Take time to smell the flowers....

It's a grey day here but not cold thank goodness! Had a wander round the garden this morning after I'd done the dreaded house work and the crocus, miniature daffs and snowdrops are all blooming - so spring is definitely on it's way - so thinking about Spring here's a little beauty from LOTV taking some time to smell the flowers!

I stitched the image onto the die cut frame and added some glamour dust bling onto her wings and the skirt. I keep forgetting I bought a white gel pen and hardly ever use it, but found it to dot a few pearly dots onto the flowers and in her hair.

The backing papers were from my stash and I matted the polka dot paper onto some lilac card, distressed and stitched it.

The square lacy doily was a present and I have been wating for an opportunity to use it - It seemed a shame to cover it really as it has a pretty design in the centre but I liked it layered behind the frame so used it anyway!
I coloured the hand made flower with a Promarker and punched out some leaves using the same lilac cardstock.

I tucked in a triple pearl pin and a pearl spray behind the organza ribbon and inside I continued the same colour scheme and used a scrap of the ribbon secured with a pearl buckle onto the die cut frame for the greeting.

Challenges -
Creative Inspirations - Anything Goes
Crafty Bloggers - Spring Time
Pixie Cottage - Anything Goes
Cutie Pie - Flowers
Pan Pastel - Use Ribbon
Kaboodle Doodles - Shades of Purple

Thanks for visiting me today - have a lovely day whatever you're doing. x

Mojo has sailed away............

My mojo has seriously deserted me this week - I've had other things on my mind and have been a wee bit stressed out so consequently have not done any crafting other than to sit and shuffle pieces of paper about!

I made this 'man' card the week before last and as I haven't posted anything this week thought I should pop it on to share.

Not very inspiring is it?? LOL
Think it reflects how I feel!

Anyway, image stamped with Versamark and some light shading with promarkers. Two pices of black card put behind it in a 'fan/sail' type layout and mounted onto K and C striped paper.
I used some twine and a little fish charm on the top.

There are some 'Man' challenges about so am entering -
Sweet Stamping - Masculine 
Hotshot Crafts - One for the Boys
Wags N Whiskers - Masculine Birthday
Stamp, Scrap and Doodle - Manly
Whimsy - Monochromatic
Creative Card Crew - Masculine

Am off now to shuffle some more paper!!!
Thanks for visiting, have a lovely day whatever you're doing! x

Punches (not the boxing sort) LOL

Morning bloggers!
Am quite cheerful this morning despite the old neck and mid back giving me a bit of a reminder that things are not all that they should be!!
BUT - the sun is shining brightly here today - although cold I always think just seeing the gorgeous blue above you makes you feel good.
Have a couple of things almost completed - am doing projects in dribs and drabs rather than finishing one before starting another - consequently the desk is not the tidiest (again!).
Am trying to enter as many LIM challenges as I can and have a sneaky feeling that I may try and sumbit more than one this week as the challenge is for Dies and Punches. 

But here's the first one - the stamp is by Elusive Images and I inked it with Onyx Black versamark then added some holographic powder onto the silk art card. Was quite pleased with the finish this gave - made it sparkle a little in certain light but not overdone the blingy.(Will I get extra marks for that???? LOL)
I coloured it with promakers and then used a Nellie Snellen die to frame it. The piece that I cut it from I layered onto some pastel blue cardstock so that when I mounted the frame you could just see small parts of the backing colour coming through.
I used a Martha Stewart trellis punch for the edge and added a very thin piece of ribbon.
Quite pleased with this one!
No sentiment added as yet - can't decide on a 'Thinking of You' - then it could double as a sympathy card or Best Wishes - then it could be used as a 'get well'...............

Anyway, here's a little close up of the flowers as I've tried to show the sparkly... not sure if you can see or not!

Thanks for visiting me  - have a lovely day whatever you're doing and I hope the sun is shining where you are! x

Romance

Thanks for dropping in today and a warm welcome to my new followers.

Have been meaning to post this for a couple of days and the time has just gone as always. I am feeling very smug as I am continuing my resolution to use up some of this huge paper stack that I own and never cut into - so here's the latest offering using more of my Graphic45 Curtain Call papers. 

Can you feel the steamy passion??LOL

 

To coin a phrase -   they don't make 'em like that anymore'!!!  

All dark and smoulderingly broody with the odd sound of a bodice ripping thrown in for good measure!!!

And you weren't allowed to let both of your feet leave the floor during the 'passion' scenes never mind exchange mouth to mouth kisses!!! 

How times have changed - and not always for the better - now nothing is left to your imagination....  

   

Enough reminiscing! Back to the card - distressed,stitched and layered (yes the sewing machine is still out!), some old cotton lace from my stash, a couple of black card swirls and a doily inked with Antique Linen DI.

The satin ribbon kept fraying so I ended up using the pinking shears and I hope it hasn't spoilt the overall vintagey feel. I added the blingy buckle, a black pearl pin, two diamante pins and finished with two tiny sparkly hearts.

Challenges -

Dutch Dare - Distressing

Crafting 4 All Seasons - Love
The Crafty Pad - The letter 'B' - and mine is for Blingy Buckle!

Ruby's Rainbow - Vintage

Crafty Bloggers - Love is in the Air

Hooked On Crafts - Hearts

Friendships Garden - Love and 3 embellishments (no stamps allowed) 

Creative Craft - Valentines
Southern Girls - So Distressed

Have a lovely day whaever you're doing! 

Not happy......

but I decided to share with you anyway!
I have discovered I am deinfitely NOT a stripe person!
Oh the pain and the agony of my poor hurting head................
Here is the source of my anquish -
One Layer and STRIPES????????????????? How much can a body bear... I thought acetate was bad but STRIPES???????
I am putting myself in detention for the production and publication of this week's effort for the Less Is More challenge - and I'll let you into a secret - I wasn't going to show you but Maureen made me....

so brace yourselves - here it is.

Have you ever had an idea that seemed so simple and then when you tried to do it , it develops into the most difficult thing in the world?
Not helped by the teeny weeny fact that I don't posess anything remotely like a striped stamp.. (small detail???)

I vaguely remember seeing something like this on someone else's blog about a year ago - no idea whose blog it was and because my attempt is not as good as I wanted it to be that's probably a good thing as I wouldn't want anyone to think I'd made such a mess of their perfect idea!!!

So back to the stripes... I sat and cut 20 tiny strips from the sticky part of post it notes to create my grid... only took me about an hour! Then I had to position them so they were (reasonably) spaced.
The first three attempts went in the bin -(the ink was too dark, the spaces were too wide, I made a mess of taking off the strips...) and eventually arrived at something which is (just about) passable.
The stripes were done with Brushed Corduroy DI and the vintage car stamp and sentiment was inked with Vintage Sepia Versamark. 

I always think CAS are good for men and I wanted to do a 'man' card as I don't have many in my stash.... but am not sure this card will end up rectifying that or not..... depends on what you all say!!!! (Go on, I can take it.... I think!!!!!)

More Shabby!

Another very chilly and grey day here - have the heaters on full and am still not warm enough - need some fingerless gloves I think! Cold I may be, but I want to give a warm welcome to my new followers! It's lovely to see you!
Have a couple of unfinished projects laying about on the desk - mostly images which I've coloured that are waiting for assembly! Am trying to get round to making them up but I keep getting distracted by boring things like ironing!

Anyway here's one I DID manage to put together - this is another image from the Stempelglede Vintage Garden plate - just love these stamps!

Flowers were stamped  then painted with watercolours. I dusted some Spun Sugar DI round the edges, then distressed and layered onto dark pink linen textured card. I put some pale green linen textured card behind it and then ripped off some scrim and dyed it with the DI.
The other DP is from K and Co, layered onto the same pale geen and dark pink linen cardstock.
All the layers were stitched together - am going mad now with this sewing machine!!!!!!
The dark green cotton lace is from my stash as are the pink organza ribbon, pearl and pins. The flourish and the flower were coloured with promarkers.

Inside I used some more of the pale green and pink and just stamped onto the remnant of the K and Co paper. Stitched it to make a pocket and put a tag  inside the pocket which has a plain background to write a greeting. 
I am becoming hooked on distressing and stitching cards - hope I'm getting better at it with all this practice........

Challenges -
Just Traceys - Female with Lace/Ribbon or Tulle
CES - Lots of Layers
Anything Goes - Bingo (and I chose the bottom line of Swirls & Pearls, Flowers, Stitching, Ribbon & Lace)
Allsorts - Free and Easy
The Crafty Pad - Spring Colours
Our Creative Corner - Flower/Friend 

Thanks for dropping in today - have a lovely weekend whatever you're doing. x

PS - Over at Just Inspirational Challenges this week they are allowing you to backlink a February project for their challenge. They have 3 fab images to inspire you and I chose this one here of these gorgeous pink roses which fits in with my shabby card. Go check it out! 

Where did you get that Hat?

Woke up this morning to a wonderful pea souper of a fog - Looked like someone had stolen the world when I looked out of the window!
Has cleared a little bit now but not a day for doing a lot although I do need to do a bit of shopping for boring things like window blinds and a light fitting.
Have another distressingly stitched creation to share before I go spending money -
my previous stitched cards have been done on a tiny battery operated machine bought for about a tenner! I have long been the owner of a rather large fancy Brother portable machine and am also the proud owner of a Singer machine complete in a solid wood drop down table that belonged to my grandmother and was bought for the princely sum of £5 4s 11d over 50 years ago - both work perfectly and I used the Singer machine a lot to make my own curtains and stuff when I couldn't afford to buy ready made or have someone else do them for me!
The Brother, sadly, has seen the light of day 3 times in the last 5 years - but I made a resolution to use is this year - and yesterday I did.

So here is the finished project (she says smugly!) complete with a fancy stitch -I ignored the comments of DH about getting dust on the card etc etc etc

The image is of course from LOTV, mounted onto a brown cardstock frame cut with a nestie then layered onto a doily.
The papers are part of a pile of Candy stash I received from the lovely Debby - they're called 'Isabelle' by First Edition.
Distressed them all, stitched together, added a sentiment stamped in Vintage Sepia versamark and a flourish cut in co-ordinating card.
Finished off with a couple of bronze pearls, lightly glittered flowers and a couple of pearl pins.
 Here's a little peep at the inside too! 


Challenges -
Pixie Dust - Girly Girl
Poodles Parlour - Anything Goes
Fussy and Fancy - Polka Dots
Craft Your Days Away - Get Stitchy
Hotshot Crafts - Flowers

Thanks for visiting - have a lovely day whatever you're doing. x

A first!!

It is Sunday isn't it???? And here I am with my entry for this week's Less is More challenge.
A record!!! After last week's flurry of activity just a few hours before the challenge finished, I have today managed to make a card with a whole week to go!!!
LIM are celebrating their first birthday and although I haven't managed all the weeks have enjoyed taking part and I have REALLY enjoyed visiting everyone else's (even on the weeks when I didn't submit anything!). So congrats to Chrissie and Mandi - and STOP EATING THAT BIRTHDAY CAKE!!! LOL

So - here it is -
I don't normally do DL cards but fancied one for a change. The cardstock is white pearlised card.
I have had a Viva Decor flourish set for a long time and rarely used it but saw it whilst looking for something else and thought it might fit the bill.

Finding the stamp was easy - the ink not so simple! After scrabbling about in several drawers and boxes, I found a pigment ink called 'Robin's Egg Blue'. I stuck my finger on it to check the colour and decided it was the right shade. (the front of my jumper also bears testament to that too cos I forgot I still had wet ink on my finger and pulled down the bottom of my sweater - which had in fact started off it's life as pink........................)

Anyway - after stamping the flourish twice I used some holographic embossing powder - this gave it a bit of luminous sparkle instead of just raised clear embossing.
The butterfly I inked using a tiny paintbrush with Spun Sugar DI and some of the Robins Egg pigment ink and then the same embossing powder. The butterfly wings are raised with 3d foam pads.
I thought the three pearls were a great shade match and I can't do a card without a teeny bit of bling!

Am also submitting this into Flutter By Wednesday - Open Challenge, Paper Sundaes - Clean and Simple and Pixie Cottage - Clean and Simple

After I'd done, I wondered about  whether the butterfly was a bit 'lost' being almost the same shade so I have taken a pic with a black pearlised one sat on the card - I may do another with a black butterfly, and stamp the sentiment in black ink and a few black pearls instead. What do you think?


Thanks for visiting - a big hello to all my new followers - it's lovely to see you.
I'm away to do a bit more paper distressing on a half finished card!
Have a great day whatever you're doing. x

Queen of Hearts or Queen of Last Minute!

Definitely the latter! Here I am at 8.35pm and just posting my entry into this week's Less Is More.
The flippin thing isn't even dry - and because of the light the pic is pretty damn awful too... but has to be linked before the Head Girls pull the plug on Mr Linky - so  I will taker a better pic tomorrow! Update - Tried again this morning but pic still not the best!!
The rules this week were really specific (and stern...LOL), Landscape with a panel and the panel had to be positioned exactly where the sketch said....
So I have!

This started off life as a free digi stamp and fortunately was 'panel shaped'!!!

I printed it out twice then stamped over one of the images with a large Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Collection grungy background stamp I picked up in a bargain bucket for about £2 about 3 years ago that has seen ink only once in it's entire life....(shame on me....)
I then cut out the hearts, coloured them with a promarker and mounted them onto the panel using foam pads to give them a bit of dimension.
I used some glossy accents on the largest heart (which isn't dry....yet). The whole panel was then layered onto red and black card before putting onto the white cardstock.
The sentiment stamp is another I have had for years.

OH and I don't exchange Valentine's cards - who needs a special day to show someone they're your whole world????!!!
BUT - it's his birthday on Valentine's Day  so this year he'll get a card with hearts on!


Other Challenges -
Cardmadfairy  - Hearts
Simply Create Too - Red Hot
Sweet n Sassy - Valentine
Digi Doodle -  Love is in the Air
MAWTT - At least one heart
Cheerful Stamp Pad - Romance is in the Air
Thanks for visiting - have a lovely weekend, whatever you're doing. x