Taj Mahal Note-Card

Hello Everyone,

As I am going to be out for some time from early morning tomorrow I'm posting this before I go to bed, so I'll be brief.

After making a mini photo album recently, I challenged myself to make a card from some of the leftovers and this is what I came up with.

There's not much to it - indeed, for me it's clean and simple :)

Although I've had it in my crafting arsenal for some time, I'm ashamed to say, this is the first time the Taj Mahal has been inked up. It's perfect for a note-card that could be sent out to either a male or female recipient.

Materials used:
Smooth brown cardstock for base for layering and matting plus scraps gold mirri card
A leftover piece from a sheet of The ScrapCake's One Moment In Time, If You Seize That paper Claritystamp's Taj Mahal stamp, VersaMark; gold embossing powder 
My favourite and often used 'just a note' sentiment
Tools: Martha Stewart edge-punch and SU label punch

Oops! Almost forgot to mention that, of course, using up all those snippets means I'll be submitting this card to the eagle-eyed Di's Sunday Snippets Challenge #40 ... I might just be the first into the playground this week :))

That's it ... I said it would be - I need my beauty sleep, especially as I have to be up bright and bushy-tailed in a few short hours :))

I remembered to take photos of the Christening card and will be posting it as soon as possible together, hopefully, with a pic of Arihanna in her Christening robe ... well, that's the plan.

In the meantime, I wish you all well and hope you are enjoying the weekend so far.

Happy crafting,

Cat in the Bag - another case of recycling

Hi Everyone,

I trust you are all well and looking forward to a weekend of fun and frolics.

I've got my fingers crossed for Sunday but the weather forecast is not too promising ... shame, as it would be appropriate for the sun to shine on Arihanna's Christening day. Nevertheless, I'm sure it's going to be a lovely service ... she is sharing her day with another baby, a wee boy named Alexander. I'm itching with anticipation :))

Another quickish share for you today ... like the last few, this card was made in a crafting flurry before my last episode of non-productiveness. You could say I'm drip-feeding them to you now while I get back to full crafting mode again :))

And it's another image from the front of a birthday card which I liked enough to die-cut and use as a topper for this card ... my cat loves to nose around inside shopping bags :) 

That double bow was the very devil to tie - I had to tweak and fiddle with it for ages and even now I'm not entirely happy with the result. 

Materials used: 

Kraft card trimmed and folded to create a card measuring 8" x 5½" 

Snippets of two coordinating papers for matting and layering - the strip for the band is from  Graphic45, Le Romantique but the one used for backing is a mystery 

Snippets of cardstock, oval-shaped dies, scallop-edged decorative scissors  for matting and layering 

The recycled topper

Ribbons: a length of brown/white stitched ribbon and two lengths of orange striped ribbon, from Ribbon Carousel ... one piece for the double bow

Embellishments:  a silk tassel; four Prima flowers in various shades and sizes; one Papermania gem brad

Once again I've managed to use a bunch of snippets so I'll be trotting over to Di's Sunday Snippets #39 with this card ... I'm keen to see how the treehouse build is progressing :))

That's me for this evening, I'm off to add some journaling to a double-page layout and that will be it finished. After that, I have a box to make for the Christening card and when that's done I'm hoping to catch up with some scrap layouts that are on the to-do list. 

A recent sort through my photos highlighted just how many I have -  hundreds, maybe even thousands - and therefore how many there are to scrap ... and that was only the printed ones, there's the digital stock still to be printed out - hundreds more! I think I have to accept that even if I live to be a hundred it will not be long enough to scrap them all. I think I need a plan ... suggestions welcome :))

Wishing you all a great weekend, a good night and happy crafting, of course.

A Trio of Rosebuds - another recycled topper

Hi Everyone,

I hope this finds you all in fine fettle this September evening and that your day has been a good one.

While I'm waiting for some paint to dry ... the start of a scrap page layout ... I have a quick share for you.

Another birthday card has been trimmed to create a topper and partnered with some very pretty background paper from Crafty Individuals to make this notecard. The white base card has been inked around the edges with pink distress ink. I rounded the corners of the paper to mirror the curves of the scalloped edge of the base card.

I've also been able to use a couple of snippets of cardstock for the matting. A mauve and a silver textured card trimmed to size and trimmed along the bottom edge with scallop scissors.

The flower is made from a silk flower from a spray bought at a garden centre at a reduced price. I cut it from the spray and then took it apart, removing the plastic centre, then folded the petals and hot glued them in place before adding the bow made from a bit of leftover ribbon. The inside is decorated with a leftover strip of paper - again I rounded the corners.

And the back got the same treatment.

Materials used: 

A white scalloped base; 

Tim Holtz distress ink, Spun Sugar; 

One 6"x6" sheet of Crafty Individuals background paper from Book 3, Springtime; 

Snippets of silver and mauve card for matting; 

The trimmed rosebud topper; greeting stamp from Ladybug's it's Only Words 2 set; 

Whispers Rio Purple ink pad; 

Embellishments: lilac flat-backed pearls; snippet of silver-edged lilac ribbon; one lilac edged white silk flower

So many snippets used up qualifies this card for Di's Sunday Snippets Challenge #39 - and the colour, pink, should meet with her approval too.

I think that paint should be just about dry by now so it's on to the next step. 

Take care all and happy crafting,

WOYWW Wk 173 - What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday

Greetings WOYWWers, Followers and All,

Another Wednesday and another opportunity to join in with a ton of other crafters and show what's on the workdesk today, courtesy of the admirable and indefatigable Julia over at the Stamping Ground.  If you love snooping finding out how messy organised crafters can be and need some inspiration then pop along join in the hop :))

Here's mine.

Much the same as is becoming the norm ... piles of scrappy stuff! In the foreground, photos and papers for a proposed layout, some ribbon which may or may not get used. The two boxes - to the right, hah, I'm getting better! - are storage for the rarely-used-but-sometimes-useful peel-offs and the much more prized collection of gems. On the left there are two wee, just completed, gift card holders - more of later.

At the back, in among my usual crafting arsenal which, to regular WOYWWers, needs no introduction, there is a pad of paper I have plans for, more photographs - I have plans for them too - and my dish of pretty ribbon offcuts ... I've been ferreting in there looking for trims for the aforesaid gift card holders. And, just peeking out beside the ever-present mobile (cell) phone - did you know that here in the UK many of us have given up landline telephones altogether now? -  I digress, peeking out is a beautifully decorated memo pad - more of later too.

That's the desk covered, now to fill in on the 'more of laters'.

So as you can see, I'm busy, busy, busy. Arihanna, my beautiful great niece, is being Christened this coming Sunday so I've been making a card for her - can't show you that yet as not completely finished. There's been a spate of birthdays recently - friends and family members, six in all so far, and that's the ones I've remembered! Hence the gift cards holders.

I got the idea for these from Sheila Halliwell of Docrafts when she demoed something similar at my favourite craft centre recently. They are quick and easy to make from a trimmed and folded sheet of double-sided paper.

I've decorated the outside with washi tape, off-cuts of ribbon and a few chipboard bits and bobs that came free with magazines ... as did the paper. Not bad for nothing more than a little bit of effort :)

A highlight of last week was to meet up with Rita of RMG Creations for a catch-up and good old chinwag. We met in our favourite tearoom for lunch and had a giggle when the management took our piccie for the record.

Rita embarrassed me completely with a goody bag ... many thanks again Rita, you spoiled me :) You can see the fabulous tag on her blog - which is well worth a visit - and there's a close-up of the memo block that's now on my desk. Rita has made it herself and it's beautifully decorated with die-cuts and handmade flowers.

We've planned something different for our next meeting - a trip to the craft centre! I've started saving to spend already :))

Further to yesterday's weather report, the wind raged a storm all through the night. The Boss was totally unnerved by it all and has had a very restless night, as a consequence so have I ... she seems to think that if she's awake then I should be too! Not only that, but our fire alarm went of at 6.40am ... this proved to be a false alarm but it's being going off hourly since so there's a fault there somewhere - storm damage, perhaps!!!

In the end, no bad thing. It got me up early enough to write up this post. And, as the wind has died down, I'll be taking a trip to Tescos later on to stock up on ink cartridges for the printer ... it takes only one colour to run out, magenta this time, for it to refuse to print anything at all - so frustrating.

Apologies, yet again, for not being able to visit as many of you as hoped ... a few days of enforced rest put a stop to that! I can only promise that I will, as ever, endeavour to do my best and visit as many of you as I can in the coming week.

In the meantime, I'm off to make another cuppa of the restorative stuff and will be back to bloghop with cup in hand.

Happy WOYWW, take care all and happy crafting,

Penguins Celebrating Christmas - A Rudolph Day Card

Hello Everyone,

I hope you are all well and, for those of you in the UK, I hope you are escaping the worst of the floods. We've just been watching horrified while the TV news coverage has been on.

The weather is miserable enough here but nothing like as bad as you folks are having to endure.

On a more cheerful note, it's Rudolph Day over at Sandra's - you'll find her over on Stamping For Pleasure - so here is my card this month.

 Not much to this one, although I did decorate the base card using the bubble-wrap technique, i.e. rubbed the bubble-wrap over a VersaMark ink pad, random stamped the card with this and then brushed the inky dots with silver mica powder. Shame I covered most of it up with the topper but you can see a smidgen of it in the photo.

Materials used:
turquoise cardstock trimmed to create a 4"x4" tent-shaped card;
a piece of bubble-wrap, VersaMark and Craftynotions silver mica powder;
matting and layering consists of snippets of black cardstock and silver mirri card;
topper from LOTV's Cute Squares, Christmas Animals - Decorations;
Embellishments: iridescent glitter; 10" length of black/white stitched ribbon and a tiny piece of white embroidery silk.

This was a super quick make with the bonus of using up lots of snippets . However, it still hasn't emptied the snippet drawer ... there's still plenty there to work with :)

It's bedlinen-changing day at Casa Worthington ... the Boss has made her escape, she just hates the disruption!

The high winds that have been blowing through Ayr have caused quite a bit of damage to the climbers, the sweet peas are looking past their best - it's all looking like winter has arrived :(

Off to have another restorative cuppa.

Happy Crafting,

Something Fishy - a fish themed card for a swap

Hi Everyone,

On the mend and catching up but still taking it easy ... I have a Christening to attend on Sunday and I want to be fit for it :)

I hope you all had a lovely weekend.

The weather here is appalling ... much like the rest of the UK from what I see on the TV news. Those of you down south are enduring floods, again!!! Sigh ... is it ever going to stop?!?!

Perfect weather for ducks and fish so this card seems kind of appropriate.

The theme for this swap tested me ... a lot! I had to search around for fish themed supplies ... I had only a couple of items in my entire crafting arsenal, a shell necklace bought 17 years ago in Cornwall and a Laura Ashley metal stencil bought 19 years ago - I used it back then to add a stencilled border in my bathroom! Here I used it to make an embossed border by passing it through the Cuttlebug, then, with it still in place, stencilled through it with a VersaMark pen and finished by brushing with two shades of blue mica powder.

After a bit of online searching, I finally found the fish stamp set on eBay and the ribbon was a serendipitous find on a visit to the craft centre.

To make the swimming fish topper I followed Barbara Gray's instructions on her DVD, The Art of Transparent Stamping, Part 5 ... I couldn't have done it without her :)

The fish are stamped onto one side of a sheet of double-sided adhesive then covered in clear acetate. On the other side, using a craft knife, firstly, I cut round various parts of the fish and then, in an undulating fashion to represent waves, cut the background. Then it was just a matter of revealing the design bit-by-bit and brushing with mica powders.

The 'porthole' was created by cutting an oval frame of white card and heat embossing it with three coats of Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel (UTEE). Once it cooled the the topper was assembled and glued together.

The seaweed is made from the die-cut branches my crafty friend, Maureen, aka Scrappymo at Scraps of Life, recently sent me all the way from Canada ... they were perfect for the job.

There's a layer of embossed card under the topper - the folder is, I think, meant to represent rings but I thought it looked enough like water bubbles to use it here. The clear dew drops also remind me of water bubbles.

The inside and back are decorated with a die-cut border - another item from the lovely Maureen.

Materials used:
Cardstock: one A4 sheet of white card, folded to create an A5 size card; snippets of smooth white card for embossed layers
Patterned Paper: one sheet of Crate Paper's Shine from the Sweet Branch Collection - both sides used
Embossing: Laura Ashley metal stencil; Cuttlebug folder from the True Love All-In-One set
Topper: half of a Clarity double sided clear adhesive sheet and half of a clear acetate sheet for fish topper; Stazon Jet Black ink pad; Kars 3 Fish stamp set
Mica Powders: Craftynotions Champagne and Light Gold; Perfect Pearls Interference Blue, Forever Blue, Interference Green, Forever Green, Berry Twist, Forever Violet and Forever Red
Frame: cArt-Us Oval die set; Platinum Melt Art UTEE
Embellishments: die-cuts - branches and border from Maureen; shells, clear dew drops from stash, and the Trimcraft's Smirk fish decorated ribbon from my craft centre.

I got to use up a number of snippets here - enough to submit it to the eagle-eyed Di, over at Pixie's Crafty Workshop, for her Snippets Challenge #39.

Whew! If you've stuck with me this far, many thanks :))  You'll be relieved to know that that is me done for now!

I've a fair old backlog of projects lined up but they will just have to wait because I'm off for a nice cup of tea.

Thanks for dropping by - I appreciate your visits.

Happy Crafting,

Pink Teacup of Flowers - Another Recyled Card

Hello Everyone,

I've been missing for a few days - apparently I've been overdoing things recently ... celebrating the EM's birthday, entertaining visitors, out gallivanting and, warning! the dreaded H word coming up, even doing too much housework!!!

All this activity took it's toll so that by Friday evening, after the last lot of visitors had gone home, I was just not feeling good at all. However, two days of complete rest and I'm feeling much better and more my usual self.

I haven't been crafting at all for three days - in fact, haven't even been in the craft space. However, I did make quite a few cards last week so have a backlog to blog about. And, as today is Di's Snippet Sunday, #39, over at Pixie's Crafty Workshop, I thought I'd post this little card which includes a snippet of embossed Coredinations card.

It's another card made using a topper cut from one of the birthday cards received last year - far too pretty to put in the bin.

Materials used:

Small, 4"x4", white shaped card base

Tim Holtz Spun Sugar distress ink pad

Snippet of pink Coredinations cardstock 

Papermania Mini Polka embossing folder

The recycled topper

Pink satin ribbon and flat-backed white pearls in four sizes from stash

The EM has said I can write up just one post and then I've to rest a bit more ... better do as I'm told :)

Hopefully, I'll be able to catch up on commenting later and maybe even get into the craft space for a spell sometime in the next day or so. 

In the meantime, I hope you are all having a lovely weekend.

Happy Crafting,

WOYWW Wk 172 - What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday

Hi WOYWWers, Followers and All,

Even later than usual this week but after a restless night I'm finding it hard to press the 'go' button today. Besides, I had to remove all evidence of the card I've just completed because it is for a swap ... it wouldn't be fair for you to see  it before the recipient does :)

This isn't my desk today - it's WOYWW 171 revisited. I was so ashamed of the state of my desk last week I had a massive clean up and thought I should take a pic to prove that I can be tidy, even if only for a nano-second :))

This is my desk this morning. Sorry about the photo quality - dull isn't it? That's because the sun is shining on the other side of the house so the light quality isn't so good in the craft space at this very moment ... it will improve as the sun makes it's way round.

There's a couple of hints to what I've been doing on the above-mentioned swap card left out - you can see them at the back of the desk - mica powders, platinum UTEE, box of clear dewdrops, glossy glue, Stazon and Versamark.  In the forefront there's a card I'm just about to write up before sending it to my uncle - he doesn't read this so safe enough for it to be there. There's a few sheets of 12x12 - having just finished one project, I'm now in thinking mode and trying to decide which paper to use for the next project on the to-do list. To the left side, there are a couple of 6x6 pads - a sheet from each of these was used in the making of one the cards you can see in the pile on the right.

Someone remarked that I made an mistake with my right and left last week - I have to confess that there is nothing new in that ... I have a form of dyslexia - scroll down to the previous post for a better explanation - and I find it difficult to tell left from right much of the time. As the EM's chief map-reader, and I am expert at getting us from A-B - he has got very used to watching my hand signals and ignoring completely the directions that issue from my mouth :))

Right, time for a quick lunch and then I'll be back to begin hopping around Julia's list. If you still don't know what WOYWW is about then pop along to the Stamping Ground where our keeper of the desk's, Julia, maintains this weekly joyride around the crafty desks of the world - enjoy the trip :)

I wish you all a great WOYWW and happy crafting,

Learn Something New Every Day

Hi Everyone,

Welcome to my new followers or, as Shaz in Oz would call them, my enablers - without you all I would be whistling into the wind so thanks for joining.

I, belatedly, decided to join in the Learn Something New Every Day (LSNED) course Shimelle runs every September. It's taken me a while to get to grips with the course but I've made a start.

The first thing I had to decide was how I was going to record the lessons I learned every day - would it be in digital form or good old cardstock and paper. Actually, that was an easy decision to make - I prefer working with paper and I really wanted to practice putting together more scrap pages. That decision made, I then had to decide on the size ... not 12"x12, that would be too big, and not 6"x6" - too small - 8"x8" seemed perfect.

In the 'use-it-up' spirit, I'm hoping to create all the layouts with leftovers and scraps of paper ... well, wherever possible. That being the case, I hope you will forgive me if I don't list the materials used ... I generally don't have a clue! Here are the first three pages.

This page was inspired by the road trip we took in June this year - we covered 1200 miles, quite an adventure. I love to travel - so much so that my family say I was born with itchy feet - and I'd always wanted to go on a road trip but somehow never did. So this year we remedied that omission and planned a two week trip - not quite of Jack Kerouac proportions but at our age adventurous enough. It proved to be a lot of fun and the adventure lived up to, and exceeded, expectations. That map on my knee was our guide to three counties and countless hours of discovery.

One of my favourite quotations, and I do have a lot of favourite quotations, is the one on this page - 'You cannot open a book without learning something'. Confucius knew a thing or two.

I don't remember learning to read, which is probably just as well because I was diagnosed as word blind, a form of dyslexia, at the age of ten. I know I could read to myself long before then but I couldn't read out loud - somehow the message did not pass between eyes and mouth ... what came out was not what I could see on the page. Instead, I developed the most embarrassing speech impediment which took years of therapy to sort out.

However, none of that stopped me from reading and from learning through reading - this ability has served me well over the years. And this love of books takes me into every book shop, especially second-hand ones, that I discover. This one, discovered in 2009, is in England's Book Town, Sedbergh - it's huge and my idea of heaven :)

For this page, I got to thinking about the choices I've made during my life. Instead of doing what many of my school friends did, that is, staying at home and marrying the boy almost next door, I amazed them all by enlisting in the army ... and so began a life of travel and interesting experiences. This photo shows me kitted out, wearing my much loved walking boots, at the start of a hill-walking trip in the Peak District. The scenery is stunning but the reason I chose the photo to scrap is because there is no traffic on the road - it's the road less travelled! I would say that I took the road less travelled, and in the words of Robert Frost, 'that has made all the difference.' I wouldn't have had it any other way :)

I'm enjoying this process of learning something new every day and hope to have a lovely scrapbook at the end of it all, so I plan to post more pages over the next few weeks - until I've completed the LSNED course.

Yesterday  was the EM's birthday - his 74th. Coincidentally it is a friend's, Margaret O's, birthday today too so, she and her husband travelled up from Galloway and we spent the day celebrating. We ate out and caught up on all the news before they carried on up north to Loch Awe where they will be staying for a week.

I've just spotted the time ... after midnight! Time I was in bed so I'll say goodnight all and ...

... happy crafting,

Lavender Bear - a recycled birthday card

Hi Everyone,

I'm late signing in tonight. I hope you've all had a lovely day and your weekend has begun well.

It's been a busy old day here, lots done but just one card to share.

I needed a quick card again for a friend's birthday this weekend so I dipped into the overflowing box of toppers I now have - the result of the recent stash sort out. This box is proving to be a real blessing at times like these.

The topper is a trimmed down birthday card I received last year ... I thought it was just too pretty to toss. I swiped lavender ink over the already embossed card ... I have a box of that too ... and inked all the raw edges of the card and paper. The little punched butterfly is decorated with glitter glue. A few amethyst coloured gems and the purple ribbon are the only other embellishments.

Inside is decorated with leftover strips of the patterned paper and a peel-off greeting - I have a strip of these which I just need to use up!

Materials used:
Square white deckle-edged card; 
A sheet of Papermania Heather Capsule Collection paper pack; 
A piece  of embossed card trimmed to size and inked with Tim Holtz's Milled Lavender Ink; 
The topper; 
Embellishments: Anita's gems, amethyst; purple satin ribbon; butterfly punch; crystal Stickles; peel-off greeting for inside

That's me done for today ... it's getting past my bedtime.

I hope you all have a lovely Saturday planned.

Happy Crafting,

White Tulips - a sympathy card

Hello Everyone,

I hope you have all had a good day. I've had a busy one - not crafting, but visiting my daughter. She was baby-sitting today so we took the opportunity to drive over there to see our wee great-granddaughter, Rhian, for a while. Her mum, Jenny, was on her way to the antenatal clinic for a check-up, only 11 weeks to go before our great-grandson is due to make his way into the world - exciting times :) We drove her over to the hospital so didn't spend as much time with Rhian as hoped but it was lovely to see her even for a short time.

The card I want to share with you today is a sympathy card.

I've kept the colours to soft shades of green, a touch of gold and white. It was a simple and easy to card to make, needing few supplies.

Materials used: 

A deckle edged white card base; 

One 6x6 sheet of paper from the Chelsea Green Capsule Collection from Papermania; 

Apiece of smooth white card embossed with the Craft Concepts Universal Silver Ferns folder; 

Tulip topper from Kanban's Rose Garden Toppers; green Studio G ink pad, VP0003; narrow white organza ribbon. 

The 'with sympathy' greeting is a print out from a Joanna Sheen CD - I've forgotten which one :(

Having been out all day, I've spent next to no time in the craft room. However, I have been sorting through photos, searching for a particular snap from years back ... didn't find the one I had in mind but enjoyed the trip down a few memory lanes in my search.

I did find a particularly nice photo of my two youngest grandchildren which I plan to make a layout with ... after it has been scanned and saved on the computer.

But first, it's time for another cuppa :)

Happy crafting,

WOYWW 171 - plus Hero - a family history scrap page

Hello WOYWWers, Followers and All,

Another Wednesday and time to reveal the mess that is my workdesk this week.

Piles, more piles and yet more piles - not a pretty sight. Believe me, I tried taking the photo from various angles but none were an improvement. As you can see I've been scrapbooking. To the left you can just see the completed 12" x 12" posted here. On the right are two 8" x 8" layouts, also completed, and they should now be in the album that's lying underneath at the bottom of that pile. And slap bang in the middle is the start of the next layout. The pack of markers are the ones I use for writing up the journaling.

That's a box of paper strips at the back.  I've been riffling through them looking for just the right ones for the layout.  Goodness knows why I keep them - I should just bin them and admit it's a hoarding of snippets too far :) Behind that there's a couple of piles of photographs - I've been riffling through them too. The rest is just the usual detritus that seems to accumulate from week-to-week. I think I will have to have a blitz later ... just looking at this photo is making me twitchy.

To join in the fun of snooping round lots of workdesks, messy or otherwise, around the world, just pop over to Julia's place, the Stamping Ground, where you can find links to all those crafters who chose to reveal all, whether it's a desk, a dining table, a kitchen worktop or even the floor. Go on, you'll enjoy it  :))

As I'm sure to be asked about it, here's a close up of the layout lying on the top of the pile to the left.

This wonderfully proud gentleman is my great-grandfather, James Patrick Douglas. This photograph was taken in 1915, just before he was sent out to France. He was a 43 year old nursery gardener at the time - rather old to be in the forces but they were desperate times and James had previous experience, having fought in the second Anglo-Boer War, 1899-1902, when he was in late twenties. I can only assume that was why he and my great-grandmother didn't marry until 1904 when he was 32 and she was 29 ... quite old by the standards of the day. I do know that they were very much in love and had a son and a daughter, my grandmother, by 1915. He served with the  Field Ambulance Corps, as a stretcher bearer, and somehow survived the war. However, he had lung damage from gas attacks and suffering from shell shock - what we would now diagnose as PTSD - and definitely a hero.

The layout is made using leftovers and scraps and was inspired by Sarah Engels-Greer creations featured in the October 12 issue of Craft Stamper. The Kraft base was sponged with white gesso before adding the stamping with Dawn Bibby’s Delicate Scroll and bits and bobs from my snippets pile. I searched a biographical dictionary to find a page that featured the name Douglas. The title was die-cut using X-Cut’s Rome Alphabet Die and a strip of tartan patterned paper – sadly, not the Douglas tartan.

Ah, there's the magic word snippets again which means this layout qualifies for Di's Snippet Challenge #37 I think, even though it is not a card. 

It's the early hours of Wednesday morning here in Scotland, so I'm off to bed now but I'll be back later to join in the deskhop.

In the meantime, I wish you all a very happy WOYWW and happy crafting,

Little bird Note Card - a snippet card

Hi Everyone,

As usual, I hope you are all well and have had a lovely day.

Not much going on here ... well, that's not exactly true but most of the goings on have been of the domestic variety. Sigh ... I keep hoping that some kind little pixie will come in while I'm sleeping and magic away the dust but no such luck :(

Anyway, last night I finished reading a very interesting book about cows ... yes, you read that right - cows! Entitled The Ladies of Low Arvie, it is an entertaining account of the ups and downs a couple from Yorkshire experienced when they decided to follow their dream and settle on a farm near Castle Douglas in the south-west of Scotland. Castle Douglas, near Dumfries, is one of our head-to places when we feel like a drive down that way. The ladies of the title are the cows!

It was such a good read that I decided that my brother, Douglas, would perhaps enjoy it too ... he farmed in the Dumfries area back in the eighties before moving to Berwickshire to run his own dairy business. He's retired now and not in the best of health but still likes to read a lot.

And, of course, I needed to enclose a card with the book. Only, I didn't have one suitable for the occasion ... a drawer full of cards and not one suitable! A quick and easy make was called for. There's not much to it, a ready-made base card, some patterned paper from the Wild Rose Studio's For Men 6x6 pack, a snippet of embossed card and my last decoupaged bird topper by Kanban.

That snippet of embossed card  - Spellbinders M-Bossabilities, Nobility, Design A on smooth white card inked with TH's Pumice Stone - qualifies the card for Di's Snippet Challenge #37.

Di is still on her jollies and having a great time filling her cases with crafting goodies from the Guadalupe's Fun Rubber Stamp Store, Hobby Lobby  and Michaels. And she got to meet the lovely Kay, 505 Whimsy Girl, too. Jealous? Me? Whatever makes you think that? :))

The Boss has just come in to give me an update on her day - she has a lot to say for herself so she's clearly had her work cut out protecting the estate from other feline intruders, not to mention those meeces that she hates to pieces! And having done that she has now found a sun ray streaming through the window - the perfect place to settle down for a much-needed snooze ... it's a hard life being a cat.

My plans for the evening are simple. A spell of blog hopping and commenting and then back to the craft space to tackle the next project on my list.

Wishing you all a lovely evening and happy crafting,