Sunshine!

No finished cards today and after yesterday's dampness I thought I'd add a brighter picture!

We made it to Torquay yesterday - nearly didn't make it back.  The roads were fine for the journey down but the constant rain meant after a couple of big floods on the way home we then came across a road closure on the A303.  The long and the short of it (mainly the long!) was that having to also avoid the M5 and Taunton we came home via Bridport - to those in the vicinity you will know that is not an entirely direct route.

But after discussing whose door we could turn up at in the middle of the night we did make it.  Very thankful we are luckier than some of the houses we drove past last night that were bailing out.

On a cheerier note - this picture was taken last Sunday in a moment of dryness.  The day after the wedding we went to we climbed Beacon Hill which is on the Quantocks and from the top looks out across the coastline and towards Dunster and Minehead (and Hinkley Point the other way!).

Marry Me

Today's little card is made using the Stampin' Up 'Marry Me' set.

I've used SU Bravo Burgundy ink to stamp the image and sentiment from the set.

Main image just simply layered on some lovely Anna Marie card and the sentiment punched out and mounted on SU punches.

A little stickles added to the brides headdress and some ribbon attached to the side (which I have straightened since taking this picture!).

Hope everyone is staying dry - we are just off to see a show in Torquay which will be interesting given the dampness but we'll see what happens!

(sorry if the font looks weird on this post!).

Extravaganza Update

Just a quick post today.
As eluded to several weeks ago this is a picture of all the goodies we made on Jenny's fabulous Christmas Stampin' Up Extravaganza.

Now everyone at Crafty Bunch has had their day I can share this for anyone else to see what we made.
It was an action packed day!
Firstly we decorated a tin and then made 6 cards to go in it (2 each of 3 designs).
Then we decorated a box and made 4 mini cards & 4 tags to go in that.
Then we decorated another tin and made the lovely wall hanging in the middle of this picture - isn't it great.

The stamp set is 'Chock-full of cheer' and potentially looks uninspiring when you first see it but Jenny came up trumps and we made some great goodies and can now make many more as we get to keep the stamp set.

More doodling!

To complete the Zentangle story from last week are my final samples I made for Crafty Bunch.

Anne sent me the stamped images that were going to be handed out to everyone and I had another doodle whilst looking through a couple of Zentangle books, trying to use different patterns.

Some of them got a bit too detailed but I do have a habit of doing things a bit fiddly.

The dresses contain quite a few patterns so I just used one pattern in each wing of the dragonfly.  The top one contains 4 different patterns, the bottom one I have made more symmetrical with just 2.

Each of the sections of the body contains a different doodle though!

The cards could of done with a bit of doodling round the edges or corners but because I stuck them together the night before it was a bit late - maybe next time.

I was quite excited a while ago after first trying Zentangle that I found a pack of multi-coloured fine liners (I might of forgotten about) which I thought would make some lovely coloured cards as Elizabeth over at her lovely blog said she has tried.

Needless to say this trial is still on the long to-do list!

A lovely Wedding

Congratulations to Eve & John who got married yesterday.

I made the Wedding Invitations and the place names that featured on here more recently.

This is the card I made them which ties in with the colours used.  It is a design I have used before but because it is so versatile I have to keep using it!  It uses a tag punch, matching card, punched hearts and some lovely wedding vellum and then I've personalised it with names, date & venue.  The 'new Mr & Mrs' stamp is from the SU Marry Me set.

St Audries Park (on the North Somerset coast) was an amazing venue and I can see why they wanted to get married there.

I also made this box as the bride wanted to keep all the invitation replies.  It is another trusty criss-cross box made from the materials 

used for the wedding stationery.

Even the weather  was lovely so it was a very enjoyable weekend.

We got to stay too so had a lovely walk on the Quantocks before lunch in Dunster to make the most of the sunshine on the way home.

Just some Thank You cards to finish now and we're all done!

Tangled Flowers

One of the subjects at Crafty Bunch this month was 'Zentangle'.  Something I would like to have more time to do because I do find it very addictive.

I looked through my stamps to find reasonable size designs with open space in them for tangling and was surprised I didn't have too many options.

I then had a thought and made a stencil using my Stampin' Up Blossom punch.  I punched the design then used the 'hole' as a stencil on card which I then cut out with a circle punch and layered on to a large scalloped circle.

For the first card I did a different tangle pattern in each petal, adding a circle in the middle too.  The outer circles were added using a stencil of a little circle punch.

The second card uses the hollibaugh pattern in 3 petals and different patterns in the rest.  Circles in the corner added in the same way but filled in with different patterns this time.

It seemed to go down well on the night - helped by the lovely samples from Anne, Karen & Janet and I think we got some new converts to the art.

Cheers!

This card was a bit of a quick make but I'm really pleased with it and might do more!

The stamp set is the now-retired 'Cheers to you' from Stampin' Up.  I stamped the 3 glass images and coloured them slightly with copics.  I then added a little gloss to the berries/olives.

I punched these out and mounted them on a square of card.
The sentiment was in a lovely little set from Ladybug Crafts called 'It's Only Words 2' and I had these glasses in mind when I bought it.  I stamped this and layered like the images.

I was then trying a passing navy square card for size and was quite happy with how it looked so stuck them down quickly!

Wedding Table Names

I have emerged from the chaos temporarily!
If you regularly keep tabs on me you may recall that I completed some Wedding Invitations a few months ago for some friends.

Today's picture is the table names which I have made for the Wedding.  They are slightly bigger than the invitations and are the largest square I could get out of a sheet of A4.  Again made with Centura show white pearl card and a strip of burgundy ribbon round them.

The letters are cut out using my little Impress machine, layered on the pearl card then burgundy - again to copy the invites.

Those of you that know me well will not be surprised to find out there is a cycling link and all the tables are named after jerseys in famous cycle races.

The Wedding is next Saturday so looking forward to it now - we get to stay the night too in the lovely venue.

Got a bit addicted to Zentangle again today making some samples for Crafty Bunch on Wednesday - must go to bed now!

So busy!

Not quite made it back to blogging yet as far too many things this week that don't fit in to the available days.

I held another 2 Quilling Workshops last weekend which were a repeat of the snowflakes I did last month.  I had 9 lovely ladies and they all had a successful time, especially the complete beginners who really didn't believe me when I said they would take some completed quilling home - it was lovely to see their amazement when they completed a snowflake card - some of them even got a little adventurous too.

Sunday was a trip to the Sincerely Yours show in Taunton where a few more things I didn't really need had to come home with me.  It was quite a social too as being local I met several crafty friends and through various courses or just turning up too much I know some stall holders to chat to as well.

Off to a Craft Fair tomorrow - amazing how many cards I have when I rustled them together - not including all the partially finished cards & gift boxes I keep finding.  Mulled Wine & Mince Pies, along with 26 stalls, available at Long Sutton Primary School for those in the vicinity.

I shall return at the weekend with some pictures from the chaos of this week!
Jill

More quilled flowers

Oops - scanned these cards in and neglected to blog them - sorry!

These are a couple of the quilled cards I made this week, I did them in different colourways too.

These are always popular sellers and were made up to give someone else from work a choice as they specifically wanted quilled cards.

I made them with 2mm paper in the hope they would sneak through the post better but I'm not entirely sure about the success of that - I will conduct an experiment at the weekend.

Not much else to say really!  The purple flowers are mounted on layered squares and a 'Sassy Sentiment' stamped from an SU set.  The small card has a punched envelope with a stamped message appearing from it, all of which is layered on an oval edged with matching ink and finished with a couple of peel off corners.

A crazy week ahead but I shall endeavour to keep up with some posting!