Ribbon Wreaths

Hello Friends!

Today's post is my design team project for Fantastic Ribbons this month..

We were set the task of creating Christmas/ Home Decor makes with ribbon.... well those who have been following my blog for some time will know that I love making seasonal door decor wreaths, so I set about creating a few from ribbon.

For my main project I used a  plain polystyrene floristry circle; it's a small wreath, I used a 4.5 inch/115cm one, but you can use any size.

I used the ribbon direct from the reel, so didn't measure the length, but the ribbon measures 10mm width, there is 4 metres on the reel and I had plenty left for other projects!

You will also need some ribbon and  a good wet glue.... simply wrap the ribbon tightly around the circle, glueing as you go. To finish I added a snowflake die cut from Spellbinders Snowflake Pendant 2012, some gingham ribbon, a button and some twine. I stamped the greeting using versamark and heat embossed with  snowflake embossing powder, then matted and layered on white and green card.

Both the snowflake, greeting and ribbon are attached securely to the wreath with needlecraft pins.

My second project is great for when you want to use up all those little scraps of ribbon, that if you are like me you keep in a pretty full box!

It couldn't be easier and is a good example (I think) of up-cycling...so what do you think I made it from? Well it's an empty one of these...

I actually used an empty red line tape reel and forgot to photograph it, but all you do is tie the little pieces of ribbon tightly around the reel...they are small enough to hang on a Christmas Tree, or to add some festive cheer to a door handle...Easter one would be nice too!

All the ribbons used in these projects are from the wonderful selection at Fantastic Ribbons.

Thanks for stopping by, I really appreciate you visiting and leaving a comment!
Carole X

Good morning blog friends,

I hope you are all well, thank you for visiting my blog, it really does mean a lot to me to know you have stopped by and I love reading all your comments. 

I have been busy in all my spare hours this week, trying to make the last few Christmas cards, whilst also making non-Christmas commissions..goodness there seem to be a lot of people getting married this Christmas!

Today I thought I'd post a bit of humour! This is an unusual card style for me...I love House Mouse, but am not keen on decoupage. However, at Christmas we have to make a lot of cards and much as stamping is my first love, it does take quite a bit of time...plus, we can't get all the HM designs here in the UK, some you would only use once a year anyway; so it made sense to buy the lovely Project books that Joanna Sheen has brought out. I don't need to decoupage the images if I don't want to!

Having said that, this image is from a sheet I had in my stash - I cut out the framed base image and chose just to add one layer on top to give the topper some depth. I  matted and layered an A6 blank with green card and then some paper from stash. The image is matted and layered on gold and then green card. I tied the bakers twine around the side of the top layer before mounting and then added a bakers twine bow and a greeting, The greeting is a washable by Clevercut, which I inked with a little Spun Sugar.

For a final touch I added some holly. This card is going to my friend in Italy who also loves the House Mouse images!

Sunday Stampers - week 233 - Monday 26 November

Good Morning blog friends,

Well did my heart sink a little this week when Hels announced the theme of the current Sunday Stampers challenge as anything Vintage...now I love vintage so why? Well I'd just posted my lovingly made vintage ice skates on Saturday hadn't I? They would have been a perfect choice! Thanks for all your comments too, glad you liked them! I will add it  to the post, but forgot to say that the snowflakes are mica flakes.

Never mind! I'm still making Christmas cards, so thought I would make a card for the challenge that will also get sent to one of our friends or family, so here is my project for this week...and it's a bit of a Tim Holz inspired creation.

I started with a 6x6 kraft card blank and covered it with one of the 6x6 squares from the Tim Holz Seasonal Paper pad. I inked the edges with Pine Needles distress ink and then went around the edge again with Antique Bronze distress stain. Next, in the bottom right hand corner, I stamped a little ornament from a Papermania Christmas stamp set. I used Versamark ink and heat embossed it with gold powder, then coloured it in with Promarkers; it was just to add a little accent to the card.

 I then added some lace along the width of the card, topping that with some really lush beaded velvet, which I got from Fantastic Ribbons.

I decided to add some die cut poinsettias (Spellbinders), so used some pale red card that was in my stash, that I had printed from a CD...when it printed, some white marks came out on it, but I like it, as it kind of hints at a little snow on the petals without adding anything else! Happy accident!

The sketchy little snowman definitely has a vintage look about him: the stamp is from the Tatty Button collection by Creative Expressions. I stamped him on some off white paper from the Tim Holz pad and coloured his scarf, hat and nose with Promarkers.

The postcard stamp is by LOTV, it was stamped on the same paper as the snowman and I inked the edges with Vintage Photo (I also did this with the snowman). Finally I stamped the greeting from the set by Papermania and then covered it with Tim Holz frosted film (love this stuff!) - it's such a shame photos don't do it justice!

Before adding all the elements, I added some gold hessian just above the ribbon/lace and then arranged my design, finishing off with some little red gems.

Thanks for stopping by and great to hear about all the Christmas Markets taking place around the Country too x

Carole X

PS I hope those of you that were having the same problem with uploading photos as me last week are now all sorted. Mine did just start working again, but Picasa is saying my web album (that I didn't know was there!) was 96% full. I looked back over my posts and my images varied in size, so every time I have a few spare minutes I am going back and resizing. Apparently below 800x800 pixels and they don't count towards storage.I have a Mac and I also found a very easy to use photo resizing app called Photora. I have been using it on every craft photo I've uploaded over the weekend and found it quick and easy.

Vintage Ice Skates - Saturday 24th November

Good Morning blog friends,

Thank you for all your lovely comments yesterday! And welcome to my new follower Anne - we found each other through Wilma and through both of us having the same posting problem - I hope you are sorted as well Anne, love your blog!

 Today I have a 'make' for you! 

For the new Emergency Crafters challenge, the design team was given the remit to make anything - and that is the theme of the new challenge, so if you have anything you've made.... from a card to some knitting, a page layout to a sewn item, why not hop over and enter...there's a super prize up for grabs.

You know I like grungy, steampunk and vintage...well I don't think ice skates can pass for steampunk, but I loved the pattern from these grungy, vintage, almost 'primitive' ice skates when I got it a few years ago from a US primitive/country pattern site called Country Whims.  I do love making this type of project and when we get the decoration box down from the attic, I will photograph and share the snowmen I've made. After I bought this pattern I'm sorry to say that I promptly put it in my pattern box and never got round to making it until now!

The boots are made from cotton batting and after sewing them, I distressed them with some tea dye and Vintage Photo distress inks, to make them even more vintage and old looking. The laces are made from cotton, which I also inked to get really dark. The blades,which I'm sorry you can't see well in the picture, are made from rusty wire and after stuffing the boots to half way with some old material scraps, I added quite large rusty bells and filled the tops of the boots with angel hair vine twigs.

To finish off I included a muslin bag (which should be filled with candy!): the bag is decorated with a red felt spellbinders poinsettia and a little sentiment tag.

No papercraft today, but something different and I hope you like it!

My friend Trish and I had a lovely day in Bath yesterday, the sun shone and the Christmas Craft market was bustling and full of delightful gifts.I just 'window shopped' this time, I am due back there in a few weeks, so may get some goodies! My dear blog friend Oksana asked for some photos so here are a few of the market and also the River Avon, which in part had risen above the banks and closed the footpaths. In the photo I have taken there is usually a weir, but that is hidden beneath the water.

Bath Christmas Market

Swollen River Avon flowing under Pultney Bridge

Aren't these markets lovely? Bath's is the biggest one close to us, but I also love going to the Cirencester one...Oksana mentioned Manchester - do you have any near to you? I've been to one in Birmingham and that was huge!

Thanks for stopping by!

Carole X

Christmas Day card - Friday 23rd November

Good Morning blog friends,

Well what a confusion yesterday! I got home from work and logged into Emergency Crafters to upload my project for the new challenge and.... couldn't (see last night's panic post for detail!)...Now I like computers, fiddling about with them, love my Mac etc etc but it had never even occurred to me that all the photos we upload are actually stored somewhere by blogger..."Picasa?" I said to myself in frustration when it threw the message at me that  I'd exceeded my 1gb of space..I don't have a Picasa account, I upload from my PC!!!

I logged into my own blog and tried...for some dopey reason I thought it might be to do with Emergency Crafters..wrong!

I wrote my 'help' post...and thank you to Wilma and Anne for your help and suggestions, it seemed I wasn't the only one having the problem in the last few days. So I accessed the Picasa account that I didn't know I had and it did seem to suggest my space was running out and wanted me to pay a monthly fee for more space...well I wasn't going down that road! However, I uploaded my photo to that album and then uploaded my DT card from there and it was fine, but not a solution as I didn't want to have to upload my photos to Picasa every time I post or worse still have to pay a monthly fee for the privilege. Lots of peeps have been blogging for years and I've never seen mention of a charge before.

Looking at blogger help and forums, some of the feedback to other complaints was that Picasa or blogger {can't remember which) has to do an update every now and then and this can cause the error report until it's completed.

I did think that maybe my photos were too large a size, so as suggested by one of the lovely crafters yesterday I followed the link to a site where you can reduce the size of your photo file: 

http://www.webresizer.com/

It is actually a good tool and I will keep it to hand, but as I'd really suspected all along, the size of my image was quite small....

A few hours later I came back and tried again and it was fine...so maybe it was just a blogger blip? It's fine this morning as well...long may it last!

So to my card...this is a simple little Christmas card made using a Woodware stamp.

I used a 6x6 card blank and covered it with some paper from one of my Christmas paper stash, lightly distressing all the edges with Pine Needles distress ink. I stamped the image, coloured with berry, holly and silver promarkers, no shading, I kept it quite straightforward, because I wanted to try out my  new roll of Tim Holz Frosted Film with it.

Unfortunately the photos just don't show the lovely shimmery effect..hah humbug!!! I noticed a little mistake after uploading the photo too...You can see a little 'white' showing on the holly, it's funny how you notice little things in photos...was cut away as soon as I'd spotted it!

I finished off with some deckled edge organza ribbon, simply tied, a button and some bakers twine..thanks for stopping by and hope I didn't go on too much about my blogger problem last night, thought it  might help if it happens to any of you.

I'm off on the bus to Bath today to have a look at their always wonderful Christmas market and have some lunch with a friend...looks like we have picked the one fine day this week!

Have a super Friday,

Carole X

Blog misbehaving! Thursday 22nd November

Good evening blog friends,

I hope you are all well and not been too affected by this awful wind and rain? Well I've been missing  a few days and actually busy crafting for most of my waking hours (when not in work!) - so - I got home from work today and tried to upload my latest DT card for Emergency Crafters and got the message that my Picasa web album is full so need to pay for more space...but I don't use Picasa...I upload from my Mac.

I hopped back here and tried to upload to my own blog...grrrrrrrrr! Same again...

I searched blogger help and apparently all the photos we upload are stored on Picasa, I don't have a Picasa account myself, but I clicked on that upload button and all the photos I've uploaded popped up...some of them in triplicate! So, what do I do? I can't see how to delete them and will they disappear from my blog history if I do? I've only been blogging a year, surely I can't have used up my allocated space already? Anyone had this problem?
Is blogger just misbehaving?

If you have the answer....pleeeeese let me know!

Thanks,
Carole Z X

Sunday Stampers week 232 - Tuesday 20th November

Good Morning Blog Friends!

Thank you so much for all your lovely comments about my Dreamweaver Tutorial, I'm really pleased you liked it and found it easy to follow, I hope some of you will have a go, it really is a fab technique. Welcome also to my new follower and thank you so much for joining me on my crafty journey!

I've been missing a few days, because I simply ran out of 'made' projects, or at least ones I had photographed. I simply can't make enough cards or projects for a daily post, certainly not at the moment...tis the season for catching up with friends and relatives outside work, so less time in the craft room! I've also been busy with Design Team makes - I am really excited about my next Fantastic Ribbons one, it took ages but I really like it -and that's all I'm saying for now!

I did however make my Sunday Stampers project for this week, actually on Sunday! This week, after working with Tim Holz's new stamps (Did you hear his phone call when Hels was on C&C last week? Wow!!), one set featuring the most amazing face, Hels set us the task of creating a project with a face.

This led to a frantic search through my stamps and I found three....an Inventor from a Steampunk set that I've used a lot, a 'Venetian' lady that I only recently bought, haven't used and am not 'sure' about and this one that I finally decided to use: 'rocket scientist' from Paper Artsy. I have had this very small stamp for years and never used it...so this had to be the time!

So, I've made a grungy steampunky tag...to begin with I smeared Antique Bronze Distress Stain over the tag, followed by  a  mix of Vintage Photo, Tea Dye and Wild Honey  distress inks. I then went all around the edge with the distress stain.

Next I stamped randomly across the tag using the Thomas Edison quote from Sam Poole's Vintage Inventor stamp set by Creative Expressions (at this point I was still poised to use the face of the inventor from that set). For those of you not familiar with the set and are interested, the quote actually reads:

"I have not failed 10,000 times, I have found 10,000 ways that do not work". 

I wanted it to be quite faded so I stamped a few times on scrap paper before inking the tag.

I stamped the 'Rocket Scientist' using black Archival ink, which I then heat embossed using black embossing powder. It's actually quite a 'grainy' stamp with lots of black areas and it embossed really well. The photo doesn't really show how raised it is in reality and the result very tactile.

The word 'Inventor'  and the light bulb from the Sam Poole set were stamped next. I coloured the bottom part of the bulb with brushed pewter distress stain and then inked the word and the bulb with Vintage Photo - then - although it doesn't really show here, I opened my new pot of Ranger Rock Candy Crackle paint and brushed it quite thickly over both the bulb and the word. Again, pictures don't do it justice, it is really fab stuff, I can't stop running my fingers over the cracks!

The cog is part of a 'Special Touch' mask that I inked with Perfect Medium before running through the Grand Calibur and then heat embossed using  a black sparkly embossing powder. I cut it out and just arranged it at the side. To finish off I added some Ranger pewter brads from my stash box and some ribbon and lace which I grunged up a bit with distress inks.

Phew! That was a lot of description for such a little tag!

Thanks for stopping by,

Carole X

Dreamweaver/Mega Flake Tutorial - Saturday 17th November

Hello blog friends,

I hope you are all well and have had a good week - mine has been a bit 'messy' and not in the nice, crafty sense! Wednesdays and Fridays are my non working days and the days where I get my commissions made, work on designs and at the moment, finish making the family and best friends cards...but this Wednesday I took a day out, the bus to the shopping Mall and met a friend for coffee. We do similar jobs for different charities and don't get time to meet, compare notes about work and have a general chat - and this was our only chance before Christmas. So I got nothing done Wednesday except some Christmas shopping (nearly finished) and it was a really long day, so I was tired.

Thursday I had to attend an event out of the office: because I work so few hours having to take time away from my desk is a real nuisance, but heigh ho, I'm here to talk craft not work! Suffice to say, have been feeling really tired this week...

But I did get the final piece of the promised Dreamweaver tutorial photographed, so here 'tis...

I started off with the Indigo Blu Flitter Glu, Winter Dawn Mega Flakes,Scoochie sponge, phat foam and a bowl of warm soapy water

Using removable tape, secure the stencil and card to your mat

Using a palette knife coat the phat foam with the Flitter Glu

Dab the flitter glu all over, you need to move fairly quickly, 'kissing' the stencil but at the same time making sure you coat every bit - especially hard with this intricate stencil!

sprinkle the flakes all over

smooth the flakes with the palm of your hand to get rid of the excess , but don't waste any, tip it back in your container

Using the scoochie rub all over the image

You can rub quite deeply, it will bring up the shine

 Here is the card I made with the resulting image from this tutorial...thanks for stopping by!

Carole X

Sunday Stampers week 231 - Birds - Wednesday 14th November

Hello Blog Friends,

First of all welcome to my new follower and thank you for following me! Please leave a comment when you visit, I really do appreciate and read them all.

Today it's Sunday Stampers time again and this week Hels Sheridan has set the theme of Birds, one of my favourite things! I actually had a lot of ideas, the cute stampavie stamp I have used on here sometimes, using a stamped background with my Spellbinders cage dies..but in the end I decided to go all Steampunk again and use the Steampunk Christmas stamp from  Sam Poole (Creative Studios).

My taste in cards, in fact all the craft and paper craft I make, is very eclectic...I'll go from the cuteness of LOTV and House Mouse to the grunge of Steampunk at the twinkle of an eye...well it keeps me on my toes at least!

I actually made this card late last night whilst watching Hels bring us Tim Holz crafts on Ideal World, so that's my excuse for it being a bit 'thrown together' this week..how could I concentrate whilst drooling over all that Tim temptation and Hels' amazing creations and demos?????

Have to say Hels, if you read this (I know you will be even busier than usual with the shows), I had promised myself that I wouldn't buy anything else from anywhere crafty before Christmas, but you do too good a job! The Rock Candy and adhesive frosty film are on their way! I've got to say that there couldn't have been a better person to bring Tim to us last night...well done Hels!

The base card is kraft card and to begin with I used a cogs mask from 'That Special Touch' and inked it with versamark before putting it through the Grand Calibur. Then I heat embossed some transparent holographic powder over it, just to give some sparkle to the background. I stamped the steampunk robin, 25, 'Christmas' and the festive lightbulbs and coloured the robin with metallic silver and grey promarkers before cutting him out. Then I used a versamark pen over the top hat and 25 and heat embossed using tinsel red embossing powder. The lightbulbs were coloured in with glitter gel pens.

Finally, used the Sprightly Sprockets Spellbinders dies with some cardboard from packaging and coloured them with Ranger Brushed Pewter metallic distress stain (yes there is some Tim on this card!) and arranged them on the card with the robin perched on the middle...all a bit of fun!

No much crafting time for me today, I'm actually having the 'day off' to meet a friend for lunch and do some Christmas shopping and then tomorrow it's back to work..catch you all later and thanks for stopping by!

Carole X

Good Evening Blog Friends,

First of all, thank you very much to Jenny for my Liebster Award yesterday, that was a lovely surprise first thing in the morning! If you aren't following Jenny, please visit her blog at http://cardsarus.blogspot.co.uk for some super lovely designs!

I'm not really very good at picking people to pass on to, because I think you are all just so inspiring, plus quite a few of us follow each other, so I am trying not to duplicate...however my first award to Oksana (every day crafting) is duplicated rom Jenny's because I really admire her cards and we started blogging  and following each other at more or less the same time..hope your computer is fixed soon, my friend and you are back blogging those lovely cards!

These five bloggers are inspiring and quite different from each other in their styles. I had never heard of this award before Jenny wrote about it on her blog yesterday, but the idea is to pass it on to five more people who have less than 200 followers and spread the crafty inspiration, so it's over to you ladies, if you would like to join in..if you've already been 'awarded' in the past, and I'm sure some of you have,  then I guess you've already passed it on...:)

http://everydaycrafting.blogspot.co.uk

http://bollyanne.blogspot.co.uk

http://patricia-summerhousecrafts.blogspot.co.uk

http://christinescardsandcrafts.blogspot.co.uk

http://scrappyjens.blogspot.co.uk

I'll be back in the morning with a new post! 

Carole X

Birthday Shoe- Tuesday 13th November

Good Morning Blog Friends!

Thank you for your lovely comments about my poppy card on Sunday, it was one of those cards that was a joy to make from beginning to end! I was really pleased with it, so I'm glad you liked it.

We had a family day on Sunday, so I didn't get any crafting done and weekends are going to be much the same between now and mid-December, whilst we catch up with everyone. Even my crafting week days are shaping up to be doing other things but crafting, so I see some late nights ahead to get things done! 

However, I am more than pleased to report that on Friday I finished all my 'general' Christmas cards and cards for abroad and on Saturday I wrote them all whilst watching 'Strictly'! I made and wrote 71 cards and I still have the special close family and friends ones to make, but at least now I can take my time over them. It may sound mad to make all these, but they were simple cards using just two stamps, a cute LOTV mouse and a House Mouse. I stamped them all in the summer and coloured them in with my promarkers on evenings when I felt in need of some colouring time. I find it a good way to relax. I know that any one of those people who find it odd if I didn't make a card to send, I really don't remember the last time I bought a card of any sort!

So to today's card, which was a commission. I'm really glad I got this shoe stamp set (Creative Expressions)as they are going to be really useful for female and 'girly' cards...

I used a deckle edged 8x8 card blank and inked the edges with Spun Sugar (though you wouldn't know from the photo). The shoe was stamped with versamark ink and then heat embossed with black sparkle embossing powder, I just coloured the flowers with pro markers. I then cut it out with Spellbinders Grand Labels 23 and shaded the edges with a  mix of Spun Sugar and Victorian Velvet. I matted and layered the base card with pink and then white; the top white layer had been out through my Grand Calibur with a "Venetian' M-Bossability.

Before sticking the layers to the card I added a thin length of dark pink shimmer ribbon, and a wide length of silk and the tied a double bow with the silk and a pink/brown stripe, finishing off with a zipper flower.

Thanks for stopping by, I have that Dreamweaver tutorial photographed except the finished card. I just wasn't happy with the photo so have to re-take, dam having to use artificial light and flash this time of year!

Have a great crafty day all!

Carole

Remembrance Sunday - Sunday 11th November

Good Morning Friends,

Today is the day we remember those who have fought for this Country in the past and continue to do so now, so my card today is made in their honour.

The card is 8x8 and I made it because I wanted to and for no other reason. I only got the stamp this week, but I am already thinking that next year at our October craft fair, I will make some poppy cards and sell them for the Royal British Legion.

I have to be honest, this stamp is large and comes in four parts, plus the sentiment. I knew I wanted to use them all but needed inspiration, so this card isn't entirely original in layout, but that's okay - we have to take inspiration from others, that's why we have blogs and companies like Indigo Blu have card galleries. I usually find that if I'm artistically challenged and my mojo has gone walkies (which often happens when faced with a new stamp), a quick gallery or google image blog hop gets me thinking again and once I have a layout to play with, I'm away. Now that I have made this card, I have many ideas for these stamps!

The stamp set is by Indigo Blu and is called 'Poppy Meadow'. First of all I took a square of textured card and created the background using (wait for it) the following colour distress inks: Crushed Olive, Pine Needles, Bundled Sage, Weathered Wood, Wild Honey, Dried Marigold, Victorian Velvet, Worn Lipstick and Rusty Hinge...I don't think I've left any out! I just love making up colour palettes and backgrounds.

After I had got the colours as I wanted, I spritzed the entire page with a little water to create a watercolour effect and then dried with a heat tool.

I then stamped  the meadow across the bottom and the poppies to one side with black archival and coloured them with  distress inks: Worn Lipstick, Rusty Hinge, Dried Marigold and Bundled Sage. I also painted over the poppy petals with Glossy Accents to give them a slight shine.

The sentiment was stamped in black archival and heat embossed with black embossing powder, then I die cut it using Spellbinders Labels Four Small; leaving the card in the die I inked it through with all the warm colours from my original background. I then added black and red ribbon and a black button.

Thanks for stopping by and let's wear our poppies with pride today,

Carole X

Emergency Crafter DT card - Saturday 10th November

Hello Friends,

After the LOTV baby card yesterday, I am returning to my other favourite stamp company,  House Mouse!

Today's card is my Design Team card for the new Emergency Crafters challenge, the theme of which is  'Get Well Soon'

I chose to use this cute House Mouse and Friends stamp, which I've coloured with Promarkers and cut out using Grand Labels 23; I also cut  the next side up on double-sided card to mount it and use as the frame for my easel.

The edges are shaded with Tattered Rose distress ink and framed with flowers from my stash box. For the base, I stamped the sentiment  with Butterscotch Adirondack ink and then heat embossed using a translucent embossing powder. To make the the 'stopper' I cut it out using Spellbinders Labels Four Small and repeated in the larger size using the same card as for the frame. Then I simply added some ribbon and a button from stash.

'Hop' over to Emergency Crafters via the link above, this time our sponsor is The Glittermonster, with a super papercraft goody bag from Trimcraft.

Hope this cheers you up if you're feeling poorly! Thank you so much for stopping by and leaving a comment, 

Crafty Love, Carole X

Baby Boy - Friday 9th November

Hello Friends!

Thanks for visiting my blog and leaving your comments...and of course following me! I still have that candy to give away when I get to 50, but at the moment, seem to be stuck at 32! Lol....I'm not sponsored or anything like that, so have been buying bits and pieces as I go along and am itching to send it to one of you! So please tell your friends!

Today's card is another of my recent commissions, made using an LOTV stamp...

This is an 8x8 card, the usual size for my commissioned cards: I matted and layered alternating blue and white, finishing with polka dot coredinations card, which I sanded back to raise the dots.

I stamped the cute little bear with memento ink and coloured with Promarkers, then I die cut with Spellbinders Labels One Small and softened the edges with Broken China  and Peacock Feathers distress ink.

The bunting I made myself using a plain bunting digital stamp and typing the letters over the top, then I inked all over with the same mix of inks, finishing off with bakers twine and little punched stars. Again with the  sentiment, it was stamped with the LOTV stamp from the same set and cut into the flag shape by hand, then distressed. I finished off with paper flowers from stash and little polka dot buttons.

Hope you like and thanks for stopping by...over the weekend I will probably be uploading a new Design Team card for Emergency Crafters and Sunday, I have a special Remembrance Sunday card coming up..but I have been working on the Dreamweaver tutorial I promised and that will be posted next week.

Thanks and have a great crafting day,
Carole X

Sunday Stampers week 230 - Weds 6th November

Hello Blog Friends,

I'm later posting today, because it's my no work day...hence crafting day...and I wanted to get my project for this week's Sunday Stampers made!

This week Hels has set the theme of  'blue' for the challenge, so to be seasonal, I thought 'ice blue' and made this large tag/hanger...

 First of all I cut a large tag shape from linen effect card and stamped a snowflake randomly all over it with Perfect Medium. Then I inked all over the tag with a mix of these distress inks: Peacock Feathers, Broken China and Faded Denim..these creates a resist against the stamped images (which in reality are much more defined and visible than the photo would have you believe!).

I then cut a piece from a double-sided adhesive sheet, peeled off one side and stuck it to a sheet of card, which was used to cut the snowflakes from Spellbinders Snowflake Pendant 2010. The die-cuts were then dipped into Clear Micro Glass Beads before sticking to the tag.

A wide piece of seam binding was then cut in half to give it a frayed finish and I stamped 'Jingle Bells' along it with Broken China distress ink. To finish off I added a Vintage ribbon double bow and some little bells!

Hope you like this and thanks for stopping by...I am hoping to finish off my 'general' Christmas cards this afternoon...wish me luck!

Carole X

House Mouse Birthday - Tuesday 6th December

Good Morning Friends,

Yesterday Tom and I had the day off work, but not to relax...first thing was a dental check up for both of us...for some reason we still attend the dental practice I went to as a child, which is in Bristol. We had to be there for 9am: it should take 45 minutes at that time of morning with the traffic, but one of the villages on the way was snarled up for some reason and it took an hour and a half (good job we left early)..we got there bang on 9am. Tom was fine, but I knew I'd lost a bit of a filling, so I have to go back in December :( - expensive!

Then we went to the  shopping mall to buy a washing machine because ours is on the brink of going to kitchen appliance heaven...even more expensive!!

After that we had to rush home for a visit from a gas engineer to quote for a new boiler, as that too is sadly getting in need of retirement....too much expense in one day (and at this time of year)!!! Why does it all come at once???

Goodness it's scary how much money you could part with in one day through necessity isn't it? I broke it to the hens that their meal worm allowance was being cut :) 

Well on to a much more cheering subject...crafts! I didn't get to look at all your blogs until after the shock of the boiler cost last night, but you had all been making such lovely cards and boxes..you are all so talented!

My project for today is a commissioned card and a topical image for November as it features a poppy. This is a House Mouse image from Joanna Sheen's project book. Those of you who have been following me for a while, will know that I'm a big fan of the House Mouse designs. Earlier this year I was thrilled to be a guest on their blog Design Team and it's one of the challenges I love to enter but sadly don't get a lot of time.

House Mouse to me usually means rubber stamps - I'm first and foremost a stamper - and I'm also not a fan of decoupage. But when Joanna Sheen brought out the project book, I had to treat myself to it for several reasons...

To begin with, I can adapt the projects to use with stamps and use the backing papers; I can't possibly buy every stamp that I'd like to, so to have quite a few images readily available on CD is a bonus and I don't have to decoupage them!

Having bought the book and CD, I do really like it - even just to look at, the photos and projects are gorgeous. I'm going to spend some of my stash money on the Christmas one (don't tell Tom or he'll want it towards the washing machine...lol :))

This card is 8x8 and is one of several ordered by a long and highly valued customer and quite often she says she'll go with whatever ideas I have. Of course I recognise names and know that I have been making cards for certain recipients for a number of years, so the challenge is to be different.

Well, who couldn't love these little meece? I adapted the card from a project in the book but I only added one layer to the poppy and the mouse, just to make it stand out. There is only a hint of glitter, but drat on these short days, I had to use flat and it makes it look like there is more than there is!

Thanks for stopping by!

Carole X

Howdy Cowboy! - Monday 5th November

Good Morning Friends!

Thank you for your comments about yesterday's Dreamweaver card, I will get a tutorial on here very soon, promise!

Today's card is a 6x6 card made with this cute little cowboy LOTV stamp...

I matted and layered the  dark brown card and then black card on a kraft card blank and then added a final layer of 'cowboy' backing paper from a 'boys' 8x8 paper pad from my stash. I also cut into the edge of the black card to create a 'fringe' .Although I referred to the boys pad as paper, it's quite thick and the images are raised and glossy. From some of the left over card, I also cut our some of the images to use as embellishments and the greeting.

The image is coloured in with Promarkers, but I wanted it to remain quite understated. I then cut a rectangle in brown using Spellbinders Classic Rectangles. I did the same with the image, using the outside the die technique with the feather. I then tore around the edge and inked with Antique Photo distress ink. I finished off by adding some little screw top brads and coloured some string with Antique Photo to make it look more like a rope lasso.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Carole X

Winter Dawn - Sunday 4th November

Hello Friends!

Thanks for stopping by, I do appreciate you taking the time and also leaving a comment. I was missing yesterday - I have plenty of cards to share at the moment but so little time to write the blog! 

Today I am sharing another card I made using the Dreamweaver Bare Trees stencil - I did warn you there would be quite a few as I wanted to try different techniques and I'm barely started! 

This time I have used black card with Indigo Blu Mega- Flakes and Flitterglu. I do love using this product, but have to do it when I have plenty  of time and a clear desk as it can get quite sticky and messy (when I'm using it anyway!!)

The flakes I used are called 'Winter Dawn'...

I used white card as the base layer and matted and layered alternating black and white.

Then I used black card as the base for my stencil. You need to tape the stencil to excess card or your mat on all four sides with low tack tape, this prevents the chance of ruining your creating with movement.

When I have have some time, I will post a tutorial for this technique, because it is good fun to play with it and the resulting stamped or stencilled image is quite lovely.

Meanwhile, hope you like it and thanks for taking the time to stop by!

Carole X