Merry Mice at the carol service

 Thanks for popping by, it really makes my day.

Diving into my stash again, I retrieved Merry Mice stamp set from SU.

I used blend pens to colour them, and some wink of Stella sparkle.

I thought I was going to have to do some masking, to make what was in my head,

but in fact it wasn’t necessary, as it fitted on my card topper just right.

So, the carol singer is welcoming the members into the service, 

while the little ones take some decorations for the tree, and gifts for the children into the church.

Well, they do say it’s the “silly season”.

Merry Christmouse!

I’m taking this to Christmas card Throwdown (stamps)

Have a great day

Thanks for taking the time to visit, and I really appreciate your comments

(Google/blogger has had some gremlins in today, or is it just me?!)

Take care and see you soon

Lesley

xxx

Mrs Claus Christmas pud

 Hello, today’s card was made with some old stash…

The Christmas pudding and sentiment stamped with Sweets & Treats, SU.

Fussy cut and raised up using some scrap card, coloured with blends.

The backing paper, Mrs Claus and the cane & cookies from Santa’s Workshop DSP.

It’s a favourite paper with felt elements to stroke 😃

Peach on Earth are celebrating their 100th challenge HERE

There’s a mood board, which I’ve picked candy canes from, but there’s also anything goes.

I don’t seem to have any gingerbread men people, but there is icing on my pudding 😉

Allsorts challenge 837 asks for a focal sentiment. I’m not sure mine is but they also have anything goes.

I’m also visiting We love stamping and Stamping Sensations ( Christmas)

I hope you’re having a good weekend.

Thanks for taking the time to visit, and I really appreciate your comments

Take care and see you soon

Lesley

xxx

Who’s hiding in the garden pots……

Today’s card was stamped with an old wooden stamp, featuring two cute mice living in pots

 (see below for details).

Santa has delivered a present for them….

 (early I know, but Santa gets very busy, and delivers to small creatures first 😉)

Stamped onto crumb cake, coloured with pencils, and backed with

Decorative Vellum that’s been in my stash for aaages.

It has gold dots, with silver on the reverse.

I think vellum softens the look.

I decided to send this to a friend abroad hence the sentiment, which I think is the Greetery.

The stamp has this on it….”Great Impressions, Centralia G179”, I have no idea how old it is.

I’m taking this card to Allsorts #836 (AG or Christmas)

Stamping Sensations  (Christmas)

We Love Stamping (Christmas)

 Thanks for taking the time to visit, and I really appreciate your comments

Take care and see you soon

Lesley

xxx

Spot the difference with Uniko…

 Hello, hope you’re doing ok.

I treated myself to quite a few a couple of Uniko stamps recently.

Here’s a couple of cards using one of the Flower Power series.

I do like pinks and purples, this was for a friend who loves purple.

I love Uniko background stamps. This one’s a bit art deco.

I added some detail using a small dot stamp, and some gems

The flower and leaves were stamped and die cut using white scraps of card.

They stamp beautifully, such clarity.

This one is similar, but I know some of you like to spot the difference….

I’ll take this one to the Snippets Playground, where another fabulous prize is up for grabs.

Snippets Playground #519

Hopefully I’ll see you on the swings!

Thanks for taking the time to visit, and I really appreciate your comments

Take care and see you soon

Lesley

xxx

Embrace the Magic

 There are always new things to tempt me with Stampin’ Up! Online Exclusives.

Light and Wonder stamps and dies and Lights of Aurora DSP arrived, and this was my first play with them.

The layout was inspired by Emma Goddard (coastal crafter).

I cut an aperture, placed the die cut tree and paper behind, and gave it a splattering of inks.

I then punched an oval, stamped the sentiment and fussy cut “magic”

For the second card, I did the same but without the splattering, and another sentiment.

I’m taking this over to the Snippets Playground, as I used snippets of white for the sentiments and I have the insert of the aperture ready to use as another snippet 😃.

The second of these cards went to Miss Di’s Hubby, and may have inspired her recent card 😉,

Snippets Playground # 518

and the first went to Darnell and her husband, who is recovering from a nasty accident.

Darnell runs a blog for our “never before used stuff”, so I’m taking that over to 

MyNBUS #80

Thanks for taking the time to visit, and I really appreciate your comments

Take care and see you soon

Lesley

xxx

Non traditional village

 I’m cracking on with my Christmas cards, how are you getting on?

Yuletide Village was a favourite stamp set from SU last year.

I used the masking technique to create my village and

used non traditional colours for fun.

We have a beautiful church in the village, up on a hill.

Thanks for taking the time to visit, and I really appreciate your comments

Take care and see you soon

Lesley

xxx

Losing a dear pet…

 Losing a beloved pet is really hard. I made this one for a friend whose dog sadly died recently.

I used a Gummiapan clouds stencil, and Cardio stamps, Festive Fun and Waterside Walks.

This one is for all the pets we have lost but loved, and gave us great joy.

Thanks for taking the time to visit, and I really appreciate your comments

Take care and see you soon

Lesley

xxx

Play guitars

 Here’s one I made for a music lover who enjoys his guitars.

It was fun designing the guitars with some SU papers and Gummiapan dies.

I love teeny things, and the Gummiapan dies are adorable, even a little tiny cassette tape 😍.

The background papers are SU too.

Enjoy your day

Thanks for taking the time to visit, and I really appreciate your comments

Take care and see you soon

Lesley

xxx

Cheers!

 A fun one today….at least I hope my cousin found it fun 😂😳.

We have to roll with these gags at our age 😂

It’s made with old SU papers, and lots of SU sentiments, probably retired.

It was fun to put together, a bit of fussy cutting, and a paper insert.

Enjoy your day!

Thanks for taking the time to visit, and I really appreciate your comments

Take care and see you soon

Lesley

xxx

So Grateful for autumn

 I do like a square card, autumn colours, and this stamp set, Soft Seedlings (Stampin’ Up!)

I did this as a thank you card, using one of the stamps in the set to create the background.

The paper Players #760 CAS Foliage

Inkspirational #352 Seasonal (autumn)

We Love Stamping (anything autumn)

Stamping Sensations (autumn)

Allsorts traditional christmas

 Today’s card was put together for the Allsorts Challenge #834, 

asking for traditional Christmas colours, red, gold and green….

I got out my bits n bobs tin from I-don’t-want- to-remember how long ago!

While searching for names of sets, I noticed some are on selling sites.

(See below for details)

I have some blank cards left from SU Beary Christmas, so I used this red one,

It provided the background for the pines and baubles.

So I’m rushing over to the Allsorts Challenge #834, 

as it closes soon, and as always there’s a fabulous prize.

Retired sets used: Stampin' Up, Beary Christmas, Beautiful Boughs, Decorated Pines,

 Clarity sentiment sheet “christmas”, Gummiapan “merry”.

Thanks for taking the time to visit, and I really appreciate your comments

Take care and see you soon

Lesley

xxx

Calm & Bright Kit from Stampin’ Up!

 As soon as I saw this kit I had to have it. It’s so pretty, and will add to my Xmas stash.

I love the colours and little details…

The pictures in the kit were taken with a different ink, Grey Granite, so I tried that first.

Here’s all the three designs

The house card on the right (below) was inked with Lost Lagoon Ink, the ink spot that’s in the kit.

It does stand out more.

I tried to replicate the design using my own old dies from SU…

Detailed Poinsettia, Home Together, & Card Front Builder.

I’m taking this over to Jingle Bells, “pink Christmas”, 

where Stephanie and Lauren are donating to breast cancer research foundation.

Below shows my attempt alongside the kit version.

I even used some of the left over pearlescent paper from the kit 😃

I’m also taking the pink one to the Snippets Playground #517,

here’s some of the snippets used…

Thanks for taking the time to visit, and I really appreciate your comments

Take care and see you soon

Lesley

xxx

Beary’s Balloons wooden stamp

 

A very old wooden stamp, “Beary’s Balloons”, I think a Penny Black A785E.

Stampin’ Up! Everyday Arches dies

Some old SU papers, strip of card, fussing cutting and sequins, coloured with pencils and blender pen.

Have a Beary good day!

Thanks for taking the time to visit, and I really appreciate your comments

Take care and see you soon

Lesley

xxx

By the sea…..

 Well the weather has been good again, and the autumn colours are starting to dazzle us,

so here’s a last beach day card remembering the sunny days of summer…

After splish splashing in the sea the family have popped back to the fish n chip shop…..

……as someone stole their chips 😂

Taking this to Seize the Birthday #315 

Inkspirational #352   (summer)

Thanks for taking the time to visit, and I really appreciate your comments

Take care and see you soon

Lesley

xxx

An ATC for autumn

 An ATC for “Tag-along and ATC’s”

I messed around for hours  a while until I decided to use a scrap of grapefruit card

that was almost the exact size for an ATC, it just needed slight trimming one side.

I used a beautiful but long retired SU stamp (Soft Seedlings)for the leaf background.

The A&C Acorn Collage set had the words, and I used the seed heads from the SU set,

stamped using three coloured inks, then fussy cut.

I edged the sides of the words with a blend pen, maybe I should have done the same on the main card?

Any tips welcome, as I am very much a novice in this area.

I’m taking this to:

Tag-along (and ATC’s) autumn challenge

Thanks for taking the time to visit, and I really appreciate your comments

Take care and see you soon

Lesley

xxx

A tag for autumn

I made a tag using some lovely stamps I won, and was gifted. (I have a few still not used!)

I always admire people’s collage style designs, but don’t really get much time to “play”,

as any spare time is mainly used for making the cards I send.

I used a tag cut with a retired SU set, it has a lovely shape and detail.

Stamped and watercoloured images, (AALL & create), 

fussy cut the mushrooms, (Lavinia Spotty Toadstool)

and added black twine that’s recycled from a clothes shop label.

I’m not sure there’s enough colour contrast?

Any constructive tips welcome, as I am very much a novice in this area.

I’m taking this to:

Tag-along (and ATC’s) autumn challenge

MyNBUS (first time I’ve used the stamps)

Thanks for taking the time to visit, and I really appreciate your comments

Take care and see you soon

Lesley

xxx

Hey Girlfriend in the pink

 Hey there, just a simple card today for a niece who is growing up fast.

This is a cute retired stamp from SU, which I just gave touches of colour using blend pens.

I did have to make a mask to place the balloon behind the middle girl.

Sometimes less is more…plus she has the option of colouring in the rest of the image 😃

Have a great day

Thanks for taking the time to visit, and I really appreciate your comments

Take care and see you soon

Lesley

xxx

Peaceful Garden

 Hi, today I’m sharing some cards I made with the Peaceful Garden suite from SU.

Stamp and die set Peace on Earth, DSP Peaceful Garden, EF Peaceful Greenery.

I cased the first two from Mary Deatharage, stampsnlingers.com.

I used secret sea two tone paper for the embossed layer and label.

I distressed the EF with a sanding tool, flipped the paper to white emboss the sentiment.

I love the doves, but mainly the tiny envelope!

On this one I used my finger to rub over the embossed layer with white ink.

I then did a Christmas version using an idea by Lisa Bowden, madetocreatewithLisa.

I love how this uses one sheet of DSP, cut with 3 nesting arch dies.

This is then layered up with 3 separate arches cut from cardstock.

I hope you can see the sparkly dove and branch

I would like to thank you for leaving me some lovely comments, it really cheered me up.

I’m entering the Snippets Playground challenge #516,

 as lots of snippets used for doves, envelopes, sprigs, sentiments.

 Also Allsorts challenge 833, with the first card, “anything goes” as I don’t think doves count as woodland critters.

Edited to add to “my NBUS #79” blog, as this is the first time I’ve used this set, and it’s another chance to send best wishes to Darnell and her husband.

Thanks for taking the time to visit, and I really appreciate your comments

Take care and see you soon

Lesley

xxx