Butterflies and Flowers

There are many challenges in life: I have decided to enter a card in several -

Colour Throwdown #109
Verve Stamps Something Old/Something New
Annabelle Stamps "Say it with ....Sprinkles"

In the midst of the kitchen I have "tidied" up the desk and done my tax, and cleaned up the craft spaces a bit and realized that I had a sheet of acetate stamped five times with a flower stamp from Innovative Stamp Creations (free stamp on Craft Stamper magazine), using white SU Craft ink - and despite the fact this had happened at least five weeks ago, they were still quite wet. I had at one stage tried to use the heat gun to dry them off and that meant the sheet was buckled but the flowers were still wet and easily smeared.  So, I had a brain wave and got my collection of tinsel out, and sprinkled the images with tinsel, and brushed off the excess.  They seemed to be OK so I decided to use them straight away before I forgot about them again, and made this card! So, even thought I know I am not using the sprinkles that Annabelle Stamps sells, I am using sprinkles of tinsel - lots of it - so am entering it in this Challenge!

However, it wasn't until I went to photograph it, I realised that the WMS frame stamp from Vintage Labels 4 I used is upside down! The sentiment is from Verve stamps using Memento Black ink, and the frame is stamped in SU Pink Passion ink, and then is cut out with Nestabilities, using the Cuttlebug. The background is SU Cream embossed with Floral Fantasy.   The frame and the card are outlined with a hot pink card from the stash.  Various brads were used for the flower centres and the ribbon is Celebrate sheer pink. The whole is on a pale lilac Bazzil card.

The second card is being entered into both the Colour Throwdown #109, and Verve Stamps Something Old/Something New challenges.

                                           

The colours are all there for the Throwdown challenge and I have used two different sets of Verve stamps for the Verve challenge - my newest one is the frame from Framed Wishes, stamped in SU Tempting Turquoise and clear embossed, with the sentiment also done this way but coming from the Beautiful Kindness set, as do the butterflies.  They are coloured with Copic pens and then with Dimensional Magic. The textured background is my first attempt at the crimping background described in  SplitCoastStampers newsletter this week. My crimper is old and not very good, so I had to distress the result to improve the image! The SU Melon Mambo background is then attached to a cream blank card, and the Pear Pizzazz (or similar) is a scrap piece, while the Daffodil Delight (or similar) yellow is the crimped card - from the stash! I added a bit of ribbon as well - the butterflies do sit up off the face of the card, adhered with DM.

How does your garden grow?

Our garden is full of weeds - poor hubbie was in it for last few days and only managed to clear a small patch.  When we got back from the mainland, the rain and warmer weather had encouraged great growth so there were many, many weeds to be got rid of.............and it was green waste day yesterday. I cannot do much to help - my back is a good excuse - so he does most of it by himself. Today has been sunny and warm except when it wasn't raining, so no gardening got done. He needed a break anyway as he was a little tired - I forget he is nearly 75 at times.

Today was painting day and we had a demonstration on the use of galze mediums in your oil painting, and three different ways of going about it.  Still a little confused but will give it a go this week and see what happens! Perhaps I will show you what I have done, perhaps not.

Meanwhile I have made some cards! Suprise, suprise.  Again, they come from my collection of pictures I have torn out of various magazines, and so are to a great extent cased.  Please accept my deepest gratitude all you great card makers you, if you happen to see my attempts at your work. Most card used  is SU card and inks ditto.  The first card uses an Artee Stamp Double Daisy, which I masked to create 4 flowers.  I coloured it in using SU markers and a watercolour brush. The sentiment is a Virve Stamp from USA, one of several I got last month. The ink is SU Baja Breeze and I used one of those baking papers from the set I mentioned last time that the family gave.  I used gold card to back all these. Inside I used another Virve stamp sentiment as my verse, stamped in blue ink on a cream paper inset.

This one is on SU Craft paper, using SU Chocolate Chip ink to smudge the edges.  The little card has felt flowers on it and the 'parcel' was created using scraplings pasted onto cardboard. Inside onthe inset I used stickers from Joane's on birthdays.

This one is too big.  I am thinking of framing it rather than using it as a card.  The flowers were fussy cut from a sheet of Pink Paislee Spring Fling Collection: Spring Flowers, and placed over another piece from the same collection: Tree House. I hand drew and cut out the bird, and mounted it on left over gold card. I used a scrap to create the fence, after carefully giving it a scalloped edge. The letter stickers were from the many I have in the box - maker unknown. I 3-D'ed the flowers with dimentionals and only stuck down the bottom of the stalks and the center of the flower to give it more life. Inside I printed a sentiment I made up - and glued another flower next to it, plus one on the envelope. I must admit it is pretty.