Springtime Pussywillows

Hello everyone!

Today I’m playing along with the ‘Choose Two’ challenge at Just Add Ink.

The choices were stencilling, heat embossing and/or texture paste. Well I haven’t used texture paste for ages so I knew I definitely wanted to use that and chose stencilling as my second option.

I started off by lightly stencilling a My Favorite Things brick stencil onto my card base with Pumice Stone distress ink. Then I mixed a little Speckled Egg distress ink into some texture paste and applied it through the stencil.

I decided to add The Greetery’s Pussy Willow Botanicuts dies as my focal point – all coloured with distress oxide ink and Prismacolor pencil. The sentiment is by Memory Box.

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.

Double Flower

Hello everyone!

Today I’m using the colour palette from this week’s CAS Colours and Sketches challenge.

I knew I wanted to us my new ‘Die Fleur Double’ by Simply Graphic as my focal point so I started with that and adhered it to a die cut circle. I was going to add some foliage in the soft suede challenge colour but everything I tried detracted from the beautiful flower die. So in the end, I die cut the background with another Simply Graphic die and added some card to the back of my card base to fill in the dots!

I added a few gems and a Pretty Pink Posh sentiment to complete my card.

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.

Sweetest Jasper Leaves

Hello Everyone!

Today I’m playing along with the Color Throwdown challenge which has an interesting combo of mint green, strawberry, light yellow and navy.

I have to say I found this a tough combo to work with, especially as the navy in the inspiration photo was much lighter than the shade I would ordinarily choose.

Eventually, I decided to watercolour the beautiful Memory Box Jasper Leaves die with Cracked Pistachio and Squeezed Lemonade Distress Oxide inks. Then I smooshed some Abandoned Coral Distress Oxide and used it to cut flowers from Spellbinders’ Mini Fall Blooms die set. I felt my leaves didn’t have enough yellow, so I added yellow centres to each flower.

I struggled with the background. My go-to navy Hero Arts cardstock was definitely too dark, so in the end I chose a lighter shade of navy from my cardstock mountain and added some Chipped Sapphire distress ink to darken it a little.

I added a My Favorite Things sentiment to complete my card.

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.

Les fleurs graciles

Hello Everyone!

Today I’m playing along in the Freshly Made Sketches challenge.

I just love what Cecile called the whimsical fuzzy background!! My interpretation uses a Taylored Expressions abstract stencil and Salvaged Patina ink that I blended and then smooshed onto my card base. I decided to use my new Fleurs Graciles die from Simply Graphic as the focal point for this card and added a little Simply Graphic bow as well.

The sentiment is by Pretty Pink Posh.

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.

Busy Bees

Hello Everyone!

Today I’m playing along with theme challenge at The Paper Players.

When I saw the theme, I immediately thought of my Hero Arts Bees and Flowers Fancy Die set that I got last year, used once or twice and promptly forgot about!! Time for them to shine again!

I watched Nichol Spohr’s colouring tutorial for this set and decided to colour my bees using my Nuvo alcohol markers. I’m not very skilled with alcohol markers but I particularly like how Nichol coloured the wings and I was delighted when mine looked ok! I didn’t feel my yellow markers were bright enough so I used my beloved Twinkling H2O paints for that part of the bees. I also used a mixture of markers and Twinklings on the flowers.

I very lightly stamped my card base with a honeycomb stamp and added some splatters before arranging my flowers and bees.

I added a Tim Holtz sentiment and a few sequins to finish off my card.

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.

Bright Potpourri Flowers

Hello Everyone!

Today I’m playing along with a new-to-me challenge called Color My Heart Color Dare. I was originally going to use this card as my entry but when I read the rules, I realised that the tiny bit of green on the flower stems wouldn’t work – but that’s OK, it was a joy to use this cheerful combo to make another card!

To start with, I created three inky panels using Saltwater Taffy, Mustard Seed and Carved Pumpkin distress inks. Then I used the beautiful Poppystamps Potpourri flowers die to cut out some flowers. This die cuts seven different flowers in one go which is so handy!

I embossed a black panel using a frame die (although it’s a bit difficult to see in the photos) and then arranged all my flowers within that frame. When I was finally happy with the arrangement, I stuck them all down and added a very old Hero Arts sentiment to complete my card.

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.