Happy little birdie

Hi hi :-)

Happy nearly weekend :-D Today is my DT day over at Make the Day Special Stamp Store-Throwback Thursday.

I know some of my posts can dubiously be called 'Throwback',but todays post is TRULY a throwback. I used  the gloriously vintage Paper Smooches Chubby Chum Pals and the not so quite as vintage Think Fast to create a card one of my favourite quotes

I know,I know-its a chicken,but it could be a seagull. If you half squint. And look from a distance ;-)

He and the fries are water coloured and the packet is paper pieced and the sentiment typed with my trusty vintage typewriter. Then a little stitching around the edge in 'fry' colour to finish it off.

I am poping this into the Paper Smooches Anything Goes Challenge

Right,thats all from me-Im off to fulfill this cards demand ;-)

Lou x

Autumn thoughts already

Hello!

Yup,Autumn thoughts already-My most favourite season <3 I usually start thinking Autumn thoughts after December,to be honest and filling my Pinterest boards with rich reds,golds and all things Fall.

So todays card is made using the ever fabulous Paper Smooches. Pretty much just all dies lol! I used Pocket,Thanks and Leaves 1 for this. 

I cut the leaves from vellum then stained them with alcohol inks. The swirls are stamped from the Flap Happy set and the stitching along the pocket is from Needle Little Love (LOVE that set) All are available from Make The Day Special Stamp Store. I got my inspiration for this card from the MtDS current challenge here 

with this lush colour palette

Yup,think I've managed to get every single one of those colours in there! 

LOVE those leaves! <3

I am entering this into the Paper Smooches Anything Goes challenge 

 

Lou x

Hang in there

Hello!

Its my day over at Make The Day Special Stamp Store and the DT have a colour challenge this week

So here is my 'card'-a slightly different card this week,using some of my hoarded old packaging as its base and the gorgeous Paper Smooches Briny Blue and Surf and Turf and the sentiment  is from Hang Ups. I hoard packaging like,well,like a participant on Extreme Hoarding,but I do USE it,so I can justify the piles of chipboard and plastic dotted around the craft room...can't I? ;-)

Anyway,I have been holding onto this piece of floppy clear plastic forever,waiting for its true purpose to be realised ;-) Static does a lot of the work for you holding things in place,so there is no need for any adhesive in this type of card. All the sea folk are stamped and painted onto watercolour card,using the colour palette. I stamped,coloured and cut everything I thought I would use and arranged it. Then carefully sandwiched it together and machine sewed loose rings around the outside in a sand coloured thread. The jellyfish and seahorse needed a little extra anchoring,so I ran a few stitches through them,voila! Can be hung anywhere to catch the light :-)

Close up of the glittery Jellies in floaty action...

Yes they have a light coat of stickles-I think I am still coughing up glitter from Boo's birthday invite wands! I seem to have gotten a little addicted to glitter now...

This card will be winging its way all the way to Byron Bay Australia to reside on a sunny windowsill overlooking the ocean,where it properly belongs :-)

But before that,I'm putting it in the Paper Smooches Sparks 'Anything Goes' challenge over here

And in the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Glitter it Challenge here

Hope you like it! 

Lou x

A little rainbow magic...

Greetings from glitter fueled pre-4 year old Birthday party chaos!
Its my day over at Make The Day Special Stamp Store.

My littlest one is about to turn 4,and being the most girly girl ever,her invites (under strict instruction from her) have just been made. I was given my brief-glitter,a unicorn,glitter,something magicy,glitter,oooh a wand!,glitter,RAINBOWS! and er,....glitter. So,with this in mind I reached for my newest Paper Smooches set, Spectrum. Those of you with little princesses must have heard of the ultimate in My Little Pony colour-Rainbow Dash?  Well,Spectrum can offer a very close second...Ladies and gentlemen,I give to you (drum roll) Lovely Unicorn Rainbow Hair! (As named by its tiny 3 year old architect)

These are the party invites (I'm lucky she is only having four guests!) The time and date and other essentials are written on the back so that the recipient has a usable memento after all boring yet essential details are noted.  And yes,there is glitter EVERYWHERE! Neon glitter around the edge,no less than three different types of Stickles adorn the unicorn on hooves and horn and there is yet more glitter on the back,with a light dusting of,yup,glitter across the sky and finished with a gemstone bottom. The craft room looks like Smaugs lair,glittering and twinkling as it waits for the hoover. The stick part are straws wrapped with washi tape (quite a therapeutic activity) and the ribbons are cemented with hot glue between the stars,along with my most of my fingertips. All the stress was more than made up for when each little girl opened up the envelope and pulled out her wand-pure joy :-)  I will leave you with another picture,just for good measure...

I LOVE the Spectrum set-as with all Paper Smooches stamps,there is so much scope in one set,but I don't think I can look at the unicorn again without seeing it covered in glitter and a mane of multi colour ;-) Swinging these guys over to the Paper Smooches Sparks 'Anything Goes' Challenge (Lets hope they mean ANYTHING! Lol) 

Happy Thursday folks,

Lou x

I love you more than coupons!

Hello!

Wow,now that really is love! 

We don't coupon as much here in England as you guys State side do,but we do love a good bargain ;-) and I love watching Extreme Couponing on TLC-the organization in some of those garages is astounding!

Anyway,so I fell in love with the Paper Smooches Market Fresh,but it sadly hasn't seen any ink action...until now! I was struck by the idea that the Hot Spots large base could be a page of newspaper with a coupon already cut out. Sure enough,as always with Paper Smooches,the funny sentiment fit just perfectly in the cut out piece. Then I had the idea to use the chevrons on the other die in the pack as writing squiggles (like you used to do as a child,or was that just me?!) and voila,Hot Spots makes an awesome newspaper!

Yes,that is a lil' Chubby Chum sneaking on there-I think he makes a rather dashing reporter,don't you?

I'm entering this into the Paper Smooches Sparks 'Anything Goes' Challenge, and the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge

Lou x

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

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 

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 :-)

A very vintage cupcake card

Hello!

The card I made this week was for my gorgeous cousin,who turned 16 on Wednesday. She is a skilled baker for her age,and loves cupcakes and Cath Kidston,so I had a think,and used the gorgeously versatile new Paper Smooches Cupcake die and a few pages from the new Lawn Fawn petite pad,Daphne's Closet(which,by the way,makes awesome cupcake pieces!) I set the whole cake on a little doily,inked the edges black to make the cakes separate bits stand out,added a bit of ribbon and tule and voila! Really really simple to make,and loads of room left on the paper for many other things-what a great die!

Bon appétit!