Sunny Sunflowers, Buttercups and sneak peeks

Morning everyone, the first Sunday of August means it's time for our new challenges at We Love Stamping and Stamping Sensations where our themes are as always Anything Stamped with options of Masculine and a Summer mood board. Prizes this month come from Highlight Crafts and Craft Stash. 

Above my take on the mood board taking the colours, Sunflower and birdie. The base panel is inked then a spritzed stencil laid over and dabbed to lift some ink. The Sunflower is from AALL and Create A4 stamp set Friendship Florals, the little birdie from Blackbird, the circles from various sets and the words from Seasons. Both this card and the one below show, I hope, how well A&C stamps sets work together, you can pull small elements from different sets and they blend into a design as thought that's how it was meant to be. The mesh is another piece sourced from one of hubby's greenhouses.

My masculine card again combining different A&C sets has a scored and inked base panel, love the effect created by just dragging ink pads down the score lines. Some stencilling and circles and leaves from Foliage, coloured, cut  out and layered and Woody from Follow you own Path and an envie to match. There's lots of snippets in this one (all the elements, bird, leaves, circles, sentiment) so popping to the Playground and Simon Say's Wednesday challenge with the Sunflower at the top of my post.

Another taking the sunny yellows from the mood board using one of the new Tracy Evans releases from AALL and Create which showcased on Create and Craft recently. I am late to the party with these samples due to the eye issues which I'm pleased to say now seem settled. For a change of scenery I'm going into Stamford hospital this week for another spinal procedure......I like to mix it up! It's some distance from us but has a wonderful pain management department which seems to be in a time warp, usually as many staff as patients in the small ward. 

I love the Buttercup called Build Me Up and have used several of the stamps to make a larger plant stamped onto a brayered and stencilled background, I used blue and yellow but the colours merged to create a greenish colour......should have remembered that from school days! 

I have also been having a play with the other stamps and stencils in the release and whilst I love most......I have always said I will be honest in my appraisal of any products I am promoting....... I remain unconvinced with Flower Smudge. Whilst they still have excellent stamping quality and I usually love working with silhouette stamps these seem neither one thing or the other.......sorry guys, may just be me! Below one of those I made using the set, I tried lots of variations and colours but still not happy.

Finally a few sneak peeks of new releases coming to Create and Craft TV tomorrow, the first Chantilly and Twine, a new Tattered Lace collection of foundation dies with beautiful Orchids, flowers and fauna all of which have free complimentary Reflections/Charisma sheets. Tattered Lace is now back in house with Stephanie at Highlight Crafts and products can be found under the Brand section of the website. The Orchids in particular really lend themselves to decoupage.

The decorative dies above come in both square and circular sets and match the pearl dot frames I have from many years ago as a DT for them and I know from your blogs many of you have them as well. I've always been a fan of an arch shape so this new set below really appeals, I cut twice and made little hinges from offcuts to make a gatefold card. 

Below a new Create and Craft in house die release and there is also a USB which contains all the elements plus Backing DP's and lots of cute little mice and other characters......yes I did get outside my comfort zone and make samples with them, proof below! There's a real feel of tradition with these dies but blended with elegance for some special seasonal cards.

The above card has a frame made from stitched dies cut twice and hinged at the top to create a top fold card (may be called an 'A' fold, sure someone can tell me), then acetate added to the aperture which gives an impression of the bells floating/hanging. The TL sentiment has been fixed onto the back panel acetate. The backing DP on the second comes from the USB.

Many thanks for your visits and have a good Sunday. 

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