Thank You Wings

The challenge this month at Penny Black and More at Allsorts is Wings.

I had some leftover Bister backgrounds from making Richard's birthday card, so I die cut them with some Lawn Fawn and Memory box stitched edge dies.

Using Penny Black T for transparent set 'Social Butterfly' I stamped and then cut out some butterflies and a dragonfly from some of the scraps left from the die cut backgrounds, these were stuck onto the background with pinflair gel for some dimension.  The smallest card, the butterfly from T for transparent set 'Snippets' was stamped directly onto the card. 

The sentiments are from sets 'Snippets' and 'Heartfelt Thanks'.  The blue hearts are from Poundland.

Me on Monday

Monday always seems to roll round so quickly, I swear we have only just had one!!  Anyway if it is Monday it means it is time to go and give a wave to Sian at From High in the Sky and to share all the weekend goings on.

It was a pretty hot weekend, time to don the silly hat and the big sunglasses and do some outside work.

A weekend of trying to brighten up the garden and putting some bedding plants in

An evening of a stiff and sore back, aching legs and regretting doing the whole garden at once.  So Sunday was spent on quieter pursuits like cardmaking.

And Monday finds me not quite so stiff and sore and back to the usual weekly chores like laundry on a scorching hot day and forecast to get even hotter.

I waited till this evening to do my baking - a crafty friend coming to stay for a long weekend and a request for a Dundee cake to munch on over the weekend

If you have shared all about your Monday then make sure you go and give Sian a wave!!

Beat the Christmas Rush - June

Thank you to those that joined in last month with Beat the Christmas Rush, the hardest part is now choosing just one favourite from those as they were all really lovely.  But this month I have gone with these lovely cards from Sue complete with a matching felt gingerbread man.

If you would like to join in with Beat the Christmas Rush then just make some Christmas cards each month to help get yourself ahead.  Put your blog link in the linky tool below so that we can find you and please put a link back to this blog in your post too, so that others can find Beat the Christmas Rush. I will then feature the next month one of my favourites.

My cards for this month are quite plain and simple as I have been away and not had much time for cardmaking.  My first set of cards are ones that I did for a challenge on the UKFiskarettes Facebook page to use birds.  These cute robins are by Penny Black and the sentiment is by HOTP, the papers are from Craft Creations.

These cards use a stamp that I got eons ago from QVC in a mixed Christmas set and they are not branded but it makes a lovely traditional Christmas card.

The papers are a mixture of QVC and Craft Creations and the snowflakes by All Occasion Dies are cut from glittered cardstock with a gemstone in the middle.  It doesn't show up in the photos but the tree branches are covered in Stardust Stickles.

You have until 24th July to share your creations for this round of Beat the Christmas Rush - I do hope you can join in.

New Home Cards

Some new home cards using a Stampin' Up little house stamp

 The sentiment is by Woodware

Me on Monday

Sneaking in very late to wave hello to Sian at From High In The Sky

The weekend saw us waving a sad goodbye to the Isle of Man and making our journey home, a last look at Val's lovely garden where we had been staying at Ballachrink Farm.

 The first to drive onto the ferry at Douglas

 Which meant we were last off in Liverpool

 The familiar purple of our overnight hotel near Runcorn

So Monday finds me with a big pile of unpacking

All of this washing to be done

Plus a Stampin' Up order to unpack, bedding plants to buy and a chiropractor appointment to attend.

It looks like it is going to be a busy week!!

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to a wonderful dad xxxx

I made this card for him using a lovely Wellington stamp by Papermania

The embossed background is a Marianne D folder and I watercoloured the image with Derwent watercolour pencils as the image suited softer colouring.  The background paper is from Craft Creations and the punched gold stars are a Stampin' Up confetti punch.

The bottom sentiment is from the same Wellington set as is the lovely sentiment that I place inside the card.  The top sentiment is by Stamps Away.

I won't actually get to see Dad today as we are travelling back from holibobs but I made sure that I left his card and present with him before we left.

Christmas Selfies

Anita always has a lovely Christmas page for us to do at the January class.

We used Simple Stories 'Cozy Christmas' and MME Lost and Found Christmas.

The photograph was from our messing around on Boxing Day trying to take selfies.

Birthday Dogs

I was asked to make some small birthday cards with dogs on them.  I used some Penny Black T for transparent stamps.

The backgrounds were stamped with a Hobbycraft pawprint background stamp.

 The images were coloured with Promarkers and Stickles were added to the rose or butterfly for a little bit of sparkle.

Together is the Best Place to be

And another oldie, this time from last year

A class by Anita, using Simple Stories 'Homespun'.

Happy Birthday Mr P xxx

It is Mr P's birthday today and I've made him something a little bit different for his birthday this year, usually he would get something with a cute Penny Black image on it.  I have been enjoying playing with Brushos and those images just don't go with the lovely backgrounds.  I have recently bought some Bister which is very similar to Brushos in how you use it but it is more predictable as to what colour you are going get.  I have only got two colours so far - blue and brown and they work beautifully together.

I used a Papermania Wellington stamp which I watercoloured first with Derwent watercolour pencils and then masked the image so that I could make the background with the Bister.

The Happy Birthday sentiment is from a Stampin' Up set (Butterfly Basics) and the Husband sentiment is from the same Wellington set as the bear stamp (by Papermania).

I wish I knew where the lovely blue/brown organza ribbon had come from it, it was my last piece and a perfect match for the card.  The bling hearts are from Poundland.

Christmas Day Dolphin Racing

I've joined in with May's sketch challenge over at My Creative Sketches

 And I combined the sketch with the monthly challenge at UKScrappers which is a colour challenge

The colours very much reminded me of the papers from the My Minds Eye '12 days of Christmas collection' and I had some lovely sunny photographs from our 2012 Christmas cruise to the Canaries that were perfect.

On at sea days they have dolphin racing and it is held in one of the lounges, all done with a roll of the dice and you bet on which dolphin will win.  Usually the children come up from the kids club to be the jockeys but on Christmas Day they took it out to the pool area and the ship's officers were the jockeys - even Father Christmas came to take part!! 

The title is done with Echo Park 'For the Record 2' stickers and Authentique letter tiles.  The stars were punched with EK Success and Woodware punches.

If you are quick you can still join in with the Creative Sketches challenge as it doesn't close till 14th June.

We May Not Have It All Together

Catching up with sharing layouts that I did a while ago, this one was from a scrap class with the lovely Anita M earlier this year.

The papers used are Websters Pages 'Family Traditions' and the background was created by stamping with bubble wrap and acrylic paint.

Me on Monday

Oh gosh a whole week since I last blogged, I must get on and schedule some posts but first things first.  It is Monday so it must be time to give Sian over at From High in the Sky a big wave!!

The weekend was lovely, the weather was warm and sunny so time to venture out into the garden and start restoring some order to much neglected tubs

 I would love to do lots of gardening but sadly I have to work within the confines of my health, so I just potter about with my tubs and do what I can from my trusty garden stool.

FIL gave us this plant for Christmas - the ivy has gone wild but I think the little conifer was just shoved in the pot with very little root to it - anyway it has two choices now that I have put it outside!!

 There was also some craftiness going on, I took delivery of two pots of Bister on Saturday so I couldn't wait to have a quick play and make some backgrounds for future cards.

As it was the first full weekend of the month, the Sunday was our monthly crop at Cardinal Colours - it is a great place to go and be creative but working in a shop means you are always tempted to do just a little bit of shopping LOL!!

  And Monday finds us with another glorious day, a great chance to get the laundry outside and line dry it.

Hope this weather continues for the rest of the week, it is pleasantly warm without being too hot.
Have a good week whatever you get up to, I have the hairdressers and packing for upcoming holidays to look forward to.