Punches or Dies

I just love Fridays... it's nearly the weekend and a new challenge over at CASual Fridays... Yay!! ....and this week we are getting 'Punchy'......but with the flood of wonderful dies 

onto the craft market we are allowing you to use them too :0)

Our sponsor this week is one of my favourite stamp companies...Lawn Fawn, and the Girl Fridays have all been given a stamp set to play with but you can use any product on your cards as long as we can see those punched or die cut shapes or borders :0)

For my card I used Bon Voyage and Bannerific with the sentiment from Flying By...

as I said yesterday I seem to have a thing about skies and clouds at the moment, us Brits have an obsession with the weather!!! Lol

It was a pure chance that the banner fits perfectly across the shaped 

aperture, looks like it was meant to be :0)

Please go over to the CASual Fridays blog to see the Fawn-tastic prize this week and take in the creations from the rest of the Girl Fridays too, you wont be disappointed :0)

We look forward to seeing your projects in the gallery and don't forget to check out the Happy Hour post later to see last weeks winners :0)

Thanks for looking

Jenny x

Stamps : Bannerific, Bon Voyage, Flying By - Lawn Fawn

Dies : Clouds - MFT Dienamics , 

          Nestabilities Reverse Wonky Rectangle,

          Cloud Impression plate- Taylored Expressions

A Purrfect Day

I've decided the sketch at Less is More this week is my favourite CAS sketch, it has so many possibilities... more than I have time to make but my head is spinning with ideas, I just haven't had the time this week to get them all onto card!!

I have, however, managed one extra card and have used a couple of Melania Deasy's new digi stamps... they are from her newest set called 'Little Mao' and are available here, the set is very cute and includes a few accessories for Mao to play with, Melania has made some gorgeous cards to show you how they can be used..... in fact if you hurry you are still in with a chance of winning the new set by leaving a comment on her blog :0)

Little Mao and his ball of wool are coloured with Promarkers and then fussy cut before placing them inside the circle frame. I coloured a piece of white twine with the matching colour Promarker just to give the image a bit of texture and dimension...... pretty CAS and simple, that's how I like it :0)


It's a short post from me today because I'm back tomorrow with my first Girl Friday post for a special birthday week at CASual Fridays and then Saturday with my Make the Day special project... quick news flash  to say that Emily has the new papers and twines from Lawn Fawn in stock now at Make the Day Special, just find them under the Lawn Fawn section.... of course!!

See you tomorrow :0)
Jenny x

A Belated Birthday!!

Yay for the weekend!!! :0)... lets hope we can see a bit more of Mr Blue Sky than we did in the week! I know we need the rain but this girl needs to get the washing dry too!!

Anyhow today I'm sharing a card I've made using Lawn Fawn Stamps for the current challenge at the Lawnscaping blog and for my regular spot over at the Make the Day Special blog.

The theme of the challenge is to 'Stamp a Scene' and I've adapted a couple of stamps to make my scene....

A couple of weeks ago I received some of the newest Lawn Fawn stamps which always opens up opportunities to use the older images in different ways. 

I thought this chilled out little tortoise would be a great reason for a belated birthday card, he's from the set called 'On the Mend' and he should have a poltice on his back but by carefully inking him and filling in his missing shell he's become the late sender of the birthday card instead!!

The flowering shrub is the tree top from 'Critters in the Burbs'... I've cut it in half so it would peek out further from behind the mail box.... I just love this cute little scene :0)

Thanks for stopping by today :0)
Jenny x


Stamp sets used: You've got mail, On the mend, Jessie's ABC, Bon Voyage and Critters in the Burbs.
Paper : Lawn Fawn 'Bright Side' 6x6 pad

New Digi stamps and a Giveaway :0)

Whoo Hoooo

Today's an exciting day for my blog pal Melania Deasy who is launching her new digi stamps ' Aero Boy' which is a set of the cutest images you've seen, I was so thrilled when Melania asked me to make a couple of cards using these adorable images, she's such a brilliant designer and an amazing artist too!!
If you love or need to make cards for the small guy in your life then these will be just great but don't just keep them for the boys, with thirteen images in the set and five sentiments, the possibilities are endless!!

So before you hop over to Melania's blog to see the whole set and take part in a giveaway...yep I said GIVEAWAY :0)...come and see how versatile these cute little characters are....

I just love this little guy in his plane and felt he definitely needed to be airborne on my card so I used a thin acetate strip to dangle him on and do you see the subtle blue background is a home-made bkgd paper using the solid plane image... unfortunately its so subtle it didn't photograph very well but I think you can make it out!!

This little guy and his parachute just begged to be printed and coloured, I love the fluffy white clouds and the fun sentiment in the set too :0)

Now all you need to do is hop over to Melania's blog to see the whole set and leave her some love... oh and did I mention a GIVEAWAY?...... yup, that's okay then, just making sure :0)

Thanks for stopping by
Jenny x

Another Tuneful Card

Hi everyone

You can tell its the Easter break because it's gone quiet on here after last weeks flurry of cards...there's no way I can keep that creativity up when the house is not my own!!!
Seems I've been making this card for days now but in reality I only started it yesterday, its another card for the CASual Fridays Challenge 'Name that Tune'.
This time the song doesn't have such a tenuous link with the card compared to the last one, although I'm still not sure I've grasped the right idea for this challenge but here we go....

Have you guessed yet?....... No!... it's not 'The animals went in two by two' although that would be quite good but too obvious!
The inspiration was 'The Flood' by Take That or Katie Mellua if you prefer a different song with the same title. Here's the link to Take That's video on You Tube :0)

Must say it was good to get the Promarkers in action again for this gorgeous image by Jane of Jane's Doodles.... I've been eyeing up the stamp for a while but was thrilled to find it among her digi stamps at Sqigglefly, ..... thrilled because I needed it quickly :0)
The button and waves are dienamics dies and the font is by Lawn Fawn - Claire's ABC's
I'm also entering this into Simon Says Stamp Challenge which is using your favourite tools and Promarkers are fast becoming my best friend although everytime I use them I need to add more colours to my collection!!!

Sorry it's a short post, I'll be back later with another card for the Paper Smooches Sparks challenge before it closes tonight!!
Thanks for looking:0)
Jenny x

Snow Much Fun!!

I've been having fun playing with my Lawn Fawn stamps for this weeks challenge at the Lawnscaping blog which is all about THANKS, although Lawn Fawn stamps are great for CAS cards I do love to make up little scenes with some of the cute characters and that's exactly what I did for this card.....

We've caught our chilly friends putting up a THANKS bunting.... love the little penguin sitting on Dad's shoulders!

At last we have a bit of sun here so it's get out in the garden time as well as wall to wall washing because it may have a chance to dry this weekend!!

Sorry for the short post...back again soon :)
Thanks for looking X

Lawn fawn Stamps : 'Critters in the snow'  'Lunar lights'  'Jessie's ABC'  
Dienamics Dies :  Icicle Border, Mini Pennant   
Coloured with Promarkers

All Heart

Yikes ..... not only is it one layer week at Less is More but you have to use Heart(s) in your design too!!!!

Now I'm not a sloppy romantic or frilly hearts kinda gal and my stamp collection sort of mirrors that so any hearts I have are little hearts that are extras in stamp sets. After deliberating over the weekend I turned to my Paper Smooches stamps and a good old fashioned play on words ....

I had a test run on scrap paper to get the spacing right on the pencil line heart before stamping on the card base and colouring with Promarkers. I thought a touch of glitter would give a bit of dimension too....STOP PRESS.... yep, I chose to use glitter!!!

I haven't had the pleasure of playing with my Paper Smooches stamps recently and it was great fun to get them inky again, the cute little sweetie was from the sugar rush stamp set and the sentiment is made from the alphadot set...... in fact Emily at 'Make the Day Special' has the whole range of Paper Smooches sets in including the new October release sets. I have no connection with the website, just thought I'd remind you that they are available to buy in the UK now :)

Well the weather here is decidedly rough today and I'm just wondering if I peg the duvet cover out I'll have to go into the village to fetch it back later!!! One of the perils of being open to the fields I guess ....... at least it's not raining too .... yet!

Thanks for looking X

Something that Moves

I finally got round to making my Less is More card, I haven't missed a week since I joined on week two and didn't want to falter now!

This weeks theme is

 Things That Move

 which could be an actual moving component

 or an image of something that moves.



Given more time I would have loved to try and make a slider or pop up card but seeing as we are at the end of the week now I've opted for an image of a scooter .... a Spiffy Scooter to be precise ....

This Paper Smooches set has not had much use yet and is perfect for a moving object as well as fitting with a couple of other challenges too :)

The Polaroid frame is from a Lawn fawn set called 'Say Cheese' and I decided to distress and ink the edges to give an aged appearance, the sentiment is from a different LF set called 'Cruising Through Life' .... who'd have guessed???

 

Oh and by the way I promised to let you know when Emily at Make The Day Special had Paper Smooches in stock, well she has now and is also waiting for the newest Lawn Fawn stamp sets too .... it's so good to be able to buy these fab stamp sets over here now :)

I'm also entering this card into the Wee Memories challenge #64 as they require a Masculine card and I reckon this could make a good valentines or anniversary card for a guy????

..... and with some amazing planning and fore thought this also fits nicely in with the travel theme over at The Paper Variety too!

 .... oh and The Paper Variety are having their first birthday celebrations starting on the 7th September with lots of giveaways and competitions so pop over here and find out what it's all about .... you might even spot Hannah, she's on the design team :)

You are in with a chance of winning a prize just by displaying this blinkie on your side bar and spreading the word, go grab it from this post here.

I have not had a chance to visit all the other Limettes blogs yet but I will get round to that later today .... still playing catch-up after our weekend away :)

Cheerio and thanks for looking X

Once more at the beach!

Hi everyone,

If this scheduled post works I will currently be heading to a fun attraction in Norfolk .... like a Maize maze or the beach .... but more than likely sitting looking at the rain pouring down !

So to completely jinx the weather I thought I would post a card suitable for the St Luke's Charity Card Challenge and remind you that you still have time to enter this month with a seaside theme card

(please note - I will not be wearing or using any of the items below on a Norfolk beach!!!)

I've used my newest Lawn fawn set with a stamp and mask that I bought ages ago. The stamp prints the dots to look like the perforations between a set of postage stamps and the mask allows you to stamp or add background but leave a narrow border around each section , I have no idea who the company was that I bought it from as it was a local stamp fayre, but it hasn't seen much ink over the years so I'm pleased to use it at last !

Please join us over a St Luke's Charity Card Challenge , enter a card and spread the word ... it's for a really good cause :)

Thanks for looking and I'll catch up in the week X

Go Westie

I find a simple sketch is sometimes all you need to get you routing about in old stash for a stamp set you haven't used in a while .....

.... and the 'Lucy Loves Lines' sketch over at Lily pad cards did just that :)

I just love this stamp from Little Claire Designs and it actually stamps as a 9 square grid so I've cut out 5 images, popped up the little westies for dimension then added a piece of faux red leather collar instead of a ribbon tab, as per the sketch .

I'm quite pleased with the linen card base which I thought was too flimsy to do the job but with it being a small narrow card base  (A5 folded length-ways) it stands very well :)

That's all from me today .... I've been busy tidying the blog up and finally learnt how to add extra pages, now I can feel a headache coming on so I've probably been looking at the screen too long :(

Don't forget to check out the "Less is More" blog in the morning , it's a lucky dip week being the 5th Saturday of the month :)

Thanks for visiting  X 

A Paper Smooches Christmas Card

Hi Everyone,


Well the time has come for my last Guest Design post for Paper Smooches and I've had a fab time working with Kim, she's so welcoming and an immensely talented artist as well:)


As I said on Monday, I think this has to be my personal favourite of this months PS cards, although I didn't plan it that way .... on this Christmas card Santa has a new helper, and he's in disguise, let's see who it is ....

.... do you think he'll spot that a daxie has infiltrated the reindeer herd?? with his tie on antlers (see the little bow under his chin) which are pieces of seaweed from 'Surf n Turf' and a red nose which is a cherry from 'Sugar Rush'  !

Santa has two sacks of toys by his side which are actually the wing from the pelican in 'Surf n Turf' and if you look inside the card ...

... you'll see Santa has obviously spotted the imposter and left him a bone in his stocking instead of a carrot :)

Now onto the Paper Smooch Stamp giveaway and the winners are

For the Spiffy Scooters Set

The random number generator drew ......... Tracy.

For the Swanky Snowdudes

The random number generator drew ....... Sue.

And finally, for the Word Up set

The random number generator drew ...... Karen Aicken.

Well done ladies, if you could please leave me a comment with your email address, I can contact you and have your stamps on their way. I moderate all of my comments, so I won't publish the comment with your email address in.
Thanks so much for visiting and commenting on my Paper Smooches cards, I hope you've enjoyed them as much as I have making them.
Bye for now X

A cake shop treat

Hi everyone,


You know when you have a card idea kicking around in your mind and then a challenge comes along that you can mould it too ....... doesn't happen very often or I usually forget the idea , not this time :)

This card is for the current lawnscaping challenge

and so here's the inside too .....

..... yep trust me to think of a cake shop for a birthday card :)

I used a scallop die from MFT to make the awning front and then hand cut the rest of it. The window frames are made from a sizzlets die and then I've cut through them to make the apertures , the rest are Lawn Fawn stamps which I've coloured with promarkers and cut out. I've just noticed I've stamped the paperclip wrong ..... it doesn't look like it's clipped at all , oh well you get the idea :)

We had a lovely day out in Oxford on Wednesday looking at some of the colleges with Hannah ... oh boy  what a lot of walking, we'll have to go back again in September to look at those we couldn't get to yesterday , but Hannah really likes what she's seen so far and will definitely apply. To get an interview would be brilliant ...... to get a place offered to her would be amazing so we'll have to wait and see. Funny to think last time we all went to Oxford she was a toddler in a pushchair and now we are looking at Colleges , we should go more often but then again Cambridge is closer to us and just as lovely ..... we'll have to swap allegiance if she gets a place though :)

Well ..... the grey clouds are gathering again , best get the washing in ..... so I can put it on the ironing pile :(

Thanks for popping by today , enjoy the rest of your day X





Fun with a Free' Bee !

Hello Everyone ,

I have a fun card to share today using the FREE  'Bee' Digi stamp from Paper Smooches , available on the blog , it's a great way to start playing with the cute images drawn by Kim Hughes and being Digi they can be re-sized .

I needed to make a nest for the swarm to live in so a quick look at my stamps and the carrot from the 'Vegtastic' set jumped out at me .

I use a Memento marker pen to selectively ink the carrot without his face and top , then I used leaves to hide the un-inked edge and hung it from a branch .

The Hero Arts cloud background stamp works well with these fun images as does Kraft card .

The little bees were tricky to colour and even more of a nightmare to cut out but it was well worth all the fiddle :)

I'm so thrilled because over at Paper Smooches it's patrol day and this card is being featured

Pop over and see who else has been spotted on PS patrol too :)

Thanks so much for all your lovely comments about my cards they really make my day to read them all, glad you dropped by X

A Cas-ual sketch

It's the weekend ...... my turn to make the morning cuppa and have a little blog hop while it brews , oh and upload my latest card :)

My card this morning is another using Paper Smooches stamps and I just love trying to think of new ways to use them . This card fits in with the CAS-ual Fridays sketch this week , I've just flipped it upside down and used words instead of the trim .

I just adore this wacky little bat from the 'Falling for you' stamp set and wondered how he would look with his wings folded so he could hide .  They unfortunately have had to have there wings snipped off to create this shape but I'm sure they wont mind :)

Both fonts in the sentiment are by Kim Hughes and can be bought here , I've paper pieced 'BOO' in yellow Bazzill so as to match the bakers twine .

I'm certainly having fun with these stamps and they're great for CAS cards too  :)

Thanks for looking X

Make it special

Good morning everyone ,

..... the sun is shining and the ironing pile is growing so I decided to post a couple of cards, figure that one out !!!

This mornings card is for a couple of challenges that I've found whilst hopping about in blogland , that's what I love most about blogging , apart from seeing all your wonderful creations you gain inspiration and ideas from the challenges you come across too :)

Here's the card

I found a great picture inspiration challenge at Jay Gees Nook here which has some gorgeous images and colours to play with and as my newest Lawn Fawn stamp set has just arrived I knew what I wanted to do .

I've also followed the sketch from Lily pad cards which are running a Lawn Fawn challenge at the moment here , in fact it closes tomorrow .

I used my Houghie board to make some pleated paper and added a button tab to keep up the sewing theme even the sentiment has the word 'make' in it too ...... see , some thought has gone into this . Lol

I'd also like to share a card for my dad who retired yesterday after working for 47 years of his life ..... the last 40 being at the same company . I'm sure he'll really miss the routine but has lots of hobbies and interests to keep him occupied , I'm very proud of you Dad and here's to a happy retirement .

We had a day trip to the coast at the weekend I had the idea of writing a message in the sand and Hannah was in charge of the camera so took the picture . We had fun keeping the dog away as he thought we were playing in the sand with him and he nearly ended up in the shot a few times . I've simply matted it onto two layers of cardstock and then stuck it to a card base .

We had a great time until the Norfolk rain/mist set in for the day ..... something you get used to in that part of the country :)

That's all folks ..... better tackle the leaning tower of ironing.

Thanks for all your lovely comments on my recent posts , I really appreciate your kind words and thanks for popping by today X

Less is More #17 - Pick a square

Good evening fellow crafters ,

First of all I'd like to say Thank you again to Chrissie and Mandi for choosing my butterfly card for the spot prize last week , I can't believe mine was picked from all the excellent entries ..... I was thrilled to bits :)

..... and so onto this week at Less is More and we have a card sketch divided up into squares , we have to choose a square to base our main image in and leave the rest as white space ..... scary white space !!

I've used my new Lawn Fawn stamp set called Bon Voyage , I really love the chunky line drawn images that you can colour or paper piece in the Lawn Fawn sets , you can buy them here in the UK 

I have coloured the aeroplane with promarkers and highlighted the windows with glossy accents .
The clouds have been highlighted with stickles and promarkers to give them a bit of dimension .

Sentiment is from a Printworks set ..... which are half price at Stamp Addicts at the moment , for your information :)

This was quite a challenge for me as I would never dream of just using one corner of a card to base my main image and especially a top corner so it was good to give it a try . For details of this weeks challenge click here to visit the blog ,if your new to LIM you can still join in but you've missed some cracking challenges :)

I'm hopping over now to look at the recent entries .

Thanks for visiting me today X

Congratulations LIM

Morning everyone ,

I just had to make another card for the LIM challenge this week as the theme is Congratulations or Thanks and when I saw this stamp set in my collection an idea sprang to mind .

Not sure if I like the shortened version of 'congratulations' on a card but it's a long word to fit in if he was going to replace the 't' .
The stamp is from a clear set of Woodware stamps and I've coloured it with promarkers and layered for dimension . The letters are coloured chipboard and cut using a sizzix alphabet die.

Just thought I'd share a picture of our new feathered fluffy neighbours at the moment

A flock of Greylag geese and goslings :)  They are very wary and not easy to get close to , so this is a very cropped photo and not brilliant quality but they are just so cute . The Geese bring their goslings into the field next to us every year but are usually hidden by a growing crop ,  this year , with the dry weather we've had and a change to meadow from cereal , we can see them easily :)

Thanks for stopping by 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

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

Less is More #4

So the kids are back at school and the weather is dreary so some card-making was the order of the morning.

Week 4 at the Less is More challenge blog and this week we have to use three squares on our card. I decided to stipple three squares through a homemade acetate stencil with Tim Holtz distress ink. Then stamp, and colour with promarkers, two images from a set of clear Woodware stamps and use a sentiment from the same set on the middle square. Glossy accents highlights the cherry and chocolate sauce and a piece of ribbon with bow to finish.

I was so pleased with how this style of card came out that I made another, this time as a birthday card for my Brother-in-Law whose birthday is coming up. He's a travel fanatic so thought I could make a variation on the theme using a  Judikins cube stamp and using Kraft card.

This time I stippled arond the acetate square and mounted the images on top.

If you fancy taking up the challenge visit the blog, make a card and upload it..we're a friendly group over there and you'll find some inspiring designs and blogs too :)