Washi, crochet, buttons and twine... :)

Hi folks!! :)

Just thought I'd pop in for a flying visit to share the card I made for my Gran for Mother's Day... it was made pretty much entirely in bed while I was struggling even to sit upright for a few minutes so it had to be kept nice and simple but, given the restraints, I was relatively happy with the result and know however it had turned out my Gran would think it far more special than anything shop bought, which was the main thing!! :)

I used some washi tapes- my first time using washi and I love the look and ease- though I was a bit disappointed that I had to use my glue pen under the edges as it kept peeling back up... the same thing has happened when I have tried to use it since... do other people have the same issues??!! :S 

I stamped a couple of flourishes on the base card, added the washi and then used a few die cuts- the large heart I cut (okay, my mum cut!) from some Spring Drop paper and the others were a gift from a lovely friend and very fortuitously happened to match the colours in the washi perfectly... which saved me a huge amount of energy!! :) I was aiming for a cluster effect again and I think this is the first time I have been happy with the balance I've got!! :)

I added the crochet flower at the last minute when I remembered I had some already made in a pot on my desk from when I was practising last year... it looked okay just with the button but I think the flower really made all the difference so I'm glad I remembered it in the end!!lol

{The List}

White top-fold A6 card blank

Heidi Grace flourish stamps 

Memento ink in Summer Sky

Washi tapes- Docrafts Spots & Stripes Pastels collection

Spring Drop paper pad

X-cut Nesting Hearts die

Die cut hearts from my lovely friend- thanks hon!! :)

Sentiment from Woodware Clear Magic 'Tiny Phrases' stamp set

Crocheted flower - made by me from embriodery thread :)

Button from a The Ribbon Girl selection

Twine- Docrafts Spots & Stripes Pastels

Crystal Stickles

I'd like to enter this in the following challenges: Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes :) ; A Little Bit Crafty - Anything Goes :)

Thanks for stopping by today and for your comments on my last cards!! :) I hope you all had a lovely Esater and saw some of the sunshine we had here in Manchester over the weekend... it makes such a difference to see sunshine and blue skies... even if it is still freezing!!lol

Summer’s here... at Dream Valley at least!! ;)

Hello there!! :)

I’m back again with another fab new challenge over at Dream Valley- and very timely it is too, seeing as the sun has decided to come out to play at long last here in my little bit of the UK at least!! :) So, if you haven’t already guessed, our theme this fortnight is ‘Summer’ and we are sponsored by Squiggle Stamps!! :)

Now, my card may not immediately scream summer as many of the gorgeous creations from the rest of our fab DT do but, as my health means no chance of going on a ‘sun, sea and sand’ type holiday (or even a ‘rainy English summer’ type one, come to that!!lol), I thought I would make my card reflect what this summer means to me... which, with the Jubilee last month and now the Olympics starting so very soon, is a celebration of all things British... oh, and a simply gorgeous SC digi ‘cause I love it!! :)

So, I have used my Portobello Road papers, stamps and buttons with some kraft card and Distress Inks to give this card a lovely vintagey-London feel... this is one of those cards that just came together so easily and enjoyably from the first moment of colouring to the last touch of embellishment- a challenge can be good but I just love the times when creativity just flows, don’t you!?!! :)

This image is my one of my fav SCs, I think- which is saying something as I love so many of them!! :) – I just think she looks so beautiful in her gorgeous dress, with that flowing long hair and the butterflies as the perfect finishing touch... everything about it just says summer to me, too, so perfect for this challenge!! :) I coloured with PMs, of course, using some new colour combos inspired by the Portobello papers... that’s what I love about paper packs- they challenge me to get out of my colour comfort zone... in fact, I have a pad on my desk at the mo’ which I would never have bought had I seen half the papers in it as it contains one of my most hated colour combos of purple and yellow... but, I’m actually still glad I got it as it has made me work with PMs which I have probably never even picked up before and, even if I don’t *love* the results, I’m pleased to have met the colouring challenge!!lol

I stamped Big Ben and the Postcard from the lovely Portobello stamp set on a piece of the Portobello paper, trimmed and distressed- the detail stamps so well, too!! :) - and then tucked them in behind the image... I was going for a bit of a clustered look with all my little extra embellies... not sure it was quite how I planned... but I like it anyway!! :)

Another of my little crocheted flowers with a button and twine and a little seam binding to finish it all off... I’m liking that I can have the Union Jack feel to the colours without necessarily needing to have bright red and royal blue as that’s not really me!! :)

The List:

• 6” sq. Scalloped cream card blank (Craftwork Cards)
• Saturated Canary digi- Cerridwen
• PMs (mostly) to colour (I actually can’t find my pic of the pens I used for this but have tried to piece it together from other pics/lists and my v dodgy memory, think it’s right, though!! :S): Dress- Cardinal Red, Antique Pink and Dusky Rose; Butterflies- Indigo Blue, True Blue, China Blue and Blue Pearl; Gloves- White Pearl (Spectrum Noir), Blue Pearl and Glacier Blue (FlexMarker) – had a bit of an indecisive moment over colour with the gloves!!lol; Skin- Satin, Blush, and Dusky Pink with Sunkissed Pink for cheeks; Hair- Caramel, Cocoa, Henna, Walnut, Umber, Burnt Umber; White Pearl around image and Ivory PM all over the white cardstock to tone in
• Spellbinders Nestie Labels 17
• Kraft card stock
• Papermania Portobello Road papers, stamps and buttons
• VersaFine Vintage Sepia
• Scissors to Distress
• Distress Inks- Antique Linen and Vintage Photo
• Tile Blue seam binding from The Ribbon Girl
• One of my little crocheted flowers in pink embroidery thread
• Ivory button twine from TRG
• Sakura Clear Stardust pen and waterbrush
• Ivory Flat-backed Pearls

...phew- long list!!lol

I’d like to enter this in the following challenges: Papertake Weekly - All Things Girly :) ; Fab 'n; Funky - Make Your Own Flowers :) ; Divas by Design - Anything Goes :) ; Allsorts - Distressing :) ; Charisma - Your favourite Animal (Butterflies, if they are big enough on my card to count?!) :)

Okay, that’s it from me for now- thank you so much for stopping by and reading my waffle and I hope you like this one!! :) Pleased pop over to the DVblog to see the rest of my teamies fab summer creations and I hope you get some lovely sunshine to inspire you to join in wherever you are!! :) Hope you’re all well and have a lovely week... I’m hoping to make the most of the sun out in the garden while we’ve got it!! :)

Mice are nice for Mother’s Day.. :)

Hey folks!! :)

I’m back to finally share an actual card with you... been trying to get here all week but, well, life keeps getting in the way :S I did actually make my first card in a month last week (yay!! :) kind of a relief as I was beginning to wonder if how long the card drought would last!!lol) but it’s my DT project for this weekend’s challenge at Dream Valley so will have to wait to share that... in the meantime though, I have the card I made for my Mum for Mother’s Day to share :)

When I sat down to make this the night before M’s Day, I didn’t really know what I wanted to do beyond using this particular gorgeous stamp and one of the paper doilies I got from Joanna Sheen last year (and were still sitting unopened!! Tut tut!!lol)... so I looked through my papers, found some I loved, decided the best colour match for them would be my DIs not PMs and then that, as I didn’t need to use blending card without pens, I would stamp onto cream card for a change and go for a much softer vintage/shabby look... and that’s the whole process in a nutshell... all that was left was the doing... which took quite a while and would have been better for me spread over a couple of days, but I loved making it- which was a first in a while- and I, and most importantly my mum, loved the result, too!! :)

The stamp is, of course, LOTV and I got it in their sale before Xmas last year- I just love the cute little mice and the pretty flowers are positioned so well for a great spread of colour :) My desk was virtually invisible under all the DI pads I used... I’ll try to list those I can remember later but it may not help much as I did my usual when watercolouring and mixed everything with a bit of everything else so it all toned in!!lol The colours of the DIs worked so, so well with the beautiful Desert Blooms papers!! :)

I cut circles into spirals for the flowers myself- I don’t have a rolled flower die as I don’t make them often enough to justify it... and to be honest, I kind of like the more uneven appearance you get from cutting them yourself anyway :) I’ve not tried putting pearls in the centres before, though, and had a right faff with the largest flower as the pearl kept falling into it sideways... ended up shoving a screwed up bit of towel roll in the gap first to hold it up... but no one need ever know that, right!?!!!lol Oh, and I inked the doily with Antique Linen DI to tone it in with the cream of the card and then spritzed it with Perfect Pearls mist for a pretty shimmer :)

The List:

• 6" Sq. scalloped cream card blank
• LOTV Mice Are Nice Flower Shop image stamped in Memento Rich Cocoa
• Distress inks to colour- Victorian Velvet, Milled Lavender, Dusty Concord, Antique Linen, Vintage Photo, Peeled Paint, Weathered Wood, Stormy Sky
• First Edition Desert Blooms papers
• Nesties- Labels 17 and Circles (for the flowers)
• Marianne D Leafy Swirl (Branch Garden) die
• Frond Die from Memory Box
• Xcut Scalloped border punch
• Doily from Joanna Sheen
• Perfect Pearls Shimmer Mist in Pearl
• LOTV Postage Stamp Sentiments set plus tiny flower from an old Woodware clear set
• Cream Cotton Lace from The Ribbon Girl
• 8mm white and 4mm Mink Flat-backed pearls
• Sakura Clear Stardust pen

I’m actually going to enter this in a few challenges this time, so it’s going into the following: Lili’s Little Fairies – Diamonds and Pearls (the diamonds are the glitter in the papers and on the image) :) ; Joanna Sheen – Someone Special :) ; Crafter’s Companion – Four-legged Friends :) ; Charisma –Shabby Chic :) ; Cupcake Craft Challenge – Material Girl (if my lace is sufficient fabric-ness?!) :)

Right, that’s it from me for today then- thanks for stopping by and for your lovely comments!! :) I’ll be back again on Sunday with my DV card- it’s a fab challenge this time, the DT have all loved it so make sure you check it out then!! :)

A Brave New World... and a Mother’s Day card :)

Hey there folks!! :)

Hope you’re all well and had a lovely Easter!! :) Now, don’t worry, I’m not going all literary on you- the brave new world of my title has nothing to do with Aldous Huxley and everything to do with crochet!! ;) I thought as a couple of people were lovely enough to say they wanted to see my first crochet attempts that I should get on here to share before it’s time for my next Dream Valley post at the weekend...

I have been feeling very down and stressed recently as well as struggling with the usual physical symptoms of my M.E. being worse and found even making cards was increasing the stress rather than helping it as it usually would, which is why I have left the paper stash alone for a while and have been trying other things instead... the first of which was crochet :) I have wanted to have a go at it for years but have put it off because I knew I would find it painful on my hands and, well, there are just always so many cards to make and other things (like computers and phones and generally everything!!) to make my hands hurt that I haven’t got round to it... but one night I decided it was the perfect breather from cards and so, armed with two books, a YouTube instruction vid (here) for a simple beginner’s flower on my phone and my mum (to translate all the jargon!!), I had a go :)

To say I can now crochet would be a huge overstatement... but I can now crochet this particular little flower!!lol Took a long time and a lot of patience from my lovely mum but I got there in the end!! :) I did find it hard on my hands but was able to do more than I expected that first evening... the hardest part was actually the counting and remembering the pattern as my concentration and memory are basically shot atm thanks to the M.E.- don’t know how I’d get on with anything more complicated!!lol

I started with some old wool but it’s cheap acrylic and was splitting and fluffing up too much to really see what I was doing (especially when I’d pulled it apart after getting it wrong ten times over!!lol) so I moved on to some old embroidery thread which was much easier :) The nice thing about making these little flowers (only 4cm-ish across) is that they will lend themselves to cardmaking so I haven’t wasted any energy or thread... always a plus!! :)

I then decided to try and make a multi-coloured one (I was running out of long enough bits of thread at this point as I only had a few leftovers from my friendship bracelet- making youth!!lol) and a few days later, I used it to make one of my Mother’s Day cards...

I was all about the simple approach with this one as it should have been in the post already and, frankly, I really wasn’t in the mood for faffing with paper!! :S I used my Blossom Nesties ‘cos a) they’re small so less space to fill and b) they’re pretty enough to look good with little faff :) A bit of paper, a fab WMS stamp set and some pearls later and I had a reasonably nice, very easy card!! :)

The List:

• White card blank
• Blossom Nesties
• Forever Friends Springtime paper pad
• Waltzingmouse Teeny Trees stamps set
• Tea Leaves and Pixie Dust VersaMagic chalk ink pads
• Cat’s Life Press sentiment stamp
• Tiny butterfly punch (from Lakeland years ago)
• Sakura Clear Stardust pen
• Pink Flat-backed pearls
• oh- and 1 small crocheted flower :)

Well, there you have it... my first attempts at crochet :) It was tricky in ways I didn’t expect and, to be honest, the concentration issues may pose more of a barrier to doing more complex things than the pain would so will have to wait and see if I can progress to bigger and better things... but if not/until then, I can make some cute little embellies!!lol At the mo’ I’m knitting a shawl (having not knitted for a couple of years because of pain, either) and I’m hoping I’ll finally have it finished in time to share with you at the weekend!! :) 

Happy New Year... and Shaped Cards at Forever Friends :)

Hello Bloggers!! :)

Well, I think it’s time to finally wish you all a very Happy New Year and, come to that, Happy Christmas, too!! :) I really thought I’d be able to get back on my blog in time to do both those things but the madness that is the month before Xmas in my family, with my sis’, mine and my mum’s birthdays plus Xmas, meant my body had other ideas and I just haven’t managed it... permanent exhaustion aside, though, I did have a lovely time and thank you for all the birthday wishes on my last post!! :) I hope you all had a lovely time, too, and found yourselves with lots of new crafty goodies to enjoy!?! I didn’t get much crafty stash for Xmas but I got some money to spend on it instead- people have preferred to do this since they started to see my obsession with crafting and it suits me just fine as I get to shop in the sales and get exactly what I want!! :) I also got given a Kindle (Yay!!! :D) and, as I was planning on trying to save my birthday and Christmas pressie money- not mentally spend most of it on craft stash before I even had it like last year!!lol- to buy one, I decided to use the extra money and treat myself to a Grand Calibur :) I’ve been looking wistfully at them for a while but kept telling myself I didn’t need one- and where would I find to put it anyway?!lol- but have given in as I just keep finding myself having great ideas for cards/projects and then realising they would be impossibly tricky- or just plain impossible- in my lovely little ‘Bug... so come on Mr. Postie, I want to play!!lol   *** ETA: It's arrived!! :D lol ***

Anyway, it’s time for our first challenge of the year at Forever Friends & Co. And this time we want to see ‘Shaped Cards’... any shape you like so long as it’s not square!! :) We’re sponsored this time by the fabulous Ribbon Girl!! :)

I made this card on Boxing Day for a good friend who’s birthday is on the 27^th Dec.- one year I *will* be prepared and have her card ready before Xmas rather than struggling to find the energy straight after but not this time, so I combined this and the challenge... I’ve been wanting to try a circular easel card for quite a while and never got around to it- ‘til now...

I thought it might seem a bit small as I still only have regular Nesties and my little ‘Bug at the mo’, but I think, as an Easel card with the extra surface area that gives, it’s actually quite sweet and the small area means you can have fun with embellishing!! :) I cut the base from a card blank and another circle from a second blank for the top, then cut more circles from two gorgeous new First Edition pads, which I got before Christmas but hadn’t used yet, to layer on top :)

The image is one of my fav FF stamps and is coloured with my usual PMs- I almost always stamp more than one of the FF bears (and all other stamps, just in case I go wrong with colouring...which happens a lot!!lol) but I always colour the spare bears and just leave the extra bits- in this case the flowers- uncoloured... then I have a nearly ready image that I can finish colouring quickly to match whatever I need if I’m in a rush or not well enough to colour from scratch :) I used a tag from one of the paper packs and added some seam binding, lovely butterflies and my staple pearls :)

For the stopper I used a border from one of the paper packs, then embellished with a swirl and a flower I have had sitting in a pot on my desk for months, which just matched perfectly... I made the flower myself from a cut file I designed for my Cricut last year and had a few spares as I really enjoy sitting making them up but have now run out so best get making some more!! :) I have used them on a few special cards already- just haven’t got around to blogging those quite yet!! :S

The List:

• Two white card blanks to make the base
• Nesties- Circles Large and Petite Scalloped Circles Large
• First Edition Paper Pads- Spring Feast and Birdsong
• Forever Friends wooden stamp from DoCrafts, stamped in Memento Rich Cocoa and coloured with ProMarkers: Bear- Ivory, Vanilla and Oatmeal with Sunkissed Pink for ears and cheeks; Flowers- Pale Pink and Cocktail Pink, Buttercup, Green Whispers Marker fineliner for stems
• Handmade flower- made with Hi-5 Pearl paper and my own digi cut file
• Marianne D Swirl die
• MS Large Monarch Butterfly punch
• Sentiment is an old Anita’s one
• Cream Seam Binding from The Ribbon Girl
• Stickles- Diamond, I think!?!
• Sakura Clear Stardust pen
• Pale Green and Pale Pink Flat-backed Pearls

So, a pretty simple card in the end but the lovely papers make all the difference!! :)

I’d like to enter this in the following challenges: Bunny Zoe’s Crafts – Fancy Folds/Shaped Cards :) ; TheSecret Crafter – Anything Goes :) ; Papertake Weekly – Anything Goes plus optional ‘something new’ (my papers) :) ; Paper Sundaes – Out with the Old, In with the New (Old- stamp, New- Papers) :)

Thanks for stopping by today and for all the lovely comments on my last cards- please do pop over to the FF blog to what the rest of the fab team have created to inspire you and don’t forget that you don’t even have to use and FF image to enter- though we’d really love it if you did!! :) – but you must have an animal on your creations!! :)

See you again soon, I hope- I have plenty to share if energy allows, my lack of blog posts before Christmas was mostly down to the amount of actual crafting I was trying to get done, after all!!lol

Autumnal Beauty...

Hello again everyone!!  :)

Well, I can't quite believe I have made it back three times in one week, but here I am with the card I made over the weekend for my step-mum's birthday, which was inspired by several challenges including the sketch and theme at Sugar Nellie :) I've used one of their gorgeous stamps which I got a couple of months ago with my step-mum's card in mind, as she's very interested in historical things and especially Tudor and Stuart times...  well, I only needed a little excuse as I didn't have any of the lovely Leanne Ellis stamps and they're so gorgeous and stylish... took me ages to decide which one I'd get, though!!  :)

I started out with the sketch and the CAS theme in mind but somewhere along the line the CAS part kind of got away from me a little!!lol And don't ask me what happened with the colours as this was totally not the colour-scheme I had in mind when I started – think regal blues and purples with maybe a dash of teal… hmmm, not quite how it came out then!!  ;)

{{  Please excuse the poor photo... it's virtually impossible to get a decent shot of something so shimmery and this doesn't do the gorgeous colours of the paints justice at all as it did look better irl!! :S  }}

I heat embossed the lovely image with the gold sparkly powder (made myself to by mixing gold powder with fine gold glitter – works a treat and you have total control over the amount of sparkle you want!! :) ) and then coloured her with my Twinkling H2O and Cosmic Shimmer watercolours as I thought the beautiful, rich colours and shimmer would suit the opulence of the image and embossing :) I added some shading with a dark brown H2O, too, which is something I've not tried before with watercolours but I like it :)

I die-cut some flowers, then spritzed them with a Mini Mister filled with the water from the pot I used to rinse my brushes whilst painting the image... I've done this before and have a little mister of pearly sparkles from a Wedding image I painted a month or so ago on my desk, too- there's just so much lovely mica left in the bottom of the pot that it seems wrong to waste it!!lol After that was dry- and I'd nearly burnt a hole in the sheet of paper I had them on with my heat tool as I was being impatient!! Ooops- just glad I didn't set the smoke alarm off!!lol- I overstamped a scroll onto them with Antique Linen and Vintage Photo DIs and inked the edges.  Then I added some Antique Linen Distress Stickles – I LOVE this stuff!! :) – to the edges of the card and flowers, just smeared on with my finger!!  ;D

The greeting is a Cat's Life Press stamp and it is sooo gorgeous- simple but interesting, if you know what I mean?! ;) - and is also embossed :)

Then the CAS bit started unraveling as it just didn't seem to look right with just the couple of pale swirls I'd planned to stamp as foliage coming from behind the flower... too plain for the luxurious image, I think!! So, I went a bit mad with the swirls and then inked the edges, too!! :) Personally, I think it is still CAS as there's no matting and layering and minimal embellishment but I know some of the stricter CAS-loving ladies out there will say the lack of white space means it doesn't pass muster... good job the theme's optional then!!lol

The List:

• 6" Sq. cream card blank
• Gorgeous image 'If Only' by Leanne Ellis from Sugar Nellie
• Versamark ink pad, gold sparkle embossing powder and heat tool
• Twinkling H2O and Cosmic Shimmer watercolour paints
• Tim Holtz Tattered Florals die
• Homemade shimmer mist
• Viva Decor swirl stamps
• Antique Linen and Vintage Photo Distress Inks
• Antique Linen Distress Stickles
• Gold flat-backed pearls

I'd like to enter this in the following challenges: The Sugar Bowl - sketch by Maria Therese and optional theme of CAS (which I may or may not have followed, depending on your viewpoint!! ;) ) :) ; Sarah Hurley - Misting :) ; OSCC - No DPs :) ; Bows & Berries- Colour Challenge (I have yellow/gold, orange, brown and a touch of green) :) ; Charisma Cardz - Anything Goes :)

So, it kind of took on a life of its own but I really enjoyed getting off my beaten track and making such an unusually coloured and different card :) I'd love to know what you think as I'm often unsure about things when they are so far from my norm!! :) I also made some little earrings to go with it so will try to share those soon-ish... but here's a sneaky peek for you...  :)

Thanks for all the lovely comments on my last cards- I'm still struggling with leaving comments because of energy levels and some pain in my hands again (thank goodness my Speech Recognition software has decided to behave or I'd not have got this done!! :) ) but I am still checking out your posts from my phone (which also makes it harder to comment as a lot of blogs seem to crash the internet on it :S) and am very grateful for all the fab inspiration you share!! :)