Flowers with love

Hi guys,

Just had my two day induction course at my new job and strt properly tomorrow!! EEK. So I decided to make a quick card to try and calm my nerves a little! So here is what I made:

I used a Hunkydory foiled topper and border and I adhered the topper using foam pads to make it stand out from the border. I then simply added a Forever Friends sentiment tag to finish - nice and easy.

I want to enter this card into the following challenges:
CRAFT #404 Mother's Day/Female
Cute Card Thursday #466 Florals
Crafty Catz #404 Thoughts of Spring

I also have a Dino update for you:

20.5 hours!

Thanks for looking,

Hugz Tinz

Oh Christmas Foliage

Hi there everybody,

Went to watch the hubby in his first, and possibly last, performance tonight. He had a bit part in a Terry Pratchett play - Maurice and his Educated Rodents. I say last performance because he has decided he might enjoy behind the scenes more than having to spend so much time learning lines and rehersing, not because he was really bad at it lol. It was a great performance with a good theatre (but poor seats - my poor bottom!).

It does mean that I have not had time to do any crafting today at all - work this morning, then quick dash home to get changed and meet the in-laws and then straight back out. However, I did make a couple of my cross stitches into cards yesterday and I thought I wuld share them with you. So here they are:

 For this one I used a Christmas wreath design on a patterned base card. I added a strip of blue Christmas paper, to match the blue on the stitching. To finish I used a star for the wreath to hang from, a star at the bottom and a sentiment peel-off.

This one I used a beige card blank and stamped some trees directly onto it. I also stamped a robin from the same stamp set (which was free with Creative Stamping). I then simply patched the cross-stitch onto the front.

I would like to enter this cards into:
addicted to CAS #105 Wood (Trees - card #2)
Winter Wonderland - Anything Christmas Goes
ABC Christmas - D for Dimension (Stitching and stars - card #1)
Christmas @ Sweet stampin - Anything Goes (Card #2)
dragonfly dreams - Hearts and flowers (card #1 - heart wreath)
citycrafter #350 A Few Stitches

Anyway I now need my bed - hopefully more to share with you tomorrow, or maybe Monday (after my first day at my new job!)

Until then thank you for looking,

Hugz Tinz

Elegance is Timeless

Hello there,

Storm Doris is certainly trying her best to do some damage here. She has not managed so far despite throwing my wheelie bin at my car!! She also keep trying to shut our rabbit, who is also called Doris, into her hutch, but Dodie just keeps pushing the door back open with a good kick lol. She is however not very impressed with the bog the lawn has turned into due to the rain, and she keeps shaking her feet! I have put some hay down onto the grass for her but it doesn't seem to be working lol.

Anyway, time for me to tell you about our new challenge over at Aud Sentiments. The theme for this challenge is Animals, so a nice simple one for you - but don't forget to add a sentiment. Our lovely sponsor for this challenge is Ike's Art who allowed us to choose an image to use. I chose my image because I thought it was amusing and could be used for a variety of occasions. Then when it came down to making the card I got a little stuck and had to search through my stamp list for a suitable sentiment (my peel-offs still haven't been unpacked unfortunately, but I think they are in the next box!). I found the perfect stamped sentiment and based the rest of the card around that - however when it came to stamp the sentiment I couldn't actually find the stamp! So I wrote the sentiment onto the card instead using a metallic gold paint pen.

Here is my card using Alice Rabbit:

The base card had an embossed frame, so I heat embossed using Gold embossing powder, but rubbing patches off before heating and then triple embossing some areas to give a distressed feel. I didn't colour the image but cut the edges with patterned scissors and inked with Promarker Gold ink. As stated above I hand wrote the sentiment and added a strip of golden pearls down the side. I have also since added a birthday sentiment to the inside of the card as it has already been requested by somebody. I have also just found the darned sentiment stamp this morning!! Just bleedin' typical.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Simon Says Wednesday - Anything Goes

CCM #182 Add some texture

Scrapbook Stamp Society #110 Embossing

TIOT - Let's get messy (with embossing powders)

The Card Concept #67 Vintage (CAS)

Animal Friends #47 No designer paper

Country View #48 30mins or under

Thank you for looking, and hope to see you joining us for our challenge,

Hugz Tinz

Mustached Wishes

Now for my second post for my second DT creation of today - this time for our new challenge at Creative Moments.  As always it is an anything goes challenge, however the twist this time is to make a masculine creation for us. We have two lovely sponsors this time Eureka and Scribbles Designs. I have used a Scribbles set called Movember boys, and this is what it inspired me to make:

I did just love these mustached critters! And I thought this particular design worked well against the FREE patterned paper - it looks like a photo hung on a feature wall! - ok a very, very masculine feature wall lol. I coloured the animals using watercolour pensils for a gentler look than I usually go for. The sentiment is a papermania capsule collection topper.

I would like to enter this card for the following challenges:
Crafting by designs Anything Goes
613 Avenue Create #194 CAS, blue and a sentiment
MAWTT #39 For a man
Simon says wednesday - Anything Goes
Allsorts #403 Anything Goes

Now to look at making something with some of my finished cross-stitches and drinking my glass of wine as hubby is out at his final rehersals before his show tonight. He did however buy me a jigglypuff teddy for the anniversary of us getting together. I need some good ideas for a papercutting workshop in March (or April if in Manchester).

Ooh I am not sure if I let you lovely people know, but I have adopted a new Bearded Dragon. He came from the vet who was dealing with Atlas as she wanted him to go to a good home. He is called Simba and has a bit of an underbite, which makes it difficult for him to grab his food quickly. He was in with two females, but they were eating the food faster than he could react to it, and so he has come to live with us.

Thank you for dropping by to see my blog,

Hugz Tinz

Shabby Mushroom Elf

Hello and welcome to another miserable Wednesday. To brighten up your day we do have a new challenge over at I Love Promarkers and this time we are going with the theme Shabby Chic and we are sponsored by the lovely Fabrika Fantasy . I used Mushroom Elf to create this card:

I used a lilac card blank from The Works. Orange core'dinations card was embossed with a recent embossing folder free with Quick Cards Made Easy magazine and then the centre was die-cut with the X-cut large labels die of the next size up from that used to cut the image. The centre strip was cut away to allow the base card to come through more. The image was coloured with Promarkers and edged with glitter glue. Finally I topped the card with hessian style flowers and gems, as well as a strip of lace from one of the ATC exchanges.

Promarkers used - Dusky Pink; Satin; Grey Squirrel ltd; Frosted Leaf ltd; Pastel Beige; Fresh Meadow ltd; Pear Green; Forest Green; Polar Blue ltd; Cobalt Blue; Sandstone; Honeycombl Cinnamon; Budding Rose ltd; Dusky Rose; Antique Pink

Do also check out Fabrika Fantasy's own challenge blog: https://fabrikafantasydigis.blogspot.co.uk/ - current theme of add a heart.

I tried to make it shabby with the pale colours, distressed embossing, lace effects, but this is not one of my strong areas (just in case you couldn't tell lol).

This card is also being entered into the following challenges:

PFP 383 Something New (image, lace and embossing folder)

Die-cuttin' Divas #305 Animals

Cute Card Thursday #465 No patterned paper

Crafting by designs - It's almost Spring!

CCM #182 Add some texture

scrapbook stamp society #110 Embossing

Deep Ocean #149 Add lace

Just Hanna #267 Flowers

Animal Friends #47 No designer paper

open-minded crafting #14 Flowering in February

Here is a fish tank update for you at 135hrs:

Thank you for looking,

Hugz Tinz

Funky Congratulations

What a lovely Saturday it has been. Spring can definitely be felt in the air at the moment. How long will it last though? lol. We have had a bit of a busy day today - moving the rabbit run, getting hair done, picking up a rescue Bearded Dragon and making a card - as well as relocating the crickets from the viv to an ovo mouse 'tank'.

So here is my card creation for you lovely lot:

I started with a white card base. The layers are made with pearlesscent card and a free paper pack. Die-cuts used were Nellie Snellen Multi Frame 011 - Circle die and Sizzix Frame, snowflake die. The papermania ribbon was wrapped around the panel before adhering to the card. The stamps are all from separate sets that I got with Creative Stamping magazine and were inked with Pretty Colour ink pads. The colouring was done with metallic pencils.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:

ATSM #229 CAS

As you like it - Ribbon or lace? (Ribbon because there is a greater range and it is easier to match with the rest of the elements on the card)

MAWTT #39 For a man

Alphabet Challenge - Y for You choose

Quick Cards - Funky Party

Crafting by designs - February Anything Goes

So I mentioned picking up a new beardie - meet Simba:

He has a bit of an underbite but apparently it does not affect his eating, as he proved today! He is a lot faster than Atlas was and wants to climb everything - the benefit of having all his limbs!

I also planted some flower seeds today - an Annual mix of cottage garden seeds (from Tesco - they always work really well), and some Verbena, but I didn't get round to potting on my Lemongrass.

To finish here is an update of the dinos:

now at 21 hrs for dino #2.

Thank you for looking,

Hugz Tinz

Flowers in the snow

Hi there,

It has been quite a nice Monday here in South Wales, with temperatures in double digits and no sign of rain! I decided to make a mini Christmas card today and this is what I ended up with:

I took a snowflake printed card base and made a mini card blank. I then used Papermania Bellissimo paper with poinsettias for the panels. I used two snowman peel-offs on scrap silver card for the main image and then accented the card with silver peel-offs and sentiment.

I would like to enter this card for the following challenges:

Sweet Sketch Wednesday #105

 

Jingle Belles - Let the flakes fall

open-minded crafting #14 Flowering in February

ABC Christmas - D for Dimension 

Merry Monday #235 Snowmen

SOS #289 Winter Blues

craftyhazelnuts christmas #320 Cute

I also finished the first page of my new colouring book finally lol.

Finished the advent calender for the two little girls for this coming Christmas:

The pockets are individually stitched and were finished well before Christmas last year (you may have seen the progress updates), however I then wasn't going to be seeing the girls in time to get it to them, so I stopped rushing it and focused on some other bits instead. Now I have finished it, using fabric glue to add the pockets to the felt backing. The shape is a little funny because the felt was slightly too narrow - but it just has a bushy bottom hehe.

I tried to make an upside down cake yesterday for my Crafting Techniques group on facebook (yup we are in the kitchen this time). Unfortunately I forgot about leaving the cake to cool before tipping it out, and the fruit fell through into the cake :(. It is still obviously upside down - but not quite how it should be lol.

See the fruit is there - just not in the right place!

Finally I planted up Atlas (RIP) our bearded dragon yesterday, along with a batch of the mice we have lost during the previous year, and these are the memorials:

The beardie has one extra spikey plant, and they will go either side of Purrdy's pot once I can rearrange the garden a little.

Thank you for looking,

Hugz Tinz

Dotty about baby

Hi there,

It has been a busy day at work, so to wind down here is another card (busy week lol). I have made a new baby card as my facebook wall seems to be full of pregnant people at the moment lol.

Now I went for a CAS design using printouts from a DoCrafts CDRom, and I was also aiming to use three adjacent colours on the colour wheel - being orange, yellow and green!! However, the stamped butterflies somehow ended up being blue!!! grrrr. I am not sure whether I need to round the top corner also?

Anyway, I wanted to enter this card into the following challenges:
Atlantic hearts sketch 198

Simply Less is Moore #314 Adjacent colours on the colour wheel
 Alphabet challenge - X for X marks the SPOT
inkspirational #127 polkadots
inkychicks #78 CAS


I have also taken the first photos of our newest member of the family - he doesn't actually have a name yet and will probably just end up being called Snakey (very original I know!)

Thank you for looking - I am now off work for the weekend so might do some playing! Although I do need to plant some seeds and start planning the garden too!

Hugz Tinz

Bear Love

Well at the time of writing this I have just learned that you cannot breath tea, you have to drink it. Ouch I can barely see the screen for my eyes watering! Anyway I will need to hurry up as I am due in work iin just over an hour!

It is time for another challenge at Aud Sentiments and this time we would like to see a Valentine or Love Sentiment on your makes. We are giving away a gift certificate to one winner.

 Here is what I made for my DT creation:

I used a papermania decoupage sheet from a couple of years ago and layered in using foam pads and gel tape. The base card was an embossed papermania card blank. To finish this quick and easy card I just added my sentiment to the balloon (that is an exclamation mark at the end) and some blue gems to the side as it looked a little blank.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges also:

Crafting by design - Anything Goes

Simply Create Too #124 Love

Crafty Calender - Love is in the air

CCM #181 Love, love, love

Crafting by design - Love and Romance

CAGI - Valentines Day Cards

I would also like to share with you an update on my fish tank - now at almost 136 hours of stitching.

I decided to do some cooking last night - for the first time in the new house (proper cooking using ingrediants). I made a spicy butternut squash soup. OK I burnt the first batch lol, but it worked quite well. I did also manage to add slightly too much dried chilli, but not enough to be too hot, or hide the taste of the butternut thankfully! Was a nice thick soup for winter, and I would definitely make it again - but hopefully next time with homegrown butternut!

Thank you for looking,

Hugz Tinz

Cats and Dogs ... and some older creatures too

Time for my second blog post for today for our new challenge at I {heart} Promarkers. This time we want to see Clean and Simple designs (CAS). We are sponsored by Dr Digi's House Of Stamps, so I have been able to play with a couple of designs this week :). For this card I have used two digital downloads from the sponsor - Mycroft and Watson and Pet Sentiments #1.

I coloured the image, but the sentiment border was already coloured. Unfortunately I used Yellow Straw Aquamarker, which didn't blend very well with the Cinnamon and Umber normal Promarkers, hence the dog not being very well blended. It does look a little better in the flesh though lol.

I woud like to enter this card into the following challenges:

C4C371 Animals

Addicted to CAS #104 Pets

Show us your pussies #15 Kitty love (ok a little bit of a stretch but he obviously loves the dog enough to bother knocking the vase off the unit???)

inkychicks #78 CAS

And here are some much older creatures - my dino height chart WIP @134 hrs approx.

Thank you for looking,

Hugz Tinz

LOVE-ly couple

Hi there,

It is time for a new challenge over at Creative Moments. Our theme is always Anything Goes, but this time we are having the optional twist of Love is in the Air. This challenge is sponsored by Dr Digi, and I have used Morris & Mildred.

I used a square card blank and some patterned paper that was free with Quick Cards Made Easy. I trimmed the paper to size as it is 9x9 and the card was only 6x6. I bought some dies from Tonic studios towards the end of last year and had not used them - so I decided it was time to get them out. I used the nesting ornate hearts smallest dies and the top hat central die. I coloured the image with promarkers (there was slight bleed as I tried using a posh paper to give the vintage effect, and unfortunately the promarkers do not react very well) and then die-cut into a heart shape. I found a small bunch of paper flowers and a vintage style sentiment also to finish off the card.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Cute as a button #31 Valentines

Cardmaking and Papercraft Valentine competition

The Card Concept #66 Love and Romance (collage)

 

Creative Corner - Perfectly Pink

Fussy and Fancy #180 Fussy and Fancy

addicted to stamps - Love

 Kort 'o' Mania #169 Dies/Punches

CCM #181 Love,love,love

MMM #39 Shimmer and Shine

TIOT - Hearts and Flowers

Sweet stampin' - Love is in the air

Come and Get it - Valentines Day Cards

PFP 381 I {heart} you

I thought it was about time I showed you some pictures of my little mice again - this is Silver helping me clean his cage, and making sure I do it properly lol:

Thank you for looking.

Hugz Tinz

P.S. - I found out Primark now do size 4 today - so I decided to try some and see if they fit any better!! Exciting times lol.

Nuts about you

Hello on this wet and windy Friday - I am at home after work, looking through the new pokemon cards, whilst crafting lol.

I have made this card this evening, using mainly die-cuts:

So for this card I wanted to use the 'nuts about you' imagery for a Valentines card - hence the use of the squirrel. I originally thought I had bought a squirrel die, however when I looked it turned out to be a fox, so I had to really hunt through my stash. I finally found this pyramage guy that my mum had given me a while ago, so the card could go ahead. I also didn't want to use any designer papers, so I used a pearlescent white for the sentiment (Joanna Sheen die), a white card spritzed with pink Mica powder and a pink embossed paper (cut with Lea'bilities leaf nesting die). I also used some beige paper to cut some acorns (Marianne Designs die).

I followed Stella's Sketch #502:

 

Kort 'o' mania #169 Dies/punches

 CCM #181 Love, love, love

Creative Corner - Perfectly Pink

Animal Friends #47 No designer paper

C4C370 Squirrel

 Die Cuttin' Divas #302 Anything Goes

I planted my kitty cat yesterday - I couldn't bury her as the ground is just too soggy, so we decided to pop her in a plant pot instead. And here it is - Purrdy's memorial:

Hopefully it will become a fully floral creation in a few weeks time - and then I have some thyme to add into it once the weather becomes a little drier!

I also got my new cutter out , which I have not used as yet!

It cuts, scores and perforates too!

Thank you for looking at my blog,

Hugz Tinz

Have a floral birthday

Hi guys,

Welcome to the wet and miserable Welsh weather brrr. My lawn is a bog, and my poor bunny is sitting on cardboard when she plays out, just to keep her feet dry. However, my mini greenhouse is now up and sweet peas, pea beans and normal peas sown whoop!

I can now share this floral birthday card I made for one of the ladies I exchange ATC's with, as it was her birthday today!

The stitched initials took just over 2 hours and was from Cross Stitcher 188. I then cut to size and mounted onto spring green pearlescent cardstock. This was then mounted onto Henbury Lane Papermania patternd paper. I chose the card base as it matched the colour of the aida fabric. I then used some stickers I received in a previous exchange and layered them onto the patterned paper and cardstock. I also coloured the flower, after fussy cutting, with Fuschia pink promarker. Finally I added the sentiment.

I would like to enter this card for the Craftycatz #355 A Ladies Card challenge.

Here also is an update on myfish tank - now at over 133hrs:

Thank you for taking the time to look at my blog,

Hugz Tinz