Winter birthday card ....

This weeks challenge at Papertake Weekly is 'winter birthday' so I made this card for a friend of mine who has her birthday today! Happy Birthday Dawny!!

I used a LOTV artpad image, then added Blanche embroidered tulle lace, red satin ribbon, tiny red ric rac, a white daisy flower, two Kort and Godt white chrysanths, a couple of small ivory white rosebuds and 2 red hip rosebuds all from The Ribbon Girl  

I hope you will join in and that you are inspired by the PTW design team!

see you soon

Mary x

Fun, fun, fun ........

Fun, fun, fun  .................... that's the theme at this week's Papertake Weekly Challenge and I hope you will be able to join in - there is a great prize for the winner.

I made a card for my little sister using a Pion image and I'm not sure where the background paper came from, sorry.  I added Monique white guipure lace, 12mm olive green faux silk ribbon, a white magnolia, white and mocha beaded stamens, small ivory white rosebuds, tiny red berries and a 20mm burgundy open rose   I added lots of stardust stickles on the image to make the snow sparkle!

We're looking forward to seeing you over at Papertake Weekly - there are some fabulous projects by the design team to inspire you!

Lace, ribbon, all the flowers and stickles are from

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas ...........

There's a new 'Card Challenge' over at the Ribbon Girl  blog and the theme is 'anything goes'  or 'it's almost Christmas' - I went with the Christmas theme and made a card and box set.   I used an image and papers from Pion and inked and distressed all the edges.

I added Amelia ivory fine cotton lace, Donna narrow cream cotton lace, ivory pure silk ribbon, small pine cones, tiny red berries, ivory white magnolias, white tiny rose buds.  I added sparkle with Stardust Stickles and the sentiment was computer generated.  The ferny leaves were punched with my good old Martha Stewart branch punch

I decorated a box with red loopy trim, Clementine lace, and a sparkly acrylic heart button tied with button twine

The challenge will remain open until  9.00pm UK time on Saturday 19th December and I hope you will have time to join in over on the blog

I'm looking forward to seeing what you make!

Mary x

Another sparkly tree decoration ......

This is for a special little lady for her Christmas Tree - if it looks familiar, I made a very similar one for her sister a couple of weeks ago

A sparkly bauble using a Pion image and paper with 12mm ivory faux silk ribbon, Starburst Rhinestone Embellishment, Silver Twine, (on the reverse is a 30mm brown wild rose, 2 ivory lace leaves, 2 small ivory rosebuds) and Stardust Stickles for extra sparkle    Each layer is die cut and built up using foam pads

Ribbon, bling, twine, flowers and stickles are all from

Birthday card for Bob ...

The challenge at this weeks' Papertake Weekly is 'anything goes' sponsored by LOTV so I have made a birthday card for a friend who is 70 years old today!!  He has a little car similar to that one but a different colour and he wears a flat cap when driving it so this artpad image from LOTV was perfect.

I added 50mm faux hessian ribbon, maroon tea dyed cotton ribbon, a wooden clock button (time and tide wait for no man) tied on with some brown sugar bakers divine twine.  I used some Stardust Stickles for the hub caps and lights and finished the card with a 7 and 0 from the sparkly self adhesive numbers pack

Ribbon, twine, stickles, wooden button and s/a numbers are all from www.ribbongirl.co.uk

I hope you will be able to join us at PTW for this fun challenge, there are lovely projects by the design team to inspire you and there will be a great prize for the winner!

see you soon, Mary x

A sparkly bauble for the tree ...

I really enjoyed making his 'bauble' for a special little lady.  The challenge at this weeks Papertake Weekly is to either make a bauble, make something red or green, or make it sparkly - I tried to combine everything and came up with this.   I die cut all the shapes and layered them up with sticky pads to give a bit of depth.  The  Father Christmas image was cut from a sheet of Pion paper as is the green background.  All edges were distressed with gathered twigs ink

I added a sparkly Starburt rhinestone snowflake embellishment at the top with 12mm ivory faux silk ribbon and some silver twine

On the reverse the words are computer generated in green and I added a brown 30mm wild rose, a couple of white pretty blossoms and two ivory guipure lace leaves

a close up of the lovely Father Christmas image and the starburst embellishment

Ribbon, embellishment, twine, flowers, lace leaves are all from www.ribbongirl.co.uk

I hope you will have time to pop over to PTW to be inspired by the design team makes and we look forward to seeing what you come up with!

see you soon, Mary x

Let it snow ...

The theme at this week's Papertake Weekly challenge is 'Let it snow'   I made this Christmas card using a cute image from a LOTV artpad matted onto their paper 'Frosty Christmas'

I added two rows of a 6-row faux diamante trim with some 17mm white 'Laila' vintage style fine cotton lace.  The bow is made from 32mm silver flake web ribbon and is topped with white lily, tiny red berries and silver twine.  I have added more lily flowers and red berries in the bottom right corner.  The cute snowmen were sparkled with Stardust Stickles.

I hope you will be able to join us in this challenge as I know most of you will be making your special Christmas cards.  The design team have made some fabulous cards to inspire you so please pop over for a look.

see you soon, Mary x

Wine glass place marker......

There is a new challenge over on the Ribbon Girl blog today 'Use Any Image' so I have coloured this cute little penguin stamp from the LOTV Trio range and matted him onto a silver glitter.  I am using this wineglass as a place-marker and the name is written on the reverse of the tag

 I used a Silver Shimmer Poinsettia, Silver Flake Web Ribbon, 4 rows of some Six Row Faux Diamante Trim, Silver Twine, 6mm double sided sticky tape.  The LOTV penguin trio image was samped then coloured with Copics.  This size of stamp is perfect for tags like this

Poinsettia, Ribbon,  Diamante Trim, Twine and Sticky Tape are all from 

The Ribbon Girl

The new challenge will run for 2 weeks and we'd love to see what you make, so do pop over and be inspired by the design team!  As usual, there are great prizes to be won for 3 lucky people

First prize:  £10 voucher for LOTV

Second prize:  £10 voucher for The Ribbon Girl

Third prize:  Mystery prize from Marianne Designs

see you soon, Mary xx

Christmas critters .....

Over at Papertake Weekly we'd like to see your Christmas Critters - I used this cute squirrel image from a LOTV Christmas artpad.  I added a bow made with gold flake web ribbon, tied with gold stretch twine and topped with a white snowflake button.  I generated the sentiment on my pc and edged everything with Stardust Stickles for a bit of festive sparkle.  Along the bottom of the card I added some tiny white pom pom trim

I twisted some of the gold flake ribbon around the card and included some Eva white fine cotton lace. My flowers are a Christmas Rose, a couple of 10mm burgundy open roses and two white pretty blossoms

Flowers, ribbon, lace, pom pom trim, button, stickles and twine are all from

www.ribbongirl.co.uk

I hope you will find time to pop over to PTW - there are some lovely projects by my team mates and we'd love to see what you create!  Great prize as usual!

see you soon, Mary x

Pink birthday card .....

It seems ages since I posted a card so here is a pink birthday card - the image is from LOTV Cute Cottage Gardens artpad and I added used pink rose organza ribbon, pale pink 15mm satin, 15mm sparkly acrylic button tied on with silver twine, 17mm Laila white vintage style lace, pink 20mm open rose, pink cherry blossoms, pink tiny rosebuds, pink/pink beaded berries and plenty of Stardust Stickles all from The Ribbon Girl

see you soon, Mary x

A jolly snowman .....

It's sketchy time or take your pick over at Papertake Weekly - I followed the sketch using LOTV papers and used (more or less) halloween hues, the image is a topper aka artpad image from LOTV and I scored down the centre of my card using a scoreboard.

I added honey gold 15mm satin ribbon, a short piece of gold flake web ribbon tied with silver twine which had been threaded through a 15mm sparkly acrylic button.  The lace is 'Blanche' and the flower arrangement is a Hellebore Christmas Rose, 20mm ivory open rose, a sprig of blue/white beaded stamen and two sprigs of tiny beaded berries.  I added some 6mm white flat back pearl string along the bottom using 3mm double sided tape to secure it

Ribbon, lace, flowers, button, pearls and twine are all from www.ribbongirl.co.uk

I do hope you will join in at PTW - great inspiration from the DT ladies and of course, a wonderful prize for the winner.

see you soon, Mary x

Anything but a square .....

The challenge at this weeks Papertake Weekly is 'its all about the base' so your card should be anything but a square!  I made a vintage style Christmas easel card using Pion paper (the image was cut from a 12 x 12 sheet) All edges were inked and glittered with Stardust Stickles

I added 32mm white pure silk ribbon, 17mm white Laila cotton vintage style lace, 6mm white flat back pearl trim, Stardust Stickles, a gorgeous sparkly rhinestone starburst embellishment.  30mm ivory open rose, white lily flowers and white pretty blossoms all from www.ribbongirl.co.uk

a close up of the sparkly embellishment and silk ribbon

I hope you will find time to pop over to the PTW blog to be inspired by the wonderful creations from the design team and we are looking forward to seeing what you create!

see you soon, Mary x

A Christmas card in pastel colours

There is a new 'Colour' Challenge over on the Ribbon Girl blog and we'd like to see your projects in pastel colours.  I have made a 6 x 4 Christmas card using Pion papers and a St Nicholas image.  

I used Iced Lime and Cream seam binding ribbon tied with silver twine and topped with a gorgeous pearl and diamante flower shaped flatback, Blanche Embroidered Tulle Lace, an ivory white Christmas Rose (Hellebore), ivory 20mm open roses, ivory beaded beries by Kort & Godt and green holly leaves, 3 - 6mm ivory self adhesive pearls, silver twine  and lashings of Stardust Stickles for a bit of extra festive sparkle!  The sentiment is a LOTV stamp

The lace, ribbon, flowers, pearls, silver twine, leaves, pearl and diamante embellishment and silver twine are all from www.ribbongirl.co.uk

I hope you can join in - there are some beautiful projects from the design team to inspire you and some lovely prizes to win - a nice prize from Marianne Designs and a voucher from The Ribbon Girl

see you soon, Mary x

Birthday cards for identical twins ....

The challenge at this weeks Papertake Weekly is 'two by two' so I made mirror image cards for identical twins (my nephews lovely wife Louise and her sister Emma who celebrated their 40th birthday on 12th October) using  hot pink microdot ribbon, white rose organza, 'Charlotte' white lace, pink gardenia, 20mm pale pink open rose, pink daisy, pink hip rosebud.  The bow was tied on with a 15mm clear acrylic button tied with pink Bakers Divine Twine and the rose trim was adhered with 3mm double sided sticky tape all from www.ribbongirl.co.uk

I hope you will find time to pop over to the PTW blog to be inspired by the wonderful creations from the design team and we are looking forward to seeing what you create!

see you soon, Mary x

A vintage style Christmas cracker .....

This weeks Ribbon Girl challenge is 'use any image' and it's a 'go as you please' so I made a vintage style Christmas cracker with my new Tonic die and used some of my gorgeous Pion 'Christmas in Norway' papers - the little robin was punched from a 12 x 12 sheet. I distressed all the edges with ink and added a little sparkle with Stardust Stickles.

I added  15mm gold lame ribbon, flower shaped sparkly acrylic buttons, gold stretch twine and Florence ivory cotton lace stuck on with 3mm double sided tape all from www.ribbongirl.co.uk

The bows were made separately and attached with stretch gold twine so they can easily be removed to get to the contents of the cracker if it is used to give a small gift.

I hope you can join in with this challenge - there are two prizes to be won, as we are sponsored by our generous friends at Lili Of The Valley who are giving a prize of a stamp of your choice and The Ribbon Girl who are giving a £10 voucher

see you soon, Mary 

Another Christmas card ....

Another Christmas card using this cheerful robin from a LOTV artpad plus LOTV Frosty Christmas papers.  The challenge this week at Papertake Weekly is a take your pick from a sketch, a colour theme, a product theme and a technique theme - I chose the sketch and embossing technique but did cheat as I used a card base which was already embossed with stars :-)

I added 'Kate' white vintage style lace, a white snowflake button, silver pine cone charms tied on with silver stretch cord.  For my floral arrangement I used an ivory 30mm wild rose, frosted winter cone, tiny red berries, Kort & Godt chrysanth and ivory beaded berries, a couple of tiny ivory white rosebuds and some mulberry paper holly leaves all from

www.ribbongirl.co.uk

I hope you will be able to join in this fun challenge - something for everyone - and there are some lovely projects by the design team to inspire - oh, and a lovely prize too!

Mary x

It will soon be here .....

The challenge at Papertake Weekly this week is 'it will soon be here ......' and I've used a lovely old image from Pion with their new Christmas in Norway papers - I love those robins and holly!

I added Amelia fine cotton vintage style lace, ivory faux silk ribbon, an ivory Christmas Rose, a red rose, Kort & Godt ivory berries and white chrysanth, some tiny red berries, frosted cones and some dark green holly leaves

I distressed all edges, then inked with Gathered Twigs ink and went over everything with Stardust Stickles glitter glue.

I hope you can join us at Papertake Weekly for this fun challenge - great inspiration from the team and a great prize to win too!

see you soon, Mary x

a christmas box ...

  

It's the monthly 'Everything goes with an image' challenge over at The Ribbon Girl blog and we would like to see all types of projects including cards, scrapbook pages, boxes, tags, bags etc -  as long as you include at least one image, you can enter and try to win the great prizes!

 I used artpad images from Artpad No 34 'Christmas Eve' as you get 6 of each design in the pad - perfect for the sides of boxes!   The background papers are also from LOTV - I added a couple of tiny bronze pine cone charms tied on with some gold twine  The ribbon wraps around underneath the papers and images to form a pretty closure on the top ( 15mm honey gold satin ribbon) and I added white teeny tiny pom pom trim to the bottom edge then four 11mm flat back pearls for the feet. 

I hope you can join us - why not pop over to the blog to be inspired by the Design Team projects first! Happy Crafting

see you soon, Mary x

A vintage Christmas card ....

The challenge over on the Ribbon Girl Blog this week is to make a card and add flowers.   I love making vintage style cards, and for this one I used lovely new Christmas in Norway papers from Pion, a Pion image, plus some of my older Christmas Pion papers from my stash - I like to look at it, but hate cutting into a new 12 x 12 page!!

.  I inked the edges and added Stardust Stickles to make the snow sparkle.  Also, you can see a close up view of the Pion image I've had in my stash for ages.  I added 'Emma' ivory guipure lace and some of the new 12mm olive green faux silk ribbon, so soft and ties lovely bows - very well behaved!  

I added a 30mm brown wild rose which was further 'distressed with ink, some mocha beaded stamens liberally covered in Stardust Stickles, tiny red berries, 20mm cream open roses and a medium terracotta/rust rosebud and some 3 - 6mm ivory s/a pearls.  I managed to stick them all on using the glue gun without melting my skin once! that makes a nice change I can tell you

I hope you will find time to join in with the challenge - we're looking forward to seeing your lovely cards!

see you soon, Mary x

Window box easel card ....

The challenge at Papertake Weekly this week is 'anything goes' with the option of recycling or upcycling something - a lovely friend sent me some blank window box cards so I have decorated one and hope that counts as recycling?   

I used papers from LOTV 'Country Meadow' paper pad which I punched with various Martha Stewart punches then added some self adhesive 3mm pink and ivory pearls and a selection of self adhesive pearl/diamante Marianne flowers, some 7mm pale pink satin ribbon and 'Rosa Bianca' white guipure lace.  

Self Adhesive Pearls, Ribbon and Lace are all from

The tag sentiment is from LOTV and the fence is a  My Favourite Things die

I hope you will join in at Papertake Weekly - great inspiration from my team mates and a lovely prize to win!!

see you soon, Mary x

Holly and Robins ......

Love the new Pion designs 'Christmas in Norway' and especially these cute little robin redbreasts!!  This is my card for this weeks Papertake Weekly which is a sketchy free for all (use this weeks sketch 104 or choose one from the challenge blog) or any of the options, eg, colour, product, technique.  My card is based on sketch 104, also I made it look vintage and distressed.

I added 15mm and 25mm No 80 khaki (sage green) satin ribbon, a wooden vintage style clock button, brown 30mm wild rose, red apple, mocha beaded stamen, Kort and Godt ivory beaded berries, tiny red berries, a very cute tiny little bronze colour pine cone charm (bottom right hand corner, just peeping out, also I tied the button on with some gold twine.  I also added ivory s/a pearls 3 - 6mm and the lace is 32mm Josephine vintage style 32mm wide fine cotton and I inked all my distressed edges with Stardust stickles.  all from www.ribbongirl.co.uk

I hope you will be inspired by my team mates projects and we look forward to seeing yours, and there is a lovely prize from Simon Says Stamp.  

see you soon, Mary xx

Pink Christmas card ...

The challenge at Papertake Weekly this week is 'diecuts'     I made a pink Christmas card and rather like the effect :-)   makes a change from traditional colours.  I used Pion Silent Night papers and the image is from that set also. All edges were distressed with Ranger gathered twigs ink.  I die cut the intricate frame using some non-stick baking parchment to make sure it didn't stick and it cut perfectly.  I also cut a Lil Inkers snowflake to which I added a 22mm diamante snowflake for some glitzy sparkliness - I love pink but I love sparkle even more!!

I added gorgeous 'Blanche' embroidered tulle lace, pink shabby pleated ribbon topped with 6mm white flat back pearl string.  I popped on a few 3mm pink pearls from the 3mm sugar and spice set and added lots of Stardust Stickles to the image.

My flower arrangement includes 30mm wild rose, pink/pink berries, white pretty blossom, white beaded twirl and 10mm pale pink open rose. 

I hope you will be able to join us over at Papertake Weekly  - great inspiration from my very talented teamies and there's a £10 voucher towards a spending spree at Ribbon Girl for the winner!

see you soon, Mary xx

Vintage style wedding card

It's the Ribbon Girl Colour Challenge - my favourite challenge and it's PINK my favourite colour. I made a card for my son and his lovely new wife Claire.   I tried to add elements that I had used when I decorated their wedding cake (lace, bead trim, pink faux silk ribbon)  I used Pion 'my precious daughter' papers. I altered a photo in photoshop and made it a sepia colour then made it the right size to fit within an arch top resin frame from the Eiffel resin set, which I distressed with 'Gathered Twigs' ink.  The die cut up the right side is my new Tonic die, briar with butterfly, looks really nice in real life

 50mm Ophelia embroidered tulle lace, 4mm ivory flat back pearl trim, 12mm pale pink faux silk ribbon, ivory lace leaves, ivory lace corner, bark heart, 3mm pink s/a pearls, pink heart and ivory teardrop pins, 30mm pink rose, 20mm pale pink open rose, pale pink small rosebuds and green rose leaves

The distressed resin frame is from the Eiffel set of resin frames

I also distressed the flowers with the gathered twigs ink to try and make the card look vintage as the whole wedding had a vintage theme to it

I hope you will be able to join in with the challenge, there is some lovely work by our design team to inspire you and a lovely prize from Ribbon Girl and Marianne Designs.

see you soon, Mary xx