Fab's Big Christmas Cards Challenge

For July Fab is challenging us to create 7 cards with the theme of Christmas tree, or dark colours. I've gone for both, using Bo Bunny's Noel papers which are satisfyingly traditionally dark colours. I stamped the tree with with my Stampington cube. Pretty aren't they?

Buttons'n'bows

Here's a quick card for a few challenges:
Colour Create: pink, green and white
Less Is More: ribbon(s)/button(s)
House Mouse and Friends: buttons, bows and bling
Truly Scrumptious: buttons and bows

It's House Mouse and Friends' Monika again, jumping for joy. She's coloured with Copics, as is the green button because I only had pink and clear in my beautiful American Crafts glittery button set. I discovered that really does work - go Copics! The weaving was a little fiddly. Well very fiddly actually, but I worked out a way of peeling back the double-sided tape in sections which made it a lot easier. There's no way I'd be able to explain how, but I peeled them all back from the pointy end to the weave section, then started finishing the job with the long green ribbon, if that helps at all.

While I'm on the subject of House Mouse and Friends, I have an exciting teaser for you! Watch their blog and mine next Monday the 1st September August (thanks for pointing out my stoopid mistake there DH!) and all will become clear. I'm a happy squirrel!

Tags'n'cakes

I've been a poorly sick girl this week. I had Monday all planned out as a crafting day, but my body had other ideas. Early Monday morning my insides decided they would prefer to be on the outside, and set about their self-imposed task with what I felt was unnecessary fervour. Even water was not tolerated until late that night, which of course is very dehydrating. After 48 hours of no food I was a lot happier, but pretty feak and weeble.

Today I was back at choir practise with a better voice than usual - must have been all that diaphragm exercise - and this afternoon, after a rest, I thought stuff the house-work (sorry DH), I HAVE to get DH's god-son's birthday card done. It will be late now, but at least it will exist.

Enter Henry Mouse from Whiff of Joy.

I wish I knew what these paper scraps were, because I'd buy them again. The biggest challenge with this card was matching the colours of the papers with my Copics without making the cake look mouldy. I would love to cover it in glittery Stickles but I think that would not be suitable for a 6-year-old boy, right? Henry is almost too cute as it is. I've compromised by inking it with my new Lightning Black Dew Drop which looks like coal with pyrites in it - gorgeous.

Maybe I shouldn't have chosen the cake at all - now I'm hungry.

This is for:
Charisma Cardz: 4 legged friends
Creative Card Crew: animal antics
A Spoonful of Sugar: create a tag
Stampin' for the Weekend: paws for thought
Whiff of Joy: Kylie's sketch

White space?

Jut a midnight quickie - ooer! Does white space count if it's red? I hope so, because my card for Less is More has no white space at all, but plenty of breathing space which I think is the same thing.

Basic Grey Challenges: doilies and ribbon
Cute Card Thursday and Less Is More: circles
Simon Says Stamp: anything goes

I sprayed the doily with Smooch Limolicious spritz, and edged it with Stickles Coffee Ice. The papers are all Basic Grey Lime Rickey and all feature circles within circles raised up on pop dot - um - circles. Enough circles? I reckon!

G'night all...

Monika's making a splash

What can you do for a man's card? Seriously? They're not easy are they? Mostly they don't like "cute".

Thankfully my man personally selected most of my House Mouse stamps himself (and I would have a lot more if it was all up to him, which is not something you hear from most crafters!) so I know he doesn't mind that kind of cute. If you had seen him crouching on our bottom lawn for hours at a time trying to encourage a family of 9 squirrels to eat peanuts out of his hand, you'd know the kind of man that he is. He's the kind of man who gets righteously cross with being woken up early on his day off - but a squirrel tapping on the bedroom window wanting its breakfast can get away without being grumbled at. Proof:

I had no qualms at all about choosing this image for his birthday card yesterday (happy birthday sweetheart!) and Basic Grey's Lime Rickey papers were perfect along with the silver stars stickers that Mum gave me a while back. Coloured with Copics and finished with Stickles, chalk ink and silver marker, it's guy enough for my guy.

Charisma Cardz: stars
Cute Card Thursday: circles (half a circle at the bottom plus circles on the paper)
House Mouse: make a splash (I did, literally - I drew the splash myself. LOL)
Simon Says Stamp: anything goes
Truly Scrumptious: sketch

Scrap Whispers July Blog Hop - Page Kits

Hello all, and thank you for joining our July Blog Hop at Scrap Whispers!

This month the tutorial is in response to requests during our National Scrap-Booking Day events. You wanted to learn how to make your own Page Kits from your existing stash - so I have come up with some ideas of where to start. Of course you can add your own items like chip-board shapes, die-cuts, flowers, stickers, stamped images and whatever else you want to, but the pack is a good starting point.

If you go to Scrap Whispers you will find the full tutorial.

Your challenge this month is to create your own Page Kit out of your stash. That's not difficult, is it? Create a post on your blog with a photo of your kit, and tell us about your thought processes behind it. If you want to create and show us a LO made from your page kit as well, then that would be terrific - over-achieving in fact!

For inspiration and more ideas, hop through our wonderful DT's blogs and see what they have created. In no particular order:

Georgina
Nilsa
Kelly
Helen
Rosey (here!)

Leave some love where you go, and link your blog post up to the Scrap Whispers Blog Hop post, and we'll return your kindness by leaving comments on your blogs as well. Can't say fairer than that, can you? Haha!

Finally, because you've seen my Page Kit already, I thought you might like to see the LO which grew out of it. I made this for the Scrap Jazz July "circle it" challenge. Here it is!

A request for advice

I'm not expecting anyone to read this, much less post an answer. Having said that, any input whatsoever would be appreciated more than I can tell you.

How can I get people to commit to turning up to the church singing group?

I was roped into leading this group. I was quite happy to join a singing group but I didn't want to start one myself because I love singing but I hate leading and I hate teaching. But the next thing I knew, I had people asking me when it was going to start and what we were going to sing. I reluctantly accepted the challenge. Well, all my readers know I like a challenge. Usually.

To start with I had lots of encouragement, about 9 people said they would join, and the organist would accompany us. I got quite excited about it. Then the organist's whole family got the flu, and there were conflicts within the church community, and just as I was spreading around the date of the first meeting, I found myself without an accompanist. Cue the lost sleep, stress, panic, you name it, but I couldn't back out at that stage. The day before the first meeting, she called me to say she would play after all. My faith in humanity was restored.

The first meeting was last week and we had 4 people turn up on time and another 20 minutes before the end. I also had 4 apologies. We had a good sing, a good laugh, and the 5 of them all wanted practises every week. We set the ground rules. They were to let me know if they couldn't turn up, because even though I only live around the corner, the organist has a 25 minute drive and it wouldn't be fair to her if she organised a sitter for nothing. They all agreed and left in high spirits calling out "see you next week".

This week I had 2 apologies. 1 person turned up - one of last week's apologies. I got a text from another couple as the practise began to say they couldn't make it. Then 15 minutes before the end, 1 more arrived. That was it. We still had a good sing and a bit of a giggle and enjoyed the practise, because I have to make this fun for them otherwise they definitely won't come back.

But how can I get people to take responsibility for their actions? I really don't want to have to treat them like children and ring round everyone every week. I also don't want to spend more time sitting in a cold church waiting for them to keep their promises. And yes, this has happened twice before so I've tried it. Didn't like it.

All ideas are welcomed. Anonymously if you prefer. Thank you!

Willow in pink and brown

Elisabeth Bell is an amazing artist and her images are amongst my absolute favourites. They are pretty and girlie without being too cutesy, and they lend themselves perfectly to very satisfying colouring with Copic markers. Just look at this. Adorable isn't she?

I've re-used the classic sketch from the final minutes of the current Creatalicious Challenge, and combined it with Basic Grey's "doilies and ribbon", Whiff of Joy's "lace and pearls", Spoonful of Sugar's "pink and brown", Simon Says Stamp's "anything goes". The papers are from Bittersweet and Eskimo Kisses, the lace is from my LSS, the ribbon, pearls and flowers are from my stash. The doily was rescued from underneath a cup of hot soy chocolate and sprayed with Glimmer Mist, as were the little flowers. Everything has been distressed and inked, and my usual touch of Stickles adorns her to perfection. She does make me feel a little cold though - she needs a coat on!

I broke my favourite punch!

Yesterday I wrote a couple of thank you cards then I realised - shock, horror - those were my last. Oh dear, I thought, I'll have to make some more (rubbing hands and grinning as if I'd escaped from some high security facility). And today, as it was still raining enough that doing laundry would be a bit stupid, that was excuse enough for me to crack open my play-things.

Within minutes, I managed to crumble my favourite beautiful lacy Florence Muret Macaron punch from Carla Crafts! The plastic holding the punch together just disintegrated and it tried to eat my card. DH has done a sterling job with the super-glue, but I'm not convinced it will hold for long as the spring is so powerful. I've put in an order for a replacement because I love it so much.

I had to cut the top off the card and make a much smaller one out of the remainder, and that led to a happy hour converting punched flowers into 6 more of my mini-notelets. They are pretty much duplicates of the previous bunch of notelets which I did, except flowers instead of leaves. I'm thrilled with how versatile these tinies are.

I was determined to catch the Less Is More challenge (things with legs) this week, having missed last week's (shades of blue) due to extra church work. This card also fits these challenges:

Simon Says Stamp: stitching (real or faux)
Truly Scrumptious / Stampin' for the Weekend: wings
Bizzy Bec's Store: borders and frames

The stitched border is a new Basic Grey stamp I got in a closing down sale last weekend. The frame is from Kaisercraft, and the butterflies have been embossed with holographic embossing powder (in the frame) and Diamond and Dark Blue Stickles (outside). It looks GORGEOUS close-up. I might take a better photo in the daylight tomorrow.

My second card is also for Less is More, and it is actually based on the same sketch by Sketch Saturday. In addition, I'm entering it into:
Colour Create: fuschia, green and white
Charisma Cardz: flowers

It's Monica mouse from House Mouse and Friends - actually not coloured this time because I thought she looked amazing in black and white - with a mini Cuttlebug embossing folder which I've always been rather fond of. The punched border is Fiskars threading water.

It's summer

but not where I am! So many of the card challenges going on at the moment are about summer. It's hard to imagine hot weather when it's wet, windy, dark at 5pm and cold. Taking my clothes off to get undressed for bed is an unhappy enough thought, without trying to imagine putting on a swimming costume and lying on a beach. Brrrrrr! Now cosying up with Christmas cards is MUCH more my thing at the moment. Hoho.

But in honour of the Scrap Whispers surprise challenge this week I've made a summer card, and I even made it in Neapolitan ice-cream colours: strawberry, vanilla and chocolate {shiver} for this week's Charisma Cardz challenge. I used a beautiful sketch from Creatalicious and featured House Mouse and Friends whose challenge is also "summer". I'm also entering it into Stampavie's "at least 3 layers" and Stampin' for the Weekend's "favourite things": brads, flowers, inking, ribbon and Stickles. It's rare that I don't use all of those on a card.

And the rest of this entry will have to wait until the Stickles have dried. You know how hard it is to wait? Yes? Then you'll be familiar with that test touch which almost always results in getting glittery gloop on your fingers. {Sigh} Soon...

Meanwhile, the Scrap Whispers Big Reveal should be posted any time now, so watch THIS space to see how our wonderful teams worked with Georgina's starting LO. There is a fun, summery (that word again...shiver) prize of a Bo Bunny "Barefoot and Bliss" collection pack for the card challenge - and the DT members are allowed to join in too! We'll be holding our monthly blog hop on the 15th too, so keeping checking back for lots of fun there. See you over there!

Now, has that Stickles dried yet.....?

Yup! Here it is!