Butterfly challenge 45

The theme for the butterfly challenge this month is X for Xanthine and if you take a look at their blog you will see a definition (in case you don't know) and also some great work from the design team.  I've used a piece of watercolour card which was coloured with Brusho powders before being embossed with a floral design, sponged with Distress ink to show up the design..  The square frame was die cut with a smaller square of flowers cut from the centre and a stamped sentiment was added.  The butterfly was also die cut in two layers using a scrap of the coloured card for the plain layer and a scrap of yellow for the lacy layer.

Embossing Folder - Sheena Douglass floral design
Butterfly - Sizzix dies
Central floral panel - Sizzix die
Frame - Tonic die

Bright Thanks

I thought that a nice colourful card would brighten what is a very dull, wet and windy day - we had sunshine and blue skies yesterday, the weather is so changeable.  Luckily I did my little bit of food shopping yesterday and as you might have guessed I was tempted by a free die attached to a magazine (the magazine rack is right next to the fresh fruit display!!).  The 'Thank You' sentiment is always handy to have, particularly at this time of year so I'm afraid I couldn't resist.  I've been playing around with some sprinkles of Brusho powders onto watercolour paper and have produced a few pieces in varying colours.  For this card I embossed a strip with a floral die, edged it with die cut borders and simply popped it onto a cream card with the sentiment.  Finally a die cut flower was added using the same colour of card.

Dies - flower and border strip by Sizzix, sentiment freebie with magazine
Embossing - Darice floral folder
Paper - coloured with Brusho powders, sponged with Distress ink

Thoughts

My card to share today is a 'thinking of you' one which I think could suit either male or female recipient.  I'm going to try and make a concious effort to make a few more male orientated cards this year although I must say for some reason it is the feminine ones which seem to go more quickly.  For this one I used a lovely embossing folder which was a freebie on a magazine and one which is so nice it is a shame to cover it up with too much in the way of images etc.  I decided to go for just the sentiment in a fancy frame on this occasion. The embossing was highlighted with distress ink and the sentiment and labels cut out from scraps of card.

Embossing - free folder with magazine
Sentiment - computer generated and punched with Stampin' Up punch
Label shapes - from die sets by Sue Wilson

Followers

I spotted this information on another blog and thought it a good idea to publicise this so that you will at least know what is happening.  I might be back later with a card to share.

Have you lost a few followers?

In a nutshell, Blogger have (as we suspected) been tinkering with the Followers service.

Quote from a post on 'The Real Blogger Status' dated Monday December 21st:

During the past weekend, Blogger started the process of simplifying Following. This involves removing non Google accounts and profiles from Following.

As part of this plan, starting the week of January 11, we’ll remove the ability for people with Twitter, Yahoo, Orkut or other OpenId providers to sign in to Google Friend Connect and follow blogs. At the same time, we’ll remove non-Google Account profiles so you may see a decrease in your blog follower count.

This is the link to the blog, explaining in more detail
http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/2015/12/blogger-followers-google-friend-connect.html

Hope this enlightens those of you who've been wondering!

Pixie Snippets 208/209

The Pixie Snippets challenge is running over two weeks this time around with a limit of three entries over the time - it is also something of a celebration with a selection of prizes on offer.  I raided my bits boxes and also had a rummage through some of my dies to come up with an idea for this my third card.  The background uses two snippets of background paper which I think are probably from the same collection and I cut some label shapes using two colours of card.  Having cut out the bicycle I thought it would be a great idea to fill the basket with flowers - again punched out from some of my tiniest scraps with pearly centres added.

Dies - labels Stampin' Up, bicycle by Memory Box
Punch - EK Success border punch and SU tiny flower punch
Leaves - die by sue Wilson
Sentiment - computer generated on SU punched shapes