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

April Challenge at Stamping Sensations

Our theme this month at Stamping Sensations is called 'Somewhere Over The Rainbow'. 
We want to see rainbow colours or something you have interpreted from the words of the song and we have the wonderful Be Creative as our sponsors this month.
I have used the colours as my inspiration for this card.

My background was done with lots of different Distress Inks and a stencil. This was the first time I have used this stencil (which was a VERY cheap one) and I was really pleased with how it turned out.

I stamped the ballerina and clear embossed.

The odd grunge stamps  are from an old Textures set - I wanted to show her as emerging from the bottom into the rainbow light.

Matted onto black before layering onto the base card.

Hope you will have a go this month - details of the brilliant prize and brilliant cards from the rest of the DT are over on the blog - just remember -
We are a STAMPING challenge and stamping MUST be the focal point of your entry!
Happy Crafting! x

CAS Stencil April

Time for another challenge at CAS Stencil and this month, Cathy has chosen the theme of 'Gilding Flakes'.

Oh boy was there some fun in our joint Office/Craft Room/Gaming Room when the husband decided to be nosey and see what was in that jar of shiny papery stuff................now everyone knows that shiny papery stuff is not to be messed with - particularly by someone who hasn't a clue what he is doing -  and tipping the jar slightly when opening is definitely not recommended. We had lovely papery confetti EVERYWHERE. After a massive clean up operation I think in future he may just leave my side of the room well alone.....
So here's my card

Laid my stencil over a piece of white pearl cardstock and applied the glue.
A few Gilding Flakes next on the top of the stencil and glue and I have a small 'Scoochy' Polishing sponge (similar to a piece of Stamp Cleaning pad!) to work the flakes in.

I picked out the copper colour of the flakes using a piece of copper mirri card to frame the gilded piece and die cut a leafy branch.
The sentiment is done in Copper Metallic Ink.

I have used this stencil quite a lot and was pleased with the different effect of the gilding flakes -definitely stretching my stencil stash!

Lots of inspiration and a couple of links to tutorials over on the challenge blog - and a gorgeous make from our wonderfully talented Guest Designer  Mac   - please join us this month - we love to see your work in the gallery!

Spring

I like Spring. With all the madness going on there is something quite serene about seeing banks of daffodils and bright crocuses poking their heads out.  In my old house I had a small flower bed underneath a tree and every year the snowdrops multiplied a bit more and gave me a white carpet.

CAS Watercolour's challenge is 'Spring Flowers'.
As Snowdrops are known to be the first Spring flower  (even though they often poke their heads up above snow!)
I chose to use them on my card.

I did a simple watercolour background and fussy cut  my snowdrop stamp after painting.

Although you can't see it in the photo I dusted a little sparkle over the petals.

The sentiment is a well used one!

I hope that you are safe wherever you are in the World and if you are experiencing Spring like we are, that your World is full of Snowdrops.

Thanks for looking. x