Spring has Sprung!

 There seem to be so many Spring-themed challenges going the rounds at the moment and for once the weather this year seems to have also realised that Spring has indeed sprung.  This card isn't for any of the challenges but whilst mulling over ideas I realised that I have quite a lot of craft CDs which have been very neglected, so I had a look at the images on a couple of them and printed some floral pages.  They do  look somewhat dated - to my eye anyway but here's a card I decided to make using some primroses which came with matching background paper.  The background was trimmed to fit the base card and was backed with a slightly larger piece of toning dark green card, which was also used to back the floral panel.  A simple stamped greeting was cut using a punch and there it is - a simple to make card.  I feel that card making these days seems to be far more creative with the wide choice of stamps, dies and so much else at our disposal - what do you think?

Primroses - from Floral Fantasy CD by Joanna Sheen (from 2008 would you believe)
Punch - from Stampin' Up (long retired)

Spring at Stamping Sensations

 The theme for the current Stamping Sensations challenge is **Hello Spring** or the usual *Anything Goes*.  My card is a floral one and I reckon the colours are saying 'Hello Spring' although I think the actual flowers might be more Summer time ones which would take my card into the Anything Goes category.  I started by smooshing two colours of Distress Oxide ink, followed by adding some visual texture using stamps in the same colours.  The flowers and leaves were stamped onto spare pieces of white card, coloured using Zig markers and then fussy cut.  The sentiment was also stamped and coloured to match.  I then shuffled the components about until I was happy with the arrangement and then decided to add some strategically placed stamped vines onto the background.  This card was inspired by a video made by Kym (Crafty Roo) and the floral, vine and sentiment stamps were the final surprise to open on Christmas Day last year as part of her Christmas Countdown project (variation on an Advent calendar).

All of the stamps were part of the Crafty Roo Christmas Countdown for 2025

Snippets Challenge #502

 It's lovely to see the sunshine again today but still pretty chilly outside so I'll need to wrap up warm to pop along to the Playground with my card for the latest challenge.  This time I've used some of my white snippets - one larger one for the background and some smaller pieces for the rectangle and the little house.  I've not included a photo because I felt that just seeing three pieces of white card could be boring for you  😉.  I started with the larger piece and smooshed some ink until I was happy with the result, followed by over stamping with the keys background stamp.  I also stamped a larger key at the base of the small die cut rectangle.  The little cottage was stamped onto an even smaller snippet, coloured using pencils and then fussy cut.  The sentiment was also a snippet from a part sheet of computer generated ones produced some time ago and which I keep handy so that I can cut them as and when required.

Keys - stamp sets from Crafty Roo
Cottage - stamp from Lavinia Stamps
Rectangle - die from Stitched Rectangles, Stampin' Up (retired)
Sentiment - computer generated, banner die Creative Expressions

Allsorts Challenge #819

 The theme for this fortnight on the Allsorts Challenge has been chosen by Lynn and she is asking for **Feminine Projects** and of course there is the *Anything Goes* option.  Prizes this time will be from Stamp Addicts.

For my DT card  I have a 100th birthday card to share and I thought such a milestone deserved a larger card than I normally make.  This was a commission and I was told that the lady loved pretty colours and flowers. For many years she was a member of a Patchwork Group so I thought that the background paper was very appropriate and then I set about finding toning colours for the layers and the flowers.  All of the white elements were cut using some pearlescent card; the flowers were cut using dies from two sources and arranged around the central numbers.

Background Paper - from a selection of 12" papers which I've had for a long time
Decorative Layers - Die set from Tonic, probably no longer available
Flowers - Dies from Creative Expressions and Spellbinders
Numbers -  dies from Amazon (possibly Globeland)

Spring Bird

 The card I'm sharing today covers a couple of challenges set by the talented Darnell.  Firstly for her I.D.E.A.S where there is a rolling theme through the month with a different technique or 'idea' for each week.  I'm not sure I've explained this too well but you can read all about it if you follow the link to her blog 😊. Secondly this card will fit with the NBUS challenge where we are encourage to knuckle down and actual use some of our 'never before used schtuff'.

The ideas theme this week is to use dies - the circle and of course the bird and flowers.  The circle die I've had for ages but the bird on the floral branch is definitely NBUS..  I selected a square scalloped card and a piece of patterned paper from my stash and then die cut the circle and other elements from bits and pieces from my ever-growing snippets collection.  A simple stamped and die cut sentiment added - job done!!

Circle Die - from a John Next Door set from way back
Bird and Flowers - Sizzix Spring Bird die set
Sentiment - from a retired Stampin' Up set

Stencilled Butterfly

This card was made quite a while ago but never posted here so I thought I'd share it today.  The butterfly was coloured using a set of layering stencils which came with matching dies and the lattice panel was die cut into the cream panel using a die from a set I've had a long time.  The sentiment was also die cut with its shadow and that's about it really, a fairly CAS card 

Sentiment - from Julie Hickey
Lattice - die from Sue Wilson, Creative Expressions (years old)
Butterfly - layering stencil/die set from Amazon 

Reminders

 Travelling around to various blogs and seeing what other people are making often serves as a reminder of a technique which we might have forgotten about as well as sometimes being introduced to something new.  Recently I've spotted a couple of reminders of the faux bleach technique or reverse stencilling as it is sometimes known.  This involves colouring card or watercolour paper using water-based inks such as Elements, Distress, Distress Oxides or similar and once it is dry a stencil is placed over the top and water sponged on (best to try not to make it too wet otherwise it can seep under the stencil and spoil the effect).  The water lifts the colour leaving the design of the stencil.  I used blue, purple and yellow on heavy watercolour paper and a leafy stencil..  Once I'd trimmed the piece to the size I wanted I spattered it with some mica mixed with water.

I've trimmed a snippet of my piece to make a panel for this card which I'm taking along to the challenge at the  Snippets Playground for this fortnight.  Had a rummage and found snippets of silvery glitzy card and some toning purple which were almost the right size for a couple of layers so very little left over from that.  The dragonfly layers were die cut from snippets of the silver and faux bleached pieces, also the fun sentiment came from the piece I'd coloured..

Here is a picture of the smallest snippets and I still have some of the coloured piece left

Dragonfly and sentiment - dies from Gummiapan
Element inks in yellow, purple and blue (from Lavinia Stamps)

One of the 'reminders' of this technique came from a video by Chrissie Stokes who used 'Mr Magic' sponge (a domestic cleaning product) to apply water to the stencil and this is what I used - works well. Link to her video  https://youtu.be/MzSjRRvijWQ?si=h-nEUruH6RkqcVqu