Happy Easter!

I'm sharing my first Easter card of the year with you today and it was time to use a real old favourite stamp - Bunny friends by penny black.

I stamped the bunnies separately, coloured them with pro markers and cut around them. I wanted them to have a 3D look so I turned the square card I had in to a concertina style by double folding the front and trimming the back to match the length.

I had a rummage through my stash for some eastery papers to make the hillside and sky and we were good to go. I cut the cloud out freehand and stamped penny black's Happy Easter greeting. Finishing touches include glossy accents, punched paper flowers, fine liner 'stitching' and liquid pearls.

I took my finished card down to be photographed only to find pup had done a wee on the carpet. I left the card on the coffee table while I went to fetch something to clear up only to come back and find the card in his mouth!! Needless to say he did not have a good morning! One rabbit had lost his ears but apart from that the damage was minimal. After a few repairs we were ready to photograph again. Can you spot which rabbit was the casualty?!

At this point Pup would like to point out how gorgeous, chocolatey and spring like he looks among the primroses in the garden, and gives his assurances that no more cards will be harmed during the making of this blog. Probably.

I'd like to enter this card in to the following challenges;

Penny black saturday - Easter

Penny Black and more - Feature cresature

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday - Cute and cuddly

Little Claire's- anything goes

Paper creators - spring colours

Try it on Tuesday - Nature

Allsorts -Easter

In praise of Mum

Many of us are fortunate enough to believe that our Mum's are the best in the world. I happen to be of that opinion and today I want to share a bit of  'Mummy love.'

If it wasn't for my Mum, and the many times that we spent at a Brighton Kitchen Table then I almost certainly wouldn't be a card maker. We spent many happy hours stamping and embossing using the heat from a toaster, held with a peg! My Mum has been my number one card making companion since forever and we have enjoyed many a road trip to craft shows and shops together over the years.

My Mum is not a blog owner but I know she visits mine from time to time and has more recently started to tell me that my cards are 'better than hers' and it's putting her off making. Of course, Mums are meant to say nice things and encourage their children, but not to their own detriment. So today I am not sharing with you one of my cards, but one of hers. Because of course, I keep them all.

Isn't it gorgeous? I'm allowed to say that of course because I didn't make it! But truly it is. So, this week I'm entering my Mum's lovely card in to the following challenges;

Stamping Sensations - Flower Power

Penny Black and More - Feature a creature

Crafty Ribbons - Green (as green features as a mount and a ribbon)

Little Claire's - Anything goes

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge - Cute and Cuddly

Paper creator- spring colours

Emerald creek- ring in spring

Try it on Tuesday- Nature

Ribbon girl- any image

Craft stamper anything goes

What's outside your window?

This week I have had the honor of being a guest designer at Less is More. Their theme for the week is 'What's outside you window?'

For me, the answer to this is the stunning Devon countryside with occasional glimpses of Dartmoor rising up in the distance.  I hope I shall never take these beautiful views for granted and couldn't be given such a topic without acknowledging them. With that in mind, the first card I wish to share with you is this one;

The window frame is a sizzix die cut, mounted on 3D foam mounts. I used a selection of distress and versa colour inks to create the landscape. I tore along the edge of a piece of paper and used this as a mask while I inked, starting with the sky and working downwards to create the layered hills.

 

The flower in the vase and the sentiment come from a papermania stamp set. I coloured them with promarkers, cut out and again fixed with 3D foam mounts. For a final flourish I coated the flower and vase with glossy accents. 

And here is our lovely view, just so I haven't kept it all to myself!

For the second card on this theme, I wanted to play around with the idea of the windows a bit more. I was trying to think about how to make them a little different. I came up with the idea of portholes as they have the more unusual shape.

At this point I'm sure you're expecting me to tell you I die cut the circles. Alas no. For some reason I've never got as far as purchasing a circle die set so the inside of the circle was punched out with a woodware punch. I have a strange compass type thing with a blade attached which while rummaging through my stash I occasionally stab my finger on (why didn't it come with a cover?!) Imagine my joy when I realised I finally had a use for it! After several attempts I got a satisfactory measurement and cut the outer edge of the portholes. 

I gilded them in bronze Stix2 foil and added brown brads. The inside of the portholes was done by masking the card and stamping a wave stamp from a papermania set called 'Ahoy there.' I added the sentiment from this set and a doodled border in blue fineliner. To finish off I added wink of stella to the waves for a bit of sparkle.

This close up shows the shine a little better.

Thanks for stopping by today, I'd love to hear what you think of these projects, do you have a favourite? Please call again soon!

R is for...

This week over at the Craft Barn, the letter for the alphabet challenge is R. They also have their fortnightly challenge running which is to create a background with circles. I've combined the two for my entry this week where R is for...

Reptile 

I inked the whole page lightly first, then  added circles of colour using home made stencils.

 My dictionary has diagrams illustrating some of the words and reptile was one of them, which made it particularly appealing. Unfortunately on the opposite page was a full diagram of reproductive organs! Since we all already know what they look like I made the most of some reptile shaped die cuts strategically placed to ensure consistency in the theme!
I added a bit of journalling and shed loads of liquid pearls dotted everywhere to finish it off.

Mr Fix It

I feel like I say this a lot on here but, I don't have very many sentiment stamps at all. This often results in me handwriting messages on, but for this week's 'less is more' one layer sentiment challenge I felt I needed to do more than that. I rummaged through my stamps and happened upon a pretty old Woodware set called Mr fix it. I think it must have been one of the very earliest of the clear stamp sets. Anyway, it's not had a as much use as it deserves so I brought it out.

I stamped the three bricks in a variety of patterns then added the diggers and sentiments. For a touch a gentle irony and humour I stamped'it' upside down. The card is coloured with pro markers and I added some glossy accents to the diggers for an extra, one layered, dimension!

This card is destined for the less is more challenge and Casology's 'laugh' challenge (hopefully it is at least vaguely amusing?!!)

That's all for now although I've got a few exciting things coming up on the blog shortly so do call again!

A gift

I've used a bit of random inking with yellows and oranges to stamp these sunflowers. I think it was a penny black stamp but I borrowed it from my mum and forgot to check! I drew in the stems and added the label attached to a cocktail stick which I coloured the same. The ladybird is one of those items you acquire from somewhere and couldn't bare to part with!

I'm probably pushing the boundaries of less is more here as there's not much white space but hopefully the one layer minimal embellishments will help!
This is my entry for this week's addicted to cas 'gift' theme. I'm also linking in to Simon says stamp a 'touch of green' theme and stamping sensations flower power.

Little Claire's love and marriage

The theme over at Little Claire's this month is love and marriage. Although I've already made one card for the challenge I wanted to have a go using some of their own stamps.

I used basic grey papers layered together with a bit of mounting on 3D foam pads. The stamps are the love birds, bird house and sentiment from the butterfly tree set. I finished the card with some glossy accents, although it's not terribly clear from this picture.

As I've used four different stamps on this card if also like to link it to the craft stamper anything goes with a stamp challenge.