Monday 30 January 2017

Mushroom mice

Hello lovely people,

I'm sorry to be so tardy in bringing you a Design Team sample from the latest LOTV release but I hope you have been enjoying all the samples so far from the rest of the DT and the Design Collective.

This release is full of gorgeous romantic images like this one...

Romantic card with mice, hearts and flowers (image from LOTV)





I am so loving these cute mice!

Romantic card with mice, hearts and flowers (image from LOTV)

This is yet another paper pad that I have had for a few months and not used yet, and the shabby chic style and muted tones with just a few pops of pink seemed perfectly romantic to match the image :-)

I love that diamante ribbon slider to add a little sparkle...and hey, they are not just for sliding onto ribbons...twine works too!

Romantic card with mice, hearts and flowers (image from LOTV)

Thanks for visiting and I really appreciate any comments that you leave,



Copic colours;
Mice: E30/31/55 & R000/01
Mice tummies: YR30/E30/31
Flowers / hearts: R30/32/35
Grass / leaves: YG93/95/97
Mushroom: W3/4/5/6

Products used;

Wednesday 25 January 2017

I'm owl yours

Hello lovely people,

I'm super excited today for 2 reasons;
1) This is my first DT post for Dies to Die For!
2) I have a crafty play date today with my awesome buddies Sue and Debs!

My Favourite Things have tempted me BIG time with their latest release, and top of my list to play with were some super cute owls.

I actually used to collect little pottery/china owls when I was a kid so I do have a soft spot for them!

Cute funny owl card (owl from My Favourite Things)

I got the matching dies so I could cut them out easily but also decided to paper piece the chest of this one to go with the love theme of the card...how cute is his little red heart chest?!

I layered up 3 die cut scalloped frames to make an aperture for the owl to sit in, but he looked a bit sad in there all on his own so I gave him a little branch to perch on...much better :-)

Cute funny owl card (owl from My Favourite Things)

I don't use embossing enough but it just popped into my head to use it on this design instead of DP and I'm glad I did.

The stamp set comes with lots of fun sentiments and I added one that I thought would make this a great Valentine's Day card.

Cute funny owl card (owl from My Favourite Things)


I decided to sign up to InLinkz so I can now put those cute little thumbnail links at the bottom of my post, which makes it really easy for you to go straight over to check them out at Dies to Die For ;-)

Thanks for visiting and I really appreciate any comments that you leave,



Copic colours;
Owl body: E41/42/43
Beak: E43/44
Eyes: B0000/blender




Sunday 22 January 2017

Birthday hedgies

Hello lovely people,

I do love a lazy crafty weekend!  It's been pretty exciting too as I have been working with the next lot of LOTV images to be released and I will be able to show you really soon :-)

In the meantime, I thought I'd share a LOTV Design Team card that I made using some of the new trio stamps.

This is a triple circle card and the sections are held together with pearl brads, so they can swing over each other to close it up.

Triple circle birthday card with cute hedgehogs (images from LOTV)

I used stitched die cut circles and scalloped circles to give a bit of interest because you can't add a lot of 3D embellishments otherwise the sections won't swing closed.
My design is pushing it a bit to be honest and even closed it's quite bulky - lol!

Triple circle birthday card with cute hedgehogs (images from LOTV)

I decided that die cut flowers with Nuvo Drop centres would be perfect to add a little finishing touch and I added extra Nuvo Drops around the flowers just for good measure!

Triple circle birthday card with cute hedgehogs (images from LOTV)

I hope you have all been having a good weekend :-)

Thanks for visiting and I really appreciate any comments that you leave,



Card recipe;
Image: Hedgehog trio - LOTV
DP: Blissful Teal - Anna Marie Designs
Layering dies: Double stitched circles, Mini stitched scallop circle STAX, circle STAX - all MFT Die-namics (available from Dies to Die For)
Flowers: Perfect petioles - Memory Box

Inktense colours;
Hedgehogs: Saddle brown, Oak
Hedgehog tummies: Baked earth
Pink bits: Cherry
Teal bits: mix of Iron Green and Deep Indigo

Saturday 21 January 2017

Bursting with excitement!

Hello lovely people,

I am so excited that I could just POP at any moment but now I can share with you all that I have been asked to join the Design Team at Dies to Die For!!!

Thanks so much to Tracy for this wonderful opportunity and for the chance to work with an incredibly talented team of ladies :-)


I don't actually have a card to share with you just yet but I couldn't hold the news in any more - lol!

I will be back later this weekend with a card, and then on Monday I will have my first DTDF card to share with you :-D

I hope you all have a totally fabulous weekend!

Thanks for visiting and I really appreciate any comments that you leave,



Thursday 19 January 2017

Little flower fairy

Hello lovely people,

This is hump day for me after my usual Wednesday off and already I can't wait for the weekend to come around!

I was feeling a little mojo-less yesterday so didn't do much crafting but Dr. Hubby and I did finish watching the last few episodes of series 6 of Game of Thrones...very exciting!


Also very exciting of course is that we have a new challenge for you at In The Pink and our theme this time is...

WHAT'S NEW?
So, we want to see a card celebrating something new e.g. new baby, new home, or a card with some new stash on it
Don't forget we want to see more pink than any other colour!

Our fabulous sponsor this time is The Ribbon Girl 
They have generously provided this gorgeous paper pad as a prize for the winner; isn't that just sooooo pretty!


I have taken the opportunity to use some new stash so here we have a gorgeous new stamp and new lace on my card :-)

In contrast, the papers are very old ones that I just love with a little distressing to the edges.

Pink, floral, girly card featuring a cute fairy (image by Wee Stamps)

This cute little fairy comes with a friend in the same set so hopefully I'll have chance to use her soon too.

I've coloured her with Inktense pencils...under close scrutiny from some crafty friends - lol!

Pink, floral, girly card featuring a cute fairy (image by Wee Stamps)

Isn't that lace absolutely gorgeous?  The rest of the embellies are fairly standard for me and the tiny pink blobs are from a stamen cluster that I pulled apart!

Pink, floral, girly card featuring a cute fairy (image by Wee Stamps)

If you haven't already done so then do pop over to In The Pink and check out the gorgeous creations from the rest of the Pink Ladies.

Thanks for visiting and I really appreciate any comments that you leave,



Card recipe;
DP: Maja Design
Dies: Mini tags by Mama Elephant, Flower heart swirl - Magnolia Doohickeys

Inktense colours;
Skin: Baked earth, Madder brown, Saddle brown
Hair: Saddle brown, Oak, Sepia Ink
Dress: Carmine pink
Flowers: Shiraz, Sicilian yellow
Leaves: Light olive

Monday 16 January 2017

Up, up and away!

Hello lovely people,

Uh oh...Monday again!
I had a most relaxing weekend but it never seems long enough :-(

I made several cards over the weekend but before I get into those I wanted to share a card I made a few months ago for a work colleague who was leaving for a new job.
For one reason or another I just haven't got round to sharing it, but I think it's too cute to stay languishing in my archive so see what you think...

Leaving card featuring elephant with bunch of balloons (stamps/dies from My Favourite Things)

The basic idea for this rather CAS design popped into my head one night as I lay in bed!

I die cut the elephant using the matching die set and added him with foam pads and I also used foam pads for some of the balloons...I have to say that I love these cute patterned balloons :-)

The sentiment was computer generated; as you know, I love the typewriter style, and of course, it was an easy way to personalise the card.

Leaving card featuring elephant with bunch of balloons (stamps/dies from My Favourite Things)

I do hope you all have a good week ahead :-)

Thanks for visiting and I really appreciate any comments that you leave,



Card recipe;
DP: various scraps from stash
Sentiment: generated on computer

Copic colours;
Elephant body: T1/2/3/4/5
Elephant ears / toenails: R0000/000/00

Sunday 15 January 2017

Relaxing with a coffee

Hello lovely people,

Happy weekend to you all!
I am not planning on leaving the house all weekend; as far as I'm concerned it's a good weekend for crafting, watching a film or two, and plenty of coffee!

Today I have a project to share with some gorgeous goodies from The Ribbon Girl because our new 'Use any image' challenge is starting.
As usual, there are 3 fabulous prizes up for grabs so do check out all the details on The Ribbon Girl blog.

Now, talking of coffee...

Handmade blue floral vintage style card featuring girl with coffee (image from LOTV)

I have used pink for this image twice now, so thought it was time for a change, so here is Jasmine in blue!
Ok, I still snuck in a little pink for the mug - lol!

Handmade blue floral vintage style card featuring girl with coffee (image from LOTV)

The corrugated card is back again, but for this card I actually peeled the back layer off to make it less bulky and rigid.

For the large flower I pulled the stamens out of a cherry blossom and added the pearl and diamante flatback instead, which I think gives a lovely touch of glamour.

Handmade blue floral vintage style card featuring girl with coffee (image from LOTV)

I hope you are all staying warm and cosy this weekend and having fun whatever you are up to :-)

Thanks for visiting and I really appreciate any comments that you leave,



The Ribbon Girl products;
Maja Design Vintage Romance 6x6 paper pad
White sweetheart blossoms
Miniature pale blue blossoms
Dusky blue 10mm open roses
Ivory 20mm open roses
Teresa lace now unavailable but Iris or Astrid are similar
Ivory button twine
11mm round pearl and diamante flatback

Other products;
Image: Jasmine - coffee by LOTV
Other flowers: from stash
Sentiment: computer generated

Wednesday 11 January 2017

Same but different!

Hello lovely people,

I've had a really fun and productive day off today and thought I'd wrap it up with a quick blog post to share another decorated embroidery hoop.

It is VERY similar to my previous one of these in lilac...can you spot the tiny differences, other than the colour of course?!

Blue sewing themed vintage style embroidery hoop

For this one I added a few buttons and I only used one pin this time but it's a real beauty isn't it?

Blue sewing themed vintage style embroidery hoop

I changed the charm too :-)

Yep, that's about it - lol!

Blue sewing themed vintage style embroidery hoop

I hope you are all having a good week, but probably looking forward to the weekend?!

Thanks for visiting and I really appreciate any comments that you leave,

Sunday 8 January 2017

A grumpling party

Hello lovely people,

One of my friends turned 40 a few days ago so we went to a gathering in the pub yesterday to celebrate (commiserate?!).
A lot of my friends are going to be turning 40 over the next 2-3 years...and yes, Dr. Hubby and I are included in that group too!

So, here's the card I made for my friend;

40th birthday card using Party Grumplings from Taylored Expressions

I really don't think he felt this way about it but these party grumpling stamps do make me giggle.   This is the first time I have used more than one of the characters together, using some masking to make a little scene.

40th birthday card using Party Grumplings from Taylored Expressions

I snuck in a bit of my fave corrugated card and of course, I had to put the age on there too!

40th birthday card using Party Grumplings from Taylored Expressions

I hope you all had a fab weekend whatever you were doing and that the week ahead is good to you :-)

Thanks for visiting and I really appreciate any comments that you leave,



Card recipe;
DP: Vintage Autumn basics - Maja Design
Dies: Advent drawer deco die set - Tonic Studios

Copic colours;
Bear: E41/42/43/44 & E40/41/42 for tummy & E44/47 for nose
Rabbit: W2/3/4/5 & W0/1/2 for tummy
Cat: W5/6/7/9 & W0/1/2/3 for tummy
Ears / noses: R000/00/01
Blue bits: B91/93/95/97
Ground: W00/0/1/2/3

Thursday 5 January 2017

Thank you!

Hello lovely people,

Are any of you making New Years Resolutions?!

I usually don't because I know I won't keep them, especially if they are anything along the lines of 'be more organised'!

So, I think this year I will just try to do more of what makes me happy, and try not to overthink things or worry about things so much...but that's absolutely *not* a resolution ;-)

Anything pink certainly makes me happy so I'm off to a good start here...


It's time for our first challenge of 2017 at In The Pink so we've made it really easy for you with the theme...

ANYTHING GOES!
Don't forget we want to see more pink than any other colour!

Our fabulous sponsor this time is All Dressed Up with a prize of 2 digis of the winner's choice.


There was a lovely sentiment set free with Cardmaking and Papercraft this month, which I couldn't wait to use, and thought I'd challenge myself to make one of them the focal point of my card.

I have used some utterly gorgeous new papers too :-)

Pink floral thank you card

I find that free stamps don't always stamp brilliantly, but I primed these by rubbing a rubber over them first and found that stamping them with Versafine gave a better result than Memento.

In the end I used a grey ink to match better with the soft colours of the card.

I 'acquired' this pretty lattice effect die from a wonderful friend and thought it made a pretty backdrop for my sentiment.

Pink floral thank you card


If you haven't already done so then do pop over to In The Pink and check out the gorgeous creations from the rest of the Pink Ladies.

Thanks for visiting and I really appreciate any comments that you leave,



The Ribbon Girl products;
 Lemoncraft Heart Painted 6x6 paper pad
White cherry blossom
White sweetheart blossoms
Miniature white blossoms
Pink 10mm open roses
Tiny pale pink rosebuds

Other products;
Dies: Fancy lattice - Spellbinders, Greek Island Collection (Rhodes) - Sue Wilson for Creative Expressions, Whimsical wish - Sizzix