More Creatures!

There's still time to enter our July Challenge at Stamping Sensations, where the theme is "All Creatures Great And Small". Our lovely sponsors this month are Crafty Individuals and I've made another card using some of their products.

The background paper and the papers I used to paper piece the birds and butterflies are from various Crafty Individuals Background Paper Books.On the background sheet I toned down the area I wanted to stamp over with some diluted acrylic paint. I stamped the Three Birds ( CI-544) on the background and twice more on different sheets. I cut out their bodies and wings from the 2 extra sheets and and mixed and matched the different sheets when assembling the birds. The wings were popped up on foam pads.

I decided to give the birds some fashion accessories! The right hand bird's hat and middle bird's bag are from elements plate CI-335, The left hand bird's hat and the "Hats and Bonnets" sign were cut from the CI-285 "Hats and bonnets" stamp. The butterflies (from CI-231 elements plate) were also stamped on the patterned papers and cut out. All of these were also attached with foam pads. I added some colour to the birds' beaks and legs with Arteza brush pens.

There's a super prize on offer from Crafty Individuals, a £25 voucher to spend in their online shop, where you will most definitely be spoilt for choice! If you haven't entered already, why not have a go? All the information you need, along with our challenge rules, can be found on the Stamping Sensations Challenge Blog.

Mid-month Inspiration At Stamping Sensations

Just popping in with another card for our November challenge at Stamping Sensations, where the theme is Traditional Christmas Colours, ie. red, green and gold.

My main image is a lovely Woodware stamp, which I coloured directly on to the stamp with Arteza brush pens. I then splattered the panel with diluted Distress inks, using a fan brush, and sponged some red ink around the edges. The background stamp is also by Woodware, and the sentiment is a magazine freebie.

There's still plenty of time to enter the challenge, which is sponsored this month by Chocolate Baroque, who have kindly donated two of their stunning stamp sets as the prize.

You'll find lots more inspiration from my teamies on the Challenge Blog, so do go and take a look. Hope you are able to add an entry (or two, or three!), and good luck!

More Flowers

Just a quick reminder of our September challenge at Stamping Sensations, where the theme is "Anything Goes With Flowers", sponsored by Bee Crafty. A £25 voucher to spend in their online store is the fab prize for this month's winner. All stamps and the stencil I've used on my card are by Bee Crafty.

I sponged the background with pigment inks, added more ink through the stencil, and then stamped the borders and sentiment. The flowers and leaves were stamped separately on watercolour card, coloured with brush pens and cut out. They were then adhered to the card, with some being raised on sticky pads to give a bit of extra dimension.

 We have some wonderful entries so far, and there's still plenty of time to enter, as the challenge runs until Wednesday 2nd October.

Back to winter!

Well, after all the water which came down in March, April turned out to be a great month! Dry, warm and sunny for the most part. Anyone would have thought it was summer already! It was obviously playing tricks on us, though, as right now it's so cold it feels as though we're back to winter, at least up here in the north. And even further north it's been snowing, apparently! Minus temperatures are forecast for us tonight. I think I put the thermal undies away too soon! How all that fits with global warming, I've no idea, so I'll just move swiftly on to this month's Stamping Sensations Challenge, where our theme for May is

* * * * * IN AN ENGLISH COUNTRY GARDEN * * * * *

We'd like your projects to show what you might find in a typical English country garden, so you could include, for instance, flowers, trees, birds, insects, wild animals, etc., or perhaps garden furniture, shed, greenhouse or even washing on a line! Whatever you choose, your main image must be stamped and relevant to the theme, otherwise your project will not be eligible. See here for our full challenge rules. You will not want to miss out on the chance to win this month's fab prize of these 2 beautiful A5 stamp sets, kindly donated by our lovely sponsors Chocolate Baroque.



I have used Chocolate Baroque stamps on my card.

I created the background with my Gelli Plate, covering it with Distress inks and then lifting off some of the colour with stamps from the Chocolate Baroque Spring Foliage set before taking the print.

The central image is from the Home Sweet Home set and the robin is cut from the main image in the Robin the Spruce set. I coloured the butterflies (Just Butterflies set) to look like Orange Tips, which have been visiting my garden during the past few weeks. The flowers on the grass at the front are from "The Spinney" Design A Tree set.

The main image is coloured with Polychromos pencils and cut out with a Spellbinders die. I used Arteza brush pens for the robin and butterflies.

There is some truly delightful inspiration from my teamies over on the Challenge Blog, so please do go and check it out. I am so looking forward to seeing your entries for this theme.

Mine is a Scottish Country Garden but it has plenty in common with an English one! I'll leave you with a few recent photos.

Orange Tip butterfly. Hard to photograph as they are hardly ever still!

Lesser Redpoll

Auricula

Ivy Leaved Toadflax, growing in the garden walls. In our garden, the wildflowers sit happily alongside the cultivated ones. We do not have weeds!

Bank Vole. We have a family of them living in the undergrowth behind the bird feeders. The baby ones are so cute!

Yellowhammer. Due to recent population decline they are now classed as an endangered species. Not apparently so in our garden! Last year we counted 20 here on one occasion. Not so many yet this year, but still several pairs visiting regularly.

Bluebells. This seems to be a really good year for them as there are lots about, both wild and cultivated. 

Sycamore. The warm April weather brought most of the trees bursting into leaf. This is my favourite time of year, when everything is fresh and new.

Heron. Not in our garden, but I took the picture from the garden as it took off from beside the river which is next to our house. We are so lucky to live here, surrounded by beautiful wildlife. It makes up for all the rain!

Somewhere Under The Rainbow!

The other week it was the Pink Ink Meadow Hare that bounded through my letterbox. This week a Sea Turtle swam through! Another stunning Pink Ink Designs stamp. I wonder what will come through next. You'll have to watch this space!

As our topic for this month's Stamping Sensations Challenge is "Somewhere Over The Rainbow", I decided to give my turtle a rainbow shell. So he's under the rainbow, rather than over it, but I think he'll still count!

I made a background with Distress Oxide inks and overstamped the turtle. Then I stamped him again on a separate piece of card, along with the seaweed and fish, cut them all out and coloured them with a mixture of Arteza and Zig brush pens. I then stuck the turtle on top of the original stamped image, added the fish and seaweed and matted the resulting picture on to an A5 card. All stamps are by Pink Ink Designs.

The Pink Ink Meadow Hare is still my favourite, but the turtle is coming a close second. He's fabulous to colour.

There's still plenty of time to enter our Rainbow challenge. Full details are over on the Stamping Sensations Challenge blog. There have been some brilliant entries so far. Judging this month is going to be tough!

Meadow Hare

I recently discovered Pink Ink Designs, who have the most amazing animal and fantasy stamps! Would have loved to get them all, but the set I was most drawn to was the utterly gorgeous Meadow Hare. She bounded through my letter box this morning and I couldn't wait to ink her up.

There are hares in the fields around here, and I love to see them. They are beautiful creatures. They often sit just like this, ears pricked up, alert for any sound or movement, and then they are gone in a flash.

I coloured my Meadow Hare with Arteza brush pens (another new discovery, with which I am impressed!) and a water brush. It's a huge stamp (this is an A5 card) and I kept the design simple to show her off.

She won't be my last Pink Ink purchase, as I have my eye on several others, but I think she'll always be my favourite!