Poppies & Daisies

Couldn't resist the beautiful new set from Hobby Art: Floral Mix, designed by Janie Burnett-Bleach.

To make this card, I first stamped the flowers with Versafine ink (in Smokey Gray as I didn't want harsh black outlines), masking as necessary, and then, with all masks still in place, coloured the background by sponging with pigment inks. Next the leaves were stamped, after which I removed the masks. The flowers and leaves were coloured with watercolour pencils, and the bee and dragonflies were stamped and coloured. Finally, I added some shading around the images and some glitter glue to the insects' wings. All stamps by Hobby Art.

Our garden is full of poppies just now, so I didn't have far to look for inspiration when making my card. The poppy flowers only last a day; by evening all the petals will have fallen off, but next morning there will be as many if not more new flowers. Gorgeous!

They will be flowering for several weeks, hopefully, but then they will be gone until another year, so I think I will keep this card as a reminder of their beauty.

Thanks for looking!

Fall in for our latest challenge at Stamping Sensations!

I can't say that autumn is my favourite season of the year (mainly because it's followed by winter!) but it does have aspects that I appreciate, including the misty mornings and mellow fruitfulness. Most of all, though, I like the colours. It's quite strange, as normally I prefer the cooler shades: blues, purples and greens. I think it is the combination of the autumn hues which appeals to me. So this month's theme at Stamping Sensations is right up my street, as it is

s qti   AUTUMN COLOURS  i tq s

Naturally you can interpret this in any way you like, as long as we can see some stamping as the main element of your project, along with typical autumn shades of green, yellow, orange, brown and red.

Our fab sponsor for October is Foil Play, who have a massive selection of products for card making and crafts, and they have very generously donated a £35 voucher for the lucky winner to spend in their online shop.

The main image on my card is the gorgeous Year Of Stamping Issue 9 - September stamp from Chocolate Baroque.

 I coloured the poppy pods with pencils (for some reason the colours are much brighter in real life than they appear on the photo) and added just a little colour at the top and bottom behind them to give a bit of depth to the background. I used Promarkers on the butterfly to make it stand out. The large poppy pod stamp is also by Chocolate Baroque and the sentiment is by Inkylicious. Leaves die by Cheery Lynn, and the background paper is from the Autumn Song Collection by Bo Bunny. Real poppy pod tops from my garden.

You'll find plenty of autumn inspiration over on the Stamping Sensations Challenge Blog, and my teamies would love it if you would visit their individual blogs too, where you will find all the details of how they created their beautiful projects. I look forward to seeing yours!

Poppy Parade

The poppies in our garden are glorious just now.

March Challenge

Spring is on the way, so for our March challenge at Stamping Sensations we'd love to see your interpretation of

THE GREAT OUTDOORS

Lots of scope in this one, I think. Anything that's outdoor-related (eg. fields, flowers, trees, seaside, gardens, mountains, children playing or any outdoor activity to name just a few ideas) should fit the bill. Here's my take on the theme.

The gorgeous Summer Poppy Meadow by Crafty Individuals  (our fantastic sponsor this month) came to mind immediately. I coloured it with watercolour pencils, but then went over the foreground poppies with Promarkers to make them stand out. A black Sakura Glaze pen highlighted the centres.

To make the background, I stamped a Crafty Individuals poppy (a freebie with an order) randomly, and then clear-embossed it to act as a resist while I sponged all over with VersaMagic ink. On top of that I stamped my favourite flourish (Crafty Individuals CI-182) .I cut black middles for some Prima flowers to echo the poppies, and finished the design with a Fiskars border punch, sentiment from Crafty Individuals CI-209 and ribbon from my stash.

Crafty Individuals is one of my favourite stamp companies. Not only do they have such wonderful stamp designs, but also gorgeous background paper books, masks, dies and other accessories, and their service is second to none. Do have a look at their newly revamped website. Jean and Malcolm, the owners, have a fabulous prize for this month's winner. Who wouldn't like this superb set of stamps?! Something for every occasion there.

Last month's theme really caught people's imagination (we had 159 entries!) and I have a feeling this one will do the same. Don't forget to check out my lovely teamies' inspirational samples on the Challenge Blog!

New Year and New Challenge

Hope it's not too late to say Happy New Year everyone, and to wish you everything you wish yourself for 2013.

Being the first Sunday of the month, we have a new challenge for you at Stamping Sensations, and what better theme to begin the new year with than

** FRIENDSHIP ** 

I think that speaks for itself, and we would love to see your interpretation of what Friendship means to you.

We have a fabulous sponsor for you this month - STIX2! They have given us a wonderful prize. A huge selection of essential items, well worth an entry!

Now, my usual new year's resolution is not to make any! However, if I were to make any crafty ones for this year, it might be along the lines of thinking outside the box, or at least getting out of my comfort zone and challenging myself to do something different. So here's my card for "Friendship".

What's different about that then, I hear you ask! Flowers and butterflies are never far from my cards. Well, yes, but - they're red! Red is not my first colour of choice for a card. I don't like colours that shout at me, I much prefer cool, soothing ones - blues, purples, and greens. But having said that,  I do love poppies, and poppies are red, so....

It might also have something to do with the fact that Brenda sent me a package of gorgeous goodies for Christmas, which included some delightful dotty red ribbon which I couldn't wait until next Christmas to use!

I decided that it would go beautifully with some Chocolate Baroque poppies, which I stamped on to red spotty paper and on to plain white and then I paper pieced just the flowers. 

 I cut out the image and the red spotty frame with Spellbinders dies, and then added just a touch of colouring to the butterfly and bud with a red Promarker. I tried paper piecing the leaves too in green, but felt that introducing a second colour lessened the impact, so I left them plain. 

I didn't have any suitable background paper, so I made some with some more Chocolate Baroque stamps. A lovely friendship sentiment (also by Choc B) and a few punched  butterflies (Martha Stewart) completed the card.

So that's my celebration of friendship. My lovely teamies have made some gorgeous samples to show you, so do go and have a look at them on the Challenge Blog. I look forward to seeing yours!

Sir Stampalot June Challenge

Well, it's the first of the month again, and time for a new Stampalot Challenge! For June we have a photo (see right) as inspiration. It can be interpreted in any way you like! I would have liked to have come up with something really creative and abstract, but in the end I couldn't resist another opportunity to use the gorgeous Crafty Individuals poppy field stamp! I coloured it with watercolour pencils except for the poppies, for which I used Promarkers to make them stand out. The background is a paper napkin, and the sentiment is by Prickly Pear.

A good tip for using napkins is to separate the layers (they usually have two or three) and use only the top (printed) layer. This will be quite thin, and almost impossible to put glue on without tearing it, so put the glue on the base card instead and gently smooth the napkin over it. (A Xyron machine is perfect for this if you have one.)

As usual, there's a fantastic prize on offer this month!

So if you'd like to be in with a chance of winning the goodies, check out the samples by my talented teamies on the Challenge Blog, and get those entries in! Can't wait to see them!



Sir Stampalot July Challenge

The theme for the Sir Stampalot July Challenge is Lazy Hazy Days of Summer. There's not much that says summer to me more than poppies, so when I found a pack of gorgeous poppy design napkins in S****burys I thought they'd be just right to make a card with.

As you can see, they are rather bold and bright, so a large size base card was called for, in this case an 8" x 8" one from Craftwork Cards. I wasn't quite sure what to do at first, as the large, bright flowers would overwhelm any image I tried to put with them. However, when I separated the layers of the napkin, I found that the middle layer had picked up some colour from the printed top layer, and was in effect printed with a ghost image of the poppies. Perfect! It became the background for my card, with a narrow border sponged around the edge with Barn Door Distress Ink.

Next I glued the top layer to a piece of thin card to strengthen it and cut out some of the flowers and leaves. These made a border down the side of the card along with a strip of paper coloured with the Barn Door DI and cut with a Martha Stewart punch.

The stamped image is the beautiful new "Poppy Field" by Crafty Individuals (currently free with orders over £30!) which I coloured with Distress Inks (Barn Door, Bundled Sage and Shabby Shutters).

A computer generated text on a Nestabilities label and a few punched butterflies were the final embellishments.

And here's the finished card.

PS. My lovely butterfly blog background from Scrappin' Blogs disappeared this afternoon! On investigating, I found that Scrappin' Blogs are having problems with Photobucket (basically it seems they are too popular!) and need to find a new server. I'm not sure what the situation is with their backgrounds at the moment, so I've found another for my blog for the time being from The Cutest Blog on the Block. Maybe it's time I had a change anyway.

Poppies

One of my crafting resolutions for this year is to try more non-card projects, and to that end I am currently working on altering a little photo frame like the one I gave away with my blog candy last month. However, I couldn't resist ordering one of the new Hero Arts stamps, the Poppy Background,  which was delivered yesterday, and I just had to make a quick card with it straightaway. I love poppies, and this stamp has lots of potential. I think it is going to become one of my all-time favourite stamps.

I stamped it with Brilliance Pearlescent Chocolate and clear embossed it, then coloured it with Promarkers. The sentiment, by Craftwork Cards, was also coloured with Promarkers. Before I stuck the picture to the card, though, I was tempted to use the back rather than the front! The Promarker ink soaked through the paper and it left an interesting image on the reverse, rather like pressed flowers (see below). I might have to do another one!

Hero Arts at one time was my favourite stamp company, but their style changed somewhat a few years ago and became a bit too cute for my liking. However, their new 2010 catalogue has some absolutely gorgeous designs. I foresee a sudden depletion in my bank balance!