Hearts and Herbs

Here is another card I`ve done using the new Molly Blooms stamps available from Sir Stampalot - Molly with a heart and the herb box.
I`ve coloured the images with distress inks and added a bit of diamond stickles to the flower heads ( not sure it shows up too well in the photo !)
The background paper is from the new Magnolia collection and the heart and scallop heart are nestabilities. The flowers are Prima and Magnolia and the leaves are a fern craft punch also available from Sir Stampalot.
I love these new Molly Blooms stamps, they are great characters and so easy to colour. I`ve just been to see Clare Rowlands doing a demo with her Molly Blooms and got to meet her daughter, the real life Molly! Her cards and projects are so beautiful and it has given me a lot of inspiration to create.... Check out Clare`s Molly Blooms design blog in my side bar. >>>

I plan to spend the whole day tomorrow playing with some new Wild Rose Studio stamps that I bought today too ( I can craft guilt free because I got all my housework and ironing done this morning !) So watch this space!
bye for now and happy crafting xx

Together Forever

Here is another FAB image from LOTV, this is one of my favourites of theirs so far.
I have coloured the image with distress inks and I wanted to give it an oldy worldy feel to it, kind of vintage so I kept the colours fairly muted. The background papers are K&Co K-Ology " Hannah" from a Scrap and Go pad I`ve had for ever, but they are a perfect weight paper for making flowers which is what I have done here !
Yes they are hand made, I couldn`t believe how well they turned out either !


I was watching a demo on making flowers with punches on a blog that I blog-hopped to from various sites and it got me inspired to get out all my flower paper punches and dies and see what I could come up with.
These are made from the Tim Holtz - Tattered Florals Sizzix die which I`ve had for a while but not had a lot of use from ( it will be used a LOT now I`ve discovered these little gems ! )
I have cut 4 of the medium petals out and 3 of the small ones and using a large pergamano ball tool, pressed and rubbed each petal onto a foam mat until I got the desired shape then layered them up together and Hey Presto, expensive looking Prima-type flowers which cost pennies to make, I am well chuffed with the outcome !
You can do this with any double sided paper, just spray them with a little water to help break down the fibres after you`ve cut them out and use a strong craft glue to hold them while they set.

I would like to enter this into two challenges, the first being the LOTV CHALLENGE which has the theme " Circles " and the second is the ALLSORTS CHALLENGE and this weeks theme is " Make your own Flowers "

I think this technique could work with any 5 or 6 petal punch or die, I`m off to have a play and see what else I can make !
Thanks for stopping in, bye for now and Happy Crafting xx

" Hay There ! "

Here is a card I`ve done for Sir Stampalot for the launch of the new Molly Blooms range, I love this donkey, I giggled the whole time I was colouring it, check out the eyelashes and the spotty wellies, I just love Clare Rowlands designs.



I have coloured the images with distress inks, the background paper is Basic Grey and the flowers are Prima. The little "twigs" are actually the stems of the roses that I usually throw away, but when I`d cut them off they fell on my craft desk in a bundle and I just thought what a neat idea to use them as twigs. I normally trapse around the garden looking for little twiggy bits to use in my projects when I need them, now I have a pot full of little stems that usually end up in the bin ! (us crafters never throw anything out do we !!)


I have used SU linen thread to tie little bows in her hair and boy was THAT fiddly ! thank God for tweezers that`s all I can say !
The leaves are punched with the ash branch craft punch also available from Sir Stampalot.

The apperture was cut with the large circle nesties die and the little tag is an old sizzix scallop tag die which is a very useful three tag die that I`ve had a lot of mileage out of.

Well it`s almost 2am now so I`d better sign off and try and get some sleep !
Thanks for visiting, bye for now and happy crafting xxx

Fluttering By !

This is one of the new Magnolia stamps " Large Butterfly " available from Sir Stampalot I have paper pieced it with Bazzil, Kaisercraft and Bo Bunny papers, The scallop border punch is SU as is the ribbon, the little flowers are Prima and the leaf is from the sizzix Big Leaf sizzlets die.


I have stuck 3D foam pads right at the crease between the body of the butterfly and the wings in between each layer to give the wings some dimension and just finished off with a bit of diamond stickles and liquid pearls on the wings.
The large orange flowers are just some cheap flat ones I found and I pressed them into a versamark clear pad and enbossed with clear powder to give them a bit of rigidity and texture, it also enhanced the colour to a lovely bright orange.

I`d like to enter this into the Allsorts Challenge this week which is set by the lovely Fleur ( check out her fab blog in my side bar ) and the theme is " Inspired by Nature "

Thanks for looking in, bye for now and happy crafting xx

Thanks for Your Support !

This is a card I made to give to the vets and staff at the veterinary clinic where I have been taking my cats for the last 7 years. Unfortunately I recently lost my Freya who was the grand old age of 22, she had a long and healthy life and in her last days the vets and staff were so kind and supportive not just to Freya but to me as well, showing great compassion and thoughtfulness ,so I wanted to make them a card to thank them for their care.



The stamp is a favourite of mine, " Uplifting Occasion " by Penny black, I have stamped it several times and decoupaged it to give a 3D effect and `lift` it off the page ! The image is water coloured with distress inks.
The background papers are both sides of Imaginisce - Fairest of them all - Enchanted Garden. The punch is Ash branch L-Em from Sir Stampalot and I`ve just used a paper piercing tool to give a stitched effect round the edges.

I have been suffering a bit with depression lately, it didn`t help loosing my best furry friend of the last 22 years, but through crafting I have met and made some wonderful friends who have helped enormously to cheer me up and I`d like to take this opportunity to thank them whole heartedly for including me in their outings and gatherings lately. Crafting has really been a life line for me and has helped me on the road to recovery, so thank you all and thank you again to everyone who has visited and commented on my blog.

Bye for now and happy crafting xx

Bon Apetite !

My Dad asked me to do a card for a guy he knows through work, I asked him what the guy liked so I could base a card around that, the only brief I got was "He`s a big bloke and he likes to cook " !! ( thanks Dad, really helpful ! ) so this is what I came up with.
I didn`t want to over embellish it as it`s for a male so just a couple of ribbbon tabs and a bit of a swirl to balance the card.
The image is from the American SU catalogue " Voila " - coloured with distress inks and marvey le plume pens and a tiny bit of diamond stickles around the candle flame!
The 50 is cut from cuttle bug die - Hippy Chick !
I find male cards very difficult to do as most of my stamps are quite girly and cute but this SU stamp set is a really good stand by and I`ve used it quite a lot.

Thanks for looking in, bye for now and happy crafting xx

LOTV Challenge - Anything but a square

My new LOTV stamps arrived this morning and I couldn`t wait to have a play. I love, love, love these new designs they are so sweet. I`d like to enter this one in the LOTV challenge , this time it is anything but a square so I`ve opted for hearts on a centre stepper card, as Valentines day is fast approaching I thought hearts would be quite topical! I`ve never entered a challenge before so I hope I do this right !!

I have coloured the image with distress inks and added a tiny bit of diamond stickles to show the water coming out of the can.
The backing paper is MME Bloom and Grow which I thought was kind of fitting for the image.



The hearts are cut from Nestabilites dies, the flowers are Prima and the leaves are Maidenhead Fern punch from Sir Stampalot
I ordered 4 stamps in total this time around but I`m pretty sure I`ll be going back for some more. Now I`m going to carry on " playing " with my new stamps and see what else I can come up with.
Thanks for looking in, bye for now and happy crafting xx