You are my Lobster

When I made the flamingo card a few days ago I stamped the other images from the stamp set and I thought why not use the Splat stencil with the Dutch Doobadoo and create some quick yet cute cards.

Beautiful Flamingo

I had an idea to use stencils within a stencil and it worked, the bushes are actually a mountain stencil but it works and I also used the cloud border from MFT and the wave stencil from Double Doobadoo. 

The cute stamp is from Darcie's and I bought it about three years ago and only just found it in a completely different section of my organisation. Of course I am using the word "organisation" lightly cos my room is far from organised lol

Follow the Yellow Brick Road

I was so going to channel my inner Amy Young and colour a background with the yellow brick road but I am just not ready for that yet so I went with the clearly besotted brush strokes and the mft brick stencil and hopefully you can see that its supposed to be a representation of the yellow brick road lol.

More Rainbow Snippets

When I was making the snippet card yesterday I had quite a few strips of card left over and it seemed a shame to waste them so I made this card with the leftovers of the leftover card lol.

As the background is so bright I went with a more muted greyscale colouring on this older Anya stamp. I think I might have stamped her at a playday back in 2013 and only just coloured her in. I wish I could say I am getting better at using my images but that is simply not the case.

As its another snippet card I am going to go for a play on the swings again.

Ingredients

Image : Anya from the Greeting Farm

Sentiment: inspiration magazine from crafters companion

Stripes: Festive berries, carved pumpkin, mustard seed, mowed lawn, salvaged patina, salty ocean, wilted violet distress inks.

Dies: blueprints 29 from MFT

An Honour and a Rainbow Snippet

I am not sure how to begin this post as it is not often I am lost for words, but here it goes.

The lovely Di from Pixie's Crafty Workshop contacted me and asked me if I would like to Guest Design for the Snippet Playground, once you had picked me up off the floor I said a resounding "YES PLEASE". This challenge has conditioned me so well that I always look at my snippets before I cut into a whole sheet of any type of card, so why is it when I had to make a snippet card my mind went blank lol.

Anyone who follows my blog will know how I struggle to colour things that aren't a natural colour and by that I mean I can colour a bear like a polar bear, black or brown bear but making one blue or green sends me into a tailspin. I did joke with Di that I would try and colour the pig blue but again my brain went its spotty so must be a gloucester old spot and it was my intention to colour it that way, however when I picked up my pens I coloured it pink and then I decided to challenge myself to see if I could add rainbow spots and the more I coloured the more I liked it.

Of course now I have a rainbow pig so I need a rainbow background and my mind returned to my comfort zone from last year when I made a lot of rainbow and just stripy cards.

Now you might be wondering how I created the strips so I took photos of the process and documented it below, the card pieces I used are left over from making my friends gatefold wedding invitations last year so as I made 140 I still have a few left lol.

The stamp set Di sent me is from Pink Ink Designs and called "A Cut Above Pigs Might Fly" its a beautiful set and with the matching dies. The dies cut on the black line too so if you don't like the white border they are definitely for you.

I began the process of using the left over pieces of white card with my distress inks direct to paper and covering the whole piece. I left them overnight to dry as this process does add a lot more moisture then ink blending but it gives a more colour blocked look.

The next day once they were dry I used my Tim Holtz tonic trimmer and cut each piece into strips using the guides on the trimmer to ensure they were equal widths, now you may want to just wing this but I struggle with that concept lol.

The next picture shows all my strips in reverse rainbow order ready to go, this picture makes me so happy as I love all these colours together and who can't help but smile at a rainbow.

The next process is to cut a thin sheet of copy paper into 4 1/4 by 5 1/2 inches and cover the entire panel with adhesive, I find tape or sheets work better for this than liquid glue.  I should have used one of my sheets but its feels too precious to be cut into lol

The next picture is the adding of the strips to the panel, I decided to not make it an entire sheet of rainbow and added a piece of white at the top, this also gives me a starting place to add my strips. I just continue until the whole sheet is covered.

Once the entire panel is covered it will look like the image below. Now it looks like I calculated that I would be able to add two sets of the strips but nope it was a happy accident lol

Finally I use a die to cut the panel, this serves two purposes, it gives a nice finished edge and it also presses the strips into the adhesive panel and the texture (from the butting up next to each other of strips) is flattened.

Ingredients

Image and Sentiment: A Cut Above Pigs Might Fly by Pink Ink Designs

Inks: Festive Berries, Carved Pumpkin, Mustard Seed, Mowed Lawn, Salvaged Patina, Salty Ocean, Wilted Violet distress inks

Dies: Blueprints 29 from MFT Stamps

Challenges: Snippet Playground at Pixies's Crafty Workshop

If you got to the end of that mammoth post I would like to thank you for joining me and I would also like to say a very big thank you to Di and Dudley for asking me, its been an absolute pleasure xx

Halloween 2021

Now if you thought you were going to see my halloween costume you are going to be bitterly disappointed lol. This year like last year I made a few Halloween cards and I will say I need to buy some halloween supplies as this wasn't an easy make.

I was chatting with a friend on zoom and saying I didn't have any supplies to make halloween cards when she commented on the Art Impressions Spider stamp behind my head and I had totally forgotten I had bought her in the clearance section at Hobby Lobby. Then of course I needed a spider web die so I asked my friend if I could cut some of hers and this is the result.

I am totally obsessed with the blueprints 30 die and don't even put it away at the moment lol.

The two different backgrounds were an experiment and one that didn't go as I had hoped. I used glossy photopaper and the oxide sprays and on the top one I pounced them on my mat as otherwise it covered the panel completely.

Apology and a Cupcake

 Firstly I think I need to apologise for my continued absence, I would like to say that this won'y happen again but I can't make that promise at the moment.

The last two years have been difficult for everyone and in my family that has also been the case. It's not my story to tell so I can't write it on here but its been  very difficult, frustrating, humbling and sad. This has adversely affected my ability to feel joy and in turn my ability to create cards. 

I am not making excuses and I am not looking for sympathy but I am hoping that you can understand.

Anyway enough waffling onto the card, I asked my friend to send me a stamped image of this cupcake because I desperately wanted to eat the one she had coloured and I wanted to have a go myself. I did make me want to buy the stamp and also lick the finished card. Maybe if there wasn't a global pandemic I might have licked it but I don't think the recipient wants my germs.

I don't have an ingredient list because I made this so long ago I have forgotten, maybe I need to write down what I use as I use it.....ok I'm laughing too.