Back inside ....

.... after a fun time camping!!  I am drowning in filthy laundry atm - not to mention having had to go in to school for a few days - not fun, it's still supposed to be the holidays.

We had a ball at our annual Mini camping weekend.  The weather was way better than forecast, only one period of sustained rain, one day of completely unexpected sunshine too.  We went to see a birds of prey display on the Saturday afternoon, it was fantabulous.  I'm not that keen on birds at close quarters, but was prepared to make an exception for something like this baby:

And here is my mucky puppy of a son - half an hour after arriving at the campsite, before we had even finished putting up our tent, he fell into a swamp.  My husband took the photo, and for some reason only captured the top half, the bottom half was completely black, wellies full of black mud.  Oh the joys of boys!!  By noon the next day, ALL the boys had fallen into the swamp so many times, we had run out of clean clothes for them.  They were warned (again!) not to go into the swamp, and threatened with girls clothes if they did it again.  That stopped them!!

And here are some of the Minis in a bright green field in the sunshine.  Ours are the two in the foreground of the second pic:

Haven't made any cards in a while, but I've got a few planned in my head, will start one of them tomorrow I hope.

Thanks for looking!

A monkey card ....

.... for a little monkey!!  My friend's daughter has just turned 2 - she is obsessed with monkeys, of all things -her present is a book my son loved when he was that age - "Monkey Puzzle" by the authors of The Gruffalo - and of course, I had to incorporate monkeys into her card too.  Here's what I made:

Update 24th Aug: This card was picked as a Top 3 on Crafts and Me - thank you, Rose!

I'm entering this into the following challenges: A Spoon Full of Sugar ("Happy Birthday"), Passion for ProMarkers ("Divas with Glam + Glitter" - hope my little diva qualifies!), Crafts and Me ("Make it Count") and Creative Inspirations ("Buttons and Stitching").

My starting point was the BG Oliver paper, how perfect for this!!  I decided to keep the embellishments to a minimum, toddler health and safety and all that - those buttons are sewn on very securely!!  I coloured the cute image using pro-markers and stickled her crown and the flames of the candles.  Here's a closer look:

I made a little banner for her name and drew and coloured a larger monkey which hangs off the banner string too.  Let's hope the little monkey doesn't rip it all off!!  Here's a closer pic and also a side-shot of the banner, showing it hanging free:

Recipe:

Papers: Basic Grey "Oliver"

Colouring Medium: Letraset ProMarkers

Image: Pure Innocence "Birthday Princess"

Other: BG Mellow? buttons, needle + thread, stickles

Thanks for looking!

What a ....

.... waste - I've been experimenting for my PaperPlay DT entry this week, and things didn't go well.  I almost never give up on what I'm working on - even if I don't like it at first, I'll usually persist and adapt and keep at it until I eventually have something acceptable!  But I bit off more than I can chew on this one.  The challenge is called "Create your own D.P." (Eeeek!) and we are sponsored by Waltzing Mouse Stamps (absolutely gorgeous company based in Northern Ireland).  My PaperPlay DT  team-mates have made some gorgeous creations, if you have a chance, pop over and see!

I wanted to stock up my "cards for whatever" box, so I decided to make a series of cards, and then I thought I would challenge myself a bit more by not using an image and trying CAS style.  Big mistake, had to chuck out the first attempt, it was yuck, and I finally succumbed to distressing and inking 'cos it looked so completely bloomin' boring without them.  And here's what I ended up with:

I'm entering it into Papertake Weekly ("Grow your Own") and Cute Card Thursday ("Clean and Simple").

I used my Hero Arts Designblock "Floating Leaf" stamp.  I don't think I've used it before - I bought it a long time ago, simply 'cos it reminded me of an Orla Kiely print and it's probably the closest I'll ever get to owning anything Orla Kiely!!!  Hee Hee!!

I stamped straight onto "Hillary" Bazzill with crushed olive distress ink, and then highlighted with colouring pencil.  I stamped the leaves again onto white cardstock and cut out for the stem and leaves of the flower, which is a Prima Innoscence pack I've had for ages, inked the flower and added ribbon and a few gems.  Here's a closer look:

That's enough experimenting for one week, I'm off to make something with proper paper and stitching and all that, will be quite therapeutic, I think!!

Thanks for looking!

Just in time ....

.... only one hour until Wednesday is over - so I'm slipping in the back door of this week's WOYWW.  Here's what my desk looked like this morning:

It's quite a tease of a pic really, 'cos the cards I was making are for tomorrow's PaperPlay - can't show them until the morning.  So they're peeping in at the top left of the photo - and various stamps and things that I used are skulking around whistling and looking innocent (well, maybe not!).  As usual, I've ended up with a working space of about 6" x 6"!

Thanks for looking!

I'm done with ....

.... Norah!  Finished the last of three cards ordered for her 60th Birthday at last.  They were collected this morning and my customer is very happy with them.  I had the beginnings of the final one on my desk in my post yesterday. Here's what I made:

'Scuse the dark photos - it was very overcast this morning, and I didn't have a chance to wait for brighter skies before this was collected.

I used the sketch from this week's Basic Grey Challenges, and am also entering this into CES Challenges ("Feeling the Blues"), Crafty Cardmakers ("Flutterbies"), Papertake Weekly ("Anything Goes") and A Spoon Full of Sugar ("Tags").

I had a butterfly punch out to use for this card as well as the stamp, but when it came to it, I didn't use any punched butterflies.  Bit of useless trivia about me - I'm afraid of butterflies and moths - maybe that's why I could only put one on the card!!!

I made rolled up paper roses for this card - haven't tried this technique before and I really liked making them, will definitely be doing this again.  Here's a close-up of the flowers and leaves:

And here's a shot of the card with the tag sticking out.  Wow, those pics are dark, even after adjusting the levels, etc.

Recipe:

Papers: BG "Figgy Pudding"

Stamps: Inca Stamps "Swallowtail", Magnolia "Old Valentine Letter"

Inks: Distress Inks

Other: Hero Arts pearls, clear embossing powder, Cuttlebug embossing folder

Thanks for looking - back to cards with other names on!!

Proof that ....

.... the months are racing by - I just looked back over my blog and I haven't had a chance to join in WOYWW since March!  Can't believe it's been that long.

Anyway, I had a bit of a desk-tidy yesterday, and then laid out stuff for the start of the next card.  Here's what the work-surface looks like this morning:

Now that I look at it, I didn't do that good of a tidy - what is that bird's nest of purple thread doing there?And the random clothes label?  And the inky acrylic block?  Must clean more!!

Thanks for looking!

Slipping already ....

.... oh dear, I didn't make anything yesterday.  Only because I got a reprieve, we were supposed to go to a friend's daughter's 2nd birthday in the afternoon (I was going to make her card in the morning), but they had to cancel it - so that one went on the long finger!!

But I can't escape my own daughter's birthday, coming up fast, so today I made her card.  Here it is:

I used the sketch from this week's Papertake Weekly and I'm also entering this into Kenny K's Krafty Girlz ("Metal Embellishment"), Totally Papercrafts ("Bling it up") and Crafts and Me ("Ribbon").

The MME papers I bought last week in Cork have the perfect colour pallette, as my daughter's current favourite colours are mustard, dark grey and wine. 

This is the first time I've used a Kenny K image, I really like this one for an older teenage girl, although I'm a bit sniffy about some of their images, too tarty for my taste, guess I'm a big old pearl-clutcher!!!  I broke out my pro-markers for the first time in absolutely ages to colour this - still haven't got the hang of doing hair, but I'm pleased with the rest of it, especially the jeans and the shoes.  Here's a close-up:

I made the numbers myself - printed out from the computer, stuck down and cut out from chipboard - and then I added a row of gems to each.  Here's a side shot of the dimension on this card:

Recipe:

Papers: MME Stella Rose "Hattie"

Image: Kenny K "Club Kid"

Colouring Medium: Pro Markers

Other: Fancy Pants "Daily Grind" chipboard cloud, Hero Arts gems on numbers, Prima swirl, Doodlebug brads, ribbon and buckle frpm stash, needle + thread

Thanks for looking!