Mid Way at Try It On Tuesday

Half way through our 'ROMANCE' challenge at Try It On Tuesday so there's still time for you to be all soppy and lovey-dovey!

Another simple CAS card from me, this time using linen textured card.

Smooshed a little off cut in Picked Raspberry Oxide then used a tiny script stamp in the same colour to try and give it some depth.

These little heart dies  were just lightly inked on the tips and the bottom of the stems in the same ink.

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

Text Time!

 Our new challenge at Try It On Tuesday is 'ADD SOME TEXT'.

I took some watercolour paper and smooshed a purple/lilac/pink background trying to put the inks only two thirds of the way on the card.

Normally I use acetate for smooshing as I like to see where it's going but thought I'd try it directly from the craft mat for this.

Once the paper was dry, I used a very old tree stamp (that old I have no idea where it came from!) and began to build up the 'forest'.

I used Distress Oxides in shades of Lucky Clover, Shabby Shutters and Bundled Sage. I spritzed the inked up stamp each time before using in the hope that I'd achieve a misty effect!

The sentiment is from Inkylicious - another I have had for a long time but rarely used.
Finished with one of Inkylicious bird stamps and mounted onto black card.

Hope you will share a creation with us this challenge and thanks for looking today! x

Also sharing at
Path of Positivity - Anything Positive Goes
Daisy Chain - No Designer Paper

Framed

 Had a few odd bits of card lying about and used them up to make this after seeing something similar some time ago.
Then had THE most dreadful job trying to get a good picture!

The frame was cut from a piece smooshed with Iced Spruce Distress Ink.

The leaf die had a slight sponging of Bundled Sage across it and it toned well with the frame altho it doesn't show up that good in this pic!

Just added a simple stamped sentiment.

A quick CAS card and I think I might try a few more in different muted shades as I like the simplicity of it and think it could be used for lots of things with different sentiments.

Sharing over at
The Flower Challenge #82 - CAS
Sweet Stampin' - Flowers
SCS - CAS
ATS+M - Die cuts

We have had some very heavy showers the last few days and the garden is grateful! So am I - cos it meant I didn't have to water the pots!

Have a great weekend whatever you're doing. x

Keep It Simple at Try It On Tuesday

For the next two weeks our challenge theme at Try It On Tuesday is 'Keep It Simple'.
So a CAS card from me!

I smooshed a bit of watercolour card across some watery Mowed Lawn DI. One of my better results I thought!

Cut out with a stitched die and stamped some bamboo at one side. The bamboo stamp is years old and I think it's from Choc Baroque.

Added a thin stitched die frame on top as an experiment - didn't glue it at first!

I love Ginko leaves so when Inkylicious brought this set out I had to have it.  Stamped and fussy cut and then arranged them inside and outside the thin frame before glueing it all in place.

I was going to add another ginko on the top right but remembered I had a chinese writing stamp and a little bit of the smooshed piece left so used it up.

Finished it all off with a couple of little citrus green dots, using a bigger one to hide the overlap of the offcut bits!
For this make I used linen textured cardstock to give the background some interest.

Please go visit the challenge blog and see what the rest of the team have come up with this time!
Hope you can join us too and thanks for looking today. x

Try It On Tuesday - Go Green

 Our challenge at Try It On Tuesday this fortnight is - GREEN. So you can either use the colour or recycle something to make your project!

I chose to simply use different shades of the colour as it's one that I quite neglect as a main colour on my cards.

I smooshed a background using Mowed Lawn and Shabby Shutters.

My stamp set is very very old! But it is one of those 'go to' sets when all else fails! As it's several different stamps and not one complete plate where the design was already done (I think both were available at one time) it took a little while positioning, stamping and gold embossing onto the background.

I used Nuvo watercolour pencils to colour the flowers in a shade called Deep Viridian (love this colour and this was the first time using it!) and the leaves were coloured in Malachite Green.

I used Versamagic Oasis Green chalk ink on a tiny piece of scrunched up dry baby wipe to add a little depth to the bottom before sticking it all onto the dark green base card.

Thanks for looking today. Please pop over to the TIOT blog and have a peep at the makes from the rest of the DT - and I hope to see YOUR make linked up too! x
Am sharing my make over at
Colourful Options - Green
Double D - Everything Coming Up Green
Beyond the Blue - Blooms

Snowy Landscape

There is no sign that the current freezing cold icy weather will disappear any time soon, so after a short trip out to collect an ordered present I holed myself up in the Happy Place where it is lovely and warm!

I have been having lots of inkyness just lately having visited Pinterest. I am in awe of the talent so many possess with their gorgeous scenes and I thank them for inspiring.

Here's another I did after a Pinterest trawl -
I love these Lavinia foxes. Am practicing very hard with the white highlighter on the fur - not quite there yet but improving each time.

The sky imitates what I looked out on today! It was quite misty fog earlier and only cleared mid afternoon. The grey sky was achieved by smooshing Hickory Smoke Distress Oxide and flicking some water across it. I masked off the bottom with some torn paper before smooshing.

Blended a little Fossilized Amber over the top for a watery sun and stamped a few branches after making a few snowy drifts.
As usual I had to splatter!

Another practice session completed and another card for my stash!
Thanks for looking. Hope you are warm and well in your part of blogland. x

Sharing at
Time Out - Winter
TIOT - Winter Wonderland
MMM - Winter card

CAS Mix Up June Mid Month Reminder

I chose the word prompt of  'FLIGHT' for my host month at CAS Mix Up  and we're half way through so there's still time to add your make into the gallery!
(It's my birthday today too so it would be a lovely pressie if you fill our gallery with gorgeousness!

Followers of my blog will have seen this sentiment before because I love it!

I black heat embossed the feathers and the emerging birds first.

Smooshed Twisted Citron and Salty Ocean Oxides onto a piece of acetate and then simply pressed the acetate sheet down onto the card where I wanted it.

I like being able to see where I am putting the colours - if I do random smooshing direct to my card when I turn it over it's normally a muddy mess!

Sentiment also black heat embossed.

Please pop in on the rest of my lovely teamies!

Have a lovely day - I am planning on eating cake - lots of it!🍰🍰🎂

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

Sunshine

We are blessed today with clear blue skies and some warm sunshine - for a short while I have sat outside listening to nothing except the sounds of birds singing - and have been able to put all the worries about what everyone in the world is currently experiencing to the back of my mind.
Solitude is far better in the sunshine than underneath grey skies! 
I am sharing my own little bit of sunshine with you in this card.

I thought the sentiment was very apt as Nature does really seem to laugh in the sunshine.

My smooshed background is a small piece left over from another project and has some Mica powders mixed in so in real life it has lovely sparkle.
The 'corn' is part of a Woodware stamp, heat embossed in white and the die cut butterfly was cut from an odd piece of pearlised black card.

I received a card similar to this last year from a blogging buddy and it really was sunshine in an envelope!

I hope you too are blessed with a nice day wherever you are and that everyone is staying safe.
Thanks for visiting me today. x

A trip

Happy Sunday everyone! Although the weather here is far from happy - it's blowing a gale and the rain is lashing down!
Not that I am too concerned as I shall be in the sunshine tomorrow (I hope!) - more of that later.....
Had some odd scraps of watercolour paper so decided to use them up - and as they're scraps I am away to the Playground (have my wellies and my sou'wester on....)

The stamp is one I have had for a while from Crafty Individuals and I decided to smoosh the watercolour paper with colours that I thought the flowers should be then hopefully be able to position the stamp over the top so that the colours were roughly in the right place.

The green DI is Mowed Lawn, the blue is Mermaid Lagoon and the yellow Fossilized Amber and I was pretty happy with the resulting smooshing as the stamps with a little bit of fiddling ended up in the right place.

I then painted over odd bits of the images with the same colours to give a bit more definition.
Mounted the panels onto black card.
The card base has a script vellum overlay - another paper pack I have had for ages -  I thought it picked up the script background of the stamp (and it saved me stamping and embossing the card base!!!👌).
Stamped the simple sentiment onto the smallest piece of paper ever and shaped it like a tag, punching a small hole in the top, wrapped some white organza ribbon round the vellum and tied the tag onto it.

Challenges -
Inkspirational - Smooshing
CAS Mix Up - Smooshing/Stamping/Vellum
HLS Watercolour - A/Goes with option of Smooshing

I shall be absent from visits for a little while - as my first Presidential tour starts tomorrow so sunnier climes for me! (And the 65 others coming too!) 
I am hoping that Mr Blogger behaves himself and publishes my scheduled DT post and hope that you will not forget me whilst I am gone (I mean - How could you??????!!!!!!!) 

Shimmer and Scraps!

Quick card share day again today - made entirely of scraps and used up stuff that was lying on the desk.

 I had been playing about with the 'smooshing' technique a couple of weeks ago and as per normal for me had used a rather large piece of  left over card when smooshing - (always done 'cos I am so heavy handed and I figure that if I used a MAHOOSIVE piece to start with,  when I am done I will have a small 'useable' bit!)

I have already made one similar card here back in October, but still had some smaller bits that I thought looked OK so used them to make this!

This was a card where I didn't have to flick bits of Gold Cosmic Shimmer powder everywhere like the last time as it was already done... and still not cleaned up properly either... but as it's Christmas the gold sparkley bits on the walls and the PC monitor look rather festive....

I did though add a few more bits of gold (carefully) to bits of the die cut trees and painted a teeny snippet of card (from the floor) with the gold then punched out a teeny star. Left over bits torn to make the snowdrifts at the bottom and some more sparkly glittery gluey stuff dragged across it.

Quite pleased with the way this one turned out -  shimmer is good and the different colours  achieved by the smooshing on close up looks quite reasonable!!

Challenges -
Pixies Playground - Week 259
Inkspirational - CAS with Sparkle
Happy Little Stampers - A/Goes with Dies
Happy Little Stampers - CAS Challenge with Smooshing
Dies R Us - Christmas
Creative Craft Cottage - Die Cuts

 Still haven't got rid of this dreadful cough  and am not 100% - feel like I have had this cold and bad chest for ages (well over a week at any rate...)- there's a lot of it about I'm told.
Am off again today for a few days - back at the end of the week.  -  this was supposed to be a relaxing break with a bit of bowls played just for fun with some good friends thrown in - am hoping I don't get on everyone's nerves when I start coughing and spluttering!!!!
Have a great week. x

Two in two days!

I go AWOL for a couple of weeks then here I am sharing another make - post number 2 in 2 days - must be a record for me!
We are in the middle of thunderstorms and heavy rain/sleet and I got fed up catching up with the ironing so sat down at the crafty desk...

The lovely Loll is so encouraging (but sickeningly talented!!!!!) and her takes on the 'smooshing' technique made me want to have a go.
You may remember that when I posted my first effort HERE I said I had made a mess with another piece using different colours.

The 'spoilt smooshy' was left on the desk and today I chopped off the 'bad bit' which left me with this piece big enough to go on a 5 inch square card! 

The pretty Cosmos stamp is from Technique Tuesday and is NBUS so am showing this to Darnell!

Embossed with white then coloured using a mix of Mermaid Lagoon and Cracked Pistachio DI's, adding a bit of Golden Malachite and Golden Pear Cosmic Shimmer to the inks as I went along - the finished result is lovely and shimmery which doesn't quite show up in the pic - but am pleased with it (for a change!!)

I used the 'Thinking of You' sentiment as I thought it could perhaps be used as a sympathy/condolence card as well as a general note card.

Challenges -
4 Crafty Chicks - CAS
Addicted to CAS - Delicate
Fantasy Stampers - In the Springtime (I think Cosmos are Spring flowers??? LOL)
Addicted to Stamps - A/Goes
OSAAT - A/g with Embossing


Hope you are all enjoying Easter, thanks for calling in - appreciate any comments you leave. x