My Blue Phase!!!

 My favorite colours are pink, red and orange but just lately I have been drawn towards blues and greens (so unlike me!!)  Here is my Blue Phase collection!!!I have made three cards over the past few days  using some distress stains and inks.

The first is using the Large Blossom Stamp from Hero Arts with the London Background stamp that lovely Linda sent me.  Thanks again Linda!!  The central panel has also been sprayed with shimmer mist so it has a lovely sparkle in real life.

This card is for the Lily Pad challenge and the Simon Says Challenge "Anything goes"  Its also a last minute entry for this months Hero Arts Challenge.

 This second card is inspired by all the lovely "Wonky Rectangle" cards that Donna has been making, once I saw the die on her blog I knew I had to buy it, love the unusual shape for cards.

Its been a very inspirational time lately, after seeing this beautiful card that Franziska created I spotted the stamp she used on ebay and managed to get it at a bargain price!!  I love the water coloured effect you can create with these Silhouette style stamps.

Thank goodness its Friday tomorrow school closes now for a two week break, I am so looking forward to having some me time!!


P.S.  I forgot to add some really exciting news The Lily Pad is holding a fabulous week long Birthday blog hop starting on Sunday 1st April.  Be sure to check in on the fun as there will be PRIZES!!!!

More flowers and some deer!!

 I decided to dig out an old stamp and make a card for the flower challenge over at The Lily Pad.   This paper  art stamp is so pretty I really must use it more.  I have inked the stamp with my Distress Markers stamped and then shaded lightly to give a bit more depth.  The card base has been run through the Swiss Dots embossing folder and I have then added some seam binding to match the red flowers.

 Next I stamped over with  the Envelope Pattern and  Bundled Sage ink, I also distressed the edges with the same ink before pop dotting it to my card base. I shall also add this to this months Hero Arts challenge.

 We had a beautiful weekend here and on Sunday decided to go for a walk in nearby Petworth Park,  I was thrilled to get these shots of the deer.  Usually they are quite shy, but this time I was able to get quite close to them

 I love their stunning antlers!!

Another term is nearly over at school and we break on Friday for two weeks, I am so looking forward to some relaxing time, lets hope the beautiful weather holds.

Flowers

 I have found a bit of time this afternoon to make two cards for the current Lily Pad Challenge "Flowers" .  I have been having fun with my new Distress Stains and the Poppy Background from Hero Arts, one of my old favorites.  The top card is a window one, I was inspired after seeing this beautiful card that Virginia created.

The second card  is really simple, I stamped the image with my stains and added the PP and punched edge plus the twine to finish.

Its a beautiful day here in Surrey and I am off to sit in the garden for a while, hope you have a fun weekend.

Dreaming of Summer!

Just a quick post with another card using Distress Stains to create a water colour background, I love the soft effect and very simple to do.  To finish off I have just added some gold embossed grass.
I might make a set of these as as Thank You cards, the perfect little gift!!

CAS ual Friday Challenge

For the first time in ages I have had time to join in with the challenge over at the CAS-ual Friday Blog. This weeks challenge is 1-2-3.    Create a Clean And Simple project using
1. A Pattern
2.  An Image
3.  A Sentiment
This is my card and I always find CAS really hard but I have managed to stop myself going too mad this time!

The patterned background is made just using Distress stains straight to the stamp and then the paper, creating this fun water colour effect.  The stamp is one of the butterflies from the HA set Antiques Engravings, just stamped and embossed in gold.  The sentiment is also from Hero Arts.  So a very simple and quick card to make.  I am really pleased with the background and am off to try it out in other colours!!

Have a great day.

Another Wine label card!!

 After seeing this beautiful card by Franziska I was inspired to get out my wine labels and make another card.
I had been hoarding them a bit as I know we won't be able to get any more, I had been saving a few to use when making my Christmas cards.

After stamping and embossing the Garden Bouquet in white I applied some distress stains and some distress inks to create the background, I then sprayed with some blue perfect pearls to give the card a shimmer.

Hope you are having a relaxing day and heres wishing all my Irish friends a Happy St Patricks Day!

Virginia's View

Virginia has a new challenge running over at the Lily Pad and this is the inspirational photograph, as soon as I saw this fun photograph I knew exactly how I was going to make my card.

I always love  the grid cards that Jacqueline makes and they are a perfect way to use up scraps, my idea was to make this card using circles of scraps from my basket.

Hope you all have a great weekend and thanks for visiting my blog, I really appreciate all your comments.

Stamp "Kissing"!!

 One of the current challenges running over at The Lily Pad is The Simon Says "Kissing Challenge", the idea is you ink up two stamps then kiss them together before stamping.

Here I have inked my Village stamp with various shades of red and orange and then inked my envelope pattern stamp with blue before "Kissing" them together and stamping.

This is my finished card which I am going to used as a moving house card. Another short blog post today as I have lots to do, I am really looking forward to a relaxing weekend.

Have a great evening.

Two more flower cards!

More playing with my markers, this is a small sunflower clear stamp from the Real Gardens Petals set that I haven't inked up before. I really love the water colour effect the markers produce.

 Here is a close up view.

I made this card using up some scraps from my basket, always a good feeling, I need to make a few more like this as my basket is overflowing at the moment!!

Distress Markers

I am just playing around with my new distress markers, this Garden Bouquet image is perfect for them and creates a more subtle look than using my Tombow markers. Here is a set of cards I made last year using my Tombows and you can see how much brighter the colours are.  I love this new soft a delicate look..

Hope you are having a great week.

Large Flower Background.

   Here are two cards I have made with The large Flower Background from Hero Arts and two different looks as well.  The top card is stained with Distress stains and inks and the leaves have been coloured with my new distress markers.  The flower heads are paper pieced and also shaded with some distress ink.

For the second card I have stamped and embossed the image onto patterned paper and then coloured with distress markers.   I love how you can create such different looks with one stamp.  My blogging friend Virginia also created this fabulous card with the same stamp, I love all the blues together, so pretty!!

These cards are for the Simon Says Challenge this week and also for the current Hero Arts Challenge.

The top card is a real hit with my son who loves wearing bright colourful shirts, when he saw it sitting on the desk ready to be photographed, he said that the pattern and colours would look fabulous made up into a shirt!! He loves the Flower Power look LOL!

Hope you have had a great weekend.

Etched flowers!

Part of this months Hero Arts challenge is to follow this colour palette,  not my usual colours as I tend to use pinks, oranges and reds but it is a challenge after all!!

I am not sure I really like the finished card but I though perhaps it would do as a sympathy card as the colours are so muted, although it does actually look a lot brighter in real life.

For the background I have used my favorite emboss resist technique and then stamped the etched flower with distress inks, I have then water coloured the image for a little more definition.

At last I am beginning to feel better after my bug, thank you for all the good wishes they are really appreciated, I am looking forward to the weekend now.

Newspaper flower!!

 Just a quick post today as I am feeling a little under the weather, I have a small bug that's currently travelling through work , unfortunately its the price I pay for working in a Junior school.  Small children are notorious for spreading bugs.......

This card is inspired by Kathy's colour palette over at The Lily Pad,  the flower is made by stamping my Hero Arts newspaper background onto light card and distressing with Old Paper and Vintage Photo.  Its then cut with a flower sizzix die and held together with a brad.  The background is also Hero Arts, I have coated the stamp with Scattered Straw and Bundled Sage Distress Stains and stamped onto white paper, next I tore the paper and distressed with some ink.

I am also entering this card in the current Hero Arts challenge "Fabulous Flowers"

I am off to bed now, hopefully I will feel better tomorrow!!

Woo Hoo I am in print!!

At the beginning of the year I was approached by Alix Merriman the Assistant Editor of Craft Stamper magazine to ask if I would like to be included in the April edition as their "Blog of the Month" feature.  Of course I was thrilled to be asked and set about preparing my article and choosing four photos to send.

I couldn't wait for it to hit the news stands and rushed out to get a copy, and here it is!!!

I have had such a busy week and my DD has been home from University unwell so have had to play nurse for a week.  Consequently there has not been a lot of time for crafting or blog visiting. but we took Fran back to Taunton yesterday so I am hoping to get some cards made today.

Have a good Sunday.