Love Balloons

Hi everybody,

I have a Love themed card to share with you today – made almost completely with die-cuts:

I took an A5 card blank and cut it down to make a square base. I then cut a piece of red pearlescent card slightly smaller than the card base, and added a white glitter ribbon across the bottom (which ended up being the top once I stuck it down as I had accidentally turned the card around!). I cut a starburst design from some white card, originally used for packaging, using a Nellie’s nesting die. I then cut a scalloped heart using X-cut nesting dies 3^rd heart size and papermania red card. I added a free stamp – ‘Love You’ balloon letters – from Crafters Inspiration magazine with white Pretty Colour ink and heat embossed with enamel embossing powder. I then layered them and added a pearl and diamantes according to the sketch (below).

This card was based on the Sweet Sketch Wednesday – Sketch 88:

I would also like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Creative Card Crew #111 Embossing (wet or dry)

CCEE1617 Baseball (OK so being English Baseball is not such a big deal, so I decided to go for the ball colours of red and white – then hubby said ‘isn’t that cricket?’! – I hope I can still get away with it as I did have the best intentions!

Crafting by design – For the boys/men

Die-cuttin Divas – Daisies or diamonds (diamantes and embossing powder)

Casology – Sprinkle (embossing powder)

I have had to change my cat’s medication as we think the last one was causing issues – she is hyperthyroid and has started to lose her fur, have runny eyes and has had a stroke and lost her hearing since being on this medication, so time to try something different. So fingers crossed that she will start to improve, if she can cope with daily tablets instead of every other day.

Also, although the weather has been awful recently so I have not managed to get down to the allotment, I have got lots of chilli seedlings, tomato seedlings and lemongrass seedlings come up. It is going to be interesting growing the lemongrass! I will try to take some pics as they grow but at the moment they are just little spikes.

Thank you for reading,

Hugz Tinz

Victorian Lizabeth and the Music Hall

Welcome to another new challenge over at Creative Moments. Challenge 92 has the optional twist of Showers and/or Rainbows and is sponsored by http://lacysunshine.weebly.com, where there are lots of lovely images - do go and check out their store! I used Victorian Lizabeth  for my card:

 I used a Papermania ready embossed card, with dots embossed, and coloured it using a rainbow ink pad. I then added glitter glue in the appropriate colours to the dots, to give the effect of rain. The image was coloured with Sharpie markers and die-cut using the third X-cut large labels die. I then added corner panels from some free double sided peacock papers that I thought matched the victorian colour scheme, and die-cut using a Marianne Collectables die. Finally I added two daisies to finish.

I would like to enter this into the following challenges:

MMM - April showers bring May flowers

Diecuttin Divas - #263 Daisies or Diamonds

Deep Ocean - #127 Dots/Stripes

Alphabet Challenge - D for Dot (embossed background)

Crafty Calender - Anything Goes

Audio Book Review

My Old Man by John Major

This story advertises itself as a personal history of music hall. As such I was expecting to hear about music hall from the perspective of John Majors father (as indicated by the title of the book), with personal anecdotes, meetings and opinions. Or at least in-depth information about what his father actually did. Therefore, I was quite disappointed when his dad is only briefly mentioned on disc 9, and then talked about in a bit more detail on disc 11, out of 12!

I would say this is just a basic history of music hall, with few personal anecdotes at all throughout the book. However, for a fan of music hall history this is probably a good place to start researching as it does look at the main players throughout the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, as well as the changes that were undertaken through the period of music hall existence.

Thank you for looking

Hugz Tinz

Mariposa birthday wishes

Hi there,

Been a busy week and the weather has been cold this weekend - but our old carport is now demolished, skip is full and frame is up for new, if temporary, structure. However, I did get in time to make this little birthday card:

This was made using an Aliciabel image, coloured with Promarkers, using the no-line colouring technique, as for my facebook group Crafting Techniques, and digital images from the Crafting Inspirations Issue 3 CD-Rom - the Frou-Frou and Camden Town collections. The image was cut with an X-cut large label nesting die, and the sentiment with a Nellie's nesting circles and florals die. All of these were printed onto pre-used paper or card. The backing paper had faint lines on it from when the printer was running out of ink and this has affected the texture of the printed panel, quite nicely I think. The others were just printed onto the opposite side of pre-used card (it was a package backer).

I would like to enter this card for the following challenges:

Crafting by designs - Anything Goes

Aliciabel #17 Spring

Card Mania #79 Spring

Country View #38 Spring

Open-minded crafting #4 Spring

SSS #408

Fussy and Fancy #162 Female Birthdays

Digichooseday Tic-tac-toe (Wings/Nature/Sentiment)

Sweet Stampin - Pink and girlie

Die Cuttin Divas #262 Earth Day - recycled materials

PFP #342 Things with wings

 I also thought you might like to see my chilli and tomato seedlings!

And a height chart update - now at 69 hours!!

Thank you for looking,
Hugz Tinz

Stitching and growing - with thanks too

Hello everybody,

I made all my thank you cards for the wedding gifts now and thought I would share them. There are four different styles. We decided to use pictures from the wedding so they can be kept as keepsakes, and we chose four different pictures.

The first set were at the regitration office after the signing of the register:

Then we have the ones outside in the garden - on a stone bench - in the cold!

 Then we went for this one with the wedding vehicle, which we die-cut into a heart as it suited it so well:

And finally one of us cutting the cake:

All of the pictures were die-cut and die-cut embellishments added to the cards for decoration. Some of the cards have a peel-off sentiment, while some are stamped, and a variety of card blanks were used to keep it interesting.

I would also like to share with you my little growers lol:

I think these are tomatillo's, although they may be Cape Gooseberry instead - I cannot remeber which I planted and cannot find the pad I wrote it in! It will be a nice surprise once they fruit lol. They are currently taking over the whole windowsill, and I have tomatoes and chillis upstairs and a cold-frame full of Brassicas!!! I am over-run with greenery lol.

Finally some stitching to share with you:

This is an All Our Yesterdays design, by Faye Whittaker, that I got free with WOCS magazine a while back. I am gradually trying to work through my Free Kits as I do have quite a few of them, and they do make good little cards. I do also have to start making cards with those I have already stitched though!
I would like to enter this stitched card into the following challenges:
Modsquad - Water, water everywhere (sea on the horizon)
 Simply Create Too - #107 Use stitching
Crafting by designs Anything Goes
Quirky Crafts - Quirky raining cats and dogs


Thank you for looking,
Hugz Tinz

Love and Rock

What a lovely day we have had today - why always when I am working and cannot get down to the allotment, and then rain when I am free?!?! Anyway, I did plant my peas and pea beans into root-trainers - but I didn't get round to planting my 'erbs! That is top priority tomorrow me thinks - after sorting some stuff out for the new car-port type thing we are getting.

Anyway, back to the crafting - tonight I have made a masculine card using:

Free doily embossing folder
A mans world Papermania patterned paper
Ribbon from a packaging box
Scalloped oval die-cut
Forever Friends Topper
Golf craft sticker

I have used the Atlantic Hearts Sketch #156:

I would also like to enter this card for the following challenges:

Suzy Bee #126 Make it male

Inkspirational #106 Rock

Love and Summer by William Trevor

This is a summer romance story. When a stranger arrives at Rathmoye during a funeral he causes a stir, especially with young Ellie. Ellie is married to a farmer who has still not quite gotten over the guilt he feels from his first wife’s death. The stranger and Ellie form an illicit relationship, while people in the town can only watch and wait to see the outcome.

This is a very laid-back story, probably good for relaxing to. Not very much happens, but there is a little bit of interesting back-story for the main characters to liven it up. Not one to read if you like your stories to have a point to them though.

Thankyou for looking,

Hugz Tinz