A tortoise making a scene.

Well it's only just been over a week but I feel like I've been away from blogland for ever. An ATC for my October swap......I'm late with so many things this month, I can't believe I've not been waking in a cold sweat after a dream of arriving for my exams without having prepared lol. The theme for the swap is simply decoupage, I chose this little cutie (an online freebie) because I adore tortoise's.....and I so enjoyed creating a little garden for her with die cuts and stickers.  I pre coloured the stickers with acrylic pens and then filled them with Sakura glaze pens. I wanted a little more dimension so added the little dragonfly and flower brads....had them so long I don't know where I got them from, I'm loving being able to use all this stuff lol.

I'd wanted to enter this in a challenge for creating a scene, but silly me, I was supposed to use a stamped image...don't say a word lol.   

My Receipe -

Tortoise Decoupage ... The Lilac Garden

Stickers.... Craft Creations 

Die-cuts & brads ... Stash.

I'd like to enter my ATC in the following challanges :-

The Paper Players - Anything goes
Some Odd Girl - Orange, Green, Purple
Simon says Challenge - Die Cuts
A Spoonful of Sugar - Die Cut's
Flourishes Challenge - anything but buttons and bows
Digi Doodle Shop's Best - Anything goes

Sentimentally Monochromatic

This is one of the cards I've made for the Macmillan Cancer Care Org who'll be coming in to my Dad more and more over the coming months. It was quite a simple and quick card, so quite a change from my usual. I love the sentiment on the plaque and felt it deserved to be centre stage. The ribbon is actually lying face down as I wanted the silver to show more, and some of my mother of pearl buttons that I found hiding away....I do hope I can find more lol. 

It's a very simple receipe as everything is Stash, no idea where any of it came from. 

I'd like to enter into these challenges, if you'll have me :-

Hodge Podge Shop challenge - Monochromatic

Simon Says Stamp- Give Thanks

Flourishes timeless Tuesday Challenge - Sentiment as Focus

Crafalicious Challenge - Anything goes

Our Creative Corner - At least 3 different embellishments 

A close up of the lace and buttons

and one of the sentiment

Using Your Imag-e-nation

I may end up sounding like I have shares in this company, but I just want to pass on a good deal. At the moment they are having a £1 sale  which you'll find here. Many of their very detailed digi's are only a pound but they also have lovely ribbon pack, charms themed 3D stickers and bunches of flowers too. For those avid stampers out there you'll find rubber stamps on blocks, but also sets of clear stamps that were originally £10. ....and many more craft items. If you sign up for their weekly newsletter, it arrives each week in your mail box with a lovely free digi. Now you can't beat free can you.

Yippie for Autumn

I seem to be on a house mouse roll at the moment...unintentional but I just can't resist the little things. They so remind me of my beloved pet rats when they were iddlie biddlie babies, so very cute. Early Autumn here we get a lot of what we call Crane Fly/Flying Daddylong legs. I've had a horror of them since my brothers chased me down the road with hands full of them and then threw the monsters into the lift with me as the doors were closing - you can only imagine the state I was in after travelling 8 floors up!!! They however were doubled up laughing !!  Don't you sometimes just wish you could swat your brothers like you can annoying little insects lol. (I've almost forgiven them lol) 

This is the second of my Autumn themed swap cards for this month. As you can see I cut my mousies out, I embossed them on the underside to make them nice and rounded. My papers are digital freebies called Autumn floor. I coloured my silver stickers with light green alcohol based pens, and filled them with glitter pens (sorry not showing up). Alphabet stickers were gold, coloured brown.  I used glitter pens and clear glaze pen for the dragon fly in the image. I've used the last of my leaves made with stickers over lacy doilies. I used my brand new toy, my big shot (I'm a happy bunny)  to emboss and die cut.

My receipe -

Image ... House Mouse

Embossing ... Cuttlebug paisley folder

Die cuts ... Nestabiliteis

Papers ... Paper Printables

Cardstock ... Stash 

Cabochons ... Tesco

Flower Gems ... Stash

Leaf Stickers ... Craft Creations (come in lots of colours)

Alphabet stickers ... Imag-e-nation

Colouring ... Blendable pens and Sakura Glitter and Glaze pens.

Hoping to enter this card in the following Challenges ...

Cooking it up With Katie - Emboss a Sticky Leaf

The Sisterhood of Crafters - Bling

Papertake Weekly - Something in 3's

Tuesday Throwdown - 3 of Something 

Creative Inspirations - Sketch

Creative Inspirations Challenge Blog - Fall 

Stampavie and more - Autumn

AiFactory Challenge - Animals

Cute Card Thursday - What's bugging You

Pixie Dust Studio - Fall into Fall

Here are the close ups.

Image and embossing

Filigree leaves 

 and a couple of the embellies 

Yummy Fall

I thought this cute little house mouse was perfect for the delights of Fall. I love the colours of Autumn and goodness, the fruits are so wonderful. Not that my garden produced much this year sadly, barely a blackberry did I have : (   My mousie is coloured with a combo a blendable pencils and water colour pencils, then cut out with a Nellie Snellen die cut, outlined with peel off pen. 

My paper flowers are made using the smaller scalloped die cut shapes. I cut in-between the scallops, half way to the centre, shaped each petal from underneath and then the centres from the patterned side. 

My leaves I really enjoyed making. I splodged the lacy bit of a doily (I wanted the filigree leaf look) with alcohol based pens, put the peel off's on and cut round them. I added some peel off's to my mats to set them off a little.  Oh, and coloured my buttons and ribbon with peel off pens (alcohol based). Hope I can find a 'use your old stash' challenge as those buttons had their card backing crumbling under them, they were left over from when the kids were little lol. 

 My Receipe

Papers - Stitchy Bears Francheska set

Basket weave Paper - 12x12 from stash

Peel off's - Craft Creations

Image - House Mouse

Peel off Pens - Imagination

Blendable Pencils - W H Smith set

Water Colour pencils - Aquatone

Ribbon and buttons - Stash

Die Cuts - Nellie Snellen & nesties scalloped circle

Embossing Folder - Cuttlebug Frame (no actual name)

I hope to enter the following challenges:-
The Corrosive Challenge ... Sketch
Charisma Cardz Challenge ... Autumn Colours
Digi Doodle Shop Best ... Orange U Glad
The Stamp Man Challenge ... Autumn
Stampin' for the Weekend ... Autumn Colours
Stamp Something ... Something Punchy (or die cuts)
Kaboodle Doodles Challenge ...Fall is in the Air
Paper Playtime ... Main Colour Orange
Stamps R Us ... All Nature Theme
Paper Sundaes ... Change of Season

Some Close ups ...

the over -stuffed baby mousie, so cute 

My Leaves 

 Home made paper and ribbon flowers 

Altered Chocolate

 I deserve a whole load of chocolate after this I can tell you. Twice I finished it and then stripped it back down to the backing paper......mostly due to my drool getting over the papers lol.  It does look something like I'd intended it now.

It is an old clipboard, as you'll see from the before pic below, and I've wanted to alter it for quite a while now. I made my backing papers from beautiful pictures of slabs of chocolate from a very posh shop. The background is Choc Orange, and the clock face Dark/milk/white choc. Then there's that lovely big, grown up choc button.  Yummmiee!!!  Admit it, you're drooling too, right lol. My Clock hands and sentiment backer are good old Cadbury's. My doilies have quite obviously had drinking choc spilt on them lol. A few peel offs to decorate....and numbers from an alphabet sheet...I've never used any of my peel off numbers before. I'm getting through this unused stuff ok lol.

My Receipe :-

Papers .... home made (pix from Hotel Chocolate)

Peel off ... Image-n-ation

Glitter ... Stash. 

Doilies ....Lakeland
Sketch ... Get Sketchy Challenge

I Hope to enter this project in the following Challenges :-
The Stamp Man - Altered
Cute Card Thursday - Inspired by Clock or Time
Get Sketchy - Sketch
Anything Goes Challenge - Going Round in Circles
Creative Belli Blog - Numbers (unused stash)
Penny's Paper-Crafty challenge - Circles
Create with Connie and Mary - Anything but a Card
Catch The Bug Challenge - Anything goes 

A few Close ups 

And the Before Shot ....

My ATC has landed.

I'll be sending this ATC to my current ATC swap partner, the theme is The Land. I used outline stickers from a garden themed sheet, they were silver, but coloured them light green and filled them in with glace and souffle pens. The image is one of Digital Two for Tuesday freebie. Her bonnet is orange, shoes too, but they seem to look as if she's been mudlarking lol. I gave the snails and the large bee a bit of bling, the last three of my AB gems. Must try and remember where I got those from and go back for more. 

My Receipe:-

Image - Digital Two for Tuesday

Stickers - Anita

Colourants - blendable pencils, wax crayon, peel off pens and sakura pens

AB gems - Stash 

I want to end this ATC in the Following Challenges :-

Crazy 4 Challenges ... Bling

I Did it Creations Challenge ... ATC

One Stitch At A time Challenge ... Anything Goes 

Incy Wincy Designs ... Anything Goes

The Creative Cottage Challenge ... Bling it on 

Create with Connie and Mary ... Anything but a Card

A couple of close-ups 

The bling, much prettier in real life.

Cherished Decoupage.

This is another dufexed card, shows up better than they usually do I'm pleased to say. Cardstock is gold hammered effect and I have a gold satin and ivory satin card as matts behind the image. My sentiment is a velum sticker. Pearl pin is another homemade, the other pearls I took from the centre of a flower, just because. This is my first 'flower arrangement' on a card. I've so admired the arrangements I've seen on other's cards and wanted to give it a go. I'm fairly happy with the result. 

My Receipe:-

Cardstock - PDA Card and Craft

Small flowers - Imagin-e-ation

Large flower - ebay

Pearls & pins - stash

Sentiment - stash

A view of my layers 

I hope to enter this card in a few challenges ...

Digi Doodle Shops Best ... 3D it

Paper Pretties ... Animals (Hope birds count)

The Sisterhood Of Crafters ... At least Three Flowers

Paper Sundaes ... Things with wings

Sentimental Sunday ... Dimension and a sentiment  

 One or two close ups