Rainy Days

This is a card I`ve made for a friends birthday coming up soon, she is animal mad and has quite a menagerie of pets. The image is a Gillian Roberts stamp by Stampavie called "under my umbrella" available from Sir Stampalot.
I`ve coloured with distress inks, the papers used are Bo Bunny - Alissa Twirls, October Afternoon - Patio Umbrella, and Bazzill Basics- Sea Salt.
The flowers are from Prima and Carnmeal Cottage and the sentiment and punches are SU.



It doesn`t show up brilliantly well in the photo but I`ve added little raindrops using Glossy Accents



I bought these little felt butterflies ages ago and completely forgot about them, I discovered them again on a recent clearout of my craft desk !

I`d like to enter this into the Allsorts Challenge , the theme this week is "April Showers"

I`ve got the morning to myself today so I`m going to make the most of it and catch up with some crafting, unfortunatley due to the unseasonable heat we`ve had lately my poor feet have suffered and been swollen like balloons so I`ve had to spend too many days sitting with them raised which hasn`t allowed me to craft much. Thankfully the good ol` English weather has returned today and my feet are back to their normal size ! LOL so I can get back to some serious crafting !
My friend and fellow Crafter/ Designer Kay Rutter has just launched a new range of paper and cardstock and she has asked me to do some designs for her to promote them on her up and coming Creat and Craft show for television - so watch this space and I`ll post them as soon as I have them made.
Thanks for looking in, bye for now and "Happy Crafting" xx

Fairy Dust

This is my first attempt at a fantasy card using my new Lavinia stamps that I bought at the NEC. The shape for the easel is cut from a GO Kreate die 6" x 6" - Pointy Frame. It`s a very unusual card style for me but I have fallen in love with these stamps and I am deffinately going to purchase some more as soon as the wallet will allow !
I have used ink dusters with distress inks to create the soft background using a positive circle mask of a post it note to creat the moon and a negative mask of the secret doorway to create the glow from within.
The stamps used are small pixies, small path, secret garden, slender mushrooms and fern leaf and the sentiment is fairy dust. All available from Lavinia stamps


I have used texture cuttlebug embossing folder for the inside of the easel, dusted over with distress inks using the ink dusters again and added some stickles diamond to the raised parts to give a sparkle which doesn`t show up well on the photo ! The sentiment label is cut from Nesties Labels Four and the border punch is EK success.



I have added tiny blobs of Liquid pearls in platinum with Crystal Glamour Dust over the top to give the Fairies their fairy dust sprinkles. I really earned my blog title making this card as my fingers are black with ink from using the ink dusters but I had so much fun doing something different for a change.

I`d like to enter this card into the latest Allsorts Challenge, this time around the challenge was set by the lovely Fleur and she would like to see " Anything but a Square " ( Although this is a sort of curly "square" shape, I hope it qualifies ! )

I`m off now to try and scrub my filthy "Inky Fingers" , It`s a good job these inks are dye based !!
Thanks for looking in, bye for now and Happy Crafting xx

Swing into Spring

This is the very first Easter card that I`ve ever made, we never celebrate Easter, my family is scattered all over the place and most of us work over the whole Easter break so it`s difficult to get together to celebrate. Having said that, my Aunt and Uncle send us an Easter card every year, it is the only one we ever receive so this year I thought I`d surprise them and send one back !
I`ve used the lovely LOTV bunny on a swing image for this one, it`s so cute and reminds me that better weather is on its way ! I`ve coloured with distress, the backing papers are Henbury Lane from Do Crafts and Magnolia. The ribbon is one I`ve had for ages from Trimcraft, the flowers are Prima and the leaves are cut from Bo Bunny paper using BossKut daisy leaves die. The sentiment is Magnolia from last years Easter collection and the corners are an SU punch.

I`d like to enter this one in the latest LOTV challenge number 90, this time the theme is "Spring" .

I`m hoping the weather forcast was right today and it is going to be a warmer day as I need to clean my car, a job I hate but have put off for far too long ! ( I`d much rather be crafting !) LOL
Thanks for visiting , bye for now and Happy crafting xx

Happy Mother`s Day

This is the card I made for my Mum for Mother`s Day today. She is a fantastic cook and loves to bake especially cakes and cupcakes so when I saw these new LOTV images I just had to have them. I had a lot of fun making the card as these images just make me smile and Mum loved it too !




I have coloured the images with distress inks, the backing paper is MME pretty Please - blossoms, which is my favourite paper at the moment, I used this for my last project too but I`ve only got one sheet left now !
The punch is the much loved Martha Stewart " Doily Lace " and the lace I got from the Ribbon Box at the NEC a last week. Flowers are a mixture of Prima and Carnmeal cottage and the leaf is the Ash Branch punch available from Sir Stampalot.
The little " MUM " plaque is made from oval and scallop oval nesties and the MUM was cut from Sizzix extended strip Wingo Zingo alphabet.





I added a little SU dazzling Diamonds glitter to the icing sugar and Glossy Accents to the bakeware, jam jar, cherry and egg to give a bit of dimension and texture to the images.
Well I`m off to cook dinner for Mum now, as it`s her day today I`ve been spoiling her, I even did all the ironing for her this morning ! Now THAT is love !!! LOL

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

Taken Flight

I made this card as a project to show my friend Jeanne some ideas of how to use this Marianne Bird cage die. She and another of my friends Jane came to my house for a craft session recently and she had bought this die at the NEC but was unsure of what to do with it. I cut one out of plain white hammered card stock and I`ve sponged various distress inks and pigment inks on with cut and dry foam to give a kind of Verdigris effect, like the sort of effect you get when copper goes green with age. I wasn`t entirely happy with the colour but I did find some papers in my stash to match so it worked out okay.


The papers I have used are BoBunny back to basics - Island mist double dot and MME pretty please - Blossoms. The flourish stamps are ones I bought from Sir Stampalot a while ago and I cannot remember for the life of me what they are called but you get 9 different flourish clear stamps in the set and they are FAB.
This is an unusual colour combo for me and not my normal type of card to make but I have to admit I love this die and will purchase one myself, it is also available from Sir Stampalot.



I ran a matching strip of the Bazzill Bling cardstock through Birds and Swirls Cuttlebug embossing folder and added some diamond stickles to highlight some of the raised areas. The flowers are from a great company called Carnmeal cottage who stock all kinds of flowers and ribbon and wedding favour bits and pieces, great range and good price to.



The sentiment is from a set of Inkylicious clear stamps " flight of dreams " that I purchased at the NEC last year.
Now I must take flight as I`ve promised Mum a trip to a nursery garden to get some plants for her garden today, it talks of being a sunny day today although there is no sign of the sun so far ! Maybe it`ll brighten up later.
Bye for now and happy crafting xxx

A Friendship Recipe

This is a card I`ve made for my friend Jane who`s birthday it is today. I`ve used one of the new LOTV stamps that I purchased at the NEC last Thursday. I`ve coloured the image with distress inks, the backing paper is SU and the punch is Martha Stewart Doily Lace. The ribbon is plain satin that I`ve just ruffled onto a strip of double sided tape and I made the cupcake embellishment using SU scallop and tag punches.
The NEC was a fab experience, this is the first time I`d gone to the spring show, I usually just make a once a year pilgrimage in November but I`ll deffinately go again next spring. It was great to finally meet Monica Gale who is a SU demonstrator who`s blog I`ve been following for ages, she`s a lovely lady and it was brilliant to meet her in person.
I probably spent way too much but I am a lost cause especially when it comes to stamps LOL ! I also stocked up on some essentials as well as some lovely new ribbon and embellies.
Well, I`m off to drop Jane`s card and prezzie round to her now, thanks for visiting, bye for now and happy crafting xxx

Fluffy Cat !

This is a folded card sample I`ve done for my friend Kay Rutter to showcase the different folds you can create on her " Hougie Board " for those of you who haven`t got one of these tools I would highly recommend it. I`ve never been one for score boards so when she sent me one and asked me to create some samples for her, I had a play around with some existing folded card projects and found it so much easier to measure and fold them using this board, with inches on one side and centimetres on the other it is a fab tool and one I will continue to use again and again. She has converted me into a score board user !

I have no idea what the name for this fold is, I just call it a front centre panel card but it`s a very versatile fold.
The image and sentiment are from Penny Black which I got from the NEC last November and I`ve coloured using distress inks.
The backing paper is from Die Cuts With a View - Cat, Scrapbook in a stack. The flowers are Prima, the punch is Woodware and the linen thread for the banner is SU.
Just a simple little card this time, not too embellished which is a first for me LOL ! but as it`s a sample, I thought it best to keep it simple.

I`m off to the NEC tomorrow, I`ve never been to the spring show before so I`m looking forward to it, ( my wallet isn`t !! )
I have my eye on some of the new LOTV stamps so that will be my first stop as soon as I get there, after I`ve visited Kay`s stand and dropped off the samples I`ve done for her !
I`ll be busy over the weekend "playing" with my new stash, It`s a hard life for a crafter but I`m sure I`ll cope ! LOL,
bye for now and happy crafting xxx