Scrap Whispers Challenge #78 - around the camp fire

"Use this theme as your inspiration - maybe use fire colours, add some kind of wooden embellishment to your page, scrap about something warm, photos of toasting marshmallows, use lyrics from a popular camp fire song, tents, fishing - its up to you."

I think my Scrap Whispers LO this week requires some explanation.

My problem is, the only time I ever sat around a camp-fire was when I was a Brownie Guide. And it wasn't even a real camp fire, just a few logs, a pine cone or two and some scrunched-up red cellophane on the floor of the new Brownie Hut. (I mean, can you imagine two dozen excited little girls and real fire? Exactly. Besides, it was probably raining outside. It nearly always rained on Brownie night.)

So to keep us from running amok and to kid us that we really were warm enough, we used to sing this song, all sitting on the ground with legs out-stretched.

“My ship sailed to China with a cargo of tea
All laden with treasure for you and for me
They brought me a fan, just imagine my bliss
When I found myself going like this, like this, like this, like this...”

And the left hand would make the fan movement, all through singing it again, then the right hand would join in for the next rendition, and then the left leg and finally the right leg – except that it never got that far because we usually collapsed in giggles by then.

Did you ever sing that one? Ah... {sighs nostalgically} I still remember the smell of the Brownie Hut - the newness of plaster and wood, intermingled with dust and Dettol and possibly just a little wee...

Anyway, that was my inspiration for this LO, and the fact that it was jolly hot in the Chinese Gardens. Best I could come up with.

Did you have real camp fires? Lucky you. Let's see it then!

Scrap Whispers Blog Hop

Yes, it's the 15th again (almost the 16th now for me and my Aussie friends) and that means the Scrap Whispers Blog Hop!

The rules are simple. If you've come here direct, then go back to Scrap Whispers to start, and see Nilsa's delightfully fun and simple tutorial for making a corner bookmark. Link your version to the Scrap Whispers blog, and hop through all the DT members' blogs, leaving a comment on each.

Your order should be:
Scrap Whispers
Rosey (here!)
Kelly
Leah
Helen
Nilsa
Georgina

And here's what you'll be making. I was thinking of them as a gift, not for myself at all, but then I had this idea of creating a set for my Bible. I used the Kraft card-stock that Glenda so kindly sent me, and a combination of SEI and Kaisercraft scraps. The sentiments are stickers from Creative Memories, the little stamp is from Tim Holtz, and the only other things are my corner rounder and lots of inking. So simple and satisfying to make, and nearly all out of scraps.

You have to use flat embellishments, because anything bulky will mark the paper, especially the very thin paper of a Bible. With hind-sight, before I stuck the paper to the card-stock, I would have added ribbons sticking out of the tops, and join the ribbons together and glue the other ends into the spine to keep them together. You can learn from my mistake!

This is my elderly, battered, faded Bible with all its mismatched, yellowed bookmarks.

And with my new bookmarks. An improvement, don't you think?

And now it's your turn. Go to Kelly's blog next, then have a quick peak through the other blogs first and get some ideas, then show us what you can do. Have fun!

Scrap Whispers Challenge #77 - the hidden mouse

"Terence Cuneo was a military artist, and in every painting he created he drew a mouse somewhere. Your challenge is to add a mouse to your layout somehow - could be a doodle, embellishment, the word..."

I combined this challenge with one at Scrap Jazz this week. The design is based on a card. Spot the mouse?

I've used card-stock from DCWV and scraps from Ecology and Jenny Bowlin. The rik-rak is from my stash, and the lettering is Thickers. That's about it - so simple.

Head on over to Scrap Whispers to see what the rest of the DT have done, then leave a link to your version on the Scrap Whispers blog site. Enjoy!

Quick card

Really quickly, 'cos I'm supposed to be shopping in about 10 minutes!

This one is for these challenges:
Basic Grey: paper piecing - I used Indian Summer papers, and pieced Willow's hair and her trousers - I've never done that before, it was fun!
Creative Card Crew and Spoonful of Sugar: autumn/autumn colours (DCWV card-stock & scraps)
Stampin' for the Weekend: shabby/vintage - I went for shabby
Whiff of Joy: layers and Willow with her warming cup of hot chocolate, coloured with Copic markers
Friday Sketchers: this sketch:

(pant pant) Ta-da!

Must dash, bye for now!

Beeing crafty

This card took me AGES; far longer than I would normally spend on a card, but that's because I've never tried the moving picture effect before so it needed a bit of planning. It's for a new friend at church who has not only given DH a big bag of beautiful purple daisies from her garden to plant in ours, but who got me a ticket for a free Come and Sing at Perth Concert Hall yesterday afternoon. I haven't done any singing for so long, and it was pure joy to learn and sing three new pieces with around a thousand other people.

I'm entering it into these challenges:
Charisma Cardz Challenges - "something new or not done before" which is the tab
Cute Card Thursday - "play on words"
Quixotic Challenges - "Move it, move it!" which is also the moving tab (I'll be singing that song from Madagascar all day now!) I'm justifying this by the fact that there isn't a "main image" as such, so I'm going for the Basic Grey papers part of the rules. I hope they agree with me.
Truly Scrumptious - "Get knotted" and this sketch which I've flipped on its horizontal axis:

And here's the card:

and with the tab pulled out so the bee lands on the purple daisy:

Cute huh? It's all Basic Grey Kioshi except the pale green which is a scrap from a different BG pack. The bee and the sentiment are from Hero Arts, the flower is Prima, the ribbon is from my stash, the arrow was cut using my Cuttlebug, and the eyelets set using my Cropodile. The grass came home in my handbag from a sushi restaurant, much to DH's embarrassment!

And a special mention to Bizzy Becs, a local on-line store that I recently discovered. I placed an order and it was despatched a little later than intended due to technical problems. It arrived this morning, and to make up for it, Bec had included some special free gifts. So the googley eyes, that beautiful purple pearly brad and the yellow Stickles (my new favourite!) on this card didn't touch the ground between the postman and my craft table. I LOVE mail order! LOL

Scrap Whispers #76 - Blue

Hi! Did I mention that Leah from the Scrap Whispers DT has had her baby? He's a beautiful little boy called Jonathan, and after a tricky start, he's now doing really well. So in her (his!) honour, this weeks challenge is BLUE.

My page is a photo that I took when we first moved out to Perth, Western Australia, of the Swan River in the city centre. The skies here are SO blue, and the water seems to absorb that blueness. It made me think of C.V. Stanford's setting of the poem "The Blue Bird" by Mary E. Coleridge, which I learned many years ago and have loved ever since. I copied the poem out for this LO. It's the first time I have used a poem and a photo together - I really like it.

The photo didn't work very well. The background paper is by Creative Imaginations, and scraps including SEI, Ecology and Making Memories. The ribbons and lace came from my stash, and the flourishes from Castro Crafts. The lettering is Basic Grey, and I've used copper and brick Stickles.

Now it's over to you. Come and play!

Scrap Whispers #75 - Before/after

We have another easy challenge at Scrap Whispers this week - before/after - and I'm sure we all have photos of transformations; hair-cuts, decorating, storms. We want to see your before and after pics.

Mine is before and after sunset; the same view by day and by night. I used DCWV card-stock, Basic Grey Kioshi and Lemonade papers, my brand new Fiskars Threading Water punch (which I've been after for literally years - happy girl!) a lace circle from a party favour, loads of doodling and journalling, and foam letters from K-mart, believe it or not! I inked them with Smooch wineberry.

And now it's over to you!

More Henry

OK Henry, I think you can go back to bed now. That unhappy little face has been haunting my day.

These cards are for several challenges. Basic Grey wants fabric (the flowers and lace), Colour Create suggests lilac, mint and yellow, Cute Card Thursday is also asking fabric, Simon Says Stamp is having a pearls and lace week, and Sketch Saturday have this sketch for us:

And I've created these:

I've combined Basic Grey Wisteria with Kioshi, a Tim Holtz sentiment stamp, Sick Henry coloured with Copics, Petaloo flower, Prima flower, Diamond Stickles and other flowers, button, pearl flowers, lace and doily from my stash. Hopefully I won't need any more for a while as everyone recovers.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Bugs and lurgy

There seems to be a lot of the lurgy going round at the moment. Half of DH's colleagues are coughing and sneezing around him, and I'm hearing of friends' children going down with tummy bugs and fevers. Sunday's congregation was decimated by something nasty, and Becky's DH is certain he has pneumonia.

Consequently, poor little Sick Henry has been dragged out of bed again for a few get-well cards. Here's the first, and I'll add the other shortly. This one is for the Whiff of Joy sketch challenge and Charisma Cardz "inspired by a song" challenge - Fever of course! And Stampin' for the Weekend's challenge of "any stamp" - a nice easy one this week

It's scraps, including KaiserCraft and I think Bazzill swiss dots, with scraps of DCWV card-stock. The leaves are punched with my Daiso $2 punch, and the image is Henry from Whiff of Joy and coloured with Copics. The sentiment is by Elzybells.

Big hugs to everyone who is suffering at the moment, and GET WELL SOON!
P.S. Becky, don't let your poor man see this till his card arrives! LOL

Christmas cards

The winter is coming to an end here. We've had some pretty nice sunny days, where the temperature must have reached the early 20s - warmer out than in. DH and I went for a carvery lunch on Sunday and they were still doing their Christmas in July offer, so the dusty baubles and fruit cake with custard, which are their nods to Christmas, were still very much in evidence. There were no crackers and silly hats, or Christmas music, and in every other respect this was just a very enjoyable carvery meal. It was so unChristmassy!

Nevertheless, when I got back, I pulled out my supplies from the post-Christmas sales last year (or was it the year before?) and took stock. I found a double sheet of Cosmo Cricket enormous die-cut letters which I'd bought on clearance. I remember getting them home and feeling so completely Christmassed-out that they went in a bag for next year. Now I realised that they did have potential after all.

There are some weird and wonderful shapes, some of which even I can't work out how to make into Christmas: t, Q, "&", y and w in particular had me scratching my head before putting them back in the bag yet again! But the others, now they got me excited. I'm not going to show them all, but these are just for Kim, who asked to see them yesterday during our little cyber-crop just before my laptop fell over in a big and unexpectedly spectacular way. So with apologies to all for departing from the chat room so abruptly and without saying goodbye, here they are.