What a Lucky Girl am I

Evening Everyone
I hope that you have been having a wonderful day.
I have been itching to share some fantastic and exciting news with you and now the time has come where I can.
The sneak peeks that you have been having recently on my blog of the fabulous new stamps from Woodware are because I was asked to make some of the samples for the new catalogue.
How lucky am I!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It was a mammoth task, and more than a little daunting when this huge parcel arrived, but I rose to the challenge, and I have to say that I have had soooo much fun.

So with out further a do I will share one of the samples. This one actually appears on the front cover, although their photography is far better than mine.

I did have a bit of a panic at one stage that my samples are so very different from the sort of thing that Jane and Francoise make, but I suppose that's just the point isn't it, to show just how versatile their wonderful images can be.

The background to this card was made using Coffee and a Pearlex Vintage Watercolour Pallet. I also used it to colour in the main image which was stamped and embossed using Sepia Versafine ink and clear embossing powder.

I did a bit of my usual decoupage with the Partridge and added some glossy accents.
I am so looking forward to getting hold of my hard copy of the catalogue. I'm old fashioned and I much prefer paper catalogues where I can sit drool over all the must have new stamps. I find them so much more user friendly than on line, but maybe that's just me lol.
I would like to enter this into the following challenges
Sweet Stampin Challenge - Christmas in July
Addicted to Stamps - Christmas in July
Sentimental Sunday - Paint / Inks
2 Sisters Challenge - Christmas in July
Sugar Creek Hollow - Vintage Christmas in July
Off to bed now, perhaps to dream of all the new cards that I can share with you now.
Night, night
Hugs Kimx

A Colour Challenge at Our Creative Corner

Evening Everyone,
Wow what a difference in the weather again today. It has felt really quite chilly here today even with the sun shining through occasionally. Whathas it been like in your neck of the woods??

In a bid to put a cheery feel on the proceedings this is the card that I made following the colour challenge over at Our Creative Corner.

I am having so much fun following the challenges that they post each week.
The background for the card has been made using the technique that I found when I was checking out some of the older posts at Crafty Bloggers Network. This one was a Show and Tell.

It is a fantastic way to use up some of those small strips of background paper that we all hoard. You know the ones too good to throw away but you don't know what an earth you are going to do with them because they are a bit small. Well now you do. I have actually made several panels.

For this card I was obviously very particular in my colour choice to match the challenge, but the other panels that I have made are just strips put together because they look good!!
The Show and Tell tutorial suggests stitching the strips together with a sewing machine, but as I don't have easy access to one I decided to add some stitching with my trusty fine black pen.

The stamped panels are made using a stamp set Magenta Spring Cling available from any Woodware stockist. I coloured them using my distress inks and a waterbrush.
I mounted each of the individual squares onto black glossy card to make them 'pop'
My 'twist' to the challenge is the pale pink and white ribbons across the centre of the card, I hope that counts.
I have just got back from a meal out with all of the Management team at work. A gift from 'The Boss' to say thank you for our superb Audit score.
We went to one of those All You Can Eat places, and I am totally stuffed.
I think I had better get to bed now, all though really I should be going for a very long walk lol.
Night night
hugs Kimx

A Party

Evening Everyone
Have you had a good weekend?
We had a birthday party at the Wacky Warehouse today for two special little people.
Boy can those places get loud. It's a large indoor play area for those of you that have never heard of it where the kids can run wild and then they finish off with nuggets and chips and cake!!

 The kids had a great time and it was a chance for the Big Kids (the Dads) to play as well.

We were supposed to have a BBQ at home afterwards but it has been pouring with rain here so it was a 'Cooked in the Oven' affair, much easier in my opinion.
I will have to catch up with some crafting tomorrow me thinks.
Night night
hugs Kimx

A Little bit of a cheat :O)

Hi All
I'm cheating a little bit today.
The challenge this week over at Woodware has been Zentangle or Zendoodle as they have called it.
Now I have never tried this and as I didn't have time to make something from scratch I have cheated a little bit and used one of Jane Gill's wonderful  stamps from the new Woodware catalogue JGS165 Zentangle Butterfly which will be available very soon.

Once again I have started my card by using the lovely new sketch over at Sketch Saturday.
Now I must be going through a black/white/and red phase, since once again these are the colours that I have chosen to use.

I fussy cut the stamped and embossed butterfly and mounted it on to the circles cut using my Nesties.
It reminds me of a large flower that the butterfly has settled on.

I made the panel across the centre of the card by stamping and embossing the butterfly several times onto a scrap of white card.
The nearest that I have got to doodling today has been to add the white dots with my Souffle pen.
The greeting comes with the butterfly even though it is called a 'Single'
I hope that you have enjoyed the challenge this week. I can't wait to see what they will be asking of us next time.
Hugs Kimx

A twist on The Stampman challenge

Hello All
Are you ready for an amazing weekend?
I'm not really in to sport but I do wish all of our Olympians the very best of luck in their endeavours, and here's to a fabulous and safe couple of weeks.
Over at The Stampman we have a new challenge for you, Anything Goes / Celebrations.

The card that I have made for you was actually inspired by the challenge over at the fantastic Our Creative Corner who are asking that you give one of your cards a Makeover.

This is my original card which was made quite a number of years ago, and if I'm brutally honest I actually quite like it. I do however prefer the Do Over!!
Now the challenge requires you do a makeover on a card that you really dislike so perhaps I don't fulfil the first part of the challenge entirely, but I hope that I will be forgiven.

I have used the Hero Arts - S5601 Newspaper Background which I stamped and embossed onto a piece of white card stock, and then sponged with Weathered Wood and Black Soot distress inks.
Next I stamped around the edge of the trimmed panel with my favourite Hero Arts -  F5042 Leaf Flourish.
I cut this panel up and mounted it onto gold patterned card stock.

The greeting has been added using the wonderful new clear stamp set from Woodware - JGCL560 Just To Say.

The flowers have been cut from card stock and vellum using a DooHickey and I have added Faux Card Candi centres.

I used my new Memory box die - Honeyblossom Sprig as the base on which to place the flowers which I attached using silicon.

I am really happy with the results and having show it to the guys at work I have to remake it with Roses for a Special Birthday card and also as a Ruby Wedding Anniversary card, so watch this space lol.

Don't forget to check out what the rest of the team have come up with, and remember that there is a £10 voucher up for grabs for the winner.

Have a great Weekend.

Hugs Kimx

Up, Up and Away

 Evening Everyone,
Are you well? I'm starting to feel a little less yucky, I'm just at the totally bunged up stage. Oh aren't colds wonderful lol.

The card that I am sharing tonight was made for the Grandson of a friend at work.
I followed the lovely sketch over at Sunday Sketch and Stamp challenge 116. I do love a sketch to get me started.

The main image is one of the Lili of the Valley stamps that I bought when I was at Port Sunlight earlier in the year. I coloured the bear using distress inks, but stamped the balloons onto scraps of the background papers used for the strips across the card. The greeting is also from Lili of the Valley.

The main piece of background paper is hand made using my distress inks.

I added a vellum panel stamped and embossed using a lovely Hobby Art greeting. Harry has been added using the Pergamano stamp set that I bought in a sale at Davina's. It has to be the best bargain I have found just lately.
Off to bed now before I fall asleep. I think I should really have eaten one of the puddings that the kids had for their tea. They were bouncing off the walls.It might have given me a bit of an energy boost at least.
I think they have finally calmed down and gone to sleep. Oh the joys of E numbers, guess what won't be on our shopping list next time lol.
hugs Kimx

Guest Spot at the Crafty Bloggers Network

Afternoon Everyone, and another lovely one it is too.

Today I am lucky enough to have been invited to be the Celebrity Guest Blogger over at The Crafty Bloggers Network.

They sent me a list of questions to answer, like how long have I been crafting, what is your favourite product line etc. Why not pop over and see what I have said.

You will also pick up some great ideas from the other posts, and you might be inspired to enter their challenge this month which is Anything Goes. 

Each week they have a Monday Design Team Inspiration, a Wednesday Guest Blogger and a Friday Show and Tell Technique, so definitely something for everyone.

The card I decided to share for my sopt on the blog is actually one that I made for my friend Lorraine. She has probably been wondering why I haven't posted it yet, so I hope that this will explain my reasons.

Those of you that follow my blog will know that Lorraine like to set me a challenge but it is always one that I relish. This time it was a floral card for a lovely lady who likes blues.
I would say that I definitely rose to the challenge.

I like to make Easel cards for Lorraine as she likes her cards to stand out and Easels definitely do that don't you think!!
The greeting on the card is by Hobby Art, and I used one of the lovely Memory Box dies Swirly Tree that I purchased from Jenny. It works brilliantly under the flower, and who would guess that it was actually a tree!!

I added some ribbon, lace and a ribbon slider as well as Frantage Embossing powders on the Hero Arts Leafy Swirl which is a favourite stamp of mine to embellish my background papers with.

I added lots of tiny white dots and some stitching with a fine black pen.

I did a bit of decoupage with the floral image which is by Stampendous, and I added some glitter glue.
So don't forget to check out The Crafty Bloggers Network, and leave me a comment, I love to hear what people think of what I make.
Hugs Kimx

Chartreuse and Brown

Evening Everyone
I hope that you have been having a great day and enjoying all of this wonderful sunshine.
I must admit that I have been struggling today.
Who gets a cold in the middle of a heatwave?? Well apparently that would be me. I've been sitting at my Craft desk for hours but nothing is happening so I will have to share a card that I made a few days ago.

The challenge at Woodware last week was to use Grey and Chartreuse which is a sort of yellow/green colour.
Now you know me I have to play around before I finally come up with a workable card, and I also dislike wasting anything that I have made so this is the resulting panel from one of my play sessions.

It didn't look quite right with grey so I rejected it for the challenge but felt that it worked far better with brown. The background paper is from a GCD 8x8 paper pack available from Woodware as is the lovely spotty ribbon.

The stamp is another of the stunning stamps which will soon be available from the new Woodware catalogue.
I need to go and  take some medication now if I am going to get any sleep tonight, I can hardly breathe at the moment. Oh the joys of having a cold.
Night night.
hugs Kimx

A card from Linda for the Woodware Challenge

Evening Everyone,
I hope that you have had a great start to your week. I certainly have, even if there was a little nail biting at the beginning of the day.
At work we have been waiting for our latest financial audit, a wait which seems to have gone on forever. That all came to end this morning when the new Auditor finally arrived. What a way to start a Monday morning!!
Well I am pleased to say that my boss has been walking around this afternoon with a grin on his face a little larger than the one on the Cheshire Cat.
Not only was it a Green result, but it was an Elite Green, top in our territory so far, and there aren't many left to do.
So I shall be a busy lady in a fortnight when he is taking us out to dinner to say Thank You and Well Done for all our hard work.
As you can imagine my mind has been a little else where so tonight I thought that I would share a card with you that one of the lovely ladies at Davina made to enter into the challenge over at Woodware.

Linda Walker carefully makes a card each month to enter into the challenge, in fact she won last month, and if she can't make it to a class then she sends me the card so that I can e-mail a picture to Dorothy as she doesn't have a blog.

I think that you will agree that this is stunning.
I love the layered flowers, and the embossed background.
I must e-mail the pictures to Dorothy, but I thought that I would share them with all of you as well.
I had better get some sleep now. I feel like I have got a cold coming, typical now we finally have some decent weather lol.
hugs Kimx

A Wedding Acceptance do over

Evening Everyone,
Did you experience that strange phenomenon in your neck of the woods today?
You know that strange yellow ball of light in the sky that actually made things feel quite warm?
You know......sunshine, surely you can't have completely forgotten what it looks like lol.
It was lovely to have the doors and windows open for a change,even if I was chained to my craft room as usual.

And why is she posting this card again you may be asking yourself.
Well that would be because I had to remake it. Not something I like doing.
Having turned her car upside down Lorraine failed to find the original, so I had to do a 'do over'.
I am hoping that by now this one has safely arrived, I certainly don't want to have to make it a third time.
I have been working on the card for the wedding this weekend, I just need to run a couple of things past Lorraine before I finish it, and then I think I shall hang on to it until the day.
Just in case, you understand :O)
Night night.
Hugs Kimx

Woodware Colour challenge - Grey and Chartreuse

Evening Everyone,
Quite an early post from me for a change.
I managed to get my Woodware challenge card finished so I thought that I would share it straight away.
The challenge they have for you this week is to use Grey and Chartreuse in your work, definitely not a colour combo that I would usually go for but one that I have thoroughly enjoyed playing with.
I started the card late last night, and when I checked out the challenges this morning it fitted one of them perfectly. Well with a little bit of tweaking that is.

I have used the lovely sketch over at the Sketch Saturday blog.
The floral stamps are from a Stampendous clear set SSC1080 Scripty Stems and I used a couple of Versamagic dew drop ink pads.

The green background  paper is from a GCD 8x8 doublesided paper pack called Whoop de Doo also available from a Woodware stockist.

The grey card stock is Bazzil and of course I had to use my Weathered Wood and Black Soot distress inks around the edges and to stamp onto the grey panels.

The greeting is once again from one of Jane Gill's new stamp sets that will be available very soon.
I added a few tiny dots and some stitching with a fine black pen.
And of course no card would be complete without a bit off Card Candi.
I hope that you are having a great weekend and have managed to fit in some crafting as well.
Hugs Kimx

July is All About Citrus at Stampendous

Evening Everyone,
Here we are at the beginning of yet another weekend.
I've had my usual Friday afternoon Craft Room tidy up in preparation for plenty of playing over the weekend.
I even started a card for the Woodware challenge but it got too late to take pictures so I decided that I would leave finishing it off until tomorrow.

I actually made the card that I am sharing with you tonight as my DT post for the latest challenge at The Stampman, until I realised that I had used exactly the same stamp for the previous challenge.

Still all is not lost as I noticed that the Stampendous Challenge for July is All about Citrus.
I think that a nice orange card fits that bill don't you :O)

The main panel on the card uses the Stampendous Daisy Stem Trio, distress inks and some bleach. I also added some glitter glue to the flower centres.

The greeting is a sneak peek of another new Woodware stamp set that is due for release very soon.
I did add all of the tiny black dots to it, I'm not very good at doodling so this is as good as it gets for me.
The background papers are all from my stash, and the ribbon is from Woodware.
Hope you like it.
Hugs Kimx

End of Term gifts

Evening Everyone.
Well I have managed to get my Bookmarks finished.
Not quite as many as I would have liked but enough that The Twins and Reece have one for each of their teachers.
I have managed to take a couple of pictures to share, in between rain clouds that is.

It is amazing what you can make with some of those little offcuts of background paper.
You know the ones, we all have them, too small to use on a card but just far too good to throw away

I also rooted through my bits box to find images that might work without me having to create anything new. It's not really cheating, just being creative, and isn't that what it is all about lol.

Once again I have used the fantastic tutorial for Corner Bookmarks over at Splitcoast Stampers.
They really are so easy to make, and as I say perfect for using up bits and pieces.

I let the kids choose which one they wanted for each of their teachers, and this last one has been made for a lovely customer that comes into the garage.
She is also a teacher and comes in a couple of times a week with her twin boys.
I made the boys a card for their birthday, and so I wanted to make this little gift for Mum. I know, like most teachers, she has been counting down the hours till the end of term.
My little sister is a teacher, and I did a couple of years of Teacher Training, many years ago before I had the children, so I have always tried hard to see things from both sides.
I know as a parent that the holidays always seem like an eternity, but believe me it is bloody hard work teaching all those little cherubs, and all the paper work that there is to keep up with now. Well just don't get me started.
So here's hoping that everyone has a great Summer holiday and that my little gifts will be put to good use. You never know, they may be able to read stretched out in the garden in brilliant sunshine. Then again I think it far more likely that they will be reading indoors under artificial lighting.
Either way let's hope that it is relaxing for everyone.
Hugs Kimx

Navy and Pink at Our Creative Corner Colour challenge

Evening Everyone
Have you had a good day?
I have been frantically trying to get my bookmarks ready for the end of term, which is Friday. I can see a very late night in my future tomorrow lol.

We had a fabulous class at Davina's on Saturday, where we played with Frantage powders as well as Coffee and Pearlex.
Because the Coffee backgrounds needed to dry before they could be stamped and embossed on to, I decided to let the Ladies play with the Frantage embossing powders that I have, and some dye based inks. A type of embossed resist you might call it.

This card was made with the sample piece that I created while showing the ladies what to do.
I stamped and embossed the flowers using Aged Rose Embossing Enamel and then sponged Adirondack dye based inks all over the panel.

By happy coincidence there is a colour challenge over at Our Creative Corner where they are looking for Navy, Pink and one other. I chose pale blue.
I also added some dots to the flowers with a white souffle pen and some Glossy Accents.

I cut the panel up before mounting it onto navy blue card stock and adding a decoupaged flower.
I saw a challenge to make a Window card somewhere, but I can't find it now. Oh well never mind.
I hope that you like it.

The ladies at Davina's came up with some fantastic pieces of work.
This is just a small selection of them.
I am definitely going to have to try out some of their colour combos. Why is it that you always like what other people have done better than your own work?
Off to bed now
hugs Kimx