Hearts and Flowers

Hello there,

It was lovely surprise to have a card of mine 'In the Spotlight' for January 16 at 'Try it on Tuesday' when the Design Team chose some of their favourite cards for 2016.  I then had another lovely surprise when I was asked if I would like to be a Guest Designer for one of their challenges and I was thrilled to accept. The challenge is 'Hearts and Flowers' and here's what I've made:

As you can see from the photo below, this little box started out life as a little sewing box.  It's one that I've had a while but haven't got round to decorating it, so this seemed like my perfect opportunity.

 

As Spring is hopefully just around the corner, I decided to use Spring colours.  I thought the best way to approach this was to create my focal image first and then to colour the box afterwards using similar colours.  The image is the 'I love Paris' stamp by Stampendous.  It's one that I've had for a long time but it'd definitely a firm favourite.  I used a little Memento Dandelion in the center and then dusted around the outside with Purple Twilight and Eggplant. I coloured the flowers using a Spectrum Noir pink and the stamped them again a couple of times so that I could decoupage them to give them a little dimension.  I was able to do this as the box is slightly recessed inside and I felt that it gave some depth to the finished project.

I started the outside of the box by giving it a couple of coats of Gesso as a base to add the colour.  I used my Ink Dusters to gently colour the box using Purple Twilight ink. I then used a Tim Holtz Flourish stencil around the base of the box and dusted over it again with Adirondack Eggplant.  

As I've gone for a 'Spring' theme, made some flowers using my Delicate Aster dies and them painted them yellow as a contrast to the purple.  I added some ready made roses and leaves and I used some white Heather to match the lace around the heart.  I chose to use this key as it also has heart shapes on it and I coloured it with gold with gilding wax.

As this is something I've been meaning to do for ages, I'm thrilled with the outcome and I hope that the Design Team at 'Try it on Tuesday' will be too.

Enjoy your day x

Time to celebrate

Hello there,

Here’s a card that I’ve made:

The stamps that I've used came free with a magazine and although I've had them for quite a while now, it's the first time they've been used which also makes them perfect for another one of my favourite challenges...... Darnell's NUBUS challenge.

The stamps were quite simply stamped onto cream card using Versafine Black Onyx.  I then coloured the roses red and went around the edge with a gold pen.  The card looked a little bare when I'd finished so I added some gold corners to the inside just to bring it all together.

This is quite different to my usual style of card making but I'm happy with the end result.

Take care and enjoy the rest of your weekend x

Daisy Daisy

Hello there,

Many thanks for all your kind wishes, both for my birthday and on the birth of our new Grandson.  I had a wonderful birthday and I topped up on some totally unnecessary crafty purchases :) You know what it's like don't you!

I've made a DL card for a change and used one of my favourite Time Holtz Dies, along with some Inkylicious stamps which I stamped in Versafine and then fussy cut out as I wanted to give them some dimension. I'm really into Spring colours at the moment and so I've opted for a purple and lemon combination, with just a touch of Pink in the background. On saying that, I'm not sure that purple is a Spring colour but I still like it :)

Rudolph Day January 17

Hello there,

Here we are with the first Rudolph Day challenge of the year at Scrappy Mo's. 

I'd like to share with you one of the cards that I made to send out last Christmas.

It's one of my favourite stamps by Crafty Individuals and the sentiment is by Inkylicious.  I made some on white card too but I preferred the cream as it gave the card more of a vintage feel.  The image is coloured with Distress inks and the umbrella was stamped a second time, then cut out and stuck on to give a little dimension.  I would usually raise it up more than this but I had to keep it reasonable flat to post it.

It's a fabulous way to keep going with your Christmas cards throughout the year and it's such a friendly challenge, so why not have a go yourself.

Happy Crafting x

Balloon Girl

Hello there,

I hope that you're all managing to keep safe and warm in this chilly weather :)

Just a really quick post from me today as life is quite hectic here at the moment.  I won't be around very much over the next couple of weeks and so I apologise in advance if I don't get to visit you all as often as I usually would.  I'll explain the reason why at a later date and I promise to catch up with you all as soon as I can.

Here's the card that I'd like to share with you today:

Just a very simple card where I've used Brusho colours in the background and  a couple of Inkylicious stamps stamped with Versafine Black Onyx.  

FSC 'Winter or Spring'

Good morning, I hope you're all enjoying a lovely, relaxing weekend.

It's time for a new challenge over at Fashionable Stamping Challenges and the theme this time is 'Winter or Spring' and it was chosen this time by our lovely teamie Carola.

I've been wanting to use my 'Gibson Kids' stamp by Flonz for a while now and this seemed like the perfect opportunity. I decided to make this card using Kraft card as I love how the snowy images just pop. Here's my card:

I started by stamping the Gibson child using Distress Ground Espresso and then masked the image before using a Mountain Valley stencil by Inkylicious, to created my snowy hills,  I used Frost White ink by Colour Box, Ink Dusters and Finger Daubers to do this.  When the hills were finished, I then used VersaMark ink to stamp in varies sizes of Snowy Trees by Inkylicious and then heat embossed them with a white embossing powder. To finish the trees, I painted them in with white acrylic paint and then used Fluffy Puffy Stuff to make them stand out against the snowy background.

To frame the image, I stamped the Twiggy Branch, first in Ground Espresso and then again with the VersaMark before heat embossing with a white powder.

I stamped the sentiment firstly with VersaMark, then heat embossed with white powder before stamping again with the Ground Espresso to create a shadow.

We would love you to join us in this challenge but please remember that we are a stamping challenge, so please don't use digital images or too many die cuts, just good old fashioned stamping.

Birthday Calendar

Hello there,

Well, here we are again at the start of a new year and that means lots of new crafty adventures, how exciting! :)

I'd like to share with you a piece that I've just made.   I hate missing people's birthdays but my memory isn't quite as good as it used to be and so I thought that I would make myself a  Birthday calendar to hang in my craft room. I had printed off some DL monthly sheets quite a while ago but never got round to using them, so these were just perfect for what I needed.

I've only decorated one side at the moment but the plan is to do all four sides eventually so that I can change the cover from time to time.  As this one is mainly Spring colours, I may do the four seasons, so we'll see how that goes. Here it is:

All of the stamps that I've used are new.  I have previously used a smaller version of the Isobelle stamp, but I bought this larger version just before Christmas.  The stamps used are all by Inkylicious, with the exception of the two girls on the film strip which are by Craft Individuals.

I started by tearing strips from the page of a book and then gluing them onto a sheet of stamping paper which I stuck onto cardboard to give it some strength.  Once this was dry, I then used my Ink Dusters to create the background using: Memento Dandelion and Nautical Blue, Distress Twisted Citron and Impress Pale Aqua.

I'm happy with the outcome and I don't have an excuse now to miss any birthdays!

Wishing you all a lovely day and all the very best for 2017 x

Happy New Year 2017

  

2016 was such an amazing and very unexpected crafting year for me.  I had my crafty makes published in two different magazines and I designed cards for Inkylicious that were featured on several different Hochanda shows.  All of this was, and still is, beyond my wildest dreams!

In 2017...........

 May you find your happiness where and when you can, and never take anything, or anyone for granted.  

Life is short and every day is a blessing!