Sail Away and a fashion parade!

Another CAS card to share today! But before I share this post carries a government health warning for those of a nervous disposition!!!!
Those of you who follow my blog will have known that I was away at a 'bit of a do' over the weekend...
sharp intake of breath...
stand by for the big REVEAL...  
HERE IS ME IN A DRESS!!!! 

GET UP OFF THE FLOOR PLEASE!

 and for good measure here's another one with the much loved long suffering other half... I have resisted the urge to show you the ones with the jacket on, the one where I'm laughing hysterically (BEFORE the drink) and another where I am for some inexplicable reason pulling silly faces (that must have been AFTER the drink!!) so be thankful!

Enough!
On to the card
My 'man stash' was looking quite thin - (does that sound like I'm collecting men????? LOL) only had about 3 'man' cards - now I've got even less as I had a visit from a friend on Sunday who availed herself of a selection from my stash for her own card collection. Am not complaining - like to see my 'makes' put to good use!

I will have to make some more - but am in the middle of a wee messy project and I don't want to put it to one side whilst I start doing cards.. however, I am currently experiencing 'creative block' so messy may be put away for a couple of days....

Inspired by Pinterest (love it!!), bright white cardstock and a few stamps from a couple of different companies inked with a mixture of Tea Dye DI and Versafine Sepia.

The torn paper strip was a left over piece from something or other and I just randomly stamped a small compass and the anchor all over it and as it was a 'leftover' the card is going to play in the playground this week!

Cut out the anchor image on the white card and secured it with some string, inked the edges of the card a bit and layered it onto brown cardstock.
Simple, quick and I quite like it! 

Challenges - 
Craft Room Challenge - Something for a Man
Creative Card Crew - Birthday
Digi Darla - Masculine
Love to Create - String
Addicted to CAS - Masculine
Come and Get It - Water Related
Card Making Mama's - Birthday
SOS - Tag It


Thanks for visiting me - off for a look at what you've been up to here in blogland! x

Floral Fancy

Quickie post as it's a big night tonight (LOL) - am off to the Hilton Hotel in the middle of the country for a National Dinner and Presentation - and as we're staying overnight I may partake of a couple of glasses of vino...got to help my teamies celebrate their National win haven't I? Be rude not to!! LOL
So - and I kid you not - I have bought a DRESS especially for the occasion and HIGH HEELS!! Me in a DRESS??????? 
Am bothered now 'cos -
1. None of my friends will recognise me in a fancy frock (cos my jeans and trousers are my fave clothes)
2. I'm scared I will fall off my high heels (especially with the vino) as it's been about 10 years since I wore anything that remotely resembles 'dressy up' shoes!!
If I am brave enough (or have enough to drink so I don't care...) I just MAY allow myself to be photographed to share with you......... only MAY mind you so don't be getting your hopes up!!

Enough waffling - here's the card - my fave white linen textured cardstock used throughout and a CAS design. (Pic not brilliant as the light is pretty poor!)

The image is from Kanban, stamped in Versafine and coloured with a mixture of watercolours and promarkers.

I opted for bright retro style colours as I thought they fitted with the stamp design.

The sentiment is from Hero Arts.

Layered the image onto green Bazzil then onto white, wrapped some green and white striped ribbon round and simply knotted at the front.

Challenges -

Bloggers - Friendship

Totally papercrafts - Hope for Spring

Fab n Funky - Flower Power

Ruby's Rainbow - In the Garden

The Perfect Sentiment - Floral Fantasia

Vickies - Anything Goes

Delicious Doodles - Flowers For Srping

Well that's me done - off to put the overnight bag in the car. have a great weekend and will be around tomorrow to check in on what you've all been up to! xx

Spring is on it's way?

Certainly feels like it here today! We had a hard frost overnight but during the morning the sun came out and is still here at 4pm! Unheard of! Not only that but it was warm enough to dispense with the 'North Face' body warmer under the jacket this morning on my walk too! The crocus and snowdrops are all flowering and the daffs have just started to poke their heads through the soil - so is Spring on it's way? I hope so!

I realised today it has been almost a week since I last posted....... I have been trying to visit all my blogging buddies but life has overtaken me this week! My head has been full of other stuff- but I was asked to make a wedding card and I managed to concentrate for long enough to put this together.

Not too difficult but was a bit fiddly and to be honest it doesn't look like I spent hours on it - which I did - because my concentration level was virtually non existent during the assembly process!!

I used white hammered cardstock throughout.
The punched edges are done with a MS punch - not the one I wanted to use (which was my doily lace one - but it decided to give up the ghost and won't punch through anything!) but think it looks OK.

On top of the punched layers I cut another piece of card and wrapped three strips of broad satin ribbon round it by mounting it onto foam tape to raise it from the square piece.

Another piece of white ribbon and some lace onto a piece of card which was then placed on top of the 3 ribbon piece and then the two pieces were matted onto the punched edged layer.

I printed out the sentiment in varying fonts using a grey colour and cut with a fancy tag nestie and added two little sparklies!
The butterflies were punched out and stamped with an Elusive Images flourish stamp in Smokey Grey ink and liberal helping of glamour dust applied! Couple more sparklies on the bodies.

The large pearl and crystal heart is of course from Imagine (where else! LOL) and I popped a scrap of lace under it to hang down - tried ribbon but it looked too 'heavy' so stuck with the lace.

Overall I'm reasonably happy with it and who knows if my new punch arrives later this week I may well re-do in a cream colour and let the lady choose which one she wants then the other can go in my stash!

Challenges -
Created with Love - Things that Fly
Love to Create - All that Glitter
OLLCB - Sparkle and Shine
Dream valley - Ribbon and Bling
2 Sisters - Love
Crafty Ann's - Love Actually
Daring Cardmakers - Fly Fly Butterfly
Pretty Little Ribbon - Anything Goes

I hope that you all have had the same sunny day as me! x

Spreading Dreams

What a Day! Snow this morning, howling winds now it's pouring down! So cold too... not where I am though!! LOL
Heaters on and a woolly jumper sat here in the crafty space making messy listening to the awful weather - what more could a girl want??
Started this little project a few days ago and have fiddled and fiddled and eventually put something together which I now think is acceptable!
The canvas measures 8" square and I wanted some 'depth' so turned it over and used the inside aperture. (I lined it with two M and S Sofa Fabric samples!)
Before starting I needed to 'square off' the inside to make a box so I used some canvas covered mount-board and painted it in a dark creamy colour before gluing it in place.

Made quite a bit of mess doing the frame really - I put some modelling paste all over the edges and once dry started adding layers of paint in varying shades of cream to make a textured base.
Out with the Bronze Cosmic Shimmer which was just randomly applied, then a few spots of gold embossing powder. I then blasted the whole frame with the heat gun.
Not content with this I then rubbed some metallic cream over it in a verdigris colour and just for good measure painted some watered down pearlescent tint across the whole thing and blasted again with the gun!
Some vintage cotton lace and seam binding ribbon with a bronze heart charm on the bottom and two metal corners. 

The quote is one of my all time favourites - I love it - 'I have spread my dreams beneath your feet - tread softly because you tread on my dreams' is from He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven by W.B.Yeats and I printed it onto fabric then after suitable distressing and ragging glued it in place.
The vintage image, music sheet and script were all printed onto fabric and stitched, before placing into the centre onto a wooden board to lift it up.
I used some muslin, a few paper flowers, a scrap of lace, a tiny chipboard piece with a pearl glued on and then finished it with a tiny pearl where the lady's necklace is and a string of pearl beads.

Challenges -
WOW - Romance and Love
Happy Campers - Shabby Chic
Anything but a card - Share the Love
Hotshot Crafts - Anything but a Card
Anything Goes - Vintage
Top Tip Tuesday - Let me call you Sweetheart
My All Crafts Challenge - Show what you create
Creative Creations - Love themed
Simon Says - Something Messy 
Pretty Little Ribbon Shop - Anything Goes


Off to grab a coffee then a trawl through blogland! Have a great day! x

Handsome Prince?

Our household has for some years been completely 'valentine free' - I always felt bad that dear husband arrived bearing flowers and gifts when it was HIS birthday! 
So we (or rather I) called a halt to all the 'sloppy stuff' - there was never any need as he is a romantic soul really and flowers have always been bought at various times without any special occasions to prompt the purchase!

So Valentines cards are not high on the agenda for me at all... but recently I have been 'guesting' for Beccy's Place (and for some reason the last scheduled post did not appear at all..god bless Mr Blogger) so this time I didn't take a chance scheduling it to publish 'on the day' and decided to just create a new post the day Beccy released her stamp............. Then I forgot!!!!!!!!!!!
(Blaming the brain cells again...........)

So an apology to Beccy and finally here is my card using this week's released image -

Very tongue in cheek isn't it? But he really IS a cute little green frog I think! (and you can get him here)
 I printed him out and layered him onto a downloaded background which was highlighted with promarkers.

I made him a rather grand gold embossed crown with some teeny red gems (cos after all no handsome prince would leave home without a gem encrusted head adornment!).
Matted onto a green frame then layered onto some papers from my stash.

The sentiment was PC generated, secured with a scrap of polka dot ribbon and finally I finished with a couple of pearls and a green pearl heart.

Lots of lovey dovey challenges about this week (unsurprisingly!)
Card Mania - Love
Craft Your Passion - My Valentine
OLLCB - Love Story
Lexi's - Valentines/Love
Creative creations - It must be Love
TPE - Love is in the Air
Gem of a Challenge - Hearts/Valentine 

Have a great week!

Those shabby flowers again.....

I have absolutely no idea where the last week has gone - I have been making stuff but as it's for a DT I can't post it! (Am trying to get as far ahead as is humanly possible so that I am not rushing about at the last minute - or even worse forgetting what I need to do altogether!)
I did make up a couple of quick cards for the stash box both using off cuts from one of my fave paper stacks - here's the first share -

a simple design (and one I have used before with Ella Rose papers) but think it is effective and of course quick - which is great if you want a birthday card in a hurry!!

3 different bits of paper from Tilda Flower Garden all stitched together.

The rose is once again made using nesties, sprinkled with water and scrunched up. This time though before securing all the layers together with a brad, I took a scrap of lace and made it into a circle, using it as the first 'petal layer'.

Once the brad was in place I put a large blob of Stickles in the centre to cover the top of the brad, then randomly dabbed the glitter onto the flower petals.
The leaves were cut from a punch and I simply stamped the sentiment onto another scrap and tucked it behind the flower.

Challenges -
Sparkles Forum - Die Cuts and flowers
Ruby's Rainbow - Roses
Craft Room Challenge - make your own Embellies
Cards by Lady Anne - Anything Goes

Am sorry the pic is a bit naff and it doesn't show the colour at all well - but the light here is truly truly bad - so you'll just have to believe me when I tell you it looks quite pretty 'in real life'!! x

Vintage Love

The challenge at Crafty Cardmakers is 'Vintage Love'. Kylie asked for 'any project which incorporates Vintage Love. It must be Vintage and show at least one object that reminds people of love. Perhaps a picnic basket, gold locket, love letter etc etc.' 

YAY!! I was in my absolute element with this one!  (Thanks Kylie!)

I love vintage and shabby chic so here is my card which I hope inspires you to join us in this challenge!

The sepia photograph is a vintage cabinet card. I think she is just lovely! I framed her with a cream pearlised frame cut with a nestie. 

The backing papers are from the 5th Avenue pad by Melissa Frances.

I added two different types of vintage lace across the centre and some cream seam binding.

The pearl and gold heart is a button and I stitched it onto the the centre of the shabby bow.

Added some pearl pins and some die cut flourishes and finished with a tag which was stamped onto a scrap of the same paper with two stamps from my stash. The tassel was an afterthought but I think it fits quite nicely!
Papers were carried through on the inside to give a full vintagey look!

Please pop over to CCM and see my teamies cards - and come and enter 'cos once again we have some fab sponsors - Di's Digi Downloads and Hobby Art!  

Other Challenges -
Make My Monday - Inspired by Jane Austen's 'Persuasion' - 
I took her longing for her previous love after 8 years absence - a vintage love
Fashionable Stamping - Show some Love
Great Impressions - Have a Heart
Joanna Sheen - 3 papers, 2 embellies, 1 image  
My Time to Craft - Love is in the Air 
Sugar Creek Hollow - Romantic Love
OLLCB - Love Story 
Incy Wincy - Love is in the Air

Wherever you are I hope you have a great day and thanks for stopping by my blog! x
 

Kraft and Cream

It's amazing how quick the time goes by - this week is the second birthday of Less Is More - doesn't seem 2 years that I have been trying to improve at making CAS and one layer cards! (Sometimes it feels like 10!!! LOL)
So Happy Birthday LIM!

This week's challenge is Kraft and Cream (and NOT one layer - wooo hoo!!LOL)

I took the opportunity to use up some pieces of kraft left over from Christmas which were in the 'odds and sods' pack.

Just cut them into four equal sized squares, stamped a variety of backgrounds in Versafine Sepia, distressed the edges a bit, inked them with Tea Dye DI and matted onto some small pieces of brown card.

The flower stem is a Memory Box die I cut out two, one in brown card and one in kraft. Used the brown one as the focal point and cut odd bits off the kraft one!

Two pearls glued into the flower centres. 

Wrapped a bit of string round the bottom square and put the flower stem through it.
Finished with a 'thanks' sentiment. 
For a change, I am reasonably happy with this one!

And - as it uses up my scraps am off to the playground to join in Pixie's Crafty Snippets this week again too!
Other Challenges -
Hotshot Crafts - Clean and Simple
Southern Girls - Get Krafty 
Creative Moments - Neutral colours

Dark and dismal day here - hope you have sunshine in your life wherever you are even if the skies are grey! x

Je T'aime

Was shocked to discover I hadn't posted anything since Monday! 
Have a card to share today which I suppose could be loosely interpreted as 'romantic' in view of the fact that Valentine's Day is not far away - here in our household the old love/romance thingy is not a priority as it is dear husband's birthday!!

I wish I could find out why Paris appears to be the centre of romance! It's always been portrayed as such - maybe the perfume? The French accent? The huge iron structure known as the Eiffel Tower? What is it about 'Paris in the Springtime' that makes everyone all lovey dovey and gooey????? Why doesn't Skegness have the same effect??????????? LOL I am not knocking Skegness - am sure it is a very nice place but it doesn't conjure up the same romantic notions as Paris does it? !!!(or maybe it does to you!)

So here is my romantic offering for this Valentine's month - papers are from Craftwork Cards and I've had them eons!
I lightly distressed the edges of all the papers and ran round them with Versamagic Sea Breeze.
After layering the Paris paper onto brown card, I popped on some cream cotton lace.
The Eiffel Tower (another I've had for ages) was stamped in grey Versafine onto cream card and then cut out.
I cut out two nestie labels and sponged the larger with the Sea Breeze colour and stamped a large flourish (which I think is part of an Elusive Images set) onto the smaller label with Versafine Sepia ink.
Tower and two labels were then layered onto each other.
I used another nestie (Moroccan?) to cut out the brown card and placed this behind the assembled labels.
Two cream die cut corners, a couple of die cut flourishes, one of my very fave 'scrunchy' flowers (made using scalloped nesties) and a couple of pearls to finish the front. Oh - and of course some 'stickles' for sparkle on the flower!
The Paris theme continues inside - and have left it without a sentiment as I can't decide what to put on it! Maybe Je T'aime? (Then a multi occasion card it could be?) 

Challenges -
MAWTT - Favourite Dies/Punches - (I don't have a fave - I love ALL my dies!)
Lady Annes Stamping Challenge - Anything Goes
Divas by Design - Blue/Brown/Cream
Die Cutting Divas - Anything Goes with a Die Cut
Top Tip Tuesday - Luscious Layers 
Crafts and Me - Favourite Embellishment - has to be the scrunchy flower  

Have a great day! x