Good Bye and Good Luck

A dear colleague is leaving next week for new adventures and I wanted to make a card for him. I love the Lawn Fawn Blue Skies set for making leaving cards, I like the image of taking off for new adventures. Funnily enough, as I was sitting at my desk, I could see a real-life hot air balloon in the sky above our village. They tend to be around quite often in the summertime, and I think this was the first one I've seen this year. 

I'm linking up with Daring Cardmakers where the theme very appropriately this week is Good Byes. I'm also linking up with Make My Monday where the theme is A Hint Of Summer to Come and Time Out where the inspiration phrase is "Friends are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom", and I was inspired by the friendship theme.

Card: White hammered card, 160 gsm Hobbycraft white card, Dovecraft 110 gsm premium vellum
Ink and colouring: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Tim Holtz Distress Oxides, Copics
Stamps: Lawn Fawn Blue Skies and matching dies
Other: Lawn Fawn Extra Banners and Stitched rectangle dies

The Sky's The Limit

I've been enjoying a few days off work, as my Dad has been visiting. We've been so busy doing many fun things - we went to Silverstone to see the F1 Grand Prix, we visited Wimpole Hall (such a gorgeous house, beautiful gardens and Shire horses on the farm), and yesterday we spent a day at the Duxford Imperial War Museum. I didn't think I would really enjoy it very much, but I was totally mesmerised by the beautiful planes (but I could not tell you which one is which, even if my life depended on it, I did enjoy photographing them though). We also had the in-laws over for dinner on Saturday (we were going to BBQ but the British summer showed its usual rather wet side, so we ended up having a roast instead) and my father in law brought over the most gorgeous produce box from his garden. And last but not least, we saw baby deer being bottle fed when we went for dinner at a local farm (shout out to Johnsons of Old Hurst, lovely steak house, well worth a visit if you are in the neighbourhood). I don't think I've ever seen anything as cute as those little baby deer. The amount of oooh-ing and awww-ing among the ladies, we all just ran out of the restaurant to see them while the guys sat there, rolling their eyes.

Baby deer with a little bit of milk down her cheek.
Can I hear you say awwww?

That's a lot of buttons!!

Wimpole Hall gardens.

Produce box from the
father-in-law's garden

This is a Lockheed Blackbird,
it's actually a real war plane although
it looks like something from Star Wars!

This is Sally B, the last remaining
airworthy B-17 in Europe. We saw her
take off for a flight!

Today I took Dad to the airport and thought I might as well spend the rest of the day in the craft room as there were a few challenges I wanted to play along with. I wanted to create something inspired by the sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches, the colours over at Color Throwdown and the gorgeous inspiration image over at Just Add Ink. I'm also linking up over at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge where the theme is "You've Got The Edge" and Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge where the theme is "We're Seeing Stars". I'm also linking up over at Lawn Fawnatics with the current colour challenge. 

 

I created a background with Turquoise Distress Oxide and Distress Inks with a watercolour brush and lots of layering and splattering. Then I stamped the balloon, stars and clouds from Lawn Fawn Blue Skies. I coloured them with Copics and die cut using the matching dies. Then I die cut the panel using the Stitched Square Stackables, and for the background, I die cut a larger square from Lawn Fawn Watercolor wishes. Then I stamped the sentiment in black and arranged the balloons and stars onto the card. I added some Wink of Stella to the clouds for a finishing touch. 

Card: 300 gsm white card, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card, Lawn Fawn Watercolor Wishes patterned paper
Stamps: Lawn Fawn Blue Skies and matching dies
Ink and Colouring: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Versafine Onyx Black, Copics, Tim Holtz Distress Oxide Broken China, Distress Ink Mermaid Lagoon, Peacock Feathers
Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched Square Stackable dies

Blue Sky Thinking

It's been ridiculously cold and grey outside all day. My coping mechanisms have been to make a huge dutch pancake (although to me it will always seem silly to call it a *dutch* pancake since it's actually Finnish pancake in my opinion, but anyhow...) and ate a gigantic piece of it with stem ginger ice cream and apricot jam. Then I spent the rest of the day in the craft room. The other half has been sitting in his man cave with his head phones on all day, gaming with friends. I don't think I have ever heard him talk that much in one day before, not sure if I should be happy or feel a bit hurt and jealous. Oh well, seems like he is having fun.

And I have been having fun too, as I made this card inspired by the sketch over at CAS(E) This Sketch. I was also inspired by the word inspiration over at Time Out which are "Friends are connected heart to heart, distance and time can't break them apart". I thought the balloon was perfect for the bit about distance. My best friend is far away and I sometimes hope I could just jump into a balloon to get to see her. My inspiration for the silver mirri sentiment was from the "Mirror, Mirror" challenge over at Daring Cardmakers. Last but not least I was inspired by the "Winter blues" challenge over at Shopping Our Stash where the challenge is to crate something with lots of blue but not to make it winter themed. I thought what could be more summery than a brightly coloured balloon?

Card: 250 gsm white card, Hobbycraft 190 gsm white card, silver mirri card

Stamps: Lawn Fawn Blue Skies and matching dies, Claire's abc

Ink and colouring: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Tim Holtz Distress Ink Broken China, Salty Ocean, Blueprint Sketch, Copics

Dies: Lawn Fawn Spring Showers, Scripty Hello

Other: Ranger Ice Stickles