Less is More - week 17 Recipe Squares

Choices, choices!!  Don't you just hate them?  lol  This week Chrissie & Mandi over at Less is More have asked the LIMettes to choose a square and only use that area of the card and leave all the rest blank..........  It's quite strange when deciding where to put your focal image when you don't have the freedom you normally have - so for me it was a case of roughly stamping my image and cutting it out and then placing it in each of the squares to see which looked best.  I think the centre square is the most obvious choice but I have gone for the bottom left corner.  It looked too top heavy on the left or right top and a bit strange bottom right but I think that's because we read from left to right.  Anyway, I have chosen this gorgeous image called Love Bunny from Stampabilities.  I coloured with Promarkers and die cut using nesties.  The sentiment is from the Stampin Up set Whimsical Words and punched using SU oval and scalloped oval punches.

70th birthday card

Hi everyone - hope you're having a good bank holiday weekend and this weather isn't spoiling things for you.  Best place to be is in your craft room!!!  lol

Concertina sides

My good friend Monique is 70 on Saturday and we have been invited to her party.  Monique, as you may have guessed from her name, is French and so I thought this card would be ideal for her.  The stamp I've used is from Stamps Happen and is called Vogue Silhouette.  I stamped with Stazon onto acetate and then added gilding flakes to the rear of the image using Crafty Notions craft adhesive which sets quickly and dries clear.  I took a piece of white card and sponged Distress Inks over in a complimentary colour.  I then inked up the stamp again and stamped directly onto the coloured card.  When the acetate was dry I brushed off the excess gilding flakes and cut around the image and decoupaged it over the stamped image on the card.  This was then mounted onto some copper fabric card.  I used my Stampin Up En Francais script stamp and again coloured with Distress Inks.  I added a computer generated sentiment and used my SU oval and scalloped oval punches.  I made up an embellishment using gems and flowers.  To make this card extra special I cut two pieces of cardstock the same length as the DL card and scored three lines to give me a concertina effect.  These were placed down the sides of the card using strong d/s tape and then acetate was attached to the top fold.  The main French sentiment was generated in CraftArtist and cut and mounted using nesties.  The only thing needed then was some gems.  I've also made a box to match.  Hope she likes it..........


Happy crafting!

Bah Humbug Challenge 21 - Bells

This is my last week as Guest Designer over at Humbug Hall and so I decided to make two cards for the challenge.

The first one uses a digistamp, which was a free download from DoCrafts, and all I've done to it was added "snow" to the trees, roofs and ground as I wanted a monochrome card just using white, red and black.  I have cut the layers, and also the base 8x8" card, using my large nestabilities Labels 1 set.  The sentiment was computer generated using text boxes in Windows and I've finished off the card with a red ribbon bow and gems.

The second card came about whilst I was playing with CraftArtist and was totally generated within that programme.  After I'd printed out the front page of the card I used my circle and scalloped circle nesties to cut out the sentiment and central bells so I could decoupage them using silicone glue.  The only things I have added was some rikrak ribbon, gems and two red bells that my friend Jan gave me last year.  I must say CraftArtist is a brilliant piece of software which allows you to do all kinds of things and I'm especially pleased that I can now make up my own circle sentiments rather than buying them on the internet.

I'd like to say a huge thank you to Ann and Max at Humbug Hall for asking me to be guest designer for the month of May.  I've really enjoyed it and look forward to continuing meeting their challenges for the rest of the year.

Thanks for stopping by.  Happy crafting.

Less is More - week 16 Butterflies

This week's challenge over at Less is More is butterflies. 

For absolutely ages I have had some 12x12 sheets of acetate in my stash which is printed with different sizes of butterflies.  It is from Christine Adolph and I think it was part of a kit bought from QVC.  Anyway for this card I selected the butterfly I wanted to use and die cut around it using nesties.  I then cut out another butterfly to decoupage.  Around the frame of the nestie I used my Quickie glue pen and Glamour Dust to define the edges.  I also used this on the wings of the top butterfly.  The sentiment is from a Fiskars Butterfly Magic clear stamp set and embossed in purple e/p (although it looks blue in the photo!).  This sentiment was then die cut using Spellbinders fancy tags and attached with ribbon.

This is a close up showing the decoupaged butterfly.


Many thanks for dropping in.

New Arrival.......

I know I haven't posted much this last week but things have been hectic as my friend Jan and I went up to Redditch last weekend for a two day workshop on the Pazzles Inspiration.  We had a great time and lots of laughs.  We've also had the builders in for a while constructing a large conservatory (I'm sick of making endless cups of tea!!!  lol) and then to top it all we've just had our great friends Linda and Steve to stay as they were on their way to St Ives - which meant the dreaded word "housework"..............  Phew!!!  lol

My next door neighbour, Karen, has just given birth to a lovely little girl Lilly-Mae and so I have made her a congratulations card.

I just had to use my House Mouse Dreampuff stamp as it's a gorgeous image especially set upon a cotton wool "puff" (idea taken from my good friend Anne).  Backing paper is from my stash and I've used nesties for all the die cuts and added some lace.  The swirl is a Magnolia die.  Flowers are from my stash and I've added a ribbon bow and a heart "hand made with love".  The sentiment with Lilly-Mae's name and birth date were done on CraftArtist.

Thanks for stopping by - have a great weekend.

Bah Humbug Challenge 20 - Kinetic cards

Hi Folks - this week's challenge over at Humbug Hall is to make a kinetic card.

I decided to make my version of a circle slider card which turned out a bit like a penny slider that goes round - if that makes sense!!!  lol

I didn't have any instructions so just had a bit of a play.  I decided to use a blank CD to move the object around the main image and took a piece of card and drew around the CD.  I then cut out some card which measured twice the length so I could fold this in half to house the CD inside.  Still working on the inside of the card I decided how far in I wanted the circle slide part of the card to be.  I actually used my EK Success Circle Scissor to cut this out - it made life so much easier and you get a perfectly clean cut.  I then used a SU circle punch to cut out the finger hole at the side to enable you to "slide" the CD around.  The white and green snowflake card was in my stash and I'm not sure where it came from.  For the main image I die cut two shapes with my nesties and used a snowflake image from the SU Serene Snowflake set.  I stamped it with Versamark and heat embossed in white glittery e/p.  The slider part is a digi sentiment which I punched out using a SU punch.  I cut some d/s foam pads to size and placed them on the CD through the aperture making sure they didn't foul the card and then added the sentiment.  I popped on a snowflake from a Martha Stewart punch and added some gems.  The whole piece was then mounted onto a square card blank so I could put an insert inside.

Hope my explanation was clear enough but feel free to email if you want clarification.

Thanks for stopping by.

Bah Humbug Challenge 19 - Snowflakes

This week's challenge over at Humbug Hall  is Snowflakes.

I downloaded some background designs from Kim over at KL Dezigns and one of them was a lovely snowflake design so I decided to use this.  It's been printed out onto matt photo paper and backed onto an A5 card blank.  I then die cut some snowflakes out of acetate using the Whimsy Stamps Shapeology die which I then glittered and used silicone to place over some of the printed snowflakes.  I used Stickles to add some texture to the dots and added a ribbon across the top of the card.  The greeting is from a Creative Expressions sentiment stamp set and was stamped and heat embossed onto acetate.

Thanks for dropping by.

Less is More - Week 14 - Colour Challenge White on White

This week the girls over at Less is More Mansion have set us a colour challenge of white on white and there are some gorgeous cards over on their blog.

I really enjoyed this challenge and started off by using a white linen square card blank.  As most of you will know there must be hundreds of shades of white and none of my cardstock actually matched the white of the card blank so there was nothing to do but use another card blank for my embellishments!  Firstly I used the largest embossing folder from the Sizzix set "Butterfly Migration Set".  This is a lovely folder giving a really crisp finish but I thought it looked lop-sided just having the embossing on the left-hand side so just put the top right corner through again in the folder.  I then die cut the main focal point using my Spellbinders Shapeabilities Pendants - Renaissance Hearts, then a Magnolia swirl and the sentiment Love was die cut using my Cuttlebug Embossing Plus Monogram Seals.  The Renaissance Hearts were placed on the card using silicone glue, as were the letters.


Thanks for dropping by.

Acetate and Fairies

I've been a bit short of time this week but think I will just scrape by timewise to enter this card for  Do it with Digis challenge.  The challenge is for  I can see clearly now either using acetate or an aperture.  I was going to enter it into the Die Cut Dreams challenge of Fairies/Angels but realised I'm too late for that one - never mind, there's always next week!!  lol

This time I've used a square blank linen card and die cut an aperture using nesties in the front of the card.  I have then die cut a frame from embossed mirri card for the front of the card.  The fairy image is downloaded from The Clipart Fairy and I took her into CraftArtist to resize and give her a nice stary sky background.  I then printed her out onto printable acetate and placed her behind the frame.  I then made it into a shaker card and used silver glitter for the shaker part which I don't think you can see from the photograph.  The sentiment is from a clear stamp set and heat embossed with Distress e/p Stream.  I punched out photocorners from the same card as the frame using my EK success punch.  The final addition were snowflakes die cut using a Whimsy Stamps Frameology die and then coloured using Copic BG05.

Many thanks for dropping by and I wish everyone a fantastic weekend.

Bah Humbug Challenge 18 - Going Green

I'm really excited as I've been invited to be Guest Designer at Humbug Hall for the month of May.  This will be my first challenge as GD and the challenge is Going Green - using recycled products and/or the colour green.



I've managed to combine both elements into this card by recycling an old Christmas card with a green backing card and a couple of red felt mittens on it - definitely couldn't throw this sweetie in the bin so had saved it to be reused!  I have matted the topper onto a piece of red mirri and then green cardstock which has been run through my die cutting machine in an embossing folder.  The base cardstock is a green square card and, again, this went through my Joy in the Swiss Dots e/f.  The border was also from the old card and the sentiment is computer generated.  I just needed to add a piece of green ribbon to finish the card.  Hope this is okay for my first challenge................

Thanks for dropping by.

Less is More - Week 13 - Congratulations

This week the LIMettes have been asked to create a lucky dip card with the theme Congratulations or Thank You.

In keeping with the CAS objectives I decided to use the lovely embossing folder from Stampin Up called Manhattan Flower.  I wanted to use an A5 card blank and as I have the Joy cutting and embossing machine which takes A4 card/paper this wasn't going to be a problem.  I cut a piece of blue vellum to A4 and ran it through my machine in the SU folder.  I then cut around the embossed image, folded it in half so the back of the card would also be covered with the vellum.  The sentiment is computer generated so I ran the blank A5 card through the printer - I have used the Precious font for this.  I attached the vellum to the card using photoglue and added three gems.

Happy crafting.

Bah Humbug Challenge 17 - Pleats & Ruffles

It seems ages since I last posted but we've been busy with all these bank holidays, visitors and also the builders!!!  So many apologies.

This weeks challenge over at Humbug Hall is pleats and ruffles.  After pondering for a while I thought I would use my Tim Holtz mini paper rosettes die which I think would fit either with the pleats or the ruffles side of the challenge.  I have made three rosettes using paper from a Papermania Classic Christmas pad and have covered a square white card blank with the same paper.  I had some of the strips left so pleated one piece and backed with red mirri for another element across the card.  The two sentiments are digistamps from Sentiments4You which I printed out on the computer and used a 1" punch to cut them out.  I then edged them with a gold pen before attaching to the rosettes.  The centre rosette has a red mirri flower punched using a Stampin Up punch.  I've added some gems and a couple of punched snowflakes.

Thanks for stopping by.