That's one way to water

I made this card for a friend who has had a heart attack. It was such a shock as she isn't overweight, doesn't smoke or drink a lot and is very active, always out gardening and tending to her goats, chicken and hedgies. It just shows you never know who will be affected by something.

As she is mad about hedgies I had to use a Penny Black hedgie stamp. I coloured it with Copics using a MFT mini cloud stencil and stitched cloud die. I also used a sentiment die.

Where did that last 6 months go? Graham is out for the day tomorrow getting the rescue boats ready for the powerboat racing. They were all so disappointed they couldn't start on 21 June so fingers crossed they can go ahead later this month. I am planning a me day so lots of that will be spent crafting. I really must get on with lots more Christmas cards. I keep saying it but it hasn't happened yet so watch this space. 

Sneak peek tiger

I finally managed to get into the craft room and make two cards yesterday afternoon. It must be about four weeks since I made a card, one of the longest times I have gone without cardmaking. It felt so good to get out my Copics again. I also used glitter pens on the hundreds and thousands and stars.

Lili of the Valley have a new launch of cute cupcake images coming soon. There is also a set of papers, splashes, sentiments and gold circles etc. I used one of the papers, gold circles, sentiment and cupcake tiger as one layer, just adding some gold glitter enamel dots.

As an experiment these images will be released as an A5 polymer stamp set along with a set of the newest vintage boys. Although digi stamps are very popular some people don't have printers or just prefer to stamp an image so whatever your preference you can get these images.

Really pleased with the bedroom, all we need now is a new carpet so off to have a look at some this morning. Have a good weekend.

Running by

Well I have been home from holiday a week and it has been all go. This is the first time I have been in the craft room and that is to blog this card which I made before I went away. I have some lovely new images from LOTV and am printing a couple out and hope to get one made maybe later today. on the image. Not only did she do that but she removed the football and logo on the shirt and added the logos to his shorts and trainers. I coloured him with Copics, I remembered I had a die of a pair of trainers so that was a perfect embellishment.

I was asked for a card for a young man who likes running. I didn't have a suitable image but I had a footballer from Pink Gem. So as I was previously on the Pink Gem DT and Janet Roberts is so helpful I asked if she would mind changing the football boots for trainers

The garden went mad whilst we were away. There was hardly a flower and we came back to a riot of colour and of course lots of weeds. We have done the front garden and hubby is cutting the grass so the next job is to start tackling the back garden.

We had a decorator in Monday and Tuesday to paint the ceiling and walls in our bedroom. Graham has already done all the paintwork. So everything had to be moved out and back in again. I decided the curtains didn't go with the new wall colour so off to Dunelm yesterday for new ones plus a bedside lamp and lampshade. We bought a couple of lovely pictures from a photographers on holiday so they have to be put and others moved.

Good job we are feeling refreshed from our holiday as it has been full on since then. Hoping to have another card to share soon. Right now must get on with the garden.

Another cross stitch card

Another cross stitched card for another friend's Birthday. This friend does some cross stitching so I thought she would appreciate this. You may have seen this pattern before as I used it for my Mum's Mother's Day card. When I made that one I used the colours in the kit, red and blue, which came from Hobbycraft.

I kept the pattern from the kit and as my friend's favourite colour is purple I went with this colour combo which I love. The paper is MFT and I made a frame using MFT stitched dies.  I used a Joy butterfly banner die and a Hobbycraft butterfly punch.  The flowers are from Wild Orchid.

 

Happy Bee-Day

I made this card for a friend who likes to display some of my cards on a shelf unit in her kitchen so I didn't add a sentiment as I preferred it without. It would make a lovely framed picture too.

I bought the cross stitch kit from Hobbycraft during the last lockdown. I must say apart from the bee which was a bit tricky the hive was actually rather boring to sew but I am pleased with the finished stitching.

The paper and frame are from the Nitwits Bee-lightful digi collection. I simply added some paper flowers to finish.

A few holiday photos

 We had such a lovely fortnight’s holiday, arriving home yesterday. We took lots of photos and video which we have yet to look at. We also took a lot of photos on our phones so I will share a few of them on here. We visited several new places and stayed well away from the G7 in Carbis Bay and St Ives. Everywhere felt very safe and we were mostly outside during the day. We stayed in the same cottage we have been to for the last three years. It is so large and comfortable and apart from eating out three nights we spent the evenings in the cottage.

West Pentire

Pinetum Gardens

Newlyn

Siblyback Lake

St Michael’s Mount where my first thought was “Have I really got to climb up there!”

And I did.

Newquay

Crantock beach

Falmouth

Lost Gardens of Heligan

Shall we dance on our way home

How cute is this new image from Lili of the Valley. I used the coloured simply print and actually made two cards almost identical. One was for an order and this one was for some friends.  The paper is Joy with love.  I went for a distressed look, adding some cheesecloth, roses from Wild Orchid and some waste hearts left from the sweetheart flowers I die cut a while ago.  The sentiment is LOTV.

We are on our way home today from a fortnight's holiday.  We stayed overnight the first night and last night at Premier Inns and spent 12 days in the lovely cottage we have been to for the last three years. we were so lucky to be able to enjoy a lovely holiday for our Golden Wedding.  I managed to schedule lots of posts whilst we were away. 

We should be home around lunchtime and then will be unpacking and shopping.  As the cottage has a washing machine there won't be too much washing to do at home.

Movie time

You may have seen the movie card I made for my hubby for his Birthday in March. I love this digi kit from Nitwits and wanted to use it again. The backing paper is lovely with all the right hand corner elements included on it. I added some more elements to the paper and then printed some separately to fussy cut. I raised some on foam pads and added some enamel dots.

I have bought a few of these digi kits and really enjoy using them for a change.

 

Another tiger

My friend who orders a lot from me asked me make her a tiger card for Father's Day. Although her Dad has passed away she likes to have a card to remind her of him on Father's day.  The papers and topper are from the First Edition finding paradise range. After I made it I thought the papers look a bit too busy together but she loved it.

I added some wooden hearts, used a Joy die for the leaf and added some burlap flowers.  I don't like using flowers on men's cards usually although many men are gardeners. I thought these ones didn't make the card look too girly.

 

Cycling

I was asked to make a cycling card and didn't have anything suitable. Off I went to have a look in the Lili of the Valley shop and found this coloured vintage sports cyclist image. I was so pleased when I received my First Edition Bon Voyage papers to find a cycling patter. All the papers are from this new pad which has lots of simple designs plus some travel themed papers. I remembered i had a Die-Versions corner sentiment die which I have hardly used. I don't know why as it is really effective. Note to self, use sentiment dies more often.

 

Butterfly sympathy card

You may remember the lilac heart I stitched recently, well this is the sympathy card I made for my friend to send to the family. She asked for it to be purple, say thinking of you and to have butterflies on it.  I used Dovecraft's Butterfly Kisses paper, wooden butterflies and ribbon.  The foil paper hasn't photographed well. I found the sentiment in my stash which was a lucky find.

 

Commissioned plaque

The lady who orders several things from me asked me to make her a heart plaque with this sentiment. I used the Nitwits bee-lightful digi kit for the paper and sentiment section. I then layered up some flowers, added some enamel hearts and wooden stars I bought a couple of years ago from Hobbycraft.

 

Our Golden Wedding

I can't believe that today we have been married for 50 years! We just don't feel old enough 😊.  I didn't want to make a traditional card for Graham and as music has been such an important part of our lives, and still is.  When we met at a party he was in charge of playing the records on his record player. I was 15 and he was 19 and we were both too shy to talk to each other that night. We soon got together though and the rest is history.

I bought this Nitwits digi kit called Peachy Keen with this card in mind. It hasn't photographed terribly well unfortunately.

I created the arrangement in the corner on the backing paper and then printed all the elements onto card. I decoupaged each of the corner elements and added contrasting card to the lozenge shapes. I typed the sentiment onto one and 2 song titles onto the others. The paint chip already had the sentiment on it and couldn't be better. All I added were the punched musical notes.

We have a meal booked this evening so we will be celebrating 50 happy years together.

 

Lost in a book

I got this free pattern from an email subscription and thought it was perfect as a thank you gift for someone who loves books as much as I do. It hasn't photographed particularly well unfortunately. I backed it with felt after adding the ribbon and then blanket stitched the edges.

You can find the pattern at Tangled Threads.

Cheers

Another commissioned card, this time using James Cheers from Lili of the Valley. I coloured him with Copics and used some more of the old K&Co Hopscotch papers.  I used a Lawn Fawn pierced rectangle, double rectangle die and cut out some photo corners.