Saturday, October 29, 2011

Twinkly stars


Twinkle twinkle .......... The theme today at Less is More is, you've guessed it, *STARS*, so we're all going to be twinkling this week!
Just a very quick card  - I don't have a single day when I'm going to be in and able to play this week. Wedding and Christmas preparations are taking over. Started to sort out my (already made - how's that for being organised, eh?) Christmas cards and discovered I need at least another 2 dozen so this is a good excuse to do at least one.
A 5inch square linen effect base card and I made the sentiment and faux stitched border on the computer. The inchies are from a backing paper I've had for ages and I mounted them on gold. After I'd finished I thought it looked like a window with stars twinkling in the sky so that got me thinking that I might try this out in dark blue or even black to see the effect. And I just had to add my blingy star brad.
That's it for now, OH has started papering the bathroom (no it's still not finished!) and he needs tea made every hour on the hour!
Thank you to everyone who left me lovely birthday messages last week - I had a lovely weekend of craftiness and we went out for a delicious meal at the local hostelry on Saturday.

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

I've been having a bit of a card making spree over the last couple of weeks. If you wish to take inspiration from these, then I'm happy for you to do so, but please acknowledge them as mine and do not pass them off as your own work. Thank you!
Patchwork with faux stitching

Vintage

Heart and bling!

Vintage camera and postcards

5inch scalloped card with squidgy pink elephant and handwritten sentiment (writing inspired by Helen)

Again a handwritten sentiment and also squiggled grass

Monkey business!

Spooky background with diecut pumpkin and sentiment

Heart shaped balloons coloured with Promarkers




'Fishy' card - 5inch square with squidgy embellishment and bling for bubbles Hand written sentiment

5inch square cream pearl card with handmade flowers - coreopsis 

Button background with button embellishments

More buttons



More buttons with tags.



Saturday, October 22, 2011

Less is More - week 38 - Polkadots

Morning LIMettes! Lovely autumnal day here in West Midlands and it's my birthday - but I'm not giving my age away!!!!!! Suffice to say I'll not see 21 again!
So today at Less is More it's POLKADOTS. Great, I love spotty cards. Mine is a 5inch square pale blue pearl card that I embossed with a Creative Expressions embossing folder. The dots are slightly bigger on this folder which I like. I printed the sentiment on my pc and then just lightly coloured the edges of the card to tie in with the blue printing. The flower is  the Chinese rose by Marianne and the leaves are also a Marianne die. I touched the edges of the leaves and rose with the same blue to make them pop off the page. I might add 3 pearls later if I can just work out the right place for them.

Off now to have a lazy day, playing with my new smartphone (a present to me from me) and dreaming looking forward to my pressie from OH. He's taking me to London next week to 'An Evening with Alan Titchmarsh' who I think is the best 'gardeny' person ever - though I haven't quite forgiven him for leaving Gardeners' World - my Friday evenings are not the same now!! (How sad is that eh?)

Thursday, October 20, 2011






Had some friends round this morning for coffee and they helped me to celebrate my birthday (ok it's a couple of days early but who's counting?). I made some mini Victoria sponges (filled with jam and cream) scones (yes ,filled with jam and cream) and jam tarts. Libbie came and brought me some of her delicious nomtastic cupcakes and put a very sparkly sparkler in one of them!
It would be rude not to eat them so it looks like the diet is out of the window for a few days!!
My lovely soon to be son-in-law also sent me some white chocolate fondue and a bottle of champagne which I will NOT be sharing! LOL!

Sunday, October 16, 2011

Less is More - Cocktails

So this cocktail is called  'Monkey in a tree' !!! Honestly it really is!
Apparently it's
1 shot cremes de bananes (though I couldn't find out what this is)
1 shot Bailey's Irish Cream (I definitely know what this is!)
1 shot kahlua (a Mexican coffee liqueur)
and then the glass is topped up with cream!!!!!!!!
Now this is MY sort of cocktail!
Back to the card - a 5inch square cream base. Monkey is a sticker that was in a pack from a certain store that sells everything for £1!! I made the palm tree for him to sit in with scraps of brown pearl paper and scribbled the grass at the base. Sentiment is a rub on. Faux stitching framed it all off. Hope this is CAS enough for the  LIM ladies.
Off now to have my cocoa (no cocktails for me tonight!)

Saturday, October 15, 2011

Less is More - week 37 - Cocktails

Woohoo!! Cocktails! Another inspired challenge over at Less is More this week by the lovely LIM ladies Chrissie and Mandi. I immediately thought of cocktails at 4 and LBDs so I stamped an old Personal Impressions stamp (inherited from my daughter when she had her clearout) on to black pearlised card using a white stamp pad. On reflection I think silver may have been a better option but hey ho, we live and learn. Then I embossed it with a clear powder and mounted it on to a silver holographic mat with a tiny border. The sentiment was printed on the computer on to pearlised card again and embossed with silver as soon as it came out of the printer (this only seems to work with pearl card) I have my lovely daughter and soon to be son in law coming today to do 'weddingy' things so I shall have another attempt at this, maybe tomorrow.
It's a lovely day here in the Midlands - it's hard to believe it's October with the sun shining and people still able to go out without coats! Off to get ready for my visitors now - have a lovely day everyone!

Saturday, October 8, 2011

Less is More - week 36 - hearts

Hearts and love are very much the theme around here at the moment with the wedding of our daughter getting closer and closer. So this week's challenge at Less is More is very apt.
I had a quick look at the theme before I went out to town this morning and I was musing about hearts while I shopped! Then I got back home, made OH a cup of tea (he's still refurbishing my bathroom- need I say more?) and my mind and brain went blank.
So this is a very simple idea I had - I will have a longer think over the weekend and hopefully come back with something else.
I cut  a Nellie Snellen heart out of some scrap card and then positioned it on a 5 inch square base card with a linen texture. Using Victorian velvet distress ink I then lightly shaded through the cutout. Then I stamped a happy anniversary sentiment using the same ink diagonally across the centre and finally added 3 small pearls.
That's it for now - I'm off to make lunch!

Saturday, October 1, 2011

Flowers galore!



These are a couple of cards I've been playing with this week. This first one is a tag card.
Base is Kraft card (5inch square - my usual base). A simple luggage tag with die cut flowers and leaves arranged on it and placed at an angle on the card. Green card candi added to the top corner to balance the sentiment in the opposite corner.


Another Kraft card base with a Nellie Snellen mount for the flowers. These are paper flowers I found at a car boot a few weeks ago (and I'd forgotten I had them!) I rounded 2 of the corners and added 3 small pearls to each.





And finally  some more of those bargain flowers, this time on a square die cut mount (Nellie Snellen again). This is a pale green pearl base card which doesn't show up in this light. (I may take another picture in daylight.)




I hope you like these latest efforts and take inspiration from them, but please don't copy them.