The beauty of memory

Sympathy cards.....

I find them very difficult to make, for several reasons. Apart from the obvious of not really being a pleasurable thing to make, generally they don't really gel with my normal style.  I really don't think they suit being frilly, highly layered and embellished etc. So this week when I'd been struggling to come up with a design for a card that really should already have been sent to a friend, I turned to Pinterest for some inspiration.

I found the answer, and it only cost me 3 hours of my life lol! Pinterest and I have a love/hate relationship, I  love that it's so full of ideas, I hate that it's so full of ideas that it sucks me in and gets me looking at stuff I never even intended to when I stuck my head in there!

Anyway I found a card, and while it's a stunning beautiful and simple elegant card, it wasn't quite me, and I didn't have the right dies and stamps for it. But I used it as my inspiration for the card below. While I was there I also spotted the sentiment I used as I have NO stamps with suitable sentiments on (something I must address), and I used the word processing facility on Open Office to type it out and re-size it just right to fit on my card. That sentiment made me think to use the Crea Diem paper from Maja with the clocks, and then I was off and running. The result is below.

Maja Design - Crea Diem - The Irreplaceable Time
Bazill Smoothies - Blackberry Swirl
La-La Land Steampunk Clock
Impression Obsession Border Duo 2
Prima Say it in Crystals - Songbird 2 (yellow gems coloured over with a W9 Copic Marker)

Well that's all from me today, but I'll see you again next week! :) xx

Linda :) xx

Shoreline Treasures Waterfall Folio

Hi everyone, I know I'm not usually here on a Wednesday, but I missed my Friday post due to my daughter's visit so I'll be sharing my project this Friday instead and I thought I'd share this additional project with you today.

This is a waterfall folio and it's super easy to make, you don't have to add a stamped and coloured image to it if you don't want to, you could easily use one of the fab images from the collection.

If you want to find out more about how to make one of these, just follow the link to my blog where I will share the tutorial I used.

I have a video of this project over on my blog.

Anyway, this is what I made.

All my edges are inked with Walnut Stain Distress Ink for a slightly vintage feel.

I used the following products on my make:

Shoreline Treasures Papers

La-La Land Birds Die

La-La Land Wheel and Anchor Die
CC Designs Make a Card # 4

Walnut Stain Distress Ink

La-La Land Crafts Under the Sea Dies
(just released by La-La Land, should be in the shop soon)

That's all from me today, I hope you enjoyed my project and that it inspired you to make something yourself :) xx

Uptown Girls Audrey Loves Her Make-Up

Morning everyone! It's Friday again yay! Today I'm sharing a card I was asked to make by a friend at work for her Mum.  The brief I had to work from was that she liked Grace Kelly and Audrey Hepburn, that she loved fashion and that her favourite colours were black orange and green.

I must admit that I skipped the green as trying to put those 3 colours together really wasn't working for me on a card.

Anyway I chose the fabulous Uptown Girls Audrey Loves Her Make-Up from Stampin' Bella, perfect to fit the Audrey Hepburn part I thought. I actually used Halloween papers (just to show they're versatile lol) for the black and orange as they were the only papers I had with that colour combo, and I can't find them in the store now, but you could use something like Thrilling to a similar effect, I just avoided the more Halloween prints with bats and spiders.

I used the fab big stitched and pierced rectangles, these are great for helping to make a layout in a hurry with no fuss and i mounted her on some dies from the Make a Card #4 set.

My friend loved it and I must admit that after struggling a bit with it I really love the way it turned out.

Audrey Loves her Make-Up

La-La Land Eiffel Tower

La-La Land Dress Form

(I couldn't find the link to this in the store anymore, but I'm sure Tracy would get in in for you if you asked)

Big Stitched and Pierced Rectangles Dies

CC Designs Make a Card #4

That's all from me today, see you again next week! :) xx

Gothica

Happy Good Friday everyone. If it's a holiday for you I hope you get to spend a lovely day....I now have 10 days without work...woohoo! Lots of crafting to be done methinks ;) I also want a good sort out of all my crafting stuff, I think it's taking over lol!

Anyway I'm here today with a bit of inspiration for you (I hope you find it inspiring anyway).

I used Gothica on my card today and I fell in love with this stamp as soon as it was released, but this is the first chance I've had to use her.

I've coloured her with my distress inks, colours are listed on my blog and there are links at the end of my post to products used on my card.

I went for a Victorian Gothic look on the card, well with a name like Gothica I just had to didn't I?
Her dress has lashings of sparkle with some black stickles but I just couldn't get it to sparkle on camera. I added a clock behind her and a chandelier, I thought they really helped to set the scene.

The lovely edging on the card is made by using 4 strips of the border die on the fron and 3 on the inside. Use a fairly thick stiff card if you want to do this or it will collapse under the weight of your finished card.

I used the following Dies to Die for products:

Little Darlings Rubber Stamps Saturated Canary - Gothica

Bo-Bunny 6 x 6 Paper Pad - Serenity

Little Darlings Dies Dewdrop Circle Die

Little Darlings Dies Dewdrop Border Die

La-La Land Crafts Chandelier Die

La-La Land Crafts Steampunk Clock Die

MFT Die-namics Pierced Oval STAX Dies

Well that's all from me for today, but I'll see you here again nest week, in the meantime have a lovely Easter!

Linda :) xx

Boho Chic

Happy Friday everyone, it's the weekend soon ..wheee!! and that can only mean one thing, it's time for my inspiration piece for Dies to Die for.

Today I'm using the delightful 'Boho Chic' a Dollhouse stamp from Little Darlings Rubber Stamps.

This is my first time using one of the Dollhouse collection, but it certainly won't be my last, I just love them!

My choice of which stamp to use was driven primarily by the paper, as soon as I saw this fabulous flowery MME paper that came in my DT pack, I knew which stamp I wanted to use with it.

I've listed the products I've used at the end of my post along with links to take you directly there.

I coloured her with my Distress ink Markers.

Skin: Vintage Photo, Worn Lipstick.

Hair: Antique Linen, Walnut Stain

Outfit and Bird: Festive Berries, Mustard Seed, Black Soot, Evergreen Bough, Bundled Sage

I used the new LDRS Dewdrop Circle die behind her, isn't it fab, look at that gorgeous embossing.

I thought this MFT die echoed those pinking edged circles on the paper perfectly!

The sentiment, which is also from LDRS, is framed by a Scrapberry's frame embellishment. These come in white but I colored it with one of my Copic markers, Tracy has only just got these in stock at Dies to Die for (lucky me I got to use one first!) but they should be available on the website really soon, maybe even this weekend :)

Products Used:

LDRS Dollhouse - Boho Chic

MME Market Street Nob Hill 6 x 6 Pad

La-La Land Stitched Circles Die

MFT Pinking Edge Circle Die

LDRS Dewdrop Circle Die

Memento Ink Pad - Love Letter

That's all from me, but I'll see you again next week. 

Happy crafting! :) xx

Bowie

Good afternoon. It's Linda here and late with my make for yesterday as this week was a really busy one at work, good busy, but still I'm happy it's the weekend and I can relax and craft. 

Today's card is made with the delightful Bowie by Saturated Canary from Little Darlings Rubber Stamps, of course it's no secret that I'm a huge fan of Krista Smith's gorgeous images, and I've teamed her with these oh so pretty papers from Glitz...aren't the colours just so sweet?

I've linked the products used at the end of the post for you.

I coloured Bowie with my Distress Ink markers, you can find the colours on my blog here.

I edged all the layers with Walnut Stain DI and stitched them with top stitch thread. I've popped some cheesecloth under the layers.

I cut my image out with a Stitched Circle die and slid a Lovely View die cut behind.

A little trim, some flowers and pearls and voila! I really love the way she turned out, I hope you do too.  

Bowie

Glitz - Hello Friend 6 x 6 Pad

Lovely View Die

Stitched Circles Die

Walnut Stain Distress Ink

That's all from me for today, I'm off for a trip around blogland to see what I've missed. 

Hope you have a great weekend! :) xx

Vintage Paris Flea Market

Happy Wednesday! this card should really have gone live last Friday, but I was a little late though not being well and then when I got home from work I fell asleep and didn't get to post it!

As I hadn't been feeling well I wanted to make a card that wouldn't require colouring an image, so I chose these gorgeous papers from the new (ish) collection by Pion, 'Paris Flea Market'.

They are all so lovely I had a hard time deciding what I was going to use, but they also have a fabulous sheet of vintage images that are just perfect when you don't want to stamp and colour.

So I got out my ink, distressing tool, needle and thread and some gesso and distressed and shabbied everything up.

This is the result.

I've linked the products I've used at the end of the post.

Products used:

Image - Pion Paris Flea Market

Paris Flea Market Parisian Ladies (blue)

Paris Flea Market Pink Fabric

La-La Land Eiffel Tower

La-La Land Lattice Doily Border

Cherry Lynn Felicity Doily

Well that's all from me today but I'll see you soon! :) xx

Red Riding Hood

Good evening! I'm very late with my post today as my daughter has been visiting and we've been spending mother daughter time together until she went home today (and I'm missing her already). So it was a big rush to get this ready in time. 

Luckily I already had the image coloured as I was practicing my pencil work.  I have to admit that while I'm happy with my colouring I will redo the image as the paper (which was one of several I bought to try out, ended up being far too soft for this technique and as you can see the paper started coming away and 'splitting' a little. Which doesn't look tooooo bad on the cloak as it looks a little like velvet, but I'm not happy with it so I will redo and replace the image on the card later.

I went for a slightly darker look here, some of the Brother's Grimm tales are quite gruesome, so I added in some black and the clock? well I kept remembering that old school playground game 'What's the Time Mr Wolf' lol.

I used the following products:

Red Riding Hood Stamp

Maja Design Crea Diem - It is Written Script Side

Maja Design A Gift for You - Cause you're my Angel (Gingham side)

Reverse Wonky Rectangle Nestie

Wrought Iron Fence Die

Steampunk Clock Die

Well that's it from me today, I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! :) xx

Rebecca, Masquerading at the Ball

Happy Friday everyone! It's Linda here and I have another Saturated Canary creation to share with you today, this time in rubber from Little Darlings Rubber Stamps.

This is Rebecca, isn't she just dreamy?

I coloured her to match these beautiful Pion papers, these are from the My Beloved Son collection, but they look wonderful used on girly cards too! That wonderful mask die is from La-La Land Crafts, I can see myself using that a lot.

I've finished with some gorgeous embelliesgone all shabby chic here with lashings of Gesso.

The inside is simply decorated with more of those pretty papers and a blank space for a message.

List of products used:

LDRS Saturated Canary Rebecca - Sadly out of stock
Pion Design Paper - My Beloved Son
Pion Design Paper - My Beloved Son - Pansy
Memory Box Victorian Frame Set
La-La Land Masquerade Mask Die
Walnut Stain Distress Ink

Zoe Butterfly

Happy Friday all. Linda here again at the end of the week, I hope your week has been good to you.  Mine has been horrendous ....mostly because my boiler broke down last weekend and I've had no heating and no hot water, add to that the roadworks causing long delays on my journey home from work (it's taken me 2 hours to get home most evenings this week) and a couple of other issues, I'm more than glad to see this week come to an end.

But enough of my moaning. let's move on to my card which is MUCH more cheerful lol.

I used Zoe Butterfly, by Elisabeth Bell from Whimsy Stamps, isn't she pretty? 

I coloured her with distress inks (you can find the colours I used listed on my blog here) and matched her to these lovely papers from the MME 6 x 6 pad Lost & Found - Find Your Wings and Fly. Papers have been edged with Walnut Stain distress ink and then hand stitched with top stitch thread.

I popped a couple of hot air balloons cut with a La-La Land die behind the image and added some lovely trims and flowers from my stash.

I also added some little enamel dots from MME, to match the papers.

I decorated the inside to complement the front.

List of products from the shop.

Stamp: Zoe Butterfly
Papers: MME Lost and Found - Find Your Wings and Fly
Walnut Stain Distress Ink
La-La Land Hot Air Balloon Die
Enamel Dots MME Record it - Follow your Heart

That's all from me today, but I'll be back next week!

Have a great Friday! :) xx

Vintage Gardner Gayle

Good morning and happy Friday!  Linda here and boy am I looking forward to chillaxing at the weekend, work has been mental this week.

For my make today I've used Saturated Canary's Gardner Gayle, from Little Darlings Rubber Stamps, but this time I coloured her with distress inks and gave her a vintage feel, using Pion Design's Vintage Garden papers. There's a list of products used with links to the store at the end of my post.  A list of colours used can be found on my blog here.

All papers have been distressed and inked with Walnut Stain distress ink and then hand sewn.

I used some beautiful die cuts made with some La-La Land dies. The card stock is a beautiful iridescent one, but sadly it isn't showing up on camera, which is a shame as it's quite lovely in the flesh. 

I finished off the inside quite simply with one of the 6 x 6 sheets.

LDRS - Gardner Gayle

Vintage Garden - Phlox 6 x 6

Vintage Garden - Lady 6 x 6

Vintage Garden - Seed Packets

LLLC Birdcage Die

LLLC Birdhouse Die

LLLC Birds Die

Spellbinder Reverse Wonky Rectangle Die

Distress Ink Walnut Stain
Pink Loopy Ribbon
Pearlescent Cardstock

Well that's it from me today, I'll see you again next week with something Christmasy! :) xx

Happily Ever After - Again

Happy Friday everyone! It's Linda here.  If you're in the UK I hope you're looking forward to a lovely long 3 day weekend, so glad I no longer have to work bank holidays like a few years back.

Today I'm showing a wedding card that I made at the request of my daughter's friend, using Tiddly Inks' Happily Ever After ...and yes I know I've used this a few times now, but I actually don't have many 'wedding' or couple stamps and this stamp is on of my favourite images ever.

I used some lovely Pion Papers from the Flower Frame collection. I also paper pieced the brides Dress. All papers were edged with Distress Ink and then hand stitched. I coloured the stamp with distress inks (apart from a couple of Copics on the paper pieced dress), all the colours used and several more pics and all details can be found on my blog here.

 I finished her dress with a glue pen and some glamour dust to simulate sequins and beads.

I mounted the couple on a couple of Pierced Oval frames and slipped a couple of Heart Doily die cuts behind it. Can you spot the little love bird charm nestling beneath the flowers at the top right? I used one of the Fairy Tale Dreams sentiments and the matching die.

I decorated the inside with more of the same papers, the piece with the flower frame makes a lovely place to write a message.

Items used from the store:

Tiddly Inks Happily Ever After Stamp

Pion Flower Frames Convallaria

Pion Flower Frames Rosa

MFT Pierced Ovals Stax

La-La Land Crafts Heart Doily Die

Whimsy Fairy Tale Dreams Sentiments

Whimsy Crown Die

Looped Pink Ribbon

Love Birds Charm

Walnut Stain Distress Ink

Well that's all from me today, enjoy your weekend and I'll be back next Friday with some more inspiration to share :) xx

Yuki & Serenity

Good morning! It's DT Linda here and that must mean that it's Tuesday...again...I don't know about you but the weeks seem to be whizzing by for me.  Looking at my DT diary I seem to be busy right up to September, but I do have a little holiday booked then and shall be taking a week off!

For my card today I chose to use a LDRS Saturated Canary stamp called Yuki. One thing I love about this stamp is that I've seen her used by various people and she always looks really different depending on how she's coloured up, colours, medium etc.  Since she has a Japanese name I decided to go with an Asian skin and hair tone and matched her to these beautiful papers by Bo Bunny, called Serenity. Totally not my usual type, but oh my I just love them.

  I coloured her with Copics to match the papers, she has a great outfit that can take several different colours without looking like she's just thrown up on herself lol. For the Copic colours I used, please pop across to my blog here.

I added a touch of glamour dust to the lace ruffle on her skirt.

The black frame she's on is cut with the 2nd largest dies from the Simply B Scallops set.The lovely brad on the bow is MME -Lush. Sadly the black ones are out of stock now, but you can still get them in Pink, Green, Brown or Blue.

I thought that the Cherry Blossom Branch die from La-La Land Crafts, was very in keeping with the papers and I cut 2 in black card stock and popped them down in opposite corners, adding a few little self adhesive pearls.

 I really LOVE the way this turned out, just goes to show it's always worth stepping out of your comfort zone now and then and working with something a little different.

That's all from me today but I'll be back as usual next week with some more inspiration :) xx