.

I can't believe that 2011 is almost over, where did the time go? I am pleased to say that I am further along with my Christmas preparations than I have been for the past 2 years, I hope that means I am healthier this year. The Brandy butter and Cranberry Jelly is made and  I made my cake in October. I have been feeding the cake with Brandy every few days and it now sits on my cake stand all marzipaned, iced and decorated. I managed to get all my Christmas cards made, written and sent before the last posting day which is unusual for me. The gifts are all wrapped and under the tree, I even managed to make my own tags and decorate the packages. I do have to pick up the Turkey and trimmings today but it has been ordered so I don't have to worry about everything being sold out. We are going to Church tonight, a Carol Service followed by my most favourite Mass of the year.

We have a tradition in my family of not exchanging gifts until after lunch is over and the dishes have been washed, that way everyone is able to enjoy the present opening.

Well I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and I hope you find some nice crafting goodies under your tree this year.

A Card for my Daughters Birthday

Wow, a year gone already and my daughter is another year older, where does the time go? She seemed to really love this card which makes the work I put into it well worth it.

I have used another of KennyK"s Gothik Angelz series as they really suit my daughters style, this one is called 'Vicky Lee Vicious'. As usual I have coloured the image with Promarkers and Flexmarkers,  I went against the way I usually work and chose the papers first which then dictated the colour scheme for 'Vicky'. Once I had finished colouring I used a Spellbinder die to cut it out. I also cut a mat from red card which I used offset from the white card to act like a shadow. As it is quite a large image I used an 8x8 card instead of my usual 6x6.  

The papers were part of my stash and I can not remember where I got them from unfortunately. The flowers and lace are from Wild Orchid Crafts and the sentiment is from Craftworks cards. The large foliage is cut using Tim Holtz 'Tattered Pinecone' die and the small branches are a Martha Stewart punch. 

Thank you for stopping by and I hope you like my card. 

Another LOTV Christmas Card

I have been so caught up with making Christmas Cards that I have been neglecting my Blog, naughty me! However, I did take the time to make some changes to the layout, please take a moment to let me know what you think.

 I had hoped I would be able to make all my cards but it seems I will only have time to make cards for my Family and special friends. For everyone else I will have to resort to shop bought cards, I hate to do it but it is better than no card at all.

So here is one of the cards I have managed to make. It features another of the LOTV 2nd release "Angelic Lute" which has been coloured with Promarkers and Flexmarkers. The papers are from Papermania and the sentiment is a Craftwork Cards die cut. The flowers, gold berries and the charm are from Wild Orchid Crafts and the ribbon is from my stash.

I hope that your Christmas Crafting is going better than mine and that you are on track with your preparations. I still do not know how many we shall be for Christmas Dinner which makes it a little hard to decide how much food I will need. But the important part of Christmas is having family and friends together and celebrating God's love of the World.

Thank you for visiting and I hope you will take a moment to leave a comment.

Lilli of the Valley - 116

The theme for this weeks Lilli of the Valley challenge is 'Warm and Cozy' and I think this little girl fits that description, all wrapped up against the Winter weather. The way the temperatures are dropping I can see that it will not be long until we all are wearing our Winter coats. I suppose we can not complain especially when we realise that there are only 67 days until Christmas!

The image is called 'Christmas Candle' and I have coloured it with Promarkers and Flexmarkers. The 'fur' on her hat I have enhanced with glitter to add some sparkle. The gold brocade card that I have used as a base and to mount the image and sentiment comes from my stash as does the red card and the ribbons. The large Poinsettia flower has been given its own make over . I took it apart, glittered with Glamour Dust and reassembled it using a jewelled brad instead of the yellow stamens it came with. The sentiment is from Craftworks Cards and the Holly paper is from Papermania's Christmas Time pack.

I just wanted to show you the wonderful selection of flowers I received from Wild Orchid Crafts for winning the Lili of the Valley Challenge. I have been using flowers and other embellishments from WOC for some time and these blooms will be appearing on my cards quite soon.

Wild Orchid Challenge - Week 33

I am getting back into the swing now and am managing to make more cards. I don't know if it is all the drugs, the physio or if I am just getting used to working around things I can not do. But whatever it is I am grateful that at last I can do more than just watch TV all day!

The Wild Orchid Crafts Challenge this week is 'Make is Sparkle with Stars' and I have made the above card to enter. I am loving the new LOTV stamps and this is yet another one 'Three Little Angels', however these little cuties look as though they could be a wee bit naughty on the quiet.

I coloured the image with Flexmarkers and Promarkers and distressed the edge with gold ink. I added little star gems to their halo's rather than colouring them but they have not shown up too well in this photo. the backing paper is from the Memory Box 'Yuletide' collection and the sentiment is from Craftworks Crafts. The tree is cut using a Marianne Die and I have embellished it with flatback gems from my stash. The pink and gold ribbons and the pink star brads are also from my stash.

All the flowers and the gold berries are from Wild Orchid Crafts. The large Hellebore started life as a plain white but I took it apart, glittered the petals and put it back together again. The Carnations have a touch of pink glitter on the very tip of their petals but again the glitter has not shown up too well in the photo.

Thank you for stopping by and if you have a minute to leave a comment it will be truly appreciated.

ABC Challenge

I got a real boost to my confidence this week when the card in my previous post that I entered in the LOTV Challenge was picked as a 'winner'. After all I have been going through with my hands it is nice to know that I can still make a decent card. Well, onto this post's card. The ABC Challenges have started again and the theme for this one is 'A for Anything Goes' so I am entering the above card.

The image is another from the latest release from Lili of the Valley, this one is "Angelic Harp" and I have coloured it with a mixture of Promarkers and Flexmarkers. I used a Sakura glitter pen on her wings but that does not show up in the photo. The backing paper is from the Papermania 'Joyeux Noël' paper pack and the music vellum is from my stash. The Rose, Carnation, Cherry Blossoms and gold berries are all from Orchid Crafts. The sentiment is from Cardwork Crafts and the ribbon is from my stash.

Thank you for all the support and messages I have been getting, I really appreciate ýour taking the time to  visit my blog and all the nice comments you leave.

Lili of the Valley Challenge - 113

As much as I hate having lots of injections the ones I am having are really helping the problems I am having with my hands. I still experience hand tremors and shake when I try to do any fine work but I can feel a lot more than I could and that means that I can do some crafting. yeah! So I am back, even if I am not yet up to the standard I expect from myself. lol.

So I thought I would start with the LOTV Challenge which this week is a colour challenge, namely Aqua, White and Glitter. To me the colour scheme shouted Christmas so I used one of the new LOTV Christmas stamps 'Fishing Buddies'.I coloured the image with a mixture of Flexmarkers and Promakers. The paper is from the Design Objectives 'Me to You Winter Wonderland' 6x6 pad and I also used the matching ribbon. the boarder is punched with a Martha Stewart punch as were the snowflakes. The Poinsettia flowers and snowflakes I glittered with WOW! Powder, the 'snow' and 'fur' is Martha Stewart Glitter the gems are from my stash and the sentiment is from Craftwork Cards.

It's Finished!

The Church Kneeler I was making for my Husband is finished and I am really pleased with how it came out. He is so keen to use it that he has found he can put his feet up on it when he comes in from work, it will be nice to see it put to its proper use on Sunday though. Even though I am getting a little feeling back into my hands, I still found lacing the canvas across the back of the pad very difficult and it took me a couple of days to get it right. I was glad that I had some experience of canvas work when finishing this piece of work because the instructions that came with the kit were very sparse and I am sure that without that knowledge I would have been struggling to know what to do. I have two more kneelers to make but I am going to leave those for a while and try to go back to making cards.

LOTV Giveaway

In case you have not heard, those nice people over at LOTV are giving away a stamp to two lucky winners every day for 5 days to celebrate that there are only 5 more days until the new Christmas stamps are released on 6th September. You can also see the DT's sneek peeks on the 'Ideas to Inspire' Blog

Church Kneeler

I have been having some treatment and physio for my hands and I am getting some feeling back into them thankfully. It has meant many trips to the Hospital but I will do anything to get better.

I had to find something to do with my time as daytime TV is appalling and I remembered I had bought a Church Kneeler kit when a local needlework shop closed a few years ago. It is worked over a large size canvas with 3 strands of  Tapestry Wool so I thought I should be able to do it even without being able to feel the needle properly. Here is what I have done so far.

The instructions called for this to be worked in Half Cross Stitch but I have used Tent stitch which looks the same but is much harder wearing. The difference is that in Tent stitch the wool on the wrong side of the work is taken on the long diagonal to the next hole. The oblong center is the top of the kneeler and the 'wings' are the sides. The bottom will be hessian and it will be formed around a pad of dense foam rubber.

Although I love needlework, I hope that I will soon be able to get back to making cards etc. Christmas is getting closer and I don't want to send out shop bought cards if I can help it.

Why I Have Not Been Crafting

I wanted to put this into words because I thought it might help me get it straight in my head as much as anything else. I have not been able to do much crafting lately, especially not anything that involves fine work, and I am suffering from withdrawal symptoms.

I woke up one morning in early May to find my hands and feet swollen and numb. I have chronic arthritis in most of my joints and have experienced swelling before but never numbness to this extent. The same day I received news that my Brother had been admitted to Hospital and was in a bad way so I ignored my problem hoping it would resolve on its own.

The swelling and numbness resolved a bit over the next few days only to be replaced by constant pins and needles, tinnitus in one ear and a persistent headache. Because of having my Brother convalescing with us, my friends Communion Dress to rescue and a 100th Birthday card to make it was not until mid July that I finally went to see my Doctor.

He sent me for blood tests and an X-Ray which led to me having a CT Scan and then 2 MRI scans. It transpired that apart from Arthritis having eaten away at more of my spine, I also have a Chiari Malformation. This is a condition where the brain is being compressed in the skull and is being pushed into the cavity where the spinal cord meets the brain. So now I have to see a Neurologist and a Neurosurgeon to see what happens next. One of the treatments for this condition is surgery where bone is removed at the base of the skull and the top of the spine to relieve the pressure. I think this sounds worse than it is, at least that is what I hope.

So, at the moment, I am relearning how to use my hands without being able to feel properly and believe me it is not easy. Life is so frustrating when your hands don't work properly and when nothing feels the way it should. I hope this does not go on too much longer, I have Christmas cards to make!

New Promarker Nibs

Letraset have just launched the Promarker Ultra-fine Nib attachment and all I can say is 'At Last!'. I love my Promarkers and my only problem with them has been that at times I have needed a fine nib. I have some Tria markers which have a choice of 3 nibs including an Ultra-fine and so I knew what to expect as to the size of the line which is ideal for detail work. The Nib attachment comes complete with its own cap and is sold in a pack of 3. Once you clip it into place over the existing fine nib it takes just a few seconds for the ink to flow through. All single Promarkers bought through Letraset will automatically come with a free Ultra-fine Nib and if you buy 5 single Promarkers you get the 6th one free!

Information I had gathered from other users was that the Nibs can be changed from one pen to another so that it is not necessary to buy one Nib for every pen in your collection. I was anxious to try out putting the nibs on and taking them off of the pen again as I had heard that this could be difficult. Well I am very happy to report that I had no problems and I have Arthritis in my hands and wrists. The Nibs also cleaned well after use but I don't think I would recommend changing Nibs between colour groups or from the darkest to the lightest within a colour group so maybe 2 per colour group would be ideal. I don't like the idea of having to clean the Nibs all the time so I would rather get one for each pen, but that is just me. So if like me you are a Promarker person, give these Nibs a try, they are well worth it in my humble opinion.

Blog Award

I want to thank Elke at Elke's Creative Corner for giving me this award and for saying some very nice things about my work on her blog, she is very kind.

So apparently I now have to disclose 7 facts about myself, oh well, here goes.

1.  I have been doing paper crafting for about 15 years although I have been doing other crafting things for much longer.

2. Apart from paper crafting I also enjoy embroidery and I trained at the Royal School of Needlework   which is located in Hampton Court Palace

3. I used to do a lot of dressmaking and even made my own Wedding Dress. I made most of my Daughters dresses until she was old enough to worry about 'Labels'. I once made 15 Bridesmaid Dresses and 5 pageboy outfits for the same Wedding.

4. I hate cooking unless it is something fancy.

5. I used to breed and show Fancy Rats

6. My Husband and I share our home with a small menagerie of animals, we have a Springer Spaniel, a Maine Coon cat, Fancy Rats, Chinchillas, a Budgie, a Tortoise, Tropical Fish, Chickens and Ducks.

7. What else can I tell you that might be interesting. Oh yes, I used to be a Police Officer!

and now the best bit is that I get to pass the blog award on to 7 other people, so here is my list

Karen at Krafty Karens Blogspot.
Becky at Becky's Craft Adventures
Wendy at Purple Crazy Crafting
Linda at Linda's Cards and Scrapbook Pages
Lez at Hungry Heffy Crafts
Charlie-Louise at Crafty Little Moos
and last but not least
Lesley at Crafty Love n Hugs

All these people have fab blogs and I hope you will hop over to their sites and have a look at their work.

100th Birthday

I was very honored when a friend from church asked me to make a Birthday card for her mother who was going to be celebrating her 100th Birthday. I have not been doing much crafting lately because of poor health but how often do you get the opportunity to make a 100th Birthday card! I suggested a Bookatrix card and my friend was very taken with that idea. She picked out a patterned paper and the colour of the flowers and left the rest to me.

The base layer is Silver Miri card. the next one is the flowered paper my friend choose, the third is a pale lavender glitter card and the last layer is a patterned vellum. The first and third layer have a rope effect peel off along the edge and the second layer has a plain peel off along the edge. I made a flower spray out of the flowers and mounted it on an oval of silver miri cut with a Spellbinders Die. I then separated a large crystal gem swirl and fixed one half to each side of the flower spray. I  also used single lavender gems in the corners of the first two layers and a lavender ribbon down the center.

On the other side I put the above poem, I found the original on the web and changed the words a bit to make it suitable for the occasion. I printed it onto velum and fixed it onto the velum layer and edged with these corners that I had in my stash for some time.

I added this extra 'booklet' under the verse for my friend to write on. I edged it with the same rope peel off and the peel off at the top came from the same set as the ones around the verse. This extra booklet also added the weight needed to balance the card.

I made a box for the card to go into and I also made a stand for the card to be displayed on. I edged the stand with the same peel offs as the card to make it match and I added a sentiment above the flowers. My friend was really pleased with the finished card which made my day. Her Mother had a wonderful Birthday and got her card from the Queen but it was not as individual as the one I had made for her lol.

A Most Generous Gift

I just wanted to share with you the beautiful flowers my friend and her family sent me for rescuing her daughters dress. She had wanted to pay me for my work but I had told them that it was my gift to her daughter for her Communion, which made my friend cry and was not my intention at all. I am sure these flowers cost far too much, they even came with the vase tied round with a matching ribbon. I hope that with care they will last a long time but I have taken photo's and they will last long after the flowers themselves have gone. I have some nice photo's of the Communion Service and I plan on making a little Scrap Book for the family as a surprise so maybe I will include a picture of these flowers as well now.

The Continuing Saga of the Communion Dress

All I can say is Arrrgh! As I took the dress apart I found more and more things that had been done badly or not at all and where the alterations had been made the dress was filthy! I don't know how anyone can claim to be a professional doing work like that and have the audacity to charge money for it.

Still, I deconstructed the dress and put it back together again, at each stage trying it on the little girl to make sure that it was fitting properly. Thank goodness it was half term and she could come over at short notice. Another thing that the lady spoilt was the matching headdress. My friend had asked her to make it smaller by half an inch and as it was a soft plaited head band with a veil attached that should have been a simple job. The  lady herself admitted that she had made it smaller by one inch by mistake an so it now did not fit. When I looked to see if I could undo it I found that it had been glued with great globs of yellow glue, the excess had been cut off and part of the decoration was missing. Rather than upset my friend anymore I sat down with some beads and wire and came up with this

I was very pleased with it especially as it was my first real attempt at making a Tiara, I also made a veil to go with it .

So, I am pleased to say that I managed to fix the Communion Dress so that most people would not know that anything had been wrong with it. It was not perfect but we knew that it would not be because of the damage done to it by the person who did the alterations. The little girl made her First Communion this past Sunday and she looked lovely, her big smiles made all the hard work worth while. There was a Parish Bar-B-Que after the service which was good fun even though it rained. It seems the way to cure our drought situation is to make it official! We have some lovely photo's so I will be scrapping those in the very near future but that is as close as I want to come to a Communion Dress for while lol. It really would have been easier to make a dress from scratch and probably quicker too but never mind, it is done now and I can get back to papercrafting.

No Time For Papercrafting

No, I haven't lost my Mojo; I just don't have time to make any cards or do any other type of papercrafting at the moment and all because I did not volunteer earlier. Sorry, I'm ranting, let me explain what happened.

A friend has 2 Daughters the younger is making her First Communion on June 12th and she is going to wear the dress her older Sister wore for her First Communion. The only problem is that the dress was far to big for her and needed alterations. When my friend said that she was going to take the dress to the local Wedding Dress shop and they were going to carry out the alterations I breathed a sigh of relief because it was a major job and, being lazy, I just didn't want to commit myself to it. My friend was quoted 20 pounds and 2 weeks for the work which I thought an appropriate amount of time but very cheap for the work.

3 weeks later my friend is calling the shop daily asking when the dress will be ready and getting strange reasons for  it not being finished. e.g.. they needed to find 2 new buttons, the zip was too long and, more worryingly, that dressmaker had not been given enough time to work on it! So 5 weeks later they finally get a call to say that the dressmaker had the dress in the shop and could they come in. My friend and her daughter went to the shop expecting to have to try the dress on to make sure the alterations were correct. But no, the dress was apparently finished and was packed up ready for them to pay for and take away. My friend was taken aback but not being one for confrontations she paid up and walk out with the dress. When she got home and unpacked the dress she could not believe her eyes. She knew she would be seeing me that afternoon so she brought the dress with her to ask my opinion, which in one word was 'Appaled'.

Originally it had been a lovely dress but now the catalog of things that were wrong with it made me furious. So now I am trying to put right what the dressmaker did to this dress and kicking mysef that I did not offer to alter the dress from the begining as it would have been so much easier! Oh well, that's my rant over, now back to the sewing machine,lol.

Whiff of Joy Challenge 104

The Whiff of Joy Challenge104 is the colour theme of Aqua, Pink and Cream. I needed to make a card for a friend who recently gave birth to a Baby Girl and I thought the colours would make a lovely baby card.

The image is of course from Whiff of Joy and is called 'Willow Holding Baby'. It is coloured with Promarkers and it and its mount have been cut with a spellbinder die. The background paper is from Prima 'Sweet Fairy' 6x6 pad. The swirl and butterfly's have been cut from Aqua glitter paper using a die from Little Claire and the roses are from Wild Orchid Crafts. The sentiment is from a stamp set by Lili of the Valley stamped in Pink ink and embossed with pearl WOW! Embossing Powder. The pink ribbon is from my stash.

Passion for Promarkers

The Passion for Promarkers challenge for Week 100 is Red, White and Blue plus a Charm and so I came up with the above card. I really enjoyed putting this card together, whatever did we do before Promarkers!

The image is 'Uptown Angel' by Kenny K and it is of course coloured with Promarkers. I cut the image and the mount using Little Claire dies 'Pointy Frames'. The backing paper is from the Papermania Capsule 'Blueberry Pie' Paper Pack and the doily is cut from some stock card using a Marianne Designs die. The flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts and the leaves are cut using another Little Claire die 'Leaves 1'. The  ribbons and charms are from my stash.

If you stop by and take the time to comment I just want to say how much I appreciate it. 

Little Magician

When I saw the 'sneek peeks' for the new Lili of the Valley 'The Boys Are Back in Town' release I just fell in love with the stamp I have used in this card which is called 'Abracadabra'. Of course I could not buy just one stamp from the new stamps but I will be using the others later on for other projects. I have not made this card for any special reason, I just wanted to use the stamp because I liked it so much. Once I had coloured the image and cut it out I was racking my brain about what paper I could use when I remembered the DCWV Once Upon a Time paper stack. The piece I used on the front of the card came from the 8x8 stack and I cut the bottle pattern out so that I could Decoupage it over the top of the image. I used the same design inside the card but from the 12x12 stack.

So here is what I used for this card. I started with a 148 x 148cm square card blank. The backing paper is as I have said from Die Cut With a View 'Once Upon a Time' stack. The image is Lili of the Valley 'Abracadabra' and it is coloured with Promarkers. I have clouded the edges of the image with 'Milled Lavender' Distress ink and then mounted it on purple miricard. The ribbon is from my stash.

Scrapology Challenge

This card is for a new challenge I heard about over at Scrapology. The title for the challenge is 'Be Charming' and the brief is to incorporate a charm into your card either as a focal point or as an accent. I thought this bead Dragonfly Charm went well with this image from Whiff of Joy called 'Miss Ladybugs' so I coloured the image appropriately.

So, to make this card I used a 148cmx148cm card blank covered in a paper from the Tulip Collection from Andrea Jane Evans. As I said, the Image is 'Miss Ladybugs' by Whiff of Joy and it is coloured with Promarkers. I cut the image out using one of the new Spellbinder Nestabillities, Fleur de Lis Rectangles. The flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts and the sentiment is from Craftworks cards. The Dragonfly Charm, Ribbon and Gem Brad are all from my stash.

Whiff of Joy 103

This card is for the Whiff of Joy Challenge which this time has to follow the sketch below.

Working to a sketch makes life so much easier as you can make a card even when your mojo is not at its best, lol. I started of with one of my favourite colour combinations, purple and yellow, and  went from there

The image is, of course, from Whiff of Joy and is called 'Hello Ladybug'. It is coloured with Promarkers and cut out using a Spellbinders Nestabillaties shape.  The backing papers are from the V&A inspired Hanoverian paper pack mounted onto Bazzill Dotted Swiss card. The roses are from Wild Orchid Crafts and the sentiment is from Craftworks Cards. The 4 inch flat lace, Ribbon and gems are all from my stash.

Wild Orchid Crafts Challenge 22

I made this card for the latest Wild Orchid Crafts Challenge which is White plus 2 Colours with a Twist. I went for Gold and Brown as my two colours and I was pleased with the outcome. 


The image is "Dare to Dream' from Whiff of Joy which I coloured with Promarkers. I cut the image out using one of the new Spellbinders Nestabilities - Fleur De Lis Rectangles. The background paper is from Craftwork Cards Confetti collection. The flowers are Trellis Roses and Sweetheart Blossoms from Wild Orchid Crafts and the ribbon is from my stash. I added some sparkle to the flowers and the dress of the image with some Glamour Dust but it does not show very well in the photo.

This  Birthday Card is for a dear friend of my family. I wanted something elegant without being too formal and I am very pleased with how this turned out considering I had no idea where to start when I sat down at my crafting table. It is funny how sometimes a project can just come together and yet other times you can sit for ages before an idea comes to you.

For the image on this card I used stamps from a set called Birds of Paradise -  Peacock from Kanban. I embossed them with WOW! Powders, Clear Fine over the black bird and Verdigris on the cage and vine. I distressed the edges of the image with a French Blue Color Box Chalk ink pad and mounted it on a piece of gold flecked navy blue card which was in my stash. The back ground paper is by K&Co. but it is one I have has a while and I can not remember which collection.The flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts and the ribbon, gems and peel-off are from my stash.

Smile Train

I hadn't realised how long it had been since I had posted last but I have a good excuse, well two really. Firstly I have had a chest infection which I have not been able to shake and I have not felt like crafting and so I did not have anything to write about. Secondly, when I did feel up to crafting, I have been frantically making Easter cards to sell at Church to help raise funds for our Lenten Charity Smile Train Smile Train is a Charity that repairs cleft  lips and palates of Children who live in poverty and would otherwise have no access to medical care. Please take some time to look at their web site, it is a wonderful charity.

The card above is just one of the many cards I have made. The cross is a Medallion stamp from Creative Expressions called Kilkenny Cross. I stamped it 4 times and then cut down and coloured the layers before constructing them into one cross using foam squares to give it height. The papers are from the K&Co Luxury paper pack, it is hard to see but the brocade pattern from the background of the blue paper also runs through the white paper. I added some extra sparkle to the swirls with Star Dust Stickles but it has not shown up well in the photo. The flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts, the ribbons are from my stash as is the silver peel off sentiment 'Happy Easter' which also does not show up too well in the photo.

Ribbon Girl Blog Candy

I wanted to show you the wonderful Blog Candy I won from the lovely girls at The Ribbon Girl . I was amazed when I found I had won it and extremely proud to be the owner of the lovely heart made by Gail . I am considering making a shadow box to keep the heart in so that I can display it without the worry of it getting dusty. I can use the lace and maybe the ribbon as well on the box to bring the project together.  

Water Lilly Type Flower

I thought I would share with you this flower I came up with while playing with the contents of  a Craftworks Cards Goody Bag. It is really easy but very pretty I think.

First you need one small and one large of the die cut flower shapes.

Now you need to curl the petals up to make them into a cup shape.

Next, glue the two shapes together with the petals offset from each other to form the base of the flower.

The next step is to take some Candi to make the inner petals. I have used the same colour as the outer petals but Candi comes in lots of colours so you can mix and match as you like.

I used 6 pieces of Candi to form the next row of petals but you can use more if you wish. You need to put a big blob of glue in the centre of the cup and form the Candi around themselves. I found that wet glue works the best for this as it gives you a little time to shuffle the Candi into position.

For the last row of petals I used just 3 pieces of Candi again secured to the flower with wet glue.

For the centre of the flower I used a Dew Drop gem but you could use any gem, a contrasting Candi or even a drop of Glossy Accents. 

Whiff of Joy Challenge #98

This image is one of the new set from Whiff of Joy, illustrated by Elizabeth Bell. I am a big fan of their stamps and when the offer of these sets came out I just could not resist and I was not disappointed. The whole set is lovely and it will keep me busy for quite a while. I coloured the image with Promarkers of course; I am beginning to wonder what I coloured with before I discovered them!  The base paper I used for this card is from Crate Paper's Katlin collection kit. The check paper was a piece I found in my scrap box and I mounted it on Bazzil.

The decoupage that I did on this card does not show up as well as I had hoped but I have layered her apron, sleeve, basket and the flower in her hair. The swirl and butterfly's are cut with a 'Little Claire ' die, I have covered them in Glamour Dust but again it does not show up well in this photo. The sentiment is from Lili of the Valley, the flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts, and the gems are from my stash.

Anniversary card

I made this card for a very nice couple from my church who are celebrating their first Wedding Anniversary. I did not want anything too young and I had been waiting for a change to use this stamp set from Papermania ever since I had bought it. It came in the latest Goodie Bag along with a pad of papers one of which I used as the background on this card, the matching ribbon and button also came from the bag. The sentiment is from Lili of the Valley and the flowers are from Orchid Crafts. The Lilac patterned paper is from DCWV, the solid lilac is Bazzil and the yellow glitter card and gems are from my stash. The embossing powders I used are the wonderful WOW! powders.

My Retirement Project

I thought I would stray from my usual posts and show you my retirement project. When I was a child I had to stay with my Aunt while my Mother was in Hospital and while I was there I watched my cousin play with her huge dollhouse and envied her. I say watched because she would not allow me to touch it! Children can be mean to each other can't they. Ever since I was old enough my plan has been to build my own dolls house, I want to make as much as possible myself and to make it as true as I can to the period. So I bought the case for a Georgian house and now I can take my time getting it right.

I was born and raised in a Georgian Terraced house so I have a good insight into the type of house I am making but I am still doing a lot of research to make sure of the details. In the pictures the case is only held together with masking tape. I am going to put brick on the outside walls so I am not going to assemble the case permanently until that is done. I will post about the progress I make on my house occasionally but I don't expect that to be very often as I have a lot to learn.

Whiff of Joy Challenge #96

The brief for this challenge is Chocolate, Teal and Cream which is a gorgeous colour combination. I have been waiting to use this image from WOJ's July stamp kit ''Life's a Beach''since I bought it last year so I thought this would be the perfect opportunity.

I stamped the image with a brown rather than black ink to keep in with the colour scheme and coloured the image with my faithful Promarkers. All the papers I used are from g.c.d studio's Ella Blue collection pack, it does not show in the photograph but the floral paper is flocked. The sentiment is from Lili of the Valley's Dreamy Days Sentiments and the pearls, ribbon and petals are all from my stash.

My Daughters Birthday

This is a bit different from the cards I usually make but this is a Birthday card for my Daughter and it suits her to a tee. I must apologise for the photograph; I forgot to take any before I gave her the card so she has taken these for me.

The card itself I made from Black Pearl embossed card from Inspire Me Papers and the image is from Kenny K. I coloured the image with Promarkers and mounted it on red silk card from my stash. The flowers are made from thin metal which I bought already coloured, again it is from my stash and I can not remember where I bought it. I cut the metal using a Sizzix die (Tattered Florals'' by Tim Holtz) in my Big Shot machine. I curled the petals using a styling tool and I used a gem brad in the center to hold the layers together and add some extra bling. The bow is made from some black taffeta ribbon I had in my stash and another gem brad held it to the card and I put the sentiment on the tails of the bow just to be different.

I was pleased with the way this card turned out and my daughter loved it so mission accomplished.

Whiff of Joy Pink and Green card

I have to admit that I am very fond of Whiff of Joy stamps and use them quite a lot. This one is from the Summer 2009 Stamp Kit and it is coloured with Promarkers. The rest of the card is quite a mixture of things. The bottom two papers are from the Papermania Summer Bloom paper pack and the strawberry paper is from DCWV Nanna's Nursery Baby Girl Stack. From the same stack I got the spotty paper that I punched with my Martha Stewart Doily Lace Trim punch to make the paper boarder. The flowers are from Wild Orchid crafts and the ribbon is from my stash.

Lili of the Valley 80

The Lili of the Valley challenge for this week is 'Things with Wings'. I was hoping to have had my new stamps from them to use but so many people ordered in the first couple of days after they were released that they are really struggling to get the orders filled and sent out. Luckily I have this stamp from a couple of years ago which fits the bill exactly.

I coloured the stamped image with Promarkers and I went over the wings, shoes and headdress with a gold Sekura pen. I mounted it on some iridescent paper that I had in my stash and surrounded it with flowers from Wild Orchid Crafts. The backing paper I used is from Papermania's Blueberry Hill paper pack and the sentiment is from Craftworks Cards. The ribbon and gems were also from my stash.

I originally had cut out the image with a wider boarder but when I started to put a card together I decided it was too big and so cut it down. In doing this I cut off part of one of the Dandelion Seeds do I used a mapping pen and drew the rest of the design back in making it look as though the seed is flying out of the image. I also thought the wings could do with a bit of a 'lift' so I cut an extra on and decoupaged it .I added a couple of drops of Glossy Accents into the roses to look like dew drops but they did not show up on the photographs.

Wild Orchid Challenge 14

This is one of Little Claire's new stamps released at the begining of this month called 'Georgia'. I have coloured her using Promarkers and the papers are from the DCWV Floral Prints Stack. I used Martha Stewarts Trellis punch for a boarder because it is so like a garden fence and the sentiment just continued the garden theme. The flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts enhanced with a Martha Stewart little fine glitter and the ribbon and gems are from my stash.