Happy Birthday to me

Yes today is my Birthday and the weather should be fine so we will be heading out somewhere today.

This is another of the new fairies launching soon at LOTV.  This is Sprite and I merged her one of the extras in the set, which is the bunting toadstool.  I coloured her with Copics.  The paper is from The Works and I used a Joy tree die, some toadstool dies, a Doohickey tag die and a Hobbycraft butterfly punch.

 

Second sneak peek

Meet Willow, the second of the woodland fairies launching soon at LOTV.  I merged her with the garland and 2 butterflies and coloured her with Copics using a sparkle pen on her wings.  The papers are Paper Favourites pastel dots from Emerald Crafts.  I used a Crafts Too butterfly die and Joy flower dies along with some paper leaves from Hobbycraft.  The sentiment is from the fairy digi set by LOTV.

 

Sneak peek

Well it has been a while since I had the chance to get into the craft room. With sorting out the kitchen cupboards, emptying and refilling them once the work was done, out for massages and haircuts and the usual stuff I just haven't had time for cardmaking. I have been busy sewing for craft fairs though.

There will be another launch soon from Lili of the Valley and this one is Woodland fairies.  They are so cute and they come with a range of extras so you can create little scenes as I have done here.  I used Dew fairy and added the toadstool, rose bush and butterflies.  I flipped the butterfly as I wanted to use the same one twice and I think it looks like she is hoping it will land on her hand.

I coloured it all with Copics, used weathered wood distress ink and distressed all the edges.  The paper is Paper Favourites shabby chic wood. I bought a pack of glitter tape in The Works, 10 colours for £1.50 and it was just what I wanted for this card.  I also added some sparkle to her wings using a sparkle pen.  The roses are from Wild Orchid, sentiment from LOTV.

I have a couple more images ready to colour so will be bringing you another sneak peek soon.  Today we are going out for breakfast, then visiting a couple of craft fairs to check out the venues.

 

Fairy Lili Sparkle

I planned to make some Christmas cards this week but getting an image out onto my desk is as far as I have got. A couple of friends asked for urgent cards, then a lady who comes to my cardmaking classes and buys from me at the hospital craft fairs asked for 10 cards and a plaque. So a sort through my cards and I found 7 suitable cards, some just need personalising. It's nice to think some of my cards will be posted out rather than just siting in my stock. I am doubting whether I will be doing any craft fairs this year the way things are looking. 

I have been working on this cross stitch for a little while and am very happy with how she turned out.  The pattern is from The Little Stitchery, a division of LOTV. She is called Lili Sparkle and should be stitched in pink but I fancied using purple. I used similar colours to the pattern for the rest of her as I have so many threads and didn't want to buy more.  I was going to put in her a wooden frame but preferred her in the hoop frame.  I will be back with a card tomorrow.

Petal

I bought a few new digis from Lili of the Valley in one of their recent sales. I have some to colour and I bought this coloured simply print too.  I used some old Gorjuss Girl paper, a Joy leaf die, some pink lacey mesh stuff I found in my stash, flowers from Wild Orchid and a burlap butterfly from Docrafts.

We actually managed to get a click and collect order for Morrisons which we are getting this afternoon. I got the slot last Monday which was fortunate as that night was when they introduced the new measures. I have never done an online order as we prefer going to the shops ourselves.  So as it is the only slot I can get I have ordered lots of non perishable goods which will save us going to a supermarket for quite a while. We should mainly just need fresh stuff from now on assuming I get everything I ordered of course.

Another completed cross stitch

I am really enjoying cross stitching again and this is the third LOTV fairy I have completed. With hindsight I should have used slightly darker colours for her hair to give more contrast to her face. The waterlilies have pale pink edges which look really pretty but don't really show up well in the photo. 

This is how I finish mine off. The back of the cross stitch looks a mess but I never worry about that as it will be covered as you can see from the final picture.

So  when I cut the circle to begin with I allow an additional 2" so as this is a 8" hoop I cut a 10" circle. When I have finished the picture I stitch a running stitch around the edges and draw it in. I discovered anther way in a magazine so I did that too but forgot to take a picture. I laced across the back from top to bottom which pulled it in slightly more.  For a larger hoop like this I would definitely use both methods.

I then cut a circle of white felt and use 3d glue to attach it to the back. 

When I put a picture of my hedgie cross stitch on Facebook a friend messaged and said could I do a larger cross stitch for her niece's 21st Birthday.  I sent her a pic of the design and she said could she have it when completed so it is sold.

I finished it!

I started this cross stitch on 1st July and finished it on 6th August. I found it so addictive and as the picture grew I wanted to sew more and more. I haven't done any cross stitch for about 15 years and have never worked on blank material just using a pattern. I have also never outlined in backstitch before but I was so impressed with the way the backstitching brought the picture to life. 

I wanted to fit it into the 8" embroidery hoop so that did mean altering the pattern a bit.  I kept the fairy the same size, moved the moon, left off a couple of stars and reduced the size of the toadstools. I didn't want to buy all new threads so matched the colours as near as possible with the ones I already had, just buying a couple for her skin.  

I learnt a lot along the way such as moving your finger from underneath when putting the needle through. I lost count of the number of times I pricked my finger that way. I was going to sell it but love it so much she is now hanging in my craft room. I am looking forward to starting another soon but first I must sew some things for my next craft fair in September. If you would like to sew one go and check out the designs on the LOTV Etsy shop, link in my sidebar. 

Forever Friends

A very different colour combo from me today using Forever Friends coloured simply print digi from LOTV. Isn't she adorable and I look forward to colouring the digi of her.  The blue paper is from lOTV, yellow border from a pack of MFT hearts. I used MFT sitched inside and out rounded corner and stitched scalloped border dies.  The sentiment is from a new fairy set of digis. I found some very old flowers in my stash, they must be about 10 years old and I teamed them with some wooden leaves from Hobbycraft and patterned card candi from Craftwork cards.  I also used an Xcut rounded corner punch.

I am off to my last craft fair until September. Set up isn't until 9.30 so not too early a start for a change.The fair is at Cromer hospital fete from 11-2. I have never doen this one before so no idea if it will be any good.  Still we shall be at the coast so a chance for a seafront walk afterwards hopefully.

Another new fairy

Today is your last chance to buy anything half price from the LOTV store on Etsy. These new fairies are adorable and as soon as I saw this one I thought what a great Christmas card she would make. I love the versatility of using a non Christmas image for a Christmas card.I coloured the image with Copics and coloured the little bird as a robin. I used Spectrum Noir clear sparkle pen on her wings and used some sparkle pens on the ribbons and a white gel pen on the spots on her dress. The papers are last year's First Edition Merry little Christmas.  The sentiment is from LOTV. I used a Woodware holly punch, Sue Wilson poinsettia die, flowers from Hobbycraft, enamel do and some chunky white embossing powder.

Fairy wishes

As Monday was international fairy day Lili of the Valley launched some new digis and coloured simply prints. I am looking forward to colouring the digis but in the meantime I have used one of the coloured simply prints called Shy. I wouldn't normally use pink and red together but as the image uses those colours I have echoed this in my papers which are MFT hearts and stripes. I used various dies including a cross stitch circle die, Doohickey fence, Cheery Lynn mushrooms, Memory Box cherry blossom, and a MFT scalloped stitched border.  The sentiment is from a new set of digis too.

Star fairy

The new Crafts Beautiful magazine is out today and I am delighted to have this card published. They like bright cards with cute characters and not too many embellishments.

Image - LOTV Lili fairy magic digi

Medium - Copics

Papers -MFT

Sentiment tags - LOTV

Die - MFT fringed scallop border

Punch - Hobbycraft stars

Pink and sparkly

Well the conservatory roof was replaced yesterday. They said it would take most of two days so we are very impressed. It looks great and is so much lighter. This morning we will be cleaning it and putting everything back in it. I will take a pic when it is done. I feel a scrapbook layout may be needed.

I used to use a lot of kraft card but lately haven't used it as much as I used to apart from shabby chic cards. I love the combination of it with different colours. 

Image - LOTV precoloured art sheet

Paper - MFT hearts

Dies - Sizzix thinlets flowers, MFT wonky stitched circle, Marianne stars semi circle

Spectrum Noir sparkle pen on her wings and the flowers

I bought the flower and semi circle dies from a fellow LOTV DT crafter who is having a destash. I am loving the semi circle one and you will see it again tomorrow.

Green fairy

I thought I would have a change from the new LOTV stamps and use another of the new fairy coloured art sheets to make a quicker card. As I had the Crate Paper Farmhouse papers out the other day I cut some for another layout and this fairy matched perfectly. I diecut her with an MFT wonky stitched circle die.  he sentiment is from the LOTV teenage girl set and I used old EK flower punches.

Second sneak peek of Lily

A contrast to my clean and simple Lily card on Sunday. This is another of the four new Lily images launching on 1 January at LOTV. They will be available in both rubber and digi.  There will also be some fab bunting stamps along with numbers and alphabet stamps so you can stamp them into the bunting. 

I used the digi stamp and added two lots of the star bunting.  She has been coloured with Copics and I used various sparkle pens.   The sentiment is LOTV, the lace I found in my stash along with the pearl stems which I think came from Wild Orchid a long time ago. The flowers are all Wild Orchid.

First sneak peek of Lily and a tutorial

Meet Lily the sweet new fairy launching from LOTV on 1 January. Lily will be available as both rubber and digi stamps which will please everyone. I created the card using a Go Kreate frilly 10 die and MFT paper. The scalloped circle was also cute with a Go Kreate die.

Along with the new images will be a lovely set of circular sentiments. They all come with this pretty flower circle and as one of hem is a blank circle I placed Lily inside the circle. Now I thought this would be simple in Word but as this is a digi the backing is a white rectangle so when I placed her in the circle parts of it were missing.

So this is how I did it. I inserted both images, clicked on each, clicked text wrap and through. I then needed to make her background transparent. I clicked on the fairy, clicked format, recolour, transparent and then resized her to fit in the circle. Simple when you know how. I have a book with tips, measurements etc so this info has gone into my book ready for next time in case I forget how I did it.

I coloured her with Copics and used some sparkle pens. Her wings are super sparkly.

Fairy and butterflies

Today I have one of the new flower fairy art sheet images to share with you. I teamed her with some of the new Blooming Lovely papers, punched leaves, apple blossom flowers from Wild Orchid and some butterflies from Poundworld.

The new stamps, art sheets and papers will be available from tomorrow.

Challenges

The Cutie Pie going girly 

A Gem of a Challenge anything goes 

Allsorts pearls

A blast from the past

Once upon a time I used to use a lot of Sugar Nellie stamps but they stopped making their stamps and closed the challenge quite some time ago. They are such lovely stamps and I don't think I would ever get rid of them. I really must make the effort to use more of them. Anyway her is one of the gorgeous fairy stamps coloured with Copics. I used chalk and a MFT mini cloud stencil for the sky and Spectrum Noir sparkle brush pens on her wings. The papers were a Birthday present, Paper Boutique a touch of Winter. I added a LOTV sentiment, flowers from Hobbycraft and ribbon from Crafty Ribbons.

Challenges

The Cutie Pie going girly 

As you like it CAS or FAF (Although I like the challenge of CAS cards I do love adding lots of embellishments especially flowers.)

Baby girl

A late entry for crafts 4 Eternity Challenge 38. The challenge was to use their great sketch and add some bling. I recently had some flower fairy tags free with a mag and thought this one was perfect for a new baby girl card. I'm really pleased with the way this one turned out.

Ingredients
Paper - Papermania Raspberry Champagne
Die cuts - Nestability, Sizzix corner and swirl
Embellishments - Free flower fairy tag,

Flowers - from stash

60th Birthday

A friend asked me to make a 60th birthday card for a friend of hers, who likes pink and fairies. I had to be careful not to make the card too young so thought this image and the darker pink with black were a perfect combination for a more sophisticated card. This is for Sketch Saturday.. I rotated their lovely sketch as it fitted the A5 card better. It is also my fourth and final card for Charisma Cards.

Ingredients
Stamp - Flower fairy free from magazine
Coloured with Letraset Promarkers, highlighted with glitter pens
Paper and flowers - Papermania Hint of Pink
Flower stickers from stash