Home .... Sweet Home

Happy Friday evening ......

Is it really March already? What happened to February?  And what is going on with this weather!?? 
I must say we've hardly had any of the snow that is currently blanketing the UK.  Just one day this week it came down and caused mayhem ....... but boy is it windy.  It's been blowing a right old hoolie over here since Wednesday ...... and it's freezing!!! There's no boats, there's hardly any flights ..... it's time to batten down the hatches and wait it out. 
I found this picture on the BBC IOM Facebook page yesterday ..... I said it was cold!
 

Anyway ..... the start of a new month means a whole new set of Blog challenges.  First up for me this month is the Happy Little Stampers CAS Challenge.  This month the theme is .......

Quite appropriate really seeing as we've only been in our new place a little over three weeks but its already feeling like home.

A quick and easy one layer design, with a little touch of watercolouring on there too.

I stamped the image in Black Versafine and coloured using my ZIG Markers with a water brush.

I then added the sentiment alongside ......

And finished off with a wash of colour around the cottage. 

We have a fabulous Guest Designer for the challenger this month .... the lovely Darnell is joining us.  It's always a treat when you visit the playhouse ... why not pop over and say Hi, I'm sure she would love to see you.

As always there's a $20 Gift Certificate for our challenge winner, to spend on HLS goodies and ..... if the winning project has been created using HLS stamps, then the prize is doubled!!

You have to be in it to win it though ..... Happy stamping!

Thanks for popping by ..... have a great weekend.

We're off out tomorrow ..... shopping for birthday gifts.  My birthday gifts!  Not entirely sure what I want.  I have ordered a new food mixer which is something I've been after for a while, but other than that well .... who knows.  Maybe a big coat and new boots would be a good idea!!

Cheerio until next time .....

Back again! 1st Challenge of the week

Hello again,
Lunch time over, back to 'work'.
It's Less is More time again. (LIM)  I love taking part in this little Blog Challenge.  I say 'little' but last week there were over 170 entries.  It's always nice to see so many different ideas and designs each week.  I must apologise though for not stopping by more blogs and commenting on the cards last week, but time just ran away with me.  I will do better this week, I promise.
It's Theme week this week and the challenge is 
                Something Shiny
                                 
Hmm ........ something shiny?? This could be any number of things -  gems or glitter, shiny silk ribbon maybe.  Metal trinkets or glossy cardstock?  Shiny could be a nice new car, shiny new bike, diamond ring. It could even be a Christmas bauble.  The list could go on.  In the end I went with mirri card and made a bunch of shiny keys for a lovely new home.

I don't use much mirri card these days, but the different coloured pieces I found in my bit box were perfect for the job.  I used the TH Alterations die - Hardware Findings, to cut the keys and the keyhole.  I sanded the edges of the keyhole a little, to remove the shiny layer then coloured over with DI to give a bit of a worn look. I attached it to the front of my card then cut out the middle - you can just pick this up in the photo.
As you can see I've used the spritz technique again.  I wanted to add a little colour so I used a circle template as a stencil, positioned off the edge of the card, then doodled around the outside.   


I'm loving this look at the moment (can you tell).  While there's ink in those little spray bottles, beware!  
It's funny how you forget techniques then suddenly everything you make includes one particular thing - well this is mine.  It won't be for much longer though the bottles are nearly empty. 
 
It's not a brilliant picture, sorry.  I'd left it until late in the afternoon to phoptgraph it and I struggled to get a decent shot. (I said we'd had a nice week so far)  What with the sunshine streaming through the window and the mirri card reflecting on my camera it wasn't easy.  It looks shiny to me, what do you think? 

Hopefully I'll be back later on.  What's this, nothing for days, then 3 at once!  Just trying to catch up a little.

Bye for now, enjoy the rest of your afternoon.

Linda

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