Sneak Peek number 1

I have a sneak peek before the launch day On 5th March at LOTV. This is from the new artist and is called Lovely and she lives up to her name I think.  I tried smooth hair colouring for a change on this one but I do prefer colouring it with flicks so not sure I will be trying that again.

Image - LOTV Lovely

Medium - Copics

Papers - MFT

Dies - MFT inside and out stitched rounded corner squares, Stitched scalloped border, Britannia leaves, Joy flowers

Ribbon - Crafty Ribbons

Wooden heart - Hobbycraft

Goodbye

Well I have managed a third scrapbook layout so far this year and it is another from Florida wit memories of warmer days. My favourite characters are Pooh Bear and friends and I had to say goodbye to them on my last visit there in 2017, probably for the last time. The papers are Galeria starry nights, the journal cards are from Hobby Lobby and the added figures are from one of the craft shops in America. I added a doilie and some hearts cut using Memory Box cross stitched heart dies.  I do love a sketch to work to and this is the 15th January sketch from Stuck?!

Baby Bear

Another baby card for my stall, this time using one of the cute LOTV alpha-bears. I also used one of the digi part word stamps. I wanted to get the letters nice and close and googled how to do this as the last time I tried there was too big a space between the B and the other letters.  I used Lilybee Double Dutch papers. The dies are MB banner, MFT stitched scalloped border and Lawn Fawn pierced rectangles. I used the trim from the banner on the image, some ribbon and a Hobbycraft star punch.

I would  like to enter something beginning with B at Allsorts (Baby, Bear, Blue).

Under the weather

I coloured this cute MFT Bitty Bear and decided he would make a cute little 5x5 get well card. The stitched peek a boo heart die is by MFT from Dies to Die For.  I used some papers from my scraps and added some checked washi tape and enamel dots. The sentiment is a LOTV digi.

I would like to enter this into the favourite way to add a sentiment challenge at As you like it. I love to add a stamped sentiment usually separate to the image as part of the layout. I would also like to enter something beginning with B at Allsorts (bear, banners).

Gorjuss Snowman

I am doing rather well in using some of my older stamps this year. I bought this Santoro Gorjuss snowman from somebody on Facebook a few years ago. Very easy to colour with Copics of course. The papers are Echo Park keepin' cozy.   I used a snowflake banner die from The Works and two of the MFT layered snowflake dies. The material sentiment is from Me to You.

Very pleased with my Christmas card makes so far this year. Have you made a start yet?

Sleep tight

I love Penny Black hedgies and the two baby stamps I have are two of my faves and have been used many times.  I went for sunny neutral colours for this one, coloured with Copics. The papers are Lillibee Sweet Shoppe. I used Lawn Fawn stitched circle dies, wooden hearts bought at a show, sentiment from stash and roses from Wild Orchid.

Challenges

Noor! Design UK Celebrations 

Penny Black and more at Allsorts love, hearts and flowers 

Stamping Sensations anything with flowers

Housework this morning and then we have a lady coming this afternoon to give us a quote for refurbishing our kitchen with new doors, drawer fronts, plinths, cupboard ends etc.

Santa Magic

Yes another Christmas stamp I didn't use last year and another of my fave vintage images. Stamped with brown ink onto kraft as is the LOTV grunge sentiment. The papers are First Edition Merry Little Christmas. I used MFT layered snowflake and a Memory Box sleigh die along with a wooden reindeer. The Christmas box is coming along nicely.

Challenges

ABC Chrismas D is for distress 

Simon Says use a diecut 

Noor! Design UK celebrations

Graham's Birthday is next month but as we have a lot planned for March and a special two day offer came up at Potter's Resort I surprised him with an early Birthday present on Sunday morning. We went to Potter's on Monday for a two day break in the hotel. With their midweek breaks they have even more activities and competitions than they do at weekends when they usually have star acts performing. The Potter's Theatre company perform during the week and having seen them at Christmas I knew they would put on good shows, So after a fabulous time we will be heading home after breakfast. Meals were included from dinner Monday tonight to this morning's breakfast so back to the reality of cooking later today.

Twins!

We often have a look in charity shops particularly for records, books and jigsaws. I also look to see if there is anything I can use for crafting. So one day when I looked through some sale items I came across some cards for twins. I have occasionally been asked for a twins card and as I thought the image was really sweet I bought a couple.   I diecut a topper from the card using a Lawn Fawn stitched circle die.  The paper is Lily Bee and I added a Memory Box baby bunting die and lots of baby dies using a Frantic Stamper set.

Challenges

Simon Says use a diecut 

Noor! Design UK celebrations

Simply Gorjuss

Every year I have a Gorjuss Girl calendar and diary. The calendar has such lovely pictures and I cut some out to use on cards. They seemed to pretty to just throw away and I do love a bit of recycling. The papers are from various Tilda packs. I rarely use so many papers on a card these days as I tend to go for simpler layouts. The sentiment is LOTV and I used three different Joy flower dies with more scraps of Tilda paper.

Challenges

Simon Says use a diecut 

Noor! Design UK celebrations 

Allsorts handmade flowers

Going home for Christmas

I had a good afternoon cardmaking yesterday and made four cards, two of them Christmas cards! Mind you none of them involved colouring otherwise I wouldn't have made so many. I didn't use this lovely vintage Stampendous stamp last Christmas and as I am trying to use some of my older stamps thought it was time it had an outing. I stamped it with brown ink onto kraft card. The papers are old First Edition Vintage Noel ones. I distressed all the edges, added a Bo Bunny sentiment and some holly leaves which were cut using a Memory Box holly branch cut into secions.

Challenges

ABC Christmas D for distress 

Simon Says use a diecut 

Noor! Design UK celebrations

Really lovely to see the sun the last two days.  Hubby even did some gardening yesterday morning whilst I was ironing. He planted some primroses and had a general tidy and forked over the soil. He has done about half the garden so far and it looks much tidier. Lovely to see the bulbs all coming through. Spring is on the way. Enjoy your Sunday. 

Simply snowdrops

Our new challenge at A Gem of a Challenge is Spring flowers. I decided to go for something different from cute for my DT card and used this lovely simple snowdrop image from Pink Gem coloured with Copics. Not too much to colour but I don't know if you can see the subtle colouring on the snowdrops as I didn't want to leave them completely uncoloured. I used MFT inside and out stitched rounded square dies and MFT stitched scalloped border die. The sentiment samp is from LOTV. I thought it looked a little plain so used a pearl pen to add some interest to the image.

I would like to enter this into the use a diecut challenge at Simon Says.

Lovely lady

We were so pleased that our first time selling on our own at the hospital shop was a great success, better than we hoped for and February isn't the best of months for customers buying so onwards and upwards I hope. I haven't had a lot of crafting time this week, and most of what I have been doing lately I can't sure with you as it was a magazine commission and something new for LOTV. Being out all day Monday, seeing my Mum yesterday and supporting our friends through their bereavement hasn't left time for much crafting to share. 

So on Wednesday evening I popped into the craftroom for a while and used a Hunkydory topper to make a 7x7 card. I won a whole book of toppers and whilst many of them didn't appeal I kept some which did including this lovely lady.  The paper and sentiment are LOTV, lace from crafty Ribbons, flowers from Wild Orchid. I also added some cheesecloth from The Ribbon Girl and a wooden birdcage along with Viva pearl pen dots.

I would like to enter this into the favourite way to add a sentiment challenge at As you like it.  Although I do love diecut sentiments my favourite and most used sentiments are stamped, sometimes onto the image particularly for cas cards but mostly as a separate embellishment, adding interest to the card.

Love Florida

Those of you who have been visiting me for a while will know that we have been to Florida several times in the Winter. Before we went in January 2017 we had made a decision that would be our last trip to the States. We have had some wonderful holidays there, have been to New England in the fall 4 times and also had breaks in Washington and New York.  Every year it gets more expensive and we don't really feel we want to do the long haul flights anymore. The worst is the overnight flight home. However never say never and we may change our minds. If we did it would probably be to New England but who know what the future holds as I said in yesterday's post.

So I have several American scrapbooks on the go and this is the first page of our exploring Florida scrapbook. I have another scrapbook just for Orlando and the theme parks. I do love using a sketch as a starting point and Stuck?! always have good sketches to follow. This is 1st September sketch.  The picture is actually a postcard.  Looking through my scrapbook papers I found this perfect paper in the Kaisercraft Salty Kisses pad.  The title is from a Virgin holidays leaflet. I added a wooden camera embellishment from The Works, some Scrapinec wooden shapes, wooden heart, Tim Holtz hand pointing and some other bits from my scrapbook supplies.

I have only managed 2 scrapbook pages so far this year so must try to do more as I love making them and have so many photos ready in albums waiting to be used.

Another motorbike

I have another of the new LOTV vintage precoloured simply print cards to share today.  Distressing works really well with these images so I distressed the edges of the old Bo Bunny papers. I do love using banners on cards and these large images really don't need lots of embellishing. The words are from a Tim Holtz chitchat pack.

Birthday present

Another card created with MFT goodies apart from my favouroie Go Kreate frilly squares 10 die.  This is another of the Bitty Bears coloured with Copics. I used MFT Sweet Sunshine papers, banner die and my new peek a boo heart die.

Challenges

Noor! Design UK celebrations 

Squirrel's not so random challenge celebrate
As you like it 

Favourite sitching (mine is stitched dies, great on cas cards like this adding just a bit of interest)

Magnets

This morning we shall be off to the hospital to set up the retail unit ready for tomorrow.  This year we are trading on our own so fingers crossed it goes well. I have been busy making lots of extra stock to fill it and here are a few of the magnets I have made. Cats and dogs are always popular images so I bought some wooden ones from Ebay and added wooden hearts and lettering. The Home sentiment is from Inkylicious.  I buy the wooden coasters from MDF Craft Supplies and cover them with paper and add magnetic strips to the back.

We had some devastating news on Saturday morning. Our best friends' 40 year old daughter was rushed into hospital late Friday night, had a blood clot on the brain causing a heart attack and she died. You never know what is going to happen in life so make the most of it and enjoy yourself. She certainly did and packed more travel into her life than most people do in a lifetime. She had visited every American state, some more than once. Very sad that she is gone.

Guest Designer

Pink Gem are sponsoring Crafty Friends challenge and I am delighted to be sharing a card I made as a guest designer for their challenge Love Is in The Air. If you enter and you include a heart on your card then please enter or challenge of have a heart at A Gem of a Challenge.

Image - Pink Gem love mice

Medium - Copics

Paper - Tilda

Flowers - Wild Orchid

Punch - MS fern

Sentiment - LOTV

Dies - MFT cross stitch square and Lawn Fawn stitched circle

Challenges

Creative Inspirations love is in the air 

Allsorts love is in the air 

Simon Says it must be love 

Dies R Us for the one I love 

Paper Shelter for the one you love

Christening Balloon

I was asked to make a Christening card with a hot air balloon for he latest Papercrafter magazine and the MFT up, up and away set came to mind. I used MFT papers and paperpieced the balloon, colouring the cat with Copics. I am so glad I bought the dies to go with these stamps. The bunting was diecut with a MFT fringed scalloped border die, the sentiment is from Stamposaurus. 

Challenges

Allsorts spots and/or stripes 

Noor! Design UK celebrations

Ski-sons Greetings

I can hardly believe I have used this stamp already as I only bought it at Thetford the Sunday before last. Other stamps sometimes sit there for months. I wanted to make a Christmas card as I haven't made one for a couple of weeks so out came the Copics and I coloured up this cute MFT bears to match the Bo Bunny Altitude papers. I also paper pieced one of the jumpers, used the MFT stitched mountain range dies and fussy cut the bears as I didn't buy the dies. The hat and sentiment come as part of the set along with a smaller leaping bear and several sentiments. I added a layered MFT snowflake cut with aqua glitter paper.

Launch Day

Today is launch day for these fabulous vintage precoloured digi toppers from LOTV. There are 4 PDF sheets for each image, each sheet having different sizes. I have used the smallest ones on my cards today. These are designed to be like the old cigarette cards. For my first card I used MME simply chalk paper and a Joy bunting die.

For this one I added a sticker from my scrapbook stash and some punched stars. The paper is from my oddments pile.  I would like to enter this one into the spots and/or stripes challenge at Allsorts.

Row of bears

Lots of MFT products from Dies to Die For on my card today. I love these bitty bears and they are the perfect size for my new triple peek a book die. They have been coloured with Copics and I used one of my new paper pads I bought last Sunday, MFT sweet sunshine. The sentiment is from the stamp set and I also used a MFT Western star die and used 3 of the waste stars.

Challenges

Simon Says anything goes
As you like it favourite stitching ( I love doodling faux stitching but my most used are stitched dies, they are so much more interesting than plain dies.) 

Pretty boxes

Some more of my boxes ready for my first hospital shop next Monday. I bought a new colour Rustoleum chalk paint, coral. It show up its true colour on the heart box on the left, such a delicate peachy pink. I add ribbon, lace and flowers and butterflies on the larger boxes. They sell well particularly the smaller and heart boxes.

We had a night away at Potters last night to see a 60's show.   We  really like it there, activities, good evening meal and wine included and will be looking forward to breakfast there this morning and maybe some activities, often a quiz in the mornings, before heading home.

More butterflies

An Anniversary card made for a friend using another of my embossing folders. This time i used it with Core'dinations and sanded it to show the core. I added some Joy butterflies, pearl hearts and a LOTV sentiment.

Anniversary Mice

Our new challenge at A Gem of a Challenge is Have a Heart. As long as we can see hearts on your design somewhere your entry will qualify. I have hearts on everything on my card!

Image - Pink Gem Valentine Mice

Medium - Copics

Papers - First Edition Sweet Nothings

Die - MFT inside and out stitched rounded square

Ribbon - Crafty Ribbons

Other - wooden hearts

Challenges

As you like it favourite stitching ( I love doodling faux stitching but my most used are stitched dies, they are so much more interesting than plain dies.) 

Simon Says anything goes 

Noor! Design UK celebrations

Playing the flute

So yesterday I decided to have a play around with my blog settings.  It has been a few years since I changed the background and my previous background was from Shabby Blogs website. Every time I go into my blog on the laptop my antivirus tells me their certificate has run out and asks if I want to continue, There doesn't seem to have been anything posted on their website for a few years so I decided to remove the background and use a simple one from Blogger instead. It took me a while to work out how to do this but I am very happy with the result. I also put all my magazine logos onto a separate page and then played around with some of the colours of links etc.  It was good to remind myself how to do it all.

The new Crafts Beautiful magazine was published yesterday and I was delighted to make this pretty Mother's Day card for them. The image is from LOTV and is coloured with Copics. The papers are First Edition sweet nothings and I used Joy butterfly and flower dies.

Challenges

Simon Says anything goes 

Noor! Design UK celebrations

All aboard for another sneak peek

Another of the new LOTV precoloured simply print digis launching on 7th Feb. These are such great images and come in several sizes. I used one from the sheet with 4 images, distressed the edges with DI Vintage Photo and a distressing tool. The paper is Amy Design Vintage Vehicle again and the tickets were from my scrapbook stash.

I would like to enter this into the anything goes challenge at Simon Says.