Twelve Craft Days of Christmas - On the first day.....

If you've got it - flaunt it I say!  Let me explain - I'm talking about beautiful stamps and I've bought some gorgeous Christmas stamps this year from Claire at Waltzingmouse Stamps.  This set, Folk Art Christmas Additions, has to be my favourite and of the four images in the set the Reindeer is definitely the star.  And when I say flaunt it, I mean show it off - as far as I'm concerned it needs nothing else to make a perfect Scandinavian style Christmas card. 

I've used a 4 inch square plain white card blank, Festive Berries Distress Ink, and a simple sentiment.  The only embellishment I've added is a bit of glitter with a Clear Star Sakura Gelly Roll pen on the floral decoration - hard to see in the photo I'm afraid but it does add to the Christmassy feel.  I've also made gift tags in the same style using ready made stationery luggage labels.  Couldn't be easier if you are short of time..... and as always I'm short of time!

Well, its 12 days till Christmas and I want to try and post something on each of the 12 days.  It may not be something I've created every day but I hope it will be something either interesting, beautiful or inspiring and preferably all three.  Hope to see you here this time tomorrow!  Ho, ho, ho!

Seed Packets and New Beginnings

Its the Waltzing Mouse Stamps blog party today so I thought it was about time I did some papercrafting.  The theme is "New Beginnings" and what could be more suitable than a packet of seeds.

I've offered to make wedding favours for a work colleague who is getting married in October and have been toying with the idea of seed packets - they are all over Pinterest and I love the idea.  I don't think the favours have been upon decided yet but lottery tickets were mentioned and seed packets would be suitable for those too.


Here are a few I've been playing with today using Waltzing Mouse stamps.  I used a template I found on line and stamped using colours I associate with Provence to go with the France themed stamp set - blue, green and yellow.  But I wish my photos were more Provence-like - its such a dull day today I just couldn't make them look sunny!


I've got the seed packet bug now and have a few more ideas I want to try for birthdays coming up next month.  These packets are the perfect size for gift cards - something I like to give those hard to buy for teens.

Supplies: Waltzing Mouse Stamps -  French Country, Nordic Spring; PTI Year of Flowers (sentiment); PTI Oval Layers die collection

Two birthdays in May

So there are two birthdays to celebrate next week. My great niece J turns 11, and Claire at Waltzing Mouse Stamps is holding her second birthday party. I can't believe its already two years since she started producing her wonderful clear stamp sets. And as well as stamps, she has a great talent for designing clever templates - I couldn't resist this month's offering of a cute cupcake box.
So I've turned it into a small birthday gift set and as well as the felt hair clip I'll be adding something delectable to the box before presenting it with my birthday card. I found it hard to get a good photo of the card showing the second tiny bee properly. I've punched him out with a quarter inch punch! and mounted him on some fine crinkly silver wire to look a bit like he's flying.

So I'm joining in the birthday party and as Claire always says - hope it tickles!

Stamps: Papertrey's Tag-Its #3; Green Thumb

Its been ages....

.....since I managed to post something I've made but I have been getting crafty making stuff to sell in the charity shop where I volunteer a couple of days a week. Anyway - I thought I should post something so here is the birthday pressie I sent my brother in law this week. He's a very keen cyclist and this digi-stamp (coloured with Copics) from Pink Cat Studio is just right! I'm not too keen on cutesy but the designs at Pink Cat have the right combination of cute and simple for me when I want to make something for a child or, as here, where the subject is perfect for an adult I know!

The altered "Pringles" tub (filled with some home baking) has been decorated with my new Teeny Trees stamp set from Waltzing Mouse Stamps. I've been looking for the perfect tree stamp set for ages - and this is it! Love it! I've used the teeny leaves on the card too. The tag on top is from Papertrey's 2009 Autumn Tags - another favourite of mine.

Girl Talk

I've been collecting old women's magazines for a long time and have a few duplicates that are in very poor condition. I've had the idea of using them in projects for ages and this week's Waltzing Mouse Sketch Challenge produced an idea for this card. I've used scraps from a page of fashion tips titled "Gay London Gossip" - one of my favourite reads. I love the elegance of 1950s fashions and as money was short for most families at this time there are always ideas for updating one's wardrobe one's self at very little expense. ;o) Here are a couple of charming pages from July 1952 and April 1953. Do click on this Gossip page and read the text - it will definitely make you smile!

I'll be editing this post in the morning when I've taken a photo in daylight - as usual I'm entering the challenge in the last couple of hours which is the middle of the night here - done that now!

Another Challenge and a garden update

I've been making these crochet clips for my charity shop and thought I'd use this one to enter the latest Waltzing Mouse sketch challenge before I put it into its cello bag. I like to package every item I make differently to make a more appealing display on the shop counter and I was really pleased to sell 5 of my creations whilst I was there on Wednesday.

And I really want to post a few photos of the garden today too. At this time of year I always find the garden a bit disheartening as everything is rather overgrown and untidy. Don't get me wrong - I don't really like 'tidy' in the garden too much (how could I in my jungle!) but lots of plants really need to be cut back to keep fresh new growth coming. But I never have the nerve to chop back plants that are still flowering their hearts out - so I leave them and accept the rather wild and woolly look. So here are a few plants I think are looking good and I want to record them now so I can remember them later in the year when autumn is really here.

This raspberry was sold to me as an autumn fruiting variety but it seems to have got its seasons mixed up. However the old canes growing in the hedge since my Dad's time have completely finished whilst there are still raspberries to come on this plant.
This is one of my favourite Astrantias but I can't remember the variety. Its common name is granny's pincushion and its a gorgeous pink creation.

I planted a whole packet of borage seeds under the young blackcurrant bushes to keep the weeds at bay but they have rather taken over the patch themselves despite being so slow to start growing that I had almost given them up.

Having dealt with all the blackcurrants last week, the cherries/plums are starting to ripen - we've always thought they were cherries but they are very large cherries and someone last year said they were small plums - I'm not sure what they are now! Anyway, there are two trees covered in fruit, though much of it is far too high to pick and will be left for the birds.

The marjoram is in full flower too at the moment and is another plant loved by bees, hoverflies and butterflies. When I took these pictures on Tuesday there were 8 Meadow Brown butterflies flitting around me.
There were also Holly Blues but I didn't manage to get any of them in snapping range!

Another favourite is this tall yellow daisy - can't remember its name unfortunately but I think its related to the sunflowers. It has spread a lot this year and will need cutting back in the spring - if I remember!

I was really pleased to find the sunflowers I grew last year had seeded themselves in lots of places and I managed to successfully transplant a lot of them to more suitable spots in the garden. I do hope they do the same next year.
The white scabious is lovely - those knobbly centres are fab. The pale mauve one is smaller but has many more flowers and its another plant beloved by the bees and hoverflies.

Have I included too many creepy crawlies here and made you all run away screaming! The trouble is they fascinate me. I really enjoy watching them in the garden and I'm always taking photos of them.
And last but not least is one of my froggy friends - they are friends you know as they live near my vegetables and eat lots of slugs and snails! I've only seen two of them this year though. There were four last year.
Well I think that will do for now. If you're still with me can I thank you for your patience. And if you only came to see my challenge entry - please accept my apologies for all this! Can I say I was so chuffed to reach 60 (yes 60!) followers this week and I'm thinking of having a give-away soon to encourage you to stay with me! ;o) Watch this space next week!

Another very late sketch challenge!

I've spent most of today dealing with my harvest of blackcurrants - freezing, jam-making, and baking puddings. I completely forgot the 6th WMS sketch challenge was finishing tonight. I've been thinking about my card for the challenge for a few days but only got round to making it tonight. And here she is - Earthangel dancing to some old music I found in our charity shop this week.

Oh, and has anybody got some good recipes for a glut of blackcurrants?

Waltzing Mouse July Blog Hop

I think I'm late with this again! However here is my post for the July hop. The task this month was a project using the summery colours of green and blue.

I've got a new neighbour - she moved in last week, and after having the house let out to various people (some very unsavoury) for the past few years, its lovely to have an owner who will care for the house and garden at last. And she's so quiet! My wish has been granted!

So I've made this new home gift for her - a bottle of my delicious (if I say so myself) Elderflower Cordial and card to match. What can be more summery, when the sun is shining, than sitting in the garden with a glass of iced cordial - but its not shining. So my photos are rather flat again.

I've just been reading a thread on the Papertrey forum about stamp sets you really, really wanted and then don't use. Well, I'm ashamed to say I haven't used this Very Vintage Labels set very often so I wanted to use it here. The sentiments are from Rescue Remedies Additions again and fit perfectly. I used a Martha Stewart punch and vellum for the butterflies, dragging them through Distress Ink to colour them a bit. Oh, and honestly, that is green ink on the label - Shabby Shutters - but I'm afraid it looks brown here. As Claire says, hope it tickles!

Another Mouse Challenge

Here's my entry for the latest Waltzingmouse sketch challenge. A card for someone who has been kind on a sad occasion. I used one of the labels from the new Rescue Remedies set, masking the text and adding one of the sentiments from Rescue Remedies Additions, and turning the label upside down.

I bought the black rhine- stones ages ago and this is the first time I've thought them suitable for a card. I intended to use them on Halloween projects but we don't really make much of Halloween here so I've done nothing with them before.

Speaking of Halloween, I had a rather eerie experience the other night. It was about 2.00am and I heard this terrible unearthly screeching outside in the back garden. I thought it sounded like a crow or rook in distress, or one of the jackdaws that live in a nearby chimney. When we went outside to investigate we saw a badger running away but the screeching continued. So I fetched a torch and eventually found it was a hedgehog! I couldn't believe the noise it was making - the badger must have tried to attack it. Anyway we took it inside and it became quiet. Although it stayed tightly curled up it didn't seem injured and after about 10 minutes we let it go. I did a bit of google-ing later and apparently badgers will eat hedgehogs if they are hungry - so I'm glad we managed to rescue this one.

Very Challenging!

The latest Waltzing Mouse sketch challenge has certainly been just that - a challenge! But finally I've made a card, after pulling to bits several attempts. In the end its become quite a simple design - I really tried not to put my favourite teacups in here but they insisted on being included so here they are again with the teapot from PTI's Tea for Two set. I think they go together rather well. I've used a tiny stamp from Afternoon Tea Sentiments and a gold gel pen (unfortunately it looks brown in my photo) to decorate teapot and cups. The background stamp is from PicNic Patterns - and that's it. I didn't have time or inclination to stitch so pierced and drew in fake stitches and added pearls coloured to match with copics. I'm disappointed with the photo - its a really dull day and even outside I couldn't get a good image.

I've blogged about my wild birds before here and while I was photographing my card this morning I was visited by a female blackbird who has become very bold lately. I hear her calling when I get up in the morning as she knows I will be putting seed in the flowerpot while the kettle is boiling. She wasn't afraid to take seed while I was fiddling with my card so I took this little video of her for you to see. Its at the bottom of this post as I hate the way blogger shows just a black square instead of the first frame - it never used to do that but I've given up trying to work out the vagaries of Blogger!

Finally Jessica at Kids Napping? I'm Scrapping! wants to see our workspaces today so here's mine Jessica! I'm really ashamed of the mess and now I'm going to clear it all up. It so small it always gets like this when I'm rushing trying to get a challenge together and, of course, as usual I'm last minute. I admit I have doctored it a bit by moving a few things out of the way - but otherwise it would have just been a huge jumble of STUFF!

Mousey Sketch 3

I've gone with Lisa this week and chosen to decorate a notebook for my entry to the third Waltzing Mouse Sketch Challenge. I've a few reliable cake and biscuit recipes that I use over and over but they are all in different cook books and I can never remember which one. So I thought I would start a project and collect them in this little notebook. I'm going to decorate the pages with stamps and hand write the recipes - I could even print out photos of my efforts to illustrate the recipes - that's the theory anyway. I've used my Pic-nic Patterns and Afternoon Tea stamp sets. The notebook was already covered in lovely green handmade paper and took the Distress Ink I used easily.

I've had a bit of a trauma the past couple of days - my external hard drive has failed and I've lost two years worth of photos, digital scrapping files, videos, scrapbook pages, etc - I've been told nothing is recoverable! And yesterday my Google account was hacked and temporarily disabled - I found out late last night that some horrible people had tried to send pornography to all my contacts! I think Google had intercepted and deleted the link straight away but if anyone did find something horrible in their inbox I am mortified and do apologise! I don't think anything did get through however and it was a bit of a fiddle getting my email and blog back, but all seems back to normal now thank goodness!