Another Birdie

I have met myself coming back this week - can't believe it is almost a week since my last post and to all my blogging buddies I am really sorry for not getting round to visiting you - once the weekend is over I think things may become a little more calm.
Decided to finally blog a card which was made ages ago- the lunatic start to the summer bowling season has lessened a little bit , the 'madness of May' gets me every year! And we've been more so this year as we had the Bowls England Commonwealth Games Squad come for practice against us as part of their preparations for Glasgow and on Thursday the Bowls England President brought a different team to play too. Have some great pics - but here's one of the club side (I'm the first in white in the front row in the middle) and the Commonwealth squad - 

I have made nothing at all this week and my stash is getting seriously low so I really do need to get stuck in- there's just not enough time!!
We had a County game yesterday and this weekend I am away supporting the other half whilst he plays for County (today) and Club (tomorrow) - but at least the sun is shining!

Anyway back to the card - the image was a challenge win from Beccy.

I printed it onto hammered cardstock for some texture, masked off the birdie and inked the background with distress inks, then painted the bird and added a coating of glossy accents.

Cream base card, and matted used some left over DP from the 'not big enough to cover an entire card' drawer, hiding the gap with some dark brown grossgrain ribbon!
Image matted onto same scrap card and fixed on with 3d foam pads
The ivy and bird house were also cut from the left over drawer and the two wooden buttons were from my stash.

Thanks for visiting and bearing with me whilst I chase my own tail -will try and visit you all very soon.

Challenges -
Crafty Catz - Anything Goes
Craftitude - Anything Goes
Fussy and Fancy - Outdoors
Crafts 4 Eternity - Die Cuts/Male/Buttons
CCC - Anything Goes

Enjoy your weekend! x

A Little Birdie

Am still playing catch up - not only in blogland but also with the housework and ironing! Too wet to do anything outside so decided to have a rest from all the boring chores and play about with some stamps and ink! (Doesn't take long for me to get fed up cleaning! LOL)

Made a card relatively free from any embellies - I think my crafting goes in cycles - I have recently become very addicted to CAS and trying to perfect that look which others seem to achieve so effortlessly! I've found that at the mo I am making more of these than the heavily embellished ones (which isn't help using up my paper mountain either!) - this though is one in which I DID actually use some paper from the stash!


The houndstooth check paper is I think Basic Grey (but I may be wrong!). Layered it onto textured card in as near a shade as I could match.
The same textured card run through the embossing folder and used as a background for the image.

Image of course is from Stampin' Up Simply Sketched set. Stamped in Brushed Corduroy DI, oval nestie placed over and then sponged inside the nestie, adding a few paintbrush strokes of peeled Paint DI to the 'reeds'. Birdie was coloured with Scattered Straw and Mustard Seed.
Sentiment stamp also from the same set and the ribbon and buckle were a candy win.
This card was intended to go in the 'man' stash but am now not sure it's 'manly' enough with the addition of the ribbon?

Challenges -
Crafty Catz - Embossing
Crafting For all Seasons - Wings
Divas by Design - Anything Goes
Suzie Bees- For a Man
Simply Create Too - For a Man
Deep Ocean - Wings
Sentimental Sundays - Things with Wings

Thanks for calling by - I am still trying to visit you all after my absence - coffee now and another stroll through blogland coming up! x

No Marmalade for the Toast!

Arrived home at 4am - lovely holiday - fell into bed, got up to .......... RAIN! There's a surprise. Thought about just leaving everything in the case and going straight back! LOL
Missed my making messy though if not anything else and have had a chill out day finishing off a few bits and pieces as I have a busy weekend coming up.
So here is a change from cards -

 NOTHING is safe in our house according to the long suffering other half. If it's not cutlery it's marmalade jars!
In my defence I tell him that I use up odd scraps for these projects so am not buying stash.. he believes every word - love him to bits!
So the rinsed out marmalade jar which was waiting to be taken out for recycling walked up 3 flights of stairs on its own to the craftie den and sat looking at me on the desk.

I lifted out the lacy scraps drawer and found a bit of burlap big enough just to wrap round the entire jar. Once glued and dried I added a piece of wide pink lace to the bottom and a smaller width piece to the top then tied some shoestring ribbon round it (in the ridge of the screw top).
The lid was first painted with primer and once dry  overpainted in a pale pink acrylic paint. Some more lace suitably glued on the top and then stitched together in the middle to create a ruffled effect. The vintage drawer knob was in my stash and I fixed it to the top.
Finished the rather untidy edge with some pink braid.
The label was cut from a scrap of paper and I just stamped a bit of text over it with Memento London Fog  (which doesn't show up very well in the pic!). Two pearls to the edge.
Finished it with a pink lace flower (cut from a tatty scrap) and three pearl pins.
Quite happy now! Pretty jar now sat with some of my other bits on the shelf - much better than it being crushed at the recycling centre! LOL (and because it's from scraps and odd bits it's off to the Playground for me!)
Challenges -
Scribble and Scrap - Anything Goes
Creative Card Crew - Shabby/Vintage
My Craft Creations - Anything Goes
Lexis- Ribbons/Lace
All Crafts Challenge - Anything but a Card
Clear it Out - Vintage/pearls
Craft Room Challenge - Recycle
Craft Your Passion - Pearls/Lace
Fashionable Stamping - 3D Object
Pile It On - Shabby Chic

Thanks for looking in. Now off for a proper trawl through blogland to catch up with you all! x

Flowers

Here I am surrounded by beautiful hibiscus, bougainvillaea and the most enormous geraniums with a view out across the sea - Bliss!!Thought I would do a quick post and share one I made before I came away.  I understand the weather has finally taken a turn for the better back home and I hope it stays that way cos I don't want to be coming back to cold and wet next week!

So here's my card -
a CAS offering inspired by Pinterest (where else?) done with a Memory Box stamp which I bought some time ago and another that has only just seen ink!
I used my fave linen textured card and stamped the flowers with Pickled Raspberry and Crushed Olive DI, then matted it onto another slightly larger piece of white card.
Scored round it on the base card then punched out a border using a very very old Fiskars border punch - took some doing as I think the punch is blunt!!! A thin scrap strip of pink paper then stuck behind.
Finished with a stamped sentiment, (same scoring round) and added a few sparklies.
Challenges -
CASual Fridays - Thirds
Inky Chicks - CAS
Fantastic Tuesday - CAS
Crafty Sentiment - Flowers
Inky Impressions - Flowers
Pixies Snippets - (pink strip and card used for stamping/matting all odd bits!)

Thanks for visiting - hope I will be forgiven to not commenting on all your wonderful creations whilst am here sunning myself - promise will come visit you all very soon! x

AWOL

Have been unable to find 10 minutes to myself this week - and even more annoying is I have some new stamps and I haven't been able to play.......and as I'm currently in the middle of packing a suitcase for a 10 day trip starting on Sunday it's unlikely that they will see ink until I get home!
Am going to try and have a 'messy' evening tonight (if I get myself organised!).
So this is a quick share

A commisioned stepper card for a footie mad boy (one after my own heart - LOL) - made in ultra quick time and hope it doesn't show!
Image matted onto black and white card, papers from my stash also matted onto black card.
The boots and the footballs were on a sticker set I bought a long time ago - the footballs are made from plastic so they're dimensional.
Stamped the sentiment and then just chopped it to resemble something like a flag shape and fixed it with a bit of black and white twine.
Uber fast make but the person who ordered it loved it - thank goodness.

Challenges -
Daring Cardmakers - Football related
Creative Romance - 1 for the Boys
Crafty Catz - Black/White/ I other colour (green)
Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes
Sister Act - Anything Goes.

Back to the suitcase - will be along later to visit you all, thanks for dropping in. x

Ribbons and Bows - Vintage Stamping DT

This month over at Vintage Stamping our challenge is 'Ribbons and Bows'.

We would love for you to join us and you may make anything you like as long as there is some form of stamping on your project! 

I am continuing in my quest to use up paper pads so once again I steeled myself and used one of my all time faves - Ella Blue.

The stamp is from our sponsor - I used Versamark Sepia and clear embossed. Coloured it with Promarkers then (carefully!) cut round it. I added three really tiny pearls to the lady's neckline - how fiddly was that!!

The bow is made from two different types of ribbon - a brown organza type and a lovely chocolatey 'silky crush' piece.
Popped in a couple of pearl pins.

Made some paper rolled roses, stamped a sentiment and then decorated the inside to match.

Hope you can create something to share with us this month - we love visiting!
Challenges -
Craft Room Challenge - Roses and Romance
Penny Black & More - Anything Goes
Sentimental Sundays - Shabby Chic
Stamping Sensations - Anything Goes
Ribbon Girls - Flowers
Dream Valley - Anything Goes
Fantasy Stampers - Distress it 

Springtime in Paris

The weather has taken a down turn today - it's wet windy and quite cool - in fact it's COLD!! Not a lot of spring weather here!
Am spending the rest of the day up here in the craftie space and am going to have a play with some new stamp sets later - but before I go make a mess with the inks here's today's share.

This is a variation on a card made a little while ago - when stamping now I always stamp a couple cos it is not unknown for me to make a mess of colouring or stitching or anything!! So when I have something in my head to do I make sure that I have another image ready - 'just in case' - then I end up with stamped images which only occasionally get used up when the first one goes according to plan!

The Inkylicious image was stamped using Memento London Fog onto a dark ivory textured linen card and then distressed with Antique Linen. The rose was also coloured with distress inks.

The background paper is one of the last remaining sheets from the Prima Botanical pad (note to self - a congratulatory pat on the back for using up at least ONE of your pad stash) - edges distressed and  the same DI used.

I had this scrap of script vellum laying about so tucked it in behind all the crochet pieces and the lace edge, then machine stitched it all.

The crochet circles are secured together with a pearl and bronze button and I stamped then fussy cut an Eiffel Tower image before popping a small pearl in the top right.
Inside decorated to match.
Challenges -
Crafting By Designs - Anything Goes
Crafting for all Seasons - Lots of Layers
Paper Pretties - Spring
Creative Moments - Spring
ALBC - Flower Power
Delightful Challenges - Add Dimension
Craftitude  - 1-2-3 (1 image, 2 DP's, 3 embellies)
Nat and Amy - Rubber Stamping
It's all about the Vintage - Flower Power

Hope the weather is better where you are and thanks for calling in! x