What a hoot!

Hello lovely people,

I have a Dies to Die For DT card for you today and it's another outing for these lovely MFT owl stamps.

I'm afraid I do seem to have a little bit of an addiction to polaroids, but I find them so cute to frame images.

However, I didn't have one the right size for these little owls so I made my own using a square die to cut the aperture and trimming the outer edge to the size I wanted.  I even rounded the corners just the tiniest bit using scissors so it looked like the whole thing had been die cut - lol!

I find myself a lot less worried about producing masculine cards now I have all these cute animals in my stash!  The fab MFT papers help too, and you can mix and match from different pads as I have done here.

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,

Lovely things I've used;

Plaid patterns merry & bright - My Favorite Things	Let's polka in the meadow - My Favourite Things	I'm Owl Yours - My Favourite Things	Stitched scallop edges - My Favorite Things
Stitched square scallop frames - My Favorite Things

InLinkz.com

I like how you roll

Hello lovely people,

Happy Friday to you all!

I have a Dies to Die For DT card for you today.

I may have already mentioned that I have the extremely nice problem of having sooooo many new MFT goodies that I hardly know what to use next!

My faves are always the cute critters though, so I decided on a hedgehog for this card, and it might be the speediest card I've ever made as it just all fell into place really quickly.

I had a few ideas about how to colour the hedgehog but settled on a flicking type of colouring to try to capture the spikiness and I think it worked ok.

I could have stamped him direct onto the white circle but hey, I have the dies so I am going to use them!  It's nice to add a little dimension by popping him on foam pads too.

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!

FYI: there's a brand new MFT release available, but I take no responsibility for the temptation you may feel if you go and take a peek - lol!
I may already have given in to temptation myself ;-)

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

Copic colours;
Hedgehog bristles:
Hedgehog tummy / feet / ears: E40/41/42/43

Lovely things I've used;

Sweet celebrations by My Favourite Things	Happy hedgehogs by My Favourite Things	Happy hedgehogs dies by My Favourite Things	Stitched hillside borders by Lawn Fawn
Circle STAX set 1 - My Favourite Things	Circle STAX set 2 - My Favourite Things

InLinkz.com

LOTV sneak peek: Spring bunny

Hello lovely people,

I am delighted that we have hit that time of the year when it really obviously starts to get lighter in the mornings and evenings and Spring will soon be here...I've spotted some snowdrops!

Today I am excited to share a DT sneak peek of the next release from LOTV, which will be on 28th February so I hope you are feeling patient - lol!

This is one of the Easter trio and I immediately knew I wanted to make a pop up design using some of my favourite Spring papers, although I've never actually used the yellow ones before!  It's just not a colour I tend to gravitate towards but it's perfect for a fresh Spring feel with this image.

I've used the digi image here and printed it at about 5cm diameter, which is a little bigger than the rubber stamp version of the trio images would usually be.  This is a great size for quick and easy colouring but still makes a great focal point.

I often don't like to add paper flowers when the image already has flowers but it seemed to work on this occasion, and I think choosing quite small flowers all in white helps to stop them clashing with the daffodils in the image.

I'll have more sneak peeks from the new release coming soon so watch this space!

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

Copic colours;
Bunny: E40/41/42/43/44 & R000/01
Daffodils: Y32/35/38 & Y38/YR04/YR18
Leaves: YG61/63

Lovely things I used;

Vintage Spring Basics by Maja Design	Stitched circle scallop frames - My Favourite Things	Mini messages by Mama Elephant	Ivory button twine
miniature white blossoms

InLinkz.com

Other card ingredients;

Scalloped borders two - Spellbinders
Lavish branch - Memory Box
Tea label tags - Magnolia Doohickeys

Birthday hedgies

Hello lovely people,

I do love a lazy crafty weekend!  It's been pretty exciting too as I have been working with the next lot of LOTV images to be released and I will be able to show you really soon :-)

In the meantime, I thought I'd share a LOTV Design Team card that I made using some of the new trio stamps.

This is a triple circle card and the sections are held together with pearl brads, so they can swing over each other to close it up.

I used stitched die cut circles and scalloped circles to give a bit of interest because you can't add a lot of 3D embellishments otherwise the sections won't swing closed.
My design is pushing it a bit to be honest and even closed it's quite bulky - lol!

I decided that die cut flowers with Nuvo Drop centres would be perfect to add a little finishing touch and I added extra Nuvo Drops around the flowers just for good measure!

I hope you have all been having a good weekend :-)

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

Card recipe;

Image: Hedgehog trio - LOTV

DP: Blissful Teal - Anna Marie Designs

Sentiment: For you circular sentiments - LOTV

Layering dies: Double stitched circles, Mini stitched scallop circle STAX, circle STAX - all MFT Die-namics (available from Dies to Die For)
Flowers: Perfect petioles - Memory Box

Inktense colours;
Hedgehogs: Saddle brown, Oak
Hedgehog tummies: Baked earth
Pink bits: Cherry
Teal bits: mix of Iron Green and Deep Indigo

Baby's first Christmas keepsake hoops

Hello lovely people,

Happy New Year!
I hope 2017 is full of wonderful things for you all :-)

This will be my last post with Christmas creations but there was no way I could resist sharing this pair of 4" embroidery hoops that I made for two little ones' first Christmas.

They are both for little girls but I didn't want to make both of them pink so one is in pretty aqua instead.

As soon as I got the commission for these I knew I wanted to use James bear images and now he is available in digi format, I could make them just the right size for the hoops.

As usual I have made the sentiments on my computer and then I finished off just with a few snowflakes, in die cut and metal charm form.

I made sure the back of the hoops also looked pretty and added a little tag to so that a message could be added but kept hidden.

I hope you have all had a good bank holiday...I have loved the extra crafting time!

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

Card recipe;

Image: James bear digis - LOTV

DP: Pink ones by Maja Design and Aqua ones by Galleria Papieru

Twine: Ivory button twine - The Ribbon Girl

Dies: Circle STAX - MFT Die-namics, Stylish snowflakes - MFT Die-namics

Snowflake charm - The Ribbon Girl

Copic colours;
Fur: E40/41/42/43

Everything else: lost in the Christmas chaos!

LOTV new release: elephant trio tag card

Hello lovely people,

I am sharing another DT card using one of the new releases coming out on Friday from LOTV so that's only 1 sleep to go!

This time I've used the elephant trio stamps and printed these digis the same size as the rubber versions.  I've used a tri-fold tag card to showcase all 3 images and I cut the base card and tag layers by hand.

I was aiming for a fairly flat design so that it would fold up nicely, although the pearls ruin that slightly...but look so pretty!

I totally forgot to take any more pictures of this after it was made up but I do have close up shots of the elephants.

This is my fave of the trio, probably because I love bunting...and presents of course!

I just love colouring elephants for some reason, especially when they are so utterly charming like these ones.

I hope you are getting excited for the new release tomorrow and I'll be back with a final card to share with you :-)

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

Card recipe;

Image: Elephant trio - LOTV

DP: from stash

Tag: Sentiment tags - LOTV

Dies: Stitched scallop- circles - MFT Die-namics, Circle stax - MFT Die-namics, Party banner - Couture Creations, Flower mix - Craft Emotions

Copic colours;
Elephants: W1/2/3/4/5 & R000/01
Flowers / bunting / hearts / present spots: R81/83/85
Leaves / grass: G40/82/24
Present ribbon: BG10/11/13

Odd Dog with flowers

Hello lovely people,

I am hoping to have a productive crafting day today but first I have a little DT project to share with you.

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

CUTE AND CUDDLY
Don't forget we want to see more pink than any other colour!

Our fabulous sponsor this time is the fabulous Dies to Die For with a £10 voucher

I used a fair few new bits of stash on this card, which I always love to do.  The papers are old but new to me, and the frame and flower dies are new too :-)

Odd dog is most definitely cute and cuddly and you can find this image plus loads more gorgeous new Odd Dog digis over at LOTV :-)

For this card I printed the digi image quite small but you can see that it still looks great on a standard 14.5cm square card.

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,

Card recipe;

Image: Odd dog - bunches of love from LOTV

DP: Paris flea market - Pion Design

White seam binding - The Ribbon Girl

Ivory button twine - The Ribbon Girl

Tag: Sentiment tags - LOTV

Dies: Greek Island collection (Rhodes) - Sue Wilson for Creative Expressions, Flower mix - Craft Emotions

Copic colours;

Odd dog: W00/0/1 & E31/35

Flowers / bow: R20/21/32

Flower centres: Y32/35

Stems: YG95/97

Ground: YG93/95/97

Elephant love

Hello lovely people,

It's weekend time again so I hope you are having fun!

I had something else lined up to blog today but decided that since it was World Elephant Day yesterday that the pair of birthday cards I made for some lovely blog buddies were more appropriate...

I have coloured the elephants with Copics but I do want to try colouring these cuties with Inktense pencils as well...I'm pretty sure they will look gorgeous either way!

The buttons are clear buttons that I customised by adding washi tape across the back and trimming down.  The pattern shows through but in a lovely subtle way.

This worked out so well that I now need to get my hands on some more clear buttons because I only had a couple!

Looking at the photo above reminds me...does anyone else trim twine because it's too fluffy?!

Yes, I know it's supposed to be rustic and fluffy but my neat freak brain just can't cope with long strands all over the place, especially on the bow, so I always find myself tidying it up a little - lol!

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

Card recipe;

Image & sentiment: Adorable elephants - My Favourite Things

DP: My Girl - American Crafts

Twine: Ivory button twine - The Ribbon Girl

Button: from stash

Copic colours;
Elephant: T0/1/2/3/4
Elephant ears: R000/00/01/30 (R00/0120/21 on darker one)
Aqua balloon: BG10/11/13
Pink balloon: R30/32/35
Ground: E40/41/42

The bunnies are back!

Hello lovely people,

If you haven't seen or heard about this yet then let me fill you in...the LOTV Ideas to Inspire blog is back - hurrah!

On top of that, some of the best loved LOTV  images are coming back too, including a couple of the gorgeous bunny stamps.  So, I thought I'd use one of them for my Design Collective card today.

This bunny was the first ever LOTV stamp I bought and he is just as adorable now as he was when I bought him :-)
I did a little paper piecing again on the balloon and cupcake.

Card recipe;

Image: Balloon bunny - LOTV

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

Dies:

Copic colours;
Bunny: W00/0/1/2/3/4
Ears: R0000/00/01

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