It's 2013!

HAPPY NEW YEAR! everyone,

Hope you had a good one.  It was just Stephen and I on New Year's Eve, a nice meal, bottle of champagne and a Batman movie. 
We watched Big Ben chime in 2013 on the TV, and saw the fireworks in London which I thought were spectacular by the way.

We've actually been there on New Year's Eve, a few years ago, and the atmosphere is amazing. It's a bit chilly, but well worth it.

My crafting year got off to a good start.  I found out yesterday that I'm amongst the winners again on Tim's 12 Tags - whoo hoo!!  Can't quite believe it, twice in one year. I'm absolutely thrilled.  So, it was time for another little dance around the house. 
The fun starts all over again this month, and I can't wait to get started

I'm slowly getting back into the mood for crafting.  I've made a start on the many cards I need in January - well, I've done one!

It's Lauren's 21st this year - where did that time go!?!!   I thought I'd try and do a 'two for one' here and come up with something for the latest challenge over at Less is More

It's Week 99-100 (a two week challenge), and its a Recipe week.

The girls have chosen .......

DRINKS

.......... very appropriate I thought, with it being the festive season and all that. Although it dosen't just mean alcohol, it can be tea, coffee water etc.

Anyhow, here's mine .....

It's not quite how I intended it to be.  This year is starting how last year finished - nothing going right!

I used the Penny Black stamp ' Bubble of Joy' (2098H).  I love this little guy sitting on the champagne cork.

The image is coloured with Copic pens and the metal cage around the cork, or the egrafe to give it it's proper name, has been highlighted with a Sakura Stardust pen.  The little guy on top has been layered for a bit of dimension and the bubble has had a coating of Glossy Accents and some Diamond Dust on top.

I added a few more bubbles and some tiny gems for a bit of sparkle.

I'd more or less finished the card when out of nowhere, came the dreaded black ink mark, right on the bottom - argggghhhh!!!!  I really didn't want to start it all again so the scalloped borders are a last minute addition (to cover up the splodge!).   Not sure if I'm 100% happy with it, but I'll leave it for now.

Well,  I've made a start on the next chapter of my crafty adventure.  Who knows what 2013 is going to bring.   

I do hope you'll continue with me on the journey, it's so much nicer to share it with friends.

Cheerio for now.  I'll be back tomorrow with a couple more 'drinks' themed cards.

Enjoy your evening.

Linda

 x

Another week, another challenge

Hello everyone,
A bit of a slow start this morning, but welcome to a new week.  Let's hope this week carries on to be as productive as the last.
Did you all have a nice weekend? I hope so.
Mine was lovely, very relaxing.

Hubby was back from his business trip on Friday evening.  It's nice to have him home, and he even brought me a present, a lovely bottle of perfume.
We had a quick ride out on Saturday to do a spot of shopping.  My boys in blue (Chelsea Football Club!) won their match, we're now 4 points clear of Man Utd (who we play next weekend) and we're still top of the league - well done boys!
Sunday, we had a lazy morning, lunch out which is always nice as it means I don't have to cook, ooh, and I bought my pumpkins for Halloween.

Traditionally on the Isle of Man it's called Hop Tu Naa and they carve out turnips instead of pumpkins. Have you ever tired carving a turnip?!   This year however, there's a shortage of them, due to the bad weather we've had.  Now, I'm not saying this is a quiet place to live but, this made headline news. It's even on the BBC News website.  It's up there with other major headlines we've had, like potatoes washed up on the beach in the North of the island.  Exciting or what!!
Anyway, enough about the IOM.  On to things of a crafty nature. 

Last week saw the launch of the latest In the Pink challenge.
It's Challenge #6 ........

BUTTONS AND BOWS

You know me, I love my ribbons and I have been known to use the occasional button or two.

Well over the weekend I spent a little bit of time in the old craft room - can't keep out of there lately!

And I came up with this ........

Cute isn't she?!  I used to love my Magnolia stamps but they don't seem to come out of the cupboard much lately.  I don't seem to do cute anymore.
Obviously Pink always makes me think of girly cards so I had a rummage and found this little sweetie - Tilda with the Rose.
She's been coloured with Copic pens, using various shades of pink - something else I don't seem to use much of these days.  Too much other stuff I suppose.  Anyway, she's been die cut using a Marianne's Creatables die.  I cut this twice, once around Tilda and then again just on plain white card.  I also embossed the plain one, and while the die was still in place I used a little bit of Spun Sugar DI to highlight the raised areas.  The one with Tilda in the middle has had the fancy edge cut away, leaving just the circle so that I could layer up my design and add a little bit of dimension.
Tilda's rose has also been stamped again and layered and I add a tiny silk bow to the stem.

The papers I've used are from Making Memories - the 'Je t'adore' range.  I've just done a simple layout, added a scalloped border and some pretty lace.  There's a spot of Fran-tage on there too (Shabby Pink).

I spent quite a while with my button collection, and as always couldn't find just the right shade of pink.  In the end I gave up and made my own buttons.  Cut from chipboard covered with one of the background papers, using the Tim Holtz Alterations Die - Sewing Room.  They match perfectly now!

My final touch was to add the sentiment, which is from a Paper Artsy set of stamps, and of course I couldn't just leave it with the one small bow now could I.  So I added a beautiful pink silk ribbon bow, finished off with a sparkly Dazzler.

Well, that's one thing crossed off this week's list already.  Good start.  I'll be back tomorrow with this week's LIM card.

Thanks for popping by.  Have a great Monday.
See you soon

Linda

x

Fly the flag!

Morning everyone,
What's this ....... another early post.
It's Thursday, nearly weekend, and our little trip across to the UK.  Just a few bits to finish off, some DT cards to make with my monthly project kit from Craftwork Cards, oh and the housework to do.  All this before 5 on Friday, can I get it all done?  Of course I can, if not, the housework can wait till I get back (lol!)

This weeks Penny Black Saturday Challenge is
                          Fly the Flags!

They want to see bunting, flags, banners etc.  Along with the usual, a Penny Black image, sentiment or stickeroo.

Here's mine .....

I love this little guy in the flowerpot ('greetings' stamp 3706H), he's sooo cute!   He's usually holding a flower but I decided not to ink that bit and replace the flower with a flag.
Hedgie's been coloured in with Copic Pens, and his little friend the ladybird, has had a coat of Glossy Accents on top.

I had a good old rummage in my bit box again, and came out with checks this time, not spots (like earlier in the week).  It's a piece of BoBunny paper from the Kitchen Spice range, I think.  I picked out the orange colour and teamed it up with some BoBunny Double Dot.  I added some bunting decorated with punched flowers from the same papers.  Did my usual faux stitching around the edges, added a piece of white ribbon and a bit of bling. I think the colours make it perfect for a summer (whatever that is!) birthday.

Summer eh!  It's July at the weekend only it feels more like flippin' October!!  It's stopped raining here but it's still miserable out. 
We've got the Queenie Festival going on this weekend down at Port St Mary.

There's supposed to be a beach party tomorrow night with BBQ, and live music.  It's not going to be much fun if it rains!  I'm sure it'll be busy though.  We'll bob on down there on Sunday and see what's going on.  Anything to do with food and we're there.    
Queenies, by the way, for those who don't know, are queen scallops and are very popular on the island.  My lot love them, I can eat them but not in any great quantity.  They're a little too fishy for me, nice as a starter though.  There is a website here if anyone would like to know more.  You'll find some nice recipes on there too. 

Well, I'm off to have a play with my CWC Pretty Little Prints now.  Have a great Thursday whatever you're doing.

Bye for now

Linda

x

Penny Black Saturday Challenge

Happy Thursday! (It was still Wednesday when I started this)
Hopefully this will post ok.  I'm having a little trouble with Blogger at the moment -  gremlins in the system I think.  I can't view my post list, or my comments list.  I can't check out my Blog reading list, all I keep getting are these flippin' error codes when I sign in, and I can't find out what to do with them to put things right - aarrgh!!!  I can do without this right now!!!
I know you guys are reading Wednesday's post because I'm getting emails to tell me you've all left comments. Thank you,  however I can't log in to moderate them so I can't publish anything.  Please keep reading and I promise I will get things sorted asap.

Tonights (or rather this mornings) post is my entry for the Penny Black Saturday Challenge PBSC
It's a colour challenge this week and the theme is .......
 
                          Red, White & Blue!
 
Seeing as it's Father's Day on Sunday and I haven't had chance to make any cards yet I thought I'd do two jobs at once.
Here's the result ........

It's VERY red, white and blue, and I think I may have overdone the faux stitching but I haven't got time to start again!
The little guy with the tie is from a Penny Black clear set called 'Bubbly'.  The sentiment's on the same set too.  He was coloured in with Copic pens, cut out and embossed using the Nestabilities Postage Stamp Die and then inked around the edge with the die still in place, with Paris Dusk and Ladybug Memento inks.  This is a great little technique as the white edge gives the impression of another layer being there.
The papers are from one of my favourite ranges -  Bo Bunny Double Dot.  I have 2 boxes for these, one that's for full 12x12 sheets and one that's full of all the cut off bits.  I hate throwing any of these papers away, even the smallest pieces can come in for something.  I had  a good rummage through and managed to find some bits big enough to give me a nice layout, no need to cut into a full sheet.  They're double sided too, dotty on one side, plain on the other, so you can alternate them to get a nice contrast.  I used the plain sides for the bunting and the thin strips - see I really don't throw any of these papers in the bin!
This card is actually going in the post tomorrow, it's being sent across to the UK to my father-in-law.  I hope he likes it.

Well that's it for tonight, I'm off to bed.  Sorry it's a bit of a short post but I'm absolutely shattered, and it is rather late.  Plus everyone else has gone off to bed and left me on my own - awww!
I have another busy craft day planned tomorrow - more Indigo Blu.  I will post some sneak peeks over the weekend.
I'll also have another go at sorting out my Blog problem tomorrow -   Please continue to leave comments as I get them sent in an email before they go on the Blog.

Thanks for popping by.  See you all tomorrow (or should I say later today)

Night Night!

                                              Linda
                                                 x

edit done 20/6  LATE ADDITION
I thought I'd add this in here as it's a Father's Day card.  Stephen had said he wasn't bothered about a card seeing as I was so busy on the run up to Father's Day but I couldn't not make him one could I.  He was out most of the afternoon on Saturday so I took the opportunity and made this for him ....

It was doing using my Cricut - well I needed all the help I could get, I was frazzled by weekend.  I think the saying is off the Wild Card cartridge, and the papers are my favourite BoBunny Double Dot, and an old print design from Magnolia.  I think he appreciated it when Christopher presented him with it.  He wasn't sure how or when I'd had the time to make it though.  xx

What a fabulous week!!

I'm back!!  What a busy week we've had. I'll try to keep this short.  Didn't post while we were away so now I need to catch up.

Stephen and I flew across to the UK last Wednesday and we spent a fabulous week with family and friends.  I suppose it was mainly a week of crafting for me, but he was very good and didn't complain once. He did his thing and I did mine.

While over there I popped into Inspirations, to catch up with all my wonderful crafting friends.  For those who don't know Inspirations is a fabulous Craft store in Preston, it's also where I used to work before moving to the Isle of Man, so it was lovely to see everyone, I do miss them all.  It was so nice to catch up and also SHOP!!

Hero arts stamp and finished cards

The Saturday was spent at a workshop, run by the lovely Sarah McCrossan.  She kept us busy all day and at the end of it everyone had a lovely selection of cards to take home.  The class was based around one Hero Arts stamp and how you can use it to create so many different looks.  Sarah is such a clever designer and always shows how to get the most from your products. She has taught me so many techniques, and was the inspiration behind the project I did that won me 'Craft Stamper of the Year'.  On this particular workshop we used Distress inks (my favourite) and Copic pens (another favourite of mine) to colour in the images.  then used various punches and dies to make up the cards. There's a couple of pictures below of my finished cards.  I had a fab day and can't wait for the next one.  Check out Sarah's blog to find details of her workshops and also see her stunning designs.sarahmccrossan.blogspot.com

I'll be back later with the rest of the week.  See you soon.

Linda

xx