Sweetest Rabbit

I am showing this rubber stamp next to this card just to prove that the 'ribbon' on the card is actually a stamped one - neat huh? I'm not very good at tying ribbons onto cards but this card ribbon was easy.

I absolutely LOVE this rabbit image, it's my favourite from Paper Inspirations. I think I will probably use it for every Easter as it so beautiful. Wish I could draw a rabbit like that, actually I'm going to try and copy it and if it comes okay I will put it up here. I used Tim Holtz's distress ink pad Broken China for this, oh and the background dots are from Stampin Up.

A closer look...
Do you know what makes my heart sing on a gloomy rainy Wednesday morning? The sight of these gorgeous yellow daffodils in my kitchen

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A note or two

Well I was working on a card that ended up looking awful, but then noticed that the offcut from it looked rather nice. So that was what I used for the background of this card.

I used another smaller bird from the Artful Flight set by Tim Holtz,more hearts from Blonde Moments and the sentiment by Hero Arts. The ink colours are from the Spectrum set by Kaleidacolor. Oh and the beautiful jewelled brads are by Stampin up, I think they set the card off nicely. I drew the musical notes!

Do you ever go into the sitting room and see a beached whale hanging about? Miaowski lay in this position for about 10 minutes, just cracks me up when I see her doing this

not very ladylike Miaowski!!
Bless her!

Songbird

As people who read my blog know, I love Tim Holtz products and now especially I love his rubber stamps. I was lucky enough to receive a great present from my friend Kate who bought me one of his sets 'Artful Flight' which has this gorgeous bird. I didn't have a clear idea of how I was going to use the bird but after playing around I ended up making this card. I used Tim Holtz distress inkpads for the background (Wild Honey, Scattered Straw and Adirondack Sail Boat Blue) - flicked water droplets over it to give cool faded out spots. I had some sheet music that I downloaded from Craft Stamper that I tore and added for a collage effect. The hearts are from Blonde Moments

I like using Tim Holtz distress stickles so added some to the bird to give some texture. I don't know if you can see it in this closer up picture but there is some on the bird's stomach. It kind of looks like coloured glass and gives a nice shiny effect.

Our clocks went forward an hour yesterday and I'm still not used to it. I've been yawning all morning so I better go and make a nice strong coffee to wake me up!

Happy Monday everyone :)

3 Little Buns

Aww, these little bunnies are so cute. They are a digital image by Claire Keay. She draws such beautiful images. I made a few more egg cards and stamped different backgrounds by Stampin Up. I think the middle one is my favourite as I like that pretty paper also by Stampin up.

I must get back into my drawing, as I'd like to design digital images for card making. I keep thinking it so I must actually do it. I have a lot of good intentions but they aren't much use if I don't put them into actions. I need a big poster on my wall 'DO IT NOW!!!'

Oh yesterday I had a nice parcel arrive in the post. This is because I used the gift voucher my sister gave me for my birthday (thank you again Ady!). The shop Art From The Heart stocks a full range of craft products and I'm loving the Sugar Dumpling range of papers and stamps by Blonde Moments, so I ordered those, some Gesso and two archival ink pads from Rangers. Look, look, look ....
I ordered Gesso because I want to prepare some blank boxes for painting, it makes a perfect primer. And thats another thing I want to do as well as more drawing ... decorate boxes. And if I do, I will show them on the blog, very soon.

I'm hoping for a nice quiet weekend where I can get lots of crafting done. Hopefully I will have something nice to show for Monday.

Happy weekend everyone ...

Easter chicks

I love this cute little chick in his egg. Actually the whole set called 'A Good Egg' by Stampin Up is cute. So I thought the nestabilities egg shape would really suit it.

Well Easter is another week away but I'm glad for once I've made Easter cards on time. Usually I leave it too late and only manage to make one or two. I even managed to be on time to send to my relations abroad so thats good.

Is this my shortest post yet? Yes I think it is. I gotta dash.

Thanks for stopping by...

Lucy's Challenge: Clean and Simple Card

Well I don't know about clean, but it is a simple card. I'm entering this for Lucy's 7th Card Challenge. The cute little rabbit image is from Hero Arts and the paper and sentiment from Stampin Up. Oh and the egg card was made from the new nestabilities egg shapes which are so cute except that this was the only card I made that actually stayed upright!

'Some days, it’s not about passion and courage. It’s not about heroism and drama. It’s not about slaying dragons or conjuring exotic visions... Some days, it's simply about the delicious act of doing simple things, simply.'

Jack Ricchiuto

And yes, I did eat the sugar rabbit after I took the photo. It had a lovely sweet vanilla flavour, yum!

I caught Miaowski looking cute ontop of the bookshelf. She's checking out the street view and has probably seen a fat pigeon walking by...
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More fish in the bowl

This time the fish are smaller and are from a set I bought a few years ago, in the days when I didn't have a blog and didn't think I needed to remember where I got my stamps from. I think I prefer the version I did yesterday but that's the nice thing about that little fish bowl, you can change it every time. It did occur to me that the plants behind the bowl would show through the bowl but decided not to try and colour them. Sometimes reality isn't always necessary in card making :). All the other stamps apart from the fish and starfish are from Hero Arts.

And so I promised my little fish they would get a bit of a look in on my blog and here they are. They have been misbehaving quite a bit lately what with eating their siblings and all sorts of unmentionable behaviour.
I love their vibrant colours, they are so pretty. Especially that male swordtail with his beautiful long tail. Shame they don't stay still for good photos. Every time I tried getting a good picture, they would swim out of shot.
But luckily this beautiful bright orange one swam into shot so I could capture that gorgeous colour.
Today I'm going to be working on some Easter cards. So hopefully I'll have something to show tomorrow

Little Fish

I bought a new Sizzix die for my Big Shot Express machine and it was this sweet fishbowl shape which also came with a couple of little fish, plants and stones. I knew it would look sweet with Hero Arts Oceans of Joy set of stamps and so it does. And I think the funky plants from Hero Arts 'Be Yourself' clear stamps adds a nice background. I used one of the die cut fish as an added embellishment and also those gems hide an accident with blank ink but we can pretend I added it to look like extra bubbles :)

In this closer look you can just about see that I added Rangers Glossy Accents to give the bubbles a nice bubble effect. My friend Kate bought me the cute little epoxy star stickers, I thought they looked like little starfish. I love little scenes in miniature which is probably why I like fish bowls and fish tanks so you will be seeing more of these in future posts.

And in this next picture you can see my fish who are trying to get in on the photo. Think they could be miffed their photo hasn't shown up in my blog so far!
I've promised them another look in tomorrow, they're so spoilt!

Happy Monday everyone!

Geisha cards

I wasn't going to blog today as I haven't made any new cards. But then I remembered I have this photo of two cards I made a few years ago so thought I would show them. It would be good if I could remember who the stamps were made by but I can't I'm afraid. Well the Kanji characters are from an Asian cube stamp by Judikins and that is still available from Stamp Addicts. Oh and the dragonfly brads are from Stamp Addicts too. I coloured the backgrounds using pastel chalks. Sorry it's a small photo but it should enlarge a bit if you click on it.

I'm all excited this morning as I put up my trusty old Cuttlebug up for sale on ebay yesterday and it has sold already! Well, it is a real bargain as I put it up as buy it now for £20 and included lots of dies and border embossing folders as well as new plates. I love bargains and feel good providing a bargain for someone else.

Tomorrow might well be a blog free day as I try and catch up with some card making.

Have a good weekend y'all xx

It all went a bit Gothic

Ooh yesterday I had a play with my new Tim Holtz distress ink pads and distress stickles my sister Ady bought me. Love those gorgeous ink pads, they blend so beautifully. I like using the stickles too though I don't think you can see their sheeny shininess in this photo. I thought the card looked like it had been dipped in water and came out with bits of algae on it! I know, why would you want that look? I don't know, but it looked good to me which made me think it would look good with an underwater scene. I didn't have a clear idea about what I was doing when I made this card, it just came about by accident and I'm pleased with the gothic look of it. Will that bird rescue his friend from the cage swaying in the breeze? I guess we will never know... :)

The stamps I used are from Stampendous (bird cage and little bird), Hero Arts (CL1823 Birds and Messages) and the Baroque stamp is from Stampin up. That beautiful flower brad is from Stampin up too.

That arch shape die, is a Crescent shaped tag fromSizzix, the first die I've bought for my Big Shot Express machine. I'm so impressed with that machine, it makes things so easy for me.

Ahh, its Friday, yippee!

Dragonfly Dreaming

This is a card I made quite some time ago. I haven't used shrink plastic for ages, I must get back into using it. I shrunk some of these dragonflies from Stamp Addicts. Actually the one shown in that link is the small dragonfly, I used the very large dragonfly but I can't find it on the website. Anyhow, after shrinking, I coloured them using chalks and then adhered them to this pretty paper by K&Co. I love K&Co papers but I don't think that one is available anymore.

I'm hoping to get some crafting work done today. The last couple of days I haven't been very productive as I've been busy with other things.

I've been quite busy with dreaming too. I would love to move from my flat to somewhere else, preferably somewhere where the neighbours are not as noisy and where it doesn't cost a fortune to heat the place. So I like to dream of my perfect place to live. And to help me in my dreaming I look at pictures of beautiful houses and perfect rooms. Just take a look at the pictures here!!! Ahhh, heaven, large rooms and big windows, plenty of light streaming in. Lots of space for Miaowski to dance around with her toy mouse. Hmm, I love dreaming...

For the love of Cats

Another thank you card to my friend Gill who also sent me lovely presents. Like me, Gill loves cats, and owns a black cat called Cillan, so I thought she might like this.

The cat image is from Third Coast Rubber Stamps and the sentiment from Hero Arts. The beautiful background is vellum. It is the best vellum I've seen, I love the colours. The little red brads with white spots are from Papermania.

Talking of loving cats... how could I not love this cat? The towel was on the radiator and she pulled it off and snuggled up on it. Anyone would think she hasn't got her own bed. Actually she has a luxury bed but prefers sleeping in her box ... and now my towel!

Birthday Sheep

This is a card I've made for my sister Sue's birthday. I don't think she will see this as she will be busy at work. And if she does, it looks better in reality than in this picture :).

Over the last couple of days I've taken ages trying to make a nice birthday card and three of my attempts went into the bin! It's not always easy making cards, sometimes I just don't have the inspiration. Other times I make mistakes and just cannot cover them up. Usually this happens with sentiments. I spend a lot of time making a card and right at the last minute add a sentiment and then it all goes wrong. Yesterday I stamped a sentiment and it only half came out, and then on another card it went on crooked...exasperating! So I really love Stampin Up's little word window punch you can add a sentiment to and then attach it to the card, great cos if it all goes on wrong it doesn't spoil the whole card.

Mind you it doesn't help when my eyesight is not as good as it used to be. It wasn't until I uploaded this card onto my computer when I realised the sentiment actually wasn't as neat as it should have been. And the edging of the card isn't totally straight. Actually, I regretted rounding off the corners as the rounder punch didn't cut very cleanly. Oh dear, the trials and tribulations of making 1 card!

The cute sheep is from Pink Petticoat's With Flowers set and the Happy Birthday sentiment is from Stampin Up's 'Happy Moments' set. I used Cuttlebug embossing folders 'Caramelo' and 'Swirls' for the sky and grass. The flowers are from Hero Arts and the pearls are from Papermania. I coloured the image with colour pencils which is nice because the colours come out all soft and pretty.

I have a dental appointment, not till Thursday, but somehow it seems to be affecting my whole week. I will be glad for Friday when it is all over. It's only a check up, just hope it's all over quickly!

Mini cards and daffodils

Okay so sometimes mini cards come in very handy when I'm short on time.

I stamped these butterfly images onto the colorued card and then stamped them again on white card and coloured them in. Then I cut out the butterflies and glued their body, but not the wings, ontop of the previously stamped image, thereby giving a 3d effect. It's a simple and effective idea. The butterflies were from the Hero Arts clear set of stamps 'Antique Engravings' and the sentiments both from Stampin Up's 'Happy Moments' set.

Now how about a beautiful image of spring? Here are some gorgeous white daffodils my friend Kate bought me for my birthday. Ahh they are so lush, I love them, thank you Kate!

Some nice thoughts about spring ...

"If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant; if we did not sometimes taste adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome." Anne Bradstreet

"If you've never been thrilled to the very edges of your soul by a flower in spring bloom, maybe your soul has never been in bloom." Audra Fuveo

"Spring is nature's way of saying, 'Let's party!'" Robin Williams

Happy Monday everyone!

Butterflies and flowers

Ooh my photo skills are not too hot, why is that picture looking wonky? I don't know... anyhoo here is a thank you card. I'm going to be making a few of these over the next few days as I have a lot of people to thank for giving me such lovely presents.

The paper, card, flower and leaves are from Stampin-up. I forgot I had some die cut flowers and leaves so I cut these out myself from the printed paper - d'oh! The Butterfly is from Hero Arts 'Antique Engravings' clear set. The sentiment is also from Hero Arts.

Today it is Mother's Day in the UK. We are all going out for lunch soon and I just checked out the menu. It looks so delish!

It's Friday, I'm in love

I'm in love with life generally :)

Well it's been all go here. What with my birthday yesterday and having my hair done this morning, I just haven't had time for card making.

I put Miaowski on guard for tank watch as there is a fish who seems to bullying the others. Judging by the look on her face, it doesn't seem like she's been paying much attention and the fish are getting up to all manner of things!

I did get some time this afternoon to play with the Big Shot Express machine and I was so impressed. I loved the Cuttlebug but it really did wear me out cranking the handle around cutting those dies. But this electric machine takes all the effort out of it. So much fun and it's going to save me a lot of time too. Hopefully I will get some time to make at least one card over the weekend.

In the meantime, have a happy weekend!

What a lovely day

I have had the best birthday today. It's been so lovely and here's a big THANK YOU to everyone who has bought me such lovely gifts and given me lovely cards, I felt thoroughly spoilt.

I have been too busy to make a new card for today's blog. Thought I'd put up a card I made a long time ago. I'm not sure if you can tell but the central square was stamped with the Geisha and then embossed over and over with UTEE (ultra thick embossing enamel) to make it look like an enamel tile. It's a shame it's not a nice clear picture as it looked better in reality than here. The image and japanese characters are stamps I've had for a long time, I can't remember what company they're from.

Nesting Instinct

I fell in love with this digital kit by Kellie Mize from The Digital Chick. Such beautiful colours and that bird image is also beautiful. I added a sentiment from Hero Arts and accentuated the bird by adding glossy accents all over it. Actually it was far too much glossy accent, so much so it warped the card, plus the poor bird has dents where the gloss had gaps. Half way through doing it I regretted it I knew I hadn't done it right. Ah well, we live and learn ... well I do sometimes!

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Lucky me and a visit from a dragon

Well yesterday it definitely felt like my birthday as I had another parcel arrive. This time it was from my sister Ady. OMG it was full of Tim Holtz products and a lovely gift voucher! The gift voucher above, is beautiful as it is handmade. It is from Art From the Heart a shop that sells the most gorgeous craft things. It is run by the very talented Dyan Reaveley who is very good at art journaling. I've only just discovered her and am intrigued by what she does.

THANK YOU so much Ady for such a wonderful treat!

Here are the gifts she sent me ... distress inks, distress stickles and Glossy Accents - I can't wait to play with them. I was so excited when I opened the parcel. Aaaargh I forgot to take a photo of the Salvage Stickers - they are so cool, I have ideas for them already! I'm so lucky :)


And then, later in the day I had a visitor. My friend Bert bought his very handsome Bearded Dragon (called Junior) to see me - isn't he lovely? I'd love a little dragon, so sweet. Don't think Miaowski would be impressed. She didn't show any interest in our visitor but then she was nuzzling up to the radiator at the time.
So far this week has been lovely and it's only Tuesday! Hurray, things are looking good. I'm in such a good mood. It's another time for a lovely quote and here is my most favourite by Woodrow Wilson ...

We grow great by dreams. All big men are dreamers. They see things in the soft haze of a spring day or in the red fire of a long winter's evening. Some of us let these great dreams die, but others nourish and protect them; nurse them through bad days till they bring them to the sunshine and light, which comes always to those who sincerely hope that their dreams will come true.

Amen to that!

Spring really is coming!

I'm not really sure why this card appears blurred at the bottom. I've tried to do things to make it clearer but no success. Anyway here is my first spring card to celebrate Spring. We are having sunny days down here in Somerset, Uk, but the air is very chilly and not spring like. But I have seen crocuses in flower so that is a cheerful sign. We had a really cold winter and apparently that means that the daffodils, tulips and crocuses will be more spectacular than normal, yay!

On this card I used two retired rabbit images from Hero Arts. 'Retired' meaning they don't sell them anymore, not that they are too old to work :). Hero Arts are going to be bringing out some new Spring and Easter images out very soon (March 10) - I keep seeing sneaky peaks on their blogs, can't wait to see them. Anyway I love my retired rabbits, they are so cute I will keep them forever.

The circle was made with a Nestabilities die that I embossed with Cuttlebug swirls and Sissix daisies. The 'grassy' bit I punched the edge with a Stampin Up scallop punch. The background paper is also Stampin Up.

I love Stampin Up's papers, they are always gorgeous. Actually I buy them and then love them so much I don't want to cut into them to use them!

I'm excited this week as it is my birthday and I will be half a 100 yrs old!! I have just had a delivery ... I know what it is, and it is from my Mum .... woo hoo I have been given a Big Shot Express!!!!!!!!!!!! My Cuttlebug is gorgeous but my wrists are quite weak so I'm having difficulty using it so I'm having to go electric. I would say a BIG THANK YOU to my Mum but she won't be reading this so I'm gonna ring her any minute.

Check out this little beauty... and the best thing is I will be able to use all my Cuttlebug dies and embossing folders with it



Happy Monday everyone!

Playing withTags

I'm enjoying reading Tim Holtz's book 'A Compendium of Curiosities'. It's full of interesting techniques and is more of a 'how to create' rather than 'how to make' book. The lovely thing about my order is that the book came with a few accessories which made it more fun, as it meant you could start right away with experimenting.

I thought I'd use a few tags to try out some techniques on. I used the sponge applicator tool to applied distress inks. Love the new Brushed Cordroy inkpad I received AND the most gorgeous Perfect Pearls Antique Gold powder. I've never used Perfect Pearls before but you brush it lightly onto the wet ink you've just applied, and WOW ... the shimmer and sheen of the gold is very impressive but you can't see it in these pics ... it's a shame but my camera is just not picking it up. Trust me, get some Perfect Pearls, they are great and you can add a few sprinkles to water and spray it on for another shimmer effect.

Here is a tag I made with the Elegant Birds set from My Cute Stamps. Another lovely product I received was Rock Candy crackle paint - this is different from Crackle Accents as it provides a sheen over your image with small crackles as opposed to big crackles. I love that word Crackle! Anyway after I applied it, I let it dry and then smeared over it with my finger, some distress Rocky Candy Stickles which, when dried, gives a vintagey glass like effect. Think I might have gone overboard with that. You can see it looks like sugar in places...

And here is a tag I made using the Brushed Cordroy distress ink with the Antique Gold Perfect Pearls brushed around the edges. Then I repeated the crackle effect and added distress stickles. The rubber stamp image is from Memory Box.
Well no doubt you will be seeing more of my experiments soon.

Have a lovely Sunday...

Let's Party

It's my friend Lou's birthday this week. Her favourite colour is purple. So I had to make a purple card. It took me awhile to come up with something but in the end I stuck to keeping it simple and made her a card I've done before but in different colours. I like this design as it is simple but cute. The cute dog is from a set called Cosmo pups by Gel-a-tins and the sentiment is from I Heart Papers Birthday Wishes set. I punched out the balloon shapes, drew in the balloon string, added a bit of bling and adhesive ribbon and Voila! The little pup has a couple of purple gems on his collar too.

I know someone else who likes to party ...

Hee hee she looks like she's been on the space dust!

Meanwhile, update on the fish. I didn't take a photo of the tank with it's medicated luminous green water because the fish have been misbehaving and it's all got a bit traumatic. Let's just say that there has been some bullying, a death and cannibalism!

However on an upbeat note let's just remember that Life consists not in holding good cards but in playing those you hold well. -- Josh Billings

Doing the worm walk, kitty style

No you are not seeing things... yes it really is two posh cats taking their pet worm out for a walk - ha ha, my favourite rubber stamp image. It's so funny and I love that the lady cat's muffler has dead mice in it, very tasteful! I got it from 100 proof press - a great rubber stamp company that has the quirkiest images ever.

I haven't used it much but while reading Tim Holtz's book I was wondering what vintagey image I had that I could distress and so I came up with my two posh cats. I didn't really do much to the card. Just inked some Broken China and Faded Denim around the image and then repeated that on the base card. Then I tried dropping water onto the inks to create patterns although that didn't really work as well as I'd liked. After, I stamped some Inkadinkado swirls in the corners.

The sentiment at the bottom is an SRM sticker, just liked the subtle look of it.

A closer look... not sure if you can see the detail that well, try clicking on it, check out the poor dead mice in the muffler. Don't know why I just find that so cute, I must be sick!

I'm heading back to 100 Proof Press to check out their other amusing 1920's cats.

Thanks for stopping by...

Japanese Spring

I've been promising to make a Japanese card for my neice Anna. So here it is at last. I used the Four Oriental Dolls set by Hero Arts and used one of the Asian Cuttlebug embossing folders for the background. The shape of the card is a Blossom die cut from Nestabilities. My little bonsai tree looks nice with it. See, I'm trying to improve my pictures and this is a good start. Can you tell the bonsai tree is not real?

Here is a closer look at the card. You can't see the diamond stickles so well on the fan and paper lantern but you can see marks on the embossed bits where it hasn't embossed so well. Luckily in reality it doesn't show up like that - think the camera highlights that because of the flash.

Did my Tim Holtz book arrive yesterday? YES it did!!!! Hurray! I really wanted to sit and do nothing all day but read the book and play with all his ideas. But had other things to do. And it didn't help that I took a look at my fish in the fishtank, and noticed that some of the fish looked like they had been dipped in icing sugar... uh oh! That means some kind of parasite has affected them. So I had to search for the medication to treat the tank with and then I couldn't get the lid off as it had a child-proof lid on and they always defeat me. Luckily the caretaker of the flats was around so he opened it for me. Now the fish are swimming around in a beautiful green tank as the medicine is bright green. If I get a good enough picture I will show it tomorrow.

Thanks for stopping by ...

TE Dragonfly Card Drive

Taylored Expressions are having a Dragonfly card drive in aid of a special cause, see details here. As well as hopefully making a difference, there is also a possibility of winning a $50 gift certificate. I'm not expecting to win anything but it's nice to try and do something good.

For this card I used some dragonfly and background leaves stamps from 'The Dainty Dragonfly' set available from The Stampman. The feathery flourishes and sentiment are from a clear Hero Arts set but I can't remember what it's called. I know, not very helpful...

Meanwhile, where is my Tim Holtz book? It still hasn't arrived. I'm hoping today will be the day the postman knocks on my door. Never has a book been so eagerly anticipated, I can't wait till it gets here.

Thanks for stopping by.

Hello Birds

It is bright and sunny today in Somerset, UK. I'm feeling that spring is definitely coming! I made this card some time ago. It's about time I sent it to someone. Sometimes I hang on to cards just because I like them.

All the stamps used are retired Hero Arts stamps. It's just a simple card with no embossing apart from the 'Hello'. I inked the stamps in different colours and then re-coloured the stamped image just to fill in any missing bits.

Yesterday I was trying to make a card but it just looked all wrong. I'm going to try and do a better job today and try and remember...

It a funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it. ----W. Somerset Maugham

Thanks for stopping by...

Inspired by Challenge

I thought I would enter Lucy Abrams 'Inspired by' Challenge today. The challenge is to make a card that is inspired by someone else and show a link to the card I was inspired by. I was inspired by Jennifer McGuire's butterfly card. Although I made the butterfly the other day, and could have used that for the challenge, I thought I'd do something different. So I did. Here is little kitty from the digital Kitty Kat kit I downloaded from the 2Peas website. I used glossy accents on the ears, eyes and nose and added some Rangers cotton candy stickles to the middle of the flower. I nearly cut the whiskas off by mistake, quite tricky cutting around them.

I need to improve the background to my pictures as all I have for a background is a small white box - and it's not hiding all the stuff behind. So bear with me till I find something bigger

Happy Monday everybody!