Dream Valley Challenge 80 - Say it with WORDS!

Hi Everyone!

And Happy Easter! Whatever it means to you, chocolate eggs, a visit to church or spending time with family and friends.... I hope you have a good one!

It's time for another challenge at Dream Valley and this time we'd like you to

Say it with WORDS!

I've got a lovely text stamp from Inkylicious that I've been wanting to use but I had to wait for a very good friend's birthday first! This was for my friend, Claire (It was actually her birthday in February.... She did get the card on time... Or at least she would have done if she hadn't been off on her travels! It was on the doormat waiting for her when she got home....) who I've known since I was 11. Love ya, Claire! xx

Very simple.... Distress inks, a few gems and some stickles..... Other than that, it's all about the words:

A close up of the corner so you can see the sparkle a bit better :-)

Anyway, I've got a HUGE roast dinner to be getting on with :-) Hope you all have a lovely Easter! Don't forget to pop over to Dream Valley....

Love 'n' hugs,

Dream Valley Challenge 70 - Clean and Simple

Hiya!

It's time for another challenge over at Dream Valley and this time we'd like to see your Clean and Simple cards. Now I've always found these a challenge but I have been working on them behind the scenes - heaven knows, they easily take me as long as my normal cards! My good friend Yvonne has helped me to get the tree on this one just right.....

We tried stamping in white, and embossing with all sorts of inks and powders to get the right effect that showed all the detail in the tree and gave a clear enough image. Finally, using some extra fine white embossing powder I picked up at the craft show at the NEC last week, I managed to get just what I wanted - yay!

A close up of the image from Inkylicious.....

The sentiment was handwritten in white gel pen because, again, I was struggling to find exactly the right phrase and font..... and you can't exactly print in white, can you!?! :-) I added a couple of tiny gems and a hand drawn border. Overall, I'm quite pleased with the results!

Now make sure you pop over to Dream Valley and have a look at the gorgeous creations there which all look far more effortless than this one seemed to be!

Love 'n' hugs,

Dream Valley Challenge 40 - Something old, something new

Hiya!

I'm back with another DT card for Dream Valley. Our challenge this time is:

Something Old, Something New!

It was my lovely Mom's birthday this week (and, no! She isn't my something old!!!) and this is the card I made for her. A bit different from my usual style but I'm still enjoying the distress inks and inspiration that my good pal Stacey gave me :-)

My "something new" is of course my distress inks and then the gorgeous willow twigs stamp from Inkylicious (currently reduced - go and have a look!). I added a few dots of sparkle which you can see better here:

My "something old" is the "Mum" stamp which is one of papermania's relations stamps. I've had them for ages - so useful.... They've got all the "-in-law" and "step-" bits too which make them even more flexible :-)

Right, I'd better sort out the rest of the kids' school uniforms. George starts back on Wednesday and then Charlie starts nursery next week! He's too small!!! But look at this gorgeous piccie though - he can't wait to start!

Awwww! My baby!!! :-)

Right, don't forget to pop over to Dream Valley and check out all the other "Something old, something new" inspiration!

Love 'n' hugs,

Dream Valley Challenge 39 - Steam Punk

Hiya!

Hope you are all well :-)

It's time for another challenge at Dream Valley.  Our challenge this time is:

STEAM PUNK

To be honest I've been dreading this challenge as I really haven't a clue! It's a fair distance from my usual style but I guess that's the point of a challenge, isn't it!

Here is my offering:

The image is called Steampunk Josephine and colouring her was probably the easiest part of this card! I have no steam punk style papers, embossing folders or dies cos it's not really my thing.... and I wasn't going to buy anything that I was unlikely to use again so I called upon my pal Stacey who does some fab demos at my local craft shop and she introduced me to some new techniques using distress inks so I could make my own background instead of buying papers!

I applied a couple of different shades of ink to my base card with sponges, sprinkled it with a little water and left it to dry.....

I then used a text stamp from Inkylicious in the lighter shade of ink.....

And then it was just layering on my other bits and bobs. The clock stamp only cost £1 from hobbycraft, so I didn't mind that. I cut the cog free-hand (yes! Free-hand! It took aaaaages!) from silver card, the gold wire and pearls were from one of the buttonholes from my wedding, and then a few brads and the image.....

Here's a close up of the image.....

Please pop over to Dream Valley and have a look at the beautiful creations the rest of the DT have made. They obviously didn't struggle quite as much as I did! :-)

Love 'n' hugs,