Dogwood flowers

I've been meaning to do this challenge all week, I nearly always make my own embellishments although when I think about it ,I have not been using so many these days as I try to keep cards as flat as possible due to the postage rip off thing.  Anyhow after I saw this challenge I spent an afternoon making all sorts of stuff, stamped, inked ,painted, sprayed canvas and made big jazzy flowers with it, got out the old original sizzix (forgot just how heavy that beast is!) and flattened bottle tops, punched out pictures to fit and filled with crystal lacquer, covered buttons with book pages ready to colour when needed and did some shrink plastic bits and pieces, all sitting in a box ready to use. Ok, when I came to make this card nothing I had made was suitable to put on it ! Anyhow I'm still putting it on the challenge(albeit at last minute) the doily is a die cut, the centre strip is punched and I did make the greeting banner at the bottom.

Make It Monday- make your own embellishments

And all that jazz

A bit later than usual doing the Craft Barn Alpha/dictionary challenge which this week is the letter  F but only between Fe and Fr. There was a lot of choice in there, I would have liked to have done
flibbertigibbet -what a lovely word! then there was flight/floral/flowers/fowl/fox/foxglove ,spoilt for choice but almost immediately decided on Flapper - a lively young woman, who dresses and behaves unconventionally - I suppose she could actually be a flibbertigibbet too(an irresponsible, silly, gossipy person)  Used my very old and well loved flapper girl stamp, randomly stamped background, bits of a music die and a bit of handwritten stuff (getting very bold now with writing on stuff!) I found a pack of watercolour boards while I was looking for something else so used one to do this on for a change.

The Craftbarn Alpha/dictionary challenge - Letter F

Pirates

This started out as a quick simple tag to encompass white/metal/transport but as usual I couldn't resist adding more and more to it, after I tore the paper for the sea thought it needed a bit of foam on the waves so added some shabby white frantage ( I don't know why it's called white as there seems to be a lot more gold than white in it ?) after I added the ship it looked a bit bare so stamped the birds (seem to have lost the stamp in all the mess I've made) then added the anchors and the waves from the same set of stamps, needed to add some metal so out with the charms box,couldn't decide between an anchor or a ships wheel so decided my ship was a pirate ship and needed the skull  and crossbones, which then led to the words and the boys  and so it goes...............

A couple of challenges

Dragons Dream Tag It On - white/metal/ transport

Come and get It Challenges- Off  The Edge

Into the woods?

Well I don't quite know why I haven't posted anything on here for over a week as I seem to have been doing plenty of stuff, had a batch of family birthdays last week but the cards have all gone now and also I have been busy of a project for a swap. This is a card I made last night, not sure if I should have put two lots of ribbon on it but it's done and my new resolution is to stop agonising over stuff !
Putting on these challenges:

Simon says stamp and show - into the woods

Try it on Tuesday - on the wild side - birds/animals

Make it Monday- anything goes

lace and pearls

At the Harrogate show back in March I got carried away and bought some fancy shaped cards which is something I never use, the stand had used this stamp with their cards so had to have it as well. anyhow I decided I would have a go at making one of their fancy cards, well clever me had the fancy card upside down when I stamped onto it, typical of me ! so I just decided fancy cards aren't for me and die cut the image with this pretty floral oval. Couple of layers of lace and a few pearls here and there and I like it a lot better than the fussy thing I started out to do. A few challenges:

Vintage Stamping - lace and pearls with a touch of elegance

Try In On Tuesday - feminine and fancy

Fashionable stamping - anything goes

Fussy and Fancy - Pearls and lace

Kids

Hmmm, well the letter K had me stumped for a while, did think of Kinky but didn't have any suitable images!  Finally settled for Kids. Didn't come together easily and it still lacks something to pull it all together but I have told myself to just get on with it and stop faffing and procrastinating . I got a another couple of dylusions and used the blue and greens for this, also a new leaf stencil (which I've proceeded to almost cover up) & Kaiser craft scratch stamp .Hope you can see the little "ghost " children which are from my new Paperboy stamp plate. I've been on the look out for that stamp set for a while and was so happy to find it at Port Sunny.

The Craft Barn - Alpha/dictionary challenge

Jane Eyre Book Cover

Make My Monday challenge this week is to be inspired by the cover of a Jane Eyre book or by the story.  I have had this Stampendous cameo and frame for quite a while, it was one of those impulse buys and I have never used the cameo although I have used the frame a couple of times. its such a big stamp there is not really any need for anything else as it fills the whole card, the little ribbon strip at the bottom is recycled from an old birthday card. 

Flowers

Had a really good day at the Happy Stampers festival at Port Sunlight last Saturday. I didn't buy many new stamps but I did get a Gelli plate and a melt pot.  I have had a play with the gelli plate and very messy it is too but also very therapeutic, can't say I have produced anything wonderful as yet but I'm having fun playing. The Meltpot has not come out of the packaging yet,mainly because I need to get some utee, I do have a couple of small pots but want to get a bigger size, need to try and source a supplier at a reasonable price !   The above card is made with Penny Black stamp which is one of my new ones, I've made this same card in blue and pink but like this yellow one best.Some G45 ladies diary papers and a memory box die spray.

Sugar Creek Hollow  - Spring flowers
Make It Monday - anything goes
Rogue Redhead Designs - May flowers

Gone To Seed

Been playing with pan pastels again, love how its so quick to make a card with them, all the flowers stamped with versamark and then the whole card coloured with blue and lilac pans, the butterflies are punched from vellum.  The main stamp is called gone to seed and that's a bit like my garden, every time I think I'm getting on top of the weeds we have some more rainy days and the weeds just grow and grow! I did add a little glitter on some of the weeds but it doesn't show on here.  Country view crafts challenge is how does your garden grow so I'm entering it on there.

Country View Crafts - How Does Your Garden Grow

Sarahhurleychallenges - shades of blue

Venetian summer

Who needs to go to Venice for sunshine after we have had some glorious sunshine here (at last!)
Thought I had better get something on my blog , I'm still struggling to do anything at all, spend ages messing about and it all ends up in the bin.. I'm off to Port Sunlight next Saturday so I'm really hoping I get some great inspiration otherwise I'll be just buying more stash to gather dust. I am really cross with myself as I am so lucky to have much stuff  and all I do is whinge !  I made this card at the weekend just because I wanted to use this stamp which was a birthday present back in April,water coloured apart from the dress which is done with a pro marker ,bits of paper from scrap box.

Penny Black Saturday Challenge - Anything goes
Make It Monday - anything goes

A is for Ancestry/Ancestors

This didn't work out anything like I had intended but having started I was going to finish come what may.  My chosen word was Ancestor as I have a great interest in family having done quite a lot of research into our family trees and being fortunate to own quite a big collection of old family photos. This is a TAP transfer of my great grandparents, unfortunately it didn't work too well, don't think it liked the gesso base,the original photo shows them with all four of their children,the little boy you can just see at the bottom is my grandfather. After doing the transfer I used a die cut of a tree for the family tree ,various bits of stamping and dabbling about with pan pastels to colour.Still not sure about it but hey ho it's done now.

Craft barn Dictionary challenge - Letter A

Our Creative Corner - Anything goes