Lots of Thanks

Today I have several thank you cards to share. I am afraid I succumbed to some more online craft shopping in recent weeks. I have always liked Concord & 9th products and fell for their August release. At the same time I bought the new Catherine Pooler mini ink set, such gorgeous colours.

Here is what I have made so far:

Card 1

After I took the first photo, I decided to try a few gems, hence the addition on the second photo.

Card 2

As you can see, I bought the dies too!

The background for the die cut leaf was a gel print done some time ago that I found in my stash.

Card 3

I have used the triple step stamps on this one.

Card 4

I think these colours are my favourite - hot tub, sage and lemongrass

I am sharing card 1 at:

Day of the month card club - world gratitude day

I am sharing card 2 at:

Die cut Divas - Anything goes

Happy Little Stampers - Anything goes with dies

I am sharing card 3 at:

Stamping Sensations - Stamp of the moment

I am sharing card 4 at:

Allsorts week 643 - Anything goes with the option of Nature

I am sharing them all at:

NBUS #30

Supplies:

Cardstock: White stamping card; Adorable Scorable coated card

Ink: Catherine Pooler Minis, Spa Collection Urban Oasis

Stamps: Concord & 9th Triple Step Autumn Leaf, Weathered Wood background stamp

Dies: Concord & 9th Autumn Leaf dies

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog today, I really appreciate it. 

Playing with Plaid

Just popping in quickly to share this card:

I recently found this die at half price, so of course I couldn't resist.

I am sharing it at:

CAS Christmas - Plaid. I think I might be pushing the CAS criteria with this one. One minute I think it is OK and the next I think it is not!

Christmas cards all year round - R for reindeer

Jingle Belles Rock - Snow

Happy Little Stampers Christmas Challenge - Anything goes

I have had two trips away recently, first with my husband to east Sussex, we enjoyed some trips to the south coast. I just love being beside the sea and the south coast is very different from the Suffolk coast where I live. My second trip was with my 2 sisters and sister in law. We take it in turns to organise a few days away each year as a way of keeping in touch. It was my turn this year and we went to Cambridge. I did my nurse training at Addenbrooks Hospital many many years ago and memories came flooding back when we passed the old hospital in Trumpington Road, it is a business school now. It was glorious and I really enjoyed it, but I also found it very stressful and am pleased to be back home and spending time in my favourite place. I am slowly catching up with things.

Wishing you a very happy weekend.

Supplies:

Cardstock: White stamping card; plaid patterned paper; Lawn Fawn fog

Dies: Sizzix thinlets 664199; Lil' Inker Designs joy word die

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog today, I really appreciate it. 

WLCB September Reminder

Today is the 18th of September so time for a reminder for our current challenge over at we love Chocolate Baroque where the theme is:

** Anything goes with the option of special occasion **

I set about this card by stamping and heat embossing the image onto Bristol board, then I cut it out and found an alcohol inked background in my stash that I thought would work well behind the image. It is alcohol ink on glossy black card with some silver foiled highlights.

I used the same AI to colour the flowers on the stamp.

The sentiment was stamped and heat embossed in the same gold EP. I did consider doing the amazing in black but I decided it would be better being slightly camouflaged by the  stems.

You can see the lovely shine in the close up picture.

I do hope I have inspired you to take part in our challenge this month. Don't forget there is always a prize and a chance to be a featured designer if you use a Chocolate Baroque stamp.

I am looking forward to seeing you in the gallery.

Supplies:

Cardstock: Bristol Board; White stamping card

Ink: Ranger Alcohol ink

Stamps: Chocolate Baroque Ace Card; Chocolate Baroque Amazing Mackintosh words

Dies: Create a smile A6 stitched rectangle

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog today, I really appreciate it. 

CAS Mix Up Reminder

Today is 15th so time for a reminder over at CAS Mix Up. This month we are using watercolour and Leslie is our host and she wants us to use autumn colours on our project. We also have a wonderful guest designer Ros over at  Mikeysmom. She does the most amazing watercolour pictures so this challenge is ideal for her. I guarantee that a visit to her blog will be well worth it.

You might notice that today I have used the same stamp as for by original card this month. I wasn't able to play at the last Twofer card challenge last month so I thought I would do my bit to keep the idea going. This time I stamped just the top of the tree, without the trunk, in black ink and coloured it with water colour pens.

Once I was happy with it I used a circle die to cut it out, covered it with versamark ink and clear heat embossed the image giving it several layers so that it became a glossy, shiny medallion. I decided to add a little interest by mounting it on a slightly larger circle of shiny metallic card.

I often find myself saying that I love to see stitching on cards, but don't actually do it much myself, so I thought it was time to change that.  This dotted cover plate is ideal for adding stitching as the holes are already made. I found some copper metallic thread and stitched around 2 of the leaf sprays having cut the panel down to size.

The panel was mounted on craft foam with the medallion positioned over it using foam pads. I stamped the sentiment and heat embossed it with chocolate pearl embossing powder, cut it to size and adhered with foam pads.

I am sorry you can't see the shine on the medallion, but I hope that I have inspired you to join our challenge, but don't forget to keep it CAS. We all find that hard sometimes.

You have until 24th to join us and don't forget to visit the blog to get more inspiration and some links to technique videos to help.

I am looking forward to seeing you in the gallery.

Before I go I have another card to share:

This time I coloured the stamp with metallic pens, used a circle die to cut it out and mounted it in the centre of this amazing cover plate. The sentiment is die cut from bronze metallic card and also from black card and then slightly offset.

I am sharing this oner at:

The four seasons challenge - Anything Fall Goes

Supplies:

Cardstock: White stamping card; Xcut adhesive metal effect sheets

Ink: Stabilo water colour pens

Stamps: Woodware, mini round twiggy tree; Chocolate Baroque, sentiments to dazzle

Dies: Memory Box, pinpoint leaf plate 94381; Waffle Flower, nested circles; Birch Press Design, string art frame; Creative Expressions, from me to you

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog today, I really appreciate it. 

A Challenge for Kath

Today is a special day over at Allsorts as this weeks challenge is a very special one in memory of Kath, who sadly died in July and was a regular DT member of the team. I decided that I just had to join them. Kath was due to be the host this week so had already chosen the theme (she always worked well in advance). I was only just getting to know Kath as I had just joined the we love Chocolate Baroque DT (where she was also a DT member) when she became ill, but I have discovered that she really loved flowers and tended not to over embellish her cards but liked to mount her image on interesting backgrounds. So this card is my tribute to Kath. Her blog is called plain & simple and is still available to view. The theme she chose is:

*Favourite Stamps with the option of Paper Pieced Flowers*

I have decided that I really like paper piecing and the trick is to use a suitable stamp or it can be very fiddly if the pieces are too small. I searched my stash of stamps and papers for something suitable. The gold on the papers has a lovely sheen that you can just see in the photos.

The flowers are paper pieced along with the large leaves under the large flower. All the other leaves are coloured and the image was fussy cut. I filled the large flower centre with some gems as the stamping and piecing looked a bit messy in the middle and it needed a focal point. I hope I haven't over done it. But what to do about the background? I wasn't sure until I remembered these dies, I hope they work, what do you think?

I am quite pleased with the finished card, not least because it is quite different from my usual style. if you get time, it would be wonderful if you could take part in this weeks Allsorts challenge, just to show how much Kath was appreciated and how much she will be missed.

Also sharing this at:

A place to start #9 patterned paper. I think my pp covers 25% of card

Through the craft room door - anything goes

Just add ink - Lines. My background is lot's of lines

Supplies:

Cardstock: Base, Gina K heavyweight; smooth white stamping card; adorable scorable mattastic for background lattice

Ink: Catherine Pooler midnight

Stamps: The Ton charmed wildflowers; sentiment Concord & 9th

Dies: Concord & 9th, plaid card front thin and thick

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog today, I really appreciate it. 

Balloons

A few weeks ago I visited the Festival of Quilts at the NEC in Birmingham and of course I added to my stash of Liberty Print fabrics, which I just love. To justify my indulgence I was determined to use some on a card. It is something I like to do but it doesn't happen very often. Anyway, I actually made 2 cards which I thought I would share with you today.

The first was for my nephew. The heart balloon is a die cut and the others are stencils which I coloured and cut out. They are all coated with glossy accents (sorry you can't see the shine), the twine is by Mary Arts, which I also bought at the show in about 8 different colours.

I am sharing this first card at CAS on Friday #213 balloons.

The second card was for my niece whose birthday was a few days later. I use the fabric by mounting it on some card with fusible web and then die cutting it. Generally it will cut really cleanly but I did get a tiny bit of fraying on this one that you can see on the close up pick if you look closely. Don't you just love the fabric?

My top tip if you want to perk up a card or just add more interest is to use a coloured card base. Once, on a post I complained about struggling to finish a card as I felt it needed something more and the lovely Cat left me a comment saying use a coloured card base. That little piece of advice was revelatory for me and now I often use a coloured card base. Thanks so much for the advice Cat (do you remember?).

I am therefore sharing my second card at Time out #195 coloured card base.

I am away for a few days at the moment so do not have much time but I will catch up on my visits soon.

Supplies:

Cardstock: Card base, adorable scorable coated card

Dies: Create a smile stitched rectangles; Sizzix balloons

Fabric: Liberty Print Tana Lawn

Stencil: Uniko

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog today, I really appreciate it. 

Chocolate Baroque September Challenge

Today is the first Sunday of September so time for a new challenge over at we love Chocolate Baroque where the theme is:

** Anything goes with the option of special occasion **

I have been lacking inspiration recently and so I just sat down to make this one afternoon and just went with the flow to see what happened. I recently acquired some black water colour paper so decided to start with that and a Chocolate Baroque stamp that I hadn't used yet. This is what happened:

My original idea was to stamp and heat emboss and then water colour the image, but in the end I got out my metallic pencils and coloured it. The effect is subtle, but I think I quite like it. I thought the background was a bit stark so I got a white pencil and gently coloured it. I like how it muted the black and highlighted the texture on the card.

The frame was created by using 2 nesting oval dies, I cut it 3 times and stacked them. The sentiment is from Chocolate Baroque too. I really like it, it is small enough to tuck in and very personal. As I had some splodges on the outside of my image I cut it with the largest oval before adding the frame and then mounted it on black cardstock. I didn't manage a special occasion but I think this one can be for any occasion that happens along, I will just add the appropriate sentiment to the inside.

I do hope I have inspired you to take part in our challenge this month. don't forget there is always a prize and a chance to be a featured designer is you use a Chocolate Baroque stamp.

I am looking forward to seeing you in the gallery.

Chocolate Baroque is a small independent art and craft company, based in the historic market town of Barnard Castle in County Durham in the North-East of England and is owned and run by Lesley and David Wharton. 

I am also sharing this at:

A bit more time to craft - Anything goes

Through The Craftroom Door - Anything goes

NBUS #30 - The stamp is NBUS

Supplies:

Cardstock: Van Gough, black watercolour paper; 300gsm black card; White 225gsm smooth card

Ink: Versamark

Stamps: Chocolate Baroque, Lords & Ladies; Words to Dazzle & Sparkle

Dies: Waffle Flower, nested ovals

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog today, I really appreciate it.