Pure Innocence...

Isn't she cute? I'm loving these digi-stamp images from Heather Ellis, who can also be found on Etsy.  At first I was using these the 'old-fashioned' way - printing off the black and white outlines then colouring with Promarkers then cutting out and sticking to my background layer, and hand-writing sentiments as in this card....

Then I decided to have a bit of a play around with them in Paint.NET, making the background transparent and converting to png files so I could layer up onto the digital backing paper before printing.  I've added the sentiment at this stage too.  

Don't worry though, the Promarkers aren't redundant - I've still hand-coloured the images, and I've gone over the red sentiment and other red areas of the design with a red Spica pen just for a subtle hint of glitter.


I think I feel a notelet set coming along....

my kind of recycling

A card I made for a colleague & her husband, on behalf of all of the staff at the library a few weeks ago.  I didn't blog it at the time as I'd saved it directly to the internal memory of my camera then couldn't find the lead to download to my PC!

I still can't decide if I'm happy with it or not, although everyone else loved it.  The stitching is a design from Stitching Cards, modified to fit a square format, with some stick-on gems added for a bit more 'fizz'.


As usual for my 'special' cards I made a matching box too...

with a close-up of the tag to show the detail

And the recycling bit?  The ribbon on the card and box was taken from a friend's bridal bouquet, and the flowers and leaf 'tag' were from the flowers decorating another pal's wedding cake.

Not a card today...

...but a patriotic necklace!

Very simple construction, flags printed off and laminated then cut out and sandwiched in pairs with a ribbon loop and threaded onto  cord that I've tied in a bow at the back of my neck.  Lots of compliments, and no-one else has one!


Also made some mini-bunting to decorate my desk at work (but forgot to take a pic!)  - made some spares for my workmates too!


Lesley x

Gorgeous and girly...

Just a quickie this time to show off  this 'little cutey' Forever Friends card, which is actually 8" square! 

The image is a wall decor sticker from the Forever Friends Pink Parfait range.  These come in a pack of 3 large images, with lots of smaller elements too.  They were originally sold at £3.99 per pack, then Hobbycraft had them for £2.99 and I was tempted...but so glad I waited as they went down to £1.99 per pack!


The backing paper and sentiment sticker are from cheapy scrapbook kits from The Range that cost 99p (bargain!) and I've added some gems and glitter glue to bling things up a bit...

That's it for now, I'm off to finish the 2nd one...

Handbag Mark II...

Well, version 1 went down so well I thought I'd have another go

very similar to the first but I used a linen effect paper (not sure if that was wise, it didn't cut cleanly with the robo) and added a bit of bling. I designed the key myself on the robo  (I know some people still like keys on 18th/21st birthday cards so thought this was a very discreet way to use it!)

Back in my comfort zone...

with a much simpler card, although it is another challenge entry (I know, 2 in 1 day, lol!)...

This one is for the Pollycraft Monday Challenge - Let's have a sing-song where the theme is 'inspired by a song'. I think my entry speaks for itself, no explanation needed, lol! This has been one of my favourite songs for years so thank you to Glee and of course Joe McElderry for bringing it back!

Image is the Lilybean Fairy Clover Butterfly Wishes digistamp from Pollycraft

coloured (badly!) with Promarkers

backing paper 'Ice Cream Curls' from Pink Petticoat

and the little butterfly in the top left is a dimensional sticker from Anita's (strategically placed to hide the black mark left by my printer - silly me coloured and trimmed the image before running back through the printer to add the sentiment!)

Time for tea?

Isn't she a little cutie?

I've finally taken the plunge and bought my first Lili of the Valley stamps - looking back now I can't understand why I waited so long....

And to celebrate I thought it was time I also entered my very first challenge, this one at the Lili of the Valley challenge blog. It's a sketch challenge, and this is also the first time I've worked to a sketch but I'm quite pleased with the result...

 image is 'Tea Party' from Lili of the Valley

stamped with Memento Inkpad onto Clarity Stamps postcard

coloured with Promarkers

Martha Stewart border punch

Nellie's die-cut frame

backing papers from Forever Friends, Papermania Honey and Hugs and a Pink Petticoat download

sentiment from Craftwork Cards and think the flowers are Prima, held together with a Dovecraft brad

Simply baby boys...

Just a quickie to post these two, have been wanting to use the images for a while so out came the Promarkers last night and these are the results...

This first one uses an image (think it was a freebie?) from Pollycraft, I'm not sure if he's still available.  My cool aqua Promarker is on its last legs so I inked the edges of the die-cut panel with the aqua colour from a Kaleidacolor Inkpad in 'Caribbean Sea' colourway. Simple matting and layering (love the textured cardstock!) and a few mini buttons to finish it off.

This was also a freebie image, this time from Bodils Scrapperverden and again I've left the matting and layering very simple. The gingham paper has been punched with my new Martha Stewart Doily Lace, then I decided to colour the edge with the PM used in the image. I haven't put a sentiment on this one as I thought it could be used as either a new baby or a 1st birthday card.

That's all for today folks - will have some girlier designs next time...

Inspired by...

...well I hardly think I need say any more - the cute little scottie dog says it all! I bought a pack of the scotties at Harrogate in March with a card for one of my sisters in mind - she's a collector of a certain designer handbag range and my budget doesn't run to the actual thing...

Anyway there I was sat trying to decide what to do for the 50th birthday card I'd been asked to make, with the brief of 'girly' and cast my mind back to the conversation where I'd been told that part of the gift for the birthday girl was a you-know-who bag...

...and voila!

Papers are Pink Petticoat, handbag shape traced from a Craftwork Cards blank then layered with 'panels' cut on the robo. I cut a pocket into the front of the bag to slot the scottie into. The '50' charm was also cut on the robo - I cut 3 layers and stuck them together for strength, and the brad used for the closure was from Dovecraft I think.  Some assorted flowers and thin strips of black vinyl and we're good to go :-)

As has become the habit with my 8 x 8" cards I made a matching box instead of an envelope and I think it turned out pretty well, after completely mis-measuring last night - the 1st attempt wasn't even square lol!

Of course I'm my own worst critic and worried that it wasn't up to scratch but my friend loved it, and I think I'll be making a very similar one for a 21st birthday card she needs too...

Oh yes, and not forgetting my sister's card!

Heaven, I'm in Heaven...

Crafty heaven of course! Bank holidays are definitely bad for my bank balance, lol!  No pics just yet (I've just got home and the light is really poor) but this (extended) weekend I have bought

• 8 x 8 card blanks
• Forever Friends wall decor sets for a bargain £1.99 each - they're a perfect fit for an 8x8 card!
• 2 wonderful DCWV 12x12 cardstock stacks for just £7.99 each
• a Martha Stewart scoreboard
• some self-adhesive wallpaper border stickers (6 sheets in a pack) with diggers and cars etc for only 69p per pack
• a couple of 8 x 8 baby-themed scrapbook kits (10 sheets of paper, stickers and chipboard frames etc) for only 99p each
• oh yes, and a laptop!
• and quite a few other things as well - my friend did ask if I have any room left in my home ;-)

In my defence (as if it were needed between crafters!) I did spend a lot of time at the weekend making some cards for my office to sell at a charity fun day this coming weekend.  I'll hopefully get to take some pics tomorrow before handing them over....

Edited to add - here are the pics of some of the cards, images are Digistamp Boutique (I played around with a couple of them to create the image I wanted for my Fathers Day cards), papers are Zoe Pearn and Nitwit and some of the images are coloured with Promarkers...

and finally...those wallpaper stickers from The Range - once they're snipped up they'll have cost less than 4p per image!