Kool Kitty Musings

Make it yourself...

This week's challenge over on the DCM blog is one that will no doubt have many browsing through all those tutorial pins they repinned to try out some day! Well it's time to pick one and put it to good use;o)

Kathy has challenged us to make our own embellishment to use on our cards this week and I went for one that is a favourite yet much underused in my cardmaking of late.

A felt rolled rose!

Paper: Studio Calico
Stamp: PTI
Dies: MFT
Brad: American Crafts

I made this card as a handy little notelet so that it's ready to send out when I need to pop a little message in the post or send a little package to someone. I never have them to hand when I need them, so my card basket could do with a top-up. :)

The design team have showcased some really lovely takes on DIY embellishments so do check out the blog. :o)

Happy crafting!

One step closer to crafty times

This evening I had to resort to some guerilla crafting on the kitchen table (excuse the mess):

In the years I have lived here I have never once crafted outside of my craft room/office. It was very odd, but definitely the only way to get done what I needed to as everything was still packed up from Saturday's crop, and with another crop tomorrow night, well, I was not relishing the idea of lugging things upstairs or running up and down getting things as I needed them.

Now need to repack it all, however I did take time to look through a few things and have come up with some ideas for cards I need to make:

Always nice when you have a moment of clarity!

However I've not had my tea yet and I have a bit of a yearning for egg and soldiers!

Best check the bread situation!

Chances of crafting time before Friday are very slim!

I don't know what was going on at work today, but suddenly the backlog of May's quiet period all came in at once - and alas that means that not everything can be accommodated let alone in a normal work day. :o\

So, will have to see how this plays out and whether I'll be working a few evenings this week and possibly the weekend. Yet again annual plans with Zoe of a trip to Alnwick gardens may have been scuppered - every year for the past 4 it has been the weather that put the nail in those plans. We set a date that works for a full day outing then the weather is absolutely appalling and we call it off hoping that next year will be "the one"! This year it could be that I'll need to work on Saturday as well as Sunday so... ho-hum!

I've got a crop on Friday and still not managed to unpack from Saturday's outing, but as I need to get at least one card made before Friday that will have to change! I wonder if I can craft on the lounge floor as that is where everything is currently residing. ;)

Now I rather wish I'd got my finger out yesterday and got some crafting done, but I do have at least half of the decking nicely cleaned in the garden which took some time yesterday morning and afternoon - lots of elbow grease, decking cleaner, brushing and washing down with the hose made for rather stiff manoeuvring out of bed this morning. LOL

So since my chances of peace and relaxation are quite slim this week, I shall just have to resort to looking to my "Wish I was Here" board on Pinterest for a nicer view and thoughts of calmness and serenity... like this pin:

Ah yes, it's helping already. Anyway, we'll see what tomorrow brings! ;o)

52 Cards challenge 2013 - Week 22

Happy Bank Holiday Monday morning! :D

I don't have a card to share as yet today - but if the weather goes down hill I am sure to have one soon. ;o)

This week's prompt is all about feathered friends.

Birdies have been very popular in recent years in all shapes and sizes.

From shabby-chic vintage swallows:

To that old favourite the owl:

And most recently feathers are a big trend in paper crafting, so if birds elude you there is always the option of incorporating a feather design or embellishment in your project:

And if you're wondering about your Christmas Cracker card already... well I think it's time to search out any robins in your stash! ;o)

I'll pop back later with a card - if not today then soon. Happy crafting! :o)

ETA: here's the sneaky card I made for this prompt - with time lacking I went with a "birdhouse" as my tenuous birdy link. ;o)

Paper: MME, Crate
Dies: PTI
Stamp: PTI
Other: 3D foam, sewing machine

This weekend I have mostly been...

...enjoying that elusive creature that is the British summer sun!

Up until yesterday the weather had been cold and damp and most definitely grey:

What a difference some actual seasonal sunshine and heat does to the soul.

Yesterday I spent a lovely day cropping with the gang - not getting much done I might add, but we were in beautiful surroundings so had to take a little stroll and snap some photos. :)

I mean it's not every day you are cropping next to a castle now is it?

And a very pretty church with lovely gates...

And I couldn't resist a snap of the dandelions - I rarely see them these days...

And since the sun has continued today... you've guessed it, I made the most of it and took to my garden beanbag with a couple of books!

Needless to say between the reading and snoozing, oh and taking in the delights of a summer's day...

...not much did get done creatively speaking.

I'm just going to get the post for tomorrow's 52 Cards challenge post drafted and then set about having some tea - and then no doubt it will be time for this evening's episode of Case Histories which I really love. :D

Can't see the wood for the trees...

This week on the DCM blog we have a lovely dare from Zuz.

She has challenged us to feature trees on our cards this week and the design team has come up with so many lovely and different ideas. :o)

I decided this week that I also wanted to look to my older stash for inspiration and assistance in completing this task - I also managed to save a tree or two... ok, not quite... by using up scraps from other projects that would otherwise have made it to the bin.

Paper, journaling card and stickers: MME
Stamps: PTI
Other: 3D foam

I really wanted to fill up the white space of that journaling cards with lots of greetings that would go together but weren't OTT. I've hopefully managed that. ;o)

Well, I hope you all have a lovely Bank Holiday weekend if you're in the UK - hoping we shall get a smattering of sunshine as it has been long overdue!

Something pretty

There aren't a huge many things that have caught my eye on Pinterest this week, but these gorgeous bright mugs did:

Aren't they lovely? Typically only available from a US site, but there are lovely plates to match too.

Oh well, it's not like I do that much tea and coffee drinking!

52 Christmas Crackers 2013 - Week 21

Morning everyone.

Well the sun has done a bunk again in these parts so I feel I'm rather in need of a shot of colour!

Here's a reminder of this week's sketch:

And here's the card I made cunningly using up the rest of my Christmas Doodlebug gem stickers in one go! ;o)

Paper: MME
Dies: PTI
Stamp: PTI
Gems: Doodlebug
Other: pompom trim, 3D foam

I did say there were rather a lot of gems... lol I wonder if you can have a gem sneeze? Or if there's only such a thing as a sticker sneeze...

Anyway, until next time! Hopefully I'll manage a Pinterest-themed post tomorrow night now that I've almost got my head around the new embedding process. ;o)

What I have learnt about the new method for embedding pins!

Apparently it looks like you need to have drafted and finalised your entire post in rich text mode before you switch to html and paste in all the codes for the relevant pins you want to embed before hitting preview and publishing from html view.

Man, that is a rather long-winded and error-prone approach you have to take to get it to work, even when all your different html codes are properly embedded it still plays up. When I switched back to rich text view after embedding the same html in the same place where it had just worked, the pins stopped displaying in preview mode after making an edit in the middle of a sentence, so you have to ideally edit in html mode if you have already inserted your codes, or go back to html and reinsert all the pin codes again after any edits.

Anyhoo, I am a few steps closer to getting this to work for me - I hope!

Right, here's the last embedded pin test of the evening.

Let's leave it on a cute one eh? ;o)

Third time's the charm?

Here we go again trying to see if this embed pin widget malarkey will work.

Want to insert my pin here:

Then carry on writing...

And then insert another pin here:

And carry on writing...

We shall see!

52 Cards challenge 2013 - Week 21

Morning everyone!

This week sees the return of a sketch prompt for our inspiration.

Alas I am not clever enough to have come up with my own, so I looked back to some sketches I'd bookmarked and thought we could give this one a go.

Unfortunately I'm having some difficulty embedding pins in blog posts now that Pinterest has switched to its new format - hoping Typepad support can come to my rescue on that and get the widget to work. But for now I have saved off the image and if you click on it it will take you to the pin on Pinterest where you can repin it to your own boards or access the source directly for even more ideas. :o)

Anyway, here's my card for this week:

Paper: Crate Paper
Dies: PTI
Stamp: PTI
Pearls: Kaisercraft
Other: sewing machine, 3D foam, glassine envelope

I finally put my script word die to use for the greeting and also wanted to keep with the black and white accent colour theme by using a couple of black pearls to make it stand out more.

I hope you have fun creating with this sketch - it's a rather nice one that you can make as fussy or as simple as you want. :o)

52 Christmas Crackers 2013 - Week 20

I must say it feels very strange to be sharing this project having finally spent the best part of this afternoon in the sunshine(!!!) in the garden finishing up a book...

But I am hoping it will become a familiar kind of feeling over the summer if we have one. :)

So here at last is my Christmas card for week 20's prompt to take inspiration from the printed word - and as my literary inspiration I used the tale of The Snowman by Raymond Briggs:

Paper: Basic Grey
Stamp: PTI
Die-cuts and stickers: Basic Grey
Other: 3D faom, 3D glitter paint

I'm not sure how visible it is in the photo but I accented the border on the tag and all the hexagon snowflakes on the paper at the bottom with 3D glitter paint for a bit of pop. 

Bit of a simple one, but I was a woman on a mission to get this card off my list!

The Hodge Podge heritage book in it's entirity

Afraid I've not been feeling terribly creative this week and the blog has been neglected a bit as a result.

So I thought since I can't seem to come up with any new projects at the moment I might see if looking back at a recent one helps boost the creative spirit. ;o)

So, here is the full album of heritage photos that I made with the help of almost the entirety of my remaining Crate Paper Pretty Party stash and who knows how many tiny letter stickers... oh and some lovely Maya Road kraft envelopes that have been begging to be used in a scrapping project.

Let the photos begin...

I don't know about you but I always leave making the cover until the very end of a mini-album project... This time that plan didn't work quite so well as I completely forgot about the strip of paper I'd saved to use on the cover and promptly found it after I'd photographed it all. Oh well, but I think the final result ended up ok. Plus really glad those Amy Tan Thickers I got in Florida fitted nicely on the front - just!

So this pic is of my great-great-grandmother and by a weird twist of fate this portrait was taken about 5 minutes from where I work while the family was on tour with their circus acrobat act. Also I broke into the lovely egg box of findings I was given at Easter because I knew the watch face charm and rose trim would be perfect for this page.

Up next we have the parents of my great-grandfather who died when he was just a little boy. There are a lot of Fred Woods coming up - which makes things rather problematic in keeping people straight on Ancestry... but there are 3 consecutive generations of Fred Woods to differentiate in this project!

Here's a great pic of an advertisement used in Fred Wood Snr's Saddler's shop in Wakefield. Fred Wood senior (father of Thomas Stott Wood) is on the right and his second son, wait for it, Fred is pictured in the middle standing on one of the trunks they also made and sold to demonstrate the high quality of goods. I think we have a couple of those trunks in my parent's attic - there are definitely a few valises...

And moving on a few years here's Fred Snr and his wife with their children at home in the garden.

I used up some items from my scraps bowl to juz up these journaling pockets. Always nice when you can use up little bits you've been hanging onto. :)

And now we're back to the Stebbing line with this lovely photo of all the Stebbing sisters together (who later made up the dance troupe for the circus act) - my great-grandmother is on the back row there. I had to list all their names on a separate little card and pop it in that lovely Maya Road kraft envelope as there was just no way to fit them all on easily! Some fantastic names like Queenie, Ouida, and Buller.

And it's back to the Fred Woods - with Fred Wood Snr. when he was a younger grandfather with little Fred Wood his grandson who was orphaned at such a young age - looks like they were out on a Sunday stroll together with Mick the Jack Russell and his studded collar and rather portly body. I love looking at any old photos but the ones with pets in are always interesting to see, the look of certain dog breeds can also differ quite noticeably compared to modern their looks. But it looks like Mick was a rather loyal sort and wanted in on having his photo taken. :)

So we're moving on a good few years now to just after WWI and here's my great-grandmother went onto marry little Fred. We now have a bit of a debate going on as to who these two babies could be and whether they really could be siblings. On the back of the photo the very old writing reads "Baby boy 16 weeks old". We had always assumed the larger baby was my grandma who was the first born in Feb 1918, the next recorded baby was a boy who was born in 1919 and died in infancy. So quite a mystery!

And here we are moving on a few years to the photo my great-grandparents sent at Christmas in 1921. My grandma looks a bit sullen there with her curly hair and her baby brother isn't looking overly impressed either. :)

And rounding off the vintage photos - here's my grandma years later in the 50s looking very much like the Queen (as she did in later life too! Standing joke...) having her portrait taken while on holiday in Scarborough.

And finally the back cover - I quite like the idea of dating completed projects like these as it's interesting to remind yourself when you actually made it. :o)

And on that note, I'd best try and see where my creativity levels are at and get some cards made, I still have a card to catch up on!

52 Cards challenge 2013 - Week 20

Wow, we have reached the 20-week milestone here on the 52 Card challenge! Many congrats to everyone that has managed to keep up so far. :)

This week's prompt has been very much inspired by a fantastic programme I watched this weekend.

Pride and Prejudice: Having a Ball - it's available here on BBC iPlayer for those that can watch it, but only up for a few more days so you need to be quick! :)

Here's the blurb from the BBC website:

Documentary celebrating the 200th anniversary of Pride and Prejudice, revealing the hidden world behind one of the greatest love stories of all time by restaging a regency ball at Chawton House, the grand estate of Jane Austen's brother. Amanda Vickery and Alastair Sooke lead a team of world class experts as they reconstruct the ball in loving detail, from music and dancing, to food and fashion.

I'm a big lover of this era and I was really inspired to find a way to transform this inspiration into a card.

I know that not everyone will have the tools to go out all Austen on their cards this week, so the prompt is a more general one, but if Austen floats your boat I look forward to seeing your homages!

The prompt is "The printed word" - basically take inspiration from literature, stories, and tales... it doesn't necessarily have to be certain works, perhaps iconic periods and characters, for example we have the Great Gatsby soon arriving on the big screen - no doubt lots of 1920s inspiration will be creeping into fashion, furnishings and the like.

For my main card this week I turned to the Jane Austen stamp and die set from PTI - I bought it mainly for the frame and the regency silhouettes, but I do love a good quote! ;o)

Paper: Pink Paislee
Stamps: PTI
Dies: PTI
Pearls: Kaisercraft
Other: Sewing machine, Stickles, 3D foam

So, the question is what shall I use as my inspiration for this week's Christmas card? I have a little time still to work that one out. ;o)

One week on...

And you'd think we'd travelled back a few months!

This time last week I'd got home from a thoroughly lovely Bank Holiday crafty weekend in Whitby - we'd had a thoroughly glorious time and the weather had been excellent too.

This was our home for the weekend, the beautiful grounds of Sneaton Castle:

After dropping our bags and crafty goods off a few of us set off down to the centre in search of coffee and cake, or in my case the largest Lemon Merringue Pie in the world!

I had a couple of bites but couldn't finish it so took the waitress up on the offer of a doggy bag - delish! It was just my luck that the dessert for that evening with our full-board menu was lemon merringue pie. ;o)

It was a bit cloudy Friday...

But the sun was out in full force Saturday - a very nice way to spend your down time, sitting out in the sun in the beautiful grounds:

Sunday morning we managed a quick jaunt down before the BH crowds descended:

Wandering around the shops again...

Along to the pier...

In search of a true lemon top, only to find it wasn't a proper "lemon top" - but any excuse for an ice cream in the sunshine and sea air!

A lovely last view of Whitby before heading back to get some more scrapping done before having to pack up and go home.

Yesterday after the rain we finally had sunshine in these parts again, which was jolly good as we were off out to celebrate my mum and dad's anniversary:

Lovely meal out, despite my taste buds still not being quite right and everyone enjoyed a nice dash of champers x 2!

Today I have been working away to finally get my Whitby Weekend project finished - and it is done!

Here are some snaps of the inside, I will try and share better shots soon - it's so rare I actually have scrapping projects to share on my blog these days that I might as well make a song and dance of it. ;o)

Behold - the album from start to finish:

...and on that note I'd best tidy up a little and get my tea made. ;o)

Inkiness

There's a lovely challenge over on the DCM blog this week - Keilly has challenged us to have a play with ink in whatever capacity we choose!

Now, I wanted to use it in a few ways but what worked for my card was a more subtle approach.

Paper: Crate Paper, Echo Park
Chipboard elements: Crate Paper
Stamps: PTI
Dies: PTI, Memory Box, MFT
Punch: Martha Stewart
Other: Sewing machine, glam paint, distress ink, chalk ink

It's difficult to see, but the shiny green paper is from me coating it with the nearest thing I had to glimmer mist, which was glam paint:

I really must use this on more than just Christmas cards in future. ;o)

Don't forget to stop by and check out the rest of the lovely inky projects by the design team - there are so many different inking techniques and styles on show!

52 Christmas Crackers 2013 - Week 19

Well, it's back to sharing a Christmas card for this week's texture prompt.

I included various types on this one.

Paper: Basic Grey, Crate
Stamps: PTI
Texture plate: PTI
Dies: PTI, MFT, Memory Box
Other: pompom trim, glitter paper, Distress and regular Stickles, 3D foam

So on the texture front we have a woodgrain impression. I went with spritzing the background with water before embossing to get a deeper effect - that worked but it has warped my card a bit. Still, it'll straighten out by December I'm sure! ;)

Then we have some trim.

And lots of glittery elements providing a contrasting texture to the smooth paper.

In an effort to stay awake...

...and not have a repeat of last night - falling asleep at 9.30 dosed up on Sudafed and waking up at 12.30 thinking it must surely almost be 6 a.m. or something - I spent about 4 hours watching tv trying to become tired and nod off again.

Don't you just love feeling under the weather? ;)

So, I am trying to keep awake a bit longer tonight so that I don't have further call to watch iplayer in the wee small hours since I have run out of things to watch!

Step 1 in this plan was to make the card for this week's 52 cards challenge.

I didn't have the energy to go really detailed on my card, but I turned to my new pad of DIY shop papers:

And picked out a busy sheet to do most of the work. ;)

Paper: Crate
Stamp: PTI
Button: Prima
Die: MFT
Texture plate: PTI
Other: hemp cord

Now, the texture on this card is a bit hard to see, there's a wooden button, but also I passed the card through the linen texture plate from PTI for a little extra detail.

52 Cards challenge 2013 - Week 19

Well, almost 12 hours late, but I'm feeling alive enough to share this week's prompt with you, although not a card sample.

I went away this weekend for our crafty retreat specifically hoping to work on (and finish! Ha!) one project:

I didn't take any cardmaking items with me - basically so that I wouldn't be sidetracked. So hence no sample today.

But the prompt for this week is to use...

Texture

...in some way on your card.

This could be in the form of embossing/debossing:

Source: bestbusinesscard.net via Tomoko on Pinterest

 

Fabrics:

Source: megduerksen.typepad.com via Anna {Rusty Cottage} on Pinterest

 

Creative stitching:

Source: lh4.ggpht.com via Rhonda on Pinterest

 

Chunky lace and trim:

Source: fancylinda.com via Second on Pinterest

 

Wooden embellishments and findings:

Source: prima.typepad.com via KikiK on Pinterest

 

On-trend cork elements:

Source: iminhaven.blogspot.com via Carol on Pinterest

 

And my old favourite... felt:

Source: molliemakes.com via Annika on Pinterest

 

The possibilities are endless, but I'm sure you'll find some lovely ways to incorporate different textures on your cards. :)

Happy creating!

I'd best go and have another dose of Venos before bed as in typical fashion I returned home with not only an almost complete scrapbooking project, but a cold and cough too! Oh and no voice. I was just glad I didn't need to be in work today - but it was a truly fab weekend! ;)

ETA: Here's the card I finally managed to make:

Paper: Crate
Stamp: PTI
Button: Prima
Die: MFT
Texture plate: PTI
Other: hemp cord

This week's 52 card prompt...

Will follow a little later today. Am recovering from the weekend's crafty capering and trying to make up for my sleep deprivation. ;o)

Will be back soon to share our theme for this week!

It's a Pink, Mint and Gold kind of month

So it's the first Friday of the month, and that means it's a new colour combo challenge on the DCM blog.

This month it was my turn to pick, and I went with a lovely palette that I'm seeing a lot on Pinterest at the moment - gorgeous spring/summer shades:

Gorgeous eh?

The challenge that faced me though was finding something gold! I got rid of a lot of "gold" bits and pieces ages ago thinking I'd not need them again, well big mistake!

I managed, just, with the aid of an Encore gold pigment ink pad, but it doesn't catch the light very well and is a bit of a dark gold:

Paper: Basic Grey, Echo Park
Dies: PTI
Other: 3D foam

Thankfully although it's pigment ink it heat-set rather well. And I know this is a very simple affair from me, but I rather like the look of the greeting as an aperture on 3D foam and nothing else fancy going on.

Don't forget to pop over to the DCM blog and check out the creations from the wonderfully talented design team! :)

Packed and ready to go!

So tomorrow morning it's the big exodus as me and my crafty friends are headed for a weekend away in Whitby - who knows what the weather will be like - we can only hope it's a repeat of today.

But no matter, because there certainly is enough packed to keep me busy:

I also managed to pick up a nice bargain in TK Maxx:

Just wish they had the Pier collection pad as I am really after that one - especially if it's at this price!

Right, best go get the last bits sorted for the morning. :)