Thursday 31st January

Hello bloggers!
Today I thought I would show you a card I made for my son's birthday last year, needless to say he belongs to a Karate club!  The stamp is from Lili of the valley.  There isn't much to colour on the karate boy, but what there is I did with promarkers.  The stitching effect is just drawn with a white gel pen.  A really nice and easy card!

Boys tend to be difficult to make cards for, but www.liliofthevalley.co.uk do have some great stamps for boys and men.  Hopefully I will be showing you another card using Ryn's stamps tomorrow.

Have a great afternoon and thanks for visiting! xxx

Get well soon Hannah!

Hello!
Today's card is one I made for my daughter, Hannah, who is upstairs poorly with a nasty virus, get well soon hunny!!
I saw a card similar to this made by Eileen Godwin, I thought how pretty it was and decided to do something similar myself. (Thanks for the idea Eileen!).  The window die is called Grand Madison Arched Window, by Poppystamps.  I've used PanPastels to create the background and the flower stamps are from Laviniastamps.com.  The cherry blossom has got to be my most used Lavinia stamp, it's so pretty!  I felt the card was a bit bare around the edges, so I managed to fit the sentiment from Clarity stamps in one corner (which is a nice one for someone poorly...) and added a bit of grosgrain ribbon to fill the other spaces.

Have a great afternoon, thanks for visiting! x

Tuesday 29th January

Hello bloggers,

Today's card uses stamps from Laviniastamps.com.  Tracey Dutton designs beautiful fairy, flower and foliage stamps in silhouette.  The background was made with PanPastels, they are so easy to use and blend!

Card recipe:
Cherry blossom
Wild grass
Wild flower
The little bee is from a Hobby Art set called Anna's collection - Just for you.
I added dots of pink liquid pearls in amongst the cherry blossom, and Stardust stickles on the flowers.

Have a nice day and thank you for visiting! x

Sunday 27th January

Hello!

Another sunny day, how lovely!  Today's card was made using the koi stamp from Designsbyryn.com.  I had great fun making the background squares yesterday.  I scribbled Tombow pens on watercolour paper, then sprayed with water that contained a little silver mica powder to give it a sheen.  Then I sprinkled on some sea salt to get that 'blooming' effect.  Some of the salt stayed on the paper, and I think it gives extra texture to the background.  The koi were stamped onto paper that had previously been sprayed with dylusions ink, squeezed orange and lemon zest, then I cut them out.  A few dots of liquid pearls and it's done!  Hope you like it!

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment! xx

Saturday 26th January

Hurrah!  The sun is shining!  So nice to be able to walk my dogs in dry weather at last.

Today's card is the Designsbyryn.com 's Hummingbird 2 again, but quite a different look!  

The flower is made using Sizzix tattered florals die.  Each layer is cut, coloured with distress ink, then sprayed with water and screwed up into a ball.  The card softens and when it is unscrewed it has this lovely texture to it.  The finished flower was sprayed with crafter's companion spray and sparkle.  I used Lili of the Valley's grunge corners around the edges of the spotty paper, and distressed a Tim Holtz Adage ticket to tuck behind the flower.  The hummingbird was coloured with dylusions inks as in the very first card on the blog!

Hope you are all enjoying your weekend, thanks for visiting! xx

Friday 25th January

Good morning!

Friday at last...  Today's card is one I made using stamps from Laviniastamps.com.  These lovely silhouette stamps create really atmospheric cards.

The background was made using a mask for the moon, and then blending PanPastels in various shades of blue and violet over the card.  The stamps used were Large Faye fairy, Cherry blossom, Fern leaf, Butterflies and tiny flowers.  Versafine onyx black is the best ink for use with these stamps, and if you get any 'bare' patches on an image you can fill them in easily with black Promarker.

Have a great day and thanks for looking! xxx

Thursday 24th January

Hi bloggers!

It's another card using stamps from Designsbyryn.com.  I love the kelp stamp, it looks so different every time I use it!

The stripe is made by scoring lines using a Scor-pal, masking off the edges with post-it notes and then applying distress inks.  I then sprayed with a little water to get a mottled effect.  The shell was made by spraying card with dylusion spray inks (London blue and bubblegum pink) and then stamping with Versafine onyx black.  After cutting out the shell it was covered with 3D glaze.  I love the colours made by the dylusion inks, I can't get that depth of colour with anything else.
Well, have a good afternoon everyone, and thanks for visiting! xxx

Wednesday 23 January

Hi all!

As promised, another card using my 'Susan' stamp, a slightly more 'boho' look than yesterday's card.

This was my first time using a sewing machine around the edge of a card, I love the look that you get with a sewn edge but boy, does it take a long time to get the machine set up!!  The card took me all day to finish but I really enjoyed making it.  The little rosette is made using a sizzix die, very easy to fold but a tricky devil to stick together!  Sentiment is from Lili of the valley.

Hope you are all keeping snug and warm, never mind that housework, keep crafting! xx

Tuesday 22 January

Hello bloggers!

I want to show you a card I made a few months ago now, but it's one of my favourite stamps.  The stamp is called Susan and is by Elizabeth Bell.  Isn't she cute?   The card is cut using a Go Kreate XL frilly frames 2, and then folded in half.  The sentiment is from Lily of the Valley, and the flourish is a Doo Hickey die. I coloured Susan with my Promarker pens, great for blending as they are alcohol based.

Tomorrow I'll show you another card I made with this stamp.  Byeeeee!

Monday 21st January.

Good afternoon!
I've spent the morning watching our class trying to build the biggest snowman on the school field, great fun but terribly cold!  My toes have just about defrosted now...
This is another card I made over the weekend, again using Ryn's stamps.

I really enjoyed making the centre-piece for this card.  I used dylusions spray inks for the base, and when dry stamped the spiral shell and embossed with gold powder.  As the inks are water-based, I used a water brush to wet the inside of the shell, then dabbed with kitchen paper to remove the colour.  Much less smelly than using bleach!  Kelp is stamped around the card in Versafine lagoon and Adirondack stream.  I love these stamps as the cards I make with them are great for both men and women, so it's good to have a handy stock of them for all the family birthdays that keep creeping up on me!

Hello!

Hello everyone!
Welcome to my first-ever blog.  I hope to share my handmade cards with you (and anything else crafty that appeals to me and hopefully you too!).

Well, this weekend has been great for card-making - lots of snow here in Kent today, so it's been easy to stay snug indoors and do crafty things!

I've recently bought some fabulous stamps from Designsbyryn.com.  Ryn designs deep-etched rubber stamps that can be used on card, fabric, clay or metals.  Three of Ryn's stamps arrived all the way from Canada on Saturday morning (yippee!) and I got stuck in right away.
Here is a card I made using her gorgeous hummingbird stamp...

Card recipe:
Hummingbird 2 from Designs by Ryn
Lily stamp from Stampendous
Sentiment from Clarity stamps.

The background was made by spraying card with Dylusion spray inks; lemon zest and squeezed orange, and then a circular dotty design stamped over the top.  I used London blue and cut grass dylusion inks to colour the beautiful bird.  I don't usually go for the bright colours, but Ryn's stamps really suit vibrant colours, and I've really enjoyed getting mucky with the spray inks!  Hope you like it!

Thank you for visiting my very new blog, I hope to post some more cards soon.  Have a great day!