Hi there. I have another ‘home’ day today. The snow yesterday settled but now looks like it’s virtually all gone – gotta love the English climate – and so I have been trying techniques that I haven’t really tried before.

I produce three cards, the first of which is this one for the current Time Out Challenge and CAS Colours and Sketches Challenge,

I used a Uniko stamp set for the corners – a lovely background builder stamp set (‘Vines’) with lots and lots of little, in fact tiny, stamps, to fill in small areas. Even this small set packs a punch as they are also 2 or 3 step images too…..The sentiment is from MFT – ‘Big Birthday Wishes‘, and all done using Catherine Pooler and Altenew inks.

The second card is using a cute – very unlike me – stamp set from Clearly Besotted. It is a recent purchase for me, but I just loved the 5 different little creatures on it. The set is called ‘A Bug’s Life’, and comes with a matching die set.

I coloured these with my Crafters Companion ‘Colorista’ alcohol pen set I have had for ages. I have tried these before, tried blending them, but it didn’t really work. I mentioned yesterday having a ‘Eureka’ moment – it is because I’m not using the correct card. I used Crafters Companion Neenah Classic Crest – blends like a dream.  (I really, really should listen to all that good advice on the experts who post their videos on YouTube!!!)

I couldn’t stop stamping and colouring, which is why there is a selection of cards. The ‘cute as a bug‘ sentiment from the same stamp set, but the ‘don’t bug me’ sentiment is from a Studio 490 Wendy Vecchi stamp set. One of these cards will be used in the current CASology Challenge – cue word ‘Bug’.

The third card is something I have been thinking about doing for ages, but way out of my comfort zone:

This is a one layer, stamps and inks only card. The inspiration for one of the current challenges at The Library Challenge. I like the fact that the challenges over-lap. So there is already another challenge gone live, whilst this one is still going….

I used a combination of inks from Catherine Pooler and Altenew. The background is achieved with a dry baby-wipe on my finger, a torn paper edge, and a rub of the ink over that edge. This is a technique from Card-io I have been longing to try for ages – here was the opportunity.

The trees are stamped first, second, and third generation for that misty look going into the background. The grass is from a Card-io stamp set, as are the trees, birds, and the clouds. The sentiment is from Catherine Pooler, which I thought fit the scene, and the subject/topic of the book.

So – three different cards, for three different occasions, but I had fun with them all. 🙂