Wonderful News

Well I bet your surprised to see me posting again. Life has been rather hectic over the last 12 months but hopefully things will get back to normal soon.

The wonderful news is that after 5 long years we have at last managed to sell our house in Cyprus and can now get on with the rest of our lives here in the UK.  You can't imagine the relief to have this off our hands at last.

Another reason for this post is also to let you know of the wonder full candy Jak Heath has here.  A wonderful Daylight lamp that would be any crafters dream.

I hope to be back soon with a card or two but don't hold your breath it might take a while.

ANNE

Back Again at last

Sorry I haven't been around to post recently, life has got in the way.

However I have at last found time to post a card I made today.  It is all made with white pearlescent card. The main card is embossed with a new folder that arrived this morning, it is from Couture Creations called Tied Together. the Swans Die Cut is a new one from Marianne Creatables which I found on the same website here,. I only ordered them yesterday afternoon and they arrived this morning with free postage. How about that for service!
i also used a Spellbinders Heart Square and small Beaded Circle for the sentiment. Tiny stick on pearls at all the links on the design.

Thank you for taking the time to visit, your comments are greatly appreciated.

Anne

Playing with new toys.

Last Sunday I went to a craft show at Bracknell and bought a few new toys. There were some Memory Box dies, a Marrianne die, some Touch Masks as well plenty of card, always cheaper to buy it in bulk at shows.

Here are a couple of cards I made with them.

This one is made with cream pearlescent card.  I made a Centre Stepper Card. The sides and bottom are decorated using a Tonic geared punch that I bought earlier in the year and have not used much, which I decorated with tiny pearls in the middle of each rosette.  The main part of the card I used a Nestabilties Heart Square and some poppies and tulips made with the Memory Box dies. The butterfly is also Memory Box. These dies are so delicate.

This one also uses the Poppy die but I coloured them with Promarkers and embossed the card with one of the Touch Masks that I bought.  I'm really pleased with the embossing quality considering that it is only a thin plastic sheet.

Thank you for taking the time to visit.  I really appreciate your comments.

Anne

Birthday Card for my Son

This is the card I made for my younger son for his Birthday last week.  He loves fast cars and all sorts of Extreme Sports, the trouble is I am beginning to run out of ideas for something different.
The image is one of a set from Papermania last year, coloured with Promarkers. The birthday sentiment is from Lili of the Valley, I used a bit of ribbon to make it look like a rosette.  The banner tag is from one of the sets of Spellbinders that I bought while we were in the USA the other week.  They were so cheap over there compared with here in the UK.  The backing paper is one I found saved on my computer and I don't know where it came from but I thought it looked appropriate.

Thank you for taking the time to visit, your comments are greatly appreciated.

Anne

My Son's Wedding

I thought I would post a couple of pictures of my son's wedding in the N W USA last week. He has married a wonderful American girl who he has had leave behind while she waits for her UK Visa to be issued, (hopefully about 4-5 weeks). We went over to the USA for two weeks and have just about recovered from the journey and time difference. Her parents really made us feel at home and we saw some beautiful countryside while we were there.
Incidently I made all 4 waistcoats in Lilac Silk Dupion and the Bride's Bolero in Ivory satin to match her dress.

The Bride and Groom 

                The Bride and Groom with th Best Man (Grooms Brother) and Bridesmaid (Brides best friend)

With both sets of Parents (Grooms father, Brides Mother, Bride and Groom, Brides father and Me)

This is the Parchment Craft card I made for them. It took many hours and 2 or 3 goes to get it right. It is an 8" square card so quite large. The pattern is one I found in a Parchment Craft Magazine and I mounted it on purple pearlescent card. The theme for the wedding was Butterflies and Dragonflies in purple and green.

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog, your comments are greatly appreciated.

Anne

Let's Shop

This image is from Whiff of Joy called Shopping Willow, I really love these Willow stamps. She is coloured with Promarkers and the carrier bags are paper pieced with papers from "My Mind Eye" that I got free with a magazine quite a while back. I used the same papers for mounting but the main paper is a larger design. The sentiment is from the Papermania Born to Shop range and was free with a Creativity Magazine over a year ago. I just think it is appropriate for this image.

I used the sketch from this weeks Sketch Saturday Challenge and turned it upside down. so I will be entering her for that.

Thank you for taking the time to visit your comments are greatly appreciated.

Anne

Thank You

This is one of the Thank You cards I made for my son and future wife.  Again using the Purple and Green and Butterfly and Dragonfly theme as in the invitations.

The punches are from Hobbycraft and I used the Nestabilties scalloped square.

I have also made a Parchment card for the Bride and Groom but I can't post it at the moment as my son sometimes looks on here, but I will show it after the wedding.

Only 2 weeks now until we fly out to the USA for the wedding, getting quite excited.

Thank you for taking the time to visit, your comments are greatly appreciated.

Oooops!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I made this card for my friends Grandson who is a real Ginger Knob so thought the hair colour was appropriate.

The stamp is from Lili of the Valley coloured with Promarkers,  The papers are from Bearly Mine Designs and Summer Driggs Designs. The sentiment was computer generated.

Now need to get back to the Wedding Thank You Cards.

Thank you for taking the time to visit.  Your comments are greatly appreciated.

Anne

I'm Back!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hi Everybody, I thought it was time I put my head up again though I don't know how long it will be for. Life has been taking over recently with preparations for my son's wedding at the beginning of May.  I have been busy making the Wedding Stationary, 4 Waistcoats for the men and a Bolero for the Bride.  The waistcoats are made in Lilac Shot Silk Dupion and I must admit I'm quite pleased with them as I haven't done any dressmaking for years,  After the wedding I will post some photos so that you can see the final effect.

Here is a sample of the Invitations. The bride requested purple and green with Butterflies and Dragonflies and this was what she chose form the samples I made.  The purple ribbon is the same shade as the card although it doesn't look it on the picture.

I have also made Triangular Favour boxes and am now making Thank You cards. The boxes are still flat as we have to take everything to the USA for the wedding so will have to make them up when we get there.

Hopefully I will be back again soon with some cards I've made. I have a Craft Sale I'm attending on Saturday so trying to get everything up together for that.

Thank you for taking the time to visit, your comments are greatly appreciated.

Anne

Did you miss me?

Hi everybody, Sorry I haven't been around for a while, life seems to be catching up with me. I have been making cards and going to my Parchment classes but not really had time to post anything.  I keep checking on everybody elses Blogs to see what is happening out there in Blogland!  Went Ally Pally on Saturday with a friend and got lots of new ideas, could have spent a lot of money but I was very restrained as we had to buy a new printer last week, the other one was only about 18 months old but it decided it didn't want to take in the paper any more. As I have got the Wedding Stationary to make for my son's wedding before January we couldn't really manage without one.

I decided to have a go at the sketch from Less is More this week and this is what I came up with.  I am trying to make some desk calenders, using easel cards, for a sale I am doing in November and thought this might work.  The background is made by blending Scattered Seed and Dried Marigold Distress Inks which I then stamped over with stamps from the Meadow Flora set from Creative Expressions using S U Cajan Craze ink.  I then took Mandi's idea and rubbed it with Versamark and heat embossed with clear embossing powder. The sentiment is from the same set of stamps.  I think it works.

Thank you for taking the time to visit, your comments are greatly appreciated.

Anne

Parchment

This morning I went to my first Parchment lesson. It is something I've wanted to do for a long while and when I discovered that Alison Yeates who is Parchment Guru lives just up the road from me and runs classes in the town twice a month I was quick to sign up.

This is the result, I'm quite proud of it for a first attempt although the edging is a bit tatty, still not bad. The others in the group have been going for a long time but Alison took time to set me a simple? design and show me how to work each stage, even down to the colouring. It will be long time before I get to the standard they are at, their work was beautiful.

The picture is not a good as I would have liked but the best I can do at the moment.

Thank you for taking the time to visit, your comments are greatly appreciated.

Anne

Rock On

Last week I went to the Range!!!! (fatal) and found a new set of mens stamps by Papermania which I thought would be useful, it's always so difficult to know what to make for men.  This is one of the stamps from the set, the others are mainly sports, coloured with Promarkers and mounted on paper from Bearly Mine Designs Donna really has some wonderful papers. I added some buttons with some red Card Candy to so that they looked like records.

 Charisma Cards Challenge Boy Oh Boy

This is using one of the sport stamps which I stamped with Stampin Up Close to Cocoa ink to give a vintage look. Simple but effective.

Thank you for taking the time to visit, your comments are greatly appreciated.

Anne

White on White

It seems ages since I posted a card, I've been busy trying to tame the new garden, a long way to go yet, but as the weather isn't so good today I thought I would have a go at the current Less is More Challenge and this is the result.

Not the type of card I would normally make and certainly out of my comfort zone!  As you can see the Cuttlebug has been busy. The central image is made from the Nestabilities Floral Doily Motifs set and the wording is from a small Cuttlebug embossing folder that I've hardly used. The Butterfly is also from a Cuttlebug set with a die and 4 embossing folders. Although the butterfly looks a different colour it is the same pearlised white card as the rest of the card but the light has caught it so that it looks a different colour. I just finished it off with a few tiny pearls.

Thank you for taking the time to visit. your comments are really appreciated.

Anne

Just A Note

I have been experimenting today and this is the result,. The idea came from my friend Chrissie. I hope you don't mind Chrissie. I bought a set of tree stamps by Sheena Douglas at the Make It Show and I've only just got round to trying them. The background panel is Old Paper Distress ink and the tree is stamped with Stampin Up Chocolate Chip. The sentiment is from a set I bought last week at Shepton Mallet I think by Hero Arts. I mounted it on Chocolate card and then on the main card, I'm not confident enough yet to stamp straight onto the main card!.

Thank you for taking the time to visit, your comments are greatly appreciated.

Anne

Less is More Challenge 10

For this card I used a Nestabilitie Long Rectangle to make the surround for the sentiment which is a stamp from Bildmalarna and was another item in the goodies from Donna at Bearly Mine Designs I stamped it with Versamark and heat embossed with pink embossing powder. The sides were made with a Cuutlebug border embossing folder and the centres highlighted with pink jewel flowers.

This second card was the result of the first try which went wrong in the middle so I stamped this little cutie called Little Mimosa again from Bildmalarna and coloured her with Promarkers, mounted her over the mistake and hey presto another card rescued. I chalked around the centre panel just to give it a bit definition. The embossing is another Cuttlebug folder and another border folder, with just a few green jewels to highlight the flowers.

Can anyone out there in Blogland tell me how to flatten the card after it has been embossed as it seems to bend around the embossing, especially on the second one.

Thank you for taking the time to visit, your comments and advice are greatly appreciated.

Anne

One for the Boys

I have just returned from a wonderful lunch with my boys, the first time I've been with them on Mothers Day for 5 years, and I'm stuffed.

This card is made with a Daisy and Dandelion stamp I bought on sale at Christmas (I wonder what he is going to paint?), and thought it would work well for the Totally Papercraft Challenge this week One for the Boys. I used the sketch from Papertake Weekly so this will be entered for their challenge also. I coloured it with Promarkers and mounted it on papers from Dovecraft which I've had for ages. The star brads are from the collection of goodies I won from Bearly Mine Designs before Christmas

Thank you for taking the time to visit your comments are greatly appreciated.

Anne

Less is More Challenge 8

Hi everyone, I made it back again, OK it took 2 weeks, but hey I have a very overgrown garden to tame and we have had lots of gorgeous weather so guess what took priority.

Anyway this is the card I made for this weeks Less is More Challenge which is a sketch. You wouldn't believe how hard it is to make a simple card like this, I tried all sorts of things and papers to come up with this. I wanted to use one of my new Lili of the Valley sentiment stamps and also one of the Nestabilities I bought at the Make It show the other week. This is from the Floral Doily Motifs set. The paper is one from my favourite designer Bearly Mine Designs, I love Donna's papers. The ribbon was some I had in my stash.

I'm sorry the picture isn't very good, but is the best I can do with the camera, I have a new scanner but the colours don't come out very well on it.

Thank you for taking the time to visit, your comments are greatly appreciated.

Anne

I Made a Card!!!!!!!!!!!

At last I have found time to make a card in between sorting everything and trying to tame a rather overgrown garden. This is the first time I have braved a One Layer Card but I wanted to enter my friend Chrissie's new challenge Less is More which this week is a One Layer Card with the title Off the Edge.

The stamp is from one of the new sets that I bought at the Make It show a couple of weeks ago and is from Sheena Douglas Cottage Flowers, coloured with Promarkers. The sentiment is from another set, this time Meadow Flora by Sam Poole, stsmped with Stampin Up Old Olive.  The card has a texture to it but I think it works OK.

Hopefully this will be the start of a new blogging time and I will be able to find more time for my Card Making.

Thank you for taking time to visit, your comments are greatly appreciated.

Anne

Back Home

Well at last I am back in the UK and everything is unpacked, I even have part of a room dedicated to Craft rather than working on the dining table. I hope we will be able to stay here in this home for some time but as it only rented we may have to move again when we sell in Cyprus.

I am now sorting out all the goodies I bought when I was here at Christmas as well as the bargains I got at the Make It show in Farnborough a couple of weeks ago. Unmounted stamps to be cut out and mounted ready for use, new Spellbinders and Maranne dies to be tried out as well as a bargain Martha Stewart Punch Around the Page set. I am going to have a ball.

Hopefully I will be back posting again next week with some new creations, need to get my creative juices going again,

Anne

Going Home

Hi everybody.  This is just a quick post to let you all know that I won't be around for a while as I'm in the process of packing everything up to move back to the UK next week.  It has all come about rather suddenly but I'm so looking forward to it. When I get umpacked again I will be back blogging with a vengence from my new craftroom, whooohooo.

Anne