You BUG me :)

I needed another ATC to send off this weekend. I usually make them in collections of three as you may have noticed in my previous posts, however I was a little stuck for time. I wanted to make one that had a play on words, but was themed along the lines of June Bugs.

So I started with a white card blank. I took a piece of green paper, patterned with silver glitter swirls and cut a strip and a square from it. The strip was added to the bottom of the blank and a length of red-based stripy ribbon attached over the top. I took my ladybird 'Urban Stamps' cling stamp and stamped the image onto red cardstock, sprinkling pink glitter over the stamped image. This gives a subtle sheen without obscuring the ladybird image. This was attached over the ribbon strip. Above the image the square of paper and a square of dotty washi tape were stuck with 'Me' and 'You' written respectively on them in black flexmarker. Between these 'Bug' was written in glue and pink glitter sprinkled over. Swirls were added around this using black flexmarker.

This card followed the following sketch from Sketch and Stash (rotated 90 degrees):

And is also being entered into these challenges:
#219 Craft Your Passion - Bold (colours) and Beautiful (bug); Simon says Monday - I ought to use this more (stamp and glitter); Simon Says Wednesday - Anything Goes; Crafting by designs - here comes summer; scrapbook stamp society - Anything Goes with Swirls (patterned paper and round BUG); Fussy and Fancy - things with wings; Crafty Little Fairies - June - Spots and Stripes; One Crazy Stamper - Glitter and a Ribbon.

Thank you for looking.
Tinz

Best Wishes - at the Opera

CRAFTS

I have used an All Dressed Up image to create my card today. It took a while to get the image to print how I wanted it to, but I eventually got there. I used a butterfly image and added two borders, the first in red and the second in yellow. I printed this onto a Papermania patterned paper and then stamped 'Best Wishes' sentiment to the bottom of the card. I coloured the image using the promarker sets - Hues (5 pack), Pastels (5 pack), and the limited edition Summer and Autumn.

Summer - V's sweet ideas #24; Artistic inspiratons #96
Outdoors - Addicted to stamps #84
Rainbow - polkadoodles (colours)
Frames - OLS #6
Pretty Paper - pinkleart
Subway art - 613 avenue create #76

Two-word sentiment - aud sentiments #109
Something with wings - open minded crafting #12
Anything Goes - crafting by designs; All dressed up; Simon Says Monday; love to create #120

GROWING VEG

I got my first mini vase of cut flowers from the allotment today and they smell lovely. My gooseberries are also almost ready to be picked - and so far the net has kept the birds away!

AUDIO BOOK REVIEW

I have just finished Death at the Opera by Gladys Mitchell (ISIS). This is a Mrs. Bradley mystery book where a death occurs of a teacher during an opera performance and although the verdict comes back as suicide nobody believes this. Psychoanalyst Bradley is called in to look into the situation and discovers that not only has she been murdered but there are other murders also. This is very similar to an Agatha Christie book, with a more eccentric main character and provides many alibis and contradictions to keep you guessing. I did guess who the main killer was before it was revealed (but not the information for one of the other murders), but it does require thinking outside the box slightly. Altogether a good book to listen to on long journeys!

Fishes and Birdies

Well it has been a gorgeous day today and I have had the day off work. We went out to Tropical Birdland as we have not visited for a while.  Unfortunately the main character has had to be locked away due to misbehaviour!!!

We had a fantastic day out though and taking the bag of walnut halves was certainly worth the money as the birds were much more interactive in their aviaries!!

Here is the update on my fish - now at 56 hours.


I have also finished listening to a Nicholas Sparks audio book - 'The Lucky One'. This is about a Marine who finds a photograph which 'brings him luck' whilst out in Iraq. Once finished in the Marines he is encouraged to find the lady in the photo. The story actually starts towards the end of the journey to find the lady in the photograph, with no explanation. The explanations come through memories and as he talks to others throughout the story. It tells of his meeting with the lady and those around her and how they influence each others lives. The ending was a little unexpected although it would have been strange had it not ended the way it did, but it also showed that people can have many different faces. I really enjoyed this book, especially as it went through the different people so you knew how they were feeling and what they were planning.

Father's Day

Hi all,

Finally got my Tomatillos and first lot of tomatoes out on the allotment today - after a busy weekend visiting OH's parents. I am now utterly knackered and wish I had tomorrow off work lol.
I managed to get a picture of my fuzzy little mousey today when I was cleaning him out also - here he is!

For my crafting challenge this week I made a Father's Day card - with the main idea being to enter in into the Ribbon Weaving technique at FB Crafting techniques.

I weaved a black polka dot ribbon and a silver ribbon together to create a background strip and mounted this onto silver mirri card, mounted onto black patterned paper. I then added a yellow motorbike topper, a winners cup and a #1 Dad speech bubble to finish the card off. I wanted the ribbon weaving to be the focalpoint of the card.

This is being entered into the following challenges:
Male themed cards - artistic inspirations #95; craft your passion #217; ooh la la #158; papertake weekly challenge; cute card thursday; glitternsparkle; aud sentiments #108; country view

Anything Goes - (with ribbon) Crafty Ribbons
Celebrate (Number 1 Dad) - Suzybee

Also here is an update on the fish tank, which is now over 55 hours.

Relentless femininity

Here is my ATC #1 for the Feminine collection - along with the pretty envelope. I often make these envelopes to keep the ATC's in but this is the first time I have decorated one. The ATC is made using a brown card blank which was blotted with a gold 'pretty colour' ink pad. A heeled sandal die-cut that I received with an ATC was used as the main image (using spray glue) and then red sequins added. Red and brown (with hints of greens and pinks) are the main colours in our bedroom.
The envelope is a basic ATC shape with the corners rounded and little finger holes added at the top to enable the ATC to be easily removed, and little tabs to hold it closed. To decorate I added a 3D brown dress, a red butterfly sticker and red corner stickers to the bottom corners.

To enter into:
Anything Goes - crafting by designs; catch the bug
Packaging (envelope) - hanna and friends
Bedroom colours (red and brown) - less is moore

I also finished listening to audio book 'Relentless' by Simon Kernick - another crime novel. This is about a man who hears his friend die after uttering his address, and how his life changes in the following 24-48 hours. I really enjoyed the way the story jumps between perspectives to increase the tension, and also keep you a little mad at the main character for 'being dumb' lol. The story progresses at a good pace and you are never left wishing it would get to the point. It does finish on a bit of a cliff-hanger, but in this case I think it works well as it ensures the drama remains until the end. However, being a clipper audio book it does have random repetitions (in this case it is just the blurb off the back so is not an issue really).

Finally, an update on my birth sampler @ 24.5 hours.

Thank you
Tinz

...and still more feminine

Here are two of my recent ATC collection - Feminine Thrills. I seem to have accumulated a large amount of feminine clothes stickers/toppers and thought these would come in useful for some ATCs.

So for the first card I took a red card blank and stuck a pink border sticker across the bottom. To the top I added three different types of handbag stickers, staggered slightly. To finish some little brown papermania gems were added above the border - A simple but effective ATC


The second card used a white card blank to which I added a denim dress topper. To compliment this I stuck three silver hearts down the left side and added some matching blue gloves at the top. Again simple and quick to make!

I wish to enter these into the following challenges:

Summer fun (summer dress) - V's Sweet Challenges

Inspired by a song (Devil with a Blue Dress by Mitch Ryder)  - DeepOcean #79; Crafty catz #234

Anything Goes - Suzy Bee; 613 Avenue Create (best friends option)

One Layer Card - allsorts 262

And as was requested - here is a photograph of my little red rump parakeets:

As for the vegetables - everything is starting to grow and wants to be planted out all at the same time, so I am currently being kept very busy. I have got my bean netting up and finally managed to plant the peas and runner beans out, and next is the pickling cucumbers, tomatillos and tomatoes I think. I also need to sow more fennel, beetroot and scorzenera and plant out some leeks at the second allotment (whilst still trying to keep on top of the weeds!!). I think a few extra hours are required lol.

Thank you for looking,
Tinz

Christmas Kisses with Fatal Remedies

I decided it was time to make a Christmas card again - this time using the large deer from the honey and hugs festive frolics clear stamp set. I started by making a card blank from Anita's pearlescent card. I stamped two different sizes of snowflakes onto pale blue vellum using versamark grey ink. The top of this sheet was torn and then it was adhered to the base card using vellum adhesive. A torn sheet of white poinsettias from a Christmas paper pack was then stuck to the bottom of the card. The stamp was stamped onto the same card as the base card and coloured in using promarkers from the rubber stamping set of 10 and set 1 pack of 12. I cut closely round the deer but left the base square, rounding the corners, and then attached it to the card. At the top I stamped some kisses and placed the sentiment of Christmas Kisses using red, stick-on letters. I attached some fabric flowers along the bottom to finish.

I am entering this card into the following challenges:
Anything Goes - crafting by designs; Completely Christmas
Flowers - Card Mania #48; Hobbybook Designer
K is for Kiss - abc Christmas
Cute - Glitter n sparkle #87
3 of something - (3 stamps - deer, snowflakes and kisses) - Crafty Hazelnuts #179
Critters - SOS #154
Rip it, Tear it - Craft your passion #216

I also promised some pics of the allotment - so here we go:

Onion bed - Autumn planted

Pond through wildlife garden

Potato bed

Finally - I have finished listening to Fatal Remedies by Donna Leon audio book. I am not sure if it was the reader or just the style of writing but I actually found it quite a difficult book to listen to, and I believe this is probably one of those books that is better to actually read yourself so that you can set the pace. The blurb on the back cover was also not accurate to the story as there was very little mafia involvement in the story at all, but it was indicated that this as the main idea. However, as a detective novel it certainly keeps you guessing throughout the story and you are unsure of how it is going to end. Being set in Italy it also shows a very different, but similar, form of policing which is intriguing.

Thank you for looking at my blog
Tina

Mousey - at the pub?

Hmm, speaking of mice I think I maybe need to get one out to defrost for the snake, I can hear her hunting round the viv!

Anyway, back to the post. If you like to read fantasy books can I recommend Beth Vaughan. I have just finished the three books based around a lady mercenary and found them unputdownable!! I constantly wanted to know what was going to happen next, and I especially liked the fact that the books overlap slightly, but each one is written from the perspective of a different person, so you see the scene from a different perspective.

I have two crafty makes to show you this time. The first is a Masculine card, which will probably be used for Father's Day as this is just around the corner. To make this card I took a base card from the Works, added some Anita's gold card and then layered some red 'Man's World' paper from Papermania over the top. To the centre of the card I placed a silver ribbon, layered with a black polka dot ribbon. The image was paper-pieced using the gold and red from the card backing, a wood textured beige for the base and pearlescent white from Anita's range for the froth, words and beer label. Gold promarker was used to highlight the beer pull handle. This was matted onto a metallic embossed card and adhered to the base card. Some golden balls were then added as embellishments.

 This is to be entered into the following challenges:

Male themed - Country View - Only Men Allowed; Sweet Stampin'; Delightful Challenges - It's a guy thing; Allsorts; Simplycreatetoo; Polkadoodles
Anything Goes - Simon Says Wed
Paperpiecing - CRAFT
Use dots - Stamping Boutique
Layer it up - Suzy Bee
Sketch - - Sketch n Stash

The second crafty make is this little mouse, who is made of pieces of fluffy fabric sewn together. I received the kit as a present for Christmas and have only just gotten around to making it up - but here he is finished and looking extra cute (although I do not think the snake would be impressed) lol.

I wish to enter this into the following challenges:
Anything BUT a Card - crafting by designs
Anything Goes - Crafty Catz
For the love of Animals - Delicious Doodles #90
Childs Play - A Little Bit Crafty

We may well have little red-rump eggs before too long as our two little birdies are starting to try building a nest and court each other (with lots of aerobic fighting), so we have bought them a nest box. I will keep you posted on any progress.

I will also try and remember to take some allotment photographs to share with everybody, but for now here is my little wildlife bed in my front garden  :).

Thank you for looking,

Tinz