Back to School

Evening Everyone,
A little bit of normality has arrived at my daughters house today. Emma started back at school this afternoon. Only a couple of hours a day, but she was so looking forward to it.

I trawled through my cards to see if I had anything suitable for school, but this was the best I could do. I love this alphabet die most particularly because you can use the waste as a backdrop for some of your cute images.

This is probably one of the first Magnolia Tilda stamps that I ever bought, but I still love her.
Let's hope that Emma is as keen to go back to school tomorrow as she was today.
Thanks for stopping by.
Hugs Kimx

Wishing you the most beautiful day......just ignore the rain.

Evening Everyone,
I can't believe how green the grass is today after all the rain that we had yesterday, and amazingly dry as well. The ground must have just sucked it all up like a sponge.

I'm sure all the flowers appreciated the rain as well.

Tonights cards were made using Jane Gill's JGS657 Peony Bloom stamp set.

I used to have a beautiful deep red peony in my garden, many years ago.

It was the most gorgeous colour, but you could guarantee that as soon as it was ready to open we would have a dreadful rain storm which would batter the blooms to death. It happened every year without fail lol.

We sell bunches of them at work, and I am always tempted to buy myself some. At least they might survive as cut flowers in the house.

These cards were made quite a while ago for one of Jane's stamp launches at Creative Expressions.

The sentiment background is created using part of another of Jane's stamp sets JGS660 Mini Background greetings.

I used an embossing folder, black card and gilding wax for the background on this one.
Back to the grind again tomorrow. I can't believe how quickly the weekend flies by.
Stay safe, and thanks for stopping by.
Hugs Kimx

Bold Stamps and Pencils

Evening Everyone,
Well it has definitely not been a particularly nice start to the weekend.
I was supposed to be having a socially distanced get together with a couple of 'The Girls' from our usual Saturday class, but the rain certainly put paid to that since we were meeting outside in the garden as per the rules.
Never mind, we have postponed it till next week, weather permitting of course. To be honest even if it hadn't rained today we would have had to sit with blankets round us like a bunch of little old ladies cause it has certainly been on the chilly side.

 One technique that I particularly enjoy using with bold stamps is coloured pencils on dark cardstock.

These images were stamped onto black cardstock using a white ink pad.

The images were then coloured using pencils directly on to the white stamping.

I cut out some of the finished pieces using dies and layered them onto an embossed panel highlighted with gilding wax.

I had a couple of leftover pieces, so I fussy cut them and added them to an embossed panel from my bits box.
Let's hope that it isn't too wet again tomorrow so I can get out for my walk. I do enjoy it, especially at the weekend when I don't have to think about all the miles I have already walked at work lol.
Thanks for stopping by.
Stay safe.
Hugs Kimx

Sending Sunshine

Afternoon,
OMG, what a difference in the weather today. Having had the hottest May for years, are we now in for the coldest June? I can't say that I am too disappointed, since the last few weeks have been rather too hot for me, but seriously couldn't you have eased us into it a little more gently lol.

 

So I thought that I would share a card with some nice bright flowers on it to cheer you up and send you some sunshine.

It has been made using the fabulous floral flamingo from the latest Designer Boutique range that launched recently at Creative Expressions.

 The flowers were coloured using ink sprayed from the Airless Mister Sprays on to a craft sheet.

The blue background was created using the floral part of the stamp, black ink and clear embossing powder.

I painted some of the tiny flowers with bleach, and the leaves with a Gelli Roll glaze pen.
I added a few gems and the 'Sending Sunshine' sentiment. Very appropriate for today I think.
I hope that you all have a wonderful weekend.
Stay safe and Craft.
Hugs Kimx

Dog Walking

Evening Everyone,
If nothing else, I do hope that it will be the friendliness of people that remains after this horrible virus.

On my daily walks around the local park I have struck up more than one nodding acquaintance with the locals out walking their dogs.

They come in all shapes and sizes. There is the tiniest little thing, not much bigger than a hamster, but with boundless energy, who must walk, or rather run miles when she is out since she never seems to stand still.

There is the guide dog who likes to wander the length and breadth of the park while her owner sits patiently on a bench in the sunshine listening for the bell that she has around her neck.

There is even a three legged greyhound that bounces around as if he has all four of his limbs.

Some of you may remember some Christmas cards that I made a while ago for my daughter who worked in a Doggy Daycare facility, prior to lockdown.

I had rather a lot of stamped, coloured and fussy cut doggies left over,

so I made a few assorted cards to try and use up some of the images.

The brown embossed backgrounds all started life as pieces of bright orange cardstock which I covered with Distress Oxide ink using a blending tool.
I wonder who I will catch up with tomorrow?
Stay safe and well,
Happy Crafting and hugs
Kimx

Lots of Little Christmas Trees

Evening Everyone,
The weather today is definitely more my style. Still no rain, although it has threatened it all day.
As it is that much colder, I thought that I would share a few Christmas cards, I haven't done that for a while.
We had a class a while ago where we had to finish off cards from our 'Bit's boxes'. I'm sure we've all got one of them, stuffed full of bits and pieces that need finishing off. I've got one for Christmas, and another one for everything else, and neither of them are any where near empty lol.

I seemed to have several Christmas sentiment panels

each containing a small tree as part of the design,

so I mounted them all up on to small cards, using extra stamped images,

background papers

and die cut tree lines.

I even made a couple of identical sets, which is very unusual for me.

I added white Gelli Roll Glaze pen to some of the trees

 to look like snow.

This one uses a couple of fussy cut trees and a fabulous old Hobby Art sentiment stamp.

A few more fussy cut trees to embellish a boxed Christmas sentiment.

And these last couple use an old wood mounted stamp.

I have so many of them in my stash that I really must get around to using.
Thanks for stopping by.
Stay safe
Hugs Kimx

New Designer Boutique Stamps

Evening Everyone,
Creative Expressions have launched some more stamps in their Designer Boutique range, and I was lucky enough to get to play with a couple of them.

I also got my hands on a couple of their fabulous Airless Misters, which is what I used to create the background.

I stamped and embossed the Floral Flamingo onto a piece of mixed media cardstock using versamark ink and white embossing powder.

I spritzed the image with a couple of different colours and then used the same inks to paint parts of the image.

I decided to use the floral part of the image to stamp and emboss the corners of the main card, again using white embossing powder, then I sprayed with the same colours so that it looked like the panel was cut from the centre of it. 

I matte and layered the circular panel onto white and then black and added it to the centre of the card using craft foam for added dimension.
The sentiment comes from the same stamp set.
Gwen will be showcasing these designs on Create and Craft this Satuday 6th June, so why not join us,
Have a great evening. Stay safe.
Happy Crafting and Hugs
Kimx

Wedding Challenge at CCM

Afternoon Everyone,
We have another challenge starting today over at CCM...……..Wedding.
I have a good friend who makes the most exquisite Grovvi cards. She has just spent ages making 3 wedding cards for August this year, only to have them cancelled until next year due to Covid 19.
Not a problem you might think, except that they all have the date lovingly woven into the design!!
We have been trying to come up with ways to disguise this so that she doesn't have to start all over again, including adding the new date on a banner since they will forever be reminded of a very strange year in their marital history.
With all of this in mind I decided that the card that I need to make for a family wedding will be fairly simple, with the option to add a date later. Not because of the work involved, but so that I don't get caught out lol.

After much deliberation I decided on this beautiful Rose Spray from a Crafters Companion Decoupage Pad for my card.

I bought it with the co-ordinating die and once cut out I layered it over a Sue Wilson fancy background panel, die cut from pale gold card stock.

Each sheet in the pad contains several layers for the roses and leaves to allow for decoupage.

The background to the card was created using an Altenew background stamp and platinum embossing powder.

I felt that the sentiments, also from Altenew, were the perfect compliment to the card made for an older couple getting married later in the year, Covid 19 willing that is.

I also found this card that I made a while ago which would work well as a wedding card I think.
I hope that you will find the time to join in with our challenge this time. Please check out what my Teamies have been up to, there are some real beauties there.
Stay safe and well.
Happy Crafting and hugs
Kimx