Male card

Last week, while away with Mum, I used the evening time to make some cards. I have no male birthday cards in my collection and decided to take some images of vintage motor cars with me that I had downloaded. This is one of the cards I made. I stamped the clockface and the sentiment is from flower soft. I also used TH tissue tape and ribbon. The backing paper is another printed from a download. I must write where from when I print them off.

This is perfect for the challenge at My Time To Craft Challenge  - Motor Madness, Creative Inspirations - Birthday and Allsorts challenge - Travel/holiday.

The sun is streaming through my window today, and it looks as though we are going to have a fabulous sunset this evening.

I must jump in the shower as I am off out to dinner tonight.

Have a good evening. Luv B xxxxx

Pear Tree Designs Challenge 20

Monday, Monday .....

.... and I have to go to work today, so this is a scheduled post.

I hope you are all well at the beginning of the first full week in October - how many days till Christmas?

This is my third week as guest designer for Pear Tree Designs. I hope you have been able to go over and have a look at their challenge blog and take part in these challenges.

The challenge theme today is 'Good Luck' and while I was away last week I made a few cards and this is one of them. 

I remember seeing a card with a four leaf clover on it made with hearts and thought this would be a great idea to use. The hearts are cut using a provo craft die and as you an see I used DIs and stickles on them. I didn't have any letter diecuts with me so I actually drew 'luck' by hand and cut them out and used rub-on letters for 'good'. I used a TH 'on the edge' scallop die and papers from my box of bits.

Challenges to have fun with -

Lots to do - Vintage
Paper Sundaes - Something from your stash
Oh La La - Nothing Floral

Have a great day and thankyou for stopping by to see what I have been doing. If you have left me a comment, thankyou, I love looking to see who has popped in.

Luv B xxx

Compendium of Curiosities week 16

Hi there  everyone - how has your weekend been? Have you had the torrential rain that seems to have swept the whole of the UK? If you are somewhere else in the world I hope the weather has been treating you better than it has us at the moment.

Well I had to miss week 15 of the Compendium of Curiosities challenge as I was away with Mum, but I certainly got stuck in this weekend to produce something for week 16. Oh my, how quickly the weeks go by. So pop over to see the lovely Linda at her blog, Studio L3, to see what the challenge has been about and this time it lasts for 2 weeks so you will still have time to enter. Don't forget these are all based on the fabulous book by Tim Holtz.

This week it is to create something using the wrinkle free distress technique on page 33. The instructions are so easy to follow and this is a great little technique and one I experimented with on Hels workshop last month.

I followed the technique to make this tag and the colours I used are Barn Door, Mustard Seed, Crushed Olive, Vintage Photo, Forest Moss and Chipped Sapphire. The trees, snowflakes and birds are all TH stamps and the snowman is a Melissa Frances sticker.

The trees have been embossed with a glitter effect embossing powder. I sanded the snowflakes and edge of the tag to distress and fade them and added white pen to them, the trees and the grass.

Challenges to have fun with -

Studio L3 - Wrinkle-free distress

Simon Says Stamp and Show - Distressed and sanded

Daring Cardmakers - Christmas

Lots to do - Vintage 

Monday tomorrow - so have a good week.

Take care, luv B xxxx

And the winner is ..............

Happy Sunday Everyone

I have been to see my sister today and had to travel back in all that rain, oh my goodness the spray was awful on the M1 and there were delays on the M25 (as usual) because of the road works. But heyho I am back now.

So onto my blog candy - I have looked through all the suggestions for what I had done differently on my 'To Do List' card. Surprisingly there were only 10 guesses - but then that means there was more of a chance for those who did have a go. Anyway ................................

What did I do that was different and new for me? Well as you know I love using my distress inks and had recently been on a workshop with Hels Sheridan to explore ways of using them, but one thing I had never done with them until I made that card was  ...............................

PAINT WITH THEM

All my colouring up of images had been with promarkers.

So who is the lucky person who guessed this - and yes there was one!!!!

CONGRATULATIONS TO HAZEL

Hazel said   -     "MMm struggling to see what it is. Could it be the colouring medium you have used inkpads instead of pens??????"

So well done Hazel, a box of goodies will be wending it's way to you soon and I am adding a few other bits and pieces. I hope you have fun playing with them.

See you all again in a while as I have another post I need to do to get a challenge in before tomorrow.

Luv B xxxxx

Blog Award

I want to say a big thankyou to my team-mate Hazel at MAWTT for giving me this great blog award. I have only been blogging since January and I can't believe how many blogging friends I have made. It's lovely to know there are like minded people who appreciate what you do. Thanks Hazel and I would return it back and send it to all my MAWTT team mates but since you all have it I will send it on to other friends.

Now  have to tell you seven things about myself.
1. I hate ironing.
2. I love Christmas.
3. I celebrated my 36th weddng anniversary this year. (I was a child bride.....)
4. My family, and particularly my grand-daughters, are the love of my life.
5. I work in Oxfordshire (but I don't live there).
6. Crafting has become my number one pastime since I gave up full time work.
7. I have 2 cats, both brothers. The black one is called Cimmie (starting with a 's' sound) and the dark brown is called Tinder.



Seven lovely bloggers I am sending this on to are -

Cheryl - Cheryl's creative cards and ATCs
Dawn - Dawnie's Den
Choccy - It's not Terry's It's Mine
Kathy - Purple Princess Diaries
Sarah - Sarah Wright Designs
Zoe - This Little Place
Joyce - Gram's Treasures
See you all soon. Luv B xxxxx

MAWTT challenge 66 - 'Fairies and Fantasy'

Well this is a completely new style for me, I have played with fairies (I'm often away with the fairies - if you know what I mean), but I have never dabbled with fantasy. I shall have to keep this card for Ken cos it's his favourite genre of reading material and television watching, that mixed with sci-fi.

This week we are sponsored by Stitchy Bear Stamps and you can find so many digital images and papers over at the Stitchy Bear and I Did It Creations Crafting Boutique.

I chose to use one of my friend Stitchy's stamps called Dark Angel. She is just gorgeous and because of her name and the way she looks I chose to keep her on the dark side, but used some bright yellow, mauve, green and turquoise to lift it all. I really enjoyed experimenting with another new style.

I have used Photoshop Elements again to colour in the image and printed it onto photo paper to get a more glossy effect. I used a sketch from Sweet Pea Stamps - I visited their blog to get a feel for how to approach this style. It's certainly different and for the first time I have used black soot for distress edging. I will welcome your comments, please give me the critical friend views, the good and the areas to develop, so that I can look to improve on what I am doing.

Please go over to the MAWTT challenge blog to see what my team mates have been crearing for this fabulous challenge.

Have a good end to the week, I shall be coming home tonight with Mum after we have been out for a meal.

Take care. Luv Brenda xxxxx

Celebrate - second GDT card for PTD

Welcome Everyone

It's Monday morning and my second guest designer card for Pear Tree Designs. This week the challenge is Celebration and they are being sponsored by Robyn's Fetish. Robyn is a creator of great digital images and can be found here at Stitchy Stamps and I Did It Creations Crafting Boutique.

As you read this I will be in Swanage with Mum - this post is scheduled but I will have my laptop with me and have access the internet, so I shall be able to keep up with my friends and followers blogs too.

I have made a card to celebrate friendship which could be used for an anniversary.

I seem to really be into easel cards at the moment, and thoroughly enjoyed making this one. I used a sentiment from Raindrop Echoes as the main focal point, but you can see it is a flap and underneath is this -

It is 'Cake' by Robyn's Fetish and I have used it as a digital image, colouring it in Photoshop Elements and adding the sentiment to it before printing it out on paper from the Shabby Princess. I used Nestabilities to cut out the mounts and used pumice stone DI on the edges.

This is the full card leaning back and you can see the space for writing your own words in it. A border using a MS punch has created the 'block' for the easel to stand against and a ribbon and some flowers (edged with DIs and stickles) finish it off. The papers are all from the shabby princess and I also used the victorian velvet DI.

I hope you like the shabby chic look of this one.

Luv B xxx

OSAAT challenge card - Anything Goes

Happy Sunday everyone.

As you read this I will be on the south coast at Swanage and I hope the weather will be favourable as I am taking my Mum away for a break. Some of you know that we always hire a beach hut for the time we are there and this is the view from where we sit. (I am guessing the weather will not be as warm and as clear as in this photo as it was taken a couple of years ago). But we will hopefully enjoy the sea air and get some good weather.

I scheduled my sneak peek yesterday and this post today, but will have my laptop with me to keep in touch. Did you correctly guess what the challenge was?

Well as you can see, this week the challenge at OSAAT is 'Anything Goes' and is sponsored by Crop Stop. They have a huge menu of crafting goodies for you to peruse and they will be giving the winner a $15 voucher to spend in their shop. So pop on over to see what is in the store.

I have chosen to use an image by Robyn's Fetish this week called Katy Kittie, and I think she is really cute. I have chosen to use the vintage style again and hope you like the colours, they are rather different for a change.

Please pop over to the OSAAT challenge blog and take a look at the great creations from my wonderfully talented team mates.

In the meantime I hope you are having a great weekend.

Take care. Luv B xxxx

Challenges to have fun with -
Stampitcrazy  -  Anything goes

Stamp Man Blog Hop

BLOG HOP at the STAMP MAN.
Great prizes to be won.
Running until he 7th October.
Click the link above to find out more.
Bxxx

We are here

Hi Everyone

I hope your Saturday is going well. We are here in sunny Swanage and I thought I would show you the view from our flat. I can't believe the weather today, it is stunning. I hope we get more of it.

I brought my camera lead with me and glad I did. I have never used the camera with the laptop before but it worked wey hey...........

Chris these are for you .......

Looking across to the pier.

The other direction towards the beach

I zoomed in towards the end of the pier and look - in the background is the Isle of Wight.

Enjoy the weekend.

Luv B xxxx