PROBABLY MY MOST USED STAMP

Hi Everyone

I hope you are all OK and that the day is being kind to you.

The weather here is grotty considering how lovely it has been the last few days.  I really did think Spring was on its way .. . but perhaps not just yet :-(

You surprised me yesterday with how easily you all found the heart .. and there was me thinking it was going to be difficult.  Clearly everyone is getting to know my hiding places far too well .. .. or you are cultivating super speedy heart spotting eyes LOL!!!

Today's share uses probably the stamp I have used the most in my collection .. .. I love it.

This used:

Image:  Stampendous! "M217" Dandie Trio
Backing Papers:  Pink Petticoat "Quatrefoil" and "Stripes" (both sets on offer for £1 each at the mo!!)
Martha Stewart Punch:  Traditional Scallop
Josy Rose:  Nail Heads
My Trusty Sewing Machine
Gold Embossing Powder
Ribbon from my stash box

A little more of the cream card has disappeared too but there is plenty more to go at.

These are the snippets left over from just one wedding card cutting session!!!!

Lots of hearts, butterflies and flowers there .. .. and possibly a few little easel cards if I get my act together.

Cream is definitely going to be my new white!!!  LOL!!!

Enjoy the rest of your day.

Love

PAPERTAKE WEEKLY CHALLENGE

Hi Everyone

I hope your week is going well .. .. mine is going far too quickly as usual !!

This posting with my lunch certainly makes for a much more organised evening on the home front .. .. must try hard to stick with it where I can.

My share today is for the Papertake Weekly Challenge where the theme is to use only one pattern or design paper.

That saved a bit of time .. .. and also gave me the chance to use up more of those cream card offcuts.

Here is what I came up with:

This used:

Sentiment:  Pink Petticoat "Tiny Everyday Sentiments"
Backing Paper:  Docrafts "Wellington"
Go Kreate:  Large Frames "Scalloped Squares"
Crafter's Companion:  Die'sire Dies "Scalloped Tags"
X-Cut Punch:  Butterfly
My Trusty Sewing Machine
Pearls and Ribbon from my stash box

I feel a bit bad today as the heart isn't showing up too well in the photographs.  I promise that there is a one there folks .. .. it is just very hard to see (unless you know where it is or have the card in your hand).   It isn't as if it is small either!!

Catch you again soon.

Love

SNOOZING STAN

Hi Everyone

Just a quick post from me today whilst I am munching on my lunch.

Unfortunately I have the news on in the background too .. .. .. what horrible news it is holding from all over the world.  Lots of lives in turmoil and some ending far too early :-(

It makes our unhappiness about our energy supplier wanting to up our direct debit pale into insignificance .. .. but it is nonetheless worrying!

Perhaps as the news continues there might be some good news to cling to somewhere (please).

Anyway, round to my quick share:

This used:

Image:  Digistamp Boutique  "Snoozing Stan"

Sentiment:  Computer Generated using font "Mr Sirloin" (my current favourite)

Backing Papers:  Nitwits "Bear Boys Too" (just love the brown pattern that looks like quilted fabric)

Nestabilities:  Classic Squares

ProMarkers

Josy Rose:  Nail Heads

Diamond Stickles

Metallic Cord from my Stash Box

OK .. .. lunch break over .. .. time to hit the wedding invitations I need finished for the weekend.

Hope your day is going well.

Love

SUNDAY SNIPPETS

Hi Everyone

Happy Sunday!

We had some quite decent weather here this morning and decided we should spend an hour in the garden before the day took hold .. .. and that hour turned into the whole morning!!!!  Anyone would think I have nothing else to do LOL!!

But I am well chuffed with what we managed to get done.

The greenhouse now smells beautifully of eau de Jeyes Fluid and six tomato plants are standing proudly in their pots ready for supplying us with tommies during the summer months.  They have been growing on my kitchen window-ledge for a few weeks and were well ready for their big pots!  Hopefully they will be OK out there in the greenhouse .. .. I wonder if they are having a little cough, splutter and shiver!!

The brown bin is nice and full ready for collecting tomorrow and now it is raining so thankfully no need to feel guilty for not carrying on!!!

I seem to have my knickers in a twist with regards the snippet playground this week .. .. but here is my card anyway .. .. using up more of that cream card, pink and brown.  The fullest drawers in my snippet collection.

As always on a Sunday I am super lazy and don't list my ingredients but if there are any questions just give me a shout.

OK ..  ..  off now for a massive guillotine session in readiness for all the printing I need to crack on with tomorrow.  There is a busy week ahead with lots of work needed on two weddings.

Lots of good things recorded on the hard drive but of course we can't have any of those on in the background  .. ... hubby has the football on!!!

Catch you again soon.

Love

SKETCH SATURDAY

Hi Everyone

Happy Saturday!!!

I hope your weekend is going well.

The weather will have been dry and bright for my happy couple who were getting married this afternoon.  I am just hoping they managed some lovely photographs before the rain started :-(  .  .  .   that is the one thing you can't arrange for your wedding day isn't it.  Decent weather!!

But I am sure they won't have let a few rain drops spoil their special day.  

I had a little play with the Sketch Saturday Challenge sketch earlier today and came up with this little creation below (though my pictures are appearing in reverse order for some reason):

This used:

Image:  Penny Black "3377K" Whispers
Sentiment:  Pink Petticoat "Tiny Everyday Sentiments"
Backing Papers:  My Minds Eye "On The Sunny Side"
Nestabilities:  Classic Circle Large and Scalloped Circles Large
Josy Rose:  Acrylic Domes
My Trusty Sewing Machine
ProMarkers
Buttons, charm and button twine from my stash box

and if you fancy playing along this is the sketch I followed.

We are off out for a meal with friends tonight so I had better go and make myself look decent!!!

Have a great evening everyone and I will catch you again tomorrow with my snippets.  I hear on the grapevine that a few of the scallywags from the snippet playground hit Ally Pally today.  Oh my goodness .. .. I bet they wreaked havoc!!  LOL!!!

Enjoy tonight!!

Love

HAPPY NEW HOME

Hi Everyone

I hope you have all had a good day.  

Quite a bit of rain here today but hopefully Mother Nature is getting it out of her system ahead of one of my "happy couples" getting married tomorrow.

The bride loves daffodils and was hoping that all of the ones either side of the driveway leading up to her wedding venue would be in full bloom.  Mine are just about open in the garden so hopefully the sun and the flowers will shine for her tomorrow!  The wedding isn't until the afternoon so fingers crossed they have time to "burst open".

I managed a make for my niece today who moved house last weekend.  She has moved to somewhere that has a blue front door which she loves .. .. hence my little make here

This used:

Image:  Digistamp Boutique (part of the "New Home Collection")
Sentiment:  Computer Generated using font "Mr Sirloin"
Backing Papers:  Nitwits "Always and Forever Too" (there is a lovely FQB in this range too and I will give you the link to this as well, just in case my make was a mixture of the two.  These were in my snippet storage waiting to be used).
Papermania:  1cm mini flower punch
My Trusty Sewing Machine
ProMarkers
Diamond Stickles
Ribbons, flat backed pearls and charm from my stash.

I am also going to enter this into the Digistamp Boutique Challenge for April.

Lots of you have been kind enough to comment and email on my commission in Quick Cards Made Easy magazine this month where I was pleased to be asked to make shadow box cards for the Card School Feature.

Thank you for your lovely comments on them and to put of few of you out of your misery here is the card that is causing you a few sleepless nights .. .. 

I decided that the pattern itself incorporated my trademark heart so did not add any additional ones .. .. I hope you agree!!  

Funny to think that people even look for the hearts in the magazine.

I know that quite a few of you have had a go at making the shadow box card .. .. so why not send a picture of it into to the magazine?  I know they would love to see what you have made.  The email and snail mail addresses are at the end of the card school feature in the current issue (number 112 .. .. the one with the fabby free Wild Rose Studio stamp and topper set).

Anyway .. .. time to give in for today.

I'll catch you again over the weekend.  I hope you have a good one.

Love

MID WEEK SNIPPETS

Hi Everyone

The promise of a card and still I am late after all this time LOL!!!  But my first port of call just has to be to the playground to visit Pixie's Crafty Snippet Challenge.  How many snippets have I made just in the last week!!

A much needed tidy up/re-organisation happened in the old craft pod (and the spare bedroom come wedding work storage area) today. But during the clear up even more snippets made an appearance and joined the rest that are saved "just in case"!!.

This is what I made with some of them:

Not sure what the papers are as they have been hanging round for a while but the rest of the ingredients are:

Sentiment:  Funstamps "FG12"  Happy Birthday (Dots)
Wow! Embossing Powder:  Fluorescent Tickled Pink
Sizzix Die "656521"  Flower w/Leaves & Stem #2
My Trusty Sewing Machine
.. .. and everything else is from my stash box

and that is me for today.

Back to wedding samples again tomorrow so no doubt I will be messing up all those lovely ribbons I have tidied and sorted into colour codes today!

Hope everyone is having a good week.

An early night for us .. .. we both slept through the first alarm this morning that would have been making a noise for at least 15 minutes!!!! .. ..  its a good job we have three going off at different times!!!  One early, one just right and one that gets you rushing round!!! LOL!!!

Love

HOW BUSY IS THE HOUSE OF HEARTS?!?!?

Hi Everyone

Missing you all loads .. .. and never in the life of my blog have I been so long between posts.  So sorry :-(  Life is just super busy and super exciting at the moment and the days are whizzing by in a flash!

But believe it or not there is fear of me having time to share something tomorrow (provided I don't get any more sample requests).  All of my time has been spent on wedding orders, wedding samples for interest people, meeting up with folk and magazine work. 

A happy couple have been and collected their table plan and table name cards this evening ahead of their wedding on Saturday .. .. oh I do hope the weather is as nice as it has been this last few days for them.   

So that is another wedding done and dusted.  It always feels a little sad when a wedding comes to an end and I empty their work boxes and move their files into the "finished weddings" folder .. .. but no sooner is one finished than another takes its place.

But not a general card has been made that I can share in over a week.  I can hardly believe it.

Anyway, hopefully I will be here tomorrow with a creation.

Catch you soon and thank you for all your lovely messages and emails.  I haven't even had chance to answer all of those yet!!

Some people don't deserve a blog to they?!?!?!?

Love

SKETCH SATURDAY

Hi Everyone

I hope you are all well and have had a really lovely Easter.

My ribbon supplier has been closed for the whole of the Easter break so my hubby's last day off work saw us winging our way to collect goodies for making wedding samples for new interested "happy couples" and also for the couples who have placed actual orders over the course of the last week.  

I need to hit the ground running tomorrow that's for sure as things are hotting up nicely in the old House of Hearts!!!  Hubby will be back at work too so no distractions there LOL!!!  

Apart from all the wedding work I also need to get some general makes done and I used the inspiration from the Sketch Saturday Challenge to create tonight's share:

This used:

Image:  Penny Black "3947K" Day-Dreams

Sentiment:  Pink Petticoat "Tiny Everyday Sentiments"

Backing Papers:  Pink Petticoat "Colour Pallette Update" printed in Sweet Apricot

Flower Die:  Joy Crafts

Diamond Stickles

ProMarkers

Brads, Ribbon and Seed Beads from my stash box

If you fancy playing along then this is the sketch you need to follow

I am just hoping my corner ribbons count.  If not then just delete my entry ladies .. .. I will understand.

Catch you again soon folks.

Love

SUNDAY SNIPPETS

Hi Everyone

I hope you are having a lovely Easter and that everyone has remembered to alter their clocks!!!

I am certainly missing my stolen hour already.  I got up with all good intentions of getting lots done and  am failing miserably so far.  But hey ho .. .. it is a Bank Holiday weekend .. .. and I am determined to make it as relaxed and enjoyable as possible amongst everything that "has" to be done.

My intention was to have two snippet makes done today .. .. one for Pixie's Crafty Snippet Challenge and the second being for taking over to Sandra's Rudolph Day Challenge.  But once again I have failed. No Christmas make from me again this month :-(  I'll be sorry come October time when my customers are shouting out for Christmas cards!!!  But if anyone else still has time there is just a short time left to enter. 

Anyway, here is my "non-Christmas" snippet make.

As always I am super lazy on a Sunday and don't list my ingredients but if you have any questions then feel free to ask.

I managed to find the spare bulb for my sewing machine too so the stitching on this make is a little more impressive than on my last make.  I wonder if the new bulb will last as long as the original .. .. I somehow doubt it.

Thank you for all the anniversary and birthday wishes on my last post.  We have had a lovely week with all our celebrations.

Catch you again soon.

Have a good rest of today

Love

HAPPY WEDDING ANNIVERSARY MR HEART

Hi Everyone

Well as promised yesterday I am back with the card I made my lovely hubby .. .. for celebrating our 38th Wedding Anniversary.

Thank you for all the lovely birthday and anniversary wishes.  You are all so very kind

How nice that our special day has fallen on a Bank Holiday so that we can spend the whole day together.  Not only that but the sun is shining brightly and we have a blue sky!!!  I wonder if it will last.  i hope so.

The day we got married it was Easter Saturday and I can remember spending the day before trying to make a hooded lace cape to go over my lovely Sister's velvet bridesmaid dress.  I managed to get it finished but when I put it on her the next day I didn't like it .. .. what a waste of time that was!!  LOL!!

So here is Mr Heart's card .. .. sort of how I envisaged it .. .. but to be honest my brain hadn't gone past marking the date on a calendar with a heart!

This used:

Image:  Created in Microsoft Word

Sentiment:  Computer Generated using Fonts "Chauncy" "Zipty Do" and "2 Peas Barefoot Professor"

Backing Paper:  Pink Petticoat "Tiniest Pretty Little Hearts" from the Easter Colour Collection Treat

My Trusty Sewing Machine

Josy Rose:  Nail Heads

Nestabilities:  Heart

Button, cord and gems from my stash box

Not sure why I have call my sewing machine "trusty" .. .. the bulb blew just as I was starting to sew (hence the straightness of everything leaving a bit to be desired). 

Nothing is made to last is it .. .. just 32 years of use and suddenly the bulb "gives in".  LOL!!!!  Wonder if I have a spare stashed away anywhere?!?!?!?

Anyway that is me for today.

Edited to say:  Just look what I found on my lovely blog buddy Eve's blog.  Thank you Eve .. what a lovely surprise.  You are very kind.

Have a wonderful Easter everyone .. .. and go steady(ish) with the chocolate over the weekend!  

Love

USING UP THAT CREAM CARD

Hi Everyone

Here early today .. .. with a card it has taken me two days to make LOL!!

Just not enough hours in the day, or days in the week for me to get on top of my general makes .. .. .. the House of Hearts is definitely in "Wedding Mode" big time.

This week has seen me meeting up with more new "happy couples" and saying "bye for now" to others :-(

I also had a birthday on Tuesday which of course needed celebrating!

Anyway, here is my share for today which uses up some of those cream card snippets that are increasing at a fair rate of knots.  I think I now have more cream snippets than white ones and that is saying something.  

This used:

Image:  Hero Arts "S5316" Silhouette Grass

Sentiment:  Penny Black "3849E" Birthday Dreams

Background made with Tea Die Distress Ink stippled firstly through a Deckled Edge Nestabilities Rectangle cut into a piece of scrap paper and then through some sequin waste.

Script Stamp: "32531" Elusive Script Background (stamped again through the Deckled Edge Rectangle moved to the right.

Stampendous Embossing Powder (my own accidental mix of pirate gold and silver but I love it!!)

Josy Rose:  Nail Heads

X-Cut Butterfly Punch

Pearls, ribbon cord and bead from my stash box

So there we go.  I managed a share yay!!!  

I do miss it when I don't get chance to post or visit your lovely blogs .. .. but I will hopefully be able to have a good catch up with everyone over the Easter break.

But for today I have lots to do .. .. part of which involves making my lovely hubby a wedding anniversary card for tomorrow.  Thankfully I have an idea in my head .. .. I just have to hope it turns out how I am imagining it.  But whatever I make him I will let you see that tomorrow.

I was asked how many years we will have been married .. .. well we are up to 38 lovely years this year .. .. and it feels like 8!!  Where have those other 30 gone?!?!!?  My life is flying by far too quickly :-( 

Have a lovely day today everyone.  We actually have a little sunshine trying to peep through so with a bit of luck the snow might disappear today.

See you tomorrow

Love

SUNDAY SNIPPETS

Hi Everyone

I hope your Sunday is proving to be a good one and you are managing to keep warm and snuggly.

We still have lots of snow .. . although it does seem to have stopped falling now!  For how long we will have to wait and see.

My lovely hubby and I got married on the 29th March and the weather was just like this during the week running up to our "special day". Everyone at work was pulling my leg and saying our wedding photographs will be like a quiz where people have to play "spot the bride". Thankfully the the snow disappeared for "the big day" but apparently it was bitter cold.  For some reason hubby and I never noticed .. .. our love must have been keeping us warm.

Anyway, after that soppy trip down memory lane here is my snippet make for this week for taking over to Pixie's Crafty Snippet Challenge.

As always I am lazy on a Sunday and don't list my ingredients but I will share with you a link which shows you how I made the flower (this was done in bed this morning using ends of ribbon from my ribbon leftovers drawer).  Yep .. .. even ribbon snippets in the House of Hearts LOL!!

My flower hasn't turned out too bad for a first attempt.  I won't be showing these to my "happy couples" though.  I wouldn't want to sit and make 100's of them!

You will see on the tutorial that they use twine for the spokes but I used very narrow ribbon in a similar colour for mine.  You can probably see that if you look closely.

I am looking forward to another play with this tutorial as I have a few little ideas running round in my head of other looks I could achieve.

Here is the link if you fancy having a go

http://createdbyu.blogspot.co.uk/2011/01/super-saturday-tutorial-lovely-ribbon.html

I must admit to having tried to make flowers similar to this before simply by adding glue to a circle of cardboard .. .. but I think the spokes make this a much easier flower to make.

Enjoy the rest of your day and I'll catch again soon.

Love