Spellbinders Boxes Galore! - Saturday 30th June

Morning Blog Friends,

Today is the turn of the  big project I mentioned a few days ago, I had been holding out to post this because I new Christine Emberson was going to also post it on her blog. It's there today (I'm so chuffed!), so I'm also posting it here....

Christine had given her blog (see link below)  followers the chance to buy the wooden frame and the die cuts from the Spellbinders Square Bracket Edge Box die, ready to make and decorate. I don't have this die at the moment, so it was a good opportunity to try it out and I loved it!

The boxes were cut with ivory card stock and beautiful My Mind's Eye - Miss Caroline card stock for the lids. I didn't take a 'before' photo, but if you hop over to Christine's blog you can see what the frame and boxes look like before decoration.

I went over the entire frame with a mixture of Vintage Photo Wild Honey and distress inks, sanding and buffing hard between coats and then finished with a coat of Picket Fence distress stain. (The frame is 'naked' when it arrives). I then set to decorating all the little boxes, mostly using the smallest of dies we don't use so much, some butterflies and birds and some buttons (gorgeous polka dot buttons from Out of the Blue, Chipping Sodbury).

It was fun to do, took a long time, but was well worth it and I will certainly be trying an Advent Calendar one, this whole thing originally came out of a wonderful advent calendar creation by for Spellbinders DT member A J Otto http://spellbinderspaperarts.com/IdeaGallery/Project/11-09-02/Advent_Calendar.aspx

Hope you like it!


If you love Spellbinders or simply want some great inspiration every day, please check out Christine's blog.  Christine is the English design team member for Spellbinders (I was going to say the only British, but I think another may have joined this year) and her creations are amazing!
 To hop over to view Christine's inspiration click on link:

http://hope-chances.blogspot.co.uk/

Thanks to Christine for bringing this to us,
Carole X

Christmas Fairy - Friday June 29th

Morning log Friends,

I'm holding back the big project I completed earlier this week for a few days so I'm afraid it's another Christmas card and I really do promise not to bombard this blog with them just yet, just a smattering over the weeks ahead (maybe one a week?)

This is another LOTV stamp, which I think is adorable. Last weekend I stamped some Christmas designs from LOTV, House Mouse and coloured them with my promarkers ready to make into cards when I get the chance!

 This is a small card, I always make large 8x8's for commissions, but I really love little cards with lots on them and I think this type of layout really suits stamps like LOTV's.

You can add just the right amount of ribbon, lace, die-cuts and somehow the image tells you when to stop - am I making sense? :)

I started with a white 5x5 card blank, which is matted and layered with red card and a grey/gold paper from a pad in my Christmas stash box. I coloured the fairy/angel (I know you can tell by the wings, so someone will have to remind me!) with promarkers and used Cosmic twinkles to highlight the wings and the snow. I die cut her on Spellbinders Labels One Small and also die cut a larger size in red. I also used my favourite poinsettia die again, but unlike the previous card where I used felt, this time I used card. The Christmas tree is cut in glitter card using a die from Spellbinders Fanciful Holiday and the  gems, beads and sentiment are all from stash. It's actually quite exciting to open the Christmas stash boxes again to see what delights I'd forgotten were there!

The ribbon was in my Christmas ribbon box, yes I do keep a separate one for all those lovely ribbons most suited to Christmas and I do love this one! 

Hope you like my second Christmas card...thanks for stopping by and Happy Crafting everyone!

Carole X

Sunday Stamper week 211 - Weds 27th June

Hi there bloggers!


Wednesdays I don't  (usually) go to work, it's my craft time...all mine....well almost, it usually means catching up with commissions or friends/family cards that I am all behind in making. However, sometimes, you just have to step back and say to yourself, I need some time to create projects that I really want to make...get a bit mucky with the ink..and boy have I got inky today on two projects, the second of which will be on here in the next few days.


Sunday Stampers week 211 You gotta pick a pocket or two


Today's project is a picture that I made for Hel's Sheridan's Sunday Stampers challenge. I love the themes Hels' comes up with because they always push me and make me think out of the box. I will quite happily spend all the time I need to create a card, label, picture...


So where do I start with this week's theme, which is a project with a pocket? Well I can tell you, it didn't start out anything like it finished! It was going to be  a jeans pocket with a red spotted handkerchief in it. I even had the ink ready to create faux denim, so please don't ask me how it ended up being a picture collage of Venice!


It may be because I'm missing the place....I count myself a very lucky girl for marrying into a Venetian family. Tom's dad is from Venice and whilst he and Tom's mum live here, all Tom's unclogs and their families are spread around the Veneto, so I have been visiting this wonderful city more years than I care to remember. We were last there in September and we may not get there this year, so something obviously made me think about it this morning.

 The Picture

Where do I begin? Well I started with some kraft card, which using Cosmic Shimmer clear glue, I stuck to some thick cardboard. I then stamped randomly all over it using the Wendy Vecchi Heart Stamp from Studio 490 and a very useful script stamp from Sam Poole's Vintage stamp set.


On a lighter (buff) piece of card I stamped 'Venice' which is in a Debbi Moore Venetian stamp set; Ciao Bella from an old wooden stamp I had in my stamp box and some little flowers from Majestix Clematis Garden. For all the stamping so far I have been using Vintage Photo distress ink and I also distressed the edges using this.


I then took a piece of oatmeal coloured card, from the card that Sue Wilson brings to us and tore it all around the edge, but I left this clean as I think it needed a layer where there was no distressing. I made the pocket with the kraft card and stamped all over it in Vintage Photo, again using the script stamp and then over that, I faintly stamped a Gondola from the Debbi Moore set.


With this picture I wanted to depict not just a vintage Venice, but more my Venice...I'll explain: yes we still pay homage to the usual tourist places when we visit, but being 'frequent' visitors, we head for the hidden cafes or check out the art..there is always art to seek out! So I wanted to keep the Venetian icons to a minimum, or distort them. Despite the alleys and mystique, during Carnevale and the summer, Venice is a bright, somewhat gaudy place, so I wanted to keep colour to a minimum and make it mean something.


The photos used in the project were all taken by me, just last year, but I 'vintaged' them to make them look old. The photos in sepia tones with writing on are all from one of my very favourite places in Venice, The Peggy Guggenheim Collection. I simply love this Gallery. Two of the photos are neon art and the third says "amore, pace, goia X' (love, peace, happiness), which is the message Tom and I added to  Yoko Ono's Wish Tree in the garden.


The label is a basic luggage label, which I coloured with Vintage Photo and stamped all over with the script stamp. I also distressed  the label string. The only bright colours are a photo of a plaque on the wall next to a multicoloured door on the very colourful island of Burano. The tag can be removed to read the translation, which is:


'Colour is like Music, it uses a shorter way to come to our senses, awake out emotions'


I then added one final splash of colour associated with Venice, Murano Glass beads...pretty, but  sadly no longer guaranteed to have been made on the island of Murano or anywhere else in Venice.

I tied some organza ribbon across the pocket, embellished with some gold coloured beads, just to signify the opulence of 'La Serrenissima' when she was in her prime. Finally I felt I needed a mask. It could have been one of the bright ones we see in the shops, but I wanted to keep it simple. I made this one with some art clay and a mould and coloured it with bronze metallic acrylic paint.

Casa Bepi, Burano..a hidden treasure!

Venetian masks in shop window

Thanks for stopping by...sorry it was such a long blog today!

Carole X

This is my project for Sunday Stampers challenge week 211

http://pinkleart.blogspot.co.uk/

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

Card making' mamas colour challenge 48 - Sunday 24th June

Good evening blog friends,


Today I made a few Christmas cards...check out tomorrow's blog for my first seasonal offering! 


This morning I was inspired by Elaine's blog post http://wheelerscraftiness.blogspot.co.uk and reference to a challenge at  http://cardmakinmamas.blogspot.co.uk/ the theme 'red, white and blue'..like a lot of us Brits this year I have been really enjoying making cards celebrating our heritage and incorporating the 'oh so trendy' Union Jack (and long may the trend remain!)..and what a super challenge blog it is too! Whilst I was there I checked out the digital stamp site bugaboo stamps, http://www.bugaboostamps.com/ where I found a digi stamp for a shoe, just what I'd been looking for to suit another project....and as I looked at the image after downloading, the inspiration for this card and my entry for the challenge came to mind.....

For this card I used paper from DoCrafts Digital Designer, Portobello Road collection as the background and digitally embossed the paper with a floral Union Jack (unfortunately it doesn't show up so well in the photo). I made a rosette using the same paper and also die cut an accent from Spellbinders. The sentiment is stamped in denim and cranberry distress ink, using a Portobello Road stamp.


The main image is the shoe digital stamp from bugboostamps, which I coloured red, white and blue with letraset  Flex-markers and then went over the red sections with an embossing pen and embossed with red sparkle embossing powder. To finish off I added a big red, white and blue bow and covered the centre with a Union Jack button (as I did the rosette) and a red gem. I also added a flag charm and ribbon to the die cut.


This was a fun card!


I wish to enter this in card makin' mamas challenge no 48, red, white and blue


http://cardmakinmamas.blogspot.co.uk/






Thanks for stopping by,
Carole X

Summer Sun DT card Emergency Crafters - 22 June

Hello again blog friends....I said I'd be back again today!


This is my design team card for the latest Emergency Crafters  challenge with the theme 'Summer Sun'. I seem to have made more summer themed cards and summer celebration/event cards than I can remember this year, considering the weather is so appalling! As I sit here writing this, I have Create and Craft on in the background - they are having their Christmas event and with the weather outside today, it seems really fitting!


But I think we have all been feeling quite hyped up with the Jubilee and the forthcoming Olympics, a great year to be a Brit, so let's celebrate and hope the sun makes an appearance some where along the way!


So this is my DT card:

For this card I covered a card blank with some pale yellow gingham paper from stash and then cut an aperture using Spellbinders Labels 24. I covered in inside of the card with Emma Ball  deep yellow beachy paper that was free in Simply Home Made magazine. Normally I would use the die cut from the aperture for the inside, but I saved that an cut another from card printed with a beach background from the House Mouse and Friends CD. I inked the edges of the aperture with mustard seed ink.


The deck chairs and seagull are also Emma Ball stamps and the bunting is a digital stamp - all are coloured with FlexMarkers and Promarkers. Finishing touches were a few little buttons and bakers twine and I made the sun myself...I was just aiming for a fun sea-side look...do you think the occupants of the deck chairs have gone for a dip!?


Thanks for stopping by and have a go at the challenge...you can enter at

http://emergencycrafterschallenge.blogspot.co.uk/

Workshop Photos - Friday 22nd June

Morning blog friends...


 First of all, I see I have a couple of new followers! Welcome to you, I hope you will come visit often and please let me know if you have blogs too...I love to visit other blogs and leave my own comments. Do you know? I tweet and Facebook, but blogging is best of all. I've been crafting for years, but I'm still learning so much from you all and I hope  along the way, I am being helpful to you too!


It's probably a long way off yet, but I've  decided that if/when I get to 50 followers I'm going to send a little Candi, I don't know what yet, but it'll be something nice! 


Last night  was the third card making workshop that my friend Amy (who co-owns th ewonderful local gift/craft shop, Out of the Blue, Chipping Sodbury, with her mum)and I are teaching. They have been going really well and for me, last night's was the best so far! 


We split in to two groups and this is the card my six ladies made last night. I did take some photos, but guess who took her camera and left the SD card in her computer? So I had to use my phone.

We had a summer fete theme this time, with some stamping, basic pro marker colouring and a chance to try some die-cutting, so my beloved Grand Calibur came along with me for a second time!


I did a lot of the prepping, such as the card blank aperture, but the group will stamped and coloured this quite simple image and the bunting, plus die cut and embossed the smaller shape (Labels 24), used a polka dot mask and distress inks...they all had a different 'take' on finishing the card and above all it was a lot of fun, but thats  what it's all about isn't it?!

My group of crafters, with Jennifer using the Grand Calibur

Amy with her group of ladies

My group show their finished cards (also photo below!

me showing  Jennifer how to use the GC

Thanks for stopping by!
Carole X


By the way....I'll be back later this morning with my Design Team card for the new Emergency Crafters challenge

Sunday Stampers wk 210 - Thursday 21st June

Hi Bloggers,


I have been so busy preparing  for our third workshop tonight that I haven't had much time for 'makes' - but here is my contribution to this weeks Sunday Stampers Challenge with the theme of 'Men/Male'.


When I get commissioned to make mens' cards I usually grin and bare it, I have to admit. It's usually some sport or other and usually football; so it's nice to have a free rein and stay in my comfort zone, because I do lean towards steampunk when I can, with a male card and that's not often, because outside of the craft world, people don't really 'get it'...


Anyways folks, I've made a little tag using  some measuring tape paper I had in my stash, a Kanban clock face and a little watch part added as an embellishment; some Tim Holz film strip ribbon, metallic effect ribbony stuff and Sam Poole Inventor stamps, which I stamped with Perfect Medium and embossed with black embossing powder. Then I took some Antique Photo distress ink and painted in the non embossed bits of Mr Inventor and distressed the whole of the rest of the tag...what fun!

Thanks for looking...you can enter the challenge at

http://pinkleart.blogspot.co.uk

and this is my contribution!

Carole X

Keep-sake Book - Weds 20th June

Morning Blog friends!


Not a card today but a little keepsake book cover I made after rummaging through all my scrapbooking stash and finding a couple of board books that were just crying out "why have you abandoned us? We just want to be decorated, embellished, prettied up!" So who am I to ignore such a plea?!!!


This started out as a plain white BoBunny board book and whilst I was searching for inspiration I came across a card design in this month's copy of Simply Cards & Papercraft and as soon as I saw it, I thought what a lovely cover for a keepsake book it would make, so I changed a few things here and there and adapted it.

 First of all I took some paper from stash and covered both the back and front of the book cover and then distressed all around the edges of the board pages and cover with a mixture of Spun Sugar and Tattered Rose distress inks, just to give it a vintage aged look.

I coloured some American Seam Binding with the same inks and set it along the edge nearest the spine, then I added a layer of vintage lace and an edge die from Spellbinders Antique Frame and Accents. I used a Heart Circle die off centre and this is coated with micro beads with a  paper rose embellishment made from Spiral Blossom One. The small accent dies are from assorted sets. I finished off with some little heart pearl gems and the sentiments were typed and then the tags coloured with the inks. I used the same sentiments as in the magazine  example because they were perfect for this book, which is being sent to the same couple for whom I made the  wedding card.

 

I do love using these micro beads, but you can't really see their effect in the photo. Throughout the project I used cosmic shimmer glue and red line tape.


Thanks for stopping by!
Carole X

House Mouse DT card - Monday 18th June

Good Morning Bloggers!


Today's card is my second and last as guest designer for June's House Mouse and Friends Monday Challenge and what a pleasure it  has been to create these cards. The theme for the current challenge is 'Cool drinks for hot summer days' and this is my contribution...

Having made it, I of course realised how hard it was going to be to photograph...oops!


I got it into my head early on that I wanted to create a bottle shaped card (never again!), so I drew a template and cut out one bottle from white card  and attached card that I had printed with backing paper from the House Mouse CD, then I cut a second bottle.I wanted to use acetate, but didn't have any heavy enough to support the card, so I used packaging from a Spellbinders Grand die set (I always keep the packaging for this type of project). I joined the two together by leaving a flap on the acetate which I stuck between the backing paper and card, so that it doesn't show.


For the design I merged two House Mouse stamps, coloured them with Promarkers and cut them out. Although it doesn't show in the photo, the image with the pink parasol is slightly in front and I made an extra parasol. I added some cosmic twinkles to the drinks and the ice and a few extra touches of  sunglasses and a star fish embellishment from stash.


Thanks for stopping by...you can enter this challenge at

http://housemouse-challenge.blogspot.co.uk/

Carole X

Vintage Wedding - Sat 16th June

Hello Blog friends,

Thank you for stopping by and taking a look at my blog..I hope you will follow me on my crafting journey too - I love looking at the blogs I follow and commenting most times; the crafting world is such a friendly, generous place isn't it? Full of lovely people!

Today's card is a Vintage style wedding card, that I have to admit took far longer to create than was originally intended, but was a joy to make and is my entry for this month's Scrapology June Card Challenge: Vintage

This is just the front of the card: I die cut the aperture using Labels 24*, saving the actual die cut for inside the card. I then embossed the front with a 'that special touch of' mask and coloured the edges and embossed dots with bundled sage distress ink. I then used a light satin effect turquoise card to die cut the flourishes from various Spellbinder sets.

The image is a stamp from Lili of the Valley (LOTV), coloured with Promarkers.

This second photo reveals that this is a concertina card and shows how I 'dressed' the image. Rather that stamp it flat, I cut it out and fixed it to the die with Pinflair glue to give it some depth. I inked around the edges of the die cut with bundled sage and embellished it with more die cut flourishes and some cream and pale yellow paper roses. I used the backing paper in this card from an absolutely beautiful 6x6 paper pad  by Pinkpaislee that I had free a few months ago with Cardmaking and Papercraft Magazine. The Vintage style designs are really lovely and whilst I have used it a lot, it just seems to keep going!

This entire card is made up of stamped images from LOTV (except the sentiment), the other two I only just got this week through taking up their sale offer! On the side with the paper lanterns I also added a butterfly and hearts, cut from Wings of Hope, with a very pale turquoise vellum (although it looks more blue in the photo!)

The final two cards show the butterfly page and a greeting I added to the back of the card, typed on to a Heart Squares die cut. I left one side blank for a hand written message and this card will be winging it's way to a lovely couple who are getting married very soon! * all dies used are Spellbinders

This card is my entry for Scrapology: June Card Challenge - Vintage

http://scrapology-adventuresinscrapbooking.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/june-card-challenge-vintage.html

Thanks for looking!

Carole X

Pretty in Pink Sunday Stampers wk 209 - Weds 13th June

Morning Blog friends!


This weeks Sunday Stampers theme is "PINK" so I have gone for it...a pink fairy tale card...take me to the ball! :)


I started with a layer of pink patterned paper from stash and then using a slightly darker pink paper with a star burst design over it. The Horse and Carriage stamp is from Clarity Stamps. I used jet black archival and heat embossed it with kaleidoscope iridescent embossing powder, lots of twinkles!


I die cut it using Romantic Rectangles and also die cut some flowers from the Aster and Anemone die sets. The sentiment is from Sam Poole's Steampunk Dreams stamp set and the little pink pearls are from the Pizzaz a'Plenty sets I won from the House Mouse Challenge last month. I finished off with some pink bows!

Thanks for stopping by!
Carole X


* All dies used are Spellbinders

     This is my contribution to Sunday Stampers week 209: Pretty in Pink

http://pinkleart.blogspot.co.uk/

Bird Song - Wednesday 13th June

Morning Friends!


My card today is another made from the little Stampavie  Tina Wenke bird stamp and I wanted to share it in a nod to the highly productive Spring we have enjoyed in our garden!


Beginning with our very tame Robin pair, who raised two broods (moving nest from one end of the garden to the other in between): the baby Robins were darling and one of them hung around for ages, becoming quite tame himself. The Robins were gone, all of a sudden, but all being well the male will be back in August. He has been with us for a few years now (I can tell by a marking it's him), so I'm hoping he'll be back again, once his 'holiday' is over!


We also have a resident pair of Blackbirds which have also been with us for a number of years. So far they have had two broods and we also see the fledglings on the grass from time to time.


We put a Tit box on the end of the summer house after we built it about 7 years ago. The first year a pair of Blue Tits snapped up this new 'des res' (carefully painted with my own fair hand, including a painting of a Blue Tit on the side!), the second year nothing and then  we built the enclosure for the hens right next to it. It's about 6ft tall, so almost reaches the height of the box. We thought that it would put any birds off and have been meaning to move it, but never got around to it -and then some weeks ago I spotted a Great Tit darting in with some feathers in it's beak. Back and forth it went with more nest building material and yay! we now have a family of Great Tits chirping away inside the box. They've been there about a week now and I can hear they're calls getting stronger all the time. The parent swoops in and out for food when I'm out there cleaning the hen coop, it's wonderful!


Last but not least, our little Sparrows, who have been nesting quite near to the Blackbirds and have also raised a brood and seem to be busying themselves for another. This year has been a great year for so many different garden visitors - we've seen Blue Tits, Goldfinches and we even have a tiny Dunnock scurrying about the undergrowth, which I also think has been nesting in the dense bush at the back of the garden with the Sparrows and Blackbirds...quite a little community!

So to the card, which I made for my friend's birthday....It's coloured with Promarkers and die cut using Spellbinders Labels 24, shaded on the edges with Spun Sugar distress ink. I cut felt flowers from Flower Creations (all Spellbinders unless stated!) and made one big flower and then I cut a  small butterfly from Flights of Fancy. The papers were all from stash, the lace I got recently at a Vintage Fair and I coloured it lightly with Spun Sugar.


The greeting is  an LOTV stamp, but with Heart Circles....


No work today, but a busy day ahead with lots of cards to make and designs to finalise! Happy Wednesday folks and thanks for stopping by!
Carole X

Harbour - Monday 11th June

Morning bloggers,


Well it's back to work today after almost two weeks holiday, which have passed so quickly and I've been busy the whole time with commissions, house stuff and of course the Jubilee! I can't say that I have any where near caught up as intended, but it's going to be hard to go back!


Anyway, today's card was one of two cards I made at the weekend from a male cousin and a male friend. I saw these Michael Powell stamps featured in Docrafts magazine and was immediately drawn to them. When I visited Out of the Blue in Chipping Sodbury, they had this one just in, so I had to buy it and try it!

For the card base I used  cream card. I then cut a slightly smaller black piece of card and matted and layered with another cream piece of card. Before adhering to the card blank, I randomly stamped the map from Sam Poole's Nautical Journey stamp set,using Adirondack Latte ink: I also stamped the wheel and ship from the same set. I heavily distressed the entire background using a mix of Vintage Photo and Antique Linen. I then used a measure of vintage bakers twine across the front, stamped a greeting from an LOTV sentiments stamp and die cut it using Spellbinders Labels  Four Small.This was lightly distressed with Antique Linen.

I coloured the picture with Flex-markers. I don't use these that often and if I do, they are usually mixed with Promarkers, the latter being the dominant. I like them a lot, but I only have a few starter sets. My investment over the years has been with Promarkers and it's a bit expensive to collect different types. Having said that, by blending these pens, I managed the entire picture  using just flexes! I wanted to give it more of a watercolour feel than I think I could have achieved with Promarkers, but I do see the future of images with this stamp as...bright...monotone...sepia...who knows!?

I see this as a Cornish harbour scene and have coloured it as such...it could be anywhere in the UK, it's just that being a West Country gal, Cornwall is my idea of seaside and fishing villages! What I wanted to aim for was a fresh image with light, pastel colours and a background reflecting Cornwall's "Pirate" heritage...treasure maps and sailing ships.

All the stamps in this collection are gorgeous and I particularly like the beach huts, which I think are on order!

Because I have to leave my craft room for  my office Monday morning, I am scheduling this post and am now away to tidy my craft desk so that I can at least pick up where I left off...the one good thing about Euro 2012 is that I won't feel guilty disappearing to my craft room on an evening!

Take care and thanks for stopping by,

Carole X

Emergency Crafters DT Card - Saturday 9th June

Hello Blog Friends,

It's time for another challenge over at Emergency Crafters and the theme this fortnight is Butterflies, Birds - anything with wings. I've gone for a little birdie for my design team card..as I write this I haven't been able to upload this card as yet...but to take part hop over to:

http://emergencycrafterschallenge.blogspot.co.uk/

I've enjoyed 'playing' with this style card of late, so I created the box shape and stamped butterflies all over the front of the card. I then stamped and cut out the bird and added some punched blossoms. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Carole X

Sunday Stampers Wk 208 Her Majesty - 08/06/12

Good Morning Blog Friends...and a wet and windy one it is too!

It's also the last day (apart from the weekend) of my holiday from work...and I started off with such ambition!The idea of this time off alone, was that as I only work three days a week, with the Jubilee Public Holiday, I would be taking minimal leave and still getting two whole weeks to get up to date with my commissions and other projects....wrong!

I've been working very hard, but with the Jubilee party at the weekend and Tom taking  some extra time off too, I haven't achieved anywhere near as much as I'd hoped...oh well, Keep Calm and Carry On as they say!

Which brings me to today's card (and I'm not done with the Jubilee yet!). This card is my contribution to Hels Sheridan's Sunday Stampers and this week's theme is 'Her Majesty'

This card is similar to one of my earlier Jubilee designs, but I wanted to marry vintage with Regal with street party and get 60 years into one little card! 

I started off with plain white card stock and made the base frame card, using Spellbinders Labels One Small for the frame. The base card is covered with some newspaper design card from a 12x12 Portobello Road pack that I had in my stash and the back of the card is covered with red and white rose paper from the same pack. I scored the folds in the front and back and then stamped a little crown randomly over the front of the card with Versafine Vintage Sepia. To finish off the front of the card, I inked the edges with a mixture of distress inks: Antique Linen and Brushed Corduroy.

The bird is cut from Spellbinders Bird Sanctuary, inked with the same inks and I stamped a branch for the perch! Another stamped crown was used to adorn the bird. I made some bunting from the same paper pack and inked up the twine to give it a vintage feel. I then added some Union Jack buttons from stash (I think these were left from the Royal Wedding last year!) and I cut the 'ER' and '60' using my Cricut (I only ever seem to use it for letters and numbers!). The soldier ribbon was also inked too, as I thought it looked to 'pristine' on the front of the card and I finished off with the crown, which was also in my button box.

Thanks for stopping by!

Carole X

This is my contribution to Sunday Stampers Week 208 'Her Majesty'

http://pinkleart.blogspot.co.uk/

House Mouse - Tuesday 5th June

Hello Blog Friends,


I hope you have all been enjoying the Jubilee Weekend....our garden party fundraiser yesterday was brilliant and the sun actually came out to allow us to actually have a garden party! Our family, friends and neighbours were all so generous with their donations of both money and cakes, we all had a lot of fun and even some catching up with friends we hadn't seen in ages. We also raised £152, which for a small number of people was amazing.


Today I have a special card....as a recent prize-winner in the House Mouse Monday Challenge, I was invited to be a guest design teamie for June..how exciting because I love House Mouse, so it has been an honour to be asked to design two cards for them this month.


This is the first one is for the current challenge 'Here Comes the Sun'...

I chose the 'Parasol' stamp for my main image and made a frame card using linen textured aquamarine. I started off making it in a lighter coloured card but then decided this gave more of an effect of our little mice being by the sea! I coloured the stamp with Promarkers and cut out and coloured an additional parasol to add a layer and give it even more dimension. I cut the image and the aperture using Spellbinders labels 24 and although the photo doesn't really show it, I distressed all the edges of the card and aperture with shabby shutters distress ink.  The little mouse lying down is from the same stamp set, but the one with the flower 'sun hat' is from the `Spring' collection: Daffodil and the greeting is from another summer set: Drinks. The jumping mouse is from 'Sew Mice' and I just added the flower.


To finish off I added a strip of  Coredinations polka dot paper, which I sanded and three little gems. The greeting is stamped with Perfect Medium and embossed with 'Carnival' embossing powder by Papermania. I die cut it using Spellbinders Lacey Ovals.


Hope you like it! This challenge runs until.....


Hop over  to    http://housemouse-challenge.blogspot.co.uk/    to take part and Good Luck! I'll stop by and look at some of your creations (I'm told as a guest teamie I'm allowed!)


Thanks for stopping by,
Carole X

Best of British - Monday 4th June

Hello Blog Friends!


Today I have 'two of a kind' cards to share with you..very easy makes and similar to designs I have seen in shops...including a very upmarket department store in London where they were charging over £5 for a small 6x6!


Both of these are actually 5x5, they were quick to make and could be ideal for  good luck cards.

The first one is simply a kind of light brown (sounds boring, I'm sure it has a much nicer official name!) card front, which I distressed with a mixture of antique linen and tattered rose distress inks and typed the greeting in one of the 'typewriter' fonts. Using the Portabello Road paper set from doCrafts, I cut out the flag and the bunting and used vintage bakers twine as the line to hang it.

 For the second card, I used Clarity Stamps London set, which I got at Ally Pally and hadn't had a chance to use...and read on for a story about these stamps! I made the front of the card in the same way as the first one, but this time stamped the little soldiers above the greeting. I then made the Union Jack from the same stamp set, stamping quite 'roughly' for a vintage feel - I used cranberry and denim adirondacks, as suggested by Barbara Gray. The soldiers were coloured with Promarkers (of course!)

Now, I have seen Barbara Gray demo this stamp set on TV and also live at Ally Pally. I loved it and decided to buy it. The set includes one of Clarity's lovely designs with the great big 'O' that can be used as an aperture. I sat down to try and recreate one of her designs with these stamps a few days ago and after a few attempts got it right. I was really pleased with the finished result and then...I did the unthinkable! I picked it up without cleaning my hands! I have no idea why I did it, but I ruined the card, there was no saving it. So when all the activities of this weekend are over, I am going to sit down and do it again...it takes ages, but the result is so satisfying and by the end of the week, I hope to be posting my finished card...wish me luck and clean hands this time!

Thanks for stopping by...I have a special card tomorrow and I will also let you know how our own little garden party went...enjoy the Bank Holiday everyone, if you're in the UK!


Carole X

Rule Britannia - Sunday 3rd June

Good Morning Blog Friends,


Today's card is made in celebration of Great Britain....

I have made two versions of this card and I may well share the other one later in the week. This frame card is a shape I have been playing with, perhaps for our next workshop. A few weeks ago, I went along to a friend's 'Stampin' Up' party and the card the demonstrator had us making was this type of card and it had me thinking that I used to make cards like this, but not for a while; in fact so long ago that it was before die-cutting machines came along and getting that centre aperture to look good was almost impossible!

It's quite a simple idea...I used 2 pieces of 6x6 card and cut the aperture using labels one small. You then score twice along each side, for this size I scored at 1.5cms and 3cms, this shapes the card. All the card used  is from a Portobello Road paper and embellishment pack that I had at Christmas. I've used it quite a lot and it's lasting ages. I used a very pale newspaper print sheet for the front and stamped over it very lightly with Versafine vintage sepia  ink and a crown stamp from a Prima stamp set I bought in my local 'Out of the Blue' shop recently.

The bird was die cut using the Spellbinders Bird Sanctuary set, distressed with antique linen and I added another stamped crown.  After the sides were stuck together, I added a little hint of gold along the bottom with an edger die from Parisian Accents. The bunting is made from cutting out the bunting on the cover of the paper pad and the ribbon also came with the set, as did the spotty card for the back.

Thanks for stopping by!

Carole X