Enjoying the sunshine.

Had a lovely day at the seaside, went to Fleetwood & Blackpool.  The temperature gauge was showing 21 degrees, the sun was out with a gentle sea breeze.  Popped into Craft Central at Freeport oulet village and came out once again several pennies lighter, although I did get two cute sets of stamps from Oliver's Orchard.


Then the Hubby and I ventured down to The Promenade for not-so-fish and chips, more like pie, chips & gravy of which we both devoured and enjoyed.  Oh and not forgetting our favourite 2p machines in the amusement arcade.

First attempt at a Circle Easel Card.

Found a great guide to an Easle card from Debbie P's Place at http://debbiepsplace.blogspot.com/, following this guide I attempt to give it a go.

Using another one of my Lili of the Valley stamps, this time 'Gift Wrapped' & Birthday Circular sentiment stamp.

 

I chose to colour the bunny brown using promarkers, to compliment the Yellow-themed card. 

The reason why it is Yellow is because I came across a lovely little blog by Crafty Cardmakers and there they run blog challenges too, but having sometimes the lack of creativity they put forward a 'recipe' of what must be in / on the card to count.

The latest recipe, #43, consists of the Use Yellow as your MAIN COLOUR, Add Ribbon, Use Stitching Faux or real & Use Rhinestones/Gems.

Checklist:  Yellow as main colour      Tick

                   Used Ribbon                     Tick 

                   Faux Stitching                   Tick

                   Used Gems                       Tick

Side on view of card, stopper used is a flower created from Marianne creatable dies.

Bottom Half of card, a fineliner pen from Letraset was used for the faux stitching.

Full front on view of card.

This card has been made for the Crafty Cardmakers Blog Recipe Challenge #43.

My LOTV Stamps.

Having purchased lots of LOTV stamps, I have been trying them out one at a time.  This time 

around it was 'Little Acorn' and a Circular sentiment stamp.   I think this stamp is one of my top 3 if not my favourite.  

Along with several attempts at stamping centrally onto my nesties, I had a few to have a go at!

I went for a baby blue card, colouring the stamp  with £1 shop pencils - these were a bit waxy however the end result was good.  

Distress ink blending for the nesties edges gave a spring's sky effect, which was nice.  

I embossed a plain piece of white paper with 'swiss dots' and carefully rubbed a green chalked based ink over the raised dots.

Tying the ribbon was fun, I ended up tying two double knots before tying the bow itself.

I used two ribbons to give the card a bit of dimension, also the pale green complimented the embossed background paper and was a contrasting colour to the blue.

Finding the appropriate sentiment was going to be a task in itself, as I don't really have many 'baby' celebration stamps.  

Going through the sentiments stamps I had bought from http://liliofthevalley.co.uk, I spotted one that was open to interpretations well as a nice statement in itself - ' Wishing you a World full of Joy'.

So I measured up a nestie, cut it out, distressed the edges and inked up the stamp.  With my fingers crossed I hoped I had stamped as centrally as possible - success!

Another cute little card made by my own fair hands.  Aww!

So, I shall enter this card into the following Challenge Blogs:

1) Aly's Sunday Challenge-Hoppity Bunnies http://alyssundaychallenge.blogspot.com/2011/04/asc39-hippity-hoppity-bunnies.html

2)   LOTV Challenge Blog - Spring http://liliofthevalleythursdaychallenge.blogspot.com/

 

3) Little Claire's Challenge 4 - Spring Celebrations http://littleclairesdesigns.blogspot.com/2011/04/challenge-4-spring-celebrations.html

 

Thinking Ahead to Mother's Day.

Olympia Craft Show was successful, purse was empty but bags were full!  Met Dawn Bibby, celebrating her birthday while exhibiting, Attended Claire & Phil's DoCraft Demo too.

With the launch of LOTV's new stamps I was eagerly waiting to add them to my basket and for them to arrive at my doorstep with much anticipation.  One particular stamp - Bunny cupcakes - caught my eye and the light bulb switched on! Mother's Day.

The card I designed used Claire Curd's sketch (a weekly challenge on the DoCrafts website).  I chose pastel pinks as my colour scheme as I had some lovely papers in my stash.

Trying out most of my Olympia purchases including spellbinders square eyelet die, spun sugar distress ink & Millions more promarkers!

 The flowers were punched using a dovecraft punch finished off with diamante gems in purple and clear.  Pink Mulberry paper, Glittery dotted vellum and spotted spring paper was used for the matting and layering

I am entering this card into the following challenges:

Claire Curd's Weekly Sketch Challenge 22nd - 28th March 2010.

LOTV Challenge Blog #89  'Punch it!'

I <3 Promarkers #58 'Go Dotty!'

Stitch & Craft Show @ Olympia.

Every penny and every pound has been stored away for this weekend.  I am treating my mummy and two younger siblings to a day out @ Olympia, for the Sitich & Craft Show.

Hoping to pick up some new ideas as well as bargins, join in the demos and have a go at a workshop.   All four of us are attending Claire & Phil's Do Crafts Demonstration, theme is cupcakes, then Holly & Kay are booked in for Space Dyeing with Koolaid!!  I still have a big tub of strawberry Koolaid from a trip to NYC.

Camera is already in the bag for some pictures and I will post them in a gallery for sharing.