Mothers Day Duo

Hi everyone, this is gonna be super quick because it's late and I should be tucked up in bed!!!

I've been crafting this evening for Mothers Day having only just realised that I need to post my Mother-in-laws card tomorrow!! honestly.... head like a sieve!
So just to put more pressure on me I decided to use this weeks Retro Sketches for MIL's card and I'm just getting it in under the wire!!!

This card really uses up quite a few scraps, including the other half of that gingham tablecloth!, and came together quite quickly.... I love the two teacups for a Mothers Day card, we usually visit the local garden centre for a browse and a drink in the restaurant when Mum comes up to visit us so I thought it was perfect for her :0)

My Mums card is inspired by the Clean and Simple sketch this week and these fabulous digi sentiments from Pink Petticoat

Love that paper, its from 5&dime by October Afternoon..... reminds me so much of the linen you would find in our old airing cupboard :0)

Decided to make a top layer with a band for the buttons and even managed to sew relatively straight lines with my machine!!! 

Super CAS but I love it that way :0)

Right..... really need to go and get some sleep, it'll be dark glasses for me tomorrow... Lol 

See ya'round and thanks for looking :0)

Jenny x 

Dies : MFT dienamics

Patterned Paper : October afternoon

Stamps : Canvas Bkgd -Hero Arts

Sentiments : Digis from Pink Petticoat

Is Springtime here??

Well the flora and fauna here in the UK certainly thinks it is with a lot of trees in leaf bud and birds collecting nesting material!! and with the new theme at St Luke's Charity Card Challenge for March being 'Spring into Spring' you can get into the spirit too by using seasonal colours, animals or flowers on your cards :0)

For my card I have followed the sketch at Clean & Simple stamping and used scraps so I could enter a second card into Less is More this week too.

(Gee whizz, sorry this photo is so fuzzy!)

The stamps are from a Printworks set and the tulips are made from a Memory Box die but not a tulip one!!!

I've used one of the Crisp Bows...... 

the red fluted heads are made from three teardrop shapes that are the waste piece from inside the loops (I've had these saved since Christmas time) and I've used a scrap of green card to cut three more bows and trimmed the loops and ties off the straight part to use it as the stem ....the green teardrops will go in my box to be used as leaves on another project :0)

The prize this month has been so kindly donated by Waltzingmouse Stamps and its the Big Bloom Chrysanthemums and Tara also has a copy of the current Papercrafts magazine to giveaway with it.

So please do find time to join us this month and send in your entries and other cards to the address on the St Luke's blog..... all proceeds from the sale of your handmade cards goes towards the fundraising the hospice has to do to remain open and help the patients and there families, our challenge co-ordinator,Tara has first hand experience of the wonderful care they provide. Please see the St Luke's blog for all the information you need :0)

Well as I'm writing this it's the last day of February and a Leap Year day so Happy Birthday to my brother who is very much my younger bruv today having only ever had nine proper birthdays!!!...I'll show you his card at the end of the week :0)

As I've been busy in my craft room today I had the chance to take some photos of my scrap storage, as half promised, but there only small pictures "wink"

The bottom photo shows my tubs of extra die cuts and  embellishments that never got used...I love to delve in when I need inspiration for a design or colour combo. The best part is the tubs are recycled Chinese takeaway containers and who needs an excuse to have one of those..... does that count as using up your scraps too????? Lol

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you can join our challenge this month :0)

Jenny x

Clean and Simple Deer!!

Greetings peeps ..... first of all I have to let you know about a couple of new badges on my blog :)

I was so excited to have won a 'Perfect Princess' badge at Freshly Made Sketches for this card on Tuesday and then yesterday I found out I have been showcased at Less is More for this card in the 'Cocktail' week. These awards mean a lot to me in what seems to be restricted craft time at the moment .... I'm sure some little goblin has stolen a few hours out of the day since the kids went back to school !!!!

My card for this post is based on the sketch at Clean & Simple, I had plans to combine it with other challenges but time has marched on and deadlines passed me by so whilst tidying my desk this morning all these pieces came together and I decided to go it alone ...

The three deer are a memory box die cut which was a RAK from Tracy at Dies to Die For, Tracy kindly includes a selection of sample die cuts in each order to tempt you and I think it may have worked in this case :o)
The deer were just plain white so I gave them the old Versamark and silver embossing powder treatment before mounting them onto the card and die cutting a digi sentiment from Pink Petticoat with the PTI double ended banner, three little gems.....job done :o)

If you look closely there are a few bloops within the embossing resulting from a bad touch up job but I only had the one die cut!....so don't look too closely *wink*

Simon Says Stamp are playing 'anything goes' again this week for the chance to win a $50 store voucher and it's a free for all at Wee Memories , so I'll pop this in both of those Challenges too :o)

James has been so well behaved this week without big sis around, I'd even go to say he's enjoyed the extra attention  :o)
Hannah has thoroughly enjoyed her work experience in London, getting a taste of commuting on the trains although the early starts and long days are now catching up with her .... I sense a long' lay in' coming on this weekend!
Thanks for looking and hope your enjoying the half term week if you have kiddies around you X

A Card Buffet

Good Morning ,

A new month and a new challenge over at St Luke's Charity Card Challenge .... where did August go???

This month we have a Card Buffet for you to choose from ..... you can use any theme or image and use only four items from the list .... no more, no less ( you can add a focal image and sentiment too )

Here's the list :)

1. Patterned Paper     6. Flowers

2. Ribbon                  7. Punches

3. Gems                     8. Buttons

4. Pearls                    9. Embossing

5. Charms                 10. String

The prize this month is a Waltzingmouse Stamp Set called 'Wanda's Pantry'  ...what a spooktacular prize and just in time for Halloween too, so choose four items and get your crafty thinking caps on so you can join us this month :)

This is my card and I chose Ribbon, Buttons, Patterned Paper and Flowers.

I've used a dienamics die to cut the flowers in the corner of the white cardstock and placed the polka dot paper behind the apertures before adding buttons for the centres. The blue base card is over stamped with the Hero Arts Envelope Pattern background stamp and the sentiment is from a Paper Smooches set.

  

 I'm also playing along with ColourQ and Clean & Simple sketch challenge with this card, they have joined forces this week with a sketch and your choice of all the past colour combos at ColourQ.

This is the combo I went with

and here's the sketch

I hope you feel inspired to play along with us this month at St Luke's Charity Card Challenge and donating your cards too, will help raise much needed funds for the hospice. Please hop over to the blog to see all the details and read how Tara got on last weekend selling all the wonderful cards you've sent in so far :)

Thanks so much for visiting, look forward to seeing your entries this month X

A Clean and Simple Christmas card

Well this is the second card I managed to make yesterday between household jobs and trips to the computer shop! I wanted to play along with Clean & Simple stamping this week because they are joining up with Jingle Belles, a "new to me" challenge blog to get you making a Christmas card every week of the year to avoid mayhem come Christmas time ....sounds a top idea to me :)

I spied this MME Christmas paper in my off cuts box and it pretty much lead the way on my card from the colour combination to the wreath design that I cut on my Cricut machine

I tried to incorporate some smaller elements as per the sketch but felt they didn't look right so I've just left it as the wreath. The vellum wrap came about when I realised I wasn't going to be able to stamp on embossed card stock!!

I'm also entering this card into Jules Crafty Snippets Challenge as I managed to not use any new pieces of cardstock for this creation, apart from the card base of course :)

I'm looking forward to getting cracking on my Christmas stamps this year, since starting my blog and discovering my love of CAS cards I feel they will all have a new lease of life :)
I keep them in seperate boxes from the rest so it'll be like opening an early present to play with ... probably wont stop me from buying more tho!!! Lol :)

I'm hoping to make my Less is More card today ... still haven't got round to playing this week!  I'll hopefully post it tomorrow ..... Sooo many cards so little time and a busy weekend ahead again!

Thanks for your time again today, I really appreciate your comments when you visit X

Edited to add : Oh poop! I've done it again ..... I missed the Jingle Belles deadline (sigh)

CASu'whale' Fridays

I'm pleased to be joining in with Casual Fridays again this week, last week was not for me as I have no glue dots and I don't really do 'loose' glitter ..... much prefer it immersed in glue if I'm going to use it!

This week is a sketch to follow as the girls at Casual Fridays have teamed up with the Clean and Simple sketch blog.
I decided to use my new PTI set called Whale wishes that I won at A Passion for Papertrey a couple of weeks back

It's quite a simple card that came together quite quickly actually and not a lot more to say only that the waves are cut with a die-namics die, so a short and sweet post this morning so I can get James ready for a trip to the supermarket .... parental suicide or what!!

Thanks for taking the time to visit my corner of blogland today X

A Stormy Sketch and a Blog Award

Hi everyone,

Yesterday I decided to collate a few challenge sketches, colour combos and trigger pictures onto a word document and print them out, because I can then pin them up in the craft room as I always seem to forget about some challenges until they close !
As a result I was busy crafting last night and I have a card to share with you,  it's following the Clean and Simple Sketch.... a challenge I haven't played along with for ages !

This would have been great for the Lawnscaping challenge 'Stamp a Scene' but I missed that deadline yesterday, see what I mean? 
I used my two newest Lawn Fawn sets called 'Partly Cloudy' and 'Critters in the Burbs' ...... aren't they cute little characters, I just love how the brolly handle curls round the cats tail :)

I received this Blog award a few weeks back and thought it was about time to pass it on

Thank you Suzarte for handing me the award, please hop over to her blog here and you will see Suze has a 'Blogging is for Sharing' giveaway running for the next 6 months in which you could win $100 of PTI vouchers

The conditions of this award are....

1) Create a post on your blog and post the award.
2) Link back to the person who gave you the award and say if you accept.
3) Choose 3-5 of your favorite blogs to tag, link these in your post too and tell the lucky people they have won the award.

As the aim of this award is to bring unknown good blogs to light, please don't tag somebody with 3000
followers

.... so I'd like to pass this award to

Alison - Creations by Alison
Jen W - Jenerally Speaking

and
Sarah - Little Snippets

I always find this part hard, choosing people to pass the award too as I follow lots of wonderful blogs but with a few more awards to blog at some point, I'm sure I will share them with you :)

If your still with me at this point, I'll say goodbye and thanks for looking X

CAS-ual Fridays + Clean & Simple

Morning again ,

Second post of the day , but then I didn't expect to have to re-post an earlier card !

CAS-ual Fridays this week want us to use twine and buttons on our card so a few ideas sparked in my mind and when I saw the Clean & Simple sketch this week I knew how the card was going to go .

I've used green garden twine spiralled onto a piece of card to make the tree and the trunk was cut and embossed with a MFT Die namics die .

The little heart shaped button has been transformed into an apple with the addition of a leaf and the sentiment is from a Printworks set of stamps .

Not normal for me to craft on a Saturday morning but seeing as everyone else is busy in the house , I thought I'd grab some creative time :)

Check out both challenge blogs for some inspiration and hopefully you will play along too , just click on the images below .

       

Thanks for your time to visit X



Girlie Flip-Flops

Afternoon folks ,

Yesterday I decided to play a bit more with the Sizzlets footprint die that I used for my baby card (see previous post) and I cut a couple of feet from recycled paper , then I cut two pink sandals/flip-flops from a die in the same set .
Now I've always wondered if these two dies are supposed to fit together as they are the same size and shape and here is the card I made as a result of playing about with the die cuts

The feet slip nicely inside the strap and I so I decided to add some sparkle and a little flower at the toe post too . To give them a bit of dimension I then stuck them to pink funky foam and cut around using scissors to give that spongy effect to the flip-flop , which doesn't really show on the picture , but I'm sure you know what I mean .

I've followed the Clean and Simple sketch for this week and the colours suit the CR84FN challenge this week so I'm entering it in both challenges .

Thanks for stopping by today X

Less is more #13 meets Clean and Simple

Morning everyone ,

It's Lucky dip week this week at LIM , our first because April happens to fall with 5 weeks .

In celebration of the success of this great weekly challenge blog we are required to make a Thank you or Congratulations card , it certainly is great fun and inspirational taking part , and was the first challenge blog to get me started on my blog. This week Kerry is a Guest designer too so hop over and check out the blog links .

Thank you Chrissie and Mandi X

I've decided to make a Thank you card and combine the design sketch from Clean & Simple too .

The buttons are made using dies from MFT that cut and emboss the buttons at the same time . The patterned card is Pink Petticoat digi papers , I printed onto various textures of light cardstock to get different effects including off cuts of glossy photo paper to make the shiny buttons . 

I've stitched a border and then used a quikutz needle die to embellish the sentiment , which is 'Fiddle Farts Dotty Font' which I bought from Helen's blog . The colours are following Emilie's Colour Combo for this week and this is the Clean and Simple sketch .

Thanks for looking xx

Clean and Simple - Monochrome

Hello everyone

This is my card for this weeks clean and simple sketch .

It's a great sketch and I couldn't decide at first what colours to choose before settling on the monochromatic look . A bit of a texture mix too with a flocked brad, black satin paper strip and a pinhole punched paper strip ... yikes what a tongue twister that is !!!!

It's going to be another warm sunny day so whatever you are doing , hope you enjoy it :)
Thanks for stopping by X

Clean and Simple Butterflies

Hello Peeps ,
I'm back today with a card for the Clean and Simple sketch here and I've followed it quite literally with the use of butterflies . 

I've used my new and first ever butterfly die from 'My favourite Things' and I have to say they are very pretty as you get three different size butterflies on one die so good value too .


The dies are slim metal but do cut through medium weight cardstock and are supposed to go through felt and corkboard too .... I haven't tried this yet though .

The background stamp is Hero Arts 'Ledger' which has seen ink for the first time and the binder edge edge is by an EK success punch , I just love the use of faux or real stationary products in crafting :)

I'm a bit behind with crafty projects so far this week because we had a busy weekend and such glorious weather to be out in . I'm postie stalking today as he is bringing some new stamp sets that I can use on other cards .... I know I said I was going to use old stash for these card challenges but sometimes it just can't be done .

Thanks for looking , I really appreciate your time and comments .
Back Soon X

Sunshine on a rainy day

Morning Everyone ,
Not a great day weather wise but I'm assured it's going to get better so I'm bringing some sunshine on my blog this morning with this card for the clean and simple challenge .

I used my new cloud dies from My Favourite Things and just punched circles from yellow card to make the sun emerging from behind . The cardstock is by Lasting Impressions and I love it but can't find it in the uk anymore .... unless anyone knows any different , please let me know . The base card is Kraft again another favourite at the moment .

Yesterday (in the nice weather) I went on an organised trip to Stour Wood which is an RSPB reserve down near Harwich in Essex . The woodland floor is covered in Wood Anenomes and looks like snow has fallen in the spring .

It's breathtaking and photo's , especially mine, do it no justice really. This site is short lived as they will be finished in a couple of weeks and they also look there best on a sunny day , but then don't we all .

So quite a bright cheery post , lets hope it makes an impact on the weather .
Thanks for looking and all your lovely comments about my Guest design spot with CCW, its lovely to share it with you all . 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

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