Quick Cases

It's been a tough couple of weeks without access to all my crafting bits and bobs but all will be well later this week as I slowly get everything back into the house from the greenhouse and start unpacking again!



















I just loved this card of Amy's over at A Passion for Papertrey and had to give it a go - it came together real quick with just some versafine ink, aqua mist cs and some buttons and twine. Mine isn't as classy as Amy's but I like how it came out and good for what I needed it for.

Every time there is a new Papertrey release I have a good look through the DT's blog and see what I could make with stamps I already have. This card of Melissa Bickford's sang to me so I had a go with one of my background basics sets and came up with this - you can tell my PTI stamps and inks were the first thing I unpacked :) Simple but pretty!

























So now I have a dinning area again - we got rid of this big old computer cabinet which we didn't need any more (it was never as clean and tidy as this until we came to sell it!) ...




















and replaced it with this arrangement which DH put together. So much space for my crafty bits and we have a table clear now to eat off and lots of cuboards and drawers to hide everything away in.




























One day I will have a craft room but until then this will suit me fine and dandy!


Thanks for stopping by and have a great week!

Valentine Roses

I so wanted to take part in Melanie Muenchinger's challenge to make a card using her just wonderful "A Year of Flowers", as the prize is to win a copy of her new stamp set that is just about to be launched by Gina K Designs (and also a change to be a guest designer on her blog!). I think this also makes a late entry for the challenge over at A Passion for Papertrey too.


I knew I wanted to make a Valentine's card and use the roses as they are my favourite in the set, so when I had them all coloured up I hopped over to Mojo Monday blog for some inspiration. This is for Mojo Monday 124.





















The roses were stamped onto Gina K luxury heavy white cardstock and coloured with Copic markers (does anyone know of a Copic certification class near London by any chance?). I thought the Papertrey Background Basics Text Style II went really well - if you read the tiny writing it talks of delight, ectasy and dreams - very good for a Valentine's card :)

All the other supplies are by Papertrey and the sentiment is from Heart Prints.

Here is the sketch from Mojo Monday this week












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

March - A Year of Flowers

I have managed to get a little bit ahead of myself with my calender with limited supplies - one day my new dresser will be finished and my stash returned to its new home!

I tried this pansy in a few colour combos - I was trying to get the effect of those beautiful dark purple ones with a yellow centres that always look like little faces to me but I just didn't have the right Copic colours so I went for the ones that I did have that matched PTI Spring Rain instead.






















I used PTI enchanted evening as my base card and matching ribbon - the little pearls are from Kaiser and so pretty IRL.

















Thanks for stopping by this week!

February - A Year of Flowers

How did February arrive so quickly? Nearly all my crafting material has been stored away whilst my dear hubbie is putting together some new units for our dining area - and all to store my stash as it's morphing itself across the house!

The first calender page went down really well and so I am continuing with the rest of the year!





















Luckily the challenge over at a Passion for Papertrey blog this fortnight is Nature and I think this fits in well. The stamp is from Flourishes, coloured with Copic markers and all other material is from Papertrey.

Here's a little close up of the primrose for February.

Mojo Monday 121

The snow was so bad again yesterday that I couldn't get down the road in the car - it was quite an experience sliding along - I do so miss my old bus of a Jeep!

So a play day was in order and I had another go at a Mojo Monday challenge. I also had the Passion for Papertrey challenge in mind and managed to slip a bit of embossing with my nesties on the sentiment circle.

It's my Mum's birthday next week and so this is for her. She loves flowers and I think this is a pretty card for her as she is the sweetest person in my life.























I coloured the flowers with copic markers and added some old Anna Griffin paper that really does match the PTI spring rain card but I just cannot get my balance right on the camera. The birthday sentiment is from a Verve set called circular sayings - fantastic service from Verve, the stamps arrived over here so quickly and they were in the sale too!

January - A Year of Flowers

I work for a civil engineering company and we specialise in land remediation and helping to build new motorways. Every year we get sent lots of calenders from our suppliers and clients and we help ourselves from the pile. The problem is they are not very pretty and are mainly of dozers and diggers and excavators and big trucks! OK if you are a boy who likes big toys but my lovely colleague Mia came back from her holiday last week and had no option on a desk calender, so this is my first prototype for a calender for her.

The crocus flower is from A Year of Flowers from Flourishes and they were a late present from Santa! If you are like me and just love flowers you must check out these stamps. I've only had a couple inked up so far but they are really finely drawn and smashing to colour. I used copic markers and some Papertrey papers, ribbon and cardstock

The calender pages can be printed off from the Flourishes site - free if you buy the stamps!

Raspberry Suite Colour Challenge meets Mojo Monday

I always feel it's more like a mojo Sunday for me as that's my day for crafting but as the light fades so fast of an afternoon it's more of a challenge to get it photographed than to make the card!

Anyways, I was inspired by two challenges this weekend, Mojo Monday 120 and Dawn McVey's latest Raspberry Suite colour challenge - my favourite colour challenge on the block. This week is such a pretty colour combination.


































I used my new Blooming Button Bits again for my card with all the colours in the photo along with Turning a new Leaf - love that set too! I popped the urn up on dimensionals just to give it a bit of a lift.






















It's been good to stay indoors and play all day!

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.