A Lovely Blog Award Received

Evening All,

I've been busy crafting this last couple of days. It's so cold that I'm not tempted to go out, not at all. It's much better to be in here with a cuppa, warm as toast, Radio 4 playing in the background, and be crafting away. Hope you are all well and, if it's cold where you are, keeping wrapped up and warm if you have to be out and about. 

A big warm welcome to my newest followers - hope you continue to read and enjoy my blog. Also, many thanks to Kay on 505whimsygirl for awarding me the Liebster award:

Thank you so much for this award!!! Kay is an enthusiastic crafter, follower and an encouraging commenter, please check out her blog to see read her lovely posts. 

The Liebster award is given to bloggers with less than 200 followers, in the hopes that it will bring many new friends/followers. The Rules are:

1. Show your thanks to the blogger who gave you the award by linking back to them.
2. Reveal your five picks for the award and let them know.
3. Post the award on your blog.
4. Bask in the love from the most supportive people on the blogshare-other bloggers.
5. Finally and the best rule of all..........have fun and spread the love!
The blogs I've chosen are listed below. They inspire me in so many ways. Click on over to their sites and take a look!

I've checked out the blogs I follow and looked specifically for the newest bloggers on the block - because it is my view that when starting out on this blogging thing, you need all the encouragement you can get :) So, in no particular order, here are my nominations for this award:

May at May's Happy Daze - May not only brings us her beautiful projects, but also humour and cats too.

Bernie at Bernie's Craft Closet - Bernie not only crafts in a small space on a small budget but she does it with humour and flair.

Fran at Crafty Me - for services to all stashaholic crafters like myself. Fran's started the year off by bringing us the Pledge to Use-It-Up 2012 - the intention of this is for us to use up the craft supplies we already have over the year and not buy anything except the absolute essentials. I'm pleased to say that so far I've stuck with it programme :))

Marie-Louise at Welcome to My World - Marie-Louise has not only been a great friend to yours truly but she makes and sells many of her beautiful cards to raise funds for the Cancer Awareness charity.

Caroline at A Crafty Scrapper's Thoughts For The Day - Caroline is one amazing lady who simply deserves this award for her rare but optimistic posts.

I could go and name so many more wonderful crafting bloggers but it would take me forever and I'd never get any crafting done myself. You all deserve mention, that's for sure. However, the rules state only five, so I'd better stick to the rules. 

I'm off now to watch the drama and have another much needed cup of tea :))

Happy crafting everyone.

The Happy Sunflower Card ... and the weekend round-up

Morning Everyone,

I hope you have all had as lovely weekend as I have ... more of that later, but, first, here's the card that was sitting unfinished on my desk on Wednesday.

Gosh, but this card is an awkward shape, both to decorate and to photograph! I selected two papers out of the snippet box that went well together, one single-sided (the polka-dot design) and the other double-sided ... I can't remember the make or names but I know they are from two different sources. I began by covering the entire front with the gold polka-dot patterned paper, then cut out two strips of the double-sided paper, one wider than the other. The wider strip was then edge-punched to give a scalloped finish. Then the two strips were glued together and the brown polka-dotted ribbon was adhered with a strip of that really tacky red DS tape that is such a boon when you need a secure adhesion.

The sunflower is a digital stamp, another one from my 'box of coloured with ProMarkers whilst on holiday' stamps - yellow Stickles decorates the face. The matting is two layers of the design paper, corners rounded; brown twine and card candy finish off the topper. The butterfly was picked up in a wee craft shop on that same holiday ... I brushed the white organza ribbon trim with a yellow ink pad to blend with the rest of the card.  the sentiment was another item just lying in my stash ... I can't even remember when I printed it off ... I decorated it with a couple of punched hearts and decorated with the stickles around the outlines.

I'm working the heart shape punch hard ... hearts decorate the inside ....

... and the back too.

Materials used:
- white shaped card base
- leftover design paper in two coordinating patterns
- digital stamp, Funny Sunflower from The Paper Shelter
- ProMarkers in yellows, greens and red
- yellow Stickles 
- Whispers ink pad, Sunshine
- tools: punches:- scalloped edge; corner rounder; small heart
- embellishments: butterfly, brown/white polka-dot ribbon, brown twine, Coffee Bean polka-dot card candy

Apart from the card base all the materials for this card came from raiding the collections of snippets and leftover bits and bobs which means I can enter it into Pixie's Crafty Snippets Challenger #5 . I did have high hopes of being the first into the playground yesterday but that was all put on hold by an unexpected, but nonetheless a very welcome, visit from one of my lovely grandsons, Josh. We had a lovely time together ... Josh is a chef so, of course, he couldn't be kept out of the kitchen and between us we cooked Di's Cheesy Vegetable Curry. Josh was intrigued by the idea of putting cheese in a curry and couldn't wait to try it ... and Di, you will be pleased to learn that we all thoroughly enjoyed it. Another recipe that has a thumbs up at Casa Worthington :))

In fact, it's been a busy old weekend. We drove up to one of our favourite haunts on Saturday, Largs, and had lunch at Nardini's. The ferry had just come in from Great Cumbrae while we were there.

The tree in the foreground is an example of the damage done during the ferocious storms we suffered in this area recently.

After Largs, we popped in to see how my DD and her family are settling into their new home. Oh, the upheaval ... the whole house is being redecorated from top to bottom ... only my granddaughter's Hello Kitty haven is finished!   And talking of my granddaughter, I'm claiming grandma's bragging rights here:

Ta da! Pupil of the Week - I'm so proud of her as she has only been at her new school for a few weeks ... isn't she a wee star :) Shari-Ann is also becoming quite a crafter too, her most recent make is a Father's Day card. She tells me that she has been learning by watching YouTube demos!!

That's my post for this morning ... I have another planned for later today and, as long as there are no interruptions, the day should go as planned ... I have a lot to catch up on after my brilliant but non-crafting weekend.

See you later, happy crafting,

Lovebird - a snippet card

Evening Folks

We've had our first snow here this morning, and then the sun came out this afternoon and melted it all away ... maybe that's our winter done :)

Now that I've recovered and feeling more sprightly, and many thanks for all the kind 'get well' wishes - all were  most appreciated - we spent the morning attending to neglected domestic duties. My DH is great at housework and we normally share the load 50/50 but when one of us is poorly, as I was this last week, the other's workload doesn't just double, it seems to triple, because of the added caring duties and that means some jobs just have to be ignored ... like dusting, for example. So we tackled it with gusto this morning and the house is back to its sparkling best ... lovely :)

Having done that, I can now concentrate on some crafting ... yippee! First though, here's the card that's been lying around on my desk for some time now - intended for Pixie's Crafty Snippet Challenge last week so late, but better late than never.

The eagle-eyed will recognise the paper from a recent post, Winged Love; I used the same double-sided paper, pink side only, on that Valentine card. Once again, I thought I'd use the leftovers up immediately on another card ... saves finding a home for them in the snippet box. More wings on this card ... and more love too ... well, why not? :)

This time I've used both sides of the paper and because there's green in the design I've teamed it up with a zingy green for the matting. To tone it down just a bit I've sponged all the edges with TH's Old Paper DI.  The pretty leaf trim has been in my ribbon box for more than a year, it's a leftover from something, I just can't remember what. And the bird is a die-cut sticker from a pack of quite quirky birds and butterflies - I felt it lacked a bit of definition so added a pink gem for an eye and a few more for a wing. The trim across the bottom is made up of a vintage style chipboard ribbon tag threaded with a lovely length of lime coloured satin ribbon - it's a reversible ribbon, pink on the other side ... you can just see the pink on the edge. A few more tiny  pink and green gems finish of the front.

You can see the birds more clearly on the DP strips inside the card ...

... and on the back too.

Materials used:
- white scalloped-edge base card
- Papermania textured cardstock, lime green
- My Mind's Eye Deena's Penny Lane, Feeling Groovy 'Uniquely You' Individual Blooms Paper
- Tim Holtz, Old Paper Distress Ink
- Studio112 Die-cut Stickers Bird & Butterfly
- Papermania Chipboard Tags, Nostalgia Collection
- Leaf trim and reversible satin ribbon, green/pink - Funky Farm Scrapbook Barn
- Gems - Anita's Gem Wheel

So, at the risk of overcrowding Di's playground even more this week, here's my snippet card come to play.

Still no new purchases made, so the materials for this card were all definitely sourced from stash - mostly from the snippet or forsaken and unloved pile ... I'm referring to the chipboard tags. I know lots of you love chipboard tags, and no doubt make good use them all the time, but they are the sort of item that I magpie-like drop into my basket just because I like the look of them, only to find that I never use them ... madness really!

The EM has just called up to me, he's brewed, so I must be off ... we usually watch whatever drama is on the TV at nine o'clock together and tonight it's The Hustle.

Before I go I'd like to welcome my newest followers ... I hope you are entertained and/or informed by my wee blog and that you'll keep popping in when you can.

In the meantime, I wish you all a fun-filled weekend and happy crafting,

HANDY HIPPO THURSDAY - WEEK #1

Good Morning Everyone

I’m delighted to share with you the exciting news that from today Thursday is going to be “HANDY HIPPO THURSDAY” here at the Craft Space.

Some weeks ago I was asked by Suzy at Handy Hippo if I would be interested in designing a regular project with the aim of introducing and promoting Handy Hippo’s online catalogue of crafting goodies to you all.

As I was already a happy and satisfied customer, I was absolutely delighted ... I’m sure it’s going to be fun creating projects using materials from the Handy Hippo cyber-shelves and it's my hope that you all like my projects and enjoy the experience with me.

If you haven’t already discovered Handy Hippo then you are in for a treat. This award winning online shop, established in 2004, is one the leading craft suppliers in the UK carrying a huge stock of craft products ... this includes a great range of stamps, rubber, clear and cling, embossing folders, all the popular brands of paper punches, dies, jewellery making supplies, and much more than I can possibly mention here.

 Handy Hippo also  has a well earned reputation for quality, competitive prices, I can vouch for that, and excellent customer service.

As it's nearing Valentine's day I've opted to make a romantic card using one of my favourite sentiment stamps and punched hearts - lots of them. So once you’ve checked it out, do pop over to Handy Hippo and browse the packed cyber shelves.

Craft supplies used in this project are available from Handy Hippo and if you would like to make the same project then simply click on the magic button below and it will take you directly to a shopping cart that contains everything you would need to make it. Once there, you can simply and easily remove any of the items that you already have in your craft stash.

It’s also easy to add any other purchase that you might like to your basket.

As I don’t have to list the materials I’ve used, happily that has all been done that for me, I thought it might be helpful if instead I give you a step-by-step on how the card has been made.

• Trim a sheet of  pastel pink cardstock to measure 10" by 5", then fold to form a 5" square base card.
• Cut a piece of the pink polka patterned dot card to form a 4¾" square. Ink edges with pink ink pad.
• Trim a piece of pink cardstock to measure 31/10" x 4¾" and the floral patterned paper to measure 3" x 4¾". Adhere the patterned paper centrally to the pink card. Wrap a length of the pink ribbon, cut to measure  6½" approximately, widthways and adhere securely in place at the back. Next wrap a length of the grey organza ribbon, measuring 12" approximately, lengthways, tie in a bow and trim.
• Stamp the Cherish sentiment with black ink on to a piece of the polka-dot patterned card measuring 37/10" x 3" and ink the edges with the pink ink pad. Trim the patterned paper to 1/10 more all round than the stamped topper, and the pink pastel card 1/10 more again, to create a mat. Adhere all three pieces together and then position to the right of the ribbon bow. 

• To make the flower punch a circle out of cardstock for the base, 6 heart shapes from the polka dot card, and 1 daisy flower from the patterned paper. Using a pen or your fingers shape the punched hearts to give them a bit of dimension and then rub the pink ink pad along the edges to add a bit of definition. Place a generous amount of silicone adhesive in the centre of the base circle and then position the hearts evenly in a circle - allow to dry. Glue the punched daisy and when dry add a small adhesive pearl to the middle. 
• Glue the flower to the top right corner of the topper and embellish the corners with pearls.

• To decorate decorate the inside cut two strips of patterned paper 5" long by 1¼" wide. Punch a heart shape from base of each strip and adhere a strip to each side.

• Decorate the back with one of the heart shapes from the strips used for the inside.

I hope you like my first project and I will be here again next Thursday with my second project.

By the way, signing up to receive the Handy Hippo newsletter will ensure that you are informed of the excellent on-line sales and special offers.

Happy crafting folks, 

WOYWW - Week 138 ... my sadly neglected space

Good Morning All

I trust you are all well and those who are not, I wish you a speedy recovery. Once again the days have rapidly rolled round (try saying that in a hurry) to the weekly organised snoop, namely What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday. The brainchild of Julia, of Stamping Ground fame, it is the day we all post photographs of our desks/tables/lap-trays/floors, in short wherever we conduct our craftiness. If you haven't joined in before, you don't know what you're missing ... click on the WOYWW badge and let the fun begin :)

Healthwise, I've had a little bit of a set back this week so haven't been doing much in the way of crafting ... well, no crafting at all in fact. I could have taken this photo last Friday, nothing much has changed since then. There's a completed snippet card I intended for last week's challenge, and another still in the planning stage - should make it for this week's challenge. The ribbon used on the first it still out, as are the packets of stickers and chipboard tags used in the making of the card. I've been raiding my stash looking for items to use on the sunflower card, card candy, ribbon, and you can just see a packet of brown glittery butterflies lying at the back that might come in useful. Even pink toppers beside Gavin the gull (I have future plans for him) are there with a view to being used soon.

The pile of distress inks are there because I was working on the grungepaper and spool project. Some of you have asked what these are. The grungepaper is a development of Tim Holtz, and he uses it a lot, as does Wendy Vecchi, creator of the spool set. Grungepaper is described as a compressed, flexible, thinner sheet of dingy material that can be punched, painted, inked, sanded, die-cut or grunged. And the spool is modelled on a cotton reel, in three parts, a base and top and the central column. You can check out their blogs to see better what these are.

Beside the pile of DIs is my box of tools of the trade ... I find it keeps all the most often used items tidily handy, scissors, glues, pokey tool, small ruler, etc. The last item to mention is the black organiser box ... the EM spotted it on a shopping trip recently and thought I might find it useful ... a bargain at only a pound!

So that's it for another week. Apologies for not getting round as many of you as I would have liked ... hope to do better this week although it could take me a while.  I will be back again tomorrow with a new post ... bringing you something I think is kind of special. It's something I've been working on for a wee while now and I'm quite excited about it.

In the meantime, Happy WOYWW and Happy Crafting,

Winged Love ... a Valentine's Day card, of course.

Hello Fellow Bloggers,

I hope you all had a lovely weekend wherever you are and that you are all well. Apologies for being MIA, I've not been crafting recently ... pain stopped play, so rather than the crafting, I've been resting. Luckily, I did manage to complete this card on Thursday last week so thought you might like to see it now.

For my birthday last year I was treated to a Lisa Pace book entitled Delight in the Details, and it is a delight. I love the ideas in the book so much that I thought I would attempt to make something based one of the cards illustrated. Of course, I didn't have any of the materials Lisa used, that goes without saying, so I raided my stash and improvised as usual. Otherwise, the design is very much Lisa's.

The papers base card, a charcoal grey, came from my favourite pack of Papermania textured card ... there's not a lot left in this pack now and I'm going to miss it when it's completely done because it has proved to be very usable. The white/black design paper is from Papermania too but the pink is from My Mind's Eye, Deena's Penny Lane Collection which is trimmed with a scalloped punch ... the trimming is stitched over the black/white paper ... my stitching needs more practice, but, believe me, this is better than previous attempts. All the trims and embellishments are bits and pieces left over from other projects and the handwriting on the little jewellers' tag is mine! The wings are actually a die-cut sticker butterfly cut in half. The ribbons are Anna Griffin.

The insert is a modified paper from Debbi Moore's Shabby Chic CD, Paper Delights. The papers are pdf documents so I used the snapshop facility, converted it to jpeg and imported it into My Crafts Studio to re-size it and digitally punch out the heart shapes. After printing the insert out it was finished off with a scalloped trim to match the front.

The back is simply decorated with a punched heart.

All-in-all, I'm pleased with the completed project, I particularly like the combination of lace and ribbons and the way the insert looked eventually, after a fair bit of tweaking :)

Not one for Pixie's snippets, the papers and cardstock were 'new' ... new, in the sense that it was all sitting in my stash unused and uncut ... but, because of that, it certainly fits in with the principles of Fran's Use-It-Up. It's disgraceful that I've become such a paper hoarder ... I'm ashamed of myself (hanging head in shame) but some paper just seems too beautiful to use :(  However, I am now making inroads and at the same time overcoming my fear of cutting beautiful paper.

Now I'm off to lie down for a bit, after another bad night I need some shuteye ... there's no rest for the wicked :))

Hope to see you later, once I'm feeling my old self again ... hopefully for What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday, if not sooner.

In the meantime, happy crafting,

Foodie Friday - Low-Fat Vegetable Curry

Morning Folks

I hope this finds you all well and looking forward to a fun-filled weekend. I took myself off to the gym yesterday ... first time back after the holidays and, oh boy, am I paying for it. I just keep telling myself it's doing me good because exercise is good for you, isn't it?

Today's recipe is very easy to make, from pan to plate in a flash. Preparing the vegetables, best done in advance, and boiling the rice are about as time-consuming as it gets :)

Years ago, more than 30 in act, when I first developed severe arthritis my mother gave me a book which suggested that what we ate could make a difference to the severity of the condition. So I changed my diet, cut out meat and dairy products completely, ate fish occasionally, and did eventually start to feel better ... of course, it could have just been that the prescribed medication eventually did its job, or even a combination of the two, diet and medication. Whatever, I felt better. And this recipe, discovered about that time, with an adjustment or two, became a firm favourite. Even the EM, a meat and two veg kind of man, enjoys it. The yoghurt, being a dairy product, was a no-no according to the diet, however, coconut  milk makes a pretty good substitute.  Here's the recipe.

Low-Fat Mushroom and Courgette (Zucchini) Curry

(Serves 2)

Ingredients:

4oz rice
1 large onion, chopped
1 clove of garlic, crushed
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2-3 teaspoons curry powder – more if you like, the quantity depends on how hot you like your curry
6-8oz mushrooms, wiped and sliced
2 courgettes, sliced
1-2 tablespoons cold water
1 small carton of low-fat natural yoghurt or half a tin (400ml) of coconut milk

Method
1. Cook the rice.
2. In a large deep frying pan saute the onion and garlic in the oil until softened.
3. Stir in the curry powder.
4. Add the sliced mushrooms and courgette.
5. Add the water and stir well.
6. Cover and cook over low heat for 5-7 minutes.
7. Stir in the yoghurt and cook uncovered for a further 2-3 minutes.
8. Served with the cooked rice.

I haven't given instructions on how to cook the rice ... I usually look for the water to rice ratio guide on the packet.

Although the instructions say that once the yoghurt is added continue cooking for 2-3 minutes but I find that it is possible to overcook at this point. I find it best to plate up the rice, then quickly add the yoghurt to the curry mixture and just give it long enough to be sure it's heated through before serving up.

Other than naan bread to accompany this I won't make suggestions that would 'beef' this recipe up. Sometimes something as simple and light as this curry goes down a treat.

For a more substantial recipe check out last week's curry recipe from Di, of Pixie's Crafty Workshop ... I'm planning to try it out myself - you can find it here.

I have a completed card to post later, after I've got the camera out and, hopefully, found enough light to get some half decent shots.

In the meantime, I wish you happy cooking and happy crafting,

WOYWW - Week 137 ... little change from last week

Good Morning Folks

Happy WOYWW to you all, and a much more pleasant day it is here on the west coast of Scotland. After the last few really cold days the temperature today could almost be described as balmy :) I hope it's as good wherever you are in the world.

This is soooo true!

On to What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday ... the weekly celebration of workdesks worldwide organised by the Chief of Desks, Julia at Stamping Ground. Interested? Then click the link on my sidebar and on head over to read Julia's interview with Julia and then take a hop round everyone else's desks to see what they are up to, too.

Those of you who popped in last week might remember that I was planning to play craft with a Wendy spool and grungepaper. Well, I didn't get far with this project ... I got a tad distracted - easily done - and if you scroll down through previous posts you will see just what those distractions amounted to! There's another WIP out of shot ... a DT project so can't show you that ... and in shot it's the grungepaper again. However, I have made some progress, it's stamped and some of the motifs have been cut out. I've even been experimenting with colour too.

Tim Holtz DIs, Fired Brick, Victorian Velvet, Scattered Straw and Dried Marigold; note to Julia, none of the six/seven shades of wee so beloved of Sir Timmy so far :) By the very nature of the grungepaper the colours, apart from the red, are not particularly vivid. Next week I might even have cut out the leaves and butterflies - watch this space :))

A short post from me today because I want to spend the time snooping visiting as many of your desks as possible - I'm hoping to get around you all, Windows/Explorer/Blogger allowing, that is! What's going on there? Like many of you I was unable to leave comments, got a blank page instead and had to leave Explorer - my browser of choice - and opted for Google Chrome temporarily - such a nuisance. Today, there's more odd things going on - more updates downloaded and still things are not quite right ... grrr!! So what do you think the chances are of visiting you all this week :))

In the meantime I wish you all well and that the week brings you many hours of happy crafting,

Butterfly Dreams - a quick snippet card

Morning Everyone,

A short post, this one. After completing the shabby chic card posted yesterday, there wasn't much of the design paper left once I'd covered the front and cut out the motifs to decorate the inside and back.  So, rather than add it to the never-reducing snippet pile, I decided that it would be better use it up immediately and make another tiny 4" square card.

A quick and easy card to make and even the white card base came out of the snippet mountain. The dreams sentiment is one of my favourites - I like sentiment stamps a lot -  it's stamped in dark green and the embellishments were just bits and bobs from my stash.

Almost every last bit was used decorating the inside ...

... and the DP was wrapped around to decorate the back.

Materials used:
- piece of white card measuring 8" x 4", folded in half to form a 4" square base
- leftover design paper - maker unknown
- Inkylicious stamp set, Sentiments 1
- Versafine ink pad, Olympia Green
- white silk butterfly trim - three butterflies were cut from the trim.
- Memento ink pad, Angel Pink - used to ink the edges of the butterflies
- tiny pink adhesive backed gems 
- Stampin' Up scalloped oval punch - used to punch out a flower motif to decorate the inside of card

I'm submitting this card for the following challenges:

Pixie's Crafty Snippets Challenge No. 3 - I think this has got to be a personal first, a snippet card made directly after a project has been completed, so the leftover paper never even made it on to the snippet mountain :)
Let's Craft and Create Challenge #36 - Butterflies  - with all the butterflies on this card how could I not submit it to this challenge.

Fat Pages With Attitude Challenge #4 - 'Anything Goes'  - as the card is 4" square it fits nicely into the Fat Pages category.

That's me for today, see you tomorrow for What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday.

Happy Crafting, 

Flowers for a Lady - my stab at shabby chic

Hello Everyone

I hope you all had a first-rate weekend and woke up this morning all rested and raring to go. It's turned cold here where we are and even with the central heating belting out all day it's still a tad chilly - glad I didn't have to go out and my sympathy goes out to all of you who did. One of the jobs I had on my to-do list for today was to photograph this card made yesterday. There's very little good natural daylight in this part of the world at the moment so I try to photograph mid morning if at all possible. Anyway, here it is.

It's my attempt at the shabby chic style, made entirely from my vast stash reserves - yes folks, no new items were bought for the making of this card :)) I've covered a large white shaped base card with some beautiful paper I have had in my stash for about two years now. It's another one of those impulse buys I'm prone too, but again it's unmarked so I can't attribute it to any maker :( I positioned the paper so that the lovely bird would be kept in it's entirety ... it would have been such a shame to cut through it. I inked the edge with Old Paper DI to give it an aged look and did the same with the heart-shaped doily, after which I sprinkled some transparent crystal EP to give it a bit of a sparkle.

The stamped postcard topper came from the stack I coloured whilst on holiday in Wales last year ... and there's still more to use yet! Stamped on watercolour card, it's coloured with Aquamarkers and, after distressing around the edges with scissors (haven't got one of those dinky wee distressing gadgets yet - it's on my wishlist)  it's edged with Old Paper too.  The same treatment was meted out to the  lovely lady topper taken from a collage sheet by madebyjanet  which was then matted on to a piece of lemon card found in the snippet pile, the edges of which were similarly treated to distressing and Old Paper ink.

The floral embellishments are made from a mixture of Prima and Wild Orchid Crafts flowers and leaves - they've just been smeared with clear gloss and dipped into iridescent glitter. The large spray has a spray of crystals included and a stray yellow lily from who knows where - possibly The Works. I've had it so long I just can't remember. I keep saying I am still a novice to scrapping and cardmaking but there are neglected items in my stash that go way back ... hangs head in shame :(

The inside

and back are decorated with elements cut from what was left of the design paper.

Materials used:


- 8" white shaped card base - Kanban
- Design paper - producer unknown
- Heart-shaped paper doily - Poppy's Cabin
- Crystal transparent EP - Stampendous 
- VersaMark
- Stamp - Crafty Individuals, CI-302
- Inks - Archival black; Tim Holtz, Old Paper DI
- Aquamarkers - Straw Yellow, Gold Ochre, Sepia, Royal Purple
- Card - Watercolour card; yellow card
- Digital Topper - My Melody collage sheet from Made By Janet
- Flowers: Prima Shabby Chic Solid; Wild Orchid Crafts - cherry blossom, tulips, crystal spray
- Butterfly peel-off from stash.

I'd like to welcome my newest followers: Shatril, Chris, Cindy and Sandra - nice to see you here and I hope you will continue to read and enjoy my wee blog.

Like a lot of you I have been experiencing difficulty when trying to leave comments on your blogs. However, after swapping over and using Google Chrome for a web browser I am now able to leave comments. It's not ideal but until Windows/Blogger (whoever is responsible) sorts the issue out it will do nicely. Somebody did suggest that it was only the embedded comment facility that was the problem so I've tweaked mine and hopefully we are now good to go.

I'm going to trust that I've not made too many errors in typing this as I haven't got time to proof it - my dinner is on the table!

Edited Note: I rushed off so quickly I forgot to mention that I was entering this card for the following challenges:

Let's Craft and Create Challenge #36 - Butterflies - with two butterflies I think this card might qualify for this challenge.
and
Scrap Our Stash Challenge - the theme for January is NEW and the shabby chic style is definitely a new style for me. Scrap Our Stash, run by Kathy, is a challenge blog designed to have us use our stash, so it fits in well with those of us who have taken the Use-It-Up pledge :)  The Monthly Challenge goes from the 1st to the last day of the month. The Design Team and Guest Design Team Members, of which I am currently one, or Readers' projects are posted daily for inspiration. You might think from the name that only scrappers get involved in the challenges ... not so, my first challenge entry was a card! Apart from the  Monthly Challenge - new theme each month - there's a Pagerize This Challenge, a Frugal Friday Tip and Show N' Tell Sunday. If you are determined to use up your stash this year check this challenge out and perhaps you will join in the fun.

Now I really have finished :))

Take care all and happy crafting,

In the Direction of Dreams ... a canvas and matching card set.

Afternoon Everyone,

It's been a busy day for me ... well, a sort of busy day. After breakfast, I spent a good couple of hours this morning watching the new scrapbooking programme with Wendy Rhodes, hoping to pick up some useful tips. It ended in time for lunch so it wasn't until early afternoon I was able to hit the craft space, intending to do something with grunge paper but ... Outlook calendar reminded me of a birthday coming up. So I've been working on a shabby chic card today which I will probably post tomorrow. And for the last couple of days I've been working on this canvas and card set - another birthday - so the grungeboard and spool project just has to wait.

I started by making an ATC for Sarah's My Mojo Monthly. The theme this month is Play Petite ... go small, make an ATC ... so I did.

Our friend, Scott, has a lot of imagination, ambition and energy and is well on his way to realising his dreams. He recently completed an MBA, all the while building a very successful business ... he's aiming to become a millionaire before he's 40 :)) And as if that wasn't enough, he fills his spare time with distance running and the martial arts - mainly Tai Kwon Do, but he dabbles in others too. In fact, only this week he returned from Israel after completing a Krav-Maga course ... no, I don't know what it is either. Anyway, I digress, but it was thinking about what Scott does that led me to the making of this ATC. And I've finally used one of my collection of Clarity stamps.  The sentiment is a digital from Pink Petticoat. I'm afraid the photo does not do it justice - there's a lot of sparkle you just can't see!  Like Sarah, I decided to incorporate the ATC into the canvas I had started.

It's all about travel ... any kind of travel, places, directions, whatever, and maybe just a gentle reminder to write home too :) A lot of paint, distress inks, cosmic shimmer, stamping and gold embossing went into this project ... yes, I got messy for this one ... though the embellishments were kept to a minimum ... just a couple of brads, adage tickets and a tiny dragonfly.  Once again, the photo doesn't do it justice ... the colours are much better in the flesh, so to speak.

And after the canvas the card had to be simple, a ready-made card base, a bit of sponging with distress inks, stamping and heat embossing - silver this time, a ready-made greeting matted on to silver mirri card and some fab silver polka-dotted card candy - job done :)

Materials used:
- 7"x5" canvas board
- white gesso
- Adirondack paint dabber - mushroom
- Tim Holtz Distress Inks - Weathered Wood, Stormy Sky, Aged Mahogany, Black Soot, Pumice Stone
- VersaMark; fine gold & silver embossing powders
- Cosmic Shimmer - Pearl Mist, Rich Gold
- Stamps: Clarity - Postcards, Famous Places; Inkylicious - Simply Scrip;: Tim Holtz - Visual Artistry Collection
- Digital: Debbi Moore CD - Shabby Chic; Pink Petticoat - Tiny Sentiments
- Mask - Tim Holtz Idea-ology mini mask - compass
- Tools: heat gun; ink duster; make-up sponge
- Embellishments: Tim Holtz adage tickets; brads, dragonfly, card candy, greeting card topper, silver mirri card & silver/polka-dotted card candy from stash

I started writing up this post this afternoon in between cutting, sticking, distressing, and glittering, and then it was time for dinner, followed by Dancing on Ice - so many distractions :)) So now I'm sitting here in my PJ's after a lovely lazy easy Sunday - what more could a woman want :)


I hope you have all had as good a Sunday as I have and that all's well with your world.

Take care and happy crafting,