Desk caddy

A few weeks ago I came across a challenge blog that asked us to make a desk caddy - I wasn't able to do this at the time and can't remember where the challenge was, but the tutorial is here and I'm very grateful to Kathleen for this.

I've shared this with my crafting friends on the Bubbly Funk forum - those of us who haven't been able to go on retreat are having a non-retreaters mini-crop.

I used BG papers - Sultry elite and stylish.

I don't know yet what I'll put in it - will have to have a think. In fact, I might give it to my mum - it's the kind of thing she'd like.

I confess that because I'm still not feeling well, I didn't bother with eyelets, but just made holes with my cropodile - perhaps when I feel better I'll undo the ribbon and set eyelets because it would make it stronger.




I'm linking for these challenges:

One stitch at a time 12: 'going dotty'
Everybody art 90: 'make a gift'
Creative Belli 91: 'hole punches' - used my cropodile for the holes for threading the ribbon through
Creative cottage 10: 'fancy folds'
PaperPlay 19: 'brown and ?' - pink
Twisted Thursday 56: 'home sweet home' - celebrate your home (something to use at home) + ribbon
Alphabet: 'C for chocolate colours'
Crafty Ann 14: 'anything goes'
Fussy & fancy 10: 'a May basket'
Basic Grey 20: 'punch it' - I used my cropodile to 'punch it' and BG papers
One stitch at a time 13: 'anything but a card'
Fun with shapes and more 53: 'gift bag'
Scrappy frogs: 'mother's day' - this was earlier in the year in the UK, but I might well give this caddy to my mum - think she'd love it

Teddy bears picnic

I've just had great fun playing with digi images to come up with an entry for today's Soartful theme: 'Teddy bears picnic'.

This is one of the pictures given on Soartful, a freebie from Dezinaworld - I digitally cut around her, as you will see in the final picture and added her behind the picnic picture.

I found this picture of a Teddy bears picnic here and once again created a cut out of the teddies and their picnic.

The final picture I used was this one that I found here.There wasn't going to be enough room to put the picnic picture, so I copied and right hand section a couple of times and added them on to the original picture - I then needed to do a fair bit of cloning so that the join lines were eliminated.

So this is what I eventually achieved:

As well as entering it for today's Soartful challenge, I'm also linking for:

Pile it on 18: 'cute and cuddly'
Oh Alice chapter 13: 'mushroom inspiration'
Stamp dreams 30: 'fliepi look'
Lexi's creations 13: 'animals' (well, teddies are animals, aren't they?)
KL stampin n scrappin 30: 'et's show our animal friends some love'
My time to craft 91: 'toooo cute!'
Crazy challenge: 'cute & cuddly'
Ann's creative nook 88: sweet memories (of childhood)
Rosie-dee 70: 'so yummy' (picnic of cakes and sandwiches)
Charisma cardz 19: 'sweets treats'
There she goes 54: 'make a scene'
Flourishes timeless 66: 'picture it'
One stop craft 80: 'summer breeze'
Crafty calendar May: 'the great outdoors'
Crafty Ann 14: 'anything goes'
Dare U 2 digi 37: 'anything goes'
If the shoe fits Fashionista Friday 34: 'rain or shine' - a lovely sunshine day for this picnic

What an excellent discovery!!!

Did you know that you can emboss with your cricut simply by turning the blade round the other way? No, nor did I till earlier this evening when I came across Joy's blog with her video tutorial - you can read about it and see the video here.

So I used the lion on the animal kingdom cart to try this out. I used metal sheet at first (silver) and coloured it with alcohol ink - was pleased with the outcome (very difficult to get a photo with flash) - on here it looks as if the lines have been cut, but irl it is genuinely an embossed look.

I thought I would use the lion on a child's card and then thought it wouldn't be wise to use this metal one, so I then cut another using gold mirror card. The papers are BG max & whiskers and I stamped the lettering (PM stamps) and coloured with ordinary colouring pencils, which seemed appropriate for a child's card - not a copic in sight!

The first picture is a scan, so the gold of the lion doesn't show up at all.

This is a photo taken at an angle to try and avoid flash reflection - still doesn't do it justice, but does show the gold a bit better.

I'm linking this for these challenges:

Paper cutz 40: 'child's birthday, using digi, stamped or cricut image of a zoo animal'
Sunday stamper 102: 'we are golden'
Critter 13: 'critter birthday project'
Double Dutch 43: 'easy as 1, 2, 3 - card with a number on it'
Lexi's creations 13: 'animals'
Squigglefly 48: 'embossing'
Crazy amigo: 'numbers'
Scrap-creations Going grey 10: 'animal theme' (I used BG max & whiskers papers)
Tuesday taggers: 'step out of your comfort zone' - have never used the cricut for embossing before
Fab n funky 23: 'metal mania' - the first lion I cut (and the gold mirror one looks like metal)
Gingersnap GC54 spicy supply: 'pencils'
Your next stamp 16: 'cut it out and pop it up!'
Pixie dust studio 22: 'cut it out'
Treehouse 49: 'masculine theme'
Stamp something: 'birthday somethings'
Crazy 4 challenges 36: 'what are little boys made of?'
Stampin' for the weekend: 'a card for a male'
Hand full of stamps 28: 'get your shine on'

If you've got a cricut, I would recommend you have a go at turning the blade and embossing - could open up all sorts of avenues - especially with the Make the cut as well as cartridges. I think it's something I'll be doing more of.

Using the rest of the background

There was some background left over from the previous card, so it would have been silly to waste it - it wasn't quite big enough to cover a normal square card, so I matted it on to a bright pink card. You can read how I created the background here. The double sided green and pink ribbon was just right and I found this little cute girlie image that I'd been given in a swap and coloured with copics. What do you do when you haven't got any buttons to match? Cut some with the Ellison buttons die (this is always so useful).

This is for these challenges:

Stamp insanity 9: 'create your own background'
Totally gorjuss 29: 'pink and green'
Hope stamps eternal Cupcake inspiration 58
Crafty angels 34: 'one for the girls''
Fiskarettes Monday challenge: 'create your own background'
Squigglefly 48: 'embossing' - the Ellison button die cuts are embossed
City crafter 4: ' pink and green'
My time to craft 91: 'toooo cute'
Cuttlebug be inspired: 'for kids at heart' - I used the cuttlebug to cut and emboss the buttons
Stampavie 94: 'pink'
Tanda teaser 146: 'toddler times'
Your next stamp 16: 'cut it out and pop it up!'
Pixie dust studio 22: 'cut it out'
CCEE: 'inspiration - nursery rhyme' and Design Dollies elements challenge: 'nursery rhyme inspired':

What are little girls made of ?
Sugar and spice,
And everything nice,
That's what little girls
are made of.

Messy therapy

I've been playing with inks and things this morning. I used a mix of perfect pearls, water and Adirondack lettuce colour wash to spray to create a background - it shimmers irl more than you can see here - and then used an Anna Griffin background stamp repeatedly with Marvy heritage pond green ink.

I then used a set of Whispers ivy stamps (these are some of my favourites) stamped on to a piece of BG porcelain paper, coloured with copics and then distressed the edges with pond green ink. I then added a few buttons - love using these on cards.


I'm linking for these challenges:

Daring cardmakers: 'the emerald isle?' - although my green is more leafy green than emerald
Fiskarettes: 'create your own background'
Stamp insanity 9: 'create your own background'
Gingersnap GC51 random redhead: 'botanical'
Cards for men 10: 'outdoors'
Tuesday taggers: 'step out of your comfort zone' - it's been a while since I messed around with inks like this and particularly using the background stamp over and over
Scr@p-cards 9: 'ton sur ton' - monochrome green
Cupcake 90: 'buttons'
For fun: 'favourite stamp'
Glue scissors paper 20: 'celebrate our mothers' - one of mother's favourite things - the colour green (she says it must be God's favourite colour because he made so many shades of green in nature)
Papertake weekly: 'shiny, sparkly & special'

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.