It’s not a floral card!!

 

Yup, I do actually do some crafting that isn’t just for The Flower Challenge. I’m looking forward to the Pottery Throwdown on C4 tonight! Just before covid hit I started going to some one day clay workshops with the fantastic Linda at Green Man Ceramics in Trawden, Lancashire. 

Linda is a fantastic teacher and takes you through the process step by step and will give your clay a squidge if it’s looking dodgy! This was the very first hare I made, I collected it after it had had some oxides (not the Tim Holtz kind - Saltwater Taffy on order!) and under glaze added by Linda then fired. He’s been happily sat on my mantle piece (next to my powertex angel) since just before the first lockdown!  I’ve done another um.. 6 workshops since then, so will show you those makes soon (hares/rabbits feature quite heavily for some reason!) You can see some of the stages he went through below (I didn’t think to take photos at the start!)

The Flower Challenge #65 Occasions Reminder

It’s time for a reminder about our current challenge over at The Flower Challenge and this month we want to see your floral creations from an occasion. 

I dragged out of my stash an  Aall & Create die cut that I’d cut from a gel plate print. Hopefully you can see from the second photo that has a more accurate colour that my flowers made from Heartfelt Creations Wild Roses stamp/die set pick up some of the colours in it. I added a mix of micro beads and glitter to the flower centres.  I trimmed down another one of the same sentiment strip as I used on my previous card and doodled a border to finish. Simples!

As ever I can’t wait to see your amazing makes this month 😊

The Flower Challenge #65 Occasions

Happy February! Hope you’re all keeping warm and well. It’s time for our new challenge over at The Flower Challenge and this month we want to see your floral creations from an occasion. We’re not fussy, any occasion will do! It’s a special occasion in this house if I do the dusting, but not entirely sure that counts for the challenge! 

I used some adorable Aall and Create stamps by Janet Kline for my card, along with one of her stencils for the background. If I find them again, I’ll update you on which ones they are! Water-coloured flowers fussy cut and a distress oxide inky, watery stencilled background, hence the slightly warped card! The sentiment  is from Clarity stamps book of words stickers and a bit of doodled detail with a fine liner to finish. 

As ever, I’ve stolen the following guidance below from the challenge blog! I can’t wait to see your makes this month

Please don't forget to use your Florals as always and as the MAIN feature on your card.
Only 6 other challenges allowed as well as our own.
Also please take a few minutes to read our rules as you may lose out on winning a prize sometimes too. Bought flowers or ones just cut out from design paper alone are NOT allowed. If in any doubt please do ask.

The Flower Challenge #64 Monochrome

I hope you’ve all had a happy and healthy start to the year and that you had some time to relax and most importantly craft of course! 

As ever the 4th of the month means it’s time for our new challenge over at The Flower Challenge and this month we want to see monochrome! So, in other words, either make a card in black and white, or using one colour and differing shades of that colour only. 

I made a super simple card using the Sizzix Floral Lattice die set. I used the front and back of pieces of Kraft card to give the two shades and die cut each layer twice and layered them up to add some depth and shadow. I was going to use a clear wink of stella glitter pan to emphasise the colour difference and add a sparkle to one layer, but couldn’t find it!

I can’t wait to see your creations this year and thank you to everyone who takes time to visit and comment on my blog, it’s very much appreciated. Sadly, life is so hectic at the moment I don’t have the time or energy to visit you all as often as I would like to, finding time to craft is difficult enough!

I’ve stolen the following guidance from the challenge blog! 

Please don't forget to use your Florals as always and as the MAIN feature on your card.
Only 6 other challenges allowed as well as our own.
Also please take a few minutes to read our rules as you may lose out on winning a prize sometimes too. Bought flowers or ones just cut out from design paper alone are NOT allowed. If in any doubt please do ask.

The Flower Challenge #63 Christmas

I hope those of you in the UK kept warm, safe and well with storm Arwen last week. Mum up in Cumbria was without power (and therefore heating) for 23hrs. She was self isolating prior to cataract surgery so couldn’t/wouldn’t come and stay with me. Not great when she’s in her 80’s, but so lucky compared to others who are still without power. I took her for her surgery (which went well) and was shocked that in the 4 miles to the hospital, I could see that 4 trees had come down blocking the main road, no wonder the power had gone out!

Anyway, enough waffling, down to the important stuff! It’s time for our December challenge over at The Flower Challenge and this month we want to see your Christmas flowers. 

I used a stamp from the A5 Aall and Create stamp set #560 Jolly Elements. I used my inktense pencils and decoupaged up the flowers adding glitter to the edges. I love how Bipasha sneaks phrases into these stamps - “don’t get your tinsel in a tangle” on this one! I added a bit of Twisted Citron oxide through a stencil In the background. I made the word poinsettia on my old Dynamo label maker, I always forget how hard you have to squeeze it! A couple of pearls to finish (which are a better colour match in reality) and surprise, a doodled border. As you can see my doodling went a bit wonky, but I decided to embrace it as of course it was the last thing I added to the card and I wasn’t going to remake it! 

As ever I can’t wait to see what you make this month, don’t forget to check out our rules and whilst you’re there, look at the amazing cards my teamies and our fab guest designer have made.

The Flower Challenge #62 Reminder - Add Leaves

Yup, I’m back with a reminder about our current challenge over at The Flower Challenge this month we have an easy one “Add Leaves”.

I decided to have a play with my new Aall & Create stencil #138 Rosy Posy. I drew round the stencil with a pencil then got out my white gel pen and infilled all the areas, then edged them all. I was trying to give a lace type look to it. I managed to smudge the white closest to the spine of the card when folding/pressing the card base into shape! After cursing mildly, I repeated the process in front of the TV and left it to dry for 24hrs before folding this time! (I’ll probably trim down the original and see if I can rescue any of eventually). A simple stamped/die cut sentiment to finish before I messed it up again! 

As ever, I can’t wait to see your creations, just remember to check out our rules and my teamies amazing inspiration for you all. 

The Flower Challenge #62 Add leaves

Happy November! Definitely a good month for me - my birthday month and I’ve got a weeks annual leave next week.  Hopefully I can sneak in a bit of crafting whilst I’m off. If you’re crafting this month, why not join us over at The Flower Challenge, where this month we want to see you add leaves. Thank you so much if you joined us for our birthday celebrations last month, we loved seeing your amazing creations. 

My card for this challenge used some Tracy Evans stamps from Aall and Create. I stamped the main image and also some of the extra flowers separately, then used a mix of watercolours and distress oxides to colour them in. I stamped the background using the same oxide colours and having fussy cut the extra flowers, added them next to the vase base with a little glue gel. I couldn’t resist doodling in a border of course too!