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Thursday 27 November 2014

November Swap Challenge

And so we reached the last challenge of the year .....phew we made it!!!

We all know who to blame for the theme choice this month:  'er wot asn't blogged 'er's yet!!! (Pat).  Elements, I ask you.  4 cards from each parcel (earth, wind, fire, water).  I looked at the parcels and thought I would be lucky to get 4 in total from both parcels combined but it just shows that one day you can have no idea and the next you have so many that you run out of time to make them.  So I still have plenty of snippets put away for another time to play.

Firstly my cards from Terri's parcel.

Earth.  I used an image from the parcel and then found a Christmassy backing paper.

Wind.  Such a pretty paper in the parcel and I cut my favourite butterfly!!


Water.  I cut a frame and a layer out of some paper in the parcel and then added an image from the parcel.


Fire.  I used a paper from the parcel but found my own image to go on it.  Smoke rising from the chimneys counts as fire!!




I did one or two more but I don't have photos of them.

On to Pat's parcel.

Earth:  Can't get much simpler than this.  I used the enclosed sentiment image and the little blue dots.  I fund some gold mirror card to layer behind the sentiment.

Wind.  I embossed some plain paper to go with the included butterflies and then added a greeting on top of some glitter strips
For the next card I used plain paper from the parcel and clear embossed snowflakes on it.  I used my own image and cut some small dots from the waste card from the image



Fire:  I used my own glitter strip and one of my own images to shape as a tag.  I embossed a plain piece of paper from the parcel.
 

Water:  I found a small wooden boat from my topper stash and used paper and card from the parcel

Now we relax until January but really we need a break as we open our craft advent calendar parcel from Monday!!

Sunday 16 November 2014

Upcycled Christmas

I have been delving through the box of old Christmas cards and found this lovely pair of robins.  I cut the card tag shaped and added a bow.  I mounted this with double sided foam onto a snippet of patterned paper that I cut with a die and my Cuttlebug.  A greeting completed this simple card.


I am entering this card in the following blog challenges:

CHNC challenge extra for November
Crafty Hazelnut's patterned paper challenge November
CHNC challenge 203:  Go green
Pixie's Snippet Playground week 51

Tuesday 28 October 2014

Just dotty!!

Last month it was stripes and this month it was spots.... no it didn't mean we had to catch chicken pox but that the cards we made needed to have at least one item with dots/spots on.

I had two lovely parcels and made three cards from each parcel but if I had had more time I could have made more.  One day life will slow down and I will find time to do all the things I want or perhaps I will have to curtail some of my interests (even better to give up housework!!).

First up, the cards I made from Terri's parcel.

The teddy came ffrom a previous swap parcel and other than a bit of white card the two patterned papers were from my swap parcel. Sometimes I get asked for a baby card that is not pink or blue, so this will fit the bill nicely.  I am entering this card in Pixie's playground challenge 148


This card was even simpler than the previous and all the bits came from the swap parcel.



I only used the spotty paper from the swap parcel and the tag and the greeting came from my stash.  I have since been asked to make several of this style and personalize them with the child's name.


The next three cards from Pat's parcel.

I used the backing red paper and the dotty paper from the parcel and found some scrunchy lime green foiled card that matched the spots.  It looks a little bright here but it caught the light.



The papers and candi came from the parcel but the ribbon and joker card came from my stash for this one.



Another simple design that I also used last month but it fitted the bill, I think.  I found a piece of plain paper and the butterfly from my stash.


Next month is a challenge.  Need to make four cards from each parcel and the theme is the elements; earth, wind, fire etc

Monday 22 September 2014

September stripes

I had a fun time creating cards from our September parcels for which the theme was "stripes"... even "strippitty stripes".

I made two from Terri's parcel:








I made 5 from Pat's:






Stripes was a great theme and I have lots of lovely stripey paper for more cards in the future.  YAY

Friday 22 August 2014

Swap the Swaps

This is the month when our swap parcels are made up of supplies we have received in our parcels month by month and have not yet used them.  I must admit that I sometimes view things in a different light when they are in a different mix of card, papers and toppers.

First up are the cards I made from Pat's parcel:


I think this is my favourite.  It looks like it is on a blue card but it isn't, it is a purple cardstock.

I do like the patterned paper on the card below.


And then on to cards from Terri's parcel:


Not my most favourite card, this one, whereas the next one is.


I love the embossed pattern card of this next one and also the colour of the nestie.  The brads toned qute nicely too.


And now a confession ...... I am just hoping I have attributed the right cards to the right person.  I usually do the parcels separately but this month did them all on the same day; silly me!!

Monday 18 August 2014

August update

Where has the time gone to since I last posted on here.

Firstly we had a week's holiday on the Dorset/Somerset border and went to the wedding of our youngest niece. The least said about the journey down there the better ..... 6 hours!!!  About double the time we had expected.   We celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary whilst there and my daughter and family took us out for afternoon tea......what a lovely treat.  We visited several National Trust and English Heritage properties in the area but decided not to attempt the steep Gold Hill in Shaftesbury!!!






The weather has taken a decided dip since that week of blistering temperatures and now begins to feel quite autumnal....far to early.  Some of the veggies have now finished and I have been pulling out french bean plants whilst Peter has been sorting out the strawberry runners and pruning the raspberries.

Now it has cooled down I am making the most of the time to paint the fence with preservative..... I am rapidly losing the will to live as it is such a boring, monotinous task.

I am trying to get some Christmas knitting/crochet and embroidery done.  Still two items to complete before we go out to Seattle in October, let alone doing some Christmas shopping.  I can do it, I can, I can, I can.

Thursday 24 July 2014

Sport

The theme for this month's swap parcels was ........ Sport!!

I made two from each parcel; I could have made more but I didn't have time but I shall look forward to making more cards in later months.

I made these from Pat's parcel:

 This first one was very simple.


I found a chipboard arrow and covered it with gold stickles before adding it to the card.

I do like the two backing papers for both cards.

I made these from Terri's parcel:

 I used some of the martial arts images and added to them to this backing card and stamped the greeting direct onto the backing paper.


I just used the card and papers from the parcel and then rifled in my stash to find the little box of playing cards.  Card playing isn't a physical sport but it is very competitive so I hope it counts as a sport.  I used a Cuttlebug die to cut the trellis strip that goes across the middle of the card.

Wednesday 16 July 2014

The Little Yellow Duck Project

One of the delights in life is to stop and watch the ducks on village ponds or lakes in parks or in gardens of Stately Homes. Baby ducks are all sorts of colours and not necessarily the colour they will be as adult ducks. Yellow ducks always seem so bright and cheerful; a symbol of new life; new hope and bring a smile to the eyes.

Ravelry is a free internet community of knitters, crocheters, spinners, weavers and dyers, of which I have been a member for many years. A couple of months ago I saw a group called the Little Yellow Duck Project and instantly joined. Little Yellow Ducks? I couldn't resist.

All around the world people are making and leaving yellow ducks (and other colours too) as random acts of kindness and leaving them in prominent places. Churches, supermarket trollies, public benches, train and bus stations, cafes, shops and even in baths in DIY shops!!

Each duck has a special tag on it. It invites the finder to take the duck home and visit the Little Yellow Duck website where we hope the duck will be registered so it appears on the map but more importantly for them to encourage people to register to donate blood, organs or bone marrow.

Little yellow ducks, the symbol of new life and new hope are bringing a smile to the eyes of people and are slowly spreading the word around the world. As of today ducks have been found in 25 countries and yet the project only started in the UK in April.


This little chap is waiting for the bus.


This flock of ducks flew the nest all the way over to America.


This little duck thought he was in seventh heaven!!


This little duck went sightseeing.

Sunday 29 June 2014

Terri's Swap parcel

I made all my cards from the swap parcels really early this month and then somehow never found the time to get them blogged.  Plenty of excuses but the only one that really carries any weight is my getting enthusiastic with the Little Yellow Duck Project.  Never heard of it? Do go off and see all about the project and support if you can.  I will do a blog post another day.

Back to swap parcels.  Animals.  Terri's parcel.  I made three cards and they are all fairly simple.  The first one I just mounted on a piece of white paper on a coloured card stock and added a peel off greeting.


 The second one I took a piece of card enclosed in the parcel and embossed it with a Crafts Too embossing folder.  I die cut the images and added, along with a peel off greeting


This last one is my favourite and yet I did hardly anything.  It was a very pretty image that Terri included and I just diecut the scallopped oval and a plain oval and added my greeting.



Job Done!!

Wednesday 25 June 2014

Pat's June Swap parcel

Our swap this month had a theme of animals; my choice.  For once I didn't go "eeek" when I opened the parcel and although I couldn't think of what to make straight away, it didn't take long for ideas.

These are the cards I made from Pat's parcel.  The first two are very similar and very simple.  To be honest I couldn't think what else to do with them.  I just used Stickes on the stars and mounted the greeting on a layer.  Methinks these two will be birthday cards for some of the little girls in my life!!







The next one is my least favourite. I found some ribbon from the ribbon box and some paper for layering from my snippets box.



I liked the next one the most.  I coloured the image with Promarkers and found some card from the snippets box for layering the image and the greeting. I am entering this over at the Snippets Playground.






Sunday 15 June 2014

Uh Oh

.... I'm late. I'm late.  Just call it another senior moment in that I forgot to blog the cards I made from Terri's swap parcel last month which was the theme of busy papers.  Hangs head in shame.


I really liked the colours of this card and that shimmery paper changed so much every which way I turned it.  I knew a little boy who was going to be three and so I used a little wooden train as a feature and later added a number 3 to the top card.



I used my new spellbinders die set for this card and it I liked the way it made the patterned paper just a border.  I used a similar colour to stamp the flower and to edge the top oval.


Most months I am making cards using this butterfly from my Marianne Creatables die..... so many people love it.  Now this really was a busy paper and a little bit goes a long way.  I used my swiss dots cuttlebug folder to emboss a piece of white card and luckily I had a nice ribbon of the right colour and it even included the greeting for me.

Wednesday 11 June 2014

Butterfly

 Yet again......my favourite butterfly.

I printed the background and then cut the butterfly from a snippet of glitter card using my Cuttlebug and a Marianne Creatables die.  I poked out all the lttle bits and then used them to make the butterfly trail!!





I am entering this in the Snippets Playground.

Monday 9 June 2014

Christening card

I was asked to make a christening card from someone who didn't really know what she wanted but knew what she didn't want.  She didn't want either of my stock cards  LOL

So what did she want?  Blue as it was a boy; a teddy; special wording and maybe a church or a font.
Soooooo what did I come up with ....the focal point being a cross (not asked for!!) made using my Craft Robo.  The cross, flowers and the punched printed white border were from the same piece of white card but the little teddy was cut from scraps from the snippets box.  A snippet of dotty paper and a white ribbon bow completed  the card.

Quite my favourite christening card and the lady was very happy with it!!


I am entering this card in the Snippets Playground challenge

Tuesday 3 June 2014

Sparkle at 70

I was asked to make a special birthday card and so I got the snippets box out and rummaged through until I found some sparkly blue (doesn't show very well on here) glitter card and cut the butterflies with a hand punch and then used the Cuttlebug to cut the numbers and emboss a piece of white card.  A snippet of ribbon from the ribbon snippets box and a peel off greeting completed the card.





I am entering this in Pixie's Snippets Challenge.