CASE a Colour Queen ....

... this week's Colour Q challenge - cQc104 is just fabulous - it's their 2nd birthday and the ladies have come up with super challenge.  Along with the lovely colours they've given us, we must CASE a previous Colour Queen!  I had a lovely time looking through previous winners and finally settled on cQc67 by Erica from Pink Buckaroo Designs.

I love the dress makers models on this card and I knew exactly which stamps I wanted to use - so it was easy.  I have adapted the card a tad!  And I've had to substitute Baja Breeze for Pool Party - but it's similar.  Here's my card.

I made the base from a sheet of Early Espresso card and used the lovely Stampin' Up! Designer Series papers which has stripes on one side and the lovely flourish on the other. 

Stamps:  Waltzingmouse - You're Lovely
Inks:  Stampin' Up! - Early Espresso
Paper:  Stampin' Up! - Designer Series - Early Espresso, Old Olive, Baja Breeze, Rose Red
Accessories:  Rose from stash

That's all for now - must get dinner made and then I'm off to Scouts.  It's a hot and sultry evening here in North Wales - and that's a sentence I never thought I'd type at the end of September :)  See you tomorrow.

Mold Food Festival ...

Lots of pictures here!!

...  just a short post with some pictures from last week's Mold Food Festival.  I mentioned earlier this month that I've joined the Mold Camera Club along with Jonathan and Kathryn - a family membership!  Well, the Club was asked to take the photos at the recent Food Fest - and it was my first opportunity to play with my lovely new digital SLR - a Canon 550D. 





I had a great time - taking lots of photos - and what was really nice was the ability to take photos without having to use the flash.  As I'm still very much in the learning phase I decided to stick to automatic focus/shutter speed - ie the camera does it for me - all I do is pick the subject and press the button.













And this was my first lesson - auto focus is a wonderful thing - when it works.  But it doesn't always focus on what I thought it was focusing on!  Sometimes, the auto focus picked a spot just in front or  behind the subject I wanted.  Still, I'll get that sorted in due course.  The technical details can be learnt - the ability to see a good picture is a lot harder!  So here are a few from the Festival!

 

These were delicious!

Ah!! An English summer drink!

She was so sweet - and I love the expression on her face!

Jean Christophe Novelli - an extremely popular visitor - the tent was packed!

Love the rainbow effect with these bottles - they tasted good too!

An alien life form - no, just an unusual cauliflower - Romanesco!

Wow - that's bright!

It was a fabulous day out - and I learnt a lot about my new camera and about finding the right picture.  Still have shed loads to learn though - what fun :)

Tired ...

... and it's all my fault!  I really shouldn't allow my ironing baskets to build up to the point where I spend hours - literally - at the ironing board.  Especially on one of the hottest days of the year - we had 26°C here in North Wales - and it's almost the end of September.  No wonder the poor plants are confused!  I did get a lot of the ironing done - but I think it's going to be another couple of hours tomorrow before I finish!  Note to self - do the ironing as soon as the washing has dried! 

And I've been having a few problems trying to comment on various Blogs.  Sometimes I don't have a problem, and then there's the time I've typed a comment, hit publish and it disappears into the ether!  I'll try to get back to the cards I've missed.

That's all for now - see you tomorrow!

CR84FN39 - Birthday wishes ...

... are sent today to Suzz, my fellow CR84FN DT buddy.  I know that Suzz has actually got the card already - so I'm not spoiling any surprise.  Do drop by Suzz's blog and leave her some love!!

I used our CR84FN39 colours - yellow, orange and brown - such warm, rich colours.  There's still plenty of time to join in the fun.

I started off with a bright orange card base (and matching envelope).  I attached a brown mat leaving a thin orange border and on top I layered some pale orange mulberry paper - just love the texture in this paper.  I stamped the lovely sunflower image three times and used Promarkers to colour it in.  I cut the base layer out using my oval nesties and then cut two layers so that I could decoupage the flower head.  I layered the sunflower onto a brown beaded oval and I ran a pale yellow gingham ribbon through the holes.  I like this effect.  Finally, I added a simple sentiment by stamping directly onto the mulberry paper.

Stamps:  Hampton Arts - Willowy Sunflower; Waltzingmouse - Frame-It
Inks: Stampin' Up! - Early Espresso
Spellbinders: Beaded Ovals (S4-294) #4, Plain Ovals Sm (S4-112) #5
Promarkers: Gold, lemon, canary, moss, lime zest, pastel beige, warm grey 1
Accessories:  Card, mulberry paper, ribbon from stash

Suzz - I hope you have a wonderful day.  We're experiencing an Indian Summer here - and it's wonderful to have such warm days at the end of September!  That's all for now - take care.

Kathryn's party ....

... I've been meaning to share a few photos from Kathryn's birthday party - but time somehow got away from me.  I've gone through my photos and now have a few pictures to share. 
Kathryn's party was on Sunday 18th September; she invited all the girls in her class to her party.  So from 1.00pm onwards we had nine girls aged 9 to 10 years in the house - Jonathan felt somewhat out numbered :) 

I set up our dining room as a large craft area for the girls to decorate a photo frame each.  I'd already painted the frames white - so all the girls had to do was decorate.  I provided stickers, peel offs, buttons, glitter, gems, paper flowers - all sorts of stuff - and glue!  They had a ball - and created some really super frames.

Once the girls finished the frames, they all headed to the kitchen for food and drink.  And in the family room I'd arranged for a face painter to come to the house.  Cree is just amazing - we first met her a few years ago at the Acoustic Festival of Britain - she painted both mine and Kathryn's faces.  Cree does the most amazing work - she started with Kathryn, and over a period of two hours she did all the girls and me!!  Well, I didn't see why the girls should have all the fun!  Oh yes, Cree also did some glitter tattoos - they looked super. 

Edited - Jeanne kindly left a comment earlier suggesting I added a picture of my face painting!  Okay - here goes - excuse the double chin!!  I went for a discret monochromatic look - but it was such fun having it done!

Jonathan took studio photos of all the girls after they'd had their faces painted - and we printed them off to go into their newly decorated picture frames.  Here's a picture of all the girls and Kathryn's birthday cake.

You may have noticed the party banner in the top photo - I made this using Waltzingmouse stamps and Spellbinders dies - so easy, and lots of fun.  Here's a close up of the banner.

Stamps: Waltzingmouse - Gingham & Co, Eat Cake; Hero Arts - Clear Design Letters (as above); Papermania - Typography numbers 1 and 0
Inks: Big 'n' Juicy - Happy Birthday; Stampin' Up! - Various; Stazon - Black
Spellbinders: Nested Lacey Pennants (S5-029) #4, Nested Pennants (S5-028) #4, Beaded Circles (S4-292) #3
Accessories:  String to hang the banner

I used the gingham background as it matched the gingham ballgown on Kathryn's birthday card.  And I carried the theme on into Kathryn's thank you cards - they were quite easy to make.  I simply stamped the smaller gingham stamp over the base card, cut out some blacked beaded circles, added cut out cakes and the thank you sentiment.

Stamps: Waltzingmouse - Gingham & Co, Eat Cake, Say It Loud
Inks: Big 'n' Juicy - Happy Birthday; Stampin' Up! - Various
Spellbinders: Beaded Circles (S4-292) #3

Below are two close up photos of a couple of the cards - they were fun to make!
 

That's all for today - it's been a fabulous day here.  Really hot and sunny and I got lots of washing done - sadly that does mean lots more ironing to do.  Never mind!!  If you want to see more pictures from Kathryn's party - Jonathan has put up a set on Flickr - check it out here.

See you tomorrow!

Let it snow ....

... you've probably guessed from the title that this is a Christmas card - and you wouldn't be wrong.  I've made this one for the current Jingle Belles - JB39 - challenge entitled "Here comes Suzy Snowflake".  The Jinglettes would like us to make a card based on the song "Suzy Snowflake" - an oldie sung by Rosemary Clooney - I've just listened to it and it has a real old Christmas feel!  I put the lyrics at the bottom of the post if you want to read them.  For my card - I've focused on the verse about making a snowman - with lots of snowflakes around!

Both the snowman image and the backing paper are from Chocolate Baroque (Elusive Images that was).  I printed the snowflake paper in various shades, but settled on the blue for this card - I have sheet of pink and green snowflakes to play with soon.  The snowman was coloured with Promarkers.

Stamps: Chocolate Baroque (Elusive Images) - Snow is Falling; Waltzingmouse - Compliments of the Season
Inks:  Versafine - Onyx Black; Memento - Tuxedo Black
Paper:  Chocolate Baroque (Elusive Images) - Season's Greetings CD
Spellbinders: Labels Four (S4-190) #6, Labels Four Sm (S4-309) #6
Accessories:  Kanban - Snowflakes stickers; Mirri card, glitter, Promarkers from stash

It's mad here - the sun is shining, the sky is bright blue and it's so warm - it feels like summer!  And I've just made a cool blue Christmas card - as I said mad!!!!  Below are the lyrics from Suzy Snowflake - enjoy!

Here comes Suzy Snowflake

Dressed in a snow-white gown

Tap, tap, tappin' at your windowpane

To tell you she's in town.

Here comes Suzy Snowflake

Soon you will hear her say

Come out ev'ryone and play with me

I haven't long to stay.

If you want to make a snowman

I'll help you make it, one, two, three.

If you want to take a sleigh ride

Whee! The ride's on me.

Here comes Suzy Snowflake

Look at her tumblin' down

Bringing joy to ev'ry girl and boy

Suzy's come to town.

If you want to make a snowman

I'll help you make it, one, two, three

If you want to take a sleigh ride

Whee! The ride's on me.

Here comes Suzy Snowflake

Look at her tumblin' down

Bringing joy to ev'ry girl and boy

Suzy's come to town.

After my early morning post I did manage to get some sleep - and bizarrely actually feel more awake now than usual.  I suspect I may pay for it later.  Still, while the sun is shining and the day is lovely - I'm going to get the washing finished.  Joy!!  See you soon.

Words in green ....

... it's ridiculously late, but I just can't get to sleep!!  So rather than toss and turn, I've been playing in my craft room.  This little card is for the CAS-ual Fridays - CFC21 challenge - where the team would like us to "create a clean and simple project using at least 3 shades of a monochromatic colour (our choice) PLUS brown", and it's also for the One Layer Wednesday - OLW65 - challenge - sentiment-a-mania.  Jennifer want us to make sure the sentiment is the main focus of the card.

Some while ago I bought some alphabet stamps (see example at foot of post) produced by Hero Arts.  Each set has a large capital letter and lots of little stamps - words and images.  For this card I selected a number of boxed verses - generally related to enjoyment, laughter and fun.  I stamped each one in a different shade of green, cut them out and mounted them onto some brown card.  For the final square I stamped a paisley swirl in Versamark and embossed it with clear powder.  It's a small card - 4" × 4" - but sweet.  I think it would make a nice set of cards in other colours.

Stamps: Hero Arts - Clear Design Alphabet Sets - Letters: A, G, L and R
Inks:  Stampin' Up! - Certainly Celery, Wild Wasabi, Old Olive
Accessories:  Card from stash

Sorry about the quality of the picture - I've had to scan the card.  The picture below shows all the stamps that you get in the "L" set.  I've used them quite a lot this year - which is good!

Anyway, it's now 1.45am and well past bed time, so I'm going to say good night and hopefully I'll get off soon.  See you later today :)

Fall Blessings ....

...  this card has been made for two challenges - the Clean & Simple - FTL158 sketch and this week's Play Date Cafe Challenge - PCCC100.  

Earlier today I didn't think I was going to get a card done for the 100th challenge - I just couldn't think what to do.  But that's when it's so useful to have my Stamp Catalogue and to have colour reference sheets for my inks, because suddenly it all became clear to me!

The Play Date colours are really Autumnal (Fall) - so warm and rich - and I have an ink pad that combines these colours in one "Big 'n' Juicy" pad!  So I inked up my flower stamp and randomly stamped a number of impressions on a sheet of paper.  I made a brown mat for the back layer and used my square nesties to cut out a green mat and small section of the flowers.  On the small section I coloured the flowers using the stamping inks.  I made a ribbon in the green card and punched a leaf border along the bottom edge.  Finally, I added a simple sentiment - Fall Blessings.  I guess I'm getting used to calling Autumn - Fall!  Here's my card.

Stamps: Prima - Flower #541842; Waltzingmouse - Peace & Plenty
Inks: Big 'n' Juicy - Spice; Stampin' Up! - Chocolate Chip
Spellbinders: Classic Squares Lg (S4-126) #4, Classic Squares Sm (S4-128) #4
Accessories:  Martha Stewart - Maple Leaf edge punch; Card from stash

We're having a bit of an Indian Summer - the sun's been shining all day and it's really quite warm for the time of year.  Hope you're all having a great day - see you again tomorrow.

Round, like a circle ....

... this week, the Walzingmouse Sketch Challenge - WMSC 66 is a sketch from Claire - and she's gone for a lovely circular card!  Now, I don't have much success with circular cards - so I did think about simply making a rectangular card with a large circular focal image.  Then I thought again and decided to have a go!! 



The card is also for the current Ribbon Reel challenge - RR11, which has been set by Keilly and she's given us a lovely inspiration photo of the most magnificent Birthday cake.  As usual we must feature the colours and have ribbon and/or lace on the card. 

Darn just read the instructions again - and realised that the theme for the card should be Birthday - obviously really when it's a birthday cake!  Hey ho!  Mine's an anniversary card!  Well I'll submit it anyway - maybe the girls won't notice ;)

There was only ever going to be one way for me to make this card and that was to use my Spellbinders nesties.  And I used my nice new Grand Scalloped Circle to make the card.  This is a large card measuring almost 7" in diameter - and it's turned out rather differently to my initial thoughts!!

I started off with an 8" square card and the Grand Calibur to cut out the base card, making sure I left part of the side intact.  Next I cut complete plain circle which I sprayed with Cosmic Shimmer - the plan was for a very subtle shimmer.  My spray bottle didn't help - I ended up with some rather large splats!  Still looked okay, so I left it to dry.  Meanwhile I stamped one of the large doilies onto some blue vellum, embossed with white powder and then cut it out.  I also stamped a couple of the smaller doilies onto some pink paper, again doing a fussy cut!  I also prepared the sentiment label - using one of the very pretty fancy tags. 

I created the background by dividing the scalloped circles - using post-it notes - and then stamped the trellis pattern on the narrow edge and used several flourishes on the wide edge.  In my first take on the card I did have a huge bit of frilly lace covering all the trellis pattern - but it just didn't look right, so I removed it and used this lovely satin ribbon over the join!!  Finally, I added the doilies, the label sentiment and sweet brad.  Not quite what I had in mind, but I think a much nicer card than it was.

Stamps:  Waltzingmouse: Dainty Doilies - Large, Flourishes - Scallops & Dots, Pic-Nic Patterns, Say It with Style
Inks:  Distress - Broken China, Tumbled Glass, Spun Sugar, Worn Lipstick
Spellbinders: Grand Big Scalloped Circles (LF-249) #6, Fancy Tags Two (S5-030)
Accessories:  Cosmic Shimmer - Aqua Lagoon; Papermania - Inspirations Warm Tones; Stampin' Up! - Filigree Brad; Ribbon, vellum and card from stash

We had a super day out at the Food Festival yesterday - it was warm, sunny and really busy.  I took loads of photos on my new camera - I feel it's going to be quite a big learning curve!  What looked to be excellent on the camera, turned out to be not quite right when viewed large on the PC.  The auto-focus (it'll be a while before I play with manual) didn't always focus on the subject!!  Nearly, but not quite.  I'll be going through the pictures this week and post a few later on.

Now - I'm off for breakfast and a quick tidy before heading off to craft class.  Have a good day - see you tomorrow!

CR84FN39 - Thanksgiving ...

... it's time for the new CR84FN colour challenge - it's completely different to last time.  For the next two weeks our colours are orange, yellow and brown - shades of Autumn (or Fall, for our American friends).

What's your favourite season of the year?  When I'm asked that question - I have to be honest and say it depends.  I usually pick the season we're in - who couldn't love the warm, deep colours of autumn - the shades of yellow, orange and brown - just lovely!  And aren't these photos just stunning  - and I got the inspiration for my card from that lovely Autumn Wreath.

I started off with a plain white card and added some yellow ink to the edges.  I placed a leaf mask on the card and the sprayed, lightly, with some gold Cosmic Shimmer - the leaf pattern has a lovely shimmer.  I stamped the wreath onto plain white card and coloured with Promarkers. I used the Spellbinders lacey square to cut the base layer in brown.  In my stash I found some lovely fabric in shades of orange and yellow - perfect!!  Onto the dark orange fabric I stamped the sweet oak leaves and acorns, and I stitched a square of the yellow and orange fabric to the brown base layer.  Next I added a plain white card on which I'd stamped a brown frame and sentiment.  I used pinflair glue to give the oak leaf wreath some dimension. 

Stamps:  Waltzingmouse: Peace and Plenty, Teeny Trees, Frame It
Inks: Distress - Mustard Seed; Stazon - Timber Brown; Memento - Rich Cocoa; Versafine - Vintage Sepia
Spellbinders:  Lacey Squares (S4-295) #5, Standard Squares Lg (S4-126) #6
Accessories:  Creative Expressions - Leaves mask; Cosmic Shimmer Gold Shimmer; Fabric and card from stash

Now, if you'd like to see more inspirational cards with these fabulous colours, please do check out the Design Team's blogs:

Sue

Andrea

Stephanie

Suzanne

Heather

Mona
Lisa

 Marie Oberg - our Guest Designer

That's all for now.  We're off to the Mold Food Festival today - it's an annual event where local farmers, small holders and businesses get together to show off, and sell, their produce.  It's such fun - we get so try different foods, see cookery techniques, the kids usually get to make a quick and easy recipe of some sort.  We always come home with lots of food goodies - so I'm looking forward to what I can add to the larder!!  Have a good day and I'll see you tomorrow!

Darn planes .....

... I've just been reading some of the comments on my LIM card - thank you all, I really do appreciate your comments and love reading them. 

And Paula said "Hope everything went well with collecting Jonathan".  Oh I wish!!!!  Jonathan's plane was due to land at Manchester just after 1.00pm and I checked online before leaving the house - nothing adverse to note.  Kathryn and I went to Chester for some retail therapy - well strictly for Kathryn to get the latest Build-a-Bear limited edition - an orange Hello Kitty for Halloween!!! Kathryn has called her cat - Star, and she's fab!

We got to the airport with 10 minutes to spare - only to find when checking the arrivals board, that Jonathan's plane was delayed until 3.00pm.  Okay, it's a pain, but there was a WHSmith nearby to buy a book to keep us occupied.  So we had a coffee, sandwich and each read our book, and checking the board again after an hour we found the plane was now due in at 4.00pm!!!  No point in getting annoyed about it - so another coffee and muffin later - we checked the board again - only this time it said 4.30pm!!! 

It's a good thing we're patient.  I'm almost finished another Stephen King novel!  We finally made it home just after 6.00pm!  What a way to spend a Saturday afternoon.  Still, the key thing was that we were home in time to watch Dr Who!! 

That's all - I'm off to bed now.  See you tomorrow.

Less is More 34 ....

... good morning fellow LIMettes - last week's challenge - Anything CAS Goes, 1,000 Challenge - was really good fun.  I haven't been able to visit all the submissions, but I will try to get around - there are some fabulous cards on display.  Sadly, despite extending the deadline, Chrissie and Mandi didn't quite get to 1,000 submissions - there were 782 cards when the collection closed.  I managed to make five - some of them for my Christmas Collection - so thanks Chrissie and Mandi - I got some super cards made.

Now, this week's Less is More - LIM34  challenge is a sketch and, amazingly, I have a card made already!! 

I have kept to the sketch layout, but instead of a square card, mine is  a 5" × 7" rectangle.  The only reason my card is ready now, is because I was playing with this stamp set during the week, so had the focal image already made!  How lucky is that? 

I think you all know that I'm a fan of Waltzingmouse Stamps. Well, last week Claire issued four new sets of stamps - two of the sets featured a really sweet cottage and I just wanted to play with it - the WM DT made some really wonderful cards - check out these two here - and there are others to see on Claire's blog too. 

The cottage image is really detailed and it has so many possibilities.  As it's getting really autumnal here, I opted for the lovely warm colours of Autumn leaves.  I stamped the image directly on some card and used my nestie to cut it out.  I put a mask over the image and then added the background sunset and some autumn trees.  I coloured the roof with a mixture of inks using my aqua painter, and used Promarkers on the body of the cottage and windows.  The set contains two stamps - the full version and the front of the house - I stamped the front house and added this to the image to give some dimension.  Finally, I cut out a mat in brown using my Scalloped Rectangle nestie - I think Claire made this image to fit this set.  I attached the image to the card base and simply finished it off with this really sweet sentiment.

Stamps:  Waltzingmouse: A Cottage Home, Teeny Trees
Inks:  Distress - Mustard Seed, Dried Marigold, Spiced Marmalade, Barn Door, Antique Linen, Old Paper, Rusty Hinge, Vintage Photo; Memento - Rich Cocoa, Tangelo, Potter's Clay, Bamboo Leaves; Stampin' Up! - Cajun Crazy
Promarkers:  Chestnut, Pastel Yellow, Amber, Pumpkin
Spellbinders:  Scalloped Rectangles Lg (S4-133) #5, Standard Rectangles Lg (S4-132) #5
Accessories:  Card from stash

That's all for this morning - we're off to the airport to pick up Jonathan soon - he's been off on business again!  I hate him going away, but love it when he gets home.  See you soon.  Have a good weekend!