More butterflies and ferns

I needed a card for a friend. This is what I came up with.

I made the background with the Stamps by Ryn Maidenhair Fern stencil. I then overstamped with a Just Rite fern stamp using distress ink. I think the sentiment is from Hero Arts. I finished off with a couple of K & Co stick on butterflies.

It has been a really busy month in the garden. Last year I wanted to make some plant labels for the veg beds, but one thing and another got in the way of much progress. This year armed with a new Sizzix Bigz set of alphabet dies, I tried again. My OH cut me some wood which I first painted with acrylic paint. I stuck on the die cuts with two coats of outdoor Mod Podge. I will see how they weather before I make more for other areas of the garden, but I am quite pleased with the result.

I hope wherever you are, life is blossoming for you!

Elaine

Birthday card for a special friend

It was my lovely friend Lesley's birthday last week. This is the card I made for her.

Lesley's favourite colour is green, so I started with this green and pink paper from the Prima Firefly collection. These papers are so lovely, they were in danger of being kept in a box and only taken out and stroked occasionally, but I tool the plunge and put it into the guillotine before I lost my nerve, cutting the backing for an 8 x 8 card!!!

I added more green Distress Ink with a Stamps by Ryn Maidenhair Fern stencil. I added another stencil in the upper right corner. Butterflies are another favourite of Lesley, and these butterflies were cut out with a Tim Holtz die and matching embossing folder. This were coloured with more DIs and highlighted with some Treasure Gold. I felt the bodies needed more focus, so I cut out additional bodies which I shaped with an embossing tool and also added antennae using a Memory Box butterfly die.

The sentiment is stamped using a Carabelle Studio stamp and seems very appropriate. Sadly we get together IRL very rarely, so sending each other special birthday messages is all the more important.  I finished off with a couple of bling swirls.

I wish the photo was better, I just seem to be struggling to get the colours right at the moment.

Thanks for popping by! Your comments are always appreciated.

Elaine

Nature cards 1

I have recently been playing about with some collage stamping with some of my many plant silhouette stamps.

The colour in this card isn't brilliant. but you get the idea! I started by using ink duster brushes to add Distress Inks to the background panel. I used a mixture of Cracked Pistachio, Peacock Feathers and Chipped Sapphire if I remember rightly. I then stamped with a script stamp from Woodware, followed by another Woodware Cow Parsley stamp in the three background colours. The sentiment is from Honey Doo stamps and the butterflies from the Kind'a Eclectic set from Stampin Up. I finished by adding a little Chipped Sapphire around the edge and mounted onto a 6 x 6 black card blank.

You may be surprised to hear that I rarely stamp in DIs as I find them too wet and not precise enough in their effect for my liking, but I really enjoyed this stamping session and went on to make quite a few more similar designs (to be posted in due course) and I think I may just be a converted stamper!

Hope you have had a good weekend.

Elaine

HapPea Birthday!

I recently found a Making Memories magnetic alphabet set of stamps in a charity shop for the princely sum of £1.50. A bargain indeed for a sturdy little set in two lovely tins. The font is a little quirky and an idea formed in my head as I was stamping images of with a lovely set of vegetable garden stamps that I treated myself to from Papertrey Ink. The card was for one of my veggie friends and I thought he would appreciate a humorous approach! This is the card I came up with. The background is stamped with the very useful Stampin Up Hardwood stamp.

I had a couple of spare pea images, so made a variation on this theme, trying to make the peas and words look like they are on a seed packet. The packet itself was die cut with a Papertrey Ink die.

I am looking forward to planning more cards with the other veggies in the series.

Whatever you have been up to, I hope you have enjoyed the Bank Holiday. Most of our day has been occupied with planting in our veggie patch.

Elaine