Monday Moment

Hi!

Hope you had a lovely relaxing weekend and the weather was just how you wanted it to be.  For me it was a bright and sunny weekend without too much to do apart from a little crafting.

So here's my first card for today.  I was so inspired by Beverley's post - here - that I just had to try this whitewash water technique straight away.  I absolutely love the look this gives, reminds me of fine porcelain vases, and is definitely one I'll be trying again soon.  I'm on the look out now for suitable stamps as many of mine tend to be solid shapes and this obviously needs outline shapes.

Once I'd stamped and coloured I found this layout at Sketch Saturday which seemed to fit the bill and my card was quickly put together. Hope you like it.

 

Supplies:

Stamp: Clearly Besotted, Take Good Care

Inks: Adirondack, meadow, willow, raspberry, purple twilight; VersaMark, watermark; Versa Magic, cloud white

Embossing: Crafts Too folder; Stampendous, white powder

Embellishments: doodlbug, sprinkles

 

Moment 2

While I'd got my Adirondack purple & pinks out I made an entirely different sort of card.  This was inspired by the Less is More theme - masking or stencilling. I love this mask from Prima Marketing and have used it on scrapbook pages as well as cards, but not for a little while.  So it was definitely time to give it some love.

First of all I used a die to cut a circle from scrap paper and placed the negative over my white card.  then I placed the mask on top of the circle cut out, carefully selecting the part of the mask I wanted to use.  I used my inkylicious brushes to add the purple ink, removed the mask but kept the the circle cut out in place and added the pink ink.

A trio of punched butterflies and I was done.  Such a delicate dainty image that I'm really pleased with.

Supplies:
Mask: Prima Marketing
Ink: Adirondack, raspberry, purple twilight
Die: Spellbinders circle
Punch: Martha Stewart
Paper: Papermania, Lucy Cromwell 6x6 designstax

Really pleased you dropped by today, thanks so much. Hope you enjoyed my purple and pink creations.

Jane
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Friday Focus

A couple of cards to share today.

First up is for a challenge new to me and discovered when I was ordering some craft goodies from Craft Mojo. It's a monthly challenge and for March the theme is Spring Flowers.  Seemed like a good opportunity to give some love to my favourite first purchase from Uniko Studio - Flower Power #2.

I went with a layout that's a bit of a 'go to' for me and picked out some lovely Spring coloured card and paper. I used a bit of yellow ink for the flower centres and then added a nailhead to each. I often use this style of card to hold a short note to friends who I've not seen for a while or are going through a sticky patch and thjat's why i've not added a sentiment.

 

Supplies:

Stamps: Uniko Studio, Flower Power #2

Inks: Memento, rose bud, tangelo

Punch: Woodware, leaf

Embellishments: Mark Richards, nailheads

 

Friday Focus 2

My second card is for a well loved challenge over at Clearly Besotted.  They've had two brilliant releases recently, but on both occasions I've missed out on ordering as they've sold out overnight after their 10:00pm release.  Obviously doesn't do to wait until morning! I'm so not going to let that happen again.

The theme this month is In Flight and I dusted off a butterfly stamp for my little thank you card. I really like its delicateness - is there such a word? I stamped the butterfly onto patterned paper and then cut it out and used foam pads to add some dimension. I'm loving the colours of the background stamps, so fresh, and I just love the crackle effect on the pink stamp.

Supplies:
Stamps: Clearly Besotted, Geometric Style, Thank You
Inks: Memento, rose bud, bahama blue
Paper: Papermania, Lucy Cromwell
Embellishments: Papermania, adhesive shimmer dots

Thanks for dropping by today.

Jane
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Tuesday Talk

Yesterday I worked on a scrapbook page that needed a lot of space for extended journalling.  So this week's layout from Unscripted Sketches was a gift. I simply rotated the sketch and placed my 6x4 photo at the top left rectangle and an envelope to contain the journalling at the bottom right rectangle.

There is nothing very private about the journalling, just rather a lot I wanted to include. It tells the story of my middle pregnancy, high blood pressure, living apart, moving house one week before the due date, the doctor's horror when I went to register, my oldest succumbing to his first illness when subjected to all the new bugs and the chaos of a new home, new baby and ill toddler all combined with Christmas - definitely one to remember!

Originally I'd chosen purply yellow papers, but once I'd found the little polaroid embellishment,  (originally made after reading this blog post), lurking in my stash and placed it on the envelope I just had to change my colour choices.  And I'm so pleased I did as I'm really loving the turquoise/yellow/red combo.

 

  

Supplies:

Papers: AC, kraft cardstock; My mind's Eye, Miss Caroline; + the spotty paper and scraps

Alphas: ep, a perfect summer; Bella Blvd, sophisticates

Punch: Martha Stewart, heart

Embellishments: buttons, twine & stickers from my stash

I also want to share my March patchwork block, Explore, for the Sugar Block Club.  I found the paper piecing large pinwheel surprisingly difficult and it took several attempts to get it right - just couldn't get my head round the doing it from the back for some reason. I don't think I've ever unpicked so much sewing before and when I eventually cracked it I realised it was so easy and couldn't think why I'd made such hard work of it. That's just how it goes sometimes!

Anyway here it is:

Thanks for dropping by today, hope the sun shines on you wherever you are.

Jane

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Ten On The Tenth

Just before I share my ten things I have a card to show.  I found this new challenge at The Male Room when browsing Louise's blog and as it is all about male themed crafting and I'm a bit male heavy in my family, I thought I'd better give it a go.

So here's my card to match their current challenge - the colours blue, green & brown.  I stamped all over with the explosion for the background and then cut one out , glossy accented it and raised it up on foam pads. I added a grossgrain ribbon - more masculine - and a sentiment and this super quick card was complete.

Supplies:
Stamps: Uniko Studio, EXPLOSION; Clearly Besotted, Say It In Style
Inks: Memento, rich cocoa, danube blue, pear tart
Embellishments: Ribbon & glossy accents

So on to my ten things on the tenth list.  This month I decided it just had to be Spring themed. so here it is:

1. The colour returning to my garden, really lifts my spirits and I love standing at the kitchen and looking out at this bright corner.

2. Blossom on the tree. Magic when a photo turns out like this!

 

3. Crocuses - probably the first to bloom.

 

4. Followed closely by daffodils, which I can never resist picking and forcing to open up indoors.

5. Washing on the line - a sure sign of Spring and looking so much better than when it's hanging around on the radiators indoors.

 

6.  Easter eggs hit the supermarket.

 

7.  Getting out more and spotting catkins.

 

8. And sticky buds. Always brings back memories of my primary school days and The Nature Table with jars of sticky bud twigs and the excitement of finding they've finally opened up to reveal emerging leaves.

9. Lambs appearing in the fields. Just love to watch them jump and frolic.

 

10. The frogs returning to my pond.  On a sunny afternoon they are so noisy and oblivious to an audience watching them.

Well that's all for today, hope you've enjoyed my photos and thanks for dropping by.

Jane

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Saturday Scribbles

A double scrapbook page to share today featuring photos of the very beautiful Belton House grounds. We went there last Tuesday, purely on a whim because the sun was shining and it seemed a waste to stay indoors.  So my planned sewing day was put on hold and I'm so pleased we did this.  I came back energised and enthusiastic and with that contented feeling you get after a great day - could be something to do with the sugar hit at the restaurant!

I used the sketch from The Memory Nest's first March challenge as the basis for my pages.  This was a really good one for me as I had so many photos I wanted to include and the double page multi-box layout was perfect.  I kept all embellishments to a minimum - just a couple of arrows and ink splatters - as I didn't want to compete with the photographs as they showed Belton in all its glory.

I kept the horizontal line  from the sketch using a Hambly screen print and the right hand circle, but then rotated the rest of the sketch to help with the placement of my photos.

 

Supplies:

Paper: AC kraft cardstock; Hambly Screen Prints, little circles

Stamp: Uniko Studio, All Occasion Sentiments #2

Inks: Memento, rich cocoa; Mister Huey's Color Mists, dark calico, sunshine, opaque white

Alphas: ep reflections; AC thickers, Prairie

And here's that sugar hit:

 

To finish off the perfect outing we drove home through the back roads and spotted the first lambs of Spring. 

Thanks for dropping by today. Have a great weekend!

Jane

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