Just a very quick posting with a card that's taken me three days to make (!!) and unsurprisingly I think it will end up being dismantled and the bits that can be saved will be... and perhaps I will try again when I feel better.

Kicked off on Wednesday with what I thought was a 'bit of a cold' - now I feel like I've been run over by a bus and the rear wheels are parked on my chest - hacking cough, no voice (much to dear husband's delight...LOL), and the wooliest head in the world.

Which probably explains the card!
Tried to use up all my scraps of 5th Avenue papers, distressed, given a liberal rub with some Antique Linen DI then stitched them all together. 
Used some cream vintage lace for the edge and cream seam binding for the bow.

Flower from stash and added three pearl pins.
Sentiment stamped with Versafine then cut out with a nestie fancy tag.

Birdcage is a Memory Box Die embossed with Weathered White EP then rubbed some pink metallic rub over it, glued some pearls in a swirl for the 'hanger'.
The tiny feather was my attempt at 'the bird has flown' - (told you my head was woolly!!)
Finished with some more pearls.

Maybe it will look OK when I feel better????

Challenges -

C.R.A.F.T.  - Female
Crafty Ribbons - Anything Goes with Ribbons
Rhedd & Rosies - Vintage/Shabby
Allsorts - Vintage
Simon Says Stamp - Anything Goes

Will try and get round to visiting you all - if the coughing fits stop for long enough! Enjoy the rest of your Easter Weekend. x

Special

Am vainly searching for my mojo lately as far as card making is concerned - really as far as a lot of things are concerned!

This is another one of those - 'I think it's not toooo bad but could have done it better' efforts. Trouble is don't know what I could have done better... perhaps the sewing machine should have been stamped onto a frame or decoupaged to make it stand out a bit more?

I did consider this but when I set out to make the card I wanted it to be somewhere between CAS and 'frilly and fancy' and a bit more 'flat' than my usual multi layered efforts!

The papers are called 'For the Record' by Raspberry Road. Some digi papers I find really bright and not my cup of tea but I really like these - they all co-ordinate beautifully and the set is such a pretty one.

Used Kraft card as a base, layered the papers onto black card after distressing and sponging with Antique Linen DI then stitched (not very well I might add).

The stamps were a free set with a crafting magazine - I don't normally buy crafting mags  but paid for this one 'cos I wanted the stamps!!

Black satin edged organza ribbon tied round and a huge bit of blingy stuck in the centre of the bow - the blingy was in fact an old ring and I just used a pair of pliers to remove the front from the back! Happily too I found a single black 'dew drop' in my stash so popped that onto the bottom corner.

Used more of the papers on the inside to tie it all together.

All in all don't suppose it's too bad - might do another similar and swap the placement of sentiment and sewing machine..... 

If you, like me, are experiencing freezing weather conditions I wish you all a warm and snuggly day in your crafty spaces! x

Challenges -
1 Stop Craft - 1 image, 2 embellies, 3 DP's
Crafty Catz - Sparkle with a Bow
Emma's Cards UK - Vintage
Ladybug Crafts - Anything Goes
Sentimental Sundays - Stitching
Make It Monday - Anything Goes

Texture and Stitching

Is it cold where you are? It's freezing here!
This week's challenge at Less Is More is to 'use beads'.
Dreaming of warmer weather probably planted this little seed of an idea which surprisingly fitted the challenge theme.

  
I used to wear these wooden beads (very hippy chick - LOL)  and having a clear out a few years ago I put them into the craft stash with the usual crafters mantra - 'they may come in useful'!!

Cut myself a piece of hessian type stuff from the material bag and tacked it onto a dark piece of material.

Stitched the wooden beads on and then stitched the wooden charm onto a piece of 'cheetah skin' ribbon threading some small coppery seed beads through as I stitched.

Then sewed it onto the backing 'mat.

The wooden bark heart was from my stash.

The words and zig zag where computer generated and I printed out onto cream hammered cardstock.

I considered embossing round the 'mat' but in the end left it plain as I rather liked the 'tatty' and 'rough' texture mix and didn't want to 'formalize' it.

I have a friend who loves all things to do with Africa so no doubt this will be sent to her very soon!!

Am really disappointed with this pic though - it looks so much better 'in real life' - spent ages trying to get good reproduction of it but in the end the grey skies defeated me!

Thanks for calling in - enjoy what's left of your weekend. xx

Portholes

Finally found some time yesterday to sit and mess about with stamps and paper! By the look of the weather today I will be able to do the same again today - so much for spring! 
Was having a mooch about over at Raspberry Road and saw this quote - 
The first day of spring is one thing, and the first spring day is another.  
The difference between them is sometimes as great as a month.  ~Henry Van Dyke
He wasn't wrong was he???? LOL

I have a couple of mens birthdays coming up so got on with quick makes whilst looking at the wind and rain. As I'm typing my world is now white (with snow!)

I saw a card made like this ago on Pinterest - sadly I didn't bookmark it so have had to do it from memory and now it's finished I don't think it comes anywhere close to the other lovely creation!

The ship stamp is from a set by Artemio. Stamped using Versafine Black onto white linen textured card and slightly coloured with water colour pastels. I masked the image off and sponged on the sun and sky with DI.

The striped background paper was a piece from the 'left over' drawer and I cut out a circle using a nestie and popped the stamped image behind then stuck it all onto white linen cardstock.

The 'porthole' was done using two nesties then adding some silver brads and secured with 3d pads to raise it from the card.

The anchor is a Kanban stamp. I ran some string across a DI pad threaded it through the top of the anchor, underneath one of the brads to secure and attached it to the greeting tag. Instead of throwing the leftover bits of string away I stuck them to the tag!  

Challenges -
Happy Campers - Add dimension

Creative Card Crew - Masculine
OLLCB - Male themed
Penny Black & More - One for the Boys
Here Come the Boys - photo inspiration (and I thought of Transport)
4 Crafty Chicks - Circles

I'm thankful that you have popped in to see me today - am hoping that everyone who has snow, wind, rain and freezing conditions is warm and dry - am just away to turn up the heating!
PS - My lovely friend Allesandra is giving fab candy away - click on kitty Bailey's pic in my sidebar to take you to her blog....

 

Confusion reigns

and not in my house for once...
Am reading on Blogs that lots of you are joining up to 'bloglovin' because you believe that your followers will no longer be able to follow you.

I (and Coops and others) don't think you need to sign up to anything - Courtesy of Coops here is a copy from the Blogger forum -

The reading list on your dashboard is based on the feed of the blogs you are reading and their feeds are not going away. 

If you have items in your reading list on the dashboard that are only there because you added them through GReader and they are not Blogger blogs, they might be removed from the list when GReader goes away but any Blogger blog that is on your Reading List because you used the "following" gadget on another blog to start following it, should remain intact

 

So it looks like it will only affect those blogs you follow through google reader like wordpress or typepad blogs. 
I am not joining up to anything until we get more info from Blogger - they are not bad at publishing stuff on their 'Blogger News'.
I hope you'll still come and visit me using your dashboard!

Flying

The post title relates to how quickly time is passing for me just lately!
I have a CAS card to share today - and once again the pic quality is not brilliant as the sun had gone in just when I decided to take the photo!
This was just a quick make with odd bits of card I had in the 'off cuts' drawer so it will also be given an outing at the Crafty Playground this week. Once I have finished this post I am going to forge an adult's signature onto my 'report card' to say I have been 'poorly 'ick' and unable to attend.... (it's a big fib but Playground Minder Di has very very poor eyesight and believes everything you tell her so she won't know I was busy doing other things or who signed it.................)

Here's the card!

Bright white pearlised card. An odd piece left over from a previous make ran through the Bug with a 'never before used' embossing folder (note I didn't say new - just never used!!!) and then matted onto the card base.

Some lines embossed round it to make a frame.

I printed the sentiment (from TLC) after altering the colour and then used a fancy tag die and popped it onto the card with 3d pads, adding a couple of pearls at either end.

Butterfly again was cut out from a left over and I just inked some Versamagic Chalk Ink called 'Pixie Dust' round the edges (quite apt for Pixies Playground dontcha think????). It's a lovely pale pink colour and the card will now go into the 'Pink Stash'.

Challenges -
CAS on Sunday - Use a Butterfly
Sentimental Sundays - Anything Goes
Heck of a Challenge - Butterfly and Pearls
Natalie & Amy - Die Cuts
Addicted to CAS - Wings
4 Crafty Chicks - CAS
Happy Campers - Flutterby Butterfly
Nutcrafters - Letter 'B'

Will be calling on you all in a little while as soon as I have the coffee cup in hand - Have a great day!

Match for the Linen Closet

Have made rather a mess of my fingers with some inks and paints today - I have been fiddling about with a project for what seems like forever and it still doesn't look right so once again the sand paper etc will be out tomorrow and I'll strip it back to the bare bones and start again!
I thought I would just pop on and share this card with you.

I have had the 'Linen Closet' papers for EVER and never used them - mainly because they;re not square and the majority of cards I make are square ones!

This yummy image was sent to me by a fellow blogger and after having found the tiniest scrap of velvet ribbon in my ribbon drawer I teamed her with the Linen Closet papers as the papers matched the ribbon! Waste not want not..........

She was cut out with a nestie  - (been a long time since I went 'over the edge' LOL) then layered onto another scalloped nestie cut from some co-ordinating cardstock and a couple of flourish die cuts in the same card added.

The cotton lace was also a scrap left over from a present from the lovely Alessandra and I was really happy to see that it matched the colours perfectly!

Some suitable bling in the shape of a large square buckle showed off the aqua velvet ribbon much better than my original idea of  just knotting it (trying to knot a tiny scrap of wide velvet ribbon was such a silly idea but my brain cells still insisted I try..........)

Added some glamour dust to her wings and decided against adding any sentiment on the front as I thought there was enough to look at!

Challenges -
Flutterby Wednesday - Winged Things
Penny's paper Crafty - Ribbons and Die Cuts
Crafts and Me - Ribbons and Lace
Creative Card Crew - Ribbon
Cutie Pie - Magical
LEJ - Things with Wings

We've had the full round of weather again today! Gorgeous sunshine this morning, (not warm tho'), then grey skies, a bit of rain, some hail stones then more sunshine!! Weird!!
Have spent a little while blog hopping tonight after the disaster with the altered piece and think I will now call it a night and go watch a bit of TV before my eyes shut...catch you all soon. xxx

Blingy Big Birthday!

Had a busy couple of days but sat last night and finished a commissioned card.

Asked to make an easel card for a 30th Birthday, girly, pinky/bluey and blingy! Hope this fits the bill.

But what an absolute sod it was to photograph this morning - grey skies now after a couple of hours of sunshine - it was dry but very cold when we went for the walk earlier but now it's snowing!
And apart from anything else it does NOT make for taking decent pics -
But I think you'll get the general idea..

Pink Petticoat papers layered and stitched  onto pink bazzil.
The card had to be 'modern' and this image from Mo seemed to be the most suitable I had to use.

'Party Girl' was coloured with a mix of my favourite pastels and promarkers and cut out with a Nellie Snellen Die. I layered more pink behind it and stitched together.
 
The lace was from my stash as was the scrummy pink velvet ribbon and I threaded a little extra piece through a blingy buckle then added all the crystals and a couple of sparkly pins.

Finished with a PC generated sentiment, a few more blingy bits and some die cut corners.

Challenges -
One Stitch at a Time - Use a Digi
Bronte & Bella's - Anything Goes with a Mo image
Pretty Little Ribbon Shop - Birthdays
Crafty Ribbons - Anything Goes with Ribbon
Corrosive Challenges - All that Glitters
2 Sisters - Pastels
613 Avenue Create - Anything Goes
Pan Pastel - Girly 
Robyn's Fetish - Birthdays 
Fashionista - Pink 
Bunny Zoes - Girly

Whilst I've been typing this the snow has stopped and the sun has come out again! Weird weather...........
Stay warm and dry wherever you are! x

Grey Day!

After the lovely few days of spring weather things have returned back to normal today! Grey skies and drizzly rain... but I can blame the blue skies for this card - it was soooo nice to see some quite warm sunshine (so warm I went for my daily walk without a thick jacket!) that I made my mind up to make a 'spring' type card!

This image I confess to not stamping myself - I don't own this stamp (the set from which it came is now discontinued) - I wanted to own this stamp but the price it was being sold for on the well known auction site was quite frankly ridiculous! 

Thankfully, a crafty buddy came to my rescue and stamped up quite a lot of the set for me some time ago - I have a couple of the others from the set left but this is the last one of this image. 

When it comes to colouring it - I have made numerous cards and they've all been on a yellow theme - no idea why - it just seems to be made for yellow and sunshine!

Coloured with a mix of promarkers and watercolour pastels then mounted behind a die cut frame.

The patterned paper was a couple of pieces I had left from a pad ("still using up", she says smugly!) and once all the tatty edges were trimmed I stitched them onto another piece of background paper from the same pad.

The ribbon was from my stash and I stitched a lace flower into the centre of the bow then a ribbon and pearl embellie.

Used up the scraps on the inside!
Challenges - 
Crafting for all Seasons - Spring
Ruby's Rainbow - Yellow and Green
Creative Card Crew - Ribbon
Passion for Promarkers - One for the Ladies
Ribbon Carousel - Spring is in the Air
Crafty Bloggers Network - Spring
Oldie but Goodie -  Feeling Floral
Am pleased that you've taken the time to drop in and see me today -  am off for my phsyio then will be  having a visit round blogland to see what you've been up to - have a great day whatever you're doing! x

Man Card! - Crafty Cardmakers new Challenge

Today sees a new challenge over at Crafty Cardmakers and this week Rebbeca asked us to make 'a masculine birthday card that includes some technology or a gadget. The technology or gadget could be a computer, games console, rocket or car for example.'

Although many of you are aware that I am married to my very own 'Inspector Gadget' I actually managed to make a card that did not have the current up to the minute technology that is so coveted by my dearly beloved! 

Instead I went for something that was the complete opposite - a steam train -
the image is by Just Inklined and is called 'Old Chuffa' - (heaven forbid I should have likened this to my 'long suffering' with a title like that! LOL).

So my technology refers to the 'age of steam'. it may be old technology but without it we wouldn't have developed transport across sea and rail would we?

I altered the colour in Serif to blue and teamed it with more papers from my stash - (which I think are My Minds Eye but as the cover has long gone I'm not sure!) 

Thought this sentiment was very apt for an avid train spotter and I finished the card with some Card Candy coloured with promarkers which were all the embellies I allowed myself 'cos it's for a man! Inside is co ordinated to match.

Thanks for calling today - please check out the other creations from the CCM DT and if you're like me and struggle with ideas for masculine birthday cards, swell your stash by joining in with our challenge and you could win one of the prizes on offer this time from Di'sDigi Downloads ($10 GIFT VOUCHER) or The Stampman  (£10 voucher)!

Other Challenges -
Ladybug Crafts - Colour Blue 
Dutch Dare - For the Boys
Divas by Design - Anything Goes
Sisterhood of Crafters - Birthdays
Anything Goes - Make it Manly 
Craft Room Challenge - Something for a Man 
Digital Tuesdays - Birthdays

Pastels

Well it's 1st March and I am still keeping to my promise to try and use up some of my paper stacks before buying any more (confession - have bought a couple of digi ones but they don't count...do they?????).
Here's another quickie offering using Tilda's Flower Garden.

(I bought the big scrapbooking pad -no idea why 'cos I ain't a scrapbooker!!- and I fear it may take me till next year to use it all up so perhaps the 'get it used up' promise might run out of steam very soon! LOL) 

It's just a simple 'thank you' card for my stash but I really do like the colours in this paper stack and I made a couple of the same design but just varied the paper layout.

I also have quite a large stack of deckle edged cards which I rarely use - only because I find square cards easier to do layouts on - and this was a way of using up a few.

The sentiment was stamped using a cheapie Rich Raspberry pigment ink pad which cost me £1!

The pink and white twine was part of a challenge win and I simply looped a little of the paper triangles over it and stuck to the card with 3d pads to raise them up a bit. 

  Seeing as how I'm such an ardent Breast Cancer supporter it's surprising really that I don't manage to enter more Link Up for Pink Challenges than I actually do - but this week I've managed it! Here is their Inspiration Photo (and I'd made the card before I saw it so it's DOUBLY surprising!!!)

Other Challenges -
Charisma - 5 Different papers
Cutie Pie - Pretty Pastels
Southern Girls - Banners and pennants
Craft Your Passion - Banners
Created With Love - Bright and Cheery
Fab n Funky - Pastel Colours
The Crafting Cafe - Favourite Colour - can't pick one colour but love these together!

In my previous post I mentioned I was making messy - and make a mess I did -  but I think I may have made such a mess that the project could end up being consigned to the bin- am off to see if it can be rescued and have made a note to self - don't leave small jars without their tops on- especially when you can tip them over without noticing then go out and leave the contents to seep all over your work for 6 hours...............

Have a great day whatever you're doing! x