Feel Better Soon!

Hi there, and a happy Saturday to you all!

Supplies: Card Blank: Craftwork Cards. Stamps: Penny Black Love Blush; Sentiment Stamp - Paula Pascual/Personal Impressions. Letraset Promarkers: Flowers: Red, Poppy, Crimson, Burgundy, Leaves:

Leaf Green, Pear Green, Forest Green. Background Paper {inside panel} Pink Petticoat Mocha Grannies Wallpaper.

I coloured the roses using the three shades of red mentioned, and when finished, added a touch of the blender pen to the centre of the petals to remove some colour. I decoupaged the petals also for a more reaslitic effect.

What a wonderful day it has been today - the sun has been shining, and I don't know about you, but it always gives me a rosy outlook on life too. Over the past few weekends I have been working on decorating my craft room, and having a good old sort out, and the transformation is nearly finished. It's so much better than before and I can 't wait to show you the results, including some new storage ideas (well, new for me anyway!). I have a few finishing touches to achieve, so as soon as I've done this I'll post some before, during and after pictures on here.

This afternoon I've really enjoyed myself making the card above. Again, it's on the clean and simple theme, and I just love this style at the moment. The stamp is from Penny Black, and I coloured with Letraset Promarkers. The gorgeous card blank is from Craftwork Cards, I just love these little cards! I covered the inside back panel with paper downloaded from Pink Petticoat. The sentiment stamp is one of the lovely Paula Pascual's designs from Personal Impressions. It's for my friend Chris, who had an operation yesterday. I hope it cheers her up.

Anyhoo, we have another and final Performance of our Festival play tonight, where I play the dippy and naive Joyce (do you think I'm typecast?!) so I'd better get the grease paint on!

A Big {Thanks!}

Good Afternoon,

I've just stopped at Tamworth Services on my way down to Bath, where from tomorrow we'll be filming Creativity TV, and what did I want to do? Have a tinkle, coffee, or post on my blog? Well, actually all three, but it seems I must have got the Blogging Bug again! Now, I must type quickly, as I only have 25 mins battery power on my laptop, and there are no plug sockets to be seen!

Today's card isn't a Letterpress card, although I do have more of those to share with you, I thought you would like to see something a little different. I made this card back at the end of the summer last year I think, to thank one of the Mum's from school for taking Joesph to school {probably when I was on one of my jaunts around the country with work!}. I made it in about 10 minutes and if I recall correctly it was one of my first outings with both the stamp and my new set of Copics. I'm ashamed to say I think that was the last time I used them too {so far}. The stamp is from Penny Black and I love it - it so fits the CAS style of card. The greeting stamp was bought for my by Sheila when she was in Australia - there were four in the set and they all carry these fonts - surprisingly the fonts I use on my blog - by complete co-incidence. No wonder I love the stamps so much.

Last nights Drama Group meeting went well, we are rehearsing for the All England Festivals, and our one act play is called 'Last Tango in Little Grimley'. it's very funny, and if we keep practicing we'll be very good - who knows, we may even win our round!

Anyhoo, with an Americano {with milk} in my hand, and my battery about to run out, I must set off on the dusty road known as the M42 to the beautiful city of Bath. Promise I will try and be back before the end of the week - maybe blogging will encourage me to take some photos of my visit too!

Congratulations Baby!

Good Evening all!

Thought I should come here and post a card that I made AGES ago, and completely forgot about! I think I made it back in December on behalf of my friend who's sister had just had a baby boy. I'd had this stamp for ages and never used it (you don't say!) and thought I should team it up with some papers that I'd also had for eons and never touched.

I really wish I could tell you where I got the papers from, or what brand they are, but I have had them for so long, I really have no clue! I love matting with black cardstock though - it really makes all the colours pop!


I used my Promarkers to colour the Penny Black image and paper pieced the hammock onto the same patterned cardstock as the circle paper layer. Just look how cute this little hedgehog is...I love his feet!

I'm off to the doctors to hopefully get my blood test results on Tuesday. I got a letter on Monday asking me to go in to discuss the results, so as you can imagine I'm apprehensive to find out what they found. Unfortunately though, I have been unable to get an appointment as you have to book for the same day, and when you try and ring, the phone is constantly engaged for about 2 hours, then when you do get through, all the appointments have gone! So...I'm just going to go to the docs on Tuesday morning and wait for them to open to get myself in! I also had two biopsies about 10 days ago, and the results for that takes about three weeks, so I will be glad when I know what's going on!

Well, that's it for tonight. Hope you are having a lovely Easter!

Penny Black Feel better Soon and Friday Sketch Challenge

I thought I would take a little break from working on my cards for the magazine over the weekend and do a little crafting for myself. I'm very lucky to do what I do, and I love everyminute in my little room playing with scrumptious goodies, but sometimes it's nice to kick back, join in a few challenges and use something that you choose.

So off I went, scouring blogs for a challenge - and I found two! first stop was the ubber talented Kath where I spotted the Penny Black Challenge - week 37. I have about 100 penny black stamps that never get used (and are my pride and joy), so I thought this challenge would be an excuse for me to dust tem off and get inking! The challenge is to create a get well soon card (apparently the second most popular shop bought card).

Then, I went window blog shopping for a sketch challenge to go with it, just to give those little grey cells a rest. I found the perfect one at Prairie Paper and Ink by Amy Rysavy! Click on the sketch to be taken straight to the post.

This is my take on both challenges:

I used Penny Black Framed Flowers, a relitively old PB design (2003), but I absolutely love it! And it's the first time it has seen ink too! I stamped the outline with Colorbox Dark brown fluid chalk and quickly embossed with clear powder. I then used my gorgeous vivid inks as a watercolour medium to colour in the image, taking inspriation from the fatastically talented Christine (Sketching stamper), and her very informative video on how she colours in images. Colouring is one of, of not my favourite technique when crafting, I find it sooo relaxing! The circle background to the greeting is also a penny black stamp (dot - lined) and is also an ink virgin! The greeting is MFT.

Supplies:

Stamps: Penny Black Framed Flowers, dot - lined, MFT Bunny Slippers, Inks: Colourbox fluid chalk in dark brown, Vivid inks in Beach Glass, Turquoise, Tuscan Tan, Brown, Olive , Vintage Green and Black. Papers and Cardstock: bazzil in light tan and dark brown, SEI Granny's Kitchen Vinyl Chair and Oven Mitts, Embellishments: Ribbon from stash, WE R memory keepers Nonsense Glitter Brads.

I really hope you like it as much as I enjoyed making it! Thanks for coming to visit!

Love, Clare x