Hello 2018!

Hello lovely people,

So, it's that time again...to make New Year's Resolutions, right?!

Nope, I really don't need to make resolutions that I will break or resent, so as we all embark on our journey through 2018 I am just aiming to be happy, do lots of what I love (crafting of course!) and spend time with friends and family :-)

One thing I definitely love is all the fun I get to have as part of the Design Team for Lili of the Valley and I'm happy to tell you that the first release of the year will be here soon!

There are some fab new Oliver and Jasmine images, and seeing as I often go for the girly images, I thought I'd change it up this time so here's Oliver...!

Well, I think Oliver is looking very stylish here, in fact I think this image is sooooo bang on trend and would suit many a teenage lad!

The teenage boy sentiments also from LOTV are the perfect partner for the new Oliver images.

I've added a few Nuvo drops and I think I may be starting a new love affair with them as they are so perfect for adding a little touch of detail...as long as I can decide where to put them - lol!

I'll be sharing more of the new images over the next week or so, and do check out what the rest of the DT and Collective have been making too!

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

Lovely things I've used;

Oliver Cool - LOTV (coming soon!)
Teenage boy sentiments - LOTV
Beachside 6x6 paper pad - Lawn Fawn
A2 Stitched rectangles set 2 - My Favorite Things
Nuvo crystal drops in Caribbean ocean (gloss)

Copic colours;
Skin: E000, E00, E21, E11, E04
Hair: E53, E35, E59
Jeans: B93, B95, B97
Jacket: W3, W4, W5, W6
Orange details: YR14, YR16, YR07
Glasses: W5, W6, W7 & B0000, B000
Shoes: W00, W0, W1
Ground: W00, W0, W1, W2, W3

A-maze-ing Dad

Hello lovely people,

Happy Friday to you all and today I am sharing a Dies to Die For DT card, which is also the card I made for my Dad for Fathers' Day.

He loves puzzles so this was such a perfect collection to use for his card, although I think he'll find the maze pretty easy to solve - lol!

The stamp set includes a stamp of the maze, but I also got the additional plastic mazes which fit inside the shaker pouches and you can get the cutest teeny metal balls to pop inside the maze!

I added 1mm foam sheet under the star paper layer for dimension and actually cut a circular aperture into the foam and star paper so that the shaker pouch was also slightly recessed into it.

I had so much fun making this and have lots of other ideas for ways to use the stamp set so I think you will be seeing it some more!

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 from Dies to Die For;

You're a-maze-ing - My Favorite Things	Maze shapes (white) - My Favorite Things	Circle shaker window and frame - My Favorite Things	2" circle shaker pouches - My Favorite Things
Maze spheres - My Favorite Things	Blueprints 31 - My Favorite Things	Stitched basic edges - my Favorite Things	Stitched alphabet - My Favorite Things

LinkDeli.com

Other things I used;
Celebrate 6x6 paper pad - Authentique

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

Little gardener

Hello lovely people,

I am enjoying my week off immensely even though I haven't actually done any crafting!

So, my card today is not a brand new one, but one I made a few weeks ago for a work colleague to give to her husband for a special birthday.

Fortunately the image is so large and detailed that I didn't have to worry about filling the gaps on the card other than adding the name and age, but I think the fence detail works really well.

I was making this card in a bit of a rush so I didn't write down my Copic colours but I can tell you I had a lot of fun with the colouring as it's such a sweet image.

I've used the digi image for my card but you can also find it in rubber if you prefer.

I hope you are all having a good week whatever you are doing.

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

Copic colours;
Nope, didn't write them down :-(

Lovely things I've used;
The Gardener - LOTV
Various - Maja Design
Lovely fence - Magnolia Doohickeys

Tag: Sentiment tags - LOTV

Ivory button twine - The Ribbon Girl
Numbers / letters from stash

Coffee boy

Hello lovely people,

I have had a short working week as I had Monday/Tuesday off to catch up on my crafty projects, and am now enjoying a relaxing weekend at my parents' house.
I attended a great workshop on Saturday with my Mum and my fab crafty friend Debs, and we had a wonderful time getting inky and covered in glitter!
We walked to a brilliant local firework display in the evening and have been indulging in lots of gorgeous home-cooked food courtesy of my Mum; the white chocolate cheesecake with raspberry puree was a real highlight :-)

While we are sat relaxing with a coffee I thought I'd share the card I made for my brother's birthday.  He loves coffee just like me so I had a great reason to use my fab Greeting Farm stamp set again.  Last time I used it the end result was rather more girly as you can see here.

I coloured this with my Inktense pencils and am delighted that I have now figured out how to add finer details like the shadows that the hair casts on the face and clothing folds.

Since I was doing a masculine card I raided my stash of corrugated card again...I love this stuff!  I am pleased to report that I managed to buy some corrugated card and whilst it's not quite as distressed as this lovely recycled packaging, the colour is perfect and I guess I can have fun distressing it myself!

I hope you are all having super weekends whatever you are getting up to.

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

Card recipe;

Image: Mini-remix brewtiful - The Greeting Farm

DP: Accomplished - Authentique

Ivory button twine - The Ribbon Girl
Faux hessian - The Ribbon Girl

Sentiment: Happy circular sentiments - LOTV

Dies: Cosmic star set - Memory Box

Inktense colours;
Skin: Baked Earth, Madder Brown, Saddle Brown
Hair: Oak, Bark, Ink Black
Jumper: Deep Indigo
Trousers: Oak
Shoes: Ink Black
Coffee cup: Oak, Iron Green

Vintage racer

Hello lovely people,

Here we go again...a brand new week ahead and as usual I am full of plans to 'get things done.'  We'll see how well that went at the end of the week ;-)

I have another LOTV card to share with you today and the fab new images are really encouraging me to make more male designs.

I'm sure this image will appeal to vintage car fans...and colouring fans too!

Card recipe;

Image: Vintage racer - LOTV

DP: North Pole - Dovecraft

Twine: Ivory button twine - The Ribbon Girl

Sentiment: Happy circular sentiments - LOTV

Dies: Notebook edge die - Clearly Besotted

Copic colours;
Car body: R27/46/39/89/W7
Wheels: W5/7/9
Other grey bits: W3/5/7
Grill: W00/0/2/3
Headlights: YR30/31
Trees: YG61/63/67
Grass: G40/YG61/63
Road: E41/42/43/44
Sun: Y23/35/YR23/24
Sky: B0000/000/blender

I wish you all a fab and productive week!

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

Just my type

Hello lovely people,

I'm busy busy with some custom orders at the moment; isn't it nice to be in demand?!

So, I'm just popping in really quickly with a cute little Valentine's Day card.

The typewriter image (now sadly unavailable) came with some individual pages with sentiments on and also a blank page image, so I chose a typewriter style font to add my own text to the blank page image, cut it out and put a thin foam pad underneath the top.

I was then able to use the same font for the word labels underneath so it's all nicely co-ordinated :-)

Card recipe;

Image: retired digi from Pink Petticoat

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

Twine: Ivory button twine - The Ribbon Girl

Dies: Notebook edge die - Clearly Besotted
Paperclip: from stash

Sentiment: done on computer (font: Travelling typewriter)

Copic colours;
Main body of typewriter: W00/0/1/2/3
Darker details on typewriter: W3/5/7
Hearts: R46/59

I hope you all have a good week :-)

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

Grumpling #2

Hello lovely people,

It seems my little party grumpling card (here) was a big hit, both with my blog followers, and Dr. Hubby.
So, here's another one!
These stamps lend themselves to CAS designs and this one was a great way to use up some scraps.

The sentiment is part of the stamp set and makes me giggle every time I read it!

Card recipe;

Image & sentiment: Party Grumplings - Taylored Expressions

DP: from stash

Twine: Ivory button twine - The Ribbon Girl

Punch: Double Dot - Martha Stewart

Copic colours;
Ooops, forgot to write them down - sorry!
I think it was T-series for rabbit with B91/93/95 for cupcake case & candle

Today I am putting the finishing touches to my craft room redecoration with a couple of extra shelves and a curtain pole.  If we get a bit of sunshine (ha!) I'll take some photos :-)

I hope you are having a lovely weekend whatever you are doing.

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

Little golfer

Hello lovely people,

Monday again...and no work for me...ha ha, the novelty still hasn't worn off yet!  Sorry for rubbing it in :-P

I also had a really lovely weekend with my brother and his girlfriend; several long walks (even catching the sunshine for them!), awesome food cooked by my little bro and lots of fun and games :-)

I hope you all had good weekends too.

On to my card for today and I'm showcasing some LOTV products as part of the Design Collective with one of those rare male designs!

This little chap is utterly adorable and as always with LOTV images, this was a delight to colour.

I knew I wanted a very CAS design to leave lots of white space around the image, and to show lots of the fab DP; isn't this plaid design perfect for the golf theme?

Threading the buttons on the twine was a challenge...those holes are really small!

Card recipe;

Image: Playing golf - LOTV

DP: Winter wishes - LOTV

Twine: Ivory button twine - The Ribbon Girl

Tags: Sentiment tags - LOTV and Family sentiment tags - LOTV
Buttons: from stash

Copic colours;
Skin: E000/00/21/11/04 & R20
Hair: E25/27
Hat / trousers: E43/44/47
Golf club bag: B91/93/97/99 & YG61/63/67
Jumper: B91/93/95 & YG61/63
Shirt / socks: W00/1
Shoes: YG61/63/67 & W4/6
Clubs: W3/4/6
Grass: YG61/G94/99

I am off for a little more playtime in my craft room since I did all my cleaning this morning :-)

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

Challenges I am entering;

Without Words (for the boys)
A Gem of a Challenge (boys boys boys)

Just chillin'

Hello lovely people,

Well, it's been a weekend of 2 halves!
Yesterday was a day out in the Caterham 7, driving across Wales with lots of other Caterhams for fish and chips in Aberdyfi and driving back again!
It was sunny but quite breezy so we had to wrap up warm but it was a great day out :-)
I'll pop some pics at the end if you're interested.

So, today has been a chilling and crafting day...and a computer game playing and football watching day in the case of Dr. Hubby!

It's not often I venture into the realms of male cards but sometimes it has to be done and LOTV do have some fab images to work with...and fab papers too!

I had the urge to leave lots of white space around this image and keep to a few simple layers of DP; well, there's only so much you can add to a male design anyway!

I had pretty much finished the card when I realised I hadn't put the age on it and now I can't imagine that the card would look finished without that little fishtail banner - it fills that corner of the card so perfectly!

Card recipe;

Image: Lazy afternoon - LOTV

DP: Country gent - LOTV

Twine: The Ribbon Girl

Tag: Sentiment tags - LOTV and Family sentiment tags - LOTV

Copic colours;
Skin: E000/00/21/11/04 & R20
Hair: E51/53/55
Hat / trousers / shoes: E55/57/59
Jumper / shoes: W2/R27/46/89
Shirt / socks: W00/0/2
Newspaper: W00/0/2/4/6
Tree: E41/42/43/55/57
Leaves / grass: YG93/95/97

OK, I said I would show some pics, so here's a LOT of Caterhams all assembled at the start point; there's more than you can see in this photo too!
Our car is out of shot but that's me in the black jacket standing next to the chap with the red hat on :-)

Here's the only point where we got lost on the route...along with about a dozen other cars...we were all milling around trying to work out where we had gone wrong!

And here's our final destination; the fish and chips were yummy!

If anyone is really interested here's a video clip of us driving across the Brecons - shame you can't really hear the cars, just the wind noise!

I hope you have all had lovely weekends whatever you have been up to :-)

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

Challenges I am entering;
1.  Fab 'n' Funky (masculine)
2.  ABC Challenge (H is for Happy Birthday)