Summer flowers

 Hi all!  Oooh that was a warm day, our thermometer in the garden showed 29 degrees in the shade, and don't think it's an awful lot cooler this evening.  Not weather we're used to here, though I'm so glad we didn't get the heat that England and Wales got, I'd be melted into a puddle!  Having said that, it would be nice to get a better share of the sunshine, so far our "summer" has been rubbish!

We've been painting the outside of our house these past few days so it's lookin good - we've had all weather, at the start I was painting in my fleece, then dodging the rain showers, and then today was shorts, t-shirt and factor 50!  Not too much left to do, but it's due to be even hotter tomorrow so the paintbrushes will be put away for a day or two. 

Anyway, I treated myself to a couple of the new LOTV stamps, I'm so glad they brought out some of their new release as actual stamps rather than just digis.  The little butterflies are a Penny Black die.

Layout from Try Stampin on Tuesday #564

Stamping Sensations July challenge - summer flowers

Simon Says Stamp Monday - fabulous florals

Cut it Up #256 - summer lovin

Blue Birthday

 I've a wee birthday card to share this evening that was 100% inspired by the birthday card my mum gave me.  I rarely use a plain coloured base for my floral cards so thought I'd have a go at making my own version.

First off, this is the card I received...

And here's my version...

My flowers are from Reverse Confetti, coloured with polychromos and an additional flower popped up on foam pads.  I added paint splatters but thought it still needed something so stamped this pretty Catherine Pooler background stamp in grey and think it looks much better.  Butterflies are a Penny Black die.

As You Like It - masculine or feminine - an easy choice for me as 99% of my stamp stash is either cutsie or floral so I tend to struggle with cards for blokes!

Word Art Wednesday #549/550 - anything goes 

Your Next Stamp #187 - anything goes 

AAA Birthday #38 - flowers

I haven't shared a photo of Molly for a while so here she is having a 'picnic' in the garden LOL.  Usually we put her lunch in something more interesting than her bowl and she loves it!

Andrea's Birthday card

 Hi all!  Well here's hoping for a decent few days of weather, I've my traditional birthday week booked off work 😁. We were up visiting family in Ballycastle today and then took Molly for a walk on the beach, but it was definitely a hoods-up and waterproof coat kind of day.  I think there were maybe half a dozen folk on the entire beach!  Ah well, we still enjoyed it! For the rest of the week I'm hoping to get our living room painted, the garden tackled, and a day or two out and about.  

I've a birthday card for my sister-in-law this evening, using this little girl from Penny Black, mmmmm wouldn't mind a cake that size!  I've also used some of my new alpha dies - I'd been on the lookout for nice slim letters for an age but I've since chucked the packaging and I've no idea where I bought them!  I coloured some scraps of white card the same as all the icing colours to cut her name and a touch of gloss over the letters to make them pop a bit and then lots of gloss/glitter on the cake's icing.  DP from an MFT Christmas pad.  I'm pleased with how this turned out. 

Layout from MFt Wednesday Sketch #597

Snippets Playground #430 - my alphas

Addicted to Stamps #431 - make your mark 

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday - bright and cheerful 

Happy Jubilee!

 Hi all!  Well I achieved my all time worst record of ONE card blogged last month!!! So I've given myself a double boot up the derrière and am aiming to do much better this month. So I'm kicking things off with June's calendar page for Mum in a Queen's Jubilee tea party theme!  I don't think I have any Queen stamps so this little Miss from Stamping Bella was the next best thing! 

Simon Says Stamp Monday - up in the air 

Card Concept #176 - red, white and blue 

Word Art Wednesday #545/546 - anything goes 

I've had a lovely couple of days off work for the Queen's Jubilee.  We were out last night for our beacon lighting event, complete with town councillors, Deputy Mayor and local photographers!  And a squillion midges too!   

And then today we were off to my sister's for a lovely Jubilee lunch, complete with Corgi biscuits and Royal cupcakes!  Oh and personalised Jubilee themed place settings from my niece too!

Birthday Blooms

 Hi all!  Gosh my blogging is getting worse instead of better!  I've had absolutely ZERO mojo recently but decided to take out my favourite flowers from Penny Black to get me going again.  I spent 2 evenings in front of the telly colouring it and then this evening to put it together (good job I'm not charging by the hour LOL!)  Coloured with polychromos, the vase watercoloured and then a few splatters added to the background.  

Card sketch from Stick it Down - May

Colour / flower theme inspired by The Card Concept #174

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday - feminine

Your Next Stamp #183 - flower power (or if you're from Northern Ireland that's pronounced "flar parr" hahaha)

And just have to share this photo I took a few days ago in a local wood of the bluebells and wild garlic - you'll be glad there's no smellyvision with this as the whiff was quite impressive!  Miss Molly had a great sniffy time of course! 

A biongy bunny!

 Hi all! Sunday evening already, my week off work just flew in!  I managed to hurt my shoulder (on the mend) so it kinda scuppered my To Do List, but sure there was nothing there that wouldn't wait for another day!  We put our days in rightly, we've been blessed with lots of dry sunny weather all week so we'd lots of wee trips out and about.  This week is a short one too as I've Friday booked off to go to Garden Show Ireland, so hopefully the good weather holds!

I recently rediscovered some boingy spring wobble things in my stash so used one on this old bunny from The Cats Pyjamas - I think I bought this stamp back in 2011 and it's been many years since it last saw ink, bad me! 

I added clear gloss to the silver bits on the plane and sparkle to the blue highlights.  Striped DP from MFT.  It needed a wee something to finish it and after a LOT of faffing I added 2 little strips of leftover black card and I think that's it finished now!  Though I'm not overly happy with my colouring on his ears so I might see if I can do something with them!

Layout from MFT Wednesday Sketch #590

Papercraft Challenge #81 - farm animals

Fab'n Funky #549 - feature a creature

Snippets Playground #426 

Happy Easter!

 Hi all, and a very Happy Easter to you!  It was so nice to be able to spend it with some of the family and enjoy a beautiful dinner, especially when you think of the restrictions of the last few years and awful events around the world.  It was a dark damp old day here, hopefully the weather smartens up a bit as I treated myself to the week off work.  I've a few jobs planned but we'll see how that goes 😉

So here's the Easter cards I sent, not very dissimilar to the one I made for Mum a few weeks ago.  This time I stencilled in the grass and clouds, I need to learn to be braver with my stencilling and go a bit heavier on the colour!  I think I made 7 or 8 of these so that was a lot of fussy cutting!!!

And a wee close-up of that cute bunny...

And of course there was plenty of clear gloss and glitter added!

Sweet Stampers #67 - Easter / Spring

Cut It Up #249 - Easter +/or create your own background

As You Like It - floral or cute - I love my floral stamps but looking through my stamp collection I can 100% say I'm definitely in the 'cute' camp! 

Word Art Wednesday #539/540 - anything goes