Caught in the act!

The boiler man was here this morning doing his annual  service . He had the back door wide open and caught Mr Squirrel on his Iphone. 

Squirrel normally comes in first thing of the morning or evening time for his nuts so he was lucky to spot him.  He will hang upside down by his tail wrapped round the hook for anything up to 15mins and then exits the garden via the summerhouse roof back into his tree house. 

Any Which Way.

Life just sometimes has a mind of its own. Curved balls have been reigning down here this past fortnight with a death in the family.  The Docs elderly Aunt had a fall and broke her hip. Taken into hospital but  whilst the operation was a success she caught a chest infection and in her weakened state the antibiotics  wouldn't kick in. She was 94 yrs and had been living in her own home albeit with carers looking after her in her later yrs. With us not living in the same County and  due to covid restrictions still in place we have been hampered by everything having to to be dealt with either by text, emails or the good old postal service. 

So time has managed once again to whizz me by and the Girls in the Christmas Card Club have more cards to share.  It was an anything goes choice  which for me was a blessing and I have managed to whip up 4 cards just using oddments that I had left over from previous cards. 

The deer images on these two cards  are from a design pad by The Paper Boutique called  'A Whisper of Winter' . I had been saving them for when I needed to make some quick cards up and they certainly saved the day here. The backing design paper 6 x 6  was in my stash and double sided so from a pad at some point in time but unnamed. Everything else was still out to hand so I just used it up without delving into any boxes. I didn't cut anything down to size and used everything as was including the small strips. I have even managed to decorate the insides using up all the left overs. 

I need to catch up in blogland now so see you all soon. 

Hugs

Ooompa!

I found a quote in a book the other day by a chap named Douglas Adams.

I love Deadlines,

I like the Whooshing  Sound they make

As they rush by.

Yep! that fits me to a T. 

So without any more delay here is my latest late deadline but in my defense I was having a coffee with Barbara Gray!  We the  girls in the Christmas Card Club are showing our latest makes. The theme was set my Elizabeth  of 'Music'.  I had this lovely used card front in my christmas card stash which I have been keeping just for  Elizabeth's challenge.  I didn't want to spoil it by having a fancy background or adding any embellishments so I just went, after slightly triming the edges down for lots of layering. I did just add a triangle over each corner to look like  I had stuck the print into an album. A silver sticker used for the sentiment and card finished even though it did take ages doing all the matting and layering. Excuse number two. 

Stay Safe.

Hugs

Plaited Fold

The Butterflies are back to play a new challenge  which is up and running over on the blog.

#158 Spin The Butterfly Wheel with P for Plaited Fold Card.

The tutorial  as normal is over on the Butterfly Blog on the card shapes page.

Here is my inspiration for you. I have used all the required elements. 

I have used a really old digi download paper by Crafters Companions Club Inspire. This particular one is from April 2016. The flowers are from Clarity and the butterflies are an SU punch. the gems are from my stash. This shape card is also known as Braided or Lattice .

This is the card sideways on. The sentiment was from the same paper selection. 

I do hope you will give this card shape a try out  and come and play in the Butterfly Garden with me.

The challenge is running for 3 weeks  and will therefore close on Tuesday 6th July. 8pm.(GMT).

Virtual Hugs 

 And Stay safe.

Juggling Baubles.

Don't talk to me about what day is it or which cupboard Miss Mojo is hiding in as I can't find  either of them right now. Juggling quite a few balls in the air at the moment and dropping a fair few in the process. 

I do know though  that it is time for the girls in the Chistmas Card Club  to show our next cards made with the theme that had been chosen by Shaz of  'Baubles/Decorations'.. Sadly Shaz lost her battle with Cancer earlier this year so all our cards are dedicated to her 'The Brightest Bauble' up there in the sky. Hope you like them Shaz. 

I really went to town and found 3 digi Bauble stamps in my stash and two sheets of bauble paper and managed to make a total of 7 cards using them all.

The first card  is using a digi called 'A Christmas Hug' and is from a Polly Craft Bundle. They were selling off their discontinued lines and you got 100 images for £10. This was from many years ago now when I first started making cards and didn't have many stamps so I thought it was an easy way of getting a quick selection.  I have used a lot of them over the ensuing years. I have coloured using my Graph'it marker pens and a silver gel pen.  I then die cut her using Spellbinders ' Romantic Rectangle'.

The backing paper  was sent to me by a fellow blogger also a long time ago now which she had hand made herself.  The sentiment is from a  free sheet of sentiments in a craft  magazine.  

Second card is using a Bugaboo Image  'Christmas Ornament Gal'. Again coloured with my Graph'it pens and a silver gel pen. The tartan paper is a freebie in a magazine by Trimcraft.  I have used a Tattered Lace 'Rounded Corner Essential Rectangles' die one of the last items I bought from the NEC Nov 2019 show. I wonder when /if we will ever  get to going back to shows again. So much has got to change first before it will be safe to do so. 

Third card is using a very old digi image by Digi Stamps 4 Joy and is one of my favourite bauble designs. Coloured in just using two graph'it markers and a gold gel pen. The brown tartan paper is by Paper Addicts 'Lost Forest' mini  4"x4" pad of designs.  The sentiment was from the sheet of sentiments already mentioned above. Raised up using strips of odd white card stock left over from projects and layered up using ds tape. The die die used for the frame is Spellbinders A2' Floral Ribbon Threader'.

Fourth and Fifth  cards are made with a design paper by Sally Moret and I picked out two  green sheets of card that matched the colours in the paper to make the base cards up. 

Sixth and Seventh cards are using  paper from Paper Craft Special 2017 that came free in a magazine and a sheet of ruby red card stock for the base cards.  I have chosen to make  slim line cards for these last two. 

I have decorated all the insides of the cards using all the oddments of papers up. Nothing went  in the bin except the backing paper from the ds tape.   

Stay Home and Play Safe

Hugs

Napkin Fold

The Butterflies are back and there is a new challenge up and running over on the blog.

#157 Spin The Butterfly Wheel with N for Napkin Fold Card.

The tutorial  as normal is over on the Butterfly Blog on the card shapes page.

Here is my inspiration for you.

This is the outside of the card.  Folded and secured by a ribbon bow.

The butterfly design paper is a freebie from a magazine a long time ago. The sentiment and silver swirls from my stash also the ribbon.

This is what you see when you open the card up. The Napkin fold is attached to the centre of the card. The sides fold over to close the card down but it also stands up like a gatefold card for display. 

As you gently  pull open the napkin it will display a further message inside.

This is the napkin fold fully opened. 

I am popping over to the playground with this card as the snazzy navy print is actually the inside of of two envelopes that came in the post. Too good to chuck away in the bin so I didn't.

Entering into Pixie's Crafty Workshop # 403. Use your snippets. 

I do hope you will give this card shape a try out  and come and play in the Butterfly Garden with me.

The challenge is running for 3 weeks  and will therefore close on Tuesday 15th June  8pm.(GMT).

Virtual Hugs 

 And Stay safe.

 Enjoy a holiday at home this year.

A Winter Scene.

Time again for the girls in the Christmas Card Club to show our next makes. Christine chose the theme of Winter Scene. I have only managed two cards, 1 winter scene and the other not technically a scene as such so I will go with anything goes for it. In my defense I did watercolour them which took a lot longer than I had envisaged and I also procrastinated over the detailing. Plus I managed to get paint streaks where I didn't want it on both cards and had to do cover up jobs.  Ok Excuses over and onto the cards.

Card 1. The winters Scene.

I have used a Clarity mask to create the trees and the background. I started by drawing an oval onto my water colour card and placed the tree mask over the top so I could see where I needed the paint to go. 

I used distress inks and a water filled pen to pick up the colour from my palette tray. Once the oval was dry I stamped around the edge using stamps by Jayne Nestorenko from her 'Just My Imagination Collection' I wasn't happy with all the white card surrounding the oval of pine leave and cones so I randomly filled in the white spaces using a larger pine leaves and berries stamp from the same set.  Much more happy with the result apart from the big mistake that the sentiment is now hiding. Again it is from the same set and does cover up the deer I had attempted to put stepping  out of the oval. 

I used a silver gel pen to highlight round the oval and a Sharpie white pen for the snowflakes. Red Distress ink to paint the berries. 

Card 2. The Anything goes Scene.

I used another  Clarity mask to create the stag and then painted in with Distress ink. I do not have the matching stamp for it so I drew the stag features in by hand and highlighted with  a gold gel pen.  I drew an oval circle in pencil and then used another stamp from the same set as above to create the border of berries and leaves that  I painted with distress inks. Finished off with the same gold gel pen.  Then I  managed to get two brown streaks within the oval. Drat!! Whilst looking for a suitable sentiment to cover I found these 2 little wooden stag discs from 'Scrap Matts' so strategically placing them they covered up the marks perfectly without I hope it looking obvious that is what they are doing.  Sentiment bar from my stash. 

Hugs 

Stay safe and enjoy a holiday at home this year.