Spring Chicken

Hello

Before I get to my cards I just have a note for those who follow me by email. As you know blogger will shortly be ceasing it's support of feedburner for email subscriptions, in light of this I have added a follow me by email form to my sidebar near the top on the right hand side. If you would like to follow me by email please sign up here. It uses follow-it and is quite straightforward. My account with feedburner will be deleted soon so do please add your email to the gadget in the sidebar if you would like to continue/start receiving my posts by email.

Thank you

Now for todays cards. First I have a card to share at Allsorts where they are celebrating their 12th birthday. That is so impressive particularly as it is a weekly challenge. So many cards. Congratulations to Brenda and her team, they are celebrating by asking for anything with bright and sunny colours, so I have a rather wild chicken to share.

This chicken was stamped and heat embossed in silver and then painted with brusho paints. This is a Woodware stamp that I got at a bargain price from Craft Clearance, it only cost £1.50! I do think he is rather special.

I enjoyed making it so much that I did another. This one was heat embossed in pearlescent chocolate and coloured with my zig clean colour real brush pens.

You can see how I also stamped the insert and the envelope in this picture.

I am sharing my first card at:

Allsorts - week 625 Happy bright and sunny colours

A Place to Start - #5 Anything goes

I am sharing my second card at:

Addicted to Stamps & More - make your mark

AAA Cards - #190 7th Birthday. My card is a birthday card (still a spring chicken at 7 I think!)

Supplies:

Cardstock: Hot pressed watercolour paper; adorable scorable coated card for the card bases

Ink: Versamark, Zig clean colour real brush pens.

Stamps: Decorative Cockerel by Woodware

Dies: Stitched rectangle A6 by Create a Smile

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog today, I really appreciate it. 

Christmas Foliage

Today I have a hand painted Christmas card to share. I can't really claim full credit for it as I did it by following a tutorial by Sharone Stevens. She has a number of glasses on Skillshare and I really like her style, find her easy to follow and am usually pleased with the results I get.

I had intended to do a few more of these as I think it is very affective, but sadly, it hasn't happened yet. There always seems to be something else to do.

I am sharing it at:

CAS Christmas - foliage & berries

Happy Little Stampers Christmas - Anything goes

I have been away for a few days and have got a bit behind with my blog visits, but will do my best to catch up with you soon. It was good to get away but it is clear that we are a long way from being back to normal.

Supplies:

Cardstock: Watercolour paper; adorable scorable coated card

Ink: Gansai Tambi watercolour paint

Stamps: Uniko

Dies: Create a smile

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog today, I really appreciate it. 

Bugs

I made this card very quickly after seeing the code word for the current Addicted to CAS challenge, it is 'bugs', and whilst I don't have many stamps along that line I do have a little stamp that was part of one of the Anita Jeram sets by Colorado Craft Company that I have been wanting to use.

I used a circle die to cut a hole in a piece of A6 copy paper then attached it to an A6 piece of Bristol board and blended the 2 distress ink colours with a blending brush until I was happy with it. I also added a tiny bit of interest with a stencil.

The image was stamped and heat embossed with clear EP. I drew the little dandelion seed heads with a fine liner pen and grounded the little bug that fell on his back with a light grey alcohol marker. I am not really sure if the bugs are supposed to be hanging on the stalk or carrying it but I decided to make them look like they were hanging with one having fallen off.

To finish I cut the panel with a stitched die, mounted it onto black paper and then onto my coloured card front. Done.

I hope you like it.

Also sharing at:

2craftycrittercrazies #50

NBUS #26 - The stamps had not been used before

Supplies:

Cardstock: Bristol board; black paper; adorable scorable coated card

Ink: Distress ink twisted citron and squeezed lemonade

Stamps: Colorado Craft Company better together by Anita Jeram

Dies: A6 stitched nesting dies by Claina Palmer; Waffle Flower nesting circles

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog today, I really appreciate it. 

May CAS Mix Up Reminder

It's the 15th already so time for a reminder over at CAS Mix Up Challenge. It is a stencil month this time and Susan is our host. She wants us to use rainbow ink blending on our cards. Do also take the time to visit our guest designer this month. Michele's cards are just stunning.

Today I have 3 cards for the price of one, aren't you lucky? My third card is the one I made first, but I decided to make another as my stencil wasn't really a good choice, and then one became two as my stencilled and inked panel needed to be split to make a CAS card.

I took an A6 piece of Bristol board and some stone blue ink and inked up my stencil. Then I used a knife to cut a wavy edge on a piece of copy paper and proceeded to ink lines across the stencil. I got a bit carried away with this and did far too many lines. I think I was in danger of making a muddy mess!

But, in the end I quite liked it and decided to cut it in two. I took up the stencil again and masked it to just show the dandelion that I inked directly onto the card base. I then glued my panel down matching it to the dandelion head. I didn't quite get my inking on the card in the right place so in order to match it and not have a strip of white showing underneath I inked a strip of white card with the stone blue and stuck it along the bottom. I didn't want to encroach any more into my white space so I stamped the sentiment on the panel. I had intended to clear emboss the sentiment but I forgot and had removed the stamp from my misti before I remembered! I finished off with a few flower gems to add extra interest.

Then I had the other piece of my panel left, so I turned it 90degrees and mounted it on some blue paper. I quite liked the rainbow stripes being horizontal in this one. I think it looks like a landscape behind (well, a bit anyway).

The sentiment was stamped in stone blue ink and die cut. Again I thought it needed a little something extra so added some sequins.

And here is the card I made originally

I used a stencil and it's mask for the happy. First I drew round the stencil and then I used it's mask while I blended the rainbow colours across it using strips of post it tape and distress ink to create my rainbow stripes.

I used a debossing coverplate on my green layer to add interest and used rainbow colours to mat both the panels.

I finished off with a few shiny sequins. I hope you like it.

I am loving all the rainbows in the gallery this month. You have until the 24th to join us, just don't forget to make it CAS.

I am sharing card 2 at: 

Happy Little Stampers May stencil challenge, anything goes

Stamplorations May stencil challenge, anything goes

I am sharing card 3 at:

Stamplorations May anything CAS goes

AAA Birthday #25 - Happy Birthday

Supplies card 1 & 2:

Cardstock: Bristol Board; Blue 160gsm paper; White card base

Ink: Catherine Pooler

Stamps: Card 1 MFT; card 2 Taylored Expressions

Stencil: AALL & Create

Supplies card 3:

Cardstock: Bristol Board; multiple colours 160gsm paper; Concorde & 9th parsley

Ink: Distress Ink

Stamps: Uniko

Dies: Altenew dotted swirls

Stencil: Leoni Pujol

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog today, I really appreciate it. 

Bright & Sunny

Today's card is for we love Chocolate Baroque where the challenge is to use bright, sunny colours. I am quite pleased as I have also actually used 3 Chocolate Baroque stamps.

I started by blending my background with Distress Oxides, then I used the small foxglove stamp that I inked and then spritzed with water because I wanted a soft look. I think it worked but I did have to do a bit of mopping up when I spritzed it too much. I also used a couple of stencils to add interest to the background.

Last Thursday we had our first trip to our local large town since autumn last year, so I had to visit the local craft store and give them a few of my pounds after they have been closed for so long. I bought my first Versafine Clair ink pad in twilight so I used it to stamp the main foxglove on this card. I like how it stayed wet with plenty of time to use embossing powder and I love the detail on this stamp. The little bees are from the same stamp set.

Initially I used a stencil for the grass at the bottom but then I went over it with a green Zig pen.

I used a damp sponge to lift the colour from the foxglove flowers and then painted them with a Zig clean colour real brush pen and water. I used a Derwent pain pen to add some red splatters to the background and then tucked the sentiment under the bee and snug to the flower. I finished off by adding some sparkle on the flowers. You might just see it on the close up photo.

I am reasonably pleased with the finished card although it is not quite as bright as I wanted, but I added brightness with the insert and orange stamping on it and the envelope. You can see them on the first photo.

As the theme is bright and sunny and my card is not quite a bright as intended I thought I would share a picture of a pot of Delosperma just coming into flower in my garden. They are so bright and sunny that you just have to smile and their flowers last for ages. I am definitely enjoying our recent sunshine.

Supplies:

cardstock: Bristol board; Adorable scorable; 160gsm orange paper

Ink: Distress Oxide dried marigold and twisted citron; Versafine Clair twilight

Stamps: Chocolate Baroque Honey Bee; Colorado Craft Company Better Together (sentiment)

Stencils: AALL & Create #112; Clarity Stamp sunrays

Dies: Create a Smile scalloped frame die

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog today, I really appreciate it. 

Baby in the family

Today I have a card that I made for my cousin who has recently become a grandparent for the 4th time. I thought the occasion deserved a card so I made this, it was nice and quick to do too.

The die is a nested doily so it has several sections. I used the outer section to cut off the edge of the card and mounted it on a bright yellow mat.

The little baby and sentiment are from a magazine free gift.

I used the die cut from the central doily as a stencil to do the decoration on the inset (blue) and the envelope (white).

I finished it off with a few tiny little gems that you can see on the close up.

I am sharing this at:

CAS on Friday #204 baby

Supplies:

Cardstock: Adorable scorable 3 colours; 160gsm paper for insert

Ink: Versamark

Stamps: Free with card making magazine

Dies: Claina Palmer nested doily

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog today, I really appreciate it. 

Sky

I love the sky and when I saw that the code word at Addicted to CAS #196 was sky I knew I had to take part.

So I got out my watercolours and followed a process that I learnt from Sharone Stevens on skillshare to produce this lovely soft pink sky. Sharone is a really good teacher, her lessons are very calm, clear and easy to follow and I have been encouraged by my results from following along with her classes.

I used my gansai tambi watercolours and a size 6 brush with a wet on wet technique. The card base is hot pressed watercolour paper and I used masking tape to create my strip of sky.

I wanted to keep the design very minimal so I chose the sentiment stamp to reflect the expanse of sky and decided to just add a few birds. I really should have watercoloured them as well, but I decided not to tempt fate as I was sure I would mess it up and I thought this little flock of birds in the distance was perfect. I used grey ink so that it didn't detract too much from the soft pink sky or overwhelm it, which I thought black might do.

I live in the county of Suffolk which is well known in the UK for it's big skies. Here are a few pictures taken on my morning walks.

This one was taken at sunrise in December

The following 2 were taken on 1st May '21

I feel very privileged to live in such a beautiful place and to be able to visit this river every morning. It is about a 20 minute walk from my home. I do love the early mornings, I will almost always be out walking.

I am also sharing this at Perfect CAS #14 - wings. I hope my little flock of birds will qualify.

I hope you like my sky, it was very easy to do. Mind you I did do it 3 times before I got the look that I wanted!

Supplies:

cardstock: Hot pressed watercolour parer

Ink: Gansai Tambi watercolour 036 Rose Madder Deep and 020 Black

Stamps: Free from different editions of Simply Cards and Papercraft Magazine

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog today, I really appreciate it.