NUMBER 25

Hi Everyone

I hope you have had a lovely Sunday.

I have been chipping away at wedding stationery samples for prospective new "happy couples" today and once finished I turned my hand to this week's Christmas make using a beautiful die I was very fortunate to win from Pixie's Snippets Playground .. .. .. and my fingers have been itching to play with it since it fell through my letterbox.

This evening I had chance to free the die from it's package and I used it to make this little card.  Not a teeny tiny one but not much bigger .. .. this measures 8.5 x 12cm.

This used:

Die:  My Favorite Things "MFT-1429" Christmas Tree Window

Backing papers :  From my Christmas paper snippet box

Sentiment:  Computer generated

Sequins

Acetate

Dimension Tape

I am taking my creation over to Pixie's Snippets Playground Challenge to share what I have done with my wonderful prize.  Thank you so much Di.  I am going to enjoy using this die very very much.

So that is Christmas card number 25 into the box.  Woo hoo!

SOCIAL BUTTERFLY

Hi Everyone

Happy Saturday!!!  

I hope your week has been a good one and that you have something nice planned for the weekend.

Lots of birthday cards needed here this month so I had a quick search for a challenge to give me inspiration .. .. .. I settled on Color Throwdown Challenge #541 and teamed it up with sketch number Twenty Five from my sketch library.

Then as I used a beautiful Penny Black butterfly image I am also entering the Penny Black Saturday Challenge.   The theme as always is "anything goes - as long as it features Penny Black" and there is an optional theme of "make your own background" .. .. but I didn't do that.  Perhaps next time if I get to play again.

So with most of the decisions already made, all that was left was for me to actually create something .. .. and this is what I came up with:

This used:

Image:  Penny Black Clear Stamp Set "30-116" Social Butterfly
Sentiment:  Lili of the Valley Clear Stamp Set "Sentiment Tags"
Backing Papers:  Craft Sensations "Sweet Candy"
Die-namics Die Set:  Blueprints 14
Brilliance Pigment Ink "Moonlight White"
Crystal Glamour Dust
Flat Backed Pearls
Ribbon
My Trusting Sewing Machine

These are the colours I was challenged to work with: 

Pale Pink  -  Brown  -  Black  -  White

and as my eyes were drawn to the spotted curtains in the inspiration picture I thought my spotted social butterfly was quite fitting.

This is the sketch I picked to work with .. .. .. I turned it clockwise 90 degrees.  After all every sketch has four ways of being used.

If you would like to use any of my sketches, you are more than welcome to do so .. .. you will find them on the tab at the top of the blog.

Enjoy the rest of the day (and the bank holiday if you are in the UK).  

I will catch you again tomorrow with this week's Christmas creation.

TEENY, TINY TUESDAY

Hi Everyone

Happy Tuesday!

The last day of yet another month!!  I have a feeling that 2019 is going to be a super quick year!!

I am at home all day today hopefully putting together wedding samples for sparkly new happy couples who have  recently appeared on the scene.  That is if the deliveries I have been promised for today arrive! 

I guess the good side of doing weddings is your work is seen by lots of people with the potential that some of them may also be on the verge of planning their own wedding.  Nearly all of the couples I have gained so far this year have been to weddings that I have  previously done the stationery for.  Some as long as 3 or 4 years ago!!!

So before the day was swallowed up by wedding work I indulged myself in a little play session and made one of my teeny, tiny 3.5" creations .. .. tailoring it to fit into the Penny Black Saturday Challenge where the theme for the remaining few days of the challenge is "anything goes" with the option of also including "fresh spring colours".

I looked out of my kitchen window and these are some of the colours I could see .. .. but sadly I couldn't actually see any heart shaped topiary happening anywhere LOL!!

This used:

Image:  Penny Black "2551H" Sending Love!
Sentiment  My Favourite Things "LJD-23 Birthday Greetings"
Backing Papers:  Simply Creative "Floral Lace" Purple
ProMarkers
Gossy Accents
Flat Backed Pearls
My Trusty Sewing Machine

and that is it!

Hopefully catch you again soon.

NUMBER 24

Hi Everyone

I hope you have had a good weekend.

Definitely not the glorious weather we had last week .. .. .. but at least the gardens received some of the rain they are needing. 

Here with my Christmas make for this week.  Just the one this time as there is a lot happening here at the moment and even one card was a bit of a stretch .. .. hence the late night posting!!

This used:

Image:  Lili of the Valley Digital Image"Skating Bunny"

Sentiment:  Computer Generated

Backing Papers:  Free with a magazine "ages and ages ago"

ProMarkers

White Gel Pen

Glamour Dust

Snowflakes from my crammed full snowflake box

Metallic Ribbon

Creative Expressions Aqua Dazzler Circle Embellishment

My Trusty Sewing Machine

My card is for sharing with a couple of challenges:

The Christmas Kickstart Challenge .. .. where the theme this fortnight is "Christmas Bunnies"

and

The Rudolph Days Challenge for April .. .. .. where anything goes as long as it is Christmas

This now brings my Christmas card tally to 24!  Woo hoo!!!  Building up nicely!

Catch you again soon.

MASKING FLUID RE-VISITED

Hi Everyone

Hope you all had a fabulous Easter .. .. .. wasn't the weather just fabulous? 

I have never known a bank holiday like it!  Wall to wall sunshine. 

Mr Heart has returned to work today and I have had my nose to the grindstone trying to get back on top of the crafty "must do list".

You may remember my first attempt at using my bottle of masking fluid here .. .. .. where I ended up creating a Christmas card .. .. which was bordering on being more of a "blizzard" rather than a snow flurry!  LOL!!

Well I was super excited to be asked by a magazine I hadn't worked for before .. .. Cardmaking and Papercraft .. .. to create some cards for them showcasing the masking fluid technique.  I used the fluid in different ways though .. .. not a blizzard in sight!! 

The magazine is now on the shelves so I am sharing just a couple of my creations  .. .. gosh I have been cramming so much in that it seems like a lifetime ago that I created these and they make me want to get that bottle open and have another play:

This card used the fluid to mask off stamped butterflies and the tops of some of the flowers
prior to adding the inky background.  The butterflies were coloured last.

For this card the masking fluid was used through a stencil to
create the chevron background prior to painting on inks.

So that is me for today .. .. .. you must at least be happy to not be seeing a Christmas card as that seems to be all that has been appearing on my blog recently LOL!!

Have a good week everyone!

TEENY TINY CHRISTMAS

Hi Everyone

I hope you have all had a good day .. .. I am just flying in quickly with this week's Christmas make .. .. or should I say makes .. .. some little teeny tiny ones!

I must admit my teeny tiny makes are high up the list of being my favourite ones to make, and being just 3.5 inches square they are just perfect for using up some of my huge stocks of snippets.

So here we go .. ..

These used:

Image:  Whipper Snapper "BY802" Let it Snow Snowmen (just part of the image was used)
Sentiment:  Penny Black "3535F" Snowflakes
Distress Inks:  Tumbled Glass, Iced Spruce and Faded Jeans
ProMarkers
White Embossing Powder
Diamond Stickles
Waste Dots from a Silver Peel Off Sheet

I am taking my little makes over to "Pixie's Snippets Playground" where we are encouraged to use up our "leftovers" and also to the "Christmas Kickstart Challenge #8" where the theme this fortnight is "Frosty and his friends".  Not sure which of my snowmen is Frosty .. .. but he certainly has lots of friends!!

So that is me for today with a total number of 23 Christmas cards in my box now!  Woo hoo!!  At this rate I might be looking at a much less stressful run up to the big day this year. What a lovely thought.  It does encourage me to keep going with them that's for sure.

Take care everyone and I will catch you again soon.

CHRISTMAS FORFEIT

Hi Everyone

I hope you are all well and your week has got off to a good start.

All super busy here .. .. which seems to be a regular thing at the moment.  Invitations sitting waiting for pick up and other work packaged up and ready for the postman tomorrow.

Something that isn't for the post yet though are these little creations that I have been working on in little stages all week  .. .. my forfeit for not managing to keep up with my weekly Christmas card new years resolution.

This little influx means I am actually a bit ahead of the game now:

These used:

Sizzix Alterations Stamp and Die Set "65937" Holiday Joy"

Sentiment  "Docrafts" Urban Stamps " Christmas in the Country Tags

Backing Paper: Pink Petticoat

Tiny Snowflakes from my snowflake box

My Trust Sewing Machine

Sparkly Gems

and that is it.

Flying over very quickly now to share these with the Christmas Kickstart Challenge where they are looking to see Christmas dies used on your work .. .. .. and I need to get there before the challenge closes .. .. which will be very, very soon!!  Eeeekk!!  Poor show when you have the work done but no time to photograph it and post it to your blog.  

So my forfeit has given my Christmas box a nice little treat and my total is now up to nineteen. Woo hoo!

Catch you again soon .. .. I hope .. .. as that will mean things are calming down a little.  But for now the ironing board is calling!  Oh I know how to "live it up" on a Monday evening.

Thank you for all your lovely comments regarding my Mum on my previous post.  You are all  so very kind!

MEET MY LOVELY MUM

Hi Everyone

Happy Sunday and Happy Mother's Day.  I hope all you lovely Mum's out there are having a fabby day and are being spoilt.  .

It has been a week of lots of work and lots of celebrating here as I needed to have a birthday and a wedding anniversary .. .. and now Mother's Day all in the space of less than a week.

The London Kids came last weekend and we did lots of celebrating with them too.  Not looking forward to stepping on the scales tomorrow!!  But hey .. .. life is for enjoying isn't it!!!

We have been off to my lovely Mum this morning before my brother came to collect her and this was the card I made for her .. .. super early this morning!!  Well it felt early with having to put the clocks forward.

Mum certainly didn't have any problem finding a heart that's for sure.

As I have been harping on about my Mum for over a year now I thought it might be nice for you to finally meet her (I did ask her this morning if she would mind .. .. and she was fine with it).

This is a picture I took of her at the start of this year.  Doesn't she look fabulous for 88!  She has never been a sun worshiper and I think that is why her skin is so lovely and pretty much "wrinkle free".  I never spend a lot of time in the sunshine either so I am hoping I might follow in her footsteps.

Certainly this time last year she didn't look anything like this .. .. she was one very poorly lady.  But thankfully she is made of strong stuff and we managed to "rear her" and are lucky to be able to spend more happy days with her making special memories.  Happy Mother's Day Mum xx  So happy it isn't this time last year!

Anyway, my card for Mum was made using lots of snippets that were piled up from having a wedding invitation cutting session.  All the flowers and leaves .. .. and even the jar, cut perfectly from some of the narrow strips.  I probably have enough piled up to make a few hundred of these cards LOL!!

So as there has been a culling of "a few" snippets I am running over to Pixie's Snippets Playground to see if the sun is shining and anyone is up for a go on the see-saw.

Hoping for a much less stressful week this week as last week was very hectic .. .. and hopefully a more active blog too  .. .. especially as I have a forfeit to pay for not posting a Christmas card last week!!!

Anyway that is me for today .. .. but before I go can you remember the "happy couple" who had to cancel their wedding just before Christmas because the groom was taken into hospital .. .. well they finally got married yesterday!  Yay!!  .. .. .. and the weather was just perfect for them.  I can't wait to see some photographs.

TIME FLIES

Hi Everyone

Happy Thursday! Another ultra fast week here!  But as they say "time flies wen you are having fun".

Same old story from me .. .. nothing made this week that I can share .. .. but I can show you some makes that I made a while ago that are now peeping at me on the supermarket shelves in the form of this lovely magazine bundle.

I really enjoyed this commission and got to work on the "cat and dog" theme side of the magazine using all the scrummy papers, toppers and last but no means least the stamp set which I really fell in love with.   I wll be using those cute cat and dog images plenty that's for sure.

Here are a few of my favourite makes:

This was my favourite

for a cross-over card commission

  

These were my favourites made with the scrummy stamps 

and using watercolour crayons 

- along with a cute gift box

Then last but not least a few projects 

using the image and sentiment toppers

.. .. and for those of you that aren't into cats and dogs the other half of the magazine features flowers and fairies.

So there we go .. .. lots of hearts for you to find today .. .. and proof that when my blog is lacking some action it doesn't mean my fingers aren't working away!!

Take care and have a great day .. .. .. and if anyone is in the mood for chopping up lots and lots and lots of card ready for printing wedding invitation bundles onto then I have a mountain of that sitting looking at me and saying "when is it my turn to come out and play?" LOL!!

UNLUCKY FOR SOME .. .. 13

Hi Everyone

I hope you have had a good week and not had any problems caused by the awful weather we have been enduring recently.

Can't believe another week has passed since I was last here.  But to be fair this week has been a real manic one and I haven't known if I was coming or going.  Every morning I have woken up and struggled to know what day it was .. .. .. let alone what the date was!!  Thank goodness for "diaries" and "do lists".

The London Kids are coming to stay with us for a few days next weekend so some of today has been spent starting to try and find the spare bedroom for them to sleep in .. .. there is still plenty to do but  I am nearer than I was.  Last time they came to stay they joked and said "why don't you just fix up a big hammock in there" .. .. now that is so tempting!! LOL!!

Anyway, I am here once again with my festive make for this week .. .. at this rate my blog could be re-named "always with a Christmas card" because that is what my blog appears to be showing most at the moment .. .. but never mind .. .. it does make me happy that my Christmas stock box is filling up and I am now on number 13!!  Unlucky for some .. .. but not for me!!

So this little creation is for taking over to Jo's Christmas Kickstart Challenge where the theme for this fortnight is "moves on hooves"

This used:

Image:  Penny Black "4203K" Snowscape

Sentiment:  Hobby Art "Winter Wishes" (I took the holly from one sentiment and added it to another)

Backing Papers:  out of the Christmas Paper box and sorry I don't know where it came from

Distress Inks added with Duster Brushes

ProMarker for the holly leaves

Tiny pearls

Ribbon

My Trusty Sewing Machine

and that is it.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Hopefully it won't take me a whole week to be here again!!