Oh La La.......

Wow after all the rain we had yesterday, the sun has come out again and we have a gorgeous blue sky to wake up to....we're sure being spoilt at the moment.

Thought I'd share with you this ATC I made using one of my fave stamps .....Corsets from Crafty Individuals, lots of scrummy little corsets as well as an umbrella and hat, just great for collage cards. I'm quite getting into making atcs at the moment not sure if its because they're quicker or the fact that they look small and cute when finished. The backround was created by painting the new Fresco crackle glaze over the top of one layer and then painting over the top with another coat of paint and then waiting for the crackles to appear.....I soooooo love the effect. I wanted to paint a set of drawers using this technique but never had the courage to do it,when I say drawers I mean for my bedroom, so I thought I'd start small and work my way up to something bigger....lol.The body form stamp is by Cherry Pie, the seam binding is from Wild Orchid Crafts and the corner die is from Spellbinders new Parisian accents.

Challenges
Simon says stamp and show....your fave stamp.
Sweet Stampin'.....Oh La La.
Theme Thursday......texture/Layers.
Paper Sundaes......vintage or shabby chic.
 Craft room......anything goes.This is there first challenge so pop over.
Top Tip Tuesday......ribbon.

Baby Card............

Evening or should it be late afternoon fellow peeps, It has rained all day today which is brilliant news for all you garden lovers, not so good news if you planned a day out today, I've just got back from work and it was very quiet in town. I had a little visitor last night on a sleepover.....you guessed it Ethan who made me chuckle this morning, I'd left him eating his breakfast downstairs whist I was drying my hair upstairs, then a little voice said "where are you Nana", a couple of secs later in he walked carrying his breakast bowl saying "scrape it round for me Nana".....he loves his porridge and doesn't leave a tiny scrap.
Todays card was inspired from A Gem of a Challenge.....haven't used these stamps in a while so thought I'd make a baby card using this little cutie, image was coloured in with distress inks, Shabby Shutters, Pumice, Stormy Sky and Honey with Star Dust stickles added for bling, the papers are First Edition, Up Up and Away, a lovely collection of greens and slate blues with glittery embossed images on some of the papers.......lush.

Challenges

The Shabby Tea Room.....2 patterned papers (pale blue circle and background),4 buttons and 6 layers.

Totally Gorjuss......use twine or string.

Our Creative Corner.....baby card using Kraft, trim and at least one button.

One Stop Craft.....buttons and bow.

Stampin' for the weekend.....blue, buttons and bling.

Charisma.....male/boy card.

A Gem of a Challenge.....sketch.

Off for a visit round my fave blogs

hugs

Finally finished.....

I've finally finished painting Richards model house, which will eventually one day be on his rail layout, one house down and a whole town to go....lol, I am quite pleased with how its turned out. I used only acrylics to paint it, mixing all the colours to get the shades I wanted for the stone, it originally started life as cream. Check out the little windows I used some lace to make curtains for them.....super cute !!

Hugs

Just a quickie......

Oppps nearly forgot my Grungy Monday entry......I don't have all those fabbie inks that I needed to do this challenge so I had to make do with some others, consequently this is a poor effort and I expecting a "could have tried harder" on my report from Linda, the technique to follow is from no other than Tim and if you click HERE you'll find all the deets, there are some gorgeous entries this week and I feel ashamed to entry my poor little atc but I didn't want to miss out a challenge, I did use a Tim Holtz stamp for the floral background with the blue bird, the sentiment is from Paperartsy, the German Scrap started life as gold but I alcohol inked it along with the flower, not to be out done with my bling I applied rock candy to the background.......

P.S I've solved my problem with signing in to leave comments, well actually I didn't personally, the lovely Patricawithaz from A Crafty Journey pointed me over to Jules who has solved the problem (just unclick keep me signed in and hey presto you can leave messages again)....phew thank goodness. Patricawithaz  is also celebrating her first blog anniversary so many congratulations hun hop over to her blog for candy

Thank you for your kind comments they keep me inspired

hugs

Tatty Ted.....

Morning fellow crafty bloggers, no sun today just grey cloud, I just hope that that wasn't summer in April, I know we need the rain but at the moment we're just getting grey coud which doesn't do much to lift your spirits up. On the other hand I have got in more crafting this week,I think I'm going through a cutie stage again at the moment, I need to get down and grungy.....lol. I made this one earlier in the week, nice,quick and simple, it had to be, as at the time my son was using my desk for more of his modelling, when I've finished the painting of the little house I'll show you the results, just so you know I can still get messy and that I've been pre-occuppied with other painting.I'm still having trouble leaving comments so when my techno son gets up......sometime around mid-day just in time for lunch, I'm going to try and sort it out, what I really mean is I'll get him to try and sort it out ......lol.
Todays card feature Tatty Ted, this stamp was the one on the front of the magazine, I have to say I did purchase one of the wooden ones but it stamped dreadful with no room for colouring so I won't be using that again, luckily the clear freebie stamp is fine and being as I'd purchased the papers and ribbons at the time I'll be able to use them.......I used Black Soot distress ink to colour the body and his little cute nose is a H20. Just 2 colours, I did say it was quick and simple.

Challenges

Secret Crafter....clean and simple.

Fab n Funky......cute and cuddly.

Have a great bank holiday weekend

hugs

Pretty in Pink......

Morning all you frustrated bloggers out there......guess Mr Blogger is playing up again so I appologise if some of my comments are not getting there......its when I have to select account and sign in, it keeps going back and I'm not sure if my comments are reaching you, hopfully they'll do a fix again real soon before we go into meltdown.
Todays card is a pink version of yesterdays, you know me I'm a pink girl but I did love doing it in blue as well. Thats two Christmas cards in one month now if I keep this up I should be ready for Christmas this year....lol.
The image is from Sylvia Zet at Wee Stamps available at Cuddly Buddly, and this time I layered up all the layers for a real dimensional look but they don't show that well on the photo. The punck is from Martha Stewart and then I threaded white ribbon through, I used the same little gems which you buy by the metre and then snip them off. The gitter is Glamour dust and star dust stickles again.....what would I do with no glitter !!! I dread to think! This time I coloured the image in with Sakura pens and Twinkling H20s.

Challenges

My Mums Craft Shop.....favourite colour.

Totally Papercrafts.....pink and girlie.

Stampsomething Friday.....something with a sentiment on.

Stampavie......pink.

My Time to Craft....use a die cut.

Allsorts.....things with wings,

Oh well off to work for me and being as I'm at work on Monday no long weekend either.

Hugs

Wee digi stamps.......

Evening peeps today sees a new release of some little sweeties from Sylvia at Wee Stamps which are also available at Cuddly Buddly, I got the Winter fairy to work with and they are a delight to colour, seems strange doing a Christmas card in May.....but being as this year seems to be flying by at a rate of knots it'll soon be here again.

image coloured with distress inks

star dust stickles used for the glitter around the edges but I've used glamour dust for the wings.

Papers are from Cuddly Buddly called Frosted lace

The swirls and snowflakes are Marianne dies.

Metal corner is from Wild Orchid Crafts.

Challenges

Sir Stampalot.......magical worlds.

A Spoonful of Sugar....things with wings.

Creative Card Crew.....anything goes.

Creative Inspirations......Christmas in May.

ABC Christmas.....kids card.

Hugs

Sneak peek..........

Evening peeps, had a busy day today going to see a University in Stafford, my son is thinking of doing a Postgraduate degree in 3D Game modeling which is his real passion, he might as well study for another year and get some more experience in his chossen field as its tough out there in the job market at the moment. It seems a nice uni. and there are a lot of facilities for computing. I did manage to make a card this afternoon when we got back which I'll show you on Friday as there are some new designs from Sylvia at Wee Stamps ......they are sooooo sweet, see sneak peek pic.
Thought I'd post an atc that I made on Sunday, I know its another Paris one and yes there is another of my Utee Eiffel Towers on it but I'm so lovin' them. The background printed on canvas is from Victorian Vignettes, the swirl paper is from the Craft Works as is the tag, I crimped the paper for texture and then added smidges of pink and purple foil.The flower started life as white which I painted with twinkling H20s and then embossed with Aurora embossing powder.
The background of the tag was made using Fresco paints from Paperarsty and crackle glaze....think I've sussed it now as the crackles look fab, I then overstamped the background with a diamond stamp from The Artistic Stamper with Victorian Velvet......hasn't shown up that well but its quite pale. I the used gold dabber for aroun the eddes before mounting.

Challenges

Creative Beli.......use an old tool (crimper).

Papertake.....pale pastel shades.

Creatalicious.....flourishes.

Rainbow lady....with a flourish.

Thanks for taking a peek

hugs

seaside......

Morning peeps another glorious day today after all the rain and wind we had yesterday, although we badly need the rain, the garden is in full bloom far too early really, normally the roses come out in June but mine are already out. Todays altered frame I made on Sunday inspired by the challenge at The Craft Barn......using Gesso and the brilliant Zuzu who is on the design team for crafty Individulas. Why I used this image I don't know as I'm not into seagulls but I do love the colours so I got my Terra and viva metallic paints out and had a play. Haven't played with these in a while and I'd forgotten how delish the paints were....all sparkly and pretty.The image and frame is from Crafty Individuals, I've run out of frames now which is a nuisance as these frames are perfect for small projects......oh well I feel in need of some retail therapy, although I'm supposed to saving for my holls in July......so naughty!! but I have got a stinkin' cold and I'm feelin' sorry for myself and I'm sure that buying stash helps fights the fever.......lol.

Materials used

Frame and image from Crafty Individuals

The Seashells are from Cuddly Buddly and come as a trim, all you need to do is snip off what you want to use and then colour.

Viva Terra.....for the texture.

Viva Precious metals......colours, Turquoise,Blue Lagoon and Mother of Pearl.

Gesso for a wash over the image and priming the frame.

Freso paints for Terra......Pansy, Sky and Vintage lace from Paperartsy

Bubble stamp on the frame is from Paperarsty.

Metal corner is from Wild Orchid crafts

Pearls, diamonds and trim are from stash.

Challenges.

The Craft Barn......gesso.

Allsorts.....photo inspiration of a beach.

CES......use at least three different embellishments.

Sunday Stamper......diamonds and pearls.

Polka Doodles......anything but a card.

Stamp Something Friday......something with beachy colours.

Stampavie.....summer.

Thanks for taking a peek

I appreciate all your comments

Thankyou

Sketch N Stash........

Hope you all had a lovely weekend, it was too windy to work in he garden yesterday so I used that as an excuse to play in my craft room and made 2 atcs, 1 card and an altered frame which I'll post over the week, I don't think I've ever made so much in one day, mind you my son was there trying to pinch my workspace again. Well my stint as the sketch designer for Sketch N Stash has finished and I've picked my Top 3......there were so many lovely entries to choose from and now its over to the talented Angie, shes ubber talented as she turns our rough  sketches into a work of art, don't forget to tell us which  new stash or old stash you used  or use some of each if you want. We have 2 sponsers ths week Stamp and Create and Kenny K.
For my card I used  a new digi from Cuddly Buddly called My Purrfect friend and for my old stash I used the lace which you can thread a ribbon through but mine was too big so I laid it on the top, the papers are from CB called quilted holly.....yes I know they are from a Christmas collection but they are too sweet to use just for Crimbo.I coloured the little girl with Twinkling H20's and the little kitties with Prismas.I think I'm going through a clean and simple phase as I've not added any extra embellies except some Star Dust Stickles for a smidge of bling

Challenges

Crafty Pad......Lace and bow.

If the Shoe fits.....clean and simple.

Alphabet challenge.....C for clean and simple.

Have a lovely week

catch up with you later as I'd better go and get ready

for work.....

One that got away......

Morning peeps , another lovely sunny day here, mind you its started sunny most mornings but has clouded over by lunch time, yesterday we had a little drive into the countryside to visit Shackerston Railway, they have old trains there and at some weekends during the year they have Thomas and some of his friends visit, my son is train mad at the moment and wants to have a go at driving a steam engine....great idea for a present me thinks as they do lessons there, anyway when we got there it was closed but we still had a lovely walk by the canal......not too close as Ethan is a little tearaway and I can't run as fast as him......lol,we then had a coffee and cake at the garden centre on the way back and I ended up buying some more roses for the garden ..........which aren't really child friendly it has to be said.
I thought I'd share with you a design that got away, so to speak from Cuddly Buddly, this image was a prototype for a new design range that Kim from Cuddly Buddly brought out, but she didn't bring out the bear instead the range was changed to Eliza and bro' I have to say I was disappointed as I loved the bear....shes so sweet but anyway you can still get your hands on the image as Kim has now put it into her Freebie section click here if you want to download it, Kim is also having a digi design team call so if you love using digi stamps and you want to join Cuddly Buddly using some of there wonderfull downloads click here for more info....

Challenges

The Stampman.....bingo card, blue, embossing powder,stitches also ribbon, sparkle and bling.

Fussy and Fancy.....3 papers, 2 embellishments and ribbon.

Stampin' B....spring scene.

Paperplay....sparkle galore.

Crafty Creations.....flower, patterned paper and ribbon.

Have a lovely day

Corsets......

Morning peeps, hope you are having a good week so far, doesn't time fly. I got side tracked yesterday after my new stamp arrived I'd ordered from The Artistic Trading Post its one of the newbies from Crafty Individuals elements range featuring womens corsets, you get lots of small stamps with the larger ephemera invoice stamp. So I combined all of these with the challenge over at Grungy Monday which is to follow the technique.....Distress Ink Colour Blocking, nice and easy colour background, I used Victorian Velvet, Tea Dye and Dusty Concord, I coloured all the corsets in the same colours, the image I used crackle accents but I didn't use enough so I got a more glazed effect .....which doesn't look too bad, the metal corners are from Wild Orchid crafts.I went to our local garden centre as well yesterday as Ethan loves it because it has a large wooden play fort with slides, Richard loves going there for his Big Breakfast batch and me and mum well we just look at the plants, although we did buy some yesterday but its so dry at the moment the gardens are starting to suffer......talking of which I've still got lots of work to do.

Challenges.

Grungy Monday......colour block Technique.

Artistic Stamper.....ladies.

Simon Says.......sparkle and shine.

Truly Scrumptious.......anything oes.

Creative Inspirations......lace and pearls.

The Pixie cottage.....Sketch or Pink and girly

Thanks for taking a peek

hugs

Teddy Bea.......

Morning peeps....phew I've managed to finish a card at last which I started last week for the Teddy Bo challenge......missed that completley, why? well my son has hijacked my craft room for his modelling, hes got his own room downstairs but his excuse is all the craft materials are upstairs, and it saves me walking up and down getting my tools, like my tweezers that went walkabout at the weekend.......the thing is I get engrossed in the painting as well so I'm been side tracked at the moment and another thing he never cleans up his mess, thats kids for you.
Todays card features the sweet little Bea with her watering can, the bear has been coloured with Prisma pencils and the rest of the image has been coloured with twinkling H20s with lots of bling using star dust stickles, the papers are from First Edition called Hideaway, the flowers were coloured using distress inks and then embossed with Aurora cosmic shimmer powder. The little watering can is a wooden embellishment which I coloured and embossed and added a little bow.

Challenges

Crafty Calender.......Teddy Bears

Cupcake....In the garden.

Sketch Saturday......sketch.

Sweet Stampin'......follow sketch or spots, stripes and sparkle.

My Mums craft Shop....To die for.

Cute Card Thursday.....distressing.

Moving along with the Times......use at least 2 B's, Bling, buttons, bow,bear.

Paperplay....celebrating summer/anything goes

Fab N funky......buttons and bow.

Creative beli.....anything with the letter S, Spots, stripes, sparkle.

Spoon full of Sugar....anything goes.

Papertake......Bloom and grow.

We're in for another fun filled day today

We're just watching Charlie Bear at the moment

havin' got coco pops everywhere.

Hugs

Bonsoir......

Evening peeps long time no blog, Mr Blogger  decides to take a break ahhhhh! not only that my telly broke for 2 days, I can live without my telly but no blogging........ catastrophe!, mind you instead of mking cards for the two evening whilst the telly was broke my son hijacked my craft room. For a few years now hes been collecting buildings to make up for his train collection so he decided to start painting them, guess who got roped into showing him what to do....we did have fun painting various colours on walls and sides of houses and my baby wipes came in a treat..... I think I may have found a new hobby.
For this evening post I thought I'd show you the ATC I did last Sunday with one of my utee Eiffel Towers on.....I so love these, the backrounds were a freebie from Victorian Vignettes I printed the image onto canvas rather than card which gives it a great painted effect finish.The background paper is from Graphic 45.I added a gold rub on swirl to the background and German Scrap for the border.The post mark stamp is from Crafty Individuals,

Challenges

Our Creative Corner......Neutral colours with gold.

CES.....holidays.

Stamp Something.......anything goes.

Rainbow lady.....add some texture.

Crafty Creations.......anything goes.

MTTC....scallops (border).

Have a great evening

Eurovision has just started now I never watch this

 but I am intrigued with all the hype for Jedward

so I may just watch a little longer before putting Ethan to bed....

yes you guessed it my Grandson is having a sleepover which means an early morning

start for me tomorrow.

Grungy Monday/Wednesday.......

Evening peeps, hope you are all well I'd like to say a big thank you for all the inspirational comments that I have recieved and thank you Lynne for letting me know about the Paris stamp unfortuately I don't have a link to get back in touch, so many thanks hun....This tag I started last night and then came to abit of a....hmmm what do I do next phase, so I slept on it ready to have another play before going to work first thing this morning, trouble is I overslept which is a first for me, but I still managed to finish the tag and I wasn't late either......lol. I have followed the technique from Grungy Mondays challenge over at Lindas for the background to the tag.....quite pleased with how this came out, I stamped the background with the cogs which is a stamp from The Artistic Stamper, this is a real versatile stamp and I must say I use it quite alot, I  then built up layers of stamped tissue paper using stamps from Elusive Images Edwardian men plate, the stop watch and ticket are from Crafty Individuals.

 I used Matte mutli medium to stick the tissue paper down with then painted the top of the images with some more multi medium before distressing with Brushed Corduroy, the text that has been stamped with Gold Dabber paint from Ranger is from CatsLife......I made the little tag using an image from Graphic 45 Steampunk, the metal frame tag was glittered and then dabbed with gold because I didn't like the glitter......I know, I can't believe I've just said I didn't like the glitter, me who sprinkles it on my cornflakes........lol.The steampunk utee charm I made after moulding a metal charm I'd brought but didn't want to use.......I'm saving it for a rainy day project!!!

Challenges

Try it on Tuesday.....tag with theme of one for the boys.

Grungy Monday.....technique from Tim Holtz

Crafty Cardmakers......Steampunk.

Hugs n' smiles

Bees Wax......

Well after having an experimental day playing in my little craft room on Sunday I came up with this little number.....lots of mess with the beeswax, hmmmm not to sure if I was being a little heavy handed with the wax as I managed to get it everywhere, I think I spent more time cleaning down afterwards than I did splodging, scraping and painting it on, I think I got carried away as the layers were building up with images from Crafty Individuals, tissue paper from 7 Gypsies and lots of glimmer misting. I've only done 1 beeswax project before and that was with Lin at LB crafts so this was my first time flying solo, so to speak, after I had finished layering I brushed Perfect Pearls metallic powders to various parts and a tip I learnt from Lin was after dusting lightly remelt the wax for the powders to set in the wax.

Now the little bottle cap was made following one of the tutorials over at the Craft Barn wishing well tutorials last week......I like the idea that you just need to heat a little wax in the cap, add the image and then melt some more on top.....easy and very effective. The Eiffel tower is one of the 6 I made the other day......I'm so loving these and you will be seeing a few more Paris projects........I'm on the look out for a stamp with just the Tower on but big enough to see some detail of the metal structure, so if you knnow one give me a shout pleazzzze. The little postcard stamp from Crafty Individulas was coloured in with Prismas and distress ink and is so sweet although the text is English I think it lends itself for any occassion.

Challenges

Simon Says Stamp and Show......anything goes.

The Craft Barn.....Beeswax.

Oh La La.....Tres Chic, not sure whether tres grungy counts though.!!

Lets Ink It Up.....Embellish it.

Allsorts....... use three different stamps.

Alphabet.....A for around the world.
Everybody Art.......flowers.
Top Tip Tuesday.....Flowers
 Thank you for your kind inspirational comments
they are very much appreciated
hugs

 

Sketch N Stash.......

Morning peeps hope you all had a good weekend, been feeling a bit low myself so I spent Sunday playing in my craft room making 3 cards and an ATC which I'll post later this week but todays card is for the new challenge at Sketch N Stash this week, now I made this a few weeks back as it's my turn today to do the sketch for this weeks challenge........ luckily we only have to draw the sketch and the talented Angie makes them look pretty, which is a blessing as I'm hopeless with computer drawings,I also get the task of picking the Top Three winning cards, remember that you can rotate the sketch but it must still be identifiable with the original sketch,we are being sponsered by Simon Sayswho are giving the winner some $ to spend in their store.......The image is called "A little bidie told me so" from Cuddly Buddly as are the papers, I've used distress ink to colour the image with a smidge of sparkle using Stardust stickles.

Challenges

Stamp Something Friday......use a digi (papers).

Stampin B'.....use flower soft, liquid applique or glitter (sprinkled glitter on the herart and sentiment)

Colour Create.....Aqua, green, purple and white aand optional glitter.

Totally Papercrafts.....2 papers, 3 embellishments (flowers, Ribbon and pearls).

Crazy 4 Challenges.....flowers.

CES....favourite colour combo.

Cupcake.....gingham and roses.

Have a great week

........ at least the sun has come back out after the rain at the weekend

can't remember when we had such perfect blue skies

hugs

Vintage Fizzy Moon.......

Morning peeps, last day off today and can't really say I've done that much, still need to sort out the garden, trouble is with me I fall asleep in the afternoon, I'm turning into a dormouse as I still manage to sleep all night well apart from waking a few times but thats normal for me, so what am I going to do today.....hmm we're still deciding and knowing my lot they'll have decided after lunch and then I'll be asleep again....lol.
 For todays card I've done another Fizzy Moon design using the delish Love Letter papers from First Edition which I've distressed and coloured with Brushed Corduroy, and used Platinum Stickles for the bling, flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts which also got a spritz of Heirloom Gold. The ribbon is also from WOC, I love this seam binding as it dyes lovely using glimmer mists, water or just using distress ink pads and you can scrunch it whils its drying for a more vintage look.The teddy has been coloured with Prisma pencils and the flowers have been coloured with yep you guessed it Twinkling H2Os........

Challenges

Divas by Design.......anything goes.

Pixie Cottage......sketch.

Fussy and Fancy.......Springtime.

Crafty Calendar.....April showers bring forth May flowers.

Paperplay......show us your style.....vintage, pinks, bling and distress

My Mums Craft shop......cute and girly

Off to the garden centre......I think!

hugs

Crafty Individuals......

Wow another sunny morning and I managed to get some of my jobs done yesterday so I also had a play....well I am on holiday and I've still got a couple of days off as well, I've never managed to do a posting a day for a long time but I certainly got nice and messy with todays card. It started life out as an experiment usig the crackle glaze with the new Fresco paints from Paperartsy but mine didn't crackle that much, so rather than ditch it I used it as the background of this tag which then evolved into my entry for this months challenge at Crafty Individuals.....if you're like me and you adore their stamps you just need to click here and enter, this months theme is called Free as a Bird. I have used lots of layers and techniques on this one and used papers from Springtime and the Tree paper books, the die cut bird was painted with fresco paints and I added gold dabber around the edges, the music stamp is from CI as are all the other stamps on this tag, I used the swirls stamp, again stamped with gold for the background and parts of the bird plate for the verse and small images of the birds which I stamped using Plum Versamark. There is also lots of spraying with mists on this .....I used three colours of glimmer mist for the ribbon and sprayed the background with Heirloom gold from ranger....you could say I kinda went overboard ....lol, the gold utee was stamped with a flower stamp using versamark which I then dust with Perfect Pearls and then put the heat gun on it again for the colours to merge.....have to be careful as you can loose the design if it melts too much.

Challenges.

Crafty Individuals.....Free as a Bird.

Cooking it up with Katie.....use ribbon, a bow and a tag.

My Mums Craft Shop...flowers.

Stamp Something Friday....things with wings.

If the shoe fits....things with wings.

Try it on Tuesdays.....something old (music stamp) and something new (Fresco paints).

Papertake......anything goes.

Top tip Tuesday......anything goes.

Oldie but a Goodie.....say it with flowers.(all stamps used are old)

Have a great day

and a big thank you for all your kind comments

much appreciated

hugs