Something shiny...

Don't you just love a bit of sparkle or shine, I most certainly do. So a quick post for a couple of new challeges at Less is more and Fusion.

After a lovely week in the Dordoigne visiting lots of lovely places including Carcassone, Albi etc etc I have had a week of fighting off a cold so back to myself this week.  And here is my card......very difficult to photogrsph shiny stuff or is it just me...

Still loving vellum so I decided to soften the leaves cut from gold mirri card by adding a vellum banner simply heat embossed with white for the happy birthday. I added a fussy cut vellum flower also white heat embossed and coloured from the back with some pearlescent bright pink so that it too was delicately shiny, although I had added a trio of tiny clear sequins  I wanted to draw the eye round the card so added some tiny gold dots around a few leaves.  Sorry about the red look of one of the bottom leaves on the close up it's just a reflection

oh christmas tree....

Christmas....!

Well,  after a busy but fun summer with my daughter, son in law and 3 grandaughters staying with us for 5 weeks, I havent had the time to blog so who do I turn to for inspiration.....Less is More of course,  my favourite challenge...

...not that I havent been craftily busy when I've found an odd hour or so. I completed my first full size sampler patchwork quilt which our beautiful funny animal mad butterfly Fay  ....  

I think the butterflies loved Fay as much as she loved them,

 ...  quickly decided was to be hers.......goodness knows how my daughter managed to fit it into one of their suitcases but she did!  We had a fabulous summer touring and staying at home making tons of jam, chutney, picallilli not to mention all the roasted and frozen tomatoes and other veg

oh and I also made 50 Save the Date cards for a Bride who wants quirky invitations...to include.sheep and hessian...I have a couple of ideas though...Watch this space haha..

Here is my first card and the challenge at Less is More is Green and Gold, hence I immediately thought aha , I could do with making a start on my Christmas cards, so this is my first, I hope you like it.....It is made from a die cut which I coloured gold with my krylon pen, the background is a piece of watercolour paper painted with blue and yellow to get different shades of green and fussy cut to fit the tree shape, I then die cut some leaves in vellum and coloured them gold, a vellum gold embossed sentiment and a few gold and green sequins to finish.

With love......

And a rose....stamped along with some leaves from an Altenew set I love.

Using a favourite technique I stamped ink pads onto a glass surface and mixed them myself with a little water to get the shades I wanted and then painted the ink onto the stamp..

I cut the stamped piece in 2 and added an overlay of vellum as I wanted a soft gentle look, stitching the vellum  onto the base cards with my sewing machine, a simple die cut love sentiment coloured with my gold leafing pen finished it off. I hope you like it....

The challenge I have entered this card for is.......Less is More

Delphiniums....

..one of  only a couple of stencils I own, and as the garden is looking so beautiful with delphiniums, poppies, daisies and lots more, it was quite easy to come up with an idea, several messy cards later (I suspect we've  all been there haha)!

I decided my stencil strip needed a base layer so just painted a strip of cardstock to match the stencilling, which I did with with my stamp pads blended on a piece of glass with a bit of water added. The poppy was stamped separately and a bit of fussy cutting later was added on top of the background. I had a wishing sentiment ready however the card looked too busy with the sentiment so I left it out......Adding to two challenges here at LiM and here at aaacards

Sunset

That's  the colour challenge this week over at my favourite challenge blog LiM and as it's  a friends birthday this week I thought I would take the opportunity to say Wishing ......you a happy birthday, using some Kraft card, a Wishing stamp and some flowers stamped and embossed in gold and watercoloured with ink from a couple of new inkpads I have just bought in lovely 'sunset shades!'  I then cut out the flowers and arranged them behind the banner, a couple of sequins to finish and here is my card.

Sunbirds and.....

Waterfalls are my inspiration for this weeks challenge over at LiM which is one layer with a focus on water...mmm had to get my thinking cap on for this one which I found quite difficult....until,  I was looking through my photos and a little sunbird caught my eye, and, we had seen him near a waterfall! Problem solved....

I used a waterfall embossing folder and had an old sunbird type of stamp(SU I think. It has markings on it which is why it looks crackly when stamped not solid.?) & my lovely flower stamp perfect... Stamped and heat embossed both in gold & coloured the flower brightly as that is what attracts the birds...added a few little drops of gloss to the flower like waterdrops off the waterfall.  Enjoy x

African Butterflies....

Opposite colour's  of the colour  wheel that's the LiM Challenge

 So, having just returned from a wonderful trip seeing many amazing places in South Africa, and many, many beautiful birds, animals and butterflies, people  etc...who could resist the challenge, a little late but here is my take on the challenge, using various shades of bright blues and yellows I went for some bright big and small African butterflies And a PP sentiment....