Rainy Day's!!!

 The weather here has been wet and windy for nearly all of April, so this card with the rain is quite appropriate.  This is a digital image I have had for quite a while (not sure where I got it).  I have paper pieced the umbrella and coloured the rest with copics.  Its really hard to see and even harder to photograph well but I have highlighted the raindrops with a glittery gel pen, which looks effective in real life!!
I have made this card for the new challenge over at the Lily Pad "Simon Says Rainy Day Challenge" and the Simon Says Blog "Anything goes"

Sorry I couldn't resist adding a few more wedding shots,  here are the girls again Francesca and Rachel.

The beautiful bride Chelsie with her brother Michael.

And finally Francesca and Rachel with Rachel's brothers Lloyd and Matt.  If you are wondering where Tristan is, he has had a really exciting week being a session musician for his friend Greg Holden.  They have just finished a British tour and their last gig was London on the day of the wedding.

Hope I haven't bored you too much :0)

Thank you for all your comments, they are really appreciated.

P.S.  I have just noticed that I now have 198 followers, when I reach 200 I will have a little giveaway, so watch this space (Or blog.lol.)!!!!!!!!

Wedding Day!!!

Sorry no cards to share today as I have had a very busy few days,  My cousin daughter Chelsie got married yesterday and we had a family gathering to celebrate.  So good to all get together for a celebration.

My daughter Francesca and her second cousin were two of the bridesmaids and they looked so stunning.

 Here I am a proud mum and Auntie,  Francesca is on the left and Rachel on the right.  We were so lucky with the weather as it actually stayed dry for the photographs after storms all morning.

I couldn't resist adding this one too.

More Poppies...

I seem to be stuck on making Poppy cards at the moment, here is another for the "Virginia's View" challenge at The Lily Pad Blog.  Must be due to the fact the weather in the UK is really bad at the moment, after a fairly dry March, April has been non stop rain,  I can't wait for summer.....

Made this card by just using distress stains and inks, stamped the background, then inked some paper with Fired Brick and re stamped the image so I could cut out the poppies.  A really simple card, but I love the effect the distress inks have, so pretty.

Look at this beautiful inspiration photograph from the new "Virginia's view challenge" over at the Lily Pad,  I love poppies and had the Hero Arts Long Stem Poppies still sitting on my desk after making this card.  So I started creating straight away and made this card.

This is quite a CAS card for me but I held back with the ribbons and twine this time!!  The poppies have been stamped and coloured with Copic markers,  I then fussy cut them out.  On the card base I have just stamped the Summer sentiment twice with Bundled Sage distress ink and distressed. I then over stamped with the poppy image ,  next I adhered the cut out poppies and added some pearls!

Looking forward to a relaxing weekend after a busy week, hope you have a great weekend and thanks for visiting, I really appreciate all your comments.

Windows!!

 The second challenge over at "A Blog Named Hero has been set and this time its "Window Cards".  I have had a lot of fun making this card as it has used a few different techniques.

Behind the window is a panel made with the Meadow Silhouette stamp and my Distress stains.  Next I stamped and coloured the poppy stamp with copic markers and fussy cut out the image.  Thep pop dotted panel with the window has been over stamped and distressed with Old Paper and Frayed Burlap.

Here is  a side shot for a better view of the window, I am also adding this card to the current Hero Arts challenge for shaped cards and for The Lily Pad flowers challenge.

Hope you are having a great week, I had a fabulous time at The Dancing on Ice show last night, the skaters were all amazing, some of the lifts and jumps they did on the ice were breath taking and Torville and Dean were just mind blowing. I cant believe they are still doing all the tricks at the ages of 54 and 55.  Wish I was that fit!!!


Supplies : Stamps all Hero Arts, K5406, LL007, H5350,CG222.  Distress stains and Distress inks. Copic Markers.

Baby Boy!!

I have made another card for the current Hero Arts challenge using the second sketch , but this time turning it on its side.  The image is from the HA digi kit called Babies, after changing the colour I printed it twice on card and once on patterned paper.  I then cut our the stork and baby image and pop dotted it on adding a pop dotted bird wing too to give more dimension.

Tomorrow night I am off to London to watch "Dancing on Ice"  I am really looking forward to it, especially seeing Torville and Dean skate.

Happy Sunday!!

Although I have had a couple of weeks off work there has been very little time for crafting and blog visiting.  My daughter has been home from Uni and we have been so busy, she drove home yesterday, so today a card!!!!  I have followed a sketch over at the Hero Arts Blog but I am not sure I am pleased with the end result, my hand shook a little when adding the sentiment and it has a slight ghost image.  Never mind, its a card and hopefully I will have more time next week!

Colour Challenge..

I had planned to do lots of crafting this week but although I am on holiday from work I have not had a lot of spare time.  I did however find time to have a try at this colouring technique that Betsy Veldman featured on her blog and I used it to make this card for The Lily Pad colour palette challenge.  A fun technique to do although I found that the flower leaves needed more definition so I coloured a little with my distress markers.

Hopefully I will get more time to play at the weekend.

How Green is your Spring!!

A flickr friend Marcy is hosting the challenge this week over at Our Creative Corner   the challenge is to make something for spring using green as the main colour.  I had some time in between gardening today to play along with the challenge using my latest stamp, "Meadow Silhouette from Hero Arts.

I have again used Distress stains and inks to coat my stamp before spritzing with water and stamping, it creates this beautiful watercolour effect which I love.  I have then cut the image out with a spellbinder die.  The background image is the Hero Arts large flower stamped in Memento Green and then distressed with Bundled Sage.  Next I stamped the Simple Frame over the top and cut out the middle section.   I then stamped my base card with the frame.  The central oval is attached by a couple of brads, I decided not to stick it completely down as I like the way it is lifting at the edges.

I am also going to enter this in the new challenge over at "A blog named Hero".

Heres wishing you a great Easter, its so nice to have a long weekend.... Have fun!!

Butterflies.

If you are looking for my Lily Pad Blog Hop post please go here!!

I have a box of butterflies cut out and ready for use on cards, I often sit in the evening cutting them out while watching the television.  Yesterday while they were spread across my desk I had an idea for this card.  The top three butterflies are pop dotted on the wings for more dimension.

This card is for the current Hero Arts Challenge for  "Shaped Cards",  The challenge over at "A Blog Named Hero" as I used my favourite  Antiques Engravings set and also the Simon Says challenge which is using your favourite tool (definately my Sizzix Big Shot!!!).

There's a new challenge Blog in cyber land!!!!

If you are looking for my Lily Pad Blog Hop post please go here!!

I am thrilled to say there is a new Challenge Blog called "A Blog Named Hero"  and as the name suggests its all do do with everything Hero Arts and a love for all there amazing products.  As you can imagine I became a follower straight away as I LOVE their products and an honestly say 90% of my stamps are Hero Arts. I have purchased a few other brands but always go back to my favourite company.

The first challenge has been set and its to use your favourite stamp or product on a card, this was a hard one as I love so many of their stamps but I realize that my most used set  is the "Antique Engravings" clear set.  The butterflies are so beautiful and I have used them in various forms on so many of my cards.

Here is the card I have made, sorry for the dark photograph but I had a little trouble with the shine on the butterfly.  The background is stamped using a variety of distress inks and The London Background stamp.  The central panel is the Meadow Silhouette inked with various Distress inks and stains and stamped onto a piece of music patterned paper, I have then layered it up onto some cream card and then purple card. Lastly I have added my Gold embossed butterfly, the pearls have been coloured with a gold Pilot pen.

As this card has flowers on the image I am also adding it to the Lily Pads "Flower Challenge"

I am on two weeks holiday from school now so looking forward to lots of crafty time.

The Lily Pad Birthday Blog Hop!!

 Welcome to the Lily Pad Cards’ First Birthday blog hop!

I am thrilled to have been asked again to join in with the Lily Pad blog hop, as I was there at the start last year, and I have really come to enjoy all the fun challenges that the amazing design team set each month.

There are three fabulous  prize packages to be won with a total retail value of over $300.   These prizes will be awarded by random draw. There are two ways to be eligible for the prize drawings. You can “like” us on Facebook, but if you do not have a Facebook account, you can also be eligible for the drawings by leaving a comment on the Lily Pad Cards blog. To better your chances even more, leave comments on the other blogs participating in the hop. For each comment you leave, you'll get your name entered again! (but only one comment per blog, please.  The blog hop will be open for one week - that means that everyone can leave comments for a chance to win prizes until 12:00 p.m. EST on Sunday, April 8.

 You should have arrived here from Tara’s gorgeous and inspirational blog .

Here is my Birthday card for the hop, rather than make a first Birthday card I decided to have one pretty flower on my card.  I cut the flower petals with a sizzix die and then joined them all together with a brad.  Next I soaked the flower with water and squashed up the petals to give more dimension.  When dry I spritzed with shimmer mist and glued a pearl and then some small seed beads to the center.   The background paper is from BasicGrey and the stamp I have used is from Penny Black.  To stamp the image I used distress ink and Distress markers.  To finish off I have added twine and a charm.

Now you need to Hop to Karen's blog for the next stage of your journey.  Thank you so much for visiting and have fun hopping!!!!!!