A card for a male!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just a quick post today but I had to share this card with you.  Its a card for a man eeek!!!  always a difficult card to make. This great stamp set from Hero Arts is perfect for those tricky cards. This months challenge is also to decorate envelopes so I have just stamped the car image with Tea Dye distress ink onto the edge of the envelope.
Have a great day.

Birthdays cards

Part of this months challenge theme at the Hero Arts Blog is Birthdays and as Birthday Cards are always useful to have in stock I decided to play with my new stamp and make a couple!

This Hydrangea stamp is fast becoming a favourite of mine, the image is so crisp and detailed I just love it.  I have been visiting Jacquelines blog she makes the most beautiful shabby chic cards with this stamp and she has inspired me.

 The background is the Musical Collage stamp, I masked out the bird image and stamped with bundled sage distress ink, Then I stamped the Hydrangea using Dusty Concord  and Crushed Olive.

The second card is really simple, the Hydrangea is stamped with Crushed Olive and Worn Lipstick, and the background Kraft is stamped with the Old Letter stamp.

Hope you are having a good week, its turned really cold again here, still no sign of spring unfortunately.

Supplies Hero Arts Stamps:Top Card. S5501 Musical Collage and K5376 Hydrangea. Bottom Card CG197 Old Letter and K5376 Hydrangea.

Another colour challenge.

Look at these yummy colours, don't they remind you of spring!! I couldn't resist playing along with this challenge at CR84FN and using two new stamps that I have just received.

I found it quite hard to photograph this card so that you could see the embossed background, I have this new powder called "White Pearls" and I love the shimmery effect it gives.  The main image is stamped and embossed with white powder and then coloured with distress inks.  Quite a simple card but I am pleased with the result.

Back to work today after a week off and it has come hard, I am missing my crafting time :0(

Supplies Hero Arts Stamps. CG245 Classic Fabric, CG271Large Blossom. Distress inks. Bundled Sage, Worn Lipstick and Barn Door.

Hero Hostesses Colour Challenge 1

Emails have been flying between the Hero Arts Hostesses ever since we were appointed, we have been thinking of ideas to inspire you all and so  have decided it would be fun to run a few colour challenges over the next few weeks.  I am pleased to be the one starting this off and here is my colour inspiration photograph.  I wanted to have warm summery colours to cheer up all of us who live in the Northern Hemisphere, we have been experiencing a really cold winter this year and at the moment can only dream of summer!!!  The first photograph was taken in my garden last summer and I can remember it being a beautiful hot summers day with a clear blue sky, the second photo is taken in my favourite wool shop, the colours of this particular wool really caught my eye aren't they yummy!

This is the card I have made using one of my favourite new stamp sets "Blossom Art" I have layered up the two paper pieced flowers with pop dots and added the pearls.  The background is just stamped with Scattered Straw Distress ink.

Here is a little close up of the flower.

 Please download your cards to the Hero Arts Flickr group here and use the "hostess challenge1" tag . The challenge will run till 11pm PST  on 27th Feb or 7 am 28th Feb GMT.  Hope you find time to enter.

Hostesses cooking up a storm!!!

"When the Hero hosties are selected everyone looks forward to what they'll cook up!! Heather, Anita
Sharon, Linda and I have taken this literally and are cooking something up for you this week - one of our favorite recipes!" We are each posting a card or project inspired by one of our favourite recipes  and we are hoping that you will play along to.  Pease post your projects here and add the flickr tag "cookingupchallenge"


 This is one of my families favourite cakes its called a Lemon Drizzle Cake and it never lasts long in our house!!  I thought it would be fun to make a gift of "Tea and Cake" so I have also created these little gift holders that actually hold one tea bag.  The holder is based on a tutorial here, I have just adapted the front of it to add a ribbon tie.


This is the inside of the holder, don't you just love this yummy paper its from Echo Park !  The tea cup image is from the Hero Arts sparkle clear set CL188 and I have paper pieced this with a scrap of chintzy paper from my scrap box.
This is the recipe that I use its really simple to make:-
Cake
175gm unsalted butter softened
175 gm caster sugar
finely grated zest of three lemons
3 med. eggs
175gm self raising flour
Pinch salt
little milk
Icing
200gm icing sugar
75ml lemon juice

Method
Grease and line a litre loaf tin.
Beat together the sugar and butter till white and fluffy.
Add lemon zest and beat in eggs one at a time with a little of the flour.
Sift in the remaining flour and salt, add a little milk if the mixture is too stiff.
Pour into tin and bake in pre heated oven 170C or gas mark 3 for 45 to 50 minutes.
Mix together the lemon juice and icing sugar.
When the cake is cooked remove from the oven and while still hot and in the tin prod with a fine skewer to make a few holes, but don't go to the base of the tin!
spoon over icing so that it seeps into the holes.
Cool completely then serve.

Hope you find time to try it out, it really is yummy!!
SallyX

Colour Challenge!!

Love this pretty colour palette for the challenge at CR84FN this week, as you know I love colour challenges so had to have a go at this one!

Lots of stamps used here and I am really pleased with the finished card, so soft and feminine.

Here is a close up of the dragonfly, as you can see I have added some shimmer to the wings.  Sorry another quick post but if you stop by tomorrow I can reveal one of the things I have been working on!!

Sallyx
Supplies: Hero Arts Stamps, CL383 Antique Engravings. S5507 Envelope Pattern, CG197 Old Letter.G4917 Dandelion.  Distress inks, Worn Lipstick and Milled Lavender.

Vellum Flowers!!

I have been really busy today with lots of projects that I need to finish so I thought I would show you one of the cards I made for the Hero Arts Hostess blog spot.  I made four cards and my family chose this one which was featured when my Hostess spot was announced.  This pink card was one of the rejects.  I love how the flower turned out, I found this piece of patterned vellum in my scrap paper box and after stamping and embossing twice in white with the large bloom stamp I then cut out the flowers and shaped the petals.
The background is made by stamping the Old Letter Writing stamp and the Paper Art stamp with Victorian Velvet distress ink and then distressing lightly all over the paper.
Must get back to my other projects now.  Have a great weekend.
SallyX
Supplies: Hero Arts Stamps  S4878 Old Letter Writing.  CG198 Paper Art.  CG134 Large Bloom.  Victorian Velvet Distress ink.

Cards from my friends!!

 No cards from me today as I am busy working on some cards for next week!!  Here are two stunning cards that I received in the post this week from two of my sweet blogging friends :0)
The first is from Brenda in Texas and is part of Deborah's February CCC.  This involves a whole list of ladies (I think it was 50 this month!) making and sending a card to the next person in the chain.  Its such fun to send and receive a hand made card.
Isn't this a stunning card from Brenda and she managed to follow both Deborah's sketch and the colour palette, that's more than I managed this month  :0(  She also included some beautiful die cut butterflies, I am sure you will be seeing alot of those soon!

The second card is from the lovely Jo and it arrived out of the blue, a stunning congratulations card for being chosen as a Hero Hostess.  Thank you so much Jo, I really appreciate it, the card is even more beautiful in real life, the butterflies are really glossy and the little green gems are sparkling in the sun as I write this.

Hope you are enjoying your Wednesday.

SallyX

Happy Valentines Day!!

Happy Valentines Day, hope you have all had a great day, here is a card I made using more masculine colours!  Although I love pinks and reds I wanted to try something a little different.  The heart is made using up more scraps from my basket.. A while ago I had a play with some distress inks, I put some inks onto my craft mat and spritzed with water then I placed my Antique Brocade stamp in the ink and stamped onto some paper.  This gives a really watery image which I love!   I then stamped the large heart from the Hero Arts Hearts Trio set and cut out the image.  The background paper is from Basic Grey.
Thanks for looking.
SallyX
Supplies: Hero Arts stamp CG160 Hearts Tri, CG102 Antique Brocade. Basic Grey Papers,Twine and lace

Another Valentine!!

 Another really simple Valentines card and another one that's perfect for a man!! This one probably only took 30mins to put together as the hearts and spellbinders shape was in my scrap basket so I only had to pop dot it all together add the ribbon, gems, sentiment and faux stitching and its ready to send!  I am entering this in the challenge over at sweet Jenny's blog this week which is to use up your scraps.

This week I have been lucky enough to receive two awards from blogging friends, the first is from sweet Dawn in New Zealand. Thanks Dawn !!  I hope your back gets better soon :0)

Now the aim of this blog is to bring unknown good blogs to light so please don't tag it to anyone with more than 3000 followers.

In accepting I had to sign up to a few little rules...

1) You have been tagged, do you want to accept? YES! then create a post on your blog and post the love blog photo.
2) Link back to the person who gave you the award and say if you accept.

3) Choose 3-5 of your favourite blogs to tag, link these in your post too and tell the lucky people they have been tagged.

My three blogs are: First Tina  she creates some really pretty cards, please take a look and see.
Second is Linda  she is a fellow Hero Arts Hostess and has only just joined the blogging world (her blog is just over a week old). The third is Brenda check out this project of hers isn't it beautiful!!

I also received this award from Tina and with this one you just have to state 8 things about yourself, here we go :-

1. I work in a local junior school and have been there 16 years and I can honestly say that I love my job.

2. I have been married for 29 years this year to Jeremy and have two beautiful children, Tristan and Francesca.

3. I am terrified of flying!!

4. I am vegetarian.

5. I love everything creative and have tried most crafts but card making and sewing are my favourites.

6. I am a keep photographer.

7. My favourite food is Italian.

8. My favourite holiday destination is Italy!!

Well thats enough about me!!!  There are so many wonderful blogs that I follow and I found it hard to choose three for the last award so if you would like this award on your blog please take it.

Hugs

SallyX