D'Arcy's Diaries Mid Challenge Reminder

Whilst trawling through blog land a couple of days ago I came across a tutorial for making a background that looks like forged steel and decided I really needed to have a go. So I decided to use it as the background for today's card. Unfortunately I didn't have the exact materials needed so I substituted a few things and I think it turned out OK for a first attempt. 

You can find the tutorial here

The background uses aluminium tape, and various things to add texture plus black paint to give the effect of forged steel. The 'rivets' are made with the bottom of a biro tube. I have a clock charm, peel off letters (to spell happy birthday) and some jute underneath the self adhesive tape, to add some different textures.

Image - DD_026

Aluminium tape - Halfords

Clock charm, jute,square brads and peel off letters - Stash

Grosgrain ribbon - MeiFlower

What do you think, cool or what?!

Thanks for looking

Colette xx

The Egguarium

My grandson's school are holding their Easter Bonnet and Decorated Egg competition today and I mentioned at the weekend that I had been busy helping Will with his decorated egg, so I thought I would show you what we have been up to.

Tadaaaa!.....The Egguarium

I used various freebie digi stamps to make up the background and then Will coloured it in, we then had lots of fun in the garden with tacky glue and sand to make a sandy bottom for our tank, which we then decorated with shells, dewdrops, some bits from stash and lots of tissue paper anemones.

Will painted the egg yellow, picked out some pearl papers for the scales and then used an oval punch to punch them out, I cut out the tail and fin for him and then we stuck everything on the egg with double sided tape, his eyes are black stick on gems and his mouth is a dewdrop.

The fish is sitting on a coral reef (made from those squidgy shapes you sometimes get in parcels, glued together), which again is decorated with tissue paper, shells and dewdrops. I cut, scored and folded acetate and used double sided tape to make up the egguarium.

Will insisted that we needed to add glitter to the seaweed as his teacher would absolutely love it if we did, (a women after my own heart LOL!) so here he is with my quickie glue pen, drawing on lines for adding his next lot of glitter.

Will was going to my mum's house straight afterwards and left here glittering from head to toe.

Thanks for looking,

Colette xx

How ya doin'

We are half way through the Easter and/or Buttons and Bows challenge over on the Teddy Bo Challenge blog and I have used another of last weeks releases for today's card.

Image  - TBB_116 cropped - Coloured in Photoshop

Papers - Clipart Fairy - Nature boy and Forgotten Birthday

Charm, buttons, ribbon - MeiFlower
Beads - stash

I have some jewellery pins in my stash, so I added some beads to one, along with a butterfly bead charm from Meiflower, looped the end of the pin, threaded a piece of cord through a buttonhole, the loop, the other buttonhole and then I tied the whole thing round the knot of my bow before fixing into place on my card. 

Pop over to the Teddy Bo Challenge Blog and check out the fabulous projects that

Team B have created this week.

Colette xx

Clipart Fairy Workshop - March

I have been trying to get this post done since about 9am this morning, after numerous interruptions by the telephone and then a visit from my daughter Stacy, and grandsons Will and Charlie we suddenly realised that the clocks had gone forward in the night and it was actually an hour later than we thought! we had forgotten all about the clocks going forward for British Summer Time.

After an hour or so of helping Will make his decorated egg for the Easter Egg decorating competition in school on Wednesday (photos will be up in a couple of days), and then eating a late lunch I have finally managed to find the time to do it

Yesterday was another busy day at the Clipart Fairy monthly workshop, this time around we made seven cards, all the card kits should be available on the websites once Wendy has had time to load them up.

The first card was an Easel Window Card, and behind the window is a little flower arrangement, using roses from WOC

The card needs a sentiment on the base plate and maybe a big bow on the front, down near the left hand corner I'm thinking, to finish it off completely.

This is the Gone The Pub fishing card, the boat and sign are decoupaged and the card has a co-ordinating insert. I used some string to make a fancy knot and added it to the corner.

Another Gone the Pub card, but this time using a Make me a Topper kit, part of the blue shaped panel on the front is fold behind the backing paper so that it swings free, but then a piece of string has been added and fastened to the backing paper, so that it only swings out a certain amount.

The frame around the wording was embossed with the Cuttlebug-Grace's Frame- embossing folder. The swirl is from Cheery Lyn and the flowers are - believe it or not, - roses from WOC, the wire stem was cut off and then the main part of the rose was gently pulled away from the bottom layer of petals, (the removed part can still be used as a smaller rose), a MeiFlower gem was the perfect finishing touch for the centres of the flowers.

This card was made using the Diva Time double up kit, the shoe is covered in glamour dust, Meiflower gems, ribbon and ribbon slider where used to decorate the card.

The Buttercup Yellow card uses the Marianne Creatables ribbon borders 2 die, threaded with brown gingham ribbon from MeiFlower, it's finished off with sticky backed pearls also from Meiflower.

The final card used the Man's Shirt Card Front kit and is a really quick and easy card to make if you need one in a hurry, the tie,collar and pocket are all decoupaged to add dimension.

The cards seemed much quicker this week and the class emptied out quite early, although some of us took a little longer than the others to finish, possibly because of too much talking....Donna.! Wendy showed us some Mica embossing masks she had bought and let the stragglers have a little play with them, with the addition of some MeiFlower gems, ribbon and ribbon slider, we managed to put together another simple card. We all did our own thing, so they were all slightly different, here's mine.

I glamour dusted the stems and leaves of the flowers for a bit of extra sparkle.

I really enjoyed making these cards, I hope you have enjoyed seeing them,

Colette xx

D'Arcy Day

Hi everyone, it's Thursday so it must be D'arcy Diaries Day, the new releases are out this week and it is also the start of our second challenge, which this time around is 

Ribbon and Lace

use either one or both on your project

Image - DD_028 - Coloured in Photoshop

All papers - Gorgeous one - Clipart Fairy

Border - Martha Stewart punch - Layered Arches

Lace - stash

Ribbon, charms and pearls - MeiFlower

I love colouring the D'Arcy images, they are so easy to do, and I really like the way this one turned out.

Check out all of this weeks new releases

 

Pop over to the D'Arcy's Diaries blog and see how they have all been used by my DD teamies, you will definitely find lots of inspiration over there.

Thanks for stopping by

Colette xx

Teddy Bo Tuesday

Can you believe it's Teddy Bo Tuesday once again? the weeks are just flying by and we haven't got that long to go until Easter, so to help you get a start on your Easter cards the theme this week on the Teddy Bo Challenge Blog is eggsactly!!! that (sorry couldn't resist).

Easter and/or Buttons and Bows

It's team B's turn for the challenge this week, so although I have used one of this weeks fabby new images I haven't actually followed the theme. To be honest Easter is about the only celebration that we don't give cards for in my hubby's family. So instead I have made a card for one of my yoga loving buddies as one of this weeks new releases was just perfect, and I have used a bow, so I do fit the challenge a little bit.

Image - TB_197 - coloured in Photoshop

Papers - Samantha Walker - Cuckoo4U Strawberry Love paper pack

Flowers - Marianne designs Creatables Frame straight LR0111

Teal ribbon, tiny sequin flowers, gems and heart charm - MeiFlower

I used black card for the base and mats as I just love how it makes the zingy colours pop! I also inked around the edges of the die cut flowers before shaping them and layering them up. I added tiny little gems to the tips of the spikes on the flower centre and a tiny sequin flower and gem to the centre of the flower, I also added a little gem to the charm.

This weeks New Releases

 

Woohoo look what's arrived at the Teddy Bo store - Die-Versions dies, they have some great designs, I already own a few and am looking forward to adding a few more to my collection.

Pop over to the Teddy Bo Challenge blog and check out the fabulous creations from Team B and find all the details for our Easter Challenge.

Hugs,

Colette xx

Happy Mother's Day!

To all the mums out there, I hope you are having a wonderful day and being spoiled rotten, with breakfast in bed, pressies and of  course lots of gorgeous cards, and here's a card from me to you too.

I used the Property of interactive Kit from the Clipart fairy to make an A5 landscape card.

I added my own wording to the card topper and used the decoupage parts that come in the kit on the girl

The flowers were made by printing some of the papers from the kit onto pearl paper and then using my CREAlies CL CF05 to cut out the shapes. I then shaped them and layered them up finishing off with a pearl in the middle, the leaves are also a CREAlies CL CS 11.  The pretty butterfly is made from two Memory box dies, the background one was cut out of glittery sticky backed paper I picked up at HobbyCraft a while ago, the filigree layer was cut from pearl paper, I used more pearls from MeiFlower for the butterflies body.

I was also planning on doing this second card as a Mothers Day card too, I thought it would be a nice card for a mum from her son and there is an editable page in both the RTP and interactive versions so that you can add your own wording, but in the end I decided to keep it as  a birthday card, I just added an extra frill and layers

I used the Kick Frill Balloon boy Ready to print kit, but printed the main card front twice, cut the frill from the bottom and added it underneath the other parts that came with the kit, I also cut out the circle frame and balloon and the boys head from the centre of it and layered them up on the card front, plus some of the extra balloon decoupage that comes in the kit. I used gold glitter around the frills and the card front then a piece of Grosgrain ribbon across the front. I used yellow cord to tie some tiny buttons around the Grosgrain at evenly spaced intervals. I also covered the balloon string with the same cord.

Ribbon, cord and buttons all from Meiflower.

 I know the buttons aren't up on the website yet, but if you want them just email Mei at  info@meiflower.co.uk  or telephone your order through on 0161 790 3292 

*** Thought I would show you one of the gifts I received today***

A bouquet of cupcake roses, isn't it fabulous!

Enjoy the rest of the day,

Hugs,

Colette xx

Teddy Bo Tuesday

We are halfway through our Menu Challenge over at the Teddy Bo blog, and this time around I have chosen

Starter - Green and Cream

Main - Buttons

Desert - Ribbon

Coffee - Charm

The image is one of this weeks new releases.

Image TBB_113 coloured in Photoshop - I added go faster stripes!

Papers, road, traffic signs border and driving license - Nitwits Collections - Beep Beep

Ribbon, buttons and charm - MeiFlower

I thought this would be suitable both as a birthday card and a congratulation on passing your driving test card, the driving license would make a great place to write a message to the recipient. You could maybe even add a photo of them if you had one.

This week's new releases

Pop over to the Teddy Bo challenge blog and check out what the rest of my teamies fab creations.

You still have until Midnight GMT Sunday to play along with our Menu challenge and be in with the chance of winning yourself 10 Teddy Bo and Co digi images.

Colette xx

Good things come in three's....

.....but in this case it's actually four's. MeiFlower do some fabulous chipboard baby embellishments, four in a pack in either pink or blue, and two different pack designs. I have used three toppers from one of the packs on this card.

Chipboard shapes, ribbon and buttons - MeiFlower

Papers and sentiment panel - Nitwit collections - Bundle of Joy and Great Expectations

Scalloped circle - GoKreate die

Circle die- Spellbinders

This was another one of those cards that was quick to put together, brilliant for when time is short.

Colette xx

Baby Girl card

Today I have a card made using Clipart Fairy papers and Alphabet and MeiFlower baby chipboard shapes.

Papers - Clipart Fairy - Gorgeous set 1

Alphabet - Clipart Fairy - Pink stripe

Die - Go Kreate frilly square #2

white button - stash

Ribbon, gingham button, pearls and chipboard shapes - MeiFlower

Sorry it's such a short post, suffering with Sinusitis and not feeling that great, luckily the card was made earlier in the week or I wouldn't have anything to post at all today.

Have a great weekend,

Colette xx

Aaah Bisto!

Well not quite, but Aaah Asda Chosen By You Gravy Granules for Meat just doesn't have the same ring to it LOL!

Today over on D'Arcy's Diaries we are holding our very first challenge, we thought we'd start off with an

Anything Goes

challenge, your entry must include a D'Arcy's Diaries image, and there is a fantastic prize of 5 D'Arcy images of their choice for the winner.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

From this....

Now back to the Bisto,  Asda gravy granules - standing in my kitchen on Sunday with an empty gravy granule tub in my hand  I suddenly had a light bulb moment. A couple of weeks ago, Maritha, one of my Teddy Bo teamies, had made a gorgeous money box using a Pringles tube check it out here, I loved the idea, but didn't have the Pringle tube, so looking at my gravy granule tub I thought to myself, I'm sure this will do the job just as well, and here is how it ended up.

...to this

image - DD_022 - coloured in photoshop

Papers - various - Clipart Fairy

Die cut - Nellie Snellen
Punch - Iotonic - Daisies
Ribbon, gems, pearls, charms - MeiFlower

I turned the tub upside down so the lid would open from the bottom, cut a slot into the top (bottom) and then wrapped paper around it. The A4 paper didn't quite meet in the middle, but I was planning to cover the join with a punched border anyway so it wasn't a problem. I used double sided tape to stick ribbon around the edges and over the top, and added gems, pearls and charms for decoration. I love the way it turned out and have already started planning my next one, although we have a lot of gravy granules to get through first LOL! A big thank you to Maritha for the inspiration.

Check out the D'Arcy's Diaries blog to see what the rest of the DT have been up to.

KISS butterflies!

Now, that is not an instruction, but hey, if kissing butterflies is your thing then all I can say is - whatever floats your boat LOL!
KISS means Keep It Sweet and Simple, and I'm hoping that is exactly what I have managed to do with this card.

There are occasions when you don't have a lot of time to make a card,( more and more often in my case at the moment) and need to be able to put something together quickly and this design would fit the bill perfectly.

I found these gorgeous butterflies on the MeiFlower stall at the craft show Saturday and just couldn't resist, so had to grab myself a couple of packs (the photo doesn't do them justice, the stone in the centre sparkles beautifully and the wings are made from shiny metallic wires which also sparkle when they catch the light).

You may have noticed one already on yesterday's card, but this time around I have used three and they are the main focus of the design. 

For this card I made a square card blank from a piece of A4 card, printing the wording on before cutting and folding. I embossed lines across the front using my Hougie board, then drew a line between the embossed sections with my quickie glue pen and added glamour dust. One large and two small butterflies where attached with a dollops of tacky glue and hey presto! there you have it. Simple and sweet.

They come in two sizes, the small ones are five in a pack and contain, 1 each of five colours, turquoise, black, silver, pink and red. The larger ones have four in a pack and have 1 each of cerise, turquoise, silver and black. I'm don't think they are on the website yet, but if you fancy some just email Mei and she will get it sorted for you.

Thanks for looking

Colette xx

Teddy Bo Tuesday

Teddy Bo Tuesday has rolled around again, and this week we have the start of a new challenge, it's Team A's turn this week and I picked the challenge. It's a challenge with a bit of a difference, it's called a...

Menu Challenge

You have to choose one thing from each course, but don't be greedy, one thing only, you are not allowed seconds!

Let us know which item you picked from each section.

Starter - Green and Cream - blue and cream - Pink and cream

Main - Flowers - Butterflies - Buttons

Dessert - Lace - Ribbon - stitching (real or faux)

Coffee - Charm - tag - glitter

So basically you choose 1 option from each course, for example if you pick blue and cream as your colour combo then these must be the main colours of your papers, card, and embellishments (you can use any colours at all in your image). If you choose butterflies, then no flowers or buttons are allowed etc., etc. Hope it all make sense?

What would you choose?

For my card I chose the following;

Starter - Blue and Cream

Main - Butterfly

Dessert - Ribbon

Coffee - Charm

and this is how my card turned out.

 Image - TBB_112 - Coloured in photoshop

Papers - Nitwits Collection- Diggers and Dozers and Crab Apple Solids

Martha Steward border punch - Garden Trellis

Cream organza and blue 4mm satin ribbon, butterfly, charm and gems - MeiFlower

Here  you can clearly see each of my 'courses'

This is a great challenge and we would love for you to play along, the winner gets to choose 10 Teddy Bo and Co digi images, so what are you waiting for.

New products in store this week.

Pop over to the Teddy Bo Challenge blog and check out what the rest of Team A chose for their courses, and what they did with them.

You have until Sunday 18th March Midnight GMT to get your entries in, and there is a fabulous winners prize

Did you know that Teddy Bo now stock a wide range of craft products, including most of the leading brands of dies, all at competitive prices and including free p&p in the UK check it out here 

Hugs,

Colette xx

Clipart Fairy Shapers

Today I have a couple of cards to show you made from the Clipart Fairy Shapers CD. There are 24 different shaper sets on the CD, all in a Ready to Print and Interactive version, and covering everything from baby, love, new home, graduation, Christmas and of course birthday.

I thought I would make up both a sympathy and belated birthday card using the interactive versions.

For the sympathy card I re-sized the base shaper to fit a 15cm square card, then printed it out onto the RH side of a piece of A4 card, scored, folded and then around the shaper through both layers, leaving the parts that touched the score line intact. The topper was re-sized to fit inside the base layer then before attaching to the front of the card I punched some holes into it and threaded cream ribbon through them. I added some fab silver stick on pearls in between each loop of ribbon and a bow to finish it off.

I also used the shapers to make a couple of inserts for inside, leaving one blank to write a message on.

Sympathy Shaper Set Interactive- Clipart Fairy Shapers CD

Ribbon and pearls - MeiFlower.

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The second card is a belated birthday card, and anyone out there who knows me well knows how rubbish I am at getting cards to people on time, so when my hubby saw me making this one, he told me I should just make about 100 and then I would have everyone's birthday covered for the year LOL! At this point I would like to say what a cheek! but to be honest he is probably right. Check out the comments I bet my friend Karen will totally agree with him!

In my imaging software (photoshop in my case) I laid the base shaper over a piece of lilac digital paper and printed it out, I then cut the middle from the shaper to make an aperture. I used another base shaper exactly the same size and  topper slightly smaller, to which I added my own wording, printed cut and then attached them  to the inside of the card, making sure the inside shaper lined up exactly with the aperture.

On the front of the card I punched holes into a strip of matching patterned card and threaded ribbon through, in between each loop of ribbon I added a little button.

Forgotten Birthday Shaper Set Interactive - Clipart Fairy Shaper CD

Border punch - Martha Stewart,

Purple pearlised paper and flower - Stash

Polka dot ribbon and buttons - MeiFlower

 I added a panel inside with the rest of the sentiment on and leaving enough space to write a message.

There are a couple of freebie digi-papers over on the Clipart Fairy blog

I had a great time at the craft show yesterday, bought some more dies to add to my ever growing collection, along with lots of other goodies, said hello to Mei who was working away on her very busy stall, and also bumped into Wendy (Clipart Fairy), who I didn't know was going to be there.

see you soon,

Colette xx

Easily Distracted!

This brilliant sentiment is a freebie from Create with TLC and as soon as I saw it I knew it was meant for me!
I have been dying to make a card with it since I downloaded it, but have only just had the opportunity. Of course it had to be totally blingtastic, which left me with a few problems as I have so much bling in my collection I wasn't sure what to use and searching through everything took me an age, because I was constantly being distracted by something sparkly LOL! In the end I decided to decorate around the sentiment with designs made wholly from self adhesive gems, so out came my Bazzill Jewel templates and away I went.

Here is what I ended up with.

Sentiment - Create with TLC freebie

Sparkly silver paper - Hobbycraft

Templates - Bazzill Jewel Templates

Blue, green, pink, black, yellow, crystal and the most beautiful tiny Aurora Borealis gems all from MeiFlower.

No matter how hard I tried I just couldn't capture the amazing sparkliness of the gems with the camera, but in real life, the sparkle is just gorgeous.

I will probably be filling my basket with lots more bling at the craft show today, I just can't resist!

I'll be back tomorrow with a couple of Clipart Fairy cards, one of which my hubby says I need to make about a hundred of, to keep me going all year, mmm wonder what it could be?1

see you then,

Colette xx

Nurse Bea

A couple of weeks ago I was asked by a friend if I could make a card for her to give to the nurses who have been looking after her husband while he has been having his cancer treatment. She doesn't need it for another few weeks, but I managed to get it made yesterday, so thought I would pop it on here to show you.

Image - TB_029 - coloured in photoshop

Papers - Clipart Fairy - Stripes, Gorgeous 2, Argyle - Yummy 6

Ribbon, pearls and cord - MeiFlower.

Tomorrow I'm off to the Sincerely Yours craft show at Leigh, along with most of the girls who come to my card class, can't wait to buy some new goodies!

Whatever you've got planned have a great weekend.

Colette xx