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

Anything But Square

Happy weekend everyone,
Now here's a rare thing - a weekend Blog post from me.  It seems so long since I started a Saturday morning off chatting to all my Blog pals.  I'm already on my second cup of coffee so here we go ......

The birthday cards arrived on time - yeah!  Always a bonus when that happens!  I spent most of yesterday making two more that have to go next week.  By tea time I was covered in glue and paint.  Not quite sure how that happened, I only used a tiny bit of acrylic paint, but there you go. A little sure does go a long way!   I'll let you see them when they're finished.

On to something that is finished though, my entry for the latest challenge over at In the Pink
This time the challenge is ......
                        Anything but Square
and of course to use lots of PINK.  

The pink bit was easy, what shape to go for took a while longer.  In the end I went for one of my oversized tags - they're not square.
I did cheat a little with this, I must confess.  I have a 'Save it for Later' box that's full of stuff that's been started and then put to one side for one reason or another.  There's die cuts in there, background card that I've made and then not used, toppers that have been stamped and coloured and then I've changed my mind about, you know the sort of thing I mean.  Anyway, I had a look through and found a little Tilda image that I'd stamped and coloured using Copic pens, and it was in shades of pink.  Yes! There was my starting point, well it saved me a little bit of time.
This is how she's ended up .....

sweet!

It's a while since my Magnolia stamps have been out.  I haven't really done super-cutesie recently.
The tag measures just under 8" (including the fancy border) by 4" so not small.  You'll need a BIG box to put this baby on!
The papers are from the 'Chanteuse Collection' by Kaisercraft, and they are gorgeous.  Lots of shades of pink mixed with browns and greens, really pretty. I added in a couple of punched borders, and did my faux stitching around the edges.
The Weathered Clock was cut from white card and then Worn Lipstick Distress ink was added around the edges, and also used to colour the hands.   You can just about see there's a touch of Fran-tage embossing enamel on there too, in the Shabby Pink, with a touch of Aged Silver. (I did warn you, it's my new obsession!)

It's just peeping out from behind the paper flowers, and there's also a little bit at the top too.
I added some pink vintage seam binding, a little bit of lace, and a piece of tulle net.  Some paper flowers, the cream ones tinted with pink ink, a few punched leaves and a vintage key finish it all off.
Looking at it, it doesn't look that pink.  I hope it's pink enough for the challenge.
Now I just need that special gift to put this on - who's got a birthday coming up?

Well I suppose I should  get out of my PJ's and get on with enjoying the weekend.  Not sure what we're doing yet, I'm sure we'll find something.

Enjoy your weekend.  I hope it's a good one.

Bye for now

Linda

x

Second time today

Hello there,

Back again.  Just a short post this afternnoon as I really must get some serious packing done.  I'm starting in the kitchen today and it's going to be a BIG job. Lots of cupboards to empty, and clean, then there's the oven, but we won't go there just yet!   So I thought I'd have my crafty fix before going in there.
Here's my Less Is More challenge entry.  It's Week 65 and it's Sketches. LIM Blog Challenge  Pop over and see what all the LIMettes have come up with this week.  We had two to choose from ...


          
                                                                    
Nice simple sketches, lots of white space on the finished card. Love it!

What's a sketch?  It's a crafty term used to describe a card/scrapbook layout.  It gives inspiration/ideas on how to build up your design.  There's loads out there to choose from or, take the time and design your own.  Always keep a record of them then you can go back and use them time and time again.
Here's my LIM entry ....

I decided to go for a girly look this week, and used one of my favourite 'Tilda' stamps from Magnolia.  I think she is soooo cute.  She's been coloured using Copic pens and the white freckles added with a gel pen.  The background was done with Tumbled Glass Distress Ink and a hand cut cloud stencil. You can just about see it in the photograph.

I like the way it looks like she's looking through a window at you, just stood 'thinking of you'.  The sentiment and the card she's layered onto are both from SU,  Perfect Plum cardstock, and the stamps are Curly Cute.
Hope you like her, I think she's sweet.

Well,  that's going to have to be it from me for this week.  Unless I can squeeeeeze another crafty session in, you never know.   Anyway I'll say have a lovely weekend everyone and I'll try and keep you posted on events next week.
Thanks for looking.
Bye for now

Linda

x