Kizhi

This is another Digital Scrap Girls challenge - it was a scraplift. I found it quite hard to do. The photograph is of the Church of the Transfiguration at Kizhi Island on the River Volga in Russia, it was very beautiful and completely made of wood.

Some cards for a change

This is the birthday card for my friend Avril, whose birthday is on 1st April (hence Avril!). I usually do a doggie card for her (she is the owner of the very lovely Westie, William), but I wanted to make something girly and a bit shabby chic. This also coincided nicely with the challenge to use your new stash on Just Bex, the black and white papers I got at Lakeland have only just been opened and the blooms are pretty new too.

You can see, however, that I couldn't resist a bit of dog-centricity as I hadn't used my Sugar Nellie 'wee dug' on a card yet, it came from Funky Kits. The background stamp is Plaid by Hero Arts and the paper behind it and corner element are digi-scrap stuff from NikkiL's Paws kit over on Digital Craft Cottage - so a bit of hybridism going on here. Now I know that Joanne (Angelnorth) thinks I am a nutty dog woman without her own dog, so I thought I would add to this reputation - this card is FROM William to Avril and so is the little brooch below.

I made this using white shrink plastic and the Waggy Westie stamp from Little Claire. Coloured with watercolour pencils (not watered though) and the pin stuck on with silicon glue. The background to the photo is another paper from the Paws kit mentioned above.

Scrapping by Numbers

Another of the challenges from the Digital Scrap Girls, this one is Scrapping by Numbers and the number for March is 4. The photograph was taken by my Mum on holiday in Dublin the year my Dad died. We had an apartment in Dublin, just near to St Stephens Green and we walked everywhere. The boys were just at that difficult age (15 and 17) but we managed to get on quite well and had great music sessions in the evening with the guitar and bohran (irish drum).

DCM Pins and Needles

Now, on to this weeks dare (can you believe its Friday once again ?!:) Well, its my turn (Jane) to set the dare this week. Its very simple really (prickly maybe but..:) I want you to design a card to any theme- but I want you to include pins or needles of some sort. Sewing needles, safety pins, dressmakers pins- any type of pin goes !:)

Here is my DCM, I don't seem to be getting these done very regularly, but as sewing is one of my other crafts, I thought I should make a special effort. I've had this little piece of embroidery hanging around for about 18 months, it was an experiment in fabric painting and really not a very good size for a frame as I hadn't left enough fabric round about the design, so I was wondering what to do with it, I was quite pleased to be able to incorporate it into a card.

Digital Scrap Girls Challenge

Over on the Digital Scrap Girls Forum (see blinkie at left of posts for link), there are a number of challenges. 'I am the Lucky one' was the title challenge and I decided to use the photos from my Mum's birthday. All the papers and elements are by Digital Scrap Girls

This LO is from the 'You can never have too many' challenge and this month it is Flowers. I combined this challenge with the March Sketch (by Caroline Scattergood) challenge on Bubbly Funk Forum. Papers are from the Sunshine Girls Easter Egg hunt (free and still available) which I started via the Sugarplum Paperie site, but these were mostly by AKay (links to all the Sunshine girls blogs are on the Sugarplum Paperie. Some of the elements are from Signs of Spring by Mistca (Digital Scrap Girls). I still have two of the challenges to do before the end of the month, so you will be seeing some more LOs very soon.

Snow on the hills, some birdies and my Art Journal Card

We haven't really had much in the way of snow, a few flurries and a bit of hail, but it has been lying on the hills. DH took this picture from the landing window.

I got this beautiful bird stamp as an RAK from Joanne (Angelnorth), it has such a clear image and I love the little bird foot prints, thank you Joanne. The background stamp is an Elusive Images one from Graphicus.

I made two birdie cards as I have a couple of things to send off to people and they both love nature and birds.

Still making the pack of cards Art Journal, a la Emily Falconbridge, posting them over on Bubblyfunk Forum. The theme is 'Your Initial' so I thought that rather than do one side and then some journalling, I would do two different styles of initials linked by that Elusive images paisley background stamp (one of my faves). The top on is 'Jewelled J', the chipboard J is Maya Road, Philadelphia lower case which I painted with Stewart Gill mini mezze colourise Plum.

The other side is my 'Shabby J'. The J is die cut with Mac 'n' Cheese Ellison dies which work in my cuttlebug. the paper is Dovecraft by Kate Knight which I got in Lakeland, the blooms were also from lakeland, except the little on which came from BF Shoppie

Easter Treats

First some traditional Easter treats. These Easter Chocolate Fudge Cakes are from a recipe on the BBC Good Food webpages and very delicious they were too - lots left for tomorrow and Monday.

Next I am showing you the Maze book that Kathy Black made for Ellie Wiseman's Auction over on Bubbly Funk Forum. I was lucky enough to win this in the auction and it was worth every penny. I cannot believe how much work Kathy put into this book, everything is perfectly made and beautifully finished. I take it out and look at it, then wrap it up again. I will have to wait for a very special occasion before I put any photographs or journalling in this book.

I love the circle of flowers round this frame.

and the corset-like fastening of this secret place,

The tag comes out from behind the flower.

This is really beautiful with the heart shaped tag comeing out and the pretty frame with the flowers.

Another hidden place.

Even the back is fab, love this squared design


Last, but by no means least, in the Easter treats is the CD book made by Rosie (Freycob), another auction win. I put my crafty CDs in it last night, it is really too good to use every day. It's been sitting on the mantlepiece in our bedroom for a couple of weeks because it goes so well with the orange walls! Just in case you think that sounds a bit odd, the bedroom has a sort of Indian theme with shisha glass and an elephant patchwork hanging which I posted on here a long time ago. Also our house is an old one, hence the fireplace and black marble mantlepiece.

Anyway, it is pretty gorgeous, don't you think?

Happy Easter!

Hope you enjoy the Easter weekend whether it has a religious meaning to you and is therefore a very special time or whether it gives you the chance to spend time with friends and family or do something special for yourself. Having spent last weekend with family and friends, I'm planning a quiet weekend. The weather forecast is not that good, but if it is nice we will probably be working in the garden, if it snows, as is forecast, then I will be inside crafting - either way I will be happy! Have fun whatever you are doing.

Mum's birthday

Here is the cake I made for my Mum's birthday.

We went out to a small restaurant within walking distance of her house and were joined by her closest friends. It was a lovely meal. I had crab tart, rib eye steak with a balsamic shallot reduction and hot chocolate fudge cake, yummy. Then we had some cake with our coffee.

Here we are then, me, mum and my sister.

And this is Brian my DH. By now you will have seen that there were indeed many bottles of wine - it is a bring your own bottle restaurant, so they put them all on the table, we only took two home

And here is a picture of young love! My DS2 and his Italian girlfriend, reading the menu: 'mmm what shall we have?'

It was a great night and I didn't get to bed till 1am, completely shattered on Sunday but had a good sleep last night and feel surprisingly well today. Just as well as I had to go for a steroid injection for my frozen shoulder, it didn't hurt much at all, just the usual injection feeling, hoping it will make a difference to the shoulder.

Chaise Longue

I came home from work and there was a big parcel. I hadn't ordered anything and it wasn't my birthday, so I was intrigued to see what was in the parcel. I couldn't make it out at first, it seemed to be a pillow, then the Gourmet Cat Food leaflet fell out of the bag! Ah...one of those competitions where I am hoping to win a year's supply of cat food. You could buy a lot of crafting stuff if you didn't have to buy cat food, especially for two very fussy cats. Of course, I hadn't won the cat food, but a Chaise Longue! I took a picture to let you see and as I was taking it, James walked over and started kneading the cushion. I haven't seen him lie down on it yet, but he is thinking about it! Ideal opportunity to use the 'Paws' kit from Digital Craft Cottage.

Mum's Birthday Card

Here's the card I've made for my Mum. The chances of her finding my blog are remote, so I am posting it up here before the event. Her birthday isn't till next week, but we are going to visit on Saturday, out for a meal and staying overnight. DS1 and girlfriend are going to stay here and feed the calves. It is a bit more sparkly than the picture shows, I went over the butterfly bits of the paper with a Sakura glitter pen. The pink irridescent paper at the back I bought when I started crafting, I love it and only use it on special projects. Chipboard letters are Maya Road and the paper I covered them with came as an RAK from Kathy at BubblyFunk. I'll blog the cake I made when I have decorated it.

Tracey's Green and Burgundy Fluffy Felt Bag

Just posting this here so that Tracey can see the felt bag that she commissioned from me. The colours are not completely true, but very close. The bag closes with a magnetic clap.

Another Digi LO

This was a colour challenge on Digiscrapgirls. The colours were two shades of blue, ivory, yellow and a fresh green. I am particularly pleased with this as I managed to incorporate some layer styles, like drop shadows and bevels to give the LO depth. I also recoloured the green elements to make them blue. Kits used are the Digitalscrapgirls March Collaboration Kit, Shabby Princess - Splendid and Digi Nirvana - scalloped frames.

I made two cards and two cakes today as well, a very satisfying and creative day - who cares if it's raining and blowing a gale, I love to get absorbed in making things.

Digi Scrap Template

Here is a digi page I have done for the Digiscrapgirls Template Challenge. The kit I used is a Digiscrapgirls March Collaboration Kit and a little bit of New Life Dreams Dazzling Evening. the photographs I have blogged before, but I like the bluey greens of the ivy and felt the colours in the background paper were ideal to set them off.

Art Journal Card - Inspiration Found

Please excuse the terrible photographs, taken by lamplight. This must have been the quickest Journal card I have done. It's all Rosie's fault - over on Bubblyfunk Forum she showed us what she had bought in Morrisons: a mug, coaster and a little tray set featuring cupcakes. I went to look in my local Morrisons and NO such items were available - but kind Rosie was my 'personal shopper' and got me a set and posted it up to me.

So, I was looking for 'Inspiration Found', the prompt for this weeks card and there it was staring at me from the bin - the packaging from the 'Cupcake' set. I rescued it and cut it up to make my card, it even had a convenient title in a reasonable size.

Mother's Day

I know I am a wee bit early but Mother's Day came early in our house. In a reverse of the normal circumstances, my MIL bought me some flowers on Friday and DS1 gave me some more today as he wont be here tomorrow, so I have a lovely big vase of flowers.

I gave my MIL her card and present tonight as she is going off to early church tomorrow and then on to visit a relative who is in a nursing home. Here is her card:

Is my cat spoiled?

James has taken to coming upstairs to the computer room to join us. He was sitting on the wooden floor in front of the fire, so I gave him a cushion. How gorgeous is he lying there on a silk cushion? The ruined beast that he is!