SWEET STAMPIN - CUTE

Our challenge at Sweet Stampin this week is Cute. A world of possibilities.

I started off with a new stencil I got from Clearly Besotted called Pave the Way sponged with SU Soft Suede.  I then used the stamping set Special Someone from SU which is on the retirement list so I grabbed a bargain.  I used some stitched ovals to cut them out.  The set is a two set stamping set so I used Black and Grey ink for the racoon and black and brown for the mouse.  The balloon was double stamped in Archival Ink Vermillion and I added some Wink of Stella for a bit of shine.  The flower was coloured in with Daffodil Delight from SU and I added a small pearl.  A little bit of linen thread finished off the card.

 

STAMPIN UP ONLY CHALLENGE - #SUOC250 - DESIGNER'S CHOICE

The Design Team has free rein over at Stampin Up Only challenge this week - with a Designer's Choice.

One of the members of my Joy of Sets Facebook Group (where we celebrate all things Stampin Up both current and retired) recently posted an image of an open book easel card.  Now this was a new technique to me - don't you get a frisson of excitement when you actually see something new to do with paper - it doesn't happen often but this was one for me - I've been making loads of them and showed one a few days ago.  Here I've used some retired DSP and the lovely Special Someone Stamp set.

It looks complicated but it is really easy and once the main book pages are done there are endless ways of decorating them.  I followed the example by Tina Zinck who is I think an SU Demo in Canada - I found her on You Tube.

I used Early Espresso to stamp the images and Powder Pink for the shading. I fussy cut out the mouse and the balloon and just added the string with a Chocolate Chip marker pen.

 

HAND STAMPED SENTIMENTS #IC340

I hope you are all still doing well and managing to carry on crafting. We have an Inspiration Challenge for you today at Hand Stamped Sentiments.

I used some old Kaisercraft Stamps for my image.  I used some Tim Holtz Distress Inks to sponge the background and used Ranger Archival Ink in Library Green to stamp the flowers.  I then used some new watercolour brushes from Lime Otter to colour them in.  The die cut is from Crafters Companion and came as a freebie when hubby bought me the Gemini electric die cut machine for my birthday - I'm still playing with it and working it out!  























 

OPEN BOOK EASEL CARDS

I love it when I come across a new technique. This one was shown to me by one of my members of my Facebook Group The Joy of Sets.  Called the Open Book Easel Cards there are a few tutorials on You Tube to discover - I came across one made by Tina Zinck and her enthusiasm for this type of card is quite infectious.

I used some old Kaisercraft papers called Take Note for my pages.  I really liked the one that had the words which was very apt for a book.  My flower is also from Kaisercraft from the Rosabella set. I coloured it in with Tri Blends by Spectrum Noir in Vintage shades and cut them out.  The sentiments are from Stampin Up A Special Someone..  The butterflies were cut out with old SU butterfly punches and some tiny pearls added. 

I love how this turned out and have caught the bug - I've made a few more which I will be sharing on my blog in the very near future.

I found a great challenge on my travels which suits this - called A Vintage Journey and their theme is flowers.  
I'm also adding this into Creative Moments - Anything Goes
Creative Fingers - Anything Goes
Simply Create Too - Use Flowers
Craft Rocket Challenge - Shaped Card
The Sisterhood of Crafters - Butterflies




 

STAMPIN IN THE GARDEN

The weather is so nice here in the UK at the moment - but just that bit too hot for me. My craft room gets very warm so I decided to camp out in the garden in my little Tiki hut and do some crafting.  I just grabbed a few stamps sets, and my new water colour brush pens that hubby had bought me and thought I would sit and do some water colouring.  One of the sets I grabbed was the retired Pretty Kitty from SU.  A cute one for water colouring.  

I used an old embossing folder from Kaisercraft called Tiny Floral for the background.  The little kitty was coloured in with Lime Otter water colour brushes and cut out with a stitched circle die cut.  I added a die cut to the bottom from Crafter's Companion.  The sentiment is punched out with an SU scallop punch and is an old set I got from a magazine.  The ribbon is from my stash and the doily is retired SU.

I'm adding this into Retro Rubber - #rrcb135 - top line 
Paper Minutes - Dogs or cats
Pinspirational - I chose the cat
Tuesday Throwdown - Tic Tac Toe - A bow, green, an image
Path of Positivity - Furry friends



 

WATER COLOURING

Hubby was very clever for my birthday and bought me some lovely water colour brush pens which I hadn't even heard of.  From a company called Lime Otter and they are wonderful.  Such lovely vibrant colours and I've been having a play.

The word stamp in the middle is from Visible Image stamps.  I can't remember where the flower stamps are from. I did a first one as below but then thought it needed a little something extra so found some very tiny butterflies from SU's set Special Someone and just added them to give the card a bit more movement.  I started off with putting a wash of Tumbled Glass Distress Ink over the white water colour paper just to soften the background. The cut out butterfly is from SU's Bliss retired set and cut out with their retired butterfly punch.

I'm adding this into the following challenges:

TGIF - Watercolour Challenge #TGIFC264
Simon Says Stamp - All Abuzz
Crafty Cardmakers - Butterflies
International Art and Soul - Butterflies and Flowers
Stamping Sensations - Flowers



 

TRY STAMPIN ON TUESDAY #TSOT458

How is everybody doing?  As a crafter do you find during lock down you have been crafting more or just suffering from a lack of mojo. I asked this question recently in my Facebook Group The Joy of Sets and the answer was near enough 50/50.  A lot did say they are lacking mojo and challenge blogs are so great for this.  As a member of Design Teams it really helps me to keep motivated and I love to use old unloved stamps and bring them up to date.

A great sketch to work with today from Try Stampin On Tuesday.  How will you use our sketch?  I wanted to use the lovely little bicycle from Stampin Up's Winds of Change.  This set is retiring, which is why I bought it, but I think the sentiments are so great for our times at the moment.   

 I used some Lime Otter watercolour brushes to colour in the flowers and SU blender pens in Light Balmy Blue and Light Gray Granite for the bike itself. I looked through my stash of DSP pieces and found this lovely bright background - I trimmed off two pieces and turned them into banners and used the reverse side of the paper. I then found some Tim Holtz die cut leaves I had cut for another project and tucked them behind the stitched tag cut out.  The flower is from SU Floral Essences which I had lying around on my desk and I thought it went well with the colours.  I added it with a dimensional.  It's not the card I had in my head when I started out but it sort of evolved.  The sentiment is stamped in Melon Mambo and is from the same set.  I added a touch of So Saffron twine at the bottom. 

 

SWEET STAMPIN - THANK YOU

Our theme at Sweet Stampin this week is Thank You.  We all have a lot of people to thank at this mad time the world finds itself in - I actually went food shopping today for the first time in 7 weeks - hubby had been doing it all but he was called back to work last week so I had to go out.  How strange it felt and I almost got panicky but it was good to get out and about again and try and feel a little normal.

My card today uses a retiring Stampin Up set.  It was on sale in their Retiring list and was a great price. Called Winds of Change it has some really great sentiments that are so applicable at the moment I'm surprised SU are getting rid of it.  

I find tulips very difficult to grow and I love this image of them all standing tall!  I started by embossing my card stock with an embossing folder from Kaisercraft called tiny floral.  So pretty.  I then used some water colour paper to create my image using an SU mask for the clouds and various inks for the background.

It was recently my birthday and hubby bought me some lovely Watercolour Brush Pens from a company called Lime Otter.  They are not a company I had come across previously but the colours are lovely and they are so easy to use - as you can see they give these tulips a lovely vibrant colour.  I was also lucky enough to get a new die cut machine - an electric Gemini and this Thanks came with it. I'm still learning how to create the correct sandwiches for it and learning to do lots of die cutting at one time rather than just the odd one.  I added some ribbon from my stash to finish off the card.

 

GLOBAL DESIGN PROJECT - #GDP240

Playing along with the Global Design Project this week Caseing the Designer. 



I just recently purchased the cute Special Someone from SU as it was in a sale and great value and I've seen some lovely things done with this cute animals.  Although we don't really have raccoons in the UK I did see one when we lived in Texas - it frightened the life out of one my cats who we had shipped over with us and she never really got over the shock and didn't like going outdoors in Texas much!  

Here I've used the little squirrel - we have lots of those over here and one of my dogs really doesn't like them although we do have some in our garden who tease the dogs!  

I stamped the little squirrel in Chocolate Chip and Soft Suede. I coloured the flower in Daffodil Delight and Tangerine Tango and cut it out.  I then layered this on to one of the lovely doilies which were also in the Clearance Rack!  I stamped the flowers from the set around alternating the colours and added the sentiment, some of the butterflies and some retired sequins.


 

STAMPIN UP ONLY CHALLENGE - FOR A WOMAN #SUOC249

Our challenge this week at SU Only Challenge is all about Women! Sadly the wonderful set Beautiful You is retiring so I thought it needed an outing before it goes - though of course over at my Joy of Sets Facebook Group we still champion retired SU sets as well as current so nothing is ever completely forgotten!

I started off with the SU mask and sponged the clouds and added some sky colours.  I stamped the girl with the umbrella then masked her off whilst adding some background colour and the effect of the rain.  For this I used a retired set called Build a Bouquet shown below and I used the lines stamp.



I used Flirty Flamingo card stock and marker pen to colour her in and added some blue dots to the umbrella and the sentiment with Dapper Denim.  There is a touch of Wink of Stella to give it a bit of a sparkle.  A card for our times at the moment sadly and this went off to my sister-in-law who is having a hard time with the lock down here in the UK.  

I'm also adding this into the following challenges:

Try It On Tuesday - Lovely Ladies
Allsorts - Anything Goes


Delighted that this card was chosen as a Top Pick for Try It On Tuesday

 

HAND STAMPED SENTIMENTS #CC339

Our colour challenge this week at Hand Stamped Sentiments offers you the following colours to play with. Remember they are only a guideline and you can use similar non SU colours.

I have a new set from Stampin Up which is actually on the retirement list which is a shame.  The wording is so apt for the current situation and the image with the bicycle as people are being urged to leave cars behind in the future.  I used some Basic Gray to stamp the bike and used Rococo Rose and Seaside Spray to ink up the flowers and colour the bike.  I then cut it out with a stitched framelit and added some Mint Macaron under the bike and around the edges of the frame.  I must just add - May is my birthday month and this year I was treated to a Gemini electric die cut machine.  Wow - no more cranking of the Big Shot.  I love playing with the machine.  I think today's task will be to cut out nearly all my dies and just have a load ready to play with!

Back to my card - I used some of the retiring DSP Pressed Petals for the background and added a piece of the gorgeous scalloped linen ribbon in Seaside Spray.  I think this is my favourite ribbon ever!

I added the sentiment bottom left which I think is so apt for our times and a few little pearls which are non SU but look so like Mint Macaron.




 

JOY OF SETS BLOG HOP - MAY 2020 - FLORAL

Welcome to another Joy of Sets Blog Hop.  The Joy of Sets is a Facebook Group which I started nearly three years ago - we have nearly 3,000 members world wide and have lots of crafting things going on in our busy little group from RAK's to swaps to challenges to blog hops!  We are not all about Stampin Up and not all members are Demonstrators.  We celebrate all things paper and stamping!  See the blurb below if you would like to be part of our next blog hop!

Once again a big thank you to Angie Mckenzie who organises this hop for us and keeps us all on our toes.

I've used Kaisercraft Tea Party stamp set for my images.  The pretty flower on the cup matches the flower stamp that comes with the set.  There is also a tea pot but I ran out of room! 

I used some retired SU DSP for the background with those cute spoons on them then added a stitched framelit, an SU doily and fussy cut out the flowers and the tea cup.  I've also added one of the SU gold sticker spoons. I must admit I'm not a sticker kind of girl but these were sent to me and this is the first time I've had chance to use them.  They were called Team Room copper vinyl stickers.

I used Tri Blends by Spectrum Noir to colour in the flowers.

Do hop along to Brenda's blog by clicking on the link below.

Here is the list of all 20 of us in the Hop:

Angie McKenzie

Annette Ball

Rochelle Laird-Smith

Tricia Butts

Fiona Whitehead - you are here

Brenda Nelson

Libby Fens

Susan Webster

JoAnn Pollock

Jill Chapman

Gez Carpenter

Vicki Milyard

Alejandra Gomez

Kaylin Krawczyk

Rebecca Jo Unwin

Narelle Fasulo

Sue Allen

Sandra Mastello

Andrea Tracy-Tucker

And don't forget if you would like to be part of our next hop you will find my group The Joy of Sets on Facebook.  You have to be part of the group to be in the hop.  We are not all SU demonstrators and the hop is not really about showcasing SU but showing you inspiration from dedicated crafters.  Click on the link below to be taken to the group.  We have all sorts of fun things happening - not just monthly blog hops!

 

TRY STAMPIN ON TUESDAY #TSOT456

What a challenge we have for you at TSOT this week.  I have to apologise right away that I failed with the shaker card bit!  I'm not very good at shaker cards and couldn't make one this week as I didn't have any of the foam.  And as all our shops are still shut and we are still in lock down in the UK there was no where I could get some.  I suppose I could have done on-line ordering but that means someone else has had to put themselves at risk to prepare and ship my order - fine if it's food or medical or essential supplies but not for crafting bits! So that's my excuse and what a valid one it is lol! 

So on to my card - I've used the gorgeous new Kaisercraft papers called Amethyst - luckily I got these before lock down started.  These butterflies are just so beautiful and the colours of these papers are stunning.  I teamed it with one of the flowers from Stampin Up's Floral Essence and used some Tim Holtz distress colours in Dusty Concord and Tumbled Glass to try and replicate the colours.

The little butterfly thinlet is an old SU.  It has had some embossing paste over the top of it to add some sparkle and some glitter dots down the middle.  The Just for You is from SU Watercolour Wings embossed in white embossing powder. I added a touch of the lovely ribbon at the bottom and some blue rhinestones at the top.

 

JOY OF SETS TIC TAC TOE - #JOSTTT017

May is my birthday month and sadly I won't be able to see the family or my darling new baby granddaughter for my birthday.  Thankfully hubby and the pets will be around so I won't be on my own and I feel for those who have had to spend their birthdays alone this year.  As it's my birthday month I've chosen the themes this month for our grid.  There is so much going on over at The Joy of Sets Tic Tac Toe this month - firstly I am delighted to say we are being sponsored by Clearly Besotted stamp company who have offered a £20 voucher for one winner.  Wow!  I'm so grateful and I love their stamps.

We are also teaming up with Double Trouble challenge and their challenge goes live in a few days on 4th May.  

And so on to my card.  To join in with all three of Double Trouble's requests I used Birthday, Things that Fly and Sponging. 

 I used one of the masks from Stampin Up for the background on my card stock but didn't use the paste this time - just some Tim Holtz distress inks and a sponge.  I then used some of Tim's Wild Flower die cuts and used various shades of SU blue card stock to cut them out.  I made the background for my butterfly from three Distress Inks, Mustard Seed, Peacock Feathers and Ripe Persimmon and then used the Tim Holtz butterfly scribble to cut it out.  

This is such a delicate thinlet and really needs a good plate for the Big Shot to help it cut so beautifully.  The sentiments stamped in Bermuda Bay by SU are from Clearly Besotted.

 I hope you have fun with our grid and joining in with Double Trouble and good luck for the prize.




 

SWEET STAMPIN - BRIGHT AND CHEERFUL

Our theme is Bright and Cheerful over at Sweet Stampin this week - something we all need in the world at the present time.  A thank you card came to mind for all those who are working hard to keep us safe, keep us supplied with food and drink and all the other little things we take for granted.  

I used a stamp from a retired SU set called Thankful Thoughts and used some SU ink to stamp it multiple times.  Crushed Curry, Melon Mambo, Tranquil Tide and Pacific Point.  I stamped the flowers from Floral Essence with Melon Mambo and used an aqua brush to colour them in adding the center piece in Crushed Curry and popped them up on dimensionals.  The leaves were stamped and coloured in with Tranquil Tide.