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.

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!!!!!!

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.

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.

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!!

Birthday card for Brenda!!

This was the card I sent to a flickr friend Brenda for her Birthday which was on Valentines Day!!  I had great fun paper piecing this card with some lovely BasicGrey papers.  Brenda has received it so its safe to post it now.  I also want to add it to the Lily Pad Patterned Paper challenge.

I am having a lovely week off work, my DD is home from University and although she has lots of work to do its great to have her home for a while.

Hope your week is good too.

A Crafty Sunday!

  Its been another cold day here today so I have stayed in my craft room and made a couple of cards.  This first one is using my favourite stamp of the moment the Greetings set from Hero Arts.  I really love the design its so versatile and you can never have enough Thank You cards.

I have made this for the "Patterned Paper" challenge over at The Lily Pad and also the CAS-ual Friday challenge of "Paper Piecing".

This card is for my lovely daughters 24th Birthday next week, she has an obsession with handbags and has a vast collection of them including some vintage bags that she has found at charity shops and car boot sales.  Hence the bag shaped card, its quite a simple design but I know she will love it.

Just a quick post as I must catch up on lots of my favourite blogs. Thank you all for the lovely comments about my last post and my Paper Craft rejects, I am going to keep trying!!!

For Cath (sans CHA) with Love Blog Hop

Cath Edvalson, of Moxie fab World  fame, won't be able to attend CHA this year, due to an injured shoulder, so to try and cheer her up Virginia and Lorena have organised this amazing Blog Hop. If you are a regular visitor to the Moxie Fab World blog you will know that Cath brings us crafter's alot of enjoyment and fabulous inspiration  almost every single day with her posts, and so it's only fitting that we try to do the same for her.  Sending you lots of smiles and hope you feel better soon Cath!!!

I love this Etched Flower stamp from Hero Arts, its so versatile. For this card I have stamped it onto pink BoBunny paper and then cut it out, I have then adhered it onto white card to give it more strength and then cut out again  leaving a small border.  The background hounds tooth paper is patterned with a gorgeous brocade on the reverse, so I have used that for the strip down the middle. After adding the lace and ribbon I have pop dotted the flower in place.  I am going to enter the card for the current Lily Pad challenge.
The sentiment is an SRM sticker (the first time I have used these and I love them)  thanks so much Virginia!!

Masculine Birthday.

I am still trying to use up some of my paper stash, this time with a male birthday in mind.  For the background I have stamped my new London stamp onto some BasicGrey "Porcelain" paper and distressed the edges, the car is also stamped onto Basic Grey and then cut out.  I have also added some map scraps to lift the colours a bit, the card looks brighter in real life but I can't seem to get a good photograph.

Just a short post tonight, I have had a busy day and need to chill out in front of the fire, hope you have had a good day and thanks for stopping by.

Using up a paper stash!!!!

There is a great new challenge over at The Lily Pad to use patterned paper, now I have a secret I am a hoarder of patterned paper pads, I fall in love with the pretty papers buy the pads and then can't bear to use them.   This is the perfect challenge for me and I am going to try and make a few cards, then I won't feel guilty about buying more!!!

This cards background paper is from the gorgeous pad by BoBunny called "et cetera" all the papers have words or music printed on them.  For the flower I used some BasicGrey, the flower image is stamped twice and then pop dotted in place.  I have also glued on some seed beads to represent the stamens.
This is also for the Simon Says challenge "Anything goes".

There is another football match on the TV today so I am going to get some more crafting time, I am going to hunt through the rest of my papers!!

Virginia's new challenge!!

 Over at The Lily Pad they have three new DT members (Congratulations Ladies)  they also have a new challenge set by the lovely and very talented Virginia.
This is my CAS one layer card inspired by the photograph below.  I found an old Hero Arts stamp called Floating Hearts which seemed the perfect name, as the photograph looks like beautiful "Floating Hearts"



Sorry for the short post, my DD is home and there's lots to chat about!!

Lily Pad Chipboard Challenge.

For my HERO ARTS BLOG HOP post please go here.

And for the Tiffany Doodles Blog Hop go here.

I have made this card for the current challenge over at the Lily Pad Blog, the challenge is to use chipboard on you card... As you can see its a Valentine card so I will also enter it into the Die Cut Divas monthly challenge.

I found the chipboard piece amongst my ever growing box of embellishments, I felt it was a little pale so  stamped with Fired Brick distress ink and then embossed with Embossing Enamel.  The ink didn't take over the whole piece but I quite like the green showing through. The background music stamp is from Hero Arts .  I then just added some rolled flowers, die cut leaves (thank you Linda) and the ribbon.

Wow its been a busy week this week with all the excitement of both the Hero Arts Blog Hop and the Tiffany Doodles Hop,  I would just like to thank everyone for stopping by my blog and leaving such lovely comments I really appreciate it.

Second Installment of my favourite cards for 2011!!

Here is my second half of the year favourites selection.   This is July's choice more butterflies and flowers I am afraid, a card and a set I made for my friends birthday.

This is Augusts choice and as you can see they are Lavender bags that I made with the harvest from my garden in. I had a idea after seeing lots of lavender products in the south of France whilst on holiday. I was really lucky when Judy came to my rescue with this gorgeous stamp, perfect for the task. I have just coloured the image with Copic Markers (They work great on fabric)..

The card is a paper pieced image from Tiffany Doodles, like most crafters I find masculine cards quite difficult.

September and a card for a Moxie Fab challenge, not much stamping on this one but I am pleased with the result , also another card set.  Love making these as they are great gifts for friends.

Octobers are both cards I made for a Lily Pad sketch challenge, I was lucky enough to win with the top card and received some fabulous new stamps to play with!

These two are my November choice, I love the green and black combination of the top card (really must use it more!!!) and the second card is a CAS one, I am really not a CAS person but have been trying it more and more this year!

Lastly my two for December although only one is a Christmas card, the top wreath card is again a CAS design and I was really lucky to win with this card over at The Moxie Fab Blog in their button challenge. 

My village stamp is a new one in my collection, after seeing Franziska and Jacqueline use it so well over at the Hero Arts flickr site I added it straight onto my wish list.  Clare saw a discussion thread about our wish list stamps in a  flickr thread and offered to send it to me. You can imagine how thrilled I was with it. 

I really love being part of the Hero Arts flickr group, I have made many friends over the last couple of years and am constantly inspired by all the work showcased there.  The ladies are a truly talented bunch and I am really thankful that I stumbled across it while surfing the net !!

Thank you all for all your lovely comments on my blog and heres looking forward to another creative and fun year!!