F&F Challenge 127 Pairs .... Two of a kind

To begin with I was unsure what to make for this challenge .... A card for twins? Two Peas in a Pod card for an anniversary? Then I remembered Jayne Nesterenko's Best Friends stamp which was free on a magazine, Jayne Nesterenko was one of the first people I saw demonstrating stamping on the TV I thought she was amazing & very talented and I still do. Stamping will always be my first love because of her and she is why I got into papercrafting. The papers I have used are called Nitwits from Lili of the Valley and they were also a freebie on a magazine ... so this card has cost very little to make ... I do like a freebie. :)

 

 



When I saw this stamp I immediately thought of my sister, Sue she is not only my sister but my very best friend and has been since the day she was born all those years ago :) I am allowed to say that because you see I am the older sister so however old I say she is I know that I am 5 yrs older !!

It was easy once I had decided on the stamp ... which was 2 girls, 2 sisters 2 of a kind I went on to use 2 of everything!! I used a stepper card which is one of my favourite cards .... it folds very flat but when it's on display it is quite 3D



So why don't you give this challenge a go, our lovely design team love visiting your blog and leaving comments and then the winners are randomly picked so everyone has an equal chance. For more details go here hope to see your entry up there soon .
Right well by the time you re seeing this it will be mid-November and I hope I will be well on my way with my pile of Christmas cards, in fact hopefully the overseas ones will have been sent off. Bye till next time, enjoy your crafting xxxx Annie

Fussy and fancy Challenge 125 ... Orange and Black

Challenge #125 is Orange and Black, hosted by the lovely talented Jo Rice and sponsored by Marianne Designs.

As soon as is I saw the theme I thought of Halloween, which is just a few weeks away now, I always like to have some sweets at the ready for any spooky callers and I thought this accordion card would just brighten up the table in the hall ready for visitors!!

I made my paper pumpkins by die cutting some scalloped circles, folded them in half and glued together along the spine of each folded circle. I made one flat backed so that I could attach it to the front of my card. The base of the card is made using a clever Sissix die which cuts the outer frame and the flipping centre piece all in one...

I cut some patterned Graphic45 paper to make frames and backgrounds for the centre section. Then it was just a case of adding my letters to spell the word BOO

Here is a photo taken from above showing how the two interlocking accordions fit together

It squishes down into a small 5x5 card,  a very useful type of card for words, because you can make them as long as you like by adding more frames.
Well that's it for this time, between now and next time I am going to start making my Christmas cards, I can't believe it's that time of year again 2014 has just flown by
Till next time Bye for now xxx Annie

PS  Why don't you give this challenge a go ... you can enter any of your crafty makes that fit the title and the winner is chosen randomly so everyone stands a chance, you can find more details of how to enter here

Fussy and Fancy Challenge #123.... Mainly Red

 

 



Today's challenge #123 is being hosted by the lovely Celine and she has challenged us to make cards and projects that are 'Mainly Red'. Well conveniently for me a friend asked me to make a card for her to give to her parents who are about to celebrate 40 years married that's their Ruby Wedding Anniversary ..... and what colour is Ruby ... you're right it's RED.

So here's what I made as a lot of my crafty Stuff had to be put away whilst we had visitors I decided to make a card using Dies to cut out lacey background and more dies to create the paper roses... something I really enjoy doing it enables you to make flowers of exactly the right colour, Anyway here it is

Now I am going to have to unpack he rest of my crafty stash as I have loads of cards to make for family birthdays and a wedding ... more about that to come in a later blog. Then of course it will be Christmas cards to make .. I have to start early as  some of my cards have to travel to Australia, California & Thailand!!

Well I had better get off and start unpacking and sorting, bye for now Annie xxx

Fussy and fancy Challenge #121 ... Pets

 

The next challenge #121 is being sponsored by the lovely talented Beth and she has chosen Pets as the theme. Suddenly realised I needed to get a wriggle on to meet the deadline because in two weeks time we have visitors arriving from Australia & America. We haven't seen them for 30 yrs so you can imagine we have a lot of preparations to do.

I decided to go with one of my favourite Clarity stamps of a kitten and it has a lovely sentiment stamp with it. Growing up we  had various cats, we loved them all but they were very independent not like our current pet Jasper a black Labrador who loves his creature comforts and human company.

Anyway back to the challenge here's a photo of my finished tag:

 

 

 

It was a very straight forward project , kitten stamped onto a smaller tag and coloured with Promarkers, the sentiment was stamped and embossed onto vellum, torn and wrapped around the main tag. I diecut a butterfly and various feathers ... they are my new favourite Spellbinders dies ( they are so detailed when embossed)

Then it was just a case of what went where ... here is a closeup.

Hope you will be inspired when you see the lovely work of my Design teamies, why not give it a go. The prize winner is selected by Random.org so everyone has an equal chance however experienced they are, I look forward to seeing your take on our Pets Challenge
Must dash... xxx Annie

Fussy & Fancy Challenge #119 Words ... all about the sentiment

I am very pleased to be hosting Fussy & Fancy Challenge #119 and the theme I chose was 'WORDS ...it's all about the sentiment'  I do like to use words on the front f my cards and this is one of my favourite sentiments: 'To the World you may be just one person, but to one person you may just be the World.' it is the sort of sentiment I would have used for my late Mum or for my sister .. so here is a card I have been making for my sister Sue. As Marianne Designs are sponsoring this Challenge  I used some of their dies to create the frames and the foliage.

The sentiment is a Clarity stamp and the flowers were made using Heartfelt Creations stamps and matching dies from the Arianna Blooms selection. Here is a closeup of the sentiment embossed in gold. The flowers were stamped and embossed in gold too and then I spent a lovely hour forming them into 3D flowers .. one of my favourite things to do

Why don't you give this Challenge a go ... your project can be as simple or as complicated as you like, everyone has an equal chance of being chosen as we use Random.org to choose a winner, I look forward to seeing your entries ....so go why not give it a try.
Well that's all for today
xxxAnnie

'Dance in the Rain'

A silly title considering we are enjoying some seriously hot weather up here in North Wales, the title refers to the quote I used to make my Pallet Art plaque. I first saw this quote printed on a piece of 'weathered look' board in my local craft shop and they wanted silly money for it. So when I saw Ali Reeve demonstrating with her Pallet Art Kit on Create & Craft I just had to have it.
Then I spent a great afternoon messy crafting with paint, petroleum jelly, stamps, inks ... and I found the exact same quote in several fonts in the Silhouette store for 59p so it was soon cut out in some cheap chalkboard vinyl I bought locally:

 

I love that I could arrange the planks randomly and the petroleum jelly (Vaseline) acts as a brilliant resist between the two  dark & light coat of acrylic paint to give the weathered look. The vinyl lettering was never going to stick permanently onto the textured acrylic paint so I gently coated them with Indigoblu's 'Slap it on' which dries matte, I was then able to give it a second coat. I love dragonflies so Ali Reeve's dragonfly was stamped to finish it off. I also used translucent texture paste through one of Ali's masks and sprinkled with microbeads ... they twinkle in artificial light like drops of water.

 

Right hope my Mojo stays around a while longer as I have a card to make for DH in a weeks time ... so better put my thinking cap on and stop playing around.

Till next time

xxx Annie

Fussy & Fancy Challenge #117 Summer

The weather here in Wales has been glorious which has meant I have spent a lot of time in the garden, but this afternoon I have taken time out to make my next F&F Challenge creation for the #117 Summer Challenge. I saw these Creative Expressions stamps and they reminded me of Nostalgic Summers long ago spent on the beach making sandcastles and paddling in the sea..... that sums up Summer for me.
I wanted to use so many of the stamps I decided to make a diorama... a shadowbox of my beach scene... here it is:

I cut my shadow box on my silhouette machine and then used the Creative expressions stamps to make the characters. I made the backdrop of the horizon,sky & sea with adirondak inks. I added the children on strips of card which were then inserted into the concertina folds, I used distress markers and promarkers to colour them. The little girl sitting in the front is wearing a tiny straw bonnet which came free with the stamps. To finish off  I added some shells which I made from Martha Stewart paper clay in a silicone mould, this clay is unbelievably light in weight which is ideal if you're posting cards.

Here is a closeup of the characters:

Hope you will enter our new Summer Challenge which is being sponsored by Crafty Sentiments and hosted by our very talented designer, Vanessa, it's so easy to do, just upload your entry using the link on here or there are details of how to send via email on there too.

Well the sun is still shining so I am off to dead head the roses, till next time xxx Annie