Pretty bicycle

Hello lovely people,

It's time for a new challenge at As You Like It and our theme this time is...

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

Our sponsor this time is Sweet and Sassy Stamps

My favourite layout is cased from a previous card and any design with this pretty shaped base is a winner for me but I especially loved arranging all the details around the central image circle.
It even makes it really easy to add names/ages etc. which I sometimes find a little tricky!

This bicycle image is a really simple one but is so cute and I think it would be good for some masculine designs too...minus all the flowers etc.!

Card recipe;

Image: Good times - Clearly Besotted

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

Flowers: Wild Orchid Crafts
Twine: Natural button twine - The Ribbon Girl (not available at present)

Seam binding: Limoges blue - The Ribbon Girl

Tag: Sentiment tags - LOTV

Dies: Large frilly frame #10 - Go Kreate, Circle stax - MFT Die-namics, Heart flower swirl - Magnolia Doohickeys

Letters/numbers: magazine freebie stamp set

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

Whilst making this card it occurred to me that there must be lots of lovely layouts that I have used before and would be worth revisiting so I plan to CASE myself more often!

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

Challenges I am entering;
Live and Love Crafts (blue)
Papertake Weekly (take your pick - I used blue and vintage)
Simon Says Stamp (anything goes)
A Gem of a Challenge (one for the girls)

A pre-coloured celebration!

Hello lovely people,

It's fast approaching the end of another weekend and once again it has been a good one :-)
Saturday was spent with my sister-in-law, her OH and our 2 nephews and we had a fun day including a fabulous maize maze, tasty ice cream and some crafting.
Today has been a day of crafting, making tomato sauce from our home grown plum tomatoes and watching The Imitation Game in our home cinema...which was an absolutely brilliant film.   Love love LOVE Benedict Cumberbatch :-)
Oh, and I made some chocolate and hazelnut biscotti for good measure...yes, I was inspired by The Great British Bake Off!

Food and baking seems to feature regularly on my blog but I do have a card to share with you as well...

I am forever putting off doing male cards as I always feel a lack of mojo for them but I have to say that this one was actually quite a quick make and I love how the design turned out.

The speed was partly due to the pre-coloured image I used...it is *not* cheating ;-)

I bought some word dies a while ago and I love to add dimension to them by cutting them 3 times and layering them up.

Card recipe;

Image: Jack, Patch & Puss Art Pad - LOTV

DP: Special delivery (baby boy) - Pebbles

Twine: Ivory button twine - The Ribbon Girl

Dies: Birthday words - Paper Smooches (from Dies to Die For)
Border punch: Martha Stewart scallop dot edge punch

I hope you all had a fabulous weekend, whatever you were up to :-)

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

Challenges I am entering;
Fussy and Fancy (birthdays)

Live, laugh, love

Hello lovely people,

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

FLY AWAY
(With an option of using pink & 1 other colour)

Our fabulous sponsor this time is Bunny Zoe's Crafts with a £10 voucher

I keep saying I would like to do more home decor projects so decided to decorate a wooden heart.
I cut the DP to fit the heart, inked the edges and then stamped a few swirls around the edge.
Once the DP was glued firmly in place I sanded back the edges to give a slightly distressed finish.

These butterfly dies are absolutely gorgeous and I really haven't used them much but knew they would be perfect for this project...and for the challenge theme of course!

The words are stamped from individual letter stamps, cut into strips, and have one foam pad under the middle to add that little bit of dimension.
The charm was a last minute addition and I'm so glad I popped it on as it looks so pretty :)

Project recipe;

Wooden heart: from Hobbycrafts show

DP: Summer Crush - Maja Design (available from Live and Love Crafts)
Swirl stamp: Summer swirl - Magnolia

Dies: Leavenworth butterfly trio - Memory Box
Charm: Daisy chain - The Hobby House
Twine: Ivory button twine - The Ribbon Girl

Ribbon: from stash

Lettering: magazine freebie stamp set

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

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

Challenges I am entering;
Papertake Weekly (to die for)
Inky Chicks (hearts)
Fab 'n' Funky (things with wings)
The Ribbon Girl (pink)
ABC challenge (pretty in pink)

Icy hugs

Hello lovely people,

I had a wonderful day at the Cheltenham beer festival yesterday.  Many fine beers were sampled including a Gin beer made with gin botanicals instead of hops...it was really rather nice!

Today I am having a relaxing potter about in my craft room and am sharing a card to showcase some LOTV products as part of the Design Collective.

The sun is shining beautifully today so my card seems a little incongruous, but I am pleased to have made my second Christmas card!

The hardest part about this design was choosing which of the gorgeously cute new LOTV Christmas stamps to use!
This little pair are adorable don't you think?

I try to stay away from the more 3D embellishments for Christmas cards so that they don't cost loads to post, so snowflake dies are my absolute must have to add detail!  Ok, they are less flat if you start adding pearl centres but they look so pretty!

Card recipe;

Image: Icy hugs - LOTV

DP: Festive trimmings - LOTV

Twine: Ivory button twine - The Ribbon Girl

Tag: Christmas sentiment tags - LOTV

Dies: Large frames frilly #10 - Go Kreate, Small snowflake die set - Impression Obsession, Lovely fence - Magnolia Doohickeys

Copic colours;
Skin: E000/00/21/11/04 & R20
Red: R27/46/39/59
Green: G24/85/29
Aqua: G00/BG32/15/18
Gloves / trousers: W2/3/5
His boots / her tights: W5/6/8
Her boots: W1/3/4
Skate blades: W00/0/1
Hat bobbles: W00/1/2/3
Ice: B0000/000 & blender

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

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

Challenges I am entering;
Bunny Zoe's Crafts (shaped cards)
Moving Along With The Times (snow in summertime)
Cute Card Thursday (anything goes)

Noor! Design UK (Christmas)

Beach wedding

Hello lovely people,

It's time for a new challenge at As You Like It and our theme this time is...

YOUR FAVOURITE 2 EMBELLISHMENTS
...and don't forget to tell us why!

Our sponsor this time is Crafty Sentiment Designs

I love a pretty feel to my cards so I do enjoy adding embellishments and the one I always reach for first is flowers; I have lots so that I can try to match the colours of my image or paper!

I had to think a little for my second favourite embellishment choice as I do use a few things but realised it had to be pearls as I often scatter a few around just to add a little hint of detail and elegance.

The beach themed papers and details were chose because the couple are getting married on a beach, and I have to say I really love the kind of faded natural look to this design.

I know I've already picked my 2 fave embellies but I have to admit that a metal charm often finds it's way onto my designs...like this uber cute little shell charm :-)

The tags are made from the blank tag shape available in one of the LOTV sets and I stamped the names with little letter stamps...this only works with short names though - lol!

Card recipe;

Large focal sentiment: Congratulations statements - LOTV

DP: Shoreline treasures - Pion Design (available from Live and Love Crafts)

Flowers: Wild Orchid Crafts
Twine: Natural hemp twine - The Ribbon Girl

Tag: blank tag shape from Christmas sentiment tags - LOTV
Charm: Shell mix charms  -The Hobby House
Hessian ribbon & pearls: from stash

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;
Inky Chicks (use a metal embellishment)
Sweet Stampin' (anything but a birthday)

A notebook for me

Hello lovely people,

It's time for a new challenge at In The Pink and since we are celebrating our 3rd birthday (yippee!) we have picked the easiest theme for you so we hope to see lots of lovely PINK creations... it is of course...

ANYTHING GOES

We have The Ribbon Girl sponsoring us with a prize of a £10 voucher

I decided to take the opportunity to make myself a little notebook for jotting down random crafty inspiration!

It has been sooooo long since I coloured this little cutie and I had lots of fun doing her pink hair :-)

I would normally keep notebooks fairly flat but couldn't resist a few flowers here and there, and hey, this is just going to sit on my craft desk so I figured it was ok :-)

The binding was done with my Bind-It-All from Zutter...love this little machine but don't use it often enough.
I added patterned paper on the back and inside too.

Card recipe;

Image: Glimmer bean - The Greeting Farm

DP: Yours truly - Pebbles

Dies: Fancy blossoms - Memory box

Copic colours;
Skin: E000/00/21/11/04 & R20
Eyes: B0000/000
Hair / heart: R81/85/39
Skirt / top / heart: BG53/57/18
Heart wings: N0/2/3

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.
Don't forget to grab a glass of pink champagne and a slice of pink birthday cake to celebrate our 3rd birthday with us while you are there :-)

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

Challenges I am entering;

Creative Inspirations (flowers)

Bye bye to Top Tip Tuesday

Hello lovely people,

It's time for a new challenge at Top Tip Tuesday but as you may have guessed from my post title is is the last ever challenge...so sad :-(

I may not have been on the team all that long but it what a wonderful team to have been part of; such fabulous people to work with, such inspiring creativity, and I have enjoyed every second of it :-)

Our very last theme for you is...

RIBBONS & PEARLS

We have an incredible number of sponsors for our last challenge so I'm not going to list them all here but you can see them all on the Top Tip Tuesday post.

Ribbons and pearls usually sends me off in a flurry of pretty pink girlyness, but for some reason this time I was inspired to make a Christmas card...
...my first Christmas card this year!

I wanted to create a design that looked great, was easy to produce lots of but where I could change a few details to personalise each one.

So, I dragged myself away from the Copics...far too time consuming...and chose a LOTV pre-coloured art pad image.
These are so stylish and fitted well with my idea of an 'easy' design; the only thing I added was a touch of sparkle on the snow.

Then I chose a criss cross design, which you may be thinking is utter madness compared to a standard square card!
However, I find them really quick and easy to fold, and they are a lovely shape to design on...so they look fancy but are really easy :-)

Card recipe;

Image: Furry Christmas art pad - LOTV

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

Twine: Ivory button twine - The Ribbon Girl

Seam binding: The Ribbon Girl

Tag: Christmas sentiment tags - LOTV
Pearl brad: Retro mix pearl brads - The Hobby House

I hope you will pop over to Top Tip Tuesday and check out the fabulously creative projects from the rest of the team and I hope you can join in our last challenge :-)

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

Challenges I am entering;