Something for Valentine's Day

How fortuitous that the theme for Chocolate Baroque 'quintiles' this month was Valentines - here is my second heart offering.  This time I used some Tim Holtz tissue which was scrunched up and added to a piece of card using Glue and Seal.  Once dry it was spritzed with gold and red Glimmer mist.  The heart is a CB stamp and the treble clef is a Marianne die.  The quote (the first line from Twelfth Night, W.Shakespeare) was produced on the computer.  You may recall I mentioned hating English literature at school and Shakespeare was no exception but somehow this useless piece of information has remained embedded in my brain for ?? years - I'm not saying how many!!  Both tiles have now been posted off to the organiser and I wll receive two surprise ones in due course.

I hope the postman brought lots of lovely Valentine cards for you all today, but if not here is one from me.

Two Birds with One Stone

No - not literally, I wouldn hurl stones at the two birds here (or any other birds for that matter)!! This week the challenge on Make My Monday is to 'add a charm' and as I also have two Quintiles to make on a Valentine theme for the Chocolate Baroque February swap I've managed to combine the two themes on this one.  The background is a beautiful love letters download from CB printed onto gold lustre paper; the heart is a CB stamp which I embossed and then coloured with twinkling H2Os; the 'love' word is one of their stamps also.  The bow was cut from some of the left over backing paper using a die-namics die; birdcage charm was from my stash and the little lovebirds were cut using a Memory Box die.  Do take a look at the MMM challenge blog to see what their design team have offered us for inspiration. I'm now working on another Valentine themed quintile so that I can pop them both in the post to meet the deadline.

Cheery Get Well

This is another bright card made using the free owl stamps which came with a recent magazine purchase.  Again I've raided my scrap boxes to come up with all the bits to die cut the layers and the striped backing paper is from a Papermania pad which I've had for quite a while. Luckily I was able to pick scraps to match the colours in the stripes.  Have a good weekend and I hope that the threatened snow doesn't materialise.

Boy card

This cute boy with a kite image came to me courtesy of a kind friend so I duly coloured it with Flex Markers and made it into a card suitable to send to a boy.  I'm not sure simple kites are around any more, they seem to have gone very high-tech these days - hasn't everything??  Backing paper was from my stash and I dug out a scrap and some matching coloured card for the layering, added a piece of tied string and there it is - nothing too complicated.

We've had a mixture of hail and snow this morning after a very rough, wet and windy night - roll on spring!!

Inspired by Literature

I must say I really didn't like the look of the challenge on Make My Monday this week where they are asking us to make something inspired by a literary classic by Jane Austen.  English literature was my absolute least favourite subject at school and although I read a great deal I must confess that  I'm never drawn to any of the 'classics'.  However, as I was working on a card this morning it occurred to me that maybe this 'sit up and beg' bicycle is maybe reminiscent of a gentler era with its slower pace of life so maybe it will fit in with the challenge.  If I have a better idea later in the week I may try again just as long as I don't have to actually read the book!!

 Background paper is from Papermania capsule collection, a Couture Creations embossing folder has been used, the bicycle is a Memory Box die, mounted onto a Nestabilities label.  Sentiment produced on the computer and the bow was cut with a Die-namics die and embossed.

Birds in a Tree

I heard an interesting theory that the wire baskets in craft shops are actually magnetic which of course must be the reason why so many dies seem to jump into mine when I'm 'just looking'. This ornate fence die from Spellbinders did just that earlier in the week when I met up with a couple of fellow crafters for coffee, lunch and a browse around the shop. I think dies and embossing folders are such good value because there are so many ways in which they can be used. I decided to combine the fence with a tree and some little birds (Memory Box dies) on a background of Core-d-inations card which was overstamped with some delicate foliage and simple greeting using stamps from Chocolate Baroque.

One for the Boys

Well this is the theme this week for the Make My Monday challenge and often making a card suitable for a man is a challenge in itself anyway.  I've used  Tim Holtz Stampers' anonymous stamps with kraft card using both white and black inks for variety. Background paper is from the wonderful scripts pad by Prima and various bits and pieces have been used as embellishments, details below - goody, more scraps of card used!! Even the piece of black raffia was tied around a packet of home made cakes from the local farm shop - I told you I can't bear to throw anything away!!

Postage stamp punch and stamp - Stampin' Up
Tattered banner - Tim Holtz die (Sizzix)
Large oval punch - stampin' Up
Oval embossing on tag - Sizzix for SU
Cog - X-cut die with screw head brad in centre
Stampers' Anonymous stamps
Prima script pad