Football Crazy

Today my card is for my nephew Scott's Birthday. Scott is crazy about football. I wanted to make him a card that somehow included all the teams he follows-Southampton, Celtic and Scotland. Quite a task but after some time on the Internet I found out what the team kits are and managed to find the logos of each team.

This card is very busy and not my favourite style but I had a lot to include so had to come out of my comfort zone. Although I am not so keen on this card I did achieve what I set out to do. I guess we can't be happy with all the cards we make but I do like to make cards that are focused on the person they are for and this is what Scott loves so seemed appropriate for him.

I followed the sketch challenge at Cards for Men adjusting the position of the 3 buttons to fit in with the team logos. I will also enter it into the 'Boys will be boys' challenge at Creative Card Challenges

Now for those of you, like me, who are not up with British Footy team here is an explanation-The background blue and white is the Scottish Flag, the green and white are the colours of Celtic. The image (from KennyK ) is coloured using promakers to the exact Southampton kit right up to the black neckline and white band at the top of the socks (well I hope so!!) I am sure Scott will not realise the hours this took but hopefully he will like it. And here we are:

Enjoy your day x

Sparkly shoes!

Happy Monday,

I haven't posted for a while so today I have a girly, sparky card to share with you:

I loved this sentiment from Create at TLC and naturally love shoes so I stamped this shoe and coloured it using promakers and added some sparkly gems-they are more sparkly than in this photo!

Cas-ualfridays challenge this week is to create a CAS card that includes a pun and as this sentiment makes me smile I thought it was suitable.
I will also be entering this into the 'long sentiment' challenge at Fussy and Fancy and the 'make it sparkle' challenge at Digital Tuesday

Hope your week starts well and continues that way x

Thinking of you

Just popping in to share with you a card I made for a very special friend who is having a hard time at the moment. She is in a situation where I can't do anything to help but be here her when she needs me to listen to her or just to share a cuppa in silence. I am just going to pop this card in her letterbox to let her know that she is in my thoughts.

I have used some white core card as the base and embossed it to give this background flower design. Then used some fancy 'stampin' up' paper for the flowers and banners. This is the first time I have used the die cut flowers as I found then quite a fiddle but today I was patient and managed it! The little fabric flower I won in a blog candy giveaway by Sheryl-thank you Sheryl! A few pearls added for accent.

The layout was taken from the challenge at Try stampin on Tuesday and the colour palette form the challenge at Card and things.
I will also enter it into the 'thinking of you' challenge at celebrate the occasion

A bouquet of wishes for you

Well is it really feeling like spring here in London. It has been sunny all day and feeling very mild (when looking outside from my cosy craft room anyway!).

I have finally finished the notelet pack for my Mum I started last week. Today I made some Spring inspired notelets using the 'bloomin sentiments' set from Pink Petticoat. This spring theme fits in nicely for the flower challenge at mygrafico crafts . I used navy and pink as the main colours of the card and added one other colour to each notelet-making these cards suitable for the challenge at Love to Create
I embossed the pink background with this spotty design and die cut the flowers. Each notelet has a different centre to the flower to add variety.

Here is the notelet I like best with a button and bakers twine at the centre of the flower and a small pearl at the corner:

And the second notelet has a navy flower and brad in the centre:

And the third flower has a blue gem to add some sparkle to the set:

And finally the set together:

And the vintage set that make up this set are here

Enjoy the sun x

Spring Time and Friends

If you saw my blog yesterday you will have seen that my best friend from school, Clare, came to visit with her family. We haven't seen each other for a number of years but once we were together it felt like we had seen each other just the other day! It reminded me how dear some friendships are and how important it is never to lose touch we those people in your life that mean so much to you. Those you love for just being 'them' and those that love you for being 'you'.

And I decided to express this by making Clare a card with this gorgeous sentiment from Create with TLC

I thought the colours on JUGS were inspired with the soon approaching spring and decided to use them to send Clare some cheery spring love!
I am also going to enter this into the spring time challenge at Outlawz and the sketch challenge at My Time Made Easy .

Hope your weekend went well xx

Ben......our very own new crafting recruit!

No cards from me today but from our new recruit-Ben.

Ben is the son of my best friend from school, Clare. Clare and her husband, Ian, and Ben came to stay last night after they had been sightseeing in London. After riding the London eye, seeing the Lion King and being very scared in the depths of the London Dungeons they braved our little home for the night! I didn't want to scare them anymore than was necessary so ordered a Thai take-out rather than cook!

Whilst Callum, Ian and Clare enjoyed a few drinks, Ben and I got to work making cards. We got very inky but Ben was a natural and made some gorgeous cards. He learnt how to download the images, unzip the files, ink the edges, use the guillotine, which sticky pads and glues to use when and loved using the 'Big Shot' to make die cuts. Plus he taught me a few very useful computer moves that will help me when using my digi images.

Queue drum roll................here are Ben's creations:

 He chose this image as the whole family play softball. He chose the colour scheme himself and added the button to represent the ball......creative guy!

And this next card is for his brother, Matt, who is coming home from skiing today with the school (Matt won the 'Flirt Award' for drawing hearts in the snow for his instructor!!)

Well today Ben wins the 'New recruit award' for this card:

The top is actually red not pink as it appears in the photo but as you know photos are not my speciality!

The digi images are from kennykdownloads



Enjoy your weekend x

Happy Anniverasry

My card today is for my sister-in-law, Lisa, she wanted an Anniversary card for her sister. And here is what I came up with:

I loved making this as I felt I hadn't done a really 'cas' CAS card for a while-if you know what I mean!
It was the colour on the challenges at  The Play Date Cafe and die cuttin divas (who doesn't love 'hot pink') that inspired me. Plus the card on Lynn's blog today inspired me to do a CAS card myself.
And I got to use my Big Shot to make the die cut heart-actually made from the lining of some slipper socks......waste not, want not!! The sentiment is from Create with TLC

I will be entering this into the following challenges;
Die Cuttin Divas
The Play Date Cafe
charisma cardz
digital Tuesday challenge




I

Just a note

Morning and a happy Tuesday,

I have finally started doing a set of notelets that I promised my Mum. She wants them for a present and I have been a bit slow doing them. I have now done a set up 3 with the same design and will be doing another set of 3 very soon (I will!!).

 Here is the single card:

And as a set:

I have used the digi vintage music background then stamped the musical note and the sentiment.

Now I will hopefully have another set of 3 to show you before the end of the week and my aim is to go for something completely different to these.

I will be entering these into the following challenges:

Craft us Crazy
Crafty Cardmakers
challenge up your life.

Used in the card:
Music background-Vintage digital stamps
Sentiment-Wild rose studio everyday greetings
Music wood stamp-whispers
Ink for edges-Tim Holtz-burnt corduroy
Memento black tuxedo ink.




Challenge up your life

Come fly with me!

Happy Sunday'

Brrrr......still cold here in London and no sun today. Nothing left to do but today have a lazy Sunday-a bit of chilling, reading the papers, T.V and naturally a bit of crafting.

Today I have a Birthday card to share with you for my Mother-in Law's partner, Joe. He likes to go to Air shows and has asked for a flying lesson for his Birthday. So I wanted to make a card that reflected his love of planes and here is what I came up with:

Finding a digi image of a plane was difficult especially as I didn't want a cute/funny image. Eventually I came across arthursclipart which has a huge variety of aeroplane images to download. I went for a vintage plane but sorry I have no idea what kind of plane this is........oh hubby is telling me it is 'bi-plane' but he doesn't know the make either......anyone know???

I had fun making this and am just a bit chuffed with myself for finding this image although if did take hours!

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday x

I am entering this into the following challenges:
here come the boys-favourite song-come fly with me
willow sketchie-sketch challenge
the play date cafe-colour challenge
charisma cardz -things with wings

Bonjour!

Today here in London it has been very cold so apart from a quick dash to the shops I have stayed in doors and done some crafting. Yes hubby is doing his music but has also had to spend most of the afternoon working-guess he will be having a very big 'chill out' cocktail tonight. Tonight is our movie night. We are going to watch the latest X men-not normally my kind of movie but I did, to my surprise,  enjoy all the others......plus if I watch this tonight I get to to choose tomorrow night's movie.......a romantic comedy.he he!!

Valentines day 8 years ago my Callum took me to Paris and proposed to me whilst we were on a  dinner cruise on the river Seine so when I saw the photo on Inspired by I was inspired to make a card that reminded me of Paris. First here is the photo:

And here is my card:

The digi images are all from Vintage Digi stamps.

Color throw down colours this week sound good enough to eat so I wanted to incorporate them in my card-summer sun, early espresso, Cajun craze and very vanilla. And finally Just us Girls this week is all about buttons so I have added this funky summer sun button with yellow and white bakers twine.

So bon voyage to you all xx

chocolates and love!

Valentines is nearly here and I have finally got around to finishing my valentines gift for hubby.

Last week I watched Sheryl's gift box tutorial here and decided I would make a gift box for Valentines and fill it with heart shaped chocs for Callum. I wanted to make the box match with  card I had made for him a few weeks ago.
 And here is the box:

Following Sheryl's tutorial I added a small card on the front and one tugged into a pocket I made on the back on the box-this is what you can see popping out of the top with 3 heart gems.

The heart is made of felt cut using the Big Shot.

And here is the card with the box and 2 of the heart chocs that are inside the box:

A small pressie but one I hope he likes.

So I am now prepared for Tuesday.........are you???

I am going to enter this into the following challenges:

the sisterhood of crafters
Fresh Brewed Designs
Rainbow Lady's Challenges
more than favors
Outlawz

Hope you all have a good weekend x

Love and Lace

Love is everywhere this month in the crafting world and today I have joined the party with a Wedding card.

I have embossed and sanded the purple card to make the swirly pattern appear like strings of pearls. I have also embossed the cream paper but it is quite hard to see it here. I added some lace to give it a real Wedding feel.
This sentiment is from create with tlc

I will be entering this into the following challenges:
wicked Wednesday
crafty calendar challenge
crafty creations challenges
crafting for all seasons
crop stop

Celebrate Vintage

Today I have spent 3 hours sitting in a hairdressers getting rid of the signs of ageing-those greys just don't stop coming! It is NOT my favourite way to spend a morning but I did come out looking better. It's just a shame I can never do my hair as well as the hairdresser and I had nowhere to go today to show off the new me

So it was off to the craft room to indulge myself in all things inky!

My card today is to celebrate vintage. I have found a great site, Vintage Digi Stamps, it has lots of fab free images and I have used one in my card today:

Isn't this vintage corset just gorgeous and with the musical notes background give the image a real vintage feel. I hope the my design says vintage to you!

I am entering this into the following challenges:
Just Inspirational Challenges -the photo had a vintage feel to me and the woman could easily have been wearing this corset
charisma cardz vintage challenge
Fab n Funky digi challenge

Strictly Ballroom

We are dancing again today but this time it is for the movies. 'On the red carpet' is the challenge this week at cas-ualfridays so I thought my Tango digi would be perfect to represent 'Strictly Ballroom'.

I used the sketch at Just us Girls for my layout and I added a button and a bow as these have been missing from my recent cards. And here is my movie card:

I always seem to go for purple with this digi but this time used some different patterned paper and added a polka dot mauve ribbon and a dark purple ribbon on the edges of this to give it more accent.

To blend the whole design I inked the edges of the card blank, which, to me, finished it off nicely.
I didn't add a sentiment on the outside as I didn't feel it needed it. And I have also left the inside blank so I can add a sentiment when I decide who this card is for.

The snow came right on schedule and so we have hibernated today, done some house chores and we are now both crafting. Callum's track is not ready for release yet......so you will have to wait!!

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday x

Challenges:
Cute Card Thursday -buttons and bows
Cas-ual Fridays -movies-on the red carpet
Just Us Girls -sketch

Used in card:
digi image-Delicious Doodles
Card and paper-Craft creation and papermill direct
buttons, ribbons and bows-stash
ink-memento sweet plum

Treasures

Happy Saturday,

The greatest treasure of all is our friends and family. And my card today is to celebrate this.

I have embossed and sanded pink colour core card stock to give this gorgeous swirly design. I love this sentiment and I am hunting my documents to see where I got it and will update this post when I find it!
I was drawn to the colour challenge at colourq this week as I loved the combo of red, pink, black and white so this card will be entered.

Hubby is sharing my craft room-oh o.k, OUR craft room-and producing a new funky music track. When it is done I will post it her for those of you brave enough to listen!

Tomorrow we have snow scheduled so I am hoping we will be hibernating in here tomorrow and crafting away.

Enjoy your weekend x

Girly Gifts

Happy Friday,

Yesterday Sheryl posted her first tutorial and demonstrated how to make a small gift box. It was a great lesson- you can catch this tutorial by clicking here.

So after watching this I had to have a go. Here is my gift box to hold a small pair of earrings:

The front of the box has a small card attached to it and at the back I have made a small slot for a very small card:

And a side view of the box:

 And a back view of the box with the small gift card slotted in the pocket I made:

And both the card on the front and the small gift card at the back open up and are like this:

I think this makes a lovely present. I think I will be making a Valentine's gift box for Callum that has a few (just a few!) chocolates-watch this space.

I am going to enter this box into the following challenges:

Come and get it challenge -anything but a card
kaboodledoodles -something girly
scrap-creations -pink, red and white

Have a good weekend x

Something New

Good Morning all, just popping in to share a card I made yesterday. It is using a new stamp and new ink. I wanted to have a go at using different coloured inks and larger stamps. I did try to ink the stamp in different colours but haven't managed to perfect that yet-still I shall keep trying and show you when I am happy with the result.

I will enter this into the bingo challenge at Creative Craft . I have chosen the combo of brown, ribbon and flowers.

Have a good day-stay warm!

Used in my card
main stamp-Kanban crafts
sentiment stamp-wildrose studios
ink-memnto bamboo leaves and potters clay