Sunday, July 30, 2017

Why didn't I think of that?

That's the thought that came into my head when I saw this card by Shari Carroll...
I mean I've stencilled with hearts, balloons, clouds and various other things that I've cut from my dies, but never thought to do one with my frame dies... Sheesh!

Anyway I rectified that today... I needed a birthday card for my husbands DIL Hannah and I don't think she's a "flowers and hearts" girl so I thought this would be better


Actually she's an architect by profession so maybe she will appreciate the geometric like design... Either way I enjoyed making this.


I opted to keep it pretty clean and just stamped and embossed the MFT flowers and leaves.. Deciding on where and how to put the sentiment took a little longer but eventually I kept that pretty simple too with a non fussy sentiment on vellum that still allows the design to show through


I hope you are having a lovely Sunday... We are due more rain today but I'm not complaining, it's not been a bad summer at all and I much prefer the cooler temperatures.

Till soon, be safe

~ Ros ~

Thursday, July 27, 2017

Tissue Paper Technique

Hi there...

Well Pat and I had a lovely afternoon yesterday and one of the things we decided to try was the tissue paper technique using watercolours.
Having let my piece dry over night, I made a card this morning which I had intended to enter at CAS Mix Up but I missed the deadline...

Anyway here's my card


I'm really pleased at how well the technique worked out ... Here's a closer look at the texture the tissue paper gives


This card is heading on over to The Netherlands... A little Thank You note to Stella and her family for all they did for us.


I'll definitely have a go at this technique again, it's the kind of thing you can do when you don't have inspiration but want to play...

Before I go, many thanks to all of you who sent well wishes for my cat Ginger.. He is much better and though he wouldn't eat the prescription wet food, he has taken to the prescription dry food so I feel a weight has lifted and I'm hopeful he will stay well. Now if only I could find a cure for my eczema, the itch drives me insane!

Have a lovely day and thanks so much for your visit

~ Ros ~

Wednesday, July 26, 2017

Oh Groningen...

Hello there!
I hope you are all doing okay?

Well, I did mean to post yesterday and wish my lovely friend Stella a very

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

Thing was, we only arrived home on Monday evening after spending 4 nights in The Netherlands, Stella's home city of Groningen to be exact... And I was totally exhausted!

We had the most amazing time with Stella and her family


Here we are having dinner with Stella, her lovely husband Marcel and their youngest son (my second son) Martijn. Some of you may remember that Martijn spent 6 months here in Liverpool at our University and we became very close...

I will share more photos of our trip once I've had time to sort them ... My goodness, they took us just about everywhere and we LOVED The Netherlands!

For now I'll share the card I made for Stella 


A watercolour BG with some of the dies also cut from my watercoloured pieces


For the first time I was able to deliver this personally, even though her actual birthday was the day after we left


I'm aware that I have a ton of catching up to do, but Pat will be here in a few hours so it may be later in the week...

Have a great day!

Till soon

~ Ros ~



Thursday, July 20, 2017

A New Guy

Hello there!

I hope you are enjoying your week...
We still have good weather here and as the Golf Open has just started, the city is very busy. 
Ginger boy is doing ok so far... He is on pain medication and I am still awaiting part of his results. I have been told he has crystals in his bladder and there is a possibility he may have stones and hopefully I will find out today whether he has an infection.
The vet says I need to feed him prescription food from now on which apparently dissolves the crystals... So I paid a fortune for a supply of the stuff and of course he will not eat it!
God only knows what I'm going to do... Argh! it's such a worry.

Anyway, I thought I'd show you the latest member of the family, well for now anyways - I made this for Miss Sophia my great niece who loves dogs... She's 8 going on 28 if you know what I mean... 


I did follow a pattern which included an eye patch ... He was supposed to resemble a cute little Jack Russell pup, but I tell you, my pup just looked like a Pit Bull... And a pretty mean one at that Lol!


So the patch went, I moved the eyes closer together, stitched a nose and then I ended up making him a scarf and a hat 


And I think he looks kind of cute now... I guess we'll see what Miss Sophia thinks.

I'm off to The Netherlands tomorrow and I'll catch up with you all when I get home. Mikey is in charge of all the animals and who knows, maybe he can get Ginger to eat the food... (yeh, right)!

Enjoy the upcoming weekend

Till soon

~ Ros ~

Monday, July 17, 2017

Mermaid Wishes

Good morning lovely people...

Did you have a good weekend? It was a little manic here - Ginger boy got sick with a water infection and it meant a trip to the vet. I hate to have to take him, he gets so stressed. Poor boy underwent a very embarrassing examination and the indignation of being weighed! He was not very happy I can tell you. Other than a shot for the pain, the vet couldn't give any meds until I get a 'sample' to them to test.  It's not been an easy job I tell 'ya! But I succeeded and we have to wait now to see what they say.
I hate it when the animals are sick, it's such a worry...

So Thursday Club finishes this week with their usual disco... And I've promised myself to get ahead with some projects for next term, one of which is a mermaid card. I've painted and sprayed cardstock to use and decided to made a little card from some off cuts


Pat gave me the die for the mermaid and I used Avery Elle coral dies as well


I cut that oval shape simply because the centre piece of the card was used for something else and I didn't want to waste what was left...


...Then filled the space with Nuvo drops

We're heading off to the Netherlands at the end of the week and I only hope Ginger is better by then. Thankfully Mikey will be here with him and I know he will be in good hands and spoilt rotten!

Wishing you all lovely day

~ Ros ~

Thursday, July 13, 2017

Birthday Gull

Hello...

I've a few "birthday boys" to make cards for in the next few weeks...
They're always a bit of a challenge don't you think? So I decided to make a few cards with the one design using the MFT Seaside Gulls set again...


I didn't have a stamp of the posts and I was going to draw them but I came across a free digi here which I altered slightly (added some lines and took out the bird) before sizing and printing then I coloured it with Copics


I then masked off the posts to do a little blending before adding the seagull - To finish off I stamped some birds from an old Wplus 9 set and computer generated the front sentiment


Inside it has the sentiment that came with the gull set 
"I want you to be as happy as a seagull with a chip"

At least I have a few spare in case an unexpected birthday comes along... 

It's a glorious day here, I have grocery shopping to do and club night tonight so I'll bid you farewell and hope you have a lovely day

~ Ros ~

Tuesday, July 11, 2017

CAS Watercolour Challenge

Hello...

It's a very dull and wet day here, I've even had to put the lights on ... What's that all about? It's July for heaven's sake!

I've been enjoying some free time with my watercolours and I've made a few cards (as well as a lot of mess haha!)

 Today I'm sharing a quick card that I made for this month's challenge over at 


Please excuse the photos - It's difficult to get a decent shot when it's so dull


It's quite a simple card, watercolours on white cardstock, splattered with gold paint and cut on my Cameo


The sentiment was computer generated

I trust you are enjoying your week... Thanks so much for stopping by

Till soon

~ Ros ~




Monday, July 10, 2017

Just Us Girls

Hello...

I hope your weekend went well... 

Today I'm sharing a card that I made over a week ago to send to a sweet blog friend and it just so happens to fit this week's challenge at




Unfortunately you really don't get to see a lot of the blending given that I added vellum over the top ... 
I used a stripe stencil and tilted it to get the first set of diagonal lines and then tilted it the other way to get the criss- cross effect - Two inks were used, Citron distress ink and Broken China oxide ink


I also used the same inks to blend onto the leaves and the flowers were coloured with copics

So yesterday we drove over to Derbyshire yesterday to visit hubby's granddaughter Felicity - The traffic was manic and it took us 3 hours to get there due to all the road works and congestion...Normally it only take about half that time.

I took the little crochet cat lovey I made for her 
Suffice to say she loved it!




And it was well worth the journey to see that little cutie!

Well, I hope you all have a lovely day

Take care

~ Ros ~

Thursday, July 06, 2017

Cats & Critters

Hello...

Cats & Critters?  Well here we go...

First off here's my my latest crochet creation (I'm really enjoying this new hobby) A lovey I made for my hubbies little Granddaughter Felicity


It's supposed to be a cat - I'm told she loves cats and I'm pretty pleased with this attempt


I hope she likes it too


Still on the subject of cats, a few months ago another one turned up here and refuses to leave.
She has now taken over Tabby's home...


Trouble is, she fights with all the visitors and terrorises Missy... although she is extremely friendly with us. I'm waiting for someone to come and scan her for a chip, but I have a feeling she may belong to one of the neighbours and if that is the case, I doubt we can deter her. Now, anyone that has cats knows that not feeding them doesn't mean they will go away... This one will just find a way into the house for food, and when she first came she was starving...
Critters?
Well, Monday a baby hedgehog decided to visit too... In the middle of the afternoon if you please! Sure enough the new cat chased after it and trapped it, thank goodness we saw it


Mikey got the cat whilst I got the hedgehog and put it safely back into the wooded area behind our home


I tell 'ya, it's all go here and the very same evening would you believe we had a visit from a fox! God only knows how that managed to get into the garden!

Who ever said retirement was easy, doesn't live here! Lol!

And I'm working tonight with my group so it's going to be a long day!

I hope you all have a good one

Till soon

~ Ros ~






Tuesday, July 04, 2017

City Crafter 369

Good morning!

Well, it's Tuesday and that means a new challenge starts at City Crafter but just before we get on to that, let me say to all my friends in the USA

Happy Independence Day!!!


I hope you have a terrific day!

Back to City Crafter where this week we have Stella hosting for us. 


The challenge is to use only Black and White (and maybe a touch of grey) on your projects

Here's my card


A little ink blending to get that grey BG and some die cuts


The sentiment is from a very old stamp set by Waltzingmouse...


These days I'm more into colourful creations so this was a bit of a challenge for me Lol!
But I'm sure you can rock this challenge so link up this week at City Crafter!

Sadly this is my final post as a DT member for City Crafter ... I decided to step down and give myself more time to do what I like... I've LOVED being on this team and I'm so blessed to have been selected by Kirsty... Not only has she become a dear friend to me, but so have many of you, so you will still be seeing me around and I'll still be following you all.

Till soon

~ Ros ~

Monday, July 03, 2017

Graduation Card

Hello there ...

Someone stole the sun... It was here yesterday but now it's gone!
My poor Ginger cat is distraught... He's been waiting in the garden just in case it returned, but gave up when the rain came, poor boy.

Tomorrow, Yes I know it's Independence Day, but it's also the day when Pat's beautiful Granddaughter, Faye, graduates. She works with Special Needs children and loves what she does!

So I made a special card for her


When I say special ... Well, what I mean is - It took ages! Lol! Stamping and masking those gulls and embossing them so I could colour them... I know you can probably do it quickly but not me...


And see that tiny tassel? Well that took 3 goes to make... I mean it's TINY! And my fingers are not, but I had it in my head to make a cap (just cut free hand) and a cap needs a tassel right?


Then I had to cover all those birds to do some blending... So yep, it's special... One thing's for sure, it won't be going in the bin anytime, if Faye doesn't keep it... like...ForEVER... Pat will whizz it! Lol!

And I STILL need to come up with something for the club this week... sigh... So I'm off to trawl my files for ideas...

Have a lovely day

~ Ros ~




Saturday, July 01, 2017

Welcome July

Good morning and Welcome to July - It's a lovely sunny day here

It's been a good week, I made a few cards, did a little crocheting and caught up with my friend Hilary for lunch yesterday - I haven't seen her since her wedding day and it was lovely to see her looking so radiant...

I also won a Top Pick at CAS Watercolour Challenge - I'm thrilled! 
A big "Thank you" to Bonnie and Loll for picking my card!

One of the cards I did this week was made from some of my (many) left over pieces


I remember making those star fish years ago using some Sculpy clay... This one was hiding in a box


I die cut a lot of frames to use on my cards so I have quite a few of the centre squares left over - For this one I used a stencil for the BG and some distress inks which I first splattered with water and I'm not sure if you can see but I also splattered some silver ink... 


This is writing ink and if you are in the UK, The Works is now selling them in various colours and they are brilliant for splattering. In the past I've used gold and it works well with no mixing required.
I also used the ink to paint over the star fish to give it a lovely sheen...

That's me for today ... I've got bread proving and when it's done we are off out for a few hours.

Have a lovely day!

~ Ros ~