Papertrey Ink Birthday card for May Blog Hop

Hello everyone,

Its the 25th May so its time for the Papertrey Ink Blog Hop and this time we were asked to use flowers in a project. Well everyone likes flowers don't they?  I certainly do and judging by the number of flower stamps I've got, I must love them to pieces! Well when I got them all out I was a bit paralysed by the choice of what to use so I put them all away again and decided to randomly pull a set out and go with that, and this was the result:-



click to enlarge



I used a plain white card base but inked it softly with raspberry fizz ink to take away some of the starkness. Then I made a couple of layers of white and pink card and on the top layer I lightly stamped polka dots in ripe avocado

and then randomly stamped some little flowers over the dots

I cut a tag in white and again inked the edges and stuck it down with pop dots to give some dimension. Next came die cut leaves from Delightful Dahlia and Beautiful Blooms 2 and they were stamped with their matching stamp before being shaped a little and put on the tag with a button in the centre. The sentiments came from Signature Series Flower and Birthday Basics.

I'm going to stop there because you will be itching to get on to the next blog, and so am I, but thanks for stopping by and enjoy the hop!

Hugs

Carol x

Papertrey Ink Sympathy Card

Hello everyone,

I hope you had a good weekend and are refreshed for the week ahead. I had a lovely weekend seeing family and friends and today, after I finished some housework, I got time to do some crafting. The Make it Monday challenge over at Papertrey Ink is to create a sympathy card so I got out some supplies and came up with this card:-



click to enlarge

I used vintage cream card, stamped the stem from Flutterby Friends and then coloured it with Copics. I stamped a little butterfly which is from Penny Black and again coloured it in. I added some glitter to the leaves and the butterfly which you can see if you enlarge the picture.The lower sentiment came from With Sympathy and the higher one was from Round and Round. I really like linking two sentiments in this way. I used a corner punch, then inked the edges of the panel with some soft brown chalk ink

and mounted it and the small sentiment onto dark chocolate card. I wrapped some cream twine around the panel and tied a little knot before adhering it to a fine linen base card with some pop dots. The final touch was to add a couple of pink gems to make a visual triangle with the butterfly. Hope you like it.

Thanks for stopping by.

Hugs

Carol x

Cricut birthday card and May Old Stash Challenge

Hello everyone,

Yay its Friday and the start of another weekend! I'm going to a guitar recital tonight and we have friends coming for dinner tomorrow so I thought I'd get a card up here before it all gets too busy. Regular visitors will know that one of my New Year Resolutions was to use up more of my old stash and I challenged myself to do a card a month only using old stuff and this is the May offering:-)

I used a white card base and some PM Venetian Skies design paper with Coredinations card layered to the side after being sanded on the edges. I then cut the cupcake from Cricut Wildcard cartridge ( love this and have used it a lot). This time I cut the cake wrapper in some coordinating card and, although it is hard to see it in the photograph, I tried to shape it to give some dimension,

before adding glitter for the frosting. I coloured the candle flame with Copics. The top sentiment is from Waltzing Mouse Frame it and the bottom one is from Papertrey Ink Signature Greetings - I really like mixing sentiments up in this way.

If you too are trying to use up old stash, do please send me a link so can hop over to see it.

Well I better get a move on so I hope you have a great weekend and thanks for looking in.

Hugs

Carol x

Waltzing Mouse Thank You Card

Hello everyone,

Its the 17th May so its time once again for the Waltzing Mouse Blog Waltz and the task this time was to make a masculine card. Yes anyone who visits here regularly knows how hard I find it to come up with cards for men and I was so wishing that I had bought Claire's cowboy stamp set, but as I hadn't, I had to make do with what I'd got. It turns out that I didn't have very much. Well I suppose the purpose of challenges IS to challenge yourself so I leapt in anyway and came up with this offering:-

I went with a kraft card base and stamped the chevron stamp from Offbeat Backgrounds in cream ink along one side and inked up the edges of the card.

I then cut a cream label from Nestabilities 14 and stamped it again in cream with a stamp from Holiday Labels. I over stamped the thanks stamp from Rescue Remedies Additions in Corduroy distress ink, folded it to make a tab and hung a sunshine charm from it.

I found a scrap of ribbon that just stretched across the card and stamped the other sentiment onto some cream card and inked and rounded the edges. I was really pleased how these two sentiments linked so well with each other. I found a manly looking brad and gave a little more dimension by raising it on pop dots. Not quite a CAS card but it is spare and plainish without a pink ribbon in sight.

Thanks to Crafty Math Chick who pointed out that Moxie Fab World are having a challenge to use chevrons, so I am entering this card.

Thanks for stopping by do enjoy your dance onto the next blog.

Hugs
Carol x

Versatile Blogger Award

Hello everyone,

I hope you are having a good weekend, and in my house some celebrating has been going on because the football team my husband supports (Manchester City) has won the FA Cup for the first time in zillions of years!

I am also celebrating because Crystal has kindly given me this award



Thank you Crystal, you really made my day by thinking of me.

I have to tell you 8 random things about myself and pass it on to 5 other bloggers, so here goes :-)

1) I love lily of the valley flowers.

2) I have lost 25 pounds and only have 8 to go to my goal.

3) Most of the cards I make go to the school my daughter teaches at to be sold for charitable causes.

4) I sing in an acapella choir with my husband and daughter.

5) I once set up a hairdressers shop for my children to play in and my son somehow got hold of a real pair scissors and cut most of my daughters hair off!!!

6) I am a secret blogger - none of my friends know about it - mainly because none of them are crafters.

7) Since all my children left home, I've been lucky enough to have a whole room to craft in.

8) I would love to visit one of the CHA shows sometime.

Now  for the great part of brightening someones day by passing this on to some very talented ladies who I recommend you visit.

Lisa
Wendy
Stella
Svetlana
Janet

Thanks for stopping by
Hugs
Carol x

Waltzing Mouse thank you tea set

Hello everyone,

I hope you had a good weekend and are easing nicely into the new week. We went out for a meal with our eldest son on Friday evening but then spent the rest of the weekend quietly at home for a change. We got some plants for the garden and my husband spent the time planting them and tidying up the garden, whilst I got lots of time to craft.
Waltzing Mouse stamps are going to be 2 years old on 21st May and Claire is holding a birthday tea to celebrate. You have to use a tea baggie or cup template and come up with something partyish. I decided to make up an afternoon tea party basket as a thank you gift and this is what I made:-

I printed the tea baggie template onto double sided card and before I put it together, I cut an aperture from the front with a Nesties Labels Four die.

 I then stamped one of the Rescue Remedy stamps onto acetate with black stazOn ink (I hope this doesn't damage clear stamps) and stuck this behind the aperture.

I used a Marianne Creatables leaf die to provide some foliage and cut some flowers with a Cuttlebug die.

I then cut a smaller Labels four die and stamped Enjoy from Rescue Remedies Additions, and a few leaves from Tiny Trees. Tea bags in a white bag were placed inside the baggie and it was sealed with a silk flower and the label.

I had some homemade strawberry jam and made a label from Nesties Labels fourteen and stamped it with an image from Holiday Labels and a sentiment from Frame It.

The top label was made with Papertrey Ink My Punny Valentine stamps and punches. It was finished of with some net and a bit of blue ribbon around the lid. I finally took a white napkin and stamped the chevron design from Off Beat Backgrounds onto it (a great idea stolen from Kate Whelan who does it so much better), to line a little basket for some homemade scones and these little goodies.

Whew - way to mix lots of different stamp set and make a complete mess of the desk!

 So Happy Birthday Waltzing Mouse and may you have continued success.
I'm also going to enter this into the Wee Memories challenge 55

Thanks for looking.

Hugs

Carol x

Cricut birthday card

Hello everyone,

I hope you are having a good week and have enjoyed all the good weather we have been having. I've thoroughly enjoyed all the recent Bank Holidays and seeing friends and family, but I have to admit that I'm glad to get back to normal and get some crafting time in. I spent some time playing with my Cricut yesterday and wanted to try making a shaped card using Design Studio. I've had CDS for ages but I've had a lot of trouble getting the hang of it, so I decided to bite the bullet and just learn to flip, rotate and weld to make this card:-

I used the Just Because Cards cartridge and cut the dog card out at 5 inches. When I scored and folded it, she stood very well although she is only joined at the head. Of course a Scottie dog has to have some plaid on her person - that must be mandatory, right? But I didn't have any plaid background paper in my stash so I used a Waltzing Mouse stamp from the Off Beat Backgrounds set to make a little bit of my own for his coat and collar:-

I used some Papertrey Ink dies to cut out a heart shape to be his little coat and added a sentiment. I recently saw someone somewhere (sorry I can't remember or I would credit it) add a puppy to a dog card and it gave me the idea to cut a smaller dog and attach him to his Mummy

I did this by folding some acetate which I adhered to the pup and then cut a slit in the Mummy and fed the acetate through. This means that the card can be pushed together to fit in an envelope. I cut the collar and name tag, added googly eyes and some glossy accents to give them both a healthy damp nose

and they turned out better that I anticipated.

I'm going to enter this in the Make it Monday linky party where anything goes, Ann's Creative Nook anything goes with animals and

the Fab n Funky challenge which is not to use bought backing papers.

Thanks for looking.

Hugs

Carol x

Papertrey Ink Birthday Card

Hello everyone,

Did you watch the royal wedding? My husband and I travelled to the Wirral to see some friends and the men went out hiking whilst we stayed in and watched the morning unfold. I thought the bride looked so stylish in her beautiful dress and I have to say I think that the British do pageantry so well.

The weather has been too nice to stay indoors crafting but I've been wanting to try a new (to me) technique and decided to try and make a card for the current PTI Make it Monday challenge which has to be done today or it would be too late. I have been wanting to try stamping on fabric for a while but I always thought that I would need special ink so never got round to it. Then I thought that nobody is going to wash a card so it doesn't really matter if the ink is water fast and I had a play with some calico that I had in.

I used the Women of Life stamp set  and the challenge this time was to hand draw a frame so I did this with a fine liner pen, and I finished the card off with some ric rak and a button.

I heat set the ink with an iron before matting the calico onto some raspberry fizz card and then onto a fine linen base card. I think I quite like the homespun look.

Thanks for looking and I hope you enjoy the rest of the holiday weekend.

Hugs
Carol x