Rain Girl

Hello Friends

Happy Monday!! I got some new stamps in he mail and I just had to make a card with this one. I LOVE this wee girl playing in the rain. This is a new stamp from the lovely Phyllis Harris collection over at Unity. It is called All Things New.

I can't say enough good things about Phyllis Harris stamps they are simply wonderful. This one is my new favourite.  I love how she just captures the essence of childhood so perfectly. 

I coloured her using my water colour paints. The rain is  splatters of Peacock Feathers distress ink . The card base is some lovely pink glitter card by American Crafts. I kept my card quite simple as I wanted the image to speak for itself.

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog today. I hope you like my card :)

Mandi xox

PS  I am having a wee crafty giveaway if you want to enter go here.

Challenges
Simon Says Stamp Monday Anything Goes

Scotland Photos & Giveaway

 Hello Friends

Well here are some of my pictures from my trip to Scotland. I wanted to give you a wee glimpse in to the place I call home.  If you are here for my giveaway you can scroll right to the end if you don't want to go through the photos ha :)

Glasgow Skyline & The River Clyde

So this is home for me Sunny Glasgow. It is the largest city in Scotland and home to the River Clyde. The name itself is Gaelic and it means 'Dear Green Place'. It really is too even in winter it is still very green. We get so much rain that is stays green and mossy year round. Glasgow is filled with so much to do and see and most of the museums are free to visit. It really is a great city it has lots of great shopping too it is one of the best shopping places in Scotland.

Paisley Abbey

This is an absolutely stunning Abbey inside and out. It is only a ten minute drive from my Mum's house. It is a former monastery and a current day Church of Scotland. My husband and I went here for Easter Sunday. Where a full choir dressed in white robes sang and an orchestra played. It was quite heavenly :) You can find out more about the Abbey here.

Troon Beach

 Troon is about a forty minute car drive from Glasgow. It is very quick and easy to get to even in public transport you can be at the beach in less than an hour. A lovely wee beach and the town itself has lots of wee shops and restaurants. I LOVE the beach and when I am home I go here all the time in all seasons. We have very mild weather in Scotland. We don't tend to have extreme heat and cold but we do have LOTS of rain.

A wee selfie on the windswept Troon beach :)

Doune Castle

Every time we go home I try to take my husband Don to different places that he has not been to. I think this was his 12th trip to Scotland! This was another castle to add to his list. Doune castle is situated just outside of Stirling about an hour's drive from Glasgow. This castle is currently being used in the TV series Outlander if you are a fan of that. Monty Pythons Holy Grail was also filmed here. The audio tour of the castle is narrated by Terry Jones which my husband found to be really funny.

View from the top of Doune Castle

 This is one of my favourite castles you can climb right to the top if you wish. We did and it is not for the faint of heart. Tiny stairs that get narrower and narrower as you reach the top. The view is absolutely stunning when you get there though and well worth it. The view if Mountains and the River Teith.

Auchingarroch Wildlife Centre

We took my nephew to a wildlife park in Perth called Auchingarroch Wildlife Centre. He is animal crazy and he loved this place. It is out in the middle of nowhere and the view is just snow capped mountains. You get to feed the animals and really interact with them.  You can find out more about Auchingarroch here.

Matilda  the Highland Cow

Now I can't let you go without showing you a highland cow can I :) Meet Matilda she is a one year old highland calf and she is as cute as a button. You can see her at Auchingarroch she loves to be petted under her chin. So I hope you enjoyed some of my photos from home.  I took hundreds of photos but I did not want to bore you with too many. As you can see it is a beautiful place. You can be in the city one minute and then drive an hour one way and be at the beach. Then go the other way and be in the mountains all in the same day. If you get the chance to go to Scotland of course I will highly recommend it I am biased of course ;)

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Now on to my wee giveaway! I brought back 3 stamps a wee Scottie Dog from Hobby Craft and Crafters Companion stamps 'Time Out' & 'With Sympathy. I also have some Green Jute which I love using and some Blue Tartan Ribbon. I think the best part of the prize is the Brusho though. I went back to the shop in Glasgow to buy one especially for this giveaway and they were almost out. I got the last turquoise one on the shelf. If you have been on my blog lately you know how much  I love Brusho there is so much you can do with this wee pot of powder. So all you have do is tell me why you want to win super easy. I will pick a winner next Sunday 3rd May.

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog today I hope you enjoyed my photos :)

Mandi xox

Fly

Hello Friends

Here is my Friends With Flair card for today :)  I love this stamp it is called Feather Flight. I use it quite a lot it is a very versatile stamp. This time I heat embossed it on to some vellum with white embossing powder. Then backed it on to some pink glitter card.

 I used this lovely paper pad I found when I was home called Paper Flowers. It is filled with lots of lovely soft colours and unique designs. This paper I used is a very light duck egg colour with printed feathers in pink,orange and grey. The photo does not do it any justice. The paper is pearlescent so it is hard to pick up the colours well.  I finished off my card with some gem stones and pink twine. 

 I hope you like my card thanks so much for stopping by today.  I will have my wee giveaway posted tonight along with some photos of my trip to Scotland so stop back then if you want to. The post is now up if you want to enter go here :)

Mandi xox

Baby Elephant

Hello Friends

I hope you all had  a good week :)  I just got back from Scotland two days ago and I am still pretty jet lagged! I loved being home and the weather was just perfect. I got out and about quite a bit but more about that later.

  I was crafting last night but I did not get around to finishing anything off. So I wanted to share a card that I was asked to make a few weeks ago that I have not got around to posting yet. This card was for a wee boy who just had his first birthday. How cute is this wee elephant?? I love it so much this is Unity stamp called Sweet Elle.  The balloons were made with another stamp from Fiskars called Birthday Bash.

I stamped the elephant and water coloured it then cut it out. Next I stamped the balloons on to some coloured card and fussy cut them too. I then attached the balloons to the elephant with some coloured twine. I used foam squares to adhere it to my card to give it some dimension. Then I made a banner with the same card stock and adhered it to the top of my card. I then stamped the sentiment then sprinkled some sequin stars around. I finished the card off by mounting it on to the same two card colours then a white card base.

I hope you like my card I really like the muted colours I used. Usually all of my baby cards are done in pastels so this make a nice wee change.

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog today

Mandi xox

PS I did not forget my wee give away! I brought back some craft goodies from Scotland. I will do a blog post on it next week some time and share some of my photos from home. I need to unpack everything first :)  So stop back then to be in with a chance of winning.

Challenges
Friends With Flair
Simon Says Stamp Monday - Middle  Balloon

Stars Tag

Hello Friends

I am still playing with my Brusho paints ha! I love them so much I went back to the craft store today and bought some more colours. They are highly pigmented powdered paint that come in little pots. I made this tag using the Ultramarine colour it is a lovely cobolt blue with hints of purple through it. I applied the powder to the damp tag and it creates this lovely organic pattern all on it's own.   Once it was dry I stamped my owl and sentiment which is from the What Lies Within  stamp kit with VersaMark ink. Then heat embossed it with white embossing powder.  I then got out my wee star punch and punched out some stars. I added it to a glitter background just to give it a different finish. 

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog today.

Mandi xox

12 Tags of 2015 April

 Hello Friends

I wanted to take part in the Tim Holtz 12 Tags of 2015 but have not yet had a chance to do so. Last month I had everything that was required to make the tag and just ran out of time. So today I got a head start on the April 2015 Tag. I love the tag he made this month the kraft tag and distressed flowers. This is my version I hope you like it. I had to improvise since I don't have most of the things he used this month.

I used my Unity Bloom & Simplify stamp set on this tag. This stamp set comes with three stamps and I used all of them on this tag.  I stamped the flowers and painted them with Worn Lipstick distress ink. I painted two sets and added the other flower on top to give some dimension.  I painted the stems and leaves with Mowed Lawn ink. The background was created using a water mister and this lovely turquoise colour which is Peacock Feathers. I stamped the simplify word at the bottom of the tag and added the learn to which is  from the Tim Holtz Papillion Stamp Set.

I used the script stamp on the kraft tag then distressed it with Walnut Stain ink.  I don't have access to a sewing machine yet so I just attached my flowers to the tag with foam squares it gives it even more dimension and a lovely look to it. To finish I tied my ribbon that was dyed with Worn Lipstick distress ink and added a couple of rhinestones.

I love the way it turned out!! I need to make time to play more with this challenge I LOVE to get messy with my distress inks.They are my favourite way to colour my craft projects.

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog today.

Mandi xox

Challenges
Virginia's View Ch14 Dimension
Craft Stamper April Colour

Little Fighter

Hello Friends

I bought my latest issue of Craft Stamper magazine today and it came with this lovely flourish stamp that I used on the bottom of my card. The other stamp is one of new favourite Unity Stamps thay I have not yet used I thought it would go well with the flourish stamp. It is from the Another Reason To Say Thank You stamp set.

 I stamped everything with VersaMark ink on to some teal card and then heat embossed it with white embossing powder. Then I punched some little butterflies and glued them on. Finally I distressed the edges and mounted it to a white card base. I really like the way it turned out I hope you like it too :)

Thanks so much for stopping by today.

Mandi xox

Dragonflies & Stars

Hello Friends

I am back with another Brusho paint card. I have been playing around with these paints now for a couple of days now and I love love love the effects you get with them.  I used the purple and turquoise colours on this card and some white embossing powder.

I used the What lies within KOM 11/14. This stamp set has this lovely fairy and sentiment in it. I have not got a chance to use it yet. So today was the first time I got to ink her up. 

 Thanks so much for stopping by my blog today. 


Mandi xox

Reason To Say Thank You

Hello Friends

Greetings from Scotland :) It's lovely being home the weather is so mild compared to New York I love it!!   I visited a craft shop not far from my Mum's house called Craft World! I was like a kid in a sweetie shop.  I saw lots of new things I wanted to buy. I managed to resist though and only bought a few things. I have wanted to try Brusho paints for so long now and I saw them in the shop so I grabbed a few to try. 

If you are not aware of Brusho they are powdered paints that are highly pigmented. I sprinkled some on to wet paper and just dried and sprayed until I was happy with the out come. It is almost like marble when it is dry and you never get the same pattern twice. It really is a great medium to work with. They are very easy to work with I really love the look you get with them. You can find out more about them here.

I heat embossed the flower from the Bloom & Simplify stamp kit with white embossing powder. Once it was dry I defined the colour a little more with the paint of the petals then used my white paint pen to highlight. The sentiment is from the Another Reason To Say Thank You stamp kit.   The paint colour of the Brusho I used on my card is called Sea Green.

I love the way my card turned out I hope you like it too :)  I really like the look of Brusho paints they leave such a unique background on your paper.  

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog today.

Mandi xox