Herby thanks

Happy nearly New Years! 

I haven't been around much lately as Boo has been veeeeery ill and we have been at the hospital A LOT. Things aren't looking very bright,so I made the difficult decision to stop working. I am so grateful that I am able to do this,so I can focus most of my attention on Boo.

My card today is for the inevitable endless task that always comes after Christmas-the Thank You card. Ever the bane of my childhood,stamping these make things so much more fun ;-)

I used the glorious Flourishes Italian Garden set for this card,stamped onto watercolour paper with archival ink which I heat set. You might need a magnifying glass to paint in some of the leaves on the Rosemary bush! But it looks just gorgeous when watercoloured,don't you think?  

The sentiment comes from the ultra useful Paper Smooches Salutations set.

Thanks for stopping by :-)

Little ginger men ;-)

Hello!

Well,GingerBREAD men to be exact :-D

I wanted to take part in the fantastic Waltzingmouse Fanatics challenge,having a considerable amount of Waltzingmouse stamp sets. 

The challenge this month is a sketch challenge here

And this is what I came up with

I LOVE this set,and haven't used the gingerbread men before. They are coloured with Distress re inkers and have glossy accents on their eyes and buttons and Liquid Appliqué on their mouths and outlines (never used that before either-very exciting watching it puff up!...simple pleasures,eh?) The tag die is a Magnolia Doohickey.

Happy weekend folks!

Find future challenges here

3,2,1....LEGO!

That moment when as the washing up is mounting an attack across the worktop,the laundry is souffle-ing out of the hamper,youngest toddler is requesting elaborate and impossible hair styles, Tiger produces a manky,stained Birthday invitation from her book bag that has been festering in there for some time..."Mummy,look-its Ben's Lego Birthday party....IT'S TODAY!!!" In an hour. Right. 

3,2,1 Mummy=GO GO GO! Snarl at washing up (it snarls back),place small toddler in dirty clothes hamper and use to jump souffle laundry back down into compressed lump whilst clipping hundreds of glittery hairclips into her hair,throw clean clothes and lunch at Tiger,race up to craft hovel (yes,it has got THAT bad) scratch around for (clean) card blanks,ink and current favorite Birthday sentiment set (Clearly Besotted) whilst yelling for small bits of Lego to be found. Birthday boy Ben LOVES Lego. A Lego cake card was born....in like 5 minutes.

And I didn't even get time to ink the edges ;-)

USED TODAY

STAMPS: Clearly Besotted 'Make a Wish'

INKS: Stampin' Up 'Brilliant Blue',Stampin' Up 'Pool Party' VersaFine 'Onyx'

Eek-a-boo!

Hello!

Welcome to the World Cardmaking Day bloghop over at Make The Day Special!

We thought we couldn't let such an auspicious 'world day' go past without marking it somehow now,could we?  ;-)

You should have got here from Make The Day Special blog,your next port of call is posted below,along with details of a super prize you can win!

So,my card today celebrates the coming of my favorite seasons-Autumn. 

I used the super cute pumpkins from the Paper Smooches Spookalicious set (currently on special offer over at Make The Day Special) to create a pumpkin patch,coloured with Prisma pencils. The leaves are from the Paper Smooches too-I hunted through ALL my dies for the perfect pumpkin style leaf,and what do you know? The Reflections Leaf set works perfectly! :-) I finished the card off with some faux stitching and a 'fake' piece of washi embossed with my Paper Smooches sentiment and voila! A cute 'welcome autumn' type card-just perfect to hand out to someone on World Card Day. I am entering this card into the Paper Smooches SPARKS challenge,and the challenge this week is Anything Goes-whoot whoot!!! Always fun to through constraint to the wind when these pop up,eh?

Right,on with the hop-the girls have got some fantastic cards to show you! Next on your list is:
Jenny 

Kate

Lydia

Tara

We have a fantastic little prize for you-all you need to do is make a card in the next 48 hours and link it onto the Make The Day Special blog to win the adorable Critters Down Under set from Lawn Fawn

Whoop whoop! How cute is this set?! (I have found its an invaluable set for those tricky boy cards!)

Have fun hopping!
Lou

Welcome Autumn!

Hello! 
Its my post over at Make The Day Special blog today :-)

Are you an Autumn lover? I am :-) It has to be my absolute favorite season of them all...those crisp mornings,low sun,the colours-oh the colours! So beautiful. It is a time to cosy down,snuggle up,pull out the sweaters and boots and bake yummy things. It is also my most active time on Pinterest...I have SO many pumpkin recipes pinned,I really don't think I will get through them all before the pumpkins go out of season!

One of the recipes I pinned this week was the scrumptious sounding Pumpkin and Black Bean Soup-yummo! I haven't had the chance to make it...yet,but it got me thinking it would be nice to decorate all my Autumn recipe cards with some of the gorgeous stamps that are in the shop. Then I thought how nice and different it would be to send a few of these cards out to friends to welcome the coming coolness. Then I thought of my very neglected Paper Smooches Clipboard die set....then this happened....

The buttons are cut from foam using the Cat's Pajamas Buttons die,and threaded with Lawn Fawn Autumny Retro Triple Twine, the stamps are all Paper Smooches Autumn Grooves, (I am going to get a LOT of mileage out of this set!) and the dies are the insanely cute Paper Smooches Clipboard Dies. 

Not sure who is going to get this yet,but I hope I get invited to try the soup ;-)

Happy,happy Autumn people :-)

Lou

Tarty Burlap Birds Nests

Hello!

I took part in the handmade flower swap over at Your Paper Pantry last month-one I haven't taken part in before,and the challenge was to make shabby birds nests from burlap and lots of other bits-kind of like a magpie collection lol. I must say I struggled creatively with this one a bit (and the feeling of freshly trimmed burlap in ones clothes is akin to fresh cut hair :-/ ) but I got there in the end...I think! We had to do 3 sets of 3. 

I have no fingerprints left from burning them off with the glue gun,but here they are in all their shabby glory!

Bye bye birdie nests,have a safe trip State side :-)

A special Birthday blog hop

Hello!

Welcome to She's Birthday Blog Hop Bonanza! You should have got here from Keren's blog-as she is so deliciously humorous,I wont even attempt jokey banter ;-)

I started out thinking I would do a sort of monochrome homage to She's fave colour (Orange) but then this just sort of happened...and then I found my leftover Astro Turf....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHE!

Have an awesomely orange and happy day,we all miss you lots!

Lou x

Next stop,Lydia :-)

Blog hop order:

Make The Day Special

Emily

Jo

Jenny

Kate

Keren

                   Lou -Thats me!

Lydia

A distressing challenge

Hello!

Two posts in one day,eh? Why not!

So the other thing I did today,which I have been excited about doing since the challenge arose,is a tag for the current Lawnscaping challenge #64 called Distress Maniacs :-D The challenge?

To use Distress Inks (I LOVE Distress Inks!!) . This had me very excited what with not being very zen with CAS,so this is what I made:

And a close up...

I used watercolour paper and built up the background slowly using Worn Lipstick and Milled Lavender. Then I dragged the tag along the Worn Lipstick to give the edges some definition. I always mop up my Distress inks with seam binding,so used those on my tag,riveting holes and lacing up the bottom bit like a bodice. Lastly I sewed the sentiment on-I love sewing paper-it is very satisfyingly crunchy ;-)

I hope you like it-Lawnscaping challenges always produce to die for entries,so pop over and have a look...

Lou

Vintage Water Goddess

Hello!
I'm back today with a piece I have just finished for my Mum's Birthday.

Stamps make PERFECT templates for a whole host of craft with fabric,one of which is mixed media embroidery.

For this piece,I used the inimitable Smeared Ink Elementals 'Water Goddess' stamp (Currently in the sale-wahoo!)

After choosing your fabric (mine is a very-hard-to-photograph-without those-annoying-lines-piece of vintage silk,bought back from the Middle East when we lived there),ink up your chosen stamp (remember-simple lines are better!) and brayer the fabric onto the inked stamp. 
Place your fabric in an embroidery hoop. I was always going to leave mine in the hoop as it was my Grandmothers,so therefore has sentimental value,but you may want to paint the hoop,or make sure you use one nice enough to leave attached! 

Next select your threads. I chose to do this piece with as much texture as I could,so chose as many different blue embroidery floss as I could find,plus bits of thin ribbon,some netting and beads. 

I used a split stitch for the majority of this,simply because it creates a nice solid textured line,splitting off two strands from the palest blue floss to outline her face. And a simple running stitch with metallic blue floss for the frame box.

Her hair was just plain fun! Just go to town on bits like this. I used random thread,ribbon and the netting and interspersed it with seed beads

Aaah,yes, the back. The utterly terrifying spaghetti junction of loose threads!

 To finish this piece,I cut the excess base fabric very closely to the hoop and drew around the hoop onto a piece of thick felt and cut it out. Using a strong quick glue suitable for fabric (I used Glossy Accents),glue the trimmed fabric to the hoop,so it wont pull through and escape,then add a little more to the wooden hoop and fix the felt pad on,like the lid of a pie. If you want to hang your piece up,add a bit of ribbon,lace or trim in between the felt and the hoop. 

It is a lovely thing to pootle along with in the evenings,adding more and more and watching it grow into a piece you feel is finished.

I hope you have enjoyed that rather long winded tute! Now go see which stamps would make for nice needle work ;-)

A very individual Birthday tag card...thing

Hello! 

It was my little sisters birthday a few days ago (she is not that little anymore,but she will always be my little sis :-)) and I scratched my head trying to think of something she would like. She loves all the shabby chic vintagey things I make,so I was all set to do something along those lines...and then we had a girls night in and watched the movie 'Snatch',which was so utterly hilarious we did not stop laughing. Now,we have a lot of inside jokes anyway,but this film has given us a whole lot of new ones,so I made her this....

Can you spot the films characters in it?

She LOVED it! 

Hope it gave you a giggle too ;-)

More challenges,oh my!

Hello!

I have entered another challenge-This is very addictive,lol. The challenge inspiration for this card is over at the gorgeous Clearly Besotted Stamps blog,using as many or little of these colours as possible-I opted for the whole shebang ;-)

This is the CB challenge picture:

  

GORGEOUS isn't it? I am loving those colours! (The ice cream looks pretty good,too!)

So I got out all my CB stamps (there appears to be a considerable amount-ooops! I just cant walk away from the new releases empty handed,sigh) and wasnt feeling anything,until the teeny tiny Honeycomb dies fell into my lap...they looked JUST the right size to fit the Stampin' Up honeycomb embossing folder,so I offered one up. A perfect fit to just sit on the top of the ridges! (Well done Steph! Perfect sizing,lol) Then the card just happened:

The flower is a Die-namics die and the sentiment is from a Waltzingmouse set. I had to ink it,I just HAD to-I have done the white space-it still freaks me out,so I dirtied this one up ;-)

Hope you like it!

SUPPLIES USED

Dies: Clearly Besotted 'Honeycomb', Die-namics flower

Stamps: Waltzingmouse 'Frame It'

Embossing Folder: Stampin' Up

Inks: Tim Holtz 

I need you like...

Hello!

Today's card is made with a whole lotta joy at finally getting this set from Wplus9 :-)

I have been SO excited to get playing with it and this was the first thing I did (still feeling my way around my newly acquired love of CAS-but I took the plunge with this one...that is a LOT of white space! :-o  )

I stamped the milk container onto the card,then another onto vellum and embossed this with white,tucking the straw between the two layers. 

Hope you like it!

Supplies Used:

Stamps: Wplus9 'Milk & Cookies'

Dies: Wplus9 'Milk & Cookies'

Embossing folder: Tim Holtz

Extras: Vellum Polaroid frame Studio Calico, Prismacolor pencils, WOW embossing powder

A little Welsh pixie

Nearly a year ago,I casually promised one of my best friends a kitsch diorama. We had seen one on Pinterest that we both loved and pinned,and I told her I would knock one up in no time. The weeks rolled into months...still no knocking. Until yesterday!

I had the components I needed (tin,1930's ceramic pixie,astro-turf),but no theme or time to even think about a theme (sigh) but last night,hubby was home early,Tiger and Boo were happy playing,so I snook off to the craft room......

The quote is one of my absolute fave's,it is "I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night" by Sarah Williams,which I typed onto Lawn Fawn Dewy Decimal paper. The pinwheel (how cute and teeny is that?!) is a The Cat's Pajamas die and the stars are punched.
It now has to make its way,at long last,to Wales to sit upon a shelf along with a deer in a glass dome in a spot that has been waiting for it :-)

Layers of Lawn Fawn!

Hello!

I made this card today using the gorgeous Lawn Fawn Bright Side papers and Lawn Fawn Grand Greetings sentiment set,some ribbon and a flower I made a while ago from some nice retro 70's polyester (Noice!!)

It is surprisingly easy to do-I cut four circles out from each of the papers I wanted to use,using a 3/4 inch circle punch. The hardest part is lining up that first line,but once you have them in place,the rest are easy peasy. Just glue the smallest bit at the top of the circle,then you can slot all the other circles underneath. Trim any overhangs and in between each circle along the bottom and add ribbon across the top (easier said than done-I appear to be quite inadept at this seemingly simple technique :-/ ) and flower or any other embellishment and add your sentiment.

 I love the look of this card as it seems to appeal to all ages-my 3 and 7 year olds went mad over it,each requesting one (Oh great!) and my Mum and her friends love it too. So I can declare with conviction that Lawn Fawn papers are universally appealing ;-)

I hope you give this technique a try-it is great fun :-)

Lou x

Sit,HEEEL...Stay!

Hello :-)

Just showing my latest creation-a 7th birthday card for Boo's BFF,who happens to love dogs :-) 

I used the Karen Burniston accordion flip 3D album die (I LOVE LOVE LOVE this die!) and the gorgeous Lawn Fawn Critters at the Dog Park stamp set and dies,plus the Quinns ABC's and dies for the letters in the balloons,Lawn Fawn Daphne's Closet is the paper I used. The balloons and present are from Clearly Besotted,a fantastic small but growing English company. 

The end result does need a bit of man handling to get it into order,but always gets a wow from the recipient,so totally worth the blood sweat and tears ;-) 

A Shabby little Star

Hello!

Back today with a tag that is for a friend's Birthday. She is quite alternative,so something fitting had to be done! I started out thinking I would do some hot air balloons covered in itty bitty skulls (see-alternative!) but after stamping one,it just didnt seem to fit right on this gorgeous new die I have from here. So I tried something different and came up with this:

Not a skull in sight ;-) but the little bluebirds emulate a few of her tattoos,and the sentiment,although not a traditional one for a birthday card,is because she is not enjoying her work at the moment and considering her options. 

I have two poorly girls at the moment,and we are swimming in tissues (nice) but I'm hoping to get a little flower making done this evening as I found a rather awesome vintage dolls dress in a yard sale today,too tatty for dolls,but perfect for cutting up and re-purposing :-)

Have a great week!

I'll take an 'A' please,Bob!

Hello! 

I am back in the swap saddle-after a bit of a break. 

I joined Mini Album Scraps a while ago,and have been lurking,but stepped out and joined the May Tags swap,which this month (yeah,I know,it was last month ;-) ) the swap was to each make 6 pennants for a banner saying "CREATE" ,then you keep one and send 5 off. I LOVE this idea,and as the challenge was to use sepia's,browns and creams in a vintage style,well,that is me all over. So I got letter 'A',and this is it:

I cut the 'A' with my Slice and layered it up on some burlap,vintage lace,a doily and some antique music paper. The pennant itself is super duper thick chipboard sent to me by a lovely friend. I nearly broke my hand cutting through it,but at least it will not bend! I wrapped the pennant in my ever-so-useful Ikea music wrapping paper and Mod-Podged it all down (with the help of Boo and Tiger) then layered the lace and bits up over it. All the other girls have made the other letters-I can't WAIT to get the other letters!

Just Breathe

Hello! 

 Today's card is made using the awesome, Phyllis Harris set 'Just Breathe'. If you are unfamiliar with Phyllis Harris,she is an artist and illustrator and designs for magazines and Unity Stamps. Her beautifully drawn stamps capture the all innocence and joy that a childhood should be full of,and are a delight to watercolour. Being made by Unity means the deep etched rubber stamps well even on bobbly watercolour paper without gaps and skipping-just remember to use an archival waterproof ink,or your outlines will run into the watercolour!

'Just Breathe' has several sentiments included,to make the set very usable for all types of card or layouts. I chose the 'how could i ask for more?' set,because my daughters delight in the fact that Spring seems to have finally arrived has filled the house and they spend every waking moment on the lawn in the sun-this picture and sentiment sum up their Spring 2013 perfectly  :-)

The twine I used is the gorgeous Lawn Fawn lemon twine.

Hope you are having a great start to Spring too!

A party with the Pixies?

Hello!

Today's card is an party invitation. Made using the super cute Unity's Pixie-licious,it is perfect for a child's card (or a grown-up ;-))

I used a wood grain and toadstool background to add to the fairy abience and created a pocket from mulberry paper and the Martha Stewart bunny punch. The images are stamped onto white cardstock and cut out, the toadstools are on pop-dots,I mounted the pixies onto mulberry scraps. Then I attached the crayons with a piece of jute twine,popped the pixie pair into their pocket and voila! A great interactive card that is sure to bag you top notch guests at your woodland party :-D

Hope you like it!

 

Fabulous flutterings

Hello!

Wow,sunshine already-what a joy! 

Whenever the sun is out,it always makes things much more fun to do,so I cleared my crafting desk with much more enthusiasm than normal and sat down and made a good friend of mine a 40th birthday card using the gorgeous W Plus 9 (no,really? W Plus 9 again Lou?!)Layered Butterfly die,Fresh Preserves die and Avery Elle's Count on it stamp set for the sentiment. 

Using rainbow cardstock,I used the smaller of the Layered Butterfly layers to make the butterflies in the jar,and built them up bigger and bigger then used all the left over wings to make Le Grande Butterfly! I cut the Fresh Preserves jar from a scrap piece of packaging and inked the edges to make them stand out a bit. I distressed a piece of journaling paper as my base,and rummaged around in my chip board scraps box for some extra accents to add to the edge of the page.

Hope you like it!

 

Sending Prayers

Hello :-)

Today's card is a difficult one to get right. It is a sympathy card,for a dear friend.

I wanted to use Paper Smooches,as this is not often thought of for the bumps and rocks life throws at you-it is such a happy bubbly range of stamps,but it can be turned to for the other types of cards you sadly sometimes need to make.

I originally wanted to make it monotone white,but it didn't quite look right,so I used the stamps and the corresponding dies of Flap Happy (Ironic,I know). I die cut the butterflies in music sheet paper,then again in thick white card,using Jenny's technique from a few blogs back,to stamp and cut perfectly. The solid colour butterflies are embossed in white.They are all mounted onto the music sheet die cuts and focusing around a Prima bulb. 

The aim of the card is to symbolize that in times of crisis,family and friends come from all over to be together,to support and love each other,and there is a light at the end of the tunnel. 

 

Just prawn happy

Hello!

I felt like a bit of a change from my normal stuff today,so I reached for Paper Smooches Surf n Turf-I just LOVE that prawn! 

I started by cutting the top in an approximation of waves,and inked the edges. I used Tim Holtz embossing powders for the sand,as they are quite sand-like when they set. I glued the sentiment onto a cocktail stick,and popped it in his hands (he looks like he is holding something :-))

I hope you like it!

Lou 

Embrace your inner funky

Hello!

It feels like it has been forever since I posted a blog! So in celebration,I have stepped way out of my comfort zone and drawn huge  inspiration from the other girls in the Design Team and have tried to keep this card really simple and clean...ish! ;-)

I used the gorgeously retro Unity Melody Ross set 'one of a kind'-I've had this in my collection for a while now and have been itching to use the plain-Jane girls :-) I left the girls very simple,with no depth(well,just a touch in their hair) I backed the image with some gorgeous Lawn Fawn petite pack paper and some of their teal twine with a vintage orange flower button from my stash. Very unusual for me-I actually cut up some paper! Shock horror! I am a massive paper hoarder-a real fire hazard. I collect it then stash it away,occasionally stroking it,but NEVER cutting into it,lol. Aaaaand I didn't distress or ink any edges! I'm feeling very proud of the 

plain white I managed not to stain ;-)

So,it is goodbye from me for this week,hope you like the card and the new look website ;-)

Spring Greens!

Hellooooo!

Today I have made an almost  monochromatic card,using Paper Smooches A Magical Spring set,which at first glance may look like just a St Patrick's Day set,but you can use it in so many ways,it can be used throughout the year.
I have an awesome friend who is going through a tough spot at the moment,but she is not one for soppy sentiments,so this little greeny will be winging its way to her.

I used the rather handy W Plus 9 Clear Hearts Stacker to make the shamrocks,both the large and the small,inked the edges to add a little depth (and I cant seem to go past a project without inking it SOMEWHERE),coloured the leprechaun and his best mate birdie,and backed them on white so they didn't get lost,ran the main body of the card through swiss dots embossing folder-again to help differentiate the different areas of the monotone card,blinged the centers (well,you just have to don't you?!)and attached the smaller shamrock with a very fine gauge piece of wire. It sproinged around too much,so I had to anchor it down with a pop dot.

I hope you are having an awesome start to Spring (despite the random snow!)There are lots of lovely Spring inspired sets in the shop at the moment,with more on the way,so go check them out when you have a few moments :-)

Circle Journal Blast off!

Hello!

A while ago I was invited to take part in a small Circle Journal group on FaceBook. This,bizarrely, is my first ever swap here in England,lol. We could choose our theme and size and any rules we wanted to encourage,and initially I chose Altered Birds for my theme,as I love these and it gives quite a wide margin on what can be done. Unfortunately the making of the journal took place exactly when I took over Make The Day Special,so I got off to a veeeeery slow start,plus at that time,my eldest daughter was having a tough time on chemo,so I had to put a halt on a few extra curricular activities. When I tried to make the covers,I was struggling so much to get inspiration that in the end I thought  'You know what,life's too short to be doing something you don't enjoy-I am doing this bad boy on something I really love and makes me happy! Something I am always inspired to craft on;Halloween. (and Autumn,if one of the ladies doesn't celebrate Halloween).' Thus,the new improved CJ was born! I lobbed 3 inches off the covers to make them 6x6" and gathered some bits and bobs together for my theme; 

***

I made a flower using my favorite technique that I used for the Shabby Chic Swap,with a Halloween bottle top that I got in a Swap last year for the center,and I FINALLY tucked in to my stupidly hard to get over here Ravenhead Manor paper and embellishments that was so kindly sent to me in a RAK (You know who you are,and I still love you madly for that ;-) ) Slowly a front cover emerged. I got the sewing machine down and covered the covers in old black silk (there is a LOT of machine work on this journal! lol It is more fabric than paper )

The inside cover and next page:

***

My double page effort: (I wanted a sort of creepy vintage childhood diary feel to these-pinned insects,moths in jars,old hairclips,precious personal ephemera.)

 I tried to replicate the hair clip from the photo,but with an old feel. Like it had been in there for a while-precious,documented,kept.

***

And the sign in pages at the back:

 And the back cover:

It has now been sent off to catch up with the others :-) I cant wait to get it back in a year and see what everyone has done :-D