More apologies

Hi guys,
I'm sorry again for not posting but my little one is going through a hard time at the moment, I can't go into details, but he's having a really tough couple of weeks, which in turn means I'm not getting any sleep and I'm just trying to get through the day at the moment in one piece.
Your hugs would be nice if you have the time.
Hugs,
Alli

Oops

Sorry everyone for not posting for such a long time. My son was on a week's break from school and DH had the week off too and we were really busy. We went to Cornwall for 4 days and just got back. It was a lovely break and now I just need to get back into cardmaking, lol. I have forgotten where my craft room is. This is the longest I have ever gone without making a card apart from our main summer holiday.
DH and DS go back to school/work tomorrow, so woohoo, get my life back! :)
Thank you for wondering where I was Jenn, that is so sweet.
Hugs and hope you are all well.

Wow! So talented

Look at this wonderful card that I received from Allison Fillo this week, how beautiful and unusual is it. I absolutely love it, thank you Allison. I wonder if all Allisons are so talented, lol. You can find her wonderful blog here http://www.stampinwhenican.blogspot.com/. I love her blog and I was so blown away to receive this card, so thank you, thank you, thank you Allison.

This card was for today's color challenge on Splitcoast. It uses Vintage Violet, Certainly Celery and Old Olive. My favorite color combination is Elegant Eggplant and Old Olive and so it was really good to try Violet instead. It is a while since I used this color and I forgot how much I love it. It's so pretty and I think it works really well with gold, so there is lots of gold embossing on this card, lol.

Details of the card

Sets - Artfully Asian, Canvas

cardstock - white watercolor, Vintage Violet, Certainly Celery, Old Olive

inks - versamark, Vintage Violet, Old Olive and Certainly Celery reinkers

accessories - aquapainter, ribbon, brads, eyelet, gold embossing powder, ticket punch

Caribbean

I have never tried this colorway before, it is Cool Caribbean, Tempting Turquoise and Taken With Teal with one of my favorite sets, Bodacious Bouquet.

It's really hard to see, but I used Taken with Teal craft ink on the background and embossed it with Iridescent Ice embossing powder, it is soooo sparkly in real life.

I'm so sad about Cool Caribbean retiring, I love that color. :)

VSN

I love VSN on Splitcoast, but this weekend I only had time to make 4 cards, this was one of them.

You had to make a card with quilling. I used to teach quilling a lot a while ago and I got so fed up of it, I could never do any quilling. But I've had a break and I really enjoyed making this card, it only took me about 30 minutes all in.

So, I am determined to make more non-stamped cards, like quilling or teabag folding, but I don find myself going through stages. This stage is obviously scallops and cuttlebugging lol.

The scallops were actually made with my cricut and not scallop punches.

Details of card

sets used - Papertrey Green Thumb

cardstock - Almost Amethyst, Certainly Celery, Lovely Lilac, white

inks - lovely lilac

accessories - cuttlebug, cricut, ribbon, quilling tool and papers, slit punch

This week

This is the card I made for the sketch challenge this week on Splitcoast.

I'm going to miss this little frog when it retires, I'm not a demo, but I'll miss seeing him on other's cards.

I don't know why, but I always preferred him to the frog on Unfrogettable, he has more character.

Details of card

sets - Frolicking Frogs

cardstock - Cool Caribbean, white watercolor, DCWV retro papers

ink - Versafine black, versamark

accessories - prismacolor pencils, gamsol, white embossing powder, dimensionals, brads

Today's challenge

This is my card for today's Limited Supply Challenge, you had to use one image, stamped only once, one background stamp, one sentiment and no more than three colors of cards plus white.

I really should do this challenge more often. Lots of times I get so overwhelmed with the amount of stuff I have that I don't know where to start, so this challenge is fantastic for giving you a starting point but also for testing your creativity.

I used my favorite form of coloring, reinkers and an aquapainter to color the main image. It is hard to see but I used Papertrey's Butterfly Kisses for the background.

Details of card

sets - Sassy Stems, Papertrey's Butterfly Kisses

cardstock - Certainly Celery, Elegant Eggplant, Cool Caribbean, white watercolor

inks - versafine black, reinkers in same colors as cardstock

accessories - ribbon, aquapainter

Luke's thank you cards

These are the cards I made for Luke's thank yous for his birthday. I still haven't sent them out, whoops.

I needed something without much stamping because of my hand, so I jused my Cricut for the thanks and then just stamped the circle with Big Pieces and Little Pieces, I think this is only the second time I used these sets.

So tah dah! Very simple cards! Now I just need to mail them, lol.

Catching up

Sorry, second brown card in a row, I decided to ease myself back into stamping by doing a simple, but hopefully still elegant, card.

Not much stamping going on, but aren't those primas gorgeous, thanks Jody!

I'm still trying to believe that I actually set my alarm clock to get up at 5am to order the new Papertrey set, Little Lady, but it's sooooo cute. I got the grid block, a brown inkpad and a set of card boxes whilst I was there.

I also got picked as one of the reviewers for Rubber Stamping Fun, I am so excited, as soon as I get my set I'll show you what I managed to achieve with the set. I chose #8, that means nothing to anyone except other reviewers, sorry! :)

Details of the card

sets - Papertrey faux ribbon

cardstock - any ole white

inks - Close to Cocoa, Chocolate Chip

accessories - primas, brad

Monday's challenge

This was the card that I made for Monday's Technique Lover's Challenge to make a warm-up card. Valerie, the hostess, described it as a small card to get you warmed up to stamping to go on to larger projects.

This card is actually 3 x 3 and I find small cards, atcs etc harder than large cards, you don't have much room for all the usual touches you put on a card and I find it really hard to make such a small card that is balanced, but I think this one turned out ok and it got me back into stamping after hurting my hand, lol.

Details of card -

sets - Doodle This, Papertrey Ink's Papertray

cardstock - chocolate chip, au chocolat dp

ink - versamark, chocolate chip craft

accessories - white and clear embossing powder, brads, word window punch, paper piercer

Cyberfriends

Stamping really is one of the most wonderful hobbies, I don't know what place my sanity would be now if I hadn't started stamping.

I started when my son was 3 or so, because Barney was driving me so insane and it was the only program that could calm him, lol.

However, the best thing about stamping, definitely the friends I have met through this wonderful craft. For example, look what I got in the mail today, I'm jumping up and down with joy. I got a card from my stamping hero and probably one of the nicest ladies I have met online, Beate. She even IRAKed me some of the bee images that she has been using because I love what she has been doing with them. Thank you so much Beate, I love them, she even stamped them on shimmery white, how gorgeous is that cardstock!! And that card, wowzers, it is awesome, I need to get a noticeboard up in my craft room so that I can hang my favorite cards up, this would definitely be one of them. Thanks sweetie, I am so happy that I can count you as one of my friends.

You can find Beate's wonderful blog here , take a look and leave her a nice message, she deserves it!

Your lesson for today

Your lesson for today is don't play tennis on your son's Nintendo Wii. I was playing tennis and I smashed my hand into a bookcase on Friday.(For those tcchnophobes like me, you simulate the movements of a tennis player on a Wii) So now my knuckles are all black and swollen and I can't stamp, lol.
They've gone down a bit today, so hopefully I can pick up a stamp again today or tomorrow and I have learned my lesson, don't play with your son's video games when you reach 40, your brain is too slow, bwahahahahahahaha!

MIA

I have been MIA for the past few days for a number of reasons. I have hurt my back and I am finding it really hard to sit in one place to stamp at the moment.
Also, it's my son's 8th birthday tomorrow, so I have had lots of little jobs to do. :)
Finally, it was my monthly craft club yesterday. I taught faux shaving cream and I will upload some of the cards when I get the chance. Everyone seemed to really enjoy it, although I was really strict with them and made them all swipe and drag the small stamp through the big stamp, rather than just tap timidly. They are used to me now though and just laugh at me! :)
If you want to know how to do faux shaving foam the details are here

No stamping

Jen is having a challenge on her site to make a card without stamping on it. Check out her blog here Well, I made the first card before I had even seen her challenge. It is made with my new primas from Jody and Red Tag sale alphabet from Cuttlebug, but I wasn't happy with it. The alphabet is too big for the card.
So I decided to make another below.
Details of this card
cardstock - Bazill
accessories - Cuttlebug red tag alphabet, round scallop punch, ribbon, slit punch for scallops, brad, primas.

So then today I made this card and I am much happier with it. The letters are much straighter than they appear on the photo, lol.

Isn't the paper just the cutest? It is Memory Box Sugar Collection from Ellen Hutson's store and I need another pack because I get really anxious using something if I only have one, lol.

Details of card

card - pink, Memory Box sugar collection

accessories - Cuttlebug Red Tag alphabet, flower brads, Primas, velvet ric rack ribbon, brad.

Scarlett Letter

I see some of the most gorgeous cards made with designer papers and I always mean to use them in my cards, but like everything else, I have too many papers and I can't decide what to use, so then I go back to my tried and tested stamps.

So today, I was determined to make a card using designer papers and this is what I came up with. The paper is Scarlett Letter by Basic Grey.

I am the queen of black and white according to Jen (Cobrielle), so she should like this one, lol.

I am really happy with how it turned out, I wasn't sure about using black and brown together, but there is a touch of brown in the predominantly black, grey and white paper, so I hope it matches.

I hate my camera sometimes, it's really hard to see, but I have used black stickles on the doodle in the corner. The red flowers have black stickle centres and the spots in the scallops have black stickles too.

Card details

sets - SU Doodle This, Papertrey faux ribbon

cardstock - black, white, Basic Grey Scarlett Letter

inks - black versafine, versamark, Close to Cocoa, Old Olive and Ruby Red markers

accessories - tab punch, black stickles, white embossing powder, brads, ribbon, dimensionals

My favorite

My distressing class went really well, we had lots of fun and the ladies learned a lot too, I think. I spent most of the night laughing!

This card is my favorite of the ones I made for the distressing class. I wanted to show them sanding cardstock, so I used my cuttlebug and white core cardstock to show them how sanding works. I love the subtle effect that it gives.

Details of card

sets - SU riveting

cardstock - white, cool caribbean, DCWV white core cardstock

inks - white craft, cool caribbean

accessories - cuttlebug, nail file, ribbon slider die, punches, Jody's ribbon

I'm still distressed

I am teaching a distressing class tonight, so I have been making "distressed" cards. I have decided it's just not my style, I have really struggled with these cards, especially trying to achieve what I consider a "distressed style", then I thought why can't I make cards that are my style but have distressing on them.

I always think of distressing as being very dark or muted colors, shabby chic, very stylized and very intricate, with lots of techniques on them.

Well, that's not me and I was completely hopeless at trying to mimic the style, so this is one of the cards I came up with. It is made with a distress ink pad. I crumpled the cardstock, swiped the ink pad over the card, spritzed with water and waited for it to dry. Then I stamped the giraffe on the card when it was dry.

The main card I swiped the distress ink pad all over the cream card and over the circle tag. The sentiment is from Papertrey Faux Ribbon.

Details of card

sets - SU In the Wild, Papertrey Faux Ribbon

inks- Versafine black, Tim Holtz distress ink

card - black and cream

accessories - circle punch, spritzer bottle filled with water

Pink or Chocolate?

I made the chocolate card first, my mom wanted a card for a lady who turns 50 at the weekend, so I did that card this morning.
I was feeling so sad that Roses in Winter is being discontinued that when I saw the color challenge for today, I decided to make the same card, but in pinks, so now she has a choice, lol, I prefer the chocolates, but maybe the lady will prefer the pinks.

Details of the cards
Pink card
sets - Roses in Winter, Floral, Linen, Papertrey Faux Ribbon
card - Pink Passion, Pretty in Pink, black, white
inks - Pink Passion, Pretty in Pink
accessories - brads, cricut, ribbon, sponge

Chocolate card
sets - the same
card - Creamy Caramel, Close to Cocoa, Chocolate Chip, white
inks - creamy caramel, Close to Cocoa, Chocolate Chip
accessories - the same

So which do you prefer? :)

Welcome back to my journey!

If you read my blog regularly, you will know I am on a quest to use colors that I have never used before in the SU range.

Well, I have never used Garden Green, I always choose Old Olive or Certainly Celery, they are my favorite greens. So here is my card for today. I'm sorta happy with it, but I still think it would have looked better with Old Olive :)

But it is good for me to get out of my rut and try new things. This card is semi-based on a card by Yvette, you can see her blog on the right, but here is her gallery on SCS if you have a few hours spare, lol. I like some of her cards with this dress, so that inspired me to use the dress today.

Card details

sets - Blooming with Happiness, Houndstooth, Fine Lace

Cardstock - white watercolor, More Mustard, Ruby Red, Garden Green

Inks - black versafine,More Mustard, More Mustard and Ruby Red refills

Accessories - brads, aquapainter, mustard spotted ribbon, dimensionals, sponge

Not my usual style

This card is not my usual style, but I have to make some cards for a class I am teaching on Wednesday for distressing. I find distressing very distressing, bwahahahahahahaha! Sorry terrible joke! So this card is very distressed, hee hee.

I stamped on the piece of cardstock with the main image, then I crumpled it up and then swiped my ink pad all over it. I tore the edge and swiped the inkpad over the torn edge too.

I used weathered and linen on the main card to give it an old look.

I have had such a busy weekend, I taught 2 classes in my home on exploding boxes and I had so much fun with the 11 ladies who did the class with Fi and I.

I'm tired today though.

Details of card -

stamps - Woodware main image, unknown compass, Papertrey faux ribbon, SU linen and weathered

inks - Night of Navy, Bordering Blue, white craft

Card - pale blue, navy