Inspired By Joy Taylor Day 1

Hello!!!

You've all heard me rave about Joy Taylor, but just in case you're unaware of who she is or how amazing her creations are, click over to her blog RIGHT NOW!!

I'm so excited to be presenting these cards that were inspired by the magical Joy, that I'm just going to jump right in--

Are you all sighing with me?! I mean seriously, it's almost ridiculous how pretty this card is!!

Here is my little offering in 'homage' of the magnificent original:

I'm such a huge fan of kraft paper lately, I can't get enough of it!

The flower is from Hero Arts' Flower Corsage (CG287). I just stamped half the stamp in versamark and heat embossed it in white, then cut it out.

I coloured it using Copic Markers, using a light pink first, over the whole image, then 2 'subsequently' darker pinks on the inside of each petal to give the impression of depth/shadow.

Here is a closer image of the flower:

The doily die is from My Favourite Things (quickly winning the race to MY favourites list! Great dies at that company!)

Now, I don't have the Papertrey Ink Picnic Plaid Impression plate (embossing folder) so I did my embossing on the kraft background, by hand.

I just turned the kraft cardstock on an angle (so that the two diagonal corners were lined up) on my Martha Stewart Score board, then ran my 'stylus' down the scoreline and then continued every 1/8 of an inch for 4 'stripes'. I then skipped a 1/2 inch and started again. When I had finished the entire card front, I rotated it 180 degrees and did the same going the other way (Hope that makes sense--let me know if you want to see a tutorial!)

It's a slow process to do it by hand, but not difficult. You just have to be careful and precise.

Here is a closeup of the embossed effect:

I think it looks great.

I then finished the card with a few Joy-ish gemstones (coz that's what she would do *wink*) and stamped the sentiment from HA in Memento Tuxedo Black ink.

So there you go! There's card 1 in the series! I do hope you like my little take!

Be back here tomorrow for the next card :)

Take care and please feel free to leave me a comment, I'd truly love to hear what you think.

*hugs*

Linda xx

Where has June gone to?! and one more :)

Hi everyone!

First of all, thank you to the 5 people to replied to my request last time, letting me know you receive my blog updates ok. If anyone else is out there reading my little piece of bloggo, please let me know if you have any issues getting updates.

If it's just you 5, then welcome fabulous 5!! lol

So it's been a hectic month, thus my being VERY poor at blogging--here's a rundown:

Massive issues with our buying a house, that FINALLY all came together and we are now very proud to annouce that we are homeowners...and poor haha!

Charlotte had her Christening, which was really lovely, I'll share some photos here soon if you like (let me know :))

Charlotte has learnt about 'mischief'. How to accomplish it, excel in it and generally live and breathe it 24-7 haha! (thus a tired mummy!)
I've been packing up the last of our things for our move (date is still TBC but I like to be prepared) and I've done some BIG cleaning out. My craft corner, closet (and just about everything else) are MUCH lighter and clearer--I feel good about that (Thank you to Ali Edwards who always inspires me to love what I have more than wish I had something else/extra).

And a lot more, but that's plenty to bore you with :)

I've also been working my TAIL off at my crafty desk to bring you some (hopefully) eye-candy as a thank you for being so supportive and patient.

Recently I've noticed a LOT of bloggers have been doing 'inspired by' themes and I really love seeing how people make their own versions of other peoples work. I know I'm constantly inspired by the blogs I read and so I decided to do the same thing.

SO for the next few weeks, I'll be 'running' and "Inspired By..." segment on my blog.

This week is a lady who's cards are so lovely I'm constantly taken aback by their simplicity and beauty--none other than my friend Joy Taylor (*insert cheering* teehee).

I have 4 cards to show you this week that were inspired by Ms Joy and I'm so excited to show them to you.

After Joy's turn on the Inspired By soundtrack, it will then be Nichol Magouirk (who you've all heard me rave about time and time again), then Kelly Marie Alvarez from Lawn Fawn (who doesn't love Lawn Fawn?!) and if I can possibly manage it, Dawn McVey and a few others will be 'playing their songs' on here too.

I've chosen these ladies because they are the few blogs I'm still very much in love with and they are some of the first that I fell for when I started blogging and crafting.

SO! Please stay tuned and come back tomorrow to see what I've got for you inspired by lovely Joy.

Hope you like it!

*hugs*

Linda xx

request for help :)

Just a little one :)

I've been told by a good friend, that my blog updates aren't "coming through" to the email subscribers etc, so what I need you to do PUH-LEASE is to just leave me a quick comment telling me if you got this update and how you're subscribed (google reader, email subscription etc). So I can check what's going on with this subscription business!!

As soon as I work it all out, I'll have a few WEEKS of fun "Inspired-By" creations! Can't wait to share them with you!

Thanks so much loves!!

Linda xx

general

I'm busily crafting away right now...and clearing out my stash, coz our new house is a little on the small side, so I'm having to pare down to only keeping the things I love. (that's not a bad thing though is it!)

I'll be back REALLY soon with a week (or maybe 2) of "Inspired By" series...featuring some friends I've mentioned here before on many occasions :)

Bear with me loves!! 

Hope you're all enjoying the changes in season, whichever season you may be in!

Linda xx