Salt: putting him first

It was Tanis' turn to choose the topic for today's Salt challenge and you can read what she wrote here.

As John and I have both been poorly, I wasn't sure whether I'd be able to do anything for this, but decided yesterday afternoon that a little crafting might take my mind off how I felt (quite a few scary times with breathing difficulties).

Anyway, I'm so thankful that I had this Bo Bunny Persuasion forever die cut because it really did all the work for me - with such a beautiful die cut paper there wasn't the need to do much with it - I just mounted it on to a 12 x 12 DCWV textured card and added a few bits. The wording is computer generated on to BG ambrosia paper and the 'kingdom' letters are AC thickers. The layered flowers are blooms from BF, with craftime flowers, finished off with roses that were given to me by Kaz.


I thought I'd also share this LO for these challenges (there seem to be a lot around atm with a floral theme):

Meljen's designs 7: 'flowers & blooms'
Alota 34: 'flowers'
Clearlyistamp 13: 'April showers bring May flowers'
Catch the bug: 'flower power'
Gingersnap GC51 random redhead: 'botanical'
ECP 12: 'spring'
Inky impressions 34: 'summer creation'
Quixotic 25: 'let your garden grow'
Polka doodles week 18: 'summer blossoms'

Too late for some ...

Last night I was feeling very unwell, but wanted to try and do something to take my mind off it, so I got out part of a QVC kit (yes another that I bought thinking I would make the cards for selling for charity, but until now it was still in the box).

Anyway, you can hardly call it crafting, but I managed to make four cards - they were meant to be for some challenges that finished last night, but, having made the cards, I just didn't feel like blogging them, so I've missed the boat on some of them - nevermind.

There were lots of sheets of double sided card in the kit, so I decided to cut them down and use as the base card, adding scalloped edging trims with just a bit of the underneath showing.

As usual, the silver surrounds have come out looking more like black on the scans.






Having blogged these too late for some of the challenges they were originally intended for, I'm linking for these:

Hand full of stamps 27: 'just a little dottie' - 3 of the cards have dots on
One stitch at a time 12: 'going dotty' - 3 of the cards
Critter 13: 'Critter birthday project' - 3 of the cards are birthday with critters on them
Lexi's creations 13: 'animals'
Jacksonbelle: 'clean and simple'
ABC: 'U is for unused stash' - this kit had been left in the box till now
Stampavie 94: 'pink' - lots of it here
Alphabet: 'B for butterflies' - on the first and third cards
Etsy inspired 87: 'Lindsay Brackeen' - inspired by the owls
Creatalicious 9: 'flowers and wings' - they feature on all 4 cards

Design Dollies elements challenge: 'nursery rhyme inspired' -

A wise old owl lived in an oak
The more he saw the less he spoke
The less he spoke the more he heard.
Why can't we all be like that wise old bird?

Clean and simple thanks

This card is for sketch 175 on Diva coffee break:

It's also for Color dare 65: 'breezy pumpkin red kisses':
It's also for:

ABC: 'T is for thank you'
Jacksonbelle: 'clean and simple'

Thinking of you

Not much crafting here atm - not feeling too great with a cold and sore throat - keep having coughing fits and hardly any sleep last night. Anyway, I've just managed one card.

This is for sketch 30 on Cards and things:

I've used the colours for this week's Design Dollies colour challenge: 'black, yellow and turquoise'.

It's also for :

Simple doodles 17: 'you're on my mind' - thinking of you
Cupcake 90: 'buttons'
Pink elephant 66: 'recipe: yellow, designer paper and buttons'

Papers are BG offbeat and the sentiment is a Hobbycraft stamp.

They say that cheats never prosper!

Think ink Tuesday 19 on Artful inkables - 'makeover' - was just right for this card. It is a bit of a cheat really. For my sale at WEF on Friday evening I wanted to make an easel card as a sample for anyone wishing to order one.

With all that was going on with John having been in hospital and lack of sleep etc I just didn't really feel like starting one from scratch, so I did a makeover on a card that originally was made for Easter. This time the card is for a birthday - and the inside within the easel is different from the original card.

The stamp is a lovely Stampotique one, the papers are BG and the flowers Craftime, with the addition of some punched edging and ribbons.


I'm linking for a few other challenges, but if you think it's cheating because it's not completely new, then I'll understand if it's not acceptable:

Stamp insanity 8: 'easel does it!'
Creative craft world 5: 'easel cards'
The crafty pad 70: 'give your project a punch - the edging along the bottom
Practical scrappers: 'punches'
Delightful sketches: 'pull out your punches'
Cutie Sunday: 'garden'
Crafty angels 34: 'one for the girls'
KL stampin n scrappin 29: 'easy as 123 - 1 type of ribbon, 2 designer papers, 3 embellishments (flowers)'
The secret crafter Saturday 82: 3 embellishments (flowers, 2 papers, 1 image
Crazy amigo: 'birthday'
Creative craft: 'bloomin marvellous' flowers
Scrap-creations Going Grey 9: 'anything goes' (BG papers used)
Tuesday taggers: 'using it again - let's recycle' - the whole card was 'recycled'
Prairie fairy 18: 'recycle'
Penny's challenges 28: 'shapes' - shaped card
Simon says: 'birthdays/celebrations'
Stampotique: 'think out of the box' - a different idea to use an original card as the basis for a 'makeover'
Wednesday stamper: 'flowers'
C.R.A.F.T. 49: 'birthdays'
Lili of the valley 52: 'here comes summer'
Alota 34: 'flowers'
Clearlyistamp 13: 'April showers bring May flowers'
Crafty Ann 14: 'anything goes'
ECP 12: 'spring'
Stamp something: 'birthday somethings'
Catch the bug: 'flower power'
WhoopsiDaisy: 'as you like it'
Daisy doodles: 'flowers'
Hope stamps eternal Cupcake inspiration 58:

Commissioned 90th birthday card

Since I last blogged life has been a bit difficult (again!) - early Tuesday morning John had to be taken to hospital, but, thankfully came back home yesterday afternoon, with further tests to come. So I haven't had much opportunity or inclination to craft, especially as I only had about forty winks Monday night/Tuesday morning.

I was asked to make a large (A4 size when closed) 90th birthday card and was given total freedom regarding colour etc. - and I need it for tomorrow, so I did make a start on this last night and have managed to finish it now.

I used three separate sweet pea decoupage designs and linked them together to form one. The base of the card is purple mirror overlaid with vellum that has the silver birthday wishes all over it. The sentiment was computer generated. The ovals were cut on my cricut using Make the cut. The papers used for the sentiment and ovals is HOTP.




I'm linking for these challenges:

Corrosive 62: 'let's celebrate - birthday'
Stamp dreams 29: 'summer feeling/mood'
Crazy challenge: 'bling bling' (the Prima gems)
Incy wincy 40: 'anything goes'
Kaboodle 30: 'celebrate spring'
Pollycraft 42: 'here comes the sun' - sweet peas make me think of spring and summer sunshine
There she goes 53: colour challenge: 'orchid opulence, regal rose, kiwi kiss'
Crazy amigo: 'birthday'
Creative card crew 49: 'April showers bring May flowers'
Creative craft: 'bloomin' marvellous' - flowers
Creative Belli 90: 'birthday card' - using old and forgotten treasures - the sweet pea decoupage
Inky impressions 34: 'summer creation'
Simon says: 'birthdays/celebrations'
C.R.A.F.T. 49: 'weddings or birthdays'
Lili of the valley 52: 'here comes summer'
Stampin' B 57: 'make a botanical card'
Alota 34: 'flowers'
Cutie 53: 'flowers'
Fussy & fancy 9: 'birthday, with a sweet treat' - is it cheating to use sweet peas
No time to stamp? 137: 'April showers bring May flowers'
By the cute and girly May challenge: 'celebrations'

Grey or brown?

This is for Mercy's sketch 71:
I've used the colours for Cards & Things colour challenge 29:

I should explain that when I saw the colours on screen I thought the chocolate chip was grey, so there are greys on the image (another of the Hunkydory vintage ladies collection) and it's only now that I realise it should have been brown - however, the distressing with tattered rose distress ink on to the diamond embossing (cuttlebug folder) light green card - for the sage shadow - has produced a kind of brown look. I'm not sure whether I've redeemed myself or not - or whether I'm digging a bigger hole with the explanation!

The button was cut from an Ellison die cut using a piece of Fancy Pants paper from my scrap box.

This is also for:

Quixotic 23: 'how distressing'
Stampavie and more 92: 'distressing'
Anns creative nook 87: 'diamonds: a girl's best friend'
Flourishes timeless 64: 'vintage'
Crafty sentiments: 'buttons'
The crafty pad 69: 'ribbons'
Paper popsicles moosetrack Monday: 'buttons'
Simon says: 'buttons, bows and bling' - silver mirror surrounding the image and the girl's dress is itself very blingy!
Charisma cardz 17: 'girly creation'
Fab n funky 21: ' No DP!'

New and old stash

This card is for Sketch & stash 34:

The new stash is the image, which is from the same set as yesterday's card - only bought yesterday. The old stash is the DCWV background paper - and the other two papers are Basic Grey. The piece of flowery stick-on ribbon is quite old too, as is the sentiment - it does say Happy Birthday, but it's so glittery it's hard to see on here. And I had to take the photo on the windowsill with the garden in the background - it was the only place that didn't need the flash, which kept bouncing off the silver. The flower is Craftime - it has black glitter in the centre.

The card is also for:

Corrosive 62: 'let's celebrate - birthday
The crafty pad 69: 'ribbons'
Lexi's creations 12: '3-2-1 - 3 papers, 2 embellishments, 1 image
Flourish timeless 64: 'vintage'
Charisma cardz 17: 'girly creation'

Vintage black and white

This is for this week's sketch on Crafty sentiments, which also calls for the use of flowers - these are on one of the papers:


The image is from the Hunkydory vintage ladies collection. The main background paper is BG offbeat and I'm afraid I can't remember whether the floral paper is Dovecraft or DCWV.

I'm also linking this card for:

Flourishes timeless 64: 'vintage'
Theme Thursday: 'black and white'
Magical crafts fortnightly 13: 'something for the girls'
Charisma cardz 17: 'girly card with flowers'
Mixed media Monday: 'I feel pretty'
Caardvarks: 'monochromatic'

With sympathy

This card is for sketch 164 on CPS:

I recycled a piece of card that was the backing for some PM stickers for the background of the textured rub-ons, which are The Creata heritage collection - pity the texture doesn't show up here like it does irl.

The card is also for:

The crafty pad 68: 'recycle'
Fiskarettes Monday challenge: 'recycle'
Little paper shop 65: 'let's get a little colour challenged - banana, lilac and white' - there isn't much white, but it is there on the gingham ribbon
Little red wagon: 'sympathy' - there's no wording on the front, but the insert is printed with 'with deepest sympathy'
Pixie dust studio 20: 'picture for inspiration' - the colours and the gingham
Paperminutes 111: 'butterflies'
Flutter by Wednesday 107: 'clean and simple' - include butterfly, fairy or angel
One stitch at a time 10: 'flowers'
Creative card crew 49: 'April showers bring May flowers'
Creative craft: 'bloomin' marvellous'
Creatalicious 9: 'flowers and wings'
Fab n funky 21: 'no DP!'
Hand full of stamps 26: 'look what I got' - new items within the last week - the textured rub-ons arrived in the post this morning

BF April inchies received

This morning postie brought me these super inchies from the swap group on BF forum for the 'Easter' theme - they are so lovely and all so different too.

BF April ATCs received

Once again the girls on BF forum came up trumps with some gorgeous ATCs for the 'black' theme for April:

The king of the jungle

This is a card for Crazy 4 challenges 34: 'choose one of the CRAZY girls cards posted here today and CASE it!'

I chose Mercy Kerin's card (the first one shown) - I've used some spotted paper and also a lion stamped (I love this Magenta lion stamp - it's a large stamp, so this time I cut the image down a bit for the square card.

It's also for:

KL stampin n scrappin 27: 'earth colours - browns, greens and white'
Paper garden projects: 'don't be blue colour challenge'
Frosted designs: 'colour challenge: aqua, brown, lime green'
Your next stamp 15: 'going dotty'
Crafty catz 30: 'spots'
Creative cottage 8: 'circles'
Alphabet: 'A for animals'
Aly's Sunday 16: 'animal hugs'
Stamp dreams 28: 'animals'
Tanda teaser 144: 'paws for thought' - I hope this 'cat' isn't too big for the challenge!
Incy wincy: 'one of my favourites' - this stamp definitely is
Everybody art 88: 'song title' - 'I'm the king of the jungle'

Simply blue, gold and white

This is a very simple card for sketch 61 on Card Patterns:

It's also for Basic Grey week 18 colour combo 5: blue, gold and white. I ussed lime rickey papers. The metallic embellishment in the middle of the flowers was originally silver, so I inked it with gold alcohol ink.

I'm also linking for:

One stitch at a time 10: 'flowers'
Creative card crew 49: 'April showers bring May flowers'
Creative craft: 'blooming marvellous'
No time to stamp? 137: 'April showers bring May flowers'
Our creative corner: 'blooming blossoms!'
One stop craft 77: 'metallic' - the embellishment in the middle of the flowers
Creative Belli 90: 'birthday card' - the old and forgotten item is the metallic embellishment
Simple doodles 16: 'not a spring chick anymore' - anything that is old - the metallic embellishment

Salt: Honour and respect

It was Stacy's turn to choose the theme for this fortnight's challenge on Salt - you can read what she wrote here.

Firstly, I apologise to my fellow Saltinies that my LO is late this week - I could say that it is because my crafting has been minimal for the past couple of weeks, what with John being poorly and hospital/doctor visits - but the truth is that I just couldn't get my head round what to do for this challenge. I think I found this to be the hardest challenge on Salt so far - but I now want to thank Stacy for helping me to reflect in the way I have in the end.

The scripture that Stacy chose is: “This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God's servants, who give their full time to governing. Give everyone what you owe him: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor.”- Romans 13:6-7

The more I thought about honour and respect the more I thought about our country at this present time, so close to a General Election and all that entails, particularly with the prospect, perhaps of a hung parliament. I felt I should do something on this theme, but what? ... I didn't want to wave any particular political banner, but as I considered this theme afresh last night (when a bit of panic had set in, thinking that I wouldn't be able to produce anything for this), I pondered on the scriptures from Hebrews and 1 Timothy that I've used in the LO.

We are urged to pray for those in authority and to obey our leaders and submit to their authority, but in turn they themselves have a responsibility ' ... as men who must give an account.' Our obedience isn't just automatic, but needs to be weighed up against the greater laws that God Himself has given.

I kept the LO simple - no flowers or flourishes - using three photos from the internet. The large lettering is American crafts remarks runway.

As usual, if you click on the picture, you will be able to read the writing.

WOYWW update

I spent a long time today labelling, putting inserts in cards, bagging etc - only to find that I had another lot that I'd forgotten about, so did those too - altogether today I did this with over 130 cards - I didn't realise I'd made so many recently (that's not counting the 60 odd Christmas cards that I've made).

I've now slotted these cards in with the ones I already had in boxes - I've just had a count up and I've got 410 in total.



Thanks to Elaine for the link for a supplier of the stackable trays that I showed this morning - for anyone interested, they are available here.

Now that I've got all the cards ready, I can concentrate on making some more to fill the gaps - need to make some more 'new home' cards, for instance - and 'sympathy cards', sadly, are often bought, so need to make a few more.

I'm also ashamed to say that I haven't done a LO for tomorrow morning's Salt challenge - I'm going to have to be late with this. I think the difficulties of life with John's ill health have been catching up with me a bit lately and I've been finding it hard to concentrate.

We're up to Guy's hospital again tomorrow, but I'm hoping that when we get back I'll be able to get something done and add to the Salt blog. Meanwhile, the new challenge should launch at 10:00 am, so please go along and see what others in the team have shown.

WOYWW getting organised ...

Wednesday has come round again with lightning speed, so it's time for WOYWW - do go along to Julia's lovely blog and have a nose at lots of people's workspaces - I love seeing them, but apologise to others that, unless I find some more hours in the day, I probably won't get round to looking because I need to concentrate on other things, as you will see.

Firstly, last Wednesday I showed a photo of a pile of 12 x 12 papers that needed sorting - quite often they get put back into the trays as they are, which, of course, makes it difficult to find what I need, hence a whole lot being out on the workspace. Tbh I like everything to be organised and labelled - and most things in my craft room are - so I decided to take the whole lot of paper out of the racks and sort and label. I've tried various ways of grouping papers, but find that mainly sorting by manufacturer works best because I then can tend to picture what papers I have more easily. I've also created catagories such as Christmas, ladies, men, scenes, wording ... those papers that tend to be used for a special purpose.

Someone last week asked where I got the trys - they came from Artymiss quite some time ago - probably two or three years - since then they have been taken over by the Craft Barn and I can't see the trays in their products. As you can see, I'm running out of paper space, so, if anyone knows a stockist for these trays, please let me know. Btw, the top tray is empty but usually houses a few miscellaneous things that haven't been put back yet!


I'll be selling cards on Friday week for charity at our Women's Evening Fellowship at church, so I need to get on and get ready for that. As you can see here, I've got a lot of cards that need labelling, inserts, envies, bagging ... You can't see many of the A6 ones because they've slid down inside the box, but there are quite a lot there to be done. Like other crafters, I love making the cards, but am not keen on doing all the other bits. So, I've cleared the decks and my first task today (perhaps I should say 'this afternoon' because somehow someone has stolen the morning!) is to get on with preparing these for sale, which is why, in the second photo under this you can see the boxes of inserts and envies.


Once I've done all this, I need to get on and make more cards to fill the gaps in my boxes which live on shelves in my bedroom wardrobe because I don't have room in here! So that will be the next task, to get the boxes out, slot these cards in and see what I need to make.

Update:

If you scroll up a post to here you'll find my update for WOYWW - all cards now have inserts, labels, bagged and sorted - that feels better!

Well, I tried ....

I needed to make my Easter inchies for the April BF swap and decided to use a bunny digi image to print on to shrink plastic - mmmmm - cut the shrink plastic as carefully as I could, but this is how they turned out:

I think these need to go in the bin.

So, I had another go with a different sheet of SP - decided this time to make them a bit smaller than an inch so that I could mount them on to card so that any wonkiness would be more disguised - not sure that I've achieved that because at least one of them looks exceedingly wonky!!

Sorry, girls, not my best ... but I tried!!

Black beauty

This month on BF forum the theme for the ATC swap is 'black' - I really enjoyed doing these.

I used some black card as a base - it wasn't too black so that the stamping and embossing shows up nicely on it. I used the Hampton Art corset stamp that I received as a prize a while ago, stamping in versafine onyx black and heat embossing with fine detail.

The lace strips down the side are from some lovely velvet lace that I received as a RAK/swap - I have to confess that I can't remember who it was from. I wrapped it around the side, securing in place with my ATG700 adhesive gun, which, of course, showed through the holes, so I sprinkled black glitter on - I wish I'd thought of this in the first place because I would then have put more adhesive under the lace, but nevermind.

The sparkly black letters are PM - having got the idea to use them I found that I have five of every letter I needed, except K, so for the one on the bottom right the K has been cut from an R. I then added three gems at the bottom of each ATC.

I'm quite pleased with the results. I'm linking this for:

Caardvarks: 'monochromatic challenge'
KL stampin' n scrappin 26': ''bling it on!'
ABC: 'S is for sparkle'

Stampotique 5: 'it's a girl thing'

Magical crafts 13 'something for the girls'
Sunday stamper 100: 'free as a bird' (sorry, no bird - well, not the feathered king!)
Dragons dream TIO 35: 'emboss it' (I don't know whether this will count or not, as strictly speaking it's an ATC, not a tag, but similar size)
Pixie dust studio: '19 tag you're it'
Paper cutz 37: 'tag' - I'll incorporated my ATC/tag on a card when I get it back from the swap
Fab n funky 20: 'get it all out!' - neglected stash - the black lace
For fun: 'anything but a card'
Penny's: 'open - anything goes'
Scrappy frogs: 'pick 3' - I've picked: embossing, no colouring, lace
PaperPlay 16: 'no patterned paper'
If the shoe fits Fashionista Friday 31: 'inspirational challenge' - picture of Marilyn Monroe - I've gone for glamour and black
Simple doodles 15: 'inspire others'
Town scrapper: 'let's hear it for the girls!'

WOYWW day today

Wednesday seems to come round alarmingly quickly - and I didn't actually join in WOYWW last week, so the fortnight's gone very quickly - and there hasn't been much crafting here lately, partly because of John being quite poorly - glad to say that he is now much better than he was.

Anyway, back to WOYWW - if you like having a nose at other people's crafting stash, then this is for you - go over to Julia's blog and join in the fun!

The first photo shows a pile of papers which have been taken out of the rack to be sorted - ha ha ... been there like that now for a day or two and no sign of sorting yet.

In the foreground of this picture you can see some of my recent stamp purchases. I got the three wooden stamps yesterday when I went to a craft shop fairly near to me which, sadly, is closing down, so I bought some Christmas stuff half price and got these stamps 3 for 2 - two of them are Magenta stamps - I just love them and couldn't resist. The clear stamps with the elegant ladies arrived in the post about an hour ago.

There's nothing much at the other end of the work surface except a box of acrylic stamps and a CD that you can't see - 'the very best of Lesley Garrett - I've been playing this recently - had it for Christmas and had tucked it away and forgotten it, so nice to get it out and have a listen.

It's a lovely day here. I'm trying to get more exercise than I have had for the past few months, so am determined to go out for a walk again today, but might combine it with a walk around Bromley shops (Kaz's good suggestion!).

Pink patchwork

When I saw Everybody art challenge 86: 'paper patch' and the theme of One powerful hour this week is 'patchwork', I remembered that I had some Rayher rose patchwork & stripes in pink, suitable for a new baby card.

The card had a basic patchwork pattern on it, but I added the faux stitching using a HOTP stamp with lzybells sugar candy pigment ink. The 'shakers' - the rattle and the Bs of BABY - were from a sticker collection that I bought long ago.

The card is also for these challenges:

Creative craft 11: 'shake it baby!' - shaker card, with the added challenge of baby related
Flourish timeless 62: 'shaker card'
Charisma cardz 15: 'monochromatic'
Etsy inspired 84: 'cose dolci' - quite a few patchwork items
Your next stamp 14: 'stitching real or faux'
Allsorts 48: 'in stitches'
Sweet stampin' 22: 'in stitches'
Crafty pad 67: 'stitching'
Lucy's cards 9: 'stitching'
Res-Q: 'take a mental health break' - use pastels and an image that makes you smile (cheated a bit here because it's not an image, but the stickers make me smile - the thoughts of a new baby girl certainly make me smile)
The craft garden April challenge: 'pastel colours'
Paperplay 15: 'stickers'
Faithscrappers UK: 'design team challenge' - 'The idea is to take the following photo and create something to express your response to the resurrection.'

I concentrated on the pink in the picture and 'new life'.