Finally Completed!

Three years ago I decided to take part in a CAL (crochet along project) from Stylecraft and designed by Susan Pinner but partway through, and for various reasons, this was put aside.  However I have 'friends' who remind me of this from time to time by asking if it is finished so I went for it recently and made a determined effort to get it done and finally here is a photo to prove that it is indeed finished.  Probably if I'd realised at the start just how much work was involved I might not have been tempted but all in all  I've quite enjoyed the process.  I also learnt some new techniques including joining shapes by crocheting them together which I found quite fiddly at first but soon got the hang of it - plenty of practice on this design with the pentagons and hexagons to be joined.  Please don't ask me if I'm making another one!!  I do have quite a lot of the many coloured yarns left over so I will be using them up at some stage on possibly a smaller project.

Green Wellies

This chocolate Labrador in green wellies is scampering along to the Playground for challenge #363.  The lovely Di has made a really fun underwater scene card and there is a bumper prize for the lucky winner this time as well.  There is also the added bonus of a  video of the adorable Dudley enjoying his recent holiday - a blog well worth visiting.

For my card I've used up various snippets of paper and card starting with the last piece of patterned paper left in a pad I've had for ages and some reasonably sized pieces of pearl card in a creamy brown colour.  These were used to die cut an oval frame and the backing for the sentiment banner;  the final scrap was embossed and used as a layer behind the oval.  The dog was cut from a scrap of chocolate brown card and his red bandanna and green wellies from really tiny bits of card.  The tree was stamped onto an oval of cream card, as was the sentiment.  Finally some die cut birds were added to the tree cut from scraps of black.

Embossed Panel - Sheena embossing folder
Ovals - dies from Tonic
Tree - Sheltering tree stamp set Stamoin' Up
Birds - Memory Box dies
Banner - Creative Expressions dies
Labrador in Wellies -  from an Unbranded die set

Thanks Again

This is the other 'thanks' card which I mentioned recently and this one is for the Pixie Snippets challenge. It seems appropriate to mention that the 'thanks' word die was part of a set which I was lucky enough to win from there some time ago.  Always worth taking part because you never know when your name will pop up as a winner and it is a great opportunity to use up snippets.  This particular word has been lying around on my desk ever since the set arrived when I did my usual thing and did a test cut to see how the dies looked.   Luckily I had some other bits and pieces amongst my stash which could be brought together to make a complete card.  The embossed panel was a piece left over from another card, as was the tail end of a banner.  Fortunately I still had some scraps of the purple card from which to die cut three butterflies.  Backed everything with a larger snippet of designer paper and added a few stray gems with, of course, the original 'thanks' which sparked this card off in the first place.

Word dies -

fabulous phrases Concorde & 9th
Butterflies - freebie dies from magazine

Thanks

I'm filling a gap in my box of cards and this time I've made a couple of 'thanks' cards using mainly snippets and things lying around waiting to be used up although I despair of ever catching up with the mountain of debris - all of which is useful and CANNOT be thrown away!!  This time I've used a kraft card blank and some bits and pieces of cream pearl card for the die cutting along with some toning designer paper and a small scrap of brown for the word.  I started by edging the largest piece of cream using a scalloped edge die and trimming the designer paper to fit.  The next thing was another bit of the cream pearl to die cut the row of cats and finally the 'thanks' word was cut from a really small scrap of brown card.  All was layered together and that is one more for the card box.  The second 'thanks' card is quite different and I'll share that another day.  It is certainly a challenge using up all the miscellaneous bits but I do enjoy doing my best to avoid the cards looking as if they were made from oddments.

We've had some more lovely weather recently with plenty of sunshine but sadly this morning it is raining so a good excuse to disappear into the craft room and play.

Scalloped Edge - die from My Favourite Things
Thanks - die from set by Concorde & Ninth
Cats - Possibly from Magenta but packaging seems to have disappeared so not sure

Another Christmas Card for the Box

I've put together a Christmas card to go into my box for later in the year using up more of the miscellaneous bits and pieces lying around on my desk. The background paper was part of a sheet which I'd printed for another card and the two circles were 'waste' from cutting circular apertures (I have loads of these of various shapes) and of course they aren't really 'waste'.  The blue one I embossed with some snowflakes and then popped the Santa and deer die cut racing across the sky.  Finally I put together some vellum poinsettia flowers, also left overs.

Background - printed from Artylicious CD (I think)
Santa and reindeer - I think was a freebie die from last year

Snippets Playground #361

What is it they say about best laid plans?  I decided that I really didn't need to buy anything else in the way of stamps, dies and so on and was aiming just to top up on the consumables like paper and card only when absolutely necessary and when I'd used up most, if not all, of my scraps mountain.  Well we all know how difficult it is to resist a bargain or special offer and I'm afraid a reduced price offer tempted me into buying 'just one more die' which I've used on my card this time for the Snippets Playground challenge.  I did however raid my scraps and apart from the base card everything was cut from scrap pieces.  I started with the floral die and some white card - this die cuts into the card so I used a square first of all, afterwards deciding I'd prefer it framed within a circle so this was done with a scalloped circle die of suitable size.  The patterned background paper was part of a left over sheet which I'd printed using a CD and the sentiment with its background was one which was surplus to requirements on a recent project and was lying around on my desk.

As always Di has made a lovely card for inspiration this time and of course the items she used will be the prize for a lucky winner so it might be a good idea to follow the link and maybe take part in the challenge.

Background - printed from Artylicious Seasons Greetings CD
Scalloped Circle - Tattered Lace Pin Dot decorative circles dies
Flower - Clarity Fresh Cut die Daisy and Friends
Sentiment - Gemini Die

Christmas Rose

I've been unable to do any parchment cards since May which was when I had my first cataract surgery but now the second eye has been dealt with I decided to have a go.  It is still early days but my vision is so much better now although things should be even better once  time has elapsed and I can visit the optician to sort out a new prescription for my specs which I will still need to wear.  I decided to just to a small panel of Christmas roses using a Groovi plate and colouring with pencils from the back, adding a small amount of white work.  The panel was mounted onto some pink card and a toning Christmas design paper was used behind it with the addition of some die cut snowflakes. I feel that parchment work never has the impact in a photo as it does for real which is unfortunate.

Parchment Panel - Groovi Christmas plate designed by Tina
Design Paper - printed from Artylicious Seasons Greetings CD from years ago
Snowflakes - freebie dies and a Docraft one for the large snowflake
Colouring - Polychromos pencils