ALWAYS WITH A HEART - OR THREE

Hi Everyone

Happy Wednesday!

Thank you so much for your lovely comments on Monday's post - we had a lovely evening celebrating our anniversary.  

Another bright and sunny day here today .. .. .. oh I hope this is a sign of things to come and the weather is going to spoil us again .. .. just like it did this time last year.

As I am super happy to have been able to add another tab to the top of my blog I have added another rectangular sketch today.  It looks like this:

and once put to work  .. .. .. it finished up looking like this using a pale cream card that looks a little bit darker in this picture than it is in real life.

This used:

Images and Sentiment: WOW! Stamps "Gratitude"  (Not on their website)
Backing Papers:  "Lilac Bouquet" This is an old download designed by Doreen Stoltz and sold through Aimee Asher (not sure what happened to them but it used to be a great place to find lovely design papers back in the day).
Spellbinder Circle and Scallop Circle Die Sets
Nail Head
My Trusty Sewing Machine

Amongst lots of other things, I have been trying to do some housekeeping on my laptop and part of this housekeeping led me to a collection of old download files (hence today's ancient papers).  I am trying to get them all a bit better organised and some of the file names re-worded so I know exactly what they are .. .. rather than a row of initials and numbers .. .. .. .. which is how quite a few of my downloads have arrived over the years.

It will be nice to remind myself of some of the goodies that will be stored away .. .. .. but I must admit I have already come across some that have made me think "why on earth did I buy that!!"  LOL!!

Enjoy what is left of the evening folks and I will catch you again soon.

ENDLESS LOVE

Hi Everyone

Happy Monday!

It is definitely a happy Monday here as it is our wedding anniversary .. .. .. which means a romantic dinner for two this evening at the House of Hearts Bistro.  I have booked the best table in the house but still need to clear it and get it all set up.

March is a mad month in this house and the mantlepiece has been having a steady turnaround of cards this month.  We started with Mother's Day, then my Birthday and now our Wedding Anniversary.

This is the card I made for Mr Heart .. .. .. a special card for a super special man.  I was definitely at the front of the queue when they were handing out kind, thoughtful and loving husbands (and I choose to overlook the fact that speedy DIY tasks are not one of his strong points LOL!!).  We can't have everything can we .. .. .. that would be greedy.

So here we go:

This used:  

Image:  Three Heart Design Shop "Endless Love Song Lyrics Heart Design"  -  I added the two little birds and the extra heart myself using a tiny bird that was part of a Digistamp Boutique Birdcage and Bird download (sadly they are not trading anymore)
My Trusty sewing machine .. ... and that is all!

So, nearly time for me to start finding that dining room table, the candles and the matches.

Catch you again soon.

 

SNOWY THE SNOWMAN

Hi Everyone

I hope you are all enjoying your weekend. 

Busy one here .. ..  as per usual .. .. but I was determined to enter Fezziwig's Festive Frolics Challenge. 

This fortnight Hazel wants us to use our favourite festive stamps .. .. .. .. and if you love Christmas as much as I do then all of your festive stamps are favourites.  How on earth can you choose?

So in the end I went for one that ranks high on my list of favourites .. .. the wonderful Snowy who makes me smile every time I look at him!

Lots of masking on this one, but I am left with a lovely flat postage friendly Christmas card! 

This used:

Images:  Penny Black "2521K" Snowy and "4202L" Berry Red, Snow White
Distress Ink:  Speckled Egg
ProMarkers
Ribbon
Cranberry Stickles
Chalk
Crystal Glamour Dust
My Trusty Sewing Machine

I am a bit late entering this challenge, but if you fancy playing along with your favourite festive stamps there are still a couple of days left.

Catch you again soon .. .. enjoy the rest of the weekend.

HAPPY EASTER

Hi Everyone

I hope your week has been going well.

I have been on Easter card duties today and the new images from Lili of the Valley came at just the right time for me.

Love this image.  It was great to colour and comes with lots of different sentiments that you can add to the centre .... so it will be useful for lots of occassions:

This used:

Image & Sentiment:  LOTV "Circular Floral Frames & Beautiful Messages"
Backing Papers:  The Lovely Studio "Pretty As a Posie"

ProMarkers
X-Cut Corner Rounding Punch
My Trusty Sewing Machine

Yay!!!  Success, after spending hours and hours I have finally managed to get my rectangle sketch tab to the top of my blog.

Thank you for your comment Kate xx .. .. ..  it really helped.  You are a star!

FIRST RECTANGULAR SKETCH

Hi Everyone

I hope you all had a lovely weekend.

Some of my time was spent starting off a new sketch tab on my blog .. .. .. this time it is going to be for rectangular cards.

I seem to be making quite a few of these shaped cards recently and my square sketches just don't work for me in the right way on them ... ... so here we go with my first rectangular sketch.

As with my square sketches, please feel free to use these rectangular ones if you like the look of any of them.

and this is how it can look:

This used:

Image:  Penny Black "3347H" Duckling
Backing Papers:  Craft Sensations "Sweet Romance"
ProMarkers
X-Cut Flower Punch
Ribbon
Nail Heads
My Trusty Sewing Machine

Now I just need to work out how to put a new tab on the top of my blog!  It was easy in the old version, just hoping I can work it out in this new one!

Hope I don't accidentally trash my blog!

If I do .. .. .. .. it has been truly, truly wonderful knowing you all. 

MY SKETCH FOR MARCH

Hi Everyone

I hope your week has been a good one.

Quite a bit has been accomplished this week in the House of Hearts .. .. .. .. but as always I am never satisfied and always expect more from my days.  

I wonder if I will ever reach the stage where I say "that will do for today" and then just chill!  I somehow doubt it!  

Today I have added a new sketch into My Sketch Vault, which you can find on a tab at the top of my blog.

It looks like this:

and when put to use can look like this:

This used:

Image: LOTV James the Bear Thinking Simply Print
Sentiment:  LOTV Simply Cute Sentiments
Backing Papers:  Papermania Capsule Collection "Midnight Blush" (super duper old)
X-Cut Corner Rounding Punch
Spellbinders Circle Die
Creative Expressions:  Shaded Peony with matching die set
Dew Drop
ProMarkers
My Trusty Sewing Machine

If you want to play with any of my sketches then please feel free to do so.  I love using them as it takes half the thinking out of producing a card.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend.

GREEN CHRISTMAS

Hi Everyone

I hope your week has been going well.

I am here to play along with the Christmas Kickstart Challenge where the current theme  is "Green Christmas".

My Christmas card stash is a little slow in growing this year, my Christmas stock box is usually a little fuller by now, so I decided to have a little "batch making" session in an attempt to "get ahead" and be super early ready for Christmas.  

I want 2021 to be my most organised and stress free Christmas ever!!

So here we go. 

My green Christmas:

This used:

Images:  Hero Arts "K5620" and "H5629" 
Sentiment:  Woodware Clear Magic Singles "FRS771" Merry & Bright
Memento Ink:  Bamboo Leaves
Silver Embossing Powder
Nail Head
My Trusty Sewing Machine

So I now need to finish the other six cards and then this year I am going to be putting my inserts into my cards straight away.  Last year I had lots of cards made but ended up sitting there for ages and ages putting the insert inside.

Not my most favourite of crafty tasks!

See you again soon.

THERE IS NOTHING LIKE A MOTHER'S LOVE

Hi Everyone

Happy Monday!

I hope all you Mums out there had the best Mother's Day you could yesterday.  

Some of my day was spent at my Mum's and I picked up our youngest Son on my way home.  He is part of our "bubble" so he was able to sleep over as well.  

We got to facetime and play games on-line with the London Kids .. .. .. so it felt like we were all "sort of" together.  A lovely day all in all which I really enjoyed.  

This is the card I gave to my Mum .. .. her home is full of succulents and cacti so I thought this image would be perfect for her.

This used:

Image:  Vera Lane Studios "Succulents"

Sentiment:  Computer Generated

Backing Paper:  From snippet mountain (that pile isn't going down very quickly even though I am trying really hard)

ProMarkers

Ribbon
My Trusty Sewing Machine

I am back at Mum's again today .. .. it will be interesting to see if all the cards I stood up for her yesterday are still on display.  She isn't one for having them "cluttering the place up" .. .. .. where as mine stay on show for a least a week! Sometimes more!!  LOL!

Enjoy today everyone .. .. .. and stay safe. 

VINTAGE CHRISTMAS

Hi Everyone

I hope your day has gone well.  

I took Mum for her second Covid vaccination today .. .. so we are one step nearer to being able to take her out and about again one day.. .. .. .. once everywhere is safe to be opened up of course and I have had my second vaccine.  I must admit it is going to feel very strange and scary when we are told we are free.  I wonder if we will still have to wear our facemasks?!?!?

Anyway, my share for today is for taking over to Fezziwig's Festive Frolics Challenge where the theme for this fortnight is Vintage.  I have had my image stamped out for a few days now, but haven't had chance to turn it into a card until this evening.

So here we go:

This used:  

Image:  Stampendous "Snowy Postcard"
Backing Papers:  Papermania "A Silent Night" (a very old paper collection - I loved the holly paper in the pack so much that I bought another two packs in the post Christmas sale .. .. again all the holly paper has been used but I still have lots of other designs to work my way through)

ProMarkers
Crystal Glamour Dust
Pearls

My Trusty Sewing Machine

In the past I have only used this image on a square card base.  Must admit I think I prefer it on a rectangular card.

Many thanks for your lovely comments on my stampbord creation of earlier this week.  I am looking forward to seeing if any of you fellow stampbord hoarders break yours out for a play too.  Please let me know if you do.  I would love to see what you do with yours!

Enjoy your weekend everyone.  

TEENY, TINY TUESDAY

Hi Everyone

I hope that today turned out to be a good day for you.  We had some lovely sunshine but sadly it isn't predicted for the remainder of the week.  

Tonight I have a bit of a "different" teeny tiny card to share.  Still measuring 3.5 inches square though.

I am really lucky to have a special craft buddy and between us we "virtually" discuss all things crafty (and other things besides LOL!!) and we often discuss stash we have acquired over the years  .. .. some of which hasn't seen the light of day in ages .. .. and occasionally never at all. 

One such item which we both possess, but hadn't used, was a plastic bag which contained different sized rectangles of Stampbord.  

For anyone who hasn't heard of Stampbord, it is a hardboard panel covered with a layer of super smooth dry clay. 

We challenged ourselves to both use the largest piece in our plastic bag and took our inspiration from this YouTube Video here

This is my offering (attached to a teeny, tiny card):

The centre piece looks like it is standing well proud of my die cut and that is because it has a magnet on the back along with a temporary sticky dot .. .. .. this means my tiny work of art can be taken from the card front and attached to a fridge front.  (That was my crafty friend's idea .. .. which I thought was such a good idea!  Thanks for that matie! xx)

There are different ways to treat the edges (if you want to cover them) but I simply used a clear embossing ink pad and gold embossing powder.

This used:

Stampbord
Distress Ink Pads
Image:  AALL & Create "Eclectic Stems"
Can't remember where the sentiment came from but if I remember I will add it here
Gold Embossing Powder
Creative Expressions Embossing Folder EF-079 "Love Hearts"
Go Kreate:  Scalloped Squares 
Magnet
Temporary Glue Dot

and that is me for today.

Keeping my fingers crossed for some more decent weather tomorrow.

Take care everyone.

PENNY BLACK SATURDAY CHALLENGE

Hi Everyone

I hope you have had a good Saturday .. .. .. halfway through the weekend already!

It is the first day of the Penny Black Saturday Challenge today and I thought I would open the Penny Black stamp drawer and play along.

The theme is always "anything goes" as long as it includes a Penny Black product .. .. .. but with an optional theme this month of "flowers".

So I have gone for this stamp which I bought as a pre-loved stamp a while ago:

This used:

Image:  Penny Black "2063K" Water Lily Skiing
Image:  Cardio Stamps "Mini Tall Trees"

Sentiment:  Digistamp Boutique Clear Stamp Set (sadly no longer trading .. .. boo hoo!!!)

Backing Papers:  from my Snippet Mountain
Nestabilities:  Circle and Scalloped Circle Dies
ProMarkers
Diamond Stickles

Distress Ink Pads:  Tumbled Glass, Weathered Wood and Peeled Paint
My Trusty Sewing Machine

and that is me for today.

I don't seem to have had much "crafty playtime/blog time" recently but hopefully this will all change soon and I will be back on track and in a better routine.

Take care everyone and enjoy the rest of your weekend.

TEENY, TINY TUESDAY

Hi Everyone

Well the weather has taken a bit of a turn for the worse after the beautiful sunshine we were treated to at the weekend .. .. .. but I suppose it is a bit early in the year to be expecting too much isn't it. 

I am here today to share a quick teeny tiny card, which for anyone new calling by my blog, measures a whole 3.5 inches square.  I love making small cards and very sadly I love making the little tiny envelopes too .. .. .. both the cards, inserts and the envelopes being great for reducing those snippets too!  

Here is today's offering:

Image:  AALL & Create "Knibs & Mushrooms"
Sentiment:  LOTV "Embossed Labels"
Backing Papers:  Not sure .. .. from the snippet mountain
My Trusty Sewing Machine
We R Memory Keepers Envelope Punch Board

There are two sets of stamps in the pack .. .. Knibs & then Mushrooms.  The mushrooms will make an appearance another day.

I stamped the knibs onto some thin silver paper using Black Stazon, cut them out and then added them to the image.

So that is me for today,

Take care everyone and I hope you managed to find a little crafty time to lose yourself in a some point today.

See you again soon.