Socks!

Just scraping in with my card for the first Rudolph Day of the year. Not much time so I looked through my already coloured in images and found these chickens busy knitting away so thought I would  incorporate them into a Christmas card as one does!
The image is by Penny Black 'Spinning a Yarn'.

I have made one of my signature acetate fronted cards. The acetate has been adorned with various gold outline stickers to edge the design paper on the inside of the card which shows through. The image was coloured with promarkers  and a gold gel pen. I have used more of the Xcut foil adhesive sheets(they really are incredibly easy to work with ) to back the image and the sentiment which I created in word. The design paper is from a pad I got at the NEC for £1 called 'Jingle All The Way

by First Edition. Base card is made from dark green card stock and the ribbon from my stash .

The punch line on the front  reads

Entering into the following challenges:

Scraps of Life by Scrappy Mo # Rudolph day.

Crimbo Crackers #125 Something cute. (The chickens)

Jingle Belles# Get sticky( I have used lots of stickers on the acetate)

Brown Sugar #235 Anything goes.

Crafting with Friends #35 Anything goes.

Jo''s Scrap Shack #173 Anything goes.

Scrapping 4 Fun #  Spots and dots (on the ribbon).

My Time To Craft. #338 Feathers (on the chickens)

Seven Years ago.

I thought I would show you what I was up to on my blog 7yrs ago.
A  selection of  guaranteed non calorie delights made from felt.

Can I tempt you to anything?
Chocklits. Everyone's Favourite.

How about a slice of chocklit cake.

Maybe a cupcake or two.

Or how about a slice of homemade lemon meringue pie.

Hugs

Hidden Underneath

It is a new Butterfly challenge today.
#71 Butterflies + U is for Underneath and/or U is for Umber.
We have come to the end of the current themes and letters of the Alphabet and will be starting from fresh on the next challenge with new themes with a slight twist.  Today though the Letter U was chosen by Pearl and here is the card I have made for your inspiration.
I wanted to make a Valentines card but not by using the traditional red/pink colours and to be a little bit shabby chic so here goes.

Card base is made from cream leather effect card stock.Folded in 3 to make an extra fold as the card is opened up.The butterfly edging is a tonic punch and another strip was punched out and adhered to the extra flap. Card is held shut with a ribbon bow that just slips off without the need to untie. 

The butterfly image on the inside of the card has a key on it and this was the starting point for decorating the front of the card. All the embellishments were from my stash.

The butterfly image is from Hunkdory's Little Book of Butterflies.

 Here is the card opened up to show  you what was underneath. Hope you will find the time to play along.

Entering into the following challenges:

Artististic Inspirations #171 Anything goes.

Dream Valley #148 All about love. 

Through The Craft Room Door # Anything goes.

Tuesday Throwdown #327 Anything goes.

A Gem Of A Challenge #186 Hearts and/or flowers.

Crafting By Designs #Anything goes.

Country View Challenges # Anything goes.

Scrapper's Delights #62 Anything goes.

Lets Craft and Create #121 Things with wings.

North Star.

I have been trying all day to get decent photos of the cards for this post but the lighting and my patience ran out.
It's time once again for the girls in the Christmas Card Club to show our next cards that we have made following the theme that Maureen has set for us namely The North Star.  Now I thought this  was goiung to stump me but when I looked through the cards that came this christmas past I found just the one  to recycle into a  new card.

The card didn't really need much altering so I simply trimmed it down and gave it my customary Acetate front treatment! The base is made from midnight blue card stock and I used a die cut by Sizzix 657905 to cut the rectangle frame which I have attached to the front of the acetate.  A gold edging down the spine  to match the gold on the stable roof and card was complete.

Then I turned my attention to my box of christmas  stamps, die cuts , stencils etc as I remembered that I had a North Star looking stamp that had come free in a Craft Stamper magazine years ago so I used  it for my next card.  Trying to photograph it was the one that gave me the most angst. I ended up remaking part of the card so the insert sentiment  you now see is covering up the original  heat embossed sentiment that just would not show up which ever way I  pointed the camera at it!! I stamped the star using versamark ink and then heat embossed with the holographic powder from Papermania. It looks really different on here against the blue cardstock from where I used it yesterday on the Rosebud. Again I have used  an acetate front but left if completely plain as all the design is on the inside of the card. I used another piece of the Xcut metal effect adhesive sheets and used the 2 negative bits of card left over from the die cut on the first card.  

I covered a strip of the blue card in versamark and dipped in the holographic embossing powder and then adhered to the spine of the card.  I was really pleased with the result. It is lovely and sparkly and matches the North Star that I finally managed to get a decent close up of below.

Whilst I was rummaging in the box for the Star stamp I found a die cut I had forgotten about and just had to make the next card with it.  Isin't he just the cutest Camel  (by Leancreatief Nr 45.2700 camel) and the set comes complete with the star too!! I made a background up using a Spellbinders Label Twenty-eight die cut from Kraft card and coloured with blue and brown ink pads to create the sky and sand.  The clouds and sand dunes are Art Impressions stamps from their water colour range. I used Marvy Leplume II pens to ink up with . Then I die cut the camel using two different sheets of Xcut Metal Effect adhesive sheets. Gold and bronze to get the shading on his body. Lastly a black adhesive dot for his eye and a gold sticker sentiment from my stash. 

Phew! Finished.

Hugs 

Rose Bud on Kraft.

I had this piece of kraft paper over from making the card in the post below and suddenly realised it would be perfect for Darnell's Birthaversary Bash Challenge. I needed to get my skates on though as #8 is about to close. Yipes! Ok so Darnell is asking us to use coloured pencils on Kraft card + NBUS (Never before used Schtuff) either brand new or hoarded and untouched.

Here's what I came up with. Very simples cos not much time with the bathroom refit and  next doors BT capers.

Used Raspberry cardstock to make the base up.  Shinny schtuff is Xcut Adhesive metal effect sheet (the hoarded unused item) cut to fit card. Piece of green card adhered on top  and then lastly the Kraft card rounded with my Xcut  corner chomper.  The stamp is brand new only came last week and is called 'Rose Bud' by Art Impressions. I stamped it up using my versamark inkpad and then embossed with holographic embossing powder by Papermania. Pencils used are my Derwent water colour and I just used  3 colours, rose, green and white. I did smooth the rose bud out and the green leaf with a dampened paint brush as it was difficult to spread the colour over the embossing powder which has a bit of a scratchy feel but looks faboulous IRL. Sentiment is NBUS too from a Woodware Poppy set of stamps. Job done. 

More escapades with the bathroom refit which I will tell on another post. 

 Hugs 

Jade with Hope.

Showing a card  today for the second week of the Butterfly Challenge.
#70 Butterflies + Jewels and/or Jade.
After the last few distressing days what with our bathroom refit and next doors BT drama I decided to make a card and distress the edges on all the papers. (There I feel better now!!). There is a bit more to the Bathroom Saga below so keep  on reading. I used a sheet of craft card to make the base card with.  The papers are all from a paper pad that I had picked up in town for £1.Not sure from where but probably 'The Works' called Urban Style. There were two different styles to choose from and I wish I had picked up the other pad too as the paper is good quality 200gsm. Everything else was from my stash.

You have until next Tuesday 8pm to enter a project. 

Entering into the following challenges. 

Cute Card Thursday #461 Cool colours/tones.

A Bit More Time to Craft Challenge #36 Anything goes.

Brown Sugar #234 Anything goes.

Creative Fingers #123 Anything goes.

Get Creative #54 Anything goes.

Love To Craft #6 Anything goes.

Card Mania #88 Layer it.

Crafts Galore # Anything goes.

Lets Craft and Create # 121 Things with wings.

Scrapper's Delights #62 Anything goes.

Honestly you couldn't make it up!! So the Bathroom contractors have slowly been filling up the waste skip bag outside on the front turning bay with all the old suites as they have been dismantling them.

Last to go out yesterday was the cloakroom toilet cistern which they had carefully balanced in one end of the skip bag as it had the gunge and dregs from a blu loo in the bottom of it. Came back inside and continued working.  Less than an hour later they went out to find that someone had swipped it!!!

Had carefully turned it up on its end and drained all the blu loo gunk into the bag and made off with it. Just the cistern, not the pipes or the toilet . Don't know how they achieved it without being seen as the contractors were in and out of the front door constantly and The Doc was in and out of the garage monitoring next doors BT going ons.

If any one sees a vintage blue toilet cistern come up on 'Flog It' it's mine!!!!

. 

It's in Black and White.

We had  some  mishaps yesterday with the bathroom installation. Firstly the bath panel when taken from it's packaging was found to be broken both ends. Fortunately the store had one in stock so  installers were able to get another one. Then they unwrapped the bathroom mirror and we found that the manufacturer had misquoted the actual size it was in the catalogue and it could only be hung one way which would be the wrong way for the space available. The store only had one other mirror in the correct size but not one in stock so couldn't check which way the fixings went (which is critical ).
In the end I went on line and found a (near enough the same ) mirror the correct size which would hang vertically. Being delivered express delivery tomorrow.  Then to cap it all the road digger working on next doors BT line cut through the BT cable of the house opposite so now have two houses to fix. Watch this space for further updates!!!!!
Anyway onto todays cards which are my DT examples for the new  Perfectly Created Chaos challenge #9  Black,White + 1 colour. 

1st card is a Joy Fold Card.

I have used card card stock for the base and then layered up each section with black and red card stock. I bought the little Westie Dog by Britannia dies back at the NEC show last year and have been waiting for a challenge to come up so  that I could make using black and white for the dogs. 

 Inside folds of the card.opened up. I cut a small tag using my SU tag topper punch. The sentiments are Glitterations  by Papermania.

 The whole of the card opened up.

Entering above card into these challenges:

Tuesday Taggers #Anything but square. 

Fab 'n' Funky # Must use ribbon.

Inspiration Destination #120 Anything goes.

Creative Knockouts #177 Finish inside.

Craft Rocket Challenges #31 Add a bow.

Card Mania #88 Layer it.

Crafting By Designs # Anything goes.

Crafts Galore # Anything goes.

2nd card uses a Dover Clip Art silhouette  called 'Lady with Dog' 079. Base card is made with black card stock and layered with red and then the image. I have given the little dog a  neck bow using red cord. 

Entering this card only into the following challenges:

Through The Craft Room Door # Anything goes.

Crafty Creations #333 Anything goes.

Penny's Paper Crafty #312 Anything goes.

Country View Challenges # Anything goes.

Crafty Girlz Challenges # Anything goes.

Get Creative #54 Anything goes.

Love To Craft #6 Anything goes.

Recessed Rose.

Well what a day today has been.  Not only has it been Day 7 of  Project Horrendous (bathroom renovation) but "Project Mole Digger"  started today next door as well. They lost their BT connection just before christmas and had a temporary line connected but now need new cabling to be run as the existing wires are no longer mendable. When they built our houses the powers that be decided to run all the amenities to them under ground so no cables are showing above ground anywhere. (Ok whilst new but 35yrs down the line not such a good idea). A little road digger has been busy all day which has resulted in next doors front garden, rockery and concrete driveway being  dug up to access the old wiring in order to lay the new fibre optics in. I will leave  it to your imagination to envisage the resulting mess that is now outside. Next door has been cordoned off and looks like a war  zone.

I did manage to produce a card  last night though. I have made this for  The CAS Mix Up Challenge  which this month is calling for Stamping + Liquid Colours+ Your choice.

I had been commenting on Loll''s DT entry on her blog and had spied a piece of paper sticking out of my in tray that I had made last summer (using the shaving foam technique and distress inks to colour) and had jokingly said if I could extract it from the pile without the whole lot cascading onto the floor then  I would make a card with it!  So Loll I managed it and this is the said card.  Card base is white card folded in half and the outside edges trimmed with my Xcut chomper corner punch.I trimmed the handmade paper down slightly and then used the largest rose die in the Spellbinders Rose Creations set to cut an aperture in the centre. ( I needed to cut the petal shapes away in a few places for neatness). Then I cut a square of matching purple in card stock the same size and  attached to the front of the base card. Next I added the aperture using 3D pads to create dimension and make a deep recess. From the rest of the dyed paper I cut enough petals to create a rose using the other sizes of dies in the Rose Creations Set. I glued this inside the inset and added glossy accents on the petals for dew drops.  The sentiment is stamped using a stamp from Phill Martin's 'Sentimentally Yours' which is it's first outing. Lastly I added matching pearls to the top two corners and called it done.

Just a Note.

Internet decided to do one of its  ( as  it now seems) periodic runners and only just got reconnected a few mins  ago. Still it enabled me to have the time to clear out my cache of photo's and have found some cards that I haven't shown yet . ( I do quite a lot of swaps and as you can't show them until after they have been received I tend to store them and then forget about them ).
This one was done for a card swap back in November and went to my recipient in USA.The colour theme was to use coco/shell/pale coco and I chose the theme of friendship.
I had recently won this stamp from the same swap blog so wanted to incorporate in this card. The stamp is a combined die cut from Sizzix called Noted 659521.  Th butterflies are the outcuts from a Tonic butterfly die cut.

I used a blank card base and adhered layers of the required colours as the matt for the die cut pieces.

Entering into the following challenges:

All Sorts Challenge #398 Wings on things.

Hiding In My Craft Room #284 Superscraps Saturday.

Lil Patch of Crafty Friends #50 Anything goes.

Creative Moments #109 Anything goes.

Penny's Paper Crafty #311 Anything goes.

Little Miss Muffet #154 Anything goes.

Brown Sugar #233 Anything goes.

Jo's Scrap Shack #171 Anything goes.

Love to Scrap #93 Anything goes.

TLC Creations #7 Anything goes.

Water Colour Barn.

Well we have managed to survive to the end of week 1 of Project Horrendous (as The Doc has nicknamed the Bathroom and Downstairs  Cloakroom refurbishment ) without too much mishap. We were missing the basin units which didn't get delivered with the rest of the items last week but  thankfully they arrived on Tuesday morning early morning delivery.  (These early mornings are killing me as they start 8.30am)

The old bathroom suite is out and the new one is in situ (filled with water at the moment )whilst it seats in and levels out!!!! Wall tiles are almost nearly all on ( they ran out due to having to cut more than they thought would be needed for the sloping walls) but fortunately it is a new tile design and the tile company has more of them in stock so the rest will be picked up on Monday. The floor tiles are down and grouted and have been left to dry so they have had a day off today. We have been bannished to the dinning room this past week as the contractors need to use the upstairs landing  for working in.  I have manage to get quite a few photos of work in progress once they  had left for the day.

I haven't been able to get into my craft room much whilst all this has been going on but some new stamps and pens I ordered arrived in the post  so I was able to have a play with them downstairs without making any mess. 

The stamps are from Art Impressions Water colour range and I have been watching their videos on my Ipad on how to use them.  I'm quite pleased with my first attempt using The Barn stamp and various foliage to make the background. I haven't used the same colours but I think it looks the part. 

Not sure what I want to do with it yet so have just placed a purple card framework in front to pick out the barn door colour.  I'm going to try the Rose cottage next. 

Get Your Jewels Out.

It's a new butterfly challenge starting today and the theme is as follows.

#70 Butterflies + J is for Jewels and/or Jade.

The definition for Jade is that it is an ornamental rock. The higher the iron content the greener the colour.

Here is my inspiration card for you.

The base card is made from Jade card stock and the image is from Hunkydory's 'Little book of Shimmer'. I needed to trim it down just slightly to fit behind the Crafts-Too Rectangle stitch hole frame which is die cut from pink glitter paper. Gems are from my stash and the butterfly has been die cut using Memory Box Pippi/Isabella dies. Sentiment is a multicoloured sticker by Starform. Lighting is terrible again for taking photos but it really does all shimmer and shine IRL. 

Hope to see you play along.


Entering into the following challenges:
Artistic Inspirations #170 Anything goes.
Through The Craft Room Door # Anything goes.
Creative Inspirations #266 Fabulous flowers.
Scrapping 4 Fun #81 Bright colours.
Hiding In My Craft Room #283  Free style.
Glitter 'N' Sparkle #221 Anything goes.
Crafting By Designs # Anything goes.
Let Craft and Create #121 Things with wings.
Scrapper's Delights #62 Anything goes.

Hugs 

Anything Goes 1,2,3.

Running completely behind today. The Bathroom+ Downstairs Cloakroom Refurbishment (nicknamed  'Project Horrendous' by The Doc) kicks off tomorrow and is due to take 3 plus weeks to complete. The radiators have been removed and everything from the walls in case they get knocked.
Can't do much about the walls so hope they will be careful.  Watch this space for updates. 'Project Digger Mole is due to get  underway next door as well but will explain that one at a later date. It's all go here!!

It's time once again for the girls in the Christmas Card club to show their makes. We have a brand new set of themes for the coming year and Margaret has started us off with a nice easy one of Anything goes.  Not having much time I have just delved into my used christmas card box and selected card fronts that aren't needed for any of the other themes.  I managed to come up with the following 3 cards.

All made  with card stock made into blanks and then the card fronts cut down to size and a frame added using my Crafts-Too Rectangle dies stitch hole. I adhered acetate between the frames and image  but it doesn't show up in the photos. 

Card 1 uses gold edging strips and a Britannia word die for the sentiment which is attached to the acetate. Picture front was added to the cream card and then the red frame adhered uses 3D pads  for a bit of dimension.

Card 2 uses silver edging strips and a sentiment from my stash. I adhered the card and framework flat on the blue base and adhered the sentment using 3D pads.

 Card 3 uses gold edging trim and a gold sentiment sticker. I adhered the frame, acetate and card image altogether as one unit and then applied to the green card base using 3D pads for dimension.

So 3 different cards, 3 different looks and  3 different ways of attaching the acetate windows. 

Hugs 

The Big 0.

Here is some more inspiration for you for week 2 of

 #69 Butterflies + Z is for Zero and /or Zucchini.

(The definition for Zucchini as a colour is hues of yellow through to hues of green

and I will accept either or both colour ranges.)

You still have until Tuesday 10th January to enter.

Onto my first card which uses a Hunkydory pre coloured image from their  'Little book of Shimmer'.

I took my inspiration from the yellow on the birds and also that I wanted to make an Anniversary card. I've teamed it with two different shades of green cardstock which didn't really photo very well.

The one below is taken with the flash on but is still not a very good colour comparison. The flowers were made from an old christmas decoration that I found in the box when we got it down from the loft  to decorate with. I pulled all the single silk flower heads off the garish plastic centres that were supposed to be berry heads  which have now gone in the bin and also salvaged the leaves to use on a  future christmas card. I layered 3 flowers up (for each flower) and threaded new pink stamens through them and as the centres are a pale yellow they match in well. The little pink butterflies were waste scrap from a Tonic border punch and had been safely stored away in my stash. Used my Presscut Rectangle dies Stitch hole  die cut to frame the picture with. Silver stickers also from my stash. 

 

Entering the card above in the following challenges:

Crafting by Designs # Anything goes,

Double 'D' Challenges  # Anniversary/Bogaversary/ Birthday.

Inspiration Destination #119  Anything goes.

Brown Sugar #232 Anything goes.

Jo's Scrap Shack # Anything goes.

My Second card for you uses a NBUS stamp that I purchased quite a while ago and not used.

It is by La Blanche  and I believe the flower is a dog rose as the package it came in doesn't have any information on it.  I stamped out onto cold press water colour  paper and have coloured in using my distress marker pens (in shades of yellow and greens)  plus a brush and a pot of water.  Once dried I added  in the veins and flower definition using a gold gel pen. I fussy cut out the image (mainly because I made a pigs ear out of marking blobs of colour on  the rest of the water colour card and the more I tried to dab it off the worse it got). I didn't entriely waste the paper though as I scribbled more of  the pen colours onto it and managed to cut the butterfly (Pippi/Isabella  dies by Memory box) from the scraps.  The design paper is from my stash and was an unknown magazine freebie.I used green and yellow card stock for the rest of the card and Britannia 

word dies to make the sentiment.  Iv'e used the same stitched die cut frames as above.   

Entering the above card into these challenges:
Crafty Gals Corner #104 Use something new.
Crafty Creations #332 Anything goes.
Creative Knockouts #175 Anything goes.
A Bit More Time To Craft #35 Anything goes.
Creative Fingers #122 Anything goes.



My last card just uses green card stock which I  used with my Scor pal to create the nine box framework. I then played noughts and crosses (with myself, I really should  get out more) using  a die cut alphabet by Craft Emotions. The shiny embossed butterfly is from a craft sheet by Tbz-Kaart.nl and thee colours of the butterfly just fitted the challenge perfectly.

Entering this card into the challenges below:

Penny's Paper Crafty #310 Anything goes.

Moving Along With The Times #36 Something in the air.

Crafty Catz # Anything goes.

Crafting With Friends #34 Anything goes.