Birthday Delight!

Here's a simple little card that I made for my Mum using linen vellum and melonberry colours from Papertrey and the Delight in Life stamp set from SU - Mum doesn't like fussy so I kept it simple!





















I cut the openings with the limitless layer dies - that was tricky as you can't fix the die down onto the vellum to keep it in place as it tears the vellum, so I had to judge the distances by eyeballing it! This photo is not a good one - no decent light here at the moment!

Buckets of Love

I thought that I would try out some There She Goes stamps after seeing the lovely cards that Julie Lacy who is on their DT makes. I was really impressed how quickly they came over - less than a week - with very reasonable postage charges too which is always a big bonus. They are clear stamps and this set comes with lots of interchangable sentiments.

I thought I would have a try at sketch challenge 91 on the TSG blog and use the new stamps. I have had the Spellbinders die for ever but have hardly used it so I challenged myself this weekend to give it a go!

The base and frame are in pure poppy from Papertrey as is the ribbon and punched slip both in hibiscus. The hearts go well with the cookies over at a Passion for Papertrey challenge so I'll throw my hat in the ring for that one too!

I coloured the image with copic markers and whilst I was colouring I did another image and made it up in sunny yellows below -

It's freezing cold here in London right now - a really good excuse to stay in and play! Have a great weekend....

Out of my comfort zone!

The challenge this fortnight over at A Passion for Papertrey is to make a project out of our comfort zone! I love to look at my Hawaiian Shores cardstock but I rarely make anything with it as I just can't seen to make it work - so I tried hard with this one! I have also had my Star Prints stamp set in the cuboard for ages - I bought the set as I always love what Aimes does with it but so far my efforts have only been bin worthy!


























I clear embossed the flourish and when I stamped off the stars it occured to me that one matched the Dot Spot stamps so I pulled that out to make the white panel. Now its finished I quite like the melon berry and blue mix - but so not me and not a flower in sight!
All supplies are by Papertrey.

Flourishes Timeless Tuesday 100th Challenge Blog HOP!

The challenge for the 100th anniversary challenge is to use favourite things in the card or project - so here are a few of my favourite things:-

• the rose from A Year in Flowers - Flourishes make the most beautiful flower stamps and I had a hard time choosing which one of the sets to go with!
• coloured with copic markers
• my large scalloped circle nesties
• ribbon, card and pearls in pink
• a little doily

I was trying for a Victorian valentine type card with the lacy doily but I forgot to distress it before I included it and so rather lost the effect - still, I love pinkiness of it even if I did go a bit OTT with the pearls!

The dp is by Papermania and the cardstock and ribbon is from Papertrey

Thanks for stopping by tonight - have lots of fun hopping round the other great creations!

Stamping With Friends

I was so lucky this week when three friends came over to craft with me - it was such a lovely day that I thought I would share the photos with you - thank you for letting me indulge myself!

I was joined by my long time friend Pam and two ladies I met more recently - Mary at Pam's daughter's wedding last year and Betty through this blog and our love of Papertrey. Betty is over here from Nebraska visiting her son in London and it was just great to have her join us!

So here we are all together - (L-R me, Betty, Pam and Mary)















Betty bought over some PTI dies and after Betty had cut two bookmark dies side by side Pam used the negative left to make a card - inspired! Here she is holding her card which has a Penny Black bloom stamped through the frame and brads over the reinforcing hole gap - so pretty!

























Betty and I didn't actually finish anything on the day - I was busy die cutting the banner border set in every colour cardstock and Betty was background stamping and inspiring us, so I got her to hold up a card that she sent me recently - a beautiful Alice in Wonderland card! You can check out Betty's gorgeous cards here



























Mary is new to stamping but not to papercrafting as she makes some beautiful cards too - here she is holding her card cased from one of Dawn McVey's using scarlett jewel colours and one of the doilies that Betty bought for us to play with. I think a cuttlebug is now on Mary's wish list now!

























Thanks girls for a wonderful, fun day - lets do it again soon!

More Mums

I made this card for the weekly sketch challenge over at Split Coast Stampers - I love a good sketch to kick start me now and again!

The Mums were still out on the table so I used them again and made the card up with some pink and kraft card.





















The sentiment stamp is by Penny Black and I used one on my little strip embossing folders for the leaf pattern.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend!

If you are going to case a card......

....... then case the best! Especially when you need a card double quick!

I think it was this card on Nicole Heady's blog that sold me on adding to my Year of Flowers collection and so I went for it. I wouldn't normally show a card like this but it turned out so pretty that I thought you might like to see a slightly different version.




















I coloured the Mums with Berry Sorbet and Ripe Advocado colours of Copic markers and mounted it onto kraft cardstock. I can see this layout working with other flowers so that is now on my to-do list!

Tea for Two Gift Card

For Christmas we bought Paul's Mum a gift voucher for traditional afternoon tea for her and a friend at the Compleat Angler in Marlow - it is a beautiful spot right on the banks of the River Thames and the tea there rivals any I have been lucky to try out in town. So I needed a card to pop the invite in and here is what I made - not Christmassy so she can use the card in the future to invite the friend.
























The background papers are matted on terracotta card and I used orange zest ink on the tea pot. A mat stack die and some ribbon finished it nicely! All supplies apart from the Kaiser pearls are from Papertrey Ink.