Make My Monday-theme-French

Hi everyone just a quick post as it's late and I need to go to bed! Over at MMM this week the continuing theme is FRENCH and this week it has to be VINTAGE FRENCH.
Here's my offering:)

Recipe;

Pearl card base

BP from stash

Script stamp & leaf from SU French Foliage

Graphic 45 image

Glitter

Hand rolled rose

Victorian Velvet DI

Sentiment created on Xyron runner

Thanks for visiting I'll be back tomorrow with a new baby card:)

Addicted to Stamps & More-CAS

Morning everyone and welcome to our 3rd CAS challenge at ATS&M. The response last week to our Halloween challenge was amazing and we hope you will play along with us again this week:)
For my card I have kept it simple with soft tones and here it is:

I started with a square base card and embossed the front with a sizzex EF which I fussy cut to show the inside of the card. The BP is from anna Griffin and the panel says Happy Birthday. I sponged a little SU River Rock over the embossing and around the sentiment panel. Three pearls as highlights.

Do check out the rest of the DT for inspiration at ATS&M and also the housekeeping rules are there to avoid your card not being eligible.
Good luck with the challenge:)

Less is More week 88-colour

This week's challenge over at LIM towers is a colour theme and Chrissie and Mandi are looking to see SILVER on our cards. It could be ink, paper, card, embossing powder, metal, a charm, whatever you can dream up as long as there's a touch of silver somewhere.

I had an idea in mind but it sadly came to a bad end! So this is what I came up with:

 How difficult is that to get a decent photo of something shiny? Not sure why there is a shadow on half of the birds face! This was the best I could get!

                                                                                Recipe:

                                                                   Square 6 x 6 card base

 Strip of embossed card with the stars glittered

SU bird & branch cut out from Debbi Moore metal magic

Peel offs

Thank goodness the rain has stopped, the builders have had to dig almost to Australia to put in pilings as the neighbours extension doesn't have any foundations!!! The footings now resemble a swimming pool, so hopefully we won't get any more rain until the cement has gone in:) Anyway it's all progress and I'm looking forward to the completed extension.

Welcome to my latest follower, thank you for choosing my blog and thanks to you all for visiting, I love to read your comments:)

Addicted to Stamps & More

Hi everyone you may have noticed that our blog title has got a little longer! It appears that there was another challenge blog with a very similar name and to avoid confusion Kylie consulted with the DT and we agreed to change it to Addicted to Stamps & More. We also have 7 fabulous new Dt members,

CAZRO

LOLL

SUE

NONNI

SHANA

FLORENCE

DANIELLE

Some you may recognise but do check out their blogs and the inspiration they are bringing to ATS&M.

Anyway back to this week's challenge which is Halloween. Lots of images around to choose from and here is what I came up with.

Recipe:

Base card sponged with Mustard Seed, Spiced  Marmalade and Black Soot

BP's are downloads

The topper is a stamped branch and digi owl coloured with Spiced  Marmalade and Black Soot

Scalloped circle mat

Sentiment created in Craft Artist

Do pop over to our challenge blog and check out the rest of the team for inspiration. Good luck with the challenge.

MMM-French theme

Hi everyone can you believe it's October already and a brand new theme starting today at Make My Monday. The theme is FRENCH chosen by Fliss and this week it's PARIS. I used the Paris collection from Darkroom Door for my card and two little stamps from the Venetian collection.

Recipe:

Darkroom Door Parisian Collection

Tim Holtz EF

Inks: Crumb Cake, Antique Linen & Stormy Sky

Check out the DT cards at MMM they are fabulous!

Just a little update on my building works, a large trench has appeared and in his excitement my OH nearly fell in taking me with him! He was a bit sad to see his homemade shed, known as the Tardis pulled down quicker than it went up:)

Thanks for taking the time to visit it's much appreciated:)

Less is More week 87 Lucky Dip

Does anyone remember the song "Eve of Destruction" by Barry McGuire? I'm feeling a little like that song as my house feels like it's been turned into a grotty bed sit and worse to come tomorrow! I'm probably over exaggerating :) but we are having an extension which starts tomorrow and they are going to pull my utility room down to do it which houses my washing machine, tumble dryer and fridge freezer.  The dish washer I can live without, well I have two men in the house, but the washing machine is vital so that has been plumbed in where the dishwasher was and the fridge freezer stands proud in the middle of the kitchen! The dryer and dish washer are sitting on a board on top of the bath! Good job we're not short of bathroom facilities:) Roll on November.

Anyway I digress and here is my card for the LIM challenge this week which is Love and Marriage.
I tried a couple of things that I wasn't happy with and this is the final result which I feel is a bit ordinary but decided to post in case things get difficult during the building work:)

I couldn't get a decent photo to show the colour which was Spun Sugar would you believe! I think the close up shows it better.

Recipe:

Square card blank

Strip of swiss dots embossing

Sizzex hearts stamped with an old CS freebie, so old it's rubber with foam back!

Pearls

Sentiment is a bespoke stamp made for my son's wedding.

Thanks for taking the time to visit,I love to read your comments

Christening

My son Dominic sprung it on me today that he is to be godfather tomorrow to his friend's little boy, Dylan. So a card was needed pretty quick! His present to Dylan is a  complete set of the tales of  Beatrix Potter so I thought that could be my theme. This is what I came up with:

 I saw a pocket card on Jacqueline's blog with a tutorial and thought it would make a nice card. I printed out Peter Rabbit from some clip art that I found on the internet and also a matching BP. I cut the BP to cover the front and the back corner and cut two tags and popped the images up so that the ears can be used to pull the tags out. I used a sizzex alphabet die to cut the name and added glossy accents to Peter's jacket on the front.

   

 This photo is self explanatory and shows the inside and the tags in full view. 

Thanks for taking the time to visit it's much appreciated:)

MMM vintage theme week 4

Morning everyone from sunny north London:) This month's theme over at MMM has been vintage and this week they have asked to see vintage TRAVEL. I love anything vintage, including my OH! and find old postcards fascinating so I decided to base my card around them.

The BP is from K & Company and I have layered up some pieces and distressed them. The tag is distressed and torn and stamped with images from Darkroom Door. The ship is from a set of images that I downloaded ages ago and don't know where from!! I cut and shaped the image and covered it with glossy accents.
Thanks for taking the time to visit, I've got to run now as I'm off to aquafit:)

Less is More week 86-recipe

Oh dear tooooo much choice!! This week over at LIM TOWERS Chrissie and Mandi's theme is to Take 3 Challenges. This means we can look back to all 86 challenges and take any  3 and make a card. As I said too much choice so I decided to just make a birthday card for a friend knowing that it would be bound to cover the criteria, and so it did! Come and see:)

 I used the Tied together Couture EF to make a panel and I punched a strip for the edge with an Anna Griffin punch. The butterflies are a WOW build a butterfly stamp set stamped in SU Baja Breeze and with glitter added. the sentiment is also WOW and I added glitter to the edge of the punched strip and to the centres of the crosses on the EF.
So I covered:
Week 43 Bit of Bling
Week 15 Embossing
Week 16 Butterflies

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

Addicted to stamps-theme

Hi everyone, lordy, lordy what's happened to the temperature! It's freezing here but at least it's stopped raining and I've had a lovely weekend with Charlie who hadn't forgotten me since last week:)
Our challenge this week at ATS is a theme and we are asking to see cards depicting SPRING. The DT have created some fabulous cards and I hope you like my card this week:)

I decided to make a tri-fold shutter card and keep it fairly simple. I used cream cardstock and a piece of paper with butterflies and flowers which I think is quite spring like.  I cut out some of the butterflies and flowers and popped them up for dimension. The main flower is a stamp from SU Mixed Bunch, inked in Pretty Pirouette, Certainly Celery and Rose Red and punched out with leaves from the bird on a branch punch. The sentiment is by WOW.

I do hope you'll play along this week, we love to visit your blogs to see your cards.

I'd just like to welcome my latest follower, Jean and thank you for choosing to follow my blog:)

Good luck with this week's challenge!

Addicted to Stamps Bingo challenge

Hi everyone this is our 3rd BINGO challenge at ATS and I don't know about you but I really like them! There is so much choice, although I suppose that, in itself can cause problems:) Anyway here is the bingo grid :

So usual rules apply, you can create anything by choosing any line from the grid, either horizontal, vertical or diagonal. Just try to avoid using anything from the other lines.

Now come and see what I made by using the middle line of Grey (ink & card), Free (flower) and Square ( fleur de lis squares).

My base card is a very pale grey and I stamped the flourish from Everything Eleanor in versamark  Smokey Grey. The fleur de lis die is new and I had to have it having seen a lovely card on Lynne's blog. I cut two sizes and turned one on it's end and sponged pumice stone on the centre. I made the flower after being inspired by Vicky's post the other day, check it out, it's really clever:)
I hope you like my card and will want to play along with us at ATS this week.Check out the rest of the DT cards they are amazing:)

Make My Monday-vintage

Wow I was sorry to miss last week's theme which was vintage wedding at MMM. Did you see the cards, they were stunning! This week the theme is vintage childhood.

 Recipe:

Square base card

Coredinations embossed with Couture Creations EF

Digi image downloaded not sure where from and coloured with PM's

Fleur de Lis die
Anna Griffin hardware stamps

Distress inks
Pearls

Thanks for visiting I love to read your comments:)

Less is More week 85-theme

Well here I am, a little rusty after a fortnight of no crafting and hoping for some inspiration for the latest LIM challenge. Chrissie and Mandi have asked to see OVALS somewhere in a project.

Recipe:

White A6 base card

SU Crumb cake cardstock

Oval scallop punch

Papermania stamp from Japanese set

Promarkers

Pearls

WOW sentiment

Memento black ink

Off to do some perusing and commenting on the LIM entries, thanks for visiting me, I love to read your comments:)

Bonjour!

Hi everyone thought I'd just pop by to say hello having returned last night from holiday in Brittany. We had a wonderful time, being able to see Charlie all day, every day and the weather was pretty good too:) The pool and jacuzzi were a great hit with us all! I have been keeping an eye on blogger and checking out all your fabulous posts but didn't comment as I was a little busy:)

I had some fab news though as I won the wonderful card that Sylvie made for C&C with Joanna Sheen's stamps and I got a prize for my seaside postcard that I entered into Crafty Cardmakers challenge. I won $10 to spend at the Digi Doodle shop which was fab for me as all their stamps were reduced to $1 each because sadly they are closing. 

The last exciting news I had was that one of my cards is going to be published in Craft Stamper magazine in the readers gallery!! Not sure which month but you can be sure I'll let you know:)

Thought I'd throw in a couple of holiday photos before I make an attempt at the LIM challenge.

Bye for now:)

Addicted to Stamps - Make your Mark!

Here we are again (hopefully),another scheduled post as I'm still away! This week we are back to the Make your Mark theme at ATS and hoping to see more fabulous creations from you:)
I have just treated myself to a Michael Powell stamp and used brushmarkers and a water brush to create this card.

I stamped it twice and cut out the middle three beach huts and layered them up although it's not that visible in this photo. The centre panel was matted onto lilac card and the sentiment is from WOW.

Looking forward to seeing what you come up with and good luck with the challenge:) Do check out the DT cards on the blog they are wonderful!

Addicted to Stamps- sketch challenge

Morning everyone, I hope this post is successful, cos as you read this I am on holiday in Brittany:)
Apologies for not commenting as usual but I'm probably relaxing in the pool or the jacuzzi with a glass of wine!
Anyway I digress, here is the sketch we'd like you to use for this week's Addicted to Stamps challenge:

I thought it would be an opportunity  to make another Christmas card so here is my take on this week's challenge:

Recipe:

Square green card blank

Papers form Bo Bunny

SU Pines & Poinsettia stamp set

I hope you'll pop over to the ATS blog for more inspiration from the DT and I'm looking forward to see your fabulous creations!

Less is More week 82-recipe

Hi everyone just a quick post as I'm busy getting ready for our trip to Brittany! The LIM challenge this week is a recipe and it's 3-2-1  So the idea is to have 3 of something, 2 of something and 1 of something on your card.
Here's what I came up with:)

My recipe is 1 girl, 2 words and 3 pearls. The stamp was a freebie with a magazine and I paper pieced the dress with Anna Griffin paper and added a little glitter. I popped up the flowers so technically I suppose that counts as 3 as well! The sentiment is a WOW one and the pearls are from Meiflower.

Thanks for visiting and I'd like to welcome my latest follower, Jean and hope you will continue to visit:)

Addicted to Stamps theme-CAS

Hi everyone and welcome to this week's challenge at ATS which is CAS. We want to see clean and simple designs with lots of clear space and minimal layers and embellies! For my card this week I was inspired by Vicky who makes the most amazing cards.

I masked off a central panel with post its and stamped the centre with Crumb Cake and Chocolate Chip using a selection of stamps from the Spiced Paisley set. I stamped an extra image, added a brad and  popped it up for a little dimension ( shh.. mainly to cover a smudge)! The sentiment is a WOW stamp stamped in Crumb Cake.

Pop over to the ATS site for more inspiration from the DT and I do hope you'll play along with us this week:)

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!