Less is More week 195-Recipe

Morning everyone from a grey and rainy day in London! Can't believe how fantastic the last two days have been and now this but at least it takes the guilt out of crafting :)
I have not entered any challenges for a few weeks and I've missed the LIM ones so here goes with this week's challenge over at Less is More:

There's just one vital ingredient in our recipe this week, which is

NEWSPRINT

There can be a lot or a little, but as ever, the card MUST be Clean and Simple. Please remember that we like to see areas of white space, few layers and minimal embellishments.

Very simple and speaks for itself really! 

I will be back later in the week to show you a couple of birthday cards, once the recipients have opened them :o)

Anniversary wishes

Hi everyone from a lovely warm and sunny day in London! Hope it's good with you too. I haven't blogged for three weeks but I have been making a few Christmas cards and some birthday cards that I I can't show you just yet:) One that I can show you is an anniversary card that I made for my sister Karen for her anniversary today. Lots of you will know her from her blog, Serendipitydragonfly, and the beautiful creations that she makes. Here is the card that I made for her and Tony:

I diecut a shaped card and added a fancy die on the front with a patterned paper behind.  The edges are all inked with Spun sugar DI and the flowers are cut with Sue Wilson's poinsettia dies on co'redinations card. The sentiment is a freebie from Netty who has a lovely blog with loads of freebies, please check her out :) I attached it with a matching brad and added pearls using cosmic shimmer pva glue.

I'd like to welcome Victoria, the latest recruit to my blog, thanks for choosing to follow me:)

Less is More week 192-colour challenge

Af'ternoon all, wow it's wet and windy now after a lovely morning and early afternoon. Definitely autumnal which is very appropriate for this week's challenge over at Less is More:

For our Colour challenge this month we have chosen 

Autumn's Bounty

Sounds kinda poetic doesn't it...

so we'd love to see autumnal shades in your cards.

Don't forget to make them CAS of course!

Love the colours that autumn represents, come and see what I came up with:

I was inspired by a card design on Loll's wonderful blog, check it out if you're looking for 

inspiration :)

The centre panel was coloured with Mustard seed, Bundled Sage and Spiced Marmalade and stamped with Walnut stain using SU French Foliage stamp. I cut two plain panels and popped them up either side of the centre panel. I decoupaged two leaves on the centre panel not easy to see in my photo!

The sentiment is an old SeeDee one stamped onto the waste card.

I am also entering this card into Stamping Sensations October challenge which is Warm Autumn Colours.

Celebrations!

Morning all we are back from a lovely weekend of celebrations in Portsmouth.Friday was our wedding anniversary (44 years!) and Saturday was my DIL Lara's 30th birthday. We were met with Champagne and a lovely meal that Keir had cooked for us and here is the card that I made for Jim:

I used a create a card die and sponged through it with lilac ink and backed it with lilac card.  The little hearts were the waste and the metal love charm came from The Works.

We went out for a lovely lunchon Saturday at a mill house overlooking an estuary with lots of swans and in the evening we babysat while Lara hosted a dinner and dance evening at a restaurant in Port Solent.

This is the card I made for Lara who absolutely loves an afternoon tea 

Created using some diecuts and freebie toppers from my stash.

We went to Finchdean on sunday for a big family lunch with all the in laws, aunts and uncles and the weather was lovely so Charlie enjoyed himself in the large garden 

This weekend was also the birthday of my goddaughter and a very good friend and these are the cards I made for them:

A bit of triple stamping using SU French Foliage stamps

Just a simple diecut card with some ink sponged around the edges

Enjoy your week and before I forget a big thank you to my three new followers for choosing to follow my blog 

Less is More week 191-recipe

Hi everyone, well it's been a lovely day here and warm as well, so no need for the heating this evening! I've been busy with a new baby commission card and a special one for my DIL for her 30th birthday next weekend but here is my first Christmas card!
This week's challenge over at LIM is as follows:

For our Recipe this week we would like to see

Mostly Words

Often a sentiment seems unnecessary and at other times the words are all you need!

This is one of those times!

I wanted to make a start on some Christmas cards and one of the dies that I bought last weekend was just perfect for the challenge, come and see:

It's a Sue Wilson die and I cut it out from the centre of the card and then again in navy card and inserted the die cut back into the card. The snowflake is cut from navy and white card and slightly offset to create a shadow. Liquid pearl for the centre.

The new baby card is a pop up box card and I struggled to get a good photo so the colours are not quite right.

I hope to have a play with some more Christmas cards this weekend so I may be back with another card for this challenge.

Have a lovely weekend 

Back in the saddle!

Hi everyone and a special welcome to my two new followers, delighted that you have chosen to follow my blog :)
We had a lovely time in Spain in a small town, Comares, on top of a mountain and this was the view from our terrace  

It was very hot for September and we took it easy, either by the pool or venturing out in the car for lunch! This was a favourite overlooking Lake Vinuela.

One of the highlights of our trip was meeting up with Florence, who I'm sure many of you know from her amazing artistic blog.We were part of the original DT on Kylie's Addicted to Stamps & More blog and arranged to meet for lunch in Periana in an amazing spot with our respective partners. We arrived at 12.30 and eventually left at 6.30 having all got on like a house on fire 

The only cultural visit was to the Alcazabar citadel in Malaga that we hadn't visited before and I was inspired to go by this amazing piece of art on Flo's blog, check it out! Here are a few pics of the citadal:

And finally one evening we were having dinner and watched an enormous harvest moon rise up behind the mountains and on the way home we saw a shooting star for the first time!

I've been busy making a card for my wonderful DIL's 30th birthday next month so you'll have to wait for that one and also a couple of commission cards but nothing I can show yet.

I had a great crafty fix on Saturday at the BSS fair at Ally Pally and managed to spend a few pennies on a couple of Sue Wilson dies and some card stock.

hopefully I will be back soon to show you some cards

Specially for Marie!

Morning everyone, I hope this is going live at the correct time as it is a scheduled post and I will be away :)
At Addicted to Stamps and More the challenge is Anything goes with an optional twist of Get Well / Thinking of you.
 But this time it is a little bit special as it is being dedicated to Marie, one of the original DT who has some health problems at the moment. As a previous DT member I wanted to join in and wish Marie a speedy recovery and I made this card in her honour:

Recipe:

EF Sizzex sunburst

Spellbinder flourish die and large label shape

Tattered Lace floral die

Very best wishes Marie, hoping to hear some good news from you soon:)

Less is More week 187-Lucky Dip

Hi it's me again after only two days, hope I didn't scare you :)
I've not entered any challenges for a while but I saw today's LIM post and it struck a chord, so here I am.

As this is a five Saturday month, we have an extra challenge for you which is always a Lucky Dip, which basically means that we choose whatever we want!!!!!

We have another song theme which this time is... 

I do like to be beside the seaside!

Anything with a reference to the sea or the beach or things nautical will be fine as long as your creation is Clean and Simple!

We are also lucky enough to have a Guest Designer with us this week and I know that this person will be hugely popular with you all... it is the inimitable

Darnell

I love anything to do with the sea and have made a few cards lately with a nautical theme so I had a look through my stamps and this is what I came up with:

The stamps are freebies from a magazine and and coloured with a water brush and SU Marina Mist and  Soft Saffron. The die is part of an Xcut scenic set.

Well that's all from me for a couple of weeks but I hope to check in now and again if the internet allows:)

More birthdays!

Hi everyone, well it's beeen nearly 2 weeks again since I last posted,  but here I am with a couple more birthday cards and a commision card to show you.
This will be my last post for a couple of weeks as we are off to Spain for a couple of weeks of sea, sun and sangria :) I hope to have a reasonable wifi connection but we are up in the mountains so it may be hit and miss but it will be wonderful!
Anyway here are the cards I wanted to show you:
Today is my eldest son, Dominic's birthday and being a writer I wanted something personal so come and see what I made:

The background stamp is Impression Obsession bookshelf, stamped and water coloured and cut and embossed with create a card decadence die. The nibs and sentiment are by Hampton Arts and it was very well received :)

This box card is for a friend whose birthday party we are going to on Saturday evening and I used an old Papermania Oriental stamp set and the flowers are spellbinders daisy die and the butterflies are SU embossibilities.

This is the commision card for new grandparents using create a card embossing die with spellbinders mats and a memory box pram die.

Finally a card for a friend whose birthday is while we are away, using papers from Debbi Moore  on a stepper card.

                                                  Adiós por ahora :)

Coolio!

Hi everyone it's been 2 weeks again since I blogged but apart from lots of birthday cards that I have to make in August I seem to have lost the urge to join in with any challenges.
I'm not enjoying the squally showers but I do appreciate the drop in temperature!
We were in Portsmouth last weekend with Charlie for his dad's birthday and we had a lovely weekend. Thankfully the weather on Saturday was brilliant for the BBQ and it was a great success.

We had a very enjoyable evening, with friends, at the theatre on Thursday seeing Dirty Rotten Scoundrels with a nice meal before hand.
So here are a couple of the cards that I have been making:

This was for Keir and cut using my Silhouette. We had bought him a new state of the art BBQ for his birthday and so this was appropriate :)

This was for a male friend using the SU wetlands stamp set which is a go to for male cards.

Today is my friend Thelma's birthday and knowing that she likes iris's I made this card using the Romance create a card die and spellbinders iris die

Finally this card is for a friend whose birthday is tomorrow and I used craftwork cards flip card and one of their pads for decoration.

Charlie is coming up for the bank holiday weekend and we are having a BBQ on Sunday as it is my eldest son Dom's birthday and we are having a bit of a do!  I have made his card but will leave it for my next post, not that there is much chance of him looking at my blog!! :)

Hope to catch up with you all soon 

Catch up!

Evening all, well I didn't get round to making a card for last week's LIM challenge but I did have a few other crafty projects to finish and thought I'd just post a few photos to show them.
Yesterday we were at our last wedding for this year and what a wedding it was! Beautiful setting, stunning bride and a wonderful day:) I made another tealight card, the last one was for Kate's sisters wedding in May, this one has a vintage, village fair theme, come and see:

Front of the box

Front of the tealight card

Inside the card

The centre tealight has a butterfly on it and during the wedding service a butterfly flew around the church, a blessing perhaps?

 The next card was a commision for a thank you card with a nautical theme and this is what I came up with:

and finally an acceptance card to a 50th birthday bash.

I didn't get many photos from the wedding but the ones I did get I have played around with in Craft Artist and this is the result:

The happy couple

Old friends sharing their day

It was a long day yesterday and so we took it easy today as we have a busy week ahead culminating in a weekend in Portsmouth for Keir's birthday (Charlie's dad).

Hope to catch up on all your blogs tomorrow:)

I'm back!

Afternoon all, wow I can't believe it's been nigh on 3 weeks since I blogged but this is the first free weekend we have had for about 5 weeks!
 Our Rock choir concert was a great success and we even had an encore:) We are on a break now and will be back singing in September.
We have been so lucky with the weather it was amazing down in Devon and of course ate and drank too much! Last weekend we were back down in Portsmouth again with great weather for picnics and bbq's:)
Anyway back to crafting of which I haven't done a lot and only have one project to show you which is a thank you box card that I made to send to our friends in Brixham, come and see:

I used Craftwork cards Harbour paper pad to cover the box and cut out some of the elements for the pop up effect. Had to use this pad it's so beautiful and of course it was off to Brixham:)

The only other thing I've been doing is a couple of scrapbook pages with photos of who else but Charlie:

I hope to be back with a card for this week's Less is More challenge and next Saturday we have another wedding and I have a card to show you then:)

Once again I'm sorry for my lack of commenting but I have been checking out your blogs and normal service will be resumed as soon as possible!!!