Happy Anniversary Christine & John!

Happy Wedding Anniversary to my two lovely friends, John and Christine from Lavender Fields Emporium!  Here's hoping they get chance to take a break and enjoy some time together .... know how difficult that is when you are busy building a new business.  It's great to see they are getting such a warm welcome in the town though.  Hope if you are local to Keighley you get chance to pop in for afternoon tea - they have an awesome range of cakes and I can highly recommend the lemon drizzle mmmm...
Also hope you liked the card, Christine - know how you love your vintage ;)

Stampendous Minuet Bird

Finally..... had chance to play with the Minuet Bird stamp from Stampendous - so well mounted and deeply etched and love the fact the image has been placed on the back so you know exactly where to stamp the image ... no guesswork, always a good thing! also a chance to crack out the gilding flakes - knowing in advance I will end up with gold finger tips but so love the effects!

I have coloured the bird with my Promarkers but rubbed some dark pink chalk over the music score to highlight it. After tearing round the edges of the image I used Scatter Straw Holtz Distress Ink to vintage the edges.

Mounted on papers I had in my stock drawer I then applied some Cosmic Shimmer Flake & glitter glue onto a piece of deep burgundy card of which I had cut with the Memory Box Cherish Border Die. Golden Jewels Cosmic Shimmer Gilding Flake was then rubber over the glues and the residue gently but firmly rubbed away. This was then applied at a jaunty angle with some stock ribbon layered over it - Before applying the ribbon 3mm red line sticky tape was placed down the back enabling me to pleat the ribbon as it was applied to the die cut border.

Embellished with a Memory Box Fern leaf die and some autumn flowers and buttons from Woodware. Some simple 3mm pearls from Creative Expressions in opposite corners completed the design.

Rustic Charm

No cardmaking for me this evening, Thursday evenings I have my granddaughter for tea whilst her mummy works her twilight shift at a barbers shop in our local town.  At 2 years old Lillie-Rose loves to help me craft but at the moment we will probably stick to the less stressful activity of making pictures out of foam pieces - must say she is already picking up a designer's eye ... or maybe I'm just biased.

So, it being Thursday I thought I would showcase a card I made yesterday from Craftstyle Products "Rustic Charm" designer range - I simply love the colours they have used here - so rich and opulent.
So pleased with it that I took it down to add to my range on sale down at Lavender Fields Emporium - hope if you are local to Keighley you get chance to visit - you can sit and have tea and cake in very good company and see some of their great vintage and craft lines on sale there and get to pick up a quarter of old fashioned sweets to take home!

Childhood Memories

Been a very busy time lately - we have been asked to supply a range of handcrafted cards for a local new store in Keighley, Lavender Fields Emporium - A lovely new venture belonging to Christine and John Young which includes a gorgeous vintage tea room and sells local handcrafted goods as well as a vintage sweet counter ..... my idea of perfection all round!  It is great to have local business dedicated to showcasing the work of local talented crafters and we wish them every success for the future! 

I will try and showcase as many of the cards I have created lately as soon as possible - they have all been photographed .... I just have to find the time to write the blog amd upload! - I know "same old, same old" I hear you mutter.  I do feel that I am finally finding that slippery work and hobby balance - a stressful year but coming out of the other side tentatively smiling.

For today's card I have chosen to use one of the Childhood Memories toppers from Craftstyle which we have recently added to our website - such a dreamy range - there is a lovely range of co-ordinating cards which work really well with the toppers too.