Holiday Photos From Slovenia

Hello everyone, got back from my hols yesterday after a 4am start so was really tired and overslept this morning.
I've got a few photos to share with you of the absolutely beautiful Slovenia which is a little fairytale like in parts. Apparently 70% of the country is covered in forest and I can believe that as when we took off yesterday all I could see through the plane window was miles of trees. We stayed at Lake Bled which is quite a small lake and it's possible to walk all the way round in about an hour (if you don't stop for coffee and cake that is - the Slovenian people love their cake!)
Here's a picture of our hotel which was right by the lake with a gorgeous view of the castle opposite.

The hotel isn't that large but it had enormous rooms used for the restaurant, lounge and so on and free tea, coffee and cakes were served in the afternoon. Lots of walking needed after this!

This is Castle Bled which we could see from our hotel room window. We did climb up there on a path that would cause British Health & Safety to throw a hissy fit!

The lake has an island with a church and we were told that traditionally, if a couple get married there, the groom has to carry the bride up all of those 99 steps! I think this is my best photo too as I really love the way the church is reflected in the water.

This is the waterfall above Lake Bohinj which is the larger of Slovenia's 2 lakes. It may not look very big but the water streamed down around 70 feet and we had to climb up 553 steps to reach it. This made the island steps seem like child's play!!!

We visited the capital Llubljana and this is one of the famous bridges across the river and is called the Carpenters Bridge. We had lunch at the cafe just seen on the right hand side.

This is my hubby Andrew in a slightly angled photo as I was trying to avoid the lady sitting on the table behind! As you can see the river is not a very attractive colour, it really was that shade of green - ugh!

I couldn't resist taking these photos in the flower market at Llubljana which had stalls full of the most beautiful brightly coloured flowers and the lady in the top photo had lots of lovely garlands and posies for sale.

These are pictures of the last place we visited, the Vintgar Gorge which was in a narrow valley behind a mountain near Lake Bled. We caught the bus up to the gorge, walked through along rock pathways and wooden walkways and the most stunning scenery and walked back. This was difficult although it was broken up as we reached a church at the top of the mountain and to our complete surprise found a Pizzeria next to it!!! You can probably guess that we made a pizza stop before the rest of the journey back which was downhill but still very difficult as it was hot.

I can thoroughly recommend Slovenia for a holiday as it wasn't really very touristy and the people are really friendly and helpful. The scenery is really beautiful and has to be seen to be appreciated as my photos don't really do it justice.

I'll be back tomorrow with the next Polka Doodles challenge and also had a piece of very good news today when I was catching up on my reading list and found that I won last week's Spot Prize Challenge on Dezinaworld and have a gorgeous new collage set to play with so many thanks go to June for this as it was such a lovely surprise to come home to. If you haven't had a go at June's new style challenge, do pop over and have a look - click on the link above or the one on my side bar.

Polka Doodles Sketch Challenge

Hello everyone, all being well this will have posted while I'm on my hols in Slovenia. As it's Friday, it's time for the next Polka Doodles challenge and this week there is a sketch to inspire you.

I decided to make a new home card and resized and printed out the cute house scene from the Housey Housey section of the Back to Nature CD on to watercolour paper. I then coloured it with my watercolour pencils.

I put this on a contrast mat of blue paper and then a larger mat of paper from the Not So Plain Plains section of the Not For Girls CD. I added faux stitching with a black fine liner to echo the sketch. I used background paper from the All Around and Everywhere CD and added flowers from the Sugar Birdies CD. 
As you can see, all the CDs mix and match beautifully giving you even more options for your projects.

Don't forget the big competition on the challenge blog and do have a go if you haven't already as all you have to do to be in with a chance of winning one of the fab prizes is to show us your colouring skills. How easy is that! Why not pop over and have a look. There's also a new video tutorial which Nikky has done for you and I'm sure there are loads of good tips.

Vintage Travel Collage

Happy Monday everyone and I hope you all had a lovely weekend. I'm here today with my last post for a while as I'm off on my hols early Wednesday morning and won't be back until the end of next week.
This is the card I've made for the latest Ready Steady Stamp Challenge and I managed to use the following from the long list of ingredients:

Travel

Map

Patterned Paper

Cork

Film Strip

Brad

Glossy Accents

Distress

Round Punch to make Flowers

Ingredients Used:

Stamps : B Line Designs Paris PR217E and Eiffel Tall PR114D

              Hero Arts Old French Writing H2365

              Inkadinkado Vintage Car 91406-X

              Hampton Art Woman In Coat DF2296

              Art Attack Film Strip 

              All Night Media Clear Stamp Set International Intrigue 91416

Inks : Distress inks Scattered Straw, Wild Honey, Peeled Paint, Crushed Olive, Vintage Photo

          Palette inks Raw Sienna, Noir Black

Promarkers for colouring

Glossy Accents on car body and wheels and woman's shoes and hat

Flower made from K&Co paper (circles punched, folded in to quarters, snipped towards centre and trimmed with deckle scissors. Scrunched then fixed together with a brad)

Cork letter P by Craftime

Acetate

Vintage Map from Art Freebies

Glossy card

Happily this card also fits this week's Lots To Do challenge - The Scenic Route so I'm entering it in that one too.

Polka Doodles Challenge - Generic Male and Female

Morning all on this bright and sunny Friday. Don't know about you but I've had a good day followed by a bad one as on Wednesday my daughter Sarah received her Art Foundation results and she got Distinction so we're jumping up and down here as it means that she's got her place at Kingston University.
I also gained another Gingersnap Creations award for my card in the last post so thanks to all those Gingersnappers.
Yesterday was not so good as I managed to end up with a scratched left eye again due to a large lump of grit getting trapped behind my contact lens. I'm currently doing everything with just the right one in so it's a bit disorientating.
Going on to this week's challenge at Polka Doodles, Nikky would like to see creations which are suitable for both male and female recipients so it's time to put the creative thinking cap on.
Here's what I came up with and I chose a peacock image as it is the male of that species that struts his stuff!

I've used the stripy background paper and embellishment from the Dad's Birthday Bundle download and combined this with the green Plain Jane paper from the Sugar Birdies CD and the peacock silhouette from the Shake a Tail Feather collection on the Back To Nature CD. The stamped greeting is from the Daisy Doodles stamp set. I added gingham ribbon and toning brads for a finishing touch.
Don't forget to pop over to the challenge blog as the fantastic Letraset Aquamarkers competition is still running with fabulous prizes on offer and all you have to do to be in with a chance at winning is to show us your colouring skills - how easy is that!
Wishing you all good luck.

Sunshine All The Way

A very late post for me today in more ways than one as I need matchsticks to prop up my eyelids as I'm really tired and I'm going to be last past the post with my entry for Gingersnap Creations GCSP4 Once In A Blue Moon Challenge - CASE A Ginger.
I chose to CASE (Copy and Steal Everything) a beautiful card by Lynn Stevens of Trash to Treasure Art as it has a bathing beauty and gave me the opportunity to use one of the gorgeous images from Dezinaworld that I have in my ever growing collection. As I didn't have all the things that Lynn has used, I've improvised quite a bit to make my own version.

I used Distress inks in Spun Sugar, Worn Lipstick, Barn Door, Fired Brick and Spiced Marmalade for the background papers. The tiny sun is by Hobby Art and the shells by Rubbadubbado. The travel collage is by Inkadinkado and the compass by Debbi Moore. These were all coloured with Promarkers.
The corner pieces are made with sepia ink and Hampton Arts Scratch Pattern and were embossed to give texture.
I added computer generated text and a shell charm to finish.

Distress Ink Grunge Background Tutorial

Well here it is, the promised tutorial on how to make my grunge background paper with Distress inks which is not nearly as messy as those involving water although I have to say, your fingers will still get a bit inky. One of the hazzards of DIY but a lot of fun anyway as when you get the hang of this, you can make the papers really quickly (I made 4 in 20 minutes) and it may get you addicted to doing your own decorated papers. I've been doing my own for 14 years now!
It helps with this technique if you use a very smooth card as a slightly rough surface will cause the ink to be absorbed almost at once and it won't move around as mine has done. This won't matter as the technique produces a very random effect and no 2 pieces will ever be exactly the same.

Step 1 - Take a craft sheet or a plastic clipboard and 2 colours of Distress Ink, a light and medium shade of the same colour. I have used Scattered Straw and Mustard Seed. Starting with the lighter colour, apply patches of ink to the craft sheet then repeat with the darker colour, adding a few patches on top.

Step 2 - Take a piece of card (mine is approx. 15cm square) in white or a pale colour - I used cream so that you can see it better. Place the card over the ink patches and press down all over with your fingers.

Step 3 - Turn the card over and on a craft mat, rub a sponge over to smudge and blend the inks a little. If there are any uncovered areas left, turn the card back over and pick up some ink left on the craft sheet, pressing down as before and repeating until you're happy with the result. If you like the colour at this point then stop here and jump to Step 6.

Step 4 - If you want to add some more colour, choose another light and dark version of the colour - I have used Spun Sugar and Victorian Velvet and repeat step 1  and 2 with these colours.

Step 5 - Rub with a sponge as before until you are happy with the colours.

Step 6 - Stamp a design on your inked paper using the darkest of your colour choices which in this case is the Victorian Velvet. The flourish stamp is from a tiny clear stamp set by Prima, reference Go Green Concepts 850715. You may find that the darkest ink colour doesn't make enough of a contrast so if that happens just take the darkest colour of Distress Ink in your chosen shade.

Here's the card I made with the above piece of paper. The image is a free one courtesy of Craft Stamper magazine and I've put her on a mat of pale aqua and deep rose pink paper. I made a border with the same papers, a Martha Stewart edge punch and scallop scissors and added a butterfly image and golden pearls to finish.
I hope you like this and decide to give it a try as it really is very easy. I've also got another sample here to show you the very different look you can get by using another colour card. If you scroll down to my previous post, you will see a background paper made using the technique on blue card. Here are exactly the same colours using white card.

This just goes to show that the variety of papers at your fingertips can be infinite if you have just a few colours of card, stamps and ink colours.
Enjoy!

Blue Bird

Evening everyone, a very late post today due to my computer and camera both throwing a wobbly so I've only just been able to get online.
I'm here with my entry at last for Gingersnap Creations Colour Challenge GC60 - Shades of Blue which closes tomorrow.
My card was inspired by the colours of Wedgewood China and here it is:

The background paper here was made using my Distress Ink Grunge Background Technique (I'll be posting a tutorial on this tomorrow as I couldn't do it today owing to my technical problems) using blue card instead of white with Tumbled Glass and Broken China inks. I stamped the floral corner design which is from a set by Viva Decor (available from the Craft Barn) in Chipped Sapphire.
The bird panel and blue and white vertical strip were made by using a Crafters Workshop stencil as a stamp (more on this later) with Sky Blue VersaColor ink. The vertical strip was embossed using the Cuttlebug Floral Fantasy folder.
I stamped the bird - Papermania Henbury Lane range - in Majestic Blue VersaFine ink on the square floral panel. I added a dark blue border with the bottom edge trimmed using Martha Stewart's Arch Lattice Edge Punch and a layered flower punched with a Papermania Punch and Emboss. I added a blue gem to the centre.

Polka Doodles Challenge and Competition News

Hi everybody, Friday again so the next Polka Doodles challenge is here but before I tell you about it I have some MEGA news from Nikky to pass on about a fab competition which has started today.
The great news is that Polka Doodles has teamed up with Letraset of Promarkers fame to host a competition with the MOST FABULOUS PRIZES imaginable. If you pop over to the Challenge Blog, Nikky will tell you more about it and I'm totally green cos I can't enter being on the DT.
Now, on to the Polka Doodles challenge this week the theme of which is CHRISTMAS IN JULY. I hope you're not groaning as it's a great way to get started on your cards especially if you're like me and leave it to 1 December then panic lol!
I was actually making Christmas cards in June because the latest CD, Paper Boutique Creative Christmas, actually came out last month.
Here's my card which is a tent shape:

I printed out 2 of the lovely snowflake papers from the CD on both sides of the paper. I then cut an oval out of one of the squares of decorated paper and turned this over to the contrast side.
I printed out the cute penguin digital images and cut out the size to fit the oval. I stuck him on with foam tape.
I sponged clear embossing ink on some of the darker snowflake paper and embossed it with crystal powder for some bling. I used a large and small snowflake punch to make some embellishments for the card. I added a greeting from the CD to finish.
You'll find the tent card instructions by Debbie Dolphin on the Inspirational Tips and Techniques blog - this is a really great site if you haven't yet seen it as it has loads of ideas with full instructions on how to make everything.
Don't forget to check out the challenge blog for those all important Letraset competition details as you really don't want to miss out.

Creative Frenzy!

Hello everyone, hope you're all OK and have good weather at the moment. I'm here today with a mega post to show you all the card samples for a class I taught yesterday in making quick and easy vintage style cards.
I made the pale backing paper myself by washing buff acrylic paint over a piece of watercolour paper and scanning it into my computer using Photoshop. I then adjusted the colour to make it a little paler and printed it out on to thin card. I adjusted the colour again until it was pink and printed out more copies.

The images on these 4 cards are all by June at Dezinaworld from the Spring Ladies collage sheet in the case of the first 3 and the Dance collage sheet the last.

The images of the rose, hydrangea, poppies and delphinium are all digital stamps by Teri of Delicious Doodles and her shop is well worth a visit for lots more gorgeous stamps.
The lace stamp is by B Line Designs and available from LB Crafts.
The corner and border stamps are by Viva Decor from a clear set of stamps available from the Craft Barn and incredible value.
The butterfly stamps, large and small, are by Hobby Art.
The script stamp is by Hero Arts.
The images on the last 3 cards are from June's Art Freebies blog.
The stamps used on the square patterned background papers are some I've had for many years and I have no idea what make they or or whether they are still available.
Hope you like looking at these as much as I liked making them as once I started, it was very hard to stop!

Polka Doodles Challenge - Stamp Away!

Morning everyone on this bright and somewhat breezy Friday. It's time for a new challenge over at Polka Doodles and this week it's Lou's turn to chose the theme. She would like to see Stamping on your creations and she challenged all the Design Team to make a card using just stamps, the gorgeous Fairy Flutterbys collection available only from Polka Doodles.
As I'm sure you all know, this is exactly the type of challenge I love as it's really me. I chose to make an easel shape card and made a resist style background with a slight difference. Read on to find out how!

I made my background paper by stamping the large flower from the Babsie collection all over a piece of white card. I ended up stamping it in Encore Ultimate Metallic pigment ink which is the stickiest I know as it took me 3 attempts to stamp and embosss the flowers - the hot weather made the other pigment inks dry off more quickly than I could get the embossing powder on!!! As the ink is coloured, I embossed with white powder.
I then coloured the flowers with Promarkers in yellow and orange.  The next step is to sponge Distress ink in between the flowers - I used Tumbled Glass. This made a pretty, colourful background but I think this would look fabulous with gold embossing too (note to self - try this soon). I cut the paper and used a square on the front of the card and the remaining strip on the base.
I stamped the very cute Gracie, the butterfly wings and 2 of the little ladybird in black ink and coloured them with Promarkers. I then cut them all out. I used a Nestabilities circle and scalloped circle to make a frame for her to sit on and embossed the white circle with the Sissix Floral Flourishes & Vines set. I did the same with a matching border strip (Tip - as the border strip was too big to fit all of it in the embossing folder, I embossed both the ends only as the middle is hidden). I inked all the edges with yellow.
The card is assembled as you see in the photos with tape and foam tape and the greeting came from the Gracie set too.
If you pop over to the challenge blog, you'll see how versatile the stamps are as there are several ideas using the stamps by other members of the DT as some of us picked the same stamps.

Shy Girl

Hello folks, hope you've all had a lovely weekend and some good weather. It's been trying to rain a little here on the South coast today but the sunshine has just appeared again.
I'm here with my rather late entry for the current challenge at Ready, Steady, Stamp which I started just over a week ago and then had to stop for a while due to other commitments. I managed to finish it off yesterday evening at last. For those of you that don't know, the challenge rules have changed a bit and now every 2 weeks one of the Design Team members will make a project and list the ingredients used. The challenge is to make something using at least 5 of the ingredients and I found this good fun as the list this time is quite long and there are plenty of things to choose from.
I used the following on my card:

Cream, Brown and Green

Rectangles

Embossed Metal/Metal Embellishment

Distress Inks

Dry Embossing

I made my background paper using my grunge technique with Distress inks in Crushed Olive and Peeled Paint and one of the lovely stamps from the Inkadinkado Garden Delight clear stamp set which I really love as the stamps included are so useful. I stuck this to a cream card blank I made.

I made a frame for the lovely photo from June's Art Freebies blog by cutting a piece of cream card and stamping all around the edges in VersaFine Vintage Sepia using a tiny Anna Griffin flourish stamp. I put the photo on a mat of brown paper and then on the stamped panel.

I then embossed a panel of cream card with the Sissix Tim Holtz Alterations Damask embossing folder and put this on a panel of brown paper trimmed on both long edges with the Martha Stewart Arch Lattice punch. I added this to the card with some brown floral ribbon and the photo panel.

As a finishing touch, I made a metal foil flower using a Woodware floral cut and emboss punch. I deepened the embossing effect with a ball tool and rubbed on Olive Green StazOn ink. I then bent the petals for a 3D effect and added a little black StazOn to the edges to make them stand out. I then added a Making Memories round embossed metal brad in the centre.

Polka Doodles Challenge - Summer Theme

Morning everyone, it's Friday yet again and I don't know where the last week has gone. I've been doing lots of crafting but can't show you anything yet as most of it has been samples for Nikky who will be demoing at the craft show on 17 and 18 July at Doncaster Race Course. She will have loads of new products with her and all the DT have been making samples for the show. If you're going, do go and say hello and have a look at the new stuff, you can take it from me that it's fabulous!
On to this weeks challenge which has been chosen by Enfys and owing to the current very warm weather, the theme is Summer so your challenge is to make anything you like to show what Summer means to you.
Summer to me mostly means being able to enjoy all the lovely flowers in my garden together with the butterflies that we get a lot of as we have all the shrubs that they like (some of my favourites too luckily)
I've made a birthday card with flowers and butterflies for someone special (can't say who as they might just see this).

I used some pretty backing paper from the Sugar Birdies CD. The flowers are part of the extra layering flowers that come with the Funky Flower 3D card on the Paper Boutique 1 CD. The butterflies are from the All Around & Everywhere CD - a whole A4 sheet of them, ready coloured or black and white for you to colour yourself. I added heart shaped gems to the bodies for a bit of bling. I added a round greeting from the same CD to finish. A really quick and easy card to make.
You have until 12 noon on Sunday 18 July to uplaod your creations and don't forget to take a look at the lovely things made by the rest of the DT.
Fliss xx

Remembrance

I'm on a roll here with my second post today with my entry for this week's challenge at Sunday Stampers run by Hels Sheridan with the theme of Pearls. This is something I loved doing as I think pearls are my favourite type of embellishment at the moment, along with butterflies.
Here's my card:

The image I've used here is a slightly size adjusted postcard from my free vintage downloads (see side labels) so if you like it please help yourself. It's actually very versatile as you can just cut out the image and the verse to use separately if you like.
The background paper is made using Distress inks (no surprise there!) and using a technique which is my twist on a more familiar one and not quite as messy (still got inky fingers though!). I'll be posting a tutorial on this next week together with some cards I've made. The colours I used here are Scattered Straw, Mustard Seed, Spun Sugar and Victorian Velvet. I stamped on an image from a tiny set by Prima - Go Green Concepts 850715 which has 3 stamps and some bling. I used the Victorian Velvet ink.
I made a card blank from dusky pink card and used part of the left over strip to make a central border, trimmed with scallop scissors. I added pink crochet lace, some yellow pearls and a butterfly sticker to finish off.

Polka Doodles Challenge - Decorative Item

Hello folks, it's Friday yet again (don't know where time goes these days!) and so it's time for another Polka Doodles challenge which has been chosen this week by team member Claire.
As the latest Polka Doodles CD, Paper Boutique 2 Creative Christmas, launched on Create and Craft TV last Sunday, and has lots of decorative style elements, Claire would like to see something decorative for your challenge creation.
This is something I've been doing a lot more of lately as those of you kindly following my blog will know. I decided to make a wall hanging piece of art suitable for someone who's just moved house or someone who just wants to brighten up their home.

I've used a piece of mount board as the base and covered this with some clever house text paper from the Back To Nature CD. This has a white background and is very versatile as you can print it out on any colour card for a different look. I chose blue card. I then added a central panel of green polka dot paper from the All Around & Everywhere CD.
I printed out some of the pretty houses and trees from the All Around CD and added these to the panel with foam mount for a 3D effect. I then added some gingham paper ribbon strips from the Back To Nature CD and the arched text at the top was taken from one of the black and white images in the Housey, Housey section of the same CD.
I then made a flower using the pretty gingham floral layering pieces from the All Around CD which I cut out inside the black lines and scrunched up before sticking them together and gluing a flower shaped button in the centre.
I finished off by piercing holes in the top corners with my trusty Tonic Tim Holtz hole piercer which seemed to make short work of the thick mount board. I pushed blue thick wire through the holes and twisted the ends, then added pieces of knotted gingham and dotty ribbon.
Do have a look at the gorgeous creations made by the rest of the DT. I particularly like Jenny's clever and yummy looking ice cream sundae box and will be trying this out.

Home Is Where The Heart Is

Hello everyone, I'm here today with a very late entry for the current Ready Steady Stamp challenge which closes today having got rather behind due to DT work (will be back tomorrow to show you the samples made for Polka Doodles Nikky's TV show which was on Sunday and went really well with the brand new CD selling like hot cakes).
Here's the recipe to follow:

I've made a piece of artwork using a lovely house shaped shadow box which I bought at the Craft Barn extravaganza. They've got quite a lot of really useful blanks so it's well worth a look at the website as they're also very good value as this one cost me just £1.75 (an absolute bargain!!!). I was lucky enough to be able to meet up with my blogging friend Fiona and see some great demonstrators including Jean and Malcolm from Crafty Individuals, Kay Carley, Beatrice Neumeister, Leandra Franich, Lin Brown and of course Isabelle Norris of the RSS challenge.
Here's my artwork:

I painted the frame with turquoise and purple acrylic paint and then rubbed on white, turquoise and lime VersaColor inks to tone it down a little. I stamped flowers from the Inkadinkado Garden Delight clear set on in Memento Grape Jelly and white ink.
I then made the central rectangular panel by using direct to paper technique with the VersaColor lime ink on white card then stamped on flowers in the same lime together with turquoise and some grape.
I stamped the butterfly on white card with the grape ink and also on acetate in StazOn royal purple ink and cut them out when dry. I bent the acetate wings up slightly, stuck the butterflies together and glued them in the corner of the frame.
I stamped a Magenta heart image twice with the grape ink, cut out just the centre of one and inked with lime. I then did the bit I wasn't sure about which was to hand write all the text with a purple Promarker and a purple fine liner,  cut them into rectangles and ink the pieces with lime. I assembled the remaining pieces as shown in the photo.

Wings To Fly

Hello everyone, hope you've had a lovely weekend and aren't too upset by the abismal football result this afternoon. I didn't watch much of the match and was astounded to switch on the TV at around 4.30 and see the score so promptly switched off again!!!
We also had a bit more drama here a bit later on when I went to open the sun lounge door again having shut it to stop a huge bumble bee coming in the house. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw one of our 2 rabbits on the outer window sill of the sun lounge (about 4 feet off the ground!!!!) and rushed out to find that the upper door of the 2 storey cage was open and she had climbed out and somehow managed to get round to the back of the cage onto the sill.  Was my OH in trouble as he obviously didn't shut the door properly! It took me quite some time to calm down afterwards and poor Rosie was upset too.

I'm here today with a card which fits 2 challenges. The lovely bright summery colours are those from the current Play Date Cafe challenge 35 chosen by Sarah Anderson.

The second challenge is the Gingersnap Creations GC57 Chestnut Theme Challenge - Wings as my image stamp has wings.

I really loved working with these colours as they're perfect in the lovely sunshine we're having as the moment.
I made my background strips by tearing pieces of white card which I then sponged with Distress inks in Barn Door, Spiced Marmalade and Broken China (with some VersaColor Turquoise rubbed over the top). I then stamped on various images from the Inkadinkado Garden Delight 97623 clear set in the same inks except for one of the orange ones which I stamped with Vintage Photo DI.
I stamped the image Crafty Individuals CI-137 in VersaFine Vintage Sepia on My Minds Eye Pretty Please orange dot paper and cut her out. I then die cut some flourishes from old music score using the Sissix Fancy Flourishes 655675 set and inked these with the Vintage Photo ink.
I assembled the card as you see with a couple of contrast strips of old music score trimmed with the Martha Stewart Doiley Lace punch and a computer generated text panel.

Anniversary

Today my lovely hubby Andrew and I are celebrating our 28th Wedding Anniversary and I can't believe how the years have flown. I think they started to fly by after our 2 daughters were born. They're now 21 and 19 and sometimes it seems like only yesterday that they were toddlers.
I've made a card for the occasion which fits Hels Sheridan's current Sunday Stampers theme, Metal Guru.

As you can see, it's got quite a lot of metal. I actually used metal foil which I wrapped round thin squares of card and then embossed in the Cuttlebug using the Kimmy-luvs heart folder and the Sissix Tim Holtz Alterations Damask Texture Fades folder.
I rubbed Palette Belle Rose ink over the heart embossed squares to emphasize the pattern. I then stamped some hearts by Hampton Art in VersaFine Crimson Red ink on white card and embossed them with red pearl powder. I cut them out and stuck them on the damask squares.
I then cut a square of white card and stamped on a border design from the Impression Obsession Ornate Borders WP130 clear set in the red ink. I stuck this to a dark red card blank and then glued on the squares.
This evening my hubby and I are going out for a meal and then we're off to the movies to see a film. I'm really looking forward to this as we don't seem to get out as much these days. I think you get out of the habit once you have children but hopefully this will change in the autumn when we have 2 girls at uni.

Polka Doodles Challenge - Card For A Boy

Hello all on this fine sunny day which is why I'm sneezing loads lol. It's time for the new challenge over at Polka Doodles and this week Brenda has chosen the theme which is to make a Card for a Boy .

Before I show you my card, I need to let you all know that on Sunday Nikky will be on Create and Craft TV with the brand new Polka Doodles CD which is being launched at 2pm (very lucky as the footie starts at 3pm so you can wrestle the remote off those footie fans to watch her!!!). Do watch if you can as there's some fabulous stuff on there which the DT have all been working on over the past week and I'm still covered in glitter (it seems to get everywhere!) so you can probably guess what the new CD's about.

Here's my card for the challenge which is very simple to show off the cute image I chose with my middle niece's little boy in mind as he will be 3 years old soon.

I just know he'll love this little fellow who reminds me of Brian from the Magic Roundabout which I still remember after so many years.
He's from the All Around & Everywhere CD (says she pausing to sneeze lol) and I printed him out quite large, cut him out and stuck him with foam tape to a card blank made from background paper from the Candy Doodles CD - don't you just love that dotty effect.
To finish off all I did was print out a piece of background paper from the Not So Plain Plains on the Not For Girls CD (these have a lovely linen texture print) and computer genetated my sentiment which I printed on the paper and punched out.

Don't forget to watch the show on Sunday and you will find all the details on the Polka Doodles website.

Age Is Just A Number

Hello everyone, hope you're having a lovely weekend with some good weather. It's sunny here although rather windy at the moment and I've been suffering with hayfever all week due to wind from the North blowing something off the South Downs.
I'm here today with an entry which fits 3 challenges, the first being Hels Sheridan's Sunday Stamper with the theme of Numbers as she's just celebrated a milestone birthday. The next is Gingersnap Creations GC56 Colour Theme, Burgundy, Ivory and Black which I've just managed to scrape into as it closes tomorrow. The last one is Hilda's Lots To Do Challenge with a theme of Quotes for which I've used one of my ever useful Penny Black stamps. I think along with Tim Holtz, they do some of the best quotes I've come across.
The card I've made was inspired by my very lively mother in law who is now in her 80s. She had an operation a couple of weeks ago to clear a blocked artiery. This took 3 hours during which time she was conscious and aware of what was happening, and it apparently took a long time because the surgeon said her artieries were looped like a roller coaster!!! She had a rest in bed the next day but I was astounded to hear that the day after this, less than 48 hours after the operation, she went out shopping with my father in law!!! The quote I've used here is perfect to describe her and I have great admiration for her determination to get on with life no matter what it throws at her.

The colour is a little washed out in the photo as my camera always struggles with yellowish tones so the ivory is really a little stronger than you can see here.
The card was quite simple to make. I embossed 2 ivory and 2 burgundy 7cm squares with the Sissix Tim Holtz Bingo folder numbers and rubbed burgundy ink over those on the ivory squares. I stamped Paperbag Studios Laugh PBS-004-1 in black on ivory card and layered it up on burgundy, ivory and black card. I stamped the quote, Penny Black's the Life 2709F in black on ivory card, cut it out and inked the edges with black.
I stuck the squares to a square of black card, stuck this to an ivory textured card blank and then glued on the remaining elements as shown.
All that remains is for me to say thank you to the Gingersnap Team who have been kind enough to give me 2 Ginger Gem awards in the last 2 weeks, a really great surprise and honour for which I can't thank you all enough.

Polka Doodles Challenge - Fathers Day/Male Theme

Good morning folks, it's time for the next Polka Doodles challenge and this week's theme has been chosen by Dee. As it the day for all those dads on Sunday, Dee would like to see something for Fathers Day or male themed and what you make is up to you.
I've just realised that it's a week since I last blogged, unfortunately having been very busy with my work and no time for crafting! That will change over the weekend though as the new Polka Doodles CD comes out on 27 June on Create and Craft TV and Nikky has been working very hard to get all the new images over to the DT so that we can make samples for the show.
Anyway, back to this week's challenge and I've made a very vintage style card on a music theme.

I was inspired by a certain musical which came straight to mind when I saw these gorgeous grungy, vintage style papers on the Not For Girls CD in the Sounds Good section.
My card is very simple to make. I resized the music background paper and printed it on the right side of a piece of A4 card which I scored and folded in half to make my card blank. I then resized the jazz player twice and printed this out. I cut out the whole panel of the smaller on and matted this on dark red card with a wide border at the base. I added 3 tarnished silver star brads on one side. I then cut out the larger jazz player round the image and added him with foam tape. I assembled the card as you see with some cut out music notes from the instrument sheet and text printed with a Dymo.
You have until 12 noon on Sunday 27 June to upload your creations and good luck if you decide to enter. Don't forget to have a look at the other DT creations as there's some fabulous stuff there.

Polka Doodles Challenge - Nursery Rhymes

It's Friday again so it's Polka Doodles time and this week the challenge has been set by Nettie who is looking forward to a very happy event and her chosen theme is Nursery Rhymes.
I chose to base my card on Mary, Mary Quite Contrary as my 2 girls really loved this particular one when they were little.

I picked Polly from the Sugar Birdies CD as my image as I think she looks a bit cheeky and naughty which is how I imagine Mary.
I've used one of the lovely shaped elements from the Back To Nature CD to make the card blank itself. I printed it out, cut it out and glued it to a folded card so that the shaped top remained scalloped.
The toadstools and butterflies are from the All Around & Everywhere CD and the flowers from the Paper Boutique CD, the Floral Bouquet collection.
As you can see, all the CDs work very well together, giving you even more projects to make if you have more than one CD.
You have until 12 noon on Sunday 20 June to upload your creations and please remember the rule that you can only combine your entry with 9 other challenges, making 10 in total. We get entries every week that we have to disqualify because they're entered in too many challenges which is a real shame.

She's Got The Look

Hello folks and I hope you're all doing OK this week. I'm here with my finished entry for the latest Ready, Steady, Stamp challenge with the ingredient list below:

Some of you probably know that my younger daughter has been doing an Art Foundation course prior to her degree and she will be studying for a Fashion degree at Kingston in September. As I'm always surrounded by her works in progress and various fashion magazines, this particular challenge is right up my street so I hope you like what I've made.

I found a fascinating Good Housekeeping book about the 1950s a little while ago so my card was inspired by the fashion adverts in there. I've used a couple of them on the card as they fit my theme perfectly.
I made 2 background paper panels, the first being Tim Holtz's Old Paisley stamped in black on white card. The second uses Hampton Art's Scratch Pattern 2635J and was stamped repeatedly in Distress Crushed Olive and then black to make a plaid pattern. I glued these to my card blank.
I then added to 2 cut out images, some small fabric swatches and sequins. I added a text panel from the book and a Dymo text strip at the top.
I made my half flower embellishment by punching 2 black and 2 white hearts and sticking them together in an overlapping fashion to make the shape you see. I then embossed the piece with the Tim Holtz Alterations Sissix Damask folder and stuck a green sequin in the centre.

A Little Bird Told Me

Here's my second post with a card I've made for this week's Sunday Stampers Challenge and Hels' theme is Wings of A Dove so anything with wings goes.
I decided to stick with the birds and have made a card from bits and pieces in my experiment box. Happily I found a few using different techniques that I think work well together (I hope you do too!). Here's the card:

Here are the techniques used:
Diamond Paper - Twist on Resist Technique using an Impression Obsession border stamp, crystal embossing powder, Vintage Photo and Spiced Marmade Distress ink and Palette Landscape permanent ink.
Scroll Paper - simply hammered texture card rubbed with Olive VersaColor ink and stamped with Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz flourish.
Butterfly Paper - thick watercolour paper rubbed with Topaz VersaColor ink, stamped with a butterfly background in Vintage Sepia VersaFine ink and then sponged with Distress inks in Spiced Mamalade, Crushed Olive and Vintage Photo.
Tiny Border Strip - a small scrap of Watercolour Crayon Technique paper which was embossed and well as stamped on.
Flower Embossed Panel - simply cream card embossed with the flower scroll folder from the Sissix Floral Flourishes and Vines Set. This was then sponged with Spiced Marmalade, Crushed Olive and Scattered Straw Distress inks and swiped with Vintage Photo.
The bird stamp is Crafty Individuals CI-193 and was coloured with Prisma pencils and a little Distress ink to blend the colours.
The flower is by Crafty Notions and was painted with Twinkling H20 paint in Garnet.

A Man Of Words

Hello everyone, hope you're having gorgeous weather as we have here today. I woke up this morning to 20 degrees and the warmest day so far this year.
This is my first post today as I had stamping club this morning so managed to finish off a couple of cards. This one is for my father in law's birthday next month and has just scraped into the Gingersnap Creations GC54 Spicy Supply Challenge-Pencils as it uses the pencil stamp that I bought about a month ago. My father in law is the published author of a book about military defence in Sussex and has another one about to come out so the pencils were perfect for him.

I stamped the pencils, which are by Lost Coast Designs and from Happy Daze, in VersaFine Toffee ink on beige card and cut them out. I stamped the man (from Paper Artsy Man Of Numbers Plate 6) in black on beige card and trimmed to a panel.
I embossed some olive green card with my new Tim Holtz Sissix Alterations folder (Patchwork) and rubbed Umber and Atlantic VersaColor inks on.
I assembled the card as shown with the text made from Dymo printed on black tape and copper steel letter stickers.

Polka Doodles Challenge - Modern/Retro Anniversary

Morning folks, it's Polka Doodles time again and the theme set by Lou is to make an Anniversary card with a Modern/ Retro style.
It's Lou and her hubby's anniversary so Happy Anniversary to both of you and hope you share lots more.
I've gone rather cute for mine as I couldn't resist the gorgeous owls on the Love & Cherish CD from The Twoo of Us collection.

I've chosen to make an easel shape card in shades of pink. mint green and chocolate brown (I'm thinking Neopolitan ice cream here lol). I made the card sections from pink Bazzill card and added a mint green panel to the front, embossed with the Cuttlebug Kimmy Luvs folder. I managed to emboss this on the whole of the panel by a bit of nifty lining up on the second go through the Cuttlebug and the slightly squished bit is hidden under the owl panel.
I added a second panel of owl paper and a border made with the Martha Stewart Doyley Lace double edge punch glued on to chocolate brown paper from the Not for Girls CD for contrast. I stuck the owl panel from the toppers section to more of the brown paper and trimmed the edges with deckle scissors. I added this to the card front and put pearls in the flower centres.
I finished off by adding another embossed green panel to the base, together with a pretty border from the topper sheet and a greeting cut out with the Nestabilities scalloped oval set and matted on brown.
I can also now tell you that we have 3 brand new Polka Doodlers from the recent DT call so welcome to:
Jenny, Lisa and Tracy
Looking forward to working with you ladies and seeing what you create with your Polka Doodles stash.