Wisley Photos

No crafting in ages....been down to see mum and dad...went up to London (things are changing all the time!!....The Shard....OMG!...HUGE or what!!!) and spent some time at Wisley...

Posting pics of Wisley atm...prettier than London! Dad came to Wisley with us..it was a huge effort for him..he spotted a fellow volunteer and she didn't recognise him at first...gut wrenching!

Any way hope you enjoy the pics....

BTW... the orchid exhibition is on... well worth the visit! will post pics of this too soon!...

LOTV Happy Birthday Challenge

this This week's challenge over at Lili of the Valley" is to make a birthday card. I have just made this card for a certain little niece who's birthday is today. I just hope it didn't get squished in the post! I used the fairies on tiptoe stamp coloured with copic markers, a touch of glossy accents on the flowers and wand and a little clear star sakura pen on the wings and skirt. I've used my dotty stamp again to help with the distressed edges. The butterfly was from the Artylicious CD Rom Butterfly Bliss, and having coloured my fairy, I realised that I didn't have any lilac background papers in the house! Luckily the trees on the Artyicious Essence of Nature CD Rom have worked. The flowers were made using handmade paper from Ikea (Every time I go there now I am looking out this paper as it makes fabulous flowers, but they seem to have stopped doing it!) The flowers are cut using Tim Holtz dies, scrunched up, distressed with DI and then a little shimmer added with pearlised medium. The dies are new, they are from Spellbinders and I got them from the Treasury in Kidderminster this week. They are so pretty I couldn't wait to use them. They have so many gorgeous dies out at the moment it is really hard to choose...I ended up getting two dies and then going back the next day for some more.

White and Silver, Tanda Teaser

The Tanda Teaser for the next fortnight is White and Silver...a colour combination that can only lead to the most elegant cards/projects. We already have a beautiful entry from Zoe mounted on acetate... For my card I used the Tanda Mack set 1, Tim Holtz dies, eco paint, glossy accents, silver card (looks black in the piccy) vellum from an advert wrapped round the news paper and ribbon. This also ties in with the alpabet challenge that runs until Friday. White and one other colour. So if you don't make the "alphabet deadline" , maybe you can make ours.

Peach and Green with LOTV

This week's challenge over on "Lili of the Valley" is Peach and Green. Possibly an unusual and difficult colour combination, but luckily it fit the papers that I was playing with when I was trying to replicate the flowers that Patty showed me, that ultimately led me on to the floaty skirt..see previous post... My card is for my next door neighbour and good friend....she's the blond, I'm the brunette. It's her birthday today and this is her card. Coloured with Copics, and distress inks. Edges of flower and leaves distressed with chalk inks. Dies are spellbinders and Tim Holtz. Punch is Stampin' up. Lili of the valley stamps of course! apart from my dotty one that is..and lots of distress inks and glossy accents .

Fashion and Ladies

Perfect challenge for me at the moment from "Sir Stamp a lot challenge blog"....next door's daughter's birthday is next week. She is a fashion design student at Birmingham Uni so this is the perfect theme for her birthday card....I am totally assuming that she doesn't have my blog addy so she shouldn't see this before I post the real thing next door!! There's a long story behind this card...and it took ages to make...dies/punches from all over the place, eco acrylic pants, backing papers from the treasury a few custom stamps. Patty showed me a fun way to make flowers with a reverse pair of tweezers and I thought I could use this to make a floaty skirt that would go well with my recently purchased Tim Holtz dummy die....this is the result. Just need to make a box to deliver it in now!

White and one other colour

The Alphabet challenge this week is W for white and one other colour...had to think about this one...have something planned for a future teaser but didn't want to use it now....so I'm doing white and blue...the stamps are from Graphicus..the card perfect for a moody teenage skater boy! LOL!

Stamped with black soot distress ink and coloured with Copics.

Just been speaking to Zoe tonight (11/04/2011)....and she has just told me about another challenge that this card fits....so I am entering this card into "Crafty Cardmakers Spotlight Teenage boy challenge"

There doesn't seem to be anything about back linking in the rules so I hope this is OK!

Tanda Teaser - A Little Bit Retro

Sorry I'm late again posting this on my personal blog....Last Wednesday I set a Retro Teaser on the "Tanda Teaser Blog". I used the twisted easel card with backing papers from the Treasury in Kidderminster. The stamp is from Tanda. I made a little vellum envelope and popped a tea big inside before tying it up with a bit of ribbon. Ribbon, lace and trims were also from the Treasury. I've also used my dotty stamp, again available from the Treasury.

Lots of Layers!

Thanks to Zoe, I have just seen that the April Challenge over at "The Artistic Stamper Blog" is Layers. I've just made this card for a friend who's perfect present would be another hen! Best of all I did use a Chicken wire background stamp from the Artistic Stamper on one of my background layers. The main stamp is from Crafty Individuals and this has been coloured with copics. Not sure that the colouring is brilliant, but it did the job, will probably use watercolours next time as I think they will be more subtle. Other stamps used are my dotty stamp, LOTV (sentiment) and Paper bag studios. The layer stamped with the chicken wire and Paper bag studio grungy stamp (have no idea what it is called) is brown parcel paper, the next layer up is some handmade paper that I made in a class over 10 years ago....it just resurfaced in my pile of stash! All four layers were stitched together and the raffia tied around before being stuck to the base card. The eggs were coated in glossy accents to give a bit more interest. The punches were from Stampin' Up. Edges have been distressed with distress inks.

PS...Just seen Zoe's simply square card for the "new Crafty Individuals challenge" and thought this fits the square theme too!!! How lucky is that!? Unusual for me to do two challenges in one.

Mother's Day

Morning, I hope all you mothers in the UK had a great day yesterday! I know I had a lazy day...tea and breakfast in bed, a big bouquet of flowers and treated to dinner in the evening. I was going to do a bit of gardening but we had a massive hail storm complete with thunder and lightning in the afternoon that put paid to that! Maybe gardening gets done today if things brighten up a bit.

Well being the day after I can share the card I sent to my mum, this also happens to fit in with the Challenge on "Really Reasonable Ribbon Challenge Blogspot" The Challenge was to use ribbon together with punches or dies.

For my card I have used ribbon, Martha Stewart punchs, Stampin' up punches, a Spellbinders die and Tim Holtz tattered florals die. The main stamp is a Leanne Ellis stamp coloured with copic markers and distress inks. The sentiments are LOTV and a custom stamp from Tanda. The Dotty stamp is my stamp available from the Treasury.

V is for Vehicles and a little story or two!

V is for Vehicles is the latest challenge over on the Alphabet challenge blog...I'm spoilt for choice as I've been making loads of cards that fall under that category over the last few days....all with Tanda stamps...but I'm saving those for future Teasers....well they are teasers...what can I say! LOL!

So I will just have to share this card....it's a digital download from Charmed Crafts.... for the boy next door who just passed his driving test! Images are coloured with Copics...backing papers are Papermania...I think?!

I have fond memories of being driven around London as a very little girl in my would be God mother's VW Beetle.("would be" because I was never Christened and she would have been my godmother if I had if you see what I mean)..she was Canadian and so was the Beetle.....we got a lot of very shocked looks from other drivers....surely this little girl couldn't be driving!!! it was a Hoot!... LOL!!!

That just reminded me of another funny story! This awesome lady took me to see Swan Lake at Covent Garden....we had seats in the Stalls and as I was only little...I took a cushion to sit on....in the days of the IRA the security guards were not going to let me take the cushion into the auditorium because it might have been a bomb....I got quite upset! I told them that there was absolutely no way that I was going to sit on a bomb and they were stupid to think such a thing....they let me though with my cushion. The ballet was magical...I still enjoy ballet to this day.