I Spy With My Little Eye #27

Hi everyone, the year really is flying by! It’s June already and the third Wednesday in the month again, which means that 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. 

I chose the challenge theme this month, and it is

I Spy With My Little Eye 

*** Vintage Vibes ***

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

Here’s my card for the challenge.

I have had this pretty vintage style Woodware stamp for quite a long time but had never inked it up before, so I thought now was the time! I cut a 6” x 4” piece of white stamping card and created a smooshed background with a mixture of Distress Inks and Elements. I don’t use my Distress inks very often as they are old and not very juicy, but I think they give a softer more vintage look than the Elements, which are generally much more vibrant. 

I stamped the image using Versafine Clair in Portobello, which I also think is an ideal shade of brown for vintage-style projects. I then die cut the panel using a stitched rectangle die, and added some soft background stencilling using Distress Oxide. I stamped the image again onto separate card and coloured the flowers, snail and butterfly using Distress Watercolor pencils, added some extra shading to the flowers with Zig pen and white Stabilo pencil, and added some sparkle with my Wink of Stella. I then fussy cut them out and set aside. I smooshed some ink onto another snippet of white card and stamped the sentiment, cut out,  rounded the edges with a punch then edged with brown ink.  

 I die cut a stitched rectangle mat from brown card stock, attached the base panel and then attached to a 7” x 5” card blank. Finally I attached the fussy cut pieces and sentiment to the base image and added a couple of pieces of washi tape and a teeny heart gem.

I couldn’t help but notice while making this card that my Gemini cutting plates are on their last legs  - they have been looking very bowed for some time - but now the die cuts themselves look quite rippled and don’t really lie flat! I’m going to have to try to straighten them out, otherwise here comes yet another crafty expense!

Stamps: Woodware Garden Snail; Lou Collins Typography (sentiment);

Media: Tim Holtz Distress Inks (Tattered Rose, Victorian Velvet); Distress Oxide ink (Scorched Timber); Lavinia Elements ink (Soft Cygnet); Versafine Clair (Portobello); Distress Watercolor pencils (Kitsch Flamingo, Vintage Photo, Walnut Stain, Picket Fence, Peeled Paint); Kuretake Zig Clean Color Watercolor pen; Stabilo pencil (white); Wink of Stella (clear);

Tools: Hunkydory Moonstone Duo-Stitched Rectangle dies; That’s Crafty! Dinky stencil - Reverse Honeycomb Background;

Other: washi tape from The Range.

Challenges I would like to enter:

Addicted to Stamps and More #495 - Die Cuts and/or Stencils

Beautiful Blossoms #30 - Anything Floral Goes - TOP 5

Crafty Calendar (June) - Add a Sentiment (2nd entry)

Creations In Pink #82 - Anything Goes In Mainly Pink

Creative Artiste #116 - Anything Mixed Media Goes (3rd entry)

Daisy Chain #97 - Birthday (2nd entry)

Die Cut Divas  (June) - Colour Challenge (use at least 3)

(I have used the pale beige, 2 shades of pink, brown and a hint of green)

Dragonfly Dreams (June) - Use One or More Butterflies (2nd entry)

Ellibelle’s Garden Party #4 - Anything In or From a Garden - TOP PICK

Heart’s Quest Celebrations of Love #6 2025 - Birthday (2nd entry) - TOP 3

Make My Monday #254 - One or More Butterflies - SPECIAL MENTION

Moving Along With the Times #179 - Birthday (2nd entry)

Neglected Stuff (June) - Use Your Neglected Craft Supplies

Night Owls #49 - Stencil / Punches / Die Cutting - TOP 3

Outlawz Monday Greetings (June) - Any Greeting with a Floral Image

Shopping Our Stash #550 - A Stitch In Time

Simon Says (Wednesday) - Fur, Feather and/or Flowers

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

Try It On Tuesday - In the Garden

We Love 2 Create #6 2025 - Anything Papercrafting/Mixed Media Goes (2nd entry)

Word Art Wednesday #704/705 - Anything Goes

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 July 13th, and the next challenge will begin on Wednesday July 16th.

Take care, and thanks for visiting.

Hugs,

Vintage Tag

Hi everyone, I never normally make tags for some unknown reason - in fact I can only ever remember making one before - but I had recently been considering buying a grungy style tag die. However during my recent craft show visit a beautiful Woodware vintage style tag stamp caught my eye and it sent my crafty thoughts in a whole new direction. Here is my first vintage-style tag made with this stamp.

I stamped the tag onto cream stamping card using Pinecone Versafine Clair, then distressed it by blending Speckled Egg and Scorched Timber Distress Oxide inks from the edges inwards.  I stamped two butterflies off the edge, then some 2nd generation background grungy text in Acorn VFC. I added some stamped grungy hearts and a beetle, then coloured the butterfly wings and hearts using Distress Watercolor pencils, adding some sparkle to the butterfly wings with Wink of Stella (which the camera doesn't catch unfortunately). I stamped the words onto a separate snippet of card, cut out, distressed and attached. Finally I fussy cut the tag out then punched a hole and threaded with jute twine.

I also stamped on the back and distressed the edges - I’m loving the new Scorched Timber DOX for a vintage look.

Stamps: Woodware Old Paper Tag, Butterfly, Additions (background text), Blooming (hearts), Mini Flower Silhouettes (beetle); AALL & Create #533 Bring On the Sentiments, #984 Tag o Tag (text on back);

Media: Tim Holtz Distress Oxide inks (Speckled Egg, Scorched Timber); Distress watercolor pencils (Mermaid Lagoon, Salvaged Patina, Speckled Egg, Kitsch Flamingo); Versafine Clair (Pinecone, Acorn); Wink of Stella.

Challenges I would like to enter:

Allsorts #769 - Things That Fly

Crafty Addicts #10 - Anything Goes

Ellibelle's Crafty Wednesday (February) - Anything Goes

My Time to Craft #528 - Make Your Own Background

NBUS #59 - Use Your Never-Before-Used-Schtuff

(vintage tag stamp and Scorched Timber DOX)

Outlawz (February) - Anything Goes In a Card Free Zone (3rd entry)

Simon Says (Monday) - Not a Card

Stamping Sensations (February) - Animals, Birds and Creatures (3rd entry)

Tag Tuesday - Asemic Writing (wordless open semantic form of writing)

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

Word Art Wednesday #635/636 - Anything Goes (5th entry)

I really enjoyed trying something a bit different, and I have several other ideas for tags using this stamp, so watch this space!!

Take care, and thanks for visiting.

Hugs,

Dream In Colour

Hi everyone, this month's ATC swap over on FB UK Stampers' Forum is on the theme of "Silhouettes". I haven't joined in for a while but I love my silhouette stamping so decided to give it a go. The swap requires 3 ATC's but I got so into this project that I ended up making 6, giving me 3 extra ones to trade separately.

I cut six pieces of hot pressed watercolour card each 3.25" x 2.25", and on each one I create a rainbow coloured dribbling wash effect by colouring puddles of each colour with a watercolour brush pen, then dragging out the colour with a wet paintbrush. This was a bit of an experiment as I bought a small pack of cheap watercolour brush pens to see if I liked the general idea, as a precursor to a more considered purchase of better quality ones ... and I do like them!!  I  stamped my focal flowers, beetles, hearts and background text in black Versafine Clair, then stamped my sentiment onto black card with Versamark and heat embossed with white powder, cut out and attached. I edged each piece with black marker pen and attached to black linen cardstock cut to standard ATC 3.5" x 2.5".

Here is a close up of each of the 2 designs.

Stamps: Woodware Mini Floral Silhouettes, Additions (background text), Blooming (hearts); AALL & Create Paint Your Dreams (sentiment);

Media: Watercolour brush pens from The Works; Versafine Clair (Nocturne); Versamark; white embossing powder.

Challenges I would like to enter:

Allsorts #739/740 - Anything But Square (2nd entry)

As You Like It - Favourite Florals or Gingham (and why) (2nd entry)

(I love both, but I never tire of floral images and the many different ways you can use them)

Beautiful Blossoms #7 - Anything Floral Goes (5th entry)

Colourful Options (August) - Yellow/Green or Rainbow Inspired

Crafting From the Heart #4 - Anything Goes (no cards)

Crafty Calendar (August) - Anything Goes

Ellie's Crafty Wednesday (August) - Anything Goes

Paper A La Mode (August) - Seriously Art Inspired

Path of Positivity #114 - Anything Goes Positive

Word Art Wednesday #607/608 - Anything Goes (2nd entry)

Rainbow themed posts always make me feel cheerful - hope they make you feel cheerful too! Until next time - take care, and thanks for visiting.

Hugs,

Funky Blooms

Hi everyone, today I would like to share a couple of ATC's I made with some leftover snippets/offcuts while I was sitting at my desk for a cardmaking session.  

I had previously created a brayered background for a card using two colours of Distress Oxide ink here, and mopped up my "run off" onto a snippet of white card approx 6" square, which I then cut down to make two ATC backgrounds. I wasn't sure where these ATC's would go, but I started by adding a bit of background stamping text and circles, and then decided to add these funky Woodware flowers. I stamped them onto the ATC background, then again onto separate small snippets of lighter weight card (Neenah Solar White), coloured them with Sakura Stardust pens, then fussy cut and attached. I finished off by stamping the wording onto a teeny offcut, cutting out and attaching, then matting onto a small snippet of black card stock. I'm actually quite thrilled to say that next time I use black linen card stock it will definitely NOT be a snippet, as Hobbycraft actually had some 12" square sheets in stock last week for the first time in many months - yippee!!

Here's a closeup of ATC 1  ...

... and an angled closeup of ATC2 to show the sparkle ...

Stamps: Woodware Blooming, Additions; unbranded background circles (Amazon);

Media: Tim Holtz Distress Oxide inks (Blueprint Sketch, Wilted Violet); Versafine Clair (Nocturne, Morning Mist); Versafine (Majestic Blue); Sakura sparkle pens (purple, blue, pink, green, clear).

Challenges I would like to enter:

A Gem of a Challenge #11 2023 - Anything Goes

Allsorts #730 - Anything Goes

Crafting From the Heart #2 - Anything Goes (no cards)

Dream Valley #295 - Anything Goes

Lost Coast Portal to Creativity #168 - Mini Me

Simon Says (Wednesday) - Anything Goes

Snippets Playground #455 - Use Snippets

Use Your Stuff #495 - Anything Goes

We Love 2 Create Mixed Media #5 - Anything Mixed Media Goes

Word Art Wednesday #597/598 - Anything Goes (3rd entry)

Thanks very much for dropping by today.

Hugs,

I Spy With My Little Eye #3

Hi everyone, I'm back after a couple of non-crafty weeks due to being away in Derbyshire for 10 days over the Coronation period (which also included my birthday), followed by a week of trying to catch up with myself whilst partaking in Eurovision fever which was sweeping Liverpool where I live last week … but more of that later! So grab a cup of tea - it's going to be a long post!!

Today is the 3rd Wednesday of the month already. so it's time once more for a new I Spy With My Little Eye... challenge over at Ellibelle's Corner.  This month's theme was chosen by me, and it is...

I Spy With My Little Eye ... Something With Wings

There are lots of options that you could choose, so we hope you will be able to join us. We also have two brilliant guest designers joining us this month - Gundi from Papierelle and Katrina from ScrappyHorses, so please do visit the challenge post and get some more inspiration.

I made a conscious decision  with this card to use an older stamp for a change, and I remembered I had this lovely Woodware vintage style butterfly.  Having decided on that I also felt motivated to use a number of snippets so that I could complete my homework for the Snippets Playground, including a small one of white stamping card, a large 6" x 6" snippet which I had previously used to create a faux woodgrain background, and a couple of larger snippets of coloured cardstock for matting. I even found a small snippet of lace to use on the front ... do I get extra brownie points for that??

Here's the result.

I previously made my background on a 6" square piece of card by dragging Distress Oxide inks over it to form a "faux woodgrain" effect, then softly stencilling with more DOX through my Lavinia "Divine" stencil (it's actually so soft that you can hardly see it on the finished card!!). For this card I added some 2nd generation sepia background stamping of a woven burlap pattern, then stamped my "vintage" wording also in sepia ink. I die cut a deckled rectangle shape from my white card snippet, and stamped the butterfly in sepia and heat embossed. I then created a smooshed background with Antique Linen and Old Paper DOX, and blended Vintage Photo DOX round the edges, before colouring the butterfly with Stormy Sky DOX. 

I matted the image onto my background panel, then added lace and twine before matting onto three layers of card stock which all had their edges distressed with my distressing tool. I stamped the birthday sentiment (which I masked off to spread over 2 lines) with Pinecone Versafine Clair and coloured the letters with Vintage Photo DOX, and added a couple of pieces of washi tape. Finally I added a die cut flower to the right of the main image, and matted the finished piece onto a 7" square card blank.

Stamps: Woodware Butterfly, Made For You (birthday sentiment); Indigo Blu Sarah's Choice (background stamping);

Media: Tim Holtz Distress Oxide inks (Antique Linen, Old Paper, Stormy Sky, Frayed Burlap, Vintage Photo); Versafine (Vintage Sepia); Versafine Clair (Pinecone);

Tools: Lavinia stencil - Divine; Spellbinders Nestabilities - Deckle Rectangle die; unbranded flower die (Amazon); Tim Holtz distressing tool;

Other: Washi tape - Craft Sensations at The Range; lace and twine from my stash.

Challenges I would like to enter:

Allsorts #728 - Anything Goes with option Embellish It

C.R.A.F.T. #677 - Birthday

Crafty Catz #637 - Anything Goes with option Add Ribbon, Lace or Twine

Creative Crafting Uncles #41 - Butterflies - TOP 3

Let's Craft and Create #195 - Anything Goes with option Use Ribbon, Lace and/or Twine

Snippets Playground #454 - Use Snippets

Sparkles Forum #164 - Things With Wings

Stamping Sensations (May) - Anything Stamped with option Add a Stencil

Use your Stuff #484 - Use a Technique 

(faux woodgrain inking)

Word Art Wednesday #595/596 - Anything Goes

The I Spy challenge starts on the 3rd Wednesday of each month, and will end on the Sunday before the next challenge starts at 23;39 US Central Time - so that's Sunday June 18th.

Please do pop over to Ellie's blog to see the fab creations of her and our guest designers, and link up your winged creations here.

As I mentioned at the start of this post, I've had a busy couple of weeks with holidays and Eurovision fever. Here are a few pics of the adorable animals we encountered at Yorkshire Wildlife Park while we were in Derbyshire, the and last but not least .... Liverpool does Eurovision!! I went with my husband into the city centre twice - one evening to see an English National Opera performance of Eurovision hits in the Eurovision "fan village" in front of the historic Liver Building on Liverpool waterfront, and the second time we just wandered around the city on the afternoon of the Eurovision final. It was absolutely teeming with people, the busiest I've ever seen it.! The general consensus in the media seems to be that Liverpool hosted a fantastic two week music festival, and it is projected to boost the Merseyside economy by £250 million over the next 2 years!!

Yorkshire Wildlife Park

Eurovision comes to Liverpool

Phew! I think that's enough for today ... I'm getting back into the swing with crafting now so hope to  be back soon with more makes.

Take care, and thanks for visiting.

Hugs,

Art From the Heart

Hi everyone, today I would like to share a pair of ATC's which came about almost by accident .... I had been trying to do some brayering with Tumbled Glass and Mowed Lawn Distress Oxide inks for a card (which didn't work out very well, but that's another story!). I had the foresight though to use a tip from my friend Sarn ... and instead of "running off" the excess ink onto thin copier paper as I had always done before, I used a large snippet of stamping card. After I gave up on my first project I looked at the brayered leftovers and decided I could make something with it ... and here's the result. I called this set "Art From the Heart". 

I cut my brayered snippet into two pieces, each 3.25" x 2.25", and spattered them with water to introduce a more mottled ink effect.  I used Versafine Clair to stamp a flower onto each one (both from the same Woodware set), then some background grungy text with 2nd generation stamping, then my hearts. I stamped the word "ART" onto each ATC with Versamark and heat embossed with detail white embossing powder, then I edged the finished pieces with dark blue marker pen, and matted onto standard ATC size pieces cut from a small snippet of pearlescent blue linen card stock.

Here is a closer view of each ATC.

1/2

2/2

Stamps: Woodware Mini Flower Silhouettes, Blooming, Additions; ART wording - Indigo Blu “Sarah's Choice”;

Media: Tim Holtz Distress Oxide inks (Tumbled Glass, Mowed Lawn); Versafine Clair (Twilight, Warm Breeze); Versamark, white detail embossing powder.

Challenges I would like to enter:

ATC’s Around the World #97 - Anything Goes (2nd entry)

Classic Design Challenge (January) - Anything Goes (2nd entry)

Creative Crafters #60 - Anything Goes (2nd entry)

DL.Art (January) - Anything Goes (3rd entry)

Paper a la Mode (January) - Let’s Get Started (Not a Card) (2nd entry)

Simon Says (Wednesday) - Fabulous Flowers (3rd entry)

Snippets Playground #446 - Anything Goes With Snippets

Three Room Studio #95 - Anything Goes

We Love Stamping (January) - Favourite Colours (3rd entry)

(I love the combination of blue and green as it makes me think of grass and sky)

Word Art Wednesday #579/580 - Anything Goes (3rd entry)

I have hardly made any ATC's over the past couple of months due to Christmas preparations and the postal strikes, so I'm hoping to get back into my stride now for 2023 - notwithstanding the latest Royal Mail cyber attack which seems to have severely disrupted international mail from the UK for the time being .. let's hope it's all soon resolved!

Take care, and thanks for visiting my blog today.

Hugs,

Allsorts Challenge #712

Hi everyone, Saturday is here again so it's time for another weekly Allsorts Challenge. Dena has chosen the theme and it is

*** Spots and/or Stripes ***

We look forward to seeing all your dotty and/or stripy creations!

Don't forget that we now announce the prizes for all our weekly challenges monthly on the last Friday of the month.

This month’s prizes come from Oakwood Direct, Stamp Addicts, Sizzix and AALL and Create. Please click on the links to visit their individual websites, and you can read more about them on our Patrons’ page.

Here's my card for this week.

I decided to go dotty (some might say I’m halfway there already!) with stencilling.  I stamped my flowers onto a piece of stamping card, covered them with a fussy cut paper mask, and used Distress Oxide ink to create a smoosh background. When dry I stencilled lightly onto the sides of the panel using a darker green Distress Oxide, then removed the mask and coloured in the image with Distress watercolor pencils.  Using my stamping platform I re-stamped over the flowers to give a crisper image - this is a technique recommended by Tim Holtz in his Distress watercolor pencils launch video. I stamped my sentiment, then sponged more DO around the edges of the panel to give a bit more depth. Lastly I applied some Distress Texture Paste through the same stencil in the opposite corners to where I had stencilled originally, and spattered the image with White Posca pen. When dry I matted everything onto green linen card stock and a 7” x 5” card blank.

Stamps: Woodware Echinacea and Moth; sentiment - Uniko Spring Botanicals Daffodil;

Media: Tim Holtz Distress Oxide inks (Twisted Citron, Bundled Sage, Spiced Marmalade); Distress Watercolor Pencils (Squeezed Lemonade, Peeled Paint, Fired Brick); Tim Holtz Distress Texture Paste; Versafine Clair (Nocturne);

Tools: Darkroom Door stencil - Polka Dots.

Challenges I would like to enter:

Classic Design Challenge (January) - Anything Goes (2nd entry)

Crafty Catz #621 - Anything Goes

Crazy Is Our Fame, Stencils Are Our Game (January) - Anything Goes With Stencils (2nd entry)

Creative Crafters #60 - Anything Goes

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

Make My Monday #192 - Favourite Theme of 2022

(I have chosen #171 - Use a Stencil)

Papercraft Challenge #90 - Anything Goes (2nd entry)

Path of Positivity #108 - Anything Goes Positive (2nd entry)

Simon Says (Wednesday) - Fabulous Flowers (2nd entry)

Word Art Wednesday #579/580 - Anything Goes (2nd 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,

Bold Blooms

Good evening all,

Today I would like to share a card and co-ordinating ATC I made. I really wanted to make a card where I coloured with Promarkers so I could enter again into this week's Passion for Markers special 13th Birthday challenge - which meant it also needed to incorporate spots and/or stripes. I wasn't feeling massively inspired for some reason, but I had a play around and this is what I came up with.

First - a card ...

I cut a square of stamping card, and stamped my main flower image which I coloured with Promarkers and Flexmarkers and highlighted with white gel pen. I then masked the flower and sponged a two-colour background with Distress Oxides ink, then placed a stencil on top and sponged around the flower with black DO. I then removed the mask and did a little background 2nd generation stamping with my Lavinia wording stamp, and created some white spots in the corners with texture paste through another stencil. When everything was dry I cut out my image panel with a stitched square die, matted it onto a slightly larger stitched square, and matted again onto my base card which I had also cut into the stitched square shape. I added a sentiment and job done!

I'm not quite sure how I feel about the finished result ... it was my first time using texture paste and I smudged it a bit (I could just say it looks "rustic" - that's my story and I'm sticking to it!!). Also I think my honeycomb stencilling which was meant to make the flower "pop" has ended up looking a bit over done ... but hey, it's done now and it's all a learning process!!

Stamps: Woodware "Bold Blooms"; Lavinia "Keeping the Faith"; sentiment - Uniko "Simply Said Blocks II";

Media: Flower - Promarkers and Flexmarkers; background - Tim Holtz Distress Oxide inks (Peacock Feathers, Twisted Citron, Black Soot); Memento ink; Versafine Clair (Nocturne, Warm Breeze); Tim Holtz Distress Texture paste (matte); Sakura white gel pen; 

Tools: Darkroom Door stencil - Honeycomb; Crafters Companions stencil; stitched square dies from Amazon.

Challenges I would like to enter:

Addicted to Stamps and More #430 - Die Cuts and/or Stencils (2nd entry)

Alphabet Challenge - D is for Die Cuts

Colour Crazy Craft Challenge #21 2022 - Anything Goes With Colouring

Crafter's Cafe #285 - Spots and/or Stripes (2nd entry)

Dream Valley #271 - Summer Colours

Krafty Chicks #613 - All Occasions (2nd entry)

Mixed Media Lovers #13 - Anything Mixed Media (2nd entry) - TOP 3

NBUS #38 - Use Your Never Before Used Schtuff  (4th entry)

(I have never used texture paste before)

Passion For Markers #642 - Special Anniversary Challenge - Spots and/or Stripes

As mentioned above, I also made a co-ordinating ATC in parallel.

The Woodware stamps are a 2-stamp set; and for the ATC I used the smaller one which just fit! My method was exactly the same as for the card, except that I used a different stencil to create smaller white dots, and a different sentiment. I rounded the corners of the finished panel and matted onto standard ATC size black linen cardstock.

Stamps: Woodware "Bold Blooms"; Lavinia "Keeping the Faith"; sentiment - Woodware "Blooming";

Media: Flower - Promarkers and Flexmarkers; background - Tim Holtz Distress Oxide inks (Peacock Feathers, Twisted Citron, Black Soot); Memento ink; Versafine Clair (Nocturne, Warm Breeze); Tim Holtz Distress Texture Paste (matte); Sakura white gel pen; 

Tools: Darkroom Door stencil - Honeycomb; Tim Holtz stencil - Dot Fade; X-Cut corner rounder punch.

Challenges I would like to enter: 

A Gem of a Challenge #11 2022 - Anything Goes (3rd entry)

Crafty Catz #597 - Anything Goes

Creative Crafters #52 - Anything Goes - TOP 3

Path of Positivity #101 - Anything Positive Goes (3rd entry)

Simon Says (Wednesday) - Anything Goes (4th entry)

Snippets Playground #429 - Anything Goes With Snippets

(my little piece of stamping card and mat were both snippets!!)

Taylormadecards4u (May) - Anything Goes (2nd entry)

Use Your Stuff #449 - Anything Goes

That's all for today - hope you're all keeping well and enjoying your day. Thanks for visiting.

Hugs,