Fairies and Angels

 

Happy Thursday dear Reader, hope it's a good day for you.  My heart goes out to all those poor souls who lost everything when Hurricane Sandy passed through their neighbourhood and especially to the families who have lost loved ones to the storm.  Watching the pictures on TV makes me realise just how fortunate I am to live in a part of the world which isn't in a hurricane belt.

As it's Thursday we have a new challenge starting over on the Cute Card Thursday Blog and this week our theme is 'Fairies and Angels'.  Our prize this week is sponsored by Love to Stamp.

I selected this pretty fairy for my DT card, she's called 'Snow Queen' and is from Lili of the Valley.  She came to live with me just before I left for my recent vacation so hadn't been inked until now so I just had to use her for my design. 

Now in my book fairies can never have too much glitter, sparkle and bling and so there's lots and lots on my card !  Sadly the light was so bad when I took the picture that the lovely sparkle you see IRL looks dull and white on the image above.  I've added a close up shot as the sparkle shows up more clearly on it.

I coloured the image using my Copics and used some pretty papers in traditional Christmas colours from a magazine freebie paper pack, layered over SU! red cardstock.  Recently, I haven't been adding lots of layers to my designs and the layers I have used were cut with fancy shaped dies.  So, I've gone back to basics and used simple squares and rectangles, leaving the image and embellishments 'centre stage'.  The Christmas tree, poinsettias and mistletoe fronds were cut using Marianne's dies and the tub the tree sits in was cut using the basket from a Memory Box bicycle die.  IRL the Stickles on the flowers and tree are just sparkly with the colour of the cardstock showing through, not white as it appears in my pic.  The sentiment was created using a SU! stamp and matching punch.  The gold centre in the flowers was made using my Waco Pearl Pen.

Do pop over to the CCT blog and check out the fabulous creations from the rest of the DT, who knows you may even be inspired to submit an entry yourself ! 

Thanks for dropping by to check out my project today.

A New Nest ?

 

Friends have just moved into a brand new home and I wanted to make a card to send to them.  As I was working on the design I realised I had followed the sketch for this week's challenge over on the Simply Less is More blog, so this will be a second entry from me this week.

For the background I once again used one of my favourite techniques 'direct to paper' using Tumbled Glass Distress ink.  I wanted to create an impression of windows and I think it worked !

I then used Marianne's dies to cut out the bird on branch and the little birdhouse using SU! Garden Green and Cherry Cobbler cardstock.  I created the sentiment on my computer and matted that over a scrap of CC card before attaching it using PinFlair glue to raise it a little off the base card.

I hope our friends like their card and I think I'm safe to publish it today as I don't think they have internet access sorted yet, so won't see it on my blog before they receive it.

Short posting today, I'm busy getting organised ready for my trip to my Dad's tomorrow.

On the way to recovery...?

 

After a reasonable night's sleep last night, I woke this morning with the design for my card in my head so I'm guessing I am at last on the road to recovery.  Still deaf in both ears and coughing but hope the nasty germies are on their way out now.

I used the Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Collection Autumn Blueprint set of stamps, I just love these images and couldn't wait to play with them once they'd come to live with me.  My crafting pal Kathy bought them during one of our fun days out in Florida recently, when we visited 'Whim-So-Doodle' in St Petersburgh.  I'm not sure if I just missed them on the display or if Kathy picked up the last one, but I managed not to put a set in my basket that day - how could that happen !  After seeing her set when we got home, I knew I had to get a set for myself.

I've followed the sketch on this week's Simple Less is More challenge for the design, although I have turned it and moved the squares slightly, so I'll be entering my card.  I stamped part of three of the images from the stamp set using Rich Cocoa Memento Ink on to white card which I then distressed with Scattered Straw and Vintage Photo Distress Inks.  The image layers were matted on to a layer of khaki coloured cardstock and I used a Dark Room Door sentiment stamp for the sentiment, again stamped in Rich Cocoa.  The tiny leaves at the end of the sentiment line were stamped with a peg stamp by Judith.

Well that's the last of my energy used up writing this post, so I'll be taking a rest now and hope to have another creation to share with you soon. 

Pumpkins ? Guess it must be Halloween soon then !

I don't have one of my own creations to share today, these fabulous pumpkins were carved by my talented Niece and Nephews, aren't they fabulously spookyliscious ?  In my last post I said I'd let you see this year's pumpkins, so here you go.  

Thanks for dropping by today.

Getting cracking with my Christmas cards...

 

Christmas is rushing towards me and I've realised just how few cards I've already finished, so thought I'd get busy with creating one to share with you today.  I'm still suffering badly with the cold/flu germs I managed to pick up on the flight home from my recent vacation and feeling very sorry for myself.   Hopefully I'll be feeling a little better soon and more able to get crafting.

I'm entering this one for the Rudolph Day challenge over on Sandra's Stamping for Pleasure Blog.  There's a prize of a sweet Penny Black stamp up for grabs, so well worth entering I think. 

I thought I'd go with 'simple' for the design but as there are quite a few elements I don't think it would be classed as Clean and Simple (CAS).   I've used my cute Sizzix/Hero Arts set of stamps and matching dies again for my card and SU! Pear Pizzaz and Cherry Cobbler inks to stamp out the images before cutting them out using the dies.

The sentiment is from a set by Lili of the Valley and I tied a length of red bakers' twine around the card to give the trees and reindeer something to 'stand' on.  As a finishing touch I stamped the smaller snowflake three times across the bottom, added red gems over then some Stardust Stickles, to make them sparkle a little.  I also filled the hearts on the sentiment with the Stickles and added Glossy Accents to give the reindeer shiny noses. 

A nice simple card, but I'm pleased with the result.  Hope you like it.

BOO ! Something Scary

 

'Something Scary' is our theme for this week on Cute Card Thursday and our prize is sponsored by Stamp Fairy.  You don't need to have a Halloween theme for your entries, we just want to see something scary.

This is the first DT card I've made since I went away on vacation the first week of September, I can't believe how fast those weeks have gone.  My Mojo was more than a tad rusty so I had to dust it off and kick start it into action go get this one done. 

The folks in the USA really 'DO' Halloween big time over there and as we were getting towards the end of our stay, more and more of the homes in the neighbourhood were starting to put up their spooky decorations.  One of the homes even had what looked like a full size graveyard installed in their front lawn and I know that everyone from babies to grannies (and even the family pets !) dress up and party on 31 October over there as it's such a huge event. 

Here's a pic I took on a trip to Old Wintergarden, wandering through a backstreet I came upon this great old building all dressed up for Halloween - that huge spider was very scary !!!

Halloweeen's still not quite as popular in the UK but become more so each year I think,  I always keep a plastic pumkin filled with Trick or Treat goodies for anyone knocking on our front door to dip into that evening.  My Nephew carves a fabulous pumpkin every year and when he gets this year's done I'll maybe share a pic or two with you.

Now, back to my DT card.  I used a couple of Halloween Themed stamp sets for the images, one by Reflections (the brand name of Michael's Stores' stamps) and the other by Hampton Arts, don't you just adore that 'bug-eyed' bat ?  I think he's just gorgeous LOL.  The orange background layer is SU! cardstock and I stamped the Boo! all over it using the matching SU! ink pad, the black and purple were bits of card from my stash.   The hat was coloured with Copics and I added Stickles on the 'blingy' buckle so the gems look more like gems sparkling away. 

I can't wait to see your interpretations of this week's theme - do drop by the CCT blog to check out the fabulously scary Design Team's creations.

Thanks for dropping by today. appreciate it !

Vacation Crafting - I'm Back......

Hi everyone, I'm now back home in Cornwall after having a fantastic trip to Florida.  We were so fortunate to be able to use our friends' home in Orlando for our month-long stay,  and the trip was made even more special by having our Son join us for the last two weeks.

My regular readers will be aware that it has been my habit in recent years to either knit or crochet a blankie whilst I am away.  This means I am able to fit a little crafting in whilst I'm away from home to prevent me getting craft-starved and also I have my own warm blankie to snuggle under during the flight home.  I received the pattern in a FaveCrafts newsletter a while ago and thought it would be a great project to work on during my vacation as each leaf shape is knitted separately then stitched together.  I took the pic in the Florida Room of the home we stayed in which overlooks a small lake (complete with it's own pair of alligators ! although they are still fairly small at the moment).  We saw one or other of them 'slinking' along in the water most days and it was fascinating to watch them and the other wildlife in and around the lake.  I wasn't too keen to get very close to the waters' edge though as I wasn't exactly sure how big the 'gators actually were and didn't wish to find out !

There were some really fabulous highlights of our trip - one of which was to be standing in the Kennedy Space Centre whilst the latest SpaceX Dragon 9 Rocket was launched on it's way to the SkyLab Spacecentre. 

It gave me goosebumps of excitement standing there in the dark (launch was at 8.35pm) listening to the launch countdown over the tannoy.  It was so fabulous to see the dark night sky turn as bright as daylight as the full force of the rocket engines fired for lift off, feeling the deep rumble through the ground and up into my body and hearing the roar of the engines, even though we were 4 miles away from the launch pad.  The red light from the burning fuel was almost too painful to watch with the naked eye as the rocket made it's fairly slow progress directly up and up until it was so high it passed from sight.  A really amazing experience which I feel so priviledged to have witnessed. 

Another breathtaking experience was watching a fabulous sunset from Key West.  The second pic was taken a short while after the first, the sky was changing colour and the cloud pattern changing for around half an hour - it was magical to see.

I am happy to be home again now though and reunited with my craft stash - plus I have all the new goodies I acquired in Florida to play with of course !  I'm also looking forward to meeting up with my crafting pals after such a long time, although it was fun crafting along with my pal Kathy (Purple Princess Diaries) whilst I was in Florida - thanks for sharing your table of craftiness with me Matey. 

Hoping to have some cards to share with you in the next few days.  Thanks for dropping by today.

A little light stash acquisition

Sorry I've not been around much for the past few weeks, I'm currently on vacation in Florida and have very little access to the internet and hence, my blog.

However, my great crafting pal Kathy is also out here and we've managed to find time to do a little stash shopping and crafting - luckily our OH's get along well so they've gone off and done stuff together leaving us with time spend at the table of craftiness.

Today we took a trip to Lakeland to one of my favourite crafting stores Violettes, then on to Hobby Lobby, Michaels and finally Jo-Ann's.  Getting back mid afternoon meant we had a little crafting time and I created this entry for the Simply Less is More challenge launched today, which is a one layer card featuring 'wings'. 

My 'white space' is the kraft base card and I used a set of Dylusions stamps and Memento Inks with touches of Stardust Stickles to highlight bits of the images.

Here's me driving the 'Beast' (aka Chevrolet Surburban) that we rented for our stay (bit big in'it ? heee heee ) and you can just see Hobby Lobby in the background.  I need a stepladder to climb inside it and it has three rows of seats - great fun to drive though and just like sitting in an armchair !

This is likely to be my last post until I'm back in 'Blighty' as I'll need to pack up my new stash and try to squeeze it into the suitcase.  See you all when I'm back.

Talking of Fabric.....

 

I seem to be doing a lot of that lately, talking of fabrics that is, and not just talking about them either !  I do believe I've become a tad obsessed by gorgeous, luscious and pretty fabrics since I began dabbling in the world of Quilting.

In my mind's eye I have a fabulous project in mind for these gorgeous Batik fabrics which just happened to jump into my basket recently - oops however did that happen !  I've re-discovered my love of sewing and am thoroughly enjoying my quilting journey. 

With luck I may have some pix of the early stages of my project to share with you soon, watch this space.......