CAS Mixup Challenge

 The technique for the January 2022 CAS Mixup Challenge is Loose Watercolour and there are some lovely examples by the design team and also links to a selection of handy tutorials.  In an effort to stir up my mojo and also trying to use what I have in my stash I decided to have a go at this technique using a floral stamp which I seem to have had 'forever' - a good number of years anyway!!  I used  heavy watercolour paper, stamped the image and sentiment using Versafine Clair ink before wetting the paper in the stamped area and applying various colours of watercolour allowing them to run..  I'm not entirely happy with the result - maybe a bit too subtle - but I quite enjoyed trying this method and will no doubt try again using some of my sadly under-used stamp 'collection'.

Stamp - Honeysuckle from a set by Chocolate Baroque from several years ago
Ink - Versafine Clair Twilight

First Card Made This Year

 I've used stamps kindly gifted to me by a lovely friend to make this Anniversary Card.  I started by producing the text using Craft Artist, before die cutting the square and stamping and colouring the images.  The tiny hearts were die cut and added and there you have it - the first of many cards which I hope to make this year.

Text - produced using Craft Artist 
Image - from Awesome Otters Stampin' Up
Hearts - from a Tonic die set

Christmas Greetings

 

Sending  the Very Best of Wishes for Christmas to All of My Followers and Blog Friends.  

It has certainly been a strange challenging couple of years so here's hoping for at least some improvement for the coming year.  Thank you all for taking the time to visit my blog and leave lovely comments, they are so appreciated.

Stay Safe and Well

Pixie's Crafty Workshop #418

Just when I'd decided I had enough Christmas cards made and seasonal things were being packed away for a while along comes the Grand Christmas give-away challenge from Pixie's Crafty Workshop where as well as using snippets to make the card, the theme has to be either Christmas or New Year.  Luckily my snippets mountain is always ready to hand so I just needed to decide what else I needed to make my entry.  I do have lots (and lots) of patterned paper snippets so I gathered three different designs from the same set along with some matching red card pieces and of course some white as well.  The die I've used is a good one for using up bits and pieces so I started by cutting the largest piece of red card to fit a 5" x 7" card blank, then cut the frame part of the die using the white, and also a plain piece for a backing (glued these two together). Followed by carefully placing the die onto the patterned scraps to cut out the strips which I then  popped back into the apertures and glued them down.  The chevrons at the bottom were cut from a smaller snippet of the red card.  The final thing was to die cut the words from another scrap of white and some snowflakes from silver and white snippets and here it is - my Snippets entry for the Grand Christmas Draw with a selection of lovely prizes which are being revealed throughout the four weeks until Linky closes.  PLEASE do read the instructions carefully, they are very detailed but easy to understand.

Die - Spellbinders
Patterned Papers - from a retired Stampin' Up Set
Words - Britannia dies
Snowflakes - dies from various sources

Allsorts Challenge #654

 There is another challenge over at the Allsorts Blog and they are asking for Wings and/or Tails so lots of choice amongst my crafty stash.  I decided to go for just tails with these quirky cats which I've stamped and coloured before layering up with  a kraft card border and a piece of wood design paper.  There is a great prize this time so why not find some of your own 'wings and/or tails' and have a go.

Stamp - Trilby Cats from Crafty Individuals
Sentiment - stamp and die from Sizzix
Background - wood paper pad from The Works

For Oliver

 Well, I've written all of my Christmas cards and discovered that I have lots left over so I really must put the seasonal dies and stamps back into their boxes until next year - didn't realise I'd made quite as many and of course I did have a few left from last year, and so they mount up 😉😉. 

 I have a great grandson who will be one year old at the end of the month so thought I'd get ahead of the game and make a card for him.  While I was searching through my stash recently, searching for something in particular (as I'm sure we all do), I spotted a set of Forever Friends stamps which I've had for many years and I know they've not been used for a while so I made a mental note to use one of them for this card.  Struggled a bit to find some suitable background paper but managed to find something on an old CD and I've added some die cut bunting with his name on and a nice large figure one.  While I had the stamp set out I stamped and coloured two or three other images which I can use to make cards to pop into my box.

Image - from Forever Friends stamp set by Docraft - probably no longer available
Bunting - die from unknown source
Alphabet - dies from a set which came free with a magazine many years ago
Number - die from unknown source
Backing Paper - from Polkadoodles Pretty Tuff CD (also quite old)
Colouring - Polychromos pencils

Garden Card

 A card showing a garden this morning - quite unlike the actual day outside which is very dark and  lashing with rain.  I made this for a friend's birthday recently and I know she's received it so it's ok to show it here. I started with a square of white card and brushed on some blue and green ink to set the scene, then I stamped all the other elements onto scraps of white card, coloured them and fussy cut before arranging them into a floral garden.  The sentiment was die cut twice and layered together to give it some dimension.

Garden Scene - stamps from Grace's Garden set Stampin' Up (retired)
Greeting - die from Birthday Chick set Stampin' Up (retired)