Pretty Pastels

When I was thinking about my card for the Daring Cardmakers Pretty Pastels challenge this week I decided to use one of the stamped ‘Lola Rose’ images that Andrea very kindly sent me in a RAK recently.

Quite simple and straight forward, this one…….



The flower borders were stamped directly onto the card with my tapestry stamps.
The Bella image was coloured with water colour pencils and then mounted onto pink and green patterned paper from my stash. I think they were from the Hot Off The Press, Pastels Collection but I can’t be sure about that.

The card was finished off with a tiny Green brad in three of the corners and a larger Pink & White one which secures the stamped tag, Prima flower, punched flower and ribbon.

Needles & Pins

My card for the Daring Cardmakers challenge this week has a bit of a monotone thing going on. The brief was set by Jane and she wanted us to make a card using needles or pins of some description.

I scratched my head for some time over this, wondering what I had in the way of a nice pin and then I remembered that the ‘Form A Line’ stitching cards kits I brought some time ago contained a long pin with a pearl on the end. It was intended for piercing the holes in the card but I thought it would be perfect to use for Jane’s dare.

Here’s what I came up with.



I started out with a White Linen effect card and coloured it using the ‘Direct to Paper’ technique and Color Box Fluid Chalk ink and then used a speckled brayer roller over the top in a slightly darker Color Palette pigment ink. I then added some Silver embossed swirls down the right hand side using a set of clear tapestry stamps.
The next layer was the same speckled brayer roller and the darker ink onto White paper. The edges were torn and inked and then I’ve edged it with some mock stitching. I love doing this now and it looks so much better using Jo’s method of piecing the holes before drawing the lines.
The third layer of the card was done using a Hessian brayer roller with Encore Ultimate Metallic ink in Silver onto White paper. This time the torn edges have been embossed with Silver embossing powder.

Next comes the stamped image.
The stamp is called ‘My Mother’s Dress’ and is by Inkadinkado. I started by sponging some of the darker pigment ink onto White card and then stamped the image using the same colour. The edges were torn and inked before mounting it onto a piece of coordinating Blue card which was also torn and inked. The panel was then attached to the card with four tiny pearly Blue beads and the pin with a few more of the beads threaded on for good measure.



Finally I’ve attached a small Vellum tag that I brought from Crafts By Carolyn some time ago, added the bow and small Silver Birthday Wishes Peel-Off……….and there you have it!

A Stitch in Time

I was thinking that it’s about time I did a little update on my cross stitching so you can see what I’ve been doing in the evenings whilst sitting with my feet up.

Firstly I’ll show you the progress made on my large Siberian Gold project. I’ve been working on this for over a month now and it doesn’t seem to be growing very fast.

Still, it was never intended to be finished overnight and with me stitching other projects in between it’s going to remain a WIP for the considerable future.

I love stitching charity projects and I’ve just completed four squares for SOLAK. As I’ve mentioned before they are a group of stitchers and quilters who make quilts and cushions for well deserving people.

My four squares are destined for a ten year old boy called Timmy who lives in Australia and who loves Pokamon. Now I know absolutely nothing about Pokamon but I’m pleased to say that Google came to the rescue again. I managed to find some pictures and chart them myself so now I have my fingers crossed that they look as they should and Timmy will be able to recognise what characters they are meant to be when he receives his quilt.

Oddish

Vileplume

Zubat

Gloom

Now that my SOLAK squares are finished I aim to make a start on a new joint project with Nicki and Sharon but at the moment I can't say any more about that, other than it’s something for a couple of people who we think are well deserving.

And just to get you wondering even more, in a day or two I hope to have some photos to show you of another joint project. All this intrigue…….but I can’t say more at the moment because the person it’s intended for hasn’t received it yet and I don’t want to spoil the surprise.

So as you can see my sewing needle has been very busy of late and I look to be stitching for some time to come if all goes to plan.

Happy Stitching!

The Flowers That Bloom In The Spring, Tra La……………..

………………..bring promise of merry sunshine.

Well, that’s what Gilbert and Sullivan would have us believe.

As I was making my card for the Daring Cardmakers
Little Extra this week I couldn't help but sing along to this well know song from the Mikado and reflect on the fact that the 21st of March was officially the first day of Spring and it’s snowing outside.
That’s the great British weather for you!
Anyway, this was the dare:-

We would like you to create a card with flowers.
Simple? Aww but hold on…there’s a little twist because we don’t want to make it too easy for you.
We want your cards to have flowers on but we don’t want to see any Prima’s or shop brought blooms. The idea of this dare is for you create your flowers yourself so lets see what you can come up with.

Here's my card.

The basis of my card is cream card stock that has been covered with distress ink and stamped over the top with my Penny Black Letter Background stamp.

The flower was cut using the Sizzix Flower Parts Set 2 and a Woodware Heart punch using three of the papers from the Cherryarte Classic Coffee collection. The petals were highlighted with a Gold marker pen and some Diamond Glaze and the card finished off with some ribbon and brads from my ever growing stash.

There's some lovely people about!

Last week was a bit of an odd week for me, plus a worrying one because my dad was taken ill again with a chest and water infection. Fortunately we managed to avoid a trip to the hospital as usually happens but never the less he is still very poorly.
I know he looks at my blog from time to time, when his vision permits so
Get Well Soon Dad. (((hug)))

With dad not being well I’ve had little time for crafting this week and I found the need to drop out of a PIF (pay it forward) that Andrea was doing on her blog as I didn’t have the time to sort through my stash and find some things to send on to someone.
But when I contacted the lovely Andrea she insisted that I take the crafty bits she had on offer as a RAK instead…..that’s a Random Act of Kindness for those not in the know.

Well, my crafty bits arrived yesterday and I know I’m going to have fun playing the things, especially the stamped images.



Once I get myself straight again I will sort out some bit’s to send on to someone else but for the time being all I can say is Thank You so much Andrea, you’re so kind.

Maiden Dare

This week the girls over at Daring Cardmakers have decided it’s about time I earned my place on the design team so they have let me loose with my maiden dare. I had to think long and hard on this one but I hope I’ve come up with something you can all play along with.

It’s all in the Game

Tiddlywinks, playing cards, dominos, jig saw pieces…….the list goes on and I’m sure that most of us have a drawer somewhere that has the odd one or two of these lying around in.
Well now’s your chance to use them because I dare you to make a card using some of those pieces.

Oh and no, you don’t need to throw a double six to start to start the game.

My first card was something that I’ve always wanted to have a go at….Domino Art.

The first thing you need to do is create a rough surface so that the ink or paint will stick to the domino. I was impatient and did this by giving it a quick rub with some sandpaper but apparently you can achieve the same results by soaking them in bleach overnight.

Once this was done I gave the four domino’s a couple of coats of Cream Acrylic paint and once dry I stamped over the top using Blake StazOn and an Anita’s flower stamp. Finally the image was painted with Twinkling H2o’s before being giving three coats of UTEE and edged with a Gold metallic marker.
Tres Jolie papers enhanced it with a touch of Cuttlebug Script embossing and brads, ribbon and a glass bead complete the card.

The second was using some chipboard jig-saw pieces, which were inked with Dried Marigold and Antique Linen Distress Ink from Ranger.

I then stamped the Sunflower with Black StazOn and painted with Twinkling H2o’s. I love this Rubber Stampede stamp, not only because of the lovely the image but because it was such a bargain. I snapped it up of £1 at a fund raising event for the Canal Boat Project

The Jig-saw pieces were layered onto a card with papers from My Mind’s Eye, Tres Jolie collection and finished off with a stamped greeting and some eyelets and ribbons from my stash.

Blogg Award & DCM Little Extra

While I was away in Norway Judy over at Monts Mama Mia very kindly gave me a ‘You Make My Day’ award, how nice is that?


Thanks so much Judy, you've made my day too!

Now I’m supposed to pass it on to my 10 favourite bloggers which is no easy feat especially with so many talented people out there. Not only that, most of the people who really inspire me have already been given the award so I’ve decided to take the easy way out. If I have ever left a message on you blog it’s because I love what you’re doing and your work inspires me, so if you fall into that category then consider yourself given the ‘You Make My Day’ award from me.

And now on to this weeks Little Extra over at the Daring Cardmakers and it’s a very simple one……make an Easter card.

Nothing very taxing for this card, just some layering using one of my favourite Crate paper collections, ‘Birdie’ along with some brads, Prima’s, ribbons and Stickles glitter glue.

Hi Honey……..I’m Home & DCM's Teen Spirit

Did you miss me?

I went off last Thursday for a few days fun in the snow to Norway and what a fabby time I had. Only trouble was I came home with more than I bargained for…..a bad attack of sinusitis and a mild chest infection. It didn’t stop me enjoying my break though and I’ve now been to the doctors and the antibiotics are beginning to kick in so I’m feeling a bit better now.

We landed in Torp (southern Norway) and made a little detour up to Oslo so we could see the Viking Ships that had been excavated and rebuilt over 900 years later.

It was absolutely amazing to see all that wood carving so well preserved and so worth the extra hour and a half on our original three hour journey to Gol where we were staying.
This was our Hotel and the view from our room.

Saturday was spent at a wild life park up in the mountains somewhere. I totally forgot to make a note of the names of the places we went to but will find out from John who is the guy who invited us out there.

I came nose to none with my first Moose which made my weekend especially as this was one I the animals we failed to see while visiting Canada a few years ago.

We also saw some Lynx and Wolves among other things but no Bears….they were all sleeping…..wise decision when you see how much snow there was up there!

Sunday was another exciting day because we visited the highest inhabited village in Norway to do a bit of Skidooing……Ooooo this was fun……and cold…….but fun!

Then there was just time for a quick look around Gol itself and a spot of shopping before facing the long journey back to the airport on Monday. All in all it was a great weekend only slightly spoiled but the flight being delayed due to the storms over here.

Anyway, after all the excitement of the weekend and being ill for a few days after I finally managed to make my card for our Daring Cardmakers
Friday Challenge.

Now, this week it's Rachel's first time to set the dare;"Well I thought we have had plenty of flowers and hearts and girly things so I would like some cards with some teen spirit please."

My card was a very quick one I’m afraid.
It’s using papers from the DCWV ‘All dressed Up’ stack.

The handbag, shoes and coat hanger are QuickKutz dies. The Alphabet is Sizzix ‘Hunky Dory’ and the dress was cut from a template that was in a magazine a little while ago and layered with 3d foam (sorry, can’t remember which mag.)

I've got a stitch

I was a little late with my card for our launch today of the Daring Cardmakers mid week Little Extra so I’ve just put it straight on my blog.

The wonderful Mel has done a fabby little tutorial about adding some stitching to our cards and the dare today is to do just that….make a card with some stitching on.

I didn’t think I was going to get time to do a card this week because I’ve been rushing around finishing orders and trying to get straight and tidy before flying out to Norway on Friday for a short break, but as luck would have it, one of the cards I had made was just crying out for a spot of stitching so I’ve just sneaked in under the fence!

You see that I’ve just added some simple running stitch around the edge of the 70 and I think it definitely helps it to stand out from the card.

Thanks for the tutorial Mel……what a star!