Tuesday 30 June 2015

Birthday Bear

Hello and Happy Tuesday !

My card today is one I'd like to enter in the Cardz 4 Guys Challenge adding something beginning with 'B'.  I've put 3 'B's' - bear, beer and burger.

The background papers are from my stash and are some travel papers that a friend sent to me some time ago.

I stamped the bear and beer mug which are both Hobby Art stamps then coloured with Pro Markers and fussy cut.  I put fluffy stuff on the beer foam and heated then put Glossy Accents onto the bear's nose and the beer glass for shine.

The stamped the "Cheers" sentiment  is a Judikins rubber stamp and "happy birthday" is from a clear set of Paula Pascal sentiments.  I cut the fast food out from some of the paper and raised it on the card with foam pads.

Happy Crafting!

Sunday 28 June 2015

One Stamp Two Ways (1 of 2)

Hello and Welcome!

It's raining here today but I've just been out for a delicious roast and shortly off to do some crafting so I'm having a good day.  I hope you are too.

This is the first of two cards made using the same stamp.  It's a Papermania rubber mounted stamp which I stamped with Black Archival ink and painted with my Rowley watercolour paints.  The sentiment is part of the stamp.

I used  Tea Dye Distress ink round the edge of the image and Antique Linen round the edge of the card. The butterfly is a punch.  I made his antennae with craft wire and finally added the five gems.

I'd like to enter this card into 613 Avenue Create blog where  it's Anything goes including a rose or  a pearl.



This is the second card using the same Papermania stamp but I masked off the sentiment before inking up.

I inked the stamp with a Black Archival inkpad  and stamped on the splodges which are Visible Images stamps.

After cutting the image to size I mounted it onto a smaller piece of  black card as I didn't want a complete black border.

I embossed the Hobby Arts sentiment with black embossing powder, tore round the edge and rubbed with a"sunny coloured" Distress ink.

Saturday 27 June 2015

Not My Cup of Tea!


Happy Saturday! I hope you're enjoying the weekend. We've had a lovely warm sunny day here today.

There's not to much I can say about this card really except that it was a bit of inspiration.

My hubby only drinks green tea which I can't stand.  I like milk in mine.

One day he bought a packet of white tea.  When I looked at that gorgeous packaging I decided I wasn't going to recycle it in the usual way.

I cut it up, die cut a scalloped circle and made it into this card.  The heart, which is raised on foam pads is punched out of the box.  I stuck it all onto some Kraft card, added a gem and rounded one corner.




I'd like to enter this card into the following three challenges:  
Try it on Tuesday blog  "Tea Cups or Mugs"
Sister Act Card Challenge #112
Creative Fingers Challenge #85

Thank you so much for stopping by.

Thursday 25 June 2015

Summertime!

Hello and Welcome

Today my post is one of two similar cards I made a couple of weeks ago.  One was for males and this is the female version.

I dry embossed the bicycle ( a Sizzix embossing folder) onto co- ordinations card then rubbed back with a sanding block.

The flowers are punched out from scraps of white card that I coloured with Pro Markers then added Rangers Inkssentials enamel accents for the centres and the butterfly is punched out too.  The flower brad for the centre of the wheel is from my stash.

The sentiment is unmounted red rubber that I've had  forever.,,,  I mounted onto a white A6 card and rounded the top right hand corner just because it looked right then did faux stitching with a black pen to add interest.

I think this card qualifies for the challenge on the 613 Avenue Create blog.# 129 as it has a bicycle, a butterfly and flowers.

Wednesday 24 June 2015

WOYWW

Thank you very much for visiting my little cabin in the garden.

I've enjoyed  lots of time in the past having a nosey around at others work tops and decided to finally take the plunge and show what I'm doing here  today.

This morning I have two friends coming round to craft.  They wanted to learn how to make gate fold cards
so my work top is set up ready.

Their two kits are  waiting ready and the two cards we'll be making standing up behind.  Cuttlebug is at the ready and hidden behind and beside it is everything they'll need to make the first card.

I know that it won't be so tidy in two hours time,  I start off like this every morning but of cause it's very quickly looking like a real mess.  I'm sure you know what  I mean.  Next time I'll take a photo later in the day.

I'm off now to pay a visit to you at Stamping Ground blog WOYWW before my friends arrive.




Tuesday 23 June 2015

You and Me!


Happy Tuesday!

I hope you're having better weather than it is here today.

I've recently bought some Sizzix sets in their sale but unfortunately not had lots of time to play with them yet.

Anyway - this is a card I did make a couple of days ago using mainly scraps that were lying around on my worktop.

It's not for anyone in particular so will go into my the box of cards to be sent to my chosen charity.

 I've been making a box for them each month for several years now which means I can keep making cards and use different stash and techniques, as the mood takes me.

 I read once that after birthday cards women in England buy more friendship cards than anything else so I hope someone chooses this for a friend.

Sunday 21 June 2015

"Bloomin Marvellous"


Hello again on this Sunday Evening.

It was my 46th Wedding Anniversary last week and this is the card I made for my Hubby.  Perhaps it's a strange card for the occasion but it's the type my husband likes  ... also I'd only just got these stamps but mainly he really is bloomin marvellous.

The stamps are a Paper Artsy set.  I coloured the background with Distress ink, the flowers and leaves with Spectrum Noir pencils and wiped round the edge with black ink.

 I've posted a photo on FB of us on honeymoon in Spain in 1969.  Although my hair is still ginger, now it's out of a bottle, I've put on a few pounds in weight and could never wear a skirt that short now ....

Happy Crafting Everyone!

Friday 19 June 2015

Out On A Limb


I made this card for Pat who is my oldest and dearest friend.

I began by colouring a piece of white card with Shabby Shutters and Stormy Sky Distress inks.  The stamps I have used are all from a Jofy Paper Artsy set.  The branch is actually a tree which I stamped sideways.  I stamped the birdhouse, both birds and the flowers then stamped both birds again and they were fussy cut.

Everything was  purposely coloured in a naive way with my Spectrum Noir pencils and the larger bird was stuck on with double sided adhesive pads.

Something was missing .... so I stamped the "tweet tweet" sentiment (also from the same set) three times.  The tiny bow is crochet yarn and the sentiment is from a clear set by Kaiser Craft, called Friendship sentiments.

I would like to enter this card at the Shopping Our Stash blog where the challenge is titled "Out on a Limb" and also
Crafting From the Heart Challenge #64

Thursday 18 June 2015

Gilded Bi-Plane



This is a card I made for my husband.

I rubbed Pumice Stone Distress ink through a Stamping Up mask to make the background then rubbed over with distress ink before trimming off a strip to use for the sentiment strip.

I stamped a Penny Black sentiment several times on the background and rubbed through sequin waste with the same colour distress ink pad.

The old bi-plane is a small red rubber unmounted stamp bought from Stamp Addicts.  I stamped it onto acetate then put double sided  adhesive paper on the back.  I added gilding flakes and burnished it before mounting onto black and then white card.  I had to colour the middle brad as I didn't have a brown one.  The sentiment stamp is by Hobby Arts.

I  would like to enter this card into The Crafty Cardmakers Challenge #141 - For a Man or Boy and   The Creative Inspiration Challenge #318 - Male Creations

Wednesday 17 June 2015

"Hello" sketch

Hello Again!

I've  recently been playing with Brusho paints and had a little pile on my table for using as backgrounds so decided to use this colour.

After cutting the blue card to size I chose the part of the Brusho card I wanted to use, cut it to size then snipped off one corner.

The tag is by Marianne and the leafy scrolls  are a small Cheery Lynn die which I cut into pieces.

I die cut the sentiment and two flowers from scraps of card. The flower is from Sue Wilson's Faux Quilled Blooms set and "Hello" is a Clearly Besotted die.

I coloured the two tiny gems yellow and added a blue Papermania Dew Drop to the center of the flower.  The bow was made with white ribbon from my stash.

I had fun making this and am pleased with how it turned out.

The card I made today is for the Tuesday Morning Sketch Challenge as I really enjoyed following a sketch last week.  It's something I'd never tried before.

The image on the left is the challenge template for the above card.

Monday 15 June 2015

Woodware "Woodland" (1 of 4)


Today I'm posting a little series of photos of some cards I've  made over the last couple of weeks.

I've had my alcohol inks out again but this time I've used them  on parchment.  I used three colours of ink dabbed onto one and a half A4 sheets of parchment.

The stamps I used were from two Woodware sets.  I stamped some images on the inked side (left image) and some on the back (right image) using a versamark inkpad then embossed with white detail embossing powder.

Woodware "Woodland" (2 of 4)

Next I cut them out and got 18 images from the parchment I had used.

I coloured in the images on the embossed side using La Plume marker pens and various Sakura pens, including the starlight glitter and glaze sets.


Woodware "Woodland" (3 of 4)


Here are some of the images which I have matted onto scraps of white card.

Once they have the white card behind they look much brighter.

They were then matted onto black card before being made into cards for my box of  charity cards which will be posted off at the end of the month.

Woodware "Woodland" (4 of 4)

And finally here's one of the toppers made into a card.  The sentiment is an old Hobby Art favourite wood mounted stamp.

Saturday 13 June 2015

Bleeding Tissue Technique - First Attempt (1 of 3)


Hello and thank you for your visit

A couple of weeks ago I was invited to a friends house and our friend Margaret came along to show us all how to do the Bleeding Tissue Technique.

We used a glossy card and all chose our coloured die cut pieces of tissue from a big glass jar.  Under Margaret's guidance we placed the pieces randomly, put on water with a paint brush then had coffee and biscuits while we gave the tissue several minutes to do it's work!

It was almost magical to remove the tissue and see the random colour on the card and it  was interesting to see how differently they turned out as all five of us had chosen different colour combinations.

We then had to decide if we would use purple, black or this dark blue ink to add the small circles which we rubbed through a mask.  Then we each decided which mask we would use as our main image to sponge over the top.  We finished by putting on a few white circles with white acrylic paint and a small bottle top.

Everybody's finished piece looked very different because of the choices we had made and although I was delighted to have learned this new and exciting technique in honesty I did think mine looked a little bit messy.

However, undaunted, when I got home I decided to make it into a card.  I heat embossed the sentiment and added three sparkly gems.  I'm really pleased with the result.  But this wasn't the where I finished .....

I would like to enter this card into The Crafter's Cafe Challenge "Anything Goes". 


scraps (2 of 3)

These are a few of the scraps that were left when I'd trimmed my work to make it into a card.

As I thought they looked quite pretty and interesting I decided to use the scrap to make another card - so please scroll down .... 

"Hello" - Paper Weaving (3 of 3)


I cut the scraps roughly in half and wove them together, stuck them onto white card then mounted onto black and cut the corners with an X Cut corner punch.

It was all stuck onto a white card and I added  "Hello" which is a Clearly Besotted die that I cut out twice in white and once in black to add some depth.

I finished by putting on the clear gems to give a bit of sparkle.

I really enjoyed learning this technique and have ordered some of the Spectre tissue paper so that I can do more.

A Big Thank You Margaret.

p.s.  I also took the tissue that I'd used for the demo home and used it again.  I'll show you that card another time so do please visit again.

Friday 12 June 2015


Good Morning and hope you have a happy Friday.

I am waiting for some Sizzix die sets to arrive shortly so I'm looking forward to having some playtime up in my cabin later on today.

I made this card a couple of weeks ago and coloured the image with my Spectrum Noir pencils which I'd not used before.  I think I might have given him a little more shading but he really is a cutie isn't he.

I love this dear little Penny Black dog and thought he would be perfect for entering into the Cutie Pie Blog Challenge which is currently  "Cats and Dogs".

The papers are from my stash and the flowers punched out, shaped and inked around the edges.

The sentiments are from a set by Paula Pascal.  I finally added a little Glossy Accents to the dog's nose.

Wednesday 10 June 2015

For Derek


Happy Tuesday to you and thank you for visiting.

I've made this card for my husband's cousin who is retiring this month.  I think he's counting the days down now!  Happy Retirement  Derek. xx

This is my first attempt at triple stamping and it's something I've been meaning to try for a while.

I used a Hero Arts stamp set for the images and "It's a Special Time" sentiment which I stamped with a versamark inkpad and embossed with detail silver embossing powder.

I added the dark blue and tartan ribbons and the silver brad, all from my stash.

I would like to enter this in the Really Reasonable Ribbon blog challenge and Try it Tuesday Challenge "Clocks and Watches"

Tuesday 9 June 2015

Baby Girl


Good evening to you.  I do hope you've had a good day.

I had a lovely morning doing a workshop but this afternoon I made this baby card for my June charity box.

The stamp I used is one of a set from Stampers Anonymous "Mini Blueprints" 8 cms231 which I bought a couple of weeks ago and haven't used before.

I stamped the  main image with Memento, London Fog, then stamped the sentiment underneath with Versamark and heat embossed with silver detail embossing powder.  The wheels were coloured with a pale grey and the heart with a pink marker pen.

The image was cut out with a Spellbinders die and then stuck onto silver mirror card which had been cut out with a Spellbinders scallop die and foam pads put onto the back.

The banners were cut from scraps of matching paper from my stash and stuck onto some white card then attached to a pink card and then I put the topper on.

I would like to enter this card Tuesday Morning Sketches Challenge.


Monday 8 June 2015

Feathered Friends


This is a photo taken through my cabin window yesterday afternoon while I was doing some card making after we got back from a delicious roast lunch at the local pub.

There was so much activity with different birds flying in to feed.

I also had a visit from two squirrels, both at the same time and later a woodpigeon and jackdaw faced up to each other as they both flew down for a drink from the birdbath.

The feeder is only a few feet from my window so I spend lots of time watching them while I'm crafting.

I did manage to make several cards too!


Saturday 6 June 2015

Ahoy There!


Hello and Happy Saturday!

Yesterday evening  I was lucky enough to go to a card class with Louise Brooks as she had a couple of girls who were unable to attend.

Anyway, we made three cards plus three toppers that just needed mounting when we got home.

They were all very different and I liked them all very much.  This is probably my favourite.

We used Clearly Besotted stamps with the matching dies.  The 'sea' was stamped with a red rubber oval chevron stamp (I forgot to ask what it was)  and the gem was added for a bit of sparkle.   The inks used were Adirondack.

It was a very enjoyable evening and Louise made us eat cake too!!!

Thanks for visiting and please do come back again soon.

Friday 5 June 2015

Happy Stitching

Hello Everybody.

I hope you've been enjoying the beautiful weather we've had here today.

This afternoon I made this stitched card, which is one of the techniques that my husband likes best.

I used a Papermania plastic template and marked lightly through the holes with a pencil.  At this stage a lot of dots on the page look very confusing so I joined up the dots to make each letter stand out clearly.

 I coloured the flower and leaf with Pro markers, added a little Sakura starlight pen for sparkle (which doesn't show on the photo) and then stitched the design using 6 strands of embroidery thread throughout.  The ribbon is from my stash and the button was from a bag of mixed buttons that I bought from The Works.

I would like to enter this card into the Crafty Cardmakers and More challenge "Stitching Faux or Real"


Tuesday 2 June 2015

Lady in a Hat


Morning Everyone.

It's a miserable, dark rainy day here today so I'm posting a "sunny" card.  Hope you all have a "Happy Day" - crafting perhaps!

I don't know what this stamp is called.  It's one of a set of three foam stamps that I bought from QVC when they did regular craft shows.

I did a bit of paper peicing with scraps of paper from my stash then coloured the image.  I used Pro markers for the hair, and hat, and a blush of chalk for her cheeks.  The rest of the colouring is done with Sakura Starlight pens tapped onto an acrylic block and painted like watercolour with a paintbrush.

The sentiment is one I bought a long time ago in a bargain bin from Hobbycraft.

I would like to enter this card into the Alphabet Challenge blog for "H is for Hats and Handbags"  and Crafting From The Heart Challenge - Anything Goes