Use 2 stamps …

 

 

 

Morning morning morning! I have my daughter back for a few days, she’s like a whirling dervish leaving a trail of destruction through the house. Who would believe one small person could make so much mess! She goes back to college tomorrow for 3 months so has only a couple of days to get unpacked from her work experience and then all ready to go again so it’s gonna get worse before it gets better! It’s lovely to have her back even if the visit is short and sweet and her knee seems to be ok now which was a bit of a worry for a while

 

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Have a look on the Lili of the Valley Ideas to Inspire blog today, it’s Thursday theme day with lots of card inspiration using Balloons! There’s a prize draw too  …all you have to do is leave your name

 

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Better late than never here’s my Papertake Weekly card for this week, the theme is…

 Anything Goes (with an option to use 2 stamps)

…and we’re sponsored this week by Lili of the Valley

 

I grabbed this chance to do some masking, love this technique and often forget about it..

 

 

The image is Hand Picked from Lili of the Valley and then I’ve put a Magnolia fence in the background

These lovely papers are Limited edition, I like the blue and green together with the brown. The clouds are cut with my Memory Box die, been using this a lot lately, and the stitched scallop border die is doohickey.

I went round all the edges with some white adirondack paint dabber

The fab ribbon is from Crafty Ribbons, the lovely girls over there sent us a delicious bundle of grosgrain to play with so do have a look at their website, they have lots of designs that are exclusive to them and not available any where else

 

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That’s it from me for today, have a lovely day. I notice that I’m getting near 300 followers so I’ll arrange some candy shortly for when I get there!

 

 

 

Card Mania challenge …

 

 

 

Hi everybody, thanks so much for stopping by

 

I didn’t have a prize blog in the Lili of the Valley hop    …but as promised I’ve drawn a winner from the comments on my Papertake Weekly card last week and the lucky name is…

 

*Rachel* 

 

Email me your address Rachel and I’ll send you some candy

Thanks to Rachel and to everyone who leaves me comments, I love to read them

 

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There’s a new card challenge over at the Ribbon Girl blog this week and it’s a lovely one – use a button!

As always there are prizes up for grabs and some fabulous inspiration from the amazing design team

 

 

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Lili of the Valley are sponsoring the Card Mania challenge today and I’m thrilled to join them as a Guest Designer

The theme for the challenge is Flower Power  …what could be nicer!!

It gave me license to go mad with the blooms and although this is a bit fussier than my usual style I was very pleased with it…

 

 

 

 

 

 

The image is Fairy With Dove, this was coloured in by the fabulous Dena for advertising and it seemed such a shame not to make it into a card

 

The gorgeous papers are from a  K&Co pad, I love these bright colours

The border die and the tag are Manolia Doo Hickey dies, the butterfly is a Martha Stewart punch

I did take another picture to try and show the tulle but it wasn’t very sharp, I put a full layer of tulle over the backing papers, you can just see it and I really like the texture it gives

Most of the other bits are from The Ribbon Girl; bakers twine, flatback pearls, liquid pearls, cosmos daisies, sweetheart blossoms, tulle, seam binding, Jute Mesh Ribbon

 

 

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Hope you like it, enjoy your Monday

 

xxx

 

 

 

 

Inspired by a song …

 

 

 

Morning all, hope you managed to join in with the blog hop yesterday

If you missed it you can still join in as the prize winners won’t be drawn until tonight. You need to leave a comment on all the blogs as only 2 of them have hidden prizes   …those 2 lucky blogs each have a full set of the new Vintage Boys up for grabs so definitely worth having a go!

Thanks ever so much for all the lovely comments, I hope we gave you a few ideas for making those hard boys and mens cards

 

 

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Today Lili of the Valley are sponsoring the Crafty Catz weekly challenge and I’ve joined them as a guest designer

 

The theme is Inspired By A Song

 

It’s a great challenge this week, once you start thinking about it you can put a song to nearly every Lili of the Valley image and we had fun thinking of a few in the office

 

 

Here’s my card and I chose to do Under The Moon Of Love  - Showaddywaddy  (remember that from the school disco lol!!)

 

 

 

 

The image is Under The Moonlight and I’ve used a couple of Sentiment Tags (these are so useful)

The lovely papers are My Minds Eye

The gorgeous rhinestones, sweetheart blossoms and the lace are from the Ribbon Girl 

 

 

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Couldn’t resist just adding this if you want a little trip down memory lane…

 

 

 

 

 

 

Have a lovely weekend everyone, the weather forecast for the bank holiday is looking good!

 

 

 

 

Lili of the Valley blog hop …

 

 

 

Morning all, thanks for stopping by!

 

Today we are holding a Lili of the Valley design team blog hop to celebrate the launch of the gorgeous new Vintage Boy stamps

There are 8 of the cutest images and they will be perfect for those hard to make cards for boys and men

 

The stamps will be available to buy on the website from midday on Monday 6^th May (UK time) and you will also be able to get them at the Lili of the Valley shop in Leeds on Saturday (4^th) if you are near enough to visit us. There are still a couple of places on the Recipe Box workshop if you fancy making a day of it!

 

 

The fabulous LOTV design team are all joining in, you just need to ‘hop’ from one blog to another following the links and leave a comment on each card, hopefully we can give you lots of ideas and inspiration along the way for using the new images

 

 

We don’t know where the prizes are so make sure you visit every blog. We will let you know tomorrow evening which were the ‘lucky’ blogs and 2 winners will be drawn at random from all the comments that were left

 

There will be 2 prize winners, each winning the full set of 8 new stamps

 

Here's a list of all the blogs taking part... and remember you will need to visit them all and leave a comment to have the best chance of winning;

 

 

Ideas to Inspire

 

Anne  (you’re here!)

Dawny

Dena

Elise

Fleur

Gretha

Jen

Lou

Mindy

Moni

Pops

 

 

 

Here’s my card for today and I've used In The Country....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve coloured him with Copics and then used Spellbinders labels 18 to make a frame around the image

The papers are Lili of the Valley Country Gent (fab!) and I used some Frantage powder for a bit of texture

The brads and lovely charms are Tim Holtz and all the other bits are from The Ribbon Girl

 

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‘Hop’ on over to Dawny's blog from here and don’t forget to stop by the Ideas to Inspire blog tomorrow evening when you can find out if you were a lucky winner of one of the hidden prizes

 

 

Enjoy the hop… and good luck!

 

 

 

 

 

PTW Sketch, Man’s Best Friend …

 

 

 

Hi everyone, can’t believe it’s a full week since I posted on here – where on earth does the time go?

I had a lovely weekend, I went to the Harrogate flower show with my Mum. I do love gardening but any spare time I get is usually spent crafting so the garden does get neglected a bit. I don’t think the awful Summer helped last year so hopefully if we get a bit more sun this year I’ll be out there doing some planting and pottering about

Keith cuts the grass and the hedges but he does that out of necessity, he doesn’t have any interest in it at all. Some of the show gardens on display were beautiful and it’s got me fired up a bit to get it all sorted out!

 

One thing I did spend a lot of time looking at were Bonsai trees, something I’ve never really taken notice of before. Some of them are amazing, what a lovely hobby (although not too good if you like to see quick results as some of them were 200 years old!) I bought a small one that is 7 years old so I’m going to see if I can manage not to kill it!

 

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The challenge over at Papertake Weekly this week is a sketch, I like using these, they’re great for when you’re struggling with a layout…

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s my card, I’ve done a sneaky peek for the new Lili of the Valley Vintage Boys that are out this weekend…

 

 

 

 

 

 

This image is called Man’s Best Friend, what a cutie patootie! This is definitely one of my favourites from this release and will be so useful for the mens and boys that I need to make cards for

 

I printed the sentiments on the computer onto my patterned paper which is My Minds Eye and then cut them out and backed with black card

I embossed the red core’dinations card and also the clouds which were cut with a Memory Box die

The buttons, ribbon and button twine were from my stash but I think you’ll be able to get them from The Ribbon Girl

I coloured him in with Copics

You can’t really see on this picture but all the layers are stuck on with foam pads to give a bit of dimension

 

Hope you like it, thank you so much for the lovely comments on my last card    …I always enjoy reading them

It’s been a while since I’ve given away some candy so I’ll do a random draw from the comments that I get left on this card just to say thanks to my visitors

 

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Thanks for stopping by

 

 

 

Weather with you …and a sneaky peek

 

 

Good morning all, thanks for stopping by and thanks for the lovely comments you’ve been leaving for me  ..I love to read them and appreciate any feedback

I was up bright and early this morning! I always set off to bed with good intentions of an early night but seem to end up faffing about (usually stroking a few papers or tidying my ribbons etc etc…) and before I know it’s midnight

I’ve been making an effort to go to bed a bit earlier and I feel a lot better for it!

 

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The challenge at Papertake Weekly this week is…

 

Weather With You

 

This is an interesting one, you need to feature some weather on your card; could be raining, snowing or a lovely sunny day!

 

Make sure you go and have a look at the fab examples the design team have made if you need a few ideas, as soon as I saw this new stamp from Lili of the Valley I knew what I was going to do

This is a sneaky peek of the new boys that are out at the beginning of May …this image is called Playing Golf and I’ve made a little scene, I think it’s a lovely sunny day!

 

 

 

 

 

I cut papers to make the grassy layers and used the Memory Box village die along the top (love this die!)

The clouds are a Memory Box die stuck on with pinflair for a bit of dimension

I coloured the little golfer with Copics and then cut him out and tucked his feet under one of the paper layers. I think he would have been quite nice decoupaged but I’d taken so long to colour it that I couldn’t be bothered to do another layer, the new art pads will be great for that as you get 3 of each image

 

Golf is a really popular sport, I’m sure a few of you are golf widows lol and I think this stamp will be really useful!

 

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Have a lovely day everybody

 

 

 

Ribbon Girl colour challenge …

 

 

Good morning everybody and thanks for stopping by

I hope you’re enjoying the weekend so far, the sun is still shining here so fingers crossed it will stay around for a bit longer

We had a ride to the Coast yesterday as my Brother is staying there for a few days. We took the dogs for a walk and then actually managed to BBQ although it was getting a bit chilly by the time we were ready to eat! Still a bit early in the year for eating outside I think.

My Brother has 2 border collies that can run all day, we don’t often let Manny have a really good run because it’s not good for his legs but he has such a lovely time on the beach that I didn’t have the heart to keep him on his lead while they were having fun. He tries to keep up with them though and bless him, he was hobbling last night because his legs were aching and then I felt really guilty…

 

 

 

You can see how his little legs are all bent and his feet are turning out, I liken it to before I had my hip replacement in that it’s probably more a nagging ache rather than pain, he doesn’t seem like he’s in pain and I would never allow that  …he’s such a happy little dog and not a minute’s bother …unlike my 2 children at the moment!

 

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Onto todays card and it’s time for another colour challenge at The Ribbon Girl Blog

This month we want you to create a project using the colours 'cream or ivory' and as usual there are some fab prizes up for grabs for the lucky winner

 

There’s a lovely inspiration picture for you…

 

 

 

 

 

and here’s my card…

 

 

 

 

 

I used one of my Magnolia stamps and also Magnolia papers. I’ve had these a while and they were a perfect Ivory for the colour challenge

The lovely corner is a Spellbinders die from the botanical swirls and accents set. I inked the edges and then added a few pearls. Again this is a die I’ve had for a while and not used, I’m trying to go through my stash and not stick to the same things every time

The leaves are Noor design dies and the tag is made with an alphabet stamp from Paper Artsy. I distressed the edges of the paper and went round with distress stickles in Antique Linen which was the same colour that I used to ink the papers

 

Here’s the rest of the lovely goodies I used, all available of course from The Ribbon Girl

Kort and Godt rolled paper roses

Seam binding

Hat Pins

Velvet lace ribbon

Flatback pearls

 

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I hope you like it, apologies to Mary and Andrea as I was late getting the card submitted. I was so mad with myself because I had it ready in plenty of time and then went swanning off for the day yesterday and completely forgot about it so it may not appear with the DT inspiration. As always the girls have made some beautiful samples so do make sure you take a look

 

 

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I’m hoping to get some crafting done myself today, I’ve just been ironing for 3 hours so am ready for a bit of me time!

See you soon, enjoy the rest of the weekend