Spring Days Gift Bag...

This is my very first project using my new Cricut which I absolutely love - although I possibly would love it even more if they had sent me one with an English instruction book. My Dutch is not that good - okay I'll be honest I don't know a single word.

Obviously when you get something like this you want to cut something, but not waste either paper or the sticky mat thingie by too much practising.

Well I knew that the challenge at Colour Create was to make 'something other than a card' and their colours this week are Yellow, Orange and Green. So I pulled out some DCWV 12" by 12" card in these shades and started cutting. The gems are yellow honest, but actually don't show up that well in the photo.

The bag base was made using the fit to page button and the flower frame fit perfectly (by guesswork and pure luck). I even cut the leaves and the word MUM - not a bad start for a non Dutch speaking person!

The flowers were cut on my Wizard and put in the Swiss Dots folder to give them texture. Cutting the flowers using dies was a great way to use up all the bits.

I probably would have combined the colour challenge better if I had not been so excited about the new machine, but I think my results are quite presentable and when the bag has some goodies inside and some green tissue in the top I'm sure my mum will love it.

It also fits the challenge run by my friend Jude at Creative Inspirations where everyone is asked to make something for Mum that has flowers on it. A great challenge as it is now less than 2 weeks to Mothering Sunday.

Hats can be distressing...

Well they can be if you are trying to choose one that won't blow down the road at the first bit of breeze or make you look like Hyacinth Bucket!!

However, ladies in hats on rubber stamps are never distressing - as I looked through my stamps for the 'Hats' challenge at My time to stamp I realised that I have quite a few of them and I love them all.

I decided to use this stamp by Frances Naeve at Hearts in Touch. It's from one of her sheets of Art Deco images which are fabulous. As I was checking the link I discovered that the lady image used in my other card posted today is from the same sheet of stamps!!! Must change that posting to the correct stamp designer!!

My card is also for the ABC challenge which this week is 'Distressing' - hence my title and ramblings about hats blowing off down the road.

I used the Divine Swirls embossing folder and distressed the embossing with a sanding block. As the black card I used had a brownish back I was really surprised to see the white pop through. Obviously the black must be a coating which is sooooooooo easy to remove.

I trimmed the image with a gemstone and added a tag embellished with a silver sentiment peel off. A black feather is lurking under the tag as I love feathers and Art Deco images.

It's Pink Elephant Day...

I love Mondays - the start of a new week and best of all time for a new challenge at the Pink Elephant Challenge Blog. This week we have a colour theme for everyone to try and the colours are ...

Brown, Pink and Green - a stunning combination.

Do take a look at the amazing work by the rest of the design team as they have all worked their own little bit of magic with these three colours.

For my card I chose vintage paper by Making Memories and a small lady stamp which I think is from a collection by Frances Naeve at Hearts in Touch.

I coloured the image with Derwent Inktense pencil crayons and a Sakura clear stardust pen. A couple of pink gems added to the glamour of the dress.