Quirky June challenge and it's Quirky things with Wings.

Over at Quirky Crafts we have two sponsors this month, Bugaboo and Limited Runs. I have not managed to do any papercrafting for this challenge so I have found a couple of cards I made for previous challenges, I hope you will forgive me. In fact things started off well when we started challenges once more, and I had good intentions then my Dad was diagnosed with the same cancer that killed my hubby last year, and he collapsed a few weeks before Easter and died Easter Sunday. Talk about kicking a person when they are already down! 

Because of that and having to do a lot more for my mum, as well as mother in law, and sorting various things out I haven't had the time or energy to papercraft. I did start to sort out my craft stuff and put it in my new unit, and I have been revamping storage in the craft room but there is no space to craft right now for stuff that needs sorting!

The first card is made using Bugaboo digis, Ladybug Stack and Birdie Told me. A stamped background on this one.

The second card is made with Limited Runs digital stamps, I used Whootie Owl and Mushrooms. 

This challenge will close on the 23rd of the month when Inlinkz subs run out! 

Due to my problems this will be the last challenge for a few months, Quirky will take a long Summer break and might be back in a new format, there is a lot of thinking and working out to do but we hope to go back to more stamping and mixed media, and we really would love some non digi sponsors, real stamp sponsors to compliment the regular sponsors that have been so good to us.

Happy Birthday Brother

 It was also my Brother's birthday yesterday, and he is a keen ornithologist so I made him a bird card. The background done directly onto the card blank is stamped and heat embossed in white and clear powder to form a resist, the stamps are Crafty Individual. Then I inked over the stamping with Distress inks and rubbed over the embossed images.
I stamped the branches, feather and bottom sentiment with Paperartsy stamps (rubbing over the embossed images again), and die cut then stamped the bird (I tried stamping then die cutting - which is when I found out the die is not the right way round to do that, I had to die cut, flip the die cut then stamp). Happy Birthday is a Hero Arts stamp, and Brother is a Papermania stamp.

Inside the card I used some Papermania Spring paper, also with blue and brown birds, and cut a slot to insert a gift card. Stamped sentiments are Paperartsy.

I was originally inspired to do the heat embossed background when a craft company on Facebook asked a question: if you used what you are wearing right now as inspiration - what sort of card would you make? I was wearing a dark blue fleece top with white silhouettes of birds all over it!

Happy Birthday Brother!

I have entered the following challenges:

Allsorts - All about the boy (Sat)

Cute Card Thursday - It's a wild world

Happy Birthday Julie

It is Julie's birthday today, Julie is my son Richard's girlfriend, and she is getting a bird feeder and bird feed for her birthday which she apparently wanted. I think it is like my feeder.

Anyway I decided to make a bird themed card and used this Pink Paislee paper that came free with a magazine, I cut it a little to fit the card blank then stamped over it with Chocolate Baroque stamps that I coloured with Marvy Wet looks first to get multi coloured images. The sentiment is by Unity Stamps and stamped in black Stazon to stand out. I decorated the inside of the card with the same paper with Happy Birthday stamped on it, and finally added some polka dot grosgrain ribbon (from Crafty Ribbons) to the front of the card. Because I had this paper in mind and that I wanted to use bird stamps (although I have a few different sets I can choose from so that could have kept me thinking) this was a quick card to make, less than 30 minutes total.

I hope you have a great birthday Julie and that you love your presents, posting this on the day so you don't see it before!

I have entered the following challenges:

Cards Galore - Flowers (October challenge)

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!

Time for T on Tuesday

 I went shopping for Tea supplies last week, and this is some of the tea I bought. The cup was a present from Richard, I used to use it for my hot chocolate but now I am measuring how much I can have on Slimming World it is a bit on the big size to use and the hot chocolate looks lost in it!

Our haul of tomatoes from the greenhouse, there are 3 different sorts here, the one that looks like a pumpkin at the back - it has a big HUMONGOUS brother which hasn't yet gone red! Another mutant due to the weather. I think soup might be in order for the big boys!

We took Bethany out for a few days, this was at the Hawk Conservancy Trust, if it landed on my bird feeder it would flatten it! The vultures were part of a really entertaining flying display which ended with them swooping very low over the crowd, we had to all duck right down low and Shaun still got touched by a wing!

 If you want to join in this gentle hop, go to Elizabeth and Bleubeard's blog right now!

I started going round trying to catch up with all the comments from the last two weeks but I haven't got very far!

I'm late for T on Tuesday!

 It's Tuesday so it is time for T at Elizabeth and Bleubeard's place!

Great Tits on my bird feeding station, I am so lucky to get these.

 This is my bird mug, I use it for hot chocolate when the ewe mug is not available, and this is my favourite glass Teapot, I bought both of them in Covent Garden in the Bodum shop. I just looked online and you can still buy this exact one, and a similar one to the one I showed you before. They are good (but not cheap) because they have a strainer in the centre so you can put fresh herb leaves or dried loose tea in and it keeps the bits in the middle. This one has a stainless steel centre, the bigger one has a plastic centre but they could have changed the design. I wonder if I bought them in a sale, I can't imagine paying what they cost now.

 This is the dog grooming Table, I decided it was time to trim the hairy beasts!

 This was the aftermath, all that grey is hair! I tried to eat my dinner on the Table outside, and I found a hair, then another and when I got to hair 3 I realised it was the dog hair blowing about so I had to go inside to finish eating!

Monster Tomato's little brother.

Underneath looks awful, it is deformed and looks like someone stitched a few Tomatoes together. More are starting to Turn red, and loads of them are splitting. I will have to look up what causes splitting. This one weights just 7oz.

Alfie posing after his Trim.

 This is my dining room, and my mini photo studio which folds down flat. This is where I take photos of my cards. Shaun gets mad becuase I leave it up until I have to take it down! He wants to keep the table laid all the time so he can eat there, I hate that, I want it laid when it is going to be used only! The ironing board is also up, I have a heap of ironing to do, it seems to be never ending, you just do a pile and more is ready to do. I need to do it tomorrow and put the board away ready for our visitors at the weekend and next week. Chris, Vanessa and Kenny are coming to stay, and when they go my Niece Bethany is coming for the est of next week.
You see the desk behind, covered in stuff, well that was where I used to have my computer, and craft and I studied at the round table for my accountancy exams for many years, this was before we built the extension and I got my own study/craft room.

Alfie and Sooty playing bookends, featuring fluffy goose toy in the middle. I realised I missed one of Sooty's ears so he has one nice trimmed one and a fluffy one in this photo.

I was going to post up about the walk we had last week where we met lots of dogs, I will do it later.

WOYWW #219

It's Wednesday, so it must be time to nosy round lots of people's desks, projects and rooms!

Because you liked the sparrows I managed to get a shot of more of them, and a robin supervising! I sat at the new (old) table eating and reading and found that the sparrows ignored me so I could take their photo better than sneaking out of the back door!

Action shot, 5 sparrows.

 On the floor where I need to get to my workdesk is - Sooty! He loves this rug.

For Elizabeth and Bleubeard - I tried to get a close up of the white horse, it is many miles away, maybe 7, there is a footpath along the tip of his ear where we used to walk, haven't been up there for years!

Sooty again, often found in the cupboard where the dog food lives, foraging for spillages! He has been shut in from time to time, when we haven't noticed he was in there!

I wasn't going to show you my desk, but hey, this is how it is right now. I am attempting to copy the idea that Ms Dunnit copied and blogged about die storage, but now I need more magnetic sheets, and I bought the magazine holder to alter, it has sat on the floor with magazines in it - now it will be transformed (at some point).

Tother end!

I had to show you the eBosser, I got Shaun to cut me some plywood platforms, I will not be defeated by the lack of platforms, so I hope to be using the dies and folders that I haven't been able to. Already managed to use the A4 folder that wouldn't work before.

I have a load of dog walk photos that I will blog seperately or this post will be so long I will get shouted at!

If you want to join in the fun, visit like minded people, get lots of comments on your blog then go to The Stamping Ground where the lovely Julia Dunnit hosts this now world famous weekly event!

Oh I nearly forgot to say, those of you who have struggled and suffered to leave much appreciated comments on my blog will notice that the problem is now fixed, hooray! Read all about it here if you want to know how after all this time!