It's D'Arcys Diaries first challenge today!!

http://www.darcysdiaries.com

Oh the excitement at D'Arcy Towers knows no bounds today. It's our very first challenge and just to start us off the theme is
 'Anything Goes'! 

For my card today I've used the lovely D'Arcy 024.

Papers - Basic Grey 'Printery'

Swirl - Elegant swirls die - Tim Holtz Sizzix

Label die - mini mover and shaper - Tim Holtz Sizzix

Distress inks in brushed corduroy and bundled sage

Cream seam binding coloured with brushed corduroy distress ink

White embroidery floss coloured with brushed corduroy distress ink

Vintage button from stash

Lace from stash

Sentiment - Whimsy stamps

Prisma pencils for colouring

Card decorated inside to complement the front

Close up of bow detail. Bow tied on the Bowdabra

I hope you join in with us to make the D'Arcy Diaries challenge a real success. Don't forget you need to use a D'Arcy image to enter. See you there!
Now for the rest of the new releases. Ooh! aren't they fab!!!

Have a great day!

oooOOOooo

NEWSFLASH :-)
I've scheduled this post and I hope it blogs ok as I'm off on an adventure. By the time this post is live I'll be in or nearing Glasgow. My good friends Gwen, Valerie, Margaret and moi are headed for the SECC. Yeah!!! I've saved my pennies and I really hope that the trip is worth the effort. I will have been on the go from 5.00am this morning. Eek! the very thought. I'm planning to meet Gayle my lovely boss from Teddybo and I hope seeing  the real me doesn't scare her too much. :) LOL
I dont' have the fine details of the challenge as I'm scheduling this post well ahead of time  but you will find them on the blog. Have fun!

Hello Cupcake!

Good morning! A sincere welcome to my new followers. Thank you ladies for joining me. I hope you enjoy the posts as much as I enjoy preparing them!

Onwards and upwards. Here's another of my wee neglected LOTV images. She is called 'Hello Cupcake' ST129 and is still available on the LOTV site.
I went for a pink and blue mix on this one. Blue isn't my favourite colour but I think she turned out not too bad.

Surprise, surprise - I've used the K & co Watercolour bouquet papers again for this one. I've said I wouldn't buy any more but I'm weakening. I've loved every sheet of this pad that I've used, not only because I've loved the colours and the patterns, but because the patterns do not overwhelm a 6 x 6" card as some 12 x 12" papers do.

Twill ribbon from stash tied with the Bowdabra and using my new found tip to finish (see the last post for more details)

Flowers from Wild Orchid crafts.

Decorated pin - gift from Sharon

Wooden button from Forget-me-Not in Belfast

Stamping Up sentiment and label punch

Marianne design leaf die

X Cut birch leaf embossing punch

The image is coloured with Promarkers and I've added a touch of glitter to the cupcakes

Flower arrangement - these wee blue roses were part of a gift from my teamie Sharon. Mwah! thanks Sharon. :)

I've decorated the inside of the card to complement the front

another wee view to show the layers

Thank you so much for joining me today. I hope you have enjoyed your visit.

Have a great day and I'll catch you soon. :)

D'Arcys diaries latest release continues...

Good morning and welcome. It's good to have your company. 

Today I've got an image called 'Easter thoughts' from the latest D'Arcys Diaries release.

Did I tell you we are starting a new Challenge over at D'Arcy's to coincide with the next release? Get your thinking caps on girls, it's bound to be a good one. :)

D'Arcy 020 'Easter thoughts'

Echo Park 'Spring time' papers

Swirls from Marianne design

Button - Basic Grey

Ribbon from stash
Pink baker's twine
Stamping Up scallop edge punch

Image coloured with Promarkers and Prisma pencils

The inside of the card is decorated to complement the front.

The bow is tied on the Bowdabra

The image is 3d'd onto the card

The border is punched with a Stamping Up edge punch

Card base from Joanna Sheen

Doiley from Helena of 'Pink Thoroughbred' (ebay)

I edged the image with Spun Sugar distress ink and then carefully spritzed it with water to make random droplets and break up the background a little.

Thank you so much for joining me today. Have a great day and I'll catch you soon!

Bowdabra Tip coming up....

I came up with this wee gem when I was phaffing about with my bowdabra, making my usual double and triple bows.  I normally tie the securing knot and place it at the back of the bow but this time I arranged the 'wings' going from long to shorter as I looked at them, double tied the twine round the middle and removed it from the Bowdabra. With the long ends of twine at the front of the bow, I threaded them through the button and tied a knot and then a tiny bow as you can see on the pic.  I secured the knot with a dab of Glossy Accents so that it wouldn't slip.

It solved the nuisance of trying to attach the button separately and looks every bit as good as the normal way I was making the bows, PLUS it also uses up those long ends of thread/twine etc and puts them to decorative use instead of just cutting them off. Fits my mantra of waste not, want not to a T!

Hope this wee tip helps make the bow thing a bit easier.

A host of daffodils

A good morning to you, I hope you are having a lovely day. Today is the last day DH and I have to ourselves for a while at least. The darlings are due to be picked up from school from tomorrow as their Dad is back to college. Ah well, the house won't be as quiet anymore but the fun those guys bring will be worth it. :)

I've gone on one of my 'use it up' jaunts for today's card and have made another from the beautiful Ooh La La 'Carnival of Colours' CD. I had the sheet of toppers printed out and used one, so I'd another one to hand. Did I tell you that daffs are my favourite flowers? I'm sure I did.

I trimmed the topper down so that I could pop it on top of one of the new doilies I received from Helena aka Pink Thoroughbred  on ebay. Thanks Jan for the heads up! 

I've kept it very simple as the images, to my mind, do not need a lot of embellishing. I think for that reason I find this CD so pleasant to work with, it's quick and it's very easy to make a lovely card with no fuss or bother. All the papers are from the CD.

I opened the pyramid toppers page in Paint Shop Pro and cropped one of the smaller images which I then copied to a new page. I selected the image, copied it again and printed them out on a spare piece of photo paper.

This provided me with the little insert pic and one for the back of the card as well.

I used the rest of the printed backing papers for the insert to complement the front of the card.

The sentiment is from Craftwork cards and is matted onto a punched gold mirri oval. (Stamping Up oval punch works a treat with these sentiments).

Now you mustn't laugh. Promise!! The bow was made on my new Bowdabra and when I removed it from the gadget it looked for all the world like a wee butterfly. I trimmed the ends and decided it was going to do the trick - hence a ribbon butterfly as an embellie. 

Have you stopped laughing yet??? Perhaps it's only in the eye of the beholder who made it. :) LOL
I've entered this one into the OLL Challenge #97 'Seeing Double' Fingers crossed!

Thanks so much for stopping by today. Have a good one and I'll see you soon.

Love, love, love...

Good morning! Where have I been? I've just been working behind the scenes doing some DT work and I was tending to DH in between times. It's a busy old life for sure.
Today's card is to show you another of the super D'Arcy images created by Gayle of Teddybo, Wonderland Stamps and D'Arcys Diaries fame.

Meet D'Arcy 010 'Hold my heart'

I've used some more of the fab 'Yours Truly' papers from Echo Park.

The hearts and bough are die cuts from Cheery Lynn

The rolled roses are Marianne Design dies

I've used Merlot seam binding and a little resin rose embellie

The edges of the mats have been inked with Burgundy Promarker and the image and small heart and flowers with Brushed Corduroy distress ink.

I've decorated the inside of the card with the left-over pieces of dp.

The image has been coloured with Promarkers and a touch of Prisma pencil  here and there.

She's a wonderful Valentine image don't you think, but so useful for all sorts of romantic occasions.
I nearly forgot to tell you that I've used my latest gadget to make the bow. It's called Bowdabra and I was introduced to it by my blogging friend Wendy. I bought the mini one since I don't intend to make huge bows but it's handy, easy to use and that's the main thing. :) I know that Joanna is planning to stock them and should have them in her shop this week. It's great for people like me who have short, clumsy fingers, or even if you don't. :) LOL 

Thank you for stopping by today. I hope you had a great weekend and are looking forward to the crafty challenges this week. Catch you soon!