X Fold.

It is time again for the Butterfly Challenge to show a new letter of the alphabet. We only have two letters left to go now.
#141 Spin The Butterfly wheel With X for X Fold Card.

  Your 6 elements are:

X fold Card/ Xanadu/Xiketic / Xanthic/Xxxx's/Xtra colours
+your Butterfly.

N.B. Yes these colours really do exist!!

Xanadu  = Grey - green

         Xiketic   = Black  

Xanthic   = Yellow

Rather a hard colour pallette this time so I have added in 
Xtra Colours as a theme so the more the merrier.

Here is my  first inspiration card for you using the following from the wheel.

X Fold/Xxxx's /Xtra colours/ Xanadu/Xiketic/Xanthic/ Butterflies.
As all the prizes for this challenge will be Gift Certificates from Bugaboo  I am show casing some of their digi images  from their huge range  that I have already purchased.
Please go to the Tutorials Page on the Butterfly Blog to see how to make an X Fold card. I have broken it down into easy steps for you to follow.

The card is made up of four sides that create  the X Fold. This is side one. The design paper is by Pink Petticoat called Bold Daisies from Their Isabelline.

The two digi stamps are by bugaboo and are part of a set of three called 'Bfly live laugh love.' Coloured using my Graph'it markers  and a silver gel pen. The silver sentiments  and black shiny dots are from my stash. 

 This is side two

 Side three.

 Side Four. The spinner twizzles as you turn the card round. 

Entering into the following challenges:

Creative Moments #189 Anything goes.

Starz Stamps #9 Things with wings.

The Sisterhood of Crafters #Happy birthday/ fun fold or both.

Water Cooler Challenges #269 Anything goes.

Southern Girls # Anything goes.

More Mixed Media #Anything goes with optional use yellow. 

The Creative Crafters #27 Anything goes.

 My  second inspiration card for you using the following from the wheel.

/Xxxx's /Xtra colours/ Xanadu/Xiketic/Xanthic/ Butterflies.
This Bugaboo image is called Flower Butterfly Vase and I have coloured using my Graph'it markers.  I have used glitter gel pens to edge all the flowers  and leaves. It really does sparkle in the light. I only managed to capture a bit of it in the photos. The spotty paper is a digi  by Cottage and Lace from their Yellow Dots and Swirls set.  Black card for the base card and the black dots are stickers from my stash. I doodled the X's to create the frame.

 Below is a close up of the flowers.

Entering this card in to the following challenges:

Tuesday Throwdown #456 Add a doodle.

Addicted To Stamps #387 Make your mark.

Cute Card Thursday #632 Feminine.

Ally's Angels #33 Anything goes.

Not Just Cards # Anything goes.

Sparkles #127 Spring is in the air.

The challenge is running for 3 weeks and will finish on 19th May. Hope you will have the time to come and play. 

 Stay Safe and Well.

Very late to my own party!

The lose of  Brian has knocked me all for six. Was just about coming to terms with Julie's death (his wife not 5 yrs ago to MND and now Brian to Prostrate Cancer. I can't settle to anything for long.
I had all these images downloaded and ready to make into cards but mojo completely deserted me. A new challenge is about to start over at the Butterfly Challenge  but I have sat and made these up to showcase some of  the lovely papers and digi images that you can purchase at Buddly Crafts from their online store. The prizes with the current challenge #140  are gift certificates from them.

Card 1.
Design paper is Pretty Mix Purple No4.  The image is Lilyboo Butterfly Roses I have coloured using my Graph'it pens and  used Wisteria as one of the theme colours. I have edged using both a black and a dark purple glitter gel pen and I just wish you could see IRL how much it shines. I used a very pale blue pearlescent chalk to colour in the sky background.  Raised up the image (which I fussy cut)with 3D pads. The sentiment is a black glossy sticker from my stash.

Entering into the following challenges:
Make My Monday #121 Use a digital stamp.
Through The Craftroom Door # Anything goes.
Colour Crazy #16 Anything goes.
Crafty Catz #503 Anything goes + add a sentiment.
Polka Doodles #15 Anything goes.
CD Sunday Plus #34 Anything goes.
Patties Creations #169 Anything goes digi or satmped image birthdays.
The Creative Crafters #27 Anything goes.


Card 2.
The image is Pachel Flower Emporium D S Butterfly Rose 1 in Ultra Blue. The image comes in 4 colourways in the download, Black,Sepia,Olive and Ultra. I have again used my Graph'it pens and coloured with Wisteria and Wild blue from the colourways on the wheel. I have edged just  the leaves and butterfly with a silver gel pen.  I have used Washi tape top and bottom of card and then mounted  the image with. 3D pads. in between.  Sentiment is a silver sticker from my stash. 

Entering into the following challenges:
Jan's Digi Challenges #11 Anything goes.
Daisy Chain Challenges #40 Birthday.
Catch The Bug # Colour challenge.
Ally's Angels #33 Anything goes.
Crafter's Castle #28 Anything goes.
Crafty Calendar # Add a butterfly.
Not Just Cards # Anything goes.
Sparkles #127 Spring is in the air.


Card 3.
I do have to say that this is my favourite.
Image is Pachela Flower Emporium DS tree Peony butterfly  in Sepia. Again the image comes in four colourways in the download, Black, Sepia, Olive and Ultra.  I have coloured using both my Graph'it and Promarkers using all 3 colourways in the theme. Wisteria, Wheat and Wild blue. Edged with a gold gel pen. The image was die cut using Spellbinders Floral Ribbon Threader  diet set and the corrugated card is for the wood effect. The sentiment is a die by Xcut  which I cut twice and layered up. 

Entering into the following challenges:
Artsy Stamper #14 Springtime.
Cupcake Inspirations #cic 492 White/Turquoise Lavender.
Cut It Up Challenges #198 Our Beautiful earth.
Scrapping 4 Fun #165 Use die cuts/embossing folders.
T G I F Challenges #261 Use your words.
Your Next Stamp #137 Stripes.
Happy Little Stampers #anything goes.with dies. (spellbinder and Xcut)
The Flower Challenge #43 Anything goes.

A Bauble or Two.

Don't even ask me where the past two weeks have gone. I feel like I have been doing nothing but sourcing food on the internet. My long awaited (ordered 6 weeks ago) food delivery finally arrived so my fridge is filled with the basics again. Yogurt has never tasted so good!!
 I also found that my local garden centre was making deliveries of limited stock to it's nearby villages so I managed to get some tomato grow bags, tomato plants and flowers for my pots and hanging baskets.
Internet is all sorted. The problem was with the router which had only half recovered itself from the internet provider doing some maintenance work last weekend. My computer basically thought I was trying to hijack myself and was denying me access to all my files.
Time again for the girls in the Christmas Card club to show our next makes. Kate chose the theme of 'A Bauble or Baubles'. A search through my stamps found the following and I set to and made 4 cards. My mojo has done a long hike and taken social distancing to the extreme so I am afraid my offerings  are plain and simple.

First card is  a Bauble by Spellbinders From their Heirloom Ornament stamp set  which came free in a Simply Cards and Paper Craft magazine a while back. Inked with versamark and embossed with Gold powder. The gold edging was in my stash. Mounted onto gold pearlescent card and then a white card base.

I have absolutely no idea why I decided to levitate the hanger above the bauble!!

Second card uses another Bauble from the same set but I just inked in black and mounted onto black card stock and then onto a mustard coloured base card. Silver trim from my stash.

Houdini is at it again!!

Third card uses a Bauble stamp by Tattered Lace From their Exclusive Never Ending Stamps that came free in a magazine. I stamped in black ink and then went over the design with a silver gel pen.  Silver edging from stash. Mounted onto sage green card and then onto a red card base.

Last Card uses a Bauble by Clearly Besotted which I stamped out twice in versamark and then embossed with gold powder. The corners and gold edging from my stash. Mounted onto red card and then sage green for the base card.
Amendment.
Ooopsy! Was wondering why comments were starting to appear below referring to only 3 cards. Would be a good idea if I had  remembered to upload the last piccy! Der. That's what happens when you write a post up at 2am in the morning. Even then I went on to watch a Barbara Gray video  from her 10 o'clock shows and doodled a picture along with her. Made it to bed about 4am but then time is a bit irrelevant right now with no place special to go except the garden! 

  There you go. Now it all makes sense. 

It is Rudolph Day over at Scrappy Mo's monthly challenge so I am playing along with my first card.

Hope you are all keeping safe and well.

NetworkProblems

Even if Mojo hadn’t deserted me in my hour of need I can’t post anything as we have huge networking problems which manifested themselves over the weekend.
I would just like  to say though a very huge Thankyou to everyone who left such kind comments on my post below about Brian. We are both truly grateful to each and everyone of you.
Have managed to write this from my iPad using my 3G sim.

Very big hugs 

To you all

Keep safe and well. 

Brian

We have very heavy hearts here today as our very dear Brian passed away last night from his battle with prostrate cancer.  Though we knew the end was imminent it has been made doubly hard as because of the coronavirus lock down Hubby and I have been unable to be with him at the end. He is in Essex and we are in Hampshire  with other family members spread out in Suffolk, Derby and  Leeds.

Who's looking at Ewe.

Now where has the last 2 weeks gone! I can't even justify doing anything to have made it whizz by so fast either. Time once more for the girls in the Christmas Card Club to show our latest makes. Maureen has chosen the theme of Christmas Critters.  I have gone a bit tongue in cheek with my two cards as the critters are not really known for being Christmassy though they do appear on cards. See what you think.

First Card 
I had this card front saved in my recycle box and these sheep do look rather chic in their Christmas Woolies. I hand stitched a border round them and then mounted onto green cardstock and then a red base card. I was going to leave it at that but kept thinking something was missing.

 Then I had a brain wave and rummaged in my embellishment boxes and found some really small  googly eyes just the right size!! Who's looking at Ewe.

Second card.
Again this was a saved card front in my recycle box  and I gave the Pheasant a Googly eye too!
Mounted onto green cardstock and then onto a white base. I still felt that there needed to be something else on the card so I added the gold silver sticker round the edging.

I only mustered two cards this time as my mind has been on other things and card making has rather taken a back seat at the moment.  I'm off now to see what the other girls have chosen. Hope I have brought a smile to your face though . We could all do with being cheered up right now.

Keep safe and well and Happy Easter wishes to you.

Hugs

Waterfall.

It is time again for the Butterfly Challenge to show a new letter of the alphabet. We only have a few letters left to go now.
#140 Spin The Butterfly wheel With W for Waterfall Card.

  Your 6 elements are:

Wisteria/Wild Blue /Wheat/ Washi Tape/Wood Effect+your Butterfly.

How you interpret the Wood Effect is up to you, either by woodgrain stamp, wood effect design paper or using a wooden embellishment.

As usual here is my inspiration card for you using the following from the wheel.

Waterfall Card/ Wisteria/Wild Blue/Wheat/Washi Tape/ Butterflies.
As all the prizes for this challenge will be Gift Certificates from Buddly Crafts I am show casing some of their digi images and design paper from their huge range  that I have already purchased.
Please go to the Tutorials Page on the Butterfly Blog to see how to make a Waterfall card. I have broken it down into easy steps for you to follow.

I am using a paper by Kim MacFarlane called Pettite Petals (no 19)  from Buddly Crafts design paper range  and Pachela Flower Euporium Butterflies from their Digi Image range. I fell in love with this delicate daisy flower paper. (Well I fell in love with quite a few to be honest and they all just fell into my basket. I was getting severe withdrawal symptoms from not being able to fill by basket at any of the food delivery shops and there were no such restrictions here.)

I resized the digi butterflies in word to fit the 2"squares I was using to decorate them with. 

 The wheat coloured washi tape was in my stash along with the ribbon for the pull and the silver sticker sentiment and silver dots. The sentiment was a freebie that came in a craft magazine along with a whole sheet of butterfly stamps. I used Wink of stella on the butterflies wings but not showing up very clearly here. IT does IRL.   In  the pictures below you can see the magic of the Waterfall effect unfold  as you pull down on the ribbon tab.

One

 By One.

Entering into the following challenges:
Aud Sentiments #248 Anything goes+ a  sentiment.
CCC Digi Creations #113 Add a flower/flowers.
Crafty Creations #408 Anything goes.
Creative Moments #188 Anything goes.
Fab 'n' Funky #476 Birthday.
The Crafters Cafe #239 Anything goes.
Southern Girls # Anything goes.
We Love 2 Create #4 Anything goes mixed media.
Crafty Sentiments Designs # Anything goes.
Jan's Digi Challenges #11 Anything goes.

I hope you will be able to come and play along. The challenge is again extended to three weeks and will end on 28th April .It looks like the enforced shut down due to the coronavirus  Covid -19 is going to continue for some time to come. In the meantime stay safe and well and keep on crafting. Your blogs need you.

Virtual 

HUGS

These Boots.

So Anna now has a pair of boots to her name.  I had a picture of a finished boot  and pattern pieces which were for a much larger doll but no physical instructions to work from so I just had to keep resizing till I got a reasonable fit. Then worked out from the picture  what to do and how  and here they are.

These Boots Are Made for Walkin. Anyone remember the song by Nancy Sinatra (1966)? Are you all now singing along!
Front view.

 Made from felt and one of the itsy bitsy cotton prints I bought to make  her dress with.

Side view.
The elastic came from my stash along with the little beads for the flowers which I die cut using
Memory Box 'Fancy Blossoms' and felt.

 Back view.

Are You Ready Boots?

 Start Walkin!!

I will be working on her pants next but she will not be getting 17 pairs like The Doc. One pair will have to suffice.

HUGS

Stay safe and well

Time to meet Anna

Way back at the end of January before the floods, before the storms and before Coronavirus had a grip on all our lives, I went back to my grass roots of Doll Making.
I decided to treat myself to a two day intensive weekend away course on how to make a Waldorf Doll. I had never made one of the these dolls before (I had made rag dolls,porcelain dolls, american prim dolls and raggedy ann dolls) so was eager to try my hand . These dolls have a head moulded with various strings tied around a base shape and pulled tight  to produce the cheeks, chin, eye sockets and an outer covering is then sewn over the top which is the dolls skin. The hair is also hand crafted onto the dolls head by first crocheting a mohair cap and attaching each strand of wool/hair individually to the cap. The course was very intensive  (two full days 9am - 6pm ) and then homework the first evening of crocheting the cap ready to attach the hair strands the next day.
I managed to get my doll finished and here she is. There wasn't enough  time in the class though  to make clothes as well but we could have bought from a selection that were available. I have chosen to make  mine for her at home and have managed to find patterns on Etsy that I have since purchased. I have also bought some cotton material with a little itsy bitsy pattern on it to compliment her hair colouring. Red hair runs in my family with both my Sis and I each having a granddaughter with gorgeous red locks.
Fluff has already bagged her!!

 Anna has freckles which you can just about see in the close up below on her forehead and checks. She even has a cute little bum shape with freckles which I will show another time as I get to dress her and show the results. 

I am starting with making the  boots which will be made from felt and hand embroidered  as I find I  have plenty of time on my hands due to this elf isolating that we are all doing in order to stay safe and well in these very worrying weeks ahead.
Hope Anna has helped to take  your mind off it all  if only for a few minutes.

HUGS

Stay safe and well