Floral kitty

 Hi all.  I was very lucky to win a Simon Says Stamp challenge recently and this cutie from Purple Onion Designs was one of the goodies I chose.  I wanted to use some spotty paper but didn't have any so just used some plain yellow paper (not sure why it looks darker in the photo as its definitely bright yellow), my falling snow stencil and a white gel pen.  I haven't decided yet what sentiment to use on this, I might just keep it in my stash for whenever it's needed. 

My pink wellies and spotty yellow theme came from the current challenge over at Inspired By #286

As You Like It - clean or fussy.   I always love the look of cards with lots of layers and bits and bobs on them but find them impossible to make myself!  It took me many years when I was starting to make cards to figure this out and I now know what bits and bobs to buy that I will actually use! 

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday - anything goes 

Addicted to Stamps - 466 - make your mark

We've had a lovely run of dry-ish weather this past week, spring has most definitely sprung!  So nice as well not to have to dry Molly's wee short mucky legs after every walk LOL.  No photo of Molly this week, but here's one of the pretty primroses in our local park, there was loads of wild garlic too.

Lots of Thank Yous!

 Hi all!  Sorry I've been in the missing list for a while ... A combination of COVID finally catching up with us (and totally flooring me), a major lack of mojo and a blogging break, and a week's holiday thrown in for good measure!  But in the mix was a wee order for 60 Thank You cards, which I have to confess was a bit of a struggle!  I couldn't face making 60 the same so made 4 batches.  Apologies in advance for the extra long post!!

First up are made with my lovely floral stamps from Penny Black.  I added some pale blending to the background in various colours though it doesn't show in the photo.  Die is an oldie from Gummiapan.  Flowers coloured with polychromos and popped up on foam pads. 

Penny Black Saturday June - anything goes 

Daisy Chain challenge #75 - no designer paper 

Allsorts #733 - blooms, bees or butterflies 

Fab'n Funky #575 - use a sentiment 

Next up uses a real oldie from Neat & Tangled - i always find him difficult to colour which is probably why he doesn't get inked often!  I have a bit of pale stencilling and some splattered orange metallic paint in the background, not sure where the dies are from, possibly Creative-Depot.  

Another Penny Black stamp for this batch, probably the quickest made as there was no faffing about and no fussy cutting! 

And lastly, and 100% inspired by the MFT Design Team! ....

And just to finish, a wee photo of Molly at Waterfoot beach during my week off, as per usual refusing to look at the camera.  And what a week it was ... wall to wall sunshine with neither a coat nor umbrella in sight!!

Cards for Alison & Ben

 Hi all!  I've a couple of cards to share this evening.  I've never really enjoyed making special request cards, and as I get older I seem to enjoy it less!  Anyway, here they are.

This one uses some of my new Penny Black stamps, various dies, and a stencilled background.  I did have it all planned out, then my spacing kinda went awry when I was sticking it down and ended up running out of room!  Grrrrrr.  That 'N' on her name really annoys me, I hadn't even realised it was so wonky until it was well stuck and then there was no shifting it

Addicted to Stamps #444 - any occasion 

Creatalicious #257 - stencil

For this one, I was told the wee boy liked tractors or anything with wheels.  I don't have any tractor stamps, so a bicycle it was!  This is an oldie from Lili of the Valley.  It was a struggle as well, I always find it so difficult to colour this one!

Layout from Freshly Made Sketches #582

Word Art Wednesday #591/592 - anything goes 

Crafty Calendar April - die cuts

I have to confess though, I looked at this card for a while and figured it needed a wee something, so ended up sticking some stars on and I'm much happier with it!

And finally (this is a long post tonight!), here's a photo of our lovely dandelions!  I don't know if it was our mild winter or constant wet weather but they have been amazing this Spring!  Every road verge and field round us are absolutely covered in them!!

Pretty florals

Hi all!  I've been eyeing these pretty stamps from penny Black (the 'Cherished' collection) for a while and finally caved and bought them... and I'm so glad I did!   My little die cut panel (from I think Simply Graphic) wasn't quite long enough for what I wanted, so I sliced it and added an extra strip from a 2nd panel at the bottom... I think I got away with it.  Couldn't get a decent photo though, my pink base isn't just as zingy in real life as it looks here!

Colour theme from MFT Colour Challenge #209

Fab'n Funky #570 - use die cuts

Word Art Wednesday #591/592 - anything goes 

Snippets Playground #452 - my little butterfly was cut from the leftover after cutting my semicircle 

Layout inspired by Try Stampin on Tuesday #602

Haven't shared a photo of Molly for a while, so here she is in our local park, her absolute favourite place!  She's off to the groomers on Wednesday so hopefully she'll come back cleaner than she looks here!  She point blank refuses to look at the camera, especially when there are squirrels to be found!!!!

Mother's Day

 Hi all!  Well it's been a weekend of events ... St Patrick's Day on Friday (free day off work yey!), Ireland winning the Six Nations on Saturday, and Mother's Day today!  So this is Mum's card using this cutie from Penny Black.  She has a fabulous rose garden so this image is actually pretty perfect for her as she does spend all summer watering them!  Coloured with polychromos and clear gloss added to the watering can.

Penny Black Saturday March - anything goes 

Daisy chain challenge #72 - flowers

Word Art Wednesday #587/588 - anything goes 

And here's a wee photo of my lovely mum with her roses...

Snowdude in Blue

 Hi all.  Well it has been an emotional 10 days, so hard to comprehend the Queen's death.  I don't doubt I will be in tears tomorrow, all the pageantry and tradition gets me every time - I even well up when I see the Red Arrows on happy occasions!  Incredible to think of how many millions round the world will be watching the funeral!  I was in Belfast at the beginning of the week when King Charles visited, it was a real sense of occasion and the crowds about were unbelievable. 

I have another Christmas card this evening, again using my Simon Says Stamp set.  I don't normally used this glitter card as my base as it's a pain to get anything to stick to it! I've loaded on the glue and crossed my fingers 😉

Sketch from Inspired By (though I'm not entirely sure if I was supposed to also use their unicorn theme)

Colour theme from MFT Colour Challenge #196

Word Art Wednesday #561/562 - anything goes 

And finishing with a wee photo of Miss Molly - she loves a bit of David Attenborough and Frozen Planet is her new favourite programme! 

Happy Jubilee!

 Hi all!  Well I achieved my all time worst record of ONE card blogged last month!!! So I've given myself a double boot up the derrière and am aiming to do much better this month. So I'm kicking things off with June's calendar page for Mum in a Queen's Jubilee tea party theme!  I don't think I have any Queen stamps so this little Miss from Stamping Bella was the next best thing! 

Simon Says Stamp Monday - up in the air 

Card Concept #176 - red, white and blue 

Word Art Wednesday #545/546 - anything goes 

I've had a lovely couple of days off work for the Queen's Jubilee.  We were out last night for our beacon lighting event, complete with town councillors, Deputy Mayor and local photographers!  And a squillion midges too!   

And then today we were off to my sister's for a lovely Jubilee lunch, complete with Corgi biscuits and Royal cupcakes!  Oh and personalised Jubilee themed place settings from my niece too!

Birthday Blooms

 Hi all!  Gosh my blogging is getting worse instead of better!  I've had absolutely ZERO mojo recently but decided to take out my favourite flowers from Penny Black to get me going again.  I spent 2 evenings in front of the telly colouring it and then this evening to put it together (good job I'm not charging by the hour LOL!)  Coloured with polychromos, the vase watercoloured and then a few splatters added to the background.  

Card sketch from Stick it Down - May

Colour / flower theme inspired by The Card Concept #174

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday - feminine

Your Next Stamp #183 - flower power (or if you're from Northern Ireland that's pronounced "flar parr" hahaha)

And just have to share this photo I took a few days ago in a local wood of the bluebells and wild garlic - you'll be glad there's no smellyvision with this as the whiff was quite impressive!  Miss Molly had a great sniffy time of course! 

Another nautical card and Alexandra's birthday

Evening all!  I've had my watercolour pencils out today, but used them for my backgrounds and my polychromos for the images.

I must be in a nautical mode as this is the 3rd in a row!  I watercoloured my background and added a few little stamped fishies.  My boat is from penny Black and the DP from a Simon Says Stamp kit; the little stitched dies from Simply Graphic.  I added clear gloss to the pink strips on the boat and glitter to the thinnest strip, and a few yellow gems to finish.

Snippets Playground #421 - my 'snip' on this one is my brown strip - I didn't have a piece long enough so my band is actually just 2 separate pieces

Your Next Stamp #177 - plaid

Seize the Birthday #231 - sparkle and shine

And this one is for my niece's 12th birthday, again using a Penny Black stamp - and she actually does look like her LOL!  She's a Valentine's Day baby so I usually try to add a little heart in it somewhere if I remember.  My background for this one was inspired by Cecile's tutorial over at Simply Graphic.  I got a bit carried away with my pencil shavings, but I think it kinda ended up looking like a party background and I love it!  I'm not entering this into any challenges as a lot of the inspiration for this came from Birgit's card, but I wanted to keep a record of what I'd sent Alex! 

Its been a cold, wild, windy, showery type of day, but we managed to get out for a quick walk with Molly between the showers. The gorse hedges are in full bloom, spring is definitely on its way!!

Our new addition and Ryan's birthday

 Hi all!  Sorry I've been on the missing list again, I've had a bit of a tummy bug for a while, plus the addition of a new puppy means there's been no time for blogging!  So without further ado, please meet Miss Molly....

She's a 9 week old West Highland White Terrier and full of beans!  It's like having a wee rocket running round the house and then her batteries run out and it's snoozy time for an hour or two!  So she will be keeping us busy for sure!  Any training tips welcome!!! 

In the meantime we've had to totally puppy-proof our house!  I would always have had a box of crafty stuff, packs of card, guillotine etc sitting at my feet in the corner of the kitchen - Ruby would never have looked twice at but Molly would have a fab time trashing, so at the minute everything is everywhere out of reach of a little doggy.   

With all the fun and games my nephew's birthday card was a bit of a quick make!  (Reckon he was more concerned with the contents anyway 😉)  It's not very often I make a card using only dies and no stamping or colouring!

Pixies Snippets Playground challenge- it's a Ruby's Memory challenge and Kathy has donated some lovely Christmas goodies as a prize.  

Cardz 4 Guys #282 - any animal

Word Art Wednesday #513/514 - anything goes

Card for Aunt Jean

 Hi All!  I'm still struggling with my mojo but needed to make a card for my Auntie and also wanted to make a card for Pixie's Snippets Playground challenge as it's a Ruby's Memory one - more details below.  I was lucky to get some new crafty goodies for my birthday so it was a good excuse to get them inky.  This is a new-to-me brand, Honey Doo Crafts - I wasn't sure what colour to do it so I went for the lot and just coloured it to match this scrap of fancy DP...

I added gloss to the cherry, glitter to the little sweetie balls, and sparkle to the icing, and a few inky splatters to the background.

Layout from Freshly Made Sketches #490 (though now I look at it again maybe my image is a tad too big!)

Crafty Hazelnuts patterned paper challenge June 2021

Word Art Wednesday #495-496 anything goes

Pixies Snippets Playground challenge #405 - every 3rd challenge the lovely Di hosts it in memory of our beloved Ruby, I can hardly believe she is gone 6 months now!  She is thought of and missed every day.  Di makes a donation to USPCA for this challenge as it's thanks to them Ruby came into our lives and the lovely playmates donate a prize - Val and Viv have fab goodies up for grabs and all you have to do to play along is to use up one of those scraps of paper on your desk!

I've had a busy week off work, managed to get out to an actual restaurant for my birthday lunch, got some gardening done and pots and baskets planted, started painting the fence, and a wee outing on the train with mum to Portrush.  The water was lovely but sooooo cold, we braved a paddle and I don't know how anyone goes swimming in the Atlantic Ocean without having instant heart failure!! (If you zoom in you might see the pile of surfers, the waves were fab!)

Floral sympathies

 Hi folks, it's been a brrrr chilly couple of days here, the weatherman definitely got it right! We had a bit of snow last night so it was all very scenic this morning, but I'm glad to say it's all away, bar a couple of sad looking snowmen ;)

I've a few sympathy cards this evening, I never seem to have any in my stash.  Both use an older stamp from Whipper Snapper - I absolutely love their stamps but I get whacked with customs charges every time, so I try to resist as best I can!

Bonus points for this one using up some DP that's been in my stash for years, I was lucky to have some pale blue card that matched it perfectly and just enough left over for my sentiment and corners :)

• Layout from Mojo Monday #557
• Pixies Snippets Playground #400

• The Flower Challenge #55 - pastels
• Simon Says Stamp Monday - layer it

A couple of my chilly tulips with their snowy hats!

Pink Christmas

 

So this is a new one for me, I don't think I've ever made a pink Christmas card before!  First outing for my new MFT stamps too, I always love their Christmas sets :). Expect to see this used a lot in the coming weeks, I definitely need to rack up my Xmas production rate!

There was a lot of masking on this so I could layer up the images and ink the sky, clear gloss added to the windows, glitter to his scarf and then white enamel for the falling snow.

• Christmas Kickstart #40 - pink Christmas
• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday - layer it up
• Craftyhazelnut's Christmas challenge #513
• NBUS #19

I haven't shared a pic of wee Ruby recently, so here she is having a sniffing good time at the seaside yesterday (Waterfoot)...  The weather men got the forecast correct for a change and delivered some lovely sunny weather for my day off :).   Though it was definitely a day for a cosy coat and hat, and no way was I brave enough to go for a paddle!   Our wee dander on the beach was followed with a visit to the chippy for fish'n chips, plenty of salt and vinegar... yummmmm they always taste so much nicer by the sea!