Crazy, Crazy, Crazy!

Apart from a couple of days & nights of the wind howling down the chimney, it's been a quiet week this week. 

The weather has settled down again, it's actually quite sunny today - well, sort of, when it's not cloudy. I've just been out to check the bird feeder and make sure it's got enough in it, I swear the birds around here are lucky they can get off the ground let alone fly - that's at least 12 fat balls & two lots of mealworm they've gone through since Thursdays & I've just filled it again! Yesterday it was like a scene from "The Birds".  When Jack went out for a nose around the garden they scattered.  They then started gathering on the old telephone lines, in the trees and on roof top aerials.  Once the dog came back in the birds started coming back and were queueing up to get at the feeder - then the squabbling started as to who was next - what a racket! If they are like this in the warm weather I think I better get well stocked up for the winter.

It's only been about 3 months since we started trying to persuade our teenage son to get a haircut, I'd been threatening to get him a couple of barrettes to keep his hair out his eyes! Yesterday, he finally gave in!  He has been asked to give a presentation on the "Career Ready" programme he's been taking part in for the last year or so.  It's to be given at a reception for new participants, local employers & various VIPs at a local 5 Star hotel so he needs to look the part! Oh, and it's school photo time - he's to be in three photos: solo, class & the Senior Prefect Team.  We don't have a photo of him in that school uniform & he's been there over 5 years!  He says he's camera shy but I'm hoping I'll have something for the family album.


Sketch Challenge

When I saw the sketch for this weeks  Freshly Made Sketches Challenge I decided that as it was a simple sketch I should perhaps make a card that was also something quite simple. 

There was a stamp in Crafty Impressions "In the Dog House" set that I had been puzzling over how it could be used so I decided to have a little play with that, and came up with this - I think this is the quickest card I've ever made!:

UPDATE

Thank you Kim for the Honorable Mention in this week's Challenge!

I Used

Cardstock

White 300gsm - Fabriano

Black 300gsm - PayPer Box

Other Colours - American Crafts

Dies & Stamps

Tim Holtz Bird Crazy, Crazy Cats, Crazy Dogs - Stampers Anonymous

Tim Holtz Bird Crazy, Crazy Cats, Crazy Dogs - Sizzix Thinlits

"In the Dog House" Dog - Crafty Inspirations

Inks

Tim Holtz Distress Inks - Ranger

Smokey Grey - Memento

Midnight Blue - Versafine

Onyx Black - Versafine

Bird Crazy, Crazy Cats, Crazy Dogs 

I'd ordered a couple of new sets of Dyan Reavely stamps but although only one set, "Ugh, People!" has arrived it's still been time to play.  I do like them using them with the Tim Holtz Crazy sets - only two complete for now:

I still had some of my coloured Crazy Dog die cuts to use up & decided to team them with some backgrounds I'd put away for future use:

Dinner is Poured!

The Six Nations Rugby started back this weekend and Scotland's game was against Italy. There was a lot of shouting at the TV but I am pleased to say that, at last, Scotland managed a win and hopefully this means they won't end up with the "Wooden Spoon" this year! There was even more shouting at the telly later with the England v Ireland game but unfortunately my encouragement of the Irish team was to no avail!

This week's Freshly Made Sketches Challenge gave me a few ideas and I ended up making three cards before deciding which one to go with.

Ok I admit it, I'm still playing with my Crazy Cats - well the matching Framelits arrived so a girl has just got to try them out. I did do one that's not cat related but it will be this Crazy Cat which will be this week's entry:

Dinner is Poured

This naughty cat has been trying to get the cream and has knocked over a bottle of milk to get some.

I used:

Cardstock

Ivory Linen Effect - PayPer Box

DS Striped - Trimcraft Paper Pad

Stamps & Dies

Tim Holtz Crazy Cats - Stampers Anon

Tim Holtz Crazy Cats - Sizzix Framelits

Tim Holtz Splat - Sizzix Framelits

Dyan Reavely Laugh Til You Leak - Stampers Anon

Inks

Memento - Tuxedo Black

Versafine - Onyx Black & Majestic Blue

Promarkers - Windsor & Newton

Another version I made using a Crazy Cat I felt sort of but not quite hit the brief for the Challenge but I liked it any way!

Got Catnip?

I used

CardStock

Linen Effect - PayPer Box

White 300gsm - Image Supersmooth

Stamps, Dies, Embossing Folders

Tim Holtz Crazy Cats - Stampers Anon

Tim Holtz Crazy Cats - Sizzix Framelits

Cat Sayings - Stampendous
Lillies - Darice

Inks

Memento - Tuxedo Black

Versafine - Onyx Black

Promarkers - Windsor & Newton

This last one has no cats used in it's production. Instead it's a little fishy, or rather it's a little  mermaid . . .

I used
Cardstock

Linen Effect - PayPer Box

White 300gsm - Image Supersmooth

Stamps & Embossing Folder

Little Mermaid - Woodware
Bubbles - Darice

Inks

Memento - Tuxedo Black

Versafine - Onyx Black
Tim Holtz Distress Inks

Promarkers - Letraset/Windsor & Newton

After applying the Distress Inks I splashed a little bleach on to the card to give an air bubble effect.

A Belated Happy New Year

Ok, I know, it's February but I have been bereft of a laptop of late & Smart Phones aren't really designed for people with arthritic fingers to type blogs. My laptop problem is now sorted and I'm now able to get on with things again.

The weather here today is wild -  the wind is Blawin' a hooley while the rain is fair stoatin aff the grun!* Our wee Jack Russell is not happy with wet weather and it's as soon as he's out the door he's straight back in again - he's no daft!

The weather's been pretty wet and windy all year so far I just hope this is not a portent of the year to come!

*Translation: It's rather windy & it's raining so hard that it's bouncing off the ground.

This week's Freshly Made Sketches Challenge is a fairly simple one which just

seemed to be ideal for one of my latest acquisitions - the All Occasions "That

Folder" embossing folder.

It originally a papercraft magazine freebie that I intended to get but by the time I went for a copy the magazine had sold out. A couple of weeks or so ago I was on the Craft Stash website (a company which supplies some of the freebie items to papercraft magazines) and they had released it on a special limited run and there was only 1 left . . .  hooray!

The folder is actually 6"x6" but for this card I trimmed it to fit an A6 (A2) blank.

  

The flower comes from a Craft Creations Creative Die "Floral" which was another magazine freebie, I hadn't used it before so thought would give it a try with this. It's a three die set and the largest of the flowers is a 3D die. I layered the components together and cut an extra leaf to create the embellishment. The sentiment comes from a Sizzix Thinlit stamp and die set and it was finished off with some fine glitter dotted across the central band of the embossed design. The glitter is another one of my bargain finds, it comes from a set consisting of NPW fine tip glue pen and five pots of glitter. I bought the set for the princely sum of 59p from Home Bargains, the identical set from Selfridges online costs £5.95!

CardStock

All Cardstock from Paper Mill

Embossing Folders Dies and Stamps

All Occasions "That Folder"

Craft Essentials Creative Dies - Floral

Sizzix Thinlits with Stamps - Fancy Labels #2

Inks

Versafine - Majestic Blue

Promarker - Indigo Blue

Etc

NPW Glue & Glitter Set

Bling from own stash