Key To My Heart

Well, after rain and dullness yesterday the sun is back out but the wind is really chilly. It's definitely sun to enjoy behind glass.

The other thing I have noticed is that we live very near to Leeds Bradford airport and I don't notice the steady stream of planes going in and out normally, but I have certainly noticed their absence, it's soooo quiet, I almost miss them, how strange is that? I am thinking of you if you have friends or family stranded anywhere around the world at the minute.


I have been playing with my Graphicus Key stamps again, I just love them at the minute. It was my Sister and BIL's 13th Wedding Anniversary on Monday and this is the card I made for them.

The key was stamped with archival black and clear embossed and then coloured with my new promarkers. I added some gems for a bit of bling. The edge of the topper and card was stamped with the top part of one of the keyholes and the greeting was from Dawn Bibby.


I never have any excuse to forget their anniversary because I met my Hubby at their Wedding so it is also our Anniversary of sorts too. He was the Best man and I was a Bridesmaid and we got married 18 months later when the roles were reversed as my Sister was my Bridesmaid and her Husband the Best man, talk about keeping it in the family!!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope your Tuesday has gone well.

Petals and Pearls

Hello on this beautiful sunny Saturday. Isn't the weather spoiling us at the minute?

We have been making the most of it, as you can probably guess from my lack of posts, but while the children are on holiday time is precious.

I had every intention of joining the Allsorts challenge of Petals and Pearls last week and had everything in my head and bits cut out but didn't actually finish it until very late last night when it was too dark to take any photos and so I missed the deadline.


Never mind, I thought I'd still share it with you. I made a hanger for my new craft room door. It's very simple but I'm quite pleased with the results. I cut a scalloped circle with a Nestie and stamped some text all over it from the Graphicus Key themeplate and inked all around the edge with some darker pink pigment ink. Large Ruby Tuesday Graphicus flowers were stamped onto bits of paper from my scrap box, cut out out and layered adding some card candy and liquid pearls. The little flowers were made from various flower punches and liquid pearls added in the centre. The leaves were stamped again from the Ruby Tuesday stamps onto more scrap and cut out.


Thank you for stopping by and I hope you are having a great weekend.

Tag Love

Happy Monday to you all. I hope the sun is still shining in your part of Blogland. It has been absolutely gorgeous here again today. I feel really spoilt and we even ate our lunch in the garden. How is that for April?

I've missed my Tag challenges lately and was determined to get one done for Tuesday Taggers this week, who made life nice and simple and just wanted a Tag!! Perfect for someone whose brain is not capable of thinking too hard at the minute! They are also being sponsored by Georgina whose beautiful blog is well worth a visit.


I was given a beautiful set of Graphicus Key stamps for Mothers Day which hadn't seen a sniff of ink so I was desperate to give them an airing. This is what I came up with. The key is actually coloured with a silver gel pen and shines nicely although the photo hasn't picked this up. All the stamps were from the same themplate and I used various colourbox Q inks. The sentiment was done using Shrink plastic to look like a key ring.

I love these stamps and have got an Anniversary card to make this week for my Sister and BIL so you may well be seeing them again shortly.

Thanks for stopping by and for those of you with a special fella in your lives, go and give them an extra hug tonight. We should not take them for granted. I am not prone to sentimentality but recent news has just made me grateful, I shall say no more.

Out and About

Well isn't this sunshine just gorgeous. I hope you are all getting to enjoy it, I know how fickle our weather can be.

Sorry to have been a bit quiet again this week. What with the Easter hols and the good weather, crafting and blogging time has been scarce.

Thank you to all those who left me advice on colouring after my last post, I really appreciate it and shall be following up all your tips. Hopefully I will have another attempt to share with you soon.


In the meantime I thought I'd share some photos of our first trip of the year to The Lakes today. My regular followers will know what a soft spot I have for The Lake District. It is just one of those places that feels like home, I can't really explain it! The sun shone for us and everywhere looked lovely. We went to a little village called Elterwater at the foot of The Langdales and walked through to Skelwith Bridge, which has a wonderful cafe, so it was tea and cakes in the fresh air ready for the walk back. It wasn't a hike of any distance or very strenuous but we watched the lambs and looked at the flowers and skimmed stones in the beck . A really lovely day out.


Thank you for stopping by and I hope you are enjoying whatever you are doing this weekend. I shall be back with some crafting next time.

Loving Shaped Easels

Hello everyone in Blogland and A Happy Easter to all those of you who celebrate it and Happy Holidays if not.

Like so many crafters at the minute, I'm totally in love with the shaped Easel cards, very much inspired by the wonderful creations my blogging buddy Debbie makes, take a look at her blog, if you haven't already. She really is a master at them.

I don't normally make Easter cards but decided it would be a good excuse to have a play. I have also just invested in my first pack of pro markers. Not being a colourer in, I'd not really considered buying them before, but I kept seeing lovely things done with them and although still getting to grips with them am certainly pleased I succumbed in the end.


Anyway, this is the card I came up with. I know it's quite simple but I was quite pleased with the results. My colouring in leaves a lot to be desired but hopefully will improve with practice. The stamp of course is a Sarah Kay, the shaped card was cut with a labels Nestie and the papers were all from my bit box. The flower was stamped on patterned paper using an Inkadinkadoo set and I just coloured in the centre and then cut them out. The greeting was done on the computer.

Thank you as always for stopping by and for the wonderful comments you always leave. Enjoy the Bank Holiday if you are lucky enough to be off.

Back Crafting At Last

Thank you for all your lovely comments following the birth of my new Craft Room!! It is all finished now and I have been filling all the shelves and arranging and re arranging stuff! I don't seem to have as much as I thought I did now it's all tidy and in one place so I don't feel so guilty if I have the urge to add something. I will definitely share some photos with you when I'm happy I've finished getting it just right.

I needed something to sit on and during a visit to my Mum I asked her about an old stool she had. She said she didn't want it so I brought it home and gave it a crafty make over. It was pine originally and well worn from years of use so I sanded it down and painted it with the same emulsion I've used on the room. It took a couple of coats to get a nice surface and then I stamped on it with Graphite black Brilliance ink using various stamps including the Patchwork Butterfly from Graphicus, a Dawn Bibby flower and some Inkadinkadoo leaves for the sides and the legs. I found that using the stamps unmounted worked best as you can push them down more firmly onto the wood and bend them round the legs.


The top edges were aged with some Vintage Photo DI and then I coloured all the stamped images with watercolour pencils and went over with a water brush to get the colour into all the woodgrain. Stickles were added as a finishing touch and then my DH gave it a couple of coats of varnish to seal it all.


I really enjoyed myself and things kept getting added when suggestions were made by the rest of the family so it certainly ended up well decorated. I shall sit on it with pride!!

I've also just noticed that the Tuesday Taggers theme this week is Bugs and they have a lovely prize from The Craft Barn again. I know this is a bit bigger than a tag but I hope they won't mind if I sneak it in as my entry.

Thank you for stopping by and I hope your week is going well. I'm not sure what's happened to the Spring weather this week. Hopefully it will return for the Bank Holiday.

I'm Still Here

Did you think I'd left the country or run off with a handsome stranger?

No, I'm still here. It's Spring and that means only one thing in this household.....Decorating!!!!!

Not that I'm complaining 'cos I'm getting a craft room at long last. We have a very small spare room that had a bed in but no one stays over anymore. Ahhhh I hear you crying. It's not that sad, honest, all our family live within a mile of us and so there isn't really the need to sleep over. We had it when Freya was small for emergencies really and it became the junk room. This meant that there was years of "stuff" to sort through before we could even make a start at putting paint on the walls. I have shredded mountains of paperwork, made several trips to the tip with rubbish and filled numerous charity bags.

The walls have been painted a cheery yellow and a lovely wood floor laid. I have a work top to work at and am now having a lovely time filling all the shelves and re arranging long forgotten craft stuff. The days have flown and I have fallen into bed exhausted so just haven't had the time or strength to turn on the computer so I hope you can forgive me. Normal service will resume very soon.


I haven't done any crafting either so have nothing to show you so thought I would just share a photo I took of some very early daffs I have in the Conservatory although the ones in the garden are beginning to put in a very welcome appearance at last.

Thank you for stopping by and I will get round to have a look at all the lovely things I've been missing on your blogs very soon.

Time Flies....

I'm so sorry for being a bad Blogger recently. Can't you tell the weather has improved? It's been so lovely to get outside in the garden again and tidy up the winter debris and enjoy seeing the buds beginning to appear. A lovely promise of things to come.

I hope all you Mums out there enjoyed Mother's Day yesterday. I had a lovely day with a cup of tea in bed and a beautiful hand made card and some new stamps to play with. Perfect. We also visited our Mums as well so it was a nice relaxing day. I will share the cards I made with you in a later post.

I've been having another play with Alcohol inks, something I don't feel I've fully got to grips with yet. Sometimes, they work but more often than not I don't like how they come out.


In last months Craft Stamper there was a technique to create landscapes with them by wiping blending solution over the gloss card first and then applying the ink over the top and swooshing it about with the blending tool. By deciding what the swooshing looks like and stamping accordingly it creates little scenes.


I haven't been very adventurous and just used my favourite Crafty Individual tree stamps for both of them but I quite like the results. I tried two different colours but think I prefer the blue one best. I shall definitely try it again with different types of stamps to see what happens.

Thank you, as always, for stopping by and I hope your week goes well.

Mad March

I think Spring has finally arrived, the sun is shining, well it's gone in now but was glorious earlier, the bulbs are flowering and the lambs are in the fields. Doesn't it make you feel so much better.

To celebrate I thought I'd share a photo I took of the beautiful little irises that came out all in a rush yesterday, probably a month late but well worth the wait.

It's also lovely to see Frankie back with her Tag challenge over at Dragonsdream, although due to health problems, she has a guest host in Black dragon at the moment, who is doing a great job. They also have some candy to offer.

The theme this week is Mad March which really got me thinking. In the end I decided that the one thing that is mad in March is the weather. In one day you can have severe frost, fog, gorgeous blue skies and amazing sunsets so that's what I've tried to show in my tag, along with the roosting birds and a host of golden daffodils.


I blended various Colourbox Q pigment inks and stamped the trees and birds with Crafty Individuals stamps. The daffodil stamps no longer have their name on so they'll have to remain a mystery. I coloured them with watercolour pencils though. A bit of stickles was added for the frost.

Apologies for the bit of orange thread, I only noticed it when I loaded the photos and the light's too poor to take another now, told you the sun had gone in!!

Thank you for stopping by and I hope your week is going well so far.

Curls and Swirls

Happy Sunny Thursday to you all. Isn't this weather just lovely.

This weeks theme over at Tuesday Taggers is Curls and Swirls and they have a great prize from Crafty Individuals so it's well worth checking out. Who can resist Swirls and Curls?

I have been enjoying my new Tim Holtz book, A Compendium of Curiosities and thought I'd have another play with all the lovely techniques he demonstrates.


I stamped the swirls with white acrylic paint and let it dry thoroughly and then blended distress ink over the top (peeled paint, dusty concord and broken china) and wiped over the paint with a damp cloth to remove the ink and then over stamped with brushed corduroy and blended around the edge.

The butterfly was from Graphicus and was painted with H20's and cut out, with stickles added for the bling. I added a gem trail and a woodware gold curl.

Before I go I'd just like to say thank you for your lovely Blogarversary wishes.

Thank you for stopping by and enjoy the sunshine.