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 .........

Do you Believe? ........

Happy Sunday,

Just a quick post today with my Tag #10 for Loll's 12 Tags of Christmas Event   It's been so much fun playing along with this event ..... the twelve days are up today but .... the link up stays open until the 22nd so there's still time to join in

One of my Crazy Birds had to make an appearance at some point ..... so here he is

I inked the background with Distress Ink, and created a little woodland backdrop using a torn bit of copier paper as a mask to create the hills

I added Santa and his reindeer flying across the night sky (Ho! Ho! Ho!)  

and sprinkled just a touch of Chunky White Embossing Enamel to give the look of falling snow

The bird was stamped directly onto the tag, and then again, twice onto a piece of white card.  He was then coloured, cut out and attached onto the tag (saves cutting out those thin little legs)

His eyes and beak have been layered over the top, and his little Santa hat (doesn't he look festive!), and the gift are both from the Crazy Things set of stamps ..... love these little accessories, there's something for every occasion.

The words were then stamped and embossed onto a piece of vellum, which I then tore around the edges and attached onto the tag

A touch of glitter and a festive red ribbon finish it all off nicely.

Well that's 10 down .... 2 more to go.  Then I just need to buy my Christmas presents for them all to go on!

I'm also linking up to the Happy Little Stampers Christmas Challenge which is all about Tags

and their Mixed Media challenge which is also Tag themed

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

Cheerio until next time

Linda

xx

Time to catch up .....

Forgive me Bloggers for I have sinned .........

It's been 7 days since my last blog post.  Where has the time gone?  I'll tell you where it's gone .........
we had another visitor at the weekend.  My good friend Sue was over from the UK, and boy was she determined to have a good time!
She arrived first thing Friday morning, and we didn't stop until she flew back to the UK on Monday morning! We had a fabulous weekend.  Any of you who are friends on Facebook will have already seen what we've been up to, but to cut a rather long story short, I think she had a ball!  She's already planning a return trip - soon!

I won't go into too much detail (we'd be here for the rest of the week).  Let's just say we couldn't have crammned more into the weekend if we tried. There was lots of laughing, chatting and catching up (obviously!).  We hit the shops and did the old purses some damage (well Sue did anyway!).
Lots of eating, and drinking went on.  And a shed load of sightseeing - we went all round the island on Saturday.  We started from Douglas and went up to Laxey, to see the Great Laxey Wheel.  Had coffee and a rather large piece of cake, in the lovely tea rooms there.

picture from google.com

Then off up to Ramsey and called in my favourite shop.  Lovely hubby bought us both a small gift in there - bless him!  Then it was off up to the Point of Ayre, the northern tip of the island.

From there it was down to Peel, and a walk around the castle.

picture from Wiki

The seal even popped his head up and said 'hello', which was nice.  Then it was on to Niarbyl, one of hubby's favourite spots.  It is rather beautiful down there, very peaceful.

Then it was down to the Sound, and the Calf of Man, the southern tip of the island.

picture from Wiki

Eveytime we've been in the past it's been blowing a gale but this weekend it was lovely.  We walked out to the cliff edge, and just watched the sea, beautiful!
We ended up back in Douglas and finished the day off with fish and chips from the best chip shop on the island (in my opinion anyway, and now Sue's too)  Port Jack - perfect!

Sunday we spent walking in Groudle Glen, (thought we'd better after the fish and chips)

and finished off with a mahoosive chinese banquet (more food!).  We spent a lovely evening meeting up with some more friends of Sue's who also live on the island (small world!).

But, back to normal now.  Busy, busy, busy!  I'm playing catchup for the rest of this week, I've got the usual 'to do' list, (as long as my arm), and I'm going away for a few days next week so most of it has to be done before I go - eeeek!
I did manage to squeeze in a Mother's day card for Stephen's mum.  Well I couldn't not really after the beautiful bouquet she had delivered for my birthday on Tuesday

Which by the way, hubby FORGOT!!!!  But that's another story.  He did eventually remember, before lunchtime.  Don't worry, he's going to pay for this one!  He took me for a lovely meal on Tuesday evening but that's no where near made up for his brief memory loss.  I feel a small(ish!) shopping trip at the weekend maybe (haha).

Anyway, enough of all that, on to the craft.  Here's the Mother's Day card ....... It's a variation of one I did for the Indigo Blu show on Create and Craft 

Isn't the stamp just beautiful, Elizabeth Bennet- it's one of my favourites from the latest Indigo Blu releases.
She's been stamped onto vellum using brown Stazon and I've added a touch of colour on the back.  I've also done a touch of parchment craft (don't laugh!) on the flowers.

Not quite sure whether it's right or not but I think it's turned out ok.
I've finished off with lots of flowers and vintage seam binding ......

And I also decorated the inside ......

The origianl card I did is on the Indigo Blu DT blog with full details.  If you've not already seen it, you can find it here
She's so pretty, I almost don't want to give her away.  She's going to a good home though!

Well I'd better get back to the old craft room, things to do.  I'm working on some samples for Kay to take to the NEC later in the month.  If you're lucky enough to be going to the craft show you may just see them on the stand.  If you fancy a look before then though, pop over to the Indigo Blu DT Blog, I posted a couple on there yesterday.

Thanks for popping by today.  Hopefully I'll be back again before the end of the weekend.
Have a great day.

Cheerio for now

Linda

x