Valentine's Day

Well, here's my offering up to the Valentine's Frenzy!!  Not a great romantic as I said in my previous post and Hubby and I weren't going to bother with cards (see note re 25 years in previous post!).  However how can a card maker not pay homage to this day in our calendar!!  So, made this but it couldn't be twee or cutesy - even though I love this style, OH doesn't.  Followed the sketch (flipped) on Friday Sketchers and also the monochrome colour scheme of one colour and white on the Secret Crafter.  Hope the inking doesn't count, otherwise I have only used Red and White!!  There's also a whole host of Love/Valentine challenges going on at the moment so will enter it for the following:

Friday Sketchers - Sketch

Secret Crafter - One colour and White

Pixie Cottage - Love Theme

Pink Elephant - Mushy Gushy Valentine (who, moi!!)

Everybody Art - Valentine

Cute Card Thursday - Spots and Dots

Ingredients

Stamps - Autumn Leaves - Edge flourishes, Hearts - Penny Black and freebie from Craft Stamper mag

Papers - Basic Grey - June Bug

Sentiment - Tim Holtz Adage Ticket

CB Script embossing folder

Fired Brick Distress Ink

Rest from stash.

 

WOYWW - Where did that week go!!!

I'm back and a bit of a closer look today!!  Been making a Valentine's for hubby, hence the red paper.  However, he hates all the cutsey images and we're not particularly romantic  ( and we've been married for 25years!!).  Anyway, I really didn't enjoy making it  and don't particularly like it- will post it in a minute so you can make your own judgement!!.  In the background you can see a coloured image of Noble Tilda which I just love and have stamped her, using masking onto an Alota Chair which I have yet to decide the colour on and what I'm going to make with it.

  

And a few more shots of my room just to show that it's really quite a jumble! 

An award!!

I received this lovely award from Nic, aka Coops, whose fab work I first got to know over on the DC forum.  Thanks so much for thinking of me!!  For this, I have to tell you about 10 things that make me happy, so here goes, in no particular order, I should say, otherwise Chocolate would be tops!! 

1. Card making

2. Card making stash!

3. Chocolate

4.  My lovelies - Holly, Harry and Emily

5. The Lake District

6. My home

7. Coming home from work on a Friday night!

8. The fab friends I have made because of crafting

9. A good book!

10. A few glasses of wine!!  Hic!!

Now I have to pass it on to 5 lovely blogging friends - only 5?!!  Well, I've whittled it down to the following, but do feel free to grab it for your blog - you all deserve it!! 

1. Lesley

2. Pam

3. Laura

4. Gina

5. Tara

They're all lovely blogging friends!!  

Happy Birthday Kraftin Kimmie!!!

It was Kraftin Kimmie's Birthday this week - Many Happy Returns to you!  It's also her third anniversary of blogging!!  To celebrate Kimmie is giving away some of her delicious stamps if you make a birthday or anniversary card following the card on her blog for inspiration.  Well, here's mine with the gorgeous Yvette from KK's Moonlight Whisper range - I'm such a sucker for these ladies!! 

Yvette seems to be the perfect antedote to these cold and grey wintery days at the moment and the two Happy Spring/Happy Everything  sentiments that came with her sum up the expression on her face completely!!

Ingredients
Stamp - Yvette Kraftin Kimmie
Papers - Basic Grey Two Scoops
Colours - Promarkers/Copics
Punches - MS Garden Trellis, Stampin Up Word Window and Miniature flowers

Sugar Bowl Challenge 28

This is just about one of my all time favourite images and I just don't use it enough!!  So decided to hook it out when I saw the sketch over in the Sugar Bowl this week, with the added requirement of lace.  Lots of distressing and a mad rush to finish it  and here it is.

Had another of my lovely nieces in mind when making this who has always been mad on purple!!

Ingredients:
Stamp - Sugar Nellie Cherub Charity stamp
Colours - Promarkers (including the lace!)
Sentiment - Autumn Leaves
Rosette- Blossom Nesties
Edge Punch - Martha Stewart
Heart Charm - Quixotic Paperie

That't it for now folks, and can I just say a huge thank you for the fab comments I received on my Grey card- I was chuffed to bits!!

WOYWW - Yayyyy Pam!!

I've been threatening to join in WOYWW and here I am, Pam! No cream cakes but a nice cup of tea!!  Looks reasonably tidy for me actually but have just finished a card for The Sugar Bowl which you can just see there and must upload it tonight before the challenge finishes!!

And a closer look as I'm the first to complain if I can't have a good nosy!!!

Just going to upload my card then going to do a tour of other's crafty working spaces - I love doing that!!

It's a Grey Area!

Look at this gorgeous image from Mo's Digital Stamps - I thought she would be just perfect for my niece, Claire, who is cat mad!!  Mo's challenge blog no: 16 has also set the challenge of using shades of grey so I've used just about all of the 15 greys that I have in Promarker colours, together with Grey Green, Shale and a little Slate to give it a little boost!  Friday Sketchers have this gorgeous layout too which was fab to use.

Ingredients:

Stamp - Mo's Digital

Colouring - Promarkers

Sentiment - Cuddly Buddly

Papers - Laura Ashley, Paper Mania

Punches- MS Doily Lace

Flower - Blossom Nesties

Other - Cuttlebug Daisy embossing folder, Pearls from Quixotic Paperie, Ribbon from stash tied with Bow Easy from QP!

Thanks for looking!!

Just Magnolia Hearts and Flowers

I love all the fab embellishing and prettiness of all the cards and projects in the latest edition of Magnolia Ink. There are some absolutely stunning creations, quite mouthwatering!!  So thought I'd have a go, especially as the challenge on Just Magnolia this week is for hearts and flowers.

 I've also used the colour scheme chosen on Colour Create (challenge 37) this week - soft pink and blue, white and silver - how pretty is that!   I've used the Sketch Saturday sketch (week 88) and as The Secret Crafter Satruday Challenge theme is hearts, I'm entering this there too.

Ingredients:
Stamp - Magnolia
Punches - Nesties, Stampin Up
Sentiment - Stampin Up
Papers - Hot of the Press and scraps (woohoo I used some from my scrap box!)
Colours - Promarkers and Copics (for skin)
Flowers - Wild Orchid Crafts
Pearls and Other Embellies from stash (think some of it was from Quixotic Paperie)

Hope I'm not too late!

Evening all, just trying to rush this in for Mo's Digital Pencil Challenge No 18 which asks for the colours white, blue and purple.  The exact colours are shown on the blog, but you can use the nearest ones you have, which I don't think I've done too badly!  The new challenge starts there tomorrow -eek, type faster!!

 Of course, the image is a gorgeous digi image from Mo's and so I'm also going to enter this in Dare You to Digi Stamp challenge 29 that  wants buttons.  The sketch is from Mojo Monday challenge 123 where you have the choice between either a square or round version- I rather like that idea.  Finally, Spoonful of Sugar No 88 says anything goes, so I'm entering it there too!!  Let me know what you think, although I like the individual elements, somehow the finished card isn't what was inside my head!!!

Ingredients:

Image - Mo's Digital Pencil

Papers - Stampin Up, Paper Mania

Punches - Martha Stewart Daisy Edge, Leone Em Pansy,

Flourishes - Quickutz die

Pearls - from Quixotic Paperie

Buttons, ribbon and twine from stash

Cheeky Chester - or the Artful Dodger in my world!!

I love this image of Chester from the latest Moonlight Whisper release from Kraftin Kimmie - he's so cheeky!  He reminds me of  Jack Wild as the Artful Dodger in Oliver Twist - one of my most favourite films from my childhood!  I ws hoping that I could make him look slightly more urchin-like but he does he look as though he could be going to a wedding!!

 

I've used this week's sketch from Pink Elephant, challenge 50  (poops,missed the deadline!)which also fitted in well with the Kraftin Kimmie, challenge 14 brief of no embellishments!! I know, I recoiled in horror too, but then I thought this might be ok for a male card. To offset the lack of decor, I tried to make the papers look interesting, with distressing and layering.  Used my Martha Stewart cornice punch for the outer edges of the central strip then embossed and sanded the inner White Co'redinations strip with the Cuttlebug Happy Birthday folder.  Finally, I produced the sentiment on my PC so it would fit in with my Artful Dodger aspirations!  I'm also going to enter the Stamp Something  Funny Something's challenge which asked for something that makes you giggle or smile - well it made me laugh!!  ( My children always say that I'm the only one to laugh at my jokes!)  The little watch image comes with Chester.  Papers are from Papermania Jessie Edwards set, 7 Gypsies and Basic Grey.

Card for Lesley- and Spoonful of Sugar!

I can upload this now that my friend, Lesley at Grenouille Greetings has had her birthday!   This is Christmas Morning Tilda but think she works for any occasion, especially at this time of year when it's still wintery and the days are dark and gloomy!  I've used Nestie Tag labels for the sentiment and another set of nesties to layer up this little lady - I made four layers out of two two nesties, by cutting them as usual in my bug, then using the same size label and cutting round the outer edge by hand with my craft knife.   I think, therefore, this qualifies for the lots of layering challenge over on A Spoonful of Sugar Challenge this week!!

 I've distressed all the edges of the papers which are a mixture of Cosmo Cricket and Basic Grey.  I've used a Martha Stuart corner punch (from an around the page set), a Stampin Up punch for the little flowers and the retro flower punches from EK Success.  The jute ribbon is from Quixotic Paperie and  rest of the bits and pieces are from stash!

Fabulous Day

I've had the greatest day helping my bestest and oldest (as in how long I've known her, not how old she is!!) friend celebrate her birthday!  Firstly it was great because I had the day off work, but the bonus was that we went to Sandown for a craft fair there!  Then back to Lesley's for an afternoon of crafting and playing with all her lovely stash in her super duper craft room.  I even inked up her new Tilda ( that  I had just given her for her birthday!)  I then finished making the card below which has turned out to my liking - a good day indeed!!

 I haven't  used this Miss Anya before - from the Dressy set and I do love her, she is soooo cute!! Coloured with Promarkers and layered up using K & Co paper, some scraps and the background sheet which is from one of the new colour sets just out from Paper Mania - bought at Sandown!  Sentiment stamp is from   Autumn Leaves.

 

I've used the sketch  (which I've rotated) from this week's Sketch Saturday, so I've got to get this in tonight!! I also had this week's challenge at Passion for Promarkers  in mind which allowed us to use any colours but have a girl theme.

What a great day and there's still two more days of the weekend to go!!!

Quick Last minute card

My daughter needed a 21st card in a hurry and didn't want anything cute!  For some reason she doesn't like any of the Tildas, Moonlight Whispers, Gorgeous Girls or Miss Anyas which I love!!  Anyway, this is just about the first stamp I ever bought which I stamped onto watercolour card and coloured with Distress Inks, as well as distressing the edges with same.  The flourishes are from Autumn Leaves and the sentiment I punched out using Stampin Up oval punches - these are sooooo useful!!!  Ribbon and flowers are from stash. Oh and the background DP is Basic Grey Wisteria.

Think I'm going to enter this into the Quixotic Paperie challenge this week that is asking us to use one of our old stamps - well, you can't get much older than this one!!

Circle Journal Page

This isn't a card but a circle journal page for a swap that I take part in on another forum.  We've been going for just over a year and I have to say it's been a lot of fun!  At the beginning we gave each other a list of likes and dislikes crafting wise, then every six weeks or so made a page for the person we were matched with for that month. 

This is my latest, for Elvie, who likes Paris, glamour, fashion, tags, lace and a few other things you can see I've incorporated!  I do hope she likes it!  The image I've used is a digi stamp from Charmed Cards and Crafts from the Holly and Madison's World Tour set and coloured with promarkers.

First card of 2010 for 4 Challenges

I've been dying to get back into blog challenges again and when I saw the photo  for the Basic Grey Challenge blog this week I found just the inspiration I needed.  This adorable image is Posy from the Moonlight Whispers range at Kraftin Kimmie that I haven't used before (and I bought 2 more of the new release yesterday -fabbie service from Quixotic Paperie as always - next day delivery!!).  I coloured with Promarkers and Copics and used papers from DCWV Garden Stack and Basic Grey.

Sentiment is one of a set from Hero Arts I think!  Oh and I used the sketch from the Double Dutch challenge for this week.  Managed to fit  a further two challenges in - Cute Card Thursday who are asking for something new - the stamp and the Garden Stack papers which I haven't used previously! Finally, the Pink Elephant Challenge is asking for a birthday theme!  Whoo!  Well that's me done!  Thanks for stopping by-do hope you like!

Card for my Em's Birthday - 15!!!

No challenge but still my first card for 2010 - and again it's for my youngest daughter, Emily, who's 15 tomorrow! I stamped the image on watercolour paper with Distress Inks, then masked it and stamped over with the crackle background (Crafty Individuals) with Old Paper Distress Ink. The sentiment is from Autumn Leaves and the papers, which I've distressed are from DCWV Latte Stack. I got this from Quixotic Paperie, as I did the tulle. Rest of goodies are from my stash.

And here's the lovely lady herself, we went up to Oxford Street today and hit the sales for her birthday pressies - she bought this gorgeous little number from Top Shop to wear for a 'party' ( of 10) that she's having at the moment with her friends!! Ain't she just adorable!! Oh to be that slim again- not that I ever was!!

One that nearly got away!

Just remembered that I hadn't taken a piccie of this Xmas card that I made for my youngest daughter!  Final one for 2009 - image is from Paper Artsy, which I water coloured with distress inks and then layered up onto various bits of paper that I had left over - including Basic Grey Eskimo Kisses and K and Co WinterWonderland.

So excited - we've been given complimentary tickets to see the latest Cirque du Soleil show - Varekai - at the Royal Albert Hall tonight.  It's the final dress rehearsal show, but should be fantastic!  Last went to see the Cirque 20 years ago at a special showing with Princess Diana, and William and Harry when they were just little boys!  Think we spent more of the show watching them than the performance!!  How lucky are we - we're all just about to pile into the car!  I'll let you know what it was like!! 

HAPPY NEW YEAR - OFF TO THE LAKES!

Evening friends!  Just wanted to wish you a fabulous, healthy and happy New Year!  We're off to the Lakes tomorrow to see the new year in with my husband's brother and family!  Lots of lovely snow up there so hope we get there ok!  Enjoy your celebrations or a nice quiet night in front of the telly - both sound good to me!  See you in the New Year!