Cards for Marion and Chris

 Hi all, I have a few personalized cards to share, so here's the first two

This one is for a neighbour of Mum. My colour theme was entirely inspired by this sheet of cardstock, so I was quite pleased with myself for getting the colour of my flowers reasonably matched! I did have a time of it getting the sentiment right, the one I settled on was version #4! My stamp is an oldie from Colorado Crafts - coloured with polychromos and a few gold splatters added to the background, along with some gold sequins.

Addicted to Stamps #508 - birthday 

Word Art Wednesday #734/735 - anything goes 

Sweet Stampin' - bright and beautiful 

Snippets Playground #524 - my snippet is my sentiment cut from leftover card from the base

And this one is for my brother-in-law - it turned out to be quite apt as when I sent it we had 6" of snow outside. It was the perfect 'sticky' snow and I don't believe I've ever seen such big tall snowmen everywhere before! Thankfully it only hung around for a few days, quite enough for me! Stamp from MFT. Not entering into any challenges as it's similar to one I saw online, but just uploading it here for my records. 

Lots of flowers!

 Hi all!  Such a beautiful spring day we had today, blue skies all the way but cold cold air and reckon there'll be another hard frost tonight.  Our daffs are all starting to bloom, so it was perfect timing to ink up one of my new stamps from Sweet Sentiment - a new to me brand from a new to me craft website, Jude Creates ... How did I only come across this Belfast based store now?!!!!

Coloured with polychromos; clear gloss added to the daffodil and glitter to the flower centre; die cut panel from Simply Graphic.   It needed a wee something to finish it off and this skinny strip of leftover yellow did the trick ☺. Looking at it now though I wonder why I bothered cutting that bottom triangle when I could just have simply embossed the corner?

Layout based on Stick it Down March sketch

As You Like It - interactive or not?  I'm definitely in the 'not' camp as they're something I never make!  I think the most interactive I get is an action wobble (when I can find them that is!) 

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday - add a die cut

THis second card uses an oldie from Colorado Crafts.  I got my watercolour pencils out for a change, I'm always a bit frustrated though when I use watercolours as my card usually ends up warping a bit, I obviously don't tape it down enough.

Time Out #208 - 8th birthday challenge 

Layout from Freshly Made Sketches #525

March calendar page

Hi all. I haven't shared one of my calendar pages for Mum for a while, so here's March.  We get St Patrick's Day off work so I've treated myself to the Friday too so that's a nice loooong weekend to look forward to.  

 I masked off this Anita Jeram stamp so the shamrocks could flow across the page - I didn't do a great job of it though so the sentiment came in handy to hide the duff edges ;)

Word Art Wednesday #533534 - anything goes

Addicted to Stamps #424 - any occasion 

An almost Two-fer!

 Hi all!  I've 2 cards this evening to share, kinda the same but different.  These are for a couple of international volunteers in work whose year with us is up now.  Thus the full Irish colour theme and sparkly shamrocks!!!

Last time I was in the craft shop I bought the wrong cardstock and ended up with this linen effect stuff which is impossible to colour with pencils.  I remembered about my watercolour card for the next card, but ran out of time to do a remake on this one.  My green stitched die cut was a remnant from a previous faffing session but turned out to be perfect for this one 😉

I often use this alpha set from MFT to personalise cards but those R's really annoy me!  I almost abandoned putting Barbara's name on it, but I already had Eva's name on hers so just had to go for it!

Word Art Wednesday #509-510 - anything goes 

Simon Says Stamp Monday- fun with stencils (for the grass and clouds on the first card)

Daisy Chain Challenge#56 - Wildlife

Tracey's Good Luck card

 Hi all!  Nothing from me for weeks and now 2 cards in 2 days 😉. This one is for a friend through work who's got herself a great new job.

I used this little mouse from Anita Jeram's St Patrick's Day set and masked off the background to add some stencilling - I kinda thought the swirl pattern reflected the shape of the leaves.

Sweet Stampin - create your own background

Daisy Chain Challenge #54 - dies +/or stencils

Stamping Sensations - June - for a lady

Word Art Wednesday #499/500 - anything goes

A shoal of fish and some mice

 Hi all!  Happy Sunday and Happy Bank Holiday Monday too!  I love a wee free day off work even if it is due to be a stormy wet day.  Don't think I'll venture out as the shops will be too busy after only opening on Friday, I think I'll hold off till I get my 2nd jab next month.  At least I'm a bit more respectable looking after my haircut this week, I feel like a new woman! 😊

This card uses my new stamps and dies from Simply Graphic;  I found this really old DP that was perfect for it.  I've added some glitter to highlights on the fishes for a bit of sparkle.

• Layout from MFT Wednesday sketch #539
• Crafty Calendar May - masculine
• Sweet Stampers #55 - lots of layers

I had a tiny bit of this striped DP left over, but it was just enough for what I needed.  I saw someone in blogland doing their sentiment like this, so I can't take the credit for it, but I love the effect!  Mice coloured with watercolour pencils.

• Pixies Snippets playground #402 - it's a Ruby's challenge this week so I'd love it if you wanted to play along 😃
• Your Next Stamp #163 - burst of colour
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Double sunshine

Hi all!  This was one of those difficult cards to make as it's for a good friend in work who has been made redundant and it has all been a very traumatic experience.   I think I was living in an alternative universe when I made it and have managed to give it 2 sources of sunshine!!.

It is of course one of the Colorado Crafts stamps - I got my watercol our pencils out to colour the mouse and the background of the clover and polychromos for the rest.  

• Cut It Up #223 - what's your weather?  This was an easy challenge for me as our weather has been completely mad - sunshine and blue skies one minute, and dark as night with hailstones the next!
• Your Next Stamp #161 - sunshine and smiles

Happy St Patrick's Day!

 Hi all and a very happy St Patrick's Day to you!  We had a beautiful sunny spring day, made even better by a free day off work and I have the rest of the week booked off too, yippeeeee!  Just a shame that everywhere is shut and there's nowhere to go!   Ah well, it was still lovely to get my washing all done, dried on the line AND bonus points to me for ironing it all too ... I must be one of the few left who irons everything!!

I had bought this Colorado Crafts stamp to use as a 'good luck' one, but figured I'd make a St Paddys card for my mum, plus another couple for my Canadian aunts ... didn't bother with any of the Irish crew LOL.  

• Pixies Snippets Playground #392 - I've had this little strip of DP knocking round my stash getting curlier and more ragged by the day so it was great to get it used up!
• Stamping Sensations March - monochrome
• Get Creative #99 - St Patrick's Day
• Crafty Hazelnuts patterned paper challenge - March