Easel Cards.

A new challenge has started over at the Butterfly Blog.
#121 Spin The Butterfly Wheel with E for Easel card. 
Here are my inspiration cards for you.

First card is for a basic Easel design. You will find full  instructions for making all of the cards under the card shape tab at the top of the Butterfly blog underneath the banner heading.
 I used Easel Card/Emerald Green/Eminence/Edges/Butterfly.
The stamp is by Craft UK 'Flower collection'.I embossed with white embossing powder and then coloured in using my promarkers. Once coloured I die cut using Spellbinders 'Romantic Rectangle'
The sentiment came in the same stamp set.  The edge of butterflies is also embossed with white powder and coloured with my promarker.

 My camera always has a problem with purple. It comes out looking blue but IRL it is purple.

Entering the above card into the following challenges:

Through the Craft Room Door # Anything goes.

Addicted To Stamps #337 Make your mark.

I Love Promarkers #382 Anything goes + optional Embossing.

Ally's Angels #21 Anything goes.

Creative With Stamps #37 Birthdays.

Get Creative #79 Anything goes/no twist.

Patties Creations #157 Flowers.

The Creative Crafters #15 Anything goes.

My second  card is for a Double Easel design. 
 I used Easel Card//Eminence/Edges/Butterfly.
The digi stamp is by Delicious Doodles 'Butterfly Border.  I downloaded several prints and coloured and fussy cut flowers and butterflies for extra embellishment. I used promarkers and a silver gel pen.  The sentiment is die cut twice and is by Presscut PCD02 Happy Birthday #1. Gems were from my stash.

Entering this card only into the following challenges:

Make My Monday #94 Diamonds.

Aud Sentiments #225 Use a Happy Birthday Sentiment.

Penny's Paper Crafty #426 Anything goes.

The Paper Shelter #379 A Birthday Card.

Crafting By Designs # Anything goes.

Crafts Galore #62 Anything goes.

Lets Craft and Create Challenge #146 Anything goes.

Sheepski Designs #25 Wings.

Final card is a Double Twisted Easel.
 I used Easel Card//Egyptian Blue/Embossing folder/Butterfly.
The embossing folder is by Sizzix Texture Fades 'Trellis Set' The toppers are by Marianne Designs 'Butterfly Dreams' sheet.  Blue butterfly from my stash.

Entering this card into the following challenges:
Crafty Creations #388 Anything goes.
Creative Moments #166 Anything goes.
Cute Card Thursday #578 Flowers.
Simply Create Too #148 Anything goes no twist.
2 Crafty Critter Crazies #25 Anything goes with a Critter.
Daisy Chain Challenges #29 Make it feminine.
Love To Craft #33 Anything goes.



Challenge runs for the normal 2 weeks and I hope you will come and play along. .

Winter Scenes.

Running late again. I was out at a Craft Class all day yesterday and made these cards up late last night to post today.  It's time again for the girls in the Christmas Card Club to show their cards for the theme chosen by Shaz which is Winter or Christmas scenes.  I chose  winter scenes and got my water colour paints out by Caran d'Ache Ganache Studios to make the sky backgrounds.
I have used water colour paper which I gave a liberal coating of water to before using the paints and then dried with my heat gun before doing the stamping and  additional colouring.  Stamps are various by Hobby Art, Inky Licious, Stamp Scapes, Card-io and Artimpressions.

First card.
Using Hobby Arts for the house and trees and Card-io for the geese and deer. The sentiment is by Inky Licious.

Second card.
Using  Hobby Arts for the trees  and gate, Inky Licious for the House scene and Artimpressions for the front fencing. The sentiment  is by Tattered Lace.

One extra card for the pot which is actually cut off the scene above as I was trying to extend the fencing the other side of the cottage but  it didn't match up and looked wrong. So waste not want not I decided to make into a smaller scene. As I had already stamped the fence (Hobby Arts) there wasn't room to include a house so looking through my small stamps I found this man walking his dog by Stamp Scapes so put him in the front and then added the Hobby arts larger tree and bush.

I will be around later to see what the other girls have done and also catch up on all your blog news. I'm off out into the garden now as the shed which got delivered last week is being put up first thing Monday morning and I need to make sure that the proposed site is nice and level.

Dutch Folds

It's the second week now of the current Butterfly Challenge  so here is some more inspiration for you. This card shape is so easy to make ( you will find tutorials over on the challenge blog under card shapes) but you don't have to use the shape to enter your card. You can also combine others colours besides the 3 showing on the wheel.

Card one uses Version III of the Dutch fold .
Wheel elements Dutch fold/ Diamonds/Digi Image/ Dark Orange/ Dartmouth Green/Butterfly.

Th digi image is by Card Mad Fairies Flower 1. I printed the image twice and coloured one of the flowers two times and then fussy cut one of them out to create the 3D image on the card front. Coloured with my Promarkers and a gold gel pen.  Below is showing the card opened up.

Entering this card into the following challenges:
Artistic Inspirations #214 Anything goes.
Use Your Stuff #354 Flora and Fauna.
Through The Craft Room Door # Anything goes.
Colour Crazy #13 Anything goes.
Pile It On #153 Lots of Layers.
Addicted To Stamps '173 Lots of layers stamps or papers.
Crafter's Castle #15 Anything goes.

Card Two uses Version II of the Dutch fold .
Wheel elements Dutch fold/ Denim Blue/Butterfly.

I have used patterned paper by The Works layered up  and two pre cut butterfly toppers from my stash.  Silver stickers for the sentiment and silver edging to form the frame work.

Entering this card into the following challenges:
Southern Girls # Frame It.
Creative Fingers #161 Anything goes.
Lil Patch Of Crafty Friends #103 Anything goes.
Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge# Anything goes.
Love To Craft # 33 Anything goes.
Crafts Galore #62 Anything goes.
Lets Craft and Create # Anything goes + Optional Beautiful butterflies.

Card Three also  uses Version II of the Dutch fold .
Wheel elements Dutch fold/ Dartmouth Green/ Digi Image/Butterfly.

The digi  image is by A Day for Daisies 'Wax Window'  and again I have printed off twice and coloured two of the flower up as extras and fussy cut out. Coloured using my Promarkers and a silver gel pen.  The butterflies are  puffy stickers from my stash. (It is amazing what you find when you have a good sort out!)

The sentiment is by Xcut which I die cut 3 times and layered up to give dimension.
Entering this card into the following challenges:
Pattie's Creations # Flowers.
Tuesday Throwdown #429 Anyhing goes.
Simply create Too# 148 Anything goes with no twist.
Creative Craft Cottage # 117 Not patterned papers.
The Crafty Addicts #59 Anything goes with pink
Daisy Chain Challenges# 29 Make it feminine.



The Butterfly challenge has a week to run. Remember you do not have to use the card shape to enter a card. Hope to see you there.

Room Update.

As promised here are the photos of my recent Craft Room Update.
First two were taken as I was half way into dismantling the room prior to moving everything around. I couldn't possible have contemplated showing the state of my desk prior to starting.!!!

It took a week's worth of sorting and restoring to get this far!!!!  I used to sit with my back to the long row of built in wardrobes. The end three slanted  cupboards had my craft stash in them which meant I was constantly having to push my chair back and move out of the way to then be able to open the doors to access what I needed.  The flap with the yellow mitten on used to get piled high with what ever I  had been using and tended to stay put instead of being put straight back into the cupboards.

Something had to be done.  I finally realized that if I turned the table round 90 degrees and moved it down(the room) away from the window I could fit a book case in along the green wall between the built in wardrobe and the built in chest of drawers. This meant that the stash stuffed (under the table flap) on the floor would have a proper place to go. So the search was on to find a bookcase to fit the green space.  Enter 'Billy'  from Ikea along with the storage boxes which were made to fit. A perfect fit and the patterned boxes went perfectly with my carpet rugs.

So here you can see the desk has been turned round and I now sit facing the window.  I can open the 3 long cupboards (nearest the window) with ease and access everything I need. There is enough room for  me to still be able to put the flap up for when I have my sewing machine out.

You can see that 'Billy ' fits that wall like a glove!

That is Archie sitting in the corner. Made by one of my lovely blogging friends who makes bears and just recently dolls too.  Julia had put him up for sale on her blog on my Birthday so what could I do but purchase him straight away!! He is Adorable and his head woggles in agreement to everything I say to him.

This is the view with me sitting from my desk. Now the eagle eyed amongst you will no doubt  have spotted the infamous Butterfly Winners Teacup residing on top of the printer.  Sorry about the glare from the flash but without it the photo was too dark.  I now have space to put some of my mixed media crafts out that I have made over the years.

I did purchase a 'Half Billy' which will fit against this wall but for now I am just using the boxes stacked. They can be rearranged easily to fit as my mood takes me by stacking higher or lower and are empty at the moment.  Now that I have taken the photos I can put next weeks Butterfly Challenge cards on show but you will have to wait till Wednesday to see them.

Gate Fold.

If scheduled posts are working then by the time this goes live we should have our internet back and the problem finally sorted as the engineer was due out on Monday morning.
The New Butterfly Challenge should have gone live today as well.
#120 Spin The Butterfly Wheel With D for Dutch Fold.
Here are my Inspiration cards for you.

1st card uses 

Dutch Fold/Digi Image /Dark Orange/Dartmouth Green/Butterfly

You will find several versions on how to make this Gate Fold card shape over on the Butterfly Blog under the card shapes tab at the top of  the page.  I have used Version I.  The dig image is by A Day For Daisies called 'Flower Frame'. I printed it off twice and coloured one and then fussy cut out. Adhered to the the seond image with 3D pads so that it stands out on the card front.  The design paper is from a paper pack that came free with a Magazine several years ago now. The stickers are Anitas Outline Stickers called Elegant Butterflies Gold. The sentiment was a free stamp from Crafts Beautiful  Mar 2019. 

 Here it is fully opened up and below showing partially closed up.

Entering this card into the following challenges:

Crafty Gals Corner #188 Spring is here.

Creative Moments #165 Anything goes.

A Bit More Time To Craft #89 Anything goes.

Crafting With Friends #2 Anything goes.

Catch The Bug # Unusual folds.

Lil Patch of Crafty Friends #102 Anything goes.

2nd card uses 

Denim Blue /Dartmouth Green/Diamonds/Butterfly

On this card I have interpreted  the diamonds as being the design paper but you could of course use diamond gem embellishments.  The diamond paper is a freebie from Making Cards magazine May 2015. The stamp is a Penny Black Slapstick Cling called Lilacs. I used my Marvy Le Plume II water colour pens to ink directly onto the stamp, spritzed the stamp with water and then stamped out onto watercolour paper. I was a bit heavy handed with the spritzing though  and lost some of the definition of the flower head so I used the nib end of the pen to colour back in and rather like the resulting look The sentiment and the die cut butterflies were from my stash. 

Entering the card above into the following challenges:

Through The Craft Room Door # Anything goes.

Double 'D' Challenges # Water colours.

Penny's Paper Crafty #424 Anything goes.

Creative Fingers #160 Anything goes.

Pixie's Crafty Workshop #349 Use up your snippets ( odd piece of water colour paper in stash)

3rd  card uses 

Dartmouth Green//Butterfly

I have used another Penny black Slapstick/Cling stamp called 'Crimson Blush'. This time I inked the stamp using a memento ink pad onto white card stock and coloured the flowers on the paper with my Marvy Le Plume II  water colour pens and a gold gel pen.  The design paper is a Simply Cards and Paper Craft magazine freebie from a Nitwit collection 'Spring Whimsy'.  The stamped greeting is by Wild Rose Studio clear stamps called Birthday Greetings that I inked using a distressed ink pad. The die cut butterfly is Memory Box Isabella/Pippi with a bit of glitter glue on Pippi and a green pearl.

Entering this card into the following challenges:

Crafting By Designs# Anything goes.

Crafty Creations #387 Anything goes.

Fab 'N' Funky #434 Just add ink.

Colour Crazy #12 Anything goes.

Scrapping 4 Fun #137 Anything goes.

All Sorts Challenge #513 Use Yellow.

The Butterfly Challenge runs for the next two weeks so I hope you will have time to come and play along. 

Santa Cards

Back in business!!
We have a spanking new router which was set up by the engineer when he came today. Hopefully this will be the end of all our troubles. Fingers and toes crossed.

I'm a day late for this post but wanted to get it in before I post the new Butterfly challenge up on Wednesday as it is scheduled now for that day.

It was time once again for the girls in the Christmas Card Club to show our latest cards. Rita chose the theme of Santa. Whilst having a sort out in my craft room I found a wooden stamp that I hadn't used before and another that I had only used once and as they were both Santa stamps thought they would be ideal to use here .

The 1st card  uses a wooden stamp by Creative Expressions HH140 H. I stamped in versamark ink and then using black embossing powder. Coloured in using red and green promarker pens.  The card base was already semi created and had been put in my stash when not used on a previous project so I simply die cut the santa image using the same size oval and then slightly moved them apart to create  the shadow effect. The sentiment is by Imagination crafts.

2nd card again uses the same Santa stamp but this time I used versamark ink with gold embossing powder. Coloured using the same two promarker colours as above.  I found this ready made aperture card unused in my stash and found a piece of beloved acetate with falling snow on it which was just the right size too. The sentiment is a gold sticker from my stash.

Last card is a stamp by La Blanche which depicts a really old Santa image. I stamped using red distress ink, then trimmed around the image using my TH distressing tool. The Noel sentiment was part of a sheet of all different ones which came free in a magazine. I trimmed down, glued to a backing piece of card and distressed around the edges to match the santa image. The design paper was another magazine freebie which I distressed the edges of before attaching to an olive green piece of cardstock made into the base card. The red/green bakers twine was from my stash.

No Internet.

Feeling totally frustrated here at present. Yet again we have no Internect. BT came out last week and fixed the phone line. There was a problem in the exchange, faulty wiring in the junction box outside our bay window(so technically BT's responsibility) and a faulty filter on the extension line inside the house. The BT man said he would file a report so the jury is out in who is going to pay. It took two goes whilst he was in the house to get the Internect back up . It has been running very slowly since then and finally fell over for good yesterday. We tried to reboot the system twice and each time it failed to reconnect up. We will now be ping ponged between BT. saying  nothing to do with them and our  network service provider telling us no fault found.
I have worked out  a way to transfer photos from my laptop onto a memory stick (I don't need the Internet for that part) and how to download onto my  small Lynx machine(which does  need an Internet connection ) so will try and take this  to the local library and use the free internet and see if I can post from there.
I just want an Internet like everyone else has and uses . I'm obiviously asking for the Moon!!