October Afternoon Farmhouse

I am supposed to be getting on with so many other things but I am being mightily distracted by the paper pad I bought yesterday, Farmhouse by October Afternoon - so many lovely papers, so little time. Ginham, yellow and grey and pink, polka dots, botanical images...it's got the lot! Here's what  I've made so far. Mostly quite simple, but that's the way I like them!

Rejuvenated

Good Morning! It has been a very long time since I last posted anything here and I have to say that my card making had ground to a halt over the christmas period and afterwards. My attic where I do all of my crafting was a disaster area, with stuff on every surface and no proper storage to put anything into. Having other things to do (reports for school!) is a great incentive for tackling the other jobs that I normally put off around the house and so I launched into sorting out my attic space last weekend. I made a trip to IKEA and bought some drawers and proceeded to spend Saturday and Sunday going through everything; getting rid of old unused tools and paper and sorting everything out. My back was aching from all the bending over and not a lot else got done. But now I have reclaimed my workspace and am inspired again. Reading the blog A bit East-Coast, I was inspired by Keisha Campbell's tags using gold embossing :

Another thing that has been inspiring me to make cards has been the arrival of the Rosy Posy stamps and dies from Papertrey Ink last week. I love the big cabbage rose stamps and the oak leaves, all very arts and craftsy. To make it even better the stamps made it through dutch Customs without any extra charges - unbelievable!

When tidying I'd found a set of Jenny Bowlin mini papers that I thought I'd lost. they have featured on most of these new cards and this one:

This last photo is just of some glassine bag packaging I wanted to try out. I've been seeing these used more and more in cardmaking and think they look really gorgeous.

I'm hoping this new spurt will continue. Have a great weekend.

Cake Pops and Little Houses

My poor blog has been neglected for such a long time. Teaching and free time don't go very well together (unless it's the summer holidays!) I have been inspired by the Team at PTI, who have just realeases a new front door kit  into making some little house cards. I haven't got the stamps but liked so many of the cards that i decided to have a go. Above are the two I liked best.

Since I first clapped eyes on them, I have been dying to try my hand at making cake pops. With Children in Need coming up and my class having a bake sale at school, I had just the excuse I needed to get down to it. I bought all of the necessaries and started to make pudsey bears....unfortunately I forgot to photgraph the final step with his spotty eye patch but you can get the idea. I have to say that they looked much better than they tasted (it's usually the other way around in the case of my baking). Two or three casualties sat in our kitchen for four days without being eaten by any of us; and that's saying something! I think it is the consistency I'm not keen on. If they were only made from balls of cake and not cake crumbs with icing added, I think they'd taste much better. 

However they did look really cute and sold well ont the day.

DCM Challenge - Birds

It's been a loooooooong time since I've posted anything.The first half term back at school and working in a new team and year group has left me precious little time for card making. But it's nearly half term and, in celebration, I've gone on a spree! The Daring Cardmaking Challenge this week was set by Rein - and what a popular one it seems to be! Who can resist birds on their cards - not me! So here are a couple of birdy cards made this weekend and some others to make up for my long absence. Enjoy the weekend and pop over to The Daring Carmaking site to see the fantastic Design Team's creations. And for a chance of winning some ribbon from The Ribbon Reel.

Collage Card

Papers: My Minds Eye, Basic Grey   Journaling Card: American Crafts

Bird: Digital rub-on Urban Junque  label Stamp: Eline's Huis   Stamp: PIP studio

Bird Specimen Card

Stamps: 7 Gypsies

Folklore card

Paper: Basic Grey   Floral Image: PIP Studio  Stamp: Eline's Huis

Love in Grey and Pink

Tag Stamps: Eline's Huis  

DCM Challenge - So Kawaii

Leo set the dare this week over at Daring Cardmakers and what a great dare it is too - to make a card with a kawaii cute theme. Leo's images looked familiar - I have the very same digital kit from Kitchy Digitals and it is one of my favourites. I coated the cherries with a layer of Glossy Accents to make them look good enough to eat!  The background paper is part of a freebie kit from Designer Digitals. To finish off I added a bit of white twill and a red gingham button. The design team have some fabulously cute cards to inspire...what are you waiting for?

Daring Cardmakers Challenge - Cute as a Button

This week is Sharon's first dare - to create a card with  button/s as a feature and not just as an extra embellishment. For someone like me who is a bit of a button addict this was a dare that was right up my street. I have had to cheat a little and dig out a card from a little while ago as I am on holiday this week with no access to my cardmaking things.

I made this card using digital paper from Vera Lim on craft card. It has a fold over front and a little pink vase of flowers made using my favourite vintage buttons. It is another simple design (seems like I say this every week) and I left the sentiment off for the meantime as I thought it could be used for so many different purposes that I'd wait until a suitable occasion came up before attaching one.

The design team have come up with many wonderful ways to let your buttons take centre stage. What will you create with your buttons?

This has been my last post as guest designer and I have had great fun working with such a wonderful group of fabulous cardmakers. Thank you to the design team for giving me this fantastic opportunity. Have a wonderful weekend.

Daring Cardmakers Challenge - Wish You Were Here!

Good Morning ! It's Friday again and you know what that means....time for another challenge from the Daring Cardmakers. This week Lynda has set the challenge of making a summer holiday themed card under the title 'Wish you were here.' Your card can include anything associated with holidays - tents, postcards, beach themes, city breaks or caravans.

I fussed around with lots of vintage postcard ideas before finally settling on a caravan card. I wish I'd known about the template on Crafty Tmeplates before hand-drawing my own!

I wanted to keep it simple but just kept adding bits so I'm not sure I'm entirely happy with the end result. I do like the caravan though - it has probably done a fair bit of travelling over the front of a few cards and over this one to try to find the exact spot to place it!

Pop along to the daring Cardmakers and be inspired by the creations of the Design Team.

What do you imagine when you think summer? We'd love to see your interpretation.

  

DCM Challenge - Pinterest

Well Nat set a very pinteresting interesting challenge this week - to make a card inspired by Pinterest. Pinterest is a virtual pinboard where you can keep all of the wonderfully inspiring ideas you see on the internet in one place in handy folders. There is just so much inspiration to be found there. The only problem is, that you can easily lose whole hours just browsing other people's pinboards. I finally plumped for this photo of a quilt while browsing doilies.


Source: Quilts and More Magazine

Here is my card based on the doily design using craft cardstock to mimic the caramel background. I stamped the images then embossed themusing white embossing powder, just using white ink didn't seem to get the depth of colour.
Visit the DCM blog for a wonderfully (p)inspired set of cards.

Daring Cardmakers Challenge - Suitcase.

It's Friday again, and time for another date with the Daring Cardmakers. This week's dare is courtesy of Rein and involves making a card with a suitcase on it. There is a prize rollover his week - check out the prize from Crimson Cloud on the Daring Cardmakers blog.

The Design team have been as busy as ever and have come up with a whole array of gorgeous card to inspire you.

My card is inspired by vintage luggage. I've had those ribbon sliders for ever so it was good to finally use them. What kind of case will you put on your card?

DCM Challenge -July Flowers

It's Friday again and the beginning of a brand new month - I can't quite believe it's July already!

The Daring Carmaker's challenge this week is to make a card featuring one of the flowers of July, the waterlily or the larkspur. I opted for the waterlily so that I could finally make use of this little frog  that has been kicking around in my sticker tray. I made the lily leaf by cutting out a pice of green card with scalloped scissors and using a dark green copic marker to make the veins. I dug out bits of older papers to make the sky and water. Thanks to everyone at DaringCarmakers for the chance to participate as Guest Designer this month....hope I can rise to the challenge. Have a great weekend.