Celebrate Bee Day

 I read somewhere that today is Bee Day so what does a card maker do - why, make a card of course 😉.  I've not seen it mentioned anywhere since but I will share my card anyway and do my bit for the bees by not mowing the daisies and buttercups on the lawn - any excuse to avoid that job although it will have to be done at some point.  It is raining this morning so the grass will be growing longer by the minute.

For my card I used  suitable paper which came with some stamps as a free magazine gift a few years ago and have die cut a honeycomb in gold and a large bee.  The sentiment was part of the free gift stamp set..

Happy Bee Day everyone!!

Bee - dies from Sizzix
Honeycomb - another Sizzix die
Sentiment and background - free gift with a magazine some time ago
Sentiment dies - Stitched so Sweetly Stampin' Up, retired I think

Allsorts Challenge #676

 The challenge over at Allsorts this week is **add some sparkle** and I've added some Wink of Stella and a little golden bee to my card.  I've stencilled some colour onto the background here and then die cut a bottle, some wild flowers and a little bee.  The bottle was die cut from white before being coloured and then painted over a couple of times with some Wink of Stella although the true sparkle doesn't really show in the picture.  The wild flowers were cut from white card also and then water coloured.  The sentiment was stamped directly onto the background and then I remembered I had a small scrap left of some card to which I'd applied gilding flakes so I used this to cut the little bee.  You will see from the 'recipe' below that I've had all these items for a long time - no recent purchases used 😉 so I will also be taking this over to Shopping our Stash where the theme is pastels  and this challenge encourages the use of things already in our stash rather than always going for something new.

Bottle - a  'steel rule' die from Tim Holtz which I've had for years
Flowers - Wildflowers and Wildflower Stems #2 from Tim Holtz
Stencil - Honeycomb Tim Holtz
Bee - from a Tonic die set which came free with a magazine
Sentiment - another magazine gift stamp from way back

Snippets Playground Challenge #428

 Time for another challenge over at the Snippets Playground and I've made a card with a garden scene this time.  Everything came from my snippets mountain apart from the base card and a piece of woodgrain paper from a 6" paper pad.  I started with a stitched rectangle cut from a snippet of cream and backed it with a slightly larger brown piece which has had a stitched zig-zag detail die cut at the bottom.  I then got out several different die sets and cut all the rest of the elements from an assortment of coloured snippets.  These 'bits' were then arranged, and re-arranged, until I was satisfied with the composition before gluing them down - the leafy border was cut in green and then again from some tiny coloured snippets so that I could snip the little flowers off to glue into place!! 

There is super collection of stamps as the prize this fortnight so why don't you rummage through your snippets and have a go 😉😉.  Your Snippets don't have to be as tiny as mine, but I just love fiddling to build up scenes.

Bird Feeder and larger birds - dies from Joanna Sheen
Smaller birds - dies from Memory Box
Tree, border and fence - die set from Sizzix
Zig-zag edge - dies from Daisy Mae
Sentiment - composed using My Craft Studio, printed and cut with Stampin' Up die

Another Floral

 Another floral card to share today and this one was made using a stamp which I came across when looking for something else (as you do) and realised that it hadn't been used recently.  Stamped onto watercolour paper and coloured using Inktense pencils and a water brush..  Once coloured I looked for a selection of toning papers and card.  The challenge on Allsorts this time is to use a favourite stamp or die and I'd been wondering just how I could choose one favourite - too difficult really but as fuchsias are so pretty and one of my favourite flowers I'm popping over to their blog with this card even though I thought I'd probably not enter this week 😉

Stamp - Imagination Crafts

Floral Birthday

 I seem to make quite a lot of floral cards but they always seem popular and there are endless ways of combining elements to come up with varying designs.  The ones on this card had been fussy cut from some patterned paper a while ago and had been sitting in one of my oddments boxes, where I also came across the lacy parchment embellishment (gifted from a crafty friend) which I backed with a piece of mauve card.  The splodgy background had been produced during an inky play session so I've combined everything to make this card after deciding to leave the flowers uncoloured, echoing the black flower centres with a matching sentiment.

Butterfly Challenge #170

 Today's card is for the Butterfly Challenge where we have options of various colours, a theme and a shaped  card design as usual - read all about it HERE and see the great inspiration cards from Mrs. A.This time I've used two of the colours, three different patterned papers and of course butterflies (some on one of the papers and some added gold ones.  The floral motif was die cut from white pearl card and I carefully saved all the flower petals, coloured them with an alcohol pen and then popped them back in - a bit fiddly but worth it I think 😉

Papers from Paper Boutique, Paper Pantry Vol I USB
Floral Motif - die cut from Penned Petals set Stampin' Up.

Allsorts Challenge #674

 Just made it  for this Allsorts challenge with only a few hours to spare.  The theme is **anything goes with an option to go scenic**.  For my card I've gone with a garden gate showing a small part of the scene visible on the other side of the wall.  The aperture was cut into the piece of card before embossing the brick wall and then stamping and die cutting the other elements to build up the card. Final addition was a kaleidoscope of golden butterflies.  Lots of lovely inspiration from the design team and still a few hours left to enter if you fancy going into the draw for a prize..

Brick Wall - Stampin' Up brick embossing folder
Gate and Flowers - Grace's Garden stamps with matching die set Stampin' Up (retired)
Butterflies - Die which came with a magazine some time back (smallest ones used here)