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'.

I'm back after a bit of a lull ...

This card is for this week's sketch on Just Birthday and Christmas cards:

and also for colour challenge 28 on ColourQ:

I made a criss cross card that formed a pocket into which I put a card with a sentiment (plain to write a personal message on the back).

I used a Charmed download from the Sugar & Spice range called 'butterfly kisses', so this is also for today's challenge on Dottie's world: 'pocket it!'.

The card is also for:

Pile it on: 'spring'
Magical crafts 13: 'something for the girls'
Stampin' sisters in Christ 35: 'make a card with flowers on it'
Crazy amigo: 'favourite background stamp' - the corner swirls - Rhona Farrer stamp
Creative card crew 48: 'happy birthday'
Fab n funky 19: 'use a neglected stamp' - I haven't used the 'wishing you a very happy birthday' stamp for ages
Cute card Thursday 108: 'touchy feely!' - the flowers are very tactile
Meljen's designs 3: 'add those 3D elements' - the flowers
Daring cardmakers: 'getting in a flap' - not sure whether this is OK because the 'flaps' have been stuck down
Stamp something: 'something layered' - a few layers here with two cards used and cut to make the criss cross, added papers, the flowers are layered - and, although the image is a digi, stamping was used for the sentiment and swirls on the insert card
Lots to do: 'alcohol inks' - I used copic pens to change a white flower to a (2 shades of) pink one and also to alter a blue one to turquoise
Crafty angels 30: 'my favourite things' - BG papers - I used 'mellow', 'lemonade' and 'Indian summer'
Penny's: 'anything goes'
Papertake: 'cutie pie'

Postcard from Paris

For Sunday postcard I was going to do something different and then decided that I could cut down what I did for this post - so now this one is 6" x 4":

Spring birthday

This card is for the Taylored expressions sketch 108:

It's also for:

Curtain call 25: 'only orange, green galore, yo yo yellow, pixie pink'
Cutie stampers 50: 'orange/green'
Creative card crew 48: 'happy birthday'
Gingersnap GC49 chestnut theme: 'the good earth'
Paper cutz 36: 'use three patterned papers' - the birthday paper is DCWV, the paper on the right is K & Co and the bottom paper was free with a magazine
Raise the bar 13: 'let's spring for it'
Lily-boo too April challenge: 'spring colours - yellow, pale green and blossom'
Pollycraft 39: 'pink and brown + green'

Dream

This was supplied for the Soartful 'embossed on white' challenge this week :

I decided to use a couple of clipart pictures from Publisher and layer them on to the white embossing, using transparent fade and diffuse glow to show through the layers in varying degrees. I then printed it out so that I could stamp with the Chinese 'dream', scanned it back into the computer and then digitally added the 'dream' text.

I'm also linking this for:

Rainbow lady's 98: 'red, black and gold + a touch of oriental' - I know this challenge has really finished, but today's isn't up yet, so perhaps I'm just squeezing in with this.

Frosted designs: 'dream'

Salt: What is home?

It was Ruth's turn to choose the topic for today's Salt challenge - you can read what she wrote here and also see the lovely handiwork of the rest of the team.

One of my memories of childhood is the framed version of this statement over the mantelpiece in my grandparents' front room:

'Christ is the head of this house, the unseen guest at every meal, the silent listener to every conversation'.

Thinking through this challenge, this seemed to be a good response, hence this LO. I tried to find a picture of John and me eating, but the only photos I could find were taken in restaurants or on holiday, which would defeat the purpose of doing the LO about 'home', so I've had to make do with a photo of us just sitting together (which was actually taken in my mum's home, but at least it's not a restaurant background).

The background paper is SEI Madera Island, which I scalloped around the edges with my rotatrim and the smaller papers with the photo are BG ambrosia. The flowers are Craftime ( seem to be using these quite a lot atm - I'll need to replenish stocks).



Why not go over to Salt and have a look at this fortnight's challenge and perhaps it will prompt you to make something that you can share with us by leaving a comment and a link to your creation.

Merci for Paris in purple

Some time ago I won the Viv la France digi collection from Dezinaworld and have used a couple of the items to create this for a few challenges:

Twisted Thursday 51: 'adventures in Paris' - use the word 'merci'
Hand full of stamps 23: 'digi it'
Dare U to digi 35: 'metal' - the Eiffel Tower is one of the most spectacular metal constructions in the world
Charisma cardz 14: 'thank you'
Hanna and friends 39: 'scene'
Paper sundaes 13: 'make a scene'
Cooking it up with Katie 15: 'use a digi, add some purple, use something 3 times' - the 'merci bien'
Penny's challenges: 'anything goes'
Incy wincy 38: 'something magical' - Paris is such a magical place and hopefully this LO is too

Keep it simple sweetie

This card is for the inspiration challenge for Divine Diva 25:

and using this sketch for Don't waste your Thursdays 28:

It's also for:

Stampin' royalty 15: 'keep it simple sweetie'
Crafty creations 63: 'limited edition challenge' - only 1 designer paper (Anna Griffin), 1 image (PM coloured with copics), 1 embellishment (gold ribbon - yes, it's gold, but doesn't look it here)
Fab n funky 19: 'use a neglected stamp' - this hasn't been used for a long time

Best friends forever

'Best friends forever' is the name of the Sarah Kay stamp that I've used for this card - it's one that I was part of my prize from Sunflowers & Dragonflies, which you can see here.

The card is for these challenges:

Nutty nutshells 13: shaped card - 'doiley card' cut from my cricut wild card cartridge
Copic colour 59: YR16, BG49, E18
Copic creations 25: 'flowers'
C.R.A.F.T. 45: 'recipe: a free hand plus buttons'
Corrosive 59: 'textures'
Crazy challenge: 'don't call me flat'
Cuttlebug spot: 'bling bling' - I used my cuttlebug to cut the die buttons
Mixed media Monday: 'hello dolly'
Paper popsicles Mossetrack Monday: 'stitching' - faux stitching around the scallops
Papertake weekly: 'cutie pie'
Creative cottage: 'buttons and bows'
Delightful sketches: 'buttons and bling'
Pals paper arts 37: 'flowers'
Stampin' royalty 14: 'tempting turquoise, so saffron, taken with teal'
Fun with shapes and more 48: 'extraordinary card' - a different shape - the cut pieces are the glittered die cut buttons (Ellison thin die)
Sew many challenges 10: 'let's see some stitching' - faux stitching around the scallops
Simple doodles 15: 'inspire others' - any project, any stamps
Something completely different week 46: 'letter B' - bling, buttons, bow
Stamp something: 'stitch something' - faux stitching around the scallops
Our creative corner: 'bows'
Totally Gorjuss 25: 'texture'
Paper jewels 3: 'sewing and buttons'

The papers are Anna Griffin, the flowers are Craftime and the buttons were cut from Craftime glittered paper.

Point to the stars

I actually made this card a couple of days ago, when it was still in time for SPCC colour combo 42: 'whisper white, elegant eggplant, basic black', but, unfortunately, didn't get round to blogging in time for the deadline.

It's also for Cards & Things sketch 27:


It's also for Stamp scrap & doodle 35: 'birthdays'.

I've used another of the images from the QVC music and dance kit and the base card is Majestic night club purple from PDA, which is a fabulously rich aubergine colour that reflects hints of blue in certain light.

A note of thanks

This card uses the colours for Easy breezy Kewl colour challenge 19: 'soft suede, kraft, bordering blue, bashful blue'.

It's also for Corrosive 58 sketch (unfortunately, this is another one that I've missed the deadline for - I'd made the card in time, but haddn't got round to blogging it):

I'm also linking for Charisma cardz 14: 'thank you'.

I can't remember what the background music paper is (it's a piece from my offcuts box - still trying to keep to one of my crafting resolutions) - the other items used are again from the QVC music and dance kit:

Time for Christmas again

Being April, this is the fourth Christmas club challenge on BF forum and for this Janice has supplied us with this super sketch:

My aim is to make 10 cards for the BF Christmas Club every month, so here goes with my April offerings (I didn't make them all today - just one of them and added finishing touches to others.

I had to resort to scans because a lot of the cards were reflecting too much with the flash, but you can get the general idea.

Supplies are a mixture of Kanban, Craft Creations, DCWV, PM papers and various embellishments, including DCWV and Dovecraft.

These cards are also for:

Crafty angels 30: 'my favourite things' - making Christmas cards! and Tellen's place 12: 'it's all about you'.
Practical scrappers challenge this week: 'glitter and/or bling -quite a few of the cards have reflective mirror card and/or glitter
ABC Christmas 'G is for glitz, with the optional extra of silver' - particularly the silver mirror card with layered glittered poinsettia
Alphabet: 'X is for Xmas'
The cards with snowmen and teddies are for Simon says: 'a card for a child'.


This card is also for Cupcake 86: 'childhood memories' (carol singing); also the next three cards are for Fab's big Christmas week 14: 'brads' - the big brads are either Dovecraft or DCWV - I can't remember which. They are also for Creative card crew 47: 'vintage' (there's no 'aging' to the card, but the images are vintage). Susie & Vikki's Christmas club 8 called for 'presents & gifts', which are here:


This one is also for Loonie 87: 'black, white, turquoise':



And the next two are for Fab's big Christmas week 13: 'tone on tone' and also Cute card Thursday 107: 'mono mania':



This one is also for Crazy challenge: 'don't call me flat' - the poinsettia is built up with four layers. Unfortunately, the scan doesn't show the reflective nature of the silver mirror card - and I tried to take a photo, but got myself and the camera reflected!

This last card is also for treehouse 44 colour challenge: yellow, lavender and a neutral:

Wreck this journal

Lots of my crafting (or should that be 'crafty'?!) friends on Bubbly Funk forum have recently bought a 'Wreck this journal'. Having been brought up to respect books and look after them, it kind of went against the grain to think of getting a book and wrecking it ... but I ordered one and it arrived this morning.

I didn't think to take a photo of what it looked like to begin with. Since it arrived, I've broken the spine of it - that's one of the instructions, I chewed the corner of a page and I took the book into the shower with me - and then put it out in the sun to dry so that the pages have wrinkled a bit.

I now have no issues with wrecking this journal because that's the purpose of it. On the inside page it gives this warning:

'During the process of this book you will get dirty. You may find yourself covered in paint, or any other number of foreign substances. You will get wet. You may be asked to do things you question. You may grieve for the perfect state that you found the book in. You may begin to see creative destruction everywhere. You may begin to live more recklessly.'



If you haven't seen one of these yet, I'd recommend it (I think I'm already a bit 'hooked' on it - you can get it from Amazon - and if you have seen it and have been hesitating, then I'd suggest you get one and begin to wreck a bit ...