Make a Wish

Firstly, my snake has finally eaten a mouse, after about 6 months of starving herself!!  I am now very pleased - although the mouse was probably a little large for her as it had a bit of excess fat on it and it took her quite a while to get it all into her mouth - But I did not choose the mouse, the OH did, so I blame him lol.

I finished 'The Host' by Stephanie Meyers audio book today. I have taken to getting them out of the library to listen to on my 61.5 mile, each way, commute to work. I found that the radio just was not stimulating enough for me to stay alert and so I needed something else to concentrate on whilst driving (other than driving :} lol). I found this a very entertaining book, and one that I would have enjoyed in paperback form also - but then I do like my fantasy books. It is rather different to the Twilight series, so even if you did not like Twilight, you may still find this book arresting - but then I did actually enjoy reading the Twilight books.

Anyway, onto my card that I have made this week. Only one this time, due to time constraints, but it does fit into several challenge themes :). I used a pale pink card blank for the base card (from the Works). I used a free digi-stamp from all dressed up, which I then coloured in using Promarkers (sorry didn't record which ones I used). I then layered the finished image onto bright pink papermania card and attached it to the card blank. I added paper flowers - one dark green and two cream/pale yellow to the top left of the image, and a 'Make a Wish' sentiment underneath them. I then too a fairy themed backing paper from my stash, in greens and pinks, and cut around the fairy's wings. I wrapped this with pale green twine, into which a bow was tied, and add some bright pink card to the bottom, with a decorative edge added using patterned scissors. I then stuck this below the image.

I wish to enter this card into the following challenges:
Passion for Promarkers - make it digital
Crafting by Designs - Spring colours
CraftyCatz - Green, Cream and PINK
Allsorts - ladies day
Suzy Bee - Whimsical/Fantasy
Polkadoodles - Sugar and Spice
Card Mania - use a sentiment
All dressed up - Sketch
Ooh La La - fashionista
Craft Room - Colour Challenge
Catch the bug - Sketch
One Crazy Stamper - Anything goes
Marvi's Candy - anything goes/friendship

Hugz Tinz

Anniversary Weekend

It was the anniversary of me and my partner getting together this weekend and to celebrate we had a night away. We started off at Tropical Birdland in Ibstock, Leicester, which we have a season pass for. This is a brilliant day out for parrot lovers, with free-flying parrots and parakeets, as well as walk-through aviaries and a lovely little cafe. As usual the weather was awful and, also as usual, Sidney (a bare-eyed Cockatoo) was in mischief mode. I came away with one less zip, a map scratched onto the back of my hand and a couple of bites on my fingers. He just loves to play rough!! However, he showed his softer side on Friday with a few cuddles and a little bit of a display for me!

We then proceeded to go to an all you can eat restaurant known as 'Jimmies'. Neither of us had been here before and it was a brilliant experience, with a wide variety of food types on offer, including some chefs to make particular items to your liking (such as pizza and stir-fry). The only things that let the experience down was the smell that came from the men's toilets (luckily they were upstairs away from the food area) and the mini desserts. The chocolate brownie was stodgy and the cheesecake was basically just gelatin with colouring. We then went to the hotel in Sheffield to relax for the rest of the night (apart from the drunken idiots who woke us up at around 1.30 and then didn't shut up until about 3am - but with enough quite time that you thought they had gone to bed).

The next morning we left early for the Tropical Butterfly House, as again neither of us has ever visited this attraction. It was amazing!! The butterfly house itself was fantastic with the different butterflies from various areas of the world - some as big as the palm of your hand. There were also lots of enclosures of exotic animals, such as reptiles and amphibians, with some reptiles roaming free among the wide range of plant species, and lorikeets playing in the treetops, with their newly fledged chicks. We then had an 'experience' which involved being more hands-on with some of the exotic animals (although Gavin did not get to hold the tarantula as it was in a bad mood), and also going in with the lemurs and red-ruffs to hand-feed them. It was fun trying to sneak the yummiest pieces of fruit to the less dominant lemurs, without the dominant ones noticing. This did result in having a lemur on the shoulders for part of the time as it tried to reach into the bucket without getting in the way of the two 'boss' females. The red-ruffs were rather more reserved, not really trusting us, but letting us put some food into their mouths. It is definitely a visit-again attraction.

I did not get much crafting done, but I did start a new wizard cross stitch and got further with my mums gloves that I am knitting. I did also manage to get a little time down on the allotment to prepare the bed that the onion sets will be planted into - assuming the ground ever dries up.

There was only one negative to the weekend, and that was coming home to find that one of my little girl mice was dehydrated and very skinny. Unfortunately there was nothing I could do for her :(

Mechanical 2 (for challenge purposes)

The third ATC in the series is another masculine creation. Again the main stamped image was added to the centre of the card, which was backed with a numerical paper. Hope was stamped onto a yellow paper flower, which was added to the top of the main stamped image to create a second layer. The third stamp is a star stamped above the main image in the same brown ink. Then pearls were added to each corner and one to the 'o' of hope.

This card is to be entered into the following challenges:
Make my Monday - Recipe (colours being grey, yellow, cream and brown)
Crafting by design - Just for Boys
One Crazy Stamper - Anything Goes

Mechanical themed ATC's

Well I have been busy today. I have organised quite a few more of my charts (about 7 magazines worth, now listed and organised according to type, both physically and on the computer), made 4 ATC's, cleaned out the parrot, sorted the ATC's to be posted out tomorrow, made a new recipe for tea and went down to the allotment, managing to get soaking wet in the process!!

For my ATC series I used a stamp that I got a while ago from Ebay when I was looking for some background stamps that could be used for men as well as women. Instead of using it as a background (it is the wrong shape for ATC's) I masked out all but one element of the cog-style design. This was then used as the basis for my ATC collection - which are 'Mechanical'.

The first ATC in the collection was based on a sketch. I used a cog based backing paper which I received from one of the ladies in my ATC group, as the card base. I then stamped a partial cog, in brown, in the top left corner and added a silver glitter ribbon to this edge also. The main stamped image was placed in the centre of the card, overlapping the ribbon, with a brown pearl gem to the centre. 'Sent with love' was stamped underneath this image (Honey & Hugs), straight onto the paper, in brown ink, and a silver gem added to the 'o' of love. The card was then finished off with two brown pearls and a silver gem to the top right corner.

This will be entered into the following challenges:
Make my Monday - Recipe (colours - brown, silver, grey and cream)
Crafting by design - Just for Boys
Suzy Bee - Sketch

The second ATC uses a floral backing paper, with the stamped image representing a flower, with a pink pearl in the centre. A separate floral paper was used to make a floral stem for the flower, and a third for a second flower. 'Hand picked for you' sentiment was added to the bottom of the card, and a pearl added to the centre of the second flower.

This is being entered into CRAFT - Recipe (embellishments are the two pearls, the flower and the sentiment) and Addicted to Stamps - Pink and White

The third ATC in the series is another masculine creation - posted in the next post.

The final ATC, which is not in the collection, was made for the Crafty Card Makers Challenge (Come Fly with Me), but will also be entering the One Crazy Stamper Anything Goes. For this ATC I used a silver metallic card for the backing and added 'Spring Break' to the top left. A foil bird topper from Kanban was used as the focal image. Then three papermania glitter flowers were layered into the bottom right.

Natures Awakening

I have been busy stitching recently. The fish tank is at 34.25 hours and the fish are slowly becoming obvious.

I have also completed an All Our Yesterdays (by Faye Whittaker) free kit. This is not my usual sort of thing to stitch but I do like to try something new occasionally and it is quite refreshing too. The only problem I had with this one was the fact that there was not enough white thread supplied with the kit!

One of my poor little mice is not doing very well at the moment so I got the baby porridge out again last night. Although the rest of the girlies really enjoyed it, but Mallow refused to eat any. She is getting thin and I am not sure why, but it does not help when she does not eat the extra nutrition I provide. I will be keeping a very close eye on her weight!

Nature is definately starting to awaken now. I came downstairs this morning to be greeted by a large spring moth in the kitchen. It was an angle-shades moth, which is one of the first moths to emerge after winter, and I often seem to get one in the house come the start of spring, although it is usually slightly later on.

The snowdrops are also up along the verges, as well as in my front raised bed, which has not been cleared from last year yet, due to many of the plants still flowering through winter thanks to the mild weather!!! The crocuses are also in full flower now in my back garden.

I have my first shoots from the runner bean seeds that I planted almost 10 days ago, and the Dianthus seeds are also starting to shoot. Unfortunately the cells that I have planted the beans into are shallow and so they will probably need to be transplanted before the end of the weekend.

Anyway time for a bath.

Hugz and kisses
Tinz

Lady in Red

Here is a stylish feminine Christmas card, using a art deco stamp that came free with a craft magazine (possibly DoCrafts) that I have never had an opportunity to try until now. I stamped the lady onto the right-hand side of the white card blank and coloured her with Promarkers. Down the left side I used an old wooden stamp of a heart from my stash and stamped the image three time. The top and bottom were heat-embossed with red embossing powder and the central heart highlighted with gold glitter. On a piece of acetate glass paints were used to create a festive mosaic of holly and Christmas trees. Once this dried it was attached to the bottom of the card with red glitter brads, and a 'With love at Christmas' sentiment sticker (from Me to You) added on the paint.

Close up of painted area

This card will be entered for the following challenges:
Passion for Promarkers - Have a heart
crafting by design - anything for love
CRAFT - Christmas
Crafty Catz - Lady in Red
allsorts - use brads
onecrazystamper - anything goes
countryview - Painty Pleasures

Fishes 14/02/14 and new ATC

Here is an update on my fish tank cross stitch. Again it is white that has been added so not easy to see the progress, but it is there. It is now on 33 and a half hours.

The ATC was made using some free papers I got with a crafting magazine as the card backing. I then added a sheer lace ribbon to the centre of the card. I stamped 'With Love' using a Tatty Teddy rubber stamp and bordered it with Heart swirls stamp (which I got from my Grandma). I used versa mark ink for the stamps and then heat embossed the using 'Heat-it up' Black Sparkle embossing powder. I then attached this stamped panel to the bottom of the card. Again using a versa mark ink pad, but this time a red embossing powder I triple embossed a square patch and then stamped a heart into the embossing powder whilst it was still hot. It is a little difficult to see in the picture but you can just make it out. I then added a ribbon 'Papermania' bow to the top of the card and two star brads down the side.

I am entering the ATC for the following challenges:
MIM - Love is in the Air
Craft Room - Ribbon and Lace
Addicted To Stamps - Hearts
OneCrazyStamper - Anything Goes
Allsorts - Use Brads
crafting by designs - Anything for Love

Quilling attempt

i thought I would share my first attempt at quilling with you all. I have a group on facebook which is focusing on a different crafting technique each month - with the idea of getting people to try a new technique. The first technique we looked at was quilling. Unfortunately not many people have joined in at all - either to give their experiences, share their pictures or even just give hints and tips, which is a little disappointing but it is still in its first month. I just need to get it advertised a little more I think.

Anyway, here is my first attempt - any tips are more than welcome!

Fish update

There has not been much crafting done that is worthy of mentioning from the last couple of days. I spent last night fighting with the computer to renew my driving license - they certainly do not make it easy! Why can they make renewing tax really, really easy, but cannot use the same method for the damned license - you still have to pay for the damned thing after all - and they can just check against the passport information also!  Stupid, ridiculous process!

Anyway enough whining, I did actually get some seeds planted yesterday as well. My Brassicas are still growing well in the greenhouse (although I dread to think how the onion sets have managed down on the allotment in the atrocious weather!! - I think somebody got confused, they want COLD not WET). So yesterday I started on the next lot of seeds that need a reasonable amount of time to germinate and grow to their full potential. I planted some grape hyacinth seeds that I saved from my bulb plants, some runner beans, another flower (can't remember its name but it begins with a D) and some Aubergine seeds (as I can never seem to get decent fruit off them so decided to try planting them extra early).

And to finish off the blog post - here is the picture of my fish to date (at around 33 hours). I am adding white again now so it will be difficult to see the progress for the next few sessions.

Uncle Marks Birthday

This card was made with a very theatrical uncle in mind, as it is his birthday on Wednesday. Of course I have now realised that I cannot find his address - typical! Anyway, I took a white card blank and stamped some magical confetti randomly over the front and then heat embossed with enamel embossing powder. I then used versa mark inks in mint and violetta to draw stripes across the card front, buffing over the embossed images to remove the ink. I printed out a digital image of a wizard that I found through a google search and coloured him in using promarkers. He was stuck to the front of the card using foam pads and a birthday greeting on a spotty background was printed out using a word processor. Then lace was overlapped with green spotty ribbon and this was attached to the top of the card.

I am entering this card for the following challenges:
PassionforPromarkers - Spots and Stripes
CraftyCardMakers - Mans World
Craft Room - ribbon and lace
Facebook Monthly Challenges - magical

I have also managed to finish my ring cushion design for my friends wedding. The colour scheme is navy and the theme is Dragonflies. I stitched the designs using DMC standard floss, DMC light effects and DMC Satin effects threads, on a silver flecked aida.

I wish to enter this ring cushion into the Make my Monday - anything but a card

Love is a shaker card

This is my love themed ATC for the February group of ATC's to be exchanged. I used a textured cream card base cut to size, and then stamped the heart with lips onto the top half of the card with red ink. I took a small frame and covered the aperture with acetate. Then I put double sided sticky foam all around the edge of the frame and filled it with luminous green stars. This was then stuck over the stamped image. I used glitter glue to decorate the frame, adding hearts to the bottom, and added some peel-offs to the bottom of the card.

I want to enter this card into the following challenges:
Addicted-to-Stamps- Hearts challenge
I was also going to add it to the CraftyCatz challenge, but missed the cut off!! Oops.

Hippo!

I have finally finished making my Hippo up now! He looks quite happy to finally have his limbs attached.

Chucky has not settled at all this evening, screaming constantly no matter what I do to try and amuse him!! He wants his Gavin. Here is a little picture of him, when he is playing nicely and not trying to get me to rip my hair out lol.

Playing!

I have been playing with glitter this weekend! I was going to enter this card for the promarker challenge but decided the colouring is not obvious enough, but I wanted to share it anyway. A sentiment will eventually be added to the bottom right, but as this card can have so many uses I did not want to add the sentiment until it is about to be used.

I stuck a panel of patterned paper to the top of a lilac card blank. The flower edging was stamped onto thick cream card and coloured using the promarkers, and then stuck at the top and bottom of the patterned paper. A butterfly was added and a flower added to the bottom after accenting with promarker (cannot really make this out) and then covering with pale blue glitter.

For the promarker 'anything goes' challenge I decided to try something else a little different. As this was a new technique I am also entering this card for CCT NEW.

I stamped  a 'honey and hugs' deer to a die-cut circle and also die-cut a second, larger circle out of the base card. I then used DMC light effects thread to attach the stamped circle into the centre of the circle aperture. Unfortunately I did pull the thread a little tight in places.

An update on my fish tank cross stitch. It is now at 32hours!

Hugz Tinz

Card challenge - loved up!

Here is the card I actually finished making last night. I think I am going to title it 'Love Doves' and it is going to be entered in the black and white challenge from craftycardmakers and the love challenge from C.R.A.F.T.

I backed the inner fold of an aperture card with papermania paper, and then stuck a sheet of acetate over the aperture. Onto this I stamped some love birds that I got free with a magazine, using black staz on ink. I filled in the birds with a white glitter glue pen, and added some white extra fine glitter to increase the opaqueness of the birds. I then stamped a bird onto the top left and cut away the corner around the stamp, and stamped a sentiment to the bottom right. In the other corners I added some self adhesive pearls, and I also added some around the edge of the acetate.

Here is also an update on my fish. Only an extra half hour on them, but every little helps!

I decided to have a go at quilling - for my facebook group - but I am not sure it is going to turn out quite as it should.

This is just the first stage of the design, but you should be able to tell what it is going to be and I do not think that you can!

Hugz Tinz