CAS congratulations

Hello lovely people,

I hope you are all having a lovely weekend and of course, the big question is.... have you had any snow?
We haven't and to be honest, I am fine with that as I really hate driving in it.
We are off skiing in 3 weeks so I can wait until then for my fix of snow!

I have something a little different to my usual style to share with you today using a lovely big sentiment stamp as the focal point.

The larger flower layers are cut on my Cricut from some text paper and I only glued the die cut stems and hearts down underneath the flower so they pop up a bit and add some dimension.

Card recipe;

Text stamp: Statements: Congratulations - LOTV

DP: You & me: all my heart - Elle's Studio
Die cut flower layers: cut with Cricut

Rose: Wild Orchid Crafts

Dies: Lavish branch - Memory Box, Heart stems - Impression Obsession

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

Challenges I am entering;
1.  Simon Says Stamp (anything goes)
2.  Cute Card Thursday (stamping mad)
3.  Sweet Stampin' (love)

Tilda with hearts

Hello lovely people,

I always enjoy my Wednesdays off work and usually manage quite a bit of crafty time.

Today the mood took me to do a CAS design and practice my colouring, plus with Valentine's Day coming up I thought I'd do a little love-themed card.

I stretched myself a bit with this image since I really haven't mastered wavy/curly hair yet...ok, I know, that's what practice is for!

Card recipe;

Image: Love love love Tilda - Magnolia Rubberstamps

Twine: The Ribbon Girl

Tag: Sentiment tags - LOTV
Wooden heart button: from stash
Pearl dots round image: Viva pearl pen

Copic colours;
Skin: E000/00/21/11/04 & R20
Hair: E21/25/29
Dress: R24/27/46/39
Shoes / dress waistband: T6/7/10/100
Lace at bottom of dress: T0/2/4
Hearts: R39/59

Ground: T0/1/2/3/4

To complete my fabulous day today I met up with a lovely lady (Debs) who recently joined the In The Pink DT and it turns out we live in the same village!
We had a chat over coffee and cake - perfect :-)

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

Challenges I am entering;
1.  Marvellous Magnolia (love)
2.  Papertake Weekly (Take your pick - warm colours (red) and buttons)
3.  Midweek Magnolias (Valentine/romance/love)
4.  ABC (buttons and bows)
5.  Tilda's Town (be mine valentine)

Tilda with flowers

Hello lovely people,

It's time for a new challenge at In The Pink and our theme this time is...

PINK AND PEARLIE

We are also delighted that The Ribbon Girl are going to be sponsoring some of our challenges this year

So this week we have a £10 voucher to give away to one lucky person :-)

I came over all distressed for today's card but without inking any of the edges.
This is the first time I have matted my image panel onto white and I really like the subtle effect.

I don't have too many Magnolia stamps (yet!) so you have probably seen me use this one before but I did find a nice new pink combo as I wanted to keep the tones quite pale.

I love adding little pearl dots to the flower bunch on this image :-)

I was very excited to finally get my hands on the Magnolia heart swirl die that I have wanted for absolutely ages; I have cut it into small sections to tuck under the flowers here.

I also added a few more scattered pearls around the flowers clusters.

Here's a shot to show my little ribbon/flower/swirl cluster plus some cute little rosebuds that I haven't used before... but will be using a lot more I think!

Card recipe;

Image: For you Tilda - Magnolia stamps

DP: Sofiero (limited edition) - Maja Design (available from Live and Love Crafts)

Flowers: Wild Orchid Crafts

Seam binding: Rose quartz - Crafty Ribbons

Dies: heart swirl and heart flower lace - Magnolia Doohickey

Sentiment: mini clear stamp set - Kaisercraft

Copic colours;
Skin: E000/00/21/11/04 & R20
Hair: E41/43/44
Dungarees / flowers: RV91/R81/83
Top / lace: C00/N0/1/2
Shoes: E40/41/42/43
Leaves: G40/YG61/63

If you haven't already done so then do pop over to In The Pink and check out the pretty creations from the rest of the Pink Ladies... including our TWO new Pink Ladies!

Yes, we have some new teamies and I know you'll love their work so please do go and give them a warm welcome :-)

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

Challenges I am playing along with;

1.  Marvellous Magnolia (anything goes)

2.  Midweek Magnolias (new stash)

3.  Fussy and Fancy (pearls and swirls)

4.  The Ribbon Girl (colour challenge - pink)

Something new

Hello lovely people,

It's time for a new challenge at Top Tip Tuesday and our theme this time is...

SOMETHING NEW

Think along the lines of new baby/new home/new job/newly-weds etc. or some new stash or a new technique... there are loads of possibilities!

We are very kindly sponsored by...
Hannah Lynn

with a $10 coupon code

I decided to make a wedding card and as you will see below used a bit of new stash as well.

The cute image qualifies as new stash even though I have had it for a while as this is the first time it has seen ink!

This came out so romantic with the flowers, lace and petty papers don't you think?

This gorgeous metal heart is also new stash and I was happy to find a way to use it that didn't really hide any of it!

Card recipe;

Image: Over the threshold - LOTV

DP: Vintage autumn basics - Maja Design (available from Live and Love Crafts)

Flowers: Wild Orchid Crafts

Twine: Ivory button twine - The Ribbon Girl
Lace: 'Faye' - The Ribbon Girl
Metal heart: Love heart clips - Live and Love Crafts

Tag: Sentiment tags - LOTV

Copic colours;
Skin: E000/00/21/11/04 & R20
Hair: E23/25/27
Dress: YR30/E41/blender
Hat / jacket: W7/8/10
Trousers: W5/6/7
Ribbons / hat band: RV93/95/R56
Flowers: RV91/93/95
Leaves: YG61/63
Ground: W00/0/1/2/3/4

I hope you will pop over to Top Tip Tuesday and check out the fabulously creative projects from the rest of the team and an awesome tutorial on creating paper ruffles :-)

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

Challenges I am entering;
1. Bunny Zoe's Crafts (hearts)
2.  Noor! Design UK (with love)
3.  Inky Chicks (anything goes)
4.  Fab 'n' Funky (something new)
5.  Winter Wonderland (show us your metal)

Game on!

Hello lovely people,

I hope you are all having a lovely weekend.  I am having my favourite kind of weekend - a crafty one!  Today I have restarted my Kit & Clowder colouring lessons; I just kept running out of time for them last year so this is the year to get it done!

Now, what's your favourite kind of card to make?

I have lots (mostly involving pink!) but I can tell you what it isn't and that's cards for men, or even worse, teenage boys - eek!

So, I dragged myself out of my comfort zone for this one and you know, well, I don't hate it!

I have to say the image really did all the work on this card as it's so fab and would suit many teenage boys!  Or quite a few adults too I reckon!

I'm off out tonight for the Caterham Seven Club Christmas dinner...yes, you read that right but we do like to be different!
And in case you don't know what a Caterham Seven is...

This was taken on a weekend away in Torquay with the club in September last year.
Our car is the further away green one and that's me in the cream fleece with Dr. Hubby just behind me.

Thanks for stopping by and for any comments you leave; it's so nice to hear from you :-)

Challenges I am playing along with;
1.  Simon Says Stamp (It's a guy thing)
2.  Sweet Stampin' (masculine)
3.  Papertake Weekly (It's all new - new digi image)
4.  Fab 'n' Funky (something new)

Tri-shutter Tilda card

Hello lovely people,

Not long before Christmas some good friends got engaged and moved in together.  So, with a Christmas card as well, that would be 3 cards to make for them.  But maybe there was a way to combine it all into one card?

Enter the tri-shutter card with space for 3 different images :-)

 The only down side to this was that with all the Christmas prep going on I really didn't have time to colour 3 images.

My answer was to stamp the images onto Kraft card with no colouring whatsoever (eek!) but I did distress and stitch the edges and brush them with some white acrylic paint.

Since the design folds up flat I could only put larger embellies on the front bit i.e. the very left hand side.
There was room though for some fancy corners and for some little die cuts themed to each image.

Here's the first panel with the Christmas image;

Here's the middle panel with the image I chose for the engagement part of the card;

I struggled with finding an image for the new home panel as I wanted to use all Magnolia images but since the new house comes with a large garden I thought this would work;

Card recipe;

Images: all Magnolia stamps

DP: Vintage Spring basics - Maja Design (available from Live and Love Crafts)

Flowers: Wild Orchid Crafts

Dies: snowflakes - Impression Obsession, hearts and flowers - Memory box, corners - La La Land

Sentiments: magazine freebie alphabet set 

And did you see those teeny paperclips?  They came in a Stampin' Up kit that I had as a prize and I don't think you can get them separately... very sad about this as they are just the cutest things. Yeah, I get excited about the oddest things!

I was really pleased with the end result and my friends loved it, so job done!

Thanks for stopping by and for your lovely comments, it's so nice to hear from you when you visit :-)

Challenges I am playing along with;
1. Cute Card Thursday (what's new? - new home card, new paperclips)
2.  Sweet Magnolia (anything goes)
3.  Tilda's Town (anything goes)
4.  Simply Magnolia (vintage or shabby chic)

Get it done!

Hello lovely people,

If you saw my last post you will know exactly what I mean with this post title!  And I have a cunning plan to help me with the crafty side of things.

But first I have to tell you about our brand new challenge at In The Pink and our theme this time is everyone's favourite...

ANYTHING GOES

So, I made a planner!

But then you probably guessed that seeing as I labelled it with big letters!

I have developed a real love of Magnolia stamps over the past year so I chose a pretty Tilda as my cover star.

I promise you her dress is pink IRL even though it looks a bit purply in the pic below!

I created the front/back covers and dividers with extra thick Kraft card and made little circular tabs for the dividers.

Each tab is 2 circles of DP with a part circle of Kraft sandwiched in between where it overhangs the divider, and then I layered the DP covering the dividers over the top for a neat finish.

The dividers are currently blank other than being covered in a layer of DP and I plan to decorate them in future along with some more of my favourite Magnolia images.

I have put one pocket on the inside front cover where I can tuck scraps of paper with important notes on though... I always seem to have lots of these!

I also created all the pages inside with my own monthly and weekly planner charts, lists for commissions I have to make, challenges I have entered and that all important 'to do' list.

However, I am not entirely happy with all of these and I have scribbled all over them so I won't show you them now.

I hope to update them to my satisfaction so I can share them with you soon.

I do have my Copic colours to share though;
Skin: E000/00/21/11/04 & R20
Hair: E21/25/29
Dress / pink flowers: RV91/93/95 & RV0000/000/91/93
Shoes: E23/25/27/29
Lilac flowers: BV0000/000/01
Leaves: YG61/63/G94
Ribbon: YR30/31

If you haven't already done so then do pop over to In The Pink and check out the gorgeous creations from the rest of the Pink Ladies.

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

Challenges I am entering;
1.  Totally Tilda (anything goes)
2.  Papertake Weekly (anything goes +/- thank you)
3.  Divas by Design (anything goes)
4.  Winter Wonderland (fave colour combo - pink and green)
5.  A Gem of a Challenge (something new - my new planner!)

Tee-rific Christmas

Hello lovely people,

It's time for a new challenge at Top Tip Tuesday and our theme this time is...

KEEP IT SIMPLE

We are sponsored by Sweet Stamps with a $10 voucher

This was a fun Christmas card that I made for a golf fan - I was quite chuffed when I came up with the idea and amazingly, it actually turned out like it looked in my head!

Maybe even better!

I added some dimension by decoupaging the image using sticky foam pads between the layers.

I cut the golf ball and tee out to layer on top of the base image and then cut out just the golf ball for the top layer.

Card recipe;

Image: from Golf set - Imagine That digi stamps
Leaves: Magnolia stamp

Sentiment: done on computer (font = KG Skinny Latte)

Copic colours; oops, lost them again :-(

I hope you will pop over to Top Tip Tuesday and check out the beautiful CAS creations and of course, the top tips from the rest of the team.

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

Going round in circles

Hello lovely people,

Happy New Year!  Are you a New Years resolution person?

I am most definitely not but towards the end of last year I started trying to get round to things that need doing in a more timely manner.

I'm the kind of person who thinks 'oh, I can do that tomorrow', except for craft things which must be done immediately of course!  And that is why my house is never clean, I always have an enormous pile of ironing, the garden is untidy and there is a very long list of DIY type jobs that need doing.

So, this is most definitely NOT a New Years Resolution because I don't do those ;-) but I do have a motto for the year which is 'Get It Done' - no more procrastination for me :-)

Now, there is a card after all that waffle and I did warn you I wasn't finished with sharing my Christmas cards so here is another one although this one is a little bit different.

I have no idea what you call this style but it is just 3 die cut circles linked by brads so the top and bottom circle fold over/under the main image circle.  A photo of it folded wouldn't have gone amiss here but I didn't take one so you'll have to use your imagination!

I love this Tilda and have a feeling she may feature quite heavily in my Christmas cards for next year!  I can't believe I haven't coloured her in pink yet!

Card recipe;

Image: Christmas candle Tilda - Magnolia stamps
Stamps round edge of image: summer swirl - Magnolia stamps

DP: A gift for you - Maja Design (available from Live and Love Crafts)

Twine: ivory button twine - The Ribbon Girl

Bells: jingle bells silver 10mm - The Ribbon Girl
Dies: small snowflake set - Impression Obsession

Sentiment: Christmas icons - LOTV

Copic colours;
Skin: E000/00/21/11/04 & R20
Hair: E21/25/29
Coat: W0/1/2/3
Boots: W5/6/7/8
Hat / glove: R27/46/39/89 & W00/1/2/3
Candle: YR30/31 & Y21/23/38 & YG93/95/97 & R46/39
Ground: W00/0/1/2/3/4

Good luck to anyone who is making New Years resolutions, especially if it involves not buying too much crafty stash - I'm NEVER gonna make that one as it wouldn't even last a week!  I've already bought new stuff this year - lol!

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

Challenges I am entering;
1.  Midweek Magnolias (anything goes)
2.  Marvellous Magnolia (anything goes Christmas)
3.  Simply Magnolia (anything goes)
4.  Cute Card Thursday (anything goes)
5.  Papertake Weekly (pick a fave - to die for)