Bugs and other Creatures

Hi again,

Here is another Christmas ATC collection! This collection is 'cute and cozy' and were inspired by the artistic inspirations #119 Cozy and Warm challenge.

ATC #1

This ATC was layered on a purple glitter base card, and was based around this sketch:

from catch the bug. The bauble topper came free with a magazine a few years ago, and a pepper and friends glitter sticker was layered over the top of this. The sentiment for the top was difficult to find as all the better ones were sideways rather than downwards, so I eventually decided on the NOEL sentiment.

I am entering this for these challenges:

2cute ink #120 Pets

simonsayswednesday Anything Goes

creative moments #56 Make it sparkle

ATC #2

The image was stamped from a Boofle at Christmas clear stamp, and coloured with promarkers (he is snuggled up warm in his christmas hat). The sentiment is a peel off, and the jingle bells were free with a magazine a few years ago and were added to the card using 3D foam pads.

This was inspired by:

simply less is Moore - Jingle Bells

crafty catz Anything Goes
divas by design Jingle bells

ATC #3

A red gossamer ribbon was adhered down the side of a pink glitter card base, and the Country Companions topper layered with foam pads.

This was created for:

vs sweet ideas Anything Goes

crafty calendar Christmas

crafty ribbons 107 Animals at Christmas

I also made this simple bracelet from brads and silver chain.

For the Country View Crafts Bees, bugs and butterflies challenge.

Thank you for looking,

Hugz Tinz

Uncle Snow

This is one of my newly created Christmas ATC sets, entitled Snowman Fun, with the theme obviously being Snowmen. This collection was inspired by the Card Concept Snowman Tag challenge - based on the Clean and Elegant style (although #1 is more collage style!) and also glitter n sparkle #112 Tag It.

ATC #1

A base card was layered with red snowflake patterned paper - from Papermania. I used a free patterned paper to make the contrasting squares. I then layered a free Snowman sticker over the top of these layers (he had been hiding in my stash for a while so I thought it was about time he came out to play). Finally I added a sentiment tag with a silver bow, and a snowflake embellishment.

The layout was based around this sketch from sweet sketch wednesday 2 (including a bow).

I would also like to enter this into the following challenge:

SOS #179 Free is good

ATC #2

For the base of this ATC I layered a vellum sheet of white glitter snowflakes onto a white card. I then used a free topper from a magazine, which had a hint of elegance about it. Finally the sentiment tag was added.

I wish to add this to the following challenges:

crafty calendar Christmas

creative moments #56 Make it sparkle

ooh-la-la creations #170 Christmas

simon says Wednesday Anything Goes

ATC #3

This ATC was made using a peel-off of a winter scene, with a prominent snowman, which was coloured with promarkers. A tag sentiment finished this quick and easy ATC.

This is to be entered for the following challenges:

craft your passion 241 baby it's cold outside

i love promarkers #247 Frosty the snowman

allsorts 286 No design papers

aud sentiments #120 Sentiment for December holiday

simply create too #75 Snow, snow, snow

Audiobook review

Uncle Silas by J.S. Le Fanu

This is another from the Victorian Collection, and although I did not get on with the last one, I decided to give a different genre a try, so this is a suspense novel. When Maud’s father dies, she is made the ward of her mysterious uncle, around whom there is a lot of suspicion and intrigue. It is to clear his name that she is made his ward, as if she dies before reaching her majority, uncle Silas will inherit everything.

This story begins at Maud’s home and provides the background for her upbringing and ideas. It also introduces the mystery of Uncle Silas, whom her father has forbidden to be spoken about. For part of this story there is a French governess who is very intimidating and vulgar, and who often threatens poor Maud – who is a typical Victorian girl with very little steel in her spine. This first part of the story also introduces her cousin, who supports Maud throughout the book.

Once her father dies there are quite a few people who do not agree with her going to live with her uncle, however she insists and finds their way of life very different to what she is used to, but actually quite pleasant. That is until her young cousin Millie is sent away to France and her uncles tone towards her changes somewhat. A this point the French governess re-enters the story, and Maud becomes more and more nervous.

This is a very good suspense novel as you are always waiting for something to happen to Maud, who is incredibly annoying in the way she reacts. She shys away from everything and is very naïve – just as the Victorians thought women should be and I found this very annoying whilst listening to the book. However the good plot and ability of the author to keep you on the edge of your seat definitely makes up for this. I would recommend this book to anybody who enjoys guessing what is going to happen – just don’t read the blurb first as it gives too much away!!

Thanks for looking,

Hugz Tinz

Welcome Home

The challenge this time was to do a one layer card with some reference to home. So this is what I came up with:

I took a white base card and cut the corners. I then stamped the frog and mouse (Helz Cuppledich - riverbank revels) and coloured the image using promarkers. Finally I used silver peel-off letters to add the sentiment.

This is being entered into the following challenges:

modsquad - one layer timed 14 mins (due to fighting with the letters!).

allsorts - no design papers

crafty little fairies - Nov: Not a square

OLS #11 Home Sweet Home

ALBC - CAS

Thank you for taking the time to look at my creations.

Hugz Tinz

High Thank You

Today I decided to make a silver and red thank you card, which was to incorporate butterflies. I used a square silver base card and layered a red mirror panel onto this. Then I split the panel using a silver holograph card and a red swirls patterned paper. To the top of these I added the silver butterfly image. On the silver side red diamante butterflies were used for the finish, on the red side silver gems with a crafted for you charm. A thank you peel-off was used to finish.

This card is being entered for the following challenges:
sweet sketch wednesday 2 with this sketch 
CCM #127 A touch of charm
sketchy colours Red and silver
delightful sketches - you're a gem
Simon Says Wednesday - Thanks/Thanksgiving
SOS #178 Thankful (nothing used on this card was new)
Creative Moments #56 make it sparkle
fussy and fancy #127 Pairs or two of a kind (two butterflies on centre panel)
open-minded crafting fun #24 Grateful
a creative romance - something old (everything has been in my stash for at least a year)
crafting by designs - Anything Goes
country view - Bugs, bees and butterflies


Audio Book Review

High Profile by Robert B. Parker

A high profile celebrity, and his lover, is killed in a small village causing the police chief to have to deal with heavy media and high ranking officials, whilst he also tries to find out who raped his ex-wife. The case hits many brick walls before finally coming together, although the ending is a little disappointing. This is a fast paced crime novel and has a very enjoyable plot. However, I personally think this is a book that is better on paper than CD as there is a lot of he said…., she said…., then he said…, which really stands out more when listening to somebody else read it. When you read it yourself you tend to just glance over the he said, she said parts of the sentences. Overall, a good story though.

Thank you for looking

Hugz Tinz

Traditional Red and Green

This is my Card creation for this evening. I went for traditional colours of green, red and gold (although mainly green). I used a traditional image of Santa that I won from ilovepromarkers in a previous challenge. The image was coloured with Promarkers (obviously) and made into a bauble using green mirror card. This was layered onto a green base card with a green and gold ribbon and an ivy Christmas paper which came free with a magazine. A tag with the sentiment added, and a red&gold ribbon, finishes the card.

The card used sketch#38 from Completely Christmas.

Inspiration for this card also came from:

I love promarkers #245 A male Christmas

Winterwonderland Christmas Decorations

Crafty Hazelnnuts Christmas #203 Go Green

aud sentiments #119 Sentiment on a tag

crafty ribbons 106 Christmas with a ribbon

alphabet challenge T for Traditional Christmas

abc-challenge X for Xtra Special

live and love crafts Favourite Christmas colours

cute card thursday 347 Red and Green

Thank you for looking

Hugz Tinz

White Christmas

Tonight I have made both a Christmas Tag and a Christmas card. My Christmas card uses a white on white approach, but unfortunately my camera is not the best and the picture is not brilliant,so I have added three to try and give an idea of what the tag actually looks like.

So I took a white tag blank and added a white sheer ribbon to the top. A Flourish Christmas tree stamp was stamped onto a sheet of vellum with white Daisy and Dandelion ink. HiPuff and Holographic embossing powders were added to each tree in varying amounts and heat embossed. Three trees were stamped in total, two along the bottom and the third has its tip in the centre of the bottom two. The vellum layer was adhered to the card and a self-adhesive Christmas tree ribbon was placed along the seam.

This was inspired by:

MIM challenge Glitter

ABC Christmas Challenge W is for White

modsquad Christmas Tag

Simply Less is Moore Use more than one tree

addicted to stamps challenge #91 Bling Bling

Thank you for taking the time to look at my Tag creation.

Hugz Tinz

Christmas Tree

Here I am again, with another Christmas card. I was looking through an old magazine and saw a card using elements that were torn from paper, and they looked really good. So I thought I would give it a go! Mine does not look quite as good as those in the magazine - but they were just single shapes!

So I placed double sided tape onto a base card and sat a piece of designer Christmas paper over the top. I then tore the excess paper away to give the vintage style background. Next I took the backing card from a free gift, which is red with snowflake on it, and tore four heart shapes. I also tore two heart shapes from green snowflake patterned paper, using a black heart outline as a guide. These hearts were layered to make a Christmas tree. The pot and trunk were drawn in using promarkers. Peel-off's were used to finish the card.

This card is to be entered into the following challenges:

Crafty Calender - All about Christmas

polkadoodle - CAS

Creative Moments #55 Celebration

love to create #141 Anything Goes

CASology - Festive

CRAFT #285 Christmas

crafty catz #255 Christmas is coming

AUDIOBOOK REVIEW

Under the Greenwood Tree by Thomas Hardy

This is a book from the Victorian Collection, and so is rather old fashioned. There is a new parson and a new school mistress in the little village, and both make waves where-ever they go. The parson has upset the choir by bringing in an organ, for the new girl to play to the congregation, which the choir are not too keen about as they have passed down the choir going through their generations. Furthermore, one of the younger members of the choir has taken a fancy to the new girl and now has to figure out how to win her hand in marriage.

Although this book claims to be humourous in the depiction of the choir and the parson, I found that there was actually very little interaction between these two areas of the book, and most of the book was quite dreary and my mind wandered. Therefore, I would not rate this as a good book for a long commute, although the last CD or two picked up interest a little.

Thank you for looking

Hugz Tinz

Queen Bee

Hiya everybody,

I have another ATC collection to share with you today. For this collection I have used an all dressed up image, with different sketches. The collection is to be entered into the ADU Anything Goes challenge as well as the Stamping Boutique Use three embellishments challenge.

ATC #1

For this ATC I used a patterned base card in silver with glitter dots (only one is obvious in this poor photograph). I used a sizzix border die on a watery blue card and layered this with a papermania card strip in Lincoln Linen to create a wave effect. The ADU image was coloured using aquamarkers to give an even greater watery effect to the ATC, and was mounted onto a blue scalloped circle. Three blue 3D circles were added along with the sentiment to finish.

This is to be entered into:

Card Mania #59 Use your dies

Scrapbook Stamp Society #54 Anything Goes

Catch the bug SSS #218

abc challenge W is for water

crafting by designs Anything Goes

ATC #2

For this ATC I used a patterned paper of little brown flowers on the base card. A rainbow paper was layered on the top half and an orange glitter card on the bottom, with corner embellishments added. The ADU image was layered over these after being coloured with promarkers. A diamante butterfly was added to the left top corner and the sentiment 'With Love' to the right of the image.
This ATC followed these challenges:
Sketch and stash #47 
Delightful Sketches - Patterns
Papertake weekly - 2 or 4 legs
love to create #141 Anything Goes

ATC #3

For this final ATC I used the cardboard backing from paper stack as the base. The image was printed onto basic paper and coloured using promarkers before tearing around the image and adhering to the base. A heart 'bubble' embellishment and two butterflies finish the card off.

This was inspired by:

Craft your passion Something beginning with B (Butterfly)

2cuteink #119 Orange, yellow and Brown

polkadoodle Recycle it (backing card)

Country View #21 Bugs, bees and butterflies.

AUDIOBOOK REVIEW
The Hive by Gill Hornby
This book revolves around the social lives of the mothers, and occasionally the fathers, whilst the children are at school, and the social structure that the 'in-crowd' of parents have. A committee is formed to try and raise money for the school, at the new headmasters urging. The 'in-crowd' are chosen by the main mother and the lady who was her 'best friend' before the new school term, who has just gone through a break-up with her husband and father of her two children, is left wondering what happened as she is completely left out of the group.
This humourous account of what goes on whilst the children are at school was very catchy reading and was brilliant for my commute to work. The various different personalities are very realistic and there is somebody for everybody to relate to. A brilliant light-hearted story.

All White Thank You

I wanted to make another Thank You card as I never manage to get round to them after Christmas, but wanted one that was based around my white kitty cat (she gets Christmas presents too lol). So here is my latest easel card creation:

I took a white A4 sheet of card and trimmed the width to that of a papermania embossing folder. I then folded the card in half, and the top fold in half again to see where the card would sit. Next the bottom of the card was embossed with a floral embossing folder (possibly a sizzix one), and the top front was also embossed. A scribble kitty was stamped onto a white heart doily using glue, and then eat embossed with Papermania pearlescent embossing powder. This was layered onto the top front of the card.
For the bottom of the card - the easel stop - I used a die-cut label in white card. 'Thank You' was stamped and heat embossed in the same way as the kitty. Pearls were added to the top and diamantes to the sides of the label, before attaching to the card using 3D foam pads.

This is being entered into the following challenges:

MIM challenge - Vintage (Doily)

modsquad challenge - Grandma's Attic (Doily)

Art Impressions Challenge 148 - Zoo/Animal  (Cat in doily 'cage')

Simply Create Too Challenge #74 - Thanksgiving/Thank you

ALBC challenge - CAS

Here is my kitty:

Thank you for taking the time to look at my creation.

Hugz Tinz

Shopaholic and Stitching

Hi Everybody,

Time for another ATC collection - this one is stitched animals:

 

The monkey was layered onto a bronze base card slightly smaller than the ATC base, and flowers added to the bottom. The parrot was layered straight onto the ATC with a green frame placed over it and butterfly gems added to the frame. The chick was mounted onto a fancy label of patterned flowery paper, layered onto the base ATC.

These are being entered for:
Alphabet Challenge S is for Stitching
Anything Goes @ papertake weekly challenge; craftycatz; catch the bug and crafting by designs

AUDIO BOOK REVIEW
Shopaholic Ties the Knot by Sophie Kinsella
This is the third (apparently) book in the Shopaholic series. This one is about the main character (Shopaholic) arranging her wedding day. There are lots of incidents and things become completely out of control, but that is really all to say about the book.
I originally came into contact with the 'Shopaholic' titles when my friend told me that I must read the one she had just read and lent it to me. I think I got about 3 chapters in before giving up and handing it back. However, it is often the case that books you struggle to read, you get on well with as an audio book. Unfortunately, this book is not like that - by CD 3 I was sick of listening to it - seriously, nobody actually acts and thins like that do they????
The only reason I finished the book was because I wanted to see how she sorted everything out, and the last two CDs were actually quite listen-to able (is that even a word?). I do not think I will be getting any of the other books out to listen to on my commute to work though.

Hugz Tinz

Very Orange Thanks

Hiya everybody,

It has been a tad wet here today - but this has meant that I have not felt guilty for not going down to the allotment. We have been working on the conservatory roof, and I know my arms are going to hurt tomorrow - but it will be worth it when it is finished :)

Anyhow, here is my card that I managed to make today:

A hallowe'en patterned striped paper was layered onto a splatter orange and black paper. An autumn coloured stripy ribbon wraps around this panel, and then panel was then adhered to the orange base card. A die-cut black panel was used to make the main images of autumn leaves really stand out. To finish a tag was edged with orange ink and THANKS added in orange letters, and embellished with orange feathers, and diamantes were added down the left side of the base panel.

This is based on the following sketch from sweet sketch wednesday 2:

and is also to be entered into the following challenges:
Anything Goes from - V's sweet ideas - Catch the Bug - crafty catz #253 - Simon Says Wed - divas by designs
Fussy and Fancy #126 Thankful
Card Concept - #22 Thank 'fall' - Freestyle Collage was the style I attempted for this one.
avenue613 #96 Holiday Thanks (Hallowe'en is the holiday in question).
crafting by designs - It's Halloween (colours)

Thanks for looking at my creation :)

Hugz Tinz