THREE STAMP SETS - FEELING BLUE?

 I didn't think I'd have time for any more crafting before I go away on holiday but I managed to sneak one in this evening.  I don't often do blue cards but found myself drawn to all these different blues this evening.  My card is inspired by the sketch on As You See It challenge. Click on their sketch to be taken to their challenge.





I've used three stamp sets for this card.  The stripes are from the Playful Backgrounds set.  I love this set - its so versatile.  They have been stamped in Soft Sky and I used Wink of Stella over the top to make them sparkle a bit.   The dots are from Painter's Palette and the sentiment is from Picture Perfect.  I've used some of our Designer Series Paper in Subtles for the background paper and the flower which is from the Botanical Builder framelits.  One of our enamel shapes in the middle finishes the flower.  I quite like the soft colours in this card - I may find I use blue more often.

 I think you can just about see the Wink of Stella sparkle.  I think my WOS may be on its way out.  I read a great tip from someone that, once its empty, fill it with water and you can still use it!

 Happy Crafting

Thanks for stopping by and do leave a comment - I love to read what you think.

Fiona

LOVE AND AFFECTION

 The weather is very depressing here in the UK at the moment, wet and cold and not at all like June.  So to cheer myself up I've been playing with the new Love and Affection stamp set.  This is such a pretty set with 16 polymer stamps and three great Sentiments.  I've done two types of cards - one quite plain and simple the other a little bit over the top.  I think my favourite is the clean and simple one below.

I just used two of the stamps out of the set for this card and two colours Pear Pizazz and Watermelon Wonder.  I love these two together. 

I'm putting this card in for two challenges this week:

Watercooler Wednesday -  which is asking for Clean and Simple Summer and

 Case this Sketch challenge which gave us the following sketch to work with.  Click on the sketch to be taken to their Challenge Blog.

Some basic pearls added to some of the flowers gives this a very gentle finish to this card.

My second card  uses the same colour ways but I've added some Designer Series Paper in Watermelon Wonder and stamped some of the Flower stamps on to it.  These were then cut out and fixed on with dimensionals and some basic rhinestones added to the middle.

I've used a few more of the leaves and flower stamps from this set also.  This card was also supposed to be for the Case this Sketch but then I realised I'd covered too much of the paper so I started again.

This will be my last post for a while probably as I'm off on holiday on Saturday - can't wait for some sunshine.  I'm off to gorgeous Tuscany - I've never been before so I'm so looking forward to it.  Hubby and I plan to visit Florence when we are there, maybe a vineyard or two!  We are staying on an organic olive oil farm so sounds wonderful.  I'm tempted by the wonderful Tuscan Vineyard stamp set we have in the new catalogue.  I will see what I think when I get back.

THE NON HOP BLOG HOP!

I should have been part of the Pootlers blog hop today but due to some scheduling issues and my blog being half an hour later than it should have been I've sadly been removed from the Hop.

Here's my card anyway.

I have chosen three new sets to show you - Painter's Palette, Thankful Thoughts, and Playful Backgrounds.  I have also used Botanical Builder Framelits for the flower.

I have also used some of our new In-Colours here.  The card base is Very Vanilla.  I have added a strip of Sweet Sugarplum which has been inked in Versamark with one of the Playful Background stamps.  The Versamark gives you that lovely tone on tone effect.

The picture frame is from Painter's Palette.  The background stamp of Dapper Denim was stamped off with the inside of the easel frame from Painter's Palette.  This gives you an extra square background stamp.

Using the Botanical Builder Framelits and the Big Shot , the flower has been cut out in Dapper Denim and the leaves in Emerald Envy.  A touch of our baker's twine to hang the picture from the little pin, also stamped in Dapper Denim.


The sentiment comes from a great set Thankful Thoughts and has been inked in Dapper Denim.

All products can be purchased direct from my Store - click on the image below and take advantage of my Hostess Code for June if your order is under £150.  If your order is over £150, please do not use this code as you become the hostess and get the Rewards!

HAPPY CRAFTING

PINKIES BLOG HOP SHOOTING STAR, THANKFUL THOUGHTS

Thank  you  for  joining  us  on  another  Pinkies  Blog  Hop!  We're  showcasing  lots  of  gorgeous
projects using products from the new Stampin' Up!® Annual Catalogue. Simply use the
buttons at the end of each post to keep hopping!

Our theme today is New Catalogue Items.   A chance to show you  some of the wonderful new products in our new catalogue.  What can we tempt you with today?


I've used one of the sets I won at Convention - not at first glance my favourite stamp set but I must admit I'm learning to like this one.   Its taken me right outside of my comfort zone with having to think a little bit outside the box on what to do.  I have made a few masculine cards with the stars which come in the set and a few spinner cards but today I'm concentrating on the bees and the hive.

This set also comes as a Bundle with the Sliding Star Framelits Die which I must admit would make cutting out the beehive a lot easier.  But I don't have these yet so my faithful SU snippers helped in this regard.

I'm also not a great lover of insects - bees and butterflies are about my limit.  But I do adore these little bees and, of course, in real life I appreciate the work that bees do for us for our fruits and veg.  I grow a lot of veg in my garden and have some apple trees and know that without these busy little creatures I wouldn't be able to enjoy my home grown fruit and veg.

 I've used Early Espresso Card stock as the base with the stamping done on Very Vanilla.

The larger bee has had his wing coloured with A Wink of Stella.  The background paper for the bee hive was stamped with Versamark ink to give that lovely tone on tone effect of all the bees rushing to the hive.

Some Enamel shapes in Crushed Curry have been added to the bottom.  The bee was coloured in Crushed Curry and Rich Razzleberry.

 For the inside I used another of our new sets called Thankful Thoughts.  It is a set of 10 stamps with some fabulous sentiments on them.   I added another little bee cause you just can't have too many bees.

As bees are in such dire straits at the moment and seem to be dying off wouldn't it be great if we could start a Bee movement #ihelpthebees and make bee cards which somehow we could sell and put the profits towards helping the bees. If we lose our bees, we lose all our fruit and veg!

I just thought I would add this little tip - when I receive my stamps I don't use the stickers to put on the stamps but slide them inside the inner cover of the sleeve.  Then I stick my stamps to the corresponding sticker and its easy to see that all the stamps are in the right place.

Don't forget to follow on to the next blog in our great blog hop.

As usual all products can be purchased from my SU website.  Click on the image below to be taken to my store.

INCHY CHALLENGE BLOG - BUTTERFLIES

There's a new challenge over at my Inchy Challenge blog this week which will run until 4th July.

The theme is BUTTERFLIES.

Here's an example of mine using Papillon Potpourri and some of our retired DSP.

Click on the image to play along with the challenge.

FIONA

 

PAINTER' S PALETTE - CHALLENGE TIME

I'm having a go at two challenges with this one card this week.  TGIF #tgifc59 challenge is a sketch challenge and here is the sketch.  Click on the image to be taken to their challenge this week.




 The challenge over at Time Out challenges is a colour image. Again click on the image to be taken to their challenge #58.




I wanted to use the squares and the colours of the TO challenge with the square image for the sketch in TGIF so used my trusty Painter's Palette stamp set once again.  The square colours were stamped with a very very old SU stamp in Bermuda Bay ink, Melon Mambo, Pumpkin Pie and Pacific Point.I used my Stampamajig to make sure the squares were stamped in the right place.

 The easel was stamped in Early Espresso and then covered over in a very light wash of another old SU colour Creamy Caramel.

The Early Espresso strip of cardstock was stamped with another of the stamps from this set in Versamark ink which gives that lovely tone on tone effect.  The Smoky Slate background card stock was also inked in Versamark Ink.

WARNING - CLOSE YOUR EYES AND LOOK AWAY IF YOU ARE A PURIST STAMPER!!!

 Now, a bit of a confession here - as you will probably see the tone on tone on the smoky slate is not quite true to its colour.  I have to confess my poor old Versamark ink pad is not quite as pristine as it used to be.  The actual colour of the ink pad is now a more sort of murky colour rather than white so when I forget and ink on light papers I never know what colour I'm going to get.  I know I should get another one and be vigilant about never letting any coloured ink get near it but...... I quite like this affect.

 The sentiment from Painter's Palette was inked in Early Espresso and a touch of baker's twine was wrapped around the Early Espresso card stock.  A touch of Wink of Stella on the coloured squares just gives the card an extra shimmer.

As usual all products can be purchased from my website direct -just click on the catalogue below to be taken to my store and don't forget to add your Hostess Code for June.

DESIGNING YOUR OWN DESIGNER SERIES PAPER

Its funny old weather here in the UK at the moment, some parts are suffering with the heat, others have got flash floods.  Here in Hampshire its cloudy but warm and almost humid.  And as our houses do not have air conditioning - its warmer in the house than out.  Too warm for crafting???? No, not quite.

I had trouble sleeping last night mainly because of the heat so found myself in my craft room and on Facebook.  There I found a challenge my upline Sam Hammond had set everyone to design your own DSP.

So I accepted the challenge and made two different sheets.  As SU have sadly retired the DSP for Botanical Blooms I thought I'd have a go at making my own.

I stamped some of the leaves in Bermuda Bay with the veins of the leaves stamped in Tempting Turquoise.  The flowers were stamped in Watermelon Wonder, stamped off for the flowers, and then stamped for the detail.  I love how this paper turned out so will cut it up and use it on a project.

 The second paper I wanted to have a sort of vintage feel to it so I chose the lovely rose from Picture Perfect.  I used three different colours for the rose - Soft Sky, Pool Party and Mint Macaron.  The soft pink background was made with a baby wipe gently dipped into Blushing Bride and dabbed on the paper and over the roses.

On to some challenges I've been joining in with. My first is for the Global Design Project who wanted us to make a Get Well card.  Click on the image below to be taken to their challenge site.

I actually don't have any stamps at that moment that have a Get Well Soon sentiment so I used the sentiment from Painter's Palette.  And those roses have had an outing again.  This time they are in the pink with Blushing Bride, Rose Red and Rich Razzleberry.  The leaves were stamped in Old Olive and Old Olive used for the card stock.  The Very Vanilla background card was stamped with one of the stamps from Painter's Palette in an old SU colour Creamy Caramel.

 A touch of Dazzling Diamonds on the roses and some Enamel Shapes finish the card.  I'm sure it would cheer someone up who was feeling down.

The other challenge for today was Case This Sketch.  This was the sketch we had to work with. Click on the image to be taken to their challenge site.



I've used one of the stamps from Botanical Blooms for the upright lines.  Probably not a stamp that gets used very often but quite a versatile little stamp for backgrounds.

The background paper was embossed with the retired Dots embossing folder.  The lines were inked in Pear Pizzazz and Tangerine Tango. I loved how this colour combination turned out.  The butterfly is from Papillon Potpourii stamped in Tangerine Tango and finished off with some enamel dots in Pear Pizazz.  All mounted on a piece of Whisper White.  The sentiment is from one of our new sets Love & Affection.



Thank you for taking the time to look through my blog. ~Please do leave a comment - its great to hear from you.

Happy Crafting 

FIONA

SUO CHALLENGE TOP 3!

Such a nice surprise today to see my card was chosen as one of the Top 3 over at the SU challenge last week.  Their challenge this week is summer celebrations. You'll find the challenge here. 

I recently did a card for a friend who is an American living in my old home town here in the UK.  I thought it might make her think of home and I think it goes well with their challenge this week.

 The Stars and Stripes on the heart were made with the new Playful Backgrounds set.  The background Stars on the Dapper Denim cardstock were made with the stamps from Shooting Star.  A set I didn't like initially but its really growing on me.
The banners were made with the sadly retired Banner Banter - I used to love this set as it was so good when you needed small sentiments.  I used my white Signo Gel pen to draw in the string.

 Over at Less is More challenge blog this week - the challenge is purple. Their challenge is here.  I've used the roses from Picture Perfect here, together with some of the leaves.  The roses are Three Step Stamping stamps as are the leaves.  The sentiment is from the same set.  The roses have been stamped in Basic Gray, Perfect Plum and Elegant Eggplant.

 Nothing to do with crafting, well not paper crafting anyway.  June is the time for Elderflowers and I'm lucky enough to have lots of Elder trees in my garden.  Never cut them down - its bad luck and never ever burn Elder!  I don't take all the flowers cause I like to leave some berries for winter cordials.  Did you know the original Brown Sauce, used here in the UK, was actually Elderberry Katchup. I made it once - it takes 7 years to mature!!!!!  I kept it for 5 before we used it.

Anyway Elderflowers is Champagne time - well not actual Champagne cuase we are not in the Champagne region of France - but Elderflower Fizz then.  In a few days time these lovely floral flowers will be turned into a lovely summer drink.

 

Happy Crafting

BUTTERFLIES - TGIF CHALLENGE - #38 COLOUR CHALLENGE

 I've found a new challenge site this week and it couldn't have been more apt as I've been playing with lots of bright colours recently.  I think its because the weather is so dull in the UK and I need a bit of sunshine.  So I loved the idea of playing with these three colours but..... I also found it quite difficult adding in that Pumpkin Pie.  Its not Halloween and I realise I only really use orange colours around Autumn time.  So this was a true challenge for me.

I wanted to do some watercolouring but lo and behold where oh where was my Aqua Painter when I needed it.  So frustrating - I turned everything upside down, found a few things I'd forgotten about but sadly no Aqua painter so I had to re-think.  I don't know about you but once I've set my mind on a particular project it was hard to think of something else.

So I looked at my new sets from the new Catalogue and wanted to use the Playful Backgrounds.  So far I've only used the brush strokes and the stripes from it so I thought it was time the circles or bubbles had an outing.  I stamped them in Pumpkin Pie and Daffodil Delight on a Whisper White background, mounted on to Melon Mambo. 

 Yesterday I had also been playing with a new fun technique of embossing vellum and already had these butterflies from Papillon Potpourri  ready made in the correct colours.  So on they went.

TECHNIQUE TIP

The technique I used was to firstly ink up my Brayer with Daffodil Delight and ink the vellum so that it is covered.  Then leave it to dry.  It does take quite a while or you can use a heat tool.    I then stamped the small butterflies onto the vellum in Melon Mambo ink and again waited til they were dry.  This is not a quick technique lol! 

When they are dry I used the Bitty Butterfly punch to punch them out.  Turn them over onto your Stampin Pierce Mat and, with the thin end of a stylus, rub firmly but gently over the back of them.  The vellum starts to crack and the white imaging comes through giving the butterflies an added dimension.

The large butterfly was stamped in Melon Mambo and inked in Daffodil Delight.  I used the Elegant Butterfly punch to cut it out and it was mounted onto another butterfly cut out of Daffodil Delight.  The finishing touches of Enamel Shapes in the three colours completed the butterfly.

The sentiment was simply layered and comes from the new Shooting Star set.  I thought the sentiment was quite apt for these butterflies.