Tuesday 26 December 2017

Snowdrops


Please grab our logo

Hello lovely crafters
I hope you are not all rolling around groaning in a stupor of too much food and drink. It's not over yet, we have another family bun fight later today and then I am free to craft and garden for the rest of the week.

I've lost count of the number of times I stamped out these snowdrops and coloured them in different ways. I've used plenty of snippets but perhaps not in the way Di intends the challenge to work. (They are all in the bin).
This final version is painted with dilute Brushos and brilliance white for the flowers. There is also very light blue inking behind the flowers which gives a slight contrast and background but doesn't show much in the picture. 



I had a plan for the offset circle but, as usual, didn't really think it through so if I did it again I'd do a few things differently. 
The snowdrops were stamped on a snippet and then stuck to the main card but it would be better if the stamping were on the main card and a die cut front glued on. That would save mess on the inside. 



Here is the inside. I'd like to decorate the insides more often but I usually run out of time. 
Don't think I just did this to cover up a failed stamped snowdrop on the back of my final version...why would you think that? 
I'm sure I'm not the only one who stamps on both sides of the card.

Well it finally turned out OK and I'm linking to the following challenges:
Pixie's Snippets Playground - Di is generously offering extra prizes of the holiday period and Parsnip is cooking up treats for the playmates. 


Please grab our logo
Stamping Sensations - the current challenge is Winter trees and flowers. I've seen the very tips of the snowdrop shoots above the ground. Brave souls but so welcome in the dark days of winter. I wanted this for a January birthday.  

Thanks for visiting. I hope you get some time to yourself in this busy time. 
x

Saturday 2 December 2017

December - How did we get here?

Hello lovely crafters,
Suddenly we find ourselves in December. I know I'm not the only one who wonders how we got here and that the world must be spinning faster on it's axis. 
We have our final Christmas Card Throwdown Challenge for 2017 and it runs all month. 



Hopefully you have a nice little pile of Christmas Cards stashed away but if not we are asking you to Pick a Previous CCT challenge from the 2012/13. There is plenty of choice and you can see the lists of themes, sketches, colours and stash/technique archives at the top of our challenge page.



Here is my card inspired by the August 2013 challenge - Holly. Click here to see that challenge. There are some fabulous cards there. 

I used one of my favourite techniques for this. I stamped all over a piece of watercolour paper with holly stamps and embossed in clear powder. Then I wet the paper and used Brushos to all over. 
I should perhaps have tried to keep the green off the berries but instead I used water to fade the green, once the sheet was dry, but finished up using a drop of bleach in the water to help. I'm not really allowed to play with bleach having ruined various pieces of clothing over the years! I really only used a drop here though.
I rather like the blue berries but, for the sake of tradition, I went with red. 






After I'd bleached out the green I added Scarlet Brusho and blotted to give paler colour. 
The final step is to iron off the embossing powder with a hot iron and plenty of copy paper under the iron to absorb the sticky mess. 
I only used a quarter of this sheet so you may well be seeing more of it at a later date. 
I finished it off with some washi tape and bow and also a little heart which is punched out, inked and covered with Glossy Accents. I made 6 of these for another project and only used one. Now I've used 2, lost one, found it again and still have 4 left.  
The holly stamp is Honey Doo and the sentiment Creative Stamping #49. 

I hope you'll find time to join in with our challenge. 
Thanks for visiting and Enjoy Your Day. x