Irises for May

It's May and so it's time for another page of my Flourishes - A Year of Flowers calender.

Still staying with the theme, this month is a mix of Papertrey papers and cardstock (Sweet Blush), copic markers and a touch of hodge podge hardware.

Here is a little close up of the flowers - I really like these colours!

Sweet Peas

After peonies, sweet peas are my next favourite flower - my Dad and I grow them every year on wig-wams in our gardens and there is nothing I love more than cutting bunches of them and having them all around the house - the smell is just wonderful!

That made this new set from Papertrey an absolute must for me and it was hard waiting for them to cross the pond after they got delayed by that volcanic ash somewhere over Iceland. I couldn't wait to play and even inked this up before the new anniversary set - shock, horror!

I went right out of my comfort zone with this red one - I hardly ever use red but I think the best sweet peas that my Dad grows with great long stems and the best perfume are red - Winstons I think they are called.

I used the Pure Poppy collection of Copic markers to colour these and married it up with Pure Poppy bits and bobs.

So I'm sitting on the sofa with Felicity on Saturday night watching a weepy film (My Sister's Keeper) she is painting her nails and I'm colouring the sweet peas below. Paul comes back from his blokes night out and sits himself down and says "Which direction is the light coming from then?"

"Pardon" I say, "What light?".

"On those flowers - which direction is the light coming from as some of those petals on this side look dark and dark on the other side too".

"Have you been on a Copic certification course lately?" says I.

"What's a Copic certification course when it's at home then? " he queries.

I reply "If I could get on one here in London I would, but I can't as they don't do them, so that's why the light is coming from the wrong direction"

Forgetting for a moment that he is a trained draughtsman and a design engineer I go off in a huff. He promises me that he will show me how to do it "properly" sometime soon! Well that will be cheaper than a course I suppose!

So after boring the pants off you with my ramblings here is the offending colouring made into a card with matching Sweet Blush card stock and a hint of spring moss and ripe avocado!

























Both of these cards were made from sketches in the Paper Crafts Go to sketch book - I'm still loving them!
I think they go well with the Passion for Papertrey pretty petals challenge so do hop over and see the other beautiful cards here.

If you are visiting form the UK have a happy May Day holiday tomorrow. I haven't seen any Maypoles to dance around this side of London so I'll be crafting away instead and trying to work out which way the b***dy light is coming from......

Blue Dahlia?

Is it allowed as I don't think I've ever seen one in nature?

I just love this layout that Debbie Olsen used here to make a card with the Violets Year of Flowers set and thought I'd give it a try with the Delightful Dahlia set and dies. The flower is stamped onto the Bitty Box dp in memento ink and touched up with copic markers.


























The little words along the scallops are from the mini scrapbook series: tabs - fun aren't they?

Waiting for Butterfly Dreams

I have the die but not the stamp set - it was constantly out of stock when I wanted it! So I decided to go ahead and play with the die using some pretty pattened paper as I have seen on many blogs of late.


















The paper is from a really pretty pack from Papermania that my friend Lynn sent me and the quote is from a set by Stamp Camp.


Funnily enough the stamp set arrived this week after a little delay because of one volcanic ash cloud - so watch this space for many more butterflies!

Pretty Petals Challenge

Another great challenge over at A Passion for Papertrey - pretty petals. Just up my street with all my floral stamps ;)

I managed to put in to acrylic and make something with one of my newer Papertrey sets - A Year of Flowers: Daffodils.






















I stamped the lemon tart and summer sunrise bitty dots paper in spring moss ink - it doesn't show too well in my photo - before cutting out and popping up on foam dots. I love the spring moss patterned paper but it is nearly all gone - I seem to have made it last for ages but unfortunately not forever!

Do pop over to the blog and see all the lovely other entries - you won't be disappointed!

Papertrey Ink April Blog Hop

Thank you for stopping by my little corner of blogland this evening.

I wasn't going to join in this month as I had no tissue paper - I can distinctly remember wrapping a gift in my last delivery of tissue with my stamp order - but then I needed a bit of retail therapy yesterday to cheer myself after a tough week at work so I went to my favourite shop in Beaconsfield and bought a lovely pink linen shirt. Guess what they wrapped it in.........

In fact the shirt is a slightly paler colour than Raspberry Fizz so I went with that for my quickie card.

I cut loads of layers of the tissue with my Dahlia nestability in different sizes and found this pretty pink brad in my stash.

The stamps are all from Giga Guidelines and inked up with Raspberry Fizz and Dark Chocolate on to Craft cardstock. I finished it off with some dark chocolate ribbon.

I took my layout from another of the Go-To sketches - just love that book!




















Have a great evening - it's getting a bit late here so I will spend the rest of the evening hopping around the great inspiration of the hop!

PaperCrafts Magazine - Sketches

I have subcribed to Paper Crafts magazine for some time now and so when they bought out this Go to Sketches edition and I saw what people were doing from it I ordered a copy from the US. It came in a week and I am really chuffed that I got it! It's well worth grabbing a copy if like me you love a sketch to kick start your projects. My copy has already got yellow post-it's stuck all through it - well I have to justify buying it.

So first up I made this card - very simple and very little stamping but I like how it came out. I chose pastel (ish) Papertrey colours on antique cream cardstock and stamped one of my butterfly sentiments from a Stamp Camp set that I have had for an age.

This is the sketch I followed

Secondly I made a patchwork card based on another design. I used Anna Griffin dp's and some pretty lemon flowers that Tilly sent me for Christmas. I cut the squares at 1 and 1/2 inch on another Papertrey antique cream base - the sentiment is also from Papertrey.

and this is the cute design from the magazine that I used -

We've had a beautiful day here in London - sunshine all day. I hope you have had a good weekend and thanks for stopping by!

Material Challenge at A Passion for Papertrey

The challenge this fortnight over at a Passion for Papertrey is to use material. I thought about cutting a flower or two from my stack of old patchwork fabrics and then remembered that I have a whole pile of different fabrics that I use for embroidery and wondered how that might work. I tried stamping on loads of samples before I hit on this very fine antique white linen that I used for my Mum and Dad's Golden Wedding sampler.

























I used Papertrey's spring moss bitty squares and scarlet jewel in bloom dp along with scarlet jewel card and ribbon. The buttons are all from the scarlet jewel jar but one looks very light in this photo! I'm thinking I would like a new camera but that will have to wait a while!


























The sentiment is from the Delightful Dahlia set and the ink that worked best on the linen was SU's Old Olive craft ink. All the other colours just faded into the linen! I adhered the linen with a tiny touch of scorpal tape in each corner.


It's been such a beautiful day here, Spring has finally arrived - a fitting end to my week off. Back to work tomorrow - sigh....

Distressed Dahlias

I was so pleased when my Papertrey order made it over last week in double quick time - and it didn't get caught at Customs either which was a huge bonus! My Angel must have been watching over me as I also won and unexpected 4 balls on the lotto last week and so that paid for my order!

So in the order were Delightful Dahlia and matching dies and Distressed Stripes. I had lots of fun playing with colours over the weekend and this is what I came up with....

Firstly a mixture of aqua mist, sprin moss and spring rain. The flower was coloured with the aqua mist Copic trio and I cut this flower out rather than die cut it. The sentiment on this card and the next is from Signature Greetings.

Secondly is a combo of lavender moon, spring moss and plum pudding, with the die cut flower coloured in lavender colours and I added some lavender moon buttons.

Before I leave you I thought I would show you how I have stored my Dahlia dies - on a square of sticky backed lightly magnatised sheet - the same way I store my Nestabilities. They are so slim that I can still close the jewel case and have them right at hand when I need them - easy peasy!















I hope you have had a lovely Easter break - many thanks as always for stopping by.

Dad's Birthday

This card for my dear Dad owes more than a shake at Debbie Olsen's card here - but when you need inspiration quick there is no better place to go IMO!


























The tree stamp - from Through the Trees was double stamped in spring moss and advocado inks, and the backing paper is from the bitty squares collection overstamped with one of the little stamps from Turning a New Leaf.

First Dahlia

When I first got my Delightful Dahlia stamp set I just played around with my Copics - trying out PTI colours and this is my attempt at making berry sorbet colours without the full set! Anyway although it's a bit dark I made up this card using the pack of berry sorbet paper which is nearly all gone now unfortunately. I feel another order coming on!
























This went off to my friend Cathy for her birthday.

All supplies are from papertrey ink (surprise, surprise!).

April Calendar and Card

It's the beginning of April and that means another page of my Flourishes - A Year of Flowers calendar. Nothing screams Spring at me more than daffodils and this little bunch is really pretty. After all the scares of their being no daffodils for Mother's Day in March they are out in full bloom everywhere now - so pretty and cheerful!

























I used Papertrey Lemon Tart and Summer Sunrise papers and ribbon and my little used Dahlia nesties. The daffs are coloured with Copic markers and I added a bookplate from SU.

Here's a better look at the flower itself.




















Whilst I had all the supplies out I made a card too - I used the lemon combo again with some spring moss bitty paper and some tile red card from SU.
























The challenge this fortnight over at A Passion for Papertrey is Easter/Spring. Do pop on over and see what the other girls have made.

Have a lovely Easter and thanks for stopping by!