Happy Thanksgiving !!

Well its been a long time since I posted anything, no excuses but I did think this was a good time to write and wish you all a very happy Thanksgiving.

I made the card above using Justrite stamps from Simple Blessings. This is an ideal fall set. I stamped the image twice using versafine black and clear embossed it, then coloured using my copic markers. The middle was popped up to give it a little dimension.

The Sentiment is from a Stampin Up retired set and cut out with a spellbinder label tag. The background was embossed using the pumpkins from Cuttlebug.

Thanks for looking and have a great Thanksgiving.

Yvonne

House Mouse !!

Okay, here are some of the cards I have been working on just recently. I`ve really fallen for the House Mouse stamps - aren`t they just adorable? All the images have been stamped with Versafine Onyx Black and then clear embossed or Memento Ink. I tried to keep the cards simple so all the focus would be on the image.


I cut the image out using Labels Ten and mounted it onto Labels Eight.

On this card I used a Martha Stewart edge punch and a scallop corner rounder. The sentiment was Memory Box and cut out using Labels Thirteen.


On the "Jelly Bean Heist" card I used the new Spellbinder Scalloped Border and layered it up. The tear shape jems fitted quite perfectly.


This card was mounted onto the Petite ovals and Petite Oval Scallops. I embossed Labels Eight onto the white card stock for alittle more detail. I`m not sure if you can see, but I have put a small amount of glitter on the cards to give alittle sparkle!

On this card I used a piece of burlap. I thought it looked abit like the coffee sack in the picture!

These stamps are a pleasure to colour in and you always end up with great results!

Well, my parents are arriving from the UK on Thursday for a five week stay, so I shall close and get on with some cleaning and tidying of the house.

Thank you for visiting my blog. Have a wonderful day.

Yvonne

Lottie !

Well, Sunday already; where did the weekend go? We`re having a real lazy day today, its great!
My DH went off diving with the sealions this weekend to Hornby Island and by all accounts has had a fantastic time. I shall post some photographs later this week.
Anyway onto the card. I was really pleased with the way this turned out. Its the first time and the only one I have ! of The Greeting Farm stamps. I love the way "Lottie" just sits on the side of the frame. All the DP is Basic Grey Origins. When you use such nice paper you don`t really need alot else on the card. I made the frame using the new Labels 11 and the sentiment is from JustRite. Lottie is stamped in Versafine ink and embossed with clear powder, then coloured in with Copic Markers. The butterflies and flower in the corner are all made using MS punches.

Thank you for visiting. Have a wonderful day.

Yvonne

SC269 - Hedgy Gift !

Good Morning Everyone !!

Well these past two weeks have been filled with Olympics. The television hasn`t been on for so long each day for along time ! Its been fantastic, I have enjoyed every minute. We had a trip downtown and I still can`t get over the number of people down there. The streets are seas of people !!! The atmosphere is something else - fabulous ! Here is the Olympic Cauldron, Downtown, Vancouver.

The Sea of People !!!!

Anyway onto the card. Can you believe it; I receive the sketch challenge one day and the card is completed the next. I haven`t done that for along time ! This seem to come together really quickly, I love it when that happens. I used one of my new stamps I bought the other day from one of my favourite shops at Cloverdale. I now have so many Hedgy stamps its not funny but I just can`t resist them !!

I stamped the image using Memento Tuxedo Black and then, of course, is there anything else to colour them in with apart from Copic markers, I love them ! Its the first time I have coloured the little cuties in brown, I`m not sure which I like the best - brown or grey? The layout is this weeks sketch over at Splitcoast. I can imagine using this more than once.

Thank you for visiting and have a wonderful day!

Yvonne

Side Step Card

Just got back from a fabulous weekend down in Seattle. My DH and I went for the boat show and found our DREAM boat - Wow, we need to win the lottery though, but hey its okay to dream, isn`t it? In the evening we went to the Elton John and Billy Joel concert which should have been last November but had to be posponed due to illness. It was awesome, alittle loud in some places but I think thats a sign of age !! They are both fantastic musicians not to mention the rest of the band. A truely memorable weekend.
Anyway, onto the card. I have been seeing quite afew of these side step cards going onto Splitcoast so I thought I would have a go. Its certainly different and not too bad to make. I`ll definately be making more of these.

I used Pretty in Pink, Chocolate Chip and Whisper White card stock along with Vintage Vogue stamps from SU. As we live abroad and away from our family and friends I thought this was quite an appropriate saying by Wordsworth. The flower is made using MS punches and the branches are from SU. I airbrushed the small birds, they are the nested birds by Spellbinders. I really liked the way this card turned out. Thanks for looking.

Have a lovely day.

Yvonne

Easel Card

Can you believe it, another post, two days in a row - a record !! I have just discovered the Easel Card !! Of course I have seen them around but they always looked complicated so I never bothered until now. Now I love them !! Its simple to make and all the instructions are over at Splitcoast Stampers- Thank You Splitcoast. The Easel Card is just alittle different from the usual way to open a card. Here I have stamped my image - Penny Black in Versafine Oynx Black ink and clear embossed it so I could colour it in with my Copic Markers. I used a mixture of Labels four and Labels five for the frame. I decided to dry emboss the inner frame with the Textile embossing folder, just to be different! Prima flowers are used in the corner with afew dew drops around. The sentiment (a Amuse stamp) was stamped onto the fancy tags and matted onto the larger fancy tag. Oh and the DP used is Graphic 45, I just love this design and colour. The main card stock is Groovy Guava by SU, unfortunately its been retired now.

Here is a side view of the card so you can see the Easel part.

Thank you for visiting my blog and enjoy the rest of your day.

Yvonne

Urge to Exercise !!

Can you believe its already February!!! We had a fabulous weekend, skiing at Whistler. I think that will be the last time until the Olympics are over. We`ll find somewhere else to ski which will be easier to get to!

Anyway onto the card I made for my friends birthday. I loved this stamp from the first time of seeing it but unfortunately you have to be careful who you send a card like this to - wouldn`t want to cause any bad feeling !! The stamp is from Stampabilities - Urge to Exercise. The paper is My Minds Eye. I stamped the image using versafine onyx black ink and clear embossed it then coloured it with my copics. Whenever I can I like to mix the shapes of the spellbinders, some I`m sure were made to be used together!

I used the Morrocco Lace edge punch along with chocolate satin ribbon and some rhinestones to decorate.

Thanks for looking and have a wonderful day!

Yvonne

Wiper Card !

Gosh, those weekends don`t half pass by quickly !! We had a great weekend; skiing at Whistler on Saturday, watching our daughter ski racing for her school followed by a delicious meal out at The Cannery in the evening and Sunday a day to chill. Hope you all enjoyed yours too.

Anyway onto the card. This is what they call a `wiper card`. Quite nifty really, when its closed the top butterfly disappears, just like magic! You can get the instructions to make one of these over at Splitcoast.

Here I used Bo Bunny DP and the stamp is Serenity Prayer by Crafty Secrets. I stamped it in Versafine Oynx Black and clear embossed it. The butterflies are Spellbinders #2.

Thanks for looking, have a great day.

Yvonne

Thinking of You !

What a day - rain rain rain and still it keeps coming !!!! BUT what a great excuse for being down in my stamp room! I popped down to the States yesterday and visited one of my favourite stamp shops - Stampadoodle and I found these shaker containers by Impression Obsession. What a quick and easy way to make a shaker card. The best bit about them is they, (well the oval ones at least) are Nesty friendly. At the moment they come in a small and large circle, small and large square and the oval. Here I stamped using Justrite from the oval Thinking of You set, and yes you can see they fit nicely in there too. What a find !!
I stamped the image in versafine and clear embossed it so I could colour the image with copics. The white card stock was too stark for the rest of the card so I decided to use the air brush and make it a pale pink background. I framed the oval using nestabilities. I thought it finished it off quite well. When making a shaker box its an idea to fill it with something, I forgot to put my micro beads inside so I had to peel the card stock off very carefully and add them !!!! Oh, I forgot to mention the shaker tops are self adhesive, how cool is that.


I used a border punch, ribbon and rhinestones to finish off the card. The rhinestones were clear so I used one of my copics to give them a hint of pinkness.

A close up picture of the shaker box.

Thanks for looking, have a great day!

Yvonne

Happy New Year !!!

Just thought I would wish everybody a Happy New Year. I hope you all had a good Christmas with plenty of food and festive cheer. We had our niece over for the holidays from the UK. It was amazing, she celebrated her 16th birthday while she was with us. We had a lovely time, we went ski-ing to Whistler and Sun Peaks aswell as trying to fit in as much sightseeing and touristy things possible in her 3 week stay.
Now things are alittle quieter and getting back to normal with school etc, I am heading back to my stamp room to try and find some inspiration. For some reason its alittle lost at the minute, hopefully not for too much longer!!
Take care and thanks for visiting my blog.

Yvonne

Footwear Cards !!

Well, what other title could I use? Here is Santa`s stocking and a Victorian Shoe. The Santa`s stocking template has been sitting on my desk since the first day of the challenge and I have only just got around to making the card, phew better late than never !! I love this little gift card holder, so easy to make. Hopefully by the end of the week we shall all have our own Santa`s stocking hanging on the tree. By the way I forgot to mention that the template for this can be found at challenge TLC248 or Waltzing Mouse Stamps. Thank you Claire for the great challenge.


I used red velvet paper for the main area of the stocking, feels lovely! and for the rest I used some Doodlebug DP I had in my stash. I punched the letters out using the velvet paper and alittle bit of ribbon for the trim. To keep the flap closed I attached a small piece of velcro to one of the corners. I put an eyelet in to strengthen the hole with the silver cord in. I can see it having alot of wear being put on and off the Christmas tree !

For my second card tonight I made a ladies Victorian Shoe card. This template I found at SU. A bit faffy and I don`t suppose I shall rush to make another but it looks cool anyway.

I was hoping to make this into a pouch to put a packet of Hot Chocolate in but it was far too bulky so I changed it into a card. I`ll keep looking for something else to suit my needs. The photograph didn`t turn out aswell as I would have liked, there are small pearls on the tip of the lace edging to match the pearl brads.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the cards. Its late and I`m off to bed !!

Thanks for looking and have a great day.

Yvonne

Christmas Boxes and Bags

Can you believe that its nearly December!!! I thought I would post pictures of some projects I have been working on. This selection is gift boxes and bags for Christmas. I love to give little boxes of goodies as you will remember from my pumpkin boxes. Thank you all so much for you kind and encouraging comments. I don`t know what was wrong today but I couldn`t really capture the projects how I would have liked, they all look far better in the flesh!

In the picture you can see the two sleighs and the Christmas tree. I used the SU matchbox die for the middle, so again I can fill them with chocolates and then simply placed the Sleigh sides on and the Christmas trees either side of the matchbox.

Here is a closer view of the blue and gold sleigh. I used gold mirror card stock for the cover of the box and used the divine swirls embossing folder. The sleigh is a sizzix bigz die to make a 3D card.

On this one I decided not to put the cover over the box so the chocolates actually sit inside the sleigh. The trees are from the Spellbinders Nesting Trees. This is the largest one of them. After cutting them out I used the Divine Swirls embossing folder and then with a glue pen filled the hollows with glitter. I don`t use this alot but I really like the effect. I first saw this method down at Be Creative done by Haroldine, known as "The Tape Lady".

This holder is made using the Pillow Box die. Instructions can be found on Splitcoast Stampers. Instead of the wine bottle you could also fill it with chocolates. The medallion on the front is made using the Kaleidascope pendant die from Spellbinders and the sentiment, of course is made using Justrite. I love that stuff, I know I say that every time but its true !

I am actually holding a class to make these boxes and bags at Be Creative, love it for you to come and join us.

Thank you for looking. Have a great day and Happy Thanksgiving to my US friends.

Yvonne

Winter Pelican.

Well the weekend is nearly over again. I hope you have enjoyed yours as much as I have mine. Its been busy as usual with plenty of laughter; oh and the highlight must have been going to see New Moon on Friday evening. I can`t wait for the next movie !!!
Anyway on to the card. I really like this Winter Pelican stamp by Impression Obession. I stamped the image in versafine black ink and clear embossed it so I could colour it in with my copic markers. I used the justrite vertical stamper to put the sentiment down the side of the card. You can`t really see in this picture but I did put alittle sparkle on his hat, perhaps I should have put more on him! I embossed the background with the snowdots embossing folder.
Thanks for looking, hope you have a great week.

Yvonne

Sympathy Cards.

Something I never like to make but unfortunately my Grandy passed away yesterday, hence the sad call to make some sympathy cards. He was a real character and lived a full and rich life. I`m just sorry I wasn`t there to say good-bye.

I reached straight for the Justrite stamp set ``Thinking of You``. The sayings seemed just right !

I am really pleased with the way they both turned out. I need to make one more and then hopefully thats it for a long time to come.

Thanks for looking.

Yvonne

Pumpkin Place cards & Treat Boxes !!

Can you believe it, two posts in two days - wonders will never cease ! I thought I would post these adorable little boxes. They are for our Thanksgiving dinner. There first task is to serve as a place card and secondly they are filled with four chocolates for alittle treat after dinner. Two for the price of one. You can`t get better !


I started off by making a matchbox using the SU die. Then cutting out two pumpkins from the Spellbinders Nesting Pumpkins. I added some DP from My Minds Eye to brighten them up alittle and then put them through the pumpkin embossing folder. The saying and pumpkin is one from the JustRite Demi Phrases and I have personalised it using the 15pt font which came with the 2" block. There is a small tag of ribbon attached by a gold brad on the end of the box to make it easier to open.From this photograph you can see the inside of the box with the chocolates. Four of the Hershey Toffee and Almond Nuggets fit in a treat. I covered them with matching DP.

My friend came round earlier today and we made ten for her Thanksgiving table. She was `chuffed`.

Hope you like them. Thank you for visiting my blog. Have a great day.

Yvonne

Pumpkin Gift Box.

Happy Monday !

Long time no post, where has the time gone !! The feel of Autumn is definately here; a slight chill in the air, fabulous colours on the trees, I love it. We were in the garden yesterday chopping and trimming the trees, the sun was shining and the skies were blue; what more could you ask for?
Anyway onto the post. We were invited over for dinner to friends on Saturday so I thought I would make alittle gift to take with us. I got my nesting pumpkins out from Spellbinders and got to work.

I made a one sheet box and placed the pumpkins either side. I then used my Justrite on the sentiment, used the cuttlebug embossing folder of pumpkins after cutting them out to give alittle extra detail; then filled them with chocolate pumpkins..... yummy !!!
Thats about it, hope you like it.
I know its alittle early but HAPPY THANKSGIVING.
Thanks for looking have a great day.

Yvonne

Christmas in July !!

I hope everybody is enjoying this fabulous summer we are having. The temperature reached 104 degrees F in the car today - WOW !! - so I`m not sure where the inspiration came from to make several Christmas cards !!

Of course there are some Penny Black Hedgehogs in there and a Holly Berry stamp which I have just aquired. Let me share the cuties first;

I thought this card had somewhat of a vintage / traditional style. I didn`t want to colour too much on the hedgies so I left the sheet music white. I used Basic Grey paper and stamped the sheet music block onto it from Cornish Heritage Farm (quite appropriate, I thought !) I sponged around the edges of the image to match the sponging on the sentiment.

My second card is definately a Christmas card - bright greens, red and white.

You can just see the cuttlebugged background on the dark green, it looked too plain without it. The rest I don`t think needs any explanation. On to my elegant, I think so anyway, Holly Berry card.
I think I am going to use this stamp quite alot for Christmas. The possibilities are endless. Here I stamped the image with the gold embossing three times so I could cut some layers. The next picture shows them quite nicely. I wanted to stamp a greeting in the centre but couldn`t find one to fit. The dove turned out okay. It is suspended between layers two and three.

The blue background is velvet paper. That definately gives it the elegant feel.

Hope you liked the cards, thanks for looking. I am off to get some tea ready. Have a great day!

Yvonne

Shipscat Ensemble !

Its Friday, that means the weekend is here! Tonight we are going over to the Gulf Islands on the boat for the weekend. The weather looks great and I can`t wait ! I was sure that I had posted pictures of the towels etc that I had embroided for our boat but after some investigation found that I had neglected to do so. Hence this post to show you alittle more of my handy work. As you have already gathered the logo on the towels is the same as the blog. My husband was a ships captain (he has come ashore now) and afew years ago we found a lady on the Isle of Wight - where he grew up - and asked her to draw us a logo we could use on our website and other bits and bobs. We were thrilled with the results and have used it ever since. I had the logo made into a stamp so I could make cards. They come in handy when we need a Thank You card when anybody has done something on or for the boat.
When we bought the boat, and called it "Shipscat" I set about having the logo digitised so I could embroider the towels.


Recently I aquired the matchbox die from Stampin Up and decided to make a small box of chocolates with the logo on for the boat. We are always taking friends on short trips and having lots of fun on the boat I thought it would be a great way to give them alittle something to remember their adventure with.

Well, thats it for today I am heading down to the States for alittle shopping with my daughter and girlfriend before heading out for the weekend on the boat.

I have a couple of cards to share with you next week but for now, have a great day and thanks for looking.

Yvonne

I Went Shopping and Look What I Found !!

Firstly I feel as though I must apologise for the long absence and theres no excuse - time flies what more can I say !!

Anyway enough of that. Today I went to one of my favourite shops - Country Lane. She has a great selection of almost everything. I hunted down the new stamps she had received from Penny Black, I just adore them. I couldn`t wait to get home and ink them up. Heres what I came up with.

I first stamped the image using Versafine Black ink and then embossed it using clear detail embossing powder. I used my copic markers to colour the image in but unfortunately I forgot to make a note of the colours I used before putting them away. I blew the cobwebs off my sewing machine and edged the card to add alittle something. The edge punch is from EK Success - I love it.

Here is the second card.

I fell in love with this stamp as soon as I saw it. A Labour of Love from Penny Black. You can use it like this or split it into three different stamps that I am going to try later. Again I stamped the image using Versafine Black ink and then embossed with clear detail enbossing powder; and again I`m sorry my copics were put away before making a list of the colours used. I think I must have had my "tidy head" on !!

Thanks for visiting my blog, Have a great day!

Yvonne

Stamp Out Breast Cancer weekend.

Well, what a fantastic weekend I have just had! I was helping out with the Stamp Out Breast Cancer event held this weekend at Granville Island Hotel, down on Granville Island in downtown Vancouver. I worked on the Make`n`Take stand for "I`m Impressed" stamp shop, which is also located on Granville Island in the kids market. Here are the cards for the make `n` take stand I made for the weekend.

As you can see they are miniture bouquets made using the new flower soft product. They were so cute and quick to make...... although for most people, the hardest part of the card was making the cone for the flowers to sit in!!

I met so many interesting people, it was great to chat and learn about their hobbies. I always think you can never meet too many people !

It was a fabulous weekend and a great time was had by all.

Yvonne