8x8 Card, Layered/Mixed Media, Butterflies

If you saw my last post, you should (hopefully) recognise this tag.

If you did but you don't, then...  well...  I can either go crawl back into bed and have a good cry or decide that you've had a very long day.  

And if the latter's the case, maybe you should go crawl back into bed and take a nap, or sit down for a bit with a good book to read.
Or...  or...  what do you like to do when you are tired?

My challenge for myself was to take this layered/CAS tag and to turn it into something not CAS at all.  Yet overall, there's still a 'clean' look to this design. 

Let me tell you what I've used...

Supplies Used:

Dies:

Mama Elephant 'Tags A Lot'

Lifestyle Crafts/Quickutz 'Clock'

Poppystamps 'Theo Butterfly'

Sizzix/Holtz 'Tiny Tattered Florals'

Papertrey Ink 'Wet Paint Cuts'

Memory Box 'Peaceful Butterfly Wings'

Embossing Folders:

Spellbinders SCF-002 'Fabric Weave'

Crafter's Companion/Textures 'Wood Grain' (8x8, 5x7)

Crafter's Companion/Textures 'Hessian'

Crafts Too 'Cherry Blossom'

Cuttlebug 'Butterflies 3x3 Tag Team Combo Set'

Holtz Distress Inks:

Frayed Burlap

Walnut Stain

Bundled Sage

Stencil:

Crafters Workshop 'Ferns'

Other:

Crafter's Companion 'Spray and Sparkle' - Pearl Diamond

Ranger/Holtz 'Distress Collage Medium' - Crazing

Pebeo Gilding Wax - Silver

Dew Drops - Clear

Crocheted Lace

Paper Tearing Rulers x 2

Raffia/Thick Paper String - White

Silver Twine

Tonic/Holtz Distress Tool

Paper Punch

 I may have beaten my personal best for how many different elements to incorporate into just one card - and trust me when I tell you that this was not a labour of love, but of sheer grit and dogged determination.  

(Now there's a phrase I'm going to have to try and remember to look up).

I hate being beaten by a card that refuses to 'play nice' - Don't you? 

And I hate how my lace strip in the photo looks like a badly drawn straight line...  which it isn't.

It's as perfectly straight as straight can be.  There are just some very strange optical illusions at play - mainly caused by where the white raffia wraps around the card, I think).

Grrrr...  Maybe my card got it's own back on me after all!

Challenges I'm Entering...

Simon Says/Monday

(Handmade Flowers)

Allsorts Challenge Blog

(Week #406    'Ladies and Girls')

CAS-ual Fridays

(CFC169    'Off The edge')

Use Your Stuff

(#255     'Dry Embossing')

Just Us Girls

(Trend Week #384     'Use A Stencil')

Wishing you a 'Happy' day, wherever you may be...

Donna. x

Butterfly Clock Tag, Textured + Layered, CAS

This is an exceptionally simple, but textured/layered CAS tag, created for the new challenge starting today at Tag You're It.

I don't think you can tell from the photo, but there are two layers of glitter varnish on the base tag - sprayed on and left to dry between coats to build up that sparkle that so many of us know and love.

I have to confess, I'm not much of a glitter girl at heart, but this spray gloss varnish with added glitter had me hooked as soon as I saw it being demoed on a UK craft channel.  

It's subtle...  just the way I like it.

(And I just so happen to know that the company that make this product launched into the US market last year).

My tag was inspired by this very pretty creation by Marion Vagg...

It really is quite beautiful, isn't it?

I wanted to stay true to the beauty and the texture and the layers...  but in a simpler, more CAS form.  So I've kept the clock face (mine's die cut and embossed rather than using texture paste), swapped out the layered flower with that pretty central focus for a butterfly with a central feature and swapped out the foliage for the clock hands.  

Many, many thanks go to my oh so very lovely friend Pam who very kindly sent me this butterfly die - along with a few others to play with.  

I actually didn't know that I liked this die at all until it arrived in the post and I used it.  I'd looked at it so many times in 'die' form and discounted it as not for me.  

How wrong was I...  and how right was Pam.

It's actually turned out to be just what I needed and one of my favourites, too.

(Seems she knows my craft tastes better than I do)!

But in my defence, I am still learning...

(Don't be surprised if I still use that excuse in five or ten years time).

Shhh...  Don't tell! x

So what exactly have I used to make this tag?

Let me tell you...

Supplies Used:

Dies:

Mama Elephant 'Tags A Lot'

Lifestyle Crafts/Quickutz 'Clock'

Poppystamps 'Theo Butterfly'

Sizzix/Holtz 'Tiny Tattered Florals'

Embossing Folder:

Spellbinders SCF-002 'Fabric Weave'

Holtz Distress Inks:

Frayed Burlap

Walnut Stain

Other:

Crafter's Companion 'Spray and Sparkle' - Pearl Diamond

Raffia/Thick Paper String - White

Think of this as Part 1 of a two part post, as next time I'm planning to show you how I used this tag to create an 8x8, Clean and Layered/Mixed Media card.

And why do I want to show you?

Because I'm hoping to inspire you to play along - I'm not going to lie about it!

You see, a few of you very lovely people (you know exactly who you are)! keep telling me that you don't make tags - yet you make very lovely cards or I wouldn't stop by for a visit.

So I've decided to come up with a few ideas as of late that show how to use a tag in a slightly different way.  In other words - you've inspired me to try and think 'out of the box' - even if it's only just a little bit.

I've made a bookmark, a CAS tag on a CAS card...  and so this time the obvious choice was a CAS tag on a non CAS card.

You see, there's a perfect logic to what I've been doing!

Make a CAS tag, play along with the challenge...  and then spend time making it into a card.

Like I said, perfect logic...

(If you could see me now I would have a big grin on my face at this point)!

So if you can, come and play.

And if you can't, thank you for looking/for stopping by/for sharing your time with me.

Because either way, it's people like you who make people like me very happy to be a part of 'blogland for crafters'.    

Bye for now...

Donna. x

Mini Lindt Bunny Treat Boxes, Easter Gift Idea, All Ages

I know that one or two of you spotted this on FB yesterday evening, but for those of you that haven't seen it, I'm just stopping by today to share a little Easter treat idea that I had.

Like many of you I like to be inventive from time to time!  

But before I show you, let me just say this...

Yes, I could have added more detail - even if it was only to lightly emboss the boxes.  

But taking my time out of the equation, these are a little 'test piece' idea that I'm taking to sell for a very small profit margin on my craft stall this coming Saturday.

Am I looking forward to it?  No...

Did I take up this wonderfully time consuming hobby with illusions of making money in any way, shape or form?  No...

Do I think that my stuff is actually good enough to sell?  (If I consider you to be a very good blog friend then I'll PM you and let you know after Saturday)!

And yes, of course I dread the idea of everyone walking by and ignoring me...

But it's given me a goal to work towards this past few months and to be perfectly honest, that's what I need.

Grief is a long, hard journey...  and although my daughter is not dead, she is gone.

And that's so hard to bear some days.

...  And crafting/craft shopping/sorting through my craft stash are the only things that seem to help.

Plus talking/messaging some of you who have been so very, very kind to me.

(You know who you are). x

I know that others of you may be uncomfortable with my grief and/or simply do not know what to say. 

And yet others of you have your own difficult journey to walk through and like me, use blogging mainly as a distraction.

So as much as is possible I do tend to try and ignore it when blogging online.

That's why I took the decision to do the mini blog.  It keeps it separate and saves me from having to explain or apologise yet again as to why I'm so infrequent with my blog posts or repaying your kindness if you've been kind enough to stop by and leave a comment.

But I don't want to pretend either...  

Especially when it's relevant to what I'm 'talking' about.

So...  I guess I should show you these little treat boxes?

I did come up with a few alternative design ideas that I've also made to sell on Saturday - but this was my favourite by far.

But just to give you a few more ideas, a well placed die cut 'bow' or some punched/die cut 'grass' work equally well as deterrents to stop bunny from falling out of the box!

As these are pretty straightforward to make, I won't include any 'how to' details other than to say that I used a Sizzix Bigz/Where Women Cook 'Cake Pop' die for my boxes...

but I will share this idea over at The Playground as 

a) I've used up some of my craft scraps/'snippets'  

and 

b) I'm wanting to try and get a 'gold shiny star'. 

Of course, these super bright and shiny gold star's are very rare and therefore very hard to come by, so I may have to try even harder next time.

But I will keep trying...

I just hope that The Playground cat (Parsnip, to those of you that know him) doesn't scare the bunnies away!

Speaking of which,  I had the fright of my life early last Friday morning...

To make a long story short, I went to feed the bird's just before leaving to go food shopping rather than after (as I normally do).  After all, it is finally getting brighter earlier in the morning's now.

The bird food is stored in the garage.  It was about 6.45am.   

Who did I not notice at all, sitting in a bag of Suet Pellets, completely unaware that it was well past the time that they should have been tucked up in bed?

Well a little Wood Mouse of course!

The first I knew of it being there is when it jumped about a foot in the air because I had plonked a lid down very close by and not very gently at all.

I'm not sure who actually had the bigger fright out of the two of us!

I think Wood Mice are adorably sweet and we have a whole family or more living under our shed, but when you are just going about your business this is not a sight you expect to see.

Needless to say I got my husband to deal with poor Mousie - who was taken back outside to the shed.

Just as well we know where they live!

As for the bird food? 

Everything now has a lid on it, so they can't help themselves any more.

But I do put out a little food for them every evening - I have since discovering them there a month or two ago.

Rice Krispies and Porridge Flakes are particularly popular - as is a crushed Digestive Biscuit.

I wonder what Parsnip would make of those - the Wood Mice, not the food?!

Challenges I'm Entering...

Pixie's Crafty Snippets Workshop

Dies R Us

Challenge #68     'Something New'

(Although it's an old die, I've only recently purchased it and never played with it before).

If this idea inspires you to make a treat box of your own, stop by with a photo of it - if you can. x

Wherever you are, enjoy the rest of your day...

Donna.