I'm Taking a Short Break .....

Hi Everyone.

I just wanted to let you know I'll be away for the next couple of weeks so won't be posting for a while.

I used the front of an old shop bought card for the background of this quickie and punched the flowers from it too.

I will pop in to see what you're up to  when I get the chance during my break and look forward to being back with you again soon.

Happy Crafting!

Love Barb xx

Friday Smiles

Hello again,

This is a photo I took yesterday evening after bringing in the washing.  The twirly line is in the centre of the picture if you look hard.

When hanging out the washing in the morning both the philladelphus and the tree were absolutely covered in bees collecting pollen.

  It was an amazing sight and made me feel very happy.   Their buzzing was really loud and continuous.

The shrub hasn't been pruned for the last couple of years and is very big.  The scent is absolutely intoxicating right up to the back gate.

I'm popping over to link up with Annie on her Stitch in Time blog where she invites us to join in each Friday with happy moments from our week,

Oldie for Friday - Tears!

Happy  Friday!

and it's time to link up with Erika on her Snappy Crafts blog where she invites us to share an old craft project - it doesn't have to be a card.

Today I'm sharing an ATC which was made quite a few years ago with a foam stamp bought from QVC when Dawn Bibby did her  regular Tuesday craft shows.

Using various pieces of torn paper  I stamped onto paper and coloured the image.  I drew the teardrop and added glossy accents.

I used the same stamp on a card on one of my early blog posts here.

I hope you enjoy your day.

Anniversary Cats!

Good morning and if you have an Anniversary this week Many Congratulations and enjoy your celebration.

I  had several of these small pieces of co-ordinations cards, in various colours,  lying around that I'd previously embossed.  So I decided to use them with some new dies.

I  rubbed them with the sanding block to show the core of the card and added a few jewels.  They were simply mounted onto cards with different twines added and a variety of sentiments stamped in black.

I'm  popping this card over to  join in with Di's Snippets Playground - Week 232

Fancy Fish!

Happy Friday!

So it's the day when Erika of Snappy Crafts blog invites us to link up with her, showing an old craft project which doesn't have to be a card.

Mine today is a card I made a couple of years ago using a Woodware fish stamp.

After stamping I did some tangling and shading and outlined the image with a promarker pen.

I added a little colour to the tail and outside of the card with distress ink and mounted onto an embossed background.

If you join in with Erika and leave a comment she'll visit you in return.

I recently bought the six new stamp sets by Leonie Pujol.  My EZ mount arrived a couple of days ago so I'm off to mount up my rubber stamps.  It's a job I hate almost as much as ironing.

But tomorrow I'm off to Coleman's warehouse demo day with a friend so I'm looking forward to that. I hope you enjoy your weekend whatever you have planned.

Hessian flower

Good Morning to you all and thank you for your visit.

Yesterday I received the  Crayola Slick Stix that I ordered after being fascinated by how Kathy used them with great enthusiasm.  So off I went to have a play.

This is my first project onto a piece of acrylic paper.  I used three of the crayons to colour the paper then blended with a damp babywipe - as per Kathy's instructions.

Then I covered it with white gesso to knock back the colour and when dry added a little more blue and purple.  I did as Kathy often does and used the baby wipe through a stencil to lift off some of the colour.
However when I removed the stencil and saw that I'd not removed enough colour I decided to use a white Sharpie pen to draw swirls to try to highlight the lighter areas.

I have added a hessian flower that I bought a while ago from Poundland and stamped the Hobby Arts sentiment underneath.

My card looked top heavy so I cut off the front, trimmed it down and added the twine then mounted my topper onto an A6 card.

I'll be popping this down the road to a friend later on today in with a box of cards I've made for her fund raising event on Saturday which is for our local Hospice.

Windy!

Good Morning on this wet and Windy spring day!

I used a 6" square kraft card for this one.  The stamps are from two sets of Kidomo red rubber stamps bought from C & C many years ago.

I stamped the background randomly with a leaf stamp..

The trees are stamped and added a little Black Soot distress ink onto a piece of  a balsa wood box. It originally held a Macaroni Cheese ready meal which I enjoyed when my hubby was out for the day recently with friends.

The button and thread are from my stash and the paper and black card were scraps which was lying around on my desk.  I tore the paper to fit and also tore the bottom of the black matt.
I would like to enter my card into the challenge at Shopping our Stash - 4 Elements.  My element is Wind although Earth may also work.  Also Seize the Birthday Challenge - Adding Dimension.

Similar with Snippets

Hello and thank you for visiting today.

This is similar to a card that I made at a workshop last Saturday.

It's a 6 inch square card with the front folded in half to make a fold back card.

The blue paper was stuck onto the right hand side of the card and on the panel on the left.  The patterned paper was matted on top.

Then we made the dimensional decoration on the right hand side.

I'm sure lots of you know how this was done but for those who don't this is what we did.

 We punched out circles from white paper then cut pieces  of blue paper 2.4 cm  square and stuck them into the middle of the circles.  Finally we folded all four sides of the circle in towards the middle and positioned them in place on the card.

The bow was made with a Sue Wilson bow die.  Oops! an unstuck bit on the bottom corner.

I'm taking my card over to Pixie's Snippets Playground - Week 231

Rudolph Day - May 2016

Happy Rudolph Day Everybody
and I'm sorry to be a day late.

On 25th  of each month Mo invites us to join in at her Scraps For Life blog for the Rudolph Day Challenge which lasts until the end of the month.  It's a good way to keep making Christmas cards throughout the year.  Mo very kindly always offers a lovely prize to the winner.

For this one I used a Kanban stamp which I bought from QVC some years ago.  It's not from a Christmas set but I thought if she was wearing a red dress and had some holly in her hair she'd work for the festive season.

She was stamped onto some cream card and coloured with Promarkers.  I did shade her body and arms a little bit but this doesn't show too well in the photo.

 I coloured round the edge of the card with some red distress ink and matted onto black card.

Oh! I also added lots of glitter.  Well you have to add glitter for Christmas, don't you.

Happy Birthday!

Happy Monday to you and I hope the sun is shining there too.

Windows 10 has finally got me by default!  It all happened last night.  Just a few minor changes so far so fingers crossed.

I really couldn't come up with a title for this card so "Happy Birthday" to anyone who is celebrating today.

I  used a piece of white card for the square Marianne die and matted onto black card.

The flowers were diecut from a scrap of  thick white paper that had been previously coloured.  I shaped them on the back with an embossing tool and added a touch of  Inca Gold.

The hearts were punched from the same piece and gilded round the edges.  The gems, button and thread are from my stash and the sentiment punched out with an SU punch.

I'm running straight over to the playground with my card to Pixie's Snippets Challenge - Week 230  and would also like to join in with The Allsorts Challenge - Week 364 "Happy 7th Birthday Allsorts"

Playing with Friends!

Hello and I hope you are enjoying the weekend.

Yesterday I went to a workshop with some friends.  We really enjoyed meeting up with others.

I thought you might like to see one of the three cards we made.

I've not come across this type of card before and it was fun to make although I'm not the best at lining up border punches and there were four layers to punch out on this one.

I always find it easier to stand to punch borders.

Here's how the finished card stands up

Apricot Butterfly!

Happy Thursday Everybody!

I've a couple of busy days coming up so won't be able to join in tomorrow with my usual Friday links.

Tomorrow morning is all boring stuff then we're visiting a friend and on Saturday I'm off to a workshop - hurray!

Today's card was made for Mrs A's Butterfly Challenge blog #55  A for Aperture and Apricot.

Well I began by scratching my head as I had no apricot coloured paper or ink pads.

 However, I have a "never before used"  Adirondak inkpad called Bellini Peach.

I swiped it all over a strip of white card then rubbed over the top with Victorian Velvet Distress ink which gave as near to an apricot colour as I could get.

I stamped an old Glenda Waterman flower randomly over the front of the card with the peach ink pad then cut an aperture using a Spellbinders die.

Next I die cut some printed acetate,  given to me by my friend Jacky,  for the back of the aperture and die cut an oval frame from white card to cover the workings at the back.

The oval frame and base of the butterfly were cut from the card I had previously coloured and the top of the butterfly was cut from a scrap of vellum.  I attached a piece of the printed acetate with brads from my stash.  I rounded one corner and put a blush on ink round the edge of the card to finish.

I would also like to join in at 613 Avenue Create # 176  - "Anything Goes"

Spritzed!

Good Morning Everyone although it's a pretty miserable one here today and to add to the misery I've just finished a pile of ironing ugh!

I have a very quick card to show today.

I sprayed several pieces of white card with Cosmic Shimmer sprays when I had them out a few days ago.

Next I pounced a Ranger Pewter stain on a small area, cut to size and embossed it with an  embossing folder.  Then I rubbed black soot over area of the background and matted onto black card.

The diecut is a Spellbinders and the sentiment is by Paula Pascal which I punched out.

The hearts and flowers were cut from offcuts of the card and the Sparkler and ribbon are from my stash.
I'd like to enter my card into the following Challenge   Fab 'n' Funky #305 "No Designer Papers"

Man's Best Friend

Good Evening
I hope you've had a good day.  We went out for lunch with friends then this afternoon I popped down the road to a friend's house this afternoon.  She's organising a fund raiser for Cancer Research in June and got a group of us doing crafty things .

 We ended  with a cuppa and some delicious cakes that Pam had made and brought along.  Crafting with friends certainly doesn't seem to help my waistline - but it's always fun.

Well my card today was mainly made with bits that were laying on my desk plus ribbon  from my stash and  the two pieces of card candy.  I used the  tiny paw stamp on top.

I used  my new sets of Lawn Fawn Stamps and dies called Dogs in the Park.  I wanted to use my Poppy Stamps speech bubble die so had to mask the sentiment a couple of times to fit as it comes in a straight line.   I drew a few little marks behind the dog's tails to indicate that they were wagging.

I would like to enter my card in the challenge at Cardz 4 Guyz "Man's Best Friend"

Acrylic Paper Daisy

Happy Monday!

First I'd like to say hello and welcome to my new follower Suzana.  Thank you so much for joining me.

My card today was inspired by my blog buddy Sarn.  She'd mentioned acrylic paper several times and made some lovely cards using it.  I asked her about the paper and she gave me some really useful tips.

So being "enabled" I bought some and this is my first go at using it.  The paper has a lovely fine linen surface and I know it's going to be a favourite with me.

I got out my sprays to find that only two were squirting properly so this was made with two Cosmic Shimmer sprays sprayed onto the paper then I swooshed it around on my craft mat.

After drying I painted  white gesso over the top in both directions to dull the colour. stamped the Woodware Daisy then the Hero Arts Old French Writing stamp.

The leaves and flower centre were painted with my Koi watercolour markers then I painted a couple of coats of gesso over the petals.  As the gesso covered up most black stamp lines I used a fine tip micron pen to draw sketchy lines on the flower petals.  I finished with a blush of purple ink round the edges of the white 6 inch square card

It was great fun to do and I was pleased with the result so glad I've lots more paper to play with.

I'd like to enter my card into the following challenges A Bit More Time to Craft #20  and Seize the Birthday Challenge  "Colouring" and Delicious Doodles "April Showers Bring May Flowers"

Furry Friends!

  I made these cards a couple of weeks ago using a stamp and embossing folder which were freebies with a magazine.  I water coloured the images and coloured the insides of the embossed daisies with a yellow Sakura gel pen.  The yellow and orange card and pieces of lace and ribbon are all snippets and the flowers are some that happened to match from my bits jar.

I am taking my cards over to Di's Snippets Playground Week 229.   I hope it won't matter that it's two cards but I photographed them together and as they've already been posted I couldn't take another.      I would also like to enter my card into the Alphabet Challenge F for Furry Friends.                                                                                                                                                                 

Times Gone By!

Hello and I hope you are all enjoying the weekend.

First I would like to give a very warm welcome to my new follower Pauline.  Many of you will know Cotnob from her beautiful cards in magazines we read.

I made this card for a male friend last year and thought it would be just right for the Allsorts Challenge blog Week 363 which this time is Vintage.

My background is a Stamps Away mask which was embossed onto white card then coloured with Distress inks and spritzed with water.

I coloured the ribbon with distress ink.   The image is an old cigarette card given to me by my Hubby when he was having a clear out.

The sentiment is one by Paula Pascal which I cut out with a Marianne die.

I used black card for matting and stuck it all onto a 6 inch square card then inked the edge with Distress ink too.

Oldie for Friday

As it's Friday I'm back for a second time ....


I'm linking this card to Erika's Snappy Crafts blog where every Friday she invites us to show any  craft item that we made some time ago.

Well I can't remember exactly when this one was made but I think the stamp is by La Pashe.

It is coloured with promarkers and chalks for the background which I don't use very much now.

I put glossy accents on the "glass" pieces and the sentiment is from a Hobby Arts set of sentiments.

I know - I shouldn't have left it hanging!

Happy Friday 13th Everyone!

Friday Smiles

Happy Friday Everyone!

Last week my Hubby had a special Birthday and so we had our special friends to stay for five days to help us celebrate.

This is the card from their youngest son and his family.  I don't think Sue would have chosen this card  hehe! so it's a jolly good job we love Steve!

The week was mainly hot and sunny and we got out and about quite a bit.

We spent a day in Cambridge where we had a punt ride on the River Cam with a wonderful commentary by the young man who did all the hard work.  In the evening eight of us went out for a delicious meal.

On Friday we spent the day in Coventry.   We visited the Cathedral, which is really beautiful and the Transport Museum.

The museum has recently been updated.  They have some beautiful old cars including Queen Mary's Daimler and lots of old bicycles and an amazing collection of Penny Farthings.

We ended our trip there with a ride on an amazing 4D simulator that took us on a land speed record attempt where the car actually broke the sound barrier (760mph)!!  Even though in reality I was just sitting in a theatre (with moving seats) the ride was really scary - but very exciting!

I'm linking up with Annie on her Stitch in Time blog where every Friday she invites us to join in to share things that we have enjoyed during the past week.

Two Tepees

Hello and thank you for popping by today.

It was my turn to do the demo at our club last night so I'd spent the last few days putting together fourteen kits..

I decided to do tepee cards with the girls as none of them had made them before and everyone seemed very happy with the cards they made.

These are the two samples I took along.  You may have seen the first card before as I did this sample some time ago when planning what to do. The kits were in this style although paper colours varied and everyone cut out and coloured their own cupcakes.

Although they are quite simple to make the shape makes them a bit different and they don't need much decoration.  They are useful for using up scraps too.

I hope you enjoy the rest of your day.