Sunday, October 31, 2010

Snow Angel & Top Mouse ... Yay!!

Not only have I had to order a new printer ... but my camera seems to be playing up now and my pictures are not so good .. Still I wanted to play along at the Shabby Tea Room challenge and I know I am cutting it fine ... the challenge finishes tonight ... 
The challenge is to "case" one of the DT cards ... I chose to "case" Debbie's ... you can see her card Here ... I loved the bear idea so decided to try and keep all the elements Deb used but with a different theme ... mine is a Snow Angel ... 



 ... a snowflake on his 'wand' ( this cute pin was a gift June)... I got the star in, the button and twine, a heart and even a heart halo ... I used this pretty piece of lace in place of Deb's crochet piece ...


The little bear is from Meljen and I paper pieced him and drew the wings onto some card - cut out and glittered. I just wish the pictures were better ... it's a lovely blue is reality and so very sparkly.

Before I finish I would like to say Thank You to ...WaltzingMouse for making me Top Mouse this week ... I am really honoured ....

Till soon


Ikea Christmas

Well Happy Halloween to you all ... I hope you have fun!
Hubby and I went off to Ikea a couple of days ago ... after the workmen had left ... we were able to grab a meal and just stroll around for a while leaving behind the total disarray at home... I came across these cute little reindeer tree ornaments .... 



 I was thinking 'Christmas cards' at the time ... and something I could whip up pretty quickly (ha! it took me hours) ...  I think they were about £1.99 but ... as they are made out of rather thick chipboard ... I discovered that with a little bit of wiggling and gentle tugging ... I could actually split each one into 3 ... This meant that I had 2 patterned (from the front and back) and one plain ... here's what I came up with 


The patterned side with a little bit of stamping ....


Just frosted his antlers a bit too ...
Then the plain one I glittered twice ....


Luscious MME paper from the Signature Christmas range ... 


Because this reindeer was not smooth ... after applying the glitter it ended up with a furry look which was an added bonus ... So what do you think? 

Till soon
Ros





Friday, October 29, 2010

Can the girl do a Layout?

It's been the darkest day .... so I apologise now for my photos ... It's been hectic ... men dismantling my old kitchen ... plasterers and electricians coming and going ... and my brother and SIL came with Ross .. Oooh it was so good to see Ross again ... he's grown since I last saw him and is such a bundle of love ... 
They brought me some lovely pictures of my great niece Sophia and when everyone had gone I decided to do a layout ... I confess that it has been years since I did one and I am just not sure that I get it right ... What do you think? ...



Isn't she just beautiful ... I know... I'm biased ...



I think I need to do more of these ...

Have a lovely weekend my lovely friends
Till soon

Ros

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Ruby Wedding

Hello ...
I had to make a quick card last night ... One of my Husbands friends will be celebrating his Ruby Wedding anniversary this weekend and my husband only just found out ... men!
Thankfully it fell into place without too much planning ....



Hope they like it ...


Have a lovely day ...

Ros

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Cupcake Creations Color Challenge

Did you know that you can observe your mind? Well you can ... ever ask yourself when an idea pops into your head "where did that come from?" Well it comes from some other source ... not your mind ... some call it the soul, in philosophy it is known as your 'higher consciousness" ... Whatever 'It' is .. it is present with all of us ... Why am I telling you this? Well, because often when I am crafting my 'It' is very present ... like a little voice that I feel rather than hear. So like my card today ... I wanted to participate in the oh so talented Mona Pendleton's challenge  Here ... This is the inspiration picture and the colours to use




Now yes, I have all the colours required ... plain papers, patterned papers, vintage and non vintage ... CS in most colours including Kraft ... and I had them spread out everywhere ... I do mean everywhere ... because each time I put something together ... my little "It" was not happy about it ... My hands were willing, my mind in full flow ... but something wasn't didn't ...  feel right ... This went on for some time ... the only thing to do? take a pause, clear my mind and go were I am led ... It matters not whether someone likes the result ... only that I am at one with myself ... 




All those papers and I had to go with white embossed and glittered card ... some lace and braid, button and twine ... maybe that is where I am content ... in different textures ...




... At least I managed to get the colours in ...


Till soon


Ros

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

City Crafter Colours of Autumn

Good morning to you ... I can't believe how fast the weeks are going ... today is week 29 of City Crafter Challenge and Linda is hosting for us ... She has set us a colour challenge "Colours of Autumn" ... here's the picture and the colours to use ...



We are so lucky to have the very talented Dawn McVey as our Guest Designer this week and our sponsor is Pixie Dust Paperie .... Please take a moment to see Dawn's card done in her unique style along with the rest of the DT cards ...


Background papers are digital as is my bunch of leaves which I painted in Glossy Accents and printed twice so I could apply pop dots to give some dimension ... My flower is a Prima from Pixie Dust Paperie, Spellbinders fancy tag, with digital sentiment ... everything else is from my stash including the cork effect trim ....


So now it's over to you to see what you can come up with ... It can be any style you like ... card, LO or project... just use the colours shown and follow the rules for a chance to win .... But most of all enjoy! look forward to visiting you ...
Till soon

Ros


Monday, October 25, 2010

Happy Birthday Play Date Cafe


It's the first anniversary of the Play Date Cafe ... "Happy Birthday" ... The colours for this weeks' challenge are Pink, Yellow, Orange ... and this is the inspiration picture ...
I thought a cupcake may be appropriate ... 


I didn't have a great deal of time to do this but wanted at least to commemorate their birthday and everyone is invited to the party right? .... Hop over to the blog and see all the lovely creations by the DT ... all so different and all so beautiful ....

Till tomorrow

Ros



3 Little things ...

Just popping in to mention 3 things this morning before I go off to my Pilates class (Ugh!) 
First off  ... Thank you to the Shabby Tea Room for awarding me another TTT for This set ... I'm truly grateful.
Next ... remember our lace and doily swap? I was lucky enough to have the lovely Chriss Blagrave as my partner .. all the way from Austin Texas ... and I was so thrilled with all the beautiful, adorable things she sent me ... Then I received this gorgeous Stamp Set in the post too!



I am absolutely over the moon! 
Chriss Thank you so much ... your kindness and thoughtful generosity is so very much appreciated ... These are beautiful stamps and I see all sorts of possibilities with them ... Bless you! 

Lastly ... did you know that you can win a $20 gift certificate at Pixie Dust Paperie? Just follow the link and check out all the fabulous creations from the DT... they are hosting their very first challenge too and more goodies are up for grabs! So you have nothing to lose and everything to win ... What more could you ask for on a Monday morning? 
I'll be back tomorrow for another City Crafter Challenge and hope to see you there ... Have a lovely day my friends ...

Ros

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Card Patterns Challenge

It's a gloriously sunny day here ... granted it's cold ... but that's ok when the sun shines as it has today ...
My hubby has been painting - we're having a new kitchen - (his idea) .. personally I liked my old one ... but I know I will love the new one ... The thing is that the present kitchen units will be going into the utility room ... so that had to be cleared out and painted ... and in the course of this we discovered that the washing machine had been leaking ... so that led to another job ... and so it goes ... My house looks like a bomb hit it with bits and pieces everywhere and I still have the kitchen itself to clear out ready for the new one ... Now I'm no neat freak, but I do like 'tidy' ... so the only thing I can do right now is stay in my craft room and avert my eyes to the mess. When I was away I asked hubby to please make a start on clearing some cupboards ... the high ones ... which no normal sized female can comfortably reach let alone a 5'4'' (fully stretched) lady like me! I dread to think what lurks in these cupboards ... all the things I buy and cannot, for the life of me, find ... because my 6ft hubby puts them up there ... So anyway he did make a start and I came home to find everything still in the cupboards but he had (proudly) packed away (neatly wrapped in tissue especially bought for the occasion) all my dishes and crockery ... So for the past week we have 3 dinner plates and one bowl ... to share ... for 3 of us ... mmm! 
So in my quest to ignore everything around me ... I made a card for this weeks' challenge at Card Patterns
... this is the sketch ...



.. and this is my card ...


This is the first time I have ever stamped on ribbon and I am quite pleased with the effect ... what do you think? ... Love these prima flowers ... 



... The heart is a glittered heart but it doesn't really show up ...
So that's it for now ...

Till soon ... keep safe
Ros

Saturday, October 23, 2010

WaltzingMouse Challenge

Hi there ...
I hope you are all enjoying your weekend ... We've had a lot of rain and outside it is dull and miserable looking ...
I have 2 cards to share ... both of which I made for the WaltzingMouse Challenge ... not sure if I can enter 2 ... But they are quite different from each other though they are both Christmas cards ... yep, I'm getting into the season now ... This is the sketch ...


... and my first card ....



... Used my long forgotten about embossing folder on this, stamped WM 'Text it' in silver ink on my DP(love those text it stamps) ... WM Compliments of the Season stamp and 'With love' is from WM Victorian Frippery set ... The lovely tree is a digital freebie from Sueli Colbert Here ... all glittered up and buttons and ribbon from my stash.


My next card also uses WM stamps from the same sets as above ...



See? Totally different in style ... more vintage ... the DP is Bo Bunny and double sided which always gives me a dilemma ... as I love both sides... everything else from my stash ... the snowflake is a wooden one that was painted silver but of course I had to glitter it a bit and added a rhinestone ... I like sparkly.


I thought you might like to see a couple of pictures from my trip last week ... these are taken at Bewts-y-Coed in Wales...


You see that row of buildings? well they are the most adorable shops, clothes shops, shoe shops, craft shops, candle shop and cook shop, coffee shops and train museum too ... I know I should really have photographed each shop but I was so busy seeing all the beautiful things ... I kinda forgot till I was leaving ... 




Pretty isn't it ... and this was a rainy day....


Have a lovely weekend my lovely friends ....


Ros

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Chocolate and challenges

Hello there... How are you all? 
We have beautiful sunshine but it is very cold ... It would be lovely in Wales today seeing all that beautiful countryside glowing in the colours of Autumn ... But I am content to craft and watch the squirrels dashing along the garden ... digging and burying their store of nuts ... Yep, going to have some wonderful oak trees and beech trees growing if I don't watch out ...
I have a project for 2 challenges to share ... 
First up .. The Shabby Tea Room has an inspiration picture for this weeks challenge ... "Chocolate Covered Autumn" either go with the theme or the colours ... look at the delicious picture ...



Well, I just had to go with the Chocolate! who doesn't love chocolate? 
And secondly Pixie Dust Paperie are having their first ever challenge! "Scrap - Lift" all the DT work is so beautiful, but in the end I knew I had to go with Kirsty's boxed notes .... So without further ado ... here's my project ...


A boxed set of notes cards .... all with a chocolate theme ... all of  the images are from a collage bought at Etsy ...


My box has an acetate front so you can see the cards through ... handmade and printed on my computer


Looks like white chocolate and dark chocolate (yum)
The cards in more detail ...


This gorgeous chocolate brown ribbon is from the Pixie Dust Paperie and so is the prima flower below




So why don't you hop on over to these two challenge sites ... I had fun doing this today ... and I never ate one piece of chocolate ...(yet!) ... 

Till soon ... take care
Ros







Tuesday, October 19, 2010

City Crafter Challenge Day ...

Hello there ... I've missed you all over the past few days ... I had a great time with my SIL in Anglesey and Wales and crammed a week into 3 days. We laughed and chatted and had a lot of girlie time together, which was so overdue.
I am anxious to see all your creations and have spent ages checking out all last weeks entries on City Crafter Challenge ... but today we have a brand new challenge set by our creator the very talented Kirsty ...
A brilliant challenge where the theme is Rome and the challenge is to make a card/project with a vintage feel ... I have never been to Rome, but it makes me think of the Colosseum, the Trevi fountain, and all the beautiful old romantic films I watched with my Mum ....



I hope my card interprets both the place and the romance ....


In case you are wondering ... I got the image from the internet and changed it to a png. file ... resized it and added the words ... then printed directly onto DP. Lots of Tim Holtz here too in the masking tape border, the key and heart die cuts which I first rubbed with gold buff, then glittered ... large flower from Prima and small flowers from Kirsty ... the rest is from my stash ...
Please pop over to the City Crafter Challenge to see the rest of the DT work together with a lovely card from our GD this week Laurie Willison .
I have sooo much catching up to do ... and look forward to seeing your entries for this challenge ... Have a lovely day

Till soon 
Ros


Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Waltzingmouse and Christmas

I have been trying to get into Christmas mode ... you know that is hard for me in October ... and I am prompted even more by the Waltzingmouse sketch challenge this week ... which looks pretty "Christmassy" to me even though some of the DT have made fantastic non Christmas cards ... and as I am going away for a long weekend - no crafting or computer ... eek!  I am thinking of taking some things to cut out so I don't have withdrawal symptoms ... So I have been playing around with some Websters pages (digital) ... the WM sketch ...

my card ....


I found it so hard to photograph this and capture the softness of the colours - the background is a creamy colour and I have been all over the house trying to capture it's true prettiness ... perhaps the glitter doesn't help?


Whilst awaiting my new stamps from WM ... I carried on with some more of the gorgeous Websters Papers and made these two cards ... 1st card



2nd card ...


So there we are .... I'm getting a start at Christmas anyway .... 

Till soon
Ros