Just a quickie...

Hello bloggers,


it's a bit late tonight but I feel like I want to share some crafty makes with you before I hit the sheets.
I didn't have the best start to the week with our car going into the garage for a weird noise only to find out it's gonna cost us mega bucks to fix and it's not really an option to keep going regardless. Broken bearings in the gearbox apparently, whatever that means, all I heard was "no holidays for us this year". To top it all off it had to happen now, when my hubs is away for the week and I am home alone with the boys, who got a stinking cold that they seem to be swapping...
So tonight I treated myself to some girly movie watching (The Ugly Truth with Katherine Heigl -love her!- and Gerard Butler) and a Coca Cola on the sofa to unwind. Guilt-free watching as well, as I doubt my husband would have wanted to watch that with me... but it was surprisingly good, even if it was predictable. 


Right, sorry for the diversion, I am back now to crafts *lol* I have quite a few cards I made lately that I haven't had a chance to share yet. I'll make a move on one now and hopefully get to share some more over the next few days.

The gorgeous flowers are called "Scabious" and are by Ruth of A Passion for stamps. I coloured them in Copics and fussy cut them dragging a black pen around the edges to make them pop more. I tied some cream seam binding around the stems into a pretty little bow.
The lattice I diecut from lilac card is from Papertrey ink and I think it's really pretty, my only gripe is that it's made for american card sizes and hard to fit to european ones. I simply glued the lattice to my card base and popped the flowers on with foam pads. The sentiment (PTI) is stamped onto a strip of white card that I cut into a double sided banner and stamped a gingham background (PTI) on the reverse that you can just about spot. Easy peasy card to get me started again. Hope you like it!

And another

Yes, me again *lol* In case you missed it, scroll down to see my previous card from today.


I've got another card for you that I made with one of Ruth's images from A Passion for Stamps, "Cairn Terrier".

I printed this quite large and cut it in a circle before colouring with Copics. I used W5, 3, 1 for the fur with a hint of R30 in his ears and YR20 for the background.
Natural coloured seam binding was slid through slots I punched into the image and tied in a bow. The sentiment is from a Stampin up hostess set and I used several sizes of circle punches to add dots, some popped up onto foam pads. Easy peasy...


I am entering this in the following challenges:
Truly Scrumptious - No. 74 All creatures great and small
Totally Papercrafts - No. 104 Ribbons &/or bows
Allsorts Challenge - Week 142 Anything goes
The Crazy Challenge - No. 107 Use a die or punch


Hope you like it!

A challenge card again

Hello bloggers,


I have been colouring up some of the lovely digis from A Passion for Stamps and this little beauty, called "Acidanthera"  really spoke to me, so I wanted to make it stand out on a card.
Here is my project:

I coloured the image with Copics (YG67, 63, 61 for greens, N3, 1, 0 and BV000 for the "white", V99 Y23, 17 for centres) and cut it out with a scalpel. I cut and embossed a Labels Five in light purple and distressed it with Seedless Preserve while still in the die. Sentiment is by Papertrey ink and paper is My Mind's Eye, Lime twist "Happy go lucky together dotty".


I am entering this into the following challenges:
The Crazy Challenge - No. 107 Use a die or punch
Allsorts Challenge - Week 142 Anything goes
Cute Card Thursday - No 204 Flower Power

A challenged card...

Can you believe this? Three posts in one day?? I think I should look out for flying pigs tonight *lol*

I have been a bit poorly and couldn't do a lot apart from sitting wrapped in blankets in my little room so I played some. First I changed my blog design which nearly made my hair fall out! It just didn't do what it was supposed to for quite some time until I figured the problem and then it was done in a few minutes. Hope you like the new look!

When this was done I looked for some challenges and I wanted to use an image from Ruth at A passion for Stamps as I had missed doing that.

Mojo Monday provided a nice sketch:

I took a little bit of liberty with the sketch, changing the square image to an oval one to soften the look a bit. With the stripes it would have been a bit too strict, I think.

I coloured the image with Copics Y17, Y15, Y11 and Y00 for the petals and G28, G24 and G21 for the leaves and stems. The blender pen was invaluable again for the highlights and I used BV000 for some blueish shadows. The background was sponged with Spun Sugar Distress Ink after die cutting but with the paper still in the nestie to give a white border. Matted onto pink scalloped oval and popped up on foam pads. Paper is My Minds Eye from the Lime Twist collection and I used some ribbon from my stash. Sentiment is from a Personal impressions set and punched before popping onto foam pads again.

Very simple card, but I am quite pleased how it turned out.

It also fits the following challenges nicely:

The Crazy Challenge - CCH # 104 Flowers

Saturday Challenge # 170 Ribbon

My Mum's Craft Shop Challenge 41 - Flowers

Creative Inspirations Challenge 147 - Anything goes

Simon Says Stamp Challenge - Anything goes

Give away!

Just a quickie from me: Ruth on A Passion for Stamps has a great giveaway going at the moment:

 You can win these Promarkers plus 5 of her fab digi images!

Pop over to her blog HERE and follow the simple steps to be in with a chance to win.

Good Luck!

A great give-away!

Hello bloggers,


I have been soooo busy with my life in general and my crafting (for classes) in particular, that blogging has been on the back-burner for a while. Hope you haven't forgotten me and deserted?!

Anyway, I have a fab give-away to announce that the lovely and generous Ruth of A Passion for Stamps is doing. You have until the 5th November to enter to win 5 digis of your choice from Ruths great selection and the rules are very simple:


a) be a follower of A Passion for Stamps (EXISTING or NEW!!)
b) post the pic above in your sidebar with a link to the blog
c) leave a comment on the post (on A Passion for Stamps ) saying why you'd like to win the 5 digis


Go here to enter: Digi give-away

Good luck!


I also have tons of cards and a couple of other projects to share. As I said I have been very busy... But for now, I'll leave you to this give-away and share with you later!

Hello again... have you missed me?

Hello there,

sorry I have been missing again and I feel terrible for letting the blogging slip again, but life has a funny way of getting in the way with children, husband, extended family and friends as well as mundane things like houshold chores and work demanding my attention. 

I am happy to say I have still been able to craft here and there but not much picture taking and therefore no blogging was possible. 

I am very lucky to be on the DT for Ruth of A Passion for Stamps because not only is she very talented but she is also very kind and understanding when I don't get to create with her lovely new images.

I had a little bit of time today to do some pleasure crafting and had a play with one of her new images - "Sweet Pea". It's gorgeous and I was itching to try it out. I also have seen some people playing with the "disappearing lines" technique and gave it a go with this image. I printed with the opacity of the lines down to 20% and coloured with Copics and coloured pencils.

I am quite happy with result and want to investigate this effect some more soon. I traced the shape of the PTI Mat Stack 3 die around the image and cut it out with scissors fussy cutting the buds to the side. The Sentiment is also by PTI and I created a faux mat around the panel by placing the die onto the lavender mat and tracing with a Versamark pen and brushing over with gold Perfect Pearls. The shimmer is glorious in real life but doesn't really show in the picture I am afraid. This was an addaptation of the current Make it Monday on Nichole Heady's blog, they do it with glitter instead of Perfect Pearls but I hope this qualifies as well.
I drew the lines on the side and top with the Versamark Pen as well, mounted the panel with foam pads for dimension and adhered to a card blank.

The card is actually only 10,5 x 10,5cm small as I was in the mood for a small notecard.


I am entering my card in the following challenges:
Make it Monday no.50 - Anything goes
Addicted to Stamps challenge no. 10 - Anything goes

Hope you like this card and I shall be back with some (more like loads!) of pictures of my recent holiday to Portugal. I got some fab pictures of my boys and some rather unfortunate ones of myself which helped me make my mind up about joining a slimming group next week! I will deliberate over wether to show you these or not *lol*

Bad, bad blogger - again!

Hello there,


I have been a bad blogger again and didn't post for over a month! I won't bore you with too much reasoning why, my life just has been (and still is) pretty busy. My workshops at home are going well and need prep work done and same with workshops for the Glitterpot. Just been there today for the first day of the Spring Spectacular demoing and it was fun. I am really enjoying working there but it means something had to give and rather than my family life I decided the blog could wait. I hope my readers understand.


I have been making cards all the time though and today I quickly want to share three of them. The first one was made for the Less is more challenge about 4 weeks ago ( I know....!) where the challenge was "Thank you". Never made it in time to take a picture and post it but like it anyway. It's one of Ruth's digis again, her flowers are just lovely!

I coloured the Rhododendron with Copics and stamped the sentiment, then drew the frame with a black pen.


Because I liked this layout I made two more cards with it for my mother and mother in law for mothers day (second Sunday in May):

The text is computer generated, the magnolia and camelia are coloured with Copics again.


Hope to be back with more soon! Thanks for stopping by!

Less is more!

Hello bloggers!
I am SOOOO busy right now, it's crazy! But it's all great stuff!
I got my craft club running and have two classes this week, one was on Monday and the next is tomorrow night. Preparations are all done so it's not too bad but I also got a deadline for my next publication in Creativity! and need to send this off this week as well as my first workshop in the Glitterpot on Saturday.
I am thrilled to be teaching there, but it's daunting to start a new venture. I'll keep you updated on how it goes if you want to know that...
Now on to something more fun than my ramblings... a card for the Less is more challenge. This week it's a one-layer card that focuses on the sentiment. I've been itching to try my hand on one of their challenges, I am very much a LIM girl at heart, maybe sometimes even a little too minimalist. Can't seem to do those beautiful cards with loads of embellishments without it looking silly... maybe I need to try more?
Another thing I've been itching to do is colour the gorgeous crab apple blossom from Ruth of A Passion for Stamps. It's just so nice, but I wasn't sure I could incorporate it into this challenge easily. I first did this card: 

But it doesn't really do the image justice and looks a bit cobbled together... so back to the drawing board.

I printed the image with only 50% opacity to lighten it and wanted to overstamp after colouring with Coloursoft pencils. But even at 50% it looked a bit too dark so I had an idea that I am quite pleased with now, although it's strictly speaking not a one-layer card anymore: I cut a sheet of vellum to fit over the card to soften the image and stamped the sentiment (Stampin up, on both cards) on the vellum with Staz-on ink. 

I am very happy how it looks and hope it still qualifies for the challenge at Less is more! 

The challenge on the Paper Variety blog is flowers, which fits so I am also entering it in this one.

Thanks for looking and even more if you choose to leave a comment!

Spring is in the air!

Hello bloggers,


have you missed me?? *lol* I have been away to visit my parents and an aunt who celebrated her 80th birthday last week. It was a very busy week for me with lots of travelling, organising etc. but fun, too!  I got to see my parents which was lovely and my mum spoilt me rotten. She cooked my favourite foods, took me shopping and eating ice cream! 
But now it's time to go back to "work" and show you a couple of cards I did. Spring has come to this part of England, everywhere there are flowers and colours and lovely smells so I couldn't resist to use these images from Ruth's new release of digis.
Tulips being my favourite flower it was easy to decide to go for that one and I love the look of the Hyacinth as well so had to make a card with that one, too.

The paper I used is by Papermania, as is the ribbon. I paperpieced the blossoms witha  Basic Grey paper (Eva collection) and shaded with Copics. The rest is coloured with Copics as well. Pearls are by SU and I used a Fiskars punch on the tulip card and a MS punch (butterfly) on the Hyacinth card as well as a scalloped border die by PTI. Sentiments are both by PTI.


I am entering into these challenges:
Totally Gorjuss - Challenge 73: Spring has sprung
Prairie Fairy Friday - Oh so spring
Sew many challenges - Challenge 48: Spring fling
Stamp Something - Spring
Creative Stamp Friends - Spring
Stamps R Us - Celebrate spring
Creative Inspirations Paint - Inspired by Flowers

Spring-time!!

Hello bloggers,


Ruth from A Passion for Stamps has got a few new digis out and I couldn't resist this lovely snowdrop image from her spring flowers release. It just is beautiful!

I used a plain white card base that I embossed with polka dots (Papermania embossing folder) and then just coloured the images with Copics and decoupaged some of the petals to give it dimension on the card. I raised the panel with foam dots and added some detail with piercing an edge around the panel. The ribbon is from Stampin' up, as is the sentiment. 
Here is another view so you can see the dimension a bit better:

As I also wanted to play with my new PTI goodies I thought a little bag with those snowdrops would be nice, so I made this:

I printed the snowdrops and coloured them, then cut out with my new mat stack die. I put another SU stamped sentiment on and adhered it to the front of the Favor-it box (also PTI).
Here is the back, where I used my new blooms dies from PTI:

I am entering this into the following challenges:
Papertake weekly - Anything goes
Paper Romance Challenges - Anything goes
Guylous Inimitability - Anything goes
Fun at Fairy Knoll - Feeling a little green
Little Claires Designs - Anything goes
Sentimental Sundays - Anything goes
Dream Valley Challenge - Anything goes
Woodware USA Clear Stamps - Anything goes
House of Gilli - Use green
One Stop Craft Challenge - Spring flowers


I feel like I am cheating a bit with all these "anything goes" challenges, but what the heck *lol*

A crafty day...

Hello bloggers!

I had a wonderful day on Saturday with my crafty friends Julie and Lesley and after a quick visit to the Glitterpot we played almost all day in my little room.

I was quite industrious and made 6 cards, can you believe it?! But admittedly, most of the images were already coloured in and waiting to be used!

Three of them use the newest images by Ruth from APassionForStamps and I hope I did them justice!

All images were coloured with Copics and I used Nesties for the mats, ribbon and flowers from stash. All sentiment stamps by PTI.

The next card is for a very dear crafty friend who just moved, hoping she doesn't see it before it arrives *hehe*

The image is from the very talented Mo Manning and coloured with Copics again. I used the very technical help of a saucer to make the card shape and twine from SU to give it a bit of a rustic feel. The scallops were done with punched circles.

This image from the wonderful Tammy at ADayForDaisies was coloured with Copics ages ago and I really wanted to use it, so this is my first christmas card for 2011! The strip of glitter s doe with DST, the scalloped edge is a PTI die and the Twine is from Anthropology. Sentiment is from a Paula Pascale set.

This image was done months ago and I didn't know what to do with it until Saturday... The background is done with Distress inks and I stamped a SU stamp on top. Sentiment is from a Personal impression stamp set. I added some tiny pearls to balance and just matted onto grey-blue card.

Lastly (I am sorry you have to endure these mega-posts after me not posting much for ages!!!) two cards I made with a challenge pack from my SU demo Joanne, who is an amazing card maker (go check out her stuff!).

One was done on Saturday, the other yesterday. Supplies almost all by SU.

Sorry about that slightly unfocused picture, I didn't realise at the time and then couldn't stand the thought of having to set up again...

Well, thanks for staying with me for so long and I hope you like what you saw! Night, night for now!

Two challenge card

Hello bloggers, long time no see... sorry about my continued absences, I just have a lot going on in my day to day life and didn't get around to blogging. I missed it thou!

I have received a couple of awards - thanks ladies, it's so nice of you to think of little old me! I'll post proper when I have a little more time, hopefully not too long from now.

I only want to share a card quickly that I made last week but haven't posted.

I am using not one but two of Ruth's new images, I think they go so well together! I coloured with Copics and the background is made with Impressabilities and ink sponged over the raised parts. The sentiment is computer generated and matted onto punched circles and a cricut-cut double-ended tag. The charm and ribbon are from my stash.

I want to enter it to these challenges:

Totally Paper Crafts challenge 32: charming - use of a charm

Allsorts Challenge Week 68: New Beginnings - as I have the theme of a new day tht starts with coffee and chocs I hope it counts!

That's it from me for today, hope to see you again, soon!

N.B. Oops, just realised I waited too long to post this and the charm challenge is closed already - doh!

Multi challenge card

Hello, me again,

I said, I was going to post several things tonight, didn't I? Well, I have another card with one of Ruth's images, honeysuckle this time.

I saw an image of honeysuckle where the flowers were actually hot pink and yellow and I loved it, so that's why I coloured them like this with my copics. I followed a sketch again, this time from ICSketches and used stitching, faux on the panel and real on the ribbon. The white background is embossed with a CB folder.

I am entering this in these challenges:

A Passion for Papertrey - Forever friends (sorry, only used sentiment and PTI cardstock)

ICSketches - sketch

Papertake weekly - bright and white

Basic Grey - Stitching

Papersundaes - Stitching

the craftypad - ribbons and flowers (I hope the flower image counts!)

Hope you like it!

I have some more cards to share, but will do that tomorrow I think, need some sleepy time now! Bye bye bloggers!

Basic Grey

Purple Iris!

Hi, it's me again,

Ruth has designed some lovely new flowers for A Passion for stamps again this month and this iris is my favourite. I used the sketch on Truly S

crumptious challenge blog to make this card, the image is coloured with Copics and the background is airbrushed. Sentiment is PTI again, papers are Papermania Capsule Collection.

I enter this card into the following challenges:

truly scrumptious - sketch (optional oldie stamp, obviously didn't do that...)

creative inspirations - anything goes

Cute card thursday - whateva

Hope you like this card, I think I am in love with that iris... so gorgeous! Thanks for looking and any comments you want to leave!

A Man's card!

Hello bloggers,

yes, I know, I have been missing again... sorry! But my household is just beyond busy! Two little monsters, ehm, boys, I mean, and it's school holidays! Anyway, I have been busy in my craft room as well and have some cards to show you. Will keep my drivel short as I have several posts going up tonight and need to catch up on that beauty s

leep *lol*

Well, here is a male card I did with one of the new images by Ruth from A Passion for Stamps, a little sailboat, great for those tricky male cards!

I used the sketch from friday sketchers, coloured with Prisma pencils and distressed with some Wild Honey TH ink, the design on the corners is stamped with that ink as well. Sentiment is PTI, charm from stash.

I enter this card into these challenges:

card for men challenge _ off on an adventure

totally papercrafts challenge - by the sea

friday sketchers challenge - sketch

Hope you like my card, and thanks if you decide to leave a comment!

Dutch Dare and Stamp with fun challenge card

Hello Bloggers,

yes, I am still alive, just not blogging much as life is pretty hectic at the minute (Seems to be a recurring theme in my life...).

Anyhow, I am here now and want to show you my latest card which showcases one of the new designs that Ruth from APassionForStamps has created. I simply love her flower images and this Fuchsia one is no exception.

I am entering it into the Dutch Dare challenge which has a flowery inspiration picture with lots of pinks in and the Stamp with fun challenge which simply asks for a birthday card.

As for the card, there isn't much to say as I kept it very simple to show off the beautiful picture fully and I just love clean and simple. The image is coloured with Prisma pencils and mounted onto Papermill cardstock that I treated to a bit of Martha Stewart edge punching (Layered Arches) and mounted with foam pads. The tentfold makes it a bit different and I added a beautiful satin ribbon in pink I got in my local haberdashery shop.

Hope you like it, please stop by soon again! If you are one of my american blogger friends, there will be a little give-away very soon, so keep a watch out for that!

Mojo Monday/DC Digi and ABC Challenge Card

Hello Bloggers!

Here I am again with one of the lovely bird digi stamps from Ruth. This time the wonderful parrot which I coloured in blue and yellow - that fits in nicely with the Digi Challenge over on DC - make a card in blue and yellow! The ABC challenge blog is asking for a thank you card, which is easy enough and as this is a thanks for a very lovely lady for helping me out big time, I think that fits the bill. And last but not least I followed the Sketch over on Mojo Monday to make this a three challenge card!

The deeds: Parrot from A Passion for Stamps, Coredinations Cardstock, Basic Grey Urban Prairie papers, ribbon from stash, Sentiment by Hero Arts and image coloured with Copics. Let me know what you think of this and stay tuned for more cards and there may even be some candy in the pipeline somewhere...

Sketch Saturday with Kingfisher (image by Ruth)

Hello bloggers,

just a quick one from me tonight. I've had trouble with my computer last night so couldn't upload this card I made with one of the gorgeous bird images from Ruth at apassionforstamps.

I followed the sketch at Sketch Saturday and used my copics to colour the image, Nesties to cut it out, Design Paper is from Basic Grey and I used bright orange cardstock. Half pearls are from my stash, as is the ribbon on the double ended tag (Spellbinders). Sentiment is by PTI from their set "Birds of a feather", stamped in Versafine Smokey Grey.

Here is a detail shot of the digi stamp, which is available here: A passion for stamps.

Hope you like it!

Truly Scrumptious sketch challenge card

And post number three for tonight ;-)

This is another of the images Ruth sent me - topiary. I used it for the Truly Scrumptious sketch challenge. I turned the sketch on the side for this.

I coloured with Copics, corners have been punched with an MS punch "rings" and layered onto pink card. The backing paper is Core'dinations CB embossed and sanded down a bit. I used purple organza ribbon (Anitas) and some pink eyelets. Sentiment is by "My sentiments exactly".

Hope you like it!