Make My Monday week 54

Well it's lovely going away for long weekends but it shortens my crafty week  and then It's all a bit of a rush and I'm posting cards everyday!!
The continuing theme over at MMM is still June and Associated Events and this week Jacqueline wants to see RED WHITE/CREAM and GREEN to celebrate the start of Wimbledon.
I was a bit stumped for inspiration but eventually came up with this:

The main image is a very old Rubbadubbado stamp, stamped with Wild Wasabi and the lily is painted with a water brush and Rose Red. I added some glitter to the shading. The tree inside is a Papermania Oriental stamp as is the bird. The sentiment is an old SeeDee one. The dark card is actually green coredination card although it looks very dark in the photo.
I'd like to enter this for the Fashionable Stamping challenge this week which is 'nature', thanks to Lynne for telling me about it:)

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

Less is More week 73 Recipe

Hi everyone, well I'm back for 3 days then we're off to Portsmouth again on Friday :)  Charlie is thriving and having found his voice he gurgles and squeals and has us in fits of laughter!
The LIM challenge this week is PAPER PIECING and I have chosen a Darkroom Door stamp for my image.

The image is stamped in black Memento three times, once on the base card and then on brown Anna Griffin and flowered paper from my stash. I paper pieced the jacket and the basket of flowers. Also the stamp in the corner.

Thanks for taking the time to visit, I love to read your thoughts on my cards:)

Addicted to Stamps week 2 Bingo!

Morning everyone and welcome back to ATS and our second challenge. We had some fantastic entries last week and Kylie will be posting the winners very soon.
This week we have a Bingo theme and it gives plenty of choice as you can choose any line, vertically, horizontally or diagonally.

Come and see what I chose to do, hope you like it! 

I picked the left vertical row, Flowers, gems and ribbon.

I've used Anna Griffin cardstock punched with one of her punches and attached to a white base card. 

The flower was stamped and punched out using my new SU Mixed Bunch stamp set and matching punch and with a brad to hold them together. The label is from the SU Labels stamp set and matching punch and they have all been inked with Perfect Plum. I've added a couple of pearls and threaded ribbon across the card.

We'd love you to join us in this challenge but do read the housekeeping rules! 

Good luck with the challenge and do check out the inspiration from the rest of the DT.

Scrapbook challenge

Morning all and welcome to our first scrapbook challenge at Addicted to Stamps. This will be a monthly challenge and they can be hand or digitally crafted.
This month the challenge is CELEBRATIONS with BUNTING. All my scrapbooking is done digitally with some decoupage and using Craft Artist. There is a free download HERE and it can become very addictive as it's a doddle to use:)
This is a layout with my grandson Charlie as he was waiting for his very first swimming lesson. He's just 14 weeks old!!

Hope you'll play along with us in these new challenges we'd love to see what you come up with and please check out the rest of the DT's wonderful layouts:)

Fantasy

Hi everyone, wow it's been a bit busy this week trying to get all my challenge cards  and a scrapbook project done as we are off  to Portsmouth tomorrow having just got back from Somerset on Monday!
The LIM challenge this week is to create "something shiny", although at first glance panic set in as I thought we were having a football theme ......aaaah! and over at MMM it is A Midsummer Night's Dream.
So I have combined the two and this is what I came up with:

It's difficult to photograph anything shiny or glittery so apologies if you can't see it!

I sponged Mustard Seed and Spiced Marmalade DI , stamped the fairy in grey versamark and embossed with clear EP. I stamped some Chapel Art ferns in the same DI and  added glitter from the wand and on her wings. Some dry embossed lines and a pearl in each corner finish it off. I have not added a sentiment as it's for one of my great nieces  and will have to have a few more embellies:)

Hopefully by now you will be thinking about joining in our first challenge at Addicted to Stamps, we'd love to see your cards and help us to make this challenge a success:)

Thanks for taking the time to visit me, I love to read your comments and visit your blogs.

Addicted to Stamps week 1 Make your Mark

APOLOGIES EVERYONE I HAVE POSTED THIS CHALLENGE 12 HOURS EARLY!!!!AT LEAST YOU HAVE A HEAD START:)

Morning everyone and welcome to our very first challenge at Addicted to Stamps. Our first challenge is called Make your Mark and we would like you to create a card using alcohol markers.
I decided to go with a fairy type theme using a Polkadoodle stamp and here it is:

Recipe:

Tim Holtz EF distressed with Pumice stone DI

Memory Box die cut so the window opens

Polkadoodle stamp

Promarkers

Flower punch

Pearls

We have a few housekeeping rules:0

1. Please make sure to link back to the POST your entry is contained in NOT your whole blog
2. Please mention Addicted to Stamps in your blog with a link back to the challenge so others may join in
3. In order to be considered for the awards, you must link your entry before Tuesday 11.59pm AEST
4. Please do not backlink - all entries must be new
5. You may combine up to 3 other challenges
6. You may enter more than once provided each entry is different and abides with the rules of the challenge
7. Please turn off Word Verification for ease of commenting on your blog :)
8. We reserve the right to remove any links that do not comply with the Challenge rules

Please pop over to see the rest of the DT cards  and hopefully you will be inspired to join us :)

Many thanks for taking the time to visit me and I really appreciate any comments you leave so that I can visit you.

Stampin Up extravaganza

Back today from a weekend in Somerset visiting my sister Karen, and I'm sure she won't mind me saying that the best bit was the Stampin Up extravaganza on Saturday! This is the 4th one I've been to and oh what a heady rush of craft it gives you:)  Jenny Moors is the Stampin Up demonstrater and she organises us to create three different projects during the day. We made three cards, decorated a tea caddy and made a fabulous (at least I think so) box frame and a small gift bag.

 The middle card is a diorama card and the tea caddy came with Dorset tea bags:)

The stamping in the box frame was all done with the Bright Blossoms set which we received as a gift from Jenny!

Check out Jenny's blog and you can see more photos of  our day and a display of her cards.  Can't wait for the next one in November:)

 Hope to see you all on Wednesday with the first challenge from  Addicted to Stamping.

Thanks for taking the time to visit me and I'd like to welcome my new followers, Jacqueline, Kylie and Sally.

New challenge on the block!

Hi everyone just a quick post to tell you about a new challenge that is starting next week called
ADDICTED TO STAMPS CHALLENGE and even more exciting KYLIE has asked me to join her on the DT!!!!! Please check out her blog and hopefully you will join us in this new venture:)

Crafty Cardmakers challenge no 70

Hi everyone this is a new challenge to me but there is some brilliant inspiration from the DT that I thought I'd have a go:) The criteria is to make anything as long as it's not a card, tag or ATC.
I was going to make a bookmark, love them don't you, except I'm reading a very long book on my Kindle at the moment so it wouldn't get used! So..... I suddenly remembered that I had instructions from the amazing Vicky on how to make a house album and decided to have a go and here it is:)

 The roof gets taken off and the greeting goes inside and when you undo the ribbon photos are on each side of the house.
I stamped the walls to have a faux clapboard effect and the flowers and grasses are an assortment of stamps and I trailed roses around the door.
Thanks for taking the time to visit, please leave a comment so that I can visit you:)

Make My Monday week 53

Wow Monday's come around real quick when you're retired and having fun!!  This is the second week of  MMM                          JUNE AND ASSOCIATED EVENTS 

This week the challenge is to create a Father's Day/ Masculine card.                         
I had already made two cards, one for my son Dom to give to his dad and one for Keir congratulating him on his first Father's Day. I'll post those further down just in case they see the post because they would not be bothered to read it all:)

I was going to make a card with ties on and then I saw a card on the CardMaker newsletter and decided to CASE their idea and here it is:)

All the instructions are available on their newsletter and are easy to follow as I have just proved :)

                                                                                   Recipe:

                                                                          White base card

                                                                        Anna Griffin paper

                                                                          Walnut stain DI

                                                             Freebie stamps from a  magazine

                                                    

Now here are the other two cards I mentioned earlier, both created on Craft Artist and personalise for the recipients.

This one is for my OH from Dom. Jim has been doing loads of decorating this past year and various odd jobs around the house and we thought this image was perfect and I just added his head on and decoupaged it!

This one is for Keir on his first Father's Day and he's doing a brilliant job! I love this photo of Charlie and I think the text matches his expression:)

Again crafted on Craft Artist with some decoupage.

Thanks for staying with me on this rather long post and hopefully you will leave me a comment so that I can visit you!

Less is More week 71 one layer

Morning everyone, wow 2 days without rain!! Is this a record?:) Anyway back to crafty things and the LIM challenge this week is a ONE LAYER one and Chrissie and Mandi want us to use FLOURISHES. I had a couple of ideas which turned out to be total rubbish and eventually came up with this which I'm reasonably happy with but it's not a wow moment:)

Recipe

Stamps are SU Everything Eleanor

Sentiment Darkroom Door

Inks: Baja Breeze, Marina Mist & Pretty in Pink

Liquid Pearls

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

Less is More week 70 Colour

It's the first LIM challenge of the month which means it must be a colour challenge.

On this day of all days in the UK, there could be only one choice of colour and that is...

RED WHITE AND BLUE

On this day all those years ago in 1953, Queen Elizabeth II was crowned... and Chrissie is not the only one to remember it! We didn't have a TV and watched it in my grandparents house, in her bedroom actually as she was unwell!

I bought a couple of craft magazines last weekend and they were full of freebies which had to be used and here is what I came up with.

recipe:

Freebie bunting stamp from Craft Stamper

Free Papermania BP

Free Papermania sentiment stamp

Anna Griifin crown stamp

Embossed edges

Pearls
I'm also entering this card into the One Stop Craft Challenge and
the MAWTT challenge

Thanks for taking the time to visit my blog, it's much appreciated and I love to hear what you think!

MMM week 52

There's a new theme over at Make My Monday and this month it's

JUNE AND ASSOCIATED EVENTS 

Jacqueline has chosen it and this week she wants to see a

BIRTHDAY CARD WITH PEARLS.

I love pearls and have gone a bit mad ,certainly not down the CAS road!!!

Recipe:

Sweet Pea BP

Anna Griffin BP

Polkadoodle stamp

Punch

Hand rolled flowers

Marianne swirl die

SU inks

Pearls

Sweet pea diecut sentiment

Well it's 5pm here and the sun has just appeared. I succumbed this morning and had to turn the heating on, it was freezing!! So apart from a lovely Jubilee evening with friends on Saturday it's been a crafty weekend :)

St Luke's Charity Cards Challenge

Hi everyone hope you are all enjoying the Jubilee weekend, albeit a very cold, wet and windy one here in London! The St Luke's challenge is one that I keep meaning to join in with but have only managed it once. The challenge this month is FURRY ANIMALS. I have some House Mouse stamps that have hardly been used so I thought I'd use them and this is the result :)

I used PM's to colour the image and matted it onto blue card. The base card has a strip of paper from my stash and the sentiment is a diecut from Craftwork cards Sweet Pea pad.




Enjoy the rest of the bank holiday and I'd like to welcome Sally my latest follower.

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:)