Gone Fishin'

I think we are all guilty of making pretty feminine cards and forgetting the 'man cards' which we all agree are not easy, I found some 'Forever Friends' man stamps at a local store recently, bought them and here is the first card I made using one of the stamps.
I'm still unable to comment on lots of the blogs and apparently I'm not alone with this problem.

Any Ideas Please or HELP!

Everytime I try to comment on a post the sign in box comes up, I sign in, go back to the blog, click comment and back again to the sign in box, haven't managed to comment on a post for two days - any ideas please??

Butterflies No 2

Another blast from the past with this card as I've had a go at parchment craft, I used to do this some years ago and thought I'd give it a go for a change but keep it simple. I realise that the card is just on the edge of the 'Less is More' style but I'm entering it into the Butterfly LIM challenge anyway.I used a black card as the base for the parchment and stamped 'Birthday wishes' in white on the card, it doesn't show very well on the photo.

Butterflies No 1

Butterflies are the theme of LIM challenge this week, I'm sure Im not the only one who has the problem of getting an idea then seeing that someone has beaten you to it, I don't suppose it matters but it is nice to do something different. My first card is simple in that it is just using punched,pearlescent, butterflies decorated with pearls.

A garden day

I had promised to have a day planting out in the garden so we braved the winds and managed to plant all that was ready to go in, May and June are my favourite times in the garden as all the lovely perenials are at their best,in my garden that means lots of Poppies and foxgloves altho they are a bit few on the ground at the moment. I took some photo's when the wind lessened and amazingly I had some good unblurred pictures, this makes me laugh as I'd taken a photo of a card i'd made and it's all blurry - strange!!

Rambling Rose.

I'm late with this weeks LIM challenge card which is to use embossing (dry or heat embossing)I finally decided on a new stamp I just got, the Rambling Rose set from Creative Expressions. It took ages to get the right card to heat emboss on after stamping with versamark, I then watercoloured the Rose lightly and finally put in two dry embossed lines either side of the rose.I forgot to add that this is a one layer card. I really love this rose set and plan to use the other parts of it asap.

Two for Tea

I thought I'd better get some cards made with all the stamped images I have ready to go so here is this lovely LOTV image mixed with Desert Blooms backing papers, I have distressed the edges of the paper and card and added distress ink around the image, I stitched the layers together to add to the 'distressed' look and yes I've entered it into a challenge that requires 'Vintage and/or Distressed projects. The corner piece is cut out on the cricut machine as is the flower.

Another blast from the past!

Last week it was 'Teabag' folding and this week a card made using decoupage, all cut out by hand, not todays die cut sort! I took it from a Joanna Sheen cd of the work of english artist Josephine WAll, one of those things you wonder why you started, and then what to do when it's all cut out, but somehow it came together and will be a birthday card for a non crafty friend, will I do another?? we'll see.
I've also been making magnetic bookmarks to go into the charity box, they are rather addictive, i'll post a pic of them soon.

White Addiction

I think I could get addicted to these white on white cards, there are so many lovey ones on the LIM site and they all give you ideas for another one!! I've seen a new spellbinders flower die and before I send for it I've tried out some small Marianne flower dies to try the rose effect, there are some good tutorials on Youtube, anyway rather than waste the flower I've made another entry for the challenge.Well that's my excuse!!

Poppy Challenge

Over on The Stampman challenge blog the theme is Poppies and you can send your cards off to The Stampman ,if you wish,to raise money at a special British Legion event to be held in Skipton during October, I had already promised Janet a card when this was first advertised so what better than to include it in the challenge as well. I watercoloured my image, which is from Elusive Images, and layered it onto backing paper that I printed from a Joanna Sheen cd using both draft and normal settings to get the different effects.

Pick a Pattern

The St Lukes hospice charity card challenge wants to see checks,spots,stripes and gingham etc on this months card, I've added all that topped with a promarkered Digi stamp and even found some spotted flowers in my stash, oh and I forgot the spotted ribbon.

Mini Workshop

Mini in that it was made up of four friends plus me, I set up three cards and a bookmark for them to make and they completed them all. The first was a card decorated with a teabag folded topper,i'd been asked to do this and had to get out the old books for instructions as it must be 7 years since i'd done any folding but we managed, I don't think I'll keep on doing them tho'. I've posted a photo of the girls enjoyng the day with a cup of coffee on hand.

Punches and Pearls

This weeks Less is more challenge is - White on White - my base is a cut and embossed card, using a new Marianne embossing/cutting die, the sentiment is stamped in grey and then the whole is decorated with punched flowers plus a butterfly - all in white, I've used tiny flat back pearls and liquid pearls for the flower centres. I seem to have had a week of punched flowers with all those that went on my 'magic box', I find it a great way to use up scraps of card.

Inside the box

Finished the inside at last, all the little punched flowers took a long time to shape and put together but I'm pleased with the results, I used the same digi image as in the 'shell' card and similiar colours, I really love the way the acetate stands up with the flowers attached, the inspiration for this came from the magic box blog and there is also a tutorial on the LOTV inspiration blog as well as on the magic box blog.
Today I'm putting together a card workshop for a few friends on monday, I've chosen what I hope are easy cards for them to make, we'll have to see.

'Shell' card

It's not really a shell but just reminds me of something like that, the inspiration for it came from Fleur, I saw the card on Fleurs blog and then when I visited Sir Stampalot there it was again - beautiful!! Any way this is my version made using my blossom nesties, tattered rose distress inks, the 'fairy flora' digi stamp I coloured with promarkers and as usual I made the flowers using my punches, all brought together with a gentle dusting of glitter. Thank you Fleur for the inspiration!! please visit her blog (link above) to see the original card and all the other lovely cards that Fleur makes. I thought this card perhaps would go to Canada for my cousin's daughter's new baby but just found out it'll be a boy so back to the drawing board!! can you have blue shells??

A winner and a magic box.

I was so pleased to see that my flower card, for the St Lukes Hospice challenge,was one of the four winning cards and I have my winners badge to prove it!!
Todays picture shows the magic box I am working on, the outside is finished and I hope to get the inside done tonight, i'll put up the relevant links in the next post.