Have you seen the one with the giraffe, the frog and the chicken ...

... if you have, please let me know!

Why? Because this is one of the digi images (a NBUS of course) that was printed off eons ago and even though I have searched through my entire images file on the PC, took me forever too, I have been unable to find it ... therefore cannot attribute it to the creator, and I feel really bad about that :(

It's a really fun image that I thought would be perfect for a little boy's birthday. ProMarkers were used to colour it and, then to make it even more amusing for said little boy, I've added googly eyes - glued down with seriously strong glue - this little one has had a tendency in the past to put things straight into his mouth so I'm taking no chances!

The black card base is covered with Crafts-Too green polka dot patterned paper. The belly-band is just a scrap of forest green card (Papermill Direct) trimmed with an X-Cut scallop border edge punch and decorated with a leftover length of narrow green gingham ribbon ... there was a teeny-weeny bit left, just enough to make a faux bow!

The image is matted on to another scrap of forest green card - love that colour - and decorated in each corner with green card candi - Craftwork Cards Granny Smith selection. The white candi used is also from the same selection.

I'm submitting this card to the two following challenges:
Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge for May - Hazel's requirement is always that anything goes as long as the card front is covered with patterned paper.
and, of course, I'm skipping over to Di's at Pixie's Snippets Playground - Week 122 - lots of stash used up today including the snippets of forest green cardstock and gingham ribbon.

It's short and sweet today ... lots to do here, lots of crafty projects planned, and lots that won't get done, I'm sure :)

I hope you are having a great day and everything is going well for you ... if it isn't here's a cyber hug if you need it and maybe the day will improve as it goes :)

Happy crafting,

Off To Bed Before Santa Comes - card for CHNC

Afternoon Everyone,

Just a quick and easy card to share with you today. Another one with a recycled card topper and using up a tiny smidgeon from the stash mountain. I thought the little characters looked so cute in their little nighties and bedcaps - off to bed to wait in eager anticipation for Santa :)

All I had to do to make this card was fussy cut the little topper, and layer it on to some gold textured paper (origin unknown) and the Mary Kilvert designed red/white check paper which came free with a magazine – details long forgotten. The base card is tiny too, just 4” square. The finishing touch is some red gems and gold scalloped peel-offs dug out of the stash. I bought peel-offs at the beginning of this cardmaking adventure thinking they were a necessity – how wrong was I, I rarely use them.

Inside I’ve just popped a free digi greeting stamp from Bizzy Bec’s blog, printed out in red. 

I'm submitting it to the usual challenges:

Hazel's, at Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge 139, - the challenge for this week is for a ‘Cute’ card.

Hazel's other challenge - CHNC Challenge Extra for August - where, as always, the challenge is for anything as long as it's Christmas.

And, of course, Pixie's Crafty Snippets Playground Week87 ... the gold textured paper is the snippet here.

Still busy making patchwork, but hoping to find time to make another card later ... my Christmas card count is nowhere near the number needed come the day. But first I have to visit the library, I have books due back today. I'll be rooting around the craft section again ... wonder what gem I'll unearth today :)

Hope you are all having a good day, hopefully a warm and dry one, wherever you are.

Rudolph Day Card in Purple and Green

Evening Everyone,

I said I'd be back with a card for Rudolph Day ...

... and here it is. This is one for Sarn's Rudolph Day challenge for August ... with only 3 more Rudolph Days to go to Christmas, and nowhere near enough cards made, this is one challenge I cannot afford to miss.

I know it's a pretty unusual colour combination for Christmas, and I don't really know why I chose to team the ivy stamped topper with the purple card but I think it works, especially with the lovely 'tartan' ribbon I found in my collection.

Not much to it really, just quick and simple - the only thing that took any time was colouring in the ivy with an olive green Promarker. This is a digital stamp from The Scrapbook Sisters Digital Stamps - bought and printed out way back in July 2011 and only now being coloured ... shameful! I was able, by using MS Publisher, to create a frame with the ivy corner, leaving an area in the centre for the greeting stamp - from the much used Magical Christmas Stamp Set by Anita's. Crystal Stickles has been added to the stars around the greeting, shame it hasn't shown up in the photo. I did try taking the shot from various angles and still no twinkle :(

The topper is matted on to purple card which has a textured pattern to it ... bought from Create & Craft a couple of years ago too ... more of the forgotten and neglected stash!!!

The ribbon wasn't forgotten though, I was just waiting for just the right project to adorn ... read that it's so pretty I couldn't bear to parted with it :)

Inside and on the back I've stamped a spray of ivy, in Archival Jet Black,  using one of the very first stamps I ever bought, in 1996 - a wood mount by Petaluma ... it cost $5.99 (£3.85).

That's my crafting done for the day. I wonder what tomorrow will bring ... I haven't decided yet :)

I'm off to catch the new drama beginning at 9pm, What Remains. If the trailer is anything to go by it should be intriguing.

Whatever you are doing this evening I hope it's enjoyable.

CHNC Challenge - Use Your Favourite Embellishments

Happy Sunday Afternoon,

Hazel, over at Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge #127, has asked almost the impossible this week. She has challenged us to use our favourite embellishments ... help! I have so many favourites!

I thought long and hard and finally opted for my favourite die-cut poinsettia flower and a very fine white glitter I found at my local craft shop, it's just perfect for winter scenes. Sadly, it's hard to see in the photos but you can just about see the occasional glint in this enlargement.

This super digi stamp, Nell's Cottage, can be downloaded for free on Beccy's Place blogspot. The cottage looks like the perfect country retreat, don't you think :) It's been coloured with ProMarkers - I tried to give it a well weathered look with several shades of brown and I thought the doors just had to be a cheery red.

Once again, I've reduced the digi to miniature and printed it out on white printer paper to create the insert.

Materials used:

• white Papermania textured cardstock, trimmed to create an A6 size card 
• stamps - Nell's Cottage from Beccy's Place printed out in black, greeting from Hot Of The Press's Magical Christmas set 
• ProMarkers in browns, greens, greys, reds and yellows - too many to list. However, if you would like a list of the colours drop me a line and I'll be happy to provide one 
• ink pad - Archival Jet Black 
• snippets of red and green cardstock for the poinsettia and leaves
• dies - Spellbinders Layered Poinsettia (the two smallest dies) and Marianne Creatables Chinese Rose for the two leaves 
• insert - white printer paper cut to A5 and printed with Nell's cottage reduced in size 
• embellishments - glue pen and fine white glitter; a topaz coloured rhinestone

Apart from submitting to CHNC #127 as already mentioned, I'm also going to submit this card to Hazel's challenge extra:

CHNC Challenge Extra for June - where the challenge is always anything goes as long as it's Christmas

and, of course,

Pixie's Crafty Snippets Playground #75 - where all that Di asks is that we use up some of our snippets on our projects ... here it's the poinsettia and leaves that are made from snippets.

I am happy to report that I'm feeling heaps better and Mr Mojo is back - yes! :) I'm off now to watch Barbara Gray's afternoon slot on C&C - she's going to be using alcohol inks, something I keep forgetting I have in my stash. It was the gelli plate this morning - another item I have yet to really put through it's paces. So many lovely crafting techniques to try and so little time :)

Have a lovely afternoon, what's left of it, and take care everyone.

Happy crafting,

Mystery Flower ...

... I have no idea what this flower is so it's very possible that the colours are all wrong!

The stamp is from Digi Stamp Boutique - from the Sketchy Flowers set - and if you know what this lovely plant is, I'd be grateful if you could let me know. Whatever it is, it's lovely and a joy to colour in (with ProMarkers). I've teamed it up with a greeting from Clear Dollar Stamps, the Quiet Rocking Chair set, another digital stamp which, with a bit of digital manoeuvring, tucked in very nicely under the leaf spray. 

Once again, the stamp has been shrunk down for the insert and back of the card.

Supplies used were - white Papermania  textured cardstock, the digital stamps already mentioned, ProMarkers in the following colours: Leaves - Lime Zest, Pear Green & Marsh Green, Flowers - Dusky Rose, Ruby, Burgundy

Tools - Serif CraftArtist Professional, PC and printer

Short and sweet today and I can't linger - look what the postie has delivered:

Lovely, aren't they? I'm sure many of you have a collection already but, until now, I've been happy to colour with either ProMarkers or AquaMarkers, and even occasionally with water colour pencils. I did invest in two, yes, TWO, distress markers but they are so pricey!!! It would take me years to build up a complete collection. However, while watching a few videos by Gina K on Stamp TV, I discovered Memento Markers. Call me slow, well I did ... I've been using Memento ink pads for aeons :(  So I shopped around and find these going very reasonably at BG Payne Crafts ... so there goes my crafting pocket money for the month :) 

I'm sure they can't be compared to distress markers, they probably behave quite differently, but I'm willing to give them a fair trial, try out new techniques, e.g. 'pouncing' and 'kissing' - don't you just love crafting terminology? So that's me off to play, I mean, put them through their paces :) 

I hope you are all well and having a good week.

Happy crafting,

The Completed Dinky Flower Border Card ... and also a Typewriter Birthday Card

Evening Everyone,

Between hops around blogs, I've managed to complete the card you might have noticed I was working on this morning ... scroll down to the previous post to see it part done.

The card is one of several featuring digi stamps that have been stashed away on my PC. I usually print them out on to smooth white card to be coloured then trimmed to whatever shape, matted and used on a card. But recently I've been experimenting with my graphics software, firstly creating cards using my own flower photographs (featured in an earlier post this week), and then digital images. The dinky wee Flower Border stamp on this card is from Digi Stamp Boutique. I've coloured it with Promarkers and teamed it up with some tiny strips of leftover design paper in coordinating colours. A stamped greeting and an simple insert completes the card - very CAS :)

Materials used: white Papermania textured cardstock for base, printer paper for insert; Digi Stamp Boutique's Flower Border stamp; ProMarkers - Rose Pink, Blossom, Tea Green, Powder Blue, Primrose, Pastel Yellow, Lime Zest, Pear Green; Stamp from Verve, Thanks So Much; Memento Tuxedo Black ink pad; three thin strips of paper in aqua, olive green and rose pink

They may be tiny but I think the snippets of leftover papers qualify this card for a trip over to Di's playground, that's at Pixies Crafty Snippets Playground - Week 71. I've heard on the grapevine that there might be a picnic going on up in the treehouse :))

This next card features a typewriter from Nice Crane Designs Typewriter Machine set that looks just like the one the EM picked up for a song at the car boot sale recently. Interestingly, I bought  the digital image long before my lovely typewriter was discovered ... wishful thinking perhaps :)

The card created using Serif Craft Artist Professional and printed on to white Papermania Textured cardstock. 

The insert, on ordinary printer paper, features the typewriter image shrunk down, and it's on the back too.

I thought this card would be perfect for a male recipient ... not a flower, ribbon or glitter in sight :) 

Apart from finishing off the flower border card, very little crafting has been done again today. However, I have taken photos of some more completed projects that have been waiting in the wings, so to speak, and then cropped them down ready for posting at some time. To quote Barbara Gray, I have a plan :) And it concerns the holiday we have lined up for June. The plan is to have a week of posts written up and scheduled to appear while I'm away ... hopefully, that done, you won't even know I'm gone :))

In the meantime, I find I'm in need of some liquid refreshment so I'm off downstairs for another cup of tea :)

Take care everyone and have a lovely evening.

Happy crafting,

Lavender Lupins ... a Card for a Spring Birthday

Morning Everyone

Ah, it's Friday, and for many of you that means the weekend starts here ... well, more likely this afternoon. Whenever, I hope you have a good day and that your looking forward to a lovely long bank holiday weekend.

The card I have to share with you today is the one I made for my sister's birthday last month. Margaret was a spring baby, and actually born on Easter Sunday, 1954. The date was 18th April ... a particularly late date for Easter. She has only twice celebrated her birthday on Easter Sunday since - 1965 and 1976 and she will have to wait until 2049 for the next one, when she will be  95!

Margaret loves all shades lavender and I've teamed it up with a pale creamy yellow and white for this card. This lovely lupin image is another digi from Janey's Digi Designs, coloured lilac and cream with ProMarkers.

The embossing folder, Kassie's Brocade, is one of the loveliest from Cuttlebug, and a perfect background for flowers and butterflies. The gorgeous butterfly die came free recently with a magazine - I can see it becoming a firm favourite too.

Materials used:
Cardstock - smooth lilac and white card
Digi Stamp - Janey's Digital Designs Lupin
ProMarkers - primrose, pastel yellow, buttercup, lilac, lavender, bluebell, lime zest, leaf green, pear green and marsh green
Embossing Folder - Cuttlebug 5x7 embossing folder Kassie's Brocade
 Dies - X-Cut oval die,  Butterfly free with Simply Cards & Papercraft magazine
Edge Punch - Martha Stewart butterfly border punch;
Embellishments - Ranger crystal Stickles, yellow ribbon and purple card candy from stash

I'd like to enter this card for the following challenge:

Digi Galore Challenges - the theme is Spring

Whilst making this card I was reminded of the year of the Great Lupin Disaster - 1997. That year my garden had several herbaceous beds that were chock-a-block with lupin plants I'd grown from seed. They were a picture and I was so proud of them. Well, you know what pride comes before.  Several weeks into summer my prized plants were attacked and stripped, almost overnight, by the most voracious of beasties, the lupin aphid, and nothing I did prevented them from decimating my plants. I still like to grow lupins but limit myself to just a few ... in the hope that the aphids don't notice them growing in among the other plants :)

We have no plans to do anything special for the bank holiday weekend ... which is just as well because it's raining - not a good start. I hope it's rather better wherever you are.

Whatever the weather and whatever your plans, I hope you have an enjoyable few days.

Take care and happy crafting,

Flowers are Poetry - Icelandic Poppy Seed Head Card

Hello Everyone

I hope you are all having a wonderful weekend, as we are here. The weather has been a mix of sunshine and those April showers and I've been able to nip out during the sunny spells and do a bit of garden maintenance - lovely :)

Today's share is a card made for a monthly swap challenge. The requirement for April was to use words rather than just a greeting so I fell back on one of my favourite Hero Arts stamps - 'Flowers are the poetry of nature'.

Again it's the Icelandic Poppy Seed Head digital stamp from Janey's Digi Designs printed on to smooth white cardstock, Neenah Solar, for the topper, cut out with an X-cut circle die, but this time it's been inked it up in different colours, Adirondack Citrus and Sunshine Yellow, and added a dark gold glitter to the seed heads. To make the brown circle for matting, I did what is becoming the usual and traced around the outer rim of the die and cut it out with scissors ... I recently heard this referred to as a 'faux die-cut' ... another term to add to our crafting dictionary :)

A Darice folder, Dandelions, was used to create the backing and the matting and layering is from some leftover brown cardstock from Generations Archival, which has been given a gold edge using VersaMark and Heat-It-Up gold embossing powder ... sadly this is not showing up too well in the photographs. An Ink-It-Up gold metallic ink pad was used to stamp the word sentiment. No photo, but the insert was made in exactly the same way as this purple version posted earlier.

As some scraps of brown cardstock were used in the making of this card, I'm skipping over to Di's challenge at Pixie's Crafty Snippets Playground - now at an unbelievable Week 70 - the weekly challenge spot that encourages us to use up every scrap, leftover and snippet in our possession.

That done, I'm off to have a crafty hour or two in the craft space.

Aww! The EM has just brought me a latte ... what would I do without him :)

Take care all and I hope you enjoy what is left of Sunday.

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,

Delores D'ammage - a 21st birthday card

Morning All,

After a couple of very busy days I'm back with this card I made for my No.2 grandson for his 21st birthday.

Ever since I used a Kenny K image on his Christmas card one year - check here for the card - Josh has let it be known that appreciates the artistic talent of Kenny Kiernan and would really like another card featuring one of his naughty ladies.

Not wanting to disappoint him, well he is a lovely boy, I checked out Kenny K's site and thought this little lady would suit perfectly ... her name is Delores D'ammage. Colouring this image with ProMarkers really tested my colouring abilities - still not happy with the finished result but finally had to call it done or I would have been tweaking it forever and Josh would never have got his card :)

Materials:

White square base card 

Snippet of design paper with industrial alphabet pattern - maker/design unknown

KennyK digi stamp, Delores D'ammage 

Promarkers in black, greys and reds

Stamp: Sentiments 1 from Inkylicious; 

Snippets of gold mirri card 

Red card candi

Using up a few snippets means that I can submit this card to Di's Snippet Challenge #33 - the first after a two week break for me.

I didn't post yesterday because Josh came over for the day. I cooked him up one of my specials, Moroccan Baked Chicken with Chickpeas. He gave it the thumbs up much to my relief ... cooking for a chef is a bit like taking part in an episode of Masterchef - though Josh is a lot less scary than judges, John Torode and Gregg Wallace :)

I hope you are all having a good day, whether you are crafting, working or whatever. The weather here is not too bad - the sun is shining now but it's been overcast and muggy all morning.

I'm off to have a bit of lunch before getting on with other things I have planned today.

Take care all and happy crafting,

Tim Holtz August 2012 Tag

Good Evening Friends

It's only taken me from Saturday, but I've finally completed my first Tim Holtz tag!

Of course I didn't have most of the materials as listed by TH himself. I just had to exercise the little grey cells and improvise and, guess what, it was fun :) I didn't even have a tag ... I cut this one out a piece of leftover cream cardstock. I substituted a Cuttlebug embossing folder, Beautiful, for the one used by Tim.  Surprise, surprise, I did have the Adirondack dabber, Juniper, and enough of a selection of distress inks to be able to make a passable job of the inking.

The silhouette stamp is a digital one from Floppy Latte, Ribbon Flair, printed out onto smooth white cardstock and inked before adhering to the back of the frame. The frame, Papermania's white chipboard, has three coats of black embossing powder (Stampendous Midnight Black) and to get the 'carved' effect I stamped into the hot embossed surface before it set with a stamp with an all-over tiny flower pattern from Docrafts, V&A Quilt Posy Background.

Needless to say, I didn't have the right dies but I did have a Marianne Creatable Rose and the Sizzix Country Foliage dies and a really lovely leafy flourish die ... another one of the die-cuts in the package Chris Lee sent me - and it was perfect for the job. The rose die I have is the straight edged one, and of course, I really wanted scalloped edges so that my flowers looked more like the ones on Tim's tag. To get the effect I wanted, I trimmed the edge of the spirals with my fancy edged scissors - fiddly and time-consuming, but it did the job. I've used several snippets of coredinations card and after the flowers were sanded, rolled and shaped, the edges were inked with distress inks and then finished off with a little gold ink from a Papermania ink pad.

The words I chose for the tag are the last lines taken from a poem by F.VERR entitled Silhouette. The poet is a contemporary artist who uses 'colors, sounds, words and motion to adorn and inspire feeling on the blank canvas we perceive as space and time'.

 I won't quote the whole work but here's the last verse.

Where is she?
The one for me has not yet crossed my path
And though my mind's eye sees her
The sight is obstructed
She, only
Fills the silhouette

I thought the lines I've chosen worked well with the theme of the tag.

I don't know why I've resisted joining in with Tim's tag making ... well, I do really ... I didn't think I was up to it and, because I hadn't invested in all the TH materials, thought that I couldn't possibly make anything that looked like the TH original.

However, I did enjoy having a go, overcame the lack of materials, and am happy with the end result, so I won't be put off in the future ... in fact, if I can find the time, I might just have a go at his July tag too.

We had a dry spell today ... it didn't last long, but long enough for me to take the opportunity to trot round the garden collecting flowers and leaves for squishing. I also did a fair bit of dead-heading, especially on the EM's petunias which were looking horrible. He loves them, I loathe them ... it's the bright and gaudy colours that appeal to him. He puts them in planters every year and then neglects them terribly!

I'm thinking of having an early night and snuggling down with a good book. The current book, entitled The Ladies of Low Arvie, is about cows! I know, sounds an odd choice, but it's about an English couple who, wanting to live the farming dream, bought a farm in Galloway, Scotland, and decided to concentrate on rearing cows - the ladies of the title. So far, I'm thoroughly enjoying their story and finding it hard to put the book down.

So I'll bid you all goodnight and happy crafting,

CHNC Challenge - Festive Funnies

Evening Folks,

I'm late this evening because the craft space needed a bit of re-organising to make room for a TV the EM was installing for me ... now I can watch the tennis whilst crafting :)

I'm not done yet, there's still quite a few odds and ends that I have to shoehorn in somewhere. You wouldn't think one wee telly could cause so much havoc!

For a bit of light relief I stopped to make this wee card for Hazel's CHNC Challenge - #79.

Hazel has asked for a festive funny and this Mo Manning digi stamp seemed to fit the bill ... well, it makes me smile :) I thought this fun sentiment from Docrafts seemed quite appropriate too.

Hard to see the glitter in the photos, but it is there, honest!

I've had both stamps for a year or so but they're good so worth bringing out again this year.

Materials used:
White deckle-edge card blank
Smooth white card - bought on my visit to Shopkeeper Gal while on holiday
Digi stamp from Mo's Digital Pencil, Cat's in the Christmas Tree
ProMarkers: pastel yellow, ivory, cool grey 1, poppy, apricot, olive green, pear green, turquoise, cobalt blue, powder blue 
Fine glitter: gold, pale blue
Pearlescent card for matting: pale blue (free with a magazine recently), gold from snippet drawer
Docrafts Stamp from Penelope & Percy Christmas Greetings set
Ink pad: Ranger Adirondack Earthtones, Stonewashed
Clear 'glass' dewdrops from stash

I did break off long enough to see Andy win through to the final ... yeah ... doing another little happy dance :))

After all that excitement I'm off into the craft space to see what more mischief organising I can get up to today.

Happy Crafting Everyone,

Christmas Alphabet - Y for You and Z for Zero Temperatures

Evening Everyone,

Well, here they are, the last two cards in the Alphabet series. First up is Y for You.

This is for my sweetie. The digital stamp is another of those I coloured in with ProMarkers (sorry, once again I can't remember the colours) whilst on holiday in Wales. I really had no plans for it at the time, however, when I saw this paper, from Memory Box (in the pack included in the recently won blog candy from Jude) I remembered the image ... and it has all come together perfectly to make this card ... serendipitously, you might say :

My rediscovered B-C-E layering template has been pressed into service again to mat the image using a scrap of brown card and some of the co-ordinating paper. The same paper together with a second co-ordinating paper have been cut into strips and scalloped with a border punch to form the trims.

And that is about it - some glitter, gems, card candy and an embossed greeting finish the card off.

The trim is repeated inside and on the back just to finish it off.

Materials Used:

• Cardstock: Stampin' Up 12"x12" card, Whisper White, trimmed to make a 6" square card base; Neenah Solar Smooth white card for stamped topper; Papermania textured card, brown for matting
• Design Paper: Memory Cox 6x6 paper collection, Mistletoe
• Stamps: Digi Stamp Boutique, Henry & Zoe Xmas Kiss; Docrafts Penelope & Percy Christmas Greetings
• Tools: B-C-E Layering Template, Baby Nesties Square; X-cut scalloped border punch
• Sundries: ProMarkers; VersaMark; Sheena Wow EP, Burgundy Red Regular; Iridescent Glitter; Card candy, Vintage Berries red, Anita's tiny gems, red

The only snippet used in this card was the brown card in the matting, I wonder if  this qualifies for the snippet challenge? It does prove that even when I'm creating yet more leftovers I'm still trying to make something of a dent in the snippet mountain.  I'll let the lady herself decide by submitting it to:

Jules Crafty Snippet Challenge - Week 46

Last, but perhaps not least, here's the Z for Zero Temperatures card.

This shaped card was printed from Joanna Sheen's CD-ROM, Jane Shasky, From the Heart of the Garden, onto Neenah Solar smooth white card.

The front is decoupaged and embellished with Polar White Flower Soft, iridescent glitter, snowflakes punched from holographic mirri card, and Anita's gloss for the holly berries.

Although the finished card is A6 in size from the top of the red cardinal to the bottom, the inside is actually about half the size. To reduce the insert to fit I imported it into a graphic programme and re-sized it to fit the inside, then printed it onto copy paper.

The instructions on the CD-ROM do not include decorating the back but when the card was completed I was not happy with it. The back of the 'fence' was just white card and and, to my mind, did not look good so what to do? Well, what I did was to capture the front of the card using the snap tool in Adobe and import it into the graphic programme too. Once there, I was able to re-size and flip the image, then cut out and adhere it to the top half. If I were to make this card again, I would do this bit first before attaching it to the front ... having left it to the last, I had to nudge the bottom edge of the 'fence' down below the back - very fiddly!

The bottom half of back is simply decorated with part of an insert cut to size.
It might have taken twice as long to make as anticipated but it's a cute wee card and I love red cardinals ... I wish they came to live in this country during the winter as, with their vivid red colour, they are a pleasure to watch. However, I'm not sure what our very own little robin redbreasts would take kindly to such stiff competition in the colour department :)

So that's it - the Alphabet Series is complete for 2011 and, added to the one/two a week I've been making since Week 1 this year, I now have a sizeable stash of cards ready to send/hand out to family and friends - yeah!! I'm so pleased to have finished early this year because I can now concentrate on making some handmade gifts - there's 5 weeks left in which to do this ... hopefully, I'll be able to complete a few nice projects in that time.

In the meantime, the weekend is almost done, Russell has been voted off Strictly and we are left with the real contenders, and the lights were switched on in Ayr tonight ... and I missed it :(  I hope you have all had a wonderful weekend, and if you haven't, I hope tomorrow is a better day for you.

Take care everyone and happy crafting,