card overload

oh wow where did the last week and a bit go?
Ive been so busy with work i haven't had much time to update on here, i have still been able to make a few cards in the evening, but i haven't took pics (thats what i find time consuming)
so hence the title card overload. I could of just kept some of them for another time but who knows when that would be?
next week we are having some building work done, a new place for my crafting, a cupboard in the hall way and we are having the boys bedroom partitioned so they have their own spaces we cant afford an extension so this is the only alternative until they fly the nest.
All the cards have been coloured using distress inks, i think I'm addicted everything in sight is getting inked including my hands.

the tilda is coloured with distress inks, the flowers are all from wild orchid crafts, lots of stickles and lots of inking.
here are some more of this weeks creations


the skull has been inked using barn door distress ink, the flowers are a mix of prima and sarahs blooms, the small metal skulls were an ebay purchase a few years ago

Inky fingers

Ive rediscovered my love for distress inks. Last year i bought some lovely Christmas stamps and i never got around to using them until now, i got myself a tim holtz ink applicator and i spent a couple of days inking everything in sight, i also donned my rubber gloves and made myself a batch of distressed layered flowers which i inked and spritzed till the card went soggy LOL, so im sure you will see one or two on my future creations.
all my above cards were created using distress inks and perfect pearls, the stamps are inkadinkadoo, then just simple layering with mirror card to enhance the shimmer, my favourite is the autumnal thinking of you and blue Christmas one, i like how the stamps are meant for Christmas but ive managed to use it for other occasions as well.

Back to School

Well thats it, the summer holidays are over 2 of my children return school today (although they are not happy about it)My youngest doesnt go back untill Monday so he is revelling in the fact that he has 2 days longer than the other 2.
Im quite sad that they have gone back i think the time this summer had flown by so fast and as always the weather hasnt been great for them but now its time to go back the sun is out shinning Typical Huh!
The good thing to come out of it is i get to have some routine back and time alone for some undisturbed crafting, i will be able to do dayime crafting instead of only evening crafting Yipee!
Martin has been off all week so he has been catching up on a little DIY i love it when i dont have to get a paint brush in my hand too :)

So onto todays card its a thankyou card, the stamp is hero arts inked with chalk inks, ive random stamped and stickled the background, the paper is MME and layed ribbon a very simple but stylish card, the font is a scriptina, a download from dafont.

a few cards to share

Ive been working all week long so ive not had time to post on my blog, i have however still had time for a little creating and here are the result of those creative moments.
the christmas card is a mo manning download coloured with promarkers, lots of sparkle with added stickles.
the little boys card is a Lili of the valley stamp again coloured with promarkers, hessian ribbon which was in a kit from ages ago, the sentiment is kanban, i am entering this into this weeks LOTV challenge blog the criteria was dotty about circles, ive incorporated the circle (the image is stamped on it) and the dots are the liquid pearls and gem stones.
i do have more cards to share but i will leave them for another day, my tea is waiting for me.

Christmas in August

Ive had an early order for Christmas cards, i always tell my customers to get their Christmas orders in nice and early and usually they start to arrive in September but they have started a little earlier this year, i had got some new LOTV (lili of the valley) stamps and picked the carol singers as it suits any age and gender, the papers and elements are all stampin up and ive added stickles in diamond for lots of sparkle.

Time for tea?

Heres a simple card i made for a friend, the image is lili of the valley coloured with promarkers, papers K & Co the bottons are stitched to the ribbon, the tea pot and cup are cut from cricut every day paper dolls again coloured with promarkers, flower is prima.
Ive got a real busy week as ive only got one day off so ill have to do all my crafting in the evening, so if i get to take pics of my finished projects they wont be all that good because of the lighting, just like tonights card (sorry)
Ive just finished 3 christmas cards too, but ill save those for another day.

Are you sick of the weddings yet?

i know its another wedding card but i couldnt resist colouring the bride and bridesmaid magnolia stamp. This time i used my watercolour pencils for the arch and promarkers for the girls, ive not used my watercolours for around 2 years so i dont think i turned out to bad to say i was out of practice.
Papers are my minds eye, flowers are prima & wild orchid crafts, bird and leaves cut on cricut, lots of stickles for a little sparkle, the bead in the large flower was from a bracelet i bought in the sale in new look just so that i could pull it to bits and use on my cards, sentiment is dovecraft.

Yet another wedding.........

Oh what a busy week ive had on wedding cards, here is yet another, i have again used a gorgeous LOTV stamp coloured with pro markers(i just love this image, be prepared to see lots of it LOL!)
the papers are MME, wild asparagus and complete boy, a real clean and simple card.
The sentiments on the card are a new set i picked up today in the range for 3.99 its the anniversary collection by dovecraft, very usefull sentiments that i knpw i will use a lot so a real bargain.

sunshine

Weve had the sunshine out today so i thought i would use a little sunshine in one of my cards today, i inked up a lili of the valley stamp and coloured her orange, i just so happened to get my delivery from sarahs cards, i had ordered a grab box so it was a mystery as to what was inside and i was hapily pleased, inside was the perfect match paper for my coloured image, the papers i used were american crafts botanique range, the large green flower was also in the pack, the leaves were cut on the cricut winter wonderland cart, roses are from wild orchid crafts, kaisercraft jewels, stickles, tim holtz ticket, charm from my stash and lots of inking finish off this card. Ive left a space in the top right corner for a sentiment i just havnt decided what or who its for yet.
There is some seroius candy up for grabs on tracie's blog go take a look.

Lilli of the valley challenge blog

I told you i would complete a card tonight, remember i told you i was waiting on the LOTV stamp to complete a wedding card i had to do, well this is it, the request was traditional and cream vintage colours, I'm just waiting on the names of the happy couple and that will go in the bottom right hand corner, (sarah if your reading this, this card is for you, i hope you will like it and the happy couple like it even better)
Im also going to enter this in the LOTV challenge blog the criteria was seasons and although it doesn't depict sun, rain etc i always associate weddings with summer i know silly as people get married all year round but there is nothing better than a summer wedding.

new stamps

Yey! my lili of the valley stamps arrived today, infact they arrived about 20mins before i had to head out of the door to work so i trimmed them and stamped out a couple of images ready for my return from work.
Whilst i was at work i had a parcel arrive i think it may be from sarahs cards but cant be sure because nobody was in to receive it so its gone back to the sorting office Grrrrrrr! never mind i will go and collect it tomorrow and hopfully it will be the expected parcel. im now going to love you and leave you cos ive got a date with my promarkers, I will return with my creations, adios amigos!

promarker candy

if you pop on over to bevs blog she has some promarkers up for grabs, not only that but she makes the most gorgeous cards so im sure you will also get lots of inspiration whilst there.

The Ribbon Girl Giveaway

OHHH if you hop on over to The Ribbon Girl they are having a give away with lots of goodies for the lucky winner, youve got to be in it to win it!

2 magnolia wedding cards, same stamp

i had two orders for wedding cards for next weekend so thought id use the same stamp as they are for different weddings. I like the way they both turned out, i cant pick my favourite i like the colours of the blue one but i love the elegance of the black and red one. When i was first told the theme was black and red i did panic a little because its not the colours you immediately associate with a wedding, but i think I've pulled it off.
The blue one is the magnolia image coloured with promarkers, lots of stickles, the pin is fancy pants, ribbon sliders from ebay, papers were in a pack of scrapbook papers from lidl, im also entering this for the papertake weekly challenge.
The red one is the same magnolia image, coloured with promarkers, the background is inked, the papers are bo bunny from a few years back, flat flowers from sarahs cards again a few years old, the roses are from wild orchid crafts, the organza flower is hand made, pearls, ribbon and heart pearls from ebay and lots of bling to finish it off.
Ive still got another wedding card to make but I'm waiting for some new stamps to arrive from lili of the valley and one i specifically bought for this project so when it arrives and I've made it i will share it here.

End of a very good week

Ive had a week of work and its been lovely spending it with the kids and not having to have any routine, the added bonus of a sleep in was nice too.
We had a nice day at the Metro centre yesterday but didnt find any crafty stuff apart from some card stock in papermill, i was dissapointed that they have taken the linnen textured card out of the fill your box selection you now have to buy it seperatly so not so much of a bargain.
Today we had another shopping day, i got all of the kids back to school shoes and stationary and popped into hobbycraft where i picked up a few things and also got a few crafty bargains in TKmax. I also had a splurge online and ordered some samps from Lilly of the valley and a grab box from sarahs cards so i will be a happy bunny when they arrive.

Flower Overload

Today i received my delivery of gorgeous flowers from wild orchid crafts, so you can rest assured that all my cards are going to have flower overload.
I have already completed my first, its strange i don't really like purple but it seems this is not only flower overload but also purple overload.
Lots of inking, glittering, and added pearls and gems on this card, the leaves and flourishes are all cut from the give a hoot cricut cart.
On my second card I've used MME papers and lots of prima flowers with buttons for the centre.
I'm off to the metro centre tomorrow i will be popping into papermill to stock up on some card stock and i will be on the look out for other crafty finds, i think we may visit ikea too so will no doubt pick up some kind of storage too.

Today sees the start of a week off work for me so to i decided to start the week with a mega crafting session, the kids were occupied so i had nothing to stop me.
I had the cricut set up so decided to make a few cards with one of my new carts Who gives a hoot, this is a lovely cart and has lots of uses, i also stamped and done some colouring with my pro markers, it was hard to get into the swing of colouring at first but after a few images it was like id never been away.
the first card i decided to overload with flowers, ive just orderd more flowers from wild orchid crafts, so i cant wait for them to arrive. the second and 3rd card are all made from the cricut in all i made 8 cards so a productive day. I have orders for 7 christmas cards so will have to get my festive head on next, i think ill go and look at my winter wonderland cart see if it gives me some ideas.

Where has the time gone?

Can you believe its been over a year since i last blogged, I'm not making any excuses life just got in the way.
i did pack up my craft things for around 10 months i think i sickened myself with all the wedding invites i had to do, i much prefer to make one of a kind cards i find i monotonous making 60 plus of the same design, i had 3 wedding orders in 2 months so there were a lot of cards to be made.
So what have i been up to?
i celebrated my 40th birthday in January, my dream was to go to New York and guess what it came true my hubby took me for 5 days and it was amazing. It was everything and more that i ever imagined it could be.We would love to go again but this time we would like to take the kids with us.
we've had a lovely family wedding and it was some of the prep for this that gave me itchy fingers to get out all my craft stuff again, can you believe i actually got rid of my craft desk and storage so I've had to purchase more, so now I'm all set up again so I've started creating, here are a couple of cards I've finished this week,
the first image is coloured with pro markers and ive added flowers and lots of subtle glitter which doesn't show up very well on the pic, the red flowers are prima, the leaves are cut on the cricut who gives a hoot cartridge, MME papers and the border is a stamping up punch the sentiment is computer generated.


House mouse image again coloured with promarkers, papers are sassafrass lass, lots of inking, sparkle and buttons

For this card I've used a flower soft image and I've added flower soft and glitter, the sentiment is stamping up, sorry im not sure of the papers.

I promise to not leave it so long next time, i will hopefully get back into the swing of things
Karen x