Butterflies and Pelagia

Hi there everybody,

I was going to do some weeding in the garden whilst the rain has taken a break. However, the wind makes it impossible to get the weeds up without making an absolute mess, so that put an end to that plan. Besides, it is a bit cold outside so I am going to cuddle up with the mice in a moment as I clean them out.

But first here is my stepper card I have made for the challenges this week.

I cut my stepper template from pale green card stock. I adapted the design slightly as my card stock was larger than the template suggested. I got the butterfly image from All Dressed Up and coloured it using Promarkers, from Set 2 (12 pen set) and from the spring and summer limited edition, 6 pen packs. This was made the focal point of the centre of the card, with a patterned yellow paper behind. I took some flower shaped lace and used yellow and orange ink pads to colour the lace, as the white was too plain against the backing paper. The quote was found online and typed into word before printing out and highlighting with Promarkers. These were then added to the lowest step on the card. Onto the second steps of the card I added some 3D flower stickers, which used the same colours as the main image, but slightly subdued. Finally for the topmost steps a grass embossing folder was used on white card and cut to fit the step. Then green ink was used to highlight the embossed area (a different shade on each side). Finally to finish the card I added a 'Fly Sticker' butterfly in bright green holographic.

I am entering this card into the following challenges:
abc-challenge Q is for Quote 'If nothing ever changed there would be no butterflies'.
Deep Ocean Challenge #83 Summer Colours
ilovepromarkers #231 Fancy Folds
delightful sketches Anything Goes
Stamping Boutique Use lace
art impressions 141 Embossing
a creative romance #28 Fun in the sun
CCM #120 Fancy Folds
All Dressed Up #19 Anything but a square
Country View Challenges Word Play


Here is also an update on my fish tank, which is just under 63 hours now:

I was going to do an update on my lab rat, but I forgot to take a picture. I will try and remember mid-week.


I took my animals to a pet show this morning, and they won all categories!!! However, this was only because nobody else actually turned up for the show :(  It was a little disappointing but lots of people enjoyed saying hi to the cockatoo, and quite a few enjoyed the snake too.

What do you think to my unusual crops? The potatoes are 'Purple Majesty' and I cannot remember what the black tomatoes are called but they are a new breed. I haven't tried the tomatoes yet as they are not quite ripe but the potatoes make very tasty mash.

This weeks audio book was 'Pelagia and the White Bulldog' by Boris Akunin. This is a very good mystery book, as it combines comedy with seriousness very well and is very good at casting suspicion and then throwing in a little twist. It would probably make a very good 'Miss Marple' like TV show as it is written in similar fashion. However, the main investigator in this story is a nun and so people act differently around her than they would around the usual old-lady investigators. A very good book to listen to in my opinion.


Hugz Tinz