Smiles on Friday

Happy Friday!

I hope you have had a good week.  I've  certainly had a busy one.

I've been out crafting with friends,  out for lunch twice a visit from the hairdresser  who really is a friend after 10 years and hubby,s cousin came for a visit.

On Wednesday  I  was both surprised and delighted to find that  I  had won  some Tim Holtz stencils on Rachel,s blog.

I've  been having a play and this is my first card using them, together with one of Tim's Crazy Birds.  I know my new stencils are going to get lots of use.

I,m going to the craft show at Stoneleigh on Sunday with a friend.We,ve arranged to meet up there with two blog buddies I've never met before so  I'm  feeling quite excited.

I,m linking up with Annie on her Stitches in Time blog  where we share what made us smile during the week.

Deco Ladies

Good afternoon and I hope you're enjoying a sunny day too.

I'm posting two cards that I made this morning using the same technique as my previous post.

The stamp is one borrowed from a friend.  Isn't she beautiful.  It's an old rubber stamp but I'm afraid I don't know what it is.

The papers are freebies from Magazines.  The blue paper, although really bright looks fine underneath the vellum.

I'm off to do a bit more crafting now until teatime.

Spotlight Vellum!

Good Evening and thank you for your visit.

My card today was made using a technique which I saw on Karen's blog here  .  I think it would work really well with a bouquet of flowers in place of the lady.

The whole image was stamped onto a piece of vellum and the outside of the frame coloured on the back.  Next time I think I will heat emboss the image.

I stamped the image a second time onto a scrap of white card and fussy cut only the lady.  After using a quickie glue pen on a few places on the front of the image I  stuck her onto the back of the vellum, being careful to match it with the image on the front.

The piece of  background paper is quite a strong yellow colour which is diffused by the vellum on top.  It came in a pad as a freebie with a magazine a long time ago.

  After putting adhesive on the back of the lady I laid the vellum down onto the paper and stuck it in place and trimmed the vellum to fit.  I stitched the top of the vellum to the card with some stitching and finished off by adding a few details on the front image with a gold gel pen.

I'm joining in with my card at Pixies Snippets Workshop Week 248  and also
Craft Your Passion Challenge 331 - Anything goes
Crafting from the Heart #129 - Anything Goes

September - Rudolph Day

Good Morning Everybody.  I hope you're having a good weekend.

Yesterday I went out crafting with friends and it's a quiet day for me today.

Here's my card for the September Rudolph Day Challenge  at Scrappy Mo's Scraps of Life blog.  Every month from 25th to the end of the month  Mo invites us to share a Christmas card.  Mo generously offers a lovely prize to the lucky winner.

As time's getting on I decided to batch make some Christmas cards last week.  Here is one using a Sizzix stamp and matching embossing folder.

I bought the set in their sale a year or two ago and this is the first time it's been used.

Enjoy the rest of your day.

Such a Gent

Hello and Welcome

Today I'm sharing a 'floating' card.  I used pieces of Stampin Up papers onto a 6" square kraft card.

The centre section on the front is cut out and the top and bottom held together with a topper.

I used a Woodware stamp set which included all three sentiments.

I rubbed Distress ink round the edge of the cut paper and the image panel.

It really was a very quick card to make.

I would like to enter my card into the September Challenge of Stamping Sensations - One for the Boys

Just in Time!

Good afternoon and thank you for your visit

This is a card which I made a few weeks ago when I was crafting with a friend.

We used black archival ink to stamp various images onto scraps of paper to make some quick cards.

On this card I used a white gel pen to add a few highlights and just one gem and a piece of lilac coloured ribbon.

I'm very late but would like to join in on Mrs As blog in her Butterfly Challenge #62 - L is for Letters/Lilac.  It's just the lilac this time.

Front Fold Card

Hello and Thank You for visiting ...

I've found  this in draft from several months ago so it's time to post  it now I think.

First I would like to welcome my latest follower Kate . Her blog is called Kate's Adventures where she writes about her life in Spain.  There are often lots of lovely photos and it's always an interesting visit.

We have a small craft group which meets in our village chapel once a month.

The person who had planned to do the last demo was unable to come so  Jacky and I needed to come up with something at short notice.  We decided on front fold cards and got to work sorting out our papers and stamping flowers leaves and decorations for the girls to colour and cut out.

 As samples Jacky made a Christmas card which looked really pretty with patterned paper on just the front panel and folded strip and baubles for the decoration.  It  worked really well and looked lovely.

This is my card made with  paper from my stash and Stampin Up flowers, stamped, coloured with zig markers then shaped.  I added some  stickles to the centres.  All the flowers, leaves and hearts were made from scraps of white card.

The girls made some very pretty cards and we all enjoyed our evening together as we always do.

As I used lot's of Snippets I'm joining in at Pixie's Snippets Playground Week 247 with this one although it was made some weeks ago.

An 'Oldie' Pear

Good Morning on a very wet day here in the east Midlands.

My card today was made quite a few years ago using a red rubber cling stamp which was stamped onto white card and then coloured in with Promarkers.  I stamped again and coloured one pear which was fussy cut, shaped and added with silicone glue for dimension.

I rubbed distress ink around the edge and stamped off a little on the background too.

The sentiment is by Paula Pascal and stamped onto a scrap of card which had been coloured with tea then I diecut with a small Marianne die.

I didn't realise when I made this how ragged the black matt was... oops!

As it's Friday I'm joining in with Erika on her Snappy Crafts blog where she invites us to share any craft  project from way back.  It doesn't have to be a card.   Link up with Erika and she'll visit you too.

I hope you all have a good day and enjoy your weekend, whatever your plans.

Happy Scrapping!

Good Morning and thank you for your visit today.

I've recently been having a play with Brushos again and the results I get really are very mixed!

Anyway I had two small pieces lying in a pile of scaps on my desk and yesterday afternoon  decided to use them up.

I rounded the corners and black embossed the flower stems then using the same Paper Artsy set stamped and layered up the flower heads.

The black pieces were also scraps which I embossed and the sentiment is from an Inky Doodles set.

After sticking all the pieces to the white cards I realised I'd got a smudge of red ink on the bottom of one card.   After just a few expletives and not to be beaten I rounded the corners of the card and added a blush of red around the edge to cover up the smudge.

It's our monthly craft club this evening so I look forward to seeing what we'll be making.

Enjoy the rest of your day.

A Male Snippet!

I came back from a short break on Thursday so yesterday  after getting the washing finished  managed a bit of crafty time in the afternoon.

Some time ago Wendy got us making cards for men at our monthly club using images cut from magazines.

Yesterday I made a few Christmas cards plus this card using snippets of card and paper and an image cut from a magazine.

The border is a scrap of silver miri card embossed in my Cuttlebug, rubbed with a sanding block then rubbed over with a black stazon ink pad.

I'm taking it over to join in with the playmates at Pixies Snippets Playground - Week 246

A Late - Oldie on Friday

I'm a bit late but just managed to sort out an Oldie for Friday.

 I wanted to join in with Erika on her Snappy Crafts blog where she invites us to share a craft item of any sort which was made some time ago.

I have often thought of having a go at a journal page but still never taken the plunge but I did make this card a couple of years ago with journaling in mind ...

I used a piece of card that had been used to wipe up paint from my mat.  I painted the hearts and leaves but only added a little shading to the vase as I liked the mottled effect.

I scribbled round the sentiment with a gold gel pen and doodled quickly round the edge.

I've no idea what the stamp is but it's not been used since.

Smiles this Week

Good Morning Smilers!

 We arrived home yesterday afternoon after a lovely holiday in Dorset spent with friends.  The last of the washing is now blowing away on the line.

Having watched every series of the Monkey World programmes on the television and feeling we almost knew both the animals and keepers I was keen to visit the rescue centre.  So that was the reason for our holiday which was booked a few weeks ago.

Our friends Pat and Allan  drove from Essex and we met up at the lovely B&B we had chosen.

When it was time to come home we all agreed we'd had liked another couple of days.  The weather was great and Dorset is a beautiful part of the country which I'd not visited since childhood.

The photo of the ring tailed lemur was taken at Monkey World and the second photo is me feeding swans at the Swannery on Tuesday.

I didn't worry about my diet and enjoyed some delicious meals, several big glasses of red wine and an ice cream each day.  I've put 4lbs back on but am now back on track and sure that will soon be off

I'm linking up with Annie on her Stitch in Time blog where she invites us to share our Smiles of the Week every Friday.

Have a lovely Weekend Everybody!