Flamingo Shaker

Are you enjoying your weekend? I had a wonderful day yesterday at the gym where we had a launch party for the new releases but now I'm suffering the consequences. No, I'm not sore from the three hours of working out, I'm in pain from not having covered myself from the sun. Before leaving in the morning I thought maybe I should add some sunscreen, but thought this is the UK after all so it will be cloudy and probably rain. Boy was I wrong. And now I'm the colour of a cooked lobster. So make sure you protect yourself from the sun out there, don't be stupid like me. Sleeping was painful as my shoulders were constantly hurting simply from the pressure of lying on the mattress.

I thought I would try to distract myself from the pain for a bit by crafting. To get my mojo going I was browsing some challenges and this card is inspired by the colours at ColourQ and the sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches. I was also inspired by Flora and Fauna over at Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge and Create a Scene over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge. Last but not least I am also linking up with Time Out where the challenge is to be inspired by the phrase "Wherever you go, no matter what the weather, always bring your own sunshine"

I started by cutting the front panel and the opening for it with Stitched Rectangle dies. Then I used Tim Holtz Distress Markers to watercolour the sky and the grass (which you can't see from underneath the sequins and beads). Then I stamped the flamingo and coloured her with Copics and die cut the other bits I needed to create the scene from leftover bits of card and patterned paper. Then I attached everything in place for the flamingo scene. Next I die cut a piece of the black striped paper from Let's Polka in the Meadow and the black scalloped edge and adhered to the front panel. Then I used the Stitched Rectangle frame dies to cut a piece of 3D foam to form the shaker. I attached the acetate to the back side of the front panel followed by the 3D foam frame and bits of 3D foam to adhere the front panel. Then I assembled the beads and sequins over the flamingo scene and attached the front panel. Last, I die cut the hugs sentiment from pink card and added Ice Stickles for extra bling.

Card: Daler&Rowney 300 gsm watercolour paper, scraps of black, white, pink, kraft and yellow card

Stamps: Lawn Fawn Flamingo Together and matching dies

Paper: Lawn Fawn Let's Polka in the Meadow

Ink and Colouring: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Tim Holtz Distress Ink Tumbled Glass and Mowed Lawn markers, Copics R20, R43, Y00, Y13

Other: Sequins and small beads from my stash, Lawn Fawn Stitched Scalloped Borders, Stitched Rectangles, Stitched Rectangle Frames, Spring Showers and Scripty Hugs die, Ranger Ice Stickles

Calla lily shaker card

Happy Saturday everyone! I have to admit I slept in this morning. I can't remember the last time I would have slept until 8am, but my body and mind clearly needed it after a crazy week. After pottering around and being useless for the morning, I tackled one of those annoying things on the to-do list - I cleaned out my kitchen cupboards. It's nice to have an idea of what we have in the kitchen, and plan around using up things. But you would not believe the amount of jam we have in this house. Which is highly ironic as we don't really use that much jam at all, and if we do use any, we will use our home-made jam. How we have managed to accumulate a collection of almost a dozen jars of store-bought jam is beyond me! I am planning on getting all of our pantry foods logged onto an app, so whenever I'm in the store I can check what we have and what we don't have . The problem is that the existing apps don't seem very good, and the databased lack a lot of barcodes particularly in the UK. If you are using an app to track your pantry or fridge, let me know what you use and if it works for you!

Today's card is a shaker card I made using Stampin' Up Remarkable you stamps and the Lawn Fawn stitched rectangle frame dies. I started with watercolour paper and Distress inks and created the background. I stamped the lilies on another sheet of watercolour paper, heat embossed them in white and watercoloured with Distress inks. Then I die cut the stitched frame in white card, and another frame from an adhesive foam pad to create the shaker. Last, I added the sequins and beads, attached acetate to the shaker, added the frame and last I added the flowers which I had fussy cut. 

I would like to link up with the following challenges:

House of Cards - Clear papers (use vellum or acetate)

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Emboss It

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Flowers

Craft Rocket Challenge - Flower Power

Ruby's Rainbow Challenges - Use a transparent element (used acetate for the shaker)

Card: 300 gsm watercolour paper, white card, acetate

Stamps: Stampin' Up Remarkable You, sentiment is a wood mounted stamp from my stash

Ink: Versamark, Memento Tuxedo Black, Tim Holtz Distress inks Dusty Concord, Fossilized Amber,  Picked Raspberry, Seedless Preserves, Spun Sugar, Twisted Citron, Victorian Velvet and Wilted Violet

Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched rectangle frame die, adhesive foam sheet, Papermania Seafoam White embossing powder, sequins and beads from my stash

Shake that crazy bird

I am in heaven right now. Not only is it bank holiday Monday, but I cheekily took Tuesday off work as well. And that's not all, I am taking next Friday off as well! So I'm enjoying four wonderful days of freedom, two short (I hope...) days at work and then another three days doing nothing but being lazy! The bad news is that I'm trying to eat sensibly, which means I can't enjoy my days off by stuffing my face with chocolate and doughnuts. Sigh! But I can't really fit into any of my clothes (I'm suspecting a selective malfunction of our washer, it must have shrunk them all), so I have to try and be good for a while. So instead, I'm compensating by crafting. Crafting is great for anyone wanting to lose weight. You are so focused on what you do, you hardly have time to think about sweets. Except if you are using doughnut or macaroon stamps... 

I've been very busy crafting today, mostly getting ahead with my design team assignments, but I also got out the Cra-ha-zy Birds for a play with the current My Favourite Things colour and sketch challenge. I'm also linking up with Addicted to Stamps where the theme is Clean and Simple (I guess you could debate whether a shaker is CAS or not, but the layout of the card is pretty CAS in my mind) and last but not last Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge where anything goes. 

I first tried the crazy bird and sentiment against the lilac background, but thought it was a bit too bland, so I decided to make it into a shaker for some added interest, and I think it turned out quite nice. Note to self though, don't buy mixed coloured sequins, buy each colour separate as it's really annoying to pick out only particular colours. 

Card: Coloured 240 gsm kraft card lilac and teal, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card

Stamps: Tim Holtz Bird Crazy, Stampin' Up Rotary Alphabet stamp

Ink and colouring: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Tim Holtz Black Soot, Copics

Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle Dies, sequins and seed beads from my stash

Longing for minimalism

I have been thinking a lot about all my stuff lately. Living in a big house, it's so easy to just accumulate stuff. Most of it completely unnecessary (and note that I'm not including my crafty stash in this discussion, it's another topic). My Mum has gone through a big phase of getting rid of things. Just things that you hang onto although they aren't important. My partner is a hoarder. He can't get rid of anything. Me, I'm slowly starting to come around to the thought of less is more. I have sold some of my clothes on eBay, just stuff I know I will never fit into again. Next I need to do the same with shoes, you know those shoes that are so pretty but at the same time so incredibly uncomfortable and you know they will never be worn again. And what about DVDs? I never watch DVDs anymore. If I want to watch something, I will stream it. But at the same time, I have a nagging thought at the back of my mind reminding me of how much money I have spent on all the things I own. It seems wasteful to get rid of them. But then you stop and think - are these things important? Do they make me happy? Would I miss them if I got rid of them? And the answer is very clear.

I did a bit of cleaning today, just some cupboards full of stuff that I threw in there when we moved into the house, and have not thought about since. After some re-arranging I found that I have over 30 bottles of various hair styling products. And I'm a wash and brush type of gal, I maybe use one product here and there but I think I have enough hair styling products until I die... I have 10 bottles of toothpaste. This is because I bring Finnish toothpaste with me whenever I go home. Let's not get into it, it's just better... But I didn't realise I already have a huge stash, I just keep adding to it. This is the trouble with stashing things. You will lose sight of what you have and just add to it. I'm so incredibly annoyed with myself for letting this happen. Again, it's not things I will throw away as they will be useful eventually, but I will work hard on not adding anything to my huge stash of stuff until I know what I have and I will make sure I will try to use them all up before I buy new things. 

Anyhow, my card today is also a bit minimalistic. I had an idea in my head, and the card didn't quite turn out as I wanted it, but I can't quite put my finger on what went wrong. I was browsing Pinterest earlier and got a horrible inferiority complex. All those gorgeous cards out there that I wish I had made. And then my stuff turns out a bit... naff. Oh well, all you can do is practice, practice and practice even more. Maybe one day!

I made a shaker card using all the little birthday related things in Lawn Fawn's Party Animal set. It's one of those thin shaker cards so the things inside the shaker don't move around very much. It's so that it can easily be posted. 

I would like to link up with the following challenges:
Lawnscaping - Inspired by Colour
CAS(E) This Sketch - Sketch #133
Sisterhood of the Snarky Stampers - S is for Shaker
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Sparkle and Shine

Card: 300 gsm white card, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card, acetate

Paper: Lawn Fawn Let's Polka

Stamps: Lawn Fawn Party Animal and matching dies

Ink: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black

Colouring: Copics, Tim Holtz Distress markers

Other: Lawn Fawn Happy Birthday border die, Ranger Ice Stickles, Stitched Circle dies, Stitched Rectangle dies

Yellow Cupcake shaker card

Yesterday we had a big Easter dinner with my Sis and the Culinary Consultant's family. We did a great tag team effort to cook a roast beef dinner. I put the roast in the oven, prepped the scalloped garlic potatoes and honey-mustard marinated carrots and parsnips and headed off for a run (Sis) and bikeride (me) around Grafham Water while I left the Culinary Consultant with a detailed schedule on what needs to go into the oven at what time. He did a fantastic job, and when we got back after an hour and a half out in the freezing wind, all I needed to do was steam the veg and prep the Yorkies and our dinner was ready to go. I had also pre-prepared a lemon ice cream cake, which was served with meringues and strawberries. We enjoyed the overcast and grey weather by going for another walk and had a very relaxing day. And to my great delight, the Culinary Consultant did all the cleaning up! Now we are slouching on the sofa, we enjoyed a "Easter mess" that I made from leftover meringues, whipped cream and strawberries and the Easter chocolates are calling my name. Oh how I wish life could be like this all the time. The evening sun in shining in through the conservatory windows bathing everything in a beautiful golden light. I published a few pictures from our Easter along with a link to the ice cream cake on InvisiblePinkShutter.

Before vegging out on the sofa, I did manage to do a little bit of crafting. Today's bright card was inspired by the yellow cupcake inspiration picture over at Fusion. I was also inspired by the colours over at ColourQ and the sketch over at My Favourite Things. I was also inspired by the Birthday theme over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge where the celebration is not only six years of awesome challenges, but there will be six winners this week as well! For the sentiment, my inspiration was the Stamping and Numbers challenge over at STAMPlorations as well as CAS on Sundays where the theme is also numbers.

For the card I started by colouring parts of the Tim Holtz Birthday Blueprints cupcake stamp using a black marker and stamping onto white cardstock. I coloured the cupcake with Copics. I die cut a frame using the Lawn Fawn stitched rectangles dies and made a shaker card and filled it with silver sequins. Last, I die cut the letters for the sentiment and added some Ice stickles to the "2". As a finishing touch, I added a few sequins to the frame based on the sketch, and added a small drop of Stickles in the centre of the sequins.

Card: 300 gsm white card, Stampin' Up Melon Mambo, Tempting Turquoise and Old Olive card, piece of acetate sheet (cut from a recycled chocolate egg box!)

Stamps: Tim Holtz Birtday Blueprints

Ink: Stampin' Write marker Black, Copics Y13, Y15, Y19

Other: silver sequins from my stash, Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle dies, Tim Holtz Inside Out Alphabet die, Ranger Ice Stickles Mint Ice

Happy Birthday sprinkles

Wow it's been a bit windy around here. The howling wind woke me up several times. And we are only experiencing fractions of the wind speeds up north. I can't even imagine what it must be like. I'm hoping everyone is all right up there while I'm warm and cosy in my craft room.

This card is inspired by the photo over at Fusion Card Challenges as well as the photo at Cure for the Monday Blues. I was inspired by the chalkboard look in the fusion photo, the pink and gold as well as the birthday theme. The Cure for the Monday Blues photo inspired me with it's cupcake theme and the star shaped sprinkles. The layout was inspired by the sketch over at CAS(E) this sketch. I'm also linking up at Stampin' Royalty where the theme is birthday and at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge where the theme is something new (this is my first ever shaker card).

I was inspired by Taheerah's beautiful shaker card over at Cure for the Monday Blues. I have never made a shaker card before, so I thought this was the perfect time to try. I started by stamping the Tim Holtz cupcake stamp in Versamark and heat embossed using white powder. I added some pink, yellow and orange Tim Holtz stickles to the image. Then I made the shaker from two layers of heavy cardstock and attached a clear window that I cut from a leftover piece of a chocolate egg box. I covered the frame with some bright pink cardstock which I heat embossed using Holographic embossing powder. I filled the shaker with gold sequins and die cut stars in bright colours. For the final touch I die cut a star from mirri card.

Card: Leonardo stationery 300 gsm cardstock, Stampin' Up Blushing Bride, coloured 240 gsm kraft card Pink Raspberry, Black, leftover scraps of coloured cardstock for die cutting, mirri card

Stamps: Tim Holtz Birthday Blueprint

Ink: Tsukineko Versamark

Other: Papermania embossing powder Seafoam White and Holographic, gold sequins from my stash, Lawn Fawn Stitched Journaling card die, Xcut star dies, Tim Holtz distress stickles Mustard Seed, Worn Lipstick, Spiced Marmelade