Three in one!

Hi all

And welcome to my new followers! Old and new, you are all very much appreciated. 😊

So we have had a day filled with creatures today. On our daily walk I was able to catch a cricket to show the girls as they have never seen one before. Following on from this they went running through the long grasses and almost ran over a dead rat. Extremely gross! Not five minutes later we managed to disturb a group of pheasants. Then later on back at home we had a large bright green dragonfly in the house, twice! It must be Wildlife Wednesday!

Anyway back to the card making since that’s what you’re all here for 😁. Today I have managed to create a card which fulfils the requirements of three challenges! 

So I will be entering this into CAS Colours & Sketches challenge #381 which is where I got the design idea from.

I will also be entering into AAA cards challenge #170 which is calling for maxi white space.

And finally I will be entering into Less Is More challenge #424 who are looking for a one layer card with a Christmas theme. Phew!

Since this is a one layer card I made the A6 card blank from smooth stamping card. I usually buy ready made card bases but they aren’t good enough to stamp on to directly. I stamped my poinsettia (magazine free stamp set) and sentiment (Clearly Besotted Layered Wreath stamp set) onto the card and then embossed the lines above and below the sentiment with my Fiskars paper trimmer, using the scoring blade. Finally I coloured in the flower using Tonic Nuvo alcohol markers.

Don’t forget that I currently have a giveaway running for anyone who follows my blog, it’s as easy as that! Three prize winners will be picked at random on 11th Aug. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Steph x

Giveaway Time!!

Morning all

Just a short post from me this morning. As this is a new blog I’m looking to get some more traffic to it so I am running a giveaway. Anyone already following my blog will be automatically be entered but please do tell your friends to get involved too. All they have to do is follow my blog. 😁

There are some Tattered Lace dies, Clearly Besotted and Apple Blossom stamps to be won by THREE lucky winners. Winners will be drawn at random on 11th Aug. 

https://www.instagram.com/p/CDN9lJSJq1m/?igshid=d2gzlerlvxoc

Steph x

Uniko Challenge #60 Entry 2!

Morning all

Well it’s a wet morning here but thankfully I got my run done before the heavy shower started, otherwise I’d now be looking like a drowned rat rather than a sweaty one! 😂

Just popping by with a second entry to the Uniko ‘In My Garden’ challenge as we do indeed have a little area of gnomes which one of my daughters has claimed for herself and lovingly tends to (well as much as a 5 year old can!). 

For this card I have used Clearly Besotted stamp set Gnome Sweet Gnome and teamed it with a multiple window die. I have coloured the characters with my Tonic Nuvo alcohol markers. I love these markers and was please to notice the other week that they are adding to the colour range. 

(Please note this photo was not taken with the new light box...I really should re photograph these cards but I can’t be bothered!! I’d rather spend the time crafting. 😁).

Anyway that’s me for now, short but sweet today as the children are about to wake up. See you again soon. 

Steph x

Uniko Challenge #60

Evening all

So following on from my last post, the run did indeed do me in and was followed later in the day by a long walk at the request of the children. Suffice to say my legs were aching today but another walk we went! And tomorrow I get to get up early and run again...oh joy! 😂

I’ve spent the afternoon making this card for my Mum’s birthday in August. My inspiration was the current Uniko challenge which has the theme ‘In my garden’.

In my mind this card started out much simpler but as I was creating it I just kept adding to it, partly because I’m trying to push myself out of my very CAS (clean and simple) style!

So firstly I stamped the small butterflies from Uniko’s English Country Garden - Butterflies set (appropriate given the theme I thought!) in light grey. Then I created a mask for the large flower in the Uniko Hello Lovely stamp set and used this to stamp just the top part, again in light grey. Once stamped I fussy cut the images, or rather I got my scan n cut to do it, and set about colouring them in. 

My first variation from my original design was to emboss straight lines into the white card with the circle aperture.

I then also decided that the aperture needed a black frame so I cut one to sit inside the circle previously cut and adhered both directly to the card front. Following this I adhered the flowers with foam pads and the butterflies with wet glue. I finished off with the sentiment, also a Uniko one, heat embossed in white onto black card and in another variation I decided to back it with gold glitter card to make it extra special. This is then adhered with foam pads.

Hopefully you like it! I haven’t spent quite so long on a card in a while, mainly because I was adding to it constantly! 

See you again soon!

Steph x

Procrastination

Yep that’s me this morning...procrastinating because I’m putting off going for the first run since lockdown began...😱

Our household has been shielding and we have only just begun going into the local village for walks over the last three weeks, so you can imagine this has done nothing good for my fitness...along with too much wine, homemade cakes and bread...😳

So yesterday I decided I would get up early and go for a run this morning... and now I’m putting it off!! It’s going to hurt. It’s going to hurt for days!

I was also looking back through my cards I’ve made in lockdown and one I haven’t shared is this one (note: this was not photographed with the new light box!).

Let’s hope this strange time has enabled the world to do a little healing. I’m certainly more aware of my purchasing choices and their impact on pollution. I won’t be getting on an aeroplane anytime soon and I will continue to support my local retailers who have been fantastic during lockdown.

Right, must go for that run. Wish me luck!

Steph x

Well I did it...

...I’ve been having a long standing debate with myself over whether to buy a light box for my photographs or not. I’ve read so many posts about how to get the right lighting, perspective etc but in the end nothing was getting enough light in the right places for my liking. So I took the plunge and bought a light box and I have to say I’m not disappointed. I want to look at changing my background but for now what I have does the job and the extra light from the light box has made an improvement, or at least a consistency. 

For the above mountain fold card I have used a lovely stamp set from Creative Stamping Issue 72 teamed with sentiments from Clearly Besotted 'Say What?'. I found some seaside papers from an old issue of Quick Cards magazine, which is sadly no longer published, and layered them onto dark coral card. The measurements for the base card are 28cm by 15cm with mountain folds at 4cm and 18cm on the long side and a valley fold at 8cm. I have fussy cut the images and coloured them with Tonic Nuvo alcohol markers. The sentiment is stamped in memento morocco ink to coordinate with the card stock. 

Time Out Challenges have a current theme of 'Peaceful' and I find being by the sea very peaceful. I love to watch the waves roll in and out. 

Thanks for visiting today. :-)

Steph x

Ssshhh not the C word...

Yes, I'm sorry but this is a 'Christmas in July' post!

I usually leave all my Christmas card making to the last minute and come up with an easily replicated design but this year I'm feeling more organised...that or I'm just bored of the usual Birthday cards! And having had a good clear out of the entire craft stash I have rediscovered the 'Christmas stash' boxes and folders so I'm having a play.

So here is one of my Christmas cards made using Clearly Besotted's Little Elves stamp set and their Tag Along die collection (which is really brilliant).  

So I simply stamped and coloured the elf before fussy cutting and layering onto the tag cut from two colours of green card and little red square in the middle. I used some festive looking ribbon to attached to the tag and then mounted it on an A6 kraft card blank with foam pads for dimension.

As I have recently discovered a (fairly new) Christmas card challenge I will be entering this into their July challenge which calls for Christmas Characters. Be sure to visit the Christmas Craft Creations blogspot here.

Right, I'm off to put the children to bed and read some craft magazines as I have a bit of a backlog to get through!!

Thanks for visiting, 

Steph x

The best laid plans...

Hmm, I’m sure many of us had plans for 2020 which did not include shielding from a worldwide pandemic! I decided to leave my part time job back in January with the intention of spending more time with my children and on my craft projects. That has been replaced by (very loosely termed) homeschooling, more washing and cleaning than I ever thought possible and the daily scratching of heads trying to decide what indeed is for lunch and dinner! So I certainly have fulfilled the 'spending more time with the children' part, a bit too well really! But whilst we have been 'staying home', all the home improvements you thought about but never got around to have really taken priority so my card making ends up running into the later hours of the day and night.

Anyway back to those best laid plans. One of mine was to have this blog up and running much sooner but hey, good things come to those who wait. So without further ado here’s my first card posted to my new blog. 😁

For this card I have used an embossing folder and die that came with issue 177 of Papercraft Essentials magazine. I have brushed over the embossed leaves with some green chalk before attaching to the card front. The leaves have been cut using both the outline only and then outline and inner die to make the 'veins' of the leaves. Once stuck together I have attached the yellow and green leaf directly to the embossed card but I have lifted the burgundy leaf with foam pads. I then stamped and heat embossed the Concord & 9th sentiment before layering onto green and burgundy card and attaching to the card front using foam pads again.

Thanks once again for visiting the new site and I hope you will come back and visit again soon. Don't forget to 'follow' so you don't miss out on any posts. 

Love

Steph

Blog 2.0

Hello all and welcome to my new blog, version 2.0!
Having found the last blog space a little too complex to administer I have hopped over to blogger with the hope that this suits me better. I have chosen not to migrate all my previous cards over at this time but I may add them to the gallery if the mood takes me! Anyway, sit back, relax and hopefully enjoy my card making activities. Lovely comments always welcome. :-)
Many thanks
Steph