Dream Big

I made todays card for my cousins' 66th birthday and in this country that means pension day, the day she starts receiving her state pension. I figured that as she will have a little more money coming in it might encourage her to dream big.

It took me 3 attempts to get this right, but I am glad I persevered. I had trouble with the ink bleeding under the stencil and messy inky fingers, you know what happens with them!

Once I succeeded with the inking I stamped the sentiment in a dark brown ink and added a few dark brown enamel dots. I was quite pleased with the way everything matched.

I am sharing this at:

Seize the Birthday: make a sunset scene

Casology week 396: view

Supplies:

Cardstock: Bristol Board; Adorable Scorable Matt-tastic for card base

Ink: Distress ink, colours as in photo; Catherine Pooler, icing on the cake

Stamps: Free with magazine

Stencil: Newton's Nook 2 layer

Dies: Create a Smile stitched rectangle (A6)

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

Love Home

I had to make a new home card the other day and saw they are looking for kraft and red over at Color Hues this month,  I decided that would be my colour scheme.

I think kraft and red look  great together and I love this little house die from do crafts, it comes with the tiny heart too.

The hills are cut from scraps of stamping card with an oval die and the windows and hearts are cut from no shed glitter paper.

I was going to heat emboss the sentiment in white but, the powder stuck to everything and I had to wipe it off and decided that it was fine as it was just stamped with versamark.

I am also sharing this at:

Happy Little Stampers - Anything goes with dies October

Supplies:

Cardstock: White stamping card; Kraft card

Ink: Versamark

Stamps: Uniko

Dies: Hobby Craft, heart die; Docrafts, house die; Waffle Flower, Ovals; Create a smile, stitched rectangle.

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

Wildlife

I have been thinking that I wanted to support the challenge over at River of Creativity and knowing that I had no time to make something, I had a look through my collection of cards that I have made and not yet shared. I found this, the animals are so cute but I think they can still be described as wildlife (this months challenge theme).

I made this card for my granddaughters 9th birthday in July. The little animals are stamp and die sets from Crafters Companion. There are 8 in the set and I got a bit carried away and bought the whole set! They can be gift tags or bookmarks. My granddaughter is always reading so I thought she could use these as bookmarks. I like how they hang their front legs over the edge so I thought about how I could present them on the card and decided on the brick wall. I also doubled them so that each one would slip over the card base. I also did this because I coloured them with alcohol markers and so the ink leached through to the back rather spoiling the effect of the back view. 

The front of the card is made with a brick wall stencil, a grass stencil and a flower border die.

Don't they look cute from the back?

When all 3 of my grandchildren came to stay in July we had a session making tags, they seemed to enjoy it and I was impressed by how well they did, with no help from me.

I love this picture not only because the kids look so happy and proud of their makes, but also because my garden in the background is looking pretty good too.

I am also sharing this at:

Stamping Sensations - Animals, birds and bugs

Supplies:

Cardstock: White stamping card

Ink: Catherine pooler; Memento, London Fog; Versafine, onyx black; Spectrum Noir alcohol markers

Stamps/Dies: Gemini by Crafters Companion; Lawn Fawn, flower border

Stencils: Clarity Stamp, brick wall; Newtons Nook, hills and grass

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

WLCB October Reminder

Today is the 18th October so time for a reminder for our current challenge over at we love Chocolate Baroque where the theme is

** Anything Autumn **

I have been enjoying the wonderful varied and colourful flowers of Dahlias over recent weeks and so decided to try and bring that vibrant feeling to this card. I am not sure what flower this stamp is supposed to be, but today it is a dahlia, because bees love them too. I stamped them with CP icing on the cake (this is my go to colour at the moment), then fussy cut and then coloured with my zig pens and a wet brush. The bees wings have been coloured with a sparkle pen.

I have been wanting to use this lovely fine lattice stamp for ages and have finally done so. I smooched the paper with the DI colours you can see in the photo above and once it was dry I heat embossed with a lovely chocolate pearl embossing powder.

The sentiment was heat embossed with the same powder onto vellum. The vellum is only stuck down on the left hand side behind the flower. I quite like that it is like a little flag on the card front. I love how the sentiment embossed so well even though it is so fine. I thought it suited this colourful and vibrant card.

I do hope I have inspired you to take part in our challenge this month. Don't forget there are prizes to be won. A £15 gift voucher for Chocolate Baroque and a crafting goody bag (both drawn randomly) and a chance to be a featured designer if you use a Chocolate Baroque stamp.

I am looking forward to seeing you in the gallery.

Chocolate Baroque is a small independent art and craft company, based in the historic market town of Barnard Castle in County Durham in the North-East of England and is owned and run by Lesley and David Wharton. 

Supplies:

Cardstock: White stamping card; Adorable scorable coated card

Ink: Distress ink; Zig clean colour real brush pens; Catherine Pooler, icing on the cake

Stamps: Chocolate Baroque, Honey Bee, words to dazzle and sparkle, studded lattice background stamp

Dies: Claina Palmer A6 stitched rectangles

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

October CAS Mix Up Reminder

Today is 15th of October so time for a reminder for the current challenge over at CAS Mix Up. This month we are using mixed media and Bonnie is our host. She wants us to use botanical prints on our cards. We also have a wonderful guest designer this month who has generously also made a reminder card for you. Please pay Izzy a visit here.

If you are not sure about making prints there are links to several video tutorials on the challenge blog. I used the method demonstrated by Heather Telford. I made this print at the same time as I did the card for the original post for this challenge. I thought I would have another go and create something different, but, as ever, time ran away from me, so I made this one into a card. I thought it would be nice to have a contrast to the bright orange so found a scrap of blue watercoloured background in my stash to place behind this lattice die. The sentiment was stamped and heat embossed and the insert and envelope stamped with a leaf stamp.

I hope you will forgive the fact that this one is a similar layout to my first card.

In addition to the printing I have used stamping stamping, heat embossing and die cutting.

You have until 24th to join us and don't forget to visit the blog to get more inspiration and some links to technique videos to help.

I went on my train trip to London yesterday and really enjoyed it. The best thing was that the trains were not too busy, so it felt very safe. I am driving to Birmingham this weekend to look after my two granddaughters while their parents celebrate their 10th wedding anniversary. I made them a card, so look out for that at some point soon (hopefully). It is so nice to be out and about a bit more.

Have a wonderful weekend.

I am looking forward to seeing you in the gallery.

Supplies:

Cardstock: White Stamping card; Watercolour paper

Ink: Yellow and orange acrylic paint; Catherine Pooler, icing on the cake (sentiment)

Stamps: Uniko

Dies: Free with Die Cutting Essentials Issue 62; Nellie Snellen, stitched squares and rectangles

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

Emboss Twice

Every month I intend to enter the let's squash It challenge and every month I fail. They are now on challenge 13 and I think I have only entered once. That's not a very good record, but today I do have an entry. I hope you like it.

I embossed a white card panel for a different card, you will have to wait a bit to see that, but I managed to get a smudge of ink on it so it was useless for that card. That was my opportunity to transform the panel by heat embossing the raised leaves and ink blending the background. I really enjoyed doing it as it transformed the panel and I love the look.

The skeleton leaf die cut was also heat embossed with a sparkly embossing powder. I did several coats to get a good coverage. The sentiment was also stamped and heat embossed on a white die cut that I had inked in the same way. I matted the embossed panel on some matching glitter paper for an extra bit of sparkle, unfortunately the pictures don't really do it justice.

I am going on a train trip to London tomorrow, my first for a very long time. I am feeling quite excited, but I hope the train isn't too busy. Funny how such small things can be so exciting these days!

Supplies:

Cardstock: Plain white card

Ink: Distress ink, tea dye and crushed olive

Other: Wow embossing powder, metallic gold rich, hot gossip

Stamps: Free from magazine

Dies: Free from magazine

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

Bookmarks

Today I have a quick post as I want to join Mia for her Craftlandia Challenge 8 before it closes. I was shocked and saddened to read that her friend, who helped run the challenge died in the summer, so I wanted to keep supporting it, as it would have been easy for Mia just to let it go. I am so glad to see that she now has some new helpers, so I hope the challenge goes from strength to strength. The theme this time is books, so I thought I would share a set of bookmarks that I painted for Christmas presents last year and never shared.

I really enjoyed making these and was pleasantly surprised by my results. I made them by following a tutorial on Skillshare by the amazing Sharone Stevens. Her classes are so easy to follow, she never rushes and always sounds calm and encouraging. I enjoyed doing the backgrounds best, I found the drawing quite a challenge.

I finished them off by die cutting the hole and adding some embroidery thread. I hope you like them.

Supplies:

cardstock: Water colour paper

Ink: Gansai Tambi watercolours

Other: DMC Embroidery floss

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

WLCB October Challenge

Today is the first Sunday of August so time for a new challenge over at we love Chocolate Baroque where the theme is

** Anything Autumn Goes**

Autumn colours are my sort of colours so I enjoyed making this one. I started by taking 2 distress oxide colours and swiping the pad directly onto my panel. Once I was happy I spritzed it lightly to add a little extra interest. Then I stamped the image in Catherine Pooler icing on the cake and clear heat embossed. I took 3 different coloured pens and coloured the flowers on the trees. In retrospect, I wish I had just used one colour, but never mind.

The sentiment is also stamped in icing on the cake and heat embossed. I like how it sits nicely under the trees. After I cut the panel to size I inked the edges slightly and also inked the edges of 2 pieces of white card to use as mats, one in icing on the cake and the other in twisted citron (the same as used on the background).

It was quite dark when I took the pictures so I used my light box, which didn't really do justice to the colours, but anyway, I was pleased with how this one turned out. I found a sheet of dark brown heavy weight card in my stash that matched perfectly so I used it for the base. I hope you like it too.

I do hope I have inspired you to take part in our challenge this month. don't forget there is a prize £15 store voucher and a goody bag to be one in addition to the chance to be a featured designer if you use a Chocolate Baroque stamp.

I am looking forward to seeing you in the gallery.

Chocolate Baroque is a small independent art and craft company, based in the historic market town of Barnard Castle in County Durham in the North-East of England and is owned and run by Lesley and David Wharton. 

Supplies:

Cardstock: Bristol Board; stamping card; dark brown heavy weight card base

Ink: Distress Oxide, twisted citron & spiced marmalade; Catherine Pooler, icing on the cake

Stamps: Chocolate Baroque Fantasy Woodland & Amazing Mackintosh Words

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

September CCC Reveal

Today is reveal day over at The Card Chain Challenge where 21 people exchanged cards in September. My card went to the lovely Jo in the UK this month. I decided to try and sign up behind someone in the UK this time as I didn't think I would get a card made early enough to send abroad. It can takes weeks sometimes for them to reach their destination.

It is also world card making day, so I hope I get to spend my afternoon doing just that. I hope you do too.

Happy World Cardmaking Day

Here is my card:

I have used the sketch option, sort of!

Have a look at this card, can you see where I got all the little pieces from that I have used to create the patterns? I had all those little pieces on my desk and decided I had to find a use for them, so I die cut 3 white squares and started arranging the little pieces. After some time, I was happy with the result and glued them all down and mounted them on a die cut panel.

I have to say that I was quite pleased with myself at the end of it. It is always nice to use up leftovers.

I received this lovely card from my friend Gundi in Germany. Isn't it fabulous?

You still have a few days if you would like to sign up for the October challenge.

I am also sharing this at:

Pixies Snippets Playground #413 - I am so pleased with my snippet use on this one!

Supplies:

Cardstock: White stamping card; Adorable scorable coated card; Adorable scorable mattastic card

Dies: Create a Smile A6 stitched rectangle; Left over pieces from Concord & 9th plaid card front thick and thin; Sentiment, creative Expressions

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