Teal and Texture.

Here again with some more inspiration for

#53 Butterflies +T is for Texture and/or Teal.

My first card uses an embossing folder called  Butterfly Migration Set by Sizzix 656982 which I have embossed straight onto the card base and then trimmed the extra blank piece off down the side.  I punched holes across the top and down the plain sides and then weaved teal embroidery thread (left over from another project) to make the  spider's web lattice.  The sentiment is die cut  words from  Britannia  which I have cut from the left over teal  linen cardstock I used in the second  card below.

Teal pearls from my stash completed the look. Then this morning before taking the photos to upload I

decided to add the crochet flower to the edge. I had discarded using it on this card as the centre of the flower was yellow but a quick cover up with another teal  pearl  and I think it now looks finished. 

Entering into the following challenges:

Crafting With Friends #19 Anything goes.

Lil Patch of Crafty Friends #32 Anything goes.

Robyn's Fetish #313 Anything goes.

Craft Your Passion #309 Anything goes.

Artistic Inspirations #155 Anything goes.

My second card uses printed linen ribbon and a textured lace edging. For some reason I thought the linen strip had butterflies on it  but as I had handed the roll over the counter for a meter to be cut off I know its the one I requested.  Can't go all the way back to Derby now to check so have used it anyway! Teal Blue linen effect card stock attached to a white card base and then edged with  silver metallic strips Sentiment is also silver metallic stickers. Then I was hunting round for a teal coloured butterfly from my stash  when this gorgeous ribbon butterfly fluttered through my letterbox (along with other scrummy  goodies ) from the very lovely  Jenny Lawrence. Such an unexpected pleasure and made my day as we had spent a few days away up North and I have come down with the flu bug since being home. Should have posted this to my blog yesterday but it has taken me 2 days to finish and do all the link ups.  
Isn't that butterfly superb! Thankyou  so much  Jenny.  (Jenny also sent me some in another colourway so watch this space is all I'm saying!!) I also received a beautiful butterfly card which I'm hoping Jenny will link up to the challenge. 

Entering into the following challenges:

2 Creative Chicks #9 Anything goes.

Sisters  Of Craft # Anything goes.

Creative Ladybirds #14 Anything goes.

Scrapper's Delights  #54  Anything goes.

Our Crafty Corner #8 Anything goes.

Hope these two cards have given you ideas

for thinking of different types of texture. 

I would say hugs to you all but you really don't want 

to catch what I've got .

See you soon instead.

Teacup Swap

Back in March I joined Stephanie's of The Enchanted Rose 

 8th Tea Cup and Mug Exchange.

A total of 167 ladies across the world joined in the fun with parcels being sent and received. It is now time for  the big reveal and I can show you the teacup and goodies that I sent to my Partner in Tasmania Australia and the parcel I received back from Cornwall England.

This is the collection that I sent to  Kim in Tasmania . The information that I was given to work with was that Kim liked Breakfast tea , Pretty pinks, pale greens, pretty blues, mauves and loves vintage shabby chic, petty style.  No problems there then, a girl after my own heart!

Collection included , Everyday Brew tea bags enclosed

in their very own tea pot, pretty tiny rose patterned 

teacup and saucer, decoupaged teapot coaster

and a silver teaspoon.

The teapot is a template by Diane Furniss

from Craftsuprint.com. Filled with tea bags from Tea Pigs'

and tied with pink raffia .

I decoupaged  a teapot shape base using a pretty 

rose design napkin and then gave it several coats 

of  pod podge to seal and give it a lovely  matt sheen.

The card enclosed the story of the tea bags and 

provenance of the silver spoon. 

(It had a tale to tell).

Here are the goodies I received back from Dawn in Cornwall.

Collection included, Camomile tea bags ,

a lovely rose patterned teacup and saucer,

 a handmade flower brooch(which has gone straight

onto one of my floppy summer straw hats), vintage lace

and buttons, craft papers and a beautiful handmade 

necklace with a darling teacup and saucer charm on it. 

Didn't I do well!!

A close up of the pretty cup and saucer and brooch.

And lastly here is the card  and box that I  made and sent 

to Dawn to thank her for my goodies.

(I used some of the craft papers that Dawn had sent me).

Linking up to :  The 8th Teacup and Mug reveal. 

Textured Plaque

The New Theme/ Colour

for my Butterfly Challenge is

#53 Butterflies + T is for Texture and/or Teal

Verb: Texture  = give (a surface) a rough or raised texture.

Here is my inspiration for you.

I started with a blank  canvas paint flat block and using various SU ink pads and sponge pads created the coloured background. The butterflies were made using an imagination Crafts stencil 'Butterfly Flight'  and Imagination Sparkle Medium in  Blue Sapphire which matched my  Teal paint chip perfectly. The words are preprinted on strips and come white on black or black on white and were in my stash. I then sat and looked at it for two days as it just looked plain and too CAS for my liking.

After a play around with various bits and bobs this is the finished result.

I found the two tone twisted ribbon in my ribbon stash and added that to the edges but I  still felt it needed just that little something extra but what?  Then my eyes lighted on some hessian threads (yep I do keep everything) in a tray on my desk and after twisting  them together laid them on top of the ribbon. The resulting coarseness of the threads works well against the ribbon  and continues the rough texture theme. The Glass Cabochons were destined to go at the end of each word but I had  placed them on the background whilst adding the ds tape and decided they looked good so there they stayed. 

Hope I have inspired you to join in the fun. 

Entering into the following challenges:

A Bit more Time To Craft #18 Anything goes.

One Stitch At A Time #260 Anything goes with wings.

Pixie's Crafty Workshop #225 Use up your snippets (hessian threads)

Robyn's Fetish #312 Anything but a card.

Make My Monday # Butterflies.

Our Crafty Corner #8 Anything goes.

Scrapper's Delights #54 Anything goes.

Creative Ladybirds #14 Anything goes.

Sister's of Craft #102 Anything goes.

A Beautiful Mess #1 Anything goes.

Altered Electics # Anything goes.

Anma Creatief #55 Anything but a card.

Rhedd's Creative Spirit # Anything goes.

Where the Heart Is #8 Sparkle bling/anything goes.

Craft Heaven #10 bingo ( sentiment/ butterfly/twine).

Red Berries.

Time once more  for the girls in the Christmas Card Club  to show our makes. The theme for today was chosen by me 'Red Berries'.

I  very nearly shot myself in the foot over this as I had selected my choice at the end of last year knowing full well  that I had a couple of used christmas cards with berries on them!

Then I went and made my NewYears Resolution to not only use a recycled card but also make a card from the stash of stamps,/diecuts/stencils / embossing folders in my craft room. 

Eek!!!!

I had to delve/dig and deep but I did eventually find  a never before used embossing folder of sorts.

 Day Saved!!!!

First up though is the card (read that as 2) that I made using the recycled christmas card from my stash . The original card had a row of 3 miniature (should have taken a piccy before I dismantled it) pictures of berries  with a simple   'Seasons Greetings'  underneath.

I  cut out the pictures and trimmed 1 onto cream card and the other 2 onto red card and made the following cards.

I used a red blank card base.

Floral trim is actually christmas bias binding from my stash.

The circles die cut was sent to me by a good blogging buddy.

I cut the sentiment out and added at the bottom.

Cream blank card base this time .

Tartan card is another card base cut down to fit.

Merry Christmas is silver foil ribbon  trimmed and adhered to red card.

Spotty Ribbon from my stash.

Finally the card made  using a Sizzix Metal Embossing Folder originally designed to be used with the Sizzix Personal Die Cutter in conjunction with the Sizzix System Converter!!

Yep, I had never heard of  these  either but I do remember picking a pile (read 5) of these metal  dies  up going dirt cheap years ago from a sale box. They work perfectly in my Sizzix big shot. This one is called  Holly Berries 38-9547

I have used a green blank card base.

Holly card is another  card base cut down. Frame is a sizzix Scallop rectangle die cut which I have put through an SU Decorative Dots embossing folder.

Velvet leaves and berries are a really,really old table decoration from my MIL.

(Just knew it would come in useful one day!)

Chipboard bauble sentiment is by Scrapmatts.

Close up of  the embossing using the metal folder from sizzix.

Turned out to be a bargain buy in the End.

Entering the above card in the following challenges:

52 Christmas Card Throwdown # Christmas Foliage.

Crafty Hazlenut's #277 Cute or anything goes.

Crafty Hazelnut's Extra # Anything goes.

A Snowflakes Promise #20 Anything goes.

Crimbo Crackers #104 Embossing.

More Ideas.

Back with some more inspiration for you

for the 2nd week of  my

#52 Butterflies +F is for Fancy Folds and /or Fuchsia.

1st card simply has ribbon folded for the fancy fold .

Trimmed with  a square pearl.

I have used an embossing folder by Darice

called Butterflies which I embossed onto 

rose vellum cardstock. I love the way the 

folder takes off the surface of the vellum giving 

the white chalk appearance. 

Trimmed down and then adhered to pink cardstock

for the base.

I used 'Scotch' Vellum tape for the first time

and have to say I'm mighty pleased with the result

which adheres the vellum to the card totally

invisibly.  Bit weird to use though  and reminds me of 

the iron on  adesive for bonding materials together.

Close up below of the fuchsia  ribbon trim.

Entering into the following challenges:

Sister's of Craft # Anything goes.

Craft Your Passion # Anything goes.

Dream Valley #129 Anything goes.

Through The Craft Room Door # Anything goes.

Inspiration Desintation #81 Anything goes.

Penny's Paper Crafty #273 Anything goes.

Cards 4 Galz #20 Use an embossing folder.

Dragons Lair # Anything goes.

 My 2nd card uses a Z card  fold as my fancy fold.

I used white cardstock  to make the basecard

which I folded into 3 equal panels.

Two of the panels were then cut down 

further on the diagonal. 

Panels of pink card stock and a freebie

design paper (from my stash) were cut and adhered

to the base card.

Fuchsia ribbon trim was added onto 3 panels.

The butterfly images by Diane Furniss

 were printed onto cardstock

and were leftovers from a  project (which is still

under wraps till 20th April) still out  on my desk

so I used them up here!! Waste not want not.

Sentiment is  silver stickers from  my stash.

Entering into the following challenges:

Crafty Card Makers #161 Shaped card,

Create and Inspire #43 Anything goes.

Fab 'N' Funky #300 Girly and pretty.

Cre8tive Hands #4 Anything goes.

Fussy & Fancy #161 Green & pink.

Our Crafty Corner #8 Anything goes.

Scrapper''s Delights #54 Anything goes.

Creative Ladybirds #14 Anything goes.

2 Creative Chicks #9  Anything goes.

Hope I have inspired you to 

Think outside of the box. 

Paws!

It's challenge time again over at

Crafting From The Heart

#107 Anything Goes.

The sponsor for this week

is

Dr Digi.

I already had this digi so 

decided to use him as my

image for this challenge.

Schrodinger.

I just love his expression!

Coloured with my promarkers and a silver gel pen.

I deliberately kept my colouring to the minimum

and fussy cut him out and then adhered him to 

black card stock .

The paw pad stamp is one I bought years and years 

 ago before  stamping became a craft!!!! 

(I used to breed and show Persians in a previous life

and I had  purchased this stamp from a cat show

 and used it as  my signature on  pedigree forms.)

I used Black and  London fog ink pads and 

simply stamped the paws in a random fashion over 

a sheet of white card stock. 

Die cut a panel using  a scalloped die  by Crafts -Too.

Adhered onto a panel of black card stock which 

I then attached to a scalloped  card base.

The cat image is attached over front using 3d pads

to give a raised effect. 

The sentiment was created in word 

and adhered to a small scallop die cut 

and again I used 3d pads to attach to the front of the card.

The theme is Anything Goes as usual

and we would love to see you entering

your projects.

Entering into the following challenges:

Alphabet Challenge #C  Is for cats.

Brown Sugar #193 Anything goes.

Crafting With Friends #18 Anything goes.

Jo's Scrap Shack  #133 Anything gos.

Lil Patch of Crafty Friends #31 Anything goes.

Pixie's Crafty Workshop #224 use your snippets. (odds of black card)

Quirky Crafts #4 Raining cats or dogs. 

Crafty Calendar # Anything goes.

2 Creative Chicks # Anything goes.

Mod Squad Challenge Make your own background.

Fancy Folded Pocket.

The New Theme/ Colour

for my Butterfly Challenge is

#52 Butterflies + F is for Fancy Folds  and/or Fuchsia.

Verb: Folds  = bend( something flexible and relatively flat)

over on itself so that one part of it covers another

Here is my inspiration for you.

The image is a LOTV from their Set 3 Wild flowers.

I trimmed down and adhered to pink card stock die cut 

using Crafts -Too Scalloped edge.

Base card is pink card stock folded to 5.75 x 6.75.

Folded pocket is a sheet of double sided design paper

cut just slightly smaller than the card size. 

I measured down one long side to find the middle point

and then folded each side in to form the triangle shape.

I then concertina folded a strip of left over paper to

make a featured pleat which I hooked over the outside

edge before adhering  the pocket to the front .

End of folded strip was tucked inside the pocket and a large

pearl added for embellishment. 

Butterflies were die cut using  Clearly Besotted

small butterfly wishes from fushia coloured

paint chips.  Pearls added to the bodies.

Sentiment is a sliver foil sticker.

Close up of the fancy fold pocket.

Entering into the following challenges:

Aud Sentiments #152 Birthday sentiment.

Inspiration Destination #80 Anything goes.

Little Red Waggon #336 Celebrate.

Penny's Paper Crafty #272 Anything goes.

In The Pink #91 Dies and/or punches.

Jade's Sparkling Butterrflies #16 Anything goes.

Dies R Us #46 Use scallops.

A Bit More Time To Craft #17 Anything goes.

Scrapping 4 Fun #62 Anything goes.

Pixie''s Crafty Workshop #223 Anything goes.

Emboss It..

Time once more for the girls in the 

Christmas Card Club 

to show our makes.

Carol chose todays theme which is 

Use a Stencil or Embossing folder.

I don't have any christmas type stencils 

but I do have a few E.F.'s  which fit the bill.

My first card uses an embossing folder

by Darice  called 

'Pine branches in Corner'

I used gold shimmer card to emboss

and then found a recycled card which had 

a  circle sentiment in  the design which

just fitted nicely onto my card.,

I cut out using my Xcut circle dies and then 

ran through a  dots E.F. to look like snow falling.

(Actually it's to hide the marks from my 

scratched cutting plates that I'm too much

of a skinflint to replace!!)

Backed onto black cardstock to pick up the 

black wording and then mounteed onto 

cream shimmer card stock for the card base.

A fairly quick  CAS card with  the added

bonus that the left over card can go back into  my stock pile

to use another time!

I love it when a plan comes together.

Now it wouldn't be Christmas

without the old acetate would it

so here is the 2nd card I made.

Camera decided at this point to go all pinky on me

but as I love pink i'm not complaining. 

This time I have used an E.F. by 

Couture Creations called 'Rudolph.

I embossed onto green  Vellum  

and it came out a treat.

It looks just like  parchment .

I backed onto green card which then makes the base

with the acetate sheet sandwiched into the spine

I used check washi tape to cover the spine 

along with a strip of adhesive peel off ribbon

which had the sentiment already on it. 

Gold /green  stickers completes  the look.

 2 more cards for the pot and still sticking to 

my resolve to use one recycled card and one  made 

from my stock of stamps/digis/E.F. or die cuts.

Entering the above card  into the following challenges:

Winter Wonderland #  Embossing wet or dry.

Christmas Card Challenge #18 Anything goes.

Crafty Hazelnuts Extra # Anything Goes.

ABC  Christmas Challenge #  G is for green or gold. 

Triple Trouble.

I only found this challenge a few days ago.

Creative Carte Blanche - Creative Adventure #2  

and really wanted to enter.

The challenge is to use 3 things that do not go together.

We had to incorporate 

Corrugated  Paper

Lace - vintage or store bought

Metal - of some kind.
Also include our creative process through
our thoughts and pictures.
So here goes.

The corrugated cardboard I found in my packaging stash.

Some mint green lace whilst not vintage was in my stash.

I rounded up a few other items,  dried stems from the garden

(yes I do keep all manner of things), ready made flowers,

wooden button and a couple of likely mini matchpot paints.

The metal element was an easy choice.

I had this pile of attached metal buttterflies that had been

gifted to me by a good blogging friend just waitng for the right 

moment to be used.

Having trimmed the corrugated card down and selecting 

two of the sticks to use as sides edges I gave them

a quick splash of paint along with the button and set 

aside to dry.

The pile of butterflies had just a very light brush over 

with the paint  and then dabs of liquid pearls

in mint green and white opal.

When that was dry I dabbed over with stickles in

diamond and disco ball.

I wanted the roses to appear to be growing up the sticks

so twisted the stems round to look like a vine.

Embellised them with the stickles and a little of the 

mint green liquid pearls and prettied up the button

with the stickles an extra opal button and a pink pearl.

When everything was dry I hot glued in place.

Here is the finished plaque The lighting is

not very good as the lace is not showing up properly

but you can see the true colour in the first picture.

Sentiment was punched out using SU''s Modern Labels.

I'm also showing this as inspiration for my challenge

#51 Butterflies +M is for margins and/or mint.

There is still  5 days left to play along. 

Also entering into the following challenges:

How Everything Become Scrap # Pastel colours.

Artistic Inspirations #153 anything goes.

Tuesday Throwdown #287 Add lace.

Inspiration Destination #79 Anything goes.

Fussy and Fancy #160 Pastel colours.

613 Avenue Create #169 Anything goes. 

Lil Patch Of Crafty Friends #30 Anything goes.