Christmas

My last Christmas card for my mama.

I Embosssed the background using the Couture Creations "Early Songbird" folder. I stamped the  "LeBlanche" Santa stamp onto card  and the edges were smudged with the same colour ink.I  cut out three circles using the Big Shot and Spellbinders Nestabilities Classic Scolloped circles. Ribbon and bling were placed on the card to pretty it up and again a quick and easy but lovely finished result.

Simplicity

Simplicity...sometimes is beautiful, and is quick if you need a card ready for an occasion. Here are a couple of really quick and easy cards that I have made to try and simplify things for myself. Not too sure that is something I enjoy as I love to layer , ink and stamp.

 Three little squares were cut out, stamped with a matching colour and laid onto ribbon and ricrack ribbon. The inside of the card had three same sized squares stamped and placed in a row inside using puff squares to give it a bit of interest. Really quick and easy, but pretty I think.

This little card I made using the Cricut and overlaid the large flower ( circle) with fancy cut leaves and petals to give a very pretty effect. A couple of little flowers were cut out with a punch and a bit of bling was added to these and the main area...voila! a card made in about 10 minutes!

An engagement Card

This was a pretty fun card to make...a bit fiddly and as I am still getting to know my way around the Cricut it took a wee while to sort it all out. I wanted to make something pretty for a lovely young couple who have just got engaged ( Logan and Brooke) and incorporate their initials somehow into the card.

 Firstly I embossed silver card.(Just love this embossing folder by Couture Creations called "Lovingly Baroque" as it is so detailed). As the embossing folder was not wide enough, I used it twice and joined it in the middle, of which I covered the join with some bling.
The Cricut cartridge I used was Damask Decor which has an amazing range of beautiful filigree type motives such as this one. You can cut lots of the pieces out in different colours, however I wanted to stick to a simple number of the two, lilac and black to get a more "punchy" effect. The black piece is cut out as the background which is a selection on the Cricut and then the lavender was cut out as the overlay. A little bit of bling was added to lift the whole design and then I cut out the letters of the couple and used ink and pearl ex to lift the design (a little hard to see in the photo) A sentiment was stamped to the bottom of the card.

For Adele

I made this card for a friend who was celebrating a big birthday

It is pretty simple but looks really nice when finished. Firstly stamp your main piece of card with your desired stamp. I used Tim Holtz, Papillion and placed the butterflies down the side ( which is the bottom of the card) and then selected a few other places on the right side ( top of the card). In between I used a french script , masking the butterflies as I went to prevent the script covering them. I placed a piece of  card "wire" mesh under the main pictrue, which is one of the butterflies from the same stamp set. This is stamped on a separate piece of card and placed under another piece of  pretty card which has a circle cut out of it to place the butterfly in the centre. I  rubbed ink around the inner of the circle and the outside edges. This was placed on a piece of mulberry paper and all adhered down.

On the inside of the card I used another piece of the pretty paper  and a sentiment placed on the piece of card left over from the front of the card. I wanted to do something a bit different so I stamped the butterflies on card, coloured them with Myungo crayons ( wet) and then attached them to ribbon so that they cascade down the card when you open it. A little bit of bling was adhered to the centre of each butterfly

Every possibility begins with.....

Every possibility begins with
I love this technique that I used in the pink card a few days ago. Here is another go using the same techniques of inks and water and again inspired by a feature in the October Craft Stamper Magazine  by Kate Crane. Firstly This time I used Faded Jeans, Chipped Sapphire & Broken China,  The bottom and top edges were stamped with an lacy floral stamp byTim Holtz Visual Artistry stamp in archive black ink. I stamped the main image "Sweet Pea" stamp onto the card and another copy of the image onto another piece of card and fussy cut the main piece out. I coloured the image using Mungyo Water colour crayons and by painting the colour onto the desired areas.  I stamped the larger circles using the rim of the Distress Stain (Picket fence) lid.The main image was placed over the stamped image using puff dots to raise it up. The little purple was glued on and the dragon flies were coloured using Distress alcohol inks.

Christmas

I am frantically trying to finish my Christmas cards, so that my friends and family get them this side of Christmas. I have found that I have just run out of time again this year. I really must start in October!
The first one was using a Tim Holtz die, which is pretty easy to get a great card with. I added a few embellishments to add a bit of sparkle and a sentiment.The shapes on the top card were cut out with the Cricut and embosssed.

The next one was using an embossing folder .I added some sparkle to the tree. I Placed a ribbon around the trunk and cut another wee tree out of scraps, placing the flowers and leaves underneath the tree and placed to the side. A Stampin Up sentiment was stamped at the bottom

The third card was  using a variation of the same and placing one or two snow flakes on top . The deer is a Stampin up stamp from the Reindeer Print set. I cut the shapes out on the Cricut and embossed the bottom piece with another embossing template. Bling was added to the snowdrp and the reindeer antlers. Blue ink was smiudged around the background shape and the snowflake and sentiment pieces to make a lovely fresh looking card. A little bit different to the traditional colours

Happy Birthday

It is a while since I have done much craftying, but now that I have got my travels documented and pictures in an album, I can start to play again.

 I made this card for hubby. It was lots of fun and is easy to put together. Essentially you need the card itself and 3 other pieces of card. On the bottom card I stamped themed stamps and in this case fish, rope and compass from a Kaisercraft set called Hunt and Gather. I was really impressed with the image as it came out very clear and had good detail. I then rubbed distress ink colours Broken China,Chipped Sapphire, Faded Jeans,Peeled Paint and others from my stash, until the desired affect . The next piece of card was stamped with a Tim Holtz expression and lightly coloured with the same blue inks. Finally I stamped the boat on another piece of card and gentally ripped the edge to give it that old vintage look and buffed the image with Faded Jeans and Wild Honey.

Dubai

Well we are really and truely on our way home. We left Rome, destination Dubai and landed here at about midnight what ever day it was. My goodness it was suffocatingly hot. Like you have stepped into an oven or something .
Our first day saw us trawling the malls, but it is very expensive so not too many bargins to be had. The malls are absoluely massive with ice rinks, water falls, aquarium and what ever else.

 We went to the outdoor souks at 6pm,but it was still far too hot to be outside ( 45 degrees) so we caught the train back to the hotel mall and had dinner there. The malls are open until 10pm which was quite handy. The jewellery is overwhelming and I thought I might get something but there was too much noise and too many things to look at so I gave up. I think you would have to have a lot of time to bargin and stick to your guns with these people. As we did not have the time I really could not be bothered.It was very hazy, so we did not go to the top of the worlds tallest building or go further afield as you could not see that much, which was a bit of a shame.
The second day dawned as hot as the first and we did a bit more mall surfing but needed tobe back at the hotel for our desert safari. We drove for about an hour out of the city and stopped at some wee shops where the drivers of the vehicles let some air out of the tires before we went intothe dunes. Then it was a mans thing of racing around the dunes sliding all over the place. Not really my type of fun but the men on board had a great time.
Later on we went to a tribe village/enclosure where we had tradition type food bbq and some dancing , camel rides and the henna painting on hands. All and all interesting,but a country of contradictions.

Home tomorrow..................

Rome

 From Split we sailed to Venice where we disembarked the ship and headed for the airport to fly to Roma. We have 2 1/2 days here before the rest of our journey home.

 The second day we caught the train to the Vatican and descended upon this city with the masses. It was extremely hot and crowded and a very long morning/afternoon. The tour was 4 hours long and by the end of it I was exhausted.

I have visited Rome 10 years ago and wanted to come back and for Nigel to see the Colusseum, Vatican and everything else you can in the time we had.
Again the weather is spectacular and it really is warming up in general. We are heading into the full force of the European summer, but it sure is a change from the weather we would be having at home (Winter).
Our first afternoon we did the colusseum and forum, Trevi fountain, Piazza Novona and the general main area of Rome. We had a delicious pasta dinner up a little side street where the prices were cheaper than down by the touristy spots.

We left the vatican, St Peters Bascilia  etc and headed along the riverbank under the trees and where there was a gentle breeze blowing. Lots of market stalls here and lots of interesting wares to buy. Got some trinkets for my daughter ( and me) and then we wandered back into the center  of Rome to the Pantheon and the Spanish stairs. We had a cup of tea at the Pantheon and I nearly died when we got the bill.... Euro 14 ( $28). Most expensive cup of tea I have every had and probably ever will, but hey you can'tbeat the scenery of ancient Rome.

Split, Coatia

With sadness we are heading to Split in Croatia. Sad because we are coming to the end of our fabulous cruise of a lifetime. Spilt is our last stop before we get off the ship and head home.
This is a lovely wee town. Like the other Croatian sites it is clean and pretty. A busy little town with a fish market right in the centre and lots of locals out and about being a Saturday.

 We climbed to the top of the bell tower ( which nearly killed me as I had a chest infection and thought I was going to expire by the time we got to the top) However the views were spectacular out over the port and city.

We only had a few hours here before we set sail for Venice, so we just wandered around. Sat under the umbrellas  on the waterfront and watched the locals and tourists do their thing and the world go by.

Kusadasi , Turkey

After a wonderful evening ashore at Mykonos, we sailed out heading for Kusadasi, Turkey. It was a gorgeous morning when we arrived and three other cruise ships were in the dock. We all borded buses and headed out of town to the Virgin Marys house. What chaos! There must have been about 50 buses with tourists all come to see the same thing. There was a lot of pushing and shoving and just  all too hot to be standing in the sun for about 2 hours. I am not religious so I am not sure why I elected to do this tour, cause I have to say queing for 2 hours to see a two roomed house was crazy!

After this we headed back down the hill to the ruins of Ephesus. Our guide took us through the ruins and down the streets, into the ( empty) latrines and stadiums to the end of the township. It took about 2 1/2 hours to amble our way through here  (with masses of people again)and boy was it hot!
It was an amazing place and I loved it. There was lots of ruins, carved pieces and structures so you could get a feeling for what was once here. Originally 250,000 people lived here as it was an affluent town due to the river coming right up to it.

One of the impressive remains is the Celsus library which has 4 status in each corner. The library was ruined by fire caused by an earthquake in 262AD and another in the 10th century.

Within the ruins is the carved marble statue of Nike ( which is the symbol for the Nike brand) The carving is shaped like a tick, hence where Nike got their idea for their brand symbol.This was one of the most impressive places we visited.There is still active excavation of ruins being carried out today and the houses on the terrace are all being excavated currently.

The town of Kusadasi is filled with shops and pushy sellers just like Istanbul, however it is not so crowded and a lot less busy. Lanterns for sale in a tree.