Meet Molly

Hi here is one of the cards I did for the Molly Blooms collection from Sir Stampalot. I have coloured her with distress inks and gone over the spots on the toadstool with liquid pearls white opal. The background paper is "a little yummy `not` for your tummy" from Magnolia, punch is maidenhead fern and the flowers are prima, all again from Sir Stampalot.
I have loved working with these stamps they are really lovely designs from Clare Rowland, I`m looking forward to what she brings out next ! Well after the disappointment of the footie yesterday and this heat, I feel a bit deflated so I`m going to have a chilling out day today ! bye for now xx

Cats sleep anywhere ...

Whoever wrote the poem " Cats sleep anywhere " wasn`t kidding ! I came home from work to find my cat Freya asleep under the table in the conservatory ! I wouldn`t have thought she`d have fit through the gaps in the wicker but she managed somehow ! She is a grand old lady of 21 now ( and still going strong ) and I think this heat we`ve been having doesn`t agree with her so we find her in all sorts of shady places but this is one of the funniest ! I had to share it with you .




Not long after I took the photo she`d had enough of my poking my face through the wicker and laughing at her so she slung her hook outside to lay under the bird table ! ( hoping for a free lunch no doubt ) I call it feeding the birds , she calls it baiting the trap ! lol, bye for now xx

Sitting Pretty

I fell in love with this Tilda from the new Wedding Collection, she is so cute I couldn`t resist her. I have coloured her in with distress inks, the brown coloured backing papers are both Basic Grey but the name of the blue paper escapes me as it`s one I`ve had in my stash for a while ! The flourish is Tim Holtz sizzix die "Elegant Flourishes" and the flowers are Prima. The little heart charm is one of a few that my good friend Sue very kindly donated to me ( thankyou Sue x ).

I have just got back from delivering some samples to Sir Stampalot for the new Molly Blooms collection which is being launched and demo`d today by the collections designer,the very talented Clare Rowlands. I will post samples at a later date as it was a bit of a rush to get the samples done in time for the launch so I didn`t quite have time to photograph them but watch this space. I can tell you that the collection is FAB, a real treat, so head over to Sir Stampalot for them, you won`t be disappointed.
I am off now to do a bit of housework and maybe I might just squeeze in some more crafing time this afternoon ! bye for now x

Tilda Stepper

I`ve been signed off for a few days work as my ankles and feet have been so swollen so it`s given me an opportunity to get some crafting done and no housework !(doctors orders !) It is difficult to craft when your feet have to be raised up but I found a way round it ! ( We do suffer for our art !! ) lol.
I have never done a Stepper card before so this was my first attempt and I`m pretty happy with how it turned out. I bought the Tim Holtz "hanging sign" die from Sir Stampalot the other week and I had no idea at the time what I was going to do with it, which is unusual for me as I normally have ideas in my head what to do with a stamp or die etc before I purchase them. When money is in short supply my craft items have to earn their keep ! But I fell in love with this die and "had to have it " !
I must admit when I got it home I ran it through my trusty Cuttlebug and assembled it but it sat on my desk for over a week daring me to find a use for it ! So this is what I eventually came up with.
I have used a Tilda stamp which I borrowed from my good friend Sue but it is one I will eventually buy because she is sooo cute, and the magnolias she is holding just goes perfect with the magnolia tree stamp I bought a while back. Both are coloured with distress inks.



I used the Martha Stewart icicle punch again for grass by turning it upside down, which was my friend Emmas idea ( thanks emma ! ) The paper in the background is Magnolia too. I`ve also used my new MS trellis punch which I fell in love with after seeing a wonderful card Louise had posted on her fabby blog. The sizzix swirly extended cuts die came in very handy again, I use this one a huge amount it is so versatile. To top it all I used the Tim Holtz hanging sign and swirled some little punched flowers round it.



This one is going to Janice and Andy at Sir Stampalot for the shop, but now I`ve found a use for the die, I have a few more project ideas for it popping into my head.

Well I`d better get on, got to make a Father`s day card as the event will be upon us soon and need to make a birthday card for my Godson Thomas, so that should keep me out of trouble and busy for the rest of the day !! bye for now and happy crafting xx

Say it with flowers

Wow, it`s muggy and hot today ! I was going to do some housework and ironing but thought I`d craft instead until it cools down a bit !
This is the latest edition to my stamp collection, it`s actually a flower soft stamp which I purchased in the Craft Den in Wisbech but I don`t do flower soft so I just coloured her with distress inks. The background papers are both Paper Mania, Regency Signature and Henbury Lane, really pretty papers which I`m thinking I should have bought two pads of each as they are going to be favourites of mine ! The sizzix die used is Elegant Flourishes from the new Tim Holtz range available from Sir Stampalot so are the Prima flowers.
The sentiment is SU and I have no idea where I picked up the metal embellishment and lace ( probably one of the stalls at the NEC )



I thought the image had a vintage kind of feel to it so I did a bit of triple embossing onto stamp board to make it look like old tiles. Stamp board is a fantastic product, if you make a mistake you just sand it back and start again. I coloured the image again using distress inks and then when it was dry, stamped an old versamark clear ink pad over the top and triple embossed with an old clear embossing powder. When I say an "old" pad and powder , it`s ones I`ve had kicking about for a bit so they`ve got other bits of glitter and fluff and God knows what contaminating them ! but it helps to give a more aged look to the project, like old fireplace tiles, well that was the look I was going for so I hope I`ve achieved it here ! I`ve just added the tiles to the top of a simple box and again added some old ribbon and an SU sentiment again. The sentiments were triple embossed using the same method to give them an aged look too.






It`s starting to get very overcast now and I`m losing good light to craft in so I might have to tackle the housework after all ! bye for now xx