Strictly Monochrome

Sorry about the lack of updates, we've had friends staying so its been mega busy here. Its our friends from france that I've done the invites for and I'm glad to say they love them even more seeing them all ready to go, phew! Plus we went and stocked up on uk stamps for them because the price is going up again on monday! Grrr!

Lythan was in super strict mode when she set this fantastic dare. You can do ANYTHING you like on a card BUT you can only use one colour!

This was quite scary at first but as soon as I got some things out in colour groups I had great fun. Birthday in Browns uses Dunhelm bloomers, a fabby gift from Nic, an Anna Griffin stamp for the border under the brown grosgrain, wooden button which has been in my button box forever, Rhonna farrer Swirl stamps on handmade tissue paper and Happy Birthday Hampton Stamps.

Next I decided to go girly pink! Blooms from Sarah's Cards and LCC, papermainia brads, magenta grosgrain, rob and bob paper and a Thanks sizzlits die cut

There is such a fantastic rainbow of cards on the Daring Card Makers blog. We've been reminiscing about Rainbow and I've been singing the theme tune all week, love it!

Happy cardmaking, I can't wait to see all the reader contributions for this one!

UKS weekly challenge

Janice sets some great wee challenges over on UKScrappers. This weeks was based on some Hero Art stamping designs and heres what I came up with inspired by it. I used my Sassafrass Lass Flower Stamps, Rhonna Farrer Swirls, Leave Memories Stitches and Hampton Smile. Its another simple one but thats me all over.


Having searched all over the internet for the right necklace to go with my wedding dress, and not having found it yet, Ive decided to make my own. Ive got all the stuff I need from my beading phase so now Im waiting for a jiffy bag of scrummy freshwater pearls to arrive so I can get creating. Am i the only one who goes through crafting phases? 6 months ago I was a beadaholic, and now they just sit in their neat little colour coordinated chinese take away containers looking pretty. Please tell me it's not just me!

And the winner is...

Send me an email with your addy Kate (top right hand side for the link) and I'll get them in to post to you asap.

As for other crafty stuff, well, I can't share what Ive been doing over the weekend yet, but heres a funky doorhanger I made for my craft room door a wee while ago and forgot to share. Lovely Basic Grey Gypsy papers, yumm!

Baby baby baby

Your dare for this week is to create a card using any technique, any style, to welcome the birth of multiples. If you keep the card long enough there is bound to be someone you know having twins or more to send it to.

Thanks Keryn for a great dare. I decided to go for 3, after all its the magic number, yep, I was singing that the whole time I was making this card!


I used the sizzlits baby die cut, the hearts from the sizzlits window and frame set and words from the cuttlebug baby set.

I cut a ridiculous amount of die cuts as I had an idea that involved 7 little prams that didn't go anywhere, so I've decided to give them away here. If you'd like a baggie of baby die cuts, just leave a message here and I'll do the draw in a few days. It doesn't matter where in the world you are!

Happy cardmaking,
Rhi x

You've gotta love the postie

While I was at work this morning the postie brought me my first weddingy bits I ordered online. 2kg of chocolate dragees for the favours. I was worried I'd ordered them too early but these are ok til 2009! The only problem is going to be stopping me eatting them, well I have to test them first... Im only thinking of our guests you understand...

A huge roll of ribbon for the balloons we'll be putting round the garden, and Angel Kisses and Prima's in our colour scheme, so now I can have a play and make our invites, and hey, if I don't end up using them on the invites I've added to my prima collection.



Better go and get the balloons now...

Spring and ...er... It's Snowing!

Oh dear, I wonder what's happening with our mad crazy weather, the warmest winter on record and now its snowing. Lots of it. My poor garden, I hope its not set back too much. I'm so looking forward to flowers and being able to go outside without being wrapped up like the mitchellin man.

Anyway, after a busy morning of class planning, safely inside in the warmth, I decided I deserved an hour off just browsing the net and yay, the CPS blog has it's new sketch up. With the theme being spring I just had to use my Blonde Moments Spring Fling papers. I used one of my hardly used dies too, the ellison funky frame, and a gorgeous stamp from duo-designs. Lots of hand drawn stitching, a dovecraft brad and daadaah!


Now the sun's come out again and its looking deceptively warm as all the snow melted instantly. Mad, mad weather.

Honeymoon Happiness

I've booked our honeymoon today and by searching round the web managed to get a great deal for two weeks in Crete, bliss! Then the high street tour operator who we were originally going to go with agreed to match the price, and still added the honeymoon extras of flowers and wine, whoohoo! What a bargain master I am! Wannna see a pic?Looks good doesn't it! Its a quiet little village, not far from a bigger place and a little further on to the mad clubbing capital of crete. So we may go and laugh at all the 18 year old brits out on the pull one night as we'll be old marrieds by then *very big grin*. I also went to see Nic who was doing a fair today selling her cards, her stall looks fabaroo, really funky. So of course I bored her almost to tears with my bargain honeymoon talk.

I am so unbelieveably lucky, I love my Matt and he's going to marry me, I love where I live and I love what I do. I have great friends who get me, and two gorgeous cats who often cuddle up and purr.

How Random!

The wonderful Kel has set a fantastic Card Dare this week, to pick a random bunch of materials and supplies and make a card with only those! Here's my list of 20 what I thought were safe things and the ones that came out were...

1. Ribbons
2. Fibres
3. Text stamp
4. Image stamp
5. Hinges
6. Eyelets
7. Brads
8. Printed Paper
9. Tags
10. Ephemera
11. Charms
12. Buttons
13. Clips
14. Punches
15. Dies
16. Handmade type paper
17. Vellum
18. Blooms/ Paper Flowers
19. Beads
20. Chipboard

This was a really tough selection for me, I really missed patterned paper, inking, stamps and just the chance to pick up that final thing to finish it off, but it did come together in the end and I only used my 4 items. I was so tempted to cheat and ink my chipboard but I'm glad I didn't now because it looks good white. The spotty ribbons are from Little Silver Hat, Cherry Art chipboard Alphabet is from Little Cottage Crafts and eyelets from goodness knows where as Ive had them for years. The little tags are a sizzix die cut.

Its great to stretch the boundaries of what I normally do, and being limited by materials was a real challenge. The design team has some fantastic examples on the Daring Cardmakers Blog have a look, and once you're inspired, share your designs with us.

Enjoy your random selection!

Rhi x

The Gym!

Yes you heard right, The Gym!

Today I went and had my induction so I can, in theory anyway, now safely use all the gym equipment. I was dead nervous that it was going to be full of lycra clad body beautiful types with their pants over their cycling shorts but actually, everyone there seemed very normal and friendly too. I'm just wondering what my muscles are going to be like tomorrow. Some of those machines are torturous!

Wedding planning seems to be quite slow at the moment. I have got some new yummy ribbons to play with for the invites though. Today I also ordered the chocolate for the favours, just out of interest does anyone actually like sugared almonds? Chocolate definately wins in my book so we have 2 kilo's of ivory coated chocolate dragees, well a girl has to tast them on behalf of her guests first eh!. Once they arrive I'll make a few up and take a piccy of the favours, just for you Lythan, and Im planning wedding shoe shopping next week too. I just really, really want my hair to grow a bit so I can have it up with some kind of flowery hair comb or something.

Ive made a card for the UKS Card Challenge of the week. Its for hubs to be, ooo, its so exciting writing that, to give to his Mum. I had to scan it as I've missed the good light now, doh!

Funnily enough, I feel strangely awake for this time of day, maybe this exercise thing works!

Kathy's Little Extra Sketch

Kathy is the Card Sketch Queen! She came up with this brilliant, inspiring sketch for this weeks LE and wow, inspiration just oozed from the Design Team! Its a really unusual one but it has so much scope.
This paper on this one is Sassafrass Lass, they make totally gorgeous stuff, DCWV card and ribbon from Little Silver Hat. If you need to stock up on ribbons Liane has a wonderful selection and super fast delivery with free postage, can't say fairer than that can you! The flower is from the QK Sunshine set and *blush* its the first time I've used any of the shapes though Ive had the set since Christmas. The stamp is from a lovely little US company Firefly.

This one is inspried not only by the sketch but also in rather an obscure way by a book I'm reading at the moment. It's set around the first world war and one of the many themes is the Suffragettes. The colours often associated with them were Green, White and Purple. here's a lovely quote that explains the symbolism of the colours.

"Purple as everyone knows is the royal colour. It stands for the royal blood that flows in the veins of every suffragette, the instinct of freedom and dignity...white stands for purity in private and public life...green is the colour of hope and the emblem of spring."
extract from an article by Kenneth Florey

So back to the card! The paper is by Chatter Box Inc, card by DCWV, the big bloom from Sarah's Cards and the little fabric one from Little Cottage Crafts, which I really miss, bring back the shop Tracie. Brad is from Dovecraft and ribbon as before. The stamp is from the same clear set as the peace one, by Hampton Arts and from my nearest craft shop Craftspirations, run by the lovely Gail and just a few miles away. I wish I'd inked the edge of the purple paper to give it a bit of a border but I think I'd aleady gone a bit OTT inking the other one!

Have a crafty and creative day!

Rhi x

Simple things

I wonder if I'll ever get bored with these Rhonna Farrer swirl stamps, right now I can't imagine life without them. They just live out on my craft desk and never ever get put away, now thats a definate sign of a good purchace. He're a wee card to cheer up a friend of mine, using my rainbow of brads as inspiration, 7 primas and of course, a Rhonna Farrer stamp.

And this is my very first ever entry for the CPS blog sketch of the week, great blog and definately worth a look. its not so easy to tell from the photo but the background card is versamarked using, you've guessed it RhonnaFarrer stamps for that lovely watermarked look, and the pink flower is cut out from the Mambi paper (I suppose you could call that decoupage!) and is lifted on foam tape.
I think this is going to be an inspirational sketch for me. Thanks girls.

Superhero!

Its friday and its dare day, and we have the fantastically creative Lynne on board as a guest designer!

he·ro (hîr'ō) n., pl. -roes
1.A person noted for feats of courage or nobility of purpose;
2.A person noted for special achievement in a particular field

su·per·he·ro (sū'pər-hîr'ō) n., pl. -roes. A figure, especially in a comic strip or cartoon, endowed with superhuman powers and usually portrayed as fighting evil or crime.

Hi all, Jo here to dare you this week :) and I would like to challenge you to make a hero themed card. It could be a card for the Hero in your life or a Superhero themed card....

Papers are from Dovecraft, ribbon from a local sewing shop, brads from a wonderful Rak by the lovely Sheila. Alphabet dies are Ellison Block Party and Bosskut Apricot. The Dad banner is made from paper covered mountboard and then UTEE'd to make it shiny. Im so glad to be making my own embellies again!

So who's your hero?

So much to do

So why have I prioritised sorting my mini brads into colour coded stacks! They do make a nice rainbow though, lol!

Tag book 2

I was inspired to get out my flower stamps today and make another tag book, I don't use these floral stamps nearly enough and they're some of my favourites so I thought if I had something to remind me they existed floating round my desk it would help. Lots of messy Tim Holtz distress ink in walnut so now my fingers are a horrid colour! I don't usually do vintage but the flower stamps just call out to be done in browns, plus after this weeks dare, getting out of my comfort zone is on my mind. Im quite pleased with the results, much more satisfying than hoovering or dusting, lol! It was nice to use all of my favourite quote stamps in one place too, I just love these stamps but again, they get neglected in favour of the more practical birthday or get well soon ones. My top favourite is "If you truly love nature, you will find beauty everywhere" but I love them all. And look, no brads! Stamps are by Firefly, Sunday International, Santa Rosa, Rubbadubbadoo, Graphicus, Loast Coast and a sheet that I got at a fair who's name escapes me now. Off to take a brillo pad to my hands now! Thanks for looking :)

Harmony in the Garden

Its such a lovely sunny day today, so after finishing 40 of Angus and Celine's Invites (only 80 to go!) I got out in the garden to do some serious tidying up. Im a complete fairweather gardener and this is the first time Ive spent any real time out there this year, well apart from playing in the snow but you couldn't see anything then. I get total garden apathy after octoberish and its only cause my good friend Sarah enthused me into planting bulbs that I have any colour at all. I'm really glad I did now, thanks hun :)

Im pleasantly surprised by how much is going on out there. I spotted 3 ladybirds so aphids watch out mwahahaha. My Iris' are up and looking gorgeous, my freecycle muscaris are green and lively and the daffs and tulips are fighting their way through. Theres also loads of teeny aquilegias that have self sown which is great cause its one of my favourite flowers. And just a step over the back wall theres beautiful drifts of snowdrops. I managed to get 3 decent photos out of about 50, hooray for digital cameras but boo for my crappy camera skills!

Im also lucky in that theres surprisingly few slugs and snails out there, must be the birds munchcing them which is fine by me, and my compost is ready hooray! So a bit more weeding and then I'll mulch the lot with the black gold that is our old potato peelings and apple cores.

Oh the simple things :)

Face your Fears!

That is the Dare Challenge this week for all you Daring Cardmakers! To use something you dont normally use, or work in a style or with a technique thats outside your comfort zone.

I have been well and truly uncomfortable this week, I thought about decoupage but thats as far as I got, I really did try with peel offs but I just don't like them. Plus I didn't buy any of the new ones, some of which are quite nice cause Im on a stash diet. So that one went in the bin!

I used some decoupaged stickers that I won in a competition about 18 months ago and have been sitting in a box ever since. Theyre lovely stickers, Third dimention Standouts by Christina Cole, and are mounted onto a Blonde Moments paper. I like the finished outcome of this card but I don't get much satisfaction from it because I don't feel like I made most of it using ready made embellishments. But Im definately outside my comfort zone and thats the point!
I played with quilling but Im really not happy with the outcome so I didn't put it on the dare blog, and I'm only going to show a little picture here. Its just missing something, and after all that paper twirling I gouldn't see the light for the millions of strips of paper dancing in front of my eyes. I've seen some beautiful quilling but its definately not my thing. Im glad I tried it though as now I can appreciate the time involved in some of the amazing quilled designs out there. Maybe if I'd left myself more time I would have been more successful!
I hope this inspires you to try something a bit different and out of your usual cardmaking safety zone, remember to let us know how it feels too, its all part of the dare. Happy Cardmaking! Rhi x