#ThrowbackThursday :: Cute & Cuddly :)

Hello :)

Long time, no blog again... health stuff... life stuff... etc., etc.... I won't bore you all with the details or excuses again!! ;) I'm glad to be back, anyway, and thought I'd get things going again with an idea I had a while ago whilst going through the mountains of photos on my computer... I realised I have a huge number of photos of cards, jewellery and other crafty things from quite a while back which I have never got around to posting and, since I am finding myself with less energy for crafting (cardmaking in particular) at the moment, I thought I would start a little as-and-when series of throwback posts... which I will post on a Thursday and tag with the well known #ThrowbackThursday or #tbt hashtag :) I will still be posting new cards when I can, of course, but I'm hoping this may help me to fill the gaps of time a little ;) 

So... up first in my #tbt series, a little CBS Baby card from about 18 months ago...

It was for my cousin to celebrate the birth of her little girl... I kept it simple as I was having trouble with the old mojo at the time but I ended up loving it :)

A stamped, diecut and watercoloured giraffe, along with an assortment of stamped hearts on the notebook page and two sentiments, all from CBS, and then a sprinkling of diecut hearts and gems was all there was to it... of course, we crafters know nothing is ever as 'simple' as that at the time but, looking back on it now, it seems like should have been!! ;)

I also stamped a few of the hearts on the inside lining papers to prettify it all a little... excuse the slightly grey area between the two hearts on the inside front in the photo above- I stamped the baby's name and birthdate in that gap but blanked it out for my post :)

{The List}

Cardstock - PaperMill Direct - Baby Pink, White Linen and assorted scraps for the hearts

Stamps - Clearly Besotted Stamps - Cute & Cuddly, Baby Love, Many Thanks, Many Messages and Just A Note

Dies - Clearly Besotted Stamps - Cute & Cuddly; Simon Says Stamp - Holiday Shapes and Large Holiday Shapes; MFT - Notebook Edge

Inks - Memento - Rose Bud, Lulu Lavender, Angel Pink and Lilac Posies

Colouring Medium - Watercolour with Brilliance Pearlescent Purple and Pearlescent Orchid

Embossing - Versamark Ink and Crafter's Companion White Embossing Powder

Tools - Heat Gun

Embellishments - Docrafts Anita's - 3mm and 2mm gems

Finishing Touches - Sakura Stardust Pen - Clear

Challenges I'd like to enter: Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Anything Goes ; Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes ; Addicted to Stamps and More - Make Your Mark :)

I thought I would also share a pic of the felt heart decoration I made to send with the card with the little one's initial on it... this was my first felt decoration and, while not perfect by any means, I was pretty pleased with how it came out :) I did go on a search for a more solid felt after this though, as this wool/acrylic blend really wasn't very strong for sewing and stuffing... it is lovely and soft though and will get used for less demanding purposes :)

Okay, that's all from me today... I'll hopefully be back before *too* long, though, and will maybe share a few pics from my amazing outing to see the Cherry Blossoms at out local park last week, something that has been a dream through years of living housebound!! :) :) :)

New Baby...and another new stamp!! :D

Hello!! :)

Well, it did snow...an inch or so the night of my last post and then another several throughout the day Wednesday with more expected tomorrow!! Not nearly as much as a lot of places but enough to cause problems- not that that takes much in this country!! :/ My biggest problem has been trying to resist wanting to get outside and touch it as I’m really not well enough- just standing up a few minutes taking a few pics through my window on Wednesday has made me feel worse enough but I just love the way it looks like a whole different world out there when it snows so I couldn’t resist trying to do that much at least!! Paying for it big time now though, I’m afraid, not much chance of crafting since, bar a bit of colouring, and this post has taken me since then to sort out in tiny stages while in bed... But I did get some good shots of a blackbird on our shed roof trying to eat/take a bath in the snow...not sure which!!lol

I’ve also hit the panic stage on the Christmas prep front this week as I’ve really got hardly any cards made still and not that many of my gifts either, so I’m going to try a different style of post, too, as if I don’t make them quicker I’ll never get anything posted between now and Xmas!! :S

So, here are a couple of cards from a week or so ago which would’ve been going into a couple of challenges if I’d managed to post them at the time but never mind!! :) They were in readiness for the same baby as the last FF set I posted but this time for the Grandma- one of my mum’s best friends- and Grandad :)

So here goes me trying to be brief- wish me luck!! ;D

I used:

My new (sooo adorable and, I think timeless!) LOTV baby stamp with PMs to colour: Ivory, Satin, Blush and Dusky Rose for the skin; Ivory and Satin for the blanket and hat band; Pastel Blue and Denim or Rose Pink for the clothes

Nesties Labels One- I drew around the outside of the same size and cut by hand to get a mat layer just a bit bigger, Ivory PM and Blue/Pink Chalk ink pad to edge

Core’dinations Whitewash, C’bug ‘Spots and Dots’ folder, Paper Scuffer, TH Distressing Tool

White paper coloured with Ivory PM for matting

White Ribbon coloured with Ivory PM

Baby Feet Charm and jump from my jewellery stash - I found out I'd need the pink one before I'd got round to putting the charms on so just did that one!! :)

Woodware Clear Magic Wedding Words for greeting and border stamp (small section) from Lakeland years ago, chalk ink pads

Plus beige, blue and pink thread from my ever-helpful mum’s sewing box!! :D And also a little help from my mum to finish the sewing as my hands gave out half way through- knew there was a reason I'd resisted trying hand-stitching for so long!!- but she quite liked that that meant she'd had a hand in making her friend's card so it was all good in the end!! :)

Some closer shots :)

Well, I’m not sure I like that way of doing things- I like words and the flow of good sentences too much!!- but it was certainly quicker!! Sorry if it’s not so easy to read!! :S

I'm not really managing to keep up very well with what challenges are around at the mo' and don't have the energy to go looking but these have made it through the haze of my brain somehow so I’d like to enter this in Craft Your Days Away’s Challenge – Texture  for the embossed and sanded card, stitching, ribbon and charm :); and Lili of the Valley - A Few of My Favourite Things which are: one of my many new LOTV stamps which are all my favs at the mo', PMs, Ribbon coloured with a PM and my Cuttlebug for embossing and  cutting my Nesties, which I'd be totally lost without!! :)

Thanks for reading and for the lovely comments on my last post- I’ll be trying my hardest not to disappear for so long again!!lol It probably seems mad to some that I’m spending my energy on this while complaining that I’m feeling so ill but, aside from the fact that I can do this from my bed when I can’t do anything more ‘active’, blogging my cards and blogs in general have so quickly become such an integral part of crafting for me that I really do miss it all if I’m away too long- I’d never have believed how quickly and thoroughly I’d come to love it and I think that has a lot to do with what a lovely, friendly and welcoming bunch of people crafty bloggers are!! :)

Oh, and here are a couple of my snow pics!! :) They're not the best shots ever having been taken through the glass but, after all that effort, someone else should see them!!lol

The mad Blackbird :D

This one's the wider view from my window (with our extension showing at the bottom) while the snow was coming down fairly fast- my fav time to take pics :)

Hope you’re all keeping warm and well!! :)

hugs,

Little Baby Bears...

Hey!! :)


I have another set of fairly quick and simple cards to share today :) A family friend is due to have her first baby in the next couple of weeks so I wanted to get on and make the card so it’ll be ready whenever the little one decides to put in an appearance...only trouble with that theory is that they’ve decided they didn’t want to know the sex of the baby and I don’t see the point of being able to make your own cards to suit the occasion and then just doing a green or yellow baby card!! So I’ve covered all bases and made both...and while I was about it, I thought I may as well make a couple of spares for my box, too!! And here they are:

I simply couldn’t make enough space on my desk to get a shot of all four together in any normal way so there’s a bit of a precarious house of cards thing going on here- honestly I barely dared breathe!!lol I wanted to keep the colours very light and to use Polka Dots and Ginghams as I've seen several baby cards like that lately and really liked them :) Also, our friend was always very fond of Forever Friends when we were younger so I’ve been planning to use this stamp since we heard she was pregnant :)

I used the sketch at Just Cute Bears for the layout, which I really like :) The papers are all from an old Papermania kit that I got from QVC years ago and I edged them all with a ColorBox Cat’s Eye Chalk inkpad- French Blue for the boys and Pastel Pink for the girls. The circles are cut with Nesties and the ribbon slider with the smallest die from the Nellie’s Rectangle set. I used striped white ribbon as I want to enter these at Allsorts and wasn’t sure that Gingham would count for the stripes- why is it that no matter how big a selection of papers you have, you never have the combination of colour and pattern that you need!?!!!
lol

The bear is Forever Friends and for the first time I’ve tried colouring an FF image with Promarkers. After a little trial and error, as I still don’t seem to have the many of the colours that most people use for them, I settled on Oatmeal for the shading followed by Pastel Yellow all over and the Ivory over that to tone it all down a bit. Room for improvement for sure but for now don’t think they came out too badly and at least now I won’t have the problem of which ink to use as I did when I was still colouring the bears with water-based pens and then wanted to use my PMs on the rest of the image!!! :S The sling is paper pieced and the greeting is from a cute Woodware Clear baby set. Then just some flat-backed pearls and a few touches of Stardust Stickles and I was done!! :)

So, I’d like to enter these in the following challenges: Just Cute Bears and Friends – fab Sketch :) ; Allsorts – Spots and Stripes :) ; Wild Orchid Crafts – Pastels :) ; and Top Tip Tuesday – Anything Goes :)

Thanks for reading and for any comments you might leave!! :) I hope you’re all well and have a good weekend- is this the one where the clock change gives us an extra hour’s sleep or when we lose an hour?! I can never remember but I hope for extra- we should get something to make up for the darkness and cold after all!! ;)

hugs,