Altenew Peony

A quick thank you card using one of my favourite Altenew stamp sets...

Stamp set: Altenew Peony Bouquet, stamped and clear embossed
Colouring Medium: Distress inks
Embossing Folder: craft mag freebie
Sentiment Altenew 'build a rose' craft mag freebie

I'm entering this card at:
Seven Hills Crafts challenge - colour challenge (3rd group of colours)
Altenew's inspiration challenge May 2017
Crafty Calendar - flower
Crafty Creations - anything goes

Thanks for looking xx

Aunty's birthday

This is the card that i've made for my Aunty...

I started with an embossed background. My Aunty likes to play bingo, so the Tim Holtz large bingo embossing folder is perfect.
I die cut the Large Iceland Poppy and added some shading with promarkers before adhereing the flower head together. I slipped the stem through the lettering on the 'for you' scripty die, then glued the whole lot onto the bingo card base. I brushed over the petals of the flower with a clear Wink of Stella pen.
The word 'Aunty' is from a retired stamp set by Clearly Besotted Stamps. I hand-cut the little tag to fit nicely around it.
The strip of paper at the bottom of the card is from Lawn Fawn's Perfectly Plaid paper pad.

I'd like to enter this card at:
Incy Wincy - touchy feely (add texture)
Seize the Birthday - A/Goes (dimension)
Chocolate, Coffee & Cards - just us girls
Allsorts - Happy Birthday
Seven Hills May challenge - embossing

Thanks for looking, have a great day xx

Mid-week inspiration

It's time for another mid-week inspiration post for From The Heart Stamps.
My card for today uses the sketch from this weeks I {heart} sketches challenge...

Join in the challenge, and everyone who plays will receive a $1 discount code for the store, and if you are the challenge winner, you will receive a $5 discount code to the store! :)
Remember though, you must use an image by From The Heart Stamps to be eligible, and please include a pic of the sketch in your blog post too, it's in the rules!

I've made a get well card using Feel Better Birdbrain...

I coloured the image with promarkers, and added some clear wink of stella to the medicine itself.
The patterned paper is by Echo Park (Little Girl). I found some pink glitter card in my scraps tub which fits in perfectly (together with the sequins) for the twist this time, which is to 'make it sparkle'.
The sentiment was stamped and heat embossed, and is from Paper Smooches (First Aid Kit).

I'd like to enter this card at:
I Love Promarkers - 2 colours only (pink and brown)... EDIT: I got a top 3 spot! thank you xx
Crafts Galore Encore - anything goes
Crafting From The Heart - anything goes

Thank you for stopping by today.
You can find more inspiration, and enter the latest I {heart} sketches challenge by clicking HERE.
You can find our current Stamp Of The Month challenge and details of how you can join this progressive challenge HERE.

For a purr-fect day

Here's my mid-week inspiration card for From The Heart Stamps.
This week i'm using this fab image, A Little Something...

I coloured this kitty with promarkers, fussy cut it out, then glued the image to a piece of cardstock that i'd sponged with distress inks first (weathered wood & mowed lawn) and embossed with a paw print embossing folder by Darice (Michelle 'made' me buy it ;) lol)
The sentiment is one of five you will receive when you purchase this image.

Thank you for stopping by today.
You can find more inspiration, and enter the latest I {heart} sketches challenge by clicking HERE.
You can find our current Stamp Of The Month challenge and details of how you can join this progressive challenge HERE.

Beautiful Vintage Roses

I LOVE Vintage Roses by Altenew.
It's such a lovely set to use, producing beautiful, realistic flowers.

I was asked to make a card for a 60th birthday...

This card took a while to do as I don't have the matching dies yet, so had to cut the flowers and leaves by hand, then I sponged the edges of each piece, before deciding on my placement.

Recipe:
I used Memento Dew Drop inks.
Flowers - dandelion, canteloupe, tangelo & potters clay. Leaves - new sprout, pistachio & bamboo leaves.
Papers - LOTV (Nitwit) 'Country Meadow'.
Diecut - trellis die by Clearly Besotted Stamps, & Die-namics 'By The Number' dies.
Punch - eyelet border by Stampin Up.
Sentiment - 'Bring on the cake' stamp set by Stampin Up (stamped onto vellum and heat embossed with gold EP).
Gold glitter washi tape, flat back pearls, and clear wink of stella on roses.

I'm entering this card at:
Cardz 4 Galz - woman or women
QKR Stampede - add some sparkle
Ribbon Girl - Spring/Easter or anything goes
Whimsy Challenges - anything goes
Stamping Sensations - Flower Power

Hope you all have a great weekend xx

Happy Birthday Rich

It's my son in law's birthday today. He is a big Wolverhampton Wanderers fan, so thought i'd have a go at making a card which looks like the back of a shirt...

This card was real easy to make, the hardest part was lining up the dies (Dienamics By The Letter/Number) on the orange card stock to cut out his name and age. To add a little interest, I embossed the top and bottom with a stars folder by Darice.
I edged the sides with white card stock, then I backed this panel with funky foam so that I could raise it from the black card base.
Then finished the card with a football die-cut (Quickutz - Soccer Ball).

For my Grandsons...

I made these 2 cards for my 2 grandsons.
I grabbed a few images from Whiff of Joy before they closed, and kept these 2 especially for Mikey & RJ.

Here's the first...

This little cutie is 'Henry On Present'. Coloured with promarkers, and edged using a cArt-Us die, (Border Drop).
I embossed the yellow piece with a folder from Cuttlebug's Mini Monsters Companions set, this folder has a sweets and lollipops design.
Grandson was cut using a  word die by Crafts Too.

I'd like to enter this card at:
Sweet Stampin - Merry Christmas
Crafting From The Heart - anything goes


and here's the second card...

This equally cute Henry image is 'Henry Hugging Bauble', but i've teamed it with another WoJ image, the baubles, from their 'Christmas Accesories' set, so that I could create this scene.
I used the same embossing folder and Grandson word die as before.

I'd like to enter this card at:
Passion for Promarkers - mega christmas challenge
The Male Room - christmas or seasonal greetings

Mikey's 5th Birthday :)

Mikey is my eldest grandson, RJ's big brother.
Our cute, funny, and cheeky little guy is 5 today.
Happy Birthday Mikey! XXXXX

These are the cards that I have made for him, starting with the card that we sent...

Mikey loves minions, I saw a few cards on pinterest, each having either a punch-art or paper pieced minion, and decided I wanted to make something similar too.
Everything is hand cut apart from the greeting (Tattered Lace alphabet dies), and the letter 'M' and number '5' which were die cut using die-namics dies.

and this is the card from Uncle Jake...

Mikey's next favourites are those awesome dudes... Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, especially Michaelangelo (Mikey), as you'd probably guess lol.
I used a printed image, then used the same colours to print off the greeting too.
The background card was made to look similar to a man-hole cover by using an embossing folder (Heavy Duty) by Couture Creations.

Birdbrain in the Spotlight.

My card for today uses the sketch from this weeks I {heart} sketches challenge for From The Heart Stamps...

Join in the challenge, and everyone who plays will receive a $1 discount code for the store, and if you are the challenge winner, you will receive a $5 discount code to the store! :)
Remember though, you must use an image by From The Heart Stamps to be eligible, and please include a pic of the sketch in your blog post too.

This weeks sketch is perfect for CAS cards, so I decided to go with that, but I also wanted to incorporate the twist, which is to use the Spotlight Technique.

My image today is Birdbrain Conversation Hearts.
I printed the image twice, then cut a slice off one so that it just had the candy hearts, then coloured that piece with grey promarkers for shading only.
The other piece I coloured with brighter colours then cut it out and backed this onto black cardstock so that it had a very slight border around this spotlight piece.
The red cardstock was embossed using a 'candy hearts' folder by Sizzix.

I'd like to enter this card at:
Sweet Stampin - emboss it
Crafting From The Heart - anything goes
Creative Inspirations - something sweet

Thank you for stopping by today.
You can find more inspiration, and enter the latest I {heart} sketches challenge by clicking HERE.
You can find our current Stamp Of The Month challenge and details of how you can join this progressive challenge HERE.
Please join us on Facebook and “Like” our page to read about the latest FTH news.
We'd also love it if you'd join our Facebook Group too, this group makes it easier for you to share pics of your FTH makes, we'd love to see them!

Birdbrain Snowman

Hello! Happy Monday to you & yours.

So, Monday means that we have a brand new I {heart}sketches challenge for From The Heart Stamps :)

Here's sketch #117:

The twist this time is 'Lots of white'...

My image today is Birdbrain Snowman, coloured with promarkers. The sky has been sponged with my very old stampin spot of SU Bashful Blue ink.
I decided to add teeny acetate stars to the falling snow, the glue that I used has made the little circles a green colour, but IRL it doesn't look too bad.
The image is placed upon a debossed snowflake piece, and the patterned paper used here are both from Lawn Fawn's 'Peace, Joy, Love' paper pad. The top piece has been punched using a diamond border punch by Xcut.
I finished with a snowflake using the smallest die from the 'Snowflakes Trio' set from Clearly Besotted Stamps.

I'd like to enter this card at:
Shopping Our Stash - put a bird on it
Papertake Weekly - anything goes
QKR Stampede - birds
Crafty Catz - anything goes
Craft Your Passion - always anything goes

You can find more inspiration by clicking HERE.
You can find our current Stamp Of The Month challenge and details of how you can join our progressive challenge HERE.
Please join us on Facebook and “Like” our page to read about the latest FTH news.
We'd also love it if you'd join our Facebook Group too, this group makes it easier for you to share pics of your FTH makes, we'd love to see them!

August's SOTM

It's time for our mid-month reminder for the SOTM challenge at From The Heart Stamps.
Remember, EVERYONE who plays, WINS!

As it is a progressive challenge, if you joined in with the Stamp Of The Month challenge in July, you should have received August's Candy Cane for Snowman via email.

If you make a card/project using this month's SOTM, you will receive next month's image emailed to you for free! :)

If you didn't play last month, you can still join in by buying the image from the FTH shop. 

If you spend over $10 on other images, you will get Candy Cane for Snowman for free when using the code LETITSNOW.
You have until Monday, August 31st, at 11:59pm CST to submit your entry.

Here's my card...

I chose to focus on the snowman himself, as he looks as though he could be catching a snowflake. So I coloured the image with promarkers, then fussy cut around it, before making a start on the background piece, which is just a sponged background using old 'Rich Regals' SU inks, starting at the bottom with Ballet Blue, then Night of Navy at the top, blending the 2 together using Brocade Blue. These inks are really old, I bought the stampin spots sets about 7 or 8 years ago, and to my surprise the lightest 2 of these 3 colours hadn't been opened!

No patterned papers here, choosing instead to use a Snowflakes embossing folder.
I added 3 diecut snowflakes to the top using the smallest die from the 'Snowflakes Trio' set by Clearly Besotted Stamps. The sheer ribbon was in my stash, then I added clear Wink of Stella to the snowflakes and snowman.

The sentiment is one of four that you get for free with this image...

I'm entering this card at:
MAWTT - Snow in the Summertime
Cute Card Thursday - anything goes
Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Extra - anything goes
Christmas cards all year 'round - snowflakes

Thank you for stopping by today.
You can link up your Stamp Of The Month challenge entry and find details of how you can join this progressive challenge if you haven't played before, HERE.
To enter the latest I {heart} sketches challenge, please click HERE.

Please join us on Facebook and “Like” our page to read about the latest FTH news.
We'd also love it if you'd join our Facebook Group too, this group makes it easier for you to share pics of your FTH makes, we'd love to see them!

And remember, we are having a DT call right now, details can be found in THIS POST.

Laura's 24th

** If you are looking for my stop on this month's blog hop with From The Heart Stamps, please scroll down, thanks! **


Today is my younger daughter's 24th Birthday. Happy Birthday to Laura :)
Laura said that she wanted a pink, girly card this year...

One of our memories of Laura as a little girl is of her wearing her floppy denim hat, so whilst browsing through my stamps and images, I decided to use Fancy Sunbonnet Flowers, which is a bugaboo image, made in rubber for Little Miss Muffet Stamps.
I've teamed this little cutie with papers by Echo Park; Be Mine & Little Girl.
I've used my swiss dots embossing folder, an 'Elegant Ovals' frame die by Marianne Creatables, and 2 punches from Stampin Up; scalloped border, and boho blossoms, which was used along with its matching stamp set 'One of a Kind'.
The sentiment is computer generated.


And here is Laura's card which Jake gave to her...

The patterned paper used is also by Echo Park, from the Love Story collection.
I used my cropadile to cut and set the eyelets, then scored a piece of white card for the 'toe' end.
'sister' is a word die by Clearly Besotted Stamps.

Happy Birthday Flissy! xx

Thanks for stopping by today, enjoy your weekend :)

FTH May 2015 Blog Hop

Welcome to my stop on this month's From the Heart Stamps blog hop.

Our theme this time is "Mother's Day", or, for a special lady.

As you hop along, please leave a comment on each blog.
One random commenter will be selected on each blog to win an image of choice from the FTHS store.
Additionally, one commenter on the From the Heart Stamps blog will be selected to win a $15 gift voucher to the store!

If you have arrived here from Jessica, you are in the right place. If you haven't, why don’t you start at the From the Heart Stamps blog, so you don’t miss anything. The full hop list is there too.

Here is my card...

For my card, i've used one of the three images from Spring Baskets, coloured with promarkers, then fussy cut around it.
The patterned paper is from a freebie kit by Shery K Designs.
Other supplies used are my swiss dots embossing folder, scalloped edge punch, a small heart punch, and a mother word die by Clearly Besotted Stamps.

Now, please head over to Kathy's blog to see her fantastic card for this hop.

I hope that you enjoy hopping with us today.
The hop will end on Monday, May 4th at 6am, EST (11am UK time).
Winners will be posted on the From the Heart Stamps Blog on Wednesday, May 6th.
Good luck, and happy hopping! xx

Baby Girl

I've made this card for a friend at work who has welcomed a beautiful addition to his family...

It was quite a simple card to make actually, once the shape was made, it was embossed then prettied up with die cuts, job done :)
So, I hand cut the card base from pink card stock using a circle punch and scissors, then embossed the front of the card with my argyle embossing folder.
The scalloped edges were made using the same circle punch followed by a SU scalloped circle punch, then using the scalloped edge punch (also by SU) for the bottom of the belly band and the ends of the arms.
The belly band uses a darker pink card stock which has been embossed with my swiss dots folder.
'baby' was die cut using a word die by Clearly Besotted Stamps, and 'GIRL' cut using Die-namics, By The Letter dies.
I added a small punched heart to finish the card.

I'm entering this card at:
2 Cute Ink - Baby theme
Simon Says Stamp (Weds) - clean & simple

Thanks for stopping by, enjoy the rest of your day xx

Bouquet without Chick

As you more than likely know by now, one of my favourite characters to use on a card are the Birdbrains by From The Heart Stamps. Faith really captures these little dudes and dudettes in such great poses which are sure to gain a smile when you see them :)
Have you seen the NEW RELEASES yet? there's a couple of new Birdbrains, as well as some new images that are perfect for Valentines.

Most of Faith's images come with free sentiments, and sometimes, you get additional images too.
So today, I wanted to show you one of these additional images.
I've used Bouquet Chick in the past, on this card (my debut GDT card).
But did you know that when you buy this digi, you also get the vase of flowers without the peeking chick?...

I've used this weeks sketch with a twist (#97) for my layout, and i've used the twist too, which is to use embossed cardstock. I chose an embossing folder from Cuttlebug's Heritage Companion Set for my background piece.
I resized, then printed one of the larger flowers again so that I could use it as an extra embellishment.
I coloured my images with Promarkers, then added some flatback pearls to the centre of the larger flowers.
The scalloped frame behind the image is actually a border die by cArt-Us ('fountain'), which has been cut up into individual scallops and then glued to the back of my oval. I started and ended at the point where I wanted to place my embellishment so that the slight gap between 2 of the scallops could be hidden.
The spotty paper was free with a craft magazine some time ago, I can't see the brand name anywhere on the pad, but the paper collection is called 'Sew Pretty'.
The sentiment is a stamp by Inkadinkado.

I'd like to enter this card in the following challenges:
Crafts Galore - use a stamp or digi
That Craft Place - anything goes
Crafting from the Heart - anything goes
Papertake Weekly - Hearts and/or Flowers

*Don't forget to find out if you were a winner from our recent blog hop, the winners list will be on the From the Heart Stamps Blog today!*

Join us on Facebook and “Like” our page to read about the latest FTH news.We'd also love it if you'd join our Facebook Group too, this group makes it easier for you to share pics of your FTH makes, we'd love to see them!

FTH December Blog Hop

Welcome to my stop on this month's From the Heart Stamps blog hop.

Our theme this time is "Christmas or Winter"

As you hop along, please remember to leave a comment on each blog.
One random commenter will be selected on each blog to win an image of choice from the FTH store.
And additionally, one commenter on the From the Heart Stamps blog will be selected to win a $15 gift voucher to the store!

If you have arrived here from Jessica, you are in the right place. If you haven't, why don’t you start at the From the Heart Stamps blog, so you don’t miss anything. The full hop list is there too.

Here is my card...

 I've used No Snow Birdbrain for my image today, and I've coloured it using promarkers.
The sentiment is one that you get for free with this image, and i've used a spellbinders die, the smallest from their Decorative Elements 'Elegant Ovals' set behind it.
I haven't used any designer paper, instead, opting to have a white embossed snowflake design using a cuttlebug folder.
I wrapped a couple of pieces of blue stitched-edge grosgrain ribbon at one corner to balance with the large snowflake embellishment (snowflake trio dies by CBS) at the other corner.

I'd like to enter this card at:
Papertake Weekly - anything goes
Fantastic Tuesday - anything goes (twist: embossing)
Crafty Creations - embossing
Sweet Stampin - let it snow
Totally Gorjuss - christmas animal
Stamp & Create - anything goes christmas


Now, please head over to Kathy's blog to see her fantastic card for this hop.

Thanks for hopping with us today.
The hop will end on Monday December 8th at 6am, EST (11am UK time).
Winners will be posted on the From the Heart Stamps Blog on Wednesday December 10th
Good luck, and happy hopping! xx

Would you like a Jelly Baby?

Time for a little From The Heart inspiration, using a Timelord!

Those of you who are of a certain age, like me, or any die-hard Dr Who fans, will instantly understand the title for this post as soon as you see my card today, lol.
Like many of my generation, Tom Baker was 'our' Dr Who, he played the 4th incarnation of the role for most of the 70's. His Doctor is best known for his instantly recognisable voice, his long scarf & hat combo, and his love of Jelly Babies.

So whilst colouring Birdbrain Winter Scarf for my blog hop card last week, I was thinking how much the image reminded me of that famous scarf, and how cool would it be to colour this Birdbrain as Dr Who. . .

So, I drew a hat using my paint program and printed it out along with the Birdbrain. After colouring them both,  I snipped along the brim of the hat so that I could glue the 2 together.
Here's what they look like from the back...

I needed to snip off the top of the Birdbrain's head so that it fit nicely beneath the hat.

Next, I needed a TARDIS, so I decided to make one. I started by using some old Ballet Blue card stock by Stampin Up, and cut out all the pieces I needed.
I coloured all these pieces with black and midnight blue promarkers to get the right colours and shading as I don't have any tardis blue similar coloured card at the moment.
I made the signs, windows, and top light, adding detail with my markers.
Then I just glued it all together. Job done :)

I used a Tim Holtz 'blueprint' embossing folder on another piece of Ballet Blue, and then sponged over the design afterwards using a few inkpads. I mounted this piece onto a piece of white cardstock which has had the scarf pattern replicated around the edge using the same promarkers that I used to colour the image.

I also drew the little paper bag of jelly babies, lol.

I'd like to enter this card at:
Fantastic Tuesday - anything goes
I love Promarkers - things with wings
Creative Card Crew - masculine

Thank you for stopping by today :) xx

Full of Beans

A happy Monday to you all. So it's the start of a new week, and it's also time for another fabulous I {heart}sketches challenge over at From The Heart Stamps.

here's the fab sketch this week...

The twist this week is: No patterned papers, use card stock only.

Join in the challenge, and EVERYONE who plays will receive $1 to FromTheHeartStamps.com. Use it as a discount, or save them up to earn a free stamp.
If you are the challenge winner, you will receive $5 discount for the store! :)
Remember though, you must use an image by From The Heart Stamps to be eligible, and please include a pic of the sketch in your blog post too.

Here's my DT card:

I rotated the sketch 90 degrees to the right.
The image is Full of Beans Birdbrain, and has been coloured with promarkers, as is usual for me.
I decided to use the twist as well as the sketch, so no DP's are used here, but to add a 'design' I used 2 embossing folders, Swiss Dots, and a folder from the Mini Monsters Companions set which has a sweets and lollipops design.
I used my eyelet border punch, and tied on a piece of pink gingham ribbon to finish.

I'd like to enter this card at:
Sister Act Card Challenge - anything goes
Stampin for the Weekend - anything goes (bye & thank you SFTW)
Hobby Cutz - use pink
I Love Promarkers - embossing

The challenge will close on Sunday at 10PM CST (4am Monday UK time).
Join us on Facebook and “Like” our page to see sneak peeks of the next sketch!

Happy Crafting! xx

I {heart} sketches #70

Happy Monday people! it's time for another fabulous I {heart}sketches challenge :)

here's the great sketch for this week...

This week's twist: use an animal of some sort.
Join in the challenge, and everyone who plays will receive a $1 discount code for the store, and if you are the challenge winner, you will receive a $5 discount code to the store! :)
Remember though, you must use an image by From The Heart Stamps to be eligible, and please include a pic of the sketch in your blog post too.

For my card, i've used Birdbrain Brew to make a Father's Day card for my husband from our son.

I rotated the sketch, but in hindsight, I think it may have looked better if i'd kept to the original, I rotated it because the bottle replaces the heart embellishments, but then I stuck this down before I added 'Dad' to the side of it.

Image: Birdbrain Brew.
Sentiment: handwritten, plus diecut 'Dad'.
Paper: Lawn Fawn (Peace, Joy, Love); other plain paper/card from stash.
Colouring Medium: promarkers.
Other Supplies: Die-namics 'By The Letter' dies; Cuttlebug 'Tiny Bubbles' embossing folder.

I'd like to enter this Birdbrain at:
Totally Gorjuss - embossing
Charisma Cardz - Father's Day
Simon Says Stamp - father's day / masculine

You can find more inspiration, and enter the I {heart} sketches challenge by clicking HERE.
Thank you so much for stopping by today :)

Blooming lovely

Here's another Mother's Day card I have been asked to make.
I've used another image from DigiStamp Boutique, this one is from the Blooming Lovely set; Blooming flowers...

I wanted to keep this card quite clean and simple, so this weeks lovely sketch provided by Papertake Weekly fitted the bill perfectly for this card.
No patterned papers were used, I wanted the flowers to really stand out from this card.
The pale pink piece was embossed using a Swiss Dots folder.
I wanted something to edge the dark pink piece, but didn't want to add a border punch, so decided just to paper pierce each side instead.
The sentiment is computer generated.

I'd like to enter this card at:
DigiStamp Boutique - March customer competition
Papertake Weekly - sketch
Passion for Promarkers - embossing
I love Promarkers - anything goes
Cute Card Thursday - floral delights
Charisma Cardz - CAS

Thank you for stopping by today xx