Sympathy Foliage

Less is More is prescribing a recipe this week: use 3 of something, 2 of something and 1 of something.  At first I thought it was going to be pretty difficult and then I realised the extraordinary freedom of the challenge.  I decided to play with my much-loved French Foliage stamp set.

I used three different leaf stamps in three colours (Cherry Cobbler, Cajun Craze and More Mustard), a two word sentiment and two score lines to mark the panel, and all this is on a one-layer card.

Supplies
Stamps: French Foliage, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Ink: Early Espresso, Crumb Cake, Cajun Craze, Cherry Cobbler, More Mustard
Card: Confetti Cream
Other: stamp-a-ma-jig, Simply Scored board, sponge daubers

I hope you all had a lovely weekend. I'm playing a bit of catch-up at the moment so apologies if I've not been to your blog in a few days... I should be round soon (so quick, tidy up!!!)

Today's cat picture really did make me chuckle when I first saw it... still does actually...

Thanks for visiting,

Sew Frustrating!

I love sewing.  I love admiring other people's sewing.  I love all the amazing things you can do with a needle and thread.  BUT I am sew rubbish at it!  When I saw the sewing theme at Less is More, I was about to launch into faux stitching but then thought that it is supposed to be a *challenge* and I had better *challenge* myself.  So I threaded a needle and huffed and puffed and stropped my way through a lot of card before making this:

Captured in the evening sunlight - which I think goes a long way to making my stitching look better! - this looks a remarkably simple card.  In fact, it looks like more like a child's drawing of a flower.  My husband has been subjected to a constant stream of 'do you think this looks alright?' today and in the end he said 'I'm trying to word this in the right way... I think it's good and I think you should enter it but I don't think this challenge is bringing out your best crafting!'  Nor my best side, he was probably muttering under his breath!

Supplies
Stamps: Mixed Bunch, French Foliage
Ink: Basic Black, River Rock, Wild Wasabi, marker pen in Wild Wasabi
Card: Daffodil Delight, hammered white card (non-SU)
Other: antique brad; stamp-a-ma-jig; Blossom punch, sponge dauber; embroidery thread; paper piercing tool and mat; needle; blood, sweat, toil and tears

Along with the pretty much the rest of the UK, we have been celebrating the return of sunshine today with a nice walk alongside the river Lune, putting off mowing the lawn until tomorrow (which is probably a general invitation for it to rain again).  Meanwhile, Socks has been sunbathing as he does have to maintain his beauty regimen.  These cats, on the other hand, have to recharge their catteries...

Thanks for stopping by, and, whatever the weather, I hope you're having a wonderful weekend!

Feuillage Francais

I have a sympathy card to share today.  Unfortunately I've had a few of these to make recently and they are so difficult to do when you need one, so I'm making a few for my box for those sad but inevitable times to come.

The CAS-ual Fridays challenge this week is to include text so I cracked out my En Francais background stamp and lovely French Foliage leaves to create this:

I began by stamping part of the script in VersaMark and then embossing in white embossing powder.  I overstamped with the leaves in Old Olive, wiping off excess ink from the embossing to keep it nice and shiny.  I distressed the edges of the Sahara Sand base and added a banner with the sentiment and an antique brad.  I added a tiny scrap of lace before adhering the Sahara Sand card to the white base.

Supplies
Stamps: French Foliage, En Francais, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Ink: VersaMark, Old Olive
Card: Whisper White, Sahara Sand
Other: white embossing powder, antique brad, Victoria lace


As always, if these or any other SU supplies have caught your eye, do not hesitate to get in touch with me on 07977 141605 or by email.  I will be delighted to assist you with your crafty makes and place an SU order for you.  Remember that if your order comes to £45 or more, you earn 2 9-yard spools of organdie ribbon and a box of Everyday Enchantment brads for absolutely free!


Today's cat picture is of the Cat-Box-Box love triangle.  Enjoy!

Thanks as always for visiting..... watching tennis now!

Penguin Party

2nd July today... the second half of the year... the nights will be drawing in now... it'll soon be Christmas!  So time to get cracking on some Christmas cards then!

I've been really enjoying playing with my Owl Punch recently and when I saw this fabulous idea of turning the owl into a penguin, I knew I had to give it a go.  Then when I was checking out some challenges yesterday, I spotted this fabulous idea to create snowdrifts.  And lo, a card was born!

Here's what I created:

Aren't they cute?!  I especially love the loony one on the left (that would be me!) while the two others are a bit more stoic.  I stamped out the main body and eyes using the Owl Punch, adding in little tiny snippets for the wings of the loony one and all the beaks.  The Santa hats were made by cutting out little triangles of Real Red card and adding some shapes punched out with one of my Itty Bitty Shapes Punches.

I did the ground in the way Amy did, die cutting the snow drifts with the fabulous Edgelits dies from the Summer Mini, and then embossing them with the matching folder.  When I'd assembled the panel, I thought there was something missing... and when in doubt I turn to French Foliage!  I stamped the splodges in Whisper White Craft Ink, stamping on some scrap paper first.  Then I added a few rhinestones, which can be stars or snowflakes depending on what you think they most look like!

The sentiment is part of one from Beautiful Season which I coloured in with a marker pen so I didn't stamp the whole sentiment.

Here's a close-up so you can hopefully see the dimension of the ground:

Supplies

Stamps: French Foliage, Beautiful Season
Ink: Whisper White Craft Ink, marker pen in Real Red
Card: Whisper White, Baja Breeze, Basic Black, More Mustard, Real Red
Paper: Real Red from the Brights Paper Stack
Other: Edgelits Adorning Accents, Adorning Accents embossing folder, Big Shot, Owl Punch, Itty Bitty Shapes Punches, Rhinestones, dimensionals

As always, if these or any other SU goodies have caught your eye, do not hesitate to get in touch either by phone on 07977 141605 or email.  I would be delighted to assist you with your crafty makes and place an SU order for you for goodies to be delivered directly to your UK address.  Remember that all orders of £45 or more in July earn Everyday Enchantment brads and ribbons for absolutely free!  Click here for details!

I'd like to enter my card into the 'anything Christmas goes' challenge at 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown and the 'Christmas in July' theme challenge at The Paper Players.

I have introduced my husband to Pinterest this weekend and he's getting rather addicted!  (If you're not a member of Pinterest yet and you'd like an invitation, just let me know and I'll email you one.)  As part of his pinning, he has found a whole bunch of funny cat pictures and I'll share some of them over the course of this week.  I had to start with this one, because if you craft, have a cat, and regularly have to remove cat hair from your creations, you'll understand!

Thanks for popping in to see me today,

Three Shades of Green

It's back to a colour week at Less is More and, this week, it's 'three shades of green'.  Green and I don't have the best relationship; I'm more a warm colours lass.  But then they do call them challenges for a reason.  My mind instantly went to leaves and to French Foliage more specifically.

Once I'd thought of this, the card didn't take too long to come together:

Supplies

Stamps: French Foliage, Faith in Nature (the sentiment)

Ink: Certainly Celery, Old Olive, Always Artichoke, Crumb Cake for the splodges

Card:  Confetti Cream

As always, if you are interested in this or any other SU supplies, please do not hesitate to get in touch with me either by email or by phone on 07977 141605.  Remember that you can choose a free set of designer paper during April if your order comes to £45 or more.  Click on the link in my sidebar if you want to know more.

Have a lovely Easter Sunday!

Thanks for visiting,

Out of Season

When I saw the inspiration photo at For Your Inspiration, I positively leaped for joy!  I love rich autumnal colours and while it might not be the season for them, I just had to play along.  What a beautiful Oriental garden; I can just imagine myself on that bridge!

This inspiration photo was also the perfect opportunity to play with the gorgeous leaf designs of French Foliage.  I started by stamping leaves randomly onto a piece of Very Vanilla card stock.  The colours I used are Cherry Cobbler (which I LOVE!), More Mustard, Cajun Craze and Early Espresso.  I then stamped the splodges in Crumb Cake.  I can see these splodges being very useful!

The stamped panel was then mounted onto textured Very Vanilla card stock (a trick I picked up from my upline Vicky's blog), with a length of Cherry Cobbler seam binding secured underneath.  I wanted an 'off the page' look, so I didn't fasten the binding on the right, but rather left it loose.  The sentiment was then stamped beneath in... surprise surprise... Cherry Cobbler!

Here's a close-up of those lovely leaves:

Supplies
Stamps: French Foliage, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Ink: Cherry Cobbler, Cajun Craze, More Mustard, Early Espresso, Crumb Cake
Card: Very Vanilla, textured Very Vanilla, Confetti Cream
Other: Cherry Cobbler seam binding

You can order these and any other SU supplies easily just by sending me an email or giving me a ring on 07977 141605.  It's Sale-a-bration so you earn free stamp sets and designer paper for every £45 you spend.  I have a free P&P offer running for my first three customers and a prize draw to win a set of Everyday Enchantment Designer Series Paper.

I got very excited yesterday as we had a pair of grey wagtails flitting about the beck.  It looked like they were investigating the bank so I hope they nest!  We are really lucky to enjoy some fantastic wildlife in our garden, including a kingfisher and a pair of dippers. We even saw a weasel once.

Join me again tomorrow to see a Sale-a-bration stamp set with some oh-so-strokable paper!

Thanks for popping by today,

Faith in French Autumn Days

I've been playing with three stamp sets to play along with this week's Less is More challenge. It's been a few weeks since I've entered what with getting my SU venture organised, so it's nice to entering again.  It's a one-layer week featuring script so I had a play with Autumn Days, French Foliage and Faith in Nature (a hostess set).

First off, I had a vision of a pheasant leaving some wheat, so tried to incorporate the script from French Foliage into the corner of the wheat.  My pheasant looked like he was floating off in confetti card space so I added a couple of embossed lines which do help but, well, he is a bit lost!  I absolutely love this pheasant stamp though.  Last week while birdwatching at Leighton Moss, I ended up sharing my sandwich with a very friendly pheasant who came within two feet of me!

I then played with the gorgeous leaves in French Foliage, stamping then in Cherry Cobbler and More Mustard over the top of the script in Crumb Cake.  I embossed opposite corners for definition but I'm not too happy with it.  Don't think I've quite "mastered the white space".

Finally, the images in the gorgeous Faith In Nature stamp set incorporate script so I thought I'd have a bash with one of those.  I decided on the pear, stamping in Soft Suede and colouring with my blender pen and Always Artichoke and More Mustard.  The sentiment is from the same set and is also stamped in Always Artichoke.  This is the card I'm most pleased with.

Sale-a-bration is still running though not for much longer, so remember to place your orders soon if you want to get any of the lovely goodies for FREE with every £45 you spend.  I still have my free P&P offer running for my first three customers, and a prize draw for an entire set of Everyday Enchantment designer paper.  Just email me or give me a ring on 07977 141605 and I will do my utmost to help you.

A heron has taken to sitting and fishing just outside the house which is amazing to watch, especially when the dipper (who regularly visits) was fishing from a stone near him!  And yesterday the ducks launched a mass invasion of the garden, and as I opened the dining room window to get a photo, Socks decided that it all sounded a bit too tasty and decided to investigate!  Needless to say the ducks made a hasty exit back to the beck!

Thanks for spending some of your time here today,