What a lovely long weekend .........

Happy Easter Monday ......

I hope you're enjoying the Easter break ..... its been lovely here.  The sun has been shining all weekend and we've had a fabulous relaxing few days, sat in the garden most of the time.  I've even managed some time in the craft room. 
I was supposed to be tidying up in there, ready to start on new projects this week but I got a little sidetracked.  It was also a little too warm in there so I didn't stay that long ...... making the most of the sunshine has been top of the list this weekend. 

I did stay in there long enough to join in with this months Happy Little Stampers ATC challenge though

Whilst I was 'tidying' I came across some unfinished MDF Artist Trading Coins.  I haven't made any in a while so I thought it would be fun to use April's challenge theme ........ Pretty Papers (something else I haven't used in a while!) and play along

A set of three, decorated in a beautiful vintage paper, which I think was from IndigoBlu many moons ago.

I simply glued the paper onto the coins, and used an emery board to trim off the excess

I added word stickers to each one .....

And finished off with a dot of Liquid Pearl

I also painted around the edge of each one using a gold paint so they do actually look like coins

Thanks for popping by ..... enjoy the rest of your Easter break.
I think it's time for a glass of something chilled and an hour in the sunshine now ....... living the dream!

Cheerio until next time .......

Products used:
MDF AT Coins (That's Crafty); White Gesso; Glue and Seal adhesive (Ranger); Decorative paper from my stash (I think it was from IndigoBlu); Chit Chat Stickers (Tim Holtz); Rose Gold Liquid Pearls; Gold Acrylic paint

Happy Little Stampers ATC Challenge .......

Happy Sunday evening .......

Phew!  What a busy week it's been.  Time to chill out a little now as we start the countdown to our little family break in the Cotswolds at the end of this week ...... only 5 sleeps to go! Now that's something to smile about ..... which brings me nicely in to this month's Happy Little Stampers ATC Challenge .......

As you can see, our theme for June is ........ SMILE!  Go on ..... you can do it!
Maybe these will help .......

A fun set of ATC's simply covered in smiles.

I added colour to a piece of white cardstock by splattering different Distress Oxide inks using a paint brush ........ smoosh the ink onto a craft sheet, spritz with water, and then pick up the ink with a paintbrush and simply splatter it randomly over the card ..... easy.  Leave to dry for a few seconds in between colours so that the inks don't run into each other, and go all muddy.

I then cut three pieces to form the base of my ATCs.
The first one was simply a smiley face, stamped and heat embossed onto a piece of yellow card (coloured using Squeezed Lemonade DOX) and cut it out using a circle die

and a single word (from the HLS stamp set Smile) stamped underneath was all it needed.

Using the same stamp set I took one of the large words and heat embossed it in gold across the centre of my ATC

A few smileys stamped in Distress Oxide (Squeezed Lemonade again) and the rest of the sentiment stamped in black and that's another one done.
I did use the MISTI to stamp the smiley faces making sure I got good coverage, but I only needed to repeat each one a couple of times ....... the Distress Oxides  are great for stamping with.

For the last one I decided to add in a bit more colour ......

I stamped the little face using all the colours of Distress Oxides that I'd used for the background before adding the words over the top.

As with all the HLS challenges, there's a $20 Gift Certificate for the winner, which will be DOUBLED to $40 if they've used HLS stamps on their ATC's

Go on ..... give us a SMILE!

Happy stamping!

This is actually my last DT post for the Happy Little Stampers ATC challenge ...... I'm standing down from the Design Team (sigh!) 
I seem to have been saying that a lot this month don't I! ...... but I feel it's time for a change.  Time to re-charge the old mojo!  I will still be part of the HLS family though ..... you can still catch me every month on the CAS Challenge.  You don't get rid of me that easily.

Thanks for popping by .... enjoy the rest of your day, and have a great week.  Mine's going to be a busy one.

The Isle of Man 2018 TT is over and our little island will slowly get back to normal over the next few days.  Only 348 days until we do it all again though!

It's been an fabulous two weeks.  The weather has been perfect, blue skies everyday.  We had a royal visitor too ..... Prince William came over

Gary Barlow was also here at the beginning of the fortnight ..... enough said about that!
The Red Arrows flew in and gave a stunning display over Douglas Bay

The TT legend that is John McGuinness was here, still not fit to race but he did open up one of the beer pumps at the brand new Trackside, and pulled his first pint ..... cheers John!

I'm more of a gin girl as you all know, so lots of these have been consumed this last two weeks ......

And then there was the racing.  That has just been a-maz-ing!!!!  The riders have been reaching breathtaking speeds, and more lap records have been broken.  We only managed to watch the Senior race this year but what a race it was!
In the end Hickman won by 1.9 seconds in what was the fastest Isle of Man TT race with the first ever 135 mph lap ...... WOW!!!

And of course, our thoughts and prayers go out to all the family and friends of the two brave riders that sadly lost their lives this year.

The next thing on the calendar for us is the annual family trip ..... we're going back to Bourton this year and there's more of us this time, so a bigger cottage.  We leave on the Friday morning ferry so fingers crossed this weather holds.

Cheerio until next time ......

Fancy another challenge .......

Happy Thursday evening ....

It's time for the last of this months challenges from Happy Little Stampers.  It's the turn of the ATC challenge this evening.

What are ATC's, or Artist Trading Cards?
Well, they're miniature pieces of art work, that measure 2.5 x 3.5 inches.  They can be swapped or traded ...... hence the name Artist Trading Cards ..... but never sold. And they must also have the artists details on the back, and be dated when they were created.

Each month, HLS hosts an ATC challenge, with a different monthly theme to follow.
For May that theme is ...... GOLD

I immediately thought of Gold Embossing ......

I came across a piece of black cardstock in my stash, that had been smooshed with metallic inks and I thought it would make a fabulous base for my set of ATC's

I cut it down to size and then using silver and gold metallic inks I stamped one of the the pretty images from the HLS Dandelion Wishes ..... heat embossing the gold ones

I love how these stand out ......

Each one of the ATC's is the same ...... but different, if you know what I mean

 A simple sentiment ...... again embossed in the gold onto a simple white strip across the bottom of each of the ATCs

A different  sentiment on each one .....

As with all the HLS challenges the winner will receive a $20 Gift Certificate to spend in the HLS Store.  And don't forget, if the winner has used HLS stamps in their project then the prize is doubled!

Happy stamping!

Thanks for popping by .... enjoy the rest of your day/evening.
Its been a busy day again here ...... but everything is done!! And the old craft room is clean and tidy.  I can actually see my desks!! And I have floorspace .... for how long who knows.
There's stuff happening in the next few weeks ..... changes going on, as well as another little holiday coming up but, more about all that later.
Tomorrow I need to get things organised for my little trip across on Saturday.  Yes, I'm on the early  morning boat ...... fingers crossed it's a calm day.  I'm off to Port Sunlight for a day of craft shopping, catching up with friends, and more craft shopping!  Only two more sleeps!

Cheerio until next time ......

Happy Little Stampers ATC challenge ........

Happy Tuesday evening ......

Only 2 more sleeps to go then we're off on our trip to Italy ..... non vedo l'ora!

Before I get started on the packing though, it's time to get the final challenge for April underway over on the Happy Little Stampers Blog.

It's already been a busy month over there ...... as it is every month.   There's a challenge for everyone whether you like to Watercolour,  or is CAS your thing?  A little bit of Christmas maybe,  or Mixed Media.  And if dies are your thing, then there's also a challenge for you with Anything Goes with Dies ...... and last, but not least this month it's the ATC challenge

It's a great theme this month ...... we all have butterfly stamps in our stash.

I've kept things fairly simple ..... watercolour card inked with Distress Inks and spritzed with water and then cut into ATC sized pieces (2.5 x 3.5 inches/64 x 89mm)

A little bit of random stamping on the background with a white ink

And then I stamped my butterflies using Onyx Black Versafine and heat embossed the images with a clear powder

All the words/sentiments have been stamped onto vellum using Versamark ink and heat embossed in white

I stamped a little extra onto the bottom of one of the ATC's .....

And this little guy has been stamped onto a leftover piece of card, fussy cut and given the Wink of Stella treatment to add a touch of sparkle, before attaching him to the ATC .....

and a few dots of white gel pen here and there finishes everything off nicely.

So .... are you an experienced ATC maker or have you never made one before?  Why not give it a go and join in the fun.
As with all the HLS challenges there's a $20 gift certificate for the winner AND .... if they've used HLS stamps then the prize is DOUBLED!!

Happy stamping!

Thanks for popping by .... enjoy the rest of your day.

It's been a busy few days here .... I've finally made it back into the craft room and I've been playing catch up trying to get everything done before we go away. 
Thank goodness my back is a lot better than it was ..... I can comfortably sit down again ..... yeah!! (Maybe the G&T's at the weekend did work after all!)

Cheerio until next time .........

Sparkly ATCs for Happy Little Stampers ......

Happy weekend ......

It's been a busy day today ..... I've been having fun with a workshop.  Eight lovely ladies playing with stencils, inks and rubber stamps ........ it's always fun when we get together.   There was also tea and cakes involved too .... yum!   More about all that some other time though.

It's time to launch the latest Happy Little Stampers ATC Challenge ..... and as you can see this month it's all about Sparkle.  

There's nothing that sparkles quite like a diamond ...... so that's my take on this month's theme
(one this size would be nice!)

I started out by splattering a piece of white cardstock with gold and silver metallic inks ..... I used the Delicata re-inkers for this.  I poured a tiny bit of the ink onto my craft sheet, and spritzed it with water.  I then picked up the ink with an old paint brush and splattered over the card .... great fun!

Once it was dry, I cut the card into three pieces, slightly smaller than ATC size as I wanted to add a layer of coloured card behind them.  I added a little colour to them by inking around the edges using a turquoise ink to match my layering card.

I stamped a sentiment onto each one using black Versafine ink and heat embossed with clear powder

The large diamond, which is from an Stampin Up! set, was then stamped a few times onto white card and then heat embossed in silver before fussy cutting each one.

They were then covered with Glossy Accents and sprinkled with various amounts of crystal glitter over the top to add the sparkle

I added a few dots of glitter glue here and there onto the backgrounds ....

and a few gemstones for added sparkle

A girl can never have too much sparkle ..... or diamonds for that matter!

As with all the HLS challenges there's a prize for the winner.  A $20 Gift Certificate to spend in the HLS store which of course will be doubled if the winning ATC has been created using HLS stamps.

Thanks for popping by .... enjoy the rest of your weekend.
It's time to put my feet up ..... and relax!  There's a glass in the kitchen filled with a nice chilled gin and tonic and it has my name written all over it!!

Cheers folks!

PS ..... if you're a Happy Little Stampers fan and you're looking for some new stamps then we've got something special for you coming up .... watch this space!

Follow your heart .......

Happy Sunday ......

I know ..... late again! Sorry ....... this moving house lark is playing with my blogging clock!
Normal service will resume shortly ..... I'm going to make a start on my craft room today!!

It's time for this month's Happy Little Stampers ATC Challenge and the theme for February is .....

Hearts

I've got some actual Artist Trading Cards for you today ..... not the wooden block kind like in my last two posts ......

ATC's .... in case you're not familiar with them, are little pieces of artwork, size 2.5 inches by 3.5 inches .... and they are so much fun to make.

This little set started out from a piece of previously coloured cardstock from my stash, coloured with Distress Inks and the smooshing technique ..... I think!
And I've used stamps, and die cuts along with a little heat embossing to decorate the ATC's 

This heart is from Visible Image ...... stamped directly on the ATC in black and heat embossed with clear powder.  I then stamped the heart  again onto white cardstock using a red ink and fussy cut away all the splatters around the edge.
The sentiment was then stamped and heat embossed on the top before layering the heart onto the ATC.

For this one I used a simple die cut heart balloon ..... and coloured it with red ink.  A few splatters of white ink add a bit more interest to the background.

Last but not least ..... a simple red heart stamped in the centre of the ATC (I did use the MISTI to get a nice deep coverage)  I doodled around the edge with a white gel pen and then heat embossed that fab sentiment from STAMPlorations over the top.
To finish off I doodled faux stitching around the ATCs and layered them all onto black cardstock.

As with all the Happy Little Stampers challenges there's a $20 Gift Certificate for the winner, which will be doubled if the winning ATC has been created using HLS stamps.

Happy stamping!

Thanks for popping by ..... enjoy the rest of your day.

Cheerio until next time .....