Another card for the boys!

Not just another male card but a special one for Dom, my eldest, for his birthday  and something that I thought he would really like:) He is a writer and loves books so when I saw this book box at a craft fair I knew I just had to have it! It actually came with another smaller box inside which is still naked!!
So here is my literary creation:)                

 The main photo doesn't show the true colour but first of all I painted the box with cream acrylic paint and the rest of it is gilded with gold cream paste. I also antiqued the edges with the gold cream on the front. The book label is from Tando aged with alcohol inks and a couple of added brads. The bird is Little Vermillion from SU stamped and coloured. The letters on  the spine are cut on my Silhouette and edged with a black pen. I cut a long strip of card to fit the box and concertinaed it  then stamped Dom's name using gothic alphabet stamps from Aspects of Design. I coloured them with PM's and edged them with a gold marker pen. I attached a tassel so that it can be drawn out. Hope you like it:)

This is me saying au revoir for a couple of weeks as we are off to France tomorrow although I do have a couple of scheduled posts (hopefully) !

Fabulous blog candy!

Over at the Craft Barn they have a MEGA candy give away, check out the picture below!!

Pop over to the Craft Barn  to find out how you could be in it to win it:)

Addicted to Stamps theme-GOLD

OMG how fast do these weeks go round! Here we are again with this week's Addicted to Stamps challenge and the theme is GOLD. So anything with gold on it ie: mirri card, embossing, pens etc;
I actually made a card for another challenge a few weeks ago with the same theme so I had to try something different. So here is what I came up with and I hope you like it:)

I bought a stencil and some dreamweaver paste at the last Ally Pally show and this is the first time I've used it! The base card is a DL and I matted it with gold Angel hair paper. Once the paste was dry I mounted it onto the card and added some gold stickers to the corners. The sentiment is an old  SeeDee one.
Do check out the rest of the DT cards for inspiration and I hope to see you playing along this week:)

"beside the sea, beside the sea..."

Over at Crafty Cardmakers the theme this week is to make a postcard with a beach scene and there has to be sea and sand.  Having just bought a Michael Powell stamp of beach huts I had to have a go:) So here is my take on the challenge:

My postcard is 6 x 4 and I used SU Marina Mist, Baja Breeze, So Saffron and Certainly Celery and sponged the colours onto the card to create the background. The stamp is almost the width of the card, fortuitously,  and I inked it up with black Memento and stamped it across the centre. I added some colour to the stamped image and the sentiment was created with my Xyron digital runner.
Thanks for visiting me and I love to read your comments:)

Less is More week 81 theme-Tearing

The LIM challenge this week is the theme of TEARING. My first quick glance and I read it wrong and thought it said TEA RING!! Confused or what? I'm pretty good at tearing especially when things go wrong:) Anyway tearing made me think of ancient papers and so this is what I came up with:

          Recipe:
Ribbed square base card
Judikins cube stamp Hieroglyphics
Darkroom Door sentiments
Gold ink and metallic bronze EP
Tiny gold gems

Thanks for visiting me I love to read your comments:)

Addicted to stamps Scrapbook challenge

Hi everyone and welcome to our 3rd scrapbook challenge at ATS.  This month the theme is 

and it was chosen by ME so I do hope lots of you will play along.

Here is my LO which as usual I created in Craft Artist.

I took this photo during a visit to Barrington Court in Somerset whilst staying with my sister Karen. 

It is a Tudor Manor house, now empty, with the most beautiful walled gardens which were a mass of flowers during our visit.

The clematis I cut out in the programme and was then able to use it as an embellishment.

I do hope we've inspired  you to play along and if you are a newbie to scrapping try the digital way. You can get a free download of Craft Artist which is the easiest programme ever to use by clicking here

Less is More week 80-one layer

Did I have a good time at Newmarket on Friday? it was fabulous!! Tom Jones was amazing, what a voice and we couldn't believe how close we were to him.The stage was in the middle of the stands and we were on his right, about 20 yards away! Fabulous weather, no winners unfortunately, but as we left he emerged from the back of the stage to get into his car and said goodbye to us:) Then off to Portsmouth for my son, Keir's birthday BBQ and more Charlie time:)

Anyway back to the matter in hand, the latest LIM challenge which is:

ONE LAYER CARD

and this time the subject of your creations should feature

FUR or FEATHERS

(This should give you plenty of scope.)

As ever, please don't forget that white space and keep any embellishments to a minimum.

I saw the challenge on Saturday and have been thinking about it since then but couldn't come up with anything particularly original so decided to use some cute House Mouse stamps. It was a good chance to make another Christmas card (and one that's cheap to post)so here's what I created:

Stamped with black Memento ink and coloured with PM's. Glue pen and glitter to highlight the fur on his hat. The sentiment is from a freebie Christmas set, coloured with a red brushmarker and the addition of two red gems.

Thanks for visiting me, you know I love to read your comments and return the compliment:)

Addicted to cards theme-boys

Morning everyone and welcome to another challenge here at ATS. This week we are asking you to do a dreaded male card...one for the boys! August is when I have 4 boys cards, the two important ones being both of my sons. So here is what I came up with for Keir, my youngest, and daddy to my favourite boy, Charlie Bear!! I don't like to go on too........ much about him so I created his own page at the top of my blog, says the proud grandmother:))

Isn't this the perfect card for today's modern men? Keir doesn't have quite so much time these days for gaming but he still enjoys a play:) I found the template on the web and cut it out in black card keeping the top at the fold so that it would open as a card. I printed out another on white card and coloured and cut out the buttons and popped them up on foam pads.
Here is the template if you'd like it for yourself:

We are off to Portsmouth for his birthday on Saturday and hoping for fine weather as Keir loves a BBQ! We normally travel down on Friday but I have a date with Sir Tom Jones at Newmarket:))

This is a scheduled post so by the time you read it, it will all be over and hopefully there will be some fabulous cards from you in the challenge. Do check out the rest of the DT for inspiration and good luck with the challenge.

Can't wait to show you what I made for Dom, my eldest son's birthday, but that's not till the 28th:)

Addicted to Stamps BINGO!

Morning everyone and welcome to our 2nd BINGO challenge at Addicted to Stamps. Lots of choice in this challenge, just pick any line, horizontal, vertical or diagonal and use it for your card, tag, ATC, canvas or whatever you fancy:)

For my card I have chosen the diagonal line of
Metal (the topper), Free (the ribbon) and Flowers.

The base card is A5 with the front folded back on itself. The metal topper is actually kitchen foil (did you guess?) folded in several layers and embossed in the cuttlebug. I can't get on with real metal, always end up cutting myself:) This technique works very well and is CHEAP! I matted it onto blue card and popped up on foam dots. I punched top and bottom and threaded organza ribbon through and attached a blue knot.
The flowers are SU Botanical Blossoms ( a two step stamp ) stamped initially in grey versamark and overstamped with Bashful Blue. A little glitter at centre.
I do hope you'll play along this week, check out the ATS blog for the amazing cards that the rest of the DT have made:)
Good luck!

Less is More week 79-colour

Well I was out shopping earlier and it was glorious, now I've had to put the lights on, the sky is black and thunder is rumbling all around!! Time to post this week's challenge for Less is More.  I'ts a  colour challenge using BLUE and GREEN.
Here is what I came up with:)

The centre tile is stampbord that I coloured with alcohol inks. I stamped on top with black memento ink using an old Rubadubbadoo stamp and Chapel Art ferns. I used a gold leaf pen around the edges. I matted it onto a piece of card that I sponged with Shabby Shutters and Stormy Skies DI and overstamped with the ferns. The word sea was part of a freebie stamp from Craft Stamper.

Thanks for taking the time to visit, I love to read your comments and pay you a visit:)

Colour challenge at CBGM

Welcome to our latest challenge at Creations by Gill McCall. This month we have a colour photo as inspiration for you to follow. Fabulous colours aren't they? So summery, unlike the current weather!

We would like to see a creation of your choice, the only stipulation being to use the colours in the photo.

For my card I have used  a free Kanban kit that I got from Create & Craft




It's a fold I'm sure you recognise but I don't know what it's called! If you flip the back up it goes in a DL envelope. I covered the base card with pink and yellow paper and the large topper I attached and added some butterflies and a bow which were diecut decoupage in the kit.


Do pop over to Gill's blog and check out the inspiration from the rest of the DT team. Can't wait to see what you come up with as we love to visit your blogs:) Good luck with the challenge and please remember to mention CBGM in your post and be a follower of Gill's blog.

..............oh no I'm late!!!!!

Morning everyone and welcome to our 2nd Make your Mark challenge at Addicted to Stamps. For this challenge we'd like you to produce, well anything really, as long as you use MARKERS on it:) This could be promarkers, copics, aquamarkers, watercolour pencils, crayons.........well you get the picture!

For my card I have used a cream base card, matted with some blue card from my stash. I stamped a Pilkington lane image with black Memento ink onto watercolour paper and used water colour pencils to colour the scene.

 I tore around the image and mounted it on to white card and popped it up on foam pads. The sentiment was generated with my Xyron digital runner, fussy cut and added with an old Rubbadubbado stamp of a fish. A couple of gems finished it off.

I hope you like it but do check on the rest of the DT cards for some fabulous inspiration and I can't wait to see what you come up with for our challenge:)

Good luck!

Addicted to Stamps-sketch

Hi and welcome to our first sketch challenge at Addicted to Stamps. Here is the sketch that we'd like you to follow, although you can twist it around as you wish as long as the basic layout is there.

I have used a yellow base card and the white card I cut out a shape using Spellbinders label die and then a smaller one to mount in the centre. I cut two smaller ones again and matted them onto the same yellow card that I embossed first. The stamped images are by Chapel Art embossed in clear EP and inked over with Shabby Shutters DI. Green seam binding and some little punched flowers and leaves complete the card.


Pop over to Addicted to Stamps to see what the rest of the team  have produced there are some fabulous cards!
I do hope you'll join us this week, we love to see your entries and good luck with the challenge:)

Make My Monday - colour wheel

It's the fourth week at Make My Monday with a focus on the color wheel!  This week the main focus is on ANALOGOUS COLOURS.

Analogous colors are colors that sit in a group of three right next to each other on the color wheel.  We usually use these combinations when doing monochromatic artwork.  This week we are focusing on blues and Mynnette would like to see creations using turquoise, light blue, and dark blue with white or cream as your neutrals. You may stamp lined images and sentiments in either black or brown, but solid images should be stamped in one of the three blues.


My card this week started off as a bunch of flowers and ended up as a Christmas card!! 

Recipe:

White base card

Dark blue and Turquoise coredinations card

Embossing folder

Whimsy die

Gems

Banner from SU Pines and Poinsettias

This was the best photo I could capture and the turquoise card looks more like a pale green but IRL it's blue! I sanded the embossing to get the paler blue and paper pieced the bank at the front. This is the first time I've used this EF and I may make a few more for Christmas as I like the depth it gives:)

Thanks for taking the time to visit and hopefully let me know what you think!

Less is More week 77-Theme

"Hey there Mister Blue I'm so pleased to be with you

        Look around see what you do, everybody smiles at you"

This song is stuck in my head so apologies folks:)

At least it's true today!

The LIM challenge this week is a theme and it's

SEWING

For this it could be machine or hand sewing.. faux or stamped... you could even use sewing related images... just let your imagination roam!

I've never stitched on a card before although I can use a sewing machine but I remembered I had a little hand machine that I could use. Perhaps I should have got my big machine out the stitching would have been straighter:) Anyway I liked the final result, what do you think?

Recipe:

The poster found on a sewing blog

Digi stamp from Vintage Stamps

Green thread

Check out the amazing cards that Chrissie and Mandi have produced and thanks for taking the time to visit I appreciate any thoughts you may have:)

Make My Monday Colour Wheel Challenge

Afternoon everyone from a dull, drizzly London, although Mister Blue Sky is supposed to be here for the weekend! That song is driving me mad I love it but we have sung it so much this term and now it's on the British Gas advert!! Maybe we sang it too much and frightened him off:)
Anyway back to the challenge. I moaned about the colours last week and came in the Top 3 and I can't say I love this weeks colours either! This week it's complimentary colours of :

Now let me think, when was the last time I wore these colours? 1964 maybe:)

Just joking Mynnette! I quite liked it once I started thinking about what to do. Here is my card, what do you think?

Recipe:

White base card

Coredinations in purple and yellow

Anna Griffin punch

Free stamp from Creativity mag

Promarkers

SeeDee sentiment and brad

I masked the first stamped image and stamped the skirt again for extra fullness. I coloured with PM's and added gold glitter with my glue pen and fussy cut and mounted with pinflair.

Thanks for visiting and hopefully leaving a comment:)

Scrapbook Challenge #2 Holiday time!

Hi everyone and here we are with our 2nd scrapbook challenge at Addicted to Stamps.  Victoria has chosen this months theme and it is HOLIDAYS.  We want to encourage reluctant scrappers so it can be anything holiday related and either hand or digitally scrapped. Thanks goodness for that as digitally scrapping is all I do:)
Here is my layout showing a holiday last May in the South of France.

I used Craft Artist and the photos bring back lovely memories:) Hopefully you will be encouraged to give scrapping a go and join our challenge this month. Check out the link for the rest of the DT layouts:)
Thanks for taking the time to visit my blog and hopefully leaving a comment so that I can visit you.

Less is More week 76 - one layer

Wow huge freedom this week with the LIM challenge although it's a bit like a large menu when you have too much choice:) 

Everyone's favourite... the 
One Layer Challenge 

and this week it's really simple

Three of anything that is, three colours, three images, three stamps, three words, the number three.... it's up to you, but don't forget the white space, a simple design and just one layer!

I've gone for a butterfly theme using a set of stamps from Little Claire Designs. I used the tree and the cat and added a sentiment to the butterfly trail, so that's my three stamps.

I coloured the images with PM's and rounded the opposite corners.

I'm also entering this in the CASology challenge where the cue card is HAPPY. Happy is in my sentiment, a butterfly tree makes me happy and the cat is smiling!! Probably ate the only bird in the tree:)

Thanks for visiting me and be sure to leave a comment so I can repay the favour;)

Addicted to Stamps week 5

Morning everyone and welcome to week 5 at our new challenge blog, Addicted to Stamps. This week we'd like to see a CAS card, clean and simple with minimal layers or embellishments. This style of card works very well for male cards and  I know lots of us struggle with them:)
Here is my take on the challenge and I hope you like it!

 Recipe:

Square base card

Tim Holtz stamp

Freebie watch and sentiment stamp from Craft Stamper

Silver mirri mat

Black Memento ink

I do hope you'll join us this week I can't wait to see what you come up with. Don't forget to check out the blog to see what the rest of the DT have come up with for your inspiration.

Good luck!

A wedding card for one of my all time favourite students!!

One of my loveliest hairdressing students is marrying her fiancé, Dan, on Saturday and here is the card I made for her.

The stamp is La Blanche embossed in silver and with a few added pearls, blue gems and silver glitter. Also peeloffs for the names and royal blue ribbon to close the card.

The inside has a cut out heart and the BP is vellum with Martyina and Dan's photo printed in a heart frame. There is a silver heart charm hanging from the centre.
The butterflies ( a freebie by Indigoblu from Craft Stamper ) are stamped and decoupaged with a gem at the head.
I made a box with Centura pearl card and my Enveloplus board and added a little dry embossing .

Thanks for looking and I love to read your comments:)

CASology

A brand new challenge blog started this week called CASology and each week they will post a cue card containing a single word, for you to interpret as you wish, as long as you keep it CLEAN and SIMPLE.
One of my blogging friends, Rosemary, is on the DT and I'm always blown away by her cards so I thought I'd join in:)
The cue card this week is SUN. Hilarious or what? I don't think I can remember what it looks like!! I tell a lie it came out for about half an hour this afternoon before the thunder and rain:)
Anyway here is my offering for this challenge:

The colour is not as vivid in real life, it seemed to get brighter as I took the photo! The EF is a Tim Holtz one with Mustard Seed DI. The die is a Memory box one and the sentiment is created with my Xyron digital printer and cut out with an SU label punch. Hope it's CAS enough for the challenge!
Thanks for taking the time to look and I love to read any comments you may leave:)

MMM colour wheel challenge!

Hi everyone well I usually look forward to Mondays to see what the new challenge is over at
 Make My Monday but this month is proving difficult for me! The whole month is based around the colour wheel and this week we have to use secondary colours of PURPLE, ORANGE and GREEN. Not a colour combo that immediately springs to mind:) Well this is what I came up with and I'm afraid that there is only a hint of green to be seen!

Recipe:

Square base card

Coredinations card with punched edge

Little Claire Designs butterfly border with 2 decoupaged

Promarkers

Sentiment same stamp set

Green brad and glitter

Here is a close up of the butterflies with their green glitter!

Thanks for looking and please let me know what you think!

Addicted to Stamps week 4 colour

Hi everyone and welcome to week 4 of our new challenge blog Addicted to Stamps. This week it's a colour challenge and the colour is BLUE.  I hope my photo shows that my card is blue as my sister thought it was gold!

Recipe:

Base card covered with Anna Griffin paper

Edges distressed with Pumice Stone DI

Stamps: Mixed Bunch and punch

Su ink Pool Party and Baja Breeze

Marianne die

We'd love you to join us this week , there is plenty of inspiration from the DT so pop over to Addicted to Stamps and check it out. 

Less is More week75 colour

Wow the tennis was amazing!! I was listening to it all the time but kept popping into my craft room where I was rearranging everything, although at one point my desk was stacked about a foot high:)
It's a colour challenge this week at Less is More and Mandi and Chrissie have asked for 'Gold'.
I had quite a few ideas and I was able to create a card quicker than last week!
Here is what I came up with:

Recipe:

DL base card

Embossed gold mirri heart

embossed pearl heart

punched flowers

SU Live your dream stamp

SeeDee sentiment/gold ink

gold pearls

Thanks for taking the time to visit and I love to read your comments:)

Acetate!!

Hi everyone and welcome to this month's challenge at Creations by Gill McCall. The challenge is to use acetate on any project you like. Not my favourite medium to work with but here is what I came up with:)

Apologies for the poor photo quality but the acetate glares  in the exposure!
This is a sort of stepper card and the acetate is attached to the front and back which prevents it from collapsing!

the butterflies are from a  Joanna Sheen cottage garden cd and printed on acetate.
A couple of punched strips and a few punched flowers decorate the front edge.
The sentiment is stamped onto an SU label stamp

The large flower was punched out 3 times and layered up with a brad.
Pearls are added to the butterflies and the punched flowers.




Please check out the rest of the DT cards for inspiration and hopefully you will join us in this challenge. Just remember you need to be a follower of Gill's blog to be considered for the challenge, good luck!

Less is More week 75 Lucky dip

Afternoon from a sunny Enfield and some great tennis! Gosh I'm really late with the LIM challenge but nothing came to mind at all although each of the elements of the header were things I liked! Anyway the challenge was to create a card using the LIM header as inspiration and this is it:

I tried lots of ideas and they all ended up being too fussy and it's fatal to look at everyone else's cards as you end up plagiarising someone's creation! Trouble was I was trying to use all the elements in the header and I don't think that was the idea:)

Eventually I was playing around with Craft Artist and this is my final attempt. I was quite pleased with it although the background looks a bit yellow in the photo and it's definitely more kraft like IRL!

I printed out the ornate frame, cut out the centre, fussy cut it ,added a few pearls and popped it up with silicone glue.

Thanks for taking the time to visit and I love to read any comments you may leave:)

Addicted to Stamps week 3 Christmas in July

Welcome everyone to our third challenge at ADDICTED TO STAMPS! This week our challenge is Christmas in July and hopefully it will encourage you to start your Christmas cards early:)
Here is what I came up with:

Recipe

Darice EF

SU Pines and Poinsettias stamps

Little Vermilion stamp

Leaves from SU bird and branch punch

Shabby shutters DI

Please check out the wonderful creations from the DT and good luck with the challenge. Remember to check out the housekeeping rules to be in with a chance:)

Make my Monday week 55

Hi everyone it's a new month at MMM and Mynnette has chosen the Colour Wheel as the theme for this month's challenges.

 This week we are to use only these three primary colours with  white or cream as a neutral.
These are not colours I'm particularly comfortable with but I quite like my card now it's finished!

Recipe:

PB stamp

Promarkers

SU and Coredination cardstock

Martha Stewart punch

Gems

Thanks for taking the time to look and hopefully leaving a comment so I can visit you:)