Christmas in July

 Hello lovely crafters...

I hope everyone in the UK is surviving. We are in the midst of a heatwave which, as you know is unusual for us, being more accustomed to drizzle. We don't cope well with extremes of weather. It's extremely hard for me in my work, growing flowers, I've heard there is rain in the north. I may move north. 

Here is my card for this fortnights challenge at Shopping our Stash:

SOS475 - July 19th - WTHeck Embellishments - use those embellishments in your stash which make you wonder why they are even there. 

This was tricky for me as I don't use many embellishments on my cards. That doesn't mean I don't have any. Oh no, I do. 

I found two of these star bursts with gems in the middle. I feel I probably pulled them off a card I received before binning it. Clearly I need to get a grip. 

Have a little dig through your stash and see what you find!

I had an idea and it came together surprisingly quickly without any drama. 

I inked some scraps of card with Brushos and let them dry, very quickly, in the sun. Then I cut out the ivy and pin branches plus the greeting.

I fancied a bit of red and I found a tiny piece of red tissue already glued onto another piece of card which meant I could die cut it. Another failed project!

After a little stencilling on the card front, it was just a matter of gluing everything down and covering the  ends with the starburst. I offset it which gives a pleasing look, I think. 

The dies area mix of Leane Creatif and Tattered Lace. Stencil is 

It's a little bit chunky for the post, one reason why I'm not so keen on too many add ons, but this will be one for hand delivery. 

I'm also popping into the Snippets Playground where it's Christmas in July and there are summer cocktails on offer. I'm bringing some elderflower champagne which I made, I thought it wasn't alcoholic but now I'm no so sure. Hic. 

All the leaves are snippets. 

 And I've dropped into the Allsorts Challenge where it's also Christmas in July.

Maybe thinking of cold snow and carol singing with cool me down. 

Thanks for visiting, enjoy your day. x

Inky balloons

 Hello lovely crafters

Welcome to July. Here is a card I made for the new challenge at Shopping our Stash. 

Rootle through your stash and see what you have to join in with our latest challenge. 

SOS 474 - Blending in

Use ink blending. 

When I first started stamping I used to obsessively watch Barbara Gray on Create and Craft tv. I also bought her glossy card stock and wondered why it was so hard to like she did, she made it look so easy, of course. My stamping improved immeasurably when I started using matt! 

Anyway  I still have some of the glossy and it takes ink beautifully. So I started with a piece of glossy  cardstock and blended blue, green and pink distress ink over it using brushes. Stamped the balloons from an old Stamplorations set and cut them out. 

Then I cut a circle from the centre front of a card base and using a stencil blended the same inks through the small circles directly onto the card front. Or actually, I think I inked and then cut...

I used the same brushes so some of the 'bubbles' are multi coloured. 

I placed the balloons and then glued them down, adding the strings by hand as it was easier than using the string stamp. A few swirls and stars are stamped in the same inks. 

Happy Birthday is cut from a scrap of ink blended card and glued to the back of the card so it shows through the cut out circle.

Finally I used a few star sequins. I can't tell you how old these are. it's a lot of years!

I hope you like it and are inspired to join in our Ink Blending challenge which lasts for two weeks. 

Thanks for visiting, enjoy your day. x