Bird on a branch

The 'small bird on a branch' is one of my favourite dies from Marianne Creatables, I love the silhouette of the bird and have used here on 3 different but similar square birthday cards

Polar Bears

Sorry I haven't posted for a while - been laid low with the dreaded Winter Vomiting bug.

Just feeling better now - knew I was ill because I didn't want to do any crafting. These cards both feature 2 polar bears staring at the stars in the sky and I love both of the images - they are so evocative!

Rain stopped play ....

 What a bit of a wash out yesterday - no jubilee picnic lunch, but the friends Jubilee party tonight is still on! Anyway it was a good excuse to sit a the table in the lounge, crafting away with one eye on the Pageant.  

 I did feel sorry for all those people standing for hours in the cold wind and rain by the Thames and hope they got home soon to warm up!

An excuse to

I'm feeling quite pleased as I have sold a few cards through eBay. Not for much, but enough to justify treating myself to a a new swirly die from Marianne Creatables that I have been hankering after for a while!

Now I have a very long weekend to have a play with it, was hoping to go in a Jubilee picnic, but the weather is not looking good at the moment.

One of my cards that I sold!

An early Christmas present

I treated my self to an early Christmas present - the Marianne Creatables lamp post die that I have been lusting over since I saw it advertised in a magazine over a month ago.

Despite heavy hints, it looked like no-one was going to buy it for me, so I ordered it myself!

As it arrived today and I'm off on strike, I could not resist trying it out straight away and this is my first attempt with a glittery rudolph!


I'm entering this into Mariannes 'It's Christmas' Challenge

Just loving this Marianne Bird

This 'bird on a branch' has got to be one of my favourite dies. Its from Marianne Creatables and looks fabulous as a silhouette.

I know I have featured an ATC and a sympathy card made with it before on my blog but couldn't resist posting this latest birthday card for a male birdwatcher friend as well.

Friends make life special

This is a lovely sentiment which is part of a set from Personal Impressions - I loved the unusual outlines of cats but the 3 sentiments can also be used in so many other way.

This one I teamed up with the bird on a branch silhouette from Marianne Creatables

Marianne Bird on Branch Sympathy Card

A new sympathy card I've just made with a silhouette of a bird on a branch from a Marianne Creatables die. I've layered it on a scrap of green card and black cardstock with an old piece of black lace to set it off .

The 'Thinking of You' sentiment is a Woodware stamp with 3 pieces of black card candy in the corner.

I've entered this in the 'Just us Girls' sketch and the Papertake 'Anything Goes plus lace' challenges

I just couldn't resist it!

I know this was on my wish list for Santa but Christmas is still a long way off any I can't wait that long - it's pay day today and I just happened (!) to be passing a craft shop and this Marianne Creatable die of a bird on a branch leapt into the basket.

So, of course, I just had to try it out straight away and made this CRAFTRAK card to send on to Crissie in Gloucestershire as a RAK

There is a new challenge site starting up and Crafty Hazelnut has some fab christmas papers as a candy to entice you over

Polar Bears

I just love this cute stamp of 2 polar bears sitting together staring at the stars. I bought it last year in a bargain bin for only 99p. I've teamed it with black with red and white polka dots for a bit of a contrast.

I am try hard not to buy any more Christmas stash as I have so much still left over from last year!

Jade & Teal!

I really got into using the Jade/Teal colour scheme - particularly with brown or rusty reds. This one uses a piece of recycled jade coloured card which was originally a folder from work. I run this through the Cuttlebug and layered it with Kaiser craft Gypsy sisters die cuts and a marianne designs flower

Summer Willow WOJ Card

Isn't this a sweet image of Summer Willow by Whiff of Joy. I wanted to try a different combination of colours - I don't think I have used mainly red and lilac before!

Willow is coloured with promarkers and she has a Marianne flower and Martha Stewart doily lace trim

Spotty Bear Card

I married up some spotty ribbon with my martha stewart doily lace and marianne flower then and finished it off with 3 candy dots for a very spotty card!

After reading a newspaper article that our local blue cross rescue home has over 20 black cats & kittens that no-one wants, I have decided to use my birthday money and have a black kitten ( or perhaps 2) instead of getting a new handbag! We already have 1 rescue cat who I hope will adjust to having a new playmate.

Commissioned 50th Birthday card

One of the ladies at work will be 50 soon and I have been commissioned to make a card for her. I have used the green, black and white colour scheme for this and spelt out her name and age in diamontes with some Marianne die cut flowers as an embellishment.

I was very good when I went to buy some more DST yesterday and only bought some card blanks as well - but I did linger over the Martha Stewart punches - guess they will have to go on my birthday present wish list!

Black & Green Marianne Flower Card

A fairly simple but striking card with just a black, green and white colour scheme and using my new Marianne flower die as an embellishment

My New Toy - Marianne Flower dies!

Aren't these flowers gorgeous!! I made them with my new Marianne Designs Creatables flower dies and love them - I expect you will be seeing them crop up as embellishments on lots of my cards in the future.

These were made with just a few scraps of old paper