Sketch Saturday Challenge

It's a while since I joined in with any of the weekly challenges in Craft Blog Land. Thought I'd try to get back into the routine :)

So! Here is this week's layout challenge from Sketch Saturday:

And here is my interpretation, the "twee"est, sweetest, pinkest card I've ever produced, I think. Maybe my recent bug has imprinted Pepto-Bismol deep into my brain :)

• Colouring was done with my Derwent Water Colour pencils, with a little clear Sakura Stardust sparkle on the flower and the rabbit.
• The background papers were freebies with Crafts Beautiful magazine. They are also available to download, free, from their website, here. You just need to sign up for their emailed newsletter and get a log-on and password.
  
• The pink/green circles are made from paper I decorated with my Glitz Pearlescent Paints.
• I've added faux stitching with Sakura Souffle pens.
• The "Easter Wishes" dome sticker was a freebie with the same magazine last year.
  
• The flower is Papermania, I think.
  
• The stamp is a Sugar Nellie, which you can buy online from Funky Kits.
• Sugar Nellies also have a blog, here.
  

I bought the stamp recently, thinking I could make some Easter cards with it. What do you think? I'll have to do some religious ones, too, for people I know who'd prefer those. But for now I'll concentrate on spring colours and this cheeky bunny.

Here is another. Not tied in with the sketch this time, I just wanted to do that stamp again :)
Still not quite happy with the colours I've used for the girl's clothes, especially the shoes. Any ideas?
I like the carrot button, from my local haberdashery, as is the ribbon, which I found there for 20p a metre! MUCH cheaper than the stuff made specialy for craft shops!

Not happy with the "Happy Easter", though it looks a bit better in real life than it does here in the photo: I used a yellow embossing pen with clear embossing powder. It worked ok, I just don't like my writing!
That lovely glass, by the way, in the shape of a cat's foot and with a picture of a cat and pawprints on it, was a Christmas present from Stardust, all the way from Japan! I love it. It's too good to use as a glass though, I don't want to risk breaking it! SO I keep it on the side in the sunlight, and it makes me smile whenever I look at it. That's the best kind of present, don't you think? :)

Valentine's Day....

Belated Happy Valentine's Day!

I was delighted to receive this from Ms Peach!Dilly, lover of all things princessy, was very taken with it, too!It has lots of lovely different pages...
...and a lovely pawtrait of Ms Peach herself :)
I spotted this clever montage of hearts over on Stardust's blog. I hope she doesn't mind me borrowing it!
Here is another heart.
I bought a plain, cardboard heart-shaped box from the craft shop in Colchester.
Then I coloured it using my pearlescent glues and sprinkled fine black glitter on it.... filled it with chocolates wrapped in tissue, made a tag, and wrapped it with red raffia...... et voila. A present for Luvbug!
....And for the card...

first let me explain something:

Luvbug speaks fluent Spanish. He worked in Ecuador for a couple of years so used it a lot. Spanish has some funny little sayings, as I'm sure all languages probably do.
One is to say that someone is your "half orange"....... if you cut an orange in half, the two sides look the same, they go together perfectly. Hence the saying that your partner is your half orange. SO.......
I made the half orange out of felt. I couldn't remember what orange blossom looked like, but hope the black outline flowers look like it enough!He liked it a lot...
...once he remembered the significance of the half orange, and that no, it had nothing to do with half-time snacks at football.

Oh well! :)

Mother's Day card.

Pootling about in front of the fire to keep warm, this is what I ended up with last night!

-Got my Mother's Day card done!

The inside.....

• Here are the materials I used-
• I made some fancy paper using some Glitz It pearlescent glue. I glooped it onto some paper then squashed another sheet on top and moved it about. Remember how we used to do this on folded paper as kids? -Then when you opened it it looked like a butterfly? :)
• I also used patterned paper called 'Siesta' from The English Paper Company.
• The flowers- I drew these then coloured them using the glue!- It works well with a waterbrush. You can move it about and keep it thick, like an acrylic, or brush it out into a wash.
• The stamps are in a set called "oh my dear" by Sassafras.
• I used the heart punch [which was about £1 in Tesco!] to make hearts all round the patterned paper, then layered this on top of the home decorated stuff, to show little pearlescent hearts coming through.

It's a wee bit fancy but Ithink my mum will like it. She loves deer and flowers, and she'll like these colours!

Incidentally, those glue bottles usually cost £1.99 each, but I got a set of 10 last week from QVC for under £12. Worth checking out if you like them!

I've never ordered from QVC before but was curled up in front of the tv last Tuesday afternoon with a sore tummy! I ordered them then and was playing with them by Friday afternoon :) Thanks, Julie, for the inspiration to get playing and do some papers of my own!!

My new avatar/profile pic

The more observant among you may have noticed that I've changed my pic. Fluffy is still in it, though, and gradually taking over the picture!She is on the sofa, sitting next to K, who took the picture. I'm sitting on the floor, leaning against the sofa. Fluffy is yeowing at K because she just wants to climb on his lap, but he wants to take pictures. I like this pic because it shows her moving, yet her pupils are in focus. Nice one, K!

Here are some pic's taken the same afternoon.
Fluffy loves to be brushed.
Just look at the bliss on her face!
And here, Fluff and Scooter are caught in a rare moment of sharing for mutual benefit!!!
Usually he'll give her one of his stares and she moves away. Or, he'll lie alongside, leaving a gap, then sort of nonchalantly stretch, yawn, and "accidentally" pat her on the bottom, sending her springing into the air.
Awwwwwww................

As you might know, they live with my mum. I get the bills, she gets the cuddles!!! But then, she also gets stressful trips to the vet: she called at the weekend to say that Scooter is limping on one of his back legs. He does have arthritis, so I am 'hoping' it's that, and nothing new. He won't allow a close examination, but she can't see an abscess or any wound. Maybe he sat too long on some frosty ground? If he's no better by Monday evening she's going to take him to the vet Tuesday. Waaahhhhh!!!

We had planned to be there this weekend- but instead we had to get a man out to fix the guttering and seal the roof- quite a bit of the thawed snow had come through! Oops! I miss my pusscats, especially if one of them isn't well. Mind you, if I had gone this weekend I'd have found it very difficult to leave him if he was limping. Poor Scoot!

Recent pressies... :)

The snow storms have moved more north an west now, and after some sleet and rain last night, most of ours has gone. We had blue skies again today- amazing, after the grey skies and snow of late.

Now..... must show you these two books that Luvbug bought me for Christmas:Living The Creative Life and Art Journals & Creative Healing -the links go to their space on Amazon, which give a good description of them, if you'd like to read more. You can flip through a few pages online to see what they're like inside. Have a look!

I read the Creative Life one from cover to cover weeks ago, and I'm nearly at the end of the Journals one. Absolutely brilliant!!! I really recommend them.

Next, Julie sent me more papers!!!!! Hurrayy!!!!!! THANKS, Julie!!!!(As you can just see in this photo, Julie also sent chocolate!!!! Bob here is sneaking up on it, but I managed to eat at least half of it myself, despite my diet. Well, it doesn't count if it's a gift, does it? Like if you get a bar that's '50% extra free' - that extra bit doesn't have any sugar, fat or calories in it. It's true.)

I love the handmade and hand decorated stuff that she does. I used lots from the last collection she sent me on my Christmas cards, especially the commissioned ones, to make them extra-special :)
I've already made you a wee something from this lot, Julie, with Dilly's help, of course :) ....I'll send it next time I'm out and about! (Dilly is blogging in more detail about this parcel as we speak........)

Finally, here's a wee pressie to myself from the sales: a border punch:

They are normally£11.99 but this was half price, with just £1 postage, so I thought, ah well, I've mused about getting a border punch for a while, so....I bought it from Crafter's Companion- (sorry, I just checked for you and they are back up to full price now!)

Thing is, this one cuts borders on an oval shape and, I don't know if my brain has partially hibernated or something, but I am having a hard time working it! I've yet to use it successfully.

Grr.... if I can't get it sussed, I may have to offer it as some Blog Candy some time! Someone, somewhere should be able to use it! Maybe I could do a swap with someone- if you'd like this, would you do a swap for something in your craft stash that you no longer need????

My first stitched card, and...... snow!

Well, they did forecast it, and it started yesterday afternoon, right on schedule!

Here's the view from our front garden about 2pm, the first of a few snow flurries. (It didn't start in earnest till the sun went down)-
The snowflakes revealed a spider's web against the window:

And the back garden?
The birds had been nibbling, quietly, casually... then the snow began and they all suddenly switched into top gear! Suddenly there was an urgency in getting as much of the food eaten as possible- as demonstrated by these starlings!
Now here's an oddity! This is actually a carrion crow, which, of course, should be completely black! I saw him the other week. I'm glad I managed to get a snap of him this time! I've seen blackbirds with a smudge of white here and there, but nothing on a bird this size.-He has the same on each wing, and some patches on his back. Rather than avoiding him or attacking him, which you might expect from his peers, the other carrion crows seem quite ok with him.

OK. Here is the same back garden about 90 minutes ago! Erm.... guess I should have put that washing line away, huh? :)

I stuck a ruler into the snow on top of the table out there.
It's blurred :( I suspected it might be, but it was far too cold to hang around for more shots!! It's actually over an inch deep, and still snowing.
...And here is the front of the house 90 minutes ago... I just opened the front window to take these. I love the way the shadow stretches out in the light from the streetlight.
Well, the idea of taking pictures this time of night was to get the snow undisturbed. It carried on snowing after I took them so I looked out again just a little while ago to see if I could take more. But look! Something has walked across our garden!!!!I wander what it was?!!

We do get cats walking about- but I hope it wasn't a poor pusscat out in this!!
The footprints look bigger than a cat's, though it's hard to judge because of how the snow drags as the foot lifts out of it. And of course, it's still snowing more, on top of them.
We do sometimes get a fox round here. I wander if it was him? RATS! I may have missed a photo of a fox in the snow!!! AArgh!

*** *** *** *** ***

OK here is why I was up and about late anyway. This is my first attempt at a stitched card. A wee little fieldmouse.


I really like how the colour of the mouse came out. I didn't have any brown thread, so I used one strand of dark red and one of yellow. Amazingly, combined they look just like golden brown. I'd never have thought of using this combination if I'd had brown!

If you would like to have a go, you can download the pattern FREE from Form-A-Lines Stitching Cards. The download comes with diagrams and instructions, too.

Here is a link straight to their free downloads. They also sell a wide choice of patterns for £1 per download, or £2.50 for a set of 3. The idea of the freebie ones is so you can have a go before parting with any cash, to make sure you can do it without going insane.

I found it harder than I expected, to be honest! But once I got into it I was ok. It's one of those things that, once you get the knack, you can go on quite smoothly and quickly. But I think I was thinking about it too much and getting in a tizz :)

I'm going to use this as the main part of a birthday card I need to make this month. I'm not saying who for cos she might read this.

Keep warm, people!