Sailing

It has been another strange week! At the beginning we had the most glorious weather and really warm/hot temperatures - then yesterday I had to put on a sweater and socks!

Today it is raining.       Heavily.

After a walk yesterday morning I spent the rest of the day at the craft desk - I can't say I was very productive! So in the absence of my own ideas I turned to my saved 'Inspirations' folder.

This card has been reproduced by lots of people in different ways so there are too many people to give credit to - I think the last one I looked at was where the 'sun' was done in different coloured strips of paper.
I've gone for the easy option of inks blended within a circle mask. 

A sentiment stamp, a flock of tiny birds and a die cut boat. Nothing simpler and it gave me the satisfaction that at least I have made SOMETHING!

What I wouldn't give to be drifting along on super smooth super clear blue sea right now - beats the hell out of a grey sky and wet moorland!

Have a lovely day whatever you're doing and thanks for stopping by. x

Linking up to -
CRAFT - Masculine
CRAFTING HAPPINESS - Summer

TIOT - Cut It Out

CRAFTYCATZ - A/Goes + CAS

A New Look - CAS Mix Up

Welcome to a brand new CAS Challenge and some exciting news!
CAS challenges (Mix Up/Watercolour/Stencil) are now all rolled into one monthly challenge blog - CAS MIX UP.
Each month we will bring you a challenge which asks for either a mixed media project, a watercolour project or a stencil one.Our first challenge is a 'Mix Up' one - Embossing with Vellum and Susan is our host.

I did two different kinds of vellum embossing on this card - Heat and Dry.
I used a cherry blossom embossing folder first for the vellum background and overlaid it onto a white card.

The Technique Tuesday Cherry Blossom stamp rates amongst my all time faves and I stamped and heat embossed in white. It comes with a die but I fussy cut it as I didn't want a border round it!
I used my Arteza pens to colour.

Used a leftover vellum piece for the heat embossed sentiment.

I hope that you will come over and join us at our new look blog - I am soooo happy to still be part of this amazing Design Team and they have some gorgeous makes to inspire you!

Our Guest Designer this month is BONNIE and her card is pretty wonderful too - so pop over and see her make!

Thanks for looking today and look forward to seeing your beautiful cards in our gallery! x

Mid Month Anything Goes at Uniko!

Having won the April challenge over at Uniko I was invited to be their Guest Designer this month for their theme of 'Anything Goes' with the option of  'Bright and Happy'

My first card for the challenge is HERE if you want to go and look!

My background was created using Wild Plum and Watermelon Alcohol Inks on Yupo.

I dried a little with a heat gun then took a small piece of Deco Silver Foil and pressed it down and rubbed my finger randomly onto the background.

This is a fun technique as  after each press down and rub, when you lift off the foil piece some of it has transferred to the AI (usually where the 2 colours have 'pooled' together) and gives a 'marbling' effect.

I stamped and heat embossed the flower (Flower Power Set #8) and fussy cut, and used the sentiment/die from the Kindness Blooms set.

Much as I like this AI/Foil combo it is a nightmare to photograph but I hope that you like my bright background and my happy flower!

There is still time to enter - and you don't have to use a Uniko image - so with a great prize on offer why don't you link in?!
You may be lucky like me and win!

Happy Crafting! x

Happy Hug

Earlier this week I was suffering just a tiny bit, feeling quite .... 'restless' (only word I can think of to describe it).  Even though restrictions have eased a bit here we are still preferring to be careful and not go anywhere unnecessarily - but yesterday we had a 15 minute drive to a local garden centre which cheered me up no end. The car was a little full on the way back!
So my plans for today were after our walk,to plant up the lovely things from yesterday - the forecast said a light breeze and sunny spells until Sunday - perfect for me - light breeze??? LIGHT BREEZE??? 

We got up this morning and 3 of my new plant stash were blown over and rolling about on the patio. The wind has been ridiculous all day - and tomorrow is going to be the same -  I am not happy!!!!
Simply impossible to do anything outside - apart from to secure all the plants together - so to those of you who commented on the post with the pics of where I live (here) - yes it is a lovely place - until the winds arrive!

So off to the craft space and whilst listening to the howling outside made this from a piece of left over smooshed background.

The sentiment shape was not intentional! I stamped onto a piece in between where I had cut out the flowers to see if I liked the text size next to the delicate dies intending if I thought it was OK to stamp onto a bigger left over piece and diecut.
But I liked the shape so just snipped it off and used it!

Sharing at
Krafty Chicks - CAS
Unicorn - Use Dies
CAS on Friday - Use a Die
Pixies Snippets Playground - #378

Perspective (or lack of it)

We are being treated to a damp day so after getting a little wet on the morning walk the rest of the day is being spent holed up on the top floor!
I have had this image rattling round in my head for a while now after seeing a spring card made with Alexander Renke papers (and probably dies).
As it would be easier to plait fog than get my hands on anything Alexander Renke in my part of the world without having to rob a bank beforehand I set about trying to put my own slant and create something with stamps and the dies I have.
Which is where the perspective comes in - 

Yes I know that deer are slightly bigger than Holly berries.... but I didn't have any tiny berries or big deer!
(Just pretend that the deer is a long way away in the distance........)

Random colouring of a leaf stamp with my Arteza pens, spritzing then stamped on the bottom of a circle with the top bit run through a snow E/F.
Die cut and watercoloured the holly and deer and added the sentiment from Penny Black inked in Walnut Stain.

It was really fiddly chopping up the berries and re-positioning them and it almost became one of those jobs I hadn't wished I'd started!

Am sharing over at CAS Christmas in their 'Winter Berries' challenge.

Some restrictions here have been eased slightly but things definitely cannot be described as 'getting back to normal'. For now I am staying put!!

Thanks for stopping by. Take Care. xx

May Mid Month at Stamping Sensations

Wee half way through our 'Say it with Flowers' challenge at  Stamping Sensations  and this month we have prizes from Chocolate Baroque and our teamie Dora , who has a wonderful artistic talent and produces some gorgeous hand drawn images.

I have again used one of Dora's beautiful flowers -  isn't it pretty?! (if you want to see another -  click here to go to my first DT post)

Watercoloured and fussy cut first - I opted for blue as for me it's a bit of a change from my normal pinks and yellows for flowers!

I didn't want a fussy background as wanted the flower to be the star of the front of the card - I stamped a few grassy strands and then second generation stamped a few pale blue flowers in Broken China DI.

I overstamped the bottom of the flower stem a few times with another grass stamp and think I have achieved my intention of disguising the cut flower stem at the bottom!

A few ink spatters and sentiment to finish.

Still lots of time for you to put in an entry  - and with some great prizes, you'd be daft not to have a go!
Thanks for looking today - have a great day! x

CAS Stencil - Mid Month reminder!

Hilary is our host at CAS Stencil this month and she chose the theme of 'Layered Stencils' and I'm here with my mid month reminder that there's still time to enter!

I recently had a little treat of several layered stencil sets which range in size from 2.5" square to 4" square.

Although most of the sets have 3 stencils to use I used just 2 for the butterfly on this card. 

The background strip is an old stencil (sorry I have no idea who makes it but if you scroll down to my previous post you will see it used again!) inked in Pumice Stone DI.
Stencilled the butterfly body over and then when dry used the detail stencil and heat embossed in gold.

Added the sentiment and a small black enamel dot.

We have a wonderful guest designer this month - GRETA (GG Creations)
Greta and the rest of the Design Team have made some great cards to inspire you too (if you need any that is!!)

Thanks for looking - have a great day whatever you're doing. x

Guest Designer at Uniko

I was lucky enough to win the April Uniko challenge and was delighted to be invited to be their Guest Designer for this month's challenge which is 'Anything Goes' with the option of 'Bright and Happy'.

I used rainbow colours for my stencil background and matted it onto black card.

I made a tag (as I don't have a tag die!) and took the smallest scribbly flower stamp from the 'Kindness Blooms' set.
Using the same colours used for the background I randomly stamped onto my tag, then did the same with the small dot stamp before matting it onto black  card.

Some enamel dots in coordinating colours and a sentiment (from Thirsty Brush) and finished.

There's some gorgeous cards from the talented Uniko design team over on the blog and a brilliant prize on offer.
They would love to see you join in this month!

Twofer Flowers

You can tell the weather changed here over the weekend as I spent a lot of time in the craftie space so have more shares today!

The Twofer Challenge has the prompt of 'Flowers'.  I am a bit of a flower nut when it comes to stamp buying so I had a big problem deciding which flower stamp to use.

In the end I opted to just use a flower head stamp set for these 2 cards.

Both cards used up some oddments too.
I had this slate grey panel left over from another card.

I spent a little while stamping some different grey ink shades onto another scrap to try and get a good match without it being too wishy washy.
I ended up using Altenew Silver Stone.

Randomly stamped the larger of the 2 flower heads on the panel and mounted it onto the white base.

Small odd pieces of grey and white used to die cut the sentiment, which I popped up with foam pads and added the word 'Happy' underneath.

Finished with the 3 grey enamel dots. The sentiment inside says ' Enjoy Your Day'

The second card is a re-make of one done a little while ago.
This time ivory linen cardstock used as a base.

Stamped the flower heads onto an offcut of watercolour card.

Coloured them using my Waterbrush pens and fussy cut.
The two vases are from an old Clearly Besotted Flower Arrangements set.
Die cut and shaded from another scrap!

I had a small panel left of the linen card so I simply cut it freehand into a curved shape. This cardstock does not like lots of water particularly on the textured side so I used the smooth side!

Used a brick embossing folder to give some background texture before putting it all together.

I have left this card blank of any sentiment both outside and in - I have a feeling I may well be using it as a Sympathy card very soon.

I am also linking to
MAWTT -  Flowers (2nd card)
MMM - Tone on Tone (1st card)
Flower Challenge - Monochrome (1st card)
Snippets Playground  - (2nd card)

Look Up!

The temperature change in 24 hours here has been ridiculous!!
Sat outside on Saturday - very warm and sunny. Sat inside on Sunday - in a jumper and socks! (had other clothes on too........😄😄 )
Still cool today but not raining thankfully so we managed a walk round the nearby Nature Reserve this morning.
I have a card for this month's CAS Watercolour challenge which is 'Night Sky'.

I quite enjoy trying my hand making these backgrounds and usually manage OK blending Distress Inks but I tried this time just using my watercolours.
Note to Self - NEED MORE PRACTICE!

Overall my watercolour piece didn't turn out too bad and I managed to make 2 reasonably passable cards with it.

I love these little 'SuperHero Pugs' from Clearly Besotted and I thought he would look good against the galaxy sky.
Stamped, embossed and watercoloured before he was ready to sit patiently waiting to fly off somewhere to Save the World!

Thanks for looking today - stay safe, be kind and happy crafting. xx

Also sharing at -
HLS Watercolour - A/Goes + Embossing
Daring Cardmakers - Inky Background

CAS

A picture heavy post.

My share today is a very CAS card, made using pale grey cardstock (which really IS a much better colour than the pic shows!).

A simple die cut frame for my Gerberas which were inked with my Arteza Brush Pens and water spritzed before stamping.

Finished with a die cut sentiment and couple of small enamel dots.

It has been a strange kind of week - we have had some lovely weather which has enabled me to continue to potter about outside and push to the back of my mind the sadness of losing friends and being unable to say goodbye  - there's not much to do here really and on several occasions this week I have missed the enormous plot of land that we had in our old house.

Then I remind myself that although much loved it simply was becoming a huge chore as we got older - so have contented myself with the glorious view we have and looking after the pots/baskets here.

I am very thankful that we have such a space during the continued lockdown and grateful for our little Barn community of 6 houses where we are able to spend time outside in our own space but not completely isolated as we can all see each other and chat from our gardens. We are luckier than most.

This pic on the left is where we step out onto  the right hand side of our patio and the one on the right looks down our lawn into the bottom of the valley and you can see that we can sit out and talk to our neighbours over our fences!

The one below is the view from the top of the garden across to the hills (and of course the wind farm!)
Hang in everybody wherever you are in the World. Even in the darkest of times there is still some beauty around. xx

CAS Stencil May Challenge

Hilary is our host at CAS Stencil this month and she has chosen the theme of 'Layered Stencils'.

I started by creating a soft spotty background using a pale grey ink, fading it out as I moved across the card.

I have a bit of a 'thing' about blue poppies! I love the red ones but I had a blue Oriental Poppy in the garden of our previous house and once it began to bud I checked it lots - (sometimes several times a day 😉😉!)  - as I loved to watch it unfurl and flower.
Although this one isn't a frilly oriental one I decided I wanted to make it blue!

The layered stencil is from Altenew and this is the first time I have used it (it won't be the last!)

The sentiment from Penny Black stamped in Grey ink.

Our Guest designer this month is GRETA - please go visit and see her lovely creation!
My team mates have also done some fab work again this month and if you need any help there's also links to a couple of video tutorials.
Hope that you will create something and share it with us!
There's a few changes afoot with our CAS group of challenges starting next month. CAS Stencil will be combining with CAS Watercolour and CAS Mix Up into one monthly challenge and the new CAS Mix Up Challenge will include a rotation of challenges ... Mixed Media, Stencil, Watercolour (repeat).
We hope that you will come and join us at the new CAS Mix Up from June onwards! x

May Challenge at Stamping Sensations

'Say it with Flowers' is our Stamping Sensations May challenge and this month we have prizes from Chocolate Baroque and our teamie Dora , who has a wonderful artistic talent and produces some beautiful hand drawn images.

For my first card this challenge I have used one of Dora's fab images - I love Hellebores so as soon as I saw this one I had to have it!

I coloured it with watercolours and fussy cut.

The background behind the die cut trellis was some by smooshing the ink used for the flowers onto a piece of acetate and transferred to the background card. I find that using the acetate is easier for managing where and how much ink you want rather than just pressing the card direct into the ink on the craft mat.

Finished Dora's pretty flower with some Nuvo Pearls for the stamens and the flower centre.
Sentiment is from Altenew

Hop over to the Challenge Blog and check out my team mates creations this month - then grab your stamps and join us! (Don't forget to read our rules - we're a stamping challenge and stamping has to be the focal point of your entry).

Have a great day. x

Butterfly and a Birthday

The sun has decided to abandon us for a few days so I had no excuse not to do some dreaded h****work this morning.
I didn't go overboard though cos you have to leave yourself something to do in the coming days don't you?? 😉😉 (like every other room in the house apart from the lounge......)

A CAS card to share today and although I have been getting on with my DT cards for the months ahead,  like many I have struggled to 'just make' for 'just making's' sake, so in times of trouble there's always Pinterest!

An inky background from the ever mounting pile of experiments on the desk and a few background stamps in Smokey Gray ink.
Butterfly was coloured with my Arteza Brush pens and then battered within an inch of its life with a couple of coats of Glossy Accents - the shine is immense!!

The sentiment is a part doctored one from Visible Image (I masked off the 'my darling'!!)
I think there are a lot of people who are struggling right now so the sentiment reflects that.

AND TALKING OF TOUGH  - Happy 100th Birthday 🎂 to Captain (now Colonel!) Tom Moore who has raised £31 million (yes THIRTY ONE MILLION!!!) for the NHS by walking laps of his garden through this lockdown.

He has made a record which is one of my favourite songs (the anthem of my beloved Liverpool FC)  which sits on top of the record charts!!

One of his favourite phrases is "Tomorrow is a better day" and whilst we are in the grip of this terrible pandemic we have to believe that.

Captain Tom, Sir - you are an incredible human being and You'll Never Walk Alone. 💖💜💛💚💙

Live Simply

Almost a week since my last post 😱!  And it's not as if I have been mad busy is it?? 

I have though been enjoying some time outdoors with the weather being so good. The local garden centre delivered my order mid week so I have managed to tidy up some of the pots - although I ran out of compost so am now waiting another delivery!

I had stamped and embossed some stamps so armed with them and my watercolours I went outside yesterday, - it was such a beautiful day.  I sat under the parasol listening to nothing but birdsong and painted.
It was soooo peaceful.

Today I set about turning what I had painted into cards.

The focal stamp is from Penny Black Berries Delight set.
I masked it off then gave it a brick background.
The sentiment just appealed to me!

Linking to
PBSC- Anything Goes
AAA - One Image

The weather is set to turn cooler and more unsettled  this week so maybe I will spend more time in the craft room and not idling outside!

Whatever you're doing and wherever you are, I hope that you are secure, safe and well. Thanks for stopping by. xx.

Bleaching

I have never had much success with Bleaching techniques but the challenge over at CAS Mix Up this month was just that,  so thought I would have another go.
The background was an experimental piece trying colours out together and left in the 'may get

round to using one day' pile!

I gold embossed the flower stamp and then lifted out the colour. I was tempted to simply use water but determined to have another effort with the bleach!

There are a couple of places where I went outside the embossing slightly but it didn't turn out too bad.

Instead of leaving it, I tried to colour it with Distress Inks - not sure that this was a success or not as apart from anything else my shading leaves a little to be desired! Can't quite make my mind up about this card -  I think it may have been better left alone as the background is quite dark but too late now!

My elements for the challenge are Bleaching, Stamping, Heat Embossing and Watercolouring.

Also entering over at
Sweet Stampin' - Bloomin' Wonderful

Thanks for looking! x

April Mid Month at Stamping Sensations

Back with my mid month reminder for Stamping Sensations!
Our 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow' theme is proving popular but there is still time for you to enter!
Pop over to the challenge blog and take a look at the great prize from Be Creative - and if you're still seeking inspiration the DT have done some great makes on the original post HERE and also on the reminder post! Please take some time to read our challenge rules before submitting your entry!
Once again I used the Rainbow colours as a base for my card.

Making these rainbow coloured cards made me feel quite contented! There is something quite therapeutic and soothing  about these shades I think.
Distress inks used (from the bottom of the card)- Faded Jeans, Twisted Citron, Mustard Seed, Squeezed Lemonade, Dried Marigold, Spun Sugar, Festive Berries, Shaded Lilac.

The Cherry Blossom stamp is one of the first wood backed stamps that I bought. At some point I have removed it from it's wood backing! Stamped in Versafine and used Gathered Twigs on the branches, and coloured the flowers with a white Gel pen, adding a little Gold Pearl to each flower centre.
A couple of punched butterflies, a sentiment and a black card mat to finish before popping it onto the white card base.
Am sharing over at - 

Allsorts - Flowers
Alphabet - A for A/Goes
Stamplorations - Stamps and Flight
Just Add Ink - Photo #501 colours

Hugs to everyone - have a good weekend. xx

CAS Stencil Mid Month

I am here with my mid month reminder for our challenge at CAS Stencil set by Cathy.
Cathy chose Gilding Flakes for her theme and we hope that you can come along and give this technique a go - my Gilding Flakes were gathering dust in a drawer until this month!

I used the same stencil for this card as I did for my first one but instead used black card as the base.(My first one is HERE)

I wanted a card which would be OK for a bloke - (hate 😖doing man cards) hence the black and silver colour scheme.
I simply used some circle dies to cut out my gilded piece and a wavy die so I could insert the piece of silver card which has a matt finish rather than a mirri one.

Using the same stencil on different coloured card gave a completely different finish  and although it was difficult to capture the shine on the circles but happy with the finished piece!

There's some video links over on the challenge blog - so dust off the flake jars and join Guest Designer  Mac  and the rest of our really talented team and upload a make into the gallery! 

Christmas Song

It is like a warm sunny summer's day here today so it seems even more strange than usual to be sharing a Christmas Card!
CAS Christmas this month has the challenge of 'Christmas Song'.

This card shape is a bit of a change for me - I found two of these at the back of a drawer so thought I should use them.

The crown stamp is very old and very neglected! Stamped and gold embossed then layered each onto a piece of gold glitter card. I didn't like them just added onto the card base so put another layer of white card on glitter card - and stuck the 3 crowns on - happier now!

I made a second card whilst the stamp was out - using up odd bits of card - I have a feeling I made something like these once before some time back!
Anyway it's 2 more for the Christmas box, so have achieved something!

I'll be back later with my reminder post for CAS Stencil but am popping outside with my cuppa to enjoy the sunshine for an hour.

Hope the sun is shining where you are too. x

Heroes

A make this morning to enter the challenge over at AAA Cards.

I am not normally drawn to cute but I made an exception for these Clearly Besotted 'Super Pug' stamps.

At this time when we have so many working for the benefit of others, I thought I may make a few of these.

Of course over at AAA, there has to be maximum white space without any texture or embossing added so this was a quick make, stamped, heat embossed and coloured - finito!
(I did silver emboss the stars but they haven't shown up very well on the pic - the sun has deserted us today and we've been left with a lot of cloud which isn't the best for pic taking!)

Cloudy or not, I am going to put on my jumper and take my coffee outside for my daily dose of fresh air.
Have a safe day everyone - especially our superheroes. x

Sunshine

Whilst visiting blogland, I am noticing that there are some struggling with the enforced lockdown - having your normal day to day activities curtailed (albeit necessarily), is difficult to come to terms with  -  but it just makes you thankful that this is only temporary. We may be in the same situation for a while yet but I keep reminding myself that it IS only temporary and I am lucky to be safe and sound.
Not for the first time in the last few weeks I have been glad that I no longer have to don a uniform and enforce laws and have to put up with idiots who simply don't know the meaning of the words 'STAY HOME' -  (and thankfully I am now too old to volunteer to go back!).
I have divided my time between being in the craft space and our little outside space.
I have set myself one small task a day outside whilst the weather has been nice - just one - as there is not much to do and if I did it all in one go I would then be bored! Today it is to re-pot a Rhododendron which is struggling now in it's too small container - so that's where I will be headed after today's share.

Dried Marigold, Mustard Seed and Squeezed Lemonade on watercolour card and liberally spritzed with water.
When dry ran through a sun ray embossing folder.

The gerbera is from Uniko, stamped and clear embossed, watercoloured and fussy cut.
I am not normally one for 'uplifting' sentiments but this one touched a chord with me when I hear about how many people worldwide are affected by this dreadful pandemic.

So sharing a little bit of Sunshine with my visitors and I am glad that you came to see me today. 

Joining in over at The Flower Challenge and at Inkspirational

STAY HOME, STAY SAFE, SAVE LIVES.

Combination

Please scroll down the page for my CAS Stencil and Stamping Sensations Design team posts!
Weather here has taken an upturn which means that at least I have blue sky to look out on - currently we have a very strong and chilly wind so fresh air limited to quick cuppas on my patio!
Sad though that as yet am unable to go and visit my fave garden centres and buy lots of plants for my pots, so there's a couple of them that are looking quite bare, but they'll have to stay that way for now.

I made a really quick card using up some of my Never Before Used Schtuff (NBUS) and a stamp and die from a new set - well when you can't spend on plants what else you gonna spend it on??? 😁

The background was masked off and I used Cracked Pistachio for the solid dots and Fossilized Amber for the stripes and dots on a never before used Crafters Companion layering stencil set.
Quite like these 2 shades together!

The scribbly flower is from Uniko's new 'Kindness Blooms' stamp and die set (which you can get here)
There's a great assortment of stamps in the set and the matching dies mean intricate cutting is easy! 

I used some twine from my stash and finished my flower centre with a small gold pearl.

The sentiment is from Altenew (another never used!!!)

Am sharing this speedy make over at 

AAA - Made In Minutes + Use a Stencil

Uniko- #58 Spots and Stripes + Use a Stencil
NBUS #13
AAA Birthday - Dots/Stripes


Thanks for calling to see me today. x