Fabulous Flora

Hello! Thank you for dropping by. I did a bit of water-colouring with the Fabulous Flora hostess set yesterday. I used an Aqua Painter with Watermelon Wonder, Delightful Dijon, Pear Pizzazz and Pool Party inks.

The overall design was inspired by a lovely card by Louise Sharp for this week's challenge over at the Global Design Project.

 

I have kept the floral theme and also the spotty background paper and tag element. It was lots of fun to make!

 

My card was also super snippety, using up some bits of dsp and a left-over strip of Bermuda Bay cardstock that was squished through the hexagonal embossing folder. I am presenting the flower to Parsnip and Di over at Pixie's Snippets Playground of course! It's certainly nice to return to making more flowery cards as the spring weather gets a bit better. Happy crafting! April x

So Succulent

Hello! It's raining and miserable here so perfect for making a cheery birthday card! I have used SU's So Succulent bundle which is a lot of fun to use.

I've used Flirty Flamingo cardstock and dsp combined with Mint Macaron, Perfect Plum and Emerald Envy. The sentiment is from Rose Wonder and I have also added some linen thread and silver sequins. The sketch for the card is from this week's challenge over at the Global Design Project - a pretty cool sketch that would lend itself to lots of cards I think!



 

I'd also like to send my card along to Cards in Envy where the challenge is to 'Keep it Simple'.

 

Happy crafting! April x



CCT Colour Challenge

Hello! We have a colour challenge at Christmas Card Throwdown for you this week.

 

Now I may be hosting this challenge but I didn't actually choose the colours, so it made me go hmmm! The closest I had colour-wise was SU's Cherry Cobbler, Very Vanilla and Tim Holtz's Twisted Citron. I'm really pleased with how it turned out! I have of course used that old favourite - Lovely as a Tree for the image.

 

Looking forward to seeing your cards! April x





Guest Designer at Pixie's Snippets Playground

Hello! I am delighted to be Guest Designer over at Pixie's Snippets Playground with the lovely Di and Parsnip! It is one of my favourite bloggy places - very friendly and encouraging. It is also great for snippet-busting, although like the Magic Porridge Pot my snippet pile seems to be ever expanding!

As snippet-busting is the name of the game, I have chosen the Sunburst or Starburst technique as a fun way of using small pieces of left-over patterned paper. I'm lucky enough to be on the DT of Christmas Card Throwdown and we featured this very technique a short while ago. I love it, as it reminds me of that popular 1930s design feature - my Mum rented a garage which had a sunburst window over the doors! I decided that I would create a spring version for the Playground.

I blanched slightly when I saw the original challenge as I'm not very good with techniques that require any mathematical workings out or precision. My crafting friend, 'Too Much Glue' Sam and I always like to describe our crafting as 'organic' (ie. messy). Indeed, Di and Parsnip enjoyed the story of when I got gold embossing paste on my slipper and trod it all over the bathroom floor and up and down the stairs! However, although this technique looks as though it may require some arcane equations, it really doesn't and is super-easy! Here is my Christmassy version.

 There are many tutorials available for this lovely technique. I used a very straightforward tutorial by my talented friend Patricia. You can find a link to the pdf at the end of the first post here.

My Easter card uses snippets from a Designer Series Paper Stack called Serene Scenery. I combined the sunburst design with Bermuda Bay and Daffodil Delight cardstock. The cute little chick can be found in the Little Cuties stamp set. He was stamped in Delightful Dijon and then coloured in with SU watercolour pencils. To add a bit of bling I have included a snippet of Bermuda Bay Glimmer Paper and a couple of sequins. I hope you like it - I think he looks a cheeky little chap!

I do hope that you will join us over at the Playground. There are always the most amazing cards and craft creations to be inspired by, but also the most friendly and kind group of crafters (and a cheeky, little white bear!) Happy crafting! April x

CCT Sketch Challenge

Hello! I'm hosting the challenges over at Christmas Card Throwdown this month. We have a sketch challenge for you -

 

 Quite a simple little sketch that I'm sure you can do a lot with! You can flip it, change the shape of the element, but we should still be able to recognise the original sketch in your card creation. For my card, I used lots of left over bits of Christmas patterned paper and made my sentiment into a 'bauble' - I hope you like it!

 

We hope that you will join us. Happy crafting! April x