Bits and pieces

 For this card I dug into my snippets box and came out with a handful of TINY bits and pieces - really too small to be worth keeping given how full my snippets box is, but nevertheless big enough to die cut a few flowers and leaves from. 

So that's what I did - chose a selection of tiny dies and squeezed them onto the scraps to give me an assortment of flowers and leaves. I used some waste card from a circle I'd die cut for another project as a mask and sponged a pink central circle on my card then stamped the sentiment to one side of it. Then I arranged my flowers and leaves around the other side of the circle. I added finishing touches with Cadence Liquid Pearls, which are actually more like liquid enamel dots. 

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge 405 - Ruby's Memory  

Sparkles Monthly Challenge - Floral Extravaganza  

Little Red Wagon - Bits 

Craft Rocket Challenge - Birthday  

AAA Birthday - Flowers  

Guest Designer at Christmas Card Throwdown

 

I was delighted to be chosen as the May technique challenge winner at Christmas Card Throwdown  and be invited to be this week's guest designer. It's a theme challenge this week, with the theme of Gnomes. 

I don't have any specifically Christmassy gnome related stash, but it's easy to make any gnome look festive when you team him with the right colours and papers, especially as this cute gnome from Pink & Main's "Hey Gnomie" stamp and die set comes with a couple of fir trees. 

I coloured the images using Promarkers. The frame and the grey snowflake backing paper were a lucky bargain find in Poundland - always worth checking their craft aisle, as I suspect many of the items are repackaged discontinued docrafts items and I've often been able to restock favourites that are no longer available at full price. 

The sentiment is a woven fabric one that I've had for years. I've never used it because I felt the white stitching looked too grey. But with so much grey on the card, it worked perfectly.... well, until i took the photo. Now it looks too PINK! 

I'm looking forward to seeing all your gnomie creations over on the challenge blog. 

I am sharing this with 

Addicted to Stamps and More - Christmas 

Feeling Tropical

 I've lived in the tropics and to be honest the last few days it's been just as hot here in Hampshire! I still  associate hot weather with the tropics though. 

For this card I used an NBUS stamp and embossing folder set that came with Creative Stamping about a year ago. I painted the flat side of the folder with dark green watercolour paint before embossing, to make the leaves really stand out. I stamped the parrot and sentiment, coloured the parrot with Promarkers and fussy cut, and punched the sentiment with a circle punch. Then I took my favourite Woodware leaf punch and cut an assortment of leaves. Arranged everything on the card and finished with a few "water drops" of clear liquid pearls. 

I am sharing this with 

Passion for Markers - Summer Colours 

Let's Squash It - Nature and Watercolouring 

NBUS -NBUS 

Feeling Rough?

 Today I have a get well card for you. I'm loving heat embossing on stencilled texture paste at the moment and just had to feature it. 

This Hampton Arts stamp is my favourite for a humorous get well card, but I didn't have the sentiment I wanted in my stash so created it on the computer. For the background, I took a piece of card in "surgical gown turquoise" and a Uniko stencil, and applied opaque texture paste through the stencil. While the paste was wet, I sprinkled it with Distress Embossing Powder and heat embossed it. Normally when embossing with distress powder, some of the powder can be brushed off when cool to give a distress effect, but using it on texture paste means the "loose" powder is held in place by the paste once dry, so instead of patches without embossing, the finished effect is patches of a rougher texture. It gives a really interesting tactile finish to the background - perfect for "feeling rough"! 

The image is coloured with markers and both that and the sentiment roughly cut out with deckle edged scissors. 

I am sharing this with 

Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers - T is for Texture 

A Place To Start - Create Your Own Challenge - I chose Card/Get Well/Stencil and Embossing 

Hope and Chances charity kit for June

 Every month, Christine Emberson at Hope and Chances  puts together a charity card making kit which almost always sells out within a few days. The kits go on sale on the first Sunday of each month - that latest update, on Friday, said there was just one kit left. 

This month I had to make sure I clicked that "buy now" button right away, as the charity of the month is Fibromyalgia Action UK. Mark has Fibro, and it's amazing how many people, medical staff included, have never heard of it so anything that helps to increase awareness is very welcome. 

The kit contained everything needed (apart from adhesives and pearls/gems) to make these two adorable little cards, and they were the perfect thing to make over this last "too hot to craft" weekend - no need for heat tools, glue guns or spotlights making the place hot and sticky! 

Tiger Lily

 What, three posts in one day? Well, I'm waiting in for an appointment, so I'm taking the opportunity to catch up with cards I made over the last few days. 

I was lucky enough to win the For the Love of Stamps set Lovely Lilies in the recent Allsorts Challenge birthday giveaway, and this is my first make with it. 

All the elements - flowers, leaves, stem and buds, are separate stamps and van be combined to build up the flower image. I stamped each flower, masking it before stamping the next, using a Rich Cocoa Memento ink pad, then once all the flowers were stamped, used a Bamboo Leaves pad to stamp the foliage. 

I coloured the image with Promarkers, using pencils for the delicate stamens, and added the image in brown ink. I'm still unsure whether black would have looked better. 

I think I'll be using this stamp set a lot,  the separate flowers mean they can be arranged as various varieties of lily, and done in white they would be perfect for sympathy cards. 

I am sharing this with 

Little Red Wagon - CAS 

The Flower Challenge - CAS 

More dragonflies

 Well, they're never very far away - and I've not used this Tonic Studios die set for far too long! 

I cut the large die and the smaller dragonfly from navy  card and arranged it at a jaunty angle (it really didn't look right upright) on a DL sized card topped with navy  and pink layers. The smaller dragonfly is swooping  down from the top corner. I stamped the sentiment with blue Versafine ink and added some baguette style pink gems. 

I am sharing this with the Butterfly Challenge where my chosen elements are navy, New York Pink and butterdragonflies (!) - well, I know Mrs A doesn't mind me slotting in the occasional dragonfly!