Out of this World!

Those who know me know what I am like about football! (Soccer to my friends across the pond!).... so today I have been allowing my blood pressure to return to normal after an amazing night at Anfield last night!
Suffice to say the result was definitely 'out of this world' and the boys in red really did 'sparkle' - so in their honour -

Regular visitors will recall I made a card with an offcut from a galaxy background (it's HERE if you want a look!).  This is the original background where that offcut came from.
I quite like galaxy backgrounds (when I get them right) and I think this is one of my better ones. If you've not tried a galaxy background there are lots of great examples here on pinterest!

Lots of different colours used - Squeezed Lemonade, Fossilized Amber, Picked Raspberry, Seedless Preserve, Dusty Concord, Black Soot.
A liberal splattering with water then when dry some white acrylic paint gave me my stellar sky.

The Starbursts and the sentiment are from Visible Image, simply heat embossed.

Sharing at -
Sweet Stampin' - Spaced Out
A Place to Start - Technique (Galaxy)
Fab n Funky - A/goes
APTTC - A/Goes

Thanks for looking today.
I am planning a quiet night in the craftie space - no more excitement for a few days at least! x

Raindrops

Found some time this morning to sit in the craftie space and hoped Mr Mojo appeared. He refused to show his face at all yesterday but I have noticed that when other things are going in in real life sometimes it is really difficult to conjure up enthusiasm for paper and ink....!!
Thankfully CAS Stencil provided me with something to concentrate on this morning and also helped me dispose of a scrap piece of background which has been getting shifted from one side of the desk to another for a while!

The challenge to use a stencil over a coloured background provided the perfect opportunity to use up this piece of blue inky background.

I used a small Raindrops stencil and after sponging the white ink, I clear embossed.

















Quite happy with the effect the clear embossing gave the drops!

The umbrella is from SU's Weather Together set, stamped in Versafine Majestic Blue onto a snippet of card and fussy cut.
The sentiment is from the same set and I used another sentiment 'I'm here for you' on the inside.

Also sharing my card with -

MTTC - CAS
Alphabet - C for CAS
Pixies Playground
TTPH - Blues

We have a sunny day here with no sign of raindrops thankfully - but my it is COLD!!
Hope the sun is shining where you are and thanks for taking the time to come and see me! x

May at Stamping Sensations

Time for another challenge at Stamping Sensations and this month we are sponsored by the amazing Chocolate Baroque.
A fantastic prize of  2 Stamp Sets (pic on the challenge blog)  awaits our lucky entrant who receives the most votes from the DT this month!
But if you want to even be considered you MUST follow our rules! Please read the rules before you join us - we want to be fair to everybody.

Our theme is - 'In an English Country Garden'... for those of you who aren't familiar with the song, the lyrics are available if you google the title - and it lists lots of things that you can use as a basis for your project!

I used a stamp set from our sponsors called 'Honey Bee' and stamped onto watercolour card.
I really enjoyed colouring this (even though I am a little scared of bees as I get a nasty reaction if ever I am stung!) but they ARE clever little things and we need them!

I used a Honeycomb embossing folder and cut out a circle to frame the image.
Finished by adding some cord, a fussy cut bee and a few punched hexagons.

Thanks for looking today and we all look forward to having you join us this month!

Floral

A quick post from me today!
Sharing a card I made recently for a friends Birthday using a NBUS stamp!
Had this PB 'Delicate Florals' set for a while and this is the first time this particular stamp from the set has seen ink!

I stamped and silver embossed then used DI's to colour. (Picked Raspberry, Victorian Velvet, Cracked Pistachio)
Die cut a Butterfly and silver embossed the body before popping it onto a teeny scrap of vellum which I coloured with Cracked Pistachio DI.
Die cut the sentiment and coloured again with Cracked Pistachio before mounting onto the die cut stitched squares.
A few paint splatters to finish.

Sharing over at
PB&More - Spring
PB Saturday Challenge - Fresh Spring Colours
Allsorts - Feminine
CAS on Friday - Butterflies
Alphabet - C for Cas

Thanks for visiting me today. I will come see you all soon as I can! have a great day whatever you're doing. xx

The Rain Returns!

After some wonderful warm and sunny days we have returned again to typical April showers. In fact last evening there was a downpour of monsoon proportions!
My real life has taken up quite a lot of my time but happily I did find some 'me' time.

Some time ago I saw a card made by fellow blogger Michele  which I loved so I asked her if she would allow me to take her inspiration and use it for myself. She happily agreed so here is mine -

I decided to use a brick background on the lower part of the card to add some texture. Looking at it now I might have got away with the whole of the background embossed.....

I really like these Gerbera stamps - stamped and heat embossed in white then out with the new Brush Pens.
(Enjoying playing with these - although they are going to take a bit of getting used to and am not sure if I am brave enough yet to just try using them as watercolours without an embossed stamp line to guide!) 

Fussy cut the flowers then punched 3 small circles into a strip of white card, stamped a sentiment and my little card finished.

Sharing my make with
Crafty Creations - A/Goes
House that Stamps Built - A/Goes
MAWTT - Flowers

Thanks for visiting today - hope whatever you're doing is making you feel happy! x 

Sunny Days!

Well!  The weather here has been amazingly wonderful - really warm and beautiful sunshine and according to the forecast set to stay for a few days over our Easter Holiday weekend.
I am just hoping that this isn't our Summer!
I treated myself to some Water Brush pens this week and have been trying them out.
Trawling the internet I came across this
 https://channin.wordpress.com/2019/04/12/water-media-mat-faux-watercolor-stamping/
and I thought 'perfect for trying out my new stash!
 
The poppy stamp is by Technique Tuesday and with some removal of ink from the other parts of the stamp I managed to just keep isolating one flower head.

The sentiment is from the same set, white embossed.

This was my second attempt.😳😳

The first one I haven't discarded completely and may make an appearance at a later date - but I have somehow managed to leave quite a large space in between the flowers and will need to think carefully about how I am going to disguise it! (The position of the space  doesn't really lend itself to a sentiment I don't think but.........!!!!)

Am going to pay a second visit this month to CAS Watercolour where the challenge is 'Poppy'.
Also sharing over at
Daring Cardmakers - Blooming Wonderful
MAWTT - That Spring Feeling
A2S+M - Make your Mark

Happy Easter and I hope the sun is shining wherever YOU are! x

April Reminder for Stamping Sensations

Time for a quick reminder that we are half way through this month's 'April Showers Brings May Flowers' challenge theme at Stamping Sensations.
I have this card to share and hope that if you haven't already joined our wonderful challenge that you will create something and join us - there's a whopping £25 voucher to be spent at the 'be Creative!' store as our prize this month!

I used watercolour card and stamped this flower stamp several times, masking as I went along.
I have had this red rubber stamp for a long time and surprisingly have hardly used it!

The leaves are from another set.
I clear embossed the stamped images and watercoloured.

Some Liquid Pearls dotted in the flower centres.

The sentiment stamp is by Inkylicious.

I am a little disappointed with the quality of this pic - each flower was coated with Glossy Accents and they shone off the front but sadly you can't see this and as it is already on it's way to someone, you will just have to take my word for it!!

Joining the challenges at -
Allsorts -Blossoms
TIOT - Springtime
Sweet Stampin - Spring
PB & More - Spring

Thanks for looking!

Starry Sky

The challenge at CAS Stencil required me to have a serious think about what I was going to do simply because I am finding it quite difficult to concentrate on any one thing for longer than a minute.
I had a couple of offcuts left over from another card which have simply been lying on this tip of a desk for a while.
I was about to throw them in the bin (working on my 'I must keep the desk tidy' promise) when I had a light bulb moment 💡💡💡!

We have had some lovely blue sky days and some very clear (and cold) nights - so here is the result of someone flicking the switch and reminding me that on clear nights you can see the stars.....

My little scrap of galaxy background had some white acrylic paint spattered over it and then I set about making myself a stencil from a star die and some acetate.
The smaller star is a home made stencil from a previous project.

I had bought some Cosmic Shimmer Ultra Sparkle Paste (Frosty) and never used it so tried it on the larger star.

Swirling it about and applying it thicker in some parts gave an (unintentional) random line effect which I thought didn't look too bad. I used a thinner layer on the smaller star but if you look closely it also has some slight random lines!

The sentiment was a mag freebie from last year.

Sharing my stencilled sparkly stars at -
Seize the Birthday - A/Goes
TIOT - Use a Stencil or Two

It's another cold day here but there IS some blue in the sky again. The weather is set to warm up this week I think and not before time!
I have promised myself that today I am going to have a small clear out and tidy up in the craft space - I need to make room for my new waterbrush colour pens!
Have a great day. x

Spring

It's been a week which has passed quickly if not productively.

On many occasions this week I have found myself staring blankly at card and wondering about making something - anything!

I think the thing is I simply cannot concentrate on one thing at the minute, I want to do several different things and because of this my thought process is jumping from one thing to the other - and I end up with........  nothing!

I only managed to make 2 cards this week... and this is one.
The Altenew blog gave me some much needed inspiration and another opportunity to practice with layering stamps.

Altenews Peony Bouquet stamp set, Ink shades - Shabby Shutters/Peeled Paint/Forest Moss and Memento Pear Tart, and Versafine black for the main flower outline and sentiment.
I finished with some pale green pearls.

Sharing my card over at
Creative Knockouts - Spring is on its way
MAWTT - Spring feeling
SSS Wednesday - No Designer paper
Elliebelle's Wednesday - Spring Blossoms

We've had a fine dry sunny week here, and although it is still a bit cold I think Spring is poking it's head out!
I hope you too are experiencing nice sunny days wherever you are.  Thanks for calling in today. x  

Hello

The challenge for April at CAS Watercolour is Poppies.
I found this small stamp in my stash that had 3 poppies on it - it also had some agapanthus in the background - these were removed after careful application with a cotton bud and some cleaner after I'd inked the stamp!

I coloured it with Inktense Watercolour pencils.

I am not feeling very inspired at the moment (real life again) so the addition of the die cut sentiment coloured in a gradient of the colours used for the stamped image and background was the only embellishment.

I DO though, have a few things unassembled on the desk which I intend to turn my attention to over the next few days!

We had a truly beautiful day here yesterday. I ventured outside in a short sleeve shirt with my cuppa so it must have been warm.

There's a bit more cloud about today but at least the temperature hasn't dropped too much.

Hoping that the warmer days are becoming the norm now rather than the exception!


Also sharing at

CAS on Friday - Spring
Cardz 4 Galz - Flora.
Thanks for taking the time to pay me a call today. I hope that you are warm too in your part of the world! x

April at Stamping Sensations

'April Showers Bring May Flowers' is our theme for this month's challenge at Stamping Sensations.
We are sponsored by the wonderful Be Creative who are offering a super prize for our chosen winner! More details on the challenge blog and just a gentle reminder please to read our rules FULLY before linking up with us - thanks!

This Crafty Individuals stamp was part of the pile that dear husband bought me at Christmas (has good taste doesn't he??? Or maybe it was because it was on the list of 'What Viv Wants'??!!)

Anyway,  it fitted for this months theme so at least I have now used it!

The stamp was coloured with Distress Inks.

The raindrops are a Creative Expressions Mini Stencil, sponged in white then clear embossed with Be Creatives Crystal Clear Embossing Powder.
Used a watercolour brush to blend some blue/grey inks across the sky.

The sentiment was masked for the front and inside - the whole thing reads 'Come Rain or Shine, Have a Wonderful Day '

Let's hope this month doesn't bring us TOO many showers!

Whilst you're linking up at the challenge blog  have a look what my teamies have done too - we love visitors and would appreciate you leaving us a comment!

Thanks for looking today! x

A learning curve and thoughts to ponder!!

Have you ever wondered (when you look at little piles of failed attempts in the bin ), why you tried in the first place?

Have you ever wondered (when you look at the greasy fingermarks), why you decided to use some (rather expensive) navy blue card which is coated with something that instantly attracts every single teeny bit of anything that is floating about above the craft desk?

Have you ever wondered (when you look at the finished article) why, even though there is nothing on the actual card the camera appears to have picked up strange shading and tiny specks?

I have.
I have wondered all these things  🔮 -  and don't know the answers!!

But in the making of the little pile of mess now sat in the bin I discovered that Pink embossing powder does not work when applied direct to this particular card.
Nor does Blue.
Nor does  Yellow
Nor does Green.

This stamp set  is called 'Under The Cherry Blossom tree' from Altenew and I confess that although I coveted it, it was not what I expected when it arrived.
There is nothing wrong with the set, it is a really pretty set but for me the majority of the sentiment stamps are really tinyand likely I will only use one or two.

I used Gold and Platinum EP on the branch - then, on trying to layer the cherry blossom in pink and the teeny birdie in aforementioned colours, I found out that this card definitely does not like it!

Try #1 - pink blossom ended up a sludgy maroon colour
Try #2 - blue birdie ended up translucent
Try #3 - yellow birdie was green
Try #4 = Green birdie looked as sick as the proverbial parrot!!

So blossom and birdie ended up white!

I am entering my tale of woe (and the card) into the following challenges
CAS Mix Up  - (Layered Embossing, Stamping and Die Cutting)
Time Out - Inspiration Pic (Blue, gold, white and blossom)
Stamplorations CAS Challenge - Dark Navy

I am off to put away pots of EP and empty the bin!! x

Back to Blighty

We had to pack and depart for a few days last week to assist my mother in law return from her annual 5 month trip to warmer climes. Following a stay in hospital the mammoth task of packing to return was just a bit too much, so we just put everything on hold, went out, packed her belongings up, got her back on a plane and she is now settled back in her own home...

Now I am back home I am wanting to get back in the crafty space (of course) but needed a quick card to get in the post to someone who is about to embark overseas - so here it is.

A genuine quick and simple CAS card made in no time at all!

A sea shell embossing folder, a set of sandy themed stamps. and a scrap of twine.

Stamped the starfish with  Fossilized Amber and fussy cut.
Sentiment stamped with Adirondack Butterscotch

Some Bakers Twine knotted round the bottom, starfish sat on top and panel fixed to base card.

Took a piece of white paper, stamped sentiment, another shell and some 'sand' from the same set and insert done too.


Over at AAA the challenge is
"Made in Minutes with  Dry Embossing".

Sadly the weather here is not currently good enough to be relaxing on the sand!
Am thinking that M-I-L will be wishing that she was back in the warm sunshine as we've actually had some large hailstones this morning..... but as always it gives me a perfect excuse to get up into the craft room and get back to inky fingers.


Hope the sun is shining where you are and thanks so much for visiting me! x

In the absence of Mojo

I have been struggling to come up with ideas of late. There have been a few 'real life' things which have invaded into my little cocoon and this has resulted in me being unable to make anything that I am happy with!
I sat yesterday and just made a couple of simple cards  - achieved by smooshing watercolours onto watercolour card.
The basic design of both is the same - I used the same stamp, embossed and smooshed! Will share the other (even plainer) one at a later date but here's the first

I have tried a different way of smooshing and found this works better for me - it is simply instead of putting the colours onto your craft mat and dipping the card into it, I put the colour onto a piece of acetate, spritzed and then pressed it over the embossed image.

It's probably not as random as you can actually position the colours but as I can see where the colour is going it stops me from covering massive areas when I only wanted to cover a tiny bit!

The stamp is a smaller one from a 2 part Woodware set.

I used Mustard Seed, Wild Honey and Dried Marigold with a little bit of Peeled Paint, drying each colour with the heat gun before moving onto the next.
I added a teeny bit of Vintage Photo into the centre of the flower.

I finished it with a few (did I say few?) ink spatters and a new to me die cut sentiment.

Then I decided it wasn't finished and added the little black card with the white embossing  - THEN it was finished!

Sharing over at
TIOT - Say It With Flowers
AAA - 1 image/Spring
Crazy 4 CAS - Watercolour
Alphabet - Z for Zesty
Cut It Up - Flowers

We have had a dry but very windy day here today - but it really IS cold!!
Have a lovely day whatever you're doing and thanks for coming to see me today. x

Guest Designer at CAS on Friday

(if you are visiting to see my card for CAS Stencil, please scroll down to the next post!)

I was delighted to be asked to join the CAS on Friday team this week as their Guest Designer.

The theme for this challenge is 'Baby'.

I don't have call to make a lot of Baby cards and coupled with having to make it CAS was, I confess, a bit of a challenge!

I thought a bubble or bokeh effect might work well whilst keeping the card CAS so chose a Pink and Grey colourway for the Bokeh circles.

I used a stencil I made myself from some acetate for another project and  just used the smallest circle.

The pink colour is Spun Sugar and the Grey is a Metallic Silver (which really doesn't show up very well in the pic- but has a really pretty subtle shimmer to it in real life.)

Did a few ink splatters with the Spun Sugar ink.

I stamped our little elephant (from Lawn Fawn) in the same silver ink and clear embossed then coloured her in, before cutting her out with a stitched circle die.

The teeny heart is from the same set and the sentiment is LOTV.

The very talented design team have made some wonderful examples this week - I am honoured to be in such talented company! 

Sharing my little baby card over at
Creative Moments - A/Goes 
AAA - 1 image

Just Beachy!

This is another one of those cards that didn't really end up like I thought it would!
Looking back I had no idea how it would turn out as I simply wanted to try out the Ghosting technique again. 

I have lots of odd pieces of watercolour card perfect for practicing with (Playground for me!) so made a couple of backgrounds using different colours - mostly blue and greens with varying degrees of success and this one which was done in shades of orange DI's, lifting the colour by spraying with water, leaving for a few seconds and lifting the stencil off.

The stencil is by That's Crafty.

I stamped and embossed the shell and the sentiment in gold and cut the frames and sentiment frame from the left over base card - there was no waste left from this particular piece of card!

The shells were collected from a trip last year and the seed beads were from my stash.

I am not sure if this is CAS enough for the CAS Stencil challenge but am linking anyway!

Also linking at the Mixed Media Must Use a Stencil challenge at Stamplorations

A2S+M - Holiday (and right now I can't wait to get on a beach somewhere!)

The Card Concept also have a lovely Inspiration Pic and I chose the shells and the overall beachy theme to inspire this make.

My kitchen floor has finally been laid today - the whole project has taken 7 weeks - there is just the skirting boards to be fixed now so my house is almost back to normal!

Thanks for visiting today - have a great day whatever you are 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

Ghost

If you are visiting and the title of my blog post has you thinking you will see friendly Casper 😱 then you are going to be disappointed!
Although there were several times during the course of the last week that I may have been happy to see the little white sheeted person 👻👻 - instead of seeing the inside of the waste basket with failed attempts.
I am enjoying being back in the swing of being able to enter challenges - and challenging this one was - for me.

I have though finally managed to make TWO fairly passable cards for this months CAS Stencil challenge of  'Ghosting' and here's the first.

The 'Ghosting' technique entails inking a piece of card, placing a stencil over it, spritzing with water (or rubbing with a baby wipe) to remove the ink and leave a 'ghosted' image.

Sounds relatively easy??
NOT!!

I tried several times with small stencils and tried both water spritzing and baby wipe method.

I had varying degrees of success before turning to a very large stencil and a baby wipe.

The background was inked in Seedless Preserve/Cracked Pistachio/Mermaid Lagoon (without doubt these are 3 of my very fave DI's)

The stencil is from AliExpress and a new purchase.

I found this metal die cut amongst some of my stash and it just seemed to fit.
The large purple stone was cut off an old jumper (I have quite a few of these!!).
The hardest part for me was the actual assembly of the card.
I agonised for ages about putting it in a frame and adding more die cut feathers - in the end I simply got frustrated and opted to just keep it as plain as possible.
Am sharing over at
A2S+M - Make Your Mark
MMM - Something New (Stencil and Technique)
Crafters Cafe- Include metal (my sentiment)

Thanks for looking today - I welcome all comments and hope that you are having a great day whatever you're doing!  x   

Watery World

Happy weekend everybody!
Over the last few days we have experienced an awful lot of heavy rain showers   ☔ so I made a watery themed card!

The background was cut from a larger background piece made a while ago whilst playing about experimenting with Brushos. 

The foliage inked in  Forest Moss Distress Ink was shadow stamped a couple of times and I found a tiny stamp in the 'no idea where these came from' box 😄  which looked like a stream of bubbles so used it after inking in Salty Ocean. It gave a really subtle effect I think. (Although you may have to enlarge the pic to get a better view!)

Some gold embossing powder on the bottom which I hope resembles some sparkly sand!

The Seahorse die is from a free set  that came with a mag last year, coloured in gold ink and clear embossed. 

I have rather a lot of this textured card from American Crafts bought some time ago and like the finish it gives so note to self - use more!


Sharing my seahorse over at
A2S+M - A/Goes
Cardz4Guyz- CAS
Creatalicious - A/Goes
Craft Stamper - March - A/Goes

As once again we have heavy showers 🌂 here I am planning on sitting in the craftie space and having an inky day today. 
(I should really be doing housework but hey ho!) - have a great weekend! 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