Something different…

Good afternoon everyone, thanks so much for stopping by. I hope you all had a nice Easter weekend, my hip’s been feeling better so we had a nice walk on Saturday while it was fine but boy was it chilly, you forget it’s still so early in the year!

 

Before my cards I want to show you this amazing amaryllis…

 

…Laila’s lovely Mum Anne bought me it when I left Lili of the Valley at the beginning of December and it’s been in flower ever since. I’ve had them before and they usually die off after one flowering or they grow too tall and need support. This has had 12 flowers and keeps coming back, it’s also on quite a short stem so is nice and neat – I’ve been thrilled with it!

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I have a couple of cards to share today that are a bit different for me, I’ve done a few in this sort of style recently and I like them

I’ve got a box where I keep all my scraps of paper, can’t bear to throw them away and they are from years and years of crafting (it’s quite full lol!!). I just took a piece out (the green) and challenged myself to make 2 cards with it so I had to be quite sparing as it wasn’t very big!

The images are 2 of the retired Lili of the Valley stamps that have been brought back for a limited run; Sailing Boat and Rose with Cake. Rosie with Cake was always one of my favourites and is one I use regularly

The cards are quite small at 4.5 inch square and I have to say I like this size

The sentiments are from an older set by MFT (my favourite things)

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That’s it from me, enjoy your evening everyone

 

 

PS. I haven’t been using my signature because suddenly and inexplicably it’s appearing with a black background instead of just the pink lettering and no background. I’ve put it on in case anyone can tell me why it’s doing this, I’ve used it since I started my blog and never had this problem before!

 

Anne xx

 

 

 

 

Jasmine Phone…

 

 

Hey everyone, what are you up to today?

I spent this morning organising and backing up my laptop, boring but necessary! I’ve had 2 laptops die on me in the last few months and it’s taught me a valuable lesson, it was something I just kept putting off. Thankfully I didn’t lose my pictures but I lost all my programmes, fonts and documents – and there were a lot of craft things I’d saved over the years such as digi stamps and papers – I’m gutted

Anyway, I’m not going to bore you with my tales of woe, onto the new stamps at Lili of the Valley which are available on Match 31st and you can also pre-order them now. There are 8 teen images featuring new characters Jasmine and Oliver and also some clear sentiments which are always popular…

 

…this is Jasmine phone, she’s my favourite and I think this stamp will be very useful

 

 

I used to make a lot of cards this size (A5 folded lengthways) until I moved onto squares but I think the tall narrow shape suits this image

The papers are from one of my favourite K & Co pads called Wild Raspberry

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Hope you like it, I’m just waiting for the plumber to finish servicing our boiler and then I’m up into the attic to finish another card I’ve started with this stamp!

Have a great Tuesday everyone, thanks for stopping by

 

Anne x

 

 

 

Ribbon Girl Challenge - Jasmine

 

 

Good morning crafty friends, hope you are all well. It’s a beautiful day today again here after a lovely week and it cheers you up doesn’t it!

Did any of you catch the new X-Files? we were looking forward to it after watching and enjoying it for many years but after a promising first episode it was disappointing, in fact one or two of them were ridiculous. We were loyal and stuck with it for the full 6 weeks hoping it might improve but I wasn’t sorry to see the end of it and I’m looking forward to Game of Thrones starting in April now - I hope that isn’t a let down but I don’t think it will be!

I’m loving having some crafty time, I do quite a bit of work for the magazines which I really enjoy as it gives me chance to go out of my comfort zone a bit and do something a bit different. Lili of the Valley have a new launch which is definitely right back in my comfort zone, the stamps are available from March 31st and you can pre-order them on the website now. There are eight fab teenage images, Jasmine and Oliver, and also some new clear sentiments

Time for another Ribbon Girl ‘use any challenge and there are, as always, some great prizes up for grabs;

First prize:  £10 voucher for LOTV

Second prize:  £10 voucher for The Ribbon Girl

Third prize:  Mystery prize from Marianne Designs

 

The team have made some lovely cards and projects to inspire you and the challenge will run until 9pm on Saturday 2nd April - you can enter and see all the details on the Ribbon Girl blog

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I used one of the new stamps for my challenge card and this is Jasmine Music…

 

…the greeting is from the useful teenage girl sentiments 

There are (of course!) lots of gorgeous goodies from the Ribbon Girl store on my card; tulle, flatback pearls, stardust stickles, tiny vintage cream blooms and some of their delicious new pale pink sugar sprinkles sheer ribbon

Here’s everything else I used:

Sizzix doily die, EK Success corner punch, Sue Wilson finishing touches flourish die and Heartfelt collection papers from NitWits

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Hope you like it, thanks as always for stopping by and any comments you take the time to leave me are very much appreciated

 

Anne x

 

 

Spring challenge–last chance!

 

 

 

Good evening crafters, hope you are having a lovely weekend

Just a quick post to remind you that if you haven’t already entered there’s just time to join in with our Spring challenge…

 

 

All you have to do to be in with the chance of winning one of fabulous prizes is to join the Spring Event on Facebook. It closes tomorrow and there are some great prizes up for grabs;

5 winners will be picked at random, the first 4 will have the choice of any of the following;
any 2 sentiment sheets or
any 5 rubber stamps or
any Cross Stitch Kit or
£20 to spend in our Ebay Store (where there are still many die cut sheets and toppers)
and, the lovely Ribbon Girl have also offered a fab £10 voucher for their store as an extra prize

 

Lucy has been putting lots of inspiration from the Design Collective over the past 2 weeks so be sure to go and have a look

 

I’ve used one of the old favourite stamps that has been brought back as a limited run for my card, this is Bunnies in Love… so cute!

 

 

Hope you like it, you can download the pretty papers from NitWits and this is from the Promises collection - and I added a layer of tulle from the Ribbon Girl

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I’ll be back in a couple of days with a sneak peek of the latest stamps and you’re gonna love them!

Enjoy the rest of the weekend, we’re going to take Manny to the coast tomorrow if the weather stays fine so I hope you are doing something nice too

 

Anne xx

LOTV Spring Challenge…

 

Good morning everyone, did you get the snow yesterday? It was unexpected and I have to say it was nice not to have to go out! I think we have more forecast here for tomorrow so the kids will be happy. It’s nice today and I’m going to cut up some wood, the house opposite is being renovated and the builder gave me all the old skirting boards that have been taken off – they are solid wood and will burn great. We’re just about out of logs and didn’t really want to have to buy any more because they are all to store then over the Summer so this will nicely see us for another couple of weeks, don’t want to do much else on these dark nights other than get my onesie on and sit in front of a roaring fire

Hopefully Spring is on the way and what better way to welcome it than with a chance to win some Lili of the Valley goodies! Lucy is holding a challenge on the Facebook page…

 

 

All you have to do to be in with the chance of winning one of fabulous prizes is to join the Spring Event on Facebook. You have until March 13th to enter and there are some great prizes up for grabs;

5 winners will be picked at random, the first 4 will have the choice of any of the following;
any 2 sentiment sheets or
any 5 rubber stamps or
any Cross Stitch Kit or
£20 to spend in our Ebay Store (where there are still many die cut sheets and toppers)
and, the lovely Ribbon Girl have also offered a fab £10 voucher for their store as an extra prize

(talking of the Ribbon Girl, just a heads up that Mary has got in some delicious papers from Maja Design, Lemon Craft and Pion Design, they can be quite hard to find in the UK and they are GORGEOUS so have a look here)

sorry, I digressed, there will be lots of Spring inspiration from the Design Collective over the 2 weeks so be sure to check it out every day if you’re wanting some ideas

I used Hey Chick which is one of the Little Critters sets, I find these smaller size images so useful…

 

The papers are discontinued as printed pads but you can still download them from NitWits and this cheerful collection is called Sunny Side Up

 

Hope you like it, thanks as always for stopping by and have a lovely day all

 

Anne x

 

 

Ribbon Girl challenge, and some old favourites are back…

 

 

 

Hello crafters, thanks for stopping by

I had a lovely few days last week staying with my pals Mary and Andrea from the Ribbon Girl…

…this is us just after we’d tucked into fish and chips at the coast - and it was FREEZING!

We had a few trips out and of course spent some time crafting. Mary has been making these smashing shaped cards so we all had a go at one - I’m not sure what you’d call it but they are ever so easy and fold flat to go into an envelope

I made this for my DT challenge card, it’s an ‘ANY IMAGE’ challenge so anything goes as long as you include an image!

 

       

 

             

 

 

I can’t take credit for the lovely colouring on this image, it was from a card at Lili of the Valley. The cards were handled quite a lot in the shop and are packed and unpacked for the shows so inevitibly some of them fall apart eventually. I can’t bear to throw them away when someone has spent a long time colouring them so this is one I saved to re-use as I love this little Rosie with her cake!

It’s one my LOTV favourites and great news because it is amongst the cute designs that are back. There are quite a few of the retired stamps being brought out this month as a limited run so have a peek - there some old favourites that you might have missed first time around!

The papers are First Edition Bella Rose and the tag is made using Set 8 happy circular sentiments (LOTV)

Finally of course there is lots of scrumptiousness from the Ribbon Girl shop; tulle, stardust stickles, bead string, 8mm Rebecca antique lace, scarlet berry 15mm satin ribbon, 15mm red roses, 11mm flatback pearls

 

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Full details for the challenge are on the Ribbon Girl blog as well as some inspiration from the team. There are great prizes for 3 lucky winners which will be announced on the Ribbon Girl blog after 9pm on Saturday 5th March

First prize:  £10 voucher for LOTV

Second prize:  £10 voucher for The Ribbon Girl

Third prize:  Mystery prize from Marianne Designs

 

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It’s a gorgeous day here in Leeds today, I’ve got some washing out for the first time this year and Manny is sunbathing in the conservatory! Have a good day whatever you are doing

Anne xx

Baby Rabbit…

 

 

Hello crafters, what have you all been up to today? I bought a digital piano a couple of years ago with good intentions and then never played it, I don’t want to part with it because it was expensive and I do hope to start again at some point in the future so we’ve moved it up into the attic. But, that’s meant I’ve had to have a rearrange of things up there so I’ve had a trip to Ikea for some storage. Keith hates Ikea with a passion and we’re nearly divorced every time he does go so I had a lovely few hours there on my own and a good look around. I always have to race around at 100 miles an hour when he’s with me although it is handy having him to lift things! I love having a good sort out, it’s theraputic and especially going through my craft stash and finding things I forgot I had. Although, it does always give me a shock at how much I’ve spent… I just collect rather than use dies, stamps and papers now – I hope I’m not on my own in that?

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These three cards are some I made for a magazine feature, it’s a while since it was published so i think it’s ok to show them on my blog now. It was to make 3 simple cards using one stamp and this cutie is Baby Rabbit from Lili of the Valley

 

 

The pink (Butterfly Kisses) and yellow (Country Meadow) papers are discontinued pads but you can still download the collections from NitWits, the sentiments on these two cards are from Lili of the Valley

For the blue one I used some lovely Wild Rose Studio papers and the greeting was done on the computer

 

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Right, I’m excited for Happy Valley shortly – it was one of the best things on tv last year and I hope the 2nd series will be as good

Have a lovely evening all, thanks as always for leaving me a comment I love to read them

 

Anne xx