Flower Tag

I've been having another play with the lovely stamp stencil and die set from Wendy Vecchi called Country Flowers.  I had a background tag in my stash from another project and just used a leaf stencil in green for the background.  I then stamped the flower in Distress Ink and cut the petals to give the flower a bit more interest.  I added some of the leaves behind and one of the butterflies.  I added some washi tape at the bottom in my favourite green and red colours.  The calm is from a new stencil from Visible Image called Words of Support.  The Relax Daily sentiment is from Kaisercraft stamp set called Curiosity.

I'm adding this into the AAs You See It Challenge which is asking for us to show the colours which makes us cosy.  Reds and greens are my favourites colours - my house has a lot of warm reds in it and as an earth girl I'm happiest surrounded by greens.  I thought this was a great idea for a challenge so wanted to join in.

I'm also adding this into the following challenges

Global Design Project #gdp280

Allsorts Challenge - Feminine

HAND STAMPED SENTIMENTS - #ICC358

We have a mood board for you this week at Hand Stamped Sentiments.  A tricky one for me as I don't actually have any succulent stamps so I went with the colours and created a spring garden flower scene.  I'm sure there are lots of us who can't wait for Spring to arrive. 

I used some Tim Holtz Stamps from his Flower Jar collection.  I stamped them in a brown rather than a black so they weren't too harsh.  I used Distress Inks and a paint brush to colour in the flowers.  The birds are from an old TH set and the sentiment is from Kaisercraft.  I added a sparkling butterfly as you need to have a butterfly on some flowers! 

SOME NEW STAMPS, DIES AND STENCILS

I've recently come across Wendy Vecchi - I know I'm slow to some things lol! I love the way she does stamps, stencils and dies all in one set.  This set is called Country Flowers and I've had a play using two different colour ways.

The first uses blues and these isn't really a colour I often use.  I started out by inking the background with Tim Holtz Frayed Burlap and Speckled Egg Oxide Inks and added some water to give some extra interest.  I used the stencil from the set and inked around it to give the shape in the middle.  I then gently inked around this just with the Speckled Egg.

The flowers were coloured in with Distress Ink in Tumbled Glass and Mermaid Lagoon.  The butterfly was inked in Tumbled Glass and Mermaid Lagoon Archival.  I used Pear Pizazz for the leaves.  I added some Nuovo drops just by the flowers - using Wendy Vecchi's tip of using a stylus ball to place the Nuovo drops rather than just using the dropper.  This gave a lot more control over their placement.  The sentiment is from Chocolate Baroque Mushroom House - such a great set and I will be playing with that one soon.

The second card is much more my favourite colours with the earth tones.  I used Wendy Vechhi ink in Orange Blossom to ink the flower and Distress Inks to colour it in.  The stamp on the tag is an old Cherry Pie Art Stamps one.  The Washi Tape are from my stash.  I used the various stencils and stamps from Wendy Vecchi for the background and added some interest and texture with some Tim Holtz Crackle Paste.

I'm adding these into the following challenges - 

Chocolate Baroque - Birds, Flowers, Butterflies 

AAddicted to stamps - Any Occasion

Ellibelle - Flowers or Hearts 

Use Your Stuff - Your favourites - I've used my favourite colours and added a tag which is my favourite thing to do 

MIXED MEDIA TAG

I've only recently discovered Chocolate Baroque stamps and have loved playing with the ones I got.  This one is called Mushroom House and is a great one for water colouring.  

I started out by cutting out my tag using a Tim Holtz Tag die out of water colour card stock.  I inked it in Distress Ink Weathered Wood and added Black Soot with the TH wood stencil - and I added some script writing in the same ink.

The mushroom house was inked in Black Archival by Ranger.  I added colour with Distress Inks and Crayons and an aqua pen using Frayed Burlap, Festive Berries, Barn Door, Peeled Paint, Scattered Straw and Hickory Smoke.  I cut out the image and layered it onto the tag with some Liquitex Mat Gel.  The sentiment is from the same stamp set and this was inked in Ranger Archival in Vermillon and cut out with some deckle scissors.

I'm adding this into the following challenges:

Inkspirational - Tower

Creative Fingers - Anything Goes

My Time to Craft - Tag It

Lil Red Wagon - Tag You're It

More Mixed Media - include Red

I'm delighted that my tag was chosen as one of the top 3 in My Time To Craft 

CAS HEART CARD

On my Facebook Group The Joy of Sets we send out birthday cards to our Birthday group - and some ladies are on the far side of the world.  I'm always looking for ideas for plainer, one layer cards to send through the post so that they don't get damaged and aren't too expensive.  It's also hard for me not to embellish but I think I managed it this time.

I started off by cutting out a heart with a die to use as my stencil.  I used watercolour paper and used Distress Ink in Shaded Lilac and Dusty Concord and a paint brush to fill in the heart.  I then took a Stampin Up Stencil, covered over the heart and used Distress Ink in Ripe Persimmon to give the pretty background.

A simple sentiment from a Clearly Besotted set finished off the card and then I left it.  Gulp!  It will be winging its way over to Australia.

I'm adding this into the following challenges - 

Addicted to CAS - Hearts 

A Bit More Time to Craft - Anything Goes 

Happy Little Stampers - Use a Die - my die became my stencil

SPRING ATC'S

Over on my Facebook Group The Joy of Sets we run swaps and this month was a Spring ATC swap.  As our members are all over the world we only swap with one person but we make three ATC's.

I made mine mixed media by adding lots of layers and Distress Inks for the background.  I then used some of Tim Holtz botanical collage paper and coloured the images in with Distress Crayons and a water pen.  The sentiments have come from an old dictionary I use for my words.  I added some pieces of Tim Holtz ephemera such as the butterflies and bee to finish off the ATC's.

I'm adding these into the following challenges:

  Country View Challenges - Spring 

Frilly and Funkie - Groundhog Day -favourite use of art tool or medium - mine are the distress crayons - I seem to use them in every project I make lately 

SimplyEllibelle - Hearts or Flowers

CRAFT challenge - not a card

Sir Stamp a Lot - Bright Colours 

Chocolate Baroque - Flowers Butterflies or Birds

TRY STAMPIN ON TUESDAY - #TSOT494

We have a mix up challenge for you this week at Try Stampin on Tuesday - I decided to have a go at the bleaching technique as it's not one I've tried before.  I did some checking out of You Tube to see how it was done and there may be more than one way but I chose this way.

I decided my 'bleached' part would be my tree.  It's from a Visible Image stamp set called Tree of Life and I started out by using Versamark and then used clear embossing powder.  I used some distress inks to create the background - using TH Tumbled Glass, Pear Pizazz and a touch of Vintage Photo for the tree. Rubbing the inks over the clear embossing makes the image pop and makes it appear bleached. 

 I layered this on to a piece of black cardstock just on the right hand side.  The background was made with a stencil and some Vintage Photo and Tumbled Glass.

The sentiment comes from the same set and I used some Ranger Archival Ink and coloured the background in Vintage Photo - I added a piece of linen thread and popped it up on dimensionals.

LISTEN TO YOUR HEART

My tag today was inspired by The Library Challenge No 76 and this image.

I really wanted to try and incorporate that face behind the words. Rummaging through my old stamps I found this old one from Cherry Pie Art Stamps and knew it would be perfect.  I started off my tag by using some blue cardstock as a tag and covering it in Gesso.  I stamped the face image in Versamark and embossed with TH Speckled Egg embossing powder.   I added Distress Inks in Tumbled Glass and stenciled with some Frayed Burlap.  I used a Stampin Up hearts mask for the hearts stamping them in Festive Berries.  I added some more old Tim Holtz stamps.

The piece of ribbon at the bottom is from Stampin Up and was just a tiny piece I had in my ribbon box.  

                         I'm also adding this into the following challenges:

Inkspirational - Hearts 

Creative Artiste Mixed Media - Anything Goes 

Simply Create Too - Hearts

CRAFT challenge - not a card 

SWEET STAMPIN - CARDS FOR KIDS/TEENS

Our challenge over at Sweet Stampin this week is cards for Kids/Teens.  I find these type of cards a real challenge - probably now that my kids are grown I don't have many occasions to do children's cards and don't really have stamps that are suited.

There is one Stampin Up set however which I will keep in my stash as I do find it's great for cards for younger people. It's called Special Someone and has these great two step stampin images of woodland creatures.

I've started mine off here by inking the background with some Tim Holtz Distress inks and then using an SU stencil for the trees.

The Squirrel was stamped and then cut out and added with dimensionals as was the balloon. I added some glossy accents to the balloon. The sentiment is from the same set.  I added some of the grass with the tiny little stamp from SU High Tide - such a small stamp but it comes in so useful for adding grass.  

I'm also adding this into the following challenges:

Alphabet Challenge - Woodland Flora and Fauna

Watercooler Wednesday - Occasions

Addicted to Stamps - Birthday 

Creative Inspirations -Animal Antics

COUNTRY HOME

I love this set from Stampin Up called Country Home - mainly for the jug and the urn.  I spotted the challenge over at Inspired By which had a gorgeous image of a pink jug and flowers and knew I wanted to use this set.  I also followed the sketch on A Place to Start which I actually found quite tricky to follow!

I started by using no line water colouring on the jug in Distress Ink Hickory Smoke and coloured it in with a paint brush and some Tattered Rose Distress Ink.  I stamped the flowers in Pear Pizazz Archival and coloured them in Spun Sugar and Crushed Olive.  I added some shading behind and cut it out with a stictched circle die.  That was the easy part.

I found the background paper in my stash and it is some old SU DSP which is black and white so I coloured it with Spun Sugar and used Tattered Rose for the flowers.  I used the little tile stencil from the set just to give some interest in the bottom corner and used Versamark ink.  I added the same stamp to the little banner.  The Happy Birthday die is really the only word die I have that isn't Christmas so I think a purchase may be needed.  I added it in black.

I'm still not sure I'm really happy with this - it may have to grow on me.

I'm adding it into the following challenges:

Inspired By

A Place To Start

I'm delighted to say my card was chosen as a Top Sprout at A Place to Start 

HUG IN A MUG

I love stamps with mugs on and this set from Sunny Studio called Mug Hugs is one of my favourites - I really must see though if they do matching dies - it would make life a lot easier.

The challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday was to make a slimline card - these are all the rage and I'm normally one that if it's popular I don't join in lol!  But I thought I'd have a go and use the mugs. I was delighted to be lucky enough to win the $25 voucher last week which gave me the chance to purchase with the shipping costs and now added tax costs (thanks to Brexit!!! don't get me started lol) covered by the $25.  So much to choose from on that website! 

I stamped the clear stamps with Ranger Archival ink and used Distress Inks Vintage Photo and Festive Berries and a paint brush to give the soft watercolour feel.  I did some doodling on the mugs to add a bit of interest as they come plain. I used a SU blending pen in Light Grey for the cream foam and the sugar cubes and added some Spectrum Noir Sparkle pen.

I used Distress Oxide Frayed Burlap and Distress Ink Festive Berries for the background.  I used a TH stencil in what looks like coffee stains and a baby wipe for the resist technique to remove some of the ink.  The bottom panel is some washi tape I had which fits perfectly.  I layered it onto some Neenah Desert Storm Kraft card stock.

I'm adding this into the following challenges:

LilRed Wagon - Hot Drinks 

As You Like It - favourite stamp medium - I prefer to work with clear cling stamps as it's easier to see where you are stamping and easier to fix if you make a mistake.  I have so many wooden stamps now not being shown any love since clear stamps came out.

SimonSaysStampWednesday - slimline card 

Simon Says Stamp Monday - Resist

Audsentiments - Anything goes plus a sentiment 

Cardzforgals - Pink and Brown

Cupcake Inspirations

Time Out Challenges

Path of Positivity - Celebrate those you love - my card will be winging its way to a dear friend who I haven't been able to catch up with for a coffee and a natter because of Covid.  We can't wait until we can be together again and in the  meantime I hope she likes her card.

BUTTERFLY TAG

We have had a touch of snow here again in the UK - some parts have it quite bad but we just have a smattering here in Hampshire - enough though to warrant staying indoors and crafting.

My tag today fits in with the challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Monday which is Resist.  I used Distress Oxide in Chipped Sapphire and Fossilised Amber for my background and then used a Tim Holtz stencil 129 and lifted off the ink with a baby wipe.  The background can just about be seen underneath the butterfly.  I must admit I find it hard making backgrounds and then almost covering them all up - practice I suppose.

The butterfly is a die from Tim Holtz - I had a piece of background I’d worked on which had been stencilled with some Distress Paste coloured with Walnut Stain Ink and I used this to cut out the butterfly - it adds some texture.  I then coloured it with the sample Distress Oxide inks of Sapphire and Amber but added some Liquitex Liquid Ink in Gold to give it more of a shimmer on the amber part of the wings.  The sentiment is cut out of an old dictionary I use for sayings.

I added some washi tape from my stash as it shows butterflies and finished off with some ribbon and some copper thread from Stampin Up underneath the butterfly.

HAND STAMPED SENTIMENTS #CC357

Welcome back to another Colour Challenge from Hand Stamped Sentiments and I hope you are inspired by our lovely choices.  

I started off by using the wonderful background stamp Dry Brush stamped in the Blushing Bride - it's a large stamp but is so versatile and I've found it just amazing for backgrounds!  I then wanted to use one of my favourite retired sets Home To Roost - bought mainly for that lovely Rooster I must admit but the sentiments are great too.  I used some of the Bermuda Bay to stamp the grasses in the foreground and coloured the Rooster in with all three colours.  I just simply added the sentiment in Real Red and layered the card onto some Real Red card stock. I added a touch of twine around  just to finish off the card. 

613 AVENUE CREATE CHALLENGE BLOG

I'm delighted to have been included in the Design Team for 613 Avenue Create  challenge blog.  The challenge is always Anything Goes but with some optional twists.  My first challenge for them this month is to include hearts or soles on your project.  As I don't have anything with shoes I opted for hearts.

I started out by creating my background piece with Tim Holtz Distress Inks in Spun Sugar, Peacock Feathers and Antique Linen.  I added some stamped images and then gently inked over.  The Heart was cut out with a stitched framelit and layered with a piece of doily underneath.  The little love die was one from my stash.  I added some lace and a ribbon and the truly came from a dictionary.  It was one I was just about to throw away when hubby said could you not use it for your crafting?  Haven't I trained him well!!! I added a button and some paper flowers from my stash.  

I'm adding this into the following challenges also:

As You Like It - True Love - my hubby is my sweetheart and has been for over 40 years!

LilRed Wagon - Hearts

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Love is in the Air

Creative Artiste Mixed Media - Anything Goes

 

LOVE IS IN THE AIR

You can tell it's February as there are hearts all over crafting blogs. After the year we've all had - we all need some love and what nicer way than to send a card to cheer someone up.

I fancied having a play with a very old Tim Holtz heart stamp I found in the bottom of my stash and which hasn't had any love shown to it in a while.  I followed the colours of the Retro Rubber Challenge blog and limited myself to Grey, Black and Red.

I started off by blending a very pale covering of Hickory Smoke over some TH watercolour card stock - I then used Fired Brick with a heart stencil from SU for the red hearts and added a touch of an old script stamp by TH.  I then added the dots stencil from TH with the Hickory Smoke also.

The heart stamp was stamped in black and coloured in with a watercolour brush using TH Redbrick and a touch of Festive Berries.  There is also a little bit of grey metallic distress crayon to give it a bit of a shimmer around the heart and around the edge of the card stock.  The heart has been covered in Glossy Accents to make it stand out.  The kiss sentiment is from a Clearly Besotted stamp set and the other sentiments are from a Simon Says Stamp set called Take Heart.  All sets are quite old to fit in with Retro Rubber's Challenge.

I’m delighted to have won the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge with this card - my first time entering too - what a lovely surprise 

I'm adding this into the following challenges:

Retro Rubber - Red Black White and Grey

Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge - hearts

Little Red Wagon - Hearts

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Love is in the Air

Double D Challenge - hearts

Splashy Mix Challenge - moodboard - the hearts and the couple kissing

Crafting Happiness Challenge - hearts

Use your stuff - hearts 

Crafting Happiness Challenges - love

TRY STAMPIN ON TUESDAY - #TSOT492

Another great sketch for you at TSOT this week with the added challenge of Love is in the Air.

Valentine's isn't really as popular in the UK as it is in the States with cards really only going to sweethearts whereas I think it's much more of a holiday feel to it in the US.  This card is for my hubby.  We are both Welsh and I couldn't resist these little sheep from Clearly Besotted Kiss Me Quick stamp set.  After nearly 10 years of wanting to return to our homeland of Wales from England we are finally making the move this March.

I used some heart die cuts I had and stamped the sheep on the smaller one using Stampin Up Stampin Blends in Light Grey and Dark Grey for the sheep with a touch of white gel pen for highlights.  I inked the edges with TH Distress Ink in Worn Lipstick and added one of the sentiments from the set.

I used some old SU Designer Series Paper from my stash for the background and added the other sentiment.  The washi tape is from my stash and I just added some little x's on the top with a white gel pen.  The little heart gems were from my stash. 

I'm adding this into the following challenges:

 Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge of Love/Hearts

Little Red Wagon - Hearts 

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Love is in the Air

Double D Challenge - Love 

             

SPARKLES CHRISTMAS CHALLENGE - SNOWMEN

Our theme this month at Sparkles Christmas Challenge is snowmen.  We don't often get a lot of snow in the UK but we did get a flurry a few weeks after Christmas but it didn't last long. We also had one day's snow in January followed by a lovely clear blue sky which often doesn't happen in January.

I had this die set from Tim Holtz called Cool Yule that I hadn't used the snowman from yet - I started by inking a piece of cardstock with Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Weathered Wood and Chipped Sapphire.  I then used a TH stencil for the stars using Chipped Sapphire distress ink.  The Snowman was cut out in various coloured cardstocks and papers and I added some Tri-Spectrum Glitter pen in orange for his nose and his hat.

I used TH shadow alphabet dies for the letters keeping the snowman as the O.  Gesso at the bottom provided the snow. 

I'm also adding this into the following challenge

Craftygals Corner - Snow