...a little bit more sewing...

I just can't tear myself away from my sewing machine at the moment. My crew like to wear pyjama trousers to relax in round the house and they're super-easy to make. You can of course buy them in the shops but where's the fun in that? I love the camper van fabric so much that I had to make a matching cushion as well.

Nice and neat on the inside too...

I found a great tutorial for French Seams here at The Little Tailoress and I'm a complete convert.

Lx

HMFMC 170 - SPLISH SPLASH (anything to do with water)

Tracy has chosen our theme and as soon as I saw what this week's challenge at HMFMC was going to be I knew what I was going to do. I absolutely LOVE the image I've used and I think it's perfect for Thinking of You cards and the like. I can't seem to get out of my duck egg blue phase so apologies for that. It looks so cool with a touch of black and white.

Here is my card

Quite a lot going on, I know, but it just kind of grew if you know what I mean ;oD

As usual, I stamped the image with Memento Tuxedo Black and coloured it in with my Copic Markers and Prismacolour Pencils. It hasn't come out too well in the photograph but I lifted the raindrops with another crafty staple of mine, Glossy Accents

The dies and sentiment on the front of the card are by Sizzix and the gorgeous butterflies are by Clearly Besotted. More from Clearly Besotted on the inside of the card. My backing paper is a favourite by Basic Grey.

We'd love it if you dropped by to see what the DT have put together to whet your appetite. Why not join in with the challenge and take a chance on winning one of the amazing prizes on offer. What have you got to lose?

Lx

HMFMC #169 SUNNY DAYS

My first week as a Guest Designer at the House Mouse & Friends Monday Challenge and the theme this week is Sunny Days.

I used this lovely image from the Happy Hoppers range and coloured it with my Copic markers, adding some Glossy Accents to the rubber ring, the drink and the duck

I used my favourite aqua base card for my matting and layering and some pretty papers I got free in a magazine a few years ago (Yes I DID say YEARS!!! I do like to drool over my papers for an awfully long time before I actually get around to using them ;oD). Next I die cut some waves and a bright orange sun before adding my sentiment. Hope you like it.

Why not drop by and see what the fantastic design team have done with our theme this week and maybe join in with the challenge at House Mouse & Friends Monday Challenge. Go on! You know you want to...

Lx

HMFMC 168 - POP IT UP

Lori has set us the challenge to Pop It Up over at the House Mouse & Friends Monday Challenge and I decided to take the title very literally and make a very simple pop up card for my Father in Law

I used this cute Gruffies image and a few die cuts to make the card

and made a simple sleeve to slot over the outside of the card instead of an envelope

Sincere apologies for the awful photography. Yesterday was too sunny for a decent piccy and today it's too dull!? I really must dig out the instructions for my camera and see what I'm doing wrong...

Have a great day everybody. I'm off to start colouring for next week's challenge ;oD

Lx

A CHRISTMAS CARD WITH LOTS OF EMBELLISHMENTS

Since the sad demise of Craftbubble, a few of my crafty pals keep in touch to set the odd challenge and swap chat. This month's challenge is to make a Christmas card with lots of embellishments so out came the lovely acrylic snowflakes and the gems and pearls. The paper is out of my scrap box and if memory serves is by SEI. What a find! I had enough to do the inside and the outside of the card - Huzah!! I glossied up the berries on the image and called it job done.

Love the way the glossy accents bring out those berries and give them dimension.

Lx

VARIATION ON A THEME

I know you'll be surprised to hear that not EVERYBODY wants chocolate at Easter (Wierd huh ;oD) so here's a little gift I pimped up slightly for my lovely pal and her hubby instead of the traditional chocolate themed items.

Lovely M&S (all hail M&S!!!) have had the foresight to produce these gorgeous little ceramic paint pots containing the wherewithall for growing Sunflowers. Well, I had to have one quite frankly. It had a fairly boring label (sorry M&S) so I covered it with some scrummy paper, stamped out the only Easter Sentiment I've got (thanks Kathy), and I think it looks just fine. I've spent about an hour adding ribbons and bows and all manner of things only to remove it all again. I think simple is the key here and I'm happy with it just as it is.

All that remained was to make a card and I just can't get enough of this Sunflower image at the moment. Once again, out came the Copics and Prisma's but this time I thought I'd switch it up a bit so I fussy cut the image and mounted it on foam pads. I used soft creams and yellows for the colour scheme and I think it works.

Right, I promise to put that particular image away for a while now but it was just SO RIGHT for this particular project :oD. Thanks for stopping by.

Lx

HMFMC167 - FLOWERS AND FLOURISHES

Another great challenge over at HMFMC and I just HAD to use this image as we've been planting out our Sunflower seeds and they're one of my favourite flowers.

I used a mixture of Copics and Prisma Pencils to colour my image and I knew I wanted to use black so I tried to keep the colouring quite strong

Then I made a tag, being careful to put in some flourishes. I swiped the whole lot with a white ink pad to give a subtle chalk board effect

I added a little sunflower, mainly because I couldn't resist the scrummy dazzler thing that looks like a boiled sweet and is perfect for the centre of the flower

I wanted to make a box and a tag this week to give with an easter gift to my hubby. I kept the box quite plain because the tag is, admittedly, a little ooh la la for a man. I used a very simple matchbox design, so a box with a sleeve around it, then added a tassel as a kind of drawer pull. I'm pleased with how it turned out. I found some heavy 300gsm card so the box has a nice weight

Job done I think so I'm off into the garden to enjoy the sunshine. Have a great day whatever you're doing.

Lx