Sending hugs

My card today has been inspired by two challenges - Inkspirational which ask for Cosy and the sketch over at CAS Colours and Sketches. 

I remembered I had a Clearly Besotted stamp which featured a bear all rugged up in her blanket.  It's called Pawly Pals.  I coloured her in with some Graphite pencils and Lime Otter pens.  The embossing folder is from Stampin Up and is the epitome of cosy.  The sentiment is from another Clearly Besotted set.  There is a touch of glitter pen on her little blanket.

Butterfly Tag

I was inspired by one of Tracy Evan's videos to get out the Gel print again and play along.  I kept to a palette of Versafine Clair Verdant and Warm Breeze for my main colours with just a touch of Distress Ink in Mustard Seed.  I used one of Tracy's stamps called Flutter.  Once I'd made my gell print background I pressed the stamp on to it and then took my image.  It looked great - the only thing was the words and numbers were all a mirror image.  Note to self - don't use stamps with words or numbers lol!  As it's just in the background you can't really see that they are all reflected.

I stamped the image again and added a Tim Holtz butterfly die cut out of the spare gelli print paper.  I added string behind and some Nuovo drops. The spring stamp is a very old Stampin Up one.   A touch of green washi tape from my stash and some very old SU o'rings finished off the tag.

I'm adding this into the following challenges:

Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers - Gelli Print 

Creative Knockouts - Die Cuts

SSS Wednesday - AG 

Shopping our Stash - Dies 

AAA Birthday - 2 favourite colours 

HAND STAMPED SENTIMENTS #CC381

Welcome to another colour challenge at Hand Stamped Sentiments.  Don't these colours just give you the idea that spring is right around the corner?  Well, perhaps in some parts of the world.  My colours came out quite dark for some reason.  I'm on a mission to use up a lot of my stash before I start buying any new stuff and one of the things I want to use up is all my scrapbook papers and old SU DSP.  A lot of them I have been cutting up and using for journal pages.

This is some old SU DSP I had and I liked the idea of colouring it in with the above colours.  The yellow got a bit lost so I layered it onto some Daffodil Delight card stock just to try and bring out the yellow.  The butterfly is from an old SU die cut and I cut and layered it three times on yellow, white and pink.  The sentiment is from a Wendy Vecchi stamp set.  I added some pearls to finish it off.

BIRD TAG

I had a lot of fun making this tag.  I started off with cutting out the tag with a Tim Holtz die from a piece of packaging to give the tag added texture.  I used lots of inks and texture paste for the background and added layers with some Tim Holtz 3d embossing folders - I love these - they are so versatile.  The stamps are all from Tracy Evans set - I stamped the hat for the bird twice and popped it on dimensionals to give a bit more height.  The twig is from the garden with some added twine.  The extra bits are all from my stash.  

I'm adding this into the following challenges - 

We Love Stamping - theme of Wings 

Simon Says Stamp Monday - theme of birds/insects 

Sisterhood - colour blue

IA&S - Get Inky 

We love2 Create - AG 

USE YOUR STASH

I'm joining in with TGIF challenge #tgifc351  and their sketch which allows us to use up some scraps of paper.  I've also used an old Stampin Up stamp set  - I'm in a bid to use up all the craft supplies I have rather than buy any more for a while.  Seriously - I don't need any more stuff!  I had a great sort out yesterday - after the move I still had some crafting supplies to be sorted so yesterday was the great sort out.  Any old scrapbooking papers I cut up and added it to my stash for journaling - any quotes or pieces that could be made into embellishments also got cut up and added to my journaling stash.  It certainly made the pile of things never used a lot smaller and felt quite liberating.

Anyway I digress - on to the card I have created today.  I started with my favourite Stampin Up Embossing folder - ever!  Painted Texture 3d!  I added some Distress Ink to the folder and then spritzed it with water before running it through the folder - that adds a light touch of the ink whilst you emboss.  I used some Perennial Essence scraps I had found during my sort out - and layered them and added some Rik Rak and some Washi Tape.  I cut out the flower from Floral Essence three times and inked it in Fresh Fig and added a touch of Spiced Marmalade Distress Ink.  The flowers were inked in Versafine Clair Shady Lane and Crushed Olive.  The sentiment is from Tim Holtz.

MORE WATERCOLOURING

I'm still in a bit of a watercolouring phase - do you get like that with your crafting?    I fancied having a go at the As You See It Challenge and could just see a water colour background for their sketch. 

I used four Tim Holtz Distress Colours - Seedless Preserves, Picked Raspberry, Peacock Feathers and Mustard Seed.  I don't use a lot of yellow really in my crafting as I'm more about the earthy grungy tones but I thought these colours inspired by Kristine Werner would give me the colour background I wanted.

I smooshed them on to the Tim Holtz mat and spritzed with water until I got the effect I wanted. 

I added a very thin strip of old Stampin Up DSP tapering it off to the outer edge.  I used Stampin Up Botanical Prints stamp for the flower and coloured in just the flower with the Picked Raspberry and Seedless Preserves.  I gently edged the circle with the Peacock Feathers.  The sentiment is from Tim Holtz. It is going to be my phrase for 2022.  I have a new home back home in my beloved Wales and life has turned a corner for my hubby and I and we are loving every minute of it. 

I used Tim Holtz watercolour paper to stand up to all the water.  I added some drops of Nuovo Crystal Drops in Wedgewood Blue.

I'm also adding this in the CAS Mix up again 

QKR Stampede- AG 

A Bit more time to Craft - AG 

Creative Crafters - AG 

Snarky Stampers - Ink

Inkspirational - GOAL - my sentiment is my phrase for the year 

Creative Fingers - AG 

Watercolouring

I'm joining in with the CASMix Up card challenge blog - a new one I've just found.  Their theme is Loose Watercolouring and I fancied getting the Tim Holtz Distress Inks out and having a play.  My first card uses the inks added with a water brush - splodged onto the Tim Holtz mat - the stamp is one from Anita Jeram.

The second cards uses those same inks but these time they had been spritzed with water so as not to waste them and the card was swooshed into the ink.  I hope you like my swoosh word lol!  I've used another of the Anita Jeram stamps here - they really lend themselves to watercolours.

I'm adding these into the following challenges:

Shopping our Stash - Something beginning with S - for Stamps 

SUYP - Cats 

We love stamping - anything stamped 

HAND STAMPED SENTIMENTS #SC380

Welcome back to my blog for another year's crafting adventures for 2022.  I have cut right down on my commitment to some of the Design Teams I was on but remain with Hand Stamped Sentiments for as long as they will have me.  I find my crafting is going in different directions with journaling and mixed media pulling me in that direction at the moment - but cards and scrapbooking will still be part of my crafting.

This week we have a great sketch for you - I always admire those who design sketches - I must admit it's beyond me to be able to get the computer to design it for me.

I've used some Visible Image stamps called Break Free and their number stencilv for my card and Tim Holtz Distress Inks.  I love this number stencil from VI and have used it a lot already.  The background for the flower was embossed with one of my favourite Stampin Up embossing folders which is the Painted Texture 3d folder - I coloured over it with some inks.  I added two lots of the flowers and popped them up on each other to add a bit more dimension. The touch of gold on the flowers is from Liquitex Acrylic Ink.  The quote is a Tim Holtz stamp.