Saturday all ready

Today is the day of the Party so I'm sure I will be shatterd tonight. Word is that Dominic has invited 20 friends, I think that's why the plan is to have it outside in a small Marquee. Please pray the rain keeps off, can you imagine 20 5 & 6 yr olds. inside on a wet day!!!!!!!!! Good job we've got Sunday to recover before we fly home.

If you remember the cards we did with Jo last Wednesday, we made one using the Triple Treat Flower stamp where punched the centre from a white image. Well........the old marquetry trick came into my mind so I kept the remaining part of the image, stamped another onto Wisteria Wonder in Wisteria Wonder ink, punched out the centre flower and fitted it into the aperture left by the one we'd used, and fixed it using double sided sticky, stamped it again close to the edge, just so that I could punch out the centre circle with the half inch punch. Liked it so much that I had to make a card with it.The cardstocks are Whisper White and Wisteria Wonder and DSP is Wisteria Wonder as is the ink I used. I also used one of the Edgelits dies and Adorning Accents, which are in the Summer Mini available on May 1, to trim the edge of a piece of Whisper WhiteCS and Wisteria Wonder DSP. The Sentiment is from the Happiest Birthday set.

Well if this scheduling has worked you should have had a card each day until today. This is the last of the cards I had ready so I will hopefully be back on Tuesday, I will put the cards up then that we are making tomorrow (Wednesday as I am typing this).

Going Well

It all seems to be going very smoothly (hope I'm not speaking too soon).

We will be up and out by 6 a.m. today, flying at 11 a.m.  from Luton to Kerry. Luckily they only live about 15 minutes away from Kerry Airport so we will be there for lunch. I hope the weather is fine as the Birthday Party is going to be outside.

Here's today's card

I made this one for one of my card ladies who has her birthday next week. I used Soft Suede CS,  ribbon and in, Beau Chateau DSP. 4 frames stamp and punch,eyelet border punch. The sentiment is from the Believe set and the flowers are cut with the Fun Flowers die from Beau Chateau and sponged with Soft Suede before fixing with one of the Antique Brads.

The weekend will fly by I know and we'll be home before we know it.

Thursday

Well Wednesday's looked as if it was going to go up O.K. so here goes Thursday. I should be in Harrogate when you read this. I hope the weather doesn't do what they've predicted or we'll be wet through.

The card today is one I made Tuesday evening as a friend of my husband lost his battle with cancer last week. They met at 'Dicky Tickers'. an exercise club for people who have had heart surgery or heart attacks. They meet 3 times a week for an hour's exercise plus arrange outings and social events. We are in Harrogate today with them, and he will be missed by everyone.

It doesn't show up very well but the base card is square and I have embossed 2 lines quarter of an inch apart on the fold side.

I kept it very simple using Whisper White and Mellow Moss (now retired sadly)CS. Concord Crush and Mellow Moss Ink and white organza ribbon. The stamps in the main image are some I've had for years and I keep them in a CD case so don't know where they are from sorry. 

First Schedule!!!!

Well here goes.

This card is the one for our Grandson's 6th birthday. I came across the rhyme ages ago and knew it would be ideal for him.

I used So Saffron, Whisper White and Basic Black CS, Basic Grey DSP,  The 'Glow Worm' is from the Every Little Bit Set, the leaves from Tiny Tags the circle from Circle of Friendship, and the sentiments from For My Family. I typed the verse into the computer and printed it onto So Saffron CS. The scallop circle with the glow worms on is the large scallop circle punch, the others are die cuts. I used the scallop border punch on the So Saffron strip where the verse is mounted.

I hope he likes it. I'm sure he'll love the verse as at that age children love anything which they consider "rude".

This should go up tomorrow hopefully, fingers crossed.

 

Away for the weekend.

Back a little later in the day than I planned but I had to do some shopping and was out all day, then had to prepare for tomorrow evening as it is my turn for the cards. We are off to the Harrogate flower show on Thursday then to Ireland for the weekend on Friday. It is our grandson's Birthday Party, he will be 6, so we are going to join in the fun. Hopefully some pictures when we get back.

There was some sad news when I spoke to my son on Sunday, the fox had got to the fowls and killed 8, the 'boss' cockerel, 2 drakes, 3 more cockerels and 2 hens. It's almost a year since they last lost any to the fox so they have been lucky but that doesn't make it any easier. Dominic, our grandson, was very upset as he was very fond of the 'boss' he had named him Pablo.

I have a few cards made so I am going to try and be a bit adventurous and schedule some posts for while we are away, never done it before so anything could happen. I will find out when I get back.

Here's one for today

If you remember I did a fake Marquetry card for the workshop in woodgrain DSP, I really liked it so thought I would try it in plain CS. I used Perfect Plum for the background and Pretty in Pink for the die cut and sentiment. You can see the lovely ready pleated ribbon which will be available in the Summer Mini Catalogue from 1 May, also the sentiment is cut with one of the Framelits dies also in the mini. It's not obvious on the pic but I outlined the 'flower' with a glitter gel pen, also the swirls on the diecut and went over the sentiment with it as well.

Now I'm going to try my hand at scheduling, so come back tomorrow and see if I've succeeded!!!!!
If there's nothing here then it's all gone terribly wrong.

Back soon.

Just a Quickie

We had a lovely afternoon on Saturday, we visited Kedleston Hall, nr to Derby. Neither of us had been there before and were pleasantly suprised. The Hall itself is impressive and looks over the Derwent, it was owned by the Curzon family before becoming a National Trust Property and a descendant still lives there today in a private wing. They apparantly came over with William the Conqueror so the lineage goes back almost 1000 yrs.

The National Trust have restored most of the Hall to it's original condition when it was built in the 18th Century. They have copied and replaced some beautiful silk tapestry which were used on the walls and furniture in some of the rooms. The thinking is that when building the Hall the Curzon's were trying to compete with the Devonshires who had built Chatsworth. There are two curved corridors one connecting the kitchen and the other the family's appartments. The kitchen one has a normal wooden floor but in the other the oak floorboards are curved to match the shape of the walls. Very impressive.

But that digresses from the reason for my blog, so here is a quick card I made on Friday evening

I used a cream linen finish CS that I have had for ages, along with Early Espresso, the stamp sets are Charming and Heard from the Heart. I used the reverse side of the cream CS to stamp the writing in Crumb Cake before adding the flower in Early Espresso, I cut the squares to size beforehand. The sentiment is stamped in Early Espresso. I then mounted them onto the Early Espresso CS. The sentiment is flat to the card and the flower squares are raised with sticky pads.

As Promised

I got the third card of Jo's three finished last night so here it is.

I'm afraid the lighting isn't very good, sorry. We die cut the card with a sizzix tag die in Island Indigo CS, used Island Indigo DSP for the Panels. Stamped the flowers from Greenhouse Garden in Pool Party and Island Indigo (I'd forgotten how much I like this set until I saw this card, will certainly be using it again now) onto squares of Whisper White mounted them onto Island Indigo and then onto the card, 2 on sticky pads, 2 Flat. The Sentiment, which you can't quite see, is the Happy Birthday wishes pair from Petit Pairs. The ribbon is a slightly glittery organza and I put a little line of stickles around each flower square.

The surveyor for the Garden Room came today to make the final drawing so it's all systems go. It will be about 6 weeks before they start, as we are away for 2 weeks mid May we said we would ring when we get back and they can start then. Can't wait, hope we have some sunshine this year though I'm sure I wont mind sitting in there even in the rain.

We are out tomorrow and maybe Sunday so it could be Monday before I'm back again. Have a good weekend, I hope the sun shines wherever you are. Back Soon

Wow,.

Definitely worth a wow, I'm back when I said I would be.

 Just about got time to put the cards up we made with Jo last night, before Alison of Cruft's fame (see earlier post) comes to trim the dogs for me. I have asked her to clip them this time as they are getting old and I don't feel it's fair for them to stand there and be hand stripped. It will be much quicker for them and Jim has always hated being trimmed.

Anyway back to cards, I only got 2 finished last night so will put those up now and finish the 3rd tonight and put it up tomorrow. They were three lovely cards and I really enjoyed making them. Here's the first.

We used the m-bossabilities folder on the front of the base card and also on a square of the same  CS which we then cut into a triangle, punched 2 strips of Wisteria Wonder and stuck them to the 2 longer sides of the triangle and stuck it onto the centre of the card. We stamped and punched the flower three times, once on Whisper White and twice on Wisteria Wonder, the second of these we punched only part of the flower so that the centre was close to the edge. Punched the white with the 5 petal punch and the wisteria with the posy punch, and the centre with the 1/2" circle punch. Mounted them up using foam pads and stuck to the card with foam pads. Stamped the sentiment and mounted is then stuck above the flower. The ink was Wisteria Wonder. I really love this colour.

 

O.K. on to number 2, this used Very Vanilla, Calypso Coral CS and DSP, plus a small piece of Lucky Limeade CS for the leaves and flowers. The Very Vanilla background was embossed using a distressed stripes embossing folder then mounted onto the base card. We die cut 4 flowers from the DSP, creased the petals (Jo doesn't do flat) and put them together alternately light and dark sides, secured with a brad. Die cut the leaves and cut the stem freehand. Mounted them onto the card, stamped the sentiment onto Very Vanilla and mounted this onto DSP and onto the card using sticky pads. Very effective I thought.

I had some good news today, we have been wanting a conservatory for some time but being a listed building have had great difficulty obtaining listed building and planning permission for the ones that we like. We found a firm who do Garden Rooms and they said that they thought they would be able to do it for us, so we applied again a couple of months ago and lo and behold he rang today to say that both permissions had been granted and they can start soon. The surveyor is coming out tomorrow to do the final survey and we should have our Garden Room in about 6 weeks!!!!!! Hooray.

I will keep you up to date with the progress, the glass doors slide right back to the wall so the dogs are going to love it, when we have some sunshine. I can't wait to be sat in there with them.

Back tomorrow with the third of Jo's lovely cards.

A little bit of Gold

Today is really miserable, wet, cold and grey. It hasn't stopped raining since about 7.30 this morning, even the dogs don't want to go out it's been that heavy.

So I thought I would show you this card which has a little touch of gold to it, to brighten me up.

 I die cut the branch (a Memory Box Die) from a piece of Crumb Cake CS (Kept the branch, not used it yet) then stuck a piece of double sided sticky paper to the back turned it over and rubbed gilt flakes into the aperture. dI really like the way it turned out and am going to try it again with a different die, watch this space!!

 The blossoms are punched with the Itty Bitty punch and I used a gilt pen for the centre, not easy to see here. Mounted it onto Chocolate Chip CS. then at an angle onto the card.  The sentiment is from the Petit Pairs stamp set, I use this ever such a lot.

The base card is Crumb Cake, then Chocolate Chip edged with the Eyelet Border punch, then a piece of DSP from the Mocha Morning set, again edged with the Eyelet Border punch.

It's the card class tonight but I will be playing as it is Jo's turn to take it, so I will post the cards tomorrow afternoon. I am off to the Docs again in the morning to see if he can sort this cough out. I am not holding out much hope, I expect he willl now say it's a virus and I just have to let it run it's course.

Thanks for looking in, back tomorrow.

Lost a Week!!!!!!!!!!!

Don't know about lost a week, I've lost a month this time!!! I don't seem to be able to fit everything into the hours there are. I think probaly because I still can't shake off the cough I've had since February. Been to the Docs, had antibiotics, chest xray everything shows up clear but I'm still coughing and feeling very tired and breathless at times. So back to the Docs on Thursday.

Anyway the one thing that hasn't been missed is my cardmaking (just putting them up here hasn't been done). We had another all day workshop on Saturday and Jo and I made 7 cards each, so you are going to see them all today. We used the First Editions Boho Chic Pad, with Stampin Up supplies. It's amazing how the colours of the pad match the New In Colours as you will see. So here goes, I'll put Jo's up first I've scanned them in more than one to a page so sorry if they are not up to scratch pics.

They look much more vibrant in real life but you can see how the colours go so well together.

O.K. now for mine.......

This is not a good image of this card, it actually folds into 4 panels, the last 3 have a hole punched and a cicle tag dangling in the space, I've used Pool Party, Calypso Coral CS and inks plus Baja Breeze ink. Fresh Vintage, Easter Blossoms and Petit Pairs stamps.

This one uses a stamp called Meadow Panel, (not SU but can't remember who's) and Just Believe. The base card and panel is the Naturals Ivory CS, the panel is mounted on Pool Party and Calypso Coral, CS.  The image is stamped in Old Olive ink and coloured with Calypso Coral, Pool Party and Daffodil Delight markers.

The base card is white with the a panel in the reverse side of one of the papers, as are the pale blue punched squares, and the centre circle for the sentiment. I used the sizzlets Beautiful  Wings for the butterflies, and the eyelet border punch.

This one is a gate fold and I've used the Apothecary Art Stamps and the Framelits Dies from the new Mini Catalogue. Old Olive and Calypso Coral ink, Calypso Coral and More Mustard Marker pens, a blender pen to pull the green into the leaves and Calypso Coral ruffled ribbon.

I cased this from a blog and I didn't keep the name (I really will have to start writing them down). The wood effect paper was part of the pad, one side light and the reverse dark. I used a memory box die, cut one image on the light side and one on the dark. Placed the dark image in the negative in the light paper (make sure to keep all the bits) put the piece from between the stems in. Covered the back with double sided sticky paper, that's it. The CS is Crumb Cake and Chocolate Chip, Chocolate Chip Ink and Curly Cute stamp.

I couldn't believe how well the Paisley Stamps went with this paper, you can't really tell from the pic, but the paisley patterns on the backing  paper have a clear and slightly glittery embossed look. I used the paisley stamps on the centre panel with Calypso Coral and More Mustard inks then outlined them with a glitter pen. The Sentiment is from Happiest of Birthdays, inked with Calypso Coral, More Mustard and Early Espresso Markers. CS is Early Espresso, Very Vanilla, and Calypso Coral. Base card is the Naturals Ivory again.

Here I've used the Posy Punch stamps, embossed onto Calypso Coral with white embossing powder and punched with the Fancy Flower Punch, the centre is punched with the 1" circle punch. Mounted onto the paper cut with the Large Scalloped Circle punch. The plain paper is one of the reverse sides of the pattern paper stack. The Calypso Coral ruffled ribbon is mounted onto a strip of Very Vanilla punched with the Scallop Border punch, and the patterned corners are made using the same punch.

Well, that's my seven as well, I think the ladies felt a little bit under  pressure with 14 cards, so we discussed it and decided that next time (22 September) we will do 5 cards each, but still include the same amount of materials, and they can make the rest up at home with their own stamps etc. We will do some extra samples to give them inspiration.

Quite a long post today, thanks for looking in, I hope I've made up for the long absence and will be back tomorrow with another creation from Cillas.