Bicycle Love

A simple card for my bicycle lovin fiancee Andy.

The bicycle and heart stamps are by Hero Arts.  I embossed the bicycle, and the heart I covered in Rangers glossy accent to make it really stand out.  The little patterned white brads are by Doodlebug Designs.  I typed the sentiment in Word.

Think my photo is looking a little blurred.  Grrrr, good ol camera shake and too late I've noticed it now I've uploaded it.  Can't take the picture again cos I just posted it.

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Our day in Bath

And so our day at Bath begins on the train at Taunton and I'm really excited.

Andy in his Sri Lankan t-shirt.  We're going to have a great day.  Leaving Taunton and we're on our way.

At Bath and I just love all the historic buildings.

Bath Abbey Cathedral and you can read about it here

This is me with one of King Bladud's pig's.  These pigs were scattered throughout Bath in 2008 as part of an art event.  The pigs were sold all after.  But this one remains and is called 'Waterloo' and was sponsored by Wessex Water.   I like the way it matched my vest.  The rest of the pigs are here

And here is gorgeous Andy looking handsome as per :)

These pictures aren't necessarily well taken but I was in tourist mode and kept snapping away with my phone camera.

I particularly liked this tree which was surrounded by buildings ... I guess you had to be there to appreciate how beautiful it was

Here is a picture of the famous Bath Pump Rooms - Regarded as the social heart of Bath for more than two centuries, the Pump Room is a striking neo-classical salon where hot Spa water is drawn for drinking.  It's now a restuarant.  Whether people still take the waters there, I don't know. 

This is where Andy and I sat and had lunch which consisted of 'Heidi Pie', a yummy pie filled with goat's cheese, butternut squash and, I think spinach.  I forgot to take a photo of the food.

But we did get a couple of Australian tourists to take a picture of us with our cakes!!!!!  Gorgeous picture of Andy but not sure what is happening with my face!!!!  Yes the cakes were delish, Andy had carrot cake and I had Lumberjack cake (with apple, dates and a coconut top).

Despite the evidence of cake, I think I look thinner in this picture :)

No real reason for this next picture apart from I liked the grasses sticking out of the hanging baskets :)

As it's the Queen's Jubilee next weekend, the whole of Britain is covered with Union Jacks and bunting and every now and again shop windows are displaying Royal memorabilia including gorgeous cutout Corgis.

More bits of Bath .....

On our way back home.  And what a lovely day it was.  We will always remember our lovely day in Bath.

A few days off

Well, I have no cards to show so I'm thinking Miaowski is the next best thing.  Ooops, sorry, Miaowski thinks she's the first best thing!!

We've had great weather recently so I've been out and about every day soaking up the rays.  It's been wonderful, life just seems so much easier when it's warm.  Today I'm all excited because Andy and I are going to Bath for the day.  We are going shopping and having lunch and it's going to be great.  Check out Bath it's a lovely place to visit.

Hopefully I will take lots of photos to show in the next couple of days.

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Ketto Cat

I love this cute cat by Ketto Stamps available here.  I added some glossy accents to his crown and star.  I embossed the card with a party themed embossing folder (I'm not sure what brand that is), and distressed the background with chipped sapphire and spun sugar and added stickles to the tiny stars.  The sentiment is by Hero Arts which I had to redo because the first one I stamped directly onto the card got all smudged.

We are going to be having a lovely hot, sunny weekend this weekend so I probably won't be doing a lot of cardmaking. But I will try and be back soon to update my blog if I can fit in some crafting in the evenings.

Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely weekend.

Chill

My good friend Gill is having her tonsils out today.  So this is a card for her.  I used a Hero Arts alphabet set to say 'Chill Gill' which is not straight because its so difficult to do unless you spend 1,000 hours trying to get it right.  Which I didn't because life's too short.  I'm sure Gill won't mind.

The paper I used is by Rasberry Road Designs and I got it free in Cardmaking and Papercraft magazine (June edition).  The sweet bunny is from House Mouse rubber stamps.

The weather today is absolutely gorgeous and is so lovely and hot.

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Birthday froglet

What a gorgeous morning it is here in the UK ............ wow it's so amazing compared to what we've been putting up with for months.  Sun and warmth ....... wooooooo, I love it.

Thought I would use some more yummy Stampin Up Designer Series paper for this birthday card.  And that gorgeous cute Hero Arts frog (CL305 Sending Happy Thoughts) with his little crown on.  The balloons are from a Woodware punch which I added stickles to.  I put some glossy accents on the frog's eyes and tiny pearls on his crown.  The sentiment is as usual from my favourite stamp company Hero Arts.

Just looking at that cute frog makes me smile.  Here is another card I made using him.

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Kitty Ride

Don't you just like it when you spend ages on a card only to stamp the sentiment and you smudge it!  Oh yes I love it, I think it gives my cards 'the edge' ha ha (NO!).  Anyway, apart from that, I was happy the way this turned out.  And I am going to go over that sentiment with a die cut one, just that I was in a rush this morning so haven't had time yet .... will probably update this post when I do :)

The cute cats are Papermania cat stickers I bought ages ago.  I re-discovered them and thought they would look cute with the Hero Arts bicycle.  I embossed some Stampin Up turquoise card with circles and used Nestabilities labels die for the card.

I had loads of time this weekend for card making but unfortunately my inspiration mojo took the weekend off.  I really needed it to hang out with me instead.  Oh boo!

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Sketched Peacock New Distress Inks

I finally succumbed to temptation and bought Tim Holtz's new seasonal Spring Distress Inks.  I absolutely lovely Shaded Lilac and Peacock Feathers blended together.  I used this mask for the background and sponged on both colours.  Then I sprayed some water with a mister spray to blend the colours a bit more.

I then masked off a piece of white card and sponged the centre rectangle with the same colours.  And of course, with peacock feathers I had to add a peacock.  This peacock is a Hero Arts peacock called 'Sketched Peacock'.  I embossed it to make it stand out above.  The sentiment is also from a Hero Arts clear set of stamps.  The bling is just some bling from my bling stash :).

Well I'm hoping to get lots done this weekend in the hope I will have more cards ready for blogging next week.  I'm hoping to enter more challenges too.  I really like taking part because it helps me get inspiration.  As this peacock stamp is one of my oldies that I haven't used in some time, I thought I'd enter this card for the latest challenge at A Blog Named Hero called 'Dust Em off'.

Have a lovely weekend and thanks for stopping by ...

CAS-ual Friday Challenge

A second post in one day?  I know, it's amazing.  But I was inspired to enter Cas-ual Fridays challenge - a clean and simple card featuring our feathered friends.

Well, my friend Amy is finally expecting her first baby so I thought I would send her this simple card to celebrate.  Okay, she hasn't 'eggs'actly laid eggs, but hey!

The hen and eggs are by Artemio and from this set.  And the sentiment is by Hero Arts.

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Sleeping Fox

My Auntie Barbara has just had a hip replacement operation and is recuperating so I thought I'd send her this card.  And if you see this card before you get it, Auntie Barbara, I hope you are feeling better :)

The papers I used are from Stampin Up's Designer Series. I used Nestabilities circle and scallop dies for the little fox to rest on and he heart is from a Stampin Up punch.   The cute little fox (one of my fav images) is from Hero Arts.  And that little fox will make a reappearance now and again cos I really think he's sweet.  There is another Hero Arts fox sitting upright that I will be getting soon because he is also too cute.

Well it is another cold day here in the UK.  I can't believe it's May, it feels like March ... brrr!

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Poppy Memory Box Die

Oh I love the new dies by Memory Box .... they are just sooo elegant and beautiful.

This is just a simple card where I chalked the flowers with soft yellow and then followed with orange.   The trellis effect is a piece of washi tape (my favourite product at the moment, I'm a washi collector :)).  And the sentiment is by Hero Arts.

I restrained myself from buying the actual die and bought some die cuts from ebay.  I hadn't thought of doing it that way but it's so much more affordable than buying the dies.  I would love to buy all the dies, of course!  But that'll happen when I've won the lottery :)

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Nuts about Youuuuu!

My boyfriend Andy is away for a couple of weeks, walking 155 miles across Wales (I know, I know, I drive him to it, ha ha!).  So I thought I will make him a cute card to come home to.

I love Nestabilities wonky rectangles so thought I'd make a mini card with these.  I embossed a card with a woodgrain embossing folder and added some distress inks (Mahogany).  The leaves were punched from Stampin Up's bird punch and distressed with shabby shutters ink.

The little squirrels are from two different Hero Arts clear sets.  The one standing up is from this set (Woodland Creatures) and the sitting down squirrel, heart and sentiment are from another set that I can't remember the name of, sorry.  I must try and write down the names and order nos of all my stamps.  The trouble is, I take the packaging off and forget to make a note of the name.  Not very helpful I know!

The edges of the card are sponged with distress inks Shabby Shutters and Maghogany.  To make the heart stand out I coloured it in with a Stampin Up marker and added Rangers glossy accents.

I had a lovely weekend.  We ended up having some lovely sun here in the UK so I spent most of the weekend soaking it up.  It's back to rain this morning but it's all good, I get to spend time crafting which is great.

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Pink Watercolour flowers

This time I used pinks and blues (stampin up makers) for my watercolour flowers.  I felt it was lacking something so I doodled in some extra foliage :).  The watercolour effect is easier when using watercolour paper and I used my heat tool  to dry it off.

The smaller watercolour flowers are from a retired Hero Arts set called Watercolour Flowers and Stems and the large flower is from here.  I distressed the background with distress inks Shabby Shutters and Broken China.

Well I hope you all have a lovely weekend and I'll be back on Monday with a new card.

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Watercolour Wildflowers

I love this Hero Arts stamp.  So I decided to use the watercolour technique and see how it would turn out.  After inking just selective flowers from the stamp, I misted it with water and then quickly turned it over to stamp.  Well, it's a hit and miss affair.  Sometimes it can come out neat and at other times in can end up an inky mess.  Well I got a bit of both.  And you can see the middle daisy ended up being yellow and green where the two inks ran into each other.  But that's okay because I think it ends up looking quite artistic and free (well that's what I tell myself!).

The little snail is from Purple Onion Designs and the sentiment is from Hero Arts.

Tomorrow I'll be showing you another version in pink.

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Bird on a Branch

This is the latest Tim Holtz die I purchased recently.  I love it.  I have a real thing for bird images at the moment which is odd because it's not like I'm that interested in the real thing.  All the birdcage and bird images for card making are lovely and I shall be coming up with a lot more soon.

This card is yet another simple affair.  I used distress inks on the bird and branches.  The leaves were done with stickles but unfortunately I didn't have a steady hand so they are a little wrinkly.  The sentiment is by Hero Arts.

I will definitely be doing another version of this (infact quite a few) soon.

Another day of rain here in the UK.  We are very starved of sunshine and blue skies.  More rain forecast .... oh dear!

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Thanks Very Much

Oooh sorry for the slightly out of focus picture.  This is a thank you card I made for the lovely Katie who runs Cafe Culture, a lovely cafe that Andy and I go to quite a lot.  It has been opened for nearly a year and Katie is having a birthday celebration for it and we've been invited, yay!

I used Penny Black's 'Touch of Whimsy' for this card and the sentiment is from Hero Arts.  I love this stamp set from Penny Black so I will be back with more cards made with it soon.

We are having too much rain here at the moment, I'm so longing for the heat and some sunshine.

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L'il Mushroom Cat

Although I have cards to post, I thought I'd leave them till next week, after the Bank Holiday.  For now, Miaowski is here.  This is what happens when her whole bed falls off the chair with her in it ....... this is what happens ..... yes, nothing happens, she just continues to snooze.

And while she's at it, she continues to look cute.

Photos taken by Andy and lightened by me on photoshop.  The ones with flash didn't look so good because she blinks.

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Giraffe Tag

I bought a patterned mask the other day which was called 'Mosaic' (and I'm sorry I cannot remember where I bought it).  I had a play around with it and realised it made a lovely marking that reminded me of the markings on a giraffe  So it inspired me to find my lovely Stampin Up giraffe stamp to make this card which I thought looked nice and African looking.  I used some Japanese Washi tape for the giraffe to 'stand' on and stamped a Hero Art's sentiment at the bottom.  I used distress inks Barn door for the tag and Mahogany for the mask.

I haven't used masks before.  They work well with inks if you use a blender tool on them.  You're also meant to be able to mist over them with glimmer mists etc but I tried that and it just all seeped underneath the mask into a mess underneath.  There must be another way to do it so I will have to investigate.

This weekend it's a Bank Holiday weekend here in the UK .... weather forecast .... rain .... how unusual *wink*.

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Hello Tucker and an untidy desk

More sweet images from the talented Stacey Yacula.  I love this toadstool, its beautifully drawn and 'Tucker' is the name of the snail who has the cutest face.  Only wish real snails looked like this These stamps are available from here.  I got inspiration for this card from the lovely Donna whose cards I love.  Check out her card here.

Using watercolour paper, I got my Stampin Up markers out and coloured the images with a waterbrush.  And then I used distress inks for the background (Broken China and Shabby Shutters).   The sentiment is by Hero Arts.

Well I mentioned in my last post I'd mislaid some of my latest cards.  But I found them last night sitting on my bookshelf in full view.  Well they were underneath something but still, you might think I'd remember where I'd put them.

Here's a picture of my workspace ......... tidy it is not, ha ha.

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