Seaside Belle - Thursday 5th June 2014

Good Morning Friends,

Once again I have to say a massive thank you for your comments on my last post and for hopping over to Sam's blog and leaving a message there....you are all too wonderful for words!

Today's card is a DT post for Nicecrane ...the fabulous collection of vintage images, both pre-coloured and for colouring yourselves. You can view and buy at Nicecrane Designs

I usually colour for my DT posts, but I have a few lined up and this one is pre-coloured. I just love these vintage post card images. I have combined my DT project with my Sunday Stampers offering this week, as Hels theme is 'Girls Talk'  - projects featuring females -and well this certainly fits!

I have combined the portrait from Nicecrane with a bathing belle stamp from Crafty Individuals. I stamped on some ' I do like to be beside the seaside'  paper from Pink Petticoat using black archival and heat embossed with clear powder, but otherwise left uncoloured.

I used my sewing machine (it is so handy that it's now on the next desk!) and stitched around the edge of the image, which I had matted and layered on to some pale turquoise card (by Tilda, left over from another project).

The pre-coloured image was die cut using a scalloped oval die by Spellbinders and inked at the edges. I inked the edges of virtually every element of this card using Rusty Hinge distress ink. I cut a rough oval shape using Tilda card and sewed around it, then mounted the image on it. I used some turquoise card, die cut with the Oval die to make a small divide on the card between the images.

To finish I embossed a piece of kraft card with the 'That Special Touch of" Rope Mask that I have been using a lot with my projects for Sam, through my Grand Calibur and then stitched around the edge. I then added the sentiment, some hessian, string, voile and a little sea shell from my California Collection (yes I really have a collection of shells brought back over the years... they don't usually get used on cards though, so this card was honoured!)

That's it from me for today...I have the next week off work, except for attending one meeting and today I am off on the bus to Bath to meet a friend for lunch. With work schedules we don't get to see each other often enough, so I'm really looking forward to catching up with her.

This Saturday, Julia Watts is coming along to demo all day for my friend Amy's shop, so I am going to be helping out and  am really looking forward to it. I will be back tomorrow though!

Many thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment!

Love and Hugs

Carole X

Father's Day at Sea! - Tuesday 3rd June 2014

Good Morning Friends,

This is my first post since the weekend - did you all have a good one? Saturday we were out all day looking for kitchen ideas as we have to replace ours (groan), but in the evening I was in a really crafty mood and stayed up quite late creating 'fairy' designs for our future workshop. Sunday was beautiful, so I got started on my desk, just boring old sanding but it was  start!

Yes it's time again for my DT post for Sam Poole.  I am really enjoying being part of Sam's team, they are all a lovely group of ladies, very friendly and helpful to us newbies, as is Sam herself.

I am loving working with these stamps: sadly my Dad, who is no longer here, would have loved a nautical themed card (he wasn't particularly a boat fan, but he loved the coast and a lot of his art work featured  harbour scenes etc) - whereas my Venetian, yes that place that is built on canals, Father-in-law has no interest in boats or the sea!!! I guess you have to be born into a Gondolier family for the love of the water, whereas Tom's dad's family have a restaurant heritage - needless to say, he loves cars and cooking! Tom on the other hand, well he does like the sea and boats and has little interest in cars other than getting from A to B...but they do all share the love of cooking!

Creative Studios DT post - Dad, Our Guiding Light

This is my card for this week's post...I know I keep asking and you have all been so kind to do it...but if you could click here  or above and leave a short comment over there, it would be wonderful! Thank you so much!!!!

I know I am so lucky to be part of such a fabulous group of crafty friends on here, I really do!

Full details of the card are on Sam's blog...I'm getting to the end of my designs that were taken to Create and Craft, so am working on some new ones and have lots of home decor ideas!

Many, many thanks for stopping by!

Love and Hugs,
Carole X

Sunday Stampers Week 309 - Something changed - Friday 30th May 2014

Hello Friends,

Hope you have all had a good week...I just wish this weather would improve! I've had a busy week..it's Volunteers Week next week so I've been trying to prepared for an 'Open Office' event we are having on Monday to try and recruit volunteers.

Today is my Sunday Stampers project for this week...I made this today, finally able to relax in my craft room this week! I've made it as a little present for a friend, so hope she likes it!

Sunday Stampers is the weekly challenge set by the hugely inspirational Hels Sheridan, for full details hop over to Hels' blog:http://pinkleart.blogspot.co.uk

This week Hels set the theme of changing something...so I started out with this...a plain little notebook....

And this is the altered version...front and back...

I started off with some card from my stash..it was left over from a Tilda pad. All the stamps I've used are from Paper Artsy: the butterfly is  an Eclectica stamp and all the other stamps are Jofy designs. I folded the card to fit the notebook, but made it as a cover that the book just slots into. Once I had sized it properly I got out my sewing machine and sewed all around the edges.

 I stamped all the images using Versafine ink and then quickly heat embossed with clear embossing powder. I stamped the butterfly on the cover and then a second time on card; this butterfly I heat embossed using Black Sparkle embossing powder. I then coloured the images using my drawing inks. 

The second butterfly was adhered to the front and to finish I inked the edges with Picked Raspberry distress in, added a little stickles glitter, some bakers twine and a little wooden heart.

inside of sewn cover

This is all set to be my creation for Emergency Crafters for June, hoping that we go ahead this month, but I'll keep you posted!

Thank you so much for stopping by, I really do appreciate your comments and love to read them,

Love and Hugs,
Carole X

WOYWW 260 - Wednesday 28th May 2014

Hello Friends!

...and this is what happens when a Holiday weekend starts off very wet....

I must 'crack on' today, lots of photos to share and crafting to be done on my day off..I have a lot of crafty catching up to do!

However, before I go on with my WOYWW post, once again thank you for your comments yesterday and for popping over to Sam's blog and leaving a comment there too...all so much appreciated I assure you. I love reading them all.

WOYWW 260 - Happy 5th Birthday WOYWW!

I haven't shared my desk for a few weeks, but am pleased to be back today and looking forward to  sneaking a peek at some of your desks later! If you don't know what WOYWW is all about - it's a chance to share what's going on in our crafty space courtesy of the lovely Julia...click here to find out all the deets. Thank you Julia for this wonderful idea and long may it continue..I value so much the lovely friends I have made through craft and blogging.

So - as far as crafting was concerned this past long weekend was a bit of a wash out, BUT I did (with Tom's help) get a lot achieved in rearranging the craft room, which I have promised him is for the last time :).

Everything, I mean everything, was removed: some of it is still holidaying in the spare room. It was cleaned, dusted and aired and then we changed the furniture around and brought in one or two bits from the summerhouse. It is quite a small room, but now I have a work/computer desk, a sewing desk, ahem...a die cutting station and a desk that at the moment is still full of clutter. There is still a long way to go..once my stamps are sorted properly there will (I hope) be more room on the shelves; my card stock needs a good tidy and so do the cupboards, but it's a start and I already feel more 'comfortable' working in here.

Here are some photos...sorry about the quality, the light was so poor today :( and in case you notice the time on the clock, it stopped when we moved it so I need to investigate... I took these photos at 8am this morning!

work desk, sewing desk and still cluttered desk!

sewing stuff!

card and stamps still to be sorted, these shelves WILL be  tidy  and my die cutting area :)

a glimpse into my still to be tidied cupboard of glitters and gilding flakes

on my desk, some cards I made last week, waiting to be photographed and blogged,
plus my stamps to use today 

 Those of you who follow me regularly will know I am also lucky enough to have use of our little Summer House for all my altered art stuff and that I have been on the look out for some old office furniture to 'shabby chic' and use it there....you will also know that I found this old desk going for a song..well it was delivered on Saturday and is now in our lounge waiting for some fine weather so I can work on it outside...it looks pretty sad now, but I have plans...

Finally, on Julia's blog yesterday she talked of customised phone covers...so I thought I would share the one that has been keeping my phone safe for the past year..yes of course, our hens take centre stage! Sadly we have lost our sweetheart, Penny in the last few months but it's a lovely reminder of her!

That's all for today, have to get some crafting achieved today...Happy WOYWW everyone!

Love and Hugs,

Carole X

You Light Up My Life - Tuesday 27th May 2014

Good Morning Friends,

Did you all have a lovely Bank Holiday and did the sunshine where you are!? I think Sunday was the best day here; so much rain on Saturday! 

A rainy day should have meant I got in some lovely crafting time, but no, I decided that I could no longer work in my craft room the way it was...not just a tidy up this time, but a major overhaul was needed...I'm only half finished, but I like it and please stop by tomorrow where there will be photos for my WOYWW contribution this week.

There will also be a photo of the 'new-old' desk which arrived on Saturday, ready for me to shabby chic. I know exactly what I am going to do, but have never taken on anything this big, so it's a bit scary!

Sam Poole Design Team card...

Yes it's Tuesday again so my turn for the design team blog over at Creative Studios...I know I keep asking, but if you could pop over and leave a little comment, I'd be so grateful..just click here....http://www.creative-studios.co.uk/you-light-up-my-life-2

For this week's project I again used the Lantern stamp from Sam's new nautical stamps..I keep wanting to use this stamp in an interactive way (remember last time I made the box with the light?).

This time I made an aperture card, leaving the lamp to swing freely.

Full details and more photos can be found over at Creative Studios.

Before I go I'd like to share a few photos I took in the garden at the weekend...

We've had a family of Tits in our old nest box...we had intended to replace it this year. I painted it, complete with little birds on the sides about 10 years ago and we have had a fair bit of success with Blue Tits choosing to nest there. Despite it not looking so much like a des-res at the moment, once again they came this year. I took these photos of one of the parents emerging with fecal sacs and then about to go in with some food. The box is on the side of the craft barn (summer house) next to the Coop, so I was behind the Coop on tiptoes, holding my camera high (the coop is taller than me!) trying to stretch to get the photo.

As always, we've really enjoyed having our visiting family and on Saturday morning we were fortunate enough to see the last three fledge. Beautiful. 

That's all for today, have a good one!

Love and Hugs,
Carole X

Sunflower wrap - Saturday 24th May 2014

Hello Friends,

Well as it looks like most of us won't be sunbathing this bank holiday, I thought I would share another of my chocolate bar wrappers - this time with a definite sunshine feel to it!

For this one I used yellow check paper from my stash and the polka dot paper is a download from Pink Petticoat.

I cut both to size and inked the edges with mustard seed. I didn't want the wrapper to be overdone with inking. The sunflower is one of the new Spellbinders floral stamps. It's a beautiful stamp, but so much cutting and piecing together..worth it though I think. I used yellow card, which I inked with mustard seed and wild honey distress inks to soften the colour tones.

To finish, I added  a stamped greeting from a set by Creative Expressions and cut the paper into a banner shape, which was then matted and layered on to the plain yellow card and again cut to size. I tied some ribbon and that's it, ready to give as a little gift.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you are all having  a great Saturday!

Love and Hugs,

Carole X

PS! What a great surprise I had this morning when one of my teamies from Creative Studios, Jackie, posted me a Facebook message that I am this week's card winner on Sue Wilson's blog! Yay a Sue Wilson original ! I hadn't had a chance to look at the time, so it was great to see Jackie's message! X

Fairy Wishes - Friday 23rd May 2014

Hello Friends,

It's ok, I'm not going to bombard you with fairies every day from  now on, but I made this card in my same crafting 'session' as the tag from yesterday, so I thought I would post it today.

This card is 7x7 and was made using one of the 'scene creator' backgrounds from Lavinia Stamps. These are really useful for making a quick card, when you just don't have the time to create your own background using stamps or paints. Yesterday's tag took a whole morning and today's card about 30 minutes!

The background, including the leaves are all on the printed sheet. I stamped the fairy using a free stamp from this months Papercraft Essentials magazine. If anyone has these stamps and finds they aren't stamping well, they can be sent back to the magazine for replacement. Apparently they weren't produced by Lavinia themselves so they weren't aware that this had happened. It's only affected some runs.

I wouldn't say these stamps were entirely up to Lavinia's standard, but I'm not going to worry about sending them back. 

Because I really did want a quick card, I took inspiration from one of the examples in the magazine. The original design was by Tracey Dutton from Lavinia. I stamped the fairy once directly on to the card and then a second time on to white card. I used Versafine Onyx Black and then heat embossed with clear embossing powder. This wouldn't normally be my ink of choice for heat embossing, but the ink is good to use with the stamps, especially the smaller detail stamps and the sentiments.

I then cut out the fairy and adhered her to the top of the original image, leaving the wings free to 'move'.

I stamped the toadstools directly on to the card and heat embossed. There are toadstools with the free stamps, but I wanted to use smaller ones, so I used a stamp I already had, Next I stamped and heat embossed the sentiment. This was one of the free stamps and the one that was poorest quality, even using versafine, but having said that it stamped cleanly and is entirely legible, so I'm just being 'picky'. The font just a little bit too small.

To finish I stamped some little 'bubble' fairy dust stamps (also in free set) between the fairy's fingers and the toadstools using Versamark clear embossing ink and heat embossed with holographic powder. I then added a little stickles glitter in top of that.

I stamped the stars (I already had these) in versa fine sepia using the method of inking up the pad, stamping on copy paper and then the card to give less of an impression. I also used stickles to highlight the stars, wings  and around the leaves at the side.

The card was matted and layered on gold and black card.

That's all for today, have a great Friday, even if it's pouring with rain where you are, as it is here!

Many thanks for stopping by, you are very much appreciated!

Love and Hugs,

Carole X