A happy colour card!

NB: Please scroll down - 2 entries for the Crafty Cardmaker's Challenge (both tulips!)

Hi again

How was your weekend? We had a nice time, although the weather wasn't the best. It's pouring rain here today, and cold, brrr!  I've just heard that the North of England is due to get snow later this week. Oh no, not all that again!! It may not get down as far as us though, hopefully! I'm really SO over the snow now. I want the Spring and Summer to arrive, which is why I decided to make a happy card!

I wanted to make a spring card for the Crafty Cardmakers' Challenge #17 'Spring into Spring'.

This card was inspired by a design I saw in an old 'Cards' magazine, it's by Melanie Douthit, see below...  I fell in love with it when I saw it but for some reason I find pastels a bit of a challenge so went in my usual style for something a bit brighter.  Having based my card on her idea I popped over to her blog.  She makes some fab cards/LO's, you must go over and see! 

Now I'm not sure how it works when you enter challenges if you've been inspired by someone else, so I may even get kicked out.  Who'd have thought cardmaking could be such a risky business lol.  Let me know if there is some challenge etiquette that I'm not aware of, won't you!  I'm still quite a newbie really!

So,  just in case it is classed as cheating I thought I would make another spring card based on the one I did for PDCC the other week, and enter that one too.  I just need any excuse to use my loopy Martha Stewart punch, or do I?!  I'm trying to distract myself from eating chocolate, this girl is in need, and nothing stops the urge like creating. Chocolate makes such a mess of your cards!! ... not that I'd know that of course!

On the subject of creating and things that make you happy, don't forget to play along with the Play Date Cafe Challenge this week, there's still time!  There are some great entries, so put the kettle on, grab yourself a cuppa and get creating!

You never know, YOU could be one of

The Fab 4
The Cream in our Coffee
or
THE CUP of the WEEK

Have fun!

Eggstra Fun!

Hi everyone!

How has your week been?  Mine has been tiring, but I've achieved a lot.  I'm really ready for the weekend.  We are over at some of our good friends for lunch tomorrow.  It will be nice to chill out and catch up with them, whiling away a lazy Saturday afternoon.  Lovely!

NB: Please scroll down for Card Patterns #56 & Daring Cardmakers 'how egg-citing' entry...

I made my first card for the CPS Challenge Sketch #159.   This flower was crying out to be cut on my Cricut machine, isn't that die cut sooo similar to the sketch?!  I just couldn't resist.  This card came together really quickly, that is until I stamped the sentiment.  Well how that little stamp didn't end up being thrown out of the window I have no idea.  It was the naughtiest stamp in my collection!  Firstly, it kept missing different areas of the sentiment, so I would restamp it using my stamp-a-ma-jig only to find either I had double vision or I was drunk on something because I had double imaging!!  So, you're probably thinking to yourself she obviously doesn't know how to use it, but I never have problems with any of my other stamps, just this naughty one!

Ok, so I moved to a different work surface in case the one I was using wasn't quite level.   Great!  That worked!  However... I then had forgotten that what I thought was quick drying ink wasn't so having spent about 30 minutes faffing around getting the sentiment exactly as I wanted it I then managed to smudge it and have to start all over again!  It must have taken me about 30 attempts at stamping the image before I got it right, but I was determined that card was going to have that stamp, I wouldn't be beaten by it lol.  I just hope you all think it was worth the effort now lol.

1. Cut terracotta rectangle in Bazzill, adhere to card base
2. Cut out two more rectangles, one in teal, the other in Basic Grey patterned paper
3. Layer as above
4. Cut out a piece of Papermania cardstock and attach to back of layered panel leaving the little scallops to show as the border
5. Cut flower using shadow and standard settings, stick together, embellish with swarowski crystals
6. Stamp (once if you're lucky!) the sentiment onto cream cardstock, adhere to a larger teal rectangle, pop dot onto card
7. Breathe a sigh of relief that you managed to finally get it stamped without any issues, and be proud of yourself for hanging on in there!

The second card I am about to share with you is quite different from my normal cards, but I had some little felt bunnies and fancied playing around with something a bit more modern.  As soon as I saw the Card Patterns Sketch #56 I knew that I wanted to use this little hilly paper with an egg, and my little bunnies. I'm also entering this into the Daring Cardmaker's 'how egg-citing' challenge where the theme is to make a card with eggs on.

1. Cut out a square of Cosmo Cricket paper, cutting the top to resemble little hills, distress edges, stick to card base
2. Using oval nestie cut out egg shape, add a bow.  Distress, pop dot and attach to hills
3. Add cute little felt rabbit with pop dots
4. Print out the words 'happy easter' using 'Sybil Green' font (size 24)
5. Finish off by adding a prima flower with double buttons

This card actually achieved one of my little cardmaking goals, to do those little cut out letters that I keep seeing all over the place.  Finally, I did them :o)  I'm not sure if I actually like this card to be honest, but sometimes it's good to try different things.  I always want to make my cards more fun and funky, but I guess that's just not my style, and that's ok :o)  Aside from that though I actually had fun putting it all together.

That's it from me for today.  I'm hoping to make a few cards over the weekend that I can share with you.  Don't forget to check out Play Date Cafe's latest challenge.   I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with for the challenge this week!

Have a fab weekend!  ♥

Love Bug

Hi everyone!  I am hoping that my scheduled post works tonight again, I always have everything crossed when I do them! So far, so good!

Today you get to play along with the new Play Date Cafe Challenge.  This week's challenge definately made me work my brain but I loved it!  Here is my card for this week ...

I'm not sure if you can see in the picture but there is a little stamp in the centre of the flower that says 'par avion'.  I LOVE that stamp, it's SO cute.  I've had it for years and never known what to do with it.  Isn't it fun shopping in old supplies?  I think this might fit in with Julie's 'BOO' as she calls it.  Pop on over to her blog to see what she means when she says 'BOO'.  I am definately a fan of 'BOO-ing'!! You'll also get lots of inspiration over there too!

Here is the pic for you ..

Isn't this one fun?!  I came up with lots of different options before settling for my final card.  Sometimes having too many options is worse than having none at all!!  I couldn't quite get the same red, so had to go as near as I had.

Now, I'm only a novice with my Copics, so be kind to me!!  I am trying to teach myself.  The trouble is when I first stamped cards I used Tombo blending pens and I still want to colour with the Copics in the same way that I used to do with the Tombos, but they don't quite work like that.  I'm slowly getting there.  They say practice makes perfect.  Fingers crossed!!

Speaking of crossed.. Have any of you had any Hot Cross Buns yet this year?  I'm not sure if I've told you all before but I'm a coeliac so can't eat wheat or gluten.  Well, I came across some wheat and gluten free Hot Cross Buns.  How cool is that?!!  I haven't been able to eat them for years.  Divine!!

Here are the details for making my card;

1. Don't spend as much time as me trying different options, go with your first one!  That's what worked for me lol
2. Cut a piece of patterned paper, tie on polka dot ribbon before adhering to white card base
3. Cut out a circle in white cardstock and a scallop in red
4. Stamp the image and colour (hopefully better than I have) 
5. Once you are happy with the placement of the image cut along the bottom under the wheels
6. Cut a wonky red strip, and adhere to scalloped image some white letters spelling out 'miss you'
7. Attach completed image in scallop with pop dots
8. Stick two flowers together to make a layered flower, and add stamped 'par avion' label

Dies: Sizzix 'Circle #1', 'Scallop' and 'The Ginchiest' alphabet set
Stamps: Stamping Bella - Huggabug - Love Beetle, Hero Arts 'French Postage'
Paper: Red, blue and white Bazzill cardstock, Piggy Tales - 'Jack & Jill Collection - Pail of Water'
Inks: Nick Bantock 'Lamp Black' ink
Accessories:  East of India polka dot ribbon, Craftwork Cards 'Best of British' flowers, Sakura glitter pen, SU! Stamp-a-ma-jig
Copics: B00, B32, BG10, BV13, BV23, C-3, C-5, C-7, E11, E31, E33, E35, E47, E51 R27, R59, RV29, RV42, Y02, Y08, 100

Don't forget to hop on over to the other designers' blogs, leave some lurve and check out the talent!

Julie Ranae (Senior DT)

Mona Pendleton (Senior DT)

Sarah Anderson (Senior DT)

Lisa Somerville

Savannah O'Gwynn

Stephanie Kraft

Suzanne Czosek

and of course our special Guest Designer for March, Jean Franks Beck  over at Bluebird Paperie.


I love seeing what ideas everyone comes up with, it's such a nice surprise!  Have fun, and don't forget to tell all your friends about our challenge, the more the merrier!!

I'm off to my bed now, sweet dreams!

Terracotta Butterflies

Hey there

How is your week going? It's been busy here so far, but we're halfway to the weekend now so I get to create and play more then, yay!

Here is a card that I made for the Clean and Simple Challenge FTL #83 this week. I have had my eye on this paper for AGES, but whenever I've tried to do something with it the card has looked a little bit too busy, if you know what I mean. So using the clean and simple challenge this week I decided to just cut the butterflies out and add them to a card.

I'm not sure if you can see, but I embossed the black behind the panel.  It needed a bit more oomph!

1. Cut out black card for base and emboss using Sizzix embossing plate (this is the one that came with the machine so I'm not sure what it's called), adhere to white card stock base
2. Cut out a terracotta rectangle, and a smaller white rectangle.
3. Stamp the sentiment on the white rectangle, add a couple of K & Co stamped butterflies to finish and layer as shown above.
3. Cut out a strip using the Martha Stewart border punch, attach to terracotta border before pop dotting the panel and adhering to the card
5. 'Fussy cut' three butterflies from Basic Grey paper, pop dot two on the top panel, stick the third one directly onto the black card, attach gems to give it a bit of bling!

Dies: Sizzix (purple) embossing folder
Stamps: K & Co Amy Butler Lotus Greeting Stamps (butterfly and sentiment)
Paper:Basic Grey 'Ambrosia - Winsome', terracotta, black and white Bazzill cardstock
Accessories: Martha Stewart doily lace punch, swarowski gems

I just went over to get the links for the card at CAS, and noticed that my card is similar to Heather Pulverenti's.  I remember seeing it once when I first saw the design, but must have subliminally picked up her idea of butterflies and 'thinking of you' sentiment.  Oops, sorry Heather, I didn't do that intentionally!!  It's only now I've come to post it that I've realised.  Do any of you do that?  Sometimes I look through SO many images (usually when I've got a bit behind in my Google Reader!) that I end up combining ideas without even realising.  Isn't the power of the mind scary?!  That's why I try not to watch all of those chocolate adverts that come on between breaks on TV, I then have an obsession with whatever chocolate it is they are advertising and want to rush out and buy it lol.

That's it from me for today.  I do have a few more cards to share, so will be popping back soon when I can squeeze in five minutes!  I will also be sharing my new card for this week's Play Date Cafe Challenge.  Don't forget to play along!

Birthday Wishes

Hey there everyone, it's the weekend!!

I have a very quick card to share with you tonight as I hadn't realised how late it was and really need to get some beauty sleep.  It takes a lot of sleep to look this good you know lol

Here's the card....

I made this for the Card Patterns Sketch #55 Challenge, using my nesties, Amy Butler paper and stamps, and swarowski gems to finish.  Hope you like it.  I tweaked the sketch a little as you can see.  I get a bit carried away and forget what I'm supposed to be working to sometimes lol.  Just hopping over there now to post it, I'm nearly at the deadline for entering!   Back with some more over the weekend.

Sweet dreams, or enjoy the rest of your day depending on where you are!  I'm off to dream up lots of new card ideas...hopefully!

Spring might just be here....

Well, on this card it is anyway!

Today is my first official posting for the Play Date Cafe Challenge blog. You want to see the amazing talent from the rest of the team. Their cards are FAB!  The Color Challenge this week, #21, has been set by Mona;

Here is my take on it...

I thought I would find this challenge a bit tricky with it being pinks, but this all came together pretty quickly.  It needed a bit of tweaking but I am quite pleased with the results.  I really like the wording of the sentiment tag because you could use it for so many different things; just to say hello, for birthdays, any celebratory things really.  It's a fun font too :o)

Enough about that though, what do you think of that loopy edging?!  I am totally in LOVE with this new MS Punch Around The Page hole punch.  You need two punches for it, the corner punch and then another one to join the edges.  I named this card 'Loopy Flower' and got the comment, 'that just about sums you up {giggle}' (From Ian!!)  Charming, lol.


Here are the deets of how I made it:

1. Cut a square in medium pink patterned paper
2. Have a fab time playing with your 'Punch Around the Page' hole punches to cut out the yellow loopy square!
3. Cut out a smaller square in lighter pink patterned paper
4. Cut out a Sizzix circle in yellow butterfly paper
5. Distress the edges of the circle
6. Adhere all layers and then add the chipboard flower to centre of circle
7. Embellish with a chipboard bee
8. Add sentiment die cut

Dies: Sizzix 'Circle #1'
Paper: Lemon Bazzill cardstock, Basic Grey  Urban Prairie 6 x 6 papers
Inks: Tim Holtz distress ink - 'Worn Lipstick'
Accessories:  Basic Grey Urban Prairie chipboard shapes, Craftwork Cards die cut sentiment labels

Now, you must go over and check out the rest of the design team's blogs, not just for this challenge, but for all of their creations....

Lisa Somerville
Savannah O'Gwynn
Sarah Anderson
Stephanie Kraft
Mona Pendleton
Suzanne Czosek
Julie Ranae

Don't forget to join in!  The colours are great to get you into Spring mode.  Let's put that Winter behind us and think happy Spring thoughts! :o)

Communications burnout!

Hi there everyone, warning this is a longer post than normal as I'm playing catch up.

Well, the last few days have been madness!  Our land line sounded like we have aliens calling on it, my desktop pc's hard drive completely died, losing me over a month's worth of data, grrr, and our dishwasher decided that it prefers to wash dishes with cold water lol.  They say it comes in threes, well this time they (whoever they are!) are right.  Don't you think it's funny how we refer to this unknown group of people as 'they'.  That always makes me smile.

Anyway, onto a card....

I made this card for the Friday Sketchers #93 challenge.  I rummaged around my studio for some of my favourite papers of the moment.  I actually have three favourites at the moment... My Amy Butler Faded China papers, which I've shown here a few times, my K & Co Cara Marie pad and my Cosmo Cricket Early Bird Papers.  Yummy!  What are your favourite papers at the moment??

I really enjoyed making this card.  The ideas came together quite quickly and I got to use my favourite SU! stripey ribbon.  I've just bought the pumpkin pie, olive green and chocolate chip versions to add to my basic black, so I'm sure you will be seeing a lot more of these.

1. Cut out two rectangles using patterned paper, rounding opposite corners to add detail
2. Cut out label in white and dark pink using Storybook Cartridge
3. Cut two lines either side of the label using Basic Grey's Notch and Die tool
4. Stamp sentiment and decorative border onto centre of white label.
5. Thread SU! ribbon through and behind the label, cut into arrow shapes either side (is there a technical name for this?! lol)
6. Fussy cut (love this phrase - I've ended up using it myself thanks to Heidi Van Laar!!) a flower and attach to bottom left of frame
7. Pop dot for dimension

(by the way you should check out Heidi's blog, her work is amazing!!)

It was Mother's Day over here in the UK yesterday so I made this card for my special Marmie (Mum)!  I thought I would stamp some flowers for her, for a change.  I'm actually quite getting into this stamping now :o)  I think it's helped doing the challenges on the Clean and Simple Stamping blog, because it has the word stamping in the title I know I have to come up with some kind of stamping lol.  This card is for the FTL #82. 

I'm not sure my card actually was that simple, but then I am just getting back into the stamping, so it does take me a bit longer.  I was quite pleased with this one.  I have had the little wildflower stamps for a few years now so thought I would give them a dust off.  The long stems on the flowers in the FTL picture gave me the idea to use them.

1. Cut a rectangular piece of patterened paper and attach to card base
2. Stamp three flowers on right hand side of cardstock, colour with copics
3. Sponge edges and around floral images leaving some white space in the middle
4. Stamp little dragonflies around flowers
5. Attach a ribbon around the bottom edge of the stamped panel
6. Punch a strip and attach to the bottom edge
7. Stamp a sentiment in two different colours
8. Pop dot stamped panel to the main card to finish

I had a lovely Mother's day.  We went out with my little princess, Natasha, Ian and my Marmie for lunch.  Natasha bought me this FAB-U-LOUS Storybook Cartridge for my Cricut machine ...

and this set of rubber stamps - Woodware Clear Magic ...

and this Betty Boo mini ornament..

and Marmie bought me this letter 'R' one plus a couple of other goodies that are lovely to me, but not that interesting to you guys.. (I bet you want to know what they are now lol ;o)  It's odd that my Marmie buys me presents for Mother's Day, I know, but she always has.

They know me well.  I LOVE Betty Boop!  I have a few ornaments dotted around the house.  

Well, I'm signing off now, hope to be able to share a few more cards with you over the next few days.  Don't forget to enter the Play Date Cafe Challenge, there's still time :o) 

Play Date Cafe Challenge Blog Hop, Challenge and some REALLY exciting news!!!!! :o)

Hi everyone

I have some REALLY exciting news to share with you today. I recently applied for the design team role over at Play Date Cafe and I am now on their design team!!! I am SOOOOOO excited. I did a little happy wiggle dance when I heard! I've been bursting to tell you all, but we had to wait until the announcements have been made.  One of my New Year resolutions was to get more active with my blogging and start applying for some DT roles.  I never thought it would happen this quickly!  Yay!!

The Play Date Cafe set weekly colour challenges.  Now as you know I do enjoy my sketches, but this is a great way for me (and you) to push your boundaries and start to explore new colour combinations.  I can't wait to start playing!!

Anyway, as the Play Date Cafe begins a new season of designers, they also say goodbye to Julie Campbell, who has been on their design team for the past 4 months.  To celebrate Julie's achievements and the new design team, (yes I know, I'm on it... woohoo!!!) they are having a BLOG HOP!  This is what you can win..

Isn't that a fabby prize?!!!  I am really into these fancy frames at the minute.  So to get started, you need to begin from The Cafe.

If you came here from Stephanie Kraft's blog, then you are in the right place.

There are THREE ways to give you the best chance to win:

1. You must stop at each designer's blog AND leave a comment
(this point is a requirement in order for a chance to win)

There are ONLY 9 in total and all you have to do is click on the name!

2. Become a follower of The Play Date Cafe...easy-peasy!

3. Play along with this week's color challenge. 

All the details on how to play are on the sidebar in The Cafe.

The winner will be chosen by random.org.

The deadline is 11:59pm EST on 3/16.  The lucky winner will be announced 3/18 as part of the regular challenge post.

This week's challenge is to create something using this picture as inspiration

I LOVE this picture, not just because of the colours, but because it conjures up 'me' time.  It makes me think of sitting in a relaxing candlelit bath, with a good book and a glass of wine... Mmm, I must do that this weekend (well it is going to be Mother's Day on Sunday, so it's the perfect opportunity!!)

I rarely work with pale colours so this was a good start for me to think in different colours than my normal brights.  Here is what I came up with...

... and here's how I made it

1. Round all corners of the card base
2. Cut a piece of patterned paper, round the corners and adhere to the card base
3. Cut a white flourish using the Sizzix 'Decorative Accent w/flower' cutter, adhere to the green patterned paper
4. Cut  'Flower 1' in black on Accent Blackout setting, using the Cricut 'Storybook' Cartridge
5. Cut 'Flower 1' in lilac Bazzill Bling on standard setting, using the Cricut 'Storybook' Cartridge, adhere to the black background and then pop dot
6. Stamp the sentiment in the bottom right hand corner
7. Add purple and pearl gems to finish

Dies: Sizzix 'Decorative Accent w/flower', Cricut Storybook cartridge
Paper: Lilac Bazzill Bling Cardstock, black cardstock, Prima Marketing - Angelique Collection - 'Angel Kisses'
Stamps: PSX 'Happy Anniversary'
Accessories:  Adhesive gems

I am truly honoured to be working with such a great design team, we all have quite different styles and I'm really looking forward to seeing what everyone comes up with for each challenge.   Thank you to all at Play Date Cafe for the opportunity you have given me in joining the team!

The other members of the DT have some fab creations, don't forget to check them out...

Julie Campbell
Lisa Somerville
Savannah O'Gwynn
Sarah Anderson
Stephanie Kraft
Ruby 2 Shoes (that's me!)
Mona Pendleton
Suzanne Czosek
Julie Ranae

So pop along for the chance to win, and join in the weekly challenge.  You never know you might start using colours you had never even thought of putting together!  Have fun!

Hello again!

I'm trying to catch up on my postings :o)

I've got a birthday card to share with you today. I bought this paper a long time ago, but I just love it. I've been trying to work out what flower to put with it and then came across one of my cutters that I thought might do it justice!

I made the card using this Mojo Monday Week 128 sketch, but because it was a busy weekend with family staying I never got around to posting it.











I will leave you with the deets...

Dies: Sizzix 'Flower Daisy #3', circle and scallop circle nesties
Stamps: Kanban Clear Stamps - 'Happy Birthday, butterfly
Paper: Purple and blue Bazzill Cardstock, Basic Grey 'Wysteria - Garden Patio'
Accessories: Papermania pearl adhesive gems from stash, purple inkpad


Have a lovely day/evening. 

You'd better sit down...I stamped a card!!!

Have you recovered from the shock yet?!  I stamped a card, and I'm actually quite pleased with how it turned out for once!  If you have only just come across my blog you may not have known that I am only just starting to get back into my stamping, and when I do stamp it has tended to be still using my die cutters but adding little stamped sentiments.  I have been trying to get my head around the fact that stamping can actually look modern.  I guess it's me showing my age, where I started out stamping so young lol.  I thought I'd push the boat out this time and stamp a bit more for a change!!

Now, this card is like one of those optical illusions, is it straight or not?  lol.  Actually it is, but you do have to look twice just to make your mind up!  The sketch is from Card Patterns #54.  The plan was to use some string or something along the right hand side, but it didn't look right so I ended up leaving it off.  I have also used a bit of artistic licence too. The flower is now my little sentiment label and as you can see on the opposite side to where it's meant to be!

1. Cut Basic Grey 'wide tie' paper to fit front of white card, rounding all corners, adhere to card
2. Cut out two rectangles, one in blue cardstock, the other in Basic Grey 'skinny jeans' paper
3. Adhere to card at angles as shown
3. Stamp outline tree on white cardstock and a solid stamped tree on a separate piece of dimpled cardstock
4. Distress edges using Tim Holtz inkpad (using dimpled cardstock for this helps to achieve the mottled effect)
4. Cut around solid stamped tree and pop dot partly over the outlined tree
5. Stamp the sentiment on a piece of blue cardstock, cut off edges into banner shape and adhere to the card


Stamps: Kanban Clear Stamps - 'Spring Silhouette'
Paper: Bazzill Cardstock, Basic Grey 'Boxer' - 'Wide Tie' & 'Skinny Jeans'
Accessories:  Tim Holtz 'Broken China' distress ink

Have a lovely evening!  I'm off to watch a very dated 'Babylon 5' with Ian.  He got the series for Christmas and we are slowly watching about 100 episodes of it lol.  It's terrible sci-fi acting, but worth a giggle!!

Happy Hump Day!

Hi there

Happy Hump Day! ...When I first started blogging I wondered what on earth this 'hump day' was all about so I googled it.  This is one definition that came up... 'The middle of a work week (Wednesday); used in the context of climbing a proverbial hill to get through a tough week'. I'd never heard of it, but it's funny how just by blogging a) you learn loads of new things, and b) you end up picking up some of the lingo of either the blogging world, or just other countries' phrases in general.  Blogging seems to have a whole new language of its own!

Today I'd like to share a card that I made for the Clean and Simple FTL challenge here, only to find that in my usual style it had no stamping on it at all, and the Get Sketchy #38 make a Spring themed card challenge, however if it wasn't for the challenges I wouldn't have been inspired to make this so all credit goes to them!  Well actually it does have the sentiment stamped, which is mostly what I do when entering stamping challenges, although I have got a bit better, don't you think?

This card was a lot of fun to make.  What do you think of my new flower die cutter.  Isn't it GORGEOUS?!  As soon as I saw it I knew I 'needed' it.  (Read the word 'need' in the same way as you know you 'need' new shoes or a new handbag!)

What I love about this card is that fun little spotty brad, and the bright colours.  How cute is that?!

This card came together quite quickly because the paper is double sided and so colourful.

I just wanted to say that if you have left me a comment and I haven't responded it's probably because it hasn't come through to my e-mail account.  I have been having a bit of a hit and miss service with my e-mail so am only noticing more recent comments on postings to which I have replied.  I always try to reply to each and every comment as soon as time permits.  I value the time taken by you to add your comments, and they mean an awful lot to me.  (You only have to ask Ian, I get really excited when someone leaves me a comment.  The poor man thinks I'm totally nuts!)

I will probably be a bit quiet over the next few days because Ian's parents are visiting, and much as I will be itching to create cards I don't know that it would be the most polite thing to do when we have family here!!   As soon as I can I will be back blogging/posting again.

The promised card and an environmental question!

Hi there

I didn't think I would have enough time, but thought I would take a quick five minutes to get it posted.  I cannot believe how fast the last few days have gone by. Is it really almost a week since I last posted? Sorry about that, it's been a very busy one.

Here is a card that I made for the sketch over at Clean and Simple Stamping, FTL #80.

For this card I used some of Amy Butler's recycled papers.  I love these patterns, but the paper was quite flimsy to work with.  Have any of you used recycled patterned paper before?  What did you think of it?  I was quite disappointed with how it felt when I used it, although I have to say it looks nice once it's stuck down so it begs the question whether it makes any difference!

Do you ever ask yourself about the environmental side of things with card making?  I do think about it and try to re-use product/bits and pieces where I can, but I also find it impossible to resist new papers and coloured cardstock so never quite get an answer that I'm completely happy with.  I'd love to know what you think about it all.

I had a happy accident with this card :o)  Just before I started to make it I had stamped out another image in a rose coloured ink that is supposed to be fast drying, but TOTALLY isn't!  I thought I would stamp it, and allow it to dry while making this one.  Anyway, when I was distressing the label I used an old scrap piece of card that hadn't quite worked.   As I was rubbing my pad over the label I picked up some of the rose ink from the pre-stamped image as well as the green distressing ink, giving it a different hue.  I was really pleased with the effect I got.

Here are the details of the card for you...

1. Cut Amy Butler paper, round top and bottom right hand corners, adhere to right of card
2. Cut out a strip of coral cardstock, round top and bottom left hand corners
3. Emboss coral strip through Cuttlebug folder
4. Wrap stripey ribbon around the strip, tie in a knot and adhere to the left of the card
5. Stamp the image onto white cardstock, distress using green distress ink pad
6. Add pearls to the stamped image
7. Hand write sentiment and pop dot onto the card to finish

Dies: Cuttlebug 'Textile Texture' embossing folder
Stamps: Pink Paislee 'Office Lingo'
Paper: K & Co Amy Butler Lotus Tea Box Water Lotus
Accessories: Papermania adhesive pearls, Tim Holtz 'Shabby Shutters' distress ink, Basic Black Grosgrain ribbon by SU! (plus accidental use of Brilliance 'Pearlescent Poppy' ink!)

There's still time to enter the Fall to Layout Challenge.  Why don't you join in?! 

Will Post Tomorrow!

Hi everyone

Sorry I haven't posted, it's been a busy few days. I will post something tomorrow for you.

Have a good day/evening! :o)