Purple flowers

Hello lovely crafters. 
Here we are on the other side of the mid-winter festival of washing up. I'd forgotten how bad it gets, as soon as you finish a load, 6 more mugs arrive. (I did insist that everyone had a go, without complaint, I should say).

After the washing up was done and the house had a fewer occupants, I was able to reclaim my crafty space and make this card. 

I started with a couple of inkings I found in a folder. I can't tell you when or why I did these but I know they are brushos on watercolour paper. 

The flowers were die cut from the purple end and the leaves from the green. I decided against using the leaves in the end and used a flourish instead which was also a snippet. 

Die cut flowers, a cut away edge and added inky piece, a little stencilling and a tiny bit of stamping. 

I've got some more flowers and leaves cut from the first sheet so am working on another card with those. I'm still fiddling with it or I would have shared it here. 

I wanted to add some tiny bees or insects so if anyone knows of any very small insect stamps, please let me know. Thank you! x

I'm sharing this at the Snippets Playground where there is a very special prize on offer and the theme is 'Anything but Christmas'. 

And also Allsorts Challenge where the theme is CAS

Thanks for visiting, enjoy your day. x

(Almost) Time for Presents!

 Hello lovely crafters!

It's time for a new challenge over at Shopping our Stash and this time we are asking you to use presents. 

Time for Presents - use presents on your card or make a Thank you card for gifts you received. 

As is often the case this started off as one thing and finished up as something quite different. 

I knew I had some little present stamps so I dug through my stash until I found them. 

Once I started stamping, I got carried away - stamped the centre and then all around the outside too. I've use various stamps from Card-io and Leane Creatif plus the unknown brand presents. 

I wish I'd embossed the mice with clear powder like I did with the greeting but I have many good ideas when it's way too late!

Why not dig through your stash and join in our challenge. You have two weeks and if your Christmas cards are all done and dusted then you'll probably be needing a Thank you card sooner or later. 

Thanks for visiting, enjoy your day. x

Those naughty mice

 Hello lovely crafters. 
Here is another one of my Christmas cards. Most of them are safely in the post now though who knows when they will arrive. 

The mice are Card-io stamps which I am really enjoying. 

I'd like to enter this into the Allsorts Challenge - Let it Snow.  My little mice are very happy playing in the snow. 

Thanks for visiting, enjoy your day and stay warm x

Snippet catch up

 Hello lovely crafters. 

I hope everyone is warm and looking on the bright side. We've had a little snow which is very unusual here in December. 

I started this crafting session (which lasted 3 days) by thinking I'd make a quick card with an odd piece of pretty red inked card. Inspired to use a star die, I fished them out and found lots more stars in the bag already cut out so hence several more cards. All the stars used here were pre-cut. Who knows why I had that many?

Greeting from the same red card and white leafy boughs from snippets. I was sure I had a little red bow and found it in my exploding ribbon box. 

I wanted something just behind the star. I tried partial embossing but that went wrong and resulted in the creation of a new snippet. 

Finally I inked Versamark through a starry stencil and dusted on some Perfect Pearls. It's very subtle but just what I wanted. 

Mark II. A white and silver star with Perfect Pearls on the star and in the background. 

Mark III I was pleased to find that I had a bow die and could use more of the red scrap. 

Top tip, don't lean over your concertina file looking for scraps of green paper while holding a die. You'll drop the die and have to go through the whole file looking for it. 🙄

Think I've done well but still can't quite throw it away 🤷

I'm skipping over to the Snippet's Playground to admire the Christmas lights and see what mischief is about. As well as the stars and red scrap, I've used white snippets for all the branches and part of a shiny green envelope. That is why we save them...

Oh, Christmas Tree

 Hello lovely crafters

A quick post to show this card which was made on watercolour paper. The image stamped with distress ink and then again with water. I nearly rejected in as it wasn't perfect but never leave a card behind. The all count at this stage in December. I'm not sure what I was thinking, probably that it was too blobby in the middle. 

I love the sky, I hope you do. 

I'm linking this to Stamping Sensations Must use stamping, Anything Stamped with the option of Winter Wonderland. 

plus

Thanks for visiting, enjoy your day. x

Green boughs

 Hello lovely crafters.

How are your Christmas cards going? Our new challenge at Shopping our Stash might help with inspiration. Challenge #485 - Holly and Ivy - Use Christmas plants and greenery (trees, boughs, poinsettia, mistletoe). 

Here's my card.

I blended some blue ink over some water colour paper for a bright sky. Then I used a stamping tool to stamp the branches one at a time. Inking first with green and brown, stamping and then spritzing the stamp with water and stamping again. Adding a little water means you get a bit of pooling and spreading of ink. 

Then of course, a bit of glitter. It is edible glitter, no microplastics here!

Thanks for visiting, enjoy your day.