Spring Botanicals

Hi peeps,

Today I would like to share another card I have made with my fabulous recent winnings from Uniko (see previous post about my win here) ... I decided to get going with a few Easter cards so I had a play with my new Spring Botanicals - Daffodil set.

This is such a lovely statement image and is quite big, so it doesn't really need much in the way of embellishment.  I decided straight away I would surround it with some soft background stencilling, as I also have a new Lavinia stencil I couldn't wait to play with! I stamped my main image and coloured it with Promarkers, then masked it so I could stencil around it with some Distress Oxide ink. I stamped my greeting, then sponged more DO round the edges, and replaced the mask so I could add some spatters of DO and gold acrylic paint. When the spatters were dry I matted the finished panel, and finished off with sparkly punched butterflies and gems.

Stamps: Uniko Spring Botanicals - Daffodil; sentiment - See-D;

Media: Promarkers; Tim Holtz Distress Oxide ink (Crushed Pistachio); gold acrylic paint;

Tools: Lavinia stencil - Leaf Trails; X-Cut butterfly punch;

Gems from my stash.

Challenges I would like to enter:

Cards 4 Galz #169 - Spring Flowers (2nd entry)

Crafter's Cafe #283 - Use Some Flowers (3rd entry)

Crafty Catz #588 - Anything Goes with option Easter

Crafty Friends #153 - Flowers (4th entry)

Dream Valley #266 - Springtime (2nd entry)

Everybody Art #510 - Spring

Make My Monday #171 - Use A Stencil

Passion For Markers #633 - Anything Spring (2nd entry)

 Taylormadecards4u (March) - Anything Goes with option Spring Flowers (3rd entry)

Try It On Tuesday - Say It With Flowers (3rd entry)

Hope you are all enjoying the spring weather... it has been absolutely beautiful here.  Take care, and thanks for visiting.

Hugs,

Time to Celebrate

Hi everyone,

Some of you will know that in February there was an exciting month of challenges over on the Uniko blog to celebrate their 10th birthday.  The whole event was a lot of fun, with a variety of challenge “quests” with individual prizes plus a grand prize draw for those who completed all 10 quests. I joined in enthusiastically as the quests were fun and informative, plus I really like Uniko products even though I only owned one set of Uniko stamps.   Anyhoo, Last week I was gobsmacked to discover I won the grand prize … £100 gift voucher for the Uniko store!! 😍😍❤️ So it really is time to celebrate 🎉🎉😀

Bev who owns Uniko has been really kind and helpful … I got my voucher on Thursday, promptly placed my order, and my parcel arrived on Friday … wow !! There were stamps everywhere … I genuinely didn’t know which way to turn first!!

 Uniko stamps are generally a CAS style which is rather different from my usual style of cardmaking, but I particularly like the fantastic sentiment sets, the spring botanical flowers, and some of the CAS Christmas styles. Here is what I chose.

I am now much better set up with sentiments than before, and I selected two fabulous sets of spring botanicals flowers with co-ordinating sentiments. I also chose some stamps that I can use to make some CAS cards .. I am hoping to make some batch charity cards during the spring . 

I wanted to have a play immediately, so on Friday afternoon I managed to make two CAS cards - “Make a Wish” and “Time to Celebrate”.

For this card I stamped a card-wide panel of candles, which I coloured in rainbow hues with my Promarkers. I edged the panel with purple Promarker and matted onto my base card, and stamped my sentiments and stars.

Stamps: Uniko Big & Bold - Wish, Birthday Sentiments, Balloon Bash;

Media: Promarkers.

Challenges I would like to enter:

Colour Crazy Craft Challenge #12 2022 - Anything Goes (2nd entry)

C.R.A.F.T. #631 - Anything Goes

Crafts Galore Encore #97 - Anything Goes

Crafty Calendar (March) - Spots/Stripes

Fab ‘n’ Funky #547 - Hand Coloured Image

Krafty Chicks #604 - All Occasions

Simon Says (Monday) - Bright and Cheerful (2nd entry)

For my second card I first stamped my “celebrate” sentiment, using my existing  Birthday Sentiments set. I then used the balloon stencil with Distress Oxide inks, and stamped the balloon strings. I stamped my remaining sentiment words, then stamped and embossed stars.  I added a little dimension to the balloons by stencilling a highlight using Versamark ink and shimmer chalk. Finally I matted the finished panel onto a blue border and the base card.

Here is an angled pic to show up the shimmery balloon highlights and silver stars a bit more ...

Stamps: Uniko Birthday Sentiments, Balloon Bash;
Media: Tim Holtz Distress Oxide inks (Picked Raspberry, Kitsch Flamingo, Wilted Violet, Shaded Lilac, Blueprint Sketch, Salty Ocean); Versamark; Detail silver embossing powder;

Tools: Uniko stencil - Balloon Bash.  

Challenges I would like to enter:

A Gem of a Challenge #7 2022 - Anything Goes

Addicted to Stamps and More #425 - Die Cuts and/or Stencils (2nd entry)
Creative Crafters #50 - Anything Goes (2nd entry)

DL. Art (March) - Anything Goes (2nd entry)

Love To Craft #67 - Anything Goes (2nd entry)

Three Room Studio Saturday Challenge #78 - Use a Stencil

I really think both the balloon stencil and candle stamps are simple but so effective when used with a large sentiment, and can be coloured for male, female or children’s cards; so I foresee some charity makes ahead… I’m sure there will be plenty more where these came from, and I’ll keep you updated with my progress. It only remains for me to reiterate my huge thanks to Bev at Uniko for her brilliant 10th birthday celebrations and amazingly generous prize. 

That’s all for today - take care, and thanks for visiting.

Hugs,

Allsorts Challenge #669

Good morning all,

I'm here this morning for another weekly Allsorts Challenge. This week Lorraine has chosen the theme and it is

*** In the Garden ***

Another fab theme with spring in the air here in the northern hemisphere, and plenty of scope for your makes featuring flowers, trees, birds, insects or even garden animals such as hegehogs!

This week we have 2 fantastic prizes kindly donated by First Stop Stationers:

Card-io stamp set - Winter Walks

Card-io stamp set - Oriental Whispers

Here's my card for this week.

I went in a  slightly unexpected direction with this card ... I was recently fortunate to win a challenge which allowed me to select a Polkadoodles digital image - and I chose this adorable Spring Gnome. I don't use digis a lot, but this one absolutely melted my heart, and is so perfect for springtime and Easter… In my mind’s eye he is indeed standing in the garden with his plant pot and cut flowers 😀.  

I printed my image and coloured it with my Promarkers, then die cut with a stitched square die and sponged the edges with Distress Oxide ink.  I matted the image onto a pretty spring-like paper from my stash, and decorated with a pearlescent white die cut fence, sparkly flowers and leaves, and punched butterflies. Lastly I stamped my sentiment onto a separate bit of card, sponged the edges with DO and popped it up on foam tape.

Stamps: Polkadoodles Spring Gnome (digi); LotV - Everyday Grungy Sentiments;

Media: Promarkers; Tim Holtz Distress Oxide ink (Cracked Pistachio);

Tools: Stitched square die from Amazon; Magnolia Doohickey - Lovely Fence die; Marianne Design Creatables large flower die (LR0110); Joy! Crafts Vintage Flourishes small flower (6003/0024) and leaf spray (6003/0026) dies; X-Cut small butterfly punch;

Papers and sparkly gem from my stash.

Challenges I would like to enter:

Cards 4 Galz #169 - Spring Flowers

CCC Digi Creations #134 - Add/Use Flowers (3rd entry)

Colour Crazy Craft Challenges #12 2022 - Anything Goes

Crafty Friends #153 - Flowers (3rd entry)

Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper (March) - Anything Goes with Patterned Paper (3rd entry)

Creative Inspirations (March) - Spring Flowers (3rd entry)

Dies R Us #189 - Anything Goes using a die brand DRU sells

(I used Magnolia Doohickeys)

Digi Choosday #12 2022 - Anything Goes with Digis

Dream Valley #266 - Springtime

I ❤️ Promarkers #506 - Anything Goes with option Leaves or Flowers (3rd entry)

Let'sCraft and Create #181 - Anything Goes with option Purple and Green (2nd entry)

Passion For Markers #633 - Anything Spring - TOP 5

Path of Positivity #99 - Anything Goes Positive (3rd entry)

Pixie’s Snippets Playground #424 - Anything Goes Using Snippets

(My background DP was a large snippet, and I also used various snippets for my fence, flowers and butterflies)

Simon Says (Monday) - Bright and Cheerful

Stamping Sensations (March) - Stamp Something for Spring (3rd entry)

Taylormadecards4u (March) - Anything Goes with option Spring Flowers (2nd entry)

Try It On Tuesday - Say It With Flowers (2nd entry)

We Love Stamping (March) - Anything (Stamped) Spring (3rd 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 fab inspiration from the rest of the team. Thanks for visiting.

Hugs,

Another Misty Morning

Hi all,

I decided this morning to make another card entry for this month's Lavinia website  challenge - "Misty Morning". I thought I would make a misty early morning meadow scene, though it was one of those days where nothing would seem to go right and my first three attempts ended up in the bin!! Eventually though I got there ... and halfway though my tribulations a new set of Lavinia stamps arrived through the letter box so I was able to incorporate a couple of them (Nigella Damascena and Fairy Bugs) into the card!! ... and here it is.

For some reason today my smooshed backgrounds just would not behave themselves, so I tried something different. I created a sun mask with masking sheet, and then painted my background using three colours of Distress Oxide ink and a new fat paintbrush I bought the other day from The Range. This idea was partly inspired by a Jo Rice tutorial, though I changed it up a bit by keeping a defined sun shape with my mask. 

I sponged some DO onto my sun and around it to form an aura, then stamped my flowers and dragonflies using a mixture of shades of Versafine Clair and a mix of first and second generation stamping. I created my wispy mist using a white pastel pencil, then liberally highlighted everything with a Stardust Sakura sparkle pen. I edged the panel with some more DO to give a bit more depth, then matted the panel onto a pearlescent charcoal border and a home-made DL card base. I entered version 1 of the card (without sentiment) into the Lavinia challenge, as I didn't really have a suitable Lavinia sentiment ... so then added my sentiment to complete version 2!

As always this card is very sparkly but you wouldn't guess from the main photo, so here is an angled pic.

Stamps: Lavinia - Nigella Damascena, Dandelions, Wild Poppies, Field Grass, Silhouette Foliage Set, Fairy Bugs; sentiment - Crafter's Companion Magical Sentiments;

Media: Tim Holtz Distress Oxide inks (Stormy Sky, Shaded Lilac, Tumbled Glass, Squeezed Lemonade); Versafine Clair (Nocturne, Twilight, Morning Mist); Versafine (Imperial Purple); Pastel Pencil (white); Sakura Sparkle Pens (Purple, Stardust).

Challenges I would like to enter:

A Gem of a Challenge #6 2022 - Anything Goes (2nd entry)

Classic Design Challenge #3 2022 - Anything Goes

Colour Crazy Craft Challenge #11 2022 - Anything Goes (2nd entry)

Crafter's Cafe #283 - Use Some Flowers (2nd entry)

Crafty Catz #587 - Anything Goes with option Add Sparkle or Glitter (2nd entry)

Crafty Friends #153 - Flowers (2nd entry)

Crafty Gals' Corner #229 - Add A Flower (3rd entry)

Incy WIncy (March) - Nature and Scenery (2nd entry)

Love To Craft #67 - Anything Goes (2nd entry)

Try It On Tuesday - Say It With Flowers

I'm off now to start thinking about what I'll make with the rest of my new Lavinia stamps and stencils !! Take care everyone, and thanks for visiting today.

Hugs,

Allsorts Challenge #668

Hello everyone,

Here comes the weekend … it’s Saturday so it's time for another weekly Allsorts Challenge. This week Mervi has chosen the theme and it is

Feminine

A nice easy theme with many possibilities - pretty colours, flowers, cute images ... and of course if you need to make a Mother's Day card this could be the time!

This week we have the following fab prizes on offer for 3 lucky winners:

Craft Stash has kindly donated a pretty Crafters Companion die set

 

and this gorgeous tonic studio edge die

Also, Ruth Hamilton Design is kindly offering another winner 3 digi images of their choice from her online shop.

Here's my card for this week, using Ruth Hamilton Design - Peony Posy.

I printed this lovely image, then coloured with my Promarkers and Flexmarkers. I tried to create a bit of interest by colouring around the flowers with a soft blue grey Flexmarker and then creating a mottled effect using rubbing alcohol dabbed on with a cotton bud - this is a technique I learned in a Kit & Clowder colouring class. I cut out my coloured image using a stitched rectangle die then stamped my sentiment, which was part of a bargain set I recently picked up at the Crafter’s Companion shop … I have been looking to expand my range of sentiment stamps and these are really fun.  I sponged the edges of the stitched rectangle with Distress oxide ink and mounted the panel onto background paper, then finis off by decorating it with sparkly die cut butterflies and a leafy swirl, and iridescent gems.

Stamps: Ruth Hamilton Design - Peony Posy (digi); sentiment - Crafter's Companion Positive Thoughts;

Media: Promarkers and Flexmarkers; Tim Holtz Distress oxide ink (Kitsch Flamingo);

Tools: Stitched Rectangle die from Amazon; Magnolia Doohickey Butterfly Dreams die; Memory Box Harrington Vine die; X-Cut small butterfly punch;

Paper and gems from my stash.

Challenges I would like to enter:

Addicted to Stamps and More #425 - Die Cuts and/or Stencils

CCC Digi Creations #134 - Add/Use Flowers (2nd entry)

C.R.A.F.T. #630 - Female

Crafty Catz #587 - Anything Goes with option Add Sparkle or Glitter - TOP 3

Crafty Friends #153 - Flowers

Crafty Gals' Corner #229 - Add A Flower (2nd entry)

Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper (March) - Anything Goes with Patterned Paper (2nd entry)

Creations In Pink #44 - Anything Goes in Mainly Pink

Creative Crafters #50 - Anything Goes

Creative Inspirations (March) - Spring Flowers (2nd entry)

Creative Moments #232 - For a Special Lady

Digi Choosday #11 2022 - Anything Goes with Digis (2nd entry)

DL. Art (March) - Anything Goes

Everybody Art #509 - B is For ...

(Blooms, Butterflies)

Fab 'n' Funky #547 - Hand Coloured Image

Happy Little Stampers: Dies (March) - Anything Goes with Does

I ❤️ Promarkers #506 - Anything Goes with option Leaves or Flowers (2nd entry)

Let'sCraft and Create #181 - Anything Goes

Little Red Wagon #645 - Die Cuts

Love To Craft #67 - Anything Goes

Path of Positivity #99 - Anything Goes Positive (2nd entry)

Shopping Our Stash #466 - Spread Your Wings

Simon Says (Monday) - Feminine (2nd entry)

Simon Says (Wednesday) - Favourite Things (2nd entry)

(Flowers, Promarkers, Distress Oxide inks)

Taylormadecards4u (March) - Anything Goes with option Spring Flowers

Three Room Studio Saturday Challenge #77 - Use a Floral Element

Through the Craft Room Door - Anything Goes

World Wide Open Design Team Challenge #3 2022 - Anything Goes

Hope you can join us this week, and I look forward to seeing your creations. I would also love for you to visit the challenge blog to see more fab inspiration from the rest of the team. Thanks for visiting.

Hugs,

Peace Offering

Hi everyone,

Like everyone the world over, my thoughts are very much occupied by the catastrophic events unfolding in Ukraine. A couple of weeks ago Power Poppy made some of its beautiful sunflower digi stamps available for free download so people could make cards to show solidarity with Ukraine, and I downloaded and made one. Sadly the need for support has not gone away since then; and now Power Poppy has made available a new fundraiser digi stamp called "Peace Offering" ... so I thought it would be a good idea to purchase it as God knows those poor people need all the support they can get. Here is the card I made with it.

Regardless of the fundraising element this really is a lovely stamp, and very easy to colour. I coloured it broadly in the Ukrainian colours using my Promarkers, then very lightly stencilled the background using Distress Oxide ink, and lightly sponged more DO round the edges of the image panel.  This image does come with a "Peace" sentiment, but I decided instead to utilise a Lavinia Christmas stamp which contains the words peace, hope and love ... I masked it and stamped it randomly around the panel in blue. I then quickly attached a bit of woven ribbon and a frayed bow, matted the image onto blue and yellow borders, and attached to my base card. Pretty simple but I am pleased with how it turned out.

Stamps: Power Poppy - Peace Offering (digi); sentiment - masked portion of Lavinia - Spirit of Christmas;

Media: Promarkers; Tim Holtz Distress oxide ink (Squeezed Lemonade. Blueprint Sketch); Versafine (Majestic Blue);

Tools: Sweet Dixie stencil - Petal Burst;

Ribbon from my stash.

Challenges I would like to enter:

Colour Crazy Craft Challenge #11 2022 - Anything Goes

Crafter's Cafe #283 - Use Some Flowers

Daring Cardmakers - For Ukraine

Digi Choosday #11 2022 - Anything Goes with Digis

I ❤️ Promarkers #506 - Anything Goes with option Leaves or Flowers

Ike's World #154 - Anything Goes with option Tic Tac Toe

(ribbon, sentiment, flowers)

Pammie's Inky Pinkies #2211 - Anything Goes

Path of Positivity #99 - Anything Goes Positive

Simon Says (Monday) - Feminine

Simon Says (Wednesday) - Favourite Things

(Flowers, Distress Oxide inks, Promarkers)

That's all from me for today, though I will be back tomorrow with a card for the new Allsorts challenge. Take care, and thanks for visiting.

Hugs,

Have A Magical Birthday

Hi everyone,

Today is my darling husband’s birthday, so I would like to share the card I made for him. Back in January I ordered a few Lavinia woodland creature stamps as I know he loves that kind of thing. I made him a moonlit scene Valentine card using the cute woodland hares and my new Press to Impress Art Board heart stencil; so I decided for his birthday to do a more spring-like take on a similar theme by making a daylight scene with budding trees, green foliage and woodland creatures emerging from hibernation …  and to introduce him to the Wallace Family! 

I used my heart stencil, circle and hill masks and Distress Oxide inks to create the sky, sun and land. I stamped my skeleton trees using first and second generation stamping, then stamped my hedgehog, birds and hares - all using Versafine and VFC. I stamped mini leaves round the edge of my heart using Distress Oxide at the top and darker VFC at the bottom, then stamped my sentiments. I highlighted my hedgie with a white gel pen, and my sun, hills and trees with Sakura sparkle pens.  I matted the finished panel onto green linen cardstock and then onto a 8” square base card, and finished off with a few heart gems. I also stamped hedgies on the inside of the card and on the envelope 😍

Stamps: Lavinia The Wallace Family, Wild Hares (Large), Skeleton Tree Scene,  Birds, Mini Leaf 1; sentiments - Crafter’s Companion Magical Sentiments;

Media: Tim Holtz Distress Oxide inks (Salty Ocean, Tumbled Glass, Rustic Wilderness, Squeezed Lemonade); Versafine (Onyx); Versafine Clair (Rainforest, Pinecone);Sakura sparkle pen - yellow;

Tools: Press to Impress Art Board stencil (heart); Lavinia hill mask; home made hill and circle masks;

Gems from my stash.

Challenges I would like to enter:

Craft Rocket #90 - Use An Animal

Crafty Animals #59 - Anything Goes with an Animal

Cutie Pie #169 - Beginning With B

(Birthday, Birds, Bunnies)

Dragonfly Dreams (March) - Something to Make You Smile (2nd entry) - TOP 3

Dream Valley #265 - Add Some Bling

Elliebelle’s Crafty Wednesday (March) - Spring Is In the Air

Get Creative #109 - Use Green

Incy Wincy (March) - Nature and Scenery

Little Red Wagon #644 - CAS

My Time To Craft #477 - Animals

Simon Says (Monday) - Add Some Green (2nd entry)

Simon Says (Wednesday) - Bit O' Green

Stamping Sensations (March) - Stamp Something for Spring (2nd entry)

Use Your Stuff #443 - Masculine

We Love Stamping (March) - Anything (Stamped) Spring (2nd entry)

I have scheduled this post in advance so we can spend the day together … so hoping the weather will be kind.

Take care, and thanks for visiting.

Hugs,

Allsorts Challenge #667

Good morning everyone,

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

Spring Is in The Air

A lovely cheerful theme as we look towards the lighter nights, which will also perhaps distract us from all the terrible things currently happening in the world!!

This week’s prize has been kindly donated by Stampers Grove -  this beautiful AALL & Create stamp set "Birthday Blooms".

Here's my card for this week.

The starting point for this card was the intricate floral punch that I have used down one side ... I have quite a few of these punches but now very rarely use them, though I have to unpack them from my dining room cupboard every time I craft in order to get at my papers and stamps stored behind!

The spring theme also motivated me to go a bit retro with this one, and I had a delve in my stamp boxes to find some old, much loved but sadly much neglected Penny Black wooden stamps that would be suitable for a spring theme. This darling duckling just spoke to me, so I soon got busy colouring him with my Promarkers. I die cut him using my stitched squares and sponged the edges with Distress Oxide ink, then matted him on a slightly large die cut. I cut a square of yellow card which I punched down one side, then layered up my image, paper and matting card with a piece of ribbon onto my card base. Lastly I added my sentiment popped up on foam tape and a few teeny gems to pull the colour scheme together.

Stamps: Penny Black Duckling (3347H) and Happy Easter (2355D);

Media: Promarkers and Flexmarkers; Tim Holtz Distress Oxide ink (Rustic Wilderness);

Papers: snippets from my stash;

Tools: Stitched rectangle dies from Amazon; Martha Stewart floral Punch Around the Page.

Challenges I would like to enter:

A Gem of a Challenge #6 2022 - Anything Goes

As You Like It - Favourite Interactive or Not (and why) (2nd entry)

(My favourite is definitely NOT - scarcely ever tried an interactive card and wouldn't really know where to start!!)

Card Concept #170 - Wearing O’ the Green

(I was inspired by the colours yellow and green, and the general spring feel of the pic. I think I would call this card style “clean and layered”?)

Crafty Calendar (March) - Spots/Stripes or Easter - TOP 3

Crafty Catz #586 - Anything Goes with option Spring Colours - TOP 3

Crafty Gals’ Corner #229 - Add a Flower

Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper (March) - Anything Goes with Patterned Paper

Creatalicious #230 - Anything Goes with option Something Green

Creative Inspirations (March) - Spring Flowers

Daisy Chain #61 - Use Dies

Day of the Month #37 - Poultry Day (and 3rd birthday of blog)

Dragonfly Dreams (March) - Something to Make You Smile

Four Seasons (March) - Spring

Get Creative #109 - Use Green

I ❤️ Promarkers #505 - Anything Goes (2nd entry)

Paper Funday #39 - Anything Goes with option Use Green and Gold

Penny Black Saturday (March) - Anything Goes with option Bright Colours

Penny's Challenge #516 - Anything Goes with Patterned Papers

Pixie's Snippets Playground #423 - Anything Goes With Snippets (Ruby's Memory)

Sheepski #60 - Flowers (3rd entry)

Simon Says (Monday) - Add Some Green (2nd entry)

Simon Says (Wednesday) - Bit O' Green

Sisterhood of Crafters - Old Rejected Stamp - TOP 3

(This stamp is from 2005, and I've had it nearly that long!!)

Stamping Sensations (March) - Stamp Something for Spring

We Love Stamping (March) - Anything (Stamped) Spring

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 fab inspiration from the rest of the team. Thanks for visiting.

Hugs,