Anniversary

Hello..........is anybody there?.........Oh Hi...I thought you might all of despaired of my tardy blogging and wandered off to better things. I have been peeking in on you to see your creative talents...love what I see...................you are one talented bunch of friends.!

OK.......well I have been crafting...just a bit (knitting, colouring etc)...honest...just not a lot to blog...except this card for an Anniversary.
I caught part of a Create and Craft program the other day and it was Honey Doo crafts. Amanda (the owner and designer) showcased her fancy Flourish ...so....I decided to get mine out (yes I have that stamp) and have a play as it has never seen any ink!

Here goes.........

The background paper is from a Wild Rose Studio paper stack called Silverton Hall. I was lucky to win this in some of Kate's candy (Downright crafty) a while back. Such pretty papers and soft colours, great for weddings and the like. It has specks of glamour dust added but the photo does not show it unfortunately.
I stamped the 'fancy flourish' and the 'rose' (both Honey Doo) and heat embossed with Wow Platinum powder..............then I rediscovered my twinkling H2O's......do remember them? have you some lurking in the back of the cupboard? I decided to paint the flourish and the rose with Irredescent Blue to tone with the paper...............

and there you can see the shimmer in the light.
The sentiment is from my stash and I embossed it with the same Wow powder and used a die from stash (sorry can't remember the make) to cut it out and to layer it up on foam pads for a bit of dimension.So there we have it.

Well it's the weekend again..............don't they come round quickly. Have you anything nice planned? No we are not painting..............thank goodness...........all done, but can't get rid of the smell yet! Nothing planned for us....no doubt hubby will be in the garden if it is nice..............and I could be ...........washing..............I mean crafting. Actually I have some serious sorting to do in the room of stash. All depends if I am in the mood. My mojo has been awol, playing with other peoples in the same boat I think...................hoping for it's return full of new ideas! and bearing a rocket as a gift for me might be a good idea! I need a boost for sure.

Take care my good friends and enjoy your weekend. Thank you for stopping by to see me, I hope you will come back again soon, and if you have left a comment to make me even happier, Mwah....thank you so much,any feedback is much appreciated.
Take care of yourselves till next time.
Crafty hugs
Carole xx


Challenges entered:-

Pixies Snippets Challenge.................Snippets of card (blue and white) and ribbon

Painting on Silk

Hi friends......do hope you are having a great weekend. Us?.......we are surrounded by tiny match pots of paint, painting little squares of varying colours all over the walls in the hall...and then deciding that not one is the right colour! Shade cards and pots do not seem to match as their name intends. Perhaps we should just do patchwork!!......Alongside that hubby is painting the smallest room in the house......no silly not the cupboard under the stairs...the downstairs loo...............no problem with colour here as we are keeping it the same!

Crafting....other things on my mind this week so not much crafting done.....in fact none!. I have been in the craft room and moved piles of stuff from A to B to C in the hope that I might find a home for it!.......GOT IT...forget the painting...we'll move to a house that has a bigger craft room.......oh no we won't I hear him shout! It's cheaper to buy every match pot going...he does have a point there!

Enough rambling and on to my attempts at Painting on Silk. You may remember me telling you briefly in an earlier post that while on holiday in Fuerteventura (Canary Islands for those that may not know) I had a go at silk painting.

Here is my attempt.....

I feel it is rather child like in its execution and I wished I had chosen a different design once I had started...........you know the feeling when you go to a restaurant and when the food comes you wish you had ordered what someone else is having! However it is very therapeutic the way the colour just spreads as you touch the silk and is held in place by the gutta outline (the silver bit).
 The lovely lady that ran the class is called Sue Brown and if you are on facebook then you can visit her at....painting on silk at the Barcelo hotel.
Her work is exquisite....................and she also makes the most beautiful jewelry too...........here is my purchase...and very reasonably priced.

A wonderful and talented lady, so friendly and helpful and a great teacher giving one a lot of encouragement.I am sure she has started a few people on the road to painting on silk......me? not yet...but never say never....I certainly need the practice.I wonder how I would fair on the beading side of things?

Well the sunshine is struggling here today, after a glorious day yesterday...........it's not been a good summer for the North of England this year and I fear we are running out of time now! I do hope it is better with you...wherever you are and whatever you are doing. Thank you so much for visiting me and I would love you to leave me a comment so I know you have called in....I will visit you in return of course....get the wine chilled!!...or even the kettle on!...whatever takes your fancy.

Take care till next time and keep well. Big hugs to you all...after all without all you lovely people I wouldn't have a reason to blog.
Hugs
Carole xx

2 years old

Good Afternoon everyone......thanks for popping by. Back as promised in my last post with a card that I made for a 2 year old...keen on trucks and diggers and the like!

and the inside

I used papers from my stash and snippets of bazzil cardstock. The number 2 is  Papermania stamp, stamped on the bazzil and then cut out.The sentiments are computer generated, and I cut out bits from the paper to add as embellishments.

The design was base on a card that I saw on Pinterest and adapted to suit my needs....so if yours was the original card...sorry I couldn't seem to source it's origin, but I thank you for the inspiration.

Well another wet and miserable day here in west Yorkshire....summer seems to have disapeared!

Still got some washing waiting until the sun shines......till then I am pleased to say I am up to date with the ironing!.............so able to spend a little me time catching up with blogland.

Hope you have a good weekend whatever you may be up to. Thanks again for stopping by and I love it if you let me know  that you have.

Hugs

Carole

Challenges entered :-

Snippets Playground #187 (snippets of bazzill card) 

Cardz 4 Guys Challenge........Something beginning with T......trucks and two!

'Mamandyou'

Hello my blogging friends! I'm back!.......from a week in Fuerteventura.......oh it was lovely thank you.....hot.....mid thirties (Celcius) but a lovely breeze.
 I have a couple of pics to share with you of a statue on the roadside at Corejelo..(.the place where we stayed). Check this out.....

She is huge...not sure what she is made out of, but kept so clean , not vandalised and hubby said that it reminded him of decopatch. It reminded me of paintings I used to do at school where you squiggled lines and then painted all the spaces different colours....did you do those too?
 The idea is you can climb up into her arms........read about her below...

Well how are you all? I hope you are good and if you are in the UK  then like me you will be feeling a bit chilly. 12C when we landed home! 12C I ask you...apparently it is 18C in Siberia! How silly is that. We had to put the fire on last night...and guess what...it kept switching itself off (it is gas)......yes I have decided there are gremlins in this house. Anyway gas engineer on holiday...so...hope it gets a bit warmer!

Crafting wise...well I tried a bit of silk painting at the hotel we stayed at, with a lovely lady who held a weekly class...all for free! I will post another time and show you my efforts.
What have you all been up to then?...I will be round to see, don't worry, in between the washing and ironing!..............which I am struggling to get done due to the weather.Just had another shower (of rain) here , so glad I got the washing in just before. I always take too many clothes on holiday, do you? Could have stayed a month!.............but who wants to wash undies on holiday (I don't own 31 pairs)!  lol

OK friends I will be back later with a card that I made a while back for a friends Grandson who is 2 years old today.Do hope you will pop by again to take a look. I am so looking forward to catching up with you all.

Till then, take care, keep smiling and see you again soon! Thanks for popping by.I would love it if you let me know you have been.
Hugs
Carole xx

'Get in gear'

Hi my blogging friends. Hope you are all well and enjoying some of the sunny days we are getting here....interspersed with rain of course!

I'm meeting myself coming back today so I can't chat for long but it's lovely to see you all and thanks for stopping by.

It's a male card today...those dreadful male cards! Anyhow I had this idea in my head (not often do I get them)...it didn't quite turn out as I wanted but close enough and I think I am quite pleased with the end result.

Apologies for the bad quality photo...bright sunshine so shouldn't complain!

Ok.... the background is stamped with an old stamp (NBUS) from The Stamp Man (the netting) in sepia ink and then the cogs (another from stash...a bin at Ally Pally) were stamped in Versamark and embossed with a Stampendous fine gold powder..... this is quite a dark gold and sorry it doesn't show up well in the photo.

I cut the tag with my new (hmm fairly new) Dienamic standard stitched die (love it) and then embossed it with the Cuttlebug folder and inked the edges lightly with tea bag distress ink. I used the same distress ink and also old paper on the edges of my background piece.

The cogs are aTim Holtz Sizzix die that I have had for ages.......you see not everything is new...lol. Cut in brown card and then I applied Inka Gold...in gold no less! the tag is mounted on foam for dimension......hard to see in the picture.A bit of thin twine, and the sentiment was stamped with sepia and I used those tiny wooden letters that you buy for 99p and then realise you can't see where you are stamping...but they did the job.

Inside I put....For a very Happy Birthday!

Last weekend I went to Summer Crafting and yes I was tempted and yes I hang my head in shame...I bought some Christmas dies....I know....I know.... I don't need anymore Christmas...but I had hubby with me to carry ...so had to give him something to carry didn't I?  I also got some great £1 bargains...sequins, embossing folders...yes for a pound!!......and a few wooden embellishments...oh and a couple of stamps! I thought I was quite restrained. It was very busy but I also managed a good catch up with my dear friend Marjorie which was really nice. We so like the same things that it usually ends up we buy the same...pity we do not live nearer and then we could share.

The dishwasher by the way is scheduled for Sunday!!  Fingers crossed xx  Had to buy new Marigolds as one pair perished!

Right folks well I must 'get in gear' myself and press on ...lots to do and little time to do it all!   eeeek it's lunch time!

Take care everyone and once again thanks for your company and any comments you might leave me...love them... and you all of course.You really are appreciated.

Have a good rest of the week and weekend.

Crafty hugs 

Carole xx

Jungle in a box!

Hi my blogging buddies! Yes another week gone and guess what...it's raining here!  :(      Summer hasn't lasted long in this neck of the woods!

So moving on......oh sorry I didn't ask how you all are?...very remiss of me...do hope you are fine and dandy and if not hope you soon will be again.

A pop up box card this time round, made for a friend to give to her Grandson as he turns one!

It's pretty self explanatory really I think. The base is from Craftwork Cards and I found an assortment of cartoon style clip-art jungle animals that I printed and fussy cut. The number one is a Papermania stamp, stamped and cut out, then mounted on the yellow bling card. The backing papers used on the box and flaps were from my stash.

Well the past week has been a week of things packing up here...no not the holiday sort of packing...breaking down type. First the dishwasher decided not to wash anymore. I know that's no big deal...we can manage without a dishwasher...but |I do miss it and marigold gloves just don't really suit me!......and why are they always yellow? Anyway new one on order...can't buy anything straight away these days...................so rubber gloves it is till the new dishwasher lands.

Then the grill on the oven decided to start blowing the main fuse in the house electrics.....repeatedly! So no cheese on toast (hard to do in the toaster...messy). Anyway the engineer dutifully called yesterday tea time (when you might want to be using the oven part of said cooker)............and guess what!!!!!!.............it wouldn't do it for him!  So he went away after half an hour having done ...nothing to the grill... and me feeling stupid. Will have to wait and see if it happens again now.

Lastly the painters turned up this morning to paint the render on the front of the house...rained off!!!! Can anyone tell me why window cleaners and outside painters insist on turning up when it is raining?

OK waffled long enough so will let you move on . Thank you so much for taking time to read my ramblings (that's if you did of course) and if you have left me love in the form of a comment...I shall return the favour as it makes my day......you lovely people.

Off the Summer Crafting on Saturday at the Doncaster Racecourse so if you bump in to me, please grab me and say HI! There is absolutely NOTHING  I want to buy or need to buy............BUT I am sure I will be tempted by something Christmassy at least.

See you later..
Till then..
Have a good week and weekend
Hugs
Carole xx


Challenges entered:-
Craft your Passion 269....Anything goes

'Friend'

Hello 'Friends'......hope you are all well and enjoying the summer that has arrived here at last in the North of the UK. Today is hot again but thundery showers...and true to from it had one just as I had pegged out the washing! The sun is now shining again but I prefer to chat to all of you than rush to peg it out again...........see.you are honoured....you are all more important than my washing.  lol...... and if you are not in the UK then I hope that the weather is being good to you wherever you live.

My card today is CAS and I was quite pleased with how it turned out.

 The flower and sentiment stamp are both from the same Clearly Besotted set...Friends Forever.............coloured with my copics. Mounted on foam and then on a base card of Adorable Scorable. This time I got it right and picked my base colour before colouring the image.
I have seen a lot of random placing of sequins and the like out there in blogland, so I decided after great deliberation to add 3 pearls. I coloured white ones with a copic to match the peachy tones! and there we have it!.Oh nearly forgot the touch of glamour dust on the pollen stamens.

Well I can't believe we are in to July and the longest day has been and gone. In the crafting world Christmas has raised it's head with a lot of new goodies to tempt us...........have you bought any yet? I suppose I will succumb at some point...but not as yet...I swear if I lived my life over again, and some more, I need not buy any more Christmas stash...but I will be tempted by that crafting devil I am sure.

Ok that leaves me to wish you all a wonderful rest of your week and a fabulous weekend...lets hope the weather stays in the UK, we have to make the most of it!...speaking of which I had better go peg out the washing ...again!....guaranteed to rain again as soon as I do!

By the way....I have got my ring back from the jewellers all repaired and gleaming (new diamond)....so I am happy bunny again!

Take care everyone...see you again soon.
Crafty hugs
Carole xx

Challenges entered :-

Addicted to Stamps and More #151..............Anything goes
The Pink Elephant Challenge........................Anything goes
Crafting by Designs.......................................Anything goes
Uniko.............................................................Anything goes