Bank Holiday Blues

Well, another hectic week at work, card making is definitely my new escape and is becoming my obsession... a nice obsession I may add, I find its a really good distraction, having to concentrate and it definitely beats the more mundane aspects of life such as housework, ironing, cooking... need I say more! This weekend I've made and finished two cards so far... I hope to squeeze in a couple more. As ever my plan of stamping, colouring and planning in the week and then constructing at the weekend, when I have a bit more time, is paying off although the husband doesn't quite agree due to the fact that he didn't get lunch until 3pm today... I got distracted and lost track of time, oops!

'What a Cutie'

For the background and sentiment I used Nitwit papers free from a magazine: in check, floral and plain. Blue is  my favourite colour and this is actually the first blue card I have made. I love the tones and think they work well with the colouring. I coloured Tilda with my promarkers as always, then cut her out and placed her on a heart embossed die cut frame (from eBay) made from cream mulberry paper. I would have preferred a narrower frame but I don't have any and wasn't keen on the idea of cutting it down or sure how to go about it, I dont have the skill or steady hand to do that and it would have ended up as scrap in the bin! I was also having trouble cutting out her antenna, I didn't like the look it created as you could see the white background so I cut them off then drew them back on with  black fine-liner pen then added the hearts... I am much happier with this. The ribbons are cream lace which I threaded with some pale blue grossgrain ribbon. I used the same blue ribbon to make a bow. For decoration I used a couple of organza roses, a foam type rose (not sue what its made of but looks pretty) from my local shop, blue candi and finally pearls to add some bling.

'Happy Birthday Wishes'

'Lily of the Valley Stamp' this time, coloured using promarkers of course. I mounted the stamp onto a teal satin card die-cut frame (eBay as above) and added silver peel offs to frame the stamped image, I used a white gel pen for the spots on her trousers. This is the first time I have used peel off strips, I need to learn how to mitre the corners as they look a bit tatty and unfinished by not doing so. Without realising I have used a very similar colour palette of blues and teal, although this one has more bling and sparkle. The delicate floral backing paper is petite papers from Webster's I got with a magazine (I buy lots of magazines as you can probably tell by now). There are some really lovely papers in the pack its very feminine and I'm looking forward to using more soon. I overlaid blue satin ribbon onto a wider cream organza/satin trim ribbon. Using the same blue satin ribbon I made a bow, which I finished with a white button and blue flower gem. 

For the sentiment I put some silver cord onto a foiled greeting. I decorated again using the same organza, satin and foam flowers as above, some blue flower gems and pale teal candi (I cant decide what colour they are, I think it's teal). This card would be perfect for a special birthday or mothers day, I think, definitely one for the ladies. I'm off on holiday next weekend for a fortnight so I need to get some more card making done to make up for not being here. 

Until next time... Bye and happy crafting to you all!

Challenges I would like to enter this week are the following:-

'What a Cutie'

Add a frame 

Using 3 of Something

Anything Goes 

I brake for floral

'Happy Birthday Wishes'

Anything Goes

May Flowers

Digi Doodles - Anything Goes

Four Legged Friends 

Ribbons and Bows

Bingo-flower, Patterned Paper and Bling

Something For Mom or Special Lady