Crazy Birds #2 - Friday 29th May 2015

Hello Friends,

Hope you've all had a good week! Thank you for all your comments on the sewing card...my volunteer loved it and was sure her friend would too.

Today I'm sharing another card made with Tim Holz Crazy Bird stamps and I'm going to make this my contribution to this week's Sunday Stamper Challenge (week #357) from Hels Sheridan - deets here

I haven't had a chance to take part for a while because I've been so busy, but this week's theme is 'anything goes' so no excuses.

I have managed to get some crafting done this week...there are a lot of birthdays amongst family and friends coming up, plus one of my American family is about to have a baby (fortunately I know the sex so could get on with the cards!), so I've wanted to get everything made in plenty of time, especially as we have a week's holiday coming up soon.

This is a 7x7 card, I made the splattered background with a mixture of  Dylusions inks and coloured the birds with both Chameleon and Promarker pens. I then cut them out and mounted them on the card with 3d foam tape.

I cut the little word tiles using the tiniest of dies from my Spellbinders Classic Squares set and add the letter by hand. I did the same inside, mounting them inside a Spellbinders Word Bubble die.

 Finally I stamped the birds on the envelope and coloured them, first of all placing some card inside the envelope to prevent the ink bleeding all the way through.

Thank you so much for stopping by and have a lovely weekend y'all!

Love and Hugs,

Carole X

CAS card - Monday 22nd September 2014

Morning Friends!

I think I misled some of you yesterday! We are on holiday from work, but we're not 'away'...we're just doing 'day things', like walks at the arboretum, Highgrove gardens again, Bath..places we enjoy and then come home in the evening to check all is progressing well with the kitchen...no we haven't gone off and left them to it!

From yesterday's post, which was a true labour love, to a CAS card I  made for my friend's daughters birthday recently...

This is simply a kraft card, layered with white card and decorated with bunting and buttons and a stamped sentiment!

I've also been promising some garden photos I took recently...the rose is my pride and joy, a Gertrude Jeykell, the perfume is amazing!

 Our grape vine had produced so much fruit again this year, I have some more photos by am still to upload them.

 We had lots of gorgeous sunflowers, this is about the last one standing!

Have a good day all and thanks for dropping by!

Love and Hugs
Carole X

Sunday Stampers wk 292: Orange Crush - Wednesday 29th January 2014

Good Morning Friends,

No sharing my desk on WOYWW this week...trust me, the state it's in, you really wouldn't want to see it - no really you wouldn't!

Anyway, I have been getting inky again for this week's Sunday Stampers Challenge, set by Hels Sheridan: if you aren't already acquainted with Hels fabulous work, please check her blog -here-

This week's theme is to include the colour orange, which I love!  This is a simple card:  No going to the office today, but I'm still trying to prepare for tomorrow's 'Out of the Blue' Craft workshop with some more samples, so a busy day ahead! 

I printed off some polka dot kraft paper from a Pink Petticoat download, adhered this to a white card blank and inked the edges with dried marigold distress ink.

I chose a stamp by Crafty Individuals,which I stamped on plain kraft card using clear embossing ink, coated it with white detail embossing powder and heat embossed. I then die-cut it using Spellbinders Labels One Small and inked over the whole shape with a mix of dried marigold and  spiced marmalade distress inks.

Then I die cut the same label on white card and inked over with the same inks, leaving it darker on the edges. To finish I added some sheer pale gold ribbon.

Inside the card I stamped a sentiment from a Creative Expressions set and die cut using Labels 4 Small. I inked in the same way as the label on the front of the card. I used a pale orange paper to make the flowers from a mixture of dies and punches and inked them to created a deeper colour.

Thank you so much for stopping by and for all your lovely comments on my page layout yesterday!

Love and hugs,

Carole X

Pomp and Ceremony - Monday 3rd June

Good Morning Friends,

I'm pleased to say that the Emergency Crafters challenge blog is up and running again for June! This time the theme is Pomp and Ceremony and this is my Design Team card.

I decided to make a card that whilst 'regal' in some respects, would also be suitable for a little girl's birthday...the Princess theme...

I used a pink silk card embossed using the Sue Wilson Lattice Hearts A4 folder as the base layer and stamped the coach and horse (Clarity Stamps) using adirondack. It  doesn't really show in the photo but I heat embossed the images using Cosmic Shimmer Aurora Sparkle embossing powder.

The image was then cut out using Spellbinders Labels Seventeen, with the edges inked using Spun Sugar, whilst still in the die. I had a ribbon flower left over from the wreath I had decorated and I made a few rolled flowers from felt.

To finish off I made a harness and bunting from left overs of the die cut card and added some embellishments from  stash.

Thanks for stopping by and if you would like to enter this month's challenge, you can visit the site from HERE

Love and Hugs,

Carole X

Happy Birthday - Sunday 19th May

Good Morning Friends,

So far so good here with the weather this weekend! Yesterday we were supposed to be visiting some friends in Trowbridge, but one of them was unwell so we had to cancel. Tom and I headed off for a morning walk at Westonbirt Arboretum instead and it was beautiful, so full of colour. In the afternoon I managed to get some more crafting done..very unusual for a Saturday!

Friday was supposed to be a day when I got through quite a few commissions: I started off well with a Diamond anniversary card, but I had been asked to make two cards for one couple to be given (of course!) by different people and on the second one my mojo just went walkies! I think it was the pressure of creating two very different cards for the same couple. I ended up spending a few hours on a card, which I then totally discarded it was that bad! Got there in the end though!

Before I talk about today's card, after I mentioned the other day about a problem with the link to the Emergency Crafters challenge blog, a few of you said you have cards ready to post. I have now heard that due to the person who runs the challenge being unfortunately out of action at the moment, the challenge for May has been cancelled. I am really sorry to tell you this, but all I know is that everything should be back to normal for June.

Today's card is another commission for a regular customer's Mum. It is really nice creating cards for people who come back regularly, of course the same challenge applies...I must have been making cards for this lady's Mum for quite  a while now, so they need to be different. Of course the 'bonus' is I think I know what appeals (I hope!

 I started by creating a background and to do this I used a lovely leaf stamp from the 'You're Bloomin' Great' stamp set by Indigo Blu. I used Peacock Feathers distress ink, (my current favourite i think)just stamping lightly (by stamping first on copy paper then the card) randomly across the card.

This is an 8x8 card blank and after also inking the edges, I matted and layered onto teal card.

I then created a smaller matt and layer for the topper and tied it with some teal ribbon.

The flower stamp is als by Indigo Blu, from the 'Live, Love, Laugh' set. I stamped it on some Teresa Collins paper, which is a scrapbook paper and good weight for 'moulding'. I stamped the flower ten times and inked them, some all over, some just lightly with the Peacock Feathers ink, before layering for depth. I attached the ribboned layer to the card before adding the flowers. The sentiment is typed and printed from my computer.

To finish off I inked the edges of the scalloped card blank and added my last layered flower to the inside.

Thank you so much for visiting, I really do appreciate your comments. I hope you all have a beautiful Sunday, whether it's crafty or not!

Love and Hugs,

Carole Z X

Technique revisited - Sunday 20th January

Good morning Friends,

I hope the snow is starting to clear where you are..the only 'plus point' has been that usually on a Saturday we are out somewhere, whether it's local or meeting friends, but this week there really wasn't anywhere to go, so I got to craft whilst Tom quite happily kept the hens company clearing snow in the garden! Bliss - my perfect Saturday!

You may remember me telling you that I could not resist buying one of the new clock kits from Indigo Blu...well it arrived during the week! I  excitedly primed it with Gesso and paint straightaway, then yesterday I set about finishing it ...check out my post tomorrow for the full update and photos...all I can say is, wow was it fun!

Today's card is very similar to one I made for one of our classes last year...

It's made using a Wheatsheaf stamp from Woodware: I stamped the image three times on one piece A5 of linen card and once on a smaller piece of card, using versamark ink. I then inked it all over using Broken China distress ink to create a resist image. 

I covered an A5 card blank with blue card and matted and layered the stamped sheet on top, then I did the same with the smaller rectangle and the sentiment rectangle.The sentiment stamp is a Sam Poole stamp. I finished off with some bakers twine and ribbon.

The reason I am revisiting this card is because Amy and I are going to do a one of workshop for a local craft group this Tuesday and we chose this card from our regular workshops to take along for them to make.

Before I go, a few last snow hen photos...

It was actually Lacey, our Speckledy, who ventured out first, followed by Penny

...then Bella and Cara

They were very pleased when Tom cleared the snow from the lawn for them!

Thanks for stopping and looking, I really do appreciate it! Also thank you to those of you who hopped over to say 'Hi' to my friend Amy, who is now blogging...she's started posting her gorgeous creations now, check out her blog at http://craftylittleideas.blogspot.co.uk

 See you tomorrow with my clock!

Carole X

Sole Creation - Tuesday 30th October

Morning all!

I'm giving you a break from Halloween today (but there will be one more!)...

This card was made for a commission recently and I am told the recipient really liked it (phew!)

I used a pre-shaped card and embossed it using a floral 'That Special Touch' mask, which I then inked with Milled Lavender distress ink.

The sentiment is typed and printed and then cut using Grand Labels 23 and the Creative Expressions Sole Creations stamp was coloured with Promarkers and  die cut with Spellbinders Classic Rectangles (both dies are Spellbinders). I added a little cosmic sparkle and some gems and inked the edges using a mix of Milled Lavender and Victorian Velvet. The little flowers are from a punch and I made the pins from a kit that our lovely blog friend Linda sent me some time ago. The ribbon was heated with a heat tool to curl it

Hope you like it and thank you for stopping by and commenting, I really do read and appreciate them all!

Have a great day everyone,

Carole Z X