Bluebells and Bunny

Hi everyone, today’s card is a fairly simple one I made for this month’s Lavinia Creative Challenge - “The Joys of Spring”. I love bluebells so I decided to incorporate some into a little scene, along with a cute bunny being as it is nearly Easter!

I took a pre-cut 30cm x 15cm piece of  Pink Frog super smooth card, and scored it to make a one-layer card suitable for blending inks directly onto the card base. I masked the card so that I could create an inked vertical panel blending Elements inks and using my acetate Mini Hill and Circle masks. I then removed the masks and stamped my scene using various shades of Versafine Clair. I highlighted the bird and bunny with white Stabilo pencil, and added white Posca accents here and there. I also outlined the sun with Stardus pen and highlighted it with Wink of Stella to add a little sparkle. Finally I stamped the sentiment directly into the card base.

Stamps: Lavinia Bluebells, Trees, Grass, Gate and Fence, Wild Hares (large), Bird Collection, Birds, The World Is Full of Beauty;

Media: Lavinia Elements inks (Blue Lagoon, Pixie Green, Lemon Drop); Versafine Clair (Nocturne, Morning Mist, Blue Belle, Very Peri, Medieval Blue, Shady Lane, Portobello); Sakura Stardust pen (yellow); Stabilo pencil (white); Posca pen (white); Wink of Stella (clear);

Tools: Lavinia acetate Mini Hill and Circle masks.

Challenges I would like to enter:

Beautiful Blossoms #28 - Anything Floral Goes

Creative Aunts #100 - Spring

Double D - Springtime Flowers (2nd entry)

Ellibelle’s Garden Party #2 - Anything In or From a Garden

Fab ‘n’ Funky #614 - Think Spring (2nd entry)

FarmQuest General Store #27 - Anything Farm or Country Goes

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

Heart’s Quest Celebrations of Love #4 2025 - Spring Season (2nd entry)

Lavinia Creative Challenge (April) - The Joys of Spring (2nd entry)

Let’s Craft and Create #218 - Anything Goes with option Add Flowers

Moving Along With the Times #177 - Spring Flowers (2nd entry)

Outlawz Festive Friday (April) - Bunnies/Birds

Paper Funday #75 - Anything Goes with option Things Beginning With “B” (2nd entry)

(Bluebells, birds, bunny)

Shopping Our Stash #545 - Hippity Hop

Triple B (April) - Birds, Butterflies and/or Blooms (2nd entry)

Try It On Tuesday - Oh So Sweet

Word Art Wednesday #694/695 - Anything Goes (3rd entry)

Hope everyone is having a lovely Easter weekend, whatever you’re doing.

Take care, and thanks for visiting.

Hugs,

Simon Says - Spring/Easter

Hi everyone,

Monday has come around again, and I'm here with my third card as Guest Designer for the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge.

This week the theme is

Spring / Easter

The lovely folks over at Simon Says Stamp are generously giving away a FABULOUS $25 voucher to shop at the  Simon Says Stamp Store! All you have to do is take out your crafty supplies, make something following this week’s prompt, and add a link in the Inlinkz  on the challenge blog post!  You can enter 5 times so that's 5 possible chances to win! All winners are chosen randomly, so everyone has an equal chance - good luck everyone!

Here's my card for this week - a Lavinia meadow scene with spring flowers (bluebells and Welsh or California poppies), bunny and bird, and blossom on the trees. I know that in reality these things wouldn’t all happen at the same time or in the same field, but in the magical world of Lavinia anything is possible!! (links to my supplies are below the description)

I cut a square of white stamping card and used  large and small circle masks and my Lavinia acetate hill masks to create a circular background of hills, sky and sun with Distress Oxide inks (Salty Ocean, Broken China, Tumbled Glass, Twisted Citron,  Bundled Sage, Mowed Lawn, Squeezed Lemonade). I used a home made reverse circle mask to mask the outer portion of the card, stamped the gate and fence using Versafine (Vintage Sepia), and the bird using the same ink and shaded with Versafine Clair (Pinecone). 

I stamped a "background" row of bluebells then a "middle" row, then a “foreground” row using Shaded Lilac, Blueprint Sketch and Wilted Violet  Distress Oxides. I removed the mask then stamped the hare using Nocturne VFC and the poppies using Cheerful and Verdant VFC. I added some background trees  on the hills using 1st and 2nd generation stamping, and added a little blossom using Spun Sugar and Kitsch Flamingo DO. I stamped the "Secret Garden" sign in the bottom corner, then stamped again onto separate card, covered in blended Antique Linen Distress ink, then fussy cut and attached popped up on foam tape. 

I added a couple of wispy clouds over the sun using torn paper and Stormy Sky DO, then highlighted the sun, animals and poppies with Sakura Stardust pens to add some sparkle, and added a few tiny flowers to the ground with acrylic paint pens. Finally I added a sentiment, edged the finished panel with black marker pen and matted simply onto blue linen card stock and my card base.  

Here are links to what I used: 

Stamps: Lavinia Wild Hares Set (Large), Garden Poppy, Bluebells, Gate and Fence, Bird Collection, Small Trees, Secret Garden; sentiment - retired Penny Black;

Media: Tim Holtz Distress Oxide inks (Salty Ocean, Broken China, Tumbled Glass, Stormy Sky, Squeezed Lemonade, Twisted Citron, Bundled Sage, Mowed Lawn, Shaded Lilac, Blueprint Sketch, Wilted Violet, Kitsch Flamingo, Spun Sugar); Distress Ink (Antique Linen); Versafine Clair (Nocturne, Pinecone, Cheerful, Verdant); Versafine (Vintage Sepia); Sakura Gelly Roll Stardust Galaxy gel pens (yellow); Sakura Gelly Roll Stardust Meteor gel pens (orange);
Tools:  Lavinia Acetate Hill Mask Stencils. 

Don’t forget to visit the challenge blog to see the amazing inspiration from the rest of the Design Team.

You have until Monday  8 am Ohio time, 1 pm UK time, 2 pm CET to join in.

Challenges I would like to enter:

2 Sisters On the Blog #72 - Spring/Easter

Crafter’s Cafe #295 - Circles

Critter Crazy #72 - Anything Goes With a Featured Critter (2nd entry)

Daisy Chain Challenge #72 - Flowers (3rd entry)

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

Make My Monday #196 - Spring Colours (2nd entry) - TOP PICK

Sweet Stampin’ - Spring/Easter

We Love Stamping (March) - Anything Stamped with option Spring Is In the Air (3rd entry)

Word Art Wednesday #587/588 - Anything Goes (3rd entry)

I am also entering a version of this card (without sentiment) into the Lavinia Monthly Creative Challenge “Bursting With Colour”.

Take care, and thanks for visiting my blog today.

Hugs,

Bluebell Meadow

Hi everyone, this week’s Simon Says (Wednesday) challenge is asking crafters to make a slimline card, which isn’t something I ever normally do. However it resonated with me, as I was thinking about experimenting with stamping some spring bluebells to enter into this month’s Lavinia challenge, so I soon started thinking about a long slim bluebell meadow … and here it is.

I cut a piece of white stamping card 8” x 3” and created a soft smooshed background with blue and green Distress Inks. I built up my bluebell meadow by first stamping some “background” flowers in 2nd generation grey Versafine Clair, then some mid-ground with Shaded Lilac Distress Oxide flowers and 2nd generation Shady Lane VFC stems, then foreground flowers stamped with Blueprint Sketch Distress Oxide and 1st generation Shady Lane VFC. 

I would have to say this must rate as the most fiddly stamping operation I have ever undertaken with repeated masking and unmasking of the flower head and stem … but at least I avoided a blot like the one on last week’s card! I must admit I'm also pleased with the soft watercolour effect this stamping achieved after all that effort!!  At the end of all that I stamped the sentiment in dark blue, and added a couple of bunnies, bees and a bird. I coloured the bee bodies with yellow Posca Sparkle pen and the wings with my Sakura clear Stardust pen. Finally I added some random white Posca pen dots, edged the panel with black marker pen, then matted onto blue pearlescent linen card stock and a hand cut 8 1/2” x 3 1/2” card blank.

Here is a closeup to show the sparkly bees.

Stamps: Lavinia Bluebell, Wild Hares Set (large), Bird Collection, Bee Miniature, sentiment - The Heart Is Full of Beauty (retired);

Media: Tim Holtz Distress Inks (Tumbled Glass, Shabby Shutters, Peeled Paint); Distress Oxide inks (Shaded Lilac, Blueprint Sketch); Versafine Clair (Nocturne, Shady Lane, Morning Mist, Medieval Blue); Sakura Stardust pen (clear); Posca Sparkle pen (yellow); Posca pen (white).

Challenges I would like to enter:

Crafty Animals #70 - Anything Goes with an Animal

Creative Inspirations (March) - Spring Blooms

DL.Art (March) - Anything Goes

Ellibelle's Crafty Wednesday (March) - Anything Goes

Happy Little Stampers: Watercolour (March) - Anything Goes with option Wings

Lavinia Creative Challenge (March) - Bursting With Colour

Lost Coast Portal to  Creativity #162 - Spring Has Sprung

Shopping Our Stash #491 - Flowers, Flowers Everywhere (2nd entry) - TOP 3

Simon Says (Monday) - Things With Wings (2nd entry)

Simon Says (Wednesday) - Slimline Cards

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

Word Art Wednesday #585/586 - Anything Goes

So … spring has finally sprung! Looking forward with fingers crossed to some hopefully milder and brighter days, and more spring crafting! Take care, and thanks for visiting.

Hugs,

New Life

Hello crafters, today I would like to show you my latest homework for the Snippets Playground challenge. I find a great way to use up snippets is to make ATC’s, and my stock is currently very low as I haven’t made many recently so am not in a very good position to trade .. so I thought I’d make a start in replenishing my stock by making a couple of spring ATC’s. 

For this pair of ATC’s I took a medium sized snippet and roughly brayered two colours of Distress Oxide ink onto it, then spattered with water. When dry I cut it into two pieces each 3.25” x 2.25”, then stamped the flowers, hare and background wording using Versafine Clair. I stamped the flowers in green, and then coloured over the flower heads with white Posca pen to look like snowdrops … a technique I have seen several people use with this particular stamp on FB. To be honest I wasn’t very happy with the result as the flowers weren’t initially very white when I used my size 1M pen and the texture was not at all smooth .. I tried again with my 5M pen which was much whiter but not really fine enough for the job. Eventually I coloured over with my Spectrum Noir Sparkle pen which smoothed things out  - a bit!!. At that point I decided to leave well alone, but I recognize I need to experiment and practice this quite a bit more! I stamped my sentiment onto separate tiny snippets of stamping card, cut out and attached.  Finally I rooted through my stash until I found an appropriate colour snippet for matting, which explains why I didn’t photograph my snippets before I started - I never know how these things will turn out until I get there! I edged my image panels with marker pen before matting onto standard ATC size card pieces.

Here is a closeup of one of them. The flower heads are actually very sparkly, but not even an angled picture seemed to capture that!

Stamps: Lavinia Fairy Bells, Flower Collection, Pipin, Spring Words; sentiment - Visible Image Sketched Tulips;

Media: Tim Holtz Distress Oxide inks (Tumbled Glass, Bundled Sage); Versafine Clair  (Nocturne, Verdant, Shady Lane, Warm Breeze); Posca pen (white); Spectrum Noir sparkle pen (clear).

Challenges I would like to enter:

Art Impressions #345 - Bloom Where You Are Planted

Crafter’s Cafe #294 - Cute

Creative Crafters #61 - Anything Goes

Dream Valley #287 - Add Some Bling

Make My Monday #194 - All Creatures Great and Small (2nd entry)

Pammie’s Inky Pinkies #2306 - Anything Goes

Path of Positivity #109 - Anything Goes Positive 

Shopping Our Stash #490 - Anything Starting With Letter B

(Blue, Bunny)

Snippets Playground #447 - Use Snippets

Word Art Wednesday #583/584 - Anything Goes

That’s all for today - as always, take care and thanks so much for visiting. 

Hugs,

To My Valentine

Hi everyone, today I would like to share the Valentine card I made for my husband. I love making cards for him, but I do struggle with male cards and always wonder what to make as I think it's fair to say that most of my stash is more geared towards female cards!  Anyhoo, here is a Lavinia scene I created with loved up bunnies!  I was actually rather distracted when made this and realised afterwards that I'd slipped up, as it is actually extremely similar to the card I made him last year. I had got mixed up as I hadn't checked,  and thought last year's Valentine was a hedgehog card I made!! .. but when I told my husband I had slipped up and would need another cardmaking session he told me that I needn’t do that ... aww bless him!

I cut a square of stamping card, positioned my heart stencil and created my background by blending Distress Oxide inks and also using hill and circle masks. I then removed the stencil and stamped my hares, trees and hearts using Versafine Clair, and stamped a foliage border frame around the inked heart. I added some background stencilling of mini-hearts around the focal image with more DO, and stamped the sentiment before die-cutting the panel with a stitched square die. I rounded off by blending more DO round the edges of the panel and attaching to my card base, and highlighted the bunnies and moon with my Sakura stardust pen.

To make the card a bit more special for him I also decorated the inside with more romantic bunnies, and the envelope with bunnies plus a different heart stencil.

Stamps: Lavinia Wild Hares Set (large), Skeleton Tree Scene, Mini Leaf 2, Single Heart Mini; sentiment - Penny Black transparent set;

Media: Tim Holtz Distress Oxide inks (Black Soot, Hickory Smoke, Seedless Preserves, Villainous Potion, Chipped Sapphire); Versafine Clair (Nocturne, Medieval Blue, Charming Pink); Sakura Stardust pen (clear);

Tools: Hunkydory Moonstone Duo-Stitched Square dies; large heart stencil - Crafts Too Press to Impress; small hearts stencil and envelope heart stencil  - The Range; Lavinia Acetate Hill Masks, Acetate Circle Masks.

Challenges I would like to enter:

Art Impressions - You’re My Everything

As You Like It - Favourite - Love or Friendship (and why) - TOP 3

(I love both, but my favourite is making cards for my husband to show him that I love him) 

Birthstone Challenges #1 - Amethyst - TOP PICK

Cardz 4 Guys #315 - Valentine for a Guy

C.R.A.F.T. #667 - Love / Valentine  - TOP 3

Craft Rocket #100 - Love/Valentine (2nd entry)

Crafting Happiness #139 - Love (2nd entry)

Crafty Catz #624 - Anything Goes with option Add a Little Love

Crafty Friends #164 - Love/Romance (2nd entry)

Crafty Gals’ Corner #240 - Add a Heart

Creatalicious #252 - Anything Goes with option Love &/or Hearts (2nd entry)

Cut It Up #271 - Have a Heart

Daring Cardmakers - All Loved Up

Double Trouble #131 - Love Is In the Air 

Dragonfly Dreams (February) - Love

Everybody Art #529 - Heart / Love

Fab 'n' Funky #566 - Valentine's or Hearts

Inspiration Station #46 - Inspiration Picture

(I was inspired by the idea of a loved up couple in a landscape)

Little Red Wagon #691 - Somebody To Love - FEATURED

Lost Coast Portal to Creativity #160 - Love and Hearts (2nd entry)

Make My Monday #194 - All Creatures Great and Small - TOP PICK

Simon Says (Monday) - Frame It

Sisterhood of Crafters - Hearts

Sweet Stampin' - Love

Try It On Tuesday - All You Need is Love - TOP 5

We love Stamping (February) - Anything Stamped with option Use a Stencil (2nd entry)

Word Art Wednesday #581/582 - Anything Goes (4th entry)

Hope everyone enjoys Valentine's today whatever you're doing. Take care and thanks for visiting.

Hugs,

Allsorts Challenge #670

Good morning everyone,

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

*** Any ‘real’ animal ***

So we would love to see any domestic, farmyard or even wild animals … but sadly no dragons or unicorns this week 😀

We have a super prize this week of 2 Lavinia stamps -  Guinevere and Shoal of Fishes :

Here's my card for this week.

I decided to take the opportunity to motor on with another spring/Easter card, using another old much-loved but sadly neglected Penny Black stamp.  My original intention was to produce a card using my old faithful PB cat holding a bunch of daffodils, but I couldn't find him anywhere !! However this bunny is so adorable it wasn’t too much of a hardship to turn to him instead 😀 ... and in the evening I found my spring pussycat!!😀

I stamped my image and coloured it with Promarkers, then cut out with my new stitched hexagon dies and sponged the edges with Distress Oxide ink. These dies arrived yesterday after a long trip from China via Amazon … I have recently bought a few of these sets as I didn’t have any stitched dies but can’t really shoulder the cost of UK dies on top of all my other recent crafty spending! The main problem with these Chinese dies is that they come all connected, and separating them leaves sharp spikes which poke a small hole in your cardstock (and potentially your fingers!!). I need to get my husband to clip them somehow, but of course I couldn’t wait so there is a li’l hole amongst my grass!! 

I used some papers from my stash for matting and also created a punched border. I also added a couple of die cut flowers and a leaf swirl, stamped my sentiment and cut that into another stitched hexagon. Lastly I used a couple of heart gems to disguise the little hole in my small hexagon 😀

Stamps: Penny Black - What a Spring! (2557K); sentiment - Uniko Spring Botanicals - Snowdrop;

Media: Promarkers and Flexmarkers; Tim Holtz Distress Oxide ink (Mowed Lawn);

Tools: stitched hexagon dies from Amazon; Joy! crafts Vintage Flourishes flower dies (6003/0024); Magnolia Doohickeys Heart Swirl Branch; Martha Stewart Woodland Vine punch;

Papers and gems from my stash.

Challenges I would like to enter:

Classic Design Challenge #4 2022 - Anything Goes (6th Birthday Challenge)

Colour Crazy #13 2022 - Anything Goes With Colouring

Country View Challenges (April) - Spring Is Coming

I ❤️ Promarkers #507 - Anything Goes with option Use a Die or Punch - TOP 3

My Time To Craft #478 - 3 or More Layers

Passion For Markers #634 - In the Garden - TOP 5

Penny Black Saturday Challenge (April) - Anything Goes with option Easter

Retro Rubber #179 - Groovy Baby!

(I have used bright yellow, bright pink and bright green ... and my PB bunny stamp is at least 10 years old!)

Sheepski #61 - Let’s Be Cute!

Simon Says (Wednesday) - Anything Goes

looking forward to seeing your entries this week - don't forget to visit the challenge blog to see more fab inspiration from the rest of the team. Enjoy your weekend, and thanks for visiting.

Hugs,

Be Mine ❤️

❤️❤️❤️ Happy Valentine’s Day everyone ❤️❤️❤️

Today I would like to share the Valentine card I made for my darling husband. 

He loves nature and woodland creatures, so when I was making some post-Christmas purchases from Lavinia I allowed a few to gambol into my shopping basket 😀. For this card I decided to use two of my new woodland hares as they could gaze adoringly at each other. A nature scene also ticked more boxes for Valentine’s Day as he isn’t a big fan of the traditional Valentine colour red (football loyalties intrude into every aspect of life) 🤣🤣

First I used my Press to Impress art board and heart stencil to create a distress oxide background night sky, with a circle cut from masking sheet for the moon. I created some landscape using my Lavinia hill masks and more distress oxide and Versafine Clair (Twilight), and sponged a little VFC around the moon to make it pop. I removed my circle mask and sponged some clouds across it with paler DO inks.

I stamped my two hares using Versafine and 2 mini hearts using more DO ( I don’t have any VFC in a suitable colour for hearts), then stamped my mini leaf spray all the way round the edge of the heart… I couldn’t possibly have done this in the past without my stamp positioner!! I'm actually very pleased with how that turned out ... I had that little stamp since before Christmas and wasn't quite sure what to do with it, but it was a perfect fit for this.  I then stamped a few hanging heart fairy charms and background trees, and highlighted the scene with my Sakura stardust sparkle pen.

I’m not very well off for Valentine sentiments, so found the best one I could muster and used it in a postmark style. I then matted my stamped panel onto glitter card and my card base … it is an 8x8 card so there was quite a bit of open space, which I filled with a couple of die cut hearts and some co-ordinating heart gems.  Finally I stamped a corner of my envelope to match .. job done!!

Stamps: Lavinia Woodland Hares (large), Fairy Charms, Skeleton Tree Scene, Single Heart Mini, Mini Leaf 2; sentiment - unknown;

Media: Tim Holtz Distress Oxide inks (Chipped Sapphire, Blueprint Sketch, Seedless Preserves, Stormy Sky, Picked Raspberry); Versafine (Onyx, Imperial Purple); Versafine Clair (Twilight, Morning Mist); Sakura Gelly roll pen - Stardust;

Tools: Press To Impress art board and heart stencil; Lavinia hill masks; Marianne  Design Creatables  heart dies (LR 0159); 

Gems from my stash.

Challenges I would like to enter:

A Place to Start #202202 - Anything Goes with option My Fauna Valentine

As You Like It - True Love or Fabulous Friendships (and why)

(I think both are incredibly important for a happy life .. but on Valentine’s Day it’s just got to be all about love 🥰🥰)

C.R.A.F.T. #626 - Love / Valentine

Craft Rocket Challenges #89 - Sparkle / Bling

Creatalicious #228 - Anything Goes with option Love

Creative Inspirations (February) - With Love

Daring Cardmakers - My Sweet Valentine

Dragonfly Dreams (February) - Love

Ellibelle’s Crafty Wednesday (February ) - Hearts or Flowers (2nd entry)

Everybody Art #507 - Love and/or Heart

Get Creative #108 - Use Hearts

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

Little Red Wagon #640 - Be My Love / Valentine

My Time to Craft #475 - All You Need is Love

Paper Funday #38 - Anything Goes with option Hugs and Kisses - WINNER

Simon Says (Monday) - Love Is In the Air

Stamping Sensations (February) - Anything Stamped with option Wings or Tails

Sweet Stampin’ - Love, Love, Love

Try It on Tuesday - All Loved Up - TOP 5

Use Your Stuff #441 - Hearts / Love

We Love Stamping (February) - Anything Stamped with option Add Stencilling (2nd entry)

I think that's me all loved out for today ... hope you all have a lovely day ❤️ - take care and thanks for visiting.

Hugs,