Jules Crafty Snippets wk 34

Good Evening All!
It would seem that I`ve become just as addicted to Jules Crafty Snippets Challenge as I have to LiM. I simply have to have my weekly rummage in my snippet box now. I made this card over the weekend but I have others started that just need the time to put them together. Watch this space!!!

The DP is Pink Petticoat from my snippet box matted onto deep red card.
The image is by Chocolate Baroque coloured with Promarkers and the sentiment is Papertrey Inc.The lacey scallop is a nestie die in the deep red card.
I`ve added a deep red ribbon with hearts on to give it a bit of a pop.


The weather is so cold and miserable here today that it`s making think  more of autumnal cards or maybe (shock horror) Christmas ones. Where has our summer got to?




Thanks for popping in...Lynne xxx

Happy 4th Birthday Flourishes

Good evening all. I hope you`ve all enjoyed the bank holiday weekend.

August marks the 4th birthday of Flourishes.org and they are having a fabulous blog hop and card challenge to celebrate with wonderful prizes to give away. Now you all know how much I adore Flourishes stamps and would give my right arm (maybe not) to own more of them than I have. Well the only to stand a chance is to enter the competition, so that`s what I`ve done. Here is my entry,

I have used one of my favourite stamps from Flourishes, Gerber daisy. This time though I`ve tried a technique I haven`t done before.I`ve cut the image out using a nestie circle but I`ve left some of the flowers and the stems larger than the die. Chupa has a great tutorial on how to do this HERE.
She explains it so much better than me.
I cut a panel and used a Martha Stewart Doily border punch along both long edges and used some pale dusky green paper from Docrafts as a contrast to the image. The image is coloured with Promarkers and I`ve added a moss green bow.
The sentiment is Flourishes Tag Lines and I`ve added some flat back pearls to finish.


Thank you for popping in...Lynne xxx

Less is More wk 30...Take 3 challenges

Good afternoon all!

Can I firstly welcome my new followers. It`s always lovely to know that you think my little corner of cyber space is worth a peek at.
Secondly could I say a massive thank you to all of you that left massages of support and sent cyber hugs after my little outburst last week. Although my situation hasn`t changed, I heard something the other day that put all of my problems into perspective and after giving myself a stern talking to I`ve realised that things could be an awful lot worse and I`m feeling a lot more positive now. Those hugs were lovely, thank you.

Right, this week at Less is More we are to combine 3 of the last 29 challenges. Easy peasy and spoilt for choice, thank you Chrissie and Mandi.

For my card I`ve gone for, wk 9, A Touch of Red,
wk 13, Thank You or Congratulations and wk 15, Embossing.
I started with a 5x5 white card base.
I wanted a strip of embossed card but I also wanted to put an edge around it to give it a more finished look but I don`t have long rectangular dies. So, I used a short die and a longer piece of card, placed it into the cuttlebug but instead of rolling all the way through, I stopped just short of the end. I then moved the die along the card to the length I wanted, keeping it in line with the cut I already had, turned it around, and rolled again almost to the end. This gave me the correct size panel. I then placed the panel into the Damask EF  from Crafts Too and embossed the whole thing. I returned the panel to the original die and went around the edge with a ball tool, moving the die down the panel until the whole thing had an edge. My instructions are a bit garbled but I hope you understand what I have done and I`m pleased with the result.
Next was the frame. I ran a small piece of scrap card through the Bug with the Swiss Dots EF, Then placed a nestie labels 4 die with a nestie oval die inside and made the frame. Once again, with the die still in place, I ran around the edge with a ball tool. The sentiment  by Rubbadubbado, was stamped in clear embossing ink and detail silver EP, cut out with a labels 4 die but trimed slightly smaller than the frame.
I made a rolled rose using a Marianne designs Rose Die. I find that these are better if made using paper rather than card but I didn`t have any red paper. So I cut a piece of red card large enough so the die would fit and ran the card through my ribbler ( one of those thingys that makes corrugated card) about 10 times to soften it then scrunched it up a few times in my hands. This breaks down the fibres and also makes the card seperate. I then seperated it into 3 sheets and used one of them to make the rose.
I punched a butterfly with a Martha Stewart punch out of a piece of the swiss Dots embossed card and added some red gem stones to finish.
It probably took longer to write this post than it did to do all the techniquey bits, they are not at all as complicated as they sound.
Edited to add- Chrissie has a tutorial for lengthening die cuts Here much easier to follow than mine lol.

Thanks for popping in...Lynne xxx

LiM Things that move part 2

Good morning all!
I made a second card for this weeks Less is More Challenge at the weekend but have only just got round to posting it. I thought my earlier butterfly card was a bit of a cop out seeing as I use butterflies so regularly. I remembered I had this stamp from Anita`s tucked away and although wheelbarrows need a helping hand, they do move.

I stamped straight onto the card and coloured with Promarkers.
The sentiment is Flourishes Tag Lines.
The photograph isn`t the best but the weather has been pretty rubbish here this week apart from monday which was glorious and just sent to tease us I think. How you can go from summer heat wave to autumn overnight baffles me but then most things do lol.

While I`m here I thought I`d give you a quick explanation on why I`m being such a misery guts.
Alan works for the public sector and as you all know there have been major cut backs across the country in all forms of council employment. While he was never on fantastic wages we managed quite well until about 15 months ago when his working system changed. It`s complicated but basically his work consists of 3 levels, core, periodic and emergency call out, with 3 levels of pay, core being the lowest. Emergency call out has all but dried up and periodics have been reduced by half leaving just core work. At the moment he has a lot of core work and is working 15 hour days and saturday mornings which means we hardly see each other and when we do he is so tired, he sleeps alot.It also means that over the last year or so, our income has gone down by about a third. With a lot of careful planning and belt tightening we have been managing but we have almost no disposable income. On sunday, the car that has been playing up for months decided it just wasn`t playing at all anymore and then on sunday evening the telly died. It wasn`t even a dramatic death, it just turned itself off, went pop and won`t come on again. So we are watching a very small portable at the moment. Now I know that in the grand scheme of things, being tellyless isn`t very important but you get to a point were you wonder what else life can throw at you. Well on monday we found out. Young Alan, our son, ( having two Alans is so confusing) had another scan on his knee. The first two were inconclusive as there was too much fluid but this time they were able to see the true extent of the damage. He has torn 75% of the medial ligament but this time they`ve found serious damage to the cruciate ligament too which means surgery. The wedding itself won`t be a problem although it`s not how you`d choose your wedding day to be but the honeymoon has had to be postponed because he won`t be able to fly for quite a while because of the risk of DVT. I think this was the last straw for me.
I know there are people in a worse state than us but you just think that life should be better than this. I don`t feel quite so miserable as I did at the beginning of the week, you`ve just got to get on with it I know and things can only get better but in the meantime I`m wallowing in self pity lol.

 Thanks for popping in...Lynne xxx

cr84fn # 36

Hello everyone.
I apologise for being a bit quiet lately but life is having a field day with us at the moment. I know I seem to do nothing but moan and I won`t go into details but it`s one of those times when life dumps on you from a great height and then laughs about it. So, creativity, which is usually my great escape,is taking a bit of a back seat as I don`t appear to be getting much inspiration. However I did manage to make an effort for this fortnights challenge at cr84fn which has this fabby pic for inspiration.

                                                                                 
The yellow dotty paper ( Pink Petticoat) is actually a lot brighter IRL, matted onto some kraft card.
The stripes is also by PP and really is almost kraft in colour.
I`ve used a Waltzing Mouse Labels  4 stamp, stamped in yellow and cut out with a nestie. The sentiment is by Papertrey and is cut out with a nestie oval .
I added some ribbon and some roses from my stash, the leaves are punched from Kraft card.
As all of the papers are snippets, I`m also entering this one into Jules Crafty Snippets Challenge.

Thanks for popping in...Lynne xxx

Less is More #29...Things that Move...

Good afternoon all. Apologies for being MIA all week, I started with a sore throat on Sunday evening and by monday I had the worse head cold I`ve had in years. Really knocked me for six and my mojo caught it aswell. I feel much better today though, still a bit snotty ( sorry) but that`s all which is a good job as it`s Less is More day.
This week is a theme, things that move, which could be a moving part on a card or simply an image of something that moves. Sounds easy peasy ? yeah right!!!

I was very honoured to be showcased for the wk 27 challenge ` the colours of our nations flag` so I`ve a lot to live up to this week and going by the entries already submitted, the standard is very high. Here is what I`ve come up with today.

I used blending chalks and a piece of bathroom sponge to make the background strips. Four different shades of yellow to get the graduation and then stamped a Laura Ashley stylised flower in clear embossing ink and clear embossing powder to give a sort of watermark.
I cut the strips to size and placed using foam pads.
The butterfly is by Do Crafts stamped and heat embossed in black then coloured with promarkers. Only the body of the butterfly is stuckdown, the wings are lifted but look quite flat in the pic.
The sentiment is by Crafty Individuals stamped with versafine Onyx Black.





Thanks for popping in...Lynne xxx

Christening card

Good Morning All!
It`s a beautiful day here today, typical as I`m back at work this afternoon. So, a quick post from me for a change.
My brothers grandaughter is being Christened in a few weeks so I`ve made a card to send. I`ve been at my snippet box again too so I`m entering this one into Jules Crafty Snippets # 32

The striped paper is Pink Petticoat and I think the hearts is Cute Colours but not sure. Both have been punched with a Martha Stewart Doily punch and layered.
The sentiment is computer generated, then stamped with a Waltzing Mouse Label stamp and cut out with a nestie.
I`ve added a ribbon and made a double flat bow with a pink heart gem.
Hopefully, time permitting I`ll be back with some more snippet makes during the week. Last week Jules had a record number of entries so the fight against snippets is definitely catching on. Check out Jules blog for some fantastic inspiration.

Thanks for popping in...Lynne xxx