Definitely gumboot weather here...

Gosh we've had over 100mm of rain in 2 days in Hamilton, today is a 4 seasons in one day kind-of-day; sun, showers, rain, hailstones and it would be really lovely to see flowers coming after April's showers but for those of us that live down under we are heading into winter and our gumboots. 

I wanted to play along with Allsorts latest challenge "April Showers bring May Flowers" and decided this sounded like it was time to dust off my Flowering Rain Boots set from SU! One of the cool things about this set is that everything has a co-ordinating die and even though it's photopolymer it is one of the new types of stamps that SU! create and they are distINKtive and when they stamp the ink is graduated. So it is very easy to create a realistic image with light and dark shades. It was easy to stamp and die cut it all out and then I used my scalpel to make slits at the top of the boot for the tulip stems to fit. But I still at this stage had no real idea  on how to make a card with my stamped and die-cut image image; so I took all the guess work out of how to KReate the card by combining with a fab sketch from Freshly Made Sketches and it all come together in less than 30 minutes!

Supply List (all Stampin' Up! unless indicated differently):

Stamps: Flowering Rain Boots

Ink: Sahara Sand, Granny Apple Green, Mango Melody, Balmy Blue
Paper: Whisper White (yes it really is), Mango Melody, Balmy Blue, Pleased as Punch DSP

Dies: Flowering Rain Boots, Slim Stripes - 1/2" used (PFS), A2 Layers (WF), A2 Additional Layers (WF)

Other: Medium foam squares (SP), Copic marker Y38

Challenges: Allsorts #727, FMS #585 

Well that was another example of how 2 challenges are better than one and do check out all the fab cards on display at both sites. Thanks for popping in.

EDITED 16/5/23: My card was noticed by Jacquie from the FMS DT and I'm a princess! How exciting is that!!!  "Jacquie’s Choice: The rainy stripes are a perfect background for Karen’s sweet tulip filled boots! Congratulations!"

✿ Karen ✿

More falling for you

Looking at the challenges at Allsorts Colours of Autumn and Time Out's thankful it was time to revisit my Taylored Expressions stencil set I received recently.

****Colours of Autumn****

I would like to see entries inspired by the beautiful colours Nature gives to us at this time of year, Reds, Yellows, Greens, Golds, Oranges, Browns.

When I did the class with Taylor in my Crop and Create Cardmaking delivered event I used my SU! inks closest to the autumnal shades she used so I made sure to use different shades this time and also add in a green. I have also done a light splatter with the gold Gansi Tambi watercolour paint again. You can see my class cards HERE if you are interested. This is a lovely stencil with so many possibilities for colour combinations.

Supply List:

Stamps:  Happy Harvest (TE)

Stencil: Falling for you triple slimline stencil (FOUR layers) and clear stamp combo (TE)

Ink (all SU!): Cherry Cobbler, Grapefruit Grove, So Saffron, Pear Pizzazz, Cinnamon Cider

Paper: Cherry Cobbler, Neenah White

Other: Gold Gansi watercolours, paint brush, blender brushes (TE)

Challenges: Allsorts #699, Time Out #225

Now Time Out is offering a Lawn Fawn $25 store credit voucher this week and it is All Sorts 700th challenge next week so they also have a wee prize to celebrate that milestone this coming weekend. So hope you can join in too, you never know you may win something as well.

 ✿ Karen ✿

Just Saying Hello

I was looking at my card stash the other day saying I needed more HELLO cards as I haven't sent out any cards to my old neighbours for quite awhile. The challenge at The Card Concept and at Allsorts Challenge gave me the motivation to make a "hello" card for one of my ex-neighbours who is now in a retirement village after his wife and one of my bestie crafting buddies passed away.

Allsorts want us to use a sentiment (so that is extremely easy) and TCC has a Colours of Fall inspirational picture.

I have used the picture as my inspiration but tried to stick to the colour palette approximately for my silhouette card using Gina K's Friendly Silhouettes stamp set. The saying comes from Altenew's Magnolia Butterfly stamp set. I have used Gina's masking magic to create my mask for the top. The colours of my blend are Fossilized Amber, Crackling Campfire, Faded Jeans and a teeny wee bit of Black soot. I didn't really have a blue like the boat in my distress oxides but am very happy how my blend worked out.

I am happy with my black card mat. I bought a pack of Francheville Black from my local Spotlight store and it's an American card size (11" x 8.5" 176gm) for the tiny price of $11 for 50 sheets, perfect for mats. I have used Lavinia Multifarious Smooth and Supreme white for my blending.

Supply List:
Stamps: Friendly Silhouettes (GKD), Magnolia Butterfly (ALT)
Distress oxides (RNG): Fossilized Amber, Crackling Campfire, Faded Jeans and a teeny wee bit of Black soot

Ink: Versafine Clair Nocturne Black

Dies: Master Layouts 1 (GKD)

Paper: As described above plus Mango Melody (SU!) for my card base

Other: Masking Magic (GKD), blending brushes (TE)

Challenges: TCC #181, Allsorts #698

Well I think this is a perfect card to send to Neville and hope he enjoys it.

✿ Karen ✿