Sweet Stampin' - Autumn

Happy Saturday! It's time for our new challenge at Sweet Stampin' and this week we've gone all seasonal with a theme of "Autumn".

I used the Hobby Art Oak Tree stamp set and a Card-io bunny set to make my card and started by stamping the tree, bunnies and sentiment in black archival ink on a 6x6 card blank. I then watercoloured in the tree using distress inks. On a spare bit of card I stamped some leaves and acorns from the set in archival ink and again coloured them with distress inks before fussy cutting them. I ran a black marker round the edges from the back to get rid of any white lines on the edges. I assembled the card and added glossy accents to the acorns. To finish off, I drew in a border to link up the corners. 

I can't wait to see your autumnal creations, just remember to include some stamping on your card to be eligible for our top three. Have a great weekend crafting x

Merry Christmas

Apologies for the rubbish photo, no matter what I do the lighting is terrible at the moment. I bought this Sizzix die in the sale this summer and finally took it out of the packaging this week. The die cut beautifully through some matt gold cardstock and as a bonus you can save the letters to use on another project. Great for batch making I simply placed the die cut on some coloured card and mounted it on a 5x7 card blank. I added some glossy accents to his nose and sprinkled on some red glitter before it dried. The stars fall out of the die and are shown on the packaging as being hung from the antlers, but I just added them randomly to the cards.

And now, gratuitous bunny photos. Willow is now 12 weeks old and a bit over 800g. I've never known such a cuddle bun. She will happily sit on your lap and be stroked for 20 minutes and then complain when you stop! She will groom you back and does a very thorough job of licking your hand. Parsley is more than happy to let Willow get all the fussing, he thinks humans are only good for bringing food.

Willow and Parsley are still living together happily, but trying to get a photo of both of them in focus and  facing in the same direction is rather tricky, even with a bribe of strawberry leaves.

Less is More #347 - Sketch 21

Monday again, and it's wet and miserable here in Lancashire. Apologies for the rubbish phot, but it's so dark and dreary this morning.  I'm currently home recovering as on Thursday afternoon I had some radio frequency nerve lesioning to help ease my chronic neck and arm pain. It was a flippin' painful procedure and my neck is still very sore around the injection site. This time my consultant targeted the toothache type pain in my right forearm as well as my neck pain, and it seems to have really helped. My right arm feels much lighter and looser than my left now, but fortunately I don't feel too lopsided!
I felt like crafting yesterday but didn't feel up to doing too much, but when I saw the sketch over at Less is More with its three elements, I knew that I could easily make a card as I had three unicorns sat on my desk ready to go from the Gerda Steiner - Moody Unicorns stamp set. 

I covered a 6x6 card base with deep pink card and doodled a border with a fineliner pen. I stamped three of the sentiments from the unicorn set on white card and cut them out roughly, before drawing in a border on each. I assembled the cars using foam tape behind the unicorn and glue behind the sentiments. Simples!

InkBuds Weekender - Day 2

Day two was spent making a book out of mount board and trying out lots of distress oxide techniques. My book had a minor malfunction as the holes on the front page didn't quite line up and so they repunched them to bind it, but as I managed to drop it on the floor the holes gave way! I will rescue it later by trimming it down and repunching the holes, but wanted to share it with you now as it'll probably take me ages to get round to sorting it. This is going to be a seriously picture heavy post, so grab a cuppa!

We stamped on acetate using black stazon and also a frosting glaze.

InkBuds Weekender

I spent a lovely weekend crafting with Hels and Pauline and lots of the other regular crafters, but I'm pooped now! Been trying to catch up on some of your blogs today, so if you could all stop posting for a few days it would be most helpful. Thanks!

This was the project we made on Saturday, lots of distress oxide inky goodness went into making the masterboard which we then cut into 9 and added to a backboard and embellished away. For some reason it tickled me to have washi tape with poison printed on it, along with words about friendship on my project.

I'll share Sunday's project with you soon, I didn't quite finish it in the workshop and so need to add the finishing touches before I blog it. In the meantime, I shall bore you with lots more pictures of this project! Happy crafting (but not blogging just yet...) x 

Sweet Stampin' - Use Your Favourite Stamp

Woohoo, the weekend is here and I'm off crafting with Hels Sheriden and Pauline Wheeler again. It also means that it's time for a new challenge over at Sweet Stampin' and this week we want you to use your favourite stamp! Now, if you're anything like the design team, this could be a challenge to pick just one...

I really struggled to pick a stamp, but narrowed it down to one with bunnies on it and so went for my most recent purchase, this cute stamp from lili of the valley. I stamped it in black memento ink and whipped out my favourite copics to colour it. I used tattered lace pin dot rectangles to cut out the image and make a mat for it. On a 6x6 card blank I used some more of the purple card and some old lili of the valley patterened paper for the background. I used some lovely Polkadoodles dies to cut the corner flourishes (had these for ages and not used them before, but they cut like a dream and popped out easily) in blue card and added them to two corners. I used the same card to die cut the Hunkdory sentiment and backed it with white card before adding it on foam tape. To finish I added some stickles to her ears and to the centre of the flowers on the patterned paper. 

I can't wait to see what you pick for your favourite stamp, good luck choosing!

The Flower Challenge #12 - Halfway Reminder

It's the halfway point at The Flower Challenge and we have a tic tac toe grid for you to use for our challenge this month. We'd love you to play along and please join us for our first birthday celebrations next month, there might be some very good reasons to join us!

I chose to the use the bottom line on the grid this time - white, die cuts and blue. I used this lovely Docrafts X-cut die and die cut it three times in dark blue, light blue and white, so that I could inlay the pieces on a mat of pale gold card on my 6x6 card base. I added blue gems to the centre of the flowers. I added the die cut sentiment from a Hunkydory Moonstone die set which I inlaid again before adding on foam tape. Simples!

We're really looking forward to seeing all your fabulous makes from the tic tac toe grid, just remember to make flowers the focal point of your card, and remember to join us again next month for our birthday celebrations!

Warm Thoughts

Well, the wedding went well, it was held at Hazlewood Castle, a beautiful building,although I did feel slightly sorry for the Registrar. The groom is Dutch and had multiple hard to pronounce names and the ring was tied to the best man's collar as he was a dog! The bride walked down the aisle accompanied by their pet Jack Russell, Adora who had a floral garland over her collar to match the bride's bouquet. There were also several dogs as guests. They were mostly well behaved, although one of them had a very loud shake (as if drying itself off) just as the Registrar asked if anyone objected to the marriage.  She declared that she wouldn't take that as an objection though! The bride had to pick Adora up towards the end of the ceremony to stop her whining and so when the Registrar told the groom he could now kiss the bride, she added, "if you can get past Adora to do so!". Unfortunately, Hubby and I had to leave before the evening reception started as my pain levels were starting to get too bad and it was a two hour journey home.

Right, enough if the waffle and onto the purpose of this blog - card making! I had some bits of card on which I'd cleaned off my blending tools after using my distress oxides. They seem to stay wet for weeks on the foam otherwise, and so I decided to use them up.

I die cut the image from a Docrafts X-cut die set. It has an outside cutting edge and two tiny circle dies that you can position for the eye and I presume cheek. I didn't use these on my cards though. I trimmed down the first image with my guillotine to leave a thin border. I then simply glued this on a 6x6 card blank and stamped the Paper Smooches sentiment.

The other two images didn't have enough of a surround to create a frame and so I snipped them out of the frame and glued them onto 5x7 card bases. I stamped the same sentiment on them and drew in a border. Simples!

Happily Ever After

With a distinct lack of mojo present, I sat down to make a card for the wedding tomorrow. I used an Xcut die set, which come with the main die, a seperate cutting edge die to go round it, a seperate die of the sentiment and a couple of little heart dies. I cut the main die and the cutting edge out of soft gold card (I think it was from a Kanban offcut pack). I only used it because I couldn't get to my usual mirricard with all the honey stacked up, but I think I prefer the soft look to it in this case. 

I folded a piece of 300gsm quartz shimmer card (lLimetree Crafts from one of the shows) and made an  A5 card base. I then mat and layered up the gold and quartz card, before adding the gold die cut. I die cut the sentiment twice more and layered it up on the card to give some definition. I found a strip of double rows of pearls in the gem box and so added that to the card along with a pearl heart surrounded by diamanté which I added with glue gel. I added a posh cream paper insert to the card and made an envelope out of some 12x12 paper I had lurking about. Apologies for the pictures, it was a swine to photograph!

I almost had a heart attack this afternoon. I realised on Sunday that I had nothing suitable to wear for the wedding and not wanting to spend much, had a look in the local supermarkets. They had nothing that was really what I wanted, but I found a dress online at Asda, in a style that I had had before and so  ordered it at the start of the week for collection from the store as soon as possible (today).

I picked it up no problem and went to try it on when I got home. At that point I realised that that there was a fault on the armhole seam, where the overlocker hadn't caught the edges correctly.

Arrggh, what to do? If I took it back to complain, there was no way that I would get a replacement in time and I knew there was nothing else that I would feel comfortable wearing in store. Only one thing for it, out with the needle and thread. Not the easiest of jobs these days as my fingers go numb when hand sewing, but in the end I was quite pleased with the result, even if I say so myself. Let's just hope everything else goes smoothly! Hope you all have a fabulous weekend x

Weddings!

I don't think I've shared this card before as I made it last September, but apologies if I did. I went a bit blingtastic on this one!

I used the Sue Wilson Arbour Gate and Bride & Groom dies cut out of centura pearl card. I backed the bride and groom with a bit more card so that they didn't have see through areas. A bit of glamour dust was added to the brides veil. For the background I used an 8x8 flourish embossing folder by Crafters Companion, but used the debossed side as I preferred that for this card. A bit of matting and layering on the 8x8 card to give some dimension and then lots of bling!

Hubby and I were chatting on Sunday about something random, which suddenly reminded me that it was a friend's wedding this month. I checked the invitation that was on the notice board in the kitchen and realised that it's this Saturday! That was a close shave, can't think why I didn't write it on the calendar. Oh well, you may see another wedding card appearing here soon...

The Flower Challenge #12 - Tic Tac Toe

It's the start of September and The Flower Challenge has a tic tac toe grid for you to use for our challenge this month. We'd love you to play along and please join us for our first birthday celebrations next month, you'll be sad if you miss it!

I chose to the use the central line on the grid - gems, watercolour and clean and simple. I stamped the Woodware Globeflowers stamp on Tim Holtz watercolour card in black archival, before painting in the flowers. I added a doodled border and mounted it on a 5x7 card blank and added some gold gems to finish. Simples!

We're really looking forward to seeing all your fabulous makes from the tic tac toe grid, just remember to make flowers the focal point of your card. 

Sweet Stampin' - Heat Embossing

Whoops, sorry that this post is late, Mr Blogger was obviously not playing ball this morning!
I can't believe that it is September already! Still, as today is Saturday it's time for our latest challenge over at Sweet Stampin' and this week we want to see heat embossing on your project. 

My crafting was hindered this week as Hubby spent the bank holiday weekend harvesting and bottling the honey from his beehives in the kitchen. I usually craft at the kitchen table, but it was covered in sticky honey (I swear it got absolutely everywhere, my slippers were sticking to the floor as I walked - took me back to some student pub memories!) and buried under honey paraphernalia and hidden behind over 200 jars of honey. Hubby eventually cleared a small space for me to work in and so I rustled up this card.

I started off with a rectangle of kraft card and made a circular mask with a post it note and a circle die. I then stamped the butterflies which were a freebie with Docrafts Creativity magazine a while back, in versamark. I then heat embossed them with white embossing powder. I replaced the circle mask and blended distress oxides in broken china, cracked pistachio and worn lipstick through the mask and then buffed them off the butterflies to create a resist effect. I then used a white gel pen to define the edges of the circle. I heat embossed the lili of the valley sentiment in white. I mounted it in a white card base and added some nuvo drops in glossy white to finish. I can't wait to see what you come up with for this challenge, just remember to include some stamping and heat embossing!

Meet Willow

After Bramble passed away last week I started looking for another rabbit to keep Parsley company. I checked the local rescues but couldn't find a suitable single female rabbit. In the end I came across an advert for babies from an unexpected litter (one rabbit had dug out of her run and into the male's run). I emailed the lady to ask if she had any female bunnies and got the reply that she didn't know, but I was welcome to go and look. Mum and I went to see the two babies left from the litter and after some research on the internet prior to going, I predicted that one of them was a girl. After having cuddles with her, that was it, Mum and I both agreed that I should get her. 

We picked her up on Monday evening, when she was exactly 8 weeks old. She's currently living in the kitchen whilst we get her vaccinated and check that she is healthy. She had her first vaccination on Wednesday, and after getting a second opinion from another vet, my vet agreed that she is a girl. 

Of course, she can never replace Bramble in my heart, but Parsley needs company and so we hope to introduce them soon. In the meantime, I'm enjoying having baby bunny cuddles and feeling little paws on my leg when I'm waiting for the kettle to boil. Hubby is quite smitten with her too!