Kool Kitty Musings

52 Cards Challenge: Week 44

Welcome to another prompt on this spooky Monday!

This week's elements are:

I felt this called for a festive number... ;o)

Paper and die cuts: My Mind's Eye
Other: 3D foam pads, Corner Chomper

A really simple one just using elements from the collection pack, oh and my nice new 5x7 Papermania kraft card blanks. Finally in stock at The Range!

Happy crafting!

Friday felties

Well it's my turn to set the dare on the DCM blog this week... and I have gone for felt!

Yep, I want to see handmade felt embellishments, pre-made felt accents, or anything felt-a-licious on your cards this week.

As is the norm for DT members, when it comes to making a card for your own it seems doubly difficult! But I have gone for a very CAS card - quite a departure from my usual stuff. However I made the felt mum from scratch and did sew the leaves...

Paper: American Crafts
Felt: PTI
Stamp: PTI
Leaf dies: PTI
Other: Embroidery thread, 3D dots

Apparently you can now get dies to make these mum flowers from fabric or paper, but a while ago I saw the technique on youtube when I was randomly flicking through things, and have now lost the video... although it creates a very lumpy card I really love the end result. Would make for a nice hair accessory too eh?

Mmm an inky delight

There are some new additions to my ink drawer...

A handful of the new Prima chalk ink edgers. The colours really appealed to me - especially the beige and light grey shades as my PTI tea duo inks are definitely at the end of their life. :o(

So I have been looking for chalk ink alternatives and will give these a try not to mention some other shades from the range.

I also have some more Versamagic dew drops - just love those inks! Including Wheat and sand shades... yes, it is all about neutral for me at the moment. ;o)

If I was a really organised person I would get stamping all of these shades onto a white sheet of cardstock so I could see at a glance what I have... but this is me after all.

52 Cards Challenge: Week 43

Welcome to another prompt on this rather dark Monday morning!

This week's elements are...

And here's what I went with (excuse the garish photo - how I miss daylight for taking pics).

Paper: Crate Paper
Stamps: Waltzing Mouse
Dies: Spellbinders, Dienamics, PTI
Twine: The Ribbon Reel
Brad: Basic Grey
Other: Stickles, Distress Stickles, Copics, Distress Inks

Happy crafting!

A taste of summer...

Admittedly it comes from a bottle of flavouring... but I made strawberry cupcakes last night from my Mary Berry handbook. Well, my fan oven has managed to flummox even Queen Mary as the temp was definitely too high and result in a few exploding cupcakes and next time I will need to use regular-sized cases not the larger "Hummingbird-friendly" ones.

But the recipe is a chuck all the ingredients in and mix job - which I like!

I decided to mix it up a bit and try my new Silverspoon strawberry flavouring and my Wilton gel colours:

The icing didn't quite go far enough for the whole batch, so the poor little cake that was left uniced was my test cupcake. Must say it tasted very good and was nice and pink inside.

Hope the girls enjoy them this afternoon!

Foxy Friday...

For this week's fab sketch-based dare over on the DCM blog I have gone a bit random...

I don't know what it is, but I am currently finding foxes very cute for crafty projects, not quite surpassing owls just yet! But I was happy to see that I had a very handsome foxy character in a chipboard set from Cosmo Cricket, and I needed to make a relatively manly card... save the butterfly...

Papers: Cosmo Cricket, October Afternoon
Chipboard: Cosmo Cricket
Stamps: Waltzing Mouse Stamps, PTI
Die: Spellbinders
Other: Corner Chomper, needle and thread, brad

I rather like the grey/green/red colour combo.

I hope you pop on over to the DCM blog to check out the sketch and the cards from the design team. :)

Happy almost-weekend!

It's arrived at last!

Just picked up the latest In Death book from the library - it's had excellent reviews and I cannot wait to get stuck in... it's currently sitting on my bedside table so I am not tempted to read it instead of getting the tasks I need to do ticked off my list!

Mind you it is very difficult, such a cold day and it's oh so tempting to just dive under the nice fluffy autumn bedding I have switched to. Love my John Rocha pleated set, a bugger to iron but so comfy.

I'm also eagerly awaiting the arrival of some new stamps from the current Waltzing Mouse release to go with my die purchases:

I went for that must-have Nordic Winter set plus a couple of other items, but while I was buying bauble dies a few other must-haves made it into the shopping cart. I hope that Basic Grey flower die will cut well, I had to have it for the leaf alone!

Right, off to get my tea on then crack on with the to-do list!

52 Cards Challenge: Week 42

Welcome on this dreary and breezy Monday morning to another prompt for the 52 cards challenge.

 

And here's my card:

Paper: MME
Dies: Stampin' Up, Sizzix, PTI
Stickers: Doodlebug
Stamps: Banana Frog
Pearl: Kaisercraft
Scallop: Bazzill edge
Other: Stickles, sewing machine, sander

Hope you have a creative week!

Friday how I love you...

Not only is it almost the weekend, but there is a lot else to like about Fridays...

Starting with this week's dare on the DCM blog that has been set by Rein this time around.

And if you are a fan of ribbon and other goodies, you will definitely want to check it out!

The theme we are working with this week is birds... never a problem to find birdie related items in my stash!

Here's what I came up with:

Paper: MME
Stamps: Inkadinkado, PTI
Dies: PTI
Seam binding: The Ribbon Reel
Pearls: Prima
Other: Button, twine, Distress Stickles, pattern wheel

The "stamp" is actually just a stamp die cut into a corner of the MME paper, handy that it had that crown already printed on it eh? And I am quite taken with how that stripy crumply banner came out. Glad to see it looks just as good with paper as it does with ribbon.

A TK Maxx bargain at last...

Managed to snag this little beauty in TK Maxx today just as I went in for a mooch at lunch time. It's a nice long wallet and is from their key-per line like my shopper bag:

 

Yummy teal colours and bird cages:

 

And a zingy orange inside with more teal:

 

And lots of space for cards as well as coins:

 

And all for just £9.99. Hard to resist that kind of temptation!

And speaking of orange things...

 

The guilty pleasure shelf in my kitchen cupboard is nicely stocked again, just in time for cold rainy evenings.

And in case you are after papercraft inspiration... fear not - my wish list has a new addition just from the sneaky peek I saw yesterday:

 

From the die cuts alone, I am already in love! I hope the papers are just as gorgeous. With lots of grey, teal, coral and red.

52 Cards Challenge: Week 41

Welcome to another Monday and another prompt - I am not liking these dark and cool morning starts...

This week we're playing with the following three elements:

 

And for my take on these I had to go with something Christmas-themed:

 

Paper: Crate Paper
Chipboard: Crate Paper
Stamp: PTI
Ribbon: East of India
Pearls: Kaisercraft
Other: Stickles, buttons, embroidery thread

 

A nice mix of vintage buttons, ribbon and style with those Peppermint Collection papers and chipboard from Crate Paper, a little chipboard house Stickled to the max and home in the greeting, and yummy grey gingham ribbon. :)

Wintry wishes...

Well, that's the theme for my cardmaking activities at yesterday's crop. :) Had a lovely time, but wasn't as productive as I'd hoped. Mind you it was a nice change to start on some Christmas cards...

First up, something a little bright and mod...

 

Paper: Crate
Stamps: MFT, PTI
Dies: MFT, PTI
Other: Button, 3D foam, embroidery thread, Stickles

 

Oh yes, I knew I could work my typewriter die and stamp set into Christmas cards some how!

 

Papers: Basic Grey
Chipboard: Basic Grey
Other: 3D foam, Glossy Accents, white ink

Re-loving last year's Basic Grey Christmas line. I love that mistletoe paper so much!

And finally, something using the new Christmas stash...

Paper: MME
Stamps: PTI
Dies: PTI
Pearls: Kaisercraft
Felt: PTI
Other: Stickles, 3D foam, Promarkers

 

I totally love that red MME herringbone paper - it's just so vibrant! Nothing quite like a dash of Stickles either... ;o)

Right, well since it is starting to feel wintry around here I am wondering if today is the today my heating finally needs to go on... I have managed to abstain so far.

That Friday feeling, hoping it arrives soon!

Well, a good way to start off the Friday feeling is with a new dare over on the DCM blog.

As it's the first Friday of the month we are going back to our flowers of the month theme.

October's flowers are the Calendula and Cosmos.

I have gone for the Calendula as my inspiration.

Paper: Crate Paper, Making Memories
Stamps: PTI
Dies: Cuttlebug, Spellbinders, PTI
Seam binding: The Ribbon Reel
Brad: Crate Paper
Other: Distress ink, 3D foam, pattern wheel

The flowers are made using the Cuttlebug daisy quilling set, I cut the plain strips from grey cardstock and then used two of the middle petal details for the large flowers, and one petal strip for the smaller ones. A lot of crumpling on the leaves but I really like the end result. I am rather partial to grey at the moment, mixed in with aqua tones, coral or yellow... so expect to see more grey in the future!

Unfortunately the ink on the background doesn't show up so well in the photo (hate photographing on an evening) but it all works quite nicely together in real life. :o)

Don't forget to check out the cards from the rest of the design team - so many different interpretations of this month's flowers.

Happy creating!

Aggghh!!

ETA: For some reason the pics in this post are only showing up in Firefox, I tried re-editing them in IE but nothing works. I tried re-embedding them and there is something screwy with the embed settings on Pinterest. So, sorry about that but it was just the icing on the cake of technical issues last night that kept me awake and not tired! My V+ box has stopped working so have lost all my recordings and no one can come out to "fix" it until Monday. :(

How can it only be 7 in the evening. It feels like it should be a lot later, not least because it's cold and dark outside, but because I am really struggling not to nod off! Much like this...

 

Source: google.com via Trisha on Pinterest

 

Or perhaps like this...

Source: cuteoverload.com via Laurel on Pinterest

 

I had planned to maybe do my crop packing tonight since Saturday is an all-day outing, but I doubt I would be very reliable if I did it this evening, much more likely to pack completely the wrong stuff, yet forget a paper trimmer.

I cannot stop yawning.

Source: imlimitless.tumblr.com via Alan on Pinterest

 

Perhaps bed is the best place to be, but if I fall asleep now I know I will be wide awake come 3 a.m.

Source: artzthings.com via Eva on Pinterest

 

Right, I suppose I'd best try and do something productive in order to avoid all of the above states of being. ;o)

Anyone for tea?

While out at the Metrocentre Friday night for dinner at Wagamama's with the girls I managed to snag a quick bargain in TK Maxx. I've only been looking a whole year for the perfect teapot, and well, the wait paid off as I now have one.

The price label was over all the info on the bottom, but this little teapot is by BIA and is called the Melon teapot:

 

All for £4.50 and not too big that you're making tea for a small village and not so small that it's just a two cup number.

So It's now ready for it's maiden cuppa!

In the meantime I went browsing on pinterest at more teapot delights, one new teapot is definitely enough for now, but check them out!

 

Source: milkoverdose.blogspot.com via Ingrid on Pinterest

 

Source: tumblr.com via Emily on Pinterest

 

Source: everythingstopsfortea.com via Debbie on Pinterest

 

Source: google.it via Irena on Pinterest

 

Source: google.com via heidi on Pinterest

 

If I'd seen that stripy one I probably would have bought it as well!

Anyway, off to enjoy my cuppa now that it's a bit cooler following our hazy Indian summer heatwave!

52 Card Challenge: Week 40

Hello Monday!

And welcome to another new prompt. At last I have managed to be organised enough to have something to share, but first let's see what the elements are this week. :)

 

Here's what I came up with, back to non-summertime photography I'm afraid:

 

Papers: October Afternoon
Dies: Dienamics (MFT), PTI
Stamps: Dienamics (MFT)
Other: 3D foam, button, thread, Corner Chomper

 

For the dress form, I cut a piece of doily paper in red with the same die to give it a bit more of a fashiony look than just using the stamped image.

And now I have another card to add to my card basket, I finally sorted a pile of 3 months worth of cards into cellophane baggies with matching envelopes yesterday and so the card basket is looking a lot healthier. :)

Since it's more autumnal this morning

I thought I'd share some photos I took this past week while the weather was glorious.

First up a couple of shots in my garden where autumn colours have definitely arrived:

 

The blueberry bush all red now complete with a very welcome visitor.

 

My former white hydrangea now in very Prima-like shades.

Then I took off for a stroll round the park - it was seriously hot, but an interesting combination of summer heat and autumnal smells and colours and leaves.

 

It took a lot of walking, but I finally found a leaf that wasn't green or brown!

 

The light was just lovely through the trees, there were crunchy leaves everywhere.

 

All the way to the bandstand.

 

I experimented a bit with the AF mode to try and get the leaves on the ground in focus and the rest blurred, really like how this one turned out, just a shame the leaves aren't more interesting leaves. Can't have everything! ;o)

 

This is what they looked like from a distance, so it shows things can look a lot more interesting when you shoot from ground level.

  

I did have a go at trying to capture the sun coming through the leaves but it was a bit hit and miss.

 

And finally as I was just nearing the end of my stroll, a conker fell from the tree in front of me and the spiky shell broke open to reveal a shiny new conker. Alas didn't catch it in a photo, but I picked up the conker and took a photo of what was around. Yet another pretty leaf. LOL

Now I'm just hoping the promised sunshine returns this afternoon. It's a bit cooler this morning with the rain, but I would still like the sun to stick around a bit longer!