More dragonflies

I seldom go very long without a dragonfly appearing on one of my cards! Today I bring you THREE dragonflies.

I used stamps from a very old Woodware/Francoise Read set called In the Jungle. I used several of the leaf stamps and shades of green ink to create the frame, leaving a tiny space to stamp the sentiment (a magazine freebie) so that it merged into the border rather than detract from the white space in the middle. The dragonflies are stamped and fussy cut then finished with Stickles.

I am sharing this with
Allsorts Challenge -Thanks a Bunch 
AAA Cards - three of something

Blue for a boy

The current challenge at The Male Room is The Colour Blue  and I decided that instead of a card for a grown man, I would make one for a new baby boy.

The beautiful papers from the Graphic 45 "Precious Memories" range are perfect for the job - all they need is a whole heap of fussy cutting and layering to make a card fit for a little prince.

Doughnut delight

My new subscriber copy of Creative Stamping arrived yesterday and I just HAD to get stamping straight away with the fab stamp set included with it. As I've been out of the crafting loop for a couple of weeks I decided to ease myself in with a very Clean And Simple card that uses up a whole bunch of snippets.

I originally intended paper piecing the doughnuts but decided the little space in the "hole" where you can see the cake below the icing would be just too darned tricky so I layered them instead, and I think it works better that way because after all the icing in a real doughnut is on top of the cake, not inset into it.

The doughnut stamp and sentiment are both from the stamp set, which is so new it isn't in the shops for a few days yet, and all the papers are from my snippets box.

I am sharing this with Pixie's Snippets Playground  and also with Sweet Stampin - New! as the stamps are brand new.

Birds and blooms

It's very rare that I come to the end of a pack of papers, but I'm almost there with these lovely BoBunny papers. There are no complete sheets left, in fact I'm down to about a quarter of a sheet of each, and will probably be able to squeeze a couple more snippets cards out before they run out completely. Here is a card made entirely from those precious snippets.

I saw a card on Pinterest made from scraps of double sided paper with the corners turned back so both surfaces showed, and thought it was a lovely idea, and it used some of my smallest snippets too. I used 1mm foam pads to hold down the flaps, to give then just a hint of depth, and added the topper with the same pads.

It was lovely to be working with pretty spring colours when everything around seems to be Christmassy! I'm heading over to the Snippets Playground to share this.

Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers #125 - Rude Christmas

It's Rude Christmas time at the Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers.

Just LOOK where Edna's hung her mistletoe! What a cheeky madam!


I've decided to take the "insulting-rude" angle rather than the "saucy-rude" one that you were probably expecting from me!

I've used stamps from some of my favourite sets - the Dylusions Christmas Sentiments and Katzelkraft's Les Chats Russes, plus a mistletoe sprig from a recent magazine freebie set.

I would like to share this with
Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge - Anything Goes
Sweet Stampin - Last minute Christmas/Anything Christmas
Christmas Crafts All Year Round - Anything Goes
Country View Challenges - Christmas    

Resist technique at Back to Basics

For our latest challenge at Back to Basics we would like you to use a resist technique.  There are several different ways of doing this but they all boil down to adding ink to an image or sentiment created using a medium that resists the ink - wax, resist fluid, Versamark or, as I've used here, clear embossing.

I stamped the bold sentiment with Versamark ink and embossed with clear powder, then sponged bold bands of distress ink over to go with the boldness of the sentiment. I spritzed the background with water and some mica spray to give it a sheen you can't see in the photo but looks lovely in real life, and then polished with a tissue to remove all the ink and mica from the lettering so that it pops out from the background.

I'm sharing this with CAS Mix Up where the challenge is Emboss Resist  with mica spray being my extra technique, even though it doesn't show up very well in the photo!

Christmas Old or New at CD Sundays

It's Jocelyn's turn to choose the challenge at CD Sundays and she has picked Christmas Old or New.

It's given me a chance to use the lovely Joanna Sheen CD, Vintage Christmas Cards, with this old-fashioned decoupage scene. Oh doesn't that say a lot about social history, with cook, in her servant's clothes, supervising while the children of the wealthy household stir the Christmas pudding for luck?

The backing paper is a magazine freebie and to continue the "old" theme, I've used some very old gold-embossed mulberry paper that I've had since the days when mulberry paper was fashionable!

 I am sharing this with
 Allsorts Challenge - Season's Greetings
Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge - Anything Goes/ use some gems or pearls

RECIPE: two simple sides for a winter barbecue

It's becoming fashionable to barbecue all year round, in fact I've heard of people barbecueing their Christmas dinner!

Now I'm far too much of a wimp to brave the cold and wind, eating outdoors is for the warmest days of summer for me, but I love the flavours of a barbecue all year round so I often cook barbecue style food in my kitchen.

My local farm shop makes their own sausages and has won awards for their delicious Smokey Joe sausages - a traditional sausage rather than a frankfurter, with all the flavour of a barbecue crammed into their plump, juicy skins. Served with a jacket potato and some suitable sides, it's easy to pretend you are sitting in the garden on a warm summer's evening even when you are safely indoors with wind howling around the trees and rain lashing the windows!

On the left we have Sweetcorn and Red Onion Salad - for this simply finely chop a small red onion, squeeze the juice of a lime and ¼ teaspoon of salt into a bowl, mix then stir in the onion and leave to "cook" for half an hour. Just before serving, mix in a small tin of sweetcorn and a handful of roughly chopped flatleaf parsley.

On the right is Chipotle Celeriac Slaw. Put 2 tablespoons of mayonnaise into a large bowl and mix in a scant teaspoon of Chipotle Paste and the juice of half a lemon. Coarsely grate half a celeriac (you could add a grated carrot for extra colour if you like) and mix into the dressing. Can be served immediately but is better after standing for an hour.

A pack of dogs

This is a card I was asked to make for a dog lover. I don't have many doggy stamps, and no doggy background paper, so I used my trusty old Little Claire "We 6 dogs" stamp and created my own background paper using a couple of magazine freebie stamps.

I used a sketch I saw on Pinterest and added ribbon from my stash.

I am sharing this with

Shopping our Stash - Happy Birthday Dude (I don't know why I always think of dogs as for men and cats for women - my husband loves cats and isn't keen on dogs)
Little Red Wagon - House pets

Otterly sweet!

I made this card for a friend and now I know she has received it, I can share it with you all.

 

I've used stamps and dies from the Lawn Fawn "Year Five" set that I won in the Snippets Playground (goodness knows why they are called Year Five! Otterly crazy). The otter and parcel are stamped on a snippet of white card and I've used other snippets and dies to create the little scene. I coloured the sea otter with Promarkers and doing so made me very happy as it reminded me of a fun family tour of California we did when the girls were in their teens, when we took a trip around Monterey harbour to see the sea otters for which it is famous.

Naturally I am sharing this with the Snippets Playground  since without Di's lovely and generous challenges this card would never have been made!
I am also sharing at 2 Crafty Critter Crazies where, as always, the theme is anything goes if it includes a creature.

The Bee Fairy

I've used papers, stamps and dies from the Heartfelt Creations "Sweet as Honey" collection, colouring the Bee Maiden, house and honey pot with pencils.

I am sharing this with
Addicted to Stamps and More - anything goes
Butterfly Challenge - Fairies, gnomes and elves  (fairies)
Allsorts - Fairies, fantasy and magical

Snowmen at Cardz 4 Guyz

For our latest challenge at Cardz 4 Guyz we would like to see one or more snowmen on your work.

I've used one of my favourite snowman images, Santa Selfie from Dr Digis.

I've coloured it with Promarkers and added a fun sentiment stamped with a stamp from the Mama Makes Christmas Hug set.

I am sharing this with
Sweet Stampin - Snowmen and snowladies
Christmas crafts all year round - anything goes

Sparkly Bauble

OK, how much washi tape have you got? I have about two dozen tolls of the stuff and yet I seldom use it. In fact most of it gets used as masking tape or for holding dies in place.

And indeed I used some for holding the dies in place to cut the topper for this card. But that was boring washi tape - I'm never going to use this sparkly stuff anywhere the sparkle isn't going to be fully appreciated.

I have sparkly washi tape in plain purple and purple/silver spots, and in the same combo but with green instead of purple, and in pink hearts. I was tempted to throw all the colours at this card, because of Christmas not being a time when I'm famous for exercising good taste, but in the interest of keeping it CAS I decided to exercise some restraint.

Just in case you can't see how sparkly it is, here's a close up.

 

I taped a circle die inside a stitched rectangle to cut the topper, then drew through it to mark where the circle would come on the base card. I covered the base area with rows of washi tape, making sure the circle was completely filled.

Then I stamped the sentiment in white on a scrap of purple card and heat-embossed it. I used a purple glitter pen to draw in the cord and bow, trimmed the sentiment and glued it down the side of the topper, then attached the topper over the washi bauble using 1mm foam pads.

I am sharing this with
Shopping our stash - Washi Washi Washi
CAS on Friday - make a Christmas Card

Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers challenge #124 - Winter

Our new challenge at the Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers is Winter.

I decided to be rather less snarky than usual and use this cute image and sentiment from the Mama Makes Christmas Hug stamp set.

The snow scene is cut from a magazine freebie paper with the sentiment stamped directly onto it. The critter (I've looked long and hard and decided it's a lop-eared bunny wearing super-long earmuffs to match his hat and scarf) is stamped on a scrap of white card, coloured and fussy cut.

I am sharing this with
Crafty Calendar - It's Christmas Time
Inkspirational - Anything Christmas 

Fancy Folds at Sparkles Christmas

It's time for our new challenge at Sparkles Christmas and today it's my turn to choose - I've chosen the theme Fancy Folds.

To make my card, I folded an A4 sheet of card diagonally from corner to corner (if you have a standard scoring board it won't fit on it, so you'll need to use a l-o-n-g ruler - I used my old yardstick from dressmaking days) then folded the whole thing in half so the points  all lined up.
This fold produces two pockets, one on the outside and one on the inside, great for tucking tags or gift cards into, but because of how I wanted to position my sentiment I stuck the front and back of the outside pocket together so the front of the card lies flat.

The papers and sentiment were recent magazine freebies and I chose the corner one for the front inside panel because it has ruled lines, perfect for adding a personal message.

A tip when making a card like this is to make a second one from an identical sized sheet of scrap paper and cut along all the creases to use as a template for cutting all the papers.

I am sharing this with
Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge - December
 Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge - stickers or Anything Goes