A very important birthday ......

Hello Again,

Happy Friday to those of you who have finished work for the weekend and for those who don't get the weekend off I hope you have a pleasant two days work.  I'm also hoping the weather is going to cheer up a wee bit for us all.  It's been very mild here with a high of 17c today but we've also had quite a bit of rain again.

Anyway, to get back on track, yesterday was my favourite Daughter's (I only have the one, lol) birthday so I thought I'd share the card I made for her.

It was a simple and relaxing card to make using stamps from the Jo Firth-Young range at PaperArtsy.  The spikey flowers which I love are from JOFY14 set and the words are from JOFY11.

Everything was stamped using Onyx Black Versafine ink and I chose a selection of words (there are others on the set too) to make the sentiment I wanted, cut them out and added them to the card with foam pads to give a bit of dimension.

I used Derwent Coloursoft pencils on the spikey flowers.

I'm looking forward to seeing Jenna (and her family) on Sunday afternoon for a few hours as OH and I are off up the A1 for tea with them all.  It will be cuddles all round ;D!

Have a smashing weekend everyone and till next time ...................

Hugs
Lesley  Xx

What a smashing weekend I had!

Hi everyone,

Nice to 'see' you and thanks for dropping by!

I spent last weekend in Milton Keynes with a lovely group of ladies I've come to know through Twitter.  Sam I met briefly irl at the last StampMagic show along with Emma and I also spent time with Emma at the Anna Diabrowska weekend in Swindon a few weeks ago.  The rest of the ladies in our group I had never met face to face before but somehow it doesn't really seem that way when you've been tweeting regularly for a few months, lol!  Lin was the one who had arranged a weekend of classes with the lovely Lin Brown (YoursArtfully) for our special little band and we were joined by Helen, Jax and Jacqui plus Janet (who is not a tweeter).  The workshops were held at a lovely shop called The Bead Scene which led to lots of temptation to buy pretty buttons, charms & ribbons ....... needless to say I didn't take much tempting, lol!

Unfortunately, I had to keep my head down and crack on with my projects to have any chance of keeping up with the others so I didn't get chance to take any photos of the other ladies but if you drop by Sam's blog she has some lovely pics of us all.  She's a speedy Gonzalez when it comes to crafting and got time to keep the camera clicking ;D!

Here are some pics of the beautiful project we did on the Saturday.

And some pics of the gorgeous Oriental style project from Sunday.

and this is a close up of the lady in the niche.  I think she's so lovely!

I think just about all the products we used can be obtained from PaperArtsy, including all the stamps.

I've not given any how to instructions because that wouldn't be fair to Lin but if ever you get chance to go to one of her workshops, please do.  She's a lovely lady and wonderfully patient teacher.  We all had such a fab weekend and can't wait to do it again.

I'll be back again soon but till then ........

Hugs
Lesley  Xx

A Birthday card for a very special friend which is also my last DT project for Snazzy's

 Hello and welcome lovely visitors,

As I was fresh from the fabulous weekend of Anna Dabrowska workshop at Snazzy's so had a head full of 'Finn' style techniques, I wanted to make a birthday card for Elaine who spent part of that weekend with me, that included at least a nod towards Anna's style.  I also wanted to make a 2nd project for my final week on the Snazzy's DT so decided to combine the two.  So, instead of my usual sneak peek of a DT project I am going to show more photographs on here but if you want a bit more detail on the how to, please hop over to the Snazzy's DT blog.

Whilst I really liked the chalk effect designs on one side of the papers, most of them cried out for scrapbooking but the reverse sides are the ones I really fell in love with so these are what I used for both my DT projects this month and they were perfect for Elaine's card.  There was also a perfect sentiment on one of the stickers so it just had to be, lol!

I chose to co-ordinate all the embellishments rather than alter the colours with sprays as you usually see in Anna's beautiful work but I did want the dimension.

I loved playing with all these bits and pieces but I still can't stop 'over thinking' as Anna puts it, lol!  It takes me an age of moving things around until the balance pleases my eye ;D!

Until next time.............

Hugs
Lesley  Xx

PaperArtsy Blog Challenge - Joanne Wardle Inspiration (2)

Morning again,

Wow, this has to be a first for me, two posts within an hour, lol!

This is my second card taking inspiration from Joanne over on the PaperArtsy blog.  Once again I have shamelessly copied Joanne, even keeping the same name on the card because it is my son's name and he would have loved a card like this when in his teens.  Come to think of it he'd probably still like it, lol!  Anyway, you can get all the how to details from Joanne's post on the PA blog and also, once again, I have had to use stamps from my own stash. 

and a little close up

That's it for today folks.  I might manage to have a go at Joanne's bonus project from yesterday's post this evening but if not I'll try at the weekend.  I have got a post scheduled for Thursday with my final Snazzy's DT project but in actual fact I will be up in Harrogate from tomorrow night childminding this cheeky little chap for a couple of days.

 

my 20 month old grandson, Charlie!

Isn't he adorable but I have a feeling I will be somewhat lacking in energy when I come home Friday evening, lol!

Have a good day everyone and see you again soon.

Hugs

Lesley  Xx

PaperArtsy Challenge - Joanne Wardle Inspiration

Morning All,

This week over on the fab PaperArtsy Blog, Joanne Wardle is inspiring us with her well known clean and simple style of crafting.  I love this style but often find it very difficult to pull off successfully as it means your stamping, positioning, etc., has to be spot on so something that looks deceptively easy to do isn't at all.

Now unfortunately for me, Joanne has been showcasing PaperArtsy's smashing Halloween stamps of which I don't have a single one which is a pity because I absolutely love their selection.  Having looked at them carefully now I think I might have indulge in a couple of sets.  They're bound to come in handy for my grandchildren's future parties ;D!  For now I've had to improvise with stamps from my stash.

Anyway, this is my card taking inspiration from Joanne's first project this week.

and a close up so hopefully you can see the sparkle around the gravestone and bird

I'm off to link up to the PaperArtsy blog and I'll be back with my second card very shortly.

Hugs
Lesley  Xx

Snazzy's DT project #1 for September

Good Morning lovely visitors.  I hope this is the start of a good week for you all.

Today starts the final week of my creations for the wonderful Snazzy's DT as I've reluctantly decided to step down from the Design Team.  It's a decision I've been wrestling with for a few months now as family commitments have eaten into my crafting time more and more.  As many of my blogging friends know my  Mum is suffering from Alzheimers and is gradually needing more and more of my attention and for some strange reason my OH would like us to spend more time together now he has retired, lol!  However, the main reason is I have a craftroom full of gorgeous stash and no time to actually 'play' so I have decided my crafting time now is going to be for me to ink up some of those many unused stamps and alter some of those still bare alterables (of which I have loads, lol)!

I shall miss the wonderful Snazzy's crew to some extent but with the wonders of the internet and social networks like Twitter and Facebook not to mention blogs, I am sure we will keep tabs on one another, ;D.

Anyway, here is a peak at my penultimate Snazzy's project and if you would like to see the whole, please hop across to the Snazzy's DT blog.

I'll be back on Thursday with my final design for the DT and hope you can stop by again then.

Hugs
Lesley  Xx

I'm Feeling a Little Bit Blue ........

........ not really!

Good Morning lovely visitors and thanks for dropping by.

Just a nod to the weather ..... I hope if you're here in Blighty you are not  being battered too badly by gales and lashing rain.  Here in Notts it is grey and windy but not much rain so far.  It's not looking promising though :-(!

Anyway, something strange happened in my craftroom last night ............ I made something for a challenge, lol!  I think this will be only my 4th ever challenge entry, whoohoo!!!  I was rummaging through my stamp collections yesterday and came across an Indigo Blu set called Music Hall that had not seen a smidge of ink since I bought them and I remembered that the current Dragon's Dream Tag It On Challenge theme is blue, music and tissue/tissue tape so I decided to have a go.

I used Distress Stains to start off my background and then moved on to Distress Inks through several stencils/masks followed by stamping with Archival and Distress Inks, all of it in various shades of blue.   I stamped the main image onto white card, cut it out with a die and then blended Adirondack and Distress Inks over the poster image to create a spotlight effect and added the pearl drop and charm before attaching it to my tag with 3D pads.  Of course, there is some Tissue Tape on there, albeit reluctantly 'cos I don't get on with that stuff at all well. ...... takes me ages to get the darned stuff to realise it is not going to be allowed to peel off of it'ts own accord! 

I stamped the quote from the same stamp set, cut each word out separately and added them to the tag before finally adding the ribbons.

Tomorrow I'll be back with my first project of the week for Snazzy's DT so hope you can drop by again.  Till then ................

Hugs
Lesley   Xx