Buddha Birthday Card

It's not often that I get a chance to post something that is not Design Team related, but today is one of those days. I have been attending yoga classes for several months now. It started as a means of getting fit, but as soon as I went to my first class, I knew that I had found something that just felt right. I feel very calm and peaceful at the classes, even though our teacher, Niki, makes us work really hard! We seem to achieve the perfect balance of relaxation and exercise from her classes. She is a lovely warm individual, who calls us her 'yoga family', and just makes everyone feel so welcome. My Daughter also attends one class a week with me, and it is lovely to go through the class alongside her each week.

It is Niki's Birthday next week, she does not follow my blog, but she will already have her card by the time this post goes live. I wanted to make a card that was suitable for her, and her main pastime- yoga. I chose to use a lovely Buddha image from Inkylicious, which I stamped and masked, before adding some stencilling to the background. I added some extra graduated colour, all using Distress Oxide Inks, and then spritzed the background with water.

I coloured the image with Zig Clean Colur markers and a water brush, giving the image a warm stone effect, by using a mix of pink and grey. I then added a sentiment from Inkylicious, which I feel is perfect for Niki, as she brings sunshine to so many people.

Thanks for stopping by, xx

My Birthday Girl

Hello everyone, I rarely post anything other than crafty news on my blog, but it's my Daughter's 27th Birthday today, and I wanted to share that piece of information with you. Where does the time go? It does not seem so long ago that she was a tiny scrap of a thing in my arms, a little thing plodding off to school, or a moody teenager wanting to wear something completely inappropriate to the school disco. It broke our hearts to pack her off to University, feeling it was too soon to let her go, and we welcomed her back with open arms a couple of years ago, when she came to live with us again "for a few months, while we get ourselves sorted out". I am incredibly proud of my lovely girl, who is currently studying for her Master's Degree in Social Work, not an easy career path to take, as she wants to work with troubled youngsters, and adolescents in the mental health sector. She is my ray of sunshine, and has a caring heart to match.

I have made her a simple card for her Birthday, as she does not like a lot of fuss and bother. I chose to use a Banksy style image, and sentiment from Inkylicious, creating a wrinkle free Distress background. I made the card in about twenty minutes, it was a really quick card. I stuck to two colours for my background, Mermaid Lagoon, and Seedless Preserves, these two blended together create a lovely combination. I simply matted the background onto a black card blank, and added a fine black border to the main image.

Thanks for stopping by, xx

I'm a Dragonfly!

Hi Folks, just popping in to tell you a little bit of news. I'm joining a Design Team for a new challenge blog called Crafting With Dragonflies which is based in Australia.

The challenges will start on 1st May, but there will be bits and pieces going on before that, which I will keep you updated about. One fortnight there will be a card based challenge, and the alternate fortnight will be a non-card based challenge. This will be a great opportunity for the cardmakers amongst us to flex our creative side and make something different for a change. Some weeks it might be a scrapbook page, an altered item, a box, a mini book, or a tag. It's going to be a lot of fun, and I hope to see you there.

I've made a simple dragonfly themed card just to whet your appetite:

I've used stamps from Inkylicious, Stempelglede and Chocolate Baroque to make my card, and the dragonfly was embossed with two tone Moonglow embossing powder for an iridescent shimmer.

Thanks for stopping by, xx