Home is the nicest word there is.

I commiserate with anyone trying to move house right now.
Our move last year was fraught - to say the least.  
So, I am happy that my brother and his family, have just moved into their new home.
Here's the card I made for them.

I started with a panel of my favourite woodgrain paper from Pink Petticoat. It looks kinda grey in the picture, but it's really a very pretty, duck egg blue.

For the house I used a freebie sentiment from Birds Cards  and placed a little punched heart in the middle.

I finished off with some die cut clouds (Memory Box) and bakers twine.
It's a shame I didn't  have any twine in lemon yellow - it would have looked so pretty (sigh*)
So, top of my wish list is bakers twine in EVERY colour...  lol**

Challenges.
My Craft Spot - Strings and Things
The Pink Elephant - Clean & Simple
Love to Create - Pastels
ABC Challenge - Just as you like it.

What Are Little Girls Made Of ?

My weekend starts NOW!
I have just done a big shop; my fridge is stocked up with goodies (including alcohol) and I have a stack of DVD's to watch.  So, bring on the snow - again!!
I don't care - I will be all snug and warm under the duvet until Monday :-)

I better dash out to the postbox and mail this card to my friend's daughter
before I batten down the hatches!

I played along with the 'Muse' challenge again this week.
Marion created a lovely effect, o her project,  with strips of blue and green card. I took this as my inspiration, but as I wanted a more girly look,  I used  strips of a pretty, paper pack.
I adhered the strips to a white card panel and then attached them to my card base.

You can't get much cuter than this Pure Innocence girl. She's coloured with Copics, cut out and stuck on with foam pads. I also added some pearls to her shoes and one on her dress.
I almost added a button with a twine bow to the sentiment banner, and then I remembereed that they have a toddler in the house - you know how little fingers always find things like that - so I opted for a simple, card candi instead.

Challenges.
Muse - Inspirational Card
Bunny Zoe's Crafts - Girly
Tuesday Alchemy - Anything Goes
Southern Girls - The Kids Are Alright
Aud Sentiments - Girl Power

• DP, GCD Studios Tea Time
• Pure Innocence Girl with Balloon, coloured with Copics
• 'Happy Birthday' Stamp, Papermania Stamping For Him Set.
• Adhesive Pearls, Card Candi

Is It Spring Yet?

My daughters, Maria and Annabel came up to visit at the weekend - and we have just about recovered.
We did lots of eating, drinking and laughing and I think we may be barred from the local pub!!! 
So a good time was had by all :-)

The little men have finally stopped pounding their hammers on the inside of my skull, 
long enough for me to make a card. 
This is for my Mum & Dad's Anniversary.

I dug around in my flower box and found a couple of purple blooms, which I hope will remind my Mum of spring Violets; she loves those.

Have you ever tried to add random gems to a project. These crystals refused to be random!!
Every time I moved them around they ended up in a line, or in a uniform pattern  - does that even make sense to anyone - or am I still drunk!! :-)

Challenges.
City Crafter - Woodgrain
Crafty Sentiments - Flowers Galore
Love to Create - Anything Goes
Sentimental Sundays - Anything Goes
2 Sisters - Flowers for Spring

• Pink Petticoat, Woodgrain Digi Paper
• Crystal Gems, Lace, Blooms
• Martha Stewart Leaf Border Punch

Girls just wanna have fun!

I can't sit still this morning..
Suzie, is at the vets having some tests done and I jump every time the phone goes!
I'm trying to take my mind off it by planning tomorrows activities.
It's my BFF's birthday and she is coming up to stay. So excited :-)
Here's the card I made for her - that's the two of us right there - 
I am the mouthy red head and she is the pretty blonde. :-)
 

Isn't this Stamping Bella image fabulous. 
I love it when you find a stamp that loooks exactly like you  -  ha ha!! I wish!!
The girls are coloured with Copics and a generous sprinkling of glamour dust.
I know the colours look a bit washed out on the picture below, but I wanted to try and capture the sparkle.

Challenges.
The Pretty Little Ribbon Shop - Happy Birthday
By The Cute & Girly - Favourite Things. There are so many of my favourite things on this card - the stamp, gems, that gorgeous brocade paper and of course, the glitter.
Bunny Zoe's Crafts - Girly
Stamptacular Sunday - To Die For.  I think I use my banner dies more than any others. They are great to stamp a sentiment on, but I also like to group them together. They make a perfect embellie.
Sentimental Sundays - Embellies that start with 'B'.  I went for 3 banners. It's hard to make out on the photo, but two of them are cut from metallic paper, that gives a pretty sheen.

• Stampin Bellas, Victoria and Juliette's Night Out.
• Copics, Glamour Dust
• Pink Petticoat Digi Paper, Brocade.
• Spellbinders Nested Pennants Die
• Crystal Gems and Ribbon
• 'Party' Sentiment was a magazine freebie.

Bloomin' Lovely

So, here I am with my MOST difficult card make of the year - Mother's Day!
My Mum does not do cute and girly, and as you know, I am florally challenged,
so this was a tough one.
I was thrown a lifeline, when I saw the Mother's Day Set at Digi Stamp Boutique.

I used a sentiment and vase of flowers from the set and combined it with the tea cup, from Coffee Break.  The images were coloured with Copics, cut out and popped up on foam pads.

I added some glitter and gems and some white gel pen on the flowers.
Am I the only one that struggles with a white pen - it never seems to flow properly for me, no matter what I do? Have you got any tips for using one?

 I also used a couple of flowers from a ribbon strip. I cut them out and attached them to a punched flower. If you bend the petals of the punched flower up, it supports the lace flower and makes it look better than just lying flat.

Challenges.
Digi Stamp Boutique - March
Digi Galore - Mother's Day
One Stop Craft - Mother's Day
Cupcake Craft - Sparkle
Creative Creations - Just For Mum
Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes
Creative Inspirations -  Mother's Day

• Digi Stamp Boutique images, Mother's Day Set and Coffee Break
• Pink Petticoat Digi Paper - Woodgrain
• Copics, Stickles Glitter, Ribbon, Crystal Gems
• Lace Flowers

 

Spring Bunny

With Easter just around the corner, I thought I'd make a start on my cards.
I haven't sent Easter cards in the past, but with living so far away from friends and family now, 
I think it would be nice to send some out.

The sketch at CAS(E) this Sketch gave me the base for my card.
I used strips of dotty paper from Pink Petticoat, in pastel colours and my bunny is from Digi Stamp Boutique.

The bunny is coloured with Copics, a touch of glitter and I gave him a cute, fluffly tail.

Challenges.
CAS(E) this Sketch - #17
Aud Sentiments - Easter
Simon Says - Anything Goes
My Mum's Craft Shop - Spring

Thanks a latte

Arggghhhhh!
I really wanted to play along with Muse again this week,
but the inspirational card, beautiful though it is, is FLOWERS!!!
You know I am florally challenged.
So, this took some thought.

I used Deanna's card, like a sketch and substituted her flowers for lattes :-) 
Then I stayed with the same colour scheme of pink, orange and green.

Deanna's card has a lovely, doodled border, which I tried on mine, but the wavy lines just didn't look right,
Instead I opted for straight lines, using a ruler and my fineliner.

You can't really see from these pics, but my card does have some dimension.
The 'doodled' rectangle is popped up on foam pads, as are the latte cups.

Challenges.
Muse #6 - Deanna's Card
Divas by Design - Anything Goes
One Stitch At A Time - Use A Digi
Digi Stamp Boutique - February Challenge (2nd entry)

• DigiStampBoutique Digi Lattes, from the Coffee Break Collection
• Copics
• Heart Gems
• Sentiment made on my computer

Little Genius

Wandering through Pinterest this morning, brought me to a cool, new card blog.

Muse

I think it's really going to help me develop my new CAS style of card.
The challenge each week is to use the Muse card as inspiration for your own work, BUT the blog is so much more than that.
They are aiming to create more of a community and would like members to comment on other submissions and support fellow members. Sounds good to me - I need all the help I can get ;-)

Here's my take on this week's Muse card by Marion Vagg.

I took the orange and blue colour combo as my main inspiration, and also went with some chevrons, which seem to be really popular right now.

Challenges.
Muse - Challenge #5
Papercraft Star - Hello

• Tiddly Inks Digi Stamp, Genius coloured with Copics
• Pink Petticoat Digi Papers, Quatrefoil and Chevrons
• Spellbinders Die, Nested Banner
• Memory Box Letter Dies, Parker
• Button and Twine

Eat more cake!

Here's another of my new Uptown girls from Stamping Bella - 
isn't she adorable?
I admit - I was nervous of colouring her and almost opted to  paper-piece her dress, but I'm pretty pleased with how she turned out.

Ava, is coloured with Copics and some stickles glitter, cut out and popped up on foam pads.   
IRL she has some lovely, sparkly detail.
I also added a few random gems for extra bling :-)
I have learnt now to buy clear gems, so that I can colour them with Copics, to match my design.

Challenges.
Creative Card Crew - Birthday
City Crafter - All that Glitters
Love to Create - All that Glitters
Dream Valley - Ribbon and Bling
ABC - H for Happy Birthday

• Stamping Bella, Ava Loves To Celebrate
• Copics and Stickles Glitter
• Ribbon and Gems
• Grey DP, Papermania Mono
• Martha Stewart Lace Doily Punch
• Sentiment, Wild Rose Studio

By Air Mail With Love

So, here I am back with a card....
I've noticed these cute Snoopy stamps around and I couldn't resist this airplane one.
 

 He's coloured with Copics, cut out and stuck on with foam pads.

For the clouds I used my Memory Box die, cutting them out of felt - layering them up and adding a little button brad.

Challenges.
Tuesday Throwdown -  Anything Goes
City Crafter - You Felt It   
One Stitch At A Time - Anything Goes
Mad For Markers - Movies       The movie I chose is 'Airplane'. Yep, I know it's an old one, but it's so funny. We still use some of those old lines... "Can you fly this plane and land it" Surely, you can't be serious!" "I am serious and don't call me Shirley!"

• DP - Pink Petticoat, Chevrons
• Stampabilities - Peanuts Flying High
• Copics
• Felt, Button look brads
• Sentiment - Papermania, Portobello Road

Onion Soup

Is it snowing where you are?
It's coming down heavy again here and everything is already covered in white.
So, I made a lovely, warming onion soup for lunch.
I will be back later with a card  :-)