Frugal scrapping?

I have this rule, which I almost always follow, of not cutting into a fresh piece of 12"x12" patterned paper to make a card. I only use scraps wherever possible, or 6"x6" paper. As I had an idea for a card which needed fresh paper from my beautiful Basic Grey Sweet Threads collection pack which I have hardly used yet, that meant that I had to make a LO first. {grin}

Apologies for the rubbish night-time photo - I might take another one tomorrow if I get time. You get the gist though. This is our precious niece very carefully handling one of the two wild slow-worms that have been living in our greenhouse lean-to over the summer. How blessed are we?

And... (cue drum roll) here is the card which I wanted to make all along, using the backs of those mouth-watering papers:

It is for our friends in Singapore whose daughter turns 4 in a couple of weeks. I've given Whiff of Joy's Willow a dark complexion and the darkest hair I could manage with the Copics I have. I really love this.

Basic Grey: ribbon and lace (and Sweet Threads papers and sticker)
Whiff of Joy: shabby chic
Simon Says Stamp: anything goes
Stampavie: sparkling (Stickles)
Cute Card Thursday: letters/numbers (the Making Memories age sticker)
Stampin' for the Weekend: floral
Sketch Saturday: sketch

Foliage

Less Is More this week has a one layer card challenge with the theme of foliage. Well you can't get much less than this, and that is just as well as having thought about it all week, I only just remembered it before the 11pm deadline. Oops.

Replacement Twinchie

I entered my pretty circular Twinchie into the "autumn" challenge last week and was told that they had to be square. Oops. Well, there was an opportunity to make another one!

I made this a couple of days ago but I've spent since then trying to think of a witty greeting. The best I can come up with is "roll up, roll up..." but there my inspiration runs dry. Never mind. It's cute enough without one. You think?

Now I'm getting really busy. Our church is holding an Advent Fair, with an Arts and Craft theme, and muggins here was rash enough to call the number provided and apply for a table. The lady asked what I had in mind, and was so enthusiastic that I'm now a bit scared that I may have bitten off more than I can chew! It's not for another 10 weeks, but I mustn't be complacent. There's scope for a LOT of work here.

On another note, it's a funny thing how competition winnings tend to come in pairs for me. I won the August ScrapJazz card prize with my three cat'n'village cards from the same stamp, and my blue penguin double Dutch fold card won the Stampin' for the Weekend prize last fortnight. How strange is that?

Thank you. Thank-you-verra-much. {bows head modestly}

Sweet

The current Twinchie challenge is "autumn". I used a Kanban stamp coloured with Copics and some punched leaves out of Basic Grey scraps, with the obligatory Stickles in copper.

While the Stickles was drying, I put together this card from the latest Sketch Saturday sketch. I wanted the card background to frame the Twinchie, but instead of cutting out an extra piece, I decided to experiment with cutting windows out of the patterned paper backgrounds instead. I know, I never make things easy for myself, do I?! But I think it looks a bit different. I rather like it. 

The Basic Grey paper is from the Bittersweet range (brown) and Green at Heart (the pink background), the pink tag from another BG scrap, and teeny scraps from Eskimo Kisses for the punched leaves - and their challenge this week is punches. Cute Card Thursday's challenge is also "autumn", Charisma Cardz wants "double", and Simon Says Stamp is asking for a stamp.

 Here's a simpler card for Less Is More's "pink and brown" challenge - almost my favourite colour combination. If Basic Grey can't see the small punches on the other card, then they can use this one as my entry!

ETA: Apparently Twinchies have to be square. D'oh! OK, off to try again....

Wishing my life away

No I'm not really. But on this glorious early autumn day, with the sun shining on the beech leaves which the sea wind has dried to that delicious rust already, to be thinking about Christmas seems as if I'm trying to hasten it. And I'm not! Autumn is my favourite season, and today IS all the reasons why I love it so much.

But challenges go as challenges go, and this one happens to be for Christmas.

Now isn't that pretty? It's called a Double Dutch Fold card. I had a practise run last week and made a birthday card for a friend which I can't show you yet, but it's very pink. This blue one has:
pearls and swirls for Stampin' for the Weekend
Christmas for Creative Card Crew
anything goes for Simon Says Stamp with about an hour to spare!

It is also a lift of a lovely card for a challenge over at Scrapbook.com in their Gallery Inspired Challenge. And for the same challenge, here is the LO which I started at the new crop I went to on Saturday. I love it, both the LO and the crop!