Flowers grow on you.......

Evening again, hope you've all had a good Monday.  

Got to admit, I used to hate Mondays (along with most other people)......but now, they're the same as every other day : ).....and even better because Alan usually works from home on Mondays.

Anyway, today I've made a few cards and thought I'd show you two of them.

My inspiration came from the gorgeous colours of the ribbon, and as you've probably guessed from previous posts, they're my favourites.

I'm trying hard to convince myself that I need the Spellbinders Moroccan and Persian dies, as I do love using the borders designs and think they give drama to the card.  This border is from the Parisian set.   I've used the flower stamp in a previous post....it was a freebie with the Craft Stamper magazine.

The flowers on this card were cut with a Quickutz die.   The leaves, as above, are Spellbinders and the flourish is a Sizzix bigz.  I 'glazed' the centres of the flowers, but took the pic before the glaze had 'cleared', whoops!

Hope you've enjoyed looking at my cards. As always, I'd love you to leave a comment, I like reading them all.

Many thanks for looking xxx

I'm entering card No1 into the Joanna Sheen challenge,
http://joannasheenchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/
Flower Power.

The original......

Morning all, are you keeping dry??

We've just braved the rain to do a 'recce' on a local indoor boot sale, as I'm thinking of selling some craft stuff next week.   We were pleasantly surprised to see the carpark full, and loads of people rushing to the doors........once inside we had the warmest welcome (and a handshake) from the guy on the door, then he handed us a leaflet (very puzzling).  However.....we were in the wrong place, and just about to get dragged into a Baptist Church meeting....yikes! 

No offence to anyone, but that wasn't on our list of 'to-do's' today :)....Hey ho!

Anyway home again for coffee and a gorgeous scone,  and before we get on with housework, thought I show you one of the original cards I made for Nick and Emma, when they got engaged in 2010.  This one was for my bro and sis-in-law to give them.    (If you missed seeing their 'Wedding Stationery', please scroll down to one of the very first posts I made xx)

It was such a simple, but effective card.

Doesn't it look so different in the pale shade, as opposed to the vibrant red and white one on the post below?

What do you think.?....would love your comments.

Might be back later, have a good Sunday, whatever the weather xx

Happy Engagement.....

Evening everyone, from a very cold Wiltshire.....brrrrrrrrrrrr.

Hope you're all having a good weekend. I've been doing a (very successful) craft fair today, sold loads of cards, so came home happy.  We couldn't be bothered to cook tonight though, so popped over to the pub for our meal, and yummy it was too.

Anyway, just a quick post to show an engagement card order, for my friends niece and her partner. I kept away from typical 'pretty' pink/silver types of colour schemes for obvious reasons, instead going for white with a dramatic bit of red.

Let me know what you think, please xx

Might have a day off from crafting tomorrow.....on the other hand....................... xx

All wrapped up........

Evening all, thanks for popping by tonight. 

Today I've been making my DT card for the Cards Galore Challenge blog....can't show you yet though :(

So, instead I'm showing a couple of easy, 'no skill needed' cards I made to go in my stock boxes. However they didn't actually reach the boxes, as a neighbour bought them........

The background is wrapping paper which I bought a couple of weeks ago.  I cut a few of the butterflies out, and mounted them on card to give them a bit of strength. A bit of ribbon and a couple of sentiments and voila!

Like I said, 'No skill needed'!

 

Don't you think the wrapping paper is gorgeous? 

That's all for now,  back tomorrow xx

DIY in Progress......

Evening everyone, just thought I'd do a quick blog as I wait for Alan coming home....it's now 8.20pm and he's been out of the house since 4.50 am, on a daytrip to Belfast for a meeting....I'm famished, so hope he's not much longer.  Don't suppose I'll get much sense out of him tonight, he'll be shattered!

Anyway, todays card is part of a big order from a friend. Apparently her son is DIY mad, but to what skill I don't know.....hope he's not offended by this,.hee hee!

I'm sure the majority of you will have this stamp set lying around somewhere as it was a freebie from some mag or other, yonks ago.

Hope you like it x

(Alan has just pulled onto the drive, so that was very good timing.....)

Catch you all tomorrow x

PS..........WEDNESDAY MORNING..........
I've noted a few comments and just wanted to clarify that the background is stamped and coloured with Promarkers, it's not ready made backing paper xx

Holy Communion

Just a quick early post this morning....

A customer asked for a few 'very simple' Holy Communion cards, and this is what I came up with......There's no doubt they were very simple, and didn't take any skill whatsoever,  but she loved them, thankfully.

I've used a selection of the new crosses set from Spellbinders.....

What do you think??

Twit twoo........

Hi everyone, thaks for popping by again. hope you've all had a nice weekend, and managed to get some crafting done.

Today has flown by, and no cards made unfortunately.....but, I have managed to finish sorting out my craft room tonight......everything is now in labelled  boxes, drawers etc. And, I found and gathered up 66 cards that I have started over the last couple of years, then lost interest in......maybe I should get around to using them soon :-/

This morning we went to support my son Nick as he ran a local 10 k fun run. He did it in 50 minutes, which he was very happy with. It was so much less stressful for us knowing it was only 6 miles, as on many occasions we've watched him do half marathons and, 2 years ago he ran the London Marathon in aid of 'Mind'.
Afterwards we had a lovely Sunday lunch wth Nick and his wife Emma..... it's so good when we can all get together...love them to bits x

Anyway, today was easy for him, and most certainly easier for us....

The 2 cards I'm showing tonight were made on Friday.....I don't know why, I just fancied doing something in green. 

Hope you like them.

Please leave a comment if you've enjoyed looking x

Same but different!

Evening everyone, and 'hi' to my new followers....whoohoo 80 now, we'll soon be reaching 1,000 haha.

Hope you've all had a lovely Saturday, mine has been busy, as usual.....I don't know how you're supposed to have more time, once the kids have left home.... I never seem to have a spare minute!  

I was forced to spend time in the garden this morning, well the greenhouse to be precise.....thought if I didn't get my tomato seeds in today, we wouldn't be picking them until Christmas!  Anyway, all done, and wrapped up nice and cosy, hope they'll be popping throught within a few days ....Alan spent a couple of hours re-varnishing one of our garden seats....think he spun it out a bit though, to avoid the greenhouse. ;-)

After lunch I managed to get into my craft room and do a few female cards, although I really should still be doing male cards for stock. 

I wanted them to be quite simple and hope I've achieved this.....what do you think??

I'm really loving this Sizzix flower die, and have been looking for it for about 3 years......couldn't believe when it popped up on one of the Facebook selling groups for £4 inclusive of postage...I just had to have it.

Once these cards were finished, I started re-arranging my craft room.....unfortunately at the moment it's worse than ever. Oh well, tomorrow's another day....so they say.

 Please let me know which one do you like best.


I'm entering the last one into
  http://thepixiecottagechallenge.blogspot.com
and
http://cheerylynndesignschallenge.blogspot.co.uk/
 x

Bye for now xx

More guitars......

Just another quick post tonight.....I've left it late again, sorry. Well, not much done today because Alan came home early last night, (wasn't due 'til tonight)...good job I didn't have a man in here! hahaha.

Anyway, I made 2 cards, then started tidying my craft room. Trying to sort all of my stamps, might take a few days..........I have lots!

I've got to admit, I got bored making 'male' cards, and thought 'well girls play guitars too', so did a 'girly' one in pink. What I didn't realise was, the glaze I used on the pink guitar, cracks easily.....please don't look too closely xx

The second card, with the red guitar was inspired by my cyber-friend Vanessa, who made a fantastic card for her son....I loved it x

Thanks for looking, please leave a comment if you like my creations.

Guitar mad......

Hello ladies, thanks for checking in tonight......Well I've had a busy few days and made about 15 cards for the next craft fair. I needed some male cards so I've tried to concentrate on male themes, but I keep going back to female cards....well, they're so much easier aren't they?....

Anyway the guitar is one of my free digi-stamps from www.squigglefly.com , I won 3 seats of stamps on the http://cardsgalorechallenges.blogspot.co.uk/ ( thank you Debbi ) and it's taken me almost 3 weeks to decide what to have.....there's just soooooooooooo many to choose from!

Once I'd started on the guitars, I couldn't stop, some have turned out better than others, but hey, they're handcrafted, so have to be individual.

Just 2 to show you tonight, as I want to keep some back. I'm a bit behind on my Ultimate Blog Challenge (to blog every day in April), so the rest will be blogged over the next few days.

I've also just bought a guitar stamp so watch out for loads more music themed cards.

Hope you like them, please leave a comment if you've visited xx

Just a quickie.....

Hi everyone, hope you've had a great day........I have :)    Managed to get into my craft room at 11 ish, and spent a nice few hours there, oh I love days like this.

I've made 6 cards for my stock, as I have another craft fair coming up next week, and I'm selling loads at the moment.....A nice problem of course, but it means I have to work much harder, just to keep up.

 I took a large box of assorted cards to the family gathering at the weekend, and sold another £60 worth, so they have to replaced now, in number as opposed to style.

The card below started as an experiment, but I was quite happy with the way it turned out.

The bits that hang over the edge of the centre panel were stamped first, then I matched them up when placing the inked panel.

What do you think????

Please leave a comment if you've enjoyed looking, I love reading them all xx

Home again.......

Evening everyone,  all back to normal now after our long weekend away. Don't know about anyone else, but I'm always pleased to get home to my own bed, own shower and especially my own loo!  

By this morning, I was getting withdrawal symptoms from not blogging or crafting....so after a tiny bit of housework I escaped into my craft room and I've had a really productive day.

I'm still enjoying messing about with my distress inks, so today I've had a bit of play with inks and stamps again, (sorry but I'm still drawn to the oranges/yellows and reds).....I do love the effects that a couple of different inkpads can make.

The background 'script' stamp is by Marion Emberson and the flower is the freebie from the May edition of Craft Stamper.

Please let me know what you think, good or bad, I don't mind....well I do, of course, but I'm tough! haha

Until tomorrow............

Morning....from Blackpool

Good morning everyone, this is a very early post for me and I'm still in bed writing this.  We stayed in Blackpool last night as Alan had a meeting here yesterday.....I had a lovely walk along the seafront, it was a beautiful day.   Blackpool holds such wonderful childhood memories for me, as coming from a mining community in the North East, it was the place to holiday. It was only the journey I hated, as always having been a 'bad traveller', I was like a 'limp lettuce leaf'  by the time we got here! Anyway, I dreamt about my lovely, late mam and dad last night, and Alan says it was because Blackpool holds special memories of them :-(   

So, today we are going to Thwaite, in the Yorkshire Dales, for the Anniversary 'hooley', but not before we've had another bracing walk along the promenade and said goodbye to 'Blackie'!

Todays card is a bit of a 'mish-mash' for me......I used some papers which were free from a magazine, a set of Nit-Wit stamps, bought off a facebook group, and a new Marianne fancy corner.   I tore, and inked the background paper, but I'm not sure if I like it or not . I'm sure you'll all tell me though :)

Ok, that's it for today, please leave a comment if you've enjoyed looking, I really do appreciate them xx

Golden Wedding Anniversary

Evening all, Just a quick post tonight as we're off  'Up North' tomorrow for the weekend and I still have loads to do.  As I mentioned a few days ago, it's Alan's parents Golden Wedding Anniversary on Saturday so obviously I need to make a card, as well as the table settings. Today I've made an easel card, keeping to the theme of butterflies to match the place names.   I quite like easel cards as I think they're much easier to 'compose' than, say an A5 size.   I had lots to do, so didn't want to spend all day on one card, so 'easel' it had to be! :-)

Hope you like it.

Hopefully I'll be able to 'log-on' tomorrow night to post my next card, but if not, it will have to be 2 the next day.

Please leave a comment if you've enjoyed looking.

Congratulations Tom and Laura......

Evening everyone....hope you haven't had tooooo much rain today.  After a couple of downpours here this morning, the sun came out and stayed out for the rest of the day....it was still very cold though.   Must admit I wasn't too concerned as I'd promised myself a full day of crafting anyway, and that was just what I had.

On Good Friday, Emma's ( d-i-l ) brother Tom and his girlfriend Laura announced their engagment.
They're both very 'arty' so the card I've made for them is quite simple, without lots of embellishments or frills etc. Instead I chose to make the background paper with Mica powders, a stamped image on a small piece of inked card, a bit of fluffy stuff and a simple sentiment. I think they will both appreciate the simplicity of it.

I hope you've enjoyed looking, and would love you to leave a comment, I really appreciate it and enjoy reading them all.

Until tomorrow.......x

Golden Wedding - Take your place for dinner!.....

Hello everyone, and welcome to my little corner of blogland.......hope you've all had a good day. 

It was too wet for us to get into the garden, so I finished an order that is needed for the weekend. Sometimes I leave orders until the last day or so, and they 'cloud' my mind but I've done this one early, surprisingly.

It's Alan's parents Golden Wedding Anniversary on 14th April, so we're off to the Yorkshire Dales on Thursday for the weekend. His mam asked if I'd do some 'nameplates' for the table so thought I'd do something fancy.   I've got to say though, I have a love/hate relationship with this Spellbinders die......I LOVE  the effect, but I HATE using it......I needed 18 altogether and by the time I'd cut and prised 8 of them out of the die, I was almost losing the will to live.  So.....*brainwave*....I brought the bigshot into the kitchen and gave Alan the dies and the card and said 'get on with it ........darling'.   He cut the rest of the squares, then 18 butterflies while I was picking out the remains and tidying them up. Job done.....thanks Al :)

Unfortunately, I think it will be a long, long time before I use this die again....life is far too short!  :(

The butterfly die is a new one from the 'Wings of Hope' set by Spellbinders.

I hope you've enjoyed looking at my blog tonight, if so I would love it if you could leave a comment, and become a follower, if you're not already xx

Bye for now x

Lili of the Valley on Easter Sunday.......

Happy Easter Sunday everyone, hope you're having a lovely Easter weekend....We've managed to get loads done in the garden, despite the weather being a bit dodgy....but now it's time for a bit of crafting before the kids get here for dinner......(kids being 31, 30 and 27 years old!)

Anyway, todays card is an 8" x 8" card, which I very rarely do. However for some reason I bought a pack of cards & envelopes from Joanna Sheen a while back (they must've been on offer!), so every now and then I feel like I should use one.

I love this little image from www.liliofthevalley.co.uk but haven't done it justice with my poor 'colouring in'. .....*note to self * must learn how to use my Promarkers properly!

Despite that, hope you like it enough to leave a comment .....pleeeeeeeeeeease x

By the way, the pink doilly was in a large pack from the £1 shop. It contained, pink, blue and white with pretty pink flowers on...I thought the pack was an absolute bargain!

Janet's birthday....

Evening ladies, 2nd blog of the day, so I'm catching up with the challenge......Yay!

This is the card that I made for my lovely friend Janet's birthday......the one that was on the SD card ruined by Finn!   Thankfully Janet photographed it for me and emailed it.   

Hope you like it xx

Naughty dog.......

Happy Easter everyone, hope all is good wherever you are.  Fab day here, cloudless sky, so it's a full day of gardening for Alan and myself......he absolutely despises gardening, but does like the garden to look good so has to lend a hand haha....

This is not quite the post I had in mind today, as it's my lovely 'cyber-friend' Janets' birthday, and I was going to show you the card I sent to her.....Janet and I met on a group I set up on Facebook a couple of years ago, and started to meet up shortly afterwards.....now we see each other as often as possible, even though she makes me spend sooooooooooooooo much money on craft stash  (and we live 2 hours apart) !!!

Anyway, this is what happened to one of my SD cards, of course the one with her card pics on!

And this magnificently innocent creature is the culprit!

What chance did my SD card have with teeth like those?

I'm sure Janet will zap me a pic of the card, so I'll show you later....but for now, the garden is screaming for attention, have a good day everyone xx

Happy Easter

Evening everyone,  hope you've had a good day......

I had a bit of a panic when I remembered that I had a few Easter cards to make and get in the post by 5 pm.  The day just flew over and it was 3.30pm by the time I got started.  Anyway, got half a dozen made, all similar (but different)......I never make 2 identical cards.   Alan ran round to the post box at 4.55 so just hope the postie didn't empty the box early.....that would be just my luck!

Anyway, here are 3 of them, just quick, easy,  no skill needed ...haha . The little rabbit stamp was the freebie on the front of this month's Craft Stamper mag x

Thanks for looking....back tomorrow x

Winter is back....Brrrrrrrrr...

Hi everyone, hope you've all had a good day, without too much snow. Just rain down here in Wiltshire, but the gardens are absolutely desperate for a soaking so we can't really complain.....and with the threat of a hosepipe ban already it's very welcome....

Just a quick post tonight to show the card I made for my wonderful sister-in-laws birthday tomorrow (they're on holiday in Spain this week, so I know she won't see it now) Ros has been part of our family for 52 years, and has always just been the sister I never had.....love her to bits.  

 I knew she would be taking it on holiday with her, so it's much more simple this year than usual because I thought it might get squished in the luggage.  

 I can 'push the boat out' with their Golden Wedding Anniversary card later in the year.

If you've enjoyed looking tonight, I would love it if you could leave a comment, either good or bad, I really don't mind........constructive criticism is always welcome x

Until tomorrow.....

Hey, I'm back.......(again)

Hello everyone, it's soooooo good to be back blogging, I do miss it, but sometimes there's just not enough hours in the day for everything I need to do. However,  today I've been able to get into my craftroom and make 3 cards, so I'm rockin'!

I needed to make a wedding acceptance card for my lovely great-niece who is getting married on 3rd August.  The replies should have been in last week, so I'm late for this as well..........She knew I was going though as I made the invites, so couldn't miss it!   The colour theme is baby pink, so I kept to this for the acceptance.  The photo make the card look a bit cock-eyed, but it definitely isn't.

Just a simple scalloped Thank You, using 2 embossing folders

I use this 'thank you' stamp quite a lot. (even though I have at least 15 of various sizes and fonts) Today I stamped with Versamark, and heat embossed.

Samantha and Adam just wanted very, very simple invitations..... they chose the colour and style, and I did them exactly as instructed.  Not as fancy as I would've liked to make, but I had to respect their wishes.

The pearls are not meant to be in 'regimental' lines, and I didn;t want each side to 'match-up' when closed, but I had to try to keep to a sort of 'placing' theme. There's 16 on each card, so I used quite a few packs and so far I'm up to 40 metres of ribbon too  :)

I am making the wedding stationery as a wedding gift for Sam & Adam, so I want to make sure they are totally happy with them x

So that's the invites finished and out, all 80 of them......and replied to (except mine). Now to start thinking about the rest.........

 

Hope you like tonight post and photies......would love you to leave a comment and maybe follow my blog, if you're not already a follower.

Bye for now xx

Back soon.....

Afternoon everyone, apologies for the lack of blogging, purely down to a busy weekend of craft fairs. Also the recent cards I've made are for family and friends who actually read my blog, so can't post them until the weekend. I will be back later though, with todays creation.

BY THE WAY.........I won!.....at... http://cards--galore.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/march-challenge-winners.html whoohoo!!!!

Back soon x