Mother's Day 2014

Mother's day 2014.. this is the card I made for my Mother in Law Marie. I used a set of Tonic dies to cut out the central hearts and  matted and then a pretty patterned pink & white card with a lovely shocking pink card. A satin bow and Memory Box Gardenia die in the pink card.

To give a bit of a Wow when the card is opened I made a pop out using the same Tonic dies and the same card combination

Here is the central message:

As We sadly lost my Dear Mam in 2009 we have planted a new rose in the garden for her... it is a David Austin  'Cariad' rose .. Cariad is the Welsh word for Love and is the term of endearment my Mam used to us and the grandchildren. 

It's such a pretty rose and a lovely reminder of a wonderful woman xxx Annie

Ooh just one more thing Don't forget the clocks go FORWARD tonight so an hour less in bed :(

Fussy & Fancy Challenge # 109 Birthdays

This Challenge couldn't have come at a better time for me as February / March are busy months for special family birthdays one of the most important being the birthday of my dear Mother in Law Marie she was born in 1921 and is the only one left out of 13 children
 so she was 93 years old on St Valentine's day. You would never believe she was 93 .... she has a better social life than I do!! Here is the card I made for her, I always aim to make a touchy feely card with plenty of texture and strong contrasting colours.

Here it is opened up she won't mind everyone knowing how young she is!!
I started with an 8"x8" card marked a vertical line vertically down centre of the front and by placing my spellbinder's die half  on half off the mark I was able to cut a semi circle which when I folded the front back on itself gave me the circle feature for the front. I used beautiful new Papermania Parisienne Blue papers and decorated with flowers and butterflies from my crafty stash.

As the card had to be sent by post it folded quite flat apart from those lovely chunky roses, so I made a box to protect it

I diecut the word MUM and detailed it with some flat back pearls for texture. Of course Valentine's day has been and gone so she has already had this card, she assured me that she loved it. It's such a joy to make cards for her and she keeps each one that I have ever made for her so carefully.
Well that is my offering for this Birthday Challenge, you can find more details about how you can enter over at :  http://fussyandfancychallenge.blogspot.co.uk/ it is so easy to link your project to the blog and who knows you could be the one who is randomly chosen to win the prize this month, our sponsor this month is Crafty Sentiments. The Fussy and Fancy Girls love looking at your entries and leaving comments, whoever is hosting the challenge this month then has the difficult task of choosing her Top 5 entries.
Right that's it from me for tonight, looking forward to seeing your entries xxx Annie

Time and Tide wait for no Man

woke up today to a beautiful sunny Sunday .... what a difference it made ...although the sun shows up all the dust that's gathered, I had a spring in my step and was soon whizzing round with the hoover ...'a lick and a promise' as my Mum called it. Lunch done and it was playtime... I had seen this tutorial on Barbara gray's blog and promised myself I would give it a go ... well today was the day ...

Barbara explains so well how to combine the two stencils you can see it here:   http://barbaragrayblog.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/time-and-tide-wait-for-no-man.html  the instructions are very clear ... pictures & words it is simpler than you might think if you follow step by step.

Having made the background I wondered what to do with it so I set to with Clarity's shell stamps and got lost in some colouring in. I had some box frames in my crafty stash so I mounted what i had made into the frame and added a clock and a message in a bottle.

This sentiment is so apt for the Winter we are having at the moment.... Here in Wales we have had the worst winds ever .. and believe me we have plenty of wind here .... but my thoughts are with the people further South of the UK especially those in Somerset who have endured floods for over 6 weeks now ... I can only imagine how they must be feeling and coping hopefully the end will soon be in sight.They  are in my thoughts and prayers.

That's it from me  for today xxx Annie

Card for Grandson's 18th

This was a tough one an 18th birthday card for a boy who is nuts about computers and gaming. He hopes to go to uni later this year to study computer programming. This is what I came up with:

It all started when I was looking on the Silhouette studio designs library. I should add that I only just had my silhouette as a crafty Christmas present from my husband, and as I was unwell after Christmas I really hadn't played with it at all ... as I said I found this design which looked like a circuit board but which spelled out the word CONGRATS, then I found the keyboard and mouse and finally the games controller. So through trial and error (I'm not very good at doing instructions) I finally had the bits I needed. I googled and printed covers of some of the games I knew he liked mounted them on green card stacked them up on this stepper card. I finished it off with a lovely sentiment inside which said everything I wanted to say including how proud we were of him .... I just hope he likes it .. because a lot of love went into making it ... I'll soon find out because it's already in the post for his birthday on Sunday 16th February. Happy 18th Birthday Sion my one and only grandson... oh how he suffered at the hands of the three granddaughters ... he was always being bossed about, but gave in gracefully most of the time !! I better find some time to find out how this lovely toy works :)
That's all for tonight xx Annie

Fussy and Fancy Challenge #107 ... Be My Valentine

Time for a new challenge over at Fussy and Fancy ... the theme is 'Be my Valentine'   and it's even more exciting because it is being sponsored by Marianne Designs, many of you will have some of their gorgeous dies, so why not get them out mix them up with some of your other crafty stash and give this challenge a go. 

I was wondering what to do for this challenge as at my age I do not receive or send Valentines cards as I have been married to my valentine for over 38yrs and we knew each other 4yrs befor that. Anyway that's enough reminiscing, as I was saying before so rudely interrupting myself, I was reading the Craft Stamper magazine and Elizabeth Dark had written an article about flocking her background, it looked so lush I decided I had to give it a go.

I painted my MDF heart with black gesso and let it dry thoroughly, then I stamped the freebie rose stamp with versamark (previous experiment on black card taught me not to do too many at a time) then I sprinkled with Stampendous Stamp & Bond, heated it gently with my heat gun till it became clear then sprinkled with Stampendous Fuzzy Fun Flock (chilli pepper red). The instructions said gently rub in with your fingers ... it was a very strange woolly feel but once the loose stuff was swept onto a spare piece of paper it revealed a lovely raised texture so covered the whole of the heart. I had bought some chunky small MDF LOVE letters so painted them with red acrylic paint and played about with the positioning.

I die cut another heart with the message 'Be Mine' mounted on mirri board then did my favourite thing .. made some red paper roses with black foil leaves added some heart topped pins and a lock and key, then threaded some red ribbon through the holes and I was done. 

Now who is going to receive my love token .... hubby would be scared out of his wits  :) as there is no other Beau I will have to hope one of the granddaughters will take it off my hands :) . Still I really enjoyed this frivolous project ... why don't you give it a go ... use any of your favourite techniques, stamping, decoupage, altered Art in your favourite style ... go to:  http://fussyandfancychallenge.blogspot.co.uk/ you'll find details there and linking & uploading your project couldn't be simpler, well if I can do it anyone can. We really would love to see what you come up with  .. I find entering these challenges makes me try things I have never done before ... you might surprise yourself.

That's all for tonight Bye xxx Annie

Sweet Lilac Challenge ....'Love'

Here I am again, I was recently introduced to the lovely Sweet Lilac handmade flowers by Jo Rice, a crafter who has inspired me time and time again with her many and varied crafty makes. She told me that they had a monthly challenge over on their  blog :  http://sweetlilacflowers.blogspot.co.uk/  it's well worth a visit and from there you can find your way to their lovely crafty online shop.
I decided not to go for the Valentine card, my starting point was one of my favourite sentiments:

'To the world you may be just one person

but to one person you may just be the world'

to me this is a subtle declaration of love, not just romantic love ... but love for a relative or friend:

I used various dies and embossing folders from my crafty stash, but the finishing touch is the lovely Sweet Lilac flowers.

Well that's all from me today,

Bye Annie xxx

Clarity Challenge ... New Beginings

When I saw this Clarity Challenge I immediately thought of what to me is the best and most wonderful 'New Beginning' ... the birth of a Baby... but then I puzzled over which of my many Clarity stamps would fit the bill. I have to admit I have had to use some artistic licence here as I have used the  beautiful arty wired heart and  wired star.

 I have tried to make them as balloon like as I could. They have been heat embossed with silver and coloured with promarkers, then I have used my Letterset stamps and masks, then used Clarity cloud mask to create the background. I then matted and layered onto complimentary cardstock and I was done.
I have enjoyed an afternoon's play but now I better get over to the Clarity Challenge website and upload it because it is getting near to the deadline.
Bye xxx Annie