And Another Six.

Not played in Sarn's  Rudolph challenge

for a couple of months due to other commitments

so I was determined to play along this month.

Hopefully I will get in by the skin of my teeth!

When we cleared out FIL's house

I found a drawer full of  packs of cards and Xmas Tags

all half used and forgotten about.

It would seem that MIL bought fresh packets each year to use

and put the rest away so waste not want not is my motto.

I have used the tags up here along with scraps of Christmas paper

to make up six cards with a Christmas tree theme.

I even had enough scraps to match  the insides up  too!

 

 

Entering into the following challenges:

Stamping For pleasure # Rudolph Day.

Pixie's Crafty Workshop #140 Use up your snippets (Apart from the card blanks everything a snippet). 



Waste Not.

This  is a scheduled post as I'm at 'The Craft Barn' today
learning all about  masks and different ways to use them.

I recently won the challenge over at My Craft Creations

and this is the stamp I won as my prize.

the Set is by Little Claire with 7 stamps in total.

I happened to mention to my friend Hettie that I had a stamp with

a chicken on it

Hettie loves anything chicken and even has a chicken named after me

'Mrs A.'

Anyway Hettie challenged  me to make a card using it

and as it has now been received here it is.

I had also recently won some goodies from Imagination crafts

and one of the items I had chosen was a hoenycombe stencil.

I immediately thought of chicken wire ( as you do) and thought it would go with this stamp.

Stamped using SU  Crushed curry onto white card stock.

(word of warning. don't store those ink pads on their ends cos they leak)

(ask me how I know !!)

It looked a bit plain and nothing like chicken wire

 until I used a black liner and edged round each  honeycombe.

That really set the scene for the rest of the card which was then  layered up

using my Xcut  Hexagons in different sizes.

I coloured the stamp with Promarkers and pearlescent chalks

and cut   a blank card base into an Octagon shape.

A bit of garden string completed the picture.

I then went to town a bit with the left overs on the inside of the card.

Sentiment was in the same stamp set.

That's Mrs A. with her friend Miss Di.

 

Entering into the following challenges:

Pixie's Crafty Workshop #139 Use up your snippets (green garden twine.)

Crafting from The Heart #33 Anything goes.

Love to Scrap #36 Anything goes.

Through The Craft Room Door # Anything goes.

Simon Says # Anything goes.

Delightful Challenges # Layer It.

Stampin Sensations # Anything goes.



With Sentiments.

The new challenge over at my Butterfly Challenge is

for butterflies as the focal point with a sentiment .

 

These are the 3 cards I made to showcase.

 

This is for a family Birthday so will be going off in the post a.s.a.p.

I have had this  decoupage sheet in my stash for ages just waiting to be used.

Designed by Michelle Johnson and printed by Craftsuprint.

The sheet came with the base base, 3 extra butterflies and layers of the dress.

Plus a choice of sentiment.

I layered  the base onto navy pearlised  120gsm cardstock

 which I then adhered to a card base.

I decoupaged the butterflies and the tail of the dress

and added Glamour dust to the edges.

Not showing up here very clearly but does IRL.

I attached the butterflies just by the bodies so that the wings could be folded up

and added some silver gems to the swirls on the background.

Sentiment was adhered using 3d pads and given a coating of Glamour dust too.

 

Entering into the following challenges:

Moving Along With  The Times # Feeling a little vintage.

Pile It On #34 Best Wishes/Congratulaions.

Sister Act #71 Anything goes.

Susy Bee's Bloomin Challenge #43 Anything goes.

Scribble and Scrap #25 Anything goes.

Crafting At The Weekend #4 Anything goes.

 

 

My 2nd card is again  a sheet from Craftusprint

Designed by June Young.

Had  in my stash for ages.

I do like to try out different card shapes.

This one came ready printed so I just needed to  glue the sheet to card stock.

I had the bright idea of popping it  into the airing cupboard to dry the glue.

Guess what?  It buckled so I then had to get the iron out and iron it flat again.

Less haste more speed!!

The tricky bit was cutting the inside free.

I'm not sure what this fold is called.

The sentiment came with the sheet so I just adhered to card stock, trimmed

and  attached to the card and added pearls.

The butterflies I just added a line of glue to the antenna and glamour dusted

Pearls added for the heads.

The card still looked a bit plain so I wrapped twine round the folds and tied in a bow.

I think if I did this card again from scratch I would make a couple of design changes.

 

Entering into the following challenges:

My Craft Creations# Anything goes.

Ooh-La-La Creations #163 Fancy folds.

Tuesday Taggers # Use your stash.

Glitter 'N' Sparkle #99 use some butterflies.

Lets Craft and Create  #96 Anything goes.

Crafty Calender # Anything goes.

My last card .

The design paper is by Hunkdory from their Flutterby wishes pack

This particular sheet has all the  bellishments  already added.

The sentiment came in  the pack  too/

I layered onto a pink paper and then to a card base.

Added tiny gems to the butterflies .

A really quick card.

 

Here is a close up showing the 3d effect on the butterflies.

Etnering into the following challenges:

Card Mainia #54 Butterflies and bows.

Fan - Tastic Tuesday #50 Anything goes.

Crafty Hazelnuts Patterned Paper # Anything goes.

Bearly Mine # Anything goes.

I'm Late, I'm Late

I'm Late, I'm late for a very important date.

It is time for the Christmas Card club challenge

and I really didn't want to miss this one

as my good Blogging Buddy Mary H  has set the theme

which is Use a Cardinal or other Christmas bird.

Mary does love her Cardinals so how could I not use one!

I also wanted to try my hand at making a shaker card.

Simples I thought.Ha! Do I ever learn.

Have spent the best part of a day putting it together.

 

I have kept to fairly CAS design as I wanted the shaker to do the talking.

DP. is  by Kaisercraft  from their Christmas Collections 6" pad.

Sentiment and letter by Hot Off The Press .

Circle cut using Xcuts circle nesting dies.

Digi is by Fred She Said  Pre-coloured cardinal.

I used Micro beads for the shaker element .

You can see them in the bottom right hand corner.

Inside of card.

I had intended to put the 'C' on the  front but it looked too crowded

I like it here better and helps disguise the back of the shaker .

C is for Cardinal!

 

A close up of the Shaker Cardinal.

I cut a circle from the front of a card blank which I had already

matted with the design paper.

I then secured a piece of acetate to the inside cover

and added strips of 3D foam tape around all four sides

to make a  sealed container for the micro beads.

Heart in mouth as I poured the beads into the tray and quickly attached  the image.

(There is a tutorial here by Deneen but blogger appears to be having a hissy fit

as several sites picture tutorials are affected in the same way.)

 

I then added strips of the DP around the box to neaten on the inside.

I used the circle that was cut for the aperture and adhered the embellishment.

Not that hard to make just very fiddly and time consuming.

Entering into the following challenges:

Top Tip Tuesday #13 Anything goes + shaker card.

Through The Craft Room Door # Anything goes.

Deep Ocean Challenge #84 Christmas in August.

Fan -Tastic Tuesday #49 Anything goes.

Scrappers Delights #28 Anything goes/die cuts.

4 Krafty Girlz #25 Anything goes.

Crafty Hazelnuts Patterned Paper # Anything goes.

Papertake Weekly # To die for.

Crafty Hazelnuts #191 Merry and Bright ( used the word Merry and bright red.)

Crafty Hazelnuts Extra # Anything goes Christmas.

 



 

 



Lace Butterfly.

It's week 4 of my current Butterfly Challenge.

The theme is Summertime Butterflies.

Something a little  bit different for your inspiration.

 I made  this for  a swap quite a while ago now but never shown.

I embossed the white  card  using Sizzix 'Flourish Floral'

Coloured very lightly  using chalks in pastel pink and green.

The butterfly was created using Sizzix die 656512 cut from pale pink card.

I covered with a piece of old lace cut to the  same shape.

Body was created by  folding a tiny piece of lace into a roll and stitching on 4 small beads .

Head and antenna  were wet glued and sprinkled with pink glitter.

Small button attached to flower

 and lastly  a strip of pink ribbon added to the side .

Linking to:

Pixie's Crafty Workshop #138 as I used snippets of lace and ribbon in the making.

 



4th Birthday.

It was our Granddaughter's Birthday a few weeks ago and this is the card I made her.

She adores pink  and has the most amazing colour hair. 

We are not allowed to say it is red ! It comes from my side of the family.

Sis has a son and a granddaughter with the same colouring. 

Image is 'My name is Alice' by Mo's Digital Pencil. 

Coloured with promarkers.

Sentiment is a Britannia word die.

Spellbinders die 'Romantic Rectangle' used to cut the image.

Entering into the following challenge:

Pixie's Crafty Workshop # 138 use your snippets ( off cut of navy used for sentiment backing.)

Butterfly Sail.

It is week 3 of my Butterfly challenge

where the theme is Summertime Butterflies.

Here is a card in true Blue Peter fashion that I prepared

earlier to help get your mojo's flowing.

The Digi image is a freebie from

Beyond The Fringe Crafts and is called Butterfly Sail.

I have had it saved on my computer

for a few years now  just waiting for the right moment

and here it is.

I printed the image off onto white 140gsm card stock and then re ran it

through my printer and generated the sentiment  to the side of the ship.

Background was created using two different shades of chalk and making

a quick mask from paper for the clouds.

They looked a bit contrived to start with so I went back over the edges

and mussed them up a bit (very technical know how!Lol)

Image coloured using Promarkers and then  details edged round

with a silver gel pen. 

Backed onto silver mirror card and then navy pearlescent card stock.

A gem in all 4 corners to finish.

Hope you can  come and play.

Entering into the following challenges:

Pixie's Crafty Workshop. #137 Use up your snippets. (gems were left overs).

Anything but a Card

Appologies for absence .

I have not been able to access the Internet since Friday.

I changed service providers to combat the problems

I have been having and paid a yrs Internet in advance

thinking I 'd get a top notch service.

 No such luck!! 

I'm in an Internet cafe at the moment drowning my sorrows.

Needs must!

Anything but a Card is the theme this week

over at the Christmas card Club and was chosen by Lizzie.

I had this plain carrier bag on my desk and a sheet of 

used wrapping paper and so an  idea was born. 

A quick rummage around and I found some ribbon

and a packet  of freebie stamps (still on my desk).

You may be forgiven for thinking I have a huge desk to work on. 

I don't it's just piled up 12"high leaving me a  small

micro space to work from.

I had just bought the la Blanche 

'Father Christmas ' stamp also still on my desk.

Another rummage and I found some Glamour dust, 

Anita's glitterations 'Happy Christmas' 

And a packet of unkown snowman 3d stickers.

  

The eagle eyed amongst you will notice

I changed the ribbon to tartan which went much better

with the patterned paper. 

I also found a wooden sentiment that

I coloured with a red marker pen and glamour dust .

I coved the sides and handles with the paper and then 

just went to town on the front of the bag.

Less is certainly not more in this case! 

Entering into the following challenges:

Pixie's Crafty Workshop# 137. Use up your snippets. 

Butterfly Journal.

Iv'e taken  a plain note book and made into something special.

Jenny likes pink so my starting point was a plain pink note book.

Then the fun began.

Take some pink butterfly patterned material and my trusty snippet

of cardboard

Plus a butterfly motif cut from material and backed with stiffener.  

Next find a toning design paper . This stripey one is by 

Emma Schoenberg

which I cut and adhered to both the front and back covers.  

I then cut a panel fom the cardboard to fit the front

and covered with the material . A strip of elastic was added to 

hold in place over the closed book. 

The butterfly motif was used to create the pocket to hold the pencils in place. 

I added a butterfly Charm to finish.

Jenny has now received her gift which was a little thankyou from me 

and my Butterlfly challenge. 

It is week 2 of the Current challenge which is running for 4 weeks.

I would love to see your entries for Summertime Butterflies.

Entering into the following challenge :

Pixie's Crafty Workshop #136. Use you snippets.

Vintage Burlap Journal.

I went to an Andy Skinner workshop   in Fareham

and we made these  Vintage Burlap Journals.

I had a lovely time getting all distressed and mucky!

Can't tell you much about the process

as I was so busy following directions I forgot

to make a note of the all the different glues, pastes, dies,

paints  and mediums we were using.

The one thing that has stuck in my mind is those

rivets holding the fake metal plates onto the front.

They are actually flat back pearls that we grudged up .

They look very authentic.

The image is a photo pre made to look distressed

and was supplied by Andy as was all the materials.

Boy did we get through shovel loads of the stuff!!

The hessian came supplied in sheets attached to card

so was easy to work with.

As we had 2 strips over from cutting to fit the covers

we made a couple of book marks.

You can see the spine of the journal

which  we aged to match the front.

Confession time.

 The flowers were meant to be died a yellow/orange

but I created such a fuss about them needing to be pink

that Andy relented and let me have pink ones Yay!

(Probably got my card marked now!!).

A close up of the bookmarks.

I had such a great time I have booked another class

this time at The Craft Barn for the end of August with Rachel Snook.

We will be using Masks and different ways to apply them.

Can't wait!