A Special Someone's Birthday Card

Last week saw the 32nd birthday of our lovely Daughter, Jenna.........my, how time flies!  This is one of those occasions when I wish I had scanned some of our old photos onto the computer but ....... they are still in boxes up in the loft and haven't seen the light of day for ages.  Hmmm, wonder if I can get OH interested in that task when he retires next year.  All efforts to get him interested in a hobby have failed miserably so far ;D.

Anyway, today I have the card I made for Jenna to share with you.

I started with my favourite 21 cm x 21 cm card base and blended a very light background of Pan Pastels  (from Snazzys).  I then used a lovely mask I bought at least a couple of years ago from Chocolate Baroque when it was still Graphicus (Elusive Images stamps) and blended Bundled Sage Distress Ink through the mask which I moved around at random till I had covered the background.

You can just see some of the masking here in the background.

I followed this with stamping the beautiful corner scroll from Indigo Blu using a Versamark inkpad and dabbed Pan Pastels over the stamped image before gently dusting away the excess from the surface.

I stamped the quote from a Tim Holtz/Stampers Anonymous set and then cut it out and layered it using Nestabilities before mounting onto my card with 3D foam pads. The leaves are die cut using the Alterations Tattered Florals Garland die and the spiral flower are handcut from co-ordinating scraps of papers from my rather large box of said scraps (I am soooooo baaaaaddd for not getting more of them used up).

Once I had spiralled the flowers I inked the edges with Distress Inks and then used a Zig broad nibbed two way glue pen to to add glue to the edges before dipping them into Glamour Dust fine glitter.  I arranged the flowers and leaves on my card before sticking them down and finally added a couple of little bird charms.

I didn't get to see Jenna until yesterday when OH and I went up to Harrogate to take her and her family out for a meal.  It was a little frantic as we have Izzy at 4.5 yrs and little Charlie at 10 months.  They were very good but Charlie is an early walker and having become totally confident on his feet 3 weeks ago does not like sitting down for  more than two minutes.  No wonder Jenna says she feels as though her bum never meets a chair, lol!  It's easy for me to laugh though.

I have one last photo for you today because on Saturday postie delivered my lovely Metallic Distress Stains from Snazzys and I managed a little play yesterday morning.  The sun was shining very brightly so  I took these to show the fabulous shine of the gold one.

The first one is on matte coated cardstock and the second one is on a Ranger manilla tag.  Now need to turn them into something, lol!

Have a good week friends.

Hugs
Lesley  Xx

DT project #2 for Snazzys September products.

Hi Everyone,

Just a quick post (honestly) to let you know I managed to get a second project done for Snazzys this week.  It was looking a bit touch and go for the last few days.................. family stuff and all that!  Anyway, here's a sneak peek at what I made and you can see it in it's entirety here on the Snazzy DT blog.  Do hope you have time to pop across to see the whole thing.

That's it from me for now but just to say I hope everyone has a lovely weekend whatever you are doing.  I'm looking forward to a fairly quiet one as the last few weekends have been very busy with family stuff.  Lovely but a quiet one is nice once in a while, lol!  I hope the weather picks up a bit especially for any poor folks who are mopping up after floods.

Till next time,

Hugs
Lesley  Xx

Snazzys Spooky DT month!

Hello and welcome lovely visitors.  It's good of you to drop by and I do hope that wherever you are the weather is not treating you as badly as the forecasters have predicted.  As I am preparing this post late on Sunday evening it is lashing down with rain here in the Midlands and looks set to continue for the next 24 hours at least :(.  At least we don't have to worry about flooding as we are in an elevated position but I do feel so sorry for anyone who's going to have those concerns going to bed tonight.

Anyway, it's my turn to post on the Snazzy DT blog this week and my teamies and I have been sent some awesome goodies to play with (when are they not awesome, lol).  Val and Don (the Bosses) do stock the most brilliant products ever and more and more of them are being added to the Snazzy Online Shop each week.  However, if you don't see what you want online, they are only a quick phonecall away.

This month we had a set of the new Tim Holtz/Stampers Anonymous Halloween Blueprint stamps and also a set of the Carta Bella All Hallow's Eve papers and stickers to work with and here are a couple of sneak peeks of my first project.  I hope you have time to drop by the Snazzy DT blog to see the whole thing (and leave a little comment if you can  ;D).

Hopefully, I'll be back later this week with another Snazzy DT project for you, next time concentrating on the Carta Bella papers.  Until then I hope you all have a good week and don't get too waterlogged.

Hugs
Lesley  Xx

PS  I DO NOT LIKE THIS NEW BLOGGER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The scheduled bit didn't work for a start! 

YAY! It's not a DT piece or an Alphatag!

Hi Lovely Visitors,

Thank you for dropping by and I'm really pleased that for once I have something to show you other than a DT piece or an alphatag, lol!

This week has seen the birthday of one of my very special crafting friends.  Oooh, this crafting/blogging lark has such a lot to answer for and in my opinion, all of it good!  The friend I'm talking about is Elaine, one quarter of the Craft Stamping Quartet (our poor neglected little blog ;( ) and also one of my ex Chocolate Baroque DT buddies.  As lots of you will know, because we live such a distance apart we rarely manage a get together but it's all down to the wonderful technology most of us have that I feel she has been in my life a lot longer than she really has.  She's a very special lady so I was glad I managed to make time for her card.  A bought one just wouldn't have been good enough, lol!

I apologise for this first photo being at a slightly odd angle but it was the one which most closely showed the true background colour.  I started with a 21 cm square base card and then cut the same size square from a sheet of beautiful Mariposa paper (DCWV).  Cutting into papers from this gorgeous collection is soooooo difficult ;D!  I then blended Bundled Sage Distress Ink over an individual Heidi Swapp butterfly mask moving it around randomly and a Tim Holtz swirl mask and then inked all round the edges with the same Distress Ink.  I followed this with randomly stamping script over the page, again using Bundled Sage DI.  I then attached this to the front of the basecard.

I then created the arrangement of embellishments for the top right corner.  I used my new Spellbinders Venetian Motifs dies to cut the decorative circle and the flourishes from white card which I then coloured with Broken China DI and the fancy motif which I used as leaves which I coloured with Bundled Sage DI.  The sentiment stamped in the circle is from a Kaisercraft clear stamp set called appropriately 'Friendship Sentiments', lol!  The roses were left over from one of my Snazzy DT pieces using EDIT : Graphic 45 Olde  Curiosity Shoppe (sorry to earlier visitors this morning as I forgot to add this after I'd double checked ;D) papers, the blue butterflies were cut out from the left over piece of Mariposa paper and the metal butterfly was from a dismantled necklace.  I used my round nosed pliers to shape the metal butterfly.

Somehow I felt the card wasn't quite 'balanced' so I put the pretty and very delicate Memory Box die cut (
a gift from another dear CSQ buddy, Judith) on the top left corner to finish it off. 

I finished the card off with an all over misting of Dew Drop Glimmer Mist.  The inspiration for this card came from the work of the very talented Anna Dabrowska, aka Finnabair (check out her fab blog).  I can't wait to have another go at something similar but adding more random bits and bobs and more mica sprays as Anna does.  I daren't try it on Elaine's card as I didn't have time to do another one if it went wrong, lol!

I hope you enjoyed looking at something other than DT work or another alphatag and speaking of alphatags ......... I failed miserably for August :(.  This time it wasn't because I couldn't think of a subject/theme for the letters Q and R but purely that I ran out of time.  I did get Q finished so I am going to do R as well and keep them for myself so that I will still have the full alphabet and I'll show them as soon as I can.

Thank you for dropping by and I hope you're having some of the glorious Autumn weather we've been having this week.

Hugs
Lesley  Xx

Steampunk Style the Snazzys DT way!

Hello Everyone,

I hope by the time you read this scheduled post the sun is shining as brightly as it is at this moment!  Yesterday the forecast said it was going to rain most of  today here but I woke up to lovely sunshine and the forecast now says it should stay dry until this evening ........ lovely stuff ........ as long as it doesn't get too hot.  I'm never happy with the weather am I, lol!

Anyway,  it's time to reveal my project for Snazzys this month using the quirky Steampunkery stamp set from Chocolate Baroque and thereby also reveal the winner of my little prize of metal stuff.

So Paula was spot on with her guess of an altered book.  I might have known you would recognise a book in whatever form Paula, lol!  Well done my friend!  Please email  your address to me at lesleye38@hotmail.co.uk  and I will get your goodies posted out to you later in the week.

Don't forget to pop over to the Snazzys DT Blog to see the rest of my altered book and all the details and let me know what you think.  It was certainly a fun project to do.

I have another busy couple of weeks coming up with my lovely family before school starts back.  I bet there are a few more of you doing the same thing?  Have fun and I'll be back as soon as I can!

Big Hugs
Lesley  Xx

A Sneaky Snazzys Steampunk Snippet .... Can you guess?

Hello Everyone,

I'm having fun this week playing with some quirky stamps from my Snazzys DT pack as it's my turn to post my project(s) next week.  As Gillian, our lovely DT co-ordinator has been unable to post one of her fab creations this week she's set up a Steampunk Challenge HERE (or scroll down to my last post for details) plus a random giveaway for simply leaving a comment so I decided it was about time I had a little giveaway on my blog too. Although you have several weeks to leave a comment for the random prize draw, you only have until Sunday to enter the challenge.  I do hope you'll join in the steampunk fun!

You have until midnight next Sunday the 19th August to leave me a comment on this post telling me what you think my project might be from the small section shown in this pic and the person who makes the closest guess will win some steampunk style embellishments. I've had a dig through my lovely stash and put together a few  Snazzys' Steampunk Supplies, some Ideology word bands and mini pins and a few random embellies.

I'd also really appreciate it if you would give the Snazzys DT blog a visit and join our growing band of followers if you haven't already.  Why not have a go at the challenge too and be in with the chance of another win!

See you again at one minute past midnight on Monday the 20th August over on the DT blog when my project will be revealed and I will announce the winner of my giveaway Monday evening.

Hugs
Lesley  Xx

Snazzys Steampunk Challenge

Due to unforseen circumstances Gillian  one of the DT member from the Snazzys blog, won't be able to blog this week, so instead we have a challenge to get you in a steampunk mood ... we want to see your Steampunk Inspired projects. One lucky winner chosen by the DT will win a set of Steampunkery Stamps from Chocolate Baroque.

The challenge is open from now until midday next Sunday and also one lucky person who leaves a comment on the first post over at the Snazzys DT Blog will also win a prize. Gillian will draw the random comment winner via Mr Random.Org at the end of the month.

Last week I had to do the preparation for a new central heating system to be installed by the council at my mum's bungalow.  Bare in mind my mum has Alzheimers and has gone from being fastidious about her housework to doing nothing except hoard so it took my brother and I one and a half days to make everything accessible for the workmen.  It's nowhere near as bad as those programmes about hoarders on TV but it did give me a nightmare that we were being filmed, lol!  Mum gets really upset if she sees us throwing anything away ....... like about 1500 plastic carrier bags ........... 'cos she might need them!!!  So, we sneaked as much as possible into the bins and our cars to dispose of in secret because we know from experience Mum won't even notice what's gone.  The workmen installed the heating in one day (Friday) and whilst they didn't do too bad a job with regards to mess (there was enough there already) it's sure ruined the decorating and we are told there will be a 'man with a paintbrush' contacting us!   Hmmm, bet they're not going to do anything about the ugly pipes which now run all over the place or the wallpaper hanging off the walls where the new radiators are much smaller than the old ones!  Saturday saw my brother and I back at the bungalow to begin the big clean up.  We were there a total of 21 hours between us and we still have to blitz all the clutter and clothes in the bedroom or rather, I do because my brothers feel uncomfortable with that task.  The outcome of all that work is that although we have the satisfaction of knowing that we've made things a lot easier for ourselves to keep clean and tidy, I've ended up with a really painful back :-(   I'm hoping that the exercises the physiotherapist gave me years ago will help because I am seriously allergic to anti inflammatory drugs. 

Anyway, all that work left me with little time and even less energy (I was totally kn.......d) so my make for the Snazzys DT challenge became 'clean and simple' by necessity.  I apologise for the photo quality but it was late(ish) last night when I made it and took the photo and it was already dark.  In real life the colours are more vibrant.  Do hop over and see the other DT inspiration, leave a possible winning comment and perhaps, think about making an entry to the challenge.

I'm off to hobble round and take the dog for a walk for half an hour and then back to Mum's for a bit more sorting.  I know one thing, as soon as I've finished Mum's, my own cupboards and wardrobes are having the blitz treatment!  If it hasn't been used or worn within the past 2 years it's going ............. except for my craft stash or course.............. well, what do you expect, lol!

Have a lovely week everyone.

Hugs
Lesley  XX