Blossom Loves Balloons CAS

Happy Friday everyone, I hope everyone is looking forward to their weekend.

Sadly this is my last post for Dies to Die for as I'm trying to make a bit more time for family and the things I need to do like house hunting. I'm very sad to leave the DT because I've been here for 2 years now and they have been the best ever. So a big thank you to the lovely Tracy, fabby DT leader Lou and all the wonderful girls on the team .

My last card for them is a CAS, yes, who would have thought that I'd find a little soft spot for making them. Well they are super when you're in a hurry i will say and also they are fab when you want to actually post something in an envelope. This was the card I made for my Mum's birthday, a couple of weeks back now, she'd been on  holiday and I wasn't sure she'd be at home when it was delivered, so I didn't want a parcel getting lost or her having to go and collect it, so I wanted something that would go through the letter box.

I used the adorable Blossom from the Tiny Townies collection, love this stamp. I chose bright colours cos my Mum likes cheerful things.

 I think this is about as CAS as it' possible for me to go, I had to sit down for a bit afterwards!

I raised the back layer on some foam tape added this sentiment which is sooooo my Mum if you knew her lol and finished with just few gems coloured to match with my Copics.

Tiny Townies - Blossom Loves Balloons
Bo Bunny - Ambrosia 6 x 6 pad
By DIEzyne Big Stitched and Pierced Rectangles Dies
Sadly the whimsy sentiment stamp I used is no longer stocked, but you can find loads of fab other sentiment sets by Whimsy here.

Don't worry though, CAS has not body snatched me and my next card will be my usual more layered and embellished style, I may have to make a few of this style up though as cards to send out in a hurry!

That's all from me today, do pop by tomorrow though as I'm giving away some 'Candy' (crafty style) for Halloween :) xx

Elisabeth Bell - Valentine Angel Blowing Kisses

Well, what a busy week it's been on my blog, I've barely had time to draw a breath. The good new is though that I now have 3 days off work...woohooo!! So some time to relax.

Today is my first posting for the 

Elisabeth Bell's World Challenge Blog

and our theme this month is

Anything but a Card

So you can make anything except a card. Don't forget that you must use an Elisabeth Bell image on your project, but this can be a digi or a rubber stamp, as long as the artist is Elisabeth Bell.

I made a gift bag using 

Valentine Angel Blowing Kisses

from Elisabeth Bell Designs

I absolutely fell in love with this stamp as soon as I saw it and couldn't wait to colour her up.

I coloured her with my distress markers keeping the colours very subtle this time and glittered her wings with Glamour Dust.

I paired her with some beautiful Pion papers, these are from the 

My Precious Daughter collection.

Products Used

Pion Design My Precious Daughter
Pion Design Colour Palette
Die-namics Pierced Oval STAX
La-La Land Crafts Heart Doily
La-La Lands Open Hearts Doily Border
Doodlebug Sprinkles - Bubblegum Dots
Charm - Pigeons
38 mm Pheobe White Guipure Lace
3 mm Satin Ribon - Pink No 2
25 mm Satin Ribbon Pink No 2
20 mm Pale Pink Open Rose
Chrysanth White Kurt & Godt
Pretty Blossom Pink
Hip Rose Bud White
Tulip Baby Pink

I do hope you can join in, you can find the rules here

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday! :) xx

Saturated Canary - Breeze on Sale!

Hellooooo! Hope everyone is having a happy Saturday, I love Saturdays, there's still plenty of the weekend left and this one is even better because I have a few days off work next week so I don't have to go back in until Thursday, so I have  the added bonus of a nice short week afterwards lol.

Anyhoooo, on to the reason I'm here today. It's my turn to host over at the LDRS Creative blog and I'm very sad to say that it's my last post for them. I have loved my time with them, but sadly I just have too much going on lately that's eating up my free time (of which there is an ever decreasing amount), as I mentioned in a previous post. So this is my final inspiration today, using one of my most favourite ever stamps, Breeze by Saturated Canary. This stamp,. along with many others is currently on sale in the shop and you can pick it up for the low low price of $2.99! I'd pick up a few while you're there because that price is mega cheap and once they're gone they're gone.

I coloured her to match these wonderful papers from the Maja Design Coffee in the Arbour collection. Just love these, it isn't often that I use yellow, but paired with pink like this it's lovely. Another thing I don't do too often is black hair, but I really wanted to see what she looked like with black hair and sun kissed skin.

I decided to make one of my shaped easel cards and to be honest I made her this way to film a video tutorial because a few people have asked for a tutorial on making these. Well in the middle of making the tutorial my iPhone just decided to stop filming and I didn't notice until I'd already glued a vital part together...there was no going back, so no tutorial this time. Oh well I will have to do another later.

I added some beautiful ribbon girl products to my card and all my items (apart from those from my stash), are linked at the end of my post.

Saturated Canary Breeze
Die-namics Pierced Ovals STAX
Maja Design Coffee in the Arbour - Home Made Lemon Curd
Maja Design Coffee in the Arbour - Lemon Meringue Pie
Maja Design Coffee in the Arbour - Flourishing Garden

Ophelia Ivory Tulle Lace

23 mm Fuschia Pink/White Organza Ribbon
Apple Blossom Mixed Pastels
Starburst Stamen Pink
10 mm Square ~Ivory Pearl FB Trim
3 - 6 mm Ivory S/A Pearls
20 mm Pearl and Diamante Flower Embellishment

That's all from me today, enjoy your weekend!! :) xx

Elisabeth Bell - New Release Blog Hop

Hi everyone, me again. This is my 2nd post for today, so if you're looking for my Dies to Die for post please scroll down.

I'm very excited today to be part of the Digi Bells blog hop bringing you a new release image from Elisabeth Bell Designs.

This is 'Cami in Fall'

isn't she a cutie?

You can buy her here.

I have to say that I had a completely different design in mind when I made this card, I was going to use my little autumn leaves dies to make a really fun card,  but I could not find my leaf dies anywhere and with the busy week I've had, I just ran out of time and I was so very tired.  So I made a much more CAS card, and just added a lovely lush bow in a complementary colour.

I gave her red hair to go with the autumn theme, she's so adorable! I think it came out rather well considering how much CAS scares me lol!

I do hope you can join in our blog hop by clicking on the names below and leave a comment on each and you could win a prize of this adorable digi!

Alethea

Linda L(me!)

Lynda N. 

Linda K. 

Jeanette

Lisa

Digi Bells Blog 

You have until November 1st to finish hopping !

Thank you so much for visiting me today, have a great weekend! :) xx

Saturated Canary - Butterfly Baby @ Dies to Die for

Happy Friday! My goodness I'm glad that this week is coming to an end, it's been sooooo busy, I've been surviving on around 4 - 5 hours sleep a night, not good when you have work the next day lol!  I have a busy weekend too, but at least I have a couple of days off work to look forward to.

Time has been catching up with me a lot lately, I've been very busy at work and there have been all sorts of other pressures on my time outside work that I won't bore you with here, but some days it's been very hard to find the time or even the inclination to craft. With Christmas fast approaching too I've had to sit down and take a serious look at my time management. As there are not enough hours in my day and as I have to work to keep a roof over my head, I've made the painful decision that it's time to cut back on some design team work for now.  I would still like to craft, but crafting is a hobby I turn to to chill me out when things are stressful, not to add to my stress with manically trying to get things made for deadline, or making projects with images that are not what I would choose to if I had to buy them. So it's with a sad heart that I'm dropping 2 - 3 of my design teams. I'll make an announcement on my last day of posting for them, but although it was a very difficult decision to make and took hours of thinking and discussing and working out time commitments, I must say that once I'd made the decision I felt a whole deal less stressed.

Now that doesn't mean that you won't see posts from me, just that I will have the time to work on things over a longer period of time and do what I feel like, whether that's a card, a mini album, or finally getting around to filming the tutorials for you that I've kept wanting to do. Also I'll be sharing some Candy with you soon as I'm having a big sort out of my crafting corner before Christmas. Once I've organised my life a bit more and caught up on my sleep etc, I'll reassess....after Christmas, to see if I have the balance right and go from there. I think guest spots may be the way to go, they last between 1 post and 3 months, so you always know you can take a break 'soon'.

Anyhooo, enough of this waffle and on to my card for today. This card uses one of my favourite stamps for baby cards 'Butterfly Baby' and was made as a special order for a friend of my daughters.
As usual links are at the end of my post.

I was asked for 'neutral' colours - mint or yellow, as they don't know the sex of the baby yet. This papers are just lovely for it, and on sale too...bargain!!

A view from the side so that you can see the dimension. The moon die is from La-La Land Crafts, it was part of a club kit set, but should be released soon and I'm sure Tracy will stock it.

Butterfly Baby

Bildmalarna Box Offer
Die-namics Pierced Star STAX
Taylored Expressions Sequins - Wedding
Stork Charm
Baby Pacifier Charm
Walnut Stain Distress Ink

Aqua Ruffle Edge Sheer Ribbon
38 mm Sheer White Silver Glitter Organza Ribbon
Ivory Button Twine
3-6 mm Ivory Self Adhesive Pearls
Aqua Rolled Roses
30 mm Ivory Wild Rose

The wonderful butterfly is from my talented friend Kay Fatula, you can find her shop here, her butterflies are amazing!

Well that's all from me, but I'll have another post for you later today. Have fun! :) xx

Incantation

Happy Tuesday!

It's time for a new theme over at Deep Ocean Challenge Blog, and this time it's 

Halloween.

Now I have to admit that while I love Halloween, I really dread this theme coming up.

We don't send cards for Halloween in the UK and it's really much more for the smaller children here, so since my children are all grown up but don't as yet have children of their own, anything I make is rather wasted.

But then I saw this gorgeous digi from  Digistamp Atelier, she called 

Incantation 

and I thought she was perfect to fit the Halloween theme without being tied specifically to Halloween.

I kept things fairly simple, in fact it's bordering on CAS but the flowers push it over lol.

I used black and purple with a little silver miri card for a nice sorcerous feel. I added the bling and little die cut stars above the wand so that it looks like she's casting a spell.

I have to say that I found this stamp quite difficult to colour in my distress inks as a lot of the shadding is sketched in, and since the inks are translucent, you can see the grey through the colour. So I thought I would colour her with Hickory Smoke and Black Soot with just a touch of Shaded Lilac and Dusty Concord for her eyes, the flowers and ribbon in her hair and the ends of her braids. I also used it for the 'glow' around her.

To add to the magical effect I outlined her with my Sakura Clear Star pen, to give her some silvery shimmer and sparkle, when you turn the card to the light. Doesn't that sentiment seem made for this stamp?

I do hope you like my twist on the Halloween theme, why not come join in the fun?! :) xx

Elisabeth Bell - Little Rapunzel

Happy Monday everyone! I'm here with my Digi Bells GDT hat on today.  

I decided to use 

Little Rapunzel

This is a digi stamp from Elisabeth Bell Designs isn't she adorable?

I coloured her with my distress ink markers and decided to go a bit bright as the weather has been rather miserable here with the days drawing in and I wanted to cheer myself up a bit!

Once she was coloured up I cut her out with 

Die-namics Designer Labels 1 STAX

The paper is from a Kaisercraft pad I've had in my drawer for over a year now, I really must try and use up more of my papers, my paper drawers are definitely overdue a sort through.

I kept it fairly simple today as I have to say that I've been ultra busy with crafting commitments recently, in fact I'm posting 6 projects this week, eeeeek! When I have to make a card in a rush I tend to use a 'go to' layout and just make variations and this is what I've done today. These large rectangular dies are

By DIEsyne Big Stitched & Pierced Rectangles

but you can use any large rectangular die you have or even just cut and mat the paper, I just like the 'finished' look of the die.

I finished off with some coloured flowers from my stash to match the papers and the following 

embellishments from the Ribbon Girl.

25 mm Aqua Satin Ribbon

19 mm Alice White Guipure Lace 

20 mm Pearl and Diamante Embellishment

Apple Blossom Mixed Pastels

Daisy Flower Charm

12 mm Pearl Ivory Flower Shape Flatbacks

8 mm Ivory Pearl Flatbacks

That's all from me today, but I'll be back again tomorrow with a new challenge over at Deep Ocean.

Have fun! :) xx

Wee Stamps - Snowflake Dancer

Ok so.....make sure you're sitting down....I made another Clean & Simple card. I know right?!

Those of you who have been followers of mine for some time now will know how difficult I find these. This one was no exception, once I had the image coloured up and cut out I really struggled with it. I knew I wanted to keep it clean to showcase the beautiful drawing by Sylvia Zet but I kept feeling that I should add more. Luckily I resisted, because now it's finished I really love it.

I coloured her with my distress ink markers, this beautiful blue is one of the newer colours Blueprint Sketch and comes out quite Violet toned when diluted.

I outlined all the clothing hair and snowflakes with my Sakura Gelly Roll pen - Clear Star. This adds a wonderful soft metallic sparkle and I wish the camera would pick it up properly, because it looks so pretty in real life,

I had this sentiment stamp laying around in my drawer and it was the perfect size (and sentiment) for this card and just filled in a little bit of that white space without looking too fussy. The silver ink complemented the style of the painting perfectly I thought. 

Wee Stamps - Snowflake Dancer

Maja Design - Vintage Frost Basics

Centura Pearl Snow White Cardstock

By DIEzyne Big Pierced and Stitched Regtangles

Marianne Designs Creatables - Snowflakes Style 1

Adhesive Gems - Seaside

That's all from me today but I'll be back to share more inspiration next week.
Have a lovely weekend! :) xx

Saturated Canary - I Heart You

Morning! Hope your week is going well. Mine is a bit up and down. I'm popping in with a DT card for the Ribbon Girl today.

I've used I Heart You, a Saturated Canary digi that comes in the 'Buncha Digis' set. I've combined her with some pretty Pion Papers from the My Precious Daughter collection. Then of course I've used lashings of fabulous Ribbon Girl embellishments. I've linked the products at the end of my post as usual.

I coloured her with my distress ink markers. This is the new colour, Wilted Violet.

Wow, I may be getting the hang of this ...leaving some of the lace on show malarky....it's only taken me 2 years! lol

I kept the inside quite simple.

20 mm Edwina Deep Cream Scallop Lace
9 mm Plum Velvet Ribbon
Cheesecloth
Ballerina Charm
Cherry Blossom Lilac/White 2 Tone
20 mm Pink Open Rose
Pretty Blossom Pink
Pretty Blossom Purple/Violet
Beaded Berries Lilac/Purple/White
12 mm Pearl Ivory Flower Shaped Flatbacks
8 mm Pearl Ivory Flatbacks
6 mm Pearl Ivory Flatbacks
Hip Rose Bud Pink 2 Tone

Anything else is from my stash.  Hope you like her, enjoy your day! :) xx

Saturated Canary - Makeup Time

Hi everyone! It's the 2nd Sunday in the month and that means that it's time for a new challenge over on the Ribbon Girls Blog.

You can make anything for the challenge, it doesn't have to be a card, but you must use an image on it.

I've used one of the new digi images from Saturated  Canary, I just love Krista's work.
She's called Makeup Time and I've linked her and all my products below.

I coloured her with my Distress Ink markers and matched her to some beautiful papers from Maja. I'm very sad to say that these are the last of the sheets of this design I had in my stash ...sigh

I added some beautiful velvet ribbon, pearl trim and flowers.

Just love Kay Fatula's stunning butterflies for accents.

For once I managed not to totally cover the pretty lace I used! Yay!

Saturated Canary - Makeup Time

Maja Design Vintage Summer Basics - 1933

50 mm Ophelia Ivory Tulle Lace

9 mm Colonial Rose Velvet Ribbon

FB Trim 10mm Square Ivory Pearl

Ivory White Magnolia Flower

White/Purple-Pink 2 Tone Wild Roses

Ivory 20 mm Open Rose
Pink Gutterman Top Stitch Thread

The fabulous butterflies are of course from Kay Fatula's Etsy store here

We are sponsored by our friends at Lili Of The Valley who are giving a prize of a stamp of your choice and The Ribbon Girl who are giving a £10 voucher

I hope you can join us! :) xx

I thought I'd enter her into the challenge over at Fab 'n' Funky Challenges as this week it's Sassy Ladies and I thought that was rather appropriate for this image.

Saturated Canary - Amber in the Arbour

Hello everyone!
Today I'm using one of my favourite Saturated Canary Stamps from  LDRS Creative.
This beautiful girl is Amber, from the Sweet N Sassy range. Doesn't she just have the sweetest expression?

I coloured her with my distress ink markers to match these pretty Maja Design papers from the Coffee in the Arbor collection, and gave her light golden brown hair.

I fussy cut the image and added back some of the butterflies I lost with this memory box die.

Love how this seam binding matches my papers.

and just to prove that even us DT girls aint perfect, I've just noticed that one of the large pearl embellishments I used had slipped while drying and is now wonky! Ooops. Oh well, we'll say it adds to the charm and leave it at that ;) 

LDRS Saturated Canary Amber
Die-namics Pierced Ovals Stax
Memory Box Dancing Butterflies Die
Maja Deign Coffee in the Arbour - Feel the Grass
Maja Design Coffee in the Arbour - Raspberry Jam Cookies
Maja Design Coffee in the Arbour - Raspberry Lemonade
Maja Design Coffee in the Arbour - Raspberry Cupcake
My Mind's Eye Decorative Brads

Nicole Ivory Vintage Lace
Rose Petal Pink Vintage Style Seam Binding
Moss Green Vintage Style Seam Binding
Cheesecloth
Magnolia Flower
Vintage Pink Wild Roses
Apple Blossom Mixed Pastels
Hip Rose Buds White
12 mm Pearl Ivory Flower Shape Flatbacks

That's all from me today, have a wonderful weekend and I'll see you here again on Sunday :) xx

Elisabeth Bell - Skippydee

Hi everyone!
 Did you see the shiny new GDT badge on my blog?  Well if you missed it, I've been invited to join the Digi Bells, Elisabeth Bell's talented design team as a guest for the next 3 months, how exciting is that?

So this is my first official post for them and you'll be seeing lots more Elisabeth Bell cuteness from me over the coming weeks.

So, onto my creation today.

I made a card using the delightful Skippydee, one of Elisabeth's older Little Cottage Cuties collection from Whimsy Stamps.
I coloured her with my distress ink markers to match some pretty Pion Design papers. As usual I have links at the end of my post.

Isn't she pretty?  I decided to keep to quite pale colours after yesterdays brights. All my layers are edged with Walnut Stain distress ink.

I just love this gorgeous silk ribbon, it makes such lush bows.

I layered with some dies cuts and finished off with lots of lovely Ribbon Girl embellishments.

I finished the inside with some more paper from the collection.

Whimsy Stamps Skippydee

Pion - Paris Flea Market - Pink Fabric

Pion - Paris Flea Market - Rose du Jardin

Die-namics Oval Decorative Doily Die

Die-namics Pierced Ovals Stax Die

Joy! Crafts Around with Butterflies Die (small butterflies only)

Cheery Lynn Mini Fanciful Flourish

Cheesecloth

32 mm Clementine Ivory Embroidered Tulle Lace

32 mm Pale Pink Pure Silk Ribbon

4 mm Ivory FB Pearl Trim

16 mm Moss Green Grosgrain Ribbon

Ivory White Magnolia Flower

Vintage Pink 30 mm Wild Roses

20 mm Pale Pink Open Roses

10 mm Pale Pink Open Roses

Ivory 20 mm Open Roses

Self Adhesive Ivory Pearl Hearts

That's all from me from me today but I will be back with you all again soon :) xx