WOW I Have Bbeen Featured!

Wow! what a lovely surprise to be featured on the Little Red Wagon challenge blog. My centre step Lovely as a Tree card was featured.

That was such a welcome surprise, and to be honest I needed a lift today, Thanks so much
Little Red Wagon, hoping to play along again soon, I'm off to add my first button to my sidebar ;o)

As Lovely As A Tree.....Centre Step Card

Today I want to share a thank you card which is made especially for the mental health team who work from The Woodlands Resource Centre, in St Annes on Sea. I have had a lot of support during my illness and it was world mental health day last week so I though I should send a thank you card to them and what better image to use than this one for their card? (woodlands!!!)
I used this Stampin Up set below to create it...

 I have been trying to buy this Stampin Up "Lovely as a Tree" stamp set" for ages, I absolutely love the grove of trees (bottom stamp) I bleieved the set had been retired so didn't bother going to Stampin Up for it. I kept bidding on eBay for them but was always outbid at the last minute. in desperation I asked Cal a Stampin Up demonstrator (her username is HysteriCal on ukscrappers) for help.

To my surprise she told me that its the one set that has lasted so long without retiring it's that popular! So I ordered it along with my new Stampin Up paper trimmer (which is fabulous but that's another post!!!) I have marked the centre of the block with pencil to help me in a project I am trying out!

So the first card I have created with it is a centre step card but I used the landscape style rather than the usual tall portrait version as it fitted the image better! unfortunately I see looking at the photo now that 2 of my sticky back gems have dropped off at the bottom GASP!!! I shall go back and stick them all on properly with glossy accents! so glad that I haven't posted it already!

I used an embossing folder which gives a wood grain effect behind the image and I used the long spellbinders Parisian border die at the bottom. the "Thank You" is die cut using a Robert Adams die

To colour the image which was stamped with my Rich Cocoa Momento ink pad, I used Promarkers.

I decided to send the ground further back than the stamped tree mound edges as I didn't want to give the sense that the trees were on the edge of a cliff! 

I wasn't totally satisfied with the sky which I had coloured at the bottom and blended into the green and then brought colour down from the top too so I used a powder blue pan pastel very lightly but leaving some white till I got the desired effect.

I am really pleased with the card and cant wait to think up some lovely Christmas designs once I have played some more with this fabulous stamp set LOL

CHALLENGES...
I'm entering a few challenges again today as it inspires me to keep to crafting especially when in pain or just feeling blaaaahhhh!
Their name is linked to their respective blogs so just click to go to them!

Creative Card Crew.....Black Cardstock
Ooh La La Creations.....Inspired by Nature
Little Red Wagon.....Give Thanks
Creative Knockouts.....Thankful
Sisters of Craft.....Anything Goes
Inspiration Destination..........Antything Goes

Side Step Card & Cute Knitting Die Cuts

The Christmas cards are still a work in progress, to be honest I keep changing my mind on exactly what I wanna do so I'm still thinking that through especailly which papers to use so I wanted to try something totally different today... I browsed on Pinterest (a favourite armchair activity lol) and I found samples of side step cards I have only ever created centre step cards so I decided I really had to have a go! theres even one based on a semicircle but that's for another day LOL!

I needed to make a thank you card for my close friend Kath, she has been helping me to make some preemie baby hats for another friends littlle baby girl who was born very early. Kath has made the knitted ones while I have made some crochet ones. I love how realistic these Marianne Design die cuts have turned out. I embossed them then used a promarker to accent the embossing.

This is the front view of the side step card I made today. As well as the the Marianne Design die set I mentioned earlier I also used the Tattered Lace ornamental rose die. The thank you circle is a small clear stamp which was stamped then heat embossed in silver and cut with a circle die. I used a silver marker to colour the knitting needles, they look quite realistic!

I have wanted to participate in some card challenges for a while but I always seem to miss the deadlines or tiredness and my health problems get in the way, However, I am gonna break that cycle now and enter this card into a few challenges, kinda like getting back into what I really love to do...card making and scrapbooking! actually playing with all things pertaining to papercrafting.

CHALLENGES
Here's the challenges I'm entering this card into,
Select the name as this is linked to the relevent website
Inspiration Destination.....Anything Goes
Sisters Of Craft.....Anything Goes
Little Red Wagon.....Giving Thanks
Creative Knockouts.....Thankful
In The Pink.....Fancy Folds and Pink
Crafty Hazelnuts.....Use Patterned Papers All Over the Card
The Sisterhood of Crafters.....Think Pink (breast cancer awareness)

Im feeling really happy now that I have learned a new card shape
but even more so that I have been back into card challenges again
But mostly because I like this card (I am usually over critical) and the recipient will love it


thanks for stopping by , I hope you have a great week
please leave me a comment before you go!

replacing what was lost

I really need to make a start on my Christmas cards now that October is here and the holiday is over. last year I was so miffed about my Christmas cards because when I moved house last October, somehow I lost all of my dies and couldn't make the ones I had planned, in fact I hardly sent any cards at all last Christmas.  One set of lost dies was the Deer Trio by Memory Box

I love the fabulous cards people have made with these dies, I have even made a board on Pinterest of the many cards on line for inspiration. I had searched for them on and off for at least 9 months to replace the lost ones and finally found them last week,

I had also lost a set of poinsettia dies, I have bought the Lea'bilities Multi Flower Poinsettia set to replace them although they're not the same as those lost I like the fact that they have the 2 flourishes and the actual flowers can be used as leaves any time of year too. I am looking forward to making a start on my Christmas cards this week I don't wanna miss anyone out this year so better get a move on LOl!

Clever Couple!

As I have been trying to get back into scrapbooking I thought it would be a good idea to get back on the UKScrappers forum, I rejoined then I was invited to join the group entitled The Juicy Journallers who are part of the Red Ribbons house, I am getting acquainted with the members who have warmly welcomed me. I am excited about being a member of the group but hope I don't let them down.

The weekly challenge on UKScrappers this week asked us to make a page with a white background, with at least 4 bright colours and with an alliterative title . So I have managed to collect 30 points for my first 2014 layout and I am really pleased, The flowers were cut using my Silhouette Cameo.

I wanted to make a start on my holiday photo's but I also want to scrap honestly...

When I say that I mean that it would be so easy to paint such a perfect happy nothing ever goes wrong deliriously sweetly nice page, but that's not the real picture of my life or anyone else's if they are honest!     (The title was created and cut using my Silhouette Cameo)

Before we went on holiday we were both so stressed over a myriad of things. When we're stressed we really don't communicate very well and that stress along with the lack of communication really rocked our relationship. Lets just say the holiday came at exactly the right time!

I thought about the title, it nearly became Flamborough Fun but Clever Couple was what I chose in the end. I thought a lot about where we were at as a couple before the holiday and the total de-stress that the holiday brought. The journalling explains the title "Clever Couple"  it says..."Clever Couples are not those who never argue or fall out! Clever Couples know to forgive freely, to move on, to believe for the best, to smile knowing that tomorrow is another day. After all they are in love!

Just in case you haven't spotted them...the 4+ colours are orange, mid blue, pastel green, rusty red, yellow, black and white as requested. I am more of a pastel one side of the colour wheel pretty paper sort of scrapper so this is not really my style at all and far too bright, but I am pleased with this first layout in a long time. thank You UKS for the challenge!

Land of the Giants!

Destination: Withernsea Sands
our family holiday September 2014...

The first evening after unpacking and food shopping we went to check out the local beach....

and we found what looked like the front of a castle! 

Then Matt spotted the small model of the same castle front and the history of the Withernsea pier 

This was a great land of the giants style photo opportunity.

and my son Matt at the height of 6 foot 4 was a great giant LOL

This was the first holiday for Kev and myself in 3 years, redundancy, ill health, and a serious lack of funds ment holidays had been out of the question. We had never been on holiday as a family before with my son Matthew his partner Michaela and my grandson Ethan. and what a fabulous family time we all had, just what the doctor ordered! This next few posts will be about our family holiday at Withernsea and the many places we explored during our holiday!

now that I have some new photo's I have plenty of scrapbook layouts to do too so hoping to get started on them real soon!

Bringing Back The Scrapbooking

I have been thinking a lot about my love of paper crafts. I want to learn more, experience more but also mature more in what I know already. I used to love scrapbooking but kinda stopped doing it! Work and other stuff got in the way and then the crop I used to go to now n then no longer exists as the shop closed down due to retirement. I have still been interested but not actually done any layouts
I have been looking at scrapbooking a lot on Pinterest. I love Pinterest but oh boy I get so engrossed in it! Before I know it I have spent hours pinning and falling in love with layouts and pictures of babies etc etc oh yes and the awesome papers available now there's loads of techniques I have never tried but I really want to get back into the flow scrapbooking.

When Kev and I went out yesterday we bought a new camera ready for our holidays with the family. We bought a Sony Cybershot DSC H300. Wow, I love it, and it does so much more than our old camera too. I am gonna spend time this week looking at the different features of the camera and getting familiar with it so that I can get used to it and hopefully use it to it's best potential.

I'm looking forward to checking out it's panoramic 360 degree feature and later on it's close up setting for taking photo's of my cards and flowers etc. I feel I am ready now and really want get back into scrapbooking again now. I'm gonna start off with some photo's from our family holidays which is really quite soon. (so excited). This one is of Lytham Windmill, just a couple of miles away...

 The next step is to find a nice friendly crop to join, or perhaps some classes??? trouble is, I would love to join a crop during the week not on a saturday, I dont see enough of Kev already so don't wanna give up our saturdays together!

I've been looking at some of my layouts, I wish I could be less critical sometimes!

these two (above and below) are a double page spread, 

that particular challenge called for 5 question marks and some lace!

another double page spread with journalling underneath the main picture as follows...