls - Perfect Bronze, Perfect Copper, Perfect Red;

Tools: stencil - Craft Sensations at The Range;

Cardstock and gems from my stash.

Challenges I would like to enter:

Country View Challenges (October) - Autumnal Colours and/or Hallowe’en

Crafter's Castle #46 - Anything Goes (3rd entry)

Creative Craft Cottage #145 - Autumn /Hallowe’en

Creative Knockouts #425 - Anything Goes

Get Creative #106 - Anything Goes with optional twist of holidays

(tenuous use of the option  -  my image is a postcard!!)

Pammie's Inky Pinkies #2143 - Anything Goes

Simon Says (Wednesday)- Anything Goes

Stamping Sensations (October) - Animals, Birds and Bugs (2nd entry)

We Love Chocolate Baroque (October) - Anything Autumn (3rd entry)

Hoping to have a relaxing afternoon dipping in and out of the Lavinia Stamps Hallaganza events online ... more inspiration equals more shopping temptation!! Take care and thanks for visiting.

Hugs,

Blooming lovely

Today I would like to share a card that I made for the Flower Challenge 5th Birthday Challenge. I love flowers, though with this card I have gone in a bit of different direction with a stylised flower stamp which is modern but with a bit of a "grungy" look... I am really loving this Woodware stamps which I bought a couple of weeks ago but haven't had chance to ink up until now.

I bought some new stamping card on Saturday (Crafter's Companion) so decided to try it out with a Distress oxide "smoosh" background ... and I found it did work out a lot better than with the previous cardstock I tried. 

However this card actually turned out very differently from my original intention, which was to stamp and mask my flowers, create my background and then colour the stamped and embossed flowers with Promarkers. Somehow that all looked a bit too busy, so I decided on my second attempt to leave the flowers as outline on my inked background, and only colour the hearts to highlight that the card is "sent with love". I also made full use of my new co-ordinating Woodware background stamps so that I ended up with a card with a bit of a grungy vibe.; so that encouraged me to finish off with some stamped grungy circles - these were achieved using the tops off my pokey tool and spray bottle with Versamark, embossed with white powder!

Things all took a bit longer than anticipated, so I had to photograph this card by electric light for the first time this year .. a sure sign that autumn is drawing in!

Stamps: Woodware Clear - "Blooming" and "Additions"; sentiment - unknown;

Media: Tim Holtz Distress Oxide inks.

Challenges I would like to enter:

Addicted to Stamps and More #416 - Make Your Mark

Crafty Catz #569 - Anything Goes with option: add some layers

Creative Fingers #217 - Anything Goes

Creative Moments #225 - Anything Goes

Cute Card Thursday #693 - Anything Goes

The Flower Challenge #61 - Use A Shape (3rd entry)

(I have used stamped hearts and circles)

Through the Craft Room Door - Anything Goes (2nd entry)

Stay warm and safe these autumn evenings, and thanks for visiting today.

Hugs,

Allsorts Challenge #647

Hi everyone,

It's Saturday so it's time for another weekly Allsorts Challenge. This week Mervi has chosen the theme and it is

Anything Goes with option - Vintage

This week we again have 2 fab prizes for you:

Firstly 

Indigo Blu - Rose Blush stamp

Secondly 

Ruth Hamilton Design - 3 images of winner's choice.

Here's my card for this week.

The starting point was this large vintage style clear stamp I unearthed in my stamp box … I have had it for years and never inked it before.  In fact the stamp is so big it wasn’t appropriate for my usual 6 inch square card, so unusually for me I cut a 7” * 5” card base. I created  a smooshed background on watercolour paper with a mix of distress inks and distress oxides, then stamped my image with Vintage Photo DI and embossed with clear powder. I coloured the flower and leaves with distress oxide ink pads, mixing colours on my craft mat to produce shades that would work with my background and also with my DP; then I added a little background stencilling. I distressed the edges of the finished image panel with my distressing tool and a bit more sponged DI, and mounted on papers that had had the edges deckle cut and had some frantage shabby embossing enamel applied here and there and heat set. I used the most vintage looking ribbon I could find in my stash .. a beautiful velvet ribbon edged with lace, and added a few pearls and a sentiment which seemed to be a very similar font to the background text on my stamp.

Stamps: LotV Set 53 - Vintage backgrounds; Woodware Tiny Sentiments;

Media: Tim Holtz Distress Inks and Distress Oxide inks; Stampendous Frantage Shabby White embossing enamel;

Tools: Darkroom Door stencil - “Diamonds”;

Papers, pearls and velvet ribbon/lace from my stash.

Challenges I would like to enter:

Colour Crazy Challenge #41 - Anything Goes with Colouring

Crafter’s Cafe #276 - Use A Stencil - TOP 3

Happy Little Stampers (September): Watercolour - Anything Goes

Incy Wincy - Kindness/fondness and/or Add Lace

MAWTT #135 - Bingo Board  (3rd entry)

(Ribbon, patterned paper, lace)

Penny’s Challenge #507 - Anything Goes with Paper

Pixie’s Snippets Playground #414 - Use Snippets

(My pink paper is a snippet)

Seize the Birthday #225 - Use A Stencil

Sisterhood of Crafters - Happy Birthday (2nd entry) - TOP 3

Through the Craft Room Door - Anything Goes

I look forward to seeing your entries for this week. Don't forget to visit the challenge blog to see more inspiration from the rest of the team. Thanks for visiting.

Hugs,

Dream, Love, Live

Today I have something a bit different to share with you. I have been wanting to experiment some more with my new Distress Oxides and also have a few new stamps, one of which is a background set which includes a complete alphabet; so I decided to make a bookmark. Bizarrely I haven’t ever made one before as far as I can remember.

I created a “smoosh” background on watercolour paper using 4 colours of DO ink, then stamped my focal flowers using Versafine Onyx and embossed with clear powder. I stamped the alphabet and grungy text using dark grey ink and embossed, and then stencilled one corner with Versamark and embossed with white detail powder. Finally I stamped, embossed and affixed my sentiments, affixed the panel to black card, then punched a hole which I strengthened with a die cut and tied with ribbon.

The main challenge with this was that I don’t have a normal size single hole punch, but I do have a long reach punch which makes a small hole … so I punched a cluster of holes which I then covered with the hole protector die cut 😀

Stamps: Stampendous “Agapanthus Cluster”; alphabet and grungy text - Woodware “Additions”; sentiments - unknown;

Media: Tim Holtz Distress Oxide inks;

Tools: Darkroom Door stencil - “Diamonds”; Magnolia Doohickey Vintage Tilda tag (tag hole protector).

Challenges I would like to enter:

Addicted to Stamps and More #416 - Make Your Mark

As You Like It - Favourite Non-card Project and why

(I have made a book mark which is my only non-card project for years, and it was my favourite choice as it enables me to practice my inky backgrounds, and I can easily gift bookmarks as stocking fillers at Christmas)

Crafter’s Cafe #276 - Use a Stencil

Creatalicious #221 - Anything Goes with option of black and purple

( I have used black and a little bit of lilac)

Creative Moments #224 - Anything Goes (3rd entry)

Love to Scrap #150 - Anything But A Card

NBUS #31 - Use Never Before Used Schtuff

(Mine is my Tumbled Glass DO,  stencil and alphabet stamp)

Retro Rubber #169 - Anything Goes (2nd entry)

(My Agapanthus cluster stamp is older than I care to remember .. at least 10 years)

Simon Says (Wednesday) - Not A Card

I actually made this yesterday ... but the weather is so awful today i think I may well stay in and have another craft session this afternoon! Thanks very much for visiting today.

Hugs,

Allsorts Challenge #646

Hi everyone,

It's Saturday so it's time for another weekly Allsorts Challenge. This week Brenda has chosen the theme and it is

Anything Autumn

This week we have 2 fantastic prizes for you:

Firstly a stamp from Lavinia Stamps

Spotty Toadstools

and

Tim Holtz On the Edge Pennants die

Here’s my card.

I struggled a bit with this theme as I don’t really own much in the way of dedicated “autumn” stash, so I had to get a bit creative. I decided to make a scene in autumn colours centred around the nearest thing I have to a bare branch tree stamp, and to make an autumnal sky by blending some of my new DO inks and using a mask and hone made stencils for the sun and hills. I then over stamped and embossed my tree, hedgerow flowers and butterflies, mounted the scene simply and added a generic sentiment that I thought suited the general atmosphere of the card.  

Stamps: tree - Penny Black “Fantasy” (3880K); hedgerow flowers and butterflies - “Meadow Flowers” free with Cardmaking magazine; sentiment - LotV “Everyday Grungy Messages”;

Media: Tim Holtz Distress Inks and Distress Oxide Inks;

Paper and twine from my stash.

Challenges I would like to enter:

Country View Challenges (October) - Autumnal Colours or Hallowe’en  (2nd entry)

Creative Craft Cottage #145 - Autumn and/or Hallowe’en

Creative Knockouts #423 - Embossing Delight (2nd entry)

Four Seasons Challenge (October) - Anything Goes Fall

My Time To Craft #468 - Hallowe'en or Fall Colours

Pearly Sparkles #67 - Autumn and/or Hallowe’en

Penny Black Saturday Challenge (October) - Anything Goes with option colour inspiration - TOP 3

(I have chosen yellow, orange and green)

Retro Rubber Challenge #169 - Anything Goes

(My Penny Black stamp is at wood-mounted and at least 13 years old, and my LotV sentiment probably 10 years old)

Simon Says (Monday) - Autumn Mood Board

(I was inspired by colours orange and brown, and tree)

We Love Chocolate Baroque (October) - Anything Autumn (2nd entry)

Hope you can join us this week, and I look forward to seeing your entries. Don't forget to visit the challenge blog to see more inspiration from the rest of the team. Thanks for visiting.

Hugs,

Time to Celebrate

Hi everyone,

Today's card was inspired by feeling celebrational, for a few reasons. Firstly, I was inspired to make a CAS celebrational card for the fab 200th challenge at AAA CAS Challenges. Secondly, I was lucky enough to win a stamp set from  Uniko last week, and wanted to showcase the gorgeous sentiment set that I chose, which is perfect for this theme. Last but not least I took delivery a couple of days ago of a few new gorgeous Woodware stamps, so I wanted to have a play with them.

This is what I made.

The floral stamp is really big and I would have found it difficult to stamp in the past, but my Press to Impress made it much easier not only to stamp, but to position off the page and even mask and add some extra swirly leaves in one direction.  I also love these big sentiment words, which is something I have been looking for as I think they work really well stamped direct onto either CAS backgrounds or distressed panels. I heat embossed all my inking so I could paint the flowers.

This card was also an experiment in painting with my rediscovered Cosmic Shimmer and Luminarte iridescent watercolour paints ... the idea was to create a stylized shimmery look so there is no shading (also I'm no watercolourist!). The flowers and leaves are actually very shimmery ... I took a picture  in sunlight to show this a bit better.

The card was actually going to be a bit more CAS than it turned out .. I accidentally got a bit of a mark on the white space but that gorgeous dragonfly die cut hopefully hides a multitude of sins!

Stamps: Woodware "Petal Trio"; Uniko "Birthday Sentiments";

Media: Cosmic Shimmer and Luminarte iridescent watercolour paints;

Tools: Tattered Lace Cute Critters Dragonfly die.

Challenges I would like to enter:

AAA CAS Challenges #200 - Celebrate (2nd entry)

Classic Design (October) - Anything Goes (2nd entry)

Crafts Galore Encore - Anything Goes (3rd entry)

Creative Knockouts #423 - Embossing Delight

Creative Moments #224 - Anything Goes (2nd entry)

Dies R Us #179 - Anything Goes with a die brand sold by DRU

(I have used Tattered Lace dragonfly die)

Sisterhood of Crafters - Happy Birthday

That's all from me for today ... I'll be back tomorrow bright and early with a new Allsorts Challenge .

Take care, and thanks for visiting.

Hugs,

Power Poppy Rose

Today I have something a bit different to share with you. A few months ago I joined the online community at Kit and Clowder as I wanted to refresh and upgrade my marker colouring skills so I could get back into crafting. I got a gift voucher from good friends for my birthday 😀 and purchased a class, but haven’t actually completed it yet as I keep getting sidetracked by the wealth of online resources and free classes available to members (and quite a few to non-members too). The teacher  - Alyce - is really good and so nice .. she offers 1-2-1 email feedback and is so supportive. There is also a very active K&C FB group which welcomes posts of all kinds .. not just the colouring taught in the classes. So overall I’m very impressed and would recommend anyone not familiar to have a look.

Over the past couple of days I completed a free rose colouring class which I really enjoyed, and decided to make the resulting image into a card for my husband to show how much I love him ❤️. I printed the class image bigger than what I would normally use on a card so I could colour it in more detail, but still just small enough to fit a 6” square card. This meant the focal image filled the card and didn’t really need any further embellishment .. I just used a little faux stitching to frame it and a couple of teeny gems to represent dewdrops.

For my first attempt I was really pleased with how this turned out. Alyce is a great teacher and explains a lot of detail about light source and use of texture. I haven't really got the texture right but alas that is easier to achieve with brush nib markers such as Copics ... I'm not sure whether I'll get there with bullet nib Promarkers but I'll keep trying!

And here is a view of the coloured image before I used it on the card ..

Stamps: Power Poppy Rose (digi); sentiment - Lavinia Stamps;

Media: Promarkers with white pencil highlights;

Gems from my stash.

Challenges I would like to enter:

AAA CAS Challenges #200 - Celebrate

(I am celebrating my love for my lovely husband❤️)

Classic Design Challenge (October) - Anything Goes

Colour Crazy Challenge #40 - Anything Goes (2nd entry)

Crafts Galore Encore #92 - Anything Goes

Cute Card Thursday #693 - Anything Goes (2nd entry)

I ♥ Promarkers #445 - Anything Goes 

(option of embossing not taken up)

The Flower Challenge #61 - Use a Shape (2nd entry)

(Square)

Take care, and thanks for visiting.

Hugs,

All Good Things are Wild and Free

Hi everyone,

I had another inky playtime session to do a bit more experimenting with my new DO inks. My colour scheme this time  inspired by the current Less Is More challenge, and I wanted to try making a simple card involving inks blended in an irregular shape (in this case my Spellbinders peony die) overstamped with silhouette images.

Initially I tried doing a one layer card, and cut myself a DIY stencil using some acetate in my stash. This didn’t work out too well for 2 reasons … my card base wasn’t really the best for blending, plus when I activated the ink with water spritzing the card buckled! So … I then went with die cutting a shape using Neenah smooth cardstock and blending my inks onto that, so I could the affix to my card blank. I am still experimenting with colours and found my purple DO (Seedless Preserves) was not as deep a shade as I anticipated, but as luck would have it I do also have a few older original DI’s including Dusty Concord, so I smooshed some of that on top to add a bit more depth and interest. My new stamp positioner made it easy to stamp my focal image onto the inked panel and then remove it to stamp again directly onto the card blank so I got a crisper image where the 2 surfaces meet. .. I really am loving my Press to Impress 😀

Finally I did my first experiment with splattering paint onto the finished piece. I wanted gold spatters so experimented with making a little puddle of paint on acetate using my Perfect Pearls and a little water, which I then spattered onto my inky background and card blank with a small paintbrush. I’m not too displeased with how it looks, though I wonder if acrylic paint (which I don’t currently have) would be better .. any advice much appreciated!

Stamps: flowers - Unity Stamps “Insightful Meadows”; dragonfly and sentiment - Summer Meadow set free with craft magazine;

Media: Tim Holtz DO inks (Fossilized Amber, Shaded Lilac, Seedless Preserves), and Distress Ink (Dusty Concord); Perfect Pearls “Perfect Gold”;

Tools: Spellbinders Nestabilities “Peony” die.

Challenges I would like to enter:

C.R.A.F.T. #613 - Anything Goes

Creative Moments #224 - Anything Goes

DRU #178 - Anything Goes using a die brand sold by DRU

(I used Spellbinders)

Happy Little Stampers (Dies): October - Anything Goes with Dies

Less Is More #453 - Purple and Yellow

Simon Says … - Happy World Card Making Day (4th entry)

The Flower Challenge #61 - Use A Shape

That’s me done for today. Thanks for visiting, and hope you have a good weekend whatever you’re doing

Hugs,

Allsorts Challenge #645

Good morning everyone,

It's Saturday so it's time for another weekly Allsorts Challenge.  Thanks to all the other members of the team for their kind welcome last week, and to other commenters both here and on FB for your kind words. 

This week Lolo has chosen the theme and it is

Embellish it

We have 2 great prizes on offer for you: firstly

Crafty Ribbons is offering a £10 gift voucher for their store (winner pays postage and packing)

And secondly we have a sizzix die for you

Tim Holtz On the Edge Butterflight

Back in the day when I was previously crafting regularly I was definitely into my embellies big time - I was something of a "fussy and fancy" girl and went by the motto "more is more"! Now however I try to keep my cards a bit flatter ... not least because the padded envelope size I used to use for my embellished cards is no longer readily available, and this week I needed to post a card I had made in the past laden with flowers and it was a bit of a nightmare!! Nonetheless I still love my ribbons, gems etc. I also felt the time has come when I need to start seriously cracking on with some Christmas cards, so here's what I did.

I've scarcely made any Christmas cards for about 5 years now other than a couple for close family, so I was casting around in my stash for inspiration and found a couple of LotV rubber stamps I had bought 3 or 4 years ago with good intentions of doing some Christmas makes but never used .. how shocking is that? I always loved James the Bear, so I thought it was about time this stamp got inky. I coloured him with my Promarkers and added some glamour dust to his hat; and my embellishments consist chiefly of a triple loop bow (I couldn't remember how to do these so had to make a few attempts with my Bow-Easy!), and a couple of jingle bells! 

Stamps: Lot\V "James Christmas Tree" and "Grungy Christmas Sentiments";

Media: Promarkers and Flexmarkers;

Papers: LotV Nitwits Collection - "Festive Trimmings";

Tools: Spellbinders Nestabilities "labels one" dies;

Jute and gingham ribbons, pearls and bells from my stash.

Challenges I would like to enter:

Christmas Crafts All Year Round (October) - Something that Starts with S or T

(T is for tree)

Colour Crazy Challenge #40 - Anything Goes

Crafter's Castle #46 - Anything Goes (2nd entry)

Crafty Animals #55 - Anything Goes including an animal

Crafty Creations #426 - Anything Goes

Critter Crazy Challenges #55 - Anything Goes with a featured critter

Cute Card Thursday #693 - Anything Goes

Get Creative #106 - Anything Goes with optional twist of Holidays

Krafty Chicks #580 - Anything Goes with a stamped image - TOP PICK

MAWTT #135 - Bingo Board (2nd entry)

(ribbon, wording, gems)

Passion For Markers #612 - Use Red - TOP 5

Simon Says ... - Happy World Card Making Day (3rd entry)

Stamping Sensations (October) - Animals, Birds and Bugs

The Holly and Ivy #102 - Anything Christmas Goes

Through the Craft Room Door - Anything Goes

Hope you can join us this week, and I look forward to seeing your entries. Don't forget to visit the challenge blog to see more inspiration from the rest of the team. Thanks for visiting.

Hugs,