Cornucopia!

Hi everyone and firstly apologies for lack of commenting on your blogs but we were away for a few days in Portsmouth, then we had a funeral and lastly back and forward to the kitchen suppliers! I'm hoping it will all be finished tomorrow except for the flooring.  Anyway back to crafting, I have made a card that hopefully covers both challenges this week over at Less is More and Make My Monday.
LIM have a sketch and MMM want a male card so this is what I came up with:

Recipe:

A6 brown base card

 Judikins vintage background and keys

Wow Sentiment

SU Marina Mist and Chocolate Chip

The Craft Barn have an ongoing Alpha challenge where they select a letter and then you can alter a dictionary by embellishing the word that you choose. The letter this week is C and I have chosen the word CLASP.

I inked the page with DI's and the stamps are from Anna Griffin hardware set. Thanks for taking the time to visit and hopefully leaving me a comment:)

Addicted to Stamps & More-sketch

Hi everyone and welcome to another sketch challenge at ATSM. Lots of crafters seem to like a sketch as it gives you the basic structure for your card and we have  a nice simple one for you this week.  We are also sponsored once again by the amazing Bugaboo who are offering 7 free digi stamps to the winner of this weeks challenge.



As you are probably aware you can turn the sketch on it's side or change the shapes as long as the finished card is a take on the sketch. Come and see what I came up with:

Apologies for the bad photo but I tried everything to no avail! The base card is pearlised, which always appears pink in my photos. I took a smaller piece of navy card and punched a scallop out and using the waste as my guide, I stamped a design on the base card using Su Botanical Blooms and Wild Wasabi and Marina Mist inks. The butterfly is from SU Live your Dream and I added a couple for some dimension. The sentiment is a See Dee one on a Just Rite diecut label. The ribbon was off a present and finished it off.

Pop over to the ATSM blog for more inspiration from the DT and I hope you will join in the fun this week:)

Addicted to Stamps & More-CAS

Morning everyone and here we are again! Another week gone and more fabulous entries for our Black and White challenge last week, so inspiring to see all your cards.
This week at ATSM it's a CAS theme and you know that means, clean and simple with limited embellies!
Again our sponsors are the amazing Bugaboo stamps who are offering 7 digi's from their store!

I couldn't resist one of their snow globe stamps and thought I'd make my 1st Christmas card of 2013!

Come and see:

I embossed the base card with snowflakes and added a Memory Box snowflake corner top right. I printed out the snow globe twice, on navy and white card. I cut out the snow and added it to the navy card. I added a few glitter highlights and there we are:) 

Do pop over to the blog and check out the rest of the DT cards and I'm looking forward to seeing your wonderful cards.

Friends again!

Evening everyone, I hope you are all safe and warm and not too inconvenienced by the snow. It has been snowing here since late yesterday afternoon and the roads are pretty bad, still it's a good excuse to craft:) I couldn't believe it when I saw the theme for this week's Less is More challenge, Friendship. The last cards I posted on Friday, one was for the Stamping Sensations challenge of Friends!!
I don't have much in the way of stamps with appropriate images for this challenge and the one I did have, which is a polkadoodle one, I couldn't get a satisfactory outcome with my PM's! Back to the drawing board and this is what I came up with:

 I embossed a cupcake on the Ultimate Pro twice and cut it out. I paper pieced the case part and added a band and bow. The cake top was added with pinflair and decorated with some waste dots from my cropadile and the cherry was coloured with PM and glossy accents. The sentiment is from Polkadoodle and cut out with a Just Rite die and sponged with Victorian Velvet DI.
Thanks for visiting and hopefully leaving a comment:)

Friendship

Hi everyone from a very snowy London town! Looks beautiful but makes getting around pretty difficult. Still I've no plans for the weekend except to try and get rid of all the dust and dirt that has come from the kitchen refit and do some crafting:)
It's my best friend's birthday tomorrow and the card I made is appropriate for the challenge over at 
Sir Stampalot. The theme is FRIENDSHIP and this is what I came up with:

 Recipe:

Black ribbed card stock

SU Crumb Cake and Baja Breeze ink

SU Everything Eleanor stamps

Just Rite matching stamp and die, 

 I ghost stamped the sentiment which makes it look a bit blurred in this photo but it says True Friend.

Black ribbon

Liquid pearls

I was inspired by a fabulous card on Sylvia's blog and cased it for a birthday card for another friend on Sunday. This fits in with the MMM theme of Diecuts and punches so I am entering my second card this week for their challenge:)

Recipe:

Aperture cut in base card with Labels 18

Frame cut with same die and attached with foam pads

CI stamp 

Black Memento ink

Victorian Velvet DI

Memory Box poppy

WOW sentiment

Pink pearls

Thanks for taking the time to visit and hopefully leaving a comment:) Stay safe and warm

Less is More at Make my Monday!

Hi everyone I am glamping in my sitting room with a microwave and horrible "ping" meals! My kitchen was ripped out and rewired on Monday/Tuesday and new ceiling and plastering today. It resembles a WW2 bunker but will look fabulous, I hope, when it's finished:) Luckily it was choir tonight so a nice Italian meal was on the cards for me and my friend.
Anyway enough of that I have two cards for you, one for the LIM challenge of Exercise/Sport and one for MMM-diecuts and punches,come and see:

LIM

This was a freebie stamp from ages ago,stamped in grey versamagic and the sentiment is a SeeD one. I scored two lines and added a narrow grey ribbon between them. Opposite corners I rounded with a corner punch.

MMM

I used a Memory Box die and added some highlights to the windows. I stamped some trees to add some interest to the base card which was from an old DCWV Far East pad.

It was -3 coming home this evening and we are promised snow for tomorrow evening but at least you know how to dress for this weather and talking of clothes I'm off to the V&A tomorrow to see the Hollywood collection. Looking forward to see Scarlett O'Hara's dress:)
Thanks for visiting and hopefully leaving a comment:)

Addicted to Black and White

Morning everyone and welcome to a new challenge at Addicted to Stamps and More. We were delighted with all the wonderful entries to our Nature challenge last week and I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with this week:)
Once again we are sponsored by the brilliant BUGABOO stamps and they are offering  a pack of 7 digi's from their store!.

Our theme this week is BLACK and WHITE and using one of Bugaboo's amazing stamps this is what I came up with:

I chose this lovely Hummingbird stamp and decided to make an easel card with it. I punched out some small flowers and added liquid pearls to the centre and set them around the circle. I added black liquid pearls to the flowers in the centre of the image for some dimension. The stopper for the easel is an old sentiment stamp from I know not where and I added a black bow.

Please check out the inspiration from the DT on the blog and I'm looking forward to seeing your cards and visiting your blogs:)

Desecrating dictionary's!!

Hi everyone, well I obviously spoke too soon, it's freezing cold and very grey here today and they're promising snow for the weekend! I hope they are wrong  brrrr..........
Anyway back to the matter in hand or rather the book. Over at The Craft Barn they have a new challenge for 2013 and it's called the ALPHA challenge. Basically it is to alter a dictionary with stamping or collage according to the letter that is chosen for that week, and this week it's V.  Check out the blog for all the details as you can choose to make a journal or tag instead. I popped into a local charity shop to get a dictionary and this is what happened:)

I had to take 2 photos as the book was too heavy to stand without me holding it and then I couldn't see the word that I was depicting. Hopefully it's fairly obvious that I chose Violin! I spread some acrylic paint over the page and started stamping. The violin, composer and music background are from Stamp Addicts vintage range and the individual notes are from an old freebie set. The words are also an unknown alphabet set. I tore and distressed some music and added it along with a heart and red brad.
Thanks for taking the time to visit and maybe leaving a comment:)

Make my Monday Dry embossing

Oh how fabulous to see the blue sky and sun today, hope it was nice wherever you are too:) Just a quick post to show the card I made for this week's challenge over at MMM. The theme is dry embossing, come and see what I made:

Recipe

5 x 5 base card

Sizzex EF

SU Young Vermilion stamp

SU punched branch

Fern cut on my Silhouette

WOW sentiment

various DI's

Ribbon

Thanks for taking the time to visit and hopefully leaving a comment:)

Addicted to Stamps & More-Nature

ERROR Just realised I've posted this 24hrs early!!! You now have an extra day to produce a magnificent entry for our challenge;)
Happy New Year everyone and welcome to our first challenge of 2013 at Addicted to Stamps & More! We have some exciting news for you our amazing sponsor this week is Bugaboo Stamps!!!! They are generously offering the winner a pack of 7 digi's from their store!!!

Our theme this week is NATURE and it's nice to be making something other that Christmas cards:) I also got to play with some crafty goodies that Father Christmas very kindly bought me, come and see:

I scored the lines on my base card with the SU scoring board that my sister bought me for my birthday, the die is Labels 18 and the poppy is a Memory box die. I used SU Crumb Cake to add colour and the sentiment is a freebie from Creativity magazine.
Looking forward to seeing your take on the theme and good luck with maybe winning the digi's!
Do check out our challenge blog for more inspiration and our housekeeping rules.

Less is More week 101-Colour

The beginning of a new year and the beginning of a new month means one thing at "Less is More" and that is a colour challenge and for this time we have chosen 

BLACK and WHITE 

with a touch or a splash, a hint or suggestion, a dab or a  patch of 

a colour of your choice!

The idea being that the black and white are predominant and the added colour is subtle.

How does that roll with you?

This is how I rolled!!

Recipe:

Square base card

3 layers of Labels 17

SU Live your Dream stamps

Pink glitter

I may be back with another idea, using more crafty pressies:)

A warm welcome to Katina, thank you for choosing to follow me.

Less is More week 99-100 recipe

Hi everyone, I hope you all had a great Christmas and are looking forward to a happy and prosperous New Year. We thoroughly enjoyed sharing in Charlie's first Christmas and he just loved the boxes! Knee deep in toys and all he wanted was an amazon box to sit in:) He looked cute in his Santa outfit!

I got some nice crafty bits and pieces that I will be playing with soon.
Anyway back to the LIM challenge which is spread over two weeks, thank goodness!

This challenge will last for two weeks over the festivities and we have decided to start our Christmas celebrations with a whizz and have chosen

DRINKS 

as our recipe.

You can choose tea, coffee, water, sodas, alcohol of course if you wish, in fact any drink at all... but all of us...Chrissie, Mandi and Jen would like to wish all of you a very Happy Christmas and a prosperous and healthy New Year.

Cheers!

I don't have a suitable stamp and so I thought I would have a go at some word art on the computer, come and see:

I used Craft Artist to manipulate the words that I created in different fonts. I matted it onto pink card and hand wrote the sentiment. I drew the glass and added a gem for the cherry. The embossing is a flourish folder that I thought resembled bubbles.

Thanks for visiting and see you all in 2013!

Make My Monday-bingo

Hi everyone I wanted to join in the fun again at MMM with their bingo challenge but although I'm reasonably happy with my card trying to get a decent photo was a nightmare! I used pearlescent cardstock and DI but the colours came out really weird in the photo, come and see!

This first one is a better photo but doesn't reflect the colour

This is a better colour shot but looks as if it's floating as I put the card on it's side and then fiddled with it in picasa!

Anyway I used the diagonal line of Flowers, dry embossing and Distressing.
The EF is by Darice, the stamps are from The Stampman inked in gold and coloured with PM's and the ribbon is seam binding. The DI is Milled Lavender.

Thanks for taking the time to visit, see you soon:)

Less is More week 98-Anniversary

Yippee, I'm back in my craft room! Did you miss me? Just joking but it's been 10 days since I posted anything but the inspector has been and I'm allowed back amongst the electrics. I have to say it's been worth it, I'm loving my extension but I have to wait a bit longer for my kitchen to be refitted as the builders have another job in between.
Anyhow back to crafting! this week's challenge at LIM Towers is an Anniversary theme. Anything appropriate but not necessarily with the word on the card. I was so excited about being able to produce a card that I probably overdid it so I hope it qualifies as a CAS card! Come and see:

 Recipe:

6 x 6 square base card

Fleur de Lis die

Cherry Blossom EF

Liquid pearls Petal Pink

Victorian Velvet DI

WOW sentiment

Sizzex heart

We have a busy week ahead, last minute clearing up as Charlie is arriving on Thursday for Jim's birthday (a special one) and there are things all over that can now find a new home in the extension:) Then we are off to stay with them in Portsmouth for Charlie's first Christmas.

If I don't catch up with you all I hope you have a wonderful Christmas and New Year.

Hope you like the new background, I couldn't resist it:)

Less is More week 96-colour

Hi everyone, a very short post as I nearly missed this week's challenge at LIM! It appeared so simple but I couldn't get my head around it and I had lots of other cards to make for various friends and family.

A new month, a new challenge, a new sponsor!
We are delighted to have
MY MUM'S CRAFT SHOP
as our Sponsor for December

Do check out their supplies... and their service is second to none!

You knew it would be a colour challenge, we wonder if anyone guessed correctly!

We won't keep you in suspense any longer... it's

RED & GREEN

Very seasonal, very traditional...  what novel ideas will emerge this week?

           This is what I came up with after counting how many more Christmas cards I needed!

Poor photo I'm afraid, the script looks so faded and it's not IRL:)

Recipe:

Square card blank

Stampendous stamp 

Red ink

Green core'dinations

Gems and bow

Apologies for not commenting on any cards in this challenge but I'll do better next week:)

Use your markers!

Morning everyone and welcome to another week at ATS&M. This week it's time to sit down and do some colouring in:) Our challenge is called Make your Mark and you can make anything as long as you use markers for colouring. My card is another Christmas one as I'm taking every opportunity to ensure I have enough:) Come and see:

It's a very quick card using one of Sheena's stamp sets, coloured with Marvy pens and a little added glitter. I popped the sentiment up for a bit more interest and added a few gems.
Check out the blog for the rest of the DT cards, there's great inspiration to be had! I do hope you'll play along this week I'm looking forward to see what you create!
Good luck:)

Self indulgence!

Morning everyone, I've had a lovely morning being waited on as it's my birthday! Lovely presents too, a gorgeous canvas with photos of Charlie on from Keir & Lara, perfume from Dominic, new boots from my DH and an SU scoring board from my sister :) Can't wait to play. We are still waiting for Charlie's christening photos that were taken by my DIL's uncle so Lara dressed Charlie up again and I just had to share it with you, especially Viv!! The second one my SIL took on the day.

Make My Monday-Autumn supplies

Hi everyone glorious day here but absolutely freezing!! This is the last week of the Autumn supplies theme at MMM and this week they want to see RIBBONS & BUTTONS.
I chose to use the CI stamp that I got as a gift  from Craft Stamper and my new Die-namic bow die, come and see:

Recipe

Green pearl base card

CI stamp and SeeDee sentiment

Mustard Seed, Bundled Sage and Spiced Marmalade DI

Die-namic bow die

SU embosslits button die

Thanks for looking and I hope you are all warm and dry!

Addicted to Stamps and More-sketch

Morning everyone and welcome to this week's challenge at ATS&M.

 We are excited that we are being sponsored this week by 

                                                     

and they are offering a rubber stamp prize!

 It's a sketch to follow this week and if you need inspiration pop over to the blog and check out the rest of the DT cards. Here is the sketch:

And here is my card.

Recipe

Green card base matted with paper from a Prima botanicals pad

SU bird and branch punch

Ribbon, flourish and gems.

Birthday cut with my Silhouette

Good luck with the challenge and I can't wait to see what you create.

Bling it on!!

Guess what it's raining again! Yesterday was gorgeous, thankfully, as we were performing at the Hampstead Christmas festival for the turning on of the lights. We sang for 30 mins and had a great reception:) After browsing all the fabulous Christmas stalls we went for a meal at a very nice French bistro and found ourselves sharing space with Shrek and Princess Fiona (from the West End show), Jon Culshaw and Sean Bean! Just an ordinary day!
Anyway back to this week's challenge over at Less is More.
                                               

For the recipe this week, we'd like you to include 

Glamour and Glitz

By that we mean something to include glitter or bling, something that twinkles, sparkles or shines. (Mandi would love this one, in fact she probably chose it!)

Recipe

5" base card embossed with flourishes

Topper is a freebie stamp coloured and glittered and matted onto green card

SeeDee sentiment

SU punch

Pearls

Can I just welcome Suzi as my latest follower, much appreciated:)

Make My Monday-Autumn supplies

Morning everyone another quick post this time for MMM. The ongoing monthly theme is  AUTUMN SUPPLIES and this week we are to use VELLUM.
There is also a sponsored prize this month so well worth entering the fun!
Here is my offering this week:

My base card is a 6" square of brown card and topped with some printed vellum that I've had for years! I think it was from QVC. I punched a label with pale green card and matted it onto brown card. The vellum ferns were cut from the same vellum using a Crealies die with an added dragonfly gem.
Hope you like it enough to leave a comment so that I can visit you:)

Less is More-week 94-theme

Hi everyone from a very wet and windy London town! I've had to make a few quick cards as it appears the builders want to invade my craft space to tap into the electrics! HELP!!!! So I may be MIA for a few days :(
Anyway back to this week's challenge over at LIM towers. It's a theme week and they have chosen

HARDWARE

This could include a variety of things, but most probably it will be  something made of metal!

It could include, brads, charms, eyelets, clips, staples, pins, studs etc.

If nothing fitting this description appears in your supplies, faux hardware will probably suffice... as long as it looks good!

I had several ideas and ended up making 3 cards! Definitely got the GOETTER bug:)

This was very quick and easy with some torn paper edged with white ink and a metal seahorse which is actually the National Epilepsy badge that I got for donating to one of my students that suffers from it. Old SeeDee sentiment to finish.

This was a digi image fished out of my scraps bag, matted onto black card and decorated with a press stud. The flourish is from SU Everything Eleanor, another quick card!

This last card was my first idea, using an Anna Griffin stamp from her Hardware set, (appropriate) embossed with silver and a tiny metal key and heart attached with a brad. I searched everywhere for these charms and only found them this morning in the safe place that I had put them! The sentiment is handwritten as you can probably tell:)

Thanks for taking the time to visit I hope to return the favour!

Addicted to Stamps & More - CAS

Morning all and welcome to another challenge here at ATS&M. This week the theme is CAS, which means clean and simple, not too many embellies and some white space (or coloured, if you're using a coloured base card)!
I was inspired ages ago by a card on Rosemary's blog, check her out she makes the most amazing cards, and this is my version of it!

Recipe:

A6 base card

Flourish embossing folder

Freebie Craft Stamper butterfly

Glitter and liquid pearls

WOW sentiment

I do hope you'll join us this week, pop over to the blog and check out the rest of the DT cards, they're always inspirational! Good luck with the challenge.

A perfect day!

Glorious weather, wonderful service, friends and family and a perfectly behaved grandson! Charlie's christening was a lovely day and went off with out a hitch. He looked so cute in his outfit and I'll post photos when we get them. In the meantime this is the card I made for him, it's a star card and I made a matching box for it.
                                                                                                  Front of star card

 This is the box lid

 

Thanks for putting up with a proud grandmother's ramblings and apologies if I've missed visiting your blogs, it was a very busy weekend:)