Thinking Of You

Hi everyone, today’s post is a card made as a last minute final entry for this month’s Country View Crafts Challenge - Flower Power. Entries need to use brands stocked by CVC - this time I decided to turn to a Lavinia flower stamp, and as I only have a few Lavinia flowers that are on the CVC website (quite a few of mine aren’t) I’m  trying the technique of watercolouring on Fairy Bells with Zig pens which I recently saw demonstrated by Jo Rice. I also wanted to incorporate stencilling as that is the optional theme for this week’s Allsorts challenge. 

I cut a 5” square of stamping card and stamped the Fairy Bell flowers which I coloured with Zig pens and lightly spritzed with water - a mix of 1st and 2nd generation stamping. I then “grounded” the flowers with more Zig pen colour which I blended out with a water brush, and added soft stencilling with Distress Oxide. I added some delicate spatters with Posca purple glitter and silver metallic  pens, then edged the finished piece with silver Posca, matted onto lilac card stock and a card blank. I stamped the sentiment onto separate card in grey as it gave a softer look than black, edged with silver Posca and attached, then added some dewdrops to finish - I just thought that with the soft lilac flowers it just looked like a “Thinking of You” card.

Stamps: Lavinia Fairy Bells; Woodware Made For You;

Media: Kuretake Zig Clean Colour watercolour pens; Tim Holtz Distress Oxide ink (Bundled Sage); Versafine Clair (Morning Mist); Posca pen (silver); Posca sparkle pen (purple);

Tools: Lavinia stencil - Divine;

Other: Crafter’s Companion Dewdrops.

Challenges I would like to enter:

Allsorts #778 - Use a Stencil

Beautiful Blossoms #16 - Anything Floral Goes (6th entry)

Country View Crafts FB Challenge (April) - Flower Power (5th entry)

Crazy Is Our Fame, Stencils Are Our Game (April) - Use a Stencil with option Spring Flowers (2nd entry)

Double Trouble #165 - Anything Goes

Krafty Chicks #713 - All Occasions

Simon Says (Monday) - Feminine

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

Sparkles (April) - April Showers Bring May Flowers - SPOTLIGHT WINNER

Word Art Wednesday #645/646 - Anything Goes (3rd entry)

I rather like this watercolouring technique for use with silhouette or brushstroke stamps, which I used to do with Marvey markers back in the day. I’ll definitely be practising it some more with my Zig pens.

Take care and thanks for visiting.

Hugs,

In the Meadow

Hi everyone, today’s card is the result of a play with my newish gel press and some Lavinia floral stamps to make a delicate meadow scene - this is another one I made particularly for this month’s Country View Crafts FB challenge.

I brayered two colours of Elements ink onto my gel plate, spattered with water using my Tim Holtz spatter brush and took a print, then created a sun by blending more ink around a small circle mask. I then masked the outside of the circle print and stamped meadow flowers, field grass and fairy bell flowers in shades of green Versafine Clair, and birds flying across the sun in Pinecone VFC. I coloured the heads of the flowers with white Posca pen and added sparkle to the fairy bells, then added graduated dots of pink, yellow and glitter Posca pens around the base of the circle. I edged the finished piece with gold Posca pen and matted onto pink card stock and a 6” card blank, then stamped, edged and attached the sentiment.

Here’s an angled picture to show the sparkle.

Stamps: Lavinia Wild Summer Flower, Field Grass, Fairy Bells, Birds; AALL & Create #533 Bring On the Sentiments;

Media: Lavinia Elements inks (Confetti, Lime  Punch); Versafine Clair (Shady Lane, Verdant, Pinecone); Sakura Stardust pen (yellow); Posca pens (white, pink, yellow, gold); Posca sparkle pens (pink, yellow);

Tools: Lavinia Roland gel press, acetate circle masks.

Challenges I would like to enter:

Addicted to Stamps #466 - Make Your Mark (2nd entry) - HONOURABLE ADDICT

As You Like It - Favourite Clean or Fussy (and why) - TOP 3

(I like elements of both which I think this card shows … a simple layout but with intricate foreground and background stamping)

Beautiful Blossoms #16 - Anything Floral Goes (5th entry)

Card Concept #206 - April Flowers (4th entry)

Country View Crafts FB Challenge (April) - Flower Power (4th entry)

Creations In Pink #69 - Anything Goes in Mainly Pink

Path of Positivity #120 - Anything Goes Positive (2nd entry) - TOP PICK

Simon Says (Monday) - It’s Up In the Air

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

Triple B (April) - Birds, Butterflies and/or Blooms (3rd entry)

Word Art Wednesday #645/646 - Anything Goes (2nd entry)

Hope you’re having a good weekend. Take care, and thanks for visiting.

Hugs,

Ombré Glitter Blooms

Hi everyone, today I’d like to share a set of ATC’s I made. I first started making ATC’s two years ago, and initially I made them to trade online through eg. Facebook groups. I then started joining in one or two themed swaps in crafting FB groups, eg. Visible Image and Tracy Evans, and as time went on I found that without the “prompt” of a theme my creative mojo stalled so I haven’t really been making any ATC’s “just because”. However I recently bought a gorgeous little pad of ombré glitter card from the Crafter’s Companion shop, and this inspired me to create a new series that I have called Ombré Glitter Blooms.

First I die cut a variety of flower stems from a sheet of the pink/green glitter card, placing the flower heads in the pink area, graduating towards a green stem. I created graduated smoosh backgrounds on stamping card with pink and green Distress Oxide inks, then stamped and heat embossed my background design in white, ensuring that the green area was at the top of each stamped piece. I cut the stamped pieces to 3.25” x 2.25” and added with silver Posca pen. I matted these onto 3.5” x 2.5” pieces of glitter card which were cut to graduate from pink to  green, thus reversing the colour direction of the stamped layer. I attached a die cut flower or 2 to each ATC, which again reversed the direction of the ombré shading. Finally I stamped the wording onto separate card, cut out, edged with silver and attached.

Here are some closeups.

Stamps: AALL & Create #302 Going Postal; Woodware Blooming;

Media: Tim Holtz Distress Oxide inks (Kitsch Flamingo, Cracked Pistachio); Versafine Clair (Nocturne); Versamark; WOW Ultra fine opaque white embossing powder; Posca pen (silver);

Papers: Crafter’s Companion card pad - Ombré Glitter;

Tools: floral dies (unbranded).

Challenges I would like to enter:

Beautiful Blossoms #16 - Anything Floral Goes (4th entry)

Crafty Gals’ Corner #254 - Anything Goes (2nd entry)

Dragonfly Dreams (April) - Use a Die (3rd entry)

My Time to Craft #532 - Die-Cuts (2nd entry)

Outlawz (April) - Anything Goes in a Card Free Zone (2nd entry) - TOP 3

Simon Says (Wednesday) - Anything Goes

Stamping  Sensations (April) - Spring Mood Board (3rd entry)

(I have been inspired by the pink and green colours and the flowers)

Unicorn #97 - Use Dies (3rd entry)

Word Art Wednesday #645/646 - Anything Goes 

I’m hoping to make some more ATC’s in the near future so I can have a go at trading again ..it’s such fun when an envelope drops through the letterbox from some far flung place!

Take care, and thanks for visiting.

Hugs,

Smile!

Hi everyone, I’ve not had much time to craft the past few days so here’s a quick CAS spring card I made for the Country View Crafts FB challenge.

I cut a 5” square of stamping card and stamped the Daisy image. I coloured it with Zig pens and highlighted with white Posca pen, then added a watercolour wash around the image with a Zig pen roughly blended out with a water brush. I added a few gold Posca spatters and a stamped sentiment, then matted onto fuchsia pink pearlescent card stock and a card blank - job done!

Stamps: Visible Image Daisy Grunge;

Media: Versafine Clair (Nocturne); Kuretake Zig Clean Colour watercolour pens; Posca pens (white, gold).

Challenges I would like to enter:

613 Avenue Create (April) - Anything Goes with option Splash of Colour (2nd entry) - TOP ROCKER

AAA Challenge #263 - Anything CAS Goes

Beautiful Blossoms #16 - Anything Floral Goes (3rd entry)

Card Concept #206 - April Flowers (3rd entry)

CAS On Friday #281 - Spring

Country View Crafts FB Challenge (April) - Flower Power (3rd entry)

Crafter’s Cafe #307 - CAS

Creative Inspirations (April) - The Season of Spring (3rd entry) - TOP 3

Double Trouble #164 - CAS

Krafty Chicks #712 - CAS - TOP PICK

Path of Positivity #120 - Anything Positive Goes - TOP PICK

Simply Clean and Simple (April) - Anything Goes CAS (2nd entry)

We Love 2 Create #3 - Anything Mixed Media Goes

We Love Stamping (April) - Spring (3rd entry)

Word Art Wednesday #643/644 - Anything Goes (6th entry)

Worldwide Crafters and Colourists #16 - Anything Goes

Take care and thanks for visiting.

Hugs,

Lily of the Valley

Hi everyone, today I would like to share a card I made using a beautiful stamp and die set I won a couple of weeks ago over at the Snippets Playground, and also show you my recent attempt to get a grip of my coloured card snippets.

Last year I bought a 12” square paper holder from Crafter’s Companion which has proven a very neat way of holding my complete sheets of 12x12 card and paper, but sad to say my snippets were inelegantly leaned up against it in a carrier bag in the corner of my craft space! I had reached the stage where I couldn’t find a particular colour card snippet when required so I needed to do something … but said paper holder is now no longer available from CC - and seems to be out of stock almost everywhere - waah! Last week however I managed to track one down with another stockist and also bought the coordinating divider pockets which weirdly are still available from CC … so after a happy hour of sifting and sorting I now have all my card snippets organised by colour family - yippee!! My only complaint is that the labels for the dividers don’t stick, but I can see what’s what and just need to lift one divider pocket out of the bag to look for a given colour card - result!

The first snippet I found and brought into play was a large green one for the frame on my card … here it is.

I cut a piece of white stamping card and created an inky background with smooshed Distress Oxide inks and a little background stamping from an AALL & Create set. I then stamped the flower onto a separate snippet of white card, coloured with Zig pens and Spectrum Noir sparkle pen, and die cut out.

I die cut the stitched frame from my green card snippet, stamped and die cut the tag from a separate white snippet, then assembled the card onto a 7” x 5” card blank.

Stamps: Crafter’s Companion stamp & die set May - Lily of the Valley; AALL & Create #623 Elegant Spring Florals;

Media: Tim Holtz Distress Oxide inks (Tumbled Glass, Broken China, Cracked Pistachio); Versafine Clair (Nocturne, Warm Breeze); Kuretake Zig Clean Colour watercolour pens; Spectrum Noir sparkle pen (clear);

Tools: CC stamp and die set as above; Hunkydory Moonstone Duo-Stitched Rectangle dies.

Challenges I would like to enter:

Beautiful Blossoms #16 - Anything Floral Goes (2nd entry)

Creative Knockouts #519 - Spring Is In the Air (3rd entry)

Dragonfly Dreams (April) - Use a Die (2nd entry)

My Time to Craft #532 - Die-Cuts

Simon Says (Monday) - Make Your Own Background (5th entry)

Snippets Playground #478 - Use Snippets

Unicorn #97 - Use Dies (2nd entry)

Word Art Wednesday #643/644 - Anything Goes (5th entry)

Take care and thanks for visiting.

Hugs,

Winter Magic

Hi everyone, today I’ve moved from one extreme to the other … my previous post was filled with sunny colours and spring flowers and bees … so today’s share is a Christmas card in cool wintry hues! As happens every year I’m not exactly on track with my Christmas makes, so I thought I’d better sneak one in whilst I was in the mood!! 

I cut a square of stamping card and used circle and hill masks to create my background snowy hills and sky with blended Della Blue Elements ink. I then stamped the pheasant in Nocturne, and the trees in 1st/2nd generation Twilight Versafine Clair. I then removed the mask and stamped the pinecone branches around the edge of the circle and mini pinecones in the bottom corner. I highlighted the scene with my clear Sakura Stardust pen, added some white Posca snow to the fence and trees and Spectrum Noir sparkle pen to the snow drifts, then stamped the sentiment and added some Posca snowfall to that too. 

I still felt it needed something more, so I replaced the mask and stamped background Christmas wording using Elements ink (my VFC shades of blue weren’t quite right … oh how I want a few of the new VFC colours if they ever come back into stock anywhere !!). Finally I added some Posca dots of falling snow and matted the finished piece onto dark blue card stock and a 6” square card blank. 

Here’s an angled pic to show some of the sparkle.

Stamps: Lavinia Pheasant, Small Pine Trees, Fir Cone Branch, Mini Pine Cone, Winter Magic,  Christmas Greetings;

Media: Lavinia Elements ink (Della Blue); Versafine Clair (Nocturne, Twilight); Sakura Stardust pen (clear); Spectrum Noir sparkle pen (clear); Posca pen (white);

Tools: Press To Impress circle mask; Lavinia Mini Hills masks.

Challenges I would like to enter:

12 Months of Christmas #109 - Anything Christmas Goes

ABC Christmas Challenge - I Is For Inky - TOP 3

Alphabet Challenge - B is for Birds - TOP 3

Christmas Craft Creations (April) - Non-Traditional Colours

C.R.A.F.T. #716 - Christmas

FarmQuest Country Christmas #7 - Anything Country Christmas Goes

FarmQuest General Store #15 - Anything Farm or Country Goes

Festive Fridays (April) - Christmas (2nd entry) - TOP 3

The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge #161 - Anything Christmas Goes - TOP 5

Make My Monday #223 - Nat. picture of a Bird - TOP 3

My Time to Craft Christmas #84 - Non-Traditional Christmas Colours - TOP 3

Simon Says (Monday) - Make Your Own Background (4th entry) - DESIGNER SPOTLIGHT

Sparkles Christmas #159 - Non-Traditional Colours

Word Art Wednesday #643/644 - Anything Goes (4th entry)

Hope you’re having a nice weekend, whatever you’re doing. Take care, and thanks for visiting.

Hugs,

Mellow Yellow

Hi everyone, this month’s ATC swap in the Visible Image FB group has a theme of Mellow Yellow - to make a monochrome yellow ATC using only Visible Image stamps, stencils and/or dies. As usual I also made a co-ordinating card to send to my swap partner.

I’ve made a number of daffodil and tulip cards recently so I wanted to go in a different direction - I decided to use my newish daisy stamp and add some bees. I also wanted to give the card a slightly more grungy vibe rather than too “pretty pretty” as my swap partner this month is male. Here they are.

First the ATC …

I cut a piece of stamping card slightly smaller than a standard ATC, and stamped the grunge daisy to one side. I then masked the daisy and created a smoosh Distress Oxide background applied with acetate, and added background honeycomb stamping using Versafine Clair in Cheerful. I coloured the centre of the daisy with Posca sparkle pens and the petals with clear Spectrum Noir sparkle pen, then added dots to the centre with white Posca and black fineliner. I stamped the bee onto separate card, coloured with Posca sparkle pen and the wings with my Spectrum Noir pen, then fussy cut and attached - I do have the coordinating dies but didn’t want a white border on the bees for this project. I stamped the sentiment and spatters in black, added some white Posca highlights, then some black doodling. Finally I added some yellow sparkle Posca spatters, and when dry matted onto a black and yellow border.

Stamps: Visible Image Daisy Grunge, Bee Happy;

Media: Tim Holtz Distress Oxide inks (Squeezed Lemonade, Mustard Seed); Versafine Clair (Nocturne, Cheerful); Posca sparkle pens (yellow, orange); Spectrum Nour sparkle pen (clear); Posca pen (white); fine liner pen (black).

Challenges I would like to enter:

Crafty Gals #254 - Anything Goes 

Creative Inspirations (April) - The Season of Spring (2nd entry)

Creative Knockouts #519 - Spring Is In the Air (2nd entry)

Four Seasons (April) - Anything Goes Spring with optional Mood Board

(I have been inspired by the daisies)

Outlawz (April) - Anything Goes in a Card Free Zone 

Pammie’s Inky Pinkies #2415 - Anything Goes

Sisterhood of Crafters - Showers or Flowers (2nd entry)

Word Art Wednesday #643/644 - Anything Goes (3rd entry)

Here is the co-ordinating card.

This used largely the same method and supplies as the ATC on a larger scale, stamping the whole daisy onto the card and adding two larger bees from the same stamp set.

Both of these are actually pretty sparkly but I can’t capture that on the photos at all!

Challenges I would like to enter:

613 Avenue Create (April) - Anything Goes with option Splash of Colour

Addicted to Stamps and More #466 - Make Your Mark

Allsorts #776 - Spring (2nd entry)

Beautiful Blossoms #16 - Anything Floral Goes

Card Concept #206 - April Flowers  (daisies) 2nd entry)

Country View Crafts FB Challenge (April) - Flower Power

Simon Says (Monday) - Make Your Own Background (3rd entry)

Stamping  Sensations (April) - Spring Mood Board (2nd entry)

(I have been inspired by the daisy)

We Love Stamping (April) - Spring (2nd entry)

Take care, and thanks for visiting.

Hugs,

I Spy With My Little Eye #14

Hi everyone, Easter has been and gone, April is here with the promise of spring and it’s the third Wednesday in the month again, so it’s time for a new I Spy With My Little Eye... challenge over at Ellibelle's Corner.  Thanks so much to everyone who joined in last time … please do check over on Ellie’s blog to see if you are one of our top picks. 

I have chosen the challenge theme this month, and it is

I Spy With My Little Eye 

*** Something With Wings ***

Plenty of options there including birds, butterflies, dragonflies, fairies, angels or even aeroplanes!  … so we do hope you will join in. Please do pop over to Ellie's blog to see her fab creation and link up your entries here. 

We also have two guest designers joining us this month - Steph and  Liz - so please click on their names to visit their blogs and see their fabulous interpretations of the theme. 

I specifically wanted to use both a particular fairy (Lavinia “Sky”) and tree stamp which were kindly gifted to me by a dear bloggy friend during a destash (she knows who she is❤️), also because the fairy stamp includes a bird as well for extra challenge brownie points!! I decided to incorporate both of these into a spring scene - here it is.

I cut a 14.5cm square of stamping card and masked a square, then created the hills and sky using acetate masks and blended Elements and Distress inks. I removed the mask and stamped  Sky in one corner, then positioned paper copies of my mini hill masks so I could stamp the trees on the hillsides. I added leaves to one of the trees and blossom to the background copse using the tiny blossom stamps in the Lavinia set “Spring Trees”, inked with Distress Oxide inks. I then masked the bottom of the inked panel and stamped two rows of bluebells using lilac and blue DOX to add depth, then added a few bluebell tips to the hillsides. I shaded the sun with yellow DOX and coloured Sky’s wings with Zig pens and Spectrum Noir sparkle pen, then added some gel pen highlights to the scene. Finally I stamped the birds, added white pencil highlights to the fairy and birds, added a stamped sentiment and matted onto a black frame and card blank.

I’m absolutely in love with this fairy and would doubtless have bought her eventually if I hadn’t been the lucky recipient of a destash gift … in fact I did already own her, but in a different guise!! (Yes I really do have fairies at the bottom of the garden!!)

Stamps: Lavinia Sky, Skeleton Tree Scene, Spring Trees, Bluebells, Bird Collection, Birds; Visible Image Birthday Wishes; tree on left - unknown (gift);

Media: Lavinia Elements inks (Olive, Lime Punch, Della Blue); Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Tumbled Glass); Distress Oxide inks (Bundled Sage, Mowed Lawn, Spun Sugar, Kitsch Flamingo, Shaded Lilac, Blueprint Sketch, Squeezed Lemonade); Versafine Clair (Nocturne, Pinecone, Acorn); Kuretake Zig Clean Colour watercolour pens; Sakura Sparkle pen (yellow);  Spectrum Noir Sparkle pen (clear); Stabilo All pencil (white); gel pen (white);

Tools: Lavinia Acetate Mini Hills masks; Lavinia Acetate Circle masks; Press To Impress square mask.

Challenges I would like to enter:

Allsorts #776 - Spring 

Card Concept #206 - April Flowers (bluebells)

Creative Inspirations (April) - The Season of Spring

Creative Knockouts #519 - Spring Is In the Air

Dream Valley #314 - Make It Female

Fab ‘n’ Funky #593 - Add a Sentiment (2nd entry)

Festive Fridays (April) - Spring Is In the Air

Four Seasons (April) - Anything Goes Spring

Heart’s Quest Celebrations of Love #4 - Birthday (2nd entry)

Heart’s Quest Fantasy Challenge #4 - Anything Fantasy Goes - TOP 3

Papercraft #105 - Fairies and Other Mystical Beings - TOP 3

Simon Says (Monday) - Make Your Own Background (2nd entry)

Stamping  Sensations (April) - Spring Mood Board 

(I have been inspired by the pink blossom and green fields)

We Love Stamping (April) - Spring

Word Art Wednesday #643/644 - Anything Goes 

(2nd entry)

The I Spy challenge will end on the Sunday before the next challenge starts at 23:59 US Central Time - so this time that is Sunday May 12th, and the next challenge will begin on Wednesday May  15th.

Take care, and thanks for visiting.

Hugs,