Received Snail Mail

A different posting from me today – this is some snail mail I received from Idle Emma at Puddleside Musings who set herself a challenge to send snail mail throughout July – and I have just received her mail! Yay!

The envelope is the picture on the right – the swans. How lovely to receive a letter through the post with this on the back of it. And on the inside – a couple of postcards from her, one of them with a written greeting and ‘musing’ on the back, a fridge magnet, and a bar of chocolate. How this this be a bad thing?!

Idle Emma’s posts are a joy to read, and I have been following her for a while. Her blog is good reading, and concerns mainly planners, and snail mail – with some added points of interest thrown in.

I don’t do planners, but I do enjoy seeing what people do with them – mine is my electronic diary! Quite boring, really.

If you have chance, nip on over and check the blog out……….

Have a good one. :)

 

 

Stamping Butterflies

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Hi everyone. A small and quick card for today. My sister has been over and we’ve had a few hours playing with our stuff – we have such a different way of crafting cards. She is very much into backgrounds and wild animals. I seem to do anything and everything else!

This card is made using my Majestix and Cardio stamps. I haven’t played with them for a while, and was in a stamping mood. I wasn’t going to go down the layering stamps route, but this set is actually just that.

I used Altenew inks for the flowers – light blue then darker outline, and the butterflies I did in a slightly darker blue, and even darker outline. (You just gotta love those ink sets.)

The floral part was stamped in one of the Altenew sets, the purple range. A light purple, as I wanted the butterflies to be the darkest and stand out the most. The sentiment is also from Altenew, and older set I have had for a while, this time stamped in the dark blue – thinking that black would be too stark with the softer images below it.

I shall be entering this card into the following challenges:

Cardz 4 Galz – butterflies

Alphabet Challenge – ‘I’ is for insects

 

Oriental Orchid

I am just loving this stamp set from Altenew. Yes – bought at the weekend in Doncaster. I have been playing and making a couple of single layer cards. I am also enjoying doing cards with cascading flowers. For some reason it appeals to me. Some interest on one part of the card. I think I’m going ‘clean and simple’ as I get older…..in more ways than one! However – that doesn’t mean to say I won’t be making cards with loads of layers, and bling, and die cuts etc……I like those kinds of cards for my friends and family at Christmas – a Sue Wilson fan for those cards.

For both of the cards above, I used the Altenew inks ‘Northern Lights’ mini-cubes, and stamped the outline, then the much lighter base layer, then only added the middle in the same darker pink as the outline. I didn’t add the more detailed layer, as I liked this simpler look.

I used the masking technique for both cards – for the green stems on one card, and for the other card so I could layer the flowers. I’ll be practising the masking a little more, so I can get more flowers on the stem, but this clean look appeals to me.

I photographed the card at my mum’s, where I’ve been crafting for a few hours – hence the sundial and garden effect. I didn’t notice the hose pipe in the background of one of the pictures until afterwards – but lets just say that life does get in the way of crafting….!

I shall be entering the stemmed card into the following challenges:

Color Throwdown – dark pink, pale pink, green, white

Watercooler Wednesday – birthday

Happy Little Stampers – CAS birthday

 

 

Poppy stamp set

Hi everyone. So – I went to the craft show yesterday. The bank balance took a hit, and I have been playing with some of my new buys. I have found a new stamp maker – ‘Stamps by me’. I bought three sets and let me tell you – lovely, brilliant, fabulously designed. Gorgeous. And – found out that their store is only an hour away from home – could be dangerous!

This particular stamp set is called ‘Beautiful’ due to the sentiments in the set, but the flowers are simply stunning, no matter what colour you use.

You have the outline, then the water-colour effect for the colour. As you can see I used several colours from my Catherine Pooler collection, and tried different techniques. Some I just stamped the colour, others I water-coloured, and one of them I did both – water-coloured then stamped on top. I didn’t even use my Misti as the Catherine Pooler inks seem to stamp well first time. (I am sure I’ve mentioned that before!)

The four I have not added a sentiment to, will probably be packed together for a cute little notelet set, after adding some plain white paper as an insert. The last card I played with a different background, embossed with a Sue Wilson ‘Rope Chain’ I bought yesterday at a bargain price.

I particularly like the orange cards, as they are different to what one would expect. I’ll be playing with these a little more over the next few days, as not working all week, and will be adding bits and pieces to them, maybe some water-colouring backgrounds…..the choice is endless.

I shall be entering the following challenges with one of these cards:

Paper Craft Crew – share a project using something new

Crafty Catz – anything goes (option ice cream – not used)

QKR Stampede – anything goes (option seaside not used)

Crafty Friends Challenge – floral

Stamping Sensations – stamping and flowers

Christmas Tree

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Hi everyone. A quick post today as I am just off to the Doncaster Racecourse for another craft show. This is one I go to every year, and I usually grab quite a few bargains. I have my list of ‘wants’ with me.

Today’s card is using Altenew ‘Sketched Evergreen’ layering Christmas Tree stamp. I used my Sheena Douglass stamping card, and layered the tree using my Altenew inks. The most difficult part was placing the sentiment – and which sentiment and words to use.

I didn’t stamp the Christmas tree base, as I liked the look of it without.

I took inspiration from Casology, the current theme being ‘wish‘, and used the words from two stamp sets to come up with the above. I used my Misti for stamping the words, just so I could get a clean and crisp sentiment.

So – off to the show………..

 

 

 

three toning colours

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Hi everyone. Another later posting for today.

This very simple one layer card is inspired by the colours from The Paper Players – Sweet Sugarplum, Berry Burst, Rich Razzleberry – and the challenge of a one layer card from Tuesday Throwdown.

I used some stamps from Catherine Pooler Foundations box, and stamped away…..the only time I used my Misti was for the solid sentiment stamp, but other than that – just stamped. I also used some smaller flower variations to fill in the gaps after stamping the larger images.

The smaller sentiment was masked off with a post-it note to stamp some of the flowers around it – getting the practise in – and kept the flowers on the left hand side, as you can see. I quite like the effect of stamping on one side, or the top or bottom, and I may have more plays with that in the future, when I batch make cards.

I shall be entering the challenges named above with this card.

 

 

 

Hello Sunshine Flowers

Hi everyone. A later posting today, as it took me so long to sort out the placement of this flower and leaves. I had an idea in my head, but just couldn’t get it right. It seems to be a running theme with me these days – taking ages to plan my layout…..

This card has been inspired by the colours from Just Add Ink, and the sketch from CAS(E) this Sketch.

I used my Altenew stamp and die set ‘Hello Sunshine’, stamping the flower in black on some Whisper White cardstock, but the leaves in a softer grey. I don’t have the Smokey Slate from Stampin Up, so used Evening Grey from Altenew. I thought the leaves would be too stark if stamped in black, and I wanted a softer look for them.

The flower I stamped in black, and coloured all of them in Lemon Lime Twist, using my water brush on the ink pad casing. I must say, this is now one of my favourite colours. I love it. It comes a very close second to the Catherine Pooler ‘Lime Rickey’ ink – love them both.

The sentiment is from Altenew – Wood Pallet Background. I was going to use the wood pallet, but I used my We R Memory Keepers next level embossing folder instead, to give a trellis look. (I need to move away from the trellis look, I think!)

I stamped the banner in Crumb Cake, as well as the sentiment, and cut it out. And – no die cut for this! All my own snappy scissor work……. :)

The base card is Crumb Cake, layered with the Whisper White embossed layer, the sentiment added with 3D glue gel, and the flower and leaves stuck behind this.

So – Whisper white is used for the stamping and the embossed layer, Lemon Lime Twist for the colouring, Crumb Cake for the base card, and Evening Grey instead of Smoky Slate for the outline of the leaves.

Challenges I will be entering:

CAS(E) This Sketch – sketch

Just Add Ink – colour combination

QKR Stampede – anything goes

 

 

Poinsettia

Hi everyone. Today’s card is a mixture of colours and sketch and Christmas. I have been waiting to use my Altenew ‘Poinsettia and Pine’ stamp and die set, but couldn’t get my head around a layout – until I saw the sketch from Freshly Made Sketches. I then had something to work with.

I used that sketch as a layout, and the colours from CAS Colours and Sketches – Lemon Lime Twist, Berry Burst, and Island Indigo. I have just had a Stampin Up delivery, so I had my first two colours, but I didn’t have Island Indigo. I turned to my paper stash, and found a sample of what I think is Island Indigo, and used a strip of designer series paper to complete the sketch and colours theme. I used this side of the paper as I think it looks icy and wintery.

The poinsettia is stamped and heat embossed, then coloured with Berry Burst using my water colour brush, straight from the lid of the ink pad, the same with the two leaves using Lemon Lime Twist. I die cut them with the matching die set, and then thought about the layout – where to put the leaves and twigs.

Once decided, I stuck the flower down with 3D glue, then ‘shoved’ the leaves and twigs underneath after putting some Cosmic Shimmer glue on the tips. I did add some Crafters Companion glittery pen to the flower, but I couldn’t photograph that to show you – you’ll have to pretend you can see the glimmer.

The three stars are from Stampin Up ‘Birthday Blast’ in Berry Burst and Catherine Pooler ‘Aquatini’ – which I think is a pretty good match.

I shall be entering this card into the following challenges:

Freshly Made Sketches – sketch

CAS Colours and Sketches – three colours

Christmas Card Challenges – anything goes Christmas

Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge – anything goes Christmas

 

?Pizza

I’m having a little titter to myself as I post this card. I can’t believe I’m actually posting it, but it’s brought me some giggles. I am sure from the title of the post that you can see what the theme of the challenge is that I made this card for……..

The cue card is from Casology – ‘Pizza‘. So, I don’t have any pizza stamps or dies, I don’t have anything I could turn my mind to for a real pizza, or anything I could turn use to even come close to representing a pizza. I have been thinking about this for a couple of days now, and was at a total loss.

Until I was driving to work yesterday, was stopped at some traffic lights in Sheffield – outside a Dominoes Pizza place.

I immediately started giggling. I am sure the car in front must have thought I was a complete nutter! Then I thought – why not? It is following the theme of the challenge, Dominoes Pizza is international……….so here you are.

The actual domino took more thought……eventually I die cut two squares using my Stampin Up ‘Stitched Shapes Framelits’, then wondered how I was going to do the dots. I looked at my hole punch – not quite right. I looked at my Crop-a-dile – too small. I looked at my punches from Stampin Up – nothing seemed quite right.

So, while I kept thinking, I decided to tidy my craft table, and to put some things away. I always seem to have lots of stamps and dies just sitting there……anyone else do that? So – putting some of my stuff away, I came across a stamp set from Altenew ‘Simple Flowers’. Guess what – there are a couple of small round dots in that set.

Here we go – I took one of the dots, stamped it in my Ranger Perfect Medium, heat embossed with white opaque powder – and ended up with what you see above. I stuck both the squares down flat with some of my Tombow glue…….

I’m still giggling. We are supposed to have fun when we craft, aren’t we? I think this takes it to another level, though!

What do you think? Outside the box or what? (Pizza box, of course)

 

Red, white, and blue sketch

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Hi there. I’m still in quite a patriotic mood today. I made an earlier blog posting with colours of England, and decided to make another card with the colours from the good old Union Jack. I am aware there are lots and lots of countries with red, white, and blue on their flag, so instead of going down the St George Cross route, I followed the sketch from CAS(E) this Sketch.

The three colours were die cut from Lawn Fawn ‘Road Border’ and stuck down to a smaller card than usual, keeping a wider bit to the left, and narrowing down to the right – all set at a nice jaunty angle – as per the sketch. The strips were only 6 inches long, and I was putting them at an angle, so I had to go with the smaller size card.

The sentiment is from a Catherine Pooler set from the Foundations box, and I angled each word slightly on my block to give a more rounded look to them so they looked like they were following the shape of the strips. Actually, that bit took longer than the rest!

I only had a short time to play tonight, as one of my puddy tats has hurt his leg, and I had to take him to the vets – thank goodness not serious. As he is almost 7kgs (Yep!!), he has probably strained his shoulder jumping down from somewhere. You can see a picture if him on a previous blog post – Spring Flowers + failed feline photo bomb from April 19th. He also has a brother just as gorgeous – I may be biased!

I shall also be entering this card into the following challenges:

Cards In Envy – patriotic – red, white, blue

Createalicious challenge – anything goes with option for red, white, blue

Addicted to Stamps and More – Clean And Simple