Turn on the Charm

 Hello.

"Relaxing Hobby" they said.
Have you tried die cutting and gluing these teeny, tiny charms
to a delicate bracelet piece?  Argh!   
One breath of wind and they would have been scattered across the craft room floor  :o)

I'm a Yorkshire lass, with hands like shovels - so 'delicate' is tricky for me  :o)
I was happy when all those tiny pieces were stuck in place.

The simple background stripes were created with a stencil and some distress ink.
I definitely need to use this stencil more - I love those stripes.

Challenge

Inspired By

Congrats on reaching Challenge #400  💖

I was inspired by the bracelets and the blue/coral colour palette

• concord and 9th - charmed dies
• clearly besotted - stripes stencil
• distress ink - tumbled glass
• mama elephant - labeled messages
• altenew ink - sea breeze
• pinkfresh studio - diagonal stitch rectangle

Welcome to the Herd

Hello.
News of a new baby is always a delight - so this card was a joy to make,
and I love this cute giraffe.

For the background I tried out some faux embossing. Simply using die-cut stars in the same colour card as the base. I think it turned out really cute.
Of course, after sticking on all those stars,  I decided to add a small panel of mint green on top, so most of them were covered up - but I know they're under there!   :o)

Challenge

As You Like It 

(Just playing for fun) 

Favourite Safari Animal, and Why

It's a giraffe!! They are such cute and gentle creatures and did you know,
a giraffe's spots are unique. They're like fingerprints.

Also  - my grandson's favourite giraffe fact - their tongue is so long 
they can clean their ears with it :o)

• my favorite things - joyful giraffe
• sentiment - mft - hello little one
• star dies - clearly besotted
• tiny star die - mft bundle of baby clothes
• pinkfresh studio - diagonal stitch rectangle

Life Is Better With You

Hello.
This week, my dh and I, celebrated our 41st wedding anniversary.
Wow! That seems a crazy long time :o)
I am so happy I found my soul mate all those years ago 💘

As we've just come back from the beach, this seemed a cute stamp to use for the card.

As you can imagine, we've done our fair share of hearts and romance cards over the years, but this time I wanted something cute and fun.

This took quite a bit of masking here and there to separate these 2 critters from the full image, but I think it was worth it.

Challenge

Allsorts

🏖️At the Seaside⛱️

or Anything Goes

• colorado craft company - beach life
• my favorite things - ray of light stencil
• pinkfresh studio - diagonal stitch rectangle
• ranger distress ink - mustard seed / fossilized amber
• copic markers / white pen

Sweet Treats and Summer Days

Hello.
We've just had the most amazing week away in Abersoch, North Wales.
Have you been? It's our second time there and I would thoroughly recommend it.
The beaches are stunning.

So this is a thank you card for our dd, for inviting us along to share the fun with our youngest grandson.

Lot's of ice cream was consumed on our trip (it was hot!) so this little van was perfect.
The shaker card - not so perfect. It drove me crazy.
Those little elements keep sticking on top of each other. 

I've had a tip that maybe my foam tape isn't deep enough, so next time I'll try doubling up on it.
Any other shaker tips - send them my way  :o)

Challenge

Freshly Made Sketches

• time for tea designs - cool critters
• my favorite things - in and out stitched squares
• copic markers

Big School, Big Adventures

Hello.
I know we haven't even had summer yet, but I'm already thinking of 'back to school' cards.
I have 3 special family ones to make and here's the first.
For a special girl who is starting big school.

This was fun to make.

The jumper is in the new school colours, but I didn't want to use the shorts from the set because they just looked too masculine. So, I gave her a little ra ra skirt. I'm sure that won't make it past the uniform police, but it does look kinda cute.

The background is a digi image from Clearly Besotted - I tried colouring it, but it looked too busy so in the end I left it plain.
The 'good luck' tag was stamped and heat embossed in white.

Challenge

Addicted To Stamps & More

• spellbinders - trailside trio / splash days  camp days
• clearly besotted - school days digi
• colorado craft company - good luck sentiment - rooting for you
• wow - white embossing powder

Yeehaw Birthday Girl!

Hello...  or howdy! :o)

Today I'm sharing this birthday card with a bit of cowgirl charm, and a sprinkling of pretty blooms.

I could definitely stomp around the dance floor in these boots :o)

This is for the MAWTT Challenge - where they want to see your favourite stamp, die or tool.

I've gone for tool - and my sizzix big shot. I've had my machine since I started blogging (2008) and it's never let me down - touch wood.
Wow! That makes it 18 years old!!!
It definitely gets a lot of use too - I think I use it on every card I make, even the simplest ones. So I couldn't do without it.

Challenge

Moving Along With The Times

Use your favourite stamp, die or tool.

• concord & 9th - bootcut and coloured cardstock
• pinkfresh studio - diagonal stitch rectangle 

Sweet Sprinkles

Hello.
I had so much fun making this card.
I think the recipient is going to love it.

It's a wrapped shaker - so the shaker bit is made with some scrap, plastic packaging, 
wrapped around the card, and secured with DS tape. So easy!

The shaker confetti was the fun bit. I didn't have much in the way of pretty sprinkles,
so I made some of my own...

large and small cherries - die cut and coloured with copics

ice creams - die cut from coloured cardstock and pieced together

ice lollies - I put a strip of ds tape onto white card and made sure the 'lolly' part was cut from that piece - then I peeled off the tape and pressed the die cut into some glitter. IRL it's very sparkly.

This is definitely something I'll be trying again.
I'm already thinking of gingerbread men sprinkles, and tiny Christmas trees!!

Challenge

Just Us Girls

Nothing says summer like ice-lollies and cherries :o)

• concord & 9th - celebration squad / charmed (small cherries die)
• time for tea designs - cool critters - sentiment and ice lolly die
• sugar pea designs - summer scoops - large cherry die
• spellbinders - camp days - ice cream die

Snow Falling, Fizz Flowing

Hello.
Well, what a change in the weather this week.
Here in Yorkshire, we've had just about non stop rain. It's lovely.
No sarcasm here - I LOVE the rain :o)
And it gives me time to play in my craft room.

I've kept things simple with this cute, penguin image.
I'm afraid it might be the last outing for this guy - it's one of my older stamps and is just starting to disintegrate around the edges.

I coloured him with copics, then added distress ink around him, and some snowfall.
I'm not sure why he's drinking fizz in the snow, but he's having a lovely time!

For the recently restarted

CAS Christmas Challenge

• wildrose studio - pickle with tipple
• distress ink - tumbled glass
• wplus9 - winter wonderland sentiment
• pretty pink posh - snowfall stencil
• pinkfresh studio - diagonal stitch rectangle
• copic markers - white gel pen

Swipe, Swipe, Done!

Hello.
I am definitely not great at fancy ink techniques,
but this one was so easy I had to give it a go.
                                             Direct to Paper Inking

I chose some ice-cream colours, dragged the ink cubes across a card panel and voila - instant background. How easy is that?

Suzie skunk was die-cut and assembled, complete with ice cream and backpack.
Then I used the pole of the oar for the happy birthday sign. 

The stitched rectangle panel was also swished with pink ink, which was brilliant as it always really hurts me to use a big piece of my coloured cardstock for those bases. :o)

Challenge

Group Of Cardmakers

Direct to Paper Inking 

• spellbinders - trailside trio / camp days / splash days
• altenew inks - cotton candy / peach sorbet / mango smoothie
• hero arts ink - green hills
• pinkfresh studio - diagonal stitch rectangle
• lawn fawn - offset birthday sentiments

Fun In The Snow

Hello.
Today I'm an elf!
I'm excited to be joining Jo, over at the 

Christmas Kickstart Challenge 

This month I've chosen the theme of Snow Days.

I'm thinking...  building a snowman, kids on sledges, penguins with scarves, birds on snowy branches, you get the idea.
I'm looking forward to seeing all those snowy scenes, so I hope you'll play along.

Here is my card, using one of my favourite stamps.

I stamped my image and coloured it with copics. 
For the landscape, I found a little stamp with those flower tufts on,  which just helped to ground the image a bit.
The sky is distress ink and my snow is made with a white gel pen, through a snowfall stencil.

Thank you Jo, for letting me join you this month.

It was fun xxx

• purple onion designs - happy mail
• fa la la stamp - sorry! Can't remember the make
• landscape stamp - my favorite things - frost loving friends
• distress oxide - salvaged patina
• pinkfresh studio - diagonal stitch rectangle
• pretty pink posh - snowfall stencil
• 
  

Adventure Awaits!

Hello.

Anyone else stuck to their craft room chair! :o)
It's a bit warm here in Yorkshire - definitely a picky tea tonight.

With this heat my brain seems to be operating at half speed - so I kept this card nice and simple.

Just a cute skunk, ready to go on a birthday adventure.

I followed along at Freshly Made Sketches - just turning the sketch for my landscape design.

I dug out an old bird branch stamp that worked great for the dashed lines on the sketch - then I added my die cut canoe, and popped up the skunk, his backpack and oar with foam tape.
The sentiment came from a different die cut set, but I thought it worked here.

Challenge

Freshly Made Sketches 

• spellbinders - trailside trio / splash days / camp days
• wplus9 - happy birds (bird branch stamp)
• concord & 9th - silly goose - happy birthday stamp and die
• memento ink - danube blue
• pinkfresh studio - diagonal stitch rectangle
•