For a lady who lunches

Hello Peeps, this is part of the reason I have been so quiet the last few days, it been heads down for this evening's Tattered Lace and 3Diemensions (check out the brand new web site) Pick of the Day on Ideal Word/Create and Craft, plus a Pick of the Week coming on Friday. Tonight it's something rather different and immense fun, I even surprised myself how much I enjoyed playing - ooops, working, with these dies.

I had this idea in my head of us girls loving our handbags and in an ideal world having one for every occasion, so I went along the lines of one for each day of the week but I wasn't sure quite how to display them. I started with an idea of altering a mug tree but when I got to Dunelm found they only have six hangers, so hubby suggested we try charity shops and what a good idea that was as I found the perfect thing. It's actually a necklace hanger, but with a bit of ink, glue and stickles it looked fit for the job and only cost me £3.50.

I decided these belong to a 'lady who lunches', you know, the lifestyle we would all like to sample, I won't go into detail of what I did to each as it's really just a bit of fun and glitterly indulgence. Here is what my busy lady is up to this week:

Monday - Morning at the gym

Tuesday - Do the family shop

Wednesday - Meet the girls for lunch

Thursday - Parents evening

Friday - Romantic dinner with hubby

Saturday - Night on the Town

Sunday - Family day out

And this one has to be my favourite.

And here is another of my makes, this time I made two handbags, cut them down at the back to make them narower and used them on a card. There are several sentiments in the set along with embellishments to decorate the bags and I added Granddaughter as one of ours just loves this die set, in fact she was with me when I opened the package containing these and squealed with joy.

These bags with the tissue popping out of the top remind me of Julia Ruberts on her shopping trip to to designer boutiques in Pretty Woman.........I just love that movie.............and Richard Gere of course.

Hope you are all having a good week and get chance to watch one of the programmes today/tomorrow and don't forget the Pick of the Week Friday.

Bring on the bling

We have a new challenge at Allsorts today and this week Helene would like to see lots of glitter and sparkle with the theme 'Bring your Bling'. Our sponsors are PPR Papercrafts and Whimsy.

Thanks you for all your kind comments on my last post they are much appreciated and I am now on the mend I think.

Today's card is another of my recent Tattered Lace makes for Create and Craft and one I really enjoyed making, it's no secret that I love Spring and Flowers so this one ticks both of those boxes.

I started by embossing and distressing a piece of white core DP from Trimcraft using TL All Over Flourish 8"x8" folder, such a useful size I find. I then mounted this onto a piece of green glitter card which I decorated top and bottom with the matching TL Delicate Flower border dies.

Next I cut lots of leaves using TL Leaf Branches, some in a green bazzil and some in the same green glitter card. The little blossoms are all made with a small punch, inked with DI Victorian Velvet and little pearl stamens and glitter added to the centers. The central sentiment is again from TL and cut in more of the green glitter card and then offset very slightly over another cut in black.

Happy weekend all.

Tattered Lace DT cards Spring Blooms and London Buses

Hello Peeps, I thought I had better share a few of my Tattered Lace makes for the current Pick of the Week on Create and Craft, I should really have blogged them sooner but as I mentioned Saturday it seems to be taking me forever to get over this one. I have another check up this afternoon and I am rather suspecting there will be more antibiotics as the persistent pain suggests there is an infection in the wound. The added benefits of being immune compromised !

The Pick of the Week seems to be selling as fast as ever with all things TL, but I am not surprised as these floral dies are gorgeous and coupled with the option of printing them from a CD and then cutting is an added bonus. You might have already been some of these on the TL blog, so if I am repeating apologies in advance.

The one at the top is probably my favourite of this bunch, no secret I love my inky backgrunds and this one with Dylusions and grunge paste was perfect to showcase the Spring Blooms.

It's funny how peoples tastes vary as I was not keen on this one and nearly didn't send it off for the shows, but Steph was rather taken with it, so just shows. The flowers are the same Spring Blooms as the top card, along with TL Happy Birthday and Large Ivy.

This one uses the Charisma Primrose, it's a clever die as it cuts all the decoupage layers in one go whether you are using cardstock.......mine was sprayed with Dylusions......o.r printing from the DT rom and then cutting, the die is an exact match. The leaves are TL Leaf Branches and the sentiment is also TL.

The bus and truck dies were also released over the weekend as part of the Crossover machine launch on C&C, this is one of those made trying hard to keep away from red buses, as I mentioned on the TL blog, when it comes to buses London ones always come to mind.

And here are some of those London buses and I can confirm that the route number is totally authentic, no 11 does indeed go to Victoria !!

Have a good week all.

Quick and simple does it

It's Saturday morning again which means a new challenge at Allsorts and Jo has chosen the theme of 'Quick and simple does it'. Our sponsors are A day for Daisies and Marianne Designs.

Many thanks for your good wishes this week, they are much appreciated, I am getting there, it just seems slow going, guess I must blame my dysfunctional body that everything takes twice as long as normal.

I know some of you will question this being a quick and easy card, but believe me it really is so quick and simple to create some inky cards, this one took no longer than fifteen minutes. I started with a piece of Fabriano watercolour card, spinkled the brushos onto it and then lightly spritzed with water as I didn't want the colour to spread to far. Next I stamped on the Poppies using a Rubbernecker stamp inking the stamp with distress markers and spritzing with water before stamping and stamped the Penny Black flowers and birds using black archival. Tied a red ribbon, matted and layered and finished.

This is a last minute addition, I had totally forgotten our Penny Black mid month post until Tracy reminded me.......thank you Tracy and for offering to sort the post for me, really appreciate it. I can't believe how phased I am still feeling and really do need to get my act together over the weekend as another parcel arrived from Tattered Lace yesterday and all I can say is make a note of 30th April !!

The Penny Black stamp 40-102 Dreamy has been repeat stamped onto a Dylusion background and the sentiment is from Penny Black 30-229 Special Wishes.

Hope you all have a good weekend and fingers crossed the weather warms up again as today (Friday) it's a tad cold after a few lovely days.

Beauty is.....Spring blooms and a large round bale of hay

Close up of one of the Camellia flowers, they don't tend to do well in our soil so we have a couple of ericaceous beds and after a few years are seeing the lovely evergreen bushes and blooms develop.

Good morning Peeps, no card today, just a few photos from the gardens which I have have the chance to enjoy this morning whilst I recuperate from my op on Monday. The beauty of two acres is that you can have several of the same shrubs but they don't necessarily all come into bloom together. It's early days but I think late frosts avoided it's going to be an abundant year for shrubs like Ceanothus, Lilacs and Escallonias as they are literally bursting with buds, but with this lovely weather there are some already well into bloom.

Viburnum Tinus 'Eve Price', the blossoms have a beautiful scent and this one is perfectly placed alongside one of the raised decked seating areas.

Clematis Armandii also has a wonderful aroma and climbs freely, this one has taken itself the full length of a pergola with the Albertine Rose and is now entwined into an apple tree..............note the blue sky in the background today, what a treat.

Part of the Japonica family Sophora Micropylla 'Hilsop' has masses of bell like yellow flowers which hang in clusters like this one.

Another of the above shrubs, planted more recently so the blooms are not as prolific yet but in time will be as lovely.

One of the Forsythia bushes which flower flower freely, this one is not a particularly good specimen this year although those it in the top paddock hedgerow are far more prolific.

A bee making the most of the pollen of the Mahonia 'Aquifolium'

Kerria Pleniflora, another shrub of which we have several, they are very slow growing shrubs but as they mature give a lovely show of yellow pom pom blooms.

Violets with a special meaning, I dug a few roots up in a hedgerow when I was about eight and planted them in my Dad's garden, when we moved to our current house about thirty two years ago I transplanted some and over the years they have multiplied and there are patches in several of the shrub beds growing happily in the undergrowth.

Spiraea ‘Snowmound'.....I think..... we have several Spireas which looks very similar and I seem to have lost track which are which.

Skimma Japonica'Rubell', another that lives happily in one of the ericaceous beds.

And finally a photos of the boys who are always happy campers with their jumbo hay bale although this one which only went into them on Sunday already looks pretty deflated. They are enjoying being outside, especially Heskey (foreground) who hates long winter spells in his stable.

Thanks for taking a peek and hope you all have some of this glorious sunshine. I will be back to my blogging rounds in a day or two when I feel a little better.

Lets' play Bingo

It's Saturday morning again which means a new challenge at Allsorts and Tracy is inviting us to play Bingo. Our sponsor this week is Baker Ross.

I have gone with the flowers, ribbons and die cuts line. It is one of my recent makes for Tattered Lace's Create and Craft programmes using the new Shutter dies set, it's a really wonderful set and amazing how you can create a perfectly accurate kinetic card in minutes as all the guess work has been done for you.

I used a cream linen card for the card base and Graphic 45 DP's, using one of the sections with the birds as the focal element. The daisies are all cut from the Tattered Lace Blossoms set, they cut so easily allowing you to double up your paper and cut two or three at a time, making easy work of cutting several. When I have half an hour spare............and believe me that doesn't happen often these days........I cut out a batch of flowers in cream and white so they are all ready to colour with Pan Pastels or distress inks.

The four corner elements have been cut from the reverse side of one of the DP's and a little pearl added to the centers and bows tied on two more of the section.

For those of you who have not found it yet, we have a Tattered Lace blog where you can find daily inspiration and product news as well as giveaways now and then.

April blossoms

Morning Peeps, I am running well late with this one, truth is I am still knee deep in Tattered Lace samples still and apart from Easter dinner with the family which daughter cooked, I've not lifted my head from my desk, let alone venture into blogland so huuuuuge apologies for the no show visiting.

Our April challenge theme at FlonzCraft Vintage Stamping Challenges this month is 'Handmade Flowers' and as always there if a fabulous $20 on line store voucher to be won from FlonzCraft.

I was going to make roses as I always enjoy making them but when I thought about it April is all about blossoms and as I have a Flonz Blossom stamp in my stash decided to go down that route. I stamped the Vintage Fashion Girl in the foreground and the blossoms across the top and then used Pan Pastels to create the background along with some sponges sun rays and a few flowers along the bottom corner. The lady has been coloured with Chameleon pens and the little blossoms made using a small punch, distress inks and little pearl stamens in the centers.

Thanks for taking a peek and I promise as soon as I get this batch of samples out of the door I will be round to visit................mind you by then the next batch of products will hitting the door mat, but it is such fun so not complaining.

April in Paris

Time for our monthly challenges at Stamping Sensations and Penny Black and More where our themes are Pretty in Pink and Birthday's.

The top card is my Stamping Sensations piece, it is one I recently made for a commission from our local doctors surgery for a lady who is retiring. The brief was, pink, Paris, bling, handbag, her name but no mention of the 'R' word. It also had to be quite a large card to enable all members of staff to sign it so I went for an 8" x 8" and put a insert made up of three layers.

So my Penny Black Venetian lady is on another trip to Paris ! I used a die to create the arch shaped mask and used Pan Pastels to create the scene using a Sheena stencil and with the mask still in place stamped some trailing ivy and flowers round the top and also sponged some sunrays. I stamped the lady onto white cardstock and again onto some patterned DP and paper pieced her dress, hat and handbag. Some roses, a punched border and die cut ivy and an organza bow. I also made a matching box which you can see in the photo below.

For my Penny Black card I used a real favorite wood mounted stamp 4383K First Dance. The background was created with Brushos, adding liberal helpings of water to the Fabriano card and then sprinkling the Brushos and letting them run and bleed ans I gently twisted the card.

I used distress markers to ink the stamp and spritzed with water before stamping several times and used the same colour marker to ink the sentiment which is from the new PB 30-2997 Sprinkle and Smiles sentiment set. I kept it all fairly simple and just added some ribbons before matting and layering.

I do hope you will join in our monthly challenges, as always we have some awesome prizes to be won.

Easter at Allsorts

It's Saturday morning again which means a new challenge at Allsorts and Wendy is right on trend with the theme if Easter. Our sponsor is DigiStamp Boutique.

Thanks for all your wishes for my hospital visit, truth is it turned into an absolute fiasco, somehow they had lost all my test results done in readiness, how one earth I ask you. Anyhow, they were able to do them again there and then and I had a call the next morning with the results and although things are far from right, the don't feel the need to take a knife to me immediately and are "keeping a watching brief" and repeating them all again in a couple of weeks. 

On to my card and it's a really quick and easy one for me this week as I am knee deep in TL samples for next week, but I needed an Easter card for my Cousin so the perfect opportunity to get out a favorite stamp from the Penny Black Spring releases.

I created a background with Brusho's sprinking them onto the cardstock so I got them more or less where I wanted them avoiding the stamping area, spritzed with water then mopped up so it didn't spread to far. I uses distress marker to ink the stamp and spritzed with water before stamping and did the same with the sentiment. 

Some pretty ribbons for bows...................not sure if I have mentioned this before, but one of my new Tattered Lace/Embellishment Attic goodies was a Bow Maker.............I was even sent the oh so useful tote bag stuffed with goodies and essentials and...............the Tattered Lace apron........how cool is that. Can you tell I was excited ? So back to bows, now I always thought my bows were OK, even if I do fumble a bit with my poor dexterity but goodness me, I would never have believed a little piece of blue plastic could be so wonderful. It creates single bows, double bows and so much more in just seconds and non of the normal fumble fingers, it really is as the Meerkat's say "simples".

Happy Easter weekend all, doesn't looks like the weather is going to be too special and as our daughter is cooking Easter Sunday I will be hiding away in my craft room munching chocolate as I go, can't be bad.