Daisy, daisy

 Hi everyone, I hope you are bearing up, smiling and stamping.

Here is a card I made with a flower die I just couldn't resist. It turned out to be fiddly and annoying to use so that will teach me to buy cheap dies, or will it? No, it'll be just the same the next time I see one I just have to have!

It is very pretty and I do love a daisy flower. I cut out all the flowers from white (snippets, of course) and just touched the edges with a pink ink pad. Coloured Candi circles finish off the flowers. 

One of the reasons for buying this was the lovely, realistic leaves included. These were cut from white and coloured. I think I'll use them a lot. 

The pink spotty paper makes the perfect background to attach it all to. 

I'm paying a long overdue visit to Pixie's Snippets Playground, It's all made from snippets, possibly even the spotty background but I can't quite remember. 

I'm also linking to a couple more challenges:

Watercooler Wednesday:

A bit more time to craft

Craftyhazelnut's Patterned Paper challenge

Now I've just bought some Christmas stamps so I'd better get on and make something Christmassy. 

Thanks for visiting, enjoy your day. 

x

Two turtle doves

 Hello everyone. 

I'm am far behind my usual Christmas Card total so I wanted to join in with

The theme is birds, as you see. I didn't have a Christmas bird I like the look of so I improvised. That's the point of challenges though, isn't it? I'm sure turtle doves look just like this!

These are a pair of bird stamps which came with Creative Stamping magazine, possibly last year or the year before. 

Always with an eye for a bargain and looking for new ideas, I was shopping recently and came across a pad of 'canvas' sheets for water colouring and as they were very cheap, (BandM if you are in the UK) I bought one. This was my first try of it and I like it very much. It's a pale cream colour which is always good and has lovely texture.  

I started by inking a bit of the background with watery teal ink then stamped the birds over that. I had two more stamped and I coloured and cut out the bodies and then the wings as a third layer. 

The words are stamped with a set of individual peg letter stamps. 

The final touch was a bit of brown inking to ground them which really did finish it off. 

I wanted to add another little something but wasn't sure what. Let me know if you have any ideas. 

I just need to make the other eleven days of Christmas now... Food for thought. 

Thanks for visiting, enjoy your day. x

Snippet tidy up

Hello Everyone. 

Recently I had a bit of a sort out in my craft corner. You know that pile of bits and pieces of half made cards and abandoned projects? It's not just me who has that is it?

These 3 cards were all made from things I'd given up on because I didn't like or didn't know what to do with. The card bases are also failed projects. I have plenty of those. 

So I set to and  made all these cards from scraps and snippets lying around. Yeay for me and I can pop into Pixie's Snippets Playground and show them off. 

The first two are Christmas cards to add to my (not very large) pile.

I know I made this first one a very long time ago. I'd heat embossed the holly then painted over with Brushos and ironed off the embossing. Love those berries. I remembered that I had a sheet of push out sentiments from who knows where so this is two of them glued together to give a little more dimension. 

This was a similar idea. I embossed the snowflakes and added Brushos, I wasn't happy with it at the time but not enough to throw it away! Another sentiment and a snowflake found in my box of bits. 

This last one was gold embossing painted over with aqua and orange inks. Again I didn't like it! Now I do so it's popped onto kraft card with a few gems added for sparkle. 

So that was a good afternoons work. Also a good idea when you are not feeling very creative but want to make something. Since I made these another little pile has started to form!

Thanks for visiting, enjoy your day. x

Flower power

Hello everyone, though I've been very busy I've found time to make a few cards but not time to post any of them. I'm really excited by this card so wanted to share it. The colours are very vibrant and fun. 

It's made from 2 large snippets (in fact left overs from failed projects). I started with a blank square and started to stamp the flowers and leaves in black Versamark. 

I coloured a few and then added more as I went along. 

The reason I'm so pleased is that I managed to blend the colours of the pencils and get a look I'm very happy with. I've never taken the time to learn to colour well and don't think I have the patience for it. I've learnt to blend with baby oil and a blending stump and love the effect. 

It didn't really take too long and, of course, it's a relaxing thing to do. Starting with the lightest colour on each I added darker colours on each petal or leaf and blended to two together. I did use similar colours which helped. 

After I'd got enough flowers and leaves I shaded the whole background in blue adding darker blue around the flowers and leaves with gives extra depth. 

The stamps are Rainbow Designs and I used Prismacolour pencils. 

I can hop over to Pixie's Snippets Playground as I've used snippets. Large ones too and I didn't create any new ones. 

Circle die - twice

It's a very wet day here today (much needed for the plants) so perfect for blogging a couple of cards. It's so wet you have to change your trousers when you come in! I'm on my third pair. 

These cards are made for:

I used a die I bought once on without much thought and have only used a few times. So I've used it here as a die and also as a stencil. 

First card:

I inked with teal and a little purple and then spritzed with water to give a little texture. I then die cut the circles twice and captured all the little bits in two small dishes. 

Swapping them over I replaced the die cuts in the opposite positions and popped all the little bits back in. Not putting them back where they came from adds to the subtle colour variation. (Oh, I also added an extra die cut on the back to raise them slightly). 

I made it with the die cuts horizontal but then changed my mind. Then I remembered this word stamp which I think fits well. 

Husband and son both have birthdays coming up so this might work for either one. 

Second card:

This inking is green! I hope you can see it on your screen. 

I used a die cut as a stencil with green ink. Then stamped little flowers, in purple,  in each of the circles using an old Stamplorations set. I stamped one more and cut it out and glossied it up. Stamping the words from the same stamp set I added the final flower just above. 

Thank you for visiting, enjoy your day. x

New dies

So I bought some new dies! After a few weeks of not going anywhere or buying anything I thought perhaps I'd saved a few pounds so I'd treat myself to some little foliage dies I'd seen. Then I saw some cute little flower dies so I bought them too. As you do. 

I thought they'd be perfect for Mrs A's Butterfly challenge for their first outing. 

I did a little stencilled background and used a strip of paper down one side. Then cut and coloured the leaves flowers and butterflies with Pro Markers. The butterflies are from a different die set. I  added a tiny gem in the centre of each flower and drew on the butterfly antennae. 

I like it and can't wait to go and cut out some more flowers, it's a big set with lots of options for layering and using in different ways. They are perfect for adding finishing touches to cards and, of course, using up snippets.  The sets are both Tattered Lace - Leaf Branches and Flower Shop Collection.

So I'm in time to join in with 

I've used blue, light orange and yellow and a butterfly and my choice which is die cutting. 

I can also hop over to Pixie's Snippets Playground though I may sit in the shade and paddle in the duck pond rather than running around while it's so hot. All the die cuts are made from snippets, of course.

After my trouble with loading photos onto here last week, I tried again in the week. Did exactly the same as I always do (crop and resize) and they loaded perfectly. So I posted them only to find that the challenge I was entering had just closed. Ho hum. 

Thanks for visiting, enjoy your day. x

Flowers and more flowers.

I've finally got round to sharing some cards that I've made and Blogger looks completely different. I suppose that is old news to everyone else. 

I've had trouble all the way with this, taking photos and then uploading them. Can anyone tell me why I kept getting an 'Error Occured' message when trying to upload? The colours also look a little washed compare to real life. 

Some of you know that flowers are my life, I grow and sell them here and am a little obsessed. I love stamping them too and I have a new flowery stamp set to try out. 

Three for the price of two today. 

Love this! Imagine slightly warmer colours against the orange. I love the colour combination. 

I made the first card by masking a circle and sponging yellow and orange ink in the centre. I stamped and coloured a selection of flowers from a couple of sets. I coloured them using pencils and blended the colour using a blending stump and oil. 

I've never taken the time to learn colouring properly but always wanted to get that blended look. I've been watching some of Gina K's live You Tube sessions and on one she showed how to blend colours really easily. I'm so pleased I managed to do it. 

I stamped the leaves directly onto the card and remembered to stamp the words before gluing down the flowers. I still managed to get one almost covering the words by not paying attention. 

A little Wink of Stella and some gems finished it off. 

I made the second card by stamping the flowers onto patterned paper and cutting out. I fluffed stamping the sentiment so added the circle and really didn't like the look of the card. Having glued it all down and come back the next day, of course it looks fine!

I made a third card though with some more of the same flowers which I'd already cut out. I stencilled a narrow border down the left and then added the flowers. I played around with leaves but it looked better without. It did need something though so I bravely added some ink splatters. I love the look of them but it could so easily ruin a card. I got away with it though!

I'd like to join in with:

I've used new flower, leaf and sentiment stamps

Say it with Flowers

Pixie's Snippets Playground

I've used snippets for the flowers. 

It's been such a trial to get this posted that I have to go and lie down but will be back for blog hopping tomorrow!

Thanks for visiting, enjoy your day. x