I'm back!

Afternoon all, wow I can't believe it's been nigh on 3 weeks since I blogged but this is the first free weekend we have had for about 5 weeks!
 Our Rock choir concert was a great success and we even had an encore:) We are on a break now and will be back singing in September.
We have been so lucky with the weather it was amazing down in Devon and of course ate and drank too much! Last weekend we were back down in Portsmouth again with great weather for picnics and bbq's:)
Anyway back to crafting of which I haven't done a lot and only have one project to show you which is a thank you box card that I made to send to our friends in Brixham, come and see:

I used Craftwork cards Harbour paper pad to cover the box and cut out some of the elements for the pop up effect. Had to use this pad it's so beautiful and of course it was off to Brixham:)

The only other thing I've been doing is a couple of scrapbook pages with photos of who else but Charlie:

I hope to be back with a card for this week's Less is More challenge and next Saturday we have another wedding and I have a card to show you then:)

Once again I'm sorry for my lack of commenting but I have been checking out your blogs and normal service will be resumed as soon as possible!!!

Happy birthday Kylie!

                             
Afternoon all just a quick post to show a digital card I made for the wonderful Kylie, owner of Addicted to Stamps and ACAS challenge blogs, whom I'm sure you're all familiar with :) I was one of Kylie's original DT and was delighted to meet her for lunch, along with several other blogging friends, when she was in London earlier this year.
Apologies Kylie for it being digital but it's been a bit hectic and I'm getting ready for going away again tomorrow inbetween watching the Wimbledon Men's final!

Lots of friends have been posting cards on Loll's blog for Kylie's birthday celebrations so pop over and check out some amazing creations!

I will be checking on your blogs while I'm away but may not get time to comment so please forgive me:)

Catch up!

Hello everyone I'm just popping in to say hello and to say sorry for not commenting on your blogs but we got back yesterday from a few sunny days in the IOW and are off again on Monday to the south west for a week!
The weather was very good to us and we had a great time with Charlie and too much to eat and drink:)
I am busy practising for our big concert on Saturday as I didn't have an opportunity to do any while we were away, it might have scared off the locals!!
Monday we are off to Somerset to stay for a couple of days with Karen and then on to Brixham for 5 days to friends who have a lovely bungalow, high up overlooking the harbour and Torbay. I'm looking forward to sitting on the terrace with a glass of wine, hopefully the weather will be kind to us:)

Thought I'd share a couple of photos from the IOW, well you didn't expect me not to, did you?

Strangely all my photos bar a couple seem to be of Charlie and I took over 70 :o)

Setting a precedent!!

Hello everyone, well I think I'm setting myself a record by posting 4 days running! But while I was creating the last card I came across another stamp that I wanted to use for the LIM challenge, come and see;

This lovely hibiscus stamp is from a very old SeeDee set called tropical that I came across last night. Karen bought me 9 sets years ago and the happy birthday set is one I go to regularly and I hadn't looked at this set for ages but realised it had a grunge type stamp in it, result!! and a lovely sentiment font. I stamped using grey versafine and used Su inks on an acrylic block and added them with a water brush.

Off to relax again in the garden, strange how having been retired for 4 years I still enjoy the weekends:)

Ooh just found out my last tag with the mermaid on is in the hall of fame over at the Q&Lchallenge:)

Less is More week 177-theme

Help I'm on a roll, 3 posts in 3 days, I think I may have sunstroke!!

Well it's Saturday and time for a new Less is More challenge and this is what the team want:

Our challenge is to use

WATERCOLOUR

It doesn't have to be a complete work of art (although we know that many will be just that), but if you could  include water when adding colour to your project that would be wonderful.

There are many watercolour stamps around, where colour is added directly to the stamp  rather than adding colour to an outline image. Distress Inks can be used, watercolour pencils, background washes whatever your imagination dictates.

Please remember to keep it CLEAN & SIMPLE and don't forget that
WHITE SPACE

I have used a Jenny Mayes sketchy stamp, stamped with grey Versafine and watercoloured with DI's. I stamped a strip of card with the grey ink and left it without colour. The sentiment is an old SeeDee one and the topper was diecut with a spellbinders die.

I have another stamp ready to use so I may be back sooner than you think!!

I've had a very relaxing day swinging on the garden sofa reading my book:)

Q&L challenge

Well there you go no posts for ten days and then 2 in two days! This time it's my tag for the latest Craft Barn challenge and the two words they gave us are PROUD and VINTAGE. Again I am going with lyrics rather than quotes and I suppose the most obvious song was Proud sung by Heather Small at the 2012 Olympics.
We sing this a lot at Rock Choir but the first song that came into my  head was Proud Mary by Creedence Clearwater Revival which was a huge hit in my youth, January 1969 to be precise:) You can hear it here.
Once more I've used Craft Artist to create my tag as I find it's the easiest way to print my lyrics, come and see:

I couldn't find  a song with both words in but the paddle steamer on my tag is very vintage;)

The weather is set fine for the weekend so enjoy.

Less is More week 176-one layer

Evening all, gosh it seems ages since I posted a card but the days have just whooshed by, as Darnell would say :)
Last week I was busy practising for our show at the Highgate summer fair which was a great success. We were very well received, a large audience and lots of people coming up afterwards saying how much they had enjoyed our set :) We are busy practising again now for our big concert on July 5th at St Mary's uni in East London.
Tuesday I had a dental appointment as a crown had fallen out and I was a bit worried that my wisdom tooth was loose.Anyway to cut a long story short I am now minus two teeth!!! A complete medieval practice but it didn't hurt and have not been in pain since although I had to have a couple of days on baby food! Back to normal today.
This week's challenge over at Less is More is as follows:

Once more it's One Layer Card time and

 the title of our challenge is 

OFF THE EDGE

I used some old SU two step stamps but I don't know the name and the reeds from the Wetlands set. The sentiment and dragonfly are from a SeeDee set. The lighting wasn't good so I've shown two photos as the dragonfly with the glitter looks a totally different colour!

I've been busy playing with Craft Artist and making some scrapbook pages of Charlie using an out of the frame technique which is cool, come and see:

I also made a card for Dom to give Jim for Father's day and as he is into his shed and gardening I went with this:

I had a beach chalet stamp and used it to create the shed adding the side to give perspective and embossed it for texture. This is where the SU hardwood stamp would have come in useful :) The wall is a TH ef.

Sorry for the overlong post I should have told you to settle down with a cuppa or a glass of vino:)

Ooh and I nearly forgot, I was showcased this week at Less is More, so exciting!! 

See you all soon

A LIM card using NBUS!!

Hi everyone from a very hot and sunny London:) It's got very cloudy now and we are forecast some light rain this evening but the rest of the week looks fab! I hope it lasts for Saturday as we are singing at a summer fair in Highgate and I don't like getting wet!
Anyway back to my card which I am entering in two challenges this week, the first being Less is More, come and see:

For our Colour Challenge this time we have

The colours in your bedroom!

 That should give you the chance to work with colours you love!

 My bedroom is taupe and turquoise and I have used a NBUS stamp set from Artemio. I used an SU punch to create a partial aperture and then punched out the whole flower and added a WOW sentiment.

There is a new challenge on the block originating from Darnell of the fabulous djkardkreations and it is to make a card using at least one NBUS which is her acronym for "never before used schtuff ". The theme is Anything goes but with friendship in mind. Although my card doesn't have friend on it it is for a friend's birthday next month. Do pop over and check out the criteria and the wonderful cards that Darnell creates. There are prizes to be won as well:)

Q&L challenge

Hi there, wow what a beautiful day we've had, perfect temperature and a lovely breeze:) if only this would continue for the next 3 months!
I'm in plenty of time this fortnight for the Craft Barns's Q&L challenge where the words are MOUNTAIN and MISTAKE. Lots of choice for lyrics with mountain in them but I've gone for a song by Savage Garden that I hear a lot in the car, come and see:

I created the background in Craft Artist and cut out the mermaid, added some glitter to her tail and popped her up with pinflair. I inked the edges and used a swirly stamp to over stamp for more depth. I stapled the ribbon on for a change:)

If you aren't familiar with the song you can check it out here.

Hope you all have a good weekend with some sunshine!

Less is More week 174-Lucky dip

Evening all and I'm back with a card or rather two for this week's challenge over at Less is More:

As it is another 5 Saturday month we have another Lucky Dip Challenge.

Our Guest this month is 

Margaret K 

well known to so many of your for her fabulous cards.

Our challenge for this time's Lucky Dip is to use 

MORE THAN ONE STAMP

It seemed such a simple challenge but I hate too much choice:) Just think how many stamps we own and then to choose more than one but with no theme to inspire, OMG Chrissie don't do this to me!!!
Anyway having calmed down my first idea is my 2nd card but I'm not that happy with it as the idea in my head didn't seem to translate to the card so I had to resort to my favourite stamp set SU's Everything Eleanor. I was inspired by a card I saw on Rosie's blog ( amazing cards ) using this set and so this is my CASE of it, come and see:

Stamped with SU Soft Suede and Marina Mist and the label and flowers are popped up on foam pads. Sentiment is a WOW one.

The freebie stamp this month from Craft Stamper is from Chocolate Baroque and is Rennie Mackintosh inspired. I have a set of Ali Reeves templates and this one looked perfect for this style and I just sponged some Shabby Shutters DI into the panels and cut out 2 circles popped up to display the stamp coloured with Copics. My first attempt I used a black pen to outline through the template but the finish was too harsh and so I went back to the DI's.

Enjoy your week:)

Thank you for the music.....

Hi everyone, a bit late for the latest challenge over at the Craft Barn, I always think I've got plenty of time when it's a fortnightly challenge:)
As usual I've created a tag and the two words we had to work with were PASSION and MUSIC. I wanted to keep to my lyric theme and this ABBA song came to mind. It must be obvious because Jim just walked past, saw it and started singing:)

 I stamped Thank you and wrote the rest. The flourish is from JustRite and the rose a freebie from Craft Stamper mag. The EF is from Darice.

Have a good day:)

Less is More week 173-recipe

Hi everyone what a horrible wet and cold day! Just a quick post before I go off to aquafit for this weeks challenge over at Less is More:

Week 173

We have a recipe this week and so we would like you to include a 

DIE CUT

If there is anyone who doesn't have the resources to make a die cut, we'd hate you not to be able to participate, so if you don't possess a die cutting machine or happen to have any ready made die cuts... you may use a punchie if you really need to, but we would obviously prefer you to stick to the challenge as is!

I made two cards and am now thinking that they are not as CAS as they should be! Anyway I'm sure Chrissie and Co will let me know:) Come and see:

I used a Tattered lace over the edge die and a MB butterfly with a sizzx ef. I silver embossed the butterfly and the sentiment which is an old See Dee one.

Here I used another Die'sire create a card die called decadence and the floral bouquet from Tattered Lace with a little Tattered Rose DI sponged behind and on the flowers.

See you soon:)

We survived!

Afternoon everyone and yes, we survived looking after Charlie for 4 days 24/7!! We are quite lost now, he is great fun and was as good as gold. He didn't ask for Keir and Lara at all and they had a fabulous few days in Venice for their anniversary.
 I made a card for them using one of the Die'sire create-a-card dies and the centre topper is a Darkroom Door image from the Venetian collection. Apologies for the photo but I forgot to take one and had to ask Keir to send me one from his phone:)

Dotty card from Anne-Marie designs.

I also used the same die to make a birthday card for Elly whose wedding we were at 3 weeks ago. I like the cuts and embossing that you get with these dies gives the effect of laser cutting.

A young couple we know have just had a baby girl so of course I had to make a card, come and see:

I made a chest of drawers stepper card and used dies to indicate date, time, weight and name and the pram.
A pretty Irish name which for those of you not familiar with it, it's pronounced Sorcha.

Keir, Lara and Charlie went home yesterday morning and Jim and I have been chilling out ever since! Thank God for retirement:)

Hope the weather picks up soon, it's a bit on the chilly side and I would like to use my new awning!!
Off to check out the Less is More challenge and catch up on all your blogs, hope you've all had a good bank holiday weekend.

Less is More week 172-theme

Hi everyone, another fantastic day and I've managed to get a little crafting done as I needed an anniversary card, a birthday card and one for this weeks Less is More challenge which is as follows:

Now onto this week's challenge.

We have a theme and it is 

FLOWERS

Just a brief reminder... we like to see white space, few layers and minimal embellishments!

I kept it very simple using an NBUS stamp from a large set of floral stamps that I won a couple of years ago but I don't know the make. I stamped with versamark and embossed with fine detail gold powder and coloured with PM's. I dry embossed a couple of lines to sit the sentiment on and matted with dotty paper from Anne- Marie and popped it onto white card stock.

Definitely won't be any crafting done this week as Charlie arrives tomorrow:)

Q&L challenge

Evening all, wow what a lovely day, so warm although it doesn't seem to be going to continue! Never mind, enjoy it while you can:)
Back to craft and I'm really late posting my tag for the Q&L challenge but I couldn't get up any enthusiasm for the words this time. I've ended up using a song by Johnny Cash, not one of his iconic ones though, come and see:

The words were UNIQUE and FAME and I've used FAME, thanks for taking time out to visit and I hope you're having a good weekend:)

Happy Birthday Sandie!

                                  
Morning all today is Sandie's birthday (London Days)  and along with a few friends we are celebrating it with a birthday linky party! Nonni and Lynn have set this up and invited lots of Sandie's friends to join in as she visits us all and leaves encouraging comments. I was lucky enough to meet Sandie over the Easter weekend when Kylie was staying with her and I was delighted to be asked to join in the party.
So here is my card for the birthday girl, Happy Birthday Sandie!!

Please pop over to Nonni's blog and see all the other friends that have joined in the linky party:)

Less is More week 171-one layer

Hi everyone I'm back from our break in Derbyshire, more of that later. This week the challenge over at Less is More is for a one layer card with a theme:

Our ONE LAYER theme 

this week is 

THANK YOU!

We are delighted to announce our new 

Design Team Member.

We had the most astonishing group of crafters to choose from and the decision was exceedingly difficult.

However the Designer has been selected and we're sure that you will be delighted with our choice.

It is

Sarah

(SAZZLE DAZZLE)

I've missed crafting, it's been over a week but I have been busy making cards today as I have more birthdays coming up and next week Charlie is coming to stay for four days, so there will be no chance!! I may need another break after that:)
Anyway here is what I came up with using the SU Wetlands stamps set and Crumb Cake and Soft Suede inks. The sentiment is a JustRite one with three pearls as a highlight.

Our break is Derbyshire was lovely, not an area I am familiar with but very scenic. We stopped for lunch on the way up on the banks of the Grand Union canal and watched the narrow boats floating by. Quite fancy that as a holiday! 

We spent a day at Chatsworth and bought lots of goodies at their farm shop and another day relaxing and going for walks along the river bank which ran past our house. Amazing house, huge rooms and very well equipped and we managed to imbibe a fair amount of wine:)

I am waiting in anticipation for the heatwave which is promised for later this week, I live in hope:)

Bank holiday celebrations!

Afternoon all from a hot and sunny London town! What a fabulous weekend and so unusual for a bank holiday:) I am having a relaxing day recovering from too much dancing and champers yesterday at the wedding!!
The venues were amazing from the University Women's club in Mayfair, where the service was held in the library,


 to the Garden Museum next to Lambeth Palace for the reception. The weather was perfect and we were transferred to the reception in a vintage double decker bus:)

The museum is a de consecrated church with loads of dried flowers suspended above the tables and it was a bit like being in Alice in Wonderland.

 The garden is a knot garden and there are several headstones in the ground,  including one of  Elias Ashmole who founded the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford and a small mausoleum for Rear Admiral Bligh of the Bounty.
 The champagne was uncorked at 1.30 and was still flowing at 6pm!

Family photo call

Friends for 35 years!

Eleanor, the bride, made her wedding cake, beautiful!

I struggled to find a fascinator to match my dress and jacket as I hate hats and finally on Saturday morning I found some navy card and using my TH Tattered florals die created the following embellishment. Several people commented on how well it matched my outfit but didn't realise it was cardstock:)

The friends in the photo above and respected husbands are all off on Tuesday to Derbyshire for 4 days and we are hoping for good weather but I think it's going to rain! Still we have plans to visit Chatsworth and maybe Haddon Hall if it's wet so I will not be posting for a while. Phew you say after reading through this long post!

Thanks for bearing with me:)

Birthdays & more!

Morning all just a quick post, albeit a bit photo heavy:)
Yesterday was my sister Karen's birthday and we usually go down for the weekend but we have a wedding this afternoon in London and then a few of us are off to Derbyshire on Tuesday for a few days. Also my BiL is having an op on Tuesday so it will be a couple of weeks before we get together.
Karen does a lot of sewing, felting and machine embroidery so I thought I'd make a pop up box card to suit these interests, come and see:

All the elements are digi stamps and with embosslits buttons and thread wrapped around. The dp is from Anna Griffin

My nephew had a birthday two weeks ago and this is the card that I made him using Stamps Away trees and a JustRite topper and sentiment.

My great nephew is 18 on Monday and here is the card I made for him:

I cut the stepper card with my Silhouette which cuts all the mats as well as the topper, very handy! The dp is from Anne-Marie designs.

Finally as I said we are off to my friend's daughter's wedding which is in London followed by a reception at the Garden Museum on the River Thames. Luckily the weather appears to be much improved!

I have made a tealight card for Eleanor and Richard using the colour and flower Wisteria as that is the colour theme for her wedding.

Thanks for bearing with me and I hope you all have a lovely bank holiday weekend:)