Less is More week 69 Recipe

Morning everyone, where's the sun gone? It's 10 degrees cooler today as well! Well here I am at last with my card for this week's challenge at Less is More. The criteria is to make a shaped card, neither a square or a rectangle. Sounds easy but I've tried several things with no success mainly because it should have white space on it and mine were getting pretty full up :))
So this is what I decided to submit, thinking that enough was enough!!

 This is a very old digi image from TLC  and was an alphabet one "H is for Hugs". I coloured the bears with PM's and cut around the image so that he stood out.
Hope the weather stays fine for the weekend and that you enjoy any Jubilee events that are planned :)

MMM week 51-colour

Well it's Monday again and time for a new challenge at MMM. The continuing theme is FLORAL but this week we have a colour theme of White, Pink and Green with floral being the main image. Love these colours and my BIL gave me two lovely hanging baskets at the weekend which sort of gave me the idea for my card. Hope you like it :)

The card base is made from core'dinations card that I cut  into a flowerpot shape and turned the top back to create the rim. I punched the edge with an Anna Griffin punch and also the strip across the centre. The sentiment was stamped and punched out with an SU label punch. The flowers and leaves are clear stamps from Anna Griffin with little punched centres and pearls and a ribbon tag to pull the message out.













I made a stand for the card which is white with a green stamped vine on it although it looks green in the photo!

We've had a very busy few days as Charlie came to visit! It was Keir and Lara's 4th wedding anniversary and we baby sat for their first night out since his birth:) We went shopping, had afternoon tea in the courtyard of a lovely hotel, visited my SIL in Kent and had a fabulous lunch in Surrey after Keir had one of those driving experiences and the weather was fabulous!!
Hope this lovely weather continues although a little less humidity and a breeze would be nice! Never satisfied eh? :)

MMM week 50

Morning everyone and what a glorious day it is here in Enfield! Supposed to be really warm today as well and good prospects for the weekend. Hope fully the forecast is right,  Charlie is coming to stay tomorrow and we have a busy weekend planned.
The floral theme is continuing at MMM but this week they would like to see:
                         'Wild Flowers and Grasses'
Here is what I came up with, I had to get it finished before Charlie arrives as I won't be crafting for a few days :)

I created a border using ferns from Chapel Art and a set from Stamps by Judith which has the little flowers on a stick stamp. The poppy stamp is a Creative Expressions one which I coloured with Bundled Sage and Spiced Marmalade cut out and popped up with pinflair. The sentiment is an old See Dee one.
Thanks for taking the time to visit I'm off to Aquafit now! Have a good day :)

Less is More week 68 Theme

I was about to say "evening all" but my sister Karen says it reminds her of Dixon of Dock Green which just proves how old she is if she can remember that!!!
Chrissie and Mandi's challenge this week is to make a card for a BABY or CHILD. Here is what I came up with:                                                                                                                               

The stamp is a very old freebie from Craft Stamper stamped onto Sweet Pea BP from Craftwork Cards and the wheel is a button from SU embosslits. I matted onto a square from the same pad and added a strip of ribbon. The strip across the middle was punched with an Anna Griffin punch.

I've had a very enjoyable week, I was asked by my ex colleagues to judge their annual hairdressing competition at college, which is an event that I used to organise. I had an email from Tando Creative asking if they could showcase the card I made for my sister and today I was invited back for a demo session with  celebrity hairdresser Gary Baker. Nice to be back in a hairdressing environment although I don't miss the work :))
Thanks for visiting me and I hope you leave a comment so that I can visit you!

MMM week 49

The MMM challenge has the  continuing  FLORAL theme but this week they want to see FLORAL with MUSIC but with flowers being the main image.
A few weeks ago I bought a couple of new EF and one of them is a music one and I had played around with it on some core'dinations card and it was sitting on my desk waiting to be used. So along with some SU Botanical blooms and Chapel Art Ferns this is what emerged.

The inks were Certainly Celery, Wild Wasabi and Perfect Plum. The ribbon is from MeiFlower as are the pearls and I popped up four little flowers with pin flair.


Thanks for taking the time to visit and please leave a comment so that I can pop over to visit you!

Less is More week 67 one layer

Well the sun is shining here today, lovely blue sky and warmer in the garden than indoors! Thought I'd get in earlier this week for the LIM challenge, so less stressful :o) No easier though, this week  Chrissie and Mandi want a

ONE LAYER CARD

This time we have the stipulation to

USE THREE STAMPS

not four, not two... but 3!

I don't mind a one layer card but sticking to 3 stamps was difficult! Which three to pick? Anyway I came up with this and may have another go later in the week if inspiration strikes!

By the way you don't need glasses, I shadow stamped the sentiment :o) 

The stamps are by Creative Expressions and the sentiment is an old SeeDee one. The inks are all SU and I added a few pearls on the blossoms.

Thanks for taking the time to visit and if you leave a comment I'll pop over to see you too!

Yellow and White

I'm really running late this week having had a lovely extended weekend and lacking inspiration! This week's Less is More challenge is     Y E L L O W and the one over at MMM is white flowers. I tried to combine the two but I'm worried there is not enough white space for Chrissie and Mandi!
So I made another one just in case :o)
Here is the first one, what do you think?                            

I used an Anna Griffin lace stamp, cut out the centre panel and mounted onto yellow card. The flower was punched out, layered up and mounted with a yellow crystal brad. The sentiment is an old stamp, stamped with the SU So Saffron, the same as the lace stamp and attached with a heart brad.

This is my second attempt, again using an Anna Griffin stamp to make a border using versamark and white EP. Sponged with Mustard Seed DI and a touch of Spiced Marmalade. A couple of punched flowers and a sentiment complete the card.

I was all ready to post my cards and the internet went down, OMG!!! Anyway it's all good now and I'm off to try and catch up with my commenting :o)

Thanks for taking the time to visit me, it's much appreciated!

The ups and downs of a Bank Holiday!

Evening all and firstly, welcome to my new followers.
 Well one of the downs was predictable, the weather! So much rain and a hose pipe ban! We were down in Somerset for a night, visiting my sister Karen as it had been her birthday, a special one, but I won't divulge which one :o)
I made a card using a printer's tray from Tando and added embellishments to reflect Karen's interests and this is the result:

 From there we went on down to Portsmouth to stay with my son and his wife and my darling grandson Charlie! He is growing fast and now we get great gummy smiles! The weather was lovely yesterday and we had a great afternoon in Wickham with a very nice cream tea!!

Kept missing the smile!



The other down was that our cat, Miney died while we were away and my son Dominic had to deal with that. He was 19 and had a good life but this is the third time that one of our cats has died when we are away and I think Dom is getting a complex :o)

 So, ups and downs,  no crafting and very little commenting for which I apologise. I must try and get  a couple of challenge cards done tomorrow if inspiration strikes.
Thanks for bearing with me :o)

DT challenge for CBGM-Stripes or spots

Hi everyone and welcome to this month's challenge at Creations by Gill McCall. The challenge this month is to use Stripes and or Spots either as a feature or as backing paper. Here is what I came up with and I hope you like it:)

 The BP is from my stash and I punched around the page with an Anna Griffin punch. The topper is a Darice EF on c'oredinations paper, sanded and distressed with Victorian Velvet DI. I used a ribbon punch between the candles and slotted polka dot ribbon through and attached to the card with silicone glue. I added material brads to the corners and  the sentiment is from my xyron digital runner.

Check out the other DT cards on Gill's blog and remember that to be included in the challenge you need to be a follower of Gill's blog and mention the challenge in your posting.
Good luck this month;)

MMM

Evening all, here we are at week 47 at Make My Monday. This is the final MEN AND BOYS themed challenge and this week the challenge is

TIME

Time, methinks for this rain to go away! We had hail the size of golf balls last night and the noise along with the thunder and lightening was quite alarming!

Anyway here in my take on this week's challenge.

The BP is from my stash, torn in half and distressed with Walnut Stain DI. The stamps are a very old Rubbadubbado one and a freebie from Craft Stamper with the sentiment. The torn watch face is from Tim Holtz EF with gold embossing and distressed edges. I made a pocket for the fob and added a chain . The words in the white river are:

Time waits for no man

Thanks for taking the time to visit and I hope you like what you see:)

Please leave a comment so that I can visit you.

Less is More week 65 - sketch

It's sketch week over at LIM towers and we have two to choose from.

"For this week's sketch we'd like you to keep to the proportions of this drawing so that there is considerable white space remaining in the finished card."
I decided to go with the square one and it's only now, seeing it in front of me, that I realise I have not placed the sentiment as the Lady Divas have specified! Drat! Well I'm posting it anyway and may do another tomorrow:)

I've used a Waltzing Mouse stamp that I won a couple of week's ago as part of Kate's blog candy. They come as semi circles that you have to match up and I stamped it 3 times so that I could fussy cut and decoupage. I added a small black bow to the centre and a gem on each corner. The sentiment is from a SeeDee set and now I just wait to get my wrist slapped:))


Last week I posted about the "fish and chip" babies and I thought I'd show you the finished jumper and beanie hat. Dead easy to make as it's made in one piece, as is the hat.

Thanks for taking the time to visit me and I hope to return the favour:)

Less is More week 64 How Charming

Morning everyone, well if you read my previous post you'll know how late I am this week, I've hardly commented on anyone's blog so apologies for that! I'll try and catch up to see what everyone has been up to:)
This week's challenge for the LIMettes is to use a charm on a card. I wanted to use some of my new stamps especially the leaves and I eventually came up with this.

The stamp is by Chapel Art and I stamped the Judikins postage stamp in Memento black and masked off the inner square and sponged Bundled Sage, Mustard Seed and Victorian Velvet. I stamped the leaves in black, cut out the squares and pop dotted them on to the ivory square card. The sentiment is a Jenny Mayes one stamped in Victorian Velvet and the charm fell off a bracelet and is attached with a heart brad.

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

MMM week 46 Birds or Animals

I feel a bit like the White Rabbit this week, late for everything! I've missed three birthdays this week and had to get some cards done quickly:) I've put it down to Granny Amnesia!!!
 Anyway more importantly back to this week's MMM challenge. The continuing theme is Men and Boys but this week we are asked to include Animals or Birds. I think we all struggle with cards for men and I'm not sure I have succeeded but I like it:)

The EF is a Tim Holtz one, distressed with Pumice Stone DI and the birds highlighted with Marina Mist.
The bird stamp is SU Little Vermilion stamped in Chocolate Chip and coloured with DI's and a water brush. The leaves are a Darice EF that I fussy cut and coloured with Versamagic Spanish Olive and the birds were popped up with silicone glue.
The sentiment is an old SeeDee one.

Hope you like it, thanks for taking the time to visit me:)

A star is born!

Evening all, I got back from a little retail therapy this afternoon to find my lovely son Dominic had solved my printer problems!!! Yeay now I can print again!
Just want to draw your attention to a plea for help to anyone who knits. I've seen this on a couple of blogs, Vicky's was the latest and it is to make little jumpers and hats for the "fish and chip" babies - babies who are sent home wrapped in newspaper as they are born into such poverty there's nothing else.  Check out the info HERE.
I didn't have any brightly coloured wool but saw some in the Range and bought a ball this afternoon. I have now completed the first side so hopefully it will be finished tomorrow. I haven't knitted for over 20 years but this inspired me to get out my needles.
Welcome to my new followers, much appreciated Jenny!
Enjoy the rest of the weekend:)

MMM week 45 Men and Boys

A late posting this week from me as my printer is still not connecting to my laptop and it's driving me mad!! The continuing theme at MMM is still Men and Boys but this week they want to see Male sports or hobbies. I really need to use my printer for digi images but it's not playing ball and I only have one set of boys stamps, an old SeeDee set which is very limited. So I rummaged through my carrier bag of scraps and found a background paper and some seafaring images that I had printed out ages ago just off the internet.
Here's the finished result which I am quite pleased with especially as this month's sponsor is Marianne Designs and there are fabulous dies to be won:)

I distressed the edges of the BP with Stormy Sky and matted it onto black card and onto a pearl base card. I punched the ship image out and matted it onto the same BP which I distressed with Black Soot and rounded two opposite corners. The rope ladder and the cord around the compass is from when we cut down the length of a wooden blind! The anchor and the knot were cut out and mounted onto the card and the sentiment is from my xyron digital printer.
Thanks for visiting and hopefully leaving a comment so that I can visit you:)

Less is More week 63-One Layer

Howdy doodle everyone, are you all enjoying the free expression challenge over at Less is More? I love all the zentangles but lack the patience for it and I've been thinking about it for days now and over complicating the remit, when a few dots could possibly suffice:) Doodling is something I've always done in meetings and even during our weekly quiz night and it is always a variation on a theme. So here is my  regular doodle although I don't normally colour it!

I used a fine tip on a Slate PM and doodled the leaf shapes and the twirls and coloured with Victorian Velvet, Bundled Sage and a water brush. I added some green pearls and the sentiment is from my xyron digital printer. It looked a bit bare so I drew a wobbly line around the edge of the card to tie it all in.
Hope you like it, please leave a comment so I can visit you:)

More goodies!!

Hi everyone thought I'd post a photo of the blog candy that I received today from Kate. Kate's blog is The Sporadic Stamper  and she creates the most amazing stamped backgrounds and cards, do check her out. The nice thing about it is that Kate was my very first follower:) I was only expecting a set of Waltzing Mouse stamps but look what else I got:)

Can't wait to try them out!
Meanwhile can I just draw your attention to our ongoing colour challenge over at Creations by Gill McCall as we'd love to see a few more of you having a go:)

A very crafty day!!

Evening all just thought I'd do a quick post to show you all the goodies I came back with from Ally Pally today. It's always a very good fair but it was made extra special today because 6 of us met up for the first time although we chat all the time on Blogger! We are all LIMETTES and we had Lady Chrissie with us!

The little black box adorned with a butterfly was an unexpected gift from Gay. She had made each one of us a little box with Post It's inside, how thoughtful was that!

L to R it's me, Gay( http://mustavcoffee-craftymusings.blogspot.co.uk/ ), Vicky(Stampin' Up ideas and supplies from Vicky at Crafting Clare's Paper Moments), Chrissie(http://simply-one-of-a-kind.blogspot.co.uk/) and Jenny(http://craftinginthecountry.blogspot.co.uk/)      Sylvie(Gibmiss) had escaped!!
All in all a fabulous day:)

MMM week 44 Vintage

Evening all I'm trying to catch up after the Easter weekend, I don't know what day it is and I'm missing my Charlie cuddles:)
The continuing theme this month over at MMM is Men and Boys and this week's challenge is VINTAGE.
There are some fabulous cards to inspire you by the DT so do check out the MMM blog.
I decided to play around with my Darkroom Door stamps, Paris collection and some DI. Here is what I came up with:

My base card is centura pearl and the edges have been distressed with Pumice Stone DI. I stamped the postcard stamp from the set with grey Versafine and the main image with black Memento ink. The Louvre and the lamp post are pop dotted and I used a gold PM to add highlights to the lamp and the signage. The smart gent is stamped on photo card and the sentiment was printed onto digital ticket stubs. I used a pricking tool to add some interest to the edges.

I had a lovely photo of Charlie at the weekend fast asleep on my shoulder and I used Craft Artist to make a  scrap layout. Thought I'd share it with you and hope you like it:)

Thanks for taking the time to visit and I hope you'll leave a comment so that I can visit you:)

Less is More week 62 Colour

Hi everyone hope you've all had a lovely Easter regardless of the weather! I've had 4 days of bonding and cuddling Charlie and it was wonderful :)
This week Chrissie and Mandi  have set us a colour challenge and it's:
                           Three Shades of Green
I couldn't think of anything inspirational so stuck to a very simple layout!

 I punched three shades of green card with an Anna Griffin punch, layered them up and attached to the side of a card base. The sentiment is from a SeeD set and I stamped it in dark green from a Kaleidocolour ink pad and pop dotted it on top of the green card. Pale green gems complete the corners.
Thanks for looking and I hope you enjoy it enough to leave a comment:)

DT challenge for CBGM-colour

Hi everyone and welcome to this month's challenge at Creations by Gill McCall.  The theme this month is a colour one and you can make anything using the colours in this photo.

 Here is my DT card that I made for the challenge.

 My base card is orange and I matted it with patterned paper that came free with a cardmaking magazine. I cut out some of the elements and popped them up with silicone glue and added little punched flowers and some pearls. The sentiment was also part of the freebies.
I hope you like it and will join us in this month's challenge. The only criteria is that you must be a follower of Gill's blog to be considered for the challenge.
Good luck:)

MMM week 43 Men and Boys

OMG thought I'd never get this card posted in time for this weeks challenge! We've had upgraded broadband etc and nothing would connect properly and my wireless printer wouldn't play ball :(  This months theme over at MMM is Men and Boys and the challenge this week is WHEELS. This is where I really needed my printer for a digi image as I didn't have anything suitable stamp wise. Anyway after a rummage I found a very old SeeDee set called boys toys and this is what I made:)

I cut a 5 x 5 card base and used the cutoff as a band edged with black and stamped with the finishing flag down the side. I stamped the car, coloured it red and silver and covered it with glossy accents. I mounted it on a black oval punched out and the sentiment is also from the same set.
Hope you like it and thanks for taking the time to visit. I may be a little busy this weekend as Charlie is visiting and I am having lots of cuddles:)

Less is More week 61 Lucky Dip

Another gorgeous day here today and perfect for the colour choice for the LIM challenge.
As it's the fifth week of the month we have a Lucky Dip and it is a Picture Inspiration using this beautiful colour combo:

I caught a little bit of the Spellbinder show with Sue Wilson this morning and was inspired by one of her creations. Here is my take on it, what do you think?                

A5 base card with rounded corners and a doily topper cut from my Silhouette. I used SU Pink Pirouette to sponge the edges and to stamp a frame. The sentiment is from my xyron digital runner. I punched out 10 branches from the SU bird and branch punch and laced them through the beaded edge of the doily. The flowers are from an xcut punch with a pink pearl in the centre. A pink heart gem finishes it off.

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

What a night!!

Morning everyone, what have you done with the sun? Typical just as the school holidays start:)
Just wanted to tell you about a lovely evening I had last night with one of my DT colleagues from Creations by Gill McCall. Naomi lives in Colorado and won a trip to London for the 3D showing of Titanic. She decided to make a holiday of it and brought her lovely family with her. We thought it would be great to meet up and take a photo for the other DT members.

We met at Brown's in Covent Garden and had a lovely meal and it was like we had been friends for ages:)







Naomi gave me a beautiful box with little gift cards inside that she had made especially for me:) Do checkout Naomi's blog as she is extremely creative and would love you to follow her.

Isn't it absolutely beautiful? I had a little gift for Naomi as well, it was not something I had created myself but a set of Papermania London stamps which I thought would come in handy as Naomi is a great scrapbooker!























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

MMM week 42

Hi everyone and here we are at the final MMM week on the  SPRING theme. I love these challenges with the same theme running through for a month but with a different twist each week. This week  the challenge is to create something involving

NEW LIFE OR BEGINNINGS

Now this could be a number of things: Easter (New Life in the church), New Baby (human or animal - think lambs, chicks or bunnies), A New Life Together or even a New Home. 

I was a bit stuck for inspiration for a while as I don't have any baby animals or religious images and my printer is playing up!! Anyway I eventually came up with this card for a new home which I hope you like:)

My base card is a pre patterned glossy card from my stash. I cut it down to 5" x 5" and folded a corner down, cut off the end and secured it with brads. I cut out a birdhouse shape, punched out flowers and the bird and branch from SU all in the piece of leftover card. I moulded the flowers and added a pearl to each centre and the sentiment is from my xyron digital runner. The little bird is from Everything Eleanor SU set.


Thanks for taking the time to visit:)

Less is More week 60-recipe

Help too much choice!! This week the LIM theme is  TAKE THREE CHALLENGES. There is a list of all the past challenges at the top of the LIM blog and you can take any three for your card.
58 to choose from help!
In the end I decided to have a rummage in my scraps bag and came up with this. I realised that whatever I created there would be at least 3 challenges that would be covered :)

The main image is a digital sentiment that I cut out and sponged the edges with Stormy Sky DI and painted the butterfly with Marina Mist SU ink. It is mounted onto card embossed with an SU EF and mounted onto blue card. The other butterflies are painted, moulded and popped up with silicone glue. All the pieces came from my scrap bag.

The challenges I used are:
1. Week 10-Sentiment only
2. Week 15-Embossing
3. Week 16-Butterflies
4. Week 56-Don't scrap it

     Thanks for dropping by, your comments are much appreciated:)     

Make My Monday week 41

Over at MMM the theme of SPRING is continuing but this week we've been asked to make a SPRING FOLD card. Coincidently I did a similar card for my DT challenge at the beginning of March.

I used mauve base card and matted some Anna Griffin paper on the base and on the topper. I cut out some of the flowers for decoupage and a large one for the centre which is two flowers moulded together with a gem in the centre. The four corners were stamped with a clarity corner stamp with versamark ink.

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

Less is More week 59-Theme

Evening all are you sitting comfortably, this is longer than usual!! Firstly this weeks's theme at Less is More is MASKING but still to be clean and simple with lots of white space. Lots of white space usually means an inky finger somewhere! Anyway here is what I came up with after a couple of other ideas went pear shaped:

The postage stamp is a very old one from Stamp Addicts as is the daisy, which is a four sided one called Carol's cube. I stamped the postage stamp in black onto the card base and then onto a post it. I cut out the centre panel and stamped the daisy in gold ink off the edge. I cut around the top of the mask and stamped another daisy. I used a water pen to colour in using SU Pretty Pirouette. I added gold glitter to the centre of the flowers. The sentiment is from a set by Sheena Douglass.
It looks slightly skewed in the photo but not IRL!





As some of you may have noticed I recently became a grandmother :)) and this resulted in us receiving congratulatory cards, two of which I'd like to show you. The first is from my sister Karen, whose blog you may be aware of, and it has a photo of Charlie on the front along with some lovely embellishments.

The next card was a lovely surprise from Christine, who lives in Belgium. We follow each others blogs and have exchanged cards once before, she creates beautiful cards and I was delighted to receive this one: Isn't it cute?

We went down to Portsmouth to see Charlie on Sunday for Mother's Day and as it was Lara's first Mother's Day I made her a card and here it is:

I've used SU papers and Everything Eleanor stamps. It resembles a shaped gate fold but when it opens the inside flap lifts up.





I used Anna Griffin punches on the green paper.

The window frame is a die and I cut the bottom off and popped it up to create a window box. The scenes is a Pilkington Lane stamp coloured with PM's. The flowers are a little punch with a pearly dot in the centre.

And here is the centre of our universe and the lovely flowers that he gave me for Mother's Day:)

Hope you managed to stay with me during this longer than usual post, if you did many thanks for your time:)