July CP Card swap

Our theme this month was texture and my swap partner was Gemm.  You can just about see the Cuttlebug embossing folder that I used on the brown card and the sweet stamp is from Elzybells.  I'm not if its still there but I did emboss the stamped image with some coffee scented embossing powder I bought from Simon Says Stamp.  Other bits and pieces are from my never dwindling stash.

An 8" x 8" card

This is one of just a few large cards I've been making recently.  I took the photo in the early morning light after some welcome rain.  It's a card for my sis-in-law who was a wedding dress designer so I know she will appreciate the image.  I've left it uncloured as I didn't want anything to 'fight' with the background paper.  Sadly the photo doesn't do any justice to the beautiful black moire silk ribbon.  If anyone recognises where the image comes from, please give me a nudge so that I can give some thanks.

Background paper and sentiment from Craftwork Cards - Glitz and Glamour
Matted layers from DCWV Natural matstack
Image from Mel Stampz  check her blog it's fantastic for freebie digital images
I'd like to enter this card in the One Stitch At A Time Challenge # 23

A weekend in Yorkshire

We sped off to Yorkshire at the weekend for a quick visit to see our gorgeous grandaughters.  I took up with me some initial wooden letters to make door hangers.  They had great fun covering and decorating them with the bits and pieces I took with me.

MSE Challenge

The MSE challenge (I think!) was to do something different and I thought I have a play with some Flowersoft that's been lurking around for some time.  It can just about be seen on the roses in this image from Pink Petticoat. The paper is from the Papermania Rose Garden stack and the flowers are from Wild Orchid with a little touch up from a Promarker pen.  The fab Rainmac got hold of the inverted scallop cirlces for me and I used one with a scallop circle to cut the green frame. It's been a while since I've entered a challenge so here goes and thanks to Melissa for all the listed challenges :

I'd like to enter this in the following challenges

Crafty Angles - Circles/Squares

Creative card Crew: to Die For Challenge

Sir Stampalot Challenge: Lazy Hazy Days of Summer

Cute Card ThursdayChallenge #120: Schools Out for Summer

Sweet Peas

One of my favourite flowers are Sweet Peas and we do grow a lot of them here in Essex.  I brought these home this afternoon and my OH said that the car was filled with their perfume.  Sadly, I don't have any sense of smell but I do enjoy looking at them for a couple of days. I've been taking pictures of them for ages, more than any other flower.

Another first!

I was asked by a smashing friend to make a 1st Communion card for her nephew.  I had absolutely no idea where to start but I knew that this was a very intelligent young man and that it needed to convey the meaning of the ceremony.  I found this simple stamp on Ebay and decided to make as clean and simple as possible with a prayer inside.  This is how it turned out.  A huge thank you to Sarah for finding the Spellbinders inverted scallop circles for me, I'm going to have fun with these.

Here's me with my fab sis-in-law, Sue, before we did our 5k Race for Life walk in aid of Cancer Research in the beautiful Hylands Park in Chelmsford. It was a very warm and beautiful day and I didn't realise how huge Hylands Park is as we never repeated any part of the course. It was lovely just to walk and natter with friends and family for an hour or two. After the walk it was off to the pub for lunch in the pretty gardens of a local pub.