Fifty Shades of ....... PINK!

Well not quite fifty, but I've used a few ........

Hi everyone,
It's time for my IN THE PINK  entry.  This is a brand new fortnightly blog challenge and is hosted by two very talented ladies Christine and Sylvia (AKA  Posh Priscilla and Pretty Patricia - the 2 PP's).  Check out the Blog here, you'll find some great inspiration from the ladies themselves, and there's already loads of fabulous entries too. Lots of Pink lovers out there.

It's the first challenge and it's basically anything goes .... but it has to be PINK!

Well, mine is certainly that .....  it may be a little OTT even for me!  I think I've just about thrown everything on there, and most of it is in fact, pink.

As you can see the dress form has come out (again!), and I've dressed her up this time in some white tulle, Tim Holtz fabric flowers from his Lavish Trim pack and the new range of Prima papers - Rondelle.  This paper pad is absolutely gorgeous, there's a bit of everything in there - florals, dots, flourishes, script and it's all shades of pinks, peaches, creams, teamed up with the black. Just stunning!
Anyway, back to the card.
The background is spritzed with Distress inks - Spun Sugar and Worn Lipstick with a touch of Perfect Pearls.  I've used a leafy mask and inked through with Black Soot DI.  I've also used the same mask on the paper, only this time I used a spatula and put white Gesso through to add a little bit of texture.  
The whole thing is finsihed off  with ribbon, vintage seam binding, a few gems and a large paper flower - all pink of course.  The sentiments are from Tim Holtz and are stamped on pieces of the same background card.
I'm afraid if you're not a Pink lover then this card isn't for you!

While we're on the subject of Pink here's a couple of projects I did for Kay to display on the Indigo Blu stand at Donnington Park this weekend.

 

These are a little bit PINK too.  If you want more details, and a closer look pop over to the Indigo Blu Blog, I've done a full post with details of what I've used etc.,  and you'll also find out what's in the box - any ideas?

Well, that's me done for today.   It's back to a Christmas theme again tomorrow, I've made my first Christmas card (my own that is).  It's for the Penny Black Saturday challenge, I can't Blog it today as it's not quite finished yet. Tomorrow - I promise.

Enjoy the rest of Thursday.

Thanks for popping by.

Linda

x

(drumroll please) ...........My 100th post!!

Good morning eveyone,

Yes, that's right. this is my 100th post - Wow!  It only seems like yesterday that I started this little record of what goes on in my crafting life.  It's been great fun and I've 'met' some fabulous new people and made lots of new, very talented  blogging friends.  I'm really glad that you're all along for the journey. 
So, here's to the next 100 posts!

I really should be busy at my workdesk, lots of Design Team samples to do.  But, I'm slowly disappearing under Christmas stuff and I'm covered in glitter again, so I thought I'd  take a sneaky break and quickly share with you this weeks Less is More challenge entry.

It's Week 78 and we have a lovely SKETCH to follow .....

This is a really pretty, simple sketch.  A horizontal band across the upper part of the card and a sentiment.  This is my take on it ......

(Sorry about the photo quality, the lighting is rubbish this morning).
I embossed some lines directly into my card blank first leaving a nice space for my main design.  I used a piece of pretty inked card from my stash to stamp onto.  Not sure if you can see the effect clearly in the picture, but it's kind of a mother of pearl look.
I used one of the SU stamps from the Vintage Vogue set (one of my favourites) to add a little bit of detail to the edges, and the butterfly is last months free stamp with Craft Stamper Magazine, designed by Indigo Blu.
I added a fancy punched border underneath the embossed lines, along with another strip of the background card, and a tiny SU sentiment from the Petite Pairs set.  This is a lovely sentiment set, you get lovely little sayings for the front of your card along with a matching one that can go in the inside .......

I've spritzed the inside of my card through a mask, with the same Distress inks that were used for the piece of background card (Spun Sugar, Worn Lipstick and Peeled Paint).  Added the little floral stamp to tie in with the design on the front, and used another sentiment stamp.  See what I mean about there being matching pairs.  There's a lovely mix of stamps, that will cover loads of occasions, so it's a great value for money set.

Speaking of Craft Stamper, this months free stamp is designed by none other than LIM's very own Chrissie.  It's a gorgeous little floral spray, so cute. Grab yourself a copy of this months magazine, you won't be disappointed.  I can't wait to start playing with mine, but I have to finish all my samples first.

And on that note, I think I'd better be off.  Hope you like the card.  Thank you so much for popping by.  I'll be back later in the week  with some sneaky peeks of what's keeping me so busy.

Bye for now.  Have a lovely day.

Linda

x

PS  Forgot to mention ......  I'm going to be doing posts on the Indigo Blu Blog, hopefully starting sometime this week, if I have a spare minute.  Check it out here for inspiration and fabulous creations, details of events etc.,  and to see what the rest of the Design Team are getting up to.  It's a great read.

Brand New Blog challenge

Hello again,
Bit of an unexpected post but I came across a brand new Blog Challenge this afternoon and it sounds like fun.
 
I was reading my friend Maria Simm's blog and she was talking about 'Twiniches'.  What are those? I hear you say, I asked the same question.   Well, apparently they're little pieces of artwork 2 inches square - cute or what!
Maria had put a link on her blog to this new challenge so I just had to check it out.  I must say it looks fab.

You'll find all the details and rules for the challenge here.  It's called 'Show us your Twinchies Challenge Blog' and it's currently Week #1 Anything Goes.
The lady behind it all is Eileen Godwin.  Check out her blog here   What a great read, there's some fantastic stuff on there, loads of tutorials and techniques.  A very talented lady.
She also does something called the 'Altered Art Dictionary' details of which you'll see on her blog.  That too looks like lots of fun, may just have to give it a go.  

I had to join in with this new challenge, and as the deadline for this week is tomorrow at 9.00am I had to be quick.

My first Twinchie

What do you think?  As you can see, it is only 2 inches square.
The saying was perfect as the card I've used to stamp on was one of my 'happy accidents' as I call them - things that didn't quite turn out as I planned.  It's white card that has been spritzed with DI re-inkers mixed with water, perfect pearls sprayed on top then cling film scrunched over and left to dry.  I wasn't keen on how the colour turned out so it just went in my bit box, until today.
I cut my twinchie square, splodged some Picket Fence Distress Stain in the centre then stamped over the top.
The stamps I've used are from Tim Holtz, the saying is one of my ebay purchases this week and the little butterfly is from a clear set of minis.  You can also just about make out in the background a faint image which is a LOTV background stamped in Smokey Grey Versafine ink.
It's then been layered onto a piece of black cardstock and a little bit of thread added to make it look like a picture.
This was so much fun to do, quick to.  I'm going to enjoy this Blog Challenge. Thanks Maria for the link.  Why don't you join in the fun .

Thanks for looking

Linda

x

Where did the weekend go?

Morning everyone,

Just a quick post to let you know that I am still here.
I hope you all had a lovely weekend, I certainly did. Lots of good food, good friends, loads of laughs and craft!  What more could I ask for.  Just wish it had been longer. 
I even got to see my grandson, Alex, which was a lovely surprise.  I didn't think I would see him this visit with it being such a short one, but Lauren brought him round to Stephen's Mum's before we left for the flight home.  He's sooo cute! and growing fast.

I met up with some friends for a meal out on Friday night, one of them being Sally, my Stampin' Up demonstrator across in the UK.  It was her birthday a couple of weeks ago and although I sent her present in time, her birthday card was a little late (oops!)  She was very understanding though and when it did finally arrive, I'm glad to say that she liked it.
Included in her birthday present was a little something handmade, you've already seen this, if not it's here .    In this post you'll find all the details of the techniques I used to do the background etc., so I won't repeat it all again. 
I wanted to make her card, gift tag etc., all co-ordinating.  Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of the gift tag (silly me) but here's the card I made for her......

I used all the same stamps as on the doorhanger (some of my favourties from Tim Holtz) only this time I added a little SU touch (well, it would have been rude not to!)  The flowers are from the Vintage Vogue stamp set, along with the Flower Accent stamp. 
There's even a little butterfly on there from the Chocolate Baroque Patchwork Butterfly set.

As you can see above, the envelope was decorated, and I did a little stamping on the inside too ....

I'm going to hide all my dress form stamps and dies for a while now, as I seem to be using nothing else lately. It'll give me an excuse to go through all my stamps and see what hasn't had an outing for a while.

I'll be back later with some pics of what we got up to on Maria's workshop at the weekend - I said they would be fabulous designs, and I wasn't wrong.

See you later

Linda

x  

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

x