A Belated Update

Hello,

It's been too long since I updated this, so I'm here with an explanation of what's been happening in my life.

James and I moved out! We got the house I mentioned in my last post and have been living here for about three months now. The decorating by the people who lived here previously wasn't great so we are working on changing one room at a time. We have both been working loads so it's a slow process. At the moment we are using what will be the craft room as the bedroom, while we get the bedroom decorated. This has left me with nowhere really to craft, which is why I haven't posted anything here.

With help from my cousin, my Mum and James we have got the wedding invitations made though. I don't have a photo of the finished outside of the card yet, but I will try to get one posted soon. I do however have a couple of  pictures from my Instagram. The first is my cousin and I working on the invites, and the second is the pile of invites finally finished.

Life Update

Hello.

It's not often I share much about my life on my blog, but I thought I should explain why I haven't been around much recently. At the moment I am planning my wedding for Feburary, James and I are moving out of our parents houses for the first time (we find out this week if we get the house we wanted) and I am trying to find a job with more hours while doing extra hours at my current job. When I have had spare time, I haven't felt like doing very much, so no crafting has been done. When/if we get the house we will have a couple of spare bedrooms, so of course one will become a craft room. I am hoping that having a dedicated crafting space will give my creativity a boost and I will be back to more regular blogging.

Until I do get to make something though I will leave you with a look at our save the date card.

CYDI Chellenge #39 - Summer Smiles

Hello.

The new challenge at CYDI? is Summer Smiles. I used Drenched Cat by KiniArt for my British summertime inspired card. We do love to complain about the weather, and recently it has been very erratic with grey skies and rain one minute and blue skies and sunshine the next.

Birthday Wishes

Hello.

I haven't been very good at blogging recently, so for July I am aiming for at least two posts a week. It is a busy month for birthdays, so that should help. I recently bought a couple of craft magazines to try and inspire some creativity. Two of them came with stamp sets which I have used on this card. The image is from an Elisabeth Bell set, and the sentiment is from a Holly Hobby set.

Happy birthday Anne! and Happy Birthday Nine!

Hello.

Today is both my Auntie and James' Auntie's birthdays.

First is the card for my Auntie Anne. I used George Swooney from Kenny K for her card, and gave him a red carpet to walk down. I added lots of glitter to the card to reflect the lights and paparazzi that would be around a red carpet.

James' Auntie Nine (Janine) loves cats so for her card I used Floating Cats by KiniArt.

CYDI? Challenge #38 – White Wedding

Hello.

The current challenge over at Can You Digi It? is White Wedding. For my DT card I used Flowergirl by KiniArt. She is backed by three strips of paper from the Black & White pad by Paper Cellar.

Happy Birthday Grandma!

Hello.

Today is my Grandma's birthday. I have bought her some pink and white roses, so I had to use Rosalee from Delicious Doodles on her card. The image was so big I decided to keep the rest of the card simple, so I just added and sentiment and rounded all the corners.

Happy Birthday Mick!

Hello.

Today is my uncle's birthday. For his card I have used an old favourite, Worth Repeating by Stampology, to create a background, and a new favourite, Derek and Deirdery Dunderton by Dr Digi's House of Stamps, as the main image. The background paper comes from the Checks pad by Paper Cellar.

CYDI? Challenge #37 – Yellow

Hello.

The new challenge at CYDI? is to use yellow. For my card I used Muttabulous by KiniArt. The background paper is from the Hopscotch pad by K & Company.

Happy Birthday Keeley!

Hello.

Today is James' sister's birthday. For her card I created a background using a paper from the Venaissance paper pack designed by Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen, and gold embossed a crown on it from the Regal Greetings stamp set from Unity Stamp. The paper was then cut using some deckle edge scissors. For the sentiment I used the Cool Britannia stamp set by Louise Allen, which was cut out and backed on a piece of gold card.

Happy Birthday Alex!

Hello.

Today is James' cousin's birthday. James suggested using this Kenny K image as his cousin loves computer games. Usually with cards I will colour an image and then choose papers to match, but this time I did the opposite. I coloured him to match the background paper. Then cut circles from some scrap papers to match the background too. I have added a birthday sentiment inside using one of the Kid Quotes from Inkadinkado.

Happy Birthday Geran! and Happy Anniversary Treena and Bob!

Hello.

Today is James' Auntie's birthday, and his parents anniversary, so I have two cards to share.

First is the card for his Auntie, I masked off an area in the middle of the card and then stamped a butterfly from the Just Chillin' set by Making Memories. When I removed the mask I added some faux stitching and stamped a sentiment from the Jungle Creatures set by Kanban.

For his parents anniversary card I used Derek and Deirdery Dunderton from Dr. Digi's House of Stamps. They were backed by some white card and a paper from the Oxford pad by Basic Grey, both of which were inked along the edges. I don't have an anniversary stamp and I didn't want to use an alphabet set so for the sentiment I used Family Greetings by Elzybells to create one.

CYDI? Challenge #36 - Anything But A Card

Hello.

It's time for a new challenge at CYDI? This time we are wanting to see anything but a card. For my project I went with an altered box. First I covered it with a wood grain paper from the Vintage pad by Grace Taylor, and then distressed it. I embossed the sentiment with gold embossing paper, and sprinkled the gold EP over the top of the lid. I then added the image, which is Bingo Dress Form & Wings by LilyPink Designs. To finish I added some buttons from the Elzybells Chocolate Brownie collection.

Birthday Blooms

Hello.

I missed blogging two birthday cards in the past week. They are now posted for when they should have been, so scroll down to check them out.

This card was made using a 12x12 paper by Teresa Collins. I didn't want to cover up the pretty flowers so I just backed it on some black glossy card, then added a peel off sticker sentiment with a couple of brads

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Happy Birthday Frank!

Hello.

Today is James' Granddad's birthday. I went with a book theme for his card using papers from the Oxford pad by Basic Grey and the Book Stack image from Bugaboo. The sentiment is from the Elzybells Hey Cupcake set.

Happy Birthday Shannen!

Hello.

Today is James' cousins birthday. For her card I have used Ava from Saturated Canary. All the papers on this card came from my scrap box. The sentiment is a peel off sticker.

CYDI? Challenge # 35 - Birthday Flowers

Hello.

Although I did make two cards for the new CYDI? challenge and they were on the store blog in time, I am posting them late on my own blog. The new challenge is Birthday Flowers. 

My first card was made using Penelope by LilyPink Designs. She is backed on a paper from the Designstax pad by Papermania. I added some Dovecraft bunting and created a sentiment using a mix of chipboard letters and peel off stickers. When I had finished I realised that it didn't mention birthdays, which is why I made the second card.

For the second card I used Celebrate With Cake by A Creative Need. All I added was a sentiment. Both the image and sentiment are raised using foam pads.

Happy Birthday Gemma!

Hello.

Today is James' cousins birthday. For her card I have used Happy Hour by Kenny K. I kept the card simple by just using a couple of pieces of card which matched the colours of her dress. The sentiment comes from the Jungle Creatures set by Kanban.

Purple sparkles

Hello.

It's been a while sine I shared any nails, because I haven't been doing much art on them, and when I have I haven't taken any pictures. Yesterday I was in a nail art mood. I went with a really simple design and just did a gradient nail with a glitter polish over it. All the polishes used are by Barry M.

Emily

Hello.

I got my scrap box out for this card, and all the papers used came from there. I've seen a few people working through their scraps lately, and it made me realise how full my scrap box has got.

CYDI? Challenge #34 - It's Sketchy

Hello.

It's time for a new challenge at Can You Digi It? This time we are following a sketch (which can be found at the bottom of this post). For my card I used Heart Ears Pup by KiniArt. I coloured the image to look like Cassie, my Auntie's new puppy. For the rest of the card I used supplies which I haven't had out in a long time. The paw print is from a set I bought at Poundland, and the sentiment is a peel-off sticker. 

Steampunk Birthday

Hello.

I tend to stick to CAS designs, but I had lots of fun playing around to make this card. The card base is bronze shimmery card. The next layer is a textured light brown paper from my stash, which was inked around the edges with a red ink pad. After that is a paper from the Persimmon Collection by Papermania, which has a strip from a page in an old book down one side and was inked around the edges using a bronze ink pad. The top layer is Key Background by LilyPink Designs, which I printed two of so that I could cut the clock from one of them. The head is a freebie from Beyond The Fringe and the hat is Top Hat, another LilyPink Designs image. All the images were coloured using a combination of pencils and sponging from ink pads. The gold embossed sentiment is from the Worth Repeating set by Stampology. To finish I added some brads. I didn't have brads in the colour I wanted to I filed some silver ones and inked them using a bronze ink pad.

Happy Birthday Richard!

Hello.

Today is my cousin's boyfriends birthday. Whenever we go to Rossnowlagh while we are in Ireland he will spend most of his time searching the rock's for fossils. I took inspiration from that for his card. I went with lots of grey to imitate the rock colours and used a Doodle Dragon Studios sentiment which has dinosaur bones around it. The papers are from the Black and White Colossal Paper Pack by Papermania.

I also used the paper to decorate the inside of the card.

Lulu

Hello.

This is Lulu Framed by Dilly Beans. I have backed Lulu on a paper from the Lost and Found pack by My Mind's eye. For embellishment I added some bakers twine. 

Bee Happy

Hello.

For today's card I printed Bee Happy by Lilypink Designs four times and then coloured and cut out each hexagon. They were then stuck onto a piece of white card, with the sentiment raised using foam pads. The white card was trimmed and layered on black card which was then stuck to the card base. Really CAS, but really fun to do. I stuck the last bee on the inside to finish.

Pictures of Ireland

Hello.

I have a few pictures from Ireland to share. As I said yesterday it was nice to do a mixture of new things, things we haven't done for years and things which have become traditions.

One of the things which I hadn't done before was visit Belfast Zoo. It is a very impressive zoo, with a great variety of animals and a few which I have never seen before. That was the day I took most pictures. Here are a few of my favourites.

I have been to Giant's Causeway before. It was really nice to go back there now that I'm older and can appreciate it more. It was a shame we went when it was so wet and windy, but it is still a beautiful place. There was also a great view from the top of the difficult path, which we chose to walk. The first picture is the rocks which form Giant's Causeway and the second is the view from the top of the difficult path.

The beach at Rossnowlagh is a must do for us. It is such a beautiful beach. Usually while I'm there I will spend most of my time in the sea, but this time I went exploring on the rocks.

I always like to go for a walk up my uncle's hill while we are there too. It's so peaceful up there, with the only sound being the sheep. 

Thinking of You

Hello.

I am back from my week in Ireland. It was a lovely, relaxing trip. As we visit almost every year it is hard to find new things to do. This time we managed to do a mixture of new things, things we haven't done in years and the things that we have to do every time we go. I will post some pictures tomorrow.

On to my card...I started by spraying a scrap piece of watercolour paper in Maple Creative Colour Spray, then stamped over that using the Flounce set from Papermania's Persimmon Collection. I tied some bakers twine around the watercolour paper. The sentiment is from a Studio G set, that was stamped onto a separate paper and is raised up using foam pads.

Happy Birthday Hollie!

Hello.

Today is James' cousins birthday. I have used Sweet Birthday by Birds Cards for her card. The cupcake was covered in stickles, and then the image was backed on a paper from the Designstax pad by Papermania. I added a pink gem to each corner to finish.

CYDI? Challenge #33 - Butterflies

Hello.

It is time for challenge number 33 from Can You Digi It? This time we want to see designs using butterflies. For my card I used Butterfly Kisses by Carla's Creatures. I think that dog has such a cute expression on his face. He is backed on a paper from the Lost and Found pad by My Mind's Eye.

Back soon...

Hello.

I'm just posting to let people know that I will be gone for a while. I will be in Ireland from Sunday 7th to Sunday 14th, and I will have no internet where I am staying. I do however have two posts scheduled for while I am away.

That is me the last time I was in Ireland walking up the path which leads to my Uncle's house.

Pegasus

Hello.

This is Pegasus by Delicious Doodles. I used monochrome papers for this card since I wanted to leave him uncoloured, as he is usually depicted as a white horse. The papers are all from the Capsule Collection by Papermania in black. Everything is backed on black glossy card from my scraps.

CYDI? Challenge #32 - Pick a Season

Hello.

As well as being naughty and leaving my blog with no posts recently, I also didn't get a project posted in time for the latest CYDI? challenge. This post is the card I would have made for the challenge. The challenge is to make a card based on your choice of season. It's supposed to be spring here at the moment but the weather is stuck in winter, so I wanted to make a spring card to at least pretend it's starting to get warmer. This sweet image is Cultivating Cutie by KiniArt