Baby Eva is Here!.......

Good morning everyone, and welcome back to my blog after almost 3 weeks......can't believe I haven't had time to blog for so long, but life has been very, very busy here.

Firstly, I'd like to you to see the main change in our family, and indeed our whole lives.....this adorable, gorgeous, beautiful little girl who was born on 15th April 2013....our first grandchild!

Thank you Nick and Emma xxxx

 Eva Louise

( Isn't she just fabulous ? )
As well as Eva arriving, Alan has been working in South Africa, I have been helping in Adam's shop, and I even managed to squeeze a brilliant day in, at Ally Pally with some great crafty friends ....Phew, it's been all go, go, go!

Today I'm showing a card made in celebration of our lovely little grandaughter, hope you like it....
It's part of a blog hop from Crafting Cafe with the theme of CELEBRATION.....more details below.

All cardstock is from Papermill

This is a Lili of the Valley stamp, 

one of my favourite baby images.

The image tag is from Sizzix, the butterflies are from Marianne & Cheery Lynn, and all the rest are Spellbinders.

Loads of lace and feathers and liquid pearls.....Oh and it's an easel card, in case you hadn't noticed.....should have taken a side view but I forgot, sorry.

Now if you're following the blog hop, here is the list of contributors....

1. Nikki - http://what-nikki-did-next.blogspot.co.uk/

2. Lindsay - http://craftymonster81.blogspot.co.uk/

3. Katie - http://katiescraftroom.blogspot.co.uk/

4. Dawn - http://dawn-dawnscrafting.blogspot.co.uk/

5.Barbara - (that's me) - http://glitterarti1.blogspot.com .....

6. Amanda - http://mandmadecrafts.blogspot.co.uk/

7. Debbi - http://cards--galore.blogspot.co.uk/

8. Andree - http://acecardsandree.blogspot.co.uk/

Well, I hope you enjoy the 'hop' and have a good weekend too, apologies for this long post....I'll be back in a couple of days with something new. In the meantime, I'll just leave you with a couple of more photos...oh heck, I'm going to be one of those boring grandma's ;-)

Proud mam and dad xx

xxxxx

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

 Crazy4Challenges   (code C4C183 )

DigiDesignChallenge

Mark's Finest Papers

Sweet Stampin' Challenge

Totally Gorjuss

Simply Create Too

Make It Monday

Bloomin' Heck, Flowers Again!

Evening all, hope you've had a good day so far.....welcome to my new followers, hope you can pop in regularly.

'Our' baby was due today, but so far she is showing no signs of wanting to appear.....I've seen Emma this afternoon and she looked so well.....I'll keep you all updated though, as and when.

The cards I'm showing tonight were made with the new stamps from Sheena Douglas....

All cardstock is from  

Papermill

All the flowers and leaves are made with white 'linen' cardstock which has been inked with Dylusions and Cosmic Shimmer Mists.

This background is cream 'linen' cardstock and again the flowers & leaves are coloured with Dylusions, and spray inks from 

Oak House Studio

I don't actually like cutting out, I prefer die-cutting. However I did cut the flowers & leaves out and ended up with numb finger ends for almost a week! Good excuse to get back to die-cutting ;-)

Please let me know what you think....catch you all in a day or so,

be good!

Barbara xx
I'm entering these cards into the following challenges :-
Artistic Inspirations - Anything Goes
Crafty Bloggers Network - Anything Goes
House Of Gilli - Flowers
Make It Monday - Anything Goes
The Paper Girls Challenge - Flowers

As Promised....Ros's 70th Birthday Card.

Evening everyone, hope you're having a fab weekend......the weather has been gorgeous here today, warm enough to be in the garden without 5 layers of clothing on!

The card I'm showing tonight is one I made for my lovely sister-in-law, Ros's 70th birthday yesterday.

Because I am the youngest of 3 children, my eldest brother Colin  is 15 years older than me...... so, when he started going out with Ros, I was only 7! which means Ros has been part of our family for 53 years, and is my 'sister' in all but blood......

I LOVE her to bits!

In all this time, we've never has a crossed word, and although we don't see each other as often as I'd like, (them being in Darlington and us in Wiltshire) we talk almost every other day on the phone and make the most of it when we do get together, 3 or 4 times a year.

So onto the card.......

All the cardstock is from PAPERMILL, it's the only card I ever use.

White linen, pink, and 2 shades of green.

The die is from Marianne,

with a computer generated sentiment.

and a daisy embossing folder.

The card is a 9" square, made with 2 sheets of A4 joined together. The corners are from a lattice die set by Spellbinders.

I've added some 'liquid pearl' dots to finish.

I do hope you like this card..... I know Ros did, as we spoke yesterday from Spain where they're holidaying.

I'll be back in a couple of days with a new technique that I've been trying.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend.

By the way, still no sign of our new baby ;(

Barbara xx
I'm entering this card into the following challenges :-
2 Sisters Challenge - Anything Goes
Catch the Bug Challenge - Anything Goes

April Twinchies......

Morning everyone, it's Friday....yay!

It's my wonderful sister-in-law Ros's 70th birthday today, so a MASSIVE Happy Birthday to her....I'll blog the card I made tomorrow. (If you're reading this Ros.....I LOVE you to bits!)

In the meantime it's the start of a brand new Twinchie challenge......at 

Show Us Your Twinchies

For those who don't know, twinchies are 2" x 2" squares of gorgeousness, and can become very addictive!

Here are my DT samples....

This flower basket was stamped onto black card with Versamark & heat embossed.  The flowers were 'bleached'.....  The twinchie background is made with Pan Pastels on white linen cardstock.

All cardstock is from 

PAPERMILL

Same again.....flowers were stamped onto cardstock which has been coloured with Dylusion Inks, then 'bleached out'

This is my LEAST favourite twinchie, ever! The background is Pan Pastels, but I have triple embossed it and my clear ep has been contaminated with white ep.....*note to self* - be more careful not to mix embossing powders...now I need to buy more clear ep ;(    However, it looks as though it is snowing, which is quite topical at the moment!

These gorgeous flowers are from 

PETAL LU

They are all handmade by Lucinda and the colour selection and design are second to none.

Please click on the link above to see the huge range of flowers available. I absolutely adore them!

You certainly won't be disappoined 

xx

Hope you like my 'Springtime' twinchies....please leave a comment if you've enjoyed looking, I appreciate them all.

Catch you tomorrow. We're off out soon for lunch with Nick and Emma......our first grandchild is due any day now....mega-excited.....but hope she doesn't arrive during lunch, hahaha

Barbara

xx

Lavinia challenge No.2.......

Morning all, and a very happy Easter Monday.  

We're going shopping today, for a couple of new sofa's.....we don't really need them, but with a new carpet being fitted soon Alan thought we should splash out! (so who am I to argue??)

Today sees the second challenge over at

LAVINIA STAMPS

This month the theme is Bright and Beautiful and the prize is a massive £40!

This is my DT card

All cardstock is from  PAPERMILL ...... I inked white linen card with Dylusions inks.

I've used stamps - Fairy Dust Silhouette, Believe, Vine and Willow.....available Here

I stamped another set of wings and decoupaged them to give a bit of interest.

I find it quite difficult to photograph very bright colours.....they never seem as vivid as the 'real thing'. I really hope you can see that this card is very bright!

Don't forget to pop over and join in the challenge....just think £40 worth of gorgeous Lavinia stamps could be winging their way to you very soon!

Catch you all in a couple of days.

Barbara x

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

Crafty Bloggers Network - Anything Goes

Eureka Stamps - Anything Goes

Pink By Design - Sparkle and Shine

Make It Monday - Always Anything Goes

Smudgy Antics - Make It Colourful

 

 

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