Friday 31 May 2013

Blossom with Sunflowers

I love this little stamp, Blossom, by Leanne Ellis....she's cute and pretty easy and quick to colour and looks pretty! When I saw that the challenge on the Sugary Sunday Sugarnellie Facebook challenge was Leanne Ellis, I knew I had to stamp her up. And I needed to make a card with sunflowers for an order, so thought I'd see if the two worked together. And I wanted to challenge myself with colours......so I chose purple and yellow and, actually, I will definitely use this combo again!

The purple paper is from the Papermania set....name has escaped me but I also have it in yellow/orange!! Blossom has been coloured with promarkers and a little Stardust Stickles for sparkle.

I would also like to enter:

Sugar Bowl challenge - Anything Goes (with Sugaranellie)

Totally Papercrafts - Anything Goes

Crafty Ribbons - Anything Goes with Ribbons

Off to enjoy a beautifully sunny evening in the garden:o)

Susie x

 

Tuesday 28 May 2013

Luv a La.....Large Glass of Wine!

Luv A Latte is a fab stamp, isn't it? But I (very) often swap her mug of latte for a glass of bubbly and she doesn't seem to protest too much!

I have coloured her with promarkers and paper pieced her skirt and top and added a bit of Platinum Stickles and gloss to the glass. The papers are First Edition Summer Breeze......I wanted a fresh, modern and summery colour palette, so matted the beautiful minty shades onto cerise pink paper. This layout used to be my "fail safe, go- to" layout, but I don't think I've used it for a while. A bit of twine and a charm completed my card.

I would like to enter the following challenges:

The Sugar Bowl - Anything Goes

Passion For Promarkers - Add Ribbon, Lace or Twine

 

Monday 27 May 2013

Freshly Made Sunflowers

This card came together so quickly.....the Freshly Made Sketches sketch "spoke" to me, the scraps of the Prima papers were sat on my desk and the sunflowers caught my eye on my window sill....and this card was the result - extremely simple, but I love the bold sunflowers against the more subtle Kraft and Prima paper. I added a little sparkle to the sentiment to complete it.

I would like to enter the following challenges:

Freshly Made Sketches - fab sketch

Charisma Cardz - Here Comes Summer

Creative Belli - Flowers

 

Thursday 23 May 2013

A Pretty Church

 


When I was asked if I could make a First Communion card, I knew this gorgeous Digistamp Boutique image, Pretty Church, would be perfect. I printed it onto white card and Kraft paper and coloured the church with promarkers and polychromos. I loved adding the brickwork detail!

 

The papers are Darling Dear- I love the colour combos in this pad. I added a bit of pearly detail using the pearl wand - a fabulous purchase!!

 

I would like to enter the following challenges:

Digistamp Boutique - Anything Goes

One Stitch at a Time - use a Digi

 

Wednesday 22 May 2013

Katie's Trip to Park



I adore this cute SugarNellie image! She is called Trip to the Park and I have paper-pieced her with paper scraps and coloured her with promarkers. The dogs have been coloured to reflect Katie's labrador puppy, Indie and her gran's dog Daisy. The papers are Henbury Park, matted onto some spare purple card. I particularly like the design of the front flowery paper!

 

I would like to enter the following challenges:

Sketch and Stash - Sketch

Sugar Bowl - Anything Goes

SugarNellie Facebook challenge - flowers

One Stop Craft - Anything Goes

Crafty Catz - 3 (papers), 2 (dogs), 1 (image)

Everybody Art Challenge - Flowers

Papertake Weekly - If the Paper Fits (paper piecing)

Passion for Promarkers - Anything Goes

We have had an extremely busy time lately, with lots of extras on at school, nursery and dancing, plus getting the garden levelled, moving top soil and putting up a fence..........and enjoying the sunshine. The bulk of the garden levelling was completed just before the lovely weather started on Monday, so we've had picnics, dinner outside and lots of "sports" outside - brilliant! So that's my current excuse for my lack of blogging presence!! I hope you are all fabulous! xx

 

Sunday 19 May 2013

A Cute Little Frog

Our challenge at Dream Valley this time is Animals and we are sponsored by Robyn's Fetish. The cute little frog image is called Don't Rain on my Parade and I've coloured him with Promarkers, polychromos and gloss. The paper is from the Studio Calico Darling Dear pad, matted onto bright red paper. The sentiment is from L of the Valley and seemed apt.

Looking forward to seeing what you create for us at Dream Valley!

 

Saturday 18 May 2013

Ocean's Gift

I was lucky enough to win the Sugar Bowl prize a few weeks back and chose Ocean's Gift as one of my new stamps. I've coloured her with promarkers and a little polychromo pencils and lots of the Pearl Wand! How cute is the little seahorse?

The papers are First Edition Up, Up and Away with a little scrap of sticky silver paper.

This is the card for one of Euan's nursery friends.

 

I would like to enter the Sugar Bowl - Anything Goes

Sugar Nellie Facebook Challenge - lots of flowers

 

Sunday 12 May 2013

Dad's Birthday Card

My goodness, what a busy time we've had lately....even more so than normal!! I've had lots of fun making orders for friends, have loads on at school/nursery, 4 family birthdays, Scott's been working extra hours AND we're getting work done in the garden! So, that's my excuse for neglecting my blog and my lovely blogs buddies. It looks like it will remain extra busy for the next month too, but I'll try to increase my blogging time, if I can.

Anyway, when my sister and I were at school, my mam and dad had a VW Caravanette that we (very affectionately) called Tess. She was orange and cream and made for lots of lovely days out, weekends away and "camping trips" in the drive!! So when I saw this little stamp in Hobbycraft (for only £1!), I had to buy it.

I played about for a while, stamping with black ink and colouring in, then decided to see how they looked with my Distress Inks. I loved the colours, so went with this idea for my dad's birthday card. The papers are Kaisercraft On the Move and I love the colour combination.

I would like to enter the following challenges:

Divas By Design - Anything Goes

CRAFT - Happy Birthday

Moving Along with the Times - CAS

Crafty Catz - Anything Goes

Totally Papercrafts - CAS

Sweet Stampin - CAS

 

Sunday 5 May 2013

No Squares Allowed - Jeans to a Skirt

I LOVE making cards using my square card blanks, but it's brilliant to get a push to make something a little different, isn't it? And the Dream Valley No Squares Allowed challenge is a perfect opportunity for this. (Now, technically, I HAVE used squares, but the overall shape is NOT a square.). Oh, and we are lucky enough to be sponsored by Crafty Ribbons for this challenge!

I have been lucky enough to have my mam's sewing machine for the last few years and, on and off, I've actually used it! I love the idea of being able to turn something that no longer fits, into something useful..........A favourite item was the cushion cover I made for Louise last year from scraps of denim.

Also, in the last few months, I've started looking at Pinterest and The Great British Sewing Bee has been a favourite programme with myself, Lou and Euan.............so, with all this in mind, I was inspired to make a pair of too short jeans into a denim skirt for Lou. I've wanted to get her a denim skirt for a few years, but they are always WAY to short if they fit at the waist!

I cut off the legs of the jeans, just below the fabulous embellished pockets (maybe a little TOO close, when I see that picture).

I had originally planned to make a ra-ra type skirt like the one i'd seen on Pinterest, but decided that it would be too bulky for Lou. So, I cut up the legs of the jeans into 12cm squares and sewed them into a strip of 7, alternating the "grain" of the fabric horizontally and vertically - I just like the effect it gives! The seams were ironed flat (although maybe I should have overlocked them?) and then pinned the strip to the bottom of the jeans "waist".

After trying it on her and deciding that, actually it was looking ok, I sewed the ends of the strip together before sewing the strip to the waist.

Then I sewed more squares into a long strip and did the same thing. After checking the length was ok, I finished the skirt with this gorgeous checked bias binding from The Ribbon Girl. I will definitely be buying more of this and some in the other designs too as it is easy to add and adds a lovely detail to the garment (hey, get me!!!!!). Our sponsor, Crafty Ribbons, also has a lovely selection of bias binding, including a black and white gingham one here.

I had an absolute ball making this for my daughter and enjoyed it all the more because she really loves it and wants me to make more clothes for her! I have already made a school skirt for her in the same design using school trousers that no longer fit and have a plan to make another school skirt in a similar, but different design. Lou has also suggested Upcycling her trousers into a school cardi, but I'm not sure I'm capable of that yet!

Apologies for the lengthy post (very unlike me!) but I wanted to have a go at explaining how I made it as I'm guessing i'm not the only one with a long legged daughter who keeps growing! Although it would have been much clearer with photos!! (I considered taking photos, but decided that, as it was a first attempt, and I was making it up as I go along, it probably wouldn't work, so took no photos along the way and regretted it!)

My smiley, happy girl in her perfectly fitting denim skirt:

Oh, and I made the tag using the fabulous Just for You stamps from Clearly Besotted - Lou loved this detail too!

I would also like to enter the Crafty Ribbons challenge, Anything Goes and CRAFT challenge - Use Stitching.