Play Date Cafe # 79

Its been quite a few weeks since I have had time to have a go at the Play Date Cafe colour challenge, but when I saw the inspiration photograph this week I was totally taken with the colours.

 I think my green is probably more of an olive than lime, but I love the green with the red.  As you can see under all the images I first stamped the Old Letter Writing stamp in a silver grey.  I then stamped Floral Brocade and embossed with silver pearl powder.  The image that's left is coloured with distress inks.

I am never easy leaving alot of blank card but the images here are so detailed that I didn't want to overdo it.

In the UK we are having a long weekend, we had Friday off for the Royal Wedding and Monday is May Day, the weather looks to be good so I am hoping to do lots of gardening and plant out some of my vegetables. Hope you are enjoying your weekend!



supplies:- Hero Arts stamps: S4878 Old Letter Writing. CG187 Floral Brocade. CL488 Congrats. Distress inks Fired Brick and Crushed Olive.  Pearls.

Hero Arts Thank you cards.

I can't believe its our last few days as Hero Arts Hostesses the last three months have flown by and this is our last feature on the Hero Arts Blog.  For this all the Hostess's decided to make Thank You cards. This is mine using Shari's fabulous layered background technique.  I was so pleased with how my card turned out I decided to make three in different colourways.

I have really enjoyed my term as a Hostess and loved working with my fellow Hosti's and friends Linda, Heather, Sharon and Anita.  Thank you ladies for making the last three months so much fun!! Also thank you Hero Arts for making a dream come true, I have always wanted to be a Hostess and the last months have made me more confident in my card making and I feel fired up for my next challenge ( What ever it might be)!!

I also want to thank all my followers for all your encouraging comments, I really appreciate it

Lily Pad Challenge.

 Lily Pad Cards are running their first digital die cut challenge! Unfortunately I don't have a digital die cutter but have still been able to play along using good old scissors!! I was inspired by Pia's sample project and decided to make a seed packet gift holder.

This is the front of the holder, I have cut out a watering can and the trowel and fork in patterned paper and then distressed.  I then added a small stamped flower to the watering can. The main image is a Hero Arts stamp that I have layered onto some text paper and distressed again.  The green shaped panel is a bit of recycling as it was the backing panel to a lace stamp that I have just got.

This is the inside of the holder showing the pocket for the seeds.

Back to work today after two weeks holiday and it has come really hard, it was a really busy day in the office so I am off to relax now with a cup of tea.

Supplies; Hero Arts stamps H5261Flourish Trio. F5407 Lets Garden. Patterned paper. Tea Dye distress ink. Twine, ribbon and gems.





Make it - Mail it challenge

I don't believe it this is my second post today, totally unheard of for me!!  If you would like to see my "Inspired by" card please go to the post below.

The lovely Lisa Spangler has a new challenge on her blog called "Make it- Mail it" as she says "a card is a smile in an envelope" and you don't need a reason like birthdays to send cards, send them all the time! 

Well I am not going to say who this card is for just in case she reads this post, but I have been meaning to send her a card for ages.  She is a kind blogging friend who has sent me numerous cards and is always around to leave sweet comments on my blog.  I have been playing around with Shari's layered background technique again and came up with this little card. I hope she likes it!!




Supplies: Hero Arts Stamps: CL383Antique Engraving, CG197Old Letter.CG172 Garden Bouquet.S5507 Envelope Background. Distress inks, Dusty Concord, Milled Lavender, Bundled Sage. White embossing powder.

Our last week as Hostesses!!

This is our last week as Hero Hostesses and the time has just flown by!

For our final week we have decided to run a last challenge called "Inspired By" The Hero Arts Flickr group is a constant source of inspiration, everyone in the group is so talented and I love to browse through the gallery. But as Hosti's we have decided to make a card inspired by a current Hostess, in order of the Hostess announcements.

This means I have been inspired by my friend and Hostess in Purple Linda, here is the card she made for another challenge set by Anita, it was for her colour challenge using blue and brown. I love the silhouette grass stamp and the way she has stamped it on the lined paper and set the card at an angle.   I also love the distressed rustic look of this card.

This is my card, I have used the same silhouette  grass stamp as Linda but added the poppies as they always seem to grow in corn fields.  First I stamped the poppies and then made masks over the flowers so that I could over stamp in distress ink with the wheat.  I then coloured the poppies with copics. I have stamped the green background layer with Graph Background and the red card with the Magical Background.

Sharon has made a card inspired by me and I think its perfect, I love pink and this card is so pretty, thank you Sharon.

Anyone who would like to take part in the challenge can create a card\project inspired by any member of the Hero Arts Flickr group - there are 3,627 members to choose from! Full details of the challenge are here I hope you find time to have a go!!

Supplies: Hero Arts Stamps CG211 Magical Background,S5435 Graph Background. S5316 Silhouette Grass, H5350 Long Stem Poppy. Distress ink Scattered straw and Tea Dye  Copic Markers.

Bluebells, muffins and a card!!

 Its been amazing weather here in the UK over the past week and today I went for a walk in a wood a mile or so from home hoping to get some photos of the beautiful bluebell display. Unfortunately they are past their best and the colours are beginning to fade but it is still such a pretty sight.

Another job for the weekend was to make some savoury muffins, these have cheese, onion and spinach in them and they taste really yummy, a perfect treat for a light lunch!!

Lastly I had about half an hour to spare and decided to make another card for the Hero Arts challenge this month.  This time I have used Shari's sketch4 to make this quick and simple card..

Hope you are all having a great weekend.  Happy Easter!!

Supplies: Hero Arts Stamps. S5507 Envelope Background.. CL488 congrats. CG245 Fabric Background.  Distres Inks;Scattered straw and Spiced Marmalade. Spellbinders Lacey Circles and swiss dots embossing folder. Martha Stewart punch. 

Two Birthdays and a yummy cake!!



Here is a photograph of my hubby and son taking on holiday last year, it was their birthdays yesterday, yes, that's right they are both 19th April babies!!! It makes it a very expensive time of the year for me!!lol!

Just thought I would show you the cake I made for them this year, its called a Humming Bird cake and its extremely fattening and very yummy. The cake is a bit like a carrot cake but you use bananas, walnuts and pineapple in the mixture instead of carrots. The icing is made with cream cheese. It won't last long in our house!!!

My time as a Hero Arts Hostess is nearly over the last three months has whizzed by and now there is only a couple of weeks left! Heather, Anita, Sharon, Linda and I thought we'd put up a challenge this week – Using the same stamp. We've been comparing stashes and found several stamps in common but the Antique Engravings set was all of our favourites. Please visit the flickr site here to find out more about the challenge.


This is my card using the set and I decided to try and make a masculine card which is also one of the challenges this month on the Hero Arts Blog. My idea was to make the butterflies look like those sample trays they used to make in the Victorian times with real butterflies. ( I am so pleased that it is now illegal to do that . I think this is a much better option)

Hope you find time to have a go at the challenge.




Supplies: Hero Arts StampsCG197 Old letter, CL383 Antique Engravings, CG269 Happy Definition, S5435 Graph Background, CL148 Happiness Messages.  Distress Inks, Old Paper, Walnut Stain, Tea Dye. Patterned papers.

90 minute scramble challenge!

I have just hosted my very first "90min Scramble Challenge" over at the Hero Arts Flickr group site.
The theme I chose was this :

Here in the UK the big news is that Prince William is set to marry Kate Middleton on 28th April and we have all been given the day of as an extra Bank Holiday!! Lots of the shops have decorated with red, white and blue banners, so the celebrations have started!!!

So my challenge is - " A Time to Celebrate". I have two options for you:
**Option 1 - Using at least one Hero Art stamp create a Wedding or Celebration card.
**Option 2 - create a card using at least one Hero Arts stamp on the same theme but using the colours “Red White and Blue”




 The participants have to create a card in just 90 minutes, I created three cards as inspiration for the challenge and they were all really simple designs.

Its been a fun evening with lots of participants. Looking forward to doing some gardening tomorrow.

Easter card swap!

Just a quick post to show you the card I made for Rosemary in America as part of the Easter card exchange organised by Anita on the Hero Arts Flickr site.

To make this I used my water colour markers and coloured my stamp, I then spritzed with perfect pearls and stamped. I have also added the envelope pattern to the edges with Tumbled Glass distress ink and then distressed the edges.  This is a fairly new die cutter from Spellbinders called Lacey Circles and its fast becoming my favourite shape for cards, so pretty and delicate.

I am busy preparing a little challenge for the Hero Arts flickr group for this Saturday.  Its a 90 minute scramble challenge and it starts at 19.30 GMT or 11.30 Pacific time. If you have time please join in the fun, I have a little prize prepared and Hero Arts are also giving a Digital Kit.

Hope you are having a good week.


Supplies: Hero Arts Stamp CG172 Garden Bouquet.S5507 Envelope Pattern. Spellbinders Lacey Circles. Distress ink Tumbled Glass. Watercolour Markers. Pearls.

A new challenge and some yummy cupcakes!!

 Over at the New Lily Pad Blog Kathy has set her first colour challenge, and look at the yummy bright summery colours.

 Here is my card, as you know this is not my normal style of card but I felt these colours needed a cute image, so I decided to use this sweet one from Heather Ellis again.  Love the little girl in her wellies (I have added glossy accents to these) I have also added some extra flowers in her garden using the small flower stamp from the Hero Arts sentiment set "Find Joy".

Wow what do you think of these yummy cupcakes,  My cousins daughter Rachel is trying to start her own Cupcake buisness and she made these especially for us, we are huge FIAT fans and love everything italian, arn't they fabulous.  I have persuaded her to start a blog to advertise her cakes If you have time please take a look here she would really appreciate it!

Hope you are having a great weekend, its lovely and sunny in Surrey so I am out to the garden.  I will hopefully visit some of you blogs later!!

Yipee its the school holidays!!!

 My crafting time has been practically zero over the past couple of weeks but,   yipee!!!! its the Easter holidays and I have two weeks off work!  I just thought I would share a card I made a few weeks ago and Haven't had time to post.  Its a similar design to this one, I love the look of the Fabric background stamped in Victorian Velvet distress ink.

The butterfly is stamped onto vellum that I have coloured with alcohol inks.

This week the lovely Jill has been featuring me on her "Inspired by " blog, if you have time please take a look, Jill makes the most amazing cards, her colouring is always stunning and I feel honoured that she wanted to feature me.

Hope you all have a fabulous weekend.

Supplies used: Hero Arts Stamps CL383 Antique Engravings.CG245 Classic Fabric.S5507 Envelope Pattern. Victorian Velvet Distress ink.  Lace and Pearls. Hand rolled flowers.

Wee Memories Scrappy Saturday Challenge #50,

This is the inspiration photograph for the Wee Memories Scrappy Saturday challenge this week, its such a great photograph look at all those yummy colours!!

I had already cut out and pop dotted this flower a few weeks ago and it had been sitting in my basket waiting for the right card.  I have made this is for my best friends daughter's birthday, I know she will love the bright colours!!
I am looking forward to Friday as school breaks for Easter, that's two weeks off and loads of time to craft Yipee!!



supplies: Hero Arts stamps. S5482 Ruffled flower, CG269 Happy Definition. Various Patterned Papers.

Happy Mothers Day!!

 In Ireland and the UK its Mothering Sunday today, so Happy Mothers Day to you all,  hope you all have a relaxing day.

As you can see I don't have a Motthers Day card to show you, just two masculine cards that I have made for the current Hero Arts challenge. See here for this months challenges, Hero Arts are always very generous with their prizes so go on have a go this month!!

Both my cards are made using the new clear set  "Going" its a really useful set, as we all know mens cards are notoriously hard to make!!  For the top card I have used an old chipboard label from a pair of jeans, it was already distressed so I just scrapped of the price and stamped the car image in its place.

 For the second card I have cut up an old map for the border strip. The car is stamped and cut from blue paper and I have highlighted the areas that would be chrome with a silver gel pen.

Yesterday I went with my friend to a  fun  Adult Education course on quilting,  this is the cushion I made, I am really pleased with the end result and I am definately going to try something a little bigger next time!!

Look at this yummy ribbon, The Ribbon Girls are doing a little giveaway for Mothers Day, so visit their blog to be entered into the draw.

Hope you all enjoy your Sunday!



Supplies used for both cards. Hero Arts Stamps. CL478 Going.CG269 Happy Definition.Embossing folders from Cuttlebug.