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

I have won a prize - how cool is that?

I have been so lucky. I entered the Simon Says Stamp blog hop and sketch challenge with the Butterfly Joy card and won a Cuttlebug embossing folder from Jo's blog at http://bootsblogspot.blogspot.com/ .
I am very excited about this and a big thankyou to Jo and Simon Says Stamp for arranging the hop and giving such lovely blog candy. I chose the swiss dots folder and can't wait to get it and have a play.
Hope your week isn't too busy doing other things (mine seems to be). Enjoy yourself.
Luv Bxxx

Shabby Chic??

Wow, busy day today. I have been to see my sister and off to the hospital again soon, but just wanted to post this card.

This started as a simple card following the sketch at Pink Elephant and I wanted to add some polka dots and plaid to enter Frosted Designs and If the Shoe Fits challenges and some embossing for the Sophisticat challenge, but I couldn't leave it and added the embellishments so that it became more shabby chic in style. I have dry embossed some card and some DIY silver pipe lagging tape for the back layers. The stamp is from Personal Impressions, I coloured it using the Whispers pens and then edged it with MS glitter glue and misted it with Tattered Angels Vanilla Breeze and Rose Tea. The scalloped border is MS punch which I edged with Scattered Straw and Worn Lipstick distress inks. The 3 roses in the bottom left corner I handmade, the others are ones from my stash but I have altered them with inks and mists adding other embellishments etc to them. The black swirls ared cut on the Cricut using the Home Accents cartridge.

I am starting to see the finished card in my mind when I begin, but this didn't end up exactly as I had imagined it. But I think it is better, so I am pleased with the colours and the end product. Hope you like it too.

Take care and don't work too hard, have some fun when you can.

Luv Bxx

Challenge List

Frosted Designs - Polka dot and plaid challenge

If the shoe fits - Mad for Plaid

The Pink Elephant - Sketch

Sophisticat - Embossing
Simon Says Stamp challenge - Simon says vintage with flowers
Just Buggin - Emboss it
Crazy for Challenges C4C26 - It's all about texture
Theme Thursday - Flourish

Time and Again (Miss You) - distressed card

I find it so amazing the way the brain can take you off in so many different directions when starting a new design. I had found the Stamptacular Sunday Challenge for 'Going in Circles' and thought I would like to use the shape in a new design. So having seen the great examples from the DT, I started to collect bits together, 2 pieces of cream card cut into 5in circles, expecting to make a round card, plus a piece of dark brown paper with circles on which would lend itself nicely to a distressed look. I cut a nesties scalloped circle from it and a plain circle. Here we go, bits to start me off.

Hey ho - not to be. I went off in a completely different direction and decided to experiment with a new Tim Holtz mask of a clock that I have just received. Using one of my pieces of cream circular cards I inked it using Antique Linen and Vintage Photo. Mmmmm, quite liked that. Ok what could I add to it? I remembered I had some TH clock faces, found those and chose one to use. I also found my Paper Artsy rubber stamp of a clock and thought - what else can I stamp with this? Out came the vintage car and vintage bicycle, great, wheels are round. I looked for other bits and pieces to go with it. Of course I had to have some flowers but I knew it shouldn't be too flowery so, I made a small rose using the brown paper with circles on. Oooh, I need some clock hands, but I don't have a die and nothing on my Cricut cartridges, so what else is there? I found a pack of Kanban adhesive hinges with a pointer that would do perfectly and a metal card holder in my TH bits and pieces. Wow getting somewhere. I then searched a box of K&Co embellishments and found the 'Time and Again' and chipboard circle. Loved the circle but how could I use it? Another paper flower using the technique I have just learned, tearing different sized circles - that fits well. In my vintage brad box I found a great round one that I mounted on a spot cut from the brown paper. I cut a circle from an old book and inked it. I knew I had some clock paper somewhere so I found that and whilst I was waiting for all the Stickles and glitter glues to dry I cut and distressed the backing papers to go on the card and I made the sentiment using my Justrite Stampers set. 

Now it's complete you can see how different it is compared to my original ideas. Nothing like it in fact. Well that's how my brain led me and I'm still pleased with the effect and with what I have learned.

So now to enter it into the Stamptacular Sunday Challenge #46 - Going in Circles!
Tuesday Taggers - Getting messy hands
Cupcake Craft Challenge - Round and round

Thankyou for looking and for all the lovely comments I have been receiving on my creations.

Have a good week crafting. Take care. Luv Bxx
Take a look at The Craft Barn website, they have a great range of goodies - I want to get to the shop when I can get to the other side of Surrey.

Distressed flowers

Happy Sunday

I am really into making flowers as embellishments at the moment and when I came across the sketch with a twist of flowers at The Sweet Stop, I just had to have a go. Totally Gorjuss and Pile It On also have a flowers theme and Saturday Spotlight's is MESSY, wey hey that's what I like. So this is it, what do you think?

This type of flower is totally new to me and they have been made with roughly torn cirles of card which have been curled around the edges and I added sparkle (of course) with the Cosmic Shimmer Aqua twinkles. There's lots of glitz on here as the nesties labels (used on my Big Shot) have been edged with Stickles Waterfall and Holly as well. I used the distressing tool on the flowery backing paper from K&Co and it has been misted with Glimmer Mist Blue Skies and Cosmic Shimmer Mist Golden Mint. Two of the corners have been distressed with Pine Needles ink and printed with a leafy twig stamp from Art Impressions. I added the ribbon and backing paper (edged with Lime Zest Pearlidoodles) to complete the look.

Experimenting with colours in the same range seem to be a thing for me at the moment and I enjoyed putting these together.

Challenges I am entering -
The Sweet Stop - SSS44 Sketch with a spin on flowers
Totally Gorjuss - Flower Power
Saturday Spotlight - Doing the Mess Around
Pile It On - Let us see flowers
Our Creative Corner - Try a new technique
Lots to do - Use a machine
Anyone For Anya - Something completely different

Butterfly Joy Card

Good morning, what a wonderful bright and sunny day in this neck of the woods.

This card has been a real experiment for me as I have used a number of challenges to complete it. I looked for those that I liked and thought I could incorporate into one card and I can't believe what I have come up with.

I initially started with the sketch from Willow Sketchie to give me my layout and I have been a bit crafty here as you will see. This is not the flat design that it may look like here. I have carefully put the pieces together to show the design as you look straight at it but when you open it up the elements fit together to form a Joy Card, the inspirarion for this came from Project Tuesday.

I stamped the butterfly image, embossed it with bronze embossing powder and masked it off to brayer the background using Big and Juicy Soothing Senset keeping to the pink end of the colour range. I used distress inks Shabby Shutters and Dusty Concord to pull the ink in from the edges. I then stamped the foliage using several stamps from my collection. Having completed that I painted the butterfly using cosmic shimmers and edged it with a MS glitter glue called Kunzite. Simon says Stamp has a recipe challenge this week which is to use three different embellishments, two patterned papers and one image, so this fits the bill, I have used the brads, ribbon and flowers for this. I included some stitching to meet the Cuttlebug challenge and metal in the form of the brads and flower stems to meet the Cute Card Thursday challenge. Gingersnap Creations challenge this week is to use three of your favourite colours so I chose pink, for all the girls in our family, lilac, as it is one of Mum's favourite colours to wear and brown because it reminds me of the 70's and is my surname. So that all fits together well.

I found this really sweet birthday poem on the internet which was free and used it in the centre and this meets Penny's Paper-Crafty Challenge for birthday layouts, gifts and cards.  The flowers were cream and pink so I used lilac pearlidoodles to add the mauvy colour and sprayed them with Rose Tea Glimmer Mist. I have also used the Sakura glitter pens to fill in some of the flowers on the patterned papers and although you can't see it here I printed the foliage and a message of 'explore, image, dream on the left inside page over the patterned paper.

I am pleased with the overall outcome and I hope you like it too. Have a great saturday.

Luv Bxx

Challenge List

Willow Sketchie Challenge - Layout

Simon Says Stamp Challenge - Simon Says Happy Hello Hop and Recipe challenge

Penny's Paper-Crafty challenge - Happy Birthday

Little Red Wagon - Ribbon

Gingersnap Creations - Colour challenge, three colours you love

Cuttlebug Challenge - Stitch it and be inspired

Crafty Creations challenge #55 - Stitching

Creative Belli Challenge #85 - butterflies and dragonflies

Cute Card Thursday challenge 100 - Metal Mania

Treehouse Thursday Challenge #037 - Paper Piecing

Project Tuesday - Joy Fold Card

Quick card for a man

Hi everyone

I am still visiting my Mum in hospital twice a day, so it is having an effect on the amount of time I have to design new cards, however I am working on one that should be finished tomorrow. I thought that for today I would post a simple card that I made recently that could easily be given to a man - so many of mine are very feminine and this is something completely different.

This really won't take very long to make and consists of a piece of green card, two patterned papers, dark green paper and some matt silver card. The papers have been cut into strips and layered. I used a pre-printed sentiment and a flourish which was heat embossed.
Eh voila, done!

Challenge sites are becoming a big thing for me and I am loving the way they help me to channel my thoughts and creativity into new designs. There is a whole new world that has opened up for me which I have never had time to explore before, and what wonderful inspiration I have found, just absoluely fabulous. I hope you visit again to see what else I am doing.

Have a fun weekend and enjoy whatever you have planned to do. Thankyou for looking.
Take care, Bxx

Sparkly stars

Good morning one and all. What does the day have in store for you??

I didn't get a chance to create very much yesterday but I have been working on a card for a funky young lady who loves stars. This is my simple but sparkly design. I used glitter card to get the extra sparkly effect and found some paper with stars on in my stash. I also have quite a collection of stars in different designs so I have mixed and matched to get a more textured effect. The sentiments are pre-printed and again from my stash of bits and pieces. I've added a button and ribbon, a paper clip and small tag. Guess what her favourite colour is - yes it's pink.

I am including this in the Frosted Designs Star challenge.

I thought I would also add a photo of my gorgeous rose that I received on Valentine's day from my hubby. It is sitting in my craft room where I can see it whilst I am designing and creating. It was so lovely to receive this. Ta Darlin' xxxx.

Well have a great day, don't work too hard and happy crafting. Luv Bxx