Grungy Masculine Thank You Card

Here is a card I made for my supervisor at work to say how much I appreciated his patience, understanding and allowing me flexibility during Owen's illness and  ongoing recovery.  Hmmm, no girly flowers or butterflies allowed but I felt it was OK to use a flourish stamp along with grungy elements as David has a lovely flourish tattoo on his arm!  EDITED TO ADD: it turns out it isn't a flourish - it's the tail of a phoenix!  As the whole tattoo isn't visible I didn't know it was a phoenix and it looked like a vine flourish to me!

I opted for a safe blue, grey and white masculine colour combo, distressed the edges of the white panel with a distress tool and inking and added a selection of silver brads.  I did sneak a bit of ribbon in but as it was only to embellish a small label tag I thought that was acceptable!

Here's the inside of the card.  The sentiment is from the fab SU! 'Perfect Pairings' set.

Here's the envelope.  I stamped the name using the AlteNew 'Invisible Alpha' set.

Supplies:
Stamps: SU! 'Gorgeous Grunge' & 'Perfect Pairings' sets, IndigoBlu 'Vintage Flourish' , Inkadinkado 'Nostalgia' set, Penny Black 'Embellishments' set, AlteNew 'Invisible Alpha' set
CS: SU! Pacific Point & Whisper White
Ink: Memento London Fog & Gray Flannel, SU! Pacific Point
Tools: paper piercer, edge distresser tool, sponge dauber
Embellishments & accessories: brads, SU! Marina Mist ribbon, Dimensionals 

April 2016 Card Group Projects

Thursday 7th April was my birthday and the date for our monthly card group meeting.  What a great way to spend a birthday - crafting with a bunch of friends plus hand made cards, tea, cake and pressies!

Back in February I used the SU! Rose Wonder stamp set and matching dies for two of the card group projects and I told my ladies they'd be seeing them again for sure!  This time I've opted to use a die cut rose shape as a stencil.  I placed the stencil on the card front and kept it in place with a couple of pieces of low tack tape.  I used ink blending sponges to apply Peeled Paint and Worn Lipstick Distress Inks through the stencil and to the whole card front.  I adjusted the dabbing pressure to get some shading.  I completed the card front with a stamped sentiment and a liberal spritzing of Champagne Shimmer Mist - although that doesn't show up in the photo at all, in real life the card has a lovely sparkle!  A very rare one layer card from me!

I stamped a sentiment and used only part of the die cut stencil to decorate the inside of the card and the envelope.

So - what to do with that leftover inked rose die cut stencil?  Use it to make another card of course - the ladies got a bonus fourth card this month!  I made a 5 1/2" square Pink Pirouette card base, glued the die cut rose in place, added the Old Olive dotty paper strip and popped up the sentiment label.  The sentiment label is a Spellbinders Grommet Tag die cut shape and I wanted to place something over the holes in the tag.  I have a Sizzix Sizzlits gift die that has dots the perfect size - just a few passes through my Big Shot and I had enough dots for everyone at card group!

Inside I stamped an old sentiment stamp that has been in my stash for ever and used the very pretty rose image from the retired SU! 'Elements of Style' set.

For the next card I've used the large SU! 'Definitely Dahlia' background stamp - what a beautiful, bold bloom image!  I stamped part of the image at the bottom left of the white panel, added the die cut 'Best Wishes' sentiment at the top and separated the two elements with a narrow strip of silver ribbon over the top of an Elegant Eggplant CS strip.  I attched the white panel to the front of an Elegant Eggplant A6 card base.  It doesn't show up in the photo but I added a touch of sparkle to the dahlia by painting the white areas of the flower with the clear Wink of Stella pen.  More sparkle was supplied by the addition of a few rhinestones.

Here's the inside and the envelope.

For the final card I CASEd this fab card I came across made by Lisa Folley at Crafting Cottage.  This card really caught my eye and I was very happy when I realised I owned all the necessary stuff for me to make my own version!  I'm also happy to dig out long neglected items like my SU! Lattice Bigz die and my Craft Tonic butterfly punch - new crafty goodies are great but it's fun to show some love to old stash items too!  I used Bermuda Bay along with the white for my colour combo - I cannot seem to get a decent photo showing the correct greeny/blue Bermuda Bay colour, hey ho!  I popped up the die cut doily and the lattice shape and added aqua gems to the punched butterflies.

Here's the inside and the envelope, simply decorated with a lace border stamp.  I decided to leave this card without a sentiment for now.  I can always add a suitable sentiment later on when I know what I'll be using the card for.

Supplies for stencilled rose Happy Birthday card:
Stamps: SU! 'Rose Wonder' set, Hero Arts 'Messages with Flourish' set
CS: PaperMania A6 white card blank
Ink: Tim Holtz Peeled Paint & Worn Lipstick Distress Inks, SU! Mossy Meadow
Tools: SU! 'Rose Garden' Thinlits die set, Smoothies ink blending sponges
Embellishments & accessories: Champagne Shimmer Mist 

Supplies for die cut rose Birthday cheer and wishes card:
Stamps: SU! 'Cheer & Wishes' & 'Elements of Style' sets, inside sentiment from Hero Arts
CS: SU! Pink Pirouette & Whisper White 
Patterned paper: SU! Old Olive Polka Dot Parade DSP
Ink: Tim Holtz Peeled Paint & Worn Lipstick Distress Inks
Tools: SU! 'Rose Garden' Thinlits die set, Spellbinders 'Grommet Tags' die, Sizzix Sizzlits gift die
Embellishments & accessories: Woodware self adhesive white lace ribbon, Prima flowers, PaperMania black brad, SU! pearl jewels, Dimensionals

Supplies for dahlia Best Wishes card:
Stamps: SU! 'Definitely Dahlia' background stamp, SU! 'Beautiful Birthday'
CS: SU! Elegant Eggplant & Whisper White
Ink: SU! Elegant Eggplant
Tools: Sue Wilson 'Best Wishes' die, 1/4" circle punch
Embellishments & accessories: Wink of Stella clear pen, narrow silver ribbon, rhinestone jewels

Supplies for doily, lattice & butterflies card:
Stamps: SU! 'Viola's Lace' stamp (unmounted from wheel)
CS: SU! Bermuda Bay & Whisper White
Ink: SU! Bermuda Bay
Tools: SU! 'Lattice' Bigz die, Cheery Lynn 'French Pastry' doily die, Craft Tonic multi detail butterfly punch, Crafts Too 5" x 5" 'Dots' embossing folder
Embellishments & accessories: PaperMania aqua gems, 3D foam tape & pads

Chick Hang In There Card

Love at first sight - that adorable chick in the SU! 'Honeycomb Happiness' Sale-A-Bration stamp set!  I wanted to make an encouraging card for a friend going through a tough time and I thought the 'Hang In There' sentiment was perfect for this.

I sponged a sky, stamped grass and stamped the chick and balloon onto a piece of watercolour paper.  I stamped the chick and balloon again so I could watercolour them, fussy cut them and pop them up.  I added a hint of sparkle to the balloon with a clear Wink of Stella pen.  I made a Bermuda Bay A6 sized card base and glued the chick panel to a piece of Early Espresso CS. I added the ribbon, button and brads to the Early Espresso piece and then glued the entire panel to the card front.

Here's the inside and the envelope decorated with more sparkly balloons. Rare precious time spent in my craft room is reason enough to smile - throw in an adorable stamped image and well, let's say there was a big ol' goofy grin on my face the whole time I was making this card!  

Owen's recovery is slow and is going to take a long time.  With working and keeping things going at home my opportunities to get inky are few and far between and my energy levels are depleted.  I'm finding it hard going at the moment to be truthful.  Just when I really need my crafty therapy I don't have the time or energy for it.  It's very frustrating - fingers crossed the situation will improve soon! 

Supplies:
Stamps: SU! 'Honeycomb Happiness' & 'In the Meadow' sets
CS: SU! Bermuda Bay, Early Espresso & Whisper White, watercolour paper
Ink:  VersaFine Vintage Sepia, SU! Soft Sky, Bermuda Bay, Daffodil Delight, Pumpkin Pie, Wild Wasabi, Clear Wink of Stella pen
Tools: water brush
Embellishments & accessories: SU! Bermuda Bay ribbon, Daffodil Delight button, brad bases & Daffodil Delight Candy Dots, Dimensionals

March 2016 Card Group Projects

Here's what I created for my lovely card group ladies to make on our monthly get together last Thursday afternoon.  At our February meeting I didn't exactly promise but I did say there might be a masculine card in March.  Well, I ended up making three cards suitable for men - actually, I think they would be suitable for males or females - but they're definitely not girly, no flowers and butterflies!

The first card uses the lovely SU! 'In the Meadow' set.  I stamped the images in VersaFine Vintage Sepia ink onto a square of watercolour paper using a Stamp-a-Ma-Jig for perfect placement.  I put drops of SU! Soft Sky, Wild Wasabi and Soft Suede inks from re-inker bottles onto a tile and picked up the colour with a water brush.  I used a Soft Suede marker to add colour to the tree trunks and the deer legs and I used a Wild Wasabi marker to add detail to the grass.  I dotted the brush end tip of the Wild Wasabi marker onto the treetops.  I stamped the sentiment and noticed that the 'y' in 'Especially' wasn't stamping completely so I filled in with an Early Espresso marker.  I stamped the sentiment several times onto scrap paper which confirmed my suspicions that the stamp was damaged and so I consigned it to the bin.  On the day, the ladies stamped a 'Just for You' sentiment on a separate piece of Soft Sky CS and cut it out with an oval punch.   I edged the panel with Early Espresso ink, glued the stamped panel to an Early Espresso die cut Rectangle Parenthesis shape, added some Early Espresso baker's twine and glued the label to the front of a Soft Sky A6 card base.  I punched a small Soft Sky circle and added a metallic finish embellishment to complete the card front.

Here's the inside and the envelope.

Card two features the oh, so versatile SU! 'Kinda Eclectic' set and a colour combo of Crumb Cake, Night of Navy and white.  I made an A6 Crumb Cake card base and stamped the dots in Crumb Cake ink several times onto the card front.  The wood grain banner was cut using paper from a 6" x 6" pad, I edged the banner with Crumb Cake ink and glued it to the card base leaving the flagged end unglued to add a bit of dimension.  I stamped the sunburst in Night of Navy ink so the image covered the wood grain banner as well as the card front.  I glued a smaller Night of Navy banner into place and then worked on the sentiment circle.  I stamped the leaves in Lost Lagoon ink after stamping off once first, stamped the sentiment in Night of Navy ink and used a 2" circle punch to cut it out.  I edged the circle with Night of Navy ink and popped up the circle.

Here's the inside and the envelope.

Card number three is quite different for me, not my usual style, I don't often do grunge and I've never seen the appeal of washi tape!  I've been debating whether to get the SU! 'Gorgeous Grunge' set for a long time, I wasn't sure I'd like it all that much.  But then I do keep seeing lovely cards on Pinterest made with the set so  I finally took the plunge and got some washi tape along with the stamp set!   I so enjoyed putting this card together, I loved that the simple stamping was quick, easy - and great fun!  I did have to add an image - a card just doesn't feel complete to me unless there's a "thing" on it, like a flower or butterfly, an object of some sort so I couldn't stamp the grunge elements and a sentiment only - I can't help it, it just doesn't feel right to me!  So after the background stamping, I added a strip of washi tape and stamped the sentiment.  I stamped a leaf in Old Olive ink onto a piece of Very Vanilla CS and used a blender pen to draw the ink from the outline into the leaf to add a touch of colour.  I stamped the speckles and the postmark, then tore around three edges of the panel, inked the edges with Soft Suede ink and glued the panel in place.

Here's the inside and the envelope.  I didn't plan on adding washi tape on the inside but there was a gap between my stamped lines which I didn't like so the strip of washi tape proved very useful! 

Supplies for deer pair 'Especially for You' card:
Stamps: SU! 'In the Meadow' set, sentiment from Woodware 'Going to Seed' set
CS: SU! Soft Sky, Early Espresso & Whisper White, watercolour paper
Ink: VersaFine Vintage Sepia, SU! Soft Sky, Wild Wasabi & Soft Suede, SU! Soft Suede & Wild Wasabi markers
Tools: SU! Stamp-a-Ma-Jig, XCut Rectangle Parenthesis 1 die, XCut 3/8"  circle punch, water brush, sponge dauber
Embellishments & accessories: SU! Early Espresso baker's twine, Marianne Designs metal adhesive gem

Supplies for 'Sending Wishes Your Way' card:
Stamps: SU! 'Kinda Eclectic' & 'Butterfly Basics' sets
CS: SU! Crumb Cake, Night of Navy & Whisper White
Patterned paper:
Ink: SU! Crumb Cake, Lost Lagoon & Night of Navy
Tools:  SU! 'Banner Triple' punch, MFT 'Fishtail Flags' Stax die, sponge daubers
Embellishments & accessories:  Dimensionals

Supplies for grungy leaf 'Happy Birthday' card:
Stamps: SU! 'Gorgeous Grunge', 'Vintage Leaves' & 'Butterfly Basics' sets, Clearly Besotted 'Happy Birthday' set
CS: PaperMania cream A6 card blank, SU! Very Vanilla
Ink: SU! Soft Suede, Tip Top Taupe & Old Olive
Tools: sponge dauber
Embellishments & accessories: SU! Bohemian Designer Washi Tape, blender pen

February 2016 Card Group Projects

Today I'm sharing the three cards my ladies made at our February card group meeting.  All the cards feature some newly purchased SU! goodies - floral of course!  Using my new gorgeous flower stamps, dies and patterned paper made me very happy indeed!

Whilst browsing on Pinterest I came across these lovely notebooks made by Julie  Davison and used the design as inspiration for a card.

I glued the patterned paper and Mossy Meadow CS strips to the stamped Mint Macaron CS panel, inked the edges with Mossy Meadow ink and glued that to the front of a white A6 sized card base.  I stamped the large floral image onto a scrap of white CS after stamping off once first, punched out a 1 3/4" circle, stamped the dots and sentiment, edged the circle with Mossy Meadow ink and glued it to a 2" Mossy Meadow circle.  The scalloped circle and flag shapes were cut using my MFT 'First Place Award Ribbon' die set.  I finished off with a couple of pearls.

Here's a closer look at the sentiment circle.  Even though the look is very subtle, I'm very fond of layered stamping. 

Here's the inside and envelope.

The 'Rose Wonder' stamp set and matching dies appealed to me as soon as I saw them.  I wanted to make one card using the large rose die and a second card using the large rose stamp.  Originally I planned to make a white on white card with the rose die but I ended up with this bold contrast design instead!  I wanted the rose die cut shape to cover the whole width of the card so I cut a bit off the side from the Real Red A6 card.  I glued the positive die cut shape to the card first, then glued the leftover piece into place, trimmed it accordingly and stamped the sentiment.  I didn't glue the rose completely flat, I bent some petals and leaves up to add a bit of dimension.

Here's the inside and the envelope.  I thought my Fiskars Rose punch worked well to decorate the inside and envelope!

Now onto the 3rd card where I used the large rose stamp.  I CASEd a very pretty card made by Jackie Bolhuis.

Jackie had stamped onto SU! Shimmer White CS and watercoloured the rose images.  I took that idea but made a square card, only stamped one rose image and I used grey ink rather than black.  The mat layer was cut from Rose Red CS and I used Rose Red and Wild Wasabi inks to colour the rose image.  I placed drops of ink from re-inker bottles onto a ceramic tile and used a water brush to apply the colours.  I really didn't worry too much about the colouring, opting for a fast and loose approach because I was using Shimmer White CS rather than watercolour paper!  Like Jackie, I added a few speckles using a stamp from the SU! 'Gorgeous Grunge' set.  I absolutely love the label stamp and matching die - they're going to be used a fair bit I'm sure!  I popped up the sentiment label to complete the card front.

Here's the inside and the envelope with just monochrome stamping of the lovely rose image.

A very happy afternoon, I enjoyed it immensely!  Many thanks to Wendy for supplying the blueberry muffins we scoffed with our cuppas!  Because I went for three floral design cards this time I did say that there could be be a masculine card in March.  I didn't promise - but then I do need to ink up my new SU! 'In the Meadow' stamps!

January 2016 Card Group Projects

Owen came home from hospital a few weeks ago - thank goodness!  I'm not getting much spare time so my crafting time is severely limited.  I was determined to carry on with my monthly card group though.  I'm really out of my cardmaking groove and the lack of time means Pinterest is proving invaluable in giving me inspiration and opportunities to CASE!  These three cards are what the group made in January.

A very simple stamped panel was edged with ink and popped up on an A6 white card base.

Here's the inside and the envelope with first and second generation stamping.

Just Rich Razzleberry and white used on this flower trio card - nice and crisp!

Here's the inside and the envelope.

I did manage to come up with this design myself and happily it all came together quite fast once I'd started!  Just simple stamping and die cutting but I'd like to think the colour combo (Island Indigo and Pear Pizzazz) adds a dash of style!  

Here's the inside and the envelope showcasing that fabulous flourish!

It was SO, SO good to be back with my card group ladies - I had a wonderful afternoon!  I'll be spending this afternoon with them as it's our February meeting today.  Hopefully it won't take me a month to share the February cards and I'll get them up here on Flower Sparkle soon!

Another blog break

My husband Owen  is currently in the Intensive Care Unit of our local hospital.  He went in on 1st November with severe pneumonia, he was critically ill.  He also had sepsis (blood poisoning) which meant that some of his organs weren't working as they should.

He is starting to get better but it will be a long process and he'll need lots of help and support before he is back to 100% health.  Whilst I'm concentrating on Owen my crafting must take a back seat.

So this is just an update to let any readers out there know why I'm not posting regularly at the moment.  Crafting is more than a hobby for me, it's almost a therapy.  Going through this anxious time is when I need it most and this is when I have the least amount of time and energy to do it!

I really do hope to be back creating and blogging regularly at some point.  Being realistic, I think it could be the beginning of the new year before that happens though.