Spring Daffodils, Violets and Lilies

Good morning, it's Saturday and that means a new challenge at Allsorts and this week I am the host and there could be only one theme at this time of year which is 'Spring is in the air'. Our sponsor is Crafty Ribbons.

It's another of my favourite panel style cards for the first, masking the top and bottom of a piece of Fabriano and also a mask for the sun then Pan Pastels to create the background. The stamps are all Penny Black and inked with Distress markers and spritzed with water before repeat stamping across the panel. I also added a few blades of grass along the bottom using a Stampscape stamp.

And it wouldn't be Spring if I didn't use my Stampendous Violet stamp. Violets always have a special meaning for me at this time of year, I went to the small village school.....less than 20 pupils aged between 5 and 11.....a C of E school which meant the Rector had a strong presence in our education. The school was.........in fact still is although with a few more pupils nowadays.........in a little lane with just a farm at the end of the lane, the school, Church opposite and Rectory next door..................and to paint the scene properly the Hoops public house next to the schoolhouse !!

Early every Mothering Sunday morning the Rector used to take the pupils to the hedgerows along the fields behind the farm where I lived and we would pick Violets and tie them into little bunches and each of us would give our Mothers a bunch at the Sunday morning service.

When I moved to our current house thirty five years ago I dug up several of those violet roots and they continue to flourish in my garden, they have self set all over the place and really need thinning out, but they look so pretty under the shrubs.

Another fond memory is that as pupils of a C of E school so close to Cambridge we were offered a very special privilege, every December we were all taken to the Kings College Chapel Carol Service, I often watch it on TV now and have fond memories of those days.

OK, enough nostalgia and some shares of some of the new Tattered Lace dies that are coming up on Monday on Create and Craft TV.

This one uses another of the new melded dies, I cut one side of the aperture and then reversed the die to create the aperture, coloured the butterflies with Wink of Stella pens, mounted over a piece of textured card and added a TL sentiment.

I used the matching border die on the insert of the card to carry the Butterfly theme and colours.

For this one I used the same melded Butterfly die along with the coordinating oval die to create the aperture. The rose embossing down the side and in the centre are both folders from one of the new TL embossing sets called Love Birds Berries. The Lily and Ivy come from the new TL Floral Layers, they are part of the Charisma range with a CD Rom to print out the blooms which consist of Lilies, Roses, Daisies, Sunflowers as well as leaves and Ivy and all are absolutely beautiful. The matching dies fit the printed out blooms perfectly and there is never and horrid white lines around the edge. I can't believe how realistic the Ivy is. 

Have a lovely weekend.