Thursday, 10 April 2025

The Joys of Spring


Hi everyone, not sure where the past couple of weeks have gone to, but they have been so busy I’ve not done any crafting at all. However a good friend’s birthday is almost upon me so I thought I’d better get busy, and of course I also took the opportunity to play with a few of my new stamps from my visit to the Dreamatorium last Saturday.  As I mentioned in my previous post I only bought a moderate selection of the new Lavinia stamps which I thought would work with my existing stash, as I preferred to focus on getting more inks and sparkly pens! However I must admit I’ve already got my eye on a couple more which I managed to resist (temporarily!). Anyway, here is the birthday card for my friend, using a mixture of old and new stamps.


I created a large circle by blending the new Lemon drop Elements ink around a circle mask, then I stamped flowers around the edge of the circle. I masked the flowers then added Pris sitting on a swing which I coloured with Zig pens, and stamped a variety of the new Wild Foliage in 1st and 2nd generation Avocado Versafine Clair. I coloured the flowers using watered down Posca sparkle pens and edged the borders with Wink of Stella gold pen, then stamped the sentiment onto separate card, cut out and attached (the sentiment set is also new to me from the weekend). Finally I added a teeny stamped butterfly coloured with Sakura Stardust pens, and matted the finished piece onto black and yellow card stock and a 6” square card blank.

Here is an angled picture which attempts to show the sparkle.


Stamps: Lavinia Pris, Swing, Moss Flowers, Wild Foliage, Fairy Bugs, Heartfelt Verses;
Media: Lavinia Elements ink (Lemon Drop); Versafine Clair (Nocturne, Avocado); Posca sparkle pens (pink, orange, yellow, purple); Sakura Stardust pens (pink, orange, purple); Winknof Stella (gold); Kuretake Zig Clean Color watercolour pens; Posca pen (white); Stabilo pencil (white).

Challenges I would like to enter:

AAA Birthday #72 - Mythical
Ally’s Angels #92 - Anything Goes
Beautiful Blossoms #27 - Anything Floral Goes (2nd entry)
Classic Design Challenge #3 2025 - Anything Goes with option Bunnies, Blooms and/or Butterflies
Colourful Options (April) - Colour Inspiration (pastels)
Crafty Catz #691 - Anything Goes
Let’s Craft and Create #218 - Anything Goes with option Add Flowers
Little Red Wagon #802 - C is for Circles
Love to Craft #85 - Anything Goes (2nd entry)
Love to Scrap #172 - Anything Goes
Mix It Up #76 - Anything Goes
Paper Funday #75 - Anything Goes with option Things Beginning with “B”
(blooms, butterfly, birthday greeting)
Sweet Stampin’ - Female Cards
Triple B (April) - Birds, Butterflies and/or Blooms

Here’s hoping I’ll manage to crack on now and get a few more cards made. I’m hoping to get one or two entries in for the special Lavinia “Dreamatorium” challenge using only stamps from the Dreamatorium collection, though as I have only a few of them that Will indeed be a bit of a challenge, and regular visitors here may have to put up with a bit of repetition!!

Take care, and thanks for visiting.
Hugs,
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Sunday, 6 April 2025

Every Dream Begins With a Wish


Hi everyone, I’ve not been around much crafting - had a very busy week plus as I’ve already mentioned, I’ve just not been enjoying crafting as much recently. So yesterday I went on a little adventure which I hope will kickstart my crafty mojo, with a visit to Lavinia’s new Dreamatorium in Ruthin for their opening weekend and Spring Extravaganza.

What an amazing place it is! The building itself is beautiful and it has been decorated in the most magical way with huge attention to detail. As well as plenty of space for both crafty supplies and home/giftware, there is also a huge new workshop area where the DT were demonstrating. It was absolutely wonderful to watch a few demos, chat with Tracey Dutton and some of the lovely DT including Jo Rice, Sarah Anderson, Emma-Jo and Amanda Branston, and say hello to staff old and new including Annja, Noni, and of course the obligatory hugs from Jack! 

So far as craft goodies were concerned I was really bewildered by choice. I was actually reasonably restrained in buying new stamps, as this time I focussed on getting the new colours of Elements inks which I decided I needed only after they had sold out online … but happy days the staff had reserved some for the new shop’s opening weekend! Of course I did also buy a few new stamps … and a couple of pens … and a couple of glues and paper products! 

All in all I had a fabulous day, and congratulated Tracey on this amazing event which is clearly the result of a huge amount of hard work by her and her team.

Here are a few pics - I’m not in any of them, but I do actually appear incredibly briefly in Emma- Jo’s 4pm “live” on FB yesterday, so I was definitely there!! Hope I’ll be back before too long with something I make with my new stash!











Take care, and thanks for visiting.
Hugs,
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