Get well Soon Take 2

I've had nightmares about my card for the Cas-ual Fridays challenge, the Long and Short of it.

I wasn't happy with the first card, so, out came the aqua painter and I watercoloured my flowers and leaves and I will re-enter the card.

I dont know where my head was when I decided to leave it as it was !!!!!!

Here it is now, and I feel much happier with the result



The method and materials for the original card are all listed in my first post yesterday.

Hope this one ticks all the boxes.

Clean and Simple Best Wishes

Well here we are again at Sunday. Just where does the week go???

I'm in my usual seat for the afternoon ( It's the Hungarian GP and it's raining so should be exciting!!) and I've just looked in at the Clean and Simple challenge and today there is this sketch.


I immediately knew where to start as this morning I've found some lovely ribbon in one of my drawers in the study while I looking for something else ( isn't that always the way?).

So, I started with a 6" white square card, and cut a matt out of light blue card that is faux leather effect, both from my stash. I wrapped the navy and gold ribbon around the matt before sticking it down. I then cut the flag out of SU Night of Navy and added a band of the leather effect card at the top of it after using a MS punch on it. I then stamped the Woodware sentiment in Versamark on the flag and heat embossed it with gold powder, and I did the same with the moth from Strength and Hope after stamping it onto some NNavy card and then cut it out.

Here is the end result, have a look

While dog sitting yesterday I tried to take a photo of the three mad dogs romping around in the garden, but I ended up only catching the end of a tail or just a head. Eventually I waited for them to stop for a breather and got them to sit nicely together.

And then lie down, well except Jasper as he was too busy watching a squirrel

What the photos don't show is how wet and slobbery the long fur is around Monty's neck where Duff and Jasper had been grabbing him. It sounds bad, but they loved every second of chasing each other round in circles, and if dogs could smile you would see that Monty is grinning from ear to ear with sheer pleasure.

That's it for today, and thanks for dropping by.

Get Well Soon

Would you believe it, all the dogs are now sleeping after running around all morning, so I've time for another quick card.

This is the challenge over at Cas-ual Fridays.
The long and short of it means a DL card, 4" by 8", which is a shape I haven't used for some time, as the square card seems to have become my favoured size.

Anyway, before the hounds wake up, this is what I came up with.

Out came the SU Growing Green set and I stamped the rose in Rich Razzelberry in the bottom left corner, masking it several times till there were 3 roses. Then with all roses masked I stamped the leaf frond in Certainly Celery twice, and ended with the RRazzelberry Woodware sentiment.

Here is a close up of the stamped images, and I decided that I liked the simplicity of the outlines of the roses and leaves, so resisted the temptation to get out my water colour pencils, Aqua painter, and Pro markers, and leave it well alone.

    

Well that's me for today, if you have stopped by I'd love to know what you think, as I do read all your lovely comments and really appreciate your time in writing them.

Thanks very much and hope to see you here again soon.

All Natural Thank You

Today I'm in my usual place in front of the TV, but I'm not getting much done as there is chaos all around me in the form of the four legged variety.My sisters dogs have landed!!

Over at Less is More the challenge is 'Feeling Fruity', and the only thing I could think of was the pear in SU All Natural.

So for this really quick card I started with a cream square card from my stash and stamped a pear in Always Artichoke in the bottom left corner. I then masked it and stamped another one lying down about 1 1/2cm to its right, and then masked this one as well, so another pear could be stamped behind both of these pears. I added 2 little leaves which are from the Lovely as a Tree set, and coloured the fruits with water colour pencils and an aqua painter. Once dry I added some shadows under the fruit in brown water colour pencil and smudged it, then lastly added the Thank You sentiment in AArtichoke.

Here's the finished card, very sweet and simple I think ( just like me !!?), and the BS hasn't been used at all in this one which is a miracle for me!

I'm amazed that the sentiment from this set still looks okay when stamped, my darling dog, Monty, had decided that the wooden block looked good enough to eat, so he did!! He ate every bit of it except the tooth marked gnawed red rubber letters, but I did a quick rescue job and mounted it on some Eazi- mount and now use it with an acrylic block. This is the first time I've used this sentiment for ages, and I'm glad that I was able to save it from its awful fate as I like the font of the letters.

Thanks for dropping by, and I hope to show you something else later.

Summer by the Sea Happy Birthday

It seems so wrong making this sunny card today, as it's grey and cloudy outside with the odd drop of rain, but hey ho, it got done anyway!

I will be entering it into the Stampin Royalty Challenge where their theme is Summer, and Pals Paper Arts where its paper piercing.

So this is what I came up with and how I made it.

I started with a cream card from my stash and rounded the corners. Then I used the BS and labels nestabilities ( where would I be without them??) to cut some watercolour paper and some blue card from my stash and layered one on the other. I stamped the little boy slightly off center and towards the bottom of the watercolour paper in black Archival ink, and did it again on a Post it. I placed the Post it image over the main one and coloured the area of sand with Apricot Appeal and an aqua painter. I continued to paint the sea with a blend of Bashful Blue,Tempting Turquoise, and a dark blue watercolour pencil, stopping at the horizon line in dark blue.

The sky was sponged with BBlue around a scallop circle to leave the cloud shapes.

After removing the Post it I coloured the little boy in YO Yo Yellow, TTurquoise, and a brown pencil.

I used a white snow marker to make foam at the waters edge, and as breaking waves in the sea ( I hope you can see this by the boys arm and hand. It is formed by heating the white liquid with a heat gun to make it puff up.)

 

Out came my BS again, and I cut a Real Red scalloped circle and a Sizzix AAppeal sandcastle.

The scallop circle was folded in half and then folded again one scallop each side of the first fold, so that the two scallops could be folded in on themselves, and glued together to create the curved shape of the umbrella.                               Then I pierced each segment with a pricking tool, and drew the seams in with a red pen.                   The umbrella pole is a cotton bud with the fluffy ends removed, and is secured under the canopy with 3D pads to give some dimension.

I drew the lines on the sandcastle with a brown pencil where the detail is, and softened them with my aqua painter, and then stuck it down with  3D pads to make it more dimensional.   

I had great fun experimenting to make some seaweed, I tried punched card shapes and shapeabilities, but I ended up keeping the green ribbon that I had melted with my heat gun. I stuck this down at the bottom of the umbrella with double sided tape and 3D pads.

                             

 

The finishing touches are the pierced holes at the top corners of the cream card, a TTurquoise  stamped Woodware sentiment, and 3 silver shells ( from a string of shells which I bought in a pound shop years ago ) that were coloured blue with a Peel Off felt tip pen.

Well I think that covers it all, I hope you like it.

Tomorrow Monty is having a play day!!! My sister is dropping off her 2 dogs ( a black Lab named Duff , and a Lurcher called Jasper ), while her brood all go to the Welland Steam Rally. Nana and Grandad are going to show Nathan all the machines,tractors and fairground rides, but there is so much walking on uneven ground I wouldn't be able to cope so I'm staying at home. If I have any house left and the strength to turn the laptop on, I may be back in a day or two!!!

Sorry this post is so long, but thanks for stopping by.

Summer by the Sea Mojo

Well have I had a busy few days?? I wont bore you with the details, but I have been a Super Hero helping my nephew Nathan save the world!!! and 'NO', I did not wear my knickers over my tights!!

Phew, it's been really muggy here today, and it didn't help that I had loads ( and I mean loads!! ) of housework to do. I don't know how I ever found time to go to work?

Anyway, this evening, to regain my composure and cool down in front of the fan, I decided to make my card for Mojo Monday Challenge and follow their sketch.

I chose to make a square rather than a round one.

I started with a 6" square white card and masked off the top half of the card with Post Its. Then I randomly stamped the leaf and flowers from Growing Green in Rich Razzleberry, Melon Mambo, and Bermuda Bay. I then stamped the leaf in RRazzleberry onto watercolour paper and dragged the colour in from the outlines with an aqua painter. Then I stamped the little girl from SU Summer by the Sea in waterproof black Archival ink and coloured her in  with Crushed Curry, RRazzelberry, MMambo, BBay, Always Artichoke, and the green,blue and purple inks in Vibrant Primary Big and Juicy.

The papers with the leaf and little girl on were then put through the BS with a SB labels nestabilities, and once cut, layered onto the same shape label in RRazzelberry. 

The leaf label was laid first at a jaunty angle to the left hand side of the card, and a ribbon from my stash stuck across the center of the card, before the little girl label was stuck with 3D pads over the ribbon, set again at an angel towards the right hand side of the card. The Woodware sentiment was stamped in RRazzelberry on watercolour paper, layered on RRazzelberry, and again cut with a labels nestabilitie before placing with a bow on the ribbon by 3D pads. The finishing touch were the 2 pink flower shaped buttons from my stash.

I'm exhausted from typing the way it was made, but see what you think of it

Now I am a bit weird where pictures of people and faces are concerned, they freak me out (like clowns do to some people), but the Summer by the Sea set doesn't show any faces so I feel happy using them. Now they have resurfaced I may use them for another challenge I've seen today, but you'll have to wait for tomorrow for that one. 

One more little thing that happened yesterday was, a bath time for the dog. Nathan had heard me say at the weekend that Monty was smelling a bit doggy so he offered to help me bath him!! Being clever I said we'd do it in the garden with the hose so his mummy's bathroom carpet wouldn't get wet.

AM I MAD??? a crazy retriever, a hosepipe, and a 3 1/2 year old boy!!   All I can say is that a whole bottle of shampoo was used, everybody needed a change of clothes, the dry lawn was having a lovely soaking, and it was lucky it was a warm sunny day!!.......but the laughs we had were priceless.

What a joy and pleasure children are, especially when you can hand them back at the end of the day!!

Anyway, thanks for stopping by, and I hope you can call again soon

Whimsical Best Wishes

This is the second card I made yesterday while vegging out on the sofa.

The base for my card is the sketch challenge over at Pals Paper Arts.

As I had the SU Whimsical Wings set out on the table I decided to use the bird as my main image.

I used my BS to cut some large and small labels in Whisper White and  Tempting Turquoise. The bird was stamped on the large WWhite in TTurquoise and Certainly Celery,but the turquoise didn't come out very well ( I think my pad is drying up as it had been put away upside down!! that will teach me to rush to put things away) so I coloured over it with a Bermuda Bay marker.I used the Stamp-a-ma-jig to add the flourished tail feathers. The Woodware sentiment was added in CCelery in the space where the flower should have been. I then stamped the flower from the bird stamp onto the small WWhite label and again used the BBay marker. A 1 1/2" strip of TTurquoise was then put through the BS in a Budding Vine embossing folder and stuck along the right hand edge of a 6" square of WWhite. The bird label was added also towards the right hand side of the card and the flower label stuck to the left hand side with 3D pads.

As the PPA challenge ends tomorrow I've had to post it tonight as I'm going to be busy of the next few days and don't know when I'll get chance to do any more.

Recipe :

Card : SU Whisper White, Tempting Turquoise

Ink : Tempting Turquoise, Certainly Celery, Bermuda Bay

Stamps : Whimsical Wings, Woodware

Others : Big Shot, SB nestabilities labels, Budding Vine embossing folder, 3D pads, Stamp-a-ma-jig

Thanks for dropping by and please leave a comment if you have the time.

Vintage Growing Green

YAAAAAAAAAAYYYYY!!!!!!!       

I was drawn as a Verve Stamps voucher winner in the Mojo Monday 200th Challenge giveaway !!

I cant believe it as I'm never lucky enough to win anything, but when I've sorted it out I'll let you know what I've chosen to spend it on.

Now then, something else you wont believe?, I actually got a card made at Jacqueline's today.!!!

It's for her Make My Monday Challenge and its still Vintage but today had to include lace and pearls.

Again my colour scheme has been dictated by the downloaded image of the Vintage advert which is a peachy cream colour. Take a look and then I'll tell you how it evolved!

I started with a 5" cream card from my stash and sponged the edges with Chocolate Chip.Next there is a Matt of brown card from my stash and Apricot Appeal, topped with Very Vanilla that has been sponged with CChip and stamped with the leaf from Growing Green ( I'm sorry it sneaked in without me thinking about it!!) in blotted Crushed Curry. I sponged some lace with CChip and wrapped it around the VVanilla, and the advert was stuck slightly off center. As I don't have any pearls, I borrowed 3 pink ones that Jacqueline had, but the pink was all wrong.

So I've tried an experiment and coloured the pearls with a brown peel off pen, and amazingly they turned brown but still kept the pearly luster. I know that brown pearls are very rare , but then so is my making a Vintage card!!!  See what you think of the pearls.

When I got home I realised that the darkness of the pearls unbalanced the card, so I stamped the GGreen leaf on brown pearly card and cut it out sticking it in the opposite corner. It still didn't look quite right so I stamped the leaf in CCurry on some cream card and cut a butterfly SB shapeabilities in the BS, sponged it in  CCurry and CChip and stuck it on the leaf.

I have then walked away and photographed it as I could feel myself tweaking and playing with it all night long. I'm not happy with it but at least I've had a go at a style way out of my comfort zone.

Anyway, thanks for stopping by and hope you can call again soon

Whimsical Wings Double

For those of you who follow my blog, you will know where I will be this afternoon!!!!

Today I've created a "Double Whammy" and mixed 2 challenges. The first, Clean and Simple Stamping gave me this sketch, and the second, Simply Stampin Challenge gave me these colours to work with, Certainly Celery, Poppy Parade, Whisper White, and Real Red

I started with a white card and masked 1 1/2" off the bottom and stamped the Whimsical Wings large flourish randomly to create a border. Then I used my beloved BS and labels nestabilities to cut a Whisper White and Poppy Parade label, and a strip of Certainly Celery placed under the bottom of the label. The WWings bird was stamped in Real Red and CCelery onto the WWhite and the little flower was from Itty Bitty Buds also in RRed.I used my Stamp-a-ma-jig to line up the sentiment from Whimsical Words and stamped it in RRed in the bottom corner, with the flourish in CCelery below it.

Take a look at the outcome

Tomorrow morning I'll be at Jacquelines and hopefully we can get some crafting done, I'll let you know how we get on!!!

Thanks for all your lovely comments,they are gratefully received and appreciated. Please come back soon if you can.

Less is More Growing Green

Today the Less is More Challenge is Button or Ribbon (or plurals thereof).

I dipped into my ribbons bag and found my delicious thick velvety purple and lilac ribbon which came off a beauty set several Christmas's ago, and that was my starting point. Out came the Growing Green set and 'Hey Presto!' this card came into its own.

The opposite corners of the 6" square card were rounded, and the leaf sprig stamped on it in Certainly Celery. The small flower was stamped twice on spare WWhite card in Orchid Opulence, and blended with an aqua painter ( I've been calling this tool a water pen, but there you are..you learn something new every day!) and the centers dotted with Crushed Curry. The pointed flower was stamped twice in Rich Razzleberry and again blended before being layered on top of each other. These were then stuck over the leaf sprigs and the bow added, before some extra stems were drawn in CCelery coming from under the bow.

Recipe: Stamps - Growing Green

             Inks - Orchid Opulence,Rich Razzleberry, Certainly Celery,Crushed Curry

             Card - Whisper White

             Stash - Ribbon

 

I hope you like this simple little card as much as I do.

Thanks for dropping by, and I love it if you do come by again soon

Simply Stampin' Garden Silhouettes

Hello thanks for dropping by

For this Simply Stampin Challenge I put the Growing Green away and got out my Garden Silhouettes.

First I stamped the blossom branch in Certainly Celery and Melon Mambo onto Whisper White and cut it out.I then used a MS punch on some Pink Passion for the frill and cut 2 strips of CCelery and put them through the BS in a Budding Vine embossing folder before crossing them over at right angles to each other, and stuck down on the 6" square WWhite card. Some WWhite and PPassion were also put in the BS with a labels nestabilitie to form a flower vase for the blossom branch. The Bliss butterfly was stamped in MMambo and cut out and stuck in 3D so it is hovering over the flowers.The finishing touch is the Woodware sentiment stamped in MMambo.

What do you think? I've turned to one of my favourite colour combo's of green and pink.

Well that's it for tonight,I'll be back tomorrow when I become a craft couch potato infront of the Grand Prix ( did I mention I'm a fan??!!!???)

Hope to see you again,and thank you if you decide to leave me your comments.

Clean and Simple Growing Green

I'm sorry but I just had to use my new  Growing Green stamps again for this challenge over at Clean and Simple.

I started with a White card from my stash and put a Lavender Lace mat on it.I stamped the Growing Green leaf in Certainly Celery to make the flag tails and its top and blended the colour with a water pen. I then used a MS punch to make the scallops in some Green Galore card and layered it with a strip of Whisper White. I stamped the rose in Orchid Opulence on some WWhite and put it through the BS with a scallop circle nestabilities and did the same with with  Lavender Lace card, and layered them on top of the CCelery. I added the Woodware sentiment in Black Archival.

Take a look ( the colours remind me of Wimbeldon?)

I've  just realised the challenge ends today so I hope I,m not too late.

Anyway, guess what??...........It's a Grand Prix weekend so I know where I want to be.

If you are just starting the long summer break with the kids off school,I hope the weather stays good for you, if not, enjoy your weekend doing whatever you do.

Call back soon if you can, Thanks for stopping by today

Vintage Make My Monday

This is my second post of the day ( I did say that I'd been busy!!), so thanks for dropping by again.

I needed to make a Vintage shabby chic card including torn or crumpled items for Make My Monday Challenge 7. The vintage thing is not my style at all so I've found it quite hard to know where to even start with this one.
First I downloaded the photo and old letter from the Craft Stamper Magazine website onto Whisper White card.I cut the letter out and screwed it up into a ball, and after unwrapping it I sponged the edges  and creases with Tea Dye Tim Holtz distressing ink.This was stuck loosely onto a torn piece of Pretty in Pink card that had also been sponged on the egdes, and then that stuck onto a cream card from my stash also with sponged edges.Sandwiched in between the letter and pink card there is a strip of lace aged with TH ink ( unstitched from an old petticoat that had been hiding at the back of one of my drawers for ever!!). I tore the edges of the photo and sponged them again before sticking it down with 3D pads to give some more dimension. My trusty BS was then used to cut the 2 PiPink vines from Marianne Creatables dies, and they were placed at rightangles in the bottom right corner. The meeting point of the vines was covered by the GGreen rose which I stamped in RRed onto PiPink card 4 times and then cut out.I spread the ink from the egdes with a water pen to soften the lines. I screwed the roses up after cutting 2 flowers down to just the center petals,and stuck them inside the complete flowers to give it a more old Dogrose kind of feel. To finish the card the Woodware sentiment was stamped in Chocolate Chip to link the darker colours in the photo.

I was quite pleased with the outcome, and I hope you like too.

If you have the time, please leave me your comments as I love to get them and see what you think of my work. Hope to see you here again soon

Mojo Monday is Growing Green

Hello fellow crafters,

I'm sorry that I've been so busy lately, but here I am keen as ever to blog again.

My new long awaited SU set Growing Green has arrived and I picked it up yesterday at my friend Jacqueline's, and I just had to start using it, after of course we'd had a good old natter over coffee. I decided to enter my card into the Mojo Monday Challenge so followed their sketch.

I started with a cream card from my stash and randomly stamped the GGreen rose in Real Red over it. I then stamped the leaf spray one above the other and sponged over it in Certainly Celery, and then cut away the right hand edge to make the vertical ribbon. I cut 2 SB nestabilities labels with the BS, one in Wild Wasabi, and one in Whisper White which was then stamped with the GGreen leaf in CCelery and coloured with a water pen to spread the ink. I then cut a circle in Real Red and one in WWhite ( I drew around 2 glasses for the round shapes as I don't have these nesties yet!) and stamped the rose in RRed on the white and again spread the ink with a water pen.A red ribbon and bow from my stash was placed across the card before the layered shapes were stuck on top of it. It was all finished with a RRed sentiment from Woodware.  Phew, there is steam coming from my laptop's keyboard now!! Ooooops.

 Anyway, take a look at the finished article and see what you think

Please drop by again soon if you get a chance to as I've got another,very different, card to show you.

40th Birthday cards

Well what a hectic week I've had. My sister, Ali, was 40 on Saturday and I'd been helping Mum get things sorted for a BBQ and get together.Why is it that there never seems to be enough spare time for when you want to put your feet up and craft. I had managed to do these cards for her though ( the tri shutter card bares some of Ali's most favourite things and colours so it may seem muddled to you). I hope she likes them.

I used some SU Yo Yo Yellow as the card base,layered with Green Galore,and Whisper White.I then stamped onto the front,back,and center panels, the flourish from the Bliss set with the edges masked off,and a little corner stamp(which I think is Woodware ) in Chocolate Chip.The little pony is a Clarity stamp,and the running dogs are on the SU Tailgating roller (that I've undone from the roller itself) and coloured with Watercolour pencils. The gooey chocolate cake and pile of presents are from SU Happy Moments and coloured with Pro markers.The sentiment and numbers are Woodware. I had added a yellow butterfly to the front after the photo was taken.

This card is for Mum to give her,and there is no mention of her age as she requested.

I started with a cream card from my stash and rounded the corners. I then ran some Whisper White through the BS with a large label die and layered that on some Lavender Lace.Some Green Galore was used in the BS with a Marianne vine die to climb up the side and along the bottom of the label.The flowers were made with LLace (petals sponged with Orchid Opulence) and Pretty In Pink(sponged with Regal Rose) cut in BS with Crealies die. All finished with the H from Strength and Hope,and sentiment from Woodware stamped in Melon Mambo,and gems in the flower centers.

Hopefully I can get some crafting done this week as I've missed entering all the challenges, please keep your fingers crossed for me,and hope to be back soon.

Things with legs take 2

After submitting the insect card, I decided that it was a bit OTT, so for a simpler card I made this one

I used a cream card from my stash and stamped it with SU Tailgating in black Archival ink. I then used watercolours and pencils to colour it in and a white gel pen for the white poodle so it would show up ( not that you can see it very well in my photo). With my RA I'm not very good using the roller so I removed the rubber,stuck on some Easymount so it would cling to my ruler ( an idea poached from Vicky,Thanks Vicky, see her brilliant blog here).This was finished off with a Woodware sentiment.

I'm happier with this card,what do you think?