Time is flying

I cannot believe we are already in February where is this year going already.   I have a few issues in my personal life which means I'm currently not able to spend as much time crafting as I would like that said however when I do get time to sit down and play I find I am drawn to the lure of spring colours and butterflies .. here's wishing spring arrives quickly because I am certainly fed up with the cold.

Something different

One of my closest friends is having a very difficult time at the moment her partner has just been diagnosed with lung cancer .. here is a card I made her .. she loves bright colours and her flowers and butterflies and she absolutely loved the card when she received it .. it is not my normal style or design but sometimes it isn't about what I like so am glad she enjoyed it and knew that I was thinking of her.

 

Feeling spring time colours

Still loving the spring colours although it feels very far from spring right now looking at the splattering of snow that has been falling today in the UK .. bbbrrrrrrrrrrr is all I can say roll on those warmer lighter nights.

Is it spring yet!

Thought I'd post up the other two cards to match the one I posted yesterday I made a little set of them - its freezing here at the moment and I've been out and about doing some bits and pieces for my mum and now need to defrost so the planned time in the craft room never happened!!!

2013

a year of change, plans and wishes I can't believe its been so long since I've posted life is a little crazy at the moment and there are a lot of stresses and strains but I still remain positive that 2013 and is going to be a fantastic year.  I wish you all a very Happy New year and hope it has started out well and brings lots of good luck, love and prosperity.

I made this card a very long time ago and because I've not been around much haven't had chance to pop it on my blog.  I hope you like.

 

I really love the vibrant dark colours on this one .. purple is one of my favourite colours.  I'm going to try and have a weekend in the craft room this weekend try and get rid of some stress by relaxing and waiting for the snow that is predicted being the UK if it does snow am sure everything is going to grind to a massive big halt .. whatever you are doing I hope you have fantastic weekends.

December .. a month of craziness

How come peace, tranquility and everyday sanity seem to disappear out of the window when December rolls around.   I can't believe that Christmas has come round so quickly I'm in a mad panic of preparing and shopping and going crazy!   Trying to get work tied up so I can enjoy the break and working out my Christmas preparations.  AAGGGGGHHHHHHH is all I can say!!!

Hopefully you are a lot more prepared and ready than I am!!

This is going to be picture overload but thought I'd get ahead with my thank you cards for Christmas.  Its been raining so much in the UK and so dark and miserable that it was very difficult to get good pictures.  I used the same stamp set, SU designer series paper and white satin ribbon to make a selection of cards in the same design.

I was really pleased how these turned out.  I stamped the floral image and then rubbed white ink onto the flower to really make it pop.

Well that is going to be it from me until after Christmas I have the week off which I'm really looking forward to so will hopefully get some crafting time in then. 

May I take this opportunity to wish you all a wonderful Christmas and a very happy new year.

A little bit of a crafting break

I took a bit of a creative break work has been exceptionally busy and I have a few things going on that I need to find a few extra hours in the day - I'm sure we all struggle with that problem especially with the run up to Christmas which is coming round very quickly!

These are a set of cards (4) that I made a long time ago but never posted to the blog - it uses one of my favourite retired sets Growing Green and they are clean and simple.  They are in shades of green - River Rock, Certainly Celery and Old Olive with matching seam binding.  I used a variety of sentiments and very vanilla and river rock cardstock.

Butterfly fetish

Are you beginning to wonder if I have a butterfly fetish!!!  So many beautiful butterfly stamps and not one festive card in sight at the moment!!!  I just can't bring myself to make Christmas cards just yet .. think I had a christmas card overdose at the start of the month when all I made was snowmen and penguins!

This card uses some really pretty Stampin Up colours one of them I was so sad to see leave which was peach parfait I'm so glad I stocked up on this colour as I love it.  I used daffodil delight, calpyso coral and certainly celery for my butterflies.  Added some embossed detail one debossed to add something different some ribbon and a sentiment.

Dreaming of butterflies

This is the last of the set of butterfly cards that I made I had two really bright sunshine coloured ones and wanted to go for two contrasting but more subtle ones and this is what I came up with.  Same one layer design and layout for the butterflies and sentiment but colours this time were Stampin Up bashful blue, wisteria wonder and a beautiful pale lilac that was non Stampin Up.

Sweet Baby

I needed a baby card for a friend that has just given birth to a baby boy and just love this stamp set.  I took 3 of the animals from the set and stamped in Stampin Up colours daffodil delight and calypso coral for the lion, pool party for the elephant and lucky limeade for the giraffe.  I used one of my favourite cardstocks for baby cards which is the sadly retired confetti white - it just adds something else to the card which I love.  I took the heart and stamped on the animals and added two either side of the sentiment.

I really love how quickly this card came together and how quick and simple it was.

Another one sheet wonder

Again I used the one sheet wonder technique for this card - I need to improve my photography skills as every photo I take my cards/sentiments look drunk even when they are not!!

I just love the colours on this card - I used Stampin Up colours Wisteria Wonder, Pretty in Pink, Lucky Limeade, Daffodil Delight and Calypso Coral I just love these colours together makes me think of sunshine and summer .. which seems such a distant memory ago!

One sheet wonder - Thinking of You

 

I love one sheet wonder cards - they are great when you want to make a set of matching cards in different designs but fundamentally using the same pattern.    You take one sheet of A4 I used Stampin Up Whisper white and you stamp over the whole thing using a stamp set .. or two of your choice you then have some great patterned paper that you can make several cards from.

I used the Stampin Up colours Not Quite Navy for my card base - its a standard A2 card.  I then used matching not quite navy ink, sahara sand for the leaves which really adds some subtle interest and is such a fab colour, poppy parade now sadly retired and daffodil delight.

Here's a close up of my main stamped panel.

 

Summer memories

 

This card is part of a set that I made you can find one of the other cards here.  I really enjoyed making this little set of cards as sometimes I forget just how much I do love to stamp.  Again I used several different stamp sets on this card but the same cardstock colours as previously.  I used one of my all time favourite stamp sets from Stampin Up that was a freebie if you spent over £45 and was called reason to smile I just loved this set and was sad that it was only available for a month.   I made a set of 4 cards and a little purse type box to keep them and give them as a gift I'll post the others throughout the week as well as showing the complete set.

I hope you like them :)

Butterfly Crazy

Two cards from me today both using the same design, different sentiments and the same Stampin Up colours - I used melon mambo, daffodil delight and tempting turquoise.  A plain simple one layer card I just love this butterfly set.

Another first

Another first for me some stamping BUT some embellishments that I usually shy away from using.  I used a beautiful doily on this card and stamped directly onto it as well as some lace to add a bit of interest.   I had the items out on my desk from my previous post and thought I'd try something different.  The colours are all the same just a different layout and design.

I can stamp .. honest

One of the things I love is stamping I have been fascinated and loved it for many many years now I first start stamping about 20 years ago .. gosh that makes me feel old I was in work and a colleague was sitting cutting out some images and I strolled over and was intrigued a million questions later and I was hooked and my love has developed from there.

One of the things I love to do is mix and match and experiment with different stamp sets - this one uses at least 4 different sets.  There are two different background stamps the fleur de lis and the moroccan background stamp all stamped in River Rock which is one of my favourite colours from Stampin Up.  I had great fun making this card and think all the sets work well together.  

I added a couple of punched butterflies and some pretty Stampin Up jewels I love the way they are just so bling and a touch of seam binding and an embossed panel.  I didn't add a sentiment as I'm not sure what I am going to use this card for yet but I made a set of them with a pretty box will I'll post later.

Something a little different

 

Well I scheduled a post yesterday as I knew I was going to be exceptionally busy and not able to get online .. did it work not a chance so here is yesterdays post which is something different for me.

I love the colours on this card I used lucky limeade, peach parfait, daffodil delight and pretty in pink with the sentiment in not quite navy.  The cardstock is confetti white I just love the flecks on this cardstock.  

I hope you like my card I really enjoyed making this one and it was nice to go a little different and not so CAS.

Less is More Challenge - Houses

Well if this wasn't a difficult challenge I don't know what is .. I made a complete boo boo I did not read the challenge correctly and my first card was not ONE LAYER so I went back to the drawing board!

The challenge this week was one layer with the theme of HOUSES!  This is my second attempt:

I kept it simple, but I wish my sentiment didn't look crooked as it took me so long to line it up on the block and get it straight  :( in real life it isn't I used a Stampin Up set that was not available in the UK called unchartered territory it has a light house, sentiment and a boat image.  I added some extra birds from the Up, up and away set.  I kept the colouring simple only adding dashes of colour with baja breeze, cherry cobbler, old olive.  The image looked like it needed something else so I added some shading with sahara sand which made it look a lot better.  The clouds you cant really see in the picture but there are some subtle clouds in the background.

Now this was the first card that I made that was not one layer .. I really should read the challenge before I whip up to the craft room

This is a very old SAB set from Stampin Up which had several houses, trees, clouds and the roofs for the houses.  This is the only stamping set that I own that has houses!  The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink - I used the colours soft suede, old olive and cherry cobbler with some baja breeze and dazzling details for the clouds and added some lucky limeade bakers twine.

Butterfly Mania

What a beautiful autumnal day here in Aylesbury today the sun is shining, there is a crisp bite to the air I've been out and about doing shopping and went for a walk and have now done all the housework and washing ready for an afternoon in my craft room.  It was a busy week last week so its been nice to have a couple of days just chilling and recharging hence the lack of posts to the blog as I really do try to post everyday .. work was crazy so I'm hoping with my boss away things will go back to a normal level. 

Anyway enough chatter I had this set already out on my desk from the last post so thought I would make a quick and easy card using a different colour palette.  Come see what I made:

I used muted colours for this one and a sentiment from Papertrey Ink.  The colours were Baja Breeze and Sahara Sand with Not Quite Navy for the sentiment.  The cardstock is the sadly retired Confetti Cream I just love the flecks in the card.

Comfort Cafe is just so lush!

 

As I already had the majority of this stuff out on my desk after yesterdays card I decided to make a slightly more feminine version of the card using the same papers, layout and cardstock and ink but using one of the beautiful floral papers from the Comfort Cafe pack I love love love these papers.  

Sorry for the short posts lately but like I've said work has been busy and by the time I get in the only thing I want to do is go and curl up in bed and sleep it doesn't help that it is so dark and cold by the time I leave.