A school...of fish!

It's Keryn's turn to set the dare at Daring Cardmakers this week here is what she says:

"Early next week all the children that have been on holiday from school in New Zealand for approx seven weeks will be returning to their new classrooms. Mother's will all be breathing a sigh of relief as their routines return to normal.

To celebrate this I want you all to create cards using the theme of school. If you've got children at school what they're up to might inspire your card, if not maybe memories of your own school days might be your inspiration."

I have to say that I was struggling with this one as I don't have children at school and couldn't think of a card theme that would let me use the card for anything else later, then into my head popped 'school of fish' and I knew that would work for me and the dare!

The image came from the Collage group on Flickr and I coloured it with Copics, paper and sentiment sticker are from a little 6x6 scrapbook kit by Papermania. Ribbons from stash.

Mucha Sunrise

This is the gorgeous background that Jeanette at Soartful has provided for the challenge this week.

Here is my version. I've used a Mucha image from Last Door Down the Hall, some of my own sunrise photographs with a couple art masks, one from PTon and the other from Sine. The text and the border are from Cottage Arts and it is finished with a watercolour overlay from The Scrappin' Cop.

Win a Tando - Hugs and Kisses Board

Tando Creative is a chipboard design company run by Di & Tony Oliver, Di is also a member of Bubbly Funk Forum and asked some of the forum members to decorate pieces for this board. The board is now up for grabs on the Tando Creative blog, full details of how to enter the competition are also at the bottom of this post.

This is the piece I decorated. The chipboard heart was covered with wadding and then some batik fabric, the pearls were handstitched to the fabric and I embellished it with a flower I recycled from a card I'd been sent - nothing is wasted!

Tando Creative Ltd are running a competition to win this fabulous decorated Hugs and Kisses Board. This board is unique as it is a larger version of the one available to buy and has been specially made just for this competition. It includes a chipboard base and 10 completely individual chipboard pieces that have been beautifully decorated by ladies from all round the country. The pieces have all been signed on the back by the artist.

The competition is open until Sunday 14th February when a winner will be picked at random to win this prize.

To enter the competition all you need to do is make make any project, whether it be a card, altered art, scrapbook page etc using a piece/pieces of Tando Creative chipboard. The project must be made for the competition so not shown previously on blogs or galleries.

Tando Chipboard is available from the Bubbly Funk Shop

Oh no, Snow!

The Fiskarette Monday challenge this week is to make a project with a snow theme. I haven't done many digital layouts recently so thought this would be a good time to do one.

Papers and Elements from Winter Wonderland by Scraporchard DT (2008)

Friday Photo Flashback

This week for the flashback I thought I'd show you an earlier verison of 'Me and my boys' circa 1989!

Click on the FridayPhoto Flashback logo to visit the blog and link to other pre-digital photographs.

Happy Birthday Son!

It's my son's birthday and I was a bit unsure what kind of card to make for him. When this happens I head for the Sketch File and Kathy had a great sketch for me. I combined Sketch #17 with some Funky Hand papers from the new CD: Papercraft Factory and a silhouette of a 'chocolate' labrador that I found online, a few bits of embellishments and it was done!

Coasters to Calendars

The Bubbly Scrumptious Challenge Blog, Vanilla Sugar, has Coasters as the theme for January. There were lots of interesting ideas by the Design Team but I really didn't need any more actual coasters, so I had a look at Splitcoaststampers resources to see what projects there were on there and found THIS little calendar.

My coasters are not the crafting chipboard kind, they are real coasters that I bought in the supermarket when they were on sale 6 for £1.00, so they are somewhat thicker than the ones used in the project. That meant that I couldn't cut them with either my Bind-it-all or my Crop-o-dile! So I made a binding from card in the same way I did with my Christmas Album.

The project instructions link you to a place to print out your calendar. I used the photo of me with my boys that was taken at Christmas, I love this picture.

All Papers are Websters Pages 'Postcards from Paris' from Bubbly Funk Shoppie.

When it came to a little embellishment, I thought I'd make this bunch of cherries using some faux flower stamens I got years ago from Lakeland and a couple of bits of leaves from a leaf/stem ribbon.

I have to say I am really pleased with this and it is going to sit on my desk at work.

That Little Black Dress

I thought I'd use a different image to the one provided on Soartful this week. The theme is 'The Little Black Dress' and I found this fab image of Ava Gardner on the My Vintage Vogue blog. The quote is said to be by the Duchess of Windsor, but Wikipedia had no confirmed citation so it may not be.

Scrapbook papers and elements by Irene V. Alexeeva
and Franziska Altmann

Over to you...

On Bubbly Scrumptious blog, Kathy Black has come up with a little challenge in the form of a sketch. Regular blog readers will know that I am very fond of Kathy's sketches and as she was in a bit of a panic that no one would take part, I thought I'd better get on with it!

Here is what she said: "This week I thought I'd try something a bit different and lay down a little challenge. Pretty much every day the Team here on BS share something they've made using the various kits and other fab stuff you can buy from Bubbly Funk.
This week though, I'd like to see more of what the people who read this blog are making! So I've come up with a sketch design which I hope you'll find interesting and inspiring to use in whatever way you fancy - it could be for a card, a scrap LO or maybe for the front of a book or top of a box - anything goes - I just want a chance to see the things you make!"

My card uses Webster's pages and an image from Art Freebies, the ribbon is some wired Christmas ribbon that I've had for about 3 years! Oh and a little bit of glossy accents on the cherries.

Pogonip!

Jeanette at Soartful, has given us an interesting challenge this week here is what she says:

"One of the pretty things that I remember about the icy cold was seeing
what the Washoe Indians called pogonip. That is a heavy frost that

would accumulate on the branches of tress. Beautiful."

The image provided was very pretty and I didn't wan't to mess about with it too much so I have used some blending modes with some of my own frosty branch photos, then added a few frosty branches from Lisa Bowman's White Christmas Kit for Digital Craft Cottage and a sanded overlay from the Scrappin' Cop.

I've joined the club!

Only the '25th Club' that is running on Bubbly Funk Forum. Last year the BFers had a 25th Club and pledged to make a certain number of Christmas cards each month. I didn't take part last year and ended up with a last minute scramble for C cards, so decided to take part this time. We had added a monthly theme to the challenge which helps to focus our 'club members' on the task in hand lol!

Here is what Angelnorth gave us as a recipe for our January cards:

Turquoise (or blue) and silver
Swirl(s) of some sort (could be stamped, doodled, chippie, embossed, grungeboard, whatever)
Something sparkly or shiny (e.g. glitter, gems, metal)

Upwardly Mobile!

I haven't done a Friday Photo Flashback for some time, but remembered about it tonight and thought I would share this photograph of my paternal grandparents.

When my gran left school she worked in the jute mills of Dundee. My grandpa left school at 12 because his father was killed by a bale of jute in the docks, and he started working for his uncle who was a butcher. Eventually, he had earned enough to buy a side of beef to sell himself. The story goes that he couldn't afford the transport so carried it all the way from the market to the shop on the 'Hill Town'. Anyone who knows Dundee will know that this is a steep and long hill, very aptly named. Eventually, he had his own shop and he and my gran worked in it all through the war. They bought their own home on the outskirts of the town with fields and farms behind them, and was able to stop working in the shop. My gran was the 'upwardly mobile' one for whom appearances were very important, my grandpa was a quiet and reliable man who worked hard to make her dreams come true.

This photo would be on one of their 'runs' on a Sunday, when they went out to local beauty spots in the car, that symbol of all they had achieved!

Seeing Spots!

It's Lythan here and its my turn to set the challenge- the first of 2010. So I'm going to ease you in gently with a challenge that should be fun- and of course funky.
You can make ANYTHING you like as long as it uses something by Funky Hand and includes
SPOTS AND STRIPES on it.

Here is my card for the Get Funky January Challenge. I used the 'Shabby Saturday' Funky Hand papers, for my spots and stripes.

Ticket to Ride

She's got a ticket to ride....the Soartful challenge this week was to alter this image of tickets.
The Beatles song was the first thing that came to mind and I knew I also had these tickets from Miss CutiePie, a bit of internet searching gave me images of The Beatles and Ticket to Ride and some blending modes in PSE provided the rest of the magic. I hope you enjoy the journey!

Garnet: the birthstone of January

The Daring Cardmakers are back after the Christmas break with a new challenge and some new ideas, here is what they are daring us to do this week:

"We thought it would be fun to have series of linked challenges that run throughout the whole of 2010. We're going to use the first Dare of each month to make cards featuring the birthstone for that month. How you decide to use the birthstone is up to you, it may be a card for someone who has a birthday during that month, it may simply be an any occasion card using the colour of the birthstone - anything goes, really as long as somehow the birthstone is hinted at. The birthstone for the month of January is the GARNET"

Paper: K&Co Madeleine (yes I still have some of this paper)
Vintage picture from Red collage sheet - Last Door Down the Hall
Tag - Digital element from Scrapbookgraphics Melissa Mini-kit
Sketch No 17 - Kathy Black at Kathy's Waffle Sketch File

More Snow!

We haven't had anything like the snow in some parts of the country, but we have had it hanging around since the 18th December. A heavy fall this morning prevented me from getting to work, so I got a few shots around the yard to let you see. I can see some of these coming out for 'C' cards lol!

The Simple Woman's Daybook

FOR TODAY...

Outside my window...an inch of ice in the yard and the thermometer reading -8

I am thinking... about having to go back to work tomorrow

I am thankful for... my nice warm house

I am wearing... the usual warm cords, pink polo neck sweater, angora socks

I am remembering... lots of things about my youngest son as I start to scan photos for his 21st birthday scrapbook.

I am going... to finish that scrapbook page I started at the beginning of the week.

I am currently reading... The Haunted Abbot by Peter Tremayne

I am hoping... we don't get too much snow this week (again!)

On my mind... family stuck up on their hill farm, at least we can still get the cars out.

Noticing that... I am obsessed with the weather lol!

Pondering these words... Low Fat!

From the kitchen... Leek and Potato Soup

Around the house... nearly all signs of Christmas have gone, just a few little bits lingering.

One of my favorite things~ Christmas cake and it's nearly all gone now.

From my picture journal... it's so cold that the loch (lake) in the next village has frozen over and people are skating and curling on it. This hasn't happened for a very long time.

Very last journal pages

Journalling on the 'mitten' reads: "Recycled Christmas Today I took down my Christmas decorations and Christmas cards. But some of them are so lovely I wanted to keep them. Here are some 'bits' from my favourite cares. Most of these are cards made by my crafting friends. Thanks to everyone for the beautiful cards."

I'm sure some of my blog readers will recognise little bits from cards that they made for me. I'm sorry if your card didn't make it, I did appreciate them all, but some didn't lend themselves to being deconstructed.

So this is the end of my record of Christmas 2009, I started out with the intention of using prompts but in the end I found that what worked for me was to pick out the events and aspects of the season that stood out for me this year. I hope you have enjoyed sharing my Christmas and will continue to visit my blog throughout 2010 to share my crafting projects and photographs.

Mitten Element from 'Amazing Snowland' by Irene V. Alexeeva for Scraporchard

and I'd like to thank .....

I got a nice suprise when I went to visit the 'Tattered and Lost, Ephemera' blog today, there was this award for me and my blog. If you like all things vintage you have to visit, as it is full of interesting images and lots of information about the illustrators. There is often a lively banter going on in the comments which is very entertaining.

A single rose...

The Soartful Challenge image this week is this Rose postcard. I wanted to use a quote about roses and found this one "A single rose can be my garden...a single friend my world" by Leo F Buscaglia
Planet Earth image from Google images, Friends vintage photo from Lizzie_anne for Collage Images on Flickr.

Two more journal pages

Getting towards the end of my journal, only two more pages to fill after this. Both pages feature the snow and ice that we have had over Christmas. This is really unusual so I think that it is important to remember it and, as I said on the second page, it has really defined Christmas 2009.