Y is for...

Good Evening,

As well as finishing off a baby card for my pal this evening I've made a quick card for the A-Z colour challenge I'm hosting over at Docrafts.  The Challenge has been going for about a year and is nearly over.  We are now on the letter Y so as well as the obvious colour of Yellow, I've also gone for Yale Blue and Yankee Blue.

I've used various papers from the Lemon Sorbet Capsule Collection and matted them on blue linen effect paper to pick up the colour in the Kanban topper and sentiment.  To finish I've added some ribbons and gems and a capsule collection spotty brad.

As usual the shiny foil detail on the topper has not photographed very well so it looks a bit blurry, oh well you get the idea!

Well it's been another busy day and I'm shattered so night night.

Shona xx

A New Home

Good Evening fellow crafty peeps!

I finally finished my New Home card tonight, I've been working on it on and off for 3 days!  There really aren't enough hours in the day just now and something has to give, unfortunately it is usually Crafting.

This card is for my Cousin and his partner who have just moved into their first home together.  I couldn't find a stamp or topper I liked to suit the purpose so I had a browse on line and found this digi image on www.birdscards.com I had a notion that I would paper piece it, which I have done in part and part coloured with Promarkers.  I like paper piecing but in reality it is easier with a rubber stamp rather than having to print out multiple copies on different papers (and not as wasteful either).

 

 

 

I think the topper is a little in the style of the Art Deco artist Clarice Cliff, who I am a big fan of.  I've mounted the topper and all the papers, sentiment, etc on kraft card to offset the assortment of colours.  The papers are a mix of freebies and Papermania's Happy Days collection.  The sentiment is by LOTV and has been inked with Tim Holtz Vintage Photo distress ink as a change from black ink and to match the kraft card.  I've die-cut leaves using a Marianne die and more kraft card and a flower from the same set of dies.  The cream flowers I've made using ric-rac braid, the red one is by Papermania.  the only other embellies I've used are buttons threaded with paper cord and a couple of red pearls.

 

 

I'm quite pleased with how it's turned out as I spent ages stressing about what to make for this occasion!



Seeing Red (in a good way!)

Hello again,

Well I'm glad to say the wintery weather we were forecast didn't come to much this week, although it has been bad all around us.

I've had a lovely Valentine's Day (apart from having to go to work while Iona and Rab were at home) with gorgeous roses, my fave red wine (Pinot Noir) and chocs from Rab.  Hope you were all spoiled too!

My offering tonight is a tag rather than a card and I've used my current favourite colour - Red!  I went a bit mad buying lots of different red cards, papers and embellishments with Valentines day in mind and now I'm using them all up.

I've used a read made plain white tag from Tesco and run it through a Birdsong ditsy floral embossing folder which was a freebie with Creativity magazine a while back.  The pink heart paper is actually a Christmas 12x12 I bought ages ago and can't remember which brand it is.  I've inked both the tag and the paper with red liquid chalk ink.  The sentiment is from LOTV and has been mounted on an scalloped circle using an x-cut die, the red hearts are also die cut using x-cut nesting dies.  The Gorjuss image has been coloured with Promarkers and I've added a heart shaped button threaded with paper cord to one of the die cut hearts.  I've added more paper cord, raffia and ribbon to finish off my tag.

I'm entering this into the February Tag Challenge over on DoCrafts, the colours for the challenge this month are red, white and another of your choice.

Bye for now,
Shona xx

Country Companions

Good Evening,

Ah thank goodness it's Friday, is it me or has it been a really long week?

I'm sad to say even though the week's felt long I haven't managed to fit in very much crafting.  I started this card on Tuesday and finished it the following evening although I didn't get round to photographing it until last night.

Nearly everything that makes up this card is from the Country Companions range and was given to me by my pal Fiona.  I've just added some co-ordinating 'swiss dots' cardstock, pearls and some flowers to echo the colours and the daisies in the decoupage image.  The leaves were die-cut using a Sizzlits die from Stampin' Up.  The little butterflies were punched using my daughter's Woodware punch.

I am entering this card into the Floral Challenge (Garden) and Katy's Photo Challenge over on Docrafts.

Shona xx

New Heights

Good afternoon,

It's been not too bad a day today, dry and almost Springlike!

It was with much sadness that I made today's offering.  Iona's teacher left on Friday to take up a temporary post as Acting Head Teacher at another Primary School.  She really is a super teacher and we wish her luck in her new post but she will be missed!  As she is a crafter herself I wanted to make her a card to wish her well.  Iona and I also gave her some Art Journalling goodies as she is taking part in a workshop soon.

 

 

The stamp I've used is appropriately called New Heights.  I've had it in my stash for a while thinking it would be a good one for using at the end of the school year.  I've coloured it with Promarkers and mat it on to a die cut circle inked with Antique Linen Distress Ink.  The sentiment is by LOTV and it has also been inked, it is layered on to a Spellbinders lacey circle die cut.  The paper is a Portobello Road 12x12 cut down and as time was short I've kept the embellies simple with x-cut die cut stars and some pearls.

 

In other news I'm happy to report that my workplace raised over £210 for British Heart Foundation at our Rock Up In Red Day on Thursday.  I'm amazed we made that much.  We all paid £1 to wear something red and as well as my cards we had a cake stall, second hand books, bric a brac, guess the bear's name, etc.

 

Bye for now,

Shona x

Rock Up In Red

Good Evening,

Gosh it's wet and super windy here tonight. I got soaked just crossing the hospital car park to get to my car!

I'm posting another nice bright card to cheer things up and it's another one I'm going to donate to the Bring and Buy stall at our work's British Heart Foundation Fundraiser on Thursday.

I've used a Gorjuss stamp coloured with Promarkers as the main focus and used an inked die cut circle for the mat.  I've also inked the LOTV sentiment and mounted it on a Spellbinders Lacey circle die cut.  I've used 2 different papers from the Papermania Cranberry and Apple Capsule collection and finished off with an organza ribbon bow and some card candi as I remporarily ran out of red pearls and gems!

Hope everyone is safe and well indoors out of this awful weather.  Night night x

A Belated Happy New Year to Everyone

Hi folks, sorry I haven't been around for a while.  It's been an awful start to the year as my Auntie who we share a house with got taken into hospital on New Years Day morning after suffering a mini stroke, unfortunately she suffered another mini stroke (TIA) on arrival at hospital and then a more serious stroke through the night.  She was left with right side weakness, mainly her arm, but her speech on the whole was unaffected with only a slight slur when she's tired.  Last weekend we had her down to the coffee bar at the hospital in a wheelchair and she was so glad to get a proper coffee at last lol!  Unfortunately on Tuesday I got a phone call to say that she had taken a turn for the worse, I rushed straight over as I just work across the road, for the NHS, to find that she had taken a Pulmonary Embolism (clot in lung) and had been taken to the High Dependency Unit.  I'm pleased to say that she has responded very well to the clot busting drug they gave her and is now back to the Stroke Unit again and hopefully this has just been a slight setback in her rehab.  She is remarkable for 86 and although she struggles a bit with her mobility due to Arthritis, she is normally very sprightly for her age.  We have always been very close, especially since I lost my Mum, also to a stroke, just before I turned 14, and she is like a second Mum to me.  She really is an inspiration and is fighting back and working hard during her physio sessions, and on her own, and now is starting to get some grip back in her right hand.

Much of my time has been taken up with hospital visits as well as juggling work, family, housework, etc, so crafting has gone on the back burner.  Although now that she is improving again I've started to get back into it. So apologies for not keeping up with all your blogs over the last few weeks, hopefully as she recovers I will gradually get back into the swing of it.

Here's a card I made primarily for a British Heart Foundation fundraiser we are having at work this week but I have decided to enter it into the A-Z colour challenge over on Docrafts.  We are on letter 'X' so the host has decided that we will make an 'Extra' card from any of the colours that has gone before so I've chosen Fire Engine Red.

The image is a Teddy Bo magazine freebie stamp which I've coloured with Promarkers.  I've had this set for ages and although I've used some of the sentiments, this is my first Teddy Bo.  I think she looks quite funky!  I've layered the image on to a mat made from an X-cut parenthesis die which I've inked with Tim Holtz Antique Linen distress ink. I've used an LOTV sentiment, also inked, and mounted onto an X-cut scalloped circle die cut.  The hearts are die cut using x-cut dies on pre embossed red card.  The papers are also magazine freebies and the wee tags are from the Me to You With Love range.  I've added some satin ribbon, paper cord which is like bakers twine but doesn't fray, and red pearls to finish.  I'm sure this won't be my last Teddy Bo card as I really enjoyed colouring her in!