to pin

this post is just to enabLe me to pin the photo's of my accordion card posted previously, The images that I posted  bit oversized would not pin to pinterest so just posting this to sort that issue! if you want to see the origina post and details of the dies I used then scroll down to the previous post, thank you

Accordion card for Barbara

I am very pleased and proud of this Accordion Birthday card which I finished yesterday. I love it...

This one took an age to do mainly because apart from knowing I wanted to have Barbara's name running through it I couldn't decide on how to embellish it. so just stared at it for quite some time LOL

Then I raided my collection of dies and punches and found inspiration to bring it all together. Once I actually got going I really enjoyed getting back into my creative card making flow.

so here's what I did...

The base was cut from white card seven times. The framelit type die set is the Elizabeth Craft Fancy Labels Accordion Dies by Karen Burniston. this would give the card stability! I then cut the same die shapes again with scrapbooking papers eight times, (the extra cut was for the other side of the first one! I then cut the centres from the frames and stuck them on to the base card mixing the patterned papers. I didn't want to use big bold papers because the style of the card needed to be more feminine, kinda soft and elegant just like Barbara.

I used the smaller label dies from the set using pink and white card to layer onto the centres and used my set of Sizzix Sizzlets Curlz alphabet to cut the letters for Barbara's name..... then I was a bit lost for a while but finally after thinking for far too long! I used the Petite Petals rubber stamps from Stampin' Up with the matching punch to create the flowers they are just the right size for this project. The bird builder punch was just right for creating the leaves and  I added sticky back pearls for the flower centres (I noticed one had fallen off before I gave it but after the photo's had been taken ggrrrr!!).
After sticking all the little tabs to assemble the concertina of the
accordion card I used my Tattered Lace Rose corner die for the swirly bits and used the Tattered Lace Dove, and a Butterfly die on top I also used my Marianne Design little bird on branch die and some more butterflies some of which were cut using the Stampin' Up Butterfly Embosslits such a useful little thing which cuts and embosses at the same time 5 differently sized and styled butterflies.
I chose not to put happy birthday on it as first planned so that if Barbara choose to, she can display it after her birthday  the final step was to print a message for the back of the card and job done!

This was quite a time consuming card so I don't think I will ever make them to sell but to be honest Barbara is well worth it...Happy Birthday Barbara. I always make her a very different card, last year it was a box card with lots of sunflowers in it but to be honest I haven't a clue how I will beat this one!

I'm entering this creation into some challenges as follows
Fantastic Tuesday : Anything Goes + Flowers
Crafty Gals Corner : Flowers
Wags N Whiskers : Lots of Layers
Penny's Paper Crafty : More Than One Fold
Pink Gems : More Than One Fold
Inspiration Destination : Anything Goes
Suzy Bees Bloomin' : Anything Goes + Pink
Sister Act : Anything Goes
(click on the challenge name to go to their website)
Well its definitely pink, has some stamped and die cut flowers and much more than one fold and lots of layers!...
here's hoping for a win, I find it so encouraging when i win even if there's no prizes :o)

thanks for dropping by!
please leave a comment before you leave :o)

I thought I would just share a few photo's of my little trip out last Sunday. we had a wonderful time at church and felt we wanted to go out somewhere afterwards but not too far so we went home got a snack and a drink and our doggy "Lulu" then made our way to Scorton. Usually we spend a lot of time at the Barn in Scorton where we have a bite to eat and a browse around all the gifts and the garden plants but this time we went straight to the picnic area a little further on, we had a fabulous time out in the country with the sweet aroma from the bluebells...

some other flowers in the woods...

not sure what this yellow flower is below but it was very bright

 and the freedom my mobility scooter gave me (wasnt easy on the gravel paths at times) its nice to be silly sometimes especially when theres a little hill to scoot down LOL!

we felt so chilled out it was nice to just relax and enjoy each 

others company out in the woodlands

Lulu had a lovely time too,

she wanted the birds but they were too fast and high up lol

Then when we sat on some logs to have our snack she started digging. She could smell a rodent or two! she loved digging but didnt like that as soon as we returned home she had to have a bath 

My Kev always pulls faces when I want a nice photo! but this one turned out ok and below is the river which runs alongside the path. the water was quite a lot higher than our last visit

The only thing I regret was not taking my camera so all these photo's were taken using our phone camera's but we still got some nice photo's

after such a good time we did go to the Barn before it closed and enjoyed one of their speciality ice creams, 

a perfect end to a lovely day out

Spotlight Technique, Sheltering Tree

I've been doing a lot of crochet lately as I have been a bit low but made a card today so thinking I am nearly back on top again!

I have been looking at cards on pinterest using the spotlight technique, it is a lovely way to pick some detail out of a stamped image and mke it a focal point. There seems to be two ways of creating a spotlight card. The way I have tried first here is to make one with an aperture...the image is stamped then an aperture  is cut from the image focusing on particular point then another image is coloured in or changed somehow then lined up beneath the aperture to the first image.. I used the fabulous Stampin Up Sheltering Tree stamp set. 

I created a plain bare tree on a grey background, I wanted to emphasize the change in seasons from winter to spring.I used the leaves/blossom stamp to create a cherry blossom type tree in full bloom. 

I think this is a good card to give to encourage anyone who is going through a hard time, a bereavement or a long term struggle to rimind them that seasons change, even if it feels like winter in your life with very little hope or positivity thats not the end its just a season! and we all know that our times and seasons are in God's hands!

The sentiment is created using an Our Daily Bread Designs stamp cropped then re-stamped in full inside. the butterflies were cut using stampin up embosslits butterfly folder.

I first saw a similar card on Pinterest HERE it inspired my first spotlight card ;O)

its good to get back into challenges, here where i entered this card
AAA Cards Game... #38 "There's a hole n my card"
Crafting from the Heart... #58 "Anything goes"
Make My Monday... Trees or Leaves
Stamp and Create... May Flowers
well my card fits all four of these challenges so lets hope for a win!

As many of you know from a previous post, last year I attempted to get back into scrapbooking. Although I was really pleased with my "clever couple" layout I don't feel I achieved my goal. So, looking at my endless photos and still desiring to tell my story and to record my family events I have decided to start a Project Life album. This coincides with the start of my birthday week. I will be fifty two (how did that happen???) I thought fifty two weeks at age 52 may make a good album! so I will be working on the album on a weekly basis documenting my year 52 but also trying to add in something about me, my loves likes hates, my personality and the stuff that brings me joy. I have already looked through the Project Life merchandise and decided that I am NOT gonna be an avid collector of the cards although I will buy a few I will make my own as I don't want this to be a real expensive venture and I wanna enjoy the satisfaction of using up my stash of papers and mypapercrafting skills so watch this space as I will be blogging along to show you my progress

Decopatch Table Makeover YAY

My Kev and I went out for a while on Saturday into Blackpool town centre. We were looking in 2nd hand / charity shops for a mirror and a coffee table which I could makeover. We found this coffee table below and paid £10 for it. I had originally wanted a round table but we both liked the look of this one and its price !

I could easily have just painted this tabletop to blend in with my monochromatic colour scheme. It would have looked good but I have been craving to have a really crafty piece of furniture which is kinda unique. I had done Decopatch before at a friends house a couple of years ago on a wooden "LOVE word but never given Decopatch a go on furniture before. I had seen lots of lovely inspiration on Pinterest so just had to give it go!

I went shopping at Hobbycraft on Sunday and found these 2 Decopatch paper packs

This first grey one is described as small flowers but it looks more like leaves, it is a much paler grey than it looks in the pack

I love the lacy look and the pretty roses of this black and white paper pack but it would have been too much to have this one design all over the tabletop

I am honestly gobsmacked at the results of my first furniture Decopatch makeover, its turned out far better than I had imagined.

I haven't bought the clear varnish to finish it off yet but couldn't wait to reveal my newest masterpiece.......tadaaaaahhh....

what do you think? I love it and the good news is that Kev loves it too YAY.  The silver coloured metal frame is in perfect condition I had already bought some black metal paint for it but now I am not sure if I will use it or not! Kev likes it as it is but I wanted to match it to a black metal side table so if we do change it I will add more photos to this post.

thanks for looking, please let me know what you think ;o)

52 weeks @52 Project Life

Good Morning !,
It's 5 am on a rainy Saturday morning, yet again I cant sleep!!! so I thought I would do something constructive rather than sit here zombie style in front of my laptop looking into blank space. With all the chaos lately at home I have become somewhat stressed and feel quite ill, i am battling hard really trying to keep myself out of hospital so the best thing to do is be honest about it but try and find something to take my mind off how I feel! it's worked in the past!
In less than 2 weeks time I will turn 52  ***!GASP!*** how did that happen? Well I have been thinking a lot about scrapbooking again. The plan last year was to get back into traditional scrapbooking but after a couple of layouts that plan got lost and just didn't happen. I do feel that I really wanna do it BUT I chase photographs around my desktop, I search for the perfect layout, papers, embellishment etc etc that I become such an intense indecisive perfectionist that my pages never get past the idea stage. its frustrating I have lots of stash to use lots of photo's and a story to tell but my critical eye stops me all the time. So what's the answer?
I have heard of a system of pocket scrapbooking... "Project Life" I have looked into it on pinterest and google and it seems to be the answer to my problem. Obviously you never know if something is the answer or a good idea for you unless you try it out so that's what I am going to do.
I had one of those "OH YEAH" moments a few days ago where I realised that there are 52 weeks in the year and I will be 52!!! (not rocket science is it?) but what if I do this thing where I document my life for a year, spend 52 weeks sharing being my life @ 52 (gotta think of a better way to phrase that LOL) so I have asked Kev to buy me the album and the plastic pocket pages along with the die from Stampin' Up which cuts out the 4x6 and 3x4 cards some card in my favourite colours and just a few bits n bobs to start me off. I don't want to become a hoarder of Project Life cards so will just get a few and create the rest myself. I want to do this so that I can look back on this year too. It's the kind of thing I should have done two years ago as I turned 50 but most of you know how desperately ill I became in 2013 / 14 so that wasn't a possibility for me.
Now the one thing I had to get over was the worry that I would miss doing the traditional style of scrapbooking using my papers etc, I thought it was just a matter of putting photos into pockets and job done, but now i see  that it can be a bit more than that if i so desire (and I do), I can make the little cards myself adding ribbons embellishments my stash die cuts stamps etc etc but I can also intersperse the pocket pages with 12 x 12 layout pages if I want to. I can make up my own rules, or just decide not to have any rules at all! sounds good to me ;o) so now I am off to look at more pinterest boards and view more youtube videos  before I make a start next week I will start on Match 1st

I will let you know how I get on