A Pink Princess

Hi crafty friends,

At the beginning of July, Hannah (my daughter) joined the design team at 'The Paper Variety'challenge blog and I thought I would play along this week as they have a tic tac toe board to work from .... I hope family members can play along too?
I also combined this with the CASual fridays challenge which is to make very CAS design on a 4 x 9 card, and how about this  .... this weeks sponsor is Lawn Fawn , one of my fave companies although I decided to not use LF stamps on my card :)

This is so not like me to make a girly card, but I've had this idea for a while in my head since I picked the Studio G crown stamp up for a pound at Hobbycraft :)
I'd also like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to Mr Tim Holtz for having the genius idea to drill a row of holes on a gridded acrylic ruler, it makes hand-stitching straight lines so much easier :)

I've added beads and gems to the stitched background and the crown for a little sparkle and dimension, here's a close up ...

Here's the Tic Tac Toe board over at The Paper Variety, I've used PINK, STITCHING and CARD ( obviously!) the challenge is open until Tuesday ...go check it out :)

Yesterday, in the glorious sunshine, we put our tent up on a trial run for a camping weekend we have planned and also to check the mice in the loft haven't used it as a comfy nest over the winter ...I'm pleased to say they haven't :)
I'm glad we took it down again last evening tho as it looks like a scorcher today, not the weather to be in a tent in !!!

Please check back tomorrow as I have my first card to show you as a design team member at St Lukes Charity Card Challenge, until then, thanks for looking and enjoy the rest of the weekend X

Busy making gifts

Hi Everyone ,

Sorry to have not been around , Ive been busy being the perfect hostess for my Mother in Law and cramming in some last minute gift crafting . I'm not overly good at getting prepared early so Thursday eve saw me rushing to wrap some boxes of chocs for James' class staff and decorate them ....

I used brown parcel paper to wrap the boxes and then decorated a sleeve to go round them ... just sweet and simple I think and they appreciated the gifts too  :)

I've also been altering a jute shopping bag as a gift bag for my Sister-in-law as we are going to her birthday get-together tomorrow. She and her husband are in the process of emigrating to New Zealand for a couple of years so I decided to buy some luxury edible pressies instead of another thing to add to the baggage of moving and this is the bag I decorated to put them in ....

Having lived and worked in Canada for a good part of her life I had to put a Polar Bear or a Moose on the bag so I went with a more colourful scene other than white!!!

I've used scraps of material to make up the picture that have been sewn with my machine and then stuck onto the bag with book binding glue . Everything apart from the moose and the grass is hand cut out of material scraps which have been backed with Vlieseline to stop it fraying . The moose is cut from a pattern off the cricut machine and the grass is a sizzix die

Do you like the snow capped mountains and the swampy lake in the background? It has taken the best part of a day to make but I've really enjoyed it and what a useful gift bag too :)

I'm going to pop over and add this to a blog I've heard about called Passionately Artistic which allows you to link up your crafty projects and see other creations made by some very talented people too...do go and have a look :)

My other bit of news is that I've been asked to join the design team at St Lukes Charity Card challenge by Tara from August onwards and I'm delighted to say that I said yes ... it's for such a great cause :)

It's a monthly card-making challenge with prizes and the hospice benefits by you kindly donating the cards you make so they can be sold to raise vital funds for the work that they do for the patients and their families , of course this is not obligatory to join in with the challenges but the more cards sent in the more money will be raised . Please hop over to the blog and see why this challenge was personally set up by Tara .

Thanks for stopping by....normal crafty service will resume next week X





A late lullaby

Hi everyone ,

Maybe this is an indication of how I run my life but I seem to have missed the deadline on the Tuesday Trigger at Moxie Fab World , I thought the clue was in the title but the deadline was Sunday 26th :(

Hey ho I'll show you it anyway because I used my new sewing machine for the first time on paper having practised a bit on material first .

I have been quite literal with the photo inspiration and I'm quite chuffed with the sewing although I need to focus on straight lines now I think .... yep I went round twice so as the wonky lines looked intentional :)





It has been way too hot today ..... I like a bit of summer weather but this is the extreme and my craft room is like an oven , lets hope the storm arrives to break the heat .

Bye for now and thanks for visiting X

Less is More#16 - Butterflies and the PDC

Morning Everyone ,

This weeks theme challenge over at LIM is Butterfly/Butterflies .... sounds easy but that depends on how many variations of butterfly punches or stamps you have , and in my case not many.

I turned to my recently acquired Martha Stewart punch and the colour combination  red , black and white popped into my head for some reason and this is what I came up with

The text is a Waltzing Mouse stamp and I've embossed it in black ...... yes , I returned to the embossing powder after last weeks revival , and then embossed the greeting onto a piece of white vellum to wrap around the card .
I pricked the spiral from a template and hand stitched it with white thread before adding the butterflies , which have tiny bugle beads for bodies .

The red card is then mounted onto a white card blank and both are edged with black distress ink to make them pop .
I had inner arguments over the number of butterflies to add but settled with three as it seemed too over crowded with more .

My daughter has been inspired to play along this week , she's been crafting to give her a break from studying for AS exams , she'll post hers later in the week . I think this will be a popular challenge this week as butterflies are always a favourite on cards , so pop over to see the entries and play along too .... the details are here .

I also made a card for the Play Date Cafe as I really like the colour combo this week and I had an idea how to use the Paper Smooches stamp set again

I just love that little element in the stamp set , I wasn't sure what it was supposed to be at first , but I noticed it made quite a cute little chick , so I popped him in a nest for a new baby card . The nest is made from stamping the little fir branch over and over and cutting into shape .
Just love this new stamp set :)

Thank you so much for stopping by and sorry for the long post 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

A Patriotic Scrap Map Saturday

Good Morning everyone ,

This weeks scrap map sketch at Creative Craft World is the theme of red ,white and blue as it's St Georges day and in honour of the forthcoming marriage of William and Kate .

My page jumps back to 1978 and the Queens Silver Jubilee street party in our little cul-de-sac .

I was only five and the pictures show me in the fancy dress competition as the Queen of Hearts complete with my plate of real homemade jam tarts . As was many of my clothes from this era , the  costume was all handmade by my mum and she still has many of them today which my two have enjoyed dressing up in over the years as well . I'm pretty sure I won first place , with a costume like that on the Queens Jubilee I suppose it was inevitable really :)

I decided to give the whole LO a distressed vintage look including the hand cut pieces of the patchwork Union Jack , and I added some scruffy sewing too ..... a lot easier than neat sewing !

The bunting is Maya Road chipboard with sticky back canvas layered on top which has been stamped and coloured with chalk ink .

Hop over to the CCW blog to see the sketch and join us in the run up to the big day on Friday .

Thanks for looking and hope you enjoy the rest of the weekend in these barmy temperatures X

Scrap map Saturday- In the allotment

Hi Everyone ,

This is my page for this weeks sketch at Creative Craft World, and this week it's the turn of the boys for a fun page and a great sketch it is too .

Last weekend we started planting potatoes , onion sets and other seeds in our allotment and James was keen to help so I had to get the camera out too . He enjoys helping if it's not too complicated but expects things to grow very quickly .... like overnight !!
I thought I would use the large circle in the sketch to make a large onion half which I have added chalk and stitching too to highlight the rings .

My journalling seed packet replaces one of the photos and I've matted a round photo onto some hessian too . Thought I'd keep it bold and simple this week :)

I have been invited to be Guest Designer this month at CCW and this is my first page for April . I was delighted to be asked and I'm sure I'll enjoy working with Lou and her team .

The sketch challenges are open until the end of the month and they're a friendly team who actually visit you blog and appreciate you taking part so pop over and join in the scrapping fun .

Thanks for looking and leaving any comments , I really appreciate it 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

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

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 .

A Vintage Page

Hi everyone, here's my latest page which I'm entering into sketch 226 over at pencil lines, just in the nick of time as I think submissions close tomorrow.

The Sketch

I have scrapped a very old photograph of my grandparents before they were married so around 1945. My Nan died at the beginning of this year and all these photos have now come to light, she was one for looking forward not dwelling on the past as she had overcome her fair share of tragedies over the years. The only thing is that some of the photos have no date or names on the back so they need researching further.

This is a new style of page for me and I really wanted to try stitching between the patterned papers but it had to be done by hand as we don't own a sewing machine yet! It also made a change to use floral papers, something I don't use much of usually.

I'm pleased how it turned out and hope you like it too x
Thanks for looking :) 

An Altered Jute Bag

For my Mum's birthday yesterday we gave her some bits and pieces for her garden so I thought it would be nicer to put them in a jute bag (only £1.99).

 Later that day I wondered how I could decorate the bag to make it more individual.
So using a Sizzix die I cut four trees from brown mix material and then again with green felt/material and hand stitched the green tops to the brown bases.

I also hand stitched round two strips of green material for the grass and cut out birds from black felt. I used book binding glue to stick all the pieces onto the bag as I thought this would be easier than sewing through the plastic backed jute.

I'm pleased with how it turned out as sewing is not my 'thing' really, and  mum was thrilled with it too as she has an individual shopping bag now. Hope you like it too.