Hello Honey!

It’s Play Date Cafe day and we have some pretty, cheerful colours for you to play with…



I used the new PTI honeycomb stamps and dies and the butterfly is PTI too.  I LOVE popping out the inserts of these dies, they are soooo fun!



That graphic is gorgeous, isn’t it!

We have the fabulous Teri Anderson guesting with us today, I just LOVE her style, it’s so fun and happy!

This week we are being sponsored by Simon Says Stamp, for more details visit our main PDCC blog.

Pop over to the Cafe for all the deets and our DT line up, you will be impressed.

Gorgeous Colours Over At The Play Date Cafe!

Yay, it’s nearly the weekend!  I’m really ready for it, it’s been a full on week so far, but in a good way. 

It’s time for some luxurious colours at The Play Date Cafe this week, think rich, deep and exotic.  LOVE, LOVE, LOVE them (as Sav would say!)

Here is my interpretation of these beauties.. (sorry my photo of the card is a bit wonky, it is straight in real life..honest)

I’ve been doing a lot of cutesie lately so thought I would mix it up with a bit of elegance and this Skipping Stones butterfly came to mind.  Have I told you that this is one of my favourite images to colour?  (umm yes Ruby, toooo many times lol).. Well just in case I haven’t I will tell you now.. this IS one of my favourite things to colour!
I needed to get over my CAS single layer card from the other day and add some layers so this is layered up and up this time!

Here’s my step by step..

1. Mat card base with purple patterned paper
2. Mat again with a smaller piece of gold patterned paper
3. Die cut patterned paper with Button Boutique tag dies so that the bird cage pattern shows on the left, ink edges with distress ink
4. Tie twine around the label before attaching to card with pop dots
5. Die cut doiley in plum, attach directly to label
6. Stamp, colour and cut out butterfly, attach to card base using pop dots
7. Add gems to butterfly
8. Stamp sentiment, ink edges and attach to card to finish

Here is the gorgeous inspiration picture, the suggested colours are Burgundy-Gold-Plum.

We are being sponsored by Simon Says Stamp this week, so don’t forget to pop on over to the main blog to find out what the prize is and grab yourself a chair and a cuppa to peruse over all of the other DT projects for this week, they are all so inspiring.


Before I go though I thought I’d share my creative goals for 2012.  My friend Lisa Arana of dahlhouse designs created this lovely little graphic for me.  She matched my blog colours so well, didn’t she?  I LOVE it!  Thank you Lisa, you’re a sweetie.  She does the most amazing cards and creates watermarks too, you should pop by for a visit.  

I’m hoping this will keep me focused in the right direction.  It’s very easy to get distracted in this blogging world with so much inspiration everywhere you look!



Well I’d better go, it looks like I have a lot to get on with!

Ciao for now.

InLinkz.com

Summer Card Camp Week One & Lots of Catching Up!

Hello there everyone!

This is a long post so feel free to just look at the pictures lol.

I’m back today to share a few things with you, firstly a card that I’ve made for the Summer Card Camp being run by Jennifer McGuire and Kristina Werner.  It is so much fun!  The camp started on Monday and we were set a colour challenge, see pic below.  This card is for week one’s colour combo..




Using my Copic markers I coloured in some butterflies using the feathering technique where you blend two different colours together.  Kristina taught a technique for using 6 x 6 paper across a wide card so I thought as I had the same papers I would give it a go.  Such an easy technique and as she said it was one of those why didn’t I think of that moments!
I got to play with goodies from The Stamp Attic. The butterfly die and matching stamps from Prickley Pear are just GORGEOUS!  This is my set




There is also the set below that matches the die too, which is on my wish list.  I also LOVE this birdcage set.  YUMMY!



I have another card to share with you that got published in Through the Craftroom Door Magazine recently.  I thought I’d posted it but now realise I hadn’t.  Quite a simple card, I used Madeline Prima papers, oval nesties, a Pure Innocence digi and then some luscious pink ribbon to finish it all off.



The lovely Marie who’s on the DT with me over at Color Me Creative gave me this ‘sweet’ blog award!  Thank you Marie, that’s really sweet of you to think of me.



There are three things that you are supposed to do to accept this "Sweet" award.

• Thank the person who nominated you for this wonderful award and make a link to their blog…. check
• Name 7 random things about yourself …. see below… check
• Pass this award on to 8 wonderful cyber friends … hmmm a toughie!

I really have no idea who to pass this onto.  I have made so many wonderful blogging friends, but I would love to pass it to everyone that follows my blog.  It is such a treat seeing new people adding themselves as followers or to see that more people have subscribed to my feeds, it truly makes my day!  If it wasn’t that people read my blog I probably would have given up ages ago, so THANK YOU!!

Ok, so the promised 7 random things…

I hate the way I speak, I think I sound really common but others tell me I don’t

I dislike tins/packages being put in my cupboards the wrong way round.  They have labels on for a reason, so the labels should be showing lol

I am besotted with my little dog, Lulu, and take her with me wherever possible, I like teaching her new tricks when I can. She is very clever but cheeky with it, she still thinks she’s a puppy despite being three in September so we’re often chasing her around the house where she thinks it’s funny to run off with socks and slippers!

I love to visit cities. So far I’ve been to Dublin, Rome, Paris, Barcelona, and obviously living in the UK .. London, but I would love to visit more

I love 6 x 6 mini pads.  Wendy over at The Stamp Attic calls me the paper pad queen!

I love scented candles, there is nothing nicer than having an aroma of perfume in your home

I love making up fun words, like muchly, yumdiness, hambalambas (ham), lulloo (love you), that kind of thing.  Sad, but true!

Oh, one more thing before I go



Do you like reading?  Suzanne over at Color Me Creative is setting up a reading group soon,where reading and crafting come together!  She will be sharing all of the details soon, watch this space!

If you’ve signed up for Summer Card Camp I hope to see you over there.  I’m looking forward to seeing what this next week brings.  My favourite day so far was when Kristina taught us some graphic design principles… fascinating!!!!

Etsy Inspired Challenge #118

Hey there everyone, how are you all? Did you have a good weekend?

We went over to Winchester for a Christmas market, I just love the atmosphere there, it's wonderful. It was cold, but not so cold you don't enjoy it! We got most of our Christmas shopping done. I'm at the stage now that I think I'm nearly done, but I'm starting to wonder who I've forgotten! I hate that!!

Today's card is a bit of a break from Christmas!  Sometimes you need a bit of a break, don't you think!  I'm not Christmassed out yet though :)  When I saw the Etsy Shop that EIC were featuring I immediately thought of this beautiful patterned paper. It really does all of the talking for you!  What beautiful pieces, stunning!  These were the actual pieces that inspired this card.

Using an idea I got over from Lawn Fawn for circular cards I decided I'd make one.  This was so simple to make.  I just die cut two circles in cream, scored the back (see Lawn Fawn for details on that!) and then added a piece of patterned paper across 2/3 of the circle.  Before sticking that down I wrapped some turquoise ribbon around it, and then I added another 1/3 of patterned paper which I'd turned on its side for interest.  Finally I stamped celebrate, inked the edges and that was it. 

I had a fantastic parcel arrive in the mail yesterday.  As you may remember I had my very first card featured in Cards in July ..  and I had been waiting to see a copy of it in print, well it finally came in yesterday!  Wow, it felt absolutely great to see it in that magazine.  It's always been one of my favourite magazines for inspiration.  We used to be able to buy it over in the UK, but I can't seem to get it anywhere now :o(  I may have to order it from the US, but it takes so long to get things over here, and although I like online viewing there still is nothing quite like sitting with a mag in your hand, curled up on the sofa drinking a cuppa!

Well that's it from me today.  Happy cardmaking, Christmas shopping or whatever it is that you are doing!