A final farewell to 2010

Its the last half hour of 2010 and what am I doing, blogging!I really need to make a resolution to get out more. Truth be told though I am never happier than when I am colouring or creating. Making cards takes me away from the stresses and tedium of everyday life and I love that just for that little while when making a card I am doing something I love.

This final card for 2010 is actually one I made in the summer but I knew as I made it who I wanted the recipient to be. So it sat patiently in its little plastic cover until it was time to be sent off to Lin for her birthday a few days ago. Lin is a fellow crafter and someone that I am happy to consider a friend albeit a cyber one. She never ceases to make me smile and as we seem to share a similer sense of humour make me laugh out loud at some of her comments. I know she isn't feeling the best at the moment so wish her better health and good times for 2011. To any one else who has taken the time to visit my blog and share a comment I just want to say a huge thankyou and wish everyone a happy,contented 2011 

New beginnings

2011 is fast approaching What resolutions will you be making? One of mine is to be more consistant with my blog posts as I ve been a bit hit or miss this year. Its not that I havent been making cards I just keep forgetting to post them! So thought I would have a bit of a catch up and post some that should have been up earlier. The latest challenge on the LOTV blog is a card that signifies new beginnings and this one seemed really apt

This is a new baby card made earlier this month for the arrival of a special little boy, Daniel,.born during all that horrendous snow. The image is LOTV coloured with promarkers  and the paper is Nanas nursery. Another resolution is to stop buying so many stamps but with the next LOTV release due out on January I will probably fail miserably . Congratulations to Zoe and Fraser on the safe arrival of their brand new baby boy  

Sugar nellie birthday card

Should have posted this a while ago but have had a rotten couple of weeks after I managed to knock a cup of boiling hot black coffee over my leg. Ouch!  Still better late than never.

 This is a birthday card made for Linda at CT. For once I havent used promarkers or copics but went back to my trusty old Prisma pencils and Sansador. I had forgotten how much I enjoy colouring using them and really love the soft gentle colours you can create. The stamp is sweet and sassy from Sugar Nellie one of my all time favourites (second only to Daisy)  The buterflies are DCWV rub ons

  

Feeling Autumnal

The weather has really changed!

 Colder and darker in the evenings and the fire has come back into use. Although I hate the cold there is something safe and comforting about pulling the curtains and lighting the fire.

 This recent change in the weather has made me want to use an autumnal feel in my cardmaking. I bought this Sweet pea stamp a while ago but this is the first I'd inked it up. It is another Ching Chou Kuik (I just cant seem to go past these stamps at the mo !) I coloured the stamp with promarkers and copics and edged the image with distress ink. Added a touch of Viva Decor glitter gel pen to the wings and the flowers in her hair. The frame is a spellbinders fancy frame  The grapes have been highlights with glossy accents though it doesn't appear to show on the photo. The leaves started off a very bright shiney silver but I coloured them with rust and lettuce alcohol inks to subdue the colour a bit .

The actual card  had a small birthday sentiment on it but I seem to have taken the picture before I added it.

The in a sweet pea  dream challenge this week was to include purple, orange and green so this fits the bill perfectly. Happy birthday Michelle.

Thousand years waiting

Not been in  a crafting mood of late so havent been making much other than the cards required for swaps. but I'm in the sort of mood that means I'm not happy with anything I make. So when I had a birthday swap to make for I turned to a beautiful stamp in hope of inspiration.  This has to be one of my favourite stamps at the moment It is called "a thousand years waiting" and is from Ching-Chou Kuiks fantasy art collect at Sweet Pea stamps. I just love the image and feel it doesn't need much to set it off as the stamp is the star! I have entered it in the 1st challenge on the new In a sweet pea dream challenge blog

On this card,  for a forum friends birthday (hiya Lesley hope you liked it) I coloured the stamped image with copics. Used a japanese sentiment stamp and paper to compliment the colours in the kimono. Hope my desire to get stamping perks up soon as I have so many stamps waiting to be inked and I really cant justify buying any more until I start using what I already have. Why is it even when the mojo is missing the desire to buy yet more stash never goes!  

Plain and simple Gorjuss girl

Here's something completely different for me. No multiple layers, no ribbons or pearls and not a bit of bling! I've had craft card in my stash for ages but never thought about stamping directly onto it until I saw a gorgeous example on Judys Crafty moments blog (make sure you have a look Judys cards are wonderful )

So thought I would give it a go. The image is stamped with stazon and coloured with prisma colour pencils and sansador. Edged the card using a fine liner to add faux stitching and a plain and simple sentiment .

Ok I admit I just had to a add a teeny tiny embellisment of a few "pearls" using a viva decor gloss gel pen. Many thanks to Judy for the idea 

a birthday bouquet

I love this wee cheerful teddy stamp from LOTV (He is such a handy stamp and I've used him for lots of differant types of cards) This time he is saying Happy birthday to Victoria over on CT forum. 

The paper is from a gorgeous new Prima pad I bought from Quixotic Paperie. I just love the soft colours so accented them by using complimentary colours in the bouquet using promarkers and then matted the stamped image on 4 shades of orange and green

The image is stamped onto my new favourite cardstock (digital card from craftwork cards its amazingly smooth and an absolute dream to colour on)

The image was cut using a Nellie Snellen scalloped square die Well if Im honest it was cut and then oops! the craft knife slipped when I was trying cut round some of the flowers and I had to cut away the top layer of scallops while trying not to decapitate the flowers and then layered the whole thing onto another die cut sqaure which still had all its scallops attached! Bit of a salvage maneovere but I didnt want to waste the image after spending an age colouring him in. Quite like the effect in the end with the flowers extended up over the scallops so a bit of a happy accident . The card was finished with a craftwork card sentiment diecut, a bow,a pin and some glass pebbles.  I have linked him to the challenge over on passion for promarkers as the theme this week is teddies 

A Ching Chou Kuik Sweet Pea

I am officially in love with Ching Chou Kuiks stamps from Sweet Pea stamps.
Every one is a mini work of art and a true pleasure to colour On this card that I made recently for a birthday swap I have coloured the image with Copics and cut a flourish frame using my expression (and Make the cut) Nothing much else as the image is the star and just doesnt need lots of embellishments. Thanks for looking

Another baby

I just loved the last baby card I made using these cute LOTV stamps and now that I have given that card to one of my friends that has just had a gorgeous little boy I started to feel a bit broody (in a crafty way!) so here's a little girly version.
She is of course a Lotv stamp and one again I've used Nanas nursery papers. Now even though it is the boy option I have I still think the colours work ok for a baby girl card.
The stamp is coloured with promarkers and copics and I've used a gatefold card blank. The sentiments are Elzybells and finished with some ribbon that I coloured with promarkers to match the card

Diamond Anniversary

A friend at work asked for a card for her in-laws Diamond Wedding Anniversary, Wow! Anyone who has been married for 60 years deserves a special card.
I knew what I want to do and found the perfect template at the clipart fairy.
Resized it to fit an 8 inch square card base. I used interactive version so I could add my own wording.
The script used is Scriptina and after it was printed on to century pearl card which gives a beautiful sheen

I overwrote it with a quickie glue pen and then sprinkled on irridescent glitter The pages are edged with glitter.
I used ribbon from my stash and flowers and diamonte ribbon sliders both from Wild Orchid Crafts. Finally made a box using my trusty old Crafter companion board cut a window in it so the card could be seen through the acetate and decorated the box with a few more flowers
. As usual my photgraphy cant capture the sheer glitteryness of the wording or the irridecsent sheen of the paper. I am really pleased how it turned out as I wanted something special to celebrate such a huge occasion.
Fi x

never ending christmas

Ok I know its a bit early but I made this for a recent Christmas in July swap I had just received several gorgeous nativity stamps from LOTV and just could not decide which one to use to thought I would use all of the ones I bought.

I also used a never ending card kit from the Lili of the valley too (I should have shares.)

Now, These cards are a little fiddly to make but well worth the effort in the end. I did have a few dumb moments like sticking the 2nd set of pictures on upside down and then desperately having to pry them off before the glue dried! but I got there in the end.

There is lots of sparkle which doesnt really show up on the picturs cos of my rubbish photography but I used Viva Decor glitter gel liner on the snowflakes aswell as irridecsent glitter (you can never have too much sparkle at christmas!)The papers are Docrafts I think as are the glitterations snowflake stickers.
Sorry for the long post but it is a neverending card!

Poppy Love

A card I made for a friends birthday yesterday I used one of my favorite stamps by Ching chou Kuik from Sweet Pea stamps.It is called Poppy love but I resisted colouring it in the usual reds just for a change. Coloured with promarkers. Used a spellbinders frame diecut and some Basic Grey kioshi papers Also added some Prima bling. The flowers are a mix of Prima and Wild Orchid
Finished with a couple of pearl pins black ribbon and a crafwork cards sentiment

little bird

A liitle bird for FILs birthday. In fact it's a wren stamp from Jane Netley Mayhew. Coloured the stamp with promarkers and highlighted the birds eye and the berries with glossy accents. The mount is a DCWV embossed card that I coloured with Distress Inks and mounted on a gatefold card. The card itself was stamped with the accent stamp that came with the wren and coloured again with distress inks. FIL is into wildlife photography especially birds so hopefully this will appeal.

LOTV challenge # 56 and Spoonful of Sugar #110

It is a sketch over on the Lili of the Valley blog this week and I've used one of the cute baby stamps coloured with promarkers The papers are Nanas Nursery Boy pad from DCWV but I love the colours so much I made a girl card too. Finished with one of the cute chipboard animals that came with the paper pad and a tiny foot button. As there are animals on the card I have also entered it into the Spoonful of Sugar challenge

Recycled ribbon

Over on Cute card Thursday challenge blog this weeks challenge is to Reuse, Renew or recycle I have used a ribbon that was on a box of bath smellies I got for Christmas My OH looks at me a bit oddly when I decontruct packaging but you never know when you might use something and this wee bit of velvet ribbon was just the thing on my card. I also used Marlenes sketch for this weeks Sugarbowl challenge and the stamp is one of my all time favorites Daisy from Sugar nellie. The papers came free with a craft magazine and I used distress ink to edge the papers and tint the flowers which also had stickles added for a little sparkly touch though you can't see that in the photo

On a roll

Its easy to see I've not been at work for the last week. Lots more time for colouring and playing with paper and ink. Unfortunately I don't have the same enthusiasm for the Housework so the place is as messy as ever!
This time it's a LOTV stamped card. The LOTV stamps are all so sweet but I love the innocence of this image. I used the sketch from challenge 55 on the LOTV challenge blog as a starting point. It seemed appropriate to use Wild Orchid flowers as the candy for the challenge is from them. I ended up having to decoupage the wee guys arm as I originally picked up a gold pen by mistake and ruined the shading but hopefully you can't notice now his second arm has been pasted over the error Thats it for now

still feeling blue

Seem to be in a blue phase at the moment I love the freshness of the blues and greens and these colours just seem to compliment one of my favorite Sugar Nellie Stamps She is coloured with Promarkers and I've used some DCWV rub ons and a butterfly punch to continue the summery feel. I followed the sketch on the Sugar Bowl While I'm in a summery mood check out the link on the right to 2 new digi papers kits on offer as candy from Bearly Mine Crafts

This should be winging its way to my bestest friend whos birthday it is today but guess who got the date muddled up with another birthday Ooops!
Tried to post it today but can't as it's a local holiday and all the post offices are shut. So it won't get away til tomorrow and I am seriously in trouble. Made with The Kraftin Kimmie Challenge in mind which this week is to feature triangles The papers are Basic Grey and some feathers and Prima bling to finish it off. O h dear better late than never I suppose

Gotta Dance

Dont you just love this stamp! She is called "Suzette" from Kraftin Kimmie.
I just think she makes you smile. Coloured with a mix of copics and promarkers Ive set her off with a spellbinders classic frame This was highlighted with a deep purple metallic rub on but it doesn't show to well on the picture. I used a prima pearl swirl to accent,some black organza ribbon and made the Happy birthday charm Hopefully Christine liked her birthday card.

sweet pea

I am offically in love with sweet pea stamps.
I found them by chance when blog hopping but as soon as I saw them I knew I had to have some.
Ordered from the site in the US and was delighted by the speed of shipping and the reasonable cost. This card is one I made for Joan for her birthday so I hope she does not mind me sharing it with you all. The paper is basic grey other than that its pretty minimal as the stamp is the star a few prima flowers, a ribbon and a sentiment is all it needs. The stamp is coloured with copics. I hope you like

On Tiptoe

A recent card I made from Lili of the valleys lovely range of stamps. This is "on Tiptoe" which is just a delight to colour. Made for a birthday swap Ive used a Martha Stewart punch and Basic Gray Sugar Rush papers and that flippin butterfly punch again. Im pretty sure the final card had a sentiment on it but think I must have taken the photo before I got that far.

....and another Charlotte

Had great fun recently playing with the recent Tim Holtz TSV bits and bobs so incorporated some into this birthday card (Hope you liked it Lisa)
Kraftin Kimmie Charlotte again. One of my favorite stamps but then which stamp isn't!
I've used distress ink to edge the papers then dusted with perfect pearls though the picture doesnt quite capture the full bling impact. The flowers have also been given the same treatment then finished with pearls. I used my Martha Stewart loopy punch round half of the mat and Glossy Accents to highlight the coloured dots. The sentiment is a white craftwork card strip that has also been got at with the distress inks

rosy posy again

I sent this card to Jan in a crafttelly birthday swap. I love little Rosy Posy, Such a sweet image and perfect for all occasions.

As usual the colouring is promarkers (though I used copics for the face) I used basic grey papers That Martha Stewart butterfly punch again their wings are stickled to make them nice and glittery and the large flower has glossy accents to highlight the centre

Mothers Day

Mothers day card made for my MIL. An easel card. I've used a lili of the valley stamp (so it fits into their blog card challenge this week) and coloured with promarkers.Lots of Nestie circles and a few MS butterflies (love that punch) The papers a mix of bazzill and Basic Grey.

I have used stickles on the fairy wings, the roses and the butterflies but my photography skills just dont capture the sparkle that you real in real life. Took the card over to MIL's today as tomorrow Ross is off to another friends and to be honest its a day of mixed emotion for me as my mum is no longer around.

Hope all you mums out there have a lovely day

Francesca from Kraftin Kimmie

This is Francesca. I'm sure you recognise her as one of the gorgeous Kraftin Kimmie stamps. I made this one for a recent birthday swap (Happy Birthday Lorraine).

I had hoped to use a really sweet strawberry charm I had in my stash to finish it off but of course I couldn't find it! I did order some more but, unfortunately, they didnt arrive in time. Made do with a Loopy MS Punch and some scrummie roses from Wildorchids.

I've been really productiove in the last week or two and have another 5 cards waiting to be posted which is much too organised for me. As several of them are birthday cards I won't post any pictures until after the birthday girls have received them but hopefully I will have a few new posts over the next couple of weeks

another birthday boy

This one is for a pal of Ross' whos party he is off to today. Pretty much a last minute job as I rushed it together last night.(not like me!)

The hardest bit was cutting and folding the Side step base don't know why but it took 3 attempts to get it right

Used some Superhero decoupage and papers I bought from Create and Craft ages ago A quick and easy card but hopefully ok for an 11 year old who is still into all things spidey Just wish I had the Martha Stewart spiderweb PATP punch

Happy Happy Birthday

Tuesday was my sons 11th birthday and so that was why I was up at midnight last night still trying to finish off his birthday card. I've had 11 years you would think I would realise his birthday was imminint but I still manage to leave it to the last minute every year.

So this time I just had to use Mo Mannings fab digi stamp with a couple of Xbox accents I downloaded off the net. I used my recently bought Make the Cut software for my cricut to cut the wording in a suitably xboxesque font. Luckily he thought the card was cool so all the late night effort was worthwhile

rosy posy

I love this little stamp from the new season Lili of the valley stamps .

She is just so cute! Thought I would try and cover a few challenges again but me being me spent far too long getting round to it so of course I am now too late for 3 of the 4 it was meant to cover.

So this time round it is only Cute Card Thursday challenge to include spots or dots that applies.The papers used as BG sugar rush (another fav at the moment. )The rosy stamp is coloured with promarkers (my photography is rubbish and the colours are a lot more vibrant in real life )Used MS doily lace punch, flowers from Wild Orchids site and a Craftwork cards sentiment. First time I've used Tim Holtz Black soot distress ink to edge the papers and I really like the result, not too harsh as I feared it might be.

Hope you like I have a feeling lots of peeps will be getting LOV images on their birthday cards this year!

four in one

As its too long since I blogged regularly thought it was about time I got back into the swing and what better way than entering a couple of challenges but why stop at two? Hopefully this card satisfies four challenges

First there is aspoonfulofsugar where the challenge is to use lots of layers The main part of the card has five layers and an extra two layers if you count the punched border and the ribbon.

Next is Papertake weekly their theme this week is pretty pink which I think applies here (I love pink)

Then its on to Passion for Promarkers for a girls,girls,girls challenge So Francesca from Kraftin Kimmie is a suitably girly stamp

Finally last but not least the Liliofthevalley challenge where they have a super sketch. Whew!

first post 2010

Thought it was time to post a message to wish everyone a happy new year Heres hoping 2010 is a happier one. I am cheating a bit here cos the card was actually made last year but I havent got round to making any new ones yet and didnt want the year to get any older

This was a card I made for a crafty friend's birthday at the craft telly forum, Loobylou She was kind enough to email me a picture because I forgot to take one before I sent her the card!

Its a kraftin kimmie stamp (charlotte) and I love it as its so quirky Coloured with promarkers. I think the layout was actually a sketch I came across but I apologise that I cant now remember where The sentiment is a craftwork cards one and the coloured circles are edged with glitterations.