Hope.......

Afternoon peeps another glorious day after the fabulous wedding, the trees in the cathedral were awe inspiring and the flowers were a beautiful abundance of greens and creams, I bet it smelt heavenly in there, unfortunately I had to work but it wasn't busy so I got to come home a little earlier to play catch up on the TV. Today I've been to my fave place.....Olney for another class with Lin who did a smidge of baby sitting as well as teaching today, gosh shes talented, the project is called Flower Power and the main feature I suppose is the metal flower using the dies from Paperartsy, there is a tutorial on Lins blog how to make the flowers .......so effective. I chose colours again that were a bit different for me.......Olive green and a lilacy pink, I must admit when I first started I thought this isn't going to work but after lots of adding paint and wiping off paint and then adding abit more if you catch my drift it kinda came together. I love the alpabet Kabuka mold that we used.....ran it through the big shot, easy peasy, added a spray paint and then used alcahol inks to take some paint off and add some ink colours. I love using sprays and its amazing how many variations of finished projects there were at the end of the class......all totally gorgeous.

Had some bad news when I got home though, unfortunately Richard didn't get an Internship at Rare after going to an interview three weeks ago.....sad, but I'm sure there were lots of other disappointed candidates as well, on the plus side at least I can start looking for a holiday as we had put it off just in case he managed to get a placement. Oh well I'm off for  few more days yet so I can get my melt pot out again and have another play.......yay.

Have a lovely weekend and bank holiday

hugs

Red and Gold.......

Had a day off from gardening today being as it was hubbys birthday......well I didn't want to over work him, thought he deserved a rest so it was off to the gardening centre for a bit of retail therapy and a play on the playground with Ethan. Thought I'd join in the challenge at Gingersnap Creations this week, so I created this tag to fit the theme there .......red and gold with an oriental theme.I stamped the blossom stamp and bird with gold dabber, the geisha image was a freebie stamp from Craft Stamper. The fan stamp is from B Line wich I embossed in gold and then coloured the background in with a red sakura pen for a smidge more bling, I then scored lines on the back for the folds adding a mini tassel I made from gold thread.
Challenges
Gingersnap Creations.......red and gol.
Moving Along With The Times.....anything goes.
Simon Says.....anything goes with a blog hop.
Hope you all have a wonderful day tomorrow watching the wedding on TV, some of us are having to work, so I guess it might be repeated later on in the day.......lol.so I'll catch up with the events later, I'm planning on having some bunting hung up and I'll probably crack open a box of chocs to share with anyone who comes into the shop, and if no one does I guess I'll just have to eat them all.....................have fun.

Panic over.......

Phew I nearly went into melt down when I opened my melt pot yesterday (pardon the pun) I wasn't expecting it to have a european plug on it,so after searching for a new plug I snipped the original one off and rewired it .....I know I'm not a qualified electrician but I remember from school brown to the right and blue to left and the other one straight up, my son did help a smidge, well I let him for a treat....lol, ok the plugs on and its cooking away, and I poured some gold into my little eiffel tower mould I've had for a while, I dusted the mould with rust perfect pearls and then rubbed some gold wax on parts of it for highlights.....I'm thrilled to bits with the result so I made 6.....well it a nice round number, I know you'll get fed up seeing these charms on everything but I'm lovin' them, I also had a go at moulding my own.......its the pink rose, this time I used pearl utee and again dusted it in rust which is more pink than rusty looking......I've started off small but I'm going to play again and try stamping into utee the next time.
I'm not sure what todays project is going to end up a.......might be an album cover or a card. The background paper is from craft works, the stamps used are from crafty Individuals and the sentiment .....which is so apt for me as I can never work out when to stop putting embellishments on and the french clothing label under the eiffel tower are from Paperartsy. I used a Kabuka mold for the dress form which I then alcohol inked. I have inset the charm as its the challenge over at Lindas Grungy Monday, if you want the deets click here, I didn't have any foam so I used a piece of corrugated card......my bit of recycling for the week.

Challenges

Simon says stamp and show .....some buttons.

Grungy Monday.......A new Dimension.

Moving along with the times.....recycle (corrugated card for the background),

Lets Ink It Up....stitching, the buttons are stitched onto the cards.

Have a great day

hugs

Sketch N Stash..................

Morning peeps....its Monday and firstly its time for another challenge at Sketch N Stash, where you get to follow a great sketch this week and tell us which is your oldest or newsest stash......cos we're nosy like that, you could use both for my card the ribbon is my oldest which if my memory serves me right is from MME from last year and the papers are from the new delish range called Up Up and Away from First Addition by Trimcraft you get glittery embossed papers and some plainer doubled sided ones that co-ordinate beautifully. Secondly I don't have  to go to work either so I can play to hearts content, I'm gonna break out my melt pot today as its been gathering dust since Christmas, and I might just have an hour in the garden again....I don't know why I started this mamouth task....well I do my neighbour at the bottom of the garden decided to build a wall a foot higher than our 6' fence and it looked hideous so I took my pergola down which needed doing but hadn't planned on doing this year, so I could put up a new fence to hide the back of is wall, why he needed a 7' wall is beyond me but never mind at least its kick started us into remodeling the garden which will be more Ethan friendly when finished......gosh I am rambling on today....back to the card I made for this weeks challenge,

I've used another of those sweet Bo Teddy images, its the hats, theyre so cool. The sketch this week is open for you to pick one from the previous weeks so have a rummage through and see what you can find, I used sketch no 7, the squares turned out slightly larger than anticipated....must measure more acurately next time. The flowers are from Wild Orchid CraftsHobby. The image has been coloured with my fave paints twinkling h20s and the bear has been coloured in with prisma pencils, I like the contrast between matt and shiny using the two colouring mediums

Challenges
Bo Teddy ......use at tag.
ABC challenge....S for sparkle.
C.R.A.F.T flowers.
Just for Fun....squares.
Stamp something flowers , button and sparkle.
Totally gorjuss.....bling it on.
CES....spring colous or image.

                                               Have a lovely day...catch ya later



Easter wishes......

Morning peeps, hope the Easter Bunny has left you lots of yummy chocolate eggs to munch on, I know a couple of girls that will be having chocolate for breakfast because they gave it up for Lent......perhaps I should do it next year as I've put on too much weight since Christmas....diet starts soon.....lol. We're having an Easter egg hunt later on when my grandson comes round so that should be fun as everyone can join in tearing round the house looking for lots of eggs that I've hidden.....not much point cleaning up this morning so I'll take it easy.......as if with, the garden looking a mess still.
Todays card is a golden confection of lots of techniques mixed together in a big pot and baked with a heat gun until finished ......nearly a week of trying to kick start my mojo actually, as I've been totally pooped after work each day......I must have iced names on hundreds of eggs , I just hope that they got delivered by the Easter Bunny ok as its been a scorcher of a week.......would you believe that some customers complained because they'd left their eggs in the car and they'd melted.......I don't know why that would happen.!!!

I have used a peel off for the butterfly and rubbed gilding flakes into the background, the key has been embossed .....the stamp is from B Line, the metal bookplate is from the new dies from T. Holtz, I think this one will get alot of use as the ornate plates are quite expensive so I shall be making lots of metal ones.....me thinks. The butterfly stamp is from Eline designs and I've used the resist technique and then over stamped afterwards.....its the only time I like ironing.....The wooden butterfly has been blinged with gold stickles.

Challenges

Grungy Monday.....Use Texture fades and distress.

Simon Says Stamp and show.......show a Tim Holtz technique.

Simon Says.....emboss it dry or wet.(done both)

The Stampman.....resist techniques,

Sunday Stamper........wings

We had our easter egg hunt half way through this post, so lovely seeing little ones having fun, I'd brought an £1 kite from poundland for an alternative egg and surprise surprise it flies really well, Ethan had loads of fun running up and down with his dad trying to get it into the air and after that we had a play at the playground, we live next to the park which is really handy now, especially for Ethan this summer.

Hope you are all having fun munching on your eggs

hugs

Rose Garden............

Ohhh we're having a fabbie week for sunshine this week and it should last over the holls as well....aren't we lucky, at least I can get some more gardening done so I've got an extra busy weekend planned no rest for the wicked as they say............I've gone slightly over the top with this card, the image is a new one by Czes Pachela available from Cuddly Buddly called rose garden and its different from the usual images he draws......very Victorianna or is it Ewardian....hmmm not that good at history anyhow back to the card, I struggle with flowers and emellishments, I admire some of these cards that ooddles of flowers and embellies on and they look divine but when it comes to that part for me ......I struggle, so I may have gone slightly overboard with this card, I need to go to embellishment school and try harder....lol. The image has been colouring with twinkling h20s, and the papers are new called country house, they are very reminiscent of toile wallpapers and come in a variety of colours I've used the Damson colour pallette. I used the Parisian border from Spellbinders and the other fleur de lys accents are also from that set as well.

Challenges.

Pollycraft.....Sketch and vintage.

Cupcake.....lots of layers.

Sir Stampalot......ladies and fashion.

Top Tip Tuesday.....anything goes.

Everybody art....pearls

Have a lovely day off to work now

catch you all later

hugs

On Safari............

Evening peeps, yesterday we took a day off from gardening and went on safari......lol, well we went to The Safari Park and you get to feed the animals when you drive around, they must be quite docile (I hope) as they come up to the cars to be fed, the only exceptions to feeding were the lions and a couple of others.....I don't know why!! they look sweet enough.....lol. Now you're also told not to feed the camels and boy are they big when they come up to the cars and they were so flippin' cheeky, they fix you with a stare and then the next minute they've stuck their heads in through the open window and snaffled anything that they can find, now I had got my food in the box on my lap and just abit in my hand one camel went round to my husbands side and he quickly shut the window and the naughty one came up to my side and stuck his head in and made a grab for the box of food on my lap, half eating my hand in the process........boy do they slobber and smell!!!!! at least we escaped,

I know I said I wanted to live life on the wild side but not that wild......but we had a lovely day and the sky is still blue again today and warm enough to melt all those Easter Eggs that we will be icing this week.....I'll have writers cramp or should that be icers cramp at least I've a couple of days off next week to finish the garden and I've promised myself to open my melt pot that I had for Christmas and have a play.....fingers crossed,(perhaps I should uncross them whilst pouring) I want to play with bees wax and I brought a mold of the Eiffel Tower a while back as an embellishment so I want to make some of those as well.......watch this space.Have fun this week all.................
hugs and a big thank you for your kind words of support, it means alot to me xx







Started feeding one and then several came over, all with hopefull eyes....

Birthday card.......

Todays is my sons birthady, and I was told off last year for not making him a card for his 21st and he reminded me of it again this year so I thought I'd better make him one or I'd be in trouble again.....I've used a combo of stamps for this card, an atc from Tim Holtz, music stamp from Crafty Individuals and the Rockstar stamps which I can't remember for the life of me who the manufacturer is of these....its on the tip of my tongue as they say. I have used a variety of techniques on this card, for the background I used alcohol inks with gold, I was really pleased with how this turned out. The main tag was distressed with Chipped Saphire, Denim and Dusty Concord, I added silver embossing powder to parts of the skull and then glossy accents on the top.I even did abit of recycling by using a ring pull from a can blinged up with black stickles.

Challenges

The Stampman.......Embossing.

If the Shoe Fits.......Die cuts, embossing and clear bling

Can't believe its the weekend again

have a good one

hugs

Some Bunny Said...

Afternoon peeps, hope you are all well, I'm havin' abit of a downer of a day unfortunately I had a major row with my daughter on my grandparenting skills and its kinda knocked me for six, I didn't realise that it would cause so much heartache trying to help out......on a brighter note I've had a de-stress this afternoon and made an Easter card featuring one of the digis from the sweet Teddy Bea range, I got carried away with the flowers normally I struggle to put three on and this time I didn't know when to stop......lol, I also got carried away with the Platinum stickles glitter, I guess I needed cheering up and bling does it for me.The papers are from trimcraft called Love Letters, I have to say I've fallen in love with the vintage shades of these papers......totally delish. The flowers I made my stamping on scraps of the paper and then cutting them out......very theraputic. I've used twinkling h2os for the bunny outfit but the bear was coloured with prisma pencils and blended with sansador.....quite liking the effect of these pencils, I may have to buy more for the collection at the moment I have 4 so I've still got a way to go. the lace is from when I went to Holland last year and I've nearly run out of it, I wonder if hubby is up for a shopping expedition.







Challenges
Little Red Wagon......Easter.
Creative Beli.....Eggs and bunnies.
Creative Inspirations......Easter.
Truly Scrumptious......Vintage.
My Time To Craft.....on the spot.
Teddy Bo Challenge.
Spoon full of Sugar....all creatures great and small.
Oh la La....Easter.
Pollycraft.....easter.
Pink Elephant ......Easter.
Sweet Stampin'....sketch.
Totally gorjuss.....fluffy.
Papercutz......Easter.
CRAFT......Easter
Moving along with the times.......chocolate colour theme, Strawberry, milk chocolate and mint.....yummy
Stampin' for the weekend....Easter.
Creative card crew......what makes you feel like spring.
Thank you for leaving a comment
much appreiated
hugs

Sketch N Stash..........

hiya peeps todays Monday.....argggh I hear you shout, its amazing how quick they come round, hope you all had a great weekend the weather was gorgeous, not too hot and I managed to make a start on moving my garden around....mamouth task. This weeks sketch is by fellow teamie Julie......, as well as the following the sketch you need to let us know what was either your old or new stash that you used, I used a new image from Cuddly Buddly and the old stash was the lace which is over 20 years old.....just slightly younger than me....lol.

This weeks sponsers are Simon Says

The image is from the Eliza and Bro range called Its a Spring thing and the papers are also from Cuddly Buddly I used Marianne dies for the corners and added pearls for added detail. The image was coloured in with Distress Inks included Old Paper, Victorian Velvet, Tea Dye, Bundled Sage etc not a twinkling h20 in sight......lol
Hope you all have a lovely Monday, I'm off to work now and its getting busy again with the run up to Easter and all those eggs to ice.....I can write with icing better now than I can write with a pen. At least I get a couple of days off after the Easter Bunny has delivered all those yummy chocolate eggs and I'm hoping to get my melt pot out and have a play without little fingers in the way, by that I mean Ethan ......

In the bin......

I started this card last night, normally I colour with watercolours but I didn't have time to go to the printers and get the image put onto my watercolour paper......doing it this way the ink doesn't run when I use water. I coloured the image with promarkers now I own the grand total of 5 so I was limited with colours.....lol ,so I used three of them hence the pink/orange colour scheme, after I coloured it in I picked it up to throw it in the bin but not one for giving up I got out the glitter......a gals best friend and left it over night drying, this morning I decided to give it another go, the flowers are glimmer misted and embossed with cosmic shimmer aurora, the swirls are marianne dies. after these were added I was quite pleased with it.......

Image is by Lilyboo from Cuddly Buddly, called Queen of Hearts

Challenges

Creative Inspirations......Punches and dies.

Spoon full of Sugar....tons of texture.

Papertake......anything goes.

By the Cute and Girly.....cute and girly

Stamp Something friday......use a digi.

thanks for your kind comments

much appreciated

hugs

new challenge....

.........just spreading the word about a new challenge site that starts in May called Divas By Design.....what a fabbie name,they also have some awesome blog candy up for grabs, also they are looking for 5 divas to join them.
I love their blog button, so pretty.....

grungy Monday.......

Yep I know it, Tuesday but thats the name of the challenge blog over at Lindas place, the challenge is to follow the deets from Mr Grunge himself .......click here to see what I'm rambling on about. I've never made my own stamp before and I didn't have any funky foam so I used cut n' dry foam and the tattered floral die.....now its double sided, one side for the matte multi medium and the other for stamping well I'd say it was more sponging but you get my drift.

So for this weeks challenge of 'Distress ink and Multi Medium' I used Victorian velvet, Bundled sage, Tea Dye and Aged Mahogany.....I think I need to challenge myself to use different colours, oh well maybe next week. Mind you the colours I have in my home are reds and golds.....which brings me onto the challenge at Try it on Tuesday as they want you to create something inspired from your home (border of wallpaper and dado rail), their sponser this week is One Stop Crafts who have donated a £10 spend.....
The challenge at Simon Says stamp and show is anything but a card. Our Creative Corner want to see handmade flowers.

My son went for his interview at Rare today, their studios are in part of a converted warehouse in Digbeth in Birmingham from the outside of the building it looked quite derelict but when you went through two rather large blue doors the reception  was awesome with Renaissance art work in arches all around the room which were back lit, there were huge sofas in an ochre coloured velvet as well as lots of lit candles....I would have been happy just sat there all day. the building also houses a cafe and other art studios as well as a courtyard garden in the centre of the building......who would have though something so lovely was behind brick walls......fingers crossed that he gets a position.

Mothers Day......

I'd like to say that I had a lie in this morning......but I can't, I'd like to say I'd had a cup of tea in bed.....but I can't, because last night I had a little person spend the night and this morning I was woken with a poke saying get up Nana at about 6.30am.......I'll probably need a little nap later especially after having had such a busy day at work yesterday as well. Hope some of you mums out there faired better, mind you I did get a big hug off him so it was well worth it.
Todays card is all romantic and mushy....ahhhh! I don't know why I made it other than having a play using resist techniques, firstly the background script was embossed and then removed after colouring the background, the heart was embossed with white and then watercoloured with distress inks, the flower was also distressed, misted with heirloom gold and then embossed for lots of sparkle, the only colours I used were Tea dye, Bundled Sage and Victorian Velvet even the lace was distressed and spritzed with gold and then stickles added for extra bling.Stamps used are from Viva and Elusive Images.

Challenges

Allsorts .....bloomin' blossoms.

Fussy and fancy......use a zipper or a feather (feather).

CRAFT......photo ispiration of a wedding cake.

Cooking it up with Katie......sparkle, shine and shimmer.

Colour Create......Pastels

Charisma....Bling and sparkles.

Fab n Funky.....shabby chic.

Artistic Stamper....layers

Pile it On.....romantic and fancy

Have a lovely day

hugs

Aprils fool...

Evening peeps, did any of you get caught out today...I did by a member of staff, it was also my assistants manager birthday today, and I made her work ......how bad am I !!!, I made this card for her, I had a play with my new Fresco paints from Paperarsty for the background ,I used the resist technique stamping the script stamp and then embossing with clear embossing powder, the script stamp is from Viva, I then applied the paint with a brush mixing the paint as I was painting, I added more script stamp with black and popped on a flower which was made by colouring with distress inks  and then embossed with aurora cosmic shimmer powder......nice and easy.

Challenges

Stampin B ......make your own background paper.

Polka Doodle......no printed backing papers.

Just for fun.....anything goes (technique, painted with new paints)

Have a great weekend

hugs