#165 Anniversary or Wedding

So here we are again it's Friday and time for another Fussy and Fancy Friday Challenge, the lovely talented Tammy is our hostess this week and she has chosen Anniversary and Weddings  as her theme. Well it just so happens I had a request to make a Golden Wedding Anniversary , 50 years that is quite an  achievement and very special.

I used Sue Wilson's dies they do give a guaranteed result and I went for cream and gold and a very simple card really..

The three panels in the background were cut using a striplet die, I am not very good at doing straight!! everything tends to be at a jaunty angle but I tried very hard to  get it right. I made the gold rose and used some of my favourite mulberry paper blossoms together with a couple of Marianne flourishes. I diecut a lacey frame and used it to make a buckle effect with the sentiment on a freehand banner.

As I am sat here writing this I have suddenly realised that this August my Husband and I will be celebrating our Ruby wedding (40 years) I wonder if he will get me a card like this .... I might have to make it for myself!!

We have had a week of lovely weather here in North Wales so my crafting has been put on hold whilst I potter about in the garden, after the soggy Winter we had it is amazing how the garden survived, in fact everything seems bigger and better this year, the apple tree was heavy with blossom so hopefully we will have a great crop fruit.

Bye for now xxx Annie

#163 Fussy and Fancy Challenge ..... Birthdays

F&F Challenge #163 Birthdays, hosted by the very talented Sasha
This really was a card that started off as one thing and ended up totally differently.... I bought myself a craft magazine with an embossing folder as a freebie, when I tried it out I was quite pleased with it and before long I had made a plain cardblank which I put away in my stash.

Then I was thinking of ideas for a birthday card and I found the card blank again, I did some diecutting, inking and added a sentiment but I still didn't know where I was going. Then I remembered some pretty Apple Blossom bird stamps I had bought... and before long I had made a topper for the front of my card

Then all I had to do was make some paper flowers, I tried to make them look like the cherry blossom on the branch the bird is sitting on .....and here it is opened

That reminds me later this month our cherry tree will blossom it looks so pretty, bare branches heavy with beautiful delicate pink flowers and then you can guarantee the wind will come and blow them all off the tree and the lawn will be a carpet of beautiful pink flowers.

Must dash as I have a roast dinner to cook

Bye for now xxx Annie

F&F Challenge #161 Pink and Green

Hello there!! well anther Friday so that means a new Fussy and Fancy Friday Challenge and it is being hosted by the super talented and hard working Beth. She has chosen Green & Pink for Challenge #161, this opens up so many possibilities so why not join in with us and send us your work here
My inspiration for this challenge was a paper pad called Love Letters I found amongst my stash .... luckily all the papers were various shades of Pink and Green which made my life so much easier. I decided on an easel card one of my favourite cards and so simple to make.

I made the base of my easel from some lovely cream hammered card which holds it's shape beautifully, then I chose my papers and layered them up, I decided the top layer was to be banner shaped which I cut out freehand.  I spent a lovely afternoon making my flowers and foliage, something  I have  always enjoyed doing so now all that was left to do was the sentiment, I searched through my stash and then I remembered the craft magazine I had bought which had many stamps in the style of Rennie Mackintosh as a freebie..... and there it was 'May your Day BLOOM with happiness ... perfect.

The best thing about easel cards is that they fold down really flat for posting which is always something to think about.

This time I will have to make a box to hold this card in because of the 3D flowers but as I will be giving it to my lovely Daughter in Law by hand it will be simple enough, I hope she likes it. I better get on with making the box then..... so bye for now xxx Annie

FF Challenge 159 Things with wings

Hi there! it's Annie here and it is my turn to host the next Fussy and Fancy Challenge. Because it is almost Spring here in the UK and soon we'll have Birds, Bees and Butterflies fluttering in our gardens I thought it was time for a Things with Wings Challenge. The challenge is being kindly  sponsored by Sweet Lilac flowers so I hope you will join in with us, here is my offering ....

I can hear you saying ... 'is that all you've done..... stuck one butterfly on a card' .... well look inside... I decided to add a few more fluttering by ...

It was difficult to photograph because the acetate was catching the light so here is a slightly different angle

It  was made using Crafters Companion accordion card die and some thick acetate, I put the lacey overlay on and backed it with some French navy card, the old saying is 'Blue and Green should never be seen' but I really love this colour combination. Once the frames were constructed and teased into shape the fun began cutting out all those butterflies and making them flutterby. I always have a crafty program on the tv in the craft room, the lady on the tv was also using butterflies on the card she was making and the presenter asked 'Do you know what they call a group of butterflies?' and the answer came back 'A Kaleidoscope of Butterflies' (yes I had to lookup the spelling!!) so there you are you learn something new everyday.

I do hope you will be able to join us again on F&F have a play and use your favourite things to make something with Wings .... Birds, Bees, Butterflies, Dragons , Angels or any mystical creature as long as it has wings we would love to see them all. Uploading is easy it is all explained on the Fussy and fancy Blog here . I hope you enjoy playing along with us and you can be sure that the design team and myself will love looking through all your work. So now I am off for a quick cup of coffee and play with our lovely Black Lab, Jasper who is impatient to get out into the garden. This is him last summer sitting on the garden bench waiting for someone to play ball with him

Bye for now xxx and crafty hugs Annie xx

Fussy and fancy Challenge #157 Jo's Recipe

It's fussy and Fancy Challenge Friday again and this time my very talented friend Jo Rice has set the challenge ....in fact she wrote a little poem:

A recipe.....

Create a design and have some fun,

Use this recipe and your work will be done,

Just use black and white to make a start,

But then add some red , a flowers and a little love heart......X

They say you can find love in the strangest places well there I was doing my food shopping and there lying on the shelf was a battered piece of  MDF....just waiting to be loved ....and then  remembered Jo's recipe and as it is coming up to valentine's day .... so the battered piece of MDF was rescued for a reduced price.

Several coats of white Gesso later and I was ready to play, I stamped a lovely script stamp diagonally all over it, then for the touch of red, I found some red heart gem, made some red paper roses and found 3 little stickpins with  red hearts on them. Then I thought the O looked empty searching through my embellishment drawer I found a metal filigree heart which with the help of some 'invisible' thread I made it float in the centre of the O so here it is:

 

I could have gone on adding bits and pieces but it would have looked like a pizza with too many toppings so I decided Less was more

 

Hope you will have a go at Jo's recipe it's very simple and as the other members of the design team have shown it can be used to make cards, home décor let your imagination run wild I know Jo is looking forward to seeing what you come up with .... let's make her smile she's such a lovely talented lady. You can find out how to enter your work here

 

Right the sun is shining so I am going into my garden to see what is going on there, I could see through my window that I have lovely clumps of daffodils and primroses that have managed to keep growing even when the weather was so terrible. Now I know Spring must be on it's way, hurrah I can't wait and I know Jasper ( our black Labrador) can't wait either, he loves to lie with the Patio doors open so that he can just wander in and out as he pleases.

 

Till next time Bye for now xxx Annie

Fussy & Fancy Challenge #155 Fashion

Well here is the first Fussy and Fancy challenge of 2016, hosted by the talented Tone who has chosen the very exciting theme 'Fashion'. Now I'm not the most fashionable of ladies, I dress more for the weather especially when it comes to walking our dog Jasper. But my guilty pleasure over the last 6 years has been Downton Abbey which sadly finished here in the UK at Christmas, part of it's attraction was the wonderfully elegant fashion of the Edwardian era.
So when it came to creating my offering I knew I would have to use some of my treasured Graphic 45 papers from the Ladies Diary collection ... I have had it for a while now but just couldn't bring myself to use it. Anyway the time had come so here was what I did, very simple because the papers speak for themselves:

There are so many beautiful fashion plates in this G45 collection I could have used but this is my favourite, I love the silky jade o f her dress with the touch of soft pink.

I hope you will join in with us again this time, as always we would love to see your cards, mixed media, boxes anything you have made which fits in with the theme 'Fashion'.  Everyone has an equal chance of winning because the overall winner is chosen randomly, then Tone as hostess will chose her Top 5. You can find out more about the challenge and how to upload your work here

I look forward to seeing your work and leaving a comment for you, but for now I think I need a cup of tea so Bye for now love and hugs, Annie xxx

Clarity Christmas Challenge

Here I am again at the very last minute I have just realised that it's the end of December and the Clarity Christmas Challenge is almost closing. I remembered doing this little piece of Groovi work to sooth me when the Christmas panic was really full on. I am a great admirer of Emma Burns' work and this is very much inspired by her. I just love the way the heart shapes in this groovi plate have layered up ..... and for me the Mother Baby image is what Christmas is all about

Christmas is over again for another year and this card has been sent and received so I am safe to post it on here.  I love the time spent playing groovi it really does  allow me to calm right down truly is 'Me time' wish I could devote more time to it and get to grips with the lovely cut work and whitework that true parchers manage to do.

Well it's nearly the end of 2015, it hasn't been the greatest of years for our family so we are looking forward to 2016 with renewed hope. Happy New Year to you all xxx Annie