Sunday Snippets - Cute Deer

Hello Everyone,

I hope you've had a wonderful Sunday, and weekend!

I've been out and about today - more of that later - but still managed to find time to make this card.

This card began life as a digital one - using Serif Craft Artist 2 and a Christmas Digikit, Betty & Bertie (Heart Designs) - but disaster struck when I tried to print it out on cardstock ... my inkjet printer hated the thickness of the card even though it has gone through okay before. I tried several times but the result was always the same - ink where I didn't want it. I was about to toss them all in the bin but then I thought perhaps if I trimmed them down I would have, at the very least, some half decent toppers. After trimming them, they were matted on to aqua coloured cardstock and then adhered on to a white card base - made from the cardstock the printer hates ... if it won't go through the printer I might as well make good use of it!

I made another mistake when I was designing the card front. I laid a snowflake overlay, digitally of course, over the image only to discover when I'd printed it out that one of the snowflakes had landed just over the little deer's eye ... it looked very strange. I've disguised this by gluing googly eyes where the eye should be.

It's not showing up on the photographs but I added Sprinkled Sugar Stickles to the 'furry' areas of the image. It does look sparkly in real life.

The holly leaves were cut with a Tattered Lace mini die from snippets of white cardstock. I picked out aqua and pink dew drops for the 'berries' ... unlikely colours but pretty embellishments.

Here's a photo of all three cards.

I'd like to submit the card to the following challenges:

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Week 256 - the holly leaves are the snippets this week

CHNC challenge 308 - cute or anything goes as long as it's Christmas - the little deer is cute

CHNC challenge extra for November 2016 - anything goes as long as it's Christmas

Cute Card Thursday Challenge #452 - Christmas/Holidays!

A Snowflakes Promise #33 - anything goes

Before I close, I did promise to tell more of what happened when we were out and about. We went into Ayr town centre because my husband wanted to buy a book. We have shelves and shelves of books in this house but none appealed to him.

The town centre was buzzing because it was being prepared for the Christmas lights switch on at 5pm, by which time it would be dark. Doing the honours was Ayrshire Paralympian Robyn Love. Also appearing on stage were the singers, Gareth Gates and Michelle Heaton. Traffic had been stopped from driving down the main shopping street so children's amusements had been set up too.

We popped in to Waterstones Book Shop for a coffee and a browse around, for that book, only to discover that it was a Magical day providing Wizarding World themed activities and to be greeted by none other than the Wizard Balthazar, Expert Swisher of Wands and Wrangler of Wild Nifflers. 

The lady with him is either Lady Slytherin or Nymphadora Tonks - I'm not sure which! It was all great fun.

At this time of year you just never know what entertainment you might find on a trip to the shops.

Take care and have a good week,

Snowman Soup 2014

Evening Everyone,

This weekend is probably a busy one for you ... at this time of the year is it ever anything else? ... but I hope it's also proving to be enjoyable.

I've been busy putting together the little bags of Snowman Soup again, and I've actually managed to complete this little task earlier this year. Last year I didn't get them done until 22nd December!

I've used almost the same content mix but as I couldn't find any bags of pink/white mini marshmallows I substituted with all white. Last year I used a PDF label that was downloadable free from Love The Day , this year I decided to create my own using Serif Craft Artist.

The digital kit used is Peppermint from Crate Paper.

A little poem with instructions on what to do with the contents are on the back.

Many thanks to those who visit and leave such lovely comments. I apologise for not getting around to as many of you as I would like but I have yet another infection so I've been taking antibiotics and resting as much as possible. Not only do I want to be well for Christmas but also I simply have to be fit for next Saturday ... it's little Arihanna's third birthday party :)

Right, time for a cuppa and then the rest of the evening I'll be relaxing in front of the TV ... there's a Meryl Streep film, Hope Springs, that I plan to watch ... if I don't fall asleep first :)

Have a wonderful weekend.

Happy Crafting,

Painting of a different kind ...

... and even more WOYWW5 ATCs!

Yes, we are painting the hall, stairs and landing this week so the desk has been swapped for the EM's WorkMate. And on it is a paint kettle containing a tin of undercoat at the moment and a couple of paint rags, and a screwdriver - for prising the lid off the tin. There's a paintbrush too - just out of shot.

All this means I won't be joining in the desk hopping over at What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday (WOYWW) this week. This fun hop is normally in full swing over at the Stamping Ground by now but there seems to be a bit of a glitch cos there's no linky there yet!

Edited Note: It's Wednesday evening and I've just discovered the reason for no WOYWW post ... Julia has been taken ill whilst on holiday and is in hospital. Both the EM and I wish her a rapid recovery and hope she is up and about again soon. For further information, please pop over to Lunch Lady Jan's who will be keeping us posted. 

 Despite my non-attendance, I just had to show you the lovely ATCs received this week.

Are they gorgeous or what??? From the Sewing Sisters, Twiglet and Wipso (aka Jo and Annie), I just love all the stitchwork  - beautiful :)

Hopefully all the ATCs I sent out have reached their destination by now so here, for the record, is a pic of the digital card I made to accompany them.

Using Serif Craft Artist 2 and two digikits - Pebbles Floral Lane for papers, ribbons and flowers and Playground, a free kit from Daisytrail for the birds. To create the 'topper' I had a go at digital punching the papers and adding shadows to each item creates the illusion of dimension.

After printing out I added orange and blue gems from Anita's gem wheels to give a little bit of real dimension. 

Even the insert and the back were created digitally... 

... as was the ATC.


Well better get back to the painting.

Have a great day and a wonderful week.

Happy Crafting,

WOYWW 260 - Celebrating 5 years of WOYWWing!

Hi Everyone,

Week 260 and time to celebrate! WOYWW is 5 years old!! Congratulations to Julia for hosting what has to be the biggest and best blog hop in cyberland. Thank you Julia for all those years of fun and frolics among the desks of so many lovely bloggers. It grieves me that I wasn't in from the start, I hovered and lurked for some time and then plucked up the courage to join in about 3 years ago ... and I'm so glad I did. I've made a whole heap of fabulous cyber friends and I've even met a few in the flesh. So a BIG THANKS to Julia for dreaming up the idea, keeping it going each week and making Wednesday a day to really look forward to.

Because of family commitments I didn't think I'd be able to either participate today or create an ATC, but I'm here and I have. I've created the one above digitally which means I can print it as out many times as needed so if you would like one please let me know :)

Now on to my desk this week.

It's a mess. I've not put stuff away since I got back from babysitting. I haven't even unpacked the tote ...

I took all this stuff and didn't find the time, or the energy, to do any crafting at all!

This shot of the right side of my desk is especially for Annie, that's Wipso at A Stitch In Time, ... can you see what The Boss has adopted as her snooze station :) I was tidying up, emptied and put everything that was in there away, and this is what happened when my back was turned. I haven't the heart to move her, she's had a traumatic morning. She has an ear infection so we've had a trip to the vet's and she's had two injections ... result: one very unhappy pussy :(

I've gone on long enough so I better skedaddle before I get into bother with Julia ... she likes it brief :) My plan now is to get around as many desks as I can before Pointless ... I'm addicted!

In the meantime, I wish you all a fabulous WOYWW and a wonderful week.

Happy Crafting

Butterfly Challenge - Butterfly and Doily

Evening Everyone

I hope this find you well. We've had visitors today, our good friends, B and M, from Dumfries & Galloway popped in on the way to Glasgow.  M is going into the Jubilee Hospital tomorrow to have an angiogram and, depending on the result, possibly have a stent fitted. All being well she will be home, tucked up and sleeping it off, tomorrow evening.

And, a surprise my grandson, William, paid an unexpected visit. The last time B&M saw him was seven years ago when everyone came to ours for Christmas dinner ... my, how time flies!

Of course, this means that I've too busy to do any crafting but, in true Blue Peter tradition, here's one I made earlier, especially intended for Mrs A's Butterfly Challenge - #7.

The requirement for the challenge is to include a butterfly, of course, and a doily so I've used my favourite butterfly die and a really big doily ... bought in a huge pack from a local pound shop - a real bargain. However, it really was an outsize doily and too big to use as it was, so I cut it in two and layered the pieces on top of each other.

The blue/white check patterned paper used to cover the front of the card is a digital paper of unknown origin ... I think it might be from a Crafter's Companion CD, but can't be certain. It was printed out ages ago on the old printer so the result was far from perfect ... I almost binned it at the time but instead tossed it into the scrap drawer. Lucky I did, because with the touch of lilac in the check it is a good match for the topper.

The flowery flourish is another one of the digital images from the recent colouring session ... that certainly was an exercise worth repeating. I trimmed the topper down, stamped the greeting in black and then matted and layered it on to pale blue and dark purple cardstock.

The butterfly was cut from the dark purple and then decorated with clear crystal gems before adding it to the topper.

The back and inside were decorated with strips of the patterned paper.

As I've been typing there's been a thunderstorm raging outside ... complete with very scary lightening! Throughout this The Boss has been curled up on the end of my bed sound asleep ... and they say cats are freaked out by storms!

Right, I'm off to potter for an hour or so at the craft desk.

Hope you are having a great evening ... and that tomorrow is a very good day too.

Happy Crafting,

Materials used: Base - white card; Patterned Paper - print out from a CD; Cardstock - white card (Neenah Solar), sky blue (Papermill Direct) and dark purple (Docrafts Papermania textured); Stamps - digital Flower Flourish (Floppe Latte) and greeting from SU's Wetlands set; ProMarkers - greens and bluebell; Large white doily; Butterfly - die that was free from Simply Cards & Papercraft magazine; Inks - Memento Tuxedo Black; Gems - Anita's clear crystal gems

Christmas Sweet Treat Bags

Evening All

Label front

It's the night before the night before Christmas and I'm almost done though fate has thrown a spanner in the works today. There we were in the car and setting off to visit out daughter and family with a boot/trunk filled with brightly wrapped presents - what could be nicer. Well, the weather perhaps, but it's warm and dry in the car. Then reversing out of the driveway I noticed a bit of a whine coming from the motor and DH muttered that something didn't seem right. Well, we got a few feet, rounded the corner and suddenly smoke was belching from under the bonnet. I've never gotten out of the car as quick as I did today. Stopping prevented further damage and we were able to rescue the presents but the car is now, courtesy of the AA, down at the garage and we are without wheels. Ah well, can't be helped :)

Label back

These bags are some tooth rotting, appetite ruining, treats I made up for all the little ones, not to mention a few of the big ones, in the family ... well, I'm a gran/great-gran after all and that surely gives me licence to spoil my grandchildren/great-grandchildren at Christmas if at no other time of the year :)

The labels were created using Serif using a Chair Decoration template and Craft Artist Christmas Crafts digital kit which is free. I had to tweak the size down a bit before printing it on to white card and cutting them out ... time consuming but well worth the effort.

All we have to do now is get our car back and deliver the presents ...

Hope you have all had a great day even if you've been doing last minute stuff too.

Take care and happy crafting,

Crocus Vernus

Evening Folks,

I trust you are all well and have had a good Monday whatever you have had to do.

It's been a good day at Casa Worthington (we'll ignore the awful weather). My oldest grandson popped in for lunch - it's always a pleasure to see him and have a chat.

Craftwise, I've been sorting through the pile of leftover cardstock, trimming the pieces to sizes that will be good for making toppers in a flash ... well, that's the plan anyway. All that pottering means there really isn't much to see on my desk apart from a lovely pile of neatly trimmed card in all the colours of the rainbow. However, I do have this card to share with you.

It's another one of the cards with digital stamps I printed out last week on to Papermania textured cardstock, This one features a posy of crocus, together with the Latin name tag, from the Spring Bloom collection by the Paper Garden Projects. The flowers are coloured in ProMarkers - Lavender, Lilac and Bluebell for the flower, and Lime Zest, Pear Green and Marsh Green for the leaves.

As usual, I've shrunk the stamp to fit on the insert and back of the card.









I do have some happy news ... the EM's lovely great-niece. Laura, has given birth to her second baby, a little girl to be called Erin, just yesterday - a little sister for her big brother, Dillon. It only seems like yesterday we were at Laura's wedding to Rick ... how time flies!

That's it for me today - short and sweet. I'm off to see if I can do something really creative and crafty now ... make a baby congrats card perhaps :)

Take care everyone and happy crafting,

Flower Cards ... made with my own photos

Evening Everyone

Hope you have all had a great bank holiday Monday.

I've been finding my way around Serif Craft Artist Professional this afternoon, experimenting with the best layouts, fonts and printer settings ... this proved to be the most difficult part but I think I have sussed it out now :)

I had a disaster or two but here's a few that came out okay.

Lady's Mantle

Queen Elizabeth Rose

Pot Marigold

Rudbekia

White Foxglove

Yellow Rose

I used Papermania textured card which gives a nice canvas effect on the photographs. Each flower is framed either with an edge from GA Artistic Edges Volumes 1-3 or one of the various frames found in Serif Craft Artist. The font for the greeting is 39 Smooth and Holiday Springs BTN Quill is the one I chose for my signature on the back.

Every card has a tiny photo on the back and inside on the inserts - which were printed on ordinary printer paper - like this:

If I hadn't had to spend so much time sorting out the settings on my printer, I think I could have said that these were quick and easy cards to make. As it is, I can say that they are handy cards to have tucked away in my drawer ... I won't get caught out again for that card needed in a hurry :)

That scrap page is still lying on the workdesk, unfinished ... I'm struggling to create just the right embellishment cluster for it even though the rest of the layout is looking good. It includes a photo of my late mother that I particularly love.

I think it's a case of 'walk away from the layout' Elizabeth :))

That's said, I'm away to have a cuppa and think about it.

Take care all, and have a good evening,

Happy crafting,

Purple Icelandic Poppy Seed Head Card

Hello Everyone

Hope you are all having a lovely day. The gorgeous sunshine we've been enjoying enticed me out into the garden for half an hour or so, just to do a bit of spring cleaning and tidying up after the winter.

The card I have to share today is one I printed out and coloured just before I became ill. I remember that I suddenly had to make several sympathy cards all about the same time and it concerned me that I had none made up and ready for such sad occasions. So I set about designing one that could be made quickly whenever required.

I created the card using Serif Craft Artist and this lovely digital stamp, Icelandic Poppy Seed Head, created by Jane Clempson. Jane (Janey) is a professional gardener who also draws the most beautiful, and tempting, floral digi stamps. You can read more about her, her gardening 'obsession' and see the gorgeous cards her DT create using the stamps on her blog, Janey's Digi Designs.

The seed head was printed out on to Papermania's white textured cardstock and then sponged with a combination of Adirondack Earthtones Eggplant ink - in the centre - and Tim Holtz distress ink, Shaded Lilac - on the surrounding area. The tiny seed heads were just touched gently with a Lilac ProMarker. The greeting is computer generated using the Ancestry SF font found on my PC.

For me, the beauty of digital stamps is that they can be tweaked making it easy to alter the size for both the insert and the back of the card.

So there it is, a simple design that I've saved on the computer ready to be printed off whenever the need arises - not too often, I hope.

My electronic diary has just today reminded me that National Scrapbooking Day is coming up on May 4th. With that in mind, my plan for the weekend, and through to the day itself, is to spend much of it scrapping. Well, I could not pass up the perfect excuse to get stuck into my favourite pastime :))

Here's wishing you all an enjoyable weekend wherever you are, and whatever you are doing. Oh, and whatever the weather is like :)

Take care and happy crafting,

Digital Scrapping ... dealing with crafting withdrawal symptoms

Hello Dear Blog Friends,

I hope you all had a lovely weekend and that Monday didn't come as too much of a shock to the system.

Here in Ayr the weather has been not bad at all ... I only know this because I had to drag myself away from the organising of the craft room/sort out of stuff ... a seemingly never ending saga task ... for a quick visit to the Post Office.

Finding the ideal place to stow stuff has been quite a task but I'm getting there and hope that tomorrow will see the craft room looking spic and span and so crafting will resume :)

I didn't have this problem with the original craft space, small though it was, but then I didn't start off with all the stash, etc., I have now ... I only had a couple of stamps, a few sheets of paper, a craft knife & cutting mat, one black ink pad, some adhesive and that was about it. Everything else has been acquired slowly ... well, alright, not so slowly, over the last couple of years ... admittedly creating the occasional need for reorganisation but somehow everything got shoehorned in somewhere. Moving, on the other hand, has been rather like opening a new box of gilding flakes ... it expands and can never be returned to the original box ... likewise my crafting stuff!

Needless to say, after a day or so of not being able to craft ... sob, sigh, sob ... I had to do something! So I've been trying out the Serif Craft Artist programme I got free with Complete Cardmaking with your PC some time ago. It fills a need :))

This was my first attempt - love this photograph of my daughter, her husband and her five children. I added a few embellishments and a title to a template layout just to get the feel for the programme and find my way round some of the buttons.

This was the third attempt ... can't show you the second, it's dire and not something I'm proud off. Love this fun digi-kit, British Street Party - it's free which is fabulous and I can see it getting a lot of use this year for recording the Queen's Jubilee visits and the Olympics, etc., the elements lend themselves to all sorts of other occasions. This layout records an Easter visit when the children all piled into Granddad's car for a spin round the block :))

And lastly, a double layout - the left page was taken when the three oldest went back to school after the long summer holiday and the right is of the two youngest on their first day at school. The digi-kit is aptly called Back to School and has all sorts of fun stuff in it, pencils, sharpeners, crumpled notes, pins, etc.

Right, I'm off for a bit of R&R in front of the TV for an hour and then I plan to read the scrapbook magazine the postie delivered this morning before turning in for the night.

Goodnight all and happy crafting,