I haven't vanished!

Although I feel like I have been away from blogland for ages! It seems like every waking minute I am spending on the computer working on my business and trying to read and learn as much as I can to make it a success. And now the summer holidays are here so Thomas is at home and he doesn't like mummy being on the computer for too long! I can see a lot of early mornings and late evenings over the next 5 weeks!

I'm really missing my card making but I'm finding the thought of spending a couple of hours colouring an image and assembling a card is putting me off from even setting foot into my craft room. I'm determined to find a bit space in the day for 'me time' so I think that clean & simple is the way to go for now. These cards still take me a long time though as I dither over colour combinations/sentiments/embellishments!

So this card uses FTL150 from the Clean & Simple blog. I've used Kraft card for my base and bazzil card for the layers.


I gathered the seam binding by grabbing a single thread with my tweezers and giving it a pull! The idea came from this gorgous card by Kati. This picture shows the layered butterflies a bit better.


And I just had to take a close up of this gorgeous metal flower brad. This is the sort of embellishment that sits in my drawer and is looked at regularly but never used! It was perfect for this card though so I took a deep breath and opened the packet!


I'd love to know what you think. Enjoy the rest of your week.

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Wild Rose Studio DT

Wow, its been a hectic few weeks but my new business is now up and running. The Fitwear Boutique www.thefitwearboutique.co.uk sells luxury yoga, Pilates and fitness clothing. So far I've had great feedback and yesterday I made my first sale which was really exciting. If you get the chance to take a look at the site I'd love to know what you think. And if you do like it please give it a mention on your blog with a little link as this will really help my Google rankings!!!!!

Onto my card and I'd like to show you a Wild Rose Studio DT card. This is Milton with Sunflower. I chose to go with a pink sunflower so I could use the fabulous Wild Rose Studio Valetta Garden papers.


I have some more of these adorable stamps to play with so hopefully I'll get a chance later this evening. Have a great Friday.

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Sunshine & Showers

Hello, thanks for visiting today. How about this bizarre weather we are having at the moment? It was so hot Sunday/Monday and then yesterday at Wimbledon they had the loudest thunderstorm and sure enough, about 45 mins later it arrived in Kent! One of the perks of working from home is that I've had the TV on every day from noon to watch the tennis! We were on Centre Court last Tuesday although our seats were almost at the back. We saw some good tennis on the outside courts though. I'm really looking forward to the quarter finals today and will be cheering on Andy Murray.

Onto my card and this cute hAnglar image has been coloured for over a week now - I finally got around to putting my card together last night. I used some of my lovely new stash from Wild Orchid Crafts (decorative metal corner and roses).


Umm, I think I may have played around with the brightness and contrast a bit too much, the colours don't seem quite right!


I'm going to enter my card in these challenges:

Just Magnolia & hAnglar - Butterflies

I received a fabulous DT package from Wild Rose Studio a little while ago so hopefully I'll have something to show you on Friday.

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An old favourite

Hello and thanks for stopping by today. I've been having a good clear out of my crafty stash recently and selling some of the stamps that I don't use. This is then a very good excuse to go and buy some new stamps and I don't feel nearly so guilty! But there are a few stamps that I don't think I will ever part with and this Whiff of Joy stamp is one of them. She is a dream to colour and I love the expression on her face.


I also have a large stash of Wild Orchid Craft flowers which I love but some of them are quite bulky and make putting a card in a regular envelope impossible. So I thought I would play around and have a go at altering some. The larger flower is a gardenia and the two smaller flowers are made from roses. I cut off the wire stems and then carefully peeled the layers of the flowers apart, flattened them out a little and spritzed them with glimmer mist (pearl on the large flower, tattered rose on the smaller ones). I inked the edges on the smaller ones and then spritzed them straight away so the edges bled slightly. The pearl brads are from the Hobby House and I'm quite pleased with the result.

I'm going to enter this card into these challenges:

Stamp with Fun - Pearls and Flowers
Stampavie & More - Butterflies
Totally Gorjuss - Flower Power
Totally Papercrafts - Summer


Have a lovely week!

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Wild Rose Studio DT

It's the weekend! This week has flown by and we've got a busy weekend planned. Thomas has been counting the sleeps until we see his cousins tomorrow and it's also my dads birthday and fathers day next weekend so we've got presents to buy to take with us tomorrow.

Todays card is a DT card for Wild Rose Studio. I absolutely adore Milton and this image of him holding a large flower is one of my favourites.


Milton is coloured with distress ink and all the papers, including the paper pieced flower, are also from Wild Rose Studio. I borrowed the layout from the Just Magnolia challenge! I'm entering this card into these challenges:

Stamp Something - Punches

If you like your Magnolia stamps then pop over to the Glitter Pot as they have a huge Magnolia sale on at the moment. I have resisted but I did do a bit of shopping at Wild Orchid Crafts yesterday! I've been waiting for those gorgeous decorative metal corners to come back into stock but a few more bits and pieces fell into my cart too!

Have a lovely weekend.

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Mojo Monday

Hello, thanks for visiting today. We've had a day of beautiful sunshine here in Kent but I've been glued to my computer pretty much all day. My new online store is coming along nicely and if everything goes to plan I should be ready to launch at the end of next week. It's very exciting and I just want to get going with it now!

My trip to the Craft Barn on Sunday really gave my mojo a boost. One of the demonstrators was using these fabulous new stamps from Woodware which I just had to have.


This owl is perfect for paper piecing and I've chosen some really bright and cheerful papers by My Minds Eye. The fabulous layout is from this weeks Mojo Monday challenge and I'm also entering this card into the Charisma Cardz challenge which is "Something that Flies".

Enjoy the rest of the week.

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A Crafty Day

Hello, thanks for stopping by. I had a lovely crafty day at the Craft Barn today. It was their summer extravaganza and there were lots of fabulous demonstrations and so much inspiration. The lovely Christine Dark was there demonstrating her amazing colouring and it was lovely to 'bump' into the inspirational Kim Piggot too. I could have spent a small fortune but I was very restrained and only bought the things I 'had' to have and not all the things I 'would like to' have!! My favourite purchase was a packet of Tim Holtz tissue tape which is amazing stuff and I can't wait to use it on a project. It wasn't really appropriate for this card though!


I got the design inspiration from Christine who had a fabulous easel card on her table today. The hearts are also made into a mini easel to support the main part of the card. The gingham paper came from the Craft Barn today, everything else is from my stash. I do need to add some stickles but I was distracted by Thomas pulling the keys off my laptop and I spent a frustrating 45 mins trying to work out how the *beep* things go back on!

I feel my mojo gradually returning so hopefully it won't be too long before I post again.

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