Mushroom Forest

Hello lovely people and a very happy Sunday to you.  I have a few cards I haven't shared on here yet.  I must admit I'm guilty of sharing on my Instagram page but my poor little blog gets a tad neglected.  I always think to myself "I'll do that later" and then never do.  Do folks even read blogs anymore? or is it all Insta and TikTok now?  I don't know but for now I shall make an extra effort to update here as well.

So my latest is another card and it's fairy themed again.  I just love my fairies lol but then you know that.  I think I shall call this one 'mushroom forest'.  I've used Lavinia Stamps images and stamped in Versafine Clair ink.  My background was made with lots of blending of Distress Inks and a Lavinia Stamps template for the moon.  I coloured the spotty mushrooms with Inktense pencils and those that were 'solid' images I used some soft pastels and Sakura metallic gel pens to add light accents.  All in all I love how it came together.

Images:  Lavinia Stamps - 'Spellbound fairy', 'Spotty Toadstool', 'Meadow Mushroom', 'Fairy Toadstool', 'Creeping Vine', 'Luna Lights' and 'Slender Mushrooms mini'

Backgound:  Distress Inks - Tumbled Glass, Mermaid Lagoon, Wilted Violet, Blueprint Sketch, Picked Raspberry and Lucky Clover

Images stamped with Versafine Clair in Nocturne and Twilight

I used a metallic silver gel pen to add highlights to the mushroom/toadstool stalks and the hanging luna lights and then just dotted some acrylic paint pens around for like little flowers and fairy dust.  Oh and not forgetting my white Signo gel pen for the stars that are just peeking through the foliage.  No fairy is complete however without a little sparkle so if you look closely you may see her twinkly wings but photography is not my forte so it doesn't show up as much as I'd like.

So that's all from me today.  As I said I have a few more cards to share so I'll be back in a few days.

Take care folks and happy crafting.

Ann-Marie

xxx

I would like to enter into the following challenges:-

Allsorts  -  add some sparkle

The Fairy and the Unicorn  -  anything fantasy goes

Cute Card Thursday  -  anything goes

Falling Flowers

Happy Monday lovely crafty peeps.  Hope you are all doing okay and staying safe in this somewhat crazy world of ours.  Well we have been in isolation for the past 10 days as my son tested positive for Covid.  I'd just received his NHS letter through too to book a vaccine jab typical really.  We have been very lucky though and he only felt unwell for a few days so they were very mild symptoms indeed.  So what do you do when you can't go anywhere ... you craft of course!

I was having a little looksie through some of my stash and I came across an older Bildmalarna stamp and I'd forgotten just how cute they are.  I coloured her up with my copics to compliment the papers which I also found amongst my stash and must be years old lol! 

Image:  Bildmalarna Little Winged Friends 'Falling Flowers'

Medium:  copics

Papers:  Making Memories 'Sydney' (old stash)

She really is adorable and a dream to colour.  I decided to mat all the papers onto black card.  I like using black card behind papers as it really makes them pop.  I didn't add too much 'fussy' stuff didn't think it needed it, although I did do a little doodling around the image with a black fine liner.

Copic list

Skin:  E41, E50, E53, E33, R20

Hair/Shoes:  E43, E44, E47, E49

Clothes:  B60, B63, B66, B69/G40, G43, G46, G29

Flowers:  Y21, Y23, Y26, YR27, E08/B66, B69

Okay that's all from me folks.  I'm back to work tomorrow so an earlier night for me but I think I can still squeeze in a couple of hours of colouring before I go.  What to ink up next though?  I'm off to have a rummage through my stash.

Take care and happy crafting.

Ann-Marie

xxx

Challenges I'm entering into

Crafting Happiness challenges  -  always anything goes

Simon Says Stamp  -  anything goes (option slimline)

Cute Card Thursday  -  anything goes

Allsorts  -  anything goes (option roses)

 

 

By the light of the silvery moon

Happy Saturday lovely crafty peeps.  It's a very quick drop in from me today as I'd like to share one of my latest cards made using Lavinia Stamps and distress inks.

As I've mentioned before I'm very new to making backgrounds and building scenes it's a complete learning curve for me not just the placement of everything but also the colour blends of the inks.  I've listed under my card the inks I used to create the background and I've got to say this combination is going to be a firm favourite of mine.  

So let me share my card.  I've used lots of mediums on here.  Obviously distress inks blended out for the background.  I created the moon with a Lavinia template and then gesso and soft pastels.  All of the Lavinia Stamps were stamped using Versafine Clair inks in various colours to compliment the background and out came my Sakura Stardust pens and Nova metallic markers to highlight some of the foliage images and add like little flowers.  Finally, everything was flittered with a little microfine glitter especially the wings of the fairy.  I'm rather pleased with my bat flying across the moon too.  I don't have masses of Lavinia Stamps yet but I wanted something to be like flying across the sky/moon so I used my mini Sycamore £1 stamp, stamped it but didn't stamp out the stalk part and altered it slightly with my black fine liner pen to look like bat wings and a little head and ears and I've got to say I just love it!

Images:  Grace(small), Creeping Vine, Fairy Buttercups, Lavender, Orchard Grass, Slender Mushrooms Mini, Mini Sycamore

Stamped with Versafine Claire (Nocturne and Twilight)

Background:  Distress Inks (Seedless Preserve, Salty Ocean and Peacock Feathers)

Okay, so that's all from me today.  I'm off to have another play around with my stamps and backgrounds.  I find where I'm still learning things it can take me a little while to actually finish a card and I dither quite a bit with where to place all the stamps.  I'm hoping I'll get less hesitant as I do more lol.

Happy crafting folks.

Take care 

Ann-Marie

xxx

Challenges

Crafty Calendar  -  anything goes

Sweet Stampin  -  something beginning with B (I'm going with bat and colour blue)

The Fairy and the Unicorn  -  anything Fantasy goes

Cute Card Thursday  -  anything goes

Last of the sun's rays

Happy Wednesday lovely crafty people.  I hope you are all diddling okay.  It's been a tad soggy here in fact I think it's rained every day this past week, but on the upside it's perfect weather for hiding yourself away in your craft room.

I have another card to share with you guys.  It's another one I've made using lots of Lavinia Stamps.  Still out of my comfort zone as normally I just stamp and colour, but really enjoying getting inky and theres lots to learn.  In my head it wasn't meant to turn out quite so bright but hey I love it all the same.  The background was made using Distress Inks, Lavinia Stamps stencils and Versafine Clair inks and I just accented the sun and mountains with soft pastels.  I also grabbed my Inktense pencils and added a little colour to the toadstools and fairy wings.

The beautiful fairy is 'Raven' and she has got to be one of my faves and she's just perched on the branch taking in the last of the evening sun. 

Stamps used:

Lavinia Stamps - 'Raven', slender mushrooms mini, lavender, 

meadow mushroom, fairy toadstool.

Versafine Clair ink pads:

nocturne, chianti

Distress Inks:-

scattered straw, spiced marmalade, seedless preserve

Okay so that's all from me today.  I've managed to grab an unexpected day off so time to play I think.

Happy crafting folks.

Take care, 

Ann-Marie

xxx

Challenges:-

Crafting Happiness challenges  -  anything goes

Love to Craft  -  anything goes

Allsorts  -  anything goes

Creative Fingers  -  anything goes

A sprinkling of fairy dust

Happy Monday lovely crafty peeps, it's been a little while since I've popped on my blog to share anything.  I have still been making things it just kinda gets uploaded to Instagram first and that's as far as it gets.  However, this is me making a concerted effort to contribute more to my little old blog.  

So let me share my latest with you.  Well you know how much I love anything fairy and magical so after watching a fair few You Tube videos I finally took the plunge and ordered some Lavinia Stamps.  It's a completely new direction for me what with inking my own background and making scenes and stuff.  So out of my comfort zone but I had so much fun.  I had a few disasters before I actually got to the finish line, but hey what a fun learning curve!

Okay so my background was made using Distress Inks and I used a Lavinia Stamp mask to create the moon with gesso and soft pastels.  I dug out my Inktense pencils to add a little colour to some of the stamps especially the beautifully tree 'Druids Inn'.  All of the stamps used to create the scene are Lavinia Stamps and I've stamped using a range of Versafine Clair ink pads.  I used a touch of soft pastels here and there where I wanted a little more depth such as on the mushrooms and the door in the tree and as finishing touch I used some metallic markers to make all of the little tiny flowers as it needed something and I didn't want to add any more stamping.  

I must say I'm quite pleased with the outcome.  Considering I didn't really know what I was doing I just went with it I'm quite surprised I had something worth photographing.  After matting it on complimenting cardstock and I have one finished fairy card which will probably makes it way to my mum for her birthday.

That's all from my crafty cubbyhole for today which incidentally is a complete mess after making this so let the clean up operation begin!

Take care folks and I promise to not leave it so long next time.

Happy crafting.

Ann-Marie

xxx

I would like to enter my card into the following challenges:-

Lil Patch of Crafty Friends  -  always anything goes

Allsorts  -  create a landscape or scene

Sweet Stampin  -  things with wings

The Fairy and the Unicorn  -  anything fantasy goes

Creatalicious challenges  -  anything goes (option of 'things with wings')

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge  -  feminine

  .  

Winnie Christmas Wreath

Hello crafty peeps.  It's been a bit of an odd week in our household.  My daughter returned to school and my son has now left.   It was hard seeing her go but it needed to happen.  She was so excited to see all her friends again it was lovely to hear about everything when she got in from her day.  The school, to be fair, have done an excellent job in trying to get 1800 pupils back into education and it's going to be a learning curve in these strange times so I think we'll just take each day as it comes.

So, how have you all been?  I've noticed a fresh crispness to the air first thing in the morning now and the leaves are just starting to turn so looks like Autumn is just around the corner.  This pleases me greatly as it's my favourite season.  I spent a day switching up all my planters on my decking and front garden with flowers in beautiful autumnal colours and it's lovely to sit on the decking of an evening and watch my solar lights slowly come on one by one and light up the flowers, so pretty.

Anyway, I digress lol.  I'm actually popping in today to share my latest DT make for Polkadoodles Crafting Challenge.  Our theme for the team this week was 'Christmas' but for all you lovely peeps wanting to join in with us you can share anything you like it doesn't have to be Christmas related or even Polkadoodles goodies for that matter.  You can share anything with us and we'd love to have you join us and be in with a chance of winning some goodies.

Well, for my make I decided to ink up Winnie Christmas Wreath.  I stamped and coloured her with my copics to match the beautiful LDRS 'Country Christmas' papers.  I used a little Frantage around the edges of the die cut oval.  I love this stuff and I really should use it more.  I didn't really want to crowd my card with too much so opted for a simple bow and a couple of poinsettias.  I just love these poinsettia dies too.  They cut and layer up beautifully and I love how delicate they look.

Image:  Polkadoodles 'Winnie Christmas Wreath

Medium:  Copics

Papers:  LDRS 'Country Christmas'

Dies:  Polkadoodles 'Poinsettia Lace' die set

Ribbon and pearls from stash

My usual close up of Winnie.  She's so sweet isn't she and what struck me when I got her is it's a real decent size stamp to work with and you get a little separate robin stamp in the set too, although I haven't used it on my card.

Okay so that's all from me today.  I better dash as I've got school uniform and stuff to get ready for tomorrow.  I guess that's one thing I didn't miss ... getting the lunch boxes ready and ironing school uniform lol!

Take care folks and happy crafting.

Ann-Marie

xxx

Challenges

Allsorts  -  incorporate things you love (for me that's my favourite colour red, absolutely anything Christmas, my favourite colouring medium copics)

Jingle Belles  -  Baby it's GOLD outside

Krafty Chicks challenge #524  -  Christmas

It's a Magnolia Christmas kind of day

Happy Wednesday lovely crafty peeps.  I'm popping in today to share a little something festive.  I've made my first Christmas card of the year and again I seem to be very late to the Crimbo party as everyone's been making festive goodies for a little while, but hey I'm here now and that means that all my Christmas crafting goodies won't stray far from my desk now that I've made a start lol.

So as the title suggests I have something Tilda related to show you.  I have the pleasure of being a guest designer over on the fab Magnolia Forever blog for this month's challenge and the theme we were given to work with was black and white and this is what I came up with.

Image:  Magnolia Tilda 'it's cold outside'

Medium:  copics

So the card itself is made from acetate and I've just layered up some embossed white card which I've roughly torn to look like hills/snowdrifts and stuck it to the front as foreground snow and then did the same for the inside but placed them higher up the acetate to look like snow in the background.  All the die cuts are in black for contrast and Tilda is coloured in copics in shades of grey to compliment it all, cut out and 3d'd on the front.  To finish I die cut some snowflakes and added little black gems in the centre and then dotted some liquid pearls around to fill in some of the gaps to make it look like it was snowing.

I really enjoyed making this card.  It was actually quite simple to do but very effective I think.

Okay so that's all from me today.  I'm off to colour some new stamps that fell through my letterbox yesterday and hopefully I'll be back shortly to share them with you.

Take care and happy crafting folks.

Ann-Marie

xxx

Challenges I would like to enter:-

The Holly and the Ivy Christmas challenge  -  anything Christmas goes

Love to Craft #50  -  anything goes

Merry Little Christmas challenge #26  -  anything goes

Crimbo Crackers  -  anything goes

Simon Says Stamp  -  Stamp it