Meadow Grasses

Morning folks. Summer has been an odd mix this year in these parts, stiflingly hot one day, then freezing the next, heavy rain and strong winds to boot!  However, the harvest still has to be gathered in and around here the last few bales of hay are being stacked as I type. The next door neighbour has been trying to make hay for a couple of weeks now but the weather intervened. He should get the last lot in before the weather breaks again.

My own burgeoning wildflower meadow is looking dry and ready for it's annual haircut! It was the perfect inspiration for my card for the new challenge at Fantasy Stampers.

IN THE FALL

Here is my card, based on my meadow.

Taking a panel of w/c paper, I stamped the grasses from Woodware's Summer Weeds, and heat embossed in WOW Banana Split EP, one of the freebies from my goodie bag at the HLS retreat. I sprayed the panel with starch, then sprinkled some Brusho in brown, gamboge and crimson over and let the magic begin. Once the Brusho had blended a little bit I slapped on some clingfilm wrap and left it to dry. Removing the clingfilm, I stamped the same grasses in Bamboo Leaves and Rich Cocoa Memento, before wiping off excess ink from the embossed grasses. To complete I die cut a rectangle from the panel then one from the middle with an other die. I popped up the central die cut on fun foam to create added dimension and a copper die cut thanks from Create a Smile.

The finished panel was then glued flat on a cream base card. 

OK, that's it from me, please check out the rest of the team here and why not join in, we'd love to see what you come up with.

I'd like to join in over at -

      

       

Another HLS retreat make

Evening everyone here in the UK, morning to those in the Antipodes and good afternoon to my American friends. 

Anyway what ever the time it is where you are its time for a new challenge at HLS Anything Goes with a die!

Here is my card for your inspiration

This, as the post title suggests, is one I made at the HLS retreat in July. Kylie had us making panels with Brusho, I'm not sure she realized what she had set loose that day! Anyhow I used two different w/c panels for the inlaid flower and the background was what was left on my mat from a 3rd panel, mopped up with a paper towel. 

TIP - don't throw the clean up towels away they make lovely backgrounds.

To create the panels I sprinkled Brusho onto w/c paper then spritzed it with water and left them to dry. I also used Brusho, spray starch and cling film to make the purple panel. There is a tutorial by Kylie showing how to do this here.

As we didn't have any black card, I improvised by colouring the HAPPY die cut, mount and a fussy cut background to the flower with a black Copic pen. The flower die is from Memory Box (Glorious Gardenia) and was very popular on the retreat. You may have seen it on quite a few blogs over the last few weeks! There was a race on to order it when people got back home and as far as we could find out, we completely cleared the UK stock of that particular die.
I wanted the flower to have an edge of black poking out to allow the pastel flower to jump off the background. The birthday stamp is from the HLS Everyday Sentiments.
OK, that's about it from me but please check out the rest of the team here.



I'd like to join in over at -

Congratulations Ben and Holly

Morning all.

My Son rang me on Saturday to tell me that his best friend had just got engaged! They have been friends since Ben moved in across the road from us nearly 30 years ago, so it was only right that I made Chris an engagement card to give Ben and Holly, I'd already got one for us to give in my stash!

It just so happened that this week the challenge at Cardz4Guyz is 

CONGRATULATIONS

I was going to do something along the lines of a new job but as I needed an engagement card I thought I would try that. Here is what I came up with.

I found it tricky at first not to go all sweet and girlie with the card but as it's from a bloke to his best friend and his girl, I kept it as masculine as I could. I had just seen a video by Jennifer McGuire using an inlaid die background technique so it was the ideal time for me to use my IO Hearts in a Heart die and have a go. The video can be found here, but I started with a piece of pale grey satin card adhered to a panel of white that I repeat cut with the die to create the background. Because there is a layer of sticky paper between the two layers the die cuts stay in place and the thickness of the two layers means that the die doesn't cut all the way through. Cool effect, don't you think?

 I the cut a vellum heart and a congrats from the same dark grey as the background. I cut another in gold and cut out the 'O' and glued it over the grey, adding a large rhinestone to the top, sort of ring like! The sentiment banner was slipped under the 'g' and then glued onto the background.

So for more 'Congratulation inspiration, check out the rest of the DT here and join in.

I'd like to join in over at

      

New Beginnings                                          Pastel



My line is - Wedding Bells, in the distance!

STAMPlorations September Challenge

Afternoon peeps.

Just stopping by to announce the start of the new monthly sketch/theme challenge over at STAMPlorations.

This month my inspiration card is our theme, rather than the sketch.

As you may have guessed it is -

but you might like the sketch -

or combine the two!

For this card I used Blooming Buds and a technique I saw online by Kelly Latevola for SSS.

To start, I stamped, masked and embossed in white a bunch of the Blooming Buds on a piece of HP water coloured paper. I then added a selection of blue DIs, including Tumbled Glass, Salty Ocean, Blueprint Sketch and Chipped Saphire, keeping it darker around the blooms. Then, using a fine paint brush and plain water, I proceeded to paint the blooms with the water then blotted the panel with a piece of kitchen roll. The water acts as bleach, lifting the DI to reveal a paler area. When finished I splattered a few drops of water to create a bit of texture in the background.

To create the shadow I went in with a B29 Copic marker, blending it out with B24, 23 and 21. Shadow was added to the petals using  C3 and C2 Copic markers.

To complete I added a white ribbon from the stash and a banner stamped with a greeting from Bloom Sketches.

So that's my take on the challenge but what will you be inspired by? Please check out the rest of the DT and join in.

I'd like to join in over at -

                

Monochrome                                         Clean and Simple

Birthday Girl

Morning all. 

Where did August go? It began with my head reeling from my weekend down in Swindon crafting with the lovely ladies at the inaugural HLS retreat, can't wait for the next one, now it's gone. Any road, as it's Thursday it must be time for a new challenge at Cardz4Galz. This week we would like to see your projects on the theme of -

LOVELY LACE

I have a stash of lace bits n bobs but never know what to do with them. I'm really a CAS girl at heart, not overly fussy in my dress or crafting!

So I was a little stumped as to what to do until I was trawling through my stash of peel offs when I came across a sheet of corsets. Yep, don't know when I got those, but it gave me an idea and this is what I came up with.

From the lace box I selected a wide piece to make the skirt to go with the bodice which I stuck to a scrap of white card and fussy cut, adding a little bit of shadow with a couple of Copics.

To ensure the lace panel didn't come undone. I ran a running stitch through the top and gathered it then tied it off. The bodice was glued over the gathered lace and adhered to the base panel with some foam pads. The skirt was then fluffed out and glued sparingly to my Crazy Double Running Stitch Rectangle from STAMPlorations. The greeting, also from STAMPlorations was stamped on a

die cut banner and glued flat, then the panel was attached to the base card.

So for more lace inspired creations please check out the rest of the team here and why not join in.

I'd like to join in over at -

Use a sticker, sticky label or peel off