Back sooner than expected!!

Afternoon all and yes I'm back sooner than I thought as I had forgotten to post my tag for the latest challenge over at the Craft Barn. The words this week are KNOWLEDGE and HURT. My aim has been to try and find a lyric to match one or other of the words and sometimes a song just comes to mind and this week was no exception, come and see:

This has been recorded by several people but my favourite is by the Everly Brothers who I love:)

I printed out the lyrics onto digital journal paper and inked the edges. The hearts are provo dies and I cut the solid one to show a breaking heart.

I promise not to appear again before the end of the week!! Hope you are enjoying the lovely weather that we are experiencing today :)

Less is More week 169-sketch

This week's challenge over at Less is More is a sketch which I'll show you at the bottom of the post otherwise my card won't show up!

The sketch is nice and simple and I ended up using dies to create my card, come and see:

I cut some Anna Marie dotty paper with Fleur di Lis accent dies and popped them back in the card blank. The flower dies are from Joanna Sheen I think! The sentiment is from Wetlands SU stamp set.

This is Chrissie's sketch that we had to follow:

I'll be back later in the week to show you a birthday card and a special wedding card for another wedding we are going to on Saturday:)

A crafty lunch!

Afternoon all the sun has come out and we have managed some gardening! We had a fairly relaxed Easter weekend, met friends for a Turkish meal on Saturday but the icing on the cake was Monday when I went up to London and met some blogging friends from around the country and OZ!!
Kylie who runs Addicted to Stamps and Addicted to CAS came over from Oz and stayed with Sandie, one of her design team and arranged for us all to meet up for lunch. We spent a few hours chatting and lunching in St Martin's crypt as if we had been friends forever:) We had a few photos, of course, and they are at the bottom of this post!

Back to this week's Less is More challenge:

We have another theme for you this week. 

Makes me smile!

It's simply that... something that makes you smile.

 It could be something cute, pretty, humorous, or merely a technique which satisfies you and makes you pleased with your finished article.

SO... lots of scope, but we'd like you to tell us the reason for your choice!

I decided to go with a NBUS stamp from Acid Drops and What Nots which definitely makes me smile, you can imagine someone not quite getting the dress code, come and see:

                                                                                 Kylie and Marina

 Kylie and Sylvia                                                                                                               Kylie and Sandie

Kylie and Sue

Monika was also there but I can't find her photo!!

Hope I haven't bored you with all these photos!

Shadows and quotes!

Afternoon all from a gorgeous sunny London! I've had a crafty morning finishing off some birthday cards and getting to grips with the LIM challenge and my tag for the Q&L challenge over at the Craft Barn.
The LIM girls want the following:

We have another 

ONE LAYER CARD

challenge for you this week!

The proviso for your cards this week is to have evidence of

Shadow Stamping.

There are several ways of doing this, using emboss resist, re-stamping without re-inking or simply stamping the same image in a lighter shade.

Let's see what you can come up with!

Come and see what I did, I tried taking my photo is various lighting including the garden so I hope you can see the shadow stamping!

I stamped a Crafty Individuals and a Clarity corner stamp twice in Shabby Shutters and Bundled Sage DI. The sentiment is a Justrite one and I used a Just rite die to emboss around it.

Thanks to a heads up from the very talented Lynne Moncrieff I am also entering this card into this month's CI challenge which is called Nature's Beauty

The words this week over at the Q&L challenge are TRUTH and CHANGE. I've been trying to stick to lyrics but I didn't seem to have the stamps to suit any lyrics that I wanted to use so I went with Oscar Wilde.

I got a bit inky for the background and added some shadows for horizon. The grasses are a Sheena Douglass stamp and the mask is printed from the internet and popped up with pinflair.

Hope you're having a sunny day too and looking forward to the Easter weekend. I will be back soon to show you some more Easter cards that I made.

Celebratoryweekend

Hi everyone, just thought I'd do a quick post to show you a few photos of the wedding we were at last Friday. The weather was great and the venue lovely. The service took place in the Square tower, which is part of the sea wall in Portsmouth and was built in 1494 and was the home of the Governor of Portsmouth. My DIL Lara was bridesmaid to her brother and new SIL and my son Keir was an usher. The reception was at the elegant Queens hotel built in 1903 which overlooks the Solent and Isle of Wight and instead of the usual 3 course meal we had a beautiful afternoon tea. During the evening the buffet consisted of sausage or bacon buns and cones of french fries which went down very well :)
I made a book card for the newlyweds, come and see:

And a couple of wedding pics :) Charlie had a great day too|

C

I hope to be back tomorrow with my card for Less is More and my tag for the Q&L Craft Barn challenge.

Less is More-week 166-colour

Hi everyone and here we are with rather more seasonal type April weather, wet and windy!! Good excuse to stay in and craft and I'm very relaxed having had a luxurious pedicure at home, which is great as you don't have to worry about putting shoes on :)
Anyway time for another challenge over at Less is More and this is what it is:

The colour challenge this month is

A Touch Of Turquoise
Please remember to keep your submissions 
CLEAN AND SIMPLE
Rather a lot of layers have been creeping into submissions... so please don't forget to leave that 
WHITE SPACE 

in evidence.

I have some lovely Easter images on a CA digi kit and thought I'd use that to create an Easter card which also fits in with the Make my Monday challenge, come and see:

I used an Anna Griffin embossing border and added a little ink to the raised pattern and also to the edges of the egg and banner which is popped up with pinflair.

We are off to Portsmouth on Thursday for a wedding, my DIL Lara's brother is getting married on friday. This is the first of 3 weddings this year as my friend has both her daughters getting married, one in May and the other in August! Great excuse for a couple of new outfits :)

Another pop up box

Hi everyone I'm scheduling this for this evening as the card I've made is for a fellow Rock Choir member and we are all meeting up for a Turkish meal as it's the end of this spring term.
I love these pop up boxes they are so easy and gives me a chance to use up DP that I tend to hoard!!
I've used Craftwork papers and diecuts, come and see:

I took the photo outside so hopefully it's a better result!
Enjoy the day and I hope the weather is as good with you as it is here:)

Wheels go round!

Evening all!
Hope you've all enjoyed the lovely spring weather we had this weekend, so nice to have windows and doors open :)
Less is More and Addicted to CAS have very similar challenges this week and although one card would have done I made two!!!
LIM's challenge is:

As March is another five Saturday month, we have the additional 

Lucky Dip Challenge.

It also means that we have a Guest Designer, which this month is 

Jan

LTC

The theme for your cards this week is 

ROUND and ROUND

You may interpret this as you wish, but we must be able to recognise the connection!

                                      and Addicted to CAS has a code word

We are now up to Challenge #35 and your hostess this fortnight is Sylvia.

Here is her codeword -

Here's what I came up with although the wheels on the bus were etched on my brain!

I cut out three circles the same size as some Artemio stamps that are NBUS and used a matching ink to stamp them in the apertures. I diecut a label shape and stamped a WOW sentiment in it. Three pearls to finish it off as it looked a bit bare.

This one is simply kraft card with embossed lines edged with a white pen and the bike was cut with my Silhouette, which is back in use since my computer is running perfectly now :) Once again a WOW sentiment embossed in white.

Apologies for the poorly lit photos but the bulb went in my craft room and the replacement was a lower wattage!

I have had a great Mother's day, sitting in the sunshine, crafting and Dom cooked me a wonderful roast dinner. He also got me a triple cd that I wanted and put it on my ipod and Keir sent me a fabulous bouquet of beautiful roses, one spoilt mum :)

Threesome!

Afternoon all, my goodness what strange weather we are having today, sun, rain and hailstorms! It turned cold yesterday but the temperatures are supposed to double at the weekend although I don't think we are going to get sun to go with it!
I'm a bit late with this week's LIM challenge which is as follows:

Our recipe this week has two parts!

Firstly we'd like to see 

THREE

of something on your cards 

PLUS

We'd like you to visit and comment on three other participants, hopefully ones you haven't visited before!

Dom has managed to fix the gremlins in my computer which was making it freeze every couple of minutes, so frustrating!!! So now I'm able to use all my programmes and play around with Craft Artist and digi stamps. Having said that I've gone for a very simple design, come and see:

 

I used a die, three different papers and three pearls to create three bows which look a little skewed in the photo but not IRL! The sentiment is an SU one and says Birthday Greetings but the light is not good. Don't the weeks fly by it's Thursday again and that means quiz night:) Only 3 rounds and a picture one and the food is great:)

Jim is doing really well now. He walks without a stick and started back at the gym this week exactly 7 weeks after his hip replacement, a very good result:)

Have a good weekend!

Hippy Chick!

Hi everyone I'm here to show you my new tag for the Q&L challenge over at the Craft Barn. Last week I nearly missed the deadline which is not easy as we are given a fortnight to come up with our creations!

Today we start our sixth Quotes and Lyrics challenge and the two new words are...................................................

Flower and/or Travel

You will need to use either (or both if you wish) of these words in a quote or song lyrics on your sample.

I'm trying to stay with lyrics and  although there are numerous songs with specific flowers mentioned there are not many with just the word flower, but my age is giving me away again, come and see:

 

I found this Blossom hippy chick on    Lacy sunshine stamps    and using Craft Artist I put her on top of my lyrics and added shadow to make her stand out. I coloured her with PM.s and added a few little paper flowers, some glossy accents and distressed the edges with Spiced Marmalade and Worn Lipstick DI.

This song came out in 1967, sung by Scott McKenzie and I was working in London by the Ritz hotel in my first hairdressing position after finishing college. Exciting times with lots of celebs coming and going:)

Thanks for visiting and maybe you'd like to join in this challenge too.

Just in time!

Evening all just a quick post before the link shuts on the craft Barn Q & L challenge and the two words this week are ART and ROAD. Once again I've gone for a lyric which will easily be recognised by those of  a certain age :)
Come and see:

 All digital, I'm afraid, created on Craft Artist except for the railing which is a die! Off to get ready for a quiz night, not sure my brain is up to it:)
Thanks for visiting.....

Less is More week 163-theme

Hello everyone, I'm just back from Rock Choir and thought I'd better post my card for this week's LIM challenge which I made this morning. The theme this week is as follows:

As ever on the third Saturday of each month we have a theme for you.

This time it is for you to use 

MASKING OR STENCILLING

on your creations.

It seems that stencilling is de rigeur at the moment, so let's see what you can do.

If you don't have any stencils you could use your dies or punches to make a stencil from card or acetate.... or you could simply choose to included some masking of some description in your work.

 

 I inked an Imagination stencil with DI inks then over inked with versamark and embossed with clear EP. The butterfly is a MB die and the sentiment a WOW one.

 We had a great weekend in Portsmouth looking after Charlie who was as good as gold and didn't seem to mind that his parents had gone away! I did need to relax once we got home, it's full on looking after a 2 year old 24/7. The wedding next month is Lara's brother and his fiancee, Leeanna is 30 this week so I needed to make a card and decided to go with one of those new pop up box cards, come and see:

 

I decorated it with Anna Griffin paper and the butterfly and bird are on attached to acetate strips so they wobble :) The instructions can be found on Splitcoaststamper.

Last post!

Wall to wall blue skies and sun today, hopefully it will continue for the rest of the week. I have a birthday card to show you for a friend at Rock Choir so I have scheduled this to show this evening after she's received it :0)
I was on FB and saw a Sue Wilson video on the Creative Expressions page and the techniques inspired me to make this card which is a bit different from my usual style, come and see:

 

The back layer is stamped with versamark and embossed with white EB using a Jenny Mayes stamp the same as the topper. The teal layer I dry embossed with versamark on the EF and added WOW embossing glitter. The topper is a fleur de lys die and the stamped image was inked with markers and spritzed with water for a watercolour effect. The sentiment is from Aspects of Design and the bow and beads from my stash.

I just realised that I forgot to show you the card I made for Charlie's 2nd birthday which was Monday and he quite likes Thomas the Tank Engine so that's what I went for:

 

I found some colouring pages on the internet and printed them out and coloured with PM's. I decoupaged some of the layers and used glossy accents on the black areas. The background  was embossed with a cogs EF and inked and the letters die cut and inked. The sentiment label is a JustRite one and the sentiment a very old SeeDee one with Charlie's name added with my zyron digital runner.

I called this the Last Post as we are off to Portsmouth tomorrow to look after Charlie for the weekend so no more crafting till next week!

Have a good week :0)

Spring flowers

Hi everyone sorry to startle you with 2 posts in one day! the LIM challenge this week is as follows

          We are back to One Layer Week again!

This week the subject of your 

One Layer Card

should be 

     Spring Flowers

I knew I had a large set of spring stamps from Aspects of Design that I won a while ago and had never used and this is what I came up with, very simple but I liked it. Darnell will be pleased that I am using NBUS, her acronym for never before used stuff!

          A bit of masking and some PM's with a WOW sentiment and 3 little gems.

We have a busy week ahead, Charlie will be 2 tomorrow and we are going down on thursday to look after him till Sunday as Keir and Lara are away on respective hen and stag weekends! I may need a break myself after that :o) This is for Lara's brother who is getting married in April, the first of 3 weddings we have this year!
Thanks for visiting, have a good week :o)

Birthdays

Afternoon all, wow what a fabulous day here in London, blue skies and sun all day. Washing blowing gently in the breeze and windows cleaned :o)
Just a quick post to show the birthday cards that I promised in my last post:

 Using Couture Creations stamp cut and emboss set and MB corners. I created a pocket inside for the tag to sit in.

This card was for my god daughter's middle child using a freebie stamp, decoupaging it and adding some glossy accents. Backing paper is from Anne-Marie.

 

Hope you have all had some sunshine today it appears to be cloudy and cooler tomorrow!

Off to have a go at this week's LIM challenge :o)

Spring is here!

Afternoon all I've just popped in to show you my card for this week's LIM challenge which is as follows:

For our colour challenge this month we have chose real Spring colours

YELLOW & GREEN

Lovely spring colours and I used a NBUS stamp set from Clearly Besotted coloured with PM's and a little decoupage,come and see:

 

I die cut an aperture and stamped so that the image extended over the front.

The fortnightly challenge for the Quotes and Lyrics challenge over at the Craft Barn is to use the words

MARRIAGE and/or AGE

My first thoughts were the Dixie Cups hit in the 60's with Chapel of Love and so that's what I went with. I printed out one verse and got a bit inky with La Blanche stamps and Twilight Brilliance ink.

Thanks for all your enquiries re Jim's progress, he's doing very well, just using one stick now and going out for his walks solo:)

I'll be back a little later in the week with a couple of birthday cards to show you, thanks for visiting, I love to read your comments:) 

Day Tripper!

Afternoon all and I'm here with a more relaxed post, feet up on the couch but still buzzing from a very exciting morning at Abbey Road studios :) Around 150 rock choir members rocked up this morning at 9.30 to record two songs, Adele and Bruno Mars. We had a Ukranian film crew filming us and the guy in charge of the recording was Simon Rhodes who is responsible for the music for every major film you can name and also the music for the Winter Olympics at Sochi! Now he can put us on his CV :) 
Anyway back to crafting and my card for this week's challenge over at Less is More which is:

For our recipe this week we have chosen 

METAL

We'd like to see something made from metal on your creation.

Anything will do, charms, soda can scraps, diecuts, eyelets, paperclips, brads, whatever you can come up with!

I was inspired by a card that Loll had made using inset die cutting technique and I decided to have a go, come and see:

 Now I've never had much luck with metal sheets but that's the look I wanted so I got some kitchen foil, folded it into 4 and cut out my MB tree. I then cut the tree out from white cardstock and inset the metal tree. I popped the image up onto a card blank and the sentiment is from SU Wetlands set and cut out with a Heartfelt die.
What a lovely day we had yesterday it was like spring and Jim had his first social outing as we were at a Christening. He coped well and managed a couple of Guinness to aid his recovery!! I forgot to take a photo of the box frame that I made, instead of a card, with the baby's names, a few butterflies and some pretty stencilling with embossing paste.
Time to sign off, Jim has just gone for his afternoon nap, part of his prescribed recovery and Dom has created some wonderful aromas in the kitchen with slow cooked pork, I can't wait. It was an early start, I had to be up at 6.45 to get over to St John's Wood in time so I may need a few zzz's myself :)
Thanks for taking the time to visit, I love to read your comments.

White rabbit syndrome!

Hi everyone, I'm all behind this week, hence the title! I've got a card for Less is More which is a masculine theme and my tag for the Craft Barn quotes and lyrics challenge where the words are Strong and Miss.

 

Card embossed, stamped and punched using SU Mosaic Madness

 

Tag stamped with an Acid and Whatnots stamp and the sentiment is from Catherine Zeta-Jones, not exactly profound!!

Rushing off to a quiz evening now:)

Anything goes!!

Hello all, just dropped in to post my card for this week's LIM challenge. I've been to Rock choir this evening and we are perfecting two songs ready for our recording debut at Abbey Road studios on 23rd Feb!! Exciting times:)

The weeks come around so quickly and it's 

ONE LAYER 

week once more.

This time

Anything Goes!

I struggled a bit with this week's challenge, couldn't come up with anything I liked except lots of discarded ideas in my bits bag! Anyway this is my last shot at it:

 

Watercolour effect using Mustard Seed and Bundled Sage coupled with some script and piercing.

 

This nearly went in the bin but may come in handy, not sure though:)

Jim is doing well and I am constantly at his beck and call, definitely didn't miss my vocation:)

Thanks for visiting and you know I love to read your comments!

Birthday wishes

Well here I am with my card for this week's Less is More challenge, a bit late and I apologise for my lack of commenting this week but I have a very good excuse!! We had my SIL and BIL visiting us from Friday till Monday and on Tuesday my DH Jim had a hip replacement, so I've been a tad distracted:) Jim is doing brilliantly and expects to be discharged tomorrow. He has been walking around the ward and needs to attempt the stairs tomorrow. A must as we live in a Victorian town house over three levels:)
Anyway back to the challenge and this is what it is this week:

Happy 3rd Birthday Less Is more

WOW can you believe it's our third birthday and this week we not only have a fabulous challenge but some amazing guest designers too...

WE ARE 3!

Fabulous prizes

This month we are delighted to welcome  Tara, one of our faithful LIMettes as a new Sponsor to Less is More. She has recently become the proprietor of 

Make the Day Special 

and is our Sponsor for this month!

Tara is offering a £20 Voucher plus free shipping to this month's winner!

Our colour challenge for this week is 

RAINBOW

I punched out a flower with my SU Mixed Bunch punch and backed it with card that I coloured with rainbow colours, I punched out little blossoms from the scrap coloured card and added them on the front. Sentiment is a WOW one.
Happy 3rd birthday to my favourite challenge and a big hello to Mandi, so nice to see you and hear how successful your business is:)

Silence is golden

Hi everyone, we are back from a lovely few days looking after Charlie although the weather was not great! We got to take Charlie to one of his play groups on Friday, which took me back, some things never change:)
Just going to post my creations very quickly as my laptop is playing up again!
So here is my take on the LIM sketch challenge: Just realised I should have added a sentiment so will post an updated photo later if laptop will allow!

 An Ali Reeve mask and free stamp from Craft Stamper

And here is my lyric tag forthe Quotes and Lyric challenge over at the Craft Barn. The words were Silence and or Dazzle. I chose the Tremeloe's song Silence is golden and used Sheena Douglass's faux leather technique.

 Thanks for visiting!