A Friend comes to Play!

Yesterday was a wonderful day and the reason it was so wonderful was because I had a very special friend came to visit.

Yes, it was one of our fun ‘play days’ and the lovely and talented Lythan came to spend the day rummaging through my craft stash and creating a few masterpieces.

She actually managed to make three rather beautiful and very cute cards, which you can see on her blog but alas, I only managed to do two..............well, someone had to keep the cups of tea flowing and prepare lunch……..a good enough excuse I thought!


I didn’t have any plans on what I was going to make today before Lythan arrived but she came armed with a little challenge and promptly handed me a printed sheet with some of the templates from Kathy’s Waffle, Sketch File.

As I said before I managed two but I didn’t get off to a very good start.

This is the template for sketch #4:-

You’ll notice that my stamping along the side of the card is in the wrong place…..which of course was totally intentional. Lol.
If you believe that, you’ll believe anything!

I’ve used the Butterfly Blooms peg set from Rubber Stamp Tapestry together with the Ivy border from Nature Plate 4 because I’ve lost my little Ivy peg from the set. On the border I’ve also used a tiny sprig peg from the Spring Offerings set.

The papers used are Basic Grey Sugared and I’ve finished off the card by creating the greeting on my computer and adding some Stickles Glitter Glue to highlight the flowers.

For my second card I’ve used some more Basic Grey papers but this time they are the yummy Ambrosia.

Here’s Kathy’s template for sketch #6:-

And this is my attempt:-

I’ve embossed the background paper with the Stylized Flower Cuttlebug Embossing folder and distressed it by lightly standing the surface. I then added the scalloped borders that were cut with a Fiskars Threading Water punch and decorated the little holes with tiny ‘Anita’s gems…….Oh how I love these!

The flower is from one of the new Rhonna Farrer sets of stamps I brought in Florida.I stamped it three times, coloured it with glitter gel pens, layered it with 3D foam and topped it off with a large Red gem.

This was then mounted on a Maya Road chipboard flourish which I had inked Grey to match the paper and added some doodling, before giving it a couple of coats of clear embossing.

Oh....I'm Back..........again!

Hi all, it’s me again…….did you think I had fallen off the face of the earth?
Well I won’t bore you all by prattling on about my flood again but that’s the reason there’s not been much crafting going on and you haven’t seen be around again this week.

I eventually got my craft bits out yesterday though and made a few Easter cards which was great because Jo’s theme for the Daring Cardmakers challenge this week is to use Bunnies and Chicks on our cards.

The first five cards are all made using a selection of really pretty Doodlebug papers, coordinating shaped brads, cardstock stickers, fancy frills stickers and a few added extras from my ever growing stash.

Added Extras: - Do Crafts, textured square cards, Craft Creations White card stock, Ribbon.
Tools: - Round Scalloped & Classic Nestabilities, Woodware Corner Rounder, and Printer (for greeting)
Inks: - Martha Stewart Pigment Ink Stack

Added Extras: - Craft Creations card blank, Ribbon, K & Co Stripy Brads
Tools: - Martha Stewart Cosmos Paper Punch, Printer (for greeting)
Inks: - Martha Stewart Pigment Ink Stack

Added Extras: - Craft Creations card blank, Ribbon, Silk and Paper Flowers, Tiny Gems (Anita’s)
Tools: - Paper Pricker (for faux stitching) Printer (for greeting)
Inks: - Ranger Distress Ink

Added Extras: - Craft Creations card blank, Sticky Ribbon,
Tools: - Printer (for greeting)
Inks: - Martha Stewart Pigment Ink Stack

Added Extras: - Do Crafts textured square card, Stickles Glitter Glue
Tools: - Clear Stamps (Candyfloss Bunny) Prisma Color Pencils,
Inks: - Martha Stewart Pigment Ink Stack

My last two cards were stamped using various pegs from two sets of Tapestry Stamps.

This one fits in with the Tanda Teaser last week which was called Pushing Daises. Unfortunately my daises weren’t stamped but the backing to the cross and the edging around the large oval was so I hope that’s ok and it will pass muster.
Added Extras: - Craft Creations Hammer card blank, Stickles Glitter Glue
Tools: - Xcuts Large & Small Flower paper punch. Tapestry Stamps (Pottery Garden & Porcelain Bouquet) Printer (for greeting)
Inks: - Decorating Chalks, Versa Magic & Martha Stewart Pigment Ink Stack

And for this last one I decided to have a little play with one of the Kabuka Moulds from my TENsecond Studio prize and used it to emboss in my Cuttlebug…..I think it worked really well!
Added Extras: - Craft Creations Hammer card blank, Stickles Glitter Glue
Tools: - Cuttlebug, Kabuka Mould, Tapestry Stamps (Pottery Garden & Porcelain Bouquet) Printer (for greeting)
Inks: - Decorating Chalks, Versa Magic & Martha Stewart Pigment Ink Stack

And there you have it, a little collection of Easter Cards……I hope it was worth waiting for!

I’m not sure when I will be back.
The appointment for my knee op was originally going to be on Good Friday but I had a letter this morning to say that they have brought it forward to the 7th April now. So now next week will be a busy one with the pre op stuff, then the dentist and best of all Lythan will be coming to play on Monday.

See you all soon……..I hope!

I have a Parcel......yah!

Can I just say a very big Thank You to everyone who left me messages and emailed me after my disaster at the week end.

It was great knowing that you were thinking of me while I was clearing up the mess.
I’m pleased to say that I’m beginning to get things sorted out a bit now but it looks like there will be a few delays in getting the repair work done. This is mainly because my buildings insurance company won’t give the go a head for my work to be done until they have proof that the people upstairs have had their boiler replaced and there’s no further chance of more damage, so at the moment it’s a waiting game. At least thing are beginning to dry out now, although it still smells very damp and will do for a while I suspect.

Someone came this morning with carpet samples and measured up, so at least that’s one thing that’s sorted. All I have to do is let them know when the decorating is finished and they will come and lay it.

I had to take dad out to the post office this morning and my day improved greatly when we got back. There was a card to say there was a parcel waiting for me at the post office.

Can you guess what it was?

It was my prize from the Cuttlebug Challenge blog ‘Love Bug’ weekend.
I was slightly saddened by the fact that I was charged £19 by customs and the post office before I could get my grubby mitts on it but given that I had over £100 worth of art supplies in my itchy fingers the sad feeling didn’t last long!

And in the box………..everything I need from TENsecond Studio to
get me started on this new technique.


There was a set of tools
An embossing mat set, two sheets of adhesive film, four sheets of Black metal, a buffing block,
Three double sided Kabuka Moulds









Two double sided Big Daddy Moulds










And last but not least a fantastic DVD and CD which explains how to use everything and has lots of templates to use.
I’m itching to going with it all but while I’m in the mess that I’m in crafting has had to go on hold for a while. I promise you though, as soon as I get started and make my first project, I’ll be back to show you all.
Once again I would like to thank the girls over at the Cuttlebug Challenge blog and especially the lovely people from TENsecond Studio for donating such and fantastic prize.

Oh no………What have I done to deserve this!

I’m still sleeping quite a lot at the moment due to the effects of the jet lag but I had a very rude awakening this morning as I got up and was quickly brought to my senses by the disaster that had struck in the early hours of this morning.

I could hear running water and as I went into my lounge I was greeted by the horrific sight of water poring from the ceiling about the fire place. Needless to say I was in a complete panic as I tried to find out what the problem was.

I knew the water wasn’t coming from any of my own pipe work because I live in a ground floor maisonette and all my pipes run through the floor and there was no way I could stop it.
I asked upstairs but they couldn’t see any evidence of a leak anywhere but after about half an hour a plumber arrived and found that their central heating boiler had split. They drained down the system and the water eventually stopped running, but what a mess!

I’m now left with a very soggy carpet, torn, wet ceiling paper, wall paper coming away from the wall in places and every single towel I own is in a sopping wet pile in the bath waiting to be washed.

The insurance is going to be a nightmare to sort out too.
The people up stairs will obviously claim on their policy but I have to claim on my own insurance which they will then claim back from the other company.
This means a claim for the carpet on my contents insurance and another on my buildings insurance for the damage to the walls and ceiling. Then I will have the problem of trying to get back to two lots of excess that I will need to pay because the girl I spoke to this morning says I still have to pay that up front.

Oh well, I guess it could have been worst……..it could have happened while I was on holiday in Florida!

Hi Honey…….I’m Home!

It’s hard to believe that just last Friday I was sunning myself here at Disney’s Blizzard Beach in tempetures of 84 degrees.

We all had a great time.............the parks were the emptiest I’ve ever seen them!
I don’t know if that was because of the time of year, (I’ve never been this early before) or if it was due to the weather but the locals were saying it was unusually cold for February.
What ever the reason, it was great for us and much warmer than the UK when we left.

Well, I’ve been back almost a week now and I’m still having trouble getting my act in gear.
The jet lag has really affected me this time for some reason and I can hardly keep my eyes open. I’ve not felt much like crafting either so my craft stash wasn’t touched until I really had to make my card for this weeks Daring Cardmakers challenge.

This week it was Kathy’s turn to challenge us all with

Ready, Steady, Cook

Here in the UK there's a TV programme that's been going for years. A couple of viewers are invited to bring a bag of cookery ingredients to the studio and two top chefs have to make a meal using the contents of those bags - they don't know what will be in the bags beforehand.So this dare is my take on that theme - I'll tell you the ingredients you have to use, then all you have to do is make the card.

Here are your ingredients:

3 different papers

At least one piece of chipboard

At least 1 button

At least 1 piece of ribbon

optional: 1 extra item/element of your choice

That's about it, all you need to do now is sort out your bits of stash and make up your card - you're allowed to use whatever paints, pens and inks you like, but otherwise you must stick to the ingredients in the list.
Just to make things a little more difficult for the design team Kathy sent us all a little envelope with the things she wanted us to use on our cards, so we didn’t have the luxury of using our own stash as the rest of you had. At least we could still add one element of our own choice.

Here’s what I came up with

The papers, buttons, ribbon and chipboard with all in the envelope from Kathy and as we were also allowed to use inks and pens I stamped and embossed a swirly pattern onto the background using a free stamp from a magazine.

I highlighted this with me extra element………..little tiny gems for Anita’s

The flowers were cut using a Martha Stewart ‘Cosmos Flower’ punch and mounted on 3D foam before topping off with the buttons.