Father's Day

It's Father's Day soon and as we will be away on our road trip in the USA I thought I would get ahead for once.  It was so bright and sunny here early this morning and the dogs were making a racket I had to get up and do something!

Over at A Passion for Papertrey the latest challenge is to use circles so I broke out my Background Basics:Medallions for the first time and had a play with Blueberry Sky and Spring Rain inks and took it from there!  It reminds me of Dad's RAF uniform that he wore for 40 years - hope he likes it!

As Betty noted this also goes well with a blog that is new to me - Dynamic Duos - their challenge this week is to make a monochromatic card in two colours of blue.  This is a first for me - one card in two places! 

May 2012 Papertrey Blog Hop

The challenge this month is to use this lovely photo as inspiration - got to love the second dish down - it reminds me of hallways in very old stately homes!

My card took the argyle, green and white elements and is very simple with just a bit of bling to brighten up the tree from Trendy Trees.

Thanks for hopping by this evening and have a great weekend!

Retro Sketches #11

I am always seeing such great things on blogs where people make cards using the Retro Sketches so I thought I would have a go at one this week.

I've had the flower fusion stamps and dies unopened for ages so broke them out for my card and used raspberry fizz, autumn rose and the lovely new winter wisteria colours.

The photo is a bit over exposed and bright but I think you get the idea! I may fix that ribbon some what, but I had fun mixing things up a bit.

25th Wedding Anniversary Invitations

It's hard to believe but Paul and I will have been married for 25 years in June and we are celebrating with some friends and family at a tea party my Mum and Dad are holding for us.  We are taking a trip to New York and Boston immediately before the party so I had to get busy on making some invitations for Mum to send out.

Paul was put to doing what he does best - working out the dimensions for the embossed card wraps with compass and pencil, my assistant Paige at work designed the script layout and I did the stamping and assembly! I used Pretty Peonies with Autumn Rose for the one above and the ones below are in Blueberry Sky and Spring Rain with the  Rosie Posie stamps and dies.

I knew that the silver mirror card I have had in my stash for just forever would come in useful one day!

Thanks for popping in - now I have my internet sorted I can upload a few more things I have been working on.

Papertrey Ink March Blog Hop and a New Arrival!

 For the month of March we wanted to focus on sunshine and the upcoming spring season. What better way to do so than with a fresh color scheme of aqua & yellow.

Isn't that a beautiful inspiration photo?  I had a big piece of embossed aqua mist card so used it as the base for my card today.  Lemon tart dotty butterflies and a nice big aqua mist flourish keeps this nice and simple.  The sentiment is from Beautiful Butterflies.

I also had a little first play with my new Movers and Sliders die and popped a little whirl inside with some matching butterflies - so pretty when you open it up!

It's my birthday today so I hope you'll indulge me and take a peek at our new puppy Coco who came home on Friday.  She's a Cocker Spaniel - an orange roan colour.

Two weeks ago we went to the kennels to have a look at the litter - how hard it was to choose one as there were two orange roans and three blue roans in the litter - 3 boys and two girls - 6 weeks old.

This one then?

Does she make the right accessory??  She won't stay handbag size!

8 weeks old and the first hours home and feeling a little shy...

New best friends!  Daisy is making her feel right at home and learning that pups have sharp teeth and want to play all day!

Many thanks for stopping by on the hop today and have a lovely Sunday - it's gorgeous weather here right now and I am off to enjoy it!

Mother's Day Peonies

It's Mother's Day here so a very happy Mother's day to all the Mums visiting - I've had a lovely day with early an morning visit from my Mother in Law followed by my parents over for lunch.  I was very spoilt by Fliss (who had to go to work this afternoon and evening) and this is the card I made for my Mum using the Pretty Peonies set in Autumn Rose colours.

Just to finish off this evening here are a few little thank you cards that I made yesterday for slipping in with some ebay sales.  I had a purge of some older Papertrey stamps to make room for the new sets which I used below - more Pretty Peonies  which I coloured and cut out ......

and a couple with Lovely Leaves coloured with copics and a little butterfly and sentiment from Beautiful Butterflies .....

Have a lovely evening - I'm off for a cup of tea and watch some TV - it's a busy week ahead at work so I'll snatch some r&r whist I can!

Colour Pop Challenge

The challenge this fortnight over at A Passion for Papertrey is to use black and white with a pop of colour.

I got my Papertrey anniversary set two weeks ago but only had chance to break it out last week.  I stamped off a few images to colour with copic markers - the card above is coloured with the Melon Berry combo.  The leaves are darn awkward to line up but I got there in the end without cutting them up!  Practice makes perfect :)

Inspiration at the Opticians

When I visited the opticians for an eye test two weeks ago they had a lovely window display of these pretty gift bags and boxes so I took a quick snap on my phone to remind me for later - funny where we get our inspiration from!

I stamped the roses from Rosie Posie onto a sheet of soft stone card stock with some versacolour inks (orchid, amethyst and wheat) and put it up with the filigree boarder and some chautreause ribbon and card.

Out of the other bit of stamped card I paired it up with some dark pink card that I had in my stash and a fillable frames die.

Thanks for stopping by tonight and have a lovely weekend!

Papertrey January Blog Hop Challenge

This month, it's all about being interactive!

I don't have any of the movers and shakers dies as yet - hopefully they are in the air right now - so until they arrive I tried making a pop-up card for the interactive challenge.

I found this tutorial on Splitcoast Stampers for a pop-up gift card holder but substituted the gift card for a small sentiment panel.

The front panel of the card is made from different dp papers and finished off with a Happy Day stamp and die.  The inside is stamped with lots of blooms and turning a new leaf stamps.

This was really easy to put together especially as I already had the inside stamp panels on my table from a week ago when I was playing away.  I did get a bit sticky with the score tape though!

As you can see the card folds nice and flat for posting.

Many thanks for popping in today - we are off to dinner with friends in Oxford tonight so I must go pack a bag.  I am looking forward to seeing what everyone else has made when we get back tomorrow.

Rosie Posie Variations

I remembered that I had made and photographed some cards that I made with Rosie posie when I first got the stamps and matching dies.  I have seen lots of examples of the quatrefoil die used as an impression and was desperate to try it - I had to send a quick email to Betty to get the cuttlebug sandwich as I had a few disastrous practice goes before she helped me out!

I think the Rosie Posie dies are the easiest so far to stamp on - maybe something to do with the wider edge that it leaves than other Papertrey dies.

I used the new canyon clay and summer sunrise inks for the flowers and versacolor tea leaves for the leaf die cut.

These are the other roses in the set - I think I like these bestest so far.  I tipped a little copic marker on the stamped image and it does make a difference although hard to see in the photo.

Thanks for popping by - I hope you had a good weekend!

Papertrey Anniversary Day 7

Today's challenge to win another amazing prize is to make a card incorporating hearts - I  had a bit of a panic this morning when I realised Valentine's Day is just next week - having been mad keen on getting challenge cards made it had gone clean out of my mind to make Paul a card.  This is my first prototype and uses Heart Prints, Pure Poppy new dye ink and the canvas/linen impression plate.

It's been a lovely day today - so bright and sunny but oh so very cold.  The best place to be is definitely in the warm playing with stamps - I have dyed red fingers after all those hearts!

Papertrey Sketch Challenge # 4

Just a last quick one  - well a girl has got to try!