Nicest Surprise

Yes...I am still here...although very infrequently and for that I am so sorry. There has been so much going on under our roof......mania has taken over with its close cousin chaos!!

Most of you I am sure are aware of the delightful Andrea Lowcock. Over a week ago (and I know I am so v v slow to do this) she passed on this to me....

I had to had to have a giggle at this...cause style is one thing I am rarely accused of!!!

Now as usual...there are things you have to do....and one is share 5 things about me...so here goes....

1. I am a passionate St George (Dragons) supporter

2. I so love Dirty Dancing (the movie) and watching it is my guiltiest pleasures

3. I am a "gunna" hoarder. I have lots of projects and techniques that I am gunna do...but never seem to get around to!!!

4. I am really loving "vintage" themed/looking crafts at the moment.

5. It IS really embarrassing getting sprung by your kids rocking out to 80's songs in the kitchen!!!

Now I also have to pass this onto 5 folks whom I believe have style.....

1. Debbie P

2. Kerry Bunting

3. Helen Williams

4. Katie Ridden

5. Patrice (I have just realised I cannot recall your surname...oops!!)

All of these uber talented ladies have amazing blogs and are wonderful talents. Please check them out if you feel so inclined.

Off to more madness......stay sane.

Lynda xx

Such a Beautiful Thing!

I have mentioned many times here that I love the things that the crafting community have bought to my life. Friends (some of whom I may never meet, but feel so close to them it isn't funny), inspiration, creativity and of course lots of laughter. One such blog buddy is Andrea Lowcock (EnchantINK). She CREATED and passed this beautiful award onto me here. I was so very lucky to be one of the honoured first recipients of....

Now she passed it onto 8 of her BFF blog buddies....but I am gunna cull it down to 5. My BFF blog pals are.....

Tracey Davenport-Catlin

Kerry Bunting

Cheryl Joshua

Jenny Hayward

...and lastly but by certainly no means least.....

Tanya Kitto

All of these delightful young gals have prodded, encouraged and supported me along the way and I love them all to bits.

Thanks for popping by....HEAPS more coming up....so buckle up!!!

Lynda xx

A challenging re-entry back into Blogging!!!

Hi all!! Yes, it really is me...I am back and posting.

I wish to sincerely thank ALL of my blog friends out there for their care and support over the past month or so. I am so very lucky to have wonderful, supporting and caring friends such as you out there for me and I only hope that one day I may return the care and generoisty you have shown me.

Frequent readers will know of the amazing Andrea and her blog EnchantINK. Well....not so long ago she celebrated a massively improtant milestone. She reached 100,000 hits to her blog...and to celebrate she set a (torture) challenge to those willing to take up the mantle. It can be seen here. In short you had to create a card that reflects the colour/theme/mood/elements of her new look blog. For those of you who are not aware of Andrea (perhaps the 1 or 2 of you out there) here is her new header.....

Now I immediately resorted to my procrastinating ways and set about coming up with something fitting for such an occasion. I also thought about the friendship that Andrea and I have shared since I started reading (hassling) her blog. So I settled on taking the white, purple tones, hearts and sparkle from the header and our friendship (with a touch of green thrown in) and came up with this......

Now always liking to challenge (torture) myself within a challenge I also decided to try some techniques that I don't usually incorporate in my cards. This time around....sponging and embossing (with a heat gun) got the gurnsey. Now I learnt a very, very important lesson doing this card....NEVER make rash decisions very late at night and NEVER emboss after midnight!!!!!

I have done a pansy card before, but with watercolour crayons. This time I SPONGED every single piece of coloured CS in this card (with the exception of the black of course!!) This is the sponging up close. I also used my So Saffron and Black Stamp and Write markers on the small So Saffron heart in the centre of the pansies

As I mentioned previously, I do not heat emboss often. Having said that.....I have had some successes, and this one did (eventually) work out OK. However, whilst I was laying out the card, the cente looked bare so I thought a gold sentiment would be nice. I have gold sticker "Congratulations" that would have been OK, but at 11.45pm on a Thurs night after being inspired by Dirty Dancing (for the umpteenth time), I decided that a heat embossed sentiment was the way to go!!!! With versamark Pen in hand and a test piece of CS successfully embossed.....I was good to go. Embossing buddy (check), Versamarked sentiment (check), Gold EP (check), heat gun (check), heating gold EP (check).....partially melting and melting the gold sticker border with the heat gun......AAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRHGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!!! Midnight and I was devestated!!!! I only had the smallest piece of the border left and with very sharp scissors and a lotta good luck, minor surgery was performed on the card!!! I am happy with the way the sentiment embossed....

I also decided to place the outer leaves directly onto the card and then the pansies and 3 of the leaves are up on dimensionals for a 3D look.

Thanks for making it through to the end of this saga ridden card!!! Andrea, I hope you like it!!!!

I will be back to more regular postings over the next couple of weeks. thanks again for being patient. I have some fun projects to share with you all.

Stuff used:

CS: (SU) Orchid Opulence, Rich Razzleberry, So Saffron, Old Olive, Basic Black, White Hammer finish trifold card (non SU)

Ink: (SU) Orchid Opulence, Rich Razzleberry, Old Olive, Elegant Eggplant, So Saffron and Basic Black Stamp and Write markers, V.ersamark Pen

Stamps: (SU) Teeny Tiny Sentiments

Punches: (SU) Brid Punch XL (for all the leaves....they are the bird wings!!), Carla Craft CP2 and CP1 heart punches

Oddments: Gold EP, Upkit Gold flourish sticker, SU Dimensionals, SU Heat Gun

Lynda xx

CASE'ing is the nicest way to flatter....

Good morning all.

One of my all time favourite blogs to visit is EnchantINK. Not so long ago Andrea posted this beautiful card. It struck a chord with me instantly. She is so very sweet in that she supplies a card recipe at the end of all her posts, which makes CASEing them all the more easy. So, with the supplies I had available to me, this is my version of Andrea's stunning card......

Now I do not have any of the ribbon or the exact butterfly stamp, but I had similar and I was happy with that. The other fantastic thing about this card is that it made me try things that I had not attempted before, like embossing on Vellum and sponging ink onto the BGS to give the wonderful aged look and layering a background. Here are some close ups....

I was so happy with the way that this card turned out, I thought I'd try again (are you sitting down Andrea??) in PINK!!!!!! Here it is....

I now am going to try some other colour combinations and see what I can come up with.

Thanks so much Andrea for provinding such a beautiful card to challenge me. See what you can find in blog land that challenges you.

Stuff Used:
CS:(SU) Soft Suede, Bashful Blue, Prettyy in Pink, Whisper White
Ink: (SU) Soft Suese, Bashful Blue, Pretty in Pink, Versamark
Stamps: (SU) En Francais and Jemac "Butterfly" (item Code - A56E)
Other bits: Vellum, "Zing" white embossing powder, Pink and Blue Grosgrain ribbon fm Alice's, Blue and Pink Diamante Brads (Minibuckles Brand)
Techniques: Sponging, Heat Embossing

Lynda xx

Vintage Kindness

For people who pop by here a lot, it'll come as no surprise that I love SCS. When an ebbing mojo is annoying the bejeezers out of me...I can pop by here and marvel in the creative juices of others. Now (again) this is another Vintage Vogue card, but it was sent to a dear friend....Andrea....who in her own right inspires me not only with her creativity, but also her ability to cope with all my quirky comments!!!! She (amongst all the other trials and tribulations that life throws at all of us) hit a speed hump with an injury to her hubby. I felt the sentiment of this card was very appropriate. it was a direct CASE from this card. I however do not posess Groovy (or as some have called it Gruesome) Guava and I know Andrea is a fan of pink. So here is my version.

Here are some close ups of the flowers with clear crystal centres and raised on Dimensionals.

The hardest thing was to line up the leaves that were stamped on the card to line up with the flowers. In fairness...I also broke out the pearls and used those too. I have left the sentiment off this one....so I can get it out and use it as needed.

Gives it a totally different feel don't you think?? Bargain find...the pearl in the large flower.....I found in the Reject Shop.....12 of them for $1....how cool is that???? of course I did not just get 1 packet...so I have them in a couple of colours, pastel and bold.

The card did the trick for Andrea...and made her smile. It's always nice to make someone feel better...don't you think?

Catch you next time.

Stuff Used:

CS: (SU) Whisper White

Ink: (SU) Regal Rose, Pretty In Pink, Mellow Moss

Stamp: (SU) Vintage Vogue

Bits: Pearls, crystals and brads from stash.

Lynda xx