Ariel Tilda

Hi hi!

Ok,so remember a while ago I said I had been working on some Magnolia Tilda cards? Well this is the one I made for Boo's fourth birthday. This post is pic heavy! You have been warned ;-)

As a huge,and I mean HUGE Little Mermaid fan,there really was only one choice of card to make her hehehe,and I had just the right stamp...

Shimmer shimmer! This card is so blinged up the camera had trouble papping it!

The taggy :-)

So,there it is. Her face when she saw it was perfect <3

The thing I love most about this card is it was all just plain white. Every. Single. Piece. Just white. Add a little Distress Inks here and there,a little Perfect Pearls,a little Crackle Glaze and Frantage and voila! 

I love what I do :-)

Entering this into Tilda's Town challenge #115 By The Sea (Water)

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

Iced (bitter)sweetness

Hola!

Its still cold and wet here in Cambridgeshire,but that will not stop me dreaming about Summer! No way ,so I dug out one of my first ever Lawn Fawn sets Here's The Scoop,MFT Peekaboo Trio and faced my nemesis,my sewing machine. (Brief back story: my sewing machine and I were besties once. We did everything together,cards,tags,bunting-there wasn't a job we couldn't do together. Until I gave it a card to sew that I had spent literally FOREVER on. Completely oblivious of its evil intentions,I fed my precious hard work under its foot and.... SQUARL-NASH!!! (That was the actual sound it made) it ate my card in one go :-O (That was my actual face I made) Since prying out my tattered card from under its destructive foot,we haven't spoken. I even put its dust cover on it (Kind of like a naughty chair for sewing machines) UNTIL TODAY!
 I had eyed up Virginia's View sewing challenge when it opened up.
 I looked at the naughty machine in its dust cover and wondered if it had learnt its lesson.... I got it set up,and put some nice sunny aqua thread on its spool...I cautiously made up my card and introduced it to the machine. The machine looked shifty. I gave the machine a warning in my best stern voice. I put my card along with its heap of glitter (in hindsight,maybe best to be a bit more sparing with the sparkles)under its nonchalant foot,shut my eyes and pushed the foot peddle...

 Not a whisper of malice,it just calmly went round the border,as asked...

As if nothing had ever happened...

Has it changed? Is it a reformed machine? Was it just having an off day? Who knows! But at least I can enter the challenge and think about forgiveness ;-)

Forgiven,machine. Forgiven....(but not forgotten!)

Lou x

A nearly naked Tilda!

Hellooo!

Ok,this is an unusual post for me,as I own many,many Magnolia Tilda stamps and dies,and I paint them a lot,but I have never assembled one into an actual card until a few weeks ago (yet to be blogged) But LOOK! I made a card! 

Its officially Spring. I know this because Tiger and Boo are out on their bikes,picking dandelions and just loving staying outside until well into the evenings. They inspired me to use one of my absolute fave Tilda stamps...

 I LOVE this stamp sooo much! We live in Cambridge,one of the two bike capitals of Britain,so maybe that's another reason I love this set ;-)

It is of course On The Road Tilda,and like I said,sums up my girls 100% when the days get longer :-)

I coloured her with Distress markers and Re-inkers and am linking this up to the #93 CAS challenge over at Totally Tilda

Thank you for looking!

Lou x

Mama

Hello!

Todays card is the Mothers Day card I made my wonderful elephant loving Mama. (I couldnt blog it BEFORE she got it now,could I? ;-) ) So here it is. Very CAS for me,( her previous ones have been pretty shabby chic and grungey) but it covers everything I wanted to say to her :-)

I used Lawn Fawn's Love you Tons for the elephant,coloured with Prismacolour pencils and Mama Elephant Sketchy Letters (LOVE this set!) for the 'Mama'

This is going into the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge 'Anything Goes' and as part of the DT for Make The Day Special Stamp Store first blog challenge,also 'Anything Goes' (Gotta love those Anything Goes,right?) Make sure you hop on over to keep on top of those challenges ;-D

I hope your Mother Day was as awesome as mine :-D

Lou 

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 bag of thanks

Hello!

Just a quick share of a thank you card I made for my lovely Godparents. They are very chic and not at all shabby,so had to curb my natural style for this! 

 The stamps are Clearly Besotted and the little paper bag is the endlessly cute Memory Box die I used for the Halloween candy bags on the postcard swap a while back.
I putting this into the Cute Card Thursday Springtime Challenge  :-)
Lou x

Sunny flowers

Hello!

Well,the little sun we had today has well and truly G.O.N.E! Ah well,while it was around I made my stepfathers Birthday card using one of my favourite Flourishes sets,the gorgeous Sunflowers. Now,being a man of few words and very much un-frilly,this card had to be as clear and straight forward as he is. This is what I came up with

I stamped the image onto a piece of vintage linen and frayed the edges. Then I stacked that onto a piece of golden yellow cotton,which was then stacked onto a piece of florists voile (I had to stop myself after that-or I would just keep on stacking! ;-) ) I machine sewed around the boarder and mounted it all onto a piece of nice masculine bark print paper. I used colours to imply the hues of a sunflower whist keeping the image colour free. I think he will like it. He is an avid gardener and horticulturist,so I think this will score me some Brownie points ;-)

As this has no colour I'm entering it into the Flourishes Timeless Tuesday Challenge Less = More! :-)

Lou x

What a little star!

Hellooo hello hello!

Sun...? Is that you sun? Wow,I think it is- Long time no see!

And to welcome it back,I have made a card. Not just any card,but a card for the inevitable flurry of small people's Birthdays that come with the Spring and Summer (always good to make a few of these for stand-by) So the first is dusting off my old trusty favorite Birthday set (although not technically an old set,it's one that hasn't seen the light of day for a loooong time),Lawn Fawn's Critters at the Dog Park. I was hunting through all my stamps for a potential ballet star,and when I saw the sausage dog,with her ickle toes all pointy,well,she just needed a teeny tutu and voila! (P.S.-making tiny dog tutu's on a Saturday morning while the children kept 'helping'-not easy!)

I thought I would use kraft linen press card to make her 'base coat' for a change from white-I think I like it! She has a Stickles (also a dusting off item) waistband and a Glossy Accents nose,here,have a close up...

Right,I'm dashing off-better stop procraftinating and make some dinner ;-D

Popping this card in for the Lawnscaping Challenge Dust 'Em Off and Bunny Zoe's Challenge Hearts/Love.

Lou x

Raining wisdom

Hello from a wildly wet and windy Cambridge :-)

 Wow,we are being blown into March this month! So without further ado, this is what I have been up to today. Its a tag inspired by our recent weather and the lush Waltzingmouse Fanatics colour challenge over here. I luuurve these shades,so rummaged through my inks only to find I ONLY HAVE 3 PURPLES!!! Shock horror! That needs to be rectified with a shopping trip I think :-)

I used Waltzingmouse Asian Gardens Additions-a set I have never inked before,and an awful lot of various inks,ribbon and embossing powders...

The 'sparkly' cloud is embossed using Fran-tage AgedAqua,the other clouds are embossed in Distress Embossing powders Weathered Wood,then the outline embossed in WOW Brilliant White. The rain is embossed in a really old shimmer embossing powder. This is the colour pallet:

(No,I didnt hold back-I used EVERY colour on there!)

Well,thats all for me today,now to clear up all the mess I made,sigh... ;-)

Lou x

Frankly my dear....

Hello! 

Wow,we are having early April weather over here in sunny/showery Cambridgeshire! Here's hoping for some rainbows...

Toddler mayhem reined supreme this morning,but it has gone quiet now (I don't know whether to celebrate or panic-toddler silence is not usually a good sign lol ;-) ) so off I crept to blog. Todays card is made using a set I havent inked up before,CAS-ual Fridays 'Frankly'. I LOVE this set,such an awesome sentiment idea <3

I used the chalkboard technique,and think it works rather well with this set :-)
As the flower sticks out over the edge,I am popping this into the CAS-ual Fridays Challenge

Tim Holtz 12 Tags of 2014 January

Hello!

Like any self respecting crafter,I love Tim Holtz. I love him very much indeed. Yet,unlike any self respecting Tim Holtz loving crafter I have never delved into the fabulousness that is the 12 Tags of ---- ... Why? Pure ignorance! I had no idea what it was all about (Plus I hadn't discovered the addiction of challenges yet ;-) ) But this has all been rectified now,so without further ado, here is my version of the January 2014 tag:

 I had SO much fun doing this! The background is a stencil my friend made me with her Cameo,I added some of the really cute teeny tiny watch cogs I have been hoarding like Smaug,added Tattered Wings with some painted burnt tulle between them for a bit of dimension,and then abandoning my original 'time flies' idea,went for a darker Edgar Allen Poe feel with my beloved Smeared Ink Quoth The Raven stamp set. A few bits and bobs from my Idea-ology stash got selected. The little 'January' taggy thingy is a 7Gypsies fabric sticker cut down,grubbied up and stapled on. And finally a sprinkling of Frantage aged silver and aged green was liberally applied...gotta learn some restraint with this stuff ;-)

How about a closer look...

This was the first time I have used Grungeboard,oh boy-I am addicted! (I had to try and stop myself from just stroking and sniffing it! That stuff is ah-mazing!) 
I LOVE LOVE LOVED making this-I cant wait for February's tag to be revealed!!! And the rest of the year!! Thank you Tim,you genius you ;-)

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

Never forget.

Happy New Year!

Flying in quickly today with a present I made for my wonderful brave cousin who is in the RAF and has just been posted quiet close to us (yay!!). This die is new and I bought it with him in mind,it's the gorgeous Susan's Garden Poppy die from Sizzix. Why all the new stuff? I am entering it into the SSS Wednesday Challenge over here,which this week is 'Something New',so new stash for me,new post for my little cousin :-)

A while back I was at a car boot sale with my sister and came across a wonderful stall selling WW1 and 2 memorabilia. He had a few old mortar shells which are ironically very beautiful,and I instantly thought of crafty things I could do with them. Fast forward to a month ago when I finally got around to making something. Here it is,very simple.

I typed 'remember' onto antique music paper and stuck it onto the stem (no easy feat as it is super thin!)

I hope you like it,I hope he liked it!

Until next time!

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

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

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

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