DCM butterfly, flutterby

Quite a long while ago I bought a kit from QVC - seemed a good idea at the time, but ... - lots of stuff by Craft House - all very nice, but no real crafting involved in making anything. It's just a matter of peel off the sheet and stick on a card. I sold some off on ebay recently, but still had lots left, so last evening I decided to make some cards with them - I did 21 altogether - and I've still got some more left over (watch out on ebay!).

Anyway, I had a look this morning to see what the dare is today on DCM and it's 'butterflies', so here are five cards from me that have butterflies on them, but I take absolutely no credit for any creativity or crafting, because it's just not appropriate. However, I'm hoping that some of these cards will help towards raising money for charity the next time that I have a sale.

I deliberately left a couple quite plain (temptation to add more and more)







The photos are rubbish - the light is varying so much today - April showers!

HS:MS recycle

Todayt on HS:MS: recycle: 'Covert waste into reusable materials. Find something to recycle in your space today.'

The first shot is one looking into our yukky green box which is used for recycling glass, tins and plastic - it looks really mucky - it's been raining a while ago, but I have to confess that it's dirty anyway, but who on earth bothers to clean the box (probably everyone else!):



And this is a much nicer recycling. This is what I started with:



and ended up with this (it now lives on my windowsill and is very useful):

HS:MS secure

Today's prompt on HS:MS: 'Something that is fixed or fastened so as not to give way. Find something secure in your space today.'

I've only just been able to get these shots. The gardeners were here (sounds posh, doesn't it - we have someone to do the grass cutting and hoeing etc because we can't do it) - and I didn't want to be seen taking odd pictures (it's bad enough that the neighbours see me wandering around taking strange aim with my camera!).

The first one is the padlock on our garden shed:



The next one is a little cupboard at the back of the maisonette - there's a water tap inside and a few bits and pieces. I'm not sure why there's a bolt as well as a padlock!



And, hopefully, this is the most secure of the three of them:

Salt: His Presence

It's time for another Salt challenge - and my, how the weeks go by. Last time I said that I wouldn't leave it to the last day this time, but actually it was a good job I did, because our day out on Tuesday gave me inspiration for my contribution - a LO based on some of our sightseeing with the grandchildren.

Gillian chose the theme of His Presence and this is what she said:

His Presence
what does God's presence mean to you?
Does it mean Comfort in time of loss,
Strength when you face a battle,
Reassurance that you Walk the Good Walk...

or is it something you need to accept,
is it something you want to be more open too.

Joshua 1:5
No one will be able to stand up against you all the days of your life.
As I was with Moses, so I will be with you;

I will never leave you nor forsake you.

there are many other verses that speak of God's presence in our lives here are a few.

Matthew 18:20, John 6:37, Romans 8:38-39

as we do each challenge the design team have created some beautiful pieces
and we'd love you to join in with us

In whatever creative form you feel lead to create in, it could be a Scrapbook LO, card, ATC, journal entry, or whatever else you can think of it's really up to you :)

Post your piece onto your blog, with a link to Salt then come and leave us a comment with your link so we can come and share your art.

Please take a look at Salt

Talking with the children about the flag flying when the Queen is at Buckingham Palace got me thinking of the kids' chorus: 'Joy is the flag flown high from the castle of my heart when the King is in residence there' and the fact that Jesus said that He is always with us, even to the end of the age.

I used Center City Designs Imagination project papers for the background: midtown south '5 minute cab ride' and 'walk on Madison Avenue' (where do they get these titles from?!?) Lots of K & Co letters, some dymo tape with my Letratag and a couple of chipboard pieces for the K and crown. The wording says:

"Yesterday we met up with Mandy and the girls and went sightseeing. At Buckingham Palace we explained that if the Queen was there the flag would be flying. Joy is the flag flown high from the castle of my heart when the King is in residence there. Jesus said: I am always with you."

I was tagged

Ruth tagged me (I've done one very similar before, so I'm probably repeating myself, although I can't remember what I wrote before!):

What I was doing 10 years ago:

Getting used to being 50!

On my to-do list today:

Tidy my craft stuff (always seems to be on the list as soon as I do any crafting), go to the chemist and pick up prescription, go to the post office, perhaps go with John to his bowls club meeting (boring, so I might stay at home and craft instead)

Snacks I enjoy:

This is a difficult one, not because I can’t answer it, but because the realisation of eating too many of them (in fact, eating too much fullstop) is causing me to think again. My passion is dark chocolate – the darker and more expensive the better (but I’m hereby declaring that I’m not going to keep giving in to it).

Things I would do if I was a billionaire:

Give to charities, buy houses for family members, generally treat as many people as possible to whatever would make life more comfortable for them, including my mum.

Three of my bad habits:

Sitting too long at my computer (it’s not good for my back and John sometimes has to nag me)
Eating too much dark chocolate (see above!)
Don’t think I’m going to confess to the rest

Five places I have lived:

Dovercourt (Harwich, in Essex)
Catford (South East London)
Bromley

Although I’ve only lived in these three towns, I’ve lived at eleven different addresses in all.

Five jobs I have had:

Secretary for a plastics firm – two different locations
Casual worker at the PO Christmas holidays when I was a student (mature)
Agency temping (secretarial) when I was a student – in a bank and a solicitor’s office
Teaching

Five people I'm tagging (although I expect some have already done this - feel free to ignore):

Jo
Maddy
Lisa
Janice
Lynn

HS:MS post

We had a lovely day yesterday. I had hoped to show some photos, but have had to deal with a trojan horse on my system this morning - grrrrrrr - I'm so glad I have a daily scan scheduled and it picked it up and has now (hopefully) dealt with it.

So I've done very little this morning and now need to get on with my contribution for the new Salt challenge for tomorrow (a fortnight ago I declared that I would do it ahead of time ... this hasn't happened ... oh dear, I am a failure!)

So, all I can offer here for now is my photo for HS:MS 'post: A long sturdy piece of wood or metal, or the delivery of letters and parcels. Find post in your space today.':

In fact, today's post is really not exciting:



However, yesterday's post was great. I received my swap cards from CBC and a super RAK from Melissa:



And I also received an order of crafty goodies (including 3 tubes of silicone glue, but I haven't shown them, because they're not that exciting!):

Great minds think alike!

Just went back to HS:MS and saw that Di had left hers - her BIA! I obviously didn't get in quick enough!

HS:MS lever

This is 'silly o'clock' for me to be doing this! I said that I would join in HS:MS again and today we are going out for the day - meeting up with DIL and children in London - to see Big Ben and 'where the queen lives'! As an aside, we hope and pray that the showers hold off and that John and I will be able to walk around as much as is needed - buses in between - particularly as neither of us have really been out on this scale for months - plenty of painkillers!

Anyway, back to the HS:MS word for today: 'lever: A bar resting on a pivot used to help move a heavy load. Find a lever in your space today.'

Perhaps it's a bit early in the morning, but I found it hard to think of what I could use for this.

Then I remembered a very important lever:



As it is housed inside a cupboard it doesn't get much attention, as you can see from the dust, but it does its job and we're glad it does.

However, the next one is a much nicer lever - on my BIA:

HS:MS moss

Once upon a time I used to do the photo every day for HS:MS and then I got out of the habit. Yesterday I showed my snowy pictures and put a message on HS:MS.

So today I'm showing some photos for the prompt 'moss' - 'A low growing, spore producing plant with no roots that grows in damp conditions. Find some moss in your space today.'







And to think that only yesterday all of this was covered in thick snow!

CBCC038 Dressed to impress

Carolyn asked us to make a card influenced by hers.

I used a new stamp that I hadn't tried yet - stamped with Brilliance pearlescent crimson and coloured in with sone if this watered down.

I couldn't find the little gem stones I wanted to use, so I made do with these little sticky flowers that I've had for ages and have never known what to do with them:

CBCC039 Template

This is the template given by Carolyn:



I decided to use some of the rubber stamped images I got on one of the swaps on CBC. I coloured in with Sakura and Marvey and edged with Brilliance pearlescent crimson, which was also used to stamp the ribbon with 'have bags of fun'.

The photo somehow doesn't show the colours as irl, but you get the idea:

Tanda Teaser 'word play'

The Tanda teaser this week is 'word play' - set by Wendy here

This card is also inspired by the minimalistic idea of the DCM dare this week, but it doesn't strictly speaking qualify for that because of the embossed background.

The stamped image was one that I received as part of a swap on CBC (thought it about time to use some of them) - coloured in lightly with karisma warm grey and mounted on a cuttlebug embossed swirls silver pearlescent sanded down - and just a bit of Brilliance starlite silver around the card edges:

DCM dare: shrink to fit

I made this card last night for this week's DCM dare, set by Kathy - a toughie, but a good challenge! Details are here

I used one of my favourite little stamps (mainly because it so reminds me of Josey - and we still miss her lots).

I used linen card (just has a feint criss-cross embossing, which still stamps OK). I used chalk pencils and Sansador to blend for the colouring and around the edges of the card and Archival Ink sepia for the stamping and card edges:



I think I'll make more cards like this - a great challenge!

More piccies

Like the photo below, these were all taken from inside - the view I have from the window to the right of me.

View from my window

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!

When they said we would get some snow, I thought it might just be the odd sleety, snowy shower, but this .... !!!???

We were going out to church and then lunch at our local Beefeater, but now we're staying safely in - there's no way I'm going to risk slipping and fracturing anything.

It's lovely to look at, though.

The sky is still really thick with it and it seems to be coming down even more now.

If you enjoy going out in it, have fun! If not, stay in and keep warm!

Here it is!!!

Postie brought my finished 'In my dreams' CJ back to me this morning. I have been privileged to be part of the group on CBC - and am so thrilled with the finished result of my book.

Front cover:



Welcome:



Rules:


My DLO:





Nigel's (Freebird's) DLO:





Lisa's DLO:











Steph's (Nerdbird's) DLO:





Carolyn's DLO:





Sign in pages:





Thank you so much to all of those involved, including Melissa for organising.

(Apologies that the photos were rushed because the battery was dying and I didn't want to wait!)

CBC ATC's received

I've just received two gorgeous 'pretty in pink' ATCs from the swap on CBC.

It is a shame that the photo doesn't do justive to the stamping on the bottom of this one from Carole:



And I love this from Lyn:



And the postie also bought me my finished CJ from the group on CBC - it is fantastic - I love it - and will show it soon!

CBC CJ

Nigel's fab CJ 'Dusk 'til dawn' needed to be in the post today, so here is what I did for my DLO.

The double sided paper used is Imaginisce 'go for baroque' French fleurish. I punched the holes for the ribbons on my bind it all:




This is the last of the CJs in this group on CBC - I've very much enjoyed being part of this and having the privilege of contributing to everyone's book.

Atm I have no other CJs to work on, but Kathy is starting a new one on Bumbleberries, so now I need to quickly decide on my subject for that.