Wired Up

This past week has been busy non stop every day from having the new second door being fitted, mammogram at hospital, boiler service, car service, hair appointment. (I did manage to meet up with a lovely blogging friend who is over from Canada at present.)  Next week so far I just have a dentist appointment to go to. Think I might have chipped a tooth though. Hopefully I can catch up on all your blogs.

Here are the last two inspiration cards to show you for the current Butterfly Challenge which closes
on Tuesday.

First card using Butterfly/Wheat/Wire.

Fairly simple card using up some snippets on my desk. I have used very fine gold wire for the antenna on the butterfly and the colour wheat is the squares that I have used behind the letters. These were out cuts from a die I had used previously, though for the life of me can't remember which one it was! Letters and edging  are gold stickers from my stash. 

Second card uses all seven elements of the challenge wheel.

Butterfly/Wisteria/Wine/ Wheat /Window/Washi tape/Wire

 Again I was using up a left over on my desk which was the die cut frame. I edged it with washi tape and then made a card base up using more of the wheat coloured cardstock.  The butterfly (using all 3 colours) was suspended with thin silver wires  which were attached across the opening in a web shape and captured between the two circles holding the butterfly in place.  Shows up perfectly IRL but couldn't catch very well on camera.  The die cut frame from the card base was edged with more of the washi tape and adhered inside the card so that when closed it fitted back  into the aperture. The sentiment is from a stamp set by Imagination Crafts.

Entering into the following challenge:
Pixies Crafty Workshop #330 Use up your snippets.

Nearly all White!

It was time again for the girls in the Christmas Club to show our latest makes. I had my card made and then couldn't upload the photo of it until now.  Christine chose the theme of White on White or with just a smidgen of colour which is what I chose to do.
I found a christmas card front in my used box which was just right so here it is.

I used grey textured card stock to make the base card and cut a window from the front of the card with my Crafts-Too Rectangle Stitched die cut. I trimmed the card front down to fit and added the red bow. Cut matching silver card stock for inside of card to neaten. Very simple card which does look beter IRL.
I don't know what the problem has been but it started with a power cut last week which resulted in our near neighbour having a trench dug right across his front lawn and he now has a row of cones across it. The trench  is now back filled in but is still about six inches lower than the rest of the garden either side so hope that isn't the job considered done! Last night there was digging and drilling going on till the early hours of the morning in another part of the close behind our back garden. We dread seeing any GPO or Electric vans in our area as it generally means something is broken and more will be broken trying to fix the original fault. Certainly not been able to post any pictures to my blog for a few days.
Monday saw the second new front  door being fitted. I now have panels on the door but we still had a problem in that the door was delivered with 5 blank keys!!!  I can't even begin to work out the logic behind that one. We had asked for extra keys to be included in the price but didn't expect all of them to be blanks so a trip was needed by the installers to go and get the keys cut and then make sure they all worked. I do have to say that the installers have been brilliant and made a really good job of fitting the doors. The supplier of the doors needs a lesson though in before and after sales!

Explosion Box.

I'm entering the following into Pixies Crafty Workshop #329 as I have used loads of snippets up.

I had a commission for a 70th Birthday card for a friends Aunt. The brief was that the Aunt was a keen gardener and loves flowers, all colours. I mulled it over for a bit and finally came up with an Explosion Box.  I had made one years ago and watched a video again just to remind myself of the measurements needed.
This is rather a picture heavy post, but I didn't take any pictures of work in progress so this is just the finished box. My friend was delighted with it and wouldn't stop hugging me when I gave it to her and couldn't wait to give it to her Aunt.
It was a nice sunny day so I took the photos outside and I will let them do all the talking.

and finally the centre piece.

Window of Flowers

It is a new challenge over at the Butterfly Blog.
#103 Spin The butterfly Wheel with the Letter W. 

I have two cards as  inspiration to show you.

First card uses the colour Wisteria in the flowers and the frame and I have created a Window  with acetate over the image.

The digi image is by SLS lines called 'Dahlias 1' which I have painted using my Marvy LePlume II watercolour pens. The window was created by die cutting 6 frames using my Crafts-Too Rectangle dies Stitch hole and layering up. I inserted a sheet of acetate behind the first die cut and placed the trimmed down image behind the last frame and then finally  adhered to the card front. Wooden butterfly and the silver sticker sentiment were from my stash.

Second card uses the colour Wine and Washi Tape along with a butterfly of course.

I find making this type of card is easier when not actually required at the time  as you are then emotionally detached.  I have used a punch to die cut two butterflies from wine coloured felt and then layered up with a gold pearl. The gold sticker sentiment and the gold sticker bars were from my stash. The Washi Tape is simply adhered to a strip of the same backing card as the base card and then raised on 3D pads. The pattern on the tape is delicate butterflies along with Chaffinch and  Bluetits which I thought looked serene and peachful.

The challenge runs for 2 weeks and ends on July 17th so hope you will come and play. I will show some more cards next week with the other options on the wheel.

Pop Up Twister

The glorious weather has claimed my time this week plus the new Garage door was fitted Monday but we had to call them back in yesterday for a minor fault to be fixed.
Here are my last two cards to show you for the current Butterfly Challenge #102.

First card is a Pop up Twister card and I followed a really good tutorial by 'The Frugal Crafter' though she used a Karen Burniston dies-twist panel pop up mechanism whereas I made my own version up.

Here I have used Vermillion and Vine leaves plus of course my butterfly from the current wheel.

I have used various peg stamps by 'Heyda' to create the border pattern and also a vine leaf stamp that came as part of a wine set from a magazine. Coloured with a combination of different makes of markers. Butterfly is part of a set by 'Kaisercraft' called Texture Butterflies.

 Picture below shows the card partially opened.

 This one shows the card fully opened. There are several versions on You Tube which explain how the mechanism works.  The sentiment stamp was a freebie  from Papercraft Inspirations magazine.

Entering this card into the following challenge:

Double D Challenges #  Butterflies challenge. (I have chosen pink from the mood board).

Second card  uses all seven elements of the wheel.
Butterfly/ Vermillion/Vegas Gold/Violet/Vintage/Vertical pattern/Vine leaves.
The image is called 'Harriet'  by Pink Gem  which I coloured up whilst on holiday quite a few years ago now so the only thing about it that I do remember is that I used Graph'It pens which were all I had at the time. The butterfly stamp is by Kaisercraft and coloured using the 3 colours from the wheel.  Vineleaf  corners were stamped out in olive green ink and coloured in with the same ink and then fussy cut  to look like old picture corner mounts. The vertical pattern was created using the hessian ribbon (which also has vermillion flowers on it) and a strip of old lace from my stash. Sentiment was also from my stash. 

Challenge runs until next Tuesday 8pm GMT. Hope I have given you some ideas.

Candy Canes

Time once more for the girls in the Christmas Card Club to show our next makes. Lorraine set the theme which was Candy Canes /Gingerbread. I knew I had two design papers which had candy canes on them so I fished them  out and made up( not so quickly as it turns out) into two cards.

The first one went like clockwork.

 The paper is a Holly Hobby  from 2012 and came as a freebie in a magazine at that time. Card base is cream which I have layered up with a Christmas Red cardstock cut slightly smaller. Paper trimmed slightly smaller again and then layered on top. The remaining piece of the design paper was just enough to make a further panel up to go across the middle of the card which I raised up on 3D pads for dimension. Die cut sentiment is from Creative Expressions by sue Wilson CED3046.  Job done!

Not so my Second card  which started out life as being a gatefold  but all the layering went completely off kilter so after several hours of trying to make it work  (late last night) I gave it up as a bad job and salvaged what I could to start again.
This time it is an easel card which I eventually finished making this morning and then taking the photos out in the garden. I had to make several alterations to cover up mistakes from the gate fold design  and still not entirely happy with it but time marches on  so here it is.

Design paper is a freebie from a magazine. The ones that are really flimsy and shiny which come as inserts inside the mag so are not ideal for working with at the best of times. The red matting is not showing up but it was first embossed with a Couture Creations  Christmas Collection C0723877 which has  a rather nice stripe effect.It does show on the card IRL.  Sentiment is by Tonic Studios

'Script Merry christmas'.

On the home front things have not been going quite to plan.
The good news  is that The Doc's Aunt is back home now, though with an extensive  home  care  package set up around her.  She was in hospital for nearly 4 weeks and her stubbornness was nearly her undoing as she had Pneumonia and Sepsis of the lung. Hubby  had been trying to get her to go to her Drs ( to no avail) as she had a very bad chesty cough but no,  'Fishermans Friend ' lozenges  would see her right. No need to bother the Dr!! It was also her stubbornness and iron will that got her through the ordeal.
Not been in blogland much this past week as we were having a new front and back door fitted. What could possibly go wrong!!!!!!!!!!!
The front door was fitted Thursday. Right colour, Right design, Right Glass but Wrong finish.
The door should have come with a tongue and groove panelling but the door we  got  came completely plain so out came the catalogue and sure enough there was the door that we had ordered complete with tongue and groove finish. At this point we thought that the manufacturer had changed the spec for some unknown  reason but no when our installer rang them it turns out that they supply all the doors in their catalogue in two finishes  i.e. tongue and groove  and plain but only show the one finish in the catalogue. No where does it state that, as The Doc has been through each page in detail. This  was a bad enough error but they then  compounded it by not saying this when our installer ordered the door from them and they had simply taken it upon themselves to make and supply a plain door so a new door now has to be made and supplied by them at no extra cost.  The door had arrived with bubble wrap on it so you couldn't see the finish on it until  it had been hung and fitted .
The back door was fitted yesterday ( from another manufacturer I hasten to add) who got it exactly right.  Their catalogue states it can be made as a tongue and groove panel.  This is the finish I was expecting to see on the front door as well as the back door. The electric roll top garage door gets fitted tomorrow so stay tuned!!

p.s. I would have added the tongue and groove finish myself but the door wouldn't fit into my Scor Pal!!

Flower Girl

It is a new challenge over at the Butterfly Blog.
#102 Spin The butterfly Wheel with the Letter V. 
I have two cards as  inspiration to show you.

First card uses Vegas Gold for the  hair and the butterflies with a touch of vermillion in the flowers mingled in between the strands of  hair.  The image is by Aurora Wings 'Girl flower butterfly'.
I teamed it with Vintage Style.

Coloured using promarkers, Graph'it and Spectrum noir marker pens.  I have also used a gold gel pen and a silver gel pen but they are not showing up in the photo. The cream embossed panel is by Crafts-Too  CTFD 3108. The flowers were in my stash left over from other projects. The small pink ones were made with a small punch and the dark red rose from my spellbinders rose die. Card blank is a ready made scalloped edge from my stash along with the various ribbons and gems.

Second card uses Violet and Vertical pattern along with a butterfly of course.

 Stamp is by Studiolight  JBS06 and coloured using my Marvy LePlume II water colour pens. The silver butterfly sticker and sentiment from my stash.  The vertical panel is a die cut from Memorybox called Tessatina Border and I sprinkled a few of the out cuts amongst the flowers.
The challenge runs for 2 weeks and ends on July 3rd so hope you will come and play. I will show some more cards next week with the other options.