LOTV Happy Birthday Challenge

this This week's challenge over at Lili of the Valley" is to make a birthday card. I have just made this card for a certain little niece who's birthday is today. I just hope it didn't get squished in the post! I used the fairies on tiptoe stamp coloured with copic markers, a touch of glossy accents on the flowers and wand and a little clear star sakura pen on the wings and skirt. I've used my dotty stamp again to help with the distressed edges. The butterfly was from the Artylicious CD Rom Butterfly Bliss, and having coloured my fairy, I realised that I didn't have any lilac background papers in the house! Luckily the trees on the Artyicious Essence of Nature CD Rom have worked. The flowers were made using handmade paper from Ikea (Every time I go there now I am looking out this paper as it makes fabulous flowers, but they seem to have stopped doing it!) The flowers are cut using Tim Holtz dies, scrunched up, distressed with DI and then a little shimmer added with pearlised medium. The dies are new, they are from Spellbinders and I got them from the Treasury in Kidderminster this week. They are so pretty I couldn't wait to use them. They have so many gorgeous dies out at the moment it is really hard to choose...I ended up getting two dies and then going back the next day for some more.

D is for Doodles

Over on the Alphabet Challenge this week it's D for doodles...so this is my attempt...the card was for a certain little niece who thinks that she is getting a pressie every time she sees us...brought about by the fact that she is the eldest girl in the family after my two girls...so of course...every time my girls grow out of something...it gets passed on down to Mia...Hence where's my pressie!

Stamp is Gorjuss girl coloured with copic markers...backing paper was from the new Essence of Nature DVD from Artylicious.

G is for Green

This week's letter on the Alphabet challenge is G....and of course G is for Green..but a little bird told me being green could be about recycling...only problem is I just blogged my recycled yeast tin yesterday so that will not count. So this will just have to do....


My Gorjuss girl is coloured with Copic Markers, the background papers are from the Arityicious Decadent Brocade CD Rom, the sentiment was a custom stamp from Tanda and embossing was done in a Cuttlebug embossing folder. I've used various punches and dies including Martha Stewart, SU, Joy and Spellbinders and edges have been distressed with Distress inks.











On the green front, the veg patch is beginning to come together.....here are some pictures.....these are of my beans and courgettes...taken about a week ago before all the rain...they are a little bit bigger now! luckily my water butts have filled up again...they were all empty last weekend! You might just notice the tomato plants too...two plum and 1 Cosack..I have 3 Gardeners Delight and 2 Sungold elsewhere. Tonight our salad was mainly out of the garden...I really recommend Sorrel...it's a hardy perennial, once you get it to germinate it seems to come through quite hard winters...it can be cooked like spinage..(I haven't tried that) or it can be used in salads...it has a fantastic lemony flavour and I thoroughly recommend it!! Doesn't take up much room in the garden too...so it is well worth the initial effort! Once germinated...just keep it well watered and stop it going to seed and you're sorted for years to come!

Going all Flowery...not Floury

Anyone who knows me and has followed my blog for a while will know that I make my own bread...so when the Tanda girls got together in Wantage recently, I gave everyone an empty yeast tin to alter/decorate...You've had a little teaser piccy earlier this week and I can report that the step-by-step piccies will be on my blog tomorrow, blogger permitting. I had the ultimate compliment today...my voltive was the first thing my mother-in-law noticed when she came into my kitchen (aka my craft room) today...she thought it was very pretty and didn't realize that I had made it or that it was recycled! I'm feeling pretty chuffed now!


So what is this post about...well, I thought that I should finish off the Stampotique cards that I started colouring at the Wantage meet...I've been working on two other cards today and had some off cuts that would just finish off the Wantage cards so I thought that I may as well punch a load of flowers and leaves and finish the job so to speak.....this would also fit with the "Tuesday Taggers" and the "Spoonfull of Sugar" floral theme for this week so here goes.....I used Copic markers to colour the girls and distress inks to distress the edges and masks to stamp around the images. I happened to be working with backing papers printed from Artylicious Fantasy Floral CD today and decided that they would work well with the Daniel Torrente girls....luckily my maidenhair fern punch is un-jammed and working again




...Patty if you're reading this the megga bang on the floor fixed it! ;) You can see I've used the little spiky flower punch I bought last week for the flower centres too!...I think I should get the larger one too;) will have to save up some more pennies!

My other cards today will have to remain under wraps for now..the first one is for a friend who will be 40 at the weekend and I had to get Andrew to make me a custom stamp to cater for her passion in life...the second one was a card for my Hubby for Father's day...Thanks Patty..the Wild Rose Studio "For Men" Trophy Guy has worked perfectly!

It's late now, so I'd better go and make the sarnies for the girls!

And don't forget to come back tomorrow for the low down on the voltive;)
Sue
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F is for Flowers and more flowers

Over on the alphabet challenge this week the theme is F for Flowers. Not more flowers I thought and then I remembered that I had just cut up and mounted the large flowers from Graphicus. I've had them for ages and was thinking of selling them (I bought them as part of one of those mega deals, you know, the sort where if you buy a load of stuff you want you get something for free that perhaps you didn't really want) Anyway a few weeks ago, my eldest daughter decided that she wanted to use them for her GCSE Art exam piece so I ended up mounting them all on EZ mount...Having done that I might as well use them myself now I can't sell them as new!

I stamped the flowers onto paper printed from the Arylicious Decadent Brocade CD rom and layered them up with card run through a cuttlebug folder that complimented the flower shape.

The flower petals were curled slightly, distressed and a small amount of glitter added to the edges to give a bit of dimension.

As I mentioned before, my lack of blogging has been down to spending loads of time gardening and also having the kids home for half term...so I just thought that I would share some pictures of the flowers in my garden that I have taken over the last week.......

That's probably enough pics for today...will blog some more tomorrow hopefully!
Sue
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L is for Lilac

Over on Linda's Alphabet Challenge Blog it is 'L for Lilac' this week. As I am feeling guilty about not joining in so much this time and having just used up all my cute Gorjuss Girl cards, I thought that this would be the perfect opportunity to stock up with some more...and hence I did a lilac one! I stamped her in Black Soot (Distress Ink) and then coloured her with Copic markers. The backing papers are from the Artylicious Decadent Brocade CD rom, and the flowers have been punched out of the same papers and distressed slightly on the edges using Colourbox chalk inks. I took the hints on colouring the hair from Kim Costello...still got a lot to learn me thinks, but DD1 thought the hair looked good. Seriously though...I have Copic set A and wasn't happy with the colours for hair...having read Kim's tips I have invested in a few more Copics and I am now really happy with how they look...thanks Kim!

Sue
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Pretty as a Peacock!

I hope you have all had a lovely Christmas and New Year....with the kids around I haven't had a chance to get on the computer much over the holidays...this should all change though. I am still waiting for my Christmas present to arrive, but when it does, I will have my very own laptop!!! Apparently it is currently sat in a warehouse somewhere in Leicestershire waiting to be delivered, I just hope it arrives soon.

This week's Tanda Teaser has been set by Wendy and she has chosen peacocks as her theme, either using peacock colours or the bird itself. As they are my favourite colours I am using them for my card. The Gorjuss girl has been coloured with Promarkers and the flowers and backing papers are all from the Artylicious Peacock CD Rom.

Sue
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It's Cool To Be Square!

Hello there, it's my turn to do the Tanda Teaser again this week. Because we are so close to Christmas and as things have been a bit quiet lately, Wendy and I agreed that this weeks teaser would last for two weeks to give you more of a chance to join in. I thought I would keep things really simple to help too! So this week's teaser is to make a square card.

For my card I covered a square card with paper printed from the Artylicious Decadent Brocade CD Rom as my base. The main image (from Tanda Christmas Set 2)was stamped in Archival Black ink onto thick glossy card stock that I had previously brayered using Adirondack Winter Sky. Once dry I smeared Versamark Dazzle frost over the image and then triple embossed with clear embossing powder, giving a subtle shimmer. This was then cut out and matted and layered with silver mirror card and white mulberry paper. The tag was made using the same brayered glossy card and stamped and embossed with Tapestry holly leaves and berries. The card was then finished with silver and grey fibres and ribbons.

I hope to get the chance to post another card for this teaser next week...time permitting...but if I don't...I just want to wish you all a very Happy Christmas!

Sue
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Nice and Narrow, the new Tanda Teaser

Hello again....another week closer to Christmas....where has this year gone?! I'm going to have to be quick with this post...as I have far too much to do atm!!!

My card is narrow...I hope you think it nice....but it isn't tall..sorry Wendy..narrow and broad would probably be a better description....never mind it's done now!

The stamps are all Tanda...you saw the sledgers a few posts back. I've stamped the images using Adirondack Winter Sky and as before the sledgers have been coloured using the warm grey Promarkers. The stamped images have been matted onto copper coloured card and then onto paper printed from the Artylicious Decadent Brocade CD Rom. Before sticking everything down the edges were distressed with Colorbox Chalk Inks then I punched two holes and inserted copper eyelets before threading a piece of ribbon though to finish the card.

I hope you enjoy the teaser!
Sue
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Get In Step!

Hi there fellow crafters. It's my turn this week to set the Tanda Teaser and I thought we could do something fun this week. On my blog hopping sorties I have noticed lots of step cards and side step cards recently! So I thought it would be fun to challenge everyone to make a step card of some description this week.

For those of you who haven't made one before they are quite simple to make....here's a little calculation and diagram to help you......



Please click on the diagram to see it more clearly.
















For my step card I used papers from the Artylicious Season's Greetings CD rom. I ran a square piece of heavy duty acetate through my Wizard in the snowflakes cuttlebug folder to make the background. I stamped 4 Klimt swirly trees onto dark grey card and then embossed them in silver embossing powder, these were then painted with interference paints. While these were drying I stamped the Klimt border across the horizontal steps and embossed them with silver embossing powder. Once dry the trees were cut out and attached as shown in the photo.



Side step cards are also fun to do...see my instructions here....again using a 27cm piece of card. To get the best results with this type of card, I would recommend using a craft knife to score the card and to cut out the side step.

If you keep checking www.craftstamperblogspot, you should see a side step card that I've made in the next week or so....

I hope you find time to join in with our Teaser this week!

Bye for now and enjoy!
Sue
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Musical Christmas

It's Wendy's turn to set the Tanda Teaser this week. She has decided to go for a musical theme, so the subject of the card should be a Christmas carol or have music somewhere on the card. For my card I used the first day of Christmas as my theme, although I am now having second thoughts....Is this a carol or just a Christmas song?...I'm really not sure. Well no time to do another now, so it will have to do.

For my card I stamped the pear tree, in olive green Impress dye ink, onto a piece of paper printed from the Artylicious Decadent Brocade CD Rom. I then heat embossed the pears in gold ep. I tore a strip of vellum that I had printed with the verse in green to match the ink. Using a Versamark pen I picked out the pears and embossed them with gold ep. The pear was stamped onto vellum and embossed in gold ep before being coloured using UsArt Quest paints. The partridge was stamped and embossed in gold ep on brown card and then coloured with UsArt Quest interference paints. Pear and Partridge stamps come from the Tanda Partridge Set 1 (mini).

The base card was stamped using the tree and distressed in the same ink. The tags were cut out using Spellbinders' dies, these were embossed in a Cuttlebug embossing folder before being distressed with the same ink as I used for the tree.

Well I think that just about wraps it up. Hope you all find time to join in this week!

Sue
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Tanda Teaser "Winter Sports"

This week's Tanda Teaser is called Winter Sports....I fell in love with a certain Tanda stamp but it was a little bit too tiny....no worries...Andrew resized it..(see Tanda blog for details)...so here we go...and I used some of my stash from the NEC...how smug am I feeling!

I stamped the boys using Adirondack winter sky and then set it aside to dry...once dry..I used my promarkers (NEC purchase!!)..in WARM grey 1 - 5 to colour the image. I trimmed this and matted and layered with metallic copper and beige card.

The next layer was white card...I swirled a bit of ink, from Adirondack winter sky pad, around using a stencil brush to take the white away, then I stamped foliage and cones using Tapestry stamps from Holly Border and Pine Branch Border sets (foliage and cones in Adirondack winter sky, berries in Impress Poppy Red. The edges were then punched with my new Martha Stewart punch (I'm so glad I managed to get this at the NEC!)

This was again layered onto a piece of paper printed from the Artylicious Decadent Brocade CD Rom and then onto the base card.

The bow was stitched with gold embroidery thread...I really must do a step by step to do these bows...they are perfect every time!...watch this space.

I hope that you can find time to join in with the teaser...

Sue
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Lilac and Lemon

Evening all, just had a busy, busy week! Also the internet connection in the playroom has been playing up so that means that my eldest is constantly hogging this computer, chatting on MSN, facebook and checking her Youtube feedback...well that's my excuse for not blogging here for ages!

I just managed to sneak on here while my eldest was otherwise occupied and I'm currently claiming squatters rights!

So here we go...Wendy's Tanda Teaser this week is a colour challenge, Lilac and Lemon. Not a colour combo that I'm particularly comfortable with, although I realised too late the my anniversary card for my husband would have fitted the bill. I've been a bit naughty this week and haven't actually used any Tanda stamps, I promise to use Tanda stamps for the next few week's teasers though!

For my card I used "Choose" by Leanne Ellis. I coloured the image with Copic markers and just added a bit of dimension to the hanging hearts with Glossy Accents. The image was layered up onto papers from the Artylicious Decadent Brocade CD Rom.

Since I last blogged I went to the NEC with my friend and have to admit to a few purchases....I can't believe that I went to a craft show and ended up buying a saute pan..how sad am I?! The pan was very expensive, but it is brilliant, guaranteed for life and totally non stick no matter how badly it's treated! Perfect for this household where everything gets scoured and normal non stick pans last about 2 seconds! I did buy a few crafty bits as well, a Martha Stewart punch that I've been after for ages, a few stamps and some paints.

Well I'd better go and check on the girls....

Bye for now,
Sue

Kind Thoughts

Wendy has set the Tanda Teaser this week, and she has chosen "Kind Thoughts" as the theme. I bought the angel Gorjuss girl a while ago and thought that it would work perfectly for this challenge.

The card is based on a Craft Stamper sketch challenge from a while ago and uses papers from the new Artylicious cd rom Decadent Brocade. I stamped the image in black impress and then coloured it using the cool grey promarkers. I started with the palest grey first and worked my way up to the darkest shade. The Sentiment is from Tanda Christian Set 1 that I have embossed, in a cuttlebug folder, after stamping.


Sue
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Tanda Teaser - Tag It!

This week's Tanda Teaser is to use a Tag somewhere on your card. As I have been away/rather busy over the last month or so, I have decided to do a "here's one I did earlier" card. You can tell I grew up with Blue Peter!

I used the Artylicious, Butterfly Bliss CD to print the double sided background for the card. The front of the card was made using an image from TandaStamps Advert Plate 4. I stamped this in black StazOn onto very heavy weight white card and then watercoloured it. I punched holes in the corners and then fixed the watercolour with acrylic varnish before triple embossing the image so that it looked like one of those old fashioned signs.




For the inside of the tri-fold I used various stamps. For the tags I used the Tanda Travel stamp set 1 and Postage set 1. The other stamps on this side are from PSX and Sir Stamp-a-Lot.

I hope you enjoy this week's Teaser!
Sue
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