New Cards

I hope you are having a fun weekend doing what makes you happy.  One of things that relaxes me is sitting at my table creating, often the birds are in the birdbath splashing about but unfortunately not today. Here are a few of my recent cards, pink seems to be a popular colour with me at the moment so I thought a masculine card was needed to balance things out.

For this first card I wanted to try the watercolour paints for the first time, well all I can say is it didn't turn out too well. I guess more practice is needed. So instead  after stamping the roses I decided to sponge the colour on with a dauber and this worked so much better. I then fussy cut the roses and leaves and adhered them with the foam tape. I used Blush ink for the roses and Olive for the leaves and the sentiment. To finish off the card I added the pretty pink ribbon and a ribbon slide. The ribbon and heart shape ribbon slide come from my stash.

 I love this card and the intended recipient will be my niece's daughter who turns 7 later this month. I saw a similar card on Pinterest earlier this year and couldn't wait to copy it. I only just recently bought this stamp with the little girl and her puppy called Play Day Everyday Life D1515 and I finally had the chance to make it. The background stamping uses a Stamp of the Month from December 2013 called Special Care. Some Pink Washi Tape, Grey Bakers Twine and Clear Sparkles finishes off the card perfectly.

Finally here is my masculine card, I really like the Seaside Greeting set D1609. I stamped the sail boat in Black and the greeting in Cranberry ink. Then double matted the image with black and cranberry cardstock. To embellish I added the Black Sequins and the Black Twine.

The weather is perfect today,  so if you are enjoying the outdoors make the most of it. I hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend doing what makes you happy.

National Stamping Month Blog Hop

Welcome to the National Stamping Month Blog Hop, if you arrived here from Vandra's Virtual CTMH Craftroom  you are in the right place, if you came upon this hop by chance why not follow along by clicking on the link at the end of this post.

For National Stamping Month, Close To My Heart have released 3 different stamp sets geared to every kind of papercrafter. Each stamp set is designed to fit with a specific type of papercrafting, whether that’s scrapbooking, cardmaking, or pocket scrapbooking. However, all the stamp sets coordinate with each other and can be used together to create dynamic artwork. These stamp sets also coordinate with shapes from the new Cricut^® Artistry collection to help expand your artwork options even further. Remember, these stamp sets are available for this month only, so get your orders in for one stamp set or all three before these gorgeous stamps disappear! Each stamp set is $21.00.

I  had a lot of fun playing with these stamp sets, they are so versatile. I made some cards and had to stop at four but these stamps are so great the potential for all sorts of creations are endless. They would also make terrific layout titles as well.

This first card uses a stamp from the Hello Life Card Making set CC 1041, paper from the Blossom Collection and a few of the Aqua dots. The gorgeous cat is from the Friendly Pets B1481 stamp set. I cut a small circle in the blossom paper then tore the paper back to reveal the kitty. I saw a similar card on Pinterest and felt it suited the "Oh Hey" stamp really well.

This card was made using the Hello Life Scrapbooking set CC1040, the cameras were stamped using Slate ink and the sentiment was stamped with Glacier ink, unfortunately the Washi Taped used is no longer available. The sequins are from the Gold Assortment Pack

The third card also uses the Card Making stamp set, as you can see I used the Hello, Friend and Star stamps. I choose this lovely green dot paper from the Zoe Collection, the inks used were  Sorbet, Slate and Pear as I don't yet have the Sweet Leaf ink. I do like how the different stamps all go together really well.

 For my final card I used different stamps from all three sets. The gorgeous heart and the ink splotch stamps are from the Pocket Scrapbooking set CC1042. Here I used Lagoon, Slate and Blush inks  and a few of the Aqua Dots.

Thank you for joining us, to continue hop over to Lauren's  blog and see what special treat she has in store for you. I hope you enjoy hopping along and seeing all the great ideas this wonderful group of ladies have to share.

If you wish to buy any or all of these stamp set please check out my website 

Happy Father's Day

As I was driving to work on Friday morning, the morning radio announcers were talking about what advice their dad's had given them growing up, things like respect your mother, don't burn bridges, move on but leave doors open. It made me think about what advice my dad had given me over the years. As I thought about it I realised that the things I gleaned from dad were more lessons learned from how he lived his life.

He was never afraid of trying new things it didn't matter what age he was when something new spark his interest he would run with it. Through out his life he had many hobbies and interests, he would tackle these with much vigour and always wanted to excel at them. As a young man of 17 he went of the adventure of his life at that time. He sailed with a professional photographer from Nassau Bahamas to New York. He had grown up around boats and knew how to sail but this was something very different sailing some 1700 km of open ocean. The gentleman was Stanley Toogood who was renown for travelling throughout the Bahamas taking photographs.  

In his late 50s he and my mum decided to sell their hardware store and buy a block in the country with a view to establishing an avocado orchard. He wasn't one to start a project blindly, he did much research about growing avocados and got lots of advice from specialists.

He was a generous person, whether it with his time, knowledge or money. My eldest brother once told me that he thought dad was one of the smartest men he knew, not talking about book smart but about a man that had experienced a full life and had lots to share about that life. He definitely didn't know everything but he certainly knew a lot about many things.

I knew that he always wanted what was best for his family and would do what ever was in his power to achieve this. I love my dad very much and  wish I was able to tell him this now but as he passed away nearly four years ago it's not possible. So today and always make sure you tell your dad's how much you love them.

This is a photo of mum and dad on their wedding day in 1948, how young they both were at that time. They shared a long and wonderful life together.

September Stamp of the Month Hop

Hello and welcome to this month's Blog Hop. If you arrived here from  Maz's blog  you are in the right place, if you happened upon this hop by accident no worries just continue on by following the link at the end of the post.

This is a lovely stamp and I have had such fun creating with it. This is another stamp that has cricut images that you can cut out and then stamp. 

I have created a layout and a screen divider card. I came across a youtube video with instructions for the screen divider card and really wanted to try making one. The video was very easy to follow and you can find it here 

I used gypsy and white cardstock and the green dot paper from the Zoe Paper pack. The inks used are gypsy and canary. The Triangle Border Punch was used on the top edge of the card. To create the legs of the screen I used a punch that is from my stash from another company. The gypsy cardstock is cut at 5 1/2 " x 11" then scored at 2 3/4", 51/2" and 81/4". The white panels are cut at  4" x 2 1/4", these are then matted with the green dot paper. I have added a ribbon but this is not necessary. This style of card is great to display.

For my layout I used the individual flower and leaf stamps, first I cut out the images which are from the Artiste Cricut cartridge, then stamped the flowers with Pixie ink and the leaves with Pear ink. I love using the Bity Sparkles to add a little bling. I still have some of the Chantilly papers and this is what I used here. The shapes for the sentiments are cut from the Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge. The Pixie Extra Thick Twine and 2 of the Flamingo Dots completed the project.

To continue the hop pop over and see what lovely creation Britt  McDonald  has to share. Thank you for joining us. I am sure you are getting lots of great ideas to use in your own projects. We do appreciate  your comments especially if you see something you like.