Batch Cardmaking...

I'd got an idea in my head for a simple design for some 'general' cards, ones which would do for a number of occasions.  With the 'Just For You' sentiment, these are just the ticket as I've left the insides blank.

I thought I'd make a small batch of them as I was pleased with the design of the first one I made.  I'm loving the green and lilac combo.

I've got in mind to make a few batches of cards of various designs with a selection of sentiments, as I plan to put some mixed packs together in a box or folder I'll make to hold them.  I'm planning to give a few of these packs as gifts to non-crafting friends and family for Christmas, so I'm starting early !

For these cards I used a stamp from a set by Inkadinkado, Shaded Lilac Distress Ink, and Memento Paris Dusk ink.  I used a piece from a 12 x 12 sheet of doubled sided paper I had in my stash, and added a small strip of the 'other' side just under the image for contrast.  The bottom of the image layer was edged using an EK Success border punch, the sentiment was stamped directly on to the bp with Paris Dusk Ink and the pearly gems were in my stash. 

Got to think up a design for another batch now, as I plan to put at least 5 cards into each pack I give as a gift.

Thanks for dropping by, hope you've enjoyed today's project.

Planes, Trains and Automobiles

I've a fun card to share with you today - it's my DT card for this week's challenge over on Cute Card Thursday.  Our theme this week is 'Planes, Trains and Automobiles' and the prize sponsor is Simon Says Stamp.

I've had this great stamp in my stash for well over a year without ever putting ink to it - shock horror!!!  I bought it when I visited Viva Las Vegas Stamps on vacation last year, it was one of the stamps in my 'Pound of Rubber' - for just $10 it was great value.

The image is cut using a nestie die then I used Stormy Skies Distress Ink to create a sky effect, masking a few areas with cloud shaped pieces of paper.  I coloured the image with Promarkers and added some Glossy Accents on his sunnies, beachball and 'cool' surfboard, and on the windscreen and headlamps of his 'Automobile'.

I used a couple of sheets from the DCWV Pocketful of Posies pack for the background and a couple of bits of SU! cardstock to diecut the grass and seedheads with Marianne's dies.  I made the rosette from a strip of patterned paper and my Hougie Board, with a circle punched from white card and coloured with a Promarker to match the coloured image, added to the centre.

As you've probably guessed, this is for my Dad, I hope he'll like it.   

Celebrate !

As the patriotic frenzy is whipping up across the UK in anticipation of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebrations next week, I thought I'd use some of the excellent papers from the Papermania Portobello Road pack for my I Love Promarkers DT card this week.  The challenge is to use a Digi image on your project and our prize this week is sponsored by Digi Doodle Shop. 

It's often difficult to photograph an easel card, and the lightsource has made the papers on the bottom of the card look much lighter in colour than those on the top/easel section, although IRL they are the same.   I hope this doesn't spoil the effect for you.

Continuing my Jubilee style, I added some bunting and the 'Celebrate' sentiment, although by using this sentiment it does mean the card would work for many occasions.  There is rather a long list of materials and tools used, so rather than do a detailed description of how I created the card as I generally do.  I've noted them all below:

'Birdbath' digi image from Digi Doodle Shop
Papermania 'Portobello Road' 6x6 paper pack
Bunting dies from Whimsy Stamps
Memory Box 'Grass' die
Marianne's dies - fence, trailing ivy, bird
Spellbinders frame die
Nesties
Cardstock and Sentiment by SU!
Tiny leaf punch by Recollections (from the $1 bin in Michaels)
Promarkers
Picket Fence Distress Stain
Glossy Accents
Stickles
Bakers' Twine

I did warn you the list was a long one ! 

Hope you've enjoyed today's creation, do pop by the ILPM blog to check out the fabulous work from other DT members.

Thanks for dropping by today, do call back soon as I'll have more projects to share with you.

Close Your Eyes... Make a Wish

Happy Monday everyone, hope you had a lovely weekend.  Our horrid wet weather didn't last too long into the day yesterday and we did get a little sunshine, however today dawned cloudy, windy and a tad chilly.  If you are one of the lucky ones to still be basking in lovely warm temperatures, make the most of it as I think cooler weather is on the way for most of us !

Today's offering is a simple CAS card and my entry for this week's Less is More challenge. It seems that 'any shape but square or rectangular' is quite popular for challenges this week.

I haven't created a Clean And Simple card for quite a few weeks, and thought about this challenge for a while, before deciding to use a new set of stamps I purchased recently from Inkyliscous - it's their 'Dandelion Wishes' set and quite delightful.  I also recently acquired the new limited edition set of Distress Inks and used 'Shaded Lilac' to create my background and also to stamp the images (I love this shade and will most likely be using it a great deal in the future!). 

The base card was created using the largest die in a set of octagonal nesties.  I then applied the DI using an Inkyliscous brush (I've only recently tried these and I just LOVE them).  Using the same colour DI I stamped two of the dandelion stamps and the little flying seeds image. I used Memento Paris Dusk to ink up the sentiment as I wanted a slightly darker shade of ink to give the words some impact.  Finally I added a few tiny touches of Sardust Stickles on the seeds to give the whole design a 'magical' feel.

Hope you've enjoyed today's project, hope to see you back again real soon.  Sadly, I lost one of my Followers this week - not sure why but I do hope whoever you are will drop by occasionally to see what I continue to get up to in my crafty space.  Thanks for Following me for a while anyway.

 

It's not snowing, but it IS raining......

Anyone want me to send the rainclouds your way to water your gardens ?  No?  Thought not !

Today I certainly don't need to make Christmas cards to cool me down here in Cornwall.  We have dark skies and intermittent heavy showers - so unfair as I understand that the rest of the UK is still enjoying warm sunshine !   Still, wet weather means not being able to get anything done in the garden, so more time to craft ! 

The card I'm sharing today is another Christmas card to add to my stock.  I just found the Lili's Little Fairies challenge blog and as the prize is two Lili of  the Valley stamps, I just HAD to create an entry for this week.  The challenge this week is anything but a square card and here is my version.

I love this cute couple carrying their Christmas gifts - do you think they are on the way to deliver them or on the way home to put them under the tree?  I coloured the image with my Copics before cutting it out. 

I used Marianne's dies to cut the lantern shape and the tree, nesties to shape the card and cut out the sentiment layers.  The sentiment is LOTV and I smudged some Bundled Sage DI around the edges as the white card that I stamped on looked too stark against the darker muted colours of the bp.  The bp was a magazine freebie and I used a scrap of SU! cardstock for the scalloped oval layer behind the lantern.  A few touches of Stickles and Glossy Accents, some tiny red gems from my stash and Pinflair glue to pop up the elements from the background and that's about it folks. 

Thanks for dropping by and hope you've enjoyed today's creation.

WW Bling

Since returning from my wonderful vacation, I've returned to my Weight Watchers class and am trying to get motivated to lose the rest of my excess weight!

I decided to start a brand new food diary/weight loss journal to help improve my motivation, but it did look rather drab and uninspiring.  So, I decided to 'bling' it up a bit and make it more attractive to use, which should help me, also the time I spent decorating it stopped me thinking about wanting to eat something LOL 

I used up some magazine freebie papers and toppers, created sentiments on my computer and used nesties to cut out the label shapes.  Touches of Stickles and Glossy Accents added some 'bling' and the little flowers were cut using a Spellbinders die from the Persian Accents set, finished off with pink tinged clear gems from my stash.  The pretty corner embellies were also cut with a die from the same set. 

So, here's the front

Here's the back

and I made a corner bookmark to mark my place in the journal and added some inspirational text to make me think about how my day is going each time I add something on the day's page

It might seem  a bit odd to have all these yummy cakes on the covers of my weight loss journal, but my thought process was that if I am craving sweet things to eat, I could pick up my journal instead and get a calorie free sugar hit !



Hope you've enjoyed seeing my little bit of indulgent crafting, and wish me luck for when I go to be weighed next tuesday, I'm working hard to achieve at least a 2lb loss this week !  Thanks for dropping by today.

A crafting pal's birthday

This week my lovely pal Linda celebrated her birthday and this is the card I made for her.

To create the card I used a deckle edge C6 base card and some bits of double sided patterned paper I had in my 'bits box'.  The top half is actually a very pale pink and cream design, although it looks more like beige in the picture.

The wording at the bottom was stamped with Rich Cocoa Memento ink using a set of Hampton Art stamps.  I think this is great fun and would be appropriate for many cards and/or scrapbooking.

I used a Memory Box set of dies to create the rosette, a Recollections mini punch for the tiny spikey circles attached to the tape and added clear gems over the punched circles.  The sentiment in the centre of the rosette is from a set by SU! and I added just a touch of Platinum Stickles around the centre layer.  The MB diecut was a little 'fiddly' to crease up, but I think it would be easier with lighter weight paper.  The paper I used was almost thin card rather than paper as it is very thick.

Hope you enjoyed your special day Linda and managed to spend your birthday money wisely !!  I'll have to check on your purchases when we next meet up.

Thanks for visiting my bloggie today, enjoy the rest of your day.

Pink & Green Christmas

As I'm still in the mood for creating Christmas cards, my DT card for this week's challenge on Cute Card Thursday is yet another one to add to my stock.  The theme for our CCT challenge this week is 'Pink and Green' and the prize sponsor is Heather's Hobby Haven.

I love this sweet Lili of the Valley Christmas stamp and I think she looks lovely in shades of green and pink.  The base card was created using some SU! cardstock and a set of nesties to form a scalloped edge card.  I used different sizes of the dies to create the layers and cut out the image, before colouring the image with Copics.  The pink snowflakes were cut using a Martha Stewart punch and I added pink gems from my stash and Stardust Stickles to bling them up a bit.  The sparkly ribbon was from my stash and the sentiment is a stamp from SU! cut out using a matching punch. 

There's more Stickles around the scalloped edge of the image and on the star tree topper, then I added Glossy Accents on her boots to give them some dimension - although this isn't showing up too well on the pic.

I hope you like today's creation, head over to the CCT blog to check out the fabulous work by the DT and maybe submit an entry yourself this week.  I'd love to see how you interpret the theme.

Thanks for dropping by today, I do appreciate you taking the time to visit.

Christmas in May !

Well, it WAS snowing in some parts of the UK last week I understand !  I'm not doing too well with my plan to get a couple of Christmas cards made each week through the year to prevent a last minute rush.  I'm way behind schedule so thought I'd take the chance to make one for my DT card for this week's I Love Promarkers Challenge. 

Our theme this week is to include diecuts on your cards and the prize sponsor is Susie Sugar's Die Cut Dreams.

For my card I used this pretty birdhouse stamp by Lili of the Valley, coloured it with my Promarkers and used a nestie die to cut out the image.  I do love White on White (WoW) for Christmas cards so added the image over a white layer cut with a larger nestie.  The background was embossed using a snow shower Cuttlebug embossing folder to add some texture.  The trailing ivy, poinsettias and mistletoe leaves were cut using Marianne's dies and a pearl in the centre of the flowers made using a Waco Pearlmaker Pen.  The snow effect was created using Glossy Accents and Twinklets Diamond Dust, which gives the snow great dimension as the particles are larger than regular glitter.  The sentiment is from a set of stamps by SU! and cut out using a matching SU! punch.

I hope you've enjoyed today's project, I hope to be blogging more often now that I've returned from my travels for a while.

Have a great day and thanks for dropping by.

I'm baaaaack.... !

I am so sorry that I haven't been around for a while, I've just returned from a fabulous vacation visiting our family who live in Las Vegas.  I had problems with my laptop while I was away, managed to pick up a computer virus which meant I couldn't get on line much of the time.  Hopefully I have it all fixed and now that I'm home again, I hope that 'normal service' will be resumed. 

The main reason for our trip was to attend the wedding of one of our cousins and it was a most splendid event !  The wedding took place on 5 May and had a Mexican 'Cinco de Mayo' theme - even a Mariachi Band playing and lots of hot spicy food.  The venue was Historic 5th Street School which is a lovely old building with a very pretty courtyard in the centre where the ceremony took place and after the wedding breakfast we all danced the night away to a fabulous Disco.  The candles in jam jars around the courtyard were very effective.  Here are a few piccies.

Kevin and Sarah, I now pronounce you Husband and Wife...

Yummy Desserts - they tasted as good as they look too ...slurp !!!

Beautiful Bride above...



Mr & Mrs....








and below - dancing the night away....

A great time was had by all and the following morning many of us met up for breakfast with the newly weds - I can tell you that you need to take a big appetite with you if you go to the Hash House for a meal.  This was mr tom's 'small' fried chicken and waffle dish ..... !

I have loads more piccies, but I won't bore you with too many this time, I'll show you a few more later in the week.  Hope you've enjoyed seeing these few.

To the Bride & Groom

Last saturday was spent at our Cousins' wedding in Las Vegas. It was a fabulous affair and we had a wonderful time. The project I'm sharing with you today is the wedding card I made for them and is also my DT card for this week's challenge over on I Love Promarkers. This week the challenge is to include hat pins or charms on your projects and my lovely crafting pal Karen sent me some really pretty beaded pins, which she made herself, and were just perfect to use on this very special card - thanks so much Hun. 
I used the lovely romantic Lili of the Valley stamp and coloured the image with Promarkers. It's very nearly a White on White (WoW) card as I created a multilayered background using embossing folders and dies to create interesting textures. I used various Spellbinders and Marianne's dies and a Cuttlebug embossing folder.
The paper roses have been in my stash for a while and I added a little Stardust Stickles to sparkle them up a bit, also adding the Stickles lightly over the veil and dress on the image and tiny touches on the flowers. I've also added some Glossy Accents on a few areas to give some dimension. You can just see the two beaded pins peeking out from under the roses in the bottom right.
I'll try and add a few pix of the wedding before this posting goes live so you can see for yourselves how much fun we all had.
Let's see your creations using hat pins or charms, leave a link on the ILPMs blog for a chance to win this week's prize, which is sponsored by Karen - enter for a chance to win some of her gorgeous beaded hatpins for yourself - you'd be crazy not to ! 

Tree Fairy

There are fairies at the bottom of my garden... well, fairies at the bottom of my stamp stash anyway !  Our theme for this week's challenge on I Love Promarkers is... Fairies, and Joanna Sheen is sponsoring the prize this week. 

What better time to dig out this lovely elegant fairy image from Queen Kat Designs, this one's called Tree Fairy and designed by Amy Brown, perfect for this week's challenge theme.

I've coloured her with my Promarkers and set the image in the centre of a layer cut with a nestie, stamped with a matching shaped background image, which I heat embossed with some WOW! Platinum embossing powder.  I used a Memory Box die to cut a background layer which complements the shape of the embossed layer, cut from some SU! cardstock.

The peach coloured bp is from the DCWV Pocketful of Posies stack - I love this stack and turn to it time after time for pretty papers.  The lush green satin ribbon/bow is recycled, it was wrapped around the cake last Christmas and was too good to throw away, I just love the colour.  The pretty gems were from my stash.

Finally I added Platinum Stickles around the edgesof the diecut layers for a little fairy 'bling'.  Hope you like today's card and I look forward to seeing your creations on the ILPM blog this week.