A fantastic finish to my crafty year!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and enjoyed spending time with family & friends, eating too much and playing silly games. We had a lovely time and Thomas thoroughly enjoyed himself. He received so many presents and now has a wonderful selection of Lego and a HUGE train set.

In my last post I mentioned some exciting news that I was dying to share with you. About 3 weeks ago I received a phone call from the Editor of Papercraft Essentials to tell me that I was the winner of their 'Papercrafter of the Year'. I was so thrilled and excited I probably sounded a bit nuts on the phone! Not only did I win a huge stash of crafting goodies but I get to join the magazine's design team - something I am massively excited about.

It took a while for the news to sink in but I think I finally believed it when I bought my copy on Christmas Eve! 2010 is going to be a very exciting crafty year!!

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4 Sleeps until Christmas!

I always love the last few days before Christmas – lots of rushing around getting last minute pressies, visiting friends and eating yummy food and all the seasonal films on the TV.  We’re still under a blanket of snow in Kent and it would be wonderful if it stayed put until Friday – I can’t remember ever having a proper covering of snow on Christmas Day.  I had planned to spend today tidying & cleaning the house but our Christmas tree lights blew last night so we’ll be on the hunt for another set and I don’t fancy our chances at this late date!

This will probably be my last card before Christmas and its for a friend who has a birthday on the 27th.  I’ve used the fab sketch on this weeks Sketchy Colors challenge and it was nice (and necessary) to make a DL size card – I’ve run out of square envelopes!!  The SN image is coloured with distress inks and the papers are Bo Bunny and Cosmo Cricket.

I’ve also got the most exciting news to tell you all but I can’t let the cat out of the bag until Christmas Eve – I really do think I might go pop before then!

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Guest DT for Stampin for the Weekend

Have you woken up to snow this morning? We have!! There's about 5 inches outside so we're going to put on the wellies and take Thomas to the park. I'm trying not to think about how I'll get to the supermarket later on!

I was thrilled when Kim invited me to be a guest designer for the Stampin for the Weekend challenge blog. The theme this week is ‘Calendars’ so I decided I would make a desk calendar to go on my own work desk - it was really nice to make something for myself for a change!

I’ve used one of the gorgeous stamps from my Wild Rose Studio DT pack. These images are just adorable and a real pleasure to colour. I added some stickles to the flowers for a bit of sparkle and doodled a border around the edge. The papers are Bloom & Grow – my new favourites!! I bought the calendar tabs very cheaply on EBay but I also noticed at the weekend that Hobbycraft sell them for 20p each. The ribbon is from my stash and the charm can be bought here.

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It’s Truly Scrumptious time!

It’s our last Truly Scrumptious challenge of 2009 so I do hope you will be able to join in for this one.  This is the sketch we have for you this time

and we would like to see some vellum somewhere on your card.

I’ve used an adorable WOJ snowman by Elizabeth Bell.  He is coloured with distress inks and I’ve added some distress stickles which don’t really show up.  The paper is a double sided sheet from Cloud 9 Designs.  I don’t think its from a winter range but I think the pattern looks like lots of little snowflakes.

Whimsy Stamps are sponsoring this challenge with two fabulous stamps for the winner and you have until Tuesday 5th January to enter.

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Today we met Santa!!

No card today but a little story about our exciting day today in London to meet Santa.

Back in September my friend booked tickets for us to visit Santa in Harrods. Harrods' Santa is VERY popular, she went online at 7am on the day the tickets were released and by 7.30am the system had crashed from being overloaded. So we've been looking forward to today for a long time. Thomas was very excited to go on his first train ride and referred to all the trains he saw as Emily, James, Gordon etc - all characters from Thomas the Tank Engine, his favourite TV programme. We met with my sister at Waterloo and jumped in a taxi which took us past the Houses of Parliment and Buckingham Palace (just in time to see the changing of the guard) and then on to Harrods. We had a bit of spare time so took a look around their pet department. OMG, you would not believe the amount of bling you can buy for your pet!

After a rather expensive hot chocolate we joined the queue to see Santa. The theme this year is the Wizard of Oz - lots of green emeralds, models of the characters and I'll be singing 'Follow the Yellow Brick Road' for days to come. Finally we get to a big gold door with Santa waiting on the other side, it's time for Thomas to finally meet the big jolly man in his story books and .................



Yep, he fell asleep! All the build up and excitement was all too much and not even some gentle proding could rouse him. We will be teasing him about this picture in the years to come!

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First Wild Rose Studio DT Card

My first DT package from Dulcie at Wild Rose Studio arrived early this week. And a lovely package it was too! I had planned to make a Christmas card using one of the digital images on the Christmas CD but my watercolour paper wouldn’t go through my printer so I chose one of the lovely clear stamps instead and some pretty papers from the Spring CD.

This adorable little Kitty is coloured with distress inks and I’ve added a tiny gem to the centre of each of her flowers. I’ve used this weeks sketch from Friday Sketchers and the card is also for Cute Card Thursday’s challenge which is ‘Swirly Girly’.

Our internet is misbehaving today so no blog hopping for me, I’m going to settle down and watch the final of I’m a Celebrity. Have a lovely weekend everyone.

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Car Trouble

Mild panic last night when I couldn’t switch of my car immobiliser so I spent most of this morning on the phone to the our local Honda dealer, our mechanic and finally a local car alarm specialist who came out and removed the whole thing!  So now my purse is £100 lighter but at least I can drive to work to earn some more!!

This is my favourite SN image and I coloured her a couple of days ago with the Basic Grey sketch in mind.  This card also qualifies for the new Sketchy Colors challenge which was to use mainly lilac.

Card Recipe:

Image: Sugar Nellie (Daisy)

Papers: Basic Grey Wisteria

Ribbon & Button: Truly Scrumptious pastel bag available here

Other embellishments: Large retro flower, Prima flower, MM button brads, punches(tag, small flower, butterfly and branch)

My Wild Rose Studio DT pack arrived yesterday and contained some gorgeous goodies.  I hope to have a card to show you before the end of the week.

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Some very exciting news!

Last week I saw that Dulcie from Wild Rose Studio was looking for some new DT members so I dropped her an email.  You can imagine how excited I was when she contacted me to say she would like me to join the team!  I did a little dance around my living room when I read the email.  I’m so proud to have been asked and will be joining a team of very talented ladies.

My other news is that I’ve opened my own EBay Shop!  Called Truly Scrumptious Crafts, there are some yummy ribbon & button embellishment bags in the shop now and I will gradually be adding more items over time.  Any of my blog visitors can get a 15% discount from the advertised prices – just email me and let me know what you would like.

And finally my card!  I’m having to be a bit inventive as I don’t have that many Christmas stamps but I thought this Tilda would work.  I’ve used the lovely sketch from this weeks Just Magnolia challenge.  The paper is double sided from SEI and I embossed the horizontal strip of pink card with the Cuttlebug snowflake folder.

I’m entering this card in the following challenges:

Just Magnolia – Sketch

Creative Card Crew – Favourite things (paper flowers)

Papertake Weekly – Christmas

Simon Says Stamp – Winter Love

Charisma Cardz – Christmas

Magnolia Down Under – Christmas card

Have a great weekend everyone.

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Truly Scrumptious Challenge #21

Yay, its time for another Truly Scrumptious challenge and this time we have a sketch by our lovely DT member Debbie.

Debbie would also like to see a sparkly flourish on your card.

My card was made in a bit of a hurry when I realised at the last minute that we were going to be out all day yesterday at the O2 watching the Masters Tennis which meant I was finishing this card very late Monday evening – oops!   Still, I’m pretty pleased with how it has turned out.  I’ve coloured the lovely Willow (WOJ stamps) with distress inks and added the tiniest drops of stickles to the raindrops.  The papers are from the gorgeous BG Indian Summer range, the flowers and the crystal flourish are from Prima and all the other bits are from my stash.

I hope you will join in our challenge; there is a fab prize from Digital Delights by Louby Lou for the winner.

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Just Magnolia meets Friday Sketchers

Hi everyone, I hope you have all had a good week and are looking forward to the weekend.  I think its going to be another wet and windy one  - good crafting weather.

This is my only Christmas Tilda so I’m afraid you’re going to be seeing quite a lot of her over the next few weeks!  I’ve masked Tilda and stamped a Hero Arts snowflake behind her.  Don’t look too closely though because I carelessly smudged a few of them!  I can’t remember where I bought the Moxxie papers but I love them and wish I’d bought more than one sheet.  The snowflake is a Sizzix die with a Prima ‘say it with studs’ in the centre.

Have a great weekend everyone.

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A Christmas Box

Hi everyone. I hope you are enjoying a relaxing Sunday. After the wet and wild weather of yesterday I’m sitting here in a T shirt with the sun pouring through the window enjoying a rare couple of hours with the house all to myself – bliss! I’ve got a cup of tea by my computer and I’ve just finished the last few squares of a Milka bar (which I have to hide otherwise my darling husband would scoff it in a second).

I got the idea for this box from Kirsten’s blog. Kirsten makes the most gorgeous boxes and she has several templates on her blog that you can use. I’ve been itching to use my new Stempelglede stamps and I’m really pleased with the result. My gorjuss girl is coloured with distress inks, cut out with an oval nestie and I pierced a frame around the edge. The flowers were stamped and then punched and all the papers have been distressed with faded jeans distress ink.

I’ve decorated the inside of the box lid too with the Stempelglede stamps and a sentiment stamp from Crafty Individuals.

I’m going to enter this box into these challenges:

Sketch Saturday

Totally Gorjuss – Christmas Blues

Secret Crafter – Four Seasons

Colour Create – Blue, white & silver

Stampavie & More – Not a card

I’m going to enjoy a game of tennis with some friends this afternoon - whatever you’re doing have a fabulous Sunday!

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Spring colours for a grey day

Blimey, its wet and windy here today.  Apparently the worst storm of the year will hit us tonight/tomorrow – a day to stay indoors, keep dry and craft I think!

This card is for my niece who will be 3 next week.  She loves pink so I used these gorgeous ‘Nana’s Nursery’ papers which are definitely some of my all time favourites. 

This is the first time I’ve used my CC Designs stamp and I love her!  She’s lovely to colour and I love the idea that you can put different things in her wheelbarrow to suit the occasion.   The sentiment stamp is by Personal Impressions and I spritzed the flowers with Tattered Rose glimmer mist.

 

Have a lovely weekend everyone and I hope you stay safe and dry.

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Truly Scrumptious Challenge

It’s time for another Truly Scrumptious challenge and this week we have a lovely sketch by DT member Dawn with the added challenge of adding some texture to your card.

I had a few ideas for this card but when I tried them out they didn’t look nearly as good in real life as they did in my head!  After trying to use ribbons and strips of embossed card I settled on this design.

Janet from Pink Gem Designs is sponsoring our challenge this week and this image is one of her designs.  He is coloured with distress inks.  For my texture I embossed the glitter card with the Cuttlebug snowflake folder and wrapped some silver thread around the paper which is threaded with beads.  The card is finished off with a Sizzix snowflake and a Cuttlebug corner.

The rest of the DT have made some fabulous creations so we hope you will be able to us for our latest challenge.

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Lovely New Rubbah!

I haven’t ordered any crafting goodies for AGES so I was very excited when a packet from Crafts U Love landed on my doorstep yesterday. Inside was my gorgeous new Christmas Magnolia stamp which I inked up immediately. She’s coloured with distress inks and I’ve used some Stickles for a bit of Christmas sparkle. My papers are a mixture of Imaginisce and Scribble Scrabble and I've distressed them just a little bit!

I’ve made an easel card (is this the right name?) and added my sentiment using Quickutz Marisa alphabet. The snowflakes with silver brad centres help to keep the card upright.

I’m going to enter this card into three challenges:

Roses on Paper – Christmas card

Magnolia Down Under / Just Magnolia - Distressing

We’ve got a busy weekend ahead. Thomas will be two next Tuesday so we’re having a small family party for him on Sunday. I’ll be spending most of tomorrow making cheese straws, M&M cookies and baking 2 birthday cakes; one for Sunday and one to take to nursery on Tuesday. Have a great weekend everyone.

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Where does the time go?

My little boy will be 2 in just under two weeks and  I can’t believe the time has gone so quickly.  I saw a heavily pregnant lady while we were out today and remember those late weeks when you are so tired, feel so heavy and are just willing baby to arrive!  However, the ‘terrible twos’ are definitely upon us and 7pm couldn’t come quickly enough today!!

This is the card I have made for Thomas.  He LOVES cake so this WOJ image is perfect.  I’ve used the sketch from this weeks ICS challenge and the WOJ challenge this week is to use red, cream and one other colour.

Little Henry is coloured with distress inks, the papers are MME Wild Asparagus and the buttons & ribbon are from my stash.

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He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not!

I remember playing this with my friends in the playground at infant school.  We would sit on the grass and pick the petals off the daisies repeating this over and over again!  As soon as I saw this Tilda that’s what I thought she was doing so I just had to buy this Imaginisce paper with the words “loves me, loves me not” circling the flowers.

This is my Truly Scrumptious DT card which follows a sketch drawn by yours truly.  There is a recipe to use as well which is 3 flowers, 3 brads and 3 gems or pearls.

I’ve replaced the circle with a large Bazzil flower which I’ve sprayed with glimmer mist.  The mist hasn’t really altered the colour of the flower but the subtle sparkle is lovely – although it doesn’t show on the photo! 

My DT friends have made some absolutely gorgeous cards so I hope you can pop over to the Truly Scrumptious blog and join in our challenge.

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‘Blingtastic’

I think this is probably the most sparkly card I have ever made!  I went to Bluewater shopping on Sunday and John Lewis have the most gorgeous Christmas decorations in pale green, pale blue and silver.  I knew straight away I wanted to make a Christmas card using these colours and I found some glitter card in my stash which fitted the bill perfectly.

I’ve used a lovely sketch from this weeks ICS challenge for this card.  My Bildmalarna image is coloured with Tombow pens and distress inks and is mounted on silver mirri card.  The sentiment is from Penny Black and the snowflakes are a mixture of Sizzix dies and punches.

I’m also going to enter this card in these challenges:

Secret Crafter: Dig Deep (I bought this stamp last year but this is the first time I’ve used it)

Stamp Something: Bling

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Truly Scrumptious

Thank you so much for all your get well wishes.  My cold is nearly gone and I’m feeling much better.  However, Dave thinks he has caught it so he went out today and spent £16.00 (yes £16.00) on a pot of honey which is supposedly wonderful for treating colds.  At £16 a pot it certainly needs to be!! 

It’s time for another Truly Scrumptious challenge and this week we have a fab sketch by the talented Mina with the theme of ‘Autumn’. 

This card came together really easily (for a change!) as I knew exactly what image and papers I wanted to use.   I love this Autumn Milly from Pink Gem Designs.  She is coloured with distress inks and her log has some flowersoft moss along the top.  The papers are BG Indian Summer – these papers are such gorgeous rich colours.  I used a Quickutz die to cut the leaves which I then covered with crackle paint and spritzed with glimmer mist.  I’m really pleased with the effect but the macro setting isn’t good enough on my camera to show a close-up.

Janet (Pink Gem Designs) has a competition to win six of her stamps and is also looking for a Guest Designer so I’m going to enter this card.

I hope you can join in the Truly Scrumptious challenge this week.

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Full of cold!

I would love to have a card to show you but I'm full of cold and every time I lean over my craft table my sinuses throb and my eyes water. So I've given up and retired to the sofa with a box of tissues and some paracetamol. Have a lovely weekend everyone!

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Rainy Tuesday

Autumn has well and truly arrived; the last couple of days have been grey and wet and its back to wearing wellington boots to walk the dog rather than flip flops.

This card is for my husbands old flatmate who has just become a dad again.  I used the fab sketch on this weeks Inspirational Sketches Challenge blog and I’m also entering this in the Creative Card Crew challenge which this week is ‘Celebrations’.

Recipe:

Stamps:  Whiff of Joy image and Papermania sentiment

Colouring medium: Distress inks: Dress & Hair – Antique Linen, Tea Dye & Brushed Cordroy, Swaddling – Faded Jeans

Paper: Winter Wonderland from Ladybug & Friends

Embellishments: Paper roses & cherry blossom, ribbon

Tools: Cuttlebug corner die, Martha Stewart border punch, Leon Em leaf punch, oval nesties

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Whiff of Joy Challenge

Yay, its Friday!  My favourite day of the week as I don’t work and I reserve Friday evenings as my craft time.  The gorgeous weather continues in the South East although its definitely getting colder and I’ve been up into the loft to bring down the winter duvet.  Thomas has had a great week but has turned into an escapologist.  He slipped through a narrow gap in the fence into our neighbours garden yesterday!  Luckily they were in and he ended staying a while to play with their children!

Onto my card and its been a while since I made a really girly, flowery card.  There is a lovely sketch for this weeks WOJ challenge and I cut into these gorgeous Melissa Frances papers which I bought at the Craft Barn last week.

My image is coloured with distress inks and I made the three vintage paper flowers using the technique in Rach’s tutorial.  Other embellishments are organza ribbon, lace and stick on pearls and the sentiment is from Papermania.

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Whimsy DT cards

I managed to sneak in a bit of extra crafting time this evening in between washing my hair and watching an brilliant episode of Criminal Minds!

I thought these tag shaped cards would be perfect for these Whimsy images, although I should have checked sizes first because the bear only just fits!  Both images are coloured with distress inks and I’ve matted the bear onto some jute ribbon and used a few of the ribbon threads to tie in my buttons.

There was a bit more room to decorate my second card and I’ve used some Sizzix papers, some raffia and a couple of buttons which came from an old pair of Monsoon flip flops!

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Truly Scrumptious Challenge 17

It’s time for another Truly Scrumptious challenge and this week we have a sketch designed by yours truly with the added challenge of doodling on your card. The lovely Christine Dark is sponsoring us this week and is giving away the choice of six images to our lucky winner. Christine was also extremely generous and sent the DT some of her latest designs.

I had a bit of a printer nightmare when I tried to print the image onto watercolour paper so I had to use regular card which is why my colouring is not as good as I would have liked. I used a glitter pen on this gorgeous fairy’s wings and Stewart Gill paint for her dress. It’s all very sparkly – much more sparkly than the picture shows.

I hope you’re able to play along with our challenge. Hop over to the Truly Scrumptious and take a look at the fabulous cards the rest of the DT have created.

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Just Magnolia

I hope those of you who managed to get to Ally Pally had a fabulous time.  I would love to have been there but an unhealthy bank balance and a working husband meant I couldn’t go.   I plan to be at the next one though with a bit of cash to splash!

Thomas took a nice long nap at lunchtime which gave me some time to craft.  The challenge at Just Magnolia this week is to use the colours pink and grey with the option of using black.  I teamed up some Bo Bunny and Anna Griffin papers but I now think maybe its all a bit too busy.  What do you think?

Tilda is coloured with Distress Inks; these are the colours I used: 

Dress & boots – Worn Lipstick & Aged Mahogany

Skin – Tattered Rose, Tea Dye, Worn Lipstick

Hair – Antique Linen & Walnut Stain

Leggings – Tombow pen

So another weekend has flown past.  Have a great week everyone and remember to visit the Truly Scrumptious blog on Wednesday where we will have a new challenge for you.

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Some Christmas Bling

I hope you have all had a good week and are looking forward to the weekend.  According to the weatherman, its going to be warm and sunny in our little corner of the country so I hope we can get out and about and make the most of it while it lasts.

I love this WOJ snowman by Elizabeth Bell.  I’ve coloured him with the usual distress inks and I also used a pale blue tombow pen to add some soft colour to his body.  There’s a bit of stickles on his hat, mitten and buttons too.  The tag behind has been embossed with a Cuttlebug folder and I lightly brushed over the raised area with a pink versa color inkpad.

My sentiment stamp is also new and is from Crafty Individuals.  And I wanted to add some bling so used some sparkly ribbon and gems.

Have a lovely weekend and I hope the sun shines in your part of the world.

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Indian Summer

Good morning everyone. I hope you're enjoying some lovely weather at the moment. We're enjoying a bit of an indian summer in Kent at the moment. The mornings are a bit chilly but some beautiful sunshine and 21 degrees!!

I managed to get to the Craft Barn at the weekend. I had meant to go during their extravaganza weekend but got the dates mixed up so instead I browsed around a very quiet and peaceful shop while the shop manager made customers cups of tea!! I came away with more than I intended to buy (does that sound familiar?) and I've used some of my new stash on this card.


I've used my new yummy BG Indian Summer papers for this card and I think you will see a lot of these papers as they are totally gorgeous. Mimosa (from Bildmalarna) is coloured with distress inks and I sponged the background with Antique Linen. The flower was made following Rach's fab tutorial. I've tried to make one before without a mini stapler but it didn't really work so I bought a Bo Bunny stapler from the Craft Barn and voila, easy peasy! The leaves are a Quickutz die, as is the sentiment tag.

This card is for a number of challenges:

Sketch & Stash: Sketch and my new stash (BG papers)
Stamp with Fun: Autumn
Basic Grey: Embossing
Stamp Something: Favourite - these papers are definitely my new favourites

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A Whimsy Friday Sketch

Thank goodness it’s Friday as this week feels like it’s been a looooong one!  The weather has been up and down; I got soaked playing tennis on Monday and we’ve had glorious sunshine today.  Work has been busy and Thomas has been testing – I spent 45 minutes trying to retrieve the top of a bottle from the sink plughole!

And my mojo is seriously lacking at the moment – I’ve been spending too much time flopped in front of the TV rather than crafting but hopefully a shopping trip to the Craft Barn on Sunday will put that right :)

Enough of my babbling, here is my 2nd Whimsy Guest DT card.  I love this bear and I’ve coloured him very simply with a pale grey Tombow pen.  I’ve used this weeks Friday Sketchers layout but I had to rotate it to fit my image.  The panel behind my bear is embossed with the Cuttlebug snowflake folder and I added a few Sizzix snowflakes.  And if you look closely you can see I’ve used some new polar white flowersoft as snow.

Have a lovely weekend everyone!

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Truly Scrumptious

It’s time again for another Truly Scrumptious challenge.  This week we’ve got a lovely sketch by our DT member Heather and the extra challenge is to use at least three stamps (not including the sentiment).

I’ve used a gorgeous Mimosa stamp from Bildmalarna which I coloured with distress inks.  I’ve had the Autumn Leaves border stamps for a while now but only used them once., but after seeing a tutorial on the Stampartic blog I knew how I wanted to use them on this card.   My other stamps are flourishes from Inkadinkadoo and a corner stamp from Crafty Individuals.

 

Make sure you visit the Truly Scrumptious blog to take a look at the fab cards the rest of the DT have made.

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Bildmalarna meets Friday Sketchers

TGI Friday!  What a busy week, things are getting back to normal after the summer holidays and I think I’m just about ready for another holiday now!!

This is the first time I’ve inked up this gorgeous Tossa Mushroom stamp from Bildmalarna.  She’s coloured with the usual distress inks and all the papers are from Daisy Bucket.  I just added some rikrak and a punched flower and voila! 

I’m also going to enter this card in the Stamp Something challenge:(favourite embellishment; metal flower bead cap)

Have a great weekend everyone!

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First Whimsy DT Card

It seems like AGES since I last posted a card.  Both Thomas and I had a tummy bug last week which knocked us out for a few days and then it took me as many days to catch up with jobs.

Earlier this year Denise asked me if I would be a Guest Designer for Whimsy Stamps in September.  Of course I said yes and my stamps arrived at the weekend.  I love this little frog – he looks all misty eyed and in love and he’s coloured with distress inks and tombow pens.  I didn’t have the right colour cardstock so I created my own by sponging cream card with Broken China distress ink.   This week the Whimsy Stamp Challenge is to use sewing on your card so I’ve added some faux stitching.  The sketch is from this weeks Spoon Full of Sugar challenge and I’m also entering this in the Basic Grey challenge which has a photo to give you inspiration (I picked up the colour of the bed throw).

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Truly Scrumptious #15

It's time for another Truly Scrumptious challenge and this week we have a fab sketch by DT member Michele. Plus we're looking for a Guest Designer to join us for the months of October and November.


And our theme for this challenge is 'Indian Summer'. I'm definitely not ready for Autumn yet so I thought the lovely rich colours on this K & Co paper would be perfect for this theme. I love my new Sarah Kay stamp and I only wish my garden was half as pretty. We have heavy clay soil where I live and 50% of things I plant die within a week! She's coloured with the usual distress inks. The paper is very busy so I've just added a Sizzix swirl, punched flowers and a tiny butterfly.


The rest of the DT team have made some gorgeous cards so take a look at the Truly Scrumptious blog and join in our challenge.

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Just Magnolia meets Sukkersott

One of my favourite card makers, Lena Katrine, has designed a fabulous sketch for this weeks Sukkersott challenge and I’ve combined this with the Just Magnolia challenge to incorporate ribbons and bows.

This is another image I coloured while I was on holiday.  She’s coloured with distress inks and I snipped a couple of petals off a cherry blossom paper flower for the extra falling petals.  The Crafty Individuals flourishes are stamped with distress ink as well and I tied a double bow to finish.

We’re having some friends over for a barbeque tomorrow so hopefully the weather will be kind to us.  Enjoy the bank holiday weekend everyone – it’s the last one before Christmas!!!

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Sugar Bowl Challenge

It’s AGES since I’ve entered a card in the Sugar Bowl Challenge but the sketch seemed to re-start my mojo which was a huge relief! 

I’ve been itching to used my new MME papers and they all coordinate so beautifully they’re perfect when you’re using lots of layers.  I’ve coloured this gorgeous SN Fragile Beauty image with distress inks and then used Antique Linen and Brushed Cordroy to sponge the background and edges.  All the papers have been distressed with Brushed Cordroy too.  The butterfly is a Quickutz die which I cut 3 times (card, velum and DP) to give it some dimension and then added a snip of Prima Say it with Crystals.  I’ve tried to show the dimension of the butterfly in this picture.

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All about the flowers

Well my mojo is still missing!  I sat down last night with a few sketches and all my papers and couldn’t come up with anything.  It’s so frustrating because I’ve got new stash I want to use but I don’t seem to know what to do with it.  My desk is strewn with flowers so in the end  I used my favourite gorjuss girl and surrounded her with blooms!

I found the large pink and cream flowers on a recent visit to John Lewis and the large bud was a find at a local sewing shop.  All the other flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts.

They’ve all been given a good spritz with pearl Glimmer Mist and the paper is from a K & Co recycled pack.

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