Hellebores

I actually used one of the old LOTV colouredart pads for this card but the image is available as a coloured simply print digi called Hellebores. The paper is First Edition Gardenia. It is the first time I have used the pretty circle die which I bought from someone on FB. It didn't have any packaging but I think it may be  Marianne die. The leaves were cute with a Joy die, flowers from Wild Orchid, butterfly from Poundland coloured with Victorian velvet DI and cheesecloth from Ebay.

I ordered my reading glasses last week so off to pick those up today plus get a few things in the city and take advantage of the last half price eat out to help out lunch. Enjoy your Bank Holiday.

 

On the road

I was asked to make a car themed card which makes a nice change from football or beer. The lady who has been ordering several cards from seems to have a lot of friends who like football and beer. I found some great transport themed papers I bought a few years ago at a show along with the sepia toned toppers. The postcard is from another set of toppers also bought years ago at a show. I have missed going to one of the big craft shows this year. I added some wooden arrows coloured with vintage photo DI and some metal cogs. The sentiment is from Pink Gem.

I am liking this cooler weather. It makes me feel more like getting on with things and have been spending more time in the craft room. I have a complete contrast with tomorrow's card.

 

Hedgie and holly

I love the Penny Black hedgies and this image always makes me smile. I diecut him with a MFT wonky stitched oval die and coloured him with Copics. The papers are First Edition Perfect Christmas. The pretty flowers are from Hobbycraft and I used a Woodware holly punch.  Although I have a lot of dies I do still love a lot of my punches. they are so handy and quick to use too.

I still have plenty of old Christmas papers to use and don't intend buying any this year, I will probably get some sent to me as part of the Trimcraft DT so it will be nice to have some new ones to use for a change.

 

Another new snowman

As promised another Christmas card.  I have gone for traditional colours for my snowman, which is another of the new images from LOTV. I coloured him with Copics and added some pearl dots around him. The papers are Your next stamp Winter plaid. I used Sue Wilson dies for the foliage and poinsettias.  The sentiment is also a new one from LOTV.

 

penguin takes centre stage and charity shop goodies

I have a few more Christmas cards to share with you again. I am really pleased I am getting more of these made now. I have used one of the new images from LOTV coloured with Copics. The paper is Wild Rose Frosted Lace. I used various tree dies, Tonic snowflake punch and a Crafter's Companion icicle die.

We went out for breakfast yesterday at one of our favourite independent cafes which was lovely and half price. Then we went to the station charity shop which has now reopened. They only sell music, dvds, books and jigsaws and we never come away empty handed. Yesterday we spent £16.50 but look what we got for our money.

Set of 4 jigsaws

An unusual shaped jigsaw

3 books to add to my ever growing pile to read

Lots of lovely vinyl records.

 

Card for Mum

This is the 7" card I made for my Mum for her Birthday as her name is Margaret. Te sentiment verse is from Lili of the Valley as is the Tea Party image. I coloured it with Copics, papers are Craftwork Cards. I used a leaf punch I bought recently from someone on FB and my fave Martha Stewart fern punch. The flowers were made with  Hunkydory fabulous flower dies and I added some enamel dots.  The butterflies were cut with a Joy die.

We are off into the city again today as I have decided to get a pair of reading glasses with my new prescription. I wear varifocals and do find it hard sometimes to colour very small pieces of images. I can see them better with my glasses off so I thought I would get a cheap par of reading glasses mainly for colouring to see if they help having a larger close up area of my glasses. We will be taking advantage of the half price eat out to help out as well.

Bookmark

We had a lovely day with my Mum yesterday. I asked her what she would like for her Birthday and she asked for a new knitting bag, the type which have a folding frame and pockets inside. I bought her one with bees on it and decided to use that as my theme for her presents. One of them was the bookmark I made her. I used part of one of the bees and flowers patterns that I recently used to make a set of 4 hoop pictures, see a previous post.  I backed it with white felt and blanket stitched around the edges. 

 

So elegant

Another commissioned card for a female in her early 20's. I love being given free rein to make a card and chose to use an old Docrafts art deco pack. I have a few suitable cards in sock and sent the person some photos but she chose this one which is the one I was going to give her. I added some small white feathers and flowers from Wild Orchid.

Today is my Mum's Birthday so I will be sharing her card tomorrow as she looks at my blog every morning. We will be going to see her this morning and taking her out to lunch. That will be another week of August gone. Looking forward to the children going back to school and lots of holidaymakers going home so we can go the coast again. Much too busy for us at the moment.

Goal!

I am having a little break from Christmas cards as I need to make some Birthday cards. I was asked to make a card for a football fan and thought of using the LOTV football trio stamps. I remembered I had a few sheets of this MME Chalk This paper pack left and this paper was perfect with the images. I coloured them with Copics and used one of the new LOTV sentiments. It only needed a could of punched and crimped stars and job done.

I know it has been a few days since my last post as I am not spending as much time in the craft room these days. With no craft fairs I don't need to make as many cards and we have been out a little more enjoying the half price meals with the eat out to help out scheme. Yesterday we met friends at a garden centre and had a good catchup over lunch and then bought a few things in their farm shop. We have also been doing a lot of jigsaws whilst listening to music. Back tomorrow with another card.

Penguin friends

Thank goodness it was so much cooler yesterday that I got back in the craft room. We even had some rain though we need much more.  This is another of the new images which have just launch at LOTV. This one is penguin friends which I coloured with Copics. I added some white spot with a gel pen to one hat and used my favourite fun flock on the fur and a pearl pen for snow. I love red and kraft and haven't used them together for a while. The papers are some old Dovecraft North Pole ones. I added some burlap and frayed the edges so I could make a bow behind the poinsettia which is from Hobbycraft. The sentiment die is a new purchase from The Works, one of the few craft items I have bought this year. The shiny enamel dots I found in my stash.

Wish I was this cool

Way too hot for us yesterday and today will be more of the same. I would love to be as cool as this right now. This is another of the new images launching Friday at LOTV. This is snowman 3 of a set of friendly snowmen.  I coloured him with Copics and then stamped around the edges using grey and purple ink pads and a Stamp in the Hand wooden stamp Field of sky.  I used to use this a lot many years ago and suddenly remembered I had it.  The paper is Bo Bunny, trees MFT Winter trees die and I used various snowflake punches and dies.

Flowers and bees

I have so enjoyed stitching these pictures using the flowers and bees set from a digi pattern from Durene Jones cross stitch.  It is the first time I have done a whole set and I love the way they turned out. I used the nearest colours as I have lots of threads. The only thing I did differently was to use all pink threads for the flowers whereas on the pattern some of them are blue. I didn't think they would show up as well as there are already blues in the patterns. The way they turned out I am glad I followed my instinct.

Another sneak peek

Wow it was so hot on Friday that I couldn't possibly get a card made. It was a higher temperature at night than we like during the day so I lost count of the number of times I woke up. Yesterday late morning was hot but the afternoon was much better with a nice breeze so I made this card.

There are some adorable penguins in the new LOTV launch. this is penguin 1. I coloured him with Copics on the new stamping card I was raving about on Friday's post. This will be available with the Christmas launch and you will be able to order via the Etsy store.

I used some old Hobbycraft enchanted Christmas papers, MFT wonky stitched circle,Doohickey slim fir and Marianne dune fence dies. The sentiment is part of the new launch too.  I added some sparkle to the snow with a clear sparkle pen and used fun flock on his hat.

We are meeting some friends for a cuppa this morning in a outside seating area at the local garden centre. Then home to relax and do whatever we choose as it is Sunday. Enjoy your day.

 

Sneak peek Christmas launch 1

My first sneak peek of the first Chrismas launch from LOTV. This gorgeous image is called simply Penguins with Snowman. I love both snowmen and penguins so this is the perfect image for me. I have used some new stamping card which LOTV will be selling. I can’t recommend it highly enough.  The DT were sent some sheets to try and I found it to be even better then the one I normally use. The Copics blend so smoothly with no bleeding at all.

I kept the design simple as I printed the image quite large. The sentiment is from a new set launching with the images. I diecut the image using a stitched square die from The Works. I added some fun flock and after colouring the snow with a light grey I used a clear sparkle pen. The snowflakes were diecut using a Memory Box stitched die.

Welcome to more followers. Thank you so much for following me and if you would like to comment on my posts that would be lovely.

Farmhouse Christmas

If you are interested I thought it was time I updated my profile picture as the other one was taken several years ago. As I have just bought some new glasses it seemed like a good time to change it.

No end to the Christmas cards at the moment while I am on a roll. I bought the digital Farmhouse Christmas set from Nitwits last year in their sale and never got round to using it. I printed all these elements onto one sheet of card. I inked all the edges and raised some of them on foam pads. All I added was the black card, black cord and silver mesh.

We had a lovely day out yesterday, first going for a cuppa, half price under the eat out to help out scheme, then a visit to a cancer charity warehouse. We bought a jigsaw, 6 books, some embroidery threads and elastic, 2 wooden stamps (a PB and a Forever Friends) and 2 LPs and 3 singles. Something for each of our indoor hobbies. Then we met some friends at a garden centre and had lunch. We had free drinks with our loyalty card and half price lunches. That is our outings for the week apart from a Tesco click and collect shop on Friday. We have been for a few meals now and have carefully chosen where we go. They have all had very good measures in place so we have felt very safe. We won't be going anywhere busy like the coast nor will be going out in the evenings.

I have just got the first Christmas launch stamps from LOTV so expect to see some sneak peeks very soon. 

Keeping warm

We had a lovely trip into the city yesterday as I had to collect my new glasses which I am really pleased with. It was quite busy but most people were keeping their distance and I felt more confident going in a few shops. I even went into The Works and bought some books and a new Christmas bunting die which I can't want tot use. We took advantage of the Dine out to Help Out half price scheme and had a cuppa when we arrived then lunch at Pizza Express where we also had a code for free dough balls. So altogether we spent £20 and saved £30. What a bargain.

The weather is going to hot up again tomorrow so we won't be needing hats and scarves unlike this snowman. I look forward to September when it will hopefully be a bit cooler. Yesterday was 19 which was perfect for me.

Anyway I made another Christmas card with another Penny Black stamp coloured with Copics. The papers are First Edition Jolly Holidays.  I used a Go Kreate frilly 9 die and diecut some trees which I then smooshed with Dovecraft 3d earl effect green and white. I also used a Tonic snowflake punch and some glitter card.

Art Deco Anniversary

Another commissioned card using an old Docrafts Art Deco pack. I have had these for years and every now and again I make a card with them. They are lovely images though I am less keen on the shiny papers these days. I prefer a matt paper.

I found a lovely font on my laptop, Asimov to use for the sentiment.  I coloured two wooden hearts with a Nuvo sparkle pen and used flowers from Wild Orchid and added some heart bunting.