Winter ...

Hello there ...

It's a cold snowy day here and Spring seems a long way off ... 

Earlier this week I heard from a dear friend to say her father had passed away ... my friend and I met on my first day of preschool ...  a long long time ago ... her little sister joined us some years later and we have kept in touch all these years ... 

Their Dad was a lovely man and very much loved by his girls ... But I know he will be with their Mum now and that will give them some comfort ...

I used the La Blanche stamp again to make a card for each of the girls - unfortunately the weather conditions make photographing such hard work ... Not enough light anywhere in my home

I stamped one in Fabrico Ultra Marine ink and one in PTI Ocean Tides ink and added some glitter

... I also stamped some left over card in the same colours and cut out butterflies with a PTI die

I guess the upside of this weather is that I get to spend more time in my craft room using up those bits and pieces ... Sometimes I think it would just be nice to hibernate till Spring comes along ...

I hope you have a lovely weekend ... I have no plans as yet but if the roads are not to bad I guess DH and I will take a trip out ... maybe a little retail therapy to chase away the winter blues 

Take care

Till soon

~ Ros ~

Buttons and Bits

Hello everyone ... 

It's time for a new challenge at Papercraft Star and this week our challenge to you is Buttons ...

Who doesn't love buttons ... and if you're like me ... you have a ton of them!

My card this week uses all bits and pieces from my scrap box ... with the exception of the buttons

A piece of DP by Eline's Huis was the base for this and the left over negative die framed it so well ...

... a scrap of burlap ... a star left over from a Christmas project and a single fern ... and the little piece of tape which I cut into a fish tail ... is some I made a while ago ...

I would love to say that the contents of my scrap box is going down a little ... but I've hardly made a dent in it! It does however push my creativity and surprises me when something comes together from a handful of scraps ...

And your creativity is what we want to see at Papercraft Star this week ... All you have to do is use some buttons on your project ... so wont you join us?

If you're looking for more inspiration ... hop over to the blog to check out the lovely creations from the rest of the team ...

Till soon ... take care

~ Ros ~

Forever Mine ... City Crafter

Hi there!

Our lovely Charlene is hosting for us this week at City Crafter Challenge Blog and she is asking that we use a heart(s) on our project ... 

Photo Source

It doesn't have to be Valentine related though ... 

Remember my promise to my self to use things up from my bits box? 

Well, my card for this weeks challenge at City Crafter is all made from my scraps ...

Yep, a torn piece of paper that I tried a digital stamp on ... and you may recognise the little black board a left over from one of my Thursday Club projects  ... 

The hearts were all left over from punching those boards

A small piece of tulle, some roses and some gems and there's my 'bits box' card! I'll have another to show you tomorrow if you care to pop back ...

Our Guest Designer this week is the talented Macerena our winner from week 138 ... And once again we have a Design Spot to offer this weeks winner at CCCB so come along and join us ... you know we just love to see your projects ...

Stay warm and have a beautiful day

~ Ros ~

Inspired By Stamping challenge

Good morning ... I hope you are well 

I keep promising myself that I will make time for some challenges ... It rarely happens ... One of the challenges I keep meaning to enter is at Inspired By Stamping ... I laugh when I read the abbreviated version of this ... I have IBS ( the condition) and I always think of this when I see it Lol!

Anyway, this week there is a beautiful inspiration photo ...

... and last night I found time to play along ... nothing too fancy 

... using a beautiful stamp by LaBlanche which I have had for a long time but never used. 

I made a triple bow from paper and added a further ribbon one ... just because

I added glitter (Stickles) to the white parts of the rose so I'm hoping you can pick that up ... Unfortunately this was the darkest blue ink I had ... Not sure if it qualifies really ... but hey I got to use that pretty stamp and play along ... Finally!

Im off to pay you all a visit now ... I'll be back here tomorrow

Keep safe

~ Ros ~

Winter Birthdays

Hello there ...

It's  chilly Sunday morning here ... snow is falling and all is quiet. My cats are both sleeping soundly in the warmth ... separate rooms of course ... Gipsy doesn't like having another house guest.

A few of my friends and family celebrate birthdays and anniversaries in the next few weeks - one of my GF's is going to be 70 this coming week!! I can hardly believe it ... she looks fabulous ... must be all the years of Pilates ... 

My oh so talented blog buddy Rebecca made the most stunning little bag the other day .. It just blew me away ... you can see it Here ... It inspired me to make a gift bag for my friends' present. I needed one that was big enough for the gift and the card so I used a full A4 sheet of card, scored it so I had a centre width of  1½" and made 2 side pieces ...

The photos are not so good due to the weather condition ...

The chain is from an old piece of costume jewellery attached with pearl brads

Bits of ribbon and lace with those pretty glass hearts and a flower adorn the front but I left the back plain

I'll share the card with you at a later date as it's one of my DT projects 

Do you have plans for today? I'm hoping to complete a desk diary I've been working on ... I think my husband may have other plans for me though ... he just hates to be cooped up inside ... Me? I'm a home bird ... quite happy to be indoors with my craft supplies ...

Have a beautiful day whatever you are doing

Keep safe

~ Ros ~

Snowy Days

Brrr It's so cold!

I woke up to snow fall this morning ... The wind was howling and blowing the snow everywhere ... Gispy went out at 7.30am and hasn't been back since ... I just hope she has found herself a warm place .. it's freezing cold outside.

My other little cat Ginger made his way here around lunch time and is snug on his bed ... sensible boy!

Thankfully my day was my own today ... Hubby did try to persuade me to go out but he was fighting a losing battle there ...  driving around in the snow is not my idea of fun! So I was able to do a little in my craft room ...

With all those lovely birthday gifts I got ... It was only fitting that I made some Thank You cards to send out 

I needed something I could make a lot of - pretty quickly - so used a lovely image from Silhouette America as my focal point which I printed onto photo paper to give it a little sheen

... cut some scalloped squares in both white and cream to back the image and a fish tail banner from glitter ribbon.

The glitter ribbon came from Wilkinsons store ... it's sold as Christmas wrapping ribbon ... on a 10m roll for £1 which is great value and you've seen me use it many times ... It feels like the ribbon you get from a florist if you know what I mean

The sentiment was computer generated and I finished up with a little post mark stamp I got in a second hand section of an art shop some time ago ... 

I also used up some of my surplus papers to make envelopes ... and because of the hundreds of envelopes I had ... I didn't have enough of the size I wanted ... typical!

These are so simple to make ... It's basically a rectangle big enough to hold your card and I round of the corners of the flap 

I stamped on them with a Kaiser craft stamp ... just to add a little something special and I print the addresses onto white paper or labels.

I do hope you are warm wherever you are ... 

Have a wonderful weekend and thanks so much for stopping by

~ Ros ~