Confession time

John got me a lovely card and a bowl with red tulips for Valentine's Day:

We had planned to go out for lunch, but we had  to go up to Guy's for an early appointment for John's foot and by the time we got back to Orpington Station it was lashing with rain once again, so we got a taxi home and ordered  pizzas etc to be delivered. We then sat over a late lunch for ages, enjoying a glass of wine each.

But ... I hadn't made a card for John. I can make the excuse that life has been difficult for the past few weeks and I've only really been doing necessary crafting (although perhaps a Valentine card for John should have been included in the 'necessary'). Anyway, I had the card that I made last week that you can see and read about here, but it had an image of a little boy and wasn't appropriate. I carefully peeled off that image and added two wooden spotted hearts and the sentiment pieces instead - job done!  And I did buy him a mug!

Message inside:

I'm linking this for the following challenges:

Pinspirational 94

The  pink elephant 237: happy Valentine's day
Fan-tastic Tuesday 22 romance
Flourishes timeless 258: wood you be mine (the hearts are wooden)
Going grey with Scrap-creations: Valentine's day
Tuesday throwdown 182: roses are red ...
Crafting for all seasons 70: show us some romance
Fab n funky 203: love/Valentine theme
The paper shelter 145: be my Valentine
Dare to be sassy Thursday 216:  Valentine's day
Alphabet: A for always and forever
Craftitude 58: anything goes or Valentine love
Fussy & fancy 107: be my Valentine
Jo's scrap shack funday 37: Valentine
The stamping boutique 4: Valentine love
Totally papercrafts 206: Valentine/love
Wags n whiskers  122 bingo: middle line down: die cuts, hearts, flowers (also lots of red)
Scrap-cards 58: Valentine hearts
Sunflowers 1: Valentine's day/hearts
LEJ 86: Valentine/love
Crafting from the heart 6: anything goes/use red
Papertake: with a heart
Pause dream enjoy 3: hearts
Crafter's cafe 50: must have hearts
My heart pieces: red is the symbol of love
Mema February: who or what makes your heart smile - John!
Shelly's February: use two hearts and red
Bunny Zoe February: hearts/love
Red carpet studio 63: love actually
The squirrel and the fox 63: love
Card mania 40: love is all around
Crazy challenge 164: love is in the air
Love to create 102: colour - red and/or pink
Make my Monday: love is in the air
Cardz 4 guyz 5: truly, madly, deeply
City crafter 198: love bug
Clear it out: love is in the air (with flowers)
Deep ocean 71: love is all around
Ladybug: for the one I love
Paperminutes 308: love is in the air
Creative moments 36: anything goes/love
Divas by design: with love
Rhedd and rosies 26: love is in the air
Scrappers delights 16: all you need is love
The sisterhood of crafters: love is in the air
Little tangles 30: celebrate love#
Paper-crafting journey: love is in the air
LiaStampz 59: add a heart
Frosted designs: love is
Polka doodles 7: love/romance
Just for fun February: love is in the air
Natalie and Amy 17: love is all around
Crafty calendar February: love is all around
Whimsy 68: love is in the air
Card and scrap 70: hip hip hooray - everything can be celebrated
Crafting by designs February
Sister Act 44: anything goes

Crafting Musketeers 10: butterflies

This is my design team card for Crafting Musketeers challenge 10: butterflies (my team provides inspiration mid-way through the challenge - to see the beginning of the month and join in with the link please click here.

The challenge is being sponsored by Dreamees and I have used an image from their topper set girls 7, tearing round a perspex oval template and colouring the torn edge with a spectrum noir. The background paper was a magazine freebie which i randomly stamped with a Dawn Bibby swirl stamp inked with stazon vibrant voilet. The butterflies were another magazine freebie, the sentiment circle from Craftwork cards and the bow from Papermania.

This is also for:

Take a word: butterflies
Come and get it:: butterflies or dragonflies
Top tip Tuesday: girly
MilkCoffee: girly
Little miss muffet 79: happy birthday
Catered crop: good birthdays
Wordplay Saturday February: swirls
Crafty ribbons 76: ribbon n bows
One stitch at a time 200: use a digi
Whoopsi Daisy: include a sentiment
Card and scrap 70: hip hip hooray - everything can be celebrated
Crafting by designs February
Sister Act 44: anything goes
Make it Monday 177

The glory of Christmas 27: snow

This is my design card for the Glory of Christmas challenge 27: snow.

I've used images from Beccy's snowman set. The background was created with a piece of Hunkydory card that already had snowflakes on it which I then ran through my eBosser with the Embossalicious 'star of wonder' embossing folder, brushing the embossed effect with stormy sky distress ink, which I also brushed around the image. Just the addition of a couple of pieces of spotty ribbon and the card was done.

This is also for:

CRAFT 246: Christmas
The 12 months of Christmas card link up
Robyn's fetish 199: add lots of snow
Whoopsi Daisy: include a sentiment
One stitch at a time 200: use a digi
Card and scrap 70: hip hip hooray - everything can be celebrated
Crafting by designs February
Sister Act 44: anything goes
Make it Monday 177

White Christmas

It was my turn to set the challenge for the Christmas Card Club for today.

Anyway, my challenge to the team was:

I love seeing snowflakes on Christmas cards (although I don't actually like snow in reality) and I love seeing 'white on white' cards, so please make a card that either features snowflakes or that is all white.

Well, I went for both - snowflakes and all white (well a bit of silver crept in, but I think that's allowed - lol!).

I used some beautiful pearlescent paper that has a spotted look that changes a bit according to the way the light shines. I used some to cut the snowflakes using a set of Die'sire snowflakes dies run through my eBosser - these are quite fiddly dies, but work well if wax paper is used between the die and the paper (and the paper is free from a cereal pack - I now have John well trained to hand them over when the box is empty!).

The organza ribbons with silver gems were from Hobbycraft and I used matching gems to decorate the centres of the snowflakes.The sentiment was rescued from a card received.

As is always the case, it was very difficult to get a photo of all the white - and I've just realised that the way I cropped the photo has made  the  sentiment look crooked, whereas it itsn't really.

This is also for:

Facebook A card a day
Crafting by designs February
CRAFT 246: Christmas
The 12 months of Christmas card link up
Robyn's fetish 199: add lots of snow
Card and scrap 70: hip hip hooray - everything can be celebrated
Penny's 164: monochrome
Open-minded crafting 4: monochrome
Little Claire 42: monotone
Whoopsi Daisy: include a sentiment
Aud sentiments 100:  bingo - I chose the top  line monochrome colours, 'two word sentiment', use texture of some type
Brown sugar 81: use a die cut or punch
Sparkles Christmas 37: anything goes
Scribble and scrap 12: anything goes
DL.ART February: anything goes
Sister Act 44: anything goes
Make it Monday 177