Fabulous Fuchsias

I missed this set of stamps and dies from Clearly Besotted when they were released in March but managed to get them last week and boy, were they worth the wait, I absolutely love them!

It took me about 15 minutes to make this card as for my daughter as she was going to a birthday party on Saturday evening

 and I liked it so much that I decided to make a thank you card for a lovely lady (who helped my daughter and her boyfriend with some very useful advice) and it took me blooming ages as I couldn't get the dies lined up with the stamps. In the end I decided to use the simple uncoloured stamps and was really pleased with it again.

I then decided to make another birthday card to pop in the box in the nail boutique/hairdressers who stock my cards. This was a quick make too as the dies lined up with the stamps straight away! This time hubby snaffled it for his aunt whose birthday is at the end of the month. 

 I think I might just make another birthday card when everyone is out of the house and smuggle it into the shop in among a pile of other cards waiting to go to the shop lol.

Thanks for dropping by and I hope you are having a lovely bank holiday weekend.

Allsorts challenge

I haven't taken part in any challenges for absolutely ages so I thought I would try some of the ones I used to visit. If anyone know of any good ones then please let me know :)

Well, it's a beautiful day, if not a little nippy, here in Scruff's Corner and I feel I should be out in the garden. However, I have wedding work to do so it will have to wait. I'm hoping for some nice weather over the long weekend so I can get out then. Monday has been reserved for shopping by DD2 as her and her boyfriend move into a flat on 3rd May and they are starting from scratch, but the rest of the weekend is free.

So the challenge I have chosen to start with is the Allsorts Challenge as it was always one of my favourites :) Their theme for this week is Spring Blossoms and I have used one of my new stamps from Clearly Besotted Designs, isn't it lovely. Stephanie is just so talented, I love her stamps and dies.

I've stamped the image onto ivory card and coloured it with Promarkers, I then embossed a piece of ivory pearlescent card and mounted them onto cream card. The label is actually stamped onto one of the labels I use for my jewellery, I added a pink bow and pink gems and hey presto a very quick and easy card but I like it a lot!

Thanks for dropping by, back soon :) xx

Kathy's Waffle

As it was the beginning of the month last week the new challenge, Oblong Layers, over on Kathy's Waffle Sketch Challenge went live. Although there looks to be two different sketches it is actually just on, the second has been rotated :)

          

Hubby has run out of wedding cards so I decided to use these sketches to start making him some more for his box so these are only C6 cards. This is not a size that I like using they are perfect for these sketches. I've made three so far but I will just show you my first card this week

Papers are remnants of some old, free Crafter's Companion papers which I got in a magazine some time ago, the butterfly is from the Botanical Odyssey stamp set by Kaisercraft (these were a gift from my Secret Santa), the sentiment is a clear stamp from the Make A Wish set by Clearly Besotted Stamps, the flowers were hand cut from odd pieces of left over paper, hence the difference in size lol I do have a couple of dies to cut these but one of them is too small and the other one is too big!

Just a thought, you could use this sketch when you make your "Monochrome" card for the Crafting Muskateers challenge :)

Thanks for dropping by, back soon. xx

Be my love

These are the last  of the Valentine cards I made this year for a very good customer and lovely friend.

 

 The following two cards were made for another good customer. The next card was made for a lady's husband ........

(using a clear stamp from Kanban) and this one was to her and her husband from their grand children :) 

On this one I used the Love Quotes stamp set from Clearly Besotted Stamps and my first ever hand made rose (well the first one that worked any way!) using an ordinary Woodware five petal flower punch, one of the blue ones.

Thanks for dropping by, I'll be back soon :) xx

Clearly Besotted

I had some new stamps and dies arrive on Saturday from Clearly Besotted but I was gutted that I didn't get the chance to play with them until today and then it was just a really quick card! I absolutely adore Stephanie's stamps and dies and haven't got one set yet that I've not been sure of. The service is absolutely fantastic and I just love receiving the parcels all wrapped up in pink tissue paper, it almost seems a shame to open them. Lol

Here is what I came up with....isn't this little stork just so cute :)

I used yellow papers from a Stampin Up set that I have had for years ribbon and pearls from my stash and coloured the dinky little stork with yellow and ivory Promarkers.

I have to disappear now but I will be back shortly :) Take care. x 

Happy Birthday Dad

Two quick birthday cards for my Dad whose birthday is on Boxing Day! As with every year, they aere made on Boxing Day morning just before we went to meet all the family for lunch at a local hotel. Every year I say that I'm going to make them early along with family Christmas cards. Knowing my luck I will put them somewhere and won't be able to find them. lol 

 The Granddad card above was made using the Nostalgia stamps from yesterday and the sentiment was done on the lap top.

I made this card using the sketch from Kathy's Waffle Sketch File for December. There is still time to enter the challenge as we are using the same sketch through till the end of January. All of the bits and pieces on this card were cut by hand and the sentiment is a stamp from the It's Your Birthday set from Clearly Besotted Stamps, love those stamps!

Thanks for dropping in :)

Happy birthday Brother in Law

As you probably guessed today's card was made for my brother in law's birthday which is tomorrow. He is a golf nut so I always try to make him a card with something to do with golf on it but I think after 10 years I might just have exhausted my golfing bits! I bought this Docrafts set of stamps last year so I knew I hadn't used these :)

As I said before, the stamps are designed by John Byars for Papermania (Docrafts), I think the papers are Trimcraft (I'm not sure as they were from my scrap box), the sentiment is a Clearly Besotted stamp from the set 'Many Messages', the ribbon is an off cut as is the brown card and the Card Candy is from Craftwork Cards.

Thanks for dropping by, see you tomorrow :)

Christmas card wallet

Good morning everyone, I hope you are all safe from the horrific gales and flooding that the south/west of the UK is experiencing at the moment. We have been so lucky inn Scruff's Corner as we have had wind and rain but there hasn't been any damage in our area.

I'm cheating a bit here as I'm using some of my Christmas makes to catch up on the old blog then I can get ahead of myself as I can schedule a couple of posts with 2014 makes :)

So, I made the following wallet for a lovely lady who orders all of her Christmas cards from me. The wallet was made using papers from Glad Tidings and Deer Friends, both are available as downloads from Nitwit Collections. They are just fab and there are loads of bits and pieces including papers, images, ribbons etc

There were 20 cards and envelopes in the wallet and I made four each of the above designs. I stamped the images onto smooth white card and backed them onto assorted coloured cards before I stuck them onto the blank cards. All of the images are from sets of clear stamps from the Christmas range from Clearly Besotted. I used the stamps again this year for most of my own Christmas cards.

Thanks for dropping by xx

New challenge

 We are now onto Challenge 6, can you believe it's 6 months since we started?  The theme this month is Christmas In October and is sponsored by Bridlington Stationers who is non other than Darren, the hubby of our very talented Nicola and here's what they are about

"Bridlington Stationers is owned by Darren Saul. Established in 1986, Bridlington Stationers Limited is a company brimming with experience. We are a customer focused business supplies company delivering over 30,000 products available on a next day delivery basis on a local and national scale.

Our commitment to personal and friendly service ensures a high level of continuity. We are here to advise, recommend and supply the office products that you need to assist in the smooth running of your business. Our aim is to save you money, save you time and give you the opportunity to buy all your office needs from under one roof."

Oh, I almost forgot, the prize for October is a pack of Promarkers.

Now for my card using my favouritest stamps :)
                                               
The stamp is from the Merry Little Christmas stamp set by Clearly Besotted Stamps, the papers are from a freebie My Mind's Eye pad which came with a magazine last year (I think), the poinsettia is a Sizzix Thinlits Die Set 2PK - Flower, Mini Daisy with gold gems in the centre and everything else is from my stash.

Thanks for dropping by and good luck with our new challenge. :)

Clearly Besotted

You may have noticed my relationship with Clearly Besotted Stamps......I'm building a nice little collection of them! One of the reasons I like them is that a lot of the sets have a solid image great if you are rubbish at colouring :)) and an outline image (allowing you to colour how you want). You can see what I mean in this card

Ingredients

You Are stamps and dies

Butterfly Wishes Additions stamps and dies

Sentiment - Thinking Of You

6x6 blank card

Gems

and here is another card using CB stamps just because I like it not because it has the two stamps as mentioned above :)

Ingredients

6 x 6 blank card

hot pink card

Background stamps - Building Blocks

Stepping Out

Thanks for dropping by, back soon :)

Waffle Update

Another Tuesday has come and gone which means another card on Kathy's Waffle Sketch File using the sketch from the beginning of the month, Crest Of A Wave (whenever I see the sketch this month the old Boy Scout song starts in my head "We're riding along on the crest of a wave while the sun is in the sky.......) lol

  I used one half of a card from Craftwork Cards as the top wavy line on the front of my card. The little silver frames were cut using Spellbinders Decorative Elements Labels Eight, the flowers are from Prima, paper borders are from Doodlebug, happy birthday stamp is from Clearly Besotted and the gems are from my box.
Thanks for dropping by, back soon :)

Kathy's Waffle Sketch File

Yes I'm here again so soon after my last post as I have another fabulous challenge for you to enter and that will be Kathy's Waffle Sketch File. The challenge this month is called "Crest of a Wave" and this is what the sketch looks like

 

and here is one of the cards I made, again with my lovely Clearly Besotted stamps.

Let us know what you have made and we'll drop by and leave a comment.

Thanks for dropping by. x

Crafting Muskateers

Hi folks, how are you? I have started this post so many times and drew a blank and didn't know what to say but this time I am going to plough on! 

I know I have been absent again but I have a good reason. I have been on my lovely hot, sunny and relaxing holiday to Zakynthos and I have come back this time not only rested but with a lousy head cold and a hacking chesty cough. I also had two birthdays last week, hubby's last Thursday and my baby girl's last Saturday and to top it all I went to town last Tuesday to get hubby's prezzies and promptly fell over!!

 My bruises have just about gone on my hands but my left hand is still sore and I can't kneel at all. My left leg is really painful just below my knee.

The holiday was just fabulous as always and we had already booked to go back next year so I'd like to say a big thank you to Stratos, Maria, Tasos, Lol, Spiros and Nicos (and everyone else) for making our holiday brilliant as always.

So, have you taken part in the Crafting Muskateers challenge yet? The theme for this challenge is "Vintage"

 and it has been sponsored by one of our fellow team members Nicola Saul , you can find Nicola here ,http://pinkdelightcraft.blogspot.co.uk/. She has donated a very generous prize for the winner, so a big thank you Nicola :) .and this is what is up for grabs.

You still have a couple of weeks to enter and it's my turn this month to choose a winner, that job is so difficult as we always have loads of fabulous entries. Add your name to Mr Linky then we can come over and see what you have made.

My card

made with Kanban stamp and bits and pieces and the sentiment stamps are from the very wonderful Clearly Besotted.

Thanks for dropping by. xx

Last one

It's the final week for taking part in the Sketch challenge on the Kathy's Waffle Sketch File blog and we'd really love you to join us :)

and my card

All stamps again by Clearly Besotted Stamps but this time they are the Love Quotes set. The cotton lace across the bottom of the card is from the Range.

Kathy's Waffle Sketch

It's week 3 of the challenge over on Kathy's Waffle Sketch challenge blog so there is still time to play along with us if you would like to. It's just for fun so the only rule we have really is that whatever your project is, we must be able to see the sketch used :)

and here is my card

Materials used are Full of Surprise, Make a Wish and Love Quotes clear stamps from Clearly Besotted Stamps and the stripey paper is  from the Hampstead collection by Papermania.

Thanks for dropping by, see you soon. x

Clearly Besotted.....

and judging by the way the stamps and dies fly out of the door there are a lot of people out there who are Clearly Besotted! If you are one of an army of crafters who are besotted with Stephanie's designs you will know what I'm talking about......if you don't know what I'm waffling about then where have you been? I am one of the 'CB addicts' who needs all of the stamps and matching dies and am slowly building up my collection so I thought it was about time I used some of them :)
This first card was commissioned on Friday evening and wanted for Saturday morning!

 The materials used were: Sizzix camera die (a very old yellow one), spotty grograin ribbon, silver mirri card and balloon and sentiment stamps from the Full of Surprise set by Clearly Besotted.

 This card is made using the Building Blocks stamp set, flower stamps and dies from the new You Are set and the sentiment and butterfly are from the Happy Everything set

and finally for this post as well as silver mirri card I used the stamps from the Building Blocks set, the Ahoy Matey set and the sentiment from the Make A Wish set.

I also made some retirement party invitations for a lovely friend and ex collegue who is retiring from teaching after about 40 years! but these were made a few weeks ago and I never got round to blogging them.

These were made using the It's Your Birthday stamp set. I think this was the first set I bought.

That has brought my CB makes for the last week up to date, (with the exception of the last pic). 

I hope you have enjoyed browsing and like what you see :)
Thanks for dropping by.

Less Is More

The theme this week at the Less Is More challenge blog is a colour theme and they have chosen Lime Green and Black, not a colour combination that I would readily think of so it was a pleasant surprise when my card was finished and I like it lol The challenge this week is sponsored by Clearly Besotted stamps and boy, I can see why Stephanie chose the name of her blog. I came across them just before Christmas last year and am building up a nice little selection. You must go over for a visit but leave your purse behind because you will definitely spend some money :)

The set I've used is called Happy Everything and I've stamped it using a black Memento pad and just coloured the leaves using a Lime Green Promarker. I added pearls to the centre of the flowers and a piece of green and white gingham ribbon, job done.

Thanks for looking, I'm off to bed now. See you tomorrow. xx

Happy Mother's Day

It's half past midnight and I can see the snow falling from my window at Scruff's Corner. I don't think it will settle on the ground but there is a layer on the shed roof, the patio table and the bins.

I know we have a few weeks left before Mother's Day but if you make cards you will know how important it is to have stock to fill your outlets well before the due date. I usually have my Valentine's Day cards and Mother's Day/Mothering Sunday cards made before Christmas but this year, sorry, last year I was busy and didn't get round to making them. Here are a few of them for now :) The cards are all made with stamps from a (new to me) internet shop called Clearly Besotted. Such a fab name for a shop and very apt.......and yes I am clearly besotted! It's funny but I only came across this store last month and I have had Stephanie (the company owner on my Blogging Buddies list for years. I was looking for something and came across a card on Pinterest which had been made with some of the stamps and so I went searching. I loved Stephanie's work when she used to take part in challenges so to own some of her work is just brilliant but I can see it skinting me!! lol

From the top, the items I used were
Happy Everything stamp set by Clearly Besotted Stamps
Butterfly die by Clearly Besotted
White pearlescent card stock
6 x 6" card blank
Promarkers
I stamped the image twice and decoupaged the butterflies and flowers

Happy Everything stamp set by Clearly Besotted Stamps
White pearlescent card
White ribbon 
Clear diamantes
Punched butterfly
6 x 6" scalloped card blank

Stepping Out stamp set by Clearly Besotted Stamps

White pearlescent card

White ribbon 

Clear diamantes

6 x 6" card blank

I absolutely adore this stamp set. I first made myself a mask of the hand bag and one of the shoes so that I could stamp the images over each other to make it look as though they were all in front of each other. I stamped the bag first then using the handbag mask I stamped the shoe at the front and finally used the shoe mask and stamped the shoe at the back. It's a very simple method of stamping and it's good if you don't want to sit and cut all of your images out to layer them up.

I'm feeling very restrained this week having not bought any more of the stamps (sorry Stephanie) but I might have to pay a visit for some more next week and yes, you've guessed it......I'm Clearly Besotted!! lol

Thanks for visiting my blog :)

Enjoy your day.