HANDY HIPPO THURSDAY! - WEEK #4

Good Morning ...

... and Happy Handy Hippo Thursday to you all.

After celebrating Valentine's Day with a romantic card last week, I thought I'd bring you a bit of spring today. Sparkling butterflies and a delightful sleeping kitten in fresh green and cream remind us that here in the UK the warmer weather is just around the corner.

As you can see I've used a lovely embossing folder with my Cuttlebug. If you haven't as yet acquired an embossing machine, I see Handy Hippo has the Cuttlebug on offer with a whacking 21% reduction in the price at the time of writing. 

As a willing and devoted servant to our cat, Bonnie, aka The Boss, I couldn't resist the sleeping kitten stamp, and the sentiment stamp is one I have used often ... it's appropriate for just about anyone with a birthday coming up and I particularly like the mix of fonts used.

As you can see I just had to stamp the kitten on the back of the card too ... getting value for money out of it :)

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 any other purchase that you might like to your basket and if something is temporarily out of stock you can click to be emailed once it is back in stock.

Here is a step-by-step guide to how this card is made:

• The base of the card is a ready-made white A6 size card - quick and easy.
• Trim a mat of pastel green card to fit the front exactly.
• Trim a piece of cream card, slightly smaller to leave a margin when matted.
• Place the cream card in the embossing folder and run through the embossing machine.
• Adhere the embossed card to the pastel green piece.
• Trim three 1" wide strips from the width of the patterned paper.
• To make the concertina flower: punch a 1" circle of white cardstock ready as the base of the concertina flower. Taking two of the strips and  using a scoring board, score at 1cm intervals, then fold the strips in a series of mountain and valley folds - keeping them straight by holding them between your fingers - and tighten the folds flat. Adhere the strips together at both ends and press the folds together again to form a concertina flower. Put a blob of glue gel on the circle of card in readiness and then press the flower down on to the glue and hold down flat until the glue sets. I admit this takes a bit of practice but it's worth persevering. 
• Stamp the sleeping kitten using the brown ink pad onto a small piece of cream card. Punch out the image using a circle punch and using distress ink sponge the edges. When dry glue the circle to the centre of the concertina flower.
• Wrap the remaining strip of patterned paper round  the embossed topper, approximately 1" from the bottom edge. Adhere lace to top and bottom edges of the patterned paper and the organza ribbon along the centre. Stick all the edges to the back of the topper before adhering it to the front of the card.
• Adhere the concertina flower to the left side of the trim.
• Draw around the butterflies with a glue pen and sprinkle with iridescent glitter. Do the same around the edges of the concertina flower and the kitten centrepiece.
• Colour 14 of the small white pearls with the green ProMarker before adhering them to the butterflies' bodies, the ribbon and the two top corners of the embossed panel.
• Stamp with the brown ink pad inside, the kitten in the centre of the left side and the sentiment centrally on the right. 
• Finally, stamp the kitten centrally on the back of the card 

I hope you like this card ... I think it's my favourite up to now, but then kittens and butterflies are on my list of my favourite things :)  

I'll be back next Thursday with another project but in the meantime let me know what you think of this one. And if I have not explained clearly enough how to make the concertina flower, or any other aspect of the design, and I will do my best to clarify.

Take care everyone and I wish you all a wonderful weekend.

Happy Crafting,

WOYWW - Week 141 - What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday?

A Belated Good Day All,

I hope you are all well and enjoying WOYWW today.

What a difference a week can make! Last week early, this week late. My get up an go has failed to put in an appearance today and I'm struggling to press the go button ... so reporting in late Julia, but here at last ... Stamping Ground is where the action is so hop over and join in the fun.

This was what was on my desk in the wee small hours of the morning - not a lot!

This is what is on it now ... not much progress has been made. I've gone from working last week on a large project, 12"x12" scrap layout ... click here for the link  for those who said they would like to see the completed layout - I kept the flowers as so many of you said I should ... to something very small this week, a 4"x4" card. It's an attempt to use up some of the little bits and bobs, too nice to bin but too small for most projects, that are squirrelled away. Bits of ribbons, small images, pieces of embossed card accrued when putting the Cuttlebug through its paces shortly after it arrived ... that sort of thing. Because, if I don't use them up, very shortly I'll be drowning in a sea of teeny weeny bits :)

I hope your Valentine's Day was a good one. We had a lovely time and enjoyed our lunch out immensely. Here's a couple of photos I took while at the restaurant ... the plan is to make a layout incorporating them at some point ... just not today ;)

Alan looks as though he doesn't know what to do with himself ... I just wanted a nice shot of him by the sign :)

Rose petals and chocolate hearts were awaiting us once we got inside.

Okay, that's me for this week but before I go I would like to thank everyone who left their good wishes for William and Arihanna. William is recovering well from his operation and little Arihanna is beginning to recover from the infection now, and should be well enough for the planned operation fairly soon.

We are off out for a walk now ... see if I can shake of the lethargy that's on me ... and I'll be back in half  an hour or so to check out a few desks.

Happy Crafting,

Footballer Lad Card and Matching Bookmark

Evening Everyone,

Hope you are all well and have had a good day. We went for a riverside walk this morning and it was quite pleasant ... we were well wrapped up though :)

My youngest grandson, Alun, has a birthday this week ... born on the 15th February - a belated Valentine's present :)

Here's his card ... with a matching bookmark that uses up some of the leftover bits. Alun is a very keen footballer, playing for his school team, and he is a fan of Celtic Football Team too so the colour of this little guy's shirt had to be green and white. I remembered to check which way the stripes went ... I disgraced myself last year and had them running the wrong way :(

He bears a remarkable resemblance to my grandson, especially with that hair :)

I used ProMarkers to colour the stamped image. Here's a list of the colours:
Skin: blush, ivory, soft peach, sandstone 
Hair: caramel, sandstone
Football kit: leaf green, satin, ice grey 1, warm grey 2, blender
Grass: leaf green, lime zest, pear green, marsh green

Materials used:
Papermania Textured Card, green and grey - for base and matting
Neenah Solar, white - for stamping and colouring
Wild Rose Studio For Men stamp - Football Lad and Everyday Greetings; Memento Tuxedo Black
Stamps Away - Useful Words - grandson; VersaMark and silver embossing powder
Bringing Crafts-Too You Designer Paper Pack, 6"x6" 
My Craft Studio and white copy paper for green edged insert 
Magenta Chipboard Grass and a snippet of hessian for bottom left corner embellishment
Other embellishments: white and green card candy (Granny Smiths), multi-coloured cord (Meiflower); die-cut sentiment (Anita's); 3-D boot embellishment (Create & Craft) and fringed tassel (Tassel Factory)

So not really very productive today, too busy going off walking, but what the heck :) Here's a couple of good reasons to take time out.

Aren't they lovely?

I won't be around much tomorrow either, my DH is taking me out for a Valentine's Day lunch at a cosy riverside restaurant - the kind that has a real fire burning in the fireplace - and I don't suppose we will be in a hurry to get home :)

Hope you all have a lovely day tomorrow, wherever you are and whatever you are doing.

Happy Crafting,