In The Garden

Hello

I had meant to post this card in time for the Allsorts 17th birthday challenge, but sadly didn't get there in time. Now I see that their challenge theme is in the garden. Perfect for this card. When I saw this stamp and stencil set, I just had to buy it. It is by Kristina Werner with Concord & 9th and it is called flower field.

I stamped the image and clear heat embossed it and then used the matching stencils to colour it. The stamp set contains 6 different sentiments. This thank you is one of them. The little bee is from the sweet bee stamp set also by Concord & 9th, and I am afraid I can't remember which set the little dragonfly comes from.

I coloured the bee, dragon fly and the flower centres with sparkle pens. I used Catherine Pooler inks with the stencils. You can see the sparkle on the next picture. This is a large 6x8 inch stamp and as this card is 7x5, I have had to trim the panel down a bit.

I am sharing this card at:

Allsorts #851 - Anything goes from the garden.

Triple B June

We Love Stamping June '26 - Sports and Hobbies. Gardening is my hobby

I don't normally make large cards so having stamped the image several times I managed to make a number of metric A6 cards (2per image). Here is a selection. I have used Catherine Pooler inks.

This one had some glossy accents added to the flower centres.

Instead of using the matching stencils for this last card I painted it with my Gansai Tambi gem colour metallic watercolours. Because the image is quite large it was easy to watercolour and it made me wonder why I had bought the stencils, but they do give a different look, which I really like.

As this stamp was so large, I did have some difficulty getting really good impressions. Eventually I found a way that worked. I placed the stamp in the bed of my misti stamping tool and put the paper on the lid. I was able to get a much better impression with this method. I was getting quite frustrated with it, so I am glad I found the solution. The stamp lines are quite thick and ink kept getting trapped on the stamp so cleaning it was a challenge too. I do love the results though, so I am glad I bought it.

In my Garden
I am going to finish with a few picture of my garden. June is its time, mainly because of the 2 rambling roses that grow along the fences on both sides. Sadly since they came into flower, we have had a lot of wind and rain, but they still look fantastic and smell pretty amazing too. They will be gone in a week or so, meaning that it is important to appreciate the moment. I am doing my best to do that despite the rain.

This is rosa glauca. I love its grey/green leaves and pink and white flowers.

Some more views:

You can see some of my succulents in these if you look carefully.

Lots of photos today. Hope you don't mind.

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

Card Chain Challenge May Reveal

Finally, I am back. I realised it is exactly 2 months since I last posted. I didn't take part in the April card chain challenge. It was the first month I had missed since I started playing back in 2018. Life just got too much for a little while and I had to take a break, but things have settled down now so I hope to be around blogland a little more, but maybe not quite as much as I used to be.

Today is the 2nd of the month so time for the Card Chain Challenge big reveal. This month 24 card makers took part and I sent my card to Daja in Germany.

This time I decided that I would like to used one of my neglected Spellbinders Pressplates. This one is called 'a friend like you bouquet', which I thought was perfect for the themes of floral and friendship.

As this is quite a large plate I have made a 7x5 inch card. I pressed the plate onto watercolour paper using brilliance pearlescent olive ink. The 2 sentiment plates are from the same set and I used brilliance rocket red gold ink. The small sentiment reads happiness is having a friend like you. It is quite small and unfortunately a little hard to read, but I decided to go with it anyway.

I splattered the panel with some gold watercolour paint and then coloured the image with coloured pencils. I quite like the soft look on the textured paper. I finished it off with a piece of real ribbon and a few rose gold gems. I managed to get an image on the insert by taking the paper to the plate and rubbing it firmly to transfer the ink. I didn't want a deep impression on the insert. It worked reasonably well. I splattered the insert with the gold paint too. Just for once the post worked really well. I posted it on the 9th of May and Daja, who is in Germany got it on the 12th.

I was very lucky to receive this gorgeous card from Tina in Slovenia. It's a beauty, thanks Tina, and for the little extras you enclosed.

If you would like to take part in the next card chain challenge, you have until 6th to sign up here

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