Shop 'til you drop!

It was one of my friends birthdays recently....and she does like to shop........rather she likes to go shopping but she doesn't seem to buy all that much......I am strange, I can't be bothered with all the tooing and froing....if I want it, can afford, I have it.....going around town looking at the same top just slightly different in 50 shops and going back to the first shop you saw it in 5 hours earlier is just plain HELL!



Close up to see how I used Diamond Glaze on my skinnie minnie to add a bit of weight to her



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Recipe:-
Stamps: Clearly Stamps with Character
Ink: Memento
Cardstock: Making Memories
Patterned Paper:
Accessories:Prisma blooms, glitter, cuttlebug, nestabilites and Prismacolor pencils

Shimmer and Shine

On this one you are going to have to trust me...it looks a whole lot better in real life, it was a complete nightmare trying to photograph this card and try and get the colours, vibrance, and shimmer....

This card took a whole lot of work, layers upon layers of different embossing powders and I 'know' the recipient with chuck the card in the bin the day after his birthday....teenagers don't you just love them! and just to spit him....there will be no money in it!

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Recipe:-
Stamps: unkown
Ink: Stazon
Cardstock: craftworks
Patterned Paper:
Accessories: embossing powders, nestabilities, ribbon

I love the image on this card, it harks back to when children could be children and the health and safety mad world was not even on the horizon!

Our friends little boy was turning 3 and he is a real 'boy' into everything and anything and outside exploring.....



so proud of his new friend!

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Recipe:-
Stamps: High Hopes
Ink: Memento
Cardstock: Craftworks
Patterned Paper: Trimcraft
Accessories:Prismacolour pencils, ribbon, nestabilities, and some gems

Relaxing when you are over the hill!

A male friends birthday in March and this image I think suits most men his age down to the ground! I think his wife nearly wet herself with laughter when she saw it as this is the vision she sees most Sundays!

love the holes in his socks!

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Recipe:-
Stamps: Clearly Stamps with Character Golden Oldies
Ink : Memento
Cardstock: Basic Grey
Patterned dp: Basic Grey
Accessories: Prismacolor Pencils, Gamsol, Birthday Greeting rubon, brads and Brown ribbon

Rummaging around and look what I found....

Hi there, I am going through and getting photos of cards off my camera and going through some that were on my PC when I can across an example of the layout for the cards I did for the majority of Christmas cards I sent out last year, the layout was the same for each but the images,backing papers, card stock colours and ribbon where all different.



Close of Grandad playing Santa Clause....I love the look of the two babies in his arms!

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Recipe:-
Stamps: Clearly Stamps with Character Golden Oldies 3
Ink: Memento
Cardstock: DCWV
Patterned Paper: DCWV

Accessories: Copics, Nestabilites, Ribbon, corner punch

Love to you.....

I work quite a bit away from home which means I spend a lot of time on my own in the evenings in hotels............there are different ways to spend the time, some weeks I take a pampering kit with me, so I have a facial with scrubbing, plucking, moisturizing, masks etc and then I have a moisturizing session for my body etc...so I come home all smooth and pruned other weeks I take along a few good books and some magazines, and then other weeks I take along some craft things ...the reason I don't take craft stuff every week is that it weighs a ton!

I am also still (yes I know still) cataloguing all my stamps, they are all pretty much unmounted, I have 50 or so that are still mounted and of those maybe 30 will remain mounted. But the other thousands and there are thousands are unmounted, and I am slowly working my way through them to catalogue them. I have them in plastic cd wallets, each wallet has a piece of card stock of the same size, on this card stock I stamp the images in that wallet, I write a unique identifier e.g. Female 012 and the name of the manufacturer and the name of the stamp. I then have a book (the pages can be taken out and put into a folder once I am done) which I have divided into different categories such as Female, Male, Funny, Backgrounds & Scenery, Oriental, Children, etc and I stamp the image again on a page within that category,and mark it with the the same unique identifier and details as are on the wallet. The idea being that I can flip through the book choose the stamp, go to my boxes, flick to the right category and pick out the right wallet, and also ensure that the stamp goes back into the right wallet.....but it all takes time lots and lots of time!

To add into that mix, those above are just my rubber stamps and single clear stamps.......all my clear stamp sets are stored in their sets and therefore I have another book that I am stamping all their images in....which again can be placed in a file..........you know it all sounds confusing but it works for me (hmm what does that say about me!)

Why I started this long spiel was that I stamped this image and coloured it whilst away with work! She is from Lily & Milo and I coloured her with watercolours blended with my new tombow blender.....ok how did I miss this guy! this blender works a treat and you get great results instantly!

The template is the same as before from the Verve Forum over on SCS.




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Recipe:-
Stamps: Lily & Milo - Lily Springtime, Stampendous Love Messages
Ink: Archival Ink - Jet Black, memento sky blue
Cardstock: Watercolour carstock, kanban
Patterned Paper: Making Memories Fresh Anthology Eliza 'eyelet'
Accessories: Gingham ribbon, Blue stars Paper Cellar, Watercolour Pencils, Tombow blender, Prismamarker, Cuttlebug,Nestabilities, 3 d foam dots, white and blue signo pen

Vrom...vrom

I have talked about this before, I know, I know its a sign of old age to repeat yourself but I can't help myself but I find if I am to focus and get some crafting done I have to limit my choices....and I know I am privileged that I have the option of choice...the problem is that I have toooooo much of it and I can't make a decision and I spend hours looking, stroking, wondering, deciding, putting back and not doing anything

So I went to where my lovely Dp is located in my craft room, took out some scrapbooking paper that I had acquired earlier in the year that was to nice to use, I then headed over to all my stamps and randomly picked some packs of new stamps that have never been touched with ink....and said to myself ....USE THEM

and this is the result...............


The DP is from CollagePress.com Tell Your Story and the collection is called Seeds, it is double sided cardstock and it is beautiful visually as well as to use. The base card is 5ins cream square card, I also used some forest green cardstock from Bazzill (this is lush, its textured on one side and smooth on the other). The dino and the sentiment are from Woodware - Dino Friends and are both stamped using as usual for me Graphite Black Brilliance ink. The Dino was stamped on some white cardstock, coloured using Copics, cut out and mounted onto some 3d foam. You may also be able to see that I have used one of my Cuttlebug embossing folders on the green piece that goes the width of the card to give some more dimension. The overall layout is from this weeks sketch challenge over on Splitcoastampers, you can check out the sketch and the wonderful cards here.

Over on the wonderful Arty Girlz Challenge blog this week the challenge is make a male/man card and I think my card qualifies! again another great place to check out for great cards and designs, you can find it here

....there was something in the water ...

...back in September/October time last year because I have another baby boy card to send out...luckily it would appear that this 'outbreak' was confined to the South East of the UK and didn't spread northwards.

I used the sketch that Gina K provided on her site in the last few days which you can find Here. She is/was running a competition with this sketch if you used any of her wonderful stamps. I am lucky enough to own a set of Gina's stamps but I really liked the sketch and I neeeeeeeeded to get this card done, so I decided to forgo the competition and just use the sketch as the set I have is not appropriate for new baby boys!

I stamped the image onto some smooth white cardstock, coloured in using some of my copic markers (looking at it now I should have gone a bit lighter on the colours of the image). Using my Cuttlebug I cut the image out with a scalloped edged diecutter, while I still had the Cuttlebug out on my workspace, I cut out a slightly bigger oval in a cream cardstock which I embossed with the Swiss Dots embossing folder. I am not sure if you can see from the picture but I also embossed two rows of dots along the DCWV patterned paper just below the ovals, this was done using my new set of border embossing folders from Cuttlebug. The remainder of the card is created by following Gina's sketch, and I added 3 buttons on the folded back piece and a pram embellishment in the corner. I have to say I loved these DCWV designed card when I saw them and they are beautiful to use, such delicate colours for a baby boy....I also have the girls version

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Recipe
Stamp - Nellies' Choice - Kiddies baby
Ink - Brilliance Graphite Black
Copics
Card - Nana's Nursery - Baby Boy - Die Cuts with a View
Buttons- Making Memories
Embellishment - Papermania
Cuttlebug, Swiss Dots folder and Dots border folder
Nestabilities - Oval and Scalloped Oval

Poetic Artistry Sketch

Today's card is for our friend Lynn, she is a lovely lady who has two dogs, Polly and Totty, Polly is a tri-colour beagle like Monty. It was Lynns birthday yesterday, which she kept quiet, but we soon realised when we called round yesterday! lucky with a bottle of wine in hand, but since Lynn is have a bit of a time of it at the moment, Polly was diagnosed with diabetes last week, I thought I would make her a card to cheer her up......

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Recipe

Sketch - Poetic Artistry

Stamps - Printworks Great Birthday, Dovecraft

Papers - Daisy Cottage - Summer Cottage - Secret Garden and Courtyard

Cardstock - Bazzill

Ink - Brilliance - Mediterranean Blue

Time has just speeded up on me!

I don't know how but this week seems to have flown by, yet other weeks seem to go on forever!!!! I finally managed to email off my entry into a competition, it will be judged around the 1st of May so I will post my entry once that has happened...its the first one I have ever entered!

Todays card is based on this weeks sketch on Poetic Artistry, it's a wonderful blog and she makes the most amazing cards so check it out if you haven't already done so!

I simply followed the sketch on Poetic Artistry and stamped the image on white cardstock and coloured it.

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Recipe
Cardstock - Bazzill, CosmoCricket - Little Boys - Baley Blues, Little Man
Stamp - Missy B Beach Baby
Ink - Brilliance Graphite Black
Copics
Pentel Pigment Gel ink white pen

Where have I been????

Sorry for the lack of posts but I have been a busy little bee.....and if you don't mind I am going to share some of what I have been up with you...if you just want to skip to the cards they are at the bottom of this post!

The company I work for holds events 3 times a year for all its staff to get together as we are spread through out the country....and the spring party is traditionally the fancy best bib and tucker kind of event..and this year was no different. The trauma started when I realised that the dress I was planning to wear was too big...what a complaint but it was! so I whizzed myself into a panic...where on earth was I, Miss I don't wear dresses, going to find a dress for a black tie event in 1 day, as that is all the time I had....I went for the two prong attack, I ordered two dresses off the Internet on next day deliver...and headed for the shops as the dresses ordered may not be right ...(and for me this is a 30+ mile trip each way).....I found a dress....I liked the dress but knew I had two other choices arriving the next day... next day no other dresses...they eventually turned up 6 days later ...so I now had a dress....I shall go to the ball.... the event was held at the Celtic Manor Resort Hotel ....fabulous isn't the right word for it!






The day consisted of a team building event where we drove 4X4 land rovers blindfolded, clay pigeon shooting, pistols, Honda pilots, quad bikes and archery....I loved the archery ..below is a picture of my arm ...this bruise is now 11 days old...



yes it is over 3.5 inches long and nearly 3 inches wide...when I do these things I do them well! and remember this is 11 days old!


and this is some of the girls and me ( I am in red) after a glass or 3 of wine!


So that was 1 weekend and then the following week I was working in Bristol and this weekend it was my birthday! not that that was very exciting !

Whilst in Wales at the Celtic Manor I received a text to say a good friend had become a grandmother for the second time.... Celie is the most beautiful person inside and out, she has so much love to give and deals with life's challenges is such a awe inspiring way that she is a true role model.




Here are some cards I made for Celie and her husband Ted on the birth of their grandson

Recipe
Stamps - Printworks - SweetPea Baby
Ink - Brilliance Ink - Graphite Black
Copic makers
Cuttlebug and Nestabilities
Cardstock - Craftwork Cards - Lullaby Boy

Nicky Celie's beautiful daughter on the birth of her nephew



Recipe
Stamps - Will'nWay - Baby Bundles
Ink - Brilliance Ink - Graphite Black
Copic makers
Cuttlebug and Nestabilities
Cardstock - Craftwork Cards - Lullaby Boy

Tracey, Terry and Charlotte on the birth of their son and brother



Recipe
Stamps - Will'nWay - Baby Bundles
Ink - Brilliance Ink - Graphite Black
Copic makers
Cuttlebug and Nestabilities
Cardstock - Craftwork Cards - Lullaby Boy