Awwwww, shucks!

Despite being a notoriously bad blogger (everyone has to be notorious for something I think) the lovely Hotchpotch decided (for whatever reason) I am deserving of a block award! Go me!

I should point out that the rather large truck filled with different varieties of hot chocolate, tea and ice cream which is heading straight for Anne's house has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with me.

Liebster is a German word that translates to; dearest, beloved or in this case favorite. The idea of the Liebster Award is to give it to an up and coming blog with fewer than 200 followers. – in order to create new connections, and bring attention to their wonderful blogs.

Here are the conditions that go along with accepting the award;

1. Thank the Liebster Blog Award presenter on your blog.
2. Link back to the blogger who presented you the award.
3. Copy and paste the Liebster Blog Award on your blog.
4. Present the award to 5 bloggers who have a following 200 or less, who you feel deserve it.
5. Let them know they have been chosen by leaving a comment on their blog
   
   

ahhh, of course I am completely unprepared for the last two, so we'll just call that a work in progress, and come back soon to see who gets the award!

Hair She Goes….

Ok, so who remembers The Laa’s? Great song, unfortunately it will be stuck in my head for the rest of the week now! The reason for the slightly obscure title (other than my titles generally are rather obscure. No wait, my whole blog is rather obscure. I digress.) is I am trying to get the hang of colouring hair.
I have immersed myself in many a blog post and YouTube video over the last few months, and everyone seems to do hair so differently! I have tried to do the thing where you leave a strip of white showing, but I really can’t get to grips with that, it just looks odd when I try it. This lovely lady was supposed to be a red head. Not quite happening, is it?

The image is one of the recent release by A Day for Daisies, called Poppies in My Hair. She's coloured with Promarkers and then die cut using a Nellie Snellen die I bought ages ago and seldom used. Not sure about the bling-thing going on in the corner, but it’s stuck down real well so I have no further choice in the matter!
The sentiment is stamped using another new purchase – someone had been using Flitter Glu on one of the Papercraft Planet forums, so I had to get me some. It’s a very tacky glue you can apply to rubber and clear stamps instead of ink, and then cover with glitter or gilding flakes (which come in the Starter Kit). Quite a few online craft stores in the UK are stocking the starter kit now, and it’s also available directly from IndigoBlu.
As far as challenges go just the one today and that is Passion for Promarkers - die cuts

All About the Boy

So, small odd man finally turned three recently - he'd had enough of being two. I thought perhaps a birthday card was in order, along with copious amounts of cake, and set to with a lovely Mo.

Thar she blows.....

Coloured with Promarkers (of course) with the stripey paper being a magazine freebie by We R Memory Keepers.

Challenges for today:

Crafty Catz Weekly Challenge - Spots or Stripes
Totally Gorjuss - Boys Toys

Thank you and Goodnight ;)

Time flies.....

Ok, so I'm a terrible blogger, yeah, yeah, yeah. Now tell me something I don't know...... Did you know you're 30% more likely to lose weight by dieting, if you eat porridge for breakfast? Talk about random.

Down to business - contrary to popular belief I have not been wandering lost and alone in a crafting wilderness, just a blogging wilderness. Not surprising then that I have a few cards up my sleeves (not literally, they are a bit pointy to keep up sleeves) ready for blogging over the next few ......(insert days/weeks/months/years as you feel appropriate).

Tonight's offering is a birthday card made for one of my small man's little friends, who had a birthday recently. The digi is adorable and is called "Noah plays Pirate in the Bath" by Sassy Cheryl, who is having a big clearout with many a bargain to be had, by the way.

Who could resist him? Also notice the frog eyeing up the ladybug! He's been coloured in with Promarkers, and I've inked the edges with some Wild Honey Distress Ink, papers are Basic Grey (Out of Print) and Websters Pages (either Western Romance or All About Me, not sure which.....).

Challenges for this one are:

Sassy Cheryl's Challenge #110 - Anything Goes
Party Time Tuesdays #63 - Water (well, it is a bath.....)

The trials and tribulations of recycling

I am so good at making a drama out of an everyday occurrance and today was no different -  I deserve a posh frock and an Oscar I'm sure.
My good friend Anne aka Legs is always creating marvellous things from bits of paper and string, amongst other things, and when she posted a challenge on Papercraft Planet to recycle a newspaper or magazine into something that wasn't a card, I knew I wanted to join in but hadn't a clue what to make!
I set about the task of creating something this morning still with no idea what I would end up with - surely that's what creating is about?  Extreme Carfting......
Here's what I started with:

Some interesting looking pictures from a coffee magazine (I didn't even know you could get magazines about coffee until one come through the letterbox a few weeks ago), some double sided sticky tape and a pencil.
At this stage I had a vague plan which involved rolling the pages around the pencil to make long thin tubes. That's about as far as I got.

All very pretty, huh? Must also point out that when making the first tube, I didn't take out my pencil before I finished rolling. Could I get the darn thing out? Nope. Had to unroll it all again, retrieve said pencil and start again. After a had a bundle of tubes I sat and looked at them for a while. Then a bit longer. Finally I went and rummaged in the rubbish bin.

I'd finished off a roll of sticky tape a couple of days ago and decided this could be used too. After a few head scratching moments, and a bit of faffing with a stapler, here's the finished result:

To cut a long story short, I covered the empty tape roll to make a base, which I then stuck the flattened and halved tubes to. One of the long tubes I used to neaten the base and another I put along the top of the pot on the inside, then folded and stapled the tubes over the top. I rather like the shabbiness of the staples being visible, but I guess I could cover it with ribbon or more paper if I felt so inclined.
A surprisingly sturdy pen holder, made from a few pages of a magazine and an empty tape roll. Bargain!

TTTC

“TTTC?” I hear you cry! In my little world it means Take Time To Carft (I always spell “craft” wrong, so carft has become a verb in it’s own right). Evenings for me are “my time”, after the small odd one goes to bed, I like to settle down to a spot of carfting. Unfortunately, because slightly older, and taller (though definitely not wiser) odd person has his exams coming up in May, my time is no longer my own. Instead it is filled with chemical equations and moles. And not the small, blind rodent kind either. Nor the hairy monstrosity often seen on the faces of old witchy people, come to think of it.

Did I get sidetracked? Maybe a little.

Tonight I had to battle through the chemical formulae to come out carfting at the other end – Mother’s 70th birthday on Friday and as we’re off to the cinema tomorrow  evening to see “War Horse”, I figured I had to get her birthday card made today.

I hadn’t coloured this image by House Mouse before, and the apples are a bit hit and miss – any hints on how to colour a nice shiny red and green apple would be gratefully received! Hoping it’ll pass muster with the old dear, though ;)



The sentiment is also from a HM un-mounted rubber stamp set along with the one I stamped inside the card which says “On your birthday”. Very un-blinged. Just the way I like it :)

A Dragon....

Dragons are the stuff of battles and knights in shining armour, right? And the poor old dragon always ends up as a pot of soup (or something). Well, this time the Dragon is a nice guy! I have followed Ginger's Blog for a while now, and although my blog as been neglected and abandoned for most of 2012, I saw this post because it was brought to my attention on Papercraft Planet, by a very nice lady :)
This evening I set about making a card for Sebastian, and here it is - a Dragon to watch over him and keep him safe from harm. Think we could all do with one of those sometimes, don't you?

Coloured with my trusty Promarkers and edges inked with Adirondack "denim". I coloured the sentiment in two shades of yellow (Buttercup and sunflower) and creased it and layered sections of it onto 3D foam, to make it look as though it were a flag in the wind.

I would like to enter into the following challenges:
Make it Monday #76 Anything Goes
Party Time Tuesdays #55 - Get well wishes