Romantic Vintage

Hi Everyone

I've had a fab lazy but productive Sunday after my hectic demo yesterday at Kelso.  Loads of lovely crafters there but i really could have done with a 'Sam MacDonald  to help me find my stuff, as i couldn't find anything as per usual.  Then to make matters worse i spilt quarter of a cup of tea over my stuff!!! Luckily it was only on my tools and ink pads so no cards were spoilt.  Also one lovely lady decided to update me on the state of the roads and flooding in the Durham area so it was a bit hit and miss (or so i thought) as to whether i would get back or not.  Although i did, with no problem at all, and I'm not sure if the news and weather reports made it sound worse than it really was. I genuinely don't know as i missed it all.

Ok so today its been a lovely afternoon and i spent the early part making a card with some new purchases and then spent the rest of the afternoon outside cutting the grass.  Then a long lovely hot then cold shower!!! I feel great!!!!!!

Heres my card.

I've used a new Marianne stamp, Romantic Vintage, as crafters companion have become a distributor of this range in the last month.  How exciting and i get to have shopping trips to the warehouse.  I have mixed it with some crafters companion products too, as well as lots of bits and bobs from my stash.  So the card base is watercolour card, matted onto black coredinations card which i think i got from the neutrals pack.  Then i have stamped the image in Memento ink, london fog and die cut this with one of the opulent oval dies and in turn matted this onto the larger opulent oval die, cut out of My minds eye, lost and found, sunshine pad.  Then this was matted onto the black card with a sheet of  My minds eye, Indie Chic Safron .  I've sewn this on with my sewing machine in black thread.

Then to complete I've added black lace, a sentiment from the back of cupboard at Crafters companion HQ, the flowers are made from a Dahlia and Blissful Diesire Quilling Die. Everyone loved these yesterday at the demo and lots were sold.  I can see the shop manager being in tocuh with me tomorrow to order more.  All of the blissful flower sold out.  I've added centres to these from my stash and the cameo is from my trip to Belgium last year.  The leaves are cut in matching black card with a Marianne leaf die and a butterfly to finish off.  The opulent oval shapes have been distressed with pumice stone distress ink.

Hope you like it.

Louise xx

Sam's 21st Birthday

Hi Everyone

It was Sam's 21 st Birthday yesterday, our fabuloso Business and Admin Apprentice and i thought i would make her a special card.  Soooooooooooooooo   here it is.

The stamp is the beautiful Mariella from Angelica and Friends and its the first time i have coloured her in.  I've used my Spectrum Noir Pens and the purple was quite tricky as i couldn't find the colour to match the paper. So i coloured with PL1 and PL2 but over coloured with IG1 to tone the purple down.  Then to take some of the colour from her dress i used the blender pen to remove some of the purple at the edges.

I've used Glamour Dust on her wings, and distress the edge of the cut out image with vintage photo distress ink.  The flowers i have just purchased from The Ribbon Girl and the dies used are Scalloped tag and Damask Accents as they were on sale and i could not resist.  nearly 50% off!!!! Well it would be rude to say no wouldn't it? The backing paper is Pion design, and the card is matted onto watercolour card as the base with kraft card underneath.

Hope you like it, (i think Sam did).

Its ages and ages since i entered a challenge so i am entering this at

CLP Sketch Challenge

Simon Says

And this is why i don't normally enter, because i get fed up of looking and need to make more cards.........  never mind.  So 2 is enough.

Louise xx

Crafters Companion Blog Challenge May

hi Everyone

Get your thinking caps on for a masculine card on this months crafters companion blog challenege and get yourself entered as you may win, you never know.  My card this month is using a stamp from the Stamp it Australia Stamps which will be launched soon by Crafters Companion.  Even though they are not available on the CC website in the UK they have been available for our trade shops to buy so you will find them out there locally to you.  However they will be coming soon so watch this space.

I've used some backing papers a 6x6 My Minds eye that i purchased cheaply from craft Superstore as they were on sale.  Its called Lost & Found two, Sunshine but i think it must be being sold as special offers on a lot of websites as i cannot find it apart from the link shown.  I've used 4 different papers from the pad and embossed the stamp Key sentiments and embossed using copper powder.  The dark brown paper has also been embossed with the Arygle A4 Folder for added texture and I've added 4 eyelets in copper to match.

Hope you like it.

Louise xx

Martini Girl

Hi Everyone

There's a brand new Crafters Companion launch coming up this Friday on Create and Craft, I've just checked the schedule and its still a secret so I'm still sworn to keeping it confidential sorry.  Although i have seen some of the cards made by the DT and they are as stunning as ever.  I'm sure sneak peeks will start soon so watch this space.  

However, i am so far behind with my colouring and card making that i am still two launches back and at my demo's i have been colouring the gorgeous Frou Frou range. So here is one below i made for the Spectrum Noir Blog.  I new my first one would be Martini Girl and i think she has been the most popular.  i could so easlily have made another 6x6 card but i felt like a change and went for an A5 pop out card made on my Ultimate pro.  The papers are from the Frou Frou CD and i printed two designs onto the reverse of Centura pearl card to make a sturdy base. Ive used my spectrum noirs as usual and all colours are listed on the srpctum noir blog.  Ive used the Dahlia quilling die to make the two flowers and the ribbon, pearls and sparkly centres of the flowers are all from the frou frou embellishment  set.  The die on either side is lace Border 9.

Ok so now i am off to pack for a 1 night stay at the Inn on the Lake in Ullswater, for a lazy sunday and bank holiday Monday before i get back to work on Tuesday.  So looking forward to just chilling out............  Ooo and my first chance to use my lovely toiletry bag that Margaret Brown made for me, it has my name on and everything! Not a good photo i know but i'm in a hurry.

I'm sure i will have some photos to share with you when i get back.

Hope you like it and all colours for the card are listed on the spectrum noir blog.

Louise xx

Spectrum Noir Blog - Bella Rose Vintage Background

Hi Everyone

This months tutorial for the Spectrum Noir Blog post is using the Bella Rose Vintage Background Stamp by heartfelt creations.  I am really loving these stamps and you can buy dies to match but I've not ventured that far yet and just wanted to colour this with my Spectrum Noir pens when i first saw it.

I've used some K&C paper to match the colours i have used and then a specllbinders lace doily motif die.  I've added some brown binding ribbon that wasn't quite the correct colour so i coloured it with EB7 and then added one heart button that i bought at the NEC hobbycraft fair one year i was there.  I've distressed the edges of the stamped image after colouring with Frayed Burlap and Black soot and then decorated the inside of the card to match.

Don't forget to pop over to the spectrum noir blog for a full tutorial and list of colours used.

Hope you like it.

Louise xx

Crafters Companion Challenge Blog - Flowers

Hi Everyone

Well its Easter Sunday and my plan was to make cards and use papers from my Crafters Companion CD, however my printer is playing up its putting lines across all printed items and I've cleaned the printer heads, run test pages and recalibrated it and its still not working................ I've just replaced the black ink so i'll try a colour one and see if this helps, if not it looks like i need a new printer..........  I'm so sad as i love this one.

This card is for the Crafters Companion  challenge blog and the theme is flowers, there are lots and lots of crafters companion products that have flowers on so get hunting. And I must thank Tracey Watkiss for the inspiration in making ths as she made one like ths with a party paws image ad I just loved it!!!!!! You can see Traceys card here.

So as i had no printer to use i searched through my stash and i wanted something bright red to go with the flowers i had coloured on the mulberry wood image, Friend.  So once again i found this in my free stash from a card making mag, boy its coming in handy just recently.

I've used my Spectrum Noir Pens and only a few colours on this one, i love this little cutie in grey tones.  I've used the Waltz frame to mat the image onto after cutting him out using a circle die and then layering with a black circle.  The flower is using a Blissful diesire die and then a Marianne Leaf die.  There is a sentiment stamped in side the card, 'A Birthday Flower just for you' and this is from one of the Party Paws stamps.

Don't forget to pop over to the blog and take part, I'm sure you have a Crafters companion card with a flower on that you could enter......

Louise xx

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Crafters Inspiration

Hi Everyone

I know you have all been looking forward to issue 2 of the Crafters Inspiration magazine and now it is available so please get it while the stocks are there if you would like it.  As with the first issue once they were gone no more were made and there are some fabulous projects inside as well as £35 worth of free goodies that come with the mag.  I think this afternoon after doing some spectrum noir colouring I'm going to make up the free shamballa bracelet.

So my contribution to this issue is 3 items made using Crafters Companion range of embossing folders and with these i used two of the new ones and one of the previous releases.

I addition to using the folders, I've used the same theme throughout all 3 projects, kraft card, red, backing paper from party paws, Sheena's sentiment stamps and quilling flowers  All of the details of items and instructions are in the mag but I've linked them below too.

Embossing Folders, A4 paisley, 8x8 Regency Damask, 6x6 lattice, Camellia Small Quilling die, Tags 1, Scalloped tags, Leaves 2, Sheena's Sentiments, Party Paws CD.

Oh and i nearly forgot, Grace is also featured in the magazine with a beautiful angelica stamped card so i will be posting this on her blog very soon. Graces card Creations.
 Hope you like them.

Louise xx

Spectrum Noir Challenge Blog - Spring

Hi Everyone

Today's card is my creation for the spectrum noir challenge blog and the theme is spring time.  This image is called April Showers and really i think i should have coloured an image with snow in as it appears it will not go away...........  I need some sunshine desperately.........

Any way i have coloured with my Spectrum Noir pens and made a card base using watercolour card.  The stamp is a sugar nellie and is called April Showers and when i finished colouring i masked the image and stamped some of Sheenas Silhouette grasses in the background. The papers i have used were a freebie from a card making mag that i had kept to use just for the right project.  The die is a spellbinder  Opulent Oval and i have used one of the smaller dies out of the same pack for the sentiment.  The flower is made using a diesire quilling flower die called Blissful flower, in the centre i have used the stamen die and then popped a small button out of my stash to match with the card decoration.  I've also sewn around the edges of my card and added 3 leaves for a dienamic leaf die set.

Hope you like it and don't forget to get your spectrum noirs out and pop over to the blog to take part.

Louise xx

Black and cream

hi everyone

I am sharing with you tonight a card I made a while ago for the darice embossing shows on tv made with the wire fence folder and many other items used on my Ebosser.  It's back on tv tonight with Leann and she has some fab new embossalicious folders.   I cannot wait as I've been making some cards for the new crafters inspiration magazine volume 2 which is due out next week and these new folders are just stunning.

So, for my card I have used plain black card as the base and then I've used my Romantic song frame to cut an aperture from a piece of black dottie card stock.  Then I've embossed a piece of the black card with the wire fence folder and placed this underneath.  Another piece of the romantic song frame sits in the centre perfectly and I've used a sentiment from my Stamp Australia stamps and embossed this with black embossing powder.  The corners are made using the Romantic swirl dies in black and then I've used the Camellia large and small quilling dies to make the large flower.  If you're  not sure how to do this there is a fab clip by Leann with great interruptions  and I made this in one go.  Click Here to find out more details.  Then to complete my card I've used liquid pearls to embellish around the outside of the card and the lattice pattern.

Don't forget to watch leanns shows on ideal world at 9 and 11pm tonight.  Then tomorrow at 8, 10, 1, 4 and 7 on ideal world and 12, 3 and 5 on create and craft.    It's a pick of the day but it'll never last the 24 hours so don't miss out.

Hope you like it.

Louise xxxxx