Quick Thank you cards

I hope you have the hot and sunny weather that we have here in Kent...what a stunning day.
Daisy and I had a great walk this morning ...I was so warm I removed my jacket! It was just after Seven when we left the house...everything smelled fresh and new after some rain we had yesterday...Glorious.

I have posted some very basic quick thank you cards today. Sometimes we need them in a hurry and these don't take long at all ..  All the cards toppers are made using my Quickutz dies, layered on Bazzil card and 'tarted' up with some sewing and a few pearl drops.

The sentiment was printed on my PC and a few glossy accents added here and there on some of them .......all done and dusted in double quick time .
Thanks for dropping by today...
Eileen x

Wedding Stationery.... all done!

Hello,
This weekend has been very enjoyable. I went to a crop yesterday and had a super day with all my 'crafty mates'.
We made cards, laughed a lot and ate cakes while we 'gossiped'
Thank you ladies for a great time and all the hints and tips, some of them to do with crafting !
I also have to say a BIG  thank you to Ikki who kindly put one of my cards into her 'Friday Followers Gallery' ....I have learnt so much from Ikki's blog ( link above) regarding all manner of Cuttlebug stuff including the two cards shown here as I was inspired by her work.

I have a few new followers and loads of visitors to my blog along with a flurry of e-mails ...thank you all for taking an interest and all the kind comments ....I am having loads of fun blogging ....why not try it ?

I made fifty of the wedding invitations and thirty of the Order of Service cards ...I enjoyed making them and I hope this shows in my work and adds to the wonderful day that I know the bride and groom are looking forward to.

So simple and easy to do but because I used the Nestabilities Hearts and not my Cricut they took a long time to cut on my big shot ...all three hundred and twenty of them !!!

Each card was embossed with the Divine Swirl Cuttlebug folder.
I scored all the lines using my Hougie board ( smashing bit of  kit) and rounded off the front edge corners.

Some pearls and ribbon 'lifted' the look of the cards. The bride and her mum think they look elegant. I hope you do too ....
Thank you for stopping by ...I am going to have a Clarity stamping day tomorrow, inky fingers and my trusty brayer.....bliss. Have a nice week .

Eileen x

A Peel-offs Post

I'm posting a simple 'Peel-offs' card today with an Oriental theme ....I have stacks of this type of stash ... the papers are so pretty that when I bought them it was ' must buy two...use one, keep one!! WHY...?  do you do that?

I made the vase from cardboard and covered it in pretty paper...The transparent peel-offs were placed on to some more pretty paper,cut out and mounted on to the dark blue card using foam pads.
I placed some gems in the middle of the flowers and on the side of the card to match....a gold ' health' peel-off along with gold faux stitching around the edge lifted the card a little and with the same gold pen I had added  some flower stems !

Thanks for stopping by ...
Eileen x

More Lavinia!

 Hello, lovely sunny day here....
I have done a lot of domestic engineering today. I moved all the furniture around in our sitting room ...a bit ouch on the old back but as I have not changed things for some time, I feel I am living in a different house!
I said to my husband I have moved all the furniture but if you don't like it I will move it back ...(two chances here....fat chance! and no chance!) anyway, he cottoned on pretty quickly and said " oh yeah! asking you to change it back would be more than my life's worth!"....Smart move !

 I am busy this afternoon, doing some more wedding invitations, the last few of an order and all the inserts need to go in 'cos the deadline is Saturday!
As I need to crack on with them here are some more Lavinia cards I made last summer ....The red butterfly is stamped on acetate and coloured in with gel pens...It took all night to dry!
I have used a brayer and Adirondack inks on the backgrounds and Versafine inks to stamp the various images. All the stamps used are from Lavinia Stamps.
Thanks for looking today ...enjoy your evening.

Eileen xx

Lavinia Day...

I always have great fun with Lavinia Stamps. All three cards have been produced using Adirondack inks for the brayed backgrounds and Various colours of Versafine inks for the images. Two of the cards are copies from the Lavinia web site.Which ones are which ? Have a look at Lavinia stamps ! I am having a great weekend (except for Lewis in the F1 race in Spain !) Hope you are having a good time too.
Thanks for stopping by
Eileen x

Wet,wet,wet !

White linen card embossed in my Big Shot with a Cuttlebug Swiss dots embossing folder.

The flowers are the Marianne Creatables ribbon flowers

The ribbon is threaded through slots in the flower,very fiddly but worth it.

I used my Hougie board to emboss the lines on the card

 and mounted the flowers,wire and a couple of metal flowers that I found in my stash

 onto one of my oval Nestabilities and that in turn was mounted onto a scalloped oval 'nestie'.

My second card was so much fun to do ..Pale cream linen card this time, embossed with a Cuttlebug 'Stylised flower' embossing folder. One Nestabilities circle cut from the cream card stock and placed in the middle of the card front. My Hougie board was again employed to score the lines at the bottom of the card.

I cut the flowers with a Tim Holtz Sizzix,'Tattered Florals' die using pages from an old book

 well ...I have to come clean here because I was in the caravan in the middle of nowhere

 my old books were all at home.

 However, hubby had almost finished a book he was reading about the Romans...so.......unbeknown to him I tore out a few pages at the front of the book and prayed he would never want to read it again!Sneaky eh!

The flowers were coloured using a Mountain Meadow, Big and Juicy ink pad applied with cut-n-dry foam.

I layered them up and a brad in the middle of each one held them together . The butterflies are Shapeabilities and I stenciled them, in the die, using the same coloured ink pad. Some black wire and a sentiment completes the card.

Thanks for popping by today. Have a good week.

Eileen x

Hougie weekend.

See 'Art Deco card' post for how to make this card.

Hi, a new week and a new score board! I just adore my Hougie board. Karen, Sheila and I bought one each at Ally Pally. I am not sure what they think of it but it is one of the best bits of 'kit' I have purchased for a long time. I love using scored lines on my cards and this board makes it so easy to get the right spacing without the need for measuring...suits me.

The 'Art Deco' card base was demonstrated on TV using the board and I felt it was a bit different ...I used a Clarity Stamp called Madeleine and after embossing with clear embossing powder I coloured 'her' with my Copic pens. I was lucky to receive some Spellbinder Nestabilities for Christmas last year so I used the octagonal set as a base for my lady. Some red peel offs, gem type brads and a red feather and it's almost finished except for a dab of glossy accents to highlight the flower in 'Madeleine's hair.

 I really enjoy using my Butterfly Shapeabilities and this card was also made fairly quickly. White card stock and a Cuttlebug embossing folder called Distress Stripes, one white oval 'nestie and one pink scalloped 'nestie, along with some butterflies, cut, embossed and stencilled in the die, using chalk ink pads.  My Tuesday has been fun, I hope yours has as well...sunny too!

Thanks for stopping by today.

Eileen xxx

My kind of Friday...part two.

A couple of years ago I went to a 'letters' class where Gayle Bond, a very talented designer,showed us all how to make cards from letters and numbers.... this is one of my efforts. I made this card for a relative who's name is ......Paul... and who loves.....football! It was fun to make and as you can use any letters you like it's ideal for any occasion or age of person, male or female.

I have had a play with my new 'Hougie' board but I am still  in 'design' mode so no card to show at the moment.

My walk with Daisy this morning was brilliant...I saw and heard so many birds. Pied and grey wagtails,a black cap,a song thrush that was singing it's heart out and best of all I heard my first Cuckoo for this year.

The sun was very warm and as we walked into a small wooded area near my home I saw a large dog fox, so handsome, sitting in the middle of the path ahead of us enjoying the sunshine and having a snooze!

He was not pleased to be disturbed and turned up his nose as he stood up and walked slowly into the undergrowth. I got the impression that he was thinking ' why can't that human woman and her dippy dog clear off somewhere else'!

We left the wood and moved over the fields where Daisy tried to chase the rabbits and loads of Swallows were zipping around catching insects ....Finally, I saw a group of Gold Finches feeding ....a group of Gold finches is called 'a charm' and that was what my walk was this morning ...charming.

Thanks for dropping by.

Eileen x

Chill out Thursday.

Today is another sunny day and I've been out walking with Daisy. We've had a great time enjoying the warm spring sunshine and watching all the birds who are very vocal!

 I spent some time cutting the back lawn and Daisy was not impressed with the noise of the strimmer! Daisy has been digging holes all over the garden so we have decided to leave the back garden free of bedding plants this year ...just keep it tidy but not bother too much till she is older and not so lively! Suits me ...I am not keen on gardening and would rather spend my time crafting!! 

The cards I've posted today again feature the Agapanthus Cluster stamp I used a day or two ago.Stamped with Versamark ink and embossed with white embossing powder ....some white ribbon completes the cards.

The weekend is almost here and I have a crop to go to on Saturday.

Thanks for looking today x

Eileen xx

Black & White

Hello,  I'm so glad I can show you this card today cos I've had such trouble up-loading an image to my blog... sorted now, I hope! 
So here is my first picture using this stamp in monochrome ...I plan to make more in different colours and post these as well. I love Black and White and feel it looks elegant.
I used Versamark ink to stamp the image and embossed with white embossing powder.
The stamp is called Agapanthus Cluster and is made by Stampendous

The Sun is shining, the birds are singing and all is right with my world ...I hope it is with yours too ...have a nice weekend. I'm off to Ally-Pally tomorrow to spend some money ....woohoo!

Thanks for popping by...
Eileen x