Best Friends Shaped Card

Good morning to all my lovely followers and  friends .Well its Wednesday and another launch of the weekly challenge over at Crafting by Designs . This week the theme is a shaped card. I enjoyed doing this card. as it made me have a dig around in my blank card box and found these lovely step cards I bought ages ago from Craftwork Cards not sure if they still sell them and its a while since I've made a card using them. Our sponsor this week is Eureka Stamps and I decided on a stamp called Best Friends for my Design Team card

Eureka Stamps  

Prize - winners choice of 3 single digis

Card Recipe

Blank step card Craftwork Cards

Image Best Friends from Eurika stamps coloured with Promarker and Copic pens

Spellbinder Floral oval die

Magnolia Doohickey flower die

Lace from my stash

Pearl string The Hobby House

Organza flower trim is cut from a very wide ribbon three rows of these flowers its fabulous and  from Crafty Ribbons

Sentiment tags LOTV

Small resin flowers Michaels Florida

Papers Maja Design Summer Basics

Pearls from my stash

I hope you are all having a great week and find time to dig out those shaped cards and enter the challenge hugs Carole x

Tilda with Spring Bundle

Good morning everyone hope you are all well and enjoying this sunny weather.My post today is a Tilda image I bought recently in a sale at The Paperlane craft shop in Northallerton. I don't have many Tilda stamps but I liked this image and  its ages since I made a card using Tilda. I hope you like her.

Card Recipe

6x6 blank card

Papers are Maja Design Spring Basics from Live and  Love Crafts

Magnolia Tilda with Spring Bundle painted with Derwent Inktense Pencils

Fence die Crafty Sentiments Designs

Lace and  Fait Main ribbon from Crafty Ribbons

Butterfly punch Martha Stewart

Hessian butterflies from a pack from the pound shop

Flowers Wild Orchid Crafts

Small wooden sentiment tag from a gift shop in Bakewell 

Sewing machine and white top stitch thread

Pearl string and twine from my stash

The sentiment letters are quite small but it reads "Good Friends are hard to find harder to leave and impossible to forget."isn't it lovely?

Hope you have a great week and  enjoy the weather and some crafty time. As the kids have gone back to school I think hubby and  I may have a pensioners day out to Whitby sometime this week.I need my GF fish and  chip fix and  its also an excuse to visit the craft shop!! hugs Carole x

I'm entering this in Live and Love Crafts Signs of Spring Challenge and A Gem of a Challenge Spring

For You

Good evening to all my lovely friends and  blog followers. My card today is the first Tiddly Inks image I have used. I've admired them on a couple of blogs and decided recently to buy a couple of digi's and this is the first.
 As it was a digi image I usually colour them with Copics and  Promarkers as I always find them difficult to colour with inktense pencils or distress inks so I have been trying a few methods to stop the printer ink from bleeding.  I decided once I got it sorted to write a tutorial and  this is on my Tutorial Page if you want to take a look. I'm sure there are other methods out there but this works for me. This is my first image painted with inktense pencils using this method and  I'm quite pleased with the results.

Card Recipe

7 x 7 Blank Card

Stamp Tiddly Inks Wryn Grow a Little Love painted with Derwent Inktense Pencils and sprinkled with Shabby Pink Frantage from Live and  Love Crafts

Butterfly border Joy Crafts

Papers Maja Design Coffee in the Arbour Grandma's Old Porcelain Cups a 12 x 12 sheet from Whichcraft at the GNPE

Spellbinder Opulent Oval dies

Guipure lace with flowers Wild Orchid Crafts (now out of stock) such a shame.

Flowers Wild Orchid Crafts the grey roses were white and I painted them with a Promarker pen.  

Grey pearl hearts GNPE
Hearts Dutch Dubadoo Noor Designs

Resin Frame Melissa Francis

For You letters from a Pion cut out sheet

Grey pearl string and  ribbon my stash

Well I hope you are all having a great week the weather here has been lovely so I've made the most of it doing some garden jobs. 

Thank you to all of you who have commented on my last couple of posts the comments have been so lovely.  I loved and appreciated every one you are such special people . Hugs Carole x

I'm entering this into Tiddly Inks Challenge, In The Pink Challenge and Noor Design Challenge

Vintage Christmas

Good morning to all my crafty friends and followers and a special welcome today to my new follower Gran Margaret I hope you enjoy my blog so glad you are following me.
I know what your thinking now just finished Easter yesterday and she''s posting a Christmas card !! Well the card is to launch a new challenge over at Crafting by Designs. The theme is Get Ready for Christmas. We ran some challenges with this theme in the lead up to Christmas and they were so popular that the team decided to have this theme once a month throughout the year. Its a great way to build the Christmas cards up during the year

We have two sponsors this week

Luna Girl

Prize - $15 credit to the store

Stitchy Bear -

)

Prize - choice of 3 single images up to $10

I decided on a collage sheet from Lunagirl Christmas in Pink for my design and this is one of the images from the sheet.

Card Recipe

7 x 7 Blank card

Image from Lunagirl Collage sheet Christmas in Pink

Papers LOTV Baskets and  Bunnies

Spellbinder Decorative Labels Eight

Cheery Lyn Doily Die English Tea Party

Sentiment LOTV Christmas Grungy Messages

Flowers Wild Orchid Crafts. I embossed the poinsettia with chunky white embossing powder 

from Live and  Love Crafts

White seam binding ribbon also from Live and Love Crafts

Lace, pearl string and pearl heart pins are from my stash

White gesso

Resin Angel and Vintage Cabochon are both from Wild Orchid Crafts

I hope you are inspired to make a Christmas card ( especially if you haven't started any yet ) and  pop over and enter the challenge. Enjoy the rest of the week whatever you have planned Hugs Carole x

Crafty Ribbons Easter Blog Hop

Happy Easter everyone.Today on the Crafty Ribbons Pure Inspiration Blog we are having a little blog hop around our Design Team blogs I do hope you can hop around with us. 

This cute little fellow is joining us but he has forgotten his name so on your visits to each of the teams blogs you will find a letter and when you have collected all the letters some are a little jumbled so you may have to sort them a little you will then know his name 

The prize is a fabulous voucher to spend at CRAFTY RIBBONS just think of all those gorgeous new ribbons you could buy

This is my inspiration for the blog hop. .I hope you like him and I would love it if you could leave me a comment.

Card Recipe

6x6 blank scalloped card

Bias binding ribbon and green pearl string from Crafty Ribbons  

I've stitched the bias binding around the edge of a circle and also used the ribbon and  pearl string to decorate my card

Stamp LOTV Armfuls of Daisies painted with Derwent Inktense Pencils

Flowers Wild Orchid Crafts and my stash

Sentiment LOTV Simply Sophisticated

Spellbinder circle and scalloped circle dies

So to join in this fun blog hop you need to go over to the Crafty Ribbons Pure Inspiration Blog to pick up the first couple of letters then visit each of the Design Team blogs to pick up the remaining letters then when you have all the letters just work out our bunnies name then go back to the Crafty Ribbons Pure Inspiration blog. You need to leave a comment with the bunnies name in it to be entered in the prize draw That's all you need to do so good luck everyone

My letter is A

You should have arrived here from Laura's blog 

and your next hop will take you to

Kate T 

If you get lost along the way just head back to the start.Remember to start and  finish at the Crafty Ribbons Pure Inspiration blog

The blog hop is running till next Friday 10th and will close at 10.a.m. 

So if you don't have time to complete the hop you can always hop back another day to finish it. Have fun hugs Carole x

Easter Box

Good morning to all my friends and blog followers I hope you are all looking forward to the Easter weekend and have some lovely things planned.
My post today is an Easter Box and  its my Design Team  project for the launch over at Crafty Ribbons of the new bi weekly challenge and the theme this week you guessed is Easter.

The Box

Box Lid

Inside of the box

Box Recipe

Round box

Easter Stamp LOTV ( I think its now retired )painted with Derwent Inktense Pencils.

 Velvet Ribbon, Etienne and Clermont lace all from Crafty Ribbons

Pearl Trims from Whitby Crafts and The Hobby House

Doily's cut to fit over the inside edge from Wild Orchid Crafts 

Flowers Wild Orchid Crafts and  Boyes Stores

Easter Blessing Postmark Stamp from LOTV 

Tissue paper and  Chocolates from Thornton's!!

I hope you find time to pop over to the challenge and enter your Easter projects. If not you might like to take a look at the Crafty Ribbons shop they have some great unique ribbons and lace just gorgeous.

Hugs x

Row of Whimsical Houses Wall Hanging

Good morning to all my lovely followers and  friends .Well its Wednesday again and today sees the launch of the weekly challenge over at Crafting by Designs and our theme this week is Anything goes This has got to be everyone's favorite so I 'm certain everyone will have something to enter.

We have two sponsors each giving generous prizes

Prize - 4 single digis

Prize - $10 credit to the store

For my DT project I decided on Row of Whimsical Houses from The Octopode Factory and  I've used it to make a wall hanging for a change.

Wall Hanging Recipe

Heart shape with hanger from a local Garden Centre Craft Shop Strikes at Stokesley.

Shape covered in Maja Design Papers Spring Basics from Live and  Love Crafts. The tag  and  April Diary are from the cut out sheet that comes with the pad.

Stamp Row of Whimsical Houses The Octopode Factory painted with Promarkers and Copic pens then fussy cut.
Sentiment our house in the middle of the street comes with the stamp

Sage green Hessian from the GNPE

Wooden stars Whiby Crafts

Wooden house and  green metal embellishment from my stash

Lace from Crafty Ribbons

New house sentiments on tag LOTV Greetings Postmarks

The edges are inked with Forest Green Distress Ink

Well I hope I've inspired you with my New Home Wall Hanging to pop over to Crafting by Designs and  take a look at this weeks Challenge hugs Carole 

Fluttering

Good evening to all my lovely friends and  followers and a special welcome to my two latest Google+ followers Tracy and Jac  I hope you enjoy my posts I am so pleased you are following my blog. It would be great if you can find time to visit .
My post this evening is a card I've just made using LOTV stamp Fluttering. I already have a couple of this series of stamps I tried to get this at the GNPE but they did not have it with them so when they had the discount for Mothers day I bought it online.

Card Recipe

6x6 blank card

Kraft card Crafters Companion

Papers Maja Design Spring basics

Fluttering stamp LOTV painted with Derwent Inktense Pencils

Spellbinder Floral oval die

Joy craft butterfly border

Organza flower lace Wild Orchid Crafts

Pearl string my stash

Resin butterfly Melissa Francis

Flowers Wild Orchid Crafts and  my stash

Butterfly cut outs from the Maja design papers cut out sheet.

Sentiment LOTV Fairy Sentiments Fussy cut and  edged with distress ink

I hope you have all had a great weekend the weather has been cold and very windy here but we did get to Northallerton yesterday mainly to buy Easter eggs and  have tea at Betty's.. I was very good and didn't go to either the Art shop or the Craft shop unheard of I will have to do better next time !!

Have a great week hugs Carole x

Thank You

Good morning to all you lovely crafty people and a very warm welcome to my new follower Jackie. I'm so glad you are following my blog.
My post today is a Thank You card with a bit of a story. Before Christmas my daughter-in -law sent me some craft stuff a colleague at work had given her to give to me..The lady used to craft but had given it up and asked Fiona if I could use it. So I received a lovely padded envelope with some gorgeous stamps and other goodies.
I intended to send a thank you before I went on my long holiday but the days just seemed to go so fast. So last week I made a Thank You card for her using one of the stamps she sent. It was incredibly kind of her to think of me. So this is the card better late than never !!

Card Recipe

6 x 6  card Craftwork cards the edge is cut with Tim Holtz bracket die

Papers LOTV  Pastel Dreams

Stamp Papermania Bunting painted with Derwent Inktense Pencils

Lace Dainty Crafts Washington

Organza Rose ribbon Boyes Stores

Flowers Wild orchid Crafts

Sentiment LOTV Pretty Grungy Good Times

Pearl String The Hobby House

I hope you have all had a good week. I'm doing a training day today for the appeals work I do for the Local Authority so should be an interesting day. .Hugs Carole x

Myrtle's Flower

Good Morning to all my blog friends and  followers and  a special welcome to my new follower Scrap Carole I hope you enjoy my blog. I'm just so glad to be posting something at last I've been crafting but most of it is for DT work and not yet due to be posted but hopefully I've now got caught up so more posts I promise in the next few weeks.
Today sees the launch at Crafting by Designs of the new weekly challenge the theme this week is flowers with a die cut or punch.

We have one sponsor this week

Prize - winners choice of 3 single digis 

For my DT card I decided to use Myrtle's Flower and  here she is.

Card Recipe

6x6 blank card

Image Myrtle's Flower Lacy Sunshine Stamps painted with Promarker and  Copic pens and  sprinkled with blue frantage

Papers Lili of the Valley Snow Princess

Marianne die circle ,leaf and flower

Martha Stewart butterfly punch.

Organza ribbon and  lilac lace Crafty Ribbons

Flowers Wild Orchid Crafts and  Dainty Crafts Washington

Flower pearl string The Hobby House

 LOTV Sentiment  tags

Flower button my stash 

Tim Holtz paper edger

Well I hope you are all having a great week and enjoying some nice things. It would be great if you could find time to pop over and take a look at the challenge. I  know you all love using flowers and  dies. on your cards.

Thank you for the great comments on my last couple of posts I really appreciate and love every one.of them hugs Carole x

Jukebox Jive

Good morning to all you lovely blog friends and followers . Today sees the launch of another challenge over at Crafting by Designs and the theme this week is a masculine card. I can hear the groans not our favorite thing but I have to say once I push myself to make one I do enjoy them especially if like this one I have to search the internet for the right papers and embellishments.

We have two sponsors this week

Dr Digi

Prize - winners choice of 2 single digis

and

Oakpond Creations

Prize - winners choice of 3 single digis

I selected this Jukebox image from Dr Digi for my card today.

Card Recipe

7x7 Blank Card

Jukebox image from Dr Digi painted with Promarker and Copic pens I fussy cut the image and  highlighted the image with a silver fine liner.

Paper and  record images from the internet

Music Ribbons are from Crafty Ribbons

Silver stars I bought ages ago in The Range

Guitar charm Whitby Crafts

Die cut letters

Card is Tim Holtz

I hope you find time to go over and take look at this weeks challenge and it may spur you on to make a man card and enter this challenge.

I hope you are all having a great week mine is much less hectic than last week. Hugs Carole x

Good Evening and a Wedding Card for our Craft Group

Good evening to all my lovely blog friends and followers. A special welcome this evening to my new followers Kelly, Linda and Carole. I hope you enjoy my blog and  come and visit often. I'm so pleased you are all following my blog.
Before I tell you about my card a small apology I've not been around much this week as we got unexpected visitors on Tuesday and they were with us till Friday. So most of my craft plans went out of the window. I did get to the GNPE at Harrogate on Friday and got some nice goodies. Its definitely not the show it was its so much smaller and a lot of the regular sellers no longer go. If any of you were there on Friday sorry I missed you.
My card today is a sample card I've made for the people at our Craft Group to make on Thursday. It has to be a little simpler than I normally make as there are all abilities. We are using images from a LOTV Art Pad True love and the theme is Wedding/ Anniversary. I've chosen a Wedding image but the design will be suitable for all of the images the others decided on a couple of weeks ago .

Card Recipe

7x7 blank card

LOTV Art Pad True Love

Silver Shimmer card A Touch of Craft

Embossed card dot embossing folder

Spellbinder circle and  scalloped circle dies

Marianne heart die

Sentiments LOTV Simply Sophisticated

Ribbon, lace and  flowers from my stash

I spent most of yesterday afternoon cutting all the things and putting them all together into packets ready for Thursday thank goodness for my ebosser. I hope they all enjoy making my card design on Thursday.

Hopefully this week will be back to normal and I will manage some more posts. Thank you all for the gorgeous comments on my last post Time Flies so kind. Have a great week. hugs Carole x

Time Flies 60th Birthday Card

Good Morning to all my blog friends and followers I hope that you have all had a great weekend doing some lovely things. I've just about got all the catching up done since getting home and its pretty much back to normal. Its been hard after such a great holiday to get back to doing the normal everyday things and its cold!!.
So onto my post today. Its a commission I was given from a friend for a 60th birthday card. I decided to use LOTV Time Flies for my image but really pushed myself to use a different colour scheme As I always go to the lavenders and blues first when I paint this image. See what you think.

The matching box

Card Recipe

7x7 blank card 

Papers LOTV Country Lady

Stamp LOTV Time Flies painted with Derwent Inktense pencils

LOTV sentiment Greetings Postmarks

Cream organza flower trim from Walmart in Florida

Lace bow panel and wooden flower The Works Outlet shop in The Peak District

Pearl string The Hobby House

Flowers Wild orchid Crafts, Boyes Stores and  Dainty Crafts Washington

Lace and small pearls from my stash

Time Flies Sentiments made on the computer

Sewing machine and  white top stitch thread

Pearl Hearts Dawn to Dusk Crafts Ross Paper craft show

7x7 Box Stella Crafts

Tim Holtz paper edger tool

Glamour dust on her wings

I'm glad I pushed myself to do a different colour as I quite liked it when it was finished. I  hope my friend who commissioned it does too.

I've got a really busy week with lots on so will have to make sometime in amoungst it all to craft as I still have some DT posts to finish.

Thank you all for the lovely comments on Pom Pom and the warm welcome home I missed  all your blogs while I was away. Have a great week whatever you are planning but I  hope that it involves some nice things. Love and  hugs x .

Pom Pom

Good morning to all my lovely friends and followers.Today I am posting my first card for Crafty Ribbons Design Team. The theme this week is pearls ,ribbon and charm how could I go wrong some of my favorite crafting materials.
As you can see from my title I decided as it was my first challenge to use the first stamp I ever bought from LOTV she's Pom Pom and although they retired her last year she's still one of my favorite LOTV stamps.
I've used some fab Crafty Ribbons and Lace on my project .They stock some amazing ribbons, lace and lots of exclusive products as well. I certainly recommend you take a look.

Card Recipe

6x6 blank card Craftwork Cards

Stamp LOTV Pom Pom (now retired ) Painted with Derwent Inktense Pencils

Papers Pion Studio of Memories Photo Frame and Anemone PD1901 Live and Love Crafts

Lace, Organza Ribbon and  Fait Main ( French for Handmade) Label Crafty Ribbons

Pearl string The Hobby House 

Flowers Wild Orchid Crafts and Boyes Stores

Fairy charm Whitby Crafts 

Marianne Die, flower ,leaf and circle

Card and paper edger Tim Holtz

Glamour dust on wings

Sentiment LOTV Fairy Sentiments

I hope I've inspired you to take a look at the Crafty Ribbons Challenge and shop this is the link.

I also hope you are all having a great week keeping warm and doing the things you love the most. Hugs Carole.

Hello I'm home and a Football Card

Hello everyone it seems like a lifetime since I last wrote a post but it feels good. Well I'm back from my holidays now and what an amazing time we had. We did some wonderful things and it definitely was a holiday of a lifetime. We stayed in 15 hotels, did 6 flights, one helicopter flight, 2 trains, one ferry, a river jet boat, a gondola to a skyline restaurant ,a cable car, a glowworm cave, numerous small boats and loads of things I'll have forgotten already.
Well its back to reality now and  I've just started crafting again. Today I'm posting a birthday card I made for my husband for his birthday in January before we went away. Its not very exciting as its a football card themed around his favorite team Sunderland. He loved it at the time but they are playing really badly right now so he definitely needs to keep calm!!

Card Recipe

Papers and toppers from internet images
Black mirra card

Ribbon and  twine from my stash

Candi Craftwork cards

Hope you enjoy it if you like football My husband certainly does!!.

I thought I'd end the post with a couple of photos from the hundreds we took in New Zealand and the Cook Islands The first one is me on the snowline at the top of Mount Cook you can just see the helicopter in the corner I was terrified but what an amazing experience.

This second photo is from the beach of our hotel in the Cook Islands. What a fabulous place the hotel had only 30 bedrooms and is an adult only hotel. The weather as you can see was fabulous 30 degrees this is the lagoon in the coral reef and the small island across from the hotel beach.

Well as I said earlier I'm back crafting as I have design team projects to do so hopefully I'll get caught up over the next week or so . Big apologies to everyone as I'm weeks behind with comments but will get round to all your fabulous blogs as soon as I can I know you will all have been making stunning creations as always. Good to be back crafting and I hope you are all well Love and  hugs Carole x