Basic Grey and CES challenges do Lili of The Valley!

Did you enjoy watching the Royal Wedding yesterday?  We did, thought everything about it was wonderful and an extra day off work too!! 

For my cards today, I'm continuing with the romance theme and have made two engagement cards that I needed to make, both using these luvverly LOTV images.

My first card is for the next challenge at CES challenges and our wonderful Vicky has chosen this gorgeous piccie to use as inspiration:

Isn't that a gorgeous room!

I've coloured the image with Promarkers and  Copics and just paper-pieced the parcel she is sitting on with a piece from the Webster's Pages set (Spring/Yacht/Country) that I have used for the rest of the card. Yet more Webster's that are to die for and can be bought at Emma's on line store here.

I said you'd be seeing some more of these ribbon roses!  Here I've made them with white seam binding that I've coloured with my promarkers to tone in with the papers - so easy!!  The leaves were made from a Marianne Poinsetta die that I cut into individual petals as they look just like leaves.

The sentiment is from LOTV, the bracket punch is from EK success and the dies are Nesties. 

As always, Emma is offering a £10 gift voucher to spend in her store so hope you can join us this week.  Also check out the awesome cards made by my teamies at CES Challenges- wow!!

 

The next card is for the new challenge over at Basic Grey challenges which has been set by the fabbie Sandie and she wants to see Charms on your card.



I've used another little LOTV image - these are just so sweet, coloured with Promarkers and Copics, and then layered up with a new Flourish Nestie and then onto this lush paper from the Curio 6x6 pad. 

I didn't want to do much more than that as it would hide this gorgeous paper so just used this little heart connector charm (from Crafty Emma's, as are the gems). More ribbon flowers and that was it!!

Our regular sponsor at Basic Grey is offering the great prize of a $25 voucher to spend with them, and that of course is Simon Says:



Don't forget that you have to use a Basic Grey product to join in with the challenge (and remember to point it out to us!).  Those awesome girls on BG Challenges have got  some fabulous cards to share with you so don't forget to check them out.

I'm entering both cards into the current Lili of the Valley Challenge which is Love is in the Air.

That's all from me for now, the sun is shining here, hope it is where you are and that you have a fab day!

A new card, a dead newt and three stitches!!!

This is the card I was making yesterday afternoon, when Holly came rushing up the stairs calling me to come out into the garden pronto!!  Got out there to see hubby standing there covered in pondweed with blood pouring down his face!!  Apparently he'd been playing tennis with Holly and her cousins when he overreached backwards to get the ball and fell in the pond!!!  So it meant a trip up to A&E where he was very proud to get his first ever stitches at the age of 50!!  He then came home and finished off some grouting in his mum's bathroom!!  What a trouper eh!!  Sadly, we think the shock caused one of our newts to die!!  Holly got all excited as she thought she had given it the kiss of life and revived it but then realised it was it's mate looking all folorn!!  We're never short of excitement in our house!!

Anyway back to my card, which I've now finished!

I sneaked a stamp of this gorgeous little Hanglar from matey Lesley when I went to play on Saturday!  LOVED colouring her!!  Followed the sketch over on Just Magnolia as drawn by my wonderful matey, Dena - great sketch Mrs C!!

Tried to take a few arty shots of my card in the garden but struggled with shadow etc - I am no photographer!! 

My papers are from a DCWV 12x12 pad, Vintage Blue.

A little bit of lilac from the garden laid artfully in front and voila!!



Sketch N Stash challenge no 60 - pick a Sketch time!

Hello - Mrs Lazy Bones here, on Bank Holiday timing so still in my dressing gown.  Nice to think  it's a three day week at work and then another four days off - thanks Will and Kate!!

Back to the task at hand and our latest challenge at Sketch N Stash - and it's pick any one of the sketches from the last 60!!  It was lovely for me, not having been on the team very long, to go back and pick from all the fab layouts.  I also noted a few others to use when I need  one.   By the way, I loved all your cards using my sketch last week - thanks so much for using it and playing along with us!

For my card for this week, I chose sketch number 21,  as below, but rotated it to better suit my image.

I used this darling little image from Whiff of Joy and then layered her up with Daisy Bucket and Stampin Up papers are my 'had for ages' stash.  The tag die that she is cut out from is a new die set, I think from Go Kreate, that I bought at Ally Pally a couple of weeks ago.  I've also made a ribbon flower - which was a first for me, sure you'll be seeing a lot more of these as it was so easy to do!! 

Finally a pic from the side - have to confess to not being entirely happy with this card - I think it's because the image is a bit overpowered by the big flower and ribbon.

 Do go and take a look at the makes that my fabby teamies at Sketch N Stash have made- they've done themselves proud, (as always!).  We also have a great prize - this yummy Joanna Sheen stamp, so pick a sketch from our great selection and come and play with us!! 

 

 Catch you later!

Happy Spring, Happy Easter.

Wow, wasn't it the most gorgeous day here in the UK yesterday!!  We managed to get our three to come out for a walk (with the promise of a pub lunch afterwards!), and we went to the Banstead Blubell woods - fabulous!!  Even saw a deer casually stroll across the path in front of us - just like mine in my card today!  Hope you're enjoying the Easter break whatever you're up to - just make the most of this glorious early sunshine!!

We're celebrating Spring this week at CES challenges, the theme as chosen by our wonderful Sue on the DT.  We want to see a springlike theme to your card or an image that reflects Springtime.  Emma is offering a £10 gift voucher as the prize this week ( ex P&P) and she also has a 10% off Easter sale this weekend - so pop on over to the store to grab your 10% and perhaps choose what you'd like if you win!!

I decided to go with watercolouring this week and used a mixture of my distress inks and Aquamarkers to colour my image!  Still need to practise watercolouring as it's a little messy but think that may be ok as the whole feel is a bit soft and blurry round the edges with these fabulous Prima Flora papers!  Most of the stuff I've used is from Emma's store - the WOJ image, Papers, Daisy Flowers, charm, card candy and Baker's Twine!!

I didn't have the right shade in my stash of seam binding for the ruffled strip that I've used so coloured up a piece of white with my Promarkers!  May only buy white from now on as this was so easy!!!

I'm joining in with the Whiff of Joy challenge which has a recipe of 3 buttons, 2 papers and one ribbon.  Hope my papers count as two - although they are both from the Prima Flora pad they are two separate designs.

I'm off to spend a day at matey, Lesley's for a day of card making so I'd better get my self dressed and decide what goodies I'm going to take to play with (although Lesley has just about everything I could wish for!!). 

Have a wonderful day yourselves.

Colour Create Challenge 69

Time for another challenge at Colour Create and this fortnight's challenge has been set by our lovely Liz who chose this beautiful vase to inspire you!

Your colours are Pink, Blue and Brown with the optional extra of acetate or cracked glass effect.

I picked up this gorgeous LOTV image at Ally Pally a couple of weeks ago and duly coloured her in, intending to use  UTEE to give that cracked glass effect, - bought eons ago but never used!  I heated up the first layer and thought, hmm that's a little cloudy but perhaps it'll get better once I've done the three layers ....NO!  It just got more and more opaque and yes, you've guessed it my Utee is Pearl and not clear!!  So it was back to the drawing board, coloured in the image again, used a Crafty Individual crackled background stamp ( having masked my coloured image) and then added glossy accents for a glass effect, sort of!

 You can just make out the shine in this picture!  Papers are K & Co, the flowers are from Crafty Emma's and Wild Orchid, and the sentiment is Cat's Life Press.

Those fab gals that make up the Colour Create team have got some gorgeous cards to share, so nip on over and enjoy here.

I'm hoping that my hectic time at work is over now, year end is finished and the mad rush to get everyone paid early before Easter is done.  Four days off, three on, then four off again -  hurrah - time for me and for me to get in some blog-hopping!!

 

Double whammy day - CES and Basic Grey Challenges

Morning folks - Saturday thank goodness and lie-in day!  Off to see my Marks and Spencer girlies today!  We all started work at about the same time at the M&S Head Office that used to be in Baker Street London.  We were in Menswear distribution in the early eighties and we had to manually decide where to send stock ( I was in Men's jumpers!!) depending on the amount available, and the size and the sales of the store.  No computers for us then!!  This was in the days when the stores had those long counters with the stock folded up and displayed in piles!!  Now, nearly thirty years later and a dozen children between us we still get together every few months for lunch and an afternoon of chat and chocolates at one or other's house!  Today's extra special as we're all going on a girlie trip to Italy at the end of May to celebrate a special birthday for Sue, so looking forward to deciding on the final arrangements!!  

I've digressed!!  So onto the cards for two challenges that start today, Basic Grey challenges and CES challenges.

This is my card for our next challenge at Basic Grey and the theme, as you can see is Easter.  You can make any sort of project as long as it has an Easter theme in there somewhere and you use a Basic Grey product!  I've gone with papers from the Curio  6x6 pad - beautiful toned papers!!  I've also used this darling image from Whiff of Joy and a Nestie Bloom die for the image and a Tim Holtz die for the flourishes.

The daffodil is home made - I followed a great little tutorial by Joanne at Mainly Flowers here - she makes the most wonderful flowers and has lots of great tutorials scattered through her blog.  ( Joanne is also a Stampin Up demonstrator and gives me my fix of these goodies every so often!)

Hope you can join us again for the next fortnight - you could win the $25 voucher to spend at Simon Says, our regular sponsor!!

And as ever, my teamies at Basic Grey have got some fabulous Easter themed cards to share with you so go and have a peek!

On to my CES card now, and I seemed to have used the same colour combo or near enough!  Funny how that goes, where I seem to make two or three cards on the trot that are similar in shade.  This week at CES we have a sketch for you as designed by our lovely mummy - to - be Emma!! Congratulations again lovely lady!!

Emma was also surprised by Paula at Pollycraft who created this fab new Ronnie image to be sold in aid of Emma's efforts to raise funds for the Yorkshire Air Ambulance. He is lovely, isn't he!!

I used him for my card this week, coloured with PMs and used Basic Grey Wander 6x6 papers - all available at Crafty Emma's store here.  (I've also just ordered a rainbow full of some gorgeous new sparkly gems that Emma has in store - I have magpie tendencies - anything that glitters!).

 I've also used some Kraft paper from the Basic Grey Basics pad in this colour combo, the thread is Stamping up as is the journal edge punch

The buttons are from stash.

The CES girlies have made a great set of cards to share with you, many of them using this image - it's amazing how different images can look in the hands of different crafters.  Emma is offering a £10 voucher(excluding p&p) to the lucky winner, so come over to the challenge blog and play along with us!

Phew, I got there and you did too!!  Off to jump in the shower now - have a wonderful day!!

SKetch N Stash new sketch

Oh how I hate Mondays, especially after such a lovely, sunny weekend.  Went to Ally Pally yesterday too which was brill! Not too busy - I think the beautiful weather kept a lot of people away but I did manage to meet up with my lovely DT buddie from CES challenges, Claire, so that was nice.  As usual, my partner in crime, was best matey Lesley - always great company!!

Anyway back to my card for Sketch N Stash and it's my turn to provide the sketch - that's a first!!   And as it's my first, I've made it very simple:

This is my card using this fabbie Moonlight Whispers girl from the recent 50's style release. 

The paper is from my stash - goodness knows who by, it's been in there ages.  I've used a couple of Martha Stewart punches and card candy - some topped with nail head toppers for a bit of extra something or other!! The sentiment came with the image!

As always, the  girls over at Sketch N Stash have got some wonderful cards to share with you, so do go and have a nosy!!  Our regular sponsor, Simon Says, is with us this week, so hope you like my sketch enough to join us!

Time to finish getting ready for work now, so see you later.

CES Challenge - Monochrome!

I'm a little later posting this - made this really late too, went to bed late last night, couldn't sleep, went to bed even later and have got up late this morning!!

But the sun is shining and I'm going to sit in the garden a little later!!

As it says in the title, we're going monchrome at CES Challenges as set by our fabbie teamie Shell. 

Well. I hope this works -  I've used shades of pink?  Tilda is in hot pink and the papers are from the Prima Melody 6x6 paper pad.  Had this idea to make a little scene using these two Tim Holtz dies - his rickety house and picket fence.  My idea was that  by using the dark pink paper from the Melody pad it looks like the house is silhouetted in the background.  The background paper  with this gorgeous border is from the same pad which just needed trimming back slightly to fit the card blank. (Actually that really annoys me that card blanks are never quite the 6x6 they claim to be and you therefore have to trim off some of the fab edging detail that a lot of the scrummy pads have now.) 

I popped her on the bench, also a Magnolia stamp, then added a few flowers and dew drops, also from Emma's store, (as well as the papers and promarkers).  Not too sure that I've got the sentiment right - a Stampin Up  stamp directly onto the paper.  Think it looks a bit small and maybe could have been with being a bit more layered or something.

Those awesome ladies that are my teamies at CES challenges have made some gorgeous monochromatic creations in just about every colour of the rainbow, if that makes sense!  Emma is  offering a £10 voucher to spend in her store for the lucky winner this week so hope to see your fab cards joining in our challenge!

Enjoy your day and enjoy the sunshine if you have it - I'll catch up with you LATER!!