Flowerpot Retirement Card.....

Good morning everyone!
I sat down over the weekend to make a retirement card for one of my bosses who finishes work this week. I really wanted to make something a little bit different and then I remembered the flowerpot card..... haven't made one for ages now! So I searched the net for some instructions and then tweaked the sizes slightly to make mine a touch bigger. These are such great fun and I recommend you having a go if you haven't tried one before.


I stamped my pot with a clear floral stamp and then carried this on inside a bit too. The flowers were made using a Sizzix Bigz die and I scrunched them for added dimension. I then punched some large leaves out with a Woodware punch. The paper used for the blooms is Basic Grey Max and Whiskers.


As you can see I used a Martha Stewart punch to create a fancy border on the lip of the pot and then added a sentiment tag which I tried to make look a little bit like a seed tag..... all finished off with some garden twine.

I enjoyed myself so much that I made a couple more..... I'll be showing them soon. I actually think these are more than just a card, more of a gift really. Think I'll make a little cardboard stand so it can be displayed properly and perhaps a box to present it in.

I'm going to enter my card into the Photo Synthesis Challenge, as I think it works for both the pictures thay are using today ;o) I'm also entering the Allsorts Challenge as the theme is garden/park..... I have lots of pots in my garden. Finally C.R.A.F.T. Challenge are giving us a theme of Anything Goes or a Big Celebration.... so my card fits nicely with that too!

Thanks so much for stopping by today and I hope I might have inspired you to have a go at a flowerpot card..... let me know if you make one so I can hop over for a look ;o)

TTFN and TFL, hugs Tara xxx

No Card Today But Some News......

Morning folks!
Hope you have all had a lovely weekend and if you are in the UK hopefully you are enjoying the day's holiday today..... we've even got some sunshine, lol!

I don't have a card to show you today but I do want to share some very exciting news with you, so in the words of our challenge master Martine.......

"Just a quick post to let you all know that me and the team have been busy working away behind the scenes and that have some fab things in store for BG Challenges :), An upcoming Blog Hop and a brand new look among other things :), we also think its about time we added some new Design Team Members to our BG Challenges Family, don't you? :), which is the main reason for this post, it is just to give you a little heads up that the DT Call for our new family members will be posted along with the new challenge this Saturday on the 4th of September :), hope to see you there :)

xx

The BasicGrey Challenges Team"

So if you're looking to join a lovely, friendly team of people and you love using Basic Grey products, don't miss out...... check out the challenge on Saturday!

TTFN and hugs, Tara xxx

C.E.S. Challenge One - Anything Goes.....

Good morning peeps!
YAY...... the day has finally arrived!! Emma's new challenge blog has opened its doors and we would like to welcome you all in! I hope you've already had the opportunity to take a peek at my super talented teamies' blogs and now you can check out their latest creations...... just click here for challenge one. As well as seeing all the fabulous cards using products from Emma's store, you'll also notice an amazing prize on offer if you take part. I already have this set of papers and I can tell you that they really are delish..... so what are you waiting for...... it couldn't be easier as 'anything goes' this week!

For my card I wanted to showcase the fabulous Webster's Pages Emma carries in her store and you can check them out right here. I know the first delivery sold out almost overnight, but don't worry as there are more on the way. The collection I have worked with is called Lullaby Lane and the card is a commission I was asked to do..... as soon as the baby finally arrives I can add her name and date of birth to the square on the base.



I've used one of Joanna Sheen's Messy Rabbit stamps for the image. I think this one is perfect for a baby card! I've also added a couple of die cuts I had lurking in my stash and some Prima Hydrangeas..... and do you know something? This is the first time I've used brads in ages!!!

Well I won't hold you up now as I'm sure you're just itching to take part in the challenge..... and I really look forward to visiting your blogs when you've posted your entries so I can see what you've been up to ;o)

Thanks so much for stopping by today and have a fantabulous weekend!

TTFN and TFL, hugs Tara xxx

Gems May Be Precious But Friends Are Priceless.......

Good morning everyone!

I'm posting this card quickly before I fly off to work.... today is the busiest day of the year at the college where I'm based, as it's GCSE results day and we'll be enrolling new students. My feet probably won't hit the ground, lol!!

Anyway, continuing with my easel card fetish this week, here is a card I made using one of the new Magnolia stamps and some of the yummy papers from Basic Grey's Indian Summer collection. I stamped and cut out some flowers using a lovely wooden stamp by Dawn Bibby and the leaves were cut from a Marianne Creatables die.


Now I'm not normally a person who uses much gold when crafting but somehow it just seemed right on this card.... and along with the leaves I also chose gold to accent the image with a gel pen and some stick on gems.

Because Just Magnolia have focused on sentiments for this week's challenge, I had a good search for a nice friendship quote and was so chuffed to find this one because it ties in really well with all the bling on my card, YAY! So I'm entering JM and have also chosen the following challenges:

7 Kids College Fund - Strip It Down (no more than two layers of design paper)
Totally Tilda - Stitching

Have a great day then folks and I'll catch you later..... if I can stay awake after my busy day!!!

TTFN and TFL, hugs Tara xxx

Vintage Easel - Sweet Wonderful You.....

Good morning peeps!

Hope you are all well and had a lovely weekend. We actually managed to sit in the sun a little bit yesterday!!!

I made a couple of easel cards this weekend for upcoming family birthdays and so I thought I'd show you the one I made with a gorgeous vintage image today. This isn't a colour combo I use very often as I don't use that much lemon, but I like how it works with the brown.

I used a Sizzix Bigz die for the swirls and some lace and bows from my stash. The paper is by Papermania and the roses were bought from Tab when she was running her online store. I don't make that many easel cards really and it's probably because I'm quite lazy and can't be bothered with the extra folding and cutting, lol..... so I made a dozen or so easel card blanks this weekend ready..... no excuses now!!

I'm entering the following challenges with my easel card:

Papertake Weekly - A Sketch (flipped from left to right)

Crafts and Me - Petals and Pearls (tiny pearls on the bows)

Crafts Your Days Away - With Wings (mini butterflies)

Create For Fun - Birthday Card

Well as the school hols draw to a close my mind is on shopping for uniform, so it looks like that's where we'll be headed this afternoon. As a sweetener to the kids I've promised that if we get the shopping out of the way first, I'll take them to our local museum for a treat afterwards. They love going there as it houses an original spitfire plane designed by Reginald Mitchell, who was actually born just up the road from where we live! And at the moment the museum is lucky enough to be exhibiting a huge gold hoard which was discovered very recently in Staffordshire..... I believe the gold is very old and something of an amazing discovery, so I'm looking forward to seeing what all the fuss is about!

Okay, enough waffle from me for today!!!

Catch you later and have fun ;o)

TTFN and TFL, hugs Tara xxx

Basic Grey Week 27 - Use Some Fabric......

Good morning folks and welcome to a new Basic Grey Challenge. This week we would like you to use some fabric on your card..... now before you panic and think you can't do that, I would say this could be interpreted in all sorts of ways and doesn't need to be difficult. I reckon you could class lace and ribbon as fabric really is you're stuck, but the team will certain inspire you with their creations too! It might be quite fun to actually stamp onto some plain fabric and now I'm wishing I'd thought of that before I made my flower, lol!



So for my fabric offering I took a piece of calico from my stash and cut a long strip from it. I then sponged it with Scattered Straw Distress Ink. Next I cut a small circle of cardboard and began to pleat my fabric in a circular motion, stapling it onto the card as I went along to keep it in place. I then attached another circle of card to the back to cover up the staples and so that it would fix easily onto my project. I added a couple of Prima Hydrangeas and a sticky gem and that was it, flower created! I then cut out some Sizzix foliage and stamped the brown leaves using one of the clear stamps from the Basic Grey Indian Summer set.

I thought it would be sweet to add a little perched bird so I used my Tim Holtz die and paper pieced the little fellow with some Basic Grey Bittersweet paper. The whole idea for my project was to create an image album and this is to become part of my upcoming blog candy. I bought the cream leather photo album from a store near where I live and set to work. I printed a label from my PC to put in the aperture and I have filled the inside with all sorts of stamped images for one lucky person. Don't forget to keep an eye on my blog as I'll be posting the details of my candy very soon.... and there's lots of yumminess I can promise you!!



So there we go....have fun using your Basic Grey products to create something fun and show us what can be done with fabric..... go on, I dare you!

I notice that One Stop Challenge are asking for 'anything but a card' for their new challenge today and Simon Says Stamp Challenge want us to 'make a gift', so my project can be entered into them both.

Have a great weekend ;o)

TTFN and TFL, hugs Tara xxx

Sweet Sixteen......

Good afternoon peeps..... I was about to say good morning but where did that go, lol?!

I want to show you a card today that I've made for my niece. It's her birthday at the end of August and she'll be turning sixteen.... not sure where the time goes but that makes me feel old! Well she's a huge Twilight fan so I thought I'd make her a card with an Edward lookalike, aka one of the Wild Sprouts stamps from The Greetings Farm. Now I'm sorry if this upsets a few of you but I have to say I really do not suffer from this Obsessive Cullen Disorder...... eeewwwww, so not my cup of tea! Give me a bit of humour anytime; Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Carribean hits the spot for me, lol! Look at it this way, if I don't like Mr Cullen then at least there's more of him to go round for those that do, hee hee!

Anyway, this stamp works perfectly and so does the castle window stamp by Magnolia. I even managed to salvage a few bats from the border that I cut out with my EK Success punch, so I was able to make them look like they're flying through the window.


I'm so pleased with how this turned out because it's exactly what I had pictued in my mind. And I had great fun playing with my new paper stash..... I managed to get hold of some of the yummy new 6x6 Memory Box pads Emma has just received in her store here. This one is called Blackbird and is perfect for all things Autumn and Halloween..... be quick to order if you fancy some though, they're selling really fast!

I'm entering my card into this week's Stamping For The Weekend Challenge as the theme is 'anything goes'. I might be back to add a few more challenges later when I've had a nosy to see what else my card fits in with.

Well sorry for the long, waffly post today. Have lots of fun today and enjoy the start to your weekend.

TTFN and TFL, hugs Tara xxx

Sweet Motivet Fairy......

Good morning everyone!

I've used two new techniques for my card today and I'm really pleased with how it turned out! Firstly, I cased the lovely Kathy's cards and added lots of white acrylic paint to the edges of my papers. I so love this effect and Kathy is the absolute expert, her cards are stunning! Thank you for the inspiration hun, I'll be using this technique again for sure! Secondly, I stamped and then coloured onto Kraft paper from Basic Grey..... it takes a bit of getting used to colouring with my pencils on this type of paper as the effect is much more subtle, but I really love the result! The image is from Motivet and she is one of my faves at the moment.... what a sweetie! You can see that I created my flowers and leaves by cutting out part of the design paper which is from Basic Grey's Wisteria range.


It was a pleasure to make this card because I know the recipient will be chuffed..... it's for my boss at work and she always really appreciates the time and effort that goes into making a handmade card.

I'm entering my effort into the Crafts And Me Challenge this week where the theme is 'petals and pearls'. I'm also entering Crafty Creations as they have a butterfly theme running just now.

Well I'm off to clean the house within an inch of its life again..... we've got another viewing later and one of these days we might just drop lucky with an offer. All this cleaning lark just gets in the way of my crafting time, lol!!

Have a lovely day today and take care ;o)

TTFN and TFL, hugs Tara xxx

ASFOS - Christmas In July......

Good morning folks and happy hump day!

Oh my word, made a Christmas card..... in July!!!!! I'm never so organised I have to say but when I saw this week's ASFOS Challenge I thought 'why not'? And I spent lots of time colouring and glittering on this one, so much so that I decided I didn't really need to overdo the embellies. When it comes to making the bulk of my Christmas cards the plan is to keep it clean and simple, but there may have to be the odd fancy one in between. So there it is..... a big tick on my list of Christmas cards to make. One down, zillions to go, lol!

The paper you can see tucked behind the image is from the Basic Grey Wassail range and I used the Martha Stewart Aspen Snowflake set to 'punch around the page'. I'm also entering this card into the Creative Card Crew Challenge where the theme is sparkle and shine.

Well just as I'm feeling all Chrismassy the sun has poked his head out..... now that's a rarity for August!!!

Have fun in what you do today and thanks so much for stopping by ;o) I am putting together a yummy candy for you soon so don't miss it!

TTFN and TFL, hugs Tara xxx

Memory Box paper pads have arrived at Emma's store.......

Evening peeps!

Just hopped on here quickly to tell you that Emma has received her stocks of Memory Box papers today and they are DELISH!!! Hurry over to her store here to check out the ranges and you'll be spoilt for choice. I'm okay...... I just got mine so it's safe to tell the rest of you now, hee hee!


Oh and there are restocks of the fabulous Catslife Press sentiment stamps too..... I just love the round seals!

Thanks for stopping by and happy shopping!

Hugs Tara xxx

There's A New Challenge In Town......

Good morning folks and 'Happy Weekend' to you all!

Just wanted to let you know about the launch of a new challenge which I am honoured to be part of...... you may already know about Emma's store and now she is running a fortnightly challenge too! Click the link here so you can follow the challenge and also check out the awesome candy on offer for the launch. You'll also be able to meet all my super talented teamies too. Don't forget to grab our badge and enter that candy too...... oh and a visit to Emma's store would be a great idea too as her range is fantastic and their is more yuminess on the way too...... but hands off those yummy Memory Box papers when they arrive okay, lol!!!

We go live on August 28th and will have a nice easy challenge to start off with so don't miss it....... see you there!

Hugs Tara xxx

The Tide Always Turns......

Good morning folks!
I finally got round to inking up the adorable Little Mermaid Tilda for this card and I put the flash on my camera to try catching all the sparkle I added...... this image just screams to be glittered right?!! And I knew I could find the perfect papers to work with the deep sea theme as I had some delish Webster's Pages tucked away just waiting to be cut into...... as always with these papers I had to stroke before I could cut, lol! Emma still has a few sets left in her store here but you'll have to be quick, they're selling out fast!


I used some lovely satin star flowers which I bought recently on EBay, as I thought they looked like little stafish..... then I added a few pearl stars from my stash. Not much more to say really, as I didn't over-embellish because the papers and the lovely image do so much of the work.

I'm entering my card into the following challenges:

Paper Sundaes - Metal

Kaboodle Doodles - Add a Little Metal

Allsorts - Primary Colours

By The Cute & Girly - Animal Antics (does a mermaid count as an animal, lol?)

Stampin' Sisters In Christ - Put the Past Behind You and Move On


I'm off to work now so I'd best get dressed...... have a wonderful day and a lovely weekend and thanks so much for stopping by ;o)

TTFN and TFL, hugs Tara xxx

Tilda with Parasol.....

Hi there folks!

Sorry I haven't been around so much this week but I've had a couple of really bad migraines ( I am a regualer sufferer unfortunately) and I always feel rough for a few days afterwards. Also, I have another house viewing tomorrow so you know what I'll be doing today, GROAN!!! Housework on my day off, should be banned, lol!!

Anyway, enough waffle me thinks and onto the card...... I guess you could say this is an easel/ pop up card and I made it last night. Well I see that Creative Inspirations have chosen pop up cards as their theme this week so that's where I'll enter it. I've used Papermania papers and Prima flowers, plus one of the gardenias from Papirloftet. Tilda with her parasol has been coloured with pencils and glittered but I don't think the sparkle is showing up too well on the photos.


I suppose I haven't gone overboard on the embellies here but I really wanted Tilda to shine..... she's so delish, probably one of my fave stamps!

I'm also entering my card here:

Creative Card Crew - Cute and Girlie

Daring Cardmakers - August Birthstone, Peridot

Magnolia Down Under - Easel Cards

One Stop - Summer Fun

Papertake Weekly - Something Old, Something New.....

Well that's all from me then...... TTFN!

Hugs Tara xx

Basic Grey Week 26 - Pearls......

Hi folks and a happy weekend to you all!

I hope you're not getting bored of me using so many of the new Magnolia stamps but I just love them, lol! Here's Asian Tilda for this week's Basic Grey Challenge where we would like to see you use pearls on your creations..... easy right? Please don't forget to use an item of Basic Grey though, as last week we did see quite a few entries without and that sadly eliminates you from being eligible for the fab prize. Check out my teamies' creations, absolutely stunning as always and sure to get your creative juices flowing!!!

My Basic Grey item is Kioshi papers and I really love this colours combo. You can see that I added coloured pearls to a few of the flowers. The main foliage has been created with Prima flowers and some leaves which I made myself.

Well thanks for stopping by today and I hope you have a funpacked weekend!

TTFN and TFL, hugs Tara xxx

New Stock At Emma's........

Hmmmmm, now I'm thinking I maybe should be keeping quiet about this in case I get trampled in the rush...... Emma has now received stocks of Webster's Pages 6x6 pads and Catslife Press stamps and you can find them in her store here.

And I really want to keep this news a secret because I want all the stash to myself, but I suppose I should also share the news that Emma is waiting on a delivery of 6x6 pads from Memory Box and they are GORGEOUS!!!!! So much for my paper stash diet!!!! I haven't seen these papers around much before really but I reckon they'll fly off the shelves, so make sure you follow Emma's blog here to keep up-to-date with all the store news!!

TTFN, hugs Tara xxx

Japanese Tilda - To Someone Special......

Good morning everyone!

I'm so enjoying the latest stamps from Magnolia, some of the Tildas from around the world are just too cute! I love the hairstyle on this Japanese Tilda with the little flowers by her ears, lol!

I have absolutely no idea where my paper is from I'm afraid..... just half a sheet lurking at the bottom of my stash which I thought looked quite fresh and pretty. I made the leaves myself and the flowers are Prima..... and the lovely trellis you see in the background was cut out for me by my dear friend Chris.


I've decided to enter a brand new challenge with this card...... Seven Kids College Fund have just started a fortnightly challenge and the first theme is pink and dots. You can find the details here. My card has plenty of pink on it and there are dots on the Prima flowers and also I've added liquid pearl dots to Tilda's dress. I must just mention that it's well woth an entry because they're giving away a $50 voucher as first prize!!!!! And you have the chance to be guest designer too and would be working amongst some uber talented ladies!! I'm also entering this week's Cute Card Thursday Challenge where the theme is 'Whateva'.... in other words it's an open week. Me thinks they might get quite a few entires to this one, lol!!! Finally, I think I'll enter this week's Simon Says Stamp Challenge as I just love their theme, Sing It Baby...... I've chosen 'Turning Japanese' which was a one-hit-wonder for The Vapors back in 1980...... you know it don't you? 'Turning Japanese I think I'm turning Japanese I really think so'...... showing my age now, lol!!!

Well I'm back to work today so I must finish getting ready now..... GROAN! I'm so not looking forward to going back but bills must be paid I guess!!

Have a great day and I'll catch you later.......

TTFN and TFL, hugs Tara xxx

Cowgirl Tilda.......

Good morning everyone!

Well I'm back from my hols and just about surfacing from the washing mountain..... feels like we never went away now, lol!

My new Magnolia stamps arrived from Nikki's store whilst I was away so I was very eager to get one of them inked up.... and here is the result, meet Cowgirl Tilda. I had a search through my papers and found these yummy Kay&Co ones which have lovely, rich colours. I added some Prima flowers and made the lassos with some twine in my stash.


I'm entering my card into the latest Totally Papercrafts Challenge where the theme is 'At The Movies'. The movie I've chosen is one of Doris Day's finest I think, Calamity Jane.

Before I start my huge pile of ironing (groan) I thought I'd leave you with a couple of pics of a friend we made whilst we were away..... meet Sam the Seagull.


Seems he wasn't too keen on hanging around once he knew I was photographing him, lol!


Have a great day and thanks so much for stopping by ;o)

TTFN and TFL, hugs Tara xxx