A Friday Smile - Len versus Di

After a day out with friends I come home and twitter away to Len. In fact I always did that after a day at the office too so we usually sit for half an hour, with a glass of wine (in the garden when the weather is good) whilst I 'offload' as Len calls it.

When I got home on Wednesday, after the day out with Sam and Maureen from the Playground, Len said 'Before we sit outside with a glass of wine, just check your emails'. So I did - and this is the image he'd sent me:

And the caption:
When a male bird can't stand it anymore!

Once I stopped laughing - he still got his ear bent :)

This is for Annie's Friday Smile.

Di
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A Playground outing

On my knees here, after a fabulous day with our naughty (but well behaved girl) Sam (aka Hettie) all the way from Wales and the lovely Maureen (ScrappyMo) - all the way from Canada:

So here you have it - left to right - yours truly, Maureen and Sam. 'Stood standing' outside Highclere Castle in Hampshire UK yesterday.

We got on brilliantly, laughed about all the Snippets Playground mischief, and send you our love - your ears should have been burning, and every word was said with a big smile and a lot of affection. What a lovely Playground we have, and it just got a bit closer yesterday :)

More will follow - once I recover! Oh, and Maureen's Al is a hubby in a million too - endless patience with three squawking females - fight you for him girls!

No swings or slides to be seen :( I did have to haul Sam off the grand staircase though, poised ready for a swift slide down the looooong and sweeping banisters!

Di
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A flower - just for you

I've been looking at this little LOTV pre-coloured image on my desk for weeks now - time to use her:

Sigh, now matter how I tried, the lovely embossed butterflies on the frame wouldn't show up in the photo - the gold sentiment ain't doing too good either :(

I used:

- 6" x 6" square white card stock

- backing papers from a Tatty Teddy pad called 'Spring Chic' - I love that these are printed on both sides with some left plain colours, so easy to mix and match

- LOTV image which I popped behind a Craftwork Cards pre-cut and embossed frame (with those invisible butterflies on). So that the little bow would fit OK I just fussy cut round the top of it so it peeps over the frame. To make room for the mauve organza bow I trimmed both sides off the frame

- sentiment is by Craftwork Cards too

- just a few mauve pearls - job done!

One reason I love this image is that it reminds me of our Playground playmates - when they're on good behaviour :)

Today Sam (Hettie) and I are meeting up with Maureen (ScrappyMo) for the day - first stop is a craft shop and then lunch, before trotting off to Highclere Castle of 'Downton Abbey' fame. It promises to be fun ........... if they have swings :)

Di
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Christmas joy

The current challenge over at Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge is 'Spread a little joy and love' - and this really happy image seems to be full of joy:

I can't help smiling when I see that happy face, saying 'Here's some joy, love me but please don't eat me' :) Am I alone in not eating gingerbread men, jelly babies, chocolate bunnies and the like without a pang of guilt I wonder?

I used:

- 6" x 6" square Kraft card

- Penny Black Stickeroo from the 'Snowy Christmas' sheet

- main background paper from Raspberry Road's Christmas Collection (free with QCME magazine) and all other papers from Echo Park's 'Season's Greetings' paper pad - wahoo, that pad is almost used up - that would be a first here

- strip of Christmas ribbon - too nice to hide and too bulky to tie a bow with

- sentiment was stamped using a SU stamp from the 'Joyous Celebrations' set, SU 'Old Olive' ink pad, punched with a Hobbycraft label punch, threaded with green cord and fixed with a brad from a set by My Mind's Eye called 'Decorative Brads - Red'

Am also entering this into Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra for August - where it's always 'Anything Goes'.

Di
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Valley of the Butterflies

Many years ago, on a first trip to the island of Rhodes, I visited a breathtakingly beautiful place known as The Valley of the Butterflies (or Petaloudes).

The wooded valley is inhabited by literally millions of Jersey Tiger Moths in the months between July and September. When I was there we had to speak in whispers and very occasionally our guide would blow a little whistle whereupon it seemed as if the bark of the trees which was covered with resting moths literally came to life and fluttered around us in beautiful swathes of rusty orange coloured wings. Sadly I believe that too many visitors and not enough consideration over the energy these lovely creatures use when disturbed have changed the moth population's survival rate :(

I was thinking about the valley yesterday after we'd been sat sitting in the garden marvelling at the huge number of butterflies fluttering round the buddleias and the idea for this card just popped into my mind:

I used:

- cream card stock, folded tent style with one corner rounded

- SU 'Early Espresso' card, embossed with Tim Holtz folder 'Woodgrain'

- a snippet of twine

- 3 butterflies die cut using butterfly dies Memory Box, the solid one is 'Isabella' and the matching 'lacy' one is 'Pippi' - a snippet of terracotta patterned paper was used for the solid wings and a snippet of plain toning terracotta card for the lacy part and body/antenna

- sentiment is Elzybells, stamped using Brilliance 'Pearlescent Chocolate'

 

This is part of the walk through the valley, courtesy of Wikipedia.

Edit: Just spotted a challenge of at Chocolate, Coffee and Cards - this is the inspiration photo:

 

It sort of rocked me on my heels after what I'd written here today - I have the tree bark, butterfly plus the brown and terracotta on my card so I'm going to join in :)

Di

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Pixies Crafty Snippets Playground - Week 84

Oh wow - we had 57 entries this week, great going girls!

My snippets card this week is based on a very simple but I think clever idea - shown here on You Tube by Helen Allen. It's the second of the two ideas for using up little snippets of ribbon Helen shows in the video - great for using up those little pieces that I find are always left over after wrapping ribbon round a card/making a bow:

 I used:

- A6 white card stock

- a snippet of green card from the snippets folder, it's SU's 'Lucky Limeade' with the corners punched using a Woodware notched corner punch

- an assortment of little ribbon snippets from the little box I throw them into - just a couple of inches in length is enough to play with. I picked out same width ones but that's not necessary of course, plus my card has a real mix of colours on, different shades of pink or any other colour would look good though

- sentiment is by Inca 'Dot Birthday', stamped with Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink, corners punched with the notched corner punch and layered onto another snippet of card, black this time

Helen just added the card strip of ribbons to her lovely card, I covered mine with a scrap of black and white gingham ribbon. One thing to emphasise if you do try this is to use ultra strong DST throughout - ask me how I know :)

Here are my picks for this week, and it just gets harder and harder.

Just two snippets, the fabulous Memory Box 'Modern Landscape' die - bingo, one perfect New Home card made by Sarn.

A wonderful lavender themed card and bookmark, made by Elizabeth. It's beautiful and I love the dragonflies. Elizabeth also made the backing paper using the shaving foam trick - and there's a link on her blog posting.

Bonnie made this breathtakingly beautiful Christmas card - I love it!

And Mary H made this totally gorgeous card using the negative left over from die cutting a flourish.It's fabulous and another way to use dies without wasting what's left over.

Sigh, I could go on forever picking cards to show - so many beautiful ones, you can hop over and check them out here.

Onto the winner of the two Simply Gorjuss Girls stamps, plus the stamen punch - and it's:

Glennis

That's so funny - the first few names drawn by the random number thingy had declined (probably on account of being scared to colour the fawn - grin), and then out came Glennis who had squeezed into the Playground right at the end of playtime! I've been and peeked through some of the posts on your blog and there's some lovely colouring there so I hope you like this prize Glennis! Can you please let me have your snail mail address - my email is di_wray@hotmail.com

It's the second week for the Raindrops stamp, quite a few of you have already qualified for the draw I see. If you haven't, then you only need to make a total of three entries over the two week period to be in with a chance.

And this week's prize is....................a bag stuffed with ribbon snippets :) Come baaaaack, I was kidding!

These stamps are 3" in height

Each wing is 4" high x 3" wide

It's a couple of lovely big and bold stamp sets, donated by Sandra H, and I think they would be such fun to colour in - although they would also look very striking just as they are. I haven't tried Zentangling out yet but there's something about these stamps that reminds me I ought to! Thank you Sandra!

The Playground will run as usual this week with the gates closing at 11am UK time on Saturday 10th August. Maximum of three entries and please say 'No thank you' in a comment if you wish to still play but not be a winner of the stamp sets shown above. Mr Linky is below - do please let me know if you have any problems linking, I can sort it out for you quite quickly and am always happy to do so.

Enjoy your week and hope to see you in the Playground. Remember that next Sunday the winner of Ryn's Raindrops stamp will be revealed - good luck,

Just realised that this is my 1000th blog post since starting this blog in March 2010. In truth over time a few posts have been deleted so it's really more than 1,000, the deleted ones were some which were being targetted by spammers until I hit on the idea of not allowing anonymous comments - that fettled the little perishers, snigger.

Di
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Friday Smile - on a Saturday

On a cooler day earlier this week I went into a cleaning frenzy. Not just the flick of a duster either, oh no, it was 'full ferret mode' - in which no cranny is left unscrubbed and explored.

Whilst blitzing our shower room I turned to some industrial strength limescale remover - it's really lethal stuff and not for sale in your normal supermarket either. We live in a very chalky area here in Hampshire and limescale drives me crazy.

Seeing me waving the bottle of lethal chemical, Len warned me to be careful - but he'd never seen me in full cleaning garb when using that stuff. Later on, hearing the sound of a toothbrush frantically scrubbing in a particularly hidden part of porcelain ware, he stuck his head round the door to be greeted by yours truly attired as follows:

1. Elbow length rubber gloves - check

2. Huge protective apron - check

3. A protective pair of goggles - check

4. Toothbrush in hand - I buy cheap ones in packs of four from the supermarket as they're great for getting into tricky little places when house cleaning - check

As I turned round Len almost collapsed laughing and snorted 'Good God, The Graduate strikes again. Shall I go up into the loft for your flippers and snorkel?'

This is for Annie's 'Friday Smile' - go on, take a peek, it's all good fun!

Di
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A card for a rather dapper man

Not a very imaginative title for a blog post, but it's too hot here to really think very deeply:

I used:

- 6.5" x 6.5" square black card stock

- Core'dinations stone coloured plain card

- top hat patterned papers from Paper Cellar's 'Mens' pad, and the swirls paper is from First Edition's 'Noir et Chic' paper pad - I thought the colours matched well and the swirls echo the border round the top hat paper

- to cover the join I punched a strip of plain stone card using Martha Stewart's 'Double Loops' punch and just topped it with a strip of the patterned swirls paper

- Elzybells sentiment was stamped onto a strip of stone card using Brilliance 'Graphite Black' and the very dapper moustache is from a sweet set of moustache stamps by Studio G, given to me by our Brenda on her trip to the UK - mwah!

That's it for me - typing this on Thursday afternoon and you could fry eggs on the pavement here!

The House of Zandra 'Robin' stamp I used the other day that wasn't 100% has been replaced, the new one is stamping perfectly, not a fuzzy line to be seen. Bless them, they even tried the new stamp out first and enclosed the crisp image :) Also enclosed a SAE so I could send the faulty one back and they will be taking it up with the manufacturer. That proves, at least with House of Zandra, if you aren't happy with something it's always at least approaching the retailer to see if they can rectify things.

Di
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New home card for Dee

A crafting friend just moved house so I made this:

Couldn't think which house stamps would be suitable and then I found this ready coloured LOTV image :)

I used:

- 6" x 6" square white card stock

- plain pink card from the snippets folder

- LOTV ready coloured image, love those bunnies in the bath with the duck looking on :) Punched the corners of the trimmed down image with Woodware notched corner punch and just wound some pink and white bakers twine round the notches before adhering it to the pink backing with sticky pads

- the patterned papers came from a lovely paper pad, sent to me a good while ago by Mary Mac (I'm using them sparingly!) by Teresa Collins called 'Sweet Afternoon'

- embossing folder is SU's 'Honeycomb' folder with little infills of the patterned paper cut to size

- ribbon from the ribbon box

- sentiment is an Elzybells one, stamped with Versa Magic Chalk 'Pink Petunia' ink pad. Punched with SU's 'Large Oval' punch and layered onto a pink oval punched using SU's 'Scalloped Oval' punch

- three pink pearls in the top right corner

- then, sigh, I was left with an imbalance of too much lemon spotty paper so a quick rootle through the charms for a double heart and a pink pearl brad soon fixed that

- as everything was attached to the card when I added the charm and brad I just backed the inside of the front of the card with a piece of white card that I'd trimmed so slightly down from 6" x 6"

Now, I'm saying nothing, but the house move does mean that The Glitter Pot Craft Store is only a short drive away from Dee's new home :) Oh Dee, clever move!

Just spotted that we already have 45 Snippets Playground entries and there are still two and a half days to go. Well done girls, keep 'em coming, although it could be standing room only at this rate :) And Happy August!

Di
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What are snowflakes?

Unassembled snowmen of course :) I love that sentiment and when I spotted that the theme this week is snowmen (or women) over at Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge, this Penny Black Stickeroo was my immediate choice:

I used:

- 6" x 6" square white card stock

- Penny Black Stickeroo from the 'Snowflakes Falling' sheet with an icicle border along the top made by covering a snippet of card with double sided sticky sheet, die cutting the icicles using Marianne Creatable LR0135 die, removed top layer of sticky and then covered with sparkly stuff. I keep a little box of these strips ready made, very handy too

- turquoise Core'dinations card for the main backing, behind the image and also the punched strip down the left hand side (I used Martha Stewarts 'Daisy Dot' punch down each edge). So funny, it's only just as am typing and looking to check the name of the punch used I realise I meant to pick 'Aspen Snowflake' out of the MS punches box - what a Dumbo, but waaaay too late to change it now! They are pretty similar and I didn't have me specs on at the time - if you squint perhaps you'll see how I made the mistake :)

- the snowflakes backing card is a snippet, make unknown, and at least THAT isn't daisies ............... I just double checked

- the white iridescent ribbon came from my ribbon box, then I added a little Christmas Tree charm using iridescent and silver cord

And this card, daisy edging and all (duh), is also for the following challenges:

Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra for July - Anything Goes

Ooooer, and I can just squeak into Penny Black's Saturday Challenge where the theme is Christmas in July.

Di

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A Birthday Recipe

Last week it was a special bloggy friend's Birthday - and she loves to bake, and does it very well too! So, I faced up to colouring one of those NBUS stamps by LOTV - the detail in the image had worried me I confess:

I used:

- 7" x 5" white card stock

- image is LOTV's 'Mix it and make it', coloured with Pro Markers and die cut using a Nesties Labels Eight die then tickled with Glossy Accents on the cherry, egg, bun/muffin tin ...  and a little trickle down the bowl as those meece seem to be very messy workers :)

- pink backing card from the snippets folder, both behind the patterned paper and to die cut a doily using Cheery Lynn's 'French Pastry' doily die. I used some of the waxed paper I recently bought online from Joanna Sheen here and the cut card fell out of the die like a dream! Hopefully no more struggling with fancy dies here - it's great stuff

- patterned papers are 'name unknown' from a selection sent to me by the lovely Dee, I added a little striped strip at either side to fit the card and also to make a cleaner line behind the ribbon

- sentiment is also LOTV - one of their 'Recipe' sentiments

- organza ribbon came from my ribbon box, it was wired but that was easy peasy to remove. A little 'spoon' charm (thank you Jules!) was added with iridescent cord, tied into a bow

Hope you had a fabulous day sweet friend!

Di
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Great minds think alike

On Saturday morning, as soon as the new 'Less is More' challenge was announced, I knew what I wanted to do. This was such a change for me as, lately, I haven't really 'clicked' with the chosen LIM themes - but I got my comeuppance 'cos someone beat me to it with the self same image anyhow :)

The LIM challenge inspiration was this photo - and I opted for the super-high black stiletto heel, plus the stamp was lying on the desk here hot from the post!

 

I used:

- 6" x 6" white square card stock

- stamp made by Creative Expressions 'Heart and Soul - UMS028', stamped with Black Archival Ink and coloured with TH Distress pens plus some touches of silver, and Cherry Ice stickles on the largest hearts

- black card from the snippets folder

- sentiment is by Whimsical Designs 'Whimsical Fun - Vol. 1' - it looks badly aligned in the photo but the card also looks barrel shaped in the photo, sigh

Crumbs, I remember tottering round in heels like these, but not quite so high. At just over 5'2" tall they were essential (so I thought) when working as the only female equal with a load of power hungry chaps - if only so they didn't pat me on the head!

But, the morning I got a stiletto heel stuck in an escalator coming out of a London Tube Station on my way to the office certainly cured me of commuting in anything other than flat shoes................ with my 'power shoes' safely tucked inside briefcase!

Edit: After initially writing here that I wouldn't enter, then being seriously threatened with a long spell on the naughty step, I've linked into Less is More anyhow! 

Di
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Pixies Crafty Snippets Playground - Week 83

Tell me what you see on my snippets card for this week - yup, another Ryn Tanaka stamp, this one is 'Raindrops':

I used:

- 6" x 6" square white card stock

- snippets of pink and lemon card from the snippets folder, snippets of patterned paper (flowered and spotted) plus a 6" square whole sheet of flowered paper for the background

- the image is a Gorjuss clear stamp from a set called called 'Puddles of Love', coloured with Pro Markers. I've had it unused for absolutely ages! Then I paper pieced the umbrella, mackintosh and little wellies - oh, and the little piece of her dress peeking from underneath the mackintosh, die cut the image and popped it onto a backing of pink card before stamping some raindrops with Ryn's 'Raindrops' stamp. I know, the raindrops are quite big compared to her - but she's just a little Gorjuss girl :),

- sentiment is Craftwork Cards, popped ont an oval punched using SU's 'Oval' punch

- corners were die cut from spotty paper using Whimsy's 'Shapeology Collection - Corner Set' and then I added Josy Rose black nail heads

- foliage was die cut from little snippets using Cheery Lynn Designs 'Mini Fanciful Flourish - B1175'

- flowers were die cut from teeny tiny snippets using Joy!'s 'Flowers set - 6002.0024', two or three layers depending on the flower size, which were then flicked up and the centre stamen added. That was punched using Floral Punch Craft Leone Em's 'Small Stamen II punch'. It's a quite small and detailed punch so I just coloured some paper using a black Pro Marker and after it had dried properly the stamens punched out fine - it won't work on card though, ask me how I know :)

The picks for this week were as difficult as ever, I hope you like my choices and the reasons why:

This card, made by Kim, just HAD to be included - serious attack of the giggles here when I spotted it! After a week of petitions about 'saving the tree house' because I'd proposed that the trampoline would have to go there it seems so appropriate. Love the goat trying it out - and the tree house is quite safe, I filled in the duck pond and put the trampoline there instead :)

I love this card, made by Glennis - bright, eye catching and such a great way to use up snippets. It really does sum up Summer perfectly.

Amanda brought this brilliant 'exploding box' to show - so much work (and snippets!) must have gone into it, terrific idea and so well thought out.

How about this then? A fabulous folded shirt, made from a single piece of paper is the perfect topper for this great card - love the background too. Our Carol hopped into the Playground waving this - so clever. I've made the little shirts in the past and it's all done with clever folding - here's a link to a YouTube tutorial if you want to try. Perfect for those oh so difficult male cards.

And here's a totally stunning card, made by Viv! It's a real beauty and the pram is made using die cut circles - another one to try. I love how the pink lace and little rosebuds finishes it off so well.

A big welcome to a new Playmate as well - that's Sue J of 'Olliesmam'. Be kind to Sue girls, hopping over to say 'Hi' would be nice too.

Remember, you can still go to last week's links here and have a hop around.

OK, so who won last week's prize of the Penny Black stamp 'Strawberry Jam'? Chosen by the Random Number thingy it's:

Liz

Can you please send me your snail mail address (di_wray@hotmail.com) Liz - and very well done!

So, this coming week's prize:

It's two Simply Gorjuss stamps, as shown plus a little stamen punch the same as the one I used on my card. Linby sent me the 'Girl on a Swing' (only been inked once) absolutely ages ago for the Playground and I've added a new stamp called 'The Fawn'. I'll be perfectly honest and say that it's the colouring of the fawn that scares me so that's why I'm giving it away, I know me limitations! But can't you see the little girl dressed in red and then the image used with a snowy background for a Christmas card?

That reminds me, many of you have been sweet enough to send prizes for the Playground, for which I do thank you very much. Please don't fret if I don't offer them straight away - they are safely tucked in the Playground toy box and listed in a notebook so they will appear for sure. But, you must never, ever, feel that you ought to send anything, the toy box is very full and there are enough prizes there to take us into 2014! If you just carry on playing and enjoying yourselves that's enough to make me happy.

But, someone else decided to send us a Playground prize - when I was ordering something for the future from the lovely Ryn Tanaka, she noticed that I hadn't ordered two of the Raindrop stamps and (bless) included one for you girls as a prize! How totally sweet is that then?

So, this is one of those two week things like last time. All you have to do to be 'in it to win it' is to make a total of THREE snippets entries over this week and next - so that might be three in one week, two one week plus one in the other, it's up to you. Of course you can still make a maximum of three entries in one week which would also count. Then, it'll be the sunhat draw and I DO only have one stamp to give away, courtesy of Ryn.

The Playground will run as usual this week with the gates closing at 11am UK time on Saturday 3rd August. Maximum of three entries and please say 'No thank you' in a comment if you wish to still play but not be a winner of this week's prize which is the Gorjuss girls stamps and the stamens punch, shown above. Mr Linky is below - do please let me know if you have any problems linking, I can sort it out for you quite quickly and am always happy to do so.

Enjoy your week and hope to see you in the Playground!

Di
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More washi tape

Staring at the washi tape and a die cut butterfly still out on the crapalanche waiting to happen desk here I had a five minute play:

I used:

- 6" x 6" square white card stock

- strips of washi tape

- a black sparkly flower by Petaloo

- butterfly was already die cut using a snippet of pink card with Joy! Crafts 'Vintage Flourishes Butterfly' die 6003/0023. Black pearls added down the body

- sentiment is SU's from the 'Wonderful Words' set - am sure it's discontinued, I bought it 'pre-loved'. Am also sure it's stamped a bit 'wonky' but for a five minute dash I guess it'll do

Tomorrow is Snippets Playground weekly round up - and, as a little teaser, I have another Ryn Tanaka stamp for you to win.

Di
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Little legs like 'spelks'

For those who might wonder what on earth a 'spelk' is, it's a splinter of wood in Geordie dialect. And my Step Mum always says that robins have legs like 'little spelks' :) Loooooooong spelks in this case:

I used:

- patterned card stock, one is called 'Holly Craft' by Kanban but I don't have the name of the other 'stitched effect' one - cut and folded to DL size (approx 8" x 4")

- plain backing card behind the image, from the snippets folder

- image is a House of Zandra stamp called 'Robin' - which sadly is very disappointing when stamped as the lines have 'feathering' on. Such a shame, I tried all inks and papers but it's the stamp that's just not right. Coloured with Pro Markers with the top hat and wing stamped again, coloured and then decoupaged

- sentiment is from Personal Impressions 'Many Greetings' set, stamped using SU 'Real Red' onto cream card, punched with SU's 'Word Window' punch then layered onto matching card snippets which were punched using SU's 'Modern Label' punch

Cutting out the 'spelky legged' robin was really the only option to get rid of the feathering outside of the image, and of course I had to cut along the lines - leaving a white border wasn't going to do the trick, although I do always cut along lines anyhow. A tip I picked up from Debby is to run a grey marker round the outside of cut out images, it hides any white edges  - mine is a Faber Castell Indian Ink one in 'Cold Grey' and it certainly helps, plus it doesn't bleed like a Pro Marker probably would. Sigh, but I missed a few bits :(

Have contacted House of Zandra, I bought this stamp at Newbury so they'll have to take my word for it, in the hopes that it was perhaps a faulty batch. Watch this space.

Edit: I had an email from House of Zandra and they will be sending me a replacement - apparently this is the only stamp they 'outsource'. But watch this space anyhow! 

This is my entry for Rudolph Day, over at Sarn's. She has a lovely Penny Black stamp as a prize this month - hurry up, you have until Wednesday 31st July to be in with a chance!

Am entering the 'stitched' card into Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge (unless Hazel thinks I've bent the 'stitching' rules a bit too much) and both of them as one entry into Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra for July which is always 'anything goes'.

Di
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Health warning - get your sunglasses ready

As is so often the case, I procrastinate about trying something new for ages - and then wonder why I didn't take the plunge sooner. This time it's washi tape:

I used:

- 6" x 6" square white card stock, with the opposite corners rounded

- a piece of approx. 4" x 4" square card from the snippets folder and a few lines of washi tape (you didn't for one minute expect me not to buy pink did you!) - just placed diagonally across the piece of card and then the opposite corners rounded

- sentiment is by Craftwork Cards

- butterfly die cut using a snippet of purple card, Joy! crafts 'Vintage Flourishes Butterfly' die 6003/0023. Black pearls added down the body

And that was it, a very quick little play and job done. Oooh, I can think of tons of other ways to use washi tape - ha, just watch, it'll go out of style now!

Di
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Hunky Dory card in a frame

Playing some more with the 'Shimmering Watercolours' Hunky Dory win from QCME here - and once again l almost lost the will to live. It's a really lovely prize but they didn't include any instructions on making the box part that sits behind the scalloped frame - almost made a big boo-boo but thankfully realised what I was about to do wrong just in time.The kit came with four of these cards which stand up on little easels at the back - first two:

The name of this design is 'Poppies in Bloom', to be honest they look like anemones to me.

 Creamy white roses and probably delphiniums

And a (blurred) close up view to show the layers.

Even avoiding my potential boo-boo, I had trouble with the first one, the box front 'lip' which the die cut foiled front sticks onto is a gnat's whisker larger than the widest cut out on the filed front - no matter how much you juggle it around. I learned from that and trimmed a sliver from each side of the next 'box' before assembling it!

I hate to look a gift horse in the mouth but wouldn't you think that the measurements would be fit for purpose when things are sold in kit form?

Oooer, I'm such a big kid too - and our eagle eyed Darnell spotted it on Monday. Finally got round to adding a watermark to piccies - and now spend ages moving it round the photo in 'Gimp' before making my mind up. I got the watermarks from Karen Giron and they're $2 per design - a snip I thought - go and peek here. Super fast service - I think Karen must have done them within just a few hours, and that's with a time difference too!

Di
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Under pressure

I was asked, very last minute on Thursday, to make a Birthday card for a friend's daughter. So far so good - and then, like Topsy, it sort of grew. Could I use a photo of the recipient's beloved horse, could I include her name, could I include the horse's name - and so on. With only 24 hours in hand I had a few wobbly moments, especially as (I bet you all know this) working with coloured photos on cards/layouts takes a lot of colour co-ordination or at least avoiding clashes - and frankly stresses me out. Anyhow, this was the end result:

And, as the card is being smuggled on holiday by the recipient's daughter 'cos they will be sunning themselves abroad for the celebrations, I thought a sturdier envelope than usual was a good idea :)

I used:

- 6" x 6" square cream card stock

- a photo of 'Teddy' which was hurriedly emailed to me. Cropped a bit, re sized and then a canvas effect applied. At this point my printer started to play up, sigh, so I had to use Len's printer (thankfully using wi-fi) but of course there was a bit of trotting to and fro to collect the printing :(

- Core'dinations card for the backings and the strip of card underneath the ribbon, punched using Martha Stewart's 'Lace Heart' edge punch

- a snippet of ribbon across the punched strip, little tie of ribbon then a brown cord bow to fasten a butterfly charm in place

- sentiment banner is probably a Lakeland Limited one from the days when they did a range of craft stuff

- peel offs to spell out 'Michela' (and it's the correct spelling!) and 'Teddy' - isn't he a splendid chap too?!

- at that point the card looked a bit bare but I'd kept the punched out hearts from the lace edging so just popped some of those here and there as well as at either end of the sentiment banner

- the envelope was made using a 12" x 12" sheet of card/thick paper - a lucky find really, topped with two ovals for Michela's name when her Mum writes the card

When I'd finally finished Len said 'Now I think you ought to brush your hair and come and have a glass of wine in the garden'. What a fright I looked, in the heat I'd been running my hands distractedly through my hair as I fretted and worked - it looked just as if a couple of birds had been trying to build a nest!

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Playing with Distress Markers

Tim Holtz Distress Markers have been on my wish list for quite a while now and the other day I spotted over at Kate's blog that there's a new 'Seasonal' set of 12 lush colours, perfect for a first purchase and little play. They arrived in under 24 hours from Craft Obsessions, along with a 'Picket Fence' marker (white) which I added to the order 'cos I think it'll be very useful. The colours really are ideal for a starter set too. So, yesterday I had a really super fast little play:

It's a Sympathy card, as others have said, they are the one card that you often feel too saddened to make when the time comes so here's one to keep on standby.

I used:

- 7" x 5" white card stock

- deep purple/aubergine Core'dinations card stock for the main backing and to layer the image onto

- embossing folder is 'Bon Jour' by Couture Creations - one of these is coming up in the Playground shortly :) It's a lovely folder with a plain panel down the centre - would look good either way round too depending on the image or even just a nice sentiment. What doesn't show up well in the photo is that I layered the image onto a square of the deep purple/aubergine card before adding it onto the plain panel

- the stamp is Penny Black's 'Irises', coloured with 'Mowed Lawn' and 'Seedless Preserves' Distress Markers - then 'huffed' on and stamped

- sentiment is LOTV ''General Greetings - Small', coloured with 'Seedless Preserves' marker again

I adore these markers and can see lots of fun ways to play with them.

Edit: On my way to bed last night I spotted a comment from Kim (Kimbo), one of our Playmates. So I hopped over to look at her snippets make here and am still laughing - do go and take a peek!! Flipping hilarious :)

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