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

Christmas Kiss - Sunday 22nd July

Hello Bloggers,


Well I am pleased to report that the Alfie concert last night was amazing..with the balmy summer evening making it all that more special. For those of you who don't know who Alfie Boe is, he is dubbed "Britain's favourite tenor', an acclaimed Opera lead tenor, last year he went into musical theatre, starring in Les Miserables (and he was fabulous) and now he is singing and recording more mainstream music, so last night was a good mix of both, plus at the end we were all treated to a min 'Prom' concert with all the favourites from Land of Hope and Glory to Jerusalem. It was an open air 'picnic' concert at Westonbirt Arboretum, which not being far from where we live is a favourite place for us to visit...so we all arrived with our chairs and food...and wine of course and had a brilliant time! I'm hoping this week that I'll get a scrapbook page made of our experience.

Now for today's card. I thought it was about time for another Christmas card and this week I have been playing about with creating backgrounds ahead of the next workshop I have been prepping for...

To create the green background I simply took a 'That Special Touch' Holly Mask, embossed a piece of card with it through my Grand Calibur and then using Shabby Shutters distress ink and a pice of Cut n Dry, I inked all over quite heavily.  Although you can't really  see in the photo, I also dusted a little green mica powder across the inked card to give it a 'glisten'.

The image is an LOTV stamp, which I coloured with Promarkers and die cut using Spellbinders Heart Squares. To finish I added ribbon, roses,gems and holly, plus an LOTV sentiment.

Thanks for stopping by!

Carole X

First Christmas card 2012 - Monday 25th June

Hi Blog Friends,


Well I had to get started this month didn't I? So inspired by some of you, and all the Christmas Craftyness on Create and Craft this week, I dug deep under my desk, pulled out the boxes of Christmas stash, dusted off the Christmas Spellbinders and stamps and got to work. The first ones aren't going to be quick ones..I need the more involved, 'lots going on' cards before I decide on the design for my card that is going to be made many times over!

 This card was made with a Lilli of the Valley stamp, which I coloured with Promarkers and then added some Pinflair Iced Diamond for the snow and on the hats.


I cut the image on a  Spellbinders Grand Labels 23 and then cut a faux nestie in red. The base card is white, matted and layered with green and red card and finally a sage green polka dot card, which I pin pricked and using white jellyroll pen created faux stitching.


The snow flakes are from this year's Spellbinders Christmas dies and the poinsettias are from last year. I love these dies, they are by far my favourite! For this card I cut the petals using red glitter felt and the foliage, dark green card.


I stamped an LOTV stamp on to white card and die cut using  a lacey oval die...final touches were pearl gems a button and ribbon from stash.


Thanks for stopping by, I'll try to space our Christmas cards for now...we haven't had summer yet, have we!!!?


Carole X

Birthday Girl - Tuesday 15th May

Good Morning Blogger Friends,

Hope you are all well and up to lots of lovely craftyness! I've been 'missing' a few days as we had such a busy time over the weekend...but more of that tomorrow...

You all know that I love LOTV stamps, so I'm back today with one I have made for this week's challenge which is to use your favourite tools. As regular visitors will know mine are Spellbinders, coupled with my Grand Calibur and Promarkers...tools I just couldn't be without in my craft room and at least one of them features on most of my cards.

For today's card I have used them all...

After stamping with black Memento ink,I coloured the image very lightly with pro markers as I wanted to keep a 'sketchy' feel to it. I then die cut using Labels 24 and distressed the edges with Spun Sugar distress ink. Then using wool felt, I die cut from Spiral Blossom One, three times. Two of the roses are made from the whole die cut, but the two smaller ones I made from one cutting.

Finally I decorated the inside of the card to co-ordinate and stamped the greeting with an LOTV sentiment.






































Thanks for stopping by!


Carole X


I'd like to enter this in

Lili's Little Fairies Thursday Challenge: Your Favourite Tools

http://liliofthevalleythursdaychallenge.blogspot.co.uk/

L'il Baby Girl - Friday 4th May

Good Morning Friends,

First of all, welcome to my new followers..thank you so much for following my blog and checking in to see my cards..one of my favourite times I try to make every day, even if I don't 'post' myself, is to have a look and see what all you wonderful crafters are sharing.

Also, thank you to those who posted comments on my House Mouse card yesterday, it was the first challenge I had entered and I actually found I was quite a bit nervous doing it, but it's done now and was actually quite a pleasant and fulfilling experience! So much so, today I am going to enter a challenge I have been wanting to enter for a long time..you know that I love making cards with LOTV stamps, so it had to be done!

For today's card, I am back to LOTV and one of the stamps I bought at Ally Pally a few weeks ago..this really cute baby stamp...

 I started with some paper from stash, a polka dot in yellow and pink and some lemon glitter card. Using a die from Spellbinders Grand Labels 23, I die cut and embossed one edge of the polka dot paper and mat and layered over the lemon glitter to form the base of the card.  I stamped the image on coconut white card and coloured with Promarkers, then I die-cut using Labels 24 and shaded the edges with Spun Sugar distress ink. I stamped the sentiment from another LOTV baby stamp set that I own and die-cut this with Heart Circles.

The paper flowers, buttons, pearls, lace and ribbons are all from my stash box.

Thanks for stopping by my blog!

Carole Z X

I'd like to enter this into:

Lili's Little Fairies Challenge: Anything Goes


http://liliofthevalleythursdaychallenge.blogspot.co.uk/

Fairy Cupcake - Sunday 29th April

Good Morning,


Today a  change from the Sarah Kay stamped cards that I've been sharing these last few days (though there are more to come). I'm back to LOTV today with a sweet little fairy cupcake!


I stamped the image on coconut white card and coloured with a mixture of Promarkers and Flexmarkers:
Promarkers: Ivory, Blush (skin), Caramel (hair); Flexmarkers: Sorbet, Wild Orchid (clothing) and I then cut out the image using Spellbinders Grand Scalloped Ovals, shading the edges with Spun Sugar distress ink.


I cut a card blank using Grand Labels 23 and then using a paper from stash, I cut three  more pieces from the same die. Apologies for  not photographing the inside of the card, but I adhered one piece to the front and the other two to the inside, where I also added the stamped sentiment, which came with the stamp set.  

I then cut flowers in purple wool felt, using Flower Creations and Spiral Blossom One and added buttons and embroidery thread to the smaller blossoms. To complete, I added three tiny heart buttons, a Greeting (I think, from Craftwork Cards), some pink ribbon, tiny star gems and some Cosmic Twinkles on the icing and wings.
Thanks for stopping by, 
Carole X

It's My Party! Sunday 25th March

Good afternoon...and another warm and sunny one it is too!


Lilli of the Valley is one of my favourite stamp design companies - apart from producing such cute and endearing images, the stamps are also top quality. Today's card is the stamp entitled 'It's My Party' and I love it! I recently saw a post  on the LOTV blog where this stamp had been made into a 'Keep Out' sign for a child's door - brilliant idea!

I stamped on to Neneh card and used the following to colour:


Promarkers: Ivory, blush - skin
                    Caramel, shale, ivory - hair
Flexmarkers: Wild orchid,  soft mauve, pink pearl - dress, parcel, boots


The 6x6 card was matted and layered with paper and card from stock and I used a Martha Stewart punch to add another layer of mauve glitter card. The image was die cut using a Spellbinders Grand Scalloped Rectangle and the edges were shaded with Milled Lavender distress ink. I added these two layers across a ribbon added to the card and left to hang over the edges. I used some flowers I had in my stash box (having made an attempt to tidy my craft room yesterday, I am making an effort to use some items that have been in the box a long time!) and used little purple diamantes in the centre. I finished of with a bow and typed sentiment cut into a Spellbinders Heart Circles die, with edges shaded in Milled Lavender....and of course, a little dusting of Cosmic Sparkle was needed here!


I think the sentiment was really hard on this one...it would really have to be the right person to send it to I think!


Enjoy your Sunday!
Carole X

Christening card - 11th March

Morning!


I have decided to post a card rather than another project today after all, one I made for a commission recently and hadn't got around to sharing.

This is an 8x8 card, my size of choice for a large card, which I covered with some pink paper I had in my pinks collection! I cut a rectangle of plain pink card, which co-ordinated well with the check and matted and layered this with white card, with edges softened with spun sugar distress ink and finally white card embossed using an M-Bossability. I added a little strip of lace to the lower edge before adding it to the card.


The imaged is a Lilli of the Valley (LOTV) stamp, coloured with Promarkers and shaded with a mix of Spun Sugar and Milled Lavender distress inks after die cutting using a Spellbinders Romantic Rectangles die, which is in turned layered over the the plain pink card, cut with a larger die from the same set. I time a gingham bow around the layer before adding to the card. Finally I added some little roses, buttons and pearls from stock and printed the greeting before die-cutting with Spellbinders Labels Four Small.


Today I will be crafting most of the day as I still have a lot of deadlines to make for commissioned Mothering Sunday cards, plus I am working on a special Alice in Wonderland (a la Tim Burton!) themed birthday card, which I will share with you in a few weeks time!


Have a super Sunday and thanks for visiting my blog.. would love you to follow and leave comments!


Carole X