Happy Heart Day

 Hello lovely crafters

Here are a couple of cards I knocked up. 

The first was inspired by 

plus

I dug out this Stamplorations balloon stamp and made a tiny envelope to go with the balloons. Tiny envelopes are so cute, I should use them more. 

I used peg stamp letters for the greeting so I could write what I wanted to say. I'm not sending my love very far, in actual fact, as my husband of 32 years is right here. Lol.

I started the second card by stamping the balloons down the side but then got carried away and stamped them all around the sentiment too. 

I'd forgotten to think about the strings but I think I got away without it being too messy. 

I'd forgotten how much I like colouring with Promarkers. No fancy colouring here but fun all the same. 

I'd stamped the greeting directly onto the card but it looked a bit hemmed in and the whole card a bit flat. 

When I came back to it a bit later, I re-did the sentiment with embossing and popped it up and covered all the balloons with shimmer. I'm always disappointed if there is nothing to Wink. 

That made it all look 100 times better. 

Of course, it doesn't really show up in a photo but I think you can see a little bit here:

Thank you for visiting, enjoy your day. xxx

Wonky tree

 Hello lovely crafters, I hope you are all managing to stay warm and safe. It's -7 here so the only thing to do is stay in and stamp. Apart from checking the water for my poor hens. They are inside, you'll be pleased to hear, but the water froze even inside. 

Here is a dash of pink for you:

I used a Christmas Tree die to cut branches from a piece of pink inky paper. Each branch was cut twice and then layered up. The star is from the same set and the ground is the 'waste'. 

It's all mounted on a bit of spotty dotty embossed card with some extra pink paper at the edges. 

The greeting is from an Inky Doodles set. Oh and I dusted the tree with Wink of Stella. 

 I glued the trunk on wonky so it does have a jaunty look. 

I'm linking this to:

Photo inspiration:

I took inspiration from the general pinkness and the offset tree. 

I'm also skipping over to Pixie's Snippets Playground as I've used lots of snippets. Everything, I think except the card base. 

Thank you for visiting, enjoy your day. xxx

More green and pink

 Hello lovely crafters, 

It seems I can only use green and pink just now. I will try something different next.

There were a lot of changes with this design. The gingham was going to be on the inside, then the outside then both. The flower was at the top and butterfly at the bottom. Large butterfly, small butterfly, die cut words... If I was starting again I'd do things differently but never mind that now. 

I've embossed the outlines of the flowers with gold and then coloured with inks and brushes (lovely soft brushes won in The Playground. Love them and use them at every opportunity 😊).

I followed Mrs A's instructions to make the gap card and cut my stamped Gingham paper to cover the front and used the 'gap' piece on the inside. I also used the die cut words on the inside in the end. 

All the stamps are Inky Doodles including the gingham stamp. I can't resist them.

I'm entering this in Mrs A's Butterfly Challenge:

I've used a butterfly, pink gingham stamping, Gap card design, Geranium (pink) and Granny Smith (green) inks and gold embossing. 

I'll also hop over to Pixie's Snippets Playground as I've used snippets, of course, for all the flowers and die cuts. 

Thank you for visiting, enjoy your day. x

Stencilled flowers

 Hello lovely crafters. I hope everyone is safe and well. 

I have two cards today for the fabulous Twofer challenge. 

I decided to use a flowery Gina K stencil which was a Christmas gift. I've resisted getting into stencilling until now as I knew it would result in collecting more stuff but now I've got the bug and will be collecting more stuff. Must use the ones I have first though!

Though the cards are different they do have many similarities and I should probably have tried harder to make them different. I've even used the same colours. 

For the first card I used the whole of the stencil and some bright inks with soft blending brushes. It's mounted to give a tiny border of pink. Then as usual I struggles as to how to finish the card. Eventually I remembered this Happy Birthday die so that is cut twice or three times, glued together and coloured with the same pink ink. I used a strip of the same card just to make it stand out a bit more. 

For the second card I used softer colours and, using a combination of masking and concentration, managed to blend over part of the card and not get ink in places I didn't want it! 

I kept the large die cut white so it doesn't dominate. 

I wanted a flower at the bottom right but could not work out how to use the stencil for that. (If anyone else knows, I'd be interested). I looked through all my stamp sets and eventually found this Paula Pascual one which fitted well. I definitely need to use that set more. 

So these are my two cards for two different occasions. I love all the cards showing up in the gallery. 

I'll also be sharing it at NBUS challenge as that is the first outing for my stencil.

and Shopping our Stash. This time the challenge is to use something new though I really do mean to use what I have more. Again. 

Thanks for visiting, enjoy your day. x

Snippet flowers

 Hello lovely crafters and I hope you are making the best of this holiday time and enjoying the little things!

Today I am sharing my Snippets card so I can join in with Pixie's Christmas draw. Lovely Di is offering a bumper stash of prizes to playground friends who use scraps and snippets on their cards. She must be knee deep in lists and notes to keep an eye on who is joining in as well as what's going on in the playground. 

I always reach for snippets first now and also the smallest one which will do for the job, which is daft really. 

This is a card I started a while ago which got shoved in my ever increasing pile of stuff. I'd made the basic card and added the flowers and leaves but it was a bit dull. 

Of course, what it needed was a butterfly and yellow was the perfect colour to give the card a lift. I also added a couple of yellow flowers. 

The leaves are cut from inked paper and the flowers and butterfly coloured with pencils and blended with oil. All snippets, of course. I think the backing paper is also a snippet but if not it's part of very old stash which I am also happy to use. 

I'm pleased with the yellow. Shame there is no butterfly challenge this week. Mrs A has diversified into Spot the Difference and the game is running here for current followers. 

Here are the challenges I'm joining in with:

Pixie's Snippets Playground Christmas Challenge

Crafty Hazelnut's patterned paper challenge

Job for the inbetweeny time is to tidy desk and deal with that pile of discarded die cuts, inky papers, part made cards and scraps of paper for a new. Tidy up and put away ready for a new year and keep it that way 🤣😂🤣

Thanks for visiting, enjoy some time off and hopefully a bit of crafting. x

Smooshing fun

 Hello lovely crafters. 

I've worked on getting this card finished so I could join in with Mrs A's Butterfly challenge. 

A few weeks ago I had a stamping session where I used this watercolour canvas and smooshed ink on and then stamped in black when it was all dry. It did take a while to dry properly, I should say. 

So this is my card. The canvas panel is mounted on purple with a pink swirl stamped onto the base card. I think the pink swirl is a bit too bright and I perhaps should have stamped off first for a lighter look. What do you think?

I used an acrylic block to stamp the watery colour onto the canvas. 

The current butterfly challenge is:

I haven't used any fancy folds but I have used French Pink, Fabric ( I hope it counts) and a butterfly. 

Krafty Chicks Challenge #534 (CAS Clean and Simple)

Thanks for visiting, enjoy your day. x

Watercolour Christmas

 Hello lovely crafters. I hope everyone is well and still smiling. 

I like a traditional Christmas card and that is what I've created today. 

I used a NBUS fir branch stamp and tried out a new (to me) technique. I'm sure I've seen it on a blog or on You Tube but I have no idea where. I doubt I've invented it. 😄

Now being the proud owner of a stamp platform (I'm always late to the party) I put in a piece of  creamy watercolour paper and placed the branch at the top. 

Then I inked the stamp by tapping with Espresso and Mowed Lawn ink pads. One was easier than the other, being a mini stamp pad but I just used the corner of the large one on the fir cone. 

Then I stamped, then misted the stamp with water and stamped again in the same place. Voila!

I've always been a fan of water colour and am excited to get that effect without any artistic ability. 

Obviously, I moved the stamp down the card, inking and misting as I went.

One note: when I tried this out and attempted to make a wreath, the lid became very wet and the stamp started to slide around. Stamping all the ink and then all the water would work for a wreath but for this one I dried it off as I moved it down the card. 

I toyed with some sparkle but they didn't look right and, to be honest, it doesn't really need it. I do like a bit of sparkle though. 

So I'm joining in with the following challenges:

CAS Mix Up November Watercolour Challenge

NBUS Challenge #20

I've realised I can pop in again to Pixie's Snippets Playground - due to an extension of the deadline. 

I used two large snippets. Yeay!

Thank you for visiting, enjoy your day. x