Monday 31 August 2015

New home

First I would like to welcome Lisa to my blog.  I didn't find her blog until yesterday but her work is amazing. I'm sure you'll think so too.

I bought the Memory Box house die at a sale price some months ago and this is it's first outing.  It's actually a Christmas die but I cut off the little tree and holiday sentiment that came out of the chimney (which I forgot to put back on) oops!

The whole card is made with snippets of card, paper and ribbon The blue background circle is cut from some craft packaging.  I distressed the embossed background card.

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:-

Pixies Snippets Playground  #192 over at Pixies Craft Workshop blog and
Allsorts Challenge blog Week#326 Recycle/Upcycle

Saturday 29 August 2015

My Only Arch!

Hello and I hope you're enjoying the weekend.

My card today Is made with two stamps that I've never used before.  The topper is a La Blanche foam stamp that I water coloured  and then inked round the edge with Distress inks.  I put some Glossy Accents onto the arch only, but unfortunately it doesn't show up well in the photo.

I really had to search to find an arch.  This is all I had in the whole of my stash - stamps, dies and masks!

The background was made with  Peacock Feathers, Pumice Stone and Vintage Photo Distress inks which were spritzed with water then smooched onto the card and dried with my heat gun.  I stamped a swirly stamp onto the background with Pumice stone then stamped the butterflies with Black Archival ink.

I couldn't decide what colour to do the three main butterflies so I stamped some randomly onto the scrap paper that I'd used when doing the water colouring. That seemed to work so I fussy cut three.  The antennae were tricky to cut so I made some with two strands of embroidery thread knotted at each end and I put a tiny gem on each head,  The sentiment, which is cut twice is a Clearly Besotted die.

I would like to enter this card into the following Challenges:-
Mrs. A's Butterfly Challenge which is this week  "A for Archway"
The Alphabet Challenge blog "N for no Design Papers"

Friday 28 August 2015

Auntie's Cupcke

My friend Carol has introduced me to Erika's blog where she has a link up on Friday.

You post your card which is an oldie which has previously been posted so I thought it might be fun to join in.

I only began blogging in February of this year and am having so much fun meeting everyone.

This is the very first card I posted.  I had nobody visiting my blog for weeks so I thought this must be the card I showed today on Erika's blog.

The stamp is red rubber unmounted but I don't know what it is I bought it second hand.

The paper is some that has been in my stash for ages and I put it through my Cuttlebug in an embossing folder.  I paper pieced the frilly cover and ribbon and added glossy accents to the cherry.

Smile on Friday #134

Morning Everyone!

I hope you've had a good week,  I've certainly had a lot to smile about this week.

I went out crafting with friends last Saturday and out to lunch on Tuesday as usual.

We went out for a meal with six friends last night.  I won a prize in the Butterfly challenge in the week and had a good result from a recent chest X-ray - no further follow up needed.

I have a friend arriving shortly to play with me in my craft cabin and I'm expecting happy mail this morning too.

This little chap dropped in for a drink in the garden a couple of days ago and hubby took this photo.

Wishing all of you in the UK a happy Bank Holiday weekend and everyone further afield a lovely week ahead.

I'd like to link this to Wispo's A Stich in time blog where we share our "Smiles on Friday"

I'll be round to visit you all when my friend leaves later today.

Thursday 27 August 2015

Christmas Bells

Hello  and thank you for visiting.

I made my card on Saturday while out crafting with friends but I had a real problem trying to photograph it because of the sparkle and shine. Anyway my dear hubby stepped in today and took the photo for me.

I stuck double sided  adhesive paper onto the back of the white card and after it was die cut I peeled the release sheet from one side and covered my sticky die cut piece with glitter.  I then stuck it to the pale blue card with a wet glue.

The topper is a large Woodware stamp which was stamped with black Archival ink onto shrink plastic then coloured with pencils.  The colour was very pale but after shrinking the colour becomes much more intense.

The topper was mounted onto silver miri card as was the sentiment and everything was stuck onto the dark blue 5" x 7" dark blue card.

I would like to enter this card into The Rudolph Day Challenge on Scrappy Mo's blog.  The challenge takes place each month starting on 25th and Mo always offers a wonderful prize for the winning card.

It's a good opportunity to make Christmas cards throughout the year and boost stocks.  It's hard to believe it's now less than three months till Christmas day, isn't it.

Wednesday 26 August 2015

WOYWW #325


Good Morning Deskers.

Wednesday morning again when we get a chance to link up with Julia's Stamping Ground and visit work desks around the world.

I've been unable to join in for the past couple of weeks but did manage to have a little look round at some desks.

On Monday I made a card for a friend who is a keen gardener.  I posted the card on my blog on Monday then decided I would  make four similar, but slightly different cards for my charity box.

I used pages from an old gardening book, Paper Artsy stamps and a set of dies from Sizzix which arrived last Friday.  They are three gardening tools, a trowel, fork & hoe.  I cut them out from black card, added metallic rub ons to give a metallic effect and added kraft card handles.

I'm off to make a cuppa then start my visits to see what everyone else has been up to.

Tuesday 25 August 2015

For A Gardening Friend


Thank you for stopping by today.

I made this card yesterday afternoon for a friend.  I have decided to make a couple more today for my charity box.

I tore part of a page from an old gardening book that I rescued from the bin.  The stamps are all from the same Paper Artsy  set and I coloured with Fresco Acrylic paints.

The trowel is a Sizzix set of three garden tools that I got in their sale last week.  I die cut the trowel with a scrap of black card and put metallic rub- ons onto the base to give a metallic look then used a large ball embossing tool to add shape.  I die cut the handle part again with a scrap of ribbed kraft card and stuck it on.  Finally I made the raffia bow and added white enamel dots to the flowers.



I'd like to enter my card into the following challenges:-

Pixies Snippets Playground Week #191
Try it on Tuesday "Sending Flowers"
Creative Craft Cottage Challenge #46 (Anything Goes)

Monday 24 August 2015

Strawberries on a Plate

Happy Monday!

Today I would like to say a big warm welcome to Mary H and Happy Dance who have recently joined my blog friends.

They were introduced by Darnell who many of you probably know.  It would be lovely if you are able to pay them a visit and look at their lovely work.

This is a photo of one of the plates I painted when china painting was my main hobby before I started card making.

This is one of 12 plates that I painted for a lady who wanted them to hang on her new dining room wall.  It is a bone china plate and took about ten hours to paint.  I fired it five times.

Sunday 23 August 2015

You and Me!

Hello Everyone and thanks for your visit.

On Friday I had a parcel of craft  goodies arrive from Sizzix.  I bought several sets of dies and dies with stamps at really good sales prices but I've not had much time to play yet.

I made this card this morning BEFORE going to the pub for Sunday lunch. "Not after" I hear you saying!
It's really just a fun card.

It is made entirely with scraps and snippets.  Even the black card had the torn edge already and I thought it matched up with the background piece which looked like torn paper and was cut from a department store gift card.

The little heart was lying on my desk too.  So I scribbled white gel pen round the edge and added faces and put some hair on "me".

I'm taking this card over to Pixies Snippets Playground, Week #191

Friday 21 August 2015

Sending you Flowers

Hello and Thank You for your visit.

Today I would like to say Hello and a very warm welcome to both Fit Kitty and Hazel who  have recently  joined my blog.

Kitty was recently  invited to be a Guest Designer on several blogs  and makes lots of very pretty cards and Hazel has recently been experimenting with many different and interesting techniques.  It would be lovely is you are able to pay them both a visit.

My card today is made with a stamp from a Penny Black set called "Hugs" and the sentiment is one of a set by Woodware.

I stamped both onto parchment paper with Versamark and embossed with gold.  Then I coloured the balloon on the front with a Spectrum Noir pencil and the rest of the design on the back with Zig marker pens.  I stamped the flowers over the background of the parchment with a white Brilliance ink pad and attached it with brads to some blue pearl card.

I would like to enter this card into the challenge on Try it on Tuesday blog which is entitled "sending you Flowers"

Happy Crafting Everbody!

Smiles on Friday - Week #133

We had friends staying for a few days this week.

The weather was mainly kind and didn't stop us  enjoying ourselves.  We did lots of catching up, eating and drinking.

We spent one day in Stratford-Upon-Avon where we had a lovely boat trip on the River Avon and another day visiting Oxford.

This photo was taken from the top of  the hop-on, hop-off tour bus in Oxford  during a short stop.  I was amused to see lots of these taxis around with Periodic Table written all over them.  A little bit different from the normal black cabs aren't they!

I'm linking this post to A Stitch in time blog, Smiles in Friday.

Tomorrow I'm going to Coleman's  in Rushden  with friends for a workshop "Christmas in August".  We  make four cards using the same stamp then take the stamp home with us.  I'm looking forward to it a lot.  On Sunday I'll have two football matches to watch back to back.  The perfect weekend for me.

I hope you all have a good weekend.

Thursday 20 August 2015

Toadstools on Vellum

Hello Again!

Our friends left a short time ago on their way home to Essex.

We had a wonderful few days catching up.  We spent one day in Stratford-upon-Avon and another in Oxford.

We did lots of chatting and lots of eating and drinking. The weather was mainly kind to us too.

I decided that before clearing up I'd prefer to spend a few hours catching up with all the lovely makes that you will have made that I've not seen yet.

I'd first like to say a big Hello and Welcome to my new follower Darnell and welcome her to my blog.  She does some lovely work and her posts are always very amusing so do please drop in for a visit.

I've done no card making for almost a week so today's card is one I made a while ago.  The stamp is from a Woodware set called Woodland Mushrooms.  It was stamped  and embossed in white onto a piece of vellum which had previously been coloured on the back with alcohol inks.  I coloured the image with marvy markers and Sakura glaze, starlight and souffle pens.

The panel down the side is foil packaging that was rubbed with black stazon then put through my Cuttlebug in an embossing folder.  I then rubbed over the embossing with a sanding block and mounted onto black card.

Now I'm off to visit as many of you as I can.

Monday 17 August 2015

My Thanks!

Happy Monday!

Today I'd like to say Hello and Welcome to my two new followers Jacky and Dana.  I'm so glad you've both joined me here.

Jacky doesn't have a blog but she makes lots of lovely cards.

I don't know Dana yet and afraid I'm unable to find you.  If you will leave me a comment I'd love to visit if you have a blog too.

My card today has been made with two Sizzix dies and a mask.

The bird and Sentiment came as a set.  I used a scraps of card that were lying on my desk to cut out the bird and sentiment.

  I rubbed through the mask with Pumice Stone Distress ink for the background then inked round the edge with Antique Linen Distress ink.  The little butterfly was punched from a scrap of card too.

Thank you for your visit.  I'm waiting for friends to arrive so will probably not be around much for the next few days.

Happy Crafting!

Saturday 15 August 2015

"Hooray" - snippets

Happy Sunday Playmates!

Today I'm bringing these two very similar cards to Pixie's Snippets Playground.

I used snippets of Papermania "Happy Days" paper that I've had for a long time and my new Stampin' Up stamp set (Endless Birthday Wishes).  These stamps are so useful as the words which are separate stamps mix and match,

I did a little stamping, a little stitching and coloured a few gems which were added for sparkle.  The little banners were punched with a Stampin' Up punch.

In total I made six similar cards using various snippets of these and other papers from the same paper pack.

I hope you're enjoying your weekend.  I have my Bestie and her hubby coming to stay tomorrow  so probably won't be around much for a few days but please do call again soon.

Friday 14 August 2015

Under the Sea

Today has been a wet miserable day and my card this evening is for a watery challenge.

First I would like to say Hello to Soojay and welcome her to my blog.  She has been making some lovely cards with her new Paper Artsy stamp set and I'm sure she would appreciate a visit from you.

For this card I used a Woodware stamp which I stamped a number of times onto a piece of white card with Tumbled Glass Distress ink.  I rubbed some of the same colour plus a yellow Distress ink onto the card then spritzed with a fine spray containing water and some mica powder and dabbed dry with tissue.

I stamped the fish again onto white card, did some zentangling on it, added shading and then a bit of colour with Pro Markers.  I cut the fish out and mounted onto my card with foam pads.  I stamped the main sentiment then drew the wiggly line round the edge and hand wrote Birthday Fishes.  To finish I mounted onto black card and added some glitter dewdrops as bubbles.

I would like to enter this card into the That's Crafty challenge (Under the Sea).

The Learned Leprechaun

Happy Friday Everyone!

This is a photo my hubby took and entered into a competition at his camera club.

DH had his friend sitting on a kitchen chair with a sheet behind him.

He changed the colours of Roy's clothes and placed him onto a photo of the bookcase in our top  room.

It made me smile and I hope it will make you smile too.

I'm linking up with A Stitch in Time blog "Smile on Friday".

  There are always lots of happy things to see there on a Friday.  I hope you are having a happy day.

Thursday 13 August 2015

One of a Kind

I  mainly make cards now but this is an ATC I made a while ago.

I drew the flowers and 3 bees onto white card, coloured them with watercolour paints then filled in between with a black pen.  I went round the edge with a gold Krylon pen

The sentiment is from a Hero Arts set stamped onto a piece of torn parchment paper held on with two brads and stuck at the back then backed with the ATC card.

I used to paint and kiln fire plates in this style when china painting was my main hobby.  Each plate was numbered and I made a total of 23. Every one was different. Each plate had three bees somewhere on it as they hold a special significance for me.

I would like to enter this  ATC into the following challenges:-
Crafting from the Heart #72
Wednesdays Creative Inspiration Challenge #323
Creative Fingers Challenge #89

Playing with Alcohol Inks

Good Morning Everyone and thank you for your visit.

First of all I would like to to say Welcome to my new followers Jenny and Mrs A.  I'm so pleased that they've joined me and it would be lovely if you could pay them a visit.

Mrs. A runs the beautiful Butterfly Challenge that so many of us like to join in with.

My card today was made several weeks ago when I was having a play with Alcohol inks.

The focal point of this card is made with the lid of a large yoghurt pot.  I have shown the stages for making this in a previous stage by stage post a while back.

If you are interested in reading what I did please refer back to  the "March" archive on my side bar entitled "What I Used" numbers 1-5

I decided to stipple the background but as it was clearly going to take a very long time I ended up just doing part of it.   The corners are waste that were lying on my desk and I added the four silver pearl gems.

Tuesday 11 August 2015

Discovering ... Butterflies

Good Morning and Happy Tuesday!

I always enjoy Tuesdays.  Hubby and I spend the morning pursuing our hobbies  then we meet friends at the local watering hole for lunch.  In the afternoon we play again and I don't even have to cook dinner.  DH makes our tea.

I made this card a few weeks ago on a workshop with Jamie Turvey.

He told us to add washi tape randomly to our cards.  Then we put 3 different colours of acrylic paint (our choice) close together on our craft mats and spritzed with water then swiped our cards across the paints.

I chose blue yellow and red as I knew I could get some orange, purple and green from a mixture of those colours. Everbody's card looked very different and I was very pleased with the colours on mine.

We then stamped and embossed the butterfly and masked it before continuing.  Everything else was our choice - sentiment, where we placed it and any masks we decided to use.  I used a Tim Holt letter mask and embossed with gold then stamped red numbers into spaces at top right and bottom left.

We added die cut cogs and the pen nib to the butterflies body. Job done!

I would like to link this card to the following Challenges:-
The Butterfly Challenge
Craft Cardmakers and More Challenge "Warm Summer Colours"

Sunday 9 August 2015

Bleeding Tissue - Thanks!

Good Morning and "Happy Monday"

I've not done a lot of the bleeding tissue technique and results have been quite mixed.

However, I don't like to be beaten and seldom throw anything away.  Although the card looked a bit splodgey I did like the nice bright colours so set to and had a play.

I've recently got out my old brass stencils after them being hidden away for a long time. I decided it was time to use them again  to make a few cards.

After rubbing Black Archival through the design I used some black Distress ink around parts of the edge of the stencil.

It still looked a bit uninteresting so I rubbed green and black inks through sequin waste then added a few sequins for sparkle.  I put the button in the centre of the flower then  finally I mounted my topper onto black card to make it pop.

This card just evolved as I played and I am pleased with how it finally turned out.

I'd like to link this card to the following blogs:-
Crafting for All Seasons  #107 "Bright and Beautiful" - well it's certainly bright!
Try it on Tuesday - Using Stencils

Birthday Wishes Snippets

My two cards today were made with snippets of the same papers and from my stash.

I'm afraid I don't know what the papers are as I bought the pad from QVC  some time ago when they used to do regular craft programmes.

I cut the A4 card in half lengthways as I wanted to make two postcard shaped cards.  I cut about an inch (sorry I mainly work in old money!) off the fronts and then covered them with pieces of paper and added inch strips on the inside so that they would show.

I attached organza ribbons to the fronts plus the bows.

The sentiment panels are snippets of white card which I  stamped with the scrolly stamp and die cut  with the matching Sizzix die.  I coloured the edges with some Distress ink then added a few pearl gems to each card.

I would like to take these over to Miss Di's Playground at Pixie's Crafty Workshop It's a fun place to play each week where all the girls show the cards they've made using all sorts of scraps of card, paper and ribbon.

Friday 7 August 2015

New Stash

This is what I bought when I went to a workshop at Loobi Crafts last Friday.

The Spellbinders Diamond dies were half price so I really couldn't leave them there could I.

I just liked the Woodware  daisies and know I'll get lots of use from the stencils.

I've already made five cards with the Woodware stamp using different mediums and will post them over the next few weeks.


Spot painted daisies

This is the first card I made with the Woodware framed Daisy stamp.  It's a very quick and easy card so ideal for my charity box.

I stamped it twice.  I coloured the leaves and border with Promarkers on the first image and just coloured the centres with yellows and parts of the petals with pale blue Promarkers on the second.

I cut out the centre of the second image with a diamond shaped Spellbinders die and wiped round the edge of the die cut with a little grey Distress ink before matching up the pattern and attaching, at a jaunty angle, to the complete image.

I heat embossed the sentiment onto some parchment paper then added the two brads before mounting the image onto a black card.

Unfortunately the blue is very pale and doesn't show up too well in the photograph.

Greedy Blue Tit

Isn't he super cute!

But two sunflower seed kernals in that tiny little beak.  Goodness knows how he managed to eat two at once.....

This is another photo taken by my hubby who has now built himself a hide in the garden - right next to my craft cabin door.   DH seems to have forgotten all about the bugs and is now very keen on birds.

This little chap made me smile so I'm linking this photo to A Stitch in Time, Smile on Friday.

Have a lovely weekend!


Thursday 6 August 2015

Origami Butterfly

Hello and welcome.

It's a lovely sunny day here today.  I hope you're enjoying good weather too.

I would like to enter today's card into the Freshly Made Sketches Challenge #198

I made the butterfly in the same way as yesterday's card using two squares of paper for the wings and a narrow triangular piece for the bead/body.  The wings are made with craft wire and two tiny beads.

I embossed the strip of mauve card then cut the two mats from blue co-ordinations card and a piece of shimmery patterned vellum.  I added a few gems for glitter and lightly wiped the edge of the card a with mauve chalk cats eye ink pad.

Today I would like to introduce my two new followers Ruth and Carol.  I'm sure they would both like a visit from you.

Happy Crafting and do please call again soon.

Wednesday 5 August 2015

Washi Butterfly

Hello and thank you for visiting my blog.

For my card today I decided to use washi paper, and quite a lot of it too.  I got out a pile that I've had for some time but generally use very sparingly.

I chose a very busy and colourful paper for my background then picked a paper which I felt complemented it to make my butterfly.

I cut a number of dies before deciding which sizes and colours I wanted to use.  The card just evolved really although I'd begun with an idea in mind.

For the butterfly I cut two pieces of washi paper 2" x 2" plus a long triangular strip.  The square pieces I folded to make the wings and the strip was wound round a cocktail stick and stuck with a Tombo gluestick to make a paper bead for the body of the butterfly.

I used gold craft wire to make the antennae and stuck irredescent  beads on the end of each.

The sentiment was added as an afterthought to give balance.  I didn't want to heat emboss as I was worried the washi paper might lift so I used individual letters from a silver peel off sheet which I coloured with a black permanent marker.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges
 Tuesday Morning Sketches blog #312
 Papertake Weekly Challenge



WOYWW

Hello to Everybody and Happy WOYWW when we get a chance to travel the world looking at each other's workdesks each Wednesday thanks to our hostess at Julia's Stamping Ground.

My photo was taken on Tuesday evening as I clear away most evenings ready for the next day.

I was making a card, following a sketch that I will enter later on today.  I got out a pile of washi paper and chose the pieces I wanted to use.

There are various die cuts around as I wasn't sure which colour of card I wanted to use where.  The card is finished now and it sort of evolved.

To the left are a few quick cards I'd made that need putting away.  The little plastic boxes on the wall are different small embellishments like beads, paper clips and googly eyes used postage stamps. The black plug and lead are for my internet connection.

Most of the stuff along the back of my bench stays in more or less the same place because although it looks a mess I  know where things are.  My pink shoes are on the floor as I keep a pair of pink "crafting" slippers in my cabin!

Have a lovely day everyone.

Tuesday 4 August 2015

Sailing!

Good Morning and thanks for your visit.

I have all sorts of brass stencil that have built up over time.  They include basic brass stencils, cutting, pricking, lace - the list goes on.  So I thought it was time to start using some of them again.

My card today uses a small brass stencil that I embossed onto some white card with my Cuttlebug and tan mat.  Then I rubbed through  using Distress inks with the stencil still in place.

  I rubbed Distress ink round the edge then sprayed all over with a fine misting bottle with water mixed with some mica powder. Unfortunately the mica has made it difficult to photograph but it does give a lovely shimmer to the image.

I mounted the image onto black card and then silver mira card.  The blue embossed and the black card behind were odd pieces that were lying on my desk.  I cut the right hand side of the black card with fancy scissors to indicate waves on the sea and stuck on a few real shells with Glossy Accents.

I would like to enter this card into the challenge on the Try it on Tuesday blog which this time is using stencils.

Monday 3 August 2015

Parchment Sampler (1 of 2)

This is a parchment sampler that I did several years ago.

It is the first large parchment piece I did and took quite a few hours to finish.

I have this up on my wall as a picture and took it out of the frame to photograph as I was unable to photograph it without any reflection from the glass.

Scroll down to see the centre enlarged.

Parchment Sampler (2 of 2)


This is just an enlargement of the centre .



Today I would like to say a big Welcome to Eve who is my new follower.  Perhaps you would like to visit her blog.

This week Eve is helping out Miss Di over at Pixie's Snippets Playground, which is always a fun place to play.


Thank you for calling today.  Please come back again soon.


Sunday 2 August 2015

Little Lovebirds

This is the third card I made on Friday when I went crafting at Loobi Crafts.

The background is two colours of Distress ink then the branch, pebbles, grass and love birds were all stamped onto the background and then coloured with acrylic paints.  The stamps are all by Jofy.

Now for the snippets bit - we were given quite a small piece of white card and the challenge was to stamp the whole house, the roof and the clock all onto the "snippet".

We cut them out, painted with the same acrylic paints and decoupaged onto the front of the card.



I'm going to take this card over to play at Pixies Snippets Playground.