Morning All!!!

Lovely day out there today but I as usual have some work to catch up on so I don't think I shall be going out in it.

I was going to blog at my usual ridiculous hour of the morning but I fell asleep after watching a couple of episodes of Grey's Anatomy on DVD with DD and managed to sleep right through until 9am which is very unusual for me.

I spent yesterday making cards for the shop so nothing exciting to show. Instead I am posting some more Christmas cards done with my favourite stamps from last year.

I am sure the stamps used for the following cards need no introduction but they are from Elusive Images. I dread to think how many of their Christmas stamps I bought last year......lol!!! These two cards are made with a set called Pear Tree which I love.

So here I have stamped and embossed the pear and script image in gold and then used H20's to add the background shading to the script and to paint the main image.

This was done just as I was starting to collect the H20's and I remember being absolutely amazed that I had actually painted this because a painter I ain't.

The vertical Merry Christmas is from the Stamp'n'Stor range by Sunday International and the Noel stamp is from Hampton Art.

The front of the card was trimmed to DL size and then I attached the red card inside after stamping the greeting.

Here I stamped the small pear image with brown Stazon all over a card blank and then painted them in using a waterbrush and Marvy le Plume pens. Once completely dry I chalked around the edges with a light and a mid brown chalk.

The layered circles were cut with a circle cutter (The one that looks like a compass with a blade). The script background was stamped in Stazon. The stamp is just a single line so it was stamped repeatedly.

The tree was stamped and embossed in gold onto a piece of green card and attached with foam pads.

The partridge was stamped and coloured then cut out and attached with foam pads.

Merry Christmas is from Rubber Stampede.

Well I am off to do some Cricut-ing as I have run out of a few things. I've got a horrible feeling I am on my last mat but hopefully it will last until I have done.
Whatever you are doing........have a fab day.
Bye for now
Sheila-x-

Daring Cardmakers-Buttons

Oh boy.......am I feeling chuffed with myself or what?............lol!!!
I think I have cracked it now with the new scanner and my pictures are coming out really nice.
These are my two cards for the DCM dare this week.
Here is the brief-:

Hi its Keryn here and it's my turn to set the dare this week. But before I do that thanks so much for the fabulous cards you've made for Jo's Frilly Dare and the Dots and Dashes little extra. We really enjoy looking at your cards.
I know you've all got buttons stashed away somewhere, whether they've been purchased at a cardmaking store or you thriftily snipped them off DH's old shirt. I'd like you to find those buttons and use them somewhere on a card. They can be real buttons, craft shop buttons, die cut buttons, faux buttons or another type of button, surprise us all.

Just a couple of really simple cards this week the first one is K&Co paper plus a mystery paper..........I had used the part with the manufacturers name on it.

Dunelm blooms with a handmade chipboard button tied on with ribbon which I then decorated with tiny flowers and pink gems.

Diecut letters are Zipe'mate.

This card is made with some of the embellishments from one of the kits I was telling you about yesterday so this will be a sample for the shop.

The swirl background is cut from one of the card blanks in the kit and I added a band of white glitter card to it.

All other items including the ribbon and buttons are in the kit which is from a company called Imagine That.

I provided the blue square card to mount it on as I am not over keen on printed cards. Using them like this though does mean that you get more mileage from the kit.........yesterday I made two cards from one card blank and still had a piece left big enough for another card.

I didn't get time to go out and get the rest of the blog candy today as I gritted my teeth and went up and got the painting done. My knee is absolutely screaming now but at least it is done and out of the way. Sunday I will paint the walls and lay the carpet unless hubby decides he wants to go out somewhere. I know he would like to go up to the Lake District but it is so warm that I don't really want to take Smudge all that way in the car just for a day trip and I couldn't bear to leave him at home on his own.

Right........well I feel the need for a cup of tea and a bit of time with my feet up now.

Have a fab weekend

Sheila-x-

Up To My Ears In Blooms!!!

Good grief.......just look at the time. 4:40am and I am wide awake again and up to my ears in blooms and blossoms making cards for the local shop.
I had a lovely day at the shop today. No workshops so I was able to sit and make up some samples but this time I wasn't stamping. A few weeks ago we had some kits in with 15 cards and envelopes and enough Christmas embellishments to make more than the 15 cards included but they are not moving so I thought if I did some samples maybe that would show people just how nice the kits are. Well blow me I had no sooner put the cards on display than I sold a kit. Obviously the bits and pieces can't look their best just lying in a box......even though the box is gorgeous. Very sturdy so I shall be using mine for storage when it's done with.
I managed to get some of the bits I wanted for my 20,000 hits Blog Candy giveaway but I will need to nip out tomorrow and get some of the things I couldn't get.



As the cards I am making for the shop are just ordinary birthday cards etc I thought they'd be a bit boring for the blog so I am going to share over the next few days some cards made last year with my favourite stamps and other techniques.

Today I am starting with what must be my all time favourite stamp.......the Angel Chorus Collage stamp from Rubber Stampede. This is the simplest of the cards I have done with this stamp.

The cardstock began life as a piece of nasty green mottled card which after bleaching turned into this gorgeous turquoise mottled card.

I simply stamped and embossed the image in silver and then added Stickles Glitter Glue in either Diamond or Crystal.......most likely Crystal as that was my favorite last year.

I then cut closely around the image and mounted it onto a darker piece of card.

For this card I stamped and embossed in silver onto a piece of navy blue card and bleached out some areas of the image. I then painted the bleached areas with H20's and also added some glitter glue.....again this was probably Stickles Crystal.

Also added a couple of punched snowflakes with gem centres. Here I have stamped the image in black Stazon and then painted with H20's.
The image was then cut into four pieces and each piece was triple embossed.
Layer one was clear embossing powder layer two was Stamp'n'Stuff Crystal embossing powder and then a further layer of clear was added. The effect IRL is quite stunning as the glitter is suspended in the embossing rather than totally covering the image.
The four pieces were then arranged onto a piece of thick black card and atttached with a strong carpet tape to stop the stamped pieces from curling.

I hope you like them. I will probably be using this stamp again this year at some point as I do love it.
Back to the blooms then for me......after a nice cuppa I think.
Hope you are all having sweet dreams.
Sheila-x-

DCM-Little Extra-Dots and Dashes!!!

Now then, maybe you need a little extra challenge in the middle of the week - well, if so, as usual we have something to amuse you....
Dot Dot Dot Dash Dash Dash
We'd like you to make a card featuring dots and dashes, spots and stripes - that's it, a nice easy and fun little theme for you to play with - just make sure you get both spots AND stripes on your card. We'd love to see your dotty, spotty, stripey creations so please come back and leave a message when you're ready to share.....

Here is my effort for the Little Extra dare from DCMthis week.
The background paper is handmade using first an ink pad to add colour to a piece of linen effect card. Lines and dots have then been added with a Dottariffic pen.
For the small background and flower I coloured another piece of card and stamped the flower using black Stazon. I then added a couple of layers of clear embossing powder to it for contrast and attched it with a brad to the small background.
The black layer is cut using my Fiskars Sunflower decorative edging scissors and is pierced.
After layering I have finished the card with some small black dots.


Well the ladies in the two classes today worked very hard. It tired me out just watching them........lol!!! DD was a fab shop assistant and tea/coffee lady for me and we had a brilliant day. I was really chuffed that five of the ladies were inspired enough to purchase sets of my stamps.......the others already had them.
The whole day was filled with chat and laughter and we had a great time.
I won't be at the shop today so I will hopefully get the painting done plus a few other urgent jobs so I may not have time for any cardmaking. I have also promised DD that I will watch a DVD with her tonight called The Reaping which I am sure is going to scare the pants off me.....big wuss that I am.......lol!!!


As usual I have made a heck of a mess so I am off to tidy up......yes I know it's gone 4am but I did have a sleep from 7pm to 10:30pm last night so am wide awake now.
Bye for now
Sheila-x-

I Blinked And Missed Monday!!!

Well it doesn't seem like five minutes since I got out of bed this morning and here we are at blogging time again.
So much for getting my painting finished. DD had just come in from a night shift and normally only sleeps until about 11am after her last night but today she slept until 2:30pm. As her bedroom is right next to the bathroom I couldn't be up there messing about while she was sleeping and then by the time she got up it was to late to start really as DH and DS were due in and would be wanting showers. I am at work tomorrow so now have it planned for Wednesday.....if I am not required at the shop and if anything stops me I am going to scream very loudly in frustration so get your ear plugs ready........lol!!!


I have two classes tomorrow and no boss so DD is coming to the shop to do the serving and coffee making duties. Both classes will be using my Holly Doodles and Dot and Stripe Christmas stamp sets from Tandastamps. Both classes have already done some of the cards so I am using a card designed by my boss for one of them. I have made a mock up in my own choice of papers and embellishments and just wanted to show you how different they look.
The first card is Deb's and she has used gold card to make a trifold card. One flap is folded over the front and trimmed. The flap has then been covered with paper.
One set of holly leaves is stamped and embossed straight onto the card and the centres have been removed with a craft knife. The same stamp has then been used to stamp onto gold card and also heat resistant acetate. The leaves are cut out and then used to make the embellishment which is finished with a bow. I did my dry run copy in different papers just to show how the same design can look completely different. While typing I have just noticed I made a bit of a boo boo when I was scanning. The inside back flap of both cards is also covered with paper. Deb used the same as the front and mine has a green distressed paper which shows through the cut out holly leaves but noggin here when she is scanning uses a piece of card as a spacer and that is what is showing through the cut outs. There is no hope for me.........lol!!!
DD kindly fetched me some small buttons when she got up and I have used those for the berries rather than glitter glue.

Just want to say a couple of thank you's. I am very touched and grateful to everyone who visits my blog and takes the time to leave a comment but I was really touched by the message 'pattyjo' left me on my post yesterday. After the last horrible couple of weeks it really made my day........thank you.

Also thanks to Hazel who has been and gorn and bought a set of Holly Doodle stamps. Hope you have loads of fun with them and I can't wait to see your cards.

I am just off for a bath now and a read of a new book which I have yet to decide on. I finished my other one while I was eating my tea. Good job we still have a pile of new ones to go at.
Bye for now then.
Sheila-x-

Oh The Weather Outside Is Frighful!!!

And it definitely is frightful today although this morning was quite pleasant.
Still it hasn't bothered me much as I have been inside stamping me little socks off. I've been making up some samples with a new set of stamps for the shop and they are absolutely gorgeous.
The clear set is called Mega Merry and is by Stampendous. There is the big 'merry' and also a selection of script words such as 'and bright', 'christmas' and 'wishes' along with some little picture stamps.
They stamp beautifully and although I don't particularly like fiddly cutting out, I found them very easy to do.

All the cards are five and three quarter inch squares so you can tell just how big that 'merry' is. For this card I have used paper from the BG Fruitcake range. This one is double sided so I have used the reverse for the word and also for the holly leaves which are punched using a Woodware punch.

I would have preferred to use buttons for the embellishments but I didn't have any the right size so went with gems instead.

This card uses paper from a DCWV stack I bought last year.

The punched snowflakes are on small chipboard squares and are finished with a gem.

Not entirely sure what went wrong with this scan but there is actually about three quarters of an inch of white card showing above the strip of paper but I could only get this to scan to the edge of the paper.......strange.

Anyway DCWV paper again with a Sizzlit snowflake cut from glitter card and embellished with tiny heart shaped gems and some punched flakes with gems.

I think this set will get used quite a bit this year. I just love the simplicity of it.


Well as I have to do some painting in the bathroom tomorrow I am trying to get all my samples and class cards done today before I have a good tidy up. As usual my room looks like a tornado has ripped through it.


I was amazed to see that my counter is showing over 20,000 now so I think it is time to offer some Blog Candy as a thank you to all the wonderful people who visit and leave such heartwarming comments on my work. I will need to go shopping first so give me a few days and I will sort out something gorgeous and maybe this time a little competition.
Keep checking back so you don't miss out.
Back to work for me then......hope you have all had a fab weekend.
Sheila-x-

DCM-Frills

Daring Cardmakers have a fab dare this week.

Jo says-:

So... here is my dare...You must make a card with a frill - it could be some lace, frilly ribbon, a hand cut or decorative scissor edge or a folded paper frill - or what ever you choose to make.... you decide!

A hand cut tag covered with paper from the K&Co Holiday Traditions pad and embellished with lace and ribbon.

The poinsettias are punched using a Woodware punch. They have been embellished with brads and Krylon Glitter spray.

The background stamp is from Rubber Stampede.

Here I have used a piece of blue pearlised/embossed card and cut out a mount using Fiskars Sunflower decorative scissors. I have then done some freehand piercing to create a lacy edge.

Stamped images are from Stampendous and have been embossed in silver.

Thanks for a great dare Jo
Sheila-x-

We Have Lift Off!!!

A Sizzix Christmas tree die cut with the bottom trimmed off which has been stamped with a border stamp from the Holly Doodles Set and embossed in gold.

The leaves have been filled in with a dark green glitter gel pen and the berries have been embellished with Stickles Glitter Glue in Xmas Red.

Paper is BG from the Dasher collection which has been layered over stamped text and also used to cover a piece of chipboard for the greeting plaque

The Dot & Stripe Christmas Set has been used here and the tag has been stamped and embossed onto red and green card then cut out and layered.

I then stamped again onto gold card using Stazon and cut out the star which I embossed in the Cuttlebug.

The background is a piece of gold card with a piece of BG paper from the Fruitcake collection attached with glue stick. This has also been embossed using the Cuttlebug.

Holly Doodles again........this time I have stamped the holly border onto white gloss card with Versamark ink and dried it with a heat gun. Once dry I have rubbed Adirondack ink over it.

I did the same with the stamped image from Stampendous but this time after applying the inks and buffing to remove any moisture I applied a coat of Versamark and a layer of Crystal embossing powder to glitter the image and then embellished with lilac crystals.

The greeting stamp is by DeNami

Well here's a bumper batch of cards to share today.

At last Picture It seems to have sorted itself out and I have been able to scan my cards.

I've been working with the Holly Doodles and Dot & Stripe Christmas sets from Tandastamps making more cards for classes at the shop. It seems already like I have been doing that forever but we have a long way to go before Christmas and we have quite a few ladies who come every week to the classes which means different cards every week so I like to have a good selection by me.

Still not feeling 100% me which is getting annoying now but at least I feel better than I did so that has to be good.

I know I said I was going to be good and not buy any more paper but I have been very bad and bought a stash of BG Dasher paper which arrived at the shop yesterday along with a couple of sheets from the Phoebe collection which I love. Also several new stamps in singles and sets which I am hoping to have time to play with over the weekend. Some nice coloured eyelets for my Cropadile and some big brads with slits in for tying ribbon through and a pack of MM flowers and brads in cream and black which are just yummy.

I am assuaging the guilt by telling myself that as I worked an extra day at the shop this week.....I flippin' well deserve it...........lol!!!

Right I had better go and do something seeing as how I fell asleep as soon I got home from work and didn't wake up until 9pm.

Bye for now

Sheila-x-

Daring Cardmakers-Photo Finish

Hi there
Sorry I've not been around but I 've had a rough few days what with one thing and another.
Had a bit of a confidence crisis which very nearly had me boxing up all of my crafting stuff and selling it. It's still there in the back of my mind but I'm hanging fire on doing anything about it for the minute.

Anyway.....I decided I would have a go at the DCM challenge to try and cheer myself up a bit.
I must admit that although I do like sepia photographs, black and white are my most favourite and I love this image. I have teamed it with my favourite black and white spotty papers with just a touch of red.........mmmmmm didn't I do this last week...lol!!! Must be going through a bit of a phase.
Fab challenge as always.......thanks Tracie.
Bye for now
Sheila-x-

OK..........Own Up.................!!!

.........who stole the last three days of my holiday...........lol!!!
I have never known a week go so fast and wouldn't you just know it......I never got half the things done I wanted to do.
All that time off and then today I spent rushing to get cards finished for the class tomorrow, two special orders from the local shop to be delivered tomorrow along with some more baby cards. I should do a huge batch of baby cards really as I am always running out but given the choice I would rather cook dinner for a hundred people and do the washing up.......lol.

Anyway here are some of todays efforts. A simple tag card stamped using Tandastamps Dot & Stripe Christmas and paper from the Plum Pudding range by Crafts House.

The stamp has been stamped and embossed onto gold card and two of the papers from the range and has then been pieced in layers with foam pads.

The gold card is fab as when you heat the embossing powder the card takes on a crackled effect from the heat.

This Joy Fold card has been covered with BG Fruitcake paper.

The stamp is by Stampendous and is called gifts for a king.

Catalogue number is M201

I stamped it once onto the patterned side of the paper just using Versafine Onyx Black and stamped and embossed in gold onto the reverse which is distressed turquoise. I then cut the gifts out and mounted them onto foam pads.

This is one of the special orders I did today. The recipient loves patchwork so I used that for the theme.

I covered thin chipboard octagons with paper from K&Co, shaded the edges with ink and added faux stitching.

The scissors are a Sizzix diecut. I cut two in gold and one in black and cut and layered them to add dimension.

I would have liked to have gone to town with some vintage sewing images and grunging but I don't know if it would have gone down very well really so I stuck with a simple design.

Well DD kindly picked me up a copy of Craft Stamper when she went into town today. It's a fab issue and the free stamp is gorgeous so I may have a play with that after work tomorrow
Bye for now
Sheila-x-

DCM-Time

If you could see the number of clock face and pocket watch stamps I have here you would be wondering why it took me so long to come up with this card for the DCM theme this week.

Here is the brief-:

Hi there, It's me, Kathy, here to dare you this week;
OK, Absolutely anything goes this week as long as it's on the theme of TIME."It's About Time" So you can use clocks, calendars, quotes, sayings, pictures, nursery rhymes, or altered art-type stuff, whatever takes your fancy - just take some time out to play and have some fun; remember, time flies when you're having fun!

Well when I read it the first thing that came into my mind was the title of a song.....Time (clock of the heart) by Culture Club which was a favourite song of mine. I didn't want to do a vintage card so it took some thinking about.

The letters have all been hand drawn onto 2"x4" pieces of card, cut out and attached to the card with DST.

The smaller lettering for the words are diecut as is the heart.

The clock was a pocket watch stamp with the handle and winder cut off as it was the only one I had which would fit in the space and I think this one was the freebie from Simply Stamping magazine.

A thoroughly enjoyable challenge again from The Daring Cardmakers.......thank you.

Sheila-x-

Vintage Travel

The postie delivered me yet more stamps from TandaStamps this morning.

A lovely travel set and a keys and locks set.

I have used the travel set for this card along with an image from the Vintage Transport set to make a card that looks like a travel journal.

I wanted to make it look like an old well travelled journal so I took a piece of C6 chipboard..........this was quite a thin chipboard which had been a packaging sheet in some 12x12 papers.

Assorted papers were glued on with Mod Podge and left to dry.

Once dry I rubbed over the surface with a transluscent gold acrylic paint and once that had dried I rubbed Vivid inks in Taupe and Vintage Green across the surface.

Images from the travel set were then stamped in Stazon Jet Black.

Once that was done I decided to have a go at the Peeled Paint technique which I had seen on Wendy's blog some time ago......it really aPEELed to me.......groan!!! So I smeared petroleum jelly over some areas and then painted over the whole surface with a Folk Art acrylic paint in Christmas Red. When the first layer was dry I added a second coat as some of the writing was showing through where I didn't want it to.

When it was dry I removed the excess paint and was so glad that I had taken the plunge and had a go as it looked fab.

The train image was stamped onto a piece of torn text paper which had been rubbed over with the Vivid inks and then using my finger I patted a coating of the gold paint over it and then glued it onto the main piece. The small tags are stamped onto inked card. The tag stamp and the compass are from the new travel set and the words are from the Vintage Transport set. I used Fastenater staples to attach them to the card.

The journal word was torn from a sheet I had in an ephemera pack and was inked with the Vivid inks again.

Once the piece was assembled I attached it to a card blank which had been stamped and inked.

I so loved doing this one especially the Peeled Paint technique. I shall definitely use that again.

Thanks for looking

Sheila-x-

Tagged Again!!!

Crikey.......I have been tagged with the Bumper Card Society tag for the third time now........thank you Sue.

The Rules
1) Send ONE card to someone you know within 7 days! (family, friends, associates, cyber people, etc.) ANYONE!!! Doesn't matter who... just do it. Can you imagine the smile on their face when they open their mailbox and see a card from you?
2) Tag (yes, I know, but this is the only way to spread this) 5 people you know to do the same thing (Tag means tag them to send their own cards to their own people).
3) Proudly display this on your blog to spread a little sunshine and pass it on.If you get tagged again (we can all hope, can't we), send another card!There's more information about how this tag began here

I am going to tag-:

Kim

I can't praise her work enough....I just love it.

Gillian Hamilton

I'm a big fan of this hugely talented lady.

I'll be back with more nominations later

Sheila-x-

........And Three Hours Later!!!

Well the time it was taking for the computer to catalogue all of my picture files I thought I would be posting these on Friday along with the big dare......lol!!!

Anyway the Little Extra Dare at DCM this week is to make a card to say Sorry. I've never really made a card for this before so for the square card I just grabbed a pile of 6x6 paper that has been put out to be used up and found the K&Co Daisy papers lurking in the pile. I trimmed a piece of the foliage paper slightly smaller than the front of the card (which looks black but is actually olive green).

I punched a scalloped circle from the olive card and cut a smaller circle using the Cricut George Cartridge, cut out three daisies and chalked them a bit to add some depth then layered them onto the circle after adding a hand drawn edging.

The ribbon is a piece of the olive card with white gel pen stitching, threaded through a buckle and attached with DST.

Sorry has been stamped in Olive Green Stazon using an alphabet set by MSE.

The other card is made up of shapes cut on the Cricut and embellished with a Prima Flower and a white brad, flourish stamps with extra detail in white gel pen and a stamped letter embellished with white gel pen and black permanent marker.


Thanks for the challenge........I shall be at the computer on Friday at 10am on the dot for the next challenge.........not that I haven't got a thousand other things I should be doing...........but they are never quite as much fun as doing something you want to be doing.........lol!!!




I have been tagged by both Wendy McGlinchy and Joanne (Angelnorth) with a new badge for the blog and I need to find five people to pass it onto so that will be a job for later on today as I am getting pretty tired now.
Does anyone know how I can make it fit better in the side panel as some of it is missing and it looks decidedly odd..........who said right up your street then.....lol!!!

Bye for now
Sheila-x-