Is 80 the new 60?????? Happy Birthday Don x

We've got a lovely friend called Don who is absolutely addicted to all things Disney, especially the pins (of which he's got hundreds).  He and his partner Debbi visit Disney World in the States and also the European one.  He is also a fantastic artist who works in various mediums.  A couple of weeks ago Debbi gave me a ring and asked me to make an 18th birthday card for Don - now I've made a few 18th cards for them in the past months, so just asked which relative this one was for........then I was astounded when Debbi said no, not an 18th, I said an 80th!!!!!  Hence the question is 80 the new 60?  Cause we had no idea Don was anywhere near that age - he doesn't look it or act it - mind you with his fascination for Disney perhaps he's in his second childhood!!!

So, what to do for this special card..... well it had to be Disney incorporating Mickey Mouse and his favourite baddie Maleficent - who I can hear you say????  Well I didn't know her either but she was the baddie in Snow White.  Now although Disney have approved rubber stamps, toppers etc there is nothing out there in the digital world that has been licensed.  However, I managed to download some images that I could play with in CraftArtist.  In the main card for Debbi I have put a background of the fairy castle.  I found a free clip art of an artist painting and used cut-out studio to get a photo of Don's head which I then merged onto the clip-art and added the image of Maleficent so it looks like he's painting her. 

I also did a similar thing so he's arm in arm with Mickey.  I decided to turn it into a type of penny slider card but rather than a straight roll for the pennies I did nearly a full circle - and I didn't use pennies for this.  I was given a great tip which is to use the type of plastic bobbins you use for your sewing machine which can be bought in a certain low cost store for £1 for a pack of 20!!!  It really does work well as there's no sticky pads inbetween to catch on anything and the image on the bobbin spins round as it's going round the circle.  I also made a badge of some of the Disney characters which was topped with Diamond Glaze and decoupaged his name.

The card which I made for him from Tony and I was a digi image from Just Inklined which I've had for ages (Don loves steam trains and it seemed to go along with him being a big kid!!!).  The backing paper was created in CraftArtist from a couple of free digi images of old trains.  The embossing folder I've used is called Work Shop by Couture Creations; the cogs have been die cut using Spellbinders Sprockets set and I've used nesties for the main image and mat.

I actually bumped into Don this morning in Tesco's of all places and he had been absolutely delighted with both cards - not sure what he was doing there as it's his special day today!!! 

Thanks for stopping by.

Addicted to Stamps - Bingo Addict Challenge #1

Morning everyone - well we've come to the second weekly card challenge over at Addicted to Stamps.  This week's challenge is Bingo Addict and we're asking you to follow the bingo card choosing three elements either diagonally, horizontally or vertically on the bingo card.

For my DT card I have chosen the first line of RIBBON, RED and STAMP.  I've used the new Wild Rose Studio Celebrate in Style stamp set and the matching papers from the Man about Town paper pack.  I've used an 8x8" scalloped card blank.  The red backing card is from my stash and scored diagonally on my new Stampin Up Simply Scored Scoreboard (stroke, stroke!!!  lol) - it really makes life easy, it was always a bit of a hit and miss before trying diagonal scoring but it's easy peasy with this.  I've matted a piece of the Man about town paper with a piece of black card and put it on the base card at an angle.  My fab James Bond lookalike was stamped in DI Black Soot and clear embossed and then cut out with a set of dies that I got at a recent show - there is no makers name but quite a few of these are now popping up in the market.  This was matted onto a piece of red die cut card.  The sentiment is from the same set, die cut using nesties labels 20 and mounted onto a Spellbinders Fancy Tag.  The ribbon is SU pleated that Jenny gave us at our SU Extravaganza last week and I've popped the martini glass with cherries (of course....) onto SU oval and scalloped oval punched card.  I've added some gems to finish off.

Thanks for dropping by - don't forget to pop over to Addicted to Stamps to check out the fab designs that the DT have come up with.

Less is More - Week 73 - Recipe

Hello everyone - the new challenge over at Less is More is:

Our recipe this week will give you the opportunity to dig out some of those scraps of Designer paper that have been lurking around in your craft space, as our challenge is

'Paper Piecing'

I gave a quiet hip hip hooray as I love doing this with stamps and it's a great method if you're not the best at colouring in!!!  lol  The stamp I've used is from a Creative Expressions set with loads of glam ladies.  I've stamped her using Versafine black ink onto white card, light green bazzil  card and also onto two different patterned cards.  The hat, coat and shoes are from one patterned paper, the skirt and top from another patterned paper and the lining of the coat from the bazzil card.  As I had stamped her onto a fairly small piece of white card I didn't have enough room to die cut the image but what I did use was my new Stampin Up Edgelits Adorning Accents die on the left hand side of the image and then straight cut the other three sides - I then mirrored this with a piece of patterned paper and a piece of bazzil card.  I took a 6" card blank and used the same die to cut the edge and then used the matching embossing folder to emboss the edge.  The sentiment is Stampin Up Vintage Labels.

Thanks for dropping by.

Less is More - Week 72 - Theme

This week Chrissie and Mandi  at Less is More have tasked us with the following challenge:

 Third week of the month and Theme Week
We want to see

Something Shiny

It's been a bit rushed this week as we got our first challenges up and running at Addicted to Stamps so I'm running late for this challenge.  Anyway, hopefully this comes under the less is more ethos.......... I started off by stamping 3 different sized butterflies (from the Wedding Butterfly set by Wild Rose Studio) using Staz-On ink onto Clearly for Art Modeling Film, cutting them out and then heating with a heat gun til soft and you can mold them.  The sentiment, again from Wild Rose Studio, was stamped in Staz-On, punched with the scalloped square Stampin Up punch and then triple glazed with clear embossing powder.  I took a square card blank and added a piece of matching ribbon and used silicone glue to attach my butterflies.  I've popped the sentiment up, added some matching pearls on the top right and a single diamond gem to each of the butterflies.  Apologies for the quality of the photos but this was a bit difficult to capture!

Addicted to Stamps - Monthly Scrapbook page challenge

Welcome to our first ever Scrapbook Challenge. This will be a monthly challenge and we can't wait to see what everyone comes up with. Being that we have kicked off later in the month, this challenge will finish at the end of June so a brand new challenge can be introduced for July.

ADDICTED TO STAMPS SCRAPBOOK CHALLENGE #1

CELEBRATIONS WITH THE ADDITION OF BUNTING.

This is my page - I thought it would be fun to make one celebrating the inauguration of our new challenge blog Addicted to Stamps!  It's been made entirely within CraftArtist (what did I ever do without this brilliant piece of software???) and I trawled the net looking for photos of bunting with British, Australian and Greek flags on - as that's where all the girls from the DT live.

Happy crafting and thanks for joining us.

Really hope you will come over and join us in this monthly challenge.  Looking forward to seeing all your amazing creations.

ADDICTED TO STAMPS - First Ever Challenge...........

Hello Everyone

Well, how exciting is this?  This is the launch of a new challenge blog Addicted to Stamps and I was absolutely delighted to be asked by Kylie to become a member of the Design Team - check out the other awesome designers she has on the DT!!!

Here is my card for the first challenge which is Making your Mark which means that anything goes as long as markers (Copics, Promarkers etc) are used in the creation..

Close up of Faye's wings

This lovely little girl is Faye with Flower from Wild Rose Studio and she's been coloured using Letraset Flexmarkers and die cut with nesties.  Her wings were covered with Diamond Glaze and then had Glamour Dust sprinkled over.  The sentiment is from my Stampin Up Whimsical Words set.  The flower, leaf and border dies are all Memory Box.  Paper is from my stash. as was the ribbon and pearls.  A touch of Stickles was added to her dress and the flowers on the border.

Please pop over to the blog to see the wonderful inspiration posted by the members of the Design Team.  We really hope you are as excited as we are and look forward to you joining us on this new journey.

We also have a Facebook page so please go over and "like" us......... we will also post challenges and winners on our Facebook page.

Looking forward to seeing all of your wonderful creations.

Happy crafting.

Stampin Up Extravaganza

Well folks - down to earth with a bump today after a wonderful day yesterday at the Stampin Up Extravaganza with the lovely Jenny.  She always does us proud and yesterday certainly wasn't an exception.  Thought you might like to see some photos of the projects we made during the day.

This project was two cards and a metal tea caddy which was actually filled with tea bags!

This project was a lovely gift bag and a Diorama card

Ta daaaa!!!  This was the piece de resistance

The box frame used elements from the Bright Blossoms set of stamps which each of us received as a gift from Jenny - what a complete darling eh?

A really good day was had by all.

Hope you're having a great weekend.

Something that moves.............

A very quick post as we're off to our Stampin Up Extravaganza Day today with the lovely Jenny Moors - if you click on her link you can go and see some of the amazing things she makes.  She works us very, very hard til we're almost crafted out (but it's so worth it!!!) and then I've got to scoot off to feed between 70 and 80 villagers at our annual Neighbourhood Watch BBQ - can just imagine how I'll feel when I eventually get home!!!

Anyhow, onto important things.  At our club night on Wednesday we had to make a "card that moves".............. Anne took artistic license with this and produced a card with a bicycle on it!!!  Cheeky...... lol

A very fuzzy close up of the bobbin - sorry!!!

At the Creativity day Jill and I went to the other Friday someone mentioned about making penny sliders and how they stick more often than not but had heard an amazing trick......... go to your local Poundland and pick up a pack of 20 plastic bobbins (the type you use in your sewing machine) and you have got your ready made mechanism already - brilliant or what?  Anyway I thought I'd give it a go and it really does work - the spinner moves round at a rate of knots and also spins as it's going - no mean feat.  For this card I've used papers from my stash and cut out the main circle with my EK Success circle cutter stopping just short of cutting all through (leaving about an inch or a bit more).  The stamped image on the spinner is from the Papermania Urban Botanical Prints stamp set and I've punched out the butterfly from the backing paper using my EK Success 3 stage butterfly punch.  Sentiment and punch for it is Stampin up.  Ribbon and gems from my stash.

Thanks for stopping by - as soon as I've recovered I will tell you all about our day tomorrow and then will be back with my card for the new blog challenge Addicted to Stamping.

Have a great weekend - don't get blown awayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!! lol

Exciting news.......

There's some exciting news in the world of blogland.......... there's a new challenge blog on the block called Addicted to Stamping and the first challenge begins on the 20th June.  What's also pretty exciting, for me anyway (!) is that the lovely Kylie has asked me to be on her DT.  Strangely enough she's also asked my sister Val to be on the DT as well - now that's what I call keeping it in the family!  Hoping that we'll see you all playing along.

 

Less is More - Week 71 - One Layer - Flourish

Gosh, don't the weeks fly by?  I'm a bit late this week with my challenge card for those lovely ladies over at Less is More.  The challenge is one layer and use flourishes.

I've made a DL card out of Coredinations card. and then run it through my Joy with a Darice embossing folder called, appropriately enough, Flourish!  It's 12" long by 2.5" wide which is brilliant and means you don't have to try to match up the border on it.  I've sanded the embossed area of the flourish and then added a sentiment which is by Heartfelt Creations.

Thanks for dropping by.

Less is More - Week 70 - Colour Challenge

Hello fellow bloggers from a very wet and windy Somerset!  It's actually freezing and we've resorted to putting the heating back on!  Although I'm pleased to say that London seems not to have been badly affected by the weather yet (think they had more than enough the other day)..........  Anyway, here we are again at the Less is More challenge which, this week, very aptly, is:

RED WHITE AND BLUE

I've actually got a couple of cards for the challenge.  The first one is using my Spellbinders Cut, Fold and Tuck dies using red, white and blue cardstock.  In the centre of each is a pearl brad of the same colour.  I've used a Martha Stewart edge punch to make the central border.  The sentiment is on a sheet of clear stamps but doesn't say where it's from.  I've finished off with 3 tiny red gems.






The second card I couldn't resist............. it's actually a freebie topper from Crafters' Companion and I thought it was really appropriate for this weekend.  All I've done is added a cross of red ribbon and put the topper on top.

Hope you've all had a great bank holiday weekend.  Thanks so much for stopping by and leaving comments - it's very much appreciated.

A brilliant day out..........

Hello everyone - just wanted to do a quick post about the fantastic day Jill and I had at DoCrafts in Dorset on Friday.  We were warmly welcomed and shown to our "play tables"!!!!!  Goodies galore to play with, tear, stamp etc etc - heaven!  There were various workshops we could drop in and out of with Sheila Halliwell,  Jo Austin and Emma Collins.  They had laid on tea/coffee and CAKE all day and gave us a brilliant BBQ at lunchtime.  Later in the afternoon we were shown round their top secret showrooms where they had all the new goodies coming out over the next few months........ unfortunately if I told you what they were I'd have to shoot you!!!  lol  Just be aware you'll be reaching for that credit card again.  Anyway, here are a few photos of the day and a couple of cards I made.  Thanks for dropping by - hope you are all having an amazing Jubilee weekend - shame about the weather!

Jo Austin talking to some of the crafters

Jill totally engrossed in craft goodies!!!

Workshop with Sheila

Using some goodies provided