It's Birthday Card Season

Good morning and happy Wednesday. It's totally white again today, and very cold but pretty. I was meant to be going out for tea today with my old workmates but that's not going to happen. I'm very lucky in that I don't have to go out on the roads, so it's a little walk to the local shops for me!

I don't know if it's the same with every family, but in ours birthdays and anniversaries seem to come in clusters, and we're just about to enter one now. Of course the bright thing to do would be to make cards all year round then there would always be one ready, but where's the fun in that! Anyway, here's a pretty girly card.

My coloured square is made with pearlescent card that I've had since time began. It's so nice that I've kept it 'for best' and never used it (I know it's not just me that does this) The embossing folder is by Apple Blossom and is made to be interchangeable with others by cutting along the 'swoosh' 

The dove and bow came from the Apple Blossom All Occasion Bubbles and Bows set. This is a really nice die set, they all cut cleanly first time which to me is the most important thing with a die. The 'With Love' stamp is from the Everyday Sentiments. I love this font, and there really is a saying for every occasion.

Then just a bit of layering up, and some bling, 'cos my Mum likes a bit of bling.

Have a very happy day, stay warm and safe, and thanks very much for looking xx

A Birthday Card

Good morning and happy Tuesday, we've woken up to lots of snow today, it's so pretty, but I won't be happy till all my chickens are back home again safe and sound and off the roads.

I'm in full card making flow at the moment as we are entering birthday/anniversary season,  and wanted to try something a little different (for me), so here's a Z card.

There's a little bit of measuring involved in this one, but not too much thank goodness.

This is how it all looks when it's laying down. I've used the Apple Blossom All Occasion Butterflies and Flourish embossing folder, and some Tim Holtz Distress Inks. The Happy Birthday is from the Apple Blossom Everyday Sentiments set.

To finish I've used my favourite Tim Detailed Butterflies dies, and lots of DI's and paint. In the end I only used two 'cos when the card was folded there was serious wing crush, and we can't have that!

I'm entering this into the Happy Little Stampers Anything Goes With Dies and the HLS Mixed Media Butterflies challenges. 

Have a very happy day, try and keep warm, and thanks very much for looking xx

Beautiful

Good morning and happy Monday. PaperArtsy currently have a watercolour challenge, and as I've recently got some new stamps I thought it would be rude not to join in!

This is made with a PaperArtsy stencilled background and 3 shades of Distress Ink. My beautiful woman is from the PA Tracy Scott 17 plate. I don't know if you can buy this directly from PaperArtsy yet but you can certainly get it from Country View Crafts. I really enjoyed making this, it was nice to just go with the flow.

I'm also entering this into the Happy Little Stampers watercolour challenge.

Have a fun day, and thanks very much for looking x 

Smile

Good morning and happy Sunday. Well the Winter Olympics have ended, which means No More Curling! How on earth is Neil going to fill 14 hours a day now that there's no more stone chucking and sweeping! The down side is he may notice if I spend the same 14 hours a day in my rather chilly craft room!

Paperbabe have a sketch challenge running at the moment - I love a nice sketch challenge so I'm in!

I know, cuteness overload or what, but these Whimsical Woodland creatures are so sweet aren't they.

Here's the sketch, nice and simple but still with lots of interest. The papers I've used are by Studio Light and they are a lovely quality and I've used 3 sheets up, which would be a result, but as I've just bought 2 pads it's not really using stuff up is it?

I hope you have a lovely Sunday whatever you're doing, it's really cold here but we have a little bit of sunshine. I think I may turn to dust if it hits my skin 'cos we've not seen the sun since mid August. Right, time for my weekend treat, a full English (Neil's cooking, it's Weetabix when I cook) and thanks very much for looking xx

The Blossoming Rose

Good morning and happy Saturday. I'm over on the Rubber Dance blog again today with this.

Please try and join me over there where you will see lots more of this beautiful stamp.

As always for free P&P on orders of 15 Euros and over just quote SDFreeShip.

Have a lovely day xx

A Hipster Birthday

Good morning and happy  Friday, welcome to the weekend. For my second 'anything but cute' piece for Country View Crafts I knew exactly what I needed - a 'man' card. Is it just me or are these getting harder and harder to make? Anyway, here it is.

 Again it seems to be pretty much a Tim Holtz goodies creation, so I'll put all the links at the end of the post.

 I made a Distress Oxide background, a colour at a time, drying between each colour to try and avoid making brown. This is layer 1.

 And this is layer 2 with some background stamping and white paint spatters. I'm getting a bit braver now with my spatters, I used to be very delicate, but now I get straight in there!

 Next I cut out some bits with Thinlits Mixed Media dies, and painted and stapled on some thin wooded circles. The 'boom' has been stamped and embossed in white, then a white circle drawn arround it. I must remember to clean my circle die.These come in really handy for drawing around as you can see where you are going rather than having it over the top of your paper, but then I forget to clean them....

 I do like how these colours look together, I actually got out my colour wheel to make sure they would work together, and it was well worth turning out my junk drawer (number 1) to find it.

Next I cut a frame out of chipboard so that it was nice and chunky, then embossed it with a script embossing folder.  I painted it with black gesso, then went over with silver gilding wax.  The handsome guy has been stamped onto watercolour paper and coloured with Distress Markers.

 Looking very handsome in his frame.

 I've woven some silver metalic thread arround the wooden hoop to give it some nice texture.

Then added a simple sentiment and a bit of white pen to finish it all off. I even put an insert in straight away - it's a new years resolution to be more organised. It'll never last lol.

I'm entering Mr Handsome into the Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge Grunge It Up and also the
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge, Make Your Own Background

There's still a little time to join in with our challenge, so put away all things cute and give it a go. Have a great weekend, and thanks very much for looking xx

Supplies

Watercolour card

Distress Oxides

Distress Markers

Newsprint & Type TH Stamp

Hipster Stamps

Hipster Chimp Die

Crazy Thoughts Stamps

Halftone & Rings Stamps

Simple Sayings Stamps

Mixed Media Thinlits

Ornate Frame Die

We Like To Move It!

Good afternoon and happy Tuesday. Today it's my turn to share my second 'More Than 2 Legs' piece over at Lost Coast Designs , and this time I'm taking you to Madagascar!

You just can't beat a good old jungle party, though I do think the giraffe is having far too much fun! I've used the Lost Coast Safari Party set, and lots more details can be found here, over on the Portal To Creativity.

Please pop on across to take a look, and have a very happy day xx

Good Day Sir!

Good afternoon and welcome to my second post of the day. It's time for a fun new challenge over at Lost Coast Designs, and from now until the end of the month the theme will be 'More Than 2 Legs' Here's my leggy tag.

 I started by stamping and embossing Lost Coast Designs Loopy Caligraphy and clear embossing.

 Now you know when people say 'there are no mistakes just happy accidents' I alway think 'really - you should see my bin and tell me what's happy about that', but today, I really did have a happy accident. The idea was to iron over the top of the embossing with some paper to remove the embossing powder, but this happened. Some of the paper stuck to the tag. 

After behaving like Kevin the Teenager for about 20 seconds I thought that I would just carry on anyway and see how it ended up.

So I inked up the tag with Distress Inks, and decided that I really liked the extra grungy bits. 

 Then I stamped up my Miscellaneous Anthropomorphs.

To make them stand out a bit more I edged around them with white pen, then coated the tag with 3 layers of clear embossing powder. I decided that they looked like English gentleman at their club, so added the printed sentiment.

I hope that you pop across to the Portal, where you'll see lots more inspiration, and you can join in yourself for the chance to win Lost Coast $'s.

Have a very happy day, and thanks very much for looking x

Some Bunny To Love

Good morning and happy Thursday. We're midway through our fun colour/and/or heart challenge over at Rubber Dance HQ, and here's what I made.

As the song says, we all need somebunny to love, and he's mine!

I started by using stencils and DecoArt Media acrylics in the challenge colours, then I stuck it to a chippie heart.

Ah don't you just love that face! The background stamps are from Crazy Flowers 2, and of course the words and the bunny are from Bonny Bunny.

What a beautiful set of colours, I'm definitely ready for Spring now. I hope you join in the fun with our challenge, you have until the end of the month, but remember it's a short one!

As always for free worldwide P&P on orders of 15 Euros and above please quote SDFreeShip

I'm entering my loved up bunny into the following challenges

That's Crafty - I Heart You

Simon Says Work It Wednesday - Love and 
Happy Little Stampers - Anything Goes With Dies 

Have a lovely day, and thanks very much for looking xx

Easy Josephs Coat

Good morning and happy Tuesday, are you all looking forward to your pancakes tonight - I do like a nice pancake with lemon and cinamon - yum!  I'm over on the Rubber Dance blog today where I'll be showing you how I made this.

I'd love it if you would join me over there and all will be revealed.
As always for free worldwide P&P on orders of 15 Euros and above please quote SDFreeShip

Have a lovely day, and thanks very much for looking xx

Fill Your Heart

Good Morning and happy Monday. Over on the Paperbabe blog there is a new fun challenge 'dots'. I've just got a new stamp set from there (now that the January spending ban is over) so I wanted to give it a try.

 I started with a piece of a brayer clean up sheet cut to slightly smaller than 4x6.

 Then I added my dots - lots and lots of them. There's washi tape, and also background stamps from the Paperbabe Whimsical Woodland set.

 Then I stamped my sweet foxes. It's a two part stamp so you can have any colour you like. The sentiment is from the same set.

I think they look really sweet altogether. The eagle eyed amongst you may notice the shiny silver heart - in the words of 10cc 'it hides a nasty stain that's lying there' Note to self, never try to remove a tiny mark that doesn't even show - it turns into a HUGE mark that does! I've matted it up onto a piece of black card so now it's 6x4 and one for my postcard album!

There seems to be lots of hearts around at the moment - it must be the time of year;-) so I'm also entering this into the Happy Little Stampers  Anything Goes With Dies challenge, and Craft Stampers TIMI challenge for February.

Have a very happy week, and thanks very much for looking xx

Make It Count

Good morning and happy Sunday. The current challenge over at the Paper Artsy blog is Seth Apter's new fresco paints. Now I don't have Seth's new paints, so I've had to join in using his old ones!

 I started by brayering a sheet of A4 with the first 2 sets of Seth's paints.

 If I had to pick favourites they would definitely be Key Lime and Green Patina. They are such beautiful shades of green.

 Then I stamped just about every stamp from his first 4 PaperArtsy sets.

 I also made a tag with the same stamps, paints, and LOTS of embossing powder.

I had to add a little bit of stenciling and stitching, and there's also some stamped wooden slices.

All done! I love my bow - even if I can only tie a decent one upside down lol. This was fun to make, I had no idea where I was going with this one, I just got out my ever growing 'Seth Box' and had a good play. There's loads of sport on the TV at the moment so no-one even notices that I'm gone ;-)

I'm also entering this into Craft Stamper's February's Take it make it challenge

All of the stamps and paints can be found at the PaperArtsy store, and also here at Country View Crafts

Have a very happy day, and thank very much for looking.

Rubber Dance and Colourcraft Blog Hop Day 2

Good morning and welcome to day 2 of the Rubber Dance and Colourcraft blog hop! I've had great fun playing with my Rubber Dance stamps and the fabulous Colourcraft Lustre paints and Brusho's, and here's what I've made.

Giveaway: One lucky winner will receive both, a £25 voucher to ColourCraft AND a 25€ voucher to Rubber Dance. Visit the fabulous designers from both teams and comment for your chance to win! The more blogs you comment on, the more chances you have to WIN! (One comment per blog please.) You have until 14th, February at 11:59PM Central Time to leave your comments. Winner will be announced on Rubber Dance Facebook page and Colourcraft’s Facebook page on Saturday 17th, February

I started by die cutting some greyboard shapes and giving them all a coat of gesso to seal as this stuff really soaks up paint.

 Then I added a mixture of Metalic and Lustre paints and some stencilling.

 Time for the Brusho's which is one of my all time favourite crafting products. I've just sprinkled a couple of colours, spritzed, and the picked up some of the colour on the Vintage Script and stamped away.

 So the bases have been painted, and I've covered the tops (Tim Holtz pediments) with the Brusho papers. These paints look amazing, they have such a beautiful shimmer which unfortunately isn't the easiest thing to photograph.

 You can also stamp and heat emboss onto them. I've used Merry Magpie, Fly Fly Flowers, and Funny Fungi, and just added a little white pen.There's also a stamp from the Round in Circles plate that I often use in my backgrounds.

 I wanted to add some embellishments now, so I painted a sheet of Tyvek with the paints, and cut out some circles. Note to self, take photograph first before cutting out lol and then move heat tool away from the rest of sheet. You can't beat a good action shot!

And these are my flowers, I'm quite pleased with these for a first attempt. The silver you can see is the reverse which I painted in both shades of silver. When they are melted down the colour and shimmer is so concentrated - just beautiful! I shall definitely make more of these.

 There's some Tim Holtz words and a paper doll to finish, - and of course I had to add a few sequins. I joined the three together with some small hinges.

And here they are stood up. A huge thank you to Colourcraft, I had such fun playing with the paints and Brusho's.

Now as in all the best blog hops, it's time for you to visit my teamies. You can also catch up on yesterday's hoppers if you missed it.

Yesterday Debs:https://dawainwright.blogspot.com/2... Shilpa: https://nagaonkarshilpa.blogspot.com/... Katie: https://whatkatiedid2.blogspot.com/2018/02/colourcraft-and-rubber-dance-stamps.html Susanne: https://clayscrapkreativ.blogspot.com/2018/02/rubber-dance-colourcraft-blog-hop.html Rubber Dance Blog: https://rubberdance.blogspot.com/20...

Today Melina: https://minaskreativa.blogspot.com/... Sue: https://suetheiron.blogspot.com/201... (you are here) Kate: http://www.katecrafts.com/?p=5818 Terri: https://terrikoszler.blogspot.com/2018/02/rubberdance-stamps-and-colourcraft-blog.html Rubber Dance Blog: https://rubberdance.blogspot.com/20...

All of the Colourcraft goodies can be found here https://www.colourcraftltd.com/

And the Rubber Dance stamps are all here

As always please quote SDFreeShip for free worldwide P&P on any order of 15 Euros and above.

Have a lovely day, and thanks so much for looking xx

Funny Fungi	Merry Magpie	Vintage Script ATC	Fly Fly Flowers	Round In Circles
Brusho 24 Colour Boxed Set	Aztec Metallic paints	Aztec eco metallic paint Lustre colours