CD Sunday -' Beautiful Blooms' - chosen By Jocelyn

 Good Morning fellow Ark dwellers. We have had some heavy constant rain here in the South and it isn't doing my own beautiful blooms in the garden any good. My Peonies look very battered.
But as a  team we have some beautiful blooms to show you on the Blog and here is my own :

When I made this card for the challenge the beautiful blooms in my garden were the daffodils and the beginnings of the primroses so I chose this image from Messy Rabbits CD by Joanna Sheen. I love the querky images on this CD and I hadn't used it for a while but I remembered Messy Rabbit and the daffodils.. Apart from die cut bow and the sentiment it all comes from the CD.

There are many CD's out there containing all manner of flowers and beautiful blooms for you to choose from so I look forward to seeing many cards entering Jocelyn's challenge.

I hope the weather improves again,  that you all have a wonderful time crafting and that as you pass me by you leave  a message and I will also visit you on your Blogs.
Hugs
Carol xx

Christmas 2018

I can hear the groans but yes  - I have started making Christmas cards. I would have made more by now but the planned hand op made me rush do make all my Birthday cards etc.  Now I am rushing to make Christmas cards before all the symptons come back and then I will have to have the op.
So.......I have been stitching.  One of my favourite Christmas stitching patterns and I plan to make quite a few more - all with different colour blends.

Here are the four that I have finished. Two of them were stitched whilst I was half watching 'The Wedding'.

There are so many colour and thread combinations that are possible with this pattern enabling it to  look fresh each time it is done.

Have you started with your Christmas cards?

The link to the pattern is here:

Latest parchment patterns from Judith Maslen

Last Saturday was our 2nd of the year visit down to Judith's for her workshop. Work being the operative word as we did work hard.  For some time during the morning you could have heard a pin drop in the room - which let's face it is unusual.
Fabulous patterns though and here is the morning one - that took all the concentration:

A very different pattern for the afternoon and although it took hard work and concentration it wasn't quite so intense.
Personally I was thrilled that I could make the workshop. I wasn't expecting to as I was due for surgery on my wrist - which was cancelled.  Re-scheduling is inevitable though and I am going to have to miss a workshop sometime.

Here is the 'afternoon' card:

I haven't added any sentiments as yet. They can be done at a later date using a peel off or die cut.
I thoroughly enjoyed my day thank you Judith and thank you to my two companions for the day especially our chauffeur.

CD Sunday - Art Deco - chosen by Margaret

Good Morning.  I am writing this on Friday afternoon and it is a bit cooler today.  I am off down to the coast very early tomorrow for our bi monthly workshop with Judith Maslen.  I am so pleased to be going as at one time I thought I would have had my op by now and there would be no 'parching' for me for a while. But as it was put off I am going South with a glad heart.  I do love our days down with Judith.
Back to the plot.  Margaret has chosen Art Deco for us for this challenge.  There are many CD's out there with this as it's theme so I am sure you have one tucked away somewhere.

My card is :

I used MCS Deco Follies CD for the ladies and my graphics programme ACDsee for putting it all together and the sentiment.  The background is a photograph taken in a garden in Bristol. I attended a kind of Garden Party there when I was staying with my sister.
I really enjoyed creating this little scene and I hope you like it too.

Now - today is the day we announce our 8th Birthday Challenge winners......... but you will have to visit the CD Sunday Blog to find out who we have chosen as our two prize winners.  You can find out here   or maybe  here .

Don't forget too that we will be showing you Wynn's Top 3 choice for her challenge of  'Anything Goes'. next weekend.

I hope to see you on your blogs and please don't forget to leave me a message on your way past.
Hugs
Carol
xx

ATC Swop UK

Our theme for May  - unsurprisingly -  is Red, White, Blue/Royalty. I think you can mix altogether or do one or the other.
I have done Red, White and Blue. In fact very Red, White, and Blue  and for the first time I have made 5 exactly the same. I must admit I have always frowned a bit on turning out 5 the same but this time I have broken my own rule. There is a hint of Royalty there as the background is a kind of shabby Union Jack or part of a Union Jack.  I am coming down from all these steroids and felt quite down and unimaginative so I took the easy option.
Here they are. ready for the post. I think Chris is going to drop them in the box on his way past as he goes off for his cards night.

I love the bright colour effect.  Hope you like them too.

Hugs

Carol

xx

Creative Stamping

The latest issue of Creative Stamping arrived yesterday and I was bowled over by the free stamps this time.  They are a set of Wild Animals together with sentiments and embellishments.
Usually I admire the stamps,  read most of the magazine and then file them both for later use but this time I just wanted to play straight away.

So I got  out the stamping 'stuff' and started playing.   I managed one complete card and here it is.

The border took most of the time.  Several of the sample cards in the magazine used a border done with this stamp and it appealed to me.  Bold and very 'African' in design.   I tried stamping the border straight to the card but found it difficult to get a neat straight edge so after several abortive attempts I decided to approach it a different way and just stamped out about a dozen borders (3" long pieces) onto card and then cut them out neatly.  Having done that I then attached them to the card with double sided tape as a border.  Simples - as they say.
I then stamped the Elephant and baby onto card and cut them out and affixed them to the background.  The background was not stamped by me.  It is an image I have had for some time and used before and would like to give it credit if I could.
The sentiments were stamped next and  Voila  a 'Go Wild' birthday card.
I thoroughly enjoyed making it despite the resultant  mess everywhere -  and it is one more for the box.
If you get this magazine I guarantee you are going to want to use these stamps as soon as you see them.
Carol
xx

Facebook Birthday List

Here are some more cards that I made for those on the Birthday List.  These birthdays are now a thing of the past so I can show them:

The first two were made using a Kraftyhands CD and the third  in parchment using an image from an Ooh La La 'Shoes in Bloom' CD.
There were two others but these have already been shown as I combined them with  CD Sunday challenges - our '8th Birthday' Challenge and 'No patterned paper' challenge.
No more due now until July.

p.s.  My op was cancelled because the Surgeon didn't want there to be any risk of infection and apparently steroids can affect the healing process and it could be risky.  So I have to wait until I am steroid free and the pain comes back.  I have though been given a 'return ticket' so I don't have to join a long queue again. So it was all a good 'dry run'.  I can now start on my Christmas cards.

More playing with parchment

Here are a couple more cards made using the results of my play with parchment.  Both birthday cards to be added to my stock.

This is what I used to make the image. A glass heart pendant that I bought from the internet

This is the second card:

I enjoyed making them and have many more in the pipeline.
Carol
xx