A rose is a rose ...

Over the years, I'm managed to accumulate quite a few different photo albums and online web sites, zoomshare and webshots to name but two!

I've decided to look through these sites and save some of the images onto my discs, so I thought I'd share a few with you over the next couple of days.

Here's a little bit of parchment craft I did a while ago, so this is my card for today.

I learnt parchment craft a long time ago now, and this was one of my earliest cards that I had done. It was only a few months after I'd got the hang of it. Still, I think it's quite pretty.

I hope you like it!

A little bit of bling

On Tuesday evening, I shared a couple of hours with a lovely bunch of ladies and we had a great time making these -

The necklace was made using a plastic domino and some clever inspiration from Monica. Each of us made one of these and I think they look stunning! I can definately see me making more of these. Thanks Moni, they're ace!

I was nice to get a couple of hours away from home after the hassle of this last week, and spend some time with like minded folks. Today, it was back to the grindstone and working again. I finished of a few things that have been needing doing for a while and they're all done, dusted and ready to be posted off.

I also had little Holly to the vets yesterday evening, but we won't know what's what until at least Tuesday. She's in for a biopsy on Tuesday and I'm sure I'm going to miss her all day (and so will Scoobs and Truly too!)

Talk about stressful ! Right.. must fly, lots of things to be getting on with.

Toodles!

Roses are...

Yellow? Tangerine? Cerise?? Well, actually, all of them!

Aren't they pretty?

The tangerine colour is my favourite. It was my birthday last week, and my lovely hubby bought these home with him. A whole big bunch of them.Just thought I'd share as they are looking so lovely.

I do also have a card to show you today too - how good am I?

The card above uses the new butterfly stamp, the new Rich Razzleberry cardstock and Melon Mambo ribbon. I've also used a combination of the new ink colours to do a colour dusting on the butterfly below..

The detail on the butterfly stamp is fantastic - and as you can see, I've stamped it four times and layered two on top of each other. I've added a little dazzling diamonds onto the edges of the wings.

I've got a special project to show you tomorrow, so do check back!

Until then, happy crafting!

Blog hop..

Hi everyone..

Did you visit Jamie Dodger's blog?If so, you've probably come here for the blog hop, so here are a couple of projects I've made ready for you.

The first thing I want to show you is a little bag I've made. I've combined the new absolutely wonderful Cottage Wall papers with the newish birdy punch to create some little tulips. The bag holds a few little note cards, but I'll show you those another day.

My second project is this card.

I did a bit of quilling a few weeks ago, and actually got quite hooked. So all I've done on this card is make some little teardrops from cottage wall papers and certainly celery card, which I cut into 5mm strips, and quilled them to create little butterflies. I used other colour card for the flowers.

As you can see, this photo didn't come out too well, but at least you can see the details a little bit better. I am loving creating ruffles with my eyelet border. I hope you like it to.

So, where do you need to go next? Well, you are heading over to Carol's blog.. so just click here to get there.

There are three loops to the blog hop.. so when you've left mine and returned to mine, then you're at the end.. so nip back over to these links too to take a look around theirs.

Loop One - start at Debbi's blog
Loop Two - start at Clare's blog
Loop Three - start at Caz's blog

Altogether there should be 46 blogs for you to look through, so if you have time, nip and leave a comment and I'm sure they'll come to say Hi..

Enjoy the rest of your blog hop, but call back soon, leave me a comment and I'll call over to see you!

Blog hop...

Check back tomorrow!

How to make a shutter card

The Eazi way!!

Here's another little video tutorial for you, this time for the Shutter card. A very very simple card to make with the Eazi score.

To see how to make it, watch below or click here.

video for Side Step card

here's a little video for you. If it's not working you can click here. 

On Sunday I was working down in Lincoln for Phyll, so on behalf of all those who asked, here's the video clip for the Side step card. Enjoy... (sorry it's upside down. lol)

Time for a challenge..

Oh gosh  - where does the time go?? It's my birthday today.. another year older - and it doesn't seem two minutes since I was as young as my son! Anyway, thank you to everyone who has sent me cards and emails - it means alot. Thank you.

Now onto my card for today.

It's not very often that I do any card challenges, but I wanted to make a couple of cards for a demo next weekend where I'm helping my lovely Sheila do a SU party, and I didn't really know where to start. So after much perusing, I came across Monica's blog, and of course the link to the Stamp with Us challenge blog.

Here was the challenge template -

Now, all I had to do was turn it into a card. And here's the one I made.

This is the close up of the finished card, and as you can see I've gone for yellow and brown colour combo. I am loving this new colour that's just been released by Stampin' Up -  Soft Suede. It's just so lovely. The stamps are Vintage Vogue  - or Effin' Friends as Sheila likes to call it. lol.

Here's the finished card -

The background is Stampin Up (I'll check which pack for you when I get chance later, but I think it's Tea Party) I've also added a couple of filigree brads to the centre of the flowers, but coloured them with a permanent marker so that they blended in a little better.

Now onto card number two - and my favourite colours.

As you probably know, I'm not a big fan of green, but Old Olive and Certainly Celery definately are worth liking!

The papers are a new pack (and don't freshly opened papers smell lovely??) and they are the lovely Cottage Wall papers. They only arrived this last week, after being on backorder. They must be sooooo popular they are flying out!

I used Rich Razzleberry and Certainly Celery on my Vintage Vogue stamps (from the mini), and used a 'rock and roll' technique. I've tried this before but never really liked the effect. However, using this colour combo, I think it looks quite nice!

I've finished the card off with a bit of white SU ribbon and the eyelet border punch.

Right.. that's me done and dusted for today. I've got lots of prep to do for a demo on Saturday this week - we're doing Parchment craft.. This is the card we're making...

I'm tittivating it (now, isn't that a nice word? Tittivating??) and just updating the pattern a little bit for Saturday. If you'd like to join us for a bit of crafting and lots of chatter, then email me and I'll put you in touch with Lynne at the Craft Den.

Whatever you're doing today, have fun.. and happy crafting!

Didn't we have a luvverly time...

... the day we went to Bangor....

Well, not exactly Bangor, although I do like that place.. but I really mean Southport and Lincoln.

Southport first on Saturday, for my Docrafts demo, and what a lovely day we had too. The weather put a few of the regulars off coming along. It rained most of the day and when it wasn't raining, it was just fairly miserable. But thank you to my lovely ladies that came and sat with me, or just stood when we ran out of chairs.. lol. It was lovely to see you all.

Lincoln on Sunday for the Sincerely Yours show, and another lovely day. What was really nice is that I got to have a hug with the lovely George and Phyllis from Diamond Card Craft who I was working for on the day, and our stall was next to a Stampin' Up stand.. and on it was the ever-so-lovely Emma Daye and her friends. Emma is one of the nicest people I know, who always has a smile on her face. Such a lovely lady. It was great to meet up with some of you and make some new SU buddies.

The show was busy for most of the day, and I think most people were feeling the pinch a little with their pennies, but we met some new and some older crafters who just wanted ideas. One lady in particular came along who was really new.. her cards were lovely, but just needed that finishing 'something'. It was nice to spend time with her explaining how to work the embossing boards. They really are magic when you can get to grips with them. I'll do you all a couple of video's shortly to show you how to score a few of the cards we did on the day.

I also just wanted to finish uploading the cards I'd made for the show, as I never got around to it the other day. All the cards on the stand were popular on the day, everyone loved them and Phyllis had done a smashing job on hers. (And yes Phyll, your colouring is coming on a treat!)

Anyway. here are the cards, and I hope you all have a fantastic day.(sorry about the colour cast on the piccies)

For this card I have used a stamp I've had for a long time but never inked. Isn't she lovely? I matched the colours with the papers from DCWV. Glittered too! Aren't they lovely?

I coloured her in promarkers, and added some airbrushed background. A little blob of glitter glue here and there and she was done. The topper and borders were made with the Mandala board.

Another little easel card here. How simple are these to make! I've used one of my favourite stamps on this card and coloured her in a mixture of watercolour and promarker.

here she is in more detail.

This one below now has some Bazzill Bling on her (thanks to Phyll for that) and looks a lot less empty. I knew I was going to totty up my cards a little on Sunday, so left some room to do it! Again, the stamped image was coloured with promarkers and airbrushed.

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Would you like a freebie?

We all love freebies don't we? Well, I know I do. And what better way than to get together with your friends and host a Stampin' Up party. 

If you host a qualifying party during 1st June and 31st July, you will recieve an extra £20 to spend in the catalogue on items of your own choice. 

How fantastic is that?

Just contact me at joaustin22@aol.com if you'd like a party.