Hana's card :)

Evening all

Just a quick post to share the card my lovely 11-year-old niece Hana made to give her mum for her birthday. Aside from printing out the papers and image, and cutting them out, she did it all by herself :) 

She picked out this adorable little mermaid to colour in :) It's from Lili of the Valley.

The papers are from Pixel Paper Prints

Charm and dewdrops from Ribbon Girl

Ribbons from stash

Sentiment printed on the computer

She coloured with my Copics

Lashings of Stickles and Glossy Accents :) 

She'd love to get some nice comments on her card I'm sure, so feel free to let her know if you like her card :) 

She'd like to enter it into the Simon Says Stamp Kids Challenge.

Thanks for having a look!

Tanya (and Hana) xx

30th Birthday Card for a Friend

Afternoon all

Here's a card I made a while ago, hope you like it. I've been too busy doing college exams and looking after sick animals round the clock to do any blogging or crafting lately....so tired!!! Hopefully the tide will turn soon and everything will be back to normal :) 

Ingredients

Image and papers - LOTV

Cheery Lynn doily die

Memory box butterfly die

Marianne Design numbers dies

Whimsy corner die

Stickles, Liquid pearls

I'd like to enter this into the following challenges:

Brown Sugar Challenge - Anything Goes

Crafty Catz - Anything Goes

Crafty Gals Challenge - May Flowers

Creatalicious Challenge - Anything Goes

Creative Inspirations - Shape it up

Fussy and Fancy - dies/punches

In The Pink Challenge - Happy Anything

Lil Patch of Crafty Friends - Anything Goes

Pennys Papercrafty Challenge - Anything Goes

Thanks for looking

Tanya x

Shabby Chic wedding card

Evening all

The weather is gorgeous here and I'm so excited it's summer! I have SAD and the winter is long and difficult for me, so when the sun starts shining properly, I know things are looking up :) Also Sparky is on the mend, she's doing SO well on her three legs, running around the place! It hasn't slowed her down one bit. The stitches are coming out on Saturday, so she'll be footloose and fancy free then :) Thank you to everyone who has passed on their sympathies and good wishes to her, we really appreciate them all!

Anyway, crafty stuff again. I made this card a while ago, it started as a card for an order but then I liked it too much to use for the order so I kept it hahahaha. I then put it in my "card box" where all the cards that I'm too attached to to let go go to haha.

I used this beautiful LOTV image, it's a retired image. I think it's so pretty.

Image - LOTV

Papers - Maja Design

Flowers and rose trim from Live and Love Crafts

Lace, birds, cheesecloth and corner from Ribbon Girl

Heart charm is a Prima charm from stash

Coloured with Copics

Liquid Pearls, Frantage, Gesso

Closeup of the flowers and heart locket

I'd like to enter this into the following challenges: 

Noor Design Challenge - Spring Flowers

Deep Ocean Challenge - Flowers Everywhere

Fab n Funky - three or more layers

Copic Marker Deutschland - Wedding

Craft Your Passion Challenge - Anything Goes

Crafting From The Heart - Anything Goes

Crafting When We Can - Add Flowers

Live and Love Crafts - Blossoms/Butterflies

Ribbon Girls - May Card Challenge

Dream Valley Challenge - All Creatures Great and Small

Thanks for looking :)
Tanya xx

Mother's Day Card :)

Hi everyone :)

I didn't want to post this before I gave it to Mum yesterday in case she saw it :) So here it is. I used a LOTV topper. 

Ingredients

LOTV pre-coloured image

Nitwits papers

LOTV sentiment

Lawn Fawn stitched clouds dies

MS border punch

Spellbinders fancy square die

Both pink ribbons are gifts from my Mum

White ribbon, diamanté embellishment, pink pearl flower and charm from Ribbon Girl

Purple Liquid Pearls

A closeup of the charm arrangement :) 

I'd like to enter this into the following challenges:

Crafty Calendar Challenge - Mother's Day

Allsorts Challenge Blog - Women's Day

Ribbon Girl Challenge - Spring

Through the CraftRoom Door - Anything Goes

Through the Purple Haze - Make a Scene

Dream Valley Challenge - Mother's Day

Fab n Funky - Love

Lil Patch of Crafty Friends - Anything Goes

Live & Love Crafts - Signs of Spring

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Touchy Feely

Thanks for looking :)

Tanya xx

WoW Bear Valentine's Card

Afternoon everyone, 

Valentine's is fast approaching, so here's a card that I made :) I love the LOTV bears, they're so cute!

I made a white-on-white card with some read details, they stand out better when there's no colours cluttering the background I think :) 

Ingredients

Image - LOTV

Sentiment printed off by me

Embossilicious lattice and dot embossing folders

Cuttlebug swirl embossing folder

Spellbinders heart/scalloped heart dies

Ribbon, lace, twine, dewdrops and charm from Ribbon Girl

Stickles on the rose and patch

Coloured with copics

I'd like to enter this into the following challenges:

As You Like It Challenge - One or Multi Layer

Multi layer because I feel it adds more interest!

Craft Your Passion Challenges - Always Anything Goes

Inky Chicks - Love (Letters) and/or Hearts

Kraftin Kimmie's Saturday Challenge - Love

Kraftin Kimmie's Wonderful Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes

Lil Patch of Crafty Friends - Anything Goes

Live And Love Crafts - Love is in the air

Simon Says stamp Wednesday Challenge - Have a Heart

Ribbon Girl challenge - Anything Goes

Cutie Pie Challenge - All you need is cute love

Thanks for looking :) 

Tanya xx

Crafty Friends - Anything Goes

Evening all,

I'm here with my first card for Crafty Friends Challenge Blog's challenge this week, which is the wonderful Anything Goes. 

We're very lucky to have two fantastic sponsors this time:

Sami Stamps

and 

Toadstool Printables

I used two images from Sami Stamps for my cards, and this is the first one :) 

Ingredients

Sami Stamps image - Curious Gifts

LOTV Sentiment stamp

Ribbons and trim from Ribbon Girl

Martha Stewart Snowflake Border Punch

Embossalicious Embossing Folders

Memory Box Corner Die

Coloured with Copics

Stickles, Liquid Pearls

I'd like to enter this into the following challenges:

Lil Patch of Crafty Friends - Anything Goes

Bunny Zoe's Challenge - Sparkle

ABC Christmas Challenge - Y is for Youngsters

Deep Ocean Challenge Blog - Anything Goes

Digichoosday - Anything Goes

Inky Chicks - Merry Christmas

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Die Crazy

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Just a Pinch... (of glitter for me!)

WInter Wonderland Challenge - Christmas Bingo 

(Snowflakes/Animal/Ribbon or Snowflakes/Glitter/Pearls)

Thanks for looking and do pop across to Crafty Friends to join in :) 

Tanya xx

Wedding Anniversary card

Evening all :) 

Lots of news since my last blog post ^_^ I've been busy! 

Long post! TL;DR I got a new cat, I started college, I had labs and I've been busy with cards :P 

A nearby animal sanctuary put up a picture of a cat on their page, and she reminded me strongly of my two beautiful furbabies that I lost during the past year. I miss them both so much, so when I saw this little beauty's picture, I had to rescue her. She's about 10 months old and has already had a litter of kittens the poor thing, so first thing was getting her neutered. She got her stitches out yesterday so she's good to go now :) She's got boundless amounts of energy and is just great! Her name is Sparky (going along with the theme of Tim Burton movie afterlife dogs that I started with Scraps and Zero) and she is adorable. 

Look at that face!!!

I started back with college in September as well, which was absolutely a huge step for me. It's only part-time and online, but still a big deal for me - it's the first thing I've done since having to leave college in 2011 when I became ill and ended up in hospital for 11 months, so yeah, I'm pretty happy to be back doing something worthwhile with myself :) Great for the old self-worth and all that :) 

I had to go to Dublin to attend labs for it during the week and I was SO NERVOUS about those for the longest time! I was terrified that I'd be a miserable failure at everything, but I managed OK and everyone was just lovely, so helpful and nice! The air pressure in the labs was weird and because I have really low blood pressure it absolutely messed with my head so I blacked out three times, felt like such an idiot but everyone was just amazing and caring and made me feel like I wasn't a nuisance even though I knew I was. I had the best two days ever. I'm loving the course and loved the labs and am now trying to write up my reports and get it down from the 11 pages I have to the 6 pages they want, why can I not stop my fingers typing?! 

So aside from lectures, labs, studying and assessments, I've been horrendously busy with cards. SO MANY ORDERS! I told people in September that I was going back to college and would need more notice always, and so far I've had more orders than ever starting with "Hey Tanya so I know it's really short notice but...." And when I see that I cry a little bit inside. Not to mention that my crafty inspiration dried up and I wasn't able to make anything halfway decent at all for like a whole month. It was painful :P 

Anyway if you're still here after all that verbal spew, I appreciate your attention, it feeds my ego ahahaha :P Here's my card that I would like to show you today, I made it a while ago but never got around to blogging it.

Ingredients

Image, papers, sentiment - LOTV

Ribbon, gem, Liquid Pearls, Stickles - Ribbon Girl

Doohickeys heart border die

Heart, scalloped heart, fancy rectangle - Spellbinders

Coloured with Copics

Sentiment is heat embossed

I'd like to enter this into the following challenges: 

Ribbon Girls - Anything Goes

ABC Challenge - U for Unlimited

Cute Card Thursday - Birds/Animals

Creative Inspirations - Anything Goes

Crafting When We Can - Pink and Green

Craft Your Passion Challenge - Anything Goes

Thanks for looking :) 

Tanya x

Wedding card

Evening all

Here's another card for you :) This card was made for a friend to give to a special couple. I posted it to my friend, and for some reason, it never got delivered and got sent back to me. So during this time I made another card for her really quick and sent that one off to her. This one came back to me with a big tear in it, but I really liked how I'd coloured the image and didn't want to waste it. It had been personalised, so I ripped the personalised sentiments off, and...improvised :P 

The giant bow covers up the tear that the postal system added, and the dewdrops cover up the blemishes where the personalised sentiments were popped up on foam squares. I was pretty happy with how it turned out :) 

Ingredients

Image and Sentiment - LOTV 

Ribbons, dewdrops and gem from Ribbon Girl

Embossalicious embossing folders

Doohickey heart border die

Spellbinders oval die

Coloured with Copics

Stickles, Frantage and Glossy Accents

I'd like to enter this into the following challenges:

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Love This Technique (mine is dry embossing...and hiding mistakes haha)

Ribbon Girls Challenge - Any image

As You Like It - Favourite Die (one of a few favourites, the spellbinders oval is great for adding some fanciness to occasion cards)

Craft Your Passion Challenges - Anything Goes

Creative Inspirations - Favourite Occasions (I love making wedding cards, not so sure on how much I actually like weddings though :P )

Thanks for looking :) 

Tanya x

Shabby Chic 65th Birthday Card

Evening all

I made this one a while ago as well, hope you like :) 

I just love the LOTV mice images! Or any cute mice images, mice are adorable...as long as they're not in my house :P 

Ingredients

Image and sentiment tag - LOTV

Marianne Design Numbers Dies

Maja Design papers

Seam binding from Live & Love Crafts

Pearl trim, organza trim, pearl embellishment and lace from Ribbon Girl

Cheery Lynn Doily Die

Spellbinders decorative oval die

La la land banner die

Coloured with Inktense Pencils

Frantage powder, Stickles, Glossy Accents, Liquid Pearls, Distress Inks

I'd like to enter this into the following challenges:

As You Like It - Favourite Die (la la land banner die, it works with any type of card, male, female, baby, thank you, so versatile, and really adds detail and the finishing touch to any card)

Chocolate Coffee and Cards - Fancy and Feminine

Craft Your Passion Challenge - Anything Goes

Creative Inspirations - Vintage

Cute Card Thursday - Numbers

Deep Ocean Challenge Blog - Shabby Chic

In The Pink - Ribbons and Bows

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday - Use a Stamp

Simon Says Stamp Monday - Use a Stamp and Die

Thanks for looking :)
Tanya xx

Shabby Chic Baby Girl Card

Evening all

I made this card aages ago, but am only catching up on my blogging now :) 

I coloured the image in with Inktense pencils, I've only coloured a couple of images in using them, and this is one of them.

Ingredients

Papers - Maja Design

Image - LOTV

Lace, pearl trim and dewdrops from Ribbon Girl

Seam binding from Live & Love Crafts

Liquid pearls, frantage

Cheery Lynn Doily Die

La La Land bunting die

I'd like to enter this into the following challenges;

Chocolate Coffee and Cards - fancy and feminine

Craft your passion challenge - anything goes

Creative Inspirations - Vintage

Deep Ocean Challenge Blog - Shabby Chic

Fan n Funky - Shabby Chic

In The Pink - Ribbons and Bows

Penny's Papercrafty Challenge - anything goes

The Pencil Cases - Anything Goes

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Stamp and Die

Simon Says Stamptember - Use a Stamp

Thanks for looking :)
Tanya xx

Birthday card for Larry

I'm going again! Second card in one night, whoulda thunk it! (Diane J, I'm blaming you :P haha)

I made this a while back for my neighbour to give her brother in law. I find man cards very hard to do because I love my pearls and bows and gems and glitter, but I think I did ok with this one :) Hope you like.

Ingredients

LOTV image

LOTV/Nitwits paper

Handmade paper my mum bought me

LOTV sentiment

Sentiment printed off the computer

Button and button twine from stash

Straw bow upcycled, it came on a bouquet of flowers my sister got from her boyfriend hehe :)

I'd like to enter this into the following challenges:

Allsorts Challenge Blog - Upcycling

As You Like It - Favourite Layout (because it's easy and looks good every time)

Craft Your Passion Challenge - Anything Goes

Creative Inspirations - Anything Goes

Cute Card Thursday - Monochrome

Deep Ocean Challenge Blog - For The Boys

Incy Wincy Challenge - Anything Goes

Papertake Weekly - Take Your Pick - Buttons (There's a button under the small brown bow! A wooden one) :) 

Simon Says Stamp - Anything Goes

Thanks for looking :) 

Tanya xx

Clearing the backlog :)

Hi everyone

I haven't blogged much lately, but I sure have been busy in my craft room!! I'm going to try and blog every day and get some of the cards that I've made up here :)

It's so difficult keeping track! I've made a LOT of cards, and the making them up is taking up all my blogging time :P I need to balance everything out, I'm really not good at time management unfortunately :(

So anyway, here's the first card from my archive of made but not blogged cards :) Hope you like!

Ingredients

Image - LOTV

Sentiment tag - LOTV

Papers - Maja Design

Pink lace, cheesecloth, dewdrop and pearl string from Ribbon Girl

Cream seam binding from Crafts And Me

La la land bunting die

Marianne Design numbers dies

Spellbinders oval die

Everything else from stash

I'd like to enter this into the following challenges:

Crafty Catz Challenge - Golden Oldie

Creative Inspirations - Anything Goes

Incy Wincy Challenge - Anything Goes

Papertake Weekly - Take Your Pick (Technique Distressing/Vintage)

Penny's Papercraft Challenge - Girly

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes

Stamping Sensations - Anything Goes with a stamp and die

Cutie Pie Challenge - Cute and Girly

Chocolate Coffee and Cards - Use a Sentiment

Craft Your Passion Challenge - Anything Goes

Thanks for looking :) 

Tanya xx

Purple 21st Birthday Girl Card

Hi everyone :)

Here's another card I made a while ago and haven't got around to blogging yet :) Put purple and blue together for the first time ever and really love it haha!

I'm telling you now, if I hadn't to have had some of the LOTV pre-coloured art pads, I would have been doomed - lifesavers they are! When you have a million and one cards to make colouring your own images is definitely not a priority any more :P Thought I would've forgotten how to use a Copic after the November/December I had haha. They're so beautiful :) And they make me use colour combos I might not have used otherwise, so bonus! 

Ingredients

Image - LOTV Fairies art pad

Papers - LOTV Petal Fresh/LOTV Promises

LOTV Sentiment Tags

Lace/gem from Ribbon Girl

Purple embossing powder

MS Doily Punch

Spellbinders die

Marianne Design numbers

Stickles, Liquid Pearls 

I'd like to enter this into the following challenges:

Fab N Funky Challenge - Something New (new colour combo for me, and my Silver Stickles and Silver Liquid Pearls are new too!)

Party Time Tuesdays - Anything Goes

Corrosive Challenge Blog - Shiny and New (new colour combo for me, new silver stickles and liquid pearls, which are also shiny!)

Sweet Stamping Challenge Blog - Girly but no pink

Crafting For All Seasons - Ribbon, Lace and Pearls

Deep Ocean Challenge Blog - Winter dreams (cool colour combo)

Creative Inspirations - Anything Goes

Stamping Sensations challenge - Dies and Punches

Scrap and Craft Challenge - Anything Goes

Papertake Weekly - It's All New new colour combo for me, and my Silver Stickles and Silver Liquid Pearls are new too!)

Thanks for looking!

Tags xx

All things LOTV wedding card

Hi everyone, I'm back!

Long time no see! 

In the run-up to Christmas, I was SO BUSY! I had 160 cards to make - in the space of three weeks. I don't know how many all-nighters I pulled, and no matter how many times I publicly broke down crying, the orders still came and kept coming. 

I guess it's a nice thing that so many people want my cards, but when it's not making my any money because I don't charge enough, and some of the people (not many, just a very small handful) just don't seem to care, the cost to me is my mental health and all of a sudden then, it's not worth it. I have had no time for anything except card-making, and it became a chore instead of fun. I was churning out cards I wasn't happy with and didn't have time to make them as good as I wanted to, it was awful. I went on holidays for 2 weeks in December as well, and ended up having to pack half an hour before leaving for the airport - and let me tell you as a list maker and huge planner - this is like my worst nightmare!!! 

So I'm taking a break from making cards for anyone but family and close friends for the next little while, and even putting this in no uncertain terms on my facebook page (I literally wrote "I'm not making cards or taking orders til March, thanks for the custom and maybe see you all again for orders then") the orders are still coming and I'm not good at saying no so I'm having to think about putting on my big-girl panties and saying no...not sure if I can do that though haha! I started making cards as I found it helps with my anxiety and self-esteem issues, but when it's causing more problems than it's helping with...I need re-evaluate things. 

Also my beloved cat Whitey is gone. She went missing on Christmas Eve and hasn't been seen since. Can't type to much more about it because I'll cry. I miss her :(

So here's one of the many cards I made during my hugely busy 2014 :)

Ingredients

LOTV Bonnets and Bowties Paper Pack

LOTV Quotables - Love

LOTV Wedding Couple Stamp

LOTV Vintage Sentiments - Occasions

Pink ribbon I bought in America

Silver embossing powder

Liquid Pearls

Diamanté embellishment

Stickles

Coloured with Copics

Frantage powder

It seems like so many of the challenge blogs I used to enter have closed since I blogged last - makes me so sad :(

I'd like to enter this into the following:

Ribbon Girl DT Call

ABC Challenge - Anything Goes

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Something New (wedding is a start of a new life, right?)

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Use something old/new (new start with a wedding, all old products) :)

Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes

Thanks for looking, and happy to be back!

Tags xx

Pink and White Anniversary Card

Another card from drafts that I made a while ago, got a few to get through haha :P 

Ingredients

Image LOTV

Papers LOTV

Sentiment LOTv

La-la land heart bunting die

Cheery Lynn Doily Die

Pink ribbon and pink tape from Ribbon Girl

Stickles, Liquid Pearls. silver embossing powder

I'd like to enter this into the following challenges:

LOTV Ideas to Inspire Challenge - Use LOTV Papers

Cute Card Thursday - Dies/Punches

Incy Wincy Challenge - Something Old Something New (Old image, new ribbon)

My Mum's Craft Shop Challenge - Dies/Punches

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Finishing Touch

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes

A Creative Romance - In The Garden

Thanks for looking :)
Tanya xx

Divas By Design GDT - Anything Goes

Hi All

Internet troubles and tummy troubles mean a very late DT post for me this week! Sorry my pretties! 

GDTing still over at Divas By Design, and the challenge for the week is

ANYTHING GOES

And we're very lucky to be sponsored by 

Dies to Die for.

So here's my card, hope you like it :) 

Ingredients

Stamping Bella Uptown Girls Victoria & Juliette's Night Out

LOTV Statement Stamp

LOTV Greetings Tag

Embossalicious Lattice Embossing Folder

Ribbon Girl sparkly organza ribbon, gold embossing powder, Stickles Stardust, gold Liquid Pearls

Coloured with Copics

I'd like to enter this into the following challenges:

As You Like It - Favourite Rubber Stamp (I love all the Stamping Bella images, they're great for a quirky more grown-up feel than a cutesy image)

Allsorts Challenge Blog - Sugar and Spice

A Creative Romance - Anything Goes

Crafty Catz - Clean and Simple

Crafty Cardmakers - dry embossing

Crafty Little Fairies - Sparkle & Bling

Creative Inspirations - Anything Goes

Ribbon Girls Challenge - Ribbons

Thanks for looking :)
Tanya xx

Late father's day card

Afternoon everyone :)

I made this for a friend a while ago, only getting around to blogging it now though :) 

I'm awful at man cards, but I'm pretty happy with how this turned out :)

Ingredients

Image - LOTV Take It Easy

LOTV Simply Sophisticated sentiment

LOTV Greetings Tags sentiments

LOTV Country Gentlemen papers

MFT Die-namics Fishtail Die

Twine from Ribbon Girl

Coloured with Copics

Glossy Accents, brad

I'd like to enter this into the following challenges:

LOTV Ideas to Inspire Challenge - Boys cards

PaperCrafting Journey - Anything Goes

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - I Ought to use this more (this die is amazing :D )

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes

Stampin for the Weekend - Anything Goes

A Creative Romance - Anything Goes

Bearly Mine Challenges - One for the Boys

Creative Inspirations - Clean & Simple

Deep Ocean Challenge Blog - Favourite Colour Combo (Kraft + Anything at the moment!)

Divas By Design - Favourite Stamp

Thanks for looking :)
Tags xx

Birthday Dad

Afternoon everyone :)

I made this card a while ago for my fiancé to give his lovely dad for his birthday, hope you like :) 

Ingredients

LOTV Dad's the word image (can't find it on the site though, I think it must be gone!)

LOTV General Greetings Small

Coloured with Copics

Stickles, Glossy Accents, Liquid Pearls

I'd like to enter this into the following challenges:

LOTV's Ideas to Inspire Challenge - Male

Papertake Weekly - For the Boys

Paper-crafting Journey - Anything Goes

Cute Card Thursday - So Macho

A Creative Romance - Anything Goes/ Birthday

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Anything Goes 

Cutie Pie Challenge Blog - For dad 

Dream Valley Challenges - Monochrome 

Thanks for looking :)

Tags xx

Spots and Stripes for Crafty Little Fairies

Evening everyone

I'm GDT over at Crafty Little Fairies for this month - yay! The theme for this month is

SPOTS AND STRIPES

and there are loads of fab prizes up for grabs so get in there :D

Here's my card for the challenge :) 

Ingredients

LOTV's The Lost Balloon

Papers - Doodlebug Hello Spring

LOTV General Greetings Small

Ribbon and pearls from The Ribbon Girl

Coloured with PMs and Copics

Stickles and Snowtex

I'd like to enter this into the following challenges:

A Creative Romance - Girly Creations

Creative Inspirations - Anything Goes

Cute Card Thursday - Perfectly Pink

Deep Ocean Challenge Blog - Inspired by a song (Mad as Rabbits - Panic at the Disco)

Live and Love Crafts - Summer Garden

Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes

Penny Black and More - Favourite Stamp

The Squirrel and the Fox - Let's hear it for the girls

Stamping Sensations - Animal Antics

Thanks for looking :)

Tags xx