Follow your heart - limited resources

Hi everyone - hope your weekend is going well.

This is another of my cards I made whilst in Swanage with Mum at the beginning of the summer. I took just a few supplies with me so that I had something to do in the evenings, it was great working like this. It challenged me quite a bit, but it was good fun.

This card I used some backing papers from my box of bits and the main part is from my gorgeous Mariposa matstock - you know the stack that I just love looking at and don't want to use. It is already glittered so I just edged it with pumice stone DI and gold stickles. The embellishments are a butterfly from my downloaded collection and covered in crackle accents, some seam binding tape, a little flower made with dictinary paper and a little cream ribbon rose with ealnut stain Di on it; some punched leaves, a flourish from a TH die and two tiny punched hearts with pearls. I edged the whole of the main background with antique linen and gold stickles. In the top left hand corner you might just be able to make out three of my glass glintz's with th pink circle shape stuck to them from the bottom DP. The sentiment is from a box of die cuts.

Hey ho - it's just amazing what you an do when you challenge yourself.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend. Have fun.

Luv B xxx

Maya blowing bubbles - MAWTT challenge 59

Thursday greetings to everyone. Hope all is well with you.

This week at MAWTT we have another great sketch from Hazel and there isn't a theme to go with it so anything goes. There is inspiration from the design team so go take a look at their wonderful creations. We so love coming to look at your amazing cards and projects.

Our sponsors this week are Whimsey Stamps and I have chosen this one called Maya Blowing Bubbles. I have coloured her using promarkers and edged the image with tumbled glass DI and crystal stickles. The papers are from my box of bits and I wanted to stay with the bubble theme so I chose two with circles on. I have also used lilac pearlidoodles round the edge of the purple paper and clear rock candy distress stickles over the bubbles on the image. This didn't need alot of embellishing but I added beads to give the impression of more bubbles and the sentiment in the top right corner.

I hope the week has gone well, and you are enjoying the summer holidays particularly if you have children home and on holiday from school. Have fun over the weekend.

Luv B xxx

Vintage Eiffel Tower - limited resources

Hello everyone, how is your week going?

This is another one of my collection of cards made with very few resources whilst down in Swanage with Mum at the end of June/beginning of July. It is a slow week, when we go, as she can't move far but we enjoy sitting outside of the beach hut and we enjoyed lovely weather. In the evenings after we have been out for a meal I made cards with the bits and pieces I took with me.

This is quite a simple card, with images downloaded from the internet and the rose cut out and edged with vintage photo DI. The Eiffel Tower image I also edged with gold stickles. The papers were bits from my box and I had added the buttons to my pack. The butterfly again is one of my collection and covered in sepia accents. I had also taken the little pink corner piece with me.

Enjoy the rest of the week and the weekend when it gets here.

See you again soon.

Luv B xxxx

Cream Tea - Limited Resources

Hello everyone, I promised to show you the cards I made while I was on holiday with Mum in Swanage earlier in June/July.

This is one of the cards.  I had taken very limited resources with me, but I had put some of my own 'packs' together each one in a separate bag which included the image, some papers and some embellishments. I had picked up a new paper pack the day before I left and put it in a tub wondering if it might come in useful. It is the Papermania Rose Garden paper pack and the designs are lovely and very shabby chic. I had been looking at postcards (as you do when you are on holiday) and I found this one which was called 'West Country Cream Tea'. I hadn't taken any plain coloured papers with me and there is a very small craft shop in the town where I bought some pearlised papers which included the pink at the bottom. I cut and distressed the postcard and added cosmic shimmer aqua twinkles and mounted it onto a piece of green left over from another card which I edged with shabby shutters crackle paint.  

I made the embellishments with bits I had taken with me and the little ribbon roses were a last minute add in before I left, but the colours didn't look right, so I painted them with some white acrylic paint I had bought in Swanage and added the cosmic twinkles to them. The change is just perfect and made the card look so much better.

 I had great fun making the little embellishment with wings - just shows how creative you can be when you have so little to play with.          

I love the pennant lace, my Mum wasn't sure it fitted but I think it does, especially with the little gems in between each piece.

I hope you enjoy this.

Luv B xoxox

Vintage Christmas - MAWTT challenge 58

Hello everyone and happy Thursday to you all.

Being a Thursday means it's another great challenge over at MAWTT and this week it's Shell's turn to host her first blog here. The sponsor is Foilplay  who have lots of scrummy things for you to look which includes a bargains section. They stocks a huge selection of toppers, decoupage and other craft goodies, many of which you may have seen on QVC or Create and Craft TV. Foil Play lets you pick the individual designs of your choice, so you don’t need to invest in a huge kit and p&p is free on orders over £5.00”.

Shell set us the theme of Christmas for this week and no sketch. So come on over and have a go the winner receives a £10.00 voucher to spend in the Foilplay store. Now there's an incentive.

So onto my creation. I have this gorgeous little vintage image I downloaded (can't remember where from) and I used the colours from it for the papers which I found in some Christmas theme stacks.  I have used stickles but NO DIs (wow can you believe that??) and I have used a Quickutz die to make the snowflake.

I would love to know you have visited me so please leave a short message, I don't want you to take alot of time doing it 'cos we would all rather be getting inspiration and creating instead.

Take care and have a great weekend.

Luv B xxx

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