Let the Sunshine in ..

Hello and good morning to you all ...

Lovely Linda Robinson is hosting for us this week at City Crafter Challenge and her theme this week is "Let The Sunshine In" ... which is very appropriate for me as later today I will be jetting off for a week to the sunshine in the Balearics ... So the challenge is to make a card, tag, project ... anything that either includes an image or the word Sun ... here is my card

bright and cheerful don't you think? ... I was obviously in holiday mode Lol!

I picked up these scrapbook papers a while ago in the sale section of TK Max would you believe ... they're from We R memory keepers ... White Out collection 

I love these pretty colours ... and I can't wait to see what you create too ...

I hope you will join us this week ... I will be popping in to take a look (internet permitting). Please take a couple of minutes to visit the blog and the rest of the DT ...

Have a wonderful week and keep safe ...

Till soon

~ Ros ~

Jingle Belles Card 28

Just a quick post ... 

Firstly a huge Thank You to the girls over at WaltzingMouse for awarding me a Top Mouse this week ... I am absolutely thrilled and honoured ... A beautiful start to my day...

I have quickly made my 28th card for the Jingle Belles challenge ... (I'll be missing next weeks') ... and this week the challenge is to use up your leftovers .. any scraps that you have ... Well I have tons of scraps I can tell you ... here is my card ...

as you can see I made an origami Christmas tree from 4 squares of papers from my scraps and sugared it with glitter ...

The background paper is a piece from Prima Botanicals ... and the red dottie paper from one of the Pixie Dust Paperie Christmas kits  ... I took a scrap of card and painted it with TH distress stains (Weathered Wood) to adhere my tree to ... and again painted another scrap with TH (Vintage photo) for the tree trunk ...

The tag is a Bo Bunny sticker adhered to a scrap of card ... and not sure if you can notice ... but I even used distress stain on one of my ribbons to give the two toned effect .. a sparkly button ... some twine and it's all done ... Have to go ... have a lovely day 

Till soon

~ Ros ~

Playing with Prima

Hello sweet friends

Well it's been a better day ... even though it has rained most of the time ... I got over my rantings you'll be glad to know ... and it was so nice to read your comments ... made me feel a whole lot better ... 'Thank You'

I have a couple of cards to share .. just been playing with my pad of Prima Botanicals ... I tend to hoard pretty papers ... and embellies ... and lace .. well ok ... everything really! And I got a new stamp today that I wanted to try out ... so here's the card with the new stamp ...

The stamp is by Magenta ... sweet blogger Chris let me know where I could buy MF goodies here in the UK so went I went onto the site ... I saw this stamp and just had to have it ...

as you can see ... I stamped it straight onto the Prima paper .. and used my new PTI scalloped die

This next card is for a family member who will be celebrating her birthday next week

I used another favourite stamp of mine from Tim Holtz ... would you believe I bought this for £4? I found this terrific art shop in Warrington where people who want to sell their used or unused craft stuff can do so ... I LOVE going there because I always come away with so many bargains ... and this stamp was unused!

I am really going to miss creating next week ... but I can at least hopefully still visit your blogs

Have a lovely evening ..

Till soon

~ Ros ~

Taxes and duty ...

Hello there ...

First I need to have a little rant ... 

Last week I bought some goods from a very nice company in the USA and the goods were $54 ... these were my TH distress stains and I was delighted with the price as here they would cost me $97 ... The sweet lady charged me just $13.95 postage which was exactly what was on the package ... However,  earlier in the month I ordered from PTI ... not something I do often because the postage charges are so very high ... but I did order .. $52 worth of goods ... postage charges were $32.60 ... then this morning I am hit with a bill from our lovely Inland Revenue for a further $30 duty to pay ... According to them I am lucky I have never had to pay previously when buying from the USA ... it seems that anything I buy .. if it totals more than £18 ... ($28) ... I have to pay duty and taxes ... if I am sent a gift I don't have to pay as long as it is less than £40 ($64) ... 

So ... it seems that I am not going to be able to buy from PTI again ... the basic postage rate is just too high ... I will be able to buy from elsewhere as long as their rates are reasonable and I buy less than $28...

On top of that I now have to travel to the depot to pay my taxes and duty before I can have my package ... bummer!! Ok.. rant over 

Yesterday,  I mentioned that I had been playing with TH distress inks ... (which I didn't pay taxes on .. shhhh!) and this is my first card ...

The stamp I used is the same stamp I used Here and I followed a tutorial on Shari Carroll's blog Here

Of course I need a lot more practice and have more videos to google and watch ... but I am encouraged by the result ... I made this as a thank you to my Philosophy tutor ... term finishes for me till next September ...

I hope you are having a better day than I am ...

Till soon

~ Ros ~

WaltzingMouse ...

Hi everyone ... I hope you are all well

 ... This time next week I will be sitting by a pool on the island of Majorca ... and I have lots to do before then but I took a little time out to make a CAS card for this weeks' challenge at WaltzingMouse based on this sketch 

This card is for a friend ...

I say simple ... but it took ages to stitch those little hearts ... and a few goes too!

I drew two lines behind the hearts and stitched across the lines just to give a little definition ...

I love CAS as much as I love vintage and shabby ... and in most cases .. it takes me just as long to make

Which do you prefer? ... I have also been playing with my new Tim Holtz distress stains ... I'll post a card tomorrow of my first attempt ... 

Have a lovely day ...

till soon

~ Ros ~

Birds of a feather .... CCCB

Good morning ... did you enjoy your day yesterday?? I hope so ...

Today I am back with the new challenge at City Crafter Challenge blog which has been set for us by sweet Kirsty ... and it's "Birds of a Feather" .... which means you can make a card, tag, ATC ... or even a project ... as long as it features something related to birds ... such a lovely challenge and our Guest Designer this week is Nadia a very talented lady ... please check out her blog ...

As always we have a prize on offer and our generous sponsor this week is Linda Nitahara 

Right ... on to the challenge and my project ... (I actually did 2 things) first I altered a birdcage  

This was quick and easy to do ... the cage is in fact a candle holder which only cost a few pounds ...

The flowers on the base are a mix of plastic and material flowers and the main stem of leaves and flowers is actually one of those circle decorations that goes around a candlestick ... I always keep everything like this and when I change my decor ... these things are always put to good use

See what my little robin is guarding? ... yep her nest and eggs (left overs from Easter and some feathers in there for good measure) ...

The nest and base flowers have been glued into place... as has the robin and the top arrangement is held in place with fine craft wire ... 

Next I made a card ...

MF Papers for the background ... the bird is a digital from Vinnie Pearce ... printed and fussy cut ... the tag is made from another digital image from Etsy ... ribbons lace and roses from my stash 

That paper even has a birdie poem on it ... tweet!

I really enjoyed this challenge (Thanks Kirsty) ... and I hope I have given you some inspiration ... hop over to the blog for more eye candy ... and come and join us this week 

Have a great day

Till soon

~ Ros ~