Inspirational Blogland

Yep, it has to be said…….blogland is just fantastic when your crafting mojo has gone AWOL.

I don’t know about you but every so often I set aside a little time to have a good catch up on my crafty friend’s blogs and others that I’ve made a note of to go back to after checking out the cards made for the DCM’s dare each week. There’s a wealth of talent out there and it’s amazing how you remember things you’ve seem, just when you need a little push in the right direction.

A few weeks back I was struggling to think of something to make for my friend Sharon as a birthday present. I already had it in mind to make her a set of three painted glass slides but I wanted to do something else a well. Then I remembered something that I had seen a while back on Simply Sue's blog. Sue had made a lovely little desk set which consisted of a large peg, a pencil holder and some post-it’s……..the perfect solution.

As it happens I brought some pegs when I meet up with Sue and some of the girls from Crafts By Carolyn just before Christmas but I run out of time and didn’t manage to get them done so this was the perfect opportunity to use them.

As it was Sharon’s birthday yesterday it’s safe for me to show you what I managed to do in the end.

These are the glass slides in their holder.


The Hydrangea was stamped onto the back of the glass slides and then painted with Twinkling H2o’s


I then made Sharon’s birthday card……..my first attempt at a flip-flop card……in her favourite colours and with some little Swarovski Crystals added to give it a nice sparkle.
The papers I used for everything were either My Mind’s Eye – Tres Jolie or Crate – Samantha.

Next it was the desk set, as inspired by Sue.




And finally……………..a box to put it all in.

Hide & Seek

It’s my last Friday as Guest Designer on the Daring Cardmakers team, which is a big shame. I can’t believe those two weeks have flown by so fast but I might still be able to sneak in a Mid Week Little Extra before they kick me off. Lol!

I just wanted to say a big thank you to your girlies for asking me to be a part of your little group……it’s been such fun even thought you managed to find me the hardest dares ever to take part in!

I also want to say a big thank you to everyone who's visited my blog and left lovely messages, it's really kind of you and I do appreciate it.


This week it was Kathy’s turn to set the dare .

Okay, for my dare we're heading to the playground for a game of
Hide & Seek
I'd like you to make a card which has a hidden component of some sort - the hidden part could be a tag, a concealed photo, message or something along those lines, maybe a pull-out or pop-up. Anything goes as long as there's something extra for the recipient to find on your card that's not immediately visible when they open the envelope.

Here’s the card that I came up with



And this is what’s hidden inside

I started out with a White linen card and stamped randomly using a Penny Black water colour effect Daisy stamp and a Big and Juicy rainbow ink pad.
Once this was done I attached the torn corner of patterned Vellum over the top before inking the edges of the card.
The mat and paper ribbon were made from glossy card which I’ve daubed with Ranger Alcohol Inks in Stream, Latte, a spot of Gold Mixative and edged with a Sliver Metallic Marker.

Next the Slide Mailer which indecently was hand made.
I brought three of these before Christmas but do you think I could find any of them…..nowhere to be see….grrrrr.
Anyway, once I had bodged one together myself I gave it two or three coats, inside and out with a Ranger Acrylic Dabber in Aqua and then stamped the front with the same daisy as the rest of the card and finished all the edges with the Silver pen.

For the inside of the Slide Mailer I used an Anita’s stamp with Black Staz-On and then painted it with Twinkling H20’s.



The glass slide on the inside was my first attempt at anything like this but I have to say, I was quite pleased with the results.



I used Ranger inks, in the same colours as before to make the background by stamping the applicator randomly over the back of the glass until I was happy with effect and then turned it over and used the Anita stamp again, only this time I just inked the large daisy part of the stamp with Black Staz-On.
I painted this with H2O’s mixed with a little of the solution that allows you to paint onto Acetate or glass before finally popping the slide into the silver frame with a piece of white card behind it to help the colours show up more and topping it off with a little bow of Lavender sheer ribbon.




The front of the card was finished off with Lavender sheer ribbon, flowers, brads and eyelets, all from my stash and the Daisy, Daisy was cut on my Cuttlebug using ‘Ginger’ Quickuts and Sizzix Skittle Dee De Alphabets.