Reach for the stars

Hi there!

I have a quick little card to share ....

Thanks to a dear blog friend (love you Sue) I received some PTI dies today ...

Of course once other things were taken care of I had to make a card with one of the new dies ... The luggage tag die ... 

I used the tag to make a shaker style card ... the tag was cut from previously white CS that I sprayed with inks first

I'm still loving the grey CS and I thought this would be suitable for a girl or boy ... perhaps for graduation.

I'd like to enter this at a 'new to me' challenge blog

AAA Cards

On another note I had to take little Ginger to the vet ... He has allergies and it makes his eyes sore and he tears at his skin ... Suffice to say I got lots of meds which together with the consultation fee totalled £87! Two problems ... He will not let us put drops into his eyes ... It stings and he goes ballistic! Secondly, one of his tablets is a steroid which of course makes him hungry but the vet has put him on a diet ... since being neutered he's put on 2 kgs! I feel so cruel right now!

I hope things are all good with you ...

Till soon 

~ Ros ~

Animal Magic

Hello and good morning ...

It's cooled down here in Liverpool with some rainy nights and it's made life much easier ... I can sleep (cat permitting) and I'm not feeling so drained...

Today I'm hosting the challenge at City Crafter and the theme is

Animal Magic

Source

Doesn't that guy just make you smile?

The challenge is to Create a card or project that features an animal

Now you all knew I'd use cats huh?

Well, there's Gypsy on the fence ... Ginger watching her (as he always does) and Teddy always somewhere in the background hoping to steal their food

I used the Memory Box star stencil again on top of some old Prima (Jack and Jill) paper and sprinkled glitter on the wet paste ... It's really sparkly and the cats are covered in Glossy Accents

My sentiment is computer generated...

Our GD this week is Bev (Gotta do the happy dance blog)... winner of challenge 212 ... Bev makes the most terrific cards ... please click the link and go take a look and say hi!

I can't wait to see what she comes up with this week along with my fellow DT so I'm off to the City Crafter Blog to take a look at all the projects ... I'd love you to come too and be inspired to join us this week.

Once again our winner will have a GD spot with us so get out your goods and start creating!

Have a wonderful day

~ Ros ~

Time

Hello ...

At Our Beautiful World today we have a new word prompt brought to us by the lovely Robyn

The word Robyn has chosen is Time

I only have 2 simple photos for you this week ... 

For me Time is life and life is Time

It can pass by so quickly when it's good Time or drag it's feet when it's bad Time... 

There is no escaping it and it isn't always the greatest beautician 

But every moment of life is etched by Time and a million stories can be told

We'd love you to share your Time photos and maybe your stories too

Our beautiful World 

I bet this one really gets you thinking

Have a wonderful day and enjoy your Time

~ Ros ~

Just for you

Hi there ...

How's your week been?

Well at last it's friday and the weekend awaits ... I'm hoping for cooler weather and maybe a good night's sleep ...

Today is a special day for a dear blog friend ... 

The lovely Stella  ( A Little Bit Of The Things I Enjoy) is celebrating her birthday!!

Happy Birthday To You!!

Here's a card I made for her ... hopefully it will have arrived by now

I know she's more of a 'blue' lady but I'm hoping she'll like this ... 

Some stencilling, paper piecing and lots of tiny beads

Have a wonderful day Stella ... sending Big Hugs

~ Ros ~

Mixed Media Mermaid

Hello from a very hot UK ...

We have a breeze blowing but it is still stifling and I am longing to be by the sea ...

Alas that can't happen so instead I created another sea themed mixed media wall hanging ...

I saw THIS brilliant tutorial by the equally brilliant Gabrielle Pollacco ... I was smitten ... I had to give it a try ...

Here's my version ... 

I used so many things here ... occasionally taking thing off and putting things on ... the background was  quite easy ...  I've watched a lot of you experts doing it for so long and with such lovely results

I made the mermaid and the shells ... everything else came out of my supplies

I wanted it to look like that little mermaid had broken free from the net

Dreams set you free ....

You remember my Dolphin Tag from a couple of days ago? Well, Miss Sophia my great niece was here yesterday and was besotted with it Lol! I asked her if she'd like it and she just lit up ... said she would love it to put on her wall ... So we wrapped it in pink tissue paper - Her favourite she said ...

I can't resist that cutie and she ended up going home with a box of my creations ... And she made a card for me too!

I'm catching up with my BFF this evening ... looking forward to it

Thanks for looking in

Till soon

~ Ros ~

Happy Birthday Charlene and Christmas at City Crafter

Hello and good morning to you ...

A bit of a long post as today is not only a new challenge at City Crafter, but we are also celebrating our lovely DT member Charlene's Birthday!

Happy Birthday sweet lady!

This card should be waiting for you when you get home ...

I hope you are having a wonderful time and your day is really special

At City Crafter this week we have our lovely Kirsty hosting with a 

Christmas in July challenge

(Make a Christmas card)

Source

So here's my 2nd Christmas card this year!

Quite a simple one using the new digital paper line from Pink Petticoat to cut my stars and the word Joy ...

I tried to keep up with trends here by using vellum, sequins and some wrapped silver thread

My fellow DT members have some more inspiration for you up on the blog and of course we'd love it if you left your birthday wishes for Charlene too ...

I have Ross and Sophia coming to see me today so I'd better get organised

Have a beautiful day ... Be safe

~ Ros ~

Mother Love

Hello...

I've had time to play today ... I saw the  gorgeous colour challenge at

Just Us Girls

I love these colours and though I wasn't sure what I'd end up with I started by making a background using Goosebumps on white CS and sponging inks on top .... It looked like the sea to me ... And here's how it ended up...

I used a plain wooden tag for the base - covered it with paper then sponged over it to blend in with my goosebumps background ... I found all sorts of things to add ... bits from old potpourri... beads and sequins and I used inks to colour my shell and the scraps of muslin

I suddenly imagined dolphins swimming along ... Of course I didn't have any dolphins ... so I thought I'd try making them with Sculpey clay ... Ok, I know they aren't perfect ... but I was having fun ... baking them, painting them, adding mod podge dimensional and finally some little eyes

Simon Says Stamp Blog has a summer challenge ... Not sure if this counts but I'm entering there too

And my friend Chriss told me about the Touch of Nature Challenge at the Mixed Media Card Challenge

I have a lot of clearing up to do and my hands are a funny shade of green ... but it was worth it.

I hope you are having a brilliant day

Till soon

~ Ros ~

Our Beautiful World

Good morning...

It's Sunday and that means a new word prompt at 

Our Beautiful World

Manuela has chosen the prompt and it's Vegetable....

Well much as I love my vegetables ... I neither grow them - save for some potatoes occasionally - and I never think to photograph vegetable either ... So this one got me thinking

Now garlic is a vegetable right? It's something I use a lot ... and as you can see mine has it's own special pot too ...

Perhaps it's because I come from a family where 2 of my Grandparents were French and one was Swiss that I like to flavour food with garlic and herbs ... It's good for you too

I do grow herbs ... and in my vegetable box there are always onions, white and red, carrots which I love roasted and of course potatoes ...

Over the years I have become a much more confident cook ... my husband loves his food and he particularly loves the meals I come up with ... There were many times in my life that money was tight ... even as a child ... and I learned to cook good wholesome food on a budget ... 

This is our local farm shop ... plenty of root vegetables

But it's expensive ... probably because these aren't actually grown on this farm ... I wish I'd taken a photo of the vegetables on display in Spain and Majorca ... half the price and 3 times as big as ours ... And some I have never encountered before ... I think you always 'eat' with your eyes first so my meals and my salads have to be colourful which means lots of different vegetables... And I love beetroot and cauliflower, green beans and peas ... well, I don't think there is anything I don't like when it comes to vegetables

What about you? We'd love it if you shared with us at

Our Beautiful World

Perhaps you can enlighten me as to some of the more exotic vegetables and how you cook them too ...

Wishing you a blessed Sunday

~ Ros ~

Believe

Hello ...

I hope you've had a good week ... We've had some warm weather over here and I certainly can't complain about the summer ... We have the Golf Open Championship on Merseyside so it's always good when the sunshines ... But we did have some storms this morning and lots of rain and the seeds from the trees came down like confetti ... the garden is covered in them.

I've been playing with my new memory box star stencil using modelling past and glitter ... and different background papers ... Now, I don't like to do Christmas themes until much later in the year ... I don't like wishing time away ... Plus I'm not that organised ... but this one just screamed Christmas to me

The paper is by MME Lost and Found ... It just reminded me of a night sky

My talented friend Tracy (I Wanna Build A Memory Blog) recommended that I buy a proper tool for the modelling paste so I bought a set from The Works (I use their Modelling Paste too) and it's made a much better job than my old store card Lol! Thanks Tracy!

I've also been playing with some Sculpey clay and ordered some Shimmerz and paints ... So I hope I'll have something different to show in a few weeks ... It's fun trying new things

I've some desserts baking in the oven and my bread needs to go in soon so I'd better say goodbye for now

Wishing you a lovely weekend ... 

~ Ros ~

Winners and Balloons

Hello and good morning!

I do have a card to share but firstly I am delighted to say that the winner of my prize for the birthday celebrations at 

Our Beautiful World

Is Lesley G ... Congratulations! Your package will be sent to you shortly

A full list of winners is up on the Blog ... Go take a look

Last weekend a friend's husband celebrated his birthday ... another guy card ... not always easy huh?

I decided to use the balloon stamp again ...

I apologise for the poor quality of the photos ... we had one of those days when one minute the sun is blinding ... then suddenly it goes dark and the heavens open! 

However, I hope you can see the sky background which I did with chalks and the PTI cloud die ... really simple but effective

After stamping the balloons I cut out the birthday word and layered it up before putting it back

I used the cardboard from all those cat food boxes for my layering ... Well I have enough of them!

That's it for today my sweet friends...

Have yourselves a lovely day

Be safe

~ Ros ~

Chirpy Chipboard

Hello ...

It's time for a new challenge at City Crafter and this week our challenge has been set by the very talented Anna
The challenge is to use at least one piece of Chipboard on your project ... 

Photo Credit ... Anna

I wonder if like me you have tons of it squirrelled away ... Well it was time to dig it out and make a little something with it 

I used 3 chipboard pieces, a bird, a branch and a border cut in half

For the bird and branch I used distress stains to colours them and for the scalloped borders I just smooched them with a pearlescent Brilliance ink 

There are so many ways to use your chipboard and to colour them ... We're hoping that you will join us at CCCB this week and share your beautiful creations ... Our guest Designer this week is the lovely Robyn ... be sure to check out her project along with those of my fellow DT.

Kirsty is also sponsoring a prize  to our winner this week ... a Maya Road chipboard alphabet package

So get out your chipboard and get creative!

Have a beautiful Day!

~ Ros ~

Woodland

Hello and welcome to another photo prompt at

Our Beautiful World

I have chosen our word this week ... and it's simply

Woodland

You know I love the beach ... but I have a passion for woodland, forests and trees ... I simply couldn't live without trees around me ...

As a young girl, whenever I was troubled I headed for the woods ... Not something I could probably do today. I am fortunate that where I am we have lots of green land and I am right next woodland known as The Triangle which is part of the Pennine Trail where my "Eagle" tree has been standing guard for many years ...

Would you not agree that it looks like an eagle?

Every morning for years I would pass him and say hello...

Having owned a couple of German Shepherds ... exploring woodland was a joy and explore we did from Scotland to Cornwall

This was taken some years ago in Derbyshire and this one...

... In Wales

Everyday I would walk come hail rain or shine ... 

Winter ...

Through to summer...

 Some mornings it was hard to motivate myself ... but the beauty was always worth it.

Both my dogs detested the rain ... but still wanted to be in the woods and those times were probably the best when I think about it ... Sometimes we would shelter under a tree for half an hour - being at one with nature, listening to the pitter pattering of rain drops on the trees ... Meeting friends along the way...

On this path at a certain time of year it would be completely covered by tiny frogs no bigger than a finger nail ... To me woodland is just magical, calming and gentle ... nothing heals like nature

I and my friends at 

Our Beautiful World 

Would love to explore woodland with you ... link up your photos and tell us about them

I will be revealing the winner of my gift following the  birthday celebrations at 

Our Beautiful World shortly.

Have a beautiful day

~ Ros ~

Smile

Hi there ...

I'm feeling a little burnt out right now ... In need of some rest and 'me' time

Last night was our last craft class at Thursday club until September and I'm looking forward to re-charching my batteries and hopefully coming up with some new projects for them.

It seems all I've been doing lately is keeping up with DT work, comments, my group of special needs and a little teaching here and there and I miss being able to "just create"

My little Ginger waits patiently for me to join him on the swing

We've had some nice sunshine and he spends all day here

But today I have a card to share that is for a friend's birthday ... I used to take her out in her pram ... spent many many years with her and her sisters ... babysitting, taking them to the park etc., I can hardly believe she is celebrating her 50th! 

She now lives in Norway so I haven't seen her in a long time ... If I'm up to it we will be meeting again tonight as she's come home to celebrate

There is a challenge at Mod Squad this week 

It calls for some texture on your card...

Well there's lots of different texture here don't you think?

Linen card stock, dry embossing, liquid pearls and glitter paper

... a felt star, silver thread and rainbow gems

I had fun putting this one together ... That's what it's all about 

Ok, I'm off visit you all then join my kitty for a little while...

Have a lovely day 

~ Ros ~