Passion for Papertrey Challenge 5

My blog seems to be on a role at the moment! BUT..... a lovely lady called Emily on the Papertrey forum has sold me her spare Anniversary Stamp Set and it arrived last week. I love it! So now I can join in the challenges on Passion for Papertrey. I've also printed out the free paper samples on the Papertrey website and this is one of the spotty ones. The "Joy" sentiment is SU.

This card is for a friend who is really down on herself at the moment so I hope it will cheer her up.

Orange Tip Butterfly caught at last!

Its lovely to see the butterflies in the garden this spring as I had thought they couldn't possibly have survived the awful weather we had this time last year. All the usual varieties are there, including this Orange Tip I managed to capture on camera this week. I was so pleased with the picture as its the first time ever I've been able to get this butterfly photographed. It never seems to settle for more than a second or two and, of course, you can't just snap away with a digital camera! This one is a male as the female doesn't have the orange colour - just the black tip and spot. Isn't it beautiful!

I could have just posted the photo but I haven't done a digital page for a while. I've used kits from 2Peas, Weeds & Wildflowers and Oscraps.

Papertrey Blog Hop

I thought I'd join in the Blog Hop over at Papertrey tonight. I don't really understand what its all about so I'm looking forward to seeing what happens.

This is my entry to the challenge using Lauren's Timeless Template "Get a Handle on It". Not very original I'm afraid but my sister loved it. Inside there was a coffee cupcake and a bath melt (separated by an acetate square). Loved making it.

Clematis Montana

Like lots of other crafters in blogs I've been reading lately, I've been taking advantage of the beautiful weather we've had over the last week to get busy in the garden with transplanting, sowing and mowing. I've a tiny plastic greenhouse I put up next to an old dead pear tree 3 years ago and I planted a clematis next to it. Its just grown and grown and almost covers the greenhouse roof and the tree and at this time of year is a mass of little globe shaped pink flower buds ready to pop open. When they do open they have lovely pale green stamen in the centre. And I don't even have to prune it - wonderful!

Stamp with Us Second Challenge - a card for a Football Fan

Here's my birthday card for the challenge. The footballers come from a little book printed in the 1930s called A Boy's Wish Book and the caption for this wish reads "How proud I should be if I were a great Soccer player, made dashing runs along the touchline, and helped to score a goal for my team!" As well as a Soccer player (is there a difference between football and soccer?) the boy of 80 years ago also wished to be (amongst other things) a Canadian mountie, a judge, a radio announcer, a farmer, an indian chief, a zoo keeper and a cowboy - how times have changed! I also have the girl's wish version but I'll keep that for another post. Of course I haven't cut up the book, I scanned and Photoshoped the drawing and cut it out. The stamps I've used come from 'Simply Sent', 'Terrific Tags', and 'WOW Flowers'. The orange dotty paper is SU too. I hope you like it.

Easter Baskets

I'm sure these eggs have been demolished by now but here are the Easter treats I made for the kids courtesy of an idea I saw on Dawn's Stampin Thoughts. Aren't they pretty! I used stamps from a children's craft set made by Djeco and called Ferme.

And I can't resist including my photo of a Pasque Flower in the garden - so called because it blooms at Easter but its real name is Anemone pulsatilla.

Stamp with Us First Challenge

I've never been able (or had the time) to keep up with all the challenge blogs, although I do follow some of them, especially the Cuttlebug Challenge. But I really want to do this one and will try hard to keep up.

Here's my first sketch challenge card. The stamp is from Stampin Up's "A Little Bit of Happiness" and the patterned paper is also Stampin Up. I used a Cuttlebug die for the scalloped square and cut an egg shape from a piece of acetate packaging, embossed it with Swiss Dots and coloured the dots with a gold gel pen. I'm going to give it to my Mum.