A Card At Last

Well I've finally got my act together and produced a card with my cuttlebugging-told you I was a slow worker. Cards do not come naturally!!

For some reason I could not get my brain into gear and work out how to colour the embossing folder so that it left the embossed bit white like you clever people have done-----so I cheated and painted the background with Key lime glimmer mist. Well I ended up with the same result, just took a bit longer.

With the swirls I wiped over a Marvy Shades of Green Blending Blox ink pad.

The words were from my trusty Artylicious Inspirations themeplate and then I just used some green organza ribbon and gem stones as embellishments.

I shall have another go at colouring the actual embossing folder and see if I can unblock my mental block!!

Beauty Everywhere

Thank you so much for all your lovely comments and I hope everyone has had a lovely weekend.

I have been playing about with my Cuttlebug but still do not have anything worthy of showing you yet-definitely a work in progress!

I did finish a layout though. I have had this idea in my mind for ages after I saw something similar in a book but couldn't find the right wrought iron to take photos of and then last summer found just what I was looking for. It only took me another 9 months to actually get the layout done!

I used the Crafters Workshop Mini Capricious stencil for the background which I coloured in with a black pen to try to reflect the wrought iron and then rubbed green and brown whispers ink over to take away the whiteness of the paper.

For the lettering I cuttlebugged some silver mirricard and then rubbed alcohol ink over to try and create a metal effect. The letters were then die cut.

I like the simpleness of this page. It didn't seem to need any embellishment and the verse says it all. There is beauty everywhere-you just have to look.

My First Blogging Month

One month ago today I started my blog and took some very tentative steps into Blogland not sure whether it was for me or whether anyone would actually read it.

All I can say, one month later, is Wow! I love it and get so excited when I sign in and see that some kind person has left me a comment. I can't wait to read them and Freya was delighted with her own comments the other day. Thank you so much to everyone and can I say a special thank you to Sally who was the first person to comment and my first follower

I have discovered so many fantastic blogs out there and so many nice people. In these days when all the news seems to be gloomy it is so nice to discover a world out there of very talented crafters who love to share their work and their worlds and have time for a chat.

I have totally got the blogging bug and it makes me do far more crafting as I feel I need to have something new to post. Good job I have such an understanding Husband.

Well, after all that, I don't have anything to show you tonight-still decorating!!!! so I will send you all a bunch of spring flowers out of my garden.

Have a lovely weekend

Love Lisa x

Worn Out

I think it must be something about spring being in the air, but we have decided to go mad and start some much delayed decorating, which entails scrapping off wallpaper that has been painted over at least 3 times-Nightmare!!!

I spent the morning helping out at Freya's school, my usual Wednesday stint but then have being scraping all afternoon and am now far too tired to even think about crafting.

I did make some more tags though a few weeks ago so I thought I would share one of those.

I inked the background for this one with Dusty Concord distress ink, using a very coarse foam, then went over a glimmer screen with Peeled Paint. The background text was stamped with a redder purple, not sure what colour now, but the edges were more Dusty Concord using Heidi Grace flourish stamps as was the main text using the Artylicious Inspirations stamps.

I triple embossed the chipboard swirl with cosmic shimmer Tropic Moss Blaze embossing powder which has a fantastic depth to it giving a verdigris effect.

Well it's a cup of coffee and an early night for me ready for an early start in the morning!

BUILD A BLOOM

Good Morning.

I'm going for my hair doing shortly and have a spare half hour so thought I would just tell you about a lovely Blog I found while pottering around all the lovely sites there are out there.

I love flowers and try to include them on cards and Layouts whenever I can, but they can be very expensive to buy so I try to make my own by either stamping or cutting them out of patterned paper.

I was over the moon, therefore, to discover Jak's Build A Bloom downloads that she offers on her site http://crafterskitchen.blogspot.com/. She even provides beautiful backing papers that match the flowers perfectly making card making easy when inspiration is lacking. If you love flowers as much as me it's definitely worth a look.

I made a very quick and easy card using one of the flowers and I have several more to do things with later.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY

I just wanted to wish everyone out there a Happy Mother's Day. I hope it has been very special for you.

Mine has been lovely. We have spent it with family and then just relaxing. My daughter bought me a new Cuttlebug Embossing Folder so I shall be having a play with that later, as well as the Hairspray CD. That will help all my crafting go with a swing!

I thought I would just show you a card Freya made for one of her Grandmas today. She loves the Cuttlebug and made a lovely job. Her Grandma was thrilled.

SPRING CARDS

With all this lovely weather about it really makes you feel like using lovely light, bright spring colours doesn't it?

We've been having a Cuttlebug session for the last few nights. My Daughter has been making Mother's Day cards for both her Grandmas, so when my help was not required I had a play and ended up with 2 cards made from the same embossed card.

I used my favourite folder which is Stylized Flowers, and painted the image with glimmer mists, Key Lime Pie and Peach Delight. I don't use orange very much so it was nice to have a change.

I put non specific greetings on both of them so that I've always got that emergency card for any event I've forgotten. The top one was from the Artylicious Inspirations themeplate and the matting was gold mirri card which hasn't come out very well on the image. The bottom one was at bit from the "You" Embossing Folder that I just rubbed ink over and cut out.

Two cards in one night, not bad for a slow coach like me!

A SCRAPBOOK PAGE AT LAST

Oh what a lovely sunny warm day it has been here. I have spent the afternoon pottering in the garden and have also cleaned the windows, that's bound to make it rain tomorrow for sure!!

Tonight I thought I would share with you one of my Scrapbook Layouts. I have been scrapbooking for the last 3 years and am totally obsessed with it. I love documenting little events that would otherwise be forgotten and never go out without my camera in my pocket, despite the groans from the family, although I think they have become used to being continually snapped. It also gives me lots of opportunity to try out all sorts of crafty techniques, there always seems to be something new to experiment with.

This layout was inspired by a beautiful bouquet of flowers my husband gave me for our last Wedding Anniversary. He rarely buys me flowers, so these were extra special and I took lots of photos to remind me of them and wanted to use as many as I could on this page. Because of this I decided to keep the rest of the layout quite simple.

The background paper is from the new Nonsense paper pack from WeRMemoryKeepers, one of my favourite at the minute. I used a strip of matching ribbon and then a wide strip of matching dotty paper from DCWV to put my title on, which was just coloured chipboard letters. To make this more interesting I tried Chesseholing, which is just punching different sized holes with the Crop O Dile. I decided to stick this strip on with foam squares to raise it up a bit so that you could see the punched holes better.

I used a Prima stamp for my journalling and date but didn't have any photo anchors in the right colour. In the end I stamped them using Kelly Panacci stamps & colorbox chalk inks and used glossy accents to make them shine.

I love how the colour combination came together. Although our Anniversary is in the Autumn the flowers were bright and light and just right for scrapping with the lovely spring papers.

Tim Holtz Inspired

The weather has been lovely here for the last couple of days and today has been a Training Day so we have spent the whole day outside having a wonderful time. My daughter Freya, has been planting seeds and generally having a good time playing, and I have been trying to knock the garden into shape after the winter. I also managed to take some photos of the beautiful spring flowers. The daffodils are just beginning and we have a bit of blossom opening.

I have managed some crafting tonight and have been playing with tags. I discovered Tim Holtz's wonderful blog from a link from Glenda Waterworth at Christmas when he was doing his 12 Tags of Christmas project.

I have lots of inks and screens and stamps and have never used them properly and here was a way of trying out all sorts of things in a small way, perfect.



This was my first attempt.

The background was inked with a pale blue ink and then a small Tattered Angels glimmer screen was placed over and a green ink pad was wiped over the top with a Crafty Notions yellow ink sprayed over the top of that to build up some layers. The screen was removed and the text from the Artylicious Inspirations themeplate was stamped on in the same dark green ink and finally the border and corners were stamped in Brilliance Mediterranean Blue.

The dragonfly (Aspects of Design from The Stampman) was stamped in the same blue, cut out and coloured with an ink pad and coloured in with Sakura Starburst pens. Finally, green craft wire was curled and attached and then the whole thing was stuck on just by the body to give a 3d effect.

I had a lovely play, got thoroughly messy and ended up with something completely out of my usual style. It may not be quite up to Tim Holtz's standard but I shall hopefully use it on a scrapbook page in the future so that it doesn't just get put in a drawer and forgotten.

Fairy Crafting

It is getting late and I was just catching up on all my blog reading while having that last cuppa before bed.

I was going to do a proper crafty post tomorrow when I've more time, but have just been entering a picture of my daughter's into a competition and thought I would share it with you.

She belongs to the Woodland Trust's Nature Detectives Club and their latest competition was to design a Fairy Glade. They provided a gnarly old tree and our Fairy Glade now has a waterfall and a big red door with lots of fairies and rather angry looking goblins outside. My favourite bit is the goblin looking out from around the tree. I wonder what he's up to?

Don't children have wonderful imaginations!!

CUTTLEBUGGING

Well I think I'm slowly getting the hang of this blogging lark. I'm learning something new everyday about how to do things and there is some great help out there from other bloggers.

It's also really exciting to find people are actually reading my posts. I feel I have officially joined the blogging community now.

What with all this time spent on the computer my crafting has suffered lately. I have started some new scrapbook layouts but have nothing finished to include today so I thought I would show you the card I made for my lovely husband for Valentine's Day.





I was given a Cuttlebug for Christmas and just love it, there is so much you can do with it, I have barely scratched the surface yet but one of things I enjoy doing is embossing and then gently wiping an ink pad over to highlight the embossing, which is what I did with one of these hearts. The other was embossed gold mirricard, both using the D'vine Swirl embossing folder.

I stamped & gold embossed the white band with my favourite Heidi Grace stamps and this was matted with more gold mirricard. I then stamped around the edge of the card with a chestnut Whispers ink pad which gives a lovely soft image. The same ink was then wiped around the edges to blend everything together. The greeting was stamped from the Artylicious sentiments theme plate.

I was pleased with how it turned out and more importantly my Hubby thought it was lovely, which at the end of the day was all that mattered.

By changing the sentiments I think it would make a nice Wedding or Anniversary card.

A COMPLETED CARD AT LAST

Well after a weekend of snatched crafting I have at last completed my Mothers Day cards. I always seem to struggle with card making and they take me ages whereas I can do Scrapbook Layouts quickly, not sure why this is. Anyway, I took the inspiration for these cards from the latest edition of Do Crafts Creativity magazine.

I stamped the flowers with gold Brilliance ink and clear embossed them. They were then painted with Twinkling H20's, which gives a lovely pearlescent effect. The greeting was made with coloured peel offs. I then matted the 4 squares (each one being 4cm) on dark green card and then the whole onto the Distress inked backing papers I made previously.

I hope both my Mum & Mum in Law like the finished result.

NEW COMPANIONS

Our house has always been a pet free zone and despite much nagging from my other half and our daughter has remained that way until last September. I caved in finally when I met what were to become our new family members whilst helping my Mum to choose a pussy from the Cats Protection League. A whole family were living together with a CPL foster mum who lived locally.

My Mum choose the Grandma puss and we fell for her daughter who had just had kittens. After much discussion Mum cat and one of her kittens came to live with us and after 6 months are now very much at home and ruling the roost.

They also provide me lots of photo opportunities and so more inspiration for scrapbook pages.

INKY FINGERS

A sunny weekend meant more gardening that crafting has been done, but true to the British weather, the cold and rain has returned so I have been driven back indoors and the crafting is all over the table.

I have just treated myself to some Tim Holtz Distress inks and have been having a great time making some background papers for later cards. I think they will be ideal for Mothers Day, this green is called Peeled Paint and it feels really springlike.

On the top paper I sponged ink all over and then spritzed a Heidi Grace stamp with water and randomly stamped. When the water dries it removes the ink and leaves a watery negative impression, I then stamped again but this time with the peeled paint ink. It creates a lovely effect.

On the second sheet down I put the ink onto my craft mat, spritzed it with water and then kept putting the paper on top of it and turning it round until I had enough colour on the paper. This was then stamped with another Heidi Grace stamp in the same colour.

The third sheet was just sponged all over and stamped and the fourth was scrunched up cartridge paper with the ink pad wiped over and then stamped.

I had a lovely hour and ended up with very inky fingers.