Selling Up and Stepping Down

Firstly the selling up. The reason I haven't been around much this last week is because we have been getting to grips with getting the house on the market. The stepping down - because I don't know how much time I will have in the near future I have decided to step down from the design team at By the Cute and Girly.

We may still be here in a years time - but if we are lucky and sell fairly quickly - it will be all go. (How on earth am I going to move all my craft stuff. That's going to be the biggest problem.)

I have loved working on the DT for By the Cute and Girly and am so pleased that it has turned out to be such a popular challenge. I'll certainly be joining in when I get the chance.

These three items were made before I knew how things were going to turn out this last week or so and are still included on the challenge site.The theme this month is 'Spring is in the air...'

The first is a made over notebook, painted with an acrylic paint dauber. The stamp is by Inkadinkadoo and the decoupaged flower is from My Craft Studio.

The second is a Tilda image - coloured with Promarkers and she's seated on a Glimmer misted background which has been through the Cuttlebug.

The third is an Elusive Images Hellebore script stamp - coloured with Inktense pencils and some ribbon from my stash added down the side.

Spring in this garden is a mass of hellebores and I will miss them greatly - well - most of them. I'm taking some with me wherever I go!

Thanks very much for visiting today. My apologies if I still don't get round to all of you as much as I would like.

Beryl xx

Crafty Ann's Challenge #9

Sorry I'm still not getting round visiting - I'm sure it won't be long. I did however want to post this card which is for Crafty Ann's Challenge #9 - 'Celebrate You Creativity'- something that takes you out of your comfort zone! Try a technique or product or fold/design that you've been shying away from or haven't done/used as often as you would like.

I've gone for an easel card as I haven't made one to date and thought I'd better before they go out of fashion. The flower image is from Crafty Ann's shop and is coloured with Promarkers and has some seed beads to make the flower centre. The sentiment is computer generated the the ribbon from my stash. The bp is from Crafty Ann's Abstract collection and I have used one of my new MS punches to make the mat and the border. I've edged them with ink to define them a little.
The bp on the base is Funky Fairies and the stamped image is a freebie from Craft Stamper magazine - again coloured with Promarkers. Corners and scalloped mat cut with my Cuttlebug.
Thanks very much for visiting and the kind words I've had since my last post. I'm fine but not letting on yet until I've spoken to some of my family (don't want them to find out on here - that includes you Terrie - I'll call soon.)
Beryl xx

Sketch and Stash Challenge # 29

First of all I'd like to apologise in advance if I'm not around as much in the near future. I hope I'll be able to do some blog hopping but things are afoot in this house - so I may not manage it. I wanted to make sure I entered the current challenge from Sketch and Stash though as I was lucky enough to win the last one. Thank you team. I am pleased to say that I have a Martha Stewart loop border punch on the way from Simon Says Stamp. My new element on this card is the Sugar Nellie Stamp, coloured with Promarkers and a little background done with a stamp from Stampscapes and one from Stamp in the Hand. The red piece of bp is from Crafty Ann's Polished Stone collection of backing papers and the green bp is Dovecraft. The tiny heart border was from a lovely stash of punched borders sent to me by my friend Martha - who lives in the states. The flower I made with punch from some scrapbook paper and then sprayed with glitter spray.
Thanks very much for visiting today.
Beryl xx

Bah Humbug Challenge #6

I can't believe it's the 6th challenge from the Bah Humbug team already. Where does the time go? This week they want to see snowmen/women on our creations. I've used a freebie image from Cuddly Buddly - coloured with Sakura Stardust pens and some bp from a Crafters Companion cd. The snowflakes were punched with a Wizard snowflake die, coloured blue and gone over with a clear Stardust pen. I've just noticed that the sun (yes sun!) has made shadows on the card so the text plate at the bottom looks longer on the right than the left. It's not - honest.

Thanks for visiting.

Beryl xx

Rainbow Lady Challenge #90

Rainbow Lady's challenge this week is 'Have a Heart'.  The theme comes partly from Valentine's day and partly from the States 'Wear Red Day'. I've got the heart and the red clothing covered without it being a Valentine's card!

For the bp I made a heart with text in the Greetings card factory on a lavender background. I printed out an extra heart to glitter up and then decoupage over the original. Then I put the same piece through MCS and printed some swirls on it from the MCS Flourishes cd. The image is by Sugar Nellie and is coloured with Promarkers then matted onto some red patterned mirri card. The flower is two layers of Prima and one red punched layer and all have been sprayed with Crafter's Companions Silver Glitter spray. Leaves punches from my large leaf punch.

Thanks very much for visiting.

Beryl xx

Crafty Ann's challenge #8

This time the theme on Crafty Ann's challenge blog is 'If music be the food of love.....'. You can interpret this your own way - going with food  or love or both. I think this is the first time I've used hearts on a card but the paper, which is one of generous Jak's freebies seemed just what was needed to go with the image. I have used the Classical Guitar from Ann's digi shop and the Rosebud  and have resized them both (hopefully more or less to scale.) I've coloured them with Promarkers and then gone over the front of the guitar and parts of the rosebuds with Anita's High Gloss (similar to Glossy Accents). The spotty background was done with a stamp in the Hand stamp and then I edge it with Black soot Distress ink.The ribbon is from my stash.

As usual, Ann will be giving a prize of some of her digis to one lucky entrant so I do hope you can come and join in.

Thanks very much for visiting today.

Beryl xx

Bah Humbug Challenge #5

This week the challenge from the girls on the Bah Humbug challenge blog is 'Holly'. I wanted to use this holly stamp by Elusive Images but it's so big that by the time I'd matted and layered it there wasn't much room for anything else on an A5 card. It's stamped and embossed in gold onto a piece of paper coloured with Glimmer Mists. I say coloured - because it wasn't misted - it was sort of dragged all over the craft mat until it was covered. I usually end up doing that coz I'm rubbish at the misting bit most times.The bp is from a Graphicus Guild paper pack and both that and the image are matted onto gold mirri card. The gold cord down the side was from a bag of mixed cords I got at the NEC last March.

It's beautifully sunny here today but quite cold - so it's definitely another indoor day for me.

Thanks very much for visiting.

Beryl xx

Spring is on the Way

The challenge this week from Rainbow Lady is 'Four Season's'. The theme was chosen by Shelley - this week's guest designer. I have chosen spring because I've have this lovely image of a dicentra from a fellow Rainbow Forum buddy - Janny - and in a few weeks time, my garden will be a mass of dicentra. I love it. It flowers right through to September - not like the sort you buy from the garden centre - it also spreads like mad.

I have coloured it with Inktense pencils, edged with distress ink  and matted it onto some pink pearlescent card.The bp is one of Crafty Ann's Abstract collection, but you won't find this colour in her shop. It's called 'My printer has just run out of ink - it's given a lovely graduated look and I'm not wasting it.' Bit of a long name I know - I wish I could reproduce it at will. The flower and leaves were punched from some scrapbook papers I have and the ric rac is from my stash. The punched borders along the bottom arrived in the post this morning from my friend Martha, who lives in the States. She has sent me a goody bag of punched borders and flowers, stamped images and lots of other bits and pieces. You wouldn't believe what she's done with the border punches. Amazing. You'll be seeing soon I expect. That's it I think.

Thanks very much for visiting today.

Beryl xx

Sketch and Stash Challenge #28

Time for another card for the Sketch and Stash challenge. The new elements are the Elusive Images butterfly stamps - both the small one and the large one - never inked before. The large one I have coloured with Inktense pencils and gone over the top with a clear Stardust pen - this only shows with the sun shining on it, but then I get shadows all over the rest of the card and it's a bit glary so gave up trying to catch that. The small butterfly I stamped straight onto the bp and coloured with Stardust pens then added some trailing dots with a fine permanant marker pen. The bp's are Crafter's Companion downloads and the swirls in the corners (straight pieces on the sketch) were done on the Cuttlebug. Border across the centre is cream Conquerer paper punched with a MS doily punch, and a strip of the matching bp. A couple of butterfly peel offs in the corners coz it looked a bit bare.

Thanks very much for visiting today. Hope you are all having a great weekend. The sunshine here today is glorious.

Beryl xx

Sir Stampalot Have Moved

Sir Stampalot have just moved to new premises and to celebrate they are having a blog hop and a one off challenge. If I'd been making cards before I moved here to Wales I'd could have visited Sir Stampalot whenever I pleased but, for now, I have to make do with the Inernet to shop with them, and the big shows of course. The challenge is to make something with 'movement' in mind - moving house, something on your card that moves, kinetic card or anything that represents movement. I have chosen to make a moving house card using a Clairity stamp. I have also stamped it onto shrink plastic to make a dangly key ring. I've coloured with Inktense pencils and matted the greeting and house oval onto nestie shapes. The small oval is courtesy of Lesley, who has kindly punched some out for me after I lost my small scalloped oval. The flowers are made with my Nellie Snellen punches and a couple of Prima flowers. The leaves were punched from some cardstock which has been glimmer misted and some which had been coloured with pearlescent glue. And the bp? That's the other half of the Graphicus Guild sheet that I used on the previous card.

If you want to enter this challenge pop across to Brenda's blog to get the details.

Thanks very much for visiting.

Beryl xx

Humbug and Baubles

This is my card for this week's Bah Humbug challenge - where they want to see 'baubles' on our work. I bought this bauble stamp set from Joanna Sheen last year - and to be honest - didn't get round to using it this last Christmas. I've stamped and embossed with silver ep and then coloured them with Cosmic Shimmer paints. I've made a 6 x 6 card and off centred the fold. The bp is from my Graphicus Guild pack, and it's finished off with a few silver peel offs. Now I've got to work out the best way to do the insert!

Thanks very much for visiting today.

Beryl xx

By the Cute and Girly February Challenge

Well, it's the start of another challenge from By the Cute and Girly. This month the theme is 'Love'. This takes me out of my comfort zone - not the sort of stuff I do at all normally.
We have three great sponsors this month:

Joanna Sheen .. .. .. .. £10 voucher

Simon Says Stamp .. .. .. .. $20 voucher and free p&p

Capture the Magic .. .. .. .. £10 to spend on line

Jules is our host this month - she and the others members of the DT have come up with some great makes again this month. I do hope you'll pop across to their blogs to take a peek and also join in if you can.

My first card is a 5 x 5 cream card and the central image is from a blog buddy and I'm afraid I don't know the make of the stamp. It's been coloured with Inktense pencils. The MS punch border and the flower have been made with paper from my stash.

The second item is a tissue box, covered with some Papermania paper (quite old now) and 'Bless You ' in several languages stuck all around. There's are heart on each side which was a freebie for a magazine. As Jane said - 'It's for when love goes wrong'. Aw bless.

The third is a card where the background has been done in the Daisy Trail scrapbook programme. The sentiment is from U-Mount and the image a freebie from Pollycraft, coloured with Promarkers.

You will see on my sidebar an award passed on to me by Anesha. Hopefully she won't mind if don't pass it on to 10 others, but I will list 10 things that give me pleasure (in no particular order).

Chocolate -watching the sea - crafting - my pets - my children and grandchildren - my home and garden - my pc and laptop - friendships - buying crafting goodies - opening them when they arrive.

Thanks very much for visiting today.

Beryl xx