It's Quirky Pumpkin Time!

Doris set the Quirky challenge today, and it is Pumpkin Time! You just need to feature pumpkins - simples!

I used Bugaboo Image - Pumpkin Crow, I really love this one so put three in a row, which was kindly supplied to the team by Bugaboo. The sentiment was a freebie from Bugaboo that I picked up last week, you might be lucky to still find it free if you hurry on over, or you could buy it - or win it in our challenge!

All images are coloured with Promarkers, and the spider ribbon is from Crafty Ribbons. Die cuts with Spellbinders dies. (The ribbon looks crooked here, probably is).

I also used a very pale green mat on white card, you can hardly see it in this photo.

I should have another example to show you later.

We have two sponsors, Bugaboo and Limited Runs so there are some great digi prizes to be won and some fantastic examples by the team so hop on over to Quirky Crafts to take a peek, maybe leave some lovely comments and of course to join in!

I have entered the following challenges:

Artful Times - Autumn Colours - Sept

Cute Card Thursdays - Pretty Ribbon

Fairytale challenges - pumpkin, mushroom or bats

The Craft Barn Alpha Challenge G

The Craft Barn Alpha Challenge is on G, and I chose Girafe which is French for Giraffe lol. I used some Sprial Whisper stamps (I don't think they exist as a company now) designed by Debbie Moore, and a Penny Black stamp. These are stamped on card, coloured with Promarkers quickly and cut out, the stamping on the page went badly! All round the page are shapes stamped with my never before used Color Box stylus system, you mould the tip by heating it with a lightbulb (first problem was finding a "normal" lightbulb so it was hot enough) then you press the tip onto a rubber mould then use it as a stamp.

Apologies for the photo on the Craft Barn post, I had to add a WIP image or not get there at all, I was very late with this, I have been so busy all week. On Thursday I was standing on a stall all day explaining about the Made in Bradford shop, this was in County Hall, of course I had to go over and get a car full of stuff ready for it the day before, then take it back yesterday. As well as getting to a hospital appointment.  Then today when I finally had time to get on with it I had started tidying up the space where the now sold eCraft used to sit and cleaning, I had the irresistable urge to clean and tidy it and I had the bad habit of shoving print outs and mail there in the space between the magazine rack full of similar stuff and the ecraft! Anyway I managed to tidy and get rid of a load, and there is so much more to get through but every little helps!

I hope to add at least one more page here for G, I was planning 3.

Here are Geography and Glamorous. Featuring Kraftin Kimmie Stamps for Glamorous, coloured with water colour pens, and Hero Arts map and the Rubber Stampede save the world stamp you have seen before but it behaves better in Stazon. Map stickers were a set that I was given for a present. (Do you think anyone noticed me sneaking this one in?)

Boo Crew

This is for the Unity Challenge at Inspired by Unity. You can follow one of the two sketches or use the inspiration colour photo, or both together for this Sept/Oct challenge but you must use Unity stamps.

I used the colour photo, and did a literal translation of it!

I used a Unity Itty Bitty stamp called 3 Boos with sentiment on this card, which has embossed Coredination card for the wall, the folder was inked first, embossed door, both embossing folders were Sizzix Tim Holtz ones. Die cuts are: door - Sizzix Tim Holtz movers and shapers arches, fence - Spellbinders D lites, chair stamped with Hero Arts stamp and die cut with Sizzix Framelit die from the same set, pumpkin - Accucut Zipe die, hinges - Accucut Zipe die, bats and boo's are sequins, ghosts coloured with Promarkers. Sentiment heat embossed in purple.

I have entered the following challenges:

Unity be Inspired monthly challenge - as above

Artful Times - Autumn Colours, Saturdays Fortnightly

Crafts Too - Texture, with something shiny - purple sequins,  Sept challenge

Time for T on Tuesday again

It started with a fish - never dreamed it would come to this....

Time for T on Tuesday with Elizabeth and Bleubeard, and I am late, might make it before Tuesday is over! I made a fish pie from a Slimming World recipe in a booklet that came with the mag. I am still chuckling over the freeze if the seafood is not already frozen, then telling you to use frozen cooked peeled prawns!

Anyway the recipe called for smoked haddock, I had unsmoked, thought it would do. Then I thought maybe the smoked bit would be nice, so I used a pack of smoked salmon instead of some of the haddock. Next ingredient, the prawns, I only had raw frozen shell on prawns and I didn't want to have to cook and shell them ----- so I used frozen mussel meat. I had the leek and the frozen peas. Potatoes - they were all sprouting but hey, I had enough. Herbs, I have bucketloads of chives growing, not parsley, and I thought I had dill but it was tarragon - that would do, with a bit of Greek Basil. Then I needed creme fraiche of the low fat variety to add to the potato with the herbs, ermm, I added no fat yogurt and some goats cheese. 

Cooked up the sauce, added to the dish, carefully spread the potato, and felt pleased I did manage to cover it all - then turned round and saw the herbs! B*** I was not going to attempt to scrape off the potato and mix it in so I sort of scattered and prodded it into the top! Anyway it was delicious, and this was day 2 cold with salad. Day one was with kale, I have never had kale before that day and I can tell you I will never have it again!

 Very Berry tea, very nice, but it does contain liqourice so you have to take it in moderation if you have high blood pressure. This all happened at the weekend.

We went blackberry picking again last Friday, and this time Alfie got left behind sniffing and we really think he has doggy dementia because when Shaun went back to find him after we called for ages Alfie had gone out of the field, down the road to the car. He could have been run over. Anyway now we are making sure that Alfie is ahead of us, or if he stops we stay and make sure he is going the right way, it isn't the first time - he had gone off round an extra field before now when he didn't notice that we had turned, and his eyesight isn't good so he doesn't recognise us from a distance.

This is the river where we walked on Sunday, I love reflections in water. This is by the houses that you see in the next photo, lovely place to live.

Lovely houses, with lovely gardens in a heavenly location - probably expensive!

The abandoned new houses from last week - they are twos and threes in a row going by the patio doors, UK houses tend to be quite small, especially new builds.

I'm keeping this short, got to go out and I have so much to do in the next few days.

Keep your head - it's only 13 weekends until Christmas!

I finally finished a card with my Spyder Lyn digi called 5 happy snowmen which is only 99p to buy. I think this is so funny, the poor snowman on the end has lost his head! I came across this paper that was in the wrong place and thought it would be perfect for this card, and there was plenty to line the card with too. Images coloured with Promarkers, and ribbon from Crafty Ribbons. Eyelets from stash.

I have entered the following challenges:

Crafty Ribbons Challenges - anything goes second entry

I love Promarkers - anything goes second entry

Chocolate, Coffee and Cards - anything goes (27th Sept)

Peeking Posies take 4

This is different, posies in a line. This time I used zingy colours on another piece of that experimental sprayed watercolour paper. I used the colours of the paper to dictate the flower colours, Promakers of course. I am not sure if I am happy with the sentiment, a Hero Arts ribbons sentiment stamp. I thought this would cheer up an ill person because it is so bright. The ribbon is from a Crafty Ribbons collection called Lime Dots, which was available on offer some time ago. I have to admit it covers up a bad first attempt at stamping the sentiment directly onto the card blank. The current sentiment is stamped and cut out then adhered to the card, I nearly adhered it to the ribbon, maybe that would have been better.

I have a different colourway of posies that I hope to show you soon and an idea that I want to try for something totally different looking.

Peeking Posies take 3

How about a pink background and blue and green flowers? I like this and I found some old papers that compliment the colours perfectly, matted the images on dark green - not cut out this time, and found some matching polka dot ribbon, and stamped the sentiment in dark green. Images coloured with Promakers.

I have entered the following challenges:

Coffee, Chocolate and Cards - Anything goes closes Friday 27th Sept

Peeking posies take 2

Same card darker colours, and the background is another piece of card I was trying out ghost stamping with, which didn't work because I need water based inks! So Hero Arts Peeking Posies set again coloured with Promarkers, same Hero Arts sentiment as before and the same ribbon from Crafty Ribbons.

A Quirky small world reminder - places all over the world (not small as in tiny things)

 I am pleased with this card, I used a Paper Pretties image called Merci Beaucoup, coloured it with Promarkers and cut it out with Spellbinders Nestabilities labels one, and then cut out mats with labels one and labels one scalloped.
As you can tell my card is about Paris, I have never been there but I would love to visit some day.
The papers were freebies, I think the pink one is My Mind's Eye, and the yellow background is from a stack called Spring Jubilee by Pink Paislee. I am impressed that this free gift with Cardmaking and Papercrafts magazine is actually a full stack, and there were several sheets of each design so that I could easily decorate the inside of the card to match. Please excuse the crease, it happened when I was applying DST with my ATG, whoops, hoping it won't matter. I used dark pink metallic card to mat the front of the card and matching paper for the inside. The card blank is a 6" x 6" Craft UK one, they are handily sitting on shelf right by the desk so I have tended to reach for them often and I know the size of mats too! I find the card blanks a little flimsy but once I have added some mats inside and out they are more sturdy.

The ribbons are from a Bev's Vintage bag I bought a while back, I think I bought two - they are so pretty. The bow is made using the Bowdabra also from Crafty Ribbons. The roses match the roses on the paper, and the Prima blooms with pearl centres also match the tree blooms on the paper. I wanted to add flowers in honour of our main sponsor for this challenge which is Samaflora!

Please hop on over to Quirky Crafts to see what the team has made, and to join in by midday next Saturday. Don't forget a Small World is about places around the world where that you have visited, where you live or would like to go! (It is not about little things but can be about both). You could win £15 of gorgeous hand made flowers from Samaflora, some digi images from Paper Pretties, or £5 worth of beautiful flowers from Samaflora - what are you waiting for!

I have entered the following challenges:

Crafty Ribbon Challenges - anything goes with ribbon closes 25th Sept.

I love Promarkers - anything goes - Wednesdays

Polkadoodles Challenge Spot - candy colours

WOYWW #224

It is Wednesday so time to nosy round a few people's desks and stuff, and you can do this by going to The Stamping Ground.

Here is the desk, things in progress, things that need putting away after maybe trying them like stamps, baby wipes for cleaning stamps and babies, and dogs (don't ask). There is a pile of mags in the corner I need to sort out, put in binders, read or give away, In the middle is the bicycle stepper card, I see that people decorate the inside, so I wanted to find the papers I used to do that, makes it neater. Yesterday I came across the offcuts so made a start, now I hope I can find some more of the same to finish off, but it looks better already. I did sort of tidy up!

I also have a little ballerina digi coloured and die cut ready to go onto a card, and I feel I will get to the Christmas cards, well the toppers I showed you weeks ago that are ready, very soon, maybe even tonight.

This is next door's roof, and that little Blue Tit is eyeing that hole up for next year's nest I think!

Yes, this will do!

Action shot, there are not enough perches for all of the sparrows, and it gets busier when other birds arrive at the same time!

The sparrow on the bottom perch at the back had a lot of problems balancing!

Sooty Bin Raider struck again, I threw away half a pack of rice cakes that had gone a soft, Sooty retrieved them and made a mess in here!

Are these parent and baby Blue Tits or a pair? I am not sure, one looks very young here.

Time for T on Tuesday

Time for T on Tuesday at Elizabeth and Bleubeard's place, and here is another mug, a real cutie which is very small but just holds the 200ml of hot chocolate I have these days. I recently tried hazelnut drink ("milk") and it is delicious, not sure my gut approves, but with the gorgeous Spicy Hot Raw Chocolate this makes a really scrummy hot chocolate. I get the spicy hot chocolate from the lovely Paula and Dan at Elements for Life, they also do raw chocolate kits and more. I took this photo last Tuesday, it was a lovely day and warm enough to sit out, unlike today which is wet, very cold and I can't get warm!

Last Tuesday we went blackberry picking, this was the view from the top of the field, down to those houses I showed you last week, abandoned and up for sale.

Sooty and Alfie got a bit bored of blackberry picking....

....and suddenly ran off to the other side of the field! Shaun called them back and Alfie came but Sooty found the path and went right down to the gate, out of the gate, and back along the little road to the car, naughty Sooty! I worry when they go out of the gate, there is some traffic on the road sometimes, and one time they got out of the gate just ahead of us, a car stopped and some people started chatting. They said they saw the Schnauzers and stopped because their mother in Holland had one, but for all we knew they could have been planning to grab the dogs if we hadn't showed up when we did! Shaun doesn't think so but I do!

We were joined by a beautiful butterfly, who knew they liked blackberries? It fluttered round us and the fruit, and was joined by a wasp then flew away.

On the journey home I made Shaun turn the car round and go back so I could get some photos of a flock of starlings on overhead cables, this cat was sitting on the pavement when we stopped.

This shot shows how many birds there were! I got some closer shots but they don't show all the birds, I was thinking these would make a great silhoutte stamp!

These are the blackberries we picked, a week later there are still some left, I am getting through them and sent some to Mother in Law yesterday. Now we need to pick some more!

 I could show you more of the sparrow flock feeding, they have been here today, must be 12 or more all fighting to get onto the feeder which only has 4 perches. Maybe I should get a bigger one! I am refilling it daily at the moment, today I have seen greenfinches, blue tits and the sparrows but a few days ago we had this little bird, the one on the right. Which I thought was a Coal Tit, but...

Coal tits are supposed to have a white patch (or nape) at the back of their head, and this oen clearly doesn't...

see what I mean? So could it be a Willow Tit or a rarer Marsh Tit? I am puzzled because it does have wing stripes and the photos I have found suggest that is a Coal Tit feature, but because it is missing the white nape how can it be? Have I found another new species? Apparently scientists didn't know there were different species, i.e. Willow Tit and Marsh Tit, until fairly recently, they assumed these were all Coal Tits. I read that and can't remember the year, 1970's or 1980's I think.

Another place we go walking is near to Iford Manor, and this is a photo of the Peto Gardens taken from the old bridge. You can pay and go round Iford Manor gardens and the Peto Garden, and there are lots of evening events held in the gardens, concerts and plays. The valley is a beautiful place to walk too.

Sparrow in the rain.

Finally we were Kenny sitting at the weekend, he loves the stepping stones. He wanted to go into the garden all the time, one time he gave me his shoes and sat down waiting for them to be put on because he wanted to go out and play!

It's a Quirky Small World today

I'm late! But here it is, the latest Quirky Challenge example. I have been busy for a few days, we babysat our grandson Kenny yesterday, so I had shopping, cleaning etc to do before, then haven't had much time to make this and neglected my family today to get it done!

The challenge set by Monica is A Small, Small World, based on the Disneyland song, which I didn't know until Monica sent a link to the video which you can see on the Quirky Crafts blog, where you can also see more fabulous examples and enter the challenge.

The sponsors for our challenge are Samaflora and Paper Pretties, the images are all supplied by Paper Pretties, and I used Fantastic Sophie, Thanksgiving, Well Wishers and Oh So Tropical all coloured with Promarkers and fussy cut. I used some paper I have had for many years, and some capital city star stickers from a set that was a gift years ago too, and some tartan and oriental ribbons. I created the sentiment in Serif Pageplus, it should be more red but my printer is not printing properly. In fact I have just about decided that I won't spend out another £45 on the three ink cartridges that are low right now, but will look for a new printer. Now it has taken me from the beginning of July until now to finally decide on and purchase a tripod that is my birthday present from July, and that is a fraction of the cost of the printers I am looking at.....once one colour ink runs out my current printer will cease to print so I really need a new one soon!

You could win a whole £15 worth of hand made flowers from Samaflora, or £5, 1st or 3rd prizes.

You could win 6 images from Paper Pretties if you come second in the voting.

So what are you waiting for? I wish I could enter too!

I have entered the following challenges:

A gem of a challenge - use two images (Saturdays)

I love Promarkers - use three different shapes (circles, stars, squares) Wednesdays

ABC Challenges - V for very cute (end Sept)

Chocolate, Coffee and Cards - Anything goes ends 27th Sept

Cute Card Thursdays - hip to be square, Thursdays