Rose Tinted

I should have posted this yesterday, but as you might know if you read my blog, things have been a bit more manic than usual. I am more or less sorted...the alarm has been fixed, the new washing machine works brilliantly, the plumbing under the utility sink is fixed, the new printer will print (not how it's supposed to, but at least it will print) and we can make phone calls although we still need to program the phone....

So now I just have to sort Christmas!

This fortnight the Tanda Teaser is "Rose Tinted". I've had enough of Christmas cards now....got them all made and posted so I'm happy not to make another one for quite a few months! I did realise after I'd posted that I seem to have set rather a lot of colour challenges recently so I'll have to make sure I do something different next time!

My card is single layered. I have used Tanda stamps, Aquastamps (available from Tanda) and my Dune dots stamp (available from the Treasury in Kidderminster). I used stamped the padlock first then masked it before sponging distress ink over an acetate mask that I made using a spellbinders die.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:

"Make it Monday"

"Corrosive Challenges - Anything but Christmas"

"One Stitch at a Time - Anything goes"

"Sparkles Forum - Anything but Christmas"

"The Crafty Pad - Anything but Christmas"



This is probably the last blog post that I will make before Christmas, so I would like to wish everyone who has visited my blog and especially those who have left comments a Happy Christmas and to say Thank you for your support and encouragement!

I hope to see you in the New Year!

New Stamps and New Beginnings!

We received our latest stamps from Creative Expressions last Friday and they are gorgeous! I've not had any Studio 490 "Wendy Vecchi" stamps before, but this Sentimental art set is fabulous. The main stamp is a lacy design and is perfect for square cards and the quotes are all very usable!

For my first DT piece I have made an easel card for one of my College friends. Her birthday is right at the end of December and I thought that as it is on the cusp of the New Year it might be nice to make her card into a little present too, namely a desk calendar. I chose the quote..."A perfect day is waking up with a purpose and retiring with a dream for tomorrow" as I thought it fitted the calendar theme perfectly. For stamping and distressing, I used Frayed Burlap Distress ink and Pumice Stone Distress Stain was used to dye the seam binding.

The flowers were made using Spellbinders rose creations (and some wrapping from some flowers that I'd kept), Spellbinders Foliage dies (grey mulberry paper) and the quote was mounted on card cut using the Spellbinders small labels die.

I am entering this into the following challenges:

"Corrosive Challenges - Anything but a Christmas card"

"One Stitch at a Time - Anything goes"

"Sparkles Forum - Anything but Christmas Card"

"The Crafty Pad - Anything but Christmas"

"Die Cut Dreams - Make a Date"

"Stamp and Create - Vintage"

"Try it on Tuesday - Anything goes"

Bon Voyage Tag

Hi, I'm not at home at the moment so I'm mobile blogging...I've come down to mum and dad's to see how they are doing. Sitting in bed burning the midnight oil trying to catch up with a few things and I am scheduling this to go live later this morning!
this Tag is my next DT piece using the Bon Voyage stamp set by Just Rite available from Creative Expressions. Paris makes me think of all things elegant, so I wanted to create something elegant to reflect this. I kept the colours muted and the lines simple. The dies that I used are from Spellbinders.

The ribbons are seam binding that I have coloured using Weathered Wood and Pumice Distress Stains. You cannot see it in the photos, but these inks seem to give the seam binding a rather lovely shot appearance.

I would like to enter this into the following challenges

"Totally papercrafts - anything goes"

"Cute card thursday - Anything goes"

"Cooking it up with katie - Anything goes"

"Inky impressions - must use ribbon"

"Die cuttin divas - tags, tags and more tags"

"Papertake Weekly - anything goes"

"Lawnscaping - tags or treat bags"

Keep Calm and Carry On!

Good advice in the lead up to Christmas me thinks and certainly kept me going this week! Had a bit of an interesting/challenging week...everything (not everything obviously but lots, you know what I mean!) seems to have decided to pack up, or go wrong, at the same time..the washing machine (beyond repair!), the printer (just as I wanted to print out address labels for our Christmas cards, the pipe work under the utility sink (I took it apart to plumb a new washing machine in and couldn't get it back together again), the telephone and thanks to a jobs worth at the local cinema my daughter's birthday treat.

It was her 15th birthday on Wednesday and we decided to make the most of Orange Wednesday and go to see, My Week with Marilyn. The girl selling the tickets refused to sell us tickets....I'd gone flat out all day (Wednesday is my shopping and errand day so I was only just back to the house when she got home from school)to make sure that Sarah got her birthday tea and a homemade chocolate birthday cake before we went out. I was not impressed! OK I can understand them challenging a child if they are with other kids, but when they are with their mother! It was suggested that we should go home and come back with id....I said that that was pointless as this would take an hour and the film started in 30 mins! She wasn't going to back down...so we left. Luckily there is another cinema in Worcester, the Odeon. They saved the day! We got to see the film and hour later. Having watched it we all agreed that we didn't understand why it had been given a 15 certificate...We saw Breaking Dawn on Monday that was a 12a and much more graphic.

Ooops that seems to have turned into a rant...what this blog post is really all about is the card and key ring I made for my daughter's birthday. She is really into the whole Keep Calm and Carry on thing, so when I saw this on a stamp I had to have it for her Birthday card! Can't remember who's stamp it is at the moment though! I've used triple embossing to make what looks like and enamel sign and attached this to a piece of handmade paper that I had stamped a union jack on and then embossed it in Tim Holtz's brick embossing folder. The Union jack was an Indigo Blu stamp and I coloured it by adding distress ink stains directly onto the stamp, a technique that I had not tried before, but it worked! The flowers and leaves were all made using handmade paper and spellbinders dies.

The key ring was made using a stampboard square, and then triple embossed in the same way as the "enamel" sign.

My daughter was thrilled with her card and key ring, and my other daughter wants a keyring too.

I would like to enter this into several challenges:

"Totally paper crafts - anything but a card"

"Simply Create too - Embossing"

"Art Impressions Stamps - try something new to you"

"Cooking it up with Katie - Anything goes"

"I break for challenges - vintage"

"Papertake weekly - Anything goes"

"Crafty card makers - Heat embossing"

"Stamp and create - Vintage"

Green and Gold

I've just posted the next Tanda Teaser over on the Tanda Blog...can't believe that those two weeks went sooooo fast! The next challenge is to use Green and Gold as your predominant colours...Christmassy but it doesn't need to be..

For my card I have used Spellbinders dies, Tanda stamps (Tanda Christmas set 2), artylicious paper from Seasons Greetings, Distress ink and Copic Markers. The snowflake was from the Treasury in Kidderminster, I triple embossed it with clear ep and glitter.

I would like to enter this into the following challenges:

"Kaboodle Doodles - Christmas Colours"

"Make my Monday - Seasonal Add some glitter"

"Polly Craft - Christmas Fun"

"Stamp and Create - Vintage"

"Truely Madly Crafty Challenges - Christmas Images and coloures"

"Addicted to Stamps - Must use a stamp - Christmas Card"

Altered Shower Cap Packaging

For this week's "Creative Expressions DT piece" I have decided to alter an envelope that I bought back from Ragdale. This first picture is almost a "before" picture...it's actually my first attempt which ended up as a reject. The card was quite shiny and hence a bit slippy so my stamping was a bit off, I was a bit more carefull second time round!

It did have a shower cap in it but I have decided to turn it into something special...



It would now be perfect for a gift card/token. The stamps I used are from the JustRite Bon Voyage set and the JustRite Paris set. When I looked at the Bon voyage stamps on the website I saw the Paris set and thought that they would work really well together.

I have used both stamp sets to decorate this envelope.


This project seems to fit with the following Challenges:

"Divas by Design - anything goes"

"Paper Crafting Journey - Anything Goes"

"Southern Girls - Ribbon Madness"

"Bloggers JFF - Anthing but a card"

"Challenge up Your Life - Packaging/box"

Easel with a Twist

Just thought I would share this card with you as it fits several challenges atm. The card is for hubby's aunt. It's her birthday on Monday, but I think I am safe to show it as she doesn't know about my blog!


Basically this is perfect for her as she is an excellent cook and makes all the special birthday cakes and wedding cakes for the family. The stamps are from Lili of the Valley (except for Dune Dots which is exclusive to the Treasury in Kidderminster). Colouring has been done using Copic Markers and distress inks. The jam jar, umbrella and jam have been coated in Glossy accents and some glitter has been applied on the icing sugar. The flowers were made using Tim Holtz tattered florals die and the leaves were made using a Spellbinders foliage die.

This fits with 6 challenges as follows:

"Delicious Doodles - Hairy Legs"

"Glitter Fairies - Easel Card"

"4 Crafty Chicks - Birthday"

"Some Odd Girl - Show us your easels"

"Stampavie and More - Easel cards"

"Lili of the Valley - Anything but a Christmas card"