Butterfly CAS card - Friday 11th March 2014

Hello Friends,

A quick post today as we are heading off to London as soon as we have dropped off our 'ladies' at their holiday home..or 'spa weekend' as we like to pretend! Bless them, I hate putting them in boxes and taking them to the farm, but they always seem to come back clucking happily!

Anyway as clean and simple tripple layered card today using an Indigo Blu (really) large butterfly stamp (this is a 7x7 card). I simply stamped across the layers in blue ink and matt and layered on navy card. I also stamped inside.

I really like clean cards such as this, but commissions and the love of paint and getting 'inky' lead me not to post so many on here...I must try and change that!

I will post the photos from last night's  fab workshop - where our group created some gorgeous paper wreaths -  when I get back on Sunday (it will probably be Monday) and tell you all about Ally Pally too..be catching up with all your posts in a few days, meanwhile have a lovely, sunny weekend!

Thanks for stopping by!

Love and Hugs,
Carole X

If you go down in the woods today...Thursday 10th April

Good afternoon Friends,

It's 'all go' here....I was so pleased I didn't have to go into work today as I have been busy busy busy...had to finish off some demos and pack everything up for the craft group tonight - this time our ladies will be making floral paper wreaths..good fun!

Today's card is my Sunday Stamper make this week - this is a weekly just of fun challenge set by Hels Sheridan - just click on her name to link to her fab blog and all the deets. This week the theme is nature and as I had just got these fab new stamps by Sam Poole I thought they would fit the remit very well.

The stamps are the rabbits and bear and are part of a brand new collection - click on Sam's name above for details.

I love these stamps, they will be equally great in CAS cards as in more detailed ones such as this, so expect to see more of them.

I decided to create a bit of a diorama, just a bit of fun..I wonder if those pesky bunnies are after the honey? (I'm sure they have a sweet tooth!)

 The aperture in the front of the card was die cut, using Spellbinders Grand Classic Squares, I then embossed it through an M-Bossability leaf folder and then inked through with Shabby Shutters distress ink.

The leaves are all die cut using Spellbinders dies and inked with a mix of inks: Shabby Shutters, Mown Lawn and Bundled Sage. I stamped the bear and bunnies on kraft card using black archival, which I then heat embossed. I stamped the bear twice to give him more depth and made my own honey jar.

I used a birch tree Mask for the back of the card and inked through using Wild Honey, Broken and Mustard Seed inks, then I used the same mask, embossed it, stamped it with a script stamp, inked the trees with Wild Honey and then cut them out and stuck them to the back of the card with 3D foam.

The bunnies were cut in half (ouch!) and placed behind the trees to 'spy' on the bear! The greeting is from the Bear stamp set and to finish I added a little button that I had in my 'melt pot makes' box.

Now I am off to do a bit of housework :( and then try to get started on some packing -tomorrow we take the hens to their holiday home and head off to London for the weekend, I'm so looking forward to the Ally Pally show on Saturday!

Thank you for stopping by!

Love and Hugs,

Carole X

Tilda Easter Bunny - Wednesday 9th April 2014

Good Morning Friends!

Thank you so much for all your lovely comments about my notebook last week...I promise the faux leather ones will be on here soon, I still need to sew in the pages! I hadn't meant to leave it five days before posting again, especially as I have quite a few 'makes' to post up until Easter, but work and actual crafting made it impossible to have the time to write the posts..we have our first April workshop tomorrow and then Friday we are off to London for the weekend, to include Ally Pally on Saturday.

A little different today and a bit of fun with this cute Magnolia Tilda Easter bunny stamp...

I used a pre-shaped 6x6 card and inked the edges with Worn Lipstick distress ink, the image is coloured with promarkers and matted and layered on to kraft card and a doily. The shapes were die cut using Spellbinders dies. Excuse me for being a little vague today...I actually sold this card at the craft fair I did, so haven't got it to refer back to..oops!

A quick post today as I have a lot of prepping to do...fortunately no work for the rest of the week, so all crafting time!

Have a good day everyone,

Love and Hugs,

Carole X

Sunday Stampers wk 301 - Shades of Brown: Friday 4th April 2014

Hello Friends!

Today's creation is for this week's Sunday Stampers hosted every week for the uber talented Hels Sheridan. For all the deets just click here  and have a look.

The theme for this week is to create something including the colour brown and shades thereof ! Now, although I love bright, happy colours and creating for Spring; I just love browns in card making (probably why I like autumnal crafts so much).

I didn't have a lot of time this week..you may have noticed I've been a day behind in visiting all of you...to be honest my mojo has been hiding a little this past week...but I do like to take part. I have had this little plain brown note book sitting forlornly on a shelf by my desk for ages, but suddenly it made a good starting place for this challenge.

For my own use, this book had to be quite flat, no fancy embellishments because it will be in my bag and no matter how 'pretty' I could have made it, it would just not be functional!

This isn't one of the faux leather books I've been playing with (they will be on here within the next week), but just a notebook with a plain brown cover. Most of the stamps are from the Typrography sets by Graphic 45, that quite shamefully have been in my stamp collection for ages and never been used..now I'm asking myself why?!!!

I used a script stamp from one of the sets, inked it up with brushed corduroy distress ink, stamped on copy paper and then on the cover. I repeated this all over, just to leave a faint hint of the text.

Next I used the Big Butterfly from Indigo Blu and stamped it off the page twice with Memento Rich Cocoa. I then gave the cover a quick burst with my heat tool, just to dry and set it.

Over these stamped images, I stamped the pen, nibs, flourishes and quote from the Graphic 45 set, using aged mahogany. 

I then dusted them with clear embossing powder and heat embossed. This gives it some lift and shine. Once I had finished stamping the base, I inked the edges with a mixture of brushed corduroy, aged mahogany and walnut stain inks.

I then stamped the pen again, as well as an ink bottle. I used aged mahogany and clear embossing powder and heat embossed again. These were then cut out and set aside.

To secure the book I used string and a wooden button from stash. I glued the stamped pen across the string to help secure it and then added the ink bottle over the pen. I needed them to be glued to the front so they don't catch in anything when being carried about.

That's it for today friends, thank you so much for stopping by, I really do appreciate your comments - hope you are all having a fun Friday,

Love and Hugs,

Carole X

Long tall bunny... Thursday 3rd April 2014

Good Morning Friends,

A scheduled post today as I am off early to work (another of those meetings I'm afraid!). A bit of a long post today, so please bear with me!

Last Saturday Tom and I went Cirencester for a browse around the town and shops; it's one of our favourite places to go on a sunny Saturday. Our visit happened to coincide with the launch of the Hare Festival. Last year Bristol had a Gromit trail, Cirencester has a hare trail and here are two of the decorated hares...

This is Daniel

No name for this one: he was decorated by  celeb Interior Designer
Laurence Llewellyn-Bowen, who lives in the town

Anyway, I thought these would tie in nicely with my project for today..a needle-felted bunny, that has such long ears I think I turned it into a hare!

 This hare was my second go at needle felting...I had the kit for my birthday and as it is something you can do over a couple of evenings in front of the TV, I thought I would get going on it! He stands 16 inches high and is pretty cute! I bought the kit for the little dog below at a festival at our local Arboretum last year and I actually took it all the way to California and made it whilst relaxing on holiday, but somehow I had never posted it here before (despite it sitting next to my little model of TinTin's Snowy on my desk for the last 6 months!)

They are fun to make!

Yesterday, my mid-week day off and usually my craft day, was in fact not much of a craft day at all. I did spend a bit of time first thing in the morning making a pop-up card  for a teenage cousin's birthday(inspired by Hazel's post -and then forgot to photograph it before posting it!) and then my cousin Nina called for me and we went out to lunch.

It was lovely to see her and spend a few hours 'catching up' because we 'travel in different circles' and haven't seen enough of each other in recent times, despite living so close.  Nina is younger than me, I'm caught in the middle with cousins because Mum & Dad were older parents..my cousins both here in and in the US are either 10 years younger or 10 years + older than me.. but as time goes on age gaps seem to narrow don't they? 

Nina was a warden and manager in a local womens' prison for 15 years before taking redundancy last year and now..always the one for adventure, with no ties to home, she is off to start a new chapter in her life, as a warden in HM Prison... The Cayman Islands! Her former boss is the Governor there and another of her friends already lives there. She has visited before, so is not going entirely into the unknown. So this time next week, she will already be there and her little dog, Mason will be on his way to join her. I am sure this is not the last time I will have given her a kiss and a hug, but it was a rather poignant parting nevertheless. I know she will embrace this with fervour, as she has with every new challenge in her life.

Here we are below at a fundraising event she organised at her house a few years ago. Of course, as you are about to part, you suddenly realise that meeting up for lunch or coffee more often would have been a good idea!

Once I got home, there was still no crafting..the hens had me rushing outside no less than three times! The garden yesterday was a hive of activity..we have Great Tits in the nest box and they were in and out all day; there are always two pairs of blackbirds in the garden nesting - one pair behind the coop and another in a tree the opposite side. I can never understand why they choose that tree as a fence runs along-side it and it makes them easy prey. A cat I had never seen before, had perched itself on it. He was after the birds but was mesmerised by the hens who were making such a noise. They really hate cats and will usually see them off, but this one was having none of it! Eventually I persuaded it to go, but it came back and got in the garden. The hens made a run for it, flapping wings and squawking. I don't think he'll be back in a hurry! Bless!

Well if you're still awake, I promise that's it for today, I'll be back with just crafts and far fewer words tomorrow!

Love and Hugs,

Carole X

WOYWW 252 - Wednesday 2nd April

Good Morning Friends,

It has been WEEKS since I took part in WOYWW. which is our weekly chance to share what's on our work desks courtesy of Julia over at  Stamping Ground - do click on that link to find out all about it and how to participate.

As usual my desk is hidden under a mass of papers and works in progress, but I did manage to clear a space in the centre to show you  a couple of those ongoing projects that are cluttering my desk at the moment :)

Firstly I've been playing with the faux leather technique  using kraft card...all of these are still unfinished...

I've also been making more Easter decorations from wooden shapes..

These will all be posted in finished form at a later date!

Thank you so much for stopping by...happy WOYWW everyone!

Love and Hugs,
Carole X

Easter Sheep - Tuesday 1st April 2014

Good Evening Friends...

Wow, we are already starting the fourth month, can you believe it? Today's card is my Design Team card for this month's Emergency Crafters Challenge, the theme of which is Polka Dots. The challenge is now live and you have the whole month to take part, with the chance of winning a prize. 

I have made this Easter card, using a really cute Mo Manning digital stamp, which I coloured with Promarkers.  I die cut it with Spellbinders Classic Rectangles and inked the card with Broken China distress ink whilst the card was sill in the die. The card itself is a scalloped 6x6 card blank.

I matted and layered on yellow and multi-coloured polka dot paper, a download from Pink Petticoat and cut the flowers using a punch with the same papers. The greeting is also by Pink Petticoat. To finish I added some yellow voile polka dot ribbon. 

Thank you so much for stopping by, I really appreciate it!

Love and Hugs,
Carole X