Sewing themed apron card

Hello lovely people,

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

BUTTONS &/OR BOWS

It's a double sponsor week as well so we have 2 fab prizes on offer

Whimsy Stamps

and 

Bugaboo

It was my Mother-in-Law's 65th birthday at the weekend so that needed a really special card and after the success of my previous apron card (this one) I thought I'd do a sewing themed one.

I used bits and bobs from all over the place to fit the theme and when I couldn't find what I wanted I created my own, like the little button card and thread spools which I cut by hand and stamped.

I very nearly forgot to add a '65' so had to quickly add the little tab; not so easy to stitch in place with the pocket already stuck down!

I also made a matching tag to pop on her present :-)

Card recipe;

DP: Petal fresh - NitWit collection for LOTV

Flowers: Wild Orchid Crafts
Lace: Danielle  -The Ribbon Girl

Twine: Ivory button twine - The Ribbon Girl

Tag: Family sentiment tags - LOTV

Sentiment: For you circular sentiments - LOTV

Dies: Heart flower swirl - Magnolia Doohickey
Pins: Teardrop ivory pearlised pins - The Ribbon Girl
Charm: Scissors charm - The Ribbon Girl
Ribbon / buttons: from stash

I hope you will pop over to Top Tip Tuesday and check out the fabulously creative projects from the rest of the team and there are some great tips on creating the perfect bow :-)

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

Challenges I am entering;

1.  ABC Challenge (F is for festive - any holiday or birthday)
2.  Fussy and Fancy (ribbons and lace)

Cake and flowers

Hello lovely people,

Today was spent celebrating my Mother-in-law's 65th birthday but you'll have to wait a bit to see her card!

Instead I have another birthday card to show you, made purely for a few challenges and for fun :-)

One of the challenges I am playing along with is As You Like It and they are asking us to use our fave type of stamp - rubber or digi.
I use both and love each type for different reasons but if I had to have just one it would probably be rubber.
Using a digi means fiddling around on the computer and then waiting for the ink to dry before I can colour it and well, I'm far too impatient for that sometimes!

Stamping Bella are one of my favourite rubber stamp collections as they are so stylish.
I cropped this image to fit my hand cut polaroid frame.

Then I loaded it up with girly embellies, including some yummy lace from my latest shopping spree at The Ribbon Girl :-)

Card recipe;

Image: Ava loves to celebrate (Uptown Girls) - Stamping Bella

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

Flowers: Wild Orchid Crafts
Lace: Lyra - The Ribbon Girl - currently unavailable :-(

Twine: Ivory button twine - The Ribbon Girl

Tag: Sentiment tags - LOTV
Charm: Dragonfly charm small - The Ribbon Girl
Dies: Tea tags - Magnolia Doohickey

Sentiment: freebie stamp set with magazine
Pearls: from stash

Copic colours;
Skin: E000/00/21/11/04 & R20

Hair: E41/43/47
Dress: BG53/45/57/09
Pink bits: R81/83/85
Cake: YR30/E41/42/43
Tray: T0/2/4

Tonight I am going to chill out and watch a film with Dr. Hubby (who has a really awful cold, poor thing) and tomorrow I shall be crafting and baking :-)

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,

Challenges I am entering;
1.  Papertake Weekly (Mum's the word / any girly card)
2.  Cute Card Thursday (celebrate)
3.  As You Like It (fave type of stamp - rubber or digi - see above!)
4.  Sweet Stampin' (cakes)
5.  The Ribbon Girl (birthday)

Spring colours

Hello lovely people,

It's been a lovely weekend and I was even in my shorts for a walk in the sunshine on Saturday afternoon!

Now I have some fab news to share...

I was delighted to be picked as guest designer for Bunny Zoe's Crafts Challenge and this month the theme is...

SPRING COLOURS

To me this means fresh green and pretty soft pastels, and you know, I think Spring is really here now :-)

I have been admiring the Whimsy stamps Sylvia Zet images for quite a while now so I chose one to use for this card and I think it's safe to say I have a new stamp addiction!

Heres' another peek at the pretties I popped on here...yes, it's those butterflies again!

Card recipe;

Image: Dyanne - Whimsy stamps (from Bunny Zoe's Crafts but currently unavailable)

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

Flowers: Wild Orchid Crafts

Twine: Ivory button twine - The Ribbon Girl

Dies: heart flower lace - Magnolia Doohickey

Sentiment: clear mini sentiments - Kaisercraft
Charm: small butterfly charm - The Ribbon Girl

Copic colours;
Skin: E000/00/21/11/04 & R20
Hair: E41/43/47
Dress / hairband / shoes: BV00/02/04 & R81/83/85
Wings / flowers / socks: BV0000/000/00/01 & RV0000/000/R81/83
Flower stems: YG61/63/67
Ground: YG61/63/67/G99

I wish you all some Spring sunshine and hope you have a great week!

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

Time for tea

Hello lovely people,

It's that time again so I'm here with our new challenge at In The Pink and this time we have the theme...

FOR A SPECIAL LADY

So, this can be something for Mother's Day or for any other special lady in your life!

Even better, we are sponsored for this challenge by the fabulous Dies to Die For with a £15 voucher - how exciting!

I created this card for one of my special sister-in-laws who loves teapots!  She also loves rats and has 3 as pets so let's say this is a cute rattie in the teapot rather than a mouse!

I stamped the image in brown rather than black ink for a softer look and I created the dotted effect on the teapot with my blender pen just to add a little extra interest :-)

My usual flowers are all present and correct plus my favourite lace and some seam binding.  I did a little running stitch down the middle of the seam binding and pulled it up to create the ruffle.

I was aiming for a vintage style, inspired by the pretty papers - what do you reckon?

Card recipe;

Image: Time for tea (Moonbeam meadow) - Crafter's Companion

DP: Sweet baby - Pion Design (available from Live and Love Crafts)

Flowers: Wild Orchid Crafts

Seam binding: Cruise beige - Wild Orchid Crafts - no longer available
Lace: Teresa - The Ribbon Girl

Tag: Family sentiment tags - LOTV

Sentiment: For you circular sentiments - LOTV

Copic colours;
Teapot: R000/30/20/21 & blender for dots
Box / tag: E40/41/42/43 & E44 on box corners
Stick: E44/47
Mouse / bunting: W00/0/1
Grass: YG11/13/63
Flowers: YR30/31/24

If you haven't already done so then do pop over to In The Pink and check out the very special 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.  Live and Love Crafts (photo inspiration - I was inspired to use pastels, florals and vintage style)
2.  Papertake Weekly (anything goes)
3.  Simon Says Stamp (special lady/girly)
4.  ABC Challenge (E is for exceptionally cute)
5.  The Ribbon Girl (add flowers)
6.  Sweet Stampin' (all or nothing - I went with lots of layers!)

A country bike ride

Hello lovely people,

Oh, I did miss my little craft room while I was away and it was lovely to be back in there colouring and creating on Sunday while Dr. Hubby played on the PS4 :-)

I hope you all had lovely weekends too!

And now it's time for a new challenge at Top Tip Tuesday where our theme is...

USE AN ACTION IMAGE

We are sponsored by Zlatoena's Design with a prize of 2 digi images of the winner's choice

I was over the moon to finally get my hands on the Go Kreate die shapes that I have wanted for about 2 years so they had no sooner hit my doormat than they were out on my craft table and being put to good use!

Now, I have lost count of how many times I have said this recently but this is the first outing for this cute stamp which I have had for many months!

I was all ready to add some pretty flowers to this card but to be honest they didn't really work; the outer die shape is not actually that big and the image is a fairly large one, so flowers would just have made the card look too crowded.

So, I just settled on adding some teeny butterflies instead.

Card recipe;

Image: Annabel pedal power - LOTV

DP: Life in the country - Maja Design (available from Live and Love Crafts)
Lace: from stash (find similar at The Ribbon Girl)

Twine: Ivory button twine - The Ribbon Girl

Tag: For you circular sentiments - LOTV
Dies: butterfly die set - Impression Obsession

Copic colours;
Skin: E000/00/21/11/04 & R20
Hair: E21/25/29
Dungarees / bows: R27/46/39
Jumper / shoes: YG61/63/67
Dog: E42/43/44 & E40/41
Light grey bits of bike: W0/2/4
Dark grey bits of bike: W5/6/7
Tyre: W6/7/10
Basket: E40/41/42
Puddle: BG70/72

I hope you will pop over to Top Tip Tuesday and check out the fabulously creative projects from the rest of the team and there are some great tips for you too :-)

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

Challenges I am entering;
1.  Winter Wonderland (tie a bow)
2.  The Pink Elephant (girly girl)
3.  Deep Ocean (our furry friends)

Beer!

Hello lovely people,

I am now back in the UK after my fantastic skiing trip; we were really lucky to have good snow, mostly good weather and no major injuries!

I took a break from all my pretty embellies to create this CAS card for my sister-in-law's husband; I'm pretty sure this is more up his street than flowers and lace!

There's no escaping the stitching though!

I spent a while looking at images of bottles and working out how to colour it to look realistic and shiny and am really quite pleased with how it came out.

And yes, the recipient is a fan of real ale!

Card recipe;

Image: Birdbrain brew - From the heart digital stamps
Er, yup, that's it!

Copic colours;
Bottle: YR27/E17/19/39/29
Foam: YR30/31
Label (green bits): G24/28/29
Label (red bits): R27/46/39
Label (cream bit): YR30/31
Birds: YR30/31/23/24/E35
Bird tummies: YR30/31 & YR24/27 for spots
Bird eyelids: YR24/27
Bird eyes: B0000/000/blender

Pretzel: YR27/E17/19
Ground: W00/0/1/2/3/4/5

I hope you have all had a lovely weekend; I am so not ready to go back to work tomorrow!

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

Challenges I am entering;

1.  A Gem of a Challenge (CAS)
2.  Simon Says Stamp (anything goes)
3.  Papertake Weekly (Take your pick - I used Kraft)

A summer apron

Hello lovely people,

My blog post today comes to you live from Austria!
I am sitting in the bar of our lovely hotel after a day's skiing - lots of snow today!
So much snow in fact that we stopped a little early and spent some time relaxing in the sauna, jacuzzi and pool :-)

I couldn't leave it all week though without sharing something with you so here is an apron card.
It's my first apron card and I just drew and cut the shape by hand, saving my template so I can make more the same of course!

I tucked lace all around the edge of a rectangle of card to create the pocket and stitched on the little label tab with the recipient's name.

I was excited to use a new die to make a couple of little tags to go in the pocket :-)

The satin ribbon is stuck down just a teeny bit near the ends of the ribbon just to stop it flapping around.

Card recipe;

DP: Coffee in the arbour - Maja Design (available from Live and Love Crafts)

Flowers: Wild Orchid Crafts
Lace: 'Teresa' - The Ribbon Girl
Ribbon: from stash (out of a dress I think!)

Twine: Ivory button twine - The Ribbon Girl

Dies: Simple tag - Magnolia Doohickey
Charm: cherry charm (not sure where from but similar at The Ribbon Girl)
Circular sentiment: For you circular sentiments - LOTV

Letter stamps: magazine freebie

The cocktail of the day (a Mai Tai) and some delicious looking canapes have just been put in front of me so I'm going to leave you now and give those some serious appreciation :-D

Thanks for popping by and for any comments that you leave,

Challenges I am entering;
1.  Fussy and Fancy (tic tac toe - charm, die and lace)
2.  The Ribbon Girl (Magnolia (used a Doohickey die) with lace)
3.  Fab 'n' Funky (ribbon and lace)
4.  Cute Card Thursday (floral delight)