Wild Grasses with Make My Monday

Make My Monday time again - and the floral theme continues.

F L O R A L

Wild Grasses / Flowers

My DT piece is one that I struggled with ...I had the Woodware "Wild Grasses" stamp that I had in my mind that I had to use and for some reason no matter what I did I wasn't happy - I persevered with the stamp but ............I think my fellow DT members have done the challenge brief far more justice.

As well as the Woodware wild grasses stamp I have used Grungeboard shapes, gold embossing powder, UTEE, distressing inks and sequin waste.

The sentiment is from a Papermania set of stamps.

One thing I did like was the texture achieved with the UTEE on the grungeboard.

Hope you can play along with us guys at MMM - we love visiting all your blogs!  

Suzanne ~x~

Patriotic Vintage for the new Mayor

Next week my friend Peggy is being sworn in as the new Mayor for our town.  This recognition is well deserved and my son and I are thrilled to be going to the ceremony.  As such I have made Peggy a special card to celebrate as she will have a busy year with the Olympic torch coming through the town, the Diamond Jubilee celebrations planned and the anniversary of the Falklands.....so the card has a patriotic feel using the Papermania new range of papers!

A favourite Marianne Design Die -

craftables butterfly-CR1205 layered and decorated with pearls.  Pearl cluster and stamped frame and stamped sentiment with a close up of the machine stitching.

   

Another favourite Marianne Design Die I always reach for creatables "English Roses"LR0162.  These have been edged with gold acrylic paint and two pearl hat pins added.  Lace ruffled under my vintage picture which has been given a coat of UTEE for shine.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges please:-

Sir Stampalot - "Medals & Monarchs"

Crafts & Me - "Pearls & Lace"

Die Cuttin' Divas - "Flowers"

My roses are made from a Marianne Design Die as is my butterfly

Creative Mondays - "Stitching"

All layers including the focal image have been machine stitched

Hoping everyone is having a productive weekend ...warm wishes, Suzanne :)

Marianne Divas - "Spread Your Wings"

Second post of today - my DT piece for the Craft Room can be seen below!  May sees a new challenge at Marianne Design Divas and it's open to interpretation:-

Spread Your Wings
Anything at all that has wings from Aeroplanes to Butterflies
Just remember to use a Marianne Design product to be eligible for the prizes!

This theme is just perfect for all the wonderful Marianne Design products there are.  We divas are delighted to have two prizes for the winners of the challenge from our sponsors - check out the Divas blog to see the stash on offer and also the great inspiration from my fellow DT members ;

Marianne Designs themselves

and

Cuddly Bunny Crafts

My DT piece is a box card made from a box that held a selection of body creams.  This is what it started out as:-

Marianne Design Products Used:-

Vintage Pastel Paper Bloc inc the front image and little girl reading, 

Vintage Lace,

Craftables-die-Butterfly-CR1205, Craftables-dies-Frame-CR1214

Creatables-dies-anjas-leaves-2-LR0227, Creatables-die-bird-cage-tunis-LR0147, Creatables-die-bird-on-branch-large-LR0138

Rubber-stamps-flower-girl-CS0848, Elines-Huis-clear-stamps-butterfly-EC119

The "spread your wings" got me thinking - my little girl is beginning to spread her own wings into the wide world (passing her driving test, confirming her university place etc) so that's why I used the little girl stamps and images along with the butterflies and birds - as I have to let her spread her wings don't I so she can fly back - can you tell I am struggling with this and trying to prepare myself.  Apologies for the personal mumblings!

I would love to enter my alter box card into the following challenges:-

Stamptacular Sunday - "Butterfly Kisses"

Crafty Creations - "Frame It"

Oldie but a Goodie Challenge - "Things with Wings" 

My butterflies and bird cage are my old craft stash

Creative Craft Challenges 2 - "Distressing"

All my edges have been inked with sepia for ageing and the sentiments have been torn and distressed

Wishes, Suzanne ~x~

Craft Room New Challenge - "Fabric"

The Craft Room has a new challenge starting today and I must say I loved making my design team example for this brief - thank you Maria for a great theme:-

Use some Fabric

We have another great sponsor this month and as they are fast becoming one of my fave stamp brands I had difficulty in selecting which one of my Indigo Blu stamp sets to use.  I opted for Alice I.

Inspired by both an article in an old Craft Stamper and a piece my friend Christine Costello created I decided to work with an embroidery ring and some calico cotton.  I stamped an Elusive Image (now Chocolate Baroque) foliage stamp all over the calico in Stream Airondnack ink.

The text is from an Alice in Wonderful book - which I coloured using distress inks; Faded Jeans and Mustard Seed before pleating and then hand stitching.

All images have been stamped in Versafine black ink and coloured with pencils. The daisy stamp is an old Hampton Art stamp.  I went for a blue and yellow theme due to Alice's dress and the white rabbit's outfit in the book. 

More hand stitching to the calico and embroidery thread added to the speckled buttons.

The white rabbit's pocket watch has been coated with glossy accents for depth.

I ruffled lace to the inside hoop and added pearls and wire to the outer hoop.

Please check out my fellow Design Team buddies fabric pieces over at the Craft Room - they are wonderful!  I am entering my embroidery ring into the following challenges:-

Creatalicious Challenges - Bingo 

Top Row - Flowers, anything but a square card & buttons

Sweet Stampin' - Flower Power 

My fabric background is stamped with a floral stamp and then I have added stamped flowers.

Out of a Hat Creations - "Vintage Lace"

My cream lace has been ruffled around the embroidery hoop.

BumbleBees & Butterflies with Brenda - "Tuesday Treasures"

Brenda - this is special for me as I had such a fab time creating it and also used my three special buttons I picked up from an haberdashery stall on the local market - last 3 she had!

Thank you for looking!   Suzanne ~x~

Music & Flowers with MMM

Wow - there were some gorgeous entries last week! Make my Monday continues with the lovely floral theme for May and this week Suzi B would like to see a combination of:-

                                  "Music & Flowers"

F L O R A L 

The background has been inked with distress inks through a stencil and then sprayed over in places.  All my layers including the torn and layers of music sheet have been distressed with a craft knife and Walnut Stain distress ink as edging.

The music sheet and flowers stamp is an old stamp which I think is Personal Impressions.  My ballet dancer is a Marianne Design die and I cut her out twice to make a shadow and then added a piece of lace for her skirt.

I stamped the large stamp numerous times again on cream textured card, cut out the flowers, layering the ones on the main focal image and then just placing the others around the card. Distress stickles was added to the flower centres before heating.

The sentiment is from Crafty Individuals.

I would like to enter my card into the following challenges:-

Polka Doodles - "Monochrome"

One Stop Craft Challenge - "Monochrome"

Stampavie - "Monochrome"

Suzanne ~x~

Paris in Springtime

A couple of weeks ago I found another challenge blog I liked the look of, Sugar Creek Hollow.  Now the interest was piqued as this is a challenge for "vintage, shabby chic or primitive" craft.  Just my cup of tea so I made a card especially for the current challenge - black and white with the only touch of colour being permitted on the focal image.

I have used the "I Love Paris in the Springtime" stamp from Stampendous which I embossed with white ep.  The flowers were stamped again, coloured with Promarkers and layered.

The white fabric flowers and the inside of the Marianne Design heart die cut were stamped with a French text and I have used the new Creatables Leaves LR1214 from Marianne also - these were swiped over with black ink.

 I also used DCWV paper and the Hydrangea border punch of Martha Stewart.

So I am entering my card into the following challenges:-

Sugar Creek Hollow - Black & White with touch of colour

Cupcake Craft Challenges - "Oh la la"
Great French inspired challenge

Crafts & Me - Punches & Die Cuts
I have used the Hydrangea border punch and the Marianne Design heart and leaves die cuts

Thanks for stopping by.  I really hope this rain stops soon .... I had a strange dream last night - that I was arrested for watering the allotment with my hosepipe...mmmm - what's the hidden meaning of this?  Suzanne ~x~

Floral May @ MMM

My friend and design team buddy Suzi B has chosen the theme this month at Make My Monday and I think it's going to be a popular one.  All month long we at MMM would like to see your creations based on:-

F L O R A L

With this week's specific challenge being 
"Lily of the Valley or White Flowers"

Now despite Lily being my birth flower and my beautiful little granddaughter being named "Lillie" - I am sorry to say that it is one of the few flowers I really don't like.  Whether they remind me of sad occasions, or whether it is the very pungent smell (makes poor Neil sneeze) or whether the pollen would be bad for my little pussy cat - I don't know.  Anyway enough warblings from me ......so I used a Stampendous "Magnolia" stamp. 

A change for me but I have kept my 8x8 card relatively simple.  All backgrounds are made by me.... using just "bundled sage" distress ink for both the colouring and overstamping (overstamping on the background panels were made using a Woodware and Andy Skinner stamps).

Machine stitching in white and a page from my old book on Birds completed my card.  The chiffon ribbon, charm and buttons (chiffon ribbon cut up) added.

The focal Magnolia image was stamped in Versafine Black, layered and then coloured delicately with "bundled sage" distress inks by stamping on my craft mat and then picking up with a water brush.

I would like to enter my card into the following challenges and I do hope I get to see you playing this month at Make My Monday!.

I would like to enter the Divas by Design - "Monochrome" challenge as only distress ink Bundled Sage used.....

Bye for now!  Enjoy the Bank Holiday my UK blogging friends!  Suzanne ~x~

Shabby Card

I am still trying to find my mojo for my craft obligations.  So whilst I am trying to execute the ideas I have I have made a couple of cards for a couple of new challenges that I have found.  Here's one:-

Our Creative Corner where I was lucky enough to be chosen as the winner for their butterflies challenge with my dream card a couple of weeks ago.  I was delighted as there was lots of wonderful entries.  This week is a colour challenge and it just appealed to me:-

"Yellow, Kraft and White/Ivory"

 

My background is Mustard Seed distress ink which has been further inked through sequin waste with the same colour and then randomly stamped with white acrylic paint.  

The kraft panel has been embossed through the Cuttlebug, which I roughly swooshed with Versamark before heat embossing with white ep.  My Stampotique images:- the small shrooms, bee and honeycomb have all been stamped either onto kraft and white coloured card in Sepia versafine.  All have been further colooured with Mustard Seed distress ink.

Doily and sentiment added.

The sentiment, bee's wings and shrooms were highlighted with white sakura pen!

As well as Our Creative Corner I would also like to enter the following challenges:-

Anything Goes Challenge - "things with wings"

Tuesday Throwdown - "In the Garden"

Crafty Boots Challenge - "Yellow"

Now...should I go and paint the garage wall or not?  Mmmm....Suzanne ~x~