Sunflower Birthday

Here I am again, I've been busy all weekend and now I'm sat at the table wanting to craft and not knowing what to do, or where to start!!??!!  I wish my mojo wouldn't keep eluding me.


Anyway, eventually an idea started to come to me. As I still had some sun flowers left from my project the other day, I decided to use them as the starting point, and over at the Clean and Simple challenge I thought they would fit their sketch nicely. 

So, I used a cream card and masked off an inch border along the right hand edge and randomly stamped  the leaves from French Foliage in several different shades of green. I did the same to the top and bottom of a strip of white card, and sponged over these 3 areas with another green. I then added 3 sunflowers (cut by my BS) and 2 stamped leaves that I cut out, and then they were stuck down with 3D pads to give added dimension.

Here is the result, I hope you like it

Recipe: Card = SU Whisper White, Yo Yo Yellow, and cream card from my stash
Stamps = French Foliage
Inks = Handsome Hunter, Always Artichoke, Green Galore, Gable Green, and Adirondack Butterscotch and Espresso
Tools = Big Shot and SB Shapeabilities
Extras = 3D pads

Tomorrow its my craft club, so hopefully I'll have something to show you then.

I must Thank you all so much for your lovely comments about my misfortunes of last week, each one helped lift my spirits...........and now I hope that things can only get better!!!!!

You fellow Crafters are so friendly and generous with your kind words, that I feel like you are among my close friends that I have known for years, Thanks so much!!

I hope to be back soon

Rose Easel card

After such a bad week, what a lovely relaxing afternoon I've had !.

While the rain came down outside, I've sat vegging out in front of the TV with a nice Cappuccino and a bar of Nutty chocolate, creating a card for a friends birthday next week.

And Yes, I've made it with a challenge in mind, using the colours set by  the Simply Stampin challenge #23

She loves roses so here's the result ( sorry about the picture quality but it's so dark outside )

and here's a close up of the base

I started with a white square card and scored the front in half diagonally, and on the bottom triangle layered it with white, purple, blue and again white card. The top white card had been stamped lightly with some script and splats, and 2 leaves, before the edges were sponged with blue. This process was repeated for the base of the card except for the leaves. I then stamped 8 roses on some pink card and cut them out making 4 smaller for the centers of the flowers raised with 3D pads. Three roses were placed on the front in the left hand corner, and another on the base panel in the right hand corner.I then stamped 2 butterflies using blue and pink onto white card, cut them out, and placed one on the front and one on the base. The antennae were drawn with a pink marker. The base panels were wrapped in pink and purple ribbon with a bow, and a stamped panel with Just for you sentiment added with 3D pads to keep the easel up.

Recipe : Card = Whisper White, Bashful Blue, Melon Mambo, and Lavender Lace ( I haven't got any Perfect Plum )
Stamps = French Foliage, Growing Green, Strength and Hope, and Just Believe
Inks = Melon Mambo, Bashful Blue, and Elegant Eggplant
Extras = Purple and Pink ribbon from my stash ( the pink is from the Make My Monday candy prize )

As it's a Grand Prix weekend I hope to be on the sofa tomorrow, but the race will have to be recorded on Sunday as I'm off to my stepsister, Cassy's in Market Harborough.

I hope you all have a good weekend and I'll see you next week.

Steampunk ATC

Yaaaaaaaay,   OMG !!!!!  I cant believe it...........................I made top 3 over at      Make My Monday challenge  again, and I won their monthly prize of Candy.

Thank you so much DT, and a very big 'thank you' to Suzanne for the candy she donated.....not wishing to make you all very jealous, here's what the lovely prize was with the DT Congrats card

I must say Hello and welcome to Lindsay a new follower, and I hope you like some of the things you see on my blog

I'm sorry that I've been AWOL since Sunday, but you would not believe my bad luck this week. Before I bore you with my woes, I'll show you the only thing I've managed to craft so far this week.

Over at   Make My Monday challenge  their theme this month is Steampunk. I am so far out of my comfort zone with this genre it baffled me for quite a while. This week its all about an ATC, so I thought as it's small ( and I've got to start somewhere) I'd give it a go, and here is the result

I started with a cream ATC sized card and covered it in a Vintage French Automotive patterned paper. On this I stuck a torn picture of the French Auto club poster after sponging the edges with distress ink.
I then added a female image and 2 old Vintage racing cars. A wooden cornice was stamped and heat embossed, as was the word 'discover', and some little metal cogs were added to give the ATC some dimension. I hope you like it?

Recipe : Card = Cream from my stash
Inks = SU Basic Black, Versamark  and Tim Holtz Tea Dye distress pad
Stamps = The Paris stamp from French Foliage, Strength and Hope, Fiskars
Extras = Design papers I've had in my stash for years, Black embossing powders, and little cogs I found in the garage??


Now the boring details of my bad week. ( please skip the next rambling paragraph if you don't want to be bored rigid)

Monday was not good as I was still feeling frail after my treatment, and was a weak as a kitten. Then it all started going wrong on Tuesday when I got stung by a wasp right in my cleavage. Not only this, but it stung me while driving and I flicked the body away but didn't see where it went, so I stopped the car and got out ( almost getting knocked down by a speeding motorbike) shaking my top in order to find the angry insect, but to no avail. On arriving at my friends a few minutes later, I again was searching my clothing outside her house and spotted the wasp...................OMG, it had fallen between my boobs and was buzzing angrily at me from the bottom of my bra!!!???  So picture this.........there I was clothes awry with my hand down my bra retrieving this insect with a tissue, when my friends husband came out to help carry my craft bags in!! I could have died with embarrassment on the spot! Anyway, then satisfied that my attacker was now dead, I went in and sat gossiping and drinking coffee as usual for a Tuesday, all the while the sting was getting more painful and becoming a red inflamed lump. ( I must explain here, before you think me a terrible drama queen, that because of my  RA treatment I have no natural immune system, and my body cannot fight infections OR STINGS like a normal person). As the day went on the lump got bigger and more painful, so when I got home I saw my neighbour Gordon ( my elderly neighbour whom I take shopping every Tuesday ) and blamed him as he has a wasps nest in his garden. However, while stood talking to him I saw some wasps fly to and from my roof!!!  cutting a long story short, there was a very large nest in MY loft, and when my step dad Dave, got up there to see what was going on, he got attacked by a swarm of the insects, but luckily not stung. So pest man was contacted and Monty shifted off to mums so he wouldn't get stung, as by now they were very annoyed that someone had disturbed their peace. Wednesday, the pest man did his thing with his powder ( and I now need a bank loan to pay his bill) and I went off to my sisters to fetch mum. En route, I stopped at my friends in Worcester to give her some stuff that I'd ordered for her online ( she's a technophobe and wont touch computers) and while reversing off her drive, my car had an argument with a little low wall, and lost!!! AAAAAARRRGGGHHHH.  Yesterday I went back to hospital to see the Rhuematology practice nurse and it was confirmed that my treatment is no longer effective, so I am having to start a new IV drip from USA as soon as possible, so I'm waiting for an appointment!! Then lastly, this morning I see that there are still wasps going in and out of my loft so the pest man has got to come back, but cant until Monday, so no windows open and no going out for Monty unless he needs to ( do his business, that is). My lump has gone down now but has left a big bruise which looks like a love bite and is more embarrassing then the red lump!!!!!

Phew, that took some typing!!

I'm going for a lie down in a dark room now, and hopefully I'll be back in the crafting saddle soon.

Thanks for dropping by

Enjoy your Day

Well I didnt have any dream or thoughts on the lottery numbers, so I'm still here crafting........mind you, even if I DID win the lottery I would still be crafting as I've have more time to do it, and be able to pay people do all the other stuff..............no harm in dreaming I suppose!

In the short time I've been awake today I've made a card to enter in to the Clean and Simple challenge # FTL156 where they have this sketch.

My trusty Big Shot is still on the table from yesterday so it was my influence on the makings for the card.

I started with a white card and stamped the sentiment on the left hand side in green. Then through the BS I put some brown card and a pendant die, some green card and a border die, yellow card and a flower die (twice), and some  bright green card with 2 leaf shapeabilities. All these bits were layered on the border which was placed on the right hand side. The finishing touch was the bumble bee which had been stamped on some acetate and was left over from a project a few days ago.

Here is the end result, have a look and see what you think?

I hope you liked it.

Recipe : Card = SU Pumpkin Pie, Garden Green, Green Galore, Yo Yo Yellow, and white card from my stash

Inks = Handsome Hunter, Adirondack Black, Butterscotch and Espresso

Tools = Big Shot, SB Border, Pendant, and Shapeabilities

Stamps = Verve sentiment and Inkadinkado Bee

Thanks for dropping by, and I'd love it if you could leave me a comment if you have the time.

Hope to be crafting again soon so I'll see you then

Round card

I knew I should have turned the TV off, once I saw the Death on the Nile film was on, I just had to watch to the end.


Anyway, while I sat in front of the TV, I dabbled with the Mojo Monday challenge #206 with a sketch and choice of square or round.


As I've not done one before I thought I would have a go at a round card.

The next decision was what colours to use. A week ago Clean and Simple had these colours as inspiration, and I loved them but didn't get chance to use them for their challenge, so I thought I'd use them for this project. One other snag was I don't have any Kiwi Kiss or Summer Sun so I substituted them for Certainly Celery and Yo Yo Yellow.

So I started by putting a cream card in the BS with a scallop circle die, and layering it with a semi circle of blue and brown card that had been embossed and wrapped with a blue ribbon. I then cut 2 labels, a green one stamped with script in brown, and a yellow one stamped with a blossom stamp, which were then overlapped on the front. A smaller label was stamped with a sentiment and 2 blossoms (positioned with the Stamp-a-ma-jig)and stuck with 3D pads for dimension. The finishing touches were 3 gems and brown spots in the centers of the flowers.

Here's the result and I was quite pleased how it turned out, what do you think?

Recipe : Card = SU Soft Suede, Yo Yo Yellow, Certainly Celery, Very Vanilla, Bermuda Bay, and cream from my stash

Stamps = French Foliage, Garden Silhouettes, and Verve sentiment

Inks = Soft Suede, Certainly Celery, and Bermuda Blue

Tools = Big Shot, SB Nestabilities labels and Scallop Circle, and Budding Vine embossing folder

Extras = Ribbon, 3D pads, and gems

That's it for me today, thank you for dropping by and I hope you enjoy the rest of the weekend.

Death on the Nile

I dont believe my eyes!!!!! 

I've just woken up ( I know its 2.15pm, but I'm not well, honestly) and put the TV on and what do I see......???

Only Death on the Nile !!!!, which was my inspiration for my card yesterday for Cas-ual Fridays.

I can hear the Twilight Zone music again, how very spooky. Perhaps if I can get back to sleep I may dream, or see, the lottery numbers?? Here's hoping

Bye for now

Bon Voyage

I've been in hospital today having my IV drip, and I'm feeling too sick at the moment to sleep, so I'm sat here trying not to think about the nausea but to concentrate on the Cas-ual Fridays challenge. It calls for us to get our inspiration from a book, and then use Black,White, and Read/Red!!

I love Murder Mystery/ Crime novels, so of course one of my favorite authors is Agatha Christie. So I chose Death on the Nile as my book ( I love the film too! )

I started with a white square card and stamped some script in red across the bottom as the Nile. I then cut a triangle in a piece of scrap paper and brayered over the hole in red ink, and then covered a section on the left side of the triangle and brayered over the hole a few more times. This leaves a shape like a pyramid, which I did a second time with a smaller triangle slightly behind, smaller, and paler than the first one. I then sponged across the bottoms of the pyramids to ground them. Next I stamped some grass and the sentiment in black ink, and unfortunately I made a few smudges so I stamped some fern leaves as a palm tree over them at the edge of the card. The placement of nearly every piece on this card would have been a nightmare if it was not for my Stamp-a-ma-jig!.

Anyway, smudges covered, here's the finished card

Recipe : Stamps = SU French Foliage (Nile), Inspired by Nature (grass), Organic Grace (Palm tree), and Woodware letters

Inks = Real Red and Basic Black 

Tools = Stamp-a-ma-jig and brayer

Card = from my stash


I'm going to bed now so hopefully I'll get some sleep.

Thanks for stopping by and looking at my blog, and I hope to be back soon.