Awesome!

Well that is Christmas over for another year :-(

but hope that a you all had a good one! 

If there is one thing I love is big sentiments and this one from Uniko Studio is perfect for a male card ,had intended to add stars on the white but it just looked too cluttered so decided to let the sentiment say it all!!
Saying that it reminded me that this weeks challenge at Less is More is to pick a past challenge and I thought I would join in with week 47 -one word but after searching for it on their blog couldnt find it except in their past challenge list,so just to be safe iI thought it would also fit in with their week 79 the colour challenge using blue and green.
 The cardstock is from SU lucky limeade and island indigo as is the sentiment using SU markers
Thank you for taking the time to look . x

Black background

Dark background with a splash of colour(s)

When I looked at the Less is More site yesterday I knew what I wanted to do - another male card of course , and in RL it looks just as I wanted but the photo makes it appear duller! Grrr spent more trying to get a true photo then making it.....But never mind, I used  navy and red cardstock and the stars are lucky limeade.I layered the stars up to make them stand out a bit more and  then added a tiny bit of bling to them. The sentiment is from Uniko Studio isn't it just brill,love big sentiments!

Thanks for looking ...just about to pop over and have a look at everyone elses creations x

Black

What a really miserable day here in Aberdeen the rain is really battering against the window as I type,just the perfect day to hide away and make some cards! 

I made this one for my Goddaughter who will be 23 soon .I realise that the paper bow isn't very clear in the top picture hopefully the second photo shows it better. I made it for the Casology  challenge their cue card  says BLACK. 

I used Pink Petticoat digi pinstripe paper , SU heart,and the sentiment and sparkles are from my stash .

Now off to have a little browse around blogland as I am lucky enough to have won the bonus ball in my work (we pick numbers and pay each week for them, then when the bonus ball is drawn on Saturday nights  lottery if you have that number then you win the pot )but I won a rollover week and so won the princely sum of £64!  so off to see which catches my eye and treat myself.

Hope you all have a great weekend and thanks for looking x

String or twine

String or Twine

It has been such a long time since I posted I almost forgot how to do it! :-)
 I confess to being not feeling that great lately and to my horror I lost all inclination to even enter my favourite challenges or even to comment  (which I am really sorry for ladies!!! ) but feeling much better now and so decided to take part in one of my favourites the Less is More challenge which is for string or twine...I am hopeless with this medium try as I might !
So went for a really simple card ,embossed the card base with dots and then added one of the festive flurry stamps from SU that I had heat embossed in silver and then used liquid pearls to dot  the snowflake in bisque because it matched the bit of string I had (I know it doesn't look it in the pic but then in real life there isn't that pink blush either ...ah the wonders of dear old blogger!). Think it would look better with a ribbon instead but  oh well .The sentiment is also from SU.
    But at least  that's the first Christmas card made !
  Thanks for taking the time to look  x

Round and Round

Next week it is my son's 17th birthday and in the uk that is the age when they can take driving lessons, and that is all he speaks about just now who we can book for his lessons! so have been wracking my brain to think of a card for him and so went looking at my favourite challenges to seek inspiration and found it on the Less is More site with their challenge ROUND and ROUND and I shamelessly CASed both of Chrissies ...they do say that copying is the highest form of praise remember Chrissie :-) and I totally agree and thanks for the picture tutorial  for a spinner card ...though mine is more a slider card!, which I managed  no bother (well when I unstuck my fingers from the tape that is ) Did originally think of a car then realised it would roll sideways so went with the SU motorbike instead, and  computer generated the sentiment to make it  a bit more personal.

Now off to seek inspiration for a get well card for a friend who is in hospital just now.....

xXx

p.s was updating  the blog when I noticed that for some reason blogger has decided to add a pink cast to my card ! Honest the real card and the original post don't have it ...ah the wonder of blogger!!

Dessert and tags

When I saw this weeks cue card for CAS.ology the first thought was dessert cocktails!!

Not an obvious choice I must admit but when we were in Glasgow not long ago on the menu for the desserts were dessert cocktails , so we just  had to give it a go and went for the raspberry cheesecake and all I can remember was it included a raspberry liquer called chambord as one of the ingredients.  When it came it was in  a glass just like the one on the card with cream floating on the top (how do they do that??) and it was delicious....just wish I had taken a photograph at the time.

My card is made with with a die and stamp set that I bought a wee  while ago and for now the name escapes me...sorry (and of course to save space have added it to another set so no longer have the packaging!) Decided to stamp the bottom layer in black and then to stamp the tag (which is the from the same set ) in Melon Mambo and align it so the words match ...which was remarkably easier than I thought it was going to be ,and popped the cocktail glass up on dimensionals .

It will also be perfect for the challenge over at the Friday Mashup as the challenge there, is to add a tag to your project,as too is the current challenge over at CASon Sunday (Tag it)

Thank you so much for taking the time to look x

Gold

When I saw this weeks CAS.ology  cue word was GOLD was a bit stumped so gathered my stock of gold (which wasn't a lot I must admit!) and saw the gold jingle bell and just while in my head I was singing jingle bells the postie delivered a new set of die cut letters ...sorted - or so I thought ,the original had a piece of old  gold paper behind a negative cut of the word but it was 'slighty' squint and the next one grew way too much layers etc for a CAS card , and after three attempts ran out of gold paper so it was back to the old drawing board .

I always admire  cards that have just the word as the focal point on them so this is finally my interpretation of it though not sure if I actually like it...think there is something lacking???

Thanks for looking and I really appreciate any comments that you leave x

Uniko challenge no.1

HEY there !

Thought that I would join in with UNIKO STUDIO first challenge ,have just lately discovered them and they are so good went back for more hee he!!! The challenge is to make a card that said Hello showcasing some of their products.

This is my take on the challenge ......

 I would firstly like to say a huge thank you to Bev and Ren-Yi  for helping me to understand what a blog hop is -Doh -think I over thought it but these ladies took the time to explain and hopefully this post will meet the challenge!

But back to the card......

This was the first stamp I bought from them  - Beautiful Blooms 1 ,and I love it though had a bit of a panic when the SU melon mambo ink stained it ,I usually use baby wipes to clean my stamps but these stamps clean up better with a bit of warm water and soap and then I was able  to go on and stamp in pale aqua the next time!

I showed this card to my hubby when I finished and he insisted that I add the 'there' as he just couldn't get a card that said simply 'hey!' :-)
Oh and before I forget my random fact is when I was wee I used to carry worms around in one my handbag s ...don't ask my why !
Thanks for popping in by ! x
Sorry about the picture its a bit overcast here at the moment !
P.S Thanks Gay, for pointing out  to me that this card also meets the criteria for the Less is More challenge which is hand made flowers!

Holiday

It's the holidays yay!

...and finally I might have enough time to play and take part in some of my favourite challenges which this week are -

The crafty cardmakers - Holiday

Addicted to CAS - codeword WATER

Addicted to stamps and more (new one for me) - Make your mark,using markers chalks etc

After  very busy and at times very stressful few months it's finally the school holidays and I am on holiday for the next 6 weeks! don't know about you but when I get really stressed I close my eyes and dream, my favourite being - of lying on a warm sandy beach and slowly toasting in the sun (of course in the dream I'm also at least 2 sizes smaller and 3inches taller!!) so hence my card....and isn't colouring in sooo therapeutic so restful even when it takes half a dozen goes to get it right !

p.s would like to say that in RL the umbrella is red and green not orange as it appears here, our son has our camera on his trip so have had to use my phone camera and I'm amazed to find that apart from the colour of the umbrella that it doesn't take too bad a picture ! 

Thanks for popping over x

.

Sketch & Care

I am so pleased and delighted to say that Rosemary chose my card for a Honorable Mention in last weeks challenge at Casology so this card is also dedicated to the Casology DT's  too.Thanks guy's !x

                    This weeks challenge at Less is More is a sketch and this weeks Casology cue card is CARE so it fitted in perfect as I had been looking for ideas to do a thank you card for a local chemist.
My youngest suffers from a severe peanut allergy and last week he went to one of those all you can eat buffets with friends and although he read all the ingredients, we think through cross contamination (a spoon being placed back in the wrong place maybe) on his way home he started to react and by the time he got home he was bright red, the rash had appeared, but  luckily this time his airways stayed clear  but  he went into shock and it was due him failing to take his epipen ,(he had no where to put it was his excuse...well thanks to Suze of cantstopcrafting he has no excuse as she has now  made him a pocket that can be moved from jacket to jacket thanks Susan !!) so it was a trip to hospital until 3.00 a.m but the thank you card isn't for Susan though she deserves one too, have something else for her  -oh no there is more to this tale my son is also off on a trip to Cambodia with the school and needed jabs and the card is for the chemist where he was getting them ,they spotted that he had stared to react again 48 hrs after the first one and quickly sorted him out and refused to let us leave until they were sure that he was o.k and also gave him free drinks and food...now that's what you call  a caring service! But one I'd gladly do without again I must admit!!!!
If you have stayed with me through all that ....onto my card!
I love the look of Jen's kraft cards but I don't like mine they just look bland, so decided to use a cream base (which looks a lot  richer cream in RL) and sahara sand ink from SU with just touches of white and actually liking this colour combo!Had meant to round the edges of the centre panel but stuck it down before I remembered - doh!
The stripy paper is from pink petticoat and the flower and flourish are from SU
Now off to do the online shop that I was meant to be doing before I got side tracked!

Thanks for taking the time to look and read hee he ....it's much appreciated !x

Giggle

As you can see the cue word for CASology is GIGGLE and when I first saw this digi image on someone's blog, sorry but have forgotten her blog name when I first started blogging , I did give a little giggle o.k and  a little smirk too cos it sums up my hubby perfectly! (he says that it is me that snore's but well come on ME snore ...never!!!) and  when I asked about where she got it from she kindly sent it to me isn't the blogging community just great and so nice....

I coloured it in with promarkers and popped up the snore bubble with 3D foam ,though that is clearer in real life,and the sentiment is a SU one from Best Dad Ever set

CCM89 Gift bag & tag

 

     
       This weeks challenge at the crafty cardmakers is:-


  Challenge 89 Tag/Card + Matching Gift Wrap, Bag or Box

                                                                

This is what I came up with .My husband has always enjoyed the James Bond films (can't see the attraction myself ...weeell maybe I can Hee he) so I decorated a bag using that theme.

The tag is made with a James Bond download that I got from a crafty mag that has seen loads of service!! Now I have just got to fill it......                     

CASE IT

The sun is shining and I have a few hours to spare ,thanks to the wonders of internet grocery shopping yay! and.....

This week the Less is More challenge is to CASE  IT (see below for the cards we had to case) it could be either one or both cards we could even combine them ! so that's what I tried to do and to try and challenge myself more I decided to case Jen's  card first making mine a colour ,rather than a white one as usual,never comfortable with doing coloured cards ! then did the paper piercing and cut out the sentiment. 

Then cased the new technique by Chrissie (check out the internet wow there is some stunning examples there too) but unfortunately the letter dies I have don't lend themselves to this technique ....so I took the easy way out and die cut some flowers and to make them stand out better for the photo I did the second stamped card slightly lighter,before popping them up n dimensionals

Really not sure about it feel it's a bit  *blah*  but like the technique and sure I will use it again but think a bit of practice is needed to get the right stamp and colour.

Everything used was from my stash or snippets (REALLY need to get the mound down its taking over now! )

Just off to take out the washing - this full time working is really eating into my crafty time , trying to be super organised ....that usually  lasts til about mid week then it all falls apart ! It was meant to be until the end of May but now looks until beginning of July .Aw well I'll just keep thinking about the crafty goodies that will be bought with the extra money hee he - then I'll be back to catch up with my commenting .

Have a great weekend everyone x

                                                                 

FM105

This is a really quick card need to go out soon so had to really rush to make it but had to get it done before I go!.  I had stamped and coloured the car with promarkers - I  normally just stamp the outline -  a couple of days ago but it ended up in the reject box ,until I saw the challenge at The Friday Mashup ,had been struggling to come up with a card for my nephews birthday and hopefully this will fit the bill perfectly and I will (very carefully) write his name in the number plate nearer the time, so thank you ladies the perfect challenge for me this week.In fact have another couple  ideas  for some more .... hee he

The striped paper is from Pink Petticoat and the image is from Kanban's retro cars and the sentiment is from SU

Thanks for looking - much appreciated!x

Lime and Green

Hi everyone what an eventful week last week was!! Between the heating breaking down ,the engineer getting  told the wrong day to come, my husband handing in his notice, a weekend away ,and no.2 son getting an interview for a weekend job(while we had no heating or hot water so he had to spend the night at my brothers so he would smell lovely and hair was just so for the interview..and delighted to say he got it !) phew I'm buzzing.!
Still managed to take a peek at the challenge at Less is More and  found that this week it was Lime and Black and straight away I knew that I wanted to make another male card ( no surprise there then!)and try out my new goodies from SU so used the ties and sentiments from the Best Ever Dad set and I used the  colour lucky  limeade, from my stamper pens (love these sooo versatile!) and the sketch at CAS(E) this sketch gave  me the inspiration, but would you believe it I was too late to join their challenge it had closed ..aw well maybe next time!
Well off to make the tea ...enjoy the rest of your week! x

Humour

 This week the challenge at the crafty cardmakers is Humour ! -

which at the moment I'm sadly lacking, as for the last two days we have been without heating  or water apart from a convector heater that is managing to heat about a third of the living - room - so I have retired up stairs to blog while I still have any feeling left in my fingers !  How easily we take these little things for granted... showers ,taps that run hot, and the pleasure of getting up in the morning and a warm room awaits  ....bliss!!! Roll on tomorrow when the engineer gets here  hee he.

My card is a simple one layer which I have stamped a Bugaboo image on to and 

coloured with promarkers. The sentiments reads....

Thanks for looking ! x

Beads

   

      Less is More -Use Beads

Chrissie and Jen have really pushed me with this challenge,

I have a packet of pearl beads that I have had forever ,as I bought them by mistake so was really pleased when I seen the challenge.That was until I opened the packet,  - that was my first mistake there must have been about 200 of the darn things and all went spilling over the desk -picked them up and then made my 2nd mistake trying to thread them - 

Do you know how long it took me to thread those blasted beads  (all 11 of them) and then to pick up all the ones that had pinged out of my fingers and landed on the floor,rolled across the desk (and got stuck in the keyboard at one point ..don't ask and don't tell my hubby pretty  sure the nail file I used to get it out wasn't the best tool to use ...oops!) and  all for a card  hee he are we all mad ?? -

Well it passed a Saturday night /Sunday and I got to use my new goodies to boot so all came good in the end.

Hope you are all having a good weekend wherever you are ,off  now to get the hoover for the last few that have resisted all efforts to be returned to whence they came from!

xXx

Song

I'm really late posting this for the CASology challenge (probably cause heaps of songs might have whirled about my head but the ideas for matching cards didn't !!) but the one word that did pop into my head when I first saw the cue word was songbird so that's what I went with (sometimes you shouldn't over think things should you????) and then when looking for inspiration in my song list came across Michael Jackson's  Black or White so that gave me the colour!
Determined to use up my scrap paper that is now getting to epic proportions ...though this one didn't use much of it must admit....for all future projects....well o.k I'll TRY!
I used :-
SU music roller wheel ,and the bird stamp is from a set that sorry has no name on it.
Hope you have all had a great weekend x

Masculine card featuring a gadget or tecnology

 Its been a while since I joined in the Crafty Cardmakers challenges but when I saw that it was a masculine card and I had just done this one for a nephew so decided to enter it 

I stamped the image in vintage sepia and then masked it and sprayed the blue (which is blue foodcolouring :-) and then mounted it .

Thanks for looking x

Stripes and spots

A One Layer -

using

 Spots an Stripes 

 Not sure if this card will work for the challenge over at Less is More as found it easy to get the stripes harder for the spots! the stripes I masked and used SU solid stripes block and used versa magic chalk ink in sea breeze ,wanted to use a colour that I haven't used for ages ,but kinda like it  because it look I think really fresh against the white .Then diecut the flower and added the spotty dotty things  in the centre with black pen and then added some ice stickles to give it a little bit of sparkle(the snow that fell last night must have influenced me!) and added the sentiment from the faith in Nature set by SU.

Now off to do some commenting  while I wait for no.2 son to come home from a camping trip (I kid you not in freezing and snowy conditions)with the school as preparation for their upcoming trip to Cambodia ...in summer - don't think they will need their thermals for that  though!

Babies Galore

(they are much clearer  when you click on them promise)

This continues to be a really busy next few weeks with me practically working full time (roll on the Easter holidays!) so today would be my only chance to catch up with the Less is More challenge which is a colour challenge head over there to see the yummy colours they have come up with and because the next few months are full of arriving babies that's where my head is at ,so chose to do a baby girl card.

I die cut gingham paper from Pink Petticoat and a smaller white one and layered it up .Stamped the baby shoes (just love this stamp for baby girls) in sepia , and so that the colours would be more vibrant for the photograph coloured them in last.  ...I used  ivory promarker for the inside of the shoe and Stampin up Pink pirouette for ribbon and stars.Computer generated sentiment and a little pink gem stuck in the middle of the daisy finished it off and viola another card done and dusted!

Please scroll done to see the inspiration for the baby boy card 

The baby boy card I made for  someone I work with you became a grandparent for the very first time and think I have managed to incorporate all the colours in the challenge over at the Friday Mashup blog have watched this challenge but never actually took part til this week which has a picture inspiration and for a baby card and it was a very good source of inspiration! 

The gingham paper was again from Pink Petticoat and the stamp is from Stampin up the colours I used were :-

Pool party(birds )

real red ( butterflies )

yellow (lions)

 pastel beige(arc)

Finally you will be pleased to know that I'm nearly finished but just wanted to say hello to Morag who has joined me as a follower and who I very much enjoyed meeting at a crafty evening recently and who showed me some of her work and I was green with envy !! hee he

Enjoy the rest of your week x

Circles

                                                       

What a week!! before I start I must apologise for not getting round to very much commenting this last week as my two boys are both going away this week (one with  Uni and the other one with the school) and to top it all work has been manic so have been organising them and working overtime at work so little time to craft but when I saw this weeks CASology's cue card had to take part so that's why I'm doing this when everyone else is in bed - peace and quiet ah bliss!
Once again I seem to have made a male card( probably because my family is festooned with the male species with a very small sprinkling of girls usually the ones that they marry hee hee)  I haven't used this James Bond download for a very long time, it came from a magazine website and included the sentiment too.The stripy paper is from pink petticoat and my circles are diecuts .Thank you for looking and hope that wherever you are you are having a great weekend ! x

Flame

I have been thinking about this weeks challenge at CASology all week ,had heaps of ideas but due to work and other things never managed to get them done .So Friday night up I went to the cratfy room and ....settled down to do the card and nothing ,tidied a bit then  settled down again nothing this went on for a while gave up and consoled myself with a large glass of wine and a bag of crisps (and I wonder why I can't lose weight??)
Then this morning decided to to use this stamp with the tiny candle in it did try using flame colours but it didn't catch the eye as much as this one ,so would have binned it  - this one I can use for a masculine card.( and it will also tie in nicely with the Addicted to CAS challenge too hee he ) so though might not be quite what the challenge is looking for there is a flame there!
And welcome to my new follower Kristie. Thanks for joining me :-)
Hope you are all having a great weekend. x

Happy Birthday LIM!

Kraft & Kreme

To-day is the Less is More challenge and its also their 2nd birthday so Happy Birthday to you all and well done and to many more birthdays!

This was the first ever challenge I took part in and do try to do it every week when time and inspiration allows ,and boy I'm glad I did! what a lot I have learnt from the divas and from the rest of you bloggers. (Though I had to laugh when I remarked to my youngest son that he spent too much time on face book and he quick as flash said" it's not that much different from your blogger ,I chat with my friends and so do you" and he's right I have made new friends through blogging, world wide)
But I digress so back to my card ,after last weeks hair tearing this one made itself practically ...Kraft is something that I rarely use so all I had was a piece about 3x3 in my scrap paper!
Punched my hearts and squares stamped the stripes, spots (Confetti) the tag and sentiment  (Tiny tags) all SU pierced two holes and threaded through some scrap raffia and tag.
Thinking to put it away for our anniversary later on in the year for hubby,and would definitely use Kraft more often now !
Now off to have a peep at all of yours x

Sketch and Heart

                                                                                                                   

Hi everyone did anyone find this as difficult as me? For being such a simple sketch for this weeks challenge at Less is More I found it amazingly hard ! think I was over thinking it :-) and that it why it has taken me til to-day to get it done,that and the fact that it has been such a miserable week but today we even got a blink of sun (pretty sure I suffer from SAD always just want to hibernate when its dull and driecht outside ...or eat hee he but with that bit of sun flew through the housework ! Also found the Addicted to CAS challenge and this fits in perfectly there too!

Back to the card I used a SU roller music stamp and SU heart punch and  did the sentiment on the computer.

Still have a bit of time before making tea so off to have a lookie at all your creations,thanks for looking x

Stamper 6 play

 Another snowy day here although still lucky because it hasn't really lay for long,but the kind of day where you can potter about totally guilt free.To-day I made a card using some goodies that I got in my monthly pack from the SU stamper 6.Love this sentiment suits me and my friends to a T! hee he, and set a challenge for myself that I had to use scrap paper only (not a lot was used as you can see but I did try !)but reasonably happy with it and it just so happens that my Sister In Law's birthday soon ....
Take care and cosy everyone x

Black and white and a touch of colour

           First off I'd like to wish everyone a 

                            Happy New Year!!

Hope you all had a great time over the festive period and didn't over indulge too much ...like I did (back on the diet this week)

Then I'd like to say its great to be back and finally able to do some cardmaking !!! elbow is now on the mend though the computer is still out for a wee while ...but using my sons tablet isn't using a computer /mouse is it ?hee he

This is my offering for this weeks challenge at Less is More where it is :-

BLACK and WHITE 

 a touch or a splash, a hint or suggestion, a dab or a  patch of 

a colour of your choice!

I'm gonna be honest here and say that this is the card I started for the anniversary challenge and never quite got finished,have kept it very simple and stamped  the hearts using SU stripes and  fresh vintage stamps .The sentiment is computer generated using Brock script and added the pink heart gems from stash.

(Didn't get a new camera for Christmas cos think its not the cameras fault , I just take bad photos! and even editing in picasa doesn't help much)

I made a new years resolution that I will try to comment as much as possible but now due to the tennis elbow will limit the time I spend on the computer but I promise I will get round to all the people that I've missed eventually ,have seriously missed the friendliness of all you bloggers,but my husband says he's enjoyed my company ...absence obviously does make the heart fonder :-)

Thanks for taking the time to look and (hopefully) leave a comment 

x x x