My 1st Blogiversary! and Old Stash Challenge

Hello everyone,

I hope you are enjoying the lovely weather if you are in my part of the world and are in the holiday spirit with all the bank holidays. I discovered yesterday that my blog is 1 year old today! Happy blogiversary to me! I'm so surprised that a year has passed since I started this journey and I have to say I have learned such a lot during that time. I was a bit computerphobic when I started off but I can tap away at the keys quite happily now, although there are still some additions I'd like to learn how to make on the blog. I wasn't sure that I'd maintain interest for long but but I've had such encouragement from all you lovely folk who have left sweet and helpful comments for me, that I've been spurred on to try new things as I've gone along. The challenges I've begun to enter have really taken me out of my crafting rut and I've tried new techniques that were daunting at first but so enjoyable in the end. One thing I recently decided to try was making felt flower brooches:-

I started with a simple flower using the Papertrey Ink Bloom Builder dies in two sizes and put a pearl brad through the centre to hold a brooch pin on the back.

Next I cut two of the flower shapes, hand stitched them together and stuffed them with wadding.

I then added a couple of leaves that I stamped and a smaller flower shape sewn on the back with a brooch pin,

and finished off with a flower and button on the front. As these were made with products I have had for a while, they are for my April, Use Old Stash Challenge.

Thank you to everyone who follows or stops by my blog, especially when you leave a comment for me, because it really makes my day. None of my friends or family 'speak craft' as it were, so it is wonderful for me to be able to visit with you all and share this absorbing hobby. I look forward to sharing the next year with you.

Thanks for looking

Hugs

Carol x

Papertrey Ink Birthday card

Hello everyone,

Have you got any chocolate left or did you guzzle it all yesterday? I've been trying to lose some weight but I allowed myself a couple of days off and now I must get back to the straight and narrow. One way of keeping my hands away from the goodies is to get crafting so it is great that today is time for the PTI Blog Hop.

This months challenge is called Boys to Men and the idea is to create a masculine card. You will know, if you visit me regularly, that I have enormous trouble creating masculine cards, but I was moved to try one after seeing all the fantastic inspiration the Design Team gave in the lead up to this months PTI release.

I stamped kraft card with one of the Twinkle background stamps in cream ink and then matted it onto fine linen card before sticking it onto a cream card base (the stars look a little like dots here but if you click on the picture you get a better view). I then cut some banner pieces using the Banner Builder dies out of the same card and inked the edges before sticking them down with foam squares. The letters were cut from brown card with some Sizzix dies. I then cut a Mat Stack 3 die from fine linen card and used part of a stamp from the 2009 Holiday Tag Collection, stamped in brown at the top and a sentiment from Signature Greetings at the bottom. The central 'birthday' strip was stamped in cream on brown card and came from Big Birthday Wishes, and I cut two little holes in the strip and threaded some raffia through and secured it to the card with some square vintage brads from my stash.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great time hopping along to all the other participants in this months blog hop.

Hugs

Carol x



Happy Easter

Hello everyone,

Sorry I've been a bit absent this week but it has been very busy and I'm only just surfacing. I wanted to wish you all a very Happy Easter and I hope you have plenty of chocolate goodies to celebrate with. We had friends round for dinner last night and when I went into the garden just before they arrived, I found that the lily of the valley flowers had burst into bloom so I couldn't resist snipping a few for the table.

click to enlarge

Even though they only last a short time, I think they are one of my most favourite flowers and it is such a pleasure to have them in the house.

Have a great day and I'll be back tomorrow to share a card.

Hugs

Carol x

PS Yay! I'm really excited to have won a set of Waltzing Mouse stamps from the blog waltz and even better, I get to choose which set I want!

Cricut gift bag and Waltzing Mouse Easter card

Hello everyone,



Its the 17th of April so its time for the Waltzing Mouse Blog Waltz although hop might be a better term this month because everyone is thinking Easter and that makes you think of bunnies right? Anyway do take time to hop round all the players in this months waltz and you're sure to find lots of inspiration.

My contributions for this month are:-

As its Easter I chose a yellow card base and stamped the rectangle frame from Frame It and placed the Happy Easter in the gap. I then stamped the pedestal basket from Spring Baskets in Versamark and embossed it in white before colouring it with a brown Copic marker. Next the daffodils were stamped, coloured and cut out to place in the basket. I used a score board to emboss a frame around the stamped frame to give a little more texture, tied some ribbon and mounted the panel onto the card base. Another sentiment and a corner embellishment finished it off.

I decided to make some gift baskets to hold some little chocolates for the Easter table and I used my Cricut to cut out the bags, panels and tags and used WM Spring Baskets for the focal points.

The bag and tags were cut with Bags, Tags, Boxes and More and the panels and chicks were from Just Because cards.

and here is one with the Easter card I posted some days ago. The colours do not match but they are not meant to go together. I've just discovered that these offerings will fit in the Get Creative April 1st challenge and the ABC DT challenge

All this thinking of bags for choccies is giving me the munchies so roll on Easter Sunday!

Thanks for stopping by.
Hugs
Carol x

Papertrey Ink birthday card

Hello everyone,

I hope you are enjoying the spring weather and getting into the sunshine whilst it is here. Its time for another Make it Monday challenge over at Papertrey ink, and the challenge from Lisa Johnson is to use dies as a mask on a project. I looked through my dies and decided to make a spring butterfly birthday card.

I have two different sized butterflies and I arranged them on some scratch paper and cut them out to create the mask.

I then temporarily adhered the mask to some aqua mist card and sponged ink through the apertures with Hawaiian shores ink. Then I inked up my new Twinkle stamp for the first time and stamped over the butterflies whilst the mask was still in place.

I cut the butterflies again in vellum and passed them through a flower embossing folder that came free with a magazine ( I love it when you get something gorgeous for free). I stamped a trail and then moulded the butterfly wings a little before sticking them over the base image, and added some little gems for the butterfly body. I cut the corners of the panel with a corner punch and then inked the edges with white ink and added a a strip of ribbon. The panel was then layered on to some Hawaiian shores card and placed on the white card base. The sentiments were added to each corner of the card to give some balance and it was then finished of with three little aqua mist buttons.

I'm really enjoying this series of challenges because they get me out of my comfort zone and make me try something new.

I'm sorry that my photos are not showing very true colours. I've tried using my editing software but the blues and greens never look as good as they do in real life. Hey ho one of those frustrating things! Thanks for looking in and have a great week.

Hugs

Carol x

Cricut Easter card

Hello everyone,

I hope you are enjoying the weekend and finding some time to get inky. We are having gorgeous springtime weather in Manchester and people are really friendly when they pass you in the street. Have you noticed how sunshine cheers people up? It certainly makes me feel happy.

I've been making some Easter cards and I'd like to share one that I made with my Cricut machine.

I cut the card base in cream card from the Wildcard cartridge. I love the cut of this pretty card with the unusual folds and delicate edging. I then matted some layers in Hawaiian shores and aqua mist and used a punch to nip out the corners. Next came a basket stamped on cream card from Waltzing Mouse stamps

which I coloured with Copic markers and mounted onto the panel. The cute little chicks came from Just because cards and I cut them at 2 1/4 inches. I flipped one so they could cuddle up to each other, added some eyes with pen and chalked some rosy cheeks on them. The sentiment also came from Waltzing Mouse and I finished the card off with a little white ribbon that I coloured with a Copic marker so it would match the basket.

Thanks for looking in and for all the lovely comments you have been leaving. I really do appreciate them - in fact they make my day.

Hugs

Carol x

Papertrey Ink special day card.

Hello everyone,

Its a gloomy grey day in Manchester, so I've spent some time making a card for the Papertrey Ink  Make it Monday challenge, which is to use heat embossing on a card.

For this one I cut an aperture on the front of some white card and softly inked the edge of the aperture with some aqua mist ink. I then used the star dies and cut a large star in aqua mist card and placed it on the back of the card, centrally behind the aperture and stamped and embossed a sentiment from Birthday Basics. You can click on any of the photos to enlarge them.

Next came 2 medium star die cuts in white card that I stamped and embossed with 2 images from Star Prints. I sandwiched these together with some crochet thread to hang it on the aperture with.

I placed it centrally over the AM star and stuck it with some tape so it dangled nicely. I then needed to hide the tape so I cut a couple of holes in the front of the card with my ribbon punch and passed AM dotty ribbon through them to hide the tape and tied it in a bow. I finished it off by stamping and embossing a sentiment from Star Prints on the front.

I couldn't get a good shot of the shine of the embossing but the sheen on the ribbon comes out quite well. Here is a shot of the closed card lying flat.

I hope you have a great day and thanks for looking.

Hugs

Carol x

Recipe

All PTI

Dies - star and tag sale

Stamps  - Star Prints and Birthday Bash

Card  - Aqua Mist and SS White

Ribbon  - Aqua Mist satin dot.

Baby Card

Hello everyone,

Happy Mother's Day to all you Mums out there and I hope you are getting some spoiling today. Sadly, my Mum passed away when I was only 18 years old but I still think about her and my attempts to give her breakfast in bed every Mother's Day. My own three children have given me cards and presents today and I feel very loved and lucky to have them. I keep all the cards they send me, do you?

I'd like to share a simple baby card with you today that I am going to enter into the challenges over at A Passion for Papertrey and Creative Card Crew

I kept this card clean and simple using a Lily of the Valley stamp, coloured with Promarkers as the focal point. I softly inked the edges with PTI Sweet Blush ink and matted it onto some pearlised card from Craftwork Cards using Nestabilities Labels 10 dies. The sentiment comes from PTI Star Prints and the ribbon is PTI sweet blush. I finished the card off by rounding the corners, adding 3 cute little star gems and very softly inking the card to soften the stark white.

Enjoy the day and thanks for looking in.

Hugs

Carol x