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!

A day for daisies card

Hello again ;-)


I want to share a card today that I created a little while ago to send to a blogging friend in the US. I have heard now that it has arrived safely and can share it now.

The lady I was sending it to, Vera, is on the ADFD (a day for daisies) DT and I had been dying to use this beauty for a while, so this was the perfect opportunity. I kept it simple to let the picture speak and think it works really well. Here is a close-up:

I coloured the image with Copics and mounted on to red card. The flowers and leaves were punched with punches courtesy of my dear friend Lesley (I made the card at her house at our last play day) and the sentiment is by PTI. The embossed frame was done with my Scor-pal. Not much more to say really, it's a fairly simple card... Hope you like it!

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

Really quick birthday set...

Hi there bloggers!
Yesterday my little one was invited to a birthday party and although I did get the presents in the morning, I had other things on so I only had about 45 minutes to make a card and wrap the presents.
A bit of a challenge but it worked out fine I think as I made the card in super-speedy 10 minutes and made gift tags to match in a few minutes as well which left me with a good 20 minutes to wrap the presents and grab my kids to head off *lol* 

I used the Mat stack one die as well as the By the Numbers die from PTI, the star punches are Fiskars and SU, the large oval is a punch by SU. Papers are Papermania Capsule Collection Blueberry Pie and I used some ribbon from my stash. Stamps are by PTI, Big Birthday wishes and Border and Corners Ovals. 

As I said, it was very quick, but not too bad, what do you think?

Angelwoods gorgeous Candy!

Hello bloggers,


I just stumbled upon this gorgeous blog and not only are there amazing cards to be found, there is also a supersweet candy-give away! You have until the 18th April to enter to be eligible to win one of 3 (yes, not one, three!) lots of candy.
Here are the pics for you to see:

Hop on over to Angelwood to see her blog, you won't regret it!

Late Valentines

Hello bloggers,


no, you are reading right, I am still here and I am posting a valentine project! *lol*
I did this project with my craft club just before Valentines Day and because there were a few that didn't want to go all lovey-dovey, I made the same project in different colours as well. It went down really well with everyone but I completely forgot to take pictures... Have done that now and want to share. Hope you like them!

This is the large envelope bag:

This is the small one:

And the card to go with it:

And the little hanging basket/heart with rolled roses:

And the alternative colours/ theme:

I am off to meet my mateys tomorrow, so it's gonna be a crafty day - yeahh!! ;-)

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*