Serendipity

The challenge at Tilda and Co this week is ...

Serendipity!

You may be thinking what is Serendipity? Well it is a Fun Crafting Techniquethat i thought would be fun for us to all do as a challenge, Also it is a Great way to use up all your scraps of paper!

Well I confess I had heard of it vaguely, but always thought too much like the collaging I spent years doing in infant classrooms (and spent hours de-glueing myself!!LOL)! Well now its my turn to have a go and I have to confess that I have loved it!




I spent yesterday evening tearing and glueing scraps of paper onto a sheet of cardstock. I have gone for purples and a tinge of pink and green. I have used lots of different types of papers, and ones with bits in or embossed to create some texture. I added skeleton leaves for texture and interest.
I left it overnight to dry.






I cut it into squares and randomly picked 9 of them. I have tried to choose the squares so there is a variety of colour and texture. I mounted these onto lilac/purple cardstock.












Finally, I chose a Shabby Chic Tilda, partly because of her size as I didn't want to take too much away from the background. I was going to choose the sitting Shabby Chic but it seemed popular with the Design Team so I went for this one instead.
I have watercoloured her in tones to match the backing and matted her onto lilac and dark purple cardstock.
I played around with the positioning for a long time before I finally decided on where she should go.
I feel that I need something else but having tried ribbon and flowers I haven't been happy with the effect. Any ideas!


A great challenge, and I have loved it!
Thanks for looking,

Penny Black Saturday Challenge

This was a challenge in more ways than 1!

The 1st week's challenge was to use your 1st PB stamp - I can't remember!!! I have had to extensive research through my galleries on forum and the PC to work out roughly which was my 1st!!!

I think (but not 100% sure!!) that this is my 1st stamp - Spring Air. I have watercoloured the image and used gloss on the wellie to make them shine. I wasn't thinking so I glossed before I matted, so had to wait for ages while it dried - the waiting was another challenge!

I have matted the image onto orange and yellow cardstock and then onto DCWV Pocketful of Posies paper. The striped background is from a download. The quilled flowers and leaves are my own (not too bad, if I do say so myself!!) and I have doodled the stems (as I couldn't get the quilling paper to stick on its edge! (a failed challenge on my part!)). The greetings are from PBs transparencies sets, again mounted onto orange and yellow cardstock.

I love this card!! Hope you do too.

Friday Sketcher

Not been feeling too good over the last couple of days thanks to Ellie sharing her tummy bug (isn't she generous!!) and am feeling a little lacking on the inspiration/motivation front.
I have has a go at the Friday Sketcher sketch . I love doing sketches and really like the look of this one.

The papers are DCWV Pocketful of Posies. I love the green and purple papers but have found it less easy to use the orange leaf paper as orange is not a colour I feel comfortable using.

I have used a Shabby Chic Tilda and lace ribbon to frame the circle. I am pleased with how I have positioned Tilda - sitting on the circle edge with her feet on the edge of the green paper. I have used orange ribbon with a gold trim to join the papers. The greeting reads Special Day.



To be honest I am not sure about this card - I was trying to get a feeling of Summer with the colours - I think its a bit washed out, however Hubby thinks its great and vibrant. Shows how we all differ!!!


I am in the process of making my Penny Black Challenge card - hopefully I will get it finished tonight when the girls are in bed so watch this space!!!

Tilda and friends challenge - bits and pieces

I thought I would have a go at this challenge as I haven't made an ATC for ages. As I have been 'helping' Ellie make her Grandad's birthday card I have my paper scraps tray out today so the challenge seemed to fit in with tidying up!!

I have used strips of Papermania's Floral Retro papers and some K&Co paper. None is wider than 2.5 cms - honest!! I have watercoloured Dala Tilda in yellow and turquoise, and added the compulsory pink socks (Ellie is obsessed with pink!!) I tried to be clever and make it look as if she is sitting above a bed of flowers - not sure it worked!! I have used 3 die cut mulberry flowers with gems at their centre to finish the ATC off.

Hope you like it,

First cards post holiday

These are my first cards for just over a week. I found it really difficult getting back into the swing of things - particularly mixing and matching papers! Hopefully it will get easier! So I am not 100% happy with the outcomes - please be gentle with me!! LOL

Anyway I have had a go at 3 challenges this week, using 2 cards.

I have used Maggie (she is so like my daughters its scary!) for the Spoonfull of Sugar challenge. They set a recipe challenge - 3 brads, 2 patterned papers and 1 flower. I have used Papermania's Retro Floral papers and pearlised pink cardstock (technically 3 papers, but only 2 patterned!). I used a Papermania heart brad and some pink ribbon for the bottom of the card (the ribbon is straight on the card - the scanner snagged it!!), a gold brad in the centre of the flower, and an orange brad in the centre of the present bow. I used a couple of die cut flowers to make my big flower.
As I have used 3 different types of embellishments - brads, ribbon and flowers I am also using this card for the CCT challenge this week.


For the Tilda and Co challenge this week you have to include swirls. I have some lovely swirl stamps, but to be honest didn't feel like rooting through loads of stamps to find them(!) so I haven't used stamps. I have used a Shabby Chic Tilda(birthday pressie of hubby) and put some Papermania Retro Floral paper through my Bug using the D'vine Swirls embossing folder. Only 2/3rds of the paper is embossed. I matted Tilda onto yellow cardstock and put her on the un-embossed section. I have used a yellow ribbon to finish the card off. Simple but effective I hope.

Hope you like them,



PS - I have been a bad girl - already been online to buy 9 pads of K&Co paper - hope the hubby doesn't read my blog - but it was on special offer!!!! And I have been on his type of holiday and Normandy doesn't seem to have a single craft shop!!!

My 1st Sugar Nellies!!

These are probably my last efforts before we go away tomorrow - off to France with the hubby and some friends - but no children!!!! Yippee!! I have managed to persuade hubby that I do NEED to take some images and pencils as we are going on the train so I need something to do (not sure the view inside the Tunnel is that interesting!!)

I finally succombed to the lure of Sugar Nellies and have got myself a couple of Maggie stamps and a Hamish one. No doubt I will be acquiring more of these as I love them!!

For this image, Maggie with Flowers, I have coloured in pinks and blues using watercolour pencils and matted her onto pink cardstock. I have used papers from Basic Grey's Two Scoop collection and chosen a pink, blue and green palette so it qualifies for A Spoonfull of Sugar's challenge this week. I have used pink and green bards to attach the papers and some of the flowers. I finished the green flowers off with Papermania green gems.

I love this image of Hamish fixing his tractor, it reminds me so much of my nephew. I have coloured Hamish in using watercolour pencils and matted him onto light blue card. I have used papers from K and Co and DCWV and decorated them with red and blue gems from Papermania, and a ribbon. I have embossed a piece of red cardstock and attached it using blue brads. Hamish is mounted slightly off centre using silver brads.
I find it really difficult embellishing masculine cards and often end up using gems and brads - not sure flowers go!!!
As both cards use brads and I going to enter them for this week's My Time to Craft challenge, the first time I have had a go at this challenge blog.

Hope you like them.

My Scrapbook in memory of Butch

My beautiful baby boy, Butch, sadly passed away on Saturday. He was 13 years old and in a lot of pain. I have had him from the day he was born so we are all going to get used to not having a dog around. I have spent the last couple of days making this small scrapbook in memory of him and all the good times we had with him.



The scrapbook is a small papermania one that I got cheap as the front was faded. I have covered it with paper that I have sponged green and used Magnolia's goblin spells grass and sweet brairs to decorate it. I have added Rufus, but turned him into a dalmatian again. The flower is from Making Memories - I needed something to hide the ribbon ends!!

I have used a selection of papers - too many to mention. The quotes are mainly taken from browsing the internet. I have not added embellishments yet and am not sure if I will - I don't want it to be too fussy and detract from the photos.

Choosing the photos was really hard - so many and so many memories - I tried to get a selection that showed him as the beautiful, loving and gentle dog he was.

Some more pages from Butch's scrapbook.

These are my own words. This has to be one of our favourite pics of our beautiful boy.

The final pages of my scrap book. I love the pictures of Butch posing - they were taken before his arthritis got really bad so he looks happy and contented.








Making this scrapbook has helped a little with the grief I feel - writing the quotes brought a fountain of tears - but they do reflect him so well and my wonderful memories of him.

Thank you for my Birthday cards

These are the beautiful birthday cards 3 of my SBS sisters sent me - thank you so much, they are gorgeous. The first is from Tracie-Jane, the Dottie is from Tracy and the Penny Black Bee is from Becky.

And they sent me some gorgeous goodies too (as well as some goodies from other crafty friends!).

I had a lovely birthday - we went to a butterfly house and had a picnic as the weather was glorious. The girls loved the butterflies and the fish (in the butterfly house). Beth was fascinated by the butterflies and kept pointing them out. Fortunately she didn't try to catch them! Ellie couldn't believe how big the koi carp fish were.

Sadly we have had to have my beloved, beautiful boy put to sleep as he could no longer stand up. A sad end to a lovely birthday.