Simply Heart ....

I love the challenge of making one layer cards - the simplicity of the design is a real challenge. Having produced one card using hearts I then felt inspired to try another this time using a mask and a collection of sentiment stamps from Clearly Besotted.  

I'm entering this card into two challenges:

"Less is More" Week 154 - a one layer card with the theme of Hearts
Stamping and Sharing home of the Clearly Besotted challenge with the theme of Love

This is a square card (5"x 5") and I used the following:

Stampin Up ink - Bravo Burgundy and Regal Rose
X Cut Nesting Dies - Heart set
Clearly Besotted stamp set - Many Messages

Enjoy!

Embossed Heart .....

I've been wandering around You tube looking for inspiration! There is so much out there it can be very time consuming but I'm interested in finding new techniques to try out.  I've seen a number of crafters embossing only part of the card - I've used the technique to create a border on a card but never to emboss an image in the centre leaving the surrounding card flat. That is until today!  It has taken numerous attempts to get it to work (I stopped counting at 5!). The final version is not perfect but neither am I! 

The challenge this week at "Less is More" is to create a 'one layer card' with the theme of 'Hearts'.  So using this idea and the embossing technique this is the finished card:

This is a square card (5"x 5") and I used the following:

Stampin Up Ink: Regal Rose and Strawberry Blush 
Clearly Besotted Stamp Sentiment
Pampered Pets Embossing Folder
Sizzix Framelits Heart Die.

Enjoy!

Happy Everything .....

My first post of the 2014!

Happy New Year

This is the first card I've made this year ... I've found it difficult to 'get going' after the hectic holiday season!  I've been knitting throughout the holiday - it's quite a social craft as I can do it and chat to family and friends (and watch the seasonal quota of television!)

I was delighted that the challenge at "Less is More" this week is a colour challenge - Winter Blues.  Blue just happens to be my all time favourite colour! That didn't make the ideas flow very quickly!  Eventually this is what I came up with:

Hexagons and stitching (real and faux)

The patterned paper is from my stash and was originally free with a magazine - one of my plans this year is to try and use materials from my stash.

I've used dimensional pads to raise the sentiment and the image to give the card some added depth and interest.

I have plans to try and organise my stash so that I don't spend loads of time trying to find just the right piece of paper/card.  I think that I'm going to sort it all by colour - I'm not convinced it will work but I am going to give it a go!

Enjoy!

Christmas Greetings .....

I've had no time for card making over the last couple of weeks.  I blame it on Christmas and the need to get everything sorted and wrapped.  It's all done now which is probably as well as the shops are now closed anything I've forgotten we'll just have to manage without!!

Thanks for all the kind comments that you have left on my blog this year and for joining me.  I would like to wish you all:

A very Merry Christmas

and a 

Happy New Year!

Diamond Anniversary ...

I've had a very, very hectic weekend - no time for card making.  I was busy on Saturday selling my crafts at a school Christmas Fair which was really successful.  It doesn't mean that I can give up my day job but it does mean that I can keep crafting!!!  Sunday I had a great day out in London with my daughter - great fun but exhausting.

This week we will be celebrating my parents Diamond Wedding Anniversary (that's 60 years of marriage!) a real achievement for all!  The whole family will be gathering for dinner on Saturday evening and hopefully it will be fun for all!

Every celebration requires a card and this is no exception.  It's a card that I've been thinking about for quite sometime - I knew I wanted to incorporate a photograph but I wasn't sure how.  I also wanted to keep it clean and simple in design....... this is the finished card.

Cake cutting in December 1953

My mum's bouquet was deep red roses hence my choice of accent colour.

I'm hoping that the card fits this weeks challenge at "Less is More" for Metallic (the gold sentiment) and one colour (the red accent).  I'm not sure if it qualifies because of the black - apologies if it doesn't!

Enjoy!

Cushion love ...

Tonight has been all about textiles!  I have a stall at a craft fair this Saturday and I needed some more stock.  

Here's what I've made tonight:

The pictures are not brilliant as the colours have come out very dark - they are a lot brighter in real life.  I hope they prove popular!

I've also knitted 20 small snowmen, stitched 15 Father Christmas and 15 reindeer - not just tonight though!!

Enjoy!

A little bit of sparkle ....

It's been another busy week - not much time for card making!

Great week on my blog lots for visitors, some wonderful comments on my cards and some new followers.  Thank you, thank you and thank you.  All your wonderful comments inspire me to continue to craft!

This is my entry into this week's challenge at "Less is More" where the theme is SPARKLE.  I'm not too good with things that sparkle so I heat embossed some card with silver embossing powder from which I then die cut 3 snowflakes, used some sparkling ribbon down the side and a silver sentiment sticker.  Having embossed the front of the card with my snowflake embossing folder I then put the whole card together.

Here it is:

It's difficult to show sparkle in a photograph but hopefully you get the idea!!

The photographs are taken with my mobile phone as my camera is currently on a weekend break in Belgium with my daughter!!

Enjoy!