Sending hugs and happy thoughts

Good morning peeps. 

I fancied a bit of me time yesterday so got out my stamps and Ziggys for a bit of colouring.

Here is the end result.

The photo looks to have taken the green out of the turquoise blooms and made them look more pale blue than in real life. The colours are from this month's Altenew challenge and the layout from the one at Seven Hills. I wasn't sure about the sentiment so decided on a vellum wrap with gold embossing to match the flowers. I scored a few lines to go with the sketch and mounted the finished panel on a piece of slightly sparkly yellow card from the stash.

Joining in over at:-

      

  

STAMPlorations, a reminder

Good afternoon peeps.

I'm back to remind you all that there is still time to enter the April theme/sketch challenge over at STAMPlorations.

This time for my interpretation I went with just the sketch.

If you prefer you could go with the theme as your inspiration,

or go mad and use both!

For my card I took inspiration from a couple or so challenges out there at the moment, spring is definitely in the air over blogland and in our own hedgerows. The cherries are in full bloom but the blackthorns are sadly past their best but the May is in tight bud. 

To start I die cut a panel and then in the bottom half  I inked some Tumbled Glass DI through an  ARTplorations Dots all Over Stencil, fading the intensity out towards the top left. From a scarp of gold mirror card I die cut a frame and glued it flat atop the panel. 

My flowers and foliage were die cut using some of the new CUTplorations Trendy Spring Blooms dies from some smooshed panels of DI and Inka Gold spritzed with water. The green and yellowy orange were in my stash but I didn't have enough of the pink so I made a brand new panel. The small flowers were pretty simple flower then center which I trimmed down but the central bloom was a little more involved.

To start I die cut the outline and popped out the inner sections of the petals, then on another piece I cut again. This time I had to do repeat runs through my BS as I didn't want to completely cut through to the center. Think it took me about 4 runs through to get it looking how I wanted it. I glued the first outline over the partially cut one then when dry pushed the petals through the outline. As they were still attached at the center you get  a more 3D effect. Love how the smooshed panel is not a solid colour and gives the die cuts more life. The center was made by die cutting a third outline from the yellowy orange panel and gluing back into the center. The leaves were simply cut and attached along with the rest of the flowers to create a corsage in the bottom right of the frame. 

To finish I stamped a thin strip of white card with Happy Birthday from the Balloons and Banners set and slipped it under the large bloom. 

For more info and all T's and C's please check out the rest of the team here then why not join in?

     I'd like to join in over at -

Use a Stencil

      

Button Wreath

Good morning.

Just popping by to share a card made for this week's Merry Monday challenge.

This is another of my made from scrap cards. While tidying up my stamped images I came across this Woodware wreath covered in some buttons but not made into a card, so I thought I would use it.

I simply attached a small ribbon bow and hanger so that the circle diecut would swing then decided that it was a little too delicate for the job and added some glue to the back of the panel, stamped a simple greeting and Bob's your uncle!

As I type there is no movement on our troubled drive saga, other than the track moving with more heavy wagons! Lots of banging coming from the compound yesterday so they are there but not willing to rectify the problem as yet.

 Onto the other sad tale of the sheep worrying, I have heard from a friend that the dogs had been 'missing' since the night before. She has been getting an awful lot of sympathy on social media about the loss of her dog sadly I can't bring myself to call her out on the cynical move she made, placing the post after the dogs had caused the death of 11 lambs! The ewes are still petrified and very jumpy. Would the 320+ commenters have been as sympathetic to her 'plight' if they knew what the dogs had done? We have some horrendous pictures that the Al and the vet took and although I have decided not to look too closely, I could tell from how shook up they all were that they were horrific. The vet has said that he wants to send them to the Farmer's Guardian to show careless dog owners what damage and pain even 'pets' can do. The one remaining dog according to statistics will attack again.  How can that woman live herself and deny her dogs were not involved!

Sailing Boat

Good morning fellow crafters.
Hope you all had a great Easter break.
We had a mixed weekend, it started very badly with a phone call from the farm to say a neighbour had spotted two dogs running around a field with lambs in. Al went off in hot pursuit only to be shocked by what he saw. Sadly of the 12 lambs attacked 11 didn't make it, the vet only able to save 1. According to the police the owner of the dogs, found through the micro chip on one was very sorry but it couldn't possibly have been her's!! Well we know one was as that was how the police found her! Apparently two 'escaped' but only one returned and judging by the carnage it must have had a thorough bath for her not to have noticed!
19/4 Update I heard late yesterday that the dogs in question had been involved in another incident of sheep worrying on the other side of town earlier this year, funny that the owner is STILL in denial. So much for her wanting to "put it all right"! I couldn't live with myself if  my dog was the cause of so much suffering. What a pity the time has passed for the police to get involved, she needs prosecuting!

Anyway onto happier things.
I need a bit of a calming session after all that, so took to my craftroom and got my Copics out for a bit of colouring. As I needed a card for this week's challenge at Cardz4Guyz I used this week's theme of

SHADES of BROWN

I had one or two ideas but decided to use some kraft card and Rich Cocoa Memento ink to stamp this.

He's one of my favourites from LOTV -Sailing Boat. I used a selection of brown Copics to colour as well as a white pencil crayon. The finished panel was mounted on dark brown and then linen cream base. 

For more inspiration check out the rest of the team here.

I'd like to join in over at:-

Anything Goes


Not a Square

Alphabet Challenge, C is for?

Easter is upon us, shame the weather came a little early, last weekend!
Anyway, the cooler last few days have allowed me some crafty time without feeling too guilty about the state of the garden.
It's time for a brand new challenge over at the Alphabet Challenge blog, we have got to the letter C and as it was my turn to choose the theme I went with -

C is for CAKE!

Well why not, everyone likes cake. Here is my inspiration for you.

The little bear is by Fizzy Moon, one of a few I bought in the bargain bucket at The Range last year. This is his first outing, he got lost in the stamp box behind some others!

Stamping the image on a circle of white card from the bits box, I used a mixture of Copics and metallic markers to colour him.

The layout I used is from Sunday Stamps, but with a twist. Instead of simply layering up the DPs and image I die cut a circle aperture and placed him flat on the base card behind it and popped the finished panel up on pads to give a shadow. The papers I used are from NitWits and the stamped sentiment a freebie from a mag last month.

That's about it from me for today, check out the rest of the crew for more cake inspired projects.

I'd like to join in over at-

Favourite shaped base card

I always used to use a 5 x 5 square but it is quite wasteful of card and as a Yorkshire lass I couldn't thoil it as we say. I guess it means it hurt to see the cut off strip go to waste so I usually use an A6 top fold base now as my go to shape and size, 2 card bases from one piece and no waste!