Universe TMR

 Hi Everyone, my card today is for 

I really had to gather images for this subject, but in the end I'm quite pleased with the result. I found backgrounds that went together. I found a digi stamp and a relevant cut file with the letter C for my son's name. His birthday is in a few days, he won't see this as he doesn't view my blog, he loves Space games, so it had to be for him.  Well, I think it's OK for a 49 year old. 😉  I've been good and not added his age this year. I wonder if he’ll notice.    

I planned the design in Design Space in Silhouette, I added the sentiment with a font that I thought were "space" shape letters. Next I print and cut everything. 

I coloured the spaceman and planet with DI's, and added silver glitter pen to the tank, helmet, stripes, and belt. Then added 3D glaze to the visor of his helmet and the single planet. I also added it to parts of the rocket, stars, and the blast.

Then glued everything together.   

background papers - watercolour space DesignBundles

planets paper - Papercraft Inspirations mag freebie

spaceman - Digistamps4joy 2013

glitter pen - Uniball 

inks - Distress Inks, hickory smoke, tea dye, gathered twigs, tattered rose, candied apple, mustard seed, blueprint sketch, ripe persimon

C with rocket - Sarah Christie at Extraordinary Chaos

Font - Gravity

 

I hope you can join us in the Universe?

 

I'm joining the https://snarkystampers.blogspot.com/2025/08/soss-265-is-for-alien.html I hope my Universe, fits the challenge?

Flowers WLSC

Hi Everyone, my DT card today is for We Love Stamping. This month, we would love to see your cards with the theme chosen by Hilary of  

Flowers

 

 

with a wonderful prize for the winner from 

Our prize this month is a £25 store voucher from Personal Impressions (inc pps, winner meets costs of any additional spend). Personal Impressions is one of the UK’s leading brand managers/wholesalers/distributors in the arts and crafts industry, specialising in mixed media, papercrafts, card-making, scrapbooking and journaling. PI are proud to represent over 70 brands from global, recognisable brands to small, niche and new.

 

A lovely subject, which I'm sure we all love. I have numerous flower stamps, but I went for an old one. I also wanted to use a new die and a new technique to me. 

I stamped the flower twice on pieces of the same card, then coloured with DI's side by side, trying to copy one to the other. Next, I die cut a slatted square in the top piece and die cut it again, adding a scalloped edge. Then, I 3D attached the bottom piece, matching it to the top.  

I found this sentiment in my files, copied from somewhere, which I printed and die cut to match the top layer. I also found a music file that I cut with the Silhouette, which I added to the edge of both the top pieces.  

flower stamp - Chocolate Baroque Floral Musical

square slatted die - CraftAddictionUK

scalloped edge die - Tonic

sentiment by Edwin Curran

music staff - Scrapcationgetaway 2017

inks - Distress Inks, evergreen bough, lucky clover, milled lavender, victorian velvet

Silhouette 

from a different angle 

 

I'm sure you agree the prize is wonderful, I hope you join in, see you there? 

 

Here are more photos of our Green Woodpecker, he's come back again, this time not flying away from the Magpie, but hiding from him. The photos were taken in the rain, so not good, but I hope you can see him. 

An apple and a crab! CCC

 Hi Everyone, my DT card today is for -

Critter Crazy

 Anything Goes but they MUST feature a critter as the main focus 

Whether Furry, Feathered, Fantasy, Fairytale, 

Scaly, or Insect, there must be a critter.

 

I had designed this card design a couple of months ago and forgot about it, then came across it and decided it had to be made. I cut the apple and the crab from white 300gsm card and coloured them with markers. The colours are not good in the photo, but they are different reds with an orange. I then added and glossed their eyes. Next the joke was printed, that came from somewhere, using a fun font, and it was die cut. I added the apple and the crab with 3D stickers, as if the crab was holding the apple. They were then added to the base card.

apple - Printable Cuttable Creatables

crab - front crab - Printable Cuttable Creatables

insert crab - Marisa Lerin

markers - Spectrum Noir

font - Helwa

gloss - Nuvo Crystal Glaze

 

 

You want to know the answer? You probably know it anyway. Here it is, the photo wasn't too good as it was taken in bright sunlight. I added the apple to the centre of the crab, then added a fun quote by me.

 

  

You may remember me saying about the magpie shooing our Green Woodpecker from the garden? Well, one of them has come back and keeps coming back, it makes us so happy to see him feeding well on the ants in the lawn. Here he is, not good photos, my phone isn't good at zooming with good quality, but it's a record for us.

Sun Sea & Sand mid month WLSC

Hi Everyone, my DT card today is for We Love Stamping. This month, we would love to see your cards with the theme chosen by Emma of  

Sun, Sea & Sand

 

I haven't got many stamps with the theme of the Sea, but sorting my craft room, I found a couple, the beach house was amongst the few. We have a beach not far from us that has quite a few beach huts, and I thought yep! That's what I will go for.

 

Firstly I found a cream pearlised card, I blended blue for the sea, and a mix of yellows and brown to get a sandy appearance. I then stamped the sea and embossed it in white, it wasn't my best stamping, but that's the sea, isn't it? Lots of frothy foam, so I went with it. I stamped the beach huts and coloured them with DI's. I also added a darker yellow to make a shadow under the huts. The sentiment was printed out and die cut. It was then added to yellow card and attached to the base card. 

 

sea stamp - Inkylicious By the Sea, Waves stamp set

 hut stamp -  docrafts Papermania, inside Simply Card and Papercraft magazine, a while ago

inks - Distress Inks

yellow card - stash 

sentiment - Gingers House 2016

sentiment die - Craft Making Magic

 

these are the colours, but I forgot to add the beach colours which are wild honey, antique linen, fossilized amber, tea dye,

 

 

More fabulous prizes for the Winner this time from -

Lisa Horton Crafts Petal Flourish bundle, embossing folder and coordinating stencils

 

These Green Woodpeckers were feeding on our lawn recently, just as I snapped them in a hurry, a magpie came in to shoo them away. I was mad, as the Dad usually stays about half an hour, and he brought his young to feed on OUR lawn, AW! I hope he brings it back again.  

 

 

I've just noticed I have had over a million views, WOW! Who would have thought it. Yes it took  15 years, but whose counting. hahaha A BIG Thank you everyone. 

Daisies

Hi Everyone, I have had no interest in card making, probably due to the heat of the last week, and hubby not well. So I thought I would try doing something digital. It coincided with me hearing a friend has terminal cancer. I had to send her a card. I went digital with a few dies. I went looking for floral images and came across these beautiful daisies, they look like our Marguerite Daisy, that are coming into flower. 

I took the image into Silhouette and print and cut it twice, then using navy cotton, I twined it around the top of the jar. Next I die cut a sentiment and a second layer, and painted them with matching inks, then used a fine liner pen to write over the sentiment. The cotton was tied in a bow through the sentiment die, so that it hung from the jar.  

I was going to add the jar on its own, but having a background in the set of daisies, I printed two identical layers of it, and die cut one to layer them. But I think my old Grand Calibur is giving up the ghost, and it wouldn't cut it properly. So one layer was used, and I like the effect. I placed it centre and 3D'd the jar. I didn't add anything more. I felt it enough for a lovely lady who doesn't have long, I hope it cheers her up a little. 

image -  Watercolour clip arts, Creative Fabrica

inks - Distress Inks, dried marigold, rusty hinge 

dies - Mini Tag Collection and Slatted Square Collection, CraftAddictionUK

Silhouette 

Sun, Sea & Sand WLSC

Hi Everyone, my DT card today is for We Love Stamping. This month, we would love to see your cards with the theme chosen by Emma of  

Sun, Sea & Sand

 

I haven't got many stamps with the theme of the Sea, so I used the embossing folder I used before here. I had a freebie with my subscription magazine with the shell and seahorse stamps and the paper with a sentiment from another earlier magazine. 

 

Unashamedly, I cased the card from the packing with the EF. A slight difference, as I used the paper included in the pack in the cutout of the stamps. The EF was placed onto a blue card and attached to the base card. While sorting my craft room, I found some white hammered card for the EF and the main card. 

stamps and background patterned paper - docrafts Papermania, inside Simply Card and Papercraft magazine, a while ago.

embossing folder - Creative Craft Products, SCP magazine freebie

bakers twine - stash 

inks - Distress Inks,chipped sapphire, antique linen, ripe persimmon,

embossing powder - Papermania silver. 

Another fabulous prize this month from -

 

Lisa Horton Crafts Petal Flourish bundle, embossing folder and coordinating stencils

Dogs and/or Cats TMR

 Hi everyone, my DT card today is for 

 

 The Male Room 

 

I've only got digital images for cats or dogs, so that's what's used today. The images were edited in Photoshop, adding a sentiment, then printed and die cut it. Looking for cat images in my files, I found a shape I thought I could use. I tried cutting it with Silhouette, but it was too fine and didn't cut properly, so I made a shape similar, but with thicker lines, in the design area, and cut it out of gold mirror card.

 

I embossed the edge of the printed background then decided to add splots to the background, after seeing another blogger do the same, but now I don't know who it was, sorry. I used hickory smoke and faded jeans DO's mixed to match the images, shame they don't show up in the photo. I attached the image layer to the card and then the gold frame. 

cat & dog - Creative Fabrica

frame - my own design

sentiments - my own

inks - Distress Oxide, hickory smoke, faded jeans 

gold mirror card - The Range

 

 

I have a few nephews on the cusp of old in the next few months, so I made another. Much the same but with a different sentiment and cut to the frame to hide a cutting error. You can see the splats more on this second card.  

 

 

I hope you can join us in the challenge, and get your creative juices flowing for those difficult male cards. There are great ideas from the DT to view. 

100th Birthday Bash CCC

  Hi Everyone, my DT card today is for the -

 Critter Crazy 100th Birthday Bash 

 

A Rule change for our 100th Challenge

Your card MUST feature a Birthday Critter as the main focus 

Whether Furry, Feathered, Fantasy, Fairytale, 

Scaly, or Insect, there must be a Birthday critter.

 

And also don't forget to check in on the last day of the month again, if you are a winner or a DT-Favourite! #100's brag recognitions will have 2 extra winners! Read on for details: 

Since we have now reached the 100 challenge, we would like to thank all the participants and the followers from the bottom of our hearts for all the years, the inspirations and the kind comments. 

And 100 challenges must also be celebrated... so this month there are 3rd & 4th winners and a small rule change for the theme along with an opportunity for a prize winner visiting Becca's blog. (Use my blog link to get to my homepage and find my CCC post after 2am central time on July 1st for instructions on commenting and receiving a special prize package of animal-themed products!)

Special 3rd Winner: Entry #50 will be an extra Guest DT invite honoree in September 2025! Plus Special 4th Winner: Entry #100 will be an extra Guest DT invite honoree also for September 1st. There will be special badges available and these persons will be revealed on July 31, 2025. 

 

 

With no mojo, I was struggling to make a card, so I went through my digital stamps to see if anything jumped out to me, and this is it. I love this birthday sheep. I printed and cut, with Silhouette, 2 layers of the sheep and the sentiment, onto multi use card, then coloured it with DI's. 

I cut a piece of the same card to fit onto a 5x7inch base card, then blended the sky, and the grass, with DO's. Next, I used stencils for the grass and clouds. The clouds didn't work for me, but they are there, albeit faint, so I die cut some clouds and a sun. The sentiment was inked around the edge and then added to pink paper, can you guess this is for a female member of the family?

sheep - Bugaboo 2021, (sorely missed)

stencil, clouds and grass - Funky Fossil 

inks - Distress Inks

inks - Distress Oxide

dies - Magazine Freebies

Silhouette 

Close to Nature WLSC

Hi Everyone, my DT card today is for We Love Stamping. This month, we would love to see your cards with the theme chosen by Karen of  

Close to Nature

trees, animals, flowers

 

 

I bought this stamp recently and thought it suited the theme. However, it didn't end up as I intended. 

I used watercolour pencils on linen card. Then went off kilter and added a floral paper background, a plain background and then a punched border, and THEN added a few die cuts. I think the mess around me when decorating my craft room, caused me to over do things on this card. I found so many things I haven't used in years, I just had to use them, but it's OK and fits the brief of the challenge. It will go to one of my nieces, who loves her garden and creatures. 

stamp - House Mouse, Flower Market

pencils - Reeves Watercolour Pencils

floral paper - Make and Create, Spring Time

blue paper - Jelly Bean Crafts

border punch - Martha Stewart

flower die - Tattered Lace

butterfly die - Make and Create

 

A fabulous prize this month with a 

Glorious Bouquet, a large Tim Holtz floral stamp from Buddly Crafts

 

After a few weeks of upheaval, decorating and reorganising my room, I am back online. I've been missing commenting due to no computer to access blogs, I didn't want to use my phone in case of bugs or whatever. Anyway, here are before and after photos. Not quite all back yet, but getting there. My desk originally was under the window. 

This was in 2014

 

During with undercoat 

 

part of the spare room filled with my hoard 

 

nearly finished

Fun Folds TMR

 Hi Everyone, my post today is for 

The Male Room 

I can't believe I pondered so long in doing this card, only just making it for the challenge. With so many beautiful folds, I decided on this one. Then went on to do 4 others, 2 went into the bin, so I decided to show you the 2 I'm not too happy with, I could have done better work methinks.

My first card is a Double Z fold, a super card designed by my blog friend Shirley, I didn't do her justice on this card. The tools and sentiment with white card, and the grass with the green of the base card, were cut with my Silhouette, the background paper was cut to size and then stencilled with DO, and added to the green background. 

The tools, shelves, and sentiment were coloured with DI's, when dry, the shelves were added, and the tools placed onto them, held with the bracket piece. Then the ladder, the gloves, the grass layer with the sentiment were arranged.

double Z fold Card - Shirley's Cards 

stencil - Funky Fossil brick, coloured with Distress Oxide hickory smoke

ink - Distress Ink (lots)

card - white 300gsm Craft Card Hobbycraft 

green card - Lidl

Silhouette

My second was a template from Craftworld, a Z fold, which I transferred into Silhouette, I cut the shape, then folded it and added the printed shapes and the rabbit centre. I really don't know where my mind has been on these folds, with so many other shapes I could have done. I spent a long while looking on the web to be able to do something different, it just didn't happen - sorry.

images - Creative Fabrika

Go see what the DT have done, they are amazing.

  Great ideas for the men in your life. 

Close to Nature WLSC

 Hi Everyone, my DT card today is for We Love Stamping. This month, we would love to see your cards with the theme chosen by Karen of  

Close to Nature

trees, animals, flowers

 

 

A lovely theme, don't you think? I have had this stamp, a long while and thought it perfect for this subject. A dragonfly. 

My mind went off on a tangent and I thought of stamping on acetate, I have had the heat acetate for many years and had a hunt, where I thought it was, and thankfully it was. I stamped and heat embossed in gold, then cut around it. 

The first step complete, what do I do next, you may know by now I am not a planner with my cards, I just go with the flow, so to speak. I thought of the colours of a dragonfly, so added DO ink to my glass mat, sprayed with water and placed my card onto it, I was thrilled with the result of just one pressing. 

I wasn't too keen on the sentiments with the stamp, so went looking for a simple one and came across this, it was stamped with Stazon. Then the card was cut with a die, the dragonfly was glued onto it and was 3D'd to the card base. 

heat acetate - Hobbycraft

stamp - Imala, Be Brave

sentiment - magazine freebie

inks - Distress Oxide chipped sapphire, lucky clover twisted citron

die - Card Making Magic 

 

you can see the shine of the acetate here

 

A fabulous prize this month with a 

Glorious Bouquet, a large Tim Holtz floral stamp from Buddly Crafts

 

Oh my Gostrich CCC

 Hi Everyone, my DT card today is for -

Critter Crazy

 Anything Goes but they MUST feature a critter as the main focus 

Whether Furry, Feathered, Fantasy, Fairytale, 

Scaly, or Insect, there must be a critter.

 

I had a card to make for my GGNiece, who is 3, her Mum gets them to make cards for us, so I thought I would colour it as if she had. I used fineliners that I bought on a whim a few months ago, and this is the first time I have used them. 

I stamped and die cut the ostriches, I had a tiny cupcake stamp and cake in my stash, they were stamped and fussy cut. I had to add feathers too, so cut a line under the wing feathers and inserted them there, then added one on the tail too, I had to cut them down, but I think they worked OK. I also added wobbly eyes. I then die cut a 3 twice, and attached it to the cake. 

Next the background was blended on the cut layer and I corner punch to round the top corners. The sentiment was stamped on the bottom. Then all the images and number were added. 

Ostriches and dies - My Favourite Things, Oh My Gostrich

cakes and sentiment stamps - gift from SiL, no name on stamps

 fineliner pens- B&M Store 

feathers - The Range

Garden and new windows

Hi Everyone, just a quickie from me at the end of another busy day. We have had new windows fitted, which meant every room upended, we've started painting the house, at least hubby has had his hands full, with me doing as much as I can. The kitchen is nice and fresh again.

Next is my craft room, BUT it means a good clear out before I begin, not only that, but the room is being reorganised with new placement of my desk and computer. At the moment I can only use my computer for part of the day, and it's going to get worse in the coming week or two.

Not only that, but we have to have a builder to renew a lintel, we don't know if he will have problems and the room will have walls down, even the window undone after it's new installation. The lintel was found rotten by the window installers. Things all happen at once, don't they? It's the flat window lintel that has to be replaced.

This is my way of apologising for no comments, I've managed to do my DT work, but even that has been difficult. I'll do as much as I can to keep in touch with you all.

Anyhow, I promised you photos of our garden, which were taken last week. The lawn is brown due to no rain, I can't believe I just said that! I’m in Wales famous for its rainfall. hahaha. We did have some overnight, but certainly not enough. However, I'm loving the dry weather and the sun. It's supposed to be raining over the weekend, so perhaps the lawn will look green again?

2 foxgloves that have self seeded, such beautiful flowers.

I couldn't get all the garden in, but it's most of it

 

 

this is the left side of the garden

 

 

this is the top left, with the potatoes and runner beans coming on well