Flowers in bloom

 Good morning blogland,

New Saturday - new challenge and this week it's time for a new challenge over at Sweet Stampin' with the theme this fortnight being 'Flowers'.  As always there are no prizes on offer but the joy is in the taking part and also being awarded a Top 3 pick.  The rules are very simple - you must stamp (rubber or digital is fine), no backlinking and follow the theme and, other than that, we are a very easy going challenge so what you enter is entirely up to you.

Now me and flower stamps don't really get along that well - every time I try using proper flower stamps something always goes wrong. Generally when the theme of a challenge is 'flowers' I would go down the route of flowers on the paper, flower embellishments or the stamp I use being a person with flowers.  This time I thought, nah I'll try for proper flowers again - disaster!

I'll show you the cards first:

Card one:

Card Two:

Supplies used:

Rubber stamp:

My Favorite Things - Magnolia Blossoms

coloured with my Copics

Sentiments:

Card one - Taylored Expressions (a matching sentiment set and die from Simple Strips)

'Happy Birthday' and 'well-rounded'

Card Two - a very, very, very old pre-printed/pre-cut sentiment from Craftwork Cards

Dies:

Card one: Honey Doo Crafts - Triple Dots and Dies & Polkadoodles Botanical Foilage Dies

Card two: Honey Doo Crafts - Connect the Dots & un-branded stitched dies

Backgrounds:

Card one: Distress Ink and blender brush

Card two: Cosmic Shimmer Airless Mister and spattered Distress Ink

Anything else:

Card one: self-adhesive gems

How much can you take of my tale of woe with the first card I wonder?  Well, I mis-cut the die and had to do it again, and didn't get it quite right (the bad bit is hidden!), my glue dispenser bottle was half very low -- so I filled it and, obviously, made a complete mess of my work mat and the bottle.  The fine nibs for the differing glues I tried (I was trying to get glue on the back of those delicate dies) were bunged and took me ages to wash them out and get them working again.  I used a pre-cut matt for the card and I do not like it - I really miss the stitched edge and, finally, the Distress Inking went wrong.  I was going for a particular look and I completely got it wrong. I do not like that card.

Feeling empowered that I could push through - I made card two.  So much relief - I made it and liked it!  Yay! 😂

I am not touching flower stamps again for a good long time! 😂

I know my Teamies cards are really wonderfully flowery as well, not nearly as traumatic as mine, so please pop on over and take a gander, we'd appreciate it.

Until next time,

Sarah

It's anniversary time!

 Morning blogland,

It's Tuesday and time for a new challenge over at Passion for Markers and normally you wouldn't see me there this week but it's a special one and so both Teams are involved!

And why is it special I might hear you asking - well it's because it's Passion for Markers 17th Anniversary!  I do actually remember the blog challenge starting - and it being a ProMarker challenge blog, I might even have entered, I can't remember but I probably did.  

As it's such a big number - it's also a big prize week.  I'm not going to repeat all the prizes on offer - best to go visit the blog for that - what I will say is it's an 'Anything Goes' themed week to make it easy for you to pop an entry in.  The rules do still apply - use your markers, don't backlink and follow the theme - but such an easy theme this week.

My card for this week is:

Supplies used:

Rubber stamp:

Kanban Crafts : Urban Belles - birthday

Catherine Pooler - Hey, Hey, Hey sentiment stamp set

as always my stamp was coloured with my Copics

Dies:

un-branded stitched rectangles

Catherine Pooler - Hey word die

Paper:

My Mind's Eye - Bloom & Grow

Limetree Craft - blue light card for the matt

Now I started out with ProMarkers and quickly found that I preferred Copics so I drifted a bit, then I stopped crafting for a number of  years and so I wouldn't have participated in every challenge over these 17 years, but I'm pretty sure I have entered a lot and I was so super proud when I was asked to be on the Design Team.  I also think it will take an Earthquake to get me to leave! Even if my crafting at the minute is restricted to 30 mins slots to take account of a DVT in my leg!

I also thought, seeing as how it was a card for a challenge that has been going for a long time - I'd also use supplies that I've had for a long time.  That would be the stamp, That has 2010 as the date printed on the packet, and the paper also looks like 2010 from a quick Google search!

See when I say I've been crafting forever I mean forever - those supplies are new, as far as I'm concerned!  The Catherine Pooler stuff is the proper newest supplies!

So there, I've waffled on for ages - I'll finish by saying both pop on over to the challenge blog there are some wonderful cards on display and - Many Happy Returns Passion for Markers and here's to another 17 years!!

Sarah

Challenge/s:

The Neglected Stuff Challenge - May 2026: The only even 'newish' thing is the 'hey' die. Everything else on the card varies from 1 year to 16 years old..

Dragonfly Dreams: May challenge - use die-cuts.

Just Us Girls: #823 - Word Week: Flowers.  Hopefully flowers on the paper is OK?

Allsorts Challenge: Challenge 849 - Monochromatic (or AG - as you can see I'm going with AG)

Those tricky, tricky,

men.

Morning blogland,

And as another Tuesday rolls around, so a new Passion for Markers challenge starts,  This week my lovely Teamie Lorraine has chosen the theme of 'Masculine'.  As always the challenge has some very simple rules that you need to stick to if you want to be in with a chance at the randomly drawn prize.  With those rules being - it doesn't make what you make but you must use your markers (any brand) on your project; to follow the theme and no back linking. Even if you don't win the prize draw you're still in with a chance at a Top 5 spot. 

So those projects made for those tricky masculine cards I know some find them difficult, personally I don't mind cards for men or boys so much.  There are some great dies and stamps and digis out there aimed at the menfolk - although it can be a bit tricky if your man or boy doesn't like 'traditional' blokey things.

Our sponsor this week - Dr Digi's House of Stamps - does have a wide range of fun images for those masculine makes.  They also allowed the DT a stamp to use for our cards and this is my make with that digital stamp:

Supplies used:

Digital stamp:

Dr Digi House of Stamps - Dad DIY

coloured with my Copics

Rubber stamp:

Taylored Expressions - Simple Strips : Man, Myth, Legend

Tonic Studio - Say it With Sentiments

Dies:

Taylored Expressions - Simple Strips : Well Rounded

un-branded stitched rectangle dies

Stencils:

Lawn Fawn - Brick stencil

Polkadoodles - Great Outdoors stencil

Anything else:

Distress Inks

blending brush

black card to matt

It was fun creating this one - the scene came together really well but, as always, I'm such a terrible self critic that I was starting to worry that picking jeans and a blue shirt made him look a little like he was wearing a jumpsuit!  They are, in real life, very different shades of blue, not so much in the picture.

As always I would encourage you to pop on over to the challenge blog, take a look at my Teamies wonderful projects and think about popping something in yourself.  It's fun, honestly!

Aaaand, if you made all the way down here, thank you for ploughing on through my waffle!

See you soon,

Sarah

Challenge/s:

Just Add Ink: #785 Stencils and Dies (or both)

Digi Choosday Challenge: Challenge 5 - Wk: Anything Goes

Stencil Fun: May 2026

Gem of a Challenge: Challenge 4