Kitty Sleigh Ride and Naughty Birdies

Hi there guys,

Well after a wet and miserable start to the day it really brightened up and I got some bits done sown on the allotment. Another bed has been prepared and the first 47 onion sets planted. I now need to work out where I am going to put the rest of them as this is not even a quarter of what I have got!!

I decided it was time to make a Christmas card and play along with some Christmas challenges. So this is what I have created:

The kitty was cut from an old Christmas card, and the bauble was stamped onto the reverse of the packaging for a free gift. The stamps were also free gifts with magazines, stamped with Boofle green ink. To make the clouds on the bauble I die-cut a small scalleped circle (X-cut nesting dies) and Whispers ink. I wet a sponge and used this to apply the ink around the top edge of the scalloped circle. The effect I was aiming for was the reindeer flying off leaving the kitty in the sleigh as a present.

I would like to enter this card for the following challenges:
winter wonderland Christmas baubles
catch the bug Recycle - Christmas cards
Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas 276 Green
scrapbook stamp society #88 Anything Goes
abc christmas  G for Green/Gold
alphabet challenge C for Cats
jingle belles rock Peace on EARTHday (recycle)
Christmas @ Sweet Stampin' Cute Christmas
quirky crafts Quirky raining cats and dogs

I would also like to show you my naughty birdies stealing the rabbits greens instead of going and eating their own!

And here is an update on the height chart too - @66hrs:

Thank you for looking,
Hugz Tinz

Love & Flowers

Hi everybody,

I thought I would share my three floral table toppers for my wedding:

These were stitched on hand-dyed evenweave. Here is the full collection:

I would like to enter this floral stitches into the following challenges:

abc-challenge E for Everything

catch the bug Anything Goes

MMM Watercolour (a bit outside the box with this one - but the background is similar to watercolour)

And now for an audio book review:

Love & Dr Devon by Alan Titchmarsh

This is a love story with an element of intrigue. Dr. Devons wife walked out on him 18 months ago and he has since lost his job, but meets two friends every week to play dominos, which has helped him through. However, life suddenly gets exciting when an old work colleague dies in suspicious circumstances, related to the reason Dr. Devon lost his job in the first place, and his housekeeper goes on holiday for a couple of weeks, leaving her daughter to look after him! A fun and interesting read with much light humour throughout.

Thank you for looking
Hugz Tinz

P.S. - my pond now has lots of frogspawn and I have planted another batch of potatoes - this time Vivaldi 9first time growing these) - and some Chard!

Parisian birthday

Hi there,

Well what a strange day we have had today! It has been pretty nice for much of the day and then it will get dark and the heavens open. I therefore did not manage to get anything done on my large pond, as was the plan. I will have to try again tomorrow. However I did plant up a flower pot and also sowed some Cauliflower seeds into trays.

I have made a Paris inspired card this evening using a sketch from the new issue of Quick Cards magazine. I used fashion to inspire this card as I do not have anything that shows the eiffel tower, and I do not use my fashonista peel-offs very often, so it was a good opportunity to get them out. The stamps were free gifts with magazines and diamantes were used to finish off the card.

This card was inspired by the following challenges:
The Card Concept
Clean and Layered
Aud Sentiments  #152 Birthday
INKspirational #105 Umbrella photo inspiration (muted slightly)

liveandlovecrafts  #46 Photo collage inspiration

CCEE1613 Parisian
catch the bug Anything Goes


Thank you for looking at my blog
Hugz Tinz

Stonemouth Cross

Hi guys,

What a lovely day it has been today. Typical when I am working the weekend!! Grrrrrrr......

However, I did manage to get down to the allotment and finish pruning my blackberry bushes (or Brambles as they are more correctly known lol). They went from this:

To this:

I pruned one back harder than the other. As I left them quite late to prune them (simply because of the weather and getting married) I decided to leave the new growth on one of the bushes and then compare the crop from them both and see which works best. It is a pointless trial as we lose the allotments in October this year as the land is to be used for development! I now also have lots of sharp, prickly stems to get rid of somehow - I think I may have to buy a metal bin and burn the darned things as I do not fancy trying to get the into the car to bring back for my garden waste bin lol.

I also got a card made today - very quick and simple. I used a Cross with Lilies die from Joanna Sheen and cut it out on two different pearlescent papers, which I then layered together. Then I coloured the peel-off using 'The original Peel-offs' permanant marker pens, in yellow as I only had silver stickers. I finished by punching the corners of the pale yellow base card to give this result:

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

Sketchy Colours #268 Yellow and White
crafty calendar Anything Goes
Simply Less is Moore #270 White space but not white
Diecuttin' Divas #259 Get Well


I have also got an audio book review for you - first one in a while as I forgot to write the last one up!

Stonemouth by Iain Banks

This is story set up in Scotland, and is based around a criminal family. Stuart has come back to Stonemouth for the funeral of one of his older friends, who also happens to be the grandfather of one of two criminal families in the town. Unfortunately, Stu was also engaged to the oldest daughter but publically cheated on her a week before the wedding, causing him to flee for his life to London. He has been given concession to come back to Stonemouth for the funeral but he quickly finds himself drawn into danger again.

This book has also been made into a film, but the film is slightly different to make it more interesting on screen (and probably to make the main character look better as he is a pretty poor character in the book). Overall a good read, but probably better if the screen version has not been watched first, as the main twists are pretty much the same.

Thank you for taking the time to look at my blog
Hugs Tinz

Butterfly Thank You's

Hi there,

I have made an ATC collection for the lovely ladies in the Friends International ATC group, who were all very supportive for my wedding and sent some lovely cards through.

The base for the ATC was made with X-Cut large frames nesting dies - using the smallest one. The sentiment die was free with Cardmaking and Papercraft 152. The butterflies are from a Sizzix set.

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

alphabet challenge B for Beautiful Butterflies

my time to craft #318 Girlie
creative card crew #109 CAS
allsorts #356 Wings

Down on the allotment today I started to cut back the Bramble bushes. Yup a little late I know but with the way the weather has been over winter - and then getting married - there has not been much opportunity to get it done before now. Unfortunately I do not get to spend much time down on the allotment if I actually want to have some tea due to the traffic on my commute, so I haven't managed to do the whole of the two bushes, but have done about half. I will finish them off on Sunday (it is the other allotments turn tomorrow and Saturday lol).

I am sitting here quickly writing my blog with the little boy mice playing out and a ball of wool next to me. The little boy mice keep climbing into the ball of wool and unravelling it. Very funny to watch - just a shame my camera is downstairs otherwise I could take a video. After being full of a cold for the past couple of days it is noce to be able to sit and play with the mice in the evening again :).

Thank you for reading my blog,

Hugz Tinz

You are my sunshine - Inspired by a song over at Creative Moments

Hello everybody,

It is time for a new challenge over at Creative Moments - this time round the optional twist is to be inspired by a song (of course we are always an anything goes challenge). I used a Flower Love Bug image from our sponsor Kitty Bee for this card, which was inspired by Johnny Cash :) Please visit the blog to see our other sponsors.

 The image is coloured with Promarker pens. The front of the card blank had an aperture die-cut into it using X-cut nesting dies and Big Shot Plus. The inside of the card was layered with Papermania patterned paper, and the image die-cut using a Nellie's nesting die, before being mounted inside the apeture with 3D tape. Alphabet peel-offs were used for the sentiment and flowers to finish the card.

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

mmm - Going round in circles

PFP - #339 Weather (sunflower and sunshine sentiment)

allsorts - Wings

 digichooseday - wk13 Spring Colours
simplycreatetoo - #105 Be funny
crafting by designs - Anything Goes 

Thank you for looking

Hugz Tinz

Zentangled #2

Here is my second card using the hummingbird Zentangle image from the free CD-Rom:

This time I used a white base card and die-cut the image using a Spellbinder's fancy oval nesting die, before colouring using aqua promarkers in greens and purple. I blended them, but did not worry about keeping within the lines in order to give an effect of movement around the birds wings. I layered this onto some Botanical Papermania paper and a piece of yellow gauze ribbon (which is difficult to see in the picture). Finally I layered some paper flowers over the panel, following sketch #152 from AHSC.

I would also like to enter this card into these challenges:

mod squad Springtime

crafting by designs 3 or more layers

allsorts 356 Wings

avenue 613 #168 Use a bird
crafty calendar Special lady

Here are the pictures of the wedding cakes, which were brilliant!! Oh and a lovely picture of the groom lol.

Thank you all for looking.
Hugz Tinz