Mercy's Tuesday Sketch 54

I made this a week or so ago for Mercy's Tuesday challenge but couldn't get my head around popping a sentiment onto it as it looked bare without one.

This is what I finally came up with!























My new Blooming Button Bits arrived over the pond when the postie eventually got up the road through the snow - we are so unprepared for snow here! It was a good excuse to break them open for this! I used plum pudding, lavender moon amd spring moss - those colours make me happy!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have had a great weekend.

Mojo Monday 119 and a little RST tutorial!

Firstly a very Happy New Year to you all. I hope 2010 brings you health and happiness. Many thanks for stopping by here this last year and leaving your comments - they are very much appreciated.

It's been fun having a couple of weeks off work and have a chance to do a bit of creating and take part in a few challenges. This one is for the Mojo Monday - a sketch I haven't done for a while.

I haven't had my rubber stamp tapestry sets out for a while and so had a fun half hour stamping this set. I thought I would try using some Papertrey inks for a change to see how they worked out. There is a quick photo run of how I stamped them off at the end. I'm still not convinced with the two flowers - I took them on and off a few times before leaving them on - what do you think?

Here's a closer look at the stamping. The background leaves are stamped in Versamark on to Spring Moss and Kraft cardstock and the tapestry stamps are on Gina K white card - just love that card as it's so smooth and creamy and takes the PTI ink so well.

If you've scrolled down his far - well done!

If you are a fan of these tiny stamps as I am here is how I did it - do let me know if this is useful! You can see many more great examples on the Rubber Stamp Tapestry blog here and get a chance to win a set

Have a good holiday this weekend!

Pretty Petal Pocket

Now Christmas is over and the presents unwrapped I can show you this that I made as a Secret Santa gift for my friend Lana.

The purse is made from one of Lauren Meader's Timeles Templates called Pretty Petal Pocket and I used Papertrey card and papers and a JustRite monogramme stamper for the detail. I filled it with some lovely Champney' body butters. Apart from the very wobbly stitching I liked how this turned out and I know I'll use this template again.

Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge - 50

I hope you are having as good a break as I am - this week is so much calmer here at home and thankfully all the slush and ice has gone. Santa was very good to me this year and so DD and I hit the shops in Windsor - me to visit the Pandora shop and she to Links to add a charm to her Sweetie bracelet! Unfortunately the Queen wasn't at home for tea so I got these lovelies to add to my necklace - aren't they so pretty?








I may just have to make a card in these colours!

Anyways after all that gorgeousness on to the card!


Today I had a try at Karen Giron's Sweet Sunday sketch - a blog I have long admired. This was the challenge -

and here is my card. I have been storing my Martha Stewart punches since way before Christmas and thought it was about time to give them an airing!

The other supplies are all by Papertrey Ink.

Thanks for stopping by my little crating corner today - have a good day!

Back with a Sketch Challenge

Not missing in action just sick with the flu and busy trying to get ready for Christmas! But work has finished for a couple of weeks (I love working in construction after all my retail Christmases!) and the Christmas cards are all made - now all I have to organise is lunch. I am going into a minor panic as I am cooking Christmas lunch for the family and I haven't done it since I was pregnant with my DD and she's 17 now!

It's good to put the Christmas stamps away and play a new (for me) challenge. Mercy has some great sketches here on her blog and I have been meaning to play along before and a spare afternoon this week gave me a chance.




















I'm not too sure where I thought I was going with this card - I wanted to try out these vinyl decals that I bought an age ago - they are like stickers but soft and flexible - but it looks a little stark to my eye.

The card and dp's are from Papertrey and one of my favourite colour combos! Berry sorbet and spring moss - they make me happy!





















Many thanks for stopping by this week. I hope you have a wonderful and peaceful Christmas and a very happy holiday time.

Blue Giga Birthday

This is my second play with my Giga Guidelines set - I'm really pleased with how it came out as I don't often use blue in my crafting.

I stamped the giga stamps in fresh snow ink onto the enchanted evening card and filled in with the matching stamp from guidelines II stamped in versamark. A bit of white embossing for the sentiment and some matching ribbon completes it - there's also my new favourite punch there too from EK Success!

Happy Birthday Penny!

Upsey Daisy Duo

It was such an awful day here yesterday it was the perfect time to stay indoors and play! We had terrible winds this weekend across the South East and yet again we lost another tree - my favourite Californian Lilac. Paul very kindly spent all day chopping it up for recycling whilst I stayed in the warm!

The Sunday challenge over at Splitcoast Stampers is to case but change two things on a card from the featured stamper and this week it was the very talented Dawn Easton. I chose this card to case - love those colours! It was a good excuse to get out my SU Upsey Daisy stamp which hasn't seen much love for a year.






I went for some good cheery colours - berry sorbet and sweet blush along with some Papertrey dp's and dark chocolate cardstock.






Whilst I had the stamp out on the table I was playing with other colours and so finished off another card for my stock with some bright sunny yellow and burnt orange.

















A nice diversion from making Christmas cards! Have a great week and as always thanks for stopping by.

Holiday Button Bits

I made these two cards using the Holiday Button Bits stamps for two challenges this weekend, one from the lovely Lana who put a sketch up on our forum and one over at A Passion for Papertrey, both designed to kick start the holiday card making.

First off the sketch challenge, which to be honest I didn't follow well at all! The baubles are swinging at a very jaunty angle!




















I am in love with Scarlett Jewel - it's such a deep rich colour. Here I used Lables 1 nestability dies and stamped the leaves in Spring Moss. Next time I think I'll use ripe advocado as it's a better contrast to the red.





















I've also made a Santa version but the light was too poor to take a photo of it tonight!



On another note - is anyone else having a problem stamping the Holiday Button Bits with PTI ink? I just can't get the ink to "stick" and it looks awful. I've conditioned the stamps several items to no avail - any tips anyone?

Giga Guidelines ala Debbie Olsen

I thought that Debbie Olsen's card here using the Giga Guidelines from Papertrey were just fantastic and so good that she broke down how she stamped the different layers for us all here - it was a great jump start for me to get playing!

I'm having a right old time with my camera just now and the colours seem a bit off but the ones I used were plum pudding, spring moss (new formula) and hibiscus burst.

I also made a little practice strip following Debbie's guide and the colours are really pretty in real life (but not so in this photo!) and made this two little 3.5"x 3.5" gift cards.

In case you are interested this is the order I stamped my pattern in -







Plum Pudding
















Spring Moss
















Hibiscus Burst








I've lots more colour combinations in my head - I just need to get them onto some cardstock!

Dotty Melon Berry Purse

The challenge over at A Passion for Papertrey for this week is to use polka dots in your creation. I have been meaning to try out Lauren Meader's Purse-onality Clutch for ages and pulled out my Melon Berry cardstock and bits for mine.

I used vintage cream ink on my polka dots basics stamps and paired that up with lots of buttons, twine, ribbon and lace. I found a box of these Polish chocolates in my local supermarket and very yummy they are too - well I had to check one out before I packed the purse full of them didn't I ;)

Thanks for popping in and have a great week!

Papertrey October Blog Hop

The challenge for the blog hop this month is to show our holiday cards/gifts/wraps etc and I thought I would combine this with Dawn McVeys Raspberry Suite colour challenge - such pretty colours this time around.

I wanted to try out a clean and simple design for Christmas this year that would be good to make lots of at one sitting. I still think this idea is a work in progress - the new leaf colour centres for the poinsettias looked flat so I blinged them up a bit and I need to perfect my line drawing but I thnk it has a future!!

I coloured the flowers with Copic markers after stamping them with memento rich cocoa - all the other supplies are by Papertrey.

Thanks for stopping by tonight!

Ola Espania!

Well that's what I was saying last week in Torrox! How's this for a blue sky in October?














We had the most beautiful weather - over 80 degrees every day and not a cloud in the sky. Paul and I even got a tan (I know that's really not a good thing but we used loads of protection!) and we both feel so much better for having a good rest. My dear MIL came too!

Here are just a couple of quickies I made just before I went - I found some old Anna Griffin die cuts at the back of my file and so had a peaceful evening layering up the images. I still love the colours of her collection and it reminded me to start to using all the AG papers I have stored up from my early crafting days.














I think this is my favourite.















Pretty but busy!











The sentiments are from the Papertrey set called Wishing You.