Easter Greetings!

This week on the Cute Card Thursday blog we are getting ready for Easter and are sponsored by Bugaboo Stamps. I've made an egg shaped card by cutting out my base with the biggest X-cut egg die, then taking off a sliver from the base at the back so it stands up. It's a simple design with a piece of digi flower paper by Cuddly Buddly with inked edges stuck to my base egg card, a length of green ribbon wrapped around, then my LOTV image is matted with textured green card and fixed with 3d foam pads.

I've stamped the bunny with brown Momento then coloured with Copics: the yellows with Y13, 15, 19 & YR16; greens with YG03, 06 & 09; bunny with E30, 31, 34, & E02 plus glitter on his fluffy tail. I've coloured the background with BG0000 & BG000. To decorate I fixed a bow with a button, cut out 3 small eggs from the smallest die in the set and added a little doodling with a white gel pen, stamped and matted a greeting, then cut the Marianne butterfly and tiny flowers and decorated them with tiny gold gems. The butterfly is from the set LRO158, whilst the tiny flowers are from the Craftable set CR1210.

Over on the Lili's Little Fairies challenge blog it's an anything goes week - with a fabulous prize from Nitwits to be won. I've not done a DT card for this challenge, in fact I've not done any crafting at all for over a week now, and that's a situation that's not set to change for a while. My craft stash is piled up and with the build work going on, there's Mum to look after and the dogs as well as it's too hot for them to go to work with DH in the van - consequently I'm flat out and any time off I've spent in the garden! I don't have access to the internet every day either - so for now I'm signing off for a bit, regular blogging to be resumed at a later date!

I see that Charisma Cardz and Fab 'n' Funky challenges also have an Easter challenge this week - so I'll enter my card with them.

And, I've been trying to leave comments but Blogger wont let me - I type everything out then when I press submit it pretends to not know me .. .. what's been happening?!

Baby with Bunny

This week it's an anything goes theme on Cute Card Thursday! Our sponsor is Simon Says stamps for this challenge - please stop by the CCT blog to read all about it and see the gorgeous DT creations. And unfortunately I am apologising that I don't have a card for the Lili's Little Fairies challenge this week, but do stop by and take a look at the DTs creations, and come join in - the prize is 2 of the brand new soon to be released stamps from Lili of the Valley - ooo I wish I could enter!


So for my anything goes card on CCT I've made another cute baby card, but in a brighter colour scheme. I've stamped the new LOTV baby with bunny in brown Momento and coloured with my Copics: the usual skin tones, then R20, R21 & R22 for the pinks, E50, E1 & E53 for the creams, and YG91 & YG93 for the ground. I added W00 for a little shadow, although it barely shows up.

The pretty paper is another freebie piece from Nitwits (I must see if I can find out the set it comes from - do you know?) matted with cream and rose red textured card. I found a length of ribbon that matches better in real life than in the photo, and punched a lacy border. The little balloon text is an old Elusive Images stamp coloured to match and the embellishments are Marianne dies LRO142 for the flowers and LRO117 for the leaves, with little pearl finishing touches created with my cream Waco pearl maker pen.

The Creative Inspirations blog also have an anything goes theme for this week, so I can join in with them; then over on the Dutch Dare Card Challenges blog it's a cute and cuddly theme - perfect!

Our building work is coming along nicely, we passed the first inspection for the footings and the concrete truck arrives at 8.30 tomorrow morning. Then by Monday the concrete will have gone off so the sand and blocks will get delivered ready to start building Tuesday morning. We didn't escape completely without hiccups - the main water line into the bungalow got broken so we couldn't flush the loo for a couple of hours, but it was easy to fix. Unfortunately Mum was taken poorly again and had to go to hospital in an ambulance - thankfully it wasn't her heart. She has a wee infection and possibly an ear infection that made her sick and dizzy. She is back home now and I am in nurse mode again - although with only a couple of hours sleep last night I'm not sure how long I can keep it up. Anyhow my friends, it does mean that I will be AWOL again for a while until things are back on an even keel here - thank you for stopping by, and double thanks for leaving me a comment. I will try and catch up with everyone who leaves me comments over the next few days when I get a moment to myself.

Cute Mice

It's a glorious sunny afternoon here in Cornwall, so bright I didn't need to adjust the picture at all today! I made this 5" square card last week just for fun, and fortunately the Penny Black Saturday blog challenge is for this, that and the other - in other words it's an anything goes week so I can enter with it. The stamp is from the PB Hugs clear set and I coloured with my Copics, shades of warm greys for the mice, pink shades R81/83/85, plus yellow and greens I can't remember. I left the die in place after I cut out the image then inked around the coloured image with Aloe Vera Versamagic chalk ink, finishing off with Stardust Stickles around the edge.

Here's the card and it's wonky again, sorry! I've used a Marianne doily die LRO129 cut in green to mat the image then created the floral corner embellishment with bits from dies LRO106, LRO142, LRO156 & LRO112. The paper is a piece of magazine freebie from Nitwits and I used an old squeeze die to cut the corners. Now, seeing as I cut a doily for my mat I'm hoping I can also enter the Secret Crafter Saturday challenge this week too.

The digger finally turned up this morning and it's bigger than I was expecting - shouldn't take the builder too long to dig out the footings with that monster! Hopefully he will be here tomorrow bright and early .. .. in the mean time I'm clearing and stacking and tidying - so no chance of doing any craft for a while yet! Saturday was a bit of a down in the dumps day, I think I was over tired and in the end went to bed at 9pm - then didn't get up for 12 hours! I felt much better yesterday and after doing a supermarket shop in St Austell, went for a lovely walk in Kings Wood with hubby and the dogs. It might have been a bit much though as I'm feeling exhausted today, or it could be that I was reading until 4am - Par market had a stall of paperbacks for a good price and I got a couple by Will Adams. I read The Lost Labyrinth last summer, that was his 3rd book in the Daniel Knox series and it was ok - a gripping archaeological yarn! Now I've just finished The Exodus Quest, his 2nd in the series, and I have The Eden Legacy, his 4th to read. I still haven't read the first book in the series, The Alexander Cipher so will have to track that one down. As it's the same characters in each book it would make sense to read them in order just so you know how the relationships have developed, but it's not essential to the plot, although I think that I had better hold fire a day or two before starting the next one so I can catch up on some sleep.

I had to do it .. ..

it was no good - I didn't like the card the way it was (see post below) so after a bit of judicious trimming, matting with the dark brown cardstock, redoing the wiggly line with a brown Sakura Stardust pen and fixing the 3 big brads, this is how it looks now! Please excuse the scissors holding it down on my desk - it kept popping open every time I got the camera any where near taking the picture.

oh and for those that are keeping an eye on the proceedings here, yes the dumper truck has arrived, but no sign of the digger .. .. not sure where that's got to, hope it turns up before Monday morning!

Less is More with Tulip script

I have been feeling blah .. .. my mojo has up and left so rather than struggle with pretty embellies etc, I decided to have a go at the Less is More challenge for a one layer card with script. I remembered I had several old Elusive Images floral stamps that incorporate script as part of the design, so no need for masking, and decided on the Tulip script for this card. I stamped it with brown Momento ink on to a kraft base then got to colouring with my Copics and pencils. I was sat watching the tv and to be honest, just made things up as I went along - just remember to do the Copic colouring first then finish off with the wax/oil based pencils on the top.
I can tell you that the background shades are B0000/000/00/02 and my tulip flowers were Y11/15/17/19/28 plus cream, dark yellow and orange pencils.

Here's the card, and as there is already a stripe in the base I went with it and added white pencil in the same direction to soften things and then when I had finished messing with the colouring I drew a wiggly line around the image to finish things off. I stamped the text with the brown Momento then inked the edges of the card with brown chalk ink to give it all a shabby look - well hopefully that's what you think it looks like. I still ache to mat it onto another colour, especially as it has bent with all the colouring, perhaps a cream or brown - or both, but I will do that on the quiet so I can still enter the LIM challenge with what you see! Sshhh - I re-vamped it here .. ..

I'm not sure when I will be back with a card again .. .. I've nothing finished and a busy time ahead with the builders. I'm keeping an eye out for the mini digger and dumper truck that should be arriving some time today. Whatever you are doing this weekend, enjoy!

Fairy Wishes

This week on Lili's Little Fairies our theme is butterflies and fairies - so plenty of opportunity to get those darling LOTV fairy stamps inked up, and our prize is 2 LOTV stamps of your choice! I've used the dandelion clock fairy and coloured her with my Copics in shades of pink and yellow - but I put the pens away and forgot to make a note of them all, plus I went back over the coral pinks as they were looking too red to match my pink flowers and butterflies, so they are a combination of RVs and R shades. I've added crystal glitter to her wings, wand and the dandelion clocks, plus cream pearls with my Wacco pearl pen around the yellow mat.

For the card I've printed off a piece of paper from the Nitwits Thimbles Too collection, inked the edges with Sahara Sand Versamagic chalk ink and matted with the soft yellow cardstock. The pretty floral ribbon is from my stash, as is the pink/yellow ombre organza I've tied around and finished with a triple bow. My butterflies are Nellie's smallest punch and emboss and one of my new Marianne dies LRO158. The floral embellishments are a mix of other Marianne bits and pieces and I've finished off with pink gems.

Short and sweet today friends .. .. I'll get back to you soon when things have calmed down here .. ..!

Happy Birthday CCT!

It's Cute Card Thursday's 4th birthday today! I remember when we first started like it was yesterday, time certainly flies by when you are having fun. Whimsy Stamps is sponsoring our birthday challenge so do stop by the CCT blog to read all about the prizes and for some gorgeous inspiration from the DT.

For my birthday card I've inked up this cute LOTV cupcakes image and coloured with my Copics and added a little sparkle. Not too many colours, the pinks are RVs - I think RV13 & 14 with RV00, but I couldn't be sure as I've been tidying up. The pale off white shades are E0000, E81, E50, E51, and E40-E43. I've used warm greys for the floor and cool greys for the shadow.

This is one of the cards I did the wrong way around - coloured the image first and then had to rummage for background paper. Fortunately this piece in my magazine freebie stash had the right shade of pink and teamed up with the shocking pink and cream textured card, a length of shocking pink ribbon and the various punched and diecut pieces; the card came together. The flowers are Marianne dies LRO107 and the leaves from LRO157, the butterflies are Nellies punches and the lacy border is a wide Martha Stewart punch. I stamped the text with pink Brilliance ink and finished off with pink pearls from my stash.

The Papertake Weekly challenge is for the girls this week, so I'll enter my pink girly card with them, and over at Paper Sundaes the theme is for feminine flair so I'll enter with them too.

Sorry I've not been around much this week - Piper took poorly on Sunday and had to spend Monday/Tuesday in the Vets .. .. he got a bug and was severely dehydrated, but the vet also gave him the once over and he has an enlarged prostate so will need to have an operation. It meant that I was looking after Aero down here whilst Mark was with Piper back in Saltash .. .. not too bad a time and we managed lots of little walks and got to know the immediate vicinity a little better. Next week the builders start and once the footings are in I will have to clear up the conservatory so they can build a supporting wall at the north end that will join it to the new extension. Eventually my craft desk and cupboard will end up at this end as it's a slightly smaller space than the south end that will be better for lounging about! It will be good to get things straight in there and not have to climb over boxes and diy paraphernalia to craft - but it might be a while before normal service is able to be resumed!

CCT sketch

This week on the Cute Card Thursday blog we have a sketch for the challenge. Our sponsor is Katharina from Whiff of Joy with a fabulous choice of a stamp as the prize.

I have made another small square card to help use up my stash of envies, thankfully the Nellie's Choice stamps are quite small so fit this size beautifully. I've inked up Dawn with kitty then coloured with my Copics: skin tones with E00 & 01, with E11, 15 & 18 for her hair, hat box and shoes. I used E93 & 95 with the E01 for the peach tones; E50, 51 & 53 for the bunny and kitty; Y11, 15, 17 & 19 for the yellows, and YG03, 06 & 25 for the touches of green. For shadow and shading I've used warm greys.

My papers are more from the Nitwits Spring Whimsy Too collection printed on to cream paper for a warm feel, and I've inked all my edges with Sahara Sand Versamagic chalk ink. The diecuts are all from various Marianne dies: the swirl layer is cut from LRO116, the butterfly is from LRO158, and those tiny flowers with leaves are from the new Craftables set CR1210 - you get a leaf shape and a flower shape die and each of these has 5 seperate areas to cut out either small flowers or leaves. I use scraps of card and my old red Sizzix machine with the adaptor plates, it has to be a really tiny scrap of card to end up in my bin these days! Three of the little flowers are embossable and for that I use a small hand tool rather than fiddle about with embossing pads in the machine. After I've embossed I ink the flower whilst still in the die to make it show up more, on this flower I've used a yellow chalk ink. To finish I've used my Waco pearl maker pen in cream - but it's a new pen and not going so beautifully round as my old one .. .. not sure of the solution to that problem. I also added a snip of pearl string to cover the cut edge of my swirl layer. The text is stamped, coloured then 3d mounted over the smallest diecut flower from CR1203.

The Papertake Weekly challenge is an anything goes week, so I can enter with them, and Divas by Design would like to see your favourite things - mine is my Marianne dies along with my Copics for colouring.

I ended up at one of the local cottage hospitals yesterday having given in and made an emergency dental appointment. Thankfully it wasn't as bad as I feared, the dentist put in a couple of temporary fillings on teeth that I've cracked because I've started to grind them .. .. the stress of the past year's events I'm afraid. I have to go back for an x-ray as she suspects there is an abscess under another tooth, although it doesn't bother me unless I accidentally bite down on it .. .. but then I guess that's what teeth are for! I have a big phobia about needles in my mouth (anywhere else no problem) and react badly to the anaesthetic they inject, which is probably how the phobia started, so I am not looking forward to going back for the treatment, but I can't afford the private alternative with the more expensive anaesthetic that they 'fire' into the gums with an 'air pistol' - sort of. Anyway, it's not until April so no use worrying about it just yet!

Ribbon and Lace

This week on Lili's Little Fairies our challenge is to incorporate some pretty ribbon and lace into your design, and we are being sponsored by the Ribbon Girl with a fabulous prize in pink.

I have made a wedding card with the adorable 'I do' image stamped in black Momento to tie in with the printed text that was a freebie by Bev on the LOTV Ideas to Inspire blog a while back. I coloured with my Copics: skin tones with E000, 00, 21 & 02; his hair with E40, 41, & 43; her hair with YG61 & 63; his tux with cool greys; and her gown with R0000, 000, 00 & 21. For the ground shadow I used warm greys and there's a touch of green but I forgot to note the shades.

And here's the card - taken in the bright sunshine in the conservatory where it's finally warm enough to craft, at least during the day. I've avoided too many embellishments as I want the card to be able to go through the post in just a gusseted envelope. The paper is a piece from Nitwits Thimbles Too collection, edges inked with pink petunia Versamagic chalk ink then matted with dust pink textured card. The pale pink ribbon and the lace are from my stash, the corners are cut with an old Squeeze die, and the little roses are from a new Marianne die CR1210 - a bit fiddly to emboss and ink but a great way of using up tiny scraps. The butterfly is punched from the smallest Nellie's Choice set and I couldn't resist adding a touch of diamanté bling!

And here's a couple of blog challenges I can enter with my card: Crafty Catz challenge is to use dies/punches this week - I've used lots of different dies and punched my tiny butterfly. The Incy Wincy challenge is to use something old and something new (rather apt for a wedding card don't you think?) - most of the elements on my card are old from my stash, but the paper and the die to cut the little roses are both new.

Less is More in Chocolate!

The theme on the Less is More blog at the moment is for neutral colours. I should have been working on my DT cards for March this afternoon, but got sidetracked into fiddling around with bits and bobs. I had a couple of scraps of rough kraft card that aren't any good for colouring with Copics and rather than throw them in the bin I got to thinking what I could do. On one piece I've stamped the Elusive Images daisy flower then coloured in with my pencils: ivory, brown ochre, raw umber and burnt umber - then cut out the flower and inked the edges with brown chalk ink. I ran the bigger piece through a bubbles embossing folder in the bug, then inked with Versamagic chalk inks in Sahara Sand and Jumbo Java, tied some twine around it, matted with dark brown card and then matted onto plain caramel card. I've stamped the greeting, added the little butterfly charm on a tag, fixed the daisy with 3d foam pads and finished with the Marianne diecut leaves. I knew it wasn't going to be big enough for a standard card size so instead I created a little thank you gift .. .. ..

So what do you think, is it less enough for the challenge, although the chocolate is certainly a little bit more - it says so on the wrapper!

The ABC challenge blog are up to the letter 'K' and have a kraft challenge so I'll enter my creation with them too.

We're getting there .. ..

Ever so slowly, and here in Cornwall things are certainly done 'drekly' .. .. .. but at last we have the garden bench in place on the gravel so Mum can sit in the sunshine. It took a bit of digging out to create a wider path than was there originally, and my arms are still aching - but worth it! I also got a couple of big clay pots and re-potted the box and bay so they shouldn't fall over in the ever present sea breeze .. .. ..


I've planted up one of the old plastic tubs with miniature spring daffs and a couple of summer flowering plants to carry things on .. ..


And at last the garage door is in place, although the electrics aren't working so the men have to come back to fix that .. .. drekly! Excuse the pots by the porch - they are work in progress, probably for the bin but I might try and rescue some of the contents. The birdbath in the middle of the rose bed is something my Dad made from concrete, but it leaks so I need to fix that before filling it with water. Oh, and the car on the driveway isn't mine .. .. far too low down for me to get in and out! The garage isn't any use as a garage any more as half of it will be the new bathroom, and it was always a bit of a tight squeeze getting the car in and out anyway, I expect it will get filled up with boxes and junk and the beach paraphernalia! The builder should be arriving any day now to start digging the footings for the new bedroom extension .. .. he reckons on about 3 months, weather permitting, before I can start decorating them - I can't wait!

it's the f*** up fairy!

I've been after some of the grumpy old farts digi images from Bugaboo for a while, and have just discovered that each week there's a special offer - so I got this image half price! It's a very apt card for me just at the moment - building work just never seams to go according to plan and as for the internet .. .. I can go and make a cuppa while it's loading a page, and it took 3 attempts to get just this one card pic onto the blog. I was going to share some other pictures with you, but it could take a week of Sundays to get them up - argh!!! We should have had the new garage door installed on Friday but it didn't happen - next Tuesday they say .. .. should I hold my breath?

I printed out my digi and coloured with Copics: yellows with Y15, 17, 19 & 35; peach/rust with E93, 95, 97; and her hair in cool greys. I can't remember the green, my first attempt was too bright so I went over with a darker olive shade - and I've had to clear the dining table as half the family have arrived for lunch. Poor Aidan has been throwing up so has stayed behind with his Mum - but I have a large leg of lamb in the oven that will feed an army and take an age, guess we will be eating it cold for a day or two! For the papers on the card I printed out the Nitwits Spring Whimsy Too papers on to cream paper for a warmer look, then matted with yellow cardstock. I've inked my edges with an old chalk ink with no colour name, glazed her specs and the fairy wand, and added Stardust Stickles to her wings. I've embellished with Marianne diecut bits and pieces: flowers are from LR0107, leaves from LRO142, swirls from LRO116 and the star border is LRO134. I used a couple of the stars that cut out from the border as the centre to the flowers with a gems to finish off.

Now I've a Bugaboo image to play with I can enter the March challenge of anything goes on the Catch The Bug challenge blog. The Allsorts challenge is titled ' spread your wings' so my grumpy fairy should do ok! and as the Flutterby Wednesday challenge is an open theme this week, I can join in with them too.

Signs of Spring

We are looking for Signs of Spring this week on the Cute Card Thursday blog, this is a new cutie Daisy stamp Marianne has just released, and seeing those pretty Spring crocus flowers I immediately thought of purple and yellow as my colour scheme. I've used my Copics to colour the image: skin tones with E000, E00, E01 & E21; hair with E50, E51 E53 & E55; yellows with Y13, Y35 & Y38; greens with G20, G21, G24 & G28; purples with V12, V15 &V17

I've yet to add any of Marianne's papers to my stash so dug out some pieces of polka dots and gingham along with plain card in white, green and lavender. In addition to Marianne's cutie image I've used the new Creatables CR1203 square doily behind the image and the smallest of the flower dies that comes with it to cut the solid flowers. The other flowers are from LR0112, the pretty scallop cut in white is LR0201, and the ivy with birdhouse and bird are all from LR0206. I couldn't waste the little heart that cuts out from the birdhouse so have put it in the top corner of the image. I've finished with my Waco white pearl maker pen to make the centres of the flowers.


The purple crocus flowers in my garden have started to bloom, but as they don't get a lot of sunshine they are rather reluctant to open for more than a few hours each day, thankfully the sun shone so I could take a snap. The daffs behind should be open in a few weeks, the straggly grass looking leaves in the middle are actually garlic chives and they don't flower until late summer, to the left is a clump of large leaved thyme, and to the right is a patch of marjoram - both starting to freshen up over the last couple of days with the sunshine we've been enjoying down here. Fingers crossed it continues so I can persuade one of the boys to cut the grass .. ..

Peaches and Cream

It's time for another challenge at Lili's Little Fairies - the theme this time is 'peaches and cream' and we are sponsored by Which Craft UK with a pack of super pop up cards for our winner. Some of the DT have been having fun with them too .. .. so pop over and take a look.

Back to my card, I have used one of the new LOTV baby stamps and coloured with my Copics, although deciding what shade peach actually was caused me some head scratching and a couple of mishaps! In the end I went with the soft shades of R00, R20, R21 & R22 for my peach shades and E50, E81, E51 & E53 for the creams. My circle sentiment is from the clear LOTV set I've just acquired and it's matted with a circle cut from the Marianne snowflake die LRO124.

But, when it came to finding papers I was well and truly stumped ... and in the end ordered the Thimbles Too paper pack from Nitwits as it looked peachy on my screen. However, when I printed out the papers they looked rather pink, but hopefully still looking peachy! I've inked the edges of the papers and the image with Sahara Sand Versamagic chalk ink and I've used textured cream and peachy pink cardstock for matting and cutting my embellishments, plus a length of peachy pink ric-rac I found in my stash and 3 little peach gems to finish off the flowers. The floral sprays are created from Marianne dies, LRO106, LRO142, LRO156, and LRO157 layered with 3d foam pads to give some dimension and interest but they will squash down for posting!

Both the Allsorts and Creative Inspirations challenge blogs have an anything goes theme again this week so I can enter my card with them. And a new challenge blog I just discovered is the Cutie Pie challenge, so here's my first card for their floral theme.

I'm having internet problems again - buffering is what my son says is happening. It does mean that trying to load any pages with graphics takes forever, or just doesn't happen. And shutting down the pages can take just as long! We have to wait until the end of this year for the local exchange to be upgraded and then hopefully it may improve, although as we are several miles away from it, who knows! It does mean that I'm not able to get around to everybody leaving me comments, or to post comments for the DT blogs I'm on - I am sorry.

Stampin' at the Weekend

I've been trying to get ahead with my DT cards this weekend, but things kept going off in a different direction .. .. you know how it is .. .. I am sure once I've stamped an image it takes on a life of it's own when I start colouring! I coloured the image with my Copics (sorry no list as I kept mixing them up and blending shades so it's hard to tell) but when it became obvious it wasn't going to work for my DT creation, I popped it onto a small 5" square card base as I have piles of envies this size that need to be used up! Some of the newer stamps coming out are far too big for small cards, fortunately this is an older one from LOTV called Emma with presents that just about fits.

I've used a piece of freebie magazine paper, but couldn't say who it is by, inked the edges and layered a horizontal strip onto cream card where I've used a MS lace border punch to make it pretty. I also added a length of cream gross-grain ribbon across the layer and created a little button from a LOTV sentiment and a couple of Marianne diecut flower shapes. The flower embellishment is more little bits cut from Marianne dies: LRO105, LRO112, LRO142 & LRO116.

Stampin' for the weekend have a bingo card challenge and with a little bit of artistic licence I can enter with either the ribbon, pearls, pink line - or the pearls, lace (punched paper lace), polka dots (on the present) - or flowers, polka dots, die cuts - or ribbons, lace, die cuts - or flowers, lace, pink! Had I added a little sparkle and a few butterflies I'd have had all the options covered!

Marianne's Baby Boy

Marianne's Design Divas are feeling the Winter blues this month, but your creation doesn't necessarily have to be a winter design - just blue! I've used papers and the cute baby by Eline Pellinkhof together with a sentiment by LOTV, coloured with a few of my Copic pens: blues B21 & B24, plus C0 and B60 for shading. I've cut a white doily layer with Marianne Craftable CR1203, and created my floral embellishment with daisy flowers LRO106 and leaves from LRO156, finishing with little blue buttons tied with white floss and a couple of ribbons.

And here is the card. We have friends expecting their first baby in the summer, but it might not be a boy so I will have to make another card just in case! The Crafty Catz blog have an eye spy theme with the letter 'B' - I have blue, baby, basket, buttons and blooms.

Afternoon Tea

Ah to put your feet up in the afternoon when work's all done and enjoy a nice cup of tea, and a cake! The theme this week on Lili's Little Fairies is, afternoon tea and the sponsor is Nitwits. We are very sorry that we missed last week's challenge, our poor Mummy Fairy has been very ill and we are all a little lost without her.

I've used the LOTV 'time for a cuppa' stamp, coloured with Copics and edged both the image, mats and papers with Pumice Stone DI. In addition to my usual Copic skin tone colours I've used E71, 74 & 77 for the touches of brown; E50, 51 & 53 for the creams; V01, 12 & 15 for the violet pink touches, and R81, 83 & RV32 for the pinks. I've gone over the flowers on her dress, the cherry on top of the cake and the zigzag on the cup with a glaze pen to add a little shine, but it doesn't show up in the picture.

Here's the card. I've added white stitches to the Nitwit freebie magazine papers and dots around the scallop mat, cut diecut elements and finished off with gems and organza ribbon. The lace border die is by Nellie's Choice, the flowers and sprays are all Marianne dies and the butterflies are Joy dies.

The Allsorts challenge is an anything goes theme this week, and the Stamp With Fun challenge is for shapes.

Winged Things!

This week's challenge on Cute Card Thursday is for Winged Things, so I expect there will be lots of butterflies and fairies around in blog land! Please stop by the CCT blog to see the beautiful DT creations and read all about the challenge and our sponsor for this week.

I've gone for a couple of little love bugs, they are designed by Sylvia Zett for Wee stamps and she actually calls them sympathy bugs but I thought they would make a cute card for my son and dil who will be celebrating a wedding anniversary next month. My fellow DT friend Debs has used the same image for her card, it is a gorgeous creation, and the stamp is now available from Whimsy Stamps! I've coloured the image with Copics: bugs with E50, 51 & 53 plus R0000, 000, 00, R20, 21, 22 & 24; cotton puffs with E0000, 000 & 81; and green shades YG61, 63 & 67. And, to add a little sparkle I've gone over the cotton balls with Stardust Stickles.

Here's the card, my papers are more of the freebie Nitwits from a magazine matted with soft pink card, and I've inked all the edges with pink petunia Versamagic chalk ink. I've used a pretty Martha Stewart punch to edge a layer and threaded through satin pink ribbon then added little soft pink star gems. To embellish I've added more gems, a pretty bow and various diecuts along with the stamped greeting.

The Totally Papercrafts blog challenge is to include ribbon and bows, and the Charisma Cardz theme is 'love is in the air' - I think my card fits the theme.

I've had a few comments and emails asking how I am coping with all the changes going on here, thank you dear friends for your concern and well wishes. I did have a doctors appointment a couple of weeks ago as I felt I wasn't coping very well at all. I reluctantly agreed to try HRT - having avoided it since I went through the menopause relatively easily many years back now. But the hot flushes both day and night, and resulting exhaustion were really getting to me, and along with palpitations and dizzy spells I was wondering if it was me with the heart problems. Now, a good 2 weeks into the pills I can report that I've seen a great improvement in the flushes - hardly any during the day now and some nights almost flush free. My energy levels have also shot up, I'd never have been able to do the gravel path a few weeks ago, although I still have to take time to recover from anything physical. I have begun to wonder if I was miss-diagnosed with ME .. .. it is hard to tell. I certainly have physical problems that are nothing to do with ME and now it seems that many of my 'other problems' may be due to lack of hormones .. .. time will tell I guess!

Less is More

It's been really wet today, far too damp to finish painting the wood around the patio doors - honest! So instead I've had a bit of a play and created a couple of cards for the Less Is More challenge to use diecuts and punches. Of course, you also have to keep things CAS with a fair amount of white space.

On my first card I've stamped the text with black Momento then diecut the various Marianne bits and pieces, layered them up with foam pads and finished off with a big pearl. The black skeleton leaf base and white flowers are from LRO128, and the black centre is from the snowflake set LRO123. I had originally created the card on a plain 4" square white base but it wasn't doing it for me, so I cut it out, layered onto black and fixed it to a 5" square scallop base.



On the second card I used a Martha Stewart punch to edge the 4" square card, stamped the text then punched the flowers and diecut the butterfly. Finishing off with pearls, and little black dots to link the flowers together and pick up on the dots between the letters of the text .. .. I thought that was enough.

It's been a bit weird creating a card without a coloured image, but I've had fun and I think they have turned out ok. Back to the colouring for the next one though .. .. ..

Love is gone

'Love is gone' is the title of this stamp by Ching Chou Kuik - it's one I've had for quite some time and had even stamped up and coloured most of the image. Those blue violet shades do have a tendancy to fade however, so I went back over her hair and added in the icy blue background, it does mean I'm not sure of the exact colours I used. I have a coloured in chart that I refer to rather than sticking rigidly to numbers in a colour family group - sometimes I find that gives you a better contrast and helps make some areas pop, like those roses.

It's a simple card with scraps of freebie magazine papers by Nitwits, edges inked with spring pansy Versamagic chalk ink, then matted with lilac cardstock. I've added dimension by matting the image with 3d foam pads, and doing the same with the stamped text (does anyone know who has the dimension challenge - I'm sure I've not dreamt it up?). The embellishment is a couple of Marianne diecut leaves, satin ribbon tied in a bow, a pearl rose button and 3 little Nellie's Choice butterflies finished with tiny gem bodies.

I didn't dream it .. .. the Moving Along With The Times challenge is for layers so I can go and enter my card.

And, I'll enter the Paper Sundaes and Incy Wincy blog challenges as they each have a birthday theme this week.

I managed to finish shovelling the gravel onto the path yesterday - and have discovered muscles in my arms I forgot I had! Fortunately hubby had done the bulk of the work on Sunday so I didn't have too much to do - it's looking good but I'm not going out in the rain to take a picture. And talking of taking pictures, I've tried several times to snap the kitchen roman blind that is now hanging at the window - I am pleased with it, although the Laura Ashley sale fabric was a bit of a pain with the print and the warp/weft not lining up. In the end I stayed with the pattern and cut by the selvage edges rather than trying to line up with the weave across the fabric. I have quite a bit left over but can't decide whether to make oven mits or place mats .. .. .. I've also tried snapping a cross stitch flower picture I've moved into the 'green' dining area - I made it several years ago and discovered it goes quite well! Every time I try to take a picture I'm getting reflections in the glass or it's too dark to show up the delicate flowers - oh well, you'll just have to stop by for a cuppa and see it for yourselves!