Giving is More Important

Hello. Welcome.  This project started life as an A4 piece of lilac card, because the Cheery Lynn challenge this week is purple, and one of my favourite quotes about change inspired by this fortnights challenge at The Craft Barn.  

My base card is lilac and all the papers are shades of purple.  All my dies are Cheery Lynn, Ship's Compass, Owls With Gears, Pocket Watch, Spring Flower Burst Doily and Angel Wing, Spider Web Mesh Border.  I used motifs that to me symbolise change.  I used a purple Sharpie to write the quote and outlined with a white Sakura Gelly Roll pen.  The brads and the little clock are Storyteller.  I distressed the edges of my card and inked with DI Dusty Concord and VersaMagic Perfect Plumeria.  

I don't know where this quote comes from and have decided it doesn't matter.  I am sure more than one person has said this, I know I have said it many times myself.  It doesn't matter who said it first, just that it was said.  I have decided that since it's my birthday in a few days, and since it is something I should think and act more on, that I am going to keep this for myself.  To remind me. 

Joining the fun at
Cheery Lynn Designs Challenge 128 - Pretty in Purple
The Craft Barn Q&L Challenge - Change/Truth
Joan's Touch Challenge 9 - Dies, no stamps, layers, any colours
Storyteller Norge Utfordring 14 - Charms
Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Winged Things

Thanks for dropping by.  Hope you are having a great Easter weekend.  I'm certainly enjoying the sunshine.  Hugs

Moving Load

Hello.  Welcome.  I hope Spring and the sun have found you.  There are signs of Spring here.  A few leaves breaking on the trees.  Colour in the Magnolia buds.  Bird wars in the bushes.  Today it is cold and windy and wet, so despite the signs I'm snuggled up inside with a desk full of partly finished projects.  

Lots of good inspiration over at PaperArtsy again this week and I decided to do a quick make, that of course took longer than expected, inspired by Helen's tag.   The crafting has been a bit stop and start.  Despite the bad weather people have been dropping in all afternoon, although some came with Thai food and cake so no complaints ;-)   Nam Nam.   I have made a pink ATC!  Not my usual colours but I am having urges to use red and pink at the moment.  Maybe it's because these colours are so lacking in the landscape and I am wishing  for warmer times.  

See.  Pink.  I stamped the snail on paper with a pink pattern and paper pieced the arrows on it's shell.  Despite the moustache snails are a bit of both so it's an it, or maybe a hem??  His, hers, hems?  May coin that.  I backed it with book paper, Norwegian text, and some script paper.  Then I layered on torn pink handmade paper and a hot pink ATC.  I stamped with Crafty Individuals splat stamp and DI Walnut Stain here and there and everywhere.  I used fancy scissors to cut the ends, made some holes and filled them with various fibers.  The watch and the sofa are metal charms from Korthobby.  Moving home maybe......

Joining the fun at
PaperArtsy
Korthobby Utfordring April - Alt er Lov 
Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Journey 
Stampotique Designers Challenge 141 - A Bit of Humour 
Bunny Zoe's Crafts March Challenge - Monochrome

Thanks for dropping by.  Hope you are having a great weekend and getting time to be crafty.  Still time to sign up for CCC.  Hugs

Birthday Tag

Hello.  Welcome.   Midnight crafting yee haa.  A tag, using Die-namites dare sketch, girly colours and a lovely metal heart from Korthobby.  

My tag is made from MME Penny Lane and 29th Street Market papers cut with Sizzix Vintage Cabinet and Mini Vintage Cabinet dies.   I used Die-namites Spring Branch and Wide Vase dies and paper pieced pink patterned papers and pink glitter card.  I've just used the flower part of the wide vase die.  I used a pink ribbon behind the Spring Branch die and the greeting is purchased as seen.  The lovely metal heart is from Korthobby attached to some funky fibers.  

My tag joining the fun at
Die-namites Sketch Challenge Dare February
Diva's That Cut Paper February Challenge - Girls Night Out
Korthobby Utfordring Februar - Tags
Hjerteboden Utfordring 2 - Til Noen Du Er Glad I 

Thanks for your visit and all your kind comments.  Hugs

Strange Bird

Hello.  Welcome.  Just posting a curious little ATC.  The colours were inspired by Wicked Wednesday where they want Mardi Gras colours, purple, green, gold.  I have also been playing with PaperArtsy SM12 after seeing Clare's posts over at PaperArtsy this week.

I started by painting my ATC with Pansy fresco finish paint and then added texture paste coloured with limelight through Tando Creative Ink Splatters mask.  I stamped SM12, coloured the crown with wink of stella green and the wings with purple and gold.  I added a green feather and a charm from KortHobby.  I used a couple of points that had broken of a crown charm for earings.

My ATC joining the fun at
Wicked Wednesday ATC Challenge 117 - Mardi Gras Colours
PaperArtsy
That Craft Place Challenge - Charming
Loves Rubberstamps Challenge 85 - Anything Goes
Kort o Mania Utfordring 99 - Anything Goes


Thanks for your visit.  Hope you are having a crafty start to the year.

Hearts Come Home For Christmas

Hello.  Welcome.  The wild weather kept me awake last night.  It seems to be following a pattern.  Grey and yuk during the day then the wind picks up in the evening by the early hours it's howling and the rain is hammering on the windows like it wants to come in for a coffee and a piece of cake.  Now I'm all for coffee and cake but really, trying to sleep here!

Over at PaperArtsy Liz has been wowing us all week and I wanted to have a go at the decorated book and then Leandra threw in the most gorgeous mixed media heart project.  Gosh and wow.  That's just what I need.  I can decorate some hearts. 

I started with a couple of wooden hearts

I started adding some chipboard wings and metal bits from Korthobby and also some bits I got in my PaperArtsy monster box this year.  I filled the metal circle with texture paste and added a butterfly that broke off a metal bookmark.  You know one of those all pretty colours and very glossy.  Not sure if it will take the paint....  Oops, photographer forgot to take photos here.  I painted it all white and tried a little stamping. Then I went a little mad.........

Yesterday I was having a tidy, hurrah, and found my Renaissance Liquid Leaf, another monster box goody, so I thought I'd give it a go.  Wow.  There's a few more things on these photo's.  The butterfly is in place, a Tando heart, some buttons.

Close up of the small heart.  I really like this one.  Festive. 

I need to change a few things as well I think.  The string has to be coloured.  It worked fine when I was planning a shabby white colour scheme but now it looks a bit poor relative.  Can I use Liquid Leaf on cotton?  Also I had prepared this bottle cap with a stamp from LPC001 and then filled in with glossy accents.  Since I had a sudden colour change I didn't have time to do a new one.  I think I need to re-do colouring the bottle cap with the liquid leaf and maybe stamping my lady in gold/copper/bronze.  Don't know if I have bronze ink.  Does it exist?

So that's my attempt at some mixed media with hearts.  Very difficult to get an angle on the photo where there isn't glare from something.  I haven't cropped or altered the colours because then I lost that precious effect of the Liquid Leaf.  Glad I tried it.  Will definitely be using it again. 

Off to join the fun at
PaperArtsy
That Craft Place Challenge - The Last Challenge for 2013
Bunny Zoe's Crafts - Our Last Challenge of 2013 Wings
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Bling it on
Tando Creative Challenges - Christmas Time Let's Sparkle

Thanks for dropping by.  Hope you are managing to relax on this last Sunday before Christmas.  Take care.  Glad you found time to visit.

Vintage Pillow

Hello and welcome.  Well, it's been a bit of a day.  The weather has been excessive.  It wasn't good when we got up but we had planned to go to town so, after getting wet feeding the chooks and the rabbits, off we went.   Back around lunchtime and the weather was strangely quiet.  Dry and calm.  Uhhhh, calm before the storm?  Had a cup of coffee and then it all started.  The rain and the wind.  Something went bang.  The bins were making a run for it!  I locked them in the garage.  Hail and wind and snow.  Nothing stopping, just zooming past at speed.  Then it all went a bit mad.  Anything not locked up or tied down went whizzing around.  The news started reporting trees down on major roads, roofs blown off buildings and lorries blown off roads.  It's draughty out there.  Definitely a good day to bake.

I had planned to make kakeman this afternoon. This is a biscuit, usually man shaped, that is quite soft when you first bake them and they get harder as they dry out.  It's a Norwegian thing, usually for Christmas, although they sell them all year round.  I used to buy them until one day I made my own.  Another good thing is they keep a really long time, unless they get eaten!  LOL   So I baked....

I baked about 140.  I can hear you!  What am I going to do with all those?  Actually I usually end up doing this again before Christmas.  They are really good.  I shall take a few here and a few there and we eat a few ourselves and suddenly the cake boxes are empty.

Speciality of the house.  Kakepigs!!  Nam nam.  Any 'Anything Goes with an Animal' challenges out there?  



So after I'd finished the bake and a late dinner it's time to craft!  A quick check to Swirlydoos and we're off........

Swirlydoos challenge today is to make a box so I got out one of my acrylic pillow boxes.  These were the packaging for some Sizzix embossing folders.  Recycle.  

I covered it in white handmade paper with a lovely stitch detail.  

I wanted to try for a vintage look.  I used a Fiskars border punch on some un-named printed paper.  I have stuck the negative cut from the border punch, coloured with a touch of VersaMagic Spanish Olive chalk ink to give it some contrast, below the cut border.  I also added a piece of lace to both edges.

I wrapped some white and silver cord around the box and added three silver beads.  I used Sizzix Flowers and Vine #3 with the same green grid paper.  I cut two flourishes and offset them slightly.  I added a white felt and a silver glitter snowflake to each.  The 'leaves' are the negative cut from the loop of the flourish that I embossed with Sizzix Groovy Flower folder and coloured with Spanish Olive.  The frame and image are from Crafty Individuals.  I have covered the image with glossy accents.  

My Vintage Christmas pillow box.  I did think a nice swirly Christmas sentiment would be nice on the right hand side but haven't found anything suitable yet.  All suggestions gratefully received. 

Joining the fun at
Swirlydoos 12 days of Christmas Day 5 - box, border punch, some silver or gold
Crafty Individuals Challenge - Make Something Festive
Bunny Zoe's Crafts November Challenge - Shabby Chic/Vintage 
Craft-room Challenge - Vintage Christmas 
It's All About The Vintage Challenge 58 - Winter Foliage 
Hjerteboden Utfordring 12 - Jul, Alt Annet Enn Kort 
Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - With a Flourish 

OK, I'm off to bed.  Hope I can get some sleep.  The wind calmed down enough earlier for the snow to settle but it's whistling again now.  It could be a wild night.  Hope you are tucked up warm.    Take care.  Thanks for dropping by

For the Love of Fishing

Hello.  Welcome.   We are having a few beautiful days.  Bright and sunny, makes you feel like being out and tackling some of the jobs that need doing before winter gets a grip.  It's cold at night, just to remind us that winter is coming.  Hopefully not too soon.  So let's enjoy the autumn while we can.  Over at PaperArtsy Alison Bomber has been making some lovely projects using some lovely stamp.  I usually like to make something that has a purpose or a destination in mind before I start.  I loved Alison's second project and decided to make art for arts sake.  To my satisfaction when I came to choose my stamps the project kind of defined itself.  

If you want the steps check out the link above.  I've used a flat canvas, added book paper, texture paste through a Crafters Workshop mask, covered it with white then used VersaMagic Gingerbread and Jumbo Java.  Then I went a bit mad with the gold embossing powder.  First I stamped corners using a swirl stamp from PA SIDD5 set.  They looked a bit lonely out on the corners all alone so I thought I'd join them up with a bit of freehand doodling using my embossing ink pen.  Now usually this is a bad idea.  OK, not a bad idea but it just doesn't look how I imagined when I finish.  This time I'm content with my effort.  

For my central image I have used a stamp from Kort og Godt.  My tags are stamped with foliage from PA ELB04 and the sentiment is from PA USNT4.  The buttons, love those buttons, were stamped with PA Winter Wonderland Plate 6 and and stamps from ASI2.  I added a couple of metal leaf charms from Korthobby.  These were silver but I added a bit of the Gingerbread and Jumbo Java, which I also used for all the stamping, to blend them in.  It was fun working with this limited palette.  The buttons are something I will definitely be doing again.  I think this will be perfect for a young fisherman.  And his dog. 

My little fisher is joining the fun at
PaperArtsy
Korthobby Utfordring - Til en Mann
ALBC - A Little Bit Shabby
Stamping Sensations - All Creatures Great and Small
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Use a Rubber Stamp

Thanks for dropping by.  Please leave a comment.  It will count as a chance towards this candy.  Also if you fancy swapping an ATC check out the same post for details.  Have a great weekend everyone.  Hope the mojo is flowing.  It is here.........

Hearts and Candy

Greetings blog followers and friends.  I hope you are having a great weekend.  I've been feeling a bit festive today, no idea why but hey, sometimes you just have to go with the flow.  Over at Cheery Lynn the challenge is Hearts a Glow.  Maybe that got me thinking Christmas.  And then there was this lovely paper by Basic Grey that I bought.  I thought it was such lovely autumn colours, only to discover on closer inspection the script was Christmas.   OK, I can go with that.  I decided to make something a bit different and I wanted to try a 3D project so this is it......

I started by cutting 4 Cheery Lynn Love You More hearts from gold mirror card.  Then I drew a heart shape to go with it and fussy cut 4 hearts from Basic Grey Jovial Nice double sided paper.  Love those yellow tones.  I stuck the diecuts onto the hearts and used DI Barn Door to add some extra red inside the diecut.  I scored and folded down the centre line. 

I added some lace around two of the hearts and then stuck them together to form a 3D shape.  Before sticking the fourth piece in place I added some red ribbon, folded over at the top for a hanger and I left a tail hanging down so I could attatch something at the bottom. 

I made a small bag from red organza and added a couple of silver metal snowman charms from Korthobby.  I have filled my bag with some chocolates. 

Here's the whole thing just hanging around.  Quite a nice way to hang the Christmas chocolates or maybe some other little gift. 

Joining the fun at
Cheery Lynn Designs - Hearts a Glow
Korthobby Utfordring - Snop Eller Godteriprosjekt 
Basic Grey Challenge 102 - Anything Goes  Basic Grey Paper jov-2808

Thanks for dropping by.  Hope you enjoy the rest of the weekend wherever and whatever you are doing.