Happy Bank Holiday, and on the ocean waves for Spellbinders

On a bit of a seaside theme today for my Spellblogger post for Spellbinders. I used the Waves Border dies and the Nautical dies to make the z fold card. You can find the dies HERE 

The card was difficult to photograph, so I snapped away from a few angles......

I love the way it looks like a little flotilla of sailing boats!

All the layers were cut in white and inked with distress inks

I sketched in the seagulls using a black fine tip pen for a bit of extra detail. Of course it folds flat for posting.....

Whatever you are doing this sunny bank holiday weekend, I hope you have a great time. I will be pottering in the garden - things start to look a bit 'leggy' and past their best at this time of year, so let's hope the sunshine lasts.......

Coffee to Go....for Daring Cardmakers

Gosh, these Fridays come around quickly! Today over on the Daring Cardmakers blog, the challenge is fast food to go......I had to use coffee. I used a Spellbinders stamp set called Cup for Two, with the Basic Lattice die making up the background - it's the first time I used this die, and I can see it is going to be so useful, I have a couple of ideas I can't wait to try out. Find it HERE on the Spellbinders page

So I have been busy in the kitchen, making all sorts of homemade sweets for the 'candy buffet' at the wedding - I thought it would be nice to have some homemade goodies on there. So I have boxes in the 'spare' fridge that is in the garage, filled with coconut ice, peppermint creams and various flavours of fudge. Last night, I would have killed for some vanilla fudge! I kept thinking 'I can make another batch' but I surprised myself with willpower I didn't know I possessed - perhaps it was the thought of having to clean the kitchen all over again, all that sticky fudge and clouds of icing sugar settled like the dust from a volcanic eruption on every surface. So the fudge remained intact - I had a bowl of cornflakes instead!

Box Card for a male - for Spellbinders. And a winner......

Here's another Spellblogger post, this time I am using the Scalloped Pop Up Box die from Spellbinders to make a male card. You can find the die on the Spellbinders site HERE

I paired it with the Toolbox Die D-Lites set, and was quite happy that it worked - I cut the toolbox out of red spotty paper, and filled it with tools.  I thought that without the ''fillers' of leaves etc to fill the gaps I would have problems, but it worked. Got to love when an idea works out......I found some brads that look like screws for the top, and cut all the little tools out in silver card (they are really detailed, so look quite authentic). They are reflective, so this was difficult to photograph

I obviously couldn''t use the scallop dies that come with the set, so I used a straight pierced die from the Graceful Floral Lace border die, to add detail to  bright red strips of card. The sentiment was cut from the Sentiments Three set in the same red cardstock. TIP: using double sided card makes making these boxes even cuter, the card I used here is a really old one from a Martha Stewart pack

The winner of the stamp set is:

Craftychris

Congrats Chris, email me with your address and your stamps will be on their way. Thanks to everyone who put their names in the hat. I used random winner app to pick the winner, to make it fair. You are such a smashing bunch I wish I had a set for each of you.......

Box Card for Spellbinders

 I can't tell you how much I love this die......I know box card have been around for a while, and I have made quite a few - all that careful cutting and scoring. This die makes it a breeze, and you get these cute little scallop dies to decorate the box as well. So when it's so quick to make the basic card, you can get down to the fun part of filling it...........

I used a variety of dies to fill the box with my pretty flower arrangement, the big flowers are the dogwood flowers, I used some sprigs of lavender from the Shapeabilities Lavender set, and an assortment of leaves from the fall foliage set

 I cut a heart with the pierced heart die and
stamped a sentiment from the From my Heart stamp set. I attached the flowers, heart and
butterfly onto acetate strips so that they float above the box. The butterfly is from the Les Papillon set

Here is the die I used. You can find it in the Spellbinders store HERE

and I love it so much, I set myself the challenge of making a box card for a man. Difficult. Come back tomorrow to see how I got on, and see who won the stamps I am giving away 

Action - for Daring Cardmakers

The challenge over on Daring Cardmakers this week is 'Action' - do go over and see what the design team have come up with, there are some pretty imaginative ideas over there.....

As for me, I was full of good intentions, and late last night (very late) I suddenly remembered that today is Friday - no card made. So, I turned to the Cricut and used this image from the Sports Mania cartridge. In the end, it took me twice as long to make as my original fancy idea.......

 I couldn't just plonk a die cut onto a card could I? So I inked a bit of background with inks, realised that the football was now green......start again. Then I dropped the card onto the black ink pad. The black stars cover up the mess.........then I got a final little black spot where the 'you're a star' arrow is, yes, it's another cover up! 

But do you know what? After all that, I rather like it. A pity I don't have a brother to send it too.......

Giveaway

I have a duplicate set of stamps to give away to one of you. By Tammy Tutterow for Spellbinders, this set of red rubber cling stamps is endlessly useful. Just leave your comment below, I will draw a random winner from all the comments on Monday 21st August. I will mail anywhere in the world. Good luck!

Notecard Gift Set - for Spellbinders

I love making a set of cards as a thank you gift for friends. For this set, I used the Graceful Floral Lace border die, and used scraps of coordinating coloured card, each one mounted onto plain white card. You can find the die HERE

I used various sentiments - all in black, to tie up the set, a mixture of stamping and die cuts ( special birthday sentiment stamps, and Phrase set two dies, and die d lites sentiments) 

 I love the separate little straight stitched line die, which finished the cards off nicely........

I have used this lovely die for one of my wedding projects, which I can't share yet, and I have it in my mind to use it as a double border, with stitched lines in the center - or maybe in cream slightly offset over a gold die cut. Mind is buzzing, I need more hours in the day.........

I made a stupid mistake, doubled up on an order, someone's gain, I will do a giveaway tomorrow....check back then xx 

Unnatural

It's my turn to set the challenge over on Daring Cardmakers this week, and for some reason, I fell into the trap of dare-setters and went with the first idea that popped into my head. So the theme is 'unnatural' - use colours not found in nature (think pink elephants and purple forests......)

Of course, when I sat down to actually make something, my mind was a total blank, but I eventually came up with this orange, polka dotted frog. I am quite sure that somewhere in the world, in the depths of the Amazon rainforest or the foothills of the Himalayan mountains, that there are orange frogs with polka dots hopping happily around, but this little frog is British through and through, so is definitely a bit of an oddity......

The polka dots on the top half of the card isn't pattern paper, it's punched out circles, with a few little enamel dots scattered around.....the sentiment is by Woodware

So I got away with it...... but I will really think ahead when it's my turn to set a challenge next time!

Flamingo for Daring Cardmaker

Today it's another elemental inspiration challenge over on Daring Cardmakers, and I am going to send you over there to see the photo, to see if I did a reasonable job of interpreting it! Lots of lovely designs by the design team to look at.......

The flamingo stamp is by Simon Says Stamp, and I did a pretty literal interpretation of the challenge with this one, but I rather like the summery tropical feel to the card

My Pinterest page is full of wedding stuff - every time I pop over there to see what's new, I have a stream of cakes, flowers, dresses etc etc. I have a horrible feeling that this will continue long after the wedding is over. How do I tell Pinterest that I am no longer interested in cute ways to announce a wedding......I am also subscribed to emails from Brides magazine, they keep sending me emails saying 'hello bride, we don't have a date for your wedding' - if only they knew!