Watercolour Poppies

Hi everyone, today I would like to share a fairly simple watercolour effect card I made, based on a design by Jo Rice. I used to love watercolour stamping back in the day using my old Marvey watercolour markers with Penny Black brushstroke stamps, though I only had a very small number of the stamps to play with. Recently I have been trying a similar technique using my Zig pens and some silhouette Lavinia floral stamps … I am very pleased with the results although the pens really seriously stain your stamps!! Here is my latest effort.

I cut a 13cm square of white stamping card and masked a 2cm border all the way round. I then created my background with blended Elements inks and an acetate circle mask. I stamped the poppies and grasses by colouring with Zig pens then lightly spritzing with water, then added a flight of birds stamped with Pinecone Versafine Clair. I removed the masks and stamped the sentiment in blue, then matted the finished panel onto a blue pearlescent linen card border and a 6” square card blank.

Stamps: Lavinia Wild Poppies, Field Grass, Birds, Let Your Spirit Take Flight;

Media: Lavinia Elements inks (Blue Lagoon, Sundance); Versafine Clair (Pinecone, Medieval Blue); Kuretake Zig Clean Colour watercolour pens; Sakura Stardust pen (yellow);

Tools: Lavinia acetate circle mask.

Challenges I would like to enter:

Aud Sentiments #313 - Flowers plus a Sentiment

Craft Rocket #114 - Flowers (2nd entry)

Ellibelle’s Crafty Wednesday (May) - Anything Goes

Lavinia Creative Challenge (May) - Favourite Florals (3rd entry)

Make My Monday #225 - Florals (2nd entry)

Moving Along With the Times #166 - Flowers (2nd entry)

Path of Positivity #121 - Anything Goes Positive (2nd entry)

Simon Says (Monday) - Light and Airy (2nd entry)

Word Art Wednesday #647/648 - Anything Goes (2nd entry)

Hope you’re having a great weekend. Take care, and thanks for visiting.

Hugs,

Mooch Amongst the Flowers

Hi everyone, yesterday I traded a couple of ATC’s and am now waiting for one that features Mooch the Lavinia cat, so this inspired me to have a play with my own Mooch. I also wanted to create a fancy fold card for this week’s Allsorts Challenge and to incorporate flowers for this month’s Lavinia Creative Challenge - here is the result.

I die cut a triptych card in white, and three white panels on which to create my scene. I created the background by blending Elements inks using acetate circle and hill masks (I held down  my panels on my magnetic stencil board with magnets to allow me to line everything up properly). I then stamped Mooch in Nocturne, Spring Trees in Acorn, bluebells in Paradise / Shady Lane and grass in Shady Lane (1st/2nd generation) Versafine Clair. I stamped cherry blossom from the Spring Trees set using 2 shades of pink Distress Oxide, then added Fairy Bells stamped in Shady Lane and the petals coloured with white Posca pen. 

I added a retired Lavinia sentiment which required some complex masking to fit in the available space .. I had a few problems with this and ended up with a few marks on the card, but having spent so much time on the card I did my best to disguise it with a bit of random doodling! I added a dangling heart for Mooch to look at, and finally I added a few highlights with white Posca, Sakura Stardust and Spectrum Noir sparkle pens, then matted the finished panels onto pink linen card stock and the triptych base card.

Stamps: Lavinia Mooch, Spring Trees, Bluebell, Fairy Bells, Grass, Birds, Fairy Charms, The World is Full of Beauty (retired);

Media: Lavinia Elements inks (Blue Lagoon, Olive, Sundance); Tim Holtz Distress Oxide inks (Kitsch Flamingo, Spun Sugar); Versafine Clair (Nocturne, Acorn, Shady Lane, Paradise, Charming Pink); Posca pen (white); Sakura Stardust pen (yellow); Spectrum Noir sparkle pen (clear);

Tools: Studio Light Essentials triptych dies; Lavinia acetate circle and Mini Hill masks.

Challenges I would like to enter:

Allsorts #779 - More Than One Fold

Crafty Animals #83 - Use an Animal

Day of the Month Card Club #63 - “Vappu” - Finnish Spring Festival

Festive Fridays (May) - Spring Flowers

Four Seasons (May) - Anything Goes Spring

Incy Wincy (May) - Spring and/or an Animal

Inkspirational #315 - Seasonal (Spring)

Lavinia Creative Challenge (May) - Favourite Florals (2nd entry)

Little Red Wagon #755 - Create Your Own Background

Path of Positivity #121 - Anything Goes Positive

Simon Says (Monday) - Light and Airy

Simon Says (Wednesday) - Use Die Cuts

Simply Create Too #200 - Add an Animal

Sweet Stampin’ - Animals

Word Art Wednesday #647/648 - Anything Goes

I see that Allsorts Challenge are celebrating their 15th birthday on May 18th so they are asking everyone to spread the word. I’m a big fan of AALL & Create so I’m sure the prizes will be awesome!! 😍

I was lucky enough to receive a Lavinia gift voucher for my birthday from a good friend, so seeing as there are some new stamps being released today plus I have my eye on some of the new VFC colours (which are as rare as hens’ teeth here in the UK right now!) I may just go have a look on their website and see what’s what over there.

Take care and thanks for visiting.

Hugs,

In the Moonlit Meadow

Hi everyone, last week I published a meadow scene card using my round gel press and some Lavinia flower stamps (here)  … and I enjoyed it so much and received such kind feedback. (particularly on the Lavinia fans’ FB page) I decided to make another one! This time night has drawn on and the previously sunlit meadow is now bathed in moonlight .. here it is.

I brayered 3 colours of Elements ink onto my gel press, spattered with water then took a print. I created the moon by blending more Elements ink around a small circle mask, then blending Brilliance Moonlight White pearlescent ink inside the circle.I masked outside the inked circle and stamped a variety of flowers and grasses using 1st/2nd generation Twilight and Monarch Versafine Clair, then added highlights with white Posca pen and my clear Sakura Stardust pen.i added a flight of birds in black, and added more sparkle to the moon with my Spectrum Noir sparkle pen. I stamped the sentiment onto separate card and positioned before attaching, to guide me where I should stamp the bird, which I also highlighted with white Posca and white Stabilo All pencil. I added random dots around the circle using silver metallic and purple sparkle Posca pens, plus dots of blue Stickles. Finally I matted the finished piece onto blue card stock and a 6” card blank.

Here is an angled picture to show the sparkle and shine!

Stamps: Lavinia Wild Poppies, Wild Summer Flower, Lavender, Field Grass, Bird Collection, Birds; sentiment - unknown;

Media: Lavinia Elements inks (Dark Denim, Della Blue, Violet Chalk); Versafine Clair (Nocturne, Twilight, Monarch); Brilliance pearlescent ink (Moonlight White); Sakura Stardust pen (clear); Spectrum Noir sparkle pen (clear); Posca pens (white, silver); Posca sparkle pen (purple); Stabilo All pencil (white); Ice Stickles (blue);

Tools: Lavinia Roland gel press, acetate circle masks.

Challenges I would like to enter:

Craft Rocket #114 - Flowers

Krafty Chicks #714 - Stamps (2nd entry)

Lavinia Creative Challenge (May) - Favourite Florals (version without sentiment)

Make My Monday #225 - Florals

Moving Along With the Times #166 - Flowers

Pammie’s Inky Pinkies #2418 - Anything Goes

Triple B (May) - Birds, Butterflies and/or Blooms

We Love 2 Create #4 - Anything Goes (2nd entry)

Word Art Wednesday #645/646 - Anything Goes (3rd entry)

Worldwide Crafters and Colourists #16 - Anything Goes (4th entry)

Take care, and thanks for visiting.

Hugs,

Anyone For Bubbles?

Hi everyone, this month the Visible Image FB group is celebrating its third anniversary of monthly ATC swaps, so they have a theme of Celebrations and a generous £30 store voucher for one lucky participant. I have been taking part in the swap for nearly 2 years now and was lucky enough to win the anniversary prize voucher last year, which has helped me build up my VI stash so I can continue to take part!

ATC’s for the swap need to be made using only VI stamps, stencils and/or dies, so I decided my most suitable stamp set was the versatile “Anyone For Bubbles” which is ideal really for any celebration. As always I also made a co-ordinating greetings card - here they are. These are actually quite apt for me right now as well as it is my birthday weekend !!😀

I cut a piece of white stamping card 6.5” x 4.5” and another 3.25” x 2.25”, and created a smoosh background on each one with Elements ink. I stamped the bottle in green and heat embossed, coloured the foil with gold Posca brush pen and added white Posca highlights. I then added some soft green stencilling with my “Frosty” stencil (which I think also looks like fireworks!) and stamped the fizz with Versamark and heat embossed with silver embossing glitter. I stamped and heat embossed the cork and my sentiments (I had to mask and reposition the sentiment on the ATC due to the small space) then added a little more stencilling in grey using “Off the Grid”. I coloured the corks with an Zig pen, edged the finished pieces with gold Posca then matted onto green card stock, and as a finishing touch I added some holographic glitter to the fizz and a couple of pieces of torn washi tape.

Stamps: Visible Image Anyone For Bubbles?;

Media: Lavinia Elements ink (Lime Punch); Tim Holtz Distress Oxide inks (Twisted Citron, Mowed Lawn, Hickory Smoke); Kuretake Zig Clean Colour watercolour pens; Versafine Clair (Nocturne, Rainforest); Versamark; WOW Metallic Silver embossing glitter; detail clear embossing powder;  Lavinia Starbrights holographic glitter; Sakura Stardust pen (clear); Posca pens (white, gold, gold brush pen);

Tools: Visible Image stencils - Frosty, Off the Grid;

Other: AALL & Create washi tape

Here are a couple of closeups:

Card:

Challenges I would like to enter:

Birthstone Challenges #9 - May = Emerald

Country View Crafts FB Challenge (May) - Make Me Smile

Double Trouble #165 - Anything Goes (2nd entry)

Dragonfly Dreams (May) - Use a Stencil

Krafty Chicks #714 - Stamps

Love To Craft #80 - Anything Goes

Word Art Wednesday #645/646 - Anything Goes (2nd entry)

ATC:

Challenges I would like to enter:

ATC’s Around the World - Anything Goes

Crafty Calendar (May) - Anything Goes

Crafty Gals’ Corner #254 - Anything Goes (3rd entry)

Love To Scrap #167 - Anything Goes

Outlawz (May) - Anything Goes In a Card Free Zone

Sheepski #86 - Anything Goes

We Love 2 Create #4 - Anything Goes

Take care, and thanks for visiting.

Hugs,

Thinking Of You

Hi everyone, today’s post is a card made as a last minute final entry for this month’s Country View Crafts Challenge - Flower Power. Entries need to use brands stocked by CVC - this time I decided to turn to a Lavinia flower stamp, and as I only have a few Lavinia flowers that are on the CVC website (quite a few of mine aren’t) I’m  trying the technique of watercolouring on Fairy Bells with Zig pens which I recently saw demonstrated by Jo Rice. I also wanted to incorporate stencilling as that is the optional theme for this week’s Allsorts challenge. 

I cut a 5” square of stamping card and stamped the Fairy Bell flowers which I coloured with Zig pens and lightly spritzed with water - a mix of 1st and 2nd generation stamping. I then “grounded” the flowers with more Zig pen colour which I blended out with a water brush, and added soft stencilling with Distress Oxide. I added some delicate spatters with Posca purple glitter and silver metallic  pens, then edged the finished piece with silver Posca, matted onto lilac card stock and a card blank. I stamped the sentiment onto separate card in grey as it gave a softer look than black, edged with silver Posca and attached, then added some dewdrops to finish - I just thought that with the soft lilac flowers it just looked like a “Thinking of You” card.

Stamps: Lavinia Fairy Bells; Woodware Made For You;

Media: Kuretake Zig Clean Colour watercolour pens; Tim Holtz Distress Oxide ink (Bundled Sage); Versafine Clair (Morning Mist); Posca pen (silver); Posca sparkle pen (purple);

Tools: Lavinia stencil - Divine;

Other: Crafter’s Companion Dewdrops.

Challenges I would like to enter:

Allsorts #778 - Use a Stencil

Beautiful Blossoms #16 - Anything Floral Goes (6th entry)

Country View Crafts FB Challenge (April) - Flower Power (5th entry)

Crazy Is Our Fame, Stencils Are Our Game (April) - Use a Stencil with option Spring Flowers (2nd entry)

Double Trouble #165 - Anything Goes

Krafty Chicks #713 - All Occasions

Simon Says (Monday) - Feminine

Simon Says (Wednesday) - Anything Goes (3rd entry)

Sparkles (April) - April Showers Bring May Flowers 

Word Art Wednesday #645/646 - Anything Goes (3rd entry)

I rather like this watercolouring technique for use with silhouette or brushstroke stamps, which I used to do with Marvey markers back in the day. I’ll definitely be practising it some more with my Zig pens.

Take care and thanks for visiting.

Hugs,

In the Meadow

Hi everyone, today’s card is the result of a play with my newish gel press and some Lavinia floral stamps to make a delicate meadow scene - this is another one I made particularly for this month’s Country View Crafts FB challenge.

I brayered two colours of Elements ink onto my gel plate, spattered with water using my Tim Holtz spatter brush and took a print, then created a sun by blending more ink around a small circle mask. I then masked the outside of the circle print and stamped meadow flowers, field grass and fairy bell flowers in shades of green Versafine Clair, and birds flying across the sun in Pinecone VFC. I coloured the heads of the flowers with white Posca pen and added sparkle to the fairy bells, then added graduated dots of pink, yellow and glitter Posca pens around the base of the circle. I edged the finished piece with gold Posca pen and matted onto pink card stock and a 6” card blank, then stamped, edged and attached the sentiment.

Here’s an angled picture to show the sparkle.

Stamps: Lavinia Wild Summer Flower, Field Grass, Fairy Bells, Birds; AALL & Create #533 Bring On the Sentiments;

Media: Lavinia Elements inks (Confetti, Lime  Punch); Versafine Clair (Shady Lane, Verdant, Pinecone); Sakura Stardust pen (yellow); Posca pens (white, pink, yellow, gold); Posca sparkle pens (pink, yellow);

Tools: Lavinia Roland gel press, acetate circle masks.

Challenges I would like to enter:

Addicted to Stamps #466 - Make Your Mark (2nd entry)

As You Like It - Favourite Clean or Fussy (and why) - TOP 3

(I like elements of both which I think this card shows … a simple layout but with intricate foreground and background stamping)

Beautiful Blossoms #16 - Anything Floral Goes (5th entry)

Card Concept #206 - April Flowers (4th entry)

Country View Crafts FB Challenge (April) - Flower Power (4th entry)

Creations In Pink #69 - Anything Goes in Mainly Pink

Path of Positivity #120 - Anything Goes Positive (2nd entry)

Simon Says (Monday) - It’s Up In the Air

Simon Says (Wednesday) - Anything Goes (2nd entry)

Triple B (April) - Birds, Butterflies and/or Blooms (3rd entry)

Word Art Wednesday #645/646 - Anything Goes (2nd entry)

Hope you’re having a good weekend. Take care, and thanks for visiting.

Hugs,

Ombré Glitter Blooms

Hi everyone, today I’d like to share a set of ATC’s I made. I first started making ATC’s two years ago, and initially I made them to trade online through eg. Facebook groups. I then started joining in one or two themed swaps in crafting FB groups, eg. Visible Image and Tracy Evans, and as time went on I found that without the “prompt” of a theme my creative mojo stalled so I haven’t really been making any ATC’s “just because”. However I recently bought a gorgeous little pad of ombré glitter card from the Crafter’s Companion shop, and this inspired me to create a new series that I have called Ombré Glitter Blooms.

First I die cut a variety of flower stems from a sheet of the pink/green glitter card, placing the flower heads in the pink area, graduating towards a green stem. I created graduated smoosh backgrounds on stamping card with pink and green Distress Oxide inks, then stamped and heat embossed my background design in white, ensuring that the green area was at the top of each stamped piece. I cut the stamped pieces to 3.25” x 2.25” and added with silver Posca pen. I matted these onto 3.5” x 2.5” pieces of glitter card which were cut to graduate from pink to  green, thus reversing the colour direction of the stamped layer. I attached a die cut flower or 2 to each ATC, which again reversed the direction of the ombré shading. Finally I stamped the wording onto separate card, cut out, edged with silver and attached.

Here are some closeups.

Stamps: AALL & Create #302 Going Postal; Woodware Blooming;

Media: Tim Holtz Distress Oxide inks (Kitsch Flamingo, Cracked Pistachio); Versafine Clair (Nocturne); Versamark; WOW Ultra fine opaque white embossing powder; Posca pen (silver);

Papers: Crafter’s Companion card pad - Ombré Glitter;

Tools: floral dies (unbranded).

Challenges I would like to enter:

Beautiful Blossoms #16 - Anything Floral Goes (4th entry)

Crafty Gals’ Corner #254 - Anything Goes (2nd entry)

Dragonfly Dreams (April) - Use a Die (3rd entry)

My Time to Craft #532 - Die-Cuts (2nd entry)

Outlawz (April) - Anything Goes in a Card Free Zone (2nd entry) - TOP 3

Simon Says (Wednesday) - Anything Goes

Stamping  Sensations (April) - Spring Mood Board (3rd entry)

(I have been inspired by the pink and green colours and the flowers)

Unicorn #97 - Use Dies (3rd entry)

Word Art Wednesday #645/646 - Anything Goes 

I’m hoping to make some more ATC’s in the near future so I can have a go at trading again ..it’s such fun when an envelope drops through the letterbox from some far flung place!

Take care, and thanks for visiting.

Hugs,

Smile!

Hi everyone, I’ve not had much time to craft the past few days so here’s a quick CAS spring card I made for the Country View Crafts FB challenge.

I cut a 5” square of stamping card and stamped the Daisy image. I coloured it with Zig pens and highlighted with white Posca pen, then added a watercolour wash around the image with a Zig pen roughly blended out with a water brush. I added a few gold Posca spatters and a stamped sentiment, then matted onto fuchsia pink pearlescent card stock and a card blank - job done!

Stamps: Visible Image Daisy Grunge;

Media: Versafine Clair (Nocturne); Kuretake Zig Clean Colour watercolour pens; Posca pens (white, gold).

Challenges I would like to enter:

613 Avenue Create (April) - Anything Goes with option Splash of Colour (2nd entry)

AAA Challenge #263 - Anything CAS Goes

Beautiful Blossoms #16 - Anything Floral Goes (3rd entry)

Card Concept #206 - April Flowers (3rd entry)

CAS On Friday #281 - Spring

Country View Crafts FB Challenge (April) - Flower Power (3rd entry)

Crafter’s Cafe #307 - CAS

Creative Inspirations (April) - The Season of Spring (3rd entry) - TOP 3

Double Trouble #164 - CAS

Krafty Chicks #712 - CAS - TOP PICK

Path of Positivity #120 - Anything Positive Goes 

Simply Clean and Simple (April) - Anything Goes CAS (2nd entry)

We Love 2 Create #3 - Anything Mixed Media Goes

We Love Stamping (April) - Spring (3rd entry)

Word Art Wednesday #643/644 - Anything Goes (6th entry)

Worldwide Crafters and Colourists #16 - Anything Goes

Take care and thanks for visiting.

Hugs,

Lily of the Valley

Hi everyone, today I would like to share a card I made using a beautiful stamp and die set I won a couple of weeks ago over at the Snippets Playground, and also show you my recent attempt to get a grip of my coloured card snippets.

Last year I bought a 12” square paper holder from Crafter’s Companion which has proven a very neat way of holding my complete sheets of 12x12 card and paper, but sad to say my snippets were inelegantly leaned up against it in a carrier bag in the corner of my craft space! I had reached the stage where I couldn’t find a particular colour card snippet when required so I needed to do something … but said paper holder is now no longer available from CC - and seems to be out of stock almost everywhere - waah! Last week however I managed to track one down with another stockist and also bought the coordinating divider pockets which weirdly are still available from CC … so after a happy hour of sifting and sorting I now have all my card snippets organised by colour family - yippee!! My only complaint is that the labels for the dividers don’t stick, but I can see what’s what and just need to lift one divider pocket out of the bag to look for a given colour card - result!

The first snippet I found and brought into play was a large green one for the frame on my card … here it is.

I cut a piece of white stamping card and created an inky background with smooshed Distress Oxide inks and a little background stamping from an AALL & Create set. I then stamped the flower onto a separate snippet of white card, coloured with Zig pens and Spectrum Noir sparkle pen, and die cut out.

I die cut the stitched frame from my green card snippet, stamped and die cut the tag from a separate white snippet, then assembled the card onto a 7” x 5” card blank.

Stamps: Crafter’s Companion stamp & die set May - Lily of the Valley; AALL & Create #623 Elegant Spring Florals;

Media: Tim Holtz Distress Oxide inks (Tumbled Glass, Broken China, Cracked Pistachio); Versafine Clair (Nocturne, Warm Breeze); Kuretake Zig Clean Colour watercolour pens; Spectrum Noir sparkle pen (clear);

Tools: CC stamp and die set as above; Hunkydory Moonstone Duo-Stitched Rectangle dies.

Challenges I would like to enter:

Beautiful Blossoms #16 - Anything Floral Goes (2nd entry)

Creative Knockouts #519 - Spring Is In the Air (3rd entry)

Dragonfly Dreams (April) - Use a Die (2nd entry)

My Time to Craft #532 - Die-Cuts

Simon Says (Monday) - Make Your Own Background (5th entry)

Snippets Playground #478 - Use Snippets

Unicorn #97 - Use Dies (2nd entry)

Word Art Wednesday #643/644 - Anything Goes (5th entry)

Take care and thanks for visiting.

Hugs,