Good evening everyone, how have you all been today?
It was overcast and miserable yesterday here in South Wales so I kept busy to stay upbeat.  Today, thankfully, is much nicer and the sun has been shining since early morning.... whey hey!!  I do hope it's been nice where you are and remains so throughout the rest of the week!
I don't have a card to show you today, instead I wanted to draw your attention to a lovely blog by Amy Sheffer called Pickled Paper Designs.  Amy is the creator of the original card I cased and put up on the blog last Wednesday.  You can find her card HERE  (I thought I'd never find it to give her the credit due!!).   I'm sorry I cannot show you the picture of her card here but I forgot to ask her for permission.   I think many, if not all of you will appreciate Amy's style of cardmaking/crafting as she is a creative and versatile crafter, so if you have time I promise it will be well worth the look.
I am hoping to do my favourite cards of the year (in a different way) this week, so I hope you can stop by and take a look.
Well that's it for now. Have a good evening whatever your up to (I'm having dinner cooked for me.  Sooo nice!!)  Bye for now Linda x

SPECIAL NOTE
I would like to add this special note to go out to our friend Christine Hussey.  Our thoughts are with you and your family.  I am here for you anytime dear friend. All my love Linda xx

CASE of card by Dena Concienne

Good morning all,
I am so thrilled to know that you all liked the pins I showed yesterday, thank you all so much for the wonderful comments that you left for me.  I have been sourching new suppliers of beads, findings etc and have been really impressed with the variety of things I now have to use.  My beading arsenal has gone from one 5x10 Craftmate box to approx 12boxes now and I still haven't enough large beads. Oh we crafters are never satisfied are we; always on the look out for more.   Of course I am still using alot of the old stuff because it is so lovely and you 'don't change what ain't broken' so they say...lol!

Well, it seems an age since I did my last CASE card and I planned to do at least one every single week, shame on me I know.  I still forget what day of the week it is;  try to remember what week of the month.....now that is asking for trouble.........  I think we are about half way through May..., ah that's good enough for me (hanging head in shame)!!
Anyway guys and gals I am feeling a little stronger today after taking time out in the garden with my grandson yesterday.  I just sat in full sunlight, letting the rays power all over me and it was dreamy.  The heat was fabulous as I drifted into a world of my own and for a couple of minutes I was the happiest girl alive.... and then my grandson shouted 'NANNIE, what ya doing?' and my peace was shattered.  I didn't mind in the slightest, my grandson is the most adorable little man, he is friendly, happy (most of the time), polite and totally charming... oh, and so very cute!  He has only just turned 3 and already speaks very well, infact most of the time he doesn't shut up and chatters on about anything and everything.  To be precise, he only shuts up when he goes down for his nap around 2.30pm and that's when I can (sometimes) have a quick check of the blog and if I am lucky check some emails too.  All that said, he is my world and I adore him.  I have been blessed with 5lovely grandchildren but I don't get to see the other 4 so often, much to my great disappointment.  They are 3 funny and energetic little boys and a gorgeous girl who always seems so pleased to see me it bowls me over.  Ok, I had better stop now, I am rabbiting on again, but those of you with grandchildren will understand. I just hope I haven't bored you to death.


Here is the card that I have cased today and also the LINK so you can go to the blog and see the full post for yourselves.
It is a stunning creation by the wonderful Dena Concienne.   Dena has used a Magnolia stamped image and Making Memories - Je t' Adore papers.   Je t' Adore the card!!!!

I went for a sentiment instead of an image, but other than that I kept quite true to the plan.  I can't wait to read your opinions of the comparison.

A big chunky rose isn't it.  They are beautiful roses.
As you can see I completely changed the look of the card but kept the basic ideas: tied to the side,  floral corner and lace edging.  I thought they were, for me, the main features that I really wanted to copy.  I have made a gatefold card and the left-hand side with the crocheted lace is the one that closes over.
Dena was your original card a side fold or gatefold?  (Fingers crossed Dena will read this!!)
For this card I used some fabulous Hot off the Press papers (don't ask me which ones please,  as I honestly cannot remember the collection name).  I just love the sketchy flowers and the mix of colours.   The lace and flowers are some I have had in my box for ages now but they're all from Wild Orchid Crafts.  The larger of the flowers was part of a Candy win from the lovely Bev Rochester and it was a tan colour to begin with, but I changed the colour using my promarkers.  I added 'Shale' to it and created a beautiful brown to coordinate with the papers and overall colour scheme of the card.  Good don't you think?  I don't waste money buying lots of different colours now, how many of us can afford to do that?  I just get out my promarkers, Whisper pens or spritzers and colour my flowers to coordinate with my project.   I don't always start with white or ivory either, as long as the colour will blend over the original almost any colour can be achieved.  I usually test the colours underneath where the glue will go, to check the end result first before attempting to colour the whole thing.  Another way to do this is to find a petal the flower can live without, remove it and then use it as the tester.  That way, I don't waste flowers and I can work out if I need to mix colours to get the right shade.
Well that's it for me today, it is almost 5am and I must attempt some sleep before the grandson is back at lunchtime.  I hope you all have a wonderful day, but before I leave I would like to give you a thought for the day that I found on MotivateUs.com

" Let our hearts never get used to the miracles that happen around us & within us everyday. Let every sunrise, every flower, every smile, every raindrop and every child make us rejoice at the miracles in our lives." Copyright Caroline Naoroji

Regards Linda xx

Andrea Ewen Case

Hi everyone,
I think I need to start by sending out Big Thanks to all you lovely peeps for leaving me fabulous comments yesterday.  I was so pleased to see that you like the second bookmark; I may have to think of something else to add to the collection, so watch this space and see what I come up with.
Desiree left me a comment and asked about the ribbon being long enough for bigger books and also was concerned about the velcro damaging the card.  Well the nice thing about this style of bookmark is that you can have the ribbon longer and by having two or three velcro dots under the larger tag it can be adjusted to suit the size of the book.  As to the velcro, the way to ensure that the book and the card don't get damaged is to put the softer, fluffy side of the velcro dots on the underneath of the tag and the hook side on the top of the small tag.  This way they will either be just hanging away from the book if left loose or in between the two tags if acting as a book wrap.   I hope that gives you a few more reasons to have a go yourselves.  As Christine said, they would make excellent gifts, so how about making an altered box to send them in.  Then it would be two gifts in one; a beautiful bookmark and a box for little treasures.

Ok, now on to todays Casing.   Some time ago, I found a blog by a very talented lady from the USA, her name is Andrea Ewen and I was blown away by her blog, it is full of wonderful inspiration.  Andrea uses a variety of medium and styles and is on the Design Team for Verve,  Zva Creative and The Ribbon Carousel Challenge among others.

This is the Card that I used for my Case today.  Isn't it gorgeous.   A simple layout with lots of potential in a classic style that means you can use different papers to make it look completely different every time.  I played around with lots of different papers myself, but in the end I settled on some freebie papers from a very clever designer from Australia, Jodie Lee Patterson.  Jodie designs for Prima and her vintage papers and accessories are astounding and so very pretty.  So if you are into vintage & shabby chic try and pop by to take a look.  She is also a generous designer and offers freebies on a regular basis (see the 'Freebies' section on the right-hand sidebar).

So here if my take on Andrea's card:-

Do you notice the improvement in the photography quality?  I actually managed to find the Macro setting on the camera. 

I still have a way to go to learn each of the settings, but the improvement had me so happy I took a close-up and even managed to make it quite a detailed shot.

Here is a close-up of the gorgeous paper from Jodie Lee, the crinkle edged ribbon and some of my pins (though I wish I hadn't taken the' head' off the longer pin). I have secured the ends of the pins into some large glue dots at the bottom of the matt/layer to ensure safety.
My ribbon is actually made from some very fine organza tulle that I cut into various ribbon widths and 'burnt' the edges to get the vintage, crinkle look.  I am really pleased with how it turned out; it added a subtle shimmer without being blingy don't you think?   The funny thing is, now that I am looking closely at the pictures I am wondering if I also should have added a butterfly or even a tiny cluster of flowers to the top of the tag; but I was trying to draw the eye to the pins and the papers, so maybe I did right after all.
I hope you have enjoyed my latest Case.  Maybe you could do one and send me the picture to showcase.    That gives me an idea, how about we have a fortnightly challenge where you also do a Case of the card I dedicate to the challenge and the selected winner will receive a small candy gift?   I don't know anything about Linky's etc, so I will have to look into this.  In the meantime if you fancy it let me know in your comments and I will make that the next challenge.  In the mean time, we have the Bookmarks challenge to think about; I will write up the challenge requirements for that tomorrow, so get ready.  If any of you could help me with the links for the challenge, I would be most grateful.
Ok then, that's it for today other than to say, I will not be able to do a post for Tuesday morning as I am away all day Monday taking my son back to University.  We are also going out for a meal and meeting his girlfriend for the first time.  So two busy days ahead of me, but I will, however, do a scheduled post tomorrow ready for Monday morning (to include the challenge).
I hope you have a great Sunday; my daughter, eldest son and grandson are over for dinner at my house.  What about you?   Enjoy dear blogfriends, whatever you're up to.
Hugs Linda x

Ps  I have updated the New Candy post from Friday to include a new close-up photograph of my pins.  They show some of the items that will be included in the Starter Kits.  Linda x