Up in the air

Hello lovely people,

Gosh, Friday has rolled around again and so I am here as usual with a Dies to Die For DT card using one of my newest MFT acquisitions, from the April release.

Yep, I couldn't resist another stamp set featuring cute animals, this time combined with hot air balloons!

My little framed scene was coming along nicely until I realised I needed something as a sky background, which was a problem because I am not very confident at creating sky/clouds as a background.

After faffing around with some DP which didn't feel quite right, I finally conceded that I was just going to have to put on my big girl pants and colour a cloudy backdrop with my Copics - eeeeeek!!

I used some cloud dies as a template and after all that worry, I am actually pretty pleased with how it turned out :-)

As you can see, I added the foreground balloon with foam pads and I also stacked up the letters apart from the very bottom section which rests on the frame...yep, that was quite fiddly to do!

If I've tempted you with any of the lovely supplies I've used then you can go straight to the individual products via the thumbnails at the end of my post or just pop over to Dies to Die For and have a little browse around!

Thanks for visiting and I really appreciate any comments that you leave,

Copic colours;
Pink: RV83/85/19
Purple: BV01/04/08
Turquoise: BG53/57/49
Cat: W0/1/2/3/4

Lovely things I've used from Dies to Die For;

Up in the Air - My Favorite Things	Up in the Air Die-namics - My Favorite Things	Dots & Stripes (Confection) - My Favorite Things	Blueprints 29 - My Favorite Things
Stitched alphabet - My Favorite Things

InLinkz.com

LOTV Retro Girls

Hello lovely people,

Have you seen the super cool new Retro Girls images from LOTV yet?

Ok, you can't actually get your hands on them until 3rd April, but then they will be available as Simply Print sheets, digi images and pre-order of rubber stamps.

I finally grabbed a few hours to play with them and thought it would be fun to make a matching set using one of the pair from each decade.

I'm sharing the whole set at once because I do think they look good all together...and I'm too lazy to write 4 separate blog posts for them - lol!

1950s Bobby Socks
 (I think this is my fave of the whole collection)

1960s Hippy Chick

1970s Funky Flares

1980s Romantic Rock

A huge thank you to the fabulous Faye Wynn-Jones for inspiring the colour pop Copic colouring and CAS design of these cards :-)

Thanks for visiting and I really appreciate any comments that you leave,

Card recipe;

Black and white basics - My Favorite Things

Stitched hillside borders by Lawn Fawn

InLinkz.com

Copic colours;
Skin: W00/0/1
Hair: W1/3/5 and W3/5/7
All other grey sections: selection of W00/0/1/2/3/4/5/6/7
Pink: R81/83/85
Purple: BV000/V12/15
Green: YG01/23/25

Blue: B01/02/05/06

Flowers for a friend

Hello lovely people,

It's a doubly exciting Friday today as I have next week off work and I am sharing a card that I am really really pleased with, using some gorgeous new stash :-)

This is my Dies to Die For DT card this week so as usual you can find all the product links at the end of my post.

These floral stamps and dies were a big hit with quite a few of the DtDF DT and I have to say I was smitten too!  I tried stamping them in different colour inks on different colours of card and colouring with different mediums, and all versions looked lovely!

I had to pick just one though for my first card and decided to go with white heat embossing on Kraft with Copic colouring.

I was delighted when I found the perfect matching papers to use with the Kraft flowers and then even more so when I realised my new word dies would look lovely on here...it's fab when a card just comes together so nicely!

As you can see I got a little dimension in here too by layering some of the flowers on different heights of foam pads and stacking up 3 of each of the letters.

If I've tempted you with any of the lovely supplies I've used then you can go straight to the individual products via the thumbnails at the end of my post or just pop over to Dies to Die For and have a little browse around!

Thanks for visiting and I really appreciate any comments that you leave,

Copic colours;
Pink: R81/83/85
Aqua: BG11/13/15

Lovely things I've used;

Fancy flowers - My Favorite Things	Fancy flowers - My Favorite Things	Accomplished - Authentique	Words for friends - My Favorite Things
Happy Everything - Mama Elephant	Bazzill Kraft cardstock

InLinkz.com

Wheeeeeee!

Hello lovely people,

After the last couple of weekends catching up with family I am spending this weekend mostly in my craft room.  I popped out for a good long walk with Dr. Hubby and a friend yesterday and although it was super chilly, it was beautiful and always so lovely to be out and about in the gorgeous Gloucestershire countryside :-)

Today we have a new 'Use any image' challenge starting on The Ribbon Girl blog, so you can make any type of project as long as it has an image on it.

As usual, you can find details of all the gorgeous products from The Ribbon Girl at the end of my post.

I am totally in love with these pretty papers and they are such good value for money too.  I actually made this card a little bigger than normal because I didn't want to trim even a little off the edge of the gorgeous design of the bottom layer!

My brother's girlfriend has started cycling recently so I thought this image would be great to use for her birthday card.

I enjoy adding detail to my cards but in fairly small amounts so you will often find me snipping up embellishments to suit my tastes!

For this card I have cut the faux hessian in half to get a thin strip, and I snipped out individual pearl clusters from the full spray to tuck in with the flowers.

Do come along and join in with our challenge at The Ribbon Girl, where we have 3 fabulous prizes up for grabs from Lili of the Valley, The Ribbon Girl and Marianne Designs.

I hope you are all having fantastic weekends whatever you may be doing :-)

Thanks for visiting and I really appreciate any comments that you leave,

The Ribbon Girl products;
Craft and You 'Beautiful Day' 6x6 paper pad
25mm natural faux hessian
White cherry blossom
Miniature white blossoms
Ivory 10mm open roses
Pale pink 10mm open roses
Cream hip rosebuds
Pearl cluster flowers on silver stems

Other products;

Image: Pedal Power - Time for Tea

Other flowers: from stash

Sentiment: Teenage girl sentiments - LOTV (also available as digi stamps)

Copic colours;
Skin: E000/00/21/11/04 & R20
Hair: E53/57/59
Eyes: E44/57 & B0000/000
Hat / boots: BG93/96/99
Top: R000/00/01
Leggings: W2/3/4/5
Basket: E41/42/43/44
Flowers: R32/35
Leaves: BG90/93
Bike: W0/1/2/3/4/5/6
Ground: E40/41/42/43

Wee Cindy

Hello lovely people,

Today I will be in the Cotswold Water Park supporting my Dad as he undertakes his first Ironman distance triathlon...yep, my Dad is totally amazeballs :-)

While I am cheering on my Dad, I have my first official card as part of The Ribbon Girl DT to share with you for the new 'Any Image' challenge starting today.
I'm still grinning from ear to ear at being asked to join the team :-D

Here are the fabulous prizes on offer...

£10 voucher for LOTV

£10 voucher for The Ribbon Girl

Stamp and die from Marianne Designs

I have used some of my new Lemoncraft papers and let me tell you, they were almost left in the 'stroke only' pile because they are absolutely gorgeous!

Some are slightly more aqua-teal shades and some are a slightly lighter aqua-turquoise, which are the ones I chose for this card.

My tiny collection of Wee stamps is now doubled with the addition of this cutie and I know it won't stop there as I totally love them!

I feel slightly bad that I didn't give her sparkly wings but I liked how the spotty wings turned out and didn't want to risk covering it up with sparkle!  I guess I was being selfish - lol!

I really went to town with the pretty embellies for this card and I also used my new sentiment stamps and matching tags...LOVE these!

On top of the bow I added just one little section from the pearl trim; thanks to Debs for the tip about cutting the trim to make cute details!

I hope you are all having a lovely weekend whatever you are up to :-)

Thanks for visiting and I really appreciate any comments that you leave,

The Ribbon Girl products;
Forget-me-not 6x6" paper pad - Lemoncraft
25mm white 'Cheltenham' Guipure lace
Limoges blue seam binding
White cherry blossom
Cream hip rosebuds
Tiny white rosebuds
10mm white square pearl trim
Small butterfly charm
5mm sea charm mixed pearls
3mm white pearls

Other products;

Image: Cindy - Wee stamps for Whimsy stamps

Dies: Fancy flourish - MFT Die-namics, Mini tags - Mama Elephant

Sentiment: Mini messages - Mama Elephant
Gloss white Nuvo crystal drops
Other flowers: from stash
2mm white pearls: from stash

Copic colours;
Skin: E000/00/21/11/04 & R20
Hair: E21/25/29
Dress: B000/00/01/BG53
Darker bands on dress: BG09/57/53/B01
Wings: B0000/000/00/01/BG53
Flowers: B000/01/BG53
Envelope: W00/1/3

Pretty Jasmine

Hello lovely people,

Happy Monday everyone and the countdowns continue;

8 sleeps until the final exams for my prescribing course - eek!

10 sleeps until my next coffee and cake date with my lovely friends Sue and Debs

11 sleeps until beer festival

14 sleeps until holibobs

21 sleeps until my birthday

My countdown list seems to have grown a little bit and all of it apart from the first one is terribly exciting :-)
I promise I won't share that huge long list on every blog post - lol!

Back to the crafting, and today I have another of the gorgeous new Jasmine images from LOTV to share with you.

This card is to support the LOTV April card challenge which is running on facebook, where we want to see your creations using any 3 or more colours as inspired by the month of April, so that's Aqua, Pink, Red, Ivory and Lilac.

There are 5 absolutely amazing prizes on offer from LOTV plus a fabulous £10 gift voucher prize from The Ribbon Girl so plenty of incentive to join in with us!

Apart from red, these are some of my fave colours and I have gone for aqua, pink and ivory on my card.

I can't tell you how much I love this fab image and I know she's really aimed at the teenage girl market but honestly, this could just as easily be me!

I have used one of the new LOTV sentiments and popped it on a sweet little memo pin tucked in with the flowers.

Card recipe;

Image: Jasmine phone - LOTV

DP: Paris flea market and For Mother - Pion Design (available from Live and Love Crafts)

Flowers: Wild Orchid Crafts
Dies: 0357 border die - Joy!Crafts - Noor! Design
Ribbon: 7mm bridal white ivory satin ribbon - The Ribbon Girl

Sentiment: Teenage girl sentiments - LOTV
Memo pin: Mixed memo pins - The Ribbon Girl

Copic colours;
Skin: E000/00/21/11/04 & R20
Hair: E53/35/59
Hoodie / skirt: BG10/11/72
Skirt / shoes: R81/83/85
Phone: W0/2 & W5/7
Ground: W00/0/1/2/3/4

Don't forget to come and join in our LOTV April facebook challenge and you have until 6 p.m. on Sunday 17th to enter.

Thanks for visiting and I really appreciate any comments that you leave,

Triple layer flowers

Hello lovely people,

It's Creative Inspirations challenge time and we have the theme...

NATURE

Our sponsor this time is Petal Lu with an amazing offer of 30% off an order!

I really wanted to try out a new technique to me of triple layer stamping that I had seen in a recent card making magazine and since I didn't have a single large floral stamp, I used a selection of smaller flowers to make my design.

There were quite a few times in the making of this card I really wished I hadn't tried to do something new...

#1 - when the masking tape holding the layers together stuck too hard and nearly ripped my card

#2 - when I got a huge splat of Copic ink on the panels after colouring about 80% of the flowers  (yes, that's what the ribbon is hiding!)

#3 - when trying to line the panels back up after layering them onto the dark grey card

So, after all that I am not sure I like it, but I think that might just be down to the trauma of making it - lol!
It might grow on me!

And I do like the colouring with little dots of sparkle on the stamens...which is much better IRL than in the photos of course!

Card recipe;

Flowers: Spring flowers - Honey Doo Crafts plus tiny flower stamp from stash
Sentiment: Clearly Besotted

Ribbon: from stash
Sparkle: Stardust Stickles

Copic colours;
Pink flowers: R81/83/85
Purple flowers: BV000/01/04
Blue flowers: B21/23/26
Flower centres: W00/1

The DT have made some wonderful samples to inspire you so pop over to Creative Inspirations to take a look :-)

Thanks for visiting and I really appreciate any comments that you leave,

Lovely bubbly

Hello lovely people,

Brrrrr, it's a bit chilly here in the UK but at least yesterday the rain stopped and there was quite a bit of sunshine!

I thought I would be scraping the ice off the car before heading into the hospital today but amazingly there was no frost.
I am going in lots this week to try to build up the practice hours I need for my course.

While I am exercising my little grey cells (yes, both of them!), we have a new challenge for you at As You Like It and our theme this time is...

YOUR FAVOURITE...
Paper or non-paper project
...and don't forget to tell us why it's your favourite!

Our sponsor this time is Digi Stamp Boutique with a £10 voucher

It has to be paper for me as I don't do any non-paper crafts and I do love my pretty papers, especially the pink ones!
This design is pretty restrained on the paper front for me as I thought the image suited a clean modern look.

I am rather partial to some bubbly too and I think this pretty lady has the right idea with that HUGE glass!

Card recipe;

Image: Party Zara - Digi Stamp Boutique

DP: from stash

Twine: Natural button twine - The Ribbon Girl

Punch: Double dot - Martha Stewart
Charm: Daisy chain - The Hobby House

Sentiment: created with magazine freebie letter stamps

Copic colours;
Skin: E000/00/21/11/04 & R20
Hair: Y21/YR23/E15/E18
Eyeshadow: RV0000/000/32
Dress / flower / shoes: RV32/34/R56
Bottle: YG93/95/97/99
Bottle label: YR30/31 & Y26/28
Champagne: YR30/31
Ground: W00/0/1/2/3/4

I hope you will pop over to As You Like It and check out the fabulously creative projects from the rest of the team :-)

Thanks for visiting and I really appreciate any comments that you leave,

Triple slider card

Hello lovely people,

Here's some very exciting news (if you haven't already seen it on facebook!).....
I'm taking a career break from work for a whole year, starting now!

I have loads of plans but I'll fill you in another time because today is all about our new challenge at As You Like It and our theme this time is...

YOUR FAVOURITE DIE
...and don't forget to tell us why it's your favourite!

Our sponsor this time is the wonderful Bunny Zoe's Crafts

I love to try new fancy fold designs so today I am sharing my first triple slider design.

I saw instructions for this in a magazine and they seemed a little confusing when I first read them as there were very few pictures, but it turned out to be really easy :-)
I'm already planning a tutorial for this design to share with you another time!

And when you pull the little tab the smaller sections that are nested inside the bottom section pull out.

I chose to use my gorgeous new papers from Maja Design; all the pretty designs are great to mix and match and for die cutting co-ordinated flowers too!

I used my favourite die for a border detail; this die always seems to go with everything and was a bargain buy at a craft show...actually it's quite hard not to just use it on every single card I make!

I wanted to use the Happy Bears from LOTV as my Mum loves them and this was her birthday card...well, how could you not love this adorable little chap?!

The main limitation from a design point of view is that the top 2 sections have to be able to slide inside the next section down...so no 3D embellishments allowed!

I managed to get away with adding some teeny layered flowers and used liquid pearls for the centres as it's a little flatter than actual pearls but still looks so pretty.

Here's the little tab and flowers on the top section;

Card recipe;

Image: Happy Bears - LOTV

DP: Summer crush - Maja Design (available from Live and Love Crafts)

Twine: Ivory button twine - The Ribbon Girl

Tags: Sentiment tags - LOTV and Family sentiment tags - LOTV
Dies: Circle stax - MFT Die-namics, Perfect petioles - Memory Box, Old Swedish lace - Magnolia Doohickeys
Pearl dots: Viva pearl pen (white)

Copic colours;
Bear: E40/41/42/43
Light teal: B52/BG72
Dark teal: BG72/75
Pink: R20/32/22
Leaves: G21/24

Ground: W00/0/1/2/3

I hope you will pop over to As You Like It and check out the fabulously creative projects from the rest of the team :-)

Thanks for visiting and I really appreciate any comments that you leave,

Challenges I am entering;

The Ribbon Girl (add flowers)