My lovely followers x

Saturday 30 May 2015

New Papermill offer and some Quick Cards....

Hi everyone, I'm back again with details of the latest 'special offer' from
This week it's a gorgeous Light Ivory pearlised paper, 120gsm (fabulous for inserts and wedding stationery)
Small box - 160 A4 sheets approx - £13.20
Midi box - 520 A4 sheets appox. - £30.00

The theme for the DT this week was  'Quick and Easy' cards, and they don't come much quicker than this.....

One die from Memory Box (Shrewsbury Stem)
White hammered & baby-pink card stock from
Papermilldirect
A sentiment stamp (company unknown, but LOTV sell similar).....
and a few gems.
FIVE MINUTES TO MAKE!



 Same die as above....
White hammered, lime green and raspberry pink card stock from
Papermilldirect.
A sentiment stamp tag,  Rangers 'Stickles', and a small piece of butchers twine.




Same as above two, with the addition of dark violet card stock.
Well, that's it for today, hope you like these simple cards, great for knocking up in a hurry.
I'll be back over the weekend with another set of 'quick cards', using a different die. Hope you will pop back then.
Barbara
x
ps....Papermilldirect have quite a few 'special offers' on at the moment, why not pop over and check them out?

Thursday 21 May 2015

Get ya sunglasses on........

Hi everyone, how's it going ? Hope you're having a nice, sunny day! I've been crafting with my friend Jean this afternoon, trying out my new Gelli Plate. The only thing we made was...... a mess! LOL
Definitely more practice needed, unfortunately.
Anyway, last Sunday Jean and I went to a workshop hosted by Visible Image, and expertly demo'd by my Lavinia Stamps teamie, Pauline Butcher. We had a lovely day.....but it passed tooooooooo quickly.
These are the projects I made......I love them!



Brusho background.
The horse in this tag and the next, were heat embossed to make them 'pop'


This is a brusho background too, mounted onto black card stock from PAPERMILLDIRECT
All stamps from Visible Image.
These are my favourite colours, of course....being a Leo!





The background on this card was created with distress inks .
The feather was heat-embossed, then 'fussy-cut'.


I love these cards, they are even more vibrant in real life.
Hope you like them too.
Back soon with a couple more creations with VI stamps.
Barbara x






I'm entering this post into the following challenges :-

Monday 18 May 2015

It's time for a new offer from Papermilldirect......

Evening everyone, these weeks seem to be flying past and it's time for another 'special offer' from 
This week it's beautiful grey linen card stock 
A4 Small Box Pale Grey Linen Embossed Card 300gsm - £4.40 for approximately 60-65 sheets
This is a colour we don't usually get into stock, and as it's linen embossed it's even rarer!
DON'T DELAY if you like it.....
Here are my DT samples....with a wedding theme for this week.
 On this card I've used white linen, grey linen and baby-pink card stock.....a corner die from Tattered Lace, and these stunning new fuchsia flowers from PETAL LU
 This card and tag are made with white linen,  grey linen and again, the flowers from Petal Lu. The border die is by Sue Wilson for Spellbinders and the sentiment is from Stampin' Up.
DON'T FORGET the very first challenge from PETAL LU is now LIVE and the theme is ANYTHING GOES......
Well, think that's about it for tonight, I'll be back soon with some new projects made at a workshop yesterday, hosted by Visible Image and my Lavinia Stamps team-mate, Pauline Butcher....It was great, I really enjoyed it....and the creations are BRIIIIIIIIGHT! so bring ya sunglasses!
Barbara xx


Friday 15 May 2015

Well, It's Finally Here.....The Very First Petal Lu Challenge!

Hi everyone, back again with news that the very first challenge from
has just gone live!
Lucinda of Petal Lu, handcrafts the most adorable flowers, which can be used on numerous projects and creations. Click on the link above to see the fabulous array of styles & colours.
Here are my DT cards for this challenge.



All card stock is from 
The sentiment is from Sheena Douglas, and I've used cream & gold flowers to tie in with the cream and gold base card.


This card was made for a little flower girl to give to the bride and groom. White and crimson flowers match the wedding colours.

This very first challenge has been sponsored by Petal Lu, (a fab box of flowers to the winner) and by
who design the prettiest of digi-stamps, as seen on the Petal Lu challenge blog HERE
Hope you like my cards ....still struggling without a craft room, so crafting is not much fun at the moment...boo-hoo!
Catch you all soon,
Barbara xx

Thursday 14 May 2015

Lots going on here.........

Well, it's done.....all the hard work on our bungalow this past few weeks resulted in a great valuation from 4 different estate agents, so as from tomorrow we'll be 'on the market'....yeah!
I'm sooooooooo missing my craft room, and hope it's not too long before we're up and away into something bigger. Most peeps downsize at our (my) age, not us, of course, we need to go from 3 bedrooms to 4 or 5....crazy!
Anyway, enough shizzle....just wanted to tell you of a few things going on......
This weeks special offer from PAPERMILLDIRECT is 
30 Sheet Pack of A4 Bright Pink Paper 160gsm

This beautiful shade of bright pink paper will brighten even the dullest day and
 is available in a 30 sheet pack from only £2.25
Pop over to the Papermilldirect website, to checkout this, and other fab offers.
Tomorrow sees the start of a new challenge blog from the very talented Lucinda of 
Lu makes all these fantastic flowers by hand....they're absolutely gorgeous. 

Checkout the Facebook page on May 15th, for more details.
And last, but not least.....Tuesday was Alan's birthday....A cousin of mine once said to him 'Alan you deserve a medal the size of a frying pan, for putting up with our Barbara'! and he was dead right.haha
This is the card I made him......Shaving foam background and Visible Image stamp.
Back tomorrow with pics from my workshop last Saturday....great fun, and some amazing creations.
Catch you soon, 
Barbara xx

 
 
 

Thursday 7 May 2015

A Gorgeous new offer from Papermilldirect......

Good morning everyone.....I have 10 minutes to blog before our busy day starts.
We have FOUR estate agents coming today to evaluate our bungalow, and there's not a speck of dust anywhere (my OCD kicked in).  Finn has been packed off to Adam's training centre, for the day,  at Avon Dog Services, so we could get rid of the last of the hair (it's moulting season...yuk!), and we're ready!
So before the first appointment, I just wanted to tell you about the gorgeous weekly 'special offer' at
This week it's a fabulous Turquoise card stock
The beautiful shade  reminds me of a lovely warm sea, so it's ideal for all your summer crafts.
 A small A4 box of approximately 80 sheets is only £4.50
Here are my DT samples 



The background on this card is done with Brusho's.
I've used the Inkcognito butterfly stamps from Visible Image and a sentiment from my stash.
Isn't the turquoise card such a fabulous colour?

 This card has been made with turquoise, smooth black and white linen card stock.
The dies are from Spellbinders, Cheery Lynn and Couture Creations.
The sentiment is from Creative Expressions.

If you like the look of the turquoise card, don't delay as it will sellout fast.
Well that's it for today, I'm gonna have one last 'flit' around, just to make doubly sure that the bungalow is perfect, haha.
Catch you all soon with details of a fab new challenge starting on 15th May........

Saturday 2 May 2015

Lavinia Stamps - May challenge, and a weekend 'Special' from Papermilldirect

Hello everyone, and welcome to my new followers....
Well, here we are again at the start of another month, and another challenge from
As usual, the ( very ) lovely Tracey & Kev of Lavinia Stamps are offering a fab prize of £40 to the 'randomly picked' winner. No matter how long you've been crafting or how experienced you are, all you need is a few Lavinia stamps to enter, and if you haven't got a blog, you can enter by email.
The theme for the month of MAY is PINK or BLUE (or both if you want)
Here are my Design Team samples....

ALL card stock on these cards is from
Pop over to the Papermilldirect web page for details of a fab weekend discount offer.

Lavinia stamps used on this card are the 
Zen Flowers 1 & 3
I've coloured with Promarkers, and mounted the white 'frame' with foam tape to give height and used white 'linen' card.









Stamps used on this card are
Zen Angelic Words
and
(will find out and edit later)
White 'linen' card again.....



.



Here I've done a quick bit of masking to create the hills and ground, with distress inks, and used the Midnight Meandering (rabbits) and
Christmas Tree Group.
I've also added some glaze to the rabbits and trees.
Can you see the lovely 'canvas' effect the white linen makes?




Last but not least, I chopped a few different sized circles out or a small sheet of card to make a stencil, which I then inked with distress inks.
The stamps used are 
Hanging Lanterns
and
Zen Angelic Words
Well, that's it for today, back soon with another Special Offer from Papermilldirect.
Have a great bank holiday weekend.....we are still decorating....yawn!
I'm entering this post into the following challenges :-
POLKADOODLES  (Anything but square)