New Home card!

Where has the morning gone? Did a bit of gardening first thing as my poor leeks were still waiting to be planted out!! But have just really been pottering doing not very much!! Really need to get on with some card making this afternoon, so thought I'd blog now and can then focus on that after lunch. 

A little bit of excitement this week, as my Cupcake card was chosen as a top 3 pick at Crafts 4 Eternity.  And my Birdhouse card won me a $10 voucher from Creative Knockouts to spend at The Stamping Chef. Am really looking forward to spending this as I have seen some lovely digi papers on the site!!

Anyway - this is a quick card I made a while back when I needed a new home card. The backing card and topper are from an old Kanban kit - Well Wishes and Celebrations - Fly Away Home sheet. I mounted the oval topper onto the matching rectangular mat. 

I mounted some gold mirror and white pearl card onto a red square card blank, then used some of the matching red dotty card. A piece of the border strip was placed down the side, and the topper stuck on so that it hung over each edge. I used red pearls on the card, and little black 'gems' on the flowers and cat's collar to finish it off.

I would like to enter this into:

Aud Sentiments - 2 word sentiment (New Home)

Take care,

Cxxxx

White on white!!

Afternoon!! Despite the weather forecast, it has been a beautiful day here - with sunshine instead of the predicted rain - although yesterday's showers were most welcome for the garden. No real work today - but had a great SUP session this morning as well as last night - so am feeling fighting fit - or maybe just fit to drop!!

Today's offering is a white-on-white card gatefold card - another that I made at Dee Paramour's workshop a while ago - so the details may be vague!!

The two panels on the front were embossed with (possibly) Creative Expressions Heart Lattice folder, and a little seam binding wrapped around the bottom and tied in a knot. The decorative pieces were cut with Sue Wilson's Lattice Heart Striplet Die. The decorative circle is cut from the Calabria die (Italian Collection) - and mounted onto a plain white circle. 

The inside of the card was embossed with the same folder - and the larger of the Calabria dies was used to cut the piece for the sentiment.

I would like to enter this into

Southern Girls Challenge - Dyeing to See Those Punches (dies used)

Take care,

Cxxx

Birthday Blues - not!!!

Has been full on day and a half at the 'day job' - busy, busy, busy!! Then rushing to pick up the car from the garage!! Is sooo nice to have my own car back - and it's all clean inside and out!! Can't remember when it looked so good!! has taken a little while to get used to it again though!!

  

Anyway,  yesterday was Tina's birthday!! Happy Birthday Tina!! This is the blue easel card I created just for her!!! 

The base of the Easel card is made from two 6x6 white cards. I printed this lovely blue Chocolate Box image from the Topper Companions of Crafter's Companion Halcyon Days CD (A5 size) onto Centura Pearl Hint of Silver. This was then mounted onto a piece of taupe coloured Bazzill card. For the rest of the card I used papers from the CD printed onto CC Silk Finish Paper, more of the taupe card, and some blue Bazzill. 

The stopper is cut using the smaller of the Crafter's Companion Die'sire Cameo Frame Dies, and the letters from the Die'sire 1" Alphabet set (both upper and lower case). A paper bow and bunting from the CD, along with a few pearls finished the whole thing off.

I would like to enter this into:
Crafty Bloggers Network - Bingo Board - Column A - Die Cut, Image, Patterned Paper

Finally, a welcome to my new followers on the various platforms. It's lovely to have your company here on my blog!! Enjoy!!

Cxxx

Sunshine - and Flowers!!

Good morning!! A what a fabulous one it is too!! The sun is shining - and I have lots to do today!! The garden is calling to me - there's still so much tidying up to do. I managed to finish weeding the veg patch yesterday, but there's a pile of top soil that needs spreading over some of it. And the leeks need planting out. And the border's at that point where some stuff has gone over and really needs sorting out. A gardener's job is never done!!

But It's going to have to wait as I have commissions to do!! I will, however, pop out at some point to pick some strawberries and raspberries. Have had a little bowlful every day for a while now - I just love growing my own stuff - stepping out the back door and picking fruit,  collecting a few salad leaves for lunch, or digging a few spuds and veggies for dinner!! Perfect!! 

Today's post is a card I made a while ago at a workshop with Dee Paramour, and never got round to blogging - and because of that I have forgotten the details of some of the items used - but never mind - you'll get the idea.

We started by embossing a piece of white card - I think I used the Sea Grass folder - and then used the direct to paper method to ink over the embossing. I used Mustard Seed (or it could have been Wild Honey). 

The flowers were also cut from white card - with Sue Wilson's Finishing Touches Classic Rose die - and inked with Shaded Lilac and Mustard Seed (?) The 'backing' flowers were cut from black card. The leaves are from the same set - inked with Bundled Sage.

For the sentiment banner, we squished the ink pads directly onto a craft mat, spritzed with water, and then smooshed (technical term !!) a piece of card in the ink!!  Having dried it with a heat gun, I then stamped a sentiment, and cut it to shape. It was fixed to the card with a little bend in it to give dimension. The finishing touch is a bow made from black seam binding. 

So, off to do busy things!! Hope you all have a great day!!

Cxxx

CCM&M #118 - Wooden It Be Loverly!!!

Good afternoon!! And what a gloriously sunny day it's been so far!! Hope you are all having a good one! I, for one, am feeling totally energised and will shortly be heading back out into the garden to do some more weeding - and of course soak up the sun!! 

But before I do, it's challenge time again over at Crafty Cardmakers and More. Suze is hosting this time around, and she would love to see something wood related on your project. The use of paper (obviously from trees!) is not enough - so a wooden embellishment, wood effect embossing, images of trees, a wooden fence etc. Your project could even be made of wood - box, frame etc

Our sponsors this time around are Crafty Sentiments Designs who are offering 3 digi images of the winner's choice. 

For my wood theme, I have used a image from our sponsors called 'Bird House', and coloured it with Spectrum Noirs: Bird Box - FS1, FS2, TN2, TN4; Flowers - PL2, PL3; Leaves - GT3, JG4; Bird - LY1, LY2, LY3.  I cut it out with a Spellbinders Oval, and matted this onto a green scalloped oval.

The purple background is cut and embossed using Crafter's Companion Enchanted Create-a-Card Die. I inked round the edges and over the embossing with Seedless Preserves DI. Around this I wrapped green satin, pale purple and dark purple ribbons. Behind the die cut, I placed more green, and then used glitter glue to highlight the flowers. 

On the base of the easel, I used more purple, embossed with Crafter's Companion Embossalicious 6x6 Floral Frenzy folder. On top of the green strip, I used the oval cut from the Create-a-Card, embossed it with Embossalicious A4 Dottie folder - and inked over with Seedless Preserves DI. 

To continue the wooden theme, three wooden buttons were used as the stopper, with two smaller ones on the ribbon. Little pearls on top finished off the embellishments.

Make sure you check out the rest of the Design Team inspiration over on the Crafty Cardmakers and More blog. There's some fab work there. 

I would like to enter this into:

Creative Knockouts: Embossing (with the Create-a-card die, and the embossing folders)
Red Rubber Inspirationals - Embossing 

Back soon,

Cxxxx

A busy day.

It was a really warm morning this morning - but a great turn out as ever for Race For Life. I struggled a little this year - and not just with the heat. I have been doing Race for Life for many years. I started walking with friends. Then jogged with a friend. Then jogged on and off on my own for a few years. Then two years ago, my eldest niece joined me. And last year, both my nieces and my sister were with me. This year I was back on my own due to other commitments that they had. And in among that huge group of women who had all turned out for the same good cause as me, I felt really lonely. It was really strange. At the mile mark, I was almost in tears - so many groups of people all encouraging each other - and I was on my own. It took another half a mile to snap out of it - and remember the reason why I (and everyone else) was there!! A big thanks to all who sponsored me for such a worthy cause.

After a quick snooze (whilst I was supposed to be watching the Grand Prix) I then spent a few hours tidying up the veg patch. Has been somewhat neglected - so is still only partially done!!

Onto today's card, which is another I made for my friend's twin sister. This one was for my friend's twins to give their auntie. 

T

The twins are almost three - and when asked what they would like on their card for Auntie Angie, one of them said 'sprinkles'. So I decided that we would go with a cupcake with sprinkles on. I used a free digi from Bird's Cards and paper pieced the icing with Papermania Ivory Creative Tones paper (this has been in my stash for a long time!!). 

The cupcake holder was coloured with Spectrum Noir pens - GB8 & 9, FS2, TN1, GB1, EB6 &8. I then used Glossy Accents to make it shiny. 

The card itself is made from a large sheet of Dark Chocolate Centura Pearl. I used more of the Papermania paper and Centura Pearl, along with some gold pearl card from my stash, to create the layers. These were cut with Spellbinders dies - circles, scalloped circles and Grand Decorative Circles. The hearts were cut with X Cut nesting dies, and the numbers with an old X Cut set. For the banner and name, I used my Craft Robo - with the Silhouette software.

i finished off with a piece of ribbon and a few beads for those all important sprinkles. And of course there had to be a matching box!!

I would like to enter this into:
Brown Sugar Challenges - Dots and/or Stripes (stripes on the cupcake case)

Crafts 4 Eternity - Food

Back soon,

Cxxx

... and the world's alright with me!!

Today I spent the day at Pickwell Farm on a workshop with the lovely Hels Sheridan. Driving back home afterwards, I realised that it's been quite a while since I've had a few days to do things just for myself - no school work, no DT work, no commissions, no birthdays to make stuff for. But it's kind of happened just by chance this weekend. Yesterday I had a fab day with SUP and gardening and a little sewing. And today I had all day just crafting for myself - not because I had commissions or projects to work on - but just for me!! And tomorrow I have Race for Life - and then maybe more gardening!! So - right now - the world's alright with me!! 

Anyway - here is what we were working on today. 

We started by painting the three panels (Tando Creatives Wall Art) with Docrafts Artiste paints. I used Conifer Green, Lagoon and Sea Spray. We then used paint through stencils - this one is Crafter's Workshop TCW359 - Microbial. A little flourish stamp with more paint completed the background.

This particular wall art comes with the pieces for the tree - so the next job was to paint those too. This time I used Mocha and Chocolate Brown for the tree, the same three colours as above for the flowers, and a combination of Sea Spray, Mocha and Burnt Umber for the butterflies. I did a little stamping onto the tree branches (sorry don't know what the stamp was) with the Burnt Umber to add some texture, and added a little Treasure Gold in Onyxite along the edges. I used a little more on the lighter coloured flowers.

We used a little greyboard to make the hinges - I painted mine to match the wall art, and then affixed the trees, flowers and butterflies. This allows the piece to bend slightly so that it will stand up - rather than hanging on a wall. 

There are a couple of mistakes - the panels are a bit too far apart, and the tree should sit at the bottom of the panel - but I am rather pleased with the result - and it already has a place in the living room!! A good day's work!!

Take care,

Cxxxx