Addicted to Stamps & More

Posting on a blog every week just shows how fast my life is disappearing! How I ever found time to work I will never know:)
 Here we are again at ATSM and this week we want to see STAMPING and that includes DIGI / CLEAR or RUBBER.
This week we are sponsored once again by Joanna  who is offering this wonderful  prize to the winner of this challenge -

$20 GIFT VOUCHER

Stamping is my first love and it's how I started crafting:) Come and see what I created this week:

I used a CI stamp and a fern from Chapel Art. I was inspired by Becky who did a tutorial on creating depth with stamps. 

I stamped using the 2nd stamp image with Bundled Sage DI and stamped on top with Stormy Skies DI. I stamped the little butterfly from the stamp onto card and fussy cut them out and popped up on the card for dimension. The sentiment is a WOW one.

I do hope you'll check out the amazing inspiration from the DT on the ATSM blog and play along with us this week. I look forward to visiting your blogs:)

Less is More week 108-paper piercing

Well the snow didn't come to anything, thank goodness, I think it was too cold!!!! This week's challenge over at LIM towers is for PAPER PIERCING

We want to see some tiny holes dotted around on your creations this week ...

I have to admit to a struggle with this one, it was either very simplistic or definitely over egged!!

Anyway I settled on this although I'm not that happy with it.

 The EF is a Darice Christmas one but I made the robin into a blue tit:) I sponged a little Stormy Skies DI around the edges and matted onto dark blue card. I paper pierced some musical notes and the sentiment is an old  SeeDee one.
Thanks for popping in on such a cold night and I'd love to know what you think:)

The Crafty Crimper!

Hi there everyone from a very cold  London town! Hope you are all safe and warm and keeping well. The current letter for the Alpha challenge over at the Craft Barn is H. Now for those that know me this was a no brainer, come and see the word I chose:

Here is the definition but I have to say my clients usually turned out a little more stylish than these!!

I covered my page with acrylic paint and the stamp is a Judikins one that is part of a vintage set. I decided to add some texture and tried to create ribbon curls, not altogether successfully:) The hairdryer I drew on card and coloured and cut out and the scissors are a metal embellishment that I gilded. I am enjoying altering this dictionary but wish I had managed to get a hardback as it's so difficult to make it stay open for decorating and taking photos!

We popped down to Portsmouth yesterday for a lunch date with Charlie! He almost ran up the hallway with his new shoes on:) Doesn't seem 5 mins since he was only taking up half the Moses basket! He was in great form and we had a wonderful day, I can't believe he will be a year old next month.

Thanks for visiting and hopefully leaving your thoughts and I'd like to welcome Aussie Annie who has very kindly decided to follow my blog.

Addicted to Stamps & More-theme

Morning everyone and welcome to a new challenge here at ATSM. This week we want to see VINTAGE and  our fantastic sponsor and Guest Designer is

JOANNA MUNSTER FROM INSPIRED BY STAMPING

Joanna is offering this prize to the winner of this challenge -

$20 GIFT VOUCHER

PLEASE DON'T FORGET TO READ OUR RULES HERE SO YOU ARE IN THE RUNNING FOR THIS FABULOUS PRIZE!!

Come and see my vintage card:)

Recipe:

Prima BP's

SU punch

Flourishes cut on my Silhouette

Stamped lady from vintage SeeDee

WOW sentiment

Embosslits buttons

Liquid pearls gold

paper pricking

Pop over to the blog to check out the DT inspiration and to read the housekeeping rules so that you are in with a chance to win Joanne's fabulous sponsor prize:)

Up, up and away!!

                                     Hi everyone just a quick post for this weeks LIM challenge:

For our theme this week we have chosen
Up in the air
For this we would love to see aircraft, rockets, balloons etc, although if you have none of this sort of image then we would like to see how inventive you can be with the theme.

                                                                  Come and see my card:

 I used a stamp from Stamp Addict vintage set which has images from Leonardo Da Vinci and I made a masterboard. I stamped using black memento and coloured with SU Crumb Cake and Marina Mist. I cut up the board into squares and mounted them onto my card and scored around them for definition. The top square is double embossed and popped up on foam pads. The sentiment is a freebie from Craft Stamper and I cut it into a flag shape and added a dotted trail with a pen.
Thanks for taking the time to visit it's always appreciated.

E is for ELEPHANT!

Hi everyone, just a quick post to show my altered dictionary page for the Craft Barn challenge. The letter this week is E and I have chosen ELEPHANT.

Recipe:

Distress inks

Indian cube from Judikins

Die cuts and gem 

Thanks for visiting, I'm off for quiz night at our local and a nice meal beforehand, Happy Valentine's to you all :)

Addicted to Stamps & More-Bingo!

Hi everyone and welcome to a new challenge at ATSM. This week we have a bingo challenge for you and are being sponsored by

Clear Dollar Stamps

There is an amazing range of goodies over here! The wonderful Cassie is offering the winner of our challenge an amazing $15 gift voucher!!! 

Here is our bingo card and you can choose any line, horizontal, vertical or diagonal, just let us know which one!

Come and see which line I chose:

 I chose Paper piece, Pearls and Love. The stamp is an old one and I have no name for it, but I stamped and paper pieced her with scraps and rolled a little rose for her hat. The swirls around the image are pieces fussy cut from an embossing folder, softly inked and with liquid pearls for highlights. I also added liquid pearls on the hat and as a necklace. The sentiment is a WOW one and finished with a heart gem
Please check out the ATSM blog for the DT inspiration and I look forward to visiting your blogs to see what you have created. Good luck with the challenge:)

Less is More week 106-one layer!

Oh no, it's snowing again!! I hope this is the last of it, every time I arrange a visit to my SIL in Kent it snows. Oh well better pack a shovel, blankets and some supplies:)
Anyway this week it's a one layer challenge over at LIM towers and they want to see music in some form or another. Unfortunately Mandi is no longer continuing as she has to concentrate on her new business but Jen is staying on full time with Chrissie and that is good news.
I wasn't sure what to do and sat for ages looking at a bare card knowing that I didn't have much in the way of musical stamps. Looking through my EF's I found this Darice one and inspiration struck!

 The sentiment is an old SeeDee one and I had a musical note stamp that I stamped on shrink plastic and used them as little embellishments. I added a tiny dot of gold on each of the candles.

Thanks for visiting me and hopefully leaving a comment:)

At last!

Hi everyone just thought I'd share a couple of pics of my completed kitchen and the extension which is being painted next week. That is going to be my dining room and with the tri fold doors I'm hoping for some good weather this summer:) The builders have been with us since 1st October, except for a short Xmas break so they are almost family now!

 We spent all day washing and finding new homes for all the kitchen paraphernalia that makes me think I have enough to start a catering college! Fabulous to have a dishwasher again and it's been going non stop since this morning:) And it's so quiet I had to stop and check it was working!

 My toaster and kettle are lime green and not yellow as they appear in the photo:)
At the moment it's pot luck if we open the right drawer or cupboard to find what we need:)




 Looking through to the new dining room, matching
 cupboards that house the freezer, washing machine,
 tumble dryer and boiler.

Doors open right back onto the garden.


See you soon with a LIM entry if I can get the creative juices flowing:) 

Happy Birthday!!

My favourite challenge, Less is More is celebrating it's 2nd birthday and apart from missing a few challenges while being on holiday, I've been there from day one:) I've made lots of blogging friends because of it and the feed back is always so encouraging. So many thanks to Chrissie, Mandi (sadly retired!) and Jen for all the challenges and the comments.
This week is a colour challenge and it's Kraft & Kreme.
This is what I came up with using two Memory Box dies and kraft and cream card.

I attached a piece of acetate to the bottom of the front, under the die cut houses and stamped the sentiment on the kraft card underneath.

My kitchen is just having the final finishing touches, it took a bit longer than anticipated but it's a Victorian town house and there were several challenges to overcome! I will post pics soon, at  the moment I just stand in the doorway and admire it:)

Thanks for taking the time to visit and you know I love to read your comments.

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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:)