Spring card for Easter

Good morning.
Oooh I can almost smell the spring coming. The mornings are brighter and from my craft room window I can see my back garden and the cherry tree that was planted a couple of years ago is budding and will soon be out in gorgeous pink blossom. Can't wait to get a photo when it bursts into life. My Camelias are flowering and I will go out and get some pics of those today. At last a real promise of the warmer weather to come.

I am full of cold at the moment so I spent alot of yesterday 'playing'. On one of my school visits this week I stopped in the little town of Goring and found a beautiful little interiors shop, I wished I had my camera as there was so much inspiration in there. However I found some sweet little metal bunnies which I couldn't resist for Easter cards. So with that in mind I set about 'challenging' myself to use pastel colours and incorporate one of these cute rabbits with some flowers and butterflies to represent Spring and Easter. I had my granddaughters in mind so wanted it to be 'cute' but at the same time it needed a distressed look.

I cut out the mount for the rabbit using the nestabilities labels 4 and run it through the BigShot with a cuttlebug embossing folder, I used Tattered Rose and Cosmic Twinkles around the edge. I found the pink and blue/yellow papers in a paper block and grabbed a doyley 'cos I though it could give me that sort of vintage but shabby look. I edged the doyley with Broken China and also edged it with a Sakura glitter pen. Having cut the backing and mounting papers I distressed the edge of the pink with the TH distressing tool and went roung the edges with star dust Stickles and the check paper I decorated with baby blue pearlidoodles. These do tend to come out a bit thick sometimes and I need to find a way to make the dots smaller. The flowers were made by putting together petals from some of my purchased collections, including one made of chipboard and covered in fabric, I added the stamen centres using a punch and finished them with some glitter gems. The heart was cut on the Cricut and embossed with sticky stuff and glitter added to give it a real sparkly effect. The tag was also cut on the Cricut and I printed the word Spring out in the three colours I have used, I edged the tag with Adirondack Lights Snow Cap and edged the words with broken china and the glitter pen. The butterflies were stamped and punched using a MS punch. Buttons, bows and gems have been added to give it a girly feel.

Et voila.  My Easter card for the girls.

I know Easter and Spring are a theme on several challenge sites so I am entering this card in the following challenges.
Fussy and Fancy Friday - Challenge 7 Easter
Paperplay Challenges - Week 12 Easter
Colour Create - Challenge 41 Your choice of pastels
CRAFT challenge - 43 Easter
Cute card thursday - Challenge 105 Dimensions (my second entry)
Simon Says Stamp - Easter or Spring with some glimmer
Gingersnap Creations - 48 Growth
Creative Card Crew - 46 Going Dotty
Incy Wincy Designs - 35 Easter or Spring
Crafty Cardmakers - 17 Spring into Spring!
The Everybody Art Challenge - 83 Easter 
Pollycraft Monday Challenge - 36 Sparkly Things (my second entry)
Crafty Angels - 27 Paper Piecing
The Cuttlebug Spot - Wings
Totally Gorjuss - 23 Hearts
Lexi's Creations - 10 Easter
The Corrosive Challenge Blog - 56 Paper Piecing

Gothic Arch

Hello Everyone

Happy Friday to you all, I hope it's a good day, the weekend is not far away and lets hope we have some sunshine.

This week I really felt like experimenting with more vintage styles and found the Gothic Arches challenge with a very sweet photo of two young girls. It is from a collection at flickr.com.

I loved the pastel colours and thought I could incorporate it into an arch and use a new technique for me called Dabber Resist which I found in the new Tim Holtz book.  I also wanted to give a feel of Spring with the warmer weather (well a little bit on some days) and the lighter nights.
I started by using a sandal acrylic paint dabber on a foam scroll stamp I have in my collection. I applied the paint to the stamp, pressed it onto the arch and heat dried it. I then inked over the whole card with Peeled Paint, Aged Mahogany and Scattered Straw distress inks. I then used a babywipe to rub the ink off of the scroll design to allow the sandal colour to show through. Brilliant - it worked! I printed out the image and cut it out, I also found the leaf arch on one of my cricut cartridges and cut that out. The printed foliage at the top of the arch (and has been stamped over the leaf arch) is a TH stamp from the Shabby French collection as is the butterflies which I embossed in gold. I also used the scroll stamp from the same set with the Shattered Straw and rubbed heirloom Gold Perfect Pearls over it. These have not really shown up in the photograph. Last week I saved a collection of butterflies I found on the internet and I have printed these out, cut them and added sparkle and vintage distress stickles. Before I put it all together I sprayed the card with water and heat dried it. The other embellishments are bits and pieces from my stash. When I had completed it, I mounted it on coloured manuscript paper and cut that out in the same shape.

I have enjoyed learning new skills and I just love trying out something new.

"Satisfaction lies in the effort, not the attainment. Full effort is full victory". Mahatma Ghandi

Thanks for dropping by.

LOL Bxxx

Challenge List

Gothic Arches - This old photo

Mixed media monday - Vintage children

Crafty Angels - Paper Piecing

Your next stamp challenges - Distressing

Wednesday Stamper - Spring

Cute card thursday - Dimensions

One stop craft challenge - Let it shine

Allsorts challenge blog - Spring is in the air

Crazy for challenges - A Spring card

Secret Crafter - Spring has sprung

Pics

I haven't got a card today but I did want to share these photos from the wedding yesterday. Ben (my son) was Best Man and apperently was very nervous throughout the day, but everyone said he did a good job and all enjoyed his speech. I want to get some photos of the wigs he used as props!! More about that another day.

Here is Ben with Matt, they have known each other since they were eight and started playing football and cricket in the same teams. When they were twelve they went to the same secondary school. They continue to play cricket for the same club and have remained best friends. Matt was Best Man for Ben and Bev when they got married.

Here is all of us.

From the left.

Ben, hubby Ken, me holding Ella, Maddie holding Maddison, Becca and Bev. I am so lucky to be blessed with wonderful children and daughter-in-law and gorgeous grand-daughters.

Hope you are having a good weekend.

Take care and thanks for dropping by.

LOL Bxxx

Sabby Chic Flower Card ll

What a wet day and it's Matt and Sam's wedding. I will see them later to see how they have got on but I'm sure the whole event will be just beautiful.

I love it when Maddie comes to look at my work as she helps me critique it. I knew yesterday that the Shabby Chic card wasn't right but I couldn't put my finger on what I could do to make it better. Anyway a chat with Mads and it has completely changed. She's a great teacher as she says clearly what she likes and where she thinks I could look to improve things. I still don't think it's perfect, but I have had fun today experimenting with other colours and ways of putting the design together. It certainly still fits the challenge at The Shabby Tea Room and I think it now has more of a shabby chic look.

"Give me a fruitful error anytime, full of seeds, bursting with it's own corrections.  Alfredo Pareto

I've still got lots to learn, but I'm keen.

Speak soon. Thanks for dropping by. LOL Bxxxx

Shabby Chic Flower Card

Hi Everyone.

It's my birthday today and I am so thrilled. My gorgeous family have all given me money so that I can buy lots of the Tim Holtz dies, so they are on order and I can't wait for them to arrive so I can have a play with them.

Yesterday I was blog hopping and found a new challenge site called The Shabby Tea Room. It's their first challenge this week called 'Elegant Shabby' with a gorgeous photo as inspiration for the cololurs of pink, red, cream, brown and green. I couldn't resist and set about creating straight away and just loved working with this palette. What do you think?

I used a nestability label die to cut out the centre shape and cut it from a thin chipboard and cut and embossed the paper to stick over the top. The flowers were put over a piece of cream lace with pink ribbon threaded through it and I punched, died and scrunched the leaves. These were all put together with a few embellishments and with some Stickles and Sakura glitter pens. The background is the embossing folder I won on the Simon Says Stamp blog hop a few weeks ago and the backing paper is K&Co.

So dream big and live your dreams today. I am off to get ready to go out with some friends for a meal. See you again soon and thanks for dropping by.

LOL Bxxxx

My challenge list

The Shabby Tea Room - Elegant Shabby

Easter Flap Card

I hope you are having a good week and have been able to enjoy some brighter weather and sunshine.

This next project of mine came about because of new challenges which interested me and I love putting as many of them together as I can to see what the results are. So with some guidance and creativity this is the result.

The 'Sweet Stop' sketch interested me first of all, as did the add inspired challenge at '365 cards', little baskets of eggs in blues and greens (see picture below). 'Paper Sundaes' ninth challenge is to create a multi-fold Spring or Easter card and 'Just us Girls' is to make a flap card. 'Practical Scrappers' challenge is to include chipboard and all of this also links with 'Pollycraft Monday Challenge' which is to see sparkly things, 'Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge' is anything goes and at 'Sophisti-cat' it is new beginnings.

I have used my favourite techniques of distressing and edging with Stickles and Sakura glitter pens, but I started by cutting the basket and eggs from the Doodlecharms cartridge on the Cricut. I printed over the basket and used the distress inks mounting it on card which I had brayered with coloured inks and printed with flowers and grass. I used patterned papers for the eggs and added designs using the glitter pens. I punched two strips using a MS border punch and added gem stickers. The flower is chipboard from a K&Co collection. The ribbon has been stuck under the flap and tied behind and to the side to keep the flap closed.

Inside, I used the same colour theme but a patterned background paper and I searched the internet for a free vintage image. I cut the Happy Easter letters using the Jasmine cricut cartridge  and decorated more eggs and added the flowers, hearts and flourishes. On the flap I added the Easter Egg Hunt to link in with it.  I also added Sepia Accents to the baskets and bunny ears to highlight them.  The colours are spring like and the eggs suggest new beginnings, so all in all a card that meets the criteria of all the challenges.

Challenge list and links -

The Sweet Stop SSS47 - Sketch

365 cards - add inspired

Paper Sundaes - multi fold Easter or Spring card

Just us girls - all in a flap

Practical Scrappers - chipboard

Pollycraft Monday challenge - sparkly things

Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge - anything goes

Sophisticat - new beginnings

Cuttlebug Challenge - spring

Crafty Creations - spots and dots

Enjoy the rest of the week and here is a photo of the beautiful spring daffodils that I came down to on Sunday morning (Mother's Day) given to me by my lovely hubby Ken. The kids also gave me chocs, wine and money, and I bought the Tim Holtz scissors with it. Great eh?

It will soon be the weekend. Have fun.

*Luv* Bxxx

Vintage Gift Card

Wow Saturday again, the weeks are slipping past so quickly. When I got up this morning to feed the cats it was a grey start to the day but now the sun is trying to peek through and it looks promising. Fingers crossed!!

 I have had such fun making this card. I wasn't sure how to approach my next project, although I knew I wanted to make something that I could put some money in as a wedding present for Matt and Sam next week. Having found some inspiration through the challenge blogs I set about gathering the things I would need. It took me a while to choose the image, which is from a pack by Debbie Moore. The layout, colours and recipe for elements were from challenge sites (see list below). The backing papers are from an Old World mat stack and the rose are a HOTP pack called Blossoms & Buds. The two flowers I have made using lace, buttons, punches and the cricut. I couldn't find the right coloured ribbons in my collection so I cut three pieces of cream organza and coloured two pieces using cosmic shimmer mist and tattered angels mist, I used these on the leaves and tiny butterfly too. I have distressed edges and used Stickles and Cosmic Shimmer Twinkles

This fits challenges -
Colour Create - Mint, chocolate and cream.
Simon Says Stamp - sketch
Gingersnap Creations - Frosting
Crafty Creations - Make your own flowers
Creative Inspirations - Charms
Everybody Art - Recipe - 2 papers, 2 flowers, 2 buttons.
Fussy and Fancy - Green
Raise the bar - Go Green

I went on to then make the inside into a gift card to hold the money. I used brown paper as the backing papers and stamped 'celebrate' in gold. On the left side I made a tag printing and embossing the swirls and edging it with cosmic shimmer twinkles. Again I used punches and the cricut to make the flowers and the sentiment. On the right hand side I used the roses paper to make the pouch and made an envelope from vellum to hold the money, again embellishing it to reflect the other side.
This fits challenges -
Cutecard Thursday - Celebrations
Frosted designs - background stamping

Finally I made the envelope to match and reflect the colours of the card. I used a 12x12 paper and cut it down to make my own template for it. Again I have used the roses paper, the 'faith' sentiment and the flowers that reflect the midle of the card.
This fits the challenge from Cuttlebug Challenge to make an envelope to match the art.

What do you think?

Have a great weekend. I am going to go out shopping for a while, haven't mooched for ages.

Take care. *luv* Bxxx

Elegance

Hi Everyone
I have found a little time this week to make a card. This one came about whilst looking at challenges over the weekend and I decided to combine red, black and off white as a colour combo from Colour Create with an easel card from Lili of the Valley and Stamp Something's Girly theme, but I was also inspired by Creative Inspirations challenge of lace, pins and pearls. So here it is -

It was strange this week not following a sketch but putting my own design together has taken me hours of thinking again.
The backing paper is a decopatch tissue sheet and chosen because of the lacy design and the colours. The image is from a set given to me by my sister and I used my Promarkers to colour it. The other embellishments are from my ever growing collection of bits and pieces. I decided to make it for my Mum for Mother's Day. Whilst she was in hospital she was interested in what I have been doing and enjoyed me showing her my creations. I hope she likes this one too.

It's quite difficult to get the lighting correct with the silver doyley, but I think it gives the overall effect.

I found the pin in my needlework box and added pearl beads to it and pinned it with a black lace bow. The small text rose I made myself, the other flowers have been put together using shapes from my flower box. Of course I have used my favourite technique of the moment which is adding sparkle round the edges of the mounts and onto the flower petals, I also used Cosmic Shimmer sprays to distress them a bit more.

Challenge List

Creative Inspiratins  -  Lace, pins and pearls

Stamp Something  -  Girly week

Lili of the Valley No: 48  -  Easel Card

Colour Create  -  Red, black and off white

Crafty Cardmakers No: 16  -  A feminine Celebration

Cupcake Craft Challenges No: 81  -  Flower Power

Anyone for Anya  -  Mum's the word

The Cuttlebug Spot  -  Vintage

Lots to do  -  Distressed

Frosted Designs  -  Technique Week

Totally Papercraft  -  Mother's day/Special Lady

C.R.A.F.T Challenge No: 40  -  Mother's Day/Flowers

Simon Says Stamp  -  Mother's Day/Girly

Stamp, scrap and doodle No: 30  -  Open Week

Well there's lots out there to enter and from which to get inspiration, have fun.  See ya.  Luv B xxx

ATC - distressed bumblebees and butterflies

Oh I have missed being able to create and blog this week, but, more importantly, Mum is home from hospital. Between us, my sister and I have managed to overcome some of the beaurocracy and get Mum back into her own environment. She needs care, and at the moment that is me, (hence no cards or blogs this week) but she is on the list and we hope to hear very soon.

That said, I did manage to grab a few hours last night which resulted me staying up till 1.00am, but this is the outcome. The two photos show the difference light can make to the same image. The first one was taken laying flat, the second one was standing up, and you can see what a difference it makes, but by comparing the two, the details and the shimmers can be seen.
I haven't made ATCs for a while but found Fun With ATCs challenge blog and this week shadows need to be included, so I thought I would experiment to see what I could do. It is just possible to see shadows behind the foliage and the butterflies and I double stamped the bee to get it to look as though it was really buzzing around. I used the swirl and butterflies stamps from the Shabby French collection by TH, the bee and the foliage are tiny stamps that I purchased at the weekend at the Farnborough Make It craft show and are from Lavinia Stamps. The Tuesday Taggers challenge this week is to include swirls and curls, they are being sponsored by Crafty Individuals. The flourish has been coloured with Promarkers (and I added to my collection at the weekend - money, money, money!!!). The background is distressed using TH distress inks and water, spritzed onto my craft mat and fits in with the Pollycraft challenge for distressing. I added perfect pearls to it as well to get the shimmer.  I highlighted the foliage with sepia accents and the butterflies with crackle accents to get the glossy, glassy look for the Cuttlebug challenge. The colours fit Think Monday ATC orange challenge and the Pink Elephant green challenge. Finally I edged the card with my Sakura glitter pens.
I love all this experimenting with new techniques and feel this is a good result for what I set out to achieve. It just so happened ,when I had finished, I realised that the content fits my blog name. Result!!
I am adding some photos at the bottom of the page that show that Spring is really on it's way. They were taken Tuesday morning along lovely Oxfordshire lanes as I was on my way to work . It was such a gorgeous morning and, as I was early for my appointment, I was able to stop a few times to take photos. These I just love for the colours and fabulous blue sky, but also because I felt very uplifted to feel the warmth of the sun and see the beautiful snowdrops.
Thankyou for looking I hope you are having a good week.
Take care. Luv Bxx

Bev's Birthday Card

Today is my lovely and special daughter-in-law's birthday. Happy Birthday Bev. She will be returning later today from a 'hen' weekend to have dinner with us all (that includes my very lovely daughter Maddie, my super son Ben and special grand-daughters Becca, Ella and Maddison, oh and I mustn't forget my super-star hubby Ken).

I have used pink in this card as it is Bev's favourite colour and kept it fairly simple and clean - that is compared to some of my recent distressed examples. The rose paper is from a CD by Papercraft World and the sentiments are pre-printed and foiled. I used a swirl stamp by Anna Griffin and heat embossed it using a sparkly embossing powder, I then embellished over it. The small black mounts have been edged with MS Tourmaline glitter glue and the silver mount is edged with Star Dust Stickles. Some beads, tiny hearts, ribbon, flowers and gem stickers finish it off.

Contrasted with the black I think it looks quite good. Enjoy.

Luv Bxxx


Challenge List
Gingersnap Creations GC 44 - To make a birthday card
Crafty Creations challenge 56 - Cut it out, pop it out
Cute card Thursday challenge 101 - Ribbon-tastic
Saturday Spotlight SSHP20 - Clean it up
One stop craft challenge 69 - Optimistically pink