Floral Thank You

Evening Folks

It's been such a lovely day here, none of the fog that others in the UK have had to suffer, that I did take a stroll around the garden smelling the few flowers there are, and even doing a minuscule amount of weeding :)

Consequently, I didn't spend a great deal of time in the craft space and when I did most of it was spent finishing of the job I started on Tuesday ... yes, it has taken me this long to sort out the charms and gee-gaws! Taking some costume jewellery (car boot finds) to pieces took up quite a bit of the last few days, but it was worth it because I will now be able to find what I want quickly and easily.

And talking of quick and easy, this card was just that to make. I've used some outline peel-off flower shapes as templates, stuck randomly over the front, and inked over with two shades of distress ink. After removing the peel-offs, all the card needed was a stamped greeting, some pearls and a snippet of ribbon, et voila, one quick make!

Materials I used to make this card:

• Ready-made white card base, 5" square from stash
• Anita's Outline Stickers, Simple Flowers - bought on impulse and then didn't know what to do with them!
• Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pads, Scattered Straw & Dried Marigold
• Memento ink pad, Rich Cocoa
• Crafty Stamps, Thank You
• Ribbon and self-adhesive half pearls from stash

I'm submitting this card to the following:

Use Your Stuff Challenge # 26 - Anything Goes
Tuesday Throwdown # 90 - Spring Cleaning
Craft Your Passion Challenge #102 - Just Sentiments

That's me for tonight. We're off on a day trip tomorrow, setting off early to get the best of the day - the forecast is good.

I hope you all have a lovely day too. Don't forget to alter your clocks ... spring forward :)

Happy crafting,

HANDY HIPPO THURSDAY! - WEEK #8 - A Caged Bird Tag

Hello Everyone,

And a happy Handy Hippo Thursday to you all. I hope you are well and having fun.

This week, as promised last week, I've got something a bit different to share with you - I seem to be having a bit of a thing with tags at the moment. They are fun to make and can look lovely hanging up on a wall.

I've used the Sizzix Tim Holtz Caged Bird die as the main feature and two gorgeous sheets of patterned paper from K & Company’s Flora & Fauna collection . The birdcage is cut from gold mirri card and then distressed with white, silver and blue embossing powders to achieve an aged and distressed effect. Butterflies, gems, ribbons and lace embellishments complete the tag. Here's a photo of the back of the tag.

The back is the perfect place to write or stamp a greeting - this one has been left blank until a recipient is decided upon.

As usual materials used for 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 easy to add to your basket any other purchase that you might like and if something is temporarily out of stock you can request to be emailed once it is back in stock.

Here's how I made the card:

• The dimensions of the tag are as follows: height 6½"; width 3½". Cut the base for the tag from white card, and two pieces from two sheets of the patterned paper, one silver blue embossed and the other a blue/brown floral, as shown in the above photograph
• Shape the 'shoulders' on the white card base by marking the length at 5¾" and ¾" in at the top - draw a line between these two marks and cut remove the corner 
• Adhere the first patterned paper first to one side of the white card and trim the 'shoulders', then adhere the second piece to the other side of the base and again trim the 'shoulders'
• Using the Stormy Sky DI sponge around the edges on both sides of the tag, then lightly sponge with the Vintage Photo
• Using the Caged Bird die, cut out the bird cage in gold mirri. Cut two birds, one in white card and the other in the brown reverse side of the blue/brown floral paper. Cut two wings, one in white card and the other in silver embossed blue paper
• Glue the brown paper bird shape to the white card one and, similarly, the blue wing to the white one
• Adhere a clear gem to the bird in the eye position
• To distress the cage, rub VersaMark randomly over it and sprinkle white embossing powder and heat. Repeat the process with the blue powder, and then again with the silver powder. If you are not satisfied with the effect just add more of any of the powders until you are satisfied.
• Whilst still warm from the heat embossing, wrap the cage round something rounded to shape it - I used an empty jam jar and fastened it on with a couple of elastic bands - it's best to leave for an hour or so to get the rounded shape
• Punch out three butterflies from the brown patterned paper
• Attach a length of the extra strong sticky tape to the base of the side of the tag that is decorated with the silver embossed blue paper and then pleat the white organza ribbon on to it and trim.
• Adhere a row of the cotton lace and then a row of aqua ribbon above the organza frill, glue a small bow made from the aqua ribbon in position
• Adhere the bird's body to the tag and then, using silicone glue, the cage in position over the bird. Add the wing in position on top of the cage. Decorate the base of the cage with a selection of blue and clear gems
• Punch a single hole top centre and thread a piece of aqua ribbon through it
• Shape the butterflies wings and then adhere them randomly around the top of the tag

This tag could be made using any of the lovely papers that are available from Handy Hippo - I just happen to like this K & Company Flora and Fauna collection but there is a wide selection to choose from if this isn't your particular style.  

The embossing powders come in a huge range of colours and the Verdigris and Copper shades would give a very authentic rusty look to the cage.

I hope you like the tag and will want to make one for yourself.

See you next week with something different again.

Happy Crafting,

Jovial Poinsettia - Christmas Card Week 36

Evening All

I've been playing with inks and my Cuttlebug this afternoon - getting my fingers dirty and finding out what I can do with a Spellbinder layered poinsettia die set. The design paper is pretty special - Basic Grey's Jovial Shopkeeper. It's one of those designs that could be used for any occasion - I just thought it looked very festive and Christmassy. All I did was cover the front of a cream base card with the paper and then sponged the edges with Adirondack Noel ink pad - using the green end. This is one of those ink pads that I've bought and then wondered why. Opening it was a disappointment ... I didn't really like the colours and I suspect this was because they've bled into each other ... they're quite muddy in places. However, today that muddy green was just perfect :)

I cut the poinsettia petals out in some leftover white Neenah Solar and the leaves from a snippet of green - origin long forgotten. The petals are edged with TH Fired Brick and the leaves with the green end of the Noel pad. I've been really unsure about using dies with my Cuttlebug - it's the damage it does to the plate that really upsets me ... I know, that's normal but I take some convincing. However, seeing the beautiful results many crafters achieve with them persuaded me to get over it!!

I managed to repeat a mistake made before when distressing the edges and got ink smudging on the back. So some rescue measures were needed ... and that's where the piece of card left from cutting the poinsettia shapes came in useful - saved the day in fact :) It made a great stencil. I used one of my ink dusters to stipple the muddy green ink ... my, but that ink pad earned it's place in my crafting arsenal today :) ... through the template in very much a random fashion then inked the edges ... now my smudges look deliberate - phew!!

Stippled a couple on the inside and left it blank for now ... will probably add a sentiment when I've decided who will get the card.

Because it is such a busy pattern, embellishments were kept to a minimum - just some green satin ribbon, red/white baker's twine and a beautiful red brad from Papermania's A Silent Night collection - leftover from last year too!! So more snippets and leftovers used up, but this time married up to a piece from a new and treasured 12"x12" sheet of DP ... so not sure whether this qualifies in Jules' rules as a snippet make.

I plan to submit this card to the following:

Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge #36 - No Sentiment

Jules Sunday Snippet Challenge - Week 35 - it consists of 90% snippets and leftovers

Snoflake's Christmas Card Challenge over at Docrafts - Week 36

Now, I'm off to do some digital, or should that be hybrid, scrapbooking ...  that is, starting on the computer using graphics software then printing out onto paper and finishing the page of by hand ... this could be a huge disaster but I'm determined to give it a go :) 

Happy crafting folks,

Paint, Petroleum Jelly and Paint ... distressing a junk find tutorial

Good Afternoon,

Between ministering to the sick, my DH has been suffering from man flu, and keeping the home fires burning this weekend, I managed to find time to alter a wee set of shelves, originally intended to display thimbles and tiny decorated plates I think, found at a car boot sale for £1; from this dusty and unpromising state:

to this:

Gorgeous, isn't it. It's pretty and perfect for storing all those little pots of goodies I had stacked in a fairly random state around my workdesk.

Stage-by-stage here's how it was done.

Stage 1-2:
Washed down with soap & water, then washed down again with sugar soap; and finally rubbed down with sandpaper and wiped over before applying white undercoat. Apart from the white undercoat which was what left over from the recent kitchen makeover, the paint used came in tester pots which all cost £1 or less from a well-known DIY store. My aim was to try to create a faux distressed and worn look ... nothing like really testing myself at the first attempt :) For this I needed several layers of paint colours and my choice was, in order of application, raspberry pink, taupe, antique white and, because I ran out of the latter, the final coat had to be cream - all the paint is matt finish.

Stage: 3-5:
The first coat was an all over application of the raspberry, then, after the paint had dried, I daubed the taupe on in a random fashion - I hadn't a clue whether this was going to work but as the shelves cost peanuts I had nothing to lose by giving it my best shot. I let that dry and then smeared Vaseline Petroleum Jelly around corners and any areas where I thought there would be signs of wear and tear, like the edges of the shelves.

Stage 6-7:
Next stages were to apply two coats of antique white. You can see the petroleum jelly has already started to create the distressed effect I was aiming for.

Stages 8-10:
Because the two layers of antique white didn't give me the complete coverage I was looking for I applied a layer of cream ... this worked better than I thought it would as the cream looked even more aged and less pristine. After letting it dry I rubbed the shelves down, and where the petroleum jelly had been rubbed in, the top coats rubbed away to reveal the raspberry colour, and some of the taupe, underneath. Once I was pleased with the amount of raspberry/taupe paint showing and the effect I had achieved, I sprayed it all with Spray & Shine high-gloss varnish, which not only gave it a nice sheen but will protect the paint from further, unwanted, wear and tear.

Stage 11:
The final stage was to add a bit of decoration. I toyed with the idea adding flowers, butterflies, flourishes, etc., but in the end decided that less is more and just stamped a couple of bees, a miniature Lavinia stamp, on the top front panel using VersaMark and gold embossing powder, together with a sprinkling of the gold embossing powder along the upper edges here and there ... unfortunately, this last doesn't show up very well in the photos. Job done!

I spotted these wee display shelves at a car boot sale just lying on the ground, unloved and unwanted, and initially dismissed them ... thought they was ugly and probably hard work to prettify. So I left them and wandered off to check out what all the other car booters had to offer. However, they clearly made an impact because it wasn't long before I was thinking they would, with a little bit of tlc, make great storage for all the little tubs of card candy, ink pads and button jars I had lying about, so I went back to snag them before someone else saw their potential :)

And, I'm so glad I did. I'm really chuffed with the finished piece, it's pretty and functional ... and anything that helps keep my stuff organised is good with me. It was also a lot easier to alter them than to write up ... the only thing that took time was the drying of the various coats between applications. I'll be keeping my eye open for similar pieces as altered they would make great gifts.

Right, I'm off to give DH some more chicken soup ... got to get him fit and well again. Hope you are all well and, despite the rather dismal weather, that those of you in England had a good holiday weekend.

Happy Crafting,

Le Romantique 40th Birthday Card

Hello Everyone,

I hope you all had a lovely weekend, no matter what the weather/temperature was wherever you are. The first week of August is a busy one for me as there are three family birthdays to celebrate in the first 10 days - making a lot of cards to get together. First up is my daughter - 40 this year - so here's the card I made.

I've been hording this pad of Graphic45, Le Romantique paper for forever... but I couldn't think of anything more special for Juli's card.  The Kraft base card and envelope are from Papermania. The base DP I embossed with pink flourishes and then layered a strip of co-ordinating DP which has been distressed and inked with TH Spun Sugar.  The strip of pink Coredinations card was put through the embossing machine, sanded and inked with Vintage Photo. The lovely stamp from Crafty Individuals was stamped with TH Vintage Photo DI, the butterflies and flowers are painted in Spun Sugar, and matted on to pink and brown cardstock. The flowers were made with the aid of Mariane Creatables dies. The Celebrate greeting is embossed onto cream pearlescent card, edges inked and matted onto some of the pink Coredinations card. The numbers were stamped twice; first onto the pink card and embossed in pink, second, onto cardboard to provide a strong base - they were then adhered together and, so that they would pop out even more, fixed to the card with dimensional squares. Butterflies and ribbon came from stash. There is a decorated insert, embossed pink '40's and butterflies on a lot of white, but I had trouble photographing it - the camera had problems focusing on the expanse of white :( I also gave the back and the envelope (just seen in the pic) the pink butterfly treatment.

And here's my beautiful daughter looking fabulous at 40 and having a great time on Saturday. The rain didn't stay away for her barbecue party but that didn't stop everyone having a wonderful time. The barbecue was put under an awning where the men took charge of the cooking, and a great job they did too. Juli's second son, Josh the chef, made her a delicious birthday cake and his sister, Jenny, brought along a huge chocolate cake too - so there was lots of candles and blowing out to be done! We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves - it was just so lovely to be with all the family - even my baby great-granddaughter was there enjoying all the attention :)

As I said, there's three birthdays at the beginning of August so I have a couple more cards to show - I'll be posting these later.

In the meantime, I hope you have wonderful day and I wish you happy crafting,

Industrial Card + Steampunk Canvas . . . my first ever

Good Evening All,

The EM and I are celebrating our 15th anniversary so I've been beavering away in secret . . . the EM has been banned from entering the craft space for several days . . .  to make the card and a surprise present for him - my first ever attempt to decorate a canvas!

This card was inspired by Sarah's (Sasa) first Mojo Monthly. I took her idea of re-using photographs in a different way, in this case photos from a recent visit to Dunaskin Heritage Centre, some of which can be seen here. Using MS Publisher I changed the photos from colour to black & white and shrunk them down to 2" x 1.5" and printed out onto glossy paper. It was easy enough to cut them all out using my trusty guillotine.  The base is made from black leather-look card and the photos are layered on to white textured card.

The insert is simply white copy paper decorated with Inkadinkado's Steampunk Flourish stamp (won on ebay) and sentiments from Inkylicious. And yes, that is a black smudge you can see there. This was my second attempt at the insert too - the first one, I stamped it up in portrait instead of landscape orientation :(  So, thanks to you Sarah, a great idea that makes perfect use of photos that remind my husband of a day he really enjoyed . . . he tells me that it's a keeper!

I don't know what possessed me but I decided that I wanted to make a canvas to commemorate the 15 really happy years of marriage we've had together. Again, it had to be something that appealed to my DH and, as he loves machinery and clocks, etc., I thought the steampunk style would be just right. But as steampunk hasn't exactly been my thing I had to search the world for the materials and it took me quite some time I can tell you. The already mentioned Steampunk Flourish stamp was shipped from the US (arrived surprisingly quickly - in only 2 weeks!); the tickets stamps are Hero Arts, also US, just a different state; Clarity Wire Heart stamp from Edenbridge, England;  Coredinations card and Kaisercraft Timeless Collection, Script, design paper and the TH Alterations Pocket Watches folder from Glasgow; the watch findings, yet another ebay purchase, were shipped from Guernsey.

So what did I do - well I started by giving the canvas (measures 5"x7") a coat of white gesso and then distressing it with matt acrylic paint (Pebeo) in burnt umber, petroleum jelly and antique white paint. I then dabbed some Adirondack mushroom because I thought it was a bit stark - not that you can see much of it in the finished piece. The metallic edging was done by rubbing Versamark all round the edges and embossing with platinum UTEE.  The embossed brown coredinations card was cut to size, sanded and distressed to within an inch of it's life. Same with the strip of script paper and I also distressed it with TH idea-ology Regal masks. The TH distress inks I used throughout the piece were, in no particular order, Dried Marigold, Vintage Photo, Fired Brick and Black Soot.

This embellishment (top left) is made from stampboard, distressed with Fired Brick & Vintage Photo; numbers made from card, 3 coats of UTEE and stamped with the Steampunk Flourish; watch findings attached with Anita's 3-D Clear Gloss; the 'yrs' topper is a circle of distressed card stamped with letters and covered in the clear gloss.

The heart was stamped in black onto shrink plastic, cut out and coloured with Fired Brick and Vintage Photo.

The Steampunk Flourish was stamped in VersaMark and embossed in gold onto mountboard that had been treated to the crackle affect way back in March - recorded in this post here. The unfurled coil spring came with the watch findings and was just perfect as an embellishment.

And just for a trip down memory lane here's a layout with a wedding day photograph.

Not a very good photograph as it was taken with a very old camera. I'd have taken fresh shots of the layout but a friend has a loan the album . . . once it is returned I'll photograph it again and maybe do a post on it.

We are off tomorrow for a few days to celebrate - we are taking a trip on the Jacobite Express steam train which runs from Fort William to Mallaig so, be warned, there will be a ton of photographs to mark the occasion. I'm looking forward to seeing Loch Lomond and passing through Glencoe . . . a place that I always find awesome. 

I thought I'd leave you with a photograph of the pot of red lilies as they are now . . . I posted a photo of just one in June - link here  - but I thought you might just like to see how fabulously massive they are now - they are about 4' tall.

Right, must go - The Boss is refusing to come in for the night so I better go and persuade her, and I need to get get to bed too - we have an early start in the morning.

Take care all,

Scrapbooking Barmouth Bay + Stinkin' Cute Blog Award received.

Good Afternoon,

Just checking in because it's a wee while since I posted anything. I hope you are all enjoying the same glorious weather as we are here in Ayr. I finally managed to complete this layout after much humming and hawing over it.

Sorry about the glare from the flash but, after several attempts, this was the best I could do. Maybe I should have taken it out into the garden to photograph. I used dimensional paste (Crafty Notions) for the first time on this - for the sun I mixed in some gold mica powder but the seagulls are made from the paste just as it comes out of the jar.

The base is a cream coloured Bazzil cardstock, the edges distressed with Tim Holtz Stormy Sky DI. The compass is another first - a TH mini mask sponged with the Stormy Sky, but the sea shells are from an ancient (1991!) metal stencil from Laura Ashley , originally used to add a border on the wall of a long forgotten bathroom. The seagulls and starfish are from another, not quite so ancient, scrapbooking stencil and the 'Happiness' & 'Memories' (hidden by the feathers now) stamps are from the Papermania Boutique set.  The papers, shaped using Kiwi Lane templates, also come from various sources. The seashell border and the paper used for the starfish 'flowers' are from the Vintage Sea Paper Kit which I found free on the Far Far Hill blog and the squared paper with the seagull is actually a paper napkin!

The shells, feathers and sea glass were picked up on a beach walk - the glass has been smothered in a layer of Anita's 3-D Clear Gloss. The title letters are from my stash - source also long forgotten.

I am truly delighted and honoured to receive this award from Alice, aka CraftyAlice. I had the pleasure of meeting Alice and her pal, CraftyWhippet, at the craft show at the SECC Glasgow in spring. They are a real bubbly twosome and we had a lovely chat about all things crafty. I found the following over on Alice's blog:

Family isn't always blood.

It's the people in your life who want you in theirs,

the ones who accept you for who you are.

The ones who would do anything to see you smile,

and who love you no matter what.

I'm sure she won't mind me passing it on to you all - I think most of us would agree with the sentiment.

Apparently there are no rules attached to this award although I can pass it on to anyone I'd like to  - well, I think you all deserve it, all your blogs are stinkin' cute, so please feel free to take it if you want.

It's dinner time chez Worthington so I'm off, but I'll be back again.

Happy Crafting,

Postcard Notecard - Vintage Style

Good Afternoon to You All,

I made this card last night just to get myself back into the crafting way of things again. Though, to be honest, I did suffer from the occasional withdrawal symptom whilst away. And I did return home refreshed and raring to go so, after all the dreary but necessary chores, unpacking, etc., it wasn't too difficult to get going again.

The postcard topper was one I had, in true Blue Peter style, already prepared. I applied a wash to the watercolour paper with diluted shades of Twilight Blue and Straw Yellow AquaMarkers before stamping the Penny Black's Keepsake stamp. The flowers were water coloured with Twilight Blue too then I distressed the edges with a combination of Tim Holtz's Stormy Sky and Pumice Stone  distress ink pads.

Onto a base of brown card (Stampin' Up's Soft Suede) I've adhered two papers from docrafts V&A Quilts linen paper pack. The yellow card (SU's Saffron) is embossed with docrafts V&A Hanoverian folder and distressed with TH's Pumice Stone and Brushed Corduroy ink pads. The vintage ladies, from Crafty Individuals Miniatures 'People & Places' pad, are matted on to SU's Marina Mist card,  distressed around the edges with Brushed Corduroy and attached using dimensional squares. Card candy in yellow and brown provide the final touch.

The insert is computer generated after scanning the V&A papers. To decorate the back I just folded one of the DPs over from the front.

I must admit I like the look of vintage collage so this card really pleases me. However, after admiring it for a while, the EM did ask me when I was likely to use it, what occasion would it be appropriate for and who would I give it to! Well, I'm not sure - I'll put it away in the box with the rest and maybe one day I'll find a use for it.

According to a certain TV shopping channel Christmas crafting begins today - even though we are still in 'flaming June' and midsummer is still a week or so away!!! Of course, for some of us it started the first week of January and because of my resolution I now have quite a stash of Christmas cards already prepared. However, I've fallen behind by a week because of the holiday so I'll need to get a wriggle on to catch up. So much to do and so little time :)

The EM is at the dentist this afternoon, having a tooth removed, so he'll be needing a bit of TLC afterwards so not sure when I'll be back in my craft space - we'll see how he does.

 Right I'm off to get some lunch now.

Wishing you all a great day.

What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday - Week 102 + Tempus Fugit Card

Hello WOYWWers, Followers & All,

Not much to be seen on my desk this Wednesday morning. I tidied up after the card I made yesterday and started on another. Sorry, but apart from the Joanna Sheen House Mouse papers and the yellow card base, can't let you see it as it is just possible the intended recipient might be looking. Hence the strategically placed magazine, the latest issue of Scrapbook Magazine. It's open at an article entitled 'Making Your Own Hardware' by Helen Salthouse which I've found particularly interesting. Helen shows how to make metallic effect hardware embellishments like the clock you can see together with a variety of other useful effects. The box which once held diabetic ice cream (yes, not exactly Haagen Daz, but when needs must ... sigh) now holds all my small punches including the very hand corner rounder which is lying out. So that's my desk this morning.

Here's the card I completed yesterday, just in time to go out in the post today.

It's for my little brother's 60th birthday - I can hardly believe it. I can still remember the day he was brought home from the hospital. I climbed up onto the sofa to get a peek at this baby in his pram, I was only 3 at the time, and it was love at first sight - he was gorgeous! And now here he is hurtling toward retirement age - how did that happen : )

As you can see the card is an easel and I went for clocks, more clocks and even more clocks. Not a subtle reminder of time flying but if he hasn't started on his 'bucket list' yet this might give him the nudge he needs.

Most of the materials were computer generated, there's some stamping, embossing. distressing and a lot of matting and layering. Hopefully, Colin will like it.

Materials used:

• Cardstock: Card base from docrafts Premium Textured Cardstock A4 size; matting & layering with gold mirror card, 200gsm (Create & Craft) & black leather effect card, 300gsm (Hougie); white A4 card 200gsm for printing out toppers & greeting.
• Paper: Super Smooth A4 matt paper, for printing design paper.
• Digital: CD-Rom, Cardz 4 Men from Jem’s Designs; My Craft Studio Professional.
• Stamping: Tempus Fugit & Watch – a freebie from Craft Stamper; VersaMark; Sheena’s WOW embossing powder in Bark Regular.
• Other materials: Tim Holtz Distress Ink pads in old paper & brushed corduroy; bakers twine, The Ribbon Girl; gold brad & gold chain from stash.

Wondering what this WOYWW thing is. Then pop over to the Queen of Desks, Julia's Stamping Ground - link here - and take a tootle round the links to dozens of crafty desks, (or tables, kitchen worktops, floor spaces) from all around the world. Be careful though, it's addictive and you may find yourself joining in.

Hopefully we are all back to normal after last weeks Blogger disaster. We were promised that we would get our postings and comments back, the ones that were lost on the fateful day, but mine certainly didn't reappear so apologies to my commenters if I didn't get back to you.

That's it folks for now. Hope you all have a great week ahead and I will, as ever, endeavour to visit as many of you as I can just to see what you are all up to today.

Take care and happy crafting,

Springtime in the Garden

Good Afternoon,

No new projects to show you today - I haven't been well enough to spend any time in my craftspace yesterday and today. Very frustrating as I have a 101 things I want to be doing but to cheer me up and bring a little Spring into your lives here is one of the first scrapbook pages I made featuring flowers and plants from my garden.

I particularly associate the colours blue and yellow with Spring so I chose to highlight these colours in this page but what really stands out now is the fresh, almost acid green, of the foliage at that time of the year. I think I have mentioned before that my favourite flower is the poppy but the aquilegia in the central photograph comes a very close second. It's an early flowering alpine variety  and I wait with impatient and eager anticipation to see the first bloom every year. 

The flowers and flourish were plain white die cuts which I coated with crushed velvet with  pretty blue brads added to the flowers. The title letters were printed using a standard font on my pc, glued to card before cutting out and then stuck down with dimensional foam squares. It's really a very simple page showing of the photographs from my garden.

Looking at it now I can see that I could have done a better job of distressing the edges - it does look more dobbed than distressed!!! I made this page in May last year so I can see that I have really learned a lot in a relatively short period - 9 months ago I was a complete newcomer to the crafting world.

That's my offering for today - now I'm off to take some more painkillers and hopefully I will be back fighting fit tomorrow.

Bye for now
Elizabeth

H is for Holly

Good morning to you all wherever you are. For those of us who are based in the south west of Scotland, it's a horrible day - all nasty rain and gale force winds with no sign of a let up yet, the barometer is right down. A perfect day for staying indoors, keeping warm and crafting.

Before I get on and show you the H Card in the Alphabet series I would like to say thank you to everyone who has responded to the tribute I wrote for my wonderful daughter, Juli - for those who are wondering what this is about see my earlier post entitled The Graduate.

Unfortunately, I did make a couple of serious omissions. Firstly, I forgot to mention that Juli was also voted Student of the Year by her fellow students - it is one thing to pass exams but to get the approbation of your peers is quite another.  Secondly, and probably more importantly, through all this she had the support of her husband, Graeme, who is not only profoundly deaf too but also suffers from rheumatoid arthritis. So here, to make up, is a wee photo of the two together on her big day:

Now to the card.

A really easy card, some free paper with a really striking pattern in red and green (can't remember where it came from), green organza ribbon, a Magnolia die cut banner - distressed with Tim Holtz Shabby Shutters ink pad, stamped with sentiment with Versamark and then embossed in gold - a bit of green organza ribbon and one of the holly leaves I embossed on my Cuttlebug (see last week's WOYWW). (BTW, for those who asked, my Cuttlebug is blue - it is from a special edition. I believe the newest special is raspberry pink and decorated with a butterfly!)

I distressed the leaf with the Shabby Shutters ink pad, cut around the leaf shape and sprayed it three times with Spray and Shine and then once with Spray and Sparkle in Gold (all from Crafter's Companion). I attached both the leaf and the banner with foam dimensionals and added a couple of corner peel-offs to finish the front. As usual I decorated inside and back:

Simples!

Bye for now
Elizabeth