FF Challenge 159 Things with wings

Hi there! it's Annie here and it is my turn to host the next Fussy and Fancy Challenge. Because it is almost Spring here in the UK and soon we'll have Birds, Bees and Butterflies fluttering in our gardens I thought it was time for a Things with Wings Challenge. The challenge is being kindly  sponsored by Sweet Lilac flowers so I hope you will join in with us, here is my offering ....

I can hear you saying ... 'is that all you've done..... stuck one butterfly on a card' .... well look inside... I decided to add a few more fluttering by ...

It was difficult to photograph because the acetate was catching the light so here is a slightly different angle

It  was made using Crafters Companion accordion card die and some thick acetate, I put the lacey overlay on and backed it with some French navy card, the old saying is 'Blue and Green should never be seen' but I really love this colour combination. Once the frames were constructed and teased into shape the fun began cutting out all those butterflies and making them flutterby. I always have a crafty program on the tv in the craft room, the lady on the tv was also using butterflies on the card she was making and the presenter asked 'Do you know what they call a group of butterflies?' and the answer came back 'A Kaleidoscope of Butterflies' (yes I had to lookup the spelling!!) so there you are you learn something new everyday.

I do hope you will be able to join us again on F&F have a play and use your favourite things to make something with Wings .... Birds, Bees, Butterflies, Dragons , Angels or any mystical creature as long as it has wings we would love to see them all. Uploading is easy it is all explained on the Fussy and fancy Blog here . I hope you enjoy playing along with us and you can be sure that the design team and myself will love looking through all your work. So now I am off for a quick cup of coffee and play with our lovely Black Lab, Jasper who is impatient to get out into the garden. This is him last summer sitting on the garden bench waiting for someone to play ball with him

Bye for now xxx and crafty hugs Annie xx

Fussy and fancy Challenge #157 Jo's Recipe

It's fussy and Fancy Challenge Friday again and this time my very talented friend Jo Rice has set the challenge ....in fact she wrote a little poem:

A recipe.....

Create a design and have some fun,

Use this recipe and your work will be done,

Just use black and white to make a start,

But then add some red , a flowers and a little love heart......X

They say you can find love in the strangest places well there I was doing my food shopping and there lying on the shelf was a battered piece of  MDF....just waiting to be loved ....and then  remembered Jo's recipe and as it is coming up to valentine's day .... so the battered piece of MDF was rescued for a reduced price.

Several coats of white Gesso later and I was ready to play, I stamped a lovely script stamp diagonally all over it, then for the touch of red, I found some red heart gem, made some red paper roses and found 3 little stickpins with  red hearts on them. Then I thought the O looked empty searching through my embellishment drawer I found a metal filigree heart which with the help of some 'invisible' thread I made it float in the centre of the O so here it is:

 

I could have gone on adding bits and pieces but it would have looked like a pizza with too many toppings so I decided Less was more

 

Hope you will have a go at Jo's recipe it's very simple and as the other members of the design team have shown it can be used to make cards, home décor let your imagination run wild I know Jo is looking forward to seeing what you come up with .... let's make her smile she's such a lovely talented lady. You can find out how to enter your work here

 

Right the sun is shining so I am going into my garden to see what is going on there, I could see through my window that I have lovely clumps of daffodils and primroses that have managed to keep growing even when the weather was so terrible. Now I know Spring must be on it's way, hurrah I can't wait and I know Jasper ( our black Labrador) can't wait either, he loves to lie with the Patio doors open so that he can just wander in and out as he pleases.

 

Till next time Bye for now xxx Annie

Fussy & Fancy Challenge #155 Fashion

Well here is the first Fussy and Fancy challenge of 2016, hosted by the talented Tone who has chosen the very exciting theme 'Fashion'. Now I'm not the most fashionable of ladies, I dress more for the weather especially when it comes to walking our dog Jasper. But my guilty pleasure over the last 6 years has been Downton Abbey which sadly finished here in the UK at Christmas, part of it's attraction was the wonderfully elegant fashion of the Edwardian era.
So when it came to creating my offering I knew I would have to use some of my treasured Graphic 45 papers from the Ladies Diary collection ... I have had it for a while now but just couldn't bring myself to use it. Anyway the time had come so here was what I did, very simple because the papers speak for themselves:

There are so many beautiful fashion plates in this G45 collection I could have used but this is my favourite, I love the silky jade o f her dress with the touch of soft pink.

I hope you will join in with us again this time, as always we would love to see your cards, mixed media, boxes anything you have made which fits in with the theme 'Fashion'.  Everyone has an equal chance of winning because the overall winner is chosen randomly, then Tone as hostess will chose her Top 5. You can find out more about the challenge and how to upload your work here

I look forward to seeing your work and leaving a comment for you, but for now I think I need a cup of tea so Bye for now love and hugs, Annie xxx

Clarity Christmas Challenge

Here I am again at the very last minute I have just realised that it's the end of December and the Clarity Christmas Challenge is almost closing. I remembered doing this little piece of Groovi work to sooth me when the Christmas panic was really full on. I am a great admirer of Emma Burns' work and this is very much inspired by her. I just love the way the heart shapes in this groovi plate have layered up ..... and for me the Mother Baby image is what Christmas is all about

Christmas is over again for another year and this card has been sent and received so I am safe to post it on here.  I love the time spent playing groovi it really does  allow me to calm right down truly is 'Me time' wish I could devote more time to it and get to grips with the lovely cut work and whitework that true parchers manage to do.

Well it's nearly the end of 2015, it hasn't been the greatest of years for our family so we are looking forward to 2016 with renewed hope. Happy New Year to you all xxx Annie

Fussy and Fancy Challenge #154 Happy Holidays

I cannot believe that this is the final challenge of 2015, Christmas is nearly with us and I seem to have lost a whole month, I am so behind with making my cards. Anyway back to the challenge Lovely talented Theresa is hosting this Challenge, what a task, Theresa especially as this challenge is running for Four weeks to cover the holidays. Just take a peek at what Theresa has made as inspiration .... it is amazing.
This is my sample made with a cute Stampendous stamp for one of my granddaughters:

it is one of those cards that just came together and I enjoyed colouring in and making all the snowflake embellishments. I hope she likes it she is getting a bit old for cute cards but as the youngest grandchild she will always be my baby girl xx

Entering our challenge is so easy all the details are here All our lovely Design team are involved in this one so we will all be popping over to your blogs and leaving comments. I know everyone is so busy right now but why not enter one of your favourite Holiday makes and because the winner is randomly chosen everyone has the same chance of winning whatever your ability.

I better get back to my cardmaking, just a few more now for hand delivery and then I'm done, then it will be just the last few things to buy it wouldn't be the same if I didn't have some last minute things to do. Have a lovely Holiday time however you choose to spend it and I will speak to you all again when it's all over, by then it will be 2016 Love and Crafty hugs Annie xxx

Fussy and Fancy Challenge #153 Words ... it's all about the sentiment

I am very happy and excited to be hosting Fussy and Fancy Challenge #153. My favourite cards to receive have words on the front so I have chosen 'Words.... It's all about the Sentiment' as my theme.
I have chosen one of my favourite Clarity sentiments:

Here is the finished card:

I stamped the sentiment onto this pretty  new Spellbinders diecut mat, I also cut a second diecut in charcoal card and slightly offset it to make a shadow. The lilac embellishment was made using Sheena Duncan's Perfect Partners .... stamps and matching dies, I loved decoupaging it up to form a 3d embellishment. The pansy is a new Sue Wilson die.
Hope you will join us and enter this challenge, it's very easy you can find more details here . I know everyone is busy preparing for Christmas right now, just take a little time out to create a card, tag, piece of altered art and join in the fun, I look forward to seeing your creations and visiting your blogs. Everyone has an equal chance of winning whatever your skill as the choice is made randomly and I get to choose my top5 .... that is going to be really tough for me.
Right better dash and get off to bed , but I have just had a thought ... there is only time for one more challenge after this one .... Where did 2015 go to??? Night Night, sleep tight xxAnnie

Clarity Challenge ... Stencils

Last night I passed an hour or so catching up in Blogland and happened to see that the latest Clarity Challenge was Stencils. I looked in my box of gelli prints and found a lovely delicate one I had made some time ago using a Clarity dove stencil, So I went to bed thinking what I might do with it, I didn't want to overwhelm the background as the stencil was the main element for this challenge. here is what I came up with:

It was a real walk down memory lane looking through my Clarity stamps  ... I used Fantasy Fibres to create my dove on the topper and I clear embossed the Peace stamp onto a piece of white card for the base mat and lightly brushed Adirondak Stonewash ink over it to make the stamped image Pop ... I love that technique .... the old ones are sometimes the best!!

Right I had better see if I can remember how to enter the challenge as I haven't done it for a few months and the deadline is looming just hours away. Happy Crafting xxx Annie