Butterfly Hydrangea

Good morning all.  Hope you are enjoying Easter Monday and have had a good weekend.

I have had a brilliant crafting weekend playing with some of my new goodies I bought from Ally Pally last weekend.

It was my first time at Ally Pally and I went with my crafty mate Wendy. We went down on Friday night after she finished work, a very easy journey down, in fact I still can't believe what a pleasant easy journey it was.  The hotel was fine and although the restaurant was not to our taste there were a couple of eating places a very short walk away.

Up refreshed on Saturday, breakfast after ordering a taxi and at 9.30 we were on our way.  What a wonderful place Alexandra Palace is and set in beautiful grounds.  The weather was fantastic and the palace is stunning.  We arrived at about 9.45 and had to wait in a little queue before the doors opened.  Collected our programme and free creative expressions carrier bag and we were in.

We had a brilliant day, spent loads, watched Julia Watts in a workshop and sat in a live audience for Hochanda in fact we were even on TV on Julie's last show of the day.  We returned to our hotel on Saturday night absolutely exhausted but strangely so relaxed and chilled out.  The show wasn't jam packed shoulder to shoulder like the NEC.  There was plenty of room to move about between stands, I had some serious bargains in creative expressions dies and although I spent loads I also saved loads.  I did take the prices with me so I knew what I would be paying from icon which I was pleased about.  Spent loads on the creative expressions stand with Phils stamps - I am a sucker for his stamps.

We had a lovely meal in pizza hut, which was a treat for me but so not slimming world friendly.  A lovely relaxing bath, bed and up again Sunday morning for more crafty shopping.  Yes you got it we had a 2-day ticket.  We also watched Phil in a workshop and finished our shopping about lunchtime before making our weary way home - very tired, very spent out but so relaxed and chilled out.  We will definitely be doing it again next year - already planning.

Now onto my post today - it is for a new challenge at Crafting from the Heart.

Challenge 155 is being sponsored by

Digi stamps 4 Joy

I have used a stamp called 'Hydrangea Butterfly'

I have coloured my image in using my copic sketch markers and die cut it out using a spellbinders A6 matting and layering die set.

I have used some printed paper on this card printed out from serif craft artist.  I also matted a piece of plain white card which I inked around the edges using Phill Martin's decadent denim colour cloud.

My sentiment if also one of Phill's.

I will admit to keeping this one simple and flat for a change.  The card blank was actually left over from cutting a 8x8 blank using A3 which is all I buy now for my card blanks as I do tend to use Sue Wilsons pierced matting dies so I am looking to use the left over bits for small cards.

To see more digi's from our sponsor being used by our design team and to enter your own project into our challenge please follow the link HERE.

We also have a facebook page too for you to check out.

Well thank you for visiting today and I do hope to see you again soon.

Take care.

Lilly Snow White

Good morning everyone.  Hope you all had a good weekend.

Mine was busy one and a frustrated one.  We spent Friday and Saturday having a new roof on the conservatory - its a solid, thicker roof that dulls the sound of the rain, normalises the temperatures.  Well that's the theory and I have to admit so far the rain noise is certainly better.  I work in our conservatory and most of the time if we have heavy rain and I need to be on the phone I have to go into the house - which is not good or phone the person back - again not good when it is your employer.  Well it rained lots on Saturday and I could hear the rain but definitely not as loud I could actually listen to the radio without having to put the sound up mega.  Fingers crossed.

My frustrating part was BT broadband - most of Friday my broadband was flashing a very nice orange or green at me.  Nice colours but absolutely useless for getting onto the internet.  Most annoying, didn't actually return in full working order - well as much as BT does operate at full working order - until about 6.30pm.

Enough of me, we have a lovely new challenge starting this morning at Crafting from the Heart.

Challenge 153 is 'Always Anything Goes'

Our sponsor for this challenge is

Moonflower Digi Stamps

I have chosen to use 'Lilly Snow White' digi stamp.

I have coloured my image using copic sketch marker pens.

I always resize my images in Craft Artist so once I had resized I added an oval to it so I could cut it out on my BSC.  I then cut two frames in white and lilac also using my BSC.

Some matting and layering followed by some embossing using one of Sue Wilsons Creative Expressions A4 embossing folder and finishing off with die cut flowers again using dies from Sue Wilson Creative Expressions as were the leaves.

To enter your own project into our challenge follow the link HERE.

We also have a facebook page too.

Thanks so much for visiting today

Challenge entered

Artistic Inspiration - Always Anything Goes

See you soon

Yarn Lover Rose

Good morning my 2nd post of the day is to introduce a new challenge over at Crafty Girls Creations.

Challenge 35 is themed 'Anything Goes'.

Our sponsor for this challenge is

Scrap 'n' Dipity

I have used a digi stamp called 'Yarn Lover Rose' from our sponsor. As I am also a knitter as well as a card maker this image just jumped out at me. She was lovely to colour in and would be ideal for beginners in colouring too as much of the shading has been done already.  Such a lovely digi stamp.

I have also chosen to colour her in using just one colour, something new for me but again it just felt right.

I have framed her using Shadow Box Collection Stitched Lattice Frames Die Set.  I also embossed the background using an 8x8 embossing folder from Crafters Companion.

I have deliberately kept it simple because I am considering framing her for my craft room to brighten it up a bit - the walls that is - the floor is already bright with all the bits of card and paper - hee hee.

To enter your own project into our challenge follow the link HERE to our blog and you will also be able to see more ideas from our design team using another super digi stamp from our sponsor.

Thank you so much for stopping by.  Hope to see you again soon.

Take care

Happy Birthday Husband

Good morning, don't you just love Saturdays?

Hoping to get some crafting done this afternoon but in the meantime we have a lovely new challenge beginning at Creative Ladybirds Creations 

As you can see my card today was for my husband's birthday.  I have been playing with my weaving dies for a background, some matting and layering before placing my frame die cut using my double pierced rectangle dies onto my weave.

I then used more of Sue Wilson dies namely the Happy perspectives die. I finished off with die cutting 'husband' using a small set of dies from a tattered lace magazine - a freebie.

Thank you for visiting today and before you go please follow the link HERE to our challenge blog where you can enter your own designs and also see more designs from our design team.

Take care folks, see you again soon.