Fairytale Castle

I hope everyone has had a good Christmas.  I've finally found time to have a little play with the new Lavinia stamps I received from friends this Christmas. Friends know just what crafty things to get me! I used my new castle stamp on this card to send to my four year old nephew, who invited us to spend Christmas with him.  The background was made using Adirondack inks and Ink Dusters.The castle was coloured with Promarkers.

I'd like to enter this card for following challenges:

Stamping Sensations - Free and Easy

Inkspirational - Anything Inkspirational Goes
Keep It Simple - Anything Goes
Sarah Hurley's Challenge Blog - Create your own background

Mini Albums

Four mini albums completed just in time to give away at Christmas!  I really enjoy making this style of album, especially as I can choose the size and number of pages to suit the photographs I want to include.

Lavinia Stamps Challenge # 10 … Anything Goes!

I haven't made a diamond-fold card before, so thought I'd try this technique for December's Lavinia Stamps Blog Challenge - 'Anything Goes'.  The background was made using Pan Pastels and is in shades of blue and green, although looks more blue in the photo. 

Visit the Lavinia Stamps blog for lots of inspiration for using the beautiful Lavinia stamps. 

I'd also like to enter this card for the STAMPlorations challenge - Stamps and Silhouettes



Christmas Pillow Boxes

I made twelve little pillow box place names this week, for the table on Christmas Day.  The pillow boxes were cut out with a Sizzix die and embossed before they were assembled and decorated.  Each little box is filled with chocolates!



90th Birthday Card

I had a break from Christmas crafting today and made a 90th birthday card needed for this week.  I decided to make a stepper card and I used a Little Claire's stamp, which is perfect for men's cards.

 

Now back to making my Christmas pillow box place names.....

Lavinia Scene

I've been busy this week making lots of new cards for my craft stall at another Ladies' Night evening.  It's given me an excuse to have another good play with my recently purchased Lavinia Stamps!

Christmas is coming.....!

Most of my Christmas cards are now made and it's not even December!  This must be a first!!!   Sixty made already.....just a few more to go.  Here's are my three designs for this year.

The first card is made using Lavinia stamps.  I wanted to keep the design quite simple to make the beautiful silhouette in the middle stand out.

 

I used a Sizzix Tim Holtz die for the houses on this card.  Each house was backed with yellow card, which proved to be more time consuming than I first thought it would be, as all the houses are different sizes!  The stamp is from Inkylicious.

 

At the NEC this month, saw this beautiful Cheery Lynn Designs - Winter Neighbourhood Border die.  I thought it would be a perfect die for 'New Home' cards too.

 



Lavinia Stamps Challenge #9 Bright Hot Colours.

After a week long celebration for my birthday (a big one this year!), which included a surprise weekend in London with my husband Alan, followed by a surprise four night break in Pisa and Florence with my daughter Joanna, I've now had time to play with my new Lavinia stamps.  Alan did a great job by telling a group of my friends that I would like Lavinia Stamps vouchers for my birthday. I was able to take them to the NEC and came home with a bag filled with new stamps!  The challenge on the Lavinia Stamps blog this month is 'Bright Hot Colours'. Here is my entry using one of my new stamps.

Most of my Lavinia Stamps are silhouette ones, which I love, but I really like the effect of this stamp, which I've coloured in with Promarkers.  I think I may need to put a few of these on my Christmas wishlist! 

Visit the Lavinia Stamps blog  to see all the beautiful projects this month.

Sunflower

I love making cards using one of my many sunflower stamps.  This card is for a special friend who I worked with for many years in a Reception Class called 'Sunflower'. I couldn't work out how to take the photo without shadows showing over the card!



Fundraising for the Motor Neurone Disease Association.

I've had a busy week making cards and other papercraft items for my craft stall at a Ladies Pamper/Craft fundraising event this evening.  Thanks to everyone who bought things from me. All money taken on my stall will be going to the Motor Neurone Disease Association.



Dinosaur

My delightful great nephew will be four years old soon and knowing that he loves dinosaurs I made this card for him.  It took a while to adjust the dimensions of the card so that the stamped image fitted into the centre of the card, so I made sure I kept a note of the measurement for any future cards!  Having recently discovered Wink of Stella glitter pens, the gold pen was perfect to add a bit of sparkle to the dinosaur.

Autumn Colours

The new Lavinia stamps I chose for my prize as the Lavinia Stamps September blog challenge winner arrived last week.  It was like my birthday came early!!!! I've used a few of the stamps for the card I've made for October blog challenge ~ the theme is 'Autumn Colours'.  Trying to take a photo without distorting the shape of the card was a challenge in itself, but I've done the best I can!

The Lavinia stamps I used were: 'Autumn Fall (large)', 'Tree Root' and 'Vine', stamped using a Versafine Sepia inkpad. The background was made using Adirondack Sunset Orange and Walnut Stain Distress inkpads.

There are some amazing projects made by the Lavinia Design Team for this month's challenge, so have a look here and then make a card and enter the challenge yourself. 

 

 

I would also like to enter my card for:

Feeling Crafty Challenge - Autumn
Heck of a Challenge - Autumn Colours


Cardiff Half Marathon

My daughter completed her first half marathon last Sunday in Cardiff, after many hours of training.  Such a great achievement deserved a special card, so I included the official proof of her time.  As the half marathon was in Wales, I used the traditional red, green and white colours of the Welsh flag. 

 

Her aim was to complete the Bath half marathon last year, but injury meant she was unable to take part.  You can follow her half marathon journey on her blog here.



Beautiful Bunnies

  A friend bought a card I'd made with the lovely 'Midnight Meanderings' rabbit stamp and asked me to make her four more. The beauty of the Lavinia stamps is that they are perfect for 'mixing and matching', making every card different.  I ended up making a dozen, so hopefully the rest will get sold at a charity fundraising event coming up at the end of this month. Here are a few of the cards I made.

 

 



Horsey, horsey, don't you stop....

My lovely great niece will be five this week.  I wanted to make a moving card, so decided on a 'rocking' card to make the horse look like he's trotting when the card moves from side to side.  I used my horse Sizzix die and decorated the saddle with a bit of bling!

Football Fan!

Another football themed birthday card is needed for this weekend.  It just had to be blue and white!



Special Anniversary

Next month a very special couple are celebrating their 65th Wedding Anniversary.  What an achievement!  As this will be their Blue Sapphire anniversary, I made a trifold shutter card in blue, with a little silver and white. 

The theme on the Crafter's Companion Challenge Blog for September is 'Embossing', so I decided to emboss the pearlised blue and silver paper with my 5” x 7” Embossing Folder - Dot by Darice and enter my card for the challenge.

Here are the instructions for my trifold shutter card.

1. Cut base card 5½" x 12".

2. Score at 2", 4", 8" 10" (only 1½" down at the top and 1½" up from the bottom at the 2" and 10" points).

3. Measure in 1½" on both the long sides and cut from the 2" score line to the 10" score line.

4. Fold along the score lines as shown in the photo.

Autumn

After seeing a design team call for Papermill Direct, I thought 'nothing ventured, nothing gained', so I decided to enter. The theme was 'Autumn', which took me totally out of my comfort zone, away from my usual colours. I decided to make a Shadow Box card, using shades of brown and orange.

 You can see details of the Papermill Design Team Challenge here.

Shadow Box Cards

I saw the instructions for making Shadow Box cards in a magazine a while ago and have eventually found time to make two cards using this technique. I altered the dimensions slightly as I wanted to make bigger cards.  The first card is for a friend's birthday next week, using some of the lovely Lavinia stamps.  I used Ink Dusters and ink pads for the background.  The flowers were punched out and used to make a border around the aperture. The sides looked too plain, so I used a border punch to finish off the card.

The Lavinia Stamps Challenge for September is 'Add a Flower'.  You can see all the other beautiful challenge entries here.

UPDATE: My entry to the challenge was picked out as the winner! I now have lots of lovely new Lavinia stamps to play with!  Thank you, Lavinia Stamps, for such a fabulous prize.

As it's our wedding anniversary tomorrow, I made this Shadow Box card for Alan. I resisted the temptation to use blue and white (Bristol Rovers colours) and stayed with the traditional red this year!

Get Well Soon

I find making a get well card for a man a bit tricky, so today I decided to use a 'collapsed' dragon stamp to make the card needed. I coloured the dragon using Stardust pens, which unfortunately didn’t scan very well, they looked much more effective on the card.  Well....I'd better get the card in the post.  TFL

Lavinia Stamps Challenge # 6 ~ Anything Goes

The theme for the Lavinia Stamps Challenge this month is 'Anything Goes'.  Having recently purchased a new Sizzix Accordion Flip 3-D Album die, I decided to use it to make a 60th birthday card for a friend. I used the lovely Lavinia Stamps for the image and a Sizzix photo corner die to finish off the card.

View all the other lovely Lavinia Stamps Challenge entries here.

Tepee Advent Calendar

Another project made at the Oyster Stamps crafty retreat, this time Martine was running the workshop. Final touches were completed at home.  I used the Memory Box die in my goody bag to make the star.  The flourish at the bottom I made with my new Memory Box die, 'Tree of Wonder', that sort of fell into my basket at the retreat when I was shopping!  I cut off one of the branches to make the flourish.

Oyster Stamps Crafty Retreat

My friend Ruth and I returned from the Oyster Stamps Crafty Retreat in Daventry yesterday, after two fun-packed days of crafting.  There were lots of new techniques to learn and new products to use..... and the temptation of the Oyster Stamps well-stocked shop in the crafting room.  SO pleased we travelled be car.....I don't think we could have carried everything on the returned journey if we'd travelled by train!!!  Here is my first ever attempt at decorating a canvas, made in a workshop run by Neet. 

......now to work out how to get the purple stains out from under my nails!

Cheers! and Thank You!

A male birthday card is needed for tomorrow.  The stamped image was coloured with Promarkers and then covered with Glossy Accents to make it look like glass.

 

A 'thank you' card for a friend for hosting a lovely Afternoon Tea yesterday in her beautiful garden.

Anniversary cards

I've decided I can't put it off any longer.....time to blitz my craft room!  It's been like Christmas, discovering things tucked away that I've forgotten all about and realising I've probably got enough ribbon to last a lifetime!  I found time to make just a couple of anniversary cards this week.

Now back to sorting out all my stash!

Lavinia Stamps Challenge ~ #5

The Lavinia Stamps challenge for July is 'Use a Punch or Die Shape’, so I thought I'd use both. I love this little Lavinia stamp and initially planned to colour it in.  In the end I decided it looked more effective highlighting a couple of sections in red to match the little red pearls, keeping the colours to just red, white and black on my gatefold card.  I used my Nestabilities oval dies and a Fiskars border punch. 

Visit the Lavinia Stamps Challenge blog to see all the lovely entries this month, as well as the great cards by the DT.

Wedding Card

There are a few special cards to be made over the next couple of weeks, so I thought I'd better make a start.  A wedding card is needed for this weekend, so I decided to make a joyfold card.



Graduation Time!

Congratulations to my daughter, Joanna, who has finished her second degree and is now a qualified physiotherapist.  This is the card I made for her graduation this week, using one of the Stampin' Up Owls.

Owls

I came home yesterday from a lovely holiday in the Black Forest.  I even managed visits to three great craft shops, one in Germany and two in the Netherlands!  As usual a small craft box was included in my luggage and I found time to do a little crafting.  My Stampin' Up Owl punch went with me and I thought I'd share a few ideas using the punch.  I'm trying to perfect a way of using it to make a frog....so watch this space!

Staple Hill School Summer Fayre

Another Saturday in the summer and another school fayre where I can sell my cards.  This time the weather was not the hoped for sunny day, so we were all inside.  At least I didn't have to battle with the wind trying to blow my cards across the school field!  Here are just a few of the cards on my stall.

As the fayre was the day before Fathers Day, I made some cards and little gifts for this occasion.  The notepads for Dads proved popular.  I love the little tool brads to decorate the notepads, as they went perfectly with the tool embossing folder I used.



Lavinia Stamps Challenge – # 4

After spending the week completing an 8 x 8 scrapbook for my daughter, I've finally found time to make a card for the June Lavinia Stamps challenge.  This month the theme is 'Lovely Lavender'.  It was lovely making a card using my favourite colour and I decided to have a go at making an easel card for the challenge.  I usually use a black ink pad with the Lavinia fairy silhouette stamps, so it took me slightly out of my comfort zone to experiment with a different colour.

You can see other 'Lovely Lavendar' cards using the Lavinia stamps here.

Christ Church Schools Summer Fayre

Just putting my feet up after running a craft stall at the Summer Fayre organised by The Friends of Christ Church Schools in Downend.  It was lovely to see and speak to so many of my past pupils.  Well done to The Friends for organising such great weather too!  Here are just a few of the cards I made to sell on my stall.

Another card using my favourite Stampin' Up owl punch.

 

 The champagne glasses were actually silver holographic card, but the light in the scanner made them multicoloured!