CCT Pets

A very simple card from me this week for my Cute Card Thursday DT project, our theme is pets and we are being sponsored by Bugaboo Stamps who kindly let the DT play with some of their digi images.  Unfortunately my printer is still playing up so I've had to revert to 'ink and rubba', but please go take a look at what the rest of the team have created.

I have been rummaging again .. .. and found my box of Sugar Nellie stamps that I've not used in a while.  This cutie seemed appropriate with the weather we have been getting, and sharing an ice cream with a spaniel seems the obvious thing to do!  Izzy's favourite is strawberry so I have made a C6 tent fold strawberry card with little scraps of digi papers and a plain background embossed with the Swiss Dots CB folder.  The image is called 'where's mine' and I think is meant to be a little boy, but I've coloured with my Copics for a tom-boy.  Not much else to tell you, my die cuts are made with Marianne Design dies, here's the list:

lace border across the top - LR0161

flowers - COL1323

leaves - CR1245

Sugar Nellie have a monthly blog challenge in the Sugar Bowl, so I can enter my card with them.  I must get more of SN stamps inked up, I do like the Country Cousins designs as they were called when they first came out.

The Corrosive Challenge is to use dies so another one I can enter.

Thanks for stopping by to take a peek at my card, and hope to see you again soon!

CAS Christmas

When checking my blog favourites yesterday, I saw that Christmas Stampin' All Year Long wanted CAS creations for their latest challenge.

Coincidentally, I've been adding pictures to my CAS Christmas album on Pinterest so plenty of inspiration there to choose from.  I recognised the stamp used on one of the cards as being very similar to one from a Viva Decor My Paper World set I got at Buddly Crafts, here. In fact, it's on several of the cards in my album although it appears to be a SU! Santa Sleigh stamp instead. The difference is the sleigh is blocked out and you get an extra reindeer on the SU! set, as far as I can tell.

Anyway, using my Paper World set, I've stamped the sleigh then added the starry background and the text along the bottom of my base card.  I was inspired to use the layered star idea and cut mine from Marianne Design Craftable die set CR1226 in a soft blue textured card to match the blue Momento ink I've stamped with. I fixed the star to the card with 1mm foam tape so it's only slightly raised, and I couldn't resist adding a couple tiny gems to the line of text - well what's Christmas without a touch of sparkle!

Christmas at Sweet Stampin' theme for July is 'Oh deer' so anything with a deer on it means I can enter my card with them too.

I'm quite pleased how this card turned out, and how quick it was to make .. .. it took me longer to get a decent photo and to tweak it so you could make out the details.

Thank you for stopping by, I'm off to enjoy the garden while the sun is shining, although I'm drawing a line at cutting the grass even if it is ankle high in places.  How is it some areas are lush and green and other areas hardly grown at all, and that's not because Izzy pees on them, well not all of them anyway!  Perhaps it's something to do with the patches of tarmac I find when digging the borders, it was an old WW2 air base after all! Whatever you are doing this weekend, I hope you have fun and the sun shines on you.

Marianne Design Happy Holidays Special

I got a Marianne Design Special treat recently over at Budly Crafts, this is the new Marianne Design Special, Happy Holidays - find it here. Another bargain at only £5.19.

You get a pack of A5 Christmas papers, a cling stamp set, a roll of pretty paper tape, and the most gorgeous ecru lace imaginable!  I have a thing about lace, some people collect papers that they can't imagine cutting up, with me it's lace!

However, I did manage to take a very deep breath and use a tiny strip of it on this card:

I used a C6 kraft card as my base then matted a piece of paper from the pack with red card stock and added my signature faux embossed stitching around the edge, plus inked with a Jumbo Java brown chalk ink so the stitches stand out.

The image I stamped with a Potters Clay Momento ink then added a touch of colour with my Copics, although you could leave it uncoloured and it would still look good.  I added a soft creamy Wheat chalk ink around the edge of my image to take of the whiteness off the stamping cardstock, and finished up with the Platinum Stickles.  Then I cut a red mat for the image to sit on, before mounting each layer with 1mm foam tape onto the card.  The ivy sprays are cut, inked, snipped and Stickled to frame my image and I made the poinsettias from MD Mulberry paper died with Red Brick Distress Re-inker.  Here's a close up of the details:

And here's the Marianne Design products I used, all available in the Buddly Crafts store, in addition to the ones in the Happy Holidays special offer set.

Red mat from die in set LR0235 with the embossed areas inked in dark brown chalk ink so they show up.

The Ivy circle is CR1213, I've just snipped it up and used the pieces to create the frame.

Poinsettias from mini set LR0142 cut out of Mulberry paper RB2219.

It's another card for Mum to send out and the flowers will squash down for the post but hopefully pop back up on arrival! The Mulberry paper is soft but still holds it's shape well even after being spritzed with water and dowsed in ink!

I'm entering into Pixies Playground snippets challenge week #185 as I have used snippets of card for my ivy spray and flowers, plus just a snippet of my precious gorgeous new lace!

And the new challenge starting today on the Jingle Belles blog is for an Old Fashioned Christmas, perfect for my card!

Thanks for stopping by, and hope to see you all again soon.

CCT Water

It's time for our next challenge at Cute Card Thursday, and this time it's 'Water' - hopefully not too much falling out of the sky today!  Our sponsor for this challenge is  Whimsy Stamps, please stop by the CCT blog to read all about the prize and see what the rest of the DT have created.

A few weeks back I was inspired, after watching lots of mixed media clips on YouTube, to fish out my old Stewart Gill paint stash.  Now some was so old that the paints had dried up and had to be binned, but I did have plenty of the pretty Pearlescent and translucent Alchemy paints in shades of aqua, white and some pink, and also a few metallics that were almost usable! So, in order not to waste card I used a piece from the middle of my chocolate mini-roll pack (after eating the top layer of mini rolls!) and set to sloshing on the base colours.

The paint dries quickly and cleans up with water, so no hanging about thankfully.  I then fished out some old rubber stamps, one that looked like rising bubbles I stamped over the background with a dark aqua paint, then infilled the bubbles with white pearl paint then I added some light green squiggles from the bottom up to look like weeds, or so I thought!  The other stamp I used is a sort of umbellifer seed head and I used a metallic paint to stamp that, although the first generation is a bit thicker than I would have liked (bottom left) but better second generation top right.  I then got to flicking some aqua paint and adding aqua dots with a thick Adirondack pearl paint in the colour stream.

Next was embellishing, and first up was to use the aqua micro beads I've had in my stash for a decade!  I used dries clear glue to fix them along the bottom but wish now I had used Glossy Accents as some are coming off around the edge so I might need to redo.  You can just make them out at the bottom of my dragonfly close up picture.

The dragonfly is another old stamp, bottom layer stamped onto the lavender vellum is embossed with silver the top layer embossed with an iridescent powder.  I only used the wings on the top layer to add dimension, fixing them to stand proud with a little silicone glue. I've added fine aqua glitter to the segments of the body and see some has stuck to the wet glue around the beads too - I like that!

The flower is the one I made a few weeks back from the large Marianne Design LR0122 poinsettia dies, you might recognise it from here.  I've dabbed on some of the pink pearl and translucent lavender paints then fixed a gem to the centre.  The 'leaves' are MD die LR0192 and I've added glitter to the ends of the fronds..  Lastly, I managed to get a couple of tiny butterflies punched out of the last piece of lavender vellum and gave them glittery bodies too.

I had fun with this creation, and really want to have more time to play with mixed media stuff, although I do like to keep things pretty and for the moment am just using my bits and bobs to make cards .. .. more to share soon!

Crafty Cardmakers also have water as their theme this week so I can enter my creation with them.

Thank you for stopping by, and see you again soon with a couple of little cards I've made with my painted backgrounds.

Marianne Design Divas in Circles!

This is my DT card for the new Marianne Design Divas challenge to use something circular or create a circle card.  Our sponsors this time are Buddly Crafts and, of course, Marianne Design.  Please stop by the blog to see the gorgeous things my fellow DT have made and see what the prizes are for this challenge.  Take it from me, my card is circular, it just looks oval after I'd cropped the picture!

As Buddly Crafts are sponsoring, I'll link up to them for the MD products I've used so you can go shopping if you like .. .. my one big problem is I love the MD sparkle paper (actually card) and can't seem to find it on the shop site, so guess it's out of stock, just hoping it comes back in soon as I use lots for Christmas creations!

My base card is cut with two layers of cream card using die LR0112, and although I've embossed the edges, I didn't do any inking.  On the next layer cut from textured white card with LR0141, I've inked the embossed edges with a smoky blue chalk ink. Before fixing the white layer to the cream I cut out the picture from Mattie's Winter 1 cutting sheet MB0146 with a circle die and glued it behind the white frame.  In the past I had trouble with glue and the pictures so to be on the safe side I just glued around the edge this time - seems to have worked. MD have some beautiful cutting sheets and they only cost pence so great if you don't have time to colour a picture, or like me most of your stamps are cuties and you want to make something more traditional - although there are cute cutting sheets too. I am going to be adding to my collection, especially Christmas pictures as they will be great for the cards Mum sends to some of her older friends who like a more traditional style.  If you go take a look you will see that the bunny picture I used the other day is from the same sheet, and I am cogitating over what to do with the robin pictures!

With my basic card layered up flat, it was time to embellish, but I didn't want anything sticking out too much and hopefully this will go through the narrow slot at the Post Office.  The text is cut with the new die CR1327 and I've inked the embossed areas so the text shows up from the cream card, and I have popped it up a little with 3d foam tape.

 The holly sprays, ivy sprays and the 3 candles are all cut from the MD sparkle paper (actually card) using dies LR0244. LR0206 and LR0243 respectively. The mini poinsettias are cut from two colours of blue card stock with the mini poinsettia die LR0142.  To finish off I've added the blue gems, another real sparkler in the right light!  And because I've let the ivy leaves overhang at the bottom of the card, it helps to balance the card so it stands upright.


The new Papertake Weekly challenge theme is 'dont be square' so perfect for my circle card!

Thanks for stopping by to take a peek, and love to see you again soon!

CCT Ladies Only

oh my the internet is slow in Cornwall now .. .. all those holiday makers trying to link up back home .. .. so although this post is for Cute Card Thursday, it's actually Wednesday today as I'm typing and goodness knows how long it's going to take me to write it all up.  Plus, I have extra pictures to share - hopefully I'll get it done eventually.

So, we are celebrating Ladies Only on CCT this week, and our sponsor is All Dressed Up! please stop by the blog to read about the prize and see what the rest of the team have created.

I've inked up my LOTV Coffee Time stamp and coloured with my Copic pens, although in my close up pic it's looking a bit washed out.  I've used another piece of my SU! special paper, same as last week, and gone to town with flowers.  First up though, here is the card:

I've edged with my embossed faux stitching although it's hard to make out, and I left off a sentiment so I can use if for any special girly occasion. The die cuts are Marianne Design, except the SB scallop cream mat.  The pink pearls on the cream mat are made with a new Viva Decor pearl pen, and yes they do seem to be self levelling so no nipples on top although with the light catching them it looks otherwise!  The flowers are made with MD mulberry paper and coloured with a couple shades of Momento pink die ink, here's a close up of them:

The darker flowers are created with two layers of die cuts, the paler ones with just one layer, and the tiny buds are again one layer then snipped into the middle and rolled up - fiddly but I think they look ok.  I took an emery board to the leaves to highlight the edges and the central vein.  Here's the dies I used for the flowers:

So, the pale flowers are made with the bigger petalled die CR1204, and simply inked, spritzed and squished with a ball tool so the petals come together. Once dry I tweaked a little and added the pearl in the middle.

For the darker flowers cut with CR1201, I inked just the edge of the petals, then spritzed on the back so the ink bleeds a little, squished and then when dry layered up two and added the pearl centre.

The tiny buds cut with LR0160 I made from the paper that I already coloured pink as it's easier to do that way around .. .. then snip into the middle, lightly spritz with water and roll up tight.  When dry they come undone a bit so you might need to re-roll if you want tight buds, but I actually like the loose look!

I hope you like my card today and the picture of the dies has helped - let me know if you prefer to see a list or a picture.

Creative Inspirations are wanting girlie creations this week so definitely one to enter! The In The Pink new theme is floral, along with lots of pink, and a picture of pretty roses in a tea cup .. .. inspiration certainly! and I think my card fits that theme but not sure if it's pink enough, hope so.

Sunshine is back in Cornwall today so I need to finish off tidying the garden and pruning/pulling out some of the spring and early summer flowering things that have gone over to let the light in for the things still to flower that seem to be hiding underneath.  I am beginning to realise that either I'm getting too old or the garden is getting too big .. .. I think more permanent shrub planting that just needs an annual prune might be the way to go, before my back goes!

Winter Wishes

I have a Festive Winter card to share with you on a lovely sunny Summer day! Sorry for the wonky picture, and actually it is a bit wonky in real life too .. ..

The base card is cut with the frilly #10 die and I've cut the patterned layer with Marianne Design patterned paper from the Special Nautical pack I recently purchased.  I thought that this subtle blue grey paper would suit lots of occasions and it does match the tones in the MD bunny picture.

I've inked the edges of the paper with Pumice Stone DI, and used it on the embossed areas of my pine cones and twigs as well.  The pretty circle mat and the lacy snowflake are cut from the MD sparkle card, as is the top layer of the 'winter'.  The holly leaves I cut from the cream card, but added Stickles to bling things up, and added touches on the fence, twigs and pine cones, it's a lovely sparkly card in the right light!

The Marianne Design die sets I used on this card are:

circle mat - CR1251

fence - CR1288

pine cones and twigs - LR0286

holly spray - LR0244

snowflake - LR0327

Just a couple of challenges I can enter with this Winter/Christmas creation:  Winter Wonderland is all that glitters - lots on my card, and it's an anything goes theme with the Die Cuttin Divas.

thank you for stopping by to take a look at my sparkly Winter card on this beautiful sunny Summer day!  I hope you are enjoying some sunshine this weekend too.

Mmmm Cake!

This week on Cute Card Thursday we are loving cake! Well, who doesn't .. .. so please share your delicious delights with us.  Our sponsor for this challenge is Nikki at Bunny Zoe's crafts, please stop by the CCT blog to read all about it and see what the rest of the team have created.

For my card I've inked up one of my LOTV girlie stamps, called cupcake I think, and perfect for the theme.  She's coloured with Copics then I've added clear glaze to the cherries on top of the cakes and Stickles to her petticoat.  Here's the card - I've hit the auto bright button so it's now too bright, but I thought my little preview was looking dull - somewhere I'll figure out how to get a happy compromise between the two .. ..

The papers are some of my specials by Stamping Up! and although I love them, I've told myself that I have to cut them up before I can buy any new gorgeousness .. .. ah well!  The flower is another one I made by painting the die cut MD daisies with Twinkling H2Os, then a little die cut leaf spray and butterflies finish things off. I didn't want to add too much in the way of embellishments and cover up the pretty paper, so I sat on my hands for this one!  

I used dies from these Marianne Design sets:

pink doily mat - CR1201

ivory doily mat - CR1248

ivory border mat - CR1250

daisy flowers - LR0106

leaves - CR1245

butterflies - LR0261

The Stampavie and More challenge is to use doilies, I have two doily mats behind my image so hope that counts.

Thank you for stopping by to take a peek at my creations, and hope you will call in again soon.  Enjoy your day, keep cool (hey it's raining here in north Cornwall!) and keep crafting!

CCT Stars and Stipes

Good Morning! This week on Cute Card Thursday we are celebrating with stars and stripes in honour of our friends in the USA who will be whooping it up on 4th July!

But, you know me .. .. first off I had to find some starry or stripey paper so went rummaging, and found this old Papermania Christmas pad with these two sheets that I thought could be used any time of year.  Then for more stars and stripes I decided on this LOTV Wizard with his stripey top and stars on his wizard's hat and cloak.  I've coloured with my Copics and what looks grey in the picture is actually brown!  Still trying to get the colours true on the camera and this time my little lad is looking rather pale and washed out, not so in real life. I've fussy cut him out and layered him up with 3d foam onto the stripey mat, and layered that onto the starry background.

Here's the card I made:

My youngest grandson likes pink! So this will be just right for his Halloween card.  I've decorated with green ribbon from my stash and punched stars, and a die cut swirly embellishment from a couple of Marianne Design doily sets, you get the big one in LR0129 and the smaller one in LR0130.  The die cut 'Eeek' is from a Penny Black die set I got on sale recently, first time I've used that brand and I must say, even though it is very fine and fiddly to layer up, it cut beautifully in my old Cuttlebug.  I used another of the dies from the set on the inside of the card, here:

And I found the little star stamp in my mini wood collection .. .. I've been digging out all kinds of stuff that I'd put away at the back of the cupboard so there will be some different 'old but new' things to share with you soon!

The Loves Rubber Stamps challenge is to include some die cut elements with your project, so that's an easy challenge for me!

And at the Addicted to Stamps blog they are playing bingo!  I have the bottom line of ribbon, dies and layers.

Thank you for stopping by and taking a peek, and hope to see you again soon!

Christmas Bauble

This is one of my messing about creations that actually didn't turn out half bad!  I was browsing through my die cut bit box, you know how it is when you've cut something and end up not using it .. .. and at the back of your mind you have a theme that you should be working on for an upcoming DT creation .. .. but get side-tracked!  Well this is the result!

The red base circle and white doily were already cut and so was the white fancy piece behind my embellishment, although you can't see it much.  I needed another red layer so cut one from the red bottom layer - it wont be missed as there's another white layer on the back ready to have a text or to/from stamped on it.  Then I thought, rather than make it for a card, turn in into a bauble so I cut the bauble hanger bit out twice, but first added the gold Stickles to the edges of the red layers and on the embossed bits on the bauble hanger before sticking the two bits back to back.  Are you still with me?  OK then, here's a picture of the Marianne Design dies I used, but I forgot to add the bells in, they are from set COL1363:

Once the Stickles were dry I layered up my pieces using 3d foam for the middle layer so it stands proud of the base. I found the gold lace ribbon in my stash to make a bow and for the hanging loop and die cut the holly leaves from shiny gold card and the bells from white, but then I had to dig out my glue gun to fix the bells as by then the gold bow and leaves made it too thick to use my normal dries clear glue .. .. hot glue is not my favourite as I get strings of glue everywhere, but it worked and keeps the bells proud but in place.  Finally the flowers!  I've been playing again with handmade paper and these are made with thin tissue so 4 layers in each, at least you can cut all the layers in one go!  Then more rummaging and I found the red sparkle brads, snipped off the prongs and hot glued them into the flowers.

So that's it, not what I started out to do but I think it turned out ok, and I can enter into several Christmas challenges with it. Fab 'n' Funky - Christmas, Holly Jolly - Tag It, Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge - Merry and Bright, and Winter Wonderland - no cards.

Here are more of my flower creations I made whilst messing about.  The best is the bottom left as that is made with Marianne Design Mulberry paper which when it dries goes back to being stiff so holds the shape better.  They are made with the larger version of the poinsettia die LRO122, although the bottom right one has a mini flower added to the centre and only the smaller die from the set used for the 2 layers of bigger petals.  From my results it pays to go with thick Mulberry paper so they flowers stay 'up', my top flower is made with a paper that almost disintegrated when it was wet and I had to be very careful when pulling the flower petals out when they were dry so as not to tear them.  It's ok though and will be used on something or other .. .. look out for them later!

Thank you for stopping by, and for the lovely comments I've been getting.  Hope to see you again soon.

Don & Daisy Z fold

The Don and Daisy Challenge #24 is for a Z fold card - there is a picture explaining how it's made on the blog. My version used up one of my scrap pieces for the base to make the Z fold. I stamped Daisy, coloured her with my Copics and cut her out with a mat to hang over the side - that way the whole thing fits in a square envelope.  To keep the card open I cut the icicle border from the thick MD sparkle card and 3d mounted it across the top.  Daisy is also mounted onto the brown lace circle mat, but not such thick foam, that way different icicles will catch either the brown layer or the top Daisy layer - I hope you got that!

The rest is fairly simple, some MD Christmas paper, MD snowflake and tree, then those little red flower gems from my stash that needed using up and I thought would brighten the card - that is the last of these red ones from a show about 5 years back! This one really sparkles but it's hard to capture in a photo.

My Marianne Design bits and pieces on this card are:

Snow Paper (but it's actually sparkly card) CA3104

Eline's Scandinavian Winter paper PB7040 has the sheet with the reindeer 

and I also used a little scrap from Wintertime PK9100

Christmas Daisy stamp DDS3325

Die to cut out Daisy from LR0141 set

brown lace mat CR1248

brown lace border CR1250

Snowflake from LR0123

Tree LR0136

Icicle Border LR0135

The Corrosive challenge blog theme is to leave a little sparkle, I have added glitter to the snow under Daisy's feet and on her candle flame, used sparkle card to cut my embellishments and finished off with the red gems - so ticked that box!  The Allsorts challenge is to use a stamp, no digis, so I can enter with them too.

LIM Stencilling

It's not often that I enter into the Less Is More challenges, well you know how I love to embellish my creations with my die cuts most of the time!  However, I do always peek at what other crafters are making and wish I could nail the LIM style!  And, this week when I read that the theme was to use stencils, I thought of the trial piece I made back in the Spring after visiting the Cornwall craft fair.  I got some stencils and paste and had a play, but the paste I got is transparent so I got to adding drops of re-inker and glitter - and getting messy!  Then I thought about making my own stencils - and this was my effort.

I've die cut the Marianne Design forest branch LR0150 from a thick glossy card and used the 'waste' as my stencil.  The base and my stencil layer are SU card in that pale almost kraft colour, I'm not sure if they are still selling it (and I'm almost out).  I couldn't resist adding my signature embossed stitches around the edge, and stamped a text .. .. then just had to add a floral embellishment too!  Here's  a close up for you:

Hopefully you can see the clear stencil on the edge of the card.  I thought it needed something so used the transparent paste with one of the stencils I bought.  And those flowers are more of my hand made creations, this time with just a single layer of MD mulberry paper, die cut with the smallest flower die in set CR1204, then coloured with pink die ink and squished up.  Hope everyone at LIM likes it!

I'm also joining in again with Pixie's Craft Workshop Snippets challenge, as my flowers are created with oddments of paper and the stencilled layer was just a snippet!

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday, I'm off to take Izzy for our afternoon stroll so catch you all later!

Nautical card for a man

I recently treated myself to this Marianne Design special offer kit from Cuddly Buddly, it's called Beach Set and includes A4 papers, the Nautical stamps and some lovely silky ivory ribbon and all for just £5.19 from Buddly Crafts - find it here.  Now the stamp set on it's own would cost you £8.99 so it's a bargain, and you get the papers and ribbon!  A no brainer in my book and perfect for creating something for 'difficult' men.  So this is what I came up with:

It's a smallish 5" square cream base and I've used a pale kraft card to mat my patterned paper from the pack, and to stamp the ship on to die cut out with the smaller circle die from LR0141.  I've added my signature faux embossed stitching and over-stamped the paper with some of the designs in the set using a mix of green, blue, sand and brown chalk inks.  The anchor is a MD die cut, LR0232 and I've just added string that I've also coloured with the inks.  To lighten things up I dabbed on the snow white paint dabber here and there.  The ship picture and the fish are coloured with pencils, thought they would show up better on the kraft for the ship and the cream card I used for stamping the fish.  So what do you think of my first attempt - it's a bit different to my usual flowery style, but I had fun getting inky fingers!

As Creative Inspirations, Loves Rubberstamps, and Crafty Cardmakers all want to see masculine creations, I can enter my card with each of them.

CCT Add a Quote

ok, so you can't see the quote I've added in this little snip of the picture, so I'll quickly move on after telling you that the latest Cute Card Thursday challenge starts today and our sponsor is Whimsy Stamps, as usual stop by the CCT blog to read all about it and see what the rest of the DT have created.

I've inked up this cute LOTV stamp called 'Always' and coloured with my Copic pens.  Best show the card then:

The quote is an old stamp and I die cut using one of the hearts in a Marianne Design set LR0299.  The papers are digi designs from Buddly crafts with my signature embossed and inked stitching around the edge.  I'v added a little lace and a swirly pearl heart - that's from a MD set of pearl heart designs.  The flowers are cut from the two flower dies in LR0107 using plain printer paper then painted with H2Os so end up quite stiff enough to hold their own on a card, these were a couple of my early attempts so not as detailed as some I've made recently, but I think they coordinate with the flowers the little lad is holding behind his back.  To finish I've simply added the leaves from the mini poinsettia set, punched fronds and butterflies and the pearls.

The Papertake Weekly theme is for something 'So Pretty', I think this fits.  The ABC challenge theme is at the letter 'L' = lace, so I can enter with them too.

I'm flitting about a bit just at the moment, doing what I can when I can but still not able to get my teeth sorted out, except in a dire emergency when a visit to one of the hospitals with a dental department will give temporary relief but not help out with proper fillings or hygiene treatments.  I am on several 'waiting lists' so guess I will just have to do that .. .. wait!

Marianne Design Divas June Flowers

Time for our June challenge at the Marianne Design Divas blog, and we would like to see flowers a plenty on your creation.  Of course, you also need to use a minimum of 3 things from Marianne Design - not a problem for me!  Our sponsor for this challenge is Nikki at Bunny Zoe's Crafts as well as Marianne Design.

I have made a flowery card in shades of pink and blue and created all the flowers myself, from scratch.  I've die cut the layers from MD Mulberry paper then inked with either Summer Sky or Rose Bud Momento ink by dabbing the ink onto my craft mat, adding a spritz of water and dipping the edges of the petals in .. .. it makes for different shades each time.  With the little bud flowers it was easier to wet the whole flower as they are quite tiny.  Here are the dies I used to create my flowers and accents:

For the large blue flower I cut 2 large and two small, and forgot to add the stamen die to the picture, it's from the same set, LR0111. After inking with blue, I've lightly spritzed the back of the flower before scrunching up and leaving to dry. Once dry flatten them out a little and stick together finishing off with the blue gem.

The smaller pink and blue flowers are cut with the smallest daisy die in set CR1201, again two layers then use a ball tool to push down in the middle to bring the petals together and overlapping a little. For the centres I've glued in the pearl stamens.  Finally, those tiny wee buds are each cut with the small flower die (from the cup cake set LR0160).  I snipped a little 'V' into the centre then rolled up the flowers whilst still damp, then when dried added pva dries clear glue to the join and to stick them down on my card.  OK, let me show you the card .. .. ..

I've used paper from the MD Flower Garden paper pack with my faux stitch edging inked with the blue ink.  I've used my oval Passe Par-tout dies cut in ivory for the centre of the card and the text mat, I've had issues using these in the past, not really understanding how they worked but suddenly a light bulb moment and result!  The text is a small clear stamp from my stash that I've had for at least a decade .. .. but it was the only one that worked vertically on my small oval mat. The butterflies I cut from the same Mulberry paper that I'd dragged through the left over pink ink so in the end I got different coloured butterflies, I like the way they turned out.  I've finished off with pearls and a pale pink organza bow, admittedly it was hard to know when to stop with those flowers!

So this is the full list of Marianne Design products on this card:

Mulberry Paper RB2219

Flower Garden 6x6 Paper Pack PK9112

Blue lace down the side (under the pearl string) JU0845

Passe par-tout oval CR1241

Tiny's forget-me-not spray CR1307

Tiny's swirls and leaves (just the leaves) CR1245

middle size blue and pink flowers CR1201

large blue flower LR0111

small bud flowers from LR0160

butterflies from LR0261

faux stitching created with LR0161

The Allsorts challenge blog theme is Flower Power so that definitely fits my card!

I'm struggling a little bit health wise just at the moment so please excuse me if I'm not around for a while, I do have my CCT projects all done for June so at least there will be something for you to see each week.  Hopefully I can get back into the crafty groove again soon. Take care! and thanks for stopping by.

Beside the Seaside!

I now have the oldie song, "oh I do like to be beside the seaside!" in my head .. .. and I actually live just a couple of miles from the sea but rarely go to visit these days. As it's Thursday, over on the Cute Card Thursday blog we are looking for Seaside creations this week. Katharina at Whiff of Joy is our sponsor for this challenge.

On my card Don is having a great day out lazing in his deckchair, but like most lads he can't be parted from his mobile phone!  The stamp is Marianne Design DDS3352 with the background from the Summer scenery set DDS3333.  I've coloured with my Copic pens and found a piece of MD paper that although from a Christmas pack, it looked suitably summery to me! Here's the card:

I've die cut the MD shells and anchor, and a branch from a Christmas set.  I die cut the flowers with the mini poinsettias then painted with shimmery H2Os, then added yellow sparkle mini brads in the centres.  The fronds are made with an old MS punch.

The MD dies I used on this card were:
mini poinsettias from LR0142
shells LR0230
anchor LR0232
branch from LR0286

The June challenge at Stamp and Create is 'Summer Fun' so I can enter my card with them. And at Addicted to Stamps they want to see Summer colours so I'm good for them too!  Stampavie and More want you to include some brads - in the centre of my flowers, and last but not least, Pixie's Snippets challenge #180, as usual I've used snippets for die cutting my embellishments.

CCT Summer Colours

Time for another challenge at Cute Card Thursday, this time we want to see some sunshine Summer colours, and at last here in Cornwall we actually have seen the sun .. .. not sure for how long though.  Our sponsor for this challenge is Bunny Zoe's Crafts, please stop by the CCT blog to read all about it and see what the rest of the DT have created.

I have inked up one of my favourite LOTV girls, this cutie is Rosie Posie and was one of the first LOTV stamps I got.  This time out I've coloured her in sunshine yellow with touches of complimentary purple.  Here's my card:

I've used up another scrap piece and made Rosie into a topper so the whole thing will fit into a 5" square envie.  The papers are digi scraps and I coloured the ribbon and row of lace flowers with my Copic pens to match in, oh and the clear domes in the centres of the flowers and down the side too.  The flowers are die cut from ordinary printer paper then coloured with yellow H2O paints so are lovely and shimmery in real life. The die cut elements are made with my Marianne Design dies, here's the list:

lace mat for my image CR1203
flowers from mini poinsettia set LR0142
extra little stamen type flowers from die in LR0111
swirls snipped from LR0112
skeleton leaves snipped from die in set LR0227

The Papertake Weekly challenge is anything goes this week, so I can enter Rosie Posie with them, and at Moving Along With the Times it's Birthday celebrations so one for them too.

I'm also entering Rosie into the LOTV Facebook Summer Special competition - today is the last day of the challenge so I had better get a move on!

Thanks for stopping by, and hope you will pop back soon.

CCT Just too cute!

Today's Cute Card Thursday theme is just Too Darn Cute!  We would like to see you create a real cutie, and what is more cute than a baby card!

I have used the baby stamp from Don and Daisy and coloured with my Copic pens. The postmark across the corner is stamped with Orchid Brilliance ink and I just added the star in the middle, colouring a clear one with a Copic pen, it is very subtle but pretty I think.  Want to see more .. .. here's the card:

The background paper is a scrap from my digi box, originally from Cuddly Buddly I believe.  I've added various Marianne Design die cut pieces, a tiny organza bow, punched stars and a touch of bling with more stars.  I've inked the forget-me-not flowers with a darker pink Momento and a green chalk ink for the leaves, and used the same pink ink to stamp the text.  The Marianne Design dies I used are CR1249 to cut out the stamped image, CR1307 forget-me-nots and DF3404 for the chicken wire tucked in behind.

The Die Cuttin Divas theme is Baby Love so one I can definitely enter.

Turkey Dinner

 I managed to put together another Christmas card over the long Bank Holiday weekend, it does take a while when the garden needs tending, the dog needs walking and Mum needs sorting out - but finally, it's finished!

This is the Turkey Dinner stamp by LOTV, one of my old favourites because it has a puppy and that huge turkey, not to mention that pud on top of the stove, they are going to enjoy their festive dinner to be sure! I've coloured with my Copics and added just a touch of sparkle to the pup's Christmas hat.

Here's the card:

As I said, I started this card last week, after seeing that the Winter Wonderland blog challenge was for Festive Food and knowing I had this stamp already in my Christmas 'half-made' pile.  I also had the background paper all layered up on the card so it was a matter of layering up my image to match and adding my die cut snippets - another one for Pixie's Snippets Playground - and thank you Diane for sharing my Rudolph card, I am glad you liked it!  I will almost always have snippets on my makes as I love to use my Marianne Design dies for embellishing, I think they add interest without too much sticking up so can go through the post!

On this card I used the mini poinsettia die LR0142 along with leaves from the bigger poinsettia set LR0122.  The pine cones are from set LR0286 and the holly sprays from LR0244. I coloured the white pearls with a Copic red to match in with everything, oh and I nearly forgot, the text is cut twice with die LR0225 then layered up.

And thank you to from Scraps of Life for letting me know about the Rudolph Days challenge on her blog with fabulous prizes, starting on the 25th of each month until the end of the month, and always anything goes, so here's my entry!

The Christmas Card blog challenge is anything goes, so I'm entering with them too.

Thanks for stopping by and taking a peek at my creations, hope to see you here again soon!

Uptown Girls cards

 Hello again! well after a lovely sunny day yesterday, today here on the north coast of Cornwall we are enveloped in 'fizzle' that's fog and drizzle all mixed together, and although the plants in the garden love it, I don't!

I have a couple of cards made with the Stamping Bella Uptown girls to share with you, this one brand new, the second a reworking of an earlier make.

This first one is Opal the Optimist and the text comes with the stamp.  I made it for my eldest son's partner for her birthday and hopefully she has received it by now as I will probably add to my Facebook page via Pinterest, and she will get to see that .. ..

I printed off a piece of Nitwits paper and because a couple of my inks are getting low the shades are quite different but I liked it and it worked with the red mats and the sandy coloured card I used for the base and for the die cut swirl and punched layer.  I don't actually own that MS punch, it's a piece I've had in my bit box a very long time from before I moved here when I was still able to meet up for crafty Monday afternoons with friends - not sure which friend the punch belongs to though.  I've added the roses and little buds, a tiny red bow, red lace and the die cut butterflies then embellished with gems.  Simple as it had to go in the post - I hope it arrived safely.

And here is my reworked Maybelline card.  I've added the pretty lavender mat and fixed to a bigger card base, looks much better now I think.

Well that's it from me for today.  I have to clean up the mess from under the craft table plus the bits from Izzy's annihilation of a pine cone .. .. but it did keep him quiet whilst I was trying to craft!

Thanks for stopping by, enjoy your Sunday and hopefully you have better weather where you are.  Still, it means I can't spend time in the garden so maybe after the tidy up I shall craft and make it all messy again .. .. ..