Springing into Spring.

Welcome,

I know that I have not been very active in blogland of late - my other hobbies, plus a BIG card order have kept me busy - never mind life in general has also kept me occupied a lot....

  The theme for our small, New Zealand swap last month was 'spring', as that is our current season.

We were told we could use a pop-up/spring mechanism, or illustrate the season.

But 'yours truly' went off an another tangent.

My card started with a sheet of 'spring-like' floral paper glued to some white card, then edged with yellow ink.  As you can see, a snippet was used on the envelope.

I then positioned a rectangle die towards the top of this, and die cut it.

Next a piece of white card which was printed with a computer generated 'sentiment' was cut with  a slightly larger rectangle die, sponged with the yellow ink and creased before being adhered over the top of the rectangular void.  A tag was added at the base.

I then stacked this panel (with 4mm of foam tape) on a white card base -that I had brushed the edges of with the yellow ink.

I then opened the aperture and glued a spring from a ball point pen in the resultant 'nest'.

I finished the inside of the card with a snippet of the patterned paper also. 

The recipient (and her husband) roared with laughter when the card was opened.

I am linking this to:

Word Power October Challenge - Anything goes with the sentiment as the main focus

Allsorts Challenge #833 - Woodland Creatures or Anything Goes

Love Those Pretty Papers October Challenge - anything goes with Pretty Papers Opt, Halloween colours

Word Art Wednesday Challenge Weeks #718 + 719 - Anything Goes

Pussy Cat Pussy Cat...

Welcome

Thank  you for visiting today - it is very much appreciated.

I needed a thanks card, and am also a guest DT at Critter Crazy Challenge this month,

so I combined the two.

The card is for a male, who was adopted by a cat, after refusing to have one for years, hence the image.

The image is from Gina K's set called Cordial Cats, and was cut with a matching die, before being mounted on an oval, cut with a TH Thinlets die. stitched ovals

The oval was mounted over a textured panel, pierced with a plate simply labeled 'swirls' that was  in a giveaway package I won.

All the layers were edged with Delicata Golden Glitz ink, and layered on 1mm foam tape

I stamped the inside with the paw prints stamp, 

and the mouse hole stamp

I also stamped the enveloped with the paw print stamp.

I am linking this to:

Word Art Wednesday Challenge Weeks #718 - 719 - Anything Goes

Try It On Tuesday challenge - Animals, real or imaginary 

 

Lil' Patch of Crafty Friends Challenge #262 - Anything Goes

Other Hobbies

Welcome

thank you for visiting my blog.

On a post recently, I commented about spending time on my other hobbies, and a request was made by by a reader that they would love to know what my other hobbies are.

Well there is knitting, nothing flash there, just peggy squares for blankets to be given to the disadvantaged.  This is one I finished in January this year, I knitted it together in one piece. 

 I have made individual squares for the next,  and have done enough for a half blanket.

There is embroidery, in which I specialise in PHD's - Projects Half Done ... these were all finally completed this year after languishing embroidered, but not finished, for longer than I care to admit...  

I crochet, but not as much now as I did, as some arthritis in my wrists swears when I do too much.

And then there is Bobbin Lace making.  I started about fifteen years ago, but dropped it when my husband was ill, and then everything was packed for the sale of the house, during the three years in the rental, and finally unpacked recently, so I am starting from scratch again, with some very basic designs of bookworms.

  

This next photo shows the bookworm still on the pattern, known as a pricking, with some bobbins. 

So that is some of what is keeping me occupied and not blogging as much.

In Honour of Honey Bee Day

Welcome

Thank you for taking the time to visit

Last month there was a day called International Honey Bee day.. and that was the theme for my monthly swap card...

I used an old set of stamps from a now defunct company, Layers of Color. 

The focal image was embossed in gold and painted with water colour paints..

Clear Kindy Glitz was added to the wings of the bee.

The background started as a 'mop-up' piece of card  that I had mopped up gold ink on. It was not sparkly enough,  so on went a layer of gold glimmer mist... it still looked a bit blah, so then I placed a honey comb stencil over it and brushed through Memento Dandelion ink...ah, better, but the final touch was the random  over stamping using a small bee from the set, in Memento London Fog ink.

The end result has a gorgeous, but subtle sparkle to it, which I could not pick up with the camera.

All this happened over several days, I might add 🙂

I embossed the sentiment from the same set, then mounted the main panel over a blue splattered and sprayed piece of paper with 1mm foam tape, and mounted both onto a gold toned card base

I inside, which I forgot to photograph, I think trimmed it with a strip from the front panel,

The envelope had one edge stamped with a row of the same wee bees.

I am linking this to:

Crazy is onr Name - Stencils are our Game Sept Challenge - Nature or Anything Goes

Word Art Wednesday Challenge Weeks # 714 + 715 - Anything Goes

Addicted to Stamps and More Challenge #500 - Dies and/or stencils

Pammie's Inky Pinkies Challenge #2535 - Anything Goes

 

Flipped Butterfly

Welcome

My apologies for not returning sooner - I have been chasing some of my other hobbies as well as making cards - some of which I cannot share yet. 

 I have also been falling down You Tube (crafting) 'rabbit holes', and have joined a few extra Facebook groups related to some of the crafts I do....

We also had a spate of visitors in the evenings, which meant no computer time, so I got way behind on visiting others as well, but here goes with sharing this fun butterfly.

The butterfly was made with one of Uniko's Ink and Flip stencils, the Geometric Butterfly

I made this early in the year, and think I used Memento Dandelion and Lady Bug inks

I stenciled onto some 'mop up' card, which I had also used to clean the back of a stencil on.. soft colours but with some interesting patterns in amongst them.

 

to finish I added some clear bling, and a sentiment from a Darkroom Door set of stamps

I finished the inside with a strip of the background card

I am linking this to: 

Word Art Wednesday Weeks #712 +713   -Anything Goes

Pammie's Inky Pinkies Challenge #2533 - Anything Goes

Ally's Angels Challenge #97 - Anything Goes

Critter Crazy challenge #101 - Anything featuring a creature goes

Until next time

Classical Elegance

Welcome

Thank you for visiting my blog, your visits are appreciated.

I started this several days ago,  but time once more has moved more quickly than me, and I have spent the last 24 hours sneezing with the start of a cold... 

I would like to welcome my newest follower - Donna Ellis of Creative Smiles. Donna makes some beautiful cards, and I would encourage you to go have a look.

I started this card with a piece of card I had cut the lady out of - the die is an unmarked one

I layered the white card over a deep maroon, and added some gold sequins around the silhouette 

The sentiment was embossed in gold

And the edges sponged with Delicata Gold ink - I did managed to get this photo where the sparkle of the gold ink shows

There are two strips of washi tape layered on the card and the envelope.

I am linking this to:

Pammie's Inky pinkies Challenge #2530 - Anything Goes

Word Art Wednesday Challenge - Weeks #710 + 711 - Anything Goes

Cut it Up Challenge #355 - Monochrome

Gone Fishin' - again...

Welcome

Once again I have been much slower than I intended in blogging again

I have been trying to catch up on commenting, but the more I tried, it seemed the behinder I got, so I am trying to make a clean start....again :)

I made this card for one of the fishermen in the extended family - fishing is a major hobby of his, especially in the summer.

I used a set of stamps sent to me by the beautiful Karen Letchworth -  a Whimsy stamp set, Born to Fish

The background was made with a Uniko stencil, Wonky Stripes  and two shades of blue ink, then sprayed some blue Mica spray across the bottom of the card.

Initially I silver embossed the fish images, but they were 'lost' on the background, so I stamped them in Memento Paris Twilight ink on white card, fussy cut them and adhered them over the embossed images.

The sentiment is also from a Uniko stamp set

I repeat stamped the the fish 'off the edge' on the inside panel

As well as on the envelope, as seen in the top photo. 

I am linking this to 

Word Art Wednesday Challenge Weeks #708 +709 - Anything Goes

                                      Pammie's Inky Pinkies Challenge #2529 - Anything Goes

                                           Cardz For Guys Challenge #376 - Summer Holidays

Tiles

Welcome

Thank  you for taking the time to visit.

I had hoped to post this before now, but I was waiting on a card to be delivered, and I thought the postal service was being very tardy with it.... It is part of June's card swap,  and the recipient is only an hour up the road.... 

Ooops, my bad, I omitted a line of the address from the envelope - I will be thankful that it arrived, and was not sent back to me!

The brief in June from our swap group, was to create a background using mosaic tiles made of paper, and several tutorials were linked to choose from. I chose this one  by Stamptastic Design. 

I started by using some Brusho'd watercoloured paper that I had cut into.  The offcuts were cut into strips and further cut down for the shapes.  

These were placed onto copy paper I had laid double sided adhesive onto. I trimmed it and sprinkled over silver embossing powder and heated.... 

Once I had assembled the main panel onto the background, I felt it needed a silver edge, so ran an embossing pen around it, added more powder and heated again, hoping that I did not wreck the whole panel and need to start again....  

I added in a raised diecut negative, a concept I was inspired to use by from Natasha Foote.  (It is approximately 3/4 the way through the linked video.) The die is part of a Scrapbook.com set, I will edit to add the name later.

 I dipped the edges of the panel into embossing ink, then 'silvered' that also.  The wee sentiment was also silver embossed.

The inside of the card, and envelope, were decorated with silver dotted washi tape.

I am linking this to:

Word Art Wednesday Weeks #706 +707 - Anything Goes 

Elliebelle's Crafty Wednesday June and July Challenge - Anything Goes

Pixie's Snippets Playground Challenge #509 - Anything Goes using snippets