Some more Buses!

I love it when people who have visited my blog leave a comment. After my posting yesterday I received some comments from some of my crafting friends, most of whom visit quite regularly, and one of them (Ann) told me that my blog made her think of buses, none for ages and then they all come at once LOL, I suppose it has been a bit like that lately, well Ann here's a few more buses for you!

Most of the cards tonight are in sets and the first is a set of four 'beachbabes'. All of these images are again from Joanna Sheeen's Fashion Boutique CD (my all time favourite) and have been mounted onto some burgundy crinkled cardstock, very simple again as I can't do much else lately.





The next set is of four fruits, these are mounted onto co-ordinating cardstock on little 4 x 4 cards. The images are from a kit called 'Kitchen Traditions' from PC Crafter.














My final card tonight was an attempt to try something different and make a little tag card (again I must name Edna as my inspiration here), it has been folded so that from the front it looks like a gatefold card, but inside are four separate sections each containing a silhouette image. The images are again from Joanna Sheen, but this time from her 'Dancing with Shadows' CD. the papers I have used on this card are from Dovecraft's range of black and white papers and the card has been finished off with some miri card and peel offs from my stash.




So until tomorrow in the immortal words of Bugs Bunny "That's all folks!"

Busy, Busy, Busy

I seem to have had quite a lot going on in my life recently, some of which I could have definitely done without! but things are slowly getting better so I'm now trying to catch up with all the things that had to be put on hold. One of the main things for me was that I had been asked to make some cards to put in a new shop that is opening soon. One of my younger son's friends, (Sophie) is in the process of opening a shop in a very exclusive village near me. She will be selling vintage style furnishings and objet d'art, mainly in the art deco style and she thought that some of my vintage cards might do quite well there, they will be displayed in their own little section of her shop. As you can imagine, to say I was excited is the understatement of the century! I had a few ideas for different things and had just begun to make a start on some projects when my mum had her accident so everything else took a back seat. Now that mum is out of hospital and our lives are beginning to return to normal I have been trying to regain the enthusiasm that I had.
I thought it might be nice to have some little card "packs" as well as individual cards and for this I have to thank one of my crafting friends Edna, as it was her little card sets that inspired me, I also plan to try to make some little stationery sets, notebooks, bookmarks, door hangers and little bags with cards in (inspired by another crafting friend Sue) but we'll see how it goes.





This is a set of four cards with a picture of the little band holding them together. The images are taken from Joanna Sheen's Fashion Boutique CD and very simply mounted on to co-ordinating cardstock from my stash.

This set is four cards again, all with images of children at the seaside, these images come from a variety of different places (the little boy is from Joanna Sheen's Cardmaker's Year CD) and form part of my (very large!) collection of vintage images. Again I have just mounted them onto some silver miri card and then onto red card and left them quite plain.





The final thing I will upload tonight is a sample of a little notebook. This was just a cheap little book that I have covered with K & Co paper and some co-ordinating ribbons and finished off with a little stick-on gem. My scanner has made this look a little lopsided, but it is straight in real life!

These are some of the things that I have completed so far. I'll be posting some others tomorrow, but meanwhile I would be very grateful for your comments or suggestions and I'd like to thank you for visiting.

Candy Time

There are two more generous crafters offering some candy to celebrate, so pop over to their blogs and get inspired.

Firstly Jacqueline is offering some lovely candy to celebrate 10,000 hits on her site.

Then Janet is offering a fabulous collection of candy as a double celebration of reaching 15,000 hits and also the launch of her new stamp range Max and Milly (so sweet!)

Now why am I not surprised that these ladies receive so many visits to their blogs?

Bev's Blog Candy and did you know I'm a Wylde Woman?

I haven't been sleeping at all well lately (another reason I can't get anything done during the day!) and last night was the worst yet. So while I was tiptoeing about in the early hours of this morning I thought I'd do some blog hopping. Guess what? I found I had been given another award!
This time it was the Wylde Women award (I knew people would see me as this one day, I just didn't expect it to take until I was this age! LOL) I have been awarded this by two of the best crafting friends a girl could have, so a huge thank you to both Sue and Ann, I'm very honoured to accept this. They both left me a message saying that I didn't need to fufill the other parts of the award as I'm having such a hectic time at the moment, (thank you ladies, it's much appreciated). Please do go and see these ladies' lovely blogs and leave them a comment, they deserve it!

Whilst doing my daily blog catch up earlier, I noticed that Bev is giving away some gorgeous blog candy. Now, I would really love to win this as I'm sure Bev and I must have been twins in a previous life because our tastes are just so similar! Bev is on my daily blog visit list for a very good reason...I just LOVE everything she does. If you haven't seen her blog before please pay her a visit, you'll just love it there, I know I do!

While I was typing this post it occurred to me that since joining Joanna Sheen's forum and setting up my blog I have made such fabulous friends. These are people that I consider true friends even though we may never have met. They have been there for me when I needed them, offered support and love, given me a boost when I was down and offered praise and encouragement in everything I've done. I consider myself so honoured and blessed to be counted as their friend.
Thank you to...
Edna, Wendy, Ann, Cynthia, Sue, Wendy and Denise

I may soon be back to normal

The good news is that (hopefully) my Mum will be coming home from hospital on Tuesday. This will be such a big relief for me and, who knows, I may even be able to start sleeping properly again! The other thing I may be able to do is get back to doing some cardmaking and entering some challenges, I haven't really had the time or inclination to concentrate much on this lately.
Until I'm back "in the groove" again, here are a couple more places for the chance to win some blog candy:
Maria's Cards
Andrea's World
Both of these blogs are on my daily visit list and both the girls make such fabulous creations that you really should visit them.

Buttons and Brads

My final project for today is for the Penny Black Saturday Challenge their theme this week is "Buttons and brads"
My little card uses a sweet image of Hedgie getting some sun (something we don't know a lot about at the moment!) He has been coloured with pencils and Sansador, the backing papers are a Cuddly Buddly download "Peppy papers" and the blue brads and buttons are from my stash.

Tag Book

This week's theme on the Tilda & Co Challenge Blog was "Thinking of Others"
Now this could be an altered gift, a Card Set, ( not just a card on its own) It could be a Mini Book, it could be anything! As long as it is a gift for somebody, as we all send out little raks to crafting friends or gifts to them, and then there's our family's – so i thought it would be nice that this week, we are “ thinking of others” and what we can make for them to put a smile on there face.
I decided to make a little "Tilda" tag book to send to a friend. All of these little Tilda images were kindly sent to me by crafting friends and I have coloured them with Caran D'Ache water colour pencils.
I distressed the covers and the plain parts of the book with some ink pads and an emery board and added some little sentiments to the cover (these came free with a magazine I bought ages ago), mounted onto some "crackle" type cardstock from my stash, the backing papers were bought at a boot sale and the little alphabet letters are from a K & Co set.
I hope you like it, it would certainly make me happy to receive something like this.

Little bags

The other day whilst making my daily visits to crafting friends' blogs I saw a sweet little bag on Sue's blog. She had made it following a video tutorial by Angie Kennedy Juda at chic n' scratch which created these little bags from a sheet of 12x12.
I decided this was just what I had been looking for as I wanted something pretty that would hold a little set of cards and envelopes. Of course, once I'd made it I thought that if only it were a little smaller it would be ideal for holding stamped images, so I then tried folding it the other way round to make it shorter and "hey presto" it was perfect!
These are my first attempts so "could do better" but I'm sure they won't be my last as I love the fact that they are useful but look so pretty and would be perfect as little gifts.

Camilla's Sketch Challenge

I found time to fit in a third card today, it is for Camilla's sketch challenge, she is one of the blogs in my "favourites" list and I try to visit most days. Her work is gorgeous, so please pop over and take a look if you can.
I followed her sketch and used a Penny Black image "Opening Night", such a sweet little girl and her dog, (kindly sent to me by my crafting friend Ann) coloured with pencils and Sansador and highlighted with Stickles "diamond" glitter glue. The backing papers, gems and daisy are all from my stash.

Favourite Flowers and The Great Outdoors

I've succeeded in getting another 2 cards made for challenges today, hooray!
The first is for Rainbow Lady's challenge of "My Favourite Flowers", well mine are daisies, or any white flowers really. Yes I love to see all the colours in the garden but my first love are those delicate little white or cream flowers. The card is a very simple one, I've used some pale lilac paper edged with daisies from my stash, trimmed around the edges to give it a "lacey" look and added this to both edges of the card then simply added 3 daisies down the centre.
The second card is for Cute Card Thursday's challenge of "The Great Outdoors" and for this one I've used an image of Edwin fishing and two sweet little bluebirds (kindly sent to me by my crafting friend Wendy), this has been coloured using Caran D'Ache pencils and mounted onto some cardstock from my stash then onto some K & Co backing paper and finished off with some little flowers, peel off corners and a dragonfly charm.

Card Challenges...at last!

It's been a long time since I managed a card challenge, or at least it seems that way. I was determined to complete at least a couple today as there are quite a few that I would like to enter this week.
My first card is for My Time to Craft's challenge of "Seasons". The gorgeous image is from Joanna Sheen's Fashion Boutique CD and has been mounted onto some copper miri card. Three antique style buttons have been set down the side, again mounted onto miri card and the card is finished off with a couple of copper feather style embellishments, some little red beads and some Stickles black glitter glue.
My second challenge was the Tilda and Friends ATC which this week was "Lavender and Lace". The sweet little Tilda image was sent to me by a crafting friend Denise (check out the lovely creations on her blog) and she has been coloured with pencils using paper stumps and Sansador and highlighted with Stickle 'Diamond' glitter glue. The background was made using a paper doiley and adding touches of Stickles 'Frosted Lace' glitter glue. The ATC was finished with a little flower embellished with a lilac heart gem.

SBS9 Brown and Pink Challenge

This card is for SBS9 Colour Challenge, and the theme is "brown and pink". You can do anything you like as long as it is in those two colours.
I really like this colour scheme and decided that little Baking Tilda would look quite sweet in these colours.
Tilda was coloured with Caran D'Ache water colour pencils and some Stickles glue was added to her hairband, wings and little socks.
The backing papers are from K & Co, Tilda has been mounted onto a little oval mat then onto some browny-bronze (?!!) cardstock from my stash, I've used this same cardstock to mount a little Cuddly Buddly sentiments stamp onto as well, after having first glazed it with Glossy Accents. The card has been finished off with some brown and white striped ribbon and a little chiffon ribbon bow.
I'm hoping that now I've caught up with myself a bit, I'll be able to enter the challenges I want before they end!!

At the Seaside

This is my card for the Lots to do challenge of "Children" this week. This is the first time I've entered a challenge on this site, but I made this card a couple of days ago and thought it fitted the theme perfectly. I've also just entered it for this week's Ooh-la-la challenge of "The Seaside" following a message from Wendi over there.
It's another very simple card (I don't seem to have much time to do anything else lately!) I've matted and layered the image of these gorgeous little girls having fun at the seaside onto some silver miri card and then onto some red card, all from my stash.
I'm beginning to catch up with myself at last, so hopefully I'll soon have more time to spend making something a little more challenging.

Weddings and Cake

I'm still desperately trying to catch up with myself this week, I don't know what's been happening but I don't really seem to have achieved much at all.
I wanted to enter a couple of other challenges this week and as one of them ends tomorrow and the other one on Monday, I've dropped everything else to get the cards done in time.
The first card is for Ooh La La's challenge of "Romance". I was lucky enough to win the ribbons in last week's challenge (the first time I've ever won anything!) so I thought I'd push my luck and enter this week's challenge LOL. A very simple card, the image is of a vintage wedding and is mounted onto some silver art deco miri card (which the scanner didn't like!) and finished off with a sentiment and some flowers with pink gems as centres. Thinking about it, I made a wedding card for their challenge last week too, I expect they now think that's all I do!
My second challenge card is for Funky Fairy's theme of "Glorious Food" and is another very simple card featuring the most delicious looking cake (Strawberries and cream mmmmm!) mounted onto deep red card and silver miri card and finished with a sentiment and a little flower with a gem flower as it's centre.
If I can catch up with all the other things I'm in the middle of at the moment, I'll try and get some more challenges entered.

Joanna Sheen's first challenge

I've been so busy this week, so why is it that looking back I don't seem to have achieved very much at all?
I've been wanting to get a card done for Joanna Sheen's first forum challenge all week and I've only just done it.
The theme was Sunshine and Flowers and I decided to use one of my new "shabby chic" Tildas, so here she is in her garden. The sky and grass were made from papers in my stash and all the other little characters and flowers are from Cuddly Buddly (including the naughty little cat and puppy hiding in the wheelbarrow). Tilda was coloured with Caran D'Ache water colour pencils.

Vintage Joy

I've been spending a lot of time trying out new ideas for my card making recently, one of which was making larger "special" cards. I think out of all the different styles of card, my favourite is vintage and especially the Art Deco period. So, with that in mind, this card is a mixture of the two.
The card itself was made from two sheets of A4 black cardstock, cut down slightly to make it about 9" x 10" in size. I then scored both sheets of cardstock at one edge and stuck them together to give a "book spine" effect. This was then covered with backing paper matching the main image, some plain black card and a mixture of tiny pearls and silver art deco peel offs.
The gorgeous main image is from Joanna Sheen's Fashion Boutique CD. This has been mounted onto a grey "marble" effect paper with black scroll corners, (which I designed in a graphics program) and then onto some silver miri card which has a lovely art deco pattern on it, I then added a lace border down the right hand side using K & Co paper lace. The whole thing was finished off with some silver art deco style peel off corners and TWO Flora Doodle flowers (!!) mounted onto a larger plain white flower all fastened together by sewing a black button on top.

Sweet Tilda

This is for Cute Card Thursday's challenge of 3 different types of embellishments. Sweet Tilda has been busily baking again!
I've used K & Co backing papers and added some little dots around the matting and layering to, hopefully, look like stitching. My embellishments are some sticky ribbon, a flower with a button centre and a couple of little gems. I suppose that's four embellishments really, I hope that doesn't matter!
I forgot to mention that the layout is from an old challenge sketch but it was such a versatile one that I kept a copy for future cards.

3 challenges today

I nearly always enjoy making cards, but today I was really "in the mood" so I made 3 cards for different challenges that I wanted to enter.
The first is for the Tilda & Co challenge of "Swirls". It gave me a good excuse to use one of my new Magnolia stamps (not that I need an excuse!) and doesn't Edwin look so cute? The background is some gorgeous dark blue miri card which has been through the cuttlebug, (thanks to my crafting friend Starcyl) unfortunately my scanner didn't like this cardstock. I've added some extra little swirls with a sakura pen and Edwin's balloons came from the Crafter's Companion CD.
The second challenge is for Ooh-la-la creations first ever weekly challenge of "Ribbons" and I've used a lovely vintage image of a wedding (I don't know where I got this image from, sorry) which has been mounted onto some pale lilac paper from K & Co, then onto some dark red gloss card and finally onto some beautiful white sparkly paper from Joanna Sheen's lovely shop. The card has been finished with an epoxy sentiment sticker and last, but by no means least some gorgeous deep red sticky ribbon.
The final card is for this week's Tanda Teaser challenge of "Bear Necessities". I very rarely use teddy bear images and now I've used two different ones in two days!
This image depicts a sweet little boy bear carrying a huge present and was a freebie download from Daisie Company (I think!), mounted on to some dark red gloss card and simply finished with a sentiment sticker from Papermania.

Teddy Bears

This card is for the Lots to do challenge which this week is "Teddy Bears". I have used a sweet image from my Greetings Factory Workshop DVD, this has been mounted onto some blue "preppy papers" from Cuddly Buddly and then straight onto the card, the lacey blue papers down each side of the card are cut out from some HOTP papers I've had for ages. The little tag is part of a PIF I received from Cynthia aka Rainbow Lady, it matched the colour of the card perfectly and I just handwrote my little message and added some pretty ribbon.
I will be posting a piccy of my PIF (pass it forward) gift from Cynthia just as soon as my DH photographs it and I'm in the process of having a bit of a sort out so I can pop some candy on my blog for my PIF.

Back with a vengeance!

I've just noticed the date of my last card challenge and I've been away longer than I thought! The main reason for this is that I made the mistake of revisiting a PC game that used to be a favourite of mine and guess what? I got hooked again! I've now decided that it's time to rejoin the real world so I'm back.
If you have visited my other blog lately you'll see that I've been quite busy with family cards for May and June, but now I've completed all those (hopefully) I've been enjoying getting "stuck in" to completing some challenges.
The first is for My Time To Craft's "Brads and Eyelets" and for this I've used a sweet image from a download kit I got from PC Crafter some time ago, but haven't used before. These pretty little girls tucking into their ice cream are mounted onto some lilac polka dot paper and then onto some pale green cardstock, (all from my stash) some pale green and lilac brads have been used on this. A strip of the cardstock has been set with lilac eyelets and a little K & Co sticker and used down the side of the card.
The second is an ATC for the Tilda and Friends challenge of "Give me Sunshine". For this I've used some blue paper (from Cuddly Buddly's preppy papers) for the sky and some green paper for the grass, onto this I've popped some little flowers that I made from cutting up some paper and the sun is again from a Cuddly Buddly download kit. Finally, little Tilda herself all ready to pick those flowers!
For my third challenge I've made a tag, this is for Rainbow Lady's "Monotone Rainbow Colours". I've decided to go for the colour green and I've used a gorgeous Serendipity stamp from Joanna Sheen called "Spring in Provence". I've stamped this with StazOn and then coloured with pencils and blended with Sansador and paper stumps (a new technique but I love it). The little sentiment comes with the stamp and says "For Love of Art" and the tag is completed with some dark green chiffon ribbon.
Finally, I've made another tag for Tag You're It the challenge was to make a monogram tag, to do this I've made my tag and covered it with some pretty blue paper (don't know where I got it from, sorry) I've used a stencil to make the letter D and covered this in a different blue paper and added some stickles glue to this for a bit of sparkle (I've also added a tiny letter o and t inside the D as this will go to my friend with her birthday card later this month), this paper and the pink bow on the D are actually printed from a Daisie download kit, all finished off with some pink sparkly ribbon.