Absent For A While.

My card today was made at the weekend, using one of the gorgeous corner stamps from a set called Art Deco Floral Corners by Chocolate Baroque. I stamped onto a scrap of cream card stock and coloured the image with some pencils. I then just matched the colours in the image to some scraps of card for the matting and then added it to a 5x5 cream card base. The sentiment is from an old set that is also from Chocolate Baroque.

I have taken a small break (with a cup of coffee) from running around today to tell you what I will be getting up to over the next few weeks (just over 5 in fact). Hubby and I along with a friend of ours, Dave, are going on a road trip. Some of my older followers will remember that we did this in 2012 as well, last time we flew into Boston and travelled down the east coast of America before going up the middle to Chicago across to Toronto and Niagara Falls before returning to Boston and home. This time we are flying into Vancouver and starting our journey there. We plan to travel along the border until we get to the Glacier National Park and drop down into America, then travel down taking in Yellowstone, Salt Lake City, Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon. We then intend to go across to Los Angeles and take the coast road back up to San Fransisco, Seattle and finally back to Vancouver before flying home again on the 4th June. I've been busy making sure that we have everything packed that we will need for Five weeks. Also that there is enough food stored away in the freezer for our Son who will be at home while we are gone. I'm hoping to post some pictures on here during our travels, but you know what Internet services are like in Hotels, so this might not always work out. I know that I'm not going to have time to get around to visiting you all while I'm away, but I will enjoy catching up with everyone once we return.

If you took the time to read the above, Thank you and for your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

Rudolph Days

This month has flown by and I can't believe that it's time for the Rudolph Days challenge once again. This month I've used a stamp that I bought in the sale in January at Oyster Stamps, it's by C C Designs. I stamped it four times onto an A4 piece of water colour card and then coloured by using my Spectrum Noir Aqua pens, I then went over the snowy areas with a clear sparkle pen (this doesn't show up in the photos). The sentiment is from Chocolate Baroque and seemed to go so well with the scene. Once finished I cut them down slightly and with the addition of some red card stock from the scrap box I popped them onto some A6 card bases.

 Below is my small collection for the box this month.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday to my wonderful Husband, who hasn't seen this card yet as he's still away today playing golf. I made this card (an 8x8) by first cutting a piece of Sheena's stamping card to just over 7x7, then I used stencil paste through a Dylusions stencil which was over sprayed with Dylusions when the paste was dry. I then used Stamps by Ryn to for the background scene. The giant turtle is also a stamp by Ryn that I stamped onto a separate piece of card and then fussy cut it out and added it with glue gel. The Happy Birthday die cut is from Tonic.

I would like to enter this card into the Customer Creation Challenge over on Ryn's blog and also into the Stamping Sensations challenge which is Anything Goes (this will be my third entry into this challenge this month)

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

Something Beginning With B

This is the theme for this weeks challenge over at the Allsorts blog. I actually made this card last weekend for my Father-in-law to give to my husband for his birthday tomorrow. I had not posted it on here just in case he happened to see the blog before getting the card, however he's just left for a golfing weekend with his buddies and won't be home until tomorrow evening, so I feel safe now. My something blue is the background, the bird and blossoms. The paints, stencils and stamps are all recent purchases from Crafters Companion and are from the Sheena Douglas range. The bird and blossom were coloured using Spectrum Noir sparkle pens.

Must rush off now as I'm expecting some crafting pals for a play day today. While the cats away the mice shall play, I believe the saying goes.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

Pixies and Allsorts

I've had a busy week this week, as we had our grandson for four days rather than the normal two. This is because his other Nanny is away at the moment, in fact we have him up until we go away ourselves at the end of the month. But then she returns and has him while we are away. This means that I have been playing catch up with everything this weekend. I can't post what I've made just yet, as it's for Hubby's birthday next weekend. He doesn't read my blog but has a habit of creeping up behind while I'm on the PC, so to be on the safe side I thought I would leave it. My card today is for two challenges, Pixies Snippets Playground and Allsorts Challenges. Pixies is to use snippets/scraps Allsorts this week is to follow the sketch on the blog. With the exception of the card base, flowers, ribbon and pearls the rest came out of my scrap box. The printed papers were left over from previous projects, the card was off cuts and the sentiment is Fiskars from a set I bought in the states.

I'm dashing off now to finish a couple more projects that are under way. Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

Sparkle And Bling, Buds And Blooms

While I was making this card I had two challenges in mind, Allsorts where the theme is Bring On The Bling and Lavinia which is Buds and Blooms. Then I realised that I could also enter it into the Stamping Sensations challenge which is Anything Goes and My Time To Craft with No Designer Papers. I started with an 8x8 card base then cut a piece of card that would fit, about 7 1/2 inch square. I blended distress inks all over the card. Then cut out one of the files from Lavinia on the Scan N Cut. I didn't just want to put this onto the top of the blended background, so next I used a circle die from Crealies and cut a hole in the centre that I could place the cut image under. Next I stamped onto both the circle cut with the die and the background and coloured with Pro Markers. I then cut a piece of black card to matt the background onto, but before doing this I place the circle onto the black card in the middle and then placed the cut image on top. I then glittered the wings if the fairy and with foam tape on the back placed the background over the top. I finished by adding some gems from my stash.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

Happy Birthday

I've made this card with the CD Sunday challenge in mind, which this time around is Spring colours. I love seeing the bluebells in the woods at this time of year with all of the trees leaves coming out and giving a lovely dappled light on the ground too. I knew exactly what CD I was going to use for this challenge as  soon as I saw it. It's the Pamela West Collection from Joanna Sheen. I used the matching backing papers that went with the topper for this card and some corners that I had cut in white card that I colour matched using a pro marker. I found some ribbon in my stash that matched so made a bow and added that too, plus the Happy Birthday which was cut from an All Occasions die. It's also CD Sundays 7th Birthday, so I would like to wish them Many Happy Returns.

I'm also going to enter this card into the Ooh La La Creations challenge this week too as they are asking for Birthday cards.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

Berry Happy Birthday

My card today has been made for the Allsorts Challenge this week, which is Food, Food Glorious Food. The first thing that sprang to mind when I sat and thought about this challenge was the Berry Cafe Collection by Heartfelt Creations. Now I will admit to owning quite a few (OK a lot) of the Heartfelt Creations collections, the stamps and dies get used but very rarely do I touch the paper pads that come with the collections. But for this card I broke with my normal behaviour and used a backing paper and topper, I even used one of the sentiments too. I also used the stamps and dies from the set to embellish the card, I must admit that the strawberries do look good enough to eat, with that in mind it's nearly lunchtime I wonder what I can have today. I've also just noticed that my card was pick at random last week for one of the prize's, that was a nice surprise.

I would also like to enter this card into the Stamping Sensations Challenge this month, the theme is Anything goes.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

Any Old Iron - CD Sunday

I've just finished this card which was a commission and looking at it thought it would probably be OK to put into the CD Sunday challenge. At present it is Any Old Iron, well the cars are old (they're metal) and the rings around the tub of flowers must be iron. It's on an 8x8 card base and the CD's that I used are Nostalgia from Joanna Sheen and also a favourite of mine Sue Smith's Plaid and Co. I used various Crealies dies to matt and layer with and the sentiment was computer generated.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

Workshop Makes

On Saturday morning I was up with the Lark and driving around the M25 to Kent as it was Eileen Godwin's first workshop of the month. It was raining when I started off but as I got to the M25 it stopped raining and very shortly the sun came out. Our first projects for the day was the top card, which is the Black Magic technique and we used Sweet Poppy Stencils, Imagination Stencils and Lavinia Stamps (all designed by the talented Tracey Dutton of Lavinia Stamps).

 Next we played with pan pastels and texture paste again using the lovely designs from Lavinia both stamps and stencils

 We also made a tag using the black magic technique to put into out technique tag books that we are making during the year at workshops.

 Finally we made tiny cards with frames on which measure 2 3/4 by 4 inches.

The day just flew by and all to soon I was back on the motorway heading home.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

Pixies Snippets Playground

Having just made the last challenge over at Pixies Snippets Playground last week, I'm ready to post my card this time right at the beginning. My base is a 6x6 card and I then cut out a square from some silver mirri using a Crealies die. Next I took the new Tattered Lace Magazine (exclusive to Create and Craft) and using one of the papers from the middle cut a smaller square for my backing. Then using the free die that was on the front of the magazine I cut out two of the beautiful snowdrop one in white and the other in green, both of the pieces of card used were from the scraps box. I then cut the flowers off of the white  one and layered onto the green. I then cut out two ovals from the left over pieces of card too matt and layer the sentiment which was was from a Flower Soft set.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue