A Monocromatic Card and Some Vacation Pictures (Milan)

Hello everyone, it's the start of a new Allsorts challenge and it's Liz' turn to host. For her optional theme she chose "Monochromatic". I love monochromatic color schemes. As always, if the theme isn't for you then there is the "Anything Goes" option. We love to see all your crafty makes up to 5 per entrant. This time there are 2 prizes from the Allsorts prize box, an A5 stamp set and A6 stamp and stencil. 

I'm also sharing part of my vacation pictures below... I'm afraid it turned into a photo- heavy post.

To make my card I used Salvaged Patina Distress ink to make an inky (smooshed) background. Then I chose Tracy Evans large stamp set Daisy Elegance. This set is retired from Aall and Create and unfortunately one of the harder to find sets. This stamp is large and I only used a portion of it for the card. Most of the wording is part of the set, the only separate thing is the quote "Cherish the little things" which is part of another Tracy Evans stamp set.

I added die cut butterflies made with Penny Black die set Soaring. Glitter was added to the flower centers. I made my own colored cardstock by inking a piece of white neenah paper using the same ink, then mounted this onto a white card base.

I am entering this card here:

• A Perfect Time To Craft - AG
• Beautiful Blossoms - Flowers
• Crafting from the Art Challenge - AG
• Crafts Galore Encore - AG
• Crafty Catz - AG
• Cut It Up - Something with wings
• Craft Rocket Challenges - Not Square
• Daisy Chain Challenges - No Design Paper
• DL.Art Linky Challenge - AG
• Double D - Watercolor (my background)
• Dragonfly Dreams - Use Die Cuts
• Fab n' Funky - Pink, yellow or blue
• Let's Craft & Create Challenge - AG and Butterflies
• Lil Patch of Crafty Friends - AG
• Moving along with the Times - Butterflies
• Paper Rock Scissors - Paper and/or scissors
• Pearly Sparkles Challenge - Butterflies
• Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Feminine
• The Paper Funday - AG
• Triple B - Blooms, Butterflies or Birds
• We Love Stamping - All Creatures Great and Small
• Word Art Wednesday - AG

Coming soon!!!

And going on right now: Discount code for Allsorts challenge participants AllsortsBD17 from AALL and Create provides a 15% discount valid from 1st May through 31st May and available on all items in their store plus free shipping on orders over £39.99 (PS: Unfortunately I am not sure if Free Shipping offer is only for UK...)

We had an absolutely wonderful time overseas visiting family and more. This time I decided to book a flight to Milan (instead of the usual Munich) to visit the area for a few days and then take the train from Milan directly to my sister's town just north of Munich. We took way too many pictures (as usual!) and I couldn't decide what to share so that means I will share some today  (Milan) and some in future posts.

We only had a few days in Northern Italy but we checked most things off of my "to visit" list.

As tired as we were after arriving in Milan, we still decided to walk to the Duomo on that first evening. It was a 30 minute walk from our hotel but it felt good after sitting for the long overnight flight. 

On the left side of the Duomo (below) is Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, a shopping center with lots of high end shops. We did check that out as well. The architecture was impressive but we didn't go to Milan to shop so we didn't really spend a lot of time there.

Instead I saw the castle through the other end of the shopping center and and we walked over there.

The next day we had tickets for the Duomo (which I purchased directly from the site), including the rooftop terraces and St. Charles Crypt. Sadly we didn't realize St. Charles Crypt closed at 5pm and missed that. 

It's hard to tell but there is a life- size statue on each one of the spires. The golden statue in the center was very hard to photograph.

Milan business district in the distance. 

Loved the tile floor inside the Duomo.

We had tickets to see the "Last Supper" mural at Basilica Santa Maria delle Grazie painted by Leonardo Da Vinci... I had also purchased these tickets directly from their site but as they sell out quickly I had to purchase them about 4 months in advance, acutally I purchased these before I had booked the flight. I read that these tickets are really hard to get. Right now they are all sold out until end of August and at some point they will open up ticket sales for the following 3 months (Sept/Oct./Nov.) It's a bit confusing and you pretty much have to know when they release the tickets for sale so you can get them as soon as they open up. Google helped me a lot! Thought I'd share that bit of info in case some of you might want to see this too. 

The mural is inside the rectory of the basilica below.

Tickets to the Last Supper have to be validated 30 minutes before your time slot so after validating we had time to explore the courtyard and gift shop.

I was surprised that we were allowed to take pictures of the mural.

We strolled through Parco Sempione which stretches from Castello Sforzesco to Arco Della Pace. My husband wanted to see the arch up close and luckily the rainclouds had moved on so we enjoyed a walk through this park. I had no idea that we'd find Monk Parakeets in this park. That was a nice surprise but they were hard to photograph and easier heard than seen.

This is the best picture we took of the parakeet. They are pretty much the color of the leaves. 

Lots of turtles and a view of Castello Sforzesco in the background.

The castle through the arch and my husband was happy we made the walk.

Everything  of interest to us was located in/near Milan's historic city center so it was easy to get around on foot from our hotel. A few more snapshots below...

Loved that the Wisteria was blooming!

 These tiny city cars were everywhere!! I had not seen this Fiat model before this trip. 

In my next post I will share some pictures from our daytrip to Varenna on Lake Como which was very easy to reach by train. I plan to share those pictures in my next "Garden Party" post (on May 14th). Varenna is a very small town so there won't be this many pictures (I hope!!)

Thanks so much for visiting!! And hope to see you at the Allsorts challenge blog too! Remember, the challenge runs for 2 weeks!

Happy Thoughts for Four Seasons May Challenge

Hello everyone, I just got back from a 2 week blogging break. The last few posts had all been scheduled as I was in Europe visiting with my family and friends, and I also decided to spend a few days in Northern Italy before taking a train to Germany (we flew into Milan this time instead of Munich so Italy was the first part of our trip.) It's been a wonderful time. When I get around it I'll share a few pictures. I will try to catch up with commenting this coming week and get back to normal life.

May has arrived and that means it's the start of a new Four Seasons challenge where we have another fun Spring Mood Board to inspire you. It's a seasonal Anything Goes challenge, so the mood board is optional and we'd love to see all your spring themed creations (up to 3 entries per participant). 

My inspiration came from the bottom left image of flowers inside a vase and I tried to follow the color scheme of that image too, but my butterflies didn't show up as yellow as I want them to be (adding glitter to them didn't help!)

The stamp I used is from the Penny Black clear set Sunny Wishes. Stamped with Versafine Onyx and colored wiht Faber Castell Polychromos pencils. I masked off the edge and inked the image panel. Then used a Tim Holtz stencil for a design on the background. Sentiment is from the Penny Black set ... A few black Posca pen spots flicked onto the card finish it off.

Thanks so much for visiting and hope to see you at the Four Seasons challenge blog!

Shaped Cards at Allsorts Challenge

Happy Saturday, it's time for a new theme at Allsorts challenge and Christine selected the fun (optional) theme of "Shaped Cards/Anything But Square or Rectangle". A bit of a challenge for me as a practically never make anything but rectangle or square cards but I had fun finding something a bit different to make and it wasn't complicated at all.

I followed a flowerpot pocket card tutorial from Splitcoast Stampers (you can find a link at the end of this post) just used different supplies. I used the set Dainty Daisies and matching dies from Penny Black. They were stamped with Memento Tuxedo ink and colored with Copic markers. The patterned paper is from my stash and I have no idea what brand it is. Some of my papers are over 20 years old and it's hard to remember what brand they all are. The tiny sentiment on the front of the flower pot is from My Favorite Things (retired). The butterfly was done with Penny Black's die set Soaring. I used an old scalloped edge punch for the flowerpot, added another strip of matching patterned paper and some twine to hold the pocket together. I used glue dots and foam tape to add dimension to the flowers. 

This post includes some affiliate links, meaning I may earn a small commission if you purchase something through the links. As always, this is at no cost to you. Thank you so much for your support!

On the tag inside the pocket I used an old Penny Black set Friendship. I thought this sentiment worked really well for the floral design. Sticky enamel dots finish off the card.

If you would like to make your own flowerpot pocket card, then you can find the easy- to- follow tutorial here at Splitcoast Stampers by Stephanie.

I scheduled this post ahead of time as I  currently don't have access to my computer, but as soon as I do I plan to share with these challenges:

• Beautiful Blossoms - AG with Flowers
• Penny Black Saturday - use PB Stamps
• The Paper Funday - AG

Thanks so much for visiting!

Meadow Mushrooms in the Garden

It's the start of a new theme at Allsorts challenge. Gail is hosting this time and her theme is "In the Garden".  Perfect timing as I am sure we all love seeing our gardens back to life after winter. But there is also the "Anything Goes" option if that works better for you. Prizes are from Lavinia stamps going to two lucky winners. Please remember to follow our simple rules so you don't miss the chance to be entered in the drawing or considered as a Top Pick.

A garden theme was a perfect reason to get out my Lavinia stamps.

I started out by inking a background scene using torn paper and a cloud stencil (I have the My Favorite Things stencil) with Twisted Citron and Salvaged Patina Distress Oxide inks. Next I stamped the mushrooms (Lavinia Meadow Mushroom) and bunny (Lavinia Pipin) in Versafine Onyx ink. Butterflies (Lavinia Flutterbies) and flowers (Lavinia Lavender) were stamped with Versafine clair inks (Avocado, Lilac Blooms, Bali Blue). 

Sentiment is by Penny Black from the clear set Snippets. I inked some more Salvaged Patina around the edges then decided the card could use more details on the background so I used Lavinia's Feather Leaf stencil for that. I wanted a little bit of sparkle so I used a Sakura glue pen to add loose glitter to the flowers. A white gel pen by Sakura was used on the bunny and mushrooms for some highlights/dots.

I plan to share this card here:

• Double Trouble Challenge - 3,2,1 (3 stamps, 2 stencils, 1 sentiment), plus Thing 3 Easter Element (bunny)
• Fab n' Funky - Spring
• Stamping Sensations - Inspired by Nature
• The Paper Funday - AG
• Tic Tac Toe Challenge - I chose middle row Stencil/Free/Pastel Colors

Thanks so much for visiting!

Btw. If you do make a garden themed card then I'd love for you to stop by my Garden Party too! The theme is always Anything in or from a garden 😊