Papertrey Ink birthday card

Hello everyone,

I hope you had a great Bank Holiday. I'm trying not to think that the next English Bank Holiday will be Christmas Day!

I just want to share a quick card I made for this weeks PTI Make it Monday challenge which was to use colouring pencils on a card. Jennifer used Prismacolour pencils in her video but I don't have any of those and only have a few colours of watercolour pencils. Nevertheless, I thought I'd have a try even though I never mastered the watercolour pencil technique and was so relieved when Copics and Promarkers became readily available.

I came up with this card:-

click to enlarge

I took a piece of card and drew lines across in 2 shades of pink and 2 shades of blue pencil before using a watercolour brush to blend the colours together. I then cut out a panel from it with a Nestabilities label die. Next came the PTI dahlia and leaf dies and stamps and I coloured those with varying shades of watercolour pencil. I made a stitched mat from white and aqua mist card and stamped some sentiments on before attaching the vine die border across. A few pink gems finished it off.

Thanks for stopping by.

Hugs

Carol x

Rainbow birthday card

Hello everyone,

I hope you are having some fun over this Bank Holiday weekend in spite of the poor weather. I've been feeling so cold that I'm tempted to put the central heating on again. In August!!

The rain has been reminding me of rainbows so I thought I would make a card using some rainbow die cuts that a friend gave me and also use up a little of my old stash in the form of some daisy ribbon that I've had since I first started crafting around 7 years ago.

I'm going to use this as my first ever entries into the

Papertake weekly challenge which is to use die cuts on a card, 

Aud Sentiments challenge which is Anything Goes,

Inspire Me Fridays which is Anything Goes

and the Just Add Ink challenge which is to use something old from your stash. I used this sweet daisy ribbon

which I also have in a couple of other colours and really must find a use for. I'm quite pleased that I'm keeping up with my New Year resolution to use up more of my old stash and you can see the cards in my Use Old Stash Challenge here.

Card recipe

Card -Papertrey Ink

Ink - Rangers |Distress Peeled Paint, Impress Poppy Red, ColorBox Chalk Ice Blue

Die Cuts - Papertrey Ink Tiny Tags, Die-namics Rainbow Die

Stamps - Papertrey Ink - Signature Series Flowers, Birthday Basics and Enjoy the Ride

Copic Markers to colour the rainbow

Papertrey Ink Birthday card

Hello everyone,

     Its Papertrey Ink's blog hop today and the challenge this time was to take inspiration from this lovely picture.

I really fancied doing something with the jar image but as I don't have the appropriate stamps, I went with the colours and design of the pretty case.

click to see it better

I started with a Fine Linen card base, stamped with Background Basics Twinkle to echo the case interior, and added a strip of Pure Poppy card on the lower portion of the card. I then added a strip of  Melon Berry card with a scalloped edge and used the double ended ribbon die to cut a strip of New Leaf card. The focal panel was cut with a die from the Sending You collection and the flower was cut and stamped with Beautiful Blooms II. I stamped the sentiment from Sending You, the flourish from Half and Half and the happy birthday greeting from Birthday Basics in red ink. The little buttons and button twine finished it off. This was a really simple card that would be easy to mass produce.

I've scheduled this post in advance because I am spending a few days away with my daughter but I will be visiting all the blogs for some inspiration on my return. Happy hopping and thanks for visiting!

Hugs

Carol x

Cricut Back to school card/ Old Stash challenge

Hello everyone,

I hope you have all had a good weekend and are easing into the new week. We have had a lovely, if busy weekend seeing friends and family and I don't seem to have had a lot of down time recently. However, I did find time to play with my Cricut again and I managed to weld some words using Design Studio so I'm quite chuffed with myself. I know people who are adept at DS or have a Gypsy will be singularly unimpressed with this feat, but for some reason I struggle with DS and could really do with some training in how to use it. The Cricut-360-challenge , the 2 sisters challenge  , the bitten by the bug 2 and die cuttin divas challenge this week is to do a Back to School project so I made a card and bookmark for my daughter who teaches and will be going back to school next week.

For the card, I started with a cream card base and punched out lots of dots to stick on to make a polka dot edge to the card. I then cut a clipboard from Fabulous Finds  and cut it again in silver card to make the metal look bulldog clip. Next came the word welding from Plantin Schoolbook and a little ric rac decoration emphasised the words. The pencil stamp was from Papertrey Ink and the gingham ribbon finished it off.

The bookmark was an elongated tag from Tags, Bags, Boxes and More, decorated with some more of the ric rac from Plantin Schoolbook. I cut the book from Paper Doll Dress Up but it had the word 'spells' cut into it, so I cut another front for it by hand and added an apple on the front as it is for a teacher..

 The bookplate was cut from Fabulous Finds and the Let me save your spot stamp is also from Papertrey Ink.

As all the materials used were old items from my stash, this duo also qualifies for my August Use Old Stash Challenge.

Thanks for looking and I hope you have a great week.

Hugs

Carol x

Thinking of you card for Waltzing Mouse Blog Waltz

Hello everyone,

It Waltzing Mouse Blog Waltz today and the theme is tea or coffee. As I don't have any WMS tea or coffee stamps, I used a stamp that came free on a magazine a couple of years ago and layered it up on a cream card base. I used textured brown card for the layers and Nestabilities Labels 1 and 14 dies.

click to enlarge

Its a little difficult to see here but I stamped the chevron stamp from Off Beat Backgrounds on the base card in Versamark ink to add a little texture. The frame stamp and sentiments were from Frame It and the fancy frame stamp at the top was from Holiday Labels. I finished it off by cutting holes in the frame to add a little ribbon and stitched on a couple of buttons with some embroidery floss. I also used this weeks sketch for the design.

I can't wait to see what goodies everyone else came up with - so enjoy the waltz and thanks for looking in.

Hugs

Carol x

Cricut New Home card

Hello everyone,

I hope you are enjoying your weekend. I had a cooking mood yesterday when I made our Christmas cake in an attempt to get organised early for Christmas. It may seem very early but I like to feed it regularly with some brandy so it is really moist when the time comes to decorate it. I also made a few pots of plum jam when a kind friend gave us a bag of plums from his tree. I used a recipe from Sensational Preserves by Hilaire Walden that Ann recommended on her blog a while back and it is a really good book that has lots of information for beginners like me and plenty of inspiration for old hands. It also has lots of recipes that use the preserves but I haven't got that far yet.

I had a play with my Cricut this morning and came up with a card for the Cricut 360 challenge which has a theme of the Old West this week. I'm so pleased to have found a Cricut challenge blog because I don't make enough use of my Cricut and having a go at this challenge will help me get to know the machine and explore the content of my cartridges. I came up with this card

click to enlarge

and I had a lot of fun putting it together. I used Paper Doll Dress up for the Indian girl, grass and tepee, Beyond Birthdays for the sentiment and Zooballo for the clouds. The birds are from a stamp in my stash that I think is an Inkylicious design.

We are still waiting for our Papertrey Ink order that is taking ages this time but hopefully it will arrive this week. Enjoy the rest of the weekend and thanks for looking in.

Hugs
Carol x

Waltzing Mouse Wedding Card

Hello everyone,

Just a quick post to add a new card I made for the Waltzing Mouse Stamps CASE competition, where you had to choose a card from one of the Design Team's samples for the SOAP event.

I chose to case Lynn Mercurio's beautiful wedding card and came up with this one:-

I used a kraft card base and some pearlised pink card which I ran through the Big Shot with a Cuttlebug folder. I then made a panel and although it is difficult to see in the photo, I stamped the dotty circles from Teeny Trees in pale pink ink

before overstamping with a frame from Holiday Labels 14 and a sentiment from Fancy Phrases. I added some satin daisies and gems underneath and a pretty bow with a heart button and a few paper flowers to finish everything off.

I hope you are having a good week and thanks for looking in.

Hugs

Carol x

New Baby card

Hi everyone,

Well you don't get a post for ages and then you get one three days in a row! This must be a record for me. Well as regular visitors will know, I've had a problem with my crafting mojo recently and I've struggled to come up with ideas for cards for a while now. However, I decided to take myself in hand and try entering some challenges to get me to apply my bottom to my craft chair and play. It must be working for me to make cards 3 days in a row. This time I (rather appropriately) decided to try a Mojo Monday challenge for the first time and follow this sketch












 I came up with this card:-

click to enlarge

I used a Lily of the Valley stamp for the focal point and used Promarkers for colouring. Those PTI Tiny Tags found their way onto the card again and the rest was just layering with papers from my stash using some Nestabilities and paper trimmer. Here is a closer look at the focal panel

click to enlarge

Well I better get in the shower now as it is lunchtime and I'm still in my PJs! The supermarket calls or we won't have anything for dinner tonight.

Thanks for looking,
Hugs
Carol x

Cricut Birthday Card

Hello everyone,

Its the start of a new weekend already and I don't know where the last week went to! I've just popped on to post a card I made with my trusty Cricut.

click to enlarge

I used the Just Because Cards cartridge for the panels and the cake and Christmas Noel for the candle. I also used a couple of Papertrey Ink dies and stamps (Tiny Tags and Birthday Basics) and glittered up the top of the cake to resemble frosting. I double cut the ribbon tail and tiny tag in pink a brown to add a little interest and I'm sure those little tags are making their way onto my cards when I'm not looking - I love them so much I can't seem to leave them alone.

I've never entered a Cricut challenge before but I've just discovered  Cricut 360 Challenge Blog and I'm going to try entering this card. The theme is 'something refreshing' and I'm always refreshed by cake so I hope it qualifies!

Have a great weekend and thanks for stopping by.

Hugs
Carol x