Dreaming of strawberries.

 The new greenhouse is in full production, I just need to plant out the pepper seedlings now. I have strawberries, early, mid and late, courgettes, 4 varieties of Italian tomatoes, a few radishes, some herbs and the marigolds have gone out to harden off.

I invested in the strawberry plants because since being on the Slimming World plan strawberries have become an important part of my diet. (Total diet club sceptic now converted).

So I was really excited to see these flowers a few days ago, and I am hoping for fruit and a return on my investment!

WOYWW #208 and 4 years anniversary

Happy WOYWW and happy 4th anniversary WOYWWers. If you want to find out what it is all about go to The Stamping Ground.

This pile of buttons and fastenings was in my knicker drawer, I was rummaging through looking for my lost nail scissors! I decided this lot should be in the craft room so I can find them, but I haven't bought any clothes for over a year until very recently, and I can't think that I still have all the things these belong to - can I?

Desk, it was in the process of being tidied but I had to tidy it to show you how tidy it is compared to last week! I did sort a carrier bag full of offcuts to give to the neighbour's children who are bored with the rain, and I have started another bag. Before I got rid of loads I die cut some more cupcake wrappers.

View from the other end. The middle needs a good sweeping up, and I cannot get rid of the red EP that I spilled, it seems to be getting into everything!

Happy Birthday Husband.

The night before a birthday is not really the time to be making the card! I used my new Stamposaurus stamp of a greenhouse, you may recall the posts about the new greenhouse! Well I spotted the stamp at the Shepton Mallet craft show, and thought of my husband, and bought it and a few others that I couldn't resist, and there were plenty more that were hard to resist too!

 I coloured the image with Promarkers, then added glossy accents for the "glass". I heat embossed the words using Hero Arts and Papermania stamps in red, that pesky red embossing powder got everywhere it shouldn't including all over my desk when I spilled it! Here you can see it on the card where I didn't want it to be, and I had used an antistatic bag first, grrr. Then the "glass" wasn't dry so I gingerly attached some 3d gel pads to the back of the image and tried to plonk it into place without touching the wet glaze. I had attached the die cut (Spellbinders) before I added the image. However the image has curled and I had to leave it out with no envelope because it wasn't dry.

Quirky well black and white challenge (with just a teeny tiny drop of one colour allowed).

Doris set the challenge at Quirky Crafts this time. The sponsors are Crafty Ribbons, Limited Runs and Robyn's Fetish. 

Limited Runs provided the images to the team. I just love the Limited Runs cupcakes and chose to use Graduation Cupcake. The papers are DCWV and Cordinations Jewel Black. I coloured the image with Promarkers adding burgandy red as my accent colour. The Cordinations cardstock is embossed with a Cuttlebug folder then sanded. The final touches were 4 pearls and a real tassle, I am not happy with my colouring now I can see it here, so I may have to work on it again. I also added matt medium to the icing, it doesn't show up well in the photo.

The Craft Barn Alpha Challenge - K for key and knave

The Craft Barn Alpha challenge - letter K.

I found a page with two words I wanted to use, Key and Knave. 

This is not one of my best pages, but I tried.

WOYWW #207

This could be a spot the difference contest, has my desk changed from last week, and where did last week go? Technically it is Thursday but this is how my desk has been all day Wednesday, no it was probably worse, I have tidied a little, just a little!

Over at The Stamping Ground Julia Dunnit started this weekly nose around other people's workdesks, and it is good fun!

Quirky Reminder time Myth, Magic and Paint.

I used two Crackerbox Palace stamps to finish the back of the door hanger, which is painted with Fresco paints. The images are Serpent and Submarine, and it is yellow like the Beetles song for me! I love the 3 part serpent, you can play about with the spacing and position of the pieces if you want to.

The images are coloured with Promarkers.

The sub exhaust is more of that glass ball gel medium, and the whole thing is covered in sparkly Mod Podge.

You have until Saturday to enter the challenge at Quirky Crafts.

Craft Barn Alpha Challenge A - late

I was going to enter 2 pages into the Craft Barn Alpha challenge for A, but I didn't even manage to enter this one! I chose Abeille meaning Bee.

I hope to get the next letter done in time.

Kenny is 1, Happy Birthday darling

This is the card I made for my Mother in Law to give to Kenny. I used a Spyder Lyn image called Party Bear, so cute, coloured with Promarkers and Metallic Promarkers. I finished it with punched out balloons and drawn strings.

I have entered the following challenges:

Chocolate, coffee and cards - use a number

Crafty Ribbons Challenge - no designer paper
I love Promarkers - Simply does it - not too many embellishments.

This is our card to Kenny, this time using a Bugaboo image called Edward Elephant Present and Happy Birthday sentiment, both coloured with Promarkers. I die cut the letters and number tag, then added Perfect Pearls which unfortunately got smudged, but I did my best with a bad migraine that has lasted 3 days, and is the reason I haven't been hopping round the WOYWW people, Iwill be late!

I have entered the following:

One stop crafting challenge - anything goes.

Kenny wants his cake!

Kenny got some cake! Happy Birthday darling boy, and tomorrow you will get some lovely presents when you come to our house for party number 2!

I will be attempting cupcakes!

WOYWW #206

I didn't get round to joining in with WOYWW at the Stamping Ground last week, and my desk wasn't really looking different than the previous week. I'm not sure it does now, I have been tidying a bit!

On the desk is a card I just made for my grandson's first birthday this weekend, I need to make another one, commission from Mother in Law, in fact she might end up with this one. I have a lot of family birthdays coming up next week too, so have up to 4 cards to make, unless I have something that will do.

I feel a little like I am drowning at the moment, I need to declutter, I am selling stuff slowly and there is a lot left yet, and more to find. I think I need to fill a bag with offcuts and give it to the neighbour's children to use.

Wedding cards

Wedding card one, cream pearlescent card Papermania vellum, music score stamped hearts (Stampendous) words are from a Visible Image set. The gorgeous rosebud ribbon I bought a long time ago from the USA.

Inside the Hearts Entwined stamp from Visible Image.

Same hearts, ivory cardstock and vellum overlay. Words from Visible Image set.

Words and musical corner from Visible Image, die cuts are Memory Box. 

I have entered the following challenges:

Daring Cardmakers - Ink it up.

Papertake weekly - The Sound of Music.

Inside, Hearts Entwined again, and musical corners.

This is just a birthday card from a kit I have, I added the Spellbinders Filigree Delights die cut which makes it a lot better I think.

I have entered the following challenges:

There She Goes Clear Stamps - Moving on (Sundays)

Quirky Challenge time, Myth, Magic and paint of course!

It is Quirky Crafts Challenge time!

We are sponsored by Crackerbox Palace for this challenge and they provided the team with some lovely stamps to show off. 

Crackerbox Palace ship their unique stamps Worldwide, wood mounted, foam mounted or unmounted, and they are very nice people to deal with too! There are three vouchers to win so you could own some of these lovely stamps if you enter and win.

The theme set by Daire is Myth, Magic and Paint. So I got out my new Fresco paints (I only have 4 colours so far) and got really messy and went to bed last night with multi-coloured hands and my fleece is well and truely ruined now! That paint didn't come off until I had a shower, and I washed my hands numerous times and scrubbed them too).

I used the sleeping dragon, Rena's Unicorn and the sentiment "If you can't stand the heat, don't tickle the dragon!!!". My dragon is sleeping on a pile of "rocks" which are really gel medium with glass balls - an impulse buy in the art and craft shop yesterday! I don't know if it should dry clear, some of it did, some is still opaque, but you can add colour to it before use or after it is dry. I inked it with distress ink when it was dry. I coloured my images with Promarkers, stamped the unicorn onto the door hanger then cut one out without the curly bits to stick on. I used sparkly Mod Podge to adhere the images and seal them, I love that stuff!

It is supposed to look like the dragon is sleeping in his cave on a pile of crystal rocks and the unicorn is standing on top of the rocks saying don't tickle the dragon!

I took this photo in the mini studio but I think the one on the door is better and looks more true to the actual colours, this image shows up the dragon better, see his teddy bear?

I have entered the following challenges:

Anything But a Card - colour pallette. (26th May?)

One Stop Craft Challenge - add glitter (Saturdays)