Hanging Out on the Lily Pad

I was absolutely delighted when I received an invitation from Deborah and Vicky asking me to be a guest designer over at Lily Pad Cards. I said yes straight away as I love Lily Pad Cards!! There are always fun challenges going on over there and the blog is full of inspirational and fun posts. Lol, my Sunday morning wouldn’t be complete without taking a break to watch Vicky’s latest video with my cuppa and maybe a bickie (edited. Lin, bickie is slang for what we call a biscuit here but you'd call it a cookie) in hand!

So here is one of the cards I made for today using a few of my favourite stamps.



If you’d like to see two more of my cards and the supply list\instructions for the above card, hop over to the Lily Pad where you will find them.

Thanks again Deborah and Vicky for having me over at the Lily Pad, I had a splashing great time there!

ATC swap with Barb

Barb and I decided we'd like to have an ATC swap and sent each other three ATCs. It's only now that I'm uploading the images that I realise how similar our choices were!


Above are the absolute beauties I received from Barb. I was so delighted when I opened the package and saw the gorgeous ATCs she had sent me. Thanks again Barb, I really enjoyed our swap and thanks again also for the lovely goodies you sent:)

These are the ATCs I sent to Barb.

Stamps (Hero Arts) - Hydrangea, Exotic Bloom and Antique Engravings.

On the first one, the background started as white card and I applied distress inks (broken china and faded jeans) and stamped an image in VersaMark (it was a while ago and now I can't remember which image I used!). The hydrangea was coloured with ProMarkers and I just added some diamond stickles to the flower centres. The second one has a background of spiced marmalede distress ink and after stamping the image I added a couple of punched butterflies. On the last one I used a piece of paper from a gorgeous stack of paper which my friend Trinh sent me a while ago. The butterfly was coloured with ProMarkers.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend:)

Owl book gift card holder and bookmark

Something my friends and I do more often in the autumn is read. So I made this little gift card holder which has a pocket inside for a book gift card and bookmark.

To start with, I white embossed some white card with the Friend Definition stamp and applied spiced marmalade distress ink. For the woodgrain pieces I applied walnut stain distress ink to white card and stamped the Woodgrain Background using the same ink.


Stamps (Hero Arts ) - Friend Definition, Heart Owls, Designer Woodgrain and Flourish Background

The green background started as white card and this was white embossed with the Flourish Background and some shabby shutters distress ink applied. The little owls were coloured with colouring pencils. I just added some googly eyes, leaves (May Arts ribbon) and glossy hearts to finish.

I'm submitting these into this month's Hero Arts Challenge and the Resist Challenge at Lily Pad Cards. Now I'm off to tackle a mountain of ironing which I should have been doing this morning instead of getting inky!

Shades of Autumn

I really love the glorious range of colours on trees in autumn. This week on the way to work, I've been enjoying the beautiful displays nature has on offer, glowing in the early morning sunlight. So with these colours in mind, I made this card for the current Hero Arts Challenge and the Lily Pad Cards Resist Challenge.

Stamp - Flower Text (Hero Arts)

To start with I embossed the image in white on white card and applied spiced marmalade and rusty hinge distress inks. I embossed the image again in white on white card and applied distress inks (walnut stain, barn door, mustard seed and shabby shutters) to the flowers and leaves. Now I really have inky multicoloured hands! I pieced the flowers and leaves and added gems and buttons to finish.

Hope you are all having a great weekend:)

The Blues

One of my favourite techniques is resist, so when I saw Lily Pad Cards' Resist Challenge, I just couldn't resist making a card.


Stamps (Hero Arts) - Exotic Bloom, Starburst Lace & Messages.

I used the sketch from the Square Sketch Challenge in the Moxie Fab World.



To start with I embossed the Exotic Bloom in white on white card and applied a few of my favourite distress inks - tumbled glass, broken china & faded jeans. The butterfly was punched out of a scrap left over from another project (vellum white embossed with Starburst Lace). I also used the resist technique on the sentiment and added a few gems to the card to finish.

Sending U Warm Fuzzies

Today I wanted to make a card with a mix of textures and materials. It started out because I was doing a sort out of my kids’ clothes and saved pieces of worn out jeans. Bits and pieces of these will probably end up on a patchwork bag but I took a little bit of denim for the card below.


Stamps (Hero Arts) - Everyday Sayings & Envelope Pattern

For the denim card base I adhered a piece of denim to a piece of card and die cut a scallop circle. The flowers were die cut from the denim and some pink felt. A “u” was also die cut from a little scrap of the felt. I had only one button with a check pattern on it, so for the smaller button I used a plain blue button and white embossed the envelope pattern on it. Appropriately enough, the sentiment was stamped using faded jeans distress ink.

I'm submitting the card into the following challenges:

Moxie Fab World - Fabulous Felt Challenge
Lily Pad Cards – Felt\Fabric Challenge
Creative Card Crew - Hand Made Flowers
Paper Creations Ink - Show Us Your Flowers

Thanks with Kanzashi Flowers

Recently I came across this great video on how to make kanzashi flowers. I'd never heard of these before, but thought I'd give them a go.


Stamps (Hero Arts) - Classic Fabric Design, Antique Engravings, Scattered Leaves and Messages.

The petals of the larger flower start off as 2 inch squares and these are folded over a few times. On the smaller flowers the squares are only one inch, so they proved to be a bit more fiddly, especially with slippy fabric!



To start with I clear embossed the Classic Fabric Design on white card and applied shabby shutters and forest moss distress inks. The flowers are made from shot silk and I added some pearls to the centres from an old necklace. The butterfly was stamped with a brown chalk ink and I just added some pearls and thread to finish.

I'm submitting the card into a few challenges:

Lily Pad Cards - Fabric\Felt Challenge
Hero Arts - August Challenge
Creative Card Crew - Hand Made Flowers Challenge
Paper Creations Ink - Show Us Your Flowers