Two Challenges to cheer up a miserable day!

After a beautiful, sunny and warm day yesterday, today is wet and miserable - though the wind forecast has not arrived (yet!). So instead of cutting the grass as planned I thought I would post a couple of challenge projects.

The first is the A Passion for Papertrey template challenge - a little gift to go with the gingerbread man card I have already posted. Its Lauren's small Milk Made template and the little cartons contain a hot chocolate sachet and some marshmallows and sprinkles.

The second challenge is a sketch for the Copic Colour Challenge. As you can tell I'm absolutely in love with Kraft cardstock and seem to be using it for everything!

And there's more...... I must join in the current passion for Lauren's little picnic basket template. I made this to match the button card made the other day and I filled it with fruity boiled sweets. I've given both card and basket to my sister who had major surgery last week and needed something to lubricate her throat after the anaesthetic. Hope you're feeling better today Jan!

The Next Level Challenge 7

This week's challenge is a sketch with a 3D image - I'm not very comfortable with decoupage and this card probably shows it! I've used some delicious stamps from Claire at Waltzingmouse Stamps and my lovely new Sakura Clear Star pen to highlight. I'm definitely going to buy some more of these pens as I really like the effect. The patterned paper is from my tiny precious Papertrey stash. Hope this card fits the bill!

What a Day!

What a horrible day it is! Pouring rain and wind - I've even lighted the fire to cheer myself up. It makes such a difference to the room to have something alive in the firegrate. I did manage to nip out to the local Country Market (used to be called WI Market) before it got wet and bought a pretty posy of flowers, a fresh baked loaf and some new potatoes. Lovely! Reminds me I should lift my own potatoes - they probably are ready to come up. The garden will be taking a real battering in this weather and I'm worried for the sunflowers in this wind.

Yum or Yuk!!!

I know I've posted a lot this week but I've just got to share this idea from the brilliant Heather Bailey! If you've got a Harry Potter fan in the family you have to take a look - and Heather's also provided the labels! These would also be great at Halloween.

Bees and bees and bees

The garden I post about here is not mine but my Mum's. Its very big and it takes a lot of work to keep it reasonably tidy. Because of this my own very small garden has been abandoned and is now just a jungle. The main difficulty is the large privet hedge which takes up more room than the garden itself and in recent years has been left to its own devices. At this time of year its in full flower and I have to say smells lovely. When I was looking out of the bathroom window this morning I saw it was absolutely buzzing with bumble bees and other little creatures. It almost justifies leaving it to grow wild. And its also home to my little flock of sparrows - I hear them morning and evening greeting each other and catching up on the day's gossip!

This is my first attempt at adding a video to my blog - wonder if it will work. Hope it was worth the hassle and you can see the bees.

Garden progress

I spent about 4 hours working in the garden today - it was a lovely sunny afternoon. I was able to get down to some weeding jobs I hadn't managed to finish in the last week or so and as the forecast is for rain tomorrow felt very pleased with myself.

The veg patch is doing very nicely and the currants, raspberries, onions, lettuce and garlic have already been harvested. All this heat and rain has been good for growing! These pink pompoms are a few leeks I let go to seed earlier in the year and now I'm really glad I didn't pull them up as they look so pretty and are covered in bees and hoverflies all looking a bit drunk on the nectar! I just love hoverflies (called Flower Flies in the US) as they often seem to stop by to take a good look at you before zooming off!

Copic Colour Challenge 21 & some teeny tiny toys

These little toys are what made us happy when we were young. I think children still love tiny toys, toys like Polly Pocket and those little pets. I've been collecting them for some years, along with my other favourite thing, cut out books and paper dolls. Its amazing that such things have survived 50-60 years and still turn up fairly regularly. Anyway - this is my entry for the current Copic Colour Challenge. These colours are not quite right but at least the blue is the correct shade. Another of my copyright-free images - isn't it lovely! I've used kraft cardstock (I love it!), a Cuttlebug embossing folder, my pinking sheers and Stampin Up's sentiment and green striped paper.

Button it! A Passion for Papertrey Challenge 9 - AND The Next Level Challenge 6! Buttons & Bows

I haven't managed to enter any challenges in the last couple of weeks but when I saw Nichole Heady's blog this morning I just had to make the effort - I just LOVE the new set Everyday Button Bits and will be really trying to get my hands on it after the 15th. (Sunny - if you are reading this, this is the one!). And I'm making no apologies here for completely ripping off Debbie Olson's lovely card. Apart from it being a great design, I have been able to use buttons from my Grandmother's button box (the wooden biscuit barrel in the picture) and some of the vintage linen thread I was delighted to find on ebay a few weeks ago. I've also used stamps from PTI's Green Thumb set, a Cuttlebug embossing folder - the button edge, kraft cardstock and paper, ribbon and ink from Stampin Up. Hope you like it.

PS - how lucky am I - just realised I can enter this card for The Next Level challenge too! Its called Buttons and Bows - must be something in the air!

Blackcurrant Jam - Yum!

There's been a bumper crop of Blackcurrants and Redcurrants in my garden this year and I've spent a couple of days storing them away in the freezer and making Blackcurrant Jam - 10 jars of it! Albeit of different sizes: some large, some small. I dressed up a tiny jar for my Mum as she's not a big jam eater but will want to sample it. I used a coffee filter paper (I saw the idea on Nichole Heady's blog some time ago) and as I didn't have a suitable stamp, improvised with a Babana Frog background stamp of scribbled circles and added tops and bottoms with a purple pen to turn them into currants.

This just reminds me of one of my favourite films, Pollyanna - the one starring Hayley Mills. The ladies of the town dressed up much larger jars of calf's-foot jelly (yuk!) in tissue paper like this to give to the sick - who I seem to remember were not very grateful! They should have given them jam instead..... If you haven't seen this film buy a DVD - you're in for a nostalgic treat!