Butterflies and Bunting

I've just come back from a week's holiday to hideous weather up here in NW England and so all I want to do is hole myself up in my craft room and play.

With this in mind, this morning I went on the hunt for a challenge to inspire me and this week's challenge on Daring Card Makers fit the bill perfectly:

This week it's me (Kathy) here to set the new dare and I'd like you to

Come Fly With Me

My theme is All Up in the Air, really ;-) - I'd like to see the main elements of your card being things that fly, flutter, hover or waft about "up there" in the sky.

The hideous weather I've come back from holiday to has made me crave sunny days and afternoon tea parties with bunting flapping in the wind and butterflies hovering over head.  So this is what I came up with:

It's a card for a friend whose birthday is not until late October, by which time I think we will all be craving sunny days and blue skies!


Ingredients: Papers October Afternoon (Fly a Kite range - even that fits the dare!), Quickutz alphabet dies, Cuttlebug cake die, Nellie Snellen frame die, American Crafts ribbon, pen stitching, garden twine from Wilko, punched butterflies.


Just a note on the 'stitching'.  One of the comments on my last post asked if it was real stitching on my cards.  It isn't!  After thinking I had broken my sewing machine the only time I tried to stitch a card I always stick with my pen stitching method: piercing the card/paper with a map pin and then drawing in the 'thread' with a fineliner pen.  (It's much less stressful.)


As I said at the start of this post I've just come back from holiday and I can say there where we were there was no shortage of sunny days and blue skies as Mr Crafty Blogger and I spent a fantastic week on the beautiful Greek island of Santorini.  I don't want to bore you all with the hundreds of pics I took so here's a storyboard of just a few of them:

(storyboard created using a template from Coffee Shop)

We stopped at THIS fantastic hotel in the capital Fira (or Thira).  Not only were the facilities excellent we also had amazing views of the Caldera (volcano) and the sunsets which Santorini is famous for.  (I took the photo on the top right of the storyboard from our balcony!)


Although we stopped in Fira, we managed to get around the island very easily by bus, including a  number of trips to the beautiful (and very photogenic) village of Oia which is where three of the storyboard photos were taken.


I promised not to bore you with the photos, but before I sign-off I just want to share one of my favourite shots from the week:

If you are interested I have put a few more shots on my Flickr.

Thanks for looking,

Ruthie x

It's Tree-mendous.............

...... I've made a Christmas card, and it's only August!

It's all Jo's fault over at Daring Card Makers:

Tree-mendous!

I would like to see cards this week featuring a tree! Some of the Daring Cardmakers may have groaned slightly when I mentioned Christmas trees(Kathy!) but it doesn't have to be a festive tree, green trees, apple trees, stamped trees, sticker trees, paper pieced trees - anything goes, as long as it is a tree!

I recently bought the Basic Grey Offbeat papers which put me in mind of Christmas decorations in a very retro 1970s way.  Perfect, I could make a Christmas card without having to delve into anything too snow covered and festive:

Ingredients: Paper - Basic Grey Offbeat, Nestabilities labels, circles and scalloped circle dies, Sizzix Sizzlits Tree die, pom poms from Aberkan, ribbon and brads from stash.

The layout of the card was based on another card I made earlier this week which has a much more summery feel!:

Ingredients: Papers - My Minds Eye (magazine freebie!), paper-pieced ice cream made with a mixture of hand cutting and Nestabilities dies, Nellie Snellen frame die, pom poms from Aberkan, ribbon from stash, inking and pen stitching.

Thanks for looking,

Ruthie x

A Two Challenge Combo, and A New Toy

This week I've managed to combine two challenges into one card.
Keryn set the dare over on Daring Card Makers...

It's Keryn here this week and I've been lucky enough to get my hands on a 'Big Shot' die cut machine and I'm loving it. I want any excuse I can find to make cards, well anything really using die cuts. This week I want you to play with me. Dig out your dies and your die cut machine. Cut shapes of any size and theme you please and use at least one on your card for this week.

 I combined it with Kazan's sketch over on 2 Sketches For You and came up with this:
 

Ingredients:
Dies (as per Keryn's dare): Nellie Snellen frame (painted with acrylic and sanded); flowers made with Cuttlebug asterisks; Sizzix flower pot; Quickutz grass
Cuttlebug embossing folder
Poundland gems
Ribbon from stash
Papermania paper
Pen stitching

As well as card making, I'm trying to expand my crafty repertoire and this week I acquired this..

..Mum's old sewing machine.  It's older than me, but still works a treat (and weighs a ton).

No more pen stitching on cards for me, I'm going for the real deal.  I've even bought some separate needles to use on paper.

I've not just got the machine for my paper crafts, I am attempting to make a dress! It may take some time as the last time I did any sort of dressmaking/machine sewing was at school in about 1987, and I think my Mum ended up finishing it off!

Cheers

Ruthie x

Bloomin 'eck!

This week it's Lythan's turn to set the dare over on Daring Card Makers:

SUPERSIZE ME!I have loads of enormous paper flowers that I have bought and never used. So I want to see some really big embellishments on your cards. Bonus points for outsize blooms!

I have loads of big blooms so I had to join in with this one. Here's the finished card:

Ingredients:
Flowers from Dunelm Mill

K&Co Amy Butler Paper

Felt ric rac from Paper-and-string

Ticket made using Photoshop and a sizzix die

Lace and pin from my local market

I also made another flowery card:

Ingredients:
Basic Grey paper
Coffee cup liner
Ticket as before
Papermania flowers
Dovecraft brads
Ribbon from stash

And finally, I've finished my felt purse from the pattern Sarah kindly shared over at Paper-and-String's blog:

Cheers,

Ruthie x

Hide n Seek Dare

Yesterday I amazed myself and actually made a card!

I was inspired by Jozza's dare over at Daring Card Makers:

This week, the dare is hide and seek. I would like to see a hidden message or element on your cards. For a double dare, include both!

I started off making a Thank You card in my usual style but after much shuffling of card, managed to incorporate the dare.

Here is the finished result:


Ingredients:
K&CO Amy Butler papers
Papermania flowers
Felt flower cut using a Sizzix die
Coffee cup liner
Dovecraft brad
Quickutz metro lettering
Papermania photo anchor
Felt ric-rac from Paper-and-string
Dymo tape
Inking and pen stitching.

Have a good bank holiday weekend!

Ruthie x

Getting Ahead of Myself

This morning I've managed to make a card in plenty of time, wonders will never cease. I think it may be some kind of subconscious New Year's resolution! It's a birthday card for a friend. Her birthday is not until the end of the month but I can post it here as she doesn't read my blog.

It also fits in nicely with this week's dare over on Daring Card Makers:

We'd like you to do your bit for the planet and make a card using some recycled items.Yes, we know we've done similar challenges in the past, but some things are good to revisit and this is one of them - it gets us looking at stuff we might be throwing away and asking ourselves if there's some card-making mileage to be had from it.And besides, it's FREE! If you can use something rescued from Christmas rubbish (scraps from cards, decorations etc) - then you get double points! lol

Here is a couple of shots of the finished card:

As you may now from previous posts I am an avid collector of coffee cup sleeves, so they quite often find there way onto my cards. In addition to this I printed the greeting onto a scrap of card which was lying on my craft desk, and the chipboard flower was made using a scrap of mount board which was also lying around.

Non-recycled items on the card are K and Co Amy Butler papers, Dovecraft brad, and Papermania felt ribbon, felt flower cut using a cuttlebug die, with inking and pen stitching to finish.

Yesterday morning I ventured out in the freezing cold with my camera hoping to get some nice frosty shots in the garden. I didn't find anything frosty worth shooting, but I did find some fungus on a tree stump:

After seeing these shots Mr Crafty Blogger declined my offer of a mushroom risotto for tea. I can't think why!

In the afternoon I ventured out with Mr Crafty Blogger to the East Lancashire Railway to take photos of trains and ride on them. (It's a Mr Crafty Blogger thing, although he has said if I come along then he doesn't need to worry about the photo bit as I take care of that, and he can presumably concentrate on riding on the train, which obviously takes a lot of concentration.)

It wasn't a brilliant afternoon for photographing, but we still stood in a field in temperatures hovering around zero and I did get one shot of the afore mentioned train:

There was method in my madness for venturing to the East Lancashire Railway as there is a craft shop right opposite the train station at Ramsbottom. So on the return journey I left Mr Crafty Blogger and his friend on the train so I could have a look round the craft shop. Everyone's a winner - he gets to stay on the train for another 15 mins and I get a peaceful mooch round the craft shop.

I did make some purchases, the felt ribbon used on the card above, and some friendly plastic. I have to say the friendly plastic seems to be harder than it looks and we are not quite getting on at the moment! More practise needed I think.

Cheers

Ruthie x

I've Done It Again - another card and more photos!

Well, I'm on a bit of roll, I've managed today's promt on HerSpace:MySpace and joined in the this week's dare over on Daring Card Makers.

First, the card. This weeks dare was sponsored by Funky Hand and the challenge was to make a card using a template posted on the DCM blog (view here). I needed to do a birthday card ready for when I go back to work tomorrow and so it provided some much needed inspiration. Here's the finished item:

I used K&CO Amy Butler papers, hobbycraft ribbon, cuttlebug cake die, cuttlebug bloom dots embossing folder and more Sizzix felt flowers.

Today's HerSpace:MySpace prompt was 'Sweet'. I don't need much encouragement to find 'Sweet' in my space, although I found these babies down at the Spar this morning and decided to give them a good home.

I love Tunnocks tea cakes and I've found out via the wonder of the interweb and the fabulous I Like website that they have a tea room at the factory. A trip (further) up north beckons methinks! (Check out the I Like pics of the tea room here)

I also found another sweet in my space courtesy of my sugar pourer as I have been doing lots of brewing up for the joiner who is working hard on the new Crafty Blogger kitchen.

Over the last week I've also discovered the joy of Flickr. I hadn't really used the site before but I registered to post my pictures of the Midland Hotel and Morecambe. I'm loving the whole 'group' thing. A couple of my pics were picked up by the admin for a Midland Hotel group which introduced me to the whole concept, but today I found that 'Jug of Tea' has it's own group, so I just had to join and post the pic I had taken on my birthday trip (see earlier post). It's great that a derelict seaside tea hut has been photographed by so many people.

New Perfume

Two dares on this post. First up is the 'New', courtesy of Lynne's dare over on Daring Card Makers.

'New'

So not only New Year, but maybe New Home, New Baby, New Job or maybe a card for someone who is starting a new chapter in their life.

I opted for a new home card, kind of apt for me at the moment as we are selling our house at the moment and so hopefully will be moving in 2008. Who knows, this card may get left in the house for the next owners of our home!

Once again I used the bound spine effect - quite into that at the moment. Not the best photo due to dark winter afternoons (and my lack of photographic ability).

The papers are all BG Infuse, silk blooms and ribbon from stash and brass key charm from Crafts By Carolyn. The chipboard flower is my fave technique - mountboard covered paper cut in the Cuttlebug!

'Perfume'

So that was new. Now onto 'Perfume' which was yesterday's prompt on HerSpace:MySpace photographic challenge blog.

Combining this with a post about new is quite apt as I got some new perfume for Christmas and here it is:

Both bottles came in a gift pack, I can't quite decide which is my fave at the moment but I think the red one may run out first.

Cheers,

Ruthie

DCM Midweek Extra

This was the midweek extra dare from the girls over at Daring Card Makers:

It's time for our Little Extra - a midweek bonus task to keep you busy. This week we have a very simple recipe for you to followAll you need to do is make a card featuring 5 circles, 3 squares and 1 flower - that's it. Simple, eh? We're looking forward to seeing what fabulous ideas you come up with for this one

So here's my interpretation of the ingredients:

5 Circles: silver brads x 5
3 Squares: of mountboard cut using a Cuttlebug die and inked with black ink (used to mount the photos)
1 Flower: 1 photo of a pink flower taken by me, reproduced 3 times with the saturation levels altered in photoshop (3 for the price of 1 :-) )

Extra bit: Sentiment printed using dymo tape

And here's the finished card. it looks a bit squiffy on the photo but it is straight in real life - I think!!!! (Never mind it was just for fun)

Thanks for looking.

Ruthie