A Lavinia fairy card

It is one of my lovely crafty friends birthdays today and this is the card I sent her.

The main image is a Lavinia stamp and I used Memento Luxe ink which was recommended to me for its coverage for silhouette stamps, and I have to agree is very good, but takes a while to dry. I am not a great one for fairy images, but I think I have said before I love their little hats in this image, like the knitted hats we used to wear when we were tots! I am showing my age a bit now!

All other stamping and ink shading is done with Distress Inks in Crushed Pistachio (fast becoming a new favourite), Peacock Feathers and Chipped Sapphire.

The other plant images are a mixture of Lavinia, Inkadinkado and Inkylicious and the sentiment a cheapie I picked up at the Rubbernecker stand at Ally Pally sometime, probably for 50p.

It has been so hot here this week, I hope we are over the real peak of temperatures as we have a family barbecue to attend on Sunday which could be a trial otherwise! Being past midsummer does mean more is starting to happen in the veg patch now. We have had our first strawberries and some sun berries with our breakfast this morning and the first courgettes will be ready to pick in a day or two. This is where I hope we will start to reap the rewards of the extra work in the garden that retirement has allowed me!

Wishing you all a lovely weekend.

Elaine

Another thank you card

I recently made this card for someone who has made a real difference to my life in recent months. 

I wanted to use the hollyhock theme and started layering colour with a background of blended distress inks. I added the first layer through a Donna Downey stencil. I added some stamping using an Impression Obsession stamp and finished my hollyhock layers with die cuts using an Impression Obsession die in blue pearl card and a mid blue card. The last think I added was some stamping using a whirl from Stamps by Ryn.

I finished with a die cut printed butterfly and the sentiment which is a mix of stamp with matching die cut, from W Plus 9. I love the font on these sets sold by Make the Day Special.

I hope wherever you are you are enjoying a fruitful summer.

Elaine

A canvas project

I was asked to teach a workshop for a group of ladies taking part in a local respite weekend for carers. I don't generally run workshops any more, because I find the stress often takes more out of me, than the pleasure gives back, but this opportunity makes me feel different. The unusual thing is that those taking part are not crafters, so the group often includes very mixed abilities.

This was my sample, a reverse canvas with a stencilled background, a stamped image using a La Blanche stamp and loads of die cut leaves. The sentiment is a Jo Capper Sandon Stampotique stamp - one of my favourites. I wanted to try and create something like a tranquil glade, a little bit of peace in a busy world for these ladies.

I have to say I was so impressed with their work and everyone finished in two hours, despite some of them going off to have their nails done or to have a head massage.

Here are some of the results, as you can see there is quite a variety.

 

 

They all seemed to enjoy themselves. I have to say though if I ever have the idea of using so many leaf die cuts again, someone needs to talk me down. It took two evenings of cutting out and even my poor OH was drummed into service with the Big Shot!

The other thing that has been keeping me busy is the garden. Things are starting to bloom beautifully and some of my favourite cottage garden favourites are blossoming nicely.

Meanwhile though, someone is busy sabotaging my hard work eating my flowers!!!!

We have run out of nuts for the feeders, so maybe this one is just dropping me a hint!

Thanks for popping by!

Elaine

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