Sunday 27 May 2018

Pandamonium!

Big Birthday has been looming large this last week or so and today's the day!  Out for lunch this afternoon with hubby and son joined by a few sisters-in-law and brother-in-law.  I had been dreading this birthday but once I got to the restaurant and was looking round our tables I realised that, apart from our son, I was actually the youngest one there!  I felt a bit better after that. 


I recently acquired a set of Dyan Reavely's "Shut up and colour" stamps and as the dark forboding clouds of Big Birthday approached I found myself drawn to using a few of them . . . 


This one had me reaching for Tonic's Rococco Mirror  






"Auld age disnae come itsel'!" was one of my Gran's favourites. She was right, in these parts it also comes with a bus pass! I already had one due to some health and mobility issues so that may have been why I was drawn to the words of this stamp . . . 



 This next one was inspired by this week's Freshly Made Sketches challenge 




When it comes down to it age is only a number so I guess it's a case of




My entry for this week's challenge uses 3 of the 5 cute pandas from the Woodware "Pandamonium" set.  It is actually a single strip of 5 panda stamps but I found it a bit unweildy to use (doesn't fit in my stamp platform all that well). I decided that it would be more flexible to use if it was cut into two lots of two sitting pandas plus a single panda who is standing.  I nearly split the set of two in this card up as well but they sit very close to each other and didn't want to damage them if the scissors slipped.


Not a lot of colouring required for this one; just the background and an outline around each panda, 







 Finally, I guess I did



Cute Woodware "Unicorn" stamp set although I really must get the "Fantasy Land" sentiment set that matches it!




Monday 21 May 2018

A Lovely Day in May

What lovely weather we have been having over the last few days and the garden is beginning to get it's colour back.  The sun came out on Friday just in time for "The Wedding" and has stayed for a couple of more days.  As the TV began the build up to the event, there was one song from "Calamity Jane" that kept going through my head.  It made me wonder if there was someone else humming it as she was getting ready for her big day - "Tis Harry, I'm Planning to Marry".

Whilst all the pre-amble & idle chat was going I thought I would try this week's  Freshly Made Sketches Challenge, it was either that, or help hubby sort out the garden shed - so, obviously, no contest!



Our Great-Niece, Annie, has her 6th Birthday coming up so I decided to use the sketch to make her card.  I double checked how old she was going to be as last year I made a mistake with her big sister's card and got a telling off!

The stamp I used is the Woodware "Fairy House" and I coloured it with the set of pens I recently purchased from The Works.  They should have been £40 for the 40 pens but between discount codes and reward points I managed to get £17 off - bargain!  They are really nice pens to use, I am impressed!
The colour cardstock pack was also a bargain from the local "Poundland".







This next card is to add to the all events card collection I am making for my friend who is currently housebound.  This one uses the Woodware "Whale Hello" stamp set.  The background paper is from a "Whizz Kids" paperpack and I used my marker pens to match the colour of the waves to the colour of the mat I used for the stamped image.  The background is Distress Inks in the very apt colours of "Salty Ocean" and "Mermaid Lagoon".







I forgot to add this card a couple of weeks ago, it is one I made for my sister's Birthday earlier this month. 

This is one of the largest stamps made by Woodware called "Jacqui's Garden".  I teamed this up with one of the Tonic Design Studios Window Box 3D die set "Tangled Terrace" (it's another one of my bargain buys!)

I learned a valuable lesson on this one, the first I'd made, in that you have to choose your cardstock very carefully to make sure it can withstand the folding.  I had used my American Craft "Heavyweight" "Summer" cardstock but it tore at the tabs and I had to reinforce them - hence the added larger flowers fussy cut to try to cover the repairs.









Sunday 6 May 2018

What's That Yellow Thing?

Good grief - it's the sun!!! 

Looks as though Spring may just have finally sprung! 

It was my older sister's Birthday on Thursday but we didn't manage to catch up until Friday,  We met up at our local farm shop and cafe - the first of the season's strawberries were in so it had to be a cream tea (although I had coffee with mine!). It was rather yummy with a cherry and dark chocolate scone, clotted cream, strawberry jam made with fruit from the farm and, of course, some new season strawberries!



Unfortunately, it has been a bit of a naughty week eating wise, and after having that plus a Chinese take out that evening I got a bit of a shock standing on the scales yesterday morning - it's back on plan starting tomorrow!

I've had some peace and quiet today as hubby is out with his brother while son is out with some friends so the time was good to sit down and have a proper look at this week's Freshly Made Sketches Challenge




I remembered a Darice embossing folder that I bought a few years ago which embossed a lacy oval but hadn't quite decided as to what else to do with it.  We have some family members moving house and I had been working on cards for them so while looking at my stamps I decided that I would use the Woodware Love Birds stamp to go with it.

It was actually warm and sunny enough to go & take photos outside, just a slight breeze to keep knocking the cards over but I got there in the end!




I used Nuvo pens to add colour to the embossed design and also used the matching pen to create both the mat and the plaque to take the sentiment "It takes hands to build a house, but only hearts can build a home".



The challenge card with other "New Home" cards I have made recently


The images were coloured using a mixture of Tonic Nuvo & Winsor & Newton Promarker pens.  For the "Three Houses" stamp set I went for the Tobermory (Balamory) coloured house look.




Whilst not exactly a new house card I just had to include a card made using the Woodware "Unfrogettable" set.  Coloured with some "Script" alcohol markers I bought in Aldi a couple of months ago.  The dragonfly has had some Sakura Gelly Roll Clear Stardust applied to it's wings.










What's the story in Balamory?  Our niece Nikki has a new home!