Favor It for Christmas

I love these little favor (or favour if you are over here!) dies - although they are rather small and I only managed to fit a couple of chocolates in them (I was good though and gave the recipients the remainder of the boxes of chocs!)

The container - is it a bag, is it a box? is the Favor It from Papertrey with the Mat Stack 1 die overstamped with a sweet little set of clear Basic Grey stamps that my friend VikkiJo sent me in matching PTI colours.

Fliss was great and as I made each bag she stuck the bling on - she was complaining she was bored so I asked her to help and we got them completed double quick!

Birthday Frames

Here are two recent birthday cards for close friends, Jenni and Sharon who both have their birthdays on Christmas Eve.

I used the Frame It set from Waltzingmouse Stamps as my theme and I was trying to get a trelliswork effect for the background using the Papertrey background basics - Tin Types. It's really easy to mask off the frame with post-it notes - what did we do before repositionable pads!!

The first one up has the background stamped in Smokey Shadow ink and the flower set from PTI's Four of a Kind is stamped in Chartreuse and Raspberry Fizz.

This one is background stamped in Chai ink and the dahlias and leaves coloured with copic markers. I used my dahlia die set to cut the leaves and flower - so much easier than cutting them out by hand.
















Did you have a great Christmas? We had a very relaxing one and I intend to spend the next few days playing with some new stamps that my friend Betty bought over from the US for me - I have a whole two weeks off work - bliss!

Amarylis for December

I am shockingly late in showing my last calendar page. Possibly my favourite one of the lot - I have a beautiful amaryllis blooming right now in a pot here at home - all four trumpets are out and it is stunning.

I went with deep red colours - well it is December!

Here's a close up of the flower - coloured with copic markers. Thanks for stopping by this week - I hope you have enjoyed the Year in Flowers.

Tea for Two Birthday

Tea for Two came across the pond for me recently and I couldn't resist getting the matching dies. For its first outing I made a birthday card for my friend Penny in aqua and chocolate.













I used lots of bits and bobs on this card - Pretty Pastels paper, aqua and chocolate card, aqua ribbon along with pearls and die cuts. I also stamped the woodgrain background stamp onto the mat stack die but it's hard to see in the picture.














I used a Martha Stewart punch for the card edge and made it into a tri-fold card.
As there are a few pearls on this creation I'm putting it in for the lastest challenge over at A Passion for Papertrey which this fortnight is to use pretty pearls!

Cyclamen for November

It's hard to believe that there is only one month to go and the Year of Flowers is complete. My Mum and my MIL always have pretty cyclamens on their kitchen windowsills and so took my inspiration from them. I broke into my new Dotty Biscotti paper pack - love the colours - and choose raspberry fizz for my theme this month.
















Here is a little close of the blooms which I coloured with the copic markers that match the raspberry fizz and ripe advocado colours.
















Look out for Amarylis next month!

Climbing back on the crafting ladder!

Sometimes life just jumps up and bites you in the bottom on occasions and this last month has been one of those! A quick visit to Romania on work business and a health scare for my dear Mum (who is fine now) put my crafting on a back burner so to celebrate finding my JustRite stampers that I thought had gone out with the rubbish when I had my new storage units, I made some notelet sets.



























The ones above use the Dot Spot stamp from PTI along with the matching Bitty Dots paper and ink for my friend Jeanette.

These ones below are a gift for Nina and Graham whose wedding we went to a month back, this time using Friends to the End.






































Thanks for stopping by today and not giving up on me! The November installment of the calendar pages is coming up next!

Big & Bold Wedding Card

We are all off to a dear friend's wedding on Sunday and Nina's colours are teal, cream and gold. I used Ocean Tides from Papertrey and gave my Big & Bold Wishes it's first inking. The patterned base uses Background Basics - Petal Power. If you follow Dawn McVey's blog then you will recognise the layout of this card which I have shamelessly cased!

Chrysanthemums for October

It would be hard to think of a better flower for October - there is nothing like the colour of Mum's to brighten the garden when all the Summer bedding is on its way out.

I used Papertrey's Summer Sunrise and Terracotta Tile for my colourways this time around - just right and Autumnal!


















Here is a little close up of those Mums!
















Only two months left to go - better start thinking about 2011!

Thank You in Aqua

A simple but pretty little thank you card that I made for the lady that made Fliss's birthday cake. I did post it off on time but forgot to show you here.

I made the card from a scrap of stamping that I was practicing on ages ago with Giga Guidelines using spring rain, aqua mist and enchanted evening. I was playing with with I thought were manly colours but I got that all wrong!




















By the way - I did trim that ribbon tail before I sent it off - nothing like a photo to show up your errors!

Four of a Kind

I was a very lucky girl when the lovely Taheerah let me buy one of her Papertrey CHA sets that were exclusive to the show called Four of a Kind. I love how versatile it is with 4 different flowers. I whistled off a few like the one above but forgot to photograph them.


The one above is a one layer card stamped in Chartreuse and Raspberry Fizz. The one below is all in Plum Pudding and Chartreuse again - love the new inks even if they do stamp a bit unevenly!
























I used Plum Pudding DP (Dots and Squares) from Papetrey with a little strip of old Anna Griffin DP. I haven't decided on a sentiment yet - if I use one at all as in life I think this card looks a lot prettier that the photo! The roses are popped up on dimentionals to give it a bit of a lift.

The challenge over at A Passion for Papertrey this week is to make a square card and so I think this fits the bill!

Thank you for stopping by and I hope you have had a grand weekend!

Asters for September

Here is the page for September - pretty Asters. I always remember my Dad growing Asters in many colours. I have used a bit of poetic license here with berry sorbet colours!

Here is a little close up of the colouring.

I used Berry Sorbet and Sweet Blush card and paper for this month

Peonies and Roses

I love my Lockheart flower stamps and don't really use them enough. They are lovely to colour and have such detail although they are quite small. Lockheart stamps are hard to get hold of in the UK but I found a lovely online shop in the US which will post them over for under $10 - a bargain! See them here at Susana's Custom Art and Card Design. They arrived super fast too which made me very happy!


The challenge over at A Passion for Papertrey this week is to use polka dots and there is an abundance on these cards!

First off we have peonies (naturally) and they are coloured in melon berry colours - I don't think I have ever come across peachy peonies so forgive me the artistic license.

Next up is the Daisy and Roses stamp - so pretty and fun to colour. I did go around the flowers with a yellow marker to highlight the white of the flowers but it was too bright and Paul (ever helpful!) said it looked cartoon-like so I toned it down a bit with some grey.

I wasn't sure where this next peony one was going but I like the black and pink combination!
















All supplies are by Papertrey and Spellbinders.

It's Bank Holiday tomorrow - what could be better than extra crafty time!