Loving Wishes........

Good morning folks!

Here is the card I sent to my friend and teamie Kim who is celebrating her birthday today.......... Happy Birthday matey (waving)...... hope you have a lovely day ;o)

I used my new Sarah Kay stamp which I am totally in love with, she's so sweet! I think I might have to get a few more from the new range soon. I've decided to enter the following challenges with this card:

Paper Play Challenge - Pretty Pastels
Simon Says Stamp - Buttons, Bows and Bling
Lili of the Valley Challenge - Here Comes Summer
Charisma Challenge - Girly Card With Flowers


I really enjoyed using papers from Basic Grey's Sugar Rush collection, along with lots of Prima flowers and QuicKutz leaves. You might just be able to see that I sneaked in a punched Martha Stewart fence too and the grey flowers around my image were added using a Tapestry Peg stamp. Those scrummy buttons are something I've had in my stash for ages..... not really sure where they came from!

I'll be back on Saturday with my Basic Grey DT card..... until then enjoy the rest of your week and take care!

TTFN and TFL, hugs Tara xxx

Our Vacation.......

Good morning all........ hope you are feeling fine today!

Here is a card I made for the latest Stamp With Fun Challenge...... I just had to follow Tina's amazing sketch and had lots of fun doing so. It's a fab layout for showing off scrummy papers so out came the Webster's Pages again! These particular ones are from the Seaside Retreat collection and I think they have quite a tropical feel, so I searched for an image to match and came up with this delish Tilda. I feel like I'm having quite a Magnolia fest with my cards just lately!!


You can see from the close up that I glittered Tilda and I tried to make my flowers look tropical to tie in with the theme..... hope that worked! This was one of those cards that fell together quite quickly which makes a nice change..... don't know about you but often I spend more time faffing about with what I'm planning to use than I do actually putting it together!

Well that's me for today as I must go and make a start on my DT card for this Saturday's Basic Grey Challenge...... I'll let you into a little secret..... we have THE most gorgeous picture coming up for your inspiration so make sure you don't miss it!!!

Have fun today ;o)

TTFN and TFL, hugs Tara xxx

Fabulous Darling........

Helloooooooooo!
What a glorious day! The sun is shining, it's warm and the birds are singing! Makes you glad to be alive!!!

Well my daughter Georgia had some fabulous news this week when she found out she got an A* for her Media GCSE coursework...... she's worked so hard and so deserves to do well. She had to create her own magazine layout, four pages in total...... but of course she went the extra mile and produced a WHOLE magazine!!!!! I wish it could go on general sale in the shops so you could all take a peek, lol!

I just had to make her a card to let her know how proud her family is...... and the sentiment 'Fabulous Darling' was the perfect choice! There's a fab sketch over at Friday Sketchers this week so I decided to follow the layout and that's how my card came together. I'm also entering A Spoon Full Of Sugar where the theme this week is 3D....... well I raised my image and butterfly so I think that works.

The pretty papers are Basic Grey and I used one of the new Tildas from the Fairytale collection. I held back on adding too many flowers and embellies but did manage to cut out a bit of the paper to create a butterfly. Oh and I embossed a panel behind Tilda because I feel that my embossing folders seem to get overlooked these days!

Finally here's a close up of Tilda so you can see the glittery bits..... it's always so hard to photograph the sparkle on cards I think but this captures it well enough ;o)

Well I hope you enjoy your day..... I'm working but I can still look at the sun through the office window and I might just nip out at lunchtime and eat my sarnies on the grass behind the car park!

Toodles for now......... TTFN and TFL!

Hugs Tara xxx

Butterfly Beauties Happy Birthday......

Good morning lovely peeps!

Today I'm showing you a card I made for this week's Simon Says Challenge which has a 'wings' theme. I've used a fabulous image designed by Tracey Coates for The Stampman. I'm a real fan of these stamps and might just be buying some more soon. This one is my absolute fave and I think I'll be using it alot more...... I can even see it making a fabulous Christmas card with lots of snowflakes and sparkle in her hair!

Here's a close up of the image to show you the extra dimension I created by stamping out extra parts of the image...... and you can also see that I added some pink pearl gems and gold liquid pearls all over. The papers are Basic Grey and the flowers are Prima Hydrangeas. Rather than colouring the image I just distressed it all over with a Tim Holtz pad and spritzed with some pale gold glimmer mist.

I'm quite satisfied with this card as I think my mojo went walkabout earlier this week and one or two creations have ended up in the bin! Sometimes you just need to take a day out and then you feel refreshed.

I'm working today so I must fly, hope to catch up with you all a bit later ;o)

TTFN and TFL, hugs Tara xxx

Vacation Time.........

Helloooooooooo!

Hope you are enjoying today's sunshine, isn't it just perfect?!
My card today is for the latest Quixotic Challenge where the theme is 'Make A Splash'! The girls have created some awesome cards again this week ;o) I decided that this Peachy Keen stamp would be perfect, she's such a lot of fun! Do you remember wearing this type of swimming cap in the seventies? I do unfortunately and had a yellow flowery one as a child!!!

I used some gorgeous MME papers on this card and Bazzill 'Just The Edge' wave strips. I hope you can also pick up from the close-up that I glossed the swimming girl's armbands and flippers too!

Well thank you for stopping by once again and enjoy the rest of your day ;o)

TTFN and TFL, hugs Tara xxx

Dream.......

Good afternoon everyone!

Well I'm surprised I've managed to add a post today....... I seem to have very little time for cardmaking or blogging this week and I've so much to do! Luckily I remembered I hadn't uploaded a card I made a while back when I was giving away blog candy so I'm happy I have something to show today ;o)

I coloured the image very lightly using my finger and some sparkly chalks..... well it's different, lol! I just wanted to create something very subtle and pretty. The papers are Basic Grey and I edged the top of the card with a Martha Stewart punch. The hanging foliage is die cut and the gems and ruffled ribbon are from my stash. Finally I added a little bit of faux stitching to the edges.

Hmmmm, now for a challenge to enter........ I think this card fits in with the theme at Allsorts this week which is stitching. I thought I'd also enter the Raise The Bar Challenge which is all about 'Movies' this week and I've chosen Tinkerbelle The Movie as mine ;o) Finally I spotted that ABC Challenge are inviting us to use sparkle for their latest challenge and although mine is subtle, those chalks definitely have it!

So sorry I have been a bad blogger this week....... I am missing you all and will hopefully get back up to speed very soon!!!

Thanks for stopping by today ;o)

TTFN and TFL, hugs Tara xxx

Basic Grey Challenge 18 - A Colour Combo......

Welcome to another Basic Grey Challenge where we have a gorgeous colour combo for you this week. You might think this is quite a difficult combo to work with..... if I'm honest I did at first. But then when I started to look through my Basic Grey papers I realised there were some really yummy prints and shades.



My papers are a real mixture and come from the Two Scoops, Granola and Recess ranges..... just goes to show how much you can mix and match with Basic Grey! As it's my hubby's birthday on Sunday I decided to make a male card and used one of the Ian images from The Greetings Farm. Do you like the lips on the card? I didn't smother my mouth in lipstick..... I had a stamp set with lips in it, lol! I picked up the scrabble tiles from my local craft store which is sadly closing down and created the sentiment to reflect the word I always use when referring to him.

I hope my teamies will give you all the inspiration you need to take part in the challenge this week, as they've pulled out all the stops to give you amazing creations. Here are the links so you can visit them all:

Anthea

Tara G

Heather

Jo

Kim

Have a fab weekend and hope the sun shines brightly on you ;o)

TTFN and TFL, hugs Tara xxx

Kiss Me I'm A Prince......

Good morning everyone..... hope you are keeping well today!

I've had a play with the new Magnolia Spring Kit to create my card and even did some masking to produce a scene. Now I must tell you I'm not the most patient crafter and I don't mask multiple images very often because it's time consuming and I like instant results. But I decided these images from the kit just had to be used together so I got stuck in...... and I am delighted with how it work out, I just love this castle window and can imagine it being useful for all sorts of cards!



You might notice that I've been playing with my Webster's Pages..... AGAIN!! Yummy, yummy, yummy, hee hee! I decided to make this card for the latest Simon Says Stamp Challenge because they have a fab theme this week, 'Let's Go To The Movies' with an added extra of dry embossing. Well I very nearly forgot about the dry embossing bit so hurredly added some little butterflies which I embossed with my Swiss Dots folder. For my movie I was going to choose 'The Princess And The Frog' but I figured that would be very popular so in the end I've plumped for 'In Pursuit Of Happiness' starring Will Smith...... love that film! My card doesn't reflect the content of the film, purely the title..... sweet Tilda is looking for the man of her dreams you see, lol!

I also discovered that the Magnolia Stamp Lovers Challenge are asking us to create a theme this week so I'm entering my card there as well. I think they feature all the entries as posts on that blog and it's lovely to see what other people have created, great fun!

Well sorry for the uber long post today, I have waffled a bit I think! Hope you have fun and enjoy that sunshine because it's all set to change on Sunday and I even heard the weatherman mention that 'snow' word again, GROAN!!

Thanks so much for stopping by..... TTFN and TFL, hugs Tara xxx

Tilda's Garden Blessing.......

Good morning folks and thanks for calling by today!

Well I did promise more yummy Webster's Pages so here I am with another sheet of scruminess...... isn't this just gorgeous?! Such a pretty garden scene and perfect for using this cute Bee Tilda! I tried to keep my embellies to a minimum so that I could let the paper do the talking but it was hard to hold back so I just did my best, lol!

The theme over at Just Magnolia this week is to use punches so I punched out a few leaves and tiny butterflies to add to the card. And can you believe I've had those sweet bee buttons in my stash for ever and suddenly remembered them, perfect with this image I think!!

Well thanks for checking out my creation today and I hope you manage to get crafty and have some fun. I have an extra day off this week and I've lots to make so I best get on..... catch you later ;o)

TTFN and TFL, hugs Tara xxx

A Vintage Card For A Dear Friend......

Good morning Peeps and a very happy Monday to you all!

Here is the card I made for my lovely friend Chris who celebrated her birthday yesterday. Hope you had a great day and lots of yummy goodies? I decided to use one of the stunning photographic images available at Magic Moonlight Free Images and you might think this made the whole cardmaking process much quicker but sadly not! I was fiddling around for ages trying to create some fabric flowers but it was worth the effort as I'm quite pleased with the result! The papers are Webster's Pages...... oh yes, I managed to get my mitts on some 6x6 pads from the US and they are sooooooo yummy! Look out for the card I'll be uploading tomorrow as the Webster's paper I've used on that is too scrummy for words!!



I added lots of bling and sparkle and punched shapes as you can see and my sentiment is part of a Greeting's Farm set. I've decided to enter this card into the SophistiCat Challenge where the theme is 'so distressing' and also the Creative Card Crew Challenge which has a theme of Vintage/Aged...... perfick!

Well that's all for today...... thank you so much for stopping by and have a great day ;o)

TTFN and TFL, hugs Tara xx

The Sugar Bowl Challenge 33..........

Good morning to you all on this beautiful sunny day ;o)

Sorry I haven't been around this week but I took the opportunity to have fun with my hubby and the kids whilst we're all off together..... we've been swimming, visited the cinema, had friends round and been on lovely walks. Today we've decided to tidy up the outside of the house whilst it's so nice out there!

I did manage to squeeze in a couple of cards this week but I'm saving one of them until I know that it has arrived at its destination for a certain birthday girl. Here's my other card and I decided to follow the fab sketch over at The Sugar Bowl for this one. I did tweak the sizes of the layers slightly but I think you can still see that I followed the layout pretty well. I used this gorgeous Daisy stamp from Sugar Nellie and my papers are the new V&A collection from Papermania..... they have quite subtle colours and patterns which are perfect for a vintage style.


Do you like my flower? The added option for the challenge is flowers so I decided to make one. I cut out the shapes freehand and then embossed and scrunched them for definition. I added some stamens which I picked up at the NEC and have just been itching to use..... finally I sprayed the whole thing with some glimmer mist.

Well I hope you are making the most of this fantabulous sunshine today and have fun outdoors ;o)

Thank you so much for stopping by!

TTFN and TFL, hugs Tara xxx

A very 'Hoppy Easter' to you all......

Afternoon friends!
Just wanted to wish you all a very Hoppy Easter and my card for this week's Just Magnolia Challenge fits in perfectly!
The girls over on the team have asked us to create a card with at least two folds for the special monthly challenge, so I decided to create a stairfold card..... these are sooooo much fun to make and you can add lots of stamping!

I used lots of images from the Magnolia Easter collection and papers from Kay&Co and Papermania. I picked up the giant tree stamp from the Magnolia stand at the NEC, isn't it gorgeous? I also cut some grass with a QuicKutz die and used my new MS fence punch which was a birthday pressie from my fab friend Heather ;o) I created the 'Hoppy Easter' sentiment on my PC.
I really enjoyed creating this card and will be making more like this for sure! The DT at JM have created some amazing examples of cards with multiple folds so do check out their creations for some inspiration..... makes you think outside the box a bit ;o)

Well enjoy the rest of your chocolate-filled weekend folks and thanks for stopping by for a visit ;o)

TTFN and TFL, hugs Tara xx

Basic Grey Week 17 - Martine's Sketch......

Good morning everyone and a very Happy Easter to you all!
My card today is for the new Basic Grey Challenge and Martine has given us a yummy sketch to work with! You can rotate or flip the sketch if you prefer and all we ask is that you use a Basic grey product within your design..... and that's not hard is it, given our love of all things Basic Grey!!

I used papers from the new Kioshi range again.... I just love the colours and patterns in this one! The flowers are Prima Hydrangeas and the daisy borders are from Bazzill Just The Edge strips.
I hope you get the opportunity to play along with us this fortnight and please check out how my teamies have interpreted the sketch...... you'll find oodles of inspiration from their stunning creations!

Thanks for stopping by today and have a lovely, chocolate-filled weekend, hee hee!

TTFN and TFL, hugs Tara xxx

Quixotic Challenge # 19 - Case It!.......

Hi Peeps!
What fun the latest challenge is over at Quixotic! The brief is to case a card made by one of the DT members..... or you can just imitate the style they use. Check out the challenge as it's fab just seeing how the DT have cased each other!! I chose to case a card made by the lovely Judy, which you can check out here. I always enjoy Judy's layouts and thought this one was particularly fab!


Well I just adore these new papers from Basic Grey's Kioshi range..... they just keep coming up with winners! And I think this Tilda in her ladybug suit is the cutest ever and couldn't resist adding some sparkle!! The green glass beads are new at Magnolia and I think they might just feature on a fair few of my cards in the near future!

Well I'm off to make a toasted hot cross bun with real butter and then I'll be settling down to watch The Sound of Music which is on TV in a few minutes...... love, love, love that film!!! When Christopher Plummer sings Edleweiss that's me reaching for the tissues, lol!! It's raining outside but I'm toasty warm indoors...... might just tuck into an Easter egg later too, hee hee!

Have a wonderful Easter weekend and may God Bless You all!

TTFN and TFL, hugs Tara xxx

Tilda With Love.......

Morning Peeps!
Look at me posting a card again!!! Can't you tell I have some time off work for the Easter hols?!! I really am enjoying having some time to get creative, helped along by the gorgeous new Magnolia collection which I can't leave alone!
Whilst hopping around yesterday I spotted a fabulous sketch which Claudia had created for Cute Stamps and Cards and decided to use it for my card. There's a fantastic prize to be won over there so it's well worth a visit...... and this layout is so nice to use ;o)
The papers are from Papermania's new Rose Garden collection and the ribbon and lace are from my stash.

Hopefully you can pick out from this close up that I glittered Tilda's socks and crown and also added lots of pearls to make her look very grand, just like a princess should really! And I used my fave technique of paper piecing to give her a floral dress..... I think she looks a very pretty girlie now, lol!
Well I'm off out to do some shopping with the kids so I'll catch you later..... have a great day ;o)

TTFN and TFL, hugs Tara xxx