C.R.A.F.T. #776 - Guest Designer

Hi everyone, I was thrilled to be asked to be guest designer on this fortnight’s C.R.A.F.T. Challenge, where the theme for the next two weeks is 

*** Christmas - Children ***

The fabulous sponsor for this challenge is

All Dressed Up

The prize is 2 images from their online store.

The design team have made some fabulous projects to inspire you, so please do visit the challenge blog to check them out, and to link up your own entries. 

Here is my card for the challenge. I will hold my hand up that I did struggle a bit with this - I have absolutely no requirement for children’s Christmas cards so my stash is not really geared that way; but I decided a glittery, fantasy Christmas tree and fairy might work for a girl, so that’s what I went with!

I die cut a stitched rectangle of white stamping card, then stamped the Christmas tree in pink and heat embossed with holographic glitter embossing powder. I stamped the fairy with the lantern she normally carries masked off, then coloured her wings with Sakura Stardust pens. I hand drew a bauble in her hand using my White Orbs stencil,, which I also coloured with Stardust pens along with the baubles on the tree. I added a stamped sentiment and a few stars, then matted onto turquoise glitter card and a 7” x 5” card blank. To finish I added the absolute last star gem that I could find in my stash to the top of the tree!

This card is really VERY sparkly - here’s an angled picture.

Stamps: Lavinia White Pine, Dragonfly Keepers; sentiment and stars free with craft magazine; 

Media: Versafine Clair (Nocturne, Baby Pink, Bali Blue); Sakura Stardust pens (pink, turquoise, clear);

Tools: Hunkydory Moonstone Duo-Stitched rectangle die; Lavinia White Orbs stencil.

Challenges I would like to enter:

12 Months of Christmas #132 - Anything Goes Christmas

613 Avenue Create (March) - Anything Goes with option Things With Wings

ABC Christmas  - G is for Gems

Christmas or Not BINGO #18 - BINGO Card

(I have chosen column “I” - Christmas / Pink / Stamping)

Christmas Crafts All Year Round (March) - F is for … Fairy

Crafty Catz #709 - Anything Goes

Merry Little Christmas #67 - Anything Christmas Goes

Outlawz Christmas (March) - Anything Christmas Goes

Peace On Earth #108 - Anything Goes Christmas

Simon Says (Wednesday) - Clean and Simple

Word Art Wednesday #744/745 - Anything Goes (2nd entry)

Thanks very much to the C.R.A.F.T. challenge Design Team for asking me to be guest designer this time.

Take care, and thanks for visiting.

Hugs,

I Spy With My Little Eye #35/36

Hi everyone, once again it’s the third Wednesday in the month which can only mean one thing … it’s time for another 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. 

This time we have got double the fun for you, as we are running a two month long challenge with two themes, so you have got both plenty of time to enter, and plenty of choice of subject. So … our two themes for this challenge are

*** Spring Flowers***

and

*** Spring Showers ***

Please don’t forget to pop over to Ellie's blog to see her fab creation and link up your entries here.

We are also delighted to be joined by a guest designer - Jolanda - so please do click on her name to visit her blog and view her beautiful creation.

Here’s my card for the challenge - as you can see I decided to go with spring flowers.

Last autumn I bought a fabulous extra large background “spatter” stamp by Inkylicious at a craft fair, but for some unknown reason I had never inked it up until now. It is VERY big, so I decided to make a one layer card to give maximum space to accommodate it! I scored a piece of 30cm x 15cm Pink Frog super smooth card to make a square card blank, then dabbed various colours of Distress Oxide onto the stamp and spritzed with water then stamped - it acted rather, like a gel plate! I stamped the daffodils, then stamped again onto a separate snippet of card, coloured with Zig pens and Wink of Stella, fussy cut and attached. I stamped two bunnies in the corner which I highlighted with white Posca pen and pastel pencil, then stamped the sentiment - job done! 

Stamps: Inkylicious Spatter Circle XL; Visible Image Golden Daffodils; Lavinia Wild Hares (large); Uniko Spring Botanicals Snowdrop (sentiment);

Media: Tim Holtz Distress Oxide inks (Twisted Citron, Cracked Pistachio, Peacock Feathers, Broken China); Versafine Clair (Nocturne, Medieval Blue); Kuretake Zig Clean Color watercolour pens; Posca pen (white); pastel pencil (white).

Challenges I would like to enter:

Beautiful Blossoms #39 - Anything Floral Goes with optional Mood Board

Craft Rocket #134 - No Designer Paper

Crafty Calendar (March) - Spring

Creative Crafting Uncles #75 - Spring and/or Easter

Creative Moments #280 - Bunnies and Blooms

Daisy Chain #105 - Flowers

Ellibelle’s Garden Party #13 - Anything In or From a Garden

Four Seasons (March) - Spring (2nd entry)

Girlz Creative Crafts #66 - Flowers

Papercraft Challenges #128 - Joy of Spring

Passion for Markers #829 - Make It Bloom

Path of Positivity #139 - Anything Goes Positive

Simon Says (Monday) - Beautiful Blooms

Sparkles #198 - It’s Springtime!

Triple B (March) - Birds, Butterflies and/or Blooms

Try It On Tuesday - Spring

The I Spy Challenge will end on the Sunday before the next challenge starts at 23:59 US Central Time - as our challenge runs for two months this time that is Sunday May 17th, and the next challenge will begin on Wednesday May 20th.

Take care, and thanks for visiting.

Hugs,

You’ll Always Be a Classic

Hi everyone, today I’d like to share the birthday card I made for my darling husband’s 65th birthday. This is actually an enlarged and expanded version of a card I made last year, and as I really liked it the first time and always had in mind I wanted to make something along similar lines for him. My mojo is still on an extended holiday and this is my first make for 2 weeks, so it was good to have an idea to get me started!

I die cut a grungy square, and created a grungy inky background by smooshing Vintage Photo, Frayed Burlap, Hickory Smoke and Black Soot Distress Oxides using acetate and spritzed water. I then stamped the focal car in Nocturne VFC and coloured the highlights with a white Posca pen. I added various stencilling of diamonds, cogs and dots using more DOX, and background stamped numbers and spatters using Portobello and Nocturne VFC. I stamped the sentiments and numbers, highlighted with white Posca, then matted the panel onto a die cut black border. 

I then cut a larger piece of tan striped DP from an 8” x 8” sheet, lightly stencilled cogs all the way round and added stamped spatters, before matting onto a black border. I matted the image panel onto the paper, a black border and ann8” square card blank. To finish off I added Glossy Accents to the car windows and headlights, and some small metal Tim Holtz cogs.

Stamps: Visible Image You’re a Classic, Sunflower Grunge (spatters); AALL & Create #455 Seasons (numbers);

Media: Tim Holtz Distress Oxides inks (Vintage Photo, Frayed Burlap, Scorched Timber, Hickory Smoke, Black Soot); Versafine Clair (Nocturne, Portobello); Posca pen (white); Glossy Accents;

Papers: LotV ‘Country Gentleman):

Tools: AALL & Create die #42 Papyrus Essence; Darkroom Door stencil - Diamonds; Visible Image stencil - Halftone; craft magazine cogs stencil;

Other: Tim Holtz Idea-ology Mini Gears.

Challenges I would like to enter:

AAA Birthday #83 - Use Die Cuts

As You Like It - Favourite Person to craft for (and why)

(Mine is my husband, of course! ❤️)

Cardz 4 Guyz #383 - Monochrome Colour Palette

Crafts Galore Encore #145 - Anything Goes

Crazy Is Our Fame, Stencils Are Our Game (March) - Use a Stencil

Creative Artiste #124 - Anything Mixed Media Goes

Cut It Up #351 - Happy Birthday

Heart’s Quest Celebrations of Love #3 2026 - Birthdays 

Little Red Wagon #849 - Boy Inside the Man

Love to Craft #91 - Anything Goes

Love to Scrap #178 - Anything Goes

Mix It Up #84 - Anything Goes

Shopping Our Stash #569 - I’m Counting on You

Sparkles #197 - Vintage/Mixed Media

Tic Tac Toe #288 - Tic Tac Toe

(Stencils / Ink blending / Spatter/smooshing)

Unicorn #118 - Transportation

We Love 2 Create #2 2026 - Anything Mixed Media/Papercrafting Goes

Word Art Wednesday #742/743 - Anything Goes

Hope you’re having a great weekend, whatever you’re doing.

Take care, and thanks for visiting.

Hugs,

Spring Has Sprung!

Hi everyone, it’s March and spring is officially here, though looking out at the weather here in the UK you wouldn’t necessarily notice! Confession time … yesterday was time to turn over my Lavinia calendar page for March, but due to a variety of reasons I hadn’t made it - eek! So yesterday afternoon I thought I’d better get busy, and here is the result. 

I cut a piece of stamping card 19.5cm x 14.5cm and first stamped the cottage and fairy path. I then masked them and created the hills and sky by blending Elements and Distress inks using my hill and circle masks. I stamped the fairy washing line (which I treated myself to last week specifically so I could make this page!), carefully masking it so that the washing was stamped in Nocturne while the end trees were stamped in Shady Lane VFC. I stamped Sky the fairy then added some stamped trees on the background hills, adding spring green leaves from the Spring Trees set. I then coloured the cottage and path with Zig pens, and fairy wings with Sakura Stardust pens. Unfortunately my Zigs didn’t blend well on the cottage - I have recently bought a new pack of super smooth stamping card and have noticed it definitely doesn’t blend as well as previously! So … I stamped another cottage onto separate card, coloured it with watercolour pencils, cut out and attached. I added a few finishing touches by stamping a fence, various foliage and bluebells around the cottage and the edges, a flight of birds and lastly some background spring wording.

When my husband saw the finished result he enquired about the absence of any March hares, or (having been brought up in Wales) daffodils. I had to tell him that sadly Lavinia don’t make any daffodil stamps (he replied that as a Welsh company, maybe they should!); but I added the hare sitting looking at the fairy, just for him! ❤️

Stamps: Lavinia Sky, Woodside View, Fairy Path, Fairy Washing Line, Skeleton Tree Scene, Trees, Spring Trees, Bluebells, Thyme, Winter Foliage, Gate & Fence, Forest Hares, Birds, Words of Spring;

Media: Lavinia Elements inks (Olive, Pine, Lime  Punch, Sundance, Lemon Drop); Tim Holtz Distress ink (Tumbled Glass); Versafine Clair (Nocturne, Morning Mist, Pinecone, Acorn, Shady Lane, Avocado, Very Peri, Lilac Bloom); Kuretake Clean Color watercolour pens; watercolour pencils; Sakura Stardust pens (pink, yellow, green); Posca pen (white);

Tools: Lavinia Hill mask and circle masks; My Favorite Things cloud stencil.

Challenges I would like to enter:

613 Avenue Create (March) - Anything Goes with option Things With Wings

Country View Crafts (March) - Spring Into Life

Cardz 4 Galz #270 - Wings

Crafts Galore Encore #145 - Anything Goes 

Crafty Catz #708 - Anything Goes

Four Seasons (March) - Anything Goes

Lavinia Creative Challenge (March) - Spring Awakening

Outlawz Anything but a Card (March) - Anything but a Card

Simon Says (Monday) - Whatever the Weather

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

We Love 2 Create #2 2026 - Anything Mixed Media / Papercrafting Goes

Word Art Wednesday #740/741 - Anything Goes (4th entry)

I’m just hoping that the weather will finally get the memo that spring is here, and we can see an end to the relentless rain we’ve been having! 

Take care, and thanks for visiting.

Hugs,