I've Been Published!.......

Afternoon everyone,  hope you're all having a great Easter weekend. 

Although it's still very cold here in Wiltshire, it's quite sunny and we've managed to get into the garden and tidy up a bit!  Easter weekend is always the start of the gardening, Alan dreads it coming around, haha.....he despises gardening, but would be the first to moan if it was a mess!

Anyway enough about the weather and garden, because I've just had the most loveliest of surprises today. I've found out that one of my cards has been published in the new Craft Stamper magazine. I haven't received my mag yet,  but my lovely friend Eileen has uploaded a pic for me to see.

Here is a closer look.....

 Firstly I started off with white linen, yellow and black cardstock from Papermill....it's the only card I ever use!

The background was made with Distress inks and some Pan Pastels onto the white linen cardstock.

It was stamped with a selection from Lili of the Valley and Inkylicious then heat embossed in gold.

The tag was made with a free stamp from Craft Stamper magazine. I chopped it into 3 pieces and mounted it onto light and dark cardstock.

Before chopping the tag, I triple-embossed with ultra thick embossing powder. It really makes the colours stand out.

A few fibres through the hole, to finish it off.

Well, hope you like this card, I'm absolutely thrilled to bits that the magazine liked it enough to publish....it was even the Editor's favourite...whoohoo!

Catch you in a day or so, enjoy the rest of your weekend xx

Home from holiday and raring to go......

Evening everyone........at last, I've found time to sit down and update my blog, oh how I've missed this!!

Well, we got home last week after a fab holiday in Tenerife. Most days the temperature was over 30 degrees and we both have great tans, only problem is, it was straight back into Winter clothes...hey-ho. 

Now we can start looking ahead our next holiday in June, but before that a certain little lady will be arriving....just two weeks to wait now, it's so exciting!

Anyway, tonight I have two very simple cards to show you. I made these a few weeks ago for a craft sale, and they were the first 2 cards to sell...*smiling*

White linen cardstock from
 Papermill
I stamped and heat-embossed the sentiment..

Ribbon and pearl embellies from stash.

I think the flourish is a Kanban stamp, bought off QVC, eons ago.

Doesn't the linen cardstock look good on a CAS card?

Have you checked out Papermill's new challenge blog yet. There is an Easter challenge running at the moment, for a fab prize
Easter Challenge










Well, that's it for tonight, hope you like these two cards. I'm off to catch up on everyones blogs, I've missed so much.
See you all tomorrow,
Barbara xx

Very Last Card For Crafty Bloggers Network.

Morning all, hope you all had a great weekend.

Today's card is my very last one for Crafty bloggers Network......

The digi-image is from Just Some Lines .....I've coloured it with Promarkers

I bought some American seam binding from Ebay recently, and coloured it with inks from

 Oak House Studios

Hope you like it

Catch you soon,

Barbara

xx

Card for A Sad Occasion

Morning again, aren't the days flying by?

This morning I just want to show a very simple card made with a Fuchsia stamp from  

Lavinia Stamps

I've made this one into a sympathy card, but it could be used for many occasions with a different sentiment.

I love this stamp, it could be used with any colour ink.....I chose to heat emboss this time.

White 'linen' card from Papermill

Hope you like it. 

Catch you all soon.

Barbara

xx

Pink and Girly....

Morning everyone, hope you're having a good week so far......

Todays card is one I made for a customer, and because it's pink and girly, I decided to 'bling it up' a bit.

The corner die-cut is from Spellbinders

This piece of bling started life on a wedding invitation.

Computer generated sentiment.

The pink card is from

Papermill

Backing papers were free from a magazine.

The ribbon is from a bouquet.

Hope you like it. Thanks for all the lovely comments you've left on previous posts, I really appreciate them.

Barbara 

xx

Flutterby butterfly....

Morning all, just a quick post today, you'll be pleased to hear.....Hope you're having a great weekend....

I'm on holiday at the moment so I've scheduled a few posts to appear every couple of days. Today I'm showing a very simple butterfly card.

I've used Cosmic Shimmer spray to colour the butterfly and the middle layer.

All the cardstock is from 

Papermill 

(see how beautiful it is when inked )

 The sentiment is computer generated.

The butterfly is from Spellbinders.

I love the gorgeous shades of the mica sprays, can you see the shimmer?

A few pearls to finish off, and this was a very quick card to make.

Catch you all in a couple of days,

Barbara 

xx

First card for Papermill.....

Hi everyone, and welcome back to my blog.......last post before hols, whoohoo! It's been a horrible day here in Wiltshire, heavy rain and dark grey skies...but tomorrow I'll be lying on the beach, so all is good!

Anyway this is my first card for 

 PAPERMILL

 Their cardstock is 'second to none', in my opinion, the 'linen' and 'hammered' card are my favourites, but I love all the amazing colours too.

Why not pop over to the website and checkout all their fab offers.

 White 'Linen' cardstock and a selection of flowers from my stash.

Leaves were made with a MS punch and a Spellbinders foliage die

The corners are from Spellbinders Lattice die

Please leave a comment if you've enjoyed visiting my blog. Although I'm going on holiday, I'll still be blogging every couple of days, hope you'll be able to keep checking back.

Barbara

xx

It's Twinchie Time Again

.

Morning everyone, just a quick post as I'm rushing as usual...... today sees the new challenge at   
Show Us Your Twinchies 

The theme this month is  

Flower or Flowers

We're expecting loads of entries for this challenge, and there'll be a nice prize, although at the mo, I haven't a clue what, haha

So, here are my little creations.

 Hand-made flower, MS punch, Swiss Dots EF, and sentiment from Creative Expressions.

All cardstock from

 Papermill

Computer generated sentiment.

These are the tiny stamps on 'pegs'. Sorry don't know where they came from.

 Sunflower stamp, gold embossing powder, and inks all from 

Oak House Studio HERE

This flower was made with the 'Stitch in Time' heart stamp and inked background all from OHS, details above.

Well that's it for today, I'm off into Bath to help Adam in the shop......catch you all tomorrow. Have a great Tuesday.

Barbara xx

New Challenge at Crafty Bloggers

Morning everyone, hope you all had a great weekend, and are ready to face another week.......we're going on holiday on Friday, so I'm sure this week will fly over. I always think you need the first week of a holiday just to 'get over' all the work preparing to go ....hey-ho

Today sees the start of the new challenge at Crafty Bloggers, and this is the last month for me on their Design Team......other craft commitments have caught up with me, and there's just not enough hours in the day unfortunately. thanks to all the DT for making me so welcome xx

The theme this month is 'Spring' or 'Pastel' and we've been sponsored by the lovely Lucinda from 

Petal Lu

The flowers Lucinda makes are so gorgeous, you must pop over and check them out!

Also this month we have Just Some Lines as a sponsor, and my very last card for CBN (in a week or so) will feature one of their digi-stamps.

Right, onto my card.....

 

 

 All cardstock  from Papermill of course

Computer generated sentiment, inked with Distress Inks.

Leaves cut with a Spellbinder foliage die.

I've had this stamp for ages, but haven't a clue which company it's from, sorry.  I've coloured with Promarkers.

Aren't these flowers adorable?....don't forget to pop over to Petal Lu page and checkout all the different styles and colours Lucinda makes x 

 

 

A couple of doillies and pearls from my stash finish it off nicely, I think.

That's all for today folks......catch you tomorrow xx

New LAVINIA Challenge

Morning again, back with my second post of the day......and what a post!

Today sees the start of a fantastic new challenge blog at

 LAVINIA STAMPS

The theme of the first challenge is 'Anything Goes' and the prize is a MASSIVE £40 worth of stamps.......yes, that's right £40 !!

All you have to do is, make a card with a Lavinia stamp as your main image and link it to the challenge blog....EASY PEASY!

This is the card I made for the first challenge.

The cardstock is all from Papermill  and I've coloured it with Pan Pastels. The circles have been heat embossed with Vine Stamp then off-centre mounted onto black card. 

So, that's almost the excitement over for today......don't forget to enter this amazing challenge, still can't believe the prize is 40 whoppers!! (think how many fab stamps you can buy with this!)

Catch you all tomorrow,

Barbara xx

Last post for The Cupboard Trilogy

Morning everyone....hope you're all well this lovely Friday morning....and Happy St. David's Day to all my Welsh followers.

This is the first blog for today, but the my very last DT card for The Cupboard Trilogy. I've had to give up a couple of my DT's, owing to taking on tons more work with bigger companies, and there's simply not enough hours in the day to do it all. (thanks to Jane and the rest of the team for putting up with me for so long!)

And, of course, I want to help Adam get his shop properly on target, so that he can at least make some profit this year. It's scary knowing how much he's ploughed into this venture, so I want to be pushing him along (just like a mother should, haha)!

Anyway, onto my last card....the new challenge starts today at The Cupboard Trilogy, and the theme this month is

 'A Mother's Love'

 I've made this card in remembrance, of my beloved mam, and although she's been gone almost 10 years, I still miss and think of her every day......she was quite a character!

 Pink and white cardstock from Papermill , pink spotty paper free from a mag, and lace from my stash

Lattice plate and the flourish are dies from Cheery Lynn,  and the edge punch is from Martha Stewart.

The gorgeous paper flowers are from Petal-Lu, one of my new design team companies.....aren't they fab.

My mam liked flowers, and I took some in for her most weeks, but she always said 'Aww, what are you spending money on flowers for?'...my reply was that I wouldn't be able to take them for her when she was gone!

The funny thing is I now say exactly the same thing to my boys when they buy me flowers, not because I'm not grateful, it's just that I don't want them wasting their hard-earned money on me, when they have so much else to do with it! Alan always reminds me what I used to say to mam ;-)

Anyway, enough of this reminiscing......I'll be back later with another post, but until then, bye for now xx