Welcome


Hello, my name is Dionne and I have been crafting for a very long time. As a very young child my mother tried to teach me to knit, it was a disaster. However, it must have sparked an interest in making things and, partly to prove that I was not totally useless and partly because I really wanted to make things, I taught myself to crochet. Over the years I have developed a love of cross stitch and all types of paper craft ..... I eventually even taught myself to knit.


I am married to a very understanding man, thank goodness, because I spend all my time either crafting, thinking about crafting or talking about crafting. I am hopeless at housework and dinner is often late!


Thank you for visiting my blog.


Dionne

Monday 31 October 2016

In the Pink

Happy Halloween everyone.

Wow, and that was October, where is this year going?  We are already half way through the current Crafty Boots 'Pink Challenge.  This challenge is our way of giving support to Beast Cancer Awareness Month .... it is also a good excuss to go all pink and girlie.


This little lady all dressed in pink is 'Honey Pip' from Funky Kits, one of their Sherbet Pip range.  I coloured her with Promarkers and then mounted her on silver mirri and some checkered paper from a K & Co paper stack designed by Tim Coffey.  The backing paper is from a Craftwork Cards stack.

The buttons, sentiment, ribbon and pom poms are all from my stash.

This week we have three fabulous Guest Designers at Crafty Boots Challenges, make sure you pop across and chack out their amazing work.


Dionne

Friday 28 October 2016

Baby Bunny

My niece recently gave birth to a beautiful daughter.  Little Lucy Louise kept us waiting and was two weeks overdue but she was worth the wait.  Little Lucy has a big brother who already adores her, I made this card for him, congratulating on becoming a brother.


The polymer stamp was part of a 'New Baby' Kit I bought from C&C, I coloured it with my polychromos pencils and then mounted it on some silver mirri and some pink card.  The new baby paper and the letters came from the Forever Friends 'New Arrival' paper stack.  The hydrangea flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts.

Anyone who knows me will not be surprized to hear that I have knitted her a huge pile of little cardigans, hats and mittens, here are two of them.



I chose the pink ones because they are in keeping with the current Crafty Boots Pink Challenge.



Monday 24 October 2016

In the Pink

I am sure you are well aware that this is 'Breast Cancer Awareness' month and that this is a really important issue, which we all need to get behind.  Crafty Boots Challenges wants to lend their support to this cause and for the next two weeks they want to see 'pink' in our projects.


This little sweetie is Cherry Pip, one of the Sherbet Pip collection from Funky Kits.  I coloured the stamped image with my polychromos pencils and then mounted it on some silver mirri and pink card.


The pink backing paper is from Stampin' Up and I cut the circular shapes from some left over Stampin' Up paper.  The pearl trim was from Wild Orchid Crafts and the lace and sentiment were from my stash.

My lovely team mates at Crafty Boots Challenges have also been busy with their paper and glue, please check out their work for yourself when you enter your pink projects.

Friday 21 October 2016

Trick or Treat

If you have been dropping by for a long while, first of all thank you for your support over the years, I really do appreciate it, also, you may recognise this image.  It was one of the ones I used this time last year and I must have printed it more than once and did not use this copy - luckily for me as it was in my 'Spares' folder.


The image is from Tiddly Inks and is called 'Trick or Treat Wryns'. I coloured the image with Promarkers and mounted it on some silver mirri and pumpkin orange card.


I stamped the background myself.  First I swished the blank card with Squeezed Lemonade, Mustard Seed and Vintage Photo.  I then used the Vintage Photo to stamp the leaf pattern with some Bo Bunny leaf stamps.  The sentiment came from a pack I got off the internet.

There is still time for you to enter your Halloween projects in the Crafty Boots Halloween Challenge.

Good Luck.


Dionne



Thursday 20 October 2016

Fright Night

Still no sign of the new printer ink, so I have been trying to think of a design for a Halloween card which would not require printing.

I based this design on some Halloween gift bags I made a couple of years  ago.  As you can imagine, it is a very quick and easy design but I think it is rather fun.


I covered my card blank with a black sheet glitter card.  I then glued three pairs of eyes to the card, both the eyes and the sentiment were from ebay.

There is still time for you to enter your Halloween projects in the Crafty Boots Halloween Challenge.

Good Luck.


Dionne

Monday 17 October 2016

Skully King and Queen

It is time for the Crafty Boots Mid Challenge Reminder for our 'Halloween' Challenge, I really do not know where the time goes to.

I have a confession to make, my printer has run out of ink and the replacement cartridges are taking forever to get here.  So, how on earth was I going to print my Halloween images for this week, then I remembered that I had not used all of the images I had printed for last Halloween, and, like all good crafter's, I do not throw anything remotely useful away. 



These fabulous images are from Delicious Doodles, I coloured them with my polychromos pencils and then cut them out with a die and mounted them on silver holograpchic miri card.


I cut the dark blue card out using a Presscut Centre Stepper die.  I then stamped the sivler cards all over it.


The Halloween sentiments came from ebay.

Crafty Boots Guest Designer this week is the amazing Jana K, her work is incredible, do take a look.  The rest of the Design Team has been very busy as well, make sure you check out their work as well.

Have a great week.


Dionne

Thursday 13 October 2016

Halloween Fancy Dress

I hope you week is going well.  The current challenge at Crafty Boots Challenges is the ever so popular Halloween.

My card today features the kitchen maid from the big house, the one the baron owns, she is all dressed up as The Bride of Frankenstein to go Trick or Treating with her friends.


I coloured this old Saturated Canary image with Promarkers, I then mounted it on some holographic silver mirri card and some pumpkin coloured glitter paper.  Althugh I have had this image some time I do not think I have ever used it before. I am pleased I bought it when I did because the shop is closed now.


I cut the string of crows and black cat from a Sizzix Thinlet die using black glitter card.  The backing paper is from my stash.

Don't forget to enter your Halloween projects to the Crafty Boots Challenge.

Good luck.


Dionne


Monday 10 October 2016

Halloween

It is time for a new Challenge at Crafty Boots Challenges, for the next two weeks we  are looking forward to seeing your Halloween projects.

I have prepared two Design Team projects this week, the first of which is a card featuring a freebie colouring book image from Delicious Doodles by Teri Sherman.  I do not usually go in for colouring book pages because of all of all of the colouring they require, but I just could not resist this one.


I used a combination of Promarkers and F&C pencils to colour this haunted house image.  I then mounted it on some silver holographic mirri card.


I covered a blank card with some black glittered card.  Finally I cut a 'Boo' out of some silver glitter card using a Bigz die.  I have to apologise again for the poor quality of the photographs, I think you can just about work out what is card and what is background.

I shall be back in a couple of days time to share the other card.  In the meantime please pop over to the Crafty Boots blog and see the projects the rest of the design team have prepared.


Dionne

Sunday 9 October 2016

Autumn is Here

I hope you are having a great weekend.

Believe it or not but there is an element of planning to my Crafty Boots Challenges Design Team cards.  Obviously I get to know about the themes in advance, which gives me the opportunity to think about my projects and to seek out appropriate images to use on any cards I decide to make.  I also give a little bit of thought to the order I am going to publish my projects in.  Originally I had planned to publish this card first, hence the title of this post, but then I changed the order.  I thought about changing the title to 'For a Fungi', but better taste prevailed.

A couple of weeks before this challenge I was discussing the theme with my teamie Lisette (aka Mrs Beez) and I commented that most people seemed to associate leaves with autumn and it would be nice to get away from the leaf motif.  I joked that it would be nice to find a fungus image.  Later that evening I went on the hunt and was delighted when I found this polymer stamp on Ebay, it was exactly what I had in mind.


I coloured the image with polychromos pencils and then mounted it on gold mirri and some pumpkin orange card.  I then distressed the edges with Vintage Photo.  I covered my blank card with bronze coloured glitter card before adding the image.  The leaves are actually made of metal, aren't they lovely?


I must apologise for the poor quality of these photographs but the lighting was not good on the day I took them.

I hope you enjoy the rest of your day.


Dionne

Saturday 8 October 2016

Voila One CAS Card

I am trying to make up for my silence earlier in the week and I am back with another card this morning.  I am not actually at home this morning and I have scheduled this post, so I have no idea what the weather is like today.  Is it cold and overcast or warm and sunny, what is the weather like with you today?


This CAS card may look quick and easy but it took me ages to make, in fact it was a long time in the 'thinking how to make it' phase.  First I painted some white card with metallic acrylic paints - bronze, silver, gold and copper.  I then used the Spellbinder Shapeabilities Foliage die set to cut the leaf.

Next I cut a strip of white card, I made it a little smaller than my blank card, I distressed the edges with Ranger Vintage Photo distress ink.  I then made a 'swipe' of Antique Linen and wrapped some bakers twine around the card before attaching it to the blank card.

After attaching the leaf to the card I felt the card looked incomplete and I went in hunt of a sentiment stamp, unfortunately I could not find one the size I wanted but all was not lost because I remembered my  old stash of peel offs.  There was a time I used peel offs all of the time but they went out of fashion, however like most crafters, I never throw anything away, yeah!  I finished the card by edging it with some more peel offs.

Voila one CAS card.


Dionne

Friday 7 October 2016

Autumn is Starting to Feel Like Winter!

I know, I know, I am seriously late with my posting this week.  I have been really busy the last few days and this week has just flown by.  Autumn was late arriving this year and the drop in temperature has come of something of a shock, in fact it is starting to feel like winter already and I have given in and put the heating on.

My apologies for my tardiness and, whilst I am apologising, I am very sorry for the poor quality of my photography this week, the wintry conditions have affected the light quality and had to resort to artificial lights.

Crafty Boots Challenges is celebrating autumn.  I recently discovered a lovely set of rubber stamps at Funky Kits which are all about this season, something a little different from leaves.  The set contains 8 stamps - 4 main characters and 4 smaller stamps and all have an autumn theme.  Here are two of the stamps from this set.


I coloured the stamps with my polychromos pencils.  The papers are from Dovecraft and the sentiments are from Kanban Crafts.


For this card I embossed some gold mirri card with a a honeycomb stencil.  The hydrangeas are from Wild Orchid Crafts and the leaves comes from a Spellbinder Shapeabilities Foliage die set.



For this card I used a Stampin' Up embossing folder to create the wood grain effect and, as with the other card, the leaves comes from a Spellbinder Shapeabilities Foliage die set.  These were cut from some white card which I had painted with various metallic acrylic paints.


I just wish I knew what the individual stamps are called.

Have a wonderful weekend.


Dionne