Oliver Owl

Oliver Owl flew into my craft room recently. He's the stunning new stamp from Hobby Art. Isn't he gorgeous?!

I've put him on an A5 card, so you can tell how large and imposing he is (a good 6" from the top of his head to the tip of his tail). The detail in his feathers is amazing. I coloured him, the ivy leaves and the fence with watercolour pencils.The background is sponged with pigment inks. All stamps on my card are by Hobby Art.

Oliver brought with him his equally fabulous friend, who lives on a Nature Reserve, also by Hobby Art. I'll be inking him (or possibly her!) up soon!

Stamping Sensations July Challenge

Another month at Stamping Sensations has flown by! We had some stunning entries for June, but now it's time for a new challenge, in which we would like you to

* * * * * FEATURE A CREATURE * * * * *

Show us your projects featuring a creature (or creatures!) of land, sea or air!

Please do remember that as we are a stamping challenge, your entry must include some stamping if you wish it to be considered for our prize or Top 3 positions. It would be a shame to miss out, as our sponsor this month is once again Little Claire Designs, who have very kindly given us a most generous £35 voucher for the lucky winner to spend on their website.

As soon as I saw our topic for this month, I knew which creatures I would feature! The fabulous owls on Little Claire's Silhouette Owl Tree.

Background papers from my stash were used to create a landscape, over which  the Owl Tree was stamped in Memento ink. It was cut out with a Spellbinders die and the base of the tree design was extended a little to either side to fit the square, using a Memento pen. It was then matted and layered on to the base card, which had first been stamped twice with the Owl Tree, in opposite corners. A suitable sentiment (Woodware), cut out by hand, completed the card.

I love the thought of a treeful of owls, just sitting there, watching, ready for their close up!



However, I'm looking forward to seeing all types of creatures in your entries this month, and of course remember you can enter up to three times with any type of cards or projects. The DT have featured some simply adorable creatures in their samples, so do go over to the Challenge Blog and have a look at them.

I'll leave you with a picture of a recent visitor to our garden, who seemed to be having a very earnest conversation with a hoverfly!

Stamping Sensations July Challenge

For a change we have a sketch for you this month at Stamping Sensations, designed by our very own Tracy, and also we would like to see summer colours. You can combine the sketch with summer colours, or just follow the sketch, or just use summer colours, it's up to you!

Our lovely sponsor for July is the very popular Little Claire, who have generously donated a bumper prize, including some of their newest stamps!

I've used a Little Claire owls stamp (which just happens to be my all-time favourite owl stamp!) for my card. Or should I say part of the stamp. To make it fit with the sketch, I masked off the two outer owls before I inked it up.

The owls were coloured with Promarkers to match the colours in the background paper, which is from the Shades Of Summer Background Papers pad by Crafty Individuals.

 The circles (plain and scallop) are Spellbinders dies, the scallop border die is by Die-namics and the leaf punch is by Leone Em. A ribbon and some little pearly flowers provided the finishing touches.

I am really looking forward to seeing this month's entries! If you'd like the chance to win those gorgeous goodies from Little Claire, do pop over to the Challenge Blog, where my talented teamies have come up with some beautiful samples to inspire you. It's amazing how they are all so different considering we have all followed the same sketch!

Fur and Feathers

We had some wonderful entries for our January theme at Stamping Sensations. Already it's February, though, and time for a new challenge. This month it's

FUR AND FEATHERS

Plenty of scope there, I think. I decided to go for feathers, being unable to resist these adorable owls by Little Claire.

I wanted the owls to be the centre of attention, so, after colouring them with Distress Markers and cutting them out with a Spellbinders die (Labels 10), I kept the rest of the card quite simple. The background papers, which just happened to go perfectly with the image, were a freebie from Making Cards magazine. I computer-generated the sentiment on to a Spellbinders tag, and the diecut flourish is a Marianne Design.

Our sponsor for this month is once again the fabulous Stix2, and just look at what they have generously donated for our lucky winner!

My lovely teamies have excelled themselves with their creations this month, so do go and check them out on the Challenge Blog. I think this is going to be a very popular theme, so I'm looking forward to seeing lots of Fur and Feathers!