That floral urn yet again!

 I am really loving the Heartfelt Creations Floral Shoppe collection. Here is my latest make using it. 

I used one of the floral background papers, with the edges lightly distressed and inked with a deep wine-red.  I cut the urn from a blue patterned paper from the pack stamped with the same wine red (which of course looks a lot more purple when stamped on blue) and reinforced with white card. I added a doiley from my stash and a label from the pad, stamped with a sentiment from an old Uniko set,  then stamped and die cut lots of the flowers, berries and foliage, inking some and colouring others with pencils. 

I trimmed one side off the Urn and used foam pads to attach it to the card, then had lots of fun arranging the elements in it - I used to be a keen flower arranger and it's all coming back to me! 

I am sharing this with 

Allsorts Challenge - Anything Goes  

A Bit More Time To Craft Extra - Anything Goes 

Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge - anything goes using patterned paper

Happy New Year

Well, that's the year when all the dystopian fiction I've read actually came true over and done with - let's hope with vaccination programmes being rolled out all over the world that this year brings us some kind of normality again. Happy 2021! 

It's cold and gloomy here so I'm looking ahead to spring and have used a fresh spring green palette for this card. 

The foliage stamps are all from the Heartfelt Creations "Floral Shoppe" collection. I stamped the ones on the background using Versamark ink and then brushed green mica pearl powder over the stamping. On the white panel I stamped the leaves in a mid-green ink and then lightly daubed the same ink over them with a sponge dauber. The final set of leaves I stamped in dark green, sponged with mid-green then die cut. I stamped a sentiment and edged that and the white leaf panel in the dark green ink. 

I am sharing this with Sunday Stamps - Nature's Green. I've been following their blog for many years and I don't think I've ever entered the challenge before, but when I saw the colours for the current challenge I had to get stamping right away! 

Floral Urn again

This will probably be my last post for a couple of weeks, as I craft on the dining room table and my inconsiderate family expect to sit at it to eat Christmas dinner, so I need to pack my craft stuff away to make space for them. Not that they'll all be here - one daughter lives in France so because of Covid can't come over. She's sent us a Lego model of them all though, so that can sit on the table! The other daughter and her family were going to be part of our three-household bubble, but here in the UK we are divided into "tiers" according to the Coronavirus risk, and while we are in Tier 2, where household mixing is allowed just for Christmas day, they have just been placed in Tier 4, where they are not allowed to mix with anybody, so now it's going to be just us and my brother in law. The announcement came after the deadline for editing my online shopping order, so between the three of us we are going to have to eat seven people's worth of food!

Anyway, before moving on to the crafting I will wish you Season's Greetings (not the usual Merry Christmas because for many of us it won't be so merry this year) and see you all in 2021. Let's hope it's a happier year - but if we still have to stay at home, at least we crafters still have plenty to amuse ourselves. 

When I was playing with my gorgeous new set of Floral Shoppe stamps and dies the other day, I realised that with so many separate images they would be perfect for snippets makes, so I had to have a go! 

I made a shaped card blank by cutting the urn against the fold of a white card blank, overlapping the top of the die over the fold so as not to cut through it. Then I stamped the urn onto a snippet of green patterned paper., die cut it then blended some slightly darker green ink around the edges and into the areas that would be in shade, to give it the look of dimension. I attached it to the card base, leaving the top centimetre free, then used gold liquid pearls to embellish it and set it aside to dry while I made the flowers and foliage. 

For these I picked out snippets of light and dark green, light and dark pink and light blue card and stamped the flowers, leaves and berries using much darker shades of each colour. Then I very lightly blended the ink I had stamped with over  the images here and there, again to create a look of dimension. I used very sharp pencils to colour in the delicate leaves and stems. Then I die cut everything and used a ball tool and foam mat to add a bit of shape to each piece. 

Next I arranged them in the urn, below the unglued area, sticking them in place with pinflair glue which dries slowly enough to allow for any necessary rearranging. a little more glue under the edge of the urn holds it in place  and adds extra security to the die cuts. 

I'd arranged some of the berries to spill over at the front, but I'd intended trimming off the bits of foliage at the sides, thinking they would look as if they had somehow broken through the sides of the urn. But when it was finished, I thought actually it looks as if they too are trailing over the edge, but behind the curve of the urn, so they were better left untrimmed. 

I am sharing this with 

Pixie's Snippets Playground where there is a bumper Christmas party going on with giveaways every day, do pop over and have a look! 

We love Chocolate Baroque - anything goes 

Watercooler Wednesday - anything goes 

Floral Urn

 A dew days ago I was super excited to win the complete new Heartfelt Creations "Floral Shoppe" collection of stamps, dies and papers, thanks to Hochanda on Facebook. Such beautiful stamps, and working with them reminds me of the time when I used to do a lot of flower arranging. There is a large urn stamp and a whole plethora of flowers, foliage and berries to work with. Here is my first make using the prize. 

I made an easel card and covered the outside and insides with patterned papers from the pack. Then I stamped the urn onto another of the papers, embossed it with gold powder,  and die cut it. I also cut an urn from white card to help to give it strength and stuck the two together.  I used foam pads to attach it to the card front, leaving  the top edge free. 

I used a die, which I think was intended for hot foiling, to cut and emboss a border to use as a stay on the inside and decorated it with pearls. 

Now for the fun part - I stamped lots of flowers and leaves onto vellum with clear embossing ink and embossed them with white powder. I coloured them from the back of the vellum, using watercolour brush markers. This was very quick to do as the images were to be die cut, so I could just scribble the markers roughly over the areas to be coloured. Then I die cut everything and used Pinflair glue gel to tuck everything into place in the urn. 

I am sharing this with 

Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge - Anything Goes  

We Love Chocolate Baroque - Anything Goes  

NBUS - NBUS  

Dear Santa....

 If you still need a Christmas card for somebody on your naughty list, here's a quick make that might fir the bill. The image is a Bugaboo digi, coloured with Promarkers, and the sentiment is a Dylusions stamp. I've added a saucy lips brad. 

I am sharing this with 

Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers - L is for Lewd Christmas 

Passion for Promarkers - Add a sentiment 

Country View Challenges - Anything Christmas 

Friends Furrever

This is a card I made for a friend and now I know she has received it I can share it with you. 

Yes, it's those Katzelkraft cat stamps again! I used distress inks to create a vaguely sunsetty background then stamped pawprints all over it. Next I added a brick wall of paper printed from the CD "The Best of La Pashe 2012". I stamped the cats and the sentiment (a Clearly Besotted one) onto spare card and coloured the cats with Promarkers, then fussy cut them and attached them using 3D adhesive. 

I am sharing this with 

CD Sunday Plus - anything goes including something from a CD etc 

Show Us Your Pussycats - Furrything Goes 

A Bit More Time To Craft Extra - Anything Goes 

2 Crafty Critter Crazies - Anything goes including a creature 

Guest Designer at The Male Room

 I'm delighted to have been invited to be the current Guest Designer at The Male Room, where the theme is Tartan and Plaid. 

The challenge runs until January 5th, which means that  it includes Hogmanay. Hogmanay celebrations won't be quite the same this year, but I still decided to give my card a Scottish theme. 

  I had a piece of paper - an old magazine freebie - in the classic Royal Stewart Dress Tartan and found the perfect image and corners to go with it on the CD "The Best of La Pashe 2014". The corners are HUGE, though - this is a large 20cm square card and even so I couldn't fit all four of them on it, so I had to come up with a layout that allowed me  to omit one. That left me room to add the sentiment  and some candi to balance the weight of the other corners.