Florida airboat ride

I was rather apprehensive about this trip but Graham really wanted to do it so we settled for the half hour trip. I don't like fast boats but this skimmed over the water and reeds and it was a really good trip. We saw a lot of different birds and a few alligators. It is very noisy, hence the ear defenders. I used various papers, MFT sun and jumbo banner dies and some wooden arrows.

Breakfast in America

Thank you for all your positive comments on my Birthday books and welcome to my new followers. I made two scrapbook layouts yesterday, working my way through my American photos. The page says it all really.  They really do some lovely breakfasts in the US.  Th french toast with fruit was soooooo good. I used backing paper, coffee cup and sentiment from Laserow Love paper pack.

I have had a few twinges in one of my back teeth so off to the dentist this afternoon whilst Graham has a haircut. I know who has the better appointment there. Fingers crossed I don't need a filling.

Making something new

I am always on the lookout for something new to make for craft fairs and when I saw a tutorial for a Birthday book on Pinky's blog I decided to have a go. The inside looks like this with the other 6 months the other side plus a back cover.

I typed the wording and used Memory Box butterflies and some new flower dies I treated myself to after seeing another crafting friend use them. I think you will be seeing a lot of them. They are Hunkydory Moonstone fabulous flowers. Pinky wrapped what looked like elasticated card on hers but I used some Tim Holtz bulldog clips.  I didn't include a tick box unlike Pinky as I wanted it to be used every year.

I popped them in cello bags with a pen and took them into Prima Rosa where I sell some items so will see if they sell in there before making any more.

Showered with love

This is probably my favourite of the new love images from Lili of the Valley, showered with love. I had the idea in my head of a monochrome vintage style card with just a touch of red. Now sometimes I have an idea and am disappointed with how the card turns out but I am really pleased with this one.

Image - LOTV showered with love

Medium - Copics

Flowers - Michaels, USA

Sentiment - LOTV

Wooden heart - Hobbycraft

Distress Ink - Vintage photo

Other from stash - old papers, burlap with lace, cheesecloth, white gel pen on umbrella

Gone fishing

\i am determined to try to use some older stash this year and some techniques I haven't used for ages too. I really like the Little Claire silhouette stamps and the black looks effective against the bright colours I think.  The papers are MFT. I love playing around with stripes, just adding some tags and a stripe of red behind the image along with some doodling works well. I used a Fiskars tag punch and MFT stitched cloud dies.

Snow gnomes

My second Christmas card this year so far. A very kind blogging friend sent me some lovely stamps as a present and this is one of them. It is from Polkadoodles and is called snow gnomes. The colouring looks so much better in real life but that is the trouble with some of the dull days we have been having. Thankfully we have had a few lovely bright ones too and no snow at all this Winter.

I used Copics of course and teamed it with First Edition Jolly Holidays papers. I bought a new snowflake edger die in The Works, half price at £1.50 and used it with white glitter card. The sentiment is LOTV and the trees were cut with Joy dies.  I added some doodling with a Nuvo brush script pen and some chunky glitter I found in my stash.

I will be back tomorrow with another card, 

Sharing and caring

This is the last of the anniversary cards I made using the new coloured simply prints from Lili of the Valley. The papers are MME all things chalk again and the sentiment is LOTV. I added some doodling around the image, I really enjoyed making these black, white and red cards. 

A day in Norwich today where we shall either be having breakfast or lunch and I have an appointment for a haircut.

Be Mine

This is the third of the cards I made using one of the coloured simply prints which launched yesterday at Lili of the Valley. The paper is MME all things chalk again and the sentiment LOTV. I used a your next die heart banner and an old Crafty Sentiments heart border die.

Launch day

Yes it is launch day at Lili of the Valley. I posted a card yesterday afternoon so if you missed that one you will find it below. This is another of the coloured simply prints, called showered with love. The images are also available as digi stamps and this one is sitting in my desk waiting to be coloured. In the meantime here is the simply print.

I added some doodling and teamed it with MME all things chalk paper. The lamppost die is MFT, umbrella Memory Box, hearts are Gummiapan and the heart border is Your Next die.  The sentiment is from an old LOTV set.

Sneak peek of the cute couples

There are 4 cute couples launching tomorrow at Lili of the Valley along with the 9 bunnies. I have the digi stamps printed ready to colour but in the meantime I made a set of 4 cards using the coloured simply prints. This one is soulmates. I used MME all things chalk and a sentiment from an old LOTV stamp set. The flower dies are Sue Wilson sweetheart blossoms.  Back with another tomorrow for launch day.

Hedgie cross stitch

I really enjoyed sewing this hedgie. I bought a set of 4 and a set of 4 snowmen from Durene Jones Etsy shop when she had a half price sale before Christmas. I sometimes adapt a pattern slightly as I did with this one as the flower on the right hand side should be at the top but I wanted it to fit into a 4" hoop. It may not look that much sewing but it has taken me hours, but very enjoyable hours.

Put it on Facebook this morning and a friend bought it straight away! 

Sneak peek 2

The second sneak peek of the new bunnies coming Friday from Lili of the Valley. These are digi stamps so will be available for instant download. I coloured Daisy Chain with Copics and used some new papers from Lemoncraft Fresh Summer.  I added some cheesecloth and raffia lace along with flowers from Wild Orchid. I found a little heart die in my collection and sanded some Core'dinations finishing with a paper butterfly from Poundland.

Sneak peek 1

Lili of the Valley's first release of the year is all about love. There are 9 bunny images and 4 cute couples. We only have the bunnies at the moment to show you. This one is bunny sending love and you will be able to buy them from 17th January. This image would be suitable for lots of occasions I think so I used a with love sentiment from LOTV. The papers are MFT hearts and stripes and I used one of my favourite dies, the Doohickey heart fence. I coloured the image with Copics and used a Joy butterfly die.

It was lovely to get back in the craft room yesterday with some new images to colour. I will be back with more sneak peeks during the week.

Postcard from the beach

I made this for a male friend's Birthday. He is married to my friend who doesn't like cute so as they love walking on the beach I thought the Inkylicious beach themed set of stamps  would be a good choice. I love creating scenes with this set and simply added a Little Claire sentiment and some doodling. 

Hats

I haven't quite got back into the swing of crafting and blogging yet. With Christmas and the New Year and then a weekend away it wasn't until Tuesday that things were back to normal when we had our first line dancing class of the year. 

It is always good to start the New Year with a sort out and yesterday Graham sorted out the loft. He found some curtains which we had in our previous house and we have lived here for 23 years! They were expensive ones which is probably why we kept them but they are going to the charity shop today along with a few other things. A trip to the tip yesterday and now we have more space in the loft. Today's task is to clean the craft room as it is impossible to give it a good clean every week.

I was looking for an old stamp and found this one instead which I decided to use. I am sure I have only ever used it with purple ink for some reason. So this time I used chianti Versafine which looks burgundy out came out purple!  I used Crafter's Companion vintage lace paper, cheesecloth, lace from Crafty Ribbons, LOTV sentiment, Wild Orchid flowers and some wired pearls.  I made another card which I can't share yet as it is for a friend's Birthday.

Cypress Gardens

his is he second of my scrapbook layouts this year. I am hoping I can keep the momentum going. These pics were taken on our first visit to Florida, December 2001. Cypress Gardens was a lovely gentle theme park very unlike Disneyworld. It opened in the thirties and we were lucky enough to visit as it closed a few years ago and reopened as Legoland. The gardens are beautiful and we did visit Legoland as we had some free tickets one year and it was good to see they have retained the gardens.  I used a Fiskars circle cutter and added several diecuts from my stash.

We have been away to Potters for a fun weekend again so apologies if I haven't commented on your blogs. I have been doing well so far as I appreciate all your visits and am returning as many as I can. We need to keep blogland alive.

Rock n Roll Heaven

So as usual my New year has started well with my crafty resolutions. I made one Christmas card (see 2nd Jan post) only for a friend to see it on Facebook and ask to buy it! that has to be the earliest I have ever sold a Christmas card. I have lots of photos waiting for layouts in my Florida, non Orlando, scrapbook and I am really going to try to get it finished this year.

I am off to a good start with two layouts made yesterday.  AS the journalling says this is a record store we have visited many times.  They have so many records that we used to be down on the floor searching for certain singles on our wanted list. I have so many scrapbooking bits and pieces and some of them were just what I needed for this page.

Starting as I mean to go on

Happy New Year everyone.  Thanks to those who commented on my last post and if you missed it then it is an interesting read. I am starting 2020 as I hope to go on by making the first of my Christmas card for this year.  I used a cute LOTV image teamed with some free paper. I coloured them with Copics and  must say it was lovely to get back into the craftroom and do some colouring again. I used one of my most used dies, Lawn Fawn forest border. The sentiment stamps are LOTV. 

We took the decorations down yesterday as we usually do. Once the New Year is here I like to get back to normality. So its back into the craftroom today I think to see what I feel like making.