Loved up Christmas

I can't believe I've actually made my hubby's Christmas card and it's only the 6th of October!

My friend Linda sent me a wonderful package of goodies including the Very Merry Christmas stamp set and embossed images of the Flower Dot Pattern - thanks again, Linda! I've been admiring the Flower Dot Pattern for a while and was delighted to get to play with it. I know the sentiment set is going to get a lot of use in the lead up to Christmas and also throughout the year by using only parts of the sentiments.


Stamps (Hero Arts) - Flower Dot Pattern and Very Merry Christmas

To start with I applied barn door distress ink to the embossed image and sprayed liberally with a water and perfect pearls mix. I love the wonderful shimmery effect of the perfect pearls but just not when I'm trying to take of photo of it! The snowflake is covered with white glitter and the chipboard heart is encrusted with red gems including a couple of heart shaped ones.



The sentiment is stamped with barn door distress ink. I'm submitting this card into the Lily Pad Cards Bling Challenge , the Textured to Perfection Challenge in the Moxie Fab World and the current Hero Arts Challenge.



Just showing the shimmer of perfect pearls in this photo.

My blogging is probably going to be a little bit patchy over the next little while (and it already has been for a while!), as at the moment I'm helping with organising a Christmas craft fair and trying to get some bits and pieces made for it - just need a few more hours in the day!

Happy Christmas from the Snow Drifts

After many weeks of thinking I must get started, I finally made my first Christmas card! For my first card I couldn’t resist playing with this cute car with Christmas tree image that my friend Linda sent me.



Stamps (Hero Arts) - Stunning Snowflakes, Car With Tree and Celebrate Everyday

For the background, I white embossed white card with the snowflakes, applied distress inks (broken china & faded jeans) and spritzed lightly with water. The embossed snow drifts are on foam adhesive pads for dimension and are topped with diamond stickles. I coloured the car and tree with ProMarkers & watercolour pencils and coated the car with Glossy Accents. It’s questionable whether anyone would be going through snow drifts with a fully decorated Christmas tree on top of their car, but that’s one of the great things about card making, anything is possible, lol! The sentiment is stamped with barn door distress ink.

I’m submitting the card into Lily Pad Cards Bling Challenge

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.