Blog hop and birthday competition …

 

 

Morning all, to kick off the birthday celebrations we are having a competition and a fun LOTV design team blog hop!

Make sure you visit all the blogs on the list because, as usual, there will be hidden prizes along the way and the winners will be picked at random from the comments that are left on the cards

For the competition we’d simply like you to make a card for Lili of the Valley’s 9th birthday. The design team have all made a birthday card for the hop which should give you a few ideas

You can enter using the linky on the blog, you can upload your card to Facebook, or if you don’t have either of those you can email a picture of your card to admin@liliofthevalley.co.uk ...it doesn’t matter how you enter as all the cards will go into the prize draw (please note that to make it fair you can only enter your card once)

The competition closes at 6pm on Saturday the 2^nd of March

The winning card will be drawn at random ...and because it’s our 9^th birthday the prize is 9 stamps of your choice worth over £40.00 woohoo!!

We will also pick our top 3 from all the entries and these cards will be featured on the Ideas to Inspire blog

That’s not all ...the designers of our top 3 cards will be asked to join Lili of the Valley for a much sought after guest DT spot, there’s a waiting list so that’s a fabulous prize and a great chance to get some exposure for your own work!!

The rules are simple;

1. Make us a birthday card using a Lili of the Valley image

2. Mention the competition on your own blog and put this image on your sidebar

 

 

 

Start here to join in with the blog hop and follow the links, don’t forget to comment as you go to be in with a chance of winning a hidden prize;

 

Ideas to Inspire

Anne (you’re here!)

Dawny

Dena

Elise

Fleur

Gretha

Lou

Mindy

Moni

Pops

 

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Here’s my birthday card and I’ve used Armfuls Of Daisies…

 

 

 

 

I like this colour scheme, the papers are from the First Edition ‘sweet owl’ pad

The border is a Crealies die topped with some Tim Holtz Ideaology rose ribbon

The fence is a Magnolia DooHickey die

I used a sentiment from Handwritten Phrases and mounted it on Spellbinders Labels 1

 

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Enjoy the hop  …and good luck in the competition!!

 

   

 

 

 

The lost balloon …

 

 

 

Hi everybody, hope you’re all having a lovely weekend

I’ve been making a few tags lately and this is one I did using LOTV’s The Lost Balloon…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I cut out the little bunnies and stuck them on with Pinflair, it’s a happy tag so I didn’t use the poor little fella that had lost his balloon lol!!

The sentiment is from Greetings Postmarks and the scrumptious green and pink papers are from the new Perfect Pair pad

 

The trees were made with the Dee’s dies stacker tree, I’ve only seen this used on Christmas cards and they look nice in bright colours, it’s a versatile die because you can use as many or as few layers as you want for different size trees

 

I stuck some tulle on the tag from The Ribbon Girl, I love it and have been putting it on all my cards recently, it gives great texture without adding another layer

I paper pieced the balloons and they’re stuck with Pinflair, the strings are bits of silver wire that I had in my stash

The die behind the sentiment is a Nellies die, the button twine and ribbon are also from The Ribbon Girl and the mini pompoms are Tilda from the Lili of the Valley shop

Finally it’s finished off with stickles  …can’t resist using a bit of glitter!

 

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Hope you like it, enjoy the rest of your evening and make sure you don’t miss the Lili of the Valley birthday blog hop and competition tomorrow

 

 

 

12 tags of 2013, January …

 

 

 

Good evening bloggers, hope everyone is well?

 

I’ve had another busy week; we took my daughter off to college at the weekend, she’s gone initially for 3 months and I miss her already…

…she’s going to ride and train racehorses which is super exciting for her, she’s always been horse mad and has ridden since she was little

If she decides to carry on and make a career of it she’ll go straight on to a 2 year apprenticeship in a racing stables and probably won’t come home  …my first baby left and I feel very sad :(

 

(I started cleaning her bedroom though and I certainly won’t miss her mess lol)

 

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I don’t know if you have seen the tags that Tim Holtz does, it started as the 12 tags of Christmas and then last year he did one a month, here’s the link if you haven’t seen them http://timholtz.com/category/12-tags-of-2013/

 

 

This is the January tag, there’s a good tutorial for each one and a list of supplies, you can copy it or make your own version…

 

 

 

 

I promised myself that I would have a go at doing them in 2012, I want to try something a bit different but never got round to it

This year I’m determined to do them all and (better late than never!) here’s my version of the January tag …

 

 

 

 

 

 

I don’t have anything with cogs, not my thing, so I used stars instead and a dotty embossing folder

The wording is a Stempleglede stamp that I’ve had for a while and never used, it stamped beautifully and I’ll be using it again for sure

I didn’t have a clue how to use the film strip so I was glad to see that feature on the tag

The wooden star buttons were in my stash and just happened to match nicely

I followed most of the instructions properly and even did the water drop stage and stamped on the ribbon. I dried it straight away as instructed but it still bled quite a bit so I must have gone wrong somewhere with that

 

 

I was too late to enter this one but I did look at the entries and they varied from being an exact copy of his to a very vague interpretation so I think anything goes really   …it was good to try something new and I enjoyed making it

 

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As always your comments are appreciated and I enjoy reading them  …so let me know what you think

 

Enjoy the rest of your evening

 

 

Ribbon Girl colour challenge …

 

 

Good morning crafters, and it’s a glorious day today. A bit of a frosty start but the sky is lovely and blue and it feels like Spring is on the way

I pegged some washing out yesterday for the first time since October and it all dried …hooray! It’s a bit sad I know but I feel very satisfied when all my washing can be put out on the line, I hate having to do it all in the dryer and on the radiators!

 

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It’s time for another colour challenge over at the Ribbon Girl blog

This one is easy - simply create a project using the colours of turquoise or aqua

The challenge will run for one week until Saturday 23rd February 9PM (UK time)

 

There’s this picture to give you some colour guidance and the design team have made some gorgeous cards so there is lot’s of lovely inspiration for you

 

 

 

As usual there are fabulous prizes for the randomly selected winner of the challenge:

A £10 voucher to spend in Lili of the Valley online store where they have fabulous new stamps for Spring

 

…and a £10 voucher to spend in The Ribbon Girl online store which has beautiful ribbons and embellishments for every craft project

 

 

 

 

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This is my interpretation, it’s not colours I’d usually use but I actually really like them

I have so many Magnolia stamps and they are sadly neglected so I thought I’d dig out a Tilda for this card…

 

 

 

 

You can find all of my embellishments in The Ribbon Girl shop;

 

picot edge cream lace

aqua sparkle bead trim

Kort and Godt rolled paper roses

ZVA Creative flourishes

 

The gorgeous papers are Authentique and the sentiment is a Lili of the Valley one from the handwritten phrases set which I use a lot

 

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I think it’s time I changed my frosty blog theme to a more cheery one if Spring is just around the corner so I’m going to try and find time to do that today  …have a lovely day everyone xx

 

 

 

The Ribbon Girl …Bling & Bridal Giveaway

 

 

 

Good morning everyone, hope you’re all having a good weekend

I’ve been awol and that’s because I’ve acquired a serious Pinterest addiction in the last week   …oh my, how those hours fly by!

I have a couple of cards to share so I’ll put them on early next week  …if I can drag myself away from my pin boards!

 

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There is a fantastic Bling & Bridal Giveaway on the Ribbon Girl Blog today so make sure you pop over there next for a chance at winning this amazing candy, you gotta be in it to win it girls  …

 

 

 

 

1 metre of ivory faux silk

1 metre of 5mm white pearl bead string

1 metre of 3mm iridescent bead string

1 metre of 16mm ivory pleated satin braid

1 x 50cm piece of ivory pearl rose organza

1 bunch of diamante stephanotis

1 bunch of small ivory gardenia

1 x 15mm clear crystal and diamante embellishment

1 x 22mm ivory pearl and diamante round embellishment

1 x 25mm 'Starburst' diamante embellishment

 

To enter just be a follower of the Ribbon Girl Blog, leave them a comment and place a link on your own blog  …easy!

The winner will be announced on Saturday 16th February 

 

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We have snow forecast again for today so I won’t be moving far  …hoping to do a bit of crafting

Manny loves the snow but when his legs get cold he starts to ache so I can’t let him play out for too long

 

 

 

 

 

I promised myself I’d do the Tim Holtz tags of 2013 this year and it’s already not going to plan, I haven’t finished January yet and the February tag is up! Never mind, better late than never!

 

 

Thanks for stopping by, enjoy the rest of the weekend

 

 

 

I’m in bother …

 

 

Good morning girls, I’m in trouble today. Those of you that have been visiting my blog for a while might remember that a few months ago I lost my wedding ring

I’d given up all hope of it ever turning up and my Husband bought me a new one only a couple of weeks ago (and of course I picked the dearest one lol)

Well you know what I’m going to say   …I was rummaging in my towel drawer to get out a clean towel last night and there shining at the bottom was my wedding ring!

I thought I’d looked everywhere, it must have come off when I was getting a towel out. It was probably in between the pile and as they get used and washed and pulled in and out of the drawer it’s dropped down to the bottom, he wasn’t happy with me   …ooops!

 

 

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I have something a bit different to show you today, this is a gift bag I decorated before Christmas and it’s the first one I’ve done.

I don’t generally make larger cards so it was fun to have the bigger area to play with for a change…

 

 

 

 

I used an old Lili of the Valley bag and covered the printed side

We do sell plain ones in the shop now just for decorating and they’ve proved to be very popular

I embossed black and yellow core’dinations card and then trimmed round the edge with some lace from The Ribbon Girl

 

 

 

 

 

I used the Merry Christmas Penguins Mini Masterpiece sheet, the largest size one was perfect for this project

 

All the little embellishments were made with the Grunge Christmas Postmarks set

 

I trimmed the bag with some Wild Orchid Craft flowers and some mini bead string which I love for looping in between the flowers. We have it in the LOTV shop and I think you can also get it from The Ribbon Girl

 

Finally I went around the edges with some Distress Stickles

 

 

 

 

The little matching tag was made with the smallest image on the sheet  …this size is perfect for tags

 

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Hope you like it, thanks for stopping by  …and have a lovely day everyone

 

 

 

 

 

Ribbon Girl Card Challenge …

 

 

Hi everyone, hope you’re having a lovely weekend so far

I was working yesterday, it was my turn to do the Saturday in the Lili of the Valley shop so if you came along it was nice to see you. It was quite busy because we have the new Spring stamps and the scrummy paper pads which have been really popular

 

We went to see the new Denzel Washington film ‘Flight’, Keith and I rarely like the same films so it was nice to be able to go together and it was very good. I usually go to the cinema with my daughter or a friend, I went to see Les Miserables with Jess and enjoyed that but Keith wouldn’t have sat through it – not his thing at all

 

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There’s another Card Challenge over at the Ribbon Girl blog today, the first of 2013.

Just like last year there will be a Card Challenge on the first Sunday of every month which will run for a week and this month we want to see your 'Love You or Valentine’ cards

 

The Card Challenge is sponsored by Lili Of The Valley who are offering the winner a stamp of their choice and the Ribbon Girl who have given a £10 voucher towards a spending spree in their online store

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is some amazing inspiration from the Design Team so make sure you go and have a peek at their cards. All the items they’ve used from the Ribbon Girl store are listed too to make it easier for you

 

That’s it from me, enjoy the rest of your Sunday …and do pop back tomorrow when I have something a bit different to show you x