Feeling Sad.

Sorry I have not been around much this past week or so. Dad was taken unexpectedly into hospital  with breathing difficulties and passed away on Friday.

Norman.

28/10/1924 - 25/08/2017

Dad had a passion for roses and their garden at home was always full of them. I have made a card as a tribute using just one of the many photos that he took of his blooms.

Card Details.

Made with the help of 3 generations. ( Father, Daughter, Granddaughter) 

                  Dad.    Rose grower and photographer.

         Me.     Card design ValeryAnne. 

  Faye.    FaDoodles stampset.

Love 

FaDoodles Candy

This post will stay at the top until 30th August.

My daughter Faye  (Fluff)  now has another feather in her cap. Her first set of stamps are out! Commissioned by Whimsy Stamps and called FaDoodles.  I have bought two of them one for me of course and the other to give away as candy here on my blog.

Candy will run from 31st July  - 30th August

FaDoodles  - CWSD226

Clearly Whimsy Stamps collection 

Candy will close on 30th August at 8pm (GMT)

Just a Few Rules.

1.One entry only per person.

2. International followers welcome to join in.

3. Please be one of my regular  followers .

4. Add the the Candy picture on my side bar to

your own blog side bar.

5. Add your name to Mr Linky  below.

Winner  will be drawn by Random Org  on
31st  August.

Peace, Love and Joy

Time once more for the girls in the Christmas Card club to show our makes. It was Christine's turn to choose the theme which is The True Meaning of Christmas. A rootle round in my used christmas card box only turned up one suitable card . I simply trimmed it down slightly and adhered to several layers of different coloured cardstock. The base is made from green cardstock. The joy sentiment comes I think from The Works and I have coated with Glossy Accents.

I only had time to make the one card today so this post is short and sweet.

Entering into the following challenges:
The Holly and The Ivy Christmas challenge #12 Anything goes.
A Snowflakes Promise #42 Anything goes.
Crafty Hazelnut's Extra # Anything goes.
Sweet Stampin Christmas # Anything goes.

Spot The Doodle.

It's into the second week of the latest Butterfly Challenge which is running for a total of 4 weeks.

#84 Butterflies + You Choose  and/or Wedgewood Blue

Here is my inspiration card for you.
I was very lucky to receive this die cut image  in the post from my lovely blogging friend Greta and as it was a total surprise it made my day for me. Thanks Greta. I knew exactly what I was going to be using it for and kept it safely on my desk to use on this card. The die is a PTI coverplate and as Gtreta had used white  Bristol paper I was able to colour with my blue promarker pen to get the exact shade I needed. The background is from some sheets that I had made earlier in the year using the Shaving Foam Technique  and this particular sheet looked perfect behind the butterflies. I have mounted onto dark blue linen card  which in turn is adhered to a white card base and as Faye's 'FaDoddles ' were out on my desk I just had to use them to finish off the card. I have stamped them this time using Memento Dew Drop Nautical Blue . I also added blue gems to the butterflies antenna which I have left waving on the card.   To win one of these  fabulous stamp sets I'm giving one away free in the Candy at the top of this page which ends 30th Aug.

Entering into the following challenges:

Ancestors

I recently spent a crafting day with Jean from B J Crafts and this is the second project that I made.
I had asked to recycle a book using Mixed Media  products and Jean provided me with a hard covered book to use  and I just had to bring an old picture/photograph for the front.

I was pleased when I saw the book I would be using as I had already read it in paper back form so wouldn't have to sit there reading it before I could get started !! Lol.  The first thing was to cover the entire front and back covers using Imagination Crafts Rusty Patina. I chose to use a dark brown and a sea green This dries remarkably fast so the next stage was to get really messy and using your fingers daub on Imagination Crafts Starlight Wax in a rustic gold colour and rub into the surface to give the sparkle. I could choose the embellishments and I went for butterflies (what a surprise ), an old key, buttons and a Heartfelt flower die  which were all given the same treatment.  The old photograph I took along was a photo copied image of my G.G. Grandfather. The original photo is a lot bigger and shows he is carrying a shot gun and has his faithful black dog at his feet. 

The Frame was created from stiff card and  I used a craft  knife to cut a cross in the centre  carefully peeled back to create the aperture. Coated same as the other embellishments and then the picture was tucked behind and the frame glued to the book front.   I had told Jean that I intended making the book centre into a hidden compartment by carefully cutting the centres from the pages and gluing together but when I got home and had left it on my desk for a week or two decided instead that as the picture was of one of my ancestors I would start the book off with his details and then add all the rest of the family on subsequent pages. (I love genealogy and this particular branch of the family tree I have manage to trace back to 1463)

I have glued two pages together to make them more sturdy throughout the book and painted over the pages with a cream paint to cover the wording. I used a tree stamp to decorate the top of the front  page which has Samuel's details on it listing his parents and siblings and subsequent pages  will go through each of the family members in turn. I will be in there right at the back eventually along with my children and their children. Something to keep me occupied on a cold winters night!

Entering into the following challenges:
Altered Electics # Anything goes altered projects.
Electic Ellapu # Anything goes.
Rhedd's Creative Spirit # Anything goes.

Amaryllis.

This is a card I made for a swap that I did way  back in April and have never shown. The theme for the swap was to make a card using shades of pinks and greens and to use a stamp somewhere on your creation.

The stamp is by Woodware called 'Amaryllis' which I coloured in with my promarkers with 3 shades of pink and 3 shades of green using the Pointillism Technique of colouring. Die cut using  spellbinders  Labels Twenty -Eight S5-127. Edged all round using a pink glitter glue. Die cut again using a pale green cardstock. Mounted onto pink card which I have backed onto more of the pale green cardstock and then finally onto a pink card base. Left blank for the recipient to add their own sentiment.

Entering into the following challenges:

Box with Lid

I recently spent a crafting day with Jean from B J Crafts and this is one of the items that I made.
A wooden Decoupaged box. I started by taking all the hinges off and painting the lid and sides of the box with Imagination Crafts  MDF paint in cream gold.  Once dry I chose two sheets of Imagination Crafts  Decoupage Rice Paper in a pretty roses and butterfly design and used these to cover the sides and lid.  Now this is where I made a boo boo. I hadn't been paying attention to where the screw holes on the lid were for attaching back to the box so the pattern on the lid is actually sideways! Der.

 The flowers were made by gluing more of the rice paper to plain white card and then die cutting using a Heartfelt creations flower die. They look completely different don't they but it is the yellow paint that is giving the subtle shading on the box.

Where the butterfly is now I had originally pasted a decoupaged butterfly to hide the pattern  mistake but when I got it home I wasn't happy with the way it looked so I managed to scrape together enough of the leftover pieces of decoupage paper that Jean had given me and glued to some more cardstock and die cut the Cheery Lynn Design butterfly out. Again I wasn't happy with the result until I  had  painted the bottom section of the butterfly with paint to match the box.  With the flowers and the filigree corners attached the sideways pattern hardly notices.

Note to self. Pay more attention to detail instead of chatting away.  Below is a close up of the butterfly and flowers.

Entering into the following challenges:
Altered Electics # Anything goes.
Electic Ellapu # Anything goes.
Rhedd's Creative Spirit # Anything goes.

Blue Birds

Time for another new challenge over on The Butterfly blog.

#84 Butterflies + Y  is for You Choose and/or the colour Wedgewood blue

So you are free to choose your own theme/embellishments/design as long as their is a Butterfly somewhere in your creation.

You may choose to use just the letter/theme + butterfly or use the colour +butterfly.

There will be Two Winners drawn for this challenge which is lasting 

4 Weeks due to the school holidays.

Here is my inspiration card for you.

I have used a digi paper from blossom Art called Blue Birds 1807 No (11) which I have teamed with pale blue card stock and layered up. The butterflies were in a container on my desk so not sure if they are diecuts or punches now.  Pale blue gems from my stash and I couldn't help using some more doodle edges from Faye's FaDoodle set.  I have a set for free in my Blog candy post above. This time  I have used one of the straight edge patterns, a double x and a trio of x's with the sentiment stamp which is  a clear stamp by Hobbycraft.

I decorated the inside of the card with the left overs. 

Entering into the following challenge:

Crafty Hazelnuts Patterned Paper #  August Anything goes.

Love Poems

It is our Wedding anniversary today. A search on the web tells me that we should be celebrating it with poetry.
Here is the card I made for The Doc and I did write a little poem for him which is tucked behind the glasses.  Who said romance was dead!!

The backing is computer generated in word and printed off.  Green vellum has been embossed using Leonie Pujol 'Love lines' trimmed down to fit a 6 x 6 green blank card base. I die cut (using Nellie Snellen straight dotted rectangle) from the centre of the backing sheet and transferred to underneath  the image so that more of it would show. The image is by Bugaboo 'Wedding Glasses' that I resized in word before printing out. Coloured with my promarkers and then Glossy accents added. Silver sentiment and little silver hearts from my stash.

Entering into the following challenges:
Emerald Crafts #2 Anything goes.
Love To Craft #13 Anything goes.
Create and Inspire #64 Anything goes.
Crafts Galore # Anything goes.
Artistic Inspirations #185 Anything goes.
Crafty Creations #347 Anything goes.
Crafty Gals Corner #134 Anything goes.
Little Miss Muffet #168 Anything goes.
Creative Ladybirds #29 Anything goes.
Day Dreamer Challenges #1 Anything goes.

Carol Singers.

I was wide eyed and bushy tailed for the next Christmas Card Club challenge and had these made and waiting Don't expect this to become the norm though!! The theme of Carol singers was set by Granmargaret. A look through my  used christmas card fronts turned up these two likely candidates.

The arch window on the first image gave me the idea to use my Tonic Studios Die cut  Chic set 293056 on the 1st card. The set comes with different die frames and shapes so I was able to mix and match to achieve this look. The latice work is cut in red card and then backed with silver shimmer paper. You can just about see I have used a piece of acetate in the window which has gold stars printed on it and matches the stars in the mage. The name Annette is on the card front so I take her to be the design artist of the original card. I have used dark silver card stock to create the base card and from the snippets of red/silver left over I had enough to create the sentiment base which is raised on 3D pads. The Wooden Noel sign I believe came from The Works.

Second card again uses acetate to cover the front but this time the pattern is gold falling snow which I thought went perfectly with the card image. I simply trimmed down the card front adhered to gold shimmer card and then gold coloured card stock and finally to the beige cardstock base. I only need to  stick the acetate down on the fold  side of the card as it stays put when the card opens. To hide the ds tape I have used 2 strips of gold edging side by side.  No extra sentiment as there is already one on the image.

I'm sorry but one simply cannot have carol singers without using a PennyBlack 'Caroling Duck' or in this case Ducks! I defy anyone not to smile at this next card or go Awh!

I took one stamp and using a post it note for masking stamped up 5 ducks to make a choir. Stamped onto water colour card so that I could use my Marvy Le Plume II pens for colouring . I scribbled the colours onto a clear acetate sheet and used a dampened pen to apply . Silver glitter glue used on their hats.   The tartan design paper was a freebie in Making Cards Christmas  Edition 2015. Again not easily seen but the aperture has an acetate covering encasing the layered image. The Noel sentiment is from The Works as above but this time I have coated with Glossy Accents. I tell you what though, those ducks do not know how to sing in unison. My ears are throbbing!!!!

Entering this card only into the following challenges:
The Holly and The Ivy Christmas Challenge #11 Anything goes.
A Snow Flakes Promise #42 Anything goes.
Crafty Hazelnuts Extra # Anything goes.
Sweet Stampin Christmas # Anything goes.
Shopping Our Stash #314 Countdown to christmas

Summer Flowers

I have had this image coloured up for ages and came across it the other day so decided to finish it  off by adding a gold gel pen to the flowers  and leaves.
The stamp is by Penny Black and is a Wooden one  Called  'Mixed Media' 4037K .  The sentiment is a glossy sticker from my stash and just happens to match Faye's 'FaDoodles'  that I have  added to the edge of the stamped image . I used a small Corner Doodle and the double dots in between which fitted perfectly. Mounted onto yellow card to match the flowers and then adhered to  a white card base.

The FaDoodles stamp set has only been out since 19th July but are flying off the shelves fast.
 'Dies To Die For' have already  sold out twice  and are now on their third order!! If you would like to have a chance to win one of these stamp sets I am giving one  away in the Blog Candy at the top of this page. Candy ends 30th Aug.

Entering into the following challenges:
Create and Inspire #65 Anything goes.
Artistic Inspirations #185 Anything goes.
Come and Get It Challenges # Just add flowers.
Sheepski Designs Challenges #5 Flower power
House Of Cards # Floral images/and or colours.
Southern Girls #165 Flower Power.

Another Jagged Edge

It is the second week of the current butterfly Challenge
#83 Butterflies + J is for Jagged edge and or the colour of Kiwi fruit.
Here is another card for your inspiration.
It's what I call a Faff card. I spent so much time faffing around with one embellishment after another and then discarding that if I was to give it a score of 1- 10  for faffness it would get 11 (and if  that's not a word it jolly well should be!!)

I started off with the green card base and then added a piece of Imagination Crafts Rice paper. It comes in an 8.5 x11.5 sheet and is very easy to tear apart by running a wet paint brush where you want to pull it apart and then you do literally pull the paper apart to give this torn effect. The lace edging was originally white but I decided to colour with a brown promarker pen. The wording I had printed off previously and it was in my word box of stamps and dies so I just tore the edges and then went round with a gold marker pen. Finally decided to attach it at an angle  and then went looking for some roses to match the paper. Found two but thought they looked a bit bland so edged with the gold marker and they looked horrible.Back to embellishment box and found the gold filigree corners and attached one to the top right corner. Found the cream bow on my desk so stuck it on before I changed my mind. Back to the embellishment box to find a pearl to pop on top and found some decreasing in size so wacked those on too. Stood back to admire and decided the bottom corner needed  a filigree corner as well to balance so quickly adhered . This then left me with one over so to heck with it by this time I was going for broke and added it to the inside of the card.!

Here is the inside .

Added the top half of the torn rice paper to the inside  and edged the green with the gold marker pen and then also the front too. Lastly die cut the sentiment which is a Sizzix Thinlets 'Love  & Wishes 660825 '  from gold shimmer cardstock. Thankfully it cut like a dream. Of course  by this time the natural light had gone so these pictures are the best I could get. In the end I did  manage to get 4 jagged edges onto my card. The jagged rice paper, jagged lace , jagged edge around the Sentiment and the jagged filigree corners.

Challenge runs for a further week and do hope you can find the time to join in the Faffness/Fun!
You only need to add one jagged edge or use the colour +your butterfly.

Entering into the following challenges:
Through The Craft Room Door # Anything goes.
Brown Sugar #261 Anything goes.
Fussy and Fancy #192 Anything goes.
Lil Patch of Crafty Friends #62 Anything goes.
Use Your Stuff # free week.
The Crazy Challenge # 254 Rustic elegance.
Dream Valley #160 Anything goes.

Poppy Love

Well I couldn't wait to try out my new stamps made by Faye and as I also had a challenge in mind I killed two birds with one stone so to speak.

I love poppies almost as much as butterflies and love the vibrant colours that they come in. I used a Woodware Stamp  Called 'Poppy' ADS506 and stamped onto watercolour paper so that I could colour with my Marv Le Plume II water colour pens by scribbling onto an acrylic blog and picking the colour up with a dampened paint brush.  I have used just four colours here, red orange, brown and green plus a gold gel pen.The edging is of course made using Faye's Fantastic stamp set  'FaDoodles ' CWSD226  in the Clearly Whimsy Stamps Collection.  If  your in USA you can purchase from their store and in the UK from Tracy at Dies To Die For  but if you fancy getting your hands on a free one then see my Blog Candy in the post above as I am giving one away. Just enter your details for a chance to win.
The Allsorts challenge this week is a photo inspiration and has these colours  which are just right for poppies. Layered up onto orange cardstock and then red which is adhered to the orange backing card using 3D pads for extra dimension.

Entering into the following challenge:
Allsorts Challenge #426 Photo inspiration.