Hey You - GoGoGetaway April Challenge

Hi Guys,

The challenge for April over at GoGoGetaway is to be inspired by the word ...

"Abundance"

I decided to throw together an abundance of washi and watercolour to make a very colourful page featuring my lovely step-granddaughter Macy carefully holding her new little brother Finley ...

I also used some of my abundance of eyelets and a few items from my current Counterfeit Kit "Spring is in the Air". Here are some close-ups ...

Thanks to Claire from Scrappy Nerd UK for sharing lots of creative ideas for using washi tape - she has made a whole series of videos on her You Tube Channel. The great thing is that making this page has made me fall back in love with my eyelets and Cropadile and washi tapes.

Thanks for checking out my blog today. Why not enter the GoGoGetaway challenge yourself? You have until the end of the month - share your page on the FB page and you'll be entered in the Prize Draw :o)

See you again soon!

Love Annie xxx

Counterfeit Kit Challenge #2 - Spring is in the Air

HI everyone,

I've been enjoying playing along with CKC as a Guest Designer for April and today I have a page to show you which I made for Challenge #2.

Our inspiration kit was this one from Button Farm - I loved all the fresh bright colours and watercolour elements. Click here to see my version, and there's a video tutorial showing how I made my Forgeries on the Fourth, playing with my Distress Oxide Inks to create watercolour effect embellishments.

Here's Challenge #2 - As Fresh as Springtime - What is Spring like where you live? Do you do anything special in the Spring that you don’t do throughout the other seasons of the year? Is Spring special to you in any way?. Make a Spring-themed project (layout, card, pocket page, etc.)

One of the things we love about spring is waiting for all the colourful bulbs to start flowering, it's a sign that warmer, longer, brighter days are on the way and the sight of a mass of cheerful daffodils never fails to make us smile. My husband took this photo in the grounds around our home last year.

I typed the word "SPRING" in a font called "Showcard Gothic" into a Word doc, changed the orientation to landscape and cranked up the size of the letters so that they filled two A4 sheets and printed them off to use as templates to cut my photo and some patterened papers from my kit.

The butterflies were punched from paper coloured with Distress Oxides, the wooden birds were coloured in the same way, the flowers and the lace trim were from the sticker sheet in my kit and the final touch was stitched detail around the large letters and through the gold alphas at the bottom, then the whole thing is mounted on another sheet of patterned paper from my kit.

Thanks for visiting my blog today, pop over to the CKC blog for more inspiration!

Love Annie xxx

Beautiful!

Hi Guys,

When my BFF Trina and I heard about the GoGo Dayaway event in July called "Collections and Confections", using Prima Confections Pastel Dreams Watercolours, we really REALLY wanted to go, as we both had Prima Watercolour sets we hadn't used yet. Unfortunately, it clashed with other things, so we couldn't go ... and we decided to have our own mini workshop at home, for just the two of us. We called it our Watercolour Weekend and we had a brilliant time making pretty messes :o)

I did a lot of experimenting beforehand, trawling the internet for different ways to use watercoour paints - there is so much inspiration out there! Finally, I came up with six pages we could make, using our watercolours and NO patterned papers whatsoever.

Here's one of the pages, using heat embossing as a resist technique and then applying watercolour paints to create an ombre effect ...

I love this beautiful photo of my niece Bex and her daughter Kerrilouise looking totally gorgeous.

The feathers were stamped with clear ink or mixed media paper, then covered with white embossing powder and heat set. Then I used a wide brush to apply watercolour paint in pink, purple and blue. I added the same colours to some more mixed media paper, tearing pieces to build the background layers. I cut a 3" x 4" piece, masked off an area for wordage with washi tape, added colour and once it was dry, doodled the word and borders. A fan brush helped to add perfect splatters and the final touch was the Thickers foam alphas and heart and the little tab to balance the composition.

Thanks for visiting me today. I'll be sharing more of the pages we made over the next few days, so I hope to see you again soon :o)

Love Annie

CSI Case File #252 - Hey Whatever

Hi Guys,

It's the 15th of the month, so it's time to reveal another Case File from CSI: Color, Stories, Inspiration. Super Sleuth Debbi Tehrani has found another interesting Scene for us to investigate ...

I love the zingy yellows against the black, white and grey, and there are loads of details we can pull out to inspire us. Check the CSI blog for the full Case File - you can choose to follow all the clues, or just take your own inspiration from the image to create your scrapbook page.

Here's how I solved this case ...

All the colours in the Scheme are here; from the Evidence list you can see stripes, text pattern, circles, heart and frames; from the Testimony list, I plan to write my journaling inside that top frame, but I need to check a couple of details first!

The home decor theme made me think of fabric and paint swatches as I was creating my page. No patterned papers were used in this layout, instead I enjoyed playing with my watercolour paints, mixing all the colours from one yellow with black, white and grey, and using various resist techniques to make interesting patterns. The same paints were used to dye the cheesecloth and colour the wood veneer pieces. Here's a picture I took during the process ...

Why not have a go at cracking this Case File yourself? You have until the end of April, and as always there are loads of fabulous prizes to be won :o)

Thanks for visiting my blog today, hope to see you again very soon!

Love Annie xxx

Easter Bonnet - April Counterfeit Kit Challenge #2

Hi Everyone,

I'm really enjoying being Guest Designer over at the Counterfeit Kit Challenge for April. Our inspiration kit for this month is this one from Button Farm and I loved all the bright, fresh colours and watercolour effects. Check out my version, which I called "Spring is in the Air". I also made a YT video tutorial about my Forgeries on the Fourth if you're interested to see how I made them.

Today is the 12th, so it's time to reveal the first challenge for the month, set for us by Master Forger Tina -

Challenge # 1 Easter - Easter is a big deal at our house with yearly Easter Egg hunts for the grandkids :) so lots of fun memories to scrap. Make a Easter-themed project (layout, card, pocket page, etc.)

Here's my take on this challenge ...

For us, the Easter Bank Holiday Weekend is when we drive up to Lincoln to visit John's Mum, the lovely Vivienne, shown here modelling an Easter bonnet made by one of the children who visited the home where she lives. We only get to see Viv two or three times a year, so it's always a very special day and I love this smiley picture of her :o)

I included my Distress Oxide Inks in my kit, because the colours were perfect and because I wanted to make myself use them more. For this page, I've used no patterned papers at all, but I've used the Distress Oxides to create the butterflies, the wreath, the splattered background and the PL card, and also to customise some alphas to coordinate with my layout.

Thanks for popping in today, check out the Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog for lots of inspiration throughout the month and I'll see you again soon!

Love Annie xxx

Altered Book with Andy Skinner

Hi everyone,

My friend Trina and I recently went to a Tando Creative workshop and had the most brilliant time. We had a whole day with the lovely Di Oliver (the DO in Tando) on the Saturday, a mini workshop with the talented Hannah Oxberry on Saturday evening, and finally the whole of Sunday with the inspirational Andy Skinner.

They are all wonderful mixed media artists, we enjoyed every class and learned such a lot from them. As always, I am a slowpoke and still haven't finished the box we made with Di, or the little book we made with Hannah, but I did manage complete the altered sketchbook we did with Andy and i was just SO thrilled with it ...

We started with a plain black hardbacked book, which we coated with gesso, then we added greyboard pieces from Tando as in the picture below ...

Then came layer upon layer of various media to create a beautiful distressed effect with faux rust, chipped edges and cracked paint. There was a scary moment when we were all in love with our projects and Andy made us cover the whole thing with Paynes Grey paint EEEEEEKKK but we trusted him and sure enough the paint wiped away to reveal the final result, with just enough dark paint remaining in all the nooks and crannies to bring out all that lovely detail.

Brilliant fun, amazing what you can do with greyboard pieces when you know how :o)

Thanks for popping in today, see you again soon!

Love Annie xxx

Forgeries on the Fourth - April Counterfeit Kit

Hello Everyone,

It's the 4th of the month, so it's time to reveal the "forgeries" I made for my April Counterfeit Kit, which I called "Spring is in the Air". Click here to see a video about how I made these ...

The inspiration kit from Button Farm had lots of die-cut elements such as tags, speech bubbles, banners and butterflies...

I loved the fresh, fruity colour scheme and the hand-painted look of some of the papers and cut-aparts, with semi-translucent colours overlapping each other ...

My kit included several Distress Oxide Inks, and I decided that this was the perfect time to use them.

The colours I used were: Cracked Pistachio, Fossilized Amber, Worn Lipstick, Abandoned Coral, and Seedless Preserves. I love how these inks layer over each other and react with water to create such beautiful effects. 

I hope you like my "Forgeries" and enjoy watch my little video. What would you counterfeit from this kit? :o)

Thanks for stopping by today, see you again soon! 

Love Annie xxx

Message to My Self

Hi Everyone,

Inspired by a lesson with the love Kasia for Wanderlust 2018, I took a photo of myself in the wee small hours of one sleepless night last week and had a go at a self portrait. Kasia encouraged us to write a positive message to ourselves in our hair - so I gave myself crazy wild hair and wrote my message in pink paint pen ...

It was a strange experience, as my drawing seemed to morph through various members of my family - my uncle, my mother, my father, both my sons, back to my uncle again and finally it felt like me. It was a battle which I had to walk away from a few times before I was happy with it, but I'm glad I didn't give up. 

My message to my self is "You are beautiful on the inside" (so don't worry about the funny-looking, baggy old face you wear on the outside) :o)xxx

Thanks for visiting my blog today, see you again soon! 

Love Annie xxx

Staying Cool

Hi everyone,

The monthly challenge over on the GoGoGetaway blog for March was to scraplift this lovely fun page designed by Terri ...

For my page, I changed things up a little bit - only using two photos and starting with plain white paper, but I took the idea of mounting the pictures on tags over to the left over a painty background, adding clustered embellies around them, with a subtitle top left and the main title bottom right ...

My watercolour paint set was used to create the painty background and freehand the word "Cool", which I cut out and doodled around. The tags and flowers were handcut from paper scraps and I mounted the whole thing on a black/white patterned paper to frame it. 

Check out the GoGo blog and Facebook page, you'll find loads of inspiration there and each time you enter the monthly challenge, you'll be entered in the Prize Draw. 

Thanks for popping in today, see you again soon! 

Love Annie xxx

Let's Go Fly a Kite - CSI Case File #251

Hi everyone,

Today is the 1st of April, so it's time for the first Case File of the month over at CSI: Color,Stories, Inspiration. This month, we have a gorgeous, whimsical image to inspire us ...

In order to solve this Case, you can either draw your own inspiration from the Scene, or go to the CSI blog and scroll to the bottom of the reveal to find lots of clues to help you. You will also find some amazing inspiration from the CSI Detectives and all our Guest Designers for this month.

Here's how I solved the case ...

I don't have any llamas in my stash, but I loved the whimsical, hand-painted feel of the inspiration image, so I wanted to capture that in this page featuring my little step-grandson Finley.

I used all the colours in the Scheme; several pieces of Evidence (included solid background, clouds, flowers and stamps; from the Testimony list, I chose to write my journaling directly on the page. 

The only piece of patterned paper I've used here is the little kite, which was cut from a piece of the Crate Paper Carousel collection by Maggie Holmes. The background was washed with watercolour paint; the flowers were stamped in black, coloured with watercolour paint and fussy-cut; the grass was hand-cut from a leftover scrap of watercolour-painted paper. I used dies to cut the clouds and the fence, and of course I fussy-cut Finley from a slightly boring background so I could add him into this whimsical world :o)

Why not have a go at cracking this case yourself?! You have until the end of April, and there are lots of fab prizes to be won. Pop over to the CSI blog or find us on Facebook, for lots of inspiration. 

Thanks for popping in today, see you again soon.

Love Annie xxx

Spring is in the Air - my April Counterfeit Kit

Hello everyone,

Welcome to my stop on the Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog Hop. Hopefully you've arrived here from the CKC blog and your next stop will be Margie. Scroll to the bottom for a full list.

I was very excited when Tina Campbell, one of the Master Forgers over at the Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog, invited me to be a Guest Designer for April :o)

CKC is a fabulous challenge - it really gets you thinking outside of the box and looking at your crafty stash with new eyes. There is always lots of inspiration on the blog, with challenges throughout the month and a link-up so you can share your projects.

The inspiration kit for this month is the Button Farm "Everyday Documented Page Kit" ...

I loved the fresh, juicy colours in the kit and the hand-painted look of some of the papers and embellies. With all the flowers, fruit and butterflies it reminded me of spring (which is just arriving here in the UK), so I've called my version "Spring is in the Air" ...

It's a mixture of old, new and home-made and it's full of stuff I love, so I'm really looking forward to creating some projects with it. 

Let's have a closer look at the details and how I put the kit together. I started with almost my entire collection of Distress Oxide Inks, partly because they happened to be the kinds of colours I wanted to pick up from the inspiration kit, and partly because I really want to start using them more ...

I found some coordination plain cardstocks to get me started, then added in a good old mixture of different patterned papers ...

WOYWW #460

Hello Fellow Deskers and Bloggy Friends,

WellI didn't think I would be able to join in this week, but in an unexpected turn of events, I find myself sitting here waiting for a doctor's appointment - the silver lining is that I have time to show the world What's On My Workdesk Wednesday and then go over to Julia's Stamping Ground to link up and see what everyone else is up to.

Here's my messy creative space as it stands this morning between projects ...

I wish I had a prettier or more interesting desk to share with you - I can't even show what I have been working on, as it's something which can't be revealed until 1st April. It is a productive desk though, and it's my happy place and I love it :o)

Thanks for popping in today, see you at Julia's!!

Love Annie xxx

My First Carpetbagger Journal

Hello Bloggy Friends,

Recently I treated myself to an online course with Nik the Booksmith and I'm SO glad I did - I had so much fun making it and I love how it turned out :o)

It was difficult to decide which one to go for first, but I chose the Carpetbagger Journal because I loved the Bohemian feel of it and it includes softcover and hardcover versions.

Here's my first attempt at the softcover carpetbagger ...

I've filmed an little flick-through if you would like to see it in more detail ...

Nik explains everything so well and shows you all you need to know to create your own junk journals. Check out her YouTube channel for lots of ideas and free tutorials as well.

One of the best things about this project is that I didn't have to buy anything at all - the whole thing was made from stuff I had already. It's a mixture of paper ephemera, scraps of fabric, family mementoes and various trinkets and knick-knacks I've been hoarding for years. Oh, and coffee-dyed papers - I spent a very happy afternoon dipping, cooking and ironing papers, can't believe I haven't tried it before.

Can't wait to get started on the next one :o)

Thanks for visiting my blog today, hope to see you again soon!

Love Annie xxx

Killing the Kit

Hello Bloggy Friends,

I just realised that I didn't post a pic of the cards I made in a last-minute flurry of activity to use up my Feb Counterfeit Kit which I called "Happy Hour".

Cards are a great way to use up a lot of smaller scraps of paper and leftover embellies and it's always good to have a few ready in case you need one in a hurry (which I often do as I'm terrible at remembering dates).

Here's the little collection I made one happy Sunday afternoon at the end of February ...

OH dear, my photos are really dreadful, I MUST find a better way to take pics - this was with my fancy new lighting and I did try brightening them up in my editing software. Just don't get much daylight time at the moment, but spring is on the way thank goodness. Here are some more ...

They honestly look much better IRL!! :o)

Thanks for popping in today, see you again soon!!

Love Annie xxx

It's All About the Layers

Hello everyone,

This weekend I've been mostly obsessed with finishing a page in my art journal inspired by a lesson with Marlene Meijer-van Niekerk for week 11 of Wanderlust 2018. Somehow I just couldn't stop until it was finished ...

Thing was, it was really difficult to know when it was in fact finished -  just kept adding layer upon layer of paint, pens and pencils until it felt kinda done. I loved Marlene's idea of layering the ladies so that you could see one through and behind another, and it was a great exercise in playing with colours.

I have no idea who these ladies are, but it feels like they're united in some way - maybe they're sisters, or friends, or layers of the same person .... hmmm .... what do you think?

Thanks for checking out my blog today, hope to see you again soon :o)

Love Annie xxx

Smile - CSI Case File #250

Hello everyone,

It's the 15th of the month, so it's time to reveal a brand new Case File over at CSI: Color, Stories, Inspiration ...

Lots of fun - check out the reveal over at the CSI blog for all the clues you need to solve this case. You can pick and choose which clues you follow or just pull your own ideas from the image to inspire you to dig into that stash and create a scrapbook page. 

Here's how I did it, using the kit I made up for this month's Counterfeit Kit Challenge ...

I used all the colours in the Scheme, or as near as I could get to them, as well as several items from the Evidence list - owl, flowers, string, a knot, architectural elements (on the tag). 

The image inspired me to scrap this picture of a happy day out with John's grandchildren, Bailey and Macy, and the barrels behind us are echoed by this circles wood veneer piece which I really wanted to use. I coloured it with various shades of Distress Ink and added some gorgeous Embossing Enamel in Aged Teal from Stampendous - it has all these cool lumpy bits and a mix of teal and metallic colours, looks amazing IRL.

This was a fun way to use lots of the paper pieces I'd put in my Counterfeit Kit, including the bronze tissue and the mesh which I've layered behind the photo. I resisted the temptation to pull out any extra supplies and used only stuff from my kit (which I called Bubble & Squeak because it was made from leftovers - if any of my overseas friends are reading this, is that just a British thing??)

Anyway, why not have a go at cracking this Case yourself? There are fab prizes to be won and you have until the end of March. Check out the CSI blog for lots of inspiring layouts by the rest of the CSI Detectives - they're amazing!! :o)

Thanks for stopping by today, see you again soon!

Love Annie xxx 

Bubble and Squeak - March Counterfeit Kit

Hello Everyone,

The March Counterfeit Kit Challenge is a bit different from the usual, in that we are taking our inspiration from a kit put together by Susan, one of the CKC Design Team. Susan was in turn inspired by this challenge on Jill Sprott's blog - check it out if you want to do some serious stash-busting.

Susan followed Jill's formula to create her kit, which she called "Little Bits of Happy" - click on the link if you would like to have a look. She suggested starting with a multi-coloured patterned paper and taking your colour scheme from there, which is exactly what I did.

Mine is called "Bubble and Squeak" (can you guess why?) ...

Following Jill's formula and taking Susan's kit as inspiration, I took my colours from that striped pp in the middle and pulled out several partial pieces of pp, including spots, woodgrain, floral and stripes  ...

WOYWW #457 - Seaside, snow and surprises!!

Hello Fellow Deskers and Bloggy Friends,

What a week!! Since the last What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday, we've had all kinds of adventures. Today is my birthday, so for once I am at home to post this YAY!! :o)

We've just come home from a wonderful weekend at Regal Cottage in Wells-next.the-Sea, so my desk pic looks a bit different this week ..

You can see a pile of fabric pieces cut from old shirts, which I'm gradually turning into a quilt, using "Foundation by the Yard", along with the necessary bits and bobs, which all fit nicely into my gorgeous Jan bag which you can see on the left. On the right is a little treasure we found in a second-hand bookshop "The Girls Own Annual" which was published in 1883 and is full of beautiful illustrations, sheet music, fascinating articles and snippets of social history. Opposite me you can see my husband's Sudoku and tablet.

Later, we were joined by Trina and Chris and a brilliant time was had by all. I was spoiled rotten with lovely pressies, we had some snowy seaside walks, fish and chips, a delicious Sunday lunch in the Golden Fleece and squeezed in quite a bit of trinket shopping (not like me at all, I blame Trina's influence!) as well as plenty of crafting and general lounging about.

Meanwhile, my real workdesk back at home was just as I left it last week, with the remains of my Feb Counterfeit Kit and all the pages and cards I made last month in a pile on top ...

Here it is, with some of my Wells shopping dumped on top - more bookshop treasures and a pack of 8 glue sticks for £1.50!!). Towards the back left of the desk you can see one of my presents from Trina - a mug which says "may or may not contain gin" ... I don't know what she's saying?!?!? :o)

Ok enough waffle from me, time to link up over at Julia's Stamping Ground and see what everyone else is up to - you're welcome to join us and show the world What's On YOUR Workdesk Wednesday!!

Thanks for popping in today, see you again soon.

Love Annie xxx

Summer Garden Party - CSI Case File #249

Hello Everyone,

It's the 1st of March, time to reveal the new Case File #249 over at CSI: Color, Stories, Inspiration.

Here's the fun Scene we have to investigate this month ...

You can draw your own inspiration from this image, or nip over to the CSI blog for a list of clues to follow. 

Here's how I solved the case ...

I loved the outdoorsy feel of the Case File and thought it would perfect for this photo of Yours Truly and my lovely stepdaughter Sarah, during a BBQ party in our garden last summer. 

The colours in the Scheme worked really well with this photo - I introduced some faded denim blue into the mix to pick up the colour in my shirt. Other clues I used were leaves, banner, plaid, triangles, woodgrain and branches.

Why not have a go at this fun challenge yourself? There are fab prizes to win and loads of inspiration on the CSI Blog or check out the CSI Community Sharing FB page. 

See you there :o) 

Love Annie xxx

Eleventh Hour Extreme Scrapping!!

Hi everyone,

I was so excited to be chosen for the Member Spotlight over at Counterfeit Kit Challenge this month and it spurred me on to a flurry of activity to use up what's left of my Feb kit before the next one is revealed tomorrow :o)

There is a Four for February challenge going on on the Quirky Kit Subscribers' FB page as well, which I only just discovered and really wanted to catch up with, so here are TWO pages I made yesterday evening ...

Challenge #2 was to use a ring or wreath in your design. This one was very quick and simple, I splattered watery Distress Oxide in Worn Lipstick to add some interest to the background (looks better IRL), then arranged fussy-cut flowers in a ring for my sweet little step-granddaughter Macy to peek out of, and finished with die-cut words for the title.

Challenge #3 was to use hand-cut letters. I cut my title letters from patterned paper. I think you can see that I was trying to use up as much stash as possible on this page!! It shows Yours Truly with three of my best mates during a long weekend away. We squeeze as much as we can into the few days we have together and I wanted to capture that feeling of business and fun.

Challenges #1 and #4 were also inspiring and I still have some of my "Happy Hour" Counterfeit Kit to use up - but I only have six hours of February left so I think I may have to admit defeat this time!

Thanks for checking out my blog today, hope to see you again soon :o)

Love Annie xxx

Seaside Scrappers

Hello Everyone,

There were two sketches for the February mid-month challenge over at  Stuck?! Sketches. Here's the second one ...

... and here's my take on it, featuring my good friends Karen, Mel, Emma,Trina and Yours Truly, during a fabulous weekend in Wells-next-the-Sea last November ...

I was inspired by Challenge #2 for February over at Counterfeit Kit Challenge, which was called "Weekend Time". One of my most favourite ways to spend a weekend is crafting with friends, and this was a particularly special weekend, as we stayed in Emma's beautiful cottage. This photo was taken whilst we were out on a walk, squeezed in between scrapping, eating and drinking :o)

Everything I used came from my Feb Counterfeit Kit, which I called Happy Days, I just added the alphas for the title. Most of the products are from the Carousel Collection by Maggie Holmes for Crate Paper - a totally gorgeous collection which I will never tire of playing with.

Thanks for visiting my blog today, see you again soon!

Love Annie xxx

BFF Love!

Hello Everyone,

This month's challenge over at GoGoGetaway is to be inspired by a theme ... and the theme is love which is of course perfect for February. I had already made a romantic page about my husband and me for St. Valentine's Day, so I thought about all the other kinds of love in my life - my family, my cat, my friends, and all kinds of things that make me happy.

Eventually, I decided on this happy photo of my BFF Trina and me, taken on my 50th birthday ...

The page was very easy to put together, because I used this brilliant sketch by Laura Whitaker over at Stuck?!Sketches - one of two for the Feb 15th challenge ...

I used some more of my February Counterfeit Kit, which is full of pretty colours and embellishments, and I had lots of fun fussy-cutting flowers to frame the photo and adding stitched details to create a pretty girly page.

This month there are two sketches for the mid-month challenge at Stuck?!, so I have another one to show you tomorrow :o)

Thanks for popping in today, see you again soon!

Love Annie xxx

WOYWW #455

Hello Fellow Deskers and Bloggy Friends,

The weeks are WHIZZING by aren't they?! It's another Wednesday, time to share What's On Your Workdesk - pop over to Julia's Stamping Ground to join in the fun :o)

Here's mine, as it was on Tuesday afternoon, in the throes of making a mess in on of my art journals for a lesson on Wanderlust ...

But there is one Thing of Beauty workroom ...

GASP!! How gorgeous is that?! This beautiful set arrived in the post from the lovely Jan (LLJ) and I was SO surprised and delighted with it I got quite emosh ... probably something in my eye :o)

Thanks Jan, they will be coming with me to carry crafty supplies for my birthday Weekend in Wells-next-the-Sea - but no messy stuff will be allowed near them!!

Ok, I'll look forward to catching up with everyone over the next couple of days after work - hopefully my kind friend Zsuzsa from Inky Dinky Doodle will link me up in the morning - thanks Zsuzsa!

Love Annie xxx

A Nice Cup of Tea - Daring Cardmakers

Hello everyone,

The challange over at Daring Cardmakers this week is to make a card about whatever gets you through the morning. Now, truth be told, it's coffee for me, and lots of it, but I really wanted to use this little stamp featuring a stack of pretty teacups ...

You can't see it in my rubbish photo, but I actually stamped and coloured three times, so that I could stack the cups inside each other. I hand cut the little tag, added a punched heart and finished with a bit of lace and the word from a cut-apart sheet - everything came from my February Counterfeit Kit which I called "Happy Hour".

I really, really need to sort out my lack of photography skills :o)

Thanks for visiting my blog today, hope to see you again soon!

Love Annie xxx

J'aime Paris!! Counterfeit Kit Challenge Feb #1

Hello my bloggy friends,

The first challenge for February over at Counterfeit Kit Challenge was "I LOVE PARIS". When I think of Paris, I think of romance, wonderful architecture, coffee shops, patisserie, the Metro, great art, amazing restaurants, theatre, haute couture and Glamour with a capital "G".

I decided to make some Glamour-inspired cards for this challenge, using my February Counterfeit Kit of course ...

This first one used a Stampin' Up! stamp set, which includes the artsy squiggle of colour on the lady's dress. The oval piece was die cut with a die from a set I bought from Ali Express. The perfect bow is thanks to the Bow Maker my clever son made for me with his 3D printer.

These two are very different, made with a stamp set I bought at The Range, by Papermania I think, coloured with Distress Inks, given subtle sparkle with a clear Wink of Stella pen and finished with trims from my Counterfeit Kit. That "Smile" was one of my "Forgeries" for this kit - I layered several die cuts together and then heat-embossed the whole thing.

So that's the first challenge - the next one is all about how you enjoy your weekend ... hmmmm ....

Thanks for popping in today, hope to see ou again soon!

Love Annie xxx

Big Smiles - CSI Case File #248

Hi everyone,

It's time to reveal the second challenge for February over at CSI: Colour, Stories, Inspiration. What a beautiful Scene we have to investigate for this one ...

Pop over to the CSI blog for a full list of clues to follow and lots of inspiration from the other CSI Detectives. Here's how I solved the case ...

The soft pinks and greens in the Scheme reminded me of our wedding colours, so I was inspired to make a romantic page to celebrate our 7th St. Valentine's Day.

I've also used several items from the Evidence list - hearts, floral print, solid white background and thread instead of string, which I used to add some stitched details to the page. 

Why not have a go at solving this Case yourself - there are loads of brilliant prizes to be won. Check out the CSI blog or find us on Facebook

Thanks for dropping in today, hope to see you again soon :o) 

Love Annie xxx