Rhedd and Rosie's "no Flowers" challenge

Hi

I never realised how many flowers I have on my cards either in the paper or stuck on, until I did the sample for this challenge!

My son has an aversion to anything floral or sparkly and so I thought he would be a good model for the card.  He is in the middle of his AS levels at the moment and so I hope I haven't jinxed him by making his exam congratulation card too early!

I used a script stamp directly on the card, then layered a book background stamp and lightly coloured a few and then Sheena Douglas stamps cut out coloured and then layered.

So this is my sample for the Rhedd and Rosie Challenge - as usual there are some great prizes to be won!

Love

Melissa

Lavinia celebrates Birthdays!

Hi Ladies

First off the Crafty Hands Challenge is no more :( but Lavinia's one is still going strong!!

This month's challenge is "Birthday Girl" a nice easy one as these stamps give you so much opportunity to create different things.  Anyway, here is my offering - a bit late (Sorry Eileen) I got caught up with the bank holiday and lost track of time, that and a panicking  16 year old with AS levels starting imminently! This house is a fun place to be!

Here it is :)  I used the cobweb corner stamp as a frame by stamping and embossing in gold and then my favourite fairy stamp - well one of them! she just looks so happy! sorry pic is a bit wonky!

Love

Melissa

Crafty hands fortnightly challenge is .. Travel!

Hi All

It has been a sad old time here with the loss of our grand old lady Mable, an apricot miniature poodle (not of the poofy kind) who we had from birth until she passed away at the age of 17 in my arms.  The other dogs keep looking for her and the house is a different place without her around.  Each pet is like a little person with their own traits and personalities she was the runt of the litter and we never expected her to survive, but in the end she outlived her brother.

Having said that, and on a more cheerful note, the theme for the latest challenge is "travel" so here is my entry all tied up with a piece of string!

I'd love to see your entries so pop on over to http://craftyhandsdevon.blogspot.co.uk/ and have a go as always there is a great prize to be won.

Love

Melissa xx

Crafty Hands - anything goes

Hi Guys

I've been waiting to blog this for a while, the basis of this was given to me by Eileen Godwin who is a stunning crafter and all round lovely lady.  This combined with my favourite graphic 45 paper that I couldn't bear to cut up seemed the ideal combination for the Crafty Hands Challenge!

I painted the frame and stamped it with a script stamp in gold and added a few bottles of glitter.  I looked at putting more on it but you run the risk of making it look too jumbled with that fab paper behind.

\
Love Melissa

Spring has Sprung at Lavinia

Hi All

Spring colours is the challenge at Lavinia Stamps and I ended up making a series of cards, never quite happy with each one, but hopefully showing the variety of cards you can make with these fab stamps.

Love

Melissa xx

Shabby Chic

The new Challenge on the Craft Hands Challenge Blog is "shabby chic" this had me stumped for a while as I tend to associate this with furniature rather than my normal car crafting. I have just taken down some dark blue wooden frames from my bathroom that had seaside postcards in them and so with these now being spare I took a leap of faith and shabby chic'ed one. As many of you know this is very far from my comfort zone, however I was very pleased with the result

First I used a teal, white and cream acrylic paint to give me the background colour.  Then I used a script stamp with silver ink over the top.  Then I went mad! The butterfly in the centre is a beauty from indigo blu.

I just wasn't able to leave this one alone - so I added some more!!

Lots of love

Melissa xxx

Something Pink for Lavinia Challenge

Hi All

Oh I am in trouble for publishing this late :( we've spent the weekend in Glasgow celebrating my mates surprise 60th birthday party.  It was a weekend of skulduggery and hiding in order to make the surprise work, but it was worth it just to see the look on his face when he walked in.

So I am home and I am shattered but I am going to start a scrapbook album for him today as a memory of the weekend - I hop he likes it!!

Anyway what I SHOULD have done is to show you my entrys for the Lavinia Stamps Challenge, add something pink

Hopefully these and the other great makes from the teamies will give you some inspiration to join in the challenge.  You can see that Lavinia stamps give you the options to colour, decoupage and generally have fun with different styles!

Love

Melissa xx