INKY FINGERS

Good morning, peeps 😊 I hope you are well? 
I've been doing a lot of 'messing' in my craft room lately, with no finished items to show for it - maybe because I'm 'dabbling' in things I don't usually do, so it doesn't really seem to be coming together well. Or maybe I'm just in an ultra self critical mood at the moment - more likely, I think. I have a few things waiting to complete, though.

Anyway, I knew there was a 'Going Round in Circles' challenge at SSS Mondays, so I was playing with circles - which I love...this background is sponged with Cracked Pistachio, then stencilled with Pine Needles Oxides, over which are stamped coffee rings, with a bit of dotty stencilling in Gathered Twigs. I stamped the words and added the fussy cut and coloured image. I definitely need a good caffeine shot to get me going in a morning...I drink decaff for the rest of the day, but I savour those first few cups - every last drop -  of caffeine and am very grateful for  my Nespresso! I'm not sure the colours I used work as well as I'd hoped when put together. I'm lacking some of my favourite card colours because I use those colours so often. I really need to hunt for some good colours again!

I found this in my photo file, made a while ago, but never posted because at the time, I decided I just didn't like it... looking again, I think I like it a little more now  😉 Using Watercolour paper and some Distress Oxides, I applied lines of lots of blue inks and brushed them out with water, leaving me with this semi stripey background. I just stamped the dandelions in deeper blue, for a shadow effect, then stamped and embossed the white  dandelions over it - quite simple.

What a beautiful day it is in NW UK for this very special day! 
I hope it's sunny, bright and cloudless wherever you are....it's amazing how a bit of warm sunshine changes the whole atmosphere 😉

I have more florals to share, so here's the first one... gorgeous cosmos blooms, with a subtle trellis (or barbed wire fence, depending on your point of view, lol) background. I enjoyed making this clean looking card for a change... layering stamps are fun once you get the hang of them. 

I  love Spring and have been enjoying making Spring cards - they always work so well for  the people we know and love. Isn't it lovely to have sunshine and longer days again? I love the lighter nights and mornings.

I'm linking to these challenges today:-
Make My Monday, Diamonds
Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge, Beautiful Blooms
Moo Mania and More, Spring Fever
Country View Challenges, Easter or Spring
Paper Minutes, Anything Goes
Penny Black Saturday Challenge, Anything Goes + Spring colours

This is one of my favourite PB stamps and I've used it in lots of different colours and designs, but I really like it in these lovely shades of pink. I used Victorian Velvet  Oxide for the shading and the stamping,  with a little Spun Sugar, adding more colour with Prisma Pencils.

Did you know it was National Dandelion Day on April 5th? Nor did I!  No idea which 'nation' it is, but Day of the Month Card Club - a new challenge, focusing on those weird and wonderful celebration days of the month,  have chosen this as their April challenge. I quite like the idea of celebrating dandelions, don't you? Although they're often seen as the enemy of lots of gardeners, I've never been one of them. I love them, and still enjoy the pleasure of blowing them as far as I can 😊

This piece of acrylic paint background card has been sitting in my background basket for some time...I just love the subtle colours, so decided to use it for this challenge. One of my friends sent me a set of Inkadinkado 'winged creature' stamps, so I used part of the butterfly trail with a couple of simple dandelion stamps. A friend surprised me with these three word stamps on my birthday, so I thought they deserved to be inked, too. 

I'm going to link to the Allsorts Challenge again - Blossoms, butterflies and bugs - not quite blossoms, but definitely butterflies.

One last entry for Make My Monday's Humorous challenge... a little bit naughty, depending on  your own mind, but I bought this stamp with a certain person in mind and she certainly appreciated it 😉  I laughed out loud when I saw it - it really tickles me. 

I stamped and clear embossed the image, then coloured it with Neocolor crayons, although it doesn't need a lot of colouring to be honest.

Because the current Try it on Tuesday challenge is to  'Use a Stencil or Two' I challenged myself to create a couple of cards with no stamps - only stencils. I almost chose this as the current KCUK 'Mingle' because I knew it would  make people laugh. I'm the one who always insists that all swaps and mingles must have some stamping on them somewhere! I opted for something else, but I may yet do that... I wanted to drag myself away from just using a little stencilling to a background to break it up a bit and add interest. 

I haven't made anything with this, but I'll show it anyway - it was just a play with using two stencils together. I don't like it much but I'm sure it would work better with stencil paste. Life got in the way, so I didn't get back to play some more with the idea...but I did add a bit of text stamping afterwards!

I thought I'd make a quick 'Having Fun' page for Wendy's Art Journal Journey challenge and after I'd added Washi tape to cover up a bit that didn't quite work (!) I decided to put in a strip of polka dot paper, so it would also fit the Moo Mania and More challenge for this fortnight. Sorry if that's not quite what you wanted girls, but there are polka dots on there. Must get some polka dot washi tape...

I started with a Gelli print clean up page in my 8x8 Kraft journal, over which I sponged some Oxides in my favourite colour combinations, then stamped one of my favourite, super quick to colour animal stamps, which always makes me giggle! The embossing powder caught the background, so I knew it would be a nightmare to colour, and so decided to stamp them again on card, colour (with Neocolours) cut out and stick over the stamping...

I had a page in my 8x8 journal which had been painted with acrylics - it probably started life as a Gelli Print clean up page - and left to decorate later,  Then I spotted this image on my (very untidy) desk this image of 4 sheep, dancing, stained with bits of green and yellow. I think I'd used them to mask the same image on a card. They looked grass stained and this sparked off an idea... so this page came into being. If you look closely, I've written on the side, 'You'd be grass stained, too, if you had to sleep in a field!' I added the two sheep on the sides, just to add the music for the party the sheep are having, after roughly stencilling some Dylusions Lime acrylic paint, then stamped and clear embossed some grass and a few small flower heads. This was definitely fun!

Thank you to Wendy for the Art Journal Journey theme of 'Having Fun'.

I'm also linking to Sweet Stampin Challenge for their Funny theme
and Make My Monday's 'Something Humorous' challenge.