Mid Month at Try It On Tuesday

A little reminder of our current challenge at Try It On Tuesday which is called 'Sparkle All The Way'.
This is a remake of a card I made a few Christmases ago and it turned out to be one of my faves so every year I make a couple to send.

Sparkly die cut branch and a set of die cut sparkly stars on an ink blended background of Chipped Sapphire and Stormy Sky and a liberal helping of posca pen splatters - a really simple card.

The Inkylicious sentiment I think is just beautiful.

Thanks for looking - there's still time to join us if you haven't already - and even if you have you can do so again!!   

Sharing at -
MMM - Lighting the Way
Pearly Sparkles - Christmas/Winter
Dragonfly Dreams - Photo

November Twofer

 This month's challenge at Twofer is 'Stars'. Last challenge of the year too!
I made a Christmas card and a Birthday card using the same Star die and some odd bits of glitter card.

The background for the Christmas card was done using Chipped Sapphire and Stormy Sky DI with a little dab of Squeezed Lemonade round the 'moon' for the sky and Shaded Lilac for the 'snow'.
Liberal amounts of white Posca pen spattering too!
I used a silver pen to 'hang' the stars from the die cut branch. I treated myself to this sentiment last week and it seemed just right!

The Birthday card is a tried and tested 'man' card!
Have done a few of these in different colours.
After stamping few grungy elements in grey, I added a couple of ink blots using a Midnight Blue ink.
The dark coloured stars were also cut out of the same dark blue card as the matted layer.
The sentiment I think was a freebie some time ago.

These two cards were also a way of using up the odd bits of glitter card that I always seem to be left with at this time of year.

Thanks to Darnell (Dolly 😘) for all her hard work this year with this challenge - and thanks too to the DT for their inspiration -  enjoy your month off! x

Linking my Christmas card over at
CHNC - A/Goes (Glitter)
Inkspirational - Frame It
and a quick visit to Pixies Playground 'cos my glittery bits were all leftovers!

Non Traditional Christmas

Finally it has stopped raining and we had an overnight frost which gave way to a bright sky. Some clouds about but hopefully it will stay dry even if it's cold!

The November challenge over at CAS Christmas is 'Non Traditional Colours'.
It gave me an opportunity to get out the pile of rarely used coloured cardstock.

This colour is called Amethyst - I like it but have never used it before (a bit like a lot of the colours I have!)
I tried a few things (inspired by the use of coloured card on Pinterest) but in the end opted for embossing a stamp (SU's Bright and Beautiful) and simply using clear embossing powder.

I was pleasantly surprised at just how effective it looked!

The sentiment is embossed in Platinum.

A really plain and simple make and I have lots of coloured card so will try a few more I think.

Linking up with
TIOT - Embossing
ABC Xmas - 'X' for Xtra Special

Hope the sun is shining where you are - we go back into full lockdown tomorrow so am hoping that the blue skies stay with us for a while as looking out on wet grey weather only makes you more fed up! x

Starry Sky

The challenge at CAS Stencil required me to have a serious think about what I was going to do simply because I am finding it quite difficult to concentrate on any one thing for longer than a minute.
I had a couple of offcuts left over from another card which have simply been lying on this tip of a desk for a while.
I was about to throw them in the bin (working on my 'I must keep the desk tidy' promise) when I had a light bulb moment 💡💡💡!

We have had some lovely blue sky days and some very clear (and cold) nights - so here is the result of someone flicking the switch and reminding me that on clear nights you can see the stars.....

My little scrap of galaxy background had some white acrylic paint spattered over it and then I set about making myself a stencil from a star die and some acetate.
The smaller star is a home made stencil from a previous project.

I had bought some Cosmic Shimmer Ultra Sparkle Paste (Frosty) and never used it so tried it on the larger star.

Swirling it about and applying it thicker in some parts gave an (unintentional) random line effect which I thought didn't look too bad. I used a thinner layer on the smaller star but if you look closely it also has some slight random lines!

The sentiment was a mag freebie from last year.

Sharing my stencilled sparkly stars at -
Seize the Birthday - A/Goes
TIOT - Use a Stencil or Two

It's another cold day here but there IS some blue in the sky again. The weather is set to warm up this week I think and not before time!
I have promised myself that today I am going to have a small clear out and tidy up in the craft space - I need to make room for my new waterbrush colour pens!
Have a great day. x

Stars

Doing some more Christmas cards as although I think I have enough for myself this year, I decided that it wouldn't do any harm to keep making whilst I have all the Christmas stash out - (any excuse not to tidy up this mess of a craft room  😛😛)

Finished this one today for the challenge over at CAS Christmas which (would you believe) is Stars!
OK so there's only ONE star on here but it IS a very sparkly one!

This was a CASE of one I made last year - and the year before- and probably the year before that!  I like the simple design and the bonus is it doesn't take very long.

Used the 'Snow' embossing folder on an odd piece of card and layered it onto mirri card (which as we all know is an absolute PIG to photograph)
The branch and the star simply cut from glitter card. A little bit of red cord wrapped round the branch and stuck to the star.

Finished with a Penny Black sentiment inked in Silver metallic ink.

Also sharing over at
Country View Challenges - Christmas


The weather here has been very wet and the forecast is for dry but very cold. Can cope tih cold but I hate wet! So maybe I might go for a walk tomorrow to blow away the cobwebs..... and not have to tidy the craft room! Have a great day whatever you're doing and thanks for visiting! x

Stars

Have spent this week relaxing at home after a busy weekend (more at bottom of post).
We are currently under rather a lot of snow up here on the top of the moors - thought about going out for a few bits of shopping this morning but when I opened the front door about 18inches of snow was stacked up against it! Even if I'd made it down to the bottom of the hill there was no way I'd have got back up! Made a hasty retreat back indoors, heating turned up and donned the PJ's for the rest of the day.
So never one to miss an opportunity to make messy here is today's share!

Wanted to have a go at these 'galaxy' backgrounds for a while - and I can tell you I enjoyed it (even though my first 2 attempts were pretty rubbish).
Lots of inkiness - Squeezed Lemonade, Picked Raspberry, Seedless Preserve, Chipped Sapphire and Black Soot.

Fingers dipped in some water and dripped randomly across, then once dry some white acrylic paint mixed with a little water and silver Cosmic Shimmer loaded onto a paintbrush and flicked across.

Left to dry then some white embossing. The big star was a cheapie one and the sentiment and star clusters were freebies.
Matted onto black before onto the white card base.
Quite happy!
Joining in at
ATS&M - A/Goes
Make My Monday - Messy backgrounds
Time Out - BOLD
PIP #1808 - A/Goes
Use your stuff- Movies (2001 A Space Odyssey)

So - following on from the ladies in November, this weekend it was the men's turn to have their National Dinner and Presentation on Saturday night in Coventry.

An emotional night, my final speech in front of more than 300 people(😳) as National President. Chain of office then handed over and I have a slightly easier job now for the next year as the Immediate Past where although I will be still doing a bit of travelling, I will be there in a supporting role and not in the limelight!

Pic is of me and my lovely man - and of course the long frock! (heels lasted only 4 hours - the dinner, my speech then the presentation -  then spent the rest of the night barefoot!)

I have had an amazing year, I am tired but would not have missed it for anything.
Met some wonderful people and have been overwhelmed by the warmth and friendship extended to me everywhere.
The icing on the cake was to have raised over £8,800 for my charity 'Prevent Breast Cancer', which is based in Manchester.

I am sharing the last few sentences of my speech here with my blogging buddies -  it sums up everything I think -

"Life is like a coin. You can spend it any way you wish – but you can spend it only once. Every moment matters. Seize every opportunity you have and embrace every experience.

In the end we only regret the chances we didn’t take.

Thank you for the opportunity you gave Graham and I to have our big adventure and to have had the privilege of representing Bowls England as your President.

I would not have missed it for the world.

I won’t be sad because it’s over, I will smile because it HAPPENED!"

Seeing Stars

Happy Saturday!
I have had a mammoth card making fest the last 2 days - day off tomorrow as I am travelling tonight to attend another Presentation in the Midlands, although I may get home tomorrow at a reasonable time - weather permitting!
We've had quite a bit of snow the last 2 days (one of the perils of living so high up!) and the window up here on the top floor is completely covered - although DH has been out this morning and says the roads on the lower levels are fine - we just have to negotiate down to the main road and the motorway!!

I bought these hessian stars last year and found them when looking for something else and I remembered a rustic style card I had seen which used a wooden star - hence an idea. I have no idea why I bought these excepting they were reduced! They are actually I think a little big for cards and probably were intended for a garland or something.

White linen card used as my base.
An Indigo Blu script stamps embossed in gold provided the background and I then randomly dabbed a paintbrush rubbed over an embossing pad to make the smudgy bits!
A couple of star stamps also embossed in gold.

The hessian star was simply stuck on using foam pads so it is a little raised from the card.

The two stars were die cuts which got a triple embossing treatment - serves them right - they were just laying there on the desk.....

I used some gold metallic embroidery thread - this thread was out of my Mum's embroidery stash - (I still have lots of colours left!) but there's something about gold and white that just shouts Christmas to me!!
The sentiment is from SU.
Challenges
4 Crafty Chicks - Fabric
Crimbo Crackers - A/goes
CRAFT - Christmas
Christmas at Sweet Stampin - A/Goes
Daring Cardmakers - Insp by Christmas Carol (Bright Star of Bethlehem - here) 
Stamplorations - Stamp and 3 (my 3 stars!)

Thanks for paying me a call today - hope you are warm and dry wherever you are! x😃

Sparkly

Another grey, wet, windy and miserable day here - perfect craftie space weather! (But terrible for taking pics).

Am just finishing my Christmas cards and this is another quick make - so much so that I made half a dozen in different colours whist I had the dies out.
It's just a variation on the theme of the dangly star below.  

Bright white base card, a layer of red and another white layer embossed with a snowy folder.
Offcut of the red card used to cut out the bow ( I have had this die since last year and this was the  first time I have ever used it....)
The stars were the outlines from the cards I made here.  The die cuts out lots of different sized star shapes and outlines so this was one way of using up the other stars.
Have now depleted completely the roll of tiny silver metal beads, so at least I can say I have used SOEMTHING up! The bow and star were stuck with 3d glue so they are raised from the base card.
Sentiment from SU stamped in Rocket Red Versamark ink.
Challenges -
Uniko - Christmas CAS
Rudolph Day
Sweet Stamping Christmas - Stars
Crafty Addicts - Use a Die Cut
Rubys Rainbow - Christmas/metallic twist (my beads!)

Thanks for taking some time to look at my blog today - hope you are having a great day whatever you're doing! x

Posh Frocks and Bow Ties!

Saturday saw the annual Bowls England Ladies Presentation Dinner. A really good night (pic of me and him below) - once the serious stuff of awards and speeches over then came the dancing, drinking and..........       skipping!
The girls won the 'skipping challenge' AGAIN! High heels abandoned, some had to hitch up long dresses, others were holding down short skirts! The sight of men suitably dressed in dinner suits and ranging in age from 20 to 60 trying to skip in a long line was hilarious, and of course the silly other half had to have a go too.....thankfully only thing that was injured was his pride!
Right onto the other serious stuff which is of course cards!
Here's a share from me for today -

I have made a lot of CAS cards this Christmas mainly owing to lack of time.
This pic is pretty awful to be honest, but the light here is dreadful - a proper November day - grey and raining!
White linen textured card onto a silver matt base before layering onto base card.
The branch was cut out twice from snippets of card - one a bright white plain card and then a scrap of silver glitter card.
Silver piece layered over the white piece - (it does give the effect of a snowy top in real life but can't see it in the pic!) and then raised onto the card with 3d foam pads
A silver star also cut from an oddment and a piece of silver beaded cord wrapped round the branch to hang the star from.
Sentiment silver embossed.
Quite like this one! Might do a few more!
Off to the Playground with my snippets share for this week.
Other Challenges
CAS on Sunday - Christmas)
613 Ave Create -  Square/Christmas/Silver + White
Bunny Zoes - Sparkle
CCC- Anything Goes
Addicted to CAS - Dimension
AAA - Anything Goes

Almost forgot! Here's the pic of us from Saturday night (before the tie and jacket were abandoned for the Skipping fest.....and just in case you thought it was all old fogies who play bowls....here's a pic of Katie and Sophie who walked off with the ultimate prizes of 'Young Bowler of the year and 'Bowler of the Year'!  (They're pretty good at skipping too!!)

Thanks for leaving any comments too - appreciate it. Have a great day whatever you're doing! x

Black & White - Crafty Cardmakers DT

Been a few changes over at Crafty Cardmakers and More for 2014 - a new title, new teams and different types of challenges as we're also adding some Mixed Media themes! 

For our team's first challenge of 2014 Kim has chosen the theme 'BLACK & WHITE' - no other colours except flesh colours for people.

This colour combo just makes me think of silent movies!
So a movie inspired card is my DT offering for Kim's challenge and I combined digi stamps with a 'real' one to achieve the effect that I wanted!

The papers are old stuff from my stash so I have no idea who's they are.
The image is an old stamp which I have had for years and rarely used. (It was in the 'shall I get rid of ?' drawer!)

Stamped onto bright white card and matted onto black before mounting it onto the base. I popped a teeny bit of red ink onto her lips and I hope I will be forgiven- well you can't have a movie star without cherry lips can you?????

The film reel and clapper board were free digi stamps some time back. Raised these also with 3d foam pads and some film strip acetate stuck behind (have no more of this left so that's the end of my movie career....!!)

The stars and sentiment were all PC printed and I finished it off with some black sequins, a black organza bow and some white pearls.

The inside is decorated with the same papers and another star.

I am quite disappointed with the quality of this pic as the colour isn't as sharp as it should be - think I should have asked Santa for a new camera?
 I hope you can come and join us this month - our sponsors are Woodware and Di's Digi Stamps.

 Other Challenges -
Sentimental Sundays - More than 3 layers
Hobbycutz - Lots of Layers
OSAAT - Use a digi
Scribble & Scrap - Anything Goes
Challenges 4 Everybody- Anything Goes
Digi Galore - Monochrome
Craft Your Passion - Face the Music (Movie Star by Harpo - really showing my age now!!)
My Sheri Crafts - Use a Digi
Fussy and Fancy - Monochromatic

Thanks for taking the time to look at today's creation - have a wonderful day whatever you're doing! x

Queen of the Screen - But no crown.......

Have had a small break from card making for a couple of days and caught up with other things (not housework...lol).

The next challenge at the Art'n Soul flickr group was to alter a jigsaw piece using monochrome colours. Although the closing date for this challenge isn't until 3rd April, I thought I'd better get this done whilst I had the chance otherwise as usual I shall be dashing about at the last minute!

The jigsaw piece measures 5" x 3" and was sent to me by Maureen some time ago. Poor old Thomas the Tank Engine was unceremoniously ripped off the front and I painted the piece with white acrylic paint to get rid of the grey card back and sides. On reflection I could have left these cos the theme was monochrcome..... doh!

I covered the front with random alphabet paper ( have no idea where this came from... found 2 sheets of it at the back of a drawer!). Used black and silver embossing powder on the edges and stamped the Paperartsy image onto white card with black stazon. I mounted the image and words onto silver mirri card and glued in place. The camera and film strip are a black and white photocopy of K and Co scrapbook paper suitably reduced in size to fit the piece and I finished with a silver star and heart. I then took what I thought was a metal crown charm from my stash - it was curved and wouldn't sit flat so I decided to flatten it............. this was NOT a good idea as the charm was plastic and promptly shattered into about a million tiny pieces when I pressed down on it with the edge of the hammer........................ so my 'Queen of the Screen' is currently crownless until I can get some flat crowns!

Despite the monochrome theme, I couldn't resist giving her a teeny touch of red lipstick!

Creative Inspirations is predominantly a card site but does permit other projects to be submitted for challenges. Their theme this week is also Monochrome so have linked this and Fab n Funky's challenge is black and white and fotunately for me so was Little Red Wagon's!

Playing with stash!

Cards finished so tipped the contents of the carrier bags out onto the work desk and began to have another look at all the stuff I bought with Maureen at the NEC.

We had spent a bit of a time admiring a 5' tall 'Decopatch' giraffe and as mad crafters do had bought a 'starter' kit! (Don't panic - We didn't buy anything as big as the giraffe!)

The decopatch papers are absolutely beautiful. Gorgeous colours and designs and as part of the deal we got 4 papers of our choice... I spent ages choosing but eventually much to Maureen's relief (as she was itching to go into the sewing section) I made my mind up!

Here are the results. (You really need to click on each pic to get the full view of the different designs on the papers).

I enjoyed doing this, tearing the paper up though was a bit of a wrench as the designs were so pretty- but I steeled myself to destroy it consoling myself that it would be reborn!