Saturday, 29 February 2020

The Great Outdoors

I love the stamp set that came with the latest issue of Creative Stamping!


This landscape is perfect for watercolouring. I stamped the sentiment before starting to paint, so I could be sure to leave it free. It's the first time I've tried to paint reflections so I found the stamp a really useful guide to where to pit them and how big they should be. I stamped the signpost onto a separate piece of paper and stamped the words on it before painting.

After adhering the image to the card, I stamped a meandering trail of footprints then fussy cut the sign and adhered it with Pinflair glue to give it dimension.

I generally try to use some of my older stamps for the challenges at Shopping Our Stash, but these stamps were just so perfect for the theme of The Great Outdoors that I absolutely HAD to use them!

Big die - little snippets

This week I was the very lucky winner of a bundle of Craftascope stamps, dies and stencils from Paper Crafter magazine  on Instagram. I've been away for most of the week so I've only just had chance to play with them.

For my first make I used the Rose Leaves stencil and the Cathedral Rose Striplet die.


For the background, I used Versamark ink to stencil the rose leaves and left it to "cure" so the leaves showed up in a darker shade of the green cardstock.

I cut the rose panel and frame from black textured card, then removed the rose from the frame and cut the framed panel only in white.

Next I used snippets of green and pink card to die cut the rose petals and leaves. As you can see, it is a huge die and my snippets were quite small so I used repositionable tape  to position the pieces of card over just the areas I needed to cut.

I stuck the black die cut over the white panel then used Tacky Glue on a cocktail stick to inlay the pink flower petals and leaves. I did it this way instead of using double sided adhesive sheet because I wanted to leave the white areas free of inlays and I thought using Stick-It sheet on the snippets might get a bit fiddly when I was trying to peel the backs off the tiniest bits. Some of those rose thorns are only about a millimetre across! I kept an almost-dry baby wipe to hand to dab away any of the glue that seeped out at the edges.

Once it was all inlaid and completely dry, I put the whole panel between two sheets of clean white paper (to protect both the panel and the plates) and ran it through my Grand Calibur using the normal cutting plates to give it a smooth finish, before mounting it onto my card.

I am sharing this with

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #372 

Just Us Girls - Inlay Die Cuts



Tuesday, 25 February 2020

Ink and/or Paint at Cardz 4 Guyz

Today's new challenge at Cardz 4 Guyz is Ink and/or Paint which gives you a lot of scope for creativity.


My image and sentiment were stamped using a recent magazine cover mount set, but this card is really all about the background.

I cut the panel from white card then inked it with Distress Inks, starting with Antique Linen in the centre, then Tea Day and finally Walnut Stain. Then I embossed it with a cog wheel embossing folder and finally finished the edges with a narrow strip of metallic copper paint.

I used some copper mirri card to mat the image and sentiment and finished off with some Candi.

I am sharing this with The Male Room - Embossing 


Crafty Cardmakers - Embossing 

Monday, 24 February 2020

Lots of flowers

The current challenge at Less is More is to create a CAS card using lots of tiny stamps, so out came my trusty old peg stamps (they are so old that they date from before Rubberstamp Tapestry became Card-Io).


I stamped a curved swathe of flowers in shades of pink and purple with some orange for contrast, and filled the gaps with various leaves. No, I've not counted how many individual images there are - a lot.

I spent ages experimenting with different positions for the sentiment, and eventually decided that this is the place that least affects the balance of the design, although now it's completed and photographed, I think perhaps it would look better if I'd used one with really bold letters and actually stamped it over the flowers, heat embossing it to emphasise the contrast. Do you agree?

I am sharing this with Less is More - More 


Sweet Stampin - Birthday Girls 

Allsorts Challenge - Make it Girly 

Loads of Sparkle!

One of my current loves is the look of glitter embossing paste on black card.


I'd like you to pretend that you haven't noticed that I used the stencil back to front to the writing leans the wrong way - I got the dragonfly exactly where I wanted it by using it this way! The stencil is a huge A4 one from Crafters Companion and I just used the dragonfly section of it and applied the embossing paste to the whole thing. A bit of layering with pink mirri card and a stamped sentiment finish it off. 

And after all the weeks of wet and windy weather we've had here in Hampshire, the loveliest thing I could wish for you (and for me!) is a day of sunshine! 

I am sharing this with Cardz 4 Galz - Black and Bling 

Sunday, 23 February 2020

Vintage bicycle and butterflies

At the recent Farnborough Create It! Show it was clear that stamping platforms have really transformed stamping, especially as they have given us the ability to  take the card out of the platform and reposition it later in exactly the same spot. I watched several demos that took advantage of this and have used one of the ideas in this card. 


I cut a panel of heavyweight watercolour card to fit my base card and used distress ink to stamp this Woodware collage stamp in the centre. Leaving the stamp in place on the platform, I removed the panel from it and blended ink around the edge, then spritzed the whole thing with water, allowing the ink on the image to blur and spread slightly. I dried it off with the heat gun then repositioned it in the platform and stamped the image again directly over the now-blurred original, this time using Memento ink (although I'd have used Versafine if I'd had the right colour). I also stamped the sentiment - I'd left that until now as I wanted that to be clear rather than have blurred edges. 

Next I wrapped the side with twine - it was turquoise and white but I wanted teal so I ran it several times over the surface of an inkpad. I attached the panel to the card using red tape as after all that water it tends to want to buckle. 

The twine was arranged to bunch together near the top, and where it bunched I finished it with a metal filigree butterfly, then for balance added some teal gems to the opposite corner. 

I am sharing this with The Butterfly Challenge where I have used the options Teal and Twine. 

Sending Joy

On Friday I had a lovely day at the Create It! Show in Farnborough. The demos and samples are always an inspiration and I was particularly taken with the amount of foiling that was going on; it's great to see it being revived and I really had to dig out my foils as soon as I got home.


I decided to cut the snowflake from masking paper and use the negative as a stencil, apply glue through it and then foil the image left behind when I removed the stencil. Well..... now I know why it isn't a Thing. The glue made the stencil paper go soggy and with white glue, white card and white stencil paper I couldn't see which was which. It took me about an hour with tweezers and a pokey tool  to get rid of all the soggy bits of stencil. Then I left the glue to finish drying and applied a silver/interference effect foil.

I die cut the word "Joy" once in purple and once in white, and planned to attach it, purple-white-purple, just like that, but the letters looked rather flat, so I livened them up by stamping a teeny tiny snowflake cluster all over them. Of course it would have been easier to stamp the card before die cutting but at that point I hadn't realised I was going to be stamping it. 

Anyway, after overcoming the various setbacks, here is the finished card, angled to show you the fabulous sheen from the foil.


I am sharing this with:

52 Christmas Card Throwdown - Foil 


Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge - anything goes

CAS Mix Up - Stencil from die cuts (I've used stamping, stencil from die cuts, foil and die cutting)


CAS Christmas - Joy 


CAS Stencil - Foil 

Saturday, 22 February 2020

SOSS #154 E is for Evil

This fortnight's challenge at the Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers is E is for Evil.



You'll need to read the sentiment to find out what's evil about this card!


And if you think the colouring is a lot better than my usual efforts, I followed a tutorial! I'm determined to properly get the hang of making fine strokes with Promarkers.

Now let's see what evil makes YOU can come up with - you could be crowned Queen or Princess of Snark and get the chance to display one of our exclusive new 2020 badges!

I am sharing this with

Addicted to Stamps - Make Your Mark 

Thursday, 20 February 2020

On Safari

This cute little hunter and giraffe came from a magazine freebie set a couple of years ago.


I stamped, coloured and fussy cut them then added some die cut and embossed tropical leaves  to make it look as if the hunter (armed only with binoculars, which is as it should be) is peeping out through the leaves to get a close look at the giraffe.

I am sharing this with:

AAA Cards - one corner/use older supplies 


Allsorts - dies and/or punches

CASology - Tall 


Fab'nFunky - For a child 

Make my Monday - Critters

Sweet Stampin - Birthday Boys

Watercooler Wednesday - Anything goes with a masculine twist


AAA Birthday - Cute 

Wednesday, 19 February 2020

Winter warmers

I'm loving the Clearly Besotted "Drink and be merry" stamp set that I won in the Playground - here's the second of many airings for it, this time featuring the cocoa mug images.


I chose the "eat, DRINK and be merry" sentiment because a well-laden mug of festive cocoa, with all the cream and marshmallows and sprinkles and edible stirrer is more of a meal than a drink. I used Versamark ink to stamp them randomly over the red card background  then trimmed it with fancy scissors and matted it onto green. Then I stamped the three mug images and sentiment and coloured them with Promarkers and matted the panel to match the background layers.

I am sharing this with

Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge - Anything goes/use some green

52 Christmas Card Throwdown - Cocoa


Passion for Promarkers - Use 3 of something 

Jingle Belles - use a lot of red 

and a second visit to Christmas Kickstart where the theme is also red, because I've used a lot more than I did on my first entry (same set of stamps though!)

Sunday, 16 February 2020

Anything goes at CD Sunday Plus

Our latest Anything Goes challenge has just started at CD Sunday Plus. Do come along and join in - you don't have to use a CD, you can use a downloaded image or papers or something printed out from a USB .

I've used a CD called "Making cards for men" that was free with making Cards magazine a few years ago.


The apple is an image from the CD, fussy cut and added with 3D adhesive. I've used a scrap of woodgrain paper from the same CD to represent a teacher's desk and some brickwork paper from a previous project for the wall. I've used black card for a blackboard  and doodles on it with white gel pen.

Friday, 14 February 2020

Rose swag

In my last post I used an ombré stencilled kraft background - well, while I was playing around with the technique I also made a similar one in shades of pink, which I've used here.


After making the background, I used the darkest ink again to stamp leaf sprigs randomly over it, then added a birthday sentiment.

Next I stamped the rose swag onto watercolour paper. As it is a very stylised image I kept the colouring stylised too by first colouring each section lightly all over with a lighter shade of watercolour pencil then, section by section, blending it with a very wet brush. While still wet, I added strokes with a darker coloured pencil and allowed it to blend slightly, giving a bit of encouragement  where necessary with a fine, slightly damp brush.  All the stamps came from a recent covermount on Creative Stamping.

I  used the back of my scissors to gently curve some of the leaves before attaching with 3-D adhesive.

I am sharing this with

Alphabet Challenge - Anything you wish

Uniko Studios 8th Birthday Linky Party 

The Flower Challenge - Add Leaves


Stamping Sensations - Feminine 

Addicted to Stamps and More - Anything Goes

Cor(e) what a pear!


Here are the cards I've made for this month's Twofers Card Challenge, where the theme is Fruit. The stamp I've used on both cards is from a very old Studio G mini set. 


For my first card I used a technique I read about here on Nancy's blog  - blending several shades of green onto kraft card to make an ombré effect and then stencilling the darkest shade over the top.  I used the same inks to stamp the pear and the sentiment from the same set and then finished off with some candi. 

I am sharing this with 

Addicted to CAS - Ombré 

Now my second card


This time I stamped the first and last parts of the sentiment to gauge their positions, stamped pear repeatedly over the remaining card front in Versamark ink and heat embossed with gold powder, then the partridge (fussy cut from a larger image) and middle part of the sentiment on a separate scrap of card. I coloured the partridge with Promarkers and edged the sentiment with a gold Delicata pad. 

I am sharing this with

Christmas Crafts All year Round - Hearts/Love 

Fezziwig's Festive Frolics - Anything Goes

And finally, the two together


And of course I'm sharing these with the second birthday challenge at Twofers - Fruit.  

Thursday, 13 February 2020

Step Block Butterflies #2

I made this card from the rest of the sheet of  card that I started in my previous post, using Mrs A's second set of instructions for the card shape.




This time both sides of the card feature, and I've finished it with die cuts and pearls. The butterfly is a two layer die and I sponged the upper one lightly with green ink.

Again I'm just claiming the step block card although I've accidentally used all the colours too!

I am sharing this with

The Butterfly Challenge - Spin the wheel with  the letter S

Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge - February anything goes 

Watercooler Wednesday - All about Occasions (birthday)

Step Block Butterflies #1

At the Butterfly Challenge this time the card shape is a step block card and Mrs A has given us tutorials for two different types of card, neither of which I'd tried before. I'm going to put them in separate posts because I know there's a knack for adding the same post twice to one linky - but I don't know what it is! So here is the first card.


I used a piece of NBUS  double sided 12 x 12 card to make the basic step block shape and decorated  it by sticking some old embroidery peel offs (they are so old that when I got them, Alan and Barry were still the main/only presenters on Create and Craft - do you remember them?)  then piercing all the marked dots and stitching through the holes. The Butterfly was cut with a Mackintosh style die - sadly I don't own a copy of the doe so a friend cut it for me, I keep checking Craft Stash to see if it's back in stock but no luck so far. It is cut in white and I sponged it randomly with pale blue ink.

I've just noticed two things: the first is that I should have folded the flaps front-over-back rather than back-over-front and the second is that the patterned paper contains all the colours from the challenge wheel, and  as I've used the card shape and some stitching I could have added some spots and claimed a full house. I don't suppose the dots to mark the stitch holes on the peel offs count as spots do they? Oh well, never mind!

And of course I am linking this up at The Butterfly Challenge

Tuesday, 11 February 2020

Brads and/or Eyelets at Cardz 4 Guyz

This fortnight at Cardz 4 Guyz it's my turn to choose the challenge and I'd like to see some brads and/or eyelets somewhere on your card.


I've just treated myself to a pack of music brads, including treble clefs and various notes,  so naturally I had to use some of those. The tag stamp was a recent magazine freebie, and I dusted off the Cropadile and used it to add an eyelet to the hole at the top. An embossed background and a violin (an unmounted stamp older than the hills) keep the card looking CAS even though there's a lot going on here.

Monday, 10 February 2020

Mistletoe and Wine

Grrrr, that song, it's one we all say we hate, isn't it? Yet when it's playing in the shops in the run up to Christmas (so that's mid September onwards  in some shops) we always end up humming along. Or is that just me?

Anyway, it was obviously the inspiration for one of the sentiments in this gorgeous set of Clearly Besotted "Drink and be Merry" stamps that I won in the Playground. I promised Di that they would make their first appearance on a Snippets card and here they are.....


I used a very old Cuttlebug die - I think it actually came with my very first die cutting machine - to cut the squares from snippets of a set of Christmas papers that came with a craft magazine a few years ago.

Then I stamped the  ultra-cute drinks on to heavy duty watercolour paper and used watercolour pencils and my finest water brush to colour them. I fussy cut them - yes, even the hole in the wreath (well, actually I cheated a bit and used the Cropadile to cut that one)  and then attached them to the squares with 3-D adhesive.

I am sharing this with

Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge - Cute/atg

Pixie's Snippets Playground Challenge 371 

Christmas Kickstart - Red  (hope there's enough red on this - I just HAD to share it here as I know it will make Jo laugh!)

Fezziwig's Festive Frolics - Sing alonga Santa 

Saturday, 8 February 2020

For a wine lover's 40th birthday

It's my son in law's 40th birthday soon and as he's a serious wine lover I've made him this card:



I love making double easel cards with an angled easel and a straight one - non crafters think they look so complicated and yet they are so very easy! And of course they give you lots of surface to decorate which increases the impact of the card.

For the backgrounds I've used an old set of Card-io peg stamps to make a border on the base, an edging on the triangular easel panel and an all-over pattern on the rectangular easel panel. The bottle,  glass and bunches of grapes are stamped with a Honey-Doo crafts stamp set (and how I wish I had matching dies!) and then coloured with Promarkers and a white gel pen. The numbers are cut with Spellbinders dies.

I am sharing this with Passion for Promarkers - Fancy Folds 

Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers #153 - C is for Cat

I'm sure you all know how much I love cats so I'm very happy with Edna's choice for the latest challenge at the Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers - C  is for Cat.



I bet you were all expecting me to use my Grumpy Cat stamp again weren't you?


The image  and sentiment is a Hampton Arts  stamp set, coloured with Promarkers. The background is printed out from a Coosty Creations download that I've had for many years.

Now why not head over to see what the sistahs have created and share your own feline creations with us? You could be our next Queen or Princess of Snark!
 I am sharing this with

Use Your Stuff - Critters

2 Crafty Critter Crazies - February ATG challenge

Show us Your Pussycats - Furrything Goes

Friday, 7 February 2020

Ladybird Parade

Earlier this year I mentioned three NBUS stamp and die sets that I'd had for a while and not touched - you've seen the bees and the gnomes, and here is my first make with the final set, ladybirds.


I wet a scrap of watercolour paper and sprinkled it with Brushos, then when it was dry stamped and diecut the ladybirds. Up close you can see the lovely random patterns created by the Brushos. I stamped the sentiment on the card then used foam pads to attach the ladybirds.

I am sharing this with

Less is More - Less (tiny and few) 


CAS on Friday - Love 

CAS Watercolour - Red and Black 

Thursday, 6 February 2020

Is it a fruit or is it a veg?

I'm sure we've all heard the saying "Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit, wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad". But then the same could be said about many of the plants we treat as vegetables; in terms of meal planning, an aubergine, a pepper or a tomato all count as vegetables. 


These juicy tomatoes are stamped with a stamp set from the Sheena Douglass Kitchen Garden range and coloured with Promarkers. If you think the colour of the inside looks a bit odd, it's actually EXACTLY like the inside of the out-of-season supermarket tomato I had sliced open beside me to copy. If it had been a warm summer day and I had a home grown, sun ripened one posing for me I'm sure the result would have been much redder.

I am sharing this with
Alphabet Challenge - V is for Vegetables 

Creative with stamps - Red


Country View Challenges - Splashes, Spatters and drips 

Pearly Sparkles - Include some red