Tuesday 30 June 2015

Little gift bag punch board pouch

Just popped by to share with you a little package I made,
to make a friend smile, she's been through a lot lately.


I thought it would be really simple to make on the
Gift Bag Punch Board, (GBPB)
except
it wasn't wide enough,
and I only needed a depth of 1/4".

So, plan B...used the scoreboard to make the sides,
and front n back,
used the GBPB to make the tops and bottoms,
cut off excess bits,
and punched holes.


First time I've used the hole punch,
and if you line it up you can punch gift tag too.


Threaded some lush satin ribbon

and made a very wonky bow!
Tried to unwonky it,
but it wasn't having it!


I'm sure she'll like it anyway!

Hope you are having a good week
Lesley
xxx
xx
x

Sunday 28 June 2015

Just for you

First of all a very big welcome to my new followers!



I will always try and follow you back,
it might just take a while......

If you'd like me to pop up automatically in your blog list,
it's really easy to do!
Just click the 'join this site' or 'follow' button and see!




Happy Birthday to my sis-in-law today,
I sent her one of my bokeh makes.


I wasn't sure if it was a bit pale, so added some coloured circles.
Just shows you should never give up on a project,
just try something different!

Enjoy a restful Sunday if you can
Lesley
xxx
xx
x

Saturday 27 June 2015

Rudolph Day in June

It's that time of the month again!
Rudolph Day!

This is when we enter our latest xmas cards


Playing with my new dies,
I cut a slither of trees, added it to an embossed snowy background,
added some faux stitching et voila!


I'm still in the habit of making two,
so this ones two layers of trees, inked and faux stitch edged,
plus a stamped and punched tree form SU.

Have a fab weekend
Lesley
xxx
xx
x

Friday 26 June 2015

Gesso Bubbly

I hope you are sitting comfortably for this one!

Sarn taught us how to make Gesso Bubbles!

First we blended ink onto the card that had already been prepped.
(Sarn glued a diecut to the card, and painted over the whole thing.)

I went for a soft pink and green inks,
which we then stamped onto randomly,
using the same inks.


We then splodged gesso through a stencil,
and heated it until the circles bubbled and stood proud.
White pen enhance the flower petals.

The bubbles are delicate and would squish in the post,
which is also a lovely texture, but I'm not sure I can part with this one!

Thanks for sharing Sarn,
and thank you for visiting,
I really do appreciate you dropping by and leaving your lovely comments.

Have a wonderful weekend
Lesley
xxx
xx
x



Wednesday 24 June 2015

Fresh Flower Shop

Jan brought us this simply elegant card to make.
The card front has been cut diagonally to add interest,
then an embossed triangle layered on top.



She supplied an avalanche of coloured vellum petals,
which was very difficult to choose from!
I went for the new Mint Macaron,
and added rhinestones in their centres.

We also made a matching envelope with the new envelope paper from
Stampin' Up!

I hope you like this Midweek Minty Macaroni Magic!

Lesley
xxx
xx
x

Tuesday 23 June 2015

Pictogram Punch perfect

How cute is this little envelope from Liz,
with the button and tag adding detail.
Just shows that all small packages.....



Liz also helped us make this lovely window blind effect card.
She had us ripping eeek!, but with a template,
so it was 'controlled tearing' lol


We pierced above the rolled up blind to thread the twine through,
and added the cute tag above the flower pot from Pictogram Punches.

I hope your week is going well
Lesley
xxx
xx
x

Monday 22 June 2015

Play day swaps

Happy Monday everyone.
Here's some samples to make your week sparkle

From Sarn a stunning stepper card


with matching envelope,
completely awesome in all ways





From Liz a flowering wall of loveliness.....
she scored all the bricks by hand!!!!






From Jan a tagtastic splendour of butterfly beauty,
with all that softly blended ink 


It was only when the sun shone on it yesterday,
I realised quite how sparkly it is!


Hope your week is as sparkly!!!!

Lesley
xxx
xx
x

Sunday 21 June 2015

Happy Father's Day

Happy Sunday everyone
and 
Happy Father's Day to all the Dads
and
remembering all those no longer with us...


A collage from Guy Greetings


With a pop-up inside from various other stamps


Hope your day is good whatever you are doing

Lesley
xxx
xx
x

Friday 19 June 2015

Two little ducks

We have this loving pair visit every day,
their own private spa (our pond),
and fed on demand (when they quackkkk!),
sunbathing around the pool afterwards.


She's just had a dip, and is doing a bit of yoga,
whilst he watches lazily,
and 'Percy Pelican' spouts water in between to aerate their hydro pool!
(our plastic fountain lol)

Lesley
xxx
xx
x

Thursday 18 June 2015

Thoughts of You .....and ink


I have a friend who's had a major op,
so wanted to send her a card to help her mend.


I bought a new stencil, cut one out, sprinkled brushos through it,
and sprayed/spritzed/misted with water.



It was a bit 'runny' so I tried again and it was even more 'blurry'.
So, plan B was to sprinkle onto approx parts of card,
spritz with water again, and cut the stencil,
lining up the stem and flower within the appropriate colours.

I'm sure I could have explained that better!
Anyhoo, I cut another outline from black card,
inserted the inked bits,
which resulted in the above 'thoughts of you'.

I'm going to enter this in Happy Little Stampers

and as I used lots of snippets......
off to the Snippets Playground I go!

See ya later!

Lesley
xxx
xx
x


Wednesday 17 June 2015

New Weekly Deals

This week's bargains have arrived!


Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog


I hope your week is going well

Lesley
xxx
xx
x

Monday 15 June 2015

Happy Little Stampers Sarndangle



I've enjoyed the Happy Little Stampers challenges recently (HLS),
they have two a month, one is a sketch

so I'm entering this one:


I used a special edition stamp from Sarn,
Digi ones can be found at stampingforpleasure.blogspot.com

Also just learnt that:





......just sayin' !

Have fun
Lesley
xxx
xx
x

Sunday 14 June 2015

52 CCT June Challenge

I was lucky to have a trip to Whitstable recently,
where we like to have lunch at the Whitstable Oyster Co.

It just so happens that there is also a very nice little craft shop
that specialises in stamps and dies.

They were running a workshop, which I would have 
loved to have  joined in if I'd lived locally.

Obviously I had to have a look to see if I needed anything!

I came across this lovely die that consists of two tree-lined hills,
a city scape, and a fence, all in miniature scale.

As soon as I saw the 52CCT June Challenge
to use black, white and one other colour,
I knew exactly what I was going to do,
and for once it turned out like I'd planned in my head!




I used Island Indigo for the base,
then simply added three die cut strips layered,
and stamped a simple sentiment, and my favourite flying santa
from Holiday Home.

I hope you have a good week
Lesley
xxx
xx
x

Saturday 13 June 2015

Bokeh blooms and butterflies

Bokeh backgrounds can go from this.....

to this.....


to this!......





These two awesome cards were made by the super talented Ros Maggs
who attends my classes, and sells some cards locally.

I hope you'll have a go at this technique.
It's actually quite easy, lots of messy fun,
and very effective!

ENJOY!

Lesley
xxx
xx
x



Friday 12 June 2015

bit more bokeh


Some more bokeh produced by my talented class-goers

we used SU Shimmery White card stock for the sponging





very muted but still effective in real life





Textured watercolour card for the watercolour background,
because it needs to take a lorrawater,
love the heart shape formed on this one



you can stamp before or after adding the circles,
just be careful to dry and not smudge the ink



work in progress.....





The green one on the left had added coloured circles


I'll be back with just a couple more!

Lesley
xxx
xx
x


Thursday 11 June 2015

Bokeh Butterflies

Morning!
Some more Bokeh to share today....


some of the backgrounds,
watercoloured or sponged,
with circles of white craft ink added




Love Butterfly Basics







Papillon Potpourri





Balloon Bash (Retired)


I'll be back with some that my class-goers made

Lesley
xxx
xx
x

Wednesday 10 June 2015

Bokeh

Bokeh
bouquet
bokay
bo que?

so how do YOU pronounce it?!

I've had such fun with this technique,
based on trying to replicate a photographic effect
of a blurred background from a light source
creating circles or other shapes.

Just google bokeh to see what I mean!

Here's the messy bit of making  backgrounds:

watercolour, with reinkers and errr water lol



sponged with inks and errr a sponge


Take a mask (I made my own with circle punches)
and white craft ink, sponge or daub circles of various sizes,
overlapping them until you are happy with the effect


Here's some samples:


The bottom right one shows some circles added in other colours,
as I felt it looked a bit wishy washy.

Here's a couple of finished cards,
where I've chopped bits off


I like the strips so much I stuck some back on!





Here I used the waste to punch from






I hope you like these coz I've a few more to show you!

I'll be back.......

Lesley
xxx
xx
x