Mini Pop Art

Hi Folks ,
Just popping along to share with you a card I've made for OLW using Emilie's colour combination for this week .

I'm not sure how I came up with this idea only by looking through my stamps knowing I could not use layers on the card . As the stamp is small I decided to go for a small square card , first I masked a square in the centre of card base and stamped the graph background from Hero Arts . I used a homemade stencil to ink the squares and in two of them I used a mask of the mini stamp to leave white space to stamp the mini in afterwards , IYKWIM .
I used Adirondack ink pads and water brush to add colour to the minis and then used Tim Holtz bitty grunge stamps around edge of card .
I managed to get in a total inky mess and you don't want to see the back of the card.....I kept forgetting about the ink on my wipeable craft mat !!!
Haven't added a sentiment yet because I couldn't decide what to use .

As I type this my 15 yr old lad is on his way home from school in his taxi getting very excited about seeing our new washing machine we had delivered today ! Anyone would think it was Christmas day in our house this morning he was that excited......that's Autism for you , who needs toys , and I bet he'll know how to use it quicker than I do !

Thanks for looking X

Scrap Map - A girly page

Morning again ....second post today , which means the housework is being neglected again ...oh well :)

This weeks Scrap Map Challenge is a sketch and a girly theme, now because I couldn't get to the NEC this weekend I decided to do some stash shopping locally ( crafters logic ) and , amongst other things , bought the new Cosmo Cricket 'Upcycle' paper pad , the colours are fresh and bright with a bit of news print thrown in . It was the perfect choice for my page about my daughter ready to go on the first day of her work experience at a local special needs school .

Here's the sketch and LO

The journalling explains how her new shoes rubbed her feet so much the first day she could hardly walk and had to wear plasters and trainers the rest of the week !

The flower in the top right hand corner is made following this tutorial posted yesterday by Katherine on her blog so I thought I would have a go at making one for this page . I really like the rolled edges and they are simple to make , here's a couple of close ups

Thanks Kat for a great tutorial .

Pop over to the Creative Craft World blog and join in with the Challenge .

Right I have to restock the food cupboard now so Sainsburys is calling .

Thanks for looking and have a great day X

Less is More #8

Hi folks ,
Another week , another challenge and I can't wait for a Saturday morning to see the next challenge from Chrissie and Mandi at Less Is More . I make myself ponder about a possible design first as I find rushing in usually results in a rubbish card in my case .

This week we have a sketch to follow and we are to keep to a slim tall card so the proportions of the sketch are roughly the same on your card .

here are my cards ......

I have made DL cards before but recently I have subconsciously steered away from them , didn't know why , but now I do ....I find them awkward to decorate , especially in a CAS style, even with a sketch to follow. The robot card has too much white space for my liking but making the circle embellie bigger would mean losing space in the width too , I much rather the shorter slimmer second card as the proportions are better so I'm entering that one in the challenge as it's my personal favourite of the two .

The loopy wire is a Sizzix die and the phone receiver I cut freehand . I thought 'Hello' would be more usable than 'Keep in Touch' . The greeting on the robot card is 'Happy Birthday To You' but in text speak I think ! , they are a set of sentiments that match the robot stamps from Stampendous .

I must say the growing community of crafters at LIM is a wonderful source of inspiration and friendliness , the number of comments people are receiving on their challenge cards is amazing including my own so a big thank you to everyone , especially Mandi and Chrissie , it really is a lovely challenge group to be part of .
Thanks for looking X

Clean and simple summer card

Morning everyone . I hope everyone enjoyed the lovely weather at the weekend although it could have been warmer . We were out in the garden planting seed potatoes, onion sets and various other seeds in the allotment . James was helping which was a major advance for him as his concentration levels are minimal and he doesn't do dirt easily . I did take some photos which I hope to scrap soon :)

This morning I have a summery card for the Clean and Simple challenge .

This bikini die hasn't seen much use so I thought it would make a different element to use on the sketch .
I've hand stitched round the edge of the background paper and the wavy border across the card which is actually a border punch . Here is the sketch

I have also been playing around with the CAS style of card and re-discovering stash that hasn't been used for a while . I found my cuttlebug embossing border dies and decided to try them again and made this Mothers Day card .

I have read that you're best to emboss lines either side of the embossed section to cover up the lines the edge of the folder makes ....I think it works quite well . The stamp is Penny Black and I've coloured the image with distress inks and a watercolour brush and added a touch of fine glitter to lift the image , although it doesn't show on the photo well .

Hope you like them and thanks for looking and leaving comments , I really appreciate it and enjoy visiting your blogs to see what you've been up to too X

A Non-Easter, Egg card!

Hi Everyone ,
This weeks One Layer Wednesday is to use eggs on your card in any guise and not necessarily Easter themed either .

Hmmm .... as usual I do not have a stamp of any description that contains an egg image so I've had to resort to homemade stencils again , yey.
I have gone with a non -religious Easter theme but a decorated egg does feature .

The inspiration for this was a card on Mandi's blog here .
The sentiment was made on the computer and printed directly onto the card blank and that well known broken line features again .
I found an egg image on clip art and printed a few on an A4 piece of paper . I cut the image out with my knife to give me a stencil to ink through . I have used Brilliance ink so the eggs have a wonderful pearlescent shimmer .... not easy to photograph , and managed to shade them to give a bit of dimension . The decoration on the yellow egg is also stencilled from the clip art images .
Here's a photo showing most of the things I used to make the card .

Not a great photo but if you click on it you can see better ( the stencils are crumpled because they had been screwed up and binned so as not to transfer ink anywhere it shouldn't be) .
It was great fun to make as I love having to find different ways to achieve images that I haven't got in stamp form .
I think that covers everything and I hope you like it too :)

On a different note , I hope everyone is enjoying this lovely weather while it's here , lets keep our fingers crossed it lasts for the weekend .

Thanks for looking and leaving lovely comments on my blog they are much appreciated X

Scrap Map Challenge

I'm back so soon with a page for this weeks Scrap map Saturday here.
This week we have to use a landscape photo so I went very literal and scrapped a landscape photo of a landscape from our hols last year in Yorkshire .

I have turned the sketch upside down and , a first for me , .... I tried a bit of quilling (the term quilling used in the loosest sense) . The tree was inspired by the rolled paper and ribbons I see on other peoples pages .

This page was a working progress and they aren't always liked straight away but with the addition of the tree I think it's growing on me , if you pardon the pun :D
So hop on over to the blog and join in.
Thanks for looking X

Clean and Simple with pastels

Afternoon folks,

Whilst visiting blogs I see lots of different challenges to take part in .... so many it makes my head buzz , but this sketch appealed to me over at Clean and Simple so I decided to give it a go and use Emilie's colour palette this week too .

The flowers are twisted strips of satin with a gem in the middle of each and the stems are just hand cut from paper . I have stamped large polka dots onto the pink textured paper and applied a lilac ribbon before mounting onto a Champagne coloured card blank .

I should have made it a mothers day card , oh well I can always make another version :)

Thanks for looking X

Less is More #7

Morning all ,
I've got a Masculine card to share with you this morning for the weekly challenge at Less is More challenge blog .
Aren't men difficult to make cards for especially if they only have limited hobbies . I have a great stamp that I've had a while and certainly suits my hubby down to the ground !

The stamp is by Judikins, coloured with promarkers and the sentiment is made on the computer using Mandi and Chrissie's tutorial here . The font is so retro and can be found here  . I have stamped a faint cross hatch background to the image and I decided to use the great idea of a broken border around the image and I think it just connects the elements nicely .
Thank you to everyone who comments , it's so lovely to see everyone visiting lots of different blogs via the challenge site , now I'm going to have a lookie too .
Thanks for visiting x

OLW 45 - Hex signs

Hi everyone ,
Just thought I'd post this card I made for the One Layer Wednesday challenge this week here .
This week we are to take our inspiration from Hex symbols which are colourful geometric patterns found on farm buildings in Pennsylvania, read about them here .

Now my stamp collection doesn't really stretch to small solid images to make a geometric patterns so I've resorted to using punches to make stencils again and inking through them with distress inks . 

I drew two faint pencil lines across the card to find the central point and then worked from the middle outwards . It was really fun to do actually, here's a close up.

To finish off I felt it needed a border so I masked off the card centre and inked a red border .
I think it would make an eye-catching note card .
Thanks for looking X

Autumn Fungi

Hello everyone...back again , you've probably noticed I tend to craft and blog alot during the week and disappear at weekends , that's just life with a family I think , my free time is when they are at school and work :)

I have a scrapbook page to share with you today for the Saturday scrap map challenge .

The theme had to be SEASONS  ( all or one of them ) .

The pictures are taken at our local RSPB reserve where I do voluntary work so I get to take the camera along too . I had fun creating the title using two different colours to give the spotty look and glossy accents to make it stand out . The papers are Cosmo Cricket EARTH LOVE which I've kept up until now as my 'stroking  not cutting papers' but these photos just shouted out for them .



Here is the sketch 

The Scrap map challenges are now open to the end of the month so take a look and play along to... it's great for your scrapping mojo.

Each month they choose a guest designer from previous submissions and you receive a discount in there online store if your chosen so what more incentive do you need. See here.

Thanks for looking x



Once more off the edge !

Hello folks
I'm back again with another card for the LIM challenge 'off the edge' style card. My mind works overtime with these challenges and I just have to try my ideas out .

These are a set of stamps from Stampendous and the sentiment is from a different company... Woodware I think . I like the simplicity of the silhouettes but added little pink butterflies (which you can hardly see on the picture) to compliment the monochrome colours .

I'd also like to share a card I made following a colour prompt on Emilies blog here . I know bunting is in vogue at the moment and the puppet strings in the picture gave me the idea . I thought the colours would look better against the Kraft card .

I really like the minimal look and the colours work well together but not a choice I would have made myself so thanks Emilie .

Thanks for looking x

One Layer Weds

Hello again...this is my second post for today as I want to share a card with you for OLW 44 on this blog here .


This is my first go at this challenge but I have been following the weekly challenges for a while . This week we have to take inspiration from a range of images on a Pinterest board, this style of inspiration is new to me so I decided to jump in and I chose this picture which led me to this card.

Probably quite a simple one to start with but the colours and shapes just jumped out at me and this is the idea that popped into my head.
I also liked this picture which led me, again simply, to this card

 For this I had to cut my own stencil and ink through it to create the bunting flags and then added pattern on top through the same stencil . I decided to stitch between the flags (not sure if this is aloud) but I'm still not quite happy with it....thought I'd share it anyhow, you have to show your mistakes as well as your triumphs eh ?
Thanks for looking x

Less is More #6

Hello Everyone and hope you enjoyed the sunshine at the weekend if you were lucky to see some .


My Monday morning craft indulgence has led me to make cards including one for the Less is More challenge this week which is a one layer card with the design being 'off the edge'..oh and no score lines aloud .

I looked at all my flower stamps and thought no lets do something different . I've coloured the Funstamps image with Derwent Coloursoft pencils which I decided to buy after seeing the results people get with Prisma pencils , the lady in the art shop assured me these were the same as the Prisma ones .
I really liked the blending effect and I feel I may have to add more to my collection as there's nothing like a bit of colouring in :)
I wasn't sure of the placement of the sentiment but feel this looked the best position...what do you think ?
I'm loving the challenge each week as it's giving me a reason to make cards again and dig out old stamps and stash to use in a new way so thank you Mandi and Chrissie for that .
Thanks for looking and leaving a comment...if you do :)

Circles Everywhere!

Good Morning,
It's a glorious morning and the dog is waiting to go out for a walkie so I'll be quick .
This is a page I've been busy beavering away at for the Saturday Scrap map Challenge here . The sketch called for lots of circles so I decided to keep them as that and use lots of colour and texture , not usual for me as I love earthy colours more . I managed to use a piece of Kraft cardstock to keep my inner self happy :)

The photo is an old slide from our family archives that I have scanned and changed to digital and shows my brother enjoying the last piece of a banana plus skin . I love the washed out feel to these old slides/photos so was loathe to change it before printing .

My latest purchase is the Tim Holtz small rosettes die and they are just a great size , I held back from buying the first rosette die and now I'm glad I did . I stamped black dots on the larger rosette before assembling and inked the other with red ink...I think it looks like a pencil shaving :)


Well I'm off now to enjoy the sunshine, thanks for looking X

Another pastel card

Hi everyone,
A very quick blog post as I rustled up another card for the LIM pastel card challenge after finding these die cut dinosaurs in my stash.

Thought it would make a cute fun card to cut the card base into a circle . I drew on a face, doodled around the edges and added a little flower too . Something different I think!
Thanks for looking x

What Chew looking at??

Hi Everyone,
This is a page following twisted sketches challenge from last week.

The pics are our Lakeland 'Terror' called Rolo and he's enjoying a rawhide chew until I got the camera out!

I found a kit from my local craft shop that seemed to fit the page well, the papers are WRMK and the chipboard flower is My Minds Eye.

It's a simple LO and I wasn't too sure at first but I think I like it now I've looked at it again a few times.

Thanks for looking x

Less is More #5

Hello everyone
It's Pastel colours this week at Less is More challenge blog (I really look forward to seeing what the new challenge is each Saturday morning).
Most weeks Chrissie and Mandi give us mini tutorials and tips too and this week was using nestabilities dies to create a 'faux' nestie, its a great tip and one I've used on this weeks card, see the blog for more details :)

I've used a Woodware stamp set for the flowers on a rectangle of card which I've then used the faux nestie technique on. Although a bit wiggly I've lengthened the stem of the first flower onto base mat which is embossed with swiss dot folder then mounted onto yellow paper and then the card base.

Thank you to all the ladies who have left comments and have arrived here from the Challenge blog. I too enjoy visiting other participants and gaining inspiration from their cards...which leads me onto my next card (not for this weeks challenge) which came about from seeing this card last week. My nephews birthday is this week and, undecided what to use on his card, after seeing Diane's card I had a light bulb moment and made this.

With a name like Tim, I knew it would work well so thank you Diane for your inspiration.
Thanks for looking .

Beach Art

I've had a cosy productive morning in the craft room as the weather is bitter outside.

This page is for the CCW scrap map Saturday sketch challenge (that's a tongue twister if ever I said one!).
I love the challenge of using a sketch as it sometimes helps me decide on the photos or stash to use and even the colour palette sometimes!

I've used photos of my Daughter making a beach ball out of pebbles and seaweed on the beach whilst on our summer hols a couple of years ago.

The stash is part of a scrapagogo kit from last year.

The clouds are Jillibean soup canvas flowers cut in half (I can't take credit for this idea) and I made a sun from a button and hessian threads.

I have seen lots of LO's with buttons grouped in rows so I thought I would try it under my photos.

Thank you to everyone that leaves me comments, I love reading them and do my best to visit everyones blogs too. Thanks for looking x

Happy Birthday Little Brother

Just a quick post to show you the Birthday card I made for my little brother....he actually stopped being my little bruv in his teens although being a leap year baby he'll only be nine next year!
I have used a digi stamp from Bee Crafty digi downloads and coloured it using promarkers, this is my first venture into digi stamps and have found some good stamps to try out....watch this space.
Thanks for looking and hope you like it too. x