Simply floral

Lili of the Valley have released some lovely horizontal and circular floral images. I used the coloured simply print for mine but they also come in black and white to colour. The papers are Crafter's Companion vintage. I used stitched square from The Works, Lawn Fawn pierced rectangle, Sweet Dixie leaves and Hunkydory Moonstone fabulous floral dies as well as my old fave Martha Stewart fern punch. 

Well the weather has been unseasonable warm for the last two days and should last today too and then all change back to normal. The sun has brought out more Spring flowers this week including the dwarf cherry and the tulips. Off to do some tidying in the garden this morning.

 

Gardening weather

This was my hubby on Saturday though he had a sweatshirt and overalls on. He dug up an old clematis Montana which had gone rotten. It hardly flowered last year though it used to be covered in flowers.  It was a cutting which somebody gave me when we moved in our house 24 years ago so it has done well. The fence needs painting now before we but a new plant to go in its place.

I was asked to make a card for a gardener and used another image from Pink Gem. Their adult images are great. This is a coloured digi which I diecut using a MFT wonky stitched rectangle. This has to be one of my most used dies. The paper is First Edition Gardenia. I used a MFT stitched sun, Joy clouds and a Marianne Designs wheelbarrow die which I coloured with mahogany distress ink.

Slight easing of restrictions today and the weather should be good so we are going to visit our friends who live about 2.5 miles and sit in their garden. We text and message regularly and have had a few doorstep chats whilst exchanging books etc. It will be nice to have a proper visit and a good catchup.

Easter tags

A friend asked me to make 10 Easter tags to attach to gift bags. I used an old Spellbinders tag die and papers from Lemoncraft called fresh Summer. The yellow and green papers were just what I wanted. I had enough of the carrot and bunny ribbons to fit 10 tags which was v lucky. The carrot ribbon is from Crafty Ribbons and the bunny ribbon I bought years ago in America.  The images are coloured simply prints which I diecut.

It was lovely and sunny yesterday but the wind was rather cold. It is supposed to get really warm tomorrow for a few days cooling down for Easter. I just hope people won't start travelling too far with the slight easing of restrictions. I wish they would define local though. Does that mean within your county, up to 10 miles away or something else? At least it is clear in Wales, travel within Wales.

Footballer

I was asked to make a card for someone who likes football and remembered I have this coloured digi from Pink Gem. I found a last sheet of football paper from a very old pack and an odd sheet from a Crate Paper pack.  I used a MFT wonky stitched oval die and a Hobbycraft star punch. I used an old crimper on the stars. The ribbon has been in my stash for ages and has been very useful, something else I don't have much left unfortunately.  The sentiment is an old stamp from Little Claire. I like the simplicity of the font.

 

Time for a snowman

I know it is nearly Easter but I really need to get some more Christmas cards made. I love the snowmen at Lili of the Valley and this one is such a jolly one. I coloured him with Copics and added some snow with a white gel pen. The papers are First Edition Jolly Holidays, flowers and wooden leaves from Hobbycraft, sentiment tag from LOTV.

At least the weather has been a bit better this week so far though hail is predicted for tomorrow!  We have been out tidying the garden and enjoying the Spring flowers. Apart from that life goes on the same as the last few weeks. Our hair is getting longer and we are getting closer to a second vaccination. A slight easing next week with being able to meet another household in an outside space. That will be ok as long as the weather isn't too cold or raining.  Stay safe everyone.

 

Game Boy

I was asked to make a card for a friend's grandson who loves computer games. This is Game Boy Oliver which I coloured with Copics. I love the bright MFT papers for modern looking cards and I also love mixing the stripes. I printed the sentiment.  I used Hobbycraft star punches, a Lawn Fawn stitched circle die and paperclip die from a set of Tim Holtz notes dies.

 

On the farm

I managed to make another scrapbook layout for my Cornwall scrapbook. The photos were taken at the farm where we rented the holiday cottage. The gorgeous wisteria is outside the farmhouse and the calves were just a few weeks old and so sweet.  I used papers, ribbon and a wooden butterfly from the new Craft Label Butterfly Kisses collection. The letters are also new from Dovecraft called mini printed letter tiles. Hop over to their website as they have some great bargains and postage is free over £15.

 

More romantic rock

I was asked to make another card with this lovely coloured digi from LOTV Romantic Rock. I used Craft O'clock plum in chocolate papers, added some lace from Crafty Ribbons and a pretty paper flower and pearls. I used a pierced rectangle Lawn Fawn die to cut out the image and some dusty concord distress ink around the edges. I just have to add the personalised sentiment.

Well another weekend has come around again and let's hope it is a dry one. We have had so many wet days this week. Have a good one x

 

Butterflies

This is the first card I made using some of my new goodies. I challenged myself to make a card using only these rather than using an image. 

The papers, wooden butterfly, sentiment die cut and ribbon are all from the new Butterfly Kisses range from Craft Label.  I even used the two tiny butterflies from the banner diecut. I also used MFT stitched scallop border and pierced banner dies.  I backed the banner diecut with the new white adhesive glitter card.

Back with another purple card tomorrow.

 

My first ever card

 Well I did make some cards yesterday but didn’t get round to blogging them. I also sorted through a large box of cards which I have kept over the years. These are mainly handmade, cards from Graham or those that have special memories like Silver Wedding or when I left work. The box was overflowing and I couldn’t get the ones from Christmas and Graham’s Birthday in it.

So I decided it was time for a sort out. It was very interesting looking back at them. I have some gorgeous cards from my friend Lynsey who you may know on Facebook. We used to work together and would often discuss cardmaking. We spent many happy times at craft shows too. She gave up cardmaking and now makes fairies selling as Raindrop Crafts.

Which brings me onto my first ever card I made 15 years ago this May. I have always loved making things  since I was a little girl and had a fancy to try cardmaking. We were in a garden centre with a craft section and Graham suggested I buy a cardmaking kit to see if I liked it. I bought that and some handmade papers and that was the start of it.

I had no idea what I was doing, didn’t want to follow the instructions in the cart but it was a starting point. This is the first card I made which was for our Anniversary. I kept it to show how far I have come since that first day. It may not be very good but it was made with love. 

New goodies

 Well I ended up doing all kinds of things other than crafting yesterday. However I did get a lovely craft delivery with my latest DT pack from Craft Label, formerly Trimcraft. This time we were given an amount of money to spend on their new website which I much preferred. It was lovely choosing what to buy and I only spent 43p over my allocation. We were asked to choose some of their newest items which I did with the Butterfly Kisses range. They have some great bargains on their website like the card blanks and some of the older paper pads. I have used a lot of my grand plans pad so got another as there are some great designs for male cards.

Today I am definitely having some crafting time so hopefully will have something to share tomorrow.

My Mum's card

I had planned to share this yesterday but stayed out of the craft room at the weekend so didn't get to schedule this post until yesterday afternoon. We went to see my Mum on Sunday for Mother's Day and this is the card I made her. 

I used a cross stitch pack from Hobbycraft I bought recently. I really enjoyed sewing this one so will be using the pattern again. The papers are Craftwork cards, flowers from Wild Orchid. I used a MFT stitched scallop frame die and some Memory Box butterfly dies. I only have one of these doilies left so ordered some more from Ebay. Unfortunately the person I used to buy from is no longer on Ebay so I hope the new ones I ordered will be as nice a quality.

I am planning some creative time in the craftroom today so may have something to share tomorrow.

 

Not my Mum's card!

As the title suggests this isn't the card I made for my Mum.  I can't show that today as my Mum looks at my blog every morning. We will be going to see her this morning so I will share her card tomorrow.

You may have seen a pink card with this image which was for an order. My friend loved it but said she had discovered her MIL's favourite colour is blue so I offered to make her another one in blue. I changed the sentiment on the pink one to Happy Birthday so that has gone into stock for sale.

I used some lovely papers from Craftwork cards. The MFT stitched scallop border die came out again along with an old Xcut oval die.  The lace is from Crafty Ribbons.  I keep rediscovering ways I used to decorate cards and that is to add a rose to the centre of a paper flower. These paper flowers are years old and I am gradually trying to use some of them up.

Happy Mother's Day to all Mums.

 

Amongst the flowers

I finished backstitching this one last night and I was so glad to finish it. Backstitching all those leaves became a bit of a chore but I am pleased it is finished. I sewed it in a 5” hoop as the stitching is so near the edge of a 4” hoop. I then transferred it to a 4” hoop and laced across the back of the fabric. A white felt circle to neaten the back and it is all ready for sale. I used a pattern from Durene Jones Etsy shop. 

I always post my makes on Facebook and am very pleased to say that a friend asked to buy it. It is nice to think someone will be enjoying it rather than it just being added to my stock.

Well the weekend has come around again. We have had two more theatre shows rescheduled this week. One of them should have been last year. At least the new dates are later this year. Last week we had one rescheduled to next year so we got a refund instead. I hope we can get to the theatre later in the year as it seems so long since we have been and it is something we really enjoy.

Have a good weekend. Do something that makes you happy. I know choices are limited but we just have to make the most of each day x

James Bouquet

I have used some lovely new LOTV digi products on this card. I used purple damask papers, James bouquet and a simply cute sentiment. I decided to colour him grey for a change, with Copics of course. I used pierced rectangle and Joy butterfly dies and added some lace from Crafty Ribbons and flowers from Hobbycraft.  I used a clear sparkle pen on the flowers.

We have had horrible weather the last two days, strong winds and some heavy rain which was all day Wednesday and a few heavy showers yesterday. That lovely sunny weekend a couple of weeks ago was so much nicer. Let's hope we get some better weather soon.

 

Seesaw

This is the last of my commissioned Mother's Day cards. I have used another coloured simply print from LOTV.  The papers are some old LOTV ones back from when they did paper pads.  These are so useful for 7" cards as they are 8" pads. I used some ric rac and Crafty Ribbons lace. I tried an old technique with some of the flower stalks, wrapping the wire around a cocktail stick. I added a burlap and punched butterflies. I also used MFT wonky stitched rectangle and stitched scallop border dies.

 

Simply flowers

Thank you for all the Birthday wishes for Graham for Monday. He loved his movie themed card. I have used some new images from LOTV called simply cute flowers. They launched last week along with the main images. There are lots of flowers, leaves, birds and butterflies which are handy to add to any of their main images. I decided to create a card just using some of them along with one of the new simply cute sentiments.

I created my arrangement in Word. I inserted each one into a new document, then formatted them by clicking text wrapping through. This allowed me to move them where I wanted them. I rotated the foliage and sent them to the back along with some of the flowers. It took a bit of playing around with until I was happy with the arrangement.  I coloured it with Copics.

The papers are pink ephemera, some of the new digi papers from LOTV. I used a MFT wonky stitched rectangle, Joy flower and Memory Box foliage dies.  The butterflies are from Poundland. I coloured one of them with a burgundy Copic.

Happy Birthday Graham

I decided to make something very different for Graham this year and as we both love watching movies bought the Silver Screen pack from Nitwits.  I am enjoying using these digi kits as a change from stamping and colouring which I still love of course.

I printed all the elements separately this time, fussy cutting and inking the edges. I cut two of the film reel to give it a bit more depth and raised some things on foam pads. The stars were cut using a punch. I remembered I had some film related charms and added the clapperboard charm with baker's twine.

I am really pleased with the black film strip. I used a Tim Holtz film strip die with acetate. The film strip imprinted on the acetate but didn't cut so I just had to cut the edges. I then coloured it on the underside with a black Copic pen.

Our plan for today is a trip into the city where we will get something tasty for dinner tonight from M&S. Have a wander and get a takeaway hot drink. That is the best we can do in lockdown. Our pub and Chinese don't deliver on Mondays so we did have an afternoon tea delivered last Saturday as a pre Birthday treat.

And here is the third

The third of four Mother's Day cards made for an order. This time using a coloured simply print from LOTV called A cart full of sunshine. The papers are Dress Shoppe by Nitwits for LOTV when they did paper pads. I used an Xcut oval, MFT stitched scallop border, Joy leaf, Sweet Dixie and Hunkydory Moonstone floral dies.

Three down, one to go plus my Mum's card of course which is partly made. I have had a busy start to March with 3 Birthdays. They are all made now. Hopefully I can soon do some more scrapbooking.

 

Second Mother's Day card

This is the second of the ordered Mother's Day cards. I have a number of these Hunkydory toppers and messaged her a few photos of images I thought she might like for the cards she wanted. She chose this one for her Nan. The papers are Craftwork cards, embroidered ribbon from The Range and lace from Crafty Ribbons. 

I wanted to pick up on the orange from the image to liven up the yellow and blue so searched through my flowers and found this lovely spotted paper rose I bought in America. I teamed it with some yellow cherry blossom from Wild Orchid and diecut a butterfly using Memory Box dies.  Two cards done two more  to make.

Daffodils

I have 4 Mother's Day cards ordered and this is the first one. I cross stitched the daffodils using a Durene Jones freebie chart on Facebook. The lady who ordered liked it when I sent her a photo and asked me to make a card for her Mum who passed away. I used some Laserlowe Love 12 x 12 paper as this is a 7" card. I used a MFT scallop circle frame die and added a doily behind the the image. The butterfly is from the same paper pack. The flowers are some old ones from The Hobby House and the leaves are from a flower pack from Hobbycraft.

Floral window

I am really loving the Nitwits digi packs at the moment. For this one I used the papers and flower border from the Lakeshore Cottage collection. The floral window is from the Annabelle collection. I added some butterflies from Poundland and a flower from The Hobby House. I used a heart banner die and a Joy leaf die.

The start of another week and a new month. I have 3 Birthdays this month, still have one of the cards to make and 6 cards ordered so plenty to keep me occupied. I also want to crack on with more scrapbooking.