With sympathy

I was really quite saddened to hear of the sudden death of Jonathan Crombie, who played Gilbert Blythe in the Anne of Green Gables mini series I loved. It was a big part of my early teens and me and my sisters watched it whenever we could. That and a difficult day on Friday, has left me in a little bit of a somber mood, so I made a very simple sympathy card.

I'd also like to enter it into challenge #119 over at CAS(E) This Sketch. The cards up there are so good, but hey ho, I like to give things a go!

I started with a white card blank and simply stamped the rose in Memento Lady Bug, the little leaves under the rose in Versa Magic Hint of Pesto and the stem in Memento Cottage Ivy. The stamp is the free set from Simply Cards and Papercraft issue 133. Honestly, I've used this so often, I wonder why I buy stamps at all? I then coloured them in with my Derwent Artists pencils. I never realised how much I enjoy colouring. It is so therapeutic.

The sentiment is from Clearly Besotted Sweet little sentiments set stamped in Memento Tuxedo Black onto some red paper and cut out with my Clearly Besotted Long Flag die.

Thanks for reading. I hope your day has been good. The sunshine came along here this afternoon so we had a play in the garden.

April Showers

They keep talking about a heat wave, but it's avoiding West Yorkshire at the moment, so with the grey weather in mind I decided to try the challenge at Addicted to CAS - Code word Showers.

The card top is a piece of water colour card die cut from the Memory Box stitched rectangles with the images stamped in Ranger Archival Ink. I used the bicycle from Clearly Besotted's Good Times set (the first thing I purchased from them and it's still my favourite!) and the umbrella from the Mama Elephant Up and Away set. I then added some colour using my Prismallo Aquarelles, and some rain dashes (ME Up and Away) in Memento London Fog. The sentiment (also ME Up and Away) is in Versa Magic Night Sky rather than my usual tuxedo black for a change!

Been a long week without much crafting, and it's funny how frustrated you can get without a bit of 'me' time, so I was grateful for baby's long nap this morning.

Thanks for reading! It's nearly the weekend again and hopefully it will be a bit brighter up north :)

PS Apologies for the not so great picture. I need to work out a better set up in my tiny craft space and also get a decent camera!

Butterflies and colours challenge 2

This is the other card. I enjoyed doing it because it's bright and reminds me a bit of minimalist block paintings a la Mark Rothko and others.

As with the previous card, it's a card blank, again using the butterflies from my free Clearly Besotted stamp set from Simply Cards and Papercraft issue 133. The background is from the Papermania capsule collection, background in yellow with red and blue blocks die cut from the Memory Box Stitched Rectangles. The butterflies are stamped again in Memento Dandelion, Bahama Blue and Lady Bug onto white card stock adhered to the card with foam pads.

Thanks for reading again - enjoy the weekend!

Butterflies and colours challenge

In a bit of a blog hop at the start of the week, I discovered House of Cards Challenge. I loved the colours of this month's challenge, so I thought I'd give it a go. I ended up doing two cards, the first of which I thought I'd enter. Challenges are new to me, but I'm constantly amazed at how different crafters interpret the brief. Such variety.

I adore the colours. It said to me: Simple. Primaries. Bright. 

It is simply a white card blank (14.75x10.5cm) stamped up with butterflies from my free Clearly Besotted set from Simply Cards and Papercraft issue 133. I stamped them using Memento dye inks - Dandelion, Bahama Blue, Lady Bug. I also die cut a small piece of yellow cardstock from my Papermania Capsule collection with my new Memory Box Stitched Rectangle dies. I did a bit of overlap stamping, so the butterflies are half on the yellow and half on the white. The panel was then attached with foam pads. The butterfly in the bottom right hand corner is stamped in all three colours - a bit of selective colouring from each pad, which is not that easy.

Thanks for reading, have a great weekend!

I like big books...

I bought a few nice things in the March release from Clearly Besotted Stamps. I do so love their style! The Bookworm Additions I had to have because I'm a librarian by profession and have lots of librarian and also book loving friends who will appreciate this... if only for the pun on the flag!

I have some Kraft card I bought a few weeks ago as I kept seeing it mentioned in various magazines and blogs. I'm not entirely sure I like it, but I'm willing to give it a go. I also hadn't used any lovely Bazzill for a while, so I grabbed some of my browns as I thought it would go with the Kraft. Who knew I'd like brown so much?

I started by stamping one of the books from the Bookworms set using my old favourite, Memento Tuxedo Black and colouring it in with my Derwent pencils with a bit of metallic from my new Caran D'Ache set. I stamped the two bookworms (one from the main set, the other from additions), plus the flag with my Versa Magic Dew Drops - Hint of Pesto, Aloe Vera, Perfect Plumeria - and then die cut them out.

I took some Bazzill card stock and cut to size to layer on the Kraft. I then die cut a circle using my Nestabilities Circles, from the top piece. It is just wide enough to show the bookcase behind it. I glued the bookcase to the back card, then stuck the bookworms to the back of the top piece of card, so they'd be in front of the books (they are a bit cheeky those bookworms!). I then attached the top piece with foam tape to add a bit of dimension. The banner I also adhered with foam pads.

It makes me laugh and I hope it does you too! Thanks for reading :)

Monkey baby

A friend had baby no. 2 last week. Another little boy. Time for a card! I've been thinking about it for the past week and decided I'd incorporate it into the Tic Tac Toe challenge from Make The Day Special. I've chosen the diagonal Metal/Metallics-Circles-Stripes. It actually turned out pretty much how I envisaged it which is a first!

I started by stamping the balloons from the Up and Away Mama Elephant set onto a piece of white card using Memento Tuxedo Black. I coloured the balloons in with my new metallic pencils from Caran D'Ache. I love them and have to use them again soon! I cut them out (I need to get the dies to go with this set) and attached them with foam pads to the stamp on the card blank. I stamped the monkey onto the card blank holding the balloon strings and coloured him in with my Derwent Artists Pencils.

Now, the tricky bit was the tail and the little blue bundle. I used a cut out balloon to create a stencil of the bundle and cut it out of white paper then inked it up with in Aspen Mist. I got some blue and white twine and tied it round the neck of the bundle. I then stamped the monkey's tail onto some white card, coloured it in and then cut it out - that was hard! I then threaded the twine through the tail and stuck it onto the monkey and a foam pad under the bundle. Think it works well!

The jungle is the free Clearly Besotted fuschia stamp from Simply Cards and Papercraft issue 133 and stamped multiple times in Hint of Pesto. The sentiment is also from Clearly Besotted (yes I am!) and their Sweet Little Sentiments set.

I added the stripes from my Pebbles basics set down the side because I needed stripes for the challenge.

Thanks so much for reading. Please feel free to leave me a comment. I love hearing from you. I hope you've had a great Easter weekend. 

Happy Easter!

Haven't had much time for making cards in the past few days, but me and 4 year old managed to make some Easter bunting while baby napped. She wasn't keen on doing anything that didn't involve glitter, but managed to incorporate stickers, flowers and a cross before boredom set in!

Grandparents are here for 10 days, so they've offered to do quite a lot of childcare so we can rest - and I hope to get a couple of cards done too.

Thanks for reading and a very Happy Easter to you all!