MFT snowflakes splendour

never can have too many snowflakes ! Paper card and coloured vellum

Stampin Up and oxides -

Another oxides and brushos and Metallics masterboard .I die cut the SU Starlight die from nuvo sparkle dust (glitter ) card that I made .
 Please excuse the clutter of my desk in the background
I shall enter this in Muse ChristmasVisions #90 anything goes

http://musechristmasvisions.blogspot.co.uk/2017/11/muse-christmasvisions-90.html

MFT - Avery Elle snowflakes

Made a master board of oxides and brushos - but embossed white snowflakes on top -reasonably quick yippee

Christmas snowflakes on cards

This is one of many cards I made using  various snowflakes dies - mostly snowflake splendour MFT - I made the glitter paper - with nuvo glitter

I will enter this in the Fusion Card Challenge - focusing on the blue and the fern on the parcel -which looks like my snowflake

http://fusioncardchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2017/12/fusion-blue-gift.html.

Less is More #356 Let it Shine

More oxides and this time MFT snowflake splendour stamp set.Played with the oxides and metallics on Kraft card.I used Faded Jeans and Wilted Violet this time .Its actually very muted and shimmery at the same time . As the theme is "let it shine"I thought I'd enter the Less is More challenge .

http://simplylessismoore.blogspot.co.uk/2017/11/challenge-356-let-it-shine.html

Christmas and Oxides

I made another masterboard - using salty ocean and peacock feathers oxides - with added metallics .Stamped Avery Elle snowflakes and embossed with gold glitter powder

Christmas Cards-oxides /Concord and 9th

this is one of the cards I made from my playing with the oxides - and the masterboard that I sort of made .....  good fun - I have put some Nuvo Drops - red on the wreath for berries .

Oxide playtime

had my oxides for a few months but hardly had any time to play and practice - heres my Xmas playtime with added metallics and Lindys Gang Spray,Nothing like getting messy -lol

Will be die cutting Concord and 9th JOY and Noel letters from it

Xmas cards -addicted to cas BOWS

Well its panic time here as I am way behind in Christmas Card making ! So checking out blogs and challenges is the way to go . I am entering this card in Addicted to CAS -bows #124

.http://addictedtocas.blogspot.co.uk/2017/11/addicted-to-cas-challenge-124-bows.html

Leaves -Addicted to CAS

I masked off the panel -Stamped and Embossed the Birthday sentiment , then using various peg stamps stamped the leaves and a few flowers , trying very hard not to get carried away .......

I am going to enter this in the Addicted to CAS #123 LEAVES
http://addictedtocas.blogspot.co.uk/2017/10/addicted-to-cas-challenge-123-leaves.html

 I may not have been blogging but I've been shopping - just a tad Its amazing how much you can buy even when not home !

injury

I'm sorry I've not blogged for a while but my poor mum fell down a slope on a golf course and has dislocated /Fractured her ankle ,The consultant said she has literally smashed her ankle and one of the worst he has ever seen . So 2 lots of manipulations and 2 lots of surgery and now home non weight bearing - so I have come south to look after her - been here for 2.5 weeks - honestly if I couldnt have come then what would have happened to her - The NHS just sent her home with no idea how she would sleep ,shop , clean and just survive - NOT IMPRESSED , She was lucky that she has a downstairs spare bedroom and bathroom that she can use , a friend of her's is recovering from 2 lots of hip surgery and is living on a sofa- shes in her late 80's WTF !!!because no checked her home ......what a total disgrace RANT OVER sorry 

Anniversary Card AAA card #93 challenge

While we were away on holiday it was our 27th wedding anniversary which we spent in Verona .But here is the card I made for my husband - hope you like it
It was made with a clearly Besotted set which I bought second hand - I love this CaS style card -even though I say so myself I was very pleased with the finished card.

I thought I would enter this in the latest AAA Challenge #93-Words have Power as the words on the heart are "I Love you "
http://aaacards.blogspot.co.uk/2017/06/cas-game-93-words-take-centre-stage.html

please feel free to comment - feed back is great........

a post at last

            Sorry for not posting for a while - but been on an amazing holiday to Italy and 2 Balls and end of tennis match season bash which all lead to me getting a flu bug - so no posts to the blog for quite a while ............ Italy was stunning we did a whistle stop trip over 17 days Rome ,Florence ,Tuscany driving around ,Florence (again ) Verona and Venice .
           We had only been back 8 days when we went to Magdalene Cambridge Ball - a white tie event where the dress code for ladies was long dresses and ideally opera gloves though not essential !!!!! really .......it was 33 degrees C ... this ball is amazing as its Champagne all night (literally ) and it finishes at 6am with a survivors photos on the river Cam...then flew home after a few hours sleep to get ready for another Ball locally to where we live !!! Some social whirl thats for sure .....Back to normality now

Mess but fun

This is a birthday card for my husbands goddaughter  - Shes a History of Art student at university . I used several Stampin Up sets - then added some random brushos - I also used foil around the butterfly but it does not show up in the photo but added some lovely shine and depth
- A bit of a mash up but I really liked the end result ( Am I allowed to say that !

Goodies

this was a lovely haul from Simon Says Stamp - just a few treats - now I need to get on and make some cards and play with all this lovely stuff .It actually arrived a few weeks ago but been so busy hence no blogging for a while......... And now I'm about to go on holiday ......but hopefully I will get a few cards made first -watch this space

I started to write this post but the dreadful bombing and loss of innocent lives happened in Manchester- feeling sorry ,tearful  and anger .

Thank You Card

Rubber Stamp Tapestry

Whatever next 2 cards posted in one day ! But no challenge - I needed a quick thank you card for a friend - so I managed to find these peg stamps - I had forgotten how pretty they are .But my camera which is very old was playing up so the photos aren't that great - well I'm blaming the camera and not my photography skills or the card -lol,

close up 

Cas Colours and Sketches #220 - 70th birthday

Ok - its true I have become challenge addicted ! Sorry here's another one ,I had a 70th card to make - and was struggling a bit because this lady was one of triplets and one of her sisters died quite recently so her birthday will be a mixed feeling I suspect -so searching for inspiration I had seen this challenge earlier and my card pal Jenny suggested Cas Colours and Sketches - so without ado here's the card
http://cascoloursandsketches.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/challenge-220-sketch.html

Papertrey

Casology #Season -246

Every week I check out Casology and add amazing cards to my pinterest board - so this weeks challenge was interesting ummmmm ! What does Season mean to me - I happened to have the tennis on TV and I had a quirky light bulb moment - season means changing sport -the beginning of spring means the start of the Golf season ( with the Masters on TV ) and summer is Wimbledon and Tennis , Autumn is beginning of Rugby and Winter is skiing .....So with that in mind here's my card.
It was coloured with a mixture of inkintense and watercoloured pencils -I haven't decided whether I will use it as a Fathers Day card or A male Happy Birthday- hence no sentiment at the moment .I will enter this in the Casology Challenge -Season .thank you for looking

http://casology.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/week-246-season.html

Art Impressions

Less Is More -Stripes # 325

Was thinking about card making and looking at Less Is More and the amazing cards there and saw the latest challenge - and had a "light bulb " moment - then began the search for a certain stamp ! I was absolutely delighted when I found it and a few others (dare I say I forgot I had !!!!)
In the past I have struggled to make this work but decided bad taste colouring was the only way forward ......I hope this has enough stripes !
It was coloured with distress inks (with water) and Atyou Spica pens for sparkle
I am entering this is in Less Is More #325 Stripes
http://simplylessismoore.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/challenge-325-stripe.html

Blog One year Old

wow I have just realised that it has been a year since I entered blogland as a blogger -this was all because my crafting friend Jenny of http://theotherficklepixie.blogspot.co.uk/
said I should start one - so one year on I am still blogging and entering competitions - thank you to all of you who have visited from far and wide ,given advice and encouragement ,cost me a fortune in new craft gear- which I just had to have ..........and been it's been a ball - here's to another year of crafting - Thank you

Debbie

Casology -Grow

I needed to make a card for my Uncle - who has a great sense of humour - so looking for inspiration I looked at a few challenge blogs and came across Casology -theme this week is Grow - sooooooo I came across this StampinUP stamp ( which I have had a while ) and I think it ticks the boxes - after all cheese grows better with age - doesnt it ! and the sentiment is funny - Happy Birthday Uncle Alan ,On the plus side it is clean and simple with lots of white space
http://casology.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/week-245-grow.html

Update 25th April 2017 - I just discovered this card got an honourable Mention in the Results - thank you casology for my badge (please feel free to see on my Challenge badges Page )
http://casology.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/week-245-weekly-winners.html

Less is More - spring walk #324 -Uniko Gerbera

I saw the Less is More Challenge and thought ooooo I have a lovely stamp set from Uniko which I could use - they are such pretty flowers - I stamped and embossed them in white superfine powder from Ranger , then used my NEW distress oxides to blend the colours in a technique I saw by Gina K .I will enter this in the LiM challenge

http://simplylessismoore.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/challenge-324-spring-walk.html

Cats on a card-NBUS

I have had this stamp for a while and Have only just got round to using it -I had so much fun colouring the cats - I used distress inks as water colours and using the tim holtz fine water brush ( which is the best btw )  I managed to layer the colours giving a small amount of shadowing ( I hope )

I will enter this in a few challenges :-
Stamp IT
http://thesisterhoodofcrafters.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/stamp-it-challenge.html
Anything Goes #339
http://craftycreationschallenges.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/339-anything-goes.html


I have now sent this card but realise that I forgot to ground the cats oh well - nothing I can do now -lol

Goodies from SimonSaysstamp

I have waited sooooo long for these to arrive - and it was worth the wait - now I need to order some more oxides - they are stunning to use - cards will follow over the next few days while I play with them .Fun times 😅

Male Birthday Cards

This was made for my brother-in-law and was using my new infusions from IndigoBlu - It was a "happy " accident (I think) .I masked off  a panel and stamped the clocks in versafine and then wet the panel and sprinkled the infusion powder , I then moved the colour around -carefully or so I thought ......... when I took off the masked paper I discovered he infusions had spread under the masked paper - but actually I liked the effect .The "Happy" die was die cut several times and glued together -then stamped the birthday and added a few tonic nuvo drops in glossy black -Voila

I still find male cards soooooo hard 

Birthday Boy

Birthday Boy

PTI

This was card for a 6 year old boy - I used my new PTI matching dies and stamps .I stamped the balloons and banner with the stamp set.Then  I actually used 2 out of  3 dies in the set and stuck them onto each other .I am really pleased with the effect - I think  its a very CAS card - what do you think ?
I am entering this card in CAS Colours & Sketches
http://cascoloursandsketches.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/challenge-214-sketch.html





Ummmm think it must have been a blue/green card day 

Birthday cards

Art Journey

 This first card is using my new Art Journey stamps and a new stencil (a script stencil can't remember the company - sorry ) .It was blended in toning distress inks and stamped in the same colours .I decided to add a Penny Black butterfly and fussy cut it .I did add Wink of Stella to all the butterflies which sadly didn't show up on the photo :(
I love the colour combo of this challenge so I am going to enter YNS colour challenge -click the link and go see
http://yournextstamp.com/blog/sketch-and-color-challenge-59-more-inspiration/

Anniversary Card

My best friend was celebrating 11 years of marriage -and this was the card I made .I love this die but cannot remember where i got it from .I die cut it twice so that I got 11 hearts - then i coloured the hearts and added glossy accents (what would we do without it ! ) Hopefully It arrived on time as I was on my way skiing when I posted it !

I love a Freebie

I bought some stamp sets from StampinUp and got a free set .This was the resulting card - I used my Misti to stamp the flowers by colouring the flowers in sections with distress Markers. Then I moved the colour "around " to give the flowers some depth ,This was a card for a lovely lady who was turning 93 years young !

new stamp set- More fresh cuts

Wow its been nearly a month since my last entry on my blog - thats because we have been skiing in Utah - and what a wonderful time we had.A friend came down from Pittsburgh to stay with us to ski -which was such a laugh ----- a whole year till we go again ....sigh.......
   Anyway back to cards - this was one of the many things that I have bought recently ! (Some are still to arrive - its all Tim Holtz fault ! )
This set is from Wplus9 - which I ordered after watching an amazing tutorial on YouTube here by Lydia Brookes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4wrrJa77gQ&t=5s
My card is no where near as beautiful but I will be practicing with it .

OMG - more goodies

      Well I've been shopping again - well sort of - I have had some things on order for a while  but they have only just started to arrive .As a result I have a mass of new things to play with ........when I get the time . To go to my craft room I feel that the housework has to be All done ( well that's the theory anyway!) But tennis often gets in the way .... and now we are about to go skiing so I am starting to plan the packing ..... so you can see why nothing gets done in any shape or form .

      Anyway here's some of the things that have arrived this week -

So Suzy Stamps

Wplus9

indigoBlu flitterglu kit

I did however manage to make a birthday card for a tennis friend who is a very good artist - so at least I did have some fun in the craft room - which still needs sorting desperately .

totally Tim Holtz

I masked off the areas - blended distress inks then did stamping with the same distress inks - first and second generation stamping .The flowers in the foreground were stamped with versafine  (a navy colour )to give some depth to the card but keeping it one layer.I then splashed some gold shimmer in drops over the card.
      Hope you all have a good crafting weekend .Feel free to comment- I love hearing from you all😄

Card -50th and goodies (more)

Morning blogland -I live on the East Coast of Scotland and woke up this morning to snow ! Which is pretty unusual- only a scattering mind you -but still very pretty ,Sadly now virtually gone but is absolutely freezing here - so a day for staying indoors and hopefully into the craft mess -oops mean craft room
Here's a card I made yesterday ,

It was a friends 50th and she is a tennis coach so the original idea was for a tennis related card but in the end settled on Wimbledon colours .The set used was clearly besotted stars and Tim Holtz -numerics - I wish there was a die set to go with these
The inks were from SSS (simon says stamp )As you can see I tried to ombre the two colours ,not as successful as I had hoped - hey ho
The other photo is more goodies from Netherlands -Art journey - set is called Natures Flowers - I have wanted this set for years after I saw a card on pinterest and looked up the blog- heres the link
https://herminesplace.wordpress.com/tag/stempelen-stamping/page/7/
She makes the most amazing cards - well artwork - there are some seriously talented people out there

Clearly Besotted/Tim Holtz

Art Journey

thank you for taking the time to have a look and feel free to leave a comment - its lovely to read what you think good or bad or for advice