Blog Hop Day 1

Good afternoon fellow crafters and welcome to day 1 of our blog hop. 

To celebrate the launch of the fab new stencils over at STAMPlorations all us girls are creating something to inspire you. Here is my card for day 1-

This card features the Bubble stencil used in lots of different ways to create the background panel.

I had such fun playing around with this, hope you'll enjoy it too.

First I inked an A6 piece of white card using Salty Ocean DI, then added the darker dots by adding more Salty Ocean and Picked Raspberry through the stencil with a sponge. I moved the stencil around only using a few of the circles. I used a damp brush and the stencil to bleach out some more circles then sprinkled water over the whole panel to give even more texture and interest. When dry, I used a white gell pen to create bubbles by drawing around the outline on the stencil and roughed up the edges a bit.

I had a circle fest going here so continued by adding a couple of die cut card hoops and added some linen thread and two MB Snowflake corners (I know, but they don't look like snowflakes and they had circles on them!). I coloured one in blue to match the background and cut it in half, then fixed them all in the top left.

On a piece of scrap card I stamped some Trendy Butterflies in Salty Ocean, Picked Raspberry and Seedless Preserve then fussy cut them and mounted them onto my panel after stamping the text LIVE 'with passion' from the same set.

Job done.

Leave a comment at the end of this post and on the rest of the team's blogs for a chance to win one of the fantastic prizes. Commenting closes on March 13. Winners will be announced on March 15.

Check out what the rest of the team made! You'll find links to all our projects here.

I would also like to join in at -

Loves Rubberstamps Challenge - Anything Goes

See you back here same time tomorrow for more inspiration.

Another party for Ben

Good evening bloggers.

I knew my card for the latest challenge would come in for one of Ben's parties and now he needs another for a double header next Saturday, so I used the same sketch but changed the colourway and character.That boy's social life is hectic!

I used the colourway over at Color Throwdown for this as I had a bit of a mental block over this to start with!

Hope the red I used is OK! It does match the paper which is from a NitWits set. The stamp is another bargain bucket buy from Mollie Bloom. I've not seen any new stamps from Claire for over a year now and her blog hasn't been updated for months, perhaps she has gone to pastures new.

I used Copics to colour as usual and the fussy cut the skateboarder out.

OK, must get on with some tea. It's been a gorgeous spring day and we've been planting apple and plum trees in the hope of starting an orchard as well as seeing to some new additions that arrived from the lambing pens this lunch time. I had to splint one of the lambs leg with a bit of ply and electricians tape as he had broken it. Luckily a friend knows a veterinary nurse who had some proper splints, so she popped down to do it properly, Good job too, as it was quite a serious double break. She did a really good job and he is now hopping on 3 legs with a bright green bandage over the splint.

I shall also join in over at -

Seize the Birthday - Masculine Birthday

Stencils and Stamps

Good afternoon crafting friends.

Today is the start of a new monthly challenge over at STAMPlorations and this is my card for your inspiration.

Can you guess the theme, well it's -

Well I had a great time playing with the new stencils from Shery and for my card I used the Leaf Print stencil along with my favourite Bloom Sketches Daisy stamp.

 I stamped the daisies then embossed using white embossing powder then coloured them with a w/c effect using DIs and then used the stencil to create the foliage by applying DI with a sponge. The happy birthday is stamped using the Sentiment Builders-Happy set. I mounted the top panel on a very slightly larger black one then on an A6 white base.

As usual Shery is offering:-

Winner

(voted by the design team)

prize: 2 stamp sets (3" by 5") if she used our stamps, 1 stamp set if you don't

+ guest designer spot in the May Challenge

Top picks

prize: 3 digi stamps 

+ the option to be a guest designer too in the May Challenge if you will use  STAMPlorations digi stamp (to be provided )OR if you already have STAMPlorations clear stamps

All winners and top picks will receive a personalized guest designer badge that they can display on their blogs, as well as a STAMPlorations guest designer watermark.

Frequent Players Spotlight. Play in all 3 challenges for the month for entries to the random draw. Prize is always going to be a stamp and stencil pack valued at $10.

So no excuses to have a go and join us this month.

Pop over to the DT's blogs for more info on their designs.

Milla GD

Becca DT

Laura Jane DT

Sari DT

Tenia DT

Wei Wei DT

I would also like to join in the fun over at -

Virginia's View

Mixed Media Card Challenge - (no birds for me)

What makes you happy?

Good morning all.

Just a quick post to show a card I made last night and get it entered into the latest challenge over at Less is More.

The theme this week is- What makes you happy.

This had me stumped until I had a bit of a lightbulb moment, which in itself makes me happy. 

I have planted some bulbs at the side of our back track but the pesky rabbits have eaten the crocus that had bloomed :( , but it reminded me that the daffodils and other spring flowers really make me smile. While feeding the lambs I noticed that the first blackthorn was in flower and the catkins were on the hazel, signs that spring is not far away. My pots have escaped the ravages of the pesky rabbits so there will be some colour soon.

I then thought of the stamp I bought on my last trip to Farsley, to visit Lili of the Valley. I stamped it and sat happily colouring away totally oblivious of the time last night, that really does make me happy!

when it came down to the actual card design I decided to go with the sketch at CAS(E) this Sketch but I did have a few doubts about the backing colour of the card. I liked the white which shows off the rather complex image but I also liked this version,

I'm still not sure which I like best, the purple really makes the yellows sing. Take your pick.

Thanks for calling by. 

Sailing

Back again as it's a double post Tuesday morning again!

It's time for a new challenge over at Cardz4Guyz. This week we would like to see your creations on the theme of -

SAILING

When I saw this I knew immediately which stamp I would use. So without further delay here is my card.

Yep the observant of you will spot a LOTV stamp, Sailing Boat. Isn't he the cutest thing and perfect for a little boys birthday. I have made this for Nich's stash as I'm sure Ben will need one soon!

Now if you've read my earlier post you may see a theme going on here with the central panel. I started to use this for the previous challenge then changed my mind when I saw the sketch over at Sketch Saturday. Instead of putting the image centrally and using a square mount I used the central circle, embossed using a chevron EF and a Go Create die for the shaped white panel.

The little boy was coloured using Copics to match the DP from NitWits Aye Aye Captain set and then fussy cut. The greeting is from a Woodware set. The edge of the card and the circle die cut were inked using the same Copic blue as used on the shorts.

OK, check out the rest of the DT over at the main blog and why not join us this week, we'd love to see you.

I'd also like to join in at -

Stamping Sensations  - One for the Guys

Loves Rubberstamps - Anything Goes

Thanks for calling around see you back again soon.