Papertrey Ink February Blog Hop Challenge

This month's blog hop theme over at Papertrey Ink is Sweet Spring, here is the inspiration photo.

Cardstock - Hero Arts. Watercolour paper - Cotman. Stamps and

dies - Papertrey Ink. Ink - Ranger, Memento, PTI.

I used distress stain on the background and then spritzed it with water and sewed it to card base. I die cut Birds and Blooms and stamped them with the companion stamps, I cut the legs off of one of the birds and added an extra wing on foam pads so the bird would look like it was flying. I die cut the clouds from vellum and embossed the sentiment in gold and added a small heart. I think it's so cute and I can't wait to send it to a couple who will be new parents soon.

Thanks for stopping by,

Ang.

Fresh as a Daisy - Crafty Templates

Loving this month's Crafty Templates Fresh as a Daisy card kit. Such lovely spring-y colours using yummy papers from Basic Grey Origins collection among other lovely bits and pieces. Leo creates such lovely kits and some great templates, I really look forward to them dropping on my doormat each month!

I am really sucking at photos just lately, my craft room (or should I be posh and say 'studio') gets some great light but with the crappy weather we have been having they look a little washed out. I promise they are zingy and fresh in real life!

I have some time off over the next couple of weeks so I am looking forward to relaxing and getting plenty of crafting done, I may scrapbook some more, I haven't done that in a little while!

April Card Challenge

So, here are my two entries. The theme was Red, Pink or Orange. I may have taken it too literally with the first card I made.

It was originally monochromatic orange, but it felt like it it all melded in together so I added some chalked Sizzix leaves and cream to the tissue ruffle and was quite happy with the end result, but still wasn't 'feeling it' so I also made this card:

I went with Pink Collage Press paper accented with orange and went from there, I think it's my favourite but the orange was very labour intensive and so I do have a soft spot for it!

Snowdrops

I adore snowdrops and I have been patiently waiting for their appearance. There hadn't been any sign of them over the past few weeks, however when the big snowstorm came and I was wandering around the garden I noticed this...

Complete with bunny rabbit prints. I used to love watching the rabbits in the garden (I still love the baby bunnies, they are too cute to resist) but have seen how destructive they can be, they ate the majority of my potted herb garden and have recently taken to stripping the bark of the lower part of trees as well as eating the ivy off the wall.

One thing I have been looking forward to since getting my new camera is taking pictures of all the spring flowers, especially the snowdrops and my all time favourite, the cherry blossoms. I have been checking on the snowdrops progress every week and then today we had the most beautiful clear skies and bright sunshine and I was able to enjoy them in all their prettiness!

I looked quite a sight, hunkered down on a big square of cardboard in the damp moss and grass, butt in the air taking over 100 photos of snowdrops, even clearing some of the leaf debris in areas just to get a good shot. I loved my old point and shoot camera but I was never able to get to grips with taking good photos of snowdrops, they mostly seemed to come out as white blobs, like this one from a couple of years back, after that I pretty much gave up.

But this year I had my new spanky camera and was able to get nice and close up.

My favourite however is this one that I took in the late afternoon sun.

I forsee me taking another 100 before they start to wilt and go brown!