Floral Frenzy at Altenew Fan Group.

 Hi there.  Today is my last day of sick leave and I have been doing some more crafting.  Over at the Altenew Fan Group on Facebook, there is a new challenge taking place.  Each month there will be a two week challenge.   The first one is this month and it's "Floral Frenzy"  I made a couple of cards today...

First up -

For this one I used Altenew's "Natures Blossoms" set as my main flower.   I used Martian Terrain inks - Pastel Sunrise, Sunrise Burst, Red Canyon Clay and Mahogany Bark and Nature's Wonders - Misty Moon, Marshland, Sea Forest.  I also added some Almond Butter, Milk Chocolate and Expresso inks for the centre.  I used the simple colouring stencil to add the Pastel Sunrise as a base layer.   I decided I want a frame so I cut a simple frame with some layering rectangle dies.  I trimmed the bits where the frame would have covered the flower.  I added a sentiment from "Our Friendship Blooms" and added some black gems.  I layered the panel onto a black layer and onto a leather textured base. 

I'm adding this to The Flower Challenge - CAS

and my second card is a slimline one

 My main floral is from "Our Friendship Blooms" and I used a total of 12 different inks  from Altenew to stamp my layers. I used the co-ordindating die to cut out the floral.  When I added the Coral Berry to the lily, I forgot to condition the stamp and I ended with a little spot that didn't get coloured, so I fixed it by adding some white gel pen dots and was really pleased with the outcome.  I die cut a panel from white card with a Sunny Studio die and used a Tim Holtz Burlap with some Hazelnut ink.  I then lightly blended Vanilla Cream over the whole panel before adding a black layer behind it. The sentiment is from the same stamp set.  To make my vase I took the tall vase from "Mod Vases" and stamped in onto the back of some patterned paper and fussy cut it out.  I added some white gel pen around the edge.  I stuck this to the base card and then after trimming off the stems, added dimensional tape to the back of the floral.  I added 4 layers of card behind the panel to give it some extra dimension onto a white base. 

I really enjoy playing with my Altenew florals....and loved today's cards.   I'm much better today, but still not 100%, however it's off to work again tomorrow.  With annual leave and sick leave I have been off for 2 1/2 weeks.  It's going to be a long day! 

WWC202 Dawn's Feminine "Anything Goes" Challenge

I'm very excited to be hosting the Watercooler Wednesday Challenge.  Our theme this week is Feminine "Anything Goes"

Today I have a pretty floral card to share

I started with a new to me set from Altenew called "Engraved Flowers"  I stamped two of the flower sprays with Versafine Onyx Black ink.  I then used Altenew inks (Pink Pearl, Corals Bliss, Heart Beat, Vineyard Berry, Mellow Yellow, Minty Mint, Sweet Leaf and Just Green) with a Blender Pen to colour it in.  The sentiment is from the same set.  I trimmed it a little and added some metallic washi down on side.   I finished it off with a touch of glimmer to the centre of the flowers  with a Clear star jelly roll pen.  

Come join in the fun and make a Feminine themed card.  Check out the projects that the artists at Watercooler Wednesday Challenges have created then take the challenge and link your creation to the challenge post. We’d love to have you join us.  You have until Mondays at 5 p.m. Mountain Standard Time (Tuesdays at 1pm NZ time) to link up your project.

Floral birthday watercolouring

My dear friend Yvonne celebrated her birthday yesterday.  I had a call from her hubby on Wed asking me if I would take her out for a drink to celebrate after work so he could cook a nice meal for her - without her trying to help out... so I did.  I picked her and one of her work friend's as well and we headed off to try out a local Wine Bar.  Very nice... especially as we got there with 5 mins to spare for the happy hour!   So once I dropped her friend home, we headed to her place and had a lovely meal with her daughter and grandchildren, her son and his fiance and her brother -in-law and his son and us...My hubby assisted hers in cooking a lovely three course meal.

I had made her this gorgeous (if I say so myself) watercolour floral card.

The image is a digi stamp from Make it Crafty.  I printed it onto some watercolour paper and used my Altenew watercolour paints and some paints from Koh-I-Noor.  Once I finished, the printed lines were a bit dull looking so I took a fine tip marker to draw around the edges.  This really made the image pop.  I added some gold Wink of Stella to colour the Hello and added the little white embossed sentiment from an Altenew set. 

Today was a beautiful sunny spring day and I was outside for quite a bit of the day.  Our swan plant is full of Monarch Butterfly caterpillars and I managed to get a photo of one of them beginning it's transformation

I will have to keep an eye on it to see if I can get a photo of the butterfly as it emerges.

Hope you all have a great weekend... Daylight Saving starts tomorrow... so one hour less sleep for me tonight, but that means Summer is on it's way!

Let the Celebrations start..............

My birthday is next week, but I've already started celebrating.  Saturday I got to spend the day with my stamping friends.... we meet at Lei's house... just 5 of us in total but boy did we have fun!

Sandie had got the Beautiful Day stamp set from Altenew and wanted me to teach her how to use them.  So I made a card to show her.... and then she was away!  She did a whole pile of card fronts with lots of different colours, using my Altenew inks I have.  Now she is looking to buy the inks as well.

Here's the card I made

I also got a few more cards made

Lots of flowers for the day.  All the flower stamps are from Altenew.  The middle one is with some dies from Couture Creations.    The sentiment on the far right is from Kaisercraft.   The leaves are stamped in grey ink and the flower is popped on some dimensional tape.

Sunday, my friend Yvonne organised to take me to High Tea at The Langham Hotel.  It was awesome

The food was AMAZING.... there was soooo much.  This was for two of us to share and then there was a plate of two scones each with clotted cream and jams.  I have to say that I brought home a box of some of the bits home for my son. 

This was an awesome start to my birthday week.  And Yvonne and Micheal gave me this beautiful Lily

Have a great week everyone and thanks for stopping by