playing with dies.....and glitter card!

its new years eve and I am still full of cold....so I have taken myself up to my craft room.....turned up the radiator and the music!

just a simple card using the tonic pansy topper set....wondering wether to add some bling.....ah well step away from the card Margaret......

Wishing you all a happy healthy and crafty new year in 2015

Richards birthday card

My poor husband and I both have birthdays close to christmas so although we celebrate the day we have an official joint birthday in July when its warm and the days are long and we can do something special.....
so here is the card I made for him ....music is his passion!

the dies are tattered lace......the embossing folder is a crafters companion one....and I used a spelbinder die to cut out the scalloped edges......
Hope you have all had a happy christmas time with family or friends.....

Christmas greetings

wishing all my friends in blogland a very happy Christmas and that 2015 brings you everything that you wish for....

this is a picture taken in 1952 of myself and my two brothers on a visit to see Father Christmas...oh the joy...the anticipation....happy days! 

Christmas card club challenge #26 Granmargaret choice.....non traditional colours

the last challenge of the year girls......

I have fallen back on the trusty crafters companion create a card dies.....some lavender glitter card and tattered lace dies......the sentiment is a crafters companion one too from the set mistletoe wishes......a few jems....thank you Christine for the inspiration .....
I am away this weekend with my lovely hubby as it is his birthday today and we are having a romantic....LOL ......weekend in Hay on Wye with our dear friends Julie and Gary.
Richard gets to meet up with one of his friends who collects records so they will have a lovely time! and I will do the shops.....

playing with tonic dies

I resisted buying these when they were on create and craft as a pick of the day and bought just this set after the 60 exclusivity expired ...yes they were sooo much cheaper.......

so I have used the tonic diamond trellis set....I didnt use the embossing folder as I havnt worked out howto frame the die correctly yet......going to watch you tube!....the flowers are crafters companion quilled  flowers and the ivy is one of the new Sue Wilsons dies......the sentiment is an old and much loved one that I got from stamp a picture Andover......
Hope you are getting time to craft........

Christmas card club challenge #25 Asha's choice.......Silver Bells

no laughing girls this is my attempt at doing a clean and simple card!

well it started off that way I stamped and embossed the creative expression stamp....but then I thought it was too flat so I did it again and decoupaged up on of the bells and bows and I am afraid that just like topsy it went on and on....matting and layering with soft silver card and the white card embossed with the crafters companion embossalicious 8x8 bows folder.....the sentiment is tonic and I have shadowed it with silver.....
looking forward to seeing all your lovely cards later this evening ladies......

More NEC stash........

I am determined to use my new stash and not just pop it in my room for later.....

so this is the memory box Deer trio.......the other die the merry christmas die...I bought earlier in the year and I must say has become one of my favorites......just a few cosmic shimmer PVA sparkle dots on the ribbon...the embossing folder is crafters companion embossalicious...snowflakes...a really useful folder.....
Hope you are having fun crafting!

doing a bit of stamping and embossing....

this is based on a design I saw on pinterest...I didn't have the same stamps so I used what I had.....a creative expressions tree.....and a justrite sentiment

a bit of red ribbon some clear gems and a dazzler.....shame all the glitter doesn't show up ....its really sparkly......
Hope you are having a happy crafty day!

christmas card club #24 Karens choice.....

sorry Karen tea bag folding is not for me I am afraid and I am sure that you will understand....rather than not post at all I have made a card using my new dies bought at the NEC....

just a bit of fun....parcels under the christmas tree.....
I will be popping round all the blogs later this evening to see all your creations.....

Nec stash

I had a lovely time at the NEC with my pals Vicky and Kerry...and I was very good......only bought a few things and watched lots of demo's....

see I really was a good girl!
I did look for any of the girls from the christmas card club but there were so many people.....and no one recognised me either.....

spellbinders Victorian collection

I dont know if any of you managed to get these on the monster deals show on create and craft but they were only £7.19p....yes down from £19.99.....and free postage as well.....I bought all the medallion dies.....

this is medallions 3 which I used the outer die to make an easel card in dark brown and the inner die is cut from ivory centura pearl....a LOTV topper from one of their art pads....the sentiment is LOTV...and the flowers are wild orchid.....
I love a bargain!........

Christmas is not far off......

seem to be getting back into my routine now ....and beginning to get ideas......

this is the crafters companion create a card....snowy village....cut using centura pearl and matted onto black card with a white matt covered in double sided adhesive and cosmic shimmer iced snow....
a few die cuts..the pine cones are tattered lace winter winter florals,.....magnolia doohickeys...sprawling fronds....spellbinders banner and Hobby Art "winter wishes" for the sentiment....
Hope your christmas card making is going well!

a christmas card.......

playing with my crafters companion christmas create a card dies.......

this one is "over the roof tops".....cut and embossed...and then versa marked inked over Santa and the reindeers and embossed with WOW black glint embossing powder.....nice and simple.....

christmas card club challenge #23 Lorraine's choice...... Snowmen

just found this Penny Johnson stamp I must have bought several years ago and never used.....snowy cuddles.....so I thought this would fit the bill for the challenge....

stamped with memento and coloured with spectrum noirs...glittered and mounted onto silver card....the poinsettia'sare tattered lace....the ivy Marrianne designs...the fern tattered lace....
The stepper card is the cheery Lynn designs stepper card #1 a brilliant die....
Hope you are all having a good weekend and I will be round to see all your lovely creations later  this evening.

new spellbinder dies.....

this is one of  the new victorian collection and they are very nice!

This is the Delightful foliage set....I made the entire card with 3 cuts of the die......
very satisfying.....

a birthday card

I am still not really in a crafty mood so I thought I would look at some dies I have bought and not used yet and this is what I made.....

I have cut the Sue Wilson Austrian background out of both the front and back of the card to give a lovely lacy effect....a matt and layer using lavender and a white layer stamped with a creative expressions sentiment .....the flowers are Sue Wilson's delicate daisies...open petals and the leaves Sue Wilson's faux quilled leaves....a bit of ribbon some creative expressions PVA dots....purple violet....and a bit of distress ink.....
Hope you are having a crafty day......

can you help?

I recently saw a post on Christina's blog where she made an appeal on behalf of Festive Friends  now this charity is very close to my heart as the recipient of the cards are taken by contact the elderly to tea at volunteers houses once a month....my dear old Mum used to go to these tea parties and they were the highlight of her Sundays...she met such lovely kind people and had lots of fun sharing her memories with other elderly folk,many of whom had no relatives or friends left.....heart breaking and heart warming as they all had a lovely day in good company....
This appeal is for hand made christmas cards to send to some of the old people and I have made a selection of cards to send.....If you have a few spare cards you have made could you spare them for the charity...please click on the link and see what they do....

a christmas card

where has my mojo gone ...I have been away on holiday for a week and really cant get back to my crafting!...dispite a visit to stamp magic on sunday and lots of new goodies I am just sat here looking at them......
this is a card I made a few weeks ago and have only just got round to taking a piccy of...

I have used a crafters companion create a card.....softly falling...cut out of co-ordinations and sanded back.....layered onto a stepper card I made and stuck double sided adhesive onto and covered on cosmic shimmer iced snow...the tree is a Marriane design die treated to the same iced snow and the snow man and snow dog are crafters companion dies...not the freebiees from the magazine...these are much bigger.....they have been sprayed with stick and spray and cosmic shimmer  diamond snow ....
the snow flakes are spellbinders create a flake 2......finished off with cosmic shimmer sparkle pearl PVA....
Hope you are having a happy craftyday!

Christmas card club challenge # 22 Rita's choice...... christmas reindeer...

I made this card for the Trees challenge but as it had reindeers in I decided to change it to this challenge.....

such a shame that all the glitter doesnt show up it is really full of bling and glitter.....

I have used the heartfelt creations "magnificent spruce trees" set..embossed with white cosmic shimmer and utra shimmer wow embossing glitter over the top and to one side..... onto navy blue card....same with the falling  snow...which is from Sheena Douglas's "farmhouse christmas" set....the reindeer are from katy sue designs "winter wonderland silhouette stamps" which I stamped onto the card and then twice more so that I could cut them out and  decoupage them up.....the snow ground is pinflair iced diamond...flower soft polar white...and cosmic shimmer diamond snow.....all matted and layered onto silver ...white ...navy and mounted onto an A5 card.....

I will be going round all the other girls blogs later tonight but if you want to see their fabulous card go to my side bar and visit their blogs......

Christmas card club challenge #21 Sue P's choice....Carol Singers

I fancied doing a silhoutte card

so what did I use
Spellbinders carolers.....man and woman
spellbinders holiday die.....snowflake view
Tim Holtz holiday lamppost
Heartfelt creations magnificent spruce trees.....
Sue Wilsons snowflake lattice embossing folder
Cosmic shimmer PVA   black,pearl.and sparkle pearl and a creative expressions dazzler and some ribbon.....a couple of distress inks....some pinflair snow.....black ,silver and centura pearl card......
it didnt turn out a bit as I intended but there we are....
I hope to be popping round all your blogs tonight and keep your fingers crossed that blogger doesnt chuck me out again!

a birthday card

Just playing ......

needing inspiration so I went back to a card I made earlier this year and have made it in another colour.....
Spellbinders Fleur de Lis pendant...cut 9 times!.....
Spellbinders opulent ovals, some Sue Wilson Faux quilled leaves and the flowers are from Wild orchid ......

A wedding anniversary card

Our friends are celebrating their 37th wedding anniversary in a weeks time ....

I used centura pearl though an embossalicious folder,wrapped silver ribbon arround the bit that isnt embossed.......cut some Sue Wilson Petite vinery dies and 1 grand vinery die made a bow and attatched a creative expressions small fancy pearl..and a few pieces of white pearl string...stamped the sentiment....and embossed with cosmic shimmer silver detail shine embossing powder and cut it out with Spellbinders mystical embrace the oval inthis set is a perfect size...... matted and layered onto soft silver card and edged with cosmic shimmer pearl PVA glu dots....

christmas card club challenge 20..Christine's choice Winter Wonderland

still determined to use stamps I have bought and never used!......

this is the Sheena Douglas A little bit festive....Farmhouse christmas is just seemed to me to be the perfect image for a Winter wonderland....
Stamped with chipped saphire distress ink and using a water brush pulled out some of the colour....a little dab of sqeezed lemon in the windows....snow added by stamping and embossing with white embossing powder....the die cuts are impressionobsession fir tree branch...and tattered lace poinsettia...and tiny fir tree branch from the christmas florals set.....

I really enjoyed this challenge thank you Christine....made me do some stamping....
willbe popping round all your blogs later girls .....

wedding acceptance.....

We have Dear friends in Hay on Wye  who we have been visiting firstly as bed and breakfast customers and then after about 15 years adopted family and when Hannah my friend Julies daughter was to be married we were so thrilled to be invited....the theme being a farm house B&B was sheep.....so this is the card I made to say YES......and inside TRY STOPPING US.....

the grass and sheep are cut using my cricut machine and then hand tinted....the clouds embossing folder is embossalicious from crafters companion.....the cloud is cut on my scan and cut and the yes written with the pen on the scan and cut......
hope you are having a crafty day......

Christmas card club challenge #19 Hazels choice....something beginning with S.....

well I have been playing with my scan and cut and having found the most wonderful blog with lots of free SGV files on it ....I have been having fun...

not a very good photo...but I hope you can see the glitter.....the original cut file was much smaller so this large card...6x6 is me playing.....these are the original size.....

but the cut files are easy to adapt on the scan and cut....pop by birdscards.....she has the most wonderful stuff.....
the stamped sentiment is a creative expressions stamp and the let it snow on the big card is Tonic...other than that its white and silver card and lots of glitter....
Looking forward to seeing all your lovely creations girls......

New Home

my Husbands nephew and his partner have just moved into their first home together....

I had so much fun making this card....you can see lots of die cuts..
Marianne design...craftables...CR1218 for the house...magnolia fence....Marianne designs lamp and tree....flowers are a Martha Stewart punch....grass cut on my cricut.....spellbinder nesting lacey pendants ...and the numbers of the house cut on my scan and cut.....
We went to visit them to have a look round and of course to make sure they were eating properly!
Hope you are having a lovely crafty day and having fun!

New dies.....

oh these dies from Sue Wilson are lovely!....if hard work the poinsettia took 11 cuts to get right I found I needed the metal shim in my E bosser in addition to the normal plates...I tried everything till I discovered this worked!...wetting the card...wax paper....pulling my hair out!......

so having cracked it I thought Ihad better make another!

the dies I used
Sue Wilson Festive collection.....Filigree poinsettia     Holly spray,    Holly accesory kit....
Tattered Lace Christmas sentiments
lots of pearls and glittery red tiny flat rhinestones...hobby house.....
Imoulded the flowers on the white version and I think I like that ....
Hope you are having a good day, I am going off this week to Builth Wells to the antiques fair and to stay with some dear friends in Hay on Wye.....fingers crossed for the weather!

My Brother in Law's Birthday card

well he is mad on trains so I know I said I wasnt buying any more stamps this year but when I saw this Shenna Douglas set I just thought perfect!

Kept it simple.....stamped with walnut distress ink....background....mustard seed and scattered straw distress ink.....a bit of faux bleaching.....mattedonto softgold and a cream base card....yeh all done.....its a lovely stamp set....a little bit scenic...all aboard....I just love the sentiment stamp...anyway I hope he likes it.

finding old stash....

Just been watching the crafters companion snowman and father christmas release ....I was shure I had bought some of it last year...but no it was the year before! and yes when I finally found the unopened papercrafting kit that came with the CD it was very familiar....so determined as I am to use up stash this year,this is what I made

the backing paper is from the Snowman CD....the snow flake punch is a Martha Stewart circle edge punch....and the decoupage is from the paper kit....the sentiment is a Kanban one coloured up with dusty concord distress ink.....something used up from my stash.....wheeeee

Christmas card club challenge #18 Mary's choice...a cardinal or another christmas bird....

well up untill this week I didnt have a picture or stamps of a cardinal....but the release of the crafters companion Vintage christmas CD came to my rescue ....

I printed the topper 3 times....using the snap shot tool as this is a cd that just will not go into craft artist.....so I layer up the topper and decoupaged the Cardinal and gave him a bit of shine with glossy accents....a few die cuts....and some machine stitching....
Looking forward to going round all your blogs and seeing your lovely creations girls....

Needing inspiration!....

well I havnt posted for some days as I have to admit I have just not had the umph toget going ...so I have been looking at some of my favorite blogs ....and I found a lovely card on Kittiecraft that I though I could do my version of ...mainly because I didnt have all the dies Ellen used but I had something similar.....so my homage to Ellen......

its made using Sue Wilsons Granada background die.....with a spellbinder D-lites die...windows 3 that Ihave had for a couple of years now....and sad to say never used!the flowersare of course my favorite spellbinder poinsettia...the smallest,the folige is memory box holly branch and Martha Stewart fern branch punch.....with lots of teeny red berries punched with my rotating hole punch...Maun industries...the best hole punch in the world!

so here it is in centura pearl and green......

I used the Tattered lace tiny blossoms this time.....
Hope you are having a crafty day....its cool here in North Yorkshire today.....come back summer!

New Shenna Douglas Christmas stamps...

yes I know I said I wasnt going to buy any new stamps but I just had too......

I used the embossalicious snowflake A4 folder for the background inked with walnut stain distress ink.....the images are from the little bit festive...City Christmas just stamped with the same distress ink and the colour pulled out a bit with water....a bit of mustard seed ink round the moon and on the roof top and window a bit of cosmic shimmer iced snow on the roof....matted onto soft gold card...the sentiment is a Kanban one inked with walnut stain again.....fun playing!

little lanterns....

I bought my self these little lantern box dies from tonic and have only just got round to making a few up..they look nice with a tea light in them...an LED one.....

with the light out!......
Hant decorated them up with bows on the handles yet ....

Feeling green.....and white....

one of my favorite memeory box dies from last year and my beloved poinsettia.....with a new memory box die...holly branch...

I love to make my own glitter paper so the white card has been sprayed with stick and spray and covered in cosmic shimmer iced snow glitter....cut out with the memory box merry christmas die and then matted onto green card embossed with the embossalicious Holly folder from last christmas's release....and the berries highlighted with detail sparkle from imaginations crafts....lots of the holly branch die cuts and the little white berries are crystal stickers elements...again bought last christmas....and of course my all time favorite   spellbinders poinsettia...the finished card is 21cm x 15cm..

Christmas card club challenge #17 Lizzie's choice.....not a card

Mummmm......what do I do....okay I have loads of templated lets make something useful....that holds chocolate pennies for the girls...they do love chocolate!

so what did I use....the CD A Winter walk in the countryside.....creative crafting world.....these lovely little gift bags come as a template.....so all Ineeded was glue....some red gems and some green ribbon...
Iam looking forward to seeing all of the rest of your creations girls.....

a cas...well nearly....card

I really never end up making CAS cards as I always get carried away with matting and layering...I wanted to use up a few white bits from a kit I had bought ....

one of those cards you can send to a neighbour that you know just chucks them away after christmas.....you have to have them in your stash!
the kit was a Kanban one.....I know why do we buy them ...impulse!...never do now just got to find ways to use some of it up......

Trying dimensional paste!

so far Ihave been very unsucessfull with this medium and having watched lots of youtube I thought I would give it another go as I had bought lots of masks over the years and sparkle medium....so this is a first attempt so be kind!

its Imaginations crafts gold shine sparkle medium which to be honest I have had for well over a year...but its fine...I did all the masking with tape and it worked fine...I am going to give it another go as I have green,red and diamond to have a go with!

Bebunni....christmas

my lovely neice had treated me to a new CD.....so it would be rude of me wouldnt it!...I can see this is going to be a bit of a favorite this year for the childrens christmas cards......

and I have even done the inside!....

I think most of you will recognise my much loved grand circle spellbinder dies and poinsettia's..the Tonic topper and die cut ....is the pansy set....and the decoupage from the cd.....
I do so love making christmas cards...they are such fun.....

a 40th wedding anniversary card

Dont you just love it when your BH says...." do you have a card sutable for M & S wedding anniversary...and you think well maybe...and then find out its for 40 years...well in my book that deserves one to be made specifically...so onto the internet to check.....40 years Ruby...okay what now.....

its only a bit glittery...and maybe a bit ruby!
crafters companion create a card Romance...adirondack inked through the embossing....matted onto dark red card...the flowers are stamping up flower shop ...  with glossy accents and micro beads in the centres...tattered lace sentiment die and a tiny 40 cut on my scan and cut....trying to be subtle about the number of years...a proud acheivement 40 years together and still laughing!

Lantern boxes.....Tonic

 these lovely boxes are very versatile....I made the first on to put a faux candle in....so I cut the design out of the sides.....the second one has solid sides with the design cut and matted onto the outside and it makes a really sturdy box......

I have used centura pearl card.....

new toys .....

well I only said I couldnt buy any new stamps till I had stamped up all the ones in my collection....forever .....so to compensate......Tonic!

the one at the front is my first attempt I did much better the 2nd time as I embossed all the fold lines and got a much crisper finish.....the back one....they are much larger than last years and will make good present boxes.....
oh and I gave in and bought the Sheena christmas set as well...naughty but nice so watch this space!

Christmas card club challenge #16 Sylvie's choice....trees somewhere on your card....

I am trying hard to ink up stamps I have had for ages and not used...this one is from the Humphrey's corner Christmas tree stamp set........and this one is called......Dressing the tree......

the light is so poor today for taking photos....

the image has been coloured in using copics and spectrum noirs.....
the backing paper is a cuddly buddy digi download called Quilted christmas that I have had for some years and just discovered on my pc......lots of red crystal stickers gems...a bit of ribbon....some wink of stella on the christmas lights and some glossy acents on the baubles.....

all the other girls from the christmas card club will be posting today and please go to my side bar and visit their blogs and see their fantastic creations......
Iam entering this into craftyhazelnuts challenge extra