Summer Blooms at Try It On Tuesday

Summer has indeed been blooming in my part of the world! We've had hot sunny days and what seemed to be even hotter nights!
TIOT's challenge this fortnight is entitled Summer Blooms. As always you can interpret any way you want in any medium as long as it follows the challenge theme.

There is a field  at the back of our house which has evolved into a wildflower meadow so my make this time has reflected that although the colours are not true to life I just wanted to encompass all the colours I can see!

These are several very old stamps that I own and this was a very quick card to do.

I used my Arteza waterbrush pens coloured the stamps, spritzed with water and stamped onto watercolour card.

Spritzing is one of my fave techniques as it gives such a soft dreamy effect! (My other half would say that describes me........😜

Finished it by matting onto a black background and heat embossing a sentiment in white.

Hope you can pop over to the blog and see what everyone else has served up this month and join us as we celebrate a flowery summer!

Thanks for looking . x 

Birds/Feathers at Try It On Tuesday

The weeks are simply flying by (no pun intended) and it's a new challenge over at Try It On Tuesday - the theme is Birds and or Feathers!

Some time ago I saw a painting depicting a bird who had escaped from it's cage and I wanted to try and make a card along the same theme.

We have so many lovely birds singing in the garden and they always sound so happy (they make me feel happy too) so my make this time is a combination of bird song and freedom which to me means - - Happiness!

This little bundle of feathers is out in the tree celebrating the fact that someone has left his cage door open and he is free.

Ink blended background of Picked Raspberry, Spun Sugar and Antique Linen.

I used Black Soot along the bottom and stamped the grass using Card-io stamps from the Textures set.

My birdcage is an old die - has a branch attached to it so I cut it off!

Bird and the tree branch is also Card-io.

Thanks for looking today! x

Fiery Friend

 We have been blessed with some glorious weather recently so a lot of time has been spent outdoors - either in the garden pottering about and soaking up the sunshine or out armed with binoculars (husband with camera) looking at birds and nature in general. A few days away whilst the weather was so good adds up to a pretty perfect time at the mo!

BUT - I had to have an inky fix in between and here it is

I have been mulling over the idea for this for a while - sometimes I don't trust myself to try out an idea in case it looks rubbish - but I was pretty happy with this one!
A friendly dragon flying in to see his dragon keeper.
A clearing in a wood and a fiery sky whilst they say hello to each other.

Stamps of course by Lavinia and Distress Oxides for background.

I have had Zemira for a little while but this is the first time she (and the dragon) have seen ink!

I used a couple of different colours of Memento Inks for our fiery dragon (thanks to my Misti!) and put some Wink of Stella on Zemira which doesn't show up very well in the photo.

Currently trying to decide if I second/third generation stamp the Lavinia Dragon Verse on the right... been thinking about it for several days .... and still thinking! Instead there may be a few more tree trunks added on the right rather than the verse.... still thinking!!!

Sharing over at
Little Red Wagon - Things that Fly
I Spy - Something with Wings
Fairy and Unicorn - Anything Fantasy
Sweet Stampin' - Things with Wings
NBUS #51

May Card Chain Challenge Reveal

I sent my card this month to Greta in Oregon and received a lovely card from Kath who is based here in the UK!
The colour option for May's Card Chain Challenge seemed simple at first -

until I tried to bring something together and confess I found it quite difficult! I think I simply tried to overthink it! Anyway I soldiered on and also managed to use one of the product options of embossing powder and the 'ripped edges' technique option so that was a bonus!

I have a sneaking suspicion that this embossing folder I used on the background was a freebie in a mag (- but I may be wrong!) but as I had already decided to try and produce something with an Asian theme I used the folder!

The dies are all from a Sizzix set. The flowers/branches in the set are really fiddly but I like using them.

I watercoloured the flower stems using dark blue and a near as I could get it turquoise.

The base was tripled heat embossed with gold embossing powder.

I remembered I had a piece of pale blue vellum so tore a little piece  and used it to hang from the scroll after heat embossing the chinese script and word.
Finished with a heat embossed on vellum butterfly.

You have a few days to sign up for the next challenge - get over to the blog and add your name!
Thanks for looking today. x