Engagement congratulations

Here is another card for this month's challenge over at Penny Black and More which is to use Dies and Punches.

I used a cute Penny Black teddy bear stamp and sentiment stamps from Crafty Impressions.  The hearts were all die cut with the Cheery Lynn Heart to Heart Lace Doily Dies.  I coloured the lace heart cut out with a Stampin' Up marker Pretty in Pink.  The papers are a magazine freebie.

The image was coloured with Promarkers - Almond, Vanilla, Blush, March Hare, Pastel Pink, Rose Pink and Denim Blue.

Congratulations to my god-daughter on her recent engagement xxx

Life doesn't have to be perfect .......

Anita's July class used papers from the Simple Stories 24/7 range.  I used some photographs from our group photo shoot at our Meadow Barn retreat back in March - these are some of the attempts at getting us all in the same place and posing nicely.

Thank you Anita for another fab class xx

Party Bus

The latest challenge at the Penny Black Inc blog is Beat the Heat, luckily we have a portable air con unit in the lounge so I can keep pretty cool whilst crafting.

This is the card I made for Father-in-law's birthday using Party Bus.  As soon as I saw this stamp I knew I had to have it as he usually spends a lot of the summer driving around Europe in his camper van - not bad for someone who is 82!!

I have absolutely no idea what the paper is that I have used - it came from my scraps bag and I recognise it as being pretty old.  The ticket stamps are both from Stampin' Up and the sentiment is by Personal Impressions.

Shopping for Shoes

This was the sketch that the Sketchy Scrappers had to work with in June -

And this is my take on the sketch -

 My Mum in Asilah, Morocco in the bazaar.

I used Sarah's Cards kit - Prairie Hill by Pink Paislee.  The flowers were cut using Tim Holtz Tattered Flowers sizzlet die and the title was cut using Sizzix Naturally Serif.

Memory wire bracelets

It is just too hot for blogging and crafting at the moment so just going to post some quick photos of a couple of bracelets I have made recently.

Close ups of the rainbow one (this is for me!!)

And the green/brown one which is a birthday present for a friend -

An Early Happy Birthday to my Mum

Shhhhh don't tell her but this is my Mum's birthday card - luckily she isn't online but I had to share it before her birthday as I also made it for this month's challenge on the Penny Black and More  blog.  The challenge is to use Dies and Punches.

I also made this card for Week 13 of the 52 cards challenge which was to use something from Pinterest or online as inspiration.  I rarely go on Pinterest as I end up wasting so much time so I took my inspiration from one of my favourite blogs - A Scrapjourney.  I love how Debby layers up all her patterned papers and mats them all, plus she frequently uses photo corners - so this card is a little homage to her style. 

The papers used are magazine freebies, cardstock from Stampin' Up, the sentiment is Pink Petticoat, the corners are an Ellison Thinlets die and the punched butterflies are Martha Stewart.

I coloured the stamped image with Promarkers - main ones used are Almond, Blush, Warm Grey 1, Ice Grey 2 & 4, Primrose, Sunflower, Leaf Green, Denim Blue and Pale Pink.

A Monster Thank you to our Favourite Band!!

After the fabulous weekend that we spent at the Marillion convention in Wolverhampton, we wanted to say thank you to not only the band but all the other people at Racket Records that make the weekends such fantastic events.

I had the perfect digi-stamps from DigiStamp Boutique - Music Monsters and paired them with DCWV Rock Star paper.

I used a pre-cut and scored stepper card and used a See D stamp for the greeting, cutting it out with a deckle edged nestability die.  The stars were embossed with a Cuttlebug folder and then cut out from metallic cardstock.

I coloured all the musicians with Promarkers.

I do hope it made them smile!!

Happy 18th Anniversary Mr P!!!!!

Today it is our 18th wedding anniversary - really not sure where that 18 years has gone, but one thing I know for sure is that I have a lot more hair since that day and Mr P has a lot less LOL!!

I made a card using a sweet Penny Black stamp from T for transparent set 'Stuck on You' and some heart Framelits.  The sentiment die cut was cut using a Stampin' Up framelit.  The sentiments are from Crafty Impressions.

I coloured the hedgehogs with Promarkers and the main colours used are Almond, Blush, Cool Grey 1, Ice Grey 2 & 4, Pale Pink, Cocktail Pink and Peony.

I will be entering this card into the Penny Black and More July challenge to use dies and punches.

Cheers

There is a lovely sketch over at My Creative Sketches for their June challenge.

I used papers from Sarah's Cards September 2011 kit - Fancy Pants 'It's the Little Things' and a photograph from one of my nephew's 18th birthday meal last year.

I added some paper flowers and a butterfly from my stash, the title is AC Thickers and the gems & pearls are Prima eBling.  The lacy edge was made using a Martha Stewart Punch Around the Page set. 

Just Chillin' - Anita's June class

Anita's June class was using these lovely papers from Authentique's Genuine collection.  Anita hasn't yet blogged her class page but you can see her lovely work on her blog.

I used a photograph of my Mum and our friend Annemie on our trip last year to the Netherlands to visit Annemie's family.

We used a Martha Stewart lattice border punch on the page edges and then laced them together with ribbon.  The flowers were diecut from denim using the Tim Holtz Tattered Florals die and the centres are seed beads. 

Thank you Anita for another fab class xx

June - My Month in Numbers

Well June was pretty number packed. 

The most important numbers being that we have tickets to not 1 but 2 Marillion gigs in November - only 121 days to go.  We are also seeing Fish (ex-lead singer of Marillion that week too - so something to look forward to - 4 days, 3 hotels and 3 gigs).

Mr P celebrated a very important number birthday in June - 50 years.  He got 17 cards and after a count up of how many people saw fit to mention this on their cards, balloons or badge it came to a grand total of 650!! (this number comes courtesy of Mr P!!)  I got him a Tassimo machine as he loves his coffee and has wanted one for a while - I bought a few pods to get him started - 146!!  We had a quiet day at home on his birthday.

 A week later we went out with 14 family members a week later for a lovely meal at a local pub.

Afterwards we went back to our house for birthday cake and coffee.  I made my first ever rainbow cake which had 5 layers and was topped with a sparkler shaped in a 50.

 The week before his birthday we did a 240 mile round trip to see Paloma Faith in Bournemouth - it took over 3 hours to get there as traffic was very heavy but just under 2 hours to get home in the wee hours.  It was a lovely warm evening and we had time to go for a nice Italian meal before the gig.  We were really impressed with Paloma Faith, it was a very entertaining evening and we would definitely go and see her again.

Craftwise I did 7 layouts, made 9 birthday cards, 2 Christmas cards and 10 thankyou notes.  I also managed 13 blog posts.  Not so much reading this month, I haven't managed to finish a single book.

So that concludes my numbers for June - you can find more numbers for June here and if you would like to find out more about blogging your month in numbers, then hop over to  Julie Kirk's blog to find out how to join in

Negative Die Cut Cards - 52 cards challenge (week 16)

The great thing about the 52 cards challenge is that it is getting me trying out techniques that I haven't tried before.  Week 16 was to use negative die cuts - the bit that usually we would discard after cutting out a shape.

I cut out snowflakes for my Christmas card using a set of Spellbinder dies and raised the piece of cardstock up with foam pads over the top of some patterned paper.  I then decorated with gold peel offs.

For my other cards I used a set of Stampin' Up stamps (Apothecary Art) that have a matching set of Sizzix Framelits.

I coloured the stamped image using SU markers in Rose Red, Old Olive and More Mustard.  I raised up the negative die cut with foam pads so that it sat over the top of the stamped image.  The stamped flowers around the edge of the die cut are flowers from Elements of Style coloured using the same marker colours, fussy cut and raised up using pinflair gel.  I made another two with different greetings.

Party King

I was a really lucky girl last month to win a new release stamp from Penny Black on their Facebook page and I was thrilled to find that I had won Party King which was on my wish list from that release.

I couldn't wait to get it inky and make some cards -

 

The sentiments are a mixture of a Pink Petticoat printable, Hero Arts and Do Crafts.  I got the bling stars from a Poundshop.

I coloured the images with Promarkers - Almond, Pale Pink, Ice Grey 2, Cool Grey 4, Bluebell, China Blue, Apple, Leaf Green, Heatwave, Green Shoot, Turquoise, Orange, Pastel Beige and Pastel Blue.

 

Thank you Penny Black for your generosity xx   I will definitely be making lots more cards with this stamp x

First Icecream of the Year

The June challenge over on Scrapology is F is for Framed and to use this sketch -

This is my layout -

I think the main paper that I used for my frame is Prima (it was a single piece in my stash and I forgot to write the brand down before sticking it down).  I cut out the centre piece and used a left over piece of MME from a class kit to replace it.  The frame was raised up on foam pads.  I then stamped flowers and butterflies onto scraps of patterned paper (most of it Fancy Pants) to make the embellishments which I glittered with Diamond Stickles.  The edge of the journalling block was punched using a Stampin' Up punch.  The title is Lillybee alphabet stickers. 

Thank you Scrapology for another lovely sketch and challenge x

Clean and Simple Thank You notes

The June challenge over on Penny Black and More is Clean and Simple.

I made some thank you notelets for my DH to use following his recent birthday, the image is from Penny Black 'T for transparent' set Stuck on You.

The sentiment is by Personal Impressions (Big Sentiments) and I coloured the images with Promarkers.