Allsorts 417 - Vintage Style

Saturday already and that means it's time for a new challenge at Allsorts. This week it's Mervi's turn to host and she chose the theme of "Vintage Style". 

I used a mix of products/stamps on this card so I am just listing below what I used:

Butterfly Basics, French Script -retired (both by Stampin Up)

Lavish Flourishes - retired, Distressed Backgrounds & Ink Splats (Whimsy Stamps)

Versafine onyx ink, antique linen, walnut stain, peeled paint, victorian velvet & worn lipstick distress inks

Embellished with Jute twine and sticky pearls.

Edges were inked and distressed, and I also used my sewing machine for some simple stitching. Colored card stock is all by Stampin Up and white by Neenah.

This week Swedish House Crafts is our fabulous sponsor giving away a wonderful prize. I hope you'll come join us. The rest of the team has created some really pretty vintage style cards too, come take a look!

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Happy 8th Birthday, Allsorts Challenge!!

Happy Saturday everyone and thanks so much for visiting! This week we're celebrating 8 years of Allsorts challenges, I just recently became part of this team but what an honor it is to be part of this amazing team and a challenge blog that has been going strong for so long!

In honor of Allsorts 8th birthday, our theme this week is

Happy Birthday!

I thought these cute cats look like they are having the times of their lives celebrating and dancing, so I inked them up and heat embossed to make today's card. I colored with Zig Clean color brush pens. Finished off the card by adding some jute twine and did some paper piercing along the top and bottom.

Our Birthday challenge is kindly sponsored by Tattered Lace who are offering a fabulous £50 store voucher for this week's winner...................and in addition there is a £5.00 voucher for every single entrant to spend at their Crafting store. 

To use your £5 voucher you will need a code which can be found by visiting each of the DT's personal blogs, collecting the nine letters/numbers and creating the unique code.......it's a really simple one, but if you get stuck just mail Brenda. Your voucher will be valid from today until Saturday  May 27th and is limited to one voucher per entrant, that means even if you enter three times you will only receive one voucher.

I am sure you all know by now which letter you are collecting here, yes, it's the letter L :)

You can find all the other letters by visiting the rest of the design team, the links can be found on the Allsorts challenge blog, and I am sure you'll love seeing all their wonderful creations for our birthday challenge!

Thanks again for stopping by, hope you have a great weekend. School is out for Summer  over here, can't believe how fast this school year went by! It was a bittersweet ending of the school year too, as both kids will attend new schools in August - no more elementary school for us and my oldest will be in 9th grade. Where have the years gone???!!!

More poppies for Penny Black and More

Hi everyone, today I am sharing the card I made for the Penny Black and More challenge reminder, and it's also the card I made for my Mother-in-Law for Mother's Day which was celebrated last Sunday here in the States (and in some other parts of the world).

To make my card, I first masked the edges of the the white card stock using washi tape and added a circle mask for the sun (or moon). The grass and sky were inked, then I used a word border stamp by Whimsy Stamps on the grass part. The masks were removed after inking and then I stamped the poppy image. I stamped it again on designer paper and fussy cut the blossoms. Not sure if you can tell, but I used a clear wink of stella brush on the flowers. The poppy pods were colored using Faber Castell Polychromos pencils.  I finished off the card by adding a punched butterfly with some sticky pearls.

And below is the inspiration photo/colors. 

 

Use the image or colors as your inspiration and come play along.

I had a wonderful Mother's Day weekend. The weather was perfect and my family surprised me with this beautiful garden fairy. This year I decided to plant some Hostas around our large tree in the backyard and I thought this pretty fairy fits so well into this setting.

The pink flowers on the right side don't seem very happy, it's only because they were just planted before I took this photo on Mother's Day,  they do look beautiful now. The bench is really old and "use at your own risk" 😁, but the squirrels like sitting on it so it is staying. Plus it makes a good spot for the little fairy garden my daughter and I planted.

 

This week I also finished planting all my vegetables, I bought more than I could fit into the garden, so hopefully they will still grow, as I had to squeeze some in.

Hope you all have a great rest of the week, I will be back again on Saturday with my card for the Allsorts special birthday challenge.

Roses for Allsorts 415

Hello everyone, it's time already for a new challenge at Allsorts, this week Brenda chose the theme of Ring a Ring o' Roses. We have two great prizes to give away, hope you get a chance to play along.

The old stamp set "Roses in Winter" by Stampin Up seemed perfect for the occasion, and it's just been sitting in a drawer collecting dust, so I dug it out to use. I have also used the similar styled set "Watercolor Garden" also a really old Stampin Up set. The reason why I am sharing 3 cards is because I was not happy with the outcome and kept trying a different style, in the end I didn't want to waist any of them and turned them into cards.Glad I did because now I actually do like how they turned out.

Below are close ups of each card. I used the same inks and card stock for them all, the last card also uses designer paper from my stash. Sentiments are from Penny Black and Stampin Up. The words stamped onto the backgrounds is the old "French Script" background stamp by Stampin Up. 

I used the "Rock n' Roll" technique to add a darker shade around the edges of the roses.

Although the floral stamps I have used are retired, they are all available on ebay at really good prices too.

Below are the prizes we're giving away this week, hope you decide to join us!

Thanks so much for visiting! Hope you all have a nice and sunny weekend! Lots of sunshine in our forecast this weekend and I am looking forward to planting some vegetables over the next few days :)

Penny Black and More - May Challenge

 Happy Sunday, I am back today sharing my card for the Penny Black and More May challenge. 

This month we're having a photo inspiration challenge. Check out the gorgeous poppy image below and aren't those colors just beautiful!!

 I had a few images to choose from that would have worked well for this challenge, but decided to go with the cute little Hedgie sitting in a field of poppies. It's been a while since I used this little guy and he's definitely one of my favorites!

Hedgehogs have a special place in my heart, a really long time ago I found one in my childhood garden under a plum tree crawling out from under the leaves. I must have been about 9 or 10 years old and thought it was the cutest and most surprising thing to find ever! (But I am sure I mentioned this before on here :)

To make my card I heat embossed the image (Poppy Field by Penny Black) on Winsor & Newton watercolor marker paper then colored using Zig Clean Color brush pens. The sentiment is an old one by Whimsy Stamps from one of their ticket sentiment sets, and I used the matching ticket die to cut it out. Designer paper is by My Mind's Eye, card stock by Stampin Up and I used some grass green jute twine to add as embellishment. I also used a Wink of Stella clear glitter brush on the flowers and butterflies. Otherwise the card has been kept clean and simple, but I did get out my Janome sewing machine for some zigzag stitching.

A little close up above, where you can see the sparkles a little bit better. Isn't this image just adorable!! No wonder it was one of my very first Penny Black stamps!

Be sure to check out what the rest of the team made, I can tell you there is lots of wonderful inspiration on the challenge blog! We have some wonderful sponsors again this month by Penny Black, Crafts U Love and Sizzix, so lots of chances to win. I hope you'll come play along! 

Thanks so much for visiting!

Also playing along here:
Crafting with Dragonflies   Lots of Flowers /and or Mother's Day  
Crafty Calendar  Flowers
Cute Card Thursday - Anything Goes

Allsorts 414 - Music

Happy Saturday! Can you believe it's May already!! Kids will be out for summer break in just a couple of weeks, not sure I am ready for this as they both will be going to new schools in August. I wish time would slow down a little bit...

This week it's Helene's week to host the challenge at Allsorts, and she chose the theme of Music. As always we have a great prize to give away, so hopefully you can play along :)

For my card today I used one of the cute cat stamps from the Penny Black set "Jazzy Cats". Heat embossed on Bristol Vellum card stock and colored with Zig Clean Color brush pens. 

The sentiment is from one of Whiff of Joy's limited edition stamp kits (no longer available and sadly they are no longer in business). The designer paper is from a paper pack I picked up at Hobby Lobby last year, colored card stock is all by Stampin Up. I finished off the card with machine sewing and used a stapler and a little bit of gingham ribbon to add a little more interest to the card.

Before I go I have quick announcement: 

We will be celebrating our 8th birthday at Allsorts on May 20th and Brenda created this logo for your side bar. Please help us spread the word!

Have a great day everyone, and hope you come check back again tomorrow. I have another post scheduled for the Penny Black and More May challenge. 

Playing along here:
Catch The Bug  -   Anything Goes
Crafty Friends Challenge - Cute
Sweet Stampin - Cats and/or Dogs
Just Add Ink  - Just Add Stitching

The Crafty Addicts - Add a Sentiment

2 Crafty Critter Crazies  - Anything Goes with a Critter
Sweet Stampers  - Animals