Me on Monday

I've had a couple of weeks off from Me on Monday as I have been away so thought I had better show up today.

It was a weekend of returning from The Netherlands after a fabulous Marillion convention and time spent with friends, via the Shuttle (complete with PZ lurgy as a souvenir), a weekend of unpacking, sorting a large pile of mail, making a start on two sacks of dirty washing and ordering in pizza as I felt too yuck to cook.

Monday finds me putting away shopping delivered courtesy of Mr Sainsbury and stocking up on supplies to fight off this lurgy - I have 10 sleeps to get match fit for the Marillion UK convention!!

I will now pop over to wave to Sian at From High in the Sky who started Me on Monday

Happy Birthday Syreeta!!

It is my blogging (and real life) friend Syreeta's birthday today - I hope she has a lovely day and that we will catch up real soon so that I can give her a birthday pressie.  But I did put her card in the post so fingers crossed it has arrived on time.  I actually made this card right under her nose whilst we were away together on our crafty retreat!!

I used Penny Black's Party King for my main image and coloured it with Promarkers.  The patterned paper is Craft Creations and the 40 is Glitter Thickers.  The sentiment is by Penny Black and I cut all the mats with Spellbinder and Memory Box dies.  The bling is from Majorcrafts. 

I hope you have a lovely birthday Sy and also your son Cameron too who shares this day with you.  Look forward to seeing you real soon xxx

Tivoli Gardens

This was the December/January sketch for the Sketchy Scrappers group -

And this is my layout based on the sketch -

I used a very old Sarah's Cards kit based around Prima Blooming Retro - I think this was the March 2010 kit so these papers are pretty old.  The rub on flowers were in the kit and are Crate Paper Cottage Collection.  I cut the title using Sizzix Santa's Workshop alphabet die.  The photographs are from my birthday last year which was spent in Copenhagen whilst on a Baltic cruise.

Marillion UK Convention

It was my turn in February to set the monthly sketch for an online sketch group that I belong to, I chose this one from Pagemaps

I used a collage of photos from the 2013 Marillion UK Convention and substituted the large Santa for a shaker box containing some of the confetti that was released at the end of the final night, I swapped out the two bottom photographs for my ticket.

The papers are a mixture of Cosmo Cricket Delectable and Simple Stories Vintage Bliss.  The Thickers are Amy Tangerine glitter foam.  It was nice that the sketch featured a large space for journalling.  Mr P and I had had to miss the Dutch convention as we were both so ill with 'flu and could not travel, so getting to the UK convention meant so much to us.

I made the shaker box using square dies and a small piece of acetate.

Happy Birthday Connor

It is my nephew's 18th Birthday today and this is the card that I made for him

 The hedgehog is a Penny Black stamp and called Party King.  The patterned papers used are magazine freebies and the sentiment stamp is by Hero Arts.  The 18 is red glitter Thickers and I used spellbinder dies to cut out the image and the sentiment mats.  The image was coloured using Promarkers.  I put glossy accents on the balloons to make them lovely and shiny.

Hope you have a very lovely birthday Connor!!

Blossoms and Bows Part 2

And another card for this month's challenge at Penny Black Saturday Challenge which is Spring Blooms and Penny Black and More which is Blossoms and Bows.

Using the same cat stamp as yesterday from T for Transparent set Critter Time -

 The cat was coloured using Promarkers and the sentiment stamp is by Wild Rose Studio on Stampin Up punched mats.  The gemstones are from Major crafts and the bow from my thrifted stash (probably removed from a shop bought card!!).  The patterned paper is a magazine freebie and the circle stitched dies are by Memory Box.

Blossoms and Bows Part 1

This month's challenge at Penny Black and More is Blossoms and Bows, this also fits nicely with the challenge at Penny Black Saturday Challenge which is Spring Blooms.

This is the first card that I made for the two challenges -

 The cat is from T for transparent set - Critter Time and was coloured in with Promarkers, the sentiment is Wild Rose Studio on Stampin Up punched mats.  The blossoms are Prima with glitter sticker centres (Anita's I think??).  The patterned paper is a magazine freebie.

Happy Birthday Lucinda

As well as being Mother's Day it is also my sister's birthday today.  She has a lovely dog called Toby so I thought it was only right to make a card using one of the new Penny Black releases - T for transparent set 'Man's Best Friend'. 

 And I didn't stop at one card, I made three in different colourways.  This is a card full of new things, the embossed pawprint background is by Marianne Designs and the triple aperture frame is from Pretty Pink Posh - all getting their first outing!!

I thought the frame die was perfect for mounting the smaller dog images from the set on.

The sentiment is by Personal Impression and the punches used for the sentiment are both from Stampin' Up.

Happy Mothers Day

This is the card I've made my lovely Mum for Mother's Day, using the Stampin' Up Perfect Peacock stamp.

I stamped the background card with the flower stamp from a hostess set 'Simply Soft' and markers in Pistachio Pudding and Crisp Cantaloupe.

The peacock was coloured with Promarkers - Mint green, Peacock green, Canary, Royal Blue and Aegean.

The sentiment is also from Stampin Up and the punches, the pearls are by Hobby House

Beat the Christmas Rush - February

Confession time - I actually made these last weekend!!!  I had no time in February to do any so on our crafty weekend away in Hereford I did my February and March BTCR cards.

Beat the Christmas Rush is hosted by Sue at Me and Mine and is to help us get a headstart on making our Christmas cards.

These are my February ones using a set of digistamps from Pink Petticoat - I can't see them on her website anymore so they have probably been discontinued but she has lots of other lovely Christmas collections available.

 I coloured the digistamps with Promarkers, added glossy accents to the nose so it was lovely and shiny and then added small touches of Stardust Stickles for a hint of sparkle.  The images were diecut with a stitched circle die and added to a square mat of paper from Craft Creations.

 A bit of bling was added to each corner and the card is still flat enough for posting.

 

 If you want to get ahead with your cards then do think about joining in with us each month, there is no pressure to join in every month and every card you get made now will be one less to do nearer Christmas!!

Getting messy with Brusho

Most of my crafty friends know that I am not one for doing messy crafts - I hate the clearing up, I'm really clumsy and usually end up wearing more ink than ends up on the paper and I just hate having inky fingers.  BUT I have been really loving seeing all the super work out in blogland of Brushos.  It just so happens that a friend that I spent the weekend with, has Brushos and offered to bring them along so that I could have a play with them.  (If you don't know what Brushos are, they are a dry crystalline powder that mixes with cold water to form a painting medium.  The colours are really intense and a little goes a long way).

So look at me getting all messy and playing - note I'm wearing an apron and gloves - all was well until I took my gloves off and picked up one of the wet sheets - at least I now know that Garnier Body scrub will remove the purple and blue ink that stained all my fingers!!

Once the backgrounds were dry I was then able to make some cards

These use a Technique Tuesday stamp and the sentiment is from Stampin' Up Butterfly Basics set.

 These are from a new Penny Black T for transparent set called Snippets

 I've still got several more background sheets to play with and I will definitely be getting some Brusho to use myself - thanks Sy for taking the time and trouble to show me some techniques for using Brusho.

Me on Monday

The weekend was spent driving down to Hereford to have a lovely time in a converted barn with a load of craft mad friends.  There was lots of cake eating, scrapbooking, art journaling, sewing and cardmaking going on.  We were very well looked after, with two of the hubbys cooking our evening meals for us.

 And then what follows a fab weekend away - well sadly all the unpacking, I will still be doing it on Tuesday!!!

And now I need to give a wave back to Sian at From High in The Sky who started Me on Monday.

Tealight boxes

Every year I go away with a load of my crafting friends to a lovely converted barn on a farm near Hereford and we always exchange little gifts.  I can safely show these now as we will have already exchanged our table gifts on Friday evening.

This year I made some little boxes to hold Yankee Candle tealights, I used this tutorial and slightly adjusted the measurements to accommodate three instead of four.

I decorated the boxes using some of the lovely little stamps from Stampin Up Perpetual Birthday Calendar set - the stamps are clear so it is really easy to use them for backgrounds.

I tied up the boxes with floss and decorated with a petite frame stamp which has a matching punch.

Birthday Cats

Some quick and easy birthday cards using some printable sentiments by Pink Petticoat and a Penny Black stamp.

The images were coloured in with Promarkers and the balloons glazed with Glossy Accents

Oh Deer!!

The February sketch challenge on the Scrapology blog is S is for Squares and to use this lovely sketch -

 I used scraps of Basic Grey 'Jovial' and a photo of me modelling my new antlers on Boxing Day

I used Thickers for the title and the flowers are All Occasions flower dies and a Martha Stewart foliage punch.

Me on Monday

It is Monday and that means one thing - give a big wave to Sian over at From High in the Sky who hosts Me on Monday.

It was a yukky weather weekend and one where it was nice to just hunker down at home, drinking tea and eating bacon sarnies.  We did brave the weather though on Sunday to go and visit my great aunt, taking my parents with us and then treating ourselves to a yummy dinner at the restaurant at the top of Devils Dyke - though it felt a bit bonkers driving up to that remote spot in the howling wind and torrential rain.  Quite a bit of crafting was fitted in, getting stuff ready for the impending crafty weekend away and making table gifts for the ladies.

And Monday????  Well a much better weather day, lots of blue skies and sunshine and four hours in the hairdresser's chair getting re-blonded - I do have rather a lot of hair - my hairdresser calls me her thickest customer!!!!!

And the day ended up with this -

I've been baking up a storm recently ready for crafty weekend away and our trip to the Netherlands for the Marillion convention - Mr P has noted we have more cake than anything else in the freezer at the moment and he does sigh when he notes that he is not allowed to eat any of them :D

If you have time go and give Sian a little wave!!