Almost at the end.........

............ of Fifth Avenue! Not the one in Manhattan NYC but the one here in my craft room!
It's been a long way, a little pad carefully hoarded but the time has come........ one of my Resolutions was to use up this paper mountain which lives amongst my 'stash'. In fact it has taken over my stash (and the room/drawers/cupboards) and I seriously need to make an effort to
1. Stop buying Paper and
 2. Use up what I already have
(anyone got a secret elixir to make me live till I'm about 200??? 'Cos that's how long it'll take me to get through this lot!)

So today I am looking at an old paper pad which now has just five sheets left which are in usuable condition and size.. ok I know I haven't actually USED IT ALL but I've made a start!

A card made entirely with Melissa Frances 5th Avenue papers - even the focal point. 
Grand scalloped nestie for the base card then another circle made with the 'music' sheet from the pad.
Layered with a smaller scalloped circle from one of the blue papers, then a fancy die cut from one of the pink ones.

Sandwiched in between and left to overhang the edges is some pink leaf shaped lace which was cut off a fancy sweater about five years ago!

Two circles cut from a piece of scrap card and mounted to form a frame and the 'ballerinas' from the bottom of another sheet of the paper  stuck inside then layered onto the card.

A hand made paper 'rose', two fabric flowers from my stash and a piece of hand dyed silk ribbon tucked behind.

The sentiment is computer generated and I thought it fitted well!
 I don't often make 'shaped cards' so am reasonably happy with this one - and have determined to use up at least 3 of the remaining 5 sheets on the box.
Challenges -
Allsorts - Use Ribbon (no bows)
Musically Challenged - Any Song (Tiny Dancer-Elton John from the film 'Almost Famous')
Ruby's Rainbow - Song (Tiny Dancer - Elton John)
Crafty Hazelnuts Patterned Paper Challenge - January
Live & Love Crafts - Perfume (5th Avenue by Elizabeth Arden)
RRR - Pink and Ribbon
Stamping Boutique - 3 papers
TLC's Linky Party - Show it off Sunday


An amazingly bright sunny and cold winters day here - beautiful! Have a good day whatever you're doing. x

Summer

Despite it seeming over the last couple of days that our summer is over I am still hopeful for sunny days to return soon!
In the meantime this weather does not make me feel guilty about grabbing some crafting time in between carrying out my responsibilities for both Club and County and traveling up and down the M6 to the National Championships.

Was home for the weekend and went with OH whilst he played yesterday but before I set off again tomorrow I sat my bottom firmly in the craft space and made this!
The stamp comes from one of my favourite sets - Stempelglede Vintage Garden.
I coloured the image with distress markers (need more practice), then sponged around it with the aptly named 'Tattered Rose' DI!
I used lots of layers - the back layer is plain very pale pink card. Over it is a delicately patterned piece which I stamped with flourishes and white embossed - both these distressed and stitched.
The torn strip on the left is a darker shade again stamped and embossed and the piece on the right was a scrap of linen texctured card which I ran through the 'crimper', applied liberal does of white embossing powder too before assembling it all together.
I found a scrap of flimsy fabric which I popped behind the image and then stitched the whole lot together.
The script pieces were scraps torn from the wrapping of the ribbon which were obviously stamped - and I love the script - so if anyone can tell me what stamp it is.....!
The silver rose heart button was from my stash and I just stuck a couple of small pale pink pearls in the top left corner.

Challenges -

Pan Pastel - Floral/Flowers
Penny Black& More - In the Garden
TokBobok - Vintage
Ladybug Crafts - Floral
2 Sisters - Anything Goes
ABC - S for Stitching
ALBC - Summery Creations
Crafty Catz - Pastel Colours
Emma's Cards - Floral

Hello to my new followers - thanks for choosing me! Hope everyone is having a good day and thanks for visiting me today! x

Hello Baby!

I've had a real nice week - been away for a couple of days playing - first in York then on to  Cumbria for the Ladies Festival. The weather was hot but bearable (just!), had lots of laughs with my teamies and we won the Fours competition on Tuesday! Sadly, though playing Monday and Tuesday did nothing for the neck and shoulder condition and although I gave it another go on Wednesday I have suffered since! So have spent today doing not a lot at all. (Any excuse.....)
All in all though despite all the aches, pains and crunching of bones one of my better weeks!!

I also found time before I went away to do a 'rush job' on a new baby card for one of my team mates to give to a work friend. 
Done in a mega hurry don't think it's turned out too bad! And she thought it was fab!

As time was at a premium it had to be CAS - Basic white linen card ran through the favourite and much used Swiss Dots embossing folder then layered onto pale pink.
The pram was inspired by an idea over on Pinterest (where else???? LOL) and is simple to do by just cutting two different sized nestie circles and chopping them in half!

I edged both with some pink and white lace from the stash and added a couple of fabric roses.
The wheels were also cut using a scalloped edge nestie, a circle punch and a tiny flower punch. Layered them all together and popped a pink pearl in the middle.

Handle of the pram was a nestie label die which I chopped up to get the required shape!
LOTV stamp greeting and some pink organza ribbon finished it all off.
AND - as I used up the 'left-overs' from the main piece of card after embossing for the pram I'm sneaking over the wall into the Crafty Playground very late this week..... and tip toeing past the swings before I get locked out!

Challenges -
CRAFT - For the Girls
Milk Coffee - Emboss It
Paper Crafting Journey - Punches and Die Cuts
Die Cutting Divas - Twice is Nice
ALBC - Die-ing for it  

Hope you've all had a great week! Off now to catch up with you all. 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

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