Summer Time - What?!

What does summer time mean to you?

Long hot sunny days, children playing in the garden, going for walks in the long grass (don't let the farmers see you or there will be trouble) eating breakfast, lunch and dinner outside on the patio - well if it does, lucky you.

For us it is trying to dry wet outdoor clothes inside for 13 months in a row. Watching the tide coming and going from the inside of rain drenched windows. Eating breakfast, lunch and dinner by the fire (okay that's a fib, but some times we wish the fire was on!)

Where did the summers that we had as children go to? Yes, even in Ireland we had sunshine and long dry days spent outside and eating meals sitting, on a tartan rug, on the grass in the garden. Along with Sunday trips to the seaside and trying to eat a 99 Ice Cream before it melted all down you hands or fell on the ground.

I understand that summer and winter weather has changed all over the world but I just wish it just dried up here for more than one day in a row!!  Well to be honest we did have a good week last week but this week is rain followed by more rain on top of rain. But as an Irish person I am entitled to have a rant about the weather, our national pastime!

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I made this card for a fellow PCP member who celebrated her birthday last week, I had to ensure she received the card before I posted here.

I used a white square blank card base.  I dry embossed some white card using a cuttlebug embossing folder. The yellow gingham paper is from a DoCrafts Me to You, Spring Chic paper pack. I stamped the papermania sentiment straight on to the backing paper after afixing to the card. The pink layer is from a paper pack that I have for ages - Papermania Sweet Nothings. Then the image is a freebie I got with a crafty magazine some time ago, it is a "Lili of the Valley" image, in fact there was a little pack of images ready to be coloured and used on cards, it is one of the best freebies I received in a crafty mag, each image is as gorgeous as the last. I coloured the image using colouring pencils, I need to get some decent skin coloured pencils. I sparkled up the flowers a little with Sukara gen pens

Recipe:
Designer paper: Docrafts - Me to You Spring Chic, and Papermania - Sweet Nothings
Embossing: Provo craft embossing folder
Die Cut: Xcut nesting set
Image: Lili of the Valley
Colour medium: Pencils, Sukara Gel Pens
Sentiment: Papermania
Miscellaneous: Ribbon - stash
                         Ink - Papermania


Hope you like,

"I wondered lonley as a cloud...."*

Did you ever as a child or, indeed, an adult lie on your back in the garden and watch the clouds float by and see little pictures in them?

Yesterday while drinking a cup of tea I was looking out the window and the was a big fluffy cloud and suddenly I saw this giant face, with big bushy eyebrows, looking back at me.

Can you see it too?

Now, to be honest by the time I got my camera it had dispersed a little, it now looks like it is blowing out its nose!


Hope you like,

* Taken from a poem by William Wordsworth "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud"

Abstract.....

My sister text me this morning asking about the rain.  She wanted to know if it has stopped here or not.
We live right at the south west coast of Ireland and thus we get the first of any bad weather that comes from that direction which is the prevailing direction of the weather during the summer.
When she text the rain had stopped and we had a very pleasant morning with sunshine and heat.
So I promised I would send her some sunshine.

Recipe:

Card blank: Stash

Coloured Paper: Cor'dination paper from my scraps box.

Die cut: Spellbinders Circles and Squares.

Right now, it has started raining and hubby was out cutting the grass, he is going to be bummed!

Hope you like,

Fathers Day part deux.

Was speaking to my neighbour yesterday and I mentioned that it was Fathers Day tomorrow. She had forgotten all about it and it seemed some of her children had also (the children are grown up and live far away) as the post (mail) had come and no cards. The neighbour then asked me to make a card on their behalf. This is what I came up with, if only took me most of the day but still!

 The toppers were somethings I had purchased some time ago, cannot remember were. Card stock is all from Cor'dinations and I use my spellbinders nestibilities for the backing of the ship and sentiment. I used Martha Stewart's edging punch to edge the card stock to resemble underwater bubbles.

Recipe:

Blank Card Base: Kraft Card from stock.

Backing Paper: Cor'dinations pack - Super Assortments Elements.

Topper: From stash - Boat and shell

Die Cut: Spellbinders - Oval and Scalloped Oval.

Punch: Martha Stewart

Ribbon: Stash

Ink: Tim Holts Distress Ink - Antique Linen.

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Other News in My Little World

We have no water coming into the house since yesterday morning and it is so annoying. 
We just get so used to having everything on tap (pun intended) like electricity, heating, and water that when something happens and it goes, it is only then, do we realise how much we relay on it. 

When I was very young our home did not have any running water, we had to go to the pump on a daily bases to fetch drinking water.  We had a large tank out the back to collect rain water, this was heated for washing and cooking on a large range in the kitchen.  We only had a bath on Saturday night, in a tin bath in front of the range.

Now, if we cannot have a shower daily and flush the toilet after every use, can get water whenever we want from the tap, we are lost.  Our homes are not equipped to cope without water, we don't have any water butts to collect rain water, we don't have a pump nearby for emergencies. 

Now all I want is to have my water back so I can wash up and put some laundry on and just feel that little bit cleaner.


Hope you like,

Fathers Day approaching fast.

So yesterday, I decided to make some Fathers Day cards. I got the idea from the PCP Newsletter, Susanna Boyd had a video showing how to make them. She made it look so simple that I just had to give it it a try, in fact a made a few of them.

 and this is a throw back to the 70's. lol

I know that there are lots of origami shirts out there but this was much simpler, not much folding. wow, I sound so lazy, :0, don't like cutting now I don't like folding. lol

I sent one, like the top one, to my Dad yesterday and this morning I received a text from my Mom - background story: last Christmas when my father was very ill and spent so much time in hospital, he lost loads of weight so now all his clothes are falling off him but he hates shopping - thanking me for sending the card, and that she is going to frame it hang it where he can see it when he is getting dressed. :0
Yeah! we have  a strange family!

Hope you like,

Was going to make more.....

but time ran out, or was it that I spent too much time reading others blogs, possibly the latter! So what was it I was going to make more of - Good Luck in you Exams cards.

The month of June is the major exam time in Ireland, with both Leaving Certificate and Junior Certificate examinations happening. The Leaving Cert is taken at about age 18-19 yrs when students finish formal education and is a very important exam, particularly if the student wants to go on to further education.  Junior Cert is taken at roughly 14-15 yrs this would be half way through Secondary school.

I have a niece who is in the middle of her Junior Cert at the moment and this is a card I made for her.

I decided to use an unusual good luck symbol for her card, so I picked "Manekineko" lucky Cat, it is a Japanese lucky symbol (I have since found out it is to attract financial wealth - but that can't be bad, can it?) As usual I downloaded it from Google. I cut it out and mounted the image onto white card which  I had cut out using a circular nestibility die, I embossed this with "Swiss Dots" a ProvoCraft embossing folder. This I then mounted the image onto red card to match its cushion and ears.  I cut this out using Xcut die.  I also used the same Xcut die set to make the card base. I just cut out a blank square card ensuring that I left the folded edge inside the die so I would not cut through it.

I had intended making some more of these for others not using the same image but with regular good luck images, like the clover or black cat, but as I explained earlier, I just did not have the time, I was so busy!!!!

Recipe:

Blank card: Stash

Red and white card: Stash

Image: Google

Die cuttings sets: Spellbinders Nestibilities Circles and Xcut shaped die.

Hope you like,

Another Birthday Card - in green.

I love green, as some may know! It is such the colour of nature and it comes in so many hues. It is wonderful. And I like to think of myself as a down to earth type of person so green suites me, but I am sure others may not think so. lol but that's their opinion and who am I to argue with them.

But anyway.....

Yesterday was my sisters birthday, will not divulge a number, but will go as far as to say, she is an older sister. :)

It is a simple but effective card.

It is a tent shaped card base, using Pink Petticoat backing paper and the plain  paper is also from PP. This plain PP paper is embossed using a Provo Craft Roses folder. The white die cut shape is cut using an Xcut die then chalked lightly on top of this is a Rose image water coloured and glittered.   The sentiment is a papermania sentiment. On the backing paper I used Sukara glaze pen to highlight some of the circles just for effect and I wanted to do it!

Recipe:

Designer Paper: Pink Petticoat - Doodleicious Rainbow papers 3

Embossing Folder: ProvoCraft Roses folder.

Image: Stash

Sentiment: Papermania sentiment.

Colour medium: Ink - StazOn black - sentiment, papermania  pigment inks - Rose, Sukara Glaze clear pen,

Glitter: DoCraft -Glamour Dust

Challenges I am entering:
The Paper Shelter Challenge blog: #67 Going Dottie

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Other News in my Little World

This is what is happening in the fields across the road -  my BIL's land.

He is getting the grass cut for silage (food for cattle over wintering in the sheds), they look like mini black puddings!

 The grass is cut (like in right of the photo) then is "sucked" up and wrapped in black plastic via a machine on the back of a tractor.

It is fascinating watching it.

Yeah! I need to get a life. lol

Hope you like,

Sonny's* 13th birthday...

Yesterday, Sonny celebrated his 13th birthday. Now some people say that when children enter the teenage years they get moody and disagreeable, well I can categorically say that that is not true, he has been like that for the past year! lol
He is a wonderful child teen if a little "independent" at times.

It took me a day and a half to do this card, I had no idea what kind of a card to make at first so I had to search the Internet to see what it would throw out. This is nothing like I found either, it just materialised as I went on.
I wanted to make a different type of card and I like easel cards, this was my starting point. The image is from Kenny K "Cool Kid" it took me two colourings to get it right. The verse and 13 are computer generated. The lightening bolt is a google download which is glittered to an inch of its life using Glamour Dust, - but you cannot see it here. These elements are mounted on Core'dinations card stock, this is a lovely colour, using Nestibilities die cut shapes and the image mount is cut using an xcut die.  The backing paper is a free download from KWB Downloads, (if someone knows more about KWB let me know, as I don't have any other info on them).

Recipe:
Designer paper: KWB Downloads
Image: Kenny K - Cool Kid
Backing paper (mounts): Core'dinations Card Stock - Super Assortments, Earth Elements color.
Colour medium: ProMarkers
Embellishments: Stash.


For the first time in the last 6 years, I made the birthday cake.

It is/was a chocolate biscuit cake with strawberries, Sonny loves strawberries and I love chocolate so that's us sorted, Hubby just had to eat it! It's scrumptious but a little rich. It is an easy cake to make but been the first time I made one, it took me ages. And the amount of washing up afterwards - won't even go there. lol

*Not real name.

Hope you like,

I won something........ yeah!

I don't enter many challenges, as I make my cards first and then look for challenges but can never find one to suit the card I had just finished. Over on Paper Craft Planet in the "Anything Goes Discussion Bord" they have a monthly challenge and each month I say "I must enter this challenge" but for whatever reason I never do.  Last month they had a Black and White Card challenge and the day before the cut off point I got a chance to make a card and entered it, then to my great surprise I won the challenge.  I could not believe it, as I have never won a challenge like it before, I was so excited. Here is the finished card.

I mounted a Pink Petticoat download backing paper onto some black metallic card stock. The backing paper was looking a little "flat" so I went over the "doodles" with some Sukara Glaze just lift it a little. The image was a freebie from Create with Tlc I printed it onto photo paper and cut it along its black border than mounted it onto white linen effect card. I added a black organza ribbon before mounting the image at an angle onto the card.

Recipe:

Cardstock: DCWV - Hippie Chic

White Cardstock - stash

Backing Paper: Pink Petticoat - Doodleicious Rainbow 2

Image: Create with Tlc.

Ribbon: Anita's everyday ribbon

Colouring Medium: Sukara Glaze

Hope you like,