Sunflowers

Found these lost in my list of posts, they're using Simon Says Stamp Summer Flowers. I used Oxides instead of actually colouring with pens or pencils.

The top one I used Simon Says Stamp Stitched Squares, a corner punch and finally the sentiment is Simon Says Stamp Birthday Messages.

This time I used Simon Says Stamp Stitched Rectangles and Bundle of Stitched Shapes. I actually stamped the background with Simon Says Stamp Good Reading Background stamp but using a torn bit of paper so it doesn't stamp across the whole rectangle, also I used the second impression because I didn't want it to stand out.

I used the Lawn Fawn Belated Birthday set to stamp my belated but the birthday sentiment is Simon Says Stamp Best Hugs.

Golden Flowers

Its been an extremely busy couple of weeks but the result is that my DD finally has moved into her flat. She may not be able to cook on her new cooker but she's happy with using the microwave at the moment. There is still tons of stuff still here but they will move when she works out the space.

I had a great time at the retreat with 10 layouts made I think possible a record for me simply haven't had time to photo them yet. I was sat with two cardmaking friends from the crop we go to each month and I'm hoping they motivated me to get started on the Christmas Cards.

I do have a card to show its a prototype for a golden wedding card using my favourite Floral Oval die from Spellbinders, the flourish is from Penny Black and the flowers embossing with gold embossing powder that I fussy cut out. I'm not sure who makes the stamps brought them from Ally Pally a few years back.

AWOL

A whole week without posting, unheard off but with nothing in my drafts and having a rotten virus which is still giving me problems.

Now I thought I had nothing in my drafts but I found this card that I made for a special friend, you can see it wasn't an ordinary birthday.

I tried to make an inky, arty card to show how I love the way my friend card makes and scrapbook after several got ditched in the bin. I salvage the numbers and made an almost white card.

My cardstock is a Linen card and I used some favourite dies, Floral Ovals from Spellbinders, Foliage from Memory Box and the Hydrangea dies from Simon Says Stamp. The centres for the flowers are Lawn Fawn mini Snowflakes and the fishtail banner is from Simon Says Stamp too.

The numbers and sentiment are matching dies and stamps from Stampin Up.

Hopefully I'm on the mend and I have actually made a card for tomorrow but was shattered afterwards so it will be a little at time.

For Mum

I saw this fabulous card on Pinterest  this is my take unfortunately there's a lot wrong with it and I'm not sure at the moment whether I will use it or not.

Things that are wrong, I folded the corner of two layers of card and thin pattern card. Trust me this doesn't work, I would have been better to cut the corners of the patterned and contrast card. Because the fold doesn't work well I couldn't get the right angle and for quickness I decided to use a peel off sentiment which now looking at it I don't like.

I like the papers which are LOTV old ones, like my La Laland corner dies and I like my butterfly. I guess I will be making another, maybe CAS.

I can tick off a couple of cards that are done for DT and I've made another male/boy card but I still have Wedding ones as well as my DT for next week. Add a busy weekend more CAS cards needed.

Birthday Wishes

Everytime I mention I'm going into my craftroom it doesn't happen so I'm not saying it now especially since I managed to get some cards done yesterday, they may be warts but at least I'm making cards that are not for DT.
I do need however to pay more attention to the sketch on the sketch challenge. This one should be for the Freshly Made Sketch but there should be strips down the side.
Oh well it gave me a starting point, I saw the Memory Box Jasper die which made me think of the sketch. Then I rediscovered the Elizabeth Craft Flowers that I rarely used.
I decided to use the Bricked embossed folder for the background and used the Simon Says Stamp Greetings and Sketchy Banners with a double layer Birthday die from Simon as well.

Mojo Monday

I thought I better schedule this its a bit of a rush on Fridays with myself off to swimming club this morning.  My card is inspired my this weeks Mojo Monday sketch but I've replaced one of the mats with the large leaves die from Simon Says Stamps but it has be chopped about to make it fit where I like it to go.
The papers were floating around my desk waiting for somewhere to go but I love this paper and I wanted to use it.
The Happy and Birthday sentiment are both from Simon Says Stamps and the background is using a large woodgrain stamp but even them I had to stamp it twice with the join hiding under the floral mat.
Of course the daisy is Upsy Daisy die from MFT.

I'm still hoping to make cards to add to the drafts for bad days but things seemed to be getting in the way. After swimming I'm framing a cross-stitch my daughter has done. Also I'm out tonight as my Stampin Up friend Nikki is doing classes at her flat and my sister and I have invited ourselves.

Absolutely

I confess I wasn't in the mood to trail through the previous challenges to join Less is More, my head just wasn't in the right place. I've done it before and all kinds of ideas popped into my head but not this week. But I had some new exclusive dies from Simon Says Stamps and when I opened my parcel and saw the Where the Heart is set and saw what should be windows I saw Flowerpots!
I thought it was brilliant that you had three windows/flowerpots so they could all be cut at the same time.
Of course you have to have flowers in your pots so I cut down the Meadow Rue to fit.
I also have the Asbsolute stamp and die set  I just continue the strip to give my flower pots an edge to sit on.
Now to stick the word down I used an Xyron which I find very handy for sticking handmade titles for scrapbooking pages but also anything fiddly to stick and if I didn't layer like I do I would even use it on flowerpots.
A tip when using the Xyron once you've run through whatever you want to stick take an embossing tool and run it around the edges and any bits inside the shape leaves a cleaner finish.
I really loved how this work but I find things I really like other don't and things I think are not so good people love!

Vintage

I simply don't understand how the pansy turned out this colour because I chose the pencils that I knew worked with the papers since I used both of them before. Whether its all the black in the images but it doesn't quite match which is a shame cos I love how it worked out.
So why have I gone a bit Vintage well its the new challenge on Everybody Art Challenge. So everything was inked but I couldn't face roughing up the papers. Added a nice bit of lace and I've used the floral oval which always gives it a bit of a vintage look.
Do pop over to check out the team and we would love for you to join us.

Too Many Pearls

I guess this is a similar layout to yesterday's card but a totally different, this was the card I made for the blue and green challenge and then realised that there was no way it was going to work for LIM.

The embossing folder is from a company called Lifestyle who I believe was Quickutz but don't hold me to that, the folder is called Whimsy and it comes in a pack of two. It has a dot on each corner that meets up and it cried out for pearls. 

I grabbed a blue bit of paper which I think is from Memory box and then the green card is from Stampin Up. The swirl is MFT and the flowers are EK Success punches and border Martha Stewart Cherish.

Well I've had a couple of pants days and my scrapbooking weekend I made one layout so much for finish Lou's wedding album and yesterday I didn't fancy cardmaking at all so rather than fight it I did some cross stitch instead.

Ooh La La girlie

OMG what a terrible Guest DT I am, I forgot to post my card for the Ooh La La Make it Girly Challenge. I feel terrible at least I already e-mailed Anne the card so it showed up on the blog.
I blame Mr Blogger well you've got to blame someone, but he had a hissy fit and my reading list disappeared, then he dared to complain that I didn't have any gallery space. So I've spent most of yesterday deleting images hopefully are not cards and duplicates to make another 10%. If you do look through old post I'm sorry but you will see some black square with a minus sign, maybe one day I'll get round to delete them properly off my blog.
I'm cross now cos I love this card and I'm thinking of giving to my Mum for her birthday at the end of July.
I've used the fab flower shoes images and printed on my cheap matt card from Staples and also used the flowers to make the corner embellishment.
I made the image quite large those flowers wouldn't be fun to cut any smaller but it did mean I could use the Romantic Rectangles and  once I've layered and mat, added the lace and ribbon, anything more would have been too much.

Pink and Black

Not sure this worked but I've used the Sketch Saturday sketch and everything was going fine till I thought to stamp my sentiment on the image mat which is why its now a punched out sentiment. Then I realised that there was a large white space under her wand so I added a flower.
Now the bottom left corner is bugging me cos its plain but I thought it was time to step away from the embellishments.
Thank you all the wishes about my injection its not too bad and it will be great if it does it magic and I might pop into my craft room later.

Boho chic

I've had some new LOTV stamps for a while but I decided to use some images I had already stamped before stamping some more, now there's another new release so I thought I better stamp them at least. I picked up a new First Edition pad called Boho Chic at Crafts U Love, theres another new one  but I could only find it in an eight inch pad and I waste so much using that size so I shall keep a look out for that one.
The sketch is from Sketch Saturday, I had to cut the sketch on a spare bit of card to make a template cos I was afraid I wouldn't get it all to match.
Flowers are my funky flower punches, the swirl is MFT and the butterflies are a Kars punch. I was disappointed that I had shaded the wrong hair bow and it meant I couldn't layer it because I wasn't sure I could remember the pencils I used since I don't use the oranges very often.

Friendship

It time for a new challenge at Everybody Art Challenge and its for Friendship. I know its another Sarah Kay but I do love them and I think this one is perfect for the challenge. I also used the PATP from Martha Stewart this is the one from QVC and I'm so please that if I cut a strip across and down, one flower wide I can make it small enough to fit a 14.5cm square. The papers are My Minds Eye one of their new packs and the lovely roses were a gift. Of course it wouldn't be finished if there wasn't a bit of ribbon and the sentiment is Craftwork cards.
Do hope you can join us this week and do check out the gorgeous creations from the team.
Not much happening this week till Saturday when I shall be going to Nikki's Stampin Up Workshop, its at Blundell Hall at Cove Farnborough, 1pm till 5pm. I've already seen the beautiful creations we will be making.

The Young Ones

The Penny Black Saturday Challenge is called The Young Ones and we would love for you to make a card for a child. In my case I decided to make a girly girl card and used  a lot of pink.
So the papers are First Edition Spring Drop and of course my stamp is Penny Black. The flowers are the EK success punches. The deep edge Doily punch from Martha Stewart made the scallop frame round my circle mats.
A bit of ribbon and a Craftwork sentiment and job done.
We would love for you to join us and we have a prize from one of sponsors for a prize.
Sorry for the short post but I'm a bit under the weather, guess I've been pushing myself too hard again and my body isn't have any of it.

Simon says For a Special Someone

When I made a boob boo the other week for Simon Says Stamps Challenge I coloured up Gretel from CC Designs just in case I had time to make another card but our lovely challenge leader altered the challenge so I waited for the Girly card challenge that I knew was coming soon.

I've also used the gorgeous Spring Drop papers from First Edition and the fence behind Gretel is a Martha Stewart Picket Fence border punch which I knew I had to use when I saw Gretel. The corners are a Cuttlebug die that comes with others but this is my all time favourite. Flowers are punches from EK success and bit of ribbon to finish.
Well we had an loads of entries for last week challenge over 1100 that is truly amazing. This weeks challenge of Mother's Day which is due in a couple of weeks here in the UK or card for a special lady hope we get just as many entries. Don't forget that if you do you're in for a chance of wining this fabulous prize and with March being National Craft Month there are some great offers in Simon Says Stamps Shop.

I managed a couple of cards yesterday just need a couple of more for the design teams then its my time to play.

sketch and stash

I've just noticed the interesting coloured ribbon seeing as its suppose to be a pretty green in real life and not the dirty looking one.
I can't believe I had this image coloured and ready to use for ages and it was only when I saw one of the DT use it with the Sketch and Stash sketch made me finally use her. So of course I used the sketch and with some Nitwits download papers. A few retro flowers and a Craftwork sentiment.
Well I had a fab time at Sir Stampalot on Friday and I met the lovely Louise from Just Love to Scrap, spent quite a few pennies and even hubby brought me a set of Francoise Read stamps.
We spent a couple of days with MIL before heading home, it will be a couple of days before I recover but I'm still on a bit of high knowing of the fab goodies I have to play with.
Today I shall settle down in a comfy chair and catch up with everyone blogs.

Papertake weekly sunday

I should be on the way home today so this will be my last schedule post and I couldn't not use the sketch from Papertake Weekly. I know my DD will love this image from Saturated Canary and I love layering the layers to bring her to life.
The papers are Kaiser and you know I love my Cuttlebug corner dies. Managed to use all three rolled roses but have managed the large one yet looked a complete mess. I the swirl die is MFT but I do have to cut this one to make it fit where I want it to go.
Sorry if my schedule posts are badly written tend to write these in a rush and forget to check for errors must do better next time.
I shall be having a extra large glass of red wine tonight to celebrate Hubby's and mine Wedding Anniversary today. It's so many now I had to think twice but its 34 years does make me chuckle when everyone thought it wouldn't last.

Card for Alex

I had to make a card for Alex, my nephew's girlfriend who was having a big birthday with a Bad Taste Party. I don't know Alex that well but she didn't struck me as a girly girl so I thought I'll make a girly girl card and use a lot of pink. I just couldn't bring myself to make a Bad Taste card so this was the closest I could get.

The adorable image is Mo's Kisses and the papers are Doodlebug, the pink flowers are EK success.

Here's a pic of Alex in one of her many outfits of the night with my nephew.

All being well I shall be in Peterborough getting ready to visit Sir Stampalot before the journey to MIL. DD is looking forward to a weekend without parents apparently we really cramp her style. We have to ring when we leave MIL I guess that will be the first time the washing up will get done this weekend.

It's my Party

Its' really hard not to like the Saturated Canary images, I've tried but they're such a challenge to layer with all the different layers and I love a challenge. Especially love this Partyhardy one with the bunting.
The papers are Country Drive from Echo Park and the flowers are of course my retro punches from EK success, the corner is a cuttlebug die.
Just a bit of ribbon to finish.
The busy week caught up with me yesterday and I had to take it easy so I would be able to go to the crop today but I managed to do a bit of colouring instead. I've been stalking craft stores waiting for the new Sarah Kays but had to strike two more off my wish list to bring the cost down but well pleased they arrived yesterday.

Pearls and lace

I  merrily made this card and just when I got ready to photo I suddenly realised that this card was for the  Penny Black Saturday Challenge and it was for Pearls and Lace and at that time there was no pearls and as for lace well I'm hoping the Memory Box border die will suffice for that. So a pearl for the flower and in the corners and on the Princesses crown, phew looks like I got away with by the skin of my teeth.
The papers are Papermania capsule ones and of course the flowers are punches and by sorting out some ribbon I discovered this perfect blue spotty one.
Looked the love cards last week so hope you can join and this week, there's a fabulous Mimi stamp to win and if you need some inspiration don't forget to check out the team.

Did you know that Mr Blogger has changed the word verification to something almost totally unreadable. If you have word verification you may find more people will comment if you didn't have it.
When you make a new blog its a default setting, you may not know you have it.  So you need to go into settings and then comments, scroll down to the word verification and just above it is the comment moderation if you're worried about spam then tick this. You can check out the comments before they publish which is what I do. When checking back just click on the comments tab and they will all be there to check.

Since moving back to my craftroom I have been so busy that I haven't been crafting but hope to remedy that today.