Snail Mail for Andrew

Andrew's birthday card for today - a snail - his favourite!!

I used another SVG file from My Scrap Chick, this was the snail from a selection of Garden Critters. The idea was to make mini books from these designs, but I made the images bigger and made a card. I like the way the design is on the back and the front.

I used a selection of cardstock scraps, Distress Ink, 3D foam pads and a white Gel Pen. I scored a fold line in the back section so the card can open, and stand.

Happy birthday Andrew, sorry we can be together, but look forward to catching up next weekend.

Thanks for looking
Lynn x

Birthday Bookworm for Emily

Happy birthday Emily!

I made this card for Emily using a My Scrap Chick SVG file, and a combination of Graphic 45 - Rare Oddities papers and Bazzill cardstock. I used a Lili of the Valley stamp for the greeting and that is layered up using circle punches.

I loved the fact that the papers had a library print and the book titles and other images in this collection Emily's sort of thing!

Happy birthday Em.
Thanks for looking
Lynn x

Experimenting with Fusible Film and Fibre!

While looking for something else (acetate sheets), I found my box of fusible film and fibre! I decided to have a play with some recent stamps. I made these two cards with the results.

I tried out using fibres sandwiched between two sheets of film and I then using the fibres on their own.

Here you can see a comparison of the finished effects, the first item in each photo is fibres only and the second is film and fibres:

The bird stamp is from Tim Holtz Bird Crazy Set 

The Stamps are from JOFY. The flowers were all made with fibres only.

I also used:
Black Staz-On Ink pad
Sizzix die Spring Greenery
Black Bazzill Cardstock
White Gel Pen
Liquid Pearls
Distress Paints
Distress Ink Pads
Water colour paper
6" x 6" card blank
4" x 4" card blank
Memory Box Thank You Die
White flowers from an Easter egg

Thanks for looking
Lynn x

Spring Faces

Back to the cards made using My Scrap Chick SVG files and the Cricut.

Again I used downloaded SVG files again and decided not to add greetings so I can use them as note cards.

More patterned papers, cardstock, chalk and distress inks, together with a few highlights and details drawn in with gel pens.

These cards were simple to make but effective and fun.
Thanks for looking
Lynn x

Simple Stories - Carpe Diem Collection

Hello, Hope you all had a good Easter 

My post for March will be published today on Papermazes blog - Scrap, Paper, Scissors. Here is a preview of the three items I have made using the lovely Simple Stories - Carpe Diem collection. Please take a look on the Papermaze blog for details on how the layouts and card were made. 

Scribbler Extraordinare

Honey I Shrunk The Kid

You Colour My World

All the products used can be found at Papermaze

Thanks for looking.
Lynn x

Pigs with the SVG files

Happy Easter to you all.

Following on from yesterday's selection of Easter cards, here are some of the other finished cards I cut at the same time.

These little 5" x 5" cards are made with two of the designs from the Trio of Piggies SVG file.

The card blanks are cur from thick patterned papers.
As before I inked all the edges.

The second one was intended to be a tag, but I mounted it on a card instead.

I used lots of stickles and liquid pearls as well as gems to add some sparkle. A couple of ribbon bows were added too.

Thanks for looking, more to follow.
Lynn x

A day with the Cricut for Easter Greetings

I dusted off the Cricut the other day as I decided I would make some Easter cards and needed quite a few. I had already downloaded a few SVG files from My Scrap Chick and thought these would make quick, cute cards. The other benefit was to make me use up lots of scrap cardstock and patterned papers.

Here are some of the creations:

I used a greeting stamp bu Lili of the Valley, and circular punches by Stampin' Up and Woodware. All the pieces were inked with either Chalk Inks or Distress Inks. I used a selection of card blanks from mys stash. All of these cards are 6" x 6".

I also cut many more images while I was busy cutting these, and I will show you these another day.

My Scrap Chick have recently improved all their SVG files for better cutting and fold lines with the Cricut, so if you tried before will limited success it is now worth trying again.

Thanks for looking
Lynn x

The Tea Cosy Story

Well it's been a long time in the making. Mum and I visited a wool shop in Shortlands called Little Woollie, London. Mum fancied getting her knitting needles out again after a long break and was inspired to look up a wool store nearby. What a lovely little shop, full of great project samples and wool, together with their own patterns. The lady serving was very helpful and friendly.

Mum was taken with a tea cosy sample in the window and I agreed to make it for her as a Mothering Sunday gift, as this event was two weeks away I felt I had plenty of time to knit it. I planned to buy the pattern and sort out wool from my stash, the lady explained the pattern was £2.00, but free with the kit for the project which was only £6.00 - great value. I decided to buy the kit so I could get straight on with the project and I loved the colours. We purchased a few other items as well and were very pleased with our shopping trip and eager to get on with our knitting.

I made a start and the pattern turned out to be easy to follow, you knit two sides then joint together to knit the top. I finished one side, and as I started the second side it became clear there would not be enough wool to finish the job. I studied the pattern and checked my work and could not see any errors, so I emailed the shop, explaining it was a gift for mother's day. They were quick to reply and promised to send more wool.

Time went by and I thought I would have enough to make the flowers for the top, while waiting for the postie to arrive. No matter how I tried the pattern did not make sense! In the end I stopped trying and planned to have another go the next day - I thought maybe I was not reading the pattern properly.

The next morning I had an email from another member of staff to say she had designed the tea cosy and just realised she had made an error in the pattern. She sent me the corrected version and I was able to make up the five flowers in no time.

A few days before Mother's Day and no sign of the wool, so another email was sent, this time the reply informed me the owner was at Ally Pally and not able to get to a post office, she apologised but she had missed the point that I needed it for mother's day. On the Monday morning I received another email to say the wool had been posted first thing and it arrived the next day, so I was able to finish the cosy off.

Mum is now the proud owner of her tea cosy at last.

Little Woollie London is well worth a visit and have some great products and designs. As well as wool they sell fabrics and they run classes too.
Thanks for looking.
Lynn x

Little Mother

Saturday was the crop at Papermaze and here is the design I created for the crop kit. The photo was taken in the garden at home when I was about 2 years old.

This is what was used to create the design:
12” x 12” Bazzill white, Peacock and Jetstream 
12” x 6” Simple Stories, Carpe Diem:
     Total Chaos
     Teal Dot, Yellow Dot
     Pink Dot, Black Dot
     Brand New Day
     Fist Bump
     Expressions Cardstock Stickers
Ribbon
Teal Divine Twine
Doilies
Buttons
Kars Wooden ornaments
Gems
Martha Stewart Punch Around the Page Set - cherish & Vintage Floral
Martha Stewart Punch Royal (Glassene) Butterfly

Xcut Spiro Circle Nesting Dies

There will be more from me on the Papermaze blog using this paper collection at the end of the month.
Thanks for looking,
Lynn x

JOFY Stamps Box & A Card

I usually store my stamps in old DVD boxes but the JOFY and a few other stamps come on lovely coloured mounts, and so it would be a shame to cut these up to fit or take them off all together.

I had some cosmetic boxes, given to me over the years and found the JOFY stamp sets fit perfectly into this purple one. (Thanks Linda for the box and the loan of the alpha stamps x). A bonus is they smell nice too!

The I set about decorating and personalising it. I measured the box and cut water colour paper to fit the sides and top of the lid.

With the Paperartsy JOFY stamps from the alphabet set (21), and several floral sets (26, 32) and the tiny bee (30) I did some stamping with the aid of some home made masks and a Versafine onyx black ink pad.

Then using Distress Ink pads, markers, water, a brush and mister, I painted - coloured the images and background. These were then trimmed and I inked around the edges with Black Soot Distressed Ink Pad. To finish off a few drops of Glossy Accents made the bee wings glisten.

Distress ink colours used:
Flower petals and buds - mustard seed, spiced marmalade, spun sugar, dried marigold and carved pumpkin
Leaves - mowed lawn, twisted citron, cracked pistachio
Letters - Evergreen bough and stormy sky
Label - Antique Linen
Background - shaded lilac, dusty concord and weathered wood

Inside lid

Now to make one for my Tim Holtz stamps!

I also made a card for my Mum for Mothering Sunday, using the same technique.

Thanks for looking
Lynn x