Polar Bear Pals…

Good evening crafty friends, are you all ready for Christmas? We have a whole year to plan for it yet here I am again rushing around at the last minute trying to get things done. I did a big food shop today and got the last of the pressies wrapped so I think I’m getting there now

I did manage to make most of my cards this year, I love these Polar Bear stamps from MFT and until a couple of weeks ago I thought it was a Christmas set. I’ve never used the sentiments and just found out they are actually birthday stamps but I like using them for Christmas

I used them with the Memory Box grand ‘Merry Christmas’ die and some Cheery Lynn snowflakes for these quick cards…

Here’s another one, I made a few the same as this. The large snowflake is cut from card and layered three times to make an embellishment. I’ve been doing this a lot with die cuts, especially sentiments and I like the effect 

These are a bit different for me, I hope you like them for a change

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I probably won’t be doing another post before Christmas so I’d like to just say thanks so much for visiting my blog and for your support throughout the year

Have a wonderful Christmas everyone

Just a note…

Good evening lovelies. Hope you are all well and have something nice planned for the weekend

Two posts in one week from me, that’s a got to be a first but I’ve been making a few cards using the new bears from Lili of the Valley so I’d thought I’d share these because they are on sale NOW!

This sweet image is called ‘Greg - Just a Note’ and is available in rubber, digi, or simply print…

I wanted pale pastel colours because these were for new baby cards, I find it hard to achieve that effect with markers so I used distress inks and made a wash. I should have done the letter a different colour looking at them but overall I got the look I wanted

The ‘sending love and hugs’ is done with a useful Wplus9 stamp/die set from Seven Hills Craft and the baby girl sentiment is a swirly string sentiment from LOTV

I used some Tonic jewel drops on the top card too which is my new favourite product!

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Hope you like them, there are some great launch offers on the new bears so get in early because they are only for a limited time

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Thanks so much for stopping by, I really appreciate you visiting and for taking the time to leave me a comment

Have a great weekend everyone 

New bears!

Hello crafty friends!

It’s been longer than I planned between posts (again!) but the weeks just seem to whizz by

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Keith is getting on nicely after his operation; thanks so much to everyone who asked after him. He got his stitches out last week so is able to get about a bit better now without all the padding. Just needs time to heal now but he’s not very patient and because it’s bone it will be a few more weeks yet!

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I did a lovely workshop at the weekend, journals and mini albums which I thoroughly enjoyed. It was the last one of the year so I need to make sure I put into practise what I learnt

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My nephew and his girlfriend had their baby so I’m a great Aunt (doesn’t that sound old and matronly!) She’s absolutely perfect and will be spoiled by everyone. She’s the first baby in our small family since my youngest nephew who is 20 so we were all very excited  for her arrival and my Mum has been knitting furiously for the last 6 months…

Onto my cards and Lili of the Valley have a new image launch this Friday and they’re going Bear crazy!

There are lots of new stamps including a set of alphabet and number bears and also introducing a sweet new bear called Greg

This one is called Greg Cupcake…

and this is a card with the alphabet bears that I made for a friend…

These alphabets and numbers are going to be so useful

There are lovely samples and plenty of inspiration to be found on the pinterest board where you can see the full collection

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Thanks so much for stopping by, have a lovely evening all

News, and Modern Misses…

Good morning lovelies, it’s a beautiful day and I’m going to try and spend a bit of time in the garden later to get some winter pansies in and cut things back before the brown bin collection stops. I’m always a bit sad when the bedding plants die off, I love the garden to be full of colour but there was a mild frost this morning and it looks to have killed the last of them

I’ve had a busy few weeks, we had a lovely break in Venice; what a beautiful place. We didn’t have enough time to see all the islands so will definitely go back next year to do what we missed

Then we had Rolo for a week, my Daughter’s dog. He’s a sweet little thing but he’s a monkey – Manny went to my Mum’s for a rest! He likes going to his Grandma’s, he gets her undivided attention and lots of treats

Keith had an operation on his foot on Wednesday; he had a bunion but he’s never ill, never been in hospital and is a terrible patient. He’s in a lot of pain and they’ve said to try and keep it up for 3 weeks until his stitches come out. I’d happily sit there with a box set and some chocolate but he doesn’t generally watch much tv  so he’s very bored – he’s even been watching Jeremy Kyle!! I didn’t realise what a routine I have until he’s here upsetting it, we’ll be driving each other mad after a few days!

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Something different today, LOTV have brought out some new Thoroughly Modern Miss images, there are 12, one for each month and they are a bit different from their usual style. They’re not in rubber yet until they see how popular they are but you can get digi’s or Simply Print

I’ve done a couple of mixed media workshops with Kate Crane so I thought I’d put it into practice and try a journal page, I printed the image large and paper pieced her then layered the page with inks, stencils, stamps and papers. It’s bit busy, that’s the intended effect but it’s hard to know when to stop so I’m interested to know what you think. The flowers under the cloud were an accident but I quite like how it looks like it’s raining flowers on her!

There is also a little card that I made with one of the Simply Print sheets…

Hope you like them, you can get the images and some extra bits on the LOTV website now

That’s it from me, thanks for stopping by and have a lovely weekend crafty friends

New simply prints and a retro challenge…

Hello crafty friends, oh my I can’t believe it’s so long again since I posted. Where on earth do these weeks go?

 

It’s a quick post, I’m going on holiday tomorrow to Italy (Venice and Verona this time) so I thought I’d better draw a candy winner and just let you know about the new LOTV simply print images before I go

 

Thanks for your lovely comments, I numbered them and then did a random number generator, the winner is Crafty Chris. Email me your address Chris and thanks to everyone who visits and comments on my blog

 

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There are some new simply print designs at Lily of the Valley. If you haven’t seen them they are coloured images just ready to print and use, fabulous for quick cards

 

 

 

The October Facebook challenge is Retro Lili of the Valley. This month you need to dig out the first LOTV stamp or product that you bought, or one of the first! This wasn’t my first stamp but it is an old one that was discontinued and such a cutie. It was never in the old style art pads so I’m really pleased to see it’s been brought back as a printable image

 

I used papers from a very useful Joy Crafts pad called Happy Holidays, the pine branch die is Marianne and the sentiment was computer generated

 

The challenge is open until the 15th and as always some great prizes up for grabs so get routing through your stash for those first buys!

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I’ll be watching Victoria while I finish packing and then it’s bed for me, we only live 5 minutes from the airport but it’s still going to be an early start

 

Have a lovely week all

 

 

Candy and new LOTV…

Hello crafty friends, despite good intentions it’s been a couple of weeks since my last post. But, I have been busy and spent quite a lot of time crafting

As promised I have some 400 follower candy today…

..a few bits I gathered together for a little giveaway

I bought the pastels hoping they were water soluble after seeing a technique but they’re not, they weren’t expensive but someone might appreciate them. There is a stamp set, a flower die, some flowers and a bundle of ribbon. No sharing required, it’s just for my lovely followers so leave me a comment and I’ll draw a winner at random to get the goodies

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LOTV have a new stamp launch, its the 2nd part of their 2017 Christmas range and there are some adorable images – most are available in rubber, digi and simply print so something for everyone

The challenge for September is a colour one, just make a card or project using this colour palette…

Remember you have to use a Lili of the Valley image, there are great prizes up for grabs as always and you can enter here

Lovely colours aren’t they, can be Christmassy but lots of other options

I chose to do a Christmas card, these 2 cuties are from the Woodland Scenes collection…

I used some MFT papers, love the bright colours. I can’t remember where I got the die but it’s green so I’m thinking it might be Lea’bilities

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That’s it from me, it’s pouring down here today so my plans to do some gardening have been put on hold and I’m spending the afternoon crafting. I faff about so much though and end up doing nothing - time management is not my strong point!

Enjoy the weekend lovelies…

and make sure you leave me a comment to be in the candy draw

Update and a Christmas challenge…

Good afternoon crafters, hope you’re all having a good Saturday

I’m starting to get back into my routine now after a busy few weeks and finally getting caught up with everything

I had a few days with my gorgeous friends Lou and Fleur in Spalding, we chat regularly but I haven’t seen them for a couple of years so it was wonderful to have a good catch up and I enjoyed the visit very much. Here’s me and Lou…

I’ve also been visiting Mary and Andrea (the Ribbon Girls) who are my good friends. I went to stay with them in Newcastle and we had a fab couple of days crafting, I haven’t done any sewing for a while but Mary is doing a lot at the moment so I made this cute pincushion with some pretty Liberty fabric…

and here’s me and Andrea…

I’ve also been doing more Mixed Media workshops but just realised I haven’t taken pictures of my finished projects so I’ll save that for another post

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There is a Lili of the Valley challenge on Facebook and this month the theme is Christmas so we’d like to see what you’ve been making with the new images or indeed any of the older ones

I’ve used one of the new release and this is ‘Santa Snoozing’…

The sentiment is from Digi Stamp Boutique and the papers are Nitwits ‘candles and cake’

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This is the card I shared a couple of weeks ago using ‘Blessed’

I said at the time I didn’t like the green ribbon I’d used so I took it apart. I didn’t want to waste the image I’d coloured so it’s a bit smaller now where the glue had stuck but I‘m happier with it! 

This has turned into quite a long post! If you’re still with me I’ll just finish by telling you that I’ve made up a lovely candy bundle as I promised for reaching 400 followers so I’ll take a piccie of that and post it mid-week

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Thanks for stopping by and enjoy your weekend everyone

Christmas Snowman…

Morning everyone, thanks for stopping by and I hope you had a lovely weekend

I had good intentions last week of posting my candy but the time got away with me again. It was Jess’s birthday at the weekend so we had a couple of family celebrations, she lives away from home now with her Boyfriend so it’s always nice when she comes back to stay

I’m doing an art workshop this weekend and then going to visit some friends for a few days so realistically I’m not going to get it done this week either! My stash organisation has come to a stop too but I promised some 400 follower candy and I will do it the week after

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Another card today using one of the new LOTV Christmas images, this is Christmas Snowman and it’s available in rubber, digi and simply print sheet…

I’ve just realised I put some small gems in the centre of the snowflakes but I must have forgotten to retake the picture!

The papers are Bo Bunny, snowflakes are Cheery Lynn, and I think the sentiment die is Lawn Fawn

When I left Lili of the Valley I thought it would be a good chance to use all my other stamps but I still reach for these every time I need to make a card, I just love them and the new Christmas collection is fab

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Right I’m going to take Manny for a walk and then I need to do a few chores after the weekend partying!

Have a good day crafters

LOTV Christmas 2017

Morning lovelies, I know I’ve been AWOL again but thought I’d just share a quick card today to let you know that the first of the 2017 Lili of the Valley images are released today at midday

I’ve been playing catch up since my holidays, I had a huge magazine commission to do and then went away again last week to visit friends (which I’ll tell you about in my next post) so I seem to have been chasing my tail for the last few weeks. All back to normal now so I’ll have a few more cards to share later in the week

This lovely little stamp is called Blessed…

I used some Bo Bunny papers, the cross stitch rectangles are memory box, the label is Spellbinders and the star is Joy Crafts

I bought a couple of sets of the Christmas sentiments from Digi Stamp Boutique last year after I’d seen them on other cards and I really like them. I usually print my own if I don’t have a suitable stamp but these are nicely laid out in a lovely font and cheap as chips. They have 30% off Christmas images and sentiments at the moment so even better!

I’m not sure about the green ribbon, I thought after I’d glued it all together that its too heavy so I might have to take this one apart and remake it!

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Thanks for stopping by, I’ll get back to my stash pics and do the 400 follower giveaway that I promised in my next post

Have a great Monday crafters

Good morning…

Morning crafty friends, I’m back from my holiday and we had the best time, just loved Italy

We went to Tuscany and spent time in Florence, Pisa, Sienna and Lucca – I’ve never walked so much! We used the trains which were very good but despite the horror stores I think I’d like to drive next time and explore a few of the smaller places. I’d love to visit Venice and the Lakes and also Rome and the Amalfi Coast – Keith had better get some overtime in

…oh, and I ate my own body weight in gelato!

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I have some cards to show you today that I did for a magazine a while back. I designed a Sketch and then made 3 cards using it…

I thought it was a good time to share these because the images are newly available on Simply Print sheets from Lili of the Valley

If you liked the Art Pads you will love the Simply Print sheets, they are great for a quick card

I used the stamps and coloured them with Copics, the papers are from my favourite ‘One Birdie Lane’ collection from NitWits

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I have a few things on this week and catching up after the holidays but I will get together some candy for a giveaway as promised and also carry on with my stash pictures

Have a great week everyone

Leonie shows on Hochanda…

Good afternoon crafty friends, hope you are well. I’ve just noticed I’ve got to 400 followers again so I will have a little giveaway after my holidays. We’re going to Italy for the first time so I’m looking forward to that very much. I did have over 400 and then when blogger started playing silly beggars last year it went down for some reason so welcome to my new visitors.

I have been trying to post a bit more regularly recently although it doesn’t always go to plan. I very much appreciate your comments and love to read them, and, I always try to return the visit as I like to see what other crafters are making

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Something a bit different from me today, Leonie is on Hochanda with some great deals on her own fab products and if you missed the morning shows you can catch her again at 3 this afternoon

I adore the ‘In A Spin’ die and have used this a lot. Here is a card and also a canvas that I made using it and some of the stamps…

This card is a little scene I created using her tiny pattern stamps. There are lots of these in various different designs and they are so useful for all kinds of stamping…

I hope you can catch the show, Leonie does some great demos and the team have done some amazing samples for inspiration

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Right I’m nipping to the supermarket, we have some friends coming round for tea tonight so I need a few bits and (top of the list) wine…  then I’ll be watching the 3 o clock show

Have a good Thursday all

My dies, and Lazy Daisy…

Morning lovely crafty friends,  I can’t quite believe it’s the weekend again, the time seems to go faster with every month that passes

I’ve shown you my stamps in the last few posts and I’m on with the indexing of those (although it’s a slow job!) so now it’s onto my dies…

Nesting and basic shapes are hung on rails above my desk, this has definitely made me use them more now they are not hidden away

These little A7 binders were the ones we used to sell in the shop for stamps. I put magnetic sheets in them and they are perfect for dies but although they are small they are heavy when they are full 

They fit perfectly on this tall Ikea unit and I have my 6” papers on the rest of the shelves (I’ll show you those when I get to papers)

Some larger dies and sets are in these Tonic folders

…and then I have this binder full of Sue Wilson dies. I have a few of these from Staples, they are very sturdy and the stamp index I showed you last time is in one of them. I keep meaning to make a cover sheet for this and never got round to it!

Finally I have this basket with the biggest dies and my Sizzix  are in here because they come packaged in a nice storage wallet. There are also a few that haven’t got a home yet because the folders are full

They started out quite well organised but as I’ve bought new ones the older ones don’t get used and I don’t know what I’ve got. I seem to have them everywhere and as with the stamps I need to index them and get rid of what I don’t use

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Sorry for all the pics, you did say you were interested in seeing my stash!

Onto my card, and the June LOTV challenge is ‘Summer’ so it gave me an excuse to use my clouds and sun dies which you know I love

This is for Jess, although if any of her horses were asleep on the job there would be trouble I think!

The stamp is Lazy Daisy which you can also get as a digi and a printable topper sheet

The horseshoe embossing folder is by Darice, I was glad of a chance to use it and it’s a good match for this image

Other supplies; One Birdie Lane papers from Nitwits, stitched clouds are Memory Box, large stitched sun from ‘Lil Inkers and I printed the sentiments

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Hope you like it, you can find all the details for the challenge on the Facebook page here.

Thanks for stopping by and have a fantastic weekend everyone

Stamp folder and using my dies…

Good afternoon all, what you up to?

I’ve been working on some samples for a Leonie Pujol show next week on Hochanda and we had the puppy for a few days last week when Jess was away so I’ve been busy!

I made a start on my stamp indexing at last, this in an A5 binder so I will need a bigger one for the rest of them but I thought I’d put my LOTV, Magnolia, h’Anglar and Stamping Bella in here as I use those most often

I was going to use a book but I think this will work better as I can add and remove pages when I need. I will just photocopy the cover sheet for those that have one but these didn’t so I stamped them

I haven’t managed to get rid of any yet…  but I’m working on it …

I have a couple of cards to share today. I’m going to sort through my dies when I’ve done the stamps and for now I’ve promised myself to put one on each card that I wouldn’t usually have used

I would have normally just opted for a square or a circle on these so I’m going to make an effort to use my shapes and labels more as I do like them and rarely get them out

This is one of the new LOTV images called Milkshake, isn’t it adorable!

The papers are from NitWits, One Birdie Lane

The die I used on here is Spellbinders Labels 34 and the matching gold labels

My second card today is one I shared a while ago but I wasn’t happy with it so I pulled it apart

This is a Stamping Bella image called Huggy Squidgies and the papers are also from NitWits, these are Pastel Dreams

The die I used on this one is Spellbinders Labels 1 and matching decorative elements

The ‘thanks’ is a stamp and die set from Altenew and the flower buttons I used on both cards is a die from Crafters Companion

Hope you like them, thanks for leaving me feedback everyone I love to read your comments

Right, I’m going to brave the rain and take Manny for a walk. I’ll have to drag him out of his bed – he doesn’t like getting wet!

Have a good Tuesday crafters