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Sunday 6 November 2016

Christmas is a coming....

one of my Christmas designs for this year, very simple bird stamp (from one of the Altenew sets wild-hibiscus HERE isn't she beautiful, looks very hand sketched....


I stamped the bird in charcoal grey and added some glamour dust and left it at that, to finish it's mounted on a stitched square diecut and sprinkled with glamour dust for a bit of Christmas! A computer generated sentiment to finish


I've also just had lesson number two at a friendly little art group I decided to join....this is one of my results as we were doing watercolour Christmas cards..as I'm hopeless at drawing I went for a simple wet on wet design and again glommed it up for a Christmas effect with some glamour dust ...again I added a little computer generated sentiment....







Tuesday 25 October 2016

Poinsettia and tinsel....

after a wonderful few days last week firstly at my Nephews wedding and what a wonderful day it was, in a stately home hotel which we had all to ourselves...amazing! Followed by some time catching up with family (sadly only 1 Aunty and 2 Uncles now) and a bit of Christmas shopping in Leamington Spa and Stratford upon Avon.  And some grandchildren sleepovers this week as it's half term..a fun filled time all round!

My card for this week is for a couple of challenges simply using a poinsettia stamp I bought last year to make my Christmas cards,

 I love simple elegant (well I try!! Haha) cards so I stamped the poinsettia on a scrap of Acetate with versamark, sprinkled and heat embossed with my new wow touch of midas (so sparkly and not quite gold or silver just simply gorgeous), a computer generated sentiment and a tiny little red robin to finish it off it et voila... I hope you can see that beautiful subtle sparkle (there are quite large pieces of sparkle in this wow embossing powder which subtly
sparkle in the light..)

I have already made about 36 Christmas cards to date before thinking of this design, but funnily enough they also use my favourite vellum as a pink snowflake in the background and my beautiful leaping reindeer and the little red robin to finish.....I have attached a little photo of them too as this is also a simple idea..

Challenge; Less is More, recipe to use Acetate or Vellum
I found this Christmas challenge by accident: october -rudolph-days-challenge
And this one is soft and subtle...so The bits I have chosen to interpret are the banner (side on instead) & just one glorious flower Fusion soft and subtle


Sunday 9 October 2016

Dreams...

I've not posted a card for a while but nonetheless have been busy crafting, a Pom Pom wreath for Christmas in creams, latte and few tiny red pom-poms...this led me onto making a pompom garland in pink grey and white for a friends new granddaughter and of course Christmas cards..I'm made 30 to date...amongst other projects I'm determined to finish such as binding my daughters king size quilt and my grandaughters double size quilt....a bit daunting and I keep putting it off!

My card this time is for the Less is more challenge DREAMS one layer and also ties in nicely with the AAA card challenge - photo inspiration  I decided to use bright colours as the card is for a niece who is starting out at university...and the sentiment 'Wish upon a star and follow your dreams'  is a mixture of creative license on my PC together with an old Pink Petticoat sentiment (unfortunately PP has closed, but I'm sure a lot of people still remember them)...

The stars are actually snow crystals, I only found these lovely stamps recently  At stamps by Chloe and thought they were so pretty and will be a classic for years to come. Enjoy

Monday 5 September 2016

Peacocks........

Such beautiful birds when their plumage is on full show,apparently it's all down to pigment and light causing those beautiful iridescent Jewel colours.....which gave me the idea for my card....Here's A close up of a peacock feather showing the beautiful copper and blue tones;-
For my card, I cut a square one, the sparkle and shine sentiment in gold embossing powder seemed so made for this card, and of course glitter and alcohol inks are always fun to play with......

I covered the sentiment and added lines of double sided tape around the sentiment which I covered in some copper glitter I found in my stash, and using some scraps of acetate coloured them with alcohol ink in blues and pool shades and cut thin strips to adhere in between a couple of the glittered lines.......and nooooo the bird in the photo isn't a peacock we bought it in South Africa loved the shape and colour .....and it's a  Guineafowl!



Entering this card into Less is more colour challenge, Peacock feather  and Pixies Snippets playground

Thursday 1 September 2016

All squared up...

Just back from a River Cruise on the Douro in Portugal and oh my goodness was it hot....41 degrees! Beautiful interesting trip though, good company, lots of wine and port and far too much wonderful food and those Portugese tiles are gorgeous, and a stunning sunset we saw and that's the inspiration for my card this week...a tile and frame card.....

and it fits in nicely with a couple of challenges... I embossed some card and cut a square to use as a central tiled piece - using the de-bossed side. Found some old square peel off stickers to use as little borders for my tiles (probably bought them for the grandchildren to use). For a translucent look I coloured a piece of acetate with sunset shades of 2  pinks and a lemonade colour - alcohol inks..Still being new to these inks it's a bit of trial and error at the moment... Using stickers on one of my cards is also a first (I have never liked the idea of them, but think they are easy for children) then carefully cut out the squares and played around till came up with a layout I was happy with..hope you enjoy as much as I enjoyed making this one....








Less is more Recipe Challenge is here...use stickers or peel offs

Cards in Envy...Hip to be Square challenge is here

AAA challenge...New to You is here

Scraps of anything challenge here



Stickers and inked acetate scraps

Monday 15 August 2016

Beautiful butterfly....

Well that's my grandaughters opinion....I blended some inks on a sheet of acetate in blues and a touch of brown and blended a mix of some ink and paint on card ...cut out two butterfly's placing the acetate one on top for a bit of flutter and shine, heat embossed the words celebrate the joys of life which the butterfly certainly does..in platinum and added a couple of clear sequins....enjoy.

I am entering this card in AAA cards challenge ....blending




Wednesday 3 August 2016

Christmas in August....

  The LiM challenge this week is use something  tactile .  AAA. Cards want some stitching And this is what popped into my mind for my first Christmas card  of the year.......using faux stitched rectangles and curled silver shimmer thread for my black and white with a touch of silver tactile stitched card....




Tuesday 19 July 2016

Roses are red...

 And they are one of my favourite flowers, not particularly long lasting but so beautiful especially the older fragrant roses. Let's face it I love flowers...and propped my finished card by some beautiful red gladioli that we picked out of the garden this week.....



 I decided to use one of my favourite Altenew stamps inked up in red paint rather than an ink pad and a repetition of stripes using a thin black and white washi tape I had in my stash......I wanted to keep it simple ......enjoy

That's my offering on this beautiful hot summers day. I've got three of the grandchildren for a few hours, some water and ice creams and they're as happy as can be and grandad will be BBQing the tea...

I'm entering this card into The Less is More Challenge repetition and AAA one stash favourite challenge and case this sketch




Wednesday 13 July 2016

Tag you're it......

a bit of relaxation after a hectic week of visitors, including some very special visitors...our daughter  and 3 grandaughters meaning we could get our 6 grandchildren (aged 4 - 14yrs) all under one roof for sleepovers, meals, fun.........they all get on so well together too! Happy days!!

As well as making cards I've also been trying to finish a king size quilt for my daughter and am half way through another for my eldest grandaughter...in pale pinks and greys. And today I was asked by the 12yr old ....Grandma these jeans don't fit very well can you make them into a skirt...OK ! One happy young lady later.....

Over at aaa cards I found a tag challenge....interesting, hmmmm.....here goes,  this is what I came up with.  A white on white card with vellum leaves with a script die cut silver hello on the vellum tag which I embossed with a word script folder to add some dimension. I didn't want to add any ribbon twine etc so I carefully hooked the tag over one of the leaves...and added a few.sequins and a crystal.

It did cross my mind that this would make a lovely simple Christmas card with maybe the addition of a tiny red bird or snowflakes on the tag or a leaf....which made me search for and order a die set of tiny resting birds and I already have a 'merry' script die...mmmm maybe my Christmas cards are sorted watch this space!






Saturday 2 July 2016

K is for Kitchen....

There's a colour challenge over at Less is More using colours from your kitchen .....love it! Casology ...in a row and a birthday card for Addicted to stamps  and  Time out case this with a twist  I knew immediately what I wanted to do....getting the stamping right and deciding how to put it together was the challenge.

  My kitchen is simple high gloss units,  all white walls and paintwork and black granite work tops, with my gorgeous pink tulip splash back...not everyone's cup of tea but I love it!

A lot of masking and placing followed, I have covered the flower strip with acetate to give the gloss effect and added a black strip for my work tops.... and this is what I came up with - unfortunately I didn't have a tulip stamp but I did have my gorgeous daisy stamp, poetic licence ha!





Sunday 19 June 2016

Dreamy white, navy blue......

Stamped.and heat embossed in white, Swooshed on some deep blues from various stamp pads, a touch of Faux Bleaching and layered up et voila .

I was going to add a sentiment but decided I liked the simple touch (again!) and just adhered my layers off centre for a bit of drama. The only other addition is a touch of clear glossy accents to the flower petals and leaf for a bit of shine....which hasn't really shown up but it is there....!


















Monday 6 June 2016

Daisy, daisy......

Have you noticed how tiny daisies in the grass are often tinged at the edge of the petals with shades of lilac / purple? I love daisies and have some beauties in the garden at the moment (& a vase or three in the house)! They are one of my favourite flowers for their simplicity and ballet tutu's of petals

I have tried to photograph this card to show the different elements, as it was difficult to see the acetate daisy.......

The happy birthday banner is simply happy birthday stamped a few times in purple on vellum, the front daisy is stamped and heat embossed in white and the back of the vellum is coloured with the same purple, the second daisy (middle one ) is stamped in purple straight onto the vellum and the top daisy is stamped in the same purple directly onto acetate and all were fussy cut (easy Peary with this daisy stamp ). 

The overall effect is different shades of the same papermania purple ink pad

I have used clear pads and a bit of collall all purpose glue as the acetate in particular is difficult to adhere without showing.  Then placed the flowers so that they are slightly off the edge of the card.
Purple is this weeks Less is More challenge

Tuesday 17 May 2016

Sun, sea, sand....




And beach huts! After wracking my brain for this at sea challenge.......

I went to my Pink Petticoat digis (which sadly are no longer available) After a lot of cutting and pasting and positioning I came up with a row of sweet beach huts in pastel colours. I decided to add to their focus with a couple of simple embossed lines.

The stamped (young!? Haha) lady is from acid drops and whatnots and I could just picture her strolling back to the huts in the distance...I stamped her in a tan colour and kept her colouring minimal, just a light tan for her body with watercolour pencils and a bit of blue for the bow and hat as I didn't want to detract from the beach huts. The sentiment

This card is for Simply less is more one layer card challenge



Tuesday 3 May 2016

Two of a kind..........



First of all apologies if my photos arent too good as I seem to have problem with my device and pictures are strange colours.....!

I love clean and simple lines so by using plain white card, some designer papers (I think these are Echo park but Im not sure - I found this small book of lovely design papers in TK Max!!) and simply using two flower stamps from the same set stamp I white heat embossing them on a pink floral paper and adhered loosely over vellum which has a piece of the same designer paper underneatha couple of simple embossed for a bit of interest and dimension  and finished with a smile sentiment then added a few clear sparkly sequins to add some sparkle and shine to the sentiment.....

entered into Simply Less is More lucky-dip-week-274


Addl
look forward to using more of these papers arent they lovely, perhaps someone recognises them?

Thursday 18 February 2016

One layer......

Not the easiest to do ...strange but true, I always struggle a little to not add a bit more!  And I'm sure I'm not alone.......

And the new challenge from LiM is to include a stem and they are also looking for new Design Team members -exciting, I would love to apply but unfotunately with all the lovely ladies who will apply I dont honestly think I would get through, but mainly I can't always do every week so the commitment needed would be unsustainable.....aaah well. Good  luck to all those who do apply x

I love flower stamps, cards, fresh flowers etc, so was able to easily include a stem or three of flowers and buds by mixing up a few stamps..

Some masking was used for each stamp added and my new platinum embossing powder which is more of a pale and beautifully subtle gold rather than silver.

I fully intended to colour the images in soft peachy colours and subtle shades of green, but once embossed and the  sentiment added I decided to leave well alone and just added a few gold sequins in different sizes in order to show off the embossing in all its glory - Less is sometimes More haha....a little difficult to photograph and show the beautiful platinum colour.......A Simple but hopefully effective card.........I hope you'll agree.

This weeks challenge entry for  Less is More and AAA cards

Friday 12 February 2016

Hello....

I'm back after a good few weeks, a little late but in time for the Less is More challenge of  white on white..... for their 5th birthday celebration, it's also
my daughter in laws 40th today and our Sapphire Wedding Anniversary....45yrs!  a lot of celebrating!

 I simply die cut and embossed a tag added some white heat embossed fussy cut flowers, buds and leaves in vellum and added a vellum hello...enjoy.