Oldie on Friday, but on a Saturday!

Confused? I am, but then it really doesn't take much these days! Somehow, I forgot about posting an oldie on Friday yesterday. The fabulous Erika has a link up to allow us to share something from the crafty archives, but has obviously realised that there are numpty heads out there like me and so the link up is active on Fridays and Saturdays.

So, pretend it's Friday *insert a wobbling time shift image here*

This oldie was actually my first ever attempt at 3D decoupage. Terry Pratchett wrote a book called "Going Postal" featuring the introduction of postal service and it came to pass that Discworld Stamps became available to buy in the Roundworld as we fans refer to reality. They are technically known as Cinderellas and the Discworld stamps were deemed to be worthy of an article in the Stanley Gibbons magazine. Echoing the book, the stamps were sold in little brown envelopes or LBE's as they became known and various sports of stamps could be found in this way giving rise to a group of people known as "Flatalists" who collect the stamps. I too was an avid Flatalist and we all ended up with piles of common stamps that we didn't know what to do with in the early days. Kel, an Australian Flatalist came up with the idea of decoupaging them and so I sat down with a craft knife and some 3D foam. To give an idea of scale, this stamp, the Plum 2d Ankh-Morporkia is about the same size as a UK large letter stamp. I think I was obviously barking mad back then too!

Hugs

Sarn recently introduced me to Uniko stamps and twisted my arm up my back to make me buy some (honestly she did, Oooh look at that my nose is getting longer...) Anyway I also discovered that they have a challenge blog and the current theme is metallics. Obviously that was the perfect excuse to ink up one of the sets I'd purchased, Fun Flowers, although you don't have to use their products to enter. I have to say I'm very impressed with the stamps, good prices and they take the ink beautifully, no balling up of the ink if you know what I mean that you sometimes get on new stamps.
I took a 5x5 card blank, added a gold mat and then trimmed a piece of white card to sit on top. I then had fun building up patterns with black versafine ink. I cut a strip of white vellum and attached it to the stamped card by wrapping it round the sides and using red tape on the back to secure it and then stuck the card onto the gold mat. I die cut lawn fawn scripty hugs out of gold card and glued it onto the strip of vellum.
Apologies once again for the rubbish photos, what is the weather doing? It was fine first thing, then we had an incredibly heavy downpour for half an hour and now it's just grey. Not good for photos! Hope you all have a great weekend x

You're super!

Well, you are all super, every single one of you!

 The challenge over at Less is more this week is saints and dragons or heroes.  I bought the caped cuties stamps and dies from clearly besotted purely because it had a bunny superhero and so this was the perfect challenge to ink him up for the first time. I'd had it in my head that he would look good with a shaker background so when I saw the challenge over at AAA cards #63 CAS Shaker 

I knew it was finally time to get my fuse tool out of the box for the first time! I used Docrafts nesting star dies to cut out the aperture in the card and to create the gold frame. I made the shaker element using a plastic A4 punched pocket and some tiny stars from eBay. The great thing about the fuse tool is that you don't have the bulk of a normal shaker pocket so it posts better, it's instant to seal and with practice you can make some really fancy shapes and create sections within your shaker with different elements. I can see I'm going to be playing with it a lot more. You know me, I just had to add a little faux stitching, probably should have left it off, but hey ho.

Apologies for the poor photos, it's a very dull and wet day which isn't helping. I'm also struggling to get my blog to play ball with resizing photos etc. Think I'll have to give in and use the laptop rather than my iPad to have a tidy up later! Hope the weather isn't too bad wherever you are, I hear there's snow on the Pennines! Well, it is a bank holiday on Monday...

Thursday already!

Seriously, where has this week gone? I thought that by having a week off I'd be able to get lots of crafting done and play along with loads of challenges. Um. Not really happened. I still need to finish and post my card for the monthly craft telly forum swap and just about managed to get my 2 ATCs finished last night for the ATC swap, fortunately everyone is running late on that one this month. I'm hoping to get a LIM entry in, but am struggling with it. Mojo is definitely hiding behind a pile of crafting stash laughing at me!

I did manage to finish off one card though. I heat embossed the clarity heart in gold and then coloured it in with spectrum noir pencils. It then sat in the box unloved for about 2 months. I eventually fussy cut it out and mounted it on cream and gold mats made with tattered lace pin dot squares. Simples.

What's on your workdesk Wednesday

It's Wednesday again (where is the time going?) and so it's time to join the very lovely Julia to share what's happening on our work desks. It's the crafting equivalent of through the keyhole. "What type of crafter lives at a desk like this?" Go on admit it, you read that whilst doing the Lloyd Grossman voice in your head, didn't you!
So, the table of shame this week is more of a dumping ground than a workspace. In evidence are two baskets of dies and stamps and my basket of embossing powders with some rejected butterflies stamped with starlight paint, which were too big for the card you can just about see in the middle of the table and which I posted yesterday.

I need to do some tidying up this afternoon as Mum is visiting tomorrow and we usually sit at the table for a brew. I also need to retrieve the telly from the back of the table as I'm lending it to my parents so that they can use it in their caravan when they go away as their small one has given up the ghost! Where does that expression come from? Hope you all have a lovely Wednesday, and that the sun is shining where you are.

Best wishes

I think I may actually have been organised and managed to combine two challenges in one card for a change!
The current Butterfly challenge is to use texture and or teal with your butterfly and over at Retro rubber they have a sketch challenge

The rules at retro rubber are that you must use a stamp at least a year old and give its approximate age. I thought this Hero Arts Leafy Vines stamp would fit the bill, but couldn't remember how old it was. I had a quick search of my emails and discovered that I had ordered it on 1st July 2013. Oh the joys of an unlimited mailbox and being too lazy to delete things!

I stamped the vines in versamark and heat embossed in gold. I trimmed it to fit and added a strip of teal (it's more green than the photo shows) card and gold ribbon before mounting it on a thin gold mat (it's straighter in real life honest). I die cut the All Occasions butterflies out of the same teal card and added to the vines in appropriate places/to hide any smudges. The sentiment is an ancient one that I got from Lakeland when they sold craft stuff.

For those of you who remember my asking for vibes for little Ava, after 5 months in hospital at GOSH, she was allowed an overnight visit home at the weekend and will hopefully be fully discharged in a couple of weeks time! Best news ever.

Lots of love

I'm sharing with you another card that I made a little while ago today. Not sure if it's the meds or the after effects of the weekend, but I feel totally wiped out today, so no current crafting to share.

I printed the decoupaged shoe off from a Katy Sue cd-rom and used my spellbinders ovals to die cut it. The warm orange and peach cardstock were from Lidl and I lightly embossed the peach with a Sue Wilson illusion embossing folder. I also used a fiskars punch to cut the white paper "ribbon". The sentiment was from craftwork cards. I finished it off with some peach pearls and some faux stitching.

Hopefully, normal service will be resumed tomorrow!

Congratulations

Hello from the Lake District! A quick post whilst tea is cooking. I had a good time at the rabbit talk, met lots of forum people and learnt a heck of a lot, even if it did remind me of being back in lectures at uni! There was as promised lots of cake and I even came home with a slice for my supper.

No crafting this weekend, but I don't think I've shared this make with you. I made this heart for a colleague who got engaged and apparently has lots of hearts decorating her house. I started with a white twig heart from the works. I die cut some spellbinders spiral flowers out of felt and attached them, some buttons, ribbons and crystals with a hot glue gun. My roast chicken calls, so see you tomorrow.

Just a quickie

A quick post this morning before I head off to Harrogate. The U.K. Rabbit vet specialist is giving a talk for owners about EC (don't ask me to give you the full Latin name!) a condition that causes neurological problems in bunnies. Several people from the rabbit forum I post on are attending so I get to put faces to names at last. It's a long session 1-7 but there is lots of cake apparently half way through. Not looking forward to the driving so much though.

Back to business. I put this card together quickly last night from left over bits from the Stampendous Build a bouquet set that I stamped on watercolour card and coloured with distress reinkers back in March. I simply took a 7x5 card blank and cut some yellow and white card from Lidl to size and then arranged the flowers. Simples.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend, I may or may not be back tomorrow. Hubby is dropping me off at my Parents in Kendal whilst he heads on to a goldpanning championship meeting in Penrith and then we will all have tea together. Mum sent me an email confirming the times and said I could arrive in my dressing gown! I'm going to need the week off to recover from the weekend!

Friday oldie

Wow, it's Friday already and the sun is still out! Bet it goes in next week though as I have a week off. Saw my GP yesterday and he's increased my morphine, so I've arranged to take the week off so I can change dosage and see how I react to it and make sure I'm going to be safe to drive still.
So, as it's Friday it's time to join Erika to share an old crafty make. When I posted my card for the retro rubber challenge earlier this week I mentioned that I had a picture of the original card I made.
I'm afraid this was the one and only time this stamp had seen ink until this week, must use it more as I do love it.
The card was made for my student who was finishing her placement with me in June 2014. I used lili of the valley papers (no change there then) and the flowers were made out of heartfelt creations Sweet Juliet dies and secured with brads. Not sure which dies I used for the frames other than that they are likely to be Spellbinders and the little butterflies are All Occasion dies.

Right, housework calls, sob. See you tomorrow x

Less is more - use three stamps.

If it gets any warmer I'm officially going to declare it too hot! The warm weather doesn't help one of the lovely side effects of morphine, known affectionately (not!) as "drippy head". I think I might have to invest in one of those towelling head bands that the tennis players used to wear in the 70's.
I decided to have a go at a simple card this afternoon and the current challenge at Less is more - use three stamps seemed to fit the bill perfectly.
I used a sheet of A5 card folded in half for the card blank and added a strip of washi tape. I then stamped my first stamp the bunny wobbles from Stamping Bella and coloured it in with my favourite copics. I then got out the set of mini messages from Clearly Besotted and looked for two that worked together. I eventually settled on "a little note" and "sending love". I cunningly stamped them slightly out of alignment to highlight that they were two seperate stamps (believe that and you'll believe anything). I added a touch of clear wink of stella to the bunny tails and finished it with my favourite faux stitching. Hope you all have a lovely evening.

Happy Birthday

I hope you're all enjoying beautiful sunshine wherever you are. Anyone would think that it was Springtime!
My mojo is still being elusive, but I'm hoping that he will come out to play soon if I try lots of exciting challenges. With that in mind I decided to have a go at the sketch from try stampin on Tuesday. I had to flip the sketch as I didn't trim the image equally at both sides, whoops. Hopefully there is still enough of the sketch left to be recognisable!
I chose the stamp to fit in with the current challenge at Retro rubber, which is to use a water theme- RRCB36. The stamp had to be at least a year old and according to the lili of the valley inspiration blog it was released in 2014 and I know I bought it when it was new. Somewhere I have a picture of the card I made when I bought it, might have to try and dig it out for Oldie Friday over at Erika's blog.
Back to business. I used my favourite copics to colour the image and papers from an old lili of the valley pad (possibly Promises?). I used a bit of crochet lace and a lace flower that I layered up after snipping it from a trim. The sentiment banner is by Clearly Besotted. Glossy accents, glamour dust and that silver sparkle pen that Sarn made me buy added the sparkle, and of course a bit of faux stitching just to tie it all together. As usual the dodgy photographer has made everything look wonky when it is straight in real life, honest guv.

Butterfly challenge - fuchsia

Well, I was determined to take part in the Butterfly challenge this week - fancy folds and fuchsia but mojo had other ideas. I think 6 attempts ended up in the bin over the course of the last fortnight and eventually today I abandoned the folds aspect and just went with the colour.
Originally, the centre aperture on this card was going to be die cut, showing another colour inside the card, but after 2 failed attempts to get it in the right place I gave up! I used Sue Wilson's delicate garden frame die and cut it in cream and pale green card. I used fuchsia pearlised card (it even said fascia on the pack!) to cut the sentiment from one of the Tonic "have a beautiful day circle die set" and most importantly butterflies from the All Occasions die set (sold by Joanna Sheen. A quick ribbon bow, a few pearls and a little faux stitching to finish it off.
Discworld quiz answer, the opening line was from both Wyrd Sister and Maskerade. I actually managed to answer them both correctly! More fluke than knowledge, I think.

I can't think of a suitable title!

Happy Tuesday! Is it as gloriously warm and sunny as it is here in your neck of the woods? The bunnies are sunbathing in the run and I can see their little white tummies. Guaranteed to make me go "awwww". My brain is fried from excel spreadsheets at work this morning so apologies if this post is even more vague than usual!
Today's card features a flamingo die that came with a craft magazine this month, not a scooby doo which one though. I cut it out from a snippet of pink card and then coloured in his legs and beak with a black pen and added a little glamour dust to his wing rather than emboss him to define them. The background paper was another magazine freebie which has been in my stash for quite some time. I die cut Simon Says Stamp stitched circles for the sentiment which was one of the first lili of the valley sets I ever bought. What colour does the miri card look to you? It is silver, but to me it looks more golden in the picture!
I'm off to Snippet's playground with this card as the pink, white and silver card are all from the bits box. Hopefully the treehouse doesn't get too hot in the warmer weather!
I'll give you a taste of our Discworld quiz, which book has the opening line, "The wind howled."?
Answer tomorrow! Hint: two books have this opening line.

Fab n Funky - girly and pretty

So the theme over at Fab n Funky this week is girly and pretty and by coincidence the card I've just finished making falls bang into that category. Well, I think it's girly and pretty anyway.
The image is lili of the valley and I die cut it and a gold mat out with tattered lace essential ovals. I also added a gold mat behind some patterned paper from a lili of the valley pad. The green die cut is using a tonic die, but I haven't got a clue what it's called! I added some pink mulberry flowers and pink gems and some glamour dust to her wings and the dandelion seeds.
I had a lovely time catching up with my Discworld friends in Skipton yesterday. One of them had come over from America and it was lovely to see her again after 2 years. Pat had attended the Terry Pratchett Memorial last Thursday and had been awarded on stage "The Order of the Honey Bee as a token of Terry's gratitude to him. We were honoured to see close up photographs of the stunning honey bee tie pin that he had been awarded and promised that we can see it in real life at his summer barbecue, as long as we pass all the security checks that is! I managed to come joint second in the quiz with a score of 12/42, Pat as usual came first with 16/42. We do have some fiendish quizzes, this one was based on correctly identifying the first lines of Discworld novels. We all call ourselves fans and yet we were scratching our heads trying to remember the names of the books let alone what was inside them!

CAS(E) this sketch #168

My mojo may be back in the house, but I'm not exactly sure where it's hiding. I did however manage to make a card following the sketch at CAS(E) this sketch for the current challenge. I used a stamp set from Simon says Stamp and die cut it with the matching dies. I coloured the hot air balloons using  Spectrum Sparkle pens which hopefully shows in the second pic (yes, I took it outside on top of a bag of compost!) and the bunny with copics. The patterned paper is from Lili of the valley up and away paper pad and I added a little clear wink of stella to the darker clouds. The fishtail banner is from, um, not a clue but it's a purple coloured die if that helps? I snipped the banner and hid the join behind the balloon to extend it. The sentiment is from a woodware stamp. I tried leaving it at that but I couldn't resist adding a bit of faux stitching *hangs head in shame* I took a photo without the stitching, did I make the right decision?

I'm off to Skipton now to meet up with some other Discworld Fans. We meet up four or five times a year and do a quiz and have a laugh. One of our forum members has come over from America so today will be extra fun and one of the group was a Terry Pratchett's memorial on Thursday so we'll find out all about it. Hope you all have a great Sunday too x

Happy birthday

Happy Saturday! You'll be pleased to know that Parsley was declared fit and well at the vets and he's very happy that he doesn't have to have medicine twice a day. One day he might forgive me and stop running away and hiding when he sees me! 

I bought a couple of sets of stamps recently from Katzelkraft a French company. I was very impressed as I was managing to find all the shipping info etc I needed on their website with my 20 odd year old GCSE French. I then discovered there was a language button so you could change it all to English. Doh!

I stamped, coloured and fussy cut out the dog and the bone and used a sparkle pen for the ribbon. I added glossy accents to his eyes and nose. The sentiment is from Clearly Besotted and I used tonic pin dot circles on the card to focus attention in the centre of the A6 card. The dog and bone were stuck on with 1mm foam tape to add some dimension, but will still post at the standard rate. I'm struggling to make any cards for challenges at the moment, just don't seem to have the energy/enthusiasm even though there's some fabulous ones going on. Oh well, managed to make a couple of simple cards this morning so at least there's something to show you later.

Oldie Friday!

Blimey, how did it get to be Friday already? I'm glad it is though as it's a much welcomed day off. The only thing planned today is a trip to the vets this afternoon for Parsley's check up. The vet nurse gave me a top tip. Parsley meds have to be syringed into his mouth. First challenge is to get the syringe into his mouth, bunny burrito helps (wrapping him in a towel so he can't escape) but then he lets the meds dribble out of the other side of his mouth! The nurse suggested I add a drop of ribena to the meds as they like the sweetness and by golly it works! Rather than dribbling he licks it out of the syringe.
Anyway, back to business, as it's Friday it's time to join the lovely Erika to share a crafty make of any description from the archives. As you may have guessed I'm sharing with you the one and only pair of socks that I knitted back in 2007. I still have them in my sock drawer! They were knitted from a self striping yarn. I learnt that if you want your socks to match you need to start knitting the second one at the same part of the colour repeat, or you end up with odd ones. Mum had to help me turn the heel, but it wasn't as hard as I thought. I still have memories of stabbing myself in the chest with the double pointed needles though!

Less is more - one layer geometric shapes

The challenge at Less is more this week is geometric shapes on the dreaded one layer card. Dum dum dum! Sorry, that was my attempt at dramatic music. My mojo is still missing, possibly eaten by a rabbit and so I was stumped. I finally remembered about the stamp set that came free with Creativity magazine a couple of months ago. I used an A6 card blank and stamped the hexagons at an angle, typically it was slightly too short and so I had to extend it slightly. Now I'm thinking why didn't I just trim a centimetre off the edge of the card! I heat embossed it with Wow metallic gold. I used a sentiment from TPC studio "Graduation" and heat embossed it in black. It is supposed to have a slightly grungy imperfect look to it honest. Apologies for the rubbish photos, the light is fading fast and I can't be doing with tidying up to take photos.
Hopefully my mojo will return soon. Hope you all have a great evening.

Goodbye mojo!

Happy Wednesday! It's a beautiful spring day here in Lancashire, I even spotted the sun earlier. One thing I haven't spotted is my crafting mojo. It appears to have gone walkabout, so if you spot it can you send it back to me please? I'm guessing it's probably because I'm tired and that my pain isn't too well controlled at the moment.

I had to make a birthday card for my niece who is twelve on Sunday, so I used the gorjuss kit that I bought from create and craft a little while ago. Included in the kit were printed 6x6 cards and decorated envelopes (peeking behind the card) so used them as the base. I selected one of the die cut decoupage toppers, but I kept ripping the pips, so only used two layers in the end. I ignored the base layer as it had a framed edge to it and I wanted to use a doily from my stash, so kept that layer for another card. I used papers from the kit for the background and punched and layered flowers out of them too. I added in a layer of silver Miri and die cut some silver Marianne leafy swirls and snipped to fit. I used AB gems for the flower centres and added a cream and silver sentiment from craftwork cards on top of one of the punched flowers. Lack of mojo meant that I defaulted to my standard card - pin dot squares, old flower punches with flowers in the bottom left corner. Do any of you have a card making default too? I might add some glitter later, who doesn't want sparkly lilac hair?!

On your christening.

No new card to show you today I'm afraid, working two half days on the trot is tiring right now!  I had this card in my photos folder which I made for the christening of the daughter of someone I work with last year, so I thought I'd share it.

I used a stamp from lili of the valley and my trusty copics. I read online that the recent colouring book trend has taken the colouring pencils and marker manufacturers by suprise and that a lot of them are expanding but struggling to meet demand at the moment. I also found out that copic test all their markers by hand! 

Back to the card after that digression, I cut the image out with spellbinders oval nestie and whilst it was still in the die added a little spun sugar distress ink and did the same to the sentiment. I cut the pink oval mat out using a grand spellbinders oval set, can't remember the name of it as the packaging is long gone. I embossed some centura pearl card with the tied together embossing folder and added gems at each join. It still bugs me when I look at the bottom line of embossing, gems or no gems? I added a hint of glamour dust to the image and arranged some paper roses from wild orchid crafts and die cut green paper leaves from Sue Wilson faux quilled leaves set, I think.

Regardless of the gem issue, the recipient loved the card and said she was going to frame it, so I think she liked it!

Day off tomorrow, so hopefully some crafting will take place. See you then!

Just keep swimming...

Hope you're all having a good Monday. Numpty head here forgot to take her tablets last night and so woke up this morning in a lot of pain. Fortunately they have started kicking in again now, but I've not been the best company this morning!

Today's card is one I put together when I was supposed to be tidying up the kitchen table last night. I'd  previously coloured in this fairy from the lili of the valley calendar range and I added some glamour dust with a glue pen and coloured her face mask in with the lovely sparkly silver pen that SARN forced me to buy, hopefully the sparkle shows up in the second picture. I used some orange paper from Lidl to create a mat and also used the tattered lace pearl square die. The papers are from lili of the valley, one birdie lane paper pad (this one still had the cover attached so I know which one this was!). I cut a starfish out of the orange paper with a Marianne die and dotted a black pen through the holes in the die. I also added clear wink of stella to both starfish, although it doesn't show and finished off with a bit of my favourite faux stitching. It should have been finer, but I picked up the wrong fine liner pen and started drawing before noticing it was 0.5 rather than 0.05 doh! Never mind, just keep swimming, just keep swimming... Is it just me that has got the words from Finding Nemo going round in my head now?!

Let them eat cake ATC

Happy Sunday to you! The sun is out here is Lancashire and the bunnies are sunbathing in the run. Parsley's check up went well yesterday and his throat is healing well. As Parsley and Bramble are bonded, when we have a trip to the vets they both go to keep each other company and to provide moral support. The vet that has been treating Parsley also treated Bramble for her squeak and so Bramble got cuddles off her too! 

Right, down to business. I'm sharing with you today the two ATC's that I made for the craft telly forum swap. The theme was "the icing on the cake", only I misremembered it as "have your cake and eat it". They both involved cake at least! I was wondering what to do and I remembered this stamp by lili of the valley that is in the style of Marie Antoinette, who was alleged to have said "let them eat cake", hence my ATC. I used my spellbinders ATC die to cut a piece of stamping card, stamped the image in momento tuxedo black and yes, you guessed it, my copics to colour in. It doesn't show up well on the picture but I used the sparkly silver pen that Sarn forced me to buy to colour in the mirror and the gold one to add to her necklace and bracelet. I finished them off with a little faux stitching to define the edge.

Lili of the valley April challenge

I thought I'd share with you the card I made for the Lili of the valley April challenge. They have a colour challenge and you have to use at least three of the following
A - Aqua
P - Pink
R - Red
I - Ivory
L - Lilac
You can enter via Facebook or email, if like me you don't do the F word!
You might have spotted this card on my desk in Wednesday. I used red for the toadstools, ivory for the scalloped mat and flowers and lilac for her shoes, dress and flowers. As usual I used my trusty copics and added some glossy accents and glamour dust to her wings and to the moon and stars. I embossed the background paper with a Simon says stamp falling stars stencil. I used some paper flowers from my stash which I rubbed a little clear stickles on to and added some foliage from a poppy stamps die I think. Hopefully the sparkle shows up better on the second picture.
I'm sure you'll be pleased to know that Parsley appears to be his normal happy self this morning, running about and trying to steal the food out of Bramble's mouth! He wasn't too keen on having his medicines but with Hubby's help we managed it. When I finally got the syringe in his mouth he swallowed the meds rather than letting it dribble out the other side, which is a classic rabbit trick. Off to the vets this afternoon for a check up, but I'm not worried about him at all. Parsley and Bramble are both Netherland Dwarfs which is one of the smallest breeds and characterised by their dinky ears. Their colouring is known as black otter, which means they have black coats with white tummies and white around their eyes, mouth, in their ears and front of their neck like a necklace. They also have a tan coloured patch between their ears on the back of their head.
There you go, bunny 101 knowledge for you!

Oldie Friday

Thank goodness it's Friday. Gosh, I've come over all tired, maybe these three four hour days at work are too much for me! Just joking, I am tired and achy though, think I need to see my GP about increasing my morphine again as it feels like someone is drilling through my collarbone and shoulder. Right back to the important things and it is of course time to join the lovely Erika for Oldie Friday, where we laugh at how bad our old photographs are! Sorry, that should have been, show older crafting projects that people might not have seen before.

Hopefully you can make out in this dark photograph the card that I made for my Dad's birthday. Now, that was my desk in the background which means this must date back to about 2006 when I was at uni studying to become an occupational therapist. Those were the era of QVC craft days, I had obviously just bought a crop-o-dile judging by the rivets and they'd probably just had a Jolly Nation TSV going by the decoupage, matching backing paper and gas bottle stickers!

Parsley is safely back home and is currently snuggled up next to Bramble. According to his discharge notes he weighs 1.4kg or about 3lbs, Bramble weighs about 1.1kg from memory, so they're not big bunnies. Parsley had his teeth done but they had a small problem during the procedure as he woke up! They explained to me that as rabbits have a higher fatality rate under anaesthetic, they don't like to put them as deeply asleep as they would a cat or dog. This would have been ok, but the vet was rasping a tooth at the time and as he woke up he jumped forwards and so she caught the back of his throat with the rasp. It stopped bleeding quickly and there are no large abrasions. He's come home with antibiotics and pain-relief and has a check up with the vet tomorrow afternoon. Initially he was a bit sorry for himself and so I locked them both in the shed for a couple of hours. I went to check on them and Bramble was wanting to go into the run so I let them both out. Parsley was straight up onto the step they have in the run. He then spotted the dandelion leaves I'd left in the run for them and tucked into them, so I don't think I'll need to syringe feed him tonight! It amazes me how fragile they are and yet how resilient they can be.

52 Christmas card throwdown

I know, two posts in one day, get me!
I was thrilled to discover that I'd been successful at two 52 card throwdown challenges and so thought I'd enter the Sketch challenge over at 52 Christmas card throwdown this week as I'm loving creating some Christmas cards ahead of the mad rush at the moment.
I used a stamp set from Hobby Art and of course used my copics to colour and my Sarn sparkly gold pen for the flourishes and his beak, although it doesn't show up so well in the photo. I added polar white flower soft to his hat and used papers from lili of the valley to complete the sketch on a 6 inch square kraft card base. I added a sentiment from craftwork cards to finish off.
Digressing again - in case you're confused about the bunnies, Bramble my almost 9 nethie was the one with the squeak who had X-rays, blood tests and a dental done earlier this year. She still has her squeak, but it's nothing to worry about as all nasties have been ruled out. Parsley has now developed teeth problems, which are common in rabbits, we don't know how old he is as he was handed into a rescue as a stray. I will say he's a lot harder to give eye drops too than Bramble. She will just sit still on the worktop, whereas Parsley is a lot more of a wrigglebum! Gratuitous bunny photo - Parsley is on the left, Bramble on the right.

Retro rubber challenge

I'm entering this card in the Retro rubber challenge - anything goes RRCB35. The idea of this challenge is to breathe some new life into those stamps that have been sat in your stash pile for longer than a year and have been neglected after that initial flurry of excitement has worn off.
This mermaid stamp is from lili of the valley and I bought it to make a birthday card for my Mum, working backwards it must be from about 2013 and I don't think it's seen ink since!
I stamped it in black momento ink and of course used my trusty copics to colour it. I used tattered lace pin dot circles and pearl circles and squares to build up the card with some mirri and paper from lili of the valley on a 5.5 inch square card. I added some silver highlights to the bubbles using the sparkly pen that Sarn made me buy and the violet sparkly one to her scales, hopefully you can get a hint of the sparkle in the second picture. I added a bow from my tangle of ribbons and a dazzler to finish.
You'll be pleased to know that my lovely boss, who is also an animal lover is letting me go in late tomorrow to take Parsley bunny to the vets. I had a feeling something wasn't quite right by the way he held himself when eating and a trip to the vets showed that he has sharp spurs on his teeth which are rubbing on his tongue, he also had a little bit of discharge from his eye which had only developed since Sunday when I gave them their weekly health check, and which can be liked to dental problems. So he's off to the vets tomorrow for a general anaesthetic to have his teeth sorted. Hopefully he'll be a happier bunny after that!

What's on your workdesk Wednesday

Yes, it's that time of the week again where we all meet up at the lovely Julia's and share what's going on in our creative spaces.
It's a very dark and wet morning here in Lancashire, off to work in a minute, so here is my kitchen table. Not a great deal going on at the moment, a card I'll blog later, some stamped and coloured images and that's about it. The large black mat is a stamping mat, I do think I get better impressions using it. The white box has my basic shape dies in it. Right, must dash, see you later!

May blossom fairy with love

Tuesday already. I gave up on doing the weekly shop today, took Parsley bunny to the vets and he's got eye drops and is booked in for a dental on Friday. I need to ask my boss if I can go in late so I can drop him off at the vets, let's hope she's in a good mood tomorrow!

I managed to turn some of the colouring I did over the weekend into a card. I used the sketch in Cardmaking and Papercraft magazine for the layout. The fairy is lili of the valley May fairy from the calendar set and she is coloured in with copics and some glossy accents and glitter on her wings. The papers are from a lili of the valley pad, not sure which one as the cover has gone AWOL!  My usual faux stitching (must be doing too much, my .005 fine liner ran out, good job I had a spare), some ribbon from my stash, a few gems on the flowers and what looks like grey dots in the corners are actually papermania glitter dots, oh and a random Hunkydory butterfly! Have a good day, whatever's left of it.

It didn't start out as white...

I hope you all had a creative weekend. This going to work malarkey doesn't half cut into your crafting time. Just doing three four hour days this week, so I should be grateful, but I was suprised how tired I was over the weekend. Apologies if I haven't commented on your blog yet, I'm trying to catch up. I didmanage to get some colouring done over the weekend, so I'll try and make them into cards on my day off tomorrow, in between doing the shopping and trip to the vets!

I thought I'd share this card that I made a week or two ago with my current love kraft card. I used a stamp from woodware and stamped it in black archival and coloured it in with my spectrum noir pencils. Then the problems began, I decided to add some white accents with a gel pen. Well, I got a bit carried away adding white to the "creases" on the lower pink petal. It looked rubbish. The only way I could think of saving it was to colour over the black ink with the white pen, which meant that I then had to cover all the black ink! So, the image outline turned from black to white, but I think I got away with it.

Less is more - white space that isn't white.

The current challenge over at Less is more is to leave white space which isn't white. I cut down a piece of kraft card with a tattered lace pin dot rectangle and added a sentiment from Walter and Winnie with versamark and white embossing powder. I then added the flowers from Altenew peonies set in the same way. Typically having added the sentiment first I then had to add extra flowers at the top to balance up the card, so I hope there's still enough "white space left" for the challenge. Note to self, add sentiment last in future. I then added colour using spectrum noir pencils. You can scribble over the embossing powder with them and use blending solution to even out the colour, but it will stay on top of the embossing powder, giving it a pastel colour. I simply stuck the card onto a 6" square white card blank to finish.

Yet more of those Owls....

Indigo blu have a rubber stamp that has cats arranged in a similar way to fill the stamp and that was what inspired this card. I cut out lots of owl masks from post it notes and got stamping. I wasn't too bothered if I didn't get a perfect image as I could just go in with a fine liner pen and tart them up. What I hadn't bargained on was....

Can you see it, centre right? I dropped the stamp on the paper right at the last minute! Another downside of my gammy neck is that I tend to drop things regularly. (This is why I have a ten pound mobile phone, which doesn't even have a camera as I tend to accidentally throw it across the room at least once a week) Fortunately the stamp was quite dry when I dropped it and so the mark wasn't too bad and I figured it would get lost in the colouring. I used spectrum noir pencils to colour in the Owls and a yellow sparkle pen for their beaks and added glossy accents to their eyes.

After all that work I was super careful when I added a black mat behind it and adhered it to the 6x6 card blank...

Yep, I stuck it the wrong way round! Fortunately it still works as a tent card. Hope you all have a fab weekend x

Who knew shoes could get chicken pox?!

As it's April fools day, I'm joining Darnell for April Fool's Day Boo Boo Hop. Darnell had the great idea that we should share those cards that when you stand back to admire your work, you gradually realise that maybe that wasn't the best idea you've had. In my case, Hubby looked at this card and enquired, "Why has that shoe got chicken pox?". It seemed like a great idea, the little spots on the shoe were just crying out for a bit of sparkle. I hadn't realised how the height and dimension of the gems would stand out like a very bad rash. The card is still lurking in a box mocking me two years later....
With its age in mind, I'm also sharing this card with Erika for oldie friday, not so much a golden oldie, more an acne oldie!