A taste of Spain..........

The worst thing about having friends coming back from a holiday is that you have to sit through the holiday snapshots - well, you didn't think you were going to get away did you?

Here is the pool of the villa, where I spent a lot of time floating about on that inflatable armchair, reading my book...........................that white wall on the left was the one that the late, unlamented rat family used as their exercise bar......

this gorgeous Bougainvillea grew up one wall, and the petals used to drift into the pool - so pretty

I love the way all the roofs in Spain are tiled in these terracotta domed tiles..........

and they use ceramic tiles a lot as well, look at the gorgeous blue tiled dome of this church, in a little town called Altea

something else I love, the way trees are planted to form shady avenues for you to walk along......

We had a fair bit of Sangria...............

look at these gorgeous pots, drying in the sun, and just crying out to be splashed with bright slashes of colour.......................

I wonder how passion fruit tastes when it is dried? I bet it is a very intense flavour..............

The mountain scenery was spectacular

I am always very taken with the lamps attached to buildings, that often take the place of boring lamposts.........

This is a view from the top of a hill village called Guadalest. The water is a reservoir, and yes, it really was that colour

The sandals and everything else are unpacked, I will be back at my craft table tomorrow, see you then

Teacher Cards

Here's two cards I made for Papercraft Inspirations magazine - the quick cards section, which means that the readers are able to reproduce your card in a short time, about 30 minutes. My brief was thank you cards for teachers, for full details of how to make the cards, see this months magazine (on sale now in the USA)

The thing about going on holiday to Spain is that they have all these addictive street markets, where you can pick up stuff like leather handbags and sandals for next to nothing. Of course I got carried away, not only for myself, but a text message to Alexandra - would you like some leather gladiator sandals? Of course the answer was yes, since it was coming from the bank of Mum and Dad............so that left me with the problem of trying to squash all these purchases into the suitcase. I swear that these budget airlines doctor the scales, so that the cases mysteriously become twice as heavy on the way back..........ten pair of sandals couldn´t make THAT much difference, or could it?

Sweet Meadow

Here's a clean and simple little card, made with flowers cut from the Sweet Meadow collection of papers by Craftwork Cards. I used the narrow sentiment strips to spell out happy birthday to you as the stems of the flowers.

Remember how I told you that I had made 'buttons' out of card candi? this is what is looks like close up

This is my favourite punching tool, by Martha Stewart, it has three different sizes of hole punch tucked neatly away in the rounded end, and uses a simple 'push down' method to punch your hole - and of course, you can punch anywhere on a page, unlike the hand held pincer type punches. If you haven't got one - well, I recommend it (especially if it is on sale :)

We fly back from Spain tomorrow, the only thing I could bring out with me were some stamped images, and about 3 dozen Promarkers, so I have spent a lot of time in the sun happily colouring away, and have done a couple of tutorials, so look out for some colouring tips very soon.

I hate to upset all you rat lovers, and those who believe in equal rights for rats, we put the stuff (rat poison) down on the rat run wall, it looked like pink playdough. The rat was last seen sitting with a lump between his paws, nibbling delicately at it. He hasn´t been seen since. Oh dear.

BLOG CANDY!!

Since I am having fun in the sun, for those of you who are waiting for holidays, still doing the daily commute, here is a chance to win some goodies to bring some sunshine into your day

Just leave your name at the end of this post, and I will draw a winner on Saturday 9th July. No rules, just that if you have a blog it would be nice if you mention it on there

Here is what is up for grabs

A great tag board book, 5" x 7"I bought one of these for myself as well, and can't wait to alter it......

A set of Martha Stewart inks - Aquarium

Mulberry paper mini roses in shades of lilac by Recollections

A set of 17 clear stamps by American Crafts with a baby theme - always useful for cardmakers, one thing is for sure, those babies keep on coming!

A Fiskars tool taxi, an ingenious little gadget with loads of tools tucked neatly away - perfect for crops or crafting sessions with friends

Some green and white bakers twine

Cuttlebug folder - Diamond in the Rough

So there we are, I hope there is something that takes your fancy in that little lot

Good luck

Vintage Rose birthday

Here is a card made with my favourite Craftwork Cards paper - Vintage Rose. I have almost used up every scrap of this collection, and it is now discontinued. My only consolation is that they keep bringing out new collections to replace old favourites. The stamp is by Woodware, coloured with Promarkers

Aren't these little matching sentiment buttons sweet? The edge punch is by E K Success

The sun continues to shine on us here in sunny Spain, how easy it is to forget that we will probably be wearing jeans and sweaters in a week's time when we return to the UK. There are loads of people from the UK here - living here permanently I think, they all seem to know each other judging by the calls of 'cooee Joan' echoing up and down the high street. I guess there is a ex-pat club somewhere where they all gather to drink gin and tonics each evening. One funny thing I have noticed is that if I use spell check on this computer, it highlights every single word, if I go to check the spelling, it suggests Spanish words that may be a good alternative, I may do a whole post in Spanish just for the fun of it to confuse you.......

See you tomorrow

Kraft and Pink

I have been having huge problems accessing the internet, I have no idea why, so a very brief post today. In answer to all the queries, no, Mr Ratty has not been dispatched to ratty heaven, he is alive, well, and scampering as usual. We have been trawling around the local markets, I now have a few more pairs of sandals than I came with, oh the agony of the overweight case looms........

I love the look of browns and pinks together. For this card I used loads of layers, kraft, white, pink......you name it, it's layered on there. The stamp is by Stampin Up, and the sentiment button is by Craftwork Cards

The image was stamped in Rich Cocoa Memento ink, I coloured lightly in pale pink, and added drops of liquid pearls to the centre

Lilac Birthday

I didn't know where I was going with this card when I started to make it, but it was one of those cards where you think 'well I got there in the end.......' Funny isn't it how some cards seem to put themselves together, and others have to be fiddled around with.

I used Tim Holtz tattered flower die for the white flower, and dumped gunmetal grey beads in the centre. The border punch (punched three times and layered) is by Martha, and the butterflies are from the butterfly round the page die, also by Martha Stewart, and available from QVC

The leaf is a cuttlebug die, I think it's from the Persia set, I quite liked the look of the little centres of the leaves left so didn't poke out the little pieces, just left them nestling there

We found some rat poison in the local supermarket, but now we are afraid to use it because a big grey cat has started to walk around the garden - maybe he's heard that there are rats about and wants to be in on the action. Anyway, we are afraid that the rat poison could be eaten by the grey moggy, so the rat run is safe for the rat to continue his patrol of the wall. I won't even tell you about the humungous cockroach I found in the kitchen last night, .........ugh! Apart from the unwanted wildlife, and a few dozen mosquito bites, I am having a lovely time...................

See you tomorrow

More Sweet Meadow

Here's two more cards made with the lovely Sweet Meadow collection from Craftwork Cards. The first one uses a lovely paper - can you see how the roses are embossed with a raised edge? The colours are so delicate and pretty, this card didn't really need any designing, I added one of the coordinating buckles and threaded a narrow sentiment through that. All I added, were drops of glossy accents to the leaves and flowers, they look just like dewdrops on the roses.....

and for the second card, I used the same roses, but this time they are off a regular sheet and not embossed. I cut three of them out................

and ran them backwards through the xyron to apply a nice coat of adhesive, then dumped glitter on them. They look so pretty

We must do something about this rat...........he is getting bolder and bolder, sitting on top of the wall staring thoughtfully at us while twitching his whiskers. He doesn't even scamper off when we go right up to him and clap our hands! I half expect him to start stamping his feet and squeaking 'OLE' at us.............

Red White and Blue

The challenge on Polkadoodles this week is

Red White and Blue

It is also our stashbox stamp week, which means the design team can use any make of stamp for their card. I picked this adorable little girl by Lili of the Valley, coloured with Promarkers.

I had this idea in my head that I wanted to use the papers from the Fathers Day download from Polkadoodles for a pretty, girly card, I think it worked - do you?

I find when using red markers that the colouring can be overwhelming on something like a dress, so I just shaded in very lightly and used my blender pen to even it out - it gives the impression of red without dominating the image

The sentiment is by Stampin Up

Sweet Little Girl

My card today is a Lili of the Valley image, she actually came ready coloured, they do these sheets of all sorts of different sizes in printed images, perfect for quick cards when you haven't got a lot of time to colour.

I used a base scallop card, and some gingham papers from a stack by The Paper Company. I pleated a strip of paper to make a ruffle and added some mosaic tile gems to that. The sentiment is by Stampin Up

I thought this would be a nice card to send someone who is having a hard time for whatever reason - I always think that a homemade card is one of the nicest things you can give to show that you care

The weather here in Spain is wonderful, we see that the UK is due to have a heatwave starting this weekend - inevitable really, it always gets hot and sunny as soon as I leave the UK. They should really put helpful little signs on at the end of each long-range weather forecast..........

June 19th - July 5th heatwave expected, Enfys has left the country. Safe to arrange barbecues, trips to the seaside, painting the outside of your house and any other external jobs during this time. Please note that the weather will revert to cold, damp and rainy on the 6th July

We are spending a lot of time lazing by the pool, it would be a lot more relaxing if we didn't see a rat running along the top of the wall alongside the pool at regular intervals during the day - yes, a rat, definitely not a squirrel, or a mouse, a very ratlike rat..........

See you tomorrow

Clean and Simple - Happy Wedding Day

Have you used these new punches by Martha Stewart? You can position them anywhere on a page, and punch away to your hearts content. I found it helpful to mark the back of your paper with pencil where you want to punch. Put this paper onto the bottom piece of the die, turning it upside down to make sure your pencil line shows, then simply place the top of the die on top, and be prepared to jump out of your skin the first time, it is held in place by four very strong magnets, (the gold spots in each corner of the base) that snap together with quite astonishing strength.

I have an idea for a scrapbook page using this punch, I thought I would punch a sort of curve of butterflies going from the bottom left, up to the top right, then I am going to put different coloured cardstock behind each one, and stitch trails along the paper - I thought it would make a really bright and breezy summer layout, probably of Kiki. What do you think?

This card really is clean and simple, but I like the finished effect. I used the punch anywhere on the page Martha Stewart heart punch that QVC sent me to review - the order line is 0800 50 40 30

I simply punched the heart, and found some gorgeous acetate which has a criss cross of gold on it, which I put at the back of the heart. I used a pre-shaped card and white pearly card candi from Craftwork Cards, and heat embossed the sentiment (an old one by Hero Arts) in gold

Today is my sister's birthday, I don't think I will be able to call her from Spain, so Penblwydd Hapus Cariad (that's Welsh for Happy Birthday....) Have a great day Sis. Love you xx

Funny Girly Cards

Before I left the USA, one of my Thursday craft group friends brought in these stamps - I forgot to make a note of the manufacturer I'm afraid - and I found them perfect for making very quick cards for girlfriends

I always think this sort of card is best with a very minimal sort of look - let the image and sentiment do the talking - so they were really quick to do, and I used the same hot pink, black and white cardstock for all of them

The base shaped cards are all by Craftwork Cards - the brads are wonderful Card Candi from the same company

Well, here I am in sunny Spain, we have just had a lovely leisurely lunch, accompanied by lots of vino and diesel fumes from all the vespa scooters roaring past. The parking in mainland Europe always amuses me, they take no notice at all of where they are supposed to park, and if there is no other space, climb onto the nearest pavement. Walking is a hazardous business!

See you tomorrow

Sweet Meadow

Look what came in the post - this month's totally gorgeous pack from Craftwork Cards called Sweet Meadow

This is just up my street, I always love the colour combo of fresh green and pink, and of course in the monthly pack you get all sorts of goodies - tags, label shapes, buckles, sentiments just to name a few. A lot of you ask about Card Candi, they are the little round shapes you see in the foreground of the photo below - gorgeous little domed shapes of cardstock, available in every colour under the sun, none of the hassle of brads, just pop them on with a little foam pad. They are much, much cheaper than brads as well, you get hundreds (well, a lot) in a pack, I love them. They are available in the USA now as well if any of you want to try them - try Scrapbook.com

These are the first two cards I made, using nothing but one of the papers and some buttons and thread - I love that very narrow sentiment strip as well

For this second card, I wanted to add real buttons over the printed ones on the paper, and didn't have any in the right colours, so I punched two small holes in card candi, they look just like buttons, and add the dimension I was looking for. I cut a couple of the flowers out of another sheet and popped those on, bending the petals a bit to give some life to the flowers

As you read this, I will hopefully be on holiday in Spain. I am taking my laptop, so hope I can keep in touch while I am there, but I have scheduled posts that will pop up while I am away.

OLE!

Pretty Things with Wings......

The challenge over at Polkadoodles this week is

Pretty Things with Wings

So I used two of my favourite things, the Sundae of Seasons CD, and my Cricut

I cut a base card to 6 x 6" in pink cardstock, then cut one of the book cuts from Elegant Edges at 6" in brown. The flower was one of the scallop shapes - I used swiss dots embossing folder to add a bit of texture to the centre. The butterflies were printed from the Sundae of Seasons CD, I gave them wire antennae, and popped them on with foam pads

a bit of bling and I was done

If you took part in the Polkadoodles blog hop, be sure to go over there, there is a full list of all the winners from each of our blogs, let's hope your name is up in lights

Well, this week has been a bit of an event. Apparently I have had 'a touch of pneumonia' so the doctor says. How can you have 'a touch ' I wonder, it seems to me that you either have it or you don't. So no crafting has been done - no ANYTHING has been done, but today has seen me up and dressed so, tomorrow will be better. I still blame that man in seat 10A! Thanks so much to those of you who have sent me emails with get well wishes, I really appreciated them, and the E cards as well. You are such a nice bunch xx