M is for Men

Over on the Alphabet Challenge the theme is M for Men. One of our friends helped us fix our loo the other day, so I thought that I should make him a Thank You card! I saw this Do craft stamp a little while ago and thought that it would be perfect for making the ever problematic 'Man' card. The image was stamped in Distress Ink and coloured with copic markers. The papers were from Papermania.

All At Sea

Bad blogger here....I just realised that I haven't blogged for over a week! I do have an excuse though....things have got rather fraught here. We were supposed to be flying off to Turkey in a few days.....you guessed it.....the travel agent had booked the flights through Goldtrail....we booked on Thursday and Goldtrail went belly up on Friday. We were away from home for the weekend so didn't find out that we were effected until we got home...this week, so far, has been spent trying to find out how to recover our money...doesn't look hopeful for some time...and trying to find another holiday...cash flow is going to a bit of an issue to say the least over the next few months!

To make things worse....I got a really bad puncture yesterday in my front tyre, so this morning was spent at KwikFit together with a quite a few pounds as my other front tyre was only just legal. At least now I won't get failed on the MOT for tyres!

Well onto happier things...the Tanda Teaser for the next fortnight is called 'All At Sea', you guessed it, it's a nautical theme. My card is an easel card made using the sea border and the ship stamps that Andrew at Tanda re sized for me. In this larger size they are proving to be quite versatile. I stamped the images in Distress Inks and then coloured the waves using copic markers. I hope that you can find time to join us in the Teaser and look forward to seeing your take on the nautical theme!

Sue

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The Wrong End of The Stick!

And I thought I'd been so clever!

A few days ago, I spotted Zoe's tag for the "Are You Sitting Comfortably" challenge over on Something Completely Different and thought I might have a go at the challenge too....left if for a few days and then came up with my take...two little girls sharing a cup of tea from Lili of the Valley....then with the card finished at about 11.30 last night I thought....you know what, I think this was supposed to be a tag! Sure enough, it was...I've used a tag and lined up the flower on the tag with the flower in the main image, but somehow I don't think it counts...might hedge my bets and enter it anyhow...


The little boy on the bike that I did the other day ended up with another cog..you should be able to see him here.

K is for Kids

I just spotted over on the "Alphabet Challenge Blog" that this week's challenge is K for Kids. Bit of luck there...I was just making a birthday card for Ollie (one of my nephews)last night....not sure I'm totally happy with it yet...just might add another "cog/flower" somewhere along the bottom...still pondering though.

The boy is from Lili of the Valley, stamped in Black Soot Distress Ink, then coloured with Copics. I used Weathered Wood Distress Ink around the edges of the main image and of all the layers of backing paper (Papermania Blueberry Hill). I grounded the little boy by stamping Cobbles by Art Impressions in Weathered Wood. I also used this stamp again on the strip of backing paper that I used across the card. The flourishes were cut using Spellbinders dies.

While I'm here I thought I would share a little something with you....My veg patch is coming on nicely, especially the mixed salad leaves....My borage is running amok and flowering beautifully at the moment. Borage has fabulous blue flowers and they are edible, how fab do you think they look with the fresh green lettuce leaves? I think they could look great in ice cubes too! Best of all, once you've grown borage it seems to seed itself in the following years so you don't need to sow seed yourself!

Sue
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Look East!

Wendy is taking a short break, well I hope that it will be a short break, from setting the Tanda Teaser. So for the next couple of months I will be setting the Teasers on a fortnightly basis. The challenge for the next two weeks is to make something with an oriental theme....I recently asked Andrew to re size the wave border on the Pirate plate and thought that it looked a bit like the waves in Japanese prints...Looking at the Tanda Turtle stamp, I thought that the two stamps complimented each other very well and I was inspired to make this card. I used the wave border as a border stamp and by using a mask, I also used it to create a background. Images were stamped in Distress Inks and then coloured using Copic markers. A little bit of sparkle was added to the foam on the waves using stickles.

J is for Jewels!

What a week! I've had no time to make any cards what with Em's prom...I was still doing the hem on the day! And then it was Henley! So as you will see I was over the moon that this week's alphabet challenge was "J is for Jewels"....and best of all this didn't necessarily mean on cards!

This is Em just before we left for the prom. We decided that she needed straps and as a compromise she agreed to a halterneck made of pearls. I also couched a string of tiny pearls on the bottom edge of the drape over her bust.....I also made her a bracelet of three stands of pearls to match the pearls on her dress
The prom was last Wednesday, then on Thursday we took Em and her friend Kate to Henley. It was the first time Em had been able to come...she had a great time and wants to come again next year. By Friday she was exhausted! This is Em and Kate in Stewards. Henley is a great excuse for some new jewellery! Kate wanted a bracelet and ear rings to match her dress so I got my beads out. Her bracelet was made by crocheting with fine wire. I threaded various blue beads onto the wire before crocheting....similar to my altered yeast tin in an earlier post.


































My final jewelled piece for the challenge is a pearl necklace, bracelet and ear rings that I made for me to wear at Henley...I bought the beads at the NEC earlier this year, all the findings are sterling silver.