What If!

There are a few days left  at the Butterfly Challenge.

#65 Butterflies + H is for Hoops and/or Harebells.

(Harebell ranges from pale blue through to a brighter blue to almost purple)

so I thought I would share a couple more ideas with you. I was in a bit of what if I tried this frame of mind and these are the results.

What would happen if I took a pre cut swing card blank and then cut an extra circle from the centre, die cut a butterfly and attached it to the top and bottom of the hole with  thread ?

Well I just did!!. As my very best friend Julie was fond of saying.  I reinforced the circle with an extra ring which served to catch the the ends of the thread neatly out of sight and hold the butterfly taut.

Edged it with a silver shimmer marker pen to match the silver sticker sentiment from my stash. I coloured all exposed areas of the blank white card with a toning promarker pen.

The design paper is a freebie from Making Cards magazine Aug 2016 called 'Cocktail Time' and it enhances all the shades of Harebell  listed above.

Butterfly Die is by Poppystamps 'Theo'. Inside circle cut using Xcut  Circles nesting die.

Entering into the following challenges:
Artistic Inspirations #166 Anything goes.
Dream Valley #143 One for the girls.
Crafty Catz #344 Anything goes using die cuts and or punch.
Crafting With Friends #30 Anything goes.


What would then happen if instead of throwing the empty plastic ring from the used up ds tape in the bin I cleaned it up and used it to make  a card? So I did.

Backing paper is from a Cd rom by Ooh La La Creations 2008 'Passion For Fashion' pattern No3. You can be forgiven for thinking that the bird image paper in the ring is from the same CD rom but you would be wrong as it is actually a page from The Little Book of Shimmer by Hunkydory. The pattern  really is so similar that you have to look twice. I  die cut the bird image with butterfly using my Xcut circle nesting die and a larger one from plain cardstock. The ds tape ring fitted perfectly over the image. Pre made bow was in my stash as was the puffer butterfly and the gold sentiment which I backed with a small piece of the same plain blue cardstock.

Entering into the following challenges:
Craft Your Passion #336 Anything goes.
Get Creative #51 Anything goes.
PCC Challenge #4 Anything goes.

One Stitch At A Time #274 Anything goes +recycling. (recycled the ring from the ds tape.).

A Two in One Card.

I dont know about putting the clocks back an hr I could do with putting them back a month or two!!

It's time again for the girls in the Christmas Card Club to show our cards using the theme set by Sylvie which is 'Anything Goes'. 

So I had a rummage in my used christmas card pile and then another rummage but nothing was leaping out at me so I sorted through again and then again once more. I like to make two cards one using an old christmas card and then a corresponding card using a stamp,digi,die cut, embossing folder from my christmas stash in the theme for the current week. Finally on the fifth trawl through I spotted this card with shoes on and had a light bulb moment. I suddenly remembered that I had a Bugaboo digi image of a christmas shoe bought 3 yrs ago and not used so I was in business.

Next problem was to decide on a card shape. I didn't want to alter the card design too much so I came up with my version of a Joy Fold Card which I have named a 'Two in One Card.'  The front has been slightly trimmed down  and layered onto green card stock and opens up left to right .

This then reveals a second image which is a  pre coloured freebie from making cards' Christmas Edition '2015 which I matted on to more green card stock and then onto a freebie paper from Making Cards 'Traditional Christmas ' Dec 2015. This section opens up right to left to reveal the inside.

Finally the inside of the card is decorated with more of the design papers in red and green and then I found some shiny sticker stars in my stash to mimic the ones on the card front and a sprig of holly Dimensions Sticker by Anita's. I also found some Season's Greetings stickers in my stash that matched. Yay.!

Entering this card into the following challenges;

Crafting By Designs # Get ready for christmas

All Sorts Challenge #387 Lets make a start on christmas.

Hiding In My Craft Room #273 Free style.

One Stitch At A Time #274 Anything goes with recycling.

Crafty Hazelnut's Extra # Anything goes christmas.

Now onto my second card which has been made in exactly the same way but using the Bugaboo 'Poinsettia Heel' digi which I have coloured using my Promarkers. I coloured up a second digi and fussy cut the poinsettia which is adhered over the image using a 3d pad. I used glossy accents on the centre of the flower, the heel of the shoe and on the tip but it is not showing up here .IRL it does though.

Card opens up left to right to reveal the second image below.  Freebie pre coloured from Making Cards 'Christmas Edition 2015 Pretty Poinsettia' The plaid paper is a freebie from Making Cards 'Christmas Edition 2015 as well.

This then opens up right to left to reveal the inside of the card which has been decorated using another freebie paper from the same set . The poinsettia is a sticker by Anita's and the stars were stickers in my stash.

I'm entering this card into the following challenges:

A Snowflakes Promise #31 Anything goes.

Crafty Hazelnut's #305 Anything goes.

Christmas Card Challenge #46 Anything goes.

Double 'D' Challenges# Plaid.

Pixie's Crafty Workshop #253 Use your snippets (poinsettia sticker on inside of card).

Thankyou  Sylvie for making me think outside of the box for this challenge.

 You didn't really think I'd let you go without showing a card with Acetate on it now did you!!!

This one is for Mo's' Rudolph Challenge' which closes tomorrow. The image is the last of the trio of Valerie digi's that I bought from Mo's digital pencil. I have already shown you one coloured in blue and one in red so went for green promarkers this time. Digi is called 'Valerie with Pup'( and I do believe Di that the doggy is a Scotty!) I have layered onto green vellum paper and then adhered to a scalloped card base. I have attached a piece of acetate to the front of the card cut to the exact shape of the green vellum (you can just see the reflection in the top right hand corner) and adhered with 3d pads which have been covered up on the front by a cunning ploy with black shimmer sticky circles.The  sentiment is computer generated and cut out using a SU labels punch. 

Entering this card into the following challenges:
Scraps of Life by Scrappy Mo#  Oct. Rudolph challenge.
Winter Wonderland # Frosty or well wrapped up.

Just Sailing by To Say.

It's both my Mum and my Dad's Birthdays today. Mum would have been 97yrs  and Dad is 92yrs.

This is the card I made and sent to my Dad. 

Iv'e used a Hunkydory kit from their Super Men Collection called The Adventure Begins. Dad was a sailor during WWII so I thought this sailing ship would please him.  Iv'e added my signature acetate front to make the card up and used  gold edging on the acetate  and added the sentiment to there too.

Happy Birthday DAD.

XX

Entering the following challenges:
Through the Craft Room Door # Anything goes.
Penny's Paper Crafty #301 Anything goes.
Inspiration Destination #109 Anything goes.
Crafty Gals Corner #95 Anything goes.
Brown Sugar #222 Birthday.
Love To Craft #3 Anything goes.
Scrapper's Delights #60 Anything goes.

Solo This time.

I have mentioned before about how The Doc's Custard Tarts from a certain supermarket come in a nice diagonal blue stripy box and I always salvage as much of the box as I can. Well they don't anymore! The box design has been changed to a peachy coloured striped one and as you can see below I have put the first salvaged box to good use.  I sat and painted another (single image this time) Woodware  Anemone  stamp on Sunday to placate The Doc for sending the last card off to Portugal!

The image has been mounted onto orange card which I have adhered to the cut down base of the box. There was just enough of the orange card left to make the spine of the card and attach the front acetate sheet which you can just see in the  photo above. The sentiment is a black adhesive one from my stash which I stuck to the white part of the image. I have left the front acetate sheet completely plain so that it wouldn't detract from the flower. 

  

Entering the following challenges:
Artistic Inspirations #166 Anything goes,
Love To Scrap #88 Anything goes.
Craft Your Passion #335 Anything goes.
Fab 'n' Funky #323 Fabulous Flowers.
Little Miss Muffet #149 Anything goes.
Creative Fingers #118 Anything goes.
Pixie's Crafty Workshop #252 Use up your snippets (Th Doc's tart box).
The Flower Challenge #1 Anything goes with florals.

Hello!

There is an Australian swap that I like to enter every month when possible and this is one of the cards that I sent to my partner for the September swap which had the theme of Animals. A quick conflab with Oz confirmed that yes birds would be classed as animals so I was good to go.

I have had this image from 'Digi Stamps 4 Joy' (called Whoose Looking At You ) in my files for 3yrs and never used so this was it's first outing.  

I have coloured with my promarkers and then ran a bit of glue around the edges and on the Emu and used Glamour Dust for a sparkle effect as there was not much colouring to do. The sentiment is by Winnie & Walter and was given the same treatment.  I used dark blue card stock to make the base card and layered a piece of gingerbread coloured card on top. I adhered the image and the sentiment on top and then lastly a sheet of acetate on top. Black sparkly sticky circle dots (from my stash) were attached to the 4 corners to hide the 3D pads holding the acetate in place. 

Entering the following challenges:
Create and Inspire #54 Anything goes.
Inspiration Destination #108 Anything goes.
PCC Challenge #4 Anything goes.
Jo's Scrap Shack #161 Anything goes.
Crafting With Friends #30 Anything goes.
A Bit More Time To Craft Challenge #30 Anything goes.
Crafting By Designs # Anything goes.
Crafty Girlz Challenges # Any thing goes.
Love To Craft #3 Anything goes.
Scrapper''s Delights #60 Anything goes.

Anemones

I try and join in a card chain challenge every month which is being hosted by Gail in Norway at the moment whilst Deborah in America is having a short sabbatical . 

The September challenge was to use any or all of the following:

A colour swatch of Vermillion/Scarlet/duckling

A sketch to follow

Stars/ Halloween/Friendship

Markers/Coloured pencils/Pastels

I managed to use 3 of the requirements highlighted in blue above.

I was in the mood for painting some flowers using my Ranger Distress Markers so sorted through my stash of stamps for a suitable one to use with the colours needed. This stamp is a single flower by Woodware 'Anemone' which I stamped once and then masked to stamp the second one and again masked to stamp the third flower. I used a selection of markers one leaf at a time laying down the colours and then using water and a fine tip brush to push the colour out to where I wanted it to be. It did take quite a while to complete but I love the result. I used a Britannia word die and an SU labels punch for the sentiment. I layered the card onto yellow and then red card stock. 

I think The Doc liked the card too as he was a bit aghast when I said I was sending it to Asha in Portugal. His request of  "Well can't you take a photo of it and send her the photo instead" fell on deaf ears though. Asha has received her card so I can show it now. 

Ever Decreasing Circles

There is a new theme  at the Butterfly Challenge.

#65 Butterflies + H is for Hoops and/or Harebells.

(Harebell ranges from pale blue through to a brighter blue to almost purple)

Here is my inspiration for you.

On the first card I have die cut three circles (from blue card) in increasing sizes and then drawn round the outside edge of the dies to make a thin ring which I then hand cut for each circle. The design paper is a freebie paper 'Simply British' from Simply Homemade magazine. I have adhered this to a blank scalloped card base . The circle hoops have been glued at the base of the card and then butterflies in 3 different sizes have been attached . I used 2 of the sizes from 'Cascadia Butterfly Trio' by Memory Box. and the tiny butterflies are a Tonic studios punch   I used blue and yellow gems from my stash for the butterfly bodies. The sentiment and die cut label were also from my stash.

Entering into the following challenges:

Love To Craft #3 Anything goes.

Creative Ladybirds Creations #20 Anything goes.

Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper # Anything goes.

Crafty Girlz Challenges # Anything goes.

Crafting By Designs # Anything goes.

For the second card I have used a pink card base and attached the design paper which again is a freebie from a magazine. The  image is by Hunkydory from their 'Little Book of Butterflies'.  I used the same method as above to make a circle hoop (from blue card stock and cut the image down to fit behind. Before I attached I ran a line of glue around the edge and dipped in glamour dust which I also used on the 3 butterflies but the camera has not picked the lovely shimmer that is there IRL. The wooden love sentiment is also in silver sparkle but again is not showing up.

Hope these cards help to give you some ideas.

Entering into the following challenges:

Craft Your Passion #334 Anything goes.

Through The Craftroom Door #Anything goes.

Lil Patch of Crafty Friends #44 Anything goes.

Glitter n' Sparkle #210 Anything goes.

Scrapper's Delights #60 Anything goes,

Sentiment only.

Welcome again. Time once more for the girls in the Christmas Card club to show our next makes. Carol has set the theme this time and asked for a Sentiment as the Focus on our card.
So off I went to my stash of used christmas cards and found this rather colourful card front that fits the theme beautifully. It didn't need much doing to it other than a quick trim to make it a tad smaller all round and then adhered to several layers of coloured card stock to pick out some of the colours in the design. Now it really wouldn't be one of my cards without a bit of acetate on it so I have adhered a sheet to cover the front and attached with red brads to fasten. The top three layers have then been adhered to dark blue cardstock tent style and raised up with 3D pads. Also used small flower shape
out cuts (from a die cut sitting on my desk that I have not used yet) under the brads to resemble the white flowers in the image.

Entering into the following challenges:

A Snowflakes  Promise #30 Anything goes christmassy.

Jo's Scrap Shack #160 Recycled scraps  (christmas card and flower shape scraps).

Crafts Galore # Anything goes.

Love to Craft #3 Anything goes.

Crafty Hazelnut's Extra # Anything goes.

Next I went to my Christmas stash of stamps, digi's, diecuts, embossing folders to see if I could find a suitable sentiment to use. Lo and behold I found this Woodware  'Huge Noel' stamp just begging to be used.  I first stamped out onto cream card stock and then had a look through my christmas papers and found this festive red/green check freebie paper from Making Cards 'Christmas Edition 2015 which I stamped again . Fussy cut the wording out keeping it all joined together and then carefully adhered it over the cream stamped image.  Added a pre made red bow to match the card above and again mounted up onto several layers of different coloured card stock. Again I have adhered a sheet of acetate to the front and attached with green brads (they do match the green cardstock but only the top right is showing it's true colour. The light is not good today for taking indoor photos!) Have also added strips of gold wavy edging as the card just needed that  little bit extra .

Entering into the following challenges:
Scrapping 4 Fun #76 Anything goes.
Crafting By Designs # Use a sentiment..
Creative With Stamps  #7 Sentiment.
Crafty Girlz # Anything goes.
12 Months of Christmas #22 Anything goes.

A Rose by any other name!

It was my lovely blogging friend Di's birthday last month and this is the card that I sent her. I stamped the image using versamark ink then heat embossed with shimmery embossing powder and coloured in using my new Derwent Watercolour pencils. I'm loving how the colour blends across the card so well. I die cut the finished card using Crafts-Too Square Dies  scalloped edge and attached to pink card stock. A sheet of acetate covers the front of the card and is adhered with tiny pink brads before securing to the white card base. The sentiment is a silver sticker from my stash. 

Now here's the thing, I had coloured this stamp in believing it to be a rose so coloured it accordingly but on checking the package to write up the details I find that it is actually a Camellia by Woodware.! Moral of the story is check what you are doing before you start!

Entering the following challenges:
Create and Inspire #53 Anything goes.
Penny's Paper Crafty #299 Anything goes.
Craft Rocket Challenges #26 Happy birthday.
Addicted to Stamps #133 Embossing wet or dry.
Glitter 'n' Sparkle #209 Think pink.
Creative With Stamps #7 Sentiment .
Crafts Galore # Anything goes.
Unicorn Challenge #14 Pretty pinks.
Card Mania #85 Let it shine.
Craft Heaven #15 Mood board pinks.

Checkered Backgrounds

Oh well we managed to keep the Internet up and running for 6 weeks this time but it fell over yesterday. Just rebooted so we will see how long it lasts for. The moral of the story being type faster!!

It is the second week of the #64 Butterflies +C is for Checkered and/or Cyan.

Here is some more inspiration for you. I only had a little of the cyan coloured cardstock left and as I wanted to make two cards using it I needed to come up with designs that were economical.

1st card uses Gold shimmer cardstock to cover front of blank card base. I have used an SU punch for the sentiment label and then gold sticker edging and a sentiment from my stash. Paper flowers were also from my stash along with the bronze pearl. Butterfly is Memorybox  Isabella/Pippi die cut. The cyan card stock is cut into 1/4" strips and then a simple lattice work adhered straight to the card for the checkered element. 

Entering into the following challenges:

Crafting By Designs # Anything goes.

Crafts Galore # Anything goes.

Love To Craft #3 Anything goes.

Petal Lu Challenge #23 Anything goes.

PCC Challenge #3 All about three of something  (3 roses).

Crafting With Friends #29 Anything goes.

Artistic Inspirations #165 Anything goes.

Crafty Cardmakers #174 Birthdays.

Craft Your Passion #333 Anything goes.

My 2nd card uses  Champagne Pearlised card stock to make the card base.  I used Crafts-Too Lattice Frame PCD 33 die to cut the aperture window and then infilled with 1/4" strips of the same base card and Pink Rose shimmer card stock to make the checkered design.  The butterfly swirl is by Tonic Butterfly Blooms 293720 which I then recut just the butterflies using the pink shimmer and then the cyan card layering up with the cyan in the middle to cast a shadow. Cyan Gems on top from my stash. Finally I die cut the sentiment using a  Britannia die word die and layered just slightly  off one another again to cast the shadow. The cyan colour shows up best on the picture above but I also took the one  below with the flash on to show the lovely shimmer of the cardstock.

Hope you will come along and play and that I have given you some ideas.

Entering the following challenges with this card:
Craft Heaven #15 Mood board. (I have taken the cream and one of the pinks).
Scrapper's Delights #60 Anything goes.
Card Mania #85 Let It Shine..
Unicorn Challenge #14 Pretty pinks.
Brown Sugar #219 Think pink.
Creative Fingers #117 Anything goes.
Catch The Bug # Anything pink.
Jo's Scrap Shack #159 Anything goes,
Hiding In My Craft Room #270 Super Scraps Saturday.
Through The Craft Room Door # Anything goes.

Crafty Makes.

Still trying to catch up from last Weekend. I'm woefully late with commenting but rest assured I will get round to all your lovely blogs.I'm not ignoring you. 

Miss Di (my partner in crime) has I know already shown you a couple of her makes and told a few tales from the Crafting Workshop! I have managed to finish off  2 of  mine as well and as they are slightly different have included them below.

I chose the orange pack for my caddy whilst Miss Di and Kim chose the purple.Needless to say we ran out of time to complete in the workshop but when I got back home The Doc saw my box  and his eyes lit up. He straight away commandeered it saying it would be ideal for him for taking all his bits and bobs (ie mobile phone, house phone, remote door chime, keys etc) out into the garden whilst he is working outside and keeping them altogether and easy to pick up in one go. Here it is loaded up with a couple of the said items.

Here in lies a tale though. I have already just mentioned that Miss Di and Kim chose the purple caddy to make up and this is the ensuing saga.

On getting back to our hotel on the workshop night and unloading our makes Miss Di quickly realised that somewhere/somehow in moving our makes from one workshop straight to another that hers and Kim's caddies had been mixed up. A quick phone call to Kim in her hotel and it was arranged that Kim would bring Di's caddy back to the show in the morning and leave it in the cloakroom and when we arrived we could swap them over leaving the correct one for us to take back at the end of the day.  Mission was duly accomplished with no hiccups. Kim left early in the afternoon and we set off on foot back across the cowpat field about an hour later. Now we did have the forethought to register where we had left Di's car (Miss Daisy), ten rows back from the hedge in the morning except when we arrived in the field half the cars were gone so counting the rows was a no go. We desperately trundled up and down and just as we were on the point of giving up we happened to turn round and there she was! Nowhere  near where we had been searching!! Having got back to the hotel we stopped at the garage to refill Miss Daisy and just as Di go to the till to pay there in her purse lay the cloakroom ticket for the Caddy! A quick decision was made to trundle straight back to the show and reclaim it as though we were going back the next day we didn't know what the organizers would do with property left each evening. No way were we going back in the cowpat field so we shot straight in through the disabled parking area and  pulled right up outside the venue where I piled out with ticket in my hand and left Di with the engine running in a disabled parking slot. Piece of cake or so I thought. Arriving at the counter and handing the ticket in, the attendant gave me a dour look and said "oh yes something fell out of this bag onto the floor do you know what it was?"  Eek! Quick look up to heaven for inspiration which wasn't forthcoming  and then a mumbled " well was it flip flops in a plastic bag by any chance?" from the attendant . At this point I think I would have said yes to anything  so I just fled with the caddy and the flip flops back to Di with a quick lets get the hell out of here before we're caught on camera.

The moral of the story is don't choose the same caddy colour(I know we didn't get a lot of choice) but do  choose a nice big bottle of wine to have back in the hotel room!!

I didn't get my easel box finished in the workshop either. On getting it home I decided to remake the dawer part as my first measurements were a tad on the small side and it kept falling out. I didn't really want to use the image supplied with the box either so I had a quick look through the freebie Hunkydory packs we had been given at the end of the workshops and found this one more to my liking which also had a gold frame around it and would be perfect for giving to my Granddaughter on our next visit. 

Finally, I still think the plastic bags would have looked really good on Miss Di's feet especially as I had offered to tie them round her ankles in pretty bows. 

Well I will not be beat. You will use your plastic bags up. 

You will, you will, you will......................................................................................

Entering the following challenges:
Pixie's Crafty Workshop #250.  Use up your snippets (It took darn ages to snip that plastic bag up).

Cyan Butterflies.

There is a new theme  at the Butterfly Challenge.

#64 Butterflies + C is for Checkered and/or Cyan

The colour Cyan is midway between blue and green.

Here is the card I made for your inspiration.

Not at all how it started out as that was a complete disaster.This is the revised version.

I have used a pink pearlised card base which I have used tent style and die cut the centre out using Spellbinders Majestic Elements 'Marvelous Squares'. The checkered paper is a freebie from Simply cards and Papercrafts by Nitwit from their Spring Whimsy Collection. The butterflies were on my desk and had previously been punched from some paper I had  Marbled. The strips of cyan card were from the card I first started and was really just playing around with them on this card but I rather liked the effect so they stayed put!  I used an SU punch to cut the backing for the sentiment and pearls from my stash. As I have used snippets I'm off to the playground to join in the fun and make sure Miss Di is not telling tales about me. (I still don't see what the objection to the plastic bags was. I thought it was a good idea myself!!) We did have fun on our Weekend escape and laughed till we cried. Next time we are set loose I'm taking a spare pair of knickers with me !!

Entering the following challenges:
Pixie' Crafty Workshop #249. Use your snippets. (butterflies and cyan card stock)

Festive Birds.

Time once more for the girls in the Christmas Card Club to show our latest cards. It was my turn to set  the theme and I chose 'Festive Birds'.

So straight to my box of used christmas card fronts and I found this dove card. It really didn't need much added to it so I just trimmed it down gave it some fancy corners and attached to gold card stock.

Then I gave it an acetate front which I trimmed with some gold sticker edging. Ribbon from my stash.

Below you can see the open card.

As I am also trying to use all my christmas stash of stamps/digis for my cards I had a search of my files and found this digi by Just Inklined called 'Goose and Ganda'. I coloured the image fairly CAS using my promarkers. I adhered to Gold fleck card stock which I then attached to red card stock.

Again I have used acetate for the front of the card. Gold sentiment and Sticker edging from my stash along with the yellow ribbon.

 Here is a view of the open card.

I can't wait to see what my teamies have made.
 Iv'e scheduled this post as when you read it I will still be in Coventry with Miss Di. and Kim. We have been on a Hunkydory workshop and a spending spree no doubt  at  the ensuing Craft Fayre. Wer'e  meeting up with the lovely Barb as well. Iv'e promised not to touch any of the soap dispensers or any display stands but we are taking craft knives with us for the workshop so watch this space.!!

Entering the following challenges:

Penny's Paper Crafty ~297 Winter Christmas