The Flower Challenge #38 Reminder - Use Spots or Stripes

It’s time for a reminder about our challenge over at The Flower Challenge and this time we want to see spots or stripes on your artwork. Once again we have a fantastic sponsor this month, Topflight stamps who are very generously giving our winner a $25 e-gift card.

I used my gelli plate again to create my reminder card. I used various layers of paperartsy paint applied with my brayer to start my background. Once dry I added a bit of distress oxide in picked raspberry and ripe persimmon through an all and create stencil. I then applied sparkle paste unevenly and randomly through a Heffy Doodle striped stencil. I mounted it on a 5x7 card when dry and doodled a border. I die cut a couple of blooms from Tim Holtz’s wildflower sets in black card and glued the, in place. To finish I added one of the phrases from Tim Holtz’s small talk collections. A really simple card. 

on’t forget to check out my teamies  amazing work on the challenge page, as well as our rules to make sure you’re eligible to win our fab prize this month  x

The Flower Challenge #38 - Use spots or stripes

Yep, November already! The nights are definitely drawing in now and the heating is on.
It’s time for our new challenge over at The Flower Challenge and this time we want to see spots or stripes on your artwork. Once again we have a fantastic sponsor this month, Topflight stamps who are very generously giving our winner a $25 e-gift card.

I decided to get out my gelli plate to create my card this month. I used various layers of paperartsy paint applied with my brayer and various Aall and Create stencils that had circles on them to create my background. I also made another background (okay so I made lots of really interesting backgrounds as I was having so much fun) and then used this to stamp multiple times one of the flowers from Aall and Create’s Doodled Blooms #140 stamp set in black ink. I then cut out the flowers and shaped them slightly. I also stamped a sentiment from the set on this piece and used may trimmer to cut it out. 

I took the background I’d made and as the stem on the flower was too short, drew in some stems with a black fineliner adding some stripes to them as I did so. I also doodled round the edge of the A5 background and added it to a 5x7 card base on 1mm deep foam tape. I then added the flowers onto the card (covering most of the dots on it in the background, doh!) and popped a black gem in the centre of each. I added the sentiment on foam tape to the card with a drop of postbox red tonic vintage nuvo drops. I added some more to the card (although I later regretted it as it looks like measles!) 

I’ll be back halfway through the month with a reminder card, don’t forget to check out my teamies  amazing work on the challenge page, as well as our rules to make sure you’re eligible to win our fab prize this month  x

The Flower Challenge #37 Reminder - CAS

It’s halfway through the month and so it’s  time for a reminder about our challenge over at The Flower Challenge 
This month our theme is CAS - clean and simple cards and so it tickled me that our sponsor this month is CAS-ual Fridays Stamps and they are giving our winner a fantastic prize of a $25 voucher for their gorgeous stamps. All the team including our fantastic guest designer, the very talented Tina Magnusson were given stamps by CAS-ual Fridays Stamps to use this month. Make sure you check out all their stunning work. I have to say the CAS-usual Fridays Stamps way package up their orders made receiving it very happy mail! 
I used their Peaceful Garden stamp set for my card. I stamped the 2 part flower in light and dark pink inks and then cut them out. I also stamped the 2 part leaf stamp from the set in 2 shades of green before cutting them all out. I added green ink to a circular gel press and then lifted some of the ink with the flower stamp before “stamping” it on my card blank. I doodled round it with a black pen. There are two lovely sentiments in the Peaceful Garden and I stamped one on my card. I added the leaf and flower to finish. Another really simple and quick (once I’d decided what to do!) card. 

The Flower Challenge #37 - CAS

It’s October and it’s definitely getting autumnal, the nights are drawing in (and I’ve had to give in and put the heating on to keep the bunnies warm!), but it does mean that it’s time for our next challenge over at The Flower Challenge 
This month our theme is CAS - clean and simple cards and so it tickled me that our sponsor this month is CAS-ual Fridays Stamps and they are giving our winner a fantastic prize of a $25 voucher for their gorgeous stamps. All the team including our fantastic guest designer, the very talented Tina Magnusson were given stamps by CAS-ual Fridays Stamps to use this month. Make sure you check out their stunning work. I have to say the way they package up their orders made it very happy mail too! 
I chose to use their Peaceful Garden stamp set for my card. I stamped the 2 part flower in light and dark pink inks and then cut them out. I also stamped the 2 part leaf stamp from the set in 2 shades of green before cutting them all out. I added some white gel pen to the leaves and doodled a border with a black fine liner on a 6x6 card in. There are two lovely sentiments in the Peaceful Garden as you’ll see on my reminder card. I decided that these stamps work so well with other items in my stash, that I used a sentiment from PaperArtsy Zinski Art set 8 on my card. I tglued the leaves in place and added the flowers over the  top leaf on foam tape to give some dimension. A really simple, but I hope you agree, effective card. I’ll be back with a reminder card in a couple of weeks time. Happy Crafting! 

The Flower Challenge #36 Reminder “Anything Goes”

It’s time for a reminder about our current challenge over at The Flower Challenge. This month it’s super easy to join in as our theme is “Anything Goes”. If you do play along this month (and have followed our challenge rules you’ll be eligible for a fantastic prize.
This month we have not one, but two prizes of a $25 gift card up for grabs from our fantastic sponsor
My Favorite Things . They also very generously offered all our DT a gift card so that we could buy some stamps to play with. I made a really simple but effective (at least I think it is!) card using the MFT Brushstroke Blooms stamp set. I stamped the elements using distress oxide inks in mowed lawn, worn lipstick and squeezed lemonade. Before I stamped the images I gave them a light spritz of water to give a slightly more water coloured look. Once dry I fussy cut them out.
I die cut the largest Tattered Lace Shabby Offset Square in white and glued it to a 6x6 card, and then arranged the flowers and leaves with 3D gel. I added a touch of Shabby Shutters distress glitter to the centre of the flowers.
I blended some worn lipstick distress oxide ink onto white card so I had the perfect colour match and then cut out the sentiment with a Card Deco Essentiaks die. Simples!

The Flower Challenge #36 Anything Goes

I know I always say it, but seriously, where is the time going?! It’ll be the C word before we know it!
Anyway, the good thing about the start of a new month is that we have a new challenge over at The Flower Challenge. This month it’s super easy to join in as our theme is “Anything Goes”. If you do play along this month (and have followed our challenge rules you’ll be eligible for a fantastic prize.
This month we have not one, but two prizes of a $25 gift card up for grabs from our fantastic sponsor
My Favorite Things . They also very generously offered all our DT a gift card so that we could buy some stamps to play with. I have to confess that I always thought of My Favourite Things as producing really sweet character stamps. I hadn’t realised what fantastic floral stamps they have too!
I used their gorgeous Painted Prints layering stamp set for my card.
I started off by stamping the flowers in their three stages with Catherine Pooler inks in two shades of purple and then added the centre using Dusty Concord distress ink. For the foliage I used the stamps that actually form a sprig of flowers but by stamping the base layer in cracked pistachio distress oxide and then adding the two final layers in mowed lawn distress oxide it created a sprig of leaves instead. Once dry I cut them out. I used the same two inks and added twisted citroen oxide ink to create the tag background. I smooshed the pads in my craft mat, spritzed it withwater and then dragged the tag through it. I dried it with my heat tool and repeated until I was happy with it. When fully dry I doodled a border round it and also drew one on my 5x7 card blank. I unravelled some of the thick twine that I had lurking on the kitchen window sill from doing the garden, wrapped it loosely round my fingers to form a loop and glued it onto the tag. I also threaded some through the tag. I glued my cut out flowers onto it and then die cut the sentiment and glued it in place. I assembled the card by adding the tag to the card with foam tape.

The Flower Challenge #35 Reminder

How quickly is time going? I can’t believe it’s now August. It’ll be time to start on the Christmas cards soon! In the meantime though, it’s time for our our new challenge over at The Flower Challenge and this time we want you to use your favourite flower. Once again we have a fantastic guest designer and even better we have another fantastic sponsor who has donated a prize for this month’s winner! Clearly Besotted are a fantastic small UK based company and they’re donating a £20 e-gift card as our prize this month.

It’s so important for us to support small stamp companies as they’re being ripped off by unscrupulous Chinese companies stealing their designs to make cheap poor quality copies of their stamps.

I cheated this month and used my second favourite flower to make my card, fuschias. I used this gorgeous Clearly Besotted layering stamp set to make my card. I stamped the elements on white card and cut them out (only because I dropped my ink pad on the originally planned card LOL!). I simply glued them in place, doodled a border and added a die cut sentiment to hide the tiny purple ink splodge I got on there. I think I need to learn to be tidy!  

Don’t forget to remind yourself of our rules to be in with a chance to win the main ones are that a floral image must be the focus of the card and the flowers must have been created by you, whether that’s colouring in a digital stamp, stamping or die cutting. You can enter up to 6 other challenges with the same card and you need to link back to the challenge. All the rules are in a tab at the top of The Flower Challenge and make sure you check out my fantastic teamies and our talented guest designers makes whilst you’re there. Happy creating!

The Flower Challenge #35 Use your favourite flower

How quickly is time going? I can’t believe it’s now August. It’ll be time to start on the Christmas cards soon! In the meantime though, it’s time for our our new challenge over at The Flower Challenge and this time we want you to use your favourite flower. Once again we have a fantastic guest designer and even better we have another fantastic sponsor who has donated a prize for this month’s winner! Clearly Besotted are a fantastic small UK based company and they’re donating a £20 e-gift card as our prize this month.

It’s so important for us to support small stamp companies as they’re being ripped off by unscrupulous Chinese companies stealing their designs to make cheap poor quality copies of their stamps.
I used their beautiful Pick a Peony stamp set for my card. I coloured them to look like the ones we had in our garden when I was growing up. I love the big voluptuous blooms they produce and their tight perfectly spherical flower buds.  I stamped one of the stamps for the set twice on white card and coloured them in with zig clean colour pens. I then fussy cut one of them and just cut out the two large flowers on the second and decoupaged it up with foam tape. I added some finnabair micro beads  pollen with some glue to finish them.
I stamped the sentiment from Clearly Besotted Sincerest Wishes on a piece of white card and added some crochet lace. I layered it up on some red card using foam tape, so that I could wrap the lace round the edges and added it to a card blank. I then added the flowers using a mix of foam tape and glue to get them to secure to the lace. Simples!
I can’t wait to see what you come up with this month, even though it makes it so hard for us to chose
a winner! Don’t forget to remind yourself of our rules to be in with a chance to win the main ones are that a floral image must be the focus of the card and the flowers must have been created by you, whether that’s colouring in a digital stamp, stamping or die cutting. You can enter up to 6 other challenges with the same card and you need to link back to the challenge. All the rules are in a tab at the top of The Flower Challenge and make sure you check out my fantastic teamies and our talented guest designers makes whilst you’re there. Happy creating!

The Flower Challenge #34 Pretty Pastels

Are you melting yet? Looks like we’re going to have another hot summer this year. Hopefully your crafting space is cool and so you can join us this month at The Flower Challenge and this month we want to see your pastel creations. We also have another fantastic sponsor this month, the very lovely Bev who owns Uniko has very generously offered the give the winner the stamp set of their choice (as long as it’s in stock on the website).

I used the Uniko Mid Century Modern Stencil for my card. I used some Cosmic Shimmer twinkle sparkle paste but tinted it with some blue ink to make a pastel colour and applied it through the stencil. Once dry I trimmed it down and mat and layered it into the card. I stamped the flowers and stems from the Flower Power #3 stamp set in black ink on another piece of card and coloured them in with copics and pencils before fussy cutting them and adding to the card with foam tape. Simples! 

The Flower Challenge #33 Focus on Background Stamping Reminder

It’s the middle of June and I had the heating on yesterday! Still, the bad weather is an excuse to stay in and craft rather than tackle the weeding. We’re halfway through our current challenge over at The Flower Challenge and this time our time is “Focus on Background Stamping”.
This month we have another great guest designer, Deepti Malik. She also has her own range of gorgeous stamps  Dee’s Artsy Impressions and has very generously donated a stamp set worth $15 for our winner this month. Please make sure you check out our challenge rules as we’d hate for you to be disqualified and miss out on the chance to win.
I used the MFT Bundles of Blossoms background stamp again for my reminde card. I stamped it with my grubby versamark pad and the sprinkled 6 different colours of blue, green and gold embossing powder on it and then heated embossed it. I trimmed the panel down and added it with a gold mat on a 6x6 card. I stamped one of the sentiments from the Stamps by Me Positive vibes set and heat embossed in gold on a strip of white card. I added it with foam tape and a gold mat behind it to the card. I took one of my original disaster, sorry, test panels and fussy cut one of the flowers from it. I added this to the card with a sequin in the centre. Simples!

The Flower Challenge #33 Focus on Background Stamping

Blimey, June already and only a few weeks until the longest day and then it’s all downhill from there! The start of the month also means that it’s time for a new challenge over at The Flower Challenge and this time our time is “Focus on Background Stamping”.
This month we have another great guest designer, Deepti Malik. She also has her own range of gorgeous stamps  Dee’s Artsy Impressions and has very generously donated a stamp set worth $15 for our winner this month. Please make sure you check out our challenge rules as we’d hate for you to be disqualified and miss out on the chance to win.
I used the MFT Bundles of Blossoms background stamp on mycard. I heated embossed it in white and then water coloured the image. I die cut and embossed the Tonic sentiment from the panel. I mounted the panel of green card on a 6x6 card. I then layered up the sentiment on 3 white die cuts and replaced it in the card. To finish I added sequins to the centres of some of the flowers.
I’ll be back with a reminder card on the 15th. Happy Crafting!

The Flower Challenge #32 Embossing Reminder

Halfway through the month and so it’s time for our reminder post for the current  challenge at The Flower Challenge and this month we want to see embossing, either dry or heat on your floral creations.

We also have a fantastic sponsor this month, Altenew, who are offering their stunning cross stitch flower stamp set as a prize.
I had some left over flowers using the Altenew Beautiful Day stamp set from making my original card for the challenge, so I decided to use them to make my reminder card. I started off by embossing a piece of vellum with a falling snow embossing folder (sorry, I can’t see who made it). I added a mat of purple card onto a 5x7 card base. I added a strip of the same card onto the vellum and glued it, the flowers and the leaves into place. I then added glue behind these to glue the vellum onto the card. As the vellum wasn’t playing nicely and was curling up, I added some dots of glue to secure it in place. To hide these dots added some of my left over nuvo drop dots. Simples! 
Don’t forget to check out our challenge rules as we wouldn’t want you to miss out on the chance to win the fantastic stamp set we have been given by the very generous Altenew this month! 

The Flower Challenge #32 Embossing

Hoppy Easter!

Pickle and Beans would like to wish you Happy Easter! Beans wanted to demonstrate his binkying (that’s when a happy bunny jumps and twists up in the air). Pickle just thought he was showing off! 

Willow and Herb didn’t get Easter eggs, just part of the neighbour’s apple tree. Willow thought it was a bit on the small side. Herb was too busy eating to comment!

The Flower Challenge #31 Reminder

Blimey, halfway through April already, if you’re anything like me you can’t wait for the Easter Weekend to catch up on some crafting. It’s reminder time about our current challenge at The Flower Challenge and this time we have a sketch  I used the lovely Uniko Passiflora Flower Stamp set for my card. I stamped the leaf and the tendril several times to fill my card blank in light green ink. I then repeated the process on two pieces of card with two darker shades of green, before trimming them down to match the sketch. I blended some ink around the edge of all of them to add some definition and drew in a stitched border with a black fine liner. I also used a white gel pen to add stitched detail to the leaves. I stamped the 3 elements to build up the flowers on card and then cut out each flower before adding to the card on foam tape. I love creating cards like this where you just start off with white card, inks and a stamp set.  I’d love to see how you interpret the sketch too x

The Flower Challenge #31 Sketch

Seriously, April already?! The only good thing about how fast time is going is that it’s time for our next challenge at The Flower Challenge and this time we have a sketch for you.

I raided a Christmas paper pad for my card. I used papers from Trimcrafts Gilded Winter pad and distressed their edges with a pair of scissors. I made the flowers from Fleurs Flower Forming Foam (try saying that when tipsy!) using an Elizabeth Craft die set. The sentiment is from a Mama Elephant set. Simples! 

The Flower Challenge #30 Reminder

It’s time for our new challenge over at The Flower Challenge and this time it’s everyone’s favourite, “Anything Goes”.Well, as long as florals are the focal point of course! I whipped up another super quick card this time as life is still chaotic. Fingers still crossed it’ll settle down soon. 

I used the Clearly Besotted Pretty Pansies stamp set and stamped it with Jane Davenport’s Squid Ink in Cave Black. I used my copies and polychromos pencils to colour it in and then fussy cut it out. I embossed a 5x5 card with a chevron embossing folder (make long forgotten, story) and added the flower with foam tape. I used a sentiment that the lovely Clare gifted me, I think it’s a Lawn Fawn one, cut in black card to finish. Super quick and put to shame by the amazing cards my team ones have made! I really wish they weren’t all so talented!

We can’t wait to see your entries, please remember to check out our rules if you’re not familiar with them and if you can include our cue card below, even better!

The Flower Challenge #30 Anything Goes

It’s time for our new challenge over at The Flower Challenge and this time it’s everyone’s favourite, “Anything Goes”.Well, as long as florals are the focal point of course! I whipped up a super quick card this time as life has been somewhat chaotic of late. Fingers crossed it’ll settle down soon. 

I used a Stampendous Poppy stamp set and stamped it with Jane Davenport’s Squid Ink in Cave Black. I’m loving this ink as it’s a hybrid ink and so you can watercolour or use alcohol markers with it. Great for when you change your mind at the last minute! I used a mix of spectrum noir sparkle and zig clean colour pens to colour in and then fussy cut the elements and glued them onto a 5x7 card. I squiggled in a border with a black fineliner and then added some gunmetal stickles to the flower centres. Super quick

We can’t wait to see your entries, please remember to check out our rules if you’re not familiar with them and if you can include our cue card below, even better!

The Flower Challenge #29 Use your latest stamps and dies

Blimey, February already which means that it's time for our new challenge over at The Flower Challenge and this time we want you to use your latest stamps or dies.

|I was supposed to be on a stash diet, but when my local craft shop had this Sizzix Natural Florals die on sale a couple of weeks ago, I succumbed! I die cut it out of some glossy card on which I'd created a background with brushos. I trimmed some orange card to fit a 6x6 card and then embossed a piece of white card with an old Spellbinders double sided embossing folder. I added a sentiment from the Mama Elephant, Occasional Labels stamp set (I've had this set for a while, but it was the first time that it'd been inked up!). True to form I got an inky mark at the top of the card and so had to add a few sequins to cover it. 

We 't wait to see your creations this month, please ensure that you check out our rules and if you could include our cue card in your post we'd love you even more than we already do!