LIM with wings!

So here it is, my one layer with wings card for this week's Less Is More challenge.  I resisted the urge to stamp the snowflakes - they come with the stamp (see my last post) and left well alone. The curvy text is from a PB clear set and obviously doesn't have to be straight, thankfully. I messed up two earlier versions trying to get the text lined up! I have edged the card with embossed faux stitches created with Marianne die LRO161, I simply line the edge of the card into the die and run down with an embossing tool, keep turning and moving the card until I've gone all the way around.  Not sure why I didn't think of this before!  The little Robin is coloured with my Copics, the usual R22, 24 & 27 for red, E40, 41, 42, 43 & 44 for the brown and a touch of YG61, 63 & 67 for the green.  I've shadowed with B0000 & B000, extending the line under the text.  Finally, a little Stardust Stickles on his hat, well you gotta have sparkle at Christmas!

The Flutterby Wednesday challenge is for any winged creature this week, not just butterflies or fairies, so I can enter with my little robin.  The real one in my garden is getting a battering in the wind today so I've put out a few sunflower hearts and seedy bread crumbs on the lawn in the hope he can manage to land near by and hop on over.

WOYWW #176

It's Wednesday so time again to show off what's on your workdesk with Julia on her blog, Stamping Ground.  I have been trying to make a card for LIM challenge - one layer only and with wings - yikes! I picked up the little Nellie Snellen robin stamp back in the summer so thought I'd have a play with it, only in order to colour with my Copics I'd have to use my 'special' card and I only have A5 pieces.  So no pressure to get things stamped first time, including the text, actually it was 3rd time lucky.  The other two I've cut down to turn into something else with the help of my new paper pads you can see there on the left. I've cut the red circle for one of robins with a Marianne die you can see above it, I must remember to pop out the bits from the die before I put it away.  I keep them in the A5 sleeves that the LOTV stamps come in, well the ones that fit that is - you can just see a new one peeking in on the right and if you look carefully under the kraft coloured piece (still not made up) there's some die cut pieces from more of my new dies.

I am eagerly awaiting the return of my friend Wynneth, she's been gallivanting again and no doubt stash buying .. .. I wonder what she's bringing home with her.  Also, before she left I did an order for some SU cardstock in red and kraft and I'm desperate for it to get on with making up that little coloured piece!

Three Little Angels

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! well on my craft desk and the overspill onto the dining room table it certainly is.  These 3 little angels had been coloured and waiting an age to be made into something, finally inspiration came today with the arrival of new stuff - new Marianne dies and a couple of paper pads I treated myself too.  The LOTV little angels were coloured with my Copics and as it was so long ago I can't remember all the colours - the dresses though have to be the very pale yellows Y0000 etc.  I found a scrap of digi paper in my stash that matched the cardstock and added little white faux stitches around the layers, matting onto aqua cardstock.

Here they are in close up and you can see the detail and embossing on the fronds, LRO245, gorgeous!  As well as those, I've used a flower from CR1201 to mat the text and created my flower embellishments from the smallest die in CR1202, plus lots of pink Stickles for sparkle and tiny little flower brads I found in my stash.  I had got a bit more dimension with the flowers by pinching the petals together but when I added the Stickles they went a bit limp .. .. still look ok though, don't you think?  I hope so as I'm entering the Totally Papercrafts challenge to make your own flowers, Paperplay's challenge for simply cute, and the Everybody Art challenge for bling!

Internet is slow again today, and once everyone gets home in the evening it virtually grinds to a halt.  I've managed to visit a few blogs though and will keep at it so eventually I'll get around to everyone who leaves me a comment.

It takes two, or three!

Well what a weekend - I am exhausted but not sure why as I didn't get much done and the internet was virtually non-existent.  I did manage to finish this card but only got around to taking a pic this morning.  It's one of the older LOTV images called Three Wee Kings I'd coloured up ages ago, and on the cardstock that I was happy to use at the time, but now I've found something better at my local craft shop I'm not so happy with this.  The blending was difficult, especially on the blues I used for the background sheet and I found I couldn't go over the top to even things out without taking off the surface!  So no close up today .. .. but, I am happy with the way the card turned out.  With the mix of blues, reds and yellows in the image I couldn't find any patterned paper that would go so decided to emboss a layer of white instead.  I've used my CB snowflake folder and an edge folder that looks like a row of buttons - suitable for a boyish card I thought.  No flowers, but I did add a length of red satin ribbon and then a mix of Marrianne snowflake dies in red and white to finish things off.

The challenge at Cupcake Craft this week is for two, or more, characters on your creation, and Crafty Hazelnut is looking for snowflakes on this week's Christmas challenge - I hope she likes red ones!

together for Christmas

I was doing really well this morning, or rather the internet was, and managed to get to visit quite a few of you!  And I even managed to make a craft order for some new Christmas papers and Marianne dies .. .. well you gotta now and then, don't you? Now it's slowed right down again so pictures are taking an age, and I was going to go shopping on the LOTV web site too .. .. spending the money I saved on the duvets and curtains! oh well, maybe it'll speed up again later .. ..

Today's card is another of the C6 blanks, this time in cream with kraft card extras.  Now the base layers I found already put together and after I'd coloured this cute LOTV stamped image in, I thought it might work even though the paper design isn't festive - it's a Nitwits magazine freebie.  The embossed scallop edge is a Marianne die, then I simply added some punched and inked holly leaves and a smattering of red heart gems.  Simple but sweet I think.

Here's a close up of how I coloured the image, with my Copics of course, although I forgot to note the numbers.  The browns are sure to be E40s as they are my favourites to use, and the reds look as though they are the R20 range, I usually go for those shades for my reds.  Not sure on the greens though, or the golden tones.

Christmas Stampin All Year Long have an anything goes theme this time around, and Creative Inspirations have the same theme so I'll enter my card with both of them.

CCT paper piecing

At last, my picture has loaded, I've striped and remade the beds, had a shower and made coffee whilst waiting for it.  I don't know about super fast broadband, mine is super slow, but, it's looking like my machine is at fault as the lads have no trouble picking it up on their mobiles and on other gizmos.  It means that commenting is laboriously slow - I am trying to get around to those friends kind enough to leave me a comment but I can't manage everyone, everyday.  Back to my DT card for Cute Card Thursday, and this week the challenge is to do a little paper piecing.  I'll admit it's not something I like to do, but thought the sails on this little lad's boat might look ok in a patterned paper.  I've used little pieces of paper from a Nitwits magazine freebie, including the texts and the faux ribbons with buttons.  My base is a kraft C6, I have to use these up so expect a few more smaller cards from me over the coming days/weeks.  The little lad is by LOTV coloured with my Copics:

His hair and shoes are the paler E40-44 shades, I used a couple of my newer colours for the hull of the boat, E81 & 84 and also added a little E81 to shade the gingham sails.  The reds are the rusty E04, 07 & 09, his sailor jersey is YR30 & 31.  I've added a little warm grey shadow and finished with light brown pearls made with my Wacco pearl maker pen.

Just one challenge to enter with this one, Creative Inspirations have an anything goes week!

WOYWW

oh my! what a mess .. .. still got coloured images waiting to be turned into something, and I'm so not happy with that card, which by the way is square (on my screen looks rectangular), but can't figure out what more to add .. .. it's had several sentiments tried out in the top left corner but none of them looked right.  As it is I've covered up the most interesting part of the patterned paper (a digi piece from my box of Cuddly Buddly bits and bobs) with the flower and swirl embellishment.  I think I must have left Mr Mojo in Truro yesterday, he's probably still browsing around Dunelm Mill!  I did have a great day out and managed to find a pair of curtains and 2 duvet covers for the new bedroom.  I will have to shorten the curtains, and they are barely wide enough, but at only £20 they were a bargain and will at least give us some privacy over the winter months.  I've still not plucked up the courage to start the wallpapering though! I forgot to say, I'm joining in with Julia's What's on your workdesk Wednesday again.

Well here is the card, a LOTV image coloured with my Copics then finished with a little chalk ink around the edge while the Nestie was still in place, Stardust Stickles on the snow and Lace Stickles on her fur trims.  I've glazed over the lantern to make it shiny, and as I didn't have the right colour of pearls I've gone over pale pink ones with RV69 - not entirely happy with the result there either!  Any how, I am entering Paperplay's challenge for shiny (sparkly glitter, shiny pearls and lantern), and Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas challenge theme of Carol singing. 

Jason is busy cutting and sticking tiles on the bathroom walls, so once he has a wall finished it will be my turn with the grout .. .. messy fingers for the rest of the week then!

Christmas for the boys

The current challenge over at Lili's Little Fairies is to make a Christmas card for a boy/man.  I saw this stamp and ordered it a few months ago when it first came out, and I even got it trimmed up and stamped out .. .. but then it took a while for me to get around to colouring in.  The current theme was the perfect opportunity and I had fun with the bright colours - I'll probably keep this one to send to one of my grandsons.  The papers are bits from my stash that I'm trying hard to use up as pennies are tight what with having to spend on the build and new furnishings.  I've doodled a stitched edge and matted with my very last piece of bright red cardstock, so that is something I will have to put on the shopping list.

I've coloured my stamped image with Copics, the snowman with BG70 & 72 and a touch of BG90 for the shadow.  The reds are R22, 24, 27 & 29, the greens are G12, 14 & 16, the blues are B93, 95 & 97, the beige tones are E30, 31 & 43, then finally the black/greys are C0, BV20, 23, 25 & 29.  I like those BV shades for colouring 'black'.

Incy Wincy have an anything goes theme this week so I can enter their challenge. 

My Favourite Snowman

He comes out every year, my Serendipity Snowman.  This time he's emerged without any sparkly snow .. .. I had to sit on my hands and firmly put the Stickles back in the box!  I have a couple of customers that like to send cards to members of the Armed Forces and they sometimes have rules about glitter .. .. there mustn't be any. The background is the redone piece I was telling you about yesterday.  In the end I've simply stamped the snowflakes with Brilliance Pearlescent Ice Blue, also  I dragged the edge of my image and the background with the same ink before mounting onto silver card.  It's a simple card, with the image panel 3d mounted for a little added interest - but nothing else! 

I coloured him with my Copics, BG70, 72 & BG90 for the snowman himself, RV63, 66 & 69 for the pink touches, B93, 95 & 97 for the blues, G20, 24, 28 & 29 for the greens, E70, 71, 74 & 77 for the browns, and then shadow with B60.  I had the Less Is More challenge in mind when I started, but I don't think I have enough white space for them - mine got snowflakes stamped all over it!  Instead, I'll enter the Totally Gorgeous anything goes challenge, hopefully they wont mind the lack of sparkle!  And, the Fab 'n' Funky challenge is for no patterned paper this week - so I can enter with them too!

LIM in silver

Today is World Card Making Day - so I managed to grab an hour or two this afternoon to play!  I have made a couple of cards for the Less Is More challenge for a touch of silver - this is the first one, the second I'll schedule for tomorrow so fingers crossed it pops up!

Keeping it simple, I dug out the silver embossing powder and heat gun .. .. although my attempt at creating a snowflake background for the second card with a silver interference powder didn't work as well (dirty Versamark and too hot and sunny in the conservatory so the stamping dried too much before I could get the powder on - but the bits that did work looked good so I might have another go once I've invested in a clean ink pad),  Anyhow, the stamps are all old Elusive Images rubba  from several years back.  I cut out the partridge and fixed him with 3d foam pads so he sits proud.  The text I wanted to bulge a little so I matted it onto silver card then fixed with silver brads.  Silver is so hard to photograph, especially when the sun is shining but I mustn't complain about that!

I'm also going to enter my card in to the ABC Christmas blog challenge for 'T' the twelve days of Christmas - mine is the first day of course!

Frosty Fairy

Today I have another Christmas card to share with you - this time with LOTV Festive Fairy.  I've coloured the stamped image with my Copic pens, but find that those pinky violet shades fade out a lot, so not light fast - at least not in my conservatory.  I did go back and try to darken some areas, and to be honest she looks better in real life.  There's lots of sparkly glitter added to her wings, the snow and around the edge of the scrap of pp I found in my bit box, I think it's a piece of Cuddly Buddly digi from a year or so ago.  My embellishments are created with various Marianne dies and the Nellies Choice punch and emboss poinsettias - I have all 3 sizes and layer them up, then cut up the biggest layer to create the leaves.  A touch of ribbon and bling finishes things off nicely, don't you think?

I can link up to the Holly Jolly Christmas Challenge as it's for sparkle and bling, and Flutterby Wednesday also want to see some sparkle on your butterfly or fairy creations.

I'm  not sure when the next project will be ready to share with you - unless you want to see my painted skirting boards.  I've got some gorgeous wallpaper to hang in the bedroom, but I'm a little bit scared of starting it just in case it all goes horribly wrong, I'm telling myself to be brave, take a deep breath and cut the first piece!

CCT ribbon challenge

It's good to be back with the girls on the Cute Card Thursday design team, and this week the challenge is to use lots of ribbon on your creation.  I wrapped my base layer with a length of satin ribbon before mounting my image with 3d foam pads, and used a couple of colours of organza to tie the double bow .. .. not a lot but hopefully enough to inspire you.

The image is LOTV little trumpet angel and she is coloured with Copics along with glitter on her wings and a clear stardust pen for the stars.  Thankfully I managed to colour several Christmas images in odd moments throughout the summer so I have a few in reserve to make up my cards, time is ticking by fast!  I've used a scrap of digi paper for my background mounted onto aqua card, then added the white dots to the edge of the card with a gel pen.  The rest of the white pearls are made with my Wacco pearl maker pen, whilst the embellishments are made from Marianne's mini poinsettia and ivy wreath dies.

Over on the Papertake Weekly challenge blog they are celebrating 5 years of blog challenges!  and with tons of prizes, and an anything goes theme - I'm entering my Christmas card.

WOYWW

 

I've often see the craft desks joining in with Julia and the what's on your workdesk Wednesday, so after sharing my new craft space, here's a zoom in of the cluttered desk.  You see I have a few more coloured LOTV Christmas images waiting to be turned in to something or other, but the main focus is those things on that bit of kraft card .. ..

 

Back in the summer I went to the first UK Stampers Cornwall show in Bodmin and met up with some of my crafty friends from back in Saltash and Plymouth - I do miss our Monday afternoon get-to-gethers.  Anyhow, on one of the stands (sorry I can't remember whose) we did a make and take using the new lightweight Eco stampboard and I split a pack with my friend Wynneth.  When I was getting around to putting my stash away in the craft area, I got sidetracked into having a play.  The board takes ink extremely well - first a stamped swirl background then a selection of different colours of Brilliance pearlescent ink sponged over.  To pick out the dots on the background stamp I went over with a metallic pen, punched a hole with my crop-a-dile then decided to see if my old embossing powders would still be viable.  I like the verdigris finish around the edge of the green version, but the pearl red powder on the red version has over melted the edge a little too much in places.  But hey, they still worked!  to decorate I added the roses and little charms then got to fiddling with bits of wire, beads and flower soft - now what to do with them?  I found a gold ring in a bit box to fit the green version, but will need to get silver for the red to tie in the silver charm - then maybe a few more rings to make them into handbag charms perhaps .. ..maybe tie a little ribbon around the first ring .. .. I'll have to see, until then they will be sat on the desk .. .. waiting inspiration!

And now I'm back!

with a new craft area at one end of the conservatory.  I've made use of the old pine bedroom furniture and although I've still got stuff in boxes, I'm able to start making cards again!  You can see that the garden is very narrow and the lawn a bit of a mess, but gradually it will get straight and tidy, and I will keep nibbling away at the grass and adding more plants to hide the wall.  I would have liked a bigger garden, but as it's only me to look after it all, probably just as well it's just a narrow lawn surrounding the bungallow.

Now I'm off to do a bit of blog hopping and catch up - I'll be back tomorrow with a card to share, untill then, happy craft day!

Still here!

I didn't realise that it's been over a month since I last blogged .. .. so much has happened and yet at times it seamed that nothing was happening at all!  The weather has been so wet and windy it's a miracle that my little wild flower patch has bloomed at all, however, finally there are flowers but I've had to put in a few canes to keep them upright.  My friend Jacqueline gave me some seeds from her poppies and they have flowered too - much to the delight of the local bumblebees.

They are a beautiful pale plum colour and look stunning coming up amongst the painted sage from seed collected from the plants in my old garden before I moved.  Strange that most of them have come up purple, with a few pink and the odd white one - the parents were more evenly mixed.

I have been very busy painting - remember the shed from a few months back, the wood was a poopy brown colour!  After 4 coats of paint it is now a nice neutral stone shade and I have started to plant up a border around the sides.  First in along with the buckets of well rotted from a kind neighbour who keeps chickens and horses, was the geranium Johnson's Blue and a climbing rose called Penny Lane.  I will have to get some rose wires fixed to the sides of the shed, especially as my DH has just given me another rose to climb the other side of the window, but I'm waiting for the builders to finish before risking it going in - I should hate for them to accidentally trample it or drop something heavy as they come around to the new extension. 

Talking of builders, after several delays we finally have things moving again and the end is in sight .. .. my new laundry room is functional although still needs the sink plumbing in and the electrics to be connected.  I spent a whole week painting the walls and ceiling several times and grouting the floor tiles that Jason laid for me, now it looks lovely and bright and clean even though the only natural light is from the half glazed doors leading in and out.  A piece of worktop left over from the kitchen fits perfectly and I rescued one of the old kitchen wall cupboards to put on the wall - and another slow process of 4 coats of paint to cover the orangey doors and turn them white!  Today the door into the garage has been blocked up so my craft area is almost ready to be occupied - more painting first though!  The two new bedroms have been plastered out and will also soon be ready for paint, and the new bathroom is coming along nicely .. .. with the new toilet sitting in the middle of the lounge since it was delivered this afternoon!  I have given up dusting unless absolutely necessary for health or sanity, and with a hole to be cut through into the lounge so we can get to the new bedrooms and bathroom - it can only get worse before it gets better.  I hope that by the end of the summer I shall be settled, come August BH weekend it will be a year since I arrived here and although there will still be a lot of alteration work needed in the old part of the bungalow, having a nice new bedroom, a bath to relax in, and a craft area to escape to will, I am sure, make a huge difference.

Whatever you are doing this summer, I hope you have a lovely time and the sun shines for you.

Anything Goes for LLF

It's an anything goes week on Lili's Little Fairies with a prize of $10 to spend at Nitwits!  I've coloured up another Christmas image with my Copics, this little lass is about to fix the star to the top of the tree - and I've actually added Glossy Accents to both the star and the little bauble but it doesn't show up.  The reds are the R35, 37 & 39 that I've been using a lot recently, the beige/brown tones are the E40 - E47 range,the greens are G20, 21 & 24 but I'm sorry I can't remember what colours I used for the golden shades - probably YR30, 31 and possibly YR21 & 24.

And here's the card - it's a square but on my screen looks more rectangular .. .. oh to get my old software back! The papers are scraps of digi designs I printed off a while back, from Designer Digitals I'm guessing. I've stickled the edges with Glitz for super sparkle and matted with a gorgeous red card from Stampin' Up! but I didn't have enough left to cut a mat for my circular image so had to use a neutral shade and make a base card in the same card to tie it together.  I used the dark Copic red to edge the image and the text but resisted the urge to add more sparkle!  The embellishment is created from various Marianne dies, the mini poinsettia set LRO142 and the sprays from flower sets LRO106 & LRO107.

I can enter Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas challenge for festive foliage, the Christmas Card challenge for bling and Charisma Cardz for sparkle.

It's an extra long weekend for us here in the UK as we celebrate the Queen's Diamond Jubilee - I'm not sure what we will be doing just yet - rain in the forecast but hopefully Cornwall will have it overnight and my water butt is empty again!  I have been out and got a large pot of Shades paint to brighten up the garden shed - I chose Natural Stone as I wasn't sure what colour the house walls and base of the shed will be, however, I'm painting over a horrid poopie brown so it might take a few coats! Whatever you are doing this weekend, I hope you have fun and the sun shines for you!  See you next week .. ..

Planes, trains and automobiles

The theme this week on Cute Card Thursday is planes, trains and automobiles - well one of those any way.  Our challenge is sponsored by Heidi from Simon Says Stamps.

For my DT card I've inked up the cute Lili of the Valley little lad with his aeroplanes, very apt for my grandsons just at the moment too as grandad has been making them elastic band aeroplanes to fly from the sand dunes at the beach.  I've coloured with Copics, using E50 & 51 for skin tones with a touch of E02 for blush; hair with E53 & 55; the blues are B93, 95 & 97; the reds R35, 37 & 39; and the beige tones are E40, 41, 42, 43 & 44.  Shadow is C1 and the grass a mix of W2 and YG93.

And here's the card.  It's a C6 but looks square on my screen (still haven't got the editing software sorted) and I've used more of the freebie magazine papers called Portobello Road, diecut the buttons and stamped the text from the freebie set that came with the magazine.  I added the mini red pom-poms along the paper join, but left it at that as boys don't really do frills!

The theme at Moving Along With The Times is 'Cool Brittania' so use red, white and blue; and the Fairy Tale challenge blog want to see cards for boys/men - perfect!

It's a cracker!

With the glorious weather we have been blessed with here in Cornwall for the past few days, I've been spending most of my waking hours in the garden - although I did venture on to the beach on Sunday afternoon to play with the grandkids, who thought it great fun to 'get gran' with the water-pistols Grandad so thoughtfully gave them!  This morning dawned slightly damp and it's been overcast off and on, so I decided to have a go at the Less Is More challenge to create something as long as it's not square or rectangular.  I am hoping that my cracker will make the grade.  And, on the ABC Christmas blog it's the letter K for Keeping it simple, so one for them too.

I've made the cracker cards before, they are so easy to do.  I've cut the base card to fit long skinny envelopes then used a Martha Stewart zig-zag punch to create the ends, scored and snipped where the ribbon is to be tied (just around the front layer but cut through both front and back of the card), then stamped a little greeting and added Marianne diecut ivy leaves and a flower created from Nellie's Choice punch and emboss poinsettias finished off with a pearl.  I inked the zig-zag edge with a matching Copic green, and if I hadn't already tied the ribbons I might have inked all the way around too .. .. must try it on the next one.

PS - I've been trying to visit the blogs of folks who have kindly left me a comment, or two, over the past week.  BUT, blogger comes up with an error message saying my request is taking too long ... and my page goes blank!  It's an absolute nightmare and not likely to improve until December/January when we get an upgraded hub in the nearby village - at least I hope that will improve things.  So, I am very sorry if I've not been able to visit your blog - the more pictures and links there are the longer it takes and the less likely I'll get to see your creations .. .. don't you just love technology - NOT!

Lili's Little Fairies aren't square!

Ooops! I had hoped this post would appear before your eyes whilst I was at the hospital yesterday .. .. but .. .. it didn't!  Anyway, better late than never as they say - so this week at Lili's Little Fairies we want to see anything other than square cards and our prize is your choice of 2 stamps from Lili of the Valley (wish I could enter).

I've made a pillow box gift for a new baby girl using the adorable 'all our dreams' baby stamp by LOTV, coloured with Copics.  I've used E50 & 51 for the main skin shades, with a touch of E01 on the cheeks.  The greens are G20, 21 & 24, the pinks RV00 & RV63, the little bunny is E0000, and the rest is coloured with E40-E43.  For the background I used RV000 and B60 then keeping the Nestie in place I've inked with spring pansy Versamagic chalk ink to deepen the edge before adding the stardust Stickles.

Here it is, propped up on my specs case so I could take the picture! I've created a band to go around the pillow box from pink card edged with a MS lace punch and a scrap of freebie magazine paper (I think Nitwits). I've added the pale green satin ribbon tied in a big bow on the top so I can untie and add a little gift later (hope our friends have a baby girl otherwise I'll have to make another one). The embellishments are Marianne dies LRO107, LRO142,and LRO156 with sparkly gems in the centres to tie in with the Stickles.

And here is the back of the pillow box with a little text and my latest Marianne die - CR1213 circle of ivy leaves. 

The Fussy and Fancy Friday challenge that's been running for a week now is for a new baby, so perfect! And I'm going to be cheeky now, because I'm late with my posting I can enter the Secret Crafter Saturday challenge to create anything but a card and Totally Gorjuss' challenge for something new.

Well it is incredibly windy here in Cornwall today, with blazing sunshine too, but my poor garden is taking a battering and the leaves on the strawberry plants have just shrivelled up.  My water butt is empty so I'm getting another one with my Tesco club points and plan on a couple more once the builders have filled in the trenches around the extension - until then, I'm praying that the rain they forecast for tonight is torrential!  Whatever you are doing, enjoy your weekend and don't forget the sun screen!

Less is More Baby

I had intended making this card on Wednesday after checking the entries to the Less Is More challenge, this one by Daen'Ys caught my eye and I thought I'd CASE it .. .. however, it wasn't to be. After a fruitless search for my Cuttlebug postage die and baby pram mini embossing folder, I gave up.  I did find the small embossing strips though and used a couple of them to emboss the lace edge and swiss dots.  I cut out the Nellies Choice heart die twice, one in white with embossed hearts and one in pink, then cut off the edge of the white heart to layer on top of the pink, finishing with little pearls made with my white Waco pearl maker pen.  I also added pearls along the dots on the lace border, but resisted adding any to the edges of the card, after all, Less Is More!  I did add the ribbon as a last minute thought and a pearl in the centre of that, together with the stamped text by Cuddly Buddly - simples!

The Charisma cardz challenge is for NO flowers this week - yeh, this fits!

Just a Note

This week on Cute Card Thursday our theme is to create with pink and green and our sponsor is Heather from Heather's Hobbie Haven!

I've been fiddling and have created a post it note holder, more by accident than design!  I started with the thick back piece of card from an A5 paper pad, covered the front with old K&Co paper from my stash hiding the join (as it was a 6" paper pack) with the length of cotton lace.  I've run a green Copic around the edge of the card base then diecut around the text and to create somewhere to keep the post-it pad - it's between the two scallop squares with a length of ribbon acting as a hinge so you can lift off the top layer to get to write a note.

And here it is, sorry for the wonky picture.  I used the piece of green paper that's behind to cover the back of the pad just to keep things tidy.  I've embellished with gold corners I found in my stash, lengths of ribbon, Marianne diecut leaves, spray and butterflies, little roses and rosebuds, and snips of gold string.  I used different shapes of sticky back pearls to create the bodies of the butterflies and pink Waco pearl pen for the blobs on the flourish.

Creative Inspirations have an anything goes theme this week, and the Crafty Creations challenge is for pastels, pearls and lace - so I can enter both of them.

Birthday Boy

I had a lovely day out on Saturday.  Met up with friends at the craft demo and treated myself to a magazine that had these freebie papers and the text stamp, then off to lunch with the girls before meeting up with hubby to browse a food and craft fair and pick up a couple more plants for the garden.  A quick stop while he tackled a job and I sat and read my mag, then off to the Hurlers on Bodmin Moor for a walk with the dogs.  Unfortunately, Aero found something despicable to roll in and Piper ate something that made him sick .. .. so a rather fragrant journey home!  We thought we had diverted to avoid the Olympic flame procession, but as it was running quite late by the evening, we passed right by it just short of Bodmin station - what an entourage!  After sorting out the dogs we went into the local village for a bite to eat at the Waves bistro - delicious warm chicken salad for me and a steak for DH.  Sunday was warm and sunny so spent in the garden, then yesterday was tidy up and sort out day before I could finally get to play this morning.

I've made a simple little boy's birthday card with a C6 kraft card blank and the freebie papers along with LOTV's sail away boy stamp.  I've coloured with Copics and edged all my layers with E44, why I never thought of using the broad tip of the pen for edging, goodness knows!  After watching the Copic demo on Create and Craft tv last week, I changed my skin tones to E50 & E51 with a touch of E01 for blush and E11 for shadow.  The reds are R24, 27 & 29, the blues are B93, 95, 97 & a touch of B99.  His hair and shoes are E33, 35 & 37, and the hull of his yacht and socks are YR30, E30 & E31.  I've used W0 & W2 for shadows.

As the freebie stamps are acrylic I've stamped with a dark blue Versamagic chalk ink, chalk inks work best with the cheaper clear stamps.  To finish I cut the bunting from the freebie paper pack cover advert as the designs are smaller, fixed with a little string, a few gems and the diecut Nellies Choice buttons.

The Papertake Weekly challenge is for true colours - the red, white and blue!  I'm not sure of any other challenges I might enter with my card .. .. please let me know if you think of any.  I'm playing catch up again .. .. what with not being able to get on line at the weekend and then a slow connection today, it could take me a while!

A Pile of Pressies

This week on Lili's Little Fairies we are hoping you will share your projects made with your favourite LOTV teddy bear.  I have a couple of confessions to make .. .. first off, I've gone off teddy bears! and secondly I made this card a couple of weeks back when my mojo was off somewhere else so it's a minimalist design.  Now if I had to choose a teddy bear image it would have to be cute James from LOTV, he might just creep back into my favours!  I found a piece of dotty paper in my stash and matted both the image and paper with bright red card along with the stamped text, then doodled the edge with a black fine liner pen.  Embellishment is a scattering of red punched stars - simples!

I do love colouring with my Copics, the best part of the project for me!  Teddy is coloured with E30, 31, 43 and a touch of 44.  As the stamp has a sketchy look  I used the feathering technique with my pens for teddy and didn't blend too much so hopefully there's a look of fur.  The reds are R35, 37 & 39, the greens are G20, 21 & 28, and the golden yellows are YR20, 23 & 24.

Truly Scrumptious have had an anything goes theme running this past week, so I'll squeeze in at the end with my Christmas teddy bear card.

On the build front, most of the tiles are on the roof.  Next week they will start on the rendering and fitting the gutters before taking the scaffold down and fitting the doors and windows.  I am hoping they will fill in the footings soon so I can get an idea of what to do with the garden, or what is left of it .. .. a patio area or lawn? and where to have the borders - and would a wisteria survive around the shed?  I've never grown one, the pruning seems terribly complicated, but they had a new beauty at the Weybridge garden centre when I visited last week.  It's a smaller version but I need to find out if the flowers have perfume, if they do then I could be on to a winner.  The classic Chinese wisteria has a beautiful fragrance and there was a very sorry looking plant for sale with beautiful flowers but no sign of leaves .. .. and as it would have gone rampant over shed, trees, neighbours etc I left it.  The new variety had leaves and lots of flower buds but they weren't open so I couldn't sniff .. .. the label didn't mention fragrance so I may be disappointed - I'll have to pop back next week and see if they have come out yet.

Hubby should be here later today and because he has to work tomorrow in the Callington area I'm hoping to hitch a ride and make it to the Kelly Bray craft shop demo - it's been ages since I went, over a year - I hope the crafty ladies will still recognise me!  I didn't get any crafting done yesterday but I did have a moment of weakness and ordered half a dozen new Copic pens from Cult Pens over in Devon.  Fabulous service as they have just arrived so I'm off to colour in my chart and maybe make a card .. .. Enjoy your weekend, whatever you get up to!

Festive Fairy

This week on Cute Card Thursday we are looking for a touch of sparkle on your crafty creation - perfect for Christmas cards I thought!  I've inked up the LOTV festive fairy with brown Momento then coloured with my Copics, although I'm still having problems with the colours fading now that I'm working in the conservatory.  I'll drop Copic EU an email for some advice .. .. and if you are in the UK you can now get Copics on the tv shopping channel Create and Craft - fabulous demonstrations yesterday but I can't remember the lady's name, and I need to find her blog - do you know it?

Anyhow, I added a little more than a touch of sparkle to my card, well it is for Christmas and a girly Christmas at that.  I've inked the edges of the card, digi paper scrap and my image with spring pansy Versamagic chalk ink then added the stardust Stickles.  I punched the snowflake border and stickled that too, along with a few little extra snowflakes.

Here she is in close up, with lots of sparkle and blobs of snow created with white opal Perfect Pearls.  The background is a mix of B0000, B000 and spring pansy chalk ink. The pinks are RV63, 66 & 69 and I used BG70 and C1 for her coat and booties, but I can't remember the rest as I tend to pick pens and change my mind, leave them on the desk, over colour shades .. .. I end up with 50+ pens scattered all over the place!

The Oldie but a Goodie challenge is for things with wings as well as old stuff, well just about everything is old on this card as I've not been able to get very much new crafty stuff since moving here.  The Incy Wincy Designs blog is looking for weather related projects - there's a snow flurry on my winter card that should fit the theme.

I'll be back tomorrow to share my teddy bear card for the Lili's Little Fairies blog but then there's nothing so I had best have a crafty day today!

Blue Butterfly

The Less Is More challenge this week has been to create a one layer card and use 3 stamps on it - eek!  Well, I finally put this simple thank you card together on a base of cream card, not the best cardstock in the world and I had problems colouring, or attempting to colour with my Copics - it just wouldn't work and in the end I dug out my old Polychromos pencils.  The first stamp is an old Whispers oval with raggedy edges that I inked up Aspen Mist and Aegean Blue Versamagic chalk inks.  The second stamp is by Funstamps and called Common Blue on Chicory - I've used the coloured decal as inspiration for my colouring but added my own 'artistic licence' to deepen the colours.  Finally, the third stamp is a clear greeting by Hero Arts stamped in a dark blue chalk ink.  To finish I've drawn a blue line around the image, although it's bled, as it looked a bit too naked otherwise!

Sorry I've been MIA again.  I finally got DH home for the weekend and we got to spend time together at last.  Long distance relationships are never easy, after all the years he served in the RN and in security afterwards I should be used to him being away.  But, I've gotten used to having him around over the past 8 years and I'm not getting any younger .. .. so making an effort to spend time together when we can means I've less time for crafting/blogging when he is here.  And to top it all the internet wasn't available yesterday either .. .. ah well, fingers crossed it holds this evening!

Snooze time!

This week on the Lili's Little Fairies challenge blog we would like to know what's your favourite craft tool, along with your creation using a LOTV image of course.  It wont come as a surprise to you that I love to add embellishments made from various Marianne dies to my cards.  What might surprise you is that I use my old red Sizzix machine to cut out the small dies .. .. it means I can use up the smallest scraps of card quickly and easily, and by layering with small 3d pads or spots of glue I can keep the finished card reasonably flat and easier to post, hence easier to sell at a craft fair too when folks are looking to make savings these days.  I have the magnetic adaptor plate fitted then simply place my piece of card on the white cutting mat, place the die on top, then a small Sizzix square adaptor on top of that and slide it along, press the handle and slide out.  To emboss I have a piece of funky foam I put on top of the cutting plate, then the die with the card still in place cutting edge up, then the rubber embossing mat on top and slide through - perfectly embossed die cuts with just a few slides.  Any diecutting tends to be labour intensive, but I find using my old red Sizzix a quicker alternative to turning the handle on my Cuttlebug!

So, I've made a pastel toned Christmas card with the cute Christmas Snooze stamp by LOTV and coloured with Copics:

The beige and brown colours are from E40-E47 range, plus E81 as a shadow for the pale E40 on puppy together with the dark cool grey C7 and a touch of B99.  Using that hint of dark blue ties puppy in to the chap snoozing after Christmas dinner as I used the paler B90s for his clothing.  As I needed a green for the holly leaves on his mug I used BG93-99 for the green touches and warm greys for the shadows.  The background paper is a digi piece by Cuddly Buddly I had printed in my stash and the text is a LOTV stamp.  I've used pale blue and green card for matting and my embellishments then finished with sparkly gems - well you need a touch of bling for Christmas!

I hope you will come and join in the LLF challenge and let us know what your favourite crafty tool is.  Our sponsor for this challenge is the Ribbon Girl with a £10 voucher as a prize.

Turkey Dinner

This week on Cute Card Thursday our theme is food and/or drink - on my card there's a delicious golden turkey just out of the oven .. .. mmmmm!  Our sponsor for this week is Whiff of Joy and Katharina is offering the winner of this challenge a stamp of their choice.

I've inked up my LOTV stamp then coloured the image with Copics, although it's looking a bit washed out and not exactly square on my screen - I'll have to ask one of the boys to tweak the settings for me.  In keeping with the Papermania traditional papers and beige card, I've inked the edges of everything with Frayed Burlap DI and added pale amber pearls made with my Waco pearl maker pen - at least this colour is making nice round pearls.  I also had a packet of matching Papermania rub-ons so used a few to decorate the image and the striped paper layer.  The text circle is also by LOTV and I've coloured it with my Copics too, but the pale blue/grey shade in the centre doesn't show up - it's the same mix of colour I used for the shadow on the image, a mix of C0/1and BG70.

The challenge on the Oldie But A Goodie blog is for diecuts and punches - I have used Nellie's Choice poinsettia punches together with Marianne diecut poinsettia leaves and fronds to create my embellishment. And my stamp and papers are over 6 months old.

A quick update for you on the build front - after the torrential rain yesterday/last night, there are men all over my roof this morning trying to get things water-tight in the garage area (they had to remove some of the tiles in order to fit the new trusses so we had water running down the walls inside the garage).  One of the new gables is built and I can hear them cutting blocks to try and get the other one finished ready for the tilers .. .. by this time next week I should, hopefully, have a roof over the new extension.  I am browsing magazines and catalogues for decorating inspiration .. .. trying to continue the green/beige/white/brown from the kitchen-living area to give a coordinated and spacious look to what is actually a small bungalow .. .. .. Mum wants pink or peach in her space, my eldest wants red/black for his bedroom and I would have liked blue in mine but that's not going to work as the room faces north-east and could feel cold in blue.  Today, I'm leaning towards Laura Ashley's 'Manor Born' scheme for my room, it has a traditional patterned fabric with shades of both amethyst and cranberry that I could use to make the curtains, but they will have to last a long time as the material isn't cheap and I need a lot of it for the french doors and side lights (to maximise the light coming in).  Then I could use the neutral pale amethyst version of the design in wallpaper on one feature wall, paint the rest with a matching pale amethyst, pick up the cranberry for lamp shades and cushions and go for a dark brown finish to the furniture linking it to the rest of the house .. .. well I can dream!

spots and dots

This card has been a nightmare to create! First off I just had a piece of green textured card for my base and used my red Waco pearl maker pen to add some corner dot details .. .. oh my! what a mess! So out came the craft knife and the offending dots got scraped off before they could set too hard.  To cover up any hint of where they had been I added the spotty dotty paper from my Christmas stash box.  It's a little card, just a 4" square white base, so I had to find a small image and this Bildmalarna cutie got a second inking.  I cut a Nestie blossom circle from the green card for my mat and coloured the image with Copics.  But, that was yesterday afternoon - by this morning my YG13 green had turned yellow .. .. eek!  I've gone over the wreath bands again but they are still showing yellow and not blending with yesterday's colouring .. .. I'm finding my Copic colouring is fading a lot, especially the paler shades, and some are changing colours too - the worst are the violet and the yellow/greens.  Anybody else having this problem?  I love my Copics but getting cards ready for a craft fair I found several that had faded so badly that I just couldn't use them .. .. and that's not a good thing for getting a repeat order.  So, to finish off today I added crystal glitter to the white areas, diecut the Marianne poinsettias, coloured a Cuddly Buddly digi sentiment and crossed my fingers that the red Waco pearls would work this time - well they aren't too bad.

The Incy Wincy challenge this week is for spots and dots so I can enter my card with them.  Not sure of any other challenges as I've not been on line much over the past few days and need to catch up.  I had psyched myself up for a filling at the dentist this morning, but then got a phone call to say my dentist was sick, ok - big sigh of relief, but the next available appointment isn't for 4 weeks .. .. ah well, not to worry eh!

Less is More Yellow Daisies

Sorry for the miserable photo, my efforts at capturing yellow Brilliance pearlescent ink stamped onto coated cardstock have not been a total success!  The daisy background stamp is an old Elusive Images rubber design and the text was a gift from a crafty friend a few years back.  I've inked the edges with the same ink then fixed the daisy panel straight down onto a C6 card base created from some thick coated card that's no good for stamping/colouring, fixed the text with 3d foam pads then finished off with the sickly yellow organza ribbon and a daisy button from my stash.  It's my creation for this week's Less Is More colour challenge - in case you didn't guess!  I can't say that yellow is my favourite colour, but with lots of white I think this works ok.  And I also found another blog challenge I can enter with my card - new to me so thank you to Angelique for pointing me in their direction, the Mi CAS es su CAS theme is for nature, so hope they like my daisies.

Enjoy your weekend, the sun is shining here in Cornwall so I am trying to keep busy and not dwell on what's happening in my life just at the moment.

Knitting Daisy thanks so much

Hopefully Mr Postie has delivered this card to my friend by now - I took the picture a while back whilst I had my old pc and software so was able to tweak it, perhaps a little too bright though!  The stamped image is Daisy Knitting from Marianne's Don and Daisy collection, coloured with my Copics and finished with Spring Pansy Versamagic chalk ink around the edges.  The gingham paper is from my stash matted with lilac cardstock, and I've used various Marianne dies to create a little embellishment.  Everything is flat on this card so I could post it easily at the standard rate - my cards are getting more like that these days of tightening the crafty belt.

I am feeling rather down in the dumps at the moment with memories of last year, and to top it all my DH has decided not to come home this weekend.  As his work keeps him away a lot, I look forward to the weekends .. .. and as it's a bank holiday I had hoped we could have more time together .. .. for now I'm on automatic pilot looking after Mum and not in the mood for doing much else.

Taking it easy

Today's DT card is for both Cute Card Thursday and Lili's Little Fairies - CCT are creating for the men and boys whilst LLF have an anything goes challenge.  I've inked up the lazy days stamp with brown Momento and coloured with my Copics, mostly the E40 range with a touch of blue and green here and there.  I've inked the edges with a soft blue chalk ink as well as Sahara Sand and Jumbo Java Versamagic chalk inks on the edge of the image, papers and embellishments.

Here's the card, looking very washed out as I've still not figured out how to brighten things up. The background is a piece of digi paper from my stash matted with kraft cardstock and then onto a cream base card.  I've diecut the embellishments  from scraps of kraft and blue card, but kept it reasonably simple as it's a man card! Apart from the corners (old squeeze die) the rest are all Marianne: ivy spray, bird and bird box LR0206, swirls cut from LR0157, and flowers from LR0142.

I'm not sure if there are any challenges about for male cards this week .. .. I'll try and browse and maybe come back to link up - please let me know if you find any!

I found one, the Fab'n'Funky challenge for male creation.

Season's Greetings

This is the card I made for the LIM challenge but thought the square image design was too big for the sketch.  So, instead I'm entering it into the Christmas Stampin' All Year blog challenge for anything goes, Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas challenge not to use the word Christmas in your sentiment, and   the Winter Wonderland challenge for girly creations.

I've stamped my LOTV image then coloured her with Copics: reds are R35, 37 & 39, teddy is pale shades of cool grey, and I'm sorry I can't remember the rest of the colours and I forgot to make a note.  The background is coloured with B60 & B63 although it is hard to see in my picture - still messing about with the photo software.  I've added Lace Stickles to her fur trims and the angel's wings, cut her out and matted with red card before fixing to my base square card I ran through the Swiss Dots CB embossing folder.  My stamped text finishes things off.

As the sun in shining today here in Cornwall I'm busy in the garden .. .. catch up with you all tomorrow when they forecast rain!

Less is More

I've managed to put a little card together for this week's Less Is More sketch challenge, although this is my second attempt.  On the first card the square was too big and not in the proportions shown, so, after looking at some of the other entries I took inspiration and came up with this one.  The square image is part of an old Elusive Images stamp coloured with Copics then I added the little gem flowers.  I used a square Nestie to emboss the centre of the card, inked up the text with a Burgundy Brilliance ink and used the same to edge the image before fixing in place - simples!

I have my new pc up and running but I haven't got used to it and don't have all the programs I had on the old one.  Consequently I've not been able to brighten my picture in the new software I found I had, but it might just be me not knowing what I'm doing - I'll learn and get there in the end.  After the miserable weather over the weekend and yesterday, the builders couldn't start on the roof until today, fingers crossed it stays fine for them, I am starting to feel very impatient and wonder how many more months before I can get my craft stash sorted and within reach.  Until then I've managed to put together a couple more simple cards to share with you in the next few days and now that I've got the internet again I can catch up with some of my favourite blogs and get back to those friends that kindly leave me a comment.