Blue Bird of (Birthday) Happiness

Welcome - I do hope you have all had a Blessed Easter, a wonderful break with family and friends and are enjoying the weather, no matter which hemisphere you are in.

I enjoyed making this card - I started with the paper, added the bright yellow card, and then remembered these die cuts the lovely Shelly Schmidt at  My Creative Rumblings sent me in a RAK. They are a Tim Holtz production.

[If the Card Police heard how I create, I am sure I would be arrested for incorrect protocol;-)]

I coloured the die cut cage with Galaxy Gold ink, and painted the bird with Twinkling H2O paints.

The cage was 'suspended' with a gold ribbon, and the sentiment gold embossed on another die cut.

I managed to retain quite a lot of dimension on this card as the cage warped slightly when I inked it.

I am linking this to:

Amusing Challenge - Anything Goes

Creative Inspirations Paint - Anything Goes

Pan Pastels Uk Challenge #13 - Anything Goes

Corrosive Challenge #171 - Spring Fling

Quirky Crafts Challenge #7 - Sketch and/or bingo (die cut, embossing and ribbon)

My Sheri Crafts Challenge #107 - Spring is sprung

Totally Gorjuss Challenge #177 - Something Blue

Mema's Crafts April Challenge - Anything Goes

Thank you for visiting - any comments you leave are always appreciated.

May your day be blessed

Patchwork border

Welcome - thank you for visiting.

Some days ago I saw this pattern for a French Braid Block here on Pinterest, so I 'had a go' the other day without actually going back and looking closely,  so mine is not quite accurate - apologies to all the patch-workers out there who may be offended by my interpretation of the pattern.

I needed a card for a young girl, so after using the scraps on my desk to make the panel, I mounted it onto a bright green. I then stamped and embossed the sentiment and made a tag, and also mounted that onto the green.

I placed it onto the panel and tied a bow with the variegated ribbon that had been around a present just a day or so earlier.

The image is one from Kiwistamping - I stamped her in cocoa and coloured her with chalks, using lime green for her top to match the green behind the panel.

A few green rhinestones and the card was finished.

I am linking this to:

Party Time Tuesday Challenge #1113 - Anything Goes

Through the Craft Room Door - Anything Goes

Bunny Zoe's Crafts March Challenge - Girly

My Grafico - Anything Goes

Pretty Little Ribbon Shop Challenge 20 - Happy Birthday

The Pink Elephant Challenge Challenge #192 - CAS
Word Art Wednesday Challenge #73 - Anything Goes

Thank you for visiting.

All comments you may leave are appreciated and treasured.

May your day be blessed

Come follow me to BlogLovin'

Welcome 

As many of you may know, blogger is making major changes come July.

There are many who are uncertain about what is happening to the Google Reader and Friend Connect functions, so many bloggers are changing up how they administer their blogs, and I am one of them.

Please follow me by clicking on the BlogLovin' button on the right.

Should you have a blog and wish to change, all I can say is that BlogLovin' is fantastically fast and simple to set up on.... and that from a "senior surfer"!

See you there!!

May your day be blessed

An Evening In Paris

Greetings - thank you for visiting. 

I was recently asked to be a guest designer for 

Through the Craft Room Door Challenge Blog.

I was given this image of Lady Katherine by Sandi Hugget to use.  I took a couple of days mulling over how I would present her, and I decided that a Parisian theme would 'fit' her.

The background image is one I found on my computer under the category Dana's Inspiration (which I have linked for your convenience).  The edges were distressed, and faux stitching was added. I painted Lady Kathleen's gown in Twinkling H2O's, and chalked her skin and hat, and popped her up on foam dots.

Needless to say an evening in Paris would not be complete without feathers and bling.

I am linking this to:

Kenny's Krafty Krew Challenge #135 - One for the Girls

Avenue 613 Challenge #11 - Anything Goes

Lacy Sunshine Challenge #4 - Layer it up plus hand coloured image

No Matter Which Challenge #7 - Anything Goes

Sketchy colours Challenge #155 - Pink, Beige and Brown

Crafter Companion - Vintage Inspiration

Word Art wednesday Challenge #71 - Anything Goes

Lady Anne's Challenge/Nana Vic's 4th Challenge - Anything Goes

Card Mania Challenge - Lots of Layers

Pause Dream Enjoy Challenge #6 - Anything Goes

Thank you for visiting, and any comments left are always greatly appreciated

May your day be blessed.

Green Birthday

Welcome again - I am making time to blog again today.

I needed a card for a birthday this week for a man who loves fishing.

I started with a technique I read about in a magazine, using gesso and distress inks - this is my second attempt and I was much happier with this result.  

My ink colour was Bundled sage, and then I added to the look by spritzing with some water - I love the way the distress inks react to water.

I then used masking to stamp only part of a stamp, and embossed it with silver before colouring with watercolours.  The stamp is by Hastings Rubber Stamps and is a 'composite' scenic stamp of New Zealand.

The tag is one which I had been experimenting using distress inks with ages ago, and was lurking on my desk, so I embossed the sentiment and added the paper string before adhering it to the card.  This layer was then adhered to a dark green base.

I am linking this to:

Flourishes Timeless Tuesday Challenge #211 - Go Green

Loves Rubber Stamps Challenge #43 - Shades of Green

Paper Minutes #260 - Tags

Twisted Tuesdays #45 - Spring into Green

Jens Digis Challenge- Going Green

Paper Pretties Wednesday Challenge #249 - Create Your Own Background

The Stamping Chef - Good-luck/green

Cards by Lady Anne - Challenge #6 - Anything Goes

Creative Belli Challenge #163 - St Patricks / Go Green

Crafter's Cafe Challenge #14 - Green or St Patrick's Day

Thank you for visiting.  

Any comments you may leave are always appreciated.

May your day be blessed.

Anniversary card with Silver

Welcome to my corner of the blogisphere

I have so meant to blog again before this, but once again life and I have not quite co-ordinated our schedules!!

I tried the blackboard technique the other day, and this is the result.

Although the stamping and embossing appear white in the photograph, IRL the embossing is a cream colour.

The image is from the (retired) Love set of stamps from Layers of Color. It was cut with a spellbinders die, and the 'chalk dust' added before I removed the die, and then mounted on a white layer.

The ribbon was rather insipid on it's own, so I mounted it over a piece of red card, and added the three silver heart bards to finish it.

The ribbon and sentiment panel were mounted onto white, the edges of that layer sponged with red before being mounted onto the black base.

I am linking this to:

Our Daily Bread Designs Challenge #146 - Anniversary and Silver

City Crafters challenge #150 - Inspired by a Song - All You Need is Love by The Beatles

Creative Card Crew Challenge #31 - Ribbon

Through The Craft Room Door Challenge March 12 -18 - Anything Goes

Tuesday Alchemy Challenge #52 - Anything Goes

Cupcake Craft Challenge #233 - It's Only Words

Make My Monday - Heat Embossing

My Grafico Challenge #147 - Anything Goes

Paper Playtime Challenge #5 - Anything goes

Victorine Oringinals Challenge #54 - Anything Goes

Thank you for visiting, and any comments are so very much appreciated.

May your day be blessed

Love Expressed in a Hymn

Welcome back to our scorching hot fall/autumn - we had some rain this morning, but not enough to make a difference.  

So this afternoon I headed out to the studio and made this and another card.

I started with the grey die cut (part of a RAK from Lovely Linda), and the pink card stock.  The grey dp is actually an offcut of wall paper.

The sentiment was stamped with red ink - it is part of an encouragement set that was produced by Layer of Colors, layered onto the die cut, and then onto some musical dp from a LilyBee paper stack.

The butterfly was cut with a cuttlebug die and embossed with one of their folders - there are two layers, one of pink card and one of pink vellum, and pearls were added to form the body.

The ribbon and bow was the remnant of some ribbon that I bought some time ago - it was quite a challenge to get the bow tied and the strip down the card! Some extra pearls were added to finish the card.

I am linking this to:

Word Art Wednesday Challenge #69 - Anything goes

Lady Anne's Challenges - Anything Goes Friday #7 - with Sentiment

Crafty Ann's Challenge #84 - The Sound of Music

Heck of a Challenge - Spring, butterflies and pearls

One Crazy Stamper - March Challenge - Anything Goes

Lady Anne's Challenges - NanaVic's 4th Challenge - Anything Goes

Drunken Stamper Challenge #117 - The Sound of Music (music dp and hymn words)

Totally Gorjuss Challenge #173 - Anything Goes with Pink

All Sorts Challenge #196 - For a Lady

Catch The Bug - Anything Goes Saturday Challenge

Thank you for visiting - May your day be blessed.

Thankyou for any comments you leave - they are most appreciated.