Bunnies and More Butterflies

Hello and welcome!

It's Saturday already and that means it's time for my weekly Allsorts challenge card. It's Lorraine's turn to host and she picked the theme of "In the Garden". As always we have a fabulous prize to give away, in fact there are two prizes this time - Card-io Winter Walks and Oriental Whispers stamp sets from First Stop Stationers.  Hope you will join us for a chance to win!

And here is what I made:

The stamp is Penny Black's Bunny Friends. This is a wood mounted stamp that actually includes 5 bunnies in flower pots but I only used two of the 5 on today's card. Stamped with Versafine Onyx ink and colored with Zig Clean Color brush pens and a Zig Detailer watercolor brush. I fussy cut the two bunnies after coloring. 

The grass on the background was done with a Penny Black stamp from the clear set Enjoy Life.

         >>>>>>>>Spring Sale at Scrapbook.com/Ad

The butterflies were done with my newest die set, Penny Black's Soaring. I've used in already on last week's card and I am sure I will be using it again soon! I just love these butterflies! 

Sentiment is an oldie from Stampin Up's set The Gifts of Spring. Before adhering the card front to the base I inked the edges using Tumbled Glass Distress ink and  I used my SU paper piercing tool kit along the edges. Sticky back pearls were added to the butterflies and a couple tiny flowers made with an old Martha Stewart punch to the flower pots. 

The sketch was inspired by a recent MFT sketch challenge but it's not a current one so won't enter there. 

Below are some of the products I used today as found on Amazon. These and some of the links above are affiliate links, meaning I may earn a small commission if you purchase through the links, as always this is at no additional cost to you. 

Thanks so much for visiting! Hope to see you at the challenge blog! 

Below are this week's prizes. To enter for a chance to win simply make a card or any other crafty project following our theme and link it up at the challenge blog. You have until Friday to play along and as always you may enter up to 3 different creations. Good luck and happy stamping!

Card-io Winter Walks and Oriental Whispers stamp sets from First Stop Stationers.

I plan on linking up here:

Mood Board Inspiration:

Challenge up your life

We Love Stamping - Spring // Penny Black Saturday Challenge - PB Stamps // Cut It Up -Spring Project // Aud Sentiments Challenge - Spring Sentiment // Craft Rocket Challenges - Animals // Fab n Funky - Hand Colored // Paper Shelter - Animals // A Gem of a Challenge  - AG // Inkspirational - Critters that hop // Sweet Stampin - Older Stash (All stamps used I've had for many years!) // 

Always Anything Goes:

Taylor Made Cards 4 U // 613 Avenue Create opt. twist watercolor // Creative Moments // Through The Craft Room Door // The Corrosive Challenges // A Bit More Time to Craft // A Perfect Time To Craft // Classic Design  Challenge * // Crafts Galore Encore // DL.Art Linky Challenge // Love to Craft // QKR Stampede // The Creative Crafters // World Wide Open Design Team Challenge // Lil Patch of Crafty Friends // 

Link Parties:

Dare to Share //  Inspire Me Monday //  Link Up Potpourri //  Random-osity Good, Random, Fun // You're The Star Blog Hop Link Party @Stonecottage Adventures // Anything Goes with Your Hosts @ My Random Musings // Jenerally Informed The Happy Now // Spread the Kindness Linkup @ Shelbee on the Edge //  Thursday Favorite Things // Little Things Thursday // Encouraging Heart and Home @ Slices of Life // 

Daisies and Butterflies

It's Saturday again and that means it's time for a new theme at Allsorts challenge. Mervi's turn to host this time around and her theme is "Feminine". Our prizes this week have been kindly donated by Craft Stash and Ruth Hamilton Designs so hopefully you'll join us for a chance to win!

I recently purchased a few new Penny Black stamps and a die set so I've used some new things on today's card.

I love daisies so couldn't resist this pretty stamp Daisy Dream. It's been stamped on heavy weight watercolor paper (Canson Montval) with the help of a stamp platform, then colored with Zig Clean Color brush pens and a Zig Detailer. I flicked some green ink onto the background for some interest.

Related Products:

The sentiment is also new from the set Love Big. I wish I had used my stamp platform for it as I didn't get a perfect impression with it using a clear block but as you know, once the block is lifted you get what you get! I just don't usually use the platform for sentiments. 

I also couldn't resist the cute butterflies die set Soaring from the recent release. Die cut using white card stock then I inked them up with distress ink. I decided to add some lace to the right side. This is a sticky back lace I've had for some time. Some May Arts jute twine and sticky pearls finish off the card. 

You have until Friday to join us for this challenge. The linky tool can be found on the challenge blog (linked at the beginning of the post). Hope to see you there!

Thanks so much for visiting!

This post may include 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 supporting this blog!

I'm sharing with these challenges:

Penny Black Saturday Challenge - PB Stamps // Crafty Friends Challenge - Flowers // Daisy Chain Challenges - Dies // Happy Little Stampers - Dies // Crafty Gals Corner - Flowers // Fab n Funky - Hand colored // Little Red Wagon - Die Cuts // Get Creative Challenges - Use Green // Path of Positivity - AG positive // Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Feminine // A Gem of a Challenge - AG //  Girlz Rebel challenge - inspiration below

Always Anything Goes:

Taylor Made Cards 4 U // 613 Avenue Create opt. twist watercolor // Creative Moments // Through The Craft Room Door // The Corrosive Challenges // A Bit More Time to Craft // A Perfect Time To Craft // Classic Design  Challenge * // Crafts Galore Encore // DL.Art Linky Challenge // Love to Craft // QKR Stampede // The Creative Crafters // World Wide Open Design Team Challenge // Lil Patch of Crafty Friends // 

Link Parties:

Dare to Share //  Inspire Me Monday //  Link Up Potpourri //  Random-osity Good, Random, Fun // You're The Star Blog Hop Link Party @Stonecottage Adventures // Anything Goes with Your Hosts @ My Random Musings // Jenerally Informed The Happy Now // Spread the Kindness Linkup @ Shelbee on the Edge //  Thursday Favorite Things // Little Things Thursday // Encouraging Heart and Home @ Slices of Life // 

Bunches of Daffodils Especially for You

Hello and welcome!

Time surely flies, hard to believe it's the 18th of March already, and that means it's time for some more inspiration at Stamping Sensations! The challenge runs until the end of the month so plenty of time still to join us for our "Stamp Something for Spring" theme to be entered into the prize drawing. Remember you may enter up to 3 times with a different creation for more chances to win. 

And here is what I made using a Penny Black cutie.

Unfortunately this stamp is hard to find now, maybe occasionally on eBay or Etsy. It's called "You are the Bestest". I love it but feel like most of my cards made with this stamp turn out similar. In fact, I just did a search on my blog for this stamp, and each time I ended up coloring the cat gray!! (It does remind me a lot of my fluffy gray Fussy.) At least I don't think I've used a stencil with it before... Next time I will have to remember to make the cat a "ginger" like my Thomas :-)

It's been stamped onto Bristol Vellum paper using Versafine Onyx ink and then colored with Zig Clean Color brush pens and a Zig Detailer watercolor brush. A TCW stencil was used on the background with distress inks and matching the hexagons on the stencil I cut out the bee using a hexagon die I had for a long time  from Whimsy Stamps and no longer available but there may be some options here. A stripes stencil was used to make some striped paperand I adhered this before adding the bee and sentiment. A Wink of Stella glitter brush was used on the bee's wings for a touch of sparkle.

Related Products:

If you'd like to join us for our spring theme, feel free to use the spring mood board below or simply create something stamped for spring.

Thanks so much for visiting!

This post may include 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 supporting this blog!

I will be linking up here:

We Love Stamping - Spring //The Four Seasons Challenge - Spring // Craft Rocket Challenges - Animals // TIME OUT Challenges -Cute // Critter Crazy Challenges - Critters // Crafty Gals Corner - Flowers // Fab n Funky - Hand colored // Crafty Gals Corner - Flowers // Simon Says Stamp - Favorite Things (Cat Stamps, Stencils)

Free Beautiful Sunflower Digi Stamps for a Cause

Hello and welcome! Not a usual day for me to post a card, but I spent some time yesterday using some new stamps I got for a cause and thought I'd share the cards today. I do like to keep my blog a happy place but there is no denying that the happenings in Eastern Europe are constantly on my mind so when I received the newsletter from Power Poppy (you can also read it on Power Poppy's blog) about the free Sunflower digi stamps  and an option to purchase another digi for a fundraiser to help Ukraine I had to get them. 

You can get Power Poppy's sunflower stamps here (there are 4 freebie sets) including the digi for the fundraiser. You do not need to make a purchase to get the free stamps. 

Both were done in a CAS-ish style.

On the first card (above) I used the Sunshine of my Life set. As I usually do with digi stamps, it's been colored with my Faber Castell Polychromos pencils. After coloring, I used one of my favorite stamps, the retired Whimsy Stamps script border on the bottom of the card. The background was a little bit too plain so I decided to add some stenciling. Finally ran this through my big shot machine using Avery Elle's Wonky Stitches die then adhered to the card base.

And here is my second card:

Here I used the Fundraiser Peace Offering digi.

This has also been colored with Faber Castell Polychromos pencils, I used the same border stamp again and this time I simply tore the bottom edge of the image panel then added some paper piercing. Some silver cord I recently found a roll off at a thrift store was tied around the image panel, edges inked with light blue ink, did some old fashioned paper piercing using my old Stampin Up piercing template and then adhered onto a white card base.

Thanks so much for visiting!

I'm linking up here:

Daring Cardmakers - Cards for Ukraine // Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Feminine // Crafty Gals Corner - Flowers // Fab n Funky - Handcolored Image // Simon Says Stamp - Favorite Things (Script Border Stamp, Faber Castell Pencils and I love flower stamps although these stamps are new) // Digi Choosday Challenge - AG // Everybody-Art-Challenge - B is for...(Blooms, Blue) // Ike's World - AG // A Place To Start - AG // Colouring in Scrapland - AG // Crafting Happiness Challenges - AG // Jan's Digi Stamps Challenge - AG // Pammie's Inky Pinkies Challenges - AG // Path of Positivity - AG // Dare 2B Artzy Challenges - AG // Crafty Friends Challenge - Flowers // Creatalicious Challenges - AG // Happy Little Stampers - Stencils (1st card) // Let's Craft & Create Challenge - AG // Sweet Stampers - CAS (2nd card) // A Gem of a Challenge - AG // Sweet Stampin - Keep it simple (2nd card) // Colour Crazy Challenge - Coloring // 

Always Anything Goes:

Taylor Made Cards 4 U // 613 Avenue Create opt. twist watercolor // Creative Moments // Through The Craft Room Door // The Corrosive Challenges // A Bit More Time to Craft // A Perfect Time To Craft // Classic Design  Challenge * // Crafts Galore Encore // DL.Art Linky Challenge // Love to Craft // QKR Stampede // The Creative Crafters // World Wide Open Design Team Challenge // Lil Patch of Crafty Friends // 

Link Parties:

Dare to Share //  Inspire Me Monday //  Link Up Potpourri //  Random-osity Good, Random, Fun // You're The Star Blog Hop Link Party @Stonecottage Adventures // Anything Goes with Your Hosts @ My Random Musings // Jenerally Informed The Happy Now // Spread the Kindness Linkup @ Shelbee on the Edge //  Thursday Favorite Things // Little Things Thursday // Encouraging Heart and Home @ Slices of Life // 

A Fluffy Passenger and a Tulip Field

Hello and welcome! 

It's time already for a new theme at Allsorts challenge and hope you will join in! Our theme is Spring is in the air this week and I am here in Illinois (not so) patiently waiting for its arrival. It snowed twice again this past week and last night's low just around 7 degrees Fahrenheit (around -13 Celsius). Much too cold for March!! Luckily it looks more promising next week! 

Our wonderful prize is the AALL and Create Birthday Blooms A 5 stamp set from Stampers Grove.

After seeing the wonderful inspiration photo at the current "The Card Concept" challenge (see photo below) I remembered a recent gorgeous card  made by Brenda (second card on the linked post) and so this card came to be. I just love the way Brenda combined a bicycle and tulips.

As you can see from the photo above, my colors and green bicycle were inspired by the card concept challenge and they would like us to use one of the card styles as defined on their blog (or a combination of them) and I'm leaning towards Freestyle Collage....Not sure though (maybe Mixed Media?)

These are all Penny Black stamps, the girl on bike is called Fluffy Passenger, stamped directly onto my card front then colored with Zig Clean Color brush pens and a Zig Detailer watercolor brush. The tulips from the clear set Blooming Garden were once stamped directly in the foreground of my card front and then again on another piece of Bristol Velum. These blooms were colored with Zig brush pens, fussy cut and then adhered onto those stamped on the card front, a couple of them were popped up with foam tape. The sentiment on the top right is from the set Happy Wishes and the small "just for you" is part of the set Snippets. 

     >>>>Tim Holtz Products & Mixed Media Sale at Scrapbook.com/Ad

I decided to add some sunrays using Tim Holtz's rays stencil and I had this die cut butterfly (part of this die) laying on a shelf next to my desk waiting on an opportunity to be used. Some inking around the edges finishes off the card. I did forget to add a touch of blush to her cheek but will do that before sending it off to the recipient. And I might add a couple of sticky rhinestones too. Wish I had thought of doing that before photographing the card!!

The rest of the team created some wonderful spring themed cards, be sure to check them out on the challenge blog! And here is a photo of this week's prize, you have until Friday morning UK time to join us! The linky tool can be found on the challenge blog. 

Thanks so much for visiting!

This post may include 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 supporting this blog!

Besides the Card Concept (see above) I plan on also link up here:

We Love Stamping - Spring // Crafty Gals Corner - Add a Flower // Fab n Funky - Dies and Stencils // Everybody-Art-Challenge - B is for... (Bicycle, Blooms, Butterfly, Beret) // Dare 2B Artzy Challenges - AG // Crafty Catz - Colors of Spring // Penny Black Saturday Challenge - PB stamps // 

Always Anything Goes:

Taylor Made Cards 4 U // 613 Avenue Create opt. twist watercolor // Creative Moments // Through The Craft Room Door // The Corrosive Challenges // A Bit More Time to Craft // A Perfect Time To Craft // Classic Design  Challenge * // Crafts Galore Encore // DL.Art Linky Challenge // Love to Craft // QKR Stampede // The Creative Crafters // World Wide Open Design Team Challenge // Lil Patch of Crafty Friends // 

Link Parties:

Dare to Share //  Inspire Me Monday //  Link Up Potpourri //  Random-osity Good, Random, Fun // You're The Star Blog Hop Link Party @Stonecottage Adventures // Anything Goes with Your Hosts @ My Random Musings // Jenerally Informed The Happy Now // Spread the Kindness Linkup @ Shelbee on the Edge //  Thursday Favorite Things // Little Things Thursday // Encouraging Heart and Home @ Slices of Life // 

Magnolia Blossoms for Stamping Sensations Spring Challenge

Hello and welcome! 

It's the first Sunday of the month and that means it's the start of a new challenge at Stamping Sensations. We have a nice and easy theme again this month, Stamp Something for Spring. And if you need some more inspiration, you can use Brenda's pretty photo collage below to get you started.

We have a really nice mixed media bundle made up of things from Oakwood Archer and then there will be a second prize of some pretty silhouette stamps for a second winner. 

Here is Brenda's inspiration piece if you need some help to get you started for spring crafting:

I took inspiration from the beautiful Magnolia blossoms and used my Magnolia stamp from Penny Black - The Unfolding -  to make my card. It is one released a few years back so it's not as widely available anymore but one of my favorite brushstroke stamps. 

Using a stamp platform I inked up the blossom with various Distress inks. Originally I wanted a more pastel flower (and card) but my Spun Sugar ink barely showed up so I kept adding more inks and this is the end result. Then I used the brick background stamp from Penny Black around the blossoms stamped with Vintage Photo ink. The postmark/butterfly on the bottom right and script stamping on the top are part of Penny Black's Gathering Together stamp, also stamped with Vintage Photo ink. 

Related Products You May Like:

The sentiment from Penny Black's set Blooming Sentiments was stamped directly onto the card using Versafine Onyx ink. Thought the bottom of the card needed something black as well so I used an old cross stitch stamp along the bottom border to complete the card. 

Before adhering to the card base I inked the edges with green distress inks.

Here is a peek at our wonderful prizes for this month. To play along for your chance to win be sure to link up your new springtime creation at Stamping Sensations. As the name suggests, we are a stamping challenge so stamping does need to be the focal point of the card.

Thanks so much for visiting!

This post may include 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 supporting this blog!

I am sharing with these challenges:

Penny Black Saturday Challenge - PB stamps opt. bright colors // Krafty Chicks - Stamp Act // Little Red Wagon - Blossom, Bricks // The Crafting Challenge - Spring //  Pearly Sparkles Challenge - Feminine // 

Always Anything Goes:

Taylor Made Cards 4 U // 613 Avenue Create opt. twist watercolor // Creative Moments // Through The Craft Room Door // The Corrosive Challenges // A Bit More Time to Craft // A Perfect Time To Craft // Classic Design  Challenge * // Crafts Galore Encore // DL.Art Linky Challenge // Love to Craft // QKR Stampede // The Creative Crafters // World Wide Open Design Team Challenge // Lil Patch of Crafty Friends // 

Link Parties:

Dare to Share //  Inspire Me Monday //  Link Up Potpourri //  Random-osity Good, Random, Fun // You're The Star Blog Hop Link Party @Stonecottage Adventures // Anything Goes with Your Hosts @ My Random Musings // Jenerally Informed The Happy Now // Spread the Kindness Linkup @ Shelbee on the Edge //  Thursday Favorite Things // Little Things Thursday // Encouraging Heart and Home @ Slices of Life // 

Botanical Notes with Some Distressing

Hello and welcome! It's time already for a new theme at Allsorts challenge. Pauline is hosting this week and she would like to see "Distressing or Anything Goes". Hope you will join in, remember you may enter up to 3 times with a different creation for more chances to win. This week our prize was kindly donated by Stamp Addicts, a £15 store voucher. And there will be a second prize of a beautiful Tattered Lace die.

 And here is what I made:

The stamp - Botanical Notes -  is one of my Favorites from Penny Black. This time I only used a portion of it as it also includes a butterfly and some script which you can see a little bit of. 

I created the inky background with Tea Dye Distress ink applied to my craft mat and spritzed with some water, then "smooshed" my Bristol Vellum paper onto the ink. While I was waiting for this to dry, I stamped the image on a separate piece of Bristol Vellum and colored the flowers using Victorian Velvet and Aged Mahogany Distress inks, then fussy cut.

After my Tea Dye inked background was dry, I stamped the floral image onto the background and colored the leaves with Peeled Paint distress ink.  There are only 2 flowers on the stamp, so it's been partially stamped again on the bottom right corner and a third flower was also fussy cut. Before adhering my fussy cut flowers, I used an old Hero Arts music note stamp (similar option) on the background stamped with Tea Dye Distress ink. 

The sentiment from the PB set Blooming Sentiments has been stamped on a strip of white card stock then I tied some May Arts jute twine around.

After the flowers, I decided it needed something else white on the card, so I added some flourishes die cuts made with an old Whimsy Stamps die (this Tim Holtz die set would be a good alternative option). Before adhering the card front to the base I used scissors to distress the edges then ran the tea dye ink pad along the edges.

You can find some of the products/options I used here:

And inks:

Thanks so much for visiting!

This post may include 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 supporting this blog!

Linking up here:

Krafty Chicks - Stamp Act // Fab n Funky - Dies // Little Red Wagon - Beginning with B (blossoms, bow) // Simon Says Stamp - Die Cut // Penny Black Saturday Challenge - PB Stamps 

Always Anything Goes:

Taylor Made Cards 4 U // 613 Avenue Create opt. twist watercolor // Creative Moments // Through The Craft Room Door // The Corrosive Challenges // A Bit More Time to Craft // A Perfect Time To Craft // Classic Design  Challenge * // Crafts Galore Encore // DL.Art Linky Challenge // Love to Craft // QKR Stampede // The Creative Crafters // World Wide Open Design Team Challenge // Lil Patch of Crafty Friends // 

Link Parties:

Dare to Share //  Inspire Me Monday //  Link Up Potpourri //  Random-osity Good, Random, Fun // You're The Star Blog Hop Link Party @Stonecottage Adventures // Anything Goes with Your Hosts @ My Random Musings // Jenerally Informed The Happy Now // Spread the Kindness Linkup @ Shelbee on the Edge //  Thursday Favorite Things // Little Things Thursday // Encouraging Heart and Home @ Slices of Life //