I'm a Blog Candy winner

Woo hoo can you believe I won some blog candy. Thanks to Rebekah at Berrylicious all the scrummy things that have been looking at me on my side bar are now going to be mine. A big thankyou to Rebekah for her generosity and a happy birthday too.

Looks like I'm gonna have some craftin' fun with this lovely lot.

Hope you are having a good week. Don't forget it's a new MAWTT challenge tomorrow. I hope you will come and join us.

Take care. Luv B xxxx

Mum's Scrapbook Page

Hi All

After making my little piece for the previous CoC challenge at Studio L3 I said I would make it into a scrapbook page, and I have. In that post I told the story of why I had chosen certain elements for the tinted vision board and thought I would carry this through to the whole page itself.

Mum's favourite colours are yellow, orange, in fact all autumnal colours, so that is the theme I have kept with for the page and papers. I added the small butterfly that I had somehow missed originally on the photo and die cut the large TH fanciful flight. I think it looks rather nice, and I have used a MS punch for the smaller ones.

You will recognise alot of the materials by Lord Tim of Holtz (as I have seen him called), the ticket, the heart, the wings, the flourish and the bracket edge.   The hearts and the love ticket represent the family, we are a very close knit immediate family and also keep links with some of the cousins (Mums nieces and nephews) and their families. The flowers represent her love of gardening and growing plants (Dad did all the veg when he was alive).     Mum never had the opportunity to fly and to visit other countries during her life except twice, once with Dad when they took a helicopter ride to the Scilly Isles and once when she went with my sister to California. She just loved the experience and still talks about it today. Even though she struggles to walk, she would love to fly again, so the wings show her desire for this. The tape measure is very significant to me, Mum always made her own and especially mine and my sister's clothes as we were growing up and she passed the love of the sewing machine onto me. I didn't ever take it further but I learnt from her and used to make mine and my children's clothes when they were very little and when we couldn't afford very much. It is amazing what you can recycle. I don't make clothes any more but I have been using my machine for my card making. So there it is an account of the background to this scrapbook page. I have left the journaling space blank at the moment, but will write information in when I show Mum.

The papers have come from different places. The main 12x12 is from a pack I brought from Costco a long time ago. The flowery one is a vintage download and the bracket journaling paper, along with the flowers, leaves and bulldog clip are digital files I have just bought from Shabby Miss Jen. (I have only just found this on-line shop and just love the designs for papers and embellishments she has.) On this occasion I have printed them and cut them out, but I will certainly experiment more with my own papers and layouts now I have these to play with.

I hope you like what I have done with my piece for the CoC challenge (week 6).

Have a good week.

Luv B xxxx

Rose Fairy - GDT for Cupcake Inspirations

Good morning. Hope you are having a good weekend and that the weather is being kind to you wherever you may be.

I just loved making this card and the shabby fairy look I achieved. I was asked to be a guest designer for {Cupcake Inspirations} this week and there is the most fabulous and 'sweet' picture inspiration. I chose to use the colour theme of pink, green, brown and white from it.

I have used an image called Rose Fairy by Robyn's Fetish and coloured with promarkers. The wings have been glittered. The main paper is rose paper by Porcelaine and the stripey paper is from a pad by K&Company and Tim Coffey. The border has been made using a MS punch, painted with old paper distress crackle paint and glitter added to it. The other papers have also been edged with the old paper DCP or crystal stickles.
The flowers are a mixture of bought and punched petals, again edged with old paper crackle paint and some glitter or stickles added.

I have also used a cuttlebug embossing folder and cuttlebug die for the corner.



Thankyou for stopping by and taking a look.

Luv B xxxx

Girl with hearts - OSAAT challenge 24

Happy Sunday to you and I hope the weekend has been good to you.

Sunday is challenge day at OSAAT and today it's team B who are providing all the lovely inspiration. There are some gorgeous creations for you to take a look at by the other design team members, so pop on over to see. 

The sponsors this week are Sew Many Cards and the Hobbyhabitat shop. They both have lovely things on sale and my card includes a fabulous image from SMC and a gorgeous heart frame from HH.

Do go and have a look at Stitchy Bear Stamps shop too, there are a number of new artists who are creating some gorgeous digi stamps, so there is plenty for you to choose from. The link is on my side bar.

This is the sketch we have used for this challenge and there is the option of using pink somewhere on your project, so, of course, I included both.

I used both DIs and promarkers for colouring the girl with hearts, I love mixing  media. The peach coloured circle behind the heart frame has been edges with spiced marmalade DI. The DP came from one of my 12x12 stack pads and has been edged with victorian velvet DI and frosted lace stickles, as has the frame and the image. I happen to have a heart punch that fits the frame hearts perfectly so I punched 9, edged them with the pink velvet and covered them with clear rock candy distress stickles to give them a bit of sparkle. I think they look good spaced around with some gold and burgundy different shaped hearts as well. The sentiment is from Flower Soft and the hearts from a cutlebug die.

I hope your Sunday has started well, enjoy the rest of the day.

Luv B xxxx

"Cheers" - Ken's Birthday card

Caution could be problems later today.

Hi Everyone.

It's Saturday and it's Ken's birthday and I have made a great card for him. Something linked to the above caption.

I popped over to Sarah's blog during the week and she gave the nod about Imag-e-nation having a sale of Flippin men and women stamps. Now these are definitely NOT my usual style but I went to see anyway and just couldn't resist a bargain. These were too good to miss. Usually a set sells for £9.99 but they have the whole set of men or women on sale for £20.00. A bargain you say, but if you buy the whole set you get the other set completely free - just incredible. Don't know if they have any left but it would be worth a quick look to see.

So I decided to discard the card I had made for Ken earlier in the year and make him a new one. He loves bitter when he has a drink so I chose the 'Cheers' set, aren't they fun?

(He doesn't look like this I have to say!) I decided to make up the front and back of the image and use the back one on the inside of the card. I think Ken will like it. He'll certainly like the caption.

Promarkers used - 18 of them so I won't bore you by listing all their names.

DPs - blue one printed from Papercraft World CD others from my box of bits.

Music paper from a vocal score brought at a car boot.

Vintage paper - one of my downloads.

Buddie is a vintage bottle top also downloaded, and other embellishments from my collection including the TH ticket.

We are having a BBQ later with friends and neighbours, so I hope the weather holds out. It is an annual event and we have been known to stand under gazebos getting damp, but hey ho once the beer gets flowing I shouldn't think there will be a problem, only the drowsiness one.

Hope you have a fun day and weekend. See you tomorrow, I have two posts for DTs, so something else to look at.

Bye for now. Luv B xxxx

Compendium of Curiosities week 7

Good evening everyone.

I have been working on my entry for the challenge at Studio L3, which is focused on Tim Holt's book A Compendium of Curiosities. This week we have turned to page 55 and the tinted vision fragments tutorial.

I only have 1 inch square memory glass I can use for this challenge and the photograph and materials I have used means I have gone with even more of a vintage look. 

The photograph is of my Mum when she was 16, (she is now 80), and it is one of my favourite pictures of her. As you can see I have used two tinted vision fragments on this.

I started with a chipboard piece from my large box of shapes and covered it with DIs working through from mustard seed at the top, scattered straw, frayed burlap and vintage photo. The edges were done in walnut stain. Mum loves going to a little bingo session with some friends at her sheltered accommodation, so this stamp, by TH of course, seemed a good one to use. I have added some music paper, because she loves listening to her CDs and a very small photo of her with her brothers and sisters when she was probably about eight or nine. Down the left hand side I have put some TH tissue tape. I coloured a metal corner with alcohol inks and added that too. Now I look back at my piece I see I have missed off a small butterfly that I had cut out to stick on it, so that will go on later. She loves butterflies and that's one of the links to my blog title.

I have decided to use this for a 12x12 scrapbook page and have already gathered the elements and papers for it so hopefully I can post it early next week, but it will be too late for the challenge so I must get this in as it is. I will let you know Linda when I have finished it completely so you can take a look.

I have another post to come tomorrow morning as it's Ken's birthday and I have made him a fun card.

Thankyou for stopping by to take a peek at my work. I hope you have some time planned for rest and recreation this weekend.

Take care. Luv B xxxx

Fuchsia photo inspiration. MAWTT challenge 57

Good Thursday morning to one and all.

Thankyou to everyone who took part in my challenge at MAWTT last week. It wasn't as popular as some of the others so I will have to have a think about that one.

Today the new challenge is hosted by Lisa Jane who has given us a fab sketch and a beautiful photo for inspiration.

Fuchsias are my favourite flowers and I've had lots of ideas for this challenge but I decided to create a vintage style card as I found this beautiful vintage image and poem.

In Eastern lands they talk in flowers,

And they tell in a garland their loves and cares,

Each blossom that blooms in their garden bowers,
On it's leaves a mystic language bears.

I used the Nestabilities labels 4 and the TH Alterations ornamental die for the vintage image and mount. The mount I pained with waterfall and aged gold Eco-Friendly acrylic paints - sprayed with water and blotted. I thought it would give a spattered pattern to it but it looks more like painted and weathered wood. The red DP is K&CO designer paper pad, Classic K and the sentiment is from Creative Expressions and stamped onto the bird from the TH Alterations caged bird die.

The Fuchsia looking flower I made, the others are from my box. Other embellishments have either been punched or die-cut. The hinges are from a cuttlebug die and cut in half, I used DIs and both clear embossing powder and TH frayed burlap distress embossing powder to get a slightly more aged look. I folded the corner of the DP back to reveal another paper underneath. It was all edged with crystal stickles. I added a butterfly cut out and covered with crackle accents.

DIs used are aged mahogany, tumbled glass, pine needles

Adirondacks used are oregano and stream.

Thanks for stopping by and taking a look.

Have a great weekend coming up.

Luv B xxx

Compendium of Curiosities week 6

Good evening
It has been such a busy weekend with the family I didn't think I was going to be able to get this posted in time for the Studio L3 challenge but I have got a little time to get this done. You know how I love all things TH style so I didn't want to miss it. I think I have made it on time Linda.

This is a tag I have made for Week 6 which happens to be page 66 of Tim's book, and the multi-medium collage technique.  The tag is part of a chipboard tag book I bought recently at my favourite craft shop The Stamp Attic in Wantage. I occasionally pop in when I am working in the area but you can also order on line.

I will leave you to learn the technique from Tim's book, but suffice to say I have loved creating my art in this way. My tag represents my blog and you can pick out the elements of it. I have stamped a bumble bee (one of Tim's stamps), added a butterfly (one of my downloaded files cut out and covered with glossy accents), a B for Brenda and @ representing the blog site, both using the technique demonstrated on page 66 (they are die cuts) and both have been covered in glossy accents. The additional honeycomb stamp is from Stampers Anonymous.

DIs I used are mustard seed, spiced marmalade, walnut stain  and fired brick.

I hope you have had a great weekend. I have been at Farnborough Air Show all day watching all the planes and will try and post some photos later. I am off to see whether this tag meets any other challenges.

Thanks for stopping by and taking a look at my work.

Take care. Luv B xxx

More Blog Candy

Just love this blog it has beautiful work that is vintage and grunge and TH inspired.

The blog candy is fab for those of you who like distressed paper and inky fingers. Just become a follower and post a link about the blog and candy and become a follower. When Anika has 50 followers she will make the draw.

Go to -   http://anikraft.blogspot.com/

B xxx

Craft Your Days Away

Hi Everyone

There is a new challenge blog starting on the 7th August called 'Craft Your Days Away', which will be a multi-crafts challenge blog. At the moment to celebrate and to spread the word they have candy to give away to three lucky people. Go take a look.

First Prize a £10.00 voucher to Crafty Emma's Store

Second Prize is some fab embellishments

Third Prize is a Kraftin Kimmie Stamp

Good luck and happy crafting.

Luv B xxxx