All the sexy fairies

Wow Summer has finally arrived - and don't my poor sore shoulders know it! Ouchy sunburn!!! Note to self - suncream is a good idea when gong out in the hot sunshine lol. Now I just need to find time to finish planting up my pots and take some piccy's for you all.

However here is my latest, summer themed make - Sexy Fiery Fairy.

Firstly I took a pale orange card blank and embossed with a sheena douglas embossing folder which had been inked with yellow and red pretty colour ink pads, to create this letter-press style background.

 Next I used the X-Cut large frame nesting dies - the middle size - to cut an aperture from the card. The fairy was printed inside the card (she was a free download on google) and also onto a separate sheet of card. The second sheet of card was cut into three 1"x1" squares (or inchies) and both fairies were coloured using promarkers, with overlapping areas being coloured in a duller colour on the base image. The inside of the frame was trimmed and the bottom third placed inside the card, over the fairies legs. The inchies were then layered over the base image, slightly off from the main design, using 3D foam pads. Two flower buttons were added to the outside of the card, and two handmade flowers (using orange patterned paper) die-cut using the free spiral flower die from Simply Cards and Papercraft 137.

 Here is the inside of the card.

This card is to be entered into the following challenges:

Vs Sweet Ideas #35 Favourite technique - Embossing

scrapbook stamp society #69 Handmade flowers

Digi Chooseday Button Challenge

Creative Moments 71 Embossing

Hanna and Friends #225 Inchies

Polkadoodle Frame It Challenge

addicted to stamps BINGO (Flowers, Image and Die-cuts)
TPE 305 Anything Goes
i love promarkers #275 Thing's with wings
LOC #83 Ink it Up
sweet stampin' Red Hot Summer

Audio Book Review  (To Follow - in above post)

Thank you for taking the time to look at my blog.

Hugz Tinz

Neverwhere Friends

Today has been too nice to be in work all day and then stuck in traffic until gone 6pm! By the time I get home I am knackered and cannot be bothered going out in the garden for an hour or so (this is after the allotment), so hopefully it will be nice over the weekend so I can do some of the garden then instead.

We had a fabulous time on Sunday at the Think Parrots Show, although I did get lost and so missed the first masterclass, and I think I now need to re mortgage the house after the money I spent lol. However I did get my cats insurance claim through, so not too bad really. Chucky is currently enjoying a woven willow ball stuffed with parrot toys lol. Cost £5 - longevity 5 mins.

I have made an ATC collection following several challenge themes. Each ATC card also has it's own challenge theme that it represents. The collection is 'My Friend' and is a trio, shown below:

 These ATC's follow the sketch 113 from Atlantic Hearts, although improvised on each ATC.  They also all use digi stamps from a free CD Rom.

They are all also to be entered into the following challenges:

papertake weekly - Trio-tastic ~ 3 ATC's with 3 strips of background and 3 different textures on each

Simon Says Wednesday Anything Goes
scrapbook stamp society #69 Handmade flowers

crafty ribbons #122 Anything Goes
addicted-to-stamps #107 BINGO - Flowers/Bling(or pearls)/Lace
abc-challenge L for Lace
card mania#69 Use a metal embellishment

ATC #1

This ATC used a pale indigo base card and I added cream lace down either edge and a cream polka-dot ribbon down the centre. I then coloured the stamp in using indigo and cream promarkers and used purple ribbon to make petals. Cream/yellow twine was used to anchor the stamped greeting and a metal charm was added to finish.

This ATC also followed the themes for the following challenges:

creative card crew 90 CAS
country view Shabby Chic

ATC #2

This ATC used a background ATC design from the free CDRom, using the Popcorn features. I used a bunting paper for the three background strips. The stamp was coloured using bright promarkers, in the colours of the rainbow. I used a thick lace to make a flower from this sentiment stamp before mounting with the twine. Finally a silver and red flower was added.

This ATC is also being added for the following challenges:

Passion for Promarkers 302 Rainbows (colours)
Quirky Crafts #13 Quirky Rosettes

ATC #3

This ATC used the Souffle Duck ATC background from the CDRom. I used sheer golden ribbon and a patterned beige ribbon for the background stripes.The stamp was coloured using the skin toned Promarkers and mounted again using the twine. Paper flowers were layered and pearls added for the corners and a metallic heart charm added to the bottom.

This ATC is also being added to these challenges:
deep ocean #106 Monochrome

I also made these envelopes from the Souffle collection on the CDRom;

for the Fancy Folds challenge at crafty calendar.

Audio Book Review

Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman

Richard ‘Dick’ Mayhew is an everyday London worker from Scotland, who manages to find himself in a whole new world, under the streets of London itself. He has a reasonable job, a fiancé and a nice flat, but when he stops to help an injured young lady his world turns upside down. He finds that his normal life has just stopped being and nobody knows who he is, but there is a whole other world where people can see him, and some people wish to kill him in the most painful way possible. This is a world of angels, demons, monsters and girls in black velvet and Richard has to untangle the mystery surrounding the girl he helped in ‘London above’ in order to find his way back to his own life.

I found this a very enjoyable and captivating read. As a fantasy book it incorporates the very far-fetched, but it uses elements from many previous fantasy books, and alters them slightly, making them unique. A brilliant book to listen to in the car.

Suncatcher of Rome

Hello on this grey and miserable Monday evening. I want to share with you all my latest Christmas creation, using the technique in focus on my facebook group: Glass Painting. I decided to make a Christmas Poinsettia suncatcher. I got this kit from my grandma, and due to its age the paints do not work quite as well as they should (even though they have not been opened), but as long as the piece stays flat until it dries they work well enough. So here is the sun-catcher:

 This is on a plastic backing to keep it safe until Christmas.

I would like to enter this little flower into the following challenges;

Winter Wonderland Anything but a card

Crafty Hazelnuts 234 Merry and Bright

For those of you who have been following my progress, here is an update on the height chart - now at 11 and a half hours.

Audio Book Review

Emperor: The Gates of Rome by Conn Iggulden

This is the first of a series of historical fiction following the life of Julius Caesar. Although the book is loosely based around what is known of Caesars early life, the author does change things to make the story telling more effective. Some of this is explained in a Historical note at the end of the book (however as I have not studied Caesar in great depth I could not tell what was pure fiction and what was based upon fact).

This first book introduced Gaius Julius Caesar as a young boy, and introduces the reader in this way to the struggles that the public had to put up with – regardless of their rank. When an uprising kills Gaius’ father he goes into the town to see his uncle who is a famous Consul of Rome. Through Marcus, Gaius becomes a senator and Brutus a legionary. The second half of the book focuses on the uprising of Marcus against the other Consul Sulla, and the downfall of Marcus.

This was a very interesting book to listen to, and there are some interesting characters introduced throughout the book, whose views and influences have an impact on the way the young Caesar views the world. Possibly not for those who like historical fiction to e very close to fact, but I found this a very easy book to listen to.

Round and Round

Well t has been a very wet weekend. However, I did get out in the garden yesterday, and down on the allotment this morning too! It was actually quite nice being out n the rain without the wind that has been so frequent recently - and even Arthur bunny enjoyed himself (with mummy watching very closely to ensure her lettuce plants did not meet their end at his enquiring mouth!).

I planted my sweetcorn out this morning as it was starting to get over-long, and so late in the season if I don't put it out I may not get anything from it. It has just been difficult trying to decide when to plant things out as the temperatures are still fluctuating quite a bit for the time of year. Fingers crossed they will be fine now they have been planted out!

So today I have made two round cards, as I saw the idea in an old magazine. The first is a One Layer card and will be entered into a small number of challenges, as required by the challenge rules. The second is a more layered card, which followed the sketch for the card I saw in the magazine quite closely, and this will be entered into a second, completely separate set of challenges.

One Layer Home Sweet Home card

A circle card blank was cut from watercolour card, and embossed using the free embossing folder from Simply Cards and Papercraft 135. Tim Holtz distress ink was then rubbed over the leafy area to create a distressed effect. The image is a Heart and Home, Create It wooden mounted stamp which I coloured using a Pretty Colour orange ink stick, dabbing it on to continue the distressed/vintage feel to the card.

This card is being entered into the following 4 challenges only:

OLS #17 Round and Round (two circles being the card itself and the area into which the image was stamped)

Fussy and Fancy #141 Distressed

Crafty Catz #283 CAS

simply less is moore #228 OLC Home

The second card I created today is this New Baby Card:

So as you can see it has the same basic idea, but this one has layers! I again used Watercolour paper for the base card, but cut a scalloped circle using X-cut nesting dies. I then went through my papers to find some geometric designs in the colours I wanted (you will understand why shortly). The base circle was cut from a paper pack I got a few years back with a Papercraft Essentials magazine, using a Nellie's die. The pink paper came from a Sweet Things paper stack, again free with a papercraft essentials magazine, and the green is from the We R memory keepers Chalkboard paper stack. I used a free nesting tag die on these two papers and layered them together to the right side of the card. I then layered a foiled 'New Baby' sentiment over the top. To finish I added a gingham yellow bow, and a die-cut button from the thick green card, which was placed just inside the card fold as a counter balance to enable the card to stand upright.

This card was inspired by the following challenges:
TPE302 -  using the geometric patterns as inspiration
glitternsparkle 141 Include a die-cut
Artistic Inspirations #133 Layers
sketchy colours #250 Pink, Green and Yellow
crafting by designs - Anything Goes

And now, thank you all for looking at my creations - time to go and get everything ready for work tomorrow.

Hugz Tinz

Lazarus Kitchen

Hi there,

The temperature is dropping again! What happened to Summer!

I have made a new ATC collection (or duo) called In the Kitchen, and here they are:

Both of these ATC's use Sizzix stamps and die-cuts, X-cut scalloped circle and Nellie's circle dies to create the topper. The way I have followed the sketch and the items used is different in both - see below for details.

 These are being entered into the following challenges:

LOC #81 for the girls

Catch the bug Anything Goes

Sweet Stampin' Something Old (apron/cup cakes toppers), something new (stamps)

addicted-to-stamps #106 Summer Colours
Stella Says Sketch #310

Quirky Crafts #12 K is for Quirky Kitchen
Artistic Inspirations #133 Layers
crafting by designs - Anything Goes

This first ATC does follow the sketch, but a little bit of imagination was used as things were moved about slightly, and an Apron topper was used instead of backing paper for the background layer. The circle topper was then placed to the top (with the bird perching on the chair), and diamantes added to the bottom (swapping these around from the sketch).

This second ATC follows the sketch exactly, with pink patterned paper (received in an ATC swap) for the background layer and the topper down at the bottom, with the bird sitting below the chair. Cupcakes were used in place of diamantes to stick to the kitchen theme (as although it is a dining chair I though some other kitchen related topper was needed.


Here is an update on my height chart, for those who are following my progress - 8.5 hours now.

Audio Book Review

Robert Ludlum’s The Lazarus Vendetta, with Patrick Larkin

This is book 5 in the Covert 1 series of books. This story is based around an anti-globiliastion movement, which is believed to be the cover for an anti-technology fanatic form of terrorism. The group is fronted by a man only know as Lazarus, whose real identity is a mystery. When a massacre occurs at a nano-technology plant, where Covert-1 operative Lt. Col Jon Smith has been assigned, during a Lazarus movement protest, Covert-1 is asked to look into the details.

A fast-paced thriller with lots of action, politics and intrigue. It keeps you on the edge of your seat with the twists and turns in the plot and it seems that a lot of luck is involved in uncovering the clues, making the story more realistic. It would be a scary thought to have the nanophages in this story be a thing of real life though. I would recommend listening to this book.

Thank you for taking the tme to look at my blog

Hugz Tinz

Life of Mousey

It is a little harder to make Christmas cards whilst the sun is out! However I gave it a good go!

I took a square green base card and followed the following sketch from Atlantic Hearts:
. I used two different patterned papers in red for the top and side panels, and a green Merry Christmas ribbon for the bottom panel. The image is a House Mouse image which I coloured using promarker pens after die-cutting the image. Two gold sequin flowers were added, and a multicoloured poinsettia to finish.

Here is the card:

I would like to enter this card for the following challenges:

Completely Christmas #65 Make it Square

crafty hazelnut 231 Colour It

Artistic Inspirations #132 Die-cuts

ABC Christmas K for Keep it Simple

aud sentiments 133 BINGO (Can be Ribbon, Flowers, Markers, or Ribbon, Pattern Paper, Die-cut, or even Die-cut, Digi stamp, Markers lol)

Hanna and Friends #223 - One die-cut, 2 patterned papers and three flowers

Sweet Stampin' Christmas Cute Christmas

Audio book review

Life of Pi by Yann Martel

Well this was certainly a surprising book to read. As it has been made into a film, I assumed it was all nice and suitable for children – how wrong was I? This book is about a young boy whose father owns a zoo. When they are moving, with most of the zoo, to Canada that ship sinks, leaving the boy, a hyena, an orang-utan and a Bengal tiger on a lifeboat. This story documents how the young boy learns to survive, for over 200 days. It is not a ‘nice’ story and in places makes you feel sick because of the way the boy does things, and it does not pull the punches. At the end of the story a slightly alternate reality is given, leaving you wondering which one is the true story. It is an interesting book to listen to, but I do not think I would listen, or read, again.

Variegated Headband

Hi there,

I have finished the headband I have been making for a work friend who saw the cinch belt and wanted a headband in the same wool. It uses a lace effect knit, which I hadn't done previously, but was actually very easy to work and looks quite delicate. So here it is:

 And this is a close-up of the lace effect:

 It would probably have been more pronounced if I had loosened the stitches a little (as I think I was supposed to do), but I have yet to get the hang of that lol.

I thought I would enter this into Suzy Bee's Bright and Beautiful challenge and the alphabet challenge H for Hats/Handbags (ok not quite a hat but it is worn on the head).

I have also finished the flowers that I was cross stitching and they are ready to make-up - just to decide how to use them now though lol.

I thought these might be appropriate for avenue 613 Subway Art challenge as well as the In the Garden challenge from live and love crafts.

Thank you for looking
Hugz Tinz

Birthday Collage

Welcome to another wet windy day here in Rutland. I am sitting here in my dressing gown as the wind howls down the chimney. You wouldn't think it was the beginning of June already! I did manage to get a quick 10mins in at the allotment to plant out some of the Celeriac before the heavens opened again. I think the wind is trying to steal off with my greenhouse.

Anyway, we have a new theme for you all over on Facebook - Monthly Themes for Crafting. There is no prize this month so it is a Just For Fun challenge, but the entry with the most votes does get to be on the group banner for the following month :). The challenge for the month of June is:

Collage

Here is my inspiration piece for the month:

Birthday Collage - Tina

 This is a one layer card created on the computer using the Digital Designer Favourites Edition CD-Rom. Unfortunately the digital designer application will not work with this particular CD-Rom though, so I had too create the collage using Microsoft Word instead. All the elements are Country Companions apart from the Butterfly (Daisy and Dandelion) and the text, which was done in Word itself.

This card is also to be entered for the following challenges:

Crafty Calender Things with Wings

aud sentiments 132 Cute

abc-challenge K for Kritters

crafty catz #281 Spring Time

simply less is moore 226 two or four legs (not often you can enter a collage for a less is more card)

Finally I thought I would share another update of the Height Chart:

7.5 hours in :)

Hugz Tinz