Birthday Blues

This time of year can be a bit of a nightmare in our house.

We love the darker nights and snuggly evenings as the

temperature drops, but...

I have a son who has never been happy about birthdays, or

any event that puts him in the limelight (yes including Christmas)

This year he is trying. He has agreed to go out for a quiet meal...

(and he may even order a dessert)

He will be 25 and this is the first year he has chosen to 

"do something" just for his birthday.

I want to jump up and down with glee, but I can't,

 that might scare him off, so instead I have made him a subtle

Birthday card XXX

I was so excited I actually stuck the images on the wrong way

hahahahaha...so how to save it?

The easiest thing would have been to cut the whole front off 

and glue it onto a fresh card, but that's not always an option.

So instead I turned it into a kind of easel card...

by creasing and folding the back section in half, inwards...

then adding a raised strip on the back of the decorated section

to act as a stopper...

Turned out pretty sturdy :D

You can't see it on the main picture, but I added

shimmer pen for a subtle bit of sparkle .

This card was made using 

Crafty Witches "Twilight Magic" 8x8 paper pad

and is my DT project for

THE CRAFTY ADDICTS

CHALLENGE 06

Enjoy XXX

I would like to share it with the following challenges;

Creatalicious Challenges #268 Anything Goes with Paper

AAA Birthday Card Challenge #54 Fav Colours

Moving Along with The Times #159 Anything Goes

Loves To Craft #76 Anything Goes

 

Creepy Kid lol...

Morning everyone :D 

It's coming up to one of  my favourite times of year

Samhain/Halloween mwahahaha....

so there was no doubt what my theme would be

for 

CRAFTING FROM THE HEART

Challenge 06

Every year my granddaughters costumes are 

getting more outrageous, and last years

was especially freaky lol

I mean, who even thinks of dressing their little

2 year old Princess as Beetlejuice???

But she totally hammed it up hahahaha...

That's my  girl :D

So when I saw the "All Hallows Eve" papers

from Crafter's Companion

and the "Shabby Basic-Halloween Dolls" dies

from Sam Poole at Creative Expressions

I knew exactly what I was going to make for this

challenge :D mwahahahaha....

I would like to share this project with

 the following challenges:

Crafting Happiness Challenge #146  September Anything Goes

Get Creative Challenge #125 Pumpkin Spice

Inspiration Station #53 September (pumpkins photo)

Crafty Gals Corner Challenge #247 Signs of Fall

 

Faded Butterflies

 

As Autumn approaches I love to see the butterflies, 

with their dusky faded colours, flitting around the 

buddleia. By the time I post this the flowers will 

also have faded, leaving the rust brown seeds.

This is where I took my inspiration from for this months challenge 

at 

THE CRAFTY ADDICTS

I have treated myself to the (not so ) guilty pleasure

that is 

The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady.

(I got mine from Hobbycraft on a 3 for 2 deal)

I don't have the entire collection (yet),

but I do have enough pieces to create with.

I stamped and coloured a faded purple leaf design

onto some natural Kraft card...

stamped and coloured this gorgeous butterfly on 

another piece of the kraft card and layered onto 

some of the stunning papers.

Then I added a simple layered tag, and a shimmery 

layer to the butterfly with a Glittershine pen

 from Dawn Bibby Creations

Enjoy XXX

I would like to share with the following challenges;

Everybody Art Challenge #541 anything goes

Unicorn Challenge Blog # 91 Layer it up

The Outlawz September Challenge # Tuesday color challenge

Simon Says Blog Monday Challenge # Stamp It

Lawn Fawnatics Challenge  #156 Color inspiration

Thrifty shopping for Crafty folk

 

Well hello to Autumn, hardly feels like Summer

visited at all lol, but then this is England so nothing

 unusual about that.

Today I am sharing my DT project for

CRAFTING FROM THE HEART

Challenge 05

I am trying to be a bit "thriftier" with my crafting and 

shopping for bargains to share. This Tin that the journal is 

made to fit into was £1 from Poundland, and contained 

coloured pencils /eraser/sharpener/ruler and Alphabet stencil.

My friends June and Shasteya gave me these beautiful

digi papers for free!!! 

I started by printing 2 of the patterned papers onto

each side of some 120gsm card stock, and making

a basic concertina ...

I then took some £1 post it notes and added them

 randomly to the "pages" as journalling panels...

before going wild with more of the images from

the same free paper collection, adding a few stickers

I already had in my stash...

On the reverse I just used the letter stencil that came 

in the Tin to add a few Autumnal phrases...

To finish I decorated the tin lid with a couple more 

pieces from the collection.

All in all I am very happy with this little

 "Tinned Journal"

And I highly recommend trawling the stationary

and kiddy craft sections at Poundland

 (or your countries equivalent)

when looking for journalling items.

And if you have a printer, check out FB and other 

intrnet places for free paper downloads.

Enjoy XXX

I would like to share this project with the following challenges:

Creative Knockouts #501 Anything Goes

DL.ART Thankful Thursday challenge #330 Anything Goes

Color Throwdown Challenge #757 - Aqua/grey/green

Ellebelles Corner : Crafty Wednesday Challenge #August Anything Goes

The Paper Funday Challenges #56 August opt. the great outdoors

Penny's Paper-Crafty Challenge #553 Anything Goes