Crafting with a bee

I had a lovely week off work, I only have to go back tomorrow, just in time for another weekend. On Tuesday I made the drive to Farnborough, Hampshire, for Brenda of Bumblebees and butterflies class where we were making a bird card and painting with distress inks. It was such fun to meet a fellow blogger in person, it was like meeting an old friend. She is such a talented crafter and I learnt so much from her (thanks Brenda x)

There were 7 of us in the class and we watched as Brenda explained the card we would make and demonstrated some of the techniques. We used several techniques including embossing and for the first time I painted my image with distress inks rather than using my usual Promarkers.

First I washed the image with distress inks and then I used a paintbrush to put in some details.

 I was quite pleased with my first attempt and I will certainly play with them again.

I had fun making a birds nest out of twine wire

 and of course a nest needs eggs, which were coloured with distress inks then embossed using clear embossing power. Whilst the embossing was hot we pressed a prose stamp in and then went over with distress ink. I really like this effect.

We also made a piece of embossed card to look like rusty metal using ink and embossing powder. This was die cut with a TH cage die.

All these elements were then put together to make up the finished cards.
Here is my finished card, the image is on a hinge which lifts up to reveal a birthday verse.

I would like to enter it into the following challenges;

Here come the boys Lazy Summer days
Simon Says Stamp anything goes
Pile it on Designer paper
Crafting with dragonflies male card
Papercrafting Journey anything goes
2 sisters square card
Jelly Park things that fly
Card crafters circle for the boys
Craft Room Challenge new something my new is my new painting and playing with distress inks which I will certainly be doing again. I really enjoy learning new techniques and skills to enhance my card making.


After the class I continued down the M3 to Southampton to see my daughter and son-in-law. My Hb caught the train from London after work to join us and we enjoyed a lovely meal together. Yesterday was another special Mum/daughter day as we met in Guildford for lunch and some retail therapy. My girlie is 30 weeks pregnant tomorrow and has such a neat bump...she does not look pregnant at all from the back...and yes everyone keeps saying it looks like a boy bump. We will have to wait and see....perhaps there is a little grandaughter in there ?

Enjoy the weekend, the weather is due to change to a more autumnal feel. As I have been spoilt by a week of glorious blue skies and sunshine I really can't complain. Thanks for visiting and take care,

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x