AYLI (DT) Flowers or Ribbons

Hello gang, hope this finds you well.  There's another new challenge starting

over at AS YOU LIKE IT today and the theme for this fortnight is

Your Favourite - Flowers or Ribbons

(and purrrleeeeeeeeease tell us why)

OK, so, here's the dilemma, I don't often use ribbons or flowers!

I have tried in the past, but "dog's dinner" comes to mind, froo-froo just isn't

my style.  So, I furtled about in the stash to see which of the two evils I have the

most of, and was horrified to find a rather sizeable collection of flowers, so I thought I had better use some!

The lovely things I have used

Stamping Bella Tiny Townies Garden Girls: Rose (stamp and die)

Nitwits paper pad (LOTV) Always & Forever

LOTV Krafty Christmas

Die-Namics Bold Stripes Cover Up

LOTV Circular Sentiments

Wild Orchid Crafts - small flowers and rose leaves

Image painstakingly painted with Distress Inks (ReInkers)

Our sponsor for this challenge is

Crafts U Love
£10 voucher

and all that remains is to wish our beloved leader, Annette, a VERY happy birthday for today!

Hope you will have a rummage in your own stash and then share your

fabulous makes with us.

Hugs to all

Squirrel xx

Pressing The Embelly Button

Now, you know me and embellys - they don't naturally go together, so you can imagine how I must have been feeling when I had the sudden and desperate urge to use some flowers.  This is a direct side effect of inhaling too much of the steam from cooking cabbage apparently!

 

 

This Uptown Girl is Fiona Loves Flowers from Stamping Bella

Painted with Distress Inks (ReInkers) with a few Polychromos for her hair

Dies are from MFT (oval) and Tonic (scalloped rectangle)

Sentiment is Personal Impressions

Wood effect paper from Joy Craft

Flower from Wild Orchid Crafts

Pearls from stash

 

See, I even sat and fiddled with curling the wires on the flower stems,

I feel all lightheaded now.

 

Have a super day

Hugs to all

Squirrel xx

 

Crafty Catz - Special Birthdays

Here's my card for this weeks CRAFTY CATZ CHALLENGE who have the theme of Special Birthdays.  I must state, for the records, that it is not my mum who is 80 (and woe betide anyone who tells her she looks that age) - no, this is an order card for one of my work colleagues whose mum is 80 this month.

The instructions were spring colours so ....... image is LOTV, distress inked, the papers are all Dovecraft Back To Basics (I and II) except for the pink circular mat which is Papermania.  Daisy from Wild Orchid Crafts, Martha Stewart branch punch for leaves, peel off lettering and numbers from stash.

Fingers crossed that she likes it, otherwise I'll be stashing it away for another 7 years for my mother!

Hugs, Sxx

ABC Christmas Challenge - X is For Xmas (DT)

Morning all, hope you are well and itching to get stuck into the next ABC CHRISTMAS CHALLENGE which this time is X for XMAS (well, what else could you have for X that that Christmas themed?!).

We had a bumper crop of entries for our Winter Wonderland challenge and the design team have had a really tough time choosing the Top 5.  Your talent never fails to amaze us!  Do check back to the main blog to see who was selected as the overall winner and who the Top 5 are.

Our X for Xmas challenge is sponsored by Wild Orchid Crafts who have offered a fabulous prize for one lucky crafter (wish I could enter!).

Here is my card:

I've used one of the new Tildas from Magnolia and she is coloured with Copics.  Papers are from an old pack of Christmas papers that have long since lost their identity.  Flowers are Wild Orchid Crafts, Martha Stewart leaf punch, and Craftwork Cards sentiment.  The swirls are Sizzix dies which I have glittered (and the cat) with Art Institute glitter.

Now I know you are now up to your elbows in making your Christmas cards, so why not enter our challenge!  Looking forward to seeing you there.

Hugs, Squirrel xx

Totally Gorjuss # 47 - Flowers

Saturday 11 September - HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my darling MUM!  Be over to see you in a little while mate.

11 September - Twin Towers.  A day for a small prayer for those who are no longer with us, and for those left behind without their loved ones.

Saturday 11 September - TOTALLY GORJUSS challenge!  Thanks to everyone who joined in with our sketch challenge last week, Net really does come up trumps with these designs.  I'm quite excited this week as our sponsor is one of those sites that I cannot resist.  Our theme is FLOWERS (bit of a clue there) and our sponsor (guessed it yet?) is non other than WILD ORCHID CRAFTS.  Thought that would get your attention!

The DT has surpassed itself and the Gorjussettes are bathing in rose petals.  Here is my offering for the DT.

I've used a Mo Manning stamp (how brilliant are her designs) called End of Summer (seemed appropriate).  Papers are Basic Grey, flowers are Wild Orchid Crafts and sentiment is Pink Gem Designs.

Hope you can all find the time to join us at the TOTALLY GORJUSS challenge, it'd be fab to see you there.

Hugs, Squirrel xx

Italian Wedding

Second post today!  You can reach the earlier one by scrolling down or clicking here.

This card is for an order I received from one of the ladies at work - you may remember the 100th birthday card I did for her mother.  Well, this one is for her son for his wedding but to come from grandmama.  And it had to have Italian text and incorporate the bride's family tartan!  Have used Jeanette's sketch again from this week's Sketch Saturday but tweeked it a little (told you that sketch was a keeper).

I have no idea who the stamp is made by - it was one of the first I bought when I started crafting.  Papers are a mix of Making Memories and Papermania, and the family tartan, with Martha Stewart heart border punch, leaf frond punch, and flowers from Wild Orchid Crafts.

And I'd like to enter this into the following challenges:

Stamp With Fun # 75 = Wedding

Paperminutes = Love

Creative Cottage - Celebrations

Allsorts = New Beginnings

Thanks for popping in to have a peek.  Hope you are all ok.  Think I am crafted out for today so am going to see if my broadband is behaving itself enough now for me to do my DT commenting duty.

Catch ya's all later

Squirrel xxx

Furry Friendship Fun

Not cards for challenges, not cards for DTs, but two cards just because I wanted to!  Both are a bit furry ......

Girl with Cat stamp from High Hopes coloured with Copics, Ticket Sentiment from Pink Gem Designs, papers are Wild Rose Studio, Papermania and Forever Friends, Martha Stewart heart border punch and leaf frond punch, Woodware medium and small daisy punches, Papermania Shimmer Dots

Lili Of The Valley Puss In Boot stamp and sentiment, coloured with Copics, striped paper from a Smirk collection, plain pink and yellow from stash, Martha Stewart doily lace border punch, Dovecraft gems, Wild Orchid aster and gypsophelia flowers.

Thanks for taking the time to drop by.  Hope your weekend is a good one.

Hugs, Squirrel xx

Totally Gorjuss # 35 - Sugar & Spice

Welcome to another TOTALLY GORJUSS week!

Wow did you stun us with all your totally brilliant male cards last week - for a gang of crafters who say they hate male cards, you pulled out all the stops!  Don't forget to check back to the challenge blog to see who has been selected as the winner.

And so to this week's challenge.  We'd like to see some Sugar & Spice please - entirely up to you how you interpret that but you will see from the DT cards that we've pretty much all thought along the same lines!

I ended up making two cards for the DT and couldn't decide which one I really liked the best so I'm showing you them both.  Both Tilda, both coloured with Copics.  The papers on the first are Basic Grey, sentiment is Craftwork Cards.  The "wishes" that Tilda is blowing have been highlighted with a Sakura glitter pen but that doesn't show in the photo.

The papers on my second card are a mixture of Wild Rose Studio and Forever Friends.  Again the sentiment is Craftwork Cards and the flowers are Wild Orchid Crafts with the leaves being a Martha Stewart punch.

Thanks ever so much for stopping by to see me.  Hope you are having a great weekend whatever you are up to.

Hugs, Squirrel xx

Me And My Cat - LOTV # 55

Found another lovely sketch to play with today over on the Lili Of The Valley challenge and there is an additional twist of some flowers - who could resist?!

Here's the sketch:

And here is my card - I've used the super cute Me And My Cat stamp with Forever Friends Pink Parfait papers and green Bazzil card for matting.  Flowers are Wild Orchid Crafts. Leave are Martha Stewart punch.  Image coloured with Copics.

It's another F1 weekend so shall be settling down soon for the Canadian Grand Prix - a race that is usually guaranteed to have some interesting antics.  I often wonder if I had continued with my racing days whether I could ever have made it to those giddy heights.  I doubt it though, whoever heard of a squirrel in a F1 car - my tail would get sucked into the airbox!!

Thanks for popping by.  Hugs, Squirrel xx

Who's Been Eating My Porridge? (2 challenges)

Somewhere, back in the mists of time, my darlin' Oldies and me (their one and only) became known as Daddy Bear, Mummy Bear and Baby Bear - very silly, but it kinda stuck.  Now, without really thinking about it, I seem to have created birthday cards for the Oldie Bears!

Two challenges with these cards - the first is

CUTE CARD THURSDAY who set the challenge of no designer papers .... eek!

My dad is reknowned for hiding in his shed so this Lili Of The Valley Busy Bear fits him perfectly.  Coloured with Copics. I've used a little piece of DCWV Neutral Stack card for matting, added some tool brads to the corners.  The background I swiped the white card with a tan Memento ink and then overstamped it with a wooden plank stamp from High Hopes.  The wood birthday sentiment is also High Hopes.  Finished off with copper coloured border peel-offs.

Then I had to do one for mum as well didn't I so when I saw Bev had done a sketch for LILI OF THE VALLEY I was away

I had to cheat a bit (sorry Bev) and not use an oval as it didn't fit the image.  This adorable Lili Of The Valley stamp suits mum so well as she is the flower queen of the village.  Again, coloured with Copics.  Papers are K&Co and this was my first go with 3D flowers from Wild Orchid Crafts.  I think I'm hooked now.  Sentiment is Craftwork Cards.

Thanks so much for taking time to pop in and see me.  Just before I go, a quick update on the wrist situation (thanks so much for all the good wishes and kind words you have sent).  I got the results of some tests this week and my GP is now ruling out tendonitis (it wasn't him that gave the original diagnosis).  He is now thinking along the lines of a deep seated infection following on from a virus which has inflammed all the joints (about the only things that don't hurt at the moment are my feet).  So, he's put me on another course of hefty anti-inflammatories and I'm to go back in two weeks if I don't notice any improvement.  This could well explain why I've been feeling so totally wiped out the whole time and haven't had any energy for months.  It's a struggle getting through a week at work but I'm taking one day at a time just now.  Thanks again for all your thoughts.

Being treated to a late lunch/early tea over at the pub today and we're meeting a friend over there as she's on her own this weekend - guess the diet's out the window!!

Catch ya's later

Hugs, Squirrel xx