It's a cracker!

With the glorious weather we have been blessed with here in Cornwall for the past few days, I've been spending most of my waking hours in the garden - although I did venture on to the beach on Sunday afternoon to play with the grandkids, who thought it great fun to 'get gran' with the water-pistols Grandad so thoughtfully gave them!  This morning dawned slightly damp and it's been overcast off and on, so I decided to have a go at the Less Is More challenge to create something as long as it's not square or rectangular.  I am hoping that my cracker will make the grade.  And, on the ABC Christmas blog it's the letter K for Keeping it simple, so one for them too.

I've made the cracker cards before, they are so easy to do.  I've cut the base card to fit long skinny envelopes then used a Martha Stewart zig-zag punch to create the ends, scored and snipped where the ribbon is to be tied (just around the front layer but cut through both front and back of the card), then stamped a little greeting and added Marianne diecut ivy leaves and a flower created from Nellie's Choice punch and emboss poinsettias finished off with a pearl.  I inked the zig-zag edge with a matching Copic green, and if I hadn't already tied the ribbons I might have inked all the way around too .. .. must try it on the next one.

PS - I've been trying to visit the blogs of folks who have kindly left me a comment, or two, over the past week.  BUT, blogger comes up with an error message saying my request is taking too long ... and my page goes blank!  It's an absolute nightmare and not likely to improve until December/January when we get an upgraded hub in the nearby village - at least I hope that will improve things.  So, I am very sorry if I've not been able to visit your blog - the more pictures and links there are the longer it takes and the less likely I'll get to see your creations .. .. don't you just love technology - NOT!

Lili's Little Fairies aren't square!

Ooops! I had hoped this post would appear before your eyes whilst I was at the hospital yesterday .. .. but .. .. it didn't!  Anyway, better late than never as they say - so this week at Lili's Little Fairies we want to see anything other than square cards and our prize is your choice of 2 stamps from Lili of the Valley (wish I could enter).

I've made a pillow box gift for a new baby girl using the adorable 'all our dreams' baby stamp by LOTV, coloured with Copics.  I've used E50 & 51 for the main skin shades, with a touch of E01 on the cheeks.  The greens are G20, 21 & 24, the pinks RV00 & RV63, the little bunny is E0000, and the rest is coloured with E40-E43.  For the background I used RV000 and B60 then keeping the Nestie in place I've inked with spring pansy Versamagic chalk ink to deepen the edge before adding the stardust Stickles.

Here it is, propped up on my specs case so I could take the picture! I've created a band to go around the pillow box from pink card edged with a MS lace punch and a scrap of freebie magazine paper (I think Nitwits). I've added the pale green satin ribbon tied in a big bow on the top so I can untie and add a little gift later (hope our friends have a baby girl otherwise I'll have to make another one). The embellishments are Marianne dies LRO107, LRO142,and LRO156 with sparkly gems in the centres to tie in with the Stickles.

And here is the back of the pillow box with a little text and my latest Marianne die - CR1213 circle of ivy leaves. 

The Fussy and Fancy Friday challenge that's been running for a week now is for a new baby, so perfect! And I'm going to be cheeky now, because I'm late with my posting I can enter the Secret Crafter Saturday challenge to create anything but a card and Totally Gorjuss' challenge for something new.

Well it is incredibly windy here in Cornwall today, with blazing sunshine too, but my poor garden is taking a battering and the leaves on the strawberry plants have just shrivelled up.  My water butt is empty so I'm getting another one with my Tesco club points and plan on a couple more once the builders have filled in the trenches around the extension - until then, I'm praying that the rain they forecast for tonight is torrential!  Whatever you are doing, enjoy your weekend and don't forget the sun screen!

Less is More Baby

I had intended making this card on Wednesday after checking the entries to the Less Is More challenge, this one by Daen'Ys caught my eye and I thought I'd CASE it .. .. however, it wasn't to be. After a fruitless search for my Cuttlebug postage die and baby pram mini embossing folder, I gave up.  I did find the small embossing strips though and used a couple of them to emboss the lace edge and swiss dots.  I cut out the Nellies Choice heart die twice, one in white with embossed hearts and one in pink, then cut off the edge of the white heart to layer on top of the pink, finishing with little pearls made with my white Waco pearl maker pen.  I also added pearls along the dots on the lace border, but resisted adding any to the edges of the card, after all, Less Is More!  I did add the ribbon as a last minute thought and a pearl in the centre of that, together with the stamped text by Cuddly Buddly - simples!

The Charisma cardz challenge is for NO flowers this week - yeh, this fits!

Just a Note

This week on Cute Card Thursday our theme is to create with pink and green and our sponsor is Heather from Heather's Hobbie Haven!

I've been fiddling and have created a post it note holder, more by accident than design!  I started with the thick back piece of card from an A5 paper pad, covered the front with old K&Co paper from my stash hiding the join (as it was a 6" paper pack) with the length of cotton lace.  I've run a green Copic around the edge of the card base then diecut around the text and to create somewhere to keep the post-it pad - it's between the two scallop squares with a length of ribbon acting as a hinge so you can lift off the top layer to get to write a note.

And here it is, sorry for the wonky picture.  I used the piece of green paper that's behind to cover the back of the pad just to keep things tidy.  I've embellished with gold corners I found in my stash, lengths of ribbon, Marianne diecut leaves, spray and butterflies, little roses and rosebuds, and snips of gold string.  I used different shapes of sticky back pearls to create the bodies of the butterflies and pink Waco pearl pen for the blobs on the flourish.

Creative Inspirations have an anything goes theme this week, and the Crafty Creations challenge is for pastels, pearls and lace - so I can enter both of them.

Birthday Boy

I had a lovely day out on Saturday.  Met up with friends at the craft demo and treated myself to a magazine that had these freebie papers and the text stamp, then off to lunch with the girls before meeting up with hubby to browse a food and craft fair and pick up a couple more plants for the garden.  A quick stop while he tackled a job and I sat and read my mag, then off to the Hurlers on Bodmin Moor for a walk with the dogs.  Unfortunately, Aero found something despicable to roll in and Piper ate something that made him sick .. .. so a rather fragrant journey home!  We thought we had diverted to avoid the Olympic flame procession, but as it was running quite late by the evening, we passed right by it just short of Bodmin station - what an entourage!  After sorting out the dogs we went into the local village for a bite to eat at the Waves bistro - delicious warm chicken salad for me and a steak for DH.  Sunday was warm and sunny so spent in the garden, then yesterday was tidy up and sort out day before I could finally get to play this morning.

I've made a simple little boy's birthday card with a C6 kraft card blank and the freebie papers along with LOTV's sail away boy stamp.  I've coloured with Copics and edged all my layers with E44, why I never thought of using the broad tip of the pen for edging, goodness knows!  After watching the Copic demo on Create and Craft tv last week, I changed my skin tones to E50 & E51 with a touch of E01 for blush and E11 for shadow.  The reds are R24, 27 & 29, the blues are B93, 95, 97 & a touch of B99.  His hair and shoes are E33, 35 & 37, and the hull of his yacht and socks are YR30, E30 & E31.  I've used W0 & W2 for shadows.

As the freebie stamps are acrylic I've stamped with a dark blue Versamagic chalk ink, chalk inks work best with the cheaper clear stamps.  To finish I cut the bunting from the freebie paper pack cover advert as the designs are smaller, fixed with a little string, a few gems and the diecut Nellies Choice buttons.

The Papertake Weekly challenge is for true colours - the red, white and blue!  I'm not sure of any other challenges I might enter with my card .. .. please let me know if you think of any.  I'm playing catch up again .. .. what with not being able to get on line at the weekend and then a slow connection today, it could take me a while!

A Pile of Pressies

This week on Lili's Little Fairies we are hoping you will share your projects made with your favourite LOTV teddy bear.  I have a couple of confessions to make .. .. first off, I've gone off teddy bears! and secondly I made this card a couple of weeks back when my mojo was off somewhere else so it's a minimalist design.  Now if I had to choose a teddy bear image it would have to be cute James from LOTV, he might just creep back into my favours!  I found a piece of dotty paper in my stash and matted both the image and paper with bright red card along with the stamped text, then doodled the edge with a black fine liner pen.  Embellishment is a scattering of red punched stars - simples!

I do love colouring with my Copics, the best part of the project for me!  Teddy is coloured with E30, 31, 43 and a touch of 44.  As the stamp has a sketchy look  I used the feathering technique with my pens for teddy and didn't blend too much so hopefully there's a look of fur.  The reds are R35, 37 & 39, the greens are G20, 21 & 28, and the golden yellows are YR20, 23 & 24.

Truly Scrumptious have had an anything goes theme running this past week, so I'll squeeze in at the end with my Christmas teddy bear card.

On the build front, most of the tiles are on the roof.  Next week they will start on the rendering and fitting the gutters before taking the scaffold down and fitting the doors and windows.  I am hoping they will fill in the footings soon so I can get an idea of what to do with the garden, or what is left of it .. .. a patio area or lawn? and where to have the borders - and would a wisteria survive around the shed?  I've never grown one, the pruning seems terribly complicated, but they had a new beauty at the Weybridge garden centre when I visited last week.  It's a smaller version but I need to find out if the flowers have perfume, if they do then I could be on to a winner.  The classic Chinese wisteria has a beautiful fragrance and there was a very sorry looking plant for sale with beautiful flowers but no sign of leaves .. .. and as it would have gone rampant over shed, trees, neighbours etc I left it.  The new variety had leaves and lots of flower buds but they weren't open so I couldn't sniff .. .. the label didn't mention fragrance so I may be disappointed - I'll have to pop back next week and see if they have come out yet.

Hubby should be here later today and because he has to work tomorrow in the Callington area I'm hoping to hitch a ride and make it to the Kelly Bray craft shop demo - it's been ages since I went, over a year - I hope the crafty ladies will still recognise me!  I didn't get any crafting done yesterday but I did have a moment of weakness and ordered half a dozen new Copic pens from Cult Pens over in Devon.  Fabulous service as they have just arrived so I'm off to colour in my chart and maybe make a card .. .. Enjoy your weekend, whatever you get up to!

Festive Fairy

This week on Cute Card Thursday we are looking for a touch of sparkle on your crafty creation - perfect for Christmas cards I thought!  I've inked up the LOTV festive fairy with brown Momento then coloured with my Copics, although I'm still having problems with the colours fading now that I'm working in the conservatory.  I'll drop Copic EU an email for some advice .. .. and if you are in the UK you can now get Copics on the tv shopping channel Create and Craft - fabulous demonstrations yesterday but I can't remember the lady's name, and I need to find her blog - do you know it?

Anyhow, I added a little more than a touch of sparkle to my card, well it is for Christmas and a girly Christmas at that.  I've inked the edges of the card, digi paper scrap and my image with spring pansy Versamagic chalk ink then added the stardust Stickles.  I punched the snowflake border and stickled that too, along with a few little extra snowflakes.

Here she is in close up, with lots of sparkle and blobs of snow created with white opal Perfect Pearls.  The background is a mix of B0000, B000 and spring pansy chalk ink. The pinks are RV63, 66 & 69 and I used BG70 and C1 for her coat and booties, but I can't remember the rest as I tend to pick pens and change my mind, leave them on the desk, over colour shades .. .. I end up with 50+ pens scattered all over the place!

The Oldie but a Goodie challenge is for things with wings as well as old stuff, well just about everything is old on this card as I've not been able to get very much new crafty stuff since moving here.  The Incy Wincy Designs blog is looking for weather related projects - there's a snow flurry on my winter card that should fit the theme.

I'll be back tomorrow to share my teddy bear card for the Lili's Little Fairies blog but then there's nothing so I had best have a crafty day today!

Blue Butterfly

The Less Is More challenge this week has been to create a one layer card and use 3 stamps on it - eek!  Well, I finally put this simple thank you card together on a base of cream card, not the best cardstock in the world and I had problems colouring, or attempting to colour with my Copics - it just wouldn't work and in the end I dug out my old Polychromos pencils.  The first stamp is an old Whispers oval with raggedy edges that I inked up Aspen Mist and Aegean Blue Versamagic chalk inks.  The second stamp is by Funstamps and called Common Blue on Chicory - I've used the coloured decal as inspiration for my colouring but added my own 'artistic licence' to deepen the colours.  Finally, the third stamp is a clear greeting by Hero Arts stamped in a dark blue chalk ink.  To finish I've drawn a blue line around the image, although it's bled, as it looked a bit too naked otherwise!

Sorry I've been MIA again.  I finally got DH home for the weekend and we got to spend time together at last.  Long distance relationships are never easy, after all the years he served in the RN and in security afterwards I should be used to him being away.  But, I've gotten used to having him around over the past 8 years and I'm not getting any younger .. .. so making an effort to spend time together when we can means I've less time for crafting/blogging when he is here.  And to top it all the internet wasn't available yesterday either .. .. ah well, fingers crossed it holds this evening!

Snooze time!

This week on the Lili's Little Fairies challenge blog we would like to know what's your favourite craft tool, along with your creation using a LOTV image of course.  It wont come as a surprise to you that I love to add embellishments made from various Marianne dies to my cards.  What might surprise you is that I use my old red Sizzix machine to cut out the small dies .. .. it means I can use up the smallest scraps of card quickly and easily, and by layering with small 3d pads or spots of glue I can keep the finished card reasonably flat and easier to post, hence easier to sell at a craft fair too when folks are looking to make savings these days.  I have the magnetic adaptor plate fitted then simply place my piece of card on the white cutting mat, place the die on top, then a small Sizzix square adaptor on top of that and slide it along, press the handle and slide out.  To emboss I have a piece of funky foam I put on top of the cutting plate, then the die with the card still in place cutting edge up, then the rubber embossing mat on top and slide through - perfectly embossed die cuts with just a few slides.  Any diecutting tends to be labour intensive, but I find using my old red Sizzix a quicker alternative to turning the handle on my Cuttlebug!

So, I've made a pastel toned Christmas card with the cute Christmas Snooze stamp by LOTV and coloured with Copics:

The beige and brown colours are from E40-E47 range, plus E81 as a shadow for the pale E40 on puppy together with the dark cool grey C7 and a touch of B99.  Using that hint of dark blue ties puppy in to the chap snoozing after Christmas dinner as I used the paler B90s for his clothing.  As I needed a green for the holly leaves on his mug I used BG93-99 for the green touches and warm greys for the shadows.  The background paper is a digi piece by Cuddly Buddly I had printed in my stash and the text is a LOTV stamp.  I've used pale blue and green card for matting and my embellishments then finished with sparkly gems - well you need a touch of bling for Christmas!

I hope you will come and join in the LLF challenge and let us know what your favourite crafty tool is.  Our sponsor for this challenge is the Ribbon Girl with a £10 voucher as a prize.

Turkey Dinner

This week on Cute Card Thursday our theme is food and/or drink - on my card there's a delicious golden turkey just out of the oven .. .. mmmmm!  Our sponsor for this week is Whiff of Joy and Katharina is offering the winner of this challenge a stamp of their choice.

I've inked up my LOTV stamp then coloured the image with Copics, although it's looking a bit washed out and not exactly square on my screen - I'll have to ask one of the boys to tweak the settings for me.  In keeping with the Papermania traditional papers and beige card, I've inked the edges of everything with Frayed Burlap DI and added pale amber pearls made with my Waco pearl maker pen - at least this colour is making nice round pearls.  I also had a packet of matching Papermania rub-ons so used a few to decorate the image and the striped paper layer.  The text circle is also by LOTV and I've coloured it with my Copics too, but the pale blue/grey shade in the centre doesn't show up - it's the same mix of colour I used for the shadow on the image, a mix of C0/1and BG70.

The challenge on the Oldie But A Goodie blog is for diecuts and punches - I have used Nellie's Choice poinsettia punches together with Marianne diecut poinsettia leaves and fronds to create my embellishment. And my stamp and papers are over 6 months old.

A quick update for you on the build front - after the torrential rain yesterday/last night, there are men all over my roof this morning trying to get things water-tight in the garage area (they had to remove some of the tiles in order to fit the new trusses so we had water running down the walls inside the garage).  One of the new gables is built and I can hear them cutting blocks to try and get the other one finished ready for the tilers .. .. by this time next week I should, hopefully, have a roof over the new extension.  I am browsing magazines and catalogues for decorating inspiration .. .. trying to continue the green/beige/white/brown from the kitchen-living area to give a coordinated and spacious look to what is actually a small bungalow .. .. .. Mum wants pink or peach in her space, my eldest wants red/black for his bedroom and I would have liked blue in mine but that's not going to work as the room faces north-east and could feel cold in blue.  Today, I'm leaning towards Laura Ashley's 'Manor Born' scheme for my room, it has a traditional patterned fabric with shades of both amethyst and cranberry that I could use to make the curtains, but they will have to last a long time as the material isn't cheap and I need a lot of it for the french doors and side lights (to maximise the light coming in).  Then I could use the neutral pale amethyst version of the design in wallpaper on one feature wall, paint the rest with a matching pale amethyst, pick up the cranberry for lamp shades and cushions and go for a dark brown finish to the furniture linking it to the rest of the house .. .. well I can dream!

spots and dots

This card has been a nightmare to create! First off I just had a piece of green textured card for my base and used my red Waco pearl maker pen to add some corner dot details .. .. oh my! what a mess! So out came the craft knife and the offending dots got scraped off before they could set too hard.  To cover up any hint of where they had been I added the spotty dotty paper from my Christmas stash box.  It's a little card, just a 4" square white base, so I had to find a small image and this Bildmalarna cutie got a second inking.  I cut a Nestie blossom circle from the green card for my mat and coloured the image with Copics.  But, that was yesterday afternoon - by this morning my YG13 green had turned yellow .. .. eek!  I've gone over the wreath bands again but they are still showing yellow and not blending with yesterday's colouring .. .. I'm finding my Copic colouring is fading a lot, especially the paler shades, and some are changing colours too - the worst are the violet and the yellow/greens.  Anybody else having this problem?  I love my Copics but getting cards ready for a craft fair I found several that had faded so badly that I just couldn't use them .. .. and that's not a good thing for getting a repeat order.  So, to finish off today I added crystal glitter to the white areas, diecut the Marianne poinsettias, coloured a Cuddly Buddly digi sentiment and crossed my fingers that the red Waco pearls would work this time - well they aren't too bad.

The Incy Wincy challenge this week is for spots and dots so I can enter my card with them.  Not sure of any other challenges as I've not been on line much over the past few days and need to catch up.  I had psyched myself up for a filling at the dentist this morning, but then got a phone call to say my dentist was sick, ok - big sigh of relief, but the next available appointment isn't for 4 weeks .. .. ah well, not to worry eh!

Less is More Yellow Daisies

Sorry for the miserable photo, my efforts at capturing yellow Brilliance pearlescent ink stamped onto coated cardstock have not been a total success!  The daisy background stamp is an old Elusive Images rubber design and the text was a gift from a crafty friend a few years back.  I've inked the edges with the same ink then fixed the daisy panel straight down onto a C6 card base created from some thick coated card that's no good for stamping/colouring, fixed the text with 3d foam pads then finished off with the sickly yellow organza ribbon and a daisy button from my stash.  It's my creation for this week's Less Is More colour challenge - in case you didn't guess!  I can't say that yellow is my favourite colour, but with lots of white I think this works ok.  And I also found another blog challenge I can enter with my card - new to me so thank you to Angelique for pointing me in their direction, the Mi CAS es su CAS theme is for nature, so hope they like my daisies.

Enjoy your weekend, the sun is shining here in Cornwall so I am trying to keep busy and not dwell on what's happening in my life just at the moment.

Knitting Daisy thanks so much

Hopefully Mr Postie has delivered this card to my friend by now - I took the picture a while back whilst I had my old pc and software so was able to tweak it, perhaps a little too bright though!  The stamped image is Daisy Knitting from Marianne's Don and Daisy collection, coloured with my Copics and finished with Spring Pansy Versamagic chalk ink around the edges.  The gingham paper is from my stash matted with lilac cardstock, and I've used various Marianne dies to create a little embellishment.  Everything is flat on this card so I could post it easily at the standard rate - my cards are getting more like that these days of tightening the crafty belt.

I am feeling rather down in the dumps at the moment with memories of last year, and to top it all my DH has decided not to come home this weekend.  As his work keeps him away a lot, I look forward to the weekends .. .. and as it's a bank holiday I had hoped we could have more time together .. .. for now I'm on automatic pilot looking after Mum and not in the mood for doing much else.

Taking it easy

Today's DT card is for both Cute Card Thursday and Lili's Little Fairies - CCT are creating for the men and boys whilst LLF have an anything goes challenge.  I've inked up the lazy days stamp with brown Momento and coloured with my Copics, mostly the E40 range with a touch of blue and green here and there.  I've inked the edges with a soft blue chalk ink as well as Sahara Sand and Jumbo Java Versamagic chalk inks on the edge of the image, papers and embellishments.

Here's the card, looking very washed out as I've still not figured out how to brighten things up. The background is a piece of digi paper from my stash matted with kraft cardstock and then onto a cream base card.  I've diecut the embellishments  from scraps of kraft and blue card, but kept it reasonably simple as it's a man card! Apart from the corners (old squeeze die) the rest are all Marianne: ivy spray, bird and bird box LR0206, swirls cut from LR0157, and flowers from LR0142.

I'm not sure if there are any challenges about for male cards this week .. .. I'll try and browse and maybe come back to link up - please let me know if you find any!

I found one, the Fab'n'Funky challenge for male creation.

Season's Greetings

This is the card I made for the LIM challenge but thought the square image design was too big for the sketch.  So, instead I'm entering it into the Christmas Stampin' All Year blog challenge for anything goes, Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas challenge not to use the word Christmas in your sentiment, and   the Winter Wonderland challenge for girly creations.

I've stamped my LOTV image then coloured her with Copics: reds are R35, 37 & 39, teddy is pale shades of cool grey, and I'm sorry I can't remember the rest of the colours and I forgot to make a note.  The background is coloured with B60 & B63 although it is hard to see in my picture - still messing about with the photo software.  I've added Lace Stickles to her fur trims and the angel's wings, cut her out and matted with red card before fixing to my base square card I ran through the Swiss Dots CB embossing folder.  My stamped text finishes things off.

As the sun in shining today here in Cornwall I'm busy in the garden .. .. catch up with you all tomorrow when they forecast rain!

Less is More

I've managed to put a little card together for this week's Less Is More sketch challenge, although this is my second attempt.  On the first card the square was too big and not in the proportions shown, so, after looking at some of the other entries I took inspiration and came up with this one.  The square image is part of an old Elusive Images stamp coloured with Copics then I added the little gem flowers.  I used a square Nestie to emboss the centre of the card, inked up the text with a Burgundy Brilliance ink and used the same to edge the image before fixing in place - simples!

I have my new pc up and running but I haven't got used to it and don't have all the programs I had on the old one.  Consequently I've not been able to brighten my picture in the new software I found I had, but it might just be me not knowing what I'm doing - I'll learn and get there in the end.  After the miserable weather over the weekend and yesterday, the builders couldn't start on the roof until today, fingers crossed it stays fine for them, I am starting to feel very impatient and wonder how many more months before I can get my craft stash sorted and within reach.  Until then I've managed to put together a couple more simple cards to share with you in the next few days and now that I've got the internet again I can catch up with some of my favourite blogs and get back to those friends that kindly leave me a comment.

It's a Make-Over!

Originally this card had a different image and flowers I'd made from spirals of paper, but they stuck out too far to put the card in even a gusset envelope, and I didn't like the image.  I did like the papers and the pretty lace so with a little judicious knife work the original image and the flowers were removed.  I needed to find an image that was small enough to fit on the square mat that was left, and this little dandelion fairy by LOTV was perfect.  She's coloured with my Copics and to keep with the colour of the patterned paper I used RV91, 93 & 95 along with E70, 71, 74 & 77, and a touch of cream E50 & E51.  I added pale warm grey tones for shadow then inked the edges with Spring Pansy Versamagic chalk ink, and used the same ink to stamp the little Magnolia spray around the edge of the image.

And here she is in close up.  You can see that I've added lots of Stardust Stickles for sparkle, well she is a fairy after all!  To replace the flowers I've used Nellies's Choice retro flower punch and the mini butterfly punch along with little gems and my Waco cream pearl maker pen (but the blobs have gone flat - I'm not happy with my new pen).

Both the Crafty Catz Weekly challenge and Creative Inspirations challenge is an anything goes theme so I can enter my new fairy card with them.  And the Truly Scrumptious challenge is for distressing and die cuts/punches, so, as I've inked all my edges and used Nesties to cut my squares and various punches for my embellishments I'll enter with them too.

Little Robin

As promised, here's the little card I made with my new Nellie's Choice robin stamp.  There's also a selection of snowflakes with the robin, but I didn't use them this time .. .. although as an afterthought I could have stamped a few off the edge of the circle and embossed with a sparkly EP, that might have looked nice.  I started with a plain white 4" square card then added the red mat to the front leaving a slight edge, then cut the Marianne Craftable lacy square from textured white card to mat on top.  I used a Nestie to cut out my little robin and another scallop Nestie to create a matching red mat for him before fixing onto the white layer with 3d pads.  Rummaging through a box of threads I came across a reel of this metallic red that frays into separate layers, and I managed to tie the bow before it unravelled!  A little Stardust Stickles on his hat finished things off.  I coloured robin with my Copics but they are fading in the bright sunshine in the conservatory so I had to go over them again, which wasn't terribly successful as the paper wouldn't take the extra layers of colour without going grainy .. .. another crafty problem I'm going to have to try and sort out.

I found out about a new Christmas blog challenge starting soon - Holly Jolly Christmas Challenge - and on the side bar they link to other Christmas challenges so I've been able to browse and can link my little robin card up to: Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas challenge for lots of layers, and Christmas Stampin' All Year Long who have an anything goes challenge starting today.

Thanks for stopping by, and I hope to be back soon.

Simply Charming

Hello again! not much to report on the building work for the past week, the walls got a little higher and the laundry room/conservatory wall is built so I can get a better idea of the space I will have to craft in - not large so I will have to learn to be tidy and put things away!  Hopefully the roof will be next week .. .. .. Mum has now come down with the virus that I'm still battling but the doc has prescribed something to loosen the phlegm - I hope it will work as she is having trouble coughing it all up.  I'm still coughing but not as bad as it has been so hopefully I'm on the mend.

I have been able to create a couple of cards from bits and pieces on my desk and in boxes that I can reach, this card is one of them and for the Less is More challenge to use a charm this week.  I do struggle with the concept of white space, or cream space on this card.  As I can't get to my picture stamps to colour, I've simply stamped a text with orchid pink Brilliance pearlescent ink and used the same ink to edge the 4" square card.  The little butterfly charm is fixed to the floral ribbon with a pearl brad and then stuck to the MS punched cream layer that I layered onto the card with 3d foam for a little added interest/dimension.

I have another LIM card made so hope it might fit next week's theme .. .. and, I also made a small simple Christmas card with a small Nellie's Choice robin stamp I treated myself to after the last visit to the dentist, and I managed to put a thank you card together for a friend using an image I'd coloured a while back - once I've posted it and given Mr Postie a few days to deliver it, I'll share with you.  Still not got the new computer up and working so struggling with the old one, I have been able to visit a few friends but I'm not a fan of the new blogger dashboard style, the list of blogs that I follow scrolls along with the posts - I want it to scroll separately but can't figure out if that's possible - any one know?

we have walls!

no cards to share with you yet - but there has been a lot of progress on the extension and we have walls. Next week we should start to get a roof as well .. .. then the fun can start. The gap in the new wall is going to be the french doors into my new bedroom. The gap by the conservatory will be the back door entrance into what I am hoping will be the laundry room, then into the conservatory which will have a solid wall at the adjoining end and give me a place to put my craft cupboard. That obscure glazed window is staying, currently at the back of the garage but that will be turned into the new bathroom so no need to replace it. As you can see, we have sunshine here in Cornwall today after the torrential showers of yesterday - at least it's filled up the water butt so I can water the garden again.

I've not been too well myself recently, battling a tooth abscess that's not responding to antibiotics and I have to have the tooth out under GA as I'm a big woos and the gum will need cutting to get at the broken tooth. I have managed to have a little minor treatment and hope to be able to cope with a couple of fillings next month - my phobia is the needle as I react badly to the local anaesthetic as it wares off, but needs must. On top of that, after visiting the dental department at the local hospital I developed a sore throat - a nasty virus the doctor says so no treatment, just time to get over it. Now though I've got the most disgusting cough and a bit of a temperature so all in all I'm in the wars.

I have been looking through my stash of cards as I've discovered that the nearby village has a craft event in their Parish Hall each month so I might be able to take a table and sell a few. However, with the cost of postage going up again, I'm rethinking my card crafting - either I have to go all out and make cards that are going to be for special occasions or, I keep things very simple so that the card fits through the 'normal' post slot - and that means only a couple of layers, and no buttons. blooms or bows that stick out. I am sure that people will still want to send Christmas cards, and cards for weddings and baby arrivals that can be delivered by hand will always be needed. Anyway, whatever I decide it will have to wait until I have my craft space back.

I'm not sure when I will be back on-line as my youngest has a new computer for me so I have to take my stuff off this old dinosaur ready to be put on the new one .. .. hopefully that might speed things up a bit then I can get around to visit you all again.