Last posting for a couple of weeks

I'm off to catch the ferry to France in about 4 hours time and our house there is without telephone or internet access. I get withdrawl symptons for a few days then I settle into it.
So it's a quick posting to show you the Thank You card I sent to Sue at http://sueskraftykards.blogspot.com/ to thank her for my fanastic PiF gift she sent me.

and a side view

Materials

Penny Black Stamp - Bee Happy - I just love this character

Doily - Kindly sent to me by Pops

LOTV - sentiment coloured with Sakura pens

Tonic punch butterfly - inked and glittered

First Editions - Hideaway papers ( my favourite at the moment )

Coredinations orange card - doodled with white Sakura pen

Challenges

Alphabet challenge - E is for Easel

Penny Black 154 - Doodle bug, doodle it - faux stitching and flowers

Hope you keep well and I'll see you in 2 weeks

I always appreciate it if you leave me a comment, many thanks for coming to visit. 

Happy Crafting Teresa x

WOYWW 103 and Butterflies and Flowers PiF

Wasn't that fantastic last week at the Stamping Ground for the 2nd anniversary of WOYWW?  It certainly went smoothly here with Rebecca receiving my Pif gift and me receiving my wonderful present and matching card from Sue - I was really delighted with her wonderful hanging plaque which for this week is hanging off my drawers for you to see. So a BIG THANK YOU to Sue. I will find a more permanent home in my craft room and hang it properly but for now I'm just happy to have it infront of me.

Not a lot to see creatativity here today but I had a few goodies arrive - LOTV stamps, some under the sea stamps, 6 favourite water flowers  stamp set ( on offer at Joanna Sheen ) and a couple of others. I index the stamps using a technique I saw Kay Carly from The Stamp Man doing once. It's a bit time consuming but it does mean you know what's on each stamp and which is the right way up.

The beautifully wrapped gift I received and the gorgeous card.

Isn't it brilliant.

Now for a view of the gift I made. It's a Maze book which I had so much pleasure making I just had to keep on adding to, if I'd had longer I probably could have added more. 
Lots of photos to show but I need to show page by page.

Martha Stewart butterfly stamp - Inktense water colour pencils and  diamond sparkles

Sizzix cut letters, artylicious words, Aspects of design butterfly  with mica powder

Jayne Netley Mayhew rabbit stamp water coloured, Marianne swirly die, MS leaves sm butterfly,  punch and cut flowers glitered

Creative expressions botanical stamps, artylicious words, Small square brayered and purple distress ink

Sentiment from Craft Robo, nestie rectangles inked and stamped from CE botanical set

Aspects of Design Butterfly Beauties stamp water coloured and pearly doodles , Sizzix corner, bee and butterfly ( underneath ) printed and cut on Robo 

JNM stamp, artylicious words

MS Butterfly stamp set water coloured with Inktense pencils

Selection of tags and LOTV friendship sentiment which seemed appropriate

The End

Hope you all had a wonderful week and that all the PiF gifts arrived safely.
Thank you Julia for organising such a great event.

Happy Crafting
Teresa x

Icicle in summer

This is my dog Ice, she looked so lovely in the sunshine I just had to take a few photos of her.

Oh and a House Mouse for you too.

Materials
half a sheet of decoupage 
Cuttlebug embossed and inked square. Martha Stewart around the edge punch
Martha Stewart flower punch
Nitwits paper
Ribbons and button from stash


Just a quick posting as I still have 101 things to do tonight.
Hope you are all enjoyed the sunshine today too.

A Special Thank You

I am always hartened by the kindness shown by people. Last week I commented that I liked some doilies that the lovely Pops at Pop's Place had used and out of the blue she offered to send me some. I made this thank you card for her.

I followed Papertake Weekly challenge sketch turning it on it's side.

Materials

Clarity stamp

Nestability Fleur de lis die coloured with glimmer mists

Cuttlebug tiny bubbles

First Impressions paper - Hideaway

Coredinations card

Versa Magic key lime to edge card

Challenge

Papertake Weekly 56 sketch ( turned through 90')

Unusual teenagers card

This is an unusual card for a 13 year old boy but he's not your normal teenage. His name is Drew and he's into acting in a big way having stared in several shows and just winning his first paying part. He's also a brilliant cartoonist. But the most unusual thing is his appreciation of my handmade cards ! 
His mum has 3 cat's but one particular one Pandora follows him and him alone,  even sharing his bed with him. The piece of newspaper is from an original 1881 copy of the times I picked up in a charity shop for £2. There were the words YOUTH and GRAND THEATRE staring at me so I highlighted them with glossy accents.
It almost seemed shameful to cut it up though but it's much thicker than modern papers which makes it great for making flowers with.



The two tickets were cut and printed using my Craft Robo which I am slowly starting to master.

Challenges
Fussy and Fancy - man or boys
Lothian Crafts online - for a ( young ) man 


I always appreciate it if you leave me a comment, and I can then visit your blog too! Many thanks for coming to visit. Happy Crafting Teresa x

Flower Power

I'm not very happy with the photo of this card but I wanted to post something today. In RL I'm actually quite happy with it.

I have foxgloves self seeded around my garden, they look so elegant and eyecatching. On close inspection they are all varying shades of magenta to pale pink. No white ones this year although I have had them in the past.
This makes it sound like I have a lovely garden but the truth is it is a mess. We inherited lots of concrete, gravel and paving slabs and are still no nearer creating a beautiful garden that I dream of.. I suppose I should post a photo but I don't have one. May be I'll add one later.
I have this beautiful foxglove stamp so decided this would fit into a few challenges. The flowers are painted in H2O's with glamour dust in the centres for extra sparkle. The strip along the top is from a quilling flower cutout I had left over.

Materials

DCWV paper

Jayne Netley Mayhew - foxglove

LOTV - birthday sentiment

Martha Stewart - doily punch

Butterfly and ribbon from stash

Nestability saclloped rectangle die

Challenges

A spoonful of sugar - flower power

Truly Scrumptious 58 - summer sparkle

Whoopsi Daisy - ribbon and lace

Oh La La Creations - birthdays

Simply Stamping 9 - floral frenzy

Sarah Hurley - summer

WOYWW 104 Today's the day

Happy Anniversay Julia.

At last the big awaited day at the Stamping Ground The 2nd Anniversary of What's on Your Workdesk? Wednesday and yes, after many weeks of deliberation and many hours of making my PiF gift I am ready to post. Well almost, having only finished late last night I must still get it photographed.

 I go through spells of using pens or pencils but yesterday I was enjoying using my beautiful Inktense pencils - I just love the intensity of the colours you can get with them. I also came across the mica powders having forgotten them and have been adding them to stamped imaged. 

The small cigarette tin is one I picked up out of a bin last time I was in France! Hope no one saw me. LOL. Now I just have to decide what to put in it!

I have bought myself the little guillotine just small enough to have on my desk at all times. Up until now I have had an ancient roller one which I bought years ago in Lidl - it's had a hard life and squeaks so loud that it wakes hubby up as he's asleep just the other side of the door - my workspace is what the French would call a mezzine ( 12' x 12' landing ).

The other problem with my old cutter is it leaves one edge rough so I have to turn everything and cut twice to trim off the rough bit. Why do I keep it you ask? Well it's made of metal and has a great scale in mm right on the edge so no mistakes in measuring.  What's happening to Old Faithful? well it won't be going in the bin just yet as I still need it to cut larger items.

Have a great day everyone.

Happy crafting

Teresa x

2 Border collies and a table

I usually like to post in the morning - I'm a bit of an early bird and love the peace and quite while everyone else is asleep. I never have been one of those who can lie in, not even when I was a teenage. Before I joined blogland I use to take Ice for her walk about 5.30am but now I find myself stopping at my computer ( just to check something ), next thing I know it's time to get Robin up and ready for school. This morning however I couldn't get my photos loaded so had to leave it.

This is a bit of a cheats card since the  K&Co Hopscotch paper looked too good  to spoil with  any extras. The stamp is another from Jayne Netley Mayhew and a joy to work with. Stamped and embossed in black, eyes and tongue coloured with Promarkers , cut out, layered up - job done! 

Similar idea here but this time using purples and lime greens. Birthday tag  printed from Silhouette .

Yesterdays animal charity dog show was less nerve racking than I expected and although I didn't sell that many ( 12 ) nearly everyone who took the time to look actually bought one.  As I have mentioned before I have an outlet at a pet parlour ( hence lots of animals on my cards rather than cute characters ) well one good thing was that another lady doing the same thing asked me if she could have a set for her shop too. Wow, what a compliment. Biggest problem is it's the other side of Plymouth and I'd probably spend all my profit on petrol getting them to her. It may be cheaper for me to post her a batch. 

My set up before the sale. What you can't see in this picture is the water coming off the  canopy! At least it did clear up and the sun came out later.

Challenges Alphabet - D is for dog
Here comes the boys - Father's day, husband, partener
Charisma cardz 21 - boy oh boy
  Crafty Emma's 38 - embossing
Do You Stack Up  21 - animmals

Are you ready for tomorrow's special event at Julia's blog for WOYWW  PIF  - I'm relieved to say my gift is ready to be sent. I can breath a big sigh of relief.
See you tomorrow.

More HM to sell

Only a very quick posting this morning as today's the day when I do my first ever sale. I'm really nervous! I'll let you know later how it went. In the meantime here are a couple of cards I made yesterday. 

I love these new House Mouse sheets since the characters are larger - some of the earlier ones were a bit fiddly to cut.

Orange flowers were coloured with orange glimmer mists and layered with textured  card  and finished with a  gem.

Hope the cocoa's not too hot!

I wish I was the big fat mouse ( or perhaps the cheeky one in the jar )

Well hope you all have an enjoyable Bank Holiday whatever you do.

Christening card and another House Mouse

It's been a busy week.  Card making, PIF gift being made, painting MIL's bathroom while she's away,  shopping/coffee with friends, and a card making workshop yesterday. 

My great niece is being christened so I made this completely using my Craft Robo, it was printed first then cut. How simple is that? Well actually it took me about 3 failed attempts before I got it right but I'm pleased with the final result.

Another House Mouse card - don't they look like they're having fun. I'm trying to do as many of these before the charity sale on Monday but I've been a bit busy making my Pass It Forward gift for next weeks big event. If you think I've gone mad then check it out on Julia's blog here to see what I'm talking about. I struggled with what I was going to make but once I got started I'm really enjoying making it. You'll have to wait a bit longer to see it. I've only  until Wednesday to finish it. Yikes - I better get a move on.

Materials

House Mouse decoupage

MS border punch

LOTV sentiment

Nestability - Lotus

Marianne swirl 

Challenges

Christening card - Papertake Weekly - pale pretty pastels

House Mouse - Paper Pretties PWC 155 - birthday card

Hope you all have a great bank holiday weekend - are you doing anything special?

Love Teresa x

WOYWW 103

House mouse everywhere - no stamping this week. I know these are fiddly to cut out but I actually find it very therapeutic cutting out at coffee time or while watching the TV. I love HM decoupage and have every single set, I make them to sell and sell they do everytime . As soon as there're seen they are snapped up first. Since I have the animal charity sale on Monday ( scary - as I said before I've never sold face to face before ) it will be House Mouse Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday!!! 
Hope you won't get bored. Normal service will resume soon.
What's on my desk? Lots of bits and pieces, 2 cards in kit form, lovely resin embelishments I bought but haven't used yet, 3mm ribbon ( 10p in a charity shop ) which I colour with my Pro's, wordy bits to put in the cello bag saying what's written in the card, and of course my ipod so I can listen to audio stories while I work. I'm currently listening to Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire for about the 10th time - I have them all and it's a bit like painting the Forth Bridge. I must add I do listen to other stories inbetween too.

I thought I'd show you the other end of my desk where all the electronic work goes on. I've bought this lovely book called Paper Boutique which shows you how to make the most gorgeous paper flowers using punches. The only problem now is do I start buying the punches - I know it will be the start of something else to spend my sons inheritance on!

I thought since I'm making more than I'm posting at the moment I'd slip in this finished HM for you. It's very simple but Oh so sweet.

The backing paper is some I bought in bulk from Anna Griffin, card edge coloured with Sunflower Pro, a strip of ribbon and 3 pieces in appropriate colours, sentiment, gold matt et voila card done.

Hope you all have a Happy WOYWW today. I'm off to have a nosey - you can too at Julia's Stamping Ground.

C&S Kraft Animals

The title should cover the challenges I'm entering with this.

I hope you aren't getting bored with these animal cards but they are lovely stamps to work with. Of course they're Jayne Netley Mayhew again. I've coloured them with Promarkers in various shades of brown and warm greys, layered up the two in the front for dimension and kept it C&S using Kraft card for the matt and circle frame with the Shapabilities buckle. I think the BP is from DCWV All Dressed Up collection.

Challenges

Alphabet Challenge - C for Clean and Simple

Cute Card Thursday - Use Kraft card

I Love Promarkers - Animals

If the Shoe Fits - C&S

Sarah Hurley - use a frame ( hope this counts )

Buttercup Thanks

So much for the lovely sunny start to Saturday it must have been some of the windiest weather for months. Fun when we were trying to put an awning up which was new and trying to follow instructions that were probably translated from Chinese! What about a picture says a thousand words? Well at least we kept the people watching entertained for a couple of hours. LOL 
Yippee 2 wins in one weekend how lucky am I.  Spent ages then going back to see if I'd won any others since I realised I hadn't been checking all of my entries.

I'm not so sure of this buttercup image as I don't find it bold enough to stand out but I'd alredy coloured it with Twinkling H2O's so thought I'd make a Thank You card which is always useful. I found the image a bit flat so I added extra flowers which were this time coloured with Promarkers to give a more vibrant yellow. 

Materials

Jayne Netley Mayhew stamp

My Mind's Eye - Summer papers

Cuttlebug Swiss dots - on Coredinations and distressed

Nestability scalloped circle - Glimmer mist spritzed

Spellbinders pendants - Lotus

Flowers - cut/punched edged in lime ink

Marianne die - swirl

Challenges

Papertake Pretties PWC 154 - flowers

Papertake Weekly - something floral

I'm so excited

I'm so excited because I came in the top 3 of Polka Doodles challenge with my owl easel card. I couldn't believe it when I saw my name. You see I never win anything - if there were 20 raffle prizes and 21 tickets I'd be number 21. Now if it was the OH he's really lucky ( not lucky enough to win the lottery though unfortunately). Now if he did what would I buy? Grand Calipur, Copics, Nestabilities ......

OK enough dreaming here's today's card using one of the cute Lili of the Valley squares and following the lovely sketch from Moving Along With the Times.

Materials

LOTV - die cut squares

LOTV round sentiment stamp

My minds eye BP - summer

Nestabilities 

Versa magic chalk ink - Pixie dust

Versacolor - Lime

Xcut flower punch

gems

glamour dust on flowers

MAWTT sketch 99

Challenges

MAWTT sketch

LOTV - Here comes summer

Charisma Cardz - birthdays in pink

Truly Scrumptious - AG

Hope you all have a great weekend and I'll see you soon.

Luv Teresa x