Summer at last!

 

Happy Wednesday, and thank goodness it's a hot one!  Long may it last, I hear you cry?

 

Over at Midweek Magnolia's this week we are celebrating Summer, whether that be BBQ's, Seaside Trips or just what summer means to you.  Well, we're fast approaching the end of the academic year and it's time that I started making my cards to give out to friends and children at school, so this week I began that process with this card.

This card was borne our of the desire to try out colouring on Kraft card, and I was surprised at how different it is, and how 'forgiving' Kraft card is!  I could quite easily become an addict!  This is one of my most favourite images to colour and I loved watching her come to life on the Kraft.  I decided to go for a clean and simple look because I wanted to see as much of the Kraft card as possible.  Tilda was coloured with my pencils and the bg sun was shaded with Copics.

 

Please pop over to the blog to see what my amazing teamies have created also, you won't be disappointed, I promise!

 

Thanks for stopping by, and have a great week! :o) xx

A touch of Frantage

 

A very brief post from me today as there is a queue for the computer!  I just wanted to show my DT piece for this week's Midweek Magnolias theme which is Anything Goes, but with the option of adding a Vintage look or Frantage - I went for the Frantage because I'm enjoying a great romance with it at the moment - you could call it a Fr-omance......grooooooaaaan!

 

Anyway, the girls have come up with yet more amazing inspirational samples so please do go check them out.  Here is my offering for this week's theme:

 

I've only ever done one criss-cross card before, but our lovely Teresa makes them a lot and seeing her recent beautiful pieces has inspired me to have another go.  Here's the insert:

 

It's really difficult to see on the photograph but I tried something new this week.  Tilda has been embossed to give her some shape and dimension - you have to trust me when I say this looks more effective in real life.

 

 

I also want to show this off at Magnolia-licious Challenges too as they have a Butterflies theme this week, and this gave me the opportunity to use my newly acquired butterfly edge, a die that I have uuuummed and aaaahhed over for such a long time, then I took the plunge last weekend - expect to see it some more! LOL!

 

Well that's my lot for today.  Thank you so much for stopping by.  If you have time, please pay my lovely teamies a visit too as they have worked their socks off once more!

 

Have a great week and see you soon! :o) xxx

Butterflies

Happy Saturday blogland!  I was meant to post this yesterday but unfortunately life got in the way again making me late again.  I've had an interesting week learning how to colour digitally and I used my newfound skills to colour in this gorgeous butterfly from Teri's Delicious Doodles for my DT offering this week.  Now, simple as it may look, this little fella learned a lot of new, colourful language from me during the creative process.  The theme this week is Anything but a card, and I had this brainwave, as you do when you're sitting outside in glorious sunshine!  This year I have been making a lot of my own garden decorations and I was thinking "wouldn't it be lovely to have a nice suncatcher-style mobile with lots of butterflies on" and that's how this week's project began.  Having mastered the colouring process, I then copied my butterfly and pasted it a number of times, changing the sizes from quite small to huge.  I printed my first batch out onto overheads but unfortunately the colours just bled and looked a mess.  So I ended up taking a printout into work and photocopying them instead.  This time they looked great - so great that I cut a number of them out and stuck them onto my classroom window to brighten up my Spring Display!

I digress - having now successfully printed out my acetate sheets, I set about cutting them out.  I did put glitter glue on a few wings, which instantly fell off the moment it dried!  So then I began threading them onto invisible thread. This wasn't as painless as it might sound either as I ended up with a very sore finger and a lot of blood dripping!  First string of my mobile finished I proudly held it up to the light.......... Uh oh!  I completely misunderstood the rules of mobiles!  My butterflies just pointed straight up to the skies - I didn't take into account the balance.  D'oh.  So I tried again using TWO strings of invisible thread - still no success.  By this time, I had spent so much of my week with my batch of butterflies, one way or another, I threw the towel in and as time was running out I set about thinking of what else I could do with them.  Then I had another brainwave (I've actually had quite a few this week!!) and I dug out this old basket which I rescued from going onto a skip many years ago.  I loved it for it's rustic-ness and every Christmas it gets an airing when I fill it with aroma-soaked pine cones and tartan bows.  But I decided to give it a facelift.

I gave it a coat of white paint, wrapped some pale pink satin ribbon around the handle and decorated it with flowers and the butterflies.  It is now a home for my pretty fat quarters which so far have been sitting in a cardboard box somewhere, and my lovely old rustic basket now has a beautiful shabby-chic  look and I have fallen in love with it all over again!

At the moment is is sitting pretty on my window-sill, but by the end of the weekend, it is going to be the centrepiece on my beautiful painted dresser.  It will look perfect there!

Well that's my lot for now.  Thank you for stopping by and I hope you like what you see.  I'm going to go and try and find a place for the other 16 butterflies that I have cut out now!  If I find a suitable home, I'll be sure to show you where they've adorned!  Have a great week. :o) xx

Late again!

Phew!  At least I made it before Wednesday was over, because I wanted to get DT offering for this week's Midweek Magnolias theme posted on the day the theme was published!  Our theme this week was Die Cuts and/or Punches.  Well I used both!   Our fabulous DT have been hard at it again creating yet more spectacular entries to entice you to play along.  This was my creation:

Once again I used one of my own bg papers topped with some embossed velum which I thought gave a pretty lacy effect.  The flowers are my own again too, made using my 'ancient' punch.  I made them using white cardstock and tinting the edges with distress inks, like so:

I made the bunting by punching out a tiny bird punch and rough-cutting the pennants around it by hand.

The whole thing, including the metal corners, is finished off with a sprinkling of shabby blue frantage!

I'd like to say a huge Thank You for stopping by my blog, and send out a huge plea to you to go and visit my fab teamies at Midweek Magnolias, if you haven't already done so.

Have a great week, see you Friday! :o) xx

Marianne's Design Diva's

Happy Tuesday - I am right, it is Tuesday, isn't it?  I don't know whether I'm coming or going at the moment, it's been so busy.

I have been asked to make a couple of cards for a friend at work so I thought I'd use the theme for this week's Marianne Design Diva's challenge which is 'Make it Girly' and I came up with this for my first card.  I just love any excuse at all to use my Oval frame - it is far and away my most favourite die in my whole collection!  Here is the card in full:

My friend who asked for this card wanted something floral so I chose to use text in the frame instead of an image, and just added the vintage die cut roses with some flowers and ribbon.  Coupled with ivory pearls and stickles glitter, I reackon it was girly enough.

Hope you like!  Thanks for stopping by and have a great week! :o) xx

A-a-a-a-CHOOO!!!

Phew.... Excuse me, I just can't stop sneezing!!  I don't normally 'suffer' with hayfever - OK, I get itchy nose and eyes occasionally, but for some reason, this year I am really, really bad!  It began on Sunny Saturday when I sat outside to do my work for a couple of hours.  My eyes and nose are just like someone's turned a tap on and I'm sneezing like a hundred times a day!!!!  OK, that may be a slight exaggeration, butI've never had hayfever like it before!  It's weird, it's like I've got a really bad cold with none of the aches and pains that go with it, just a permanently red nose!

Anyway, over at Midweek Magnolias this week we have a game of Bingo for you to play.  Our lovely Cathy has created this fab bingo board and you need to choose a line across, down, or diagonally in any direction, or, if you're feeling very adventurous and creative, why not go for a full house!

So, eyes down and off we go.  I opted for the top line and went for Pink, Ribbon and Die Cuts/Punches.  Here is the card I came up with, complete with my home-made Frantage - gosh, I love this effect!  So much so that just about everything in the house is getting the frantage treatment at the moment, including the metal corners on my card.

The flowers I made myself with a punch that I've had for absolutely years - probably ever since I first began crafting at home.  I've never done anything quite so adventurous with it before though, but I love the effect of the flowers so much that I'm punching away like crazy every spare moment I get and making these by the sackload!  The bg paper is also one of my own again -all in all it'a a totally a DIY creation really! LOL!

The Frantage I made with some white and gold UTEE, a splash of pink embossing powder and a little glitter.  But, a little goes a long way so I think I'm going to be Frantage-ing for quite some time yet.  I'm going to be sharing this card with Totally Tilda's challenge this week - I've not participated for a while, but I like their heat embossed theme this week so managed to tie it in with my MWM dt piece.

Anyway, that's about my lot for today.  I've rambled on for far too long.  Thank you for stopping by here, and I wish you a good week! :o) xx

April Showers

Happy Wednesday once more to all who stop by here.  April is a mental month for me because so many of my close friends and family members have birthdays in April and every year it catches me out and unprepared!!  This year is no exception :o(  I've got a busy time over the next couple of days as I have a few cards to get made.  I've also got an exciting function to prepare for later this year too as hubs and I are celebrating 15 years as Mr & Mrs.  After a lot of chat (from me) and a lot of listening (from him!) we have decided to have a Mad Hatter's Tea Party by way of celebration and I am having the best time making the preparations.  The only thing we can't rely on is obviously the weather, so I'm putting a contingency plan in place too!  Ideally we will have a lawn back by then - just now it is a sad and sorry excuse for a lawn and I am planning on getting out there to repair it over the next few days.  Very little rain coupled with lots of snow and ice have pretty much decimated our lawn and all that is left is dry burnt grass, lots of moss and tons of dandelions and dock leaves trying to break through.

Onto my card this week.  Over at Midweek Magnolias, my fabulous teamies have created a wonderful selection of inspiring samples to get people to join in with our April Showers theme.  Here is my offering:

Once again the bg papers are my own creation, and Tilda is coloured with my Faber Castell pencils. 

I've even been and bought a couple of purple pencils this week - eek!  I am hopeless with purple but I really want to give it a go!  I did use it on the flowers though:

I probably should consider moving away from blues anyway - it's my favourite colour but I tend to use it too much.... 

Well that's my lot for today - I have a couple of calls to make, a couple of cards to make, and a few pressies to wrap!  It feels like Christmas round here!

Have a great week and thanks for stopping by!  :o) xxx