Butterfly Challenge - Tattered Lace Captivating Catmint

Thank goodness it's Friday, although not so good as I woke up at 2am with terrible toothache. One emergency dental appointment later and I have a numb mouth and a temporary dressing and filling and will need a root canal doing. Well, that's assuming I can find an NHS dentist!

A bit of crafting is always a good distraction and so I rustled up a card for the Butterfly Challenge. I've not managed to play along with this for ages and Mrs A has mixed up the rules a bit, to give lots more scope for entries.

I had another play with the Tattered Lace, Botanical Bliss Collection, this time using the Captivating Catmint die. I die cut the coloured printed sheet that came with the collection as I thought that the colour and small flowers would work well with the butterflies. Once cut I glued it onto a 7x7 card blank.

I stamped a butterfly background stamp from the Rare Earth A4 Flower Backgrounds stamp set on white card in black archival ink. I then coloured them in using my zig clean colour pens in pink and purples before cutting them out. I ran one of the coloured pens round the edges of the butterflies to hide the white cut the edge. I shaped the butterflies with my finger and used glue to secure the centre of them, but tiny bits of 1mm foam tape under the wings to keep the dimension.

The butterfly challenge wanted to see pearls as one of their options and after wondering how to add them, I decided to cover them gold/brown frame part of the image with them. Fortunately, I found the perfect pearls glued in strips rather than individually! I was undecided about adding the pearls to the inner frame, but decided it looked better with the, than without.

I found the sentiment lurking in my stash from about 15 years ago and snipped it down and added it on 1mm foam tape. As the card was finished, I decided that the butterflies needed a little shimmer and so I painted them with Windsor and Newton watercolour iridescent medium. Probably easier to paint it on before I stick them on in future! 

Art Impressions - Doggy Kisses

Thursday already! Usually a good thing, but not when you're on annual leave and go back to work on Monday. Boo hiss! 

I couldn't resist this stamp set, Doggy Kisses from Art Impressions and was lucky to find it for a good price on eBay. I stamped the dog in black archival and coloured him in with zig clean colour pens and polychromos pencils before cutting him out. I stamped the sentiments and paw print from the set and die cut them using Simon Says Stamp Stiched Circles. I also used these to cut out the aperture on a piece of paper from my stash (?Craftwork Cards) which I'd trimmed to fit a 5x7 card. I glued the paper in place and added everything else on 1mm foam tape. This adds a little dimension, but will still post at the standard rate. 

Speaking of recovery, Willow had her final post op check up on Monday and was declared to be doing brilliantly. She's got her onsesie off and is now back outside, having gradually reacclimatised her during the week and providing a regular supply of warm snugglesafes. 

I've been in touch with a local rabbit rescue and on Wednesday she's off to meet a bunny who will hopefully become her new companion. Fingers crossed that they like each other.

Finally, I was trying to get a picture of Willow on my phone to send to a friend who lives "down south" and who loves bunnies even more than I do (yes, unbelievably that is actually possible. Just.). I think I woke her up judging by the stretch and yawn!

Tattered Lace Lovable Lily of the Valley

A super easy card today. I recently bought a new Tattered Lace release of some floral dies and matching what they call "Charisma CD-Roms" which have coloured images sized for you to cut out with the dies. This particular bundle also included some ready printed sheets of the images. I used one of the sheets and die cut the Lovable Lily of the Valley. I was suprised actually at the quality of the paper, probably about 140gsm. The images have a "bleed" around them so that you have a bit of leeway if your die isn't lined up perfectly.

I embossed a piece of coordinating green card using the centre of a Tonic 8x8 Retro Fern embossing folder. The folder has an embossed frame around it but by placing my card in the centre of the folder I avoided that part. I was lazy as I was crafting on the sofa, so I cut a piece of white card and glued it into the centre of the panel and added the green card cut to size behind it, rather than cutting out the aperture.

On a 7x7 card blank I added a mat of yellow card and a smaller piece of white card on top. I then glued my topper into place. I die cut the sentiment from Paper Crafting World's Sentiments Set 3 twice and glued them together before adding them to the card. To finish I added some stickles to the flowers. Apologies for the dodgy photo again, I promise it's a square with straight lines, honest!

These are the last flowers, honest!

Yep, I bet you're fed up of these flowers by now, but I promise that this is the last of the orange ones!

I applied Imagination Crafts Structure Paste through a stencil that came free with Making Cards Magazine recently across the centre of a 6x6 card base. Once dry I spritzed it with the Lindy's Stamp Gang Icy Primrose Gold and Alpine Ice Rose starburst sprays. There is a bit of a warp in the card, but I'm sure it will flatter not out under a few books. Hopefully you can see some of the shine below.

I glued the flowers and leaves in place, along with the sentiment that I snipped down from a Clearly Besotted Sentiment Banner die. Simples! Hope you all have a fantastic week x

Sweet Stampin' - Add a Tag

Yay, it's the weekend! That means it's time for a new challenge over at Sweet Stampin' and this time we want you to Add a Tag to your stamped creations.

Yep, it's another one of those flowers and leaves! Details of how I made them can be found here. I started off by embossing a piece of white card with the Couture Creations Tied Together embossing folder. I wrapped a piece of white ribbon round it and then used 1mm foam tape to add it to a mat of black card. I trimmed down a 5x7 card base to fit and glued the topper in place. I wanted the stamping  on the flower to stand out more and so I went over it with a 0.1 fineliner pen and glued the leaves in place and added the flower on foam tape. I stamped the lili of the valley tags in black archival and cut them out and glued them onto the card. To finish I added some cream gloss Nuvo drops - not sure if I actually like them now they're on, but there's no way I can remove them!

I'm afraid I caved in with Hubby's Valentine's present on Thursday night, mainly because I was struggling not to mention going out to buy them and the fact that I was served by the same spaced out and distracted guy as last time we were in there. 

I asked Hubby if he'd found his Valentine's present from me yet. Cue a game of hotter, colder as he wandered round the lounge trying to figure it out. I was crying with laughter as he was stood in front of the fish tank for ages and didn't see them. Mind you, it didn't help that they chose that moment to hide behind a plant! They were worth the £7.50 for the laughter alone! 

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and stay warm and dry (or cool and dry if you're in the Southern Hemisphere) and manage to get some crafting time x

The Flower Challenge - reminder

Halfway through the month already, at least it means it's closer to payday! I hope you were all spolit yesterday for Valentine's Day. Hubby said that my replacement phone was his gift to me. He hasn't noticed yet that I've bought him 5 Gold Tetras that are happily swimming around the aquarium in the lounge. He might notice them when he next cleans out the tank!

Enough waffling, halfway through the month means it's time for our challenge reminder over at The Flower Challenge 

I started off making my card by applying a layer of Cosmic Shimmer Pearl Lustre Gilding Polish through the MFT Abstract Stencil and letting it dry, which was much quicker than I expected.

I made my own papers by spritzing watercolour card with Lindy's Stamp Gang Starburst Sprays and letting the colours run and mix. Once dry I over stamped them with various inks using the a Tattered Lace Word Texture stamps. I stamped the detailed outline flower stamps from Altenew's Peony Bouquet stamp set in black archival ink on them, and also stamped the next layer down, the least coloured in block stamp, in the second darkest shade of Altenew's purple ink set, to give more shading. I then cut them all out and arranged them on the card and glued into place.

I die cut the Elizabeth Crafts sentiment out of white card and used a purple ink pad to colour it to co-ordinate with the flowers. I don't know why but it looks darker on the photo than it does in reality.

You've got until 24th February to join in our challenge. If you could manage to include our cue card in your post we'd love you even more than we do already!

My lovely teamie Viv has created the image below for each of us, she does a great job of herding cats!

MIA - Polkadoodles Little Monsters Funky set

I was going to wait until this card reached its recipient before posting it, but it appears to have gone missing in action along with its contents. The other item I posted with it at the start of January has reached its Australian destination safely, whereas this has vanished whilst on its way to a blogging buddy across the pond. Hopefully, it will reappear at some point!

I had another play with these lovely Polkadoodles Little Monsters Funky stamps, colouring them with my polychromos pencils before cutting them out and adding glossy accents to their eyes.

I die cut the Sizzix Tim Holtz Drip Edge die out of some sludge green card and glued it onto a 6x6 card base. I covered it with glossy accents to make it more slime like and sprinkled a touch of glamour dust on it before it dried. This didn't work quite as I intended as the card had a lot of texture on it which showed through the gloss, but hey it adds interest! 

I added the monsters on a bit of 1mm thick foam tape, standing them on top of the slime. I doodled a border round the card and stamped the sentiment (I think from a Paper Smooches set) to finish. Simples!

Snippets Playground - Uptown Girl Brynn has a Baby Shower

I started going to an evening class in drawing and painting for beginners earlier this year in an attempt to get out more. Our lovely tutor is going on maternity leave after next week's half term. Realising yesterday that that evening would be her last lesson, I decided to whip up a quick card for her when I got home from work before going the class.

I used Stamping Bella's Uptown Girl Bryn has a Baby Shower and stamped it on some mixed media card in black archival ink and then on some snippets of paper from an old lili of the valley paper pad to paper piece her to save time colouring (I store any snippets tucked inside the main pad so that they are always to hand with the full sheets). I added a little shading to her dress with a light grey zig clean colour pen and coloured the remaining parts of the image in with the clean colour pens too.

I die cut the image using a Tattered Lace Twilight Labels die and also cut a mat of green card for it to sit on. I used the same green card to mat a larger piece of leftover patterned paper from the pad on a 5x7 card. I stamped one of the Clearly Besotted Sentiment Flags in black and snipped it down to fit on the card. I added green and pink glitter to the gift bags to give some sparkle and a trio of enamel dots to the card corner. I used three paper flowers that were handy by the table to embellish the card. I would have added some foliage or swirls behind them, but didn't have time to go rooting for the right dies! Job done in super quick time (by my usual standards), the rush is also my excuse for the dodgy photo again...

I'm taking this card over to The Snippets Playground to see if Parsnip has made a slide on the ice. Might need to find a first aider over there though!

Thank you for all your good wishes for Willow's spay. I'm pleased to say that it went well and despite (understandably) feeling very sorry for herself when she came home, she is now feeling much more like her usual self. She's staying in the kitchen (with the heating off) for a few days whilst she recovers and is enjoying demanding a fuss everytime we go in. Rather than having a lampshade collar, which would stop her reaching round to her bottom to eat her "packed lunch", she's wearing a medical pet shirt to stop her fiddling with her wound. TMI ALERT - rabbits produce two different types of poos. There's the round ones that we're probably all familiar with and also caecotrophs (caecals) which they eat straight from their bottom. The caecals are soft, sticky and smelly and are a bit like a bunch of grapes in shape.  Rabbits can't obtain all the nutrition from their food in one go and so eat these to gain more nutrients. In a normal healthy rabbit with a good diet, you shouldn't see any of these poos. Excess caecals mean something isn't right. I went to a lecture by one of the UK's top rabbit specialists and she described caecals as being a bunny packed lunch!

Willow demonstrating that the onesie is comfy to eat in (even if it is a bit big for you)

You can wash your face whilst wearing it

And you can reach round to your bottom

How it fastens (including tail hole!)

Have you stopped taking embarrassing photos of me yet?

Happy Little Stampers Watercolour Challenge.

I thought I'd join in with the Happy Little Stampers Watercolour Challenge this month, which has the optional twist of hearts.

I started off by drawing round the outside of a Tattered Lace Essentials heart die in pencil on some watercolour card. I then used the Happy Little Stampers Doodled Flowers set to stamp the flowers in black archival ink to fill the heart. I then masked off the flowers and I filled the gaps using one of the leaf  stamps from the same set.

I used my zig clean colour pens to colour in the heart. I applied them direct to the paper and used a wet paint brush to draw out the colour. Once dry I added in some dots with a white gel pen. I die cut the heart using the original die and also die cut a frame from pink card to go round it. I glued it into place on a 6x6 card blank and added various different types of nuvo and glitter drops to the centres of the flowers and left to dry, for some reason the purple glitter drops look almost black on the photo.

I stamped the word love on the card without the use of a safety net (or stamping platform!) in black ink, I think it was a from a Winnie & Walter set, but I may have made that up. Rather than leave it at that, I'd stumbled across the Simon Says Stamp Sending word die in my stash and so die cut that out of black card and added a white die cut offset behind it to make it stand out more on the heart. I'm afraid I gVe in to my habit and added some faux stitching to finish.

Can I be cheeky and ask for some good thought and vibes for tomorrow (Wednesday) please? Willow bunny is going in to be spayed tomorrow morning. Bunny anaesthesia has improved greatly, but is still a higher risk than for a cat or dog. It needs to be done though now she's old enough and then we can find her a new bunny companion to snuggle up to. Of course I couldn't ask for vibes without sharing a quick picture of her x

The Flower Challenge #17 - Paper Piecing

It's the start of a new month, and so we've got a new challenge for you over at The Flower Challenge and this month we want to see paper piecing on your projects.

If you read my post yesterday, you'll have seen that I made my own background papers with Lindy's Stamp Gang starburst sprays on watercolour card. I then stamped on them with Rare Earth Word Texture Stamps using Distress Oxides and memento inks depending on what colours I had. The colours are a bit pale on this photograph, but hopefully you can see the sort of interest this creates.

I then stamped the top outlines from the Altenew Beautiful Day stamp set in black archival on the backgrounds and cut them out. I also die cut the sentiment from one of the papers using a die from The Paper Boutique Sentiments Set 3.

I simply arranged them all on a scalloped 6x6 card base and added some Nuvo Jewel Drops to finish.

You've got until 24th February to get your entries in. Please include our cue card in your post and don't forgot to check out the fab inspiration my teamies have created. We'll be back with a halfway reminder and more inspiration for you x

Sweet Stampin' - Anything but a Birthday

Thank goodness it's Saturday! It seems to have been a very long and tiring week, I hope yours has been better. As it's Saturday it's time for our next Challenge over at Sweet Stampin' and this week we want you to create a stamped project for "anything but a birthday".

I started off by making the coloured paper to stamp on. I used cheap watercolouring card and liberally spritzed it with Lindy's Stamp Gang shimmer sprays in Alpine Ice Rose and Icy Primrose Gold for the flowers and Icy Primrose Gold and Edelweiss Moss Green and for the leaves.

Once dry I over stamped it with distress oxides (I've no idea now which coloursI used!) on the orange and with memento ink on the green, using stamps from my new Rare Earth Word textures set. Hopefully, the following picture shows how some of the mica settled in the texture of the card and the stamping.

I then stamped them in black archival ink with the final layers from the Altenew Beautiful Day stamp set and then fussy cut them, before arranging them on my 5x7 card blank. I added the flowers on foam tape and glued the leaves etc in place behind them. 

On a piece of white card I stamped the Thank you from the Clearly Bessotted Sentiment Flag set in black archival. This stamp has a long stitched flag shape to it, but I snipped the image down to just give me the sentiment on a black background so that it would fit on the card and added it on foam tape.

To finish I added some gunmetal stickles to the centre of the flowers and some nuvo jewel drops in Stawberry Coulis and Key Lime. I hope you all have a great weekend with plenty of time to craft (and join in the challenge of course!)