Spring Bluebells and Two Christmas Cards

Since it's spring, I'll start with a spring card.  Shopping our Stash Challenge is asking for Spring or Easter, and the Four Seasons Challenge wants Spring.  And since the bluebells are a Penny Black stamp, I'm linking it up to the Penny Black Saturday Challenge.

The Scilla are starting to bloom in my garden so this seemed the perfect stamp.  I stamped  and heat embossed in gold, then coloured with coloured pencils.  With Tea Dye ink to give a vintage feel, I stamped the definition of spring in a couple of places, sponged  around the edges, and stencilled some splatters.  Then stamped the flower name and cut it with a narrow label die and added it to the top.  The panel is popped up on fun foam for some dimension.

Moving on to working on my Christmas card stash.  Double D wants to see Cute Little Animals and Jingle Belles want us to be inspired by one of the cookies in this image:

I saw the cookie on the left near the bottom with the tangle of lights and thought of the stamp I have with a cute little dog all tangle up in Christmas lights.

I watercoloured the image and went over the lights with Glossy Accents. I trimmed with an old Spellbinders label tag, and bordered with green and added to a red card base. And I found the perfect sentiment that refers to lights! 

And finally Christmas Craft Creations wants to see Designer Paper on our cards.  I love colour coordinating DP with the colours I use in my focal image. 

The image is stamped and coloured with coloured pencils and popped up on fun foam for some dimension.

   

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Penny Black Scilla, Purple Onion spring definition
Ink - ColorBox gold, Distress Oxide Tea Dye
Paper - white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - gold embossing powder, coloured pencils, splatter stencil

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Penny Black dog, SSS sentiment
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - watercolour paper, red and green cs
Size - 4.75" square
Accessories - watercolour paints, Glossy Accents, Spellbinders label dies

Supplies for card 3:
Stamps - Penny Black sentiment, unknown owl stamp
Ink - Versafine Clair Nocturne
Paper - white cs, dp
Size - 4.75" square
Accessories - coloured pencils, fun foam

Animals and Flowers

Animals and flowers - two of my favourite things!  I've got a card for each today.

Sweet Stampin' wants to see animals.  One of my sisters has wild rabbits living in the woods behind her house so I thought I'd make this to send to her.

I inked up my background stamp with various Distress inks to give it mixed colours.

The bunny is inked in brown and fussy cut, then popped up on foam tape with some fun flock added to his tail. I thought the sentiment "adorable" suited him perfectly.

And for Beautiful Blossoms, I used an image of bluebells - they are just starting to bloom in my garden.

I used a Penny Black bluebell stamp. Stamped it and watercoloured it, and then added interest around it with a bit of stencilling through a piece of drywall tape, some random text stamping, a bit of diluted black splatter, and some sponging around the edges of the panel.

A simple sentiment and some fun foam to pop the panel up finished it off.

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Penny Black background, Technique Junkies Little Bunny, SU sentiment
Ink - Archival Potting Soil, various Distress inks
Paper - white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - fun flock, foam tape

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Penny Black bluebells, Rosie's Roadshow sentiment, unknown script stamp
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black, Distress and Distress Oxide Stormy Sky
Paper - watercolour paper, white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - watercolour paints, a piece of drywall tape, fun foam

Winter Fun and Spring Flowers

First up a card for the Shopping Our Stash challenge "Winter Fun":

I chose a stamp I've had for ages of old-fashioned winter sports with women having to skate in skirts and a child on an old-fashioned wooden sled. It's coloured with coloured pencils on kraft and bordered with red and mounted on a teal card base - to my eye, they are kind of old-fashioned colours that suit the image.

My second card is for a friend's birthday.  She loves blue and she loves flowers.  It's for AAA Birthday challenge "anything birthday goes":

The image is coloured with coloured pencils. I stamped the text around it in a blue / grey ink but unfortunately there was some leftover red ink on the text stamp that changed the colour in a couple of spot. I then added blue / grey sponging around the edges.

I used the thin frame die to cut into my panel and then cut the thin frame out of blue cs and put it into the gap I'd made.

I stamped and heat embossed a white sentiment on dark grey cs and trimmed it into a banner.

Shopping Our Stash challenge "Winter Fun"

 

AAA Birthday "anything birthday goes"

 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Inkadinkado
Ink - Versafine Clair Nocturne
Paper - kraft, red, and teal blue cs
Size - A2
Accessories - coloured pencils

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Penny Black bluebells, Wendy Vecchi text, Memory Box sentiment
Ink - Archival Jet Black, SSS Barely Blue, Hero Arts Soft Sky, ColorBox white
Paper - white, blue, dark grey cs
Size - A2
Accessories - coloured pencils, white embossing powder, SSS thin frame die

Bluebells for CAS Watercolour

Time for a reminder card for April's CAS Watercolour "Spring Flowers".

One flower I have an abundance of in my garden in spring is the humble bluebell - a bit of a pest as it spreads all over the place but when they are blooming, they are so lovely.  And, as many of you know, I love blue.

The bluebells are stamped and heat embossed in platinum on watercolour paper, then painted with Gansai Tambi watercolour paints.  I mixed a bit of blue paint with a tiny bit of water and sponged it lightly over some drywall tape to add some texture to the background and then I used the gold paint in the set to create the splatter.

I die cut it with a label die and popped it up on foam tape.  I stamped and heat embossed the sentiment with platinum and die cut it with the smallest of the label dies and added it over a big messy bit of the splatter.

Please come and join us before April 24th.  I'm hosting the challenge.  I'm a keen gardener and I love spring.  I am looking for SPRING flowers - not just any flowers.  So please think snowdrops, daffodils, tulips, crocuses, apple and cherry blossom, dogwood, etc.  There's lots more inspiration from the Design Team and this month's Guest Designer, Vicky (Crafting Clare's Paper Moments).

Supplies:
Stamps - Penny Black bluebells, unknown sentiment
Ink - Versamark
Paper - watercolour paper, white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - platinum embossing powder, watercolour paints, drywall tape, Spellbinders label dies, foam tape