February Romance!

The month of Love is upon us!
And at Try It On Tuesday our challenge for the next two weeks is called 'ROMANCE'

I have done a  CAS card (am not very romantic at all 😀) using a very very old stamp!

The little owls are from Technique Tuesday and were  loved but unused since I got them at least  8 years ago- (hangs head in shame🙈).

It was a stamp I wanted but then didn't have any ideas as to how to use it when I got it!

I paired them with a tree branch from Inkylicious.

A little watercolouring and an ink blended moon outline and a sentiment which for some unknown reason just makes me smile every time I see it!

Thanks for looking and hope you will join us this time!

Sharing with
Sweet Stampin' - Love
Neglected Stuff - Poor Owlies!

June Card Chain Challenge Reveal

My make for the June Card Chain Challenge went to Patricia in Texas and I received a lovely card from Gundi in Germany too - so thanks again! x

Once again I opted for the colour challenge and managed to add in the product option of Lace.

Using cream base card instead of the usual white I stamped the lavender image (Technique Tuesday) and coloured the flower heads with Picked Raspberry Oxide.

The background stencil is one of my most go to stencils and as I've now lost the packaging I've no idea which make!

Stencil ink blending was a combo of Spun Sugar and Picked Raspberry.

Added a piece of cream lace and some pink/cream twine then popped the floral spray onto a mat of Picked Raspberry inked card before putting it onto the main card.

The 'sign up' for next month is open for a couple of days if you fancy having a go!

Thanks for looking today - hope all is well in your part of blogland! x

March Card Chain Challenge

 My card for this month's Card Chain Challenge made a mammoth journey to Suze in New Zealand! Thankfully it arrived before the end of the month!

The colours given were a bit tricky for me but I continued with my quest of using the colours and trying to combine with one of the other technique elements.
Fortunately the colours don't have to be exact so I used a lighter few shades interpretation of each colour and the 'Stamps' product option.

The vase of bright sunflowers is by Technique Tuesday.
It comes with a matching die although I cut this by hand as there was too much white outline for my liking!
Coloured with watercolours.

The wavy edge background panel was done blending Distress Inks Spiced Marmalade and Dried Marigold with a light brushing of Peeled Paint. I then simply watercoloured a few lines to 'ground' the vase.

The sentiment is from SU.
I received a lovely card from blogging buddy Pia in Norway too - so thank you Pia! x

There's time for you to join in our challenge for next month if you want to - simply pop over to the blog and check out how it works!

Blue

Having found myself with the washing done and drying on the line and despite the sunny weather (not very warm) I escaped to the craft space on the last day of the weekend, where I spent a few happy hours making a mess with ink!
I am joining in again this month at CAS Watercolour where the challenge is 'Something Blue'.

I LOVE 💖 this cherry blossom stamp from Technique Tuesday.
I rank it amongst my all time faves.
It is one of those stamps that whatever colour you use it looks 'right'!

Although I confess to never having stamped it in BLUE before......!

Used Versafine Majestic Blue for the outline and coloured it with my (new 😊) watercolours before fussy cutting. (I do have the co-ordinating die but I  didn't want the white edge round  the outline of the stamp.)
Once dry I added a few teeny spots of Nuvo Crystal.

I inked the stamp again with Chipped Sapphire DI and spritzed with water then did a bit of random stamping onto a scrap of watercolour card. I tried to blend the ink a little across the background - (note to self - more practice needed at this!)

The sentiment is also from Technique Tuesday.
Also sharing at -
CUYL #112 - Blue/Flower/Watercolour
Creatalicious - A/G + Blue
Pixie's Snippets Playground - (Blossom and background were offcuts of watercolour card)
Make My Monday - Lots of Flowers
Alphabet - F for Flowers

Thanks for looking today, have a lovely day whatever you're doing. x

March Mid Month at Stamping Sensations

Our March 'Rainbow' themed challenge is well under way and this is a little reminder that you still have time to enter if you haven't done so, (or even if you have you can have another go!).
Great 'Lucky Dip' prize of  lovely dies and embossing folders up for grabs. (A pic  of our prize can be seen HERE at the bottom of my post)

Check out the Stamping Sensations blog for full details - and PLEASE read our rules before entering!

For my mid month card I opted for a simple CAS design with rainbow colouring.

I used a 'Cherry Blossom' embossing folder for the background.
The Butterfly is from an old set and I stamped it with Versafine ink starting with the centre one then simply masked and stamped again along the panel.

Following the colour spectrum of the rainbow I coloured the butterflies with a host of DI's and then made a few ink spatters.

The sentiment die and the sentiment are both Technique Tuesday.

Am sharing this over at -
Sunday Stamps - Sketch 
Fab N Funky - Butterfly 
Stamps + Fun - Butterfly

Have a great day whatever you're doing! x

Vellum

Visitors to my blog will know that on Sunday here I made a wild statement to try and join in as many of the CAS Mix Up and Sister blog challenges as I could.   My intentions were good at that time - and then............
I saw this months challenge at CAS Watercolour.

Vellum  ....    I mean VELLUM????      Vellum hates me. I don't know why, it just does.
But a statement of intent is a statement of intent - so I found the vellum (thrown away in a drawer in disgust no doubt) and looked at it.
It stared back at me. I still looked at it. It still stared back at me.
I looked at it and before it got a chance to look back I decided to use it - to use as little as possible - but to use it.

I count the Cherry Blossom stamp from Technique Tuesday as one of my faves.  Cherry Blossom reminds me of Spring and I love Spring when everything is starting to grow and flower.

I stamped and white embossed. 

I imprisoned the hated vellum in a frame of tape (stuck down as hard as I could to get my own back) and used my watercolour pencils to colour.

When dry I reluctantly released it from it's tape prison ....  and then cut it up. (Revenge is mine👿👿)

Fussy cut the 3 flowers and dotted teeny blobs of liquid pearls onto the stamens.

I die cut and watercoloured a branch and a frame and used one of the very first EF's ever bought (Oriental Set) as the Cherry Blossom EF I thought was a good background .
Mounted the embossed piece behind the frame.
A simple stamped sentiment finished it off.

And I finished the vellum off by returning it to it's dark drawer!!

Am sharing this over at
Flower Challenge - A/Goes
Allsorts - Fave Season (Spring)
CAS on Friday - Vellum
Daisy Chain - Spring

Thanks for looking! x

A long time!

Been over a week since I have shared anything -I finally finished my 4 year term of office on Saturday night culminating in the final time as part of the Presidential team at the National Presentation. A strange feeling but I have said I am not sad it is over, I am just happy that it happened!
The kitchen is almost completed - we are hopung to lay the flooring tomorrow then it's just a few odd small bits. I will be glad to get rid of the white dust cloud that has pervaded the house for the last month.
The weather here has been amazing the last few days so it inspired me to make a spring/summer card.

I confess that this was my second attempt - my first attempts to spritz the stamp for the watercolour background were a little too heavy handed and I ended up with mass splodges!

Fared better with this one and for someone who is really not confident with this technique I am really chuffed with myself. So much so that I am going to keep trying!

The stamp is from Technique Tuesday as is the accompanying die. It was one of their releases last year and have never used it until now.
I am really upset as I have had to cancel my subscription as I got stung with a £13 import duty on top of my monthly subscription and it simply is not feasible to keep up with the fluctuation in the tax rates here - apparently the rates are calculated on a particular day each month so it is pot luck if you miss it or not.
I love TT Greenhouse Society stamps and feel really put out!

The stitched frames are from The Works.

Finished with a tiny gingham bow and a Thank You sentiment.

Joining in at
SOS - Fabulous February (Several themes which reminded me of purple!)
Crafty Cardmakers - Flowers
PB&M - A/Goes
TTCRD - A/Goes
JUGS - Amethyst
Inkspirational - Use Your Stash
Sweet Stampers - Stitched

Hope you are all enjoying the same weather we are having here and thanks for looking today. Happy Crafting! x

Beautiful

Having been at home since the middle of the week I have had some time to relax and enjoy the glorious weather. Although it's been too hot for me at times I have really enjoyed seeing blue skies and sunshine - long may it continue!
Have a share today using one of my Technique Tuesday fave stamps - Cherry Blossom.

I love this stamp. When I was a child we had a huge cherry blossom tree in the garden. I used to climb it!
It was so pretty when it was in flower - but drove my poor Mum to distraction when the blossom started to drop all over the garden!

I stamped onto a small piece of watercolour paper in Abandoned Coral DI then misted the paper and simply splashed about with a watercolour brush.

Added some gold Liquid Pearls and cut out with a stitched rectangles die.
It looked a little 'lost' on the background linen textured card so I cut out a slightly larger rectangle. Used 3d foam pads to raise it up.


Quite happy with this one!

Am popping over to the following challenges -
Crafters Cafe - Keep It Simple
Flower Challenge - Monochrome
CAS on Friday - Splash of Watercolour
Fussy and Fancy - Pretty in Pink
A2S+M - CAS
HLS Watercolour - Anything Goes

Quick update - Miss Di has allowed me to join in at the Playground this time round as I was too late for last challenge last night and too early for the one that started today - she's a nice person our Miss Di - and I promise I won't spray anyone with the hose pipe.....! xx.

Thank you for looking and for leaving any comments. I appreciate it!
Enjoy the weather! x

Iris

Another Technique Tuesday stamp arrived for me earlier this week! Love getting these little envies with goodies in - and having the time to use them!

I didn't use the die that comes with the stamp as I wanted to move a couple of the leaves about and after stamping, I fussy cut - which was quite easy to do.

For the background, I used Peeled Paint DI at the bottom, then graduated Mustard Seed and Fossilized Amber before finishing with Shaded Lilac Oxide.
A few Lilac spatters (once again more on the craft mat than on the card....)

The flower was painted in the same shades and I added some teeny blobs of Gold Liquid Pearls.
I wanted to make the bottom of the card a little different and tuck the flower in rather than just having it on top so hence the use of the scallop die.
I stamped a few grasses for the base of the flower to give it a bit more depth.
The sentiment also part of the same set.

Sharing over at
Addicted 2 Stamps - CAS
Everybody Art - Flower
House that Stamps Built - A/Goes
House of Cards - Flower Corner

Shopping, a little bit of ironing then an afternoon in the craft space - it's quite grey and cool here and the wind is howling - not that I need an excuse! Thanks for visiting and have a great day whatever you're doing! x

A Snippets Card

Pixies Snippets Playground has me this week to show what I have done using those odd left over bits of card - let's face it, we all have them and the challenge run by Di, is a fortnightly way of getting us to try and lower the scrap mountain!
If you have come across to visit from the Playground it's lovely to see you and hope you will come back soon.

My card uses a stamp called Cosmos from one of my fave companies - Technique Tuesday.  (Long admired the cards made by Birgit and some of her creations are made with stamps from TT - which got me started!)

Recently I have been practicing watercolour backgrounds so I now have odd bits of watercolour cardstock to add to the ordinary cardstock pile!
Stamped and heat embossed in white onto a scrap of watercolour card and coloured the flower heads with Peacock Feathers DO before fussy cutting.  

Used another oddment of watercolour card cut into a square and stamped and embossed the Cosmos flowers again. 

I then washed part of it with the same ink using lots of water to dilute the colour to create my background and positioned the stitched die frame (another leftover) over it.

The flower heads were popped up with foam pads.

The stitched rectangular piece was just another odd bit on the desk so I ran round it with a stitched die and used it! 

Finished it off with some liquid pearls in the centre of the flowers and a couple of bits of bling. 

Hope you like my make for the Playground this week and that you will come along and join us!

Blossom

Carrying on practising my backgrounds - am trying to convince myself that I do not need a mountain of paper to make nice cards.
I have so much patterned paper some of it is so old I cannot remember where/when I bought it and looking at the cards I have made in the last few months I have used probably 4 small pieces of it. The time has come I think to get rid - if I could only find a home for it!

For a long time I have wanted to subscribe to Technique Tuesday's 'Greenhouse Stamp Society' but as I have been away so much over the last 3 years there seemed little point - until now!
Although I still have some travelling this year it is not as intense as it has been so I took the plunge. It's nice to have something to look forward to arriving in the post every month and I have subscribed for both stamp and the matching dies.

This stamp is the March release called Cherry Blossom and I love it! I made a couple of cards with it and am sharing the first one which was just a basic design - but am pleased with how it turned out.

Stamped and heat embossed in white, then painted with DI's. I added a teeny bit of liquid pearls to the stamens of each blossom.
The circle frame was a left over!
I took some watercolour card and splashed/smooshed a bit of Spun Sugar on it and tucked it behind the die cut circle.
The sentiment is from the same set, cut from watercolour card and painted.
A few teeny pale green pearls and done!

Joining in at -
A2S&M - Make your Mark
Ellibelle's  Crafty Wed - Flowers + Sentiment
PDE - Flowers

I have a full house for the next few days - some friends coming to stay till the middle of next week and am looking forward to a bit of girly gossip and no doubt some shopping!
Have a great weekend and thanks for the visit! x