Followers.... thank you xx

Sunday 29 January 2012

Make My Monday... Butterflies & Dragonflies

Butterflies and or Dragonflies... how nice is that... a lovely  theme for the last of 
 January's challenges at Make My Mondays   

 This is a very simple card using Stampendous Jumbo Rosehips, Lindsey Mason Tattered Butterfly the little sentiment is from Inkadinkado Special Thoughts.
 I stamped the butterflies with DI Vintage Photo onto card that had been sprayed,and swooshed with various colours of  Glimmer Mist and  Sticky fingers inks, cut out and adhered to butterflies that had been stamped and cut from cream card.

The rose hip image was stamped with the same ink directly onto the card then painted with the spray inks which I'd mixed  on a craft sheet, Whispers Strokes and Derwent Inktense pencils. then added a tiny amount of Glamour Dust to the flowers.

I used glossy accents on the little greeting then threaded onto natural, fine jute twine

Hope you like my butterfly card  don't forget to check out the DT's fabulous inspiration at 

 The standard of entry to last weeks challenge made life very difficult for the DT to choose just three..  again! so keep up the good work. There are some challenges to come that  you'll simply love.

 take care and enjoy your day
xx Suzi B xx
Challenges
Anything Goes:  Make it Monday

Wednesday 25 January 2012

LIm week 51 Theme. Cut it Out

Chrissie and Mandi of LIM fame would like us to make a card with an aperture...not my favourite thing! ..but had a go and here's mine.
 I 've had a little play in photoshop to try and show up the cream of the card. The original photo is at the bottom of the post.

I stamped the butterflies from TH Papillon onto the base card with DI  Vintage Photo, coloured with Faber Castell  crayons then cut out the wings.  I then cut out an aperture in the top card just slightly smaller than the image . The aperture and the card are edged with Promarker,Tan. the Promarker has soaked into the card a bit and looks smudgy in places but i quite like it.


Here you can see the aperture with the wings of the butterflies and moths lifted out.






                        Close up view of the wings










I would have preferred to stamp directly onto the card with the greeting but I'd already stuck  down the top card to the base! with sticky pads to raise it up a bit... It would've been an uneven servise to achieve a good result..perhaps I aught to have left off the greeting :)


This is the untidy inside ... will cover it with some card to hide it! lol

the light is not good for photography at the mo so not the best photographs. the card is actually a soft cream but it's showing more like white

Enjoy your day
take care
xx Suzi B xx

Challenges
Simon Says Stamp Challenge. Anything Goes

Tuesday 24 January 2012

Welsh St Dwynwen, saint of lovers and friendship

St Dwynwen’s Day

Did you know that Wales has its very own Valentine’s Day?
It’s called St. Dwynwen’s Day and it’s unique to Wales. So if you want to celebrate a romantic day together without the commercialism, or share your Welsh heritage,Wednesday 25th January is the day to do it!

The Welsh Patron Saint of Lovers.



Dwynwen, a 5th century princess, was one of 24 children fathered by the King of Wales, Brychan Brycheiniog of Brechon (Brecon). Her father refused to allow her to marry her true love, Maelon Dafodrill, as he had already betrothed her to someone else. Dwynwen fled to the woods and begged God to make her forget her love for Maelon. While she slept, an angel gave Dwynwen a magic potion to cool her love for him.
Unfortunately, her lover Maelon, who had come looking for her, also drank the same potion and his heart was so cooled he turned into a block of ice. Dwynwen was horrified and prayed again to God, who answered her prayers by granting her three wishes.
Her first wish was to have Maelon thawed and for him to forget his love for her, as they could never be married; her second, to have God look kindly on the hopes and dreams of true lovers whilst mending the broken hearts of the spurned; and her third was for her to not marry the man her father had chosen, but to devote the remainder of her life to God, as thanks for saving Maelon.
Dwynwen later became a nun and settled on Ynys Llanddwyn — a small tidal island off the west coast of Anglesey in north west Wales — founding a church there. Her most well known saying was “Nothing wins hearts like cheerfulness”. After her death she was declared a saint and ever since, Welsh lovers have prayed to St Dwynwen, asking for her help in marrying their true love, or for forgetting a false lover.

Traditionally, St. Dwynwen’s Day is celebrated by giving and receiving lovespoons. The Welsh lovespoon dates back to the 17th century when young men would carve them from a single piece of wood, decorate the handle with romantic symbols and then give them to the lady who had caught their eye. The earliest surviving example, dating from around 1667, is on display at the Welsh Folk Museum in St. Fagans, Cardiff.

This article was found via a Google search, not written by me :)

 Llanddwyn Island and Newborough Forest
One of my favourite places.
St Dwynwen's cross

 Hope you like this bit of Welsh folklore and I wish you 
a very happy St Dwynwen day
for whatever reason you might need her. :)
take care
xx Suzi b xx
 

Monday 23 January 2012

Make My Monday.. Flowers and Leaves

Morning everyone, hope you had a good weekend and are raring to go .. at crafting any way lol.
This week at Make My Monday,  still under the main theme of Nature we would like  to see some
flowers and leaves.
 This is mine...hope you like it.
I used Anemone corner from IndigoBlu as my main image stamped onto water colour card.. The flowers are coloured with Whispers Strokes... a favourite of mine again at the moment.  I then stamped onto vellum with Versamagic and embossed with Cosmic Shimmer, Viola Black Aurora.. its a bit darker than I wanted but decided to continue with it. I coloured the back of the vellum image with whispers again and attached to the card with Pin flair glue. As the vellum is coloured it curls and so gives shape and depth.. mind you it curled the wrong way.. ha ha  worked out ok in the end.
I distressed and inked the edges of the card with Dusty Concord DI and mounted onto another distressed card slightly bigger...  and so on and so on...lol.
 The DP is from the Essence of Nature CD by Chocolate Baroque (formally Elusive Images) the flowers were blinged up with Glamour dust
Added a bit of bling, ribbon, a tag sentiment and a couple of punched leaves.
The ribbon looks quite blue in the photograph but it is lilac.
As usual I'm looking forward to visiting your blogs to leave comments on your lovely work.
 I was so impressed with all the sceneic entries last week .. you were amazing ladies!.. don't think there were any males ;) It was really difficult to choose just three..
 I'm out early this morning meeting up with three friends for a shopping and lunch trip to Chester.
See you later.
 take care
xx suzi b xx
Challenges
Make It Monday Always  anything goes
 Truly Madly Crafty Challenges  Anything Goes

Thursday 19 January 2012

Mojo Void


No crafting going on here so Missi claimed the desk for a nap! so thought I'd share it with you.

There's an empty space where my mojo should be even after seeing amazing inspirational pieces of art on your blogs. I'm hoping to achieve some thing today. Good or bad I'll share it with you... you might all be groaning if its horrid! :o).. fingers crossed I can get going.. even Puccini's Madame Butterfly hasn't done it.

Wishing you a happy day.
 xx suzi b xx

Monday 16 January 2012

Week 32 at Make My Monday

Good morning every one, it's crispy white and sunny here in Crewe which could inspire a  "scene" for this weeks challenge at Make My Monday.
 This week following the over all theme of 
NATURE Fliss would like us to
Create a Scene 
here's mine.....
I used Creative Expressions Create a Scene: Coast stamps. did this make it easier?...NO!.. this was a real challenge for me I think I need to attend art classes..lol.


The boat image was stamped onto a water colour postcard (I intended making a collage of bits and pieces saved from yer hols etc with the post card being the main image... mm mm ! ) I  deliberately left the boat with white bits (cream actually) showing through..makes it look a bit battered  ;D. I stamped the seagull onto the card then again onto paper and cut him out and stuck over. I know it's a him cos he looks cross...females never look cross, do they?!

 Products Used
Creative Expressions: Coast rubber stamps
Chocolate Baroque (formerly Elusive Images) sentiment from Summer Poppies
DI's: Broken China, Stormy Sky,Shabby Shutters and Walnut Stain.
Whispers Strokes
Starfish... no idea where I got them. You know what it's like when you're out and about you buy all sorts that just might come in handy and they nearly always do :o)

The DT have achieved some amazing inspiration for you .. take a look. Don't forget the over all theme of NATURE when you make your scene and I don't mean a photograph of you having a strop in Tesco!

Enjoy your day
xx Suzi B xx

Tuesday 10 January 2012

Predominantly Purple at LIM


I've used TH Visual Artistry cling stamps .....Boundless Flight apart from the birthday sentiment and I can never remember where this came from. ;o(  Apart from the LIM theme of purple the inspiration for this card came from some tissue paper that a Christmas gift was wrapped in ( thank you  Cubby Hole Carol)

I stamped the butterflies and moths in Versafine Onyx Black onto the tissue paper and placed the tissue over the stamped scroll and pasted over it with watered down PVA. Once it was dry...well almost , never one for patience when it comes to craft/art! lol I added other bit of stamping and the quote.
Then I made a mistake at the top of the card ...pulls face... so I cut the bottom half off and added it to a second card ... hence the ribbon! and sentiment. I wish I'd put the sentiment in the middle... I'm now thinking what to add to balance it out... or should I leave it? I also think it's now more rather than less b***a ! lol
The tissue paper has a lovely shimmer to it (glimmer mist or something like that) The tissue is quite thick so  the edges didn't disappear but I quite like the effect and the fact that you can see the scroll image through it.

I'm working on my little net book with a dongle which is a little frustrating but at leas I have some on line access whilst I wait for a new router from Talk Talk. it might mean I wont have much on line time to visit your blogs,,, sorry :o(  come on TalkTalk get a move on
take care
xx Suzi B xx

Challenges
Stampalot .... Monochromatic.

Monday 9 January 2012

Animals... at Make My Monday

Under the heading of Nature..... Animals is the sub theme this week at  

My first card uses the cute freebie puppy dog stamp from Craft Stamper magazine. I stamped directly onto the card then placed a mask over the top before I stamped the flower images from Katzelkraft no. KTZ08
which placed the flowers behind the naughty puppy!  The other flower image is stamped on its side as if trampled by the puppy  so that he could grab a bloom as a prezzie for his mistress lol. 
The puppy is coloured with Promarkers, the flowers with Staedtler coloured pencils. the little flowers were part of a pack that the lovely Lesley (Crafty Mamma) sent me.Thank you Lesley x.
.This card is from Polka Doodles CD Rom ... Back to Nature  shes a very contented pig lol.
I have very limited IT access at the moment ,,,but hopefully I'll be able to get over to your blogs to see your animal creation.... go on "go wild"... ha ha .
take care
xx Suzi B xx



Friday 6 January 2012

For Ellie

This card is for my Granddaughter who will be 11yrs old on Sunday. She doesn't blog hop so no fear of her seeing it. I used another Cemerony image from a set of beautiful female images bought from the Cemerony eBay shop. The DPs are from a 5th avenue book of papers.

I think I've gone over the top! lol hope she likes it. 





 The decoupaged ballerinas with a touch of glitter... Ellie recently started dance classes. Which includes ballet along with modern and tap dancing.

Something you don't know about me lol. I used to help teach at a dance school... I can shuffle, hop, tap! can't stand on me points though! :D






A glittered crown. I might be adding a bit more glitter to the flowers... I think ... you know how it is.

Thought I'd share these with you.
The wind of Tuesday night did this! loads of dents and scratches but nothing major. In the scheme of things no great disaster  but it upset me :o(





This morning Missi decided to investigate the inside the wooden garden divider. 
Here she is "wood walking" she steers clear of walking on the stones whenever she can!
Hope you're all well, and that you haven't suffered any effects from the ravages of the weather.

tc
xx Suzi B xx

Monday 2 January 2012

Week 30 at Make My Monday

Morning  all welcome to the first challenge of 2012 at 
Make My Monday.
the January theme chosen by Fliss is
NATURE
and to start us off Fliss would like us to use
BIRDS
Here's mine
This is an 8x8 card... my first attempt at this size. I've seen lots of inspirational art work using this size so thought I'd try it. Hope you like it.
The main image is a freebie download from 
Cemerony Share There are some gorgeous images on this Blog. Julia also sells art work on Etsy.


I like the way this bird from Crafty Individuals CI-256 is taking flight off the card.
The Air mail is from one of CI's freebie packs which I received recently with an order... thank you CI
The other little bird and the words are from a lovely set of Inches...
can't remember who makes them :o(
The round image is  from the download.
The bird on a branch is from Stampers Anonymous.
The feather stamp is from Impressive Images Essential Elements coloured with DI's. You can just see some script which also came from this set.
I cut out the birdcages on the smaller images .. They were re sized before printing.
The birds in the grass image and the sentiment are from  PaperArtsy.
I used several DI's to make the background and to colour the stamped images.
The little collection of post cards is also from Impressive Images.


Pop across to the MMM Challenge Blog and see all the DT's inspirational  art work and the gorgeous stamps Fliss has donated for the January winner.

 As usual  I look forward to visiting your blog to see your interpretations.

Blogger has been playing up during this post... it's made this post a bit of a pain to complete... but alls well... nearly.

Take care and very best wishes for 2012.
 xx Suzi B xx


Challenges
Something old something new at Simon Says Stamp and Show..... New DI's and Air Mail stamp
Anything Goes   The Pink Elephant 
Anything goes plus distressing at Craft your Passion 
Anything Goes Ink on My Fingers Sunday Stamper