Dream, Inspire, Love

 I hope everyone is keeping well, we are in such strange times at the moment.  

Wow, what a weekend!  Despite the lockdown the weather has certainly made it a bit easier to cope.  Just to be able to get out in the garden and relax in the sunshine was amazing.

The one bonus of self isolating is that it is giving me plenty of time in the craft room!  I have made a number of really simple cards which can be used for any occasion, so be prepared for the onslaught 😀

I have almost run out of my square card bases so have got some DL cards, but to be honest I found it quite difficult to come up with ideas for them, as they are such an odd shape.  I have challenged myself to use them as much as I can!

For this card I made my own stencil out of mylar by cutting into it with a die 3 times and then shaded each element with Adirondack Oregano and Sunset Orange with the brushes and then traced around the inside of the shapes with a gel pen.






I finished by stamping the Dream, Inspire, Love stamps from Lavinia Stamps in Versafine Clair Chianti, which is a really lovely burgundy colour.

I finished by layering the card up on black cardstock and hey presto, a really quick and simple card.

I hope you like it!

I am off to go and see the ponies now - they are a neverending job but I wouldn't be without them.

Until next time please stay safe and well.

Ginny x

Stargazing

I hope everyone is keeping well in these uncertain times.  Hubby is still working hard at the local hospital as he is a medical engineer and is spending his time working on ventilators 😔

Todays card is the stargazing rabbit.

I was working on another project and did not have any coloured cardstock so decided to make my own with some Izink spray inks I bought a few weeks back!

Well I got absolutely filthy doing this!!!  I used red, yellow and orange inks and sprayed them on the cardstock and then gently blotted the card with kitchen towel.

I enjoyed doing this more than I thought I would and have to admit I am tempted to do this again, but I do need to get myself a big box to spray inks in, as this ended up all over my craft table, ink pads and just about everything else I had around at the time.

Once the cardstock had dried I used a Sweet Poppy Stencil of the stargazing rabbit and inked through this with Versafine Clair

Nocturne ink, applied with a smoothie.  I applied a number of coats as I wanted this to be a dense black, which would work in contrast to the orange/red/yellow mixture.

I decided to keep this card really simple as I felt the colours speak for themselves and I loved the contrast with the silhouette.



As I had a small piece of card left over I made another, much smaller, card.  Again I kept it really simple, which suits the Lavinia Stamps perfectly.

I hope you like the cards I have shared and will hopefully be back soon with a bit more inspiration.

In the meantime, I hope you all stay well and thank you for taking the time to visit my blog.

With love and crafty hugs (from a distance!)

Ginny x

Just Bee You!

I hope everyone is coping well with the lockdown situation at the moment and not suffering too much.  I am finding it quite hard as am used to being outside all the time with the horses and it all feels so surreal.  Hubby works for the NHS so is very busy at the moment, and pretty stressed too, so I am spending more time in my craft room than normal lol 😉

This is another of the designs using the Bee Friendly stampset from Hobby Art!  I can't believe I have not used this set before this week as it is so versatile and I have really enjoyed the colouring in!

I chose to work with Distress Inks and used Abandoned Coral, Tea Dye and Hickory Smoke, applied gently with the make up brushes again.  I stamped the main images in VersaFine Clair Nocturne, which gives a lovely sharp image.

First off I stamped some of the honeycomb stamp on the base layer of the card,  just around the outside as I was going to place the topper.  I also used the hickory smoke distress ink to distress the borders so that it gave a slightly worn look and remove the starkness of the white card.

I also stamped the #savethebees in the corner.

I then worked on the topper, by stamping the bee and flower.  These were coloured in and also distressed the white cardstock with the hickory smoke and tea dye again.  I did the colouring in of the bee and flower with the Zig Clean Colour pens.

I layered the white cardstock onto black to make it pop, and then layered the topper onto the base with foam pads to make it slightly more dimensional.  I hope you like the final result!

I wish that everyone keeps well in these trying times.

With love and crafty hugs.

Ginny x

Home Is Where the Heart Is

Life is very surreal at the moment!  I am very lucky right now as I can at least get out of the house twice a day as I have ponies to care for and they take up a couple of hours a day, so at least I can get out for some fresh air.

It is also allowing me plenty of time for my crafting and getting to practice things I am not very good at - and in this case it is using a brayer!

I really enjoyed making another card with Lavinia Stamps - can you tell they are one of my favourites!  

This card used a number of Lavinia Stamps, as follows:

Forest Temple

Wild Hares Set

Tree of Dreams (the branches only)

Whimsical Wisps

Wild Poppies

Home is There the Heart Is

Single miniature Heart

The colour scheme I chose was Colorbox Dandelion and Jade, which I brayered onto cardstock, doing half and half.  I have found that it is best to use a really light touch with the brayer and build the colour up slowly.  I am sure I will improve with time but I was quite pleased with the result this time.

I stamped the temple and wording in Versafine Clair Twilight and then added the rabbits, I also wanted to put something on the top of the temple so added the branches from the tree of dreams stamp.

I then added some highlights using gel pens, silver on the hares and a muted rose colour on parts of the twines on the temple.  I added some quickie glue to the trees and used the blue moonstone glitter, which was quite subtle.

Finally I added the single miniature heart in chianti, which I love to add to the sentiment.

I know I would love to live somewhere like this 😉

Thanks so much for dropping by.

Stay safe everyone.

Sending love and crafty hugs.

Ginny x

Bee Friendly

Well the situation with the Coronavirus has really stopped everyone in their tracks, and for me it has given me plenty of time to do some crafting, so there is likely to be more posts than normal from me.

Todays card is all about bees!  The stamp set is called Bee Friendly from Hobby Art Stamps.  I have had this stamp set a while and decided it was about time I got the set out and played with it.

This card ended up being an 8" x 8", so quite a large one.  I did enjoy making it and it was very simple, with just a bit of stamping and colouring with my Zig Clean Colour pens.  These are watercolour pens and for the flower I put the colour down on a blending mat and added water, and then applied with a watercolour pen.  It was really enjoyable and simple to make.

Here are a few more photo's showing a bit more detail of the stamps.

I hope you have enjoyed my cards and I love it if you wanted to leave a comment.

I hope everyone is keeping well!

With love and crafty hugs

Ginny x

Dream

A friend asked me to make her a card with the tree of life, but I could not find a stamp, so made one using the Tree of Dreams from Lavinia Stamps.

I had my second go at using a brayer straight to cardstock and was quite pleased with the result.   I used Colorbox Blueberry for the sky and Olive for the grass.  I built the colour up very slowly as find
it quite difficult to not get any lines!

I stamped the tree followed by the new Lavinia Stamps Wild Hares, which I love!  I added Dream from the Inspire Me stampset to finish off the stamping.  I added a spotlight around the tree with versafine clair Twilight to highlight the branches and popped some glue from the Quickie Glue Pen around the moon and from the branches down to the hares, and then added some moondust glitter.  It was all very subtle which is what my friend wanted. 








I then mounted the card onto a black background and placed on a 7" x 7" card base, all ready to send off!

Many thanks for stopping by.

Ginny x

Make a Wish!

Todays card is another clean and simple card!  I really love the effect of a block of colour with a silhouette and a sentiment, as I said clean and simple lol.

I started off by taking my card blank and using removable tape, which I made even less sticky by patting it on a tea towel first, to mask off the area I wanted to colour.

I then picked my colours, in this case I used Distress Oxides in picked raspberry, fossilized amber and dusty concord.  I will be honest and say that I was not sure the colours would work but I was really pleased with how it looked.

I applied the colour with my make up style brushes and built the colour up gradually, starting at the top with the picked raspberry and made my way down the card using the fossilized amber and finishing off with the dusty concord.

Once I was happy with the shading I removed the masking tape gently and was left with a strip of colour.  I then stamped the 'Make a Wish' fairy from Lavinia Stamps and a sentiment from Card-io.






I have to say I was happy with the final result, lots of white space which makes the colours pop.  I hope you like it!

I have to dash now as the sun is shining and have to make the most of some fresh air and go and do some fencing up at the ponies field.

I hope everyone is keeping safe.

Ginny x