All Change.

The Butterfly Challenge has had a revamp as it enters its 5th year of challenges. The current challenge is

#94 Spin The Butterfly Wheel with the letter C.

Here are my inspiration cards for you.

First up using Butterflies/Cornflower Blue/Corners.

 At first glance you might think it is a Joy fold card but it isn't. I used blue card stock for the base cutting it to 14cm square. I then cut the front of the card in half taking away 7cm.  This piece was then turned sideways and attached to the remaining front of the card after I had layered it up with cream card stock and design paper called 'Sew Pretty' by Aspire Crafts.  The butterfly is by Inkylicious from their 'Flutters 1' stamp set which I have coloured using blue and cream inks and then fussy cut out. Happy Birthday sentiment is by Stampography. Silver corners and ribbon from my stash.

Entering this card only into the following challenges:

Through the Craftroom Door #Anything goes.

Creative Fingers # 142 Anything goes.

Fashionable Stamping #131 Anything goes.

My second card uses Butterflies/Checks/ Crimson. If you look carefully I have also used Cream and Corners so I have used over half of the elements on this card.  Base is Crimson card stock which  I have layered up with a cream check design paper from the Nitwit Collection Thimble 'n' threads which came free in Simply Homemade craft magazine. The red check paper is called 'Homegrown'by Hot off the Press. The sentiments are by Inkylicious and Stampography.  Ribbon bow and roses from my stash. Butterflies punched out using my SU punch.
Card is based on one I saw in a card magazine from several years ago.

I decorated the inside of the card to match.

 Hope you have been inspired to play along. Challenge runs for a fortnight as before and I will show you more ideas next week using the remaining elements on the wheel.

Cat Mail.

Our youngest grandson likes to receive mail in the post just for him so I have been sending him a card each week and enclosing jokes for him to enjoy.We are currently on animal jokes and for the card I'm showing here we were on the letter M so it was Moles, Monkeys and Mice. Up till now I had been using up old  notelet cards with cats on the front (as he loves cats)  but have now run out of those so have had to resort to making my own cards up. I have a pile of pre-designed card blanks in my stash which I  uncovered in my recent Craft Room clear out so have started using them for the card base. I also found some Daisy & Dandelion ready stamped designs which came free in Simply Cards & Papercraft magazine a while ago with some cat images in amongst them. Perfect!

Here is the card I sent.

I coloured (using my promarkers)  the image independent of the card base and then realised it went quite well with it as I had gone round the design using a gold gel pen and used shades of brown on the cat.  Then I realised it would also fit the largest of my Xcut Hexagon dies which again worked perfectly with the base. Sorted!!

Now I just know your dying to know what jokes I enclosed so here are just 3 of them.
Remember they are for a nine yr old though.

Q.       How does a Mole write to his friends?
A.       By E-Mole.

Q.       What did the Monkey say  when he cut off his tail?
A.       It  won't be long now.

Q.       How does a Mouse feel after it takes a shower?
A.       Squeaky clean.

I did warn you!!!!!

And on that happy note I'm entering into the following challenges:
Crafty Creations #359 Anything goes.
Creative Moments #135 Anything goes/no twist.
Country View Challenges # Anything goes.
Crafts Galore # Anything goes.
Crafty Girls Creations #43 Anything goes.
The Crafty Addicts. #44 Anything goes.

Lets Party.

It's time for the first Rudolph challenge of 2018. This is a card I made last year but didn't get round to showing due to having the wretched flu for all of December so is not in my current total for this Yr.
Image is a digi by Bugaboo  called.' Christmas  Ornament Gal.'

I must have taken at least 30 photos of this card around the house in different lighting and times of day but this is the best I can get. I have coloured in using my promarkers and then edged with a gold gel pen. Lots of red stickles glue applied too that is not showing up. Backed onto a strip of hessian and then tartan check design paper onto red cardstock and lastly green cardstock. The sentiment is by
Ultimate Crafts called ' Merry Christmas Swirls' and I have come to the conclusion that the Merry is not showing up due to having the tartan paper behind it. IRL it is not a problem.
Here is another shot that is not showing up all the bling.

Entering into the following challenges:
Crafty Card Makers #203 Blings the thing.
Scraps of Life by Scrappy Mo #1 Rudolph day.
A Snowflakes Promise #47 Anything goes.
The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge #22 Anything goes.
Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge #369 Anything goes + use a sentiment.
Passion For Promarkers #428 Lots of layers.
Tuesday Throwdown #376 Anything goes.
Watercooler Wednesday Challenge #154 All About Christmas.

More Folds.

It's week 2 of the Butterfly challenge

#93 Butterflies + X is for Xtra fold and or the colour Peacock  Blue/ Green.

and here is some more inspiration for you.

1st card  is a Block Step Card which looks complicated but is really easy to make. There are lots of tutorials on You Tube on how to make it from a piece of cardstock 30cm x 11.5cm and a scoring board.

 I have used lots of design papers and embellishments from my stash.  The butterfly on the top is 'Isabella' and 'Pippi by Memory Box.

 Butterflies on the side are an SU Punch. Best Wishes /with Love die cuts are  by Crafters Companion.

The other side of the card. It folds down flat for posting. 

2nd card is a Four Fold Card. Again very easy to make.  I have decorated the front with a Pearlescent Butterfly  acetate sheet from Lakeland (when they used to do craft stuff). Unfortunately it is not showing up here very well byt does IRL. Sentiment is a Tonic die cut. I attached the acetate by green cord threaded through holes punched in each corner  and then tied in a bow.  Paper unknown from my stash.

 Inside of card looking down to show the folds which is simply the same size card as the front that has been folded into quarters and then attached to the card either end only.

 Paper is by Aspire Crafts called Sew Pretty.  There is another panel of the butterfly acetate attached inside plus another of the SU punched butterflies.

Sorry photos are the best I can get in this bad lighting and I'm racing to get loaded as the internet is up and down again.

Jane has also made a second card  for the challenge which you can see here on her blog.

Hope we have inspired you to play along. You have until Tuesday the 30th Jan to enter.

A Load of Feathers.

In case you haven't noticed there is a new kid on the block namely Darnell's

Twofer Card Challenge 

where you are required to use the same stamp or die on two different cards for two different ocassions. 

Now I wasn't  going to enter cos I was so sure I didn't have a feather stamp or die in my stash but during the course of my massive clear out/up of my Craft room I came across a NBUS feather stamp which had been a freebie in The Craft Stamper magazine yrs ago lurking in the bottom of a box.

Ok. So now I had the stamp but no idea of how to use it on one card let alone two! I left it on my desk for several days/weeks until an inkling for the first card emerged and then very quickly followed by a  second  idea which I discounted as being too off the wall but like all ideas once the seed/feather had been sown it just couldn't let go.

Here is card No1. A Notelet. 

The sentiment pretty much says what the card occasion is for anyway.  During my rummage in my craft room I came across a set of patterned card blanks which I have put to use here as the background sort of looks vaguely feathery. The sentiment is a stamp by Tonic (another NBUS) which comes in a set of six. I drew the ink pot freehand onto black cut stock and fussy cut then edged in gold gel pen to match for border on the card.

Card No2  Humourous.

It just wouldn't go away so in the end I went with the feather/flow. Hope you get my sense of humour.  (The card sort of follows on from the purpose the feather was used for on the first card.)  I used a digi image by Digi Stamps 4Joy called 'Whoose looking at you' which I resized to fit my card base. The sentiment I printed off in word and used my SU  Extra-large curly label punch. 

 The two together as required for the challenge.

Gingerbread

It is time already again for the girls in the Christmas Card Club to show our makes. The theme was set by Maureen who asked us for Christmas Baking. The only thing I could find in my stash was this design paper and  a digi image called 'Gingerbread Scene' by Imagine That. It comes as a set of several different images in both pre-coloured and black/white. I chose to use the pre-coloured images and went for a Joy Fold Card design.  

 My starting point was to print off the Gingerbread house scene which then determined the size I made the card.  The design paper is by Sally Denton and came as a freebie in a magazine Cards and Papercrafts.. The two different size ribbons were oddments  from my stash. Then I just cut and layered everything up using brown and green cardstock. Here is the inside of the card opened out. I have added a pocket on the left hand side to hold a tag for writing the recipient on which in this case will be our Granddaughter.

I hope I have managed to fulfil the criteria for Christmas Baking.

Entering into the following challenges.
A Snow Flakes Promise #47 Anything goes.
The Holly and The Ivy #22 Anything goes.
Pixies Crafty Workshop #317 /318 use your snippets (in this case the ribbon)
The Paper Shelter #322 Shape It Up.
Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge #369 Anything goes + optional use a sentiment.

More Than One Fold

This post is late due to the internet being up and down with the high winds which makes our connection keep dropping out .
It's a new challenge over with the butterflies.
#93 Butterflies + X is for Xtra fold and or the colour Peacock  Blue/ Green.
Here is my inspiration cards for you. Better late than never.

First up is an Easel Card using an image from  Hunkydory's little book of 'Jewelled Butterflies.
I have teamed it up with  lovely deep blue turquoise card stock folded to make the easel shape

which you can see in this sideways shot. I layered up using a slightly deeper shade of blue and to make the platform so that the card would stay propped open. I had a rummage in my sequin boxes and found just the right shades of green and blue to use and joy of joys they actually stayed stuck where I put them too.  Happy Birthday was die cut using an Xcut sentiment die and a scrap of blue glitter paper which I then attached to a piece of light green patterned card for contrast. 

Second card is called a Fold out card. Here I have used complementing  images from two  decoupage popper pads  by Creative Crafting World that I won some time ago in blogland from the lovely Sue T.

I fussy cut another image to just show the inside panel of flowers and then adhered to a piece of matching  card the same as the base cardstock using 3D pads to give a little height and definition.
Butterfly from my stash.

Hope you can join in. The challenge runs for the usual two weeks and will close on Tuesday 30th Jan.


Entering this card only into the following challenges:
Ally's Angels #1 Anything goes.
Country View Challenges # Anything goes.
Crafting By Designs # Anything goes.
Crafts Galore # Anything goes.
Crafty Girls Creations #43 Anything goes.
Create and Inspire #70 Anything goes.
Emerald City Crafts #7 Anything goes.
Love To Craft #18 Anything goes.
The Crafty Addicts #44 Anything goes.
Unicorn Challenge #28 Anything goes.

A Pile of Buttons

I showed this over 5yrs ago but as there are now only a handful of those that  originally commented still blogging I thought I would do a revamp of the post.

So take a pile of buttons (100 to be precise), some old cotton reels and very thick card stock.

Lots and lots of sticking and gluing this is what I made. A Medieval Chess Set complete with design paper base. I used a red promarker to colour in alternate squares to make the checker board  effect for the base.

The pawns were simply made from a pile of buttons glued together with a pearl on top. The black sets colours are red and yellow with gold, whilst the white set uses blue and green with silver. The Knights are depicted with a shield and jousting pole, the Bishops by their hats and staff. The Kings and Queens of course have their crowns shown on buttons in gold and silver.  

The finished set now resides in our glass display cabinet .

I will be back soon to show you the next makes for the Butterfly Challenge, that is if I can find anything after my massive Craft Room tidy up!

Winter Frost.

I had meant to post this yesterday evening but I couldn't get a decent photo showing up the Xcut  jigsaw die I had used and as that was the whole point of making the card I had to wait till today and try again. You can just about see that I used the die cut on an old christmas card front and then layered onto white card which I then used 3D  pads on to adhere to the navy blue card base.  The sentiment was from my stash which  I also layered on to white card and then with 3D pads onto a remaining piece of the card front. (Waste not want not!).  I even decorated the inside of the card with the remaining strip of old card. 

Here is a close up of the finished card showing the die cut pieces that I reassembled and stuck  on  a piece of white paper  first before adhering to the white card stock. (Just as well I did as easier said than done. Even with only nine pieces I nearly stuck them in the wrong order.)

Entering into the following challenges:
Make My Monday #62 Blue and white.
All Sorts Challenge#450 No patterned papers.
The Holly And Ivy Christmas Challenge #22 Anything goes.
A Snowflakes Promise #47 Anything goes.
The 12 Months of Christmas #37 A touch of frost.

Spotlight Stamping.

Into the second week of the Butterfly Challenge
#92 Butterflies + O is for One Layer and/or the colour Ultra Pink.
and here is my next inspiration card for you.
The base is made from Water colour cardstock.
I have used  Imagination Crafts stamps for both the image and the sentiment which I stamped in black ink. I then used a circle punch to cut an aperture from a post it note(which I discarded and  applied the remaining portion  positioning where I thought it looked best over the stamped image. I used a Bright Pink Marvey Le Plume II water colour pen to colour in the circle and then carefully lifted the post it note away to reveal the spotlighted area. Simples!!

Entering into the following challenges:
Ally's Angels #1 Anything goes.
Emerald City Crafts #7 Anything goes.
The House That Stamps Built #13 Things with wings
Unicorn Challenge #28 Anything goes.
Brown Sugar #274 Birthday.
Lil Patch Of Crafty Friends #73 Anything goes.
Artistic Inspirations #192 Anything goes.
Dream Valley #170 Anything goes.
Try Stampin'-or-not on Tuesday#353 Burst of colour.

Hope you will have time to join in .

Just when I thought!

It is time once more for the Girls in the Christmas Card club to show out makes  and just when I thought I had safely seen the back of L'th in his hot air balloon  Margaret has set the theme for #1 of Gnomes , Pixies or Elves!!!!!

No need to look in my used christmas card box as I knew nothing would fit the bill so I  had a rummage in my digi files instead and come up with the following.

Card No 1.
I saw this freebie image on Friperies and Butterflies site on  29th Dec and fell in love with it so downloaded it along with another one which just had fairies on it.( I had intended to use on my fairy challenge but ran out of time ). The images are by Beverlie Mason and  I used no 1 and no 4 here.

I printed the fairy one off larger and adhered to a piece of card before distressing around the edges. 

The next one I printed next size down and again adhered to cardstock to make it stronger before distressing the edges. I also used a piercing tool to make a series of holes in the top left corner and used white cotton thread to create the woven effect  I then stacked on top of one another , a happy accident as I had intended to make two cards from them but they were laying on my desk like it and I like the double effect .The ribbon was an oddment on my desk. Backed onto blue glitter card and then I used white glitter card to die cut the iccles using MFT Die-namics 'Fresh cut Grass' I did use loads of Wink of Stella on this card but it is not showing up at all. (I had issues getting the pen to work properly in the first instance.)

Entering this card into the following challenges:

The Crazy Challenge #265 Winter Wonderland.

Little Red Waggon #425 Winter Wonderland

12 Months Of Christmas #37 A touch of frost (The icicles )

Crafty Calendar # Mythical Creatures. Fairies, Goblins, Pixies.

Card No 2.

Again this is a digi that I bought last year intending to use but getting the Flu early on in December  put paid to much of my crafting plans on my blog. 

 The digi image is by Sheepski Designs and is called 'Gnome for Christmas'. Coloured using my promarkers, silver gel pen and pearlescent chalks.  The  base is snowflake embossed card from Jellybean Crafts. The next layer is a freebie paper from Making Cards Magazine christmas Edition 2015 Festive Family Snowflakes.The green snowflake paper is by First Edition from their pad called 'Jingle All The Way'.  The silver sticker embellishments were various from my stash. 

Entering this card into the following challenges:

Merry Monday #271 Embossing. 

Tuesday Throwdown #373 Silver and/or Gold.

Passion For Promarker #425 Make it digital

Sheepski Designs Challenges #10 Anything goes.

Card No 3.
For this last card I remembered that I had a digi I had won as a prize back in 2014 and only ever used once so  well due  for another outing.  Digi is by Lacy Sunshine called 'Sleepy Holiday Fred Gnome' and coloured using my promarkers, gold gel pen and pearlescent chalks.  I adhered to card (to make it stronger) and then just to make it a bit different I die cut using my Xcut jigsaw die. The base card is made using kraft card and the two design papers are by LOTV from their Krafty Christmas paper pad ( a freebie gift from my daughter).

Entering this card into the following challenges:
4 Crafty Chicks #384 Anything goes/use dies and/or punches.
Dies R Us #88 Anything goes. Must use dies.
CCC Digi Creations #88 Anything goes.
Crafty Hazelnuts #367 Anything goes/ upcycle or use something old (digi from 2014)

Hope I have fulfilled your criteria Margaret. I was determined to get those gnomes out of my house for good!!

Birthday Boys.

Both of my Grandson's have their Birthdays in December just 1yr apart.  My daughter's son is very much into cats so his card this year reflects that. He did put feelers out  for cat as his present but I don't think his Mum was too keen on the idea of going out and rounding up yet another stray to add to the household!  The digi image is a pre coloured one by Paper Creator Called 'Bandits Mischievous Smile' (I did have a blue and white  persian cat at one time that I named Bandit). The background paper is called 'Folk Art Cats' by Cooper Station.  The Meows  were black stickers from my stash. The number nine cut from an old calendar at some time and kept in an old tin just in case.

Entering this card into the following challenges:

Cute Card Thursday #511 Anything goes.

Country View Challenges #  Anything goes.

Crafts Galore Encore Challenge# Anything goes.

Crafty  Girls Creations # Anything goes.

Love To Craft #18 Anything goes.

The Crafty Addicts #44 Anything goes.

Paper Creators Crafts #65 Anything goes.

My other Grandson  is very much into football. The image is a digi From Twinkle Lane Designs. You get the footballer, sentiment and the goal tag all in the download. The image has a number 1 on the shirt so I fussy cut a new shirt from plain paper which I coloured in with the 2018 strip of his home team. The number is black stickers I had in my stash and of course represents his age.  The blue netting paper is by Betsy Rainbow and the black football paper from the Print Fun Factory both Etsy shop downloads. Oh and he does have red hair though my son would shoot me for saying so!!

Entering this card into the following challenges:
Through The Craft Room Door # Anything goes.
Little Miss Muffet #179 Anything goes.
Ally's Angels #1 Anything goes.
Crafting By Designs # Anything goes.
Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned  Paper # Anything goes.
Digistamps 4 Joy #144 Anything goes.
Love to Scrap #105 Anything goes.

One Layer Only

It's a New Year and a new challenge over on the Butterfly challenge.
#92 Butterflies + O is for One Layer and/or the colour Ultra Pink.
Her is my inspiration for you.

First up is a simple base folded in half and then I have used my Scor-pal to create two channels across the front of the card. I masked this section off and then used two different butterfly stamps to create a background top and bottom using  a pink ink. Stamps used are Imagination Crafts (large butterfly and the small one is a Heyda peg stamp. Once completed I removed the mask and used  sentiments by Imagination crafts and again stamped the larger of the butterflies.

Entering this card into the following challenges:
Penny's Paper Crafty #361 Anything goes.
Inspiration Destination #141 Anything goes.
Crafty Gals Corner #156  Anything goes.
Crafting By Designs # Anything goes.
The House That Stamps Built# 13 Things with wings.
Mix It Up #9 Anything goes with Masking.


Second card is made using pink card stock folded tent style. The stamp is  a clear stamp from Kaisercraft called 'Flutter'. Sentiment by imagination crafts. I have used a fine black liner pen to doodle a pattern around the edge.  Simple but effective and definitely one layer.

Hope you find the time to come and join in . The challenge runs until 16th January.