'25 yrs, still looking good'

Just a quick post today - trying to get hubby's birthday card finished, as it's tomorrow (LOL, he's used to getting them 'hot off the press' so to speak).

This was another hot off the press for my sister's 25th wedding anniversary yesterday - she's not into slushy sentiments so I thought she'd find this funny - I did :).

The ugly/funny people are stamps I won from Scrapmagasinet and I love them! Paper is Basic grey 'bittersweet', text from sizzix dies (2 different font sets, 'cherish' and 'in my heart'), MS valentine lace border punch and some flowers/gems to finish. I've decorated inside with matching scraps and it says 'Happy Anniversary' but I've not bothered showing it as it's fairly basic.

Thank you for visiting and sorry I've not been around but just not had the 'umph' to do much blog hopping (or cards!). Hopefully will come by soon. Have a lovely weekend and happy 4th July to all my American readers/buddies.

CCT - stitch in time: 'click -cluck'

CCT wants to see stitching on your cards this week so as well as lots of faux stitching I decided to use my knitting chickens stamp :) which I've had for years but think this may be first time I've inked it up!



Another simple card from me I'm afraid as I did this late last night. Used the sketch over on Sketch & Stash and I've covered the optional extra of 'animals' too.

Stash:

• Image: neglected 'spinning a yarn' PB stamp
• Colouring: Copics
• Papers: DCWVV 'nana's kitchen' & blue cardstock for matting and cardbase
• Others: Fiskars 'apron lace' border punch, EK wave slimline edger punch, EK retro flower punches, buttons and lots of faux stitching with gel pens

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Urghhh! seem to have really bad hayfever this year and I don't like it! Never used to have it has a kid, only in recent years :( and it seems worse this year!!! O.k, moan over. Going to go sniffle in my craft room and try and stay cool (Being in the north west, we seem to have got the humid icky temperature but not the corresponding sunshine like down south, just the odd burst, rest of the time it's overcast and 'bleah' :/)

T&F ATC: 'American as apple pie'!

It's Independence day in a few days so ATC theme this week is 'stars & stripes' with added option of red, white & blue.

I instantly knew what dp I was going to use as one of my old DCWV mat stacks had an Independence day theme paper in it which I was never going to use seeing as I'm British so this was perfect time to put it to good use for a bit of fun :)

Then it was just case of deciding what image to use and I happened to have this High Hopes stamp sitting on my desk staring at me and the phrase 'American as apple pie' just popped into my head :D. Image coloured with Copics then just cut out and popped onto 3D foam. Added a little stripe ribbon so the stars and stripes option is covered (stars in the paper) and the text printed off pc.

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Can't believe it's July already AND I forgot to make something for the WOJ Project Of the Month today (slap wrists!) but if you hop on over to the WOJ POM gallery you can see all the fabulous teacher projects the rest of my talented (and better organised) teamies came up with. Best get my skates on and sort something out for my birthday blog candy as that is fast approaching along with card for hubby's birthday and an anniversary card for sis.

See Magnolia are shipping the summer kit from today. I was undecided and hadn't ordered this time as was going to wait until they gave sneek peek like last time but they've done it different this time and have given the sneek peek AFTER closing orders - typical! Will just have to hope I won't love them all and just get a few that I really love when they get released individually!

Have a good day, stay cool!

Sketch Sat & creative dip

I've hade this cute bear coloured up for about a week now so wanted to make it up into a card but could I get the layout to look right? no! Everything I tried just wasn't doing it for me but in the end I gave up and thought this was as good as it was going to get and I was starting to get sick of the sight of it (ever get like that? Think I'm in one of my creative dips again - must be the weather).

So I'm afraid I've not done justice to the fab sketch over on Sketch Sat and the only thing I like about this card is the colouring and the wax seal I used in the corner! Oh well, we all have off days or at least, I do!

Spoke too soon about the weather and Wimbledon then as the roof got put into good use last night didn't it? What a match, talk about endurance test . . seemed to go on forever!

Stash:

• Image: Penny Black 'team effort', sentiment by PM
• Colouring: Copics
• Paper: not sure! just piece I found with envelope pattern all over it which I thought went with image but ended up not seeing most of it anyway!
• Others: magic mesh, gold wax and heart seal I've had for donkeys to tie in with the letter theme. notepaper printed off pc and punched with EK edger punch

WoJ Birthday news

Hello, what beautiful weather we're having here in the UK (just don't want it to get any hotter!) - hope you're managing to stay cool wherever you are. Personally, I think Wimbledon has jinxed it with their new roof over centre court - you can usually always tell it's Wimbledon fortnight as it tends to rain a bit, but not a drop so far LOL

Anyway, back to my card and some exciting news.

Whiff of Joy stamps is 1 year old (Can't believe I've been lucky enough to have been there from the start, it doesn't seem that long)! Katharina will be hosting a party on the 25th July, starting with a blog hop of the next new release. As well as the DT she will be picking 15 WoJ fans to take part in this blog hop. All you need to do, to be considered, is to take part in the sketch challenge over on Katharina's blog. For full details just click on the banner above.

My card is my take on the sketch set by Katharina

Here's another view of the front when closed

Stash:

• Images: 'sitting willow' and 'sweet wishes' from WoJ Summer stamp kit. The flowers around circle edge are from PM set
• Colouring: Copics. Masked Willow and sponged around her with distress inks to match the dp.
• Papers: K & Co 'classic K Charlotte' and some teal cardstock for my cardbase. The wavy edge was cut with scissors (just used edge of a petite oval die to draw around to create the s shape)
• Others: Blossom nestie to cut out image (just cut around Willow's legs and placed them over the die so that part doesn't get cut off when I ran it through my cuttlebug). Prima flowers, paper roses, raffia ribbon, MS butterfly punch, SU word window punch and flat backed pearls
  

Have a lovely evening, thanks for dropping by.

I'm back!

Hellooo! Have you missed me?! Had a fabulous time in Paris. We chose the perfect time to go as the weather was just right (sunny but not too hot) and we left just as it was forecast to rain that day! Looks like the weather's been fab here to as we came back to wonderful sunshine too.

Took way too many photos so just selected a few and made a little montage to show you. Walked so much, my poor feet need another holiday but it was worth it as the sights and views were spectacular.

Not managed to get back in the craft room yet (unpacking is always the worst bit of holidays isn't it?!) but remember I said I would be attempting to crochet a little Hello Kitty? Well I did and it was finished before I left but didn't have time to schedule a post, so here it is now. This one isn't quite correct as the eyes should be oval not rounf but I just used what I had to hand and I got the head bit slightly wrong but think it turned out o.k! Currently trying a different one, slightly bigger but I do like this dinky size (it's about 4 inches high). (If anyone is wondering, patterns are from Japanese crochet books which you can buy on ebay/etsy). Once I've perfected it a bit I'll be making some as little gifts for my nieces I think.

I'm working tonight and tomorrow now so will leave it till start of new week to start posting again. I will also be doing a blog candy soon as July is around the corner which means my birthday is too, and I've gone past 100,000 hits, so watch this space. Thanks for all the comments and visits whilst I've been away and I will try and catch up soon.

T&F ATC 3D Fun: Ca Va?

Bonjour! Ca Va? indeed. Hope you are all 'ca va bien' - All things being well I should be enjoying some Parisian sunshine and taking in the sights of Versailles today. Hopefully blogger is behaving as this is a scheduled post.

We want to see 3D fun on your ATCs this week so I did a quick partial decoupage on mine (her head and the froggie are raised on foam pads and silicone glue but not obvious in photo). I got some of the new Diane Duda stamps from Funky Kits at the weekend and they arrived lightening quick on Sat and I just had to use this one as I thought it was quite fitting ;D

Did my usual quick background stamping and sponging with distress inks followed by spritz of perfect pearls and image coloured with Copics.

Afraid I ran out of time so no CCT card tomorrow but I'll catch up when I get back.