August We love stamping - flowers

Good Morning everyone

Welcome to August.  Over at We Love Stamping the theme this month is 

FLOWERS

So nice and easy but you can always go with the anything goes as long as you use stamping - rubber, clear or digi 

Our Prize this month is a £25 voucher from Personal Impressions  who stock various different brands.

6.5x6.5" kraft card blank.  I first took the stamperia wooden foliage panel and sprayed with inks to colour - more details on this down below.

I mounted it onto the cardfront - being about 5mm thick this adds a lovely depth to the card but its also super light weight.  I stamped the lily onto white card with versafine clair teal ink and watercoloured with distress inks and cut out.

I die cut a circle from white cardstock and put through a sizzix embossing folder, i adhered this to the card front and added the lily with pinflair glue gel.

I die cut the sentiment twice, once from card inked with the same inks i used to colour the lily and once from the white card to give a drop shadow and help it stand out, these i added to a strip of kraft card and then the card front. 

Difficult to show but one of the sprays i used on the background has mica so a lovely shimmer & sparkle when the light hits it.

and as i got a 2nd background when I sprayed the woodchip I made another card

I matted the background onto 7" square card blank.  Die cut a circle from white card using and embossed, this i added to the bottom left of the inked background and added the lily on top.  Stamped sentiment onto card inked with the same distress inks used to colour the lily, die cut into a circle and matted onto a larger circle die cut from white.  Gems added to finish.

Old lily of the valley (LOTV) sentiment stamp reads 'sending you sunshine all year through' which is rather lovely

This is the stamperia decorative chip i used, its very light so i guess like a balsa wood

I placed it onto white card and sprayed with cosmic shimmer airless misters in greens, yellow and pink, you then get the pattern onto the white card as well - so no ink wasted and a free background for another project.  I did wonder how well the woodchip would take the wet inks but it stood up to them well, I didn't over saturate, just sprayed enough to cover.  

Items Used:

Pennyblack slapstick cling stamp 'tiger lily' 

LOTV sentiment stamp 

Stamperia decorative chip

Ranger distress Inks - squeezed lemonade, wild honey, ripe persimmon, twisted citron, mowed grass

Versafine Clair ink 'warm breeze'

Cosmic Shimmer airless misters

MFT Circle die

hello sentiment die (maybe Simon says?)

Sizzix honeycomb & swirl embossing folders (very old)

CraftUK ltd kraft card

The prize this month is an amazing £25 voucher for personal impressions craft store where they are lots of gorgeous crafty products & brands to tempt you.

So hop over to We Love Stamping to join in and be in with a chance of winning just make sure to use stamping on your project with a theme of Flowers or anything goes option. 

Its my middle nieces birthday today so of course its raining, my birthday is in august too and growing up I remember way more wet birthdays than dry ones. I hope you all have a great week whatever your plans are.   Emma

I love to enter card 1 into the following:

https://www.simplyellibelle.com/2025/07/ellibelles-garden-party-no-5-anything.html #2 entry

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https://creativeknockouts.blogspot.com/2025/07/551-sparke-shine-patties-creations.html - used mica shimmer sprays in the background

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https://girlzandtheartofletters.blogspot.com/2025/07/challenge-6-de-letter-van-f-van.html - F is for flowers, foliage & friendship

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https://dd-tripleb.blogspot.com/2025/08/august-2025-challenge.html

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Mums birthday

Good Morning everyone

Today Im sharing the card I made for my mums birthday.  Ive gone full on flower power this year with these lovely hydrangeas I built up.  By using brushos & pixie powders to colour the cardstock I was able to get a quite realistic colour for some of the bushes my mum has in one of her gardens.  Growing up I always remember my gran wanting Blue ones, every blue one she planted turned Pink and my other gran (nan) always wanted a pink one but they all turned Blue, even when adding various additives to the soil they would eventually change colour😁

7x7" scalloped card base.

I first coloured 3 sheets of A4 card with brushos and pixie powders and let dry.  Once dry I die cut alot of the petals, I then shaped the petals with an embossing tool to give them more concave curve.  I die cut a circle from the same background so that I could build up my flower - by using the same colour as the flowers any gaps aren't noticeable.  I then got building, starting from the outside working in, adhered the outside ones flat and using more glue gel on the inside ones to get more dimension and a more realistic shape.  Each die cut petal had a hole in the centre so i added a drop of lime green stickles glitter glue to hide that.  I made the flower heads in 3 slightly different sizes.

I die cut lots of leaves from green coloured brusho card.  I used a brick embossing folder onto a piece of white card slightly smaller than the card front, lightly inked over it with peeled paint & dried marigold distress ink and added it to the front.  I then arranged the flowers and leaves until I was happy with the look. 

To finish I die cut 'mum' from the same card as the flowers and added.

This shows the colour better, with the pixie powder there is a shimmer when the light hits it 

With the brick embossing folder technically i used the debossed side as the bricks should be the embossed and the cement debossed but that side of this embossing folder never looks good to me for some reason so i always use it this way round.

Here you can see the dimension better

Items Used:

Hydrangea die - brand unknown as I bought secondhand 

Crafters companion 8x8 brick embossing folder

Crafters companion alpha dies

CraftUK ltd 7" scalloped card blank

Ranger Stickles 'lime'

Distress Inks 'peeled paint, dried marigold'

Brusho Powders 'Ost blue, purple, rose, lime & leaf green'

Cosmic shimmer pixie powders 'plum'

 Thank you for stopping by once again and taking the time to visit and comment.  I appreciate both.  Happy Crafting. Emmax

Id love to enter the following:

https://craftingacutabove.blogspot.com/2025/02/february-anything-goes.html

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https://cyhtp.blogspot.com/2025/02/anything-goes-with-twist-of-something.html - F is for flowers

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https://dd-tripleb.blogspot.com/2025/02/february-2025-challenge.html

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https://daisychainchallenge.blogspot.com/2025/02/challenge-93-layer-it-up.html - 2nd entry

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Yellow & Pink

Good Morning everyone

I was inspired by this challenge colour combo of Yellow & Pink over at color hues challenge 

To start with I coloured A4 white cardstock - 1 with yellow brusho powder, 1 with bubblegum pink dylusions shimmer spray and 1 sheet with a mix of the two colours and left to dry over night while i thought about what i would create.

I made 2 cards the same just reversed the colours

DL (8x4") White linen cardblank, I lightly inked the edges with picked raspberry & sqeeshed lemonade distress inks.  I die cut a smaller panel from white linen card and a stitched edge die and adhered to the card front.

I die cut a large leafy swirl from the pink card, a flower from the yellow and the sentiment from the sheet which i sprayed both colours onto.  I matted the sentiment onto white card.  To make the flower bigger and stand out clearly behind the sentiment i cut it in half and did the same with the leafy flourish so i could make it longer - the gaps are hidden behind the sentiment.   This meant i could also slightly tweak the angle of the foliage to fit the DL shape better. 

I did cut some smaller flowers from the yellow card and adhered with some pink gem centres.  I then added a few yellow enamel dots to finish which give the feel of flower buds. 

Just a close up, sadly the amazing shimmer of the pink spray doesn't show up in the photos.

and version 2

Ive just made this one the other way around. A few more pink gem flower buds on this one as the gems were alot smaller than the yellow enamel dots i used on the first one. 

We finally have had a bit of sunshine this week so hopefully winter is soon a distant memory and we get some warmer sunnier days!

 Items Used:

Brusho's pigment powder 'yellow'

Ranger Dylusions shimmer spray 'bubblegum pink'

Distress Inks 'picked raspberry & squeezed lemonade'

Simon says stamp SSSd112057 'detailed leaf cluster' die

Daisy flower die

Tonic studios (hello sunshine) 3278e 'The four seasons sensational summer' die

Stitched edge DL dies

Altenew yellow enamel dots

Papermania pink gems

Thank you all for stopping by.  Emma

Id love to enter the following:

https://colorhuesthecolorchallenge.blogspot.com/2024/04/color-hues-85-yellow-and-pink.html

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https://unicornchallenge.blogspot.com/2024/04/unicorn-97-use-dies.html

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https://mytimetocraftchallenge.blogspot.com/2024/04/mttc-532-theme-is-everything-die-cuts.html

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https://just-add-ink.blogspot.com/2024/04/just-add-ink-698choose-two.html - I chose Leaves & flowers

Sunflowers

Good Morning everyone

2 cards today using these lovely flower stamps from aall&create 'caffeinated' stamp set. I decided to stamp them in green and the card base is a lovely green too but looks dark in the photos. 

Card size approx 5x7"  I made my card base from a green card that matched the ink nicely and nested dies.  I die cut a smaller die from white cardstock and stamped the image in green.  I stencilled a background and then die cut this panel again with a smaller die to give me a frame, i attached the frame to the card front with foam tape and adhered the middle panel flat to the front - i do this quite a bit, its a good way to add some interest.

I stamped the flowers again onto white card, watercoloured with distress inks, cut out and decoupaged on top of the base image, touch of glitter glue added to the flower centre to finish. 

Version 2 using the other sunflower stamp in the set, made the same way just a different set of nesting dies and softer stencilling.  Size 6x6"

Items Used

aall&create stamps 'caffeinated' 

Funky fossil stencil 'umbrellas'

Crazy pathing stencil

XL nesting dies

Green & White cardstock

Distress Oxide inks - cracked pistachio, salty ocean, tumbled glass

Distress inks - Squeezed lemonade, wild honey, ripe persimmon, twisted citron, 

Thank you all for stopping by, i hope its a good week for you.  Last week was half term down here so i spent alot time crafting with my nieces which was fun!  Emmax

Id love to enter the following:

https://stencilfun.blogspot.com/2024/02/february-stencil-fun-challenge.html

https://beautifulblossomschallenge.blogspot.com/2024/02/beautiful-blossoms-challenge-anything.html

https://daisychainchallenge.blogspot.com/2024/02/challenge-82-flowers.html

https://dd-tripleb.blogspot.com/2024/02/february-2024-challenge.html

 

Sympathy card

Good Morning everyone, another sunny day ahead i think.

Today im sharing a Sympathy card, not one any of us like to make.  

Size approx 4.5x6.5" I used a soft pearl grey card for all of it, using oxide inks to add colour to the background and flower.  After die cutting the frame die, i took the middle panel and embossed with a swirl embossing folder i then gently inked with cracked pistachio oxide ink.  I die cut my flower and inked with shaded lilac and some leaves again with the pistachio.  The pearl still shimmers through the inks.  I die cut my candle and coloured the flame with alcohol pens.  

I die cut my fishtail banner and using my stamp platform stamped the sentiment twice.

I added a dark grey gem to the centre of the flower to finish.

Just a close up.  The dark photos don't show it at its best. 

Items Used:

Scalloped frame die

Candle die

Flower & Foliage dies

MFT fishtail banner die

Sizzix swirl embossing folder

Clearly besotted sentiment stamp

Tim Holtz oxide inks - shaded lilac & cracked pistachio

Payper box grey pearl cardstock

I hope you are all doing ok. Keep calm and carry on crafting.  Stay safe. Hugs Emmax

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Id love to enter the following:

http://unicornchallenge.blogspot.com/2020/05/challenge-54-use-dies.html

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https://allfunchallenges.blogspot.com/2020/05/challenge-8.html

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http://ttcrd.blogspot.com/2020/05/anything-goes-challenge-week-beginning_12.html

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Ovals & Flowers

Morning everyone.  I hope you had a lovely weekend.

Today im sharing the first card i made after buying a set of large stitched oval dies. To check they worked i cut them all in one go layered together, this gave me lots of frames.

I slightly rotated each oval frame and glued to the one below where it touched, i kept rotating each oval frame until i got to the smallest middle one which worked out so that it was attached back parallel to the original largest one (see below for more details). I then randomly stamped florals and foliage with oxide inks.  I added foam tape to the back and attached to solid oval die cut with the largest die from white card.  I die cut a second large white oval, scored a line on the left edge and attached that to the back of the card to give a back to the card. 

I die cut the smallest oval from white card and stamped my greeting in black, this i attached into the middle.  I inked up white card with oxide inks, using some of the colours i used in the background stamping. Once dry i die cut flowers and foliage.  I built up the flowers with several layers. I arranged this on the base with the foliage. Gems added to the flower centres to finish. 

Close up of the flowers.  As well as the green foliage i die cut some silver holographic card into foliage to break up the colour a bit and it matches the holographic gems i added to the flower centres.

This shows the oval frames better, as you can see i rotated each one starting with the largest on the outside, gluing each smaller one on top of the one below. 

Items Used:

XL Inside outside stitched oval dies

Daisy flower die

Foliage dies

Stampin Up 'wetlands' sentiment

Flower stamps - lost the label but i have a feeling their were Hero Arts - eons old though!

Oxide inks - wilted violet, picked raspberry, salty ocean, cracked pistachio, fossilized amber, 

I was pleased how this came out so think i shall make a few more for the box.  If you like this you may like the cards i made in a similar way with Hexagon dies, the link will take you to the original post and full details.

lots-of-hexagons

Thank you all for stopping by as always.  I can't believe this week we are heading into the month of May, where do the weeks go to.  I hope you all have a good week. Hugs Emma

Id love to enter the following: 

movingalongwiththetimes/2019/04/96-floral.

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lilredwagon/2019/04/challenge-494-everythings-coming-up

Birthday Bee's

Good Morning everyone.  I hope you all had a good weekend.  I can't believe we are into the last week of January, where has that gone too?

Today is a busy/noisy morning as last week my next door neighbour had a bad fire so builders in today checking the wall that joins us, replacing the melted security lights & BT fixing the melted phone lines, luckily for me we still had phone lines/internet its been the ones on the other side without phone.  Not a great start to the year but at least no one was hurt, other than leaving my cat terrified, we were out in the dark rain of the night trying to find her. She finally turned up about 16hrs later.

Ive also made the decision to give up being on a design team for the moment, what with all the hospital visits and treatments, the deadlines were getting a bit much, although i absolutely loved my time and met some wonderful crafters. So for a while im going to go back to totally crafting for relaxation/therapy as and when i feel like it and hopefully tackle some of those projects going around my head😀

Anyway onto todays project.  Made for a very good friends birthday earlier this month. It got bigger and bigger as it went along.

Well where to start with this.  I used inside/outside stitched hexagon dies. I first picked a pattern paper with hexagons on it, picking up on the colours in the paper i went with gold mirror card, a pale green, lemon card and watercoloured pink paper for the flowers. 

I cut gold mirror card, green card and white card with the hexagon dies to frame the middle, in the middle i placed a piece of pattern paper.  I die cut the birthday sentiment from green & gold card and off set, i took the middle circle from the gold one and dry embossed it with a honeycomb EF.  This i placed into the centre of the card with foam tape. 

Once i had built up all the outside frames i mounted them with foam tape onto a white base card and then cut around the outside edge so that i ended up with a hexagon shaped card approx 8x9" in size - yep pretty big! 

I die cut 3 bees from yellow card and the pale green card, i cut the body off the yellow one and added on top of the green one. I gently gave the body a curved shape before arranging on the cardfront. 

From pattern paper that is a watercolour effect in pinks i die cut and built up the flowers using several die cut layers.  A big gem added to the centre to finish.  Die cut leaves added behind the flowers. 

Close up on the centre

Close up on one of the bees and flowers.  I had also added faux stitching around the outside edges with a pink pen.  I had alot of fun creating this card and going back to my old flower power cards. Im pleased to report the recipient loved it too. 

Items Used:

Docrafts 'neon geometric' paper pad

Poundland 'watercolour' paper pad

MFT birthday circle sentiment die

Flower die

Bee die

Stitched hexagon die set

Memory box foliage die - 'massa'

Honeycomb Embossing folder - sizzix maybe?

CraftUk Ltd white card

Gold Mirror card

Pale green card, Lemon pearl card

Thank you for stopping by.  I hope that you all have a good week and hopefully we don't get too much of the snow forecast. Hugs Emma

2nd Blog Birthday - wire wrapping

Wow today my blog is 2 years old, the time has flown by.  Thank you to all of you that have supported me since the beginning and continue to, and all the new friends ive made along the way.



I thought I would share my ongoing practice with craft wire and beads to make some wirework suncatchers.

Green & Blue Flower, broken up with orange.  Approx 6" in size. The different beads catch the sunlight. 

A close up. 

A more dainty copper version for a lass that loves clean and simple.  This one i just added the beads on the inside of the petals.  

A close up, i used a mix of yellow, orange, brown beads on the petals

Purple Dragonfly.  Approx 6" in size.  I used purple and silver wire and beads in purples, blues & pinks

A close up shows the true colour better. 

And my take on a peacock feather.  A short version, although its still 10" long!  This one took loads of wire in blue, green and yellow.  Beads in a mix of blue, greens, yellow, orange. 

A close up on the eye of the feather, a blue bead wrapped in blue and then surrounded by a row of yellow beads and wire and the finished with green wire.  

Im still very much a beginner with the craft wire but each time i use it i learn something, like anything, practice makes perfect - long way to go before i get there but im really enjoying my new hobby.   

Weather been a bit wild and windy down here last few days - ideal crafting weather!  I hope you all have a good weekend. Hugs Emmax