Daffodils...

Good morning, crafty friends and a happy, if somewhat soggy Thursday to you all...it is Thursday, isn't it?!! I have totally lost all concept of time and days of the week - it is just like one long weekend!

I must admit though, the one benefit of all of this is that I seem to have found a new enjoyment of crafting! There is a lot of uncertainty around my hubby's job, so I am trying to use what I have and revisit some of my own designs, rather than spending...I so wish that my crafty hobby could help to generate a little income for us, especially in these worrying times, but at least it seems to fund itself for the moment and keeps me out of trouble!

I saw a pretty Mother's Day card over on Honey Bee Stamps Facebook page and wanted to have a go at recreating it...so out came the dies and I looked through, finding shapes that I had to make the different elements...

Now I know that daffodils have 6 petals, but it seems that I don't have any 6 petal flower dies, so I used my Sweet Dixie Christmas Rose die as the main flower. I then found an XCut button with a frilly edge that I thought would do as the centre and cut a hole in the middle using the little eyelet die from the Marianne Collectables, Karin's Bird COL1443...I coloured the flowers with Yellow Promarker and added shading with Gold and Pumpkin, then inked the edges with Spiced Marmalade Distress Ink, popping the centres up on small bits of foam pad ...

I can't remember the make of this leaf border die, but it is one of my favourites and I also used the leaves from the Agapanthus die from Tim Holtz Wildflower Stems #1. I coloured them with Apple Promarker and added some shading with Forest Green...

I printed off the watering can from Words at Play, printing it with a Photo Size of 3.5 x 5 inches, then fussy cut it out. The papers are the Makeup Spots paper from Another Play on Words and the Telephone Polka Dot from Words at Play and I used a Creative Dies Scalloped rectangle for the topper.

I tried to keep everything else on the card quite simple and muted, as there is a lot going on, on the topper. I finished the centre of the flowers with small pearls, added string and a bow, and a stamped sentiment...and here's the image that gave me the inspiration in the first place...

Well I suppose I should go and do some housework, but I would like to have a go at the wax paper emboss technique that Gina K shared on her facebook video last night...it's a technique that I've been wanting to try for years...ah, what the heck?! Nobody's going to be calling to visit anyway - time to get the iron out! And if you want to follow me on Facebook, you can find me HERE

Hugs,

Another riddle for you...

Good afternoon, crafty friends! So, another riddle for you...when is a lighthouse not a lighthouse?...

...When it's a windmill, of course!?!...

I have been wanting to turn my Lighthouse box, from Words at Play, into a windmill since I first designed it and being that it's such a grey and miserable day, I spent a couple of hours sitting at my crafty table...

It is a proper working box, so you can take the top off and put things inside...cool, eh?!...

I decorated the sides with some trailing leaves and hand made primroses and forget-me-nots and used a couple of stitched rectangles for the door and windows.

I have to say that I rather like how it turned out, although what I'm going to do with it now, I'm not sure...it'll probably hang around in my craft room for a little while then get relegated to one of my many sample boxes...if only I had pretty bookcases to put things on, you know like the ones you see in magazines, instead of bookcases that have bowing shelves because they are so full of books! (Although we do love our books!)

I hope that you are all safe and well, and finding a little time to craft...

Crafty hugs,

I'd like to enter my Windmill box into the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge, which has a theme of Not a Card...closing 4th May

We can all make boo boos...

Good morning, crafty buddies and a happy, if somewhat cooler, Monday to you all!

So, when is a rose not a rose?...when it's a poppy, of course!...

After making a bit of a boo boo by choosing  pink to try and demonstrate overprinting patterns onto my Wild Rose digistamp, I decided to have a go at a red rose by using a red polka dot paper from the Apple set of Words at Play...but when it was printed, I thought that it looked rather like a poppy, so got the old cogs turning!
I shaded the flowers with Burgundy, Crimson and a Blender Promarker and added some Cool Grey 5 to the centres, then cut out all of the flowers, plus an extra one to decoupage...I used the stems from my Tom Holtz Wildflower daisy and attached them together, adding a string bow...

Now this top photograph is how I wanted my card to be - clean and simple, minimal layers...but after completing and clearing away my crafty table (I know?!) I picked my card up and noticed that some of the black glitter had attached with static to the card front - so I got out my soft dusting brush and went over the card front...

...promptly smudging my perfectly stamped sentiment! I did consider tryingto hide it with a butterfly or flower, but just don't think it would have suited the style and would have looked like I was trying to hide something...

...So my card now looks like this. I don't dislike it, it's just blooming annoying that I had done everything and at the last moment managed to bodge it up! So you see, we can all make boo boos at times, no matter how long we've been crafting, or how proficient we/others think we are!

I'm not too upset, as I am really happy with the result of this one, even if the card itself was a happy accident! Hope you like it too...

You can find my Wild Rose Project Kit in my Etsy store HERE for just £2.40...

Crafty hugs,

Wild Rose card...

Good afternoon, crafty friends!

Following on from my last post on inspiration and how I often use sketches, I am back with a card created using one of my all time favourite Mojo Monday sketches #257...

I have also revisited my Wild Rose Project Kit, which has been relisted in my Etsy store HERE...

Now I have been a little bit dim in my choice of colour scheme, as the whole point of this post was to show you how to paper piece the roses instead of colouring them, but as I've done them in pink, you could just use the precoloured images instead...duh! But anyway, here's how I did the paper piecing and you could try it in a different colour!...

 I opened a 4x6 photo size page in my graphics program and added all the digistamps to the page, resizing them to 60% so that they all fit on. I printed 2 copies on 4x6 sized paper and then put the paper back in the printer, before printing the green gingham and pink circle patterned papers over the top - by changing the printer settings to 4x6 photo paper and the sizing to Shrink to Fit, it resizes the pattern so that it is smaller...

 I added some shading to the flowers using Dusky Rose, Pale Pink and Blender Promarkers with Buttercup and Mustard yellow in the centre, then cut out the flower areas, removing the leaves...

 I shaded the leaves with Forest Green, Apple and Blender and cut this layer out, being careful to cut around the leaf areas properly, but roughly cutting the rest...

I then adhered the pink layer over the green, using the second individual flower as a decoupage layer over the top of the flower with leaves to make a fuller bloom...

Here's the layer dimensions, if you would like to recreate this card, or use your own papers and image...

Pink circle - 14 x 12cm

Pink plaid - 12 x 5.5cm

Pink - 12 x 1.5cm

Green - 12 x 9cm

Green gingham - 11.5 x 8.5cm

Cream - 17.5 x 4cm (fishtail one end)

If you'd like to recreate this exact card, you can find the Wild Rose project Kit in my Etsy store, HERE - it is just £2.40 for 9 A4 printable sheets, including these 3 coordinating papers, plus all the elements to use in your graphics program

I hope you like my floral creation and if I have given you the inspiration to try a card like this, then please share your post and let me know...

Crafty hugs,

Inspiration...

I often see posts of people asking where do you find inspiration for cardmaking and I have to say that one of my biggest inspiration is sketches....When asked to make a specific card for someone, or when I have a certain image to use, I can visualise different sketches I have used over the years depending on the image shape - circular, square, or fussy cut, etc...and obviously tend to have a few old favourites...

I just wanted to share a couple of places that have given me HUGE inspiration over the years - the first is Jen's Deconstructed Sketch (I don't think that it is still going, but it is still a great source for me and her cards are always fabulous too!) She still blogs her creations, so you can find inspiration there too...

Secondly is Mojo Monday...I thought that this too had stopped, but then I discovered that the fabulous Julee now posts on her personal blog (how did I miss this?!) Her cards are pretty inspirational anyway, but having a sketch and challenge, so you can see other people's take on them is an amazing wealth of inspiration...

I hope that, like me, you will find inspiration from these places and hopefully a little from myself too - I love to share my passion for crafting and if I can help a fellow crafter in any way, I am so happy to do so...

Crafty hugs,

Passion for Promarkers - Add a sentiment...

Good morning, Blogger buddies! Hope you are all doing well through the current situation and managing to stay safe and healthy...

We have another brand new challenge starting today, over at Passion for Promarkers and the lovely Julie has picked a super easy theme of 'Add a sentiment'...you can make any kind of card or project, just as long as you add a sentiment...oh, and to be in with a chance of winning our prize this week, which happens to be a $12.00 voucher to spend in the fabulous Bugaboo Stamps store, you MUST use your Letraset/Winsor & Newton mediums and follow the challenge theme..

We were lucky enough to choose an image to play with and I picked out this pretty Floral Corner...

I was inspired by all the lovely cards that I have been seeing in the Gina K Facebook group, using her clever wreath builder template that had a similar style to this. I decided to step away from the pink and go with a contrasting blue, yellow and orange combo and I have to say, I rather like the results! I printed one of the corners onto my base panel and fussy cut the other one out, leaving a white border. The sentiment stamp is from my Altenew Beautiful Day stamp set...

My love of clean and simple cards seems to be forever growing and apart from the colouring of the image, this card was so quick to make...

Right, off to put the kettle on and enjoy the sunshine for 5 minutes. I hope you can find the time to play along with our simple challenge this week and look forward to seeing all of your wonderful creations!

Crafty hugs,

I'd like to enter my card into the following challenges :

Crafty Catz Challenge

Anything Goes until 23rd

Allsorts Challenge blog

Flowers and/or Showers until 24th

Passion for Promarkers - Easter...

Good morning, crafty friends and a happy Tuesday to you all! The sun is shining and we have a brand new challenge starting over at Passion for Promarkers! This week we have a topical theme for you, with the lovely Sue picking 'Easter' as our challenge theme...it can be cute Easter bunnies and chicks or a more sombre/religious tone, entirely up to you and don't forget, it can be any type of creation you like, as long as you use your Letraset/Winsor & Newton mediums...
We're being sponsored by Cowling & Wilcox who are offering one lucky winner a 3 pack of Neon markers and the lovely Denise has put in a superior bleedproof paper pad to the prize...

For my card, I used one of my own images which is now available in my Etsy store...

This cute chicken comes both on a nest and without, in both digistamp and as a precoloured image for just £1.99 and I thought it worked perfectly for our theme this week, but could work just as well for other celebrations too (as I'll show you tomorrow!)...

I coloured the hen up with my Pro/Flexmarkers and here's the colour list I used :

Comb and wattle - Pale Pink, Dusky Rose, Antique Pink

Head, lower wing flap and lower tail fan - Buttercup, Pastel Yellow, Mustard

Upper wing flap and top tail fan - Soft Peach, Sunkisssed Pink, Coral

Body and centre tail fan - Champagne, Sandstone, Caramel

Nest - Putty, Tan, Shale, Umber

Eggs - Honeydew, Soft Green, Pebble Green

The papers were ones from my stash of scraps (that I am trying to use!) and I added a touch of glitter and some Liquid Pearl dots to my chicken...

I hope you can play along with our fun challenge this week and if you're stuck for images, I have a couple of other Easter themed ones in my Etsy shop...

I look forward to seeing what you all create and wish you all a very Happy Easter!

Hugs,