JAR OF LOVE

 

I was delighted to be chosen as one of the Top Three this week at Inkspirational Challenge for my little Picture Perfect card.  Proudly displaying my badge!


Their challenge this week is the following: Click on the image to be taken to the challenge Challenge #132



  



 I had a bit of a mix up with this challenge this week as the link actually took me to Watercolour Swooshing which I did then found I couldn't link it up as that was actually the week previous.  Anyway my card can still be considered a Spring card so I'm going to put it in anyway.

I had fun with this - getting inky and not as messy as I thought I would. I was surprised at the colours that came out - as I used quite dark colours and ended up with a realy pinky greeny colour!

I've used the lovely Jar of Love set and Framelits which is continuing into the new catalogue.  I love playing with this set and its so versatile for spring, summer autumn or winter cards.

Saying farewell to Papillon Potpourri and the Bitty Butterfly punch by just adding a small butterfly to my card.

 Here you can see the colour combination that went into making the flowers for the jar.

The Challenge over at Watercooler Wednesday is also Spring so I'm going to add my card to their list also.

HAPPY CRAFTING


 

HEY CHICK

I'd resisted this little set from Sale-A-Bration in my first set of orders.  But I've see so many cute little projects made with it that I took the plunge and its growing on me.  Funny how some stamps can do that to you.

I'm way out of my comfort zone here and am joining in with the Less is More challenge this week which is one layer with the provison Opposites Attract and Watercooler Wednesday which is sparkle CAS. 

I used Hey Chick and Jar of Love for the flowers and the bee as well as Papillon Potpourri for the butterfly.

This would make a cute Easter Card, athough I must admit I don't normally send them out.  I'd love to know how many of you still do?

I stamped the hen and the egg in Early Espresso and used Daffodil Delight and Tangerine Tango.  I used a blender pen to colour in the chick and the egg and Wink of Stella to make it all sparkle a little.

 

POOTLERS BLOG HOP - SALE-A-BRATION - AVANT-GARDEN

Welcome and thanks for joining us on another Pootlers Blog Hop this time celebrating Sale-A-Bration 2017.

My card uses the Avant-Garden set - a wonderful set of 10 stamps with three sentiments which I know I'm going to really miss when Sale-A-Bration ends on 31st March.

I've used a retired embossing folder for the dots but you could use any folder you had to hand.  I wanted to use the dots to match up with the background dots behind the flowers.

 
 A touch of Dazzling Diamonds on the inside of the flowers adds to some sparkle and the Basic Pearls on the butterfly just lifts it.

  SUPPLIES
Cardstock - Very Vanilla, Pear Pizzazz, Crumb Cake
Inks - Pear Pizzazz, Rich Razzleberry, Melon Mambo, Old Olive
Accessories - Basic Pearls, Dazzling Diamonds, Lace Trim, Bitty Butterfly Punch, 
Stampsets - Avant-Garden, Papillon Potpourri


   

 

   

An InLinkz Link-up

As usual if you are in the UK or parts of Europe you can purchase all supplies from my store - click on the link below.

There will be a video tutorial for this on my YouTube channel coming soon.

HAPPY CRAFTING


 

SERENE SCENERY

I'm loving this 6x6 Designer Series Paper - Serene Scenery and wanted to use it again on my card for two challenges - CAS Colours and Sketches Challenge and As You See It - both have sketches.

CAS colours is the following: click on the image to be taken to their site.


 


The butterfly is from Papillon Potpourri and punched out with our large punch.  The butterfly has been coloured in with Peekaboo Peach and Sweet Sugarplum Marker Pens and a touch of Wink of Stella. The backing paper for the sentiment is another of the Serene Scenery papers and the sentiment is from Jar of Love.

As You See It Challenge also had a sketch - click on the image.


 







I've used three of the papers from the Serene Scenery pack.  The sentiments are from Thankful Thoughts.  The butterfly from Papillon Potpourri was punched out of vellum paper.  The vellum was first inked up in Crushed Curry and left to dry.  Wink of Stella ws added to the You and the Butterfly.

 

 

 YAY- BONUS TIME!   DONT FORGET OUR BONUS DAYS ARE NOW IN PROGRESS - SO IF YOU RECEIVED A BONUS VOUCHER IN JULY NOW'S THE TIME TO SPEND IT THROUGHOUT AUGUST.  JUST CLICK ON THE IMAGE BELOW TO BE TAKEN TO MY STORE.

HAPPY CRAFTING

 

SUMMER'S HERE

Yay - for the last two day's Summer has arrived in the UK and we are now sweltering under 30 degree heat.  The UK homes don't work well with this heat -we don't have air con and my house is definitely a winter house.  But hey - lovely to see the sun and I'm lucky enough to be able to take advantage of it.  So today I shall be crafting in the garden.

But before I go I have a few challenges to catch up with.  The first is Sam Hammond's Colour Challenge which this week was Melon Mambo, Watermelon Wonder, Cucumber Crush, and Crushed Curry.  You'll find her challenge HERE.  As its sunny outside and there are quite a few butterflies flying around my veggies I thought I would use the Papillon Potpourri set.  The beautiful rose from  Picture Perfect has also been used as the background stamp using Versamark.  

The sentiment is from the Shooting Star set.  I've popped one of the butterflies up on dimensionals after punching it out with the butterfly pun ch and added a few rhinestones for some sparkle.

I used Melon Mambo, Whisper White and Crushed Curry.

I've used the polymer stamps here and would love to know how to stop them staining when using the Melon Mambo or Watermelon Wonder.  I did try stamping with Versamark first and it helped a bit.  Any advice gratefully received.


I'm also putting this card in for the Less is More Challenge which is asking for repitition though I think I've put too much on the card and not enough "white" space.  Their Challenge is HERE

I had to have another play with the Repetition theme - I just love it.  Here I've used the Playful Backgrounds set and the Papillon Potpourri again punched out with the butterfly punch on Designer Series Paper Rich Razzleberry.  The stripes have been stamped in Rich Razzleberry Ombre Stamping Pad. The sentiment is from Shooting Star.

I'm also putting this one in for the Addicted to CAS challenge - their theme is Stripes.

 Thanks for stopping by and do leave a comment.

Happy Crafting 

 

NEW GOODIES

We all love new things and us Demonstrators get just as excited when the Stampin' Up! box arrives with new goodies.  We have named the driver Mr Brown as it comes in the UPS van and we all get excited when Mr Brown arrives!

I didn't waste much time in playing with my new goodies when they arrived - I had wanted to join in with the Less Is More challenge which was Time but I didn't have anything that was suitable.  Aha, until my shipment arrived. 

One of the stamp sets I had ordered was a Project Life set - called Date It!  Not what you may immediately think of for a time card but it had the perfect words, Summer and Time in it, along with 80 other stamps - yes that's 80!!!!  82 stamps in total - I wonder if I will ever get to use all of them!  All these stamps for £23.00 - I know amazing - click on the image below if you want more information.




Anyway I digress.  The other new products I had ordered was a pack of the Serene Scenery  6 x 6 papers - I've seen some lovely cards made with these.  So I jumped in and yes, I actually cut up a piece of the paper.  Die hard paper lovers will know it normally takes months before we cut up our papers but I 've done it straight away.  I used the easel from Painter's Palette and cut out the inner bit to add one of the dandelion seed heads from this paper.  The background paper is the reverse side.  The words were stamped and cut out with our Tag punch and the butterfly cut out from the same paper with the butterfly punch.

Voila!  However, on re-reading the rules for the challenge I suddenly realised this card was no good as it wasn't one layer!  Sad face.

 So..... I used the same words from the Project Life stamp set, but in my little box of goodies I had yet another new set I wanted to play with - this time it was the Jar of Love set.  I never thought the first stamps I would use from this set would be the flowers but they looked so pretty and just what I wanted for my summer card. 

Stamped on Very Vanilla cardstock in Pear Pizzazz with just a touch of Blushing Bride from a marker pen on the butterfly.  This one is one layer and can be added to the challenge.  You will find the challenge here

 

Phew thanks for reading all this and if you got to the bottom give yourself a pat on the back.

Happy Crafting 

 

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

 

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

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.

 

PAINTER'S PALETTE - PAPILLON POTPOURRI

The challenge over at Watercooler Wednesday this week is a sketch.  I'm delighted that my Masculine Card was given an Honourable Mention last week so I'm displaying my badge with pride.

And on to the sketch.  You'll find their challenge here






I'm still loving the Painter's Palette stamp set and must probably apologise early because I think there will be lots of cards made with this stamp set over the coming months.  I think its so versatile.  I've seen some lovely bunting made with the easel which I may attempt too.

It's a dull, cold day in June here in the UK so I chose some lovely Brights colours to cheer me up and, as the sun is not shining, there are few butterflies around at the moment.  Come on Summer - where are you?

I've used Tempting Turquoise with Melon Mambo.  My new purchase this month was the butterfly punches which are a must with the Papillon Potpourri Stamp set.  I did try to cut them out but these punches are so much easier and look fabulous.  A touch of enamel dots in Brights just finishes off the butterflies.

The Designer Series Paper is also Brights - thankfully not retired as I love these papers.

I've listed all the supplies used - just click on the link to be taken to my store and dont forget to use my Hostess Code for June which you will find on the right of my blog post.

SUPPLIES

 

 Painter's Palette Clear-Mount Stamp Set

Price: £16.00

 

Papillon Potpourri Clear-Mount Stamp Set

Price: £14.00

 

Bitty Butterfly Punch

Price: £14.50

Elegant Butterfly Punch

Price: £14.50

  

 

Brights A4 Cardstock

Price: £7.25

 

Brights Enamel ShapesPrice: £8.25

Brights Designer Series Paper Stack

Price: £20.00