Wrap it Up....

It was my turn to set the challenge over on the Daring Cardmakers blog today, I decided it would be fun to use something that your groceries were wrapped in. So for my card, I made a shaker with a yellow net that held some lemons, and acetate from a punnet of strawberries.......

I added a swarm of little punched bees (Fiskars lever punch) and a sprinkling of bronze sequins and glitter.....Those bees look busy don't they?

If you enjoy challenges, do join in and pop over to see what the design team came up with HERE

The wedding invitation marathon continues, and wedding planning is in full swing. One thing I am learning is that as soon as the W word is mentioned, the price of everything is quadrupled! I called a guy about a wedding car to take my husband and Alex the bride a distance of three miles from our house to the venue. "What sort of car" he asked in a bored voice "two door?" "TWO door?!!!!"
Yes two door would be very suitable for a bride in a long white dress to clamber elegantly into the back seat. Or would she sit in the front next to the driver, while Mike has the luxury of the back seat all to himself. "Four door I think" I replied. "Okay, that will be £450"
£450!!!! for a three mile one way journey?
I don't think so, Uber drivers have nice cars don't they? Could we start a trend and make it wickedly witty for the bride to turn up in a taxi? Whatever we decide, it won't cost £450, that I guarantee.........

The apple of my eye.....

Often the inspiration for a card comes from finding an obscure little sentiment stamp lurking in my stash - quite often one of those dollar sets of Studio G stamps that I used to collect obsessively when we lived in Florida. So when I found the 'apple of my eye' stamp, it set me on a mission to make some apple cards.....

So I simply used my Fiskars punches and a bit of imagination to come up with these....

 I was a bit stumped when it came to apple pips, but found that the leaves on the vine continuous border punch were exactly the right size and shape - I love it when a plan comes together!

Talking of the apple of my eye ......here is our darling little Molly who we have had with us for a blissful four day visit. She is just four months old now, and the sweetest little baby, she smiles from dawn to dusk! 

St Patricks Day for Daring Cardmakers

The challenge this week was set by Lythan, who asked for green and a glimmer of gold to celebrate St Patricks Day - I dusted off my trusty Cricut and came up with this card.......I used a stencil for the background, which I did in orange to tie in with the Irish flag colours

and since we will soon have an Irish son-in-law, I couldn't waste the card, and sent it to Declan, who is flying home to Dublin for the weekend to celebrate in true Irish fashion. So happy St Patricks Day to all of you who are going to celebrate.......

Be sure to pop over to Daring Cardmakers to see what the rest of the design team came up with, and do join in with the dare, we would love to see what you come up with

A bit of a hiatus........

There has been a bit of a hiatus in the craftroom this week as I press on with getting wedding invitations made - our daughter is getting married in six months time, and the weeks seem to be flying by so I have settled down to the most boring type of crafting - repetition and me don't do well together!

So I am sharing a couple of makes from workshops at the recent Stitches trade fair. This first one was made using a Woodware stamp.........

and this hanging tag is the result of a fun workshop with the fabulous Andy Skinner.....

So tomorrow I have Alex and baby Molly visiting for a few days. Expect photos! 
We are having a bit of a multi generational girls outing - wedding dress shopping is the order of the day, so I may just burst with excitement......

My turn to set the dare.....

It's my turn to set the dare over on Daring Cardmakers this week, and I chose this wonderfully calm and cool home decor photo - lots of elements to choose from here, the neutral tones, wood, those square window panes, the rectangle framed photo, stripes....what would you choose?

For my three elements, I chose the overlapping circles of the coffee tables, a geometric black and white, and that vase with a pop of the yellow colour

Working from this photo made me realize how much I love the clean and uncluttered look of today's home decor. Having lived through various home fashion eras - at one stage every room in my house had matching curtains and wallpaper, and a fair few Austrian blinds bunched up at the windows, I thought I was so trendy (well, I probably was back in the eighties!), not to mention an even earlier phase of dark brown walls and splashy Heals curtains with huge orange poppies - I now love clean and simple (within limits), the problem being that all those past trends means that you never quite start again with a clean slate, but have to adapt the STUFF you gather as you wander through life......so my house will never be quite as cool, calm and collected as the room in the photo, as all my treasures, gathered over the years (heavily edited now, but still loved) can't be shoved into a cupboard and forgotten. Like most things, it's all about finding a balance....