Guess who's back?!...

 Hi there, crafty friends! I'm back again!...

I have quite a few birthdays and other occasions happening this month and I need to try and create some quick and easy cards to send. I find that when I have spent a couple of hours on a card, I am reluctant to give it to anyone unless I think that they will a) appreciate it and b) not throw it in the bin after a day...I know that inevitably this is what happens to a lot of our creations but also know that some people appreciate handmade cards more than others!

Anyway, I created this simple embossed card using an embossing folder from my stash (think I picked it up from Amazon but not sure)...I am also trying to justify the huge amount of craft products I have by revisiting things that may have fallen out of favour and using them again...

I used another of the 'Thank You' cards from The Works as my base card and inked the embossing with Tattered Rose, Abandoned Coral, Squeezed Lemonade, Peeled Paint and Pistachio Distress Oxides before matting onto a soft brown cardstock...

 

I used a Pastel Blue Promarker to colour the tiny flowers and added small pearl for the centres. I finished off with a pretty sentiment and acetate line butterfly which was gifted in a pack of ephemera from a crafty friend...

Hope you like my simple card. It's similar to these anniversary makes I did for our local village shop...

Thanks for popping by and I hope you find inspiration in my card...

Crafty hugs,

First card of 2025!...

 Hey there, crafty friends...well isn't this a turn up for the books?! I have actually sat at my crafty table (a couple of times now!) and made a few cards...I can't say that it came naturally or whether I completely enjoyed it or not but I've found that breaking things down into pieces helps. So I sat one afternoon and coloured some images, then I stamped and cut some sentiments, then made up some cards...I found it much easier to do like this and didn't feel that I was taking a whole afternoon or evening creating...

So for my first card of 2025, I have used a Tiddly Ink stamp called "Flying High" (which is now available as a digital image in Christy's Etsy store HERE) and coloured the girl and balloons image up with my Pro/Flexmarkers :

Skin - Blush, Dusky Pink, Sunkissed Pink, Coral

Hair - Pastel Yellow, Cappuccino, Umber

Yellow - Buttercup, Tulip Yellow, Gold

Truquoise - Cool Aqua, Duck Egg, Surf Blue

Pinks - Pale pink, Baby Pink, Cocktail Pink, Watermelon

 I used a printed thank you card that I picked up in The Works for a bargain price in the sale last year as my card base and added a simple white panel for the image to sit on. I added a strip of candy stripe paper matted onto dusky pink and then some of my favourite dies - clouds (of course!) and my Yana Smakula sentiment dies - I think I could add these to most of my creations (and have recently!)  I finished off with some crystal stars and pink enamel dots (courtesy of the lovely Marianne)...

I would like to enter my card into the Passion for Markers Week 771 Challenge - For the Girls

I hope you like my pretty, girly card and will be back soon to share some more creations...long may the craft/life balance continue! 

Hugs,

Passion for Markers - Mega Christmas Challenge...

 It is with a heavy heart that I must announce that this will be my last entry as Design Team member for Passion for Markers....after 11 years of designing and crafting with a fabulous group of people, it has come to the time for me to hang up my markers. I am really struggling with wanting to craft at the moment and so feel it is time to step away for a while and reset - I am hoping that with a break, I will find the things that I enjoy doing again and reconnect with my love for making....

Our Mega Christmas challenge is running until the 7th January and has a super easy theme of 'Anything Goes'...

 As always, our fabulous sponsors have been so generous in their prize offerings :

Dies to Die For are offering 1 lucky winner a £20.00 gift voucher

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Uniko Stamps are offering 1 lucky winner 1 product of your choice (must be in stock)

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Leann’s World 101 are offering 1 lucky winner 2 digi images

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All Dressed Up stamps are offering 1 lucky winner 2 digi images

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Polkadoodles are offering 1 lucky winner 3 digi images

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Sheepski Designs are offering 1 lucky winner 3 digi images

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RAM Stamps are offering 1 lucky winner a £10.00 voucher

 

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Di's Digi Stamps are offering 1 lucky winner a £6.00 voucher

Some wonderful prizes, I'm sure you'll agree...

 

Just a reminder that for this challenge, you can enter up to a maximum of 3 times and can enter via the Linky HERE...

 

For my DT card, I used a digital image from Lili of the Valley and kept everything clean and simple, making the image the focal point of the card and just adding some glitter, peel off and gem embellishments...

I hope that you can join in with our festive challenge and wish you all a very merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!...

Huge crafty hugs,

Passion for Markers - Add one or more presents...

 This week's challenge over at Passion for Markers has been set by the lovely Sue who would like you to add one or more presents to your creations...

 We're being sponsored by The Paper Shelter who are offering one lucky winner a choice of 3 digital images from their online store...

We were lucky enough to get an image to play with called "Merry Christmas my Dear"...

I just used the Santa with present part of the image and coloured him up with my Pro/Flexmarkers, matting and layering onto a simple card layout and adding some glittered die cut snowflakes, gem stars and a couple of fishtail flags.

I went with a non traditional colour scheme as I've never been a big fan of red, green and gold for my Christmas creations...

I hope you can find the time to play along with our festive challenge this week and will be round to see all of your wonderful creations...

Crafty hugs,

Passion for Markers - Christmas...

 This week's challenge over at Passion for Markers has been set by the lovely Marie who would like to see all of your Christmas makes...so whether it's reindeer or snowmen, Santa or robins, we would like to see your festive creations!

We're being sponsored by Polkadoodles who are offering one lucky winner 3 digital images from their online store...

We were lucky enough to get an image to play with and I picked out the super cute 'Santa Merry Christmas Banner'...

 I kept my card CAS, just adding some layers and a few gold die cut snowflakes -mainly because my Mojo is still non existent and crafting seems to be a real chore of late :(

I hope that you can find the time to play along with our festive challenge this week and look forward to seeing all of your wonderful creations,

Crafty hugs,

Passion for Markers - Make it Cute...

 Good morning, crafty friends! It's the start of a brand new challenge over at Passion for Markers and the lovely Lorraine has chosen a simple theme of 'Make it Cute'...so we would like to see all of your cute images and creations...

We're being sponsored by Rachel Ann Miller Stamps who is offering one lucky winner a £10 voucher to spend in her online store and there are plenty of lovely images to choose from!...

We were lucky enough to get an image from Rachel's latest release, 'Fairy and Birdy' to play with and the one I used is "Fairy and Birdy : Leaves"...

 I coloured up the cute image with my Pro/Flexmarkers -

Skin - Blush, Sunkissed Pink, Soft Peach

Hair - Tan, Cinnamon, Shale, Umber

Dress - Red, Poppy, Burgundy, Honeycomb, Halloween, Bright Orange, Tulip Yellow, Gold

Leaves - Pear Green, Moss, Honeycomb

Bird - Blue Pearl, Cornflower, China Blue, Tan, Shale

I hope you can find the time to play along with our fun challenge this week and look forward to seeing all of your wonderful creations...

Crafty hugs,

Passion for Markers - Anything but Square...

 Hello there, crafty friends! It's time for a brand new challenge over at Passion for Markers and this week it's my turn to host, so I've chosen a simple theme of 'Anything but Square'...you can make anything you like, just as long as it's not square...oh, and don't forget to use your markers (alcohol or water based)..

We're being sponsored by Lili of the Valley who are kindly offering one lucky winner a choice of 4 digital images from their online store...

 We were lucky enough to get an image to play with and I picked out the pretty 'Balloon and Gift'...

 I coloured the image with my Pro/Flexmarkers and paper pieced the balloon with some polka dot paper before fussy cutting, leaving a white border. I used papers from some scrapbook pads that I picked up in The Works and an embossed flag panel to make the base layers, then added my image, die cut clouds and sentiment from Crafter's Companion. I finished with some pale green gems and a touch of glitter on the flowers...

I hope you can find the time to play along with my fun challenge this week and look forward to visiting all of your blogs...

Crafty hugs,