Sweet Stampin' - Circles

Saturday again and payday yesterday, a great combination!
It's time for our next weekly challenge over at Sweet Stampin' and this week we want to see circles.

I started off by blending broken china and peacock feathers distress oxides through a Claritystamp bubbles stencil, moving it several times to fill the 5x7 card and overlapping some of the circles. I then used some Indigoblu pantry white paint to stamp some circles using various different sized bottle tops over the card. I used a quickie glue pen to add glamour dust to parts of some of the circles.

I had some prestamped, coloured and fussy cut elements from Clearly Besotted's Under the Sea stamp set left over and so I added these to the card and stamped the sentiment from the set. 

To finish I added some glamour dust to the fish and drew in a frame. Simples!

Clearly Besotted - Under The Sea

I'm still alive! Still got a flippin' chest infection though, but hey ho. Sitting down whilst colouring is a good way to recuperate.

I couldn't resist the new mini Under the Sea stamp set from Clearly Besotted and so I stamped some of the elements in memento and coloured in with my copics, before cutting them out.

I used some blue glitter paste through part of the Dutch Doobadoo Wavy Lines stencil and once dry glued the elements in place. I added a doodled frame to finish and job done!

I hope you're all keeping healthy and creative out in blogland xxx

Sweet Stampin' - Animals

I know I say this every week, but where is the time going? I can't believe it's the middle of April already, although I'm very glad that it's the weekend again! I also know that you're suprised that after a fortnight of nothing, there's two posts on my blog in the same day. Honestly, I'm like a bus in that respect (I'm making no reference to my being the size of a bus these days!).
It's time for our next challenge over at Sweet Stampin' and this week we want you to feature animals on your stamped projects.

I used some more piggies from the Gerda Steiner, Wheek Wheek Wheek, stamp set to create my card. As before I stamped them in black memento, coloured with my copics and the fussy cut them. I die cut the purple frame with Tattered Lace, Pin Dot rectangles and glued everything in place on a 6x6 card base, including a few flowers that were lurking on my table. I stamped the sentiment from the set to finish. Simples!

Apologies, that I haven't visited any of you recently. After having a bad chest infection last month, I've not been feeling great and have been pretty much wiped out by the time I've finished work. This came to a head this week, when I picked up another bug. 

By Thursday, I was feeling terrible and so went to the walk in clinic by work. A triage nurse saw me within 5 minutes, and put me as a priority to see the doctor as I had a temperature, my blood pressure and pulse were high and my breathing sounded terrible, especially as I'm asthmatic. 

I saw the Dr about 5 minutes later and she spent a good 40 minutes with me, including getting about 20 puffs of salbutamol down me which upped my peak flow to 350 (normal for me is 470). She then made me rest in the obs ward for about 40 minutes before reviewing me and getting another 20 puffs of salbutamol down me. 

She then let me go with the instructions to make an appointment with my GP next week to review things and to go straight to A&E if my temperature didn't go down within the next two days or if I was struggling to breathe more as I was at risk of developing sepsis or pneumonia. She sent me on my way with the spacer device (volumatic for those who know these things) she used to give me the salbutamol and antibiotics and another inhaler.

I spent Friday resting, especially as I go lightheaded when I cough, and have scheduled this post so that I can have a lie in today! I'm missing not seeing what you've all been up to and will visit you as soon as I can. I hope you all have a healthy and happy weekend x

Less is More - Bring Something Back

I was thrilled to be invited to be a guest designer at Less is More this week, where the challenge is to "Bring Something Back", so basically use something in your crafting that you haven't used for a long time.

I had a rummage in my rather large pile(s) of stash and found these Clarity Stamp Bunnies, that hadn't seen ink for years, poor things! It also amused me that they were showing their backs (I know it doesn't take a lot to amuse me these days).  

I stamped the bunnies in black archival on a 6x6 card base and covered them with the masks that came with the stamps. I die cut a Tattered Lace Essentials heart out of paper and used this to mask off the rest of the card. I added a mask to create the moon and then used my MFT mini clouds stencil with Wilted Violet and Salty Ocean distress oxides to create the clouds. I used my Rare Earth ink brushes to add the ink as they allow me to be more subtle, as I tend to be a bit heavy handed with a blending tool.

I removed the moon mask and stamped in some foliage from Clarity Stamp. I also added a tiny bit of ink over the moon so it wasn't as stark. I spritzed a little water over the oxides and blotted it off after a few seconds.

I removed the heart mask and bunny masks and stamped in a few bits of grass around them (using another unlabelled Clarity stamp). I coloured in the bunnies using polychromos pencils and added a few highlights to the picture with a white gel pen. To finish, I drew round the heart to define it, not worrying about having a wobbly line. Simples.

I hope you have a great time finding something at the back of your cupboard to use and hopefully fall in love with it again. The Less is More design team have come up with some amazing creations if you need any inspiration. Happy Crafting!

The Flower Challenge - Shaped Cards

April already, I've no idea where the time is going! I hope you all had a lovely Easter and are refreshed and ready to join in our new challenge over at The Flower Challenge and this month we want to see shaped cards, so not your standard square or rectangular card.

I used the Tonic verso Twisting Veranda dies for my card base, overhanging the largest basic shape slightly over the crease of my 8x8 card blank to make my base card. I then layered up the dies in cream and purple card to create the background. I stamped Heartfelt Creations Arrianna Blooms on some patterned paper (craftwork cards?) in black ink and cut them out. I then shaped and layered them up to form the flowers. I also diecut some more patterned paper in green tones with Sue Wilson's Bold Scrolled Vine die. It doesn't show up well in the photo, but this die has a lovely debossed detail to it. I tucked this behind the flowers including some snipped into smaller pieces. I die cut the Elizabeth Craft's sentiment in black card and added it to the card. To finish, I added some nuvo drops to the flower centres.

I have to confess to a mishap with this card. I finished it, put it down and realised that I'd stuck the sentiment on at a very wonky angle! I was determined to save the card though. The striped section was originally a cream die cut placed on top of the cream card. I managed to peel off the sentiment without damaging the stripes and then cut the inner edge of the striped border again out of cream. I then trimmed it down bit by bit to poke under the edge of the flowers without damaging them so it fitted back into the gap. I had to cut a few extra leaves to cover where I'd snipped in a little too far! I then had a problem that I'd die cut the sentiment out of the middle of the purple layer and didn't have any more of that colour. I decided to go with black in the end as I'd stamped the flowers in black. Finally I added glitter nuvo drops to the centre of the darker flowers and gloss lilac drops to the centre of the paler one. The paler centres looked too pale and so I ended up adding purple stickles on top of the crusted over gloss drops without squashing them. Finally something went right!

Along with the rest of the design team (check out our fantastic new teamies), we can't wait to see your shaped cards this month. Just remember to make flowers the main focus of your card and if you could include our cue card in your post we'd love you even more than we already do! Happy creating x